Italo Calvino’s novel If on a winter’s night a traveler first came into my life in excerpt form in grad school. It was the first chapter of the novel that showcases the second person point of view that the author uses throughout the book: “You are about to begin reading Italo Calvino’s new novel If on a winter’s night a traveler. Relax. Concentrate. Dispel every other thought. Let the world around you fade” (3). Calvino then walks you–you not the reader because you is and you are the reader–through the beginning steps of reading his book. It’s comical and quaint in the way that only second person meta-fiction can be. It reads like a preface, and you begin the story in earnest thereafter…or so you think. In actuality, Calvino’s novel is one of the most complex reads I’ve ever come across due to its second person point of view, the piling up of stories, and the author’s exploration of truth and falsehood in reading.

Writing in second person is hard to pull off, but Calvino manages. The problem with writing in second person, where the author is directly addressing you the reader, is that the reader may not play along. If Calvino describes you doing or saying something that you would not do or say, you might resist. “That is not me!” you may say, and I did experience some of that in the book. But Calvino brings you along cleverly. He inserts mysteries that you want to solve, so you the character and you the reader don’t seem so different. You meet interesting people. You have beguiling situations to work through. You have a love interest (Ludmilla*). And, most brilliantly of all, Calvino sporadically tells you to do something. In one passage, Calvino chastises you for not being more active in the story, i.e. the story he is entirely responsible for creating: “But do you imagine it can go on this way, this story? No, not that of the novel! Yours! How long are you going to let yourself be dragged passively by the plot?” (217-218). For the most part, I could not resist such charm.

The book is also exceptional in that it is and is not one novel. The story of you spans the reading of ten other novels, which Calvino ascribes to pretend authors. You encounter these books through a complicated series of incidents, but you can never finish the stories you begin due to various problems: you have a defective copy, your book is stolen from you, the person who is reading to you stops, etc. Thus, the novel is constantly in flux as you (character and reader) begin new stories and never finish them. The result is a piling up of stories, which is part of what Calvino is after. Like other postmoderns, he cannot resist dropping hints about what he’s up to. One of the characters in the book is an author who has “the idea of writing a novel composed only of the beginnings of novels. The protagonist could be a Reader who is constantly interrupted. … I could write it all in the second person: you, Reader…” (197-198). This, of course, is precisely the book Calvino has written that you are in the process of reading.

While this conglomeration of the beginnings of stories and never the endings is part of the brilliance of the novel, it is also a drawback. Calvino tests his readers. How many times can he begin a new story that abruptly ends without you throwing down the book in frustration? I admit I was angered when some of the ten “novels” ended, though I was glad to be rid of others. This format is particularly infuriating at the beginning of the novel before you know what’s going on. However, Calvino teaches you how to read his book if you give him the chance. I like this structure, overall, but it isn’t without faults.

The best facet of Traveler has to be the author’s interest in truth and falsehood in reading. I love this novel for exploring this duality. As a postmodern book, I did not expect Calvino to come out and tell me what is true and false (he doesn’t), but I am glad he takes up the issue in a time when “nobody” cared about the relationship between truth and literature. In the novel, there are two opposing groups who fight for control of the printed word–literary mafia, if you will. The one side believes that true books are the key to the future; the other confiscates the “true” books and proliferates cheap counterfeit novels published under a famous author’s name. You (the character) try to find the rest of the book that has just ended, but you find only other books published under the previous author’s name.

The hero of the story is Ludmilla, who, unlike everyone else, can simply read. She enjoys reading and seeks nothing from it except pleasure; all the other characters in the story envy her (including you) and/or want to stop her. For Ludmilla, “‘reading means stripping herself of every purpose, every foregone conclusion, to be ready to catch a voice that makes itself heard when you least expect it, a voice that comes from an unknown source, from somewhere beyond the book’” (239).This is a lofty description of reading–almost a supernatural one. I love it. One gets the sense that Calvino wants more of us to read like Ludmilla.

The ending is somewhat iffy, though I have no idea how one could ever end a novel like If on a winter’s night a traveler, but the novel is definitely good reading. The pitfalls of the second person and perpetual interruptions are balanced by the charm, structure, depth, and novelty of the book. I do not recommend this for readers who like to sink into a story until it is over; such readers would loathe this novel. If you are flexible, however, Traveler will entertain and engage you unlike any novel I’ve read.

On the back cover of my copy, John Updike calls Calvino “a wizard.” He casts a pretty good spell. ★★★★

*I would be fascinated to hear from a woman who read this book and didn’t like being forced to be attracted to a female character. Yes, Calvino does something brilliant to ameliorate the situation (I won’t say what here), but is it too little?

