Where He Should Have Risked It

Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Yes. It *is* that good. For real. 5 stars.

I first read this back in 10th grade. Mr. Vanciu (he was awesome) made us do book reports in world history class, and this was one of my choices. Even then, reading it on my own, going into it without a great deal of interest, I liked it. Almost fifty years further on, after enjoying a few different adaptations, I've finally come back to the original (in translation still, obviously), and found it entertaining and engrossing and thought-provoking and touching (and infuriating!) all at once. I'm a big fan of happy endings, but once in a while a really good story can have a sad ending (kinda sad; mostly sad) that still works for my brain and my psyche, and this is one of them.

The language is great. The plot is classic. And the love story is beautifully tragic. (You idiot! Take a risk! Speak to her!) But that's Cyrano. He's brilliant and brave and utterly, immovably stubborn. He loves the beautiful woman, but his appearance prevents him from taking a chance with Roxane. Instead, he puts all of his love and all of his poetry in letters that he sends under Christian's name. He's already handsome; with Cyrano's fine words, his compliments and deep thoughts, Roxane falls completely in love with the young soldier. But it was really the words that won her, not Christian's handsomeness. She has loved the man behind the letters the whole time without knowing it was Cyrano she loved; Cyrano didn't believe Roxane could truly love him until it was too late to matter.

Damn.

Anyway, the updated adaptations are fun, but this doesn't really need any updating. It's perfectly comprehensible as is, and the story does everything it needs to do for a modern audience to totally get it, IMO. Even just reading it, the play works. (I wonder if there's a novelization?) Yes, again, it's that good.

Highly recommended.

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Where Rome Seems Terrifyingly Real

Quo Vadis by Henryk Sienkiewicz
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I expected this to be good, since I'd read a historical novel by the author before and liked it (set in 17th century Poland), and this was his most popular book by far. The people are right--this is very good.

I'll explain.

More than anything, Sienkiewicz has done an amazing job with world-building. I've read many books of many genres set in Rome, and they always gave me a claustrophobic feeling; either it's all palaces and parties or it's all poor people in the tenements. Usually there's little sense of scale, little color, little true complexity. But this has all of that. This Rome is full and complete, with all levels of society, with temples and streets and slaves and tribunes, with Greeks and Jews and Germans and Poles and Egyptians, with people at work and people at play. I now understand (intellectually) what it's like to be a slave there, what it's like to be a freedman, and what it's like to be a member of court. It is a believable world, richly imagined, and a terrifying place to live, and I can't say whether he got it right or not, but it sure gives me a lot to work with.

It tells the story of a rich young tribune who has encountered and fallen in love with a northern woman, Lygia, living in Rome as a hostage. Vinicius is no better or worse than other men of his rank, which means he's horrible, willing to punish slaves for nothing, kill men for very little, and use every ounce of his power and authority to steal a woman from her protectors to take advantage of her--all without reservations, without any trouble to his conscience. Through the course of the novel, he falls in love with her for real, gradually growing a conscience and converting to Christianity, all while trying to rescue her from Nero and the persecution and destruction of Rome's Christians.

(The least interesting aspect of the novel, and it's a significant fraction, is the religious stuff. Peter and Paul are here as minor characters, though actually pretty good characters, and there's quite a bit of elevating Christianity as a breakthrough religion, all of it clearly written for a Christian audience. Fortunately, IMO, the novel is still largely secular, telling a love story in the midst of a historical novel, and though I think most Christians over the last 100 years would feel pretty good about reading it, I think those of different persuasions as well as post-religious people will find a very interesting novel under the churchy veneer. Much of it reads like modern fantasy. I mean, there's sex and violence in here that would make Game of Thrones look mild, just f'rinstance.)

Vinicius is a great character, with a long arc that feels earned, going from being a cruel narcissist to a caring, empathetic human. It takes the whole book, and it doesn't feel forced. His uncle Petronius, who is his main ally throughout, is brilliant and fearless and so clever, constantly hatching plans to help Vinicius, constantly handling Nero at court, fending off adversaries. Some of the minor characters are really cool, like the Greek Chilo, who is a devious sort-of-philosopher they hire to track down Lygia among the Christians. He's clever and scheming but he also succeeds with every job he's given. Nero is the main villain of the novel, but Chilo becomes a secondary villain, betraying the Christians, who he has to watch die by the hundreds. He has a cool arc, too, leading [spoiler--but this is 100 years old, so....] to a change of heart and his martyrdom in the end.

Two events dominate the second half of the book. The first is the great fire, which I never understood until now. The action there, with Vinicius trying to help Lygia escape from it, is brilliant and goes on for chapters. It's a great action sequence. The second event, or group of events, is the persecution of the Christians, who they are blaming the fire on. This takes up the last quarter of the novel at least, and it's so much more complete than any other depiction I've ever seen. The author imagines these events so fully, with so much detail, with so much action and drama, that I have to tip my hat. It's impressive. It's also horrible at the same time as being absolutely compelling.

