Epitaph of a Small Winner by Machado de Assis (1881)

After his death, a wealthy Brazilian relates his life story.

Classics Review: Epitaph of a Small Winner embodies Socrates' statement, "the unexamined life is not worth living." The great Brazilian writer Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis (1839-1908) wrote at the time of Henry James and Emile Zola. Born in poverty, grandson of freed slaves, largely self-educated. Translated from the Portuguese the literal title of the novel is The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas, but the English title makes perfect sense after completing the last page. It seems like the product of a Twentieth Century author who just happened to be writing in the bad days of the Nineteenth Century, and it's a "posthumous" novel in that it was written after the narrator has died. Constructed in 160 short, numbered chapters (my favorite is #31, "The Black Butterfly"), a wealthy and erudite dilettante who now has extensive time to ponder, recounts his life focusing on the romance of his loves, but also relating elements of philosophy and his learned observations about society, politics, and how to live. The story begins with his death: "In death, what a difference! what relief! what freedom!" Is the narrator a ghost? He doesn't have time to tell us although he engages in a constant dialog with the reader: "The great defect of this book is you, reader." Bras Cubas describes his book himself: the story and style meander "like a pair of drunks: they stagger to the right and to the left, they start and they stop, they mutter, they roar, they guffaw, they threaten the sky, they slip and fall ... ." He provides an accurate description. The narrator is humorous, cynical, pessimistic, but not hopeless. He recounts his small successes, illusions, and failures. For many who dwell on the brighter side of life Epitaph of a Small Winner will be too dark, though he notes the reader "would not have taken refuge in this book if he had not wished to escape the realistic and the commonplace." This is a novel for readers who are more skeptical, doubtful, sometimes disenchanted. One for those who think too much. As the narrator says, his reader may "have a profound and perspicacious mind (and I strongly suspect you will not deny this)." One chapter concludes with: "This is the great advantage in being dead, that if you have no mouth with which to laugh, neither have you eyes with which to cry." Even in such a short work there is so much on which to feast; upon finishing Epitaph of a Small Winner the book cries out to be read again. Preferably in a wholly different setting than you read it the first time.  [5★]

Lord Peter Views the Body by Dorothy L. Sayers (1928)

A collection of a dozen mystery stories involving Lord Peter Wimsey.

Mystery Review: Lord Peter Views the Body was published after the first three novels featuring Lord Peter Wimsey, as he'd begun to establish himself as a consulting detective of sorts, always ably assisted by his man-servant Bunter. In this first collection the stories cover a wide field. A ghoulish murder worthy of a modern-day Poe, jewel thieves, a clue deviously hidden in a crossword puzzle (back when they were new!), a grisly motorcycle race, Lord Peter engaging in blackmail, ghostly apparitions, a case of impersonation resolved by a wine tasting, a treasure hunt, and more and more. A surprising number veer toward the macabre, bordering on horror, which makes one think twice about the theological writer and noted Dante translator. My favorite story by far in Lord Peter Views the Body was "The Unsolved Puzzle of the Man with No Face." First class in every way -- ah, if that 30 pages could've been stretched to a novel. The stories seem to bounce about in time, as Wimsey varies in maturity (more or less of a twit) from case to case. If they are in fact in chronological order then Lord Peter is having mental or emotional issues. Seeing Wimsey at different points made me realize that Sayers' detective is an acquired taste. After all, not everyone can tolerate the English aristocracy, but perhaps it's easier for a foreigner who has no personal investment and can view the creature from afar as an oddity, exhibit, or amusement. Lord Peter doesn't actually view a body in every story in Lord Peter Views the Body, but this was especially enjoyable for the variety of plots, settings, and crimes. These stories were also part of the complete collection of Sayers' shorter Wimsey pieces, Lord Peter (1972).  [4★]

Striding Folly by Dorothy L. Sayers (1973)

The final three Lord Peter Wimsey stories.

