Peter > Recent Status Updates

I’m now starting this book for the third time, after setting it aside twice. The text is vague and hard to grasp, but I’m hoping it finally grows on me.

Only 14 pages in, and it’s already infinitely better than Neils Lhyne.

Volume I, finished 1/28/23.

This book was first published in the UK fifty years ago, as The Boat in the Evening (which I’ve already read). Then it was republished in a U.S. edition in 2019, as The Hills Reply. I only discovered this info buried in the fine print of the copyright page. There’s nothing in the jacket copy that indicates this is a reissue, with a title change. A really questionable decision by the U.S. publisher.

Goodreads has this effed up. I’m reading Vesaas’ The Hills Reply, but when I select that book, The Boat in Evening (which I read five years ago) comes up instead.

I’m hesitant to read the final story (“Finding My Niche”), as I sadly realize that it might be the last Murphy story that I’ll ever be able to read for the first time. Costello is still alive but hasn’t published a new book (this one) in 30 years, and I’m not aware of him writing any new stories after Middle Murphy, so this might be his last story. Which is bittersweet. Such good writing.

It’s passed the 50 Page Rule, and I’ll keep reading. Enjoyable but lightweight. Hard to believe the NYTBR rated it as one of the ten best books of the year.

I need to finally read or purge this. I’ll give it a chance, but I’m fully prepared to invoke the 50 Page Rule.

I really wasn’t expecting to re-read this right now (so many new books to read), but after reading Patrick Michael Finn’s novella A Martyr for Suzy Kosasovich, which reminded me of Algren, and several pieces about the new Algren bio, I had a sudden urge to read this, one of my favorite novels. And looking back at my logs, I haven’t read it since 2005, so I was long overdue.

I don’t think I can finish this. So sluggish, and five separate narrators circling around the same story.

Of course, Wells already gave away the big mystery of the story with his choice of title, so my guess is that the suspense will be over how the protagonist got that way, and how he navigates civilized society. Right now it reads like a satirical skewering of small-town life.

I'm reading this book now, in January, because I'm already sick of the Chicago winter (warmer this year, but rainy - I hate cold rain) and eager for my riding season to resume in the spring. For now, this book is the next best alternative.

Farewell, Mr. Trevor. You will be greatly missed.

Omg. Haruf is just about the last writer in the world I would have expected to go metafictional. But there it is, and he has some quiet fun with it, and with perfectly typical understatement he makes his point briefly and moves on. Well done.

Well, I admire McCullers for following Chekhov's "a gun in the first act" credo, but damn, that was sudden. And yet I still saw it coming.

Oh, Kino, you're poor, powerless and idealistic. And, I suspect, doomed.

Chapter 6 (about the eccentric Junius Maltby and his son Robbie) tests credulity - it's highly doubtful that a man with no money who doesn't farm his land and has no interest in foraging could have kept himself and his son fed for years and years - but that implausibility is redeemed by the quietly heartbreaking ending of the story. I would have loved to see Steinbeck revisit this, with Robbie as an adult.

Liking but not loving this book. My Cather immersion has been underwhelming.

Two-thirds through the book, and Thea Kronborg is still danking around in a canyon in Colorado, finding herself, and her vocal training and operatic career remain far ahead of her. I fear that Cather will have to rush to finish this story, and that the final chapters will be heavy with summary and exposition. A plot this slow wouldn't be a problem if the Thea was fascinating to study - but she simply isn't.

Two-thirds through the book, and Thea Kronborg is still danking around in a canyon in Colorado, finding herself, and her vocal training and operatic career remain far ahead of her. I fear that Cather will have to rush to finish this story, and that the last few chapters will be heavy with unsatisfying summary and exposition. A plot this slow wouldn't be a problem if the Thea was fascinating to study - but she isn't.

Two-thirds through the book, and Thea Kronborg is still danking around in a canyon in Colorado, finding herself, and her vocal training and operatic career remain far ahead of her. I fear that Cather will have to rush to finish this story, and that the last few chapters will be heavy with unsatisfying summary and exposition. A plot this slow wouldn't be a problem if the main character was fascinating to study - but I

I'm only giving this book until the end of this weekend to start getting interesting. It had better hurry, or I'll ditch it.

133 chapters in, and the Pequod is finally beginning its chase of the white whale.

This has quickly gotten tedious. An endless monologue that describes almost nothing happening. I sense this is all one big buildup for Jack Keefe's disastrous meeting with General Pershing. Which had better happen soon, and be funny - because there's been very little humor so far.

The book is at a climactic peak - Kathy is passed out drunk in the house after failed attempts to burn it down and then kill herself, and Behrani is finally showing signs of being a compassionate human being - and...twenty pages of backstory on Lester? No no no. Unless this is a brief pause for breath before the story rushes headlong to its conclusion, no.

I'm enjoying the book so far, but I'm not as shocked and appalled as much as I thought I would be (nor as much as the book's earliest readers must have been). Maybe this is because white collar, middle class society (which includes me) isn't as sheltered as it was a hundred years ago?

Very good reading so far. It's an interesting perspective, seeing the movies and then reading the book. The movies give you the general plot and tone of the story, and then the book fills in the details. The early Katniss-Peeta relationship comes across much richer and more nuanced in the book.

The first seventy pages, while entertaining, were also frustrating in being so anecdotal and episodic, and not really a story. But I kept reading, hoping that is was all setup for the story to come, and now that the world-renowned singer Garthar Holm has finally returned home, maybe the story will begin.

Sam has abandoned his business career, and is now wandering the country searching for Truth. And realizing that the common man doesn't interest him as much as he had anticipated. Good story, though fairly predictable.

The narrative is getting a bit sappy with Sam McPherson starting to have feelings for the boss' daughter. The author's first-novel rough edges are starting to show through.