THE TONTINE, VOLUME 1

The Tontine, Volume 1, Thomas B Costain, Doubleday & Company Inc, 1955, 408 pp


Imagine my consternation as I reached the last page of the rather long #9 bestseller of 1955, only to notice that this was only Volume 1. Then I discovered that none of my libraries had Volume 2, so I had to order it from Alibris. When it arrived I found I had another 464 pages to go! Apparently books of over 800 pages were not published in one volume in 1955.

Fortunately, it is a good piece of historical fiction, set in England beginning on the day Napoleon was defeated at the battle of Waterloo. A tontine was a sort of gamble plus insurance scam people could buy into, which then became a lottery because the last living person holding a share won the final large amount of money.

Meanwhile the story moves along through the 19th century as industrialization and commerce grow into the main games and as two key families and their descendants feud through all the changes. Stock and bonds, slavery and colonialism, love and careers, are all part of the story. A large cast of characters ranging from kings and millionaires to sailors and portrait painters, from rich and powerful to poor and striving, includes all types of personalities both male and female.

As Volume 1 ends, George Carboy, who has become the richest man in England through his many ventures, is being challenged by his very own lawyer over conditions in his factories. I predict then that Volume 2 will deal with the rise of the very bottom of society, the workers, and after many more pages, I will learn who reaped the benefits of the tontine.


(I found Volume 1 of The Tontine in my local library. It is also available from used booksellers on line and probably in used bookstores.)

SUNNYSIDE

Sunnyside, Glen David Gold, Alfred A Knopf, 2009, 553 pp


The production of illusion, the competitive spirit of creative people, the magnetic appeal of the truly adept; these are the themes of David Glen Gold and also his techniques as a writer. Carter Beats the Devil, his amazing first novel, was about a magician. Sunnyside takes us into the early world of motion pictures through Charlie Chaplin.

It is a long novel and in my opinion it is as long as it needs to be, though some critics disagreed. Gold takes a good 75 pages to get it all going. The three main characters are introduced, each with a compelling entrance, but I didn't know why the other two were there, because I had thought it was Charlie Chaplin's story. In fact, though their paths cross, you don't actually get the connection until almost the end of the book.

Meanwhile, there is plenty to enjoy. Chaplin's early years in Hollywood, his rivalry and later friendship with Mary Pickford, his crazy mother and first marriage. In fact, all of the three main characters have their difficulties with parents. Gold has the same wonderful story telling style as in his earlier novel, a combination of irony, sentiment and dazzling set pieces.

Several stunning scenes stand out including a Liberty Loan rally in San Francisco. Also a Hollywood party where Charlie meets his first wife and has a hilarious encounter with Mary Pickford's best friend. Then there is a miraculous dog rescue in the middle of war torn France. In fact, animals are everywhere in this story.

What I loved most was the insight into Chaplin's creative process, which made me want to see his pictures, something I have never done. I could say that the end of Sunnyside is hopeful but not happy. An underlying tone of sorrow permeates the story, partly because of the war and mostly because no one gets what he or she truly desires.

But I was increasingly drawn in by all the elements of this tale until when I finally came to the end, I wanted another 500 pages and more about an artist who for years was everywhere. At least I wanted another Glen David Gold book to read. I hope he doesn't make me wait so long for the next one, but if he must, I will just have to reread the first two.


(Sunnyside is available on the shelf at Once Upon A Time bookstore.)

BURN THIS BOOK

Burn This Book, Toni Morrison (Editor), Harperstudio, 2009, 113 pp


I like to read essays about writing by writers. This collection, edited by Toni Morrison, who also wrote a powerful introduction, and published in conjunction with the PEN American Center, is especially meaningful. It deals with censorship, the role of literature in keeping us self-aware, and the importance of keeping writers out of jail.

The ten writers sampled here of course include Salman Rushdie but I was most moved by Pico Iyer's story of his encounter in Burma (now Myanmar) with a trishaw driver. This desperately poor man teaching himself English and hoping to become a teacher of mathematics in a land of zero opportunity, now a land of less than zero opportunity, wrote regular letters to Iyer until he disappeared into the oppression.

Russell Banks' sentences on the role of the novelist also struck deeply. "No other species needs to be constantly reminded and taught what it is to be itself. And it is our storytellers, our poets, our novelists and dramatists, who have always performed this task. And surely, in this moment in the history of our species, when there is such a danger of forgetting and so much inducement to forget, we must not waste our limited time here doing anything else."

The next time someone tries to make me guilty for reading so much, Burn This Book can remind me why I do. I've also just about decided to take some of the hard earned cash of a bookseller and join PEN.


(Burn This Book is available in hardcover by special order from Once Upon A Time Bookstore.)

