Tableaux of Contents

By Joan Schenkar

An extraordinary biography of a very strange person. Organized thematically, it ranges over Patricia Highsmith's life without being slavish to chronology. In fact, the author thoughtfully provides a chronological summary to help those who feel a bit lost.

Every one of the pages of this long book (over 560 pages with appended material) is worth the time. This is not a literary biography in the strict sense, but it explains a good deal about the odd place in the imagination called, by Ms. Schenkar, "Highsmith country" and helps us begin to understand how the odd people we meet in her books got that way.

There is a great deal of detail about Highsmith's loves, her mixed relationship with her mother, her frugality, her bigotry, and her inability to tolerate ease or comfort in her life. All of this is attested by the material in her "cahiers" as Highsmith called her notebooks. Sometimes Ms. Schenkar seems to drift too far from the evidence in her conclusions, but the ideas she presents are entertaining, if speculative.

Ms. Schenkar has no illusions about her subject's questionable hold on humanity, but she makes us feel some sympathy for this intriguing woman.

Written March 12, 2010 18:15

by Evan Mandery

A new satire by Evan Mandery that blends elements of Douglas Adams's humor, David-Foster-Wallace-style, parenthetical informativeness (sans that annoying footnote typography) and meta-fictional intrusiveness. Sober themes in a comic mode.

Delightful entertainment.

Written March 8, 2010 09:42

by Peter Cameron

This English "domestic" novel is similar, in its way to Brookner's Rules of Engagement. Cameron, however, must travel further back to make his characters credible; all the way back to post-WW II England. He has managed to pull this off quite nicely, creating a story that could serve as the basis for a Douglas Sirk film.

Coral Glynn is a nurse who comes to Maj. Clement Hart's house to care for his dying mother. Hart, himself, is a wounded veteran of the war. He has refused the skin grafts that his surgeons have recommended and continues to suffer from the pain and immobility that his wounds produce.

Coral is a passive person, unable to stand up for herself, even to the housekeeper Mrs. Prence, a small-minded, even cruel woman. She is the victim of a sexual assault from the father of children she was called in to care for. She does nothing about this. She is also unable to decide what she really wants for herself when Maj. Hart proposes to her. She is introduced to friends of Clement's, Robin a friend from Clement's past and his wife Dolly.

Ensuing complications make clear that Robin is in love with Clement and that they have a "past." Clement, though, has decided to put away childish things, for this is how he sees their relationship, and marry, as so many gay men would do in those years (J. M. Keynes comes to mind.).

A crime is committed in the vicinity of the Major's house and Coral is involved, innocently, but the machinations of Mrs. Prence and the vagaries of the local constabulary make it seem that Coral must leave to go into hiding. She later lives in London, working for the NHS. Clement has assumed that Coral has thought better of the marriage and has not contacted him for that reason. Coral has written, but her letters have gone astray.

Clement tries to begin with her again, but Coral's spine begins to stiffen ever so slightly and she becomes, at last, more decisive.

Peter Cameron has provided an enjoyable period novel the plot of which his writing makes acceptable, even palatable.

by Richard Holmes

Richard Holmes has a gift for biographical writing. His latest book is a gripping narrative about the Romantic movement and its members' fascination with science and discovery. This was the era that brought professionalism to science, even giving us the very word, 'scientist.'

Holmes begins with Joseph Banks who accompanied James Cook on his first voyage in HM Bark Endeavour as the naturalist. His observations of the native people of the island of Tahiti is surprising in an English culture known for its sense of self-superiority. Banks was not immune to this sense, but he was able to stifle it to permit himself to observe objectively. He returned to acclaim and a position as the president of the Royal Society. He was instrumental in encouraging scientists and explorers alike.

A chapter on balloonists and their hopes to conquer the sky are described next. Curiously, one of the first thoughts that occurred to contemporaries was the potential for warfare. The English were concerned that the French would be able to deliver troops to their island by a fleet of troop-carrying balloons.

A substantial portion of the book is devoted to the Herschel family, William, his younger sister Caroline and his son, John. The story of these dedicated scientists is well observed, especially the portion about William and his sister.

Another explorer that Banks encouraged was Mungo Park, a man one hardly hears of nowadays. He sought to explore the Niger River and find its source, risking life and limb to do so. The description of how the purpose of his trip was co-opted for colonialist ends makes for sad reading.

The life and work of Humphry Davy, arguably the first chemist, takes two chapters. His thorough study of chemical interactions, his discoveries and his inventions are thoroughly covered.

The impact of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is evaluated in a chapter called "Dr. Frankenstein and the Soul." Holmes reviews the Vitalist controversy and helps us see how the book reflects the concerns of its author, and her associates, with science and its role in society.

