The Dying Animal

This was probably my least favorite Roth so far, but even so, it had more than its share of poignancy and insight. More than any of his other books so far, Eros vs. Thanantos seemed to drive the action and the thinking of the book.

David is certainly led by his' his dick, and in many instances, he is morally despicable. I really cringed when he lied about going to Consuelo's party but even more so when he lied to Carolyn about the tampon in his bathroom. This was right after he wanted to watch Consuelo menstruate after she confessed that one of her younger lovers had done so years ago. David was so eaten with jealousy that he licked the blood running down her leg. He's such a predator, making no bones about it, especially in his paean to Janie and the revolution of morals in the 60's and his own hedonistic existence. Yet also, I think, he's looking back to the circumstances of his life with very self-conscious irony. He becomes ensnared in his own traps when he is consumed with Consuelo, especially after she breaks it off with him.

George Hearn's death was one of the great scenes that I've read in the past few years, made even more poignant with the ironic coda from George's wife. Then Roth stands the book on its head with the revelation that Consuelo has reconnected with David after 8 years and is about to have radical mastectomy, with the explicit comparison between her possible death from cancer at age 32 vs. George's pending death from old age at age 70--counting life from how much time is left vs. how much time has passed. Then what to make of the ending where David's monologue is really revealed as a dialog, implying that David will give up himself if he goes to Consuelo when she needs him. He has come off as a prick all along, but then the other voice suddenly implores him to stay. Why is that?

Author: Roth, Phillip

Date Published: 2006

Length: 4hr 9min

Narrator: Stechschulte, Tom

The Shape of Ancient Thought

An awful lot of information to digest, but three large thoughts endure: First, the diffusion of ideas from the ancient near eastern cultures of Mesopotamia and Egypt to both India and Ionia. McEvilley suggests that the Ionian/Greek preoccupation with monism, leading to the Ionian enlightenment, came by way of India and the Upanishads. 

Second, dialectical thought develops in India only after contact with Greek culture and the establishment of Hellenistic centers in northwest India. So Nargarjuna's thought is really a fusion of Buddhism with Greek ideas.

And third, the ethics of imperturbability develops in both cultures as a response to pain and suffering--through cynicism and stoicism in the west and through Buddhism/Yogism in the east. Indifference to pleasure/pain, good/evil, etc. is the only way to survive and get by. And the way to achieve imperturbability is through mindfulness.

Author: McEvilley, Thomas

Date Published: 2001

Length: 816pp

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A Short History of Nearly Everything

This was my third time through the book, and it has remained entertaining through each re-reading. While the particulars cannot stay with me, overall I am left with a great sense of wonder.

We are, as the song used to say, a fluke in the universe. We have no right to be here. And we--our selves, our species, our planet--won't be forever and forever, world without end, amen. A massive volcano--like Yellowstone--or a giant meteor--like Yucatan--could wipe out most of human life in one devastating second, without warning, at any time. Those not instantly destroyed will soon hope that they were with the massive dislocations to ecosystems. Or the planet could more slowly as a move back to the little ice age and massive starvation.

Some other life forms will eventually supersede the human species, whether sentient or not. And this planet is really all there is, and when it comes down to it, we don't know jack shit about the universe, about the planet, about life, about ourselves. It seems to me that about all we can grasp is how much we don't know. And it took us a damn long time to even reach that conclusion. About the only thing that Bryson didn't include was neuroscience and the development of language and psychology.

Author: Bryson, Bill

Date Published: 2003

Length: 560pp & 18hr 15min

electronic print and audio

Narrator: Matthews, Richard

Dead Man's Walk

McMurtry revisits Gus and Call, but what can he do after killing them both off in earlier books? He goes back to the earliest days when they first join the rangers and start adventuring. Buffalo Hump is the great antagonist, but the rangers are no great organization. They are a bunch of opportunists who seek glory and money, but also ignorant and naive in dealing with the realities of the land and the people. The group essentially falls apart and is essentially destroyed on the march across the llano and their encounters with Buffalo Hump. The group that survives is captured by the Mexicans and forced to march across the Jornado Muerte, and even then half of them are executed.

