Review: Laughter in the Dark, by Vladimir Nabokov

Review: Laughter in the Dark, by Vladimir Nabokov

by Rich Horton

Laughter in the Dark was originally published in Russian in serialized form in 1932-1933, and in book form in 1933, as Kamera Obskura. The first English translation, by Winifred Roy, was published in England in 1936, under the title Camera Obscura. Nabokov was disappointed with the translation, and he revised it himself, as Laughter in the Dark. This version appeared in 1938. It was radically revised from the original translation, but also from the original Russian version. The original translation did not sell well, and the remaining copies were lost when the warehouse in which they were stored was bombed in WWII, so it is an extremely rare book. But John Colapinto in the New Yorker compared the two versions -- using a copy which was apparently Nabokov's own, which he used to prepare his own translation. It's clear that many of the changes are more due to Nabokov reconsidering his earlier Russian version, rather than simply improving Roy's translation (and it seems fairly clear that the eventual English Laughter in the Dark owes a fair amount to Roy's Camera Obscura.) Nabokov changed character names, removed scenes that didn't work, and altered the ending, in addition to changes at the line/paragraph level.

In this sense Laughter in the Dark is in some ways a new novel, written in English (though to be sure similar in overall shape to the original Russian version.) I don't know if another Russian version, translated from the English, has ever been made, but I do know that there was a 1930s French translation of Kamera Obskura, and a much later French translation of Laughter in the Dark. At the same time, more or less, Nabokov translated his last Russian novel, Despair, into English. Those two efforts, it seems to me, serve as a sort of practice for his subsequent novels, which were all written in English.

Laughter in the Dark has a somewhat famous opening passage (as famous as a not all that well known novel could have): "Once upon a time there lived in Berlin, Germany, a man called Albinus. He was rich, respectable, happy; one day he abandoned his wife for the sake of a youthful mistress; he loved; was not loved; and his life ended in disaster." Albinus is middle-aged, with a wife and young daughter. He's an expert in art, and not an expert in love -- he had a couple of unsatisfying relationships before his marriage, and he seems to love his wife well enough but find her a bit -- boring, I suppose, or insipid. One day he stops in a cinema to waste an extra hour, and he conceives an obsession with the girl who is serving as usher.

This girl, Margot Peters, is about 17 or 18. A year or two earlier she had left her unhappy and somewhat abusive parents, had become a nude model for painters, and, without quite realizing it, had fallen into the hands of a procuress, who arranges eventually for her to go off with a young man, which pleases Margot enough -- she finds she enjoys sex. But that comes to an end, and Margot can't conceive of any future except to continue to be kept by different men, or to become a movie star. And by the time Albinus encounters her, the closest she's got to the movie business is her job as an usher.

As Albinus clumsily begins to pursue Margot, hoping for a short fling and some excitement and sex, she maneuvers to get more than that out of him. She knows he's well off, and she finds him a tolerable companion. And Albinus, to some extent against his will, is manipulated into a situation where his wife leaves him, and he and Margot live together. This is a scandal, of course, though in Weimar Germany perhaps less than it might have been, and as Margot pushes him to get a divorce he resists -- until a terrible crisis involving his daughter forces events. And Albinus' fate is sealed, in the Greek tragedy sense, especially when Margot decides she likes another man's attentions more, though Albinus' money remains necessary. And so things go to the eventual conclusion -- told us in the first lines of the book, foreshadowed too by the movie Albinus was watching when he first saw Margot, alluded to by such things as a cunning reference to Anna Karenina.

It's a striking novel, blackly comic but legitimately tragic. I haven't mentioned the chief villain, Margot's other lover, an artist of some talent but no morals named Axel Rex, whom Albinus already knew (due to his art connections) but hardly understood. Margot's cupidity, Rex's outright capricious cruelty, and Albinus' weakness collide dreadfully. The prose is excellent, if not quite at the sumptuous levels of Nabokov's great later novels in English. The characters are well depicted. Nabokov's way with the surprising but perfect image is on display. There are no overt sex scenes but there are erotic passages of considerable effect, due to his depiction of character -- and of bodies. It is impossible not to see distorted pre-echoes of Lolita here -- the middle-aged man with a teenaged girl, though in this case the girl is in control and the man the victim. The construction is intricate and effective, the foreshadowing, as I've hinted, remarkable, and not really apparent until the end. It's a slim novel (perhaps 55,000 words) and something of a genre novel, and perhaps a bit slight. (Though slimness doesn't need to imply slightness -- Pnin is very slim but not slight at all.)

