Why do I re-read books

One of my blogging friends Ramana publishes once a week a post written on the subject nominated by one of the members of his blogging group. I always liked the concept even if it felt a bit like a homework. My excessively independent nature issued some protest against writing a homework. Only, nobody asked me for any such thing as a writing assignment ☹.  So, I did not have a problem to avoid.

In my previous post I was searching for ideas what to write about as my activities slowed down and ideas dried out. And I got a suggestion that I find interesting – to write about re-reading the same book, seeing the same films multiple times and listening to the same piece of music over and over again. The suggestion came from a person who I find a sharp and rather tough critic. So, I will be writing with some trepidation but also with curiosity and interest concerning comments I may receive at the end of this exercise. Thank you kvd for the suggesting the subject.

Re-reding books.

There are many  reasons why I read. Sometimes for fun, sometimes in hope that I might find answers to my existential questions, sometimes to learn something specific…Many reasons really.

My list of books I would like to read has always been very long and still is, so it seems to be a waste of time to read something that I already have read. But it did happen to me, even if not that often. When I think about the reasons for re-reading books, one very clear reason comes to  mind - re-reding for fun. There was a time when I was fascinated by the Polish writer – Joanna Chmielewska.  She wrote fun crime stories and her sense of humour had to me a particular allure. Many Poles felt the same way and her books disappeared from shops like hot cakes. In fact, books disappeared from bookshops in hours if it was a popular book, writer or a subject. Things have changed since those times. I remember when I just got the new book by Joanna Chmielewska. The book was about a crime committed in one of the Danish casinos. The title was - “The last sentence of the dead man”. The last sentence of this man was giving information where a big fortune of a gang was hidden. The Polish girl was the person who heard the last instructions. The dying man who was a part of the gang told her the secret information because of her blond wig.  He was instructed to pass the information to a blond girl. After being shot and saying his que, he promptly died leaving the critical information with the wrong person. The whole book is about the gang protecting the valuable source of information (the false blond girl), after kidnapping her from the casino and transporting on a private jet to somewhere in South America. At the same time the most convincing and handsome members of the gang tried to get the girl to recall the last sentence of the dead man which she denies to remember. The story is unbelievable but at the same time very logically unfolded to the readers. I imagine that it is very difficult to comprehend that, but this is a very clever book and very funny in its logical way. Starting to read it I was not able to put it away and was reading it without a break until I finished it at some early hours of the next day. I have many books of the same author and they all look very shabby by comparison to other of my books on the shelves. Typically, my books after reading look like new regardless how many pages they may have. Not Chmielewska. The books of the times - 60ties – 70ties were not the most robustly published but the reason for my books being shabby was that I and my friends read them several times.

                                              

I looked up Chmilelewska in Wikipedia and found out more about her than I had expected. She became widely published when the communism was over and became some sort of a national celebrity.

I got carried away with memories and went away from the initial subject of re-reading books.

It was the time when I spent some years in Poland after my Australian working years. It was like coming back to the old country, the one I even did not know well and understood rather poorly. So much has changed. I had a lot of time on my hands and a lot of books on the shelves of the place I lived in. Good old classics. It was a good opportunity to re-read some of them. So, The Magic Mountain of Thomas Mann landed up on my reading table but I did not go too far with it. It seems to be a cursed book for me. Something happens that makes me put the book away for long period of time. But I have read in this time The War and Peace the second time. I think it made a similar impression on me as my first reading when I was around twenty years old. Maybe I responded less romantically to Natasha Rostova’s love for Andrei Bolkonsky? Maybe this part of the book is better received by young impressionable girls? Anyhow, I liked the book the second time around as well but there were no fireworks. I was more impressed by Herman Hesse I read at this time and for the first time.

I think I stop this post as I am starting to feel boredom myself so this is definitely not a good sign. Maybe watching films multiple times will open some better paths for observations.

After some reflection I realised that I got sidetracked but did not finish the subject of re-reading books. I read books again and again also for comfort. It has been most of the time - Anne of Green Gables. Which part of the novel it did not matter. There are several parts of the Anne's story. My age did not matter either. Even now I took to the hospital with me Little Women. Not quite the same thing but the same type of book. About girls basically good to the core even if with some flows of character. But good, you could rely on good winning no matter what the situation and how long it took to see the real good side of it and the characters who may have strayed for a while. So when I needed to be reassured that life is really good and my problems will come right at the end, Anne of Green Gables did the job. 

Aix-en-Provence

                                     

There was another book I reread several times. Once again it was a book about school girls. But not very good girls this time. It is a series of Claudine books written by Colette. A scandalous writer married to an older man, flirtatious no matter  if objects of the flirt were women or men. Most likely women though. I do not feel that I would like to explore all the reasons why I was so fascinated by the books. Language was one of the attractions, Provence another strong reason. She wrote about the district of France with such love and admiration of its foods, smells, colours that it was impossible not to fall in love with Provence even without seeing it. And when I eventually saw it there were no disappointments. Calissons and coffee at one of the street cafes of Aix-en-Provence and fragrance of lavender  in the air were something I will always remember and marvel over.