Gus and Call have one great adventure in escorting an English countess across the west Texas desert with a highly unlikely encounter with Buffalo Hump again. The book is nowhere near McMurtry's best and far too many improbabilities and coincidences. Still, a lot of gratuitous violence and bumbling characters with a lot of comic relief provided by Gus. The narrator turned me off at some points. He just didn't have the range of voices to pull it off, certainly not as Lee Horsley did with Lonesome Dove. I enjoyed Dead Man's Walk much more in print years ago when it first came out.

Author: McMurtry, Larry

Date Published: 1996

Length: 14hr 31min

Narrator: Patton, Will

The Stranger

Another classic from my youth. What in the world could I have gotten from this when I was 18 years old? I was struck this time with similarities with Hemingway stylistically--especially the "no ideas but in things." The abundance of sensual details supports the everyday commonplace life of Mersault as opposed to the extraordinary details on the Spanish Civil War or the Italian front in WWI.

At age 18, Mersault was something of a hero to me, but he does not come across as very sympathetic now, especially in his relationship with Raymond and his agreeing to write the letter to Raymond's ex girlfriend, and his refusal to keep Raymond from beating her. And he seems to make excuses for his choices from his lethargy brought on by the sun. He doesn't take responsibility for his choices. Mersault is "everyman," condemned to die in a meaningless life. Condemned to life in prison with no freedom but with a sense of starting life over, regardless of the circumstances.

We're here by fluke, searching for meaning where there is no meaning. Mersault never searches for anything beyond the sensual detail of his experiences, and that's all there is. "I laid my heart open to the tender indifference of the universe."

Author: Camus, Albert

Date Published: 1942

Length: 4hr 14min

Narrator: Davis, Jonathan

From Russia With Love

What can I say? Entirely escapist. And James Bond, as written, is certainly not Sean Connery. Even though SMERSH centers its plot entirely on killing Bond, mentioning his role in the previous four books, and even though he falls straight for their ruse to capture and kill him, he doesn't seem to warrant the attention. He is not the superspy portrayed in the movies. The movie does seem to hold relatively closely to the plot, though. But it is Bond's arrogance that ends up with Kellim Bey being killed, and his lack of cunning that mistakes Red Grant for a British secret service agent. Bond's escape from Grant is entirely too easy. But it is interesting that Rosa Krebs does seem to deliver a fatal kick with a poisoned toe knife in the end of the book. I wonder if Fleming had grown tired of him by this point, but was convinced to bring him back from the dead for a sequel in Dr. No.

Author: Fleming, Ian

Date Published: 1957

Length: 7hr 52min

Narrator: Vance, Simon

Catch 22

Another book that I read as a 19/20 year old and thought was really funny and spot on then, and that I think is probably one of the great novels on re-reading now. Parts of the absurdity of it made me laugh out loud, again, but I also realized that it is so much more than a book about bureaucracy or against war. It's a book about the absurdity of the human condition, a point made by Yossarian when he walks through the streets of Rome trying to befriend Nately's whore's kid sister.

Catch 22 isn't just a bureaucratic trick; it's the trap that we are all caught in just being alive. War is just of way of making that more clear to the rest of us. I found it hard not to dismiss Yossarian and to root for him all at the same time. Of course, when he refused the deal from Colonel Korn, especially after looking for the whore's kid sister, it is one of the few "stand-up" moments in the novel.

I also had a lot of trouble not thinking that all of my life was absurd when I got up from reading it. Everything in the universe seemed like a huge joke was being played on me. But then, it really is a huge joke being played on me.

Author: Heller, Joseph

Date Published: 1961

Length: 19hr 59min

Narrator: Sanders, J. O.

