408. Good Morning, Midnight

Good Morning, Midnight
Jean Rhys
1939
Around 210 pages

And we are back to abject human misery with this novel, although I enjoyed this much more than Grapes (that's a nickname I'm trying out, we'll see if it sticks). I'm sure Virginia Woolf would have loved this.

Sasha Jansen returns to Paris after the death of her child and an unhappy marriage. She drinks too much and has bad hair. That's relatable, maybe uncomfortably so. She's also living in a city that is just as lost as she is.

So obviously a sad story, but I didn't feel like Rhys was wallowing in the misery like some of our other depression peddlers. Short and bittersweet.

RATING: ***--

Interesting Facts:

The novel wasn't well received after its initial release, but gained popularity after it was made into a radio play. The past was so boring.

Title comes from an Emily Dickinson poem.

UP NEXT: Tropic of Capricorn by Henry Miller 

407. Party Going

Party Going
Henry Green
1939
Around 260 pages

I have complained about Henry Green in the past, but I actually enjoyed this quite a bit. It's a good concept: a group of rich party are trying to get a party via train, but are forced to take refuge in a nearby hotel when the train is delayed by fog. Life is what happens when you are making other plans indeed.

Of course, life for me isn't being a rich Bright Young Thing, but it can be fun to read about. I think putting those kind of parameters on yourself as a writer, such as making all the action take place in a hotel, really allows you shine. It's much easier to have rules than to just stare at a blank document for an hour and a half.

He's hitting his stride, but he's still a rather forgettable Oxnerd, compared to some of our other heavy hitters.

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

Green had a friendship/rivalry with Evelyn Waugh at Oxford.

UP NEXT: Good Morning Midnight by Jean Rhys

406. The Grapes of Wrath

The Grapes of Wrath
John Steinbeck
1939
Around 465 pages

I was actually spared having to read this in high school, so all suffering caused from this novel was entirely self-inflicted. This is one of those undeniable classics that isn't much fun to read. But who can forget that closing scene?

The Joad family are driven from Oklahoma due to the Dust Bowl, which I vaguely recall being a big deal in middle school, and then never talking about it again until this moment. They hope California will provide rich job opportunities, which is an evergreen dream that is always doomed to end in tears and 

some old guy pawing your chest.

I know this is a moving book for a lot of people, but I find such an onslaught of human misery difficult to connect with. I wish we had started in a happier place, so we had time to get the know the Joads before they became Steinbeck's cannon fodder.

Probably a must read given the historical context, but certainly not a favorite I want to keep revisiting.

RATING: ***--

Interesting Facts:

The book won the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize for fiction, and helped Steinbeck win the Nobel Prize in 1962.

Banned in Ireland and Turkey and was censored in parts of the US.

Bruce Springsteen named his 11th studio album, The Ghost of Tom Joad.

UP NEXT: Party Going by Henry Green

405. Coming Up For Air

Coming Up For Air
George Orwell
1939
Around 240 pages

George Orwell wrote this after being shot in the throat by a Fascist sniper, when he was recovering from tuberculosis in North Africa. Which is incredibly badass. The only thing I've ever been able to accomplish during convalescence is taking a shower without vomiting. And even that is touch and go. 

Our main character is George Bowling, I guess George is our author's favorite fake name. At the beginning of the book, George is collecting a new false set of teeth in London. I'll refrain from making the obligatory joke about British teeth in favor of commenting on the parallels between this and Proust, which has a similar nostalgic air. Through a bizarre set of circumstances he wins some money, and decides to use it for a trip down memory lane.

World War II is the Big Bad in most of the novels now, I can only imagine how apocalyptic the world felt for people during this time. I think everybody can relate to feeling like "the good ole days" are long gone, as the planet becomes something we don't recognize.

It's a bitter and bleak work, which is fitting for the time, but a bummer read.

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

Orwell's brother-in-law, Humphry Dakin, the husband of Orwell's sister Marjorie, a 'short, stout, loquacious' man, thought that Bowling might be a portrait of him. I would keep that to myself.

UP NEXT: The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

404. Goodbye to Berlin

Goodbye to Berlin
Christopher Isherwood
1939
Around 210 pages

I hated the movie Cabaret. Musicals either blow me away, or cause me cringe convulsively, there is no in between. This movie fell into the latter category. Of course, a novel isn't capable of producing the same level of cringe as a musical can, so I found this book to be a marked improvement from the film.

