Review: Where Angels Fear to Tread

Where Angels Fear to Tread by E.M. Forster
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I actually knew very little about this story when I picked it up, although it has been around for 100+ years. I love my late 19th/early 20th century fiction, but I have discovered my limit for reading books with helpless, hapless females. It goes hand-in-hand with the history, but, sheesh, Lilia really was a terrific fool.

It is beautifully written, of course. This is one interesting quote: It's better to be fooled than to be suspicious - the confidence trick is the work of man, but the want-of-confidence trick is the work of the devil. I am not sure I agree.

Forster said in his book Howard's End that "ladies shelter behind men and men shelter behind servants". The sentiment works for this book, too. In this story the men are spineless brutes and the women are foolish and false. The women are helpless without the men and don't even know until it is too late how little these men offer. The English love Italy but seem to detest Italians and doing absolutely nothing all day is perfectly fine, unless you are scheming and conniving - then it's ok.

Lilia, the unlucky, widowed young lady, is summed up perfectly in this quote: She was appallingly narrow, but her consciousness of wider things gave to her narrowness a pathetic charm..

Super quick summary: Poor Lilia had a very simple hunch that her life would be better if she just closed her eyes and jumped into a marriage without forethought, because she just had to escape the onerous existence in her mother-in-law's house. It does not go well. The end.

FYI - Forster does not favor happily-ever-after.

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Review: The Joy of x: A Guided Tour of Math, from One to Infinity

The Joy of x: A Guided Tour of Math, from One to Infinity by Steven H. Strogatz
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a book to be enjoyed by all. Steven Strogatz approaches every topic -- basic operations, equations, data, the nature of infinity and more -- with clarity, affability and great examples.

For whatever reason, observations like this: "Things that seem hopelessly random and unpredictable when viewed in isolation often turn out to be lawful and predictable when viewed in aggregate"make me so happy.

In the 2020 year of chaos and uncertainty, reviewing the majestic orderliness and sensibility of math by reading a book like this can restore your faith in the nature of knowledge.

Another satisfying quote: "When a guitar string is plucked or when children jiggle a jump rope, the shape that appears is a sine wave. The ripples on a pond, the ridges of sand dunes, the stripes of a zebra—all are manifestations of nature’s most basic mechanism of pattern formation: the emergence of sinusoidal structure from a background of bland uniformity."

And since I've hated proofs forever, this quote warmed my heart: "Proofs can cause dizziness or excessive drowsiness. Side effects of prolonged exposure may include night sweats, panic attacks, and, in rare cases, euphoria. Ask your doctor if proofs are right for you."

Great book ~ two thumbs up!

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Review: The Portrait of a Lady

The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This epic story is said to be one of Henry James's best long novels. It is a story of love, foolishness and evil-doing. I could have read on for weeks and weeks; I did not want the tale to end.

Short form: A young American girl is adopted by her wealthy Aunt and brought back to England. She is pretty and she is interesting. Many men fall for her. She'll have none of them. One in particular is a gallant hearted Lord who owns most of England. She turns him down, repeatedly. She believes she is doing the honorable thing because she has a dream of seeing the world and believes that marrying would hinder her exploration.

Her cousin, who also loves her but does so with no hope that this love will ever be returned, sees to it that our heroine (Isabel) has all the money she could ever need so that anything she is able to imagine having or doing - presto. It is done. He made her rich - like Jeff Bezos kind-of rich.

What does Isabel do?

She allows herself to be manipulated into marrying an evil bum. She never realizes her dreams. She is too proper to dump the loser so she lives the rest of her days under his thumb. He only married her for her money.

I think the reader is supposed to be in awe of Isabel for she stuck to her principles. She married who she wanted to marry. Ridiculous. I don't think Henry James wants us to believe that there is something wrong with falling in love with someone who is rich but that is the impression that is left.

Thankfully, Henry James has a magic pen. A breath-taking magic with words. Page after page after page of sentences, each perfectly turned out, each a symphony, a work of art -- he could have directed his story in any old direction. I would have kept reading for the elegance of his writing had me spellbound.

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Review: Convenience Store Woman

Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was a truly refreshing story with a bright, authentic voice.

Keiko is not like others. She struggles with the nuances of social convention her whole life.
Then she finds the perfect job and she finally feels like she belongs until her world rears up and demands she "fall-in-step" in more acceptable ways.

Does it matter that - by doing her best imitations of a regular human - she becomes a full participant in the work-a-day-life all of us tumble into eventually? If she finds peace, happiness, acceptance and a tolerable rhythm to her days by working in a dead-end job, by doing her very best in this job every day, and by collecting little pieces of personality from each co-worker she meets on this job, is this illegitimate?

I loved the questions this book explores.

It is a quick, diverting and deeply satisfying read!


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