The sagacity of a blank slate
Friday, March 28, 2025
Being There by Jerzy Kosinski
The sagacity of a blank slate
Wednesday, March 26, 2025
Drums & Demons: The Tragic Journey of Jim Gordon by Joel Selvin
Legendary talent, infamous crime
Jim Gordon was one of the greatest drummers of the late 1960s and ‘70s. Most classic rock fans will probably recognize his name from the rosters of the bands Derek and the Dominos and Traffic, but Gordon was also a highly sought-after session man who played drums and percussion on thousands of recordings, many of them rock and pop classics including the Beach Boys’ “Good Vibrations,” Carly Simon’s “You’re So Vain,” Eric Clapton’s “After Midnight,” John Lennon’s “Power to the People,” Steely Dan’s “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number,” and Kermit the Frog’s “Rainbow Connection.” Rolling Stone put Gordon at number 59 of their 2016 list of the 100 Greatest Drummers of All Time, and, quite frankly, he deserved better. In this book, however, Selvin maybe expends too much effort in persuading the reader that Gordon was the G.O.A.T. of drummers, and after a while the hyperbolic praise grows somewhat tiresome.
Unfortunately, Gordon is not only famous but also infamous. After lifelong troubles with schizophrenia, which went undiagnosed, Gordon became psychotic and murdered his mother in 1983. He spent the remaining 40 years of his life in a prison for the criminally insane, where he died at the age of 77. Drums & Demons is a gripping biography that comprehensively covers both the soaring heights of Gordon’s music career and the crashing depths of his mental health struggles and substance abuse. This isn’t a tabloid account that revels in the horror story of the crime and the misery of its victims. Selvin writes with compassion, a genuine care and admiration for Gordon, and a sensitivity towards mental health issues that is commendable.
As a fan of classic rock, including Gordon’s music, and someone who delights in the minutiae of rock-and-roll trivia, I enjoyed the career retrospective portion of the book immensely. I find the stories of these great rock session musicians really fascinating. I similarly enjoyed Julian Dawson’s biography of the legendary rock pianist Nicky Hopkins. It’s just really interesting to read about all the illustrious artists these session men played with and learn about all the classic recordings to which they contributed their stellar talents. Who knew that Gordon’s best friend in high school was Mike Post, the composer of many classic television theme songs like The Rockford Files (on which Gordon played drums) and Magnum, P.I.? Selvin includes much fascinating detail on Gordon and the musicians with which he worked, including the Everly Brothers, Clapton, George Harrison, Glenn Campbell, Harry Nilsson, Joan Baez, Frank Zappa, and more. Whether in the studio or on tour, Selvin provides an inside look at the music industry that makes you feel like a part of the band.
The latter half of the book, which chronicles Gordon’s downward slide into insanity, is riveting. You can’t help but be moved by this terrible tragedy. Selvin compiled much of this account from interviews with those who knew Gordon, and you can feel both the love and the fear they felt towards this troubled artist. Selvin clearly did prodigious research in the making of this biography, and he writes with an authoritative knowledge and a personal pathos that make this a memorable book well worth reading for any fan of classic rock music.
Monday, March 24, 2025
The Dancer at the Gai-Moulin by Georges Simenon
Guest-starring Maigret
The notable absence of Maigret for much of the novel, while unexpected, does not ruin the book. I wouldn’t recommend this novel for Maigret newbies, because one learns almost nothing about the main character, but if you’re already a fan of the series then this mystery will not fail to satisfy. It’s not one of the best books in Simenon’s consistently high-quality series, but it’s better than many Maigret cases and far above average when compared to the novels of other 20th-century mystery writers.
Friday, March 21, 2025
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
Okonkwo lives in the village of Umuofia. Though he came from humble beginnings, through hard work, ambition, and physical strength, he has elevated himself to a position of high status within his clan. He lives with his family of three wives and several children in a mud brick-walled compound of several huts, where they raise crops and some livestock. To settle a conflict with a neighboring village, a boy from another clan is given to Umuofia as a hostage. The leaders of the Umuofia clan charge Okonkwo with the care of this boy, Ikemefuna, whom he raises as if the boy were his own son. In a twist worthy of a Greek tragedy, however, this act ends up setting in motion a chain reaction of karmic retribution that threatens Okonkwo’s downfall.
One main reason why I read the literature of foreign nations is in hopes of gaining an understanding of the lives, cultures, and perspectives of people from other parts of the world. Things Fall Apart is certainly satisfying in that regard. This isn’t just the Western literary tradition transplanted to an exotic locale. This is a quintessentially African work of literature and a very fine novel by any standard of world literature.
