Back to the Classics #3

I read this book for the Back to the Classics Challenge 2020.

Abandoned Classic. Some years ago I bailed out this 1962 survey when I realized that Wilson was not going to cover Frederick Douglass despite the power of Douglass' post-war speeches and  My Bondage and My Freedom. Older now, I think ideally a writer can write about what they wish without having always to be inclusive. I’m down with it if James Baldwin wants to write about white guys named David and Giovanni or William Styron wants to write about a slave named Nat. Sorry my examples date me; I do hear that Twittter regularly explodes with outraged people telling writers what subjects they can and cannot write about.,

Patriotic Gore: Studies in the Literature of the American Civil War – Edmund Wilson

Edmund Wilson was a critic for various high-prestige periodicals from the Thirties to the Seventies. This book is a collection of long pieces he wrote for The New Yorker. He comments upon a broad array of writings by such figures as Harriet Beecher Stowe, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, William T. Sherman, Frederick Law Olmsted, Colonel Wentworth Higginson, Mary Chestnut, Robert E. Lee, and Hinton Helper. He also examines Southern apologists such as George Fitzhugh and Alexander Stephens. Perhaps as an indicator of how forgotten figures such as Sojourner Truth, Harriet Jacobs, and William Wells Brown were at the time, absent are pieces by the slave, the escaped slave, and the free Negro.

Another thing I rather despised about the book is Wilson’s sympathy for the Old South. Honor, good manners, style. Yadda Yadda Yadda. Ole Massa and Missy and dere minority culture victimized by dat tyrant Linkum and hiz guldang fedral gubmint. It was those triggered Abolitionists, those  ur-SJW’s, that carried the ideological water for the North’s greedy drive for expansion.

Wilson has the problem of many journalists and critics: he bases sweeping generalizations on what the reader suspects is not much evidence. One is often nagged by wondering what other critics have opined on the subject and whether Wilson is not citing sources that he ought to be. I work at a university so maybe I'm sensitive to niceties like giving credit.

On the other hand, I don’t where else I would have read about Harriet Beecher Stowe’s husband Calvin who wrote her mean letters that have to be read to be believed. In the context of another marriage, Wilson tells the story of the conflict Sherman had with his wife Ellen when their son became a Jesuit priest. He blamed the son’s decision on Ellen, who said, “You knew when you married me that I was a Catholic”, to which Sherman replied, “Of course I did, but I didn’t know you would get worse every year.”

To wrap up, I would recommend this collection of essays to people interested in American Literature, intellectual history, and of course the American Civil War. Wilson short biographies and overviews of the writers’ work are concise and interesting.

Note: David Blight's brilliant review of this is here.

Barrel Fever

Barrel Fever - David Sedaris

This is a collection of stories and essays by this generation's Mark Twain. When we read the newspaper, we sometimes come across an odd story like “A police officer was forced to resign on Wednesday for having sex with a prostitute at a building he had been sent to investigate to see if it was a brothel.” We wonder whether the people involved just went temporarily nuts or if their craziness had been part of lives for a long time.

Sedaris shows us how people find themselves in odd predicaments, mainly because they don't see themselves as strange or contemplating nutty actions. To save his infant nephew from neglect and abuse, a young man figures he will get away with kidnapping the baby. A cheapskate father saves dough by doing surgery at home on his daughter, using yarn for stitches. A teenage girl leaves a suicide note to be read at her funeral, one designed to exact revenge and start a brawl.

Sedaris writes about the angry, the lost, the drunk, all back in the old neighborhood that we are glad we don't know anymore. Unsettling that these people are so alone that they have nobody to tell them, "Hey, what you're doing is really out there, ya know." This collection of humor will bring to mind Hubert “Requiem for a Dream” Selby sooner than Garrison “Tame PBS” Keillor.

Back to the Classics #2

I read this book for the Back to the Classics Challenge 2020.

Genre Classic. My go-to genre is the mystery. I have a special liking for hard-boiled American, set in foreign places, and Erle Stanley Gardner, who stands in a class by himself (see this appreciaton).

