This is an astonishingly inventive and imaginative (autobiographical?) book by the Polish author Bruno Schulz, whom I didn’t know until he was recommeThis is an astonishingly inventive and imaginative (autobiographical?) book by the Polish author Bruno Schulz, whom I didn’t know until he was recommended to me by one of my Goodreads friends. The book is in fact an epistolary collection of mythopoetic short stories and a metaphysical tour-de-force, all rolled up into one of the most entertaining and thought-provoking works I have ever read!
What is the book about? Well might you ask, even after you’ve read it! To me it is all about mythologising reality, but also asking questions about the very nature of reality! Many of the protagonists are mentally disturbed, serving roles as people who perceive reality in different ways to us boring ‘normal’ people. Foremost among these is the narrator’s father, who’s obviously schizophrenic, but who provides a metaphysical conduit for many of the stories. All the topics relevant to metaphysics are there: demiurgy and cosmogony, individuation, metamorphosis and transmogrification, spontaneous generation, immortality, etc., etc. The symbols and metaphors Schulz uses are many and varied: labyrinths and mazes, golems and automatons, and always, always birds and cockroaches!
The book is written with astounding style and language, providing unforgettable imagery, often laced with dry humour. E.g. the last story “Comet” is a dazzling piece of Gallows humour on the imminent end of the world! Very early on I noticed numerous anthropomorphising descriptions, not just of animals, but even inanimate objects. Obviously that is a deliberate and intentional story-telling device very suitable to the contents of these amazing metaphysical tales. The pacing of the stories is also masterful: often starting lyrically and slowly, then using a crescendo leading up to a climax, followed by a whimsical or funereal coda.
There is some confusion regarding the name of this book. The original Polish title is “Sklepy Cynamonowe”, which obviously is the name of one of the individual stories: “Cinnamon Shops”. For some reason the title of the English translation is usually rendered as “The Street of Crocodiles”, the name of another constituent story. Both stories are brilliant! “Cinnamon Shops” is a beautiful dream-like sequence. In it there are the eponymous shops, which incidentally don’t sell spices but are mysterious establishments that offer curiosities and books; they are called thus because of the dark panelling of their walls. “The Street of Crocodiles”, on the other hand, describes a part of town that’s “Pseudo-American” (Schulz’s expression, not mine!), lascivious, and superficial. It only exists in black-and-white and is described by the author as “half-baked and [of an] undecided reality”.
The translation into English is also brilliant. Celina Wieniewska did a sterling job, making everything sound and feel perfectly lucid and idiomatic. I don’t have any Polish but translating Bruno Schulz cannot be easy!
Verdict: a book unlike any other I have ever read: automatic 5 stars and promotion to my ‘all-time-favourites’ bookshelf. By the way: you can easily read this slim volume in a few hours; then cogitate its contents, which are biblical in proportion, for a few months!...more
Set on the east coast of Ireland, this is a story of a small girl from a poor and troubled family who gets to spend the summer with her wholesome, welSet on the east coast of Ireland, this is a story of a small girl from a poor and troubled family who gets to spend the summer with her wholesome, well-off aunt and uncle, where she experiences support, respect, and love, perhaps for the first time in her life. A simple story really, told in Keegan’s inimitable, beautiful, life-affirming way. This short story is a little gem. Don’t miss it, it’ll only take you a couple of hours to read, time well spent!...more
This book was doubly challenging for me. First of all I decided to read one of Fosse’s books in the original Nynorsk (I chose his shortest book for thThis book was doubly challenging for me. First of all I decided to read one of Fosse’s books in the original Nynorsk (I chose his shortest book for that experiment!), secondly it is ostensibly about religion, not something I generally seek. Actually the language was less of a problem than I anticipated and once I got used to the weird spellings in Nynorsk (compared to Bokmål, the Norwegian language form I’m used to) I had to look up surprisingly few words: it’s amazing how much Nynorsk I unwittingly seem to know. The religious bits were also digestible since they’re not in your face Christian (the kind I abhor) but nondenominational and actually more spiritual and philosophical than outright religious. So far so good…
I had previously read Fosse’s “Melancholy I-II” and noted (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...) his peculiar alliterative repetitive style. This book is much the same stylistically, but much more extreme, with everything pared back to almost nothing until just the seemingly mundane remains. Here even punctuation is sacrificed. However, the seemingly mundane is redolent with meaning, often giving vent to the most achingly beautiful reminiscences. As I suspected, Fosse’s incredibly simplistic yet meaningful words are even more mesmerising, memorable, and poignant in his original language.
