BACK TO THE CLASSICS CHALLENGE 2016 WRAP UP POST

I managed to read all 12 books for the challenge by September, but (a) quite a few were short-ish (less than 300 pages), (b) 3 of the longest were by Trollope, Dickens and Whipple who are writers I love and so am able speed through their works, despite any heft and (c) I did some business travel this year, which is rare for me, which did allow me to get a lot of reading done in hotels and airports.

• The first book I read was for the category A Classic Detective Novel.   The Franchise Affair by Josephine Tey is the fourth book I have read from her.  It was a good mystery (and refreshingly bloodless) but there was quite a bit of virulent class prejudice that was a bit hard to swallow.
   
• The next book was The Small House at Allington by Anthony Trollope which was for A Classic Which Includes The Name Of A Place In The Title.  This is the fifth book in the Barsetshire Chronicles and I absolutely adored it.
   
• I went on to read The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle which ticked the box for An Adventure Classic.  The book was a lot of fun, but its dated racism soured the experience for me a bit.
   
• The fourth title fit the category A 19th Century Classic, I went with my original pick which was  The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens.  I was a little worried that I wouldn’t get on with it at first, but I ended up really loving it.
   
• I then read Frankenstein by Mary Shelly to fill the spot for A Fantasy, Science Fiction, or Dystopian Classic.  I have to say I was a bit let down by this book, but I think my expectations were impossibly high. I am keeping my copy and will re-read/re-evaluate it at some point.
   
• For the category A 20th Century Classic I read The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. This book almost put me into a slump. It is fantastic, but such an emotional journey, it wrecked me just a bit.
   
• Next up was A Separate Peace by John Knowles which I first read in high school and chose for the category Re-read a classic you read in school (high school or college). I quite enjoyed the re-visit and I think I appreciate the story much more now as an adult than as a teen.
   
• Then I read Greenbanks by Dorothy Whipple for A Classic by a Woman Author.  Since Whipple is one of my favorite authors, it is no surprise that I adored this title.
   
• Next up was Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov for the category A Classic Which Has Been Banned Or Censored.  Like The Grapes of Wrath, this book broke me a little bit as well.
   
• I then read Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe to fit A Classic by a Non-White Author. I really enjoyed this book for its insight and subtle complexity.
   
• My penultimate choice was Bonjour Tristesse by Françoise Sagan, translated from the French by Irene Ash, which fit the bill for A Classic in Translation.
   
• Finally, for the category A Volume Of Classic Short Stories, I read The Dracula Book of Vampire Stories edited by Leslie Shepard, which was fun but I didn’t find too many of the stories to be that scary.

One of the best things about this challenge is how easy it is in terms of choice and options. Also, like last year, I was able to fill the majority of the categories with titles from my own shelves, which is always a nice feeling: Of the 12 books, two were from the library, seven I already owned and three I bought used for around a dollar each.

R.I.P - PERIL THE SECOND: FAITHFUL PLACE BY TANA FRENCH

Having read the first two books of Tana French’s Dublin Murder Squad series (In the Woods and The Likeness) I knew not to expect a traditional mystery or any continuity from the previous novels. In this series, while each book does contain the story of a crime and the resolution of that crime, the plot takes a definite back seat to character development and, in my opinion, the reader is often required to accept a fair amount of implausibility regarding the storyline. But I don’t think that French is interested in having a water-tight whodunit in her books. I think she is more interested in showing the thoughts and emotions of a character under certain stressors and it is that deep dive into character that makes readers (at least those who like that sort of thing) come back for more.

Faithful Place centers on Frank Mackey, who was the undercover handler of Cassie, the main character in The Likeness. Frank has been estranged from his dysfunctional family ever since he left home at 19. But events from the past cause him to rekindle his familial relationships, if only to exploit them. When Frank ran away to England, his original intention was to go with the love of his life, Rosie. Only Rosie never showed and young Frank assumed that she had dumped him because of his crazy family…for fear that he would turn out to be just like them. So Frank left alone, eventually became a police officer in Dublin and maintained only intermittent contact with his youngest sister. However, when a small blue suitcase with Rosie’s identification is found in the ruins of an abandoned home in the neighborhood, Frank is drawn back to his old haunts to try and find out whether or not Rosie even made it out of the neighborhood alive 20 years ago.

As I stated above, these novels are heavy on character development and Frank is to put it bluntly, an a**hole much of the time.  I sympathized with him some, but it was pretty clear to me that he is underhanded and manipulative, which makes him good at his job in undercover, but not so good in his interpersonal relationships. This didn’t bother me. I don’t necessarily mind unlikable characters.  

As in the previous two books, Faithful Place is narrated in the first person, so the reader has more or less the same opportunity to put things together the as the narrator does. I believe that both Frank and I realized who the perpetrator was at the same time. What is less certain is if Frank realized in the course of the novel that he is much more like his hair-trigger abusive father and manipulative mother than he would like to admit. 

