Author: Phil Slattery

About an hour and a half ago, I got home from a trip to Midland, Texas to visit my wife for reasons I shall not disclose here. I will say that all is well in Slattery-world now.

What has now become my custom is to spend a night en route either at my stepdaughter’s apartment in Fort Worth or at a La Quinta in Garland (for more on Garland see the opening scene in Zombieland). Last night I chose the former. I drove on to Gillett today taking about eight hours including two side-stops at two Half-Price Books, one in Ft. Worth and the other in Garland) plus lunch at Torchy’s Tacos in Fort Worth. Terrific tacos by the way.

I will make this short, because I need to go to bed soon. I had almost no sleep last night. That is a common, long standing issue with me and has nothing to do with my stepdaughter’s apartment. I also stayed at her place en route Midland, but slept well that night.

For a good part of the journeys to Midland and back, I listened to an audiobook of Joseph Conrad’s Nostromo. Though of course it is beautifully and masterfully written, this is one of the most boring books I have read in a long time. I chose it because the spaceship in “Alien” is the Nostromo and I thought I might find a clue as to why that name was chosen. I also wanted to read something of Conrad’s besides Heart of Darkness.

The first seven chapters are Conred describing the geography, people, and upper class of Costaguana. I am up to chapter three of the Second Part and the character Nostromo is mentioned only a few times, but each time with increasing detail. Sometimes Conrad gets into somewhat exciting passages when describing revolutions or other conflict, but mostly, to this point, the book is more like a travelogue. Conrad really doesn’t get too much in depth about the characters except for Mr. and Mrs. Charles Gould, the owner of the San Tome silver mine and some of the figures of the Costaguana government. It seem that Conrad is going into great detail about the country to set up something to come later. I suspect this might be an affair between Mrs. Gould and Nostromo. I have not read the Wikipedia summary so that I can avoid any spoilers it may have.

This audiobook is about 19 hours long, and I am about a quarter of the way through. I will hang in there to study Conrad’s descriptions of the land and people, if for no other reason. They are very well done, and there is a lot I can learn from them.

Today, at the Half-Price Books on Hulen in Fort Worth, I picked up a radio dramatization of “Death of a Salesman” (abridged) by Arthur Miller. It’s only about 1.5 hours in length, so I listened to it between Garland and Texarkana.

Damn, this is a powerful work. I really loved it

I have never seen a performance of this on stage or on TV, but I will have to search one out now. I would love to find a video of one of the original productions, so that I can study the staging, etc. This probably hit me hard, because in it Willy Loman is 63 and I’m 62.

For such a short work, there is a hell of a lot going on it in terms of character development, revelation, interaction, disillusionment, the American dream and on and on and on.

I will try to write more about this later, but for now, I must go to bed.

Hasta luego.

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I received a review copy from the publisher. This does not affect the contents of my review and all opinions are my own. A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik Mogsy’s Rating: 3.5 of 5 stars Genre: Fantasy Series: Book 1 of Scholomance Publisher: Del Rey (September 29, 2020) Length: 336 pages Author Information: Website | Twitter Truly, A Deadly […]

Book Review: A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik — The BiblioSanctum

I finished reading Nikolai Gogol‘s Dead Souls today. This is actually the second time. I first read it for a Russian literature class circa 1979. I always remembered the ending of the first book as the protagonist Chichikov rides across the majestic, endless Russian landscape in his carriage off to who know what future for its beauty, drama, and keeping the reader on the edge of his/her seat as to what lay ahead.

I remember that my Russian professor (who was actually Ukrainian), Dr. Wowk (pronounced as “woke”) had us read only the first book. Dead Souls was originally intended to be what we now call a trilogy, but Gogol never wrote the third book, because he became a religious fanatic, as Dr. Wowk said (and as I recall), and fasted himself to death. Compared to the Wikipedia article, this is at the least oversimplified. My memory, though, is not what it used to be.

If you read my previous update on Dead Souls, you recall that I consider the first book a masterpiece of Russian literature. I can see now why he did not have us read the second book. It is not nearly as entertaining as the first and is rather boring. It doesn’t have the action or dramatic satire of the first book and the characters are not nearly as interesting. Gogol also grows increasingly pedantic, in a somewhat less that subtle way. His characters sometimes drone on about the nature of the Russian character or how one should go about becoming wealthy or any number of other things. In one instance, Gogol goes into great detail about how and why Chichikov chose a particular fabric to buy so that he could have a suit made from it later. This struck me as odd, because in the first book, he shunned unnecessary details and gave an example of how some writers write giving ridiculously unnecessary details rather than writing in “broad strokes” as he phrased it, which he tended to do. This change in writing style with its focus more on how to live a better life and how to make a decent living while being of benefit to one’s nation and to others made me realize that the value in reading the second part is not for the story per se, but in watching how Gogo’s attitude toward life and his mind changes as he becomes more religious/spiritual as he falls under the spell of Matvey Konstatinovsky. It is tragic, but also fascinating, to see this brilliant mind morph as it subtly devolves.

Would I recommend Dead Souls? Absolutely! I recommend the first book to everyone. It is a hugely entertaining satire that reaches across the centuries and across peoples. You see elements of human nature that are common to all people. You will probably even recognize some of the types Gogol exhibits here in people you know.

The second book though, I would recommend to scholars of Russian literature, primarily, but I would also recommend it to people who have an interest in psychology and how one’s mind can slowly deteriorate with the introduction of questionable ideas and philosophies.

I have a long trip to make tomorrow. I will probably start listening to Joseph Conrad’s Nostromo.

Thoughts? Comments?

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It is 2084. Climate change has made life on the Caribbean island of Bajacu a gruelling ordeal. The sun is so hot that people must sleep in the day and live and work at night, all the time under brutal Domin rule. Food is scarce, and people over forty are expendable. Sorrel can take no […]

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