Joe Gould's Teeth by Jill Lepore (2016)

A brief history of New York City eccentric Joe Gould (1889-1957), and his legendary and massive "Oral History of Our Time."

Book Review:  What a novel this would have made: a search for the work of a mysterious, eccentric cum madman, destitute and homeless, compulsively writing one impossibly long book over 30 years, his opus scattered across city and state, ragged remnants pieced together as from an archaeological dig. A ragged, smelly, infested friend to the great writers of his time. Think some distant cousin of Ignatius J. Reilly. Or some nearly extra-terrestrial mashup of Vic Chesnutt, Karl Ove Knausgaard, Frederick Exley, and Harry Smith. But, stranger than fiction, Jill Lepore has written Joe Gould's Teeth, and it's better than we had any right to hope, given its fragmented source and history. Joe Gould, an alleged graphomaniac, was rumored to have written his masterwork, The Oral History of Our Time, from before the First World War till after the Second. Gould tried to copy down everything he heard from common people in everyday conversation, that was his mission. He knew Langston Hughes, E.E. Cummings, John Dos Passos, Ezra Pound, and more leading lights of the time. He was "a corpse walking" who was writing a comprehensive history of average people through transcribing every conversation he ever had. He said things like "If we could see ourselves as we really are, life would be insupportable," and that much eminence is "due, it seems to me, not as much to inherited ability as to inherited opportunity." The tragedy of Gould's tormented and twisted life was an unrequited obsession with an African-American sculptor, or as Lepore puts it: "People fall in love across the color line and other people don't love them back." He was arrested for protesting the racist movie Birth of a Nation in 1915; it's unclear from Joe's Gould's Teeth whether his alleged anti-Semitism was merely a show for the insane and anti-Semitic Ezra Pound. It is clear that he groped women with some frequency, smelly and covered with sores, infested with lice and bedbugs, as he was. He could be vicious, stalking and harassing those who disappointed him. One psychiatrist found Joe Gould "not insane but just eccentric," while another did not believe he was a kindly eccentric, but "a psychopath." He may have written thousands of pages of his opus.

The author, Jill Lepore (author of The Secret History of Wonder Woman) fell into the chasm that was Joe Gould. The result is this well-researched and documented part memoir, mostly history. The memoir part is mostly handled tastefully until the somewhat indulgent Epilogue. But that's only a hiccup given the engaging first 147 pages of detailed and sourced information that virtually reads like the novel it could have been. The major sub-plot of the book is that of New Yorker magazine writer and Joe Gould popularizer, Joseph Mitchell, who had his own bagful of problems, and saw a fun-house mirror image of himself in Gould. Mitchell eventually concluded in the second of his Gould profiles (available in a bind-up called Joe Gould's Secret, well worth the read) that the masterwork never existed. While teaching Joe Gould's Secret, Lepore wondered whether the Oral History of Our Time had existed, and decided to spend a semester investigating. She decided that Mitchell had failed to do sufficient investigation, and her research led to tantalizing clues that there may have been more Joe Gould writings than were discovered at the time. Unfortunately, her findings also undercut the legend of the Oral History: one of the more persuasive writings was a Gould anecdote about President Taft. But this is a poor fit, as the Oral History was to be the words of the common people, not the high and mighty like Taft. Other indications suggest that earlier in his life Gould had written more, less later. I read this in two long sittings and have now studied more of the readings cited in Joe Gould's Teeth (a terrible name for a good book -- read the book for the meaning). My only complaint is that Lepore, as she accuses Mitchell, seems to have run out of time, energy, or interest by the close of the book, which made a disappointing end to an impressive rest of the story. It almost seemed that Lepore felt that because of his actions Joe Gould was not morally worthy of further research, which is an odd turn for a historian. This was my first encounter with Jill Lepore, but I will be reading more of her work. {Note: when I first read this I hadn't yet read Mitchell's writings. Reading Joe Gould's Secret gave me a different perspective on Joe Gould's Teeth. In a better world, the two books would be combined as one. My recommendation is to read Mitchell before reading Lepore, but read both.} [3.5 Stars].

The Shortest Way to Hades by Sarah Caudwell (1985)

A client of one of the barristers at New Square has died accidentally, or did she? Professor Hilary Tamar investigates once again, and must travel to Greece where danger awaits.

