Metaphorosis Reviews

3.5 stars, Metaphorosis reviews

Summary
Jane Merrick, made suddenly wealthy on the death of her fiance, is old and dying after a long life in which she's denied help to her impoverished brothers and sisters. Near death, she invites her three nieces to visit, planning to choose one to inherit her fortune.

Review
Sometimes, you just want something simple and light to read. Having just started a new and promising Martha Wells book that also looks to be complex, I wanted something quick to lighten the tone. Baum (here writing as Edith van Dyne) seemed made to order, and didn't disappoint.

There's nothing much surprising about the plot; even its twists are well within expectation. The good people win, no one really suffers. It's fully of plucky girls, genial old men, and a sullen boy who straightens right up when taken in hand. To be fair, Baum does give his characters a reasonable amount of depth, but it's all optimism and the benefit of hard work and empathy here.

That said, it was exactly what I was looking for – a quick, light, happy read.

3.5 stars - Metaphorosis Reviews

Saxons and Britons live peacefully side by side. Axl and Beatrice, a pair of aged Britons, decide to visit their son. Their progress, stymied by vague and unreliable memory, is slow, but as they travel, they slowly uncover the reason behind both peace and memory loss.

I'd not read Kazuo Ishiguro before, but had heard quite a lot about this book, and it seemed a good place to start. I found it not to be quite what I had expected.

On the side of content, the concept is strong - a mist pervades the country, making thought and recollection uncertain. Axl and Beatrice fight to recover tiny scraps of memory - often finding that what they do recall is troubling. Their journey toward truth is compelling and very well conceived.

I was surprised, on the other hand, to find Ishiguro's prose to be substantially less appealing. It's simple, but also verges on dull. He uses a trick of repetition, which to some extent reinforces the characters' weak memories. It also got on my nerves - when a knight is reciting the same simple story for the fourth time, I feel I've gotten the point, yet the repetitions happens (ironically) over and over. The book was quick easy to read, but the prose was so plain (and sometimes awkward), that I found I just wasn't interested. Verbal tics, such as Axl constantly calling Beatrice “my princess” didn't help. It felt as if Ishiguro had set up his concept and characters well in the first ten pages, and kept tracing those same lines for the next three hundred.

I'd like to have seen the story as a hyper-intelligent, multi-leveled parable about truth, memory, peace, justice, etc., but in fact I didn't. It read as just what it seems to be - a light fantasy about magical memory loss. There's nothing wrong with that, except that the story constantly seemed to promise more, and didn't deliver. The only metaphor that felt close to fulfillment involved a boatman, and even that felt underdeveloped.

All in all, a pleasant but under-performing fantasy that dreams big but doesn't attempt very much. Based on the prose, I also don't feel drawn to try Ishiguro's other, more popular books.

4 stars, Metaphorosis Reviews

Summary
In the poor, isolated highlands, each family has a gift - sometimes a deadly one. Orrec, whose mother was a lowlander, takes time to develop his gift, while neighbouring clans scheme to steal the family's cattle or worse.

Review
Unlike most of Le Guin's work, and certainly her Earthsea books, this trilogy has flown under the radar, so far as I can tell. I don't think I was even aware of it until several years ago. I picked up and read the first book at that time, and have re-read it just now.

If Gifts has been overlooked, to some extent it deserves to be. I liked i; it's got Le Guin's flowing prose, credible characters, interesting situations. etc. But, at the end of the day, it felt to me as if the book didn't really go anywhere. There is a resolution, but this felt much more like a episode or even extended character sketch than a story of its own. I didn't go into this expecting another Earthsea, but I did expect a little more to happen. While a short book, it feels long for what it offers. The reading is a pleasure, but I didn't feel it offered much of a voyage. It's not clear to me whether the sequels follow the same characters (in which case, perhaps this was the opening act) or different ones (in which case I assume more sketches are coming). Either way, I enjoyed this enough to look forward to and read them.

I did feel there was a Richard Llewellyn feel to the voice, which I enjoyed, but that may be just me.

