TR's Darkest Journey

The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey - Candice Millard 

In 1912, Theodore Roosevelt lost his run for a third term as president. Valuing a life lived strenuously, Roosevelt was always one to re-double his efforts after a setback. So he jumped at a unique chance to combine diplomacy and exploring. That is, after he finished a good-will tour of three South American countries, he would join a party of Brazilians whose mission was to map the River of Doubt, a river that twisted and turned in the remote Brazilian rainforest. The crew consisted of Roosevelt’s son Kermit, ornithologist and explorer George Cherrie, and 22 others.  Serving as TR’s co-commander, Colonel Candido Miriano da Silva Rondon has gone down in history as military hero who explored the western Amazon basin and defended the interests of indigenous peoples.

It was a snake-bitten, bad luck-ridden expedition from the get-go. They faced hard-going for two months by mule and boat over 400 miles of plain, desert, and jungle. When they finally arrived at the river, they had to use seven heavy, awkward and overloaded dugouts. The rapids and waterfalls required long, punishing portages that the reader can’t believe sheer human muscle power accomplished.

One member of the crew was a thief and slacker and in such a situation only one troublemaker can cause many problems. Hostile Indians were known to murder men outside their band and then cannibalize them. But the natural world offered its dangers too. Caiman alligators were fearsome predators that one might step on, mistaking them for rocks. Pit vipers and coral snakes were wary enough to move away when they sensed humans were around but woe to the man who surprised them. Schools of up to 600 piranha could chow down an ox or an explorer to bones in ten minutes. The explorer’s cook cut open a huge catfish called the piraiba to reveal the head of a monkey in the beast’s stomach.

The explorers were harassed by insects. Black flies called piums had a nasty bite. Mosquitoes carried malaria. As any loyal watcher of Monsters Inside Me knows, bot flies leave hideous grubs in the flesh. Readers of Redmon O’Hanlon’s In Trouble Again: A Journey Between the Orinoco and the Amazon back in the heyday of Eighties travel writing will be reminded of the candiru, the toothpick fish that can swim up a man's urethra when he pisses into the river, after which the only way to remove the beast is a penectomy.

Happily, nobody had to have his penis amputated, but three men died on the trip. Indian arrows killed Rondon’s dog Lobo. Six dugouts were lost, so the men had to carve out new ones from felled trees.  Their food had to be rationed – dinner near the end of the trip was a cup of soup and a saltine cracker - until it finally ran out. It rained constantly, the humidity make their clothes continually wet. They woke up to put on damp clothes – somehow this seems especially dispiriting. Roosevelt sustained a leg injury which required an abscess to be lanced, a procedure done with no pain-killers. Such were the privations, Roosevelt lost a quarter of his body weight – some 55 pounds – by the time he got out of the rainforest miraculously alive.

I recommend this book highly for readers looking for a remarkable travel narrative. A former writer and editor for National Geographic, Millard is a lucid writer. She provides outstanding digressions about science and history. She keeps the chapters short, which makes the story move fast. I bailed on her book about the assassination of Garfield (early on, errors of mechanics or fact, I don’t recall which), but if fate puts it on a table at a used book sale I would read the book about Winston Churchill, Hero of the Empire.

The Ides of Perry Mason 42

On the 15^th of every month, we deal with a topic related to Our Favorite Lawyer.

The Case of the Fugitive Nurse - Erle Stanley Gardner, 1954

Doctor Summerfield Malden was killed in a plane accident, flying himself to a convention of surgeons in SLC. Widow Steffanie Malden, not exactly prostrated with grief, is visiting Perry Mason’s office with probating the will pronto on her mind. She’s concerned that the good chest cutter was being investigated by the IRS. The tax collectors are curious about businesses that take in large amounts of cash from patients, and wondering if his books smell a little off.

