Cleo’s Comments (group member since Oct 26, 2018)

Cleo’s comments from the All About Books group.

Sounds like fun!

Monday November 24th:

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Total:

I will join this one!

War and Peace 318 pages
Faust 434 pages
Our Oriental Heritage 55 pages
Glimpses into the Long Ago 16 pages

Total Pages: 823 pages

I’ll join!

Wow! I’m signing up for this!

July 1st
He Knew He Was Right 815 pages

Just David 172 pages

A Hero of Our Time 31 pages

The Game of Kings 15 pages

Total Pages Read: 1033 pages

I’m going to join!

Monday April 14: Middlemarch 26 pages
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Total Pages:

Good heavens. I have put it in my calendar so I remember to come back and update.

Mystery in White 245 pages
Witch Hazel 40 pages
Lift 56 pages
Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis 381 pages
Sylvia's Lovers 484 pages
Madame Badobedah 56 pages
The Power of Light: Eight Stories for Hanukkah 87 pages
War and Peace 35 pages
The Chosen 54 pages
Euthyphro 6 pages
The Four Gospels and the Revelation 54 pages
Our Oriental Heritage 193 pages
Première Étape: Basic French Readings 6 pages
Grave Error: How The Media Misled Us 64 pages
Christmas Stories 34 pages

Total: 1, 795 pages

Woo hoo! My best ever!

I will join!

Mon Nov 18th: 46 pages
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I will join!

The Road to Serfdom 162 pages
Egyptians 32 pages
The Gormenghast Trilogy
Adam and His Kin: The Lost History of Their Lives and Times
Romola

Total:

I’m in!

My phone is not letting me edit my original post but my total is 1238 pages. Too busy dealing with gardening things. 😬

Oh yay! So excited about this one!

I'd like to join!

Sad Cypress 336 pages
Mary Barton 302 pages (part)
The Secret Garden 165 pages (part)
Swann's Way 36 pages (part)
The Collected Poems of Wendell Berry, 1957-1982 (18 pages)


Total: 857 pages

Leslie wrote: "I read this a while ago and wasn't thinking about rereading it but I am finding this discussion fascinating.

I personally tend to the absurdist &/or existential belief system so, for me, while I ..."

I do understand what you mean, Leslie. Yet, if you re-read it, Ivan himself brings God into the equation:

"Why has Thou done all this? What brought me to this? Why, why torture me so horribly?”

It's a slice of irony, as we are given the impression that until now, God has only been a convenient afterthought for Ivan.

Given that it's Tolstoy, I would guess there would be a religious aspect to it in addition to the personal relationship angle and the business relationship, etc. Tolstoy pretty much covered it all, which is what makes the story so effective, I think.

Death makes us see life in a different way ... makes us wish we had done things differently or the other person had been different. I think it's the human condition but it must be valuable in some way. I do hope you've found some peace from reconciling your father's passing. It is difficult ..... 💜

Greg wrote: "I wonder though if Tolstoy is also criticizing pre-revolutionary Russian culture. ..."

It's something definitely to muse upon. I would have an easier time with this interpretation if Tolstoy was comparing a difference in social standing such as between the bourgeois/upper class and the serfs (as he has definitely done in other of his works). But Ivan is a judge, a standing somewhere in between which makes him even more an "everyman", a bridge between the two extremes. And our pursuit of materialist gain nowadays and the use of God as an afterthought is much more prevalent now than then where there was at least a religious norm that was continually urging people to seek a higher meaning in life. So I think, yes, Ivan could speak to Tolstoy's Russia but he was meant to speak to everyone.

Greg wrote: "The story also speaks to aspects of the human condition that are timeless...."

Yes! Exactly!

Greg wrote: "There are ways to think of this in every reiigious or spiritual tradition, but thinking of it in the language of Christian traditions, he is like the man in the parable who built his house upon sand. There is nothing substantial in the life he has built; so when the crisis comes, he has nothing to hold him up. Even in non-religious terms, this is true. There is no depth to any of his relationships. It's so heartbreaking! ..."

A wonderful example! I so agree!

This story is a favourite of mine. It's been a couple of years since I read it but I didn't feel Tolstoy was criticizing his society. In Ivan, he was giving us an "Everyman" but perhaps one whose situation was magnified for effect. In any society, there are so many people who put excess worth in transient or material things: their work, their possessions, their power over others, their status, etc. Ivan chose worldly things and sacrificed the personal and spiritual things that would have brought meaning to his life and given him contentment in the end. I don't see this as the fault of others or their behaviour but the fault of Ivan and his choices throughout his life.

Ivan could be you or I and with his novella, Tolstoy prods us to examine the purpose of our existence. We need to evaluate our lives ….. not only just skate on the surface, but to dig deeply. What is truly important in life? What genuinely gives us life as soulful beings and not simply as materialistic creatures who live only for pleasure and business? And a question that has been on my mind often lately: How do we struggle against societal pressure to conform to the latter and find a meaningful existence, to live in the “now” yet reach beyond it?

I’m in!


Total pages: 753 pages

I'm going to give it a try!

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Argh! I just missed updating. I'm on vacation in a remote area with limited internet and I just am now somewhere where I was able to access it. Oh well. And I had a good month too. Congratulations, everyone!!

This is great! I’m definitely in!