I've only read a few of Nabokov's Russian novels, though most of his Russian short stories. I think very highly of Invitation to a Beheading, and I enjoyed King, Queen, Knave and The Defense. I have not read The Gift, nor Despair -- each considered among the best of his Russian books. I'd place Laughter in the Dark below Invitation to a Beheading, but just ahead of The Defense. 

Review: Booth, by Karen Joy Fowler

Review: Booth, by Karen Joy Fowler

by Rich Horton

Recently someone told me that Karen Joy Fowler has a novel coming out soon, perhaps next year. I can't remember who told me that, or where, and so I cannot be sure that it's true -- but I hope it is! At any rate, that seemed a spur for me to finally read her latest novel, Booth, from 2022. Fowler is perhaps the only novelist that both my wife and I read regularly. And, of late, it works out that when a new Fowler novel appears, my wife gets the first crack at it. So she read Booth when it came out -- and it has lingered on my TBR pile until just now!

Fowler has been one of my favorite writers at least since her first novel, Sarah Canary (1991). Probably before then -- earlier stories like "The Lake was Full of Artificial Things", "The Faithful Companion at Forty", and "Game Night at the Fox and Goose" had already make a big impact on me -- and on enough people that her first collection, Artificial Things, appeared in 1986, the year following her first published story. It is notable that her short fiction is largely (though not entirely) fantastika, to use John Clute's preferred term, while her novels are largely, if often ambiguously, realistic. (This is one reason my wife reads her!)

Booth is an historical novel -- the third of her novels to be set in the US in the 19th Century, though the other two (Sarah Canary and Sister Noon) are only loosely based on historical events, while Booth is to an extent about arguably the most traumatic event in our history -- the Civil War, and especially the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. The Booth of the title is not strictly speaking John Wilkes Booth -- the novel concerns his entire family -- his father, Junius, one of the greatest American actors of his generation; his brother, Edwin, pretty much indisputably the greatest American actor of HIS generation; his mother Mary Ann, his sisters Rosalie and Asia, and his brothers June and Joe. (There were four other children who died in childhood. There were other actors in the family, as well -- John Wilkes Booth himself, Asia's husband Sleeper Clarke and their sons Creston and Wilfred, June's third wife Agnes and their son Sydney Barton Booth, who acted in silent films, and Edwin's wives, Mary Devlin and Mary McVicker.)

The novel is told primarily via the points of view of Rosalie, Asia, and Edwin, with brief interludes about Lincoln. It opens in 1838 in rural Maryland. Mary Ann lives there with her several children by Junius Booth, but Junius spends most of his time touring. Nonetheless, they end up with 10 children, the last born in 1841. Rosalie, who turns 15 in 1838, narrates this section, which describes a somewhat pleasant country upbringing, though punctuated with the deaths of four siblings, and the stress surrounding her father's careless handling of money, and his eccentricities, which include alcoholism, a somewhat inconsistent vegetarianism, and a strong abolitionist viewpoint. Rosalie herself is much put upon -- acting as a second mother to her brothers and sisters, feeling herself less attractive than her generally beautiful siblings, and suffering from scoliosis. They are brought up with black servants -- freed slaves -- and while this novel is closely centered on the Booth family we do not miss the terrible condition of black people, even freedmen, and neither do we miss the way the nominally abolitionist Booth family members don't really see how their servants live.

We continue from then until, of course, April 1865. The Booths move to Baltimore, and the surviving children grow up. Rosalie has one love affair (perhaps just in her head) but her family squash it, and she is resigned to spinsterhood. Asia grows up a beauty. Edwin, bullied as a child, eventually turns to the stage against his father's will. June does the same, and moves to California where he marries. John is popular with his fellow boys, but an indifferent student, and for a time returns to the Booth farm, which he hates, then he too becomes an actor. In the mean time he is increasingly pro-South, and his repulsive racism is readily on display. The whole family is upended when a woman claiming (correctly) to be Junius Booth's actual wife, along with her son, turns up, and relatives all but force the Booths from their farm. Edwin eventually follows his father on a somewhat disastrous tour to California, partly in order to see June, and Edwin stays behind when his father returns home -- or, as it happens, does not. Edwin, upon his own return, establishes his reputation, and is soon regarded as one of the country's greatest actors -- and so he also becomes the family's means of support. And he marries a young actress, and has a daughter. Then comes the war. The Booths, by now in New York, mostly sit out the fighting, though they witness such events as the Draft Riots. Asia tells much of this story, and as John is her favorite brother, we see a bit of him, and his increasing radicalization, including threats to kidnap Lincoln. And so comes the inevitable climax.