She’s also concerned, though not as much compared to money, that the doctor at 52 years old, the dangerous age, was carrying on a love affair with his 27-year-old head nurse and office manager Gladys Foss. Her husband’s philandering, she says, is to be understood as partly physical - Foss turns heads - but partly business too. That is, Nurse Foss was perhaps helping him cook the books to fool the taxman.

To Mason, it makes no sense for an eminent and successful surgeon to risk his reputation and professional standing for the doubtful benefit of evading taxes. The widow persuades Mason to visit an apartment love nest the doctor had and look for $100,000 in unreported cash. Bear in mind, $100,000 in 1954 is equivalent to $950K in today’s money.

In her interview with Mason, Gladys Foss says that the doctor lacked business sense. He just used office petty cash as his personal piggy bank. He would accept cash payments from patients and put the bills in his pocket. He knew what he was doing all the time. Gladys points out he worked all the time and had little time to cultivate a happy life. Gladys also puts out the supposition that she might have embezzled funds to play the ponies. Just supposing, mind.

Perry Mason then falls into a cunningly baited trap. There is no trace of $100,000 in cash in the apartment Old Steff talked of but there is an empty open wall safe. But he decides he has to protect the conniving client Steffanie Malden or she may turn against him with circumstantial evidence that points to him as the thief of $100,000. The DA Hamilton Burger accuses Stef of cooking up the accident that killed her husband and Mason tries to muddy the identity of the corpse. Gladys Foss has crucial information, but can’t be found.

Gardner goes on longer digressions than usual in this outing. In an idea still provocative today, Gardner bluntly claims that the presumption of innocence doesn’t mean anything to the police and prosecutors. Cops routinely lie to people of interest in order to get them to betray confederates. Yeah, I know criminals can’t be treated like nice little ladies and gentleman, but it’s hard to shake the feeling that it’s an ugly place to be lied to by the bad guys and be lied to by the guys that are supposed to protect us from the bad guys. Gardner’s point remains: people need to keep their mouth shut and get  attorneys if life plays a dirty trick on them and then end up in the criminal justice meat grinder.

Notes: Glossary for the Youngs and the English Learners and Also Maybe the Time Travelers

Oh no! The pandemic came and gobbled up my part-time ESL job like a big hungry job-eating monster. Chomp chomp! So now my teacherly instincts are wandering the earth like ghostly pedagogical tumbleweeds, looking for a place to haunt. And lo! They have found refuge in this glossary!

This glossary is for:

• People under 50, who may not know what 1954 was, except maybe it was a year with moon men and music and pants with flares.
• Non-native speakers of English, who bravely battle the language dragon daily and deserve a sword made of definitions.
• Me, because I like glossing things. It is fun and makes me feel like a wizard of words.

Why do this? Because old-school mysteries are full of weird old words and cultural doodads that might seem dusty or embarrassing or like they crawled out of a thrift store. But they are still good stories! And they should not be locked away in the attic of time just because they say things like “groovy” or “hep cat” or “he’s got moxie.”

So here is a glossary. It is a bridge across time. It is a decoder ring. It is a love letter to language and mystery and the year 1954, which was probably very confusing but also had cool jackets.

 This novel, by the way, was published in February 1954, after being serialized in the weekly magazine Saturday Evening Post between September and November 1953.

·         You can bet on that! You can be certain that that will happen!

·         hazel eyes. Brown eyes with green or gold in the iris. People argue exactly what this color is.

·         I believe in crossing bridges when I come to them. Not worry about problems until they come up.

·         He kept his own counsel. Say nothing about one’s thoughts, feelings, beliefs or plans

·         Void in case of suicide. If someone dies by suicide in the first two years of holding the insurance policy, most companies will not pay the death benefit for beneficiaries.

·         approach a subject. Get closer to talking about a topic.

·         alert. wide-awake. Giving close attention to a topic or situation.

·         snoop / snoopy. A person who secretly investigates somebody’s private life / being nosy, having too much curiosity about somebody’s else’s affairs

·         keep an eye on. Keep under close observation.