Grendel

I thought that this was a great novel when I read it back in the late 70's, and it has only gotten better with age. Grendel's character is hard to deal with much of the time, but what would you expect from a nihilist who is driven by forces that he cannot control and has trouble comprehending? At times Grendel comes off as a petulant little boy who destroys because he cannot have his own way, and he calls for his uncomprehending mother a lot when he runs into trouble. He is so taken in by the poet and the stories of common humanity that it wounds him deeply when he realizes that the stories were all lies and fabrications that thrust him into the outer darkness.

The dragon is an interesting creature who can see past and future and finds all of it meaningless except for the hoarding of gold. Beowulf then comes off as something of a prig, even as he restores order to the human realm of things.

Author: Gardner, John

Date Published: 1971

Length: 5hr 31min

Narrator: Guidall, George

The Lost Symbol

Not nearly as good as DaVinci Code, and it drags on far too long, but it does for the Masons what DaVinci did for Knights Templar, et. Al. An awful lot of the book seems very far fetched, but it was kinda like a detective novel built around new age themes and conspiracy theories all rolled into one. Enjoyable but not nearly as compelling as Brown's other work.

Author: Brown, Dan

Date Published: 2009

Length: 17hr 48min

Narrator: Michael, Paul

For Whom the Bell Tolls

A perfectly written novel. Certainly rates among the very best American novels ever written. The final scene with Robert Jordan waiting to die is worth the read up until that point and may be the best prose ever written, comparable to the Used Car speech of Grapes of Wrather and Lee's instruction to Hamilton on the centrality of timshel in East of Eden.

Hemingway takes stream of consciousness a step further and shows a man's consciousness at war with itself, self-serving, self-denigrating, self-denying at the same time. It points to the sharpening of consciousness in the face of death, so much so that Robert Jordan feels that he has gained the meaning of a lifetime in 3 days’ time, and even knowing that his death was inevitable, much like that of a Greek tragedy.

If true suffering emerges on the other side of suffering, then Robert Jordan is the proto-man in his essential garb, facing death and determined to follow through with his destiny, even though he feels that it is wrong. I don't get it, in terms of a man sticking to and following orders for a cause, but Robert Jordan comes the closest in making me believe it.

Author: Hemingway, Ernest

Date Published: 1940

Length: 16hr 28min

Narrator: Scott, Campbell

Zen and Now

At first, I thought it was a blatant rip off of ZAMM, and I'm still not sure if it's not. But Richardson tries to follow Pirsig's route across western America, seeking to meet some of the people in the book, and putting a number of tidbits from Pirsig's life and his writing of the book into the journey. It does end up giving a lot more insight into Pirsig, but it doesn't have nearly the depth or the complexity of ZAMM. It makes a nice journey along the way, but somehow Richardson seems to miss the point of the original and seems just like another bozo on the bus rathern than contributing anything original to what was said. I liked him by the end of the book, but it took me quite a while to warm up to him. I think he tries to show Pirsig's feet of clay, but I also think anyone would recognize that before encountering Zen and Now.

http://www.zenandnow.org/

Author: Richardson, Mark

Date Published: 2008

Length: 10hr 1min

Narrator: Schirner, Buck

Ubik

This was a strange little book, but what would you expect from Philip K Dick? I'm not nearly as taken with Dick as many sci-fi  readers seem to be. While his stories have interesting premises, in the end they kind of bore me. Not as good a story as VALIS.

Author: Dick, Philip K.

Date Published: 1969

Length: 7hr 7min

Narrator: Heald, Anthony

Battle Cry of Freedom

For me, the definitive history of the civil war. This was another book that I read many years ago, and at 40 hours, it is certainly one of the longest books that I have listened to.

I am struck by the role of chance in the north's victory. This is seen most dramatically at little round top, of course, but it seems to play over and over again. Personalities have so much to do with it. A little more forceful there, a little less fearful there, and the outcome of the war may have been completely different. Then there are the completely unexpected victories that play such a huge role. 

I also think it's clear that Lincoln had greatness thrust upon him. He began as a bit player, torn by the vagaries and vicissitudes of the war,  but emerges finally as one of the great figures of history. McPherson doesn't make nearly as much about Sherman's march as Victor Davis Hanson, but that event really marks the end of the confederacy.

