Jazzy D's Soul Notes

Carlene Bauer "Frances and Bernard" (Chatto & Windus)





A fictional love story told through letters, “inspired by” the real life correspondence of Flannery O’Connor and Robert Lowell. Since I know virtually nothing about either of these writers, I had no issues with what was true or not in this novel about two intelligent people who can’t find a way to make their relationship work.

The author described the theme of the book to Publisher’s Weekly as “what happens when someone effusive, passionate and grandiose {Bernard} gets involved with someone tough-minded, cranky and aloof {Frances}.” While Bernard is instantly likeable and Frances seems cold in comparison, once his manic depression becomes problematic, Frances’ reticence to become romantically involved with him becomes more understandable and my sympathies switched to her side. Here are a couple of quotes to give you an idea of the heartbreaking nature of their relationship:

Bernard, in a letter to Frances: “I love your suspicion--it means your mind is always sharpening itself against the many lies of the world--but right now it is killing me. So I am going to ask you to write me a letter convincing me that you believe me. You do not have to tell me that you are in love with me, and you do not have to tell me how you feel about me. You have to write and tell me that you believe I love you.”

Frances, in a letter to a friend: “He will call four separate times at work; I can’t answer it the first three times, and the fourth time, when I pick up, he’ll say: “Why didn’t you pick up before? You’re Florence Nightingale, you’re supposed to pick up. I could be bleeding on a field in Turkey.” We laugh, it’s funny, but the fact remains: He has called four times in a row in a span of five minutes. . . It makes me want to hide from him sometimes in embarrassment--I have maybe a tenth of his energy, and I often wonder when he will realize that he’s in love with a slug. Whirlwinds can’t love slugs. They need other whirlwinds, don’t they? Or mountains.”

I finished this book over a month ago and it’s stayed with me and I would even consider re-reading it, which I almost never do. The only reason I’m not giving it 5 stars is because the discussions of faith went mostly over my head and I couldn’t appreciate those parts of the book.

Graham Swift "Waterland" (Picador)



Not my first book by the author, I read Last Orders wile travelling a few years ago, but I had forgotten his roundabout, yet entertaining, way of spinning a yarn.

Set in the Fens, the characters are as much tied to the land, the titular Waterland. Like the water in its springy earth, the Fens seem to move, retract and then burst their banks as the try to get back to their previous untamed state.

The book has 3 threads. The first is that of a history teacher, Crick, being given his marching orders, partly for his unorthodox teaching methods and partly because of an incident in his personal life. In his classes, he tells the students about the other two threads - the history of his family in the Fens and the death of a childhood friend, both of which have contributed to the current state of events.

Price, a clever boy in Crick's class, questions the relevance of history in a world which has a bleak, if any, future. Written in the early '80s, it is a fear that my own generation dismissed with the fall of the Iron Curtain, only for it to have reared its head again in the wake of 9/11 and the current economic crisis.

The impression you get of the Fens is that of a fierce, resistant people. Resistant to those who tried to tame the waters, independent from the world outside until it strategic position and the source of man power were discovered by the powers that be. I suppose you could argue nature versus nurture, but how can you separate the two when both seem to be governed by the Fens? Most of all, though, there is a feeling of guilt that pervades in its pages - for what has happened, whether it could have been prevented. Absent mothers and madness are two other recurring notes.

Highly recommended.

Elizabeth Von Arnim "The Enchanted April" (Penguin Modern Classics)




In this story, set in 1922, Mrs. Lottie Wilkins and Mrs. Rose Arbuthnot become disenchanted with their husbands. Acting as feminists for their time, they plan to spend the month of April away from men at a castle named San Salvatore on the Italian Riviera. They advertise and then invite Lady Caroline “Scrap” Dester and Mrs. Fisher to share expenses. They aren’t there long when the beauty of San Salvatore so overcomes Lottie Wilkins that she decides to invite her husband to join them.

Mellersh Wilkins, Lottie’s husband, arrives and immediately sees that meeting the people who are sharing the castle with his wife can be good for his business as an attorney. He is thrilled about this enterprising opportunity, and Lottie perceives that Mellersh appreciates her more than he had been, and her marriage becomes more fulfilling. Lottie, described as blessedly impetuous, tries to convince Mrs. Arbuthnot to invite her husband. However, Mrs. Fisher and Lady Caroline, who are not using the getaway to escape husbands, are less than enthralled with the anticipation of having more men among them.

Each woman’s unique reason for being at San Salvatore is part of this classic novel. Each didn't fully understand her unhappiness. But, each becomes enchanted with the grounds of their vacation rental and begins to view her life situation a little differently. The story intrigued me; I thought about how much has changed for women over the last 100 years and how much hasn’t. We are still debating whether the men in their lives should define women.

