Reading Wednesday
Jun. 10th, 2015 07:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
brigdhWhat did you just finish?
Poison by Kathryn Harrison. A novel set in Spain during the 1600s, focusing half on Queen Marie Louise, the French wife of Carlos II (who is primarily famous today for being the most extreme example of Hapsburg inbreeding, and he certainly suffered for his ancestors' choices), and half on a young peasant woman imprisoned by the Spanish Inquisition. I liked the parts about the Queen more than the other character, if only for the reason that the Queen's plot had actual characters and events, rather than the ramblings of a solitary person under torture, but by the end of the book I had lost interest in her too.
I was annoyed by the abundance of historical inaccuracies (the old story about Columbus being the first to prove the world is round, the wrong dates for the use of laudanum, descriptions of an extensive tunnel system dug by the Inquisition – I've never heard of this before, but since the only reference I can find to it online comes from a horror movie, I'm going to assume it's not exactly solid history), but Harrison straight-up says in her afterword that she wasn't so much writing about history as being vaguely inspired by it, so I suppose I can't blame her for that. And anyway, the focus here isn't really about why anything happens; instead it's on themes of sin and guilt, luxury and poverty, and the love between a mother and child. I, personally, would have been way more interested in a book about how the Inquisition functioned or why people are drawn to such religious extremism, but all that's here is "THE SPANISH INQUISITION SUCKED" which, thank you, I had pretty much already figured out.
The prose jumped around in time and frequently included sentence fragments or abruptly changing tenses. There was also endless descriptions of dreams: daydreams, nightmares, prophetic dreams, fever dreams, hallucinations, half-forgotten dreams, repeated dreams, etc, etc, until it was sometimes hard to tell what was actually happening and what was merely imagined by the characters. In short, it didn't work for me. Which is too bad! The first few pages were so promising.
Texts from Jane Eyre by Mallory Ortberg. This is, well, exactly what it sounds like. If you've read the earlier blog posts that ended up becoming this book (texts from Lord Bryon, texts from William Blake, texts from Miss Havisham), then you know exactly what to expect. It's a short book; it only took me an hour or two to read, but it was a very enjoyable hour!
This Is Not A Test: A New Narrative on Race, Class, and Education by José Vilson. I'd been expecting a book that was an analysis of current problems in the education system, but instead this is mostly a memoir. Which is not a bad thing! I like memoirs in general, and Vilson is a great writer, lyrical and engaging. It's just not what I expected. The focus is also much more of his childhood and personal life, with relatively little of the book actually about his experience teaching.
What are you currently reading?
The Curse of the Pharaohs by Elizabeth Peters. I've just gotten far enough into this book to realize the tomb they're excavating is King Tut's! I'm very amused.
Bound for Canaan: The Epic Story of the Underground Railroad, America's First Civil Rights Movement by Fergus M. Bordewich. Still being fascinating!
In For a Penny by Rose Lerner. I've had a copy of this book for ages, but I finally got around to starting it after seeing a rec on FFA recently.
Poison by Kathryn Harrison. A novel set in Spain during the 1600s, focusing half on Queen Marie Louise, the French wife of Carlos II (who is primarily famous today for being the most extreme example of Hapsburg inbreeding, and he certainly suffered for his ancestors' choices), and half on a young peasant woman imprisoned by the Spanish Inquisition. I liked the parts about the Queen more than the other character, if only for the reason that the Queen's plot had actual characters and events, rather than the ramblings of a solitary person under torture, but by the end of the book I had lost interest in her too.
I was annoyed by the abundance of historical inaccuracies (the old story about Columbus being the first to prove the world is round, the wrong dates for the use of laudanum, descriptions of an extensive tunnel system dug by the Inquisition – I've never heard of this before, but since the only reference I can find to it online comes from a horror movie, I'm going to assume it's not exactly solid history), but Harrison straight-up says in her afterword that she wasn't so much writing about history as being vaguely inspired by it, so I suppose I can't blame her for that. And anyway, the focus here isn't really about why anything happens; instead it's on themes of sin and guilt, luxury and poverty, and the love between a mother and child. I, personally, would have been way more interested in a book about how the Inquisition functioned or why people are drawn to such religious extremism, but all that's here is "THE SPANISH INQUISITION SUCKED" which, thank you, I had pretty much already figured out.
The prose jumped around in time and frequently included sentence fragments or abruptly changing tenses. There was also endless descriptions of dreams: daydreams, nightmares, prophetic dreams, fever dreams, hallucinations, half-forgotten dreams, repeated dreams, etc, etc, until it was sometimes hard to tell what was actually happening and what was merely imagined by the characters. In short, it didn't work for me. Which is too bad! The first few pages were so promising.
Texts from Jane Eyre by Mallory Ortberg. This is, well, exactly what it sounds like. If you've read the earlier blog posts that ended up becoming this book (texts from Lord Bryon, texts from William Blake, texts from Miss Havisham), then you know exactly what to expect. It's a short book; it only took me an hour or two to read, but it was a very enjoyable hour!
This Is Not A Test: A New Narrative on Race, Class, and Education by José Vilson. I'd been expecting a book that was an analysis of current problems in the education system, but instead this is mostly a memoir. Which is not a bad thing! I like memoirs in general, and Vilson is a great writer, lyrical and engaging. It's just not what I expected. The focus is also much more of his childhood and personal life, with relatively little of the book actually about his experience teaching.
What are you currently reading?
The Curse of the Pharaohs by Elizabeth Peters. I've just gotten far enough into this book to realize the tomb they're excavating is King Tut's! I'm very amused.
Bound for Canaan: The Epic Story of the Underground Railroad, America's First Civil Rights Movement by Fergus M. Bordewich. Still being fascinating!
In For a Penny by Rose Lerner. I've had a copy of this book for ages, but I finally got around to starting it after seeing a rec on FFA recently.
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no subject
Date: 2015-06-11 02:22 am (UTC)Being "inspired by" history rather than trying to be accurate to it is an interesting idea, but I feel like if you're going to ignore historical accuracy for Artistic Reasons you need to make it clear to the reader that that's what you're doing -- I mean in the text, not the afterword. I'm kind of intrigued by the overabundance of dreams, though.
I wonder if the subtitle of This is Not A Test was imposed by the publishers? "A New Narrative on" definitely makes it sound not like a memoir.
no subject
Date: 2015-06-13 05:40 pm (UTC)Yeah, it was weird because some of the details were clearly so well-researched and got so much attention (or at least I assume the pages and pages about silkworm farming were well-researched! I suppose she could have been just as wrong there, and I don't know enough about the topic to realize it), and then other parts were so fantasy-ish. It made for a weird mix.
Vilson does write a blog that "A New Narrative on Race, Class, and Education" would be a good subtitle for, and the topic comes up in regards to his own life, but yeah, the book's much more just about him than anything else.
no subject
Date: 2015-06-11 08:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-06-12 01:44 am (UTC)And I didn't dislike A Civil Contract, exactly, but it was sort of a shock when I was expecting a typical fluffy Heyer comedy. Have you read any other books by Lerner? I have a copy of A Lily Among Thorns too, but I haven't read it yet.