Saint Sebastian's Abyss (2022) by Mark Haber

 Book Review

Saint Sebastian's Abyss (2022)

by Mark Haber

   I'm not sure how I missed Saint Sebastian's Abyss when it was published last year, but likely the explanation comes down to 2022 being a lost year for me reading because of the lingering effects of COVID AND because the New York Times book review didn't mention the obvious, glaring influence of the writing of Thomas Bernhard over every aspect of this book.  If the reviewer had done so I would have immediately ran out (or gone online)  and bought a copy.  As it happened, I didn't know about Saint Sebastian's Abyss until last month when I ran one of my periodic Google searches on Thomas Bernhard and reviewed the returns.   Haber was mentioned in a June 27th Los Angeles Times feature about the influence of Bernhard on contemporary fiction- another article I missed because I was travelling that week and because I literally don't know anyone else who reads the LA Times and knows about Thomas Bernhard.

 

  In fact, as I sit here writing this, I've still never met another human being- in person or on-line, who has even heard of Bernhard, let alone read him.  I only heard about him/read him through the 1001 Books to Read Before You Die project- where I rank Bernhard and Sebald as my top two literary discoveries from that period.  As I periodically mention here, despite being an attorney with a partner who works in the culture industries and many friends who qualify as intellectuals or culture professionals or both, my reading life is conducted in isolation. 

  I think about Bernhard frequently, in the sense that I think about writing a piece of fiction- a short story, of course.   What I think about is the need to write a short story that another person would want to read, vs just writing something "I have to write" which is a line you often hear from writers and people writing about fiction.  Baloney, is what I say.  Of course, every author is drawing upon their own experience but the idea that a given work of fiction simply emerges into the world and then attracts readers of its own accord is patently absurd.  

    At the very least a first-time writer of fiction needs to find someone who wants to publish it, and if they can't do that they need to find their own readers without the benefit of a sponsoring publisher.  Anyway- the question I ask myself is that if you were to ride a story/novella/novel that blatantly imitated an author like Thomas Bernhard- would it bother people?  The answer is no- probably because not enough people know about Bernhard to incite conversation- Los Angeles Times articles aside. 

  As the LA Times said last year, Saint Sebastian's Abyss is about as close to straight-forward homage to Thomas Bernhard as you can get- and  I loved every second.  This is very much the sort of fiction I would want to write if I wrote fiction (I don't and have no plans to) and it's nice to see that Haber found a publisher (who subsequently hired him to work as their marketing supervisor).

The Wolves of Eternity (2023) by Karl Over Knausgaard

 Book Review

The Wolves of Eternity (2023)

by Karl Ove Knausgaard

    I'm a fan of Karl Ove Knausgaard- I listened to most of his six volume series My Struggle, on Audiobook- which was a great experience and something I highly recommend given the sheer volume of the reading experience AND the fact that all six books are narrated by the same person recounting their life and experiences- an ideal format for the Audiobook.   In many ways, I think My Struggle, with its combination of the excruciating banality of everyday life and lenghty philosophical diatribes, makes a better Audiobook than book. 

  Back in 2020 I bought the hardback (not sure if it made it to paperback!) of the first volume in this projected three volume series, The Morning Star.  I read it almost two years ago this month and after reading it I wrote:

So I am very excited about The Morning Star, the first volume in what seems to be a multi-volume series modeled after, and I know this sounds strange, the works of Stephen King.  There's no reason that Knausgaard would be naive about the potential international sales appeal of his books and The Morning Star, which combines Knausgaard's characteristic grousing about the minutiae of day-to-day existence in contemporary Norway and Sweden with the possibility of the imminent arrival of some kind of supernatural demon, does indeed accomplish its goal:  Expand the international audience for Karl Ove Knausgaard.   Ironically, it seems like more of a critical success than a popular one. 

