Currently reading?

[Jozanny]

I wanted to add, the non-fiction study of immortality I am reading is called Long For The World-- the journalist balances the science with cultural overviews, which is what I like about it.

[mick]

Well, go ahead Jozanny, is PORTRAIT generally found to be hard work or is it just me?

Henry James takes the smallest of pebbles and makes them active mountain ranges, so no, it is not just you, but I find The Portrait of A Lady to be one of his more accessible masterpieces. Isabel is a fresh American full of vigorous innocence, and Old World corruption takes her to school. She is humbled by her suffering at the novel's end. Let me know how I might assist your reading, and I'll take a crack at it.

My problem is that after 400 pages all of the characters are uninteresting in every possible way - Isabel, Osmond, Goodwood, Lord Warburton - - - I've never come across such a bunch of bores. The only character who has any promise as an individual is young Pansy Osmond.
Why did Isabel - so confident and headstrong and anti-marriage up until then - suddenly up and marry Osmond? Again, it may be me, but this is never spoken.

[Jozanny]

My problem is that after 400 pages all of the characters are uninteresting in every possible way - Isabel, Osmond, Goodwood, Lord Warburton - - - I've never come across such a bunch of bores. The only character who has any promise as an individual is young Pansy Osmond.
Why did Isabel - so confident and headstrong and anti-marriage up until then - suddenly up and marry Osmond? Again, it may be me, but this is never spoken.

Is this an assigned reading? I ask because if James bores you then you don't have to punish yourself. Isabel is a bit of an egotist, used to being chased by men who want to own her. Then she gets dazzled by Madame Merle, who sells both herself and Gilbert Osmond as attractive acquisitions for a suddenly rich young girl.

Isabel sees what she wants to see in her husband, his refinement, aesthetic judgment. The truth is a bit darker, and the thrill of the novel is what she does with that truth once she discovers it. The reader has already been placed on guard.

I love James, but won't sell him in the face of dislike; he has plenty of detractors who don't like what he will not specify. If you cannot enter into the dynamic between the characters, then he doesn't suit you. No harm.

[mick]

Thanks for your reply.

It's not an assigned reading. I just hate to leave a book unfinished.

I've only got 60 or so pages left to read now.

When I read what you've written about Isabel and Osmond, I think - "well, why didn't I get that??"

It's been many years since a book eluded me like this.

I do want to "get" James and I will read him again. As I said I've already read WASHINGTON SQUARE - any suggestions on where I might go next with him?

I've recently discovered Cormac McCarthy and intend looking at some of his work next.

Again, I do appreciate your help and your comments and I want to make it clear I'm not trying to denigrate James.

[lindad_amato]

Really nice to reread a book once in a while, especially a book with some deeper meanings, like "A Seperate Peace". I'm reading 'Island Beneath the Sea" by Isabel Allende. A book of magic, both the writing and the content. Very much a book of 'place'. And a good one to read slowly as we head toward the warm days of summer.

I have enjoyed both of these books. We should consider one of Allende's books for a Fiction Forum.

I'm currently continuing in my biography vein with Barney Frank The Story of America's Only Left-Handed, Gay, Jewish Congressman by Stuart E. Weisberg. It is as interesting, witty and original as Frank himself.

[mithun]

Hi
I am currently reading Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. This is such a wonderful English literature! This book is fictional autobiography of Jane Eyre. I love this book.

[Randall R. Young]

"Euler's Gem" ~Dave Richeson

"The Lightness of Being" ~Frank Wilczec

"The Algebraist" ~Iain M. Banks

[Penelope]

Mithun, I am glad you are enjoying Jane Eyre. I wonder if you live in a hot country. I remember talking to a lady in India who loved the books of the Bronte's because of the descriptions of the damp, cool and misty moorland climate.

I, on the other hand, like to read books about India. 'The God of Small Things' by Arundhati Roy, is one of my favourite novels.

[lady of shallot]

I am reading "The Guersney literary and Potato peel pie Society" Since one of my favorite forms of reading is collections of letters, these can't help but disappoint. However I am learning a lot about how the inhabitants fared during their occupation by the Nazi's.

I happen to be cleaning out a book shelf so I am coming across lots of goodies that are calling out to me. A diary by Anais Nin, a book of short bios of artistic individuals, a book about Japanese women.

Its funny what is important to each of us about a particular book. In Jane Eyre, when she runs away, she stops at a cottage to beg some food. She offers a woman her pocket handkerchief and the woman turns out a bowl of gruel into Jane's hand. That gruel has always had a great significance to me, don't know why.

Wide Sargasso Sea is a novel of the first Mrs. Rochester, by Jean Rys. I didn't mind it as much as I usually do that kind of hooking on to a famous book. Also her biography (or maybe it was one of those collections of letters I like) is very interesting.

[Suzanne]

I'm reading Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood. I really enjoy Margaret Atwood and have read quite a few of her novels but, this one seems strange to me, it is different from anything I have read by her. I can kinda see where she is going with it, but I don't know how she is going to get there. It is based around a woman convicted of a double murder, it takes place in the 19 century, and there is a strong current of mental illness which affects this woman, and there is definitely a secret from her past lurking through the pages. There is some symbolism connected with this novel, or so the introduction tells me, but I have yet to find it. Very interesting.