This is my second book for the R.I.P. XI Challenge "Peril the Second" hosted by the blog Stainless Steel Droppings.  It was pretty fun (and easy!) to direct my reading to suit the challenge and I look forward to participating in the XII Challenge next year.

R.I.P. - PERIL OF THE SHORT STORY: The Dracula Book of Great Vampire Stories edited by Leslie Shepard

This book counts for both the Peril of the Short Story for R.I.P. XI hosted by the blog Stainless Steel Droppings and for my last read for the category Classic Short Stories for the Back to the Classics Challenge 2016 hosted by the blog Books and Chocolate.

Initially I was going to read some Daphne Du Maurier short stories, but the two collections that I had did not fit the Back to the Classics criteria, since they only had 6 stories each and the rule is the book must contain at least 8 stories.  So I was delighted to happen upon this book at my library; all the stories were originally written and/or published well over 50 years ago and the volume has 13 stories in it (no doubt that “unlucky” number was purposefully chosen). 

I chose this collection primarily because of the opening novella titled Carmilla by Sheridan le Fanu. This is supposed to be the granddaddy (or grandmammy?) of the modern vampire novel, including Dracula.  My reaction to Carmilla is somewhat similar, however, to my reaction to Dracula. I sometimes have trouble with old-timey horror because often it is so obvious to the modern reader just what is going on, it can make the protagonists seem a bit thick when they don’t cop on. But that aside, the bits in Carmilla about the narrator being stalked by a black beast in her dreams were quite scary.

I was also happily surprised to see stories by favored authors M.E. Braddon and E.F. Benson included. Of the 13 tales, I think I liked best “The Transfer" by Algernon Blackwood for sheer originality (the monster wants more than just blood in this one).  Also, just for a consummate expression of paranoia  as well as for originality, “The Horla” by Guy de Maupassant is worth reading. In a more traditional vein (pun intended!), I quite enjoyed “Dracula’s Guest” by Bram Stoker (which per the introduction is a chapter that was cut from the novel for length reasons).  It reminded me of the parts of Dracula that I liked best, such as Jonathan Harker’s first encounter with the count in his castle.  And finally I was pleased to read the entertaining “Mrs. Amworth" by E.F. Benson and the romantic yet chilling, “Good Lady Ducayne" by Mary Elizabeth Braddon.

All in all this is a good collection of a variety of vampire tales from the mid –Victorian period to the Edwardian and a must for any blood-sucking fiction completist. 

R.I.P - PERIL THE SECOND: THE LONEY BY ANDREW MICHAEL HURLEY

This is my first completed read for the R.I.P. Challenge XI: Peril the Second. I first heard about this title months ago on the Radio 4 podcast Open Book in an interview with the author and it stuck with me enough for me to recall it when I was browsing the new books section at my local library. Open book classified this book at “Gothic” and I would agree with that. The book is never really terrifying and yet the author managed to maintain an eerie atmosphere all the way through.

The Loney is one of those books where the reader may not be quite sure what exactly happened when they reach the end of it, which I know can be frustrating for some. However, I like it when this type of story is done well; I like having room for interpretation. And I think the author got the balance right most of the time. I don’t read a lot of this type of book, but it reminded me a bit of Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House in in terms of keeping the reader off-kilter.

On the surface, the story is about an ultra-religious Catholic family in the mid-1970’s and their quest to heal their disabled son via miracle, whatever that takes. The book is narrated by the younger son as an adult looking back in hindsight upon events which took place when he was a teenager. The fact that the narrator is never named is something I only noticed after finishing the book. The unnamed narrator serves as a caretaker for his older brother and has a complex and difficult relationship with his overbearing mother. Most of the story takes place in an isolated stretch of coast in England where the narrator has come on a pilgrimage with his family, their priest and other church members.

But dig a little deeper and the reader will find that The Loney is also about the difference (if any) between superstition and religion and the potential harm of either, in particular when wielded upon young, impressionable minds. And that is where perhaps the real horror lies.

R.I.P.Challenge 11 (Readers Imbibing in Peril)

Unlike last year, when I almost didn’t manage to complete all 12 challenges in the Back to the Classics Challenge at Books and Chocolate , this year I have a mere one book more to go and it is only September.  So I thought I would participate in the R.I.P. Challenge 11 hosted by Stainless Steel Droppings .  I have observed this challenge on the internet from a far for many years and now seems like the perfect time to take the plunge.  Most importantly, this challenge is very easy to commit to, since there are quite a few Perils to choose from, it runs for a full two months (September 1 to October 31), and the works need only fall into the broad categories of (i) mystery, (ii) suspense, (iii) thriller, (iv) Gothic, (v) horror or (vi) dark fantasy.

