Bookpress adds two new features

In an effort to provide you greater value, two new features will appear on occasion, beginning  soon.  Here’s an overview:

Words From will provide a brief quote from a book that I have read or am reading. Quotes are chosen for their insight, wit, or beauty. No commentary is offered on the quoted language.

Thoughts On will also provide a quote from a book that I have read or am reading, but the quote will be followed by my thoughts on the ideas represented or language used.

Saturday and Atonement by Ian McEwan

I have delayed this post for some time because I could not locate my copy of Atonement and, having read it so long ago, I really wanted to work from the book when I wrote this little review.  I was recently reminded that I gave away my copy of Atonement.  In the interest of maintaining any hope of catching these reviews up to my current reading (I’m still hoping to do so by the end of 2006), I write this blurb without benefit of revisiting the book. 

My introduction to Ian McEwan was in Amsterdam.  It is a minor work masquerading as a novel of big ideas – which is not to say that I disliked it.  It was dark – and darkly funny.  Above all it was well written and utilizes interesting parallels.  McEwan’s skill with language and structure pushed me to read more of his work.

Saturday reveals a single day in the life of Henry Perowne, a neurosuregon.  The threat of terrorism in post-September 11 London hangs portentously over the day.  From a perceived aircraft emergency to near riots in the streets, Perowne fears the fruit of disaffection at home and abroad.  Contrasted with these threats are the successes of his own family.  Henry’s children and father-in-law will be gathering that evening.

It would spoil the novel to reveal much more, but McEwan describes well the tenative nature of privileged urban life.  Still, in some ways, Saturday was very similar to Amsterdam.  As with Amsterdam, Saturday’s plot relies too much on coincidence and, in places, appears contrived.  The novel would perhaps be more powerful if more general.  The specific references to September 11 are jarring and prevent the feel of timelessness that the novel might otherwise have achieved.

Atonement is vastly superior to both Amsterdam and Saturday.  In her old age, Briony Tallis narrates the story of the crime that shaped and destroyed the lives of those around her.  McEwan explores the lines between perception and reality and he exposes the fruit of fear and jealousy.  The novel is at once beautiful and wrenching as McEwan works wonders at the intersection of conscience and memory.

Much, though not all, of McEwan’s work suffers from a mild predicability.  This detracts from the enjoyment of the reader who is overly focused on being surprised, but not the reader who approaches his work more reflectively.  The shortcomings of the very enjoyable Amsterdam and Saturday will discourage some from reading more of McEwan.  Hopefully, they will not give up on McEwan before reading Atonement.  In Atonement, McEwan achieves an astounding level of mastery.  I can think of no novel I have enjoyed more.  It should not be missed.

Persuasion by Jane Austen

Jane Austen never appealed to me.  She was, after all, British, long dead, and, presumably, preoccupied with romance.  It was only on Michael Dirda’s recommendation that I picked up Persuasion.

In Persuasion, Anne Elliot, eldest daughter of Sir Walter Elliot, floats about her circle of family, friends, and suitors.  Although the plot focuses on the particulars of Anne’s situation, it speaks more deeply of the nature and effects of love.  In a brief introduction to the Modern Library Classics edition, Amy Bloom identifies the novels roots in Austen’s own loneliness.

Austen also encourages speculation about the true intentions of each character, and breathes real life into the novel through her wit.  She economically prepares the reader to judge the characters, but permits ambiguity in pivotal characters.  Not all characters are so complex. 

For example, immediately after Anne’s father examines the Baronetage with some care, Austen writes that “[v]anity was the beginning and end of Sir Water Elliot’s character: vanity of person and of station.”  The irony, of course, is that Sir Walter is too vapid to justify vanity of person and, as a mere baron, overestimates the eminence of his station.  No surprise then that he has financial difficulties, that he must rent his estate to address these difficulties, and that he, despite his situation, continues to judge others on their social position.

Austen’s wit is most effective when most understated.  For example, when gossip must wait on memory: “Well, no you shall hear something that will surprise you.  But first of all you must tell me the name of the young lady I am going to talk about.  That young lady, you know, that we have all been so concerned about.”  Persuasion is packed with such delicious moments.

Surprised by Austen’s wit and clear prose, I nearly finished Persuasion in a single cold night, curled in a chair at a Starbucks, ears firmly plugged against the music and teenagers.  A perfect reading experience.

William Tyndale: A Biography by David Daniell

After reading David Daniell’s hefty volume titled The Bible in English, I looked eagerly for other books he had written.  Among them, William Tyndale: A Biography attracted me most.  While this effort suffers some of the same shortcomings as The Bible in English, Daniell retains the reader’s attention and good will.

Daniell combines several powerful elements in this book.  He does recount what is known of Tyndale’s life and what may be fairly surmised where the record is silent.  He also uses to great effect Tyndale’s writings and translations.  The final element Daniell uses is the writings of those, such as More, who interacted with Tyndale.  These writings in particular help provide context and tell the larger story of the early English Reformation.

Daniell places particular emphasis on Tyndale’s translation of several key words.  Tyndale translated ekklesia as congregation rather than church.  Similarly, priest became elder, do penance became repentance, and charity became love.  The Catholic church objected to Tyndale undermining its doctrine through these translations; these few words played no small part in Tyndale’s death at the stake.

In addition to individual word choices, Daniell details many of Tyndale’s syntactical and tonal decisions.  Particular attention is given to Tyndale’s repurposing of the Hebrew grammatical form call the construct and its ubiquity in English today.  This form is described by Daniell as “the+noun+of+the+noun” and “the beasts of the field” as an example of Tyndale’s usage.

This may make Daniell’s work seem dry and technical, but it is fascinating to anyone with even a modest interest in linguistics and philology.  Also, in fairness, though these discussions are sprinkled throughout the book, Daniell covers much other ground and provides plenty for the reader more interested in history or church history. 

Perhaps unavoidable in a biography of Tyndale, Daniell resorts in places to supposition.  Daniell clearly identifies his educated guesses as such and rightly points out that most of what we can know about Tyndale’s life is likely already known; the rest is lost to history.  Daniell, however, does test the reader’s patience when he recounts specific translation choices or anectdotes repeatedly.  There is also some overlap, which must be expected given Tyndale’s stature in the history of English Bible translation, between this biography and The Bible in English. 

Still, these missteps detract only from the enjoyment of the affected passages and not from the book as a whole.  This biography was a delight to me and should be to all who value the Bible and revere the example of those martyred for the faith.

“Some man will ask peradventure why I take the labour to make this work inasmuch as they will burn it, seeing they burned the gospel?  I answer, in burning the New Testament they did none other thing than that I looked for: not more shall they do if they burn me also, if it be God’s will it shall be so.

Nevertheless, in translating the New Testament I did my duty, and so do I now, and will do much more as God hath ordained me to do . . . .”

-William Tyndale, Prologue to Wicked Mammon