This year I haven’t had the chance to read as much as I’d like to, but I am approaching thirty books for the year. Since it’s the end of the year and everyone else is writing year-end and decade-end lists, I thought I’d add my own humble voice to the cacophony. So here, dear reader, are my favorite books of 2009. To clarify, these are the books I read in 2009–not books that were published in 2009. That sort of list would be far too relevant.

Runner-up: The Undertaking by Thomas Lynch. ★★★★ (finished April 18).

I don’t generally go in for nonfiction, but Lynch’s work is thought-provoking and poetic. He is a poet who also runs a cemetery, so death and dying are concepts that he lives with daily. It is no surprise that he has much to say on the subject.  The chapter “Uncle Eddie, Inc.” is a tour-de-force wherein Lynch asks a lot of questions about death, abortion, and suicide:

For if we live in a world where birth is suspect, where the value of of life is relative, and death is welcomed and well regarded, we live in a world vastly more shameful, abundantly sadder, and ever more perilous than all the primitive generations of our species before us who were sufficiently civilized to fill with wonder at the birth of a new life, dance with the living, and weep for the dead.

The book is easy to read, profound, and even funny at times. I got a lot out of it.
10. The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene. ★★★★ (finished April 23).

The Power and the Glory is the tale of a “whiskey priest” in 1930s anti-Catholic Mexico, who is hunted simply for being a priest. The irony (and power) of the book lies in the priest’s struggle to understand his faith vis-a-vis his overwhelming sense of shame. He has to fall to understand grace and love. The next best thing was the way Greene weaves minor characters in the plot throughout the book and then brings them all back in the end, showing how their lives have altered after their encounters with the whiskey priest. It shows the caliber of Greene’s writing ability and vision. This was my second trip through a Greene novel, and I will be back for more.

9.The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle. ★★★★ (December 5).

Having just finished reading Ovid (you’ll notice its absence from this list), I was in the mood for a page turner. I had been meaning to read Doyle for a long time, and I’m glad I spent some time with him and his famous sleuth. No, Baskervilles is not a perfect novel by any means, but it is engaging, gripping and–dare I say it–fun! My only complaint is that Holmes isn’t around enough in this one. The story is always better when Holmes is front and center. There were enough characters to keep one guessing, at least for a little while, and even after you find out who the guilty party is, Doyle has one or two more tricks up his sleeve.

8. A Room with a View by E. M. Forster. ★★★★ 1/2 (March 8).

I remember this book fondly. Room is a terrific novel that is executed extraordinarily well. Forster’s plot is well structured, and his prose–his prose!–is superb. He is able to render scenes, dialogue, and description with equal alacrity and depth. The characters are all very intriguing, especially Lucy, the protagonist. Forster’s stylistic prowess is even more enjoyable because with it he takes the reader to beautiful places (Florence and rural England), and the reader absolutely sees what he evokes. Forster also employs narrational flourishes I’ve never seen before and liked.
All this excellent workmanship carries a simple love triangle plot. Bonus: it’s only 199 pages!

7. The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. ★★★★ 1/2 (August 11).

This book is wonderfully conceived, well written, and enthralling. The time travel element automatically makes a book more challenging to organize and arrange well; Niffenegger orchestrates her novel brilliantly. There are so many beautiful, poignant moments. The relationship between Clare and Henry is always powerfully and movingly evoked. Niffenegger’s style is lush and deep. The characterization is excellent. The plot is complex and gripping. I loved reading this book and was always loath to put it down. There are a few regrettable elements, but overall it is fantastic.

6. The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis. ★★★★★ (June 7).

I read The Imitation for ten months, so I’m afraid I lost a lot of my sense of the totality of the book. I can say that God met me several times in its pages, and what is better than that?It was my devotional reading for most of that time, and it serves that purpose fairly well. There is a special blessing that comes with reading the works of authors from centuries past. Their world was so different from yours, so they have thoughts and ways of putting things that you do not. Thomas à Kempis is supremely devout and humble in his approach to God, which I need a lot more of. I learned a lot from his example and passion for the faith.

5. The Seven Storey Mountain by Thomas Merton. ★★★★★ (July 30).

This will sound weird for nonbelievers, but I reread Merton because God told me to. I didn’t know what to read, so I prayed about it. “Read Thomas Merton,” said the voice in my mind.

“I meant what novel should I read,” I clarified.

“Why did you ask if you weren’t going to listen?” So I read Merton, and I am so glad I did.  This is a powerful memoir recounting Merton’s coming to Catholicism and then a Trappist monastery, but it is also so much more. Merton writes about Spiritual matters with clarity, depth, and power because he knows the Lord God and knows Him well.

More importantly (for me anyway) was that God had a lot to tell me in those pages. I was frustrated by life at the time, and I desperately wanted direction. I remember reading one passage where Merton writes about how God guided him via a path he couldn’t understand so Merton would learn to trust. I knew I was going through exactly the same thing.