This little sweet deserves a special poem, but since I could not write such a thing, I feel that it deserves a post at least. I would like to write it.

To Kill a Mockingbird

        

I read quite a lot of books mentioned or recommended by one of my Polish friends, Raf. I perhaps would have never read To Kill a Mockingbird if not for his passing comment that the book is remarkable. That and my guilty conscious (have I mentioned that I am a specialist in GUILT?) not having read such a famous book, featured for a long while on many short lists of must-reads. Now, I had a chance to redeem myself and I took it. I was a little surprised that my local library had a lot of school versions of the book but none in the form and length that was originally written. I got a copy from another library and having started to read I understood why my library has so many abridged versions but few originals. It is a book for school youth taught in many countries around the 8^th grade. But it is also a book for adults. For good, decent grownups or for children who we want to be trained to be sensitive, good, caring, tolerant individuals later on. I like very much the sentiments masterfully conveyed in the book and at the same time think that they may be a little (or a lot) outmoded. It seems to me that the core values of current societies are so different to those promoted by the book that young people may laugh at them or at least doubt in them. I sincerely hope I am very wrong.

                                      

Thinking more about the book I remembered the part when Dill Harris, the young friend of the main characters Scout and Jem, cries during the court case of a black person accused of rape of a white girl. Observing the proceeding Dill cannot cope with injustice he sees as he realises that the innocent person will be punished even if the accused is so obviously innocent. The boy cries because he realises the horror of people blindness caused by prejudice towards those who are different in some ways. Like having different skin colour. An older man says, Dill cries because he is still a very young and has not lost his innocence. This allows him to see how wrong and tragic is the situation of the accused. He has not been influenced by the society. He does not have any preconceived views on life yet. But while his innocence protects him from being like others, he is going to lose it and, in few years, he will not cry in similar situations and wrongs will not pain him in the same way. If I take this message as a lesson I see why the book may be embraced by young children, before they lose their ethical virginity.  This makes me retract my earlier doubts, at least to some extent.

The crying boy stands on the  right obviously in a different mood this time. Apparently the character of Dill was based on Truman Capote when he was a child. 

                                     

I am still afraid that in the current times with technology giving information to even very young they must see what happens around them and what values are important to be successful, popular, macho, admired, rich and famous… And they see that many countries in the world are currently ruled in populistic manner and that the need for truthfulness seems to be forgotten by many nations. People like Trump, Erdogan, Putin, the Polish leader and many others lie blatantly and too many people do not seem to have a need to stop and think if they are not pulled wool over their eyes. They vote for dishonest, racist, misogynistic politicians as long as they see some benefits for themselves in the election promises. It seems to be difficult to find an honest politician who really wants the best for their country. They seem to want the best for themselves. Australia was always, in my eyes, more upstanding in its politics, but this seems to belong to the past. The same seems to happen to the values of the citizens. Again, I hope I am wrong.

Looks that I have complicated the subjects again, but my mind meanders sometimes and finds new unexpected associations. Returning to the book I liked it for its language, humour, sentimentality and life lessons. I got reminded of some life rules that I may have not paid attention too lately. Like:

“It is not necessary to tell all you know. Folks do not like to have somebody around knowing more than they do.”

OR

“One must lie under certain circumstances and at all times when one cannot do anything about them.” This one will be always difficult for me to follow.

9 out of 10 for me.to be allowed to be killed.

I stay with the question : Are any Mockingbirds still around? I mean human ones who are too beautiful inside to be killed. I am sure they are even if not in politics.

New Boy - Otello

I have been reading the Shakespeare re-telling books one after one, without any other books in between. They are all interesting and written in a different style and set in  different times. As I start a new book I am curious how this particular author will treat his famous master and follow with the own story. This is like musical variations, the stories come up from time to time to a point to remind the reader of the original and then follow its own rhythm changing the melodies depending on imagination of the new person that now tells the story.

                                                         

I realized that if I am to write about what I have read I should do it before the next book takes over my thinking. When I was writing about Macbeth I was already reading New Boy, retelling of Otello, and I was too involved in the new book so Macbeth was already a pale past to me. Now, I am in a similar situation. New Boy impressions have faded a bit as I am half way through The Gap of Time – The Winter’s Tale. So, I will need to make an effort to recall my earlier impressions.

I liked New Boy and think that the subjects related to being different and because of that ostracized are very much of interests today. The new Otello story is set, again in the 70ties, similarly to Macbeth. It takes place in a school in one of the affluent Washington D.C. suburbs where a black boy, a son of a diplomate from Ghana joins the school. He is the first black student in the school causing consternation among children and even more so amongst teachers. He is different and this is why he needs to be suspected of unexpected and treated as worth less and knowing less than other children. He is our 11-year-old Otello. A clever boy who already has experience in being a new boy as his father’s post change quite often. He is coping quite well especially that Dee, our young Desdemona, likes him for being different and by that interesting to her. She represents another possible reaction to those who are different. And then the school bully, Ian-Iago, comes into action and his intrigue that takes over the mind of Oise.