There is much more going on of course, much based on the historical record, but many personal details of course invented. And the book beautifully and convincingly depicts all the main characters: John's charisma mixed with violence, Rosalie's disappointment, Edwin's depressive nature, acting brilliance, and distrust of his brother, Asia's sometimes unpleasant fierceness. The black characters -- mostly the servants at the Booth property -- are naturally less prominent, but as I said their condition is clearly portrayed, with such details as the adult couple who work for the Booths desperately saving money to buy their children out of slavery. The way John Wilkes Booth's faults distort the entire family is clear, and of course his final act falls heavily on them as well. (Edwin is jilted by a woman he wanted to marry, Asia's husband, as well as June, are imprisoned as suspects in the conspiracy, though they are eventually released. Edwin nearly quits the stage, and does stay off it for months.)

It's a strong novel, involving, honest, and -- like some but not all historical fiction -- informative. We really do learn about this period in American history -- a familiar period to most Americans at least superficially, but reading about it this way does deepen our understanding. The characters are real as well, though (as Fowler certainly admits in her Afterword) much of this aspect is due to the novelist's imagination. Still, seeing this time through the eyes of people of that time -- when those people are faithfully reconstructed as I trust Fowler to do -- is a way of learning more about how they lived. It was a fraught time -- aren't they all -- and that comes through powerfully. Definitely a worthy novel, though I will confess, I don't place it at the top of my lists of Fowler's books. (I have, I think, four tiers -- at the top, Sarah Canary, We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, and the collection Black Glass; second level, The Sweetheart Season, The Jane Austen Book Club, Booth, and the collection What I Didn't See; third tier: Sister Noon and the collection Artificial Things; and then Wit's End at the bottom. I should probably reread both Sister Noon and Wit's End, and I should emphasize that her lowest tier would be top tier for most writers.) 

Review: The Last Emperox, by John Scalzi

Review: The Last Emperox, by John Scalzi

by Rich Horton

This novel, from 2020, is the final entry in John Scalzi's Interdependency series, after The Collapsing Empire (2017) and The Consuming Fire (2018). I had enjoyed the first two novels, and always intended to finish the series, and in fact bought the book long ago, but just never got around to it. I finally have, and I'm glad I did.

The setup, in a few sentences. The Interdependency is an interstellar empire comprising a number of star systems, all linked by the Flow, a kind of traditional set of something like wormhole links. They're not really wormholes, but they act kind of like them, and they allow much faster than light travel between systems, though those trips still take, typically, weeks or months. The Interdependency was formed about a millennium before the action of these novels, and it was designed specifically to have the various systems depend on each other -- so each system only makes a few necessary products, and must trade with all the others to survive. Especially since almost all the planets are uninhabitable, and the people either live underground or in space habitats.

However, the Flow is collapsing -- and within a number of years, all the systems will be isolated again. The rather young, rather new, Emperox, Grayland II, is working as hard as she can to save as many of her subjects as possible, by moving them to the one human-habitable planet, End. She has the help of the scientist who knows more about the Flow than anyone, Marce Claremont. (And she and Marce have become lovers.) But Grayland is opposed by many of the other noble houses, who are more interested in saving themselves than the common people, and who also are more interested in their political power games than in actually working on solving the collapsing Flow problem. And the most evil of these -- a real mustache-twirler had she a mustache -- is Nadashe Nohamapetan. The Nohamapetans have already tried to assassinate Grayland a couple of times, and Nadashe is plotting to have another go at it, and to make herself Emperox.

So, the novel becomes a sort of race against time -- can Grayland use her position to set in place a plan to save most of the Interdependency before Nadashe finally manages to kill her? Grayland has the help of her lover Marce, who has some theoretical ideas that may help at least delay the full collapse of the Flow, and might also help move more people to End -- if he only had the time. Grayland also has the help of simulations of all the previous Emperox's, to give her advice, and of the wily and profane Lady Kiva Lagos. And of course Nadashe has her own fellow schemers, though they do have the usual problem of those sorts -- none of them trust the other.