Book Review:  Sarah Caudwell's The Shortest Way to Hades, the second in her Hilary Tamar series, is another cleverly written cozy mystery, blending humor, law, heirs, London, friendship, cricket, Greece, wills, and much, much more. If you enjoyed Caudwell's first book (Thus was Adonis Murdered) you can't help but enjoy this, it's more of the same and just as good. First, there is Caudwell's wonderful writing, which seemed to flow a touch more easily in this than the first book: "A town, one can hardly deny it, in every sense provincial; but with the faded, rather sluttish elegance of a provincial beauty who a long time ago spent a season in the capital." There is also the continuing friendship between Julia and Selena in The Shortest Way to Hades, which warms the cockles of my heart. Here, Selena sails the Greek coast and an overconfident Professor Tamar ("I am a scholar, ... Few mysteries are impenetrable to the trained mind.") travels there to investigate the mystery. Again, some of the story is told by letters from abroad, but not quite so much as in Adonis. There is a little less focus on all the barristers, but more on Selena in this one. Typically, I unhaul books as I read them (I want all my books to be my TBR), but the four books in the Hilary Tamar series are such treasures (and perhaps hard to find) that I'm going to keep them. Well, enough said. If this sounds like your cup of tea, go read Thus was Adonis Murdered. Then, if you enjoyed Adonis, you're sure to enjoy The Shortest Way to Hades, enjoy! [4 Stars]

Haiku by Richard Wright (1998)

A collection of 817 haiku from over 4,000 written by Richard Wright (1908-1960), the American author of Black Boy and Native Son, in the last 18 months of his life.

Poetry Review:  This took me forever: 800+ haiku is too many to read straight through -- I could only read a few at a time because they needed to percolate and I needed to ponder. Typically, when reading (not reviewing) poetry, I sample a few here and there, dipping in and out of a book as the spirit strikes. But in this case I deliberately read each in order, and it was worth it; these are wonderful poems. Haiku, The Last Poems of an American Icon (the version I have), is a collection of haiku mostly written in the "traditional" 5/7/5 syllable format, in 1959-60. Many people like this structured format, and these are fantastic examples of that. In part because Japanese syllable count doesn't translate well into English, many haiku poets (in English or Japanese) no longer adhere to the traditional format, and for some the 5/7/5 structure is considered overly confining or old-fashioned. That said, these are well written 5/7/5 haiku, some of the best I've ever seen. Sure, there's some padding here and there in Wright's Haiku, but overall I enjoyed these haiku as is, and Wright shows that a great writer is a great writer. If you want an introduction to haiku (different, perhaps, than your first encounter with haiku in elementary school), this is a good accessible starting point. Obviously Richard Wright comes from his own history, but only a few of haiku reflect an overt social perspective, such as:

   What giant spider spun
   That gleaming web of fire-escapes
   On wet tenements?

or,

   After the sermon,
   The preacher's voice is still heard
   In the caws of crows.

Most address nature in universal and sharp detail:

   In the still orchard
   A petal falls to the grass;
   A bird stops singing.

Rain, crows, trees, mist, scarecrows, magnolias populate these poems. If you want to read English-language haiku, by a great author, with observations that will speak to you, Richard Wright's Haiku is your book. It also contains an Introduction by Wright's daughter, 40 pages of Notes on the Haiku, and a 60 page Afterword that goes into deeper detail about haiku in general and Wright's haiku in particular (this wasn't my favorite explication of haiku, but it was an okay primer).

Now I want to talk to the more experienced or serious haiku readers. Just because his haiku are mostly 5/7/5, doesn't mean these aren't good. Wright is not a dilettante or hobbiest. He shows the influence of Basho and, especially, Issa. He follows Shiki's advice to write haiku on a specific topic over and over to find the perfect (or at least best) iteration; many of the same topics repeat throughout his poems, to their benefit. I'm not going to discuss whether these are haiku or senryu, but Wright is conscious of, and incorporates, the concepts of yugen, sabi, and wabi (all discussed in the Afterword). Some insightfully investigate zen, paradox, and memory from the perspective of an ailing black man in France:

   There is nobody
   To watch the kitten playing
   With the willow tip.