  Maybe the second volume, which seems to promise the kind of well described literary bloody mayhem you might associate with American Psycho, will generate the sparks necessary to elevate the popular profile of both books, but I, like other readers, was struck by just how little actually happened in The Morning Star.  I mean I did love every page, but still.

    Reader, I am here to tell you that The Wolves of Eternity does not deliver on the bloody mayhem I had hoped for.  I can advise you that after The Wolves of Eternity, which tracks back in time before moving forward to the "present" of the first book (1980's I think- right before Chernobyl), it appears that the plot involves the dead coming back to life as a result of the appearance of the Morning Star from the first book.   Another exciting development in The Wolves of Eternity is a female narrator- which I want to say is a first for Knausgaard.  

   At the same time I would be at an absolute loss to recommend this book to a non-Knausgaard devotee- unless you have the time to read the 800 page hardback or 23 hour Audiobook.  It took me a couple months and multiple check-outs of the Audiobook to complete it.  Lengthy portions of the book describing the Russian obsession with bringing the dead back to life seem to situate Knausgaard's authorial intent- it's hard to ignore the appearance of Tolstoy in the pages of The Wolves of Eternity.  At the same time, once again, in an 800 page book, not much happens.   The most action packed portions of the book are a train ride by one character and a plane flight by another. 

The Handmaid's Tale (1985) by Margaret Atwood

 1001 Novels: A Library of America

The Handmaid's Tale (1985)- inexplicably listed as 1997 on the official website

by Margaret Atwood

Harvard Library, Cambridge, Massachussets

Massachussets: 25/30

 The Handmaid's Tale is the last of the 1001 Books to Read Before You Die/1001 Novels: A Library of America crossover titles in New England.  There were a total of five- the only non-Massachussets crossover title is A Prayer for Owen Meaney (1989) by John Irving- which didn't even make my top 10 for the Northern New England section. The Handmaid's Tale is a stone cold lock for any canonical list anywhere- it was already at that point when the editors included it on the 1001 Books list in 2008, and it certainly hasn't gotten less relevant since then, what with the television show starting in 2017 and growing after 2019, when the SEQUEL to The Handmaid's Tale won a split Booker Prize.   Hard to imagine a sequel winning such a major literary award, but I surmise there was some embarrassment on the part of the Judges panel that Atwood didn't win back in 1986 when it lost out to The Old Devils- still in the old white guys era back then.

  If I'm not mistaken Atwood is the first non-American author on the 1001 Novels list.   I can tell from the review I wrote back in 2018 for the 1001 Books project that I was already over The Handmaid's Tale.  I don't remember when I read it for the first time, but I certainly can remember the paperback copy that was on a variety of my book shelves over the years. 

1001 Books to Read Before You Die Review

Published 4/10/18
The Handmaids Tale (1985)
 by Margaret Atwood

   I wasn't hugely surprised when Hulu announced a Season 2 for their smash hit television version of The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood.  The book, of course, has no sequel, so presumably they'll be writing a new chapter.  I haven't finished the television series yet, but the idea that they would write a whole second season out of nothing doesn't offend me as I thought it might.  The book itself is more or less genre fiction, Margaret Atwood's literary pedigree.  What is unusual about The Handmaid's Tale is the anti-feminism which animates The Republic of Gilead, the authoritarian dictatorship which has replaced the United States of America in Atwood's alternate present of the book.

   The key, animating fact in Atwood's dystopia is a precipitous decline in the birth rate, brought about by a poorly understood intersection of chemicals and ungodliness.  This decline spurs a shadowy network of "think tanks" called the sons of Jacob, to come up with their new model society, which combines elements of New England Puritanism and Mormon pluralism with more far a field influences like Asian-style quietism and an economy that functions without money.

   Offred's gilded cage is contrasted both with her life before Gilead, where she married a divorced man (illegal under the new regime) and gave birth successfully to a child who was taken by the new regime; the other alternative is being dispatched to "The Colonies" (roughly the south and south east) where a series of nuclear explosions and chemical attacks have rendered large swaths of territory uninhabitable.   Offred isn't stoked about her role as a breeding object, but she isn't exactly leaping at the prospect of a nasty, brutish and short existence in the Colonies.

