My blog is new, so I've never picked out favorite books for a year, but here we go. My ten faves for 2021, fiction and nonfiction, out of the 66 books I read: 1. New Testament -- the recent translation by David Bentley Hart 2. Notre Dame de Paris Translated by Alban Krailsheimer 3. Lonesome … Continue reading Favorite books of 2021 (and 2020)
I recently finished reading "Notre Dame de Paris," or as it's known in the English-speaking world, "The Hunchback of Notre Dame." I was surprised to find that the book is all about architecture. I only knew anything about this novel from the movies, none of which speak two syllables about architecture. Hugo was passionate about … Continue reading Notre Dame de Paris
"Anna Karenina" is not quite letting me go. Partly that's because it was just that good. I went back to re-read Part 8; and generally I don't re-read books until years later; but I had to drink in that last section of the novel again, and slowly. Partly the book is hanging on because I've … Continue reading Anna Karenina and Madame Bovary Discuss Their Suicides
I once made a passing remark about how nobody does deathbed scenes like Tolstoy. It happened again to me in the last half of “Anna Karenina,” with the death of Levin’s brother. Deep into that scene, I felt the book was gripping me more tightly than ever, and it's actually hard to explain. Death is … Continue reading Finishing Anna Karenina
“Anna Karenina” is not a book you can read quickly. It just doesn’t move at a hungry pace. You can read a couple of chapters and feel like you’ve moved into a single character’s soul; and you’ve got more than enough to digest for one night, without thinking of moving out into some other character. … Continue reading Anna Karenina – Parts 3 and 4 (of 8)
A few years after finishing “Anna Karenina,” Tolstoy sank into a spiritual funk or crisis that resulted in his work, “A Confession.” In the latter work, he shares the following recollection from his formative years: The kind aunt with whom I lived, herself the purest of beings, always told me that there was nothing she … Continue reading Anna Karenina – Parts 1 and 2 (of 8)
