Playback by Raymond Chandler (17/81)

C1958 166pages 3stars
Category: Hardboiled / Noir

One thing I love about our 999 Challenge is when fellow LTers recommend books to me. Playback was a recommendation from jonesli and we agreed to read it in tandem. I am a huge fan of The Big Sleep, Chandler’s first novel, so I thought it was a nice bookend to read his last novel.

In Playback we find Marlowe tailing a redhead. A mysterious woman who seems to go by many names, the most common being Betty Mayfield. All he knows is that Betty’s being blackmailed though she won’t tell him what for. Being Marlowe, he is compelled to help her out of a jam. It’s a standard hardboiled tale - along the way there’s a few fisticuffs, a body here and there and of course, one of Chandler’s badly written love scenes. I don’t believe it is his best work, it seems too choppy for my tastes. I’ve read The Notebooks of Raymond Chandler and to me, Playback seems like those fragments, a bit unpolished. As if he neglected to go over his rough draft one last time. I am glad to have read it, because I do eventually plan to finish out all of Chandler’s body of work.

favorite quotes:

"Guns never solve anything," I said. "They are just a fast curtain to a bad second act."

"Well, what do you know," she drawled. "A dick with scruples. Tell it to the seagulls, buster. On me it's just confetti."

A Doll's House, 41/81

A Doll's House, by Henrik Ibsen - for New Author category

When I was a student at BYU in my last semester I took an American Lit class. Looking back, I should have taken almost any other class available. I was a newlywed when the semester started, and by the end I was expecting my first baby. So what did we study that would go along with my life's lessons I was learning at the time? 

Kate Chopin's The Awakening. Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper. Edith Wharton. Sarah Orne Jewett. Just about any depressing story written by American women, we read it. That class was not a lot of laughs.

The play, A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen, would have fit right in with those writers if only he had been American. It's got all the right elements. Restricted setting - check. Slice of middle class family life - check. Deceptively innocuous beginning - check. Desperate woman struggling with her own identity against a tightly ordered society and family life - double check. 

The difference is that for me, 18 years after the first class, is that now instead of making me depressed, it made me angry to read this. Angry with Nora, and the way it took her so long to protest the way she was treated. Angry with Helmet, for treating his wife as an inferior creature he had to humor. Angry with Christine, for putting up with years of unhappiness just so she could devote her entire self to taking care of someone. And then going after what she really wanted only because she was helping her friend, and further, because she set up the expectation that she would again be 'taking care' of someone. 

Most of all, angry with society, that this was accepted as normal. I read that when this play was first performed, the audience was shocked. But not because of any of the reasons I mentioned. No, because women were generally supposed to be perfectly content to be treated in such a way.

Looking back at that class, I am not a bit surprised that I found it so troubling. There I was, just barely started on this marriage thing and shortly about to take on motherhood. And what did I get to read about? Any healthy models of what family life could be like? No. Literally, everything we read that dealt with marriage or motherhood was telling me how restrictive it was, how demanding, how degrading to my personhood, how I would have to sacrifice my very self to be successful in my new roles. No wonder I had a hard time!

So a little perspective is valuable now that I read this play. I know from my own experience that marriage does not have to be like that, and that motherhood is a source of great joy and fulfillment, as well as a challenge. Yes, I know that society was different 100 years ago, but I have to believe that even then, not every marriage was one of dominant/submissive. There must, even then, have been relationships that were based on a more equal footing. There must have been women who ENJOYED being a wife and a mother, and didn't just do it because they needed security.

And maybe I'm just a little spoiled, because I am living in the 21st century, when women are busy in so many different things. Maybe. But to say that I can't judge people from that era means that I'm supposed to accept that they are not as capable as I am of fixing things that don't work, and that they are not as bright at seeing what makes them unhappy. I don't believe that. Yes, it must have been more difficult for women of that time to express their true selves, but that doesn't mean that I shouldn't get angry when I read about a woman who is a doormat, and ask myself why she put up with that.

What did I think of this play? I can't say I loved it. But it sure brought out a strong reaction in me. On that basis alone, I have to give it 5 stars. I think that every couple ought to read this play, or even better, see it together. And so should every therapist or clergyman. Single people too should read this and learn from it to set up some solid boundaries before they form a partnership.

I think that so far this year, this is the book that got me the most emotionally involved with what I was reading. So I have to give it 5 stars. However, read or see this with the knowledge I didn't have as a newlywed. Not every relationship demands this self sacrifice from the woman. This is how it is NOT supposed to be. Once you know that, you can ask yourself if you need to adjust anything in your relationships so this doesn't happen.