  There is no denying the visual power of the imagery- which is well take by the television version.  The book, I think, is clumsier, in a way, particularly in the way Atwood included a thirty page addendum written from the far future, presenting the book as an authentic historical manuscript.  I understand why you would do that in the context of dystopian fiction, but it seems like a genre move. 

Mystic River (2001) by Dennis Lehane

 1001 Novels: A Library of America

Mystic River (2001)

by Dennis Lehane

East Buckingham, Boston Massachussets 

Massachussets: 24/30

  It took me forever to make it through Mystic River because I decided to make it my court/jail book- i.e. the book I read when I'm sitting around waiting for a jail visit or a court hearing.  Not a great look for the book since it basically guarantees that I will be in a bad mood each time I read said book.   Once I took the book out of my briefcase it took me about an hour to read the last three quarters after months trying to get through the first 100 pages.

  Mystic River is a hit two times over- the book is still in print and considered a minor classic of the genre (police procedural adjacent) and the movie (2003), has an 89 on Rotten Tomatoes- from both fans and critics.   Finishing the book had me wanting to actually watch the film- which is almost unheard of in my experience.   The crime: the murder of the daughter of a reformed local gangster in west Boston slum neighborhood takes a back seat to the neighborhood itself and the shared history of the cops and criminals, perpetrators and victims, who animate the action.

  Lehane shows himself a savvy writer of fiction in terms of the way he manipulates the reader with his use of multiple unreliable narrators- it's one thing to identify the unreliable narrator, quite another to figure out where everything is headed.  Considering the continuing popularity of the book and film I won't spoil the ending, but I did think the ultimate revelation was a little cheap.  Guess I'm in the minority there judging from the twenty plus years of rave reviews from critical and popular audiences.

LIttle Women (1868) by Louisa May Alcott

 

Winona Ryder plays Jo March in the 1994 film version of Little Women

1001 Novels: A Library of America

Little Women (1868) 

by Louisa May Alcott

Massachussets: 23/30

Concord,  Massachussets

  Little Women is the third (of four) cross-overs between the 1001 Books to Read Before You Die list and the 1001 Novels: A Library of America list.  I've posted the review I wrote back in 2013 when I re-read it for the 1001 Book series.   It's worth observing once again that I feel strongly that 19th century American literature has been underrepresented thus far at the expense of more contemporary books on the 1001 Novels list. 

2013 Review 
1001 Books to Read Before You Die
Little Women (1868)
by Louisa May Alcott

  I've known what photograph I was going to use to illustrate this book review: Winona Ryder playing "Jo March" in the 1994 film version of this immortal classic.  Little Women is most certainly both a CLASSIC and a HIT- with all the modern meanings of those terms: plays, films, remakes, sequels, sales measured in hundreds of thousands, international media attention.

  And while reading Little Women wasn't particularly fun, it's impossible not to admire the craft of what Louisa May Alcott put together and sold to an adoring public.  On the surface, Little Women is a tale about four sisters growing up during and after the Civil War: three marry, one dies and the character of Jo is essentially the "main" sister.

  The "adventures" such as they are closer to the era of Frances Burney and Ann Radcliffe than to Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters, but Alcott had a supberb grasp of different literary idioms and manages to integrate literary devices that constitute an encyclopedia of 18th and 19th century Novelistic techniques.  Alcott throws in epistolary dialogues, picaresque travelogues of exotic locations (Italy), a healthy dose of sentimental fiction, and a detailed description of quiet domesticity that track more closely to the proto-literary modernism of George Eliot.  And it all added up to a huge, monster, gargantuan hit.

 Did you know that Alcott wrote like seven sequels to Little Women?  And that she never had another hit?  And that people make another film or tv version every few years?