This time, Christopher drops the pretense and gives his main character his name. Christopher is a young English novelist looking to party in Berlin on the eve of Hitler's rise to power. Which is about the worst place I can think of to go looking for a good time, but I don't really enjoy parties in general. At a boarding house, he encounters Sally Bowles, the singer at a seedy cabaret with a colorful sex life.

Oof, stories that feature unsafe abortions really hit me in the ovaries right now. Isherwood did a really good job of depicting a culture that was ripe for catastrophe but I don't feel like anybody was particularly well fleshed out. This might have been intentional, as everybody was playing a role that wasn't truly authentic to their inner selves.

More enjoyable than his previous work, but they are good companion pieces to each other.

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

According to literary critics, the character of Sally Bowles in Goodbye to Berlin inspired Truman Capote's Holly Golightly, as Capote was a known fan of his work. 

Isherwood was critical of the movie adaptation, as he believed it negatively portrayed homosexuality. Go ahead Isherwood.

UP NEXT: Coming Up For Air by George Orwell

403. The Big Sleep

The Big Sleep
Raymond Chandler

1939
Around 280 pages

I have a theory that noir fiction was the primary source of wish fulfillment for men of the 1930s, which has now taken the form of  those grueling Avenger movies. Seasoned detective Philip Marlowe is constantly turning down hot women for sex, holding his liquor to a worrying degree, and cracking wise. The everyman, in other words.

I had previously seen the movie, but that didn't really spoil the story for me, as I always have a hard time recalling the convoluted plot threads of noir movies. The wealthy General Sternwood calls Phillip Marlowe to his mansion to help him deal with a blackmailer. A bookseller is blackmailing the General over his youngest daughter Carmen, who is a wild child. His other daughter, Vivian, is in a loveless marriage with a man who disappeared, which is why she assumes Phillip is hanging around. I wonder if these women will make advances to our leading man...

I'm obviously not the intended audience for these novels, but they still hold a sort of charm for me. It's fun to see the exploration of such dark characters. And the pacing is always good. Every once in a while, it hits the spot.

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

Raymond Chandler wrote The Big Sleep by combining two previous short stories that he wrote for a pulp magazine.

In 2005, it was included in Time magazine's "List of the 100 Best Novels."

UP NEXT: Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood

402. After the Death of Don Juan

After the Death of Don Juan
Sylvia Townsend Warner

1938
Around 300 pages

Did you ever want to read the novelization of an opera? I sure didn't. I hate the opera, and left halfway through Don Giovanni. This thoroughly scandalized the Pittsburgh Opera crowd, which is admittedly a pretty sorry bunch. This novel played out like an opera, and it really wasn't my vibe.

Within the first paragraph of the novel, Don Juan has already tried to rape Anna, or as Miss Sylvia puts it, "he began to make love to her, so forcibly that she protested." Do we really have to include the word "love" in that sentence? In the same paragraph, Anna's father tries to intervene and is killed by Don Juan. It's like in medias res, on speed. Everybody behaves like they are lusty stage characters. I should mention that this takes place in eighteenth century Spain, with a Socialist perspective.

It's strange to read a non-contemporary historical fiction novel. Historical fiction is often much more telling about the era it is written in than it is informative about the story's setting. In this case, we see Warner's communist leanings, and there's very little emphasis placed on the horrific abuse of women present in the story. Very operatic.

That was a bit of a mess to be honest.

RATING: **---

Interesting Facts:

Warner was in a relationship with Valentine Ackland, which survived for 40 years despite Ackland's infidelities and alcoholism. 

UP NEXT: The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler

401. Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
Winifred Watson
1938
Around 235 pages

After Nausea, an upbeat novel that includes a makeover is just what this blog needed. In the tv biz, we'd call this a breather episode. Our next title has the word "death" in it, so it looks like it's business as usual next time.

As the title suggests, the novel's action takes place over the course of a single day, which I always love as a technique. I think authors thrive when they put those kinds of parameters on themselves. Miss Pettigrew is what some might call a forty year old spinster, what others, ahem me, might call a blueprint for their middle age. Her employment agency sends her to Delysia LaFosse, a nightclub singer and a socialite, to be a governess, although it turns out she only needs a maid. Delysia is impressed by Miss Pettigrew's deft handling of one of Delysia's lovers, so she adopts her as a friend/companion. Delysia is one of those wonderfully pushy characters that drags a protagonist on an adventure. I wish I met more of those people in real life.