Mystery Review: Striding Folly is a slender volume, more of an interest to those who prefer the family side of the LPW mysteries. Our three helpings include only one crime and are much more domestic than expected. Here we get a birth and then the sudden appearance of two more offspring, as Harriet Vane misses out on the first story, makes a momentary but momentous appearance in the second, and is in ample evidence in the third. "Striding Folly," the title piece, includes the only crime in the set, but is also the most negligible requiring a minimum of detection. As a matter of interest and oddity a couple games of chess occur, but my guess is that Dorothy Leigh Sayers was not a chess enthusiast herself. The second story, "The Haunted Policeman," is the most interesting and puzzling for the reader, but the ending while clever enough is something of letdown. Here we do get to see more of the adult aspect of Lord Peter, and the wide-ranging knowledge that enabled his success in detection. "Of its time" rears its head briefly but unpleasantly in this piece, reminding us how casually bigotry occurred and was accepted in those days. The final story is "Talboys," written in 1942, five years after the last LPW novel. Much more about the home life of Peter and Harriet than sleuthing, reminiscent of Shirley Jackson's domestic comedies. No crime fighting occurs, but there is a bit of commentary on child rearing, which might be less acceptable these days. As a collection the short Striding Folly is somewhat outdated and unnecessary, as all three pieces were also included in the complete collection of Sayers' LPW stories, Lord Peter (1972). Average, slighter than most, more personality driven than most of her work.  [3★]

The Beautiful and Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1922)

Two flawed lovers marry and live their illusions to the end.

Classics Review: The Beautiful and Damned was Fitzgerald's second novel, written at the height of his fame and success. A step forward from his first, the scattered, verbose, indulgent, but beautifully written This Side of Paradise. Still autobiographical, still energetic and emotional, but with greater control, better structure, a more consistent voice. Less rambling and philosophizing. For F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940) it's more the writing than the plot. He writes beautiful lines: any given sentence, paragraph, or page is wondrously crafted. With a sharp eye for detail he makes us see the scene as he wants us to feel it, to draw us into the story, to instill emotion in the reader. That emotion is always bittersweet, as his life seemed to be; perhaps here he saw what was to come. A genius of writing, with the sloppiness that genius can produce. The Beautiful and Damned is composed of particular moments described in exquisite detail, but the story as a whole exists only in blurry emotions. The emotions of imperfect and doomed lovers. Fitzgerald feels for his characters, cares about them, even cares about the streets on which they walk. But the characters are thin, more emotional than significant. Gloria and Anthony are not archetypes and their story is not a tragedy, though it feels like one. Superficial and atypical sybarites (most of us have to work and are not breathtakingly beautiful), they're simply self-destructive. Born wealthy they do nothing with their advantage, seeking wealth for no other purpose than childish enjoyment. Unsuited for anything but dissipation, they drink death-defying amounts of liquor waiting for their ship to come in. Two lazy, self-absorbed people who can't be bothered and make poor choices as a result. Not really adults, they don't fit the world they encounter, but don't belong anywhere else. They have no purpose in life as they believe society to be without meaning. Anthony is not sensitive or even intellectual. He's not an artist, he's a timid poser who refuses to work. He achieves nothing, barely even tries to achieve. A hollow man, Anthony believes he has dignity and integrity, but is pathetic because despite that belief he's unreliable and deceitful. Gloria lives for her beauty, her effect on men, and the attention it brings. Gloria evokes more pity in us, but they're both pitiful, not tragic. Their lives are like the last hour of prom. Spoiled and self-pitying, moving toward an inevitable downfall. In The Beautiful and Damned Fitzgerald paints the downward spiral beautifully, with feeling, passion, pathos, and precision. His description of their descent into hell is hypnotic in the same way one cannot turn from a roadside accident. The worse things get the more Fitzgerald is in his element. His sensitivity to the disaster of humanity steals inside the reader's mind, slips past defenses, touches us even when we refuse. Gloria and Anthony are simply weak, not flawed. There is no fall to make it tragic because they never rose up, never aspired, never accepted responsibility for anything. They never grew up. At its heart, The Beautiful and Damned is an unlovely and disagreeable story, but it's written so well. Everything by Fitzgerald, even when he's not at his crystalline best, is worth reading.  [3½★]

The Abbess of Crewe by Muriel Spark (1974)

A new Machiavellian Abbess confronts challenges of her own making in the Abbey at Crewe.

