What good book have you read lately? (New or old)

[rick53]

Hey, Rick! Have you ever done O'Neill, either as a director or as an actor? Three of my favorite plays are THE ICEMAN COMETH, LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT, and A MOON FOR THE MISBEGOTTEN. I also have a soft spot in my heart for Shaw: MAN AND SUPERMAN, SAINT JOAN, BACK TO METHUSELAH! etc. And, of course, then there is Yeats. My Irish ancestors come from Cuchulain country, so, of course, I would love ON BAILE'S STRAND!

What have you done among the moderns, Rick?

I co-directed a production of Ibsen's THE MASTERBUILDER when I was just out of college, but I've not done any O'Neill.  I directed a couple of Agatha Christie mysteries-TEN LITTLE INDIANS and DEATH ON THE NILE, which were really fun.  One of my life goals is to visit Ireland and attend performances in Dublin. 

[Dal]

[...]  Also just finished Annie's "That Old Ace in A Hole", which I loved. 

Boy, I did too!  So funny.  Full of dire foreshadowings, and hints of disaster, and loaded guns left around all over the place, and storm clouds, and torrnado warnings -- our hero must be headed for a heap o' trouble, and we know Annie Proulx never pulls punches at the last minute, right?  I guess, this being the book after Brokeback, she needed to do comedy for a change.  An exorcism maybe.

I've spent a lot of time in Upton County, a bit south of Woolybucket, and those voices in the book sounded very familiar.  Save one thing:  no one in Upton County ever says "barb-wire."  It's bobwar.  That "barb-wire" got kinda annoying after a while, prominent as it was. 

Dal

[peteinportland]

Goobles, it'll be May before you know it, and all of your best-made reading plans will have come to nought. Make it easy on yourself --- take just one Hemingway novel on your trip to Key West. Just one. The Old Man and the Sea. Hemingway at the very peak!

I would agree with this. During my undergrad work, I did a short course on Hemingway, and this is his seminal work.

And JPQ, thanks for that very wonderful story. I think I might dream tonight of five-toed cats and the ghost of Papa Hemingway. Maybe Ennis and Jack will make an appearance as well. That should be a rollicking good dream.

[Wayne]

Oh, I also got turned onto Jose Saramago this year.

Portugese author, won the Nobel a few years back.

Kind of like Gabriel Garcia Marquez, but giddier, less stodgy.

I read The Stone Raft. (Which refers to the Iberian peninsula, which cracks off and starts to float away from Europe. Very cool.)

If you like Saramago try his book Blindness, which is what won him the Nobel prize. 

[goobles]

If you like Saramago try his book Blindness, which is what won him the Nobel prize. 

Yes, "Blindness" is very powerful.  I had a hard time reading it, though - very bleak - but I love his insight into human nature.

I read "The Cave", and loved it.  It isn't quite as bleak as Blindness, so I enjoyed it more.  I really identified with the main character in this book.

[goobles]

[...]  Also just finished Annie's "That Old Ace in A Hole", which I loved. 

Boy, I did too!  So funny.  Full of dire foreshadowings, and hints of disaster, and loaded guns left around all over the place, and storm clouds, and torrnado warnings -- our hero must be headed for a heap o' trouble, and we know Annie Proulx never pulls punches at the last minute, right? 

Save one thing:  no one in Upton County ever says "barb-wire."  It's bobwar.  That "barb-wire" got kinda annoying after a while, prominent as it was. 

I loved some of the scenes in this, like when Bob Dollar choked on the chili and it went flying onto the tie of the guy he was trying to sell to, and when he's on the ranch boiling in the sun and gets caught with his pants off.  So funny!! My husband came into the room and looked at me with a strange expression, as I was laughing so hard I had tears streaming down my face.

I loved how they pronounce "oil" as "awl".  And yeah, her descriptions of the weather and countryside were amazing.   Great observations about the guns and dire weather as hints of disaster - will have to reread it!

[Dal]

I loved some of the scenes in this, like when Bob Dollar choked on the chili and it went flying onto the tie of the guy he was trying to sell to, and when he's on the ranch boiling in the sun and gets caught with his pants off.  So funny!!

And the biggest building in the town of Cowboy Rose, with the giant sign painted on the front:  TORNADO AND BALL POINT PEN MUSEUM - !  And the old lawyer who sits to the side, eats the same Spartan lunch each day, and always drinks two lime Dr. Peppers -- I knew this guy!  He was drinking Dr. Pepper when it came in a bottle with a clock face on it, and you couldn't get it outside Texas.  And the woman bellowing hymns alone in her kitchen, just like my great-aunts.... 

I loved how they pronounce "oil" as "awl".  And yeah, her descriptions of the weather and countryside were amazing.   Great observations about the guns and dire weather as hints of disaster - will have to reread it!

Like you, I burst out laughing many times.  People on the subway with me must've thought I forgot to take my nice medicine. 