Maigret Enjoys Himself – Georges Simenon (tr. David Watson, 2017)

In this 1957 outing, Chief Inspector Maigret, not getting younger, has had a couple health scares so he promises his wife and doctor to take a real vacation. He gives his office an address in the seaside town of Les Sables-d'Olonne, but remains in Paris, a staycation destination that I don’t think could be improved upon. His intention is to re-visit the spots he and Mme Maigret frequented early in their marriage and places they don’t usually visit such as the huge movie palaces on the Champs-Élysées.

But the old firehorse smells smoke when he reads in the papers of the Boulevard Haussmann affair. In a cupboard in the laboratory of society doctor Jave, the naked body of his wife Eveline has been discovered. An injection of digitalis caused her death, since Eveline suffered from low blood pressure and the injection slowed her heart down till it just stopped. The case is all the more odd since Eveline was supposedly on vacation on the Côte d'Azur with her husband who had arranged for a certain Doctor Négrel to substitute for him.

Steadily, Maigret becomes more and more intrigued about the investigation led by Inspector Janvier in his absence. It is strange to him to be aware of the case only through the papers just like a member of the general public. To his credit, he feels only a mild compulsion to show up at the Quaides Orfèvres, because he doesn’t want to undercut Janvier who is heading his first big case. Maigret, however, does send anonymous notes to Janvier to nudge him in this or that direction.

Besides the unique situation of Maigret being on holiday and getting info only from the media, two additional points make this novel better than the average Maigret mystery. One is that Mme Maigret has a strong presence. We get a sense of Simenon’s conception of a serenely happy marriage.

The other is that Simenon focuses on the victim more than usual. Eveline's behavior is at the center of the mystery. At the age of 13 she overheard the doctor telling her parents that she may not live a long time. So she wanted to drink deeply from the cup of life, down to the dregs, so to speak, when she compromises older married men in her hometown Concarneau. He father marries her off to the Parisian doctor Jave who is unaware of her unsavory reputation. Later frustrated both by her lovers and by her husband, she buys jewelry to fill the emotional void she feels.

So I think this novel would be a good choice for fans of mysteries set in France, fans of Simenon, and novices who don’t know which of the 75 Maigret novels to read.

The Ides of Perry Mason 9

The 15th of every month until I don't know when I will post a review of a Perry Mason mystery. For the hell of it.

The Case of the Glamorous Ghost – Erle Stanley Gardner

Daughter of a rich father whom she buffaloes mercilessly, Eleanor Corbin goes on rampages in high society and low, causing outrage over her escapades. Then she blames her recurring amnesia and lies doggo in a private sanitarium.

But as this novel opens, her latest toying with scandal – romping about a lover’s lane in nothing but a filmy frilly thing and lively personality– has gotten her older half-sister Olga worried about the family reputation. Olga also agonizes that the semi-nude antics are a cover for wanton or even illegal activities on the part of the black sheep. To save the family honor, Olga  hires lawyer Perry Mason to deal with the press and police while Olga persuades Eleanor to come clean about what she’s been up to. Eleanor claims her darn amnesia is preventing her from recalling anything of the last couple of weeks but a collision with another car.

More of a problem for Eleanor is the murder victim is her fortune-hunter and drifter of a husband – or boyfriend, whatever he was on top of being a government informant on jewel smuggling. Eleanor had a gun of the same caliber with which the hubby was shot. Getting Eleanor off the hook of Lt. Tragg and DA Burger seems impossible in light of the tight coils of circumstantial evidence wound around her. The brilliant trial sequence is over 100 pages long, one of the longest in the 82-book canon.

As usual in a Mason novel, the murder investigation uncovers many nefarious goings-on.

There is also vandalism, narks, smuggling, blackmail, narcotics, impersonation, and secret bugging devices. In a strong scene between Perry and his lying client, Perry bluntly warns her to be straight with the facts since she’s facing her own execution by cyanide poisoning for first-degree murder.