[English below]La Hojarasca me la mencionó una colega escritora hace unos meses durante un debate sobre el realismo mágico. Finalmente localize una copia electronica y me la puso a leer. No pudiera decir que encontre ningún realismo mágico en ella, pero el libro era interesante. La historia es un tipo de precursor a [b:Cien años de soledad 370523 Cien años de soledad Gabriel Garcí­a Márquez https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1347626503s/370523.jpg 3295655], que tendrá lugar en el mismo pueblo de Macondo.La novela cuenta la historia de una familia y su relación con un médico que viene desde fuera de la ciudad. (“La hojarasca” se refiere a los recién llegados que reviven la ciudad durante un breve apogeo como centro de banana). Toda la historia se desarrolla durante la media hora en cual el coronel, su hija y su nieto esperan en la casa del médico con su cuerpo. Se cuenta como una serie de flashbacks de cada uno de sus puntos de vista.Hay un flashback muy irritante durante el cual la esposa del coronel está dando sopa a su hija. Sin fin. Cada tercera frase parece ser "ella seguía dandole sopa al niño." Después de algunas páginas de esto, tenia ganas de gritar "¡Ya entendi! Basta con la &*$&($ sopa." Pero sobre todo la prosa era buena.Encontré la historia convincente, pero insatisfactoria. la prosa es rica y evocadora - del calor, del polvo, de los efectos de la hojarasca. La historia de la relación del médico con el coronel es misteriosa e intrigante. Meditaciones del chico sobre vida y muerte plantean buenas preguntas.Al fin, sin embargo, muy pocos de los misterios planteados se examinan en realidad. Hacia la mitad, empecé a imaginar formas en las que Márquez podría satisfacer la tensión que había construido, que parecía exigir una revelación sorprendente. Por la marca de las tres cuartas partes, esto se hizo imposible - eran tantos misterios que un final satisfactorio no se adaptaria al tono de la historia. Efectivamente, muy pocos de los misterios se resuelven; Márquez ofrece esencialmente ninguna explicación, incluso para la pregunta central de por qué el coronel el médico como huésped en su casa.Es unna cosa es ser ambiguo - dejar algunos cabos sueltos y forzar al lector a pensar, o a imaginar posibilidades. Es otra cosa simplemente pararse en media res. La hojarasca concluye como una pieza descriptiva bien escrita, sin mucho mensaje. Si hubiera sido escrito como un ejercicio autoral o de fondo para un trabajo posterior, tendría sentido. Como una pieza independiente de la literatura, falla.Hasta busque algunos análisis externos, para ver si habiaa algo que no comprendi. Encontré una comparación con Antígona, pero no me convencio (Estoy planeando un cuento basado en Antígona, asi que es bastante fresca en mi mente). Sobre todo, lo que encontré fue la gente haciendo las mismas preguntas. Un artículo interesante (en JSTOR) fue la pieza de Frank Dauster, Ambiguity and Indeterminacy in the Leafstorm. Él cita el análisis de [a:Mario Vargas Llosa 22515 Mario Vargas Llosa https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1264454700p2/22515.jpg] - tambien haciendo las mismas preguntas, y ambos evidentemente insatisfechos.Algunas preguntas:1. ¿Por qué el coronel recibe el médico? No hay razón alguna que nos da ni se implica, además de una delgada carta de recomendación. Pero eso no explicaría la generosidad abrumadora del coronel hacia un hombre sin características reseñables.2. ¿Por qué es el médico tan extraño? Come hierba. Es grosero o irascible hacia casi todo el mundo. Se niega a ayudar a otros (excepto una vez). Se encierra en su casa.3. ¿Qué relación hay entre el médico y el sacerdote? Llegan al mismo tiempo y tienen un aspecto similar. Se reúnen sólo una vez, y no pasa nada.4. ¿Qué pasó con Meme y su hijo?5. ¿Cuál era la relación del coronel con Martin? Parece haber vendido a su hija Isabel a un estafador (que la toma solo para mostrar la buen fe). Nunca se describe la relación de los novios después del matrimonio. El coronel no parece sentir ninguna molesta de haber sido estafado por una cantidad de riqueza.6. ¿Por qué, de hecho, es el coronel asi flemático?7. Al principio, hay una larga sección acerca de una pequeña casa que una mujer llega a ocupar. Cuando el sacerdote llega, toma la casa y ella se va. Entonces nunca oímos mas hablar sobre la casa (ni la mujer). ¿Qué sentido tiene la casa?8. ¿Cuál es el significado de la relación del niño con [Abraham]?Con todo, me encontré decepcionado con la historia. Me sorprendió que la prosa celebró mi atención durante tanto tiempo, sobre todo una vez que quedó claro que no habría recapitulación ordenada. Sin embargo, esperaba que habría algún tipo de desenlace. Al final, se trata de un estudio interesante, y relativamente corto, pero lo puedo realmente recomiendar solo para los fans de Márquez, o para los lectores que disfrutaron de Cien Años de Doledad, y quieren un poco más sobre Macondo. EnglishLa Hojarasca (The Leaf Storm) was mentioned to me by a fellow writer during a discussion about magical realism some months ago. It