Thucydides
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- Dec 24, 2009
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Books: Book(s) you are Currently Reading | Part 3
- Thread starter GKJ
- Start date
Spring in Fialta
A malign star kept him
Chili
Time passes when you're not looking
- Jun 10, 2004
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I'm reading a biography of William Wyler (director of films like The Best Years of Our Lives, Roman Holiday, Ben Hur...) by Axel Madsen. Wyler made some films for the US military during the war including a documentary on the Memphis Belle. After DDay and the liberation of Paris he went there in hopes of gettiing to visit his native village, a bordertown. When he asked for a driver he was assigned Hemingway...Leicester, Ernest's younger brother. Leicester wrote a couple of books himself, including one on his experiences in the war and a biography of his brother.
Quick one before I get some books for Christmas
Thucydides
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- Dec 24, 2009
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Started this after not being in the right headspace to get into “the guns of august”.
30% in and probably the most important book I’ll read all year - and yes, I know we are 2 days into 2022, haha.
alko
Registered User
A little bid disappointed with this. Too much focus to war-games between children. And the adults departure was taken very briefly and very easy.
tarheelhockey
Offside Review Specialist
Quick one before I get some books for Christmas
A good companion read to this is Orwell's "Down and Out in Paris and London".
What stuck with me from "A Moveable Feast" is the way Hemingway buries the Fitzgeralds. There's almost an element of cruelty to it. Or at least, a very calculated contempt.
Yeah it's almost a complete character assassination of the Fitzgeralds. Neither Scott or Zelda come out looking good at all
An old one I'm reading.. a day in the life of the Ice Age' La Brea tar pits.. told from the perspective of a raccoon. Probably middle school reading level, but I used to work within walking distance of the tar pits, and have always been fascinated with 'em.
Photos of modern Israel, contrasted with photos from the past. Brief commentary from historic travels to Israel (ie- Mark Twain), and the author adds his own thoughts, & Biblical quotes commenting on the ancient sites. Basically a coffee table photo book.
Richard
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- Feb 8, 2012
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There is a passage in that book that is so beautiful that it won her the pulitzer prize
"It died on a field in Lorraine where at the end of the day, nothing was visible but corpses strewn in rows and sprawled in the awkward attitudes of sudden death. " "It was one of those lessons, a survivor realized afterward, 'by which God teaches the law to kings. ' "The power of the defense that was to transform the initial war of movement into a four-year war of position and eat up a generation of European lives" had begun. For four more years of relentless, merciless, useless killing the belligerents beat their heads against the opposing armies. "With the French retreat to defensive positions, it was recognized that the chances of the war being brought to a speedy conclusion were gone. " The Guns of August, p. 257
End of Line
Sic Semper Tyrannis
- Mar 20, 2009
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Thucydides
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- Dec 24, 2009
- 8,165
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Thucydides
Registered User
- Dec 24, 2009
- 8,165
- 851
Thucydides
Registered User
- Dec 24, 2009
- 8,165
- 851
This looks good.. gonna see if my public library has it..
Thucydides
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- Dec 24, 2009
- 8,165
- 851
Spring in Fialta
A malign star kept him
Spring in Fialta
A malign star kept him
It's genuinely one of the meanest things put to paper because of how intentional he was with it. Hemingway knew how widely it would be read - at least before he shot himself. To put it into easy terms, in terms of cultural relevance, it's essentially the equivalence of Jay-Z sitting down and ripping Kanye West and Kim Kardashian apart in public. Like, yeah, there's a lot to criticize and they're probably annoying, but they're not that harmful and didn't do anything to you. It's just one of those things where you wonder if Hemingway's relationship and activism through various political events made him completely resent Fitzgerald's ability being geared towards literary stories for the posh crowd and perceive him as a bit of a putz. I'm not a big Fitzgerald fan at all, but he didn't seem like a crook/a hack, but Hemingway calling him a lapdog for the rich seems both really, really mean but also pretty damn true.
Despite the negative rewiew, this is a nice read: With Hemingway as Friend, Who Needed Enemies?.
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tarheelhockey
Offside Review Specialist
Well… that, and also passing along to the entire world that Fitzgerald was devastated by Zelda’s comment that his penis was too small to satisfy a woman.
Gotta have a lot of hate in your heart to do that to a guy who trusted you with such a thing.
Spring in Fialta
A malign star kept him
Imagine being so ruthless that you tell a guy who says he's got a small-dick problem to look at Greek statues and feel better. I genuinely don't even know if he was trolling. But then again, a major part of me has always felt that there was nothing romantic about how Fitzgerald courted/lived with Zelda Fitzgerald and that he was a total mark the whole way through.
tarheelhockey
Offside Review Specialist
I had to read that passage twice to confirm he was saying what I thought he was saying. A literary double-take.
tarheelhockey
Offside Review Specialist
Spring in Fialta
A malign star kept him
The genius of this novel is undeniable, but I couldn’t wait to be finished with it. Everything about it seemed excessive. It’s The Great Gatsby rewritten in the style of Fear and Loathing, and bloated to 600 pages.
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