Miss Pettigrew is a great character, and I was rooting for her happiness from the beginning. Female writers in the 1930s killed it.

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

The German translation was called off because of the War.

Watson struck a deal with her publisher to write a country drama if they would publish Miss Pettigrew.

UP NEXT: After the Death of Don Juan by Sylvia Warner Townsend

400. Nausea

Nausea
Jean-Paul Sartre
1938
Around 180 pages

400! There's nobody I'd rather celebrate with than the OG party animal, Jean-Paul Sartre. I'm quite the expert on nausea myself, having never done anything exciting without immediately throwing up afterward. Leave it to the maestro of misery to put this feeling into the bleakest possible context.

Antoine Roquentin lives in Bouville, with no friends or family. He is in Bouville to finish his research on a political figure, but he acquires a low-level nausea feeling that prevents him from enjoying anything in his life. Then he starts to doubt his own existence, because existentialism is a very on the nose concept.

Sartre is a quote machine, I particularly enjoyed his observation that three o clock in the afternoon is too early or too late to do anything you want to do. Only somebody who has experienced deep depression can fully communicate how insufferable the mundane can be. Even so, he has a Wilde like wit that makes his comments humorous, in a macabre sort of way.

Here's to another 100! 

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

Albert Camus was a fan of the novel, although he felt that the descriptive and the philosophical aspects of the novel were not well-balanced.

Started when Sartre was still in military service.

UP NEXT: Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson

399. Rebecca

Rebecca
Daphne Du Maurier
1938
Around 410 pages

I recently suggested this novel to my partner, and he loved it, further solidifying my reputation as the best book recommender he has ever dated, which, let's face it, is the main thing I bring to a relationship. I had seen the Hitchcock movie before reading this, and was delighted to find it's even darker than the film.

Our narrator marries an older wealthy Englishman, Maxim de Winter, and is swept away to his home in Manderly. Our protagonist is so overshadowed by the presence of Maxim's first wife, Rebecca, although Rebecca died some time ago. Mrs. Danvers, the housekeeper, is particularly hellbent on keeping Rebecca's memory alive. As our narrator becomes increasingly isolated, she discovers more about the mysterious Rebecca than she is prepared to know.

Rebecca puts a modern twist on the gothic novel, which can feel pretty antiquated as a genre. Mrs. Danvers is an excellent character, and I am sure many cold bitches in the future can trace their lineage to her villainess influence. 

A must read classic with an unforgettable first line. I wish we had more Daphne on the List.

RATING: *****

Interesting Facts:

One edition of the book was used by the Germans in World War II as the key to a book code. A copy was kept at Rommel's headquarters and the other was carried by German Abwehr agents infiltrated into Cairo. This code never was used, however, because the radio section of the headquarters was captured in a skirmish and hence the Germans suspected that the code was compromised.

Du Maurier wrote a stage play based on the novel.

Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca won Best Picture in 1940.

Du Maurier based Rebecca on a woman her husband was once engaged to, Jan Ricardo. Ricardo threw herself under a train during World War II.

UP NEXT: Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre

398. Cause for Alarm

Cause for Alarm
Eric Ambler
1938
Around 305 pages

I am surprised I've never heard of Eric Ambler, usually old spy novels are my jam. I don't demand much from these stories. It's enough for me to have a fun adventure, even if no new ground is covered. This novel was familiar terrain, and I'm surprised Hitchcock never made a movie out of it.

Nicholas Marlow is just an ordinary fellow. He's engaged to a doctor, which might be the first female doctor that has ever appeared on the List, and she's not even in it. Anyway, he's desperate for money so he takes a job as a representative for a company that manufactures machines for shell production. He is soon embroiled in a complicated plot involving the Italian secret police and Yugoslavian spies. 

It's odd that we are only a few books away from The Big Sleep, and we have another protagonist with the last name Marlowe. It does have a hunky ring to it. I didn't find Nicholas particularly compelling as a character, he was pretty much your prototypical hapless protagonist thrust into a situation way out of his depth. The context of the novel was interesting and the pacing was good.

I enjoyed the touch of Kafka in his exploration of the unchecked power of the Italian authorities. But still pretty run of the mill, spy novel wise.

RATING: ***--

Interesting Facts:

Many authors of international thrillers have acknowledged a debt to Ambler, including Graham Greene, Ian Fleming, and John le Carré.

UP NEXT: Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier. An old favorite.