In this Fifties story, Gardner treats the subject of sex with more frankness than usual. In the Mason novels, desire only comes up sometimes as a motive. Still, Perry sends Della to act a decoy in a high-class hotel, whose safe has received the “glittering assortment of gems.” Perry asks about her defenses against the predatory males on the prowl at the hotel. She replies:

Adequate, but not impregnable. I didn't give them the impression that they were storming the Maginot Line. I let them feel that the territory might be invaded, conquered and occupied by definitely not as the result of one skirmish. In other words, I was sophisticated, amused and -- I didn't slam any doors.

Yeah, it’s so 1955, but still – as a cultural artifact, it is not devoid of interest. While in Gardner’s novels starring Bertha Cool and Donald Lam, it’s assumed that normal healthy adults who aren’t married go off for fun-filled weekends together, spicy talk and tolerant attitudes are rare in a Mason novel. Anyway, this novel, the 46^th one, is worth reading for the both fan and novice.

The Book of Chinese Beliefs

The Book of Chinese Beliefs - Frena Bloomfield

Ghost weddings, passports to Heaven, getting on the right side of spirits - are just a couple of the topics covered in  this 1983 book, a readable overview of how the Chinese integrate the supernatural with everyday life. The main chapters discuss feng-shui, gods, major holidays, mediums talking to spirits, spells, healing, and fortunetelling. The chapters at the end are about things non-Chinese are interested in: the role of the Tong Sing Farmer's Almanac, etiquette (the advice on gift giving is especially useful), food and drink, and secret societies. Anybody interested in how the extra-mundane influences ordinary Chinese people in their lives should read this book. Sure, the book was published in the early Eighties but it is not like these ancient beliefs have changed in the last 30 years.

Bloody Season

Bloody Season - Loren Estleman

The Gunfight at the OK Corral has been the subject of so many westerns that like Custer at the LBH it makes up its own genre. What makes the take in Bloody Season (1999) unique and worth reading is the hardboiled realism of the style and tone and details involving stinks of the Olde West. The Earp vs. Clanton feud comes off as a gang war for turf between two ruthless groups of thugs.

Back to the Classics #1

I read this book for the Back to the Classics Challenge 2020.

Classic about a Family. Go to the French for classic novels about family: Stendahl's The Red and the Black, Balzac's Père Goriot, and Zola's Les Rougon-Macquart series which includes the incredible war novel La Débâcle, to name just a few. The French title of the novel reviewed here is Le Testament Donadieu and it was first published in 1937.

Donadieu’s Will – Georges Simenon

The sudden and mysterious death of patriarch Oscar Donadieu at 72 years of age causes a stir in La Rochelle. The shipowner's body was found at the bottom of the canal and it is hard to believe, knowing Oscar Donadieu's hard-driving personality, that he could have taken his own life.

Certain members of Donadieu’s family mutter the death was a crime authored by Frédéric Dargens, the last person to have seen Oscar Donadieu alive. However, the mystery lies dormant, as other Donadieu heirs refuse to consider this hypothesis which would involve Frédéric, an old friend of the family, in a criminal act. Frédéric is a shabby-glamorous figure whose fortune has fallen on hard times; he ekes out a living owning and operating the local movie house.

As La Rochelle in western France is a port on the Bay of Biscay, Donadieu carried on the family Donadieu tradition of making money in the shipping industry. Donadieu's will stipulates that all of his semi-vast fortune will go to his four children who will not, however, be able to sell, even partially, any of his property, before the last of the heirs has reached his majority. This is Oscar nicknamed Kiki, the youngest son, who may be cognitively impaired and has borderline personality disorder. As for the widow Mme Donadieu, she only benefits from a quarter of the property.

These astonishing arrangements completely upset the pecking order of the family Donadieu and plunge the adult children into confusion and uncertainty. The Widow Donadieu really kicks over family tradition by involving herself in the family businesses, making decisions with an authority she simply takes since her son Michel and son-in-law Jean lack smarts and gumption enough to protect themselves or the businesses from her hare-brained ideas. Simenon makes clear that Donadieu family has had its day and it either has to improve its stock and way of thinking or vanish due to their own decadence.