This book, although deceptively simple in form and words, covers everything that really matters about life: birth, memories, and death. In some ways it reminded me of Hemingway’s masterpiece “The Old Man and the Sea”, the same deeply meaningful philosophy, and dare I say it, ‘religious’ in the true meaning of the word. The end of the book, when Johannes, the main protagonist, dies, is just beyond words in its beauty. Verdict: I’m still not sure what Fosse is all about, but I’m getting there! What I do know, however, is that this book is a masterpiece in its simplicity and profundity! ...more
More irreverent working class reading material from the 1970s by the Australian ragged-trousered master David Ireland himself! The scene is an old-fasMore irreverent working class reading material from the 1970s by the Australian ragged-trousered master David Ireland himself! The scene is an old-fashioned pub in western Sydney, the Southern Cross in The Mead (Northmead, Westmead, etc.), and the vices are alcohol, sex, and violence. As usual with Ireland, the tone is authentic Aussie battler, with here and there a touch of sensitivity and erudition thrown in for free.
By today’s standards this book is “confronting” (woke speak), but to me it is also refreshingly honest and straightforward: from the hip as it were. Many scenes are truly shocking -meant to be shocking- in a way similar to Irvin Welsh’s early books minus the drugs, although Welsh started writing about 20 years later (I wonder if Welsh has read Ireland?). Despite the vice and mayhem, Ireland still manages to write with humour and there are some great characters and metaphors (one is the title!) in this book. Of course he is not afraid to lace the narrative with some juicy left-wing politics and philosophy, either. There are also some beautiful moments in the book, mostly connected with the main protagonist’s (Meat Man) job as a green keeper at a golf course (Ireland himself apparently worked as a green keeper for a while - he must have liked it!).
Like all of Ireland’s writings, this book must have come as a bit of a bombshell to the literati in Sydney, who were ever so refeened in the 1970s. Obviously they didn’t know what to make of it so decided to throw literary awards at it! What a shame Ireland is almost forgotten, even in Australia: my local library and bookshops have no books of his and the staff have obviously never heard of him. To be perfectly honest, neither had I until I unearthed his masterpiece “The Unknown Industrial Prisoner” recently. I think that’s partly because his writings don’t conform to our contemporary concept of modern Australia, where much of the old working class (“what working class?” I hear you cry) culture has now been “gentrified” (as they say disingenuously). But don’t be fooled: it may not have a voice any longer but it’s still lurking there beneath the surface in all its monstrous political incorrectness and general crassness!...more
Set in various parts of India during and after the period of the dissolution of the British Raj, when India finally became independent but underwent pSet in various parts of India during and after the period of the dissolution of the British Raj, when India finally became independent but underwent partition into Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan, this is perhaps Rushdie’s most successful and influential book. It is written using a combination of two of my favourite styles: magical realism and historical fiction. The book’s story is ‘written’, and ‘told’ to mysterious, impatient, and cynical companion and carer Padma, in a self-referential manner by Saleem Sinai, a seer but somewhat unreliable observer, who was born on the stroke of midnight on the day (15th of August 1947) when India gained independence from British Rule…
Rushdie was obviously at the peak of his narrative powers when he wrote this book. It fairly brims with energy in its exuberant and freewheeling, but historically accurate (as far as I can ascertain), fabulation. It also contains some truly memorable protagonists and narrative moments, as well as just about every imaginable magical realism story-telling device. Who could forget Reverend Mother and her whatsitsname, wise but malodorous ferryman Tai, physician grandfather Aadam Aziz and the perforated sheet he used to examine his bride-to-be, sister Brass Monkey burning everybody’s shoes and who later becomes singer Jamila Singer, father Ahmed and his djinns-and-tonics, Major (Retired) Alauddin Latif (uncle Puff) with his seven Puffias and the golden teeth, enuretic cousin Zafar Zulfikar, Parvati-the-witch and her basket of invisibility, and many many more?