Additionally, societal’s expectations and views of women have changed, but perhaps not as significantly as many would believe. Elizabeth von Arnim encourages us to examine the completeness and complexities of women’s lives even in these modern times. She also teases us to wonder whether the four women were truly rejuvenated and refreshed by their enchanted Aril or whether they just accepted their lives or “settled” for what life offered.

Mike Watkinson "Crazy Diamond : Syd Barrett & The Dawn of Pink Floyd" (Omnibus Press)




This biography is short, easy to read, and fascinating. It dispels some of the more harmful myths about Syd, and unfortunately confirms some of the worse aspects of his character. It's a humbling read for those who idolize Syd, and a sad reminder of just how damaging drugs can be to an already troubled personality.

I'll always wondeedr what Syd could have achieved had he not been destroyed as he was, but shall take some solace in the fact that at least for even a little while he was happy in his solitude.

Naomi Alderman "The Power" (Penguin)



"The power to hurt is a kind of wealth."

"They do it because they can."

"Power doesn't care who uses it."

"That is the trouble with history. You can't see what's not there. You can look at an empty space and see that something's missing, but there's no way to know what it was."

This work of speculative fiction starts with the premise that women have evolved a power, a skein that grows on their chests and gives them the tremendous power to generate and harness electrical energy. It turns out that this power is not universal among women; there are, of course, genetic variations. But the impact of this power, the power to hurt or even kill another being, on societal structures, norms, and deviations provides a world in which author Naomi Alderson can fully explore the role of power in human relations and organizations. Her novel is timely. It is also engaging and adequately complex to address the issues on the table.

Ernest Hemingway "A Farewell To Arms" (Vintage Classics)




Hemingway's semi-autobiographical depictions of his adventures hide, with terse descriptive writing, a seriously dysfunctional emotional life. The war in Italy frames Frederic Henry's affair with English nurse Catherine Barkley, a relationship that exists more out of lust and circumstance than for any deep emotional connection. Hemingway evokes sympathy for the doomed lovers despite their shallowness.

In the context of the modernist movement, Hemingway clearly expresses his generations disillusionment with the old world order of warfare as a path to honuor. Frederic Henry starts out as an idealist, trying to convince his Italian compatriates that war should be fought until resolution, despite the seeming mindlessness of the violence. It isn't until his own life is threatened by the clear stupidity of the carabinieri that he realizes he must desert and try to make a life with Catherine. With the tragic ending of the book, Hemingway seems to be saying that happiness is fleeting in our modern world - that escape from the world and its machinery of death is impossible.

What is ironic in this novel?

Frederic is in the Italian army as an American. At one point another soldier assumes Frederic is Italian-American, and is in the war for patriotic reasons. Why is Frederic in the war? Ostensibly he was in Italy studying architecture, and then joined the army as an ambulance driver when hostilities broke out. But there is a clear blurring of national distinctions, along with a dismissal of patriotism, glory, or honour as motivating factors in war. AFTA is very cynical about the nationalist tendencies of warmongers, as exemplified by the retreat scene when Fred's life is more threatened by the Italians than the Germans.

There is also a strong vein of atheism in this novel - from the bullying of the priest to Frederic's unanswered prayers at the end, faith in God is notably absent in this Catholic setting. While the modernists saw traditional religious faith as a creaking structure that falls apart in the face of the horrors of modern life and death, Hemingway is implying that faith and hope cannot stand against the tragedy of the war. Frederic says at the end of the novel that "that is what you did. You died. You did not know what it was about. You never had time to learn." Death is meaningless and inevitable, and religion naively tries to make death a part of God's plan.

Frederic is an anti-hero, in that he loves Catherine (which is the only moral belief he holds) but seems distant from her, constantly drinking and making love to her, impregnating her, but without any kind of plan for how they will go on after leaving the war. Frederic is the typical Hemingway hero in that his own ego and his self-image gets in the way of a meaningful emotional connection. While it is clear that he loves Catherine, he is never vulnerable to her. He has to keep up the facade of being in control.

So, would I recommend this book in the en?. Personally, I found his short stories more satisfying, and it is there i would direct a newcomer before tackling this novel.

Walter Lord  "A Night To Remember"(Penguin)



In his classic A Night To Remember Walter Lord gives us an intimate retelling of the last hours of the Titanic, starting from the crow’s nest and the moment the iceberg was sighted and concluding just hours later with the Carpathia steaming off for New York with the survivors.

