The Man Who Fell to Earth - Walter Tevis
This book seems to have fallen by good fortune into my hands. I pulled it from the library shelf because I recognized the title – a movie had been made of it (one I hadn’t seen and knew nothing about). I read the opening paragraph and admired its unadorned precision, so I took it home. I suppose it belongs in the category of science fiction (a genre I have little patience with), and its overly-familiar message has to do with the threat of annihilation by nuclear war. This novel, however, is something different; it’s an example of how intelligence and insight can generate a bright, crackling freshness. Tevis makes it entirely logical why an Anthean (who’s just able to pass as a human) has come to Earth, what his goal is, and how he goes about trying to achieve it. As I followed T. J. Newton’s story I shared the burden of his undertaking, respected his abilities, and admired his resolve and courage. That he winds up disillusioned and lonelier than one can imagine is a tragedy, and I was moved. I was moved by an alien! – when so many human characters in fiction fail to elicit that emotion in me. *

The Earthly Paradise - Robert Thom
From beginning to end, without respite, this novel’s intensity level is set too high. This applies to thoughts and feelings, events and dialogue, and even to the prose: “The words cut into him. He felt it at the base of his skull and in his spine.” Though the particular emotions people feel are on full display, they become suspect because of huge and unsupported about-faces; I didn’t believe in any character (the saintly and wise deaf mute was preposterous). Still, despite its strident, garish and silly aspects, the novel has momentum. The author could probably do good work if he gave up his pretensions. Thom tries to delve deep into the tortured human heart, but he needs to simply portray people as they are.

A Summons to Memphis - Peter Taylor
The book’s premise, which emerged early on, intrigued me: a father prevents all three of his children from marrying the people they love, and in doing so derails their lives. I wanted to find out what made this tyrannical figure tick. I can tell you now that nothing is revealed. One example: the narrator, Phillip, tells about the great love in his life. Though the girl he wants to marry seems satisfactory in every way, his father travels to Chattanooga to talk to her parents; after his visit the girl is shipped off to South America. What did he say to them? And why? These and other crucial questions remain a mystery. Not helping matters is the way the story is told; the narrator uses stilted language, he’s repetitive, he’s circuitous, he goes into long, dry digressions on clothes and society and manners. This novella is filled with five page stretches where nothing of substance happens. As for the main character, did Taylor intend for him to be sympathetic? If so, he failed dismally; I developed a strong aversion for Phillip. He insulates himself from any responsibility and hardly any contact with his family. When he’s summoned to Memphis by his sisters – who stayed and dealt with their father – he describes the experience as “hellish” and after one day he flees back to New York. He depicts his sisters as grotesques, but how did they get this way? They deserve compassion and insight; instead they’re ridiculed. To top it all off, Phillip winds up being a cheerleader for the old man, promoting him as a figure to be respected. I made it to this inane ending only because annoyance can propel along (at least if the book is very short).

A Mirror for Witches - Esther Forbes
This is a case study of a witch. Doll Bilby believes in witches, as did people of her time (the 17th century). Her choice to side with the forces of evil evolves, in large part, because she’s an outsider, lonely and abused; she turns to a fantasy world for her needs. The narrator of Doll’s tale isn’t sympathetic toward her; the point of view is condemnatory. Yet we see how lacking in humanity this narrator is. Doll, the witch, is kinder and more compassionate than the good Christians who want her to burn. Forbes succeeds in capturing the mind-set of another time. Yet it wasn’t that long ago when this sort of ignorance and cruelty reigned; I wonder what forms the human propensity to condemn takes now.

The Collected Stories of Peter Taylor
Taylor’s stories are long and leisurely. He often constructs his plots in an unusual way; in this sense he’s an innovative writer. The problem with too many of the twenty-one stories is that they amount to a lot of words about nothing much; this collection’s wide variance in quality is due entirely to subject matter, not craftsmanship. I can’t fathom why Taylor so often chose a weak basis for a story. When he got subjects worthy of his skills – something with substance, complexity, depth – the results rank with the best in American fiction: “A Spinster’s Tale,” “Their Losses,” “A Wife of Nashville,” and “Miss Lenora When Last Seen.” Only the last one was humorous. Taylor wasn’t a writer of tragedies, but he knew that life mostly doesn’t work out as we would have wished.

The Towers of Trebizond - Rose Macaulay
In this novel I got a taste of the rich culture and history of the region around the Black Sea, an area I formerly knew nothing about. Amy, the narrator, stays mostly in the background, but she’s a useful guide. She divulges little about herself, though we do learn that she’s having an adulterous affair back in England. She’s tagging along with her Aunt Dot and Father Hugh Chantry-Pigg. Aunt Dot rides a white camel everywhere, Father Pigg is consumed by the superiority of the Anglican Church. No character is developed in depth. I accepted the book as eccentric and mildly comic. However, the author botched the ending. Amy adopts a chimp and takes it back to England, where she trains it to be as human as possible; I thought this was pushing the oddity angle too far. Then Amy, while driving with her lover, Vere, has a fit of impulsive anger at the traffic (she’s never shown anger or an impulsive nature anywhere else in the book) and causes an accident that kills Vere. Dark brooding follows. For the mood to turn so serious doesn’t work – not when all that preceded it had been superficial.

The Donkey Inside - Ludwig Bemelmans
I was hoping for another Hotel Splendide. In that book Bemelmans concentrated on people, both patrons of the hotel and the staff of the restaurant. But in this one – a travelogue about Equador – he mostly gives us descriptions of the landscape and the architecture. He does it well, but I don’t care much about those things. People are largely absent, and when they appear they seem insubstantial. In an Author’s Note at the end (not that I read to the end – I stopped halfway through) Bemelmans reveals that the characters are composites – aspects of various people he pasted together. The book was first serialized in magazines. I hope Bemelmans made some money from this venture; I can’t figure out any other compelling reason for him to have written it. Four of his paintings are included, and they’re the only real treats.

In Patagonia - Bruce Chatwin
Well written, but for me a travel book needs a vital human presence at its center. Theroux did this in The Great Railway Bazaar – he was what the book was about, and I found him interesting. Chatwin reveals little about himself. He describes the characters he meets well enough, but they have little affect on him. Also, there’s a lot of filler – facts he researched and presents at length. At the halfway point I decided I didn’t care enough about Patagonia.

The Greengage Summer - Rumer Godden
The last third was disappointing. Up to then the book had been an atmospheric evocation of youth and budding womanhood in a delicately-rendered French setting. An expert job. Then Godden launched into the plot (which had been dormant) and things turned melodramatic and silly. Characters I liked I stopped liking. The final insult is the “ending” – actually, Godden just hurriedly wraps things up, leaving many important issues unresolved. Maybe she realized what a shambles her lovely novel had become.

A Woman of Means - Peter Taylor
A very good novella. It’s a psychological study of three people. The father is the weak link – he’s a wooden character. But the boy and his stepmother come across strongly. This is a complex work in which thoughts and motivations are explored in all their tangled and contradictory aspects. But it’s a tribute to Taylor’s exploration that, when the stepmother goes crazy, it’s startling and yet in keeping with all that preceded. We see the seeds of her mental disintegration in what went before (although we may not have recognized it). The novel is static – not much action takes place – but it was engrossing throughout.

Breakfast at Tiffany’s - Truman Capote
Holly Golightly is an interesting creation, and because of her this is a mildly diverting novella. Though it got a bit thin, even for its short length, and Capote resorted to makeshift plot twists to keep it going. I didn’t care to read the other stories, though I had previously read the last one, “A Christmas Memory.” Now there’s a gem!