Crime And Punishment

by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
1866
translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky

This edition is hailed as the best translation ever, and the two have done many other Dostoevsky works.  There was also a very perspicuous introduction by Pevear which analyzed some of the more vague passages, and the whole was annotated, all of which helped my understanding immensely.  Just one minor example: knowing that Raskolnikov is named after "raskolnik," meaning schismatic, sheds quite a bit of light of Dostoevsky's intention in laying out his character.  I would have to say that the novel is one of the best I've ever read.  I began it many months ago, with long breaks between beginning and finishing it, which is probably not the best way to read such a complex book, but there it is.  The novel has at least three plots and many levels of meaning.  It doesn't just deal with a murder and a detective's psychological intimidation of Raskolnikov: Dostoevsky's characters offer opinions on the issues of the day, they embrace ideologies that were in vogue at the time, parodying them simply by the nature of their own personas; there are romances; other deaths; two methodical, selfish villains; symbolism through dream and vision; and so on.  The author laughs at reason, nature and law.  Reason fails Raskolnikov and doesn't help Porfiry, the detective.  Everyone makes his own plan, carves out his own existence and scoffs at precedent.  This existentialism is not certain; it helps Porfiry, but fails Raskolnikov, and drives Svidrigailov, the lecher who attempts to conquer Roskolnikov's sister, to suicide.  A great, towering, multi-layered book, one that I will have to read again in the future.

five stars

Shakespeare: His Life, His Language, His Theater

by Samuel Schoenbaum

While a bit jumpily written and at times vague or awkward, this was a fascinating book.  Although relatively short, it contains a wealth of fascinating nuggets like the complete reversal of the meanings of some words ("deer," "girl," "let") since Shakespeare's time; a quick background on other dramtic works, like the mysteries, moralities, the work of Marlowe, Kyd and Greene; and many astute comments on and facts about the plays themselves.  I haven't thought about any of this material since my 12th-grade Shakespeare class and found it utterly absorbing.  The book had a good balance of background explanation and focused detail.  Also, it was quite readable, despite the stylistic murkiness; it didn't bog down in scholarly jargon, at least.

four stars

Full Moon

by P.G. Wodehouse
1947

Crazy doings at Blandings Castle.  A typically Wodehousian romp, supremely well written and extremely funny. The acme of hilarity for me was when Blister was apprehended as a burglar by the centenarian pig man Edwin Pott. The final wrap-up was a little bit too quick and easy (as is Wodehouse's wont) but right up to that point it was non-stop ha-ha.

four stars

Just Above My Head

by James Baldwin
1978

This is a masterpiece. It's well-written, full of emotion and power and imagery that reveals everything. Like this phrase at the end of the book: "It is true that our judgement flatters the world's indifference, and makes of us accomplices to our doom." The text is full of that kind of startling truth posed in passionate and flowing prose. The characters were real and their actions and emotions were moving. I have to say that Baldwin has, like any truly great author must have, a deep understanding of the human psyche and the various impulses that make so many and so disparate people act the way they do. Although there are powerful physical descriptions and psychological analyses, the most powerful passages in the book for me are ones of pure emotion, especially the beginning and the end, which Baldwin neatly tie together after 550 pages to bring a full understanding of the extent of the narrator's grief which opened the book. I also enjoyed the unusual style of the book – there was a first person narrator (the brother, Hall), but omniscience often took over the description without seeming forced or contrived; rather, it was natural and a strong aspect of the narrative.

five stars

The Talisman

by Stephen King and Peter Straub

A 750-page monster that's been taking up all my reading time with its non-allegorical, simplistic story.  It was very well written in some ways.  I enjoyed the passages that took place in America, because one or both of these writers has an expert eye for describing human foibles (the description and psychological outline of the inhabitants of the run-down, trashy town of Oatley was especially perspicacious).

However, there was no foreshadowing, no imagery that was not explained for the reader, no metaphor, nothing that makes a book a work of literature rather than escapism.  There was also a lot of purple prose filler.  My other main gripe is that the world of this book is one in which evil is always impalpably evil, and good is always recognizable.  The hero, Jack Sawyer, did nothing especially strategic or thoughtful to defeat his enemies, he needed only to touch the forces of good to destroy evil.  Simplistic, and not that exciting.

two stars

Billy the Kid: A Bio-Bibliography

by Jon Tuska

A fascinating work in two ways. The first is that Tuska tells the intriguing life of the Kid in a clear, readable manner that is engrossing and yet highly scholarly. The second is that, in the remaining sections of the book, Tuska contrasts the Kid's image in books, film and general legend with the historical facts. Much of this section is a rather tiring litany of bad film plots, but it all comes together when Tuska talks about the historian's responsibility to sift the fact from the fiction when discussing legend (and he chastises many scholars for failing to do this). The biography section was the most interesting, however.

I learned about the Lincoln County War, which I'd never heard of before, and that the Kid fought on the side of those who battled some of the most disgusting political corruption on record. I came away with a clear picture of the Kid's personality and even some respect for him, although as Tuska says, he was no saint. (By the way, Tuska is a genuine scholar: even this book, with its less than rarefied subject matter, had untranslated Latin passages!)


four stars

Mexican And Central American Mythology

by Irene Nicholson

This is perhaps the most well written of the Hamlyn books I've read, and the author comes across as more of an expert than the others.  Like the Egyptian one, this book had a thesis geared to dispelling popular misconceptions about the myth at hand: that Mexican theology was not centered around subjugation and the sacrifice of human hearts, but that such things came later with the Aztec conquest; before then, the Nahua and Mayan religions emphasized the self-sacrifice of the humble and the victory of the spiritual over the material or base urges. Unlike the Egyptian book, this one made a good case for the thesis, although Nicholson tends to over-explicate the various symbols in the myths to the point of stretching credibility.  Other than its main thrust, the most interesting aspect of the book was its bewildering presentation of the amazingly accurate and complex Maya and Aztec calendar.

three stars