Review: The Master

Written by Colm Toibin
Scribner, 2004; 338 pages
Originally published in Great Britain by Picador, 2004

"I have in mind a man who all his life believes that something dreadful will happen to him," Henry said. "He tells a woman of this unknown catastrophe and she becomes his greatest friend, but what he does not see is that his failure to believe in her, his own coldness, is the catastrophe, it has come already, it has lived within him all along." [p. 334]

I've never been a huge Henry James fan. Although two of his shorter works, The Aspern Papers and The Turn of the Screw are among my favorite novellas, I've generally found his longer novels hard work. I tend to agree with one of my old college professors who used to say that Henry James was "all about whether I should have broccoli for lunch, or whether I should have carrots, and who the hell cares anyway." Of course, that prof was a Medievalist, so I suppose his opinions on Victorian novelists don't carry much weight. But I always thought it sounded perfectly accurate.

However, the story of Henry James the writer and the man is something that's always intrigued me. So I was eager to read The Master, Colm Toibin's fictionalized portrait of James. The book was highly praised by critics, and honored with several awards, including the 2006 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, the Los Angeles Times Novel of the Year, the Stonewall Book Award and the Lambda Literary Award. It was also shortlisted for the 2004 Booker Prize, and was listed by The New York Times as one of the ten most notable books of 2004. Needless to say, my expectations were high.

And I was not disappointed. The Master is a fascinating blend of fact and invention, offering a poignant image of James and just how many sacrifices he made to become a great writer. James never married, never resolved his sexual identity; he had problems with intimacy and close friendships throughout his life. As Toibin has said, James missed out on a lot of things in life because he spent so much time working. And although the work itself gave him great satisfaction, and not doing it would have made him unhappy, there's little doubt that his private life and personal relationships suffered because of the work.

Rather than trying to portray James's complete life story in a straightforward narrative, Toibin has chosen to show us several dramatic episodes in that life – eleven episodes, set between January 1895 and October 1899: from the disastrous reception of James's stage play Guy Domville, to the acquisition of his beloved Lamb House in Rye. During this period, although many of his greatest works were completed or yet to be written, he produced The Turn of the Screw, What Maisie Knew, and The Awkward Age. And for me, one of the most interesting aspects of The Master was the way in which Toibin allows us to watch James receiving the inspiration for these works, and then doing the research and writing. I suppose there's no way of being certain that this is how the great man did what he did, but it's a terrifically absorbing speculation.

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Challenges: 20 in 2009; 2009 TBR (Lite); Book Awards II; Read Your Own Books (RYOB); Winter Reading '08-'09

Friday Finds: 29 May 2009

Friday Finds is a weekly event hosted by mizb17 at Should Be Reading. Participants are asked to share with other bloggers about the new-to-you books found during the week – books you either want to add to your TBR (to be read) list, or that you just heard about that sounded interesting.

Just two new finds this week. Lately, I've been devoting most of my time to reading, and not doing so much "shopping around."

Picked up The Romance Readers' Book Club (by Julie L. Cannon) from the bargain table at our local Borders. Have to admit I was mainly attracted by the cover – it looked so summery. But the story sounds interesting, too; perfect reading for the months just ahead.


I think I first discovered Michelle Richmond's No One You Know while browsing the May selections in LibraryThing's Early Reviewer program, but I've seen it mentioned several places since then. It's "a tale of a woman's search for her sister's killer" and sounds like it might be another great summer read.

Booking Through Thursday: Unread It?

This week's BTT topic is a follow-up to last week's question about books you'd like to read again for the first time:

Is there a book that you wish you could “unread”? One that you disliked so thoroughly you wish you could just forget that you ever read it?

Kind of a strange question, but an interesting one. At first glance, I thought, "Ah-hah! A chance to slam all those boring, pointless, and unreadable books I was forced to struggle through in high school!"

But after I had a chance to ruminate a bit, I started having second thoughts. After all, one of those books I fussed and fumed about was Pride and Prejudice. Given a chance at the tender age of seventeen, I would have gleefully condemned Lizzie and Darcy and all their boring ilk to the fires of hell forever and ever. Eventually, of course, I re-read P&P and realized what a imbecilic ninny I'd been, way back all those years ago in Miss Weber's senior English class.

And that's an experience that teaches a useful lesson. Things change. Life is change. And change can be good. Your reading shapes who you are: everything you read adds a little to the person you turn out to be. Even books you feel may be a waste of your precious time might have an influence that won't make itself apparent until years later.

These days, I'm privileged to be able to read what I want, with no pop quizzes or deadlines other than the ones I set myself. If I start a book and it doesn't appeal to me after a chapter or two, I put it down and pick up another. But even remembering all those boring, pointless, and unreadable books I was compelled to read back in the day, I think I can honestly say I don't regret any of them. There might be many books I'd never read again, but I can't say there are any I wish I hadn't read.

Tuesday Thingers: What's Missing?

This week's Tuesday Thingers topic is another good one:

Is there anything you would like to see added to the Library Thing site? Is there something you like on another bookshelf style site that LT doesn't have?

In addition to my LT account, I have accounts with Good Reads and Shelfari; and I think for general cataloguing purposes LibraryThing is far superior to either of those. And basically, that's what I use LT for. Well, I also like the Early Reviewer program, of course, but that's an extra and not what originally attracted me to LT.