Wednesday, March 19, 2025
The Wayward Bus by John Steinbeck
A memorable road trip
In the small crossroads town of Rebel Corners in the Salinas Valley of California, Juan Chicoy, a Mexican-American, and his wife Alice run a service station and diner for travelers. Juan also drives a passenger bus from Rebel Corners to San Juan de la Cruz, a connecting line between two Greyhound routes. As the story opens, Juan’s bus has broken down, and a handful of passengers have been stranded at Rebel Corners. Juan and Alice and their two employees, who all live at the site, have given up their bedrooms to these delayed travelers. As the sun rises, Juan and his young mechanic, Pimples Carson, repair the bus in order to get their fare-paying passengers back on the road. The weather reports are not good, with speculation that the San Ysidro River might flood, which would put everyone in an even more inconvenient or even dangerous situation. The passengers are itching to go, however, and Juan is tired of listening to their complaints, so he decides to risk it and get the journey underway.
What this book does really well is bring to life the gas-food-lodging culture and atmosphere of 1940s travel. Of course, I wouldn’t know what it was like to ride a long-distance bus in the ’40s, but I made my share of Greyhound trips in the ’80s and ’90s. This book vividly brings to mind that atmosphere of wanderlust and fatigue, the collection of characters you meet on such trips, and the seemingly random locations where the bus makes its periodic stops. Before the installment of the interstate highway system, road travel had a more rustic, anything-can-happen feel to it, which this book captures really well. Also, as one would expect from Steinbeck gives the landscape of California much consideration and describes it in vivid, loving detail.
The bus and highways and diner pie, however, merely serve as the backdrop for a story that is really about an assortment of human beings momentarily thrown together by their intersecting itineraries. It is the realism of the characters, their thoughts and behaviors, that really makes this a captivating read. The drama is heightened by the fact that in this bygone pre-internet age, an adventurous traveler could change his or her entire life by simply turning a different corner, not looking back, and deciding to be someone else. These are people the reader will recognize from their own lives, and Steinbeck is very insightful about what’s going on in their heads: what men want from women, what women want from men, how men see themselves through their work, how different personalities conflict with and influence one another. When a beautiful blonde woman, traveling alone, walks into the diner, the reactions of the other characters, man and woman alike, are realistic variations of lust, envy, hostility, and bumbling foolishness. A successful business man, traveling with his wife and daughter, brings a touch of the capitalist criticism of Sinclair Lewis’s Babbitt. Steinbeck is also to be commended for treating Hispanic characters as real human beings rather than the common stereotypes of the time.
The Wayward Bus isn’t the kind of book that wins prizes or inspires critical plaudits. It’s not about starving farmers fighting for survival; it’s about middle-class Americans with prosaic problems, hopes, and desires that to them (and us) often feel like romantic, monumental crises. Steinbeck does a beautiful job of illustrating the crucial dramas in everyday lives, in a way that is as real as life itself yet as compelling as literature should be.
Monday, March 17, 2025
Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World by Nicholas Ostler
Bites off more than most general readers can chew
In this book, Ostler writes about what he calls “language dynamics,” that is, how languages are born, proliferate, migrate, and die. Why does one language succeed in dominating large portions of the world, through millions of native and secondary speakers, while many others languish and disappear over time? Ostler explains how these rises and falls have played out numerous times over the course of world history due to causes such as military conquest, imperialism, trade relations, economic influence, religious conversion, government bureaucracy, mass media, and perceived status and prestige. Ostler doesn’t provide a unifying thesis as to how languages survive and thrive. Rather, he examines the spread and decline of languages over the course of history and examines each pivotal turning point on a case-by-case basis, often drawing parallels between the trajectories of ancient and modern languages. He focuses much attention on the languages that are most prominent in the world today, and how they got that way.
As for the intended audience, I’m guessing this is a history book written for linguists. Ostler certainly assumes a lot of prior knowledge of history and languages on the part of the reader. I was hoping for something a little more accessible to general readers, like Gaston Dorren’s books Lingo and Babel, which cover many of the same topics as this book but in a much more user-friendly manner. Empires of the Word is such a relentless barrage of detail it is difficult to see the forest for the trees. Ostler’s prose often reads like a text composed entirely of footnotes. Foreign words discussed in the text are often accompanied by a phonetic approximation of pronunciation, yet there is no key provided as to the system of phonetic notation used, so the reader is simply expected to know that. Even if the notation is a standard with which linguists would be familiar, the reliability of the phonetic transcriptions is called into question by typographical issues with font glyphs and diacritics (in the ebook, as discussed below). The only thing that might make me think this book is meant for general readers is Ostler’s repetitive summarizing of his points and conclusions. By the time you get to the end, it feels like you’ve read the same book three times.
