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{"id":1726,"date":"2007-06-04T20:26:00","date_gmt":"2007-06-04T20:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/2007\/06\/1726\/"},"modified":"2007-06-04T20:26:00","modified_gmt":"2007-06-04T20:26:00","slug":"1726","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/2007\/06\/1726.html","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

PERFORMATIVE SPEECH: Very short book reviews.<\/strong> In the order in which I read them.<\/p>\n

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde<\/em><\/strong>, RL Stevenson: OK, you already know what this is about. So the question is, given that you know the monster, do you need the book?<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not sure you \u201cneed\u201d it really. The idea behind it is the striking thing. But there are really lovely descriptions of fogbound Victorian London; and Jekyll\u2019s final testimony, which closes the novel, has all the twisty, muttering self-deceptions you could hope for. I enjoyed this a lot.<\/p>\n

Till We Have Faces<\/em><\/strong>, CS Lewis: Reshaping of the story of Cupid and Psyche. I\u2019m pretty sure I would have loved this, or at least liked it very much, if I\u2019d read it somewhere between fourth and eighth grade. The mythos is powerful, Lewis\u2019s changes are dramatically compelling, the characters are well-done stock fantasy (that isn\u2019t a criticism\u2013stock characters often become stock for a reason), and the emotions have the potential to be ferocious and raw. I think Lewis\u2019s style is too direct and repetitive, though. I felt that I was being led by the hand, and that muffled the novel\u2019s passionate depictions of broken faith, anger at the gods (\/God), possessive jealousy, and discolored love.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m glad that I finally read this, primarily because I loved the new light shone on the Psyche myth, even though the work itself isn\u2019t quite right. I really do wish I\u2019d read it earlier, so if you know a middle-school fantasy reader, you might drop it in her lap.<\/p>\n

Nocturnes for the King of Naples<\/em><\/strong>, Edmund White: I think John Heard<\/a> is to blame for this one\u2013think I spotted it in one of his posts and thought it sounded possible.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s amazing<\/em>. Grows in retrospect, too. A very short, drifting book, written in a sensual, associational style\u2013all the metaphors go on longer than you think they should, and then shift into something else\u2013basically about, I guess, the pointillist self; whether that self can love or only misremember; and the way both love and loss remake the world in the beloved\u2019s image, so that everything you see or touch seems to be calling the name of the person you\u2019ll always mean when you say, You.<\/em><\/p>\n

Or: Judah Halevi\u2019s gay brother gets drunk under the iron bridge from \u201cStill Ill,\u201d and writes the way Derek Jarman wished he could.<\/p>\n

The Age of Innocence<\/em><\/strong>, Edith Wharton: I\u2019m leery talking about this much, since I only finished it this evening. For now I\u2019ll say only: 1. I thought it managed its difficult balance of light satire and genuine tragedy. 2. It seemed to be centrally concerned with which kind of life is a \u201creal\u201d life, which kind of life is cramped, which is free, which is possible <\/em>and which is fantasy\u2013more so than specifically which kind is right or wrong, although that division also comes up. 3. I liked the way Newland himself could recognize some of the symbolism in the events and objects around him, while missing so many other cues to morality and meaning. It\u2019s a subtler way of showing his severe lack of self-overhearing than I would have expected.<\/p>\n

Anyway, I was very much struck by this book, and would welcome any comments from you all.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"