357. A Day Off

A Day Off
Storm Jameson
1933
Around 215 pages

My library had never heard of Storm Jameson, and the options for hardcover versions on Amazon were unreasonably priced. So I did the unthinkable: I listened to the book on tape. 

This probably doesn't sound so unusual to those who are working their way through this List through audiobooks, but it certainly ruffled my feathers. I just don't enjoy being read to. I always want them to hurry it along, and I miss the warm feeling of a book in my snobby hand. 

On the other, less snobby hand, audiobooks can be great for road trips, long commutes, or nights of terrible chronic pain where you can't get to sleep. Sound off on your opinions regarding audiobooks in the comments!

Back to A Day Off. I love novels that take place in the course of one day (although as always, Fuck Ulysses). An unnamed woman takes a day off from her job at the glove shop, and wanders around London, waiting to hear from her lover George. She's not exactly a sympathetic character, given my jealousy she was in London. Putting aside my envy, she was a well-written protagonist. I enjoyed how the author weaved her backstory into the present day. And given the time period, the location was particularly interesting.

I don't necessarily think this is worth tracking down, since you will probably have to spend cashola to obtain it. But if you stumble upon this book on a lonely bookshelf somewhere, know that you have discovered a hidden treasure.

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

Storm Jameson was a committed socialist.

Jameson wrote the introduction to the British translation of The Diary of Anne Frank.

UP NEXT: A Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain. Two women in a row, I've never heard of such a thing.

356. The Man Without Qualities

The Man Without Qualities
Robert Musil
1930-1943
Around 1775 pages

Would you believed this is unfinished? Apparently, 1775 pages wasn't enough to make his point. Sigh. I don't really think there is such a thing as "an unfinished masterpiece." Part of what makes it a masterpiece is the brilliant conclusion. Writing endings is damn hard, and you don't get a pass just because you died.

I'll do my best to be succinct (somebody should be around here!). Ulrich is our Man Without Qualities. He is a mathematician, and is like an amoral Oblomov. He floats his way through several Austrian historical events, meeting "interesting" characters along the way. Thankfully, the supporting characters have more qualities than he does.

I had read this before, because I read that Musil is the Austrian Anthony Powell, who in turn is the British Marcel Proust. But I think Proust and Powell had a much clearer idea of what they wanted to say. It's fairly directionless, and Ulrich is a dull protagonist. That's what happens when you pride yourself on the ordinariness of the main character.

Way, way too long. You'll be crying Onkel before the first 100 pages are done.

RATING: **---

Interesting Facts:

Musil worked on the novel for over 20 years.

Musil spent the last decade of his life feeling bitter and unrecognized, as his writing didn't bring him any money. That's just being a writer, Musil.

In the German edition, there is even a CD-ROM available that holds thousands of pages of alternative versions and drafts. There is no end to human suffering.

UP NEXT: A Day Off by Storm Jameson. 

355. Brave New World

Brave New World
Aldous Huxley
1932
Around 310 pages

This is the novel that Aldous Huxley was born to write; Antic Hay and Crome Yellow were clearly practice. I feel like most people have read this novel: either you were forced to read it in high school, or you were a rebel who would never read assigned novels, choosing to read subversive authors like Huxley and Thompson instead. So is it overrated? Let's see!

The novel takes place in the distant future, where citizens are engineered by artificial wombs and kept in a stupor with the drug Soma. Bernard Marx is a sleep specialist and a noncomformist. He's attracted to Lenina, a popular and sexually liberated hatchery worker. They take a holiday together to a reservation in New Mexico, where they experience a great deal of culture shock. They meet Linda, a former citizen of World State, and her natural born son. They take the pair back to London. Think Pocahontas 2, with less sexual tension.

A brilliant novel that fills me with a strong sense of doom. Is Huxley a soothsayer? I don't think we've had a dystopian/sci fi writer get it so right. I know we would have disappointed H.G. Wells with our lack of time machines in 2022. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to take my anti-depressants and get on with my day.

Oh, I'll admit it, I like 1984 better.

RATING: *****

Interesting Facts:

Title is taken from Shakespeare's The Tempest. Spoken by Miranda, who is an idiot...I mean, innocent: 

"O wonder!

How many goodly creatures are there here!

How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world,

That has such people in't."

Huxley took the name for the drug after the Vedic ritual drink Soma.

Has been banned at one time or another in China, Ireland, USA, and India.

