Reading this week

I finished two books this week, neither of them requiring great thought or attention.  

 Last weekend I picked up Every Last One by Anna Quindlan.  It was my turn on the waiting list, and it turned out to be a good choice for this week even though the day I picked it up I was thinking about several weightier books I had on my stack that I was eager to chew my way through.  I really enjoyed this book.  I like the way Quindlan has of developing the inner life of her characters through the little details of daily life and she is very effective here if you give her the chance.  By telling this story through the voice of the mother she unifies the book and also gives us an insight into the inner life of a woman and mother who seems to have everything right but who then is faced with the reality that we never really fully understand and know what is going on with those we love.  We try so hard to make the right choices, and in the end, whether we do or not, is as much luck as anything else.   It is difficult to say I enjoyed the book given everything involved, and yet, ultimately I think it is a well-paced and good novel in which one quietly gets involved in the lives of the characters, gaining insight into their lives and through them, into one's own.  Yes the main character is inconsistent and doesn't make the same choices everyone might make; she is dealing with her own issues combined with her children's issues, like oh so many people, and sometimes she gets it right and sometimes she doesn't, but the author has a way of catching her pulse and letting us in it.  I'm not going to say what happens in the book, or how the main character is forced to come to terms with herself, but I found it a rewarding read.

 But before I read the novel, I read A Company of Readers.  I came across it on the shelves when I picked up my ongoing library cataloging project a bit last weekend.  The problem with shifting, moving, and cataloging books is that I tend to want to sit down and read every one of them again.  I suppose if I don't want to read a book again, it is a good sign that it is time for that book to go, or at least that is my operating principle.

Anyway, this book is a collection of essays which made it perfect for this rather frazzled week.  WH Auden, Jacques Barzun, and Lionel Trilling started a book club in the 50's and a collection of their reviews for the club are included here.  Admittedly I have a weakness for good book reviews, and these, for the most part are fabulous, the kind of book reviews I wish I could write, and they make me want to read almost every book and wish I was a member of the book-buying public when their club was in existence, because it must have been fabulous.

Well, actually I have read quite a few of the books reviewed by now, but there are still a few I have missed, and regardless the essays are still fascinating.  In fact all the books make me think about the works I have read and look back on them differently, and even books that sound completely uninteresting to me pique my interest as I read the reviews here.

Auden is the writer with whom I am most familiar, and his reviews often make me cackle with glee. An example is this line from a review of Dostoevky's The House of the Dead "The House of the Dead is not Dostoevsky's greatest work but it is, perhaps, his least irritating."   He reviews Tolkien.  His reviews of poetry often make me look at the poet under review differently and also reflect on my understanding of Auden's own poetry.

As for the other two, suffice it to say I love their reviews too.  I want to read almost everything Jacques Barzun recommends, although I have read none of his other works.  Reading his reviews makes me wonder what else I may have been missing. And as for Lionel Trilling, I admit to never having liked reading Trilling, except in these essays.  Actually, I think I never really liked Trilling until I read his review of The Wind in the Willows, after which I had to go back and consider his other reviews.  Perhaps one of these days I shall have to explore the writings of Barzun and Trilling further, as well as spend some more time with Auden.  But then perhaps I shall just curl up with an essay from this book now and again, because these essays are not just about the books themselves but the world and culture and people who write and read these books.

Comments

[materfamilias]

I've liked Quindlen's earlier books and will keep an eye out for this one . . . sadly, I can feel the term quickly approaching and with it the brakes will be seriously applied to my "free" reading.

[La Belette Rouge]

A company of readers is going on my list. Thanks for the reviews!