Friday, March 14, 2025
Collected Novellas by Gabriel García Márquez
Colombia’s Faulkner
Leaf Storm, García Márquez’s first book, was published in 1955. He uses the phrase “leaf storm” to signify the influx of foreign interests that turned a small Colombian village into a boom town for the fruit industry. Against this backdrop, the story deals with the death of a citizen who was far from beloved by his fellow townspeople. The narrative is related through the alternating first-person perspectives of a father, daughter, and grandson who knew the deceased. Through a series of chronologically jumbled scenes, García Márquez reveals the back story of the dead man, from his arrival in town to his demise, as well as the private secrets of the family of narrators. Stylistically, this novella bears much resemblance to the writing of William Faulkner in novels like As I Lay Dying. I would have also sworn that Leaf Storm was influenced by Mexican author Juan Rulfo’s novel Pedro Páramo, but the two books were released in the same year, so any cause-and-effect relationship between the two seems unlikely.
The next selection, No One Writes to the Colonel, was first published in 1958. An aged and destitute veteran of a previous civil war (the Thousand Days’ War of 1899–1902) awaits the military pension he was promised. The current regime has placed his village under martial law. Again, death and funerary matters play a prominent role in the story, as the Colonel attends the funeral of a local musician. The final selection, Chronicle of a Death Foretold, published in 1981, is the best-known of the three works in this volume and the most compelling. In the opening pages, an Arab Colombian named Santiago Nasar is murdered. García Márquez then flashes back to reveal the story behind the killing, which he relates in a nonlinear fashion through the perspectives of various witnesses. Perhaps the most shocking aspect of the crime is that everyone in town, except the victim, seems to see the murder coming, and most simply accept it as a foregone conclusion.
Though stand-alone works in their own right, these three novellas are set in the same fictional universe as One Hundred Years of Solitude. Leaf Storm and No One Writes to the Colonel both take place in Macondo, the same fictional village in which One Hundred Years is set. Macondo is García Márquez’s equivalent to Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha County, another fictional setting that unifies multiple related novels. Chronicle of a Death Foretold does not mention Macondo, but, like the other two novellas included here, García Marquez does drop the name of Colonel Aureliano Buendía, a character from One Hundred Years of Solitude who figures prominently in the history of this fictional vision of Colombia, much like Faulkner often refers to the Snopes and Compson families in his Yoknapatawpha novels. I use Faulkner here merely as a stylistic comparison and don’t mean to imply that García Márquez’s writings are in any way derivative of or inferior to those of Faulkner. In fact, I prefer the writings of García Márquez. He uses the same modernist techniques of stream-of-consciousness, nonlinear chronology, and varying narrative perspectives, but unlike Faulkner he doesn’t overly indulge in deliberately obscure wordplay. Chronicle of a Death Foretold impressed me even more than One Hundred Years of Solitude, and the other two novellas in this collection are also very fine works worthy of a Nobel laureate.
Novellas in this collection
Leaf Storm
No One Writes to the Colonel
Chronicle of a Death Foretold
Wednesday, March 12, 2025
A Naturalist at Large: The Best Essays of Bernd Heinrich
Assorted investigations in natural science
A Naturalist at Large: The Best Essays of Bernd Heinrich was published in 2018. It is a collection of articles that Heinrich wrote for various periodicals. Almost all of the selections come from the magazine Natural History, where he appears to have had a regular column. Other than that, there are two articles each from Audubon, Outside, and the New York Times, and one from Orion. The majority of these essays are about observations and studies of nature that Heinrich made on his land in Maine. The rest take place in locations around the world where he has conducted research, such as the Canadian Arctic, the Judaean Desert in Israel, and the Okavango Delta in Botswana. In a typical chapter, Heinrich observes a pattern of animal behavior and comes up with an idea of how and why such a behavior would evolve. He then conducts further observations or experiments to test the validity of his hypothesis. Some examples of his inquiries include how bumblebees regulate their body heat, why water beetles gather in clumps, how the structure of tree branches determines their ability to survive ice storms, how tiny Golden-crowned Kinglets survive icy Maine winters, why there is a predominance of red flowers in the Middle East, and why all plant growth seems to twist in a counterclockwise direction.
Despite the title, I find it hard to believe that these are the best essays of Bernd Heinrich. If they titled the book Assorted Odds and Ends by Bernd Heinrich, however, it probably wouldn’t sell very well. This is basically a collection of magazine articles from mainstream periodicals (not scholarly journals), most of which are not feature articles but rather the sort of short articles and columns you find in the front of most science magazines before you get to the meatier fare.