Author: McPherson, James

Date Published: 1988

Length: 39hr 43min

Narrator: Davis, Jonathan

East of Eden

My second time through in less than two years, and I still think of it as one of the great American novels. Hard to say which book I prefer--Grapes or Eden. Kathy is one of the enigmas of the book--she is so evil and self centered, that she does detract from the story, and you can see that instability come through Aron, and perhaps Cal, to a degree. But Samuel Hamilton and Lee are major heroes, great characters who redeem any of the weaknesses of the story.

And Steinbeck tells such good stories. The story of his mother flying with the World War I ace had both Sara and me cracking up and almost crying with laughter. I don't know; maybe it's not the novel that Grapes is, but the message of "Thou Mayest" has continued to resonate with me long after the book has finished.

Author: Steinbeck, John

Date Published: 1942

Length: 25hr 25min

Narrator: Poe, Richard

A Separate Peace

I don't know. It just didn't hold up well for me as an adult listen even though I had some of my students read it year after year. Sara may have hit the nail on the head when she said that it could have ended much, much earlier. In any case, the ties to World War II seem to come out much stronger in an extended listen than in a disjointed read. But at the same time, it seemed that Forrester almost absolved himself of personal responsibility for Phinney's broken leg by comparing this individual act with those acts that he and his classmates will be committing in the war. In many ways, Gene's inability to handle his guilt drives the book and makes for his basic dishonesty with himself. (That really came out in Old School as well. What is it about boarding schools that seems to bring out the worst in late adolescent boys? Finney is irrepressible, as always, but there is also a lack of honesty, and of depth, in his character that doesn't hold up as well as it did when I taught the book. I don't think that it is a book that I would try to teach anymore if I could help it.

Author: Knowles, John

Date Published: 1959

Length: 6hr 35min

Narrator: McClure, Spike

The Grapes of Wrath

First off, Grapes works so well as an audiobook. Steinbeck's language and his descriptive passages come alive. I think that this has to be the great American novel of the 20th century. Only Philip Roth comes close in my reading. Roth is probably better at dissecting the human condition, especially in the late 20th century, but his language is nowhere close to Steinbeck. The audio version brings out the narrative structure of the book more clearly for me than the printed version, especially the interposing structure of the Joad's personal tribulations vs the wider perspective of the problems as a whole.

The used car salesman is one of the great scenes of literature, and reminds a lot of Tom Waits' "Step Right Up." Or the pathos of the farmers having to sell off the equipment that they had worked so hard to accumulate for pennies on the dollar, especially the draft horses that were now victims of progress and of history. And it goes on and on, taking pains to show the Joads as but one instance of great social forces at work. It is also apparant tht the book belongs to Ma as the central character of the book.  That makes the pathos even greater since her goal is to keep the family together even as she watches it fall apart.

Grapes lacks the metaphysics--timshel--of East of Eden, but it does have Casey's being part of one big soul and Tom's "I'll be there" speech. People break down under the pressures of life and dislocations. Only Ma and Jim Casey come through it as stronger characters.

Author: Steinbeck, John

Date Published: 1929

Length: 21hr

Narrator: Baker, Dylan

The Rosicrucian Enlightenment

Yates is again tracing the magical roots of the late Renaissance, this time in the Jacobean Age. The Rosicrucian manifestos appear in 1614-15 and herald a new age whereby all thought will be known. John Dee, renaissance magus in Elizabeth's court, appears as one of the major influences on the manifestos, also incorporating Paracelsian alchemy, but seeking inner gold. "The Rosicrucian movement is aware that large new revelations of knowledge are at hand, that man is about to arrive at another stage of advance, far beyond that already achieved…And the Rosicrucians…are concerned to integrate these into a religious philosophy."