It's really a very enjoyable novel. It's told in Scalzi's typical snarky voice. To be honest, this voice can get wearing at times, especially as many of the characters sound pretty much the same. Still, Scalzi does snark very well. The love story is really pretty sweet. The political manipulations are interesting -- over the top evil, yes, but interesting. The science is all obviously made up, but it's cleverly done, and it's in the service of a well-constructed story with some pretty worthwhile discussion of morals, of how to govern, of the effect of travel on society, and such. The good guy characters are pretty delightful. The bad guys -- well, it's fun to read about their plotting and such, but maybe the mustache-twirling I mentioned is a tad over the top. And there is too clear a divide between the good guys and the bad guys -- the good guys are all nice, the bad guys are all super-evil. The plot logic is kind of inexorable, and after a while I was able to see how it would have to resolve -- which while it does in a sense (literal sense, really) involve a deus ex machina, gets there sensibly, and doesn't cheat on its internal logic. Having said that, the ending does come off a bit rushed. I would say, in fact, that the Interdependency novels are my personal favorites of Scalzi's books.

Review: The Presidential Papers, plus ..., by John Kessel

Review: The Presidential Papers, plus ..., by John Kessel

by Rich Horton

John Kessel's new collection is the latest in the PM Press Outspoken Authors series of slim volumes by, in their words, "today's edgiest, most entertaining, and uncompromising writers". These books are all by writers of speculative fiction, and the originating editor was the late Terry Bisson. This book was presumably one of the last books Bisson edited, but the series will continue, under the aegis of Nick Mamatas.

In the interests of full disclosure, and because it has a mild effect on my response to the book, I'll note that I bought this at the most recent World Fantasy Convention, at which I had the opportunity for multiple enjoyable conversations with John Kessel, over breakfast, and over drinks. And of course John signed my copy. My response is also affected, however, by some of the more biographical material here -- addressed in a reprinted speech, and in the interview conducted by Bisson that's included in the book. In those, Kessel discusses his ambition, on entering college, to become an astrophysicist, and his realization that his talent really lay elsewhere -- in his case, on encountering tensor calculus. I had nearly the same experience at college -- I entered as a physics major with an astronomy minor, and on encountering complex analysis, and advanced quantum mechanics, I realized that a Ph.D. in Physics wasn't likely. Unlike John, I didn't get an English degree, but I did load up my electives with multiple classes in poetry and contemporary fiction (and science fiction!) which were profoundly rewarding. In addition, I share with John a Catholic upbringing, since lapsed, but still informing a certain part of my worldview.

I knew none of this, mind you, when I first read John's work back in the early '80s -- stories like "Not Responsible! Park it and Lock it!" (1981) and the remarkable "Another Orphan" (1982); and searing later stories like "The Pure Product" (1986) and "Mrs. Shummel Exits a Winner" (1988), which last became part of his first solo novel, the underrated Good News from Outer Space (1989). I've been following his work ever since -- three more strong novels (Corrupting Dr. Nice, The Moon and the Other, and Pride and Prometheus) and a lot of excellent short fiction.

The Presidential Papers, plus ... includes a range of stories from early in his career to now, as well as a transcript of a 2001 speech, and the above-mentioned interview. The stories are chosen to fit the title -- but that doesn't mean quality was in any sense sacrificed to theme. "A Clean Escape" is built around sessions between a military psychologist and her patient, but as we learn about the situation they are in, and the identity of the patient -- and his disease -- the title truly resonates and the story is profoundly chillling. "The Franchise" is somewhat famous for an odd reason -- it's an alternate history and part of its premise is that Fidel Castro becomes a Major League pitcher, and the same issue of Asimov's in which it appeared also featured "The Southpaw", a Bruce McAllister story with the same premise. Kessel's story follows an alternate 1959 World Series in which Castro, a great pitcher for the Giants, faces George H. W. Bush, a minor league callup for the Senators (of course!) I don't want to reveal the guts of the story, though in the end it's more interested (properly, I think) in US politics than Cuban politics.