·         watch like a hawk. Watch very carefully

·         live under an assumed name. Live under a fictitious name to disguise yourself.

·         photostatic copy. An old form of copying documents

·         $5,000 for a year’s rent. $416 per month in 1954 is the equivalent of about $4200 in 2022. That would get you a luxury apartment nowadays; the average apartment rent in LA now is about $2500.

·         love nest. A place where two lovers spend time together, especially in secret.

·         CRestline-6-9342. By about the end of the 1960s, telephone companies stopped using names and went to phone numbers using only numerals. In the LA there were CRestview and CRestwood, which would now be 27-X-XXXX.

·         a lax attitude. Not caring about an attentive attitude or high standards. Once on TV news I heard a policeman say "laxadaisical."

·         dot the i’s and cross the t’s. Pay attention to details.

·         expose (show) my hand. Tell my plans or beliefs clearly. A poker term.

·         play cards close to one’s chest. Keep your plans, ideas hidden from other people. Another poker term.

·         morbid curiosity. Having an interest in death, violence, accidents, extreme events.

·         It cost real money. Money in a large, significant amount.

·         Paul: The plot thickens! Perry: It’s curdled. Paul uses a cliché to mean the situation becomes more complicated, but Perry makes a play on words to mean the situation becomes worse or more suspicious. 

·         He looked ahead. Think about what will happen in the future.

·         That’ll clinch things. It will settle or conclude a situation.

·         He cut it fine. Gave little time to do something.

·         Keeping appointments. ESG was given to suggesting advice for being a competent human being. He probably knew that some percentage of his readership needed all the help and advice they could get.

·         Mason raised his eyebrows. This body language expresses surprise or disapproval or asks for more details. Gardner used this expression very often.

·         cut the Gordian knot. To solve a difficult problem in a very direct way by doing something forceful or extreme. According to an ancient legend, Gordius, the king of Phrygia, tied a knot that nobody could untie. It was said that if anyone untied it, they would become the next ruler of Asia. When Alexander the Great heard this, he solved the problem by cutting through the knot with a sword.

·         Umpty thousand dollars. Umpteen is used more frequently these days to mean many, a lot of.

·         Get this straight. You had better understand this correctly

·         Drake tapped his code signal. the classic "Shave and a Haircut" rhythm.

·         No dice. He refused my request.

·         veterans. Experienced employees in this context, though usually survivors of wars.

·         a ticklish job. A job with many problematic details, many possibilities to go wrong.

·         keep an ace in the hole. Another poker term. To not use an advantage or talent until the proper time.

·         A lawyer is at the mercy of his clients. Be completely in the control of

·         get your feet wet. Get into trouble.

·         to shadow. To follow, usually secretly

·         You’ll have to steal $100,000 to break even. To reach a point when you recover your investment / costs and start making a profit.

·         call off your men. Tell them their job is done, is cancelled.

·         scout the place. To look over, explore a place to gather information about it.

·         play for keeps in this game. Perform seriously, with determination to win, without mercy

·         loaded to the gills. Be very full. “I ate so much that I felt ~.”

·         lead with one’s mouth. To reveal information without thinking carefully

·         give (a place) a going-over. To search a place to gather information about it.

·         kick about. Complain.

·         hate the ground somebody walks on. To hate somebody very much. A harsh expression.

·         have in common. Have the same feature, or like similar things to somebody else

·         pulchritude. CH is K as in “chemistry.” An old word for physical attractiveness, especially when talking of women

·         Mason raised his eyebrows. ESG likes this expression.

·         Far be it for me to ~. I am not the kind of person who ~. I am not criticizing but ~.

·         cool, calm, and collected. Old idiom meaning not upset

·         broad-minded. Not easily shocked and in the Fifties this often meant not offended  especially at other people’s unconventional sexual behavior.