Also to me there is something wondrous about seemingly accidental repetitions and I enjoyed Rushdie’s recurring metaphors: street urchins playing hit-the-spittoon (and spittoons in general), Indian-made and therefore unreliable locks, games of snakes and ladders, the sadhu (a Hindu ascetic mendicant) under the garden tap, fish known as pomfrets, mercurochrome, pepperpot revolutions, Anglepoised light, wrong-number callers on the telephone, braided gongs-and-pips (military bigwigs), washing-chests, Alphas-and-Omegas, eccrine and apocrine glands, hairy-forearmed women working in a pickle factory, and of course Saleem’s giant nose that he inherited from his grandfather Aadam Aziz! Three of the most important and apposite, considering the overall topics of the novel, themes are transmogrification, vanishings, and (intentional) ambiguity. Story-telling on a truly exalted level. Yet another boon for the reader is Rushdie’s incredible flair for language. Always completely original and inventive, often downright funny. Think of such terms as “chutneyfication” (of history and language): just brilliant!
One suspects that this book is autobiographical in many respects; how else could Rushdie have written with such immediacy and presence? Although told in a humorous and witty manner, many of the topics in this novel are actually deadly serious. However, you hardly notice that Rushdie is being indirectly didactic about such things as social incoherence, lack of religious tolerance, pervading venality, and many more philosophical, social, and political issues. For me, this apparently inadvertent, witty, and irreverent teaching and moralising is one of the most attractive aspects of Rushdie’s writings. An aspect that has repeatedly gotten him into trouble by the way, totally undeservedly in my opinion.
Verdict: what a fantasmabloodygorical book, 5 stars and automatic promotion to my all-time-favourites bookshelf. Funtoosh!...more
Please don’t make me summarise the labyrinthine plot of this book! It’s story within story within story, centred on the protagonist Oedipa Maas (her hPlease don’t make me summarise the labyrinthine plot of this book! It’s story within story within story, centred on the protagonist Oedipa Maas (her husband is Wendell “Mucho” Maas: get it?), who is unexpectedly charged with executing the will of an influential and fabulously wealthy former lover. She meets her co-executor, a lawyer referred to simply as Metzger, who leads her towards a mysterious conspiracy involving rival private postal services (complete with the muted post horn symbol of the ‘Briefadel’ Thurn and Taxis company, which actually existed in Europe from the 16th century onward, long before governments gained postal monopolies). Although this conspiracy serves as the red thread in the book, it contains many (often hilarious) subplots, e.g. a mock play that reminded me very much of the impenetrable libretto of a typical 19th-century Italian opera, a cigarette company using the bones of fallen WW2 GIs from the bottom of a lake in Italy to make their charcoal filters, and so on and so forth. By the way, the enigmatic title of this book refers to a lot of forged postage stamps that’s being cried at an auction. I think this is a metaphor for the existence or truth (unanswered) of the postal conspiracy (itself a metaphor!).
I think this novella is really a mysterious, recondite, and at the same time revelatory, satire of postmodern arbitrariness with its cognitive inertia, often eerily presaging the world we live in today, almost 60 years after its first publication: e.g. the juxtaposition of thermodynamic and informational entropy (a favourite metaphor of Pynchon’s), as well as today’s obsession with conspiracy theories. It’s a breathless work of fulminating inventiveness written in a linguistically acrobatic style, chockablock with more or less cryptic and metaphorical allusions and references to historical, political, social, psychological, philosophical, religious, metaphysical, and scientific concepts. From the ones that are in my area of expertise I can only conclude that Pynchon must be a genuine polymath. For those of us not equally gifted I can recommend “A Companion to The Crying of Lot 49” by J. Kerry Grant (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...), which gives a page-by-page (and often line-by-line!) explanation of the numerous allusions. However, in my opinion one must resist the temptation to look for an overall meaning, a coherent interpretation as it were, which this book defies and resists. The text, which ranges all the way from nihilism to informationally overloaded belief, is not about meaning in the traditional sense, but exponentially expanding postmodern, deterministic combinations and permutations of non-binary possibilities.
I’m a Pynchon fan from way back, having read many of his novels in my youth many years ago, but I missed this one (pre-internet days!). I recently read his “Inherent Vice”, which I thought was terrible (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...). So I wondered if my tastes in books had changed so much that I didn’t rate Pynchon anymore. But no, this book, first published in his heyday in 1966, is the real article, and I loved it! Like many authors of fiction, Pynchon declined as a writer in his dotage (he was 72 when he wrote “Inherent Vice”). I think from “Mason & Dixon” onward it was all downhill for Pynchon. Sad, considering his previously powerful and often almost cataclysmic writing, as evidenced in the book under review here!
