Four More

Yes, a quartet of novels have been finished since my last posting, two weeks back. Despite Cormac Mccarthy's front page review in the Times I would not say that his latest No Country For Old Men is worth the attention. Barstool conservatism competes with a noir thriller without the thrill. I also read Children At The Gate by Edward Wallant and found it lacking, as i was expected to by the article I read about Wallant in the Guardian a year or so ago.

I read a Tale of Two Cities whilein Chicago and found it weight considerable. I ploughed through and will post my opinion on the samizdat site. I bought Nowhere Man by Aleksandr Hemon at Powell's in Chcago (along with 15 other titles) and read it my last day there. Quite impressive but boasting a sterotypical serb nationalist that will no doubt evoke my wife's wrath. Hemon is wonderful bard, I was quite thrilled.

Spheres in Collision

It has been over two weeks since i lasted posted. The time has been one of strife, emergency and (much-needed) escape.The night N went to the hospital I returned to this quiet abode and finding that beer couldn't calm my nerves I turned instead to Mr Foote and his account of how Vicksburg fell to Grant and subsequently how Bragg abandoned Middle Tennessee to Rosecrans. It was the former which caught my eye, as Pemberton was promised a full parole of his troops but over 700 of them elected to be interned as POWs.

gentlemen in England, now abed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here

Somehow I can't see Bard enduring the onslaught of the Gibraltar of Old Muddy with such ideals intact.

It appears likely that I will link the London Bombings with the passing of Shelby Foote. Bedmates and the loose nature of my brain have shoved this along. I was reading Follow Me Down as I learned of this tragedy, one which was accelerated by potentially affecting my extended family. I finished the novel on Saturday and what an appropriate novel it was. Perhaps emulating As I Lay Dying, it does unveil that wilting poetry that Foote brought to nations greatest catastrophe.

 

I decided to read Yellow Dog, hoping to strike on the sentimental iron of London. What a mistake! Amis appears preoccupied with contortions, navel gazing and his own demons. �

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Rubicon

I finished the above by Tom Holland today at lunch. A (near)Footean examination of the short-lived Roman Republic, the text has flourishes of prose but it is the titanic visiage of the people themselves which carry the text.

It also appears that in the aftermath of the Republic it was Augustus who served as the origins of Conservatism, welding self-interest with tradtional ideals onto the unwashed.

Epistemology

Need I concern myself with analysis of Lincoln through the parable of Job? Absolutely fucking not.

Impassive

It has been a week of reading about Rome and Lincoln. A pale tribute to my friend Shelby ensued as I watched all of the Ken Burns Civil War these past two days.