Barchester Towers Done!

Barchester Towers is now off my "to read" list and on the "read" list. Trollope did have a surprise for me - the selfish woman opens the way for the lovers who cannot reveal themselves. Trollope's rather interesting in this book. I don't think any character changes, really - the lovers realize their love, but no one undergoes a sea change. Everyone stays true to their nature throughout, and I don't think any of the characters outside of the lovers have any self-realization. Very interesting.

So I am reading Ilium and I have also started So Big by Edna Ferber, recommended by my friend Sharlene. Both Sharlene and my good friend Julie have been on an American female novelist kick - Sharlene on Ferber, Julie on Edith Wharton. I need to join the fun!

Barchester Towers Continued

I am about halfway through Barchester Towers, and enjoying it thoroughly. I have read past my previous stoppage point, so I feel a bit proud of myself. Honestly, I don't know why it is so difficult to start these books, once I get going they are absorbing and so interesting.

I find that they have a contemporary resonance. Everyone is talking, blogging, reporting (!), plain old GOSSIPING about Britney Spears and her latest televised screw up. Poor girl. In Barchester Towers, everyone talks and gossips about Signora Neroni and her affliction. She entraps the men!!! She monopolized a sofa!! She makes unreasonable requests of her hosts and companions!! All I can say is, please, everyone, have a little understanding for the overexposed pop star and please, let's condemn the selfish spoiled woman as Trollope directs us to. But there is nothing new under the sun...

But maybe Trollope has a surprise for me, we'll see.

I am also reading Ilium by Dan Simmons, a writer of extraordinary powers and depth. I started this book about a year ago, realized I was out of my depth and that I needed to read the Iliad to truly do this book justice. So I have read the Iliad, and with it fresh in my mind, I have restarted Ilium and I am so glad I did so. Everything Simmons discusses through his characters is so much richer after reading the Iliad.

Reading Simmons makes me realize where my education is lacking. I wish I had a classical education and had learned Latin and Greek. I am not sure how to remedy this at this late date!

What Next?

I have finally finished Intrepid's Last Case; I'm not sure if I have gained any knowledge except for the realization that my knowledge of history, post WWII is paltry. So I have put Willliam Manchester's The Glory and the Dream into my reading pile.

Actually, it's not a pile. It used to be a table, an old fashioned ladies dressing table, and I kept my "to be read" pile there. Very respectable. However, all-too-frequent trips to the library's sale table and the AAUW's book fair, and the local Borders, have turned my trusty table into a table plus overspill into a cardboard box. It's not very attractive, and I am going to have to break down and find a bookcase - maybe something dignified with glass doors? - to put in its place.

So the question is, as always, what next? I have a number of choices. My friend Sharlene lent me an Edna Ferber book, and I should start that. I bought a fantasy title that I LOVED reading a few years ago that is part of a trilogy. I found #s 2 and 3 on the library sale rack, bought them, and broke down and bought #1 at full price. My friend Julie has lent me a couple of titles that I could read - one is The Alchemist.

And there's always Trollope. It's been a while, I should revisit the purpose of this blog and read some Trollope. Barchester Towers awaits me. I find this one a hard start after The Warden, since in the first few pages I learn that one of my favorite characters from that book has died!

The Warden

I am now officially reading The Warden, the first of the Barchester novels. Finally! It is, so far, as I remembered it. Trollope creates a fully realized town in Barchester, and fully drawn characters. Readers of Jane Austen will feel a familiarity with Trollope, I think.

The criticism in the introduction of The Warden identifies Trollope's comments as the narrator as the only jarring notes in the novel. Occasionally, Trollope self-consciously comments on the action, remarking that such things only happen in novels. I agree with the critic in that it can be a bit jarring, however, it does not bother me. The only thing that bothers me on this reading is Trollope's name choices for his characters - Haphazard for the lawyer is one. It's a very old fashioned choice that reminds me of Pilgrim's Progress. I think it was unneccessary, too. Trollope's characters are so honest and real that the reader doesn't need Trollope's signposting in the form of character names.

Another book I read this week was The Children of Green Knowe by L. M. Boston. It's a children's book, a blend of fantasy and imagination that leaves you enchanted. I saw the book at the local library and was intrigued. I couldn't get my 9 year old interested in the book, so I checked it out myself. I'm so glad I did. Now I have the delightful prospect ahead of 5 (I think) more books to read in the series. The story is about a young boy who goes to stay with his great-grandmother in her ancient country home. As he comes to know the house and his great grandmother, strange things start to happen. He hears children, who turn out to be his ancestors who once lived in the house. Are they ghosts? or his fantasy? And then he learns that his great grandmother is aware of them as well. She tells him stories about the three ghost children, wonderful tales that sweep him up into their world.

I found a website for the author Lucy Boston's home, http://www.greenknowe.co.uk/index.html. There are some lovely photos of the home that was the basis for the home in the Green Knowe stories.

I am also still reading a few pages of Cryptonomicon here and there.

Creeping along with Cryptonomicon...

I am still reading Cryptonomicon. I have made it to over 200 pages, and I really should NOT have checked to see how many pages were actually in this thing. Over 900. This is very depressing considering the progress I have been making. And I have to emphasize that this is not a bad book. It is intense, it is interesting, and, ane Nick puts it, "very dense." I am usually quite a fast reader, and to creep along so slowly is rather frustrating.

So there has been no progress on the Trollope front as of yet. The Warden still sits patiently on my bedside table, waiting for me to get supremely frustrated with Cryptonomicon. Cryptonomicon is the ultra-intellectual's answer to Enigma by Robert Harris. Enigma was very good, very exciting, but ultimately light on the details of the cryptography. Cryptonomicon not only gives you the details on the cryptography, but the mathematics behind it, and its ramifications in our data-driven society.

I have started a new genre as well this week. I stopped by the library with my youngest son Sam - to find another Teletubbies video, I'm sorry to say. I decided to try a book on cd, since I absolutely cannot read Cryptonomicon on the elliptical trainer, it's just too difficult. I was hoping to find a "classic" on cd that I had not yet read, perhaps something by Dickens or Eliot, but Sam was running out of patience and I kind of had to grab something that looked promising. It's called The Keeper of the Keys by Perri O'Shaughnessy, and it is definitely something I would not have picked up in book form. On cd, it is entertaining - there are 2 actors reading it, one from the male perspective, and the other from the female character's perspective. This is an intriguing way of presenting the novel, and it keeps me entertained while exercising, which is all I am asking at this point.

Taking steps toward Trollope

I actually took The Warden out of its slipcase and put a book sock on it, and it is sitting on my bedside table. I have started to read the introduction, too. Wow. I didn't think it was going to happen, so maybe this blog is good for something.

I've been studying the map of Barsetshire, too. The US Trollope society has a good map online, here:

http://www.trollopeusa.org/tsociety/map.html

Still reading Cryptonomicon. I think I'll be reading it for quite a while.

starting trollope

So, the question is, am I reading Trollope, or am I a reading trollop? I read The Warden years ago, I have read Phineas Finn, Phineas Redux, and I have decided to read all of Trollope. But is this just a Tristam Shandy kind of thing? I have researched Trollope, tried to figure the best way to read the canon, and honestly, I can't figure it out. It would be much easier to read Jane Austen again.

This whole Trollope idea has grown ever since my husband bought me the entire Folio set of Anthony Trollope's novels. How can you not read these beautiful, gorgeous books? And yet I have not. This year I have resolved to remedy that.

Here is my resolution for posterity. Or whatever that is in our culture.

love,

pam