And I love the personal touch you get with Library Thing – Tim and Abby and the rest of the staff are always there ready to answer questions and solve problems. You always feel you're dealing with actual human beings, something you don't really get with most of the other "bookshelf" sites.

I was never all that taken with Shelfari, and I don't use it much. However, there are things about Good Reads that I like. I mainly use GR to keep track of my TBR list and the books I'm currently reading. One thing I like about GR is the little capsule synopses they have for each book – I'd like to see LibraryThing do something like that. You can get reviews at LT, of course, but if you just want to know a little about the plot of a book or what it's about, rather than readers' opinions, it's a little more difficult. And GR has such nice large photos of all the various book covers, instead of the tiny thumbnails at LT.

Also, I've found the discussion groups at Good Reads a little friendlier than those at LT. Maybe I just "hang out" in the wrong groups, but it seems some LT members can be quite prickly at times. It's probably just a result of the Good Reads groups having actual moderators who keep things from getting out of hand, but there does seems to be a lot less arguing and "flaming" there.

Tuesday Thingers is hosted by Wendi of Wendi's Book Corner. If you'd like to see more or participate yourself, head on over to her blog and leave a comment.

Teaser Tuesdays: Heavy Reading

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by mizB17 at Should Be Reading. If you'd like to read more teasers, or participate yourself, head on over to her blog. And these are the rules: Grab your current read; Let the book fall open to a random page. Share with us two (2) "teaser" sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12. You also need to share the title of the book that you're getting your "teaser" from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given! Please avoid spoilers!

This week I'm trying to finish up my reading for the Book Awards II Challenge which ends June 1. This first quote is from Terry Kay's To Dance with the White Dog:

The death of their son was a grief that she could not release, and she had obsessively tended the grave, pushing him away with her sobs and her bitterness. It was the one thing they had never been able to resolve: she blamed him for their son's death. [p. 58]

And since that's a really dark, depressing excerpt, I thought I might lighten things up with some teasers from the other challenge book I'm starting this week – Vanessa and Virginia, by Susan Sellers:

It is too cold to paint outside so we have taken our easels upstairs, where we can look out across the pond. The bare branches of the willows cast strange reflections on the glassy surface, like witches' hair. [p. 142]

Well, I'm not sure I'd really call that lighter, but at least no one is tending a grave there. Not literally anyway, but since the substance of the book is Vanessa Bell remembering her dead sister Virginia Woolf, I guess graves do figure prominently in this one as well. What I really need right now is some Garrison Keillor or P.G. Wodehouse or something to chase away all this gloom.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

It's Monday! What Are You Reading This Week? is a weekly event hosted by J. Kaye of J. Kaye's Book Blog, "to list the books completed last week, the books currently being reading, and the books to be finish this week."

OK, it's just recently (like last night) occurred to me that May is nearly outta here, and with the arrival of June comes the end of the Book Awards II Reading Challenge. Which means I've really got to get serious if I'm going to complete the challenge on time. I've read seven of the ten books required, although I haven't gotten all the reviews written yet (one more thing for the to-do list). Still have three books to go, so this week I'll be reading these books for BAII:

• Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. Robert C. O'Brien (winner, 1972 Newbery Medal)
• To Dance with the White Dog. Terry Kay (winner, 1991 Outstanding Author of the Year, Southeastern Library Association)
• Vanessa and Virginia. Susan Sellers (2007 New Writing Partnership Arts Council Award, UK)

And if that's not enough to keep me busy (!!!???), I really need to get back to Ninni Holmqvist's The Unit which I started but put aside a couple of weeks ago. I received it through Library Thing's Early Reviewer program, so I really do feel obligated to read and review it. And it's not that I don't want to – it's just that for some reason, May has been a very slow reading month for me. Must be spring fever. And all those NBA playoff games could have something to do with it, too, I suppose.

But at least I finished one book last week: Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons. I read it for the Southern Reading Challenge, and absolutely loved it. I'll try to get a review up today or tomorrow, but for the moment I'll just say if you haven't already discovered this wonderful little novel, you should do it now.

Friday Finds: 22 May 2009

Friday Finds is a weekly event hosted by mizb17 at Should Be Reading. Participants are asked to share with other bloggers about the new-to-you books found during the week – books you either want to add to your TBR (to be read) list, or that you just heard about that sounded interesting.

These are my new finds this week. I haven't decided if they'll all make it to my TBR list, but they all look interesting. I believe I discovered most of them while browsing Good Read's First Reads feature. I've requested several of their books lately, but hadn't snagged any until this week – I'm supposed to be receiving The Book of Love soon (so they tell me).
The Painter from Shanghai. Jennifer Epstein
The Embers. Hyatt Bass
The Book of Love. Kathleen McGowan
The Brambles. Eliza Minot
Breakable You. Brian Morton
Silent on the Moor. Deanna Raybourn

I found Silent on the Moor by reading the review by Jenclair over on her blog, A Garden Carried in the Pocket. I know a lot of bloggers have been raving about Deanna Raybourn for years now, but for some reason this was the first time one of her books actually caught my attention. The Lady Julia Grey series sounds great, but I agree with Jenclair about the book covers, so I've included photos of two different examples. I suppose it says a lot about me that I prefer the less lurid, more boring cover – didn't think I was quite so over the hill!