Figures in a Landscape

Theroux, Paul. Figures in a Landscape: People and Places. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2018. Print

First Sentences:

This was in the 1960s, when the book [The Yage Letters by William S. Burroughs] first appeared, to cries of execration by the usual hypocrites

The book is an encouragement to any prospective quester, and very funny, too.

Description:

Paul Theroux is a writer I admire greatly for his adventurous railway travel in books like The Great Railway Bazaar (Asia), The Old Patagonian Express (United States), The Last Train to Zona Verds (Africa), and Riding the Iron Rooster (China). I also knew he was a prolific writer of interesting fiction such as Mosquito Coast, Saint Jack, and Hotel Honolulu. 

But I didn't know he was a prolific essayist as well. Figures in a Landscape: People and Places: 2001-2016 changed that for me. Here are assembled thirty essays ranging from biographical thoughts on people I know a little about like Joseph Conrad, Thoreau, Oliver Sacks, and Robin Williams to people I am completely unfamiliar with (artist Thomas Hart Benson; Nurse Wolf, the dominatrix; author George Simenon; and Albert Theroux, Paul's father). And there are plenty of unusual stories and details about each person:

In Bronx State, a state mental hospital I used to work at, I always used to carry my white coat and my identity pass, because I was never sure that if I lost it I would be able to prove my sanity. - Oliver Sacks

There are essays on so many fascinating, seemingly random occurrences that caught Thoreaux's attention enough to write about them. For example: the art and motivation for collecting Chinese "reverse glass" paintings; Thoreaux's life as a library-book reader; travel to dangerous countries; and raising geese in Hawaii.

While weighing the risks and being judicious, travel in an uncertain world, in a time of change, has never seemed to me more essential, of greater importance, or more enlightening.

Every essay is highly-detailed, insightful, deeply thoughtful, and interesting in a way that can only be described as breathtaking, entertaining and informative. Each essay is completely personal in observations, rants, and passions that are wide-ranging and, of course, never dull.

At some point, quite early ... my reading diverged and I began to live a parallel life as a reader, supplementing school books with library books I chose for myself. The required reading at school I often found dismaying, insufficient, or over-analyzed....It was School Books versus All Others, the books I was told to study and anatomize set against the books I delighted in. 

Very fun, informative, and fascinating. Happy reading. 

Fred

Other book recommendations
About The First Sentence Reader blog

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Wallace, David Foster. Consider the Lobster.  

Essays on a variety of topics by the master writer, Wallace, including tennis player Tracy Austin, Kafka's humor, and of course lobsters.

Manners from Heaven

Crisp, Quentin. Manners from Heaven: A Divine Guide to Good Behavior. New York: Harpercollins. 1985. Print

First Sentences:

Nothing more rapidly inclines a person to go into a monastery than reading a book on etiquette.

Description:

Wait, you're recommending people read a book on manners? In the case of Quentin Crisp and his brilliant Manners from Heaven: A Divine Guide to Good Behavior, the answer is a definite "Yes." When an author is clever, witty, a brilliant observer of people and their actions, and a terrific writer to boot, what is not to recommend? And in these months of shocking behavior and words from presidential candidates, a books about manners is timely.

But first you should recognize the difference between "etiquette" and "manners." For Crisp, etiquette is a list of rules of behavior, usually to keep one class of people separate and superior to an unknowing class lower than them in society. It is a  "form of exclusion...designed to make people (particularly those not of one's 'class') feel ill at ease and out of place." 

Manners, on the other hand, "are a technique of inclusion, a way of ensuring that in our company no one will ever be made to feel he is an outcast by reason of his birth, education or occupation."

I am more concerned with how manners can be employed to cope with, or outwit, the affronts of racism, sexism, hooliganism -- and the terrible things which people do to one another in the name of love. 

And what could be better than a book that describes common, albeit awkward, situations situations that can be gracefully addressed by good manners? Unwanted telephone calls? Getting rid of guests? Parenting? Lawsuits? Sex? Getting your own way? Here's just a few of Crisp's mannerly commentary on our behavior and strategies to improve our actions and words:

- Since it is absolutely essential that no one should ever be made to seem boring or repetitious, you must avoid any suggestion that you are weary of what they are saying.  

- We are not free, however, to rebuke other people nor speak badly of them to others. To rebuke someone presupposes that we are above him in some way.

- The war between the sexes is the only one in which both sides regularly sleep with the enemy....we live in an age where no one can be trusted to behave themselves where sex is concerned. 

- Whenever someone says to me, "But what do you really think about me (him, her, it)?" what I really think is that it's time to go.

- Never say to anyone who is less than twenty-five "Drop in any time," because that person may be back tomorrow, reading more hospitality into your words than you meant....I've been guilty of unexpectedly visiting people who'd said, "Drop in any time," without realizing that that was English for 'Goodbye.'

- It often happens that when we think we're making whoopee we're only making a whoops instead. Saying "no" to someone who has already rummaged through our drawers is tricky, but take heart -- even Rome, once sacked,did not have to sacked again and again.

-  We must at all times seek out those people and situations most conducive to bring out out the best in us, and keep to a minimum our contacts with people who merely drain our energy. 

