Finished: Terms of Endearment (McMurtry). Terms of Endearment the book is soooo different from Terms of Endearment the movie, one of my top three favorite movies of all time! I was really disappointed that the book didn't follow the movie more, even though the movie came after the book, lol. Out of 410 pages of book, McMurtry didn't even get to writing about the daughter, Emma Horton, until there were only 47 pages left in the book! Sure, she was in the other 363 pages here and there, but that part of the book was primarily about Aurora Greenway, Emma's mother, and her many, many suitors, and how she treated them. It was also more about Aurora's housekeeper, Rosie and her husband and their ups and downs even more than it was about Emma and her husband, Flap. :-(

And...what's more...Emma and Flap are never even in love in the book. They've already been married for two years when it starts and he treats her so detestably. Of course, I wasn't happy with his behavior in the movie either. He was a weak, weak man. Anyway...the incredible relationship between Aurora and Emma was just not the same in the book as it was brought to the screen by Debra Winger and Shirley McClain in the movie. I was brought to tears in the final 47 pages, though, when they jumped ahead to Emma being a mom of Tommy, Teddy and Melanie and finding out she has cancer. Her goodbyes to her children were heartbreaking. The book didn't have the scene (Shirley's Oscar winning scene) where Aurora screams at the nurses to bring her daughter her medicine because she only had to wait that certain time and it had gone over the time. Nope...not in the book. Also, when Emma finally dies, Flap and Aurora are both there in the movie and it shows Flap having fallen asleep in a chair, but Aurora is awake and looking at her daughter. Emma gives her a weak little wave. The look the mother and daughter exchange makes me cry just thinking about it. Then, Aurora looks away briefly and looks back and Emma is gone. Sigh.

So, in the introduction, Larry McMurtry said that Emma Horton is one of his truest, favorite characters and it took him a long, long time to get over killing her off. Apparently she's in two of his other books!! I'm going to seek those books out. Larry McMurtry is definitely a wonderful writer and I actually came to know Aurora Greenway in even greater detail. The book is just so different from the movie. Oh, oh...another HUGE difference...there is no astronaut next door!!!! No Jack Nicholson, in other words. Nope...the character that Garrett Breedlove is based on from the book is an ex-General named Hector...and he's far crankier and far more unbending. He doesn't really become a rock for Aurora at the end like Garrett finally does in the end of the movie. Oh well...I'm still so glad I read the book! It's my last book of the year 2012. :-)

Just a couple of passages. I can't let this one go without a couple of passages.

When Emma is looking out the window, watching her boys, Tommy and Teddy, she is regretfully thinking about how the failure of her and Flap's relationship has affected the boys:

   Tommy, tense himself, could live with tension. He could climb up on his bunk bed and read, answering no questions and responding to no demands; but not Teddy. Teddy needed arms around him, ears to listen; he needed everyone in the house to be warmly, constantly in love with one another. Emma knew it; her youngest son's yearning for a household filled with love haunted her, as her marriage died. Tommy wanted no illusions; Teddy wanted them all, and his mother was his only hope.

And, I finally see where the title of the book came from in this next passage that also just breaks my heart. Emma wakes up in the hospital to hear her mother and her best friend, Patsy, talking about who should take the children to raise them, both ignoring their father, Flap, who is also in the room:

    Then one day she awoke and Patsy was there, fighting with her mother. They were fighting about Melanie. Patsy had offered to take her, to raise her with her two girls, but Aurora bitterly opposed it. Flap was there too. Emma heard him say, "But they're my kids." Patsy and Aurora completely ignored him. He was not relevant.
    Watching them, Emma's head really cleared, for a while. "Stop it!" she said. They stopped with difficulty, two extremely angry women. To her puzzlement, she smiled; they didn't realize she was smiling at them.
    "They're my blood," Aurora said. "They're certainly not going to be raised in California."
    "That's very biased," Patsy said. "I'm the right age, and I like raising children."
    "They're OUR children," Flap said, and was again ignored.
    Emma realized that that was what she had been forgetting in her grogginess: the children. "I want to talk to Flap," she said. "You two take a walk."
    When they were gone she looked at her husband. Since her illness he had almost become her friend again, but there was still an essential silence between them. 
    "Listen," Emma said. "I tire easily. Just tell me this: Do you really want to raise them?"
    Flap sighed. "I've never thought I was the sort of man who'd give up his kids," he said.
    "We're thinking of them," she said. "We're not thinking of how we'd like to think of ourselves. Don't be romantic. I don't think you want that much work. Patsy and Momma can afford help, and you can't. It makes a difference. 
    "I'm not romantic," Flap said.
    "Well, I don't want them living with Janice," Emma said.
    "She's not so bad, Emma, " Flap said.
    "I know that," Emma said. "I still don't want her exercising her neurosis on our children."
    "I don't think she'd marry me anyway," Flap said.
    They looked at one another, trying to know what to do. Flap's cheeks had thinned, but he still had something of his old look, part arrogant, part self-deprecating---though the arrogance had worn thin after sixteen years. Somehow that look had won her, though she couldn't remember, looking at him, what the terms of endearment had been, or how they had been lost for so long. He was a thoughtful but no longer an energetic man, and he had never been really hopeful. 

Sigh...good book...incredible movie.

Finished: Catch Me (Gardner). Fast-paced, whodunit by one of my favorite authors. :-) I read my first Lisa Gardner book on an airplane back from a trip to Oregon, (buying a book in the Portland airport was the same way I discovered Harlan Coben!) and I've been hooked on her books ever since. The first book of hers I read, The Third Victim, featured a female cop named Rainie Conner who teamed up with an FBI profiler, Pierce Quincy, to solve a school shooting. After that, there were five more books dealing with Quincy and Rainie and their relationship and their families. One of the books dealt with the death of Quincy's ex-wife and one of his daughters by a killer. Then, in another book, his other daughter, Kimberly Quincy has become a young FBI agent herself and she helps catch a serial killer. That book, The Killing Hour, is even among my list of favorite books. Anyway, Kimberly falls in love with a state trooper named Mac, and they're still married with two young daughters and have a mention in this newest book I just read! Even Quincy makes an appearance in Catch Me to help out the main detective in the book, D. D. Warren.

D. D. Warren is a Boston Police Department detective who has been featured in six of Gardner's books herself, and I've loved watching her grow, solve crimes, be in danger, fall in love and now have a baby...all while maintaining her gruff exterior. :-) Catch Me was another page turner that I couldn't put down! All about  a young woman named Charlie whose two best friends were both killed on the same day one year apart. Now, that day is approaching again and Charlie just knows she'll be killed next. She goes to D. D. Warren to tell her she believes her life is in danger and she'll be dead in four days! Meanwhile, D. D. Warren has a new baby at home, a boyfriend who dearly wants to marry her, a killer on the loose who is targeting pedophiles, and a gungho new associate who works in the child crimes department and who bulldozes her way onto the case, much like a young D.D. Warren used to do, as she wants desperately to catch the killer. Little does anyone know that the new officer is really the younger sister of Charlie. Both girls were terribly abused as little girls by their mother, and even watched their mother suffocate two younger siblings. Charlie had been rescued by an aunt when she was little, but no one knew of her little sister, Abigail's, existence. So...did she grow up to be a cop or a killer? Hmmm....

It's definitely more complicated than that...and more nail-biting to read. :-) Another great Lisa Gardner book!

Finished: Revolutionary Road (Yates). Good, but haunting book. A very well-written book about a young, married couple with two young children, living in the suburbs in the 1950's. They have everything in the world that most people back then could want, but they are terribly unhappy. As it turns out, neither of them are doing what they truly wanted to be doing having been saddled down with a surprise pregnancy, rushed marriage, a mundane job for the husband, stay-at-home life for the wife, and now the life that everyone else seems to live instead of the excitement of going and becoming what they truly wanted to be. Of course, neither of them ever explains what that is that they so desperately wanted to be. They are both pretty selfish, but honest, and devoid of that unconditional parental love I think. The book is so descriptively written that I can truly picture those 1950's times. Something as simple as describing how the annoying real estate agent, Mrs. Givings, can't relax and let her husband drive. She constantly jams her foot down on the passenger side floor and throws her arm out...as if that would control the car! I can SO remember my mom doing this to my dad when we were little. Of course, it was accompanied by a panicked "Dave!". That's probably, actually a timeless institution still going on around the world to this day. :-)

Anyway, in the movie version, Frank and April Wheeler were played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet...an acting couple who I really love. This is one of those instances when I truly wish I hadn't seen the movie before reading the book; not because I knew what was going to happen...but because I couldn't get Kate and Leo out of my heads! I could even hear their voices saying all the lines. There were no surprises in the book, as the movie stayed pretty true to it. I have the same feeling of non-pity and confusion after reading the book as I did after seeing the movie. OK, getting married and having kids and living that life isn't for everyone, but that was the decision they made. Did they have to wallow around in self-pity and think that their lives were so loathsome that it was worth taking horribly desperate measures to change things? Honestly, there wasn't a mothering bone in April Wheeler's body to do what she did...not just the failed self-abortion attempt...but not thinking about the ramifications that her actions would have on her children. Not to  mention her cockamamie idea of uprooting her children and moving them to France before she found out she was pregnant for the third time. That was the only time in the book she seemed to see a bright future...but then that was shattered for her when she realized Frank wouldn't be able to up and quit her job with her pregnant.

At times it seemed like the only sane person was Mr. and Mrs. Givings' son John...but wait...he was a schizophrenic who lived in a mental institution who got to go on outings with his parents occasionally. But, he certainly called the Wheelers out on their truths and lies. He could see right through them! I did like Frank and April's best friends, the Campbells, Shep and Millie...but probably because that is more how I imagined "normal" to be back then. Normal was definitely not the Wheelers...at least I hope it wasn't! I hope my parents never felt about me the way the Wheelers felt about their kids. I don't think they did.

I'm really glad I read the book...it was one I asked for for Christmas. :-) And, as I said, it was truly well written and very descriptive, evoking powerful images or every day details that I can remember from my childhood at times. I'm just thinking that I need a more uplifting book or maybe a thriller of some sort next.