Book Review: The Abbess of Crewe is a thin blooded cabbage, its many ideas left on the vine for the reader to ripen. One of the lesser of Spark's 22 novels: little happens, little is developed, little is resolved, and it's well padded. But it's short (despite the padding), endlessly intriguing, and even when the subject is nuns Muriel Spark can write like the devil. She doesn't seem heavily invested here, but the writing is as always first rate and intelligence peeks out from every line. More cleverness in a paragraph than most authors can pack into a chapter. The title character, Sister Alexandra, is strong and irresistible, reminiscent of Miss Jean Brodie herself. We don't really like what she does, but we root for her nonetheless. Most of the story rests on the character of Sister Alexandra, regardless of her actions she carries the whole weight of the book, the plot and other characters become secondary. We should be cheering for the self-actualizing (and aptly named) Sister Felicity, but she becomes the villain of the piece.  The Abbess of Crewe has been called "an allegorical treatment of the Watergate scandal." While that tawdry episode was an influence, indeed the seed from whence it grew, the novel is far more interesting apart from the allegory, making possible parallels ultimately unpersuasive. Sister Alexandra is no Richard Nixon, scheming though she is. Instead she intertwines art, mythology, and Catholicism. She recites English poetry rather than devotions; "we have entered the realm of mythology," she says; the Church is the microcosm of the world. All of this is laid out by Spark in The Abbess of Crewe, leaving it to the reader to perfect the ideas introduced.  [3½★]

The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy L. Sayers (1928)

An elderly general is found dead one afternoon in his comfy chair at the Bellona Club, but the disposition of his estate hinges on the exact time he expired.

Mystery Review: The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club is the fifth Lord Peter Wimsey mystery (counting the prior short story collection) by Dorothy L. Sayers (1893-1957). Love that oh-so-British title. By now Lord Peter is less of a twit and is growing into his detective role. The plot is slow and deliberately paced, but as the puzzle unravels halfway through, a second riddle appears to cloud the story. A clever mystery which should elude all but the most perceptive readers (which genus did not include me). Sayers admirably evokes England in the Twenties, still grotesquely and profoundly haunted by the Great War, giving the reader the sense of stepping in and out of a time machine. The caste system is well in evidence, a clear line drawn between those who dine at their clubs with loyal staff at hand, and the servants themselves. Having packed my patience, The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club was an enjoyable read, not one to challenge Sherlock Holmes (who Sayers coyly gives a shout out or three) perhaps, but entertaining for the cast of characters and the adroit twists and detours along the way.  [3★]

No Time for Dancing by Adam Hammer (2010)

A posthumous chapbook published in 2010, apparently from an unfinished manuscript left by the author of Deja Everything (1979).

Poetry Review: No Time for Dancing is a short collection, 15 poems over 24 pages, from the Acme Poem Company Chapbook Series by Willow Springs Books. Valuable as it contributes to the scant legacy of lost and virtually forgotten American surrealist poet, Adam Hammer (1948-84). No one else did what he did, finding the humor in surrealism and the absurdity in our society. American Surrealism at its most incisive, with a coagulating drop of Dada. The little we have includes a chapbook from 1970, On a Train, Sleeping from Barn Dream Press and Pym-Randall Press, containing 10 poems, one of which ("Paul Jumps Every Day") is included here. Next is his only full length work, Deja Everything on Lynx House Press, which included four pieces from his 1970 chapbook. Deja Everything gave full expression to his one-of-a-kind, no-one-like-him vision, and I've reviewed elsewhere. Then we have this posthumous and penultimate collection of 15 poems published in 2010, No Time for Dancing, which is volume 1 in the Acme Poem Company Chapbook Series. One of the poems contained herein is the "Acme Poem Company," which notes that said company does not offer various services: "repairing parachutes ... french lessons to raccoons ... putting out forest files ... poison pez letters ... kneesocks for the deaf ... minnow euthanasia." There you have a forest taste of Adam Hammer. I don't know when these poems were written, before or after Deja Everything, but they have less of the exuberant humor of that work, and instead present a darker, more bitter, intense, and personal, almost at times a confessional reality. Poem titles include "How Does It Feel to Be a Nun?", "Old Couple about to Die," "Ponies Exploding in Springtime," "Fun With Death." The piece entitled "As An Intellectual" proceeds to its first line "I'm a total flop," then adds "I preface a few words with 'neo-' and 'quasi-'/ And am immediately offered a promotion." The poem "The Ocean of Wire" concludes: "You are playing/ a game of darts/ with gravity,/ and you are losing." The title poem ends "The studious mitten./ No time for dancing./ A cello is a disaster/ to a dead person" (which last two lines popped up before in Deja Everything). The collection ending poem, "It Was Night," perhaps the best in the book, begins "we were in love/ i guess/ dull evening antelopes/ moaned in the distance/ or maybe they didn't/ who cares/ we were in love ..." and goes on until "it was nice/ we got buried in lava/ that was nice/ we were very close/ we were very nice." Hammer also notes that "In France, children use their own eyelids as sails" and "What this country needs is a collie in every glove compartment." And one of my favorites:

"Gee, it's spring
And all the little deer
Are shivering in their little deer-socks
It's time to unwrap
The kittens
Whose lips are to gauze
What minnows are to springtime ... ."

