Ulysses- James Joyce (1920)
I bought this book years ago because it’s on almost every list of classic literature. But I couldn’t understand it, and after three chapters, decided I’d had enough and gave up. That said, I kept thinking that one of these days, I ought to give it another try, and with my recent decision to stop buying so many book, I decided that this would be the ideal opportunity to wade in again. I decided I would take advantage of some of the many online guides to help readers through the work, which is crammed so full of references that it’s probably not possible to understand it without help. The guides suggested rereading the Odyssey first, since the work corresponds with Homer’s ancient poem, and then rereading Hamlet as well. While I didn’t reread those works, I did read some summaries and took notes. Then I waded in. I still hate the work, but I can see why people consider it so highly. It just isn’t what I want in literature…. AT ALL. Joyce seemed to have written it with a mind to create a masterpiece, chock full of references and parallel and meticulous attention to detail. But, as Joyce himself notes:
“The pity is … the public will demand and find a moral in my book—or worse they may take it in some more serious way, and on the honour of a gentleman, there is not one single serious line in it. … In Ulysses I have recorded, simultaneously, what a man says, sees, thinks, and what such seeing, thinking, saying does, to what you Freudians call the subconscious.”
But the one thing I want in literature is to help me fill in gaps to my understanding of life, and this kind of thing just doesn’t do it. So I forged ahead, reading the chapter guides before I read the chapters so I would know what I was looking at. But frequently, I would turn away from the text to look something up, go back, and not really realize what I had, or had not, read, because it ALL seems so nonsensical that it’s hard to even remember.
I have to confess then that I read the novel, and other than the general narrative of Leopold Bloom, his wife Molly and her affair, and Stephen Dedalus, I really didn’t understand much of what was happening… nor did I care. But at least I can say I’ve read it.
Catch-22- Joseph Heller (1961)
This is the other book on my shelves that I had never finished reading. This one I quit because I just got tired of the relentless sarcasm. I get that it was wartime, and the nature of the trial and the helplessness of feeling like you’re meat in the grinder would foster that attitude. While it’s understandable, it’s still not all the pleasant to read, so I had ditched it. But, as with Ulysses, I decided that being a little thin on books to read right now, and having an unfinished one on my shelf, I thought now would be a good time to return to it and finish it up.
As I read it this time, I’m unsure why I was so down on it the last time; it didn’t seem nearly as sarcastic as I remember it. It mainly concerns one Captain John Yossarian, a bombardier who is convinced that there are too many people trying to kill him. He has to fly a specific number combat missions to fulfill his quota so that he can be sent home, but every time he is close to the number, the number is raised again. He decides the only way to get out of this is to be declared insane so that he can be sent home. To his mind, wanting to continue flying missions into enemy fire IS insane. But there’s a catch: IF he actually WANTS to stop flying, it is proof he isn’t really insane, so he will be declared sane enough to keep flying- the infamous Catch-22.
The tone of the book is darkly comic for the most part, until the end, when it just turns mostly dark, moving from the comically absurd to the horrific.
I believe the moral of the story is that war makes everyone crazy. The men go nuts at their helplessness in the face of the madness and the higher ups only seem to have their own glory in mind while sacrificing others. The entire machinery of it is absurd and takes down everyone with it.
Dopo il divorzio- Grazia Deledda (1902)
This novel was written in the early days of Italy allowing divorce, a deeply dividing topic in the heavily Catholic country.
Costantino and Giovanna are a young couple. Lacking the money for a full religious wedding ceremony, they get a civil marriage. This is a source of worry for Costantino, who wonders if God is angry with him for living with Giovanna while not having their marriage consecrated in the church.
Costantino is accused of killing his uncle and sent to prison for 27 years- effectively, the rest of his life. Giovanna, a young woman with child, mourns for a while, and Costantino writes. During this time, their only child gets sick and dies. But there is another, Brontu Dejas, who is relatively well off and has always desired Giovanna. Her aunts push her to consider divorce, partly because they stand to gain from her marriage to a more wealthy man. In her poverty, the prospect of possibly never seeing her husband out of jail, and the comforts she has on offer from Dejas, she considers she has no choice but to divorce and remarry. Divorce has been deemed allowable for wives whose husbands have been sentenced for more than ten years.
We skip ahead to a pregnant Giovanna, miserable and feeling like no more than a servant for her often drunk, and mean, husband. We skip further ahead to a baby girl, then later, on his deathbed, the real killer confesses, and Costantino is set free. He returns home. For months he avoids Giovanna, but begins sneaking around her place. One night, he gets word that she is alone at home. He tries to tell himself he won’t go see her, but he does, and in the last sentence, they see each other and embrace.
Conquests and Cultures- Thomas Sowell (1998)
The author writes about the effects of conquests on civilization: both for the conquerors and conquered. Conquest is a mixed bag. It’s never fun for those that are conquered, and they were/are frequently treated as disposable. At the same time, the conquerors have frequently left benefits of their more advanced technology or organization. Sowell covers the British, the Africans, the Slavs, and the Western Hemisphere Indians in this book.
In the summary, Sowell has a few lines I think are worth repeating.
“The elaborate institutions needed for the continued transmission of a complex civilized culture from one generation to the next simply disintegrated, along with the state apparatus that had supported it, because the invaders who were capable of destroying the Roman Empire were not capable of taking it over and running it themselves or preserving its cultural achievements.”
Seeking Sicily- John Keahey (2011)
This book is described as a cultural journey through myth and reality in order to understand the Sicilian people and the culture they hold on to. It covers some history- because the continual conquests and external rule have shaped Sicilian culture- and it delves into the particulars of those cultural influences, particularly the Arabic, and how they continue to influence Sicilian life. It covers geography as the author travels around the Island, though he spends more time in the Greek eastern portion. It covers politics, food, the Mafia, and spent a fair amount of time on the writer Leonardo Sciascia. He also looks at the religious festivals.
He covers Sicilians’ own wariness of outsiders, weariness in dealing with life, and some of the contradictory, inexplicable, and dark sides of the people.