1952 Review of The Invisible Man

I wanted to send out this review of The Invisible Man. From the looks of things this is a 1952 NY Times review of book of the month. Please feel free to read it. I haven't made it all the way through the book but I really do wonder what the author of the novel, Ralph Ellison would think about it. I might bring up this article during the meeting as well.

Book of the Times

Reviews from the back of my 1972 copy of Invisible Man

"... a stunning block-buster of a book that will ... keep everybody reading right through to its explosive end." ~Langston Hughes

"The most impressive work of fiction by an American Negro which I have ever read... Mr. Ellison is a finished novelist who uses words with great skill, who writes with poetic intensity and immense narrative drive... Invisible Man is tough, brutal and sensational... it blazes with authentic talent." ~Orville Prescott

"Ellison has talent and so far he has managed to stay away from being first a Negro, he is still first a writer. I think he will go far." ~William Faulkner

"A resolutely honest, tormented, profoundly American book... Invisible Man belongs on the shelf with the classical efforts man has made to chart the river Lethe from its mouth to its sources." ~Wright Morris

"...a searing and exalted record of a Negro's journey through contemporary America in search of success, companionship, and finally, himself." ~Irving Howe

NY Times review of Tropic of Cancer

This is an book review of "Tropic of Cancer" from the June 18, 1961 issue of the New York Times. Since this review came after the publication of all of Millers books the reviewer does more of a retrospective of all of Miller's work. (Like the Kokoro article, click on the image for a larger view)

The Death of Gogol

As excerpted from Vladimir Nabokov's Nikolai Gogol (p 1-2):

Nikolai Gogol, the strangest prose-poet Russia ever produced, died Thursday morning, a little before eight, on the fourth of March, eighteen fifty-two, in Moscow. He was almost forty-three years old - a reasonably ripe age for him, considering the ridiculously short span of life generally allotted to other great Russian writers of his miraculous generation. Absolute bodily exhaustion in result of a private hunger strike (by means of which his morbid melancholy had tried to counter the Devil) culminated in acute anemia of the brain (together, probably, with gastro-enteritis through inanition)- and the treatment he was subjected to, a vigorous purging and blood-letting, hastened the death of an organism already gravely impaired by the after effects of malaria and malnutrition. The couple of diabolically energetic physicians who insisted on treating him as if he were an average Bedlamite, much to the alarm of their more intelligent but less active colleagues, intended to break the back of their patient's insanity before attempting to patch up whatever bodily health he still had left. Some fifteen years before, Pushkin, with a bullet in his entrails, had been given medical assistance good for a constipated child. Second rate German and French general practitioners still dominated the scene, for the splendid school of great Russian physicians was yet in the making.
The learned doctors crowding around the Malade Imaginaire with their dog-Latin and gigantic belly pumps cease to be funny when Moliere suddenly coughs out his life-blood on the turbulent stage. It is horrible to read of the grotesquely rough handling that Gogol's poor limp body underwent when all he asked for was to be left in peace. With as fine a misjudgment of symptoms, as a clear anticipation of the methods of Charcot, Dr. Auvers (or Hovert) had his patient plunged into a warm bath where his head was soused with cold water after which he was put to bed with half-a-dozen plump leeches affixed to his nose. He had groaned and cried and weakly struggled while his wretched body (you could feel the spine through the stomach) was carried to the deep wooden bath; he shivered as he lay naked in bed and kept pleading to have the leeches removed: they were dangling from his nose and getting into his mouth (Lift them, keep them away, - he pleaded) and he tried to sweep them off so that his hands had to be held by stout Auvert's (or Hauvers's) hefty assistant.

The Devil he's countering, of course, is his homosexuality, though Nabokov was too polite to say and this wasn't openly discussed by scholars in the English speaking world until the time of Simon Karlinsky's The Sexual Labyrinth of Nikolai Gogol (originally panned in the New York Review of Books in 1977 as wishful thinking on Karlinsky's part).

NY Times Kokoro Review

Hopefully you can read this interesting review of Kokoro from 1957 (I think you have to click on the article's image and it will open larger in a new window). It tells a bit more about the end of the Meiji period.

Japanese Meiji Period

Hey everyone. I was reading a little about the book Kokoro. It was written in 1914 shortly after the Meiji Era (according to Wiki). During this period there were many reforms to government structure which included an establishment of written human rights, an aim to a more democratic government structure and sadly, the end of the Samurai. The goal (as I have read) during the Meiji period was to gain standing as an independent world power. Much of the effort involved exploring Western ideas on government as well as literature and philosophy.

I am sure that everyone else has stumbled on the same information that I have but I thought that it would be nice to put it out there. It might help to understand the conditions that the characters are working within.