4. Perelandra by C. S. Lewis. ★★★★★ (February 28).

Perelandra blindsided me. It is the second in Lewis’ space trilogy, and I definitely did not expect it to be so spectacular. There are two things that make Perelandra exceptional in my view. The first is the world Lewis evokes in the book. It is incredibly creative, well thought-out, and complete. It is also extraordinarily vivid.

The second, and best, aspect of the book is its philosophical and religious engagement. The protagonist, Ransom, travels to Perelandra (Venus) while its still in its Edenic state. He eventually realizes he’s been sent there to keep it from falling into sin. There are several compelling sections where Ransom argues against the Unman about good and evil that held me spellbound. There is also an amazing passage that bridges the gap between Calvinism and Armenianism, which I loved. Lewis has a mind that can grasp at the enormity and complexity of God better than any author I’ve read.

3. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy. ★★★★★ (February 18).

Yes, I read it. All of it. War and Peace is renowned as one of the greatest novels for good reason. I was most impressed with the novel’s scope and characterization. This novel is immense, and I’m not talking about pagination only. Tolstoy takes on so many disparate topics and somehow manages to fuse them into a cohesive book. Amazing. As for the people who live in these pages, they are myriad and deep. Sure, there are a few flat characters, but many characters are engaging because they are in flux constantly. You like and dislike the main characters as they change, but they do not bore.

Is every page exciting? Certainly not. Tolstoy goes on about history far too much for my taste, especially at the end. However, the novel is on par with the best books of all time, and it was on my “lifetime reads” list. It’s rewarding to finish a book like that, even if it did take me three months.

2. Slaughterhouse-five by Kurt Vonnegut. ★★★★★ (June 9).

Had it not been for Chambers, this would have been my best read of the year. Vonnegut melds humor, gravitas, entertainment, and meaning in an astounding and complex way. I’ve read nothing like it.

The story is of Billy Pilgrim, a WWII veteran who comes unstuck in time. The narrative jumps around in Billy’s lifespan, and he experiences different moments in his life and jumps to others. Billy’s life is an interesting one: he is in WWII at the bombing of Dresden, gets unstuck in time, is abducted by aliens (the Tralfamadorians) and put in their zoo. Vonnegut uses all these disparate experiences (and some other, more pedestrian ones) to make profound insights and humorous commentary alternately.

Fascinating, funny, engaging, and never dull. I loved it. I wanted to reread it as soon as I turned the final page.

1. My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers. ★★★★★ (still reading).

It is somewhat of a surprise to me that a book of devotions is the best book I’ve read this year, but I couldn’t choose any other. Chambers is my daily companion in my walk with God. He is the sort of companion who keeps saying things I need to hear but don’t want to. He challenges me almost every day. Time and time again, he has convicted me of wrong in my own life, shown me who God is, shed light on complex topics, and given comfort. He is imminently quotable; I’ve underlined practically every other line.

My Utmost came recommended to me by everyone who had ever read it. Now I add my voice to the choir of people who cherish this book. I’ve used Chambers as inspiration for writing in my class, and he has been my masthead quote on this blog several times. I’ll finish the book on December 31, as each day has its own devotion. I know I’ll return to it soon.

And now, one of hundreds of highlighted passages from my copy: “There is only one relationship that matters, and that is your personal relationship to a personal Redeemer and Lord. Let everything else go, but maintain that at all costs, and God will fulfill His purpose through your life. One individual life may be of priceless value to God’s purposes, and yours may be that life.”

There you have it. If you’ve read this entire blog post, I salute you! I hope these recommendations are of use to you, and I look forward to more reading in 2010.

The wife and I went shopping a couple of weekends ago to the tune of holiday music even though it was a week until Thanksgiving. Most of the songs were the popular Christmas numbers that I’m not a big fan of, but they come hand-in-hand with the season. Then it happened. I was looking at merchandise and half-listening to Christmas music when “My Favorite Things” came on the air. It wasn’t even Julie Andrews’ voice! “That’s no Christmas song,” I thought, but I dismissed it. However, at different store, I heard a different version of “My Favorite Things” mixed in with the holiday tunes. It was another version that also wasn’t Julie Andrews.

What’s going on here? Are we so hard-up for Christmas music that we have to resort to popular show tunes to make up the gap? On the contrary, there are more holiday songs than can be listened to each year (especially given the low standard of songs being played in public these days). I don’t think it’s another symptom of trying to avoid religion during a religious holiday. We have scads of winter-themed songs that ignore all faiths. Why are we making room for The Sound of Music?