Monday, March 10, 2025
The Maracot Deep by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
25,000 feet under the sea
Wednesday, March 5, 2025
Footsteps of Fate by Louis Couperus
Dutch treat
Monday, March 3, 2025
The Personal Equation by Eugene O‘Neill
The Hairy Ape lite
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Eugene O’Neill |
The fact that The Personal Equation is an issue-driven play makes it more interesting than the romances and relationship dramas from O’Neill’s early career. This play deals with labor issues of the World War I era, which if nothing else lends some historical value to the drama. Tom Perkins is a member of the IWE—International Workers of the Earth—a thinly veiled surrogate for the real-life IWW—Industrial Workers of the World (nicknamed the Wobblies). While working clandestinely as a labor organizer and agitator, Tom has a day job working in the offices of the Ocean Steamship Company. He associates with a cell of other IWE activists, including his girlfriend Olga, with whom he cohabitates, a rather daring and progressive arrangement for an unmarried couple in those days. The IWE charges Tom with a dangerous mission to blow up the engines of the Ocean Steamship Company’s ship the SS San Francisco, in hopes that the action will inspire shipworkers to revolt in a general strike. Complicating matters, however, is the fact that Tom’s father, Thomas Perkins Sr., is the second engineer on that very same SS San Francisco and a loyal company man who loves his job, his ship, and his engines. Regardless, to prove his loyalty to the IWE, Tom accepts the sabotage mission.
Early in his adult life, O’Neill worked for several years on merchant marine vessels and joined the Marine Transport Workers Union of the IWW. The platform of the IWW was a mix of socialist, anarchist, and syndicalist principles. In The Personal Equation, O’Neill deliberately distances the fictional IWE from the “Socialists,” presumably meaning the Socialist Party of America. Though O’Neill may have been a member of the IWW, his depiction of the IWE in this play is not entirely positive. One gathers that he believed in the party line of the IWW, but he was disappointed with the management of the organization and its ineffectiveness in living up to its ideals. He also criticizes how the IWW and other leftist radicals abandoned their antiwar stance in the face of World War I jingoism.
Much of the first half of The Personal Equation is predictable, but the ending is rather cleverly unexpected. The premise of the play sets up some contrived scenes, particularly the father vs. son conflict, but if you think of this as political symbolism and don’t expect too much realism, one can appreciate the care and craft with which O’Neill constructed this drama to convey his intended message. Ultimately, however, The Personal Equation ends up feeling like a watered-down rough sketch for O’Neill’s later, greater, and much more powerful allegory of labor unrest and class struggle, The Hairy Ape. Still, if you are a fan of O’Neill’s work, and The Hairy Ape in particular, then The Personal Equation is a well-drawn rough sketch that’s worth a look.
Monday, February 24, 2025
Rama II by Arthur C. Clarke and Gentry Lee
Nonsensical soap opera in space
Rama and Rama II are the names given to two nearly identical spacecraft that have entered our solar system from parts unknown. Clearly created by an intelligent extraterrestrial civilization (referred to by default as the Ramans), the two craft are enormous cylinders 50 kilometers long and 20 kilometers wide, filled with mysterious machinery, an atmosphere, and even a large body of water. The first Rama was discovered to be uninhabited by intelligent life, though occupied by maintenance robots with biological components, referred to as biots. Earth is better prepared for the second visit in 2200. An international crew of 12 cosmonauts, comprised of scientific and military personnel is sent to intercept Rama II as it passes through our solar system. Whether the Ramans will actually be found present on this second craft is anybody’s guess, but at the very least this team of explorers hopes to capture one of the biots and bring it back to Earth for study.
I read the first Rama book because I was intrigued by the premise. I was unfamiliar with Clarke’s writing and new him by reputation only. I found Rendezvous with Rama, however, to be quite disappointing. When Rama II was offered at a discount price, I decided to give Clarke the benefit of the doubt in hopes that the second installment would prove better than the first, but alas, Rama II is drastically worse than its predecessor. The problem with Rendezvous is that it was far too techy. Clarke spent most of the book exploring the physics of a cylindrical spacecraft, with very room left for consideration of the alien intelligence behind it. You would think that the addition of Gentry Lee, a spacecraft engineer, would result in a “hard” sci-fi book that’s bogged down even further in technobabble, but no, with Rama II, the exact opposite is true. This book reads like a fantasy novel written for children.
All sorts of bizarre happenings occur on this new Rama, with no rhyme or reason to any of it. The cosmonauts end up in all sorts of tunnels with weird creatures popping out of them. Nothing is really learned from any of the random happenings that occur. Meanwhile, the crew members conduct themselves with all the maturity and intelligence of a bunch of teenagers. There are all sorts of melodramatic subplots going on that would better belong in a soap opera or an Agatha Christie novel: love affairs, petty jealousies, a murder mystery, pointless dream sequences with African mysticism, a bunch of useless Shakespeare references. And every character gets his or her own terrible back story. The female lead reminisces about a love affair she once had with . . . the king of England. Totally unnecessary.