Finished: August: Osage County (Letts). Brilliant Pulitzer and Tony award winning play that I also had the privilege of seeing on Broadway. The book took my breath away just as much as the live play! Oh, it's not pretty. There is so much family drama and tension and bare-bones confrontation that it leaves you anything but happy. However, it certainly makes you feel....and even if your family isn't dysfunctional like this one, there's are little bits of truth here and there in the play that you can take and see in your own family.

August: Osage County, set in Oklahoma in 2007, starts with the family patriarch, Beverly Weston, interviewing a young Native American gal, Johnna, who he wants to hire to be a live in cook and aid to his wife, Violet, who is ill with throat cancer and addicted to all kinds of pain pills. This opening conversation is the only time we get to see Beverly...the next we hear of him he's missing, and he turns up drowned five days later. On the stage he was played to brilliant perfection by John Cullum, a Tony award winning actor who is probably better known to the mainstream public for playing Holling on Northern Exposure. These days, he plays Mike's father on The Middle. Anyway....he was magnificent in his very short role which propels the rest of the play.

So, after Beverly Weston goes missing, his three daughters, Barbara, age 46, Ivy, age 44, and Karen, age 40, all converge on the house, along with Violet's sister, Mattie Fae, her husband Charlie, her son Little Charles, age 37, Barbara's husband, Bill, their daughter, Jean, age 14, and Karen's fiance, Steve, age 50. Barbara and Bill had moved away many years before to Colorado where Bill is a professor at a college. She had dealt with her mother's pill addiction once before and saw her through treatment, but does not live near her parents now. Her mother claims that Barbara is her father's favorite, but in reality, it seems that Barbara is her mother's favorite...however, her mother had such a terrible upbringing that she herself can be so pig-headed and harsh to her daughters that you don't really see any love...just a desperate need to have her daughters in her vicinity. Though Barbara and Bill seem to be there showing a united front, in reality Bill is having an affair with a college student and is going to divorce Barbara. Their daughter Jean is all to aware of these facts and is very much into finding a quiet place to smoke her pot. Ivy still lives in the same town as her mother and has been the one there doing most of the "seeing after". She's constantly berated by her mother as to her looks, her clothes, and how she's ever going to attract a man. It is Ivy who tells her sister Barbara that she (Ivy) was truly her dad's favorite. Karen has lived for years in Florida and has always had an image of what her life would be like...knight on white horse swooping in to propose on one knee, carry her off to a romantic honeymoon and have children. Now that she's 40 and has dated so many losers, she's clinging to her fiance, Steve, like he's God's gift to women.

In reality, Steve is a bit shifty and a wheeler dealer. Nobody really knows what his business is in Florida, but we find out pretty quickly that he likes smoking pot...and he especially likes doing it with Jean. As a matter of fact, he gets way too fresh with Jean and his advances are only stopped by Johnna coming across them in the dark. She hits him on the head with a frying pan! Desperate, Karen packs up and leaves the house with Steve, despite what he just did! Bill also takes his daughter, Jean, back home to Colorado and leaves his soon to be ex-wife to deal with her own mother. Meanwhile, Ivy and Little Charles have fallen in love....even though they're first cousins. They plan to get married and move away to New York. When his mother, Mattie Fae, sees something going on between the two, she confides to Barbara that she needs to stop them because...duh duh duhhhhh....Little Charles is really their brother!! That's right, Mattie Fae had a fling with Beverly years ago. Violet Weston, also brilliantly played, I might add, by Estelle Parsons, blurts the news out to Ivy when she's about to let her mother know that she's going away with Little Charles. She cares nothing about sparing Ivy's feelings...she just wants to keep her there in the same town. Ivy runs from the house, declaring that she'll move to New York anyway.

It seems Violet has known all these years that Little Charles is Beverly's son. And the kicker...it seems that Violet was also aware when Beverly went missing that he was staying at a hotel for a few days before he killed himself. (Yes, they all pretty much figure out that he went out on his little row boat and then drowned himself intentionally.) Anyway, he left Violet a note about where he was going and, I guess, what his intentions were and to call him if she wanted. Well, she didn't call. When Barbara finds this out, she leaves her mother's house for good. Violet is left wandering the house and ends up with only Johnna to comfort her.

It's really a devastating play, but just so brilliant in all the dialogue and the quick familial conversations and all the talking over one another. It's even written that way in the actual play book, with fragmented conversations side by side. I might include a few passages, but it will be hard to know when to stop typing!

Oh, and the language...boy hidey. Here's a snippet from when Barbara and Bill first arrive back at the old house in Oklahoma after being told that Beverly is missing, having driven all the way from Colorado:

Barbara: Goddamn, it's hot.
Bill: Wimp.
Barbara: I know it. Colorado spoiled me.
Bill: That's one of the reasons we got out of here.
Barbara: No it's not....What were these people thinking? 
Bill: What people?
Barbara: The jokers who settled this place. The Germans and the Dutch and the Irish. Who was the asshole who saw this flat hot nothing and planted his flag? I mean, we fucked the Indians for this?
Bill: Well, genocide always seems like such a good idea at the time. 
Barbara: Right, you need a little hindsight.
Bill: Anyway, if you want me to explain the creepy character of the Midwest, you're asking the wrong---
Barbara: Hey. Please. This is not the Midwest. All right? Michigan is the Midwest. God knows why. This is the Plains: a state of mind, right, some spiritual affliction, like the Blues.
Bill: "Are you okay?" "I'm fine. Just got the Plains." (They laugh.)

This one will be long. It's at the dinner the family has after they come back from Beverly's funeral. Violet is hopped up on her pills once again:

Violet: Bev made some good investments if you can believe it, and we had things covered for you girls, but he and I talked it over after some years passed and decided to change things, leave everything to me. We never got around to taking care of it legally, but you should know he meant to leave everything to me. Leave the money to me.
Barbara: Okay.
Violet: Okay (Checks in with Ivy, Karen.) Okay?
Ivy: Okay.
Violet: Karen? Okay? (Uncertain, Karen looks to Steve, then Barbara.)
Barbara: Okay.
Karen: Okay.
Violet: Okay. But now some of this furniture, some of this old shit you can just have. I don't want it, got no use for it. Maybe I should have an auction.
Mattie Fae: Sure, an auction's a fine idea---
Violet: Some things, though, like the silver, that's worth a pretty penny. But if you like I'll sell it to you, cheaper'n I might get in an auction.
Barbara: Or you might never get around to the auction and then we can just have it for free after you die.
Ivy: Barbara... (Pause. Violet coolly studies Barbara.)
Violet: You might at that. 
Little Charles: Excuse me, Bill? I'm wondering, this writing you found, these poems---?
Violet: Where are you living now, Bill? You want this old sideboard?
Bill: I beg your pardon.
Violet: You and Barbara are separated, right? Or you divorced already? (Another silence.)
Bill: We're separated.
Violet: (To Barbara.) Thought you could slip that one by me, didn't you?
Barbara: What is the matter with you?
Violet: Nobody slips anything by me. I know what's what. Your father thought he's slipping one by me, right? No way. I'm sorry you two're having trouble...maybe you can work it out. Bev'n I separated a couple of times, 'course, though we didn't actually call it that---
Barbara: Please, help us to benefit from an illustration of your storybook marriage---
Violet: Truth is, sweetheart, you can't compete with a younger woman, there's no way to compete. One of those unfair things in life. Is there a younger woman involved?
Barbara: You've already said enough on this subject, I think---
Bill: Yes. There's a younger woman.
Violet: Ah...y'see? Odds're against you there, babe.
Ivy: Mom believes women don't grown more attractive with age.
Karen: Oh, I disagree, I---
Violet: I didn't say they "don't grow more attractive," I said they get ugly. And it's not really a matter of opinion, Karen dear. You've only just started to prove it yourself.
Charlie: You're in rare form today, Vi.
Violet: The day calls for it, doesn't it? What form would you have me in?
Charlie? I just don't understand why you're so adversarial.
Violet: I'm just truth-telling. (Cutting her eyes to Barbara.) Some people get antagonized by the truth.
Charlie: Everyone here loves you, dear.
Violet: You think you can shame me, Charlie? Blow it out your ass. 

It just goes on and on. I so recommend reading this play. Honestly, it's nothing like my family, but it just bares like a flesh wound all this dysfunctional family's feelings.

One more snippet. The three sisters are talking alone in the study after the dinner, and after they've wrestled the pills away from their mother, who continued to berate them at dinner, talking about her miserable childhood but how she was from the greatest generation and they couldn't possibly understand her trials. Violet is now upstairs being cared for by Johnna:

Barbara: "Greatest Generation", my ass. Are they really considering all generations? Maybe there are some generations from the Iron Age that could compete. And what makes them so great anyway? Because they were poor and hated Nazis? Who doesn't fucking hate Nazis?! You remember when we checked her in the psych ward, that stunt she pulled?
Ivy: Which time?
Karen: I wasn't there.
Barbara: Big speech, she's getting clean, this sacrifice she's making for her family, and---
Ivy: Right, she's let her family down but now she wants to prove she's a good family member---
Barbara: She smuggled Darvocet into the psych ward...in her vagina. There's your Greatest Generation for you. She made this speech to us while she was clenching a bottle of pills in her cooch, for God's sake.
Karen: God, I've never heard that story.
Ivy: Did you just say "cooch"?
Barbara: The phrase "Mom's pussy" seems a bit gauche.
Ivy: You're a little more comfortable with "cooch", are you?
Barbara: What word should I use to describe out mother's vagina?
Ivy: I don't know but---
Barbara: "Mom's beaver"? "Mother's box"?
Ivy: Oh God---
Karen: Barbara! (Laughter, finally dying out.) I'm sorry about you and Bill.
Ivy: Me, too, Barb.
Barbara: If I had my way, you never would've known.
Karen: Do you think it's a temporary thing, or...?
Barbara: Who knows? We've been married a long time.
Karen: That's one thing about Mom and Dad. You have to tip your cap to anyone who can stay married that long.
Ivy: Karen. He killed himself.

ok...that's all for now. A play definitely worth its accolades!

