Patrick’s Comments (group member since Jan 14, 2016)

Patrick’s comments from the Reading 1001 group.

We missed a few recent deaths from the List:

- Cees Nooteboom (All Souls Day, Rituals) on February 11
- Antonio Lobo Antunes (Fado Alexandrino) on March 5
- Alfredo Bryce Echenique (A World for Julius) on March 10

Considering that I have read 31 of these so far, yet I am surprised to still see 4 more on my TBR shelves:

The House of Mirth (Wharton)
Voss (White)
Written on the Body (Winterson)
Chess Story (Zweig)

I'll back either of these four if there is support or all of them for the randomizer. I'm not in the mood for any Woolf (I still have 3 to be read).

New book added.

****

This long novel provided a revelatory insight into part of post-colonial Africa (specifically, the Congos) through the trials and tribulations of a missionary family led by an over-zealous preacher. Perhaps the best literary tool the author used was the narration through five distinct female characters, each with their different perspective and interactions with the indigenous population; each of the perspectives mirrors common possible perceptions and means of understanding from contacts with the African culture and its evolution as it emerged from colonialism. The stubborn experiences of Nathan reflect to a great extent the efforts of the colonial powers (including the late-coming Americans) in trying to convert the "backwards" peoples of Africa to the supposedly more modern, Western way of life, usually with the help of proselytisation.

New book added.

The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy, read and reviewed: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

**** 1/2

This has become my favorite police detective novel. Not only Ellroy stitches a fictional storyline on the top of a true unsolved crime, he finds a way at the end to leave the crime "unrsolved" (except for the readers, lucky us) but he also provides what seems to be a fairly accurate of the politics, internal and external, of the LA police department in the late 40s. There are more twists and knots in this story than a ball of yarn with a cat left alone for a couple of hours. Yes, the police is pretty corrupt and violent, and it's gory, but what can you expect when the starting point of the whole tale is the discovery on vacant land of a mutilated naked woman sawn in half? The lost half-star is probably due to Bucky's very weird dinner at the Spragues: the whole family appeared so deranged that it became obvious to me that one or several of them were involved in Betty Short's murder; (spoiler) my hunch was more than correct.

New book added.

New book added (the randomizer is starting to put the pressure...).

Kristel wrote: "My #2 is Uncle Petros and Goldbach's Conjecture, now to find out what wine pairing would fit this one. I can’t even imagine."

Since the author was born in Australia, that could help you make some choices. However, I do not recommend any Queensland wine (Doxiadis was born in Brisbane).

Gail wrote: "Ironically, my #2 is Some Prefer Nettles. It will at least free up some reading time in May, as I will not read it again for the BOTM.
Also, evidently there are Nettle wines although I suspect the..."

If you were in the UK, you could have a go at this: https://lymebaywinery.co.uk/product/n.... However, they are out of stock at the moment. I have no idea what it tastes like.

My #2 is If Not Now, When? by Primo Levi, a title quite relevant for its wine pairing: a 2004 Penfolds RWT (yeah, 22 years old vintage). And it is the most expensive bottle I had listed for this challenge. I'll probably need to cook something nice with that...

Time for the results. 12 books received votes this month (none of them were Rabbits), but there was one definite runaway leader.

Popular vote: Some Prefer Nettles (Junichiro Tanizaki)
Random selection: On the Eve (Ivan Turgeniev; submitted by Jane)

What will you be reading in May?

Less than 24 hours to vote. So far, 8 books have received your votes; keep them coming! I will post the winners shotly tomorrow after midnight PDT (that would be 6pm on the 24th here in Sydney).

I have read 24 from this lot. Surprisingly, I have none of the others on my TBR shelves; looks like I've read all the good ones and it might end up as a meh month...

I've only read the first Rabbit, which I didn't like, but I could be swayed into reading another one...

Kristel wrote: "Started my March book.
Starting my TBR takedown book for March with wine pairing. Malone Dies by Samuel Beckett.

First line “I shall soon be quite dead at last in spite of all.”

First wine: Bonp..."

Considering how hot and dry the Luberon is, they produced pretty good white wines and interesting rosés. In 1998, I spent a week at the Château Saint-Pierre-de-Méjans winery (a friend was a friend with the owners), enjoying the heat, the wine and the hospitality, almost for free (well, my friend and I spent two afternoons putting gold medal stickers on the bottles of one of the wines that had recently earned a medal).

March TBR - #21: The Absentee by Maria Edgeworth: read and reviewed -> https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Wine notes: Better known as Petite Sirah in the USA, the durif varietal is a hard-to-grow, but robust grape which is best grown under hot and dry conditions such as the Rutherglen region in Victoria. In Australia, it is most often used in blends with shiraz, but in rare occasions, such as this organic Baileys of Glenrowan bottle. It has the darkest purple robe, a berry-full aroma translating into a blended blueberry and blackberry flavour with peppery notes. As with all durifs, it has strong tannins and a higher-than-normal acidity, but it is still surprisingly smooth at the finish. I used half the bottle to prepared a slow-cooked Italian beef stew with orange zest and parsley, the rest to drink with it and the last few chapters of The Absentee. Fun fact: Glenrowan was the location of the legendary outlaw Ned Kelly's last stand in 1880; Kelly, whose parents were Irish convicts, was definitely no Absentee...

*** 1/2

This novel, with an intrigue similar to one or other of Molière's plays (albeit less comedic), focuses on a common phenomenon of the early 19th century: the noble Irish absentee, preferring the hustle and bustle of glorious London and neglecting the assets (and their income) they left behind in Ireland. The story is not only entertaining with the plot's twists, turns and subterfuges, but also very instructive about the conditions of rural Ireland at the time. Yeah, it's an "all's well that ends well" where the baddies also get their just deserves, it nevertheless deserves its place as a classic of the early 19th century.

#21 for me will be The Absentee by Maria Edgeworth. It will be paired with an enigmatic durif, a varietal that is seldom used on its own, often mixed with shiraz in Australia and growing in two of the most brutal wine regions in Australia (Rutherglen, Riverina; extremely hot and dry).

February TBR - #18: Vineland by Thomas Pynchon: read and reviewed -> https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Wine notes: There is not as much merlot these days in Australia as there used to be, it's a varietal that has fallen out of favour as much with the producers as with the consumers. Yet this "young" bottle from WA was quite interesting. While it had matured a few years, you could feel that it might have needed a few more years, as it was not as mellow as I quite expected: it had more tannins than you would normally find in a medium-bodied wine like merlot. Still, it had a very nice plum jam taste when it hit the tastebuds; some sips were even sweeter, veering towards strawberry jam. I drank the bottle over 4 days and, strangely, I felt like it was getting smoother day after day. Not sure this was the correct match while reading Vineland (this would probably require a complex red blend, full of different flavours), nor did it help me concentrate on this chaotic novel.