Brief Notes

So, it has taken me many, many moons to get my hands on the library's copy of The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, by Alan Bradley.

I kept waiting for the list to go down, but it only kept getting bigger (at least, it was always longer whenever I remembered to check). I finally put myself on it after I saw a used copy at the Harvard Bookstore at lunch, went back to work, saw I'd be #8 in the list or something like that (and everyone gets 10-14 days at that point, I think), went back after work, and the d*mn thing was gone.

And then it was completely sold out at the Dallas airport bookstore a week or so later (I had almost picked up the used copy, despite knowing I had access via the library, because I wanted paperbacks for the plane), which the saleswoman wandering around knew immediately, as soon as I got half the name out.

And now I need to give the library copy back, so I need to jot down some thoughts.

1) Meh. There were some funny bits, but overall, not sure why this is so highly regarded. The main premise, an eleven-year old girl in post-war (WWII) England is a genius chemist and solves a murder) is certainly clever and original. And, as I say, some amusing characters, lines, and moments. But it's not fantastic writing, or the most original story (I know I just said it was, but...it is and it isn't. The trappings - not to be dismissive - are, but the mystery itself isn't anything special).

2) I marked a page, seemingly to follow up on if there is a "Prince Knick-Knack of Ali-Kazaam" and, if so, what he is...  There's also a funny bit about "the exchange of a wife for a pair of gates" here (p. 74*), but I don't think that's what I was noting.

3) This is funny and very true (the girl part, that is), and points to the male author for getting it, I guess:
"I detected instantly that she didn't like me. It's a fact of life that a girl can tell in a flash if another girl likes her. Feely says that there is a broken telephone connection between men and women, and we can never know which of us rang off. With a boy you never know whether he's smitten or gagging, but with a girl you can tell in the first three seconds. Between girls there is a silent and unending flow of invisible signals, like the high-frequency wireless messages between the shore and the ships at sea, and this secret flow of dots and dashes was signaling that Mary didn't like me" (85).

4) Flavia, the main character, describes the smell of insulin: "as if someone had dropped vinegar on the back of a sticking plaster: an acrid protein smell, like an alcoholic's hair burning in the next room" (90).
Now, Bradley apparently has never met a simile, or a metaphor for that matter, that he doesn't like - and want to use. You could say that the book is as studded with super-descriptive similes (meaning that there is lots of description, not so much that they are very descriptive/evocative) as a raisin-stuffed Christmas pudding. If you were a total, nerdy d-bag. But anyhow. LOTS of similes, metaphors, extraordinarily wordy descriptions; too much, to my mind.
However, I did appreciate when they referred to the smell/appearance/taste/general "ness" of chemical reactions, solutions, etc. Then it gave flavor to the book, and gave us a view into Flavia's brain and world. The word-pictures of the setting, not so effective. This insulin description, specifically, really struck me: I've never smelled insulin (it goes straight from the rubber-stoppered vial into my body, via a syringe of some kind), but it makes sense to me. Even if it doesn't "really" smell like that, it sounds/feel real, which may not be all that matters, but it matters. And it sounds great.

5) Flavia recounts: "There were far too many books to search, so I tried to think of which of them would be least likely to be into. Of course! The Bible!" (146). Yeah. Trying too hard, Bradley. This quote may not make any sense out of context, but it's very representative of the general tone he's going for, and while the tone does make sense given the time period and the book generally, he lays it on rather thickly throughout. This is just a good example - it's funny, but...he needs to relax and give his writing some space. I think that's actually true of the whole book, in many aspects. There's good stuff there, but he kind of forces it.

6) What exactly is ormulu? Other than something clock-y?

7) Is The Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk a real book? If so, what is it?

8) Is "Wormwood Scrubs" a real place/thing? If so, etc.

9) "It is not unknown for fathers with a brace of daughters to reel off their names in order of birth when summoning the youngest, and I had long ago become accustomed to being called 'Ophelia Daphne Flavia, damn it' (200). Okay, this made me laugh. Mostly because I remember Mom, when she was distracted/busy/stressed, when we were little, frequently calling for (or chastising) "Matt, Nate, whoever you are" or, my favorite, adding the dog's name in: "Matt, Nate, Quentin - whoever you are!"

