Orlando

Well here we go. I had actually forgotten about this little thing, and was thinking about the books I've been reading and - ah ha! I remembered.

Proceeding chronologically, the second book I read this summer was Orlando, by Virginia Woolf. My father sent me an article about the book - not a review - by a woman writing in the '60s. She and her cohort were avid Woolf fan while she was publishing novels, but were dismayed by Orlando. Too flippant, too flimsy, not the serious literary work they had come to expect. When the author re-read the book years later, she discovered aspects of it she had missed the first time around and thought more highly of it. I wish I could remember more of the article - it was quite good - but it's back in Berkeley for the summer.

Orlando was written in 1928, and is famously a fantasical biography of Vita Sackville-West, with whom Woolf had a rather conspicuous affair. The books begins with a young man named Orlando, a young nobleman living in the Elizabethan age. Queen Elizabeth is enraptured by his beauty and offers him a place at court. There are many and sundry adventures - he falls in love with a Russian princess, sponsors a poet, becomes ambassador to Turkey and there he becomes a woman. The second half of the book details Orlando's life as a woman for a few hundred years, from the 1700's to the early 1900's. Orlando has a fascination with poetry and works throughout the novel on a poem called The Oak Tree.

So the story keeps changing, it feels more like small vignettes than a regular novel. The style of the book changes frequently, too. Some parts are your typical novel, others float between stream of consciousness and magical realism. Other parts are more like prose poems, tangents about love, the countryside, etc. Woolf's descriptions of each era are almost physical, very descriptive and vivid. She talks about the speed of one century, the heaviness of another. The book plays with time also, covering 50 years in the space of a page or taking 5 pages to cover a single thought.

I find Virginia Woolf's writing difficult to get into initially. I think this is because her writing isn't meant to simply move the story along, but is beautiful for its own sake, independent of the story. Focusing on the writing makes me enjoy the book more, and in Orlando, particularly, the writing is a large part of what makes the book so beautiful.

It is of couse, a very political book, examining gender norms and political constructs of place and poetry and other aspects of society. Apparently Woolf also meant the book to be cross-genre, categorizing it as both a fiction and a biography. It's not a book that's a quick read; it's fun but also contemplative.

The Thin Man

I've been in the middle or near the end of several other books since winter break, but at my stepmom's house last week I picked up this book as something light and not scary for my brain. My dad had given me The Maltese Falcon for Christmas, which was fun but also a little odd, so I decided to try this one also.

Dashiell Hammett wrote mystery novels (I guess it's actually called detective fiction, but whatever), sharp and witty and perfect for film adaptations - The Maltese Falcon and The Thin Man were both adapted to the screen. Hammett and Lillian Hellman (his long-time partner) worked on the screenplays so the adaptations are more faithful than usual.

The Thin Man is about a detective, Nick (with his wife, Nora), who is visiting New York from San Francisco (the cities are strong influences in both novels - specific streets and clubs and restaurants are mentioned; I think there's a walking tour in San Fran based on one of his books, but I could be mistaken). He runs into the grown-up daughter of an old client, who is delighted to run into him because - gasp! - her father is missing! Thus Nick is reluctantly involved in the search for the father (a very thin man), falling in with gangsters, doofus cops, crazy ex-wives, and Freudian-obsessed sons. The daughter thinks she's in love with him, and shows up at inappropriate hours planning unsuccessful seductions. Nora finds this to no end amusing, and otherwise follows Nick around (along with their dog, Asta), making various quips as to his detective abilities, etc.

Hammett was a detective for Pinkerton's, an old-fashioned real-life detective agency, so his stories are not flashy - plots are intricate but action is fairly minimal. What action there is - deaths, fights, chases - doesn't get described in gory detail. There are not a lot of clues given, which is why I suppose "mystery novel" isn't the correct term; but a lot of events occur which the Detective (Nick Charles in The Thin Man, Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon) puts together to solve the crime without a lot of explication. The prose is very prose-y - words are only tools to tell the story, sparingly but effectively. (Hellman's writing is more aesthetic.)

While the mystery may fail to mystify, it's the characters that fuel Hammett's stories. Dialogue is witty and peppered with 1930's slang (I barely understood most of The Maltese Falcon), and the characters change from friend to foe as the story continues; while personalities remain consistent throughout the novel, intentions are never clear until the end. Nick and Nora Charles are totally charming characters, and the novel is worth reading just for their exchanges. It's said that he based them on his relationship with Hellman, which I can only hope to be true - Nora Charles is the perfect foil, fascinated by his detective work without being awed by it. They spend most of the novel drinking or drunk ("How do you feel?" "Terrible, I must have gone to bed sober") and finding ways to being clever. (Effie Perine, the secretary, plays much the same role in The Maltese Falcon - I'm not sure why Nora gets more literary attention than Effie.) While Hammett's male-ness comes through strongly in his description of women, which is limited, the lines he gives Nora reveal a background and character that could be worth a novel on their own.

Hammett was also a political activist - I'm not sure if he was a Communist, but he was vocally antagonistic to the McCarthy government and worked with Lillian Hellman in several leftist organizations and activities. They were strong influences in each other's life, collaborating professionally in a number of fields. His politics don't come through in this book, although I find that a deep attention to characters tends to reflect a more progressive attitude.

Anyway, I highly recommend this book for something fun and goofy - it's a perfect plane, train, bus, etc. book.

Getting Started

book

O.E. boc, traditionally from P.Gmc. *bokiz "beech" (cf. Ger. Buch "book" Buche "beech;" the notion being of beechwood tablets on which runes were inscribed), but may be from the tree itself (people still carve initials in them). The O.E. originally meant any written document. Latin and Sanskrit also have words for "writing" that are based on tree names ("birch" and "ash," respectively). Meaning "libretto of an opera" is from 1768. Verb meaning "to enter for a seat or place, issue (railway) tickets" is from 1841; "to engage a performer as a guest" is from 1872. Booklet, with dim. suffix, first recorded 1859. A betting book is from 1856; bookmaker in the wagering sense is from 1862; shortened form bookie is attested from 1885.

Introduction

So, ladies, I have fallen behind on my non-law school reading as of last August. It is my goal this summer to begin catching up. I have also missed the erstwhile bookclub begun in New York. And part of Gloria Steinem's 75th birthday celebrations was a list of outrageous things for women to do - including beginning a bluestocking book club.

These forces combined, and thus this summer reading project. The rules, if you would like to participate, shall be:

1) Each person writes a list of books to read, added in their profile page. Books should be added to this list frequently, even if not all the books are actually read.
2) Each person declares which book they are currently reading. Books can be added from others' lists.
3) Weekly or bi-monthly updates shall be written - a synopsis of the book's action (as spoiler-free as possible) with analysis, if time and inclination permit.
4) If two or more people want to read the same book, they shall coordinate to determine the number and author of posts.

Big words and pretension encouraged. (What's a big word for big word?) Strangers (to me) are welcome. Enjoy!