Verdict: incredibly inventive and carefully planned chaotic writing, giving a new meaning to the terms postmodern and paranoid fiction. It’s definitely one for rereading as it’s almost impossible to absorb everything in a single reading. Five stars and straight into the “all-time-favourites” folder!...more
This masterpiece describes the struggles of the disempowered working classes in the UK early in the 20th century, about the time the Labour Party was This masterpiece describes the struggles of the disempowered working classes in the UK early in the 20th century, about the time the Labour Party was founded and long before social housing, unemployment benefits, and the NHS. Written in a highly entertaining and humorous style by someone who clearly knew life as a prole, the message is serious and rabidly political. With the current drift to the political right all over the Western world, this book is sadly becoming relevant again beyond a historical record. As George Orwell apparently said: ‘a book that everyone should read.’...more
Since I live here again, after many years of absence, I’m always on the look-out for great Australian authors that may have passed me by. I’ve startedSince I live here again, after many years of absence, I’m always on the look-out for great Australian authors that may have passed me by. I’ve started with multiple winners of the Miles Franklin Award, which goes back to 1957. After Astley, Winton, and Carey, I’ve now arrived at David Ireland, who won the Award three times in the 1970s. To my shame I must admit that Ireland was completely unknown to me.
I didn’t know what I missed! This 1971 novel is a true masterpiece in pretty much every respect. Full disclosure: I am rather partial to ‘angry working man’s’ literature in the vein of Tressell and Sillitoe but, boy o boy, this book is more ‘furious prole’ than ‘angry working man’!
The novel describes the working man’s (or should it be ‘person’s’?) plight using a fictional oil refinery in Sydney as an example. I’m pretty sure this fictional refinery is modelled on the former Kurnell refinery, located in Botany Bay. If that’s correct then the fictional owner ‘Puroil’ would be the Caltex-Chevron corporation. I suspect that large parts of the book could only have been written by someone in the know; a little digging revealed that Ireland did indeed work at the Kurnell refinery for a number of years!
Anyway, the novel is about much much more than the working man’s plight and in truth encompasses a detailed critique of the capitalist industrial, societal, and political system of the time. Puroil is wholly overseas owned, without any Australian shareholding, and is only interested in profits. Like many global corporations, it exploits its employees and doesn’t care about their welfare or indeed the welfare of the environment. What is more, Puroil is stuck in its inappropriate hierarchical structure and ‘the bosses’ are ultimately incompetent, not only as far as leadership is concerned, but also technologically. As one would expect, this breeds a similar attitude of carelessness and contempt in its workforce, who shirk, pilfer, and sabotage the refinery’s operation. You guessed it: the trade unions are completely useless, as well, and more often than not collude with management.
The narrative, which I would describe as experimental and which doesn’t have a plot in the conventional sense, is written in contrasting voices. I loved the juxtaposition of a typically Australian irreverent and ironic voice, often using highly technical language about refinery processes to great effect, when describing actual (fictional) events making up the storyline, and interspersed, an often almost mystical and poetical voice of razor-sharp insight when talking about political and societal concepts or the human condition in general.
Another experimental aspect concerns the exclusive use of aptonyms, many of them hilarious, for the protagonists. Some are self-explanatory, such as ‘Fitter Dick’, ‘Wild Bull of the Pampas’, ‘Angry Ant’, ‘Herman the German’, ‘Thieving Magpie’, and ‘Gypsy Fiddler’. Others are less obvious: ‘Wandering Jew’ (executive who will go anywhere for promotion), ‘Terrazzo’ (sees figures in patterns), ‘Sea Shells’ (the constant sound in everybody’s ears), ‘Beautiful Twinkling Star’ (a religious man), ‘Canada Dry’ and ‘One Swallow’ (drinkers), ‘Groaning Dykes’ (manager of construction), ‘Humdinger’ (farts), ‘Glass Canoe’ (a man who lacks confidence), ‘Whispering Baritone’ (one of many selfish ambitious bosses who will walk quietly over dead bodies), Cheddar Cheese (man with shift-worker’s pallor but actually dying from leukaemia), ‘Oliver Twist’ (a union delegate), Elder Statesman (a section head, or as the prisoners say, a suction head), ‘Far Away Places’ (an enigmatic man), ‘Macabre’ (the safety officer), ‘Doctor Death’ and ‘Calamity Jane’ (company physician and nurse), and many many more. Down across the Eel river (an emulsion of oil and water) is the ‘Home Beautiful’, an illicit brothel hidden in the mangroves and overseen by the ‘Great White Father’ in his infinite wisdom. Refinery workers on duty slink to the ‘Home Beautiful’ for some light recreation and a drink or two. They get there in a little skiff rowed by the ‘Volga Boatman’.