"The President's Channel" (1998) appeared first in the Raleigh News and Observer, but I saw it in Science Fiction Age. It's an amusing story, but it doesn't have the impact of the rest of this book -- the idea is that the President is constantly on a sort of reality TV channel, and we see an ordinary man watching this channel as we also see his own life. "The Last American" is another searing story, told from the point of view of posthumans looking back at the 21st Century, via the reconstructed life of the last US President. It mixes in actually kind of cool (if frightening, it its way) speculation about future tech and humanity, with even more frightening -- and only too plausible -- speculation about 21st Century political trends. The last fictional piece, new to this volume, is "A Brief History of the War with Venus", in play form, as the President of the Solar Federation confronts the Ambassador from Venus from a decidedly losing position. It's a dark jape, and the resonances with a certain current politician are only too obvious. (I was also curiously reminded of Andre Maurois' "The War Against the Moon".)

The nonfiction is really fascinating to me. The speech, entitled "Imagining the Human Future: Up, Down, or Sideways", looks at novels by Olaf Stapledon, Vernor Vinge, and Bruce Sterling, all of them imagining a posthuman future. Kessel's point it to look at these futures, and the people in them, from a moral or ethical standpoint. Essentially, he asks, if we become posthuman, are our ethics different? And that's a crucial question to ask. The interview is delightful -- basically a look at John's life from his own perspective, and these are interesting (to me) in general, and the more so reading his thoughts a week or so after we were talking across a breakfast table.

I've made this a more personal review than normal, and I don't want to overstate that. I see John Kessel at various conventions, and we have good conversations. But we're not bosom buddies or anything. I can say, I think without prejudice, that that is a first rate book. It is what it is -- it's slim, it's thematically focused. But the stories here are strong work -- particularly, for me, "A Clean Escape" and "The Last American". The nonfiction is really nice. Highly recommended.

Review: Drive, by James Sallis

Review: Drive, by James Sallis

by Rich Horton

James Sallis, who will turn 80 in December, began publishing with stories in New Worlds and in Orbit in the late '60s. He was strongly associated with the New Wave (and was for a time a co-editor of New Worlds), and it would be fair to say that when Darrell Schweitzer complained about "non-functional word patterns", he likely would have placed some of Sallis' early stories in that category. I would have to admit that whatever of his stories I had read by 1976 or so didn't make an impression on me. But I have returned to his work over the past couple of decades, and many of these Orbit stories are striking and intriguing, and always well written, though, yes, sometimes difficult to comprehend. And there is nothing wrong with trying hard to do something truly new and sometimes failing! (And the Sallis stories from that era that I did understand (to a sufficient degree) are wonderful -- I review some of them here.)

Sallis never really stopped writing SF, and he published worthwhile stories in Asimov's and Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet through the '90, and more recently has placed work in Clarkesworld, Interzone, and even Analog! And these stories are first rate -- in particular I recommend a long novelette, "Dayenu", from LCRW, that I had the honor to reprint in The Year's Best Science Fiction and Fantasy, 2019 Edition. He also has written an on and off again book review column for F&SF since the turn of the millenium.

But I haven't mentioned any novels. And that's because when Sallis turned to longer fiction, he concentrated primarily on crime fiction. He developed quite a reputation in that field, particularly for his Lew Griffin series, though he published a number of standalone novels and one other trilogy. Some of this work was more experimental, mainstream or liminal, but the bulk was in the the crime field.

Drive (2005) is certainly a crime novel. It is sheer noir -- in no sense a mystery. There was eventually a sequel, Driven, from 2012, though I rather imagine Drive was conceived as a standalone. Drive was made into a fine movie in 2011, starring Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan. The movie takes the main "heist gone bad" plotline from the novel, but leaves out the rest. Quite possibly that was the correct artistic choice for a film, but the novel is deeper for having additional threads.

Drive, the novel, is told in a non-linear fashion. The main character is just called "Driver", and it's not entirely clear whether that is actually his last name or just a reference to his job. (In the movie he's called The Driver, removing any ambiguity.) He works as a stuntman for low budget movies, and he is a remarkable driver. This leads eventually to a side gig as a getaway driver, though he cautions anyone who hires him that he doesn't do anything but drive -- no direct involvement in the actual crime.

