Book choice for May 2010
Contempt [suggested by Richard Layfield]
After a second reading of Contempt, I feel compelled to call the short, tautly
written novel a masterpiece. Told from the perspective of a neurotic egotist,
the narrator accounts how he "sacrificed" his literary writing career to debase
himself in the tawdry task of writing screenplays so that he can afford to lavish
his wife with more opulent living quarters. The narrator convinces himself
that not only does his wife not appreciate his "sacrifice," but that she no longer
loves him. It's horrifying to read this narcissist's account of his marital
disintegration. Close reading reveals that the narrator never sacrificed his
writing career for his wife's opulent tastes, but rather is debasing his writing
talents for his own greedy materialistic acquistion.
[Abridged from a review on Amazon by M Jeffrey McMahon]
About the Author
Alberto Moravia (November 28, 1907 - September 26, 1990), born Alberto Pincherle
- the pen-name "Moravia" is the surname of his maternal grandfather - was born
in Rome to a wealthy middle-class family. His Jewish father, Carlo, was
an architect and a painter. His Catholic mother, Teresa Iginia de Marsanich,
was from Ancona but of Dalmatian origin.
Moravia contracted tuberculosis at the age of nine which prevented him finishing
conventional schooling. Confined to bed for five years, he devoted himself
to reading books: some of his favourite authors included Dostoevsky, Joyce, Ariosto,
Goldoni, Shakespeare, Molière, Mallarmé. He learned French and German, and
wrote poems in both languages.
In 1925 he moved to Brixen, where he wrote his first novel, Gli Indifferenti (Time
of Indifference), published in 1929. The novel is a realistic analysis of
the moral decadence of a middle-class mother and two of her children. In
1927 he started his career as a journalist with the magazine 900, which published
his first short stories. He eventually became one of the leading Italian
novelists of the twentieth century whose novels explore matters of modern sexuality,
social alienation, and existentialism, and is best known for his anti-fascist novel
Il Conformista (The Conformist), the basis for the film The Conformist (1970) by
Bernardo Bertolucci. Several more of his novels translated to film, including
Contempt, filmed by Jean-Luc Godard as Le Mépris (Contempt) (1963). [biog abridged
from his Wikipedia entry]
Shortlisted for this month
In an interesting exercise in the illusion of choice, Richard offered two of the three books he previously selected the last time he made a choice (in January 2009), replacing in the list only the one we had already read. So this month, his other suggestions were:
The Plague
Not only have large numbers of people (165 at the time of writing) been moved to
write a review of this work on Amazon, but many of them have almost written novels
themselves in attempting the feat. Hence it has proven harder than usual to find
a short review, or precis one of the most popular for inclusion here. Here's a
flavour of the top three:
The Plague is easily one of the best ten novels ever written, far surpassing even
the erstwhile classic The Stranger.
The plague is an allegory, for fascism and totalitarianism. The novel deals largely
with individuals' varying reactions to the plague as it emerges and settles in
on the city of Oran.
The very first chapter of The Plague is short but filled with immense foreshadowing
and extensive descriptive passages... The greatest piece of foreshadowing, however,
and the one that sets the book's theme is the sense of alienation and entrapment.
Both the living and the dead remain trapped behind the walls of Oran. Freedom,
truth and beauty all lie within a stone's throw, but, until the plague forces
them to look, the Oranians remain blind to the beauties of the world outside.
Much more available, for those with time to spare, on the Amazon Pages or Wikipedia.
About the Author
Born November 7th, 1913 in Algeria son of French 'pied-noir' settlers Camus grew up in poverty in the proletarian neighbourhood of Belcourt in Algiers. His natural talent was spotted by teacher Louis Germain who helped the young Camus win a high school scholarship. Camus would later dedicate his 1957 Nobel Prize acceptance speech to Germain. While at school Camus developed a love of football and played well in goal. He wanted to play professionally but tuberculosis, a disease that would plague him for life, ended these dreams.
The above is the first section of an extensive biography that may be found on the pages of the Albert Camus Society. Naturally he also has his own Wikipedia page.
The Trial
A terrifying psychological trip into the life of one Joseph K., an ordinary man
who wakes up one day to find himself accused of a crime he did not commit, a
crime whose nature is never revealed to him. Once arrested, he is released,
but must report to court on a regular basis - an event that proves maddening, as
nothing is ever resolved. As he grows more uncertain of his fate, his personal
life - including work at a bank and his relations with his landlady and a young
woman who lives next door - becomes increasingly unpredictable. As K. tries
to gain control, he succeeds only in accelerating his own excruciating downward spiral.
Wikipedia entry.
About the Author
Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 - 3 June 1924) was one of the major fiction writers of
the 20th century. He was born to a middle-class German-speaking Jewish
family in Prague. His unique body of writing - much of which is incomplete
and which was mainly published posthumously - is considered by some people to
be among the most influential in Western literature.
His stories, such as The Metamorphosis (1915), and novels, including The Trial (1925)
and The Castle (1926), concern troubled individuals in a nightmarishly impersonal
and bureaucratic world.
Further extensive biography notes are available from his Wikipedia
entry.
Previous Months' Book Choices
April 2010
March 2010
February 2010
January 2010
November 2009
October 2009
September 2009
August 2009
July 2009
June 2009
May 2009
April 2009
March 2009
February 2009
January 2009
November 2008
October 2008
September 2008
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November 2007
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November 2006
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