Moby Dick

I listened to this at week maybe three weeks ago so I'm trying to remember everything.

Once upon a time I tried to actually read it versus listening to it and couldn't remember anything beyond, "Call Me Ishmael".  It's very old fashioned which may be hard for younger readers but is definitely worth being called a classic.  The difference between old time books and things written in the last hundred years is the vast amount of extra information that editors now adays won't let into the book for fear it will bog the reader down.  And it can.  Everything you ever wanted to know about whales but were afraid to ask is included like the difference between a sperm whale and a humpback whale for starters.

Like the movie Jaws the real action comes at the end when you finally meet the elusive Moby Dick, the great white whale (sperm whale if I remember rightly) that Captain Ahab is obsessed with ever since she took his leg.  Unfortunately the name Ahab is a name better known with this work than the Bible where it's taken from.  Ahab, you may or may not remember is the wicked king married to Jezebel.  There's a reason why he shares the name of the notorious king that most of us in the 21st century have probably forgotten.  I'm sure it's lost on me.

If you want an old timey adventure story I'd suggest you start with Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson.  Then when you're feeling more adventurous... it's not bad.  My stars... this one is tough.  I want to say 8 stars but for regular folk like me I might have to go down to 7 

War Horse by Michael Morpurgo

So you've seen the movie previews and heard about the cool Broadway play with the horse puppets.  Did you know that the book is is written entirely in the first person from the horse's point of view?  Joey is the main character (named Joey because it rhymes with Zoey the family's work horse).  It's an epic adventure that isn't an epic task to read.  There aren't enough good reads that take place during the first world war.  It's a lost time as all the survivors of that war are either dead or were too young to remember. 

I don't want to give away too much about the plot except that Joey is bought by Albert's father when Albert was only 13.  He was drunk at the time and didn't need the horse but quickly Albert becomes attached to him and Joey to Albert.  When the war starts, Albert's father is in desperate need of money and sells the horse while his son is away.  Albert, only 16 at the time finds out just in time to say goodbye to the horse and vows that he will find him.

I was delighted to hear the adventures from Joey's point of view.  During world war one, many soldiers went into the war thinking they could still use cavalry in an age of machine guns.  They quickly learned how mistaken they were.  Joey goes from English to German to English again with many adventures in between.  A few parts got me weepy but it was worth the read.  It's a real feel gooder.  I give it a 7 and a half.

Atlas shrugged

I have to admit that I have been putting off this blog mostly because there is so much to say about this book. You may have noticed that Atlas Shrugged Part 2 is now in theatres and is a very big deal in pro-capitalist circles.  I haven't seen either of the movies yet but plan to.  When books are adapted to movies a lot has to be cut out much to the disappointment to fans of the book.  In the case of Atlas Shrugged, that could be a good thing.

This book was Ayn Rand's pride and joy and she felt very passionately about the subject matter.  Unfortunately I think she felt maybe a bit too passionately about this subject because the plot gets bogged down in places by long, looonnnggg speeches that tended to repeat earlier speeches in the book.

Atlas Shrugged is about the endeavors of one woman to keep her railroad company afloat in the face of overwhelming opposition from a country that seems to cut off every chance for success with do-gooder regulations that backfire.  Only the legislature instead of seeing the error of there way add more regulation to stem the results of their errors until the employers of the big businesses just quit and disappear.  No one knows where they are going and it's a mystery that hints to something supernatural.  Sort of.

The biggest problem I have with this book is that it never quite develops into science fiction.  It's almost dystopian but it doesn't quite go there either.  It's strongest thing it had going for it was the relationship between Hank Reardon, the steel tycoon and Dagney Taggert, the railroad tycoon and Francisco the copper tycoon (I listened to it on audio so I may be misspelling the names).  It's almost an Arthurian love triangle and very dramatic akin to Ernest Hemingway.  And then in part 3 the character of John Galt is introduced and messes that whole thing up the one thing the story had going for it.

I know this is capitalist blasphemy but I was really disappointed with this book.  Although the politics are actually in line with my own the story itself despite 60 hours of my life spent to listening to this it never really developed completely.  I know it's amazing that a book that long can feel underdeveloped but trust me a good 10 hours of this had to have been long speeches that ran together and in some cases used the same examples almost verbatim as used by other characters earlier in the book (i.e. John Galt's 3 hour speech in some places sounded identical to Hank Reardon's 45 minute speech earlier to the point it sounded like he was the one talking.)

I really wanted to give this one a higher score but I'd have to say 6 out of 10.

House at Tyneford by Natasha Solomons

Most reviews I have read regarding this book have compared it to Downton Abbey.  I would say a better comparison is Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca or Jane Eyre.  (If you have not read Rebecca or Jane Eyre they are two Gothic romance must reads that have both been adapted for the big screen several times.  Hitchcock's version of Rebecca is a first rate must see.  Even if you don't like black and white movies, you'll like this one.)

Elise Landau is a privileged non practicing Jew living in Vienna in the 1930's but in the spring of 1938 she is forced to leave home and become a parlour maid in England at the Tyneford estate as her parents wait behind for their own visas to arrive so that they can come to America and send for her.  As time passes she gains and loses love all while holding the mystery of a novel in her father's old viola.

There isn't the same air of mystery that there is in Rebecca or Jane Eyre.  No mysterious voice in the attic or long dead rival hanging over the place but it is told with that same first person point of view with a mysterious older gentleman that may or may not be in love with her.

But there is something the House at Tyneford has that these other influences don't have.  That is Mr. Rivers's son, Kit, a character that I pictured as a young Brad Pitt full of life and charm, the one person to lighten Elise's otherwise dreary life.  He brings energy to the story that you can never fully get attached to because of all the foreshadowing that something bad was coming for him.

Tyneford is based on a real place called Tyneham in Dorset in England.  It is a place that the villagers were forced to leave in 1943 after being requisitioned by the war office.  When they left on Christmas eve, they pinned this note to the door:

‘Please treat the church and houses with care; we have given up our homes where many of us lived for generations to help win the war to keep men free. We shall return one day and thank you for treating the village kindly.’

They were never allowed back and it remains in ruins by the coast owned by the British Ministry of Defense.  The author was inspired by this and stories of privileged Jewish women forced into becoming domestics after being having once had their own servants.  The novel opens with the same sighing remembrance as Rebecca's, "Last night I dreamt I went to Manderlay again."

"When I close my eyes I see Tyneford House."

Authors don't write books like this anymore.  Romantic, mysterious and nostalgic I would rate this an 8 out of 10.