So I have chosen to try the Peril the 2ond: Read 2 books from any of the above listed 6 categories AND Peril the Short Story: Read one or many short stories  


For Peril the 2ond I will read in the category of Mystery, Faithful Place by Tana French.  I have been meaning to get back into this series for a while and here is the perfect opportunity. In the Category of Gothic, I will read The Loney by Andrew Michael Hurley which I first heard about on the BBC Radio 4 podcast and recently stumbled across at my library in the new books section.

For Peril the Short Story, I will read The Dracula Book of Great Vampire Stories edited by Leslie Sheppard, which actually will double up with my final category in the 2016 Back to the Classics Challenge: Classic Short Stories.

I do wish I could add in some crispy fall weather to help with the challenge, but is is over 100 degrees today, so I will just have to let the books transport me to cooler climates. I think this will be a lot of fun and I look forward to reading other bloggers posts in conjunction with the challenge!

BONJOUR TRISTESSE by Françoise Sagan

My first thought for the 2016 Back to the Classics Challenge category “A Classic In Translation” was to try something from Collette, since I had never read her and was curious to try.  But I also have this nutty idea to read the entire Rougon-Macquart  series by Zola (I have only read two: The Fortunes of the Rougons and Germinal…only  18 more to go! – cue crazed laughter).  But in the end, I spontaneously decided to go for something different, but still translated from the French interestingly enough. I read Bonjour Tristesse by Françoise Sagan (translated into English by Irene Ash) which was first published in 1954 when Sagan was just 19.  I didn’t realize that this is a novella, but that was a happy surprise in that it didn’t take me long to finish it.

The story is about Cécile, a 17 year old who has been living in Paris with her widowed father and his string of live-in girlfriends for two years since leaving her convent boarding school.  Cécile should be studying for her entrance exams to university, but frankly she can’t be bothered.  Like her father Raymond, she is too busy having fun to worry too much about exams or anything else she finds unpleasant.  She spends most of her time attending parties and social events in her father’s circle of like-minded men and women.  However, when she goes to the French Rivera for the summer with Raymond and his latest gal pal, their family friend, Anne, shows up unexpectedly.  Cécile and her father are drawn to Anne’s common sense stability, a trait they both lack. However, Cécile soon feels threatened by Anne and Anne’s relationship with and influence over Raymond and drama and tragedy ensue.

This book is very much a character study of Cécile. There is some dialog and description but much of the book is inside Cécile’s head. And because she is a spoiled, immature teenager who doesn’t have the emotional experience to navigate the threat that she believes is posed by Anne’s presence, often the inside of her head is a confusing and contradictory place to be.

I liked the novella OK but I am not going to rush and read any further books by Sagan.  It is great when I read a classic and discover a new author with a huge back catalog for me to explore, but when that doesn’t happen, that is OK too!

THINGS FALL APART BY CHINUA ACHEBE

Before I’d ever read this book, before I even knew the basic outline of the story, I knew that Things Fall Apart was “supposed” to be a book about the advent of colonialism in Nigeria and the resulting destruction of the indigenous culture. But well over half the book is about Onkonkwo, a successful farmer and leader who is respected (but not particularly loved) in his village. Frankly, Onkonkwo is as rigid and unyielding as any intolerant, colonizing Englishman and/or Christian  missionary. I mean, there has to be a reason that Achebe made his central character so very unsympathetic. Personally, I think that any forceful challenge to Onkonkwo’s belief system would have knocked him for a loop. His entire life was blind faith in tradition, regardless of how such tradition made him feel or how it affected his loved ones and I am not sure just how much this book was intended to be an indictment of European colonialism as I had been led to believe. I realize that Achebe wrote further books that are loosely considered to be part of a series, so perhaps those books address this topic more specifically.

I was not super keen on the storytelling style of this book. It just is not my taste; very simplistic and bare-bones, which totally suits the story, but it isn’t something I particularly enjoy. And the title, a reference to a poem by Yeats (which I only know because I think Picard quoted on Star Trek Next Generation once), belies that simplicity. What I did like were the little authorial hints about other villages with other traditions, and the glimpse into a tradition and culture which is now most certainly non-existent in the form presented in the novel, although bits and pieces surely remain today in modern Nigeria. Even though I didn’t really love the writing style, I think that this is a book that can be understood and appreciated on a variety of levels. It is deceptively simple and subtle.

I read this book for the category “Classic by a Non-White Author” in the 2016 Back to the Classic Challenge hosted by Karen on the blog Books and Chocolate. I am glad I finally got to it since it has been on my list for many years and particularly I wanted to read it before I tackled Chigozie Obioma’s The Fishermen since my Father told me that one could see a definite link between the two books.