397. Brighton Rock

Brighton Rock
Graham Greene
1938
Around 270 pages

Graham Greene is an amazing author. So amazing, he can get away with adding to the pile of overly complicated crime novels white men were so fond of writing in this era. His unique take on morality adds an extra dimension to a story that could have been forgettable in lesser hands.

This is a sequel of sorts to his earlier novel, A Gun for Sale, which I haven't read because the Overlords did not decree it. Hale is being hunted by the mob for running a story about their slot machine racket in the paper. He has enough time to meet Ida at a pub before the mafia catches up with him. When Ida hears about his death, she remembers how scared Hale was and decides to investigate. Meanwhile, Pinkie will go to any lengths to cover up his crime, including seducing a young waitress who could be a witness in the case.

This point of the view was entirely different than what we are used to with crime novels. We get a lady detective of sorts and the unforgettable Pinkie, who makes our usual villains seem comical. The ending was deliciously dark, and I am not surprised they would change it in the film version. Greene has a strong sense of morality, and Pinkie is everything that dark is the world. I can't wait for more Greene!

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

The title comes from the old-fashioned stick candy with the name of the town imprinted on the stick, so you could see the name no matter how you crack it. Even the candy was terrible back then.

Greene helped write the screenplay for the 1948 film.

UP NEXT: Cause for Alarm by Eric Ambler

396. U.S.A.

U.S.A.
John Dos Passos
1938
Around 1300 pages

 

You are not going to hear me composing an ode about my country as of late, but I knew a book called U.S.A. wouldn't be patriotic. We Americans just love writing about the death of our stupid dreams. My home city Pittsburgh got a shout out, as being a particularly miserable place to live. Represent!

This one is a doozy, as it is actually a series composed of three novels. The main narrative is interspersed with newspaper clippings, autobiographical streams of consciousness, and song lyrics. It's...a lot. Although it is interesting to see how much cinema is starting to influence literature. I've been in the 1800s for roughly ten years, so this is a big deal to me.

As for the main story, I wasn't too intrigued by the characters who were struggling to survive in a ruthlessly capitalist society. Still, Dos Passos is critical of the Communist Party as well, so it comes across as less preachy than some of the other propaganda we've seen here. 

The concept of making a novel into a collage seems like the sort of thing they would make you do in an undergrad writing class. This one drags.

RATING: ***--

Interesting Facts:

Neil Peart of Rush was inspired by U.S.A. to write the lyrics for the song "The Camera Eye."

UP NEXT: Brighton Rock by Graham Greene

395. Murphy

Murphy
Samuel Beckett
1938
Around 290 pages

Only five more novels to go until the big 400! But first we must suffer through the insufferable Samuel Beckett. I've been dreading his approach for awhile.

Okay, I didn't enjoy this novel, but I'll admit this novel has one of the best opening lines I have ever read: "The sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new." Brilliant. We start the novel with Murphy naked and tied to a rocking chair because that is how he practices self care. Then we're stuck reading the downward spiral of a deeply philosophical crazy person.

Why are Irish authors always making things so hard on their reader? I hate this style of novel, I don't need to know the notations from your chess game. It's a novel, not your nerd scrapbook. Unfortunately, there is a lot more Beckett to go.

RATING: **---

Interesting Facts:

It was written in English, rather than the French of Beckett's later writing.

After many rejections, it was published on the recommendation of Beckett's friend Jack Butler Yeats.

UP NEXT: U.S.A. by John Dos Passos

394. Of Mice and Men

Of Mice and Men
John Steinbeck
1937
Around 115 pages

It's a real head-scratcher how this has earned its status as essential reading for high school Americans. I understand the skill behind this novel and the larger themes he is communicating, but you have to wonder which characters were thought to be relatable to teenagers. The only woman in this story barely gets her own name.

Two migrant field workers in California are best buddies. George is an intelligent but uneducated man, and Lenny is a mentally disabled giant who hugs puppies too hard. George looks out his friend, even when he gets into trouble. 

I appreciate the brevity of this story, but I don't really like stories where women aren't allowed to feel or act like real people. Instead, they are just a plot device to bring out the best or worst in a male character. And it's quite a predictable story even if the finale hasn't been spoiled for you before.  

The ending was unforgettable and it's no wonder it is so frequently referenced. But certainly not an old favorite for me.

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

Of Mice and Men has been proposed for censorship 54 times since it was published in 1936.

Was intended to function as a novella and a script for a play.

UP NEXT: Murphy by Samuel Beckett