Although Clarke may be one of science fiction’s most acclaimed futurists, the technology employed by these astronauts of 2200 isn’t much more advanced than devices we all now use at home every day. I can only assume that Clarke’s Odyssey series (2001, 2010, etc.) is far superior to his Rama books, otherwise why would he be so famous and critically acclaimed? Clarke and Lee’s Rama II, on the other hand, leaves the reader wondering, what the hell were they thinking?
Friday, February 21, 2025
Last Stand at Saber River by Elmore Leonard
Another riveting Western in the classic Leonard style
After years of fighting for the Confederacy on Civil War battlegrounds out East, Rancher Paul Cable returns to his home in Arizona with his wife and three small children. Upon reaching their small community in the Saber River Valley, Cable’s first stop is the local general store. There he finds his old friend the storekeeper has since passed away, to be replaced by a surly one-armed character named Janroe. This mysterious new neighbor informs the Cables that their homestead is presently occupied by the Kidston brothers, former acquaintances from before the war. Undaunted, Cable ventures out to the old homestead to inform the Kidstons that its rightful owners have returned home. The Kidstons, however, refuse to leave, asserting that Cable lost any rights to the land when he went off to fight for the Confederacy. (By this time, Arizona was controlled by the Union.) Though Saber River may be a long way from the Civil War battlefronts, heated animosity still exists between Union and Confederate sympathizers. With no law to aid him in reclaiming and defending his home, Cable takes matters into his own hands, but not without violent resistance.
What is great about Leonard’s Westerns is his no-nonsense realism. While he doesn’t turn his back entirely on the mythic aspects of Wild West lore, the characters in Leonard’s stories act like real people. There are no cut-and-dried saints and sinners here. Everyone has shades of gray in their moral code and believable motivations behind their behavior. The action scenes are riveting because they are logically constructed within the bounds of possibility. Leonard moves his gunslingers around like pieces on a chessboard, allowing the reader to imagine himself caught in the perilous situation described. The victor of these conflicts is not a superhero capable of remarkable feats with a gun but rather the one who manages to logically outsmart his opponent. Because these are not black-and-white, good-versus-evil shootouts, the danger feels real. Leonard avoids typical Western clichés to deliver a plot that is unpredictable and immensely compelling.
When Leonard originally started publishing short stories in Western pulp magazines, his early entries were more in the traditional realm of folkloric cowboy tales, as seen in The Complete Western Stories of Elmore Leonard. His storytelling evolved over time, as did literature and film as a whole, to become darker, grittier, and more daring. Last Stand at Saber River is an example of Leonard’s mature, idiosyncratic style, yet it still falls a little short of the hard-boiled intensity of 1970’s Valdez Is Coming. Nevertheless, if you are looking for a great Western read, it’s a safe bet that any of Leonard’s Western novels from 1953 to 1972 will fill the bill.
Wednesday, February 19, 2025
Under Fire: The Story of a Squad by Henri Barbusse
The war novel to end all war novels
Much of the action of Under Fire takes place in the trenches on the front lines of the fighting between France and Germany. The story follows a squadron of foot soldiers, men with working class backgrounds and little education—not career soldiers but common privates plucked from their hometowns and thrust into the hell of war. The book has about a hundred named characters, most of them members of this squadron, but a core group of about a dozen men form the central cast of this drama. The book is narrated by one of the squad’s soldiers who is presumably Barbusse himself. He is never mentioned by name, but it is revealed that he is a writer gathering stories for what might someday be a book.
Under Fire was controversial for its time because of its brutal naturalism. Barbusse’s literary style is similar to that of Emile Zola’s, as seen in the latter’s own classic war novel The Debacle, but taken to extremes worthy of a horrific world war fought with modern technology. Barbusse vividly describes the miserable living conditions in the trenches and the terror of undergoing constant bombardments. The battle scenes are drenched in rain and mired in mud. Barbusse’s prose is littered with gruesome images of injuries, deaths, and corpses littering the land like a macabre sculpture garden. Nothing in this novel qualifies as a glorified or romanticized image of war. Barbusse pushes a very strident anti-war message here. He may have served almost two years in combat, but in his heart he is clearly a pacifist. Barbusse’s experiences of war even converted him to communism after seeing his fellow poilus suffer for the aristocrats and oligarchs who make war for their own benefit.