The story of the original Otello takes only few days and the story in New Boy follows the pattern taking a very short span of time, one school day only. When the mind of Oise is poisoned with jealousy and unreasonable ideas and pictures come to his mind one starts to wonder how it is possible that he in spite of earlier evidence of Dee being a “nice girl” can turn against her in such a crude and rude manner. Is this realistic? Exaggerated? Untrue psychologically? It seems so and yet I was able to observe another unreasonable Otello who maintained that a child was not his in spite of all evidence and looks to the contrary. There was no killing in this story but there was violence, a lot of pain and the relationship was ruined for the rest of its formal duration. Since I saw such a story happening in a “normal” life, I accept the New Boy story as totally plausible and by that its re-telling of value in helping to understand human nature, imperfect and bizarre as it sometimes is.

The drama of the new Otello is gripping even if the reader most likely knows it and there are no surprises even if I caught myself on hoping for a sort of a happy end.

This is my second book by Tracey Chevalier. I have read Girl with a Pearl Earring and it made an impression on me when I read it. Vermeer is one of my favourite painters, it has been since the first time I saw The Milkmaid in the Rijksmuseum.  Seeing another of my favourite paintings on a cover of a book, I bought the book and liked it a lot. I still remember the scene of piercing the Vermeer’s model’s ear and the pain she took without flinching. The scenes in the fish market of Delft also made a lasting impression on me. I almost could smell the fishy smells and feel dampness of the fish market air on my face. Gee, I am getting poetic here, but they were my authentic and lasting impressions for which I salute the author.  

I would rate New Boy highly, 8 out of 10, for its relevance to the current times, well told story, interesting setting and possibly opening the subject of prejudice and its consequences to young generations.

Commissioner Macbeth

Birnam Wood takes a  form  of Bertha Locomotive in this version of Macbeth

Re-telling Shakespeare has to be controversial. My impression after reading the new version of the Merchant of Venice was very positive.  Maybe because the book only loosely followed the original story that served as canvas on which Jacobson explored the subjects related to being Jewish. It is a highly intellectual book and by that seems appropriate in its seriousness to be linked with Shakespeare. The story of Macbeth re-told by Jo Nesbo is different. This was my first book by this particular author that I have read and most likely will be the last. Not my type of a book even if I read it with interest and give the author credit for the style and the way he tells the story keeping the reader’s attention.

One point of retelling Shakespeare is to prove its value and application in the current times and in varied genres of novels. I would say that Shakespeare lands itself beautifully to be told in the form of a modern crime story. There are enough of murders in so many of them to satisfy a Scandinavian crime writer.

Macbeth in the Nesbo’s story is a police commissioner who gets corrupted under influence of his Lady and his own thirst for power. Quite like in the original. The circles of power are set appropriately to the current times. Politicians, police and the drug world cooperate, fight, scheme and generally form the town power center that rules the life of the town and its people. Populism of the current politicians so prevalent in real life is clearly visible in the book. Most of the crimes are committed to create a happy environment for the citizens of the not-named town. Everything is done for the higher good. In this sense the book is written, as so many Scandinavian crime stories, with social conscience and preaching a little. Not very convincingly this time.

Macbeth is a likable figure almost through the whole book. He commands the murders but tries to keep away from making his own hands dirty as far as he can. Duff – Macduff tells us that Macbeth cannot kill a defenseless man. Even if there were some exceptions to this rule this was only to protect others, like Duff himself. His weakness for and dependence on Lady makes his character somehow soft and maybe because of that likable. Top dog with underdog characteristics. Strange, but this is how it worked for me. Lady is the owner of the most exclusive casino in the town, clever, scheming, manipulating and beautiful. Like in the original. The whole book is sequentially faithful re-telling of the Shakespeare Macbeth. One could ask what is the reason for the exercise of re-telling? One possibility is that this is a way to familiarize people with the story and dynamics behind it, so they get the idea of the classic without reading it. In my case I have found out the opposite. After reading the book I know how Nesbo writes and I know that I do not have a desire to continue reading his books. I have no better perspective of the classic masterpiece. I wonder how I will react to the remaining Shakespearean books, but I somehow lost the initial enthusiasm and do not expect fireworks.

Back to Macbeth – My view is that it is a well written crime story respecting the sequence of events and I generally liked it.  I have reservations concerning psychological viability of many character changes. This is mostly sloppily done, but maybe this kind of a book does not need to be psychologically pedantic? I would disagree, though. The changes of Lady who at some point loses her way and leaves Macbeth on his own do not ring psychological truth to me. After Lady is mentally out of the game Macbeth’s political acumen and insight are not enough to lead the intrigue into a successful completion. Her mental abilities are temporarily revived to push the action a bit further until such a time when a splendid catastrophe can complete the story.

My next book is re-telling Otello - New Boy by Tracey Chevalier. I like the begging already.