So, despite the overt religious themes of the novel, which I don't care for, this is a 5-star book. Some of the history might be wrong, but as a work of fiction, it doesn't make a wrong move. Highly recommended.

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Where I Fall in Love With Something Beautiful and Moving

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a beautiful novel. Highly recommended.

It is not my usual type of read. My daughter finished it and loaned it to me. I'm glad I accepted her recommendation.

The language is wonderful, poetic, inspired, and is often used to illuminate the setting, the unspoiled marshes of North Carolina's outer banks: "And just at that second, the wind picked up, and thousands upon thousands of yellow sycamore leaves broke from their life support and streamed across the sky. Autumn leaves don't fall; they fly. They take their time and wander on this, their only chance to soar. Reflecting sunlight, they swirled and sailed and fluttered on the wind drafts."

Even when the image is common, the language is special: "A full bank of windows, framed by hurricane shutters, covered the front of the Barkley Cove Diner, which overlooked the harbor. Only the narrow street stood between the building, constructed in 1889, and the soggy steps of the village pier. Discarded shrimp baskets and wadded-up fishing nets lined the wall under the windows, and her and there, mollusk shells littered the sidewalk. Everywhere: seabird cries, seabird dung. The aroma of sausage and biscuits, boiled turnip greens, and fried chicken thankfully overtook the high smell of fish barrels lining the dock."

The book is filled with Kya's appreciation for the natural world that surrounded her, and her wonder is revealed in beautiful prose.

But... the story is excellent. It is a love story and a mystery tale and a survival story, entertaining and surprising and engaging, that happens to be told in a lyrical way. Unlike so many novels with fine language, this story isn't precious, and it isn't plodding; it doesn't dwell on descriptions or tortured metaphors. It's a novel that tells a good story. In truth, it would make a fine movie. (IMO. I mean that as a compliment.)

A quick note on characters: First of all, Kya is great, an empathetic MC, and almost every moment is from her POV. She carries the weight well. But there are some other well-drawn characters: her mother and father, her favorite brother, Tate and Chase and some of the people in town. My favorite by far is Jumpin', who runs a sort of run-down marina in town. He's one of her few friends, and (slight spoiler) one of the few who is truly loyal from beginning to end. I enjoyed his part of the story.

This book is a pleasure to read. I seldom find that an exciting plot and superior language end up in the same novel, but they do here, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

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Time is. Time was. Time is past.

Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay by Robert Greene
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

If only from brief references to it, as in Shakespeare in Love ("Is this the face that launched a thousand ships...") or in Tombstone (with Dana Delaney playing the devil in the theater scene), most of us know something about Dr. Faustus by Christopher Marlowe. (The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus, in full.) And it's interesting in its own way. However, Friar Bacon, which is similar to it in many ways, is a more substantial and more satisfying play, even if it's by an author I have never heard of before.

Both plays can be understood to have been exciting special-effects plays for Elizabethan audiences, an excuse to show them something amazing on stage--characters performing magic, traveling through time and space, speaking with famous people, and so on. Seeing such marvels would be the main draw for the audience, and both supply plenty of it. But Friar Bacon, as I was promised, is a better play, boasting a more sophisticated plot, more interesting characters, and a more modern approach to conflict.

Dr. Faustus is an odd story, without a traditional plot structure; the story peters out in the end with a conclusion that was ordained from the beginning, like a train taking you from one station to the other, exactly as you expected from the start. Friar Bacon offers more than that, with numerous characters having their own conflicts which they try to resolve in ways more familiar to modern readers.

In short: the prince wants to attract a certain young woman, a commoner, and sends one of his men to woo her for him. (She also is being fought over by a couple of local squires.) Inevitably, his man falls in love and wants the young woman for himself. This plot includes disguises and sword fights and jealousy and revenge, already putting us in Shakespeare territory. But it also has a subplot, with Friar Bacon, a sorcerer, trying to complete some very difficult magic which will protect England from invasion. His subplot also includes marvels and magic, including a contest where he defeats foreign sorcerers. It almost seems that the two plots couldn't be connected in any way, but they come together in a way that I thought worked well. Also, the sorcerer's apprentice offers some pretty good comic relief, especially riding off to hell in the end. Well done.

More so than the Marlowe play (which I rather liked, actually) this story is interesting and satisfying enough that I'd like to see it performed someday. And I wonder why I never read it in school anywhere. Hmm.

A friend at Elizabethandrama.org recommended I take a look at this, and I am pleased I did. I was also informed it had the coolest stage prop ever, and I find I agree. A talking brazen head? Seriously? How awesome is that!

This is not a difficult read, especially if you get an annotated version like I did. Entertaining and recommended.

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