24-29. give me the fever that just won't break.

[harborshore]

I read six books in Amsterdam! I reviewed one of them already, oh my heart, and here are the other five plus the one I've read since I came back.

24. Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh.



This book is surprisingly my grandmother's favorite book. I say surprisingly because, you know, the gay romance is fairly evident. But I suspect what she loves is the way it reminds her of Oxford, with the descriptions of student life:

At the end of the term I took my first schools; it was necessary to pass, if I was to remain at Oxford, and pass I did, after a week in which I forbade Sebastian my rooms and sat up to a late hour, with iced black coffee and charcoal biscuits, cramming myself with the neglected texts. I remember no syllable of them now, but the other, more ancient lore which I acquired that term will be with me in one shape or another to my last hour.

"I like this bad set and I like getting drunk at luncheon"; that was enough then. Is more needed now?

This is one of the tragic gay romances. We know from the start that the hero will end up in the army, alone, happy against-the-odds sometimes:

'Something quite remote from anything the builders intended has come out of their work, and out of the fierce little human tragedy in which I played; something none of us thought about at the time; a small red flame--a beaten-copper lamp of deplorable design relit before the beaten-copper doors of a tabernacle; the flame which the old knights saw from their tombs, which they saw put out; that flame burns again for other soldiers, far from home, farther, in the heart, than Acre of Jerusalem.'

and terribly sad sometimes, because Sebastian ends up in a religious order, sort of, sick and alone, and god, why does the world suck so much?

More articulately, this book is worth reading. Sometimes it gets very distant, and it's hard to feel as attached, but then there are moments that are delightful, and moments that are so close they hurt.



25. Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl



Up until the last twenty pages, you are fairly certain you are reading a coming-of-age story with bonus murder mystery, and a little bit of the close-knit clique where one of them has to be the killer. It's pretty good! Blue Van Meer is a good observer!POV, having grown up with an academic of a father who drilled her in the literary greats and the intellectual greats and just about any Great that you can think of. She's very smart, and she's entertaining to follow.

The clique she ends up part of is also interesting--we know from the beginning that the central figure, the magnetic teacher!Hannah, ends up dead, and we think one of the other students in said group has to be the murderer. They're typecast for the parts of bit players in a coming-of-sge story--we have the jock, the queen bee, the hippie, etc.

But then a bit after Hannah actually bites it, the book turns around and decides that no, the genre we were ACTUALLY reading was the one where academic!dad is a secret revolutionary and--what? emilyenrose and I had a very impassioned discussion of how much this didn't work at all whilst perched on our rickety bunk beds in Amsterdam. The thing is, if you can think of two or three other plausible endings that make more sense and are easier to execute without breaking a sweat? The book hasn't convinced you. This book didn't convince me.

It was a fun read, though.



26. Three Men and a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome.



I read this book in an Amsterdam bookstore, and I snickered my way through it, because seriously. The funniest. Three friends decide to go on a boat trip and then things get complicated. That's all there is to the plot, basically, but oh, how glorious it is. (Also, George is the only one who has any sense at all.)

Randomly chosen quote from when George and Harris are packing:

They started by breaking a cup. That was the first thing they did. They did that just to show you what they could do, and to get you interested.

Then Harris packed the strawberry jam on top of a tomato and squished it, and they had to pick out the tomato with a teaspoon.

And then it was George's turn, and he trod on the butter. I didn't say anything, but I came over and sat on the edge of the table and watched them. It irritated them more than anything I could have said. I felt that. It made them nervous and excited, and they stepped on things, and put them behind them, and then couldn't find them when they wanted them; and they packed the pies at the bottom, and put heavy things on top, and smashed the pies in.

They upset salt over everything, and as for the butter! I've never seen two men do more with one-and-two-pence worth of butter in my whole life than they did. After George had got it off his slipper, they tried to put it in the kettle. It wouldn't go in, and what was in wouldn't come out. They did scrape it out at last, and put it on a chair, and Harris sat on it, and it stuck on him, and they went looking for it all over the room.

No one does an and-then chain of events quite like Jerome K. Jerome.



27. Three plays by Christopher Fry. ♥



Christopher Fry, jesus. Am still kicking myself for only buying one of these two collected volumes in Bristol (Chaz, if you go back there and see the other one? I will paypal you the money), because he is just always good.

My favorites out of this bunch is The Dark Is Light Enough and Curtmantle (the Henry one). The former is about a countess during the Hungarian revolution, and there isn't much to the plot, really, it's her family and soldiers in a house, but it's--oh. The Countess on dying:

But you've always thought of it, Jakob,
In the pleasure and conversation of these evenings.
The argument, philosophy, wit and eloquence
Were all in the light of this end we come to.
Without it there would have been very little
To mention except the weather. Protect me
From a body without death. Such indignity
Would be outcast, like a rock in the sea.
But with death, it can hold
More than time gives it, or the earth shows it.
I can bear to think of this:
I can bear to be this, Jakob,
As long as it bears me.

And then Curtmantle, oh man, BECKET. Breaks my goddamn heart. And Eleanor. And Henry--this would so have been solved by a threesome. (This is my very insightful commentary on what is a profound and gorgeous play--just call me ridiculous. And really tired.)



