Archives for July 26, 2007

I was pleased to be asked by Carrie to file this week’s installment of 5×5. But when I thought back to what I’ve been reading this summer, I realized that it has consisted solely of comfort reading, which in my case typically means: series. So there’s no really new news here for regular readers of this blog, who already know of my guilty affection for MacDonald, the flirtation with Powell that’s recently been upgraded to an actual involvement, and my longstanding crush on Fisher.
But in a world rife with readers (like CAAF her very self!) who are facing the end of the Harry Potter series with a lead sinker in their gut growing weightier as they advance through the seventh volume–maybe the time is right to revisit some of the series and sets of books that I rely on to patch me through spells of readerly indecision. Of all these I can say that it soothes me to know they’re at hand and it buoys me to know there’s plenty of them. Maybe some of them will provide a next harbor for some of you soon-to-be Potter refugees out there.
1. A Dance to the Music of Time by Anthony Powell (link is to the first volume). Twelve novels in four volumes following the life and times of an Englishman following World War I. Powell writes in an apparently meandering fashion behind which lurks–I’m certain it’s there though I don’t, after reading two of the novels, quite yet discern it–a masterful design. The novels are quietly infectious, with truly great (though seldom conspicuous or showy) insights and feats of writing strewn about liberally to be stumbled over like half-buried treasure. Rarely have I felt so ravished and so comforted at the same time.
2. The Travis McGee novels by John D. MacDonald (link is to the first book in the series). Residing at the opposite end of the world from #1, these crime novels have not a subtle bone in their sizable body. Their charms lie wholly elsewhere. Belonging to the series does a lot for the individual books, somehow; they gain appeal and impact when read in quantity, filling in at length–detail by detail, stratum by substratum, hustler by con man, felony by misdemeanor–a lurid panorama of southern Florida from the 1960s to 1980s. Pure buttered popcorn.
3. Dalziel and Pascoe mysteries by Reginald Hill (link is to the first book in the series). I just tonight finished what must have been about my tenth of these smart, wonderfully written English mysteries, On Beulah Height. While nearing the end and thus the whodunit, I remembered again how little of my affinity for Hill’s mysteries has to do with their, er, mysteries. His plots are always clever and sometimes deft but, it seems to me, tend to turn the screw a time or two too many, so that by the end I don’t much even care who did. No matter; the characters are glorious and so is the writing. Not that I’m one to sniff at genre fiction–couldn’t be further from the truth–but how often does one turn to genre fiction for the writing? Not sodding often, as Dalziel might say.
4. The Art of Eating by M.F.K. Fisher. But you really want these separate editions of the five books collected here: The Gastronomical Me, Serve It Forth, An Alphabet for Gourmets, How to Cook a Wolf, and Consider the Oyster. They’re lovely, and she is gorgeous in the pictures on their jackets. Long ago, I defended Fisher from charges of preciosity here.
5. The Waverley Novels by Sir Walter Scott (link is to their namesake). Rejoice: you’ll never get through them all! Just kidding, sort of. The best of them (The Bride of Lammermoor, The Heart of Midlothian) are terrific, but others have defied my best efforts to get up a head of steam for them. it’s true. Outside English departments, though, who reads Scott anymore? Consider this a gentle reminder that the man arguably had about as great an influence on the history of the novel, and not only in English, as anyone else you can think of. And–you’ll never get through them all!
By the way, I’ve never read a Harry Potter book myself. It was, in fact, only ten days ago that I saw my first Harry Potter movie–which I much enjoyed, thanks in no small part to the whispered running tutorial of my better-versed companion. He, incidentally, finds himself in a bit of a conundrum on the occasion of the last book’s appearance: he has followed the movies devotedly but not read the books, and wishes to know what happens sometime ahead of 2009, or however long it will take the sixth and seventh installments to reach the screen–and presumably wishes not to find out by overhearing a conversation on the elevated train. Should he start with the 6th book, picking up where the movies currently leave off? Skip straight to the 7th? Friendly advice may be sent in care of ogic@artsjournal.com.

Here’s my list of recommended Broadway and off-Broadway shows, updated weekly. In all cases, I gave these shows favorable reviews in The Wall Street Journal when they opened. For more information, click on the title.

Warning: Broadway shows marked with an asterisk were sold out, or nearly so, last week.

BROADWAY:

• Avenue Q * (musical, R, adult subject matter and one show-stopping scene of puppet-on-puppet sex, reviewed here)

• A Chorus Line * (musical, PG-13/R, adult subject matter, reviewed here)

• The Drowsy Chaperone (musical, G/PG-13, mild sexual content and a profusion of double entendres, reviewed here)

• The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (musical, PG-13, mostly family-friendly but contains a smattering of strong language and a production number about an unwanted erection, reviewed here)

OFF BROADWAY:

• The Fantasticks (musical, G, suitable for children old enough to enjoy a love story, reviewed here)

CLOSING SOON:
• Beyond Glory (drama, PG-13, adult subject matter, reviewed here, closes Aug. 19)

• Frost/Nixon (drama, PG-13, some strong language, reviewed here, closes Aug. 19)

• Old Acquaintance (comedy, PG-13, adult subject matter, reviewed here, closes Aug. 19)

CLOSING SUNDAY:

• Gypsy (musical, PG-13, adult subject matter, reviewed here)

• 110 in the Shade (musical, G, suitable for children old enough to enjoy a love story, reviewed here)

“To be an actor is to make a brother of paranoia.”
Michael Blakemore, Arguments with England: A Memoir