Widow Donadieu gains an ally with the assistance of Philippe Dargens (son of Frédéric). Vaguely motivated by class resentment, he has seduced the teenaged Martine Donadieu and taken her to Paris. Philippe is a wheeler-dealer and builds a social and professional relationship that gives him access to funds and connections that help him establish an increasingly preeminent place in the Donadieu family, thanks to his ambition, dynamism, and an ethics-free business acumen. His marriage to Martine is celebrated and he becomes rich and prominent in Paris.

Little by little, the Donadieus will see their power over their own destiny decline. Michel, the eldest son, is soft, gluttonous, and hypochondriacal. Worse, he is especially focused on the sexual harassment and coercion of vulnerable young girls. Philippe finds it easy to relegate him to their country house in Saint-Raphaël after the scandal Michael instigated after impregnating his secretary, the defenseless country girl Odette Baillet. Her case, however, is written up in a scandal sheet by the reptilian Dr. Lamb, which leads to Lamb’s grisly end. This terrible incident doesn’t wise up Michel regarding the unwisdom of chasing young girls.

Only Marthe Donadieu and her husband Jean Olsen remain in La Rochelle, where they assume the management of what remains of the family businesses. As for Philippe, driven by ambition and fueled by success, he has created a big financial services firm in Paris. He is able to start in big business thanks to the financial and social support of a couple he charmed into trusting him.

Albert Grindorge is heir to a huge fortune, and his wife Paulette has the hots for Philippe.  Philippe accepts Paulette as his mistress in order to use her to influence Albert into coughing up money should Philippe’s bank and currency exchange start to go belly up. Paulette represents “female nuttiness as chaos-inducing element” in the Simenonian universe (see Lady Makinson in Talatala, Sylvie’s mother in The Lodger, or the flirty young wife in The Glass Cage). Paulette is muddled and misguided about her own and Philippe’s intentions with regard to their affair. She concocts a plan that blows up spectacularly for all involved and serves as the climax of the novel.

At 300 pages, this is unusually long for Simenon’s non-Maigret novels. Family sagas such as The Old Man Dies, The Nightclub, and The Delivery are usually about 180 pages, so in this one Simenon gives himself space to detail these glaring Donadieu mediocrities and their hereditary debility. They are so listless and hidebound that they are easily upset by an ambitious upstart smarter and more energetic than them who pushes them aside as easily nouveau riche in Trollope novels push aside old land-owning families (see The Way We Live Now or The Claverings). 

Readers who like serious stories of family decline such as Mann’s Buddenbrooks will probably like this novel, though, heaven knows Simenon is a lot more sensational than Mann.

Back to the Classics 2020

I will read these books for the Back to the Classics Challenge 2020.

1. 19th Century Classic. The Book of Snobs - William Makepeace Thackeray (1848)
2. 20th Century Classic. The Girl with a Squint - Georges Simenon (1951)
3. Classic by a Woman Author. Black Lamb and Grey Falcon- Rebecca West (1941)
4. Classic in Translation. Across the Street -  Georges Simenon (1945)
5. Classic by a Person of Color. Behind the Scenes - Elizabeth Keckly (1868)
6. A Genre Classic. Maigret Enjoys Himself - Georges Simenon (1957)
7. Classic with a Person's Name in the Title. Phineas Finn - Anthony Trollope (1868)
8. Classic with a Place in the Title. The Little Man from Archangel - Georges Simenon (1956)
9. Classic with Nature in the Title. Those Barren Leaves - Aldous Huxley (1925)
10. Classic About a Family. Dondidieu's Will - Georges Simenon (1937)
11. Abandoned Classic. Patriotic Gore: Studies in the Literature of the American Civil War - Edmund Wilson (1962)
12. Classic Adaptation. Can You Forgive Her? - Anthony Trollope (1865)