The last two sections cover Michael Faraday and John Herschel, mostly. The detail in these latter chapters is lacking in comparison to the wealth of the earlier chapters. Extensive chapters on both these men would have been welcome, especially the younger Herschel.

Holmes's bibliography is a fine one and a thorough one and will serve as a valuable resource for readers willing to explore further. He also provides thumbnail sketches of the lives of many of the persons who appear in the book, and some who don't, in an appendix.

This book is one that deserves all the accolades it has received. It does not disappoint.

Written April 1, 2010 15:16

by Theodore C. Bestor

This is an anthropologist's study of the Tokyo Metropolitan Central Wholesale Market, commonly known as the Tsukiji Market. He examines the history of the place, the organization of its buyers and sellers, its relationship to the wider community and its particular place in Japanese life and in how the the Japanese people understand themselves. It is a comprehensive treatise that has its longeurs, but continues to fascinate throughout.*

The market is a curious place, partly self-governing through the traditions of the buyers and sellers, but also controlled tightly by the Tokyo municipal government. It is the largest wholesale market in the world for fish and other seafood. The perishable nature of the products makes its efficient operation crucial to a nation that relies on fresh seafood daily.The daily auctions are a highlight for tourists may be seen in several videos on YouTube, such as this one which gives a sense of the place and its energy.

Prof. Bestor has spent years studying the entire market and knows it better than most of its participants. From the past (the original Nihonbashi, or "fish quay," market in Edo was destroyed in the 1923 earthquake) to the future (planners have hoped to move the market for years to a nearby site, but have been frustrated by various problems, including pollution problems at new site), we come to know the place very well indeed.

This is an engrossing look at the place of commerce in the life of a modern nation and how the buyers and sellers have constructed a place that serves the needs of both groups, while maintaining high standards. Even the fairness in the use of space has been accounted for by means of reallocations that take place from time to time using a lottery system.

The detail in this fine work is breathtaking. It is a brilliant tribute to the market and its denizens.

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*It is a well-known book and received an homage from a later author, Gordon Mathews, in the title of his book, Ghetto at the Center of the World: Chungking Mansions, Hong Kong, described in an earlier post on this site (see link here).

by Paul Auster

Paul Auster is, in my mind, without doubt one of the best novelists writing. Invisible is a gripping coming-of-age narrative. There is more of Patricia Highsmith than J. D. Salinger in this story of a terrifying event that left its mark on a young Columbia University student in 1967. It continued to exercise power over him to the end of his life.

The novel is written from two points of view, that of Adam Walker and that of his friend from his undergraduate days, James Freeman, himself a successful writer. This shifting of viewpoints is never confusing and gives the book density and a rich complexity.

Written March 8, 2010 09:51

by David Rakoff

by Patricia Highsmith

My recent re-reading of Patricia Highsmith's first successful novel makes me see it to be far stranger than Hitchcock was able to convey in his film. This is a symptom of sensibilities circa 1951, perhaps, or a certain diffidence on Hitchcock's part. No matter why, the film makes many changes to the plot and dramatis personae, some consequential, some in-.

Guy Haines is a young, promising architect rather than a dilettantish amateur tennis player. Charles Anthony Bruno is changed to Bruno Anthony. The mise en scène is shifted from the American southwest to the northeast megalopolis (extending from DC to NYC to CT). Bruno is an amoral dipsomaniac in both the film and the book. The principal difference is that Guy is feckless and insubstantial and, in the end, the creepiest person in the book.

The two men meet and Bruno insinuates himself into Guy's life in a way that is almost unstoppable. We see most of the events in both from Guy's viewpoint, so we can get to thoroughly dislike him. By the end of the book it's clear that neither deserves to get away with murder.

There is a private detective character in the book, an employee of the late Mr. Bruno, who makes it his mission to solve the murder of Bruno's father. He is relentless, kind of an Inspector Javert without the ruth, but neither of these two is a Jean Valjean. It's a pleasure to see the noose tightening around the two.

In the film Citizen X, Max von Sydow plays a psychiatrist, Bukhanovsky, who tells the police commissioner and his chief detective/pathologist, after assessing their complementary characters, "Together you make a wonderful person." Guy Haines and Bruno come up much short of even this minimal achievement.

One might give this book a logline: "This weirdo killed my wife then wanted quid pro quo; he kept annoying me, so, I murdered his father to shut him up."

Written April 1, 2010 14:33

by Michael Ian Black

by Demetri Martin

Demetri Martin is a humorist, not merely a comic. This book is full of a dazzling variety of funny stuff, from a sendup of crosswords to an intriguing short story about life after death. This is a very entertaining book. I will be very disappointed with people who do not read it.