Nancy > Recent Status Updates

Moved the needle a few pages....but the Winter Olympics sucks me back to the TV!! I did make a major move this year: No e-books if paperback is available. Yes, it is more expensive but .....hands-on, distraction-free engagement of physical books supports deeper concentration, stronger memory retention and just a good feeling with a book in your hands where you can scribble your notes!

It took some time to get back into Balzac's novel...he uses some very "suranné" (outdated; old-fashioned) words: example s'éprendre (used often to say "to fall in love")...but Balzac uses amouracher! Narrative is finally taking shape in between Balzac's long "rants" about love! Balzac frequently explores love because it drives his characters' ambitions....there's nothing more important in his stories!

I was on a good French reading schedule...then the Winter Olympics 2026 happened. I got sucked into the drama, sportsmanship and admiration of so many athletes who worked so hard the last 4 years to be at the games!
Slow day on the ski slopes....so I'll try to wake "Ferragus" up and get back to business!!

This book is a perfect example of a good "hook"!
I grabbed it after tossing and turning and not being able to sleep for 1,5 hr.
It was there, next to my pillow and totally calmed me ...concentrating on history described to capture my interest as to how did Africa became divided among world leaders...as it is today, by whom and how naive these heads European countries were!

Read 6/9 stories: "For Esmé" - Delightful story and if you ever read it picture the children as Princess Charlotte (UK) try to keep her baby brother Prince Louis from misbehaving!

#tolstoyreadalong "It was the chasm which he was afraid to peep into." (ch 8, part 2)
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#tolstoyreadalong "...I see a chance of bliss, what bliss! Can it be there's no chance of it? he murmured with his lips; but she heard." (ch 7, part 2)
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Read 5/9 stories "Down at the Dinghy" - Combination of maternal wisdom, the childlike innocence of a sensitive little boy and an "overheard insult". Good but not great and not published in The New Yorker.

Read essay (28,29.30/37) Excellent short discussion of black aesthetic (BA) consummate aesthetic (CA) and aesthetic incarnate (AI)! Ms Jones scatters the word "aesthetic" around like confetti. BA: emphasis on personal and cultural narrative in black art instead of spectacle. It centers on heritage and resilience. CA: extremely skilled in creating harmony in form, technique. Example sculptor Martin Pruyear (1951)

#tolstoyreadalong "...she brought back the shadow of Alexey Vronsky...." (ch 6, part 2)
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Training completed to send a "man inside"". Subnarratives: agent and wives quarrel: one says he doesn't tell me anything...the other says her husband spends a lot of time sleeping "at the office" b/c his work demand it. Hmmm.... To be honest I'm almost finished with the book and there is VERY LITTLE George Smiley in it! That explains why the book is so dull.

Read essay (27/37) - shortest one in the book! Tim Rollings (1955-2017) conceptual artist, had dedicated his career to reaching out to kid shut out by the educational system. Kids of Survial program used art to create allegorical paintings, drawings, and sculptures by "jammin'.... the kids read texts by Kafka, Orwell and painted directly on book pages mounted on canvas. So inspiring....

#tolstoyreadalong "This is rather indiscreet, but it's so good it's an awful temptation to tell the story...." (ch 5, part 2)
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Long chapter describing the 'training' out new "man inside" needs before deployment to Germany. The training also highlights the relationships between Haldane (Capt.Hawiins), John Avery (his staff member) and the new recruit (Leiser). Leiser is fluent in German but is a bit old having served in WW II. Bringing Leiser out of the "mothballs" is a real challenge!

Essay 26/37 Black female photographers are re-locating in the world..."making ourselves visible. The women mentioned were discussed in previous chapters 5 and 14. Strong point: women add an embedded text to the image to expand its meaning to signify ideas outside this frame work. Example: photo by Tabrizian "Her Way" reveals black woman dead on bathroom floor "See my blood is the same colour as yours." Powerful.

Still very slow paced spy novel....and still waiting for Smiley to appear! Where's George... at The Circus ?

Interesting look at Morrison's work as editor at Random while even writing her second novel Sula. Where did she find the time? One writer she worked with became a good friend Toni Cade Bambara. Morrison held launch her shot story collection "Gorilla, My Love".

" The Laughing Man" (New Yorker 19.03.1949) ...such wonderful sense of humor with Salinger's strongest point: ...showing the reader and not telling him! Can you imagine what the NY’er editor was thinking back in 1941:
“…he started submitting short stories to the magazine.
The magazine initially rejected seven of his submissions that year.
But JD…never have up!

Slow start, lots of discussion as to the next plan of action: getting one of our men "inside". Always difficult to tell the widow of one of the agents that he has "had an accident."

Drawing talent is one thing, takes time to build your "style" as an illustrator. R. Biesinger gives us a look at what he has to do to NOT be ripped off. If this happened to me it would keep me up at night! Practical tips are good to read how he has tried to regain control of his "style".

Balzac compares Paris to a lobster.
Go figure...I still don't see it.

I cannot shake the feeling that Pavese's The beach (novella, 1941) shows many similarities with M. Duras's book The Little Horses of Tarquinia (1953) about friends who spend an interminable days of their vacations at a dreary Italian beach resort...bored out of their minds!
Is it a coincidence or did Ms Duras...see a good plot line to parallel in her own book about existential vacation malaise?

Read essay "Poets of a New Style of Speak" (25/37) Life in Cuba is not easy and many artists reflect that. But I find their frankness, vulgarity, crudeness not appealing ( T. Esson, L. Saaverda) The only artist I like in today's essay was Ciro Quintana (1964) (see Google). Style is comic strips, pop icons, theatrical pastiches with VIBRANT colours...just a delight to look at. His paintings are puzzles too!

Just moved the needle 1 page!! Balzac is an amazing writer and he uses the streets of Paris endowing them to human traits to show the reader the contrasts in Paris and give the reader clues as to the plot! Poor vs rich, underworld vs aristocracy.... like seedy alleys vs beautiful boulevards. I took the time to research this Balzacian style: description that drives the narrative!

Ch 2-3: Secret agent Tompkins has finally gotten behind enemy lines and into Rome. Contacts are made. Allied convoy has landed (22.01.1944) at Anzio. This NF is based on Tompkin's notes...I applaud his bravery but when it comes to writing he is NO Le Carré.

"Just Before the War with the Eskimos" (2/9) Well, there is depth in the story that I did not realise. Shock/twist ending, hùh?? Still trying to digest it. The dialogue with its trite retorts "Now you know", "Goddam if I know", "Nobody YOU know", "Big deal"...vernacular dialogue makes for easy reading. But the best is Salinger's descriptions of gestures of the characters when proper etiquette silences words.

Chapter 1/16: What a great book to start off #BlackHistoryMonth! Toni Morrison as editor had a new role: ...trying to make a revolution one book at a time!

Relatively short book but an interesting POV of a Montreal based illustrator and his informal guide how to prevent being exploited "ripped off" artistically. Great illustrations BTW....in the book!

I'm going to finish the "George Smiley's" series this year by Le Carré. After a busy day reading all sorts of books (classic, French, NF, essays ...reading John Le Carré feels like a warm blanket I can curl up in, stay warm and enjoy some bedtime reading that is comforting, and impossible to put down.

Started reading the preface of the book but it is just a lot of "blah, blah" that Balzac is notorious for. The preface does not move the plot or reveal any of the story's intrigue. So skipping right to chapter one, whew!