·         get your hooks into.  To control or influence somebody strongly. The reference is to a fish caught on a hook, powerless

·         display to great advantage. Show in the best way.

·         have a hand in something. Be involved in something

·         hand a line. To explain or give excuses that sound believable but are false

·         slip. Mistake.

·         rattlebrain. An unreliable or thoughtless person

·         stall people off. Make people wait, usually with weak excuses.

·         play the ponies. Gamble on horse races.

·         bookie. A bookmaker, one who takes bets on sporting events.

·         I wouldn’t lift a finger to help her. Usually used in the negative, I would not make a sacrifice, do anything for ~

·         The fat’s in the fire. There’s trouble in the future.

·         It’s all fixed. Arranged, ready.

·         barge into. Interrupt, intrude, disturb, enter a situation where nobody wants you

·         louse up. Cause a problem.

·         dog tired. Very tired.

·         tip off. Warn.

·         break. Advantage, benefit, especially brought by good luck.

·         plunge. To place bets recklessly, gamble heavily.

·         Hairline moustache. A very thin strip of hair. Not a popular style in 2022.

·         You’re telling me. I know this already and I agree.

·         No need to get sore. Don’t get angry. Don’t be too sensitive.

·         gravy. Profit.

·         Checks are poison. Something risky, harmful, destructive that must be avoided.

·         Know the ropes. Be experienced in the proper procedures. This expression may be from sailing where ropes and sails are needed to steer the boat or ship.

·         Put a nick in you. Damaged you professionally. made you lose money.

·         make a pass. Indicate romantic or sexual interest, usually physically.

·         be as thick as thieves. Very close, friendly.

·         back up (an assumption). Support.

·         the ghost of ~.  A small sign or possibility of ~.

·         Rush in where angels fear to tread. To rush into a difficult or dangerous situation without thinking about possible bad results. This is from a proverb “Fools rushin ~.”

·         Forehead furrowed in thought. Wrinkles in the forehead show that somebody is thinking hard.

·         a fatal mistake/weakness. Perry makes a mistake that puts the cops onto his client.

·         continuance. A postponement of court business.

·         smell around. Investigate.

·         fight tooth and nail. Fight very hard.

·         She as good as admitted to me. Very nearly. Almost.

·         skirmish around. Have a brief argument or discussion.

·         sweet position. Drake is being sarcastic here because it is a not an excellent position.

·         It’s a cinch that ~. Certain, a sure thing.

·         give an out with the income tax people. Provide somebody with an excuse or way to escape.

·         vanish without a trace. Disappear completely, so that nobody can find evidence of where you went

·         a hunch. A feeling that something is going to happen.

·         skip out. Run away, escape, leave in a quick secret way

·         I’m not gonna buy that. I don’t believe it.

·         acerbity. Sharpness. Strictness, sternness we would expect in a judge.

·         make a name for one’s self. Perform is such a way as to become well-regarded, famous.

·         fix the time. Determine the time for a meeting or event.

·         criminalistics. As a subset of forensic sciences, the reconstruction of crimes and analysis of physical evidence for use in criminal proceedings.

·         I don’t know if I had any say in that. I had no authority in that situation or influence in that decision.

·         Jack of all trades. A person who can do many jobs skillfully.

·         There will be no interchange of personalities in this court. Critical remarks, personal recriminations, disapproving comments. This expression is usually used in the negative and is still used in professional life, especially meetings, “Let’s not have any personalities.”

·         caffeine tablets and whiskey. This seems an unlikely combination to use to stay alert enough to fly a plane, but artificial study aids such as Red Bull and vodka are out of my experience.

·         His face a mask of judicial impassivity. ESG’s favorite expression, used at least once in every novel.

·         tip our hand. Reveal our plans.

·         dope ring. Criminal gang that sells drugs.

·         state boldly. Say confidently.

·         accept at face value. Accept and believe without thinking much about it very deeply

·         throw a monkey wrench into the machinery. To deliberate plan to mislead or confuse or sabotage.

