Windcatcher

Windcatcher by Avi

A boy is off in Long Island Sound. There are rumours of a shipwreck with possible treasure. He is sailing around with relatives. He also runs into some other treasure hunters. He loses his boat and decides he will swim from island to island to make it back. However, he also loses his compass and map. He starts swimming and makes it almost to the first island when he loses his shoe. In diving into the water to find it, he also sees something which he initially thought were animal bones, but may be what he was hunting for. He makes his way to the island, but does not know where he is. He does find the boat, and decides to sail away in the dark. He has no idea where he is, but does find his way to the treasure hunters. It ends shortly after. It feels like an interesting half-story.

Zorba the Greek

Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis translated by Carl Wildman?

The book is narrated by George Guidall who is one of my least favorite narrators. Part of the problem is that many of the books he has narrator are on the "boring" side and his voice is associated with the boredom. Just hearing his voice makes the book go down a notch.

As for the book, it feels very Greek. Zorba comes across as an outgoing boisterous Greek man. Things happen. They do crazy stuff. There is talk of women as a sort of idolized object. This book was referenced in another book from the middle east. Maybe that is not the best reason to pick a book.

The Left Hand of Darkness

A bad audiobook narrator can destroy what would otherwise be a good book. I can't pinpoint it exactly, but I have great difficulty with anything narrated by George Guidall. As for the book, it explores a person that is trying to convince a planet to join his group of civilizations. The people don't really see the point. They also live in a world where most everyone frequently changes gender. They view those that stick to the same gender as deviants. 

Collected Fictions

I really wanted to like this collection of short works by Borges, but I just could not get in to it. Maybe I should try to read in Spanish rather than listen to the English audiobook. Every now and then I would perk up and catch something of interest, but for the most part it just flowed in one ear and out the other. 

Night

As World War 2 was breaking out, people didn't regard the warnings that were given of bad things to come. They thought the Germans would continue to let them live in peace. Even when Jews were moved to Ghettos, there was still general contentedness with Jew self governance. However, that soon changed when they were hauled off to concentration camps. Survival often depended on lucky decisions. One had to be healthy enough to work, but not too healthy to have to put one's family in the furnace. The author jumped out of the infirmary when their camp was soon to be captured by the enemy, thinking all the sick would be killed. However, in that case, the sick were set free. (One can never know what will happen.) Sometimes small "bribes" given to a bully end up being for naught as the bully is soon chased away.
The book has a feel somewhat like Schindler's list. The concentration camps were part of the "coming of age" of a youth. It was the horror he lived through. He feels some regret about the poor decisions he made, as well as guilt about being a survivor when others did not. He was deeply involved in religious training before. He desires that we acknowledge the history to prevent it from happening again. It didn't seem possible when it happened. We should be careful to spot the signs before they happen again.

Collected Fictions

I like Borges' style. I expected something much more pretentious, but I was pleasantly surprised. Borges has a playful knack for blending fiction with "nonfiction". The characters in a story may talk with an author. He may also provide a backstory for events in fictional works or even describe how something really happened. Characters may suddenly have something "magical" happen in a realistic story. This seems to be at the roots of magical realism, yet it is also reminded me of Kafka. In this collection we get the famous "Library of Babel" as well as many other "stories". There are a few that fall flat, but even those have their redeeming points.

Don Quixote

Quick! How many Spanish novels can you name that are more than 100 years old? Yeah, I didn't get much past Don Quixote either. There is a reason it has survived and has been named one of the best books of all time. It is really good.

The modern version was actually written as two books. The first book contains the classic Don Quixote stories. He fights windmills and thinks he is a noble night and all that fun stuff. In the second book, most everybody has read the first book and is enthralled with the character of Don Quixote. We get many elaborate ruses created by people to allow Don Quixote to be his entertaining self. (Alas we also get a more rambling narrative.)

Reading the book in a modern translation is the way to go. The language is "fresh" and modern, similar to how it would have been to the original readers. Don Quixote himself, however, talks in a more flowery, archaic language. Sancho Panza is constantly quoting and misquoting popular sayings. It all makes for a very entertaining book that is easily accessible to the modern reader.

You can easily picture a Monty Python crew acting out some of the different scenes. The story has a slight plot, but that is really just a thread to hold together a series of crazy adventures. Sancho Panza knows that Don Quixote is mad. Yet, he follows him and participates in his crazy adventures in hopes of receiving wealth and positions. In the process he chances on just enough to keep him continuing on his quest (in spite of all the negative things that befall him.)

There are also elaborate sub-stories within the story. (The "man who was recklessly curious" comes to mind.) At one time Sancho Panza becomes a governor (as part of a Duke's ruse.) He does a surprisingly good job, dispensing bits of wisdom and resolving some difficult cases. (He uncovers coins hid in a cane in one story. On another, he asks a woman to defend her virtue as well as she does her purse.)

Throughout these adventures, some of Don Quixote's friends try to cure their friend's madness. However, many of their attempts end up backfiring as he win's mock duels or manages to complete quests. Finally, near the end of the book, a friend (dressed as a knight) defeats Don Quixote in battle and forces him to give up Knight Errantry. Don Quixote then goes home and "repents" of his madness - and promptly dies. Perhaps his madness was all that was sustaining him.

The episodes (especially in the first book) are tied together well in a narrative. (Most also stand alone quite well.) As entertainment, it still works well today. There is also plenty of commentary on human nature as well as the society of Spain of Cervantes day. Altogether, this remains a classic.