Food Network Favorites - 40/81

Food Network Favorites, various chefs, for Cookbook/Food category

I used to love watching the Food Network, back when we had cable. Alton Brown and Rachael Ray were some of my favorites. And for drama, you can't beat Iron Chef or the Food Network Challenges. So I thought I would have fun with this cookbook.

Well, it was kind of fun, but honestly, there's only about 6-8 recipes in this book that I would make. The best ones are from the noted TV chef, Food Network Kitchens. That's right - the support staff. I think I will try making English muffins from Alton Brown's recipe. But most of the rest are so complicated or require weird ingredients that may be yummy, but are not available where I live. Lots of liquor and lots of coffee, neither of which I use. Lots of seafood too, which I don't enjoy but might be willing to try if there was a good source of fresh seafood nearby. There's not.

I'm not quite sure who this cookbook is for, but it is not for me.

We Have Always Lived in the Castle - 39/81

We Have Always Lived in the Castle, by Shirley Jackson - from LT or Good Reads category - category finished!

Mary Katherine Blackwood lives in an old home with her older sister Constance and Uncle Julian. They live a very isolated life. As they struggle to deal with the consequences of a recent tragedy, a stranger comes to visit - their cousin Charles. His arrival sets in motion a chain of events that will be even more shocking and dramatic.

It's hard to review this one, because I don't want to give away any of the big plot twists and ruin it for anyone. This was a quick read and I couldn't go to bed until I had finished it. Jackson is great at creating a slightly creepy, menacing feel to a seemingly normal atmosphere and then wrenching it into something even darker. It was hard to categorize this book too - psychological Gothic might be the best description. Highly recommended.

The Brothers Karamazov (24/81)

The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Category: Lost Book Club

I don't want to give you more of the same two posts in a row, as Victoria has nicely summed up the story already, and my thoughts closely echo hers. If you'd like to see my review, I've posted it on my blog, Born Reader.

I'll just add that I probably would not have even tried to read this book if it hadn't been for the group read, but I'm glad I did. I pushed through for the group (and to see what on earth it might have to do with Lost), was able to commiserate with others when I was stuck on the slower, tougher books, and ultimately found it to be a satisfying read.

The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (16/81)

1880 920pages 3stars
David McDuff translation
Category: Authors New to Me


“Here however, we have not a simple murder, but a parricide! That impresses....”

I had heard that The Brothers Karamazov was one of the best books ever written. A book that every Reader must accomplish at some point in their lifetime. So when I came upon a group of pilgrims tossing around the idea of approaching it, I got onboard. Quite frankly, I wanted their companionship for the voyage. This book is quite a bit meatier than my standard fare. I wanted to read it and was afraid of it all at the same time. Afraid that I would get lost in the patronymics, that I would give up in the first 200 pages, that it would be completely over my head. First I must say that it was much more approachable, and readable, than I feared it would be. The patronymics did not give me much trouble at all. When I reached Book Two I almost gave up. This book was the epitome of what I didn’t want to read. But I endured, I skimmed a little and hoped for the best. Book Three was my salvation. And so it was, throughout the rest of tome. Some parts uphill, a test of my fortitude and some parts like a sled ride downhill, heart pounding away. The monologues on socialism, the church, etc, were hard to endure. For me, the book works best as a murder mystery, a courtroom drama. In fact, if all the philosophy were cut and the plot elements were pulled out into a ‘good parts’ version, I would have a copy on my shelves. But I must remember the time period this book was written in. I fear I am too much of a modern reader. I am glad that I read it, I did enjoy the story, but it’s not a keeper for me.

Favorite quotes:

“Very well then - tell me the truth, squash me like a cockroach.”

“In schools children are a tribe without mercy.”

“I have, as it were, torn my soul in half before you, and you have taken advantage of it and are rummaging with your fingers in both halves along the torn place...O God!”

Tropical Fish - Tales from Entebbe by Doreen Baingana (26/81)

Category: Around the World

Country: Uganda

This book is structured as eight short stories which could work as stand-alone pieces (and some have been published in magazines), but they are best read in order as presented here. All of the stories in some way are about Christine and her two older sisters, growing up in Uganda following the regime of Idi Amin.

The stories change perspective, some in the third person, but most in the first person, one as diary entry and another particularly affecting story, as a letter to a former lover. Essentially they are coming-of-age stories, but set against a backdrop of unrest, the effects of colonialism and AIDS. Uganda plays an important part in these stories, ironically even in the one that is set in Los Angeles.

Some of the problems faced by the characters here are specific to Africa, but other feelings portrayed should resonate with everyone. This is a wonderful book which I expect to have a lasting effect on me and I'll be keen to read whatever Doreen Baingana writes next.