Book Notes: "On Booze" by F. Scott Fitzgerald

On Booze by F. Scott Fitzgerald

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I have read several of these short stories before in other collected stories and on the Esquire "Classics" website. Just brilliant. If ever an author was able to capture a moment in time, even whilst living in that time, then Fitzgerald is the one. It would seem that the self-destructive genius could only be this way in order to display his genius. Such a shame that it takes the destruction of a genius for the rest of us to know that brilliance.



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Book Notes: "Marcovaldo" by Italo Calvino

Marcovaldo by Italo Calvino




This is a rather intriguing work, but I fear much is lost in translation. Touches of mid-century Italian comedy are evident, but I daresay there is more than meets the eye. A better knowledge of mid-century Italy would be useful to better understand the subtle messages of urbanisation and the peasant mind. Calvino was rather prolific so with a little research and some more reading, I hope to glean the deeper purpose of this author.



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Book Notes: "Martin Eden" by Jack London

Martin Eden by Jack London

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


If Martin Eden is indeed autobiographical, it demonstrates the extraordinarily perceptive intellect and much-tortured soul of Jack London. The book is riveting. At first, somewhat banal in its celebration of the typical hard man, then academic in its treatment of the philosophers of its time, then ending in a way that Hemingway would have been proud. London's own story of intellect and physical rigour are captured in the work. While White Fang and Call of the Wild may have been his more popular works, and I found The Assassination Bureau fascinating, here London is at his best. Much like George Bernard Shaw's Back to Methuselah, which Shaw considered to be his masterpiece, I cannot help but think that this was London's masterpiece, although the purchasing public may not have agreed.



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