Surprisingly, there was a later sighting of Hammer's work. Six of his poems were published in the Winter 2013 (33.1) issue of the impressive literary journal, Pleiades. One of which, "As Like," was selected for inclusion in the esteemed The Best American Poetry 2014. The same issue of the magazine also contained a revealing essay by Christopher Howell, "(Re)Introducing Adam Hammer," telling us a more about this lost but not-quite-forgotten poet. "Not quite forgotten," because although there are few reviews of Hammer's work on Amazon, those that are there rave ecstatically. No Time for Dancing is a welcome and valuable addition to what we know of Adam Hammer, and gives hope that more will surface of a writer who was like no other, who created poems that were individual and unique beyond cliche and influence, lost in the wide desert of American poetry.  [5★]

All the Sad Young Men by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1926)

F. Scott Fitzgerald's third story collection, published shortly after The Great Gatsby.

Book Review: All the Sad Young Men as a collection is hard to find these days. Three of the nine stories are now in Six Tales of the Jazz Age and Other Stories and most of the rest are to be found in Matthew J. Bruccoli's The Short Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald (1989) (the current standard with 43 stories, not to be confused with the previous standard collection, Malcolm Cowley's The Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald (1951) with 28 selections. These pieces were written before and after Gatsby and explore some of the same themes and thoughts. The stories are:

"The Rich Boy" - Contrary to his usual theme, Fitzgerald addresses the failures, disappointments, and emptiness that await even the wealthy. Excellent, but without the vibrant emotion usually found in his stories. Includes the oft-misquoted line: "Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me."

"Winter Dreams" - A sketch in anticipation of The Great Gatsby. A middle class but ambitious boy falls in love with a rich girl. In some alternate reality this is the backstory to Fitzgerald's greatest work. One of the better stories of this collection.

"The Baby Party" - The most interesting and simplest story here. Two married couples battle following a children's play date (seemingly a birthday party). The incident causes a father to examine his feelings of constraint and pride regarding his child. Better than the other married couple stories.

"Absolution" - In events leading up to making his confession a young boy learns that the world is not as he thought it was. Fitzgerald said that this story "was to have been the prologue to that novel [Gatsby] but it interfered with the neatness of the plan." Fortunately it wasn't made part of that story. Interesting piece, could've been set in Ireland, and I wonder if it was influenced by Joyce.

"Rags Martin-Jones and the Pr-nce of W-les" - A young man attempts to break through the blase ennui of the most desirable woman in the world. A fantasy of creativity and desire among the very rich.

F. Scott once told his daughter: "I guess I am too much a moralist at heart and really want to preach at people in some acceptable form rather than entertain them." This attitude is reflected in three stories with unhappy husbands and insufficiently submissive wives from All the Sad Young Men:

"The Adjuster" - A young wife and mother still wants to enjoy life after marriage, but in a harsh lesson learns the error of her ways. A generally unpleasant story with an even more unpleasant moral. Judgmental and a bit prudish.

"Hot and Cold Blood" - A husband and soon-to-be father is goaded by his wife into selfishness, but soon learns the error of his ways. A more palatable moral, but still a harsh lesson for the shrewish wife.

"The Sensible Thing" - Not one of the married couple stories. Another of Fitzgerald's stories about a young man trying to make good to win the much sought after girl of his dreams.

"Gretchen's Forty Winks" - A young wife and mother refuses to delay gratification for six weeks even to achieve their fortune, so her husband masterfully takes matters into his own hands.

All the Sad Young Men is a mixed bag as short story collections, even Fitzgerald's, are wont to be. The stories about married couples are weaker on the whole than the others, showing Fitzgerald in transition from chronicler of the Jazz Age to suburban parent. As usual he brilliantly conveys levels of emotion, inhabits the feelings, fears, and hopes of his characters. All beautifully written with insight and a fine eye for the telling detail. Well worth reading for the better tales, if you can tolerate the pedantic stories.  [4★]