No, do not misunderstand me; I think “My Favorite Things” and The Sound of Music are both perfectly fine. I’m not a big fan, but neither do I hate them. It’s just that “My Favorite Things” has nothing to do with Christmas. I guess you could argue that “white copper kettles and warm woolen mittens” or “snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes” are wintery things. However, there are plenty of other lyrics that suggest other seasons. “Raindrops on roses?” That’s spring. We also have “Cream-colored ponies and crisp apple streudels.” One could eat apple streudel during Christmas, but it’s not inherently holiday-related; ponies are for all seasons. Combine all of that with the fact that Maria sings the number during a thunderstorm, and there’s no reason why we should make this a Christmas song.

So why are we making this musical error? I think it comes from conflating Christmas with The Sound of Music. As I recall, ABC airs the musical on Christmas Day quite often. Perhaps we’ve grown so used to hearing that song on Christmas that they have become linked. If this is the reason, why aren’t “Climb Every Mountain” and “So Long, Farewell” Christmas songs?

Clearly there is no logical reason to connect “My Favorite Things” with Christmas, and those who play holiday music over the airwaves and/or in stores should delete it from their playlists. They won’t, of course, and I guess it could be worse; at least they aren’t playing anything from Annie. But if we must pretend that ”My Favorite Things” is a Christmas carol, may I make one suggestion? Let’s play only the Julie Andrews version.

The other day on our weekly trip to the grocery store, I took a peep at the holiday Coffee-Mate (CM) display. I have already polished off my first bottle of holiday ‘mate–Peppermint Mocha, of course–so it was time for another bottle. I was planning on grabbing some Pumpkin Spice, which is my second favorite holiday Coffee-Mate, but then something caught my eye. It was a new kind of holiday Coffee-Mate: Caramel Apple! Naturally, I had to buy it and write my review of it for you, dear coffee-drinking reader.

I had my hesitations about buying it. First of all, I’m not sure how Christmas-y Caramel Apple is. I’ve never had a caramel apple outside of October. However, it’s not Christmas CM; it’s holiday CM, which can include Halloween, I guess, though it didn’t appear until November. Second, I was unsure about how good apple would taste in coffee. I’m already a fan of Vanilla Caramel CM; it’s part of my regular rotation, so I knew that caramel + coffee = yum. But apple? I was skeptical.

However, Caramel Apple CM is quite tasty. It blends well with the coffee and doesn’t overwhelm it (depending on how much you use).You taste the apple first, but there’s a good mixture of caramel taste in the background. The apple flavor isn’t too strong, which I think would ruin it; it is subtle but definitely present. The caramel is always present but grows stronger as you sip. After you swallow, there is a nice combination of both flavors that stays on the back of your tongue. It’s sweet and yummy.

Compared to the other holiday Coffee-Mates, it fares well. For me, it is tastier than Gingerbread (ugh), Egg Nog, and Pumpkin Spice. It goes without saying that Peppermint Mocha is the absolute best, so Caramel Apple jumps from obscurity all the way into second place. I didn’t expect it to be that good, but it is surprisingly yummy.

Even though it doesn’t taste like Christmas, Caramel Apple Coffee-Mate is definitely worth giving a try. It adds the right amount of flavor to your morning cuppa without taking over, and the apple and caramel have some synergy. I recommend taking a bottle home and giving it a try, but if you’re running out of time in the holiday season and can buy only one bottle of CM, buy Peppermint Mocha.

Last year the wife and I never got around to carving pumpkins, and I regretted it. We had much fewer trick-or-treaters last year, and perhaps it was because we didn’t have the usual pumpkins to welcome the kiddies in unusual clothes. This year, I made it a point to have our pumpkins early so we could carve them, and Monday we did! As usual, J showed me up in terms of detail and overall skill, but I maintain that there is something to be said for the “less is more” aesthetic. Also, I’m not as good at carving as J is…

Here I am posing with my pumkin, which is an angry Cyclops with sharp teeth!

And here is J with her half-creepy, half-happy witch! You can almost hear the cackling.

Lucy was kind enough to pose with my pumpkin.

This is how they will be displayed on Halloween night. Mine looks more like a Cyclops now.

Close-up of the witch. Eh hee hee hee hee!

Close-up of my Cyclops. You can really see the detail work there. Oh yeah, it was complicated to carve, let me tell you.

We discovered that J's pumpkin cast a nifty shadow on the wall when it was lit. Cool, no?

Mine also cast a silhouette, but it isn't as cool as J's. It does look creepier, however. "I'm keeping an eye on you!"

And here is my lovely lady with her creation.

Surprisingly, the pumpkins dried out pretty quickly, so they are now outside getting snowed on to restore their moisture. We hope the white stuff will be gone by Saturday night, but if it’s not, we get to keep all the candy. Hmm…

Happy Halloween!