A Monarchist Marxists Could Love

Here's an interesting article on Balzac and Pere Goriot, following up on what Nick said about the Balzac/Marx & Engels connection. Who knew the "de" in Balzac's name was a creation of the author himself?

http://www.nytimes.com/books/99/05/23/bookend/bookend.html?scp=9&sq=balzac%20goriot&st=cse

Quote from "Word of the Day"

Just thought this was a propos. Judging from the time period of this author's lifetime, Paris didn't so much decline socially in that following 100 years as it simply stayed the course:

"Society is composed of two great classes: those who have more dinners than appetite, and those who have more appetite than dinners." -Sebastien-Roch-Nicolas de Chamfort, writer (1741-1794)

Finished with Goriot

So I don't want to post spoilers or anything at this point, just the general observation that, in many ways, this reminded me most of The Monk. Specifically, we follow these tales of the corruption of our protagonist's character, seduced there by a desire for women, of course, yet with the modern twist of the elimination of devils and spirits, only the machinations of the urban psyche to blame.

Lee Thoughts

So I've finished the book (don't worry, no spoilers here) 'cause I just couldn't put the damn thing down, and I think part of that is due to the unfolding (and somewhat contradictory) character of Lee. Plus I really wanted see Cathy bite the dust.

But I digress. What do all you literate folks think about the Lee character? Do you think he's a break with the stereotypes of Chinese-Americans of the past, or do you think he perpetuates them? What do you make of his relationship with Adam Trask? With Abra?

My question about young Cathy

Ok, so I have a quick question about one of the early "stories" about Cathy, specifically the one about her and the two boys in the barn. Are we to believe that the ten year old Cathy orchestrated the sexual situation? I mean, I understand that she is not a good person... possibly evil... maybe even the devil incarnate, but this scene really did disturb me. I just want to know how other people interpreted this scene.

Genesis

So I am not sure how up to speed with the bible we all are so it might be good to try and get us all on approximately the same page. Since this is supposed to be a retelling of the book of genesis, specifically the story of Cain and Abel I thought it might be good to post some background. The following is the Wikipedia version of the bible passage in question. I don't actually have a copy of the bible in my apartment so I can't vouch for its accuracy but I think the gist is pretty much there even if the language is not strictly speaking accurate.

¹Adam knew his wife Eve intimately, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain. She said, "I have had a male child with the LORD's help."^{[28] 2}Then she also gave birth to his brother Abel. Now Abel became a shepherd of a flock, but Cain cultivated the land. ³In the course of time Cain presented some of the land's produce as an offering to the LORD. ⁴And Abel also presented [an offering]^[29] — some of the firstborn of his flock and their fat portions.^[30] The Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, ⁵but He did not have regard for Cain and his offering. Cain was furious, and he was downcast.^{[31] 6}Then the LORD said to Cain, "Why are you furious? And why are you downcast?^{[32] 7}If you do right, won't you be accepted? But if you do not do right, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must master it." ⁸Cain said to his brother Abel, "Let's go out to the field."^[33] And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.

– Genesis 4:1-8

I gather that this story is meant to recounted in East of Eden through Adam Trask's sons (although I haven't gotten that far yet). However it seems to also apply on some level to Adam and his brother as well. There actually seem to be many parallels to various Genesis stories. The ones I have noticed so far have to do with both brotherhood and the father son relationship. In particular the rivalry between Jacob and Esau (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob) as reflected in Adam and Charles. Also the sacrifice of Isaac (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binding_of_Isaac) which is paralleled by Adam's relationship with his father.

Something that interests me is the notion of both Charles and Cathy as being scared or marked. I think this is supposed to tie in to the notion of the "mark of Cain" although I am not quite sure how all the pieces fit together as the mark of Cain is apparently controversial. The following is the bible excerpt (with interjections) from Wikipedia about the source of the mark or curse of Cain. More info can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mark_Of_Cain

"What have you done? Listen! Your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground. Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth." (Gen. 4:10–12)^[2]
When Cain complained that the curse was too strong, and that anyone who found him would kill him, God responded,
"Not so; if anyone kills Cain, he will suffer vengeance seven times over",^[3] and God "set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him" (Gen. 4:15).

Hopefully that is helpful. Wikipedia has a pretty good summary of all of Genesis, but it seemed a bit long to post here, so if you are interested check it out, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genesis.

I think this might be best for discussion once we all finish but one of the questions I have been trying to keep in mind while reading is why Steinbeck feels that it is important to re-tell this commonly known story. What lesson or value dose he feel he is imparting to his reader by telling this story?

Before I ask a question I would like to know where everyone is

Ok, I have a question for everyone, but I am not sure of two things: Has everyone read up to or passed where I am, is it an appropriate question to bring up on the blog or should I wait until we meet. I am finishing chapter 8 and I have a question regarding that chapter. Are we all at least there?

Character Development in E of E

Following up a bit on our conversation last time about Tender is the Night's lack of character development and depth, how do you think this book compares?

Personally I've noticed that the characters in this book are incredibly well-developed (at least their internal features), which has been interesting.

A complaint (big surprise)

I think I'll enjoy this book...I'm only on Chapter 2...but I must ask, as someone who takes whatever book she's reading with her wherever she goes...is there a lighter version? I feel like I'm toting around a gallon of milk in my purse. Jiminy!!