The short, sharp, chapters go forward and backward in time. We see Driver's childhood, including an abusive father, and a mentally ill mother who ends up killing her husband in front of her son. We learn of his brief time with step-parents, then his move from Phoenix to LA, and his getting work as a stunt driver, then, his descent into the world of crime. He hooks up in a curious relationship with Irene, a woman living next door to him in one of the cheap apartments he rents, and when her husband, Standard, gets out of jail the relationship continues with Standard's consent. (I should say that there are no sex scenes in the book, and it's not entirely clear that Driver and Irene ever sleep together (though that's the way I'd bet.) It is clear that they are close, and that Driver also loves her son, Benicio.)

This is noir, so we kind of know what's going to happen -- but we know anyway because the first chapter in this non-linear narrative is set shortly after a heist that he and Standard were inveigled into goes south -- and as the book opens Driver is in a hotel room with three dead people -- another member of the heist team, a woman, who has been killed by the two dead men, who were supposed to retrieve the large bag of money that the woman had made off with. Driver, of course, killed the two hitmen, but he knows that he'll remain a marked man, as the two mobsters who set up the heist won't rest until they get their money back, and also kill anyone who knows about it. This narrative runs through the whole book, with, as I said, sections set in Driver's past, and also during the earlier days in New York of the two mobsters.

It's a perfectly executed piece of breakneck noir action. The novel is short (just over 30,000 words, I'd say). It's as violent as the reader expects. It's twisty and clever. The several men who have significant roles (the mobsters, a down on his luck doctor who treats Driver when he's injured, his mentor in the stunt business, and a younger driver who works with him, a friend he knows from the movie business, a couple more criminals with whom Driver is involved, and of course Driver himself) are economically and convincingly portrayed. (I should say that the only woman who comes into much focus at all is Driver's mother.) Driver is one of those criminals we root for -- because of his traumatic upbringing, because the other criminals all seem worse than him, because many of his actions seem forced on him.) He's also curiously complicated internally -- presenting an only partly true façade of an empty and emotionless man, but a devoted if eccentric reader, someone who likes good wine, and someone who is good to women and children.) It's a wickedly fast read, very entertaining. 

Review: Harriet Hume: A London Fantasy, by Rebecca West

Review: Harriet Hume: A London Fantasy, by Rebecca West

a review by Rich Horton

Harriet Hume was Rebecca West's third novel (of seven published in her lifetime.) It's a deliriously beautiful book, as strange as almost anything I've read, on one hand a character study of a corrupt man and an innocent woman, but not really like that at all. It seems to stand out of time -- it was published in 1929 and its action spans a couple of decades that aren't easily placed in our history. Its lovely prose also stands out of time in a sense. It is realistic in telling but fantastical as well, with mind-reading and ghosts and imaginary countries; and an almost phantasmagorical portrayal of London, and an oddly transcendent ending. It's a wonderful and mysterious book, and not for everyone, as a look at what reviews one can find will confirm. But I loved it.

Rebecca West was the pseudonym used by Cecily Isabel Fairfield for her professional life -- which is to say pretty much her entire life. She was an actor (she took the name "Rebecca West" from the heroine of Henrik Ibsen's play Rosmersholm), a journalist, novelist, travel writer, political activist. She was knighted ("damed"?) in 1959, and as far as I can tell, though technically she was Dame Cecily Fairfield she was called Dame Rebecca West. She was born in London in 1892, and died there in 1983. 

Her father was an Anglo-Irishman who had spent time in Australia and the US (he served as a stretcher bearer in the Confederate Army.) He was a respected journalist, but apparently terrible with money, and he abandoned his wife and three daughters in 1900, and died in 1906. Her mother (an accomplished pianist) moved with Cecily and her two elder sisters to Edinburgh. It was apparently a stimulating intellectual and political environment to grow up in. Her eldest sister became a doctor and barrister, and a niece was also a writer. Cecily and her sister Lettie were part of the women's suffrage movement. Cecily, as Rebecca West by then, became a journalist and literary critic (despite quitting school at age 15). She also entered into an affair with H. G. Wells (despite publishing a negative review of one of his novels) which lasted a decade and produced her only child, Anthony West. She published her first novel in 1918, and was married to Henry Andrews from 1930 until his death in 1968. She was very much a woman of the left, but also a staunch anti-Communist (a political combination I respect greatly.) She wrote several novels and many works of non-fiction, and is now best known for her massive study of Yugoslavia, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon. 