Wright's haiku must have also influenced another of my favorite poets, Etheridge Knight, to write haiku, and are a valuable part of the history of English-language haiku. Two final points about the book. First, race is rarely directly addressed in Haiku, but when it is I believe Wright was trying to address the universality of race, that black or white we're all really the same. If so, this was a major statement by this author (dissertation subject waiting). Second, the line "how lonely it is" repeats in various haiku, and lines mentioning loneliness reoccur. In one sense a good haiku should evoke the feeling of loneliness, without resorting to the word. But Wright, knowing this, did not feel constrained from using it, which I believe shows how powerful, overwhelming, that feeling was for him, in the last 18 months of his life. These poems must have served as a kind of therapy for a sick man, a vehicle for his memories, and a way to keep creating as he was dying, something he could do even when bed-ridden. If you love haiku, you will find something to love in Richard Wright's Haiku. [4.5 Stars]

Elephant Bangs Train by William Kotzwinkle (1971)

Sixteen short (some quite short) and wildly diverse stories, fables, tales from other lands, and more, works from a free, soaring, and definitely untamed imagination.

Book Review:  The stories in Elephant Bangs Train are each different and unique as a fingerprint. If they were not so well-written and constructed, it would seem that no two were written by the same hand. But they were, by the masterful William Kotzwinkle, whose words flow windswept through the pages, pushing the reader along like leaves in a storm. And each story is its own story: Kotzwinkle writes of cutting mastodons from the ice, second graders, a Native American and his motorcycle, a developmentally disabled 35-year old, Boy Scouts, psychedelic Euro-trash, a boy and his dog, an angry elephant (title story), the love of a rag picker for the concubine of a Chinese Emperor, racy pulp fiction ("A True Nurse Romance"), the Northwest Mounted Police, a boy and his baby sitter, the world's greatest liar, an aging elephant and his mahout, and more. Elephant Bangs Train has something for everyone. Overall the stories are not overtly realistic, and often read more as fables, fairy tales, or anecdotes from a larger life. All astonishingly well-written. My favorite stories were "Tiger Bridge" and "Elephant's Graveyard." I've purchased every William Kotzwinkle title I've ever seen, and never been disappointed. My one caveat about the author is that at times the stories seem to lack an emotional connection, an inner life I can relate to; I can be amazed at his cleverness and skill, but still not quite reach a fully satisfying conclusion. It's as if Kotzwinkle is almost too talented and imaginative for his own good, and loses a little soul along the way. Still, Elephant Bangs Train is a wonderful and enjoyable read, brilliant in ability and creation. {note: Goodreads lists this as first published in 1969, but it was 1971}[3.5 Stars]

Rome in Rome by Bill Knott (1978)

The third full book by American poet Bill Knott (1940-2014).

Poetry Review:  Bill Knott is an obscure American poet, but aren't most poets in America obscure? He made a small splash with his first two books, The Naomi Poems (1968) and Auto-Necrophilia (1971), and published three chapbooks between 1969 and 1974: Aurealism, Nights of Naomi, and Love Poems to Myself. Poems from all of those were included in his Selected and Collected Poems (1977). But Rome in Rome is the book where Bill Knott's later voice starts to be heard. He no longer appended his fictitious life dates, as on earlier books, and he stepped back from the full-on surrealism of Nights of Naomi. In that chapbook I felt I understood Knott about 10% of the time; with Rome in Rome I think I get him about 60% of the time. Here he combines surrealism with his own voice, to create images of an average man submerged in a surreal world not of his making or understanding. The poems are full of puns, wordplay, and rhyme, such as these lines from one dedicated to Carolyn Kizer:

   Venus-proud feet up the sidewalk
   Leave brief seas without a halt
   And cowed I must follow to lick
   Utter soleprints for my salt

Or these lines from "Fellatio Poem":

   When
   you come the clash
   hyphenates
   my ears.

Knott is willing to deal in obscenity, still willing to shock, but perhaps with more control, with more purpose. I hate to say this about Knott, but these poems seem more mature, as if he's begun growing into the poet he will become. Most of the poems are longer (even sonnets), and they have titles now (instead of most being titled "Poem"). The short poems, which were a strength in his earlier books, still occur here, but even those have matured:

   This island has
   Been discovered by a great explorer,
   But fortunately,
   News of the discovery
   Has not reached here yet.

And this one:

   POLAND THRU THE CENTURIES a touring
   Exhibition of maps drawn
   By German and Russian cartographers reveals
   There never was a Poland.

Rome in Rome is Knott forming his voice, telling us about the absurdity of the world we live in, accessible and surreal. [3.5 Stars]

Robinson by Muriel Spark (1958)

Three survivors of a plane crash encounter the solitary lord of a tiny island.

