Spring Roundup

Spring has come early to Colorado--the daffodils are just about done, as are the apple trees (both ornamental and fruiting), and the lilacs are threatening. We actually had a bit of rain yesterday, and I planted red and white onions last Sunday, but the lawn remains absolutely parched.

I am cleaning the flower beds and thinking about when to plant the lettuce, spinach, and peas.

I haven't booked our trip to Scotland in September yet. It may have to wait until next year as flights have gotten prohibitively expensive, and I don't want to fly in steerage anymore. Nor do I want to just let every company pass along the increased costs to the consumer. This consumer is starting to say no thank you. If I sound like a curmudgeon. So be it. I am embracing my Hagitude! See below :)

Just Read (past tense)

The Proving Ground, by Michael Connelly - a solid 5 stars for this newest Lincoln Lawyer novel. I loved the subject matter--how high tech is operating without "guard rails" when it comes to AI, especially those that target children with AI-companions. There is so much that I hate about AI, and I loved Mickey Haller going after it. I think this book should be recommended reading for all middle school and high school students and their parents!

I worked in high-tech for 42 years--my entire career--and industry never has and never will self-regulate. As always, Connelly's story-telling skills are first rate, and his characterization is spot on. Mickey and his staff definitely have their flaws, but they are realistically likeable characters. 

Hagitude: Reimaging the Second Half of Life, by Sharon Blackie - recommended by my 30-something daughter, who is very far off from Hagitude herself, I found so much to love about this book. From the retelling of folk tales that feature both positive and negative images of older women to the Jungian discussions to the personal stories about how the author dealt with aging, this book is chock full of interesting ideas about what it means to become one of the wise women, an elder of the community. 

A Room With a View, by E.M. Forster - a reread of a favorite novel, I really enjoyed getting to know Lucy Honeychurch all over again. Like Lucy, I feel in a muddle half the time myself, and I can truly relate to both her wanting to please everyone and to live her own life honestly and enthusiastically. 

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion, Volume 1, by Beth Brower - recommended by JoAnn of Gulfside Musing, this short first-in-a-series novel was delightful. Light, bright, sparkling--I'm eager to read Volume 2. As the title promises, this is the journal of a young Victorian lady who is fighting to regain possession of her inherited home when she comes of age. For some reason, it reminded me of A Series of Unfortunate Events--maybe due to the general quirkiness. Definitely a book to lift one's spirits when the doom-scrolling threatens to overwhelm.

Blue Lightning, by Ann Cleeves - book four in the author's Shetland series. I was eager to read this for my Reading Scotland project, and I was confident that I would find it wonderful as Cleeves has been growing steadily as a favorite mystery writer.

Alas, this is currently in the Did Not Finish category in GoodReads because...

***********SPOILERS**************

...she kills off Fran, Jimmy Perez's finance near the end. ARRGGHHH! I seriously hate it when great characters are gratuitously axed because the writer doesn't feel like having the main character's arc go in that direction. At least that's what it felt like to me. There was absolutely no reason that Fran had to die for the mystery to be resolved. I simply couldn't bear to read about her murder and Jimmy's grief and guilt over it

I think I will probably steel myself and go ahead and read the final chapters and then mark it read. But, I am not sure about reading any more in this series. And I am definitely not watching the TV show after this!

Speaking of TV Shows

Just watched Apple Cider Vinegar on Netflix about Belle Gibson, the Australian social media starlet who convinced her followers that she had cured herself of brain cancer through healthy eating. I was absolutely mesmerized and appalled by the narcissism, self-delusion, and con-artistry of this woman.

As with so many scams, I found myself agonizing over the utter waste of time, energy, and talent. Belle was clearly not an unintelligent person. She was a hard worker. She was media-saavy with brilliant instincts about what works when it comes to building a brand and advertising. If only she had believed in herself enough to go for it without the crutch of making herself into a victim.

In addition to Belle's story, the TV series also told the stories of two other women, both of whom did have cancer, and how they and their families and loved ones helped them deal with their diagnosis, fought with them over treatment options, and loved them throughout their journey. 

I was particularly impressed with how well produced this series was--it really physically demonstrated how addictive external validation via the internet can be. Like The Proving Ground, this show focused on the very real dangers that internet technology pose.

I also started rewatching Monarch of the Glen--the marvelous British show from the early 2000s. Set in the Scottish highlands, it is enormous fun, with fantastic scenery. In a nutshell, Archie MacDonald returns home from London to find he is the new laird of Glenbogle, his family's estate that is under water financially. 

I only watched the first five seasons the first time around and will probably do the same this time. The last two seasons deal with a usurper and, again, I just didn't like the story line that developed.

I don't know if this show is available streaming. I am getting it through a wonderful, old-fashioned process called inter-library loan.

Is anyone else watching orange-loving Jamie Ding on Jeopardy? He's won over $500k and the stuff he knows is just astounding. That said, he has missed a couple of final Jeopardy questions that I was surprised he didn't know. But still--he is pretty darn impressive!