10) Quod erat demonstradum. Q.E.D.

11) Black Hole of Calcutta

Overall, I will probably read at least one more book in the series, but I am not especially captivated.

*read the Delacorte Press, May 2009, hardcover (ISBN 978-0-385-34230-8)

Movie Adaptations: Serena

So, apparently they are making a movie of Serena, by Ron Rash. Not sure how I feel about this (not sure how I felt about the book, honestly; see 11/9/2011 notes), but I think...good? It's a very dramatic book, and the landscape-setting is awesome, so I think you could film it just wonderfully - lots of possibilities for drama and power. As far as the casting, I really have no opinion on either of the two main characters they've named. Interesting, using a relatively young actress to play Serena, given that a lot of impetus of the story surrounds her power and strength, particularly as she lords it over a bunch of rough loggers, and her drive to get pregnant. Might make for a compelling conflict of expectations, as well as recognizing that women often married younger then...

http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2012/01/bradley-cooper-jennifer-lawrence-reteam-for-serena.html

Catch-up: The Black Tower

The Black Tower
P.D. James

As always, I come away from P.D. James thinking "meh." I just don't know why she is so popular. I got this book last spring (or maybe even the spring before? Of 2010?) on the infamous day when I was super hung over and bought a whole bunch of books from the bargain trolleys outside Harvard Bookstore. I finally got around to reading it a while ago (last month? longer?) because I had nothing else to read and needed a paperback. Didn't really enjoy it, although I vaguely remember it improving (a little) as it went along, but I did apparently flag several pages, so I should go through them... Hmm, apparently all just words I wanted to look up.
New(-ish) words!
Accidie
Pudency
Rebarbative
Grumous
This last one I actually don't know at all, and context wasn't even that helpful; the rest I was familiar with, but didn't really "know."  

Catch-up: A Secret Alchemy

A Secret Alchemy
Emma Darwin


Seriously, have I not already written about this? Okay...um...the author has a cool name?
Elizabeth Woodville, semi-commoner (and widow) marries a king, he gets replaced, she gets screwed over, her boys get locked up killed, her daughters come out pretty okay, blah blah blah. Never my favorite historical period, although novelists seem to love it. A bunch of flags in the pages though - let's find out why!

P. 44 - what is a "golliwog"?

P. 52 - "It's people whose main use is as inheritors and rulers of land who have power when they're so young. That's why gentrywomen were married in their teens - twelve or thirteen, sometimes - and the boys the same. That's their value." A bit baldly stated, but true.

P. 74 - reference to "Wydvils" - ugh, I got really annoyed by the random ye olde spellings

P. 84 - what is "dripping" - is it gravy? It goes on bread? It sounds gross...

P. 86-87 - "Le Morte Darthur in a late-nineteenth-century art binding and wrapped like all the others in the crackling clear plastic of the antiquarian book dealer. The silvery whirl has spun my mind too. I don't open it, look at the title page, the dates, the colophon. A book's created to hold words, yet words are not what I am thinking. It's the weight in my hand as I take it from him, the corners pressing into my other palm. I turn it over, pull off the plastic clothing, run my finger down the spine, feeling the raised bands like vertebrae and the tooled dips of title and author. Then I turn it again, open it, and furl the pages so they tickle past my thumb, hesitating at each illustration plate, then flickering on, giving off a faint breath of paper and age. Under my palms the binding is smooth and warm and smells of beeswax. The brown calfskin is inlaid with green and amethyst leather and tooled with gold, the colours so cleanly cut that there's scarcely a join to be felt, only the slip from one to the next under my fingers, like the swell of muscles under a man's skin." Gorgeous, sensual description of books - double points for the author on this one.

P. 91 - why would a pilgrim's hat be "cockle-shelled from Compostela" - must check...

P. 227 - Oh my God, I am almost too embarrassed to admit this where someone might stumble upon it one day, but I had an epiphany when I read the phrase "A Dieu" - I honestly don't think it had ever occurred to me that saying "adieu," as a farewell, was related to the whole general, go with God, God bless you family. Ugh. Stupid.