Book Review:  A woman and two men stranded on an island named Robinson, owned by a man named Robinson, inhabited by a man named Robinson. What does it all mean? Muriel Spark's second book moves from the sparkling wit of her first novel, The Comforters, to character-study, religion, and a touch of philosophy; all of Spark's books are radically different from the one preceding. Our protagonist in Robinson is a strong woman, January Marlow, assertively feminine ("I don't feel quite myself without make-up"), standing up for herself in this strange land, and doing what she needs to survive. She keeps a journal while on the island with the thought that she might "later dress it up for a novel." One of the men is aggressive and offensive, the other gentle and sensitive. Robinson is distant, judging, and intends to maintain his authority. This short book contains multitudes: violence, blood, death, superstition, religion, belief, and more. We learn to know well all the characters, and then follow their interactions, including Miguel, a young boy both independent and at the mercy of the forces dancing about him. In the end, the reader cannot help seeing the religious symbolism at the heart of the book, but I think Spark goes into the symbolism for a penny, not a pound. It is simply coextensive with the story, the plot, the characters, but does not overwhelm or subsume them. You can enjoy Robinson without the symbolism, and you can enjoy the symbolism while still absorbing the story. A quick and excellent read, enjoyable and mildly challenging at the same time. Enjoy the story, let your thoughts be provoked, or both. {note; Goodreads lists this as first published in 1954, but it was first published in 1958}[4 Stars]

Thus Was Adonis Murdered by Sarah Caudwell (1981)

When an English barrister is accused of murder in Italy, an investigation is conducted from London by her colleagues, five members of the English Bar, under the supervision of a scholar of international repute.

Book review:  Thus Was Adonis Murdered, the first in Sarah Caudwell's Professor Hilary Tamar series, is a mystery story, simultaneously entertaining, humorous, lawyerly, and very English. A humorous version of the British "cozy" mystery. It's also largely narrated (by the indeterminate scholar of international repute) in an elevated tone and syntax that typically ends with a punch line, to wit: "Indeed, it is a benevolent dispensation of Providence that those who express most dread of an unorthodox advance are usually those whom Nature has most effectively protected from any risk of one." Deciphering such lines may not be everyone's cup of tea, but it's all part of the fun in Thus Was Adonis Murdered along with Oxford-Cambridge rivalry ("By whom ... or, to adopt the Cambridge idiom, who by?"), legal jargon, and the intriguing barristers (Julia, Selena, Cantrip, Ragwort, Timothy, and Professor Tamar) we get to know along the way. The story, told long distance, is detailed through letters (whatever those are), telephone calls, the occasional investigative foray, and periodic lunches or dinners, always with wine. And yes, there is an Adonis, who has captured Julia's eye, which has caused her to be accused of murder. Sarah Caudwell is an enjoyable writer, the mystery is worthy, and if the above description is up your alley, then Thus Was Adonis Murdered is your book. [4 Stars]

Shirley Jackson: Six Best Novels

The American author, Shirley Jackson (1916-1965), well-known as the author of the oft-taught short story "The Lottery," has been having a revival lately, and a new biography, A Rather Haunted Life by Ruth Franklin, is coming out September 27. Apparently, Franklin had access to more documentation than Jackson's previous biographer, Judy Oppenheimer, who published Private Demons in 1988. Franklin's foreword to The Road Through the Wall was somewhat off-putting, so I'm a little leery of the new biography, but anticipating it nonetheless; I thought Private Demons was excellent.