28. Passage by Connie Willis.



I will say that I liked it a lot, and it has the trademark Willis pacing that lures you in and then does not let you go for a second until you've cleared the last page, so if you start this, do so knowing what you're in for. It has female scientists, it has happiness, it has tragedy, it has beauty, it has life and death (well, it takes place in a hospital), and it surprises you many times. A fantastic novel.



29. Girl Meets Boy by Ali Smith.



I read it sitting in Amsterdam airport, and the ending had me grinning and crying a little, the way you do when you're too happy for it to come out as anything but tears. It's a retelling of the myth of Iphis from Ovid's Metamorphoses, and it's just so--it's so sweet, so good, so poetic in a not-irritating way. I loved this.

Anthea meets Robin, a cross-dressing graffiti artist revolutionary:

My head, something happened to its insides. It was as if a storm at sea happened, but only for a moment, and only on the inside of my head. My ribcage, something definitely happened there. It was as if it unknotted itself from itself, like the hull of a ship hitting rock, giving way, and the ship that I was opened wide inside me and in came the ocean.

He was the most beautiful boy I had ever seen in my life.

But he looked really like a girl.

She was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen in my life.

And Robin, Robin. And Anthea's sister. (Yes, this book also contains a fantastic sister relationship.) And the ending. And everything. This was wonderful.

Comments

[inlovewithnight.livejournal.com]

I read Calamity Physics when it first came out and the sudden genre swap made me so angry. SO ANGRY. I still can't even think about it.

[harborshore.livejournal.com]

DEAR GOD, I know. I mean it didn't piss me off as much as it made me go "...wow, wow, author, way to be lazy". I get very technical when a book so obviously structurally doesn't work, if that makes sense? Which this one really does not.

[wavesofwood.livejournal.com]

GIRL MEETS BOY, oh my god♥ Read it on a train, the whole length of it fitting neatly into my journey, and it is the sweetest little book - it reminded me of you at the time, actually, the love story and the poetry and the recurrent thread of the power of stories and words and the activism and the generosity of it. So, so glad you liked it.

[harborshore.livejournal.com]

♥! Oh wow, that's so lovely to hear. It really did click, so much, I couldn't breathe while reading it. A very very me book for all the reasons you mention, yes. Activism and poetry and the power of stories.

[rumpleghost.livejournal.com]

Oh my god, a retelling of Iphis and Ianthe? ♥___♥ I need to get my hands on it immediately, clearly. :DD

[harborshore.livejournal.com]

YES YOU DO. Oh man, yes. Have you read Ali Smith before? Because her short stories are fantastic, so fantastic.

[rumpleghost.livejournal.com]

I haven't, no! Her name sounds kind of familiar? But, yeah, will definitely look her up!

[harborshore.livejournal.com]

Hee, that's probably my fault, I've raved about her before. But yes, start with this one and if you like it, find Free Love.

[kyasuriin.livejournal.com]

ooh, Girl Meets Boy sounds really interesting and we have it at the library. *puts in the to-read list*

thanks for the rec!

[harborshore.livejournal.com]

It's SO GOOD. You won't regret it. It's this tiny little book that goes by super fast, but I love it so.

Any time, bb! :D

[blindmouse.livejournal.com]

They started by breaking a cup. That was the first thing they did. They did that just to show you what they could do, and to get you interested.

Oh my god, I love this book so much. So damned much. Every bit of it. Even the stupid Magna Carta poetical bit that goes on for about eighty pages too long, I loved every moment.

I first read Connie Willis because of this book, for obvious reasons, which, speaking of:

it has the trademark Willis pacing that lures you in and then does not let you go for a second

Because I love To Say Nothing of the Dog to bits but the only other one I've started is Blackout, which is also charming me, only ... the pacing just kind of isn't there. I put it down a dozen times, and finally I didn't pick it up again, or at least it's been about two months since I picked it up. Is it atypical?

And ooh, I can't tell from that excerpt whether the poetical style would be something I'd enjoy or something that would frustrate me at a sustained length, but Girl Meets Boy sounds like something I'll need to read :)

[harborshore.livejournal.com]

It's so great. *grins*

Uh, I don't know, I couldn't put Blackout down? At all? Once I got past the first fifty pages, which were charming and interesting, that is. After that, I read it very very fast and then wailed at everyone who would listen that All Clear HAD NOT ARRIVED YET WHY. So I'd say it's a typical Willis, actually.

It's a super short book, so I don't think you'd have time to get annoyed. And it's not THAT poetical, man.

[sullen-hearts.livejournal.com]

I LOVEloveLOVE Brideshead. It is beautiful.

I haven't read Calamity Physics but I have it on my shelf!

Have you read Almost Perfect by Brian Katcher? It is about a transgender teen and it is kind of amazing.

[harborshore.livejournal.com]

It really is! I loved parts of it very much, and felt distant from parts of it, in the way that you just sort of look at a beautiful painting and go, "that's lovely".

Ahaha, I've now spoiled the twist, haven't I? Sorry!

I haven't, no, but that sounds great!

[sullen-hearts.livejournal.com]

It's so terribly British middle class, too.

I wrote to the author of Almost Perfect and he wrote back thanking me, that's very cool in my book!