Books I read in October 2024 - the old, care-free days of Wuthering Heights

I should do one of these “what I read” bits before October becomes too distant.

I should also mention my health.  A little over a year ago a surgeon of genius removed a cancerous tumor from my liver, taking much of my liver along with it.  My recovery went well, and my liver grew back without, so far, another tumor.  An experimental immunotherapy treatment likely had a role in that.  A doctor told me that my liver is now “funny looking,” but who will get to laugh at it?

I am a lot healthier than I was a year ago, and much healthier than I was two years ago.  Fewer visits to the doctor.  More energy for reading, maybe even for writing.

This was October.

FICTION

The Story of the Stone, Vol. 1: The Golden Days (c. 1760),  Xueqin Cao

Memoirs of a Midget (1921),  Walter de la Mare – surprising to find de la Mare writing such a Brontêish thing in 1921 – “with how sharp a stab reminded me of… the old, care-free days of Wuthering Heights” (Ch. 33)

The Haunted Woman (1922),  David Lindsay – a weird one, neither as bad or unfortunately as good as Voyage to Arcturus.

Toad of Toad Hall (1929),  A. A. Milne – I read this because Judi Dench mentioned that she played Mole in it alternate nights with Portia in Merchant of Venice.  She greatly disliked the Shakespeare, but the Grahame / Milne was enormous fun.  Maybe I will see it someday.

The Code of the Woosters (1938),  P. G.  Wodehouse

Angels in America: Perestroika (1992),  Tony Kushner – I did see this one.

Watershed (1996),  Percival Everett

The Other Name: Septology I-II (2019) &

I Is Another: Septology III-V (2020) &

A New Name: Septology VI-VII (2021),  Jon Fosse

Not a River (2020),  Selva Almada

Herscht 07769 (2021),  László Krasznahorkai

The Oceans of Cruelty: Twenty-five Tales of a Corpse Spirit: A Retelling (2024),  Douglas J Penick – my Halloween reading, thousand-year-old Sanskrit weirdness and moral puzzles as told by a horrible corpse demon carried on the back of a king.  Penick has rewritten a public domain English translation of a Hindi translation of the Sanskrit.  His piece on it is quite interesting; just ignore the word “translating” in the title.”

POETRY

Collected Poems (1953),  Dylan Thomas – just the 1950s additions, really.

Another Animal (1954) &

A Cage of Spines (1958),  May Swenson

Selected Poems (1955),  Randall Jarrell

The Less Deceived (1955),  Philip Larkin

Not Waving But Drowning (1957),  Stevie Smith

TRAVEL & MEMOIR

A Time of Gifts (1977),  Patrick Leigh Fermor

Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent (2024),  Judi Dench – I expected a lifetime of theater stories, and there were plenty of those, but this is actually a book of serious textual Shakespeare criticism, with Dench and her interviewer friend working through every Shakespeare role she ever did, all of which she still has memorized.  I wish she would sit down for a sequel covering her non-Shakespearian roles.

IN PORTUGUESE

Did I not finish a book in French?  I guess not.  The book I had going was temporarily stolen by a hacker.

Tempo de Fantasmas (1951),  Alexandre O'Neill – a key text of Portuguese post-Surrealism.

História Trágico-Marítima: Narrativas de naufrágios da época das conquistas (1735-6),  António Sérgio – a school edition, pieces selected and modernized from an 18th century collection of narratives of famous Age of Exploration shipwrecks.  What does it tell us about Portuguese culture that 10th graders are assigned a book about 400 year-old maritime disasters?  My ship and sea vocabulary is now much improved.  Quiz me about types of sails and masts!  No, please, do not quiz me.