Wednesday Reading Meme

[osprey_archer]

What I’ve Just Finished Reading

Lindsey Fitzharris’s The Facemaker: A Visionary Surgeon’s Battle to Mend the Disfigured Soldiers of World War I, a fascinating read if you’re interested in medical history. Definitely more about surgical history than the experience of being a WWI soldier with a face wound, but that’s probably obvious from the title if you’re not reading it from a place of “Hey, this might be useful for my book about the World War I veteran with a disfiguring facial injury!”

Although now that I’ve read The Facemaker, I think it might require more research than I want to put into it to do that idea justice. Sorry, Kip and Alec! Maybe someday your time will come.

I also finished Barbara Leonie Picard’s One Is One, which takes its title and also its mood from the line in the folksong, “One is one and all alone and evermore shall be so.” Which is to say: this book is so whumpy! Soooooo whumpy.

Stephen is the son of a medieval lord who has no use for a shy, anxious boy. His cousins and half-siblings constantly torment him about his fear of dogs. Over the course of the story, he makes friends - in fact, each section of the book is devoted to a friend - only for each friend to be wrenched away from him by traumatic death.

I read this because someone told me this was slashy, and it is, kind of, if you accept “artistic” as an analogy for “gay” - certainly Stephen is very intense about his friends, and never shows any interest in girls. And, as one of those friends tells him (on the cusp of his tragic death, of course), “Always be yourself. Do not be afraid to do what you want to do, so long as it hurts no one else. We are each of us as God made us, and if God has seen fit to make you in an uncommon mode, be brave enough to be different.”

What I’m Reading Now

Peter Hart’s Aces Falling: War Above the Trenches, 1918. Hart’s style might be described as workmanlike, but the book is studded with first-hand accounts of aerial warfare during World War I, so I will stick around a while to see if it's worth it.

Also sticking with E. F. Benson’s David Blaize at King’s for a bit to see if that’s worth it. This book is a sequel to David Blaize, the slashiest Edwardian boarding school novel in the world, which is a delight all the way through, so it’s puzzling that the follow-up should feel so inert. It begins with a charming reunion between David and Frank, then instantly flounders into a dull rugby scene and an even duller birthday party, with no sign of stumbling back out of the marshes anytime soon.

And finally, Monica Dickens’ Mariana, a welcome respite from the other two, as I’m enjoying it. This is a semi-autobiographical novel (only semi-autobiographical, as Mariana, unlike Monica, is not the granddaughter of the most famous author in Victorian England) about growing up in England in the 1920s and 30s. Currently, young Mariana is in her mid-teens and breathlessly in love with her cousin Denys.

What I Plan to Read Next

I have loaded many books on my Kindle for my journey! ALL the Biggles/Von Stalhein books, as compiled by philomytha in this helpful post; Charles Dickens’ Our Mutual Friend, at the suggestion of skygiants; Wilkie Collins’ The Woman in White, at the suggestion of littlerhymes; and William John Locke’s The Beloved Vagabond, at the suggestion of Betsy Warrington Ray in Betsy and the Great World.

Comments

[troisoiseaux]

Ooh, Our Mutual Friend!! I look forward to your thoughts! (And have a great road trip!!!)

[osprey_archer]

I've heard good things about Our Mutual Friend! It should be a good time.

[black_bentley]

Oh, The Facemaker is fantastic, I was completely fascinated by it. And I actually came to it via fiction - Pat Barker's Life Class trilogy was my first introduction to Harold Gillies!

Aces Falling remains on the TBR pile, as I was distracted by the arrival of Ira Jones's King of Air Fighters, which is full of manly swooning in the way only a book written in the 1930s can be.

I hope your trip goes well!

[osprey_archer]

I read Pat Barker's Regeneration trilogy, and meant to read more of Barker's work, then got distracted by other things. I ought to make room for Life Class though.

[rachelmanija]

It's also on my TBR pile.

[philomytha]

One is One! I have never met anyone else who has read this, but it was so formative for me along with Rosemary Sutcliff and Stephanie Plowman (if you would like another whumpy, massive-loyalty-kink children's historical novel, 'To Spare The Conquered' by Stephanie Plowman is another that holds a place in my heart, set in Roman Britain). Everyone Stephen loves dies horribly, but he is so desperately loyal to them all, it's amazing. How he wins the loyalty of his squire is just the most wonderful sequence.

And Aces Falling - yes, hard agree that the first-hand accounts are the real star of that book and the narrative prose is not inspired, but it's a good 1/3 first-hand accounts so it was worth it for that. Though the book I'm currently reading on rec from rachelmanija, 'On A Wing And A Prayer' by Joshua Levine, is better written and more wide-reaching, being about the entire experience of being a WW1 RFC pilot.

I haven't read Mariana, but I do remember enjoying Monica Dickens's 'One Pair of Hands' about the time she decided to get a job as a servant to see what it was like.

And enjoy the Biggles/EvS Epic Romance!

[osprey_archer]

It must have been you who recommended One Is One to me! Poor Stephen... first he has to have his beloved dog killed, and then his knight is horribly executed for treason, and then his poor squire dies of smallpox. Stab me in the heart. Is To Spare the Conquered just as whumpy, or does the main character get to keep at least one friend, at least? (Although the book appears to be available in about two libraries in the US, so I may not be able to get my hands on a copy anyway...)

No romance more epic than Biggles & EvS!

[phantomtomato]

David of King's is a funny novel that way. I enjoyed it overall, but I was coasting on Benson's delightful capacity to write character sketches in order to get myself through to whatever Frank interaction was next. I would say that the ending between them is still slashy, but there's definitely less of that smarm-y intimacy. I'll be looking out to see what you say either way!

[osprey_archer]

I've just finished part one, and there is less smarm than in the first book... but OTOH they do spend a lot of time buck naked together (in the baths, on the riverbanks), which is certainly an aesthetic!

[rachelmanija]

Very excited to hear your thoughts on Biggles/EvS and The Woman in White.

[osprey_archer]

I have heard that both are a wild ride, so it should be fun!

[lokifan]

the slashiest Edwardian boarding school novel in the world

I suspect that's quite a claim :)

[osprey_archer]

It is of course possible that some other Edwardian wrote a slashier boarding school novel... but it would need to be pretty darn slashy to knock David Blaize off the podium!

[superborb]

Each friend dies?! What are the odds

[osprey_archer]

ALL the friends die. Truly it seems unfair that every single one should die, but die they do!