·         It gives me the creeps. We say this when we feel uneasy at somebody’s strange behavior

·         feather their own nest. Make money illegally or at someone else's expense.

·         blunder. Mistake, error

·         go out of your way to ~ . Make a special effort to ~.

·         What’s cooking? Old slang for What’s happening.

·         be burned up. Be very angry.

·         She studied him thoughtfully. Attentively, in this case. Sometimes it means kindly

·         I’m afraid I don’t understand. Please explain.

·         I’ve been crucified on the cross of ~. Criticized or mistreated severely. Put in a terrible disadvantageous position. A very old-fashioned expression.

·         hatch up (a plan). Develop, usually in secret.

·         hook. Steal

·         slave away. Work really hard.

·         Worrying and stewing. Stew means worry, usually alone and due to the action of others.

·         embitter. And old word not used much now, meaning cause someone to feel resentful (bitter, hostile)

·         living like a nun. Living with no romantic or sexual relationships.

·         Nothing doing. There is no chance of agreement or success.

·         governor. A speed controller, a device used to measure and limit the speed of an engine on a taxi, truck, or car.

·         a complete heel. Total jerk. We use "complete" with negative things like fool, racist, idiot but also positive things like gentleman, cook.

·         double cross. A betrayal of someone with whom one is supposedly cooperating.

·         shenanigans. Dishonest activity. A wonderful word from Irish / Erse.

·         You’re not telling me anything (new). I already know everything you are talking about.

·         give you the heave-ho on ~. Get you into trouble about ~.

·         The Devil! Hang it! Old expressions of surprise and annoyance.

·         a raft of ~.  A large number of ~.

·         What do you make of it? What is your opinion of it?

·         laughing stock. A person subjected to general mockery or ridicule.

·         launching a haymaker at Mason. Throwing a fist punch at Mason.

·         steal thunder. To take attention or praise or success away from someone else.

·         pull a rabbit out of a hat. Do something unexpected but clever in order to solve a problem

·         estimable. Worthy of respect. An old word, not much used.

·         make a job of it. Do a thorough job.

·         raise hell. Complain energetically.

·         Darwin Kirby, Horace L. Redfield, Dr. Reedley Munger. ESG liked to name professionals with elaborate pompous names.

·         make up out of whole cloth. To develop an explanation based on no evidence

·         one iota of truth. Any scintilla of evidence. Having tiny amount of ~.

·         good faith. Honesty or sincere intention.

·         sweat. To interrogate.

·         put two and two together. To come to a correct guess by putting information together

·         make whoopee. Have a wild celebration. Also, have sex, so this old-fashioned expression is risky to use

 

Back to the Classics #21

I read this book for the reading challenge Back to the Classics 2022.

Pre-1800 Classic: I’ve always been interested in hand puppets, rod puppets, and those beyond belief Indonesian shadow puppets. One time in Taipei I saw a street marionette show. It was like revisiting childhood's gaping wonder.

Four Major Plays of Chikamatsu – Donald Keene (Translator)

In traditional Japanese puppet theater (bunraku) nearly life-size dolls act out a chanted dramatic narrative, called jooruri, to the accompaniment of a three-stringed Japanese banjo, called a samisen, or shamisen, or in Okinawa a sanshin.  The puppet theater reached its height in popularity in the 18th century so playwright Chikamatsu Monzaemon wrote scripts for them.

This book is a collection of four major dramas that were first translated by Donald Keene in 1961. The lengthy preface presents interesting material on Chikamatsu’s creative life, the cultural background of 18^th century urban Japan, and literary devices, all of which are essential background in understanding the plays.