Finished: O Pioneers! (Cather). Such a good book, but then so heartbreaking at the end. :-( Finally, I was going along reading a book about a strong woman who survived the bleak odds and made something of herself, along with the help of her brothers. Of course, she was the brains behind the brawn. And then...I'm skating along towards the end of the book when tragedy strikes three very likable characters. Ugghh! I'm so sad...but still, it was a very good book!

O Pioneers is the story of Alexandra Bergsen, who we meet as a nearly twenty year old young woman, a Swedish immigrant who has settled in the harsh Nebraska plains with her father, mother and three brothers. Our first glimpse of the story introduces Alexandra's five year old brother, Emil, whose kitten has climbed up a pole in the middle of a wintry day in the town where the farming brother and sister have gone to speak to the town doctor. When Emil shows the frightened kitten to his determined sister, you just know that she's going to get her down, and that this determination will be one of her key character traits throughout the entire book. Alexandra finds her good friend, Carl, who is a little bit younger than she is, and he in turn, runs to get some pole spikes. He scurries up the pole and saves the kitten. We know early on that he'd do nearly anything for Alexandra, but she doesn't learn that for many, many years. Happy Emil takes his warm kitten into the town store to warm up, where he first meets the charming, endearing seven year old Marie Tovesky. She is a delightful, happy, positive child who grows up to be the same kind of young woman.

Sadly, in the opening chapter, Alexandra's father is very ill and soon passes away. Before doing so, he tells Alexandra's brothers, who are nineteen and seventeen, that despite the fact that they are following in their father's footsteps and working tirelessly to make corn grown on their several hundred acres of rough land....Alexandra is the one in the family with the head for business, for buying, for organizing. He wants them to promise him that they'll always do what she says....she will be running the farm. After he dies, there are a few years of harsh times and many neighbors are selling their farms and land to banks, etc. Even Alexandra's best friend Carl sadly tells her that his father is selling out and they are moving away. Alexandra's brothers, Oscar and Lou, want to sell out and move somewhere where it's not so hard to make a living. However, their father had made sure they were one of the only farms with the mortgage paid off before he died, so Alexandra wants to do what seems crazy and buy instead of sell! She just knows that the land will increase in value. She borrows money to buy more land, including Carl's old homestead.

When the next part of the book starts up sixteen years later, we see that she was right! Alexandra had been able to sell much of the new land she bought for huge profits. She's got a huge farm, lots of land, a beautiful home, and both Lou and Oscar each own 1/3 of what their father originally left them with nice homes and families of their own. Everyone is doing fine economically, but Lou and Oscar are jealous of young Emil who, now 21, has just had his final year at college. They are still generally very selfish and suspicious of anyone's good motives. Alexandra and Emil remain very close.

When Carl comes to visit after all those years, Lou and Oscar, who used to be friends with him, treat him horribly. They think he's just there to trick Alexandra into marrying him so he can live off of her money. Alexandra enjoys the time they spend together, but soon Carl leaves to try and make it on his own so he can come back and be "worth something" to Alexandra. Basically...Lou and Oscar run him off. Alexandra is livid with them and says they are no longer welcome in her house. Alexandra has also become good friends with the lovely Marie Tovesky, who is now married to Frank Shabata, a joyless, jealous, brute of a man. At the time they fell in love, he was more of a mysterious dandy, and now Marie is stuck in a loveless marriage. She is still very positive and makes the most of situations. The smallest things make her squeal with happiness. One person who makes her very happy is Emil. From the time they were children they have been close. Marie married Frank while Emil was off at college, not knowing that all that time Emil was really in love with her. It's not hard to see that Marie is actually in love with Emil as well, though they never tell each other or act on those feelings.

Emil has another best friend, a French immigrant named Amedee. He is also a joyful person and has been married for a year and now has a brand new son. After a fun town get together, Emil and Marie finally admit to each other that they love each other, and Emil realizes that he must go away. Marie would never betray her marriage. So a few weeks later, the night before Emil is going to go away to law school, he goes by to say goodbye to Amedee. Amedee is frantically working in his wheat fields, trying to bring the crop in, but he's also terribly sick! It turns out, he is in acute pain because he has a ruptured appendix. Shockingly, the admirable and loving Amedee dies! Reeling from the news of Amedee's death, Emil and Marie meet each other in her arbor and fall into each other's arms. Frank comes home in a brutish mood, as usual, sees Emil's horse there and takes his gun and goes looking for them. In a rage, he shoots Emil and Marie dead as they are laying together for the first time.

I said it was sad. :-( Anyway....after that, Alexandra is beyond despair and even questions whether she wants to keep living either. She sends a letter to Carl, but never hears back from him. Until...one day....Carl shows up! He never got her letter, but he had just heard the news about Emil and he dropped everything to come and be with her. The book ends with Carl and Alexandra deciding to be together and letting no one deter them this time.

Such a good book about Alexandra's strength and practicality...but so sad that three characters I liked so much met such tragic ends. Oh, and of course, Cather took her title from Walt Whitman's poem, Pioneers! O Pioneers!, and the entire poem is at the end of the book. :-)

Finished: Hiroshima (Hersey). Tragic book about six survivors of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Tragic in so many ways....but mostly tragic that the bomb had to be dropped at all. Don't get me wrong, I am in full support of America, but I hate war. I hate even more the tragedy of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. I hate loss of life anywhere, and especially innocent loss of life. I don't know why leaders of countries can't just be happy with what they have and not go to war to take what others have that they want. I know it's not as simple as that, especially today, but back during the World Wars, it seemed to be all about fighting for more land and power. Maybe if the leaders could have done one on one battle and settled things between themselves it would be different, but entire countries full of innocent people are always the biggest victims of war.

The book Hiroshima was written by a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, so the story has more of a reporting the facts flair to it. It follows Toshinki Sasaki, a young female sales clerk, Dr. Masakazu Fugii, a doctor with his own private hospital, Hatsuyo Nakamura, a war widow with three young children, Father Wilhelm Kleinsorge, a German priest who works in a mission house in Japan, Dr. Terufumi Sasaki, a young surgeon, not related to Toshinki Sasaki, and Reverend Kiyoshi Tanimoto, a pastor of a Methodist church. Each of these six people was within 3/4 to 1 mile of the center of the blast. The details of what each person was doing at the precise moment that the huge "light flashed" when the bomb hit is chronicled, along with their injuries, their recoveries, their journeys helping other people and being helped, their subsequent illnesses from "radiation disease", and how they managed for the rest of their lives. The details are horrific and gut wrenching. The descriptions of these victims, and others who were more severely injured were so vivid. The journalist actually followed up forty years after first publishing the book to see where all the six were at in their lives, and all were still alive but one.

Hibakusha...that became the Japanese word for describing an Atom bomb survivor. Only one hibakusha could truly understand the malaise and illness and experience that another hibakusha was going through. I may not be able to directly understand it, but certainly reading this book opened my eyes to an event which I'd never really read about in detail until now. A good book!

Finished: The Misanthrope (Moliere). Another good play by Moliere. I had to look it up....a misanthrope is one who hates or mistrusts mankind. In this case, the misanthrope is the main character of the play, Alceste. Alceste believes that man should be honest to a fault...never sparing anyone's feelings with a false pleasantry. His best friend, Philinte, believes that there are exceptions to that rule...especially in society where you need to be pleasant to people you may not necessarily like. Alceste makes his point clear in the following blurb from a conversation with Philinte:

Philinte: But, seriously, what would you have people do?
Alceste: I would have people be sincere, and that, like men of honour, no word be spoken that comes not from the heart.
Philinte: When a man comes and embraces you warmly, you must pay him back in his own coin, respond as best you can to his show of feeling, and return offer for offer, vow for vow.
Alceste: Not so. I cannot bear so base a method which your fashionable people generally affect; there is nothing I detest so much as the contortions of these great time-and-lip servers, these affable dispensers of meaningless embraces, these obliging utterers of empty words, who view everyone in civilities, and treat the man of worth and the fop alike. What good does it do if a man heaps endearments on you, vows that he is your friend, that he believes in you, is full of zeal for you, esteems and loves you, and lauds you to the skies, when he rushes to do the same to the first rapscallion he meets? No, no, no heart with the least self-respect cares for esteem so prostituted; he will hardly relish it, even when openly expressed, when he finds that he shares it with the whole universe. Preference must be based on esteem, and to esteem everyone is to esteem no one. Since you abandon yourself to the vices of the times, zounds! you are not the man for me. I decline this over-complaisant kindness, which uses no discrimination. I like to be distinguished; and, to cut the matter short, the friend of all mankind is no friend of mine. 

Yet, despite his hefty proclamations, Alceste loves Celimene, a young woman who appears to love him, but is also very flirtatious and gossips terribly about other people behind their backs while being nice to their faces. This is exactly what Alceste detests, yet he loves Celimene. Celimene accepts callers and refuses to give up her friendships though Alceste is terribly jealous and insists she sees only him. She tell him she loves him, but will not give up her friends/suitors, Acaste, Oronte, and Clitandre, to name a few. Speaking of Oronte...he insists on getting Alceste's viewpoint of a verse of poetry he has written. Alceste tries several times to decline giving his opinion, because, he says, he will be brutally honest. Oronte insists this is what he wants, but he is very unhappy when Alceste gives his poetry a scathing review and says that Oronte should never attempt to write again. Oronte, a "friend of the court" actually takes Alceste to trial where he still will not retract what he has said...all in the name of honesty.

Meanwhile, Eliante, Celimene's cousin, is a delightful, balanced young woman who believes in both being honest and in showing some restraint....and...she happens to love Alceste and his honesty. Philinte, though, loves Eliante with all his heart. Philinte tells Eliante that if she ever gets over her love for Alceste, he will be right there waiting because he loves her....sigh. It comes to light that Celimene has written several love letters to all the gentlemen in which she bashes her other suitors pretty good behind their backs, even Alceste, while claiming she truly loves the one she's writing to. As this comes to Alceste's attention, he denounces Celimene and turns to Eliante and says he will vow to love her instead. Eliante, though, reaches her hand out to Philinte and declares her love for him. (yay!) Alceste stomps off and decides to go live by himself as a hermit in some little corner of the world.

