2011 Reading in Review

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Lewis Carroll and James Joyce

While talking about my favorite books with my wife, she pointed out the the conjunction of James Joyce and Lewis Carroll was not nearly so unlikely as it might seem with only a moment's consideration.  In fact, it makes a great deal of sense.  The playfulness that I love in Ulysses (and even more in Finnegans Wake ) is already present in Carroll as a kind of verbal surrealism.  "It's a poor sort of memory that works only backwards."  But most particularly in the dialogue of Humpty Dumpty and Alice, in which Humpty explains: from Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There Lewis Carroll `Certainly,' said Alice. `And only ONE for birthday presents, you know. There's glory for you!' `I don't know what you mean by "glory,"' Alice said. Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. `Of course you don't -- till I tell you. I meant "there's a nice knock-down argument for you!"' `But "glory" does...
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More About Torgny Lindgren

A gentle reader requested to know a bit more about Torgny Lindgren.  And so ever one to oblige those seeking knowledge about my favorite writers, you all shall be punished for his curiosity. I have only five books, I don't know how many are available in translation: The Way of a Serpent , Light ,  Sweetness ,  Bathsheba , and Merab's Beauty .  The first three that remain most vividly in my mind--the first a story about a wicked landlord who collects the rent from a family in rural Sweden and when the money runs out begins to exploit the women of the household.  The title is taken from proverbs 30:19 the way of a serpent upon a rock; the way of a ship in the midst of the sea; and the way of a man with a maid.  (KJV) And though my recollection is at something of a distance now, at least two, and possibly all three of these is developed in the course of a very short novel.  Perhaps the best description of the book is gritty and realistic.  I...
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