In the course of writing this book, Lord interviewed many of the survivors, as well as crew from the Carpathia and the Californian - the ship that was closest but didn’t hear the distress calls until far too late. The result is an authentic, detailed and sensitive account of the night of April 12. The narrative is told in straight forward manner, and with a certain emotional distance being maintained but Lord includes moments and anecdotes which clearly illustrate the human aspect of this disaster: wives resolutely refusing to leave their husbands and those forcibly placed in life boats, family’s becoming separated in the crush, a terrified young man removed from a life boat and another who covered his head in a woman’s shawl and went undetected, the gentlemen dressed in their best and those in the life boat’s in all manner of dress, the bickering whilst waiting for rescue, and the fear that meant only one life boat went back to check for survivors amongst those that were in the water. While direct quotes from the survivors are not used, it is obvious in the memories shared and the emotions described that this is a book based on first hand accounts.

In one or two sentences at the end of numerous chapters, the initial disbelief, then the growing desperation on board the Titanic’s is contrasted with (what seems to us) the unfathomable decisions being made on board the Californian, whose crew saw the strange positioning of the Titanic’s lights and then later the flares, but arrived at every conclusion to explain what they were seeing except the correct one. There is a sense of tension as the Carpathia responds and races to the scene through the ice field, and in doing so reaches a speed that surprises even her captain.

A Night To Remember is rightly held to be a classic. It has a quiet power, is utterly compelling and in including the recollections of those involved, Lord gives readers plenty of insight into what it was like during the Titanic's last hours.

Niall Ferguson "Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World" (Penguin)





Ferguson writes as a pro-Empire historian, and thus a non-Marxist, but one who is not blind to the awful aspects of the process. I learned much from this book. For example, the Indian "mutiny" of 1857 can be directly linked to the impact of missionary activity, which had been barred by the East India Company, but which had been allowed to intrude in the years leading up to the mutiny. Second, who knew that India sent more troops to WW1 than Australia, New Zealand, Canada and South Africa combined? And third, that Roosevelt and the rest of the American leadership in the lead up to their involvement in WW2 were explicitly anti-Empire - that their support for the UK was conditional on it not being support for the British Empire as it stood. (As it turned out, Britain was broke after the war, so the empire collapsed of its own accord. The fact that the US was the creditor now makes it seem that the cause and consequence may have happily linked in the Americans' minds.) This is a good book, well written.

Brian Greene "Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe" (Penguin)









Brian Greene is a very smart fellow, with a deep understanding of physics, and a wide range of knowledge in other disciplines. He is at his best when explaining cosmology and theoretical physics, but less convincing towards the end of the book, when discussing consciousness and meaning.

The relentless increase in entropy is the major villain of this book, sending the universe towards a dark future without organized matter. Evolution has locally produced molecules, life, and temporary order, by using sources of low entropy energy, but in turn dissipating the heat produced by the processes producing the order into the surrounding universe. There comes a time when the universe has no more low entropy sources of energy.

I wish Greene hadn't come up with the term "entropy two-step" to describe this exchange and then proceed to use it every few pages as a shorthand. He is worried about extracting free will and philosophical meaning out of the idea that physical systems can be described, in theory, completely by the movement of their particles. I see this worry in many books about consciousness, and I think it is overstated.

The very readable narrative portion of the book is 326 pages, and the more exacting mathematical and physical details, index, and bibliography comprises another 102 pages.

Emma Healey "Elizabeth is Missing" (Penguin)





Maud, an elderly woman with symptoms of dementia, is concerned for her friend Elizabeth, who she believes has gone missing. She obsesses on this, repeatedly visiting Elizabeth's house, as well as the police, much to the frustration of her daughter Helen, and the amusement of her granddaughter, Katy. In reality, Maud's condition makes her unable to comprehend the real reason why Elizabeth is not at home.

Maud's days are long stretches of time alone, with a morning visit from a caregiver and an afternoon visit from Helen. Notes are posted all around her house, reminding Maud to lock the doors, and not to cook. Maud also writes notes to herself, to help her remember details. Her pockets are stuffed with tiny scraps of paper, most of which make no sense to her later. Slowly, the reason for Maud's obsession with Elizabeth becomes clear, as Maud reflects on her childhood and the disappearance of her sister, Sukey, in 1946 when Maud was still a young girl. Author Emma Healey deftly weaves narratives from the past and present, unraveling the Sukey mystery while also unraveling Maud's cognitive abilities. Maud's character was exceptionally well-developed and while I have no idea what it's like to slowly lose your memory, this felt like a realistic portrayal on both a physical and emotional level.

An excellent first novel in my opinion.