More Die of Heartbreak, Saul Bellow. It was a funny book--The protagonist's father-in-law is one of the great comic creations in all literature, IMHO.
More Die of Heartbreak, Saul Bellow. It was a funny book--The protagonist's father-in-law is one of the great comic creations in all literature, IMHO.
I've just finished Frederic Morton Thunder Twilight: Vienna 1913-1914. Morton was born in Vienna but after the Anschluss fled first to Britain then to the USA in 1940. The book gives a very interesting detailed view of the events leading up to the assassination of the heir to Franz-Joseph.
It also discusses the part played by a series of prominent politicians and thinkers at the time in Vienna, including Freud and Jung, the Russian revolutionaries Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin, Adolf Hitler, the Croat Josip Broz (later Marshal Tito), Serbian revolutionaries, especially the Assassin, Princip, and many others. Morton obviously loved Vienna and describes it in detail.
I remain unclear about the inheritance situation as there is no family tree provided, so will also buy the earlier book by Morton A Nervous Splendour: Vienna 1888-1889) around the suicide of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian Crowns.
In no particular order, the books I enjoyed most in 2015:
Borges: The Book of Sand, Shakespeare's Memory
Hart Crane: Complete Poems
Douglas Hofstadter: Le ton beau de Marot
David Mitchell: Cloud Atlas
Proust: À la recherche du temps perdu; I read through the whole of the Modern Library edition last year! C'etait superb !
Bloom: Where Shall Wisdom Be Found?
Shakespeare: The Tempest
Multi-author: Pirke Avot
Walter Pater: The Renaissance
Percy Walker: The Moviegoer
Michel Houellebecq: Soumission
"J'ai seul la clef de cette parade sauvage."
- Rimbaud
"Il est l'heure de s'enivrer!
Pour n'être pas les esclaves martyrisés du Temps,
enivrez-vous;
enivrez-vous sans cesse!
De vin, de poésie ou de vertu, à votre guise."
- Baudelaire
OK I have just ordered Morton A Nervous Splendour: Vienna 1888-1889.
Last edited by Dreamwoven; 01-20-2016 at 11:02 AM.
'H is For Hawk' was my favourite book of 2015- just beautiful.
confessions of a crap artist
I inherited a Steinbeck collection and have been steadily devouring the pile. East of Eden was the first one I read in 2015, and it's still my favourite of the lot. I have a thing about Shakespearean fools: Lee ranks as one of the best.
Grapes of Wrath is pretty good, too.
Hi-ya WICKES, nice to hear from you again. That's the third mention of this book on here, I will deffinitely have to read it.Originally Posted by WICKES
ay up
I will have to read something of Saul Bellow's this year
ay up
Snow Country - it surely ranks among the finest literature in the world.
'So - this is where we stand. Win all, lose all,
we have come to this: the crisis of our lives'
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
