Books Acquired:
Background to Danger, Eric Ambler
The Schirmer Inheritance, Eric Ambler
Pagan, W.F. Morris
Books Offloaded:
Progress Made:
The Woman Who Married a Bear, John Straley
Books Finished:
Background to Danger, Eric Ambler
Pagan, W.F. Morris
Vera, or Faith, Gary Shteyngart
[Ed. Note: This was supposed to be published three days ago, but I neglected to click the button. Oops!]
“A legend is the highest scientific statement when it is the only statement available,” the Cameroi said. “We are the people who live according to reason. It makes a good life, but it lack salt. You people have a literature of Utopias. You value their ideals highly, and they do have some effect on you. Yet you must feel that they all have this quality of the insipid. And according to Earth standards, we are a Utopia. We are a world of the third case.
“We miss a lot. The enjoyment of poverty is generally denied to us. We have a certain hunger for incompetence, which is why some Earth things find a welcome here — bad Earth music, bad Earth painting and sculpture and drama, for instance. The good we can produce ourselves. The bad we are incapable of, and must import. Some of us believe that we need it in our diet.”
—R.A. Lafferty, “Polity and Custom of the Camiroi”
That bit comes from a story in the June 1967 issue of the sci-fi pulp Galaxy, which has been among my non-book reading lately along with The New Republic, The Onion, and the Sunday New York Times when I can get it.
April was a good month for book reading, though none of it happened in the last week and a half, when we were in New Orleans. Between Jazz Fest and evening trips to restaurants and clubs, the consumption of music, food, and drink became a full-time job. In fact I am still a bit worn out, so I’m going to keep this short.
Of the three completed books, Vera exceeded my expectations — it was funny, smart, and over too soon. The other two were a bit disappointing: Background to Danger is a lesser Ambler and Pagan was not quite up to the standard of Bretherton.
Pagan is an unusual book — though the cover proclaims that it is “Casemate Classic War Fiction,” it was really more of a post-WWI romance, with the specter of the war lurking in the background. It has its merits but takes a bit too long to get where it’s going.
In May I hope to circle back and finish some stragglers. A Scanner Darkly is still out there, and The White Album, and the Vonnegut project is ongoing. But first, I think, a nap.