Catch-up: Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead

Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead
Sara Gran

Meh. Mystery set in New Orleans (post-Katrina). Some random weird (and yet not interesting) stuff. Feels like a desperate set-up for a sequel.

Catch-up: The Imperfectionists

The Imperfectionists, Tom Rachman

As I recall, got great press when it came out. Definitely enjoyed this tale of an English-language newspaper in Italy...although by the time I got around to reading it, I thought it was about editors...possibly at a publishing house? In any case, I did really enjoy it. It was a while ago, though, so I don't totally remember why. Good writing, basically. Wasn't totally in love with all of the stories (wasn't expecting a series of somewhat interlocking stories) or all the characters (I don't mean that I didn't like them all - wasn't supposed to - just that I wasn't captivated by all of them), but still really liked some aspects. I flagged some passages, although I will be guessing, at this long remove, as to just why...

"Initially, the paper suffered under the suspicion that it was an international mouthpiece for Ott's business empire, but this was unfounded. The greatest influence over content was necessity - they had holes to fill on every page and jammed in any vaguely newsworthy string of words, provided it didn't include expletives, which they were apparently saving for their own use around the office" (50).

Funny! On two counts! And quite reminiscent of a lot of academic writing, too.

In a lengthy - and delightful! - description of an editor's "Bible," a super idiosyncratic style guide, we read:

GWOT: No one knows what this means, above all those who use the term. Nominally, it stands for Global War on Terror. But since conflict against an abstraction is, to be polite, tough to execute, the term should be understood as marketing gibberish. Our reporters adore this sort of humbug; it is the copy editor's job to exclude it. See also: OBL, Acronyms; and Nitwits.  (78)

Ha. There's more about the Bible. This may have been my favorite cycle in the book. The same editor also produces an internal newsletter he calls Why?, collecting his "favorite" mistakes and errors and bad ideas from the newspaper (79).

There is one character, so interesting, and so well drawn - Ornella, who we see, in some old family pictures, "when she was dashing, too thin and too young. (She was only sixteen at the time of her marriage to Cosimo.) She has a different face today, matted with peach foundation, orange lipstick, liner around her eyes, green mascara so thick that when she blinks one sees frog's fingers clasping. Her hair is yellow, dyed at great expense and pulled back in a bun so tight that the canvas of her face appears to be held fast by the knot at the back of her head' (209).

I would have said "frogs' fingers" but minor quibble - that line, right there, just that fragment of a line, is the kind of thing I will remember about a book for years. Creative, unique, but still totally understandable and evocative; lovely.

I also love that when unexpectedly faced with caring for a small child, her immediate - slightly nervous - reaction is not just to feed the boy, but to make him "pastina in brodo." Of course! That's my fall-back for sick or hungover peers, but I would give it to babies and children too :)

Oops...been a while, apparently...

Once again, huge stack of books I've read and haven't written (blogged) about...and I HAVE to get them back to the library (for the most part) before they avalanche onto the laptop. So, in no particular order:
Sheri Holman, The Dress Lodger - I actually technically finished this one today (Monday night, technically Tuesday 2am), but I really finished it Saturday morning.
Kim Edwards, The Lake of Dreams - bought it at the Dallas airport on Wed., Jan. 11, read the first chapter, then read the other book I got, which probably took a couple days, then read it...
Jenny White, The Sultan's Seal - read it after my San Diego trip (1/6/12-1/11/12 to visit my best friend and best friend-in-law for the first time in their new home, YAY!) I think?
Trevor Cole, Practical Jean - read it on the plane to San Diego, 1/6/2012.
Jed Rubenfeld, The Death Instinct - got it in the Dallas airport on 1/11, read it on the flight home and when I got home.
Amitav Ghosh, The Calcutta Chromosome - read it on the way to and from San Diego.
Jael McHenry, The Kitchen Daughter - this one was maybe the day after Christmas? For sure it was the same day that there was a New York Times article about a couple with Asperger's who live in (right by?) Amherst...
Not sure about the rest...I think I've written about them already, but it's 2:25 am and I don't feel like checking.