Story after story from Crisp reveal the difficult situations we all find ourselves in and how to gracefully extract oneself without offense. But the difficulty of smoothing the seas of human interaction can be taxing. Crisp recounts one particularly trying man who had invited Crisp to his home for a weekend. The host's awful behavior forced Crisp to flee early:

I hightailed it back to my New York room where I had a good cry and then did four crossword puzzles in a row to restore some sense of civilization.

And don't forget to use "Crisperanto," the author's mannerly speaking used to create a pleasing impression while still conveying the speaker's true mind. 

I lie altruistically -- for our mutual good. The lie is the basic building block of good manners. 

A wonderful, intelligent, funny, and truthful book well-written and insightful. Highly recommended.

Manners are a way of getting what you want without appearing to be an absolute swine - or at least a way to getting something of what you want without giving total offence to other people.

Happy reading. 

Fred

www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Crisp, Quentin. How to Go to the Movies 

Crisp shares his opinions on current and past movies, stars, changing cinematic morals, and his encounters with film actors, actresses, and directors. Witty, caustic, and always outrageously honest. 

Tessaro, Kathleen. Elegance

A self-described plain woman finds a 40-year-old style book written by a French woman that promises to help any woman achieve poise and grace. Lessons are tried with success and, of course, unexpected consequences.

String Theory

Wallace, David Foster. String Theory. New York: Library of America. 2016. Print.

First Sentences:

When I left my boxed township of Illinois farmland to attend my dad's alma mater in the lurid jutting Berkshires of western Massachusetts, I all of a sudden developed a jones for mathematics. 

Description:

I didn't know that David Foster Wallace, the brilliant, witty, troubled writer of essays (Consider the Lobster) and complex novels (Infinite Jest) was once a successful tennis player in his teen years. His limited talent curtailed that career but his interest in the sport lives today in his insightful essays on modern tennis and its players. These writings are gathered together in String Theory. Together, they offer Wallace's insightful, often snarky look at the sport, its history, and the players who make it, in Wallace's opinion, the most difficult and beautiful of all sport competition, particularly when watched in person.

TV tennis is to live tennis pretty much as video porn is to the felt reality of human love.

Wallace opening essay is on his own personal history with tennis, his rise to fame in his junior years (due to his love of playing in terrible conditions), and his ultimate realization that his skills would never carry him on to a professional career. His writing displays complete understanding of the game as an insider to junior level tennis in Midwest America.

"How Tracy Austin Broke My Heart" documents Wallace's bitter disappointment with the lackluster autobiography of Tracy Austin, one of the players he admires. He scathingly criticizes her ghost-written book (Beyond Center Court) for its bland writing and unforgivable lack of personal insights from Austin, such as her feelings about appearing on the cover of World Tennis at age four, on becoming the youngest woman to win a professional tournament at fourteen, the reasons behind her inner drive, and her thoughts about the unlucky events that ended her career while she was only in her early twenties. 

There's a cruel paradox involved. It may well be that we spectators, who are not divinely gifted as athletes, are the only ones able truly to see, articulate, and animate the experience of the give we are denied.And that those who receive and act out the gift of athletic genius must, perforce, be blind and dumb about it--and not because blindness and dumbness are the price of the gift, but because they are its essence.

So it is left to tennis outsider Wallace to write such an in-depth biographical essay and he chooses Michael Joyce as his subject. Joyce, the 79th best player in the world, is competing in the qualifying rounds of the Canadian Open. As a lower-ranked player, winning three matches in this "Qualies" tourney allows Joyce entrance into the major tournament with the opportunity to improve his ranking, gain the attention of sponsors, and of course win some bigger money. Wallace follows Joyce throughout this important tourney and records the player's thoughts about the present, future, and opponents. Wallace's penetrating writing and observation skills reveal the hopes and realities for this one player in his everyday struggles.

If you've played tennis a least a little, you probably think you have some idea of how hard a game it is to play really well. I submit to you that you really have no idea at all. I know I didn't. [Michael Joyce], at a full run, can hit a fast-moving tennis ball into a one-foot square area 78 feet away over a yard-high net, hard. He can do this something over 90% of the time. And this is the world's 79th-best player, one who has to play the Montreal Qualies.

Then comes "Federer Both Flesh and Not," Wallace's (and anyone else's) definitive essay on the greatest player of our generation, Roger Federer. For Wallace, everyone who has watched this man play has experienced a "Federer Moment" when Federer makes an impossible shot that changes the course of the rally/game/match. This is done so effortlessly that even though you have seen it you cannot believe what just happened:

.... jaws drop and eyes protrude and sounds are made that bring spouses in from other rooms to see if you're  OK ....The metaphysical explanation is that Roger Federer is one of those rare, preternatural athletes who appear to be exempt, at least in part, from certain physical laws.

String Theory is full of equal parts brilliant writing and passion for players, matches, and strategies. There also is plenty of commentary on related tennis issues from equipment and clothing, to strategy, player rituals, concession prices, ticket-takers, stadium design, and commentators. Even players' girlfriends get a mention:

Players [at the Qualies] ... have girlfriends in tow, sloppily beautiful European girls with sandals and patched jeans and leather backpacks, girlfriends who set up cloth lawn chairs and sun themselves next to their players' practice courts...Most have something indefinable about them that suggest extremely wealthy parents whom the girls are trying to piss off by hooking up with an obscure professional tennis player.