Ireland takes the concept of our blind belief in technological advances, regardless of whether they are good or bad for us, to its ultimate and logical consequence, namely societal and environmental apocalypse, using the refinery as a microcosm of human endeavour.
Reading this novel now, 50 years on, one is tempted to ask if anything has changed? Australia has solved all the problems discussed in the book very neatly: we simply don’t produce anything anymore but import everything (there isn’t a single oil refinery in NSW today)! Those of us who are not retired ‘work from home’ (euphemism for ‘swanning around in your pyjamas’), or are ‘celebrities’ or ‘social media influencers’. Sarcasm aside, of course nothing has changed except we are now more aware that we probably can’t carry on like this much longer…...more
This is the first book in the Wartesaal (Waiting Room) Trilogy. The main character is Martin Krüger, a public art gallery director in Munich, who makeThis is the first book in the Wartesaal (Waiting Room) Trilogy. The main character is Martin Krüger, a public art gallery director in Munich, who makes himself unpopular by hanging controversial paintings in his gallery. Because justice has become purely an instrument of political power in interwar Germany and particularly in Bavaria, Krüger is subjected to a trumped up charge of perjury and is tried and imprisoned. For the next 900 pages (this is a very long novel!) his friend Johanna Krain does everything to try and influence the powers that be to retry him, grant him an amnesty, or otherwise free Krüger. Along the way, the reader gets to know many of the powerful and influential people of that time (the Weimar Republic) in Munich, only some of whom are fictional. However, those that aren’t are not called by their real names, but it is pretty easy to guess (or look up) who is who. The obvious one is Adolf Hitler, who is called ‘Rupert Kutzner’ in the book.
In many ways the narrative of the novel is secondary. What really counts is the way that Feuchtwanger shows us all of the ills that beset Bavaria and the Reich just after WW1, and that allowed and facilitated the rise of Hitler’s Nazis and German fascism in general. Especially relevant in this respect is the impossible burden of war reparations that was imposed on Germany by the allied victors of WW1, leading indirectly to inflation and eventually to hyperinflation, culminating with the humiliating occupation of the Ruhrgebiet (Germany’s main primary industrial area) by French and Belgian forces, in an effort to extract reparations in kind. Furthermore, Feuchtwanger shows graphically the decline of judiciary and governance standards, as well as the abject destitution of the general populace, in a formerly well-ordered country, after ordinary people had been led to believe by their duplicitous leaders that they could win the Great War, right to the end, when it had already become clear that they would lose, thus plunging Germany into societal upheaval and ruin.
Bavaria does not get off easily either, which Feuchtwanger describes as backward, narrow-minded, stubborn, xenophobic, and inherently antisemitic. He should know: he grew up in a Jewish family in Munich. By the way, the book ends with the failed Beer Hall Putsch of Hitler’s Nazis (in the book they are sarcastically called ‘Die Wahrhaft Deutschen’, the ‘True Germans’).
