by its cover | The Practical Dilettante

Review: Acting the Giddy Goat

Posted on April 23, 2010 by Seonaid

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I am reviewing old books that have been languishing on the shelves. I am picking these books entirely by the content of their covers (no peeking inside), to determine for my own edification whether one can, in fact, judge a book by its cover.

So far, so good. I posted the following review on Library Thing:

“As promised on its cover, this is a novel of ideas. Focused on a group of friends/acquaintances in modern urban Toronto, the story is more about the internal struggles with identity, self/other, compromise/authenticity than it is about action, or even narrative. That is not to say that nothing happens; it is just that nothing particularly unusual happens. Couples argue, deals are signed, beer is drunk, and the fates intervene… well, maybe a few unusual things happen. Well worth a read if you are an overeducated or thoughtful late-60′s/early 70′s baby. You’re likely to encounter yourself in these pages.”

To say a bit more, each of the characters in this book is encountering the types of decisions, disappointments, opportunities, and challenges that we run into on a daily basis. Are you ready to be a parent? Do you stay at a job you hate to pay the bills? Do you value your work more than your family? Can you really be rational, or do you simply rationalize emotional decisions? How much do you relinquish artistic control for the possibility of making a lot of money? Overseeing all is Bill the Brewmaster, the narrator/chorus, whose own voice becomes that of the observer. Bill’s notes are interspersed with pieces of the narrative, possibly providing a framework for the author’s own observations of the world.

Had I not recently read Introducing Nietzsche, I would probably have missed the conflict between the Sons of Dionysus and the Sons of Appolo (shockingly glibly: art and the sensual temperament vs. rationalism) that seems to be the key theme in this work. It culminates in a wonderful prolonged scene of a thunderstorm in downtown Toronto and the band playing in a bar where the lights keep going off.

Beautiful work. Well worth a read.

Filed under: WorldView | Tagged: by its cover, philosophy, review | Leave a Comment »

By Its Cover 1

Posted on April 11, 2010 by Seonaid

This time I am making myself post my book choice *before* reading it.

The book of the week is Acting the Giddy Goat:
Cover Art

I picked it out because it is a trade paper back (sorry, it’s true… that’s why it won this week). I really prefer holding TPB’s, since I usually read lying in bed, and if I can get that format I choose it.
The rules I’m setting myself for this task go something like this:
1. It must be an author I’ve never heard of. Since I’ve been listening to CBC book reviews and the Arts Tonight and Writers and Company, and reading voraciously for two decades, this turns out to be a fairly difficult rule to follow. Good thing I’ve got a library to work with!
2. I’m not allowed to read the first page before I decide to pick it out.
3. I *am* allowed to read reviews etc. even on the flaps of the cover.

A first glance makes me suspect that the fellow on the front cover mightbe Dionysus, but I’m guessing. I presume that, were my education in something more classical, I would know better. Feel free to chastise me for my ignorance. It has three very good reviews on the back, one from an author I have heard of. It is referred to as a “huge glorious symphony of a novel” and a “genuine novel of ideas”. Apparently the author is also a musician, English teacher, and songwriter. It is enticing, and modern, and (I suspect) deeply intellectual. This copy of the book has been languishing unread since August of 2003, which makes me sad.

So, I’m reading it. I’ll let you know how it goes in a week.

Filed under: Library | Tagged: by its cover, review | 2 Comments »

Book Review: The Disorder of Longing

Posted on April 9, 2010 by Seonaid

While shelving at the not-so-tiny library the other day, I realized that all of the older books did, in fact, look pretty much the same. You can’t judge them simply by looking at them. This is in stark contrast to a recent claim that I made to a patron that I’ve had rather a lot of success judging books by their covers. I went through a period last summer of reading books with high heels on them. That was pretty much the requirement at first, although I later revised it to books with high heels, and a colour combination of turquoise, lime green, bright pink, and occasional yellow. They turned out to all be a fairly high calibre of British “chick-lit”, and I got more out of them than I expected. Sophie Kinsella’s Shopaholic, though, made me retch. Makes no never mind; she made a fortune from it, I’m sure, so it doesn’t really matter what I think of it.

As a result, I am working towards a regular feature titled “By Its Cover”, in which (in future) I intend to preview books that I picked at random from the shelf, based only on their cover art and description. Then I have to read them. I’ll try to finish within a week. We’ll see how I do with that.

So. the first book I picked for this task is “The Disorder of Longing“.
Book cover
As you can see, it has a rich brown cover that looks like a photo of an old leather bound book, and a rich red/pink orchid in the middle of it. I wanted to caress it just for the cover. (I might mention here, though, that I frequently pat the books if I find that they haven’t circulated for several years, so my relationship with the objects that are books is not entirely normal.) I anticipated a sensual historical novel, probably focused on the desire for freedom in a woman in a constrained marriage. It turned out to be that and more. There was sex. There was travel. There was cross-dressing. There was an acknowledgement of ambivalence regarding gender roles, the play involved, and the difficulties of giving up the privileges of class, race and gender even when you know that they are problematic. I found myself wandering through the house and tripping over things while continuing to read well past my bedtime. I really, really wanted to know what came next, and it made me think.

All in all, a success. I’m not going to critically review things here, though. Just… did I like it? And was it what I expected? Yes. Yes. Read this book if you can get it. (Although there are a few pretty explicit triggery scenes, and I couldn’t recommend it for survivors of sexual abuse who are currently processing.)

Next book to follow after I get back to the library this afternoon!

Filed under: Library | Tagged: by its cover | Leave a Comment »