Who can resist this type of insightful, all-encompassing writing about all aspects of tennis? Certainly not me. I loved these essays and highly recommend them to anyone who loves the tennis, great writing, and highly intelligent (and often extremely funny) comments.

Happy reading. 


Fred

www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

McPhee, John. Levels of the Game

Detailed analysis of a 1968 U.S. Open tennis match at Forest Hills between Arthur Ashe and Clark Graebner, revealing their thoughts, ambitions, history, and personalities in this, the best tennis writing ever. 

One for the Books

Queenan, Joe. One for the Books. New York: Viking. 2012. Print

First Sentences: 

The average American reads four books a year, and the average American finds this more than sufficient.

Men who run for high office often deem such a vertiginous quota needlessly rigorous, which is why they are sometimes a bit hazy on what Darwin actually said about finch beaks and can never remember which was Troilus and which was Cressida.

I am up to speed on both. Yet I find this no cause for celebration, much less preening. For though I read at least a hundred books a year, and often twice that number, I always end up on New Year's Eve feeling that I have accomplished nothing.

Description:

Book readers are a select group of humans. Bibliophiles are in an even smaller, more passionate sub-species of this group. And then there's Joe Queenan, author of One for the Books. 

In this intelligent, fascinating, and sometimes wacky book, Queenan describes all aspects of his existence as a passionate book reader, including his preferences and dislikes in authors and topics, bookstores, and libraries, as well as strong opinions on borrowing/lending books, writing notes in books, and finishing a book. 

Queenan estimates he is actively reading thirty-two books at any given time. He admits to having read between 6,000 - 7,000 books in his lifetime, broken down into about 150 books a year not including titles he reviews for newspapers and magazines. Of course, he never speed-reads a book as "that would defeat the purpose of the exercise, which is for the experience to be leisurely and pleasant." 

We learn he uses several techniques to select a book: by its book jacket design; by the the blurbs written on the back cover by writers he respects; and even by its length (once spending a year reading only short books). And he favors reading books where a reviewer has used the word "astonishing" to describe the work, but refuses to read any book with that same word occurs in the title (e.g., The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation).

At his age (60 something), he calculates he could read "2,138 books" before he dies, therefore he must be careful about what titles he will consider reading in his years left. He has time for "500 masterpieces, 500 minor classics, 500 overlooked works of pure genius, 500 oddities, and 168 examples of first-class trash." 

This means, of course, there are books he knows he will never read unless he is paid to do so. His black-listed books include anything recommended and loaned to him by friends, books on current affairs, biographies, inspirational themes, books written by businessmen, and anything electronic. 

Also eliminated from consideration is anything written by an author involving a character Queenan knows to be a lover of the New York Yankees, Los Angeles Lakers, Dallas Cowboys, Duke University basketball, University of Southern California football, or Manchester United soccer team. Such people are beneath contempt and certainly not worth his time to read. 

What books he loves, he LOVES. He admits to skipping work for a week to "lie on the sofa and read ten Ruth Rendel novels." After discovering Penelope Fitzgerald's The Bookshop, he immediately bought and read all of her works, as he did with Henning Mankell and his Kurt Wallander Scandinavian detective novels.

His strong opinion reveal a love and devotion to books that are inspirational and jaw-dropping at the same time, such as his future reading goals (e.g. reading one book a day for a year, re-reading all books in his collection that he has already read twice, reading only books picked off public library shelves "with my eyes closed," etc.). Other reflections are more poetic including the serendipitous pleasures he experienced via print books vs. electronic books.

Queenan is a confident, intelligent, and discerning reader, When he praises one of your own personal favorites like Philip Roth's Great American Novel or Huckleberry Finn, you feel a smugness that your taste in reading has passed a test of some sort. 

However, it is admittedly deflating when he denigrates a book or author you enjoy, as he does for To Kill a Mockingbird (one of the school-assigned "featherweight homilies"), P.G. Wodehouse (a "poncey aristocrat who played footsie with the Nazis"), and David Benioff's City of Thieves (because the narrator/survivor of the siege of Leningrad eventually emigrates to the US and becomes a Yankee fan).  

I loved this book and Joe Queenan for his cleverness, his obsession, his high-quality writing, and his unwavering standards of what should and should not be read. If you love reading about books and looking for new titles to pursue, One for the Books is a fantastic world to explore. 

Happy reading.


Fred

www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Sankovitch, Nina. Tolstoy and the Purple Chair: My Year of Magical Reading  

The author tries to deal with her grief for her sister's death by committing to read a book a day and then write a review of each for her website (readallday.org). Great bibliography of the books she read as well as insight into how books and memoirs can help deal with sorrow.

Basbanes, Nicholas A. A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for Books  

A wonderful history of book collectors and their collections, delightful in its portrayal of the quirks, passion, and overwhelming commitment to purpose shown by this bibliophiles.