The Jewel in the Crown - book 1, The Raj Quartet

In an effort to read more diversely and educate myself about the world beyond the horizon, I have taken up India as place to start.  Last year it was E.M. Forster's A Passage to India and Jhumpa Lahiri's Unaccustomed Earth.  This year I decided to start Paul Scott's renowned Raj Quartet, and first book in the series is The Jewel in the Crown.

Right off the bat, I noticed a fair number of similarities between A Passage to India and The Jewel in the Crown.  Passage to India was first published in 1924 and is set in the 1920s; Jewel in the Crown was first published in 1966 and is set during WWII.

They both deal with the alleged rape of an English girl who has befriended an Indian man; in both cases, the alleged rape takes place in a physical setting that comes to symbolize the relationship between India and Britain--the Malabar Caves in the case of Passage to India, and the Bibighar Gardens in The Jewel in the Crown.  As expected, they both deal with race, class, prejudice, and self-worth. The alleged rape victim in both is a somewhat awkward spinster--part of the British ruling class, but outside of it as well.  Finally, both books unfold the story obliquely--time frames and points of view shift, providing the reader with only a fragmented view of the story at any given time.  With both books, the reader is put in the position of synthesizing those fragments to come up with what the true story really is.

All that said, I found The Jewel in the Crown to be the better, more memorable, more compelling story.  Maybe that's because I found the two main characters, Daphne Manners and Hari Kumar, neither of whom really don't come strongly into view into mid-way through the book, to be so interesting.  Hari is truly a man without a country, lost in the cracks of national and cultural and tribal identity.  I found his story heartbreaking in the way that Greek and Shakespearean tragedies are heartbreaking--the arc of his life was inevitable and it seemed that free will was nothing more than a pretty notion in this story.

I also liked the narrative approach Scott utilized.  The narrator seemed to be an investigative reporter seeking to uncover the truth of what happened to Daphne Manners in the Bibighar Gardens many years later.  The premise was interviewing various people who played major as well as relatively minor parts in the story, and included letters, journals, memoirs, and other pieces of "evidence."  I really like this approach and Scott did it without requiring that his narrator have a backstory himself, which gave the novel a documentary feel.

I'm looking forward to reading book 2 in the Raj Quartet, The Day of the Scorpion.  And since the mini-series is apparently about all four books, I will have to wait awhile before watching it.

Final India note--still watching Indian Summers on PBS, though not enthralled with it.  Maybe because I like the story line of Jewel in the Crown so much more and they ended up competing with each other.

And yes, reading Jewel in the Crown counts towards a reading challenge...TBR Pile Challenge.

Hari, Daphne and nasty Ronald Merrick from the mini-series.

A Passage to India

I have long wanted to read up on India, knowing that I have an appalling lack of real understanding of the country, region, its history, and the dynamics around that history.  A Passage to India by E.M. Forster has been on my shelf for years, but this year I put it on my TBR Pile Challenge list and hence read it.

After I finished it, I read up on its background on Wikipedia, and discovered that it is on many 100 Best Novels lists.  Midway through I might have argued with that, but the full experience of reading (or in my case, listening) this novel confirms its reputation.  Written in 1924, it is the last of Forster's novels, although Maurice was published posthumously in 1971, it was written in 1913-1914.

I like Forster's novels, having read A Room With a View several times and just finished Howard's End in November, right before I started A Passage to India.

So why is A Passage to India considered one of the best novels ever?  For starters, Forster is a master of clear, deep eloquence.  His works are a pleasure to read--their structure is taut and tends to be circular or perhaps more of a spiral.  There's a sense of completeness as the story folds back to the beginning, but with a difference in time and space and events.

Forster is brutal in his depiction of prejudice, stupidity, narrow-mindedness, and status quo.  He is also balanced.  For example, in A Passage to India, not all the English are boorishly stupid and arrogant, though a good many are.  Likewise, not all the Indians are good and decent people just trying to live their lives.  Some are spiteful, some are arrogant, some are prejudiced themselves.

What I found heartbreaking and real was Forster's depiction of the gulf between people, even when they try hard to find ways to bridge that gulf.  In the end though, friendship, real friendship can exist between members of different tribes, and it is that friendship that becomes the saving grace.  People may not truly understand each other's condition or mind, but trying to makes the difference.

So do I have a better handle on India having read A Passage to India?  A bit, I think.  Although I confess that I feel a bit like Miss Adela Quested herself--armchair traveling, trying to see the "real" India, but reading an Englishman's story about it.

The other thing I want to say about A Passage to India is that I think the whole story is allegorical with regards to the English experience in India.  I don't know whether Forster intended this or not (I would love to read some lit crit on him), but reading A Passage to India felt somewhat like reading A Pilgrim's Progress or Dante's Inferno.  The plot itself was just a device for the journey, the passage from the mosque to the caves to the temple.

I hope to watch the David Lean film from 1984 soon, which I've heard is great.