What are You Reading Now?
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Just finished Thomas Savage's "The Power of the Dog." Utterly phenomenal. Phil Burbank is a Top 5 literature villain for me, easily.
Also reading some Joseph Ellis history books. Man never has anything original to say, but he is easily one of the most readable popular historians for the American Revolutionary period. As much as I love reading in-depth scholarly works, it is nice to enjoy a narrative history that is enjoyable to read and still hues to historical veracity.
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Gimlet
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Not reading it now, read it some time ago, but thoroughly recommended:
Embers by Sandor Marai.
An elderly general contrives a reunion dinner at his castle in the Carpathian mountains with a boyhood friend from whom he has been estranged for 41 years. The tale unfolds as an atmospheric conflation of the detective story and morality tale that draws out the complex threads of three lives in the narrator's (the general's) memory as he awaits the arrival of his mysterious guest and an implied denouement of confrontation. It's a masterclass in story-telling and brilliantly sustained psychological tension told through superbly used language.
It's one of those books that defies structural analysis with a seamless momentum that moves beneath your consciousness without you feeling it happening. Many who've read it find themselves completing it in one sitting and the story stays with you for a long time afterwards. A masterpiece.
Embers by Sandor Marai.
An elderly general contrives a reunion dinner at his castle in the Carpathian mountains with a boyhood friend from whom he has been estranged for 41 years. The tale unfolds as an atmospheric conflation of the detective story and morality tale that draws out the complex threads of three lives in the narrator's (the general's) memory as he awaits the arrival of his mysterious guest and an implied denouement of confrontation. It's a masterclass in story-telling and brilliantly sustained psychological tension told through superbly used language.
It's one of those books that defies structural analysis with a seamless momentum that moves beneath your consciousness without you feeling it happening. Many who've read it find themselves completing it in one sitting and the story stays with you for a long time afterwards. A masterpiece.
I had to look up this one, it sounded like the Netflix movie from last year. The movie was unwatchable, but I'll give the book a try.
Every decade or so I read something by Paul Theroux—and I am reminded why I dislike his writing. This one is no exception.
Skeletons on the Zahara: A True Story of Survival
A real page turner, an incredible story
"...the true story of twelve American sailors who were shipwrecked off the coast of Africa in 1815, captured by desert nomads, sold into slavery, and subjected to a hellish two-month journey through the perilous heart of the Sahara."
As an aside, the Captain of the ship James Riley published a book of the incident back in the day and it was one of Abraham Lincoln's favorite books.
A real page turner, an incredible story
"...the true story of twelve American sailors who were shipwrecked off the coast of Africa in 1815, captured by desert nomads, sold into slavery, and subjected to a hellish two-month journey through the perilous heart of the Sahara."
As an aside, the Captain of the ship James Riley published a book of the incident back in the day and it was one of Abraham Lincoln's favorite books.
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I really enjoyed that book. Well... "enjoyed" may have been the wrong word. It was really good.
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