A more quick-witted play than I can make it out to be by my small little recap. :-) I have enjoyed all the Moliere plays I've read so far!

Finished: As I Lay Dying (Faulkner). Lord have mercy. I have no words, but I guess I better find some. Another Faulkner novel that takes you right into his world and makes you feel everything his characters are feeling, kicking you in the gut a few times along the way, especially at the end. It's hard to put into words the weird intensity with which I relate to the Faulkner novels. I truly believe it's because I've got some deep Southern roots on my dad's side. I can literally almost hear every word uttered out of every mouth, as years of being around southern accents and speakisms just flood my brain. Of course, growing up in Texas just reinforces the impact a particular vernacular has on one's life. :-) Faulkner again uses the stream of conscious narration by several characters, slowly developing the story as we see the same situations from several viewpoints and delve deeply into the innermost thoughts and personalities of each character. A Faulkner book that I will be thinking about for a long time to come.

As I Lay Dying is the story of a Mississippi country family whose mother and wife, Addie Bundren, has died. She made her husband, Anse, promise long ago that she'd be buried "with her people" in Jefferson, Mississippi...which, with all the calamities that set in for the family, ends up being a journey that lasts well over a week by mule drawn wagon. As the story opens, Addie has not yet died; she's watching out the cabin window as her oldest son, Cash, a talented carpenter, works relentlessly on her coffin...bringing each piece up to the window for her approval. Anse, a very self-centered man, has insisted that his next two oldest sons, Darl and Jewel, take the wagon for an overnight delivery to make some money. They don't want to go in case their mother might die while they're gone, but Anse insists they go. And, of course, she does die while they're gone. Dewey Dell, 17,  is the only daughter. She spends her time fanning her dying mother, in a bit of denial that she's going to die, but mostly concerned that she's become pregnant by a local farm hand. Dewey Dell spends most of the story worrying about how she'll "take care of it" with the ten dollars that the farm hand gave her to do it with. Vardaman is the youngest son, and a little boy. He wrestles with a huge fish and drags it up to the cabin right as his mother dies. He spends the entire story thinking his mother is really the fish? His stream of consciousness is rather like that of a seven or eight year old trying to understand things that he can't possibly understand.

So, as each character narrates, we learn who they are deep inside: Cash, the responsible, dedicated, self-sacrificing oldest son; Darl, the very deep thinking, all knowing, sensitive son; Jewel, the pig-headed, impetuous, seemingly selfish, horse-loving next son; Dewey Dell, the overwhelmed, frightened, but determined, daughter; Vardaman, the young, sheltered, bewildered, scared youngest son; and Anse, the slump-shouldered, "poor me...I have the worst luck", "God has given me more than I can handle", self-centered, uncommunicative father. Amidst the angst of his wife's impending death, he more than once thinks about how he could use some money to buy a new set of teeth which he has done without for several years.

One of the most compelling chapters is narrated by Addie after she dies. You don't know whether she's speaking from the grave (or coffin...she's not actually in the grave yet) or if Faulkner has flashed her narrative back to an earlier time when she was alive. What we do learn is that she was never in love with Anse when she married him. She hated giving up her time to herself to have children who drained everything from her. She never showed much love to Cash or Darl (who both adored her)...but then she had an affair with the local preacher, Whitfield, by whom she had Jewel. Jewel was her favorite son by far. In all the flashbacks she treated him like the prince of the family. It's not clear whether anyone else knows that Anse is not his father, except for Darl, who figures it out towards the end of the story...or perhaps he's always known.

Before the family even starts out in the wagon, with Addie in the homemade coffin, a huge thunderstorm comes, raining so heavily that both of the nearest bridges over the river are washed away. Rather than be owing to anyone or taking any kindnesses or waiting one day longer to let the river subside, Anse's pride propels him to put his family's life in danger by attempting to cross the river. He, Dewey Dell and Vardaman walk over where the bridge is broken up and under water. They are able to make it over, and then watch in horror as Cash, Jewel and Darl try to get the mules to drag the wagon across. The wagon is overturned by debris and the mules are drowned, but the boys all make it across....Cash unconscious and with a broken leg. Jewel, the unlikely hero, has single-handedly wrenched the coffin from the river and hauled it up onto the bank. Anse ends up trading (among other things) Jewel's beloved horse, who he worked his fingers to the bone as a 15 year old to earn money enough to buy, to get another mule team to continue their journey. This despite the fact that a neighbor offers the use of his mule team for however long it's needed. But no, Anse again doesn't want to be beholdin' to anyone. And so, rather then having Cash see a doctor, Anse insists that they keep moving on.

With each town they stop in, the horrible stench from Addie's rotting body is worse and worse. Town people can't believe how they are desecrating her body...but the Bundren family feel like they are doing the right thing by respecting Addie's wishes. The family stops at one farm to sleep for the night, keeping Addie's coffin way out in a field so the smell won't disturb the farm owners. Darl comes to realize that dragging around his mother's decaying body, with vultures now following them along on their trip, and always circling over head, is wrong. He takes the coffin into the barn and sets fire to the barn! Unfortunately, the owner's horse, mules and cow are in the barn as well. Again, Jewel is the hero as he saves the horse, the mules (along with the owner), and goes back in for the cow...before going back in again to drag his mother's coffin out of the fire! Darl breaks down in tears over his mother's coffin, and Dewey Dell applies medicine to the burns on Jewel's back. So, again, the family sets off the next morning. The family soon figures out that Darl set the fire and that soon the farmer will probably follow them to Jefferson and file a suit against the family.

Meanwhile, Cash's leg grows worse and worse, and rather than spend money on the doctor, Anse has the boys buy some cement which they mix and pour around his leg. Of course, this only makes things worse as they finally arrive into Jefferson with Cash's foot and leg now black. Rather than spend the money to buy a shovel to dig Addie's grave, Anse actually borrows two spades from a local woman whose house he stops at and spends more time than necessary. Finally, after Addie is buried, Cash sees the doctor who rails against Anse in a passage I will include below. He says what all the readers have been thinking, I'm sure. Cash will recover, but with a much shorter leg. Anse decides that they should make a preemptive strike, for the sake of the family of course, and have Darl committed to the mental institution in Jackson for setting the fire. It's heartbreaking to watch Darl as his family turns against him...and as he has his last chapter of narration, it seems as if he truly has gone mad. Meanwhile, Dewey Dell trades sexual favors with a drug store clerk who promises her that the capsules he gives her (full of baby powder) will cause her to abort her unwanted baby. She saves the $10, but starts to doubt whether the clerk was honest or not. Sadly, Anse finds her $10 and insists she give it to him. He instructs the kids to get the wagon ready to head back home. As they sit in it waiting for their father, he comes walking up with a new set of teeth...and a new wife! He's married the woman he borrowed the spades from. The last line of the book:

    "It's Cash and Jewel and Vardaman and Dewey Dell," pa says, kind of hangdog and proud too, with his teeth and all, even if he wouldn't look at us. "Meet Mrs. Bundren," he says.

I was still reeling from each character's last thoughts when Anse pulled that last little bit of selfishness! And,  here's the passage that the doctor spoke when he ranted to Cash:

    "Don't you lie there and try to tell me you rode six days on a wagon without springs, with a broken leg and it never bothered you." 
    "It never bothered me much," he said.
    "You mean, it never bothered Anse much," I said. "No more than it bothered him to throw that poor devil [Darl] down in the public street and handcuff him like a damn murderer. Don't tell me. And don't tell me it aint going to bother you to lose sixty-odd square inches of skin to get that concrete off. And don't tell me it aint going to bother you to have to limp around on one short leg for the balance of your life---if you walk at all again. Concrete," I said. "God Amighty, why didn't Anse carry you to the nearest sawmill and stick your leg in a saw? That would have cured it. Then you all could have stuck his head into the saw and cured a whole family...Where is Anse, anyway? What's he up to now?"
    "He's takin back them spades he borrowed," he said.
    "That's right," I said. "Of course he'd have to borrow a spade to bury his wife with. Unless he could borrow a hole in the ground. Too bad you all didn't put him in it too..."

I think I need a lighter story...but what?

I can see this is going to be a long process, but I'm determined to continue reviewing the books I've already read to make sure I remember them all! The next three books I read last spring:

The Jungle Book - Mowgli - man child in the wild - raised by wolves - mother, father, brother wolves - Baloo the bear - Bagheera the panther - Shere Khan the bengal tiger - wants to kill Mowgli - Mowgli kidnapped by monkeys after he gets a little arrogant and disobeys Bagheera and Baloo - Chil the kite and Kaa the python help get him back - "Now, said Bagheera, jump on my back, Little Brother, and we will go home." One of the beauties of Jungle Law is that punishment settles all scores. There is no nagging afterwards. - Mowgli bests Shere Kahn - Mowgli goes to live back in the village with a family - Shere Khan still wants to kill Mowgli - more stories than just Mowgli - white seals look for a new home - Rikki Tikki Tavi the mongoose saves a family from deadly cobras - Toomai the boy who wants to be an elephant trainer - Toomai sees the elephants "dance" - unique, lovely jungle stories

Beyond the Horizon - The Mayo family - Mom, Dad, Andrew, Robert - lovely farm and cottage - clean, flowing, homemade curtains - Andrew and Robert close brothers - Robert sickly, loves to read books, longs to travel the world - Andrew strong, loves to work the family farm and wants to marry sweetheart Ruth and raise family there - Robert and Andrew both love Ruth - Robert prepares to leave on trip around the world sailing with Uncle Dick - the night before, Ruth confesses to Andrew that Robert is truly the one she loves and she doesn't want him to leave - Andrew tells Robert this and he decides to stay - Andrew magnanimously gives up Ruth and goes on the sailing trip around the world, leaving Robert to work the farm and be happy with Ruth - Father, James Mayo, unexpectedly dies - Robert knows little about farming - farm falls into poverty - dingy, dirty curtains with holes, furniture in disrepair - Ruth and Robert have little girl, Mary - Ruth confesses to Robert that she really loved Andrew after all - Robert in despair and getting sicklier (tuberculosis) - light of Robert's life, little Mary, dies - Robert soon on his own deathbed - Ruth sends for Andrew to come home quickly - Andrew arrives before Robert dies - Ruth tells Andrew that she told Robert that she really loves Andrew - Robert is distraught - he no longer loves Ruth and his brother is dying thinking his own wife doesn't love him - Andrew insists that Ruth go in there and tell Robert she truly loves him, not Andrew - she's too late, Robert has died - Andrew cries out to Ruth, "He's gone and you never told him!  You never told him!" - heartbreakingly sad story all around - Ruth...the ruin of two brothers.