My copy of the novel is from The Dial Press in 1982, a US reprint of the 1980 Virago edition. (The Dial Press, for a time, reprinted a selection of the Virago Modern Classics for the US audience.) The book was first published by Hutchinson in the UK in 1929, and by Doubleday, Doran in the US that same year. Curiously, the US edition was originally subtitled "A London Phantasy". 

Harriet Hume opens with Harriet and her lover Arnold Condorex running down the stairs from her bedroom (where they had been making love) into the garden of Blennerhassett House, where Harriet has a couple of rooms. Harriet discovers that she can read Arnold's thoughts, first as he imagines the names of their future children. There is a nice interlude, walking in the garden, Harriet reading the newspaper in her special way (pages spread on the floor in deference to her poor eyesight), and Harriet telling a lovely fantastical story about the three trees in her garden -- which she claims are the three Dudley sisters immortalized in Joshua Reynolds' famous painting "The Three Graces Decorating a Statue of Hymen". (I should note that there are errors in Harriet's description -- whether these are purposeful errors illustrating Harriet's character, or mistakes by West, I'm not sure, though I suspect the former. At any rate, the painting is actually called "Three Ladies Adorning a Term of Hymen", and the ladies depicted are the Montgomery sisters, not the Dudleys. Hymen is, significantly, the god of marriage.) Harriet's tale suggests that the three ladies had, as infants, become literally attached to a garland (as shown in the painting) which seems to have been the source of their beauty -- which left them at marriage as they could no longer carry the garland. But, later in life, they reclaimed their garlands, left their husbands and came to the very garden Harriet and Arnold are in, and turned into trees. Harriet and Arnold's conversation continues, at intervals delightful, and then foreboding, for it becomes only too clear that Arnold, born into a lower class, resents his rivals whom he believes were born with unfair advantages, craves above all political advancement, and doesn't appreciate Harriet's music at all (though he does appreciate her body!) And Harriet reads his thoughts concerning a plan to throw her over and instead marry a plain woman in order that this woman's father can help his career.

The novel continues with four further long chapters, each a few years apart, depicting a few more encounters between Arnold and Harriet. At each meeting Arnold is changed -- coarser, fatter, older -- but Harriet seems ever the same. We see Arnold's personal life -- he does not marry the plain woman but instead a very beautiful, and quite unintelligent, woman whose father also can help Arnold's progress. We see his political advancement -- his schemes come initially to fruition (one based hilariously on his discovery that the city of Mondh in Mangostan doesn't exist -- instead it was a typo for an ordinary city called Pondh -- but Arnold uses the fictional city as a lever in his maneuvering of Britain's foreign policy.) Arnold's plotting involves betrayal of his political allies, and eventually financial corruption. At each meeting with Harriet she uses her telepathic powers to learn of his perfidy, and to urge him to abandon it. Arnold's own perception of Harriet is revealed too -- he uses the words "slut", "jade", "wench", "trollop" and such with an affectionate tone betrayed by their meaning. And by the end he, now the First Baron Mondh, faces complete ruin, as his finances are in tatters and his political corruption exposed. And he makes one final trip to Harriet's place ...

I was enchanted -- the mundane tale of political corruption married to a sadly aborted romance mixed with a fantastical view of London, with comic interludes, and with an at once spooky and ethereal element all married beautifully. And the prose -- mannered in the best way, arch, surprising, with the flavor of the 19th century and the 1920s elegantly joined. Some examples, though as with most of the best prose, reading in context (and rhythm) is best:

"Of all women he had ever known she was the most ethereal. Loving her was like swathing oneself with a long scarf of spirit."

"Just then Harriet, smiling like a doll, raised her hand to her head and withdrew the sole pin that held in place her Grecian knot; and the sleek serpents of her hair slipped down over her shoulders and covered her bosom, their curled heads lying in her lap."

"She had passed beyond the trench of sooty shadow cast by the house on the silver pavement, and was in full moonlight when she turned, so that the tail of her gown, dropping beneath her cloak, shone like an angel's robe, and the hands which covered her trembling mouth seemed luminous, and the tears in her eyes might have been taken by experts for diamonds."