Shirley Jackson completed six novels in her lifetime: The Road Through the Wall (1948), Hangsaman (1951), The Bird's Nest (1954), The Sundial (1958), The Haunting of Hill House (1959), and We Have Always Lived in the Castle (1962). None of these novels are related, but in each themes and incidents overlap. The isolated young woman, the traumatic event, the difficult family, the psychological maze, the damaged soul, the allusive building, facets of personalities, a vague aura of magic. Road, her first novel, is Jackson's growing-up book, about the perils of adolescence in darkest suburbia. In Hangsaman a young protagonist ventures into the psychological dangers of college. The Bird's Nest continues and deepens the psychological investigation of family and isolation in a young woman, newly employed. Somewhat apart from the other novels is The Sundial, about the approaching end of the world, but still with family, psychology, and danger to the fore. The Haunting of Hill House (with a protagonist now somewhat older than in Bird's Nest) is psychic terror and damage made manifest, physically alive, and We Have Always Lived in the Castle is a fully interior and exterior investigation of all of the above, including the menace of small towns begun in "The Lottery" and Road. So which are Shirley Jackson's best novels? Her novels fall into two camps, the three best and the three others. Her best are Hangsaman, The Haunting of Hill House, and We Have Always Lived in the Castle. Castle is, for me, clearly the best; I find it irresistible. The other two fight it out for second place, both being expeditions into the darkness of psychic realms, Hangsaman very interior, Haunting with psychology made physical (as Jackson also ventured with The Bird's Nest). Of the three others The Sundial is my least favorite, though still enjoyable and unique. I'm not sure I can pick between Road and Bird's Nest, but if I had to I'd lean toward putting the former just a touch ahead of the latter. All are worth reading, and to a Shirley Jackson fan, the sorrow is that she wrote so little, so that all six novels are mandatory reading, all wonderfully and sensitively written.

Stephen King said that The Haunting of Hill House was one of the greatest horror novels of all time (and dedicated Firestarter to her), but I disagree. Shirley Jackson's books are not scary or horror tales (maybe they seemed that way in the '50s?), they are journeys inside troubled minds. The only horror is that which can reside in any of us. As mentioned above, once you start reading Jackson's work you will be haunted by echoes and deja vu from her other books. I agree with those who say that Jackson wrote from her unconscious. Her writing is careful and excellently executed, but I believe her plots came from somewhere deep inside her own damaged soul, which is displayed in myriad facets throughout her six novels. In all Shirley Jackson's books are the multiple personalities within her, and us. All six are just great reading.

Now, on to those short stories ... .

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (2005)

Three students at Hailsham, an elite English boarding school, gradually learn the meaning of their lives.

Book Review:  When first I reviewed Never Let Me Go, my conclusion was that it needed a reread. So now I have. Written by Kazuo Ishiguro, the reigning master of subtlety (see Remains of the Day), this is not sci-fi, tho it may be speculative or "what if" fiction. If you read this expecting a typical science fiction tale, disappointment awaits. Ishiguro is brilliant at mood, tone, and all the quiet elements of writing that are easy for readers to glide over like fish in water, and he succeeds at that here as well. To sit down over coffee and discuss all the potential themes and ideas spun from Never Let Me Go, from smaller points such as ethical relationships among friends, to the concept of humanity and the purpose of life, well, it would take gallons of coffee. This book is generally so quiet in dealing with these issues that sometimes the point just slips by and the reader is well on into the next chapter. Reflection is essential to this book -- perfect for book clubs. There are three main elements Ishiguro is working with in Never Let Me Go to express his themes. First, he provides an abundance of detail, even unnecessary detail, about the characters, to paint their personalities, hopes, dreams, their humanity. Second, and a little less believably, he shows them accepting their lot in life almost without a murmur, apparently because of societal conditioning. And finally, he shows how society treats the characters, how they are fooled, not informed of their destiny, how information is only slowly and dimly doled out. Ishiguro shows their life of privilege at Hailsham, but also tells of much poorer conditions for others of their kind. Never Let Me Go is quite carefully written, Ishiguro works quite hard at creating a credible alternate reality. Despite his careful craftsmanship, I still had a few moments of doubt and questions about the credibility of actions (and inaction) that weren't explained. Although quite different, this book has some of the elegiac quality of the film Blade Runner, and some similarities. The themes of Never Let Me Go could be analogized to the inhumanity of slavery, as in that movie. My only real caveat regarding this impressive book was the ending. After carefully dribbling out information over the course of the book, at the end the whole explanation splashes out like the conclusion of a tired detective novel. And while adequate, it's not terribly revealing, and seemed to mildly defeat all that came before. That said, my rereading was profitable and enjoyable, and I still think it's a wonderful book, although my rating didn't change. [4 Stars]

The Bird's Nest by Shirley Jackson (1954)

When a young woman begins behaving erratically, a doctor attempts to learn what, or who, has caused the change.