Jane Eyre - Loved this book! - Young Jane Eyre, ten years old, an orphan - goes to live with horrible, abusive aunt, Sarah Reed, and spoiled, selfish cousins, John, Eliza, Georgiana - treated like a servant - excluded from the family - one day defends herself when John picks on her - she is blamed - locked in the scary "red room" where her uncle (mother's brother, Sarah's husband) died - sees awful visions that scare her to death - Jane distraught - Mr. Lloyd, family doctor, recommends it would be good for all if Jane is sent to Lowood School for Girls - before she leaves, she stands up to Aunt Sarah in front of kindly Mr. Lloyd, calling out her physical and emotional abuse, she tells her aunt she'll never call her aunt again - "I am glad you are no relation of mine. I will never call you aunt again as long as I live. I will never come to see you when I am grown up; and if any one asks me how I liked you, and how you treated me, I will say the very thought of you makes me sick, and that you treated me with miserable cruelty."  - "How dare you affirm that, Jane Eyre?" - "How dare I, Mrs. Reed? How dare I? Because it is the truth. You think I have no feelings, and that I can do without one bit of love or kindness; but I cannot live so: and you have no pity. I shall remember how you thrust me back---roughly and violently thrust me back---into the red-room, and locked me up there, to my dying day, though I was in agony, though I cried out, while suffocating with distress, 'Have mercy! Have mercy, Aunt Reed!' And that punishment you made me suffer because your wicked boy struck me---knocked me down for nothing. I will tell anybody who asks me questions this exact tale. People think you a good woman, but you are bad, hard-hearted. You are deceitful!" - Lowood a charity school - poor conditions at the school, rationed food, little heat, threadbare clothes - head of school, Mr. Brocklehurst, has been warned by Sarah Reed that Jane is deceitful - Mr. Brocklehurst ridicules Jane and labels her a liar to the whole school - only Jane's friend, Helen Burns, and loving teacher, Miss Temple, defend her - Miss Temple writes to Mr. Lloyd, a school backer, who writes a letter to Mr. Brocklehurst in Jane's defense, saying that it's Sarah Reed who is the evil one, not Jane - Jane spends hours with Helen who teaches her not to hate those who abuse her, but to love God - Jane enjoys having afternoons treats and tea with the nurturing Miss Temple - Jane is devastated when her best friend, Helen, dies from consumption in her arms - Mr. Brocklehurst finally outed by school benefactors who see he has not been honest and not taken care of the pupils properly - new building built, conditions improve, Jane stays on as student and two more years as a teacher herself! - Jane puts out feelers to become a private governess - goes to work at Thornfield Hall teaching Adele, the young French ward of the master of the house, Edward Rochester, who is away - on an icy night, Jane goes for a walk - rider on horse advancing quickly doesn't see her and is thrown from his horse trying to avoid her - Jane helps him to the house - he is the master of the house, Edward Rochester! - though Jane is shy and reserved around Edward, she is also honest and speaks her mind when asked - Edward finds her refreshing and unafraid of him - Jane and Edward spend many hours together - I love how Jane expresses herself, in thoughts and in words! - Jane and Edward slowly but surely fall in love - "He made me love him without looking at me." - eerie things start happening in the manor - wicked, wild laughter - spontaneous fire - Rochester starts acting distant from Jane - Jane is confused and heartbroken - Jane's Aunt Sarah falls ill and calls for her to come and help her - Jane goes and stays for a month helping her aunt when her own children won't - Sarah Reed admits that she's had a letter from Jane's paternal uncle, Mr. John Eyre - he wanted Jane to come live with him - Mrs. Reed told him Jane was dead so Jane wouldn't have anything good in her life, certainly not family - Aunt Sarah dies - meanwhile, Edward Rochester has become engaged to another woman, someone in his own "class" - Jane returns to Thornfield - Edward admits that he loves Jane and calls off his wedding and proposes to Jane - Jane is elated and plans her wedding - a mysterious ghost-like woman sneaks into Jane's room and rips up her wedding veil - Edward insists it's a jealous servant - Edward rushes Jane to their wedding, but it does not go off without a hitch - a lawyer and a family friend, Mr. Mason, arrive to exclaim that Edward Rochester is already married to Mr. Mason's sister, Bertha - Edward admits that he married Bertha years ago, but was lied to about her mental condition - Bertha's father tricked Edward into marrying her for the money, and Bertha soon started descending into madness - she's been locked up for years in a wing of the manor - Rochester begs Jane to go away with him and live as man and wife anyway - Jane will not compromise her values no matter how much she loves Edward - she leaves in the middle of the night - distraught, Jane accidentally leaves her possessions on the stage coach, and wanders the moors in poverty - discovered on their doorstep at death's door by sisters Mary and Diana Rivers - their brother is the local preacher, St. John Rivers - Jane thinks of the Rivers sisters as her own sisters, but St. John is more distant - Jane mentions she is the niece of John Eyre - St. John gasps - he knows John Eyre, who has recently died, in fact, John Eyre is the uncle of St. John, Mary and Diana as well - John Eyre has left his entire rich estate to Jane - Jane says she will share the money equally with her new found cousins - St. John wants to marry Jane, and she nearly says yes, until she starts hearing Edward Rochester's voice in her head - she hurries to Thornfield Hall, which has been burned to the ground by crazy Bertha - Edward was blinded and left without one hand in the fire - Bertha has committed suicide - Rochester withdraws from Jane, thinking she'll find him repulsive - Jane assures him of her love - Edward proposes once again and Edward and Jane finally marry! - By the time they have son, Edward has recovered enough of his eyesight to see his son! 

Finished: One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (Solzhenitsyn). Compelling book based on Nobel Prize winner Solzhenitsyn's real time spent in a Russian prison camp. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich is just what it says...one day in the life of Ivan Denisovich Shukhov...a Russian prisoner in a Russian prison camp. Shukhov fought for the Russians in World War II. He was captured by the Germans as a prisoner of war, but escaped with four other men. By the time he made it back to the Russian front line, only Shukhov and one other man remained. (The other three were killed as they approached the Russian front line by their own army!) The Russians, suspicious that the two could have escaped so easily, decided that they must be spies for Germany! Shukhov was then sentenced to ten years in the Russian gulag, the Soviet labor camps of the Stalin era that were used for Russian political prisoners.

The story begins with the freezing cold morning that Shukhov is awakened in his bunk in the early morning hours by the harsh clanging of a pipe against the metal rail of the bunk house. We follow him through his harrowing day of jockeying for position to get his gruel at breakfast before being marched in the snow to his work assignment with his regiment. His clothes and shoes are worn and he must be clever to save scraps of food and do favors for other prisoners to earn extras like cigarettes or more substantial foods they receive from home. He has instructed his wife not to waste any food that she could feed their children, by sending it to him. All of the packages that get sent to the gulag are opened and sifted through, anyway. Prisoners receive maybe half of what is actually sent to them. So, Ivan Denisovich Shukhov relies on his good graces and willingness to wait in cold lines for other more "privileged" prisoners, etc., to get his extra "comforts". The work day is exhausting under armed guard the entire time, and dinner (lunch time) is a mere bowl of soup and slice of bread. The prisoners are returned to the camp in the dark where they again jostle for dinner rations and then go to their cold bunks to sleep, just to get up and do it all over again the  next day! They spend hours during every day standing in the freezing snow just being counted by the dull-witted guardsmen to make sure no one has tried to escape. At the time we meet Shukhov, he's been in the gulag for eight years. He makes it through the one day we see, and calls it a good day, because he is lucky enough to earn the soup and dinner of another prisoner who he does favors for. The ending passage of the book:

    A day without a dark cloud. Almost a happy day.
    There were three thousand six hundred and fifty-three days like that in his stretch. From the first clang of the rail to the last clang of the rail.
    Three thousand six hundred and fifty-three days.
    The three extra days were for leap years.

When I read that it made it hit all the more home that Solzhenitsyn was sentenced for eight years to a prison for anti-Soviet propaganda. He was only 27. It's hard to believe that so many of these stories I read are based on real and personal experiences!

Finished: Le Pere Goriot (de Balzac). Another really good de Balzac book! As I said when I blogged about The Firm of Nucingen, de Balzac started putting his books into different classes in La Comedie Humaine, his collection of all his works. Le Pere Goriot (or Father Goriot) was included among the "scenes from Paris" books. The main character of Le Pere Goriot is Eugene de Rastignac. He apparently appears in over twenty of de Balzac's novels, but in this one, he is the main character. When reading The Firm of Nucingen, where Eugene de Rastignac was only talked about and was not an actual character, we learned that he had been from a family of nobility who had become poor. He was determined to work his way into Parisian society, and had already earned quite a yearly income. The characters in The Firm of Nucingen weren't sure how he'd come into his money, and by the end of Le Pere Goriot, the first novel that Rastignac appears in, he is still very poor, so you're not sure how he's going to go and make his money.