Review: Break, Blow, Burn, & Make, by E. Lily Yu

Review: Break, Blow, Burn, & Make, by E. Lily Yu

a review by Rich Horton

E. Lily Yu is one of the finest writers to appear in the past 15 years or so. She has published a few dozen short stories, in a variety of genres, with fantasy and SF the predominant modes; and one novel, On Fragile Waves (2021); plus a collection, Jewel Box (2023). Her new book is subtitled "A Writer's Thoughts on Creation", and it is about writing -- craft, ambition, purpose, inspiration, beauty. But in writing about creating outstanding books, it is also about living, about discipline, about being a better person. It is, I will add, very ardently a Christian woman's book -- though its message can be applied by one in any faith or philosophical tradition.

Critical to the book's message is discussion of how readers respond -- or how we hope they respond -- to books. Not by star ratings, nor by performative liking, but, to quote: "We honor books when we discuss them in this way: as art, as gifts, as potential acts of love, rather than as mass-produced factory products." This speaks to me as a reader and critic, but also to writers -- if readers will discuss books as art, as acts of love, the writer must aim for art, and must write with love, at least for their creation. "... wisdom, courage, character, and judgment are critical to both writing and living ..." This highlights another running theme -- the act of writing as part of a whole life, at least for the writer (and not everyone is a writer -- which is no judgment but just an acknowledgement that we all have different talents.) And thus a writer should respect their art as much as they respect their life. 

Yu writes interestingly about the goals of the reader and the writer. Here she properly rejects the notion that reading is itself productive of virtue -- particularly the idea that by reading we increase our ability to empathize. This notion always seemed suspect to me -- a way for us readers to pat ourselves on the back. And it has been debunked by research. In addition, she addresses the notion that a story should explicitly illustrate correct morals -- as for instance the not uncommon demand that it be clear that bad characters are punished and good characters rewarded. Yu reminds us that bad people can still love great art, and moreover that books can lie. Finally -- it is important for readers to put in the effort to understand a book -- the ability to accept multiple meanings, to discern truth, and to recognize allusions are all important, and do not come without work. "... a reader can recognize falsity in a book only when that reader can recognize falsity in herself and others ..." 

The middle of the book is the part most directly concerned with writing -- vocation and craft. Yu argues first for a writer to be  a vessel for truth -- and that truth comes when "the artist dies to self, burns, and becomes transparent". Writing should not be self-expression -- but expression of the real. "Self-expression is opacity". This observation was new to me but it resonates, and suggests to me something I object to in much contemporary poetry (and much recent fiction.)

One chapter is devoted to craft. And here I can only cheer! Likely it has always been so, but in recent years I have been disheartened to see many books -- often highly praised -- that stumble, that seem unwilling to care about prose and structure. Yu mentions understanding of language, and the benefits of knowing multiple languages. The necessity of precision, and the beauty that can result from not just a correct word but the right word used in the right place. The importance of rhythm to prose. Subtlety in portrayal of character, and in subtext. The importance of revision.

The third section is the most aspirational. It is in some sense a call to writers, a call to artists. It is intensely Christian in its language and references, and also very personal to this author's own experience. It deals too with the place of artists in the world, and the pressures they face. It urges attention to the natural world. It urges writers not to tailor their work to the demands -- political, artistic, moral -- of the public but to tell the truth their work requires. I found this inspiring, and I hope nonreligious readers will not be put off it, for I think the burden of the book will come through to any sympathetic reader.

The book is also a tribute to some of the authors who have inspired E. Lily Yu. Quotes and references abound to the likes of James Baldwin, Annie Dillard, G. K. Chesterton, George MacDonald, Madeleine L'Engle, and many more. A list of important books comes early -- Possession; Little, Big; Middlemarch, The Man Who Was Thursday, and more. I confess that discussing books I adore is a doorway to my heart! Break, Blow, Burn & Make is beautifully written, boldly argued, blessedly inspiring. 

I will leave with a few memorable sentences

"Language is the narrow rope bridge with which we traverse the vast abysses between two people, or two cultures, or two times."

"Mischief results when people mistake data for knowledge, knowledge for wisdom, and, more and more often, feelings for truth."

"If an artwork is incandescent, then sufficient craft, love, and proper source and orientation are already present in the work. If it sets us on fire, we are partly responding to those things, but we are also responding to the exaltation and expansion of the artist's spirit in response to that demand for courage."

"To read in the way I have suggested here is nothing more and nothing less than to live with open eyes and ears, attuned to both the sharp edge of the present and the thick layers of the past."

"I have no answers to the questions I ask, nor proof of anything, or the questions would not be worth asking."