This is not entirely a novel about combat. Between the battles there is plenty of time for the men of the squad to take their leave in small towns, farms, and even in Paris. Their experiences, however, are far from luxurious as the mud, the rain, hunger, and lice seem to follow them wherever they go. Barbusse depicts the life of a soldier as just as much drudgery as danger, but his uncompromising realism insures that the narrative never becomes boring. Amid all the tragedy one finds moments of humor and the camaraderie of brothers in arms. At times, these men may come across as salt-of-the-earth caricatures, but I find that preferable to the tortured poets that inhabit some highbrow war novels, like John Dos Passos’s Three Soldiers. Barbusse makes you feel for these soldiers, as victims crushed under the wheel of war, but he never resorts to excessive sentimentalism or cloying melodrama.
Under Fire influenced Ernest Hemingway’s writings on World War I, as well as those of Erich Maria Remarque, author of All Quiet on the Western Front, which was published in 1928. I haven’t yet read that latter novel, but if it is, as people say, the greatest novel of World War I, I can only assume that Barbusse’s Under Fire is a close second. As a document of war, it is difficult to imagine a much more vivid and visceral experience then what Barbusse delivers here. If we had no photographs or artifacts of the Great War, Barbusse’s text alone would be sufficient to teach us what that tragic conflict was like. Under Fire is an exceptional novel that deserves a more prominent position in the canon of 20th century world literature.
Tuesday, February 18, 2025
Hopscotch by Julio Cortázar
Tragically bohemian Latinos in Paris
Hopscotch concerns an Argentinian expatriate named Horacio Oliveira who lives in Paris. He is involved with a woman called La Maga (real name Lucia) who is from Uruguay and has an infant son. The two South Americans circulate amongst an international group of friends, self-appointed intellectuals who live a bohemian lifestyle. Calling themselves, “the Club,” they spend their days and nights sipping coffee and maté (a sort of South American tea), listening to jazz records, and arguing about literature and philosophy. Other than one member who calls himself a painter, none of them seem to have jobs, and its unclear how they survive. All of the club members display a condescending attitude toward La Maga, who is not as well-read as the men in the group. She seems to have a genuine love for Horacio, who merely deigns to put up with her.
At first, it’s possible for the reader to become invested in the relationship between Horacio and La Maga, but at the halfway point the novel takes a turn into another direction that just feels silly, pointless, and a colossal waste of time. La Maga, unfortunately, is the only sympathetic character in the book. The rest of this social set is composed of smug, pretentious blowhards. If your circle of friends talked like the way these guys talk, you’d want to punch them all in the face. They take turns trying to prove they’re smarter than each other by out-name-dropping authors, musicians, philosophers and filmmakers that they think are cool. It doesn’t take long to realize that Cortázar himself is the pretentious blowhard who wants you to think his cultural choices are cool. When the writers and thinkers in question aren’t arcane enough to satisfy his snobbery, he even creates a fictional intellectual named Morelli whom he quotes at length to no purpose.
Hopscotch is renowned for its innovative narrative structure. In a brief intro, Cortázar explains that the novel can be read in two ways. First, one can read it as a linear novel from chapters 1 through 56. Alternately, one can follow a maze-like path in which chapters 57 through 155 are haphazardly distributed between the primary narrative chapters. The reader is directed from chapter to chapter in a manner reminiscent of the Choose Your Own Adventure Books, paging back and forth from one passage to the next, or in the case of the ebook, just clicking the links. Being the completist I am, I chose the longer, more circuitous route. Regrettably, chapters 57 through 155 are mostly unnecessary to the narrative (even Cortázar calls them “expendable”) and consist merely of “deep thoughts,” epigraphs, tangential digressions, and failed experiments.
If your definition of great literature is “anything goes,” then you’ll probably think Hopscotch is a cutting-edge masterpiece. I, however, don’t think it deserves that much credit. Many of the writers that Cortázar mentions in Hopscotch, such as Raymond Queneau and Witold Gombrowicz, were far more successful than he at using experimental language and structure to enhance a narrative, create an effect, or actually say something, rather than merely indulging in weird-for-weird’s-sake showiness. Cortázar seems to think that he can just write whatever pops into his head, and you’ll eat it up because he’s a highbrow man of letters. If the book were shorter, it might be easier to give him credit for some cleverly written passages, but Hopscotch is so overdone it feels like an ordeal, like being trapped at one of the Club’s maté parties.
Friday, February 14, 2025
The Inspector Maigret Novels of Georges Simenon
Keeping them all straight
From 1931 to 1972, Belgian-French author Georges Simenon published 75 novels in his Inspector Maigret series of mysteries. (There are also 28 short stories, none of which I’ve read.) The star of these books, Jules Maigret, is superintendent of the Police Judiciaire in Paris. He works out of the police headquarters on the Quai des Orfèvres, where he heads a team of detectives—Janvier, Lucas, Lapointe, and Torrence—who appear as recurring characters throughout the series. Rather unusual for a detective series born in the 1930s, Maigret is married. Madame Maigret appears in almost every book and occasionally has a major role in a case. Although his home and office are in Paris, duty often calls Maigret farther afield to locations all over France, elsewhere in Europe, and even to the United States. The variety in Maigret’s cases allows the reader glimpses into different aspects of French society: metropolitan and provincial, rich and poor, urban and rural, and various regional distinctions.
