Bias

I finished a book this week, and I got my sewing machine back.

It's been a good week.

The book: Under the Net by Iris Murdoch. Before the Keen Reads project, I'd never heard of this author or the book. Now, I'd highly recommend both.

The narrator is Jack, a self-involved writer with lots of angst about his relationships with friends, women, even the lady who runs the local cafe. In the end, I didn't find him a sympathetic character at all, but much like The Sun Also Rises, his descriptions are supreme. The book is a gorgeous illustration of London and Paris, both places I love and dearly miss. His respect and passion for the cities ring clear.

He is so self-involved though that at times I wonder if Murdoch's narrator is a sociopath. There's no violence in this book; no foul play. But Jack is so consumed with what other people think of him, how it relates to his personal story, and he so direly believes in fate, that he risks his safety and freedom to fulfill what he believes is destiny. Sometimes, Jack can be a little much. He's definitely not someone I'd be friends with, and if he existed in my world, I'd wonder if he's a little looney.

So it's a quick read, with a beautiful sense of place and a intriguing narrator. I liked it enough that I'd want to read more Murdoch... though I must solider on through this list!

ON THE CRAFTY SIDE:

My sewing machine was in the shop for two painful weeks. Painful for me, not the machine. I got it back yesterday and spent the evening learning how to make bias tape. For the record, it isn't easy. Or, the instructions I'm following in this book are not entirely clear. The verdict is still out on that one.

I'll note there's nothing quite like a good novel to distract from a lack of sewing machine.

Tight

New idiom from The Sun Also Rises: "tight," as in "I can't just stay tight all the time," says the irresistible Lady Ashley or "Brett." It means drunk, which is what Brett, Jake and the other "chaps" in this book are just about all the time. Beware: I may try to reintroduce the word "tight," and it's unlikely to make sense most anywhere, especially considering that tight means something completely different idiomatically now.

My initial impression from this book was that Hemingway dislikes women or generally thinks they're up to no good. It reminds me a lot of the same tone Fitzgerald takes with Daisy in The Great Gatsby (which shouldn't be surprising, since Fitzgerald apparently edited Hemingway). There is one dynamic female character, she is adored by all and screws up everything. I don't hate Brett as a character though, and I don't dislike Hemingway for his portrayal of her, so in general she is tolerable to read.

The characters' anti-semitism is more difficult to read. I am not quite through the book, but I am still unclear why it was necessary for Hemingway to make his most unlikable character, the most abused by his friends, also a Jew. Given more time and resources, I'd look into the theme. Though, I'm about to write about how Hemingway seems to describe things simply for the sake of... describing them. And perhaps that's what he's doing with the anti-semitic remarks, too - perhaps he is describing racism as plain as day, as he saw it in society.

This book's greatness is in the richness of description. The imagery is so vivid; I would love to take the book and travel to Spain on the very same path. The characters go fishing for trout in a lusciously hot part of the country, dipping into the stream water to cool off and sober up. There are lengthy descriptions of bullfighting, sometimes hard to read. Perhaps I have been so carried away reading such ridiculous and delicious things like the Twilight Saga or the Harry Potter series, but I forgot how some authors write rich description just for the sake of ... describing things richly. It is rare (maybe unlikely altogether) to read that from a contemporary or popular author like Stephanie Meyer or JK Rowling. For example, nothing in a Harry Potter book gets described by accident; all of it is somehow weaved into the plot. That's not the case with Hemingway. He describes people and places just for the sake of pure poetic imagery.

Again, not quite done with The Sun Also Rises, but in all, I've enjoyed it. It's been an easy read, and I think it will stick with me much the same as The Great Gatsby. At some point, when I've read more of the books on this list, I'll stick this Hemingway in a list of my own rankings... and we'll see how it stacks up.

Next, I read Rushdie's Midnight's Children.