So, I'm wondering if we become privy to that knowledge in one of the many other books he's in? Anyway....I was all ready to completely dislike Eugene de Rastignac, but in this book, he ends up being the only character that is even halfway likable. He shows his compassionate heart, and yes, still his ambition to rise in society...but not yet so much at the expense of others as I imagine he evolves into. At the beginning of the story, Rastignac is a poor law student living in a rooming house in a shabby part of Paris with several other borders. The rooms are barely livable, and the meals the bare minimum, but they are like a little poor family who all eat together most nights at dinner. Another boarder in the house is Old Goriot, as the other boarders call him. He's an older man who has aged beyond his years since he's come to live at the house. The owner of the boarding house explains that when he first arrived, he had nice clothes and plenty of money to spend on food and extras, and he rented out the two nicest, most expensive rooms in the first floor. By the time we meet him, he's barely got any money and has moved all the way up to the cheapest and worst of rooms on the third floor. What's more...most of the boarders tease him cruelly, especially because they occasionally see two very attractive young women sneaking into and out of his room at odd hours. They assume that he must somehow be having affairs with these young "wanton" women.

Meanwhile, Eugene de Rastignac is working away at his law studies, but he becomes of great interest to another boarder, Vautrin...a man near his forties with a quick wit, a quick eye, and many opinions. The reader soon finds out that Vautrin is an unscrupulous escaped convict who runs money operations for powerful prisoners who are still behind bars. He's a dangerous, wanted man...but he does have a keen interest in Rastignac. Vautrin wants Rastignac to woo and marry another boarder...a young woman, Victorine, who, though her father would leave her wealthy with 3 million francs, has been pushed aside in favor of her brother. Vautrin tells Eugene that he will arrange to have the brother fight in a duel and lose, clearing the way for Victorine to go home to her father to her rightful place as his next heir in line. How perfect it will be, convinces Vautrin, for Eugene to woo Victorine while she's poor and get her to fall in love with him, and then be "surprised" when it turns out she's rich. It will be Eugene's easy ticket to high society, and of course, Vautrin only wants a small fee for his help. Though it is actually true that Victorine has already fallen for Eugene and he could easily become betrothed to her, Eugene refuses Vautrin's offer in disgust. He would never approve of another man's senseless death just to propel himself further. He plans, in fact, to go to Victorine's brother and father to warn them, but Vautrin drugs his wine and Eugene passes out and sleeps until hours past the duel. Victorine's brother is killed in the duel, and her father does send for her from the boarding house. This is the last we see of Victorine, even though she and Eugene did flirt a bit. I'd love to find out if she's in another of de Balzac's books!

In the mean time....Eugene de Rastignac has gone to his only familial connection in Paris (his family is in the provincial south of France), Madame de Beauseant, his mother's very rich and highly respected cousin. She agrees to introduce him to a few people in society and takes him to the opera with her that very night. Though his clothes are worn and far from the best, from afar many heads turn towards Madame de Beauseant's box at the opera wondering who the handsome young man is. For Eugene, the night is magical. He instantly notices the young baroness, Delphine de Nucingen across the way and falls in love at first sight. He begs for an introduction and is invited to sit in her box with her and her husband, Nucingen. Yes, he's the Nucingen from The Firm of Nucingen! Nucingen is happy for his wife to have a diversion because he cares only for his money and making his business deals. As it turns out, Delphine is miserable in her marriage. Eugene whispers boldly in her ear and charms her. On arriving back home that night, he writes letters to his sisters and mother begging them to scrape together as much money as they can to send immediately. He tells them it will benefit them all as he's going to use the money to further himself in society. He spends the money on a better suit of clothing, and continues to be invited to balls, operas and other social events, where he becomes a companion of Delphine de Nucingen. He also calls upon her sister, Anastasie de Restaud, and her husband. However, when Eugene sees the old man from the boarding house, Old Goriot, sneaking out a side door of their mansion as he is going in, he asks them if they know the fellow Goriot. They are taken aback, cut the visit short, and tell the servants that they (Restaud and Anastasie) are to "never be at home" whenever Rastignac calls on them again. He has been shunned!

Eugene doesn't understand this behavior, so he talks to his cousin, Madame de Beauseant. She informs him that Delphine de Nucingen and Anastasie de Restaud are actually sisters and both are the daughters of Msr. Goriot! In fact, Msr. Goriot was extremely wealthy, and his daughters were raised in opulence. Upon the death of his wife, and as the girls became of marrying age, he endowed them each with seven or eight hundred thousand francs, and kept a smaller amount for himself. Once they were married off, though, their rather cruel husbands took command of their money, so it was never at their disposal for spending on things like new dresses, etc. So, Goriot, who would do anything at all for his daughters, moved into the boarding house and little by little, spent the rest of his fortune still on his daughters as they needed things here and there! Sadly, the poorer he became, the less acceptable it was for them to socialize with him!! He was no longer welcome at their homes for meals, etc., because their husbands found him to be an embarrassment. Therefore, the girls would sneak over to see their father at odd hours...but not really out of love. They would usually go when they wanted something. Finally, Goriot was near having no money when Eugene de Rastignac became aware that he was the father of his beloved Delphine, and her sister.

Eugene immediately goes to Goriot and tells him he knows Delphine when he finds out and it makes the old man beam with happiness. He wants to hear all about his daughter who he usually has to trudge to a street corner to catch a glimpse of as she whizzes by in her rich carriage. Eugene cannot believe how the daughters have treated their father, and he grows very close to Goriot. Goriot becomes like a second father to him. Eugene tries to talk himself into just plodding along with his law career and not worrying about society, but he's in too deep now. He wants to rise equal to or above the snobs who would shun him in a heartbeat. Also, he's hopelessly in love with Delphine. Delphine appears to love him as well, and for a period of a few weeks, secretly works with her father to furnish a flat in a nicer part of Paris where she intends for Eugene to move with her father. These are the happiest weeks of Goriot's life in years as he gets to spend so much time with Delphine, who appears to enjoy her time with her father. As it turns out, though, she didn't have access to her money, so the entire thing was funded, yet again, by Goriot. He has cashed in his last bit of annuity he has left (I think what he may have saved to use in the event of his death), and used it for the flat. On a side note...apparently it was just completely common and "done" for any and all high society husbands and wives to have a lover on the side.

As Eugene and Goriot prepare to move a few days later, Goriot becomes violently ill in the head, as it is described. He is bedridden and can't move anywhere at the moment. Eugene is frantic and goes to the homes of both Anastasie (who turns him away) and to Delphine. Delphine says something like, "oh certainly father can't be that sick. You simply must take me to Madame de Beauseant's ball tonight as you promised. It will be the first time I've ever been introduced into the elitist of society". Eugene relents, figuring that Goriot will be ok through the night. As he goes back to get ready, Goriot encourages him to take his daughter to the ball. All he wants is their happiness. He wants to hear all about it and them when Eugene returns. Of course, Goriot becomes worse and worse as the night goes on. After the ball, Goriot is literally on his deathbed. He finally sees that his daughters will not come to see him and he rants against them and their selfishness. He blames himself, though, for spoiling them all their lives. Eugene is aghast and tries, yet again, by going to their houses, to get them to come. He is turned away by servants of both daughters. Goriot dies and Eugene and his medical student friend scrape up the money for a pauper's burial. Eugene and a servant from the boarding house are the only two people at Goriot's funeral. For some reason, both of the daughters send empty carriages bearing their respective coats of arms to stand at the funeral. Is that some French thing I don't understand? Or did they want it to look to others like they attended? I don't know. At the end of the book, however, Eugene turns to the city of Paris and says (at least in my version of the book), "Henceforth, there is war between us". I guess he means to keep climbing up the ladder of society and defeat Paris and her social class system? It must be so because we know that he continues to be companions with Delphine de Nucingen for years to come, despite her selfishness. And, we know that he becomes very rich and very high in society!

Oh, and Vautrin is captured and taken away by police in the book. His speech to Eugene, which is several pages long, about how Eugene will or will not make it in Paris when Vautrin's trying to convince him to go into a "partnership" with him, but before he outlines the death of Victorine's brother, is such brilliant writing! I might copy a snippet of it below, but I'd be typing forever to include the whole thing!

So...here are a few passages I liked.

When the boarding house owner, Mme. Vauquer, is wondering why Goriot is suddenly eating dinner at the boarding house more and more as his money is dwindling, she is annoyed by this. She had enjoyed wondering where he went on his little dinner out excursions, and now she has the extra mouth to feed.

It was hardly to be expected that Mmr. Vauquer should regard the increased regularity of her boarder's habits with complacency, when those little excursions of his had been so much to her interest. She attributed the change not so much to a gradual diminution of fortune as to a spiteful wish to annoy his hostess. It is one of the most detestable habits of a Liliputian mind to credit other people with its own malignant pettiness.

After Madame Beauseant's "friend", Mme. de Langeais comes to inform Madame Beauseant that her lover will become betrothed to someone else that afternoon, Madame Beauseant thinks quietly for a minute and then says..

"The world is basely ungrateful and ill-natured," said the Vicomtesse at last. "No sooner does a trouble befall you than a friend is ready to bring the tidings and to probe your heart with the point of a dagger while calling on you to admire the handle."

I guess de Balzac is giving religion a pinch when he speaks of Goriot's funeral:
The two priests, the chorister, and the beadle came, and said and did as much as could be expected for seventy francs in an age when religion cannot afford to say prayers for nothing.

Love that. :-) Next...part of Vautin's speech to Rastignac about raising to heights in society:

Do you know how a man makes his way here? By brilliant genius or by skillful corruption. You must either cut your way through these masses of men like a cannon ball, or steal among them like a plague. Honesty is nothing to the purpose. Men bow before the power of genius; they hate it, and try to slander it, because genius does not divide the spoil; but if genius persists, they bow before it. To sum it all up in a phrase, if they fail to smother genius in the mud, they fall on their knees and worship it.....You have seen that poor simpleton Goriot obliged to meet a bill with his daughter's name at the back of it, though her husband has fifty thousand francs a year. I defy you to walk a couple of yards anywhere in Paris without stumbling on some infernal complication....They are all dodging the law, all at loggerheads with their husbands....But do you know what an honest man is here? Here, in Paris, an honest man is the man who keeps his own counsel, and will not divide the plunder. I am not speaking now of those poor bondslaves who do the work of the world without a reward for their toil---God Almighty's outcasts, I call them. Among them, I grant you, is virtue in all the flower of its stupidity, but poverty is no less their portion. At this moment, I think I see the long faces those good folk would pull if God played a practical joke on them and stayed away at the Last Judgement....Well, then, if you mean to make a fortune quickly, you must either be rich to begin with, or make people believe that you are rich....Such is life. It is no cleaner than a kitchen. It reeks like a kitchen; and if you mean to cook your dinner, you must expect to soil your hands; the real art is getting them clean again, and therein lies the whole morality of our epoch.