I never set out to read all these books, but I keep finding them in used book stores and library sales at very inexpensive prices. When I pick up a Maigret novel, I’m pretty sure I’m in for a good read. The worst of these novels are above average for the mystery genre, and the best of them are excellent.
When I find a Maigret novel, however, it is often difficult to tell whether I’m buying the same book twice because the English editions have been published under so many different titles. I decided I need a checklist to keep them all straight. Below is a list of all the novels in the series. The books I’ve read and reviewed are highlighted in blue. Click on the titles to read the complete reviews.
English titles: Pietr the Latvian, The Strange Case of Peter the Lett, Maigret and the Enigmatic Lett, Suite at the Majestic
2. Le Charretier de “la Providence” (1931)
English titles: Lock 14, The Crime at Lock 14, Maigret Meets a Milord, The Carter of La Providence
3. M. Gallet décédé (1931)
English titles: The Late Monsieur Gallet, The Death of Monsieur Gallet, Maigret Stonewalled
4. Le Pendu de Saint-Pholien (1931)
English titles: The Hanged Man of Saint-Pholien, The Crime of Inspector Maigret, Maigret and the Hundred Gibbets
5. La Tête d’un homme (1931)
English titles: A Man’s Head, A Battle of Nerves, The Patience of Maigret, Maigret’s War of Nerves
6. Le Chien jaune (1931)
English titles: The Yellow Dog, Maigret and the Yellow Dog, Maigret and the Concarneau Murders, A Face for a Clue
7. La Nuit du carrefour (1931)
English titles: The Night at the Crossroads, The Crossroad Murders, Maigret at the Crossroads
8. Un crime en Hollande (1931)
English titles: Maigret in Holland, A Crime in Holland
9. Au rendez-vous des Terre-Neuvas (1931)
English titles: The Grand Banks Café, The Sailors’s Rendezvous, Maigret Answers a Plea
10. La Danseuse du Gai-Moulin (1931)
English titles: The Dancer at the Gai-Moulin, At the “Gai-Moulin”, Maigret at the “Gai-Moulin”
11. La Guinguette à deux sous (1932)
English titles: Maigret and the Tavern by the Seine, The Guinguette by the Seine, Maigret to the Rescue, A Spot by the Seine, The Bar on the Seine, The Two-Penny Bar
12. L’Ombre chinoise (1932)
English titles: The Shadow Puppet, The Shadow in the Courtyard, Maigret Mystified
13. L’Affaire Saint-Fiacre (1932)
English titles: The Saint-Fiacre Affair, Maigret and the Countess, Maigret Goes Home, Maigret on Home Ground
14. Chez les Flamands (1932)
English titles: The Flemish House, The Flemish Shop, Maigret and the Flemish Shop
15. Le Port des brumes (1932)
English titles: The Misty Harbour, Death of a Harbor Master, Maigret and the Death of a Harbor Master
16. Le Fou de Bergerac (1932)
English titles: The Madman of Bergerac
17. Liberty Bar (1932)
English titles: Liberty Bar, Maigret on the Riviera
18. L’Écluse no. 1 (1933)
English titles: Lock No. 1, The Lock at Charenton, Maigret Sits it Out
19. Maigret (1934)
English titles: Maigret Returns, Maigret
20. Les Caves du Majestic (1942)
English titles: The Hotel Majestic, Maigret and the Hotel Majestic, The Cellars of the Majestic
21. La Maison du juge (1942)
English titles: Maigret in Exile, The Judge’s House
22. Cécile est morte (1942)
English titles: Cécile is Dead, Maigret and the Spinster
23. Signé Picpus (1944)
English titles: Maigret and the Fortuneteller; To Any Lengths; Signed, Picpus
24. Félicie est là (1944)
English titles: Félicie, Maigret and the Toy Village
25. L’Inspecteur Cadavre (1944)
English titles: Maigret’s Rival, Inspector Cadaver
26. Maigret se fâche (1947)
English titles: Maigret Gets Angry, Maigret in Retirement
27. Maigret à New York (1947)
English titles: Inspector Maigret in New York’s Underworld, Maigret in New York
28. Les vacances de Maigret (1948)
English titles: Maigret’s Holiday, A Summer Holiday, No Vacation for Maigret
29. Maigret et son mort (1948)
English titles: Maigret’s Dead Man, Maigret’s Special Murder
30. La première enquête de Maigret (1949)
English titles: Maigret’s First Case
31. Mon ami Maigret (1949)
English titles: My Friend Maigret, The Methods of Maigret