SOMETHING OF VALUE

Something of Value, Robert Ruark, Doubleday & Company Inc, 1955, 560 pp


This long novel was #6 on the bestseller list for 1955 and falls in my newly named category of "dick lit." But even though it took me almost a week to read, I liked it. The setting is Kenya in the 1940s and the viewpoint is mostly from the English white men who own farms and use native labor. Shortly after WWII, the natives in Kenya began a terrorist uprising called The Mau Mau rebellion, which several decades later led to Kenya achieving independence from Great Britain.

Ruark has his own views about all this and they come through transparently. He has sympathies with both white man and native but does not seem to think that colonialism is inherently wrong. He clearly loves Africa and in fact made many trips there, primarily to hunt wild game. But his knowledge of the natives, their customs and superstitions, is extensive and he has as much affinity for them as he does for the rich white farmers.

This the book is a fascinating historical study and appropriate as we move through Barak Obama's presidency. It is also without doubt, one of the bloodiest and most violent books I have ever read. There are scenes of slaughter, at least one hunting trip, incidents of life in the hiding places of the militant natives, etc. Ruark was an unabashed worshiper of Hemingway and aspired to be that writer, though he was at least ten times more wordy. I think that he was even more manly in his writing style.

Truly another adventure in reading the bestsellers of the second half of the 20th century.


(Something of Value is out of print, though available in libraries and from used book sellers. The link here is for alibris.)

THE ENCHANTRESS OF FLORENCE

The Enchantress of Florence, Salman Rushdie, Random House, 2008, 349 pp


At last I have read a book by Salman Rushdie after intending to for years. I must admit, I was somewhat intimidated by just the idea of this author and worried that I might not understand him. I've not read any of his earlier books.

The Enchantress of Florence is historical, set in India and Florence in the 1500s. I have read loads of historical fiction so I was fine with that. Also Rushdie studied history for years in college, so while the four and a half page bibliography at the back shows he did his research, he has a historian's background as well, making him enough at ease that the fictional liberties he takes feel smooth.

If you are the type of reader who begins to whine when the cast of characters goes above five, do not read this novel. If you must have everything nailed down to the real and provable, chose another book. In fact, there are many characters in Renaissance Florence, including Niccolo Machiavelli; myriad characters in Akbar the Great's Indian empire; some characters who move between locations; and imaginary persons as well. In addition, the dates of the historical personages do not quite match up, a fact that is freely admitted during the telling of this magical tale.

The Enchantress of Florence is a fairy tale for adults and had me as enthralled as I ever was when I loved Cinderella, Snow White, etc, in my much younger years. There are several mysteries throughout the tale, all of which are nicely resolved. With lighthearted aplomb, Rushdie delves into questions of love, power, religious belief, freedom and all the variations of those weighty ideas.

I finished feeling that I had been conducted through a magical mystery tour while being invited and allowed to contribute to the entire experience. As my sister would say, fabulous!


(The Enchantress of Florence is available in paperback on the shelf at Once Upon A Time Bookstore.)

AFTER THE FALL, A STILL SMALL VOICE

After the Fall, a Still Small Voice, Evie Wald, Pantheon Books, 2009, 296 pp


My review of this excellent first novel is now up at BookBrowse.

Here is an excerpt: "Suffering from uncontrollable rage and an inability to handle relationships, Frank Collard escapes from Sydney to the small beach town of Mulaburry on the southeast Australian coast. There, amid the cane fields, rip tides and other lost souls, haunted by the Creeping Jesus in the dark, he fights with his demons and comes to terms with his history."

Read the entire review here.


(After the Fall is available on the shelf at Once Upon A Time Bookstore.)

ANDERSONVILLE

Andersonville, MacKinlay Kantor, The World Publishing Company, 1955, 760 pp


This endless tome was #3 on the bestseller list for 1955 and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1956. Because of the number of words per page, the book was probably equivalent to about 1400 pages. It took me thirteen days to read it. That was frustrating but it is not a bad book; though I can't imagine it being a bestseller today.

It is a recounting of the creation, maintaining and dissolution of Andersonville prison, which held up to 27,000 Yankee prisoners of war during the last two years of the Civil War. That's 27,000 at a time. The crowding was intense, the rations amounted to starvation and scurvy, there was no shelter nor were there any sanitation facilities. Hundreds of prisoners died every day. Just gruesome.

The author tells the story through various points of view including that of certain prisoners complete with each one's personal back story. We also hear from a local plantation owner who could be classified as a "good" slave owner, several confederate army officials, a doctor, etc.

The book definitely dragged at times and was almost too horrific to read. The only other POW camp book I had read previously was King Rat by James Clavell, a much shorter book leavened with some wry humor and quite a bit more excitement. I have since read Empire of the Sun by J G Ballard. All three books show a prison camp to be an extreme microcosm of life on earth, because the entire range of human qualities exists even there. All that is missing is women. Actually there are women in Empire of the Sun.

I will be thinking about this book for a long time.


(Andersonville and Empire of the Sun are available in paperback by special order from Once Upon A Time Bookstore. King Rat is probably best found in your local library.)