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My recent off the cuff decision to read some of the books on this year’s longlist for the Man Booker Prize paid dividends with the second book. Sebastian Barry’s The Secret Scripture is one of the best novels I’ve read this year.
The sectarian and religious politics of 20th century Ireland are the backdrop for the story. And while essential to the tale, it is a history seen through its impact on individual lives. Two written accounts provide the narration. One is from Roseanne McNulty, a woman believed to be about 100 years old who has been in mental institutions for more than 60 years. The other is Dr. Grene, the senior psychiatrist at Roscommon Regional Mental Hospital, where he has been for 30 years and Roseanne for 50.
Knowing really no one and realizing she has lived far, far longer than most, Roseanne decides to write a “testimony of herself” on paper she hides under a floorboard in her room. Her action follows an unrelated government decision to raze the hospital, first built in the late 18th century. Because of legal changes and the new hospital being built will have fewer beds, Dr. Grene must assess which patients can be returned to their communities and which will be moved to the new hospital.
Although Grene considers Roseanne an “old friend,” he is not sure what led to her institutionalization. When he discovers her old Roscommon records have essentially disintegrated, he sets out in search of her history, both through interviews with her and trying to trace records from her hometown of Sligo. Not only do their narrations reflect slightly different takes on their visits, there are discrepancies between her story and what the documents tend to indicate. The reader can’t help but wonder whether to take the word of the inmate of a lunatic asylum or rely on the pieces of documentary evidence Grene uncovers.
As both versions unfold, we are taken inside Roseanne’s devastated life, one seemingly battered by persons and forces beyond her control. Although the ultimate truth is probably somewhere between the two versions, there is no question she was a victim of the struggles between Unionists and Nationalists, Catholics and Protestants and the combination of them. Roseanne tells her story beautifully through Barry’s enticing, nearly flawless prose. She draws us in so that we begin to feel just how heart-rendering her downfall is, brought about by events both significant and innocuous. Grene’s voice is more analytical. Still, the problems in his personal life tend to soften it when necessary and, at times, Roseanne seems to do more for Grene than he has for her. The various counterpoints make for an exceptional whole.
Perhaps The Secret Scripture ties up a few too many things too neatly as it unveils the secrets of Roseanne’s tragic story. That, though, is a failing I’ll quickly forgive in exchange for exquisite and consummate storytelling. This will undoubtedly be on plenty “best of the year” lists and is a more than deserving Man Booker Prize candidate.
We have neglected the tiny sentences of life and now the big ones are beyond our reach.
Sebastian Barry,The Secret Scripture
I knew going to St. Petersburg and reading War and Peace would probably resurrect a long interest in Russian and Soviet history. I didn’t realize until last night or so that the mania may have set in.
I didn’t find it odd that I read a quite good biography of Catherine the Great a week or so ago. I’d been intrigued by The Forsaken, a book about Americans caught in Stalin’s gulag, since seeing it in the local bookstore chain this month. As a result, it didn’t strike me as odd to make it one of the four books at a buck each I got for once again enrolling in the History Book Club after a couple year absence.
What didn’t really sink in until last night, though, was what the other three books I ordered indicated. I also selected Leningrad: State of Siege (Leningrad was St. Petersburg’s nom de guerre from the 1920s until the 1990s), Young Stalin, and One Minute to Midnight. While the latter might also be classifed as U.S. history, it was seeing the three sitting on the bookshelf together as I had The Forsaken in my hand that confirmed a fixation was setting in.
Added to my continuing interest in foreign fiction, my reading habits clearly display addictive tendencies. Oh well, there are far worse addictions.
[Russia] is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.
Winston Churchill, October 1, 1939
I missed it when it was published last Friday but the NYT gave Jon Stewart some well-deserved love in a lengthy article asking, Is Jon Stewart the Most Trusted Man in America?. He is in my book and the article makes clear I’m not alone.
It notes that in a 2007 poll by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, Stewart was the fourth most admired journalist. He tied with real network anchors Brian Williams, Tom Brokaw, Dan Rather and Anderson Cooper. Sure, there’s great humor that can move quickly from smart to juvenile and leave a smile on your face with either approach. But the story also grasps the aspect of The Daily Show that creates just as much admiration.
For all its eviscerations of the administration, “The Daily Show” is animated not by partisanship but by a deep mistrust of all ideology. A sane voice in a noisy red-blue echo chamber, Mr. Stewart displays an impatience with the platitudes of both the right and the left and a disdain for commentators who … parrot party-line talking points and engage in knee-jerk shouting matches.
In other words, the show tends to cut through all the bullshit and get to the heart of things, regardless of party or political persuasion. And can’t you just see Stewart and Stephen Colbert (quoted in the article) giggling because the NYT‘s stylebook meant they were always referred to as “Mr.” in the article?
Jon Stewart for President ’08
Bumper sticker on my vehicle
You can find plenty of opinions, both good and bad, on book reviewers. Likewise, there’s lots of ideas out there about what a review should or shouldn’t do. This past week SF author David Louis Edelman gave his thoughts on what authors want from reviewers. Here’s the list with some of his comments:
- Opinion. “Have one. Better yet: have several.”
- Honesty. “All I want is your honest opinion, whether it’s favorable to me or not.”
- Insight. “Whether you loved it or hated it is not always the point; I want to know that you thought about it.”
- Elaboration. “I can handle the fact that you found the book far-fetched. But I want to know how and where.”
- Disclosure.
- No anonymity. “There’s a reason Slashdot’s default label for commenters who don’t leave their names is ‘Anonymous Coward.'”
- Originality.
- Accuracy.
- No pandering. “[P]lease, don’t say pithy things just for the sake of trying to get on the book jacket or the website.”
- No spoilers. “It’s not for my sake that you should avoid spoilers; it’s for the sake of my (potential) readers.”
I think this goes beyond what authors may want and reflects what those who read reviews want and should expect. While I believe I attempt to do what Edelman suggests, these are undoubtedly ideas any reviewer would do well to consider.
Criticism starts – it has to start – with a real passion for reading.
Harold Bloom, The Paris Review, Spring 1991
From a psychological and emotional standpoint, summer is at a close. My oldest daughter left this morning on her 500-mile move to graduate school in Missouri. My youngest daughter starts her last year of high school Monday. And middle daughter leaves Wednesday for her second year of college in Nebraska (although at a different campus in the UN system).
There’s an entirely different atmosphere around our house when the three girls are together. Not only is there more activity, there seems to be more joy and just plain fun. It’s amazing how well they get along and how much they enjoy each other’s company — although it can be wearing for my wife and me to be outnumbered. While I’m undoubtedly biased, I truly enjoy spending time with them because they’re witty (sometimes bitingly so), insightful, creative and have a refreshing willingness to just be goofy when they feel like it.
Their presence made the summer fly by. And it’s certainly possible this will be the last one with all three home for the duration. So while the calendar and weather still say summer, what made this one exceptional is ending.
In the spring, protective arms surrounding you
In the fall, we let you go your way
Happiness I know will always find you
And when it does, I hope that it will stay
“Here For You,” Neil Young, Prairie Wind
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