This movement is also strongly associated with the court of the Elector Palatine, Frederick V, who married the daughter of James I of England in 1613. This marriage represents an alliance of Protestant forces in Europe to keep the Catholic Hapsburgs and the post Council of Trent counterreformation in check, and perhaps to wrest the Holy Roman Empire and especially the German states, from Hapsburg control. Yates makes it clear that Frederick overplays his hand--especially after James I refuses to come to his aid, a move that disgusted English Protestants and helped foster the attitudes that led to the Glorious Revolution of 1848-- after the "defenestration of Prague" in wresting the throne of Bohemia from Ferdinand, who revoked the religious toleration promulgated by Rudolph II. Frederick's crushing defeat in 1620 seemed to promise the total annihilation of all Protestant forces in Europe until Gustavous Aldophus saved the day, but only after the Thirty Years War devastated much of Germany.

Rosicrucianism was pretty much a spent force by then, but the ideas gave rise to the Royal Society, to Masonic Lodges, and occupy an important background of thought and attitude in the coming Scientific Revolution. "The world, nearing its end, is to receive a new illumination in which the advances in knowledge made in the preceding age of the Renaissance will be immensely expanded. New discoveries are at hand, a new age is dawning. And this illumination shines inward as well as outward; it is an inward spiritual illumination revealing to man new possibilities in himself, teaching him to understand his own dignity and worth and the part his called upon to play in the divine scheme."

Author: Yates, Frances

Date Published: 1972

Length: 322

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The Arts of Memory

Dame Yates spends the first 200 pages or so reconstructing the classical arts of memory--developed primarily by Simonides and Cicero--and continued through the medieval thinkers Albertus Magnus, Aquinas, and Raymond Lull--and moving into the Renaissance with a long chapter on Camillo's Theatre of Memory. But it is really the chapters on Bruno that the book starts moving into interesting territory, for Bruno's various and convoluted memory projects are really his religio-magico techniques that lead to gnosis, to unification of the cosmos and man through the mind of the magus.

The mind of man holds archetypal images that can be retrieved and activated by the magus through the arts of memory that allows him to achieve a vision of unity of the One through the All, and the All through the One. "the art of memory was … the inner discipline of his religion, the inner means by which he sought to grasp and unify the world of appearances" The creation of this vast memory apparatus that tries to unify all knowledge is really an attempt to articulate Chardin's noosphere, I think, and to lead to the salvation both of man and of the universe by tapping "into the powers of the cosmos, which are in man, himself."

But Dame Yates also makes clear, as she did in Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition, that this search for a method also underlies the search for a method that undergirds the thinking of Bacon, Descartes and Leibniz--"the profound conviction that man … can grasp, hold, and understand the greater world through the power of his imagination" and "prepared the way for the conception of a mechanical universe, operated by mathematics."

Author: Yates, Francis

Date Published: 1966

Length: 389pp

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Brain Rules

One of the first books that I read on the Kindle, which makes highlighting and saving information very easy. Medina, a molecular biologist, outlines 12 rules based on the anatomy and physiology of the brain that will help us lead healthier and more productive lives. Many of the current educational and business environments that we work in are absolutely counterproductive to the ways out brain works, and we must change them if we expect different results from ourselves, our classroom, our businesses.

Our brains evolved to solve problems related to solving problems quickly in an unstable environment. The ways that our brains perceive, encode, and store information are based on this highly mobile, flexible learning pattern based on exploration. The means, for example, that we must exercise frequently to keep the brain alert and healthy, that long term stress is absolutely destructive of our brain's ability to quickly adapt to situations, that we must get enough sleep--and naps--to give the brain time to digest, reorganize, and recover the information taken in during our waking hours. Multitasking is a myth that wastes our "attentional" energies; we learn much better through exploration than rote memory; audiences check out within 10 minutes of any presentation; vision trumps all other senses, but even then what we perceive is based on previous experiences, so that two different people have different experiences and interpretations of the same event.

I found Medina's ideas fascinating, even if a bit shallow or simplistic at times, but I wonder how realistically his ideas can be implemented. Certainly his ideas have important implications for education, and for business, but I don't see school districts or international corporations incorporating them any time soon.

Author: Medina, John

Date Published: 2008

Length: 301

electronic print