The Reading Life

 The Reading Life by C.S. Lewis

An audio book with less than stellar narration. I should have read a hard copy, and I seem to be saying that a lot lately. With audio books, so very much depends on the reader that I'm beginning to wonder if they're worth it. I've given up on a lot of them because the reader's tone, the attitude they gave the characters, or something in their approach to the story made me dislike the experience. The fault is mine much of the time because I'm guilty of not taking the time to listen to the samples offered, an oversight I will correct before I buy anymore of them. But certainly no more Lewis on audio. I need his books - his brilliance - on my shelf.

The Reading Life is a collection of Lewis's thoughts about reading gathered from his other books, essays, and letters. Some are brief quotes but there are longer passages, a few offering insights on Tolkien's Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings books. Lewis and Tolkien are probably my two favourite writers so for me this book was pure pleasure. I appreciate how he can cut through to the heart of an idea in straightforward language, leaving me feeling I've learned something profound and usable in daily life. 

If you've read Lewis extensively, you won't find anything new here, but I have not and so found this collection interesting and worthwhile. I'll leave you with a couple of quotes:

“The books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust to them; it was not in them, it only came through them, and what came through them was longing.”

"...in reading great literature I become a thousand men and yet remain myself”

Death Comes To Pemberley & A Severed Wasp

 Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D. James

From what I've read, I understand this to be P.D. James' tribute to her favourite author, Jane Austen. It's a sequel to Pride and Prejudice, similar in style and language and using the same characters. 

At first I was happy to be back at Pemberley and among old friends, but then I began to notice that my friends were changed. They were saying things that didn't seem to suit the personalities I remembered, and the whole tone of the book was different. Austen wrote a book light in tone with a little bite in its good-natured sarcasm. In James' book the tone is more melancholy and there is little of the witty banter between the characters that made Pride and Prejudice sparkle. That one was called a "comedy of manners"; this one is a tradegy about a murder. It's also about an unfaithful husband, an illigitimate child, and a suicide, topics Miss Austen tended to stay away from.  

The story takes place 6 years after Elizabeth and Darcy were married and they are now residing at Pemberley with their 2 young sons and Darcy's sister, Georgiana. The night before their annual ball, all is thrown into confusion when Elizabeth's sister, Lydia, arrives in a panic saying that her husband, Wickham, has been murdered. If you've read Pride and Prejudice you may think that's not altogether bad news, but murder is murder and some of the men rush out to find him. When they do, he is alive and kneeling over the body of his comrade, Denny, weeping that it's his fault and that he has killed his very good friend. The rest of the story tells about the investigation into what happened and how, who the guilty party is, and the secrets the investigation reveals.

I'm sure it's not easy to write about previously established characters and keep them true to the original author's intent, but this one goes a little too far off track. "Elizabeth knew that she was not fomed for the sad contrivances of poverty" didn't feel like something Austen's Elizabeth would think or say. And when Darcy concluded "The price he had paid in bribing Wickham to marry Lydia had been the price of Elizabeth", it sounded nothing like his Austen character. He had intervened in that situation out of his feeling of responsibility, not to purchase Elizabeth's affection. And the suggestion that Elizabeth's affection could have been bought is not at all true to her character. 

I do enjoy P.D. James writing and this one wasn't bad as a murder mystery, but it messed with the characters too much for me.

A Severed Wasp by Madeleine L'Engle

Beautifully written, as expected, but with enough secrets and tragedy to fill a season of soap operas. The main character, Katherine, a concert pianist, returns home in retirement to give out more wise advice to others than any one person could or possibly, should. Though I knew I should like and admire her, she was a bit too stand-offish to get close to. I loved the setting (a cathedral in New York City), and all the art and music references, but the pace was slow and the plot a little too much to be believed. All that said, it's not a bad story and the good writing alone is probably reason enough to read this one.

Flowers of Darkness

 Flowers of Darkness by Tatiana De Rosnay

Clarissa, an aging writer, has left her husband after finding out he has a double life, a second home where he lives with....I'll leave that for you to find out. Clarissa (and I) are shocked and disgusted in equal proportions and she begins a new life while I try to erase icky images from my mind. 

The more interesting storyline begins when she moves into a building designed for artists - painters, poets, writers, etc. The building's corporate owners are intent on providing a place where creative people can create without worrying about mundane daily things. Set a few years in the future, advanced tech takes care all that. Clarissa has named her apartment's AI housekeeper/overseer Mrs. Dalloway. 

"Mrs. Dalloway, turn on the kettle. Mrs Dalloway complied. Clarissa left most household matters to her. The heating, air conditioner, alarm, shutters, lighting scheme, automatic cleaning system, and all sorts of other tasks were under Mrs. Dalloway's expert supervision."

Before long she begins to suspect that not only is she being watched and recorded, but also possibly being drugged. During an inexplicable, middle of the night fire drill, a neighbour, Jim, mentions his apprehensions about the building and they agree to meet away from home to share concerns. A few days later Jim is missing, his apartment is empty, and Clarissa knows for sure that something is very wrong here.

Despite the odd secondary story line about Clarissa's husband, this was quite a riveting book that I read (too) far into the night. These days I find almost any story about the use of advanced tech for less than ethical purposes interesting, but this one had a few twists and turns that turned it into a real page-turner toward the end. 

Alas, once you get to the end it just fizzles out. I was left with so many questions that I was sure it must be followed by a sequel, but no, it's a stand alone novel. So I don't know what happened to Jim, how Clarissa gets out of her contract with the building, how or where she's going to live now, or if there will be any legal consequences to the corporation.

It's a good story, but I do wish I had more answers.