Etc., etc., etc., ...it goes on and on. :-) Oh my, as I said, I did enjoy this good book, but I can't blog it all down. I'm just trying to decide if I want to read more of de Balzac's La Comedie Humaine right now to further explore some of these characters, or come back to them later. :-)

Finished: The Firm of Nucingen (de Balzac). Interesting little book. :-) De Balzac's big tour de force was that he started grouping all his books together and called them all collectively...La Comedie Humaine. So, within any given de Balzac book you can come across the same characters. Sometimes they might just get a mention; other times they are peripheral characters; and then occasionally they are the main characters. When I read Eugenie Grandet, I really loved that book! In researching Honore de Balzac I saw that he had grouped most of his books into areas of his La Comedie Humaine according to things like the provincial life, or the Parisian life, etc. Eugenie Grandet was from "The Scenes of Provincial Life" group. Lost Illusions, his second book I read, and probably his most well known, was in a classification all its own. In Lost Illusions we got a brief glimpse of a character named Eugene de Rastignac.

Eugene de Rastignac is a nobleman who has grown up rather poor, but he is willing to do nearly anything to propel himself to the heights of society. As a matter of fact....because of de Balzac's character Eugene de Rastignac, it is a common term in French today to call a social climber a "Rastignac". Anyway...in Lost Illusions, when he crosses paths with that book's protagonist, Lucien Chardon, Rastignac has already made his way up the society ladder and he snubs Lucien's attempts to follow in his footsteps. So...I decided that the next two books of de Balzac's that I wanted to read were to be about Eugene de Rastignac. I bought Le Pere Goriot and The Firm of Nucingen. Le Pere Goriot will actually be my first introduction to the Rastignac character as an up and coming twenty-one year old. I read The Firm of Nucingen first because it sounded intriguing, and it was shorter. :-)

The Firm of Nucingen opens with two men having dinner in a French restaurant with just a mere flimsy divider between themselves and the next dining room. They talk in low voices so no one can hear them, but as far as they can tell, there is no one else in the other dining room...until...four robust young dandies come in to have dinner and boisterously gossip about France, people well-known in France...and finally their own friends! Intrigued, the two original guests decide to sit quietly and eavesdrop on the conversation. What ensues is the lively telling by Bixiou, the most outrageous character, of how Eugene de Rastignac came to have 400,000 francs to live off of and how it involved the nefarious Baron de Nucingen, who is married to Delphine de Nucingen, the daughter of the father character in Le Pere Goriot, who Rastignac has fallen for. Nucingen encourages Rastignac's platonic relationship with his wife, as it gives him more time to do his wheelings and dealings. The book is full of talk about stock, finances, interest, and money manipulation that ruins many acquaintances of Nucingen's...but not Rastignac. He's in on the inside knowledge and ends up making his money at the expense of other people losing theirs.

The book is a short, funny at times, quick-paced conversation between the four young men which tells the history of quite a few characters...all done up in male gossip! I always knew guys really did talk about people just like girls, hee hee. Anyway...even though this book took place chronologically after Le Pere Goriot, I'm now going to dive into that book and see how Eugene and Delphine first meet up. :-) Below is a snippet of Bixiou talking about a Baroness who is the mother of two eligible young society ladies that Rastignac knows:

"An only daughter and an heiress, spoilt by her father and mother, spoilt by her husband and the city of Strasbourg, spoilt still by two daughters who worshiped their mother, the Baroness d'Aldrigger indulged a taste for rose color, short petticoats, and a knot of ribbon at the point of the tightly-fitting corselet bodice. Any Parisian meeting the Baroness on the boulevard would smile and condemn her outright; he does not admit any plea of extenuating circumstances, like a modern jury on a case of fratricide. A scoffer is always superficial, and in consequence cruel; the rascal never thinks of throwing the proper share of ridicule on society that made the individual what he is; for Nature only makes dull animals of us, we owe the fool to artificial conditions."

Finished: The Doctor's Dilemma (Shaw). An intriguing Shaw play! In the day and age when tuberculosis, or consumption as it was then called, was a death sentence, a doctor has discovered a cure. He's only got enough equipment and time to save ten people. He has already gruelingly picked out his ten patients, narrowed down from so many other worthy candidates. He tried to pick people who he felt were worthy and would make a difference in society if they lived. However, in the process, it broke his heart to turn down so many good people who had good lives, spouses and children and parents.

The play opens with Dr. Ridgeon, the doctor with the cure, having been knighted the evening before as Sir Colenso Ridgeon for his work in the field. As his doctor friends stop by to congratulate him, he discovers that one of his comrades, Dr. Bonington, or B.B. as he is known to his friends, had actually stopped by Ridgeon's lab, taken a vial of his "cure" medicine, and used it on the ailing young royal, Prince Henry. And...the cure worked and the boy was well! B.B. explains to Ridgeon that this is probably why he was knighted. Dr. Ridgeon tries to explain to B.B. that what he did was very dangerous and you can't just give the cure to a person at any time. There is a set level that a certain component of their blood needs to be at or else the medicine can be fatal. He tells B.B. that he was extremely lucky in curing the prince!

Meanwhile, a persistent young woman, Jennifer Dubedat, insists on talking to Dr. Ridgeon. She is charming and beautiful and begs Dr. Ridgeon to save her husband who is ill with consumption. Her husband is a brilliant young artist and she says the world would sorely miss him. Dr. Ridgeon tell hers he is sorry, but he has his ten patients and cannot add another patient...to do so would mean to actually kick someone else out of the cure group. She begs Dr. Ridgeon to at least meet her husband, so he agrees and invites her and and her husband to join him and his doctor friends at dinner the next night. Mrs.  Dubedat and her husband, Louis show up to dinner and completely charm all the doctors. Louis is indeed very talented, and appears to be a good, genuine human being. Dr. Ridgeon promises Mrs. Debudat that he will indeed cure her husband by squeezing in an eleventh patient. He could hardly refuse since he's fallen in love with her! After the young couple leaves the dinner, however, all of the doctors compare notes and find out that at different times during the evening, Louis has asked each of them for loans for various small amounts using the same reason on each. To top that off...the restaurant maid comes over to the table begging for the address of the young gentleman who just left....he is her husband! And, she has the papers to prove it. The doctors realize that despite his amazing talent, they are dealing with a very unscrupulous young scoundrel. To top the evening off...one of Dr. Ridgeon's colleagues, Dr. Blenkinsop, admits to the group that he's got a touch of the tuberculosis on one lung. He thinks he'll be fine and doesn't at all ask his friend for the cure. He makes his goodbyes and heads home. He's the only one of the doctors who has not had a successful career. He's been relegated to helping working class folks, and he's not very good at that. In other words...he's not considered to be a very good benefit to society. All the other doctors then get into a debate about whether that last spot should go to a good man who doesn't do much for society...or should it still go do the talented artist who is such a jerk.

The doctors converge on the studio of the Dubedat's the next day and confront Louis while Jennifer is in another room. He shows no remorse for his unkempt morals, and even continues to ask for money, knowing very well he won't pay it back. He also admits that he married the restaurant maid, and that it was while he was already married to Jennifer! He says that he found out that the maid was already married, but hadn't seen her husband in three years so she thought that meant they were officially divorced. Knowing that the marriage ceremony would really be invalid, he went through with it to have a fun few days spending all the maid's money. When the money was gone, they both agreed things were over and he went back home to his unsuspecting wife. The doctors are all appalled that he so blatantly flaunts his unsavory character. He argues with them that his talent speaks for itself and he doesn't need to be a good person to deserve to live and share his talent with the world. When Jennifer comes back into the room, Dr. Ridgeon tells her that he cannot take Louis on as a patient, but that B.B. is going to take him on. Jennifer is very disappointed as she really wanted Dr. Ridgeon to be his doctor. She just knows that his cure will work! He tells her that he's sorry, but that he must include his friend the Dr. Blenkinsop in his cure group instead of her husband. He basically knowingly hands Louis over to B.B. hoping that this time he will not be so lucky and Louis will die from the attempted cure! The doctors had all decided before Jennifer came back into the room that they could never tell her the awful things that her husband had done. So, Ridgeon has decided that if Louis dies as a result of B.B.'s incorrect use of the cure, that Mrs. Dubedat will never know of her husband's deceit...and...she'll be free to perhaps love and marry him!

As expected, B.B. uses the vial of medicine incorrectly and Louis dies. On his deathbed, though, he begs Jennifer to not mourn him, but to still put up his one man show and make sure he lives in the eyes of the world through his art. He insists that she be happy and remarry at some point. After Louis dies, Jennifer shakes the hands of all the doctors but Dr. Ridgeon's. She cannot forgive him for not curing her husband. She has no idea that he practically did it on purpose. A few months later Mrs. Dubedat is overseeing the one man art show of her late husband's that is about to open. Dr. Ridgeon comes in to view the work and they run into each other. He admits to her that he hoped Louis would die in the hands of B.B. and that he'd hoped she would want to marry him. She is obviously upset and informs him that she has already remarried. He's shocked at that news...the end.