I'm going to have to read it again too.  For one thing, I wasn't able to piece together what terrible violence accounted for the scars on Our Hero's landlady's grandfather's back.  Now, the scars are one more example of dire foreshadowing and perhaps have no other cause; but maybe there are clues in the story, and it is left to the reader as an exercise, or whatever.

I also want to reread it and pay more attention to the whole Bob-Tam-Bromo story.  Somehow that part of Bob's life was much more difficult to get a grip on, than the Panhandle.  Years and years he spent in their house, taking a lot more than he was giving seemingly;  and it seems as if Tam and Bromo thought so too to some extent.  Bob keeps himself quite distant.  OTOH, even Bromo, who "never liked him," continues to send him very thoughtful small gifts.  And when he sees his chance, Bob picks up an inveterate Antiques Road Show fan's dream for Tam.  I suspect that present was worth more than the whole junk shop.  Well, I guess that's only what we see w/ a lot of child/parent relationships, right?  Bob is finally becoming clueful. 

"Awl" -- well, how on earth else can you pronounce it?     (Ah'm from Texas)

Dal

[troyman]

Wow, what a great resource this thread is turning into for me!

I'm almost done with "Close Range" which I am enjoying, and I read "Postcards" earlier this year, which I liked, but I had a hard time finishing because most of my favorite characters were no longer around toward the end.  Two things about Proulx that I enjoy a lot are her use of lists and also her amazing ability to assign names to her characters that are unique and enlightening.

Unfortunately, I don't get a chance to read a lot of novels -- I'm usually either memorizing a play ("Tales of the Lost Formicans" by Constance Congdon right now) or reading them to help select a season for two different community theatres.  "Morning's at Seven" by John Osborn and "Kimberly Akimbo" by David Lindsay-Abaire were from these past two weeks, and I have about five more to read in the next two weeks.

But I'm making notes from the thread to add to my "try this author" list for the theatre-break I'm taking in May/June/July.

Thanks, all.

[Brokeback_1]

YIKES!!!!!
Don't tell any more of the plot for "That Old Ace In The Hole"!!!!!!

I haven't finished it yet!!!!

[Dal]

[...] I read "Postcards" earlier this year, which I liked, but I had a hard time finishing because most of my favorite characters were no longer around toward the end.  Two things about Proulx that I enjoy a lot are her use of lists and also her amazing ability to assign names to her characters that are unique and enlightening.

Odd how Ma Blood's end is so similar to Mero Corn's in The Half-skinned Steer, isn't it?  Postcards is really cruel to the reader, I thought.  Like Ennis and Jack: those people just oughtn't to have to suffer that way.  Sometimes, Proulx can barely sketch a character, yet you care a lot about him/her e.g. Ray.   Some great scenes, like the sudden Grand Inquistor scene that sneaks up out of nowhere, and Loyal muffs it.  I finished the book yesterday;  still don't get the fulgurite.  Loyal could have found it anywhere;  why did he find it in such a grisly place?       

Dal

[Dal]

YIKES!!!!!
Don't tell any more of the plot for "That Old Ace In The Hole"!!!!!!

I haven't finished it yet!!!!

Oops.  Quite right.  If tempted in future, will preface with SPOILER.

Dal

[Brokeback_1]

thanks Dal--- I really like that book! I'm up to the chili-on-the-tie

[Dal]

Ace in the Hole chili-pepper-on-tie SPOILER

thanks Dal--- I really like that book! I'm up to the chili-on-the-tie

I'll bite my tongue.  BTW Houston really is so hellishly muggy, and the commercial thermostats set so low, that the description of Bob's little trip across the parking lot into the Texola building is spot on. 

Dal

[Brokeback_1]

Dal tell me about it...I lived in Houston for something like 10 months, right outta school. Had Buffalo Bayou's headwaters in my back yard. Humid does not begin to describe it but this WILL:  everybody here has taken out trash from wherever they live at one time or another.
Simple task. Go out. Go to curb with trash. Go back inside. Houston is the only place I have ever been where in the short time it takes to bring  the trash to the curb, you go outside cool and dry in a fresh t-shirt and come back in with your t-shirt literally plastered to your body. It's unfit for human habitation.

[goobles]

YIKES!!!!!
Don't tell any more of the plot for "That Old Ace In The Hole"!!!!!!

I haven't finished it yet!!!!

Sorry brokeback_1!!  ;-)  We got a little carried away there.  I'll remember to PM Dal with any further detailed plot-revealing discussions about the book.  Let us know what you think of it when you're done reading it!

Dal, didn't quite know what "awl" was when I first came across that word in the book.  I was thinking "what the heck is "awl"?  Is it some kind of awl-like thing they put in the ground for irrigation purposes?  When it finally dawned on me,  just laughed out loud!  "Oh, they mean *OIL*!  AWL=OIL."  LOL 

Did you read "The Grapes of Wrath", by any chance, Dal?  Just finished reading that, and loved how Steinbeck captured the panhandle Oklahoma accent in his dialog. Recognized some of the same phrases and pronouncations that were in "That Old Ace in the Hole'. 

Jen