One script is a historical play about Coxinga, a Ming freedom fighter who fought the oppression of an alien regime in China. One feels grateful the parts are played by puppets considering scenes where the hero fights off a tiger attack, a faithless lackey gouges out his eye to prove his loyalty,  and a sword-wielding retainer, in order to save their heir to the throne, performs a c-section on the lifeless body of a princess. No surprise that due to electrifying scenes like these The Battles of Coxinga ran a record 17 months on the Great Mikan Way.

The three other plays are regarded as ground-breaking because instead of being about military heroes or religious lessons, they are about the usual problems facing ordinary samurai, farmers, clerks, merchants, and prostitutes: money worries, job woes, family strife and romantic entanglements. Their main struggle is the issue of giri (duties and obligations to society) versus ninjo (human feelings concerning one’s self, family, and unwise liaisons). Again because they mixed titillation and moral and ethical lessons The Love Suicides at Sonezaki and The Love Suicides at Amijima were hits as well.

Usually play reading is done better in a group but getting a half-dozen friends together with the lure of 18^th century Japanese suicide tales might be a hard sell in your neighborhood. But huge sections of these plays are chanted prose so they’re not really like reading a play by an Elizabethan like Marlowe. I’ve heard some hobbyists read these aloud to keep their voice in shape and their pronunciation distinct. The language is so colloquial that I almost believe this could be a fringe hobby.

The World is the Traveler’s Inn

A Time of Gifts - Patrick Leigh Fermor

Along with Rebecca West and Robert Byron, Patrick Leigh Fermor is regarded as one of the best English writers who travelled between the wars.  This first volume of his walking sojourn covers from Holland to Hungary. The second volume Between the Woods and the Water takes him across Hungary and Romania. The third volume The Broken Road takes him to Istanbul

This book is not a lightly edited diary or an account written soon after the journey. It is a between-the-wars travel classic written when the author was in his sixties in the early Seventies on the basis of a travel diary written in the Thirties. Fermor was a slow writer who revised sentences again and again. He loved odd words: uhlan, fimbria, quinquereme.

With origins in London high society and artistic circles, his mother gave him a love of the humanities while his father, a government geologist in India, represented the sciences. His early years were spent virtually free of discipline on a farm and he had problems later with the regimentation and rules of schools. I suppose some readers will think he just had the natural high spirits of a boy who was “all boy.” Others may wonder about ADHD and impulse control when Fermor’s antics became concerning enough to get him dismissed from a school, however apologetically. He was sent to a psychiatrist - he saw the same one that Virginia Woolf consulted before he was born.

Thanks to a combination of patient tutors and his own preferences, he read widely in literature and did well in all subjects but math. He memorized a shocking amount of poetry in various languages. He also realized the military was not really his destination so he scuttled plans for Sandhurst. Instead he had an idea – travel and write about it - that his creative mother was all for. After all, it was the golden age of travel writing and he had read The Station and had met Robert Byron when they were both partying in a nightclub.

Not yet twenty, in December 1933, he boarded a ferry from London to Holland, where he began his trek across central Europe. Among the items in his rucksack, he carried a diary in which he faithfully recorded his impressions throughout the trip, though he lost the chronicle when his rucksack was stolen in a German youth hostel. He began another diary.

The reader assumes that in 1933, with Hitler 10 months in power, it would have been difficult for an Englishman to travel in the Reich along the Rhine, then the Danube, with detours to Munich and Prague. In fact, Germans have a long tradition of being hospitable to travelling students, assuming them poor and hungry. So, his profession as ‘student’ on this passport opened doors at all levels of society. Fermor must have been a charmer and gentleman. For instance, besides being an attentive listener to elderly people, he received hospitality from two well-brought-up girls his age who would have gotten into trouble if their guardians (out of town) and neighbors knew a young man was dossing down on their couch. They probably thought his broken German was cute.

The story is interesting where Fermor touches on cultural themes. Fermor meets characters of all kinds, from poor peasants to noble aristocrats; he sleeps on pallets in barns, but also as a guest in villas. He spends a charming German Christmas with a middle-class family.  He listens to stories handed down from parents to children in remote villages, but he can also take advantage of the old libraries of wealthy hosts. Hilarious is his experience making quick money by sketching people – nothing like working in another culture to really get a feel for a people and their ways.