This is one of the most informative and at the same time entertaining books I have read in a long time. Feuchtwanger is a great story teller, using every device (including humour) masterfully. This book is a real masterpiece in my opinion! The other two books in the trilogy (‘Die Geschwister Oppermann’ and ‘Exil’) are also terrific (you can read my reviews if you’re interested)....more
Omnibus edition of the three Grass novels that constitute the Danzig Trilogy. The novels are independent but together provide a (deliberately unreliabOmnibus edition of the three Grass novels that constitute the Danzig Trilogy. The novels are independent but together provide a (deliberately unreliable?) history of interwar Germany and especially Danzig (now Gdańsk) from the master of magic realism. Intensely personal and political, but also incredibly mystical, imaginative, and powerful writing....more
This is an omnibus edition of le Carré’s superb spy novels in the Karla Trilogy. Set during the Cold War, these novels describe the (purely fictional)This is an omnibus edition of le Carré’s superb spy novels in the Karla Trilogy. Set during the Cold War, these novels describe the (purely fictional) struggle between the British and Soviet spymasters George Smiley and Karla. The labyrinthine plots, with a huge cast of incredibly believable characters, abound with moles, double agents, and traitors. Absolutely gripping stuff from start to finish. ...more
This is the ultimate book about the evil and senseless futility of war. It is set during the Franco-Prussian war and the Paris Commune following FrancThis is the ultimate book about the evil and senseless futility of war. It is set during the Franco-Prussian war and the Paris Commune following France’s humiliating defeat. The book describes in graphic detail, from the viewpoint of ordinary soldiers, the brutality of war, especially in the second part, which is about the battle of Sedan....more
The story of a family of washed-up 60s hippy rebels, set in Northern California in the 80s. Full of very well-drawn characters and written in a dense,The story of a family of washed-up 60s hippy rebels, set in Northern California in the 80s. Full of very well-drawn characters and written in a dense, highly imaginative, humorous, and entertaining style. This novel is also a socio-political analysis and depicts the growing rift between the U.S. government and its justifiably rebellious populace during the Nixon-Reagan era....more
This is probably Laxness’s most important and memorable book. It is set in the 18th century, mostly in Iceland and partly in Denmark (Iceland was undeThis is probably Laxness’s most important and memorable book. It is set in the 18th century, mostly in Iceland and partly in Denmark (Iceland was under Danish rule at the time). There are three separate storylines, the farmer Jón Hreggviðsson who gets into trouble with the law, the tragic love life of the beautiful lady Snæfríður Íslandssól, and the manuscript-collector Arnas Arnaeus, who loves Snæfríður. Epic and often tragic, the narrative gives a unique insight into the harshness of life in Iceland at the time. I have read both German and English translations from the Icelandic original, they were both terrific. ...more
This is one of the absolute masterpieces of Australian literature. It explores many aspects of the Australian psyche but also touches on universal theThis is one of the absolute masterpieces of Australian literature. It explores many aspects of the Australian psyche but also touches on universal themes concerned with childhood, adolescence, and finally adulthood, as it follows the life of David Meredith, a ubiquitous (autobiographical?) figure in Johnston’s writing....more
This is one of the most important 20th century satirical novels, revealing the madness and idiocy of war. Set in Italy at a US bomber base during the This is one of the most important 20th century satirical novels, revealing the madness and idiocy of war. Set in Italy at a US bomber base during the closing years of WW2, it depicts how a cast of characters around Captain Yossarian cope with having to fly an ever increasing number of dangerous missions ordered by obsessively ambitious Colonel Cathcart. The book title refers to Yossarian’s conundrum, a military rule that states (among other things) that you don’t have to fly missions if you’re crazy, but you have to apply to be excused, which proves that you’re not crazy. Circular reasoning is used throughout the book by many of its ‘crazy’ characters, e.g. Milo Minderbinder, Major Major Major Major, Lieutenant Scheisskopf, ex-PFC Wintergreen, etc. The narrative is absolutely hilarious, but the reader is always aware that the absurdity of the story is dangerously close to what we all experience on a daily basis! ...more
I am not actually an aficionado of poetry, but I love Donne’s work: the beautiful rhythms and sentiments are just wonderful, as is his unique use of lI am not actually an aficionado of poetry, but I love Donne’s work: the beautiful rhythms and sentiments are just wonderful, as is his unique use of language....more
This is the second book in the Wayfarer trilogy. Ever restless and inventive August (main protagonist in the trilogy) settles down in a Norwegian fishThis is the second book in the Wayfarer trilogy. Ever restless and inventive August (main protagonist in the trilogy) settles down in a Norwegian fishing town. Set in the latter half of the 19th century, the novel describes Norway’s transformation from an agrarian and fishing society to a ‘modern’ industrial society based on monetary wealth. Fantastic narrative of the tragic consequences of people losing touch with their traditional ways and values. Written in Hamsun’s usual lyrical realism style that still strikes me as very modern today, although the Wayfarer trilogy was published during the interwar period. ...more
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