It’s weird to read this book. It’s the third book in the series, but I have already read in this order, books six, seven, eight, and then five, and then nine, and then one and two. It’s a combination of when they came out in the US (I think they were not translated in order) and when my local libraries happened to have them. But it’s also weird because in the US we’re seeing the antics of the Far Right (not entirely in the form […]
Nothing. I must be solid as an oak. Except when I cry.
If the earlier collection of stories by Robert Musil provides a lamentation on the loss of teleology, then this book is a kind of celebration of it, at least through the eyes of its protagonist. Protagonist is such an important distinction in this novel, like many others, from the idea of a “hero.” It’s something I have to teach my students again and again. The protagonist is our focal point, not our hero. A protagonist can indeed be a hero, but it’s not required. We […]
Sometimes when a famous author
Five Women by Robert Musil
is primarily known for one major work, I go read a smaller work, for a couple of reasons. 1) I almost always like the major work better and well, that makes sense, since it’s the major. 2) I am often worried that when I like a writer, reading their major work will ruin anything else they’ve written. 3) Often the major work is a more challenging text to read. In this case, it’s all three, especially given that Robert Musil’s major work is like 1800 […]
Pardon the Nekkid Cover
I think this, of the three I have read so far, has the strongest sense of scope, pace, and subject. The idea here is that a youngish woman who was carrying on an affair with a married man got pushed to the edge and ended it. As she storms off, he prepares ways to remove her from his life. This means making she sure she is cut off financially, making sure she won’t “make a scene” or “cause a fuss” and anything else that might […]
I liked this better than the other one
Maybe it’s better for a combination of reasons: the subject matter is more gruesome and eerie and fun. This subject is very clearly a labor of love for Sarah Vowell. The voice of Abraham Lincoln is read by Stephen King, whose raspy New Englandness is nothing like you imagine Abraham Lincoln’s folksy midwesterness to sound like, but maybe it works. Like the other Sarah Voweel audiobooks, this one lives and dies based on who is reading. So this one works better not because she has […]
Hoping to see you soon. And my landlord has complained about her too.
In this novel, a young woman recently emigrated from the Windward Islands (today called Dominica) after her father has died finds herself in the unclear position of a stateless and familyless woman, when such things were not the most stable of situations. She works partly in the demimonde (the kind of underworld of crime, but specifically vice) and realizes there’s a rough road between that world and any kind of “respectability.” She has love affairs, strong racial opinions, lots of alcohol, and dangerous situations, but […]
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