Balzac's "Cousin Bette"

Cousin Bette by Honoré de Balzac
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I first read this book about fifty years ago and loved it. On the rich plot of the story rests a network of beautiful writing and many clever and surprisingly modern observations of life. Recently I suggested it to our book group and I think it was probably too time consuming as only four people came to the discussion.
From Balzac and Jane Austen I believe I came to think great literature must take into consideration the importance money plays in our lives. In this book, Balzac says the greatest luxury for a person is books and flowers, and when you are too poor for beauty, you are indeed poor. I loved his discussion, for an example of modern correlations from Paris of the 1800's to now, about a Ministry in the government. He said the ministry was like a small village without any women, but as rife with gossip, rumor and conniving behavior. Sadly, I didn't mark the page.
From reading reviews after finishing the book, I learn that Balzac was mourning the decline of the Napoleonic Empire and the decline of religion. His saintly picture of Madame Hulot, however, made me think she was simply a doormat.
He wrote fast and he wrote what, on the surface, seems to be a delicious soap opera. Even so, movies made from "Cousin Bette" all fall short of the delight you get reading this book. (My edition was translated by Marion Ayton Crawford.)

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Željko Lučić - Cortigiani, vil razza dannata (Rigoletto)

"Wolf Hall" by Hilary Mantel

Tudor England. Henry VIII is on the throne, but has no heir. Cardinal Wolsey is charged with securing his divorce. Into this atmosphere of distrust comes Thomas Cromwell - a man as ruthlessly ambitious in his wider politics as he is for himself. His reforming agenda is carried out in the grip of a self-interested parliament and a king who fluctuates between romantic passions and murderous rages.(less) I read a review a year ago I think and decided to put a hold on the book at our library. It came just before Christmas and there went the season! I found it difficult to adjust to the writing insofar as knowing who was actually speaking at any one time. I was amazed at the poetic images she conjured that brought each scene to life. The writing went from descriptions of simplicity and humor to beautiful evocations of weather, flowers and costumes all done in an antique style reflective of the time. Just a magnificent tour de force. I've never read anything so beautifully realized.

At the San Francisco Symphony Last Night

They played Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto -- gorgeous piece of music!

When The Killing's Done

I just finished this book in a long rush of interest.  This is another book I would never have read if it hadn't been chosen by our book club.  I think I've read a short story or two in the New Yorker by Boyle, but always felt he was just one of those hip writers who wouldn't be my cup of tea.  Now I will definitely look up another of his books.  I like his long asides that include all sorts of random thoughts, joking references, histories.  His basic story is pretty clear cut -- a contest between someone who wants to restore an ecosystem and one who thinks it is not worth while if animals are killed in the process.  The former is Alma, the latter is Dave.  It seems that both antagonists come to question their own sureness about what they are doing -- but not enough to stop them.  The novel twists back and forth in time -- which I found confusing, but manageable.  There are some dark and ugly scenes of almost unbearable violence. There is an interesting article on Boyle in the  British publication, The Guardian (it is worth looking up)in which Boyle says:

"'Life is tragic and absurd and none of it has any purpose at all." He is sitting contentedly with a glass of wine in the west room of his Frank Lloyd Wright house in Montecito, California. "Science has killed religion, there's no hope for the future with seven billion of us on the planet, and the only thing you can do is to laugh in the face of it all."

I liked the sense of place he conjured up -- the islands themselves, the cities of Montecito and Santa Barbara. I liked his descriptions and evocation of his characters.  So the book had his philosophy spelled out - tragic, absurd and funny.



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'Blackthorn' movie review

'Blackthorn' movie review -- 'Blackthorn' showtimes - The Boston Globe

Playing the aging outlaw Butch Cassidy, Sam Shepard is the nominal star of “Blackthorn,’’ and he’s fine - grizzled and laconic in the best western tradition. He keeps getting upstaged by the cinematography, though.

The movie’s an international coproduction that marks the feature directing debut of Spanish screenwriter Mateo Gil (“Open Your Eyes,’’ “The Sea Inside’’); he and director of photography Juan Ruiz Anchía filmed in the high country of Bolivia, and the thin mountain air seems to have seeped into the camera. Each frame is a crystalline jaw-dropper that places the smallish actions of men within a vast canvas of lush jungle, lunar salt flats, Andean snow, and desert sand. The result is a pretty good movie that almost looks better than it needs to.

It plays like a Sergio Leone spaghetti western with the cynicism replaced by exhaustion and regret. Butch falls in with a hapless civil engineer, Eduardo (Spanish heartthrob Eduardo Noriega), who has stolen $50,000 from fat-cat mine owners and is being tailed by a particularly mean posse. The most satisfying moments in “Blackthorn’’ let us see Butch through the younger man’s eyes, as Eduardo slowly comes to appreciate the depth of the outlaw’s mastery. He still doesn’t know who this old gringo is, but he’s definitely somebody.

After a while, Gil lets the movie stall in a sort of high-plains drift, and he lets the camerawork do most of the heavy lifting. You don’t mind. There’s a beautiful showdown on the salt flats in which Butch doesn’t outshoot a pursuer so much as outlast him, each man on his straining, plodding horse.

Cleopatra, Rome, Alexandria - A Life

Read in December, 2011

Cleopatra: A Life (Hardcover) Stacy Schiff - Little, Brown

I spent all day yesterday reading this book. There are so many reviews here, I thought I would just add the point that I learned so much about Egypt and Alexandria, its wealth and beauty. I could feel the warmth and salt air. Sad to think the old city is so gone, so much under water now. I loved this book. Didn't think Schiff could improve on "Vera". Wonderful writer! I had a little trouble getting started, but when I did I couldn't stop. This book makes so clear the rough and poor quality of the city of Rome at the time, in comparison to Alexandria. And Schiff is a genius to have brought Cleopatra to life with so many gaps in the sources. I really wondered when our book club chose it to read, why such a well-worn old story. Then the towering queen came to life with all her strength, education, languages, pageantry. Wonderful book!