As usual....the play moves at a fast pace with very intriguing dialogue! I'm glad I read another one of Shaw's greats. I think I might reread one of my favorites now, Heartbreak House...and then move on from George Bernard Shaw for awhile. :-)

Finished: Pygmalion (Shaw) Ahhh, I finally read the play that the movie My Fair Lady was based on. :-) It was a good play, and fast paced and witty and busy, just like the other Shaw plays I've read! I really enjoyed it, but of course, couldn't help but picturing the characters from the movie AND somehow humming various songs from the movie as I read. Henry Higgins was as intolerable as ever, Pickering as lovable, Mrs. Higgins as respectable and on spot, and Eliza as saucy as ever. The ending, though, is famously not at all what is implied at the end of the movie. In the play, Eliza actually stands up to Higgins and tells him to buy his own gloves and leaves with his mother, not to return to Higgins, but to eventually marry Freddy, as GBS explains in his "afterward" of the play. Shaw never had any intention of Higgins and Eliza ending up together and thought it went against the very nature of the independent woman she had become for her to continue to live under Henry's thumb with him treating her the way he always had. I say hooray to that! I never did find his character appealing at all, and it always bothered me that Eliza looked like she was going to stay with him because she'd fallen in love. Anyway....such a delight to read the play. :-) I loved this passage where Eliza spelled it out the difference in Colonel Pickering and Henry Higgins:

Pickering: You mustn't mind that. Higgins takes off his boots all over the place.
Liza: I know. I am not blaming him. It is his way, isn't it? But it made such a difference to me that you didn't do it. You see, really and truly, apart from the things anyone can pick up (the dressing and the proper way of speaking, and so on), the difference between a lady and flower girl is not how she behaves, but how she's treated. I shall always be a flower girl to Professor Higgins, because he always treats me as a flower girl, and always will; but I know I can be a lady to you, because you always treat me as a lady, and always will.

Love that, and love the play! :-)

Finished: Major Barbara (Shaw). Another good George Bernard Shaw play! :-) I'm sure his plays are supposed to give a much deeper meaning than I take from them, but I just enjoy his quick, witty writing. I can so clearly visualize each of his characters as they rattle off their dialogue just like any other human beings talk to each other, talking over each other sometimes, interrupting, arguing, flirting, making passionate points, etc. In Major Barbara, Lady Britomart Undershaft and her ex-husband, Andrew Undershaft, have been apart since their three children were very small. Andrew Undershaft is a very wealthy owner of a munitions plant that supplies cannons, guns, and other war necessities to anyone who needs them, i.e., he doesn't care which side of a war he supplies as long as he's making money. To him, money and power are the answer to happiness, as the thought of poverty is detestable. In addition, Andrew was a foundling...an abandoned child. The tradition at the munitions company is that as each CEO comes to the age of stepping down, he appoints a new CEO but that person must have been a foundling. In other words....no CEO of the company can ever appoint one of his own children as his successor. It was this notion that caused Lady Britomart to divorce Andrew many years before...the notion that none of her children would inherit the company from their father. So, instead, she and the children have lived all these years on the money that Andrew paid out to them in settlement.

Flash forward to young adulthood for the children. Lady Britomart has now decided that it is imperative that Andrew Undershaft come and meet his grown children. Not because she wants them to get to know each other, but because the girls are both betrothed and her son, Stephen, is now 24 and ready to become a "man" helping the family. Lady Britomart doesn't have enough money to send her daughters off on their betrothals, as was done in those days...so she wants her ex-husband to come and meet his grown children and agree to supply each of the girls with a yearly income when they're married. She also wants him to explain to Stephen exactly how he can pass up his own son as the successor at his company. Stephen, however, upon hearing the whole story and realizing that his father's company has supplied military arms to the highest bidders all these years, wants nothing to do with his father or his company. Stephen and his mother, and his sisters, Sarah and Barbara, gather in their home to meet with their estranged father. Sarah is there with her intended, Charles Lomax, who she calls Cholly. And, Barbara is there with her intended, Adolphus Cusins, who she calls Dolly. The girls have grown up decently, and have seemingly found good husbands-to-be. Cholly is a bit of an airhead, but his intentions are good. Dolly is a Greek professor, but became smitten with Barbara when he saw her working at the Salvation Army, so he joined in with the ideals and working with the group so he could be near her. Barbara, known as Major Barbara, is dedicated to her job and devoted to bringing the poor people of the town to Christianity. She is patient and loving with even the meanest of brutes and manages to convert people over to God with her genuine ways.

When Andrew Undershaft arrives at his family gathering, he receives various shades of welcome. Major Barbara is completely aghast that his religion is not Christianity, or the Church of England, or anything but "making money". She makes him a deal that if he'll come down to the Salvation Army to see how things work there and how turning to God has helped so many people, that she'll, in turn, come and visit his munitions plant. Andrew does go and visit the Salvation Army and even offers to make a substantial donation, but Barbara refuses. She can't reconcile taking money made off the blood of warring human beings to support an organization that promotes God's peace and worship. Barbara's superior comes out at that moment and announces that they have received a donation of $5000 from another wealthy citizen on the condition that other wealthy town citizens contribute another $5000 to make the total $10,000. The only problem is....the wealthy town citizen is the local supplier of alcohol and owner of all the bars. Major Barbara again has a fit and declares they should not accept money from the local booze supplier when so many of the poverty stricken people they are trying to help come to them with alcohol problems. Her superior, however, overrules her and says that no matter where the money comes from, they can put it to good use. And besides...isn't it better to have $5000 in God's hands rather than the devil's hands if it stays in the hands of the wealthy alcohol supplier. Hearing all this....Andrew Undershaft insists that he make up the other $5000 and makes out his check then and there. Major Barbara, in disgust, removes her uniform and leaves the Salvation Army.

Later back at home, Barbara is disgusted by her father's actions, and surprised that slowly but surely everyone in the family, including the two brothers-in-law to be are starting to take a shine to her father. She stays true to her promise and the entire family visits the munitions plant the next day. They see that it's more than a plant, but an actual town where all the workers have homes and stores and services and doctors. They see a thriving community all made possible by the munitions company. Stephen become proud of his father, but realizes he still can't (and doesn't want to) run the company, however his father will help him figure out what he wants to do with his life. Adolphus steps forward and admits that he was a foundling (he actually stretches the truth a bit, but none of them care because they all want to keep the company and the town in the family, even Andrew.) So...it is decided that Dolly will become the successor to Andrew, and since he'll be marrying Barbara, the company will stay in the family. Barbara has an epiphany while she's there and realizes that just as many of these folks need to be brought to God as the poverty-stricken folks, so she sees a huge mission ahead for herself in this town.

Everything  basically ends happily, but there's so much more to the play than what I can write down...so many little offshoots and bits of dialogue not to be missed. Here are just a couple of the lines I liked.

Major Barbara and her father give each other directions to their respective work places for their planned visits:

Undershaft: Where is your shelter?
Barbara: In West Ham. At the sign of the cross. Ask anybody in Canning Town. Where are your works?
Undershaft: In Perivale St. Andrews. At the sign of the sword. Ask anybody in Europe.

hee hee, that just made me chuckle. Next, when Barbara is introducing her father to some of the people at the Salvation Army:

Barbara: Sorry, I'm sure. By the way, papa, what is your religion---in case I have to introduce you again?
Undershaft: My religion? Well, my dear, I am a Millionaire. That is my religion. 
Barbara: Then I'm afraid you and Mr. Shirley wont be able to comfort one another after all. You're not a Millionaire, are you, Peter?
Peter Shirley: No; and proud of it.
Undershaft: [gravely] Poverty, my friend, is not a thing to be proud of.
Peter Shirley: [angrily] Who made your millions for you? Me and my like. What's kep us poor? Keepin you rich. I wouldn't have your conscience, not for all your income.
Undershaft: I wouldn't have your income, not for all your conscience, Mr. Shirley.

Anyway....this is the third GB Shaw play I've read and I've really enjoyed them all. I would love to see one of the on the stage! For reading...I think I might go for Pygmalion next! :-)

Finished: The Way of All Flesh (Butler). A book I wanted to like more than I did. There are a handful of these books that are on my list that I've been so anxious to read...books that I've heard alot about and hope that I'll instantly be mesmerized by. The Way of All Flesh was one of those books, but I can honestly say that I just wasn't blown away. It is high on a few "Greatest Books" lists, but it just didn't resonate so highly with me. Set in the early 1800's of England, it's about four generations of a family, mostly focusing on the last two generations. The only decent parents seem to be in the first generation. After that....the parents turn into physically and emotionally abusive bullies that were perhaps prevalent in the Victorian society of England where it was the birthed child's duty to become something which would reflect well upon his or her parents? And not just well, but untarnishedly so. In The Way of All Flesh, Theobald Pontifex, the grandson of the original patriarch had been beaten into submission by his own father and made to go into the clergy. In turn, he did the same to his first son, Ernest, expecting him to follow in his footsteps, but degrading him, hindering his progress, and shattering his self-confidence all along the way. His wife, Christina, lived to serve her husband before her children, and therefore did nothing to stop the severe punishments Ernest would receive at the hands of his father if he didn't get his lessons quite right. The narrator of the book takes the form of the godfather of Ernest, and is one of his few friends and protectors as he goes through his teen years and young adulthood. And, Theobold's youngest sister, Alethea, is one of Ernest's few other protectors. She ends up leaving him a hefty estate to be held in trust by his godfather until Ernest reaches the age of 28. She wants to be sure he goes through sufficient knocks in life and comes into his own as a person, knowing what he wants to do with his life before handing over all that money. And, boy does Ernest go through some harsh knocks. It's hard to read at times, but in the end, he does finally beat the odds and knows what kind of a person he is, and that being inherently good is better than being a clergyman who just preaches the Christian teachings, but doesn't have the goodness in his heart. Throughout the book, the author goes on several rails both for and against religion to the point that I'm not sure what exactly his opinion is. However, he uses the clergy professions of his characters to interject sermons and pontifications along the way that are a bit too far off the path of the story for me. I had such high hopes, too, when right under the title and author on the title page of the book was my favorite bible verse, Romans 8:28 "We know that all things work together for good to them that love God." When I read that, I thought it was a positive indication that I was really going to love this book, but it was not meant to be. I can, and will, however, add Theobold and Christina Pontifex to my list of least favorite literary characters! I would venture a guess that many of the characters on that list are unloving, cruel parents. I just can't tolerate that or understand it at all.