took me some time, but I eventually tracked down a copy to read. I can't say I found any magical realism in it, but the book was interesting. The story is a precursor of sorts to [b:One Hundred Years of Solitude 320 One Hundred Years of Solitude Gabriel Garcí­a Márquez https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1327881361s/320.jpg 3295655], taking place in the same town of Macondo.The novella tells the story of a family and its relationship with a doctor who blows in from out of town. (‘Leaf storm' refers to the newcomers who revive the town during a brief heyday as a banana center). The entire story takes place during the half hour the colonel, his daughter, and her son sit in the doctor's room with his body, and is told as a series of flashbacks from each of their points of view.I found the story to be compelling but dissatisfying. The language is rich and evocative - the heat, the dust, the effects of the leaf storm. The story of the doctor's relationship with the colonel is mysterious and intriguing. The boy's meditations on life and death raise good questions.There's one highly irritating flashback during which the colonel's wife is feeding his daughter soup. Endlessly. Every third sentence seems to be "she kept giving the child soup." After some pages of this, I felt like shouting "I got it! Enough with the &*$&($ soup." But mostly the prose was good.At the end, however, very few of the mysteries raised are actually examined. About halfway through, I started imagining ways in which Marquez could satisfy the tension he'd built up, which seemed to call for a surprising revelation. By the three-quarters mark, this became impossible - there were so many mysteries that an ending satisfying them wouldn't fit the tone of the story. In fact, however, very few of them are answered at all; Marquez offers essentially no explanation for even the central question of why the colonel takes the doctor in.It's one thing to be ambiguous, to leave some loose ends and cause the reader to think or imagine possibilities. It's another to simply stop. The Leaf Storm ends as a well-written descriptive piece without much message. If it had been written as an authorial exercise, or background for a later work, it would make sense. As a standalone piece of literature, it fails.I went so far as to seek out some outside analysis to see if I was missing something. I found some comparison with Antigone, but I wasn't convinced (I'm planning a short story based on Antigone, so it's fairly fresh in my mind). Mostly, what I found was other people asking the same questions. One interesting paper (on JSTOR) was Frank Dauster's piece, Ambiguity and Indeterminacy in The Leafstorm. He quotes [a:Mario Vargas Llosa 22515 Mario Vargas Llosa https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1264454700p2/22515.jpg]'s analysis - both asking the same questions I did, and both seemingly unsatisfied.Some questions:1. Why does the colonel take the doctor in? No reason is ever given or implied, apart from the thin one of a letter of recommendation. But that wouldn't explain the colonel's overwhelming generosity to a man with no redeeming features.2. Why is the doctor so strange? He eats grass. He's rude or irascible to almost everyone. He refuses to help (except once). He locks himself into his house.3. What relation is there between the doctor and the priest? They arrive simultaneously, and look similar. They meet only once, and nothing happens.4. What happened to Meme and her child?5. What was the colonel's relation with Martin? He seems to have sold his daughter Isabel to a con-man (who takes her only to show sincerity). She never describes the relationship after marriage. The colonel never appears upset to have been conned out of some amount of wealth.6. Why, in fact, is the colonel so phlegmatic?7. At the beginning, there's a long section about a little house that a woman comes to occupy. When the priest arrives, he takes it over. Then we never hear about it again. What meaning is there in the house?8. What is the meaning of the boy's relationship with [Abraham]?All in all, I found the story disappointing. I was surprised that the prose held my attention for so long, especially once it became clear that there would be no tidy wrapup. I did expect, however, that there would be some kind of denouement. In the end, it's an interesting study, and relatively short, but I can only really recommend it for Marquez fans, or for readers who enjoyed A Hundred Years of Solitude, and want a little more of Macondo.

I read a fair amount of Edith Nesbit as a child, but hadn't run across this one. About a boy who magically enters a city he had built of odds and ends, this book is reliable, if unexciting Nesbit.

The story, and the substory about the boy making friends with his new step-sister, doesn't bring much that's new. But the magic of Nesbit's writing is in the light, good-natured feel of her writing, and that's present here in full force.

All in all, a nice, light-hearted story, and a fun, safe read for young children.