Wednesday Reading Meme

[osprey_archer]

What I’ve Finished Reading

Vivien Alcock’s The Mysterious Mr. Ross, which is delightfully peculiar. Our heroine, Felicity (Fliss for short, which I loved) lives in the rundown seaside guest house that her mother runs. One day, she saves a stranger from the dangerous tides - but he’s injured in the process, and ends up recuperating in the guest house, where questions gather around him because he’s lost his luggage and his identification - everything but his name, Albert Ross. Which sounds like albatross…

What strikes me as oddest about Alcock’s books, I think, is the fact that she doesn’t seem to feel any compulsion to solve the mysteries she sets up: we never do learn where Albert Ross comes from, or if (as Felicity half-wants to believe) he’s an albatross transformed into human form. In another book, I might find this frustrating, but it really works for Alcock: it gives the story a sense of mystery and magic (even though, in this case, there may not be any magic at all), and in any case the important question is not “Who is Mr. Ross?” but “is he dangerous?” - and this question does get answered: he isn’t.



And I finished George Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia, which has really driven home to me how little I know about the Spanish Civil War, despite having taken a Spanish film class that could have been titled “Sex and Civil War: The Art of Spanish Cinema.” (Sometimes at the same time, as in the joint Spanish-Mexican production The Devil’s Backbone.) But I do know enough to know that Franco won in the end, which makes Orwell’s hope that the Spanish socialists might prevail painfully touching. But even though the war was still raging as he wrote, he already knew that the possibility of genuine socialist revolution had been squashed - and by the USSR, at that.

And also Booth Tarkington’s Seventeen: A Tale of Youth and Summer Time and the Baxter Family Especially William, which I found delightful in the main: the book gently pokes fun at young love (our hero, seventeen-year-old William, falls for a girl who is visiting down the street), which offers fertile ground both in the raptures of the young lovers and the irritation of the people around them who are forced to contend with their silliness.

I particularly like William’s little sister, ten-year-old Jane, who wreaks havoc with his love life, occasionally unintentionally but most of the time definitely intentionally. She acts not so much out of malice as sheer childish love of pranks, although of course William, enrapt in the throes in young love, can only see it as an attempt to spoil all his happiness for life.

What I’m Reading Now

It was only a matter of time before I checked to see if Gutenberg had any William Heyliger books, and indeed, they had one that I haven’t read before! You’re on the Air! is about a young man pursuing his dream to have a career in radio.

What I Plan to Read Next

I’ve stocked a bunch of e-books for my trip. Up next… perhaps William Dean Howells’ A Foregone Conclusion?

Comments

[skygiants]

Most of what I know about the Spanish Civil War is also due to Orwell and Homage to Catalonia, and I also finished the book and immediately thought to myself that I ought to learn more - Orwell's view is fascinating but also so particular.

(The volume I read included a number of Orwell's book reviews of books he himself thought were more or less useful and interesting on the topic, but unfortunately I forgot to write any of them down before returning the book!)

[osprey_archer]

My copy had no book reviews! Now I feel cheated.

[marycatelli]

Yeah. Orwell definitely had his blindspots.

[troisoiseaux]

I do know enough to know that Franco won in the end, which makes Orwell’s hope that the Spanish socialists might prevail painfully touching.

Oof. There's nothing like authors from past centuries being very optimistic about the future/confident in the outcome of things that don't end up happening the way they thought they would, for an unintentionally poignant emotional impact...

[osprey_archer]

Right? And in this particular case, Orwell lived long enough to see himself proven wrong, so you know he had to suffer the agonies of defeat, too.

[oracne]

William Heyliger sounds interesting....

[osprey_archer]

William Heyliger wrote boy's books in the first half of the twentieth century, about Boy Scouts or sports or young men making it in their chosen careers. They're VERY earnest, which I realize is not everyone's cup of tea, but I find them soothing.

[kore]

The Spanish Civil War really was shoved down the memory hole, so to speak, probably because nobody who had the power to do anything comes out looking at all good. I've heard a lot about how it foreshadowed WWII in ways, but haven't followed up on that....

[osprey_archer]

Maybe it was outside of Spain, but in Spain it's still very much alive: there are loads and loads of Spanish movies about it, for instance.

I think elsewhere it did end up getting overshadowed by World War II, perhaps partly because no one looks good in the Spanish Civil War, but also because lots more countries were directly involved in World War II.

[sovay]

Vivien Alcock’s The Mysterious Mr. Ross, which is delightfully peculiar.

I love this novel, so I am always glad when someone else likes it, too. I do read it supernaturally, but I agreed it is not necessary in order for the story to work.

[osprey_archer]

I like that Alcock doesn't close off the possibility. He might be a regular (well, slightly weird) human, or he might be an albatross, or he might be... well, we just don't know! That's the beauty of it.

[rachelmanija]

I loved The Mysterious Mr. Ross. Often I feel cheated by unsolved mysteries, but in this case I felt like I had enough info to construct my own explanation.

[osprey_archer]

Yes, in this case I think it really helped that there are two separate mysteries: "Who is Mr. Ross?" and "Is Mr. Ross conning us?" They're presented as intertwined to the point of being the same thing, but in fact they're different, and the second one does get solved, which I think makes the lingering mystery of the first question feel pleasantly mysterious instead of irritatingly inconclusive.