This travel narrative is well worth reading for hardcore readers into the genre. The author spent WWII on Crete fighting with the partisans. After the war, in the middle 1950s, he visited Benedictine and Cistercian monasteries in France.

Deptford Trilogy #1

Note: The book reviewed below is the first book in a trilogy whose theme is getting out from under bad feelings caused by a traumatic incident in childhood (this one), by an ordinarily rocky childhood with troubled parents (the second one), and by a childhood scarred by social, economic, and sexual abuse (the last one).  I read the second book The Manticore in the trilogy first, then the last book World of Wonders second. Other than fate putting them on the tables at used book sales in that order, who knows how these things happen? Lucky the trilogy doesn’t have to be read in order.

Fifth Business – Robertson Davies

This novel is narrated by its star character Dunstan Ramsay. Ramsay is a man of many achievements—he is a war hero, a teacher, a scholar and an author of academic tomes and popular books for travelers, His subject is Catholic saints. So Ramsay is ticked about a news article about his retirement from the boy’s school where he taught for 45 years. He detects a patronizing and dismissive tone and calls the writer of the piece an “ineffable jackass.” This novel is his long letter to the school’s Headmaster supporting the claim that in fact he is not a doddering Mr. Chips stumbling toward years of mental deterioration.

The reader can tell Davies was a journalist who wrote to be understood by a diverse readership. The narrative possesses an easy rhythm which allows pleasant reading. Some scenes have a terrible and overwhelming dynamism, while there are also occasional episodes of unexpected hilarity. Many character sketches -- mean religious Amasa Dempster; Milo Papple, class clown and town barber; Joel Surgeoner, tramp and mission director; Diana Marfleet, devoted nurse -- through brief and accurate brushstrokes, are expressive and real, calling mind E.M. Forster's dab hand with secondary characters like Charles Wilcox. The main characters – Ramsay, his frenemy Boy Staunton, his saint Mary Dempster - are anything but plain cardboard.

The episodes are presented in set pieces, with background given in an essay-like style and depth. For instance, Ramsay’s WWI experience doubles as the no-frills account of his winning the Victoria Cross and a general reportage of the miseries of trench warfare. The organization is always clear, making the novel easy to read, to put down and pick up and recall readily what is going on.

Another attraction – or not so much, depending on the reader - is that Davies, as is typical of him, has a certain approach to moral improvement.  Ramsay when young had a strict mother and no-nonsense Presbyterian education. So he grew to adulthood on the razor’s edge. That is, he has to balance virtues like discretion and loyalty with the burden of guilt, concessions to respectability or that constant bugbear of our species, envy.

Ramsay's emotional life is an ordinary life similar to our own, especially we men who are reluctant to disclose our thoughts and feelings and thus never get a chance to have our goofy ideas disputed by other people, who are just as smart as we are and living a life as vivid as our own. Introspective reticent men like Ramsay could avoid a lot of guilt and shame if they judiciously aired out skeletons in the closet to intelligent and sympathetic others. Unable to forge connections with other people, Ramsay learns that he too can play an important role in the lives of others, as a catalyst for action (fifth business) even if he sometimes feels like an extra, on the bench until needed in extraordinary circumstances.

Like The Razor’sEdge, this is a novel for seekers. First published in 1970, Fifth Business is very much in keeping with the ideals of self-discovery and mystic searching of the 1960s. I have no idea if Davies is much read nowadays, even in his native Canada, since in his lifetime (he died in 1995 at 82) he’s vulnerable on elitist front due to quotations like “I think that civilization—life—has a different place for the intelligent people who try to pull us a little further out of the primal ooze than it has for the boobs who just trot along behind, dragging on the wheels.”