Book Review:  In The Bird's Nest Shirley Jackson seems to have attempted her most traditional novel, but being Jackson it's still constructed of uneven edges and mismatched colors. Characters, both main and bit players, act in unexpected and unpredictable ways. Nothing is ever quite as it seems or as the reader expects it to be. Everything's just a little off. Even so The Bird's Nest follows a linear plot to a somewhat underwhelming climax and conclusion -- which is also not what I expected. And at the end, the cure diminishes our protagonist, she is less than she was. But the journey is well worth the read, and any Shirley Jackson fan will have to read this to encounter the versions of her themes she weaves into this book. Here again is the maturing young girl of Hangsaman, the sympathetic magic of We Have Always Lived in the Castle, the middle class proprieties of The Road Through the Wall. For me, the strongest element of The Bird's Nest is how Jackson manifests the psychological as tangible, the reader can see and touch the psychic and psychological aspects, perhaps even more so than in The Haunting of Hill House. Also, no character is perfectly capable, strong, or unflawed. And as Jackson does, the houses and buildings tell their own tales, everything seen, touched, or heard sends a message. Maybe this just misses being one of Shirley Jackson's top three reads, but holds an interest all its own. (The Bird's Nest was made into a movie, Lizzie, but I couldn't find that it's available -- unfortunately it came out about the same time as the similar The Three Faces of Eve). [3.5 Stars]

Post Office by Charles Bukowski (1971)

Henry Chinaski goes to work for the Post Office, not a match made in heaven.

Book Review:  Post Office was Charles Bukowski's first novel, at age 50. Here he introduced the adventures of his alter ego, Henry Chinaski, an alcoholic working man who pursues the poor man's pleasures of drink, sex, smoking, and horse racing, and endures the necessary evil of employment. Unlike so many novels and films in which no one ever seems to have to work for a living, in Post Office survival is a daily challenge. Bukowski presents the reality of the unnatural nature of work in America and the desperation it creates. Crushing job requirements, vicious bosses, excruciating boredom, endless hours, with no safety net, all resulting in workers being driven round the bend. Working life is presented in a series of painful anecdotes, episodes, vignettes, and the realistic depiction of work is my favorite part of Post Office. Of course, Chinaski could have made his life easier by conforming, but that's not his style. Although Chinaski is not above quitting a job on principle, eventually even he has to re-enter the rat race. The book isn't all about work, life goes on: babies are born, people have sex, get married, people die. In the life of Henry Chinaski, Post Office fits between Factotum and Women. Yes, it's sexist, profane, occasionally violent, and Chinaski is a mess of a man, but that's life and that's the charm of this dirty, drunken, sprawling, wreck of a novel. [4 Stars]

Used and Rare: Travels in the Book World by Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone (1997)

A young professional couple enters into the world of book collecting and first editions.

Book Review:  There are two kinds of readers: those who want pretty books that look pretty on their shelves, and those who only want the books' content, unconcerned with appearances (books randomly shelved filled by drunken illiterates). Of course, there's also everybody in between, which is most of us. And then there's those who have the "collecting" gene, who want first printings, fancy publications, and deluxe editions. Or maybe just to read every book issued in a series (me). Used and Rare: Travels in the Book World by Nancy and Lawrence Goldstone deals with these issues as the former Wall Street couple transform from typical book buyers into compulsively spending hundreds of dollars for a book, searching out rare book dealers in New York, Chicago and Boston, and tracking down elusive first editions (moving from "used" to "rare"). There's a lot of good talk about Steinbeck, Dos Passos, Henry James, Dickens, H.P. Lovecraft, and the other big names (Margaret Atwood comes in for a big dis). Watching the Goldstones as they traipse through bookstores, seeing the treasures they find, meeting quirky book dealers, is all good, vicarious fun. At 215 pages Used and Rare reads quickly and there are some humorous and snarky moments to enjoy, as well as some educational bits. All well enough, but beneath the surface gloss the Goldstones seemed more into buying than reading, succumbing to the superficial, more into investments than stories. At times they made funny, snarky comments, but they seemed unnaturally vengeful for minor slights suffered at the hands of the eccentrics of the book community. I hope they didn't get some underpaid bookshop flunky fired. So, Used and Rare: Travels in the Book World is an enjoyable read and a quick and easy intro to the book trade, but the enjoyment will be tempered by how you feel about the authors. Are they the happy, wealthy free spirits that they see in the mirror, or the spoiled, mean-spirited, big-name-male-author worshiping, acquisitive collectors that lurk beneath? If you're less cynical and judgmental than I am, you'll enjoy it immensely. On the last page they have a hopeful minor epiphany, but it's unclear whether it will last. [3 Stars]