UP NEXT: The Man Without Qualities by Robert Musil

354. Cold Comfort Farm

Cold Comfort Inn
Stella Gibbons
1932
Around 310 pages

You wouldn't necessarily think a novel that parodizes a genre you've never read before could be funny or enjoyable. But hey, it's happened before! I adored Don Quixote without having read any chivalric romances. I also really liked this novel, despite never having read the "loam and lovechild" genre that Gibbons skewers (although I suppose it could be arguing she is putting Hardy in her crosshairs as well).

Newly orphaned Flora Poste is a sophisticated city mouse, but with no immediate prospects available (she is a woman after all), she decides to visit her distant relatives' farm. Her relatives take her into their poorly run farm in Sussex, and they are...eccentric, to say the least.

I read she is mainly taking on authors like Mary Webb and Sheila Kaye-Smith (who?). But she takes on the Hardy formula as well: country folks are as wild and deep as the English countryside, which we will spend 80 pages describing. 

This is pretty funny, Flora Poste is a great satirization of our typical English leading lady, and you know how much I love when a female author is on the List. A nice break from war novels.

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

The setting is the near future, shortly after the "Anglo-Nicaraguan wars of 1946". It refers to future social and demographic changes, such as the changing neighborhoods of London: Mayfair has become a slum and Lambeth is fashionable. The novel also contains technological developments that Gibbons thought might have been invented by then, including TV phones and air-taxis, so technically this is science fiction. Rad.

Adapted to television in 1995, with Ian McKellan and Kate Beckinsale.

UP NEXT: Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. Never heard of it!

353. Radetzky March

Radetzky March
Joseph Roth
1932
Around 365 pages

Okay, I'll fess up. My library didn't have this book. Now, I could have bought an English translation on Amazon, like I was forced to do with Hebdomeros. But there are too many good books in the world to fill my bookshelves with novels that are probably not my steez. Also, I'm cheap.

I did, however, find a German version online. So I did the thing. I copied and pasted into Google Translate.

I know, it hurts and I killed any nuance that I am sure Joseph Roth lovingly wove into his work. On the other hand, I think I've made it clear that I'm bored of World War I novels and wouldn't click with this anyway. I am the monster that the List made me.

Anyway, this is the story of three generations of Trotta family, an Austro-Hungarian family. The clan is elevated to nobility after Lieutenant saves Emperor Franz Joseph I during battle. The Baron is disgusted that the story has been embellished and weaponized as propaganda for the country. And this is a sucky time to be born anyway, so he makes sense that he is pissed off. 

So I didn't like it, I'm sure the translation was butchered, and I'm ready for World War II to start. This did prompt me to go on an interesting Wikipedia binge. That emperor's life was cray.

RATING: **---

Interesting Facts:

Roth continues his story about the Trotta family in the sequel The Emperor's Tomb.

This book comes with its own soundtrack! This is the march referred to in the title:

UP NEXT: Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons

352. Sunset Song

Sunset Song
Lewis Grassic Gibbon
1932
Around 200 pages

I've been trying to avoid the news recently so I don't get sucked into a vortex of sadness, but the List is really working on pushing me off that ledge. Maybe I'll just lean into it and commit to an ice cream and pajama lifestyle.

Chris Guthrie has a tough life. She lives in rural Scotland with an abusive father, a clinically depressed mother, and too many siblings to feed. She spends most of the novel suffering, and we suffer with her.

I love the descriptions of the Scottish countryside, even if there was a mournful note to the whole thing. I appreciated the female perspective, even if Lewis couldn't resist inserting a World War I soldier in there who attempted to out-trauma Chris. 

Still, not the most memorable novel, it felt like a B-side Thomas Hardy story. 

RATING: ***--

Interesting Facts:

First in the trilogy A Scot's Quair, with the other two being Cloud Howe and Grey Granite.

UP NEXT: The Radetzky March by Joseph Roth

351. Journey to the End of the Night

Journey to the End of the Night
Louis-Ferdinand Celine
1932
Around 435 pages

There's no shortage of ugly things in this world, so what's one more novel hellbent on describing how futile and violent life is. I wouldn't recommend using Celine to talk yourself off that ledge.

Once again, we experience the life of a World War I soldier. Ferdinand actually manages to make it out of the trenches and be miserable in Paris, French colonial Africa, and the United States as well. Celine really zooms out of the war and takes on death as a concept. I think this is where Jean-Paul Sartre got his sense of humor.

Because of his remarkably fresh, albeit bleak, perspective, this is probably my favorite World War I novel so far. 

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

Ranked 51st on The Guardian's list of "100 Greatest Novels of All Time"

UP NEXT: Sunset Song by Lewis Grassic Gibbon. Sounds like an assassin.