32. Maigret chez le coroner (1949)
English titles: Maigret at the Coroner’s, Maigret and the Coroner
33. Maigret et la vieille dame (1949)
English titles: Maigret and the Old Lady
34. L’Amie de Mme. Maigret (1950)
English titles: Madam Maigret’s Friend, Madam Maigret’s Own Case, The Friend of Madame Maigret
35. Les Mémoires de Maigret (1951)
English titles: Maigret’s Memoirs
36. Maigret au “Picratt’s” (1951)
English titles: Maigret in Montmartre, Inspector Maigret and the Strangled Stripper, Maigret at Picratt’s
37. Maigret en meublé (1951)
English titles: Maigret Takes a Room
38. Maigret et la grande perche (1951)
English titles: Maigret and the Tall Woman, Maigret and the Burglar’s Wife
English titles: Maigret, Lognon and the Gangsters; Inspector Maigret and the Killers; Maigret and the Gangsters
40. Le Revolver de Maigret (1952)
English titles: Maigret’s Revolver
41. Maigret et l’homme du banc (1953)
English titles: Maigret and the Man on the Boulevard, Maigret and the Man on the Bench, The Man on the Boulevard
42. Maigret a peur (1953)
English titles: Maigret Afraid, Maigret is Afraid
43. Maigret se trompe (1953)
English titles: Maigret’s Mistake
44. Maigret à l’école (1954)
English titles: Maigret Goes to School
45. Maigret et la jeune morte (1954)
English titles: Maigret and the Dead Girl, Maigret and the Young Girl
46. Maigret chez le ministre (1954)
English titles: Maigret and the Calame Report, Maigret and the Minister
47. Maigret et le corps sans tête (1955)
English titles: Maigret and the Headless Corpse
48. Maigret tend un piège (1955)
English titles: Maigret Sets a Trap
49. Un échec de Maigret (1956)
English titles: Maigret’s Failure
50. Maigret s’amuse (1957)
English titles: Maigret’s Little Joke, Maigret Amuses Himself, None of Maigret’s Business
51. Maigret voyage (1958)
English titles: Maigret Travels, Maigret and the Millionaires
52. Les Scrupules de Maigret (1958)
English titles: Maigret Has Scruples, Maigret’s Doubts
53. Maigret et les témoins récalcitrants (1959)
English titles: Maigret and the Reluctant Witnesses
54. Une confidence de Maigret (1959)
English titles: Maigret Has Doubts, Maigret’s Secret
55. Maigret aux assises (1960)
English titles: Maigret in Court
56. Maigret et les vieillards (1960)
English titles: Maigret and the Old People, Maigret in Society
57. Maigret et le voleur paresseux (1961)
English titles: Maigret and the Lazy Burglar, Maigret and the Idle Burglar
58. Maigret et les braves gens (1962)
English titles: Maigret and the Good People of Montparnasse, Maigret and the Black Sheep
59. Maigret et le client du samedi (1962)
English titles: Maigret and the Saturday Caller
60. Maigret et le clochard (1963)
English titles: Maigret and the Bum, Maigret and the Dosser, Maigret and the Tramp
61. La Colère de Maigret (1963)
English titles: Maigret’s Anger, Maigret Loses His Temper
62. Maigret et le fantôme (1964)
English titles: Maigret and the Ghost, Maigret and the Apparition
63. Maigret se défend (1964)
English titles: Maigret Defends Himself, Maigret on the Defensive
64. La Patience de Maigret (1965)
English titles: Maigret’s Patience, Maigret Bides His Time, The Patience of Maigret
65. Maigret et l’affaire Nahour (1966)
English titles: Maigret and the Nahour Case
66. Le Voleur de Maigret (1967)
English titles: Maigret’s Pickpocket, Maigret and the Pickpocket
67. Maigret à Vichy (1968)
English titles: Maigret in Vichy, Maigret Takes the Waters
68. Maigret hésite (1968)
English titles: Maigret Hesitates
69. L’Ami d’enfance de Maigret (1968)
English titles: Maigret’s Childhood Friend, Maigret’s Boyhood Friend
70. Maigret et le tueur (1969)
English titles: Maigret and the Killer
71. Maigret et le marchand de vin (1970)
English titles: Maigret and the Wine Merchant
72. La Folle de Maigret (1970)
English titles: Maigret’s Madwoman, Maigret and the Madwoman
73. Maigret et l’homme tout seul (1971)
English titles: Maigret and the Loner
74. Maigret et l’indicateur (1971)
English titles: Maigret and the Informer, Maigret and the Flea
75. Maigret et Monsieur Charles (1972)
English titles: Maigret and Monsieur Charles