Reviews and Reflections on Books, Literature, and Writing: Volume Three

By John Walters

From the author's introduction:

A popular topic in science fiction these days is the multiverse, the concept of an infinite number of parallel worlds. Remember, though, that the multiverse is not as far away as you suppose. Each book that you read takes you into a new universe. When you enter a bookstore or a library you are in the midst of thousands of portals to other worlds. To enter all you have to do is follow the words that the authors have set down to guide you. If they have done their jobs effectively, you find yourself in strange lands and alternate timelines with all sorts of different types of characters. The best part is that you can do it anywhere and anytime. Just open up the door, namely the cover of the book, and dive in. I compile these collections of book reviews to serve as maps leading to wondrous worlds. I wish you joy, amazement, prosperity, fun, and adventure in your explorations.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Astaria Books
• Release date: May 10, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223769835

John Walters

John Walters recently returned to the United States after thirty-five years abroad. He lives in Seattle, Washington. He attended the 1973 Clarion West science fiction writing workshop and is a member of Science Fiction Writers of America. He writes mainstream fiction, science fiction and fantasy, and memoirs of his wanderings around the world.

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Reviews and Reflections on Books, Literature, and Writing:

Volume Three

By

John Walters

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Published by Astaria Books

Copyright 2023 by John Walters

All rights reserved.  No portion may be copied, other than brief passages for review purposes, without permission of the author

Contents

Introduction: Sharing the Treasure

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Fiction

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In Calabria by Peter Beagle

On Borges

Collected Fictions by Jorge Luis Borges, Translated by Andrew Hurley

Small Game by Blair Braverman

The Ballad of Beta 2 by Samuel R. Delaney

Zero K by Don DeLillo

This Is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz

Haven: A Novel by Emma Donoghue

The Sentence by Louise Erdrich

Everything's Eventual: 14 Dark Tales by Stephen King

The Fated Sky by Mary Robinette Kowal

The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami

First Person Singular: Stories by Haruki Murakami

Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami

Lovely, Dark, Deep: Stories by Joyce Carol Oates

The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien

We Are Satellites by Sarah Pinkster

The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi

The Best of Robert Silverberg

Quest of the Three Worlds and Stardreamer by Cordwainer Smith

On Rereading The Rediscovery of Man by Cordwainer Smith

The Best of Michael Swanwick

Not So Much Said the Cat by Michael Swanwick

Brooklyn by Colm Toibin

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

The John Varley Reader

Slaughterhouse Five, or, The Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

I Love You but I've Chosen Darkness by Claire Vaye Watkins

Artemis by Andy Weir

The Martian by Andy Weir

Staying Alive; or, The Martian as an Allegory of the Human Condition

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder

Blackout by Connie Willis

The Emerald Circus by Jane Yolen

On Rereading Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny

Nonfiction

Never Say You Can't Survive by Charlie Jane Anders

Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe 1944-1956 by Anne Applebaum

Fields of Blood: Religion and the History of Violence by Karen Armstrong

Miracle Country: A Memoir by Kendra Atleework

The Greeks: A Global History by Roderick Beaton

Wild Horses of the Summer Sun: A Memoir of Iceland by Tory Bilski

From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life by Arthur C. Brooks

Rock Me on the Water: 1974: The Year Los Angeles Transformed Movies, Music, Television, and Politics by Ronald Brownstein

The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain

A Fiction of the Past: The Sixties in American History by Dominick Cavallo

How to Write Like Tolstoy: A Journey into the Minds of Our Greatest Writers by Richard Cohen

The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company by William Dalrymple

On Moving: A Writer's Meditation on New Houses, Old Haunts, and Finding Home Again by Louise DeSalvo

The Adventurer's Son by Roman Dial

A Pilgrimage to Eternity: From Canterbury to Rome in Search of a Faith by Timothy Egan

A Savage Dreamland: Journeys in Burma by David Eimer

Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein

War on Peace by Ronan Farrow

One Giant Leap: The Impossible Mission That Flew Us to the Moon by Charles Fishman

The Last Winter: The Scientists, Adventurers, Journeymen, and Mavericks Trying to Save the World by Porter Fox

Northland: A 4,000-Mile Journey Along America's Forgotten Border by Porter Fox

Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World by Anand Giridharadas

David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants by Malcolm Gladwell

Time Travel: A History by James Gleick

Leadership in Turbulent Times by Doris Kearns Goodwin

The Powers That Be by David Halberstam

Notes on a Foreign Country: An American Abroad in a Post-American World by Suzy Hansen

Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention - And How to think Deeply Again by Johann Hari

Grumbles from the Grave by Robert Heinlein, Edited by Virginia Heinlein

The Sun Is a Compass: A 4,000-Mile Journey into the Alaskan Wilds by Caroline Van Hemert

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand

The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science by Richard Holmes

Footsteps: Adventures of a Romantic Biographer by Richard Holmes

Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson

Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted by Suleika Jaouad

The Art of Memoir by Mary Karr

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer

Fault Lines: A History of the United States Since 1974 by Kevin M. Kruse and Julian E. Zelizer

Rocket Men: The Daring Odyssey of Apollo 8 and the Astronauts Who Made Man's First Journey to the Moon by Robert Kurson

Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott

Red Paint: The Ancestral Autobiography of a Coast Salish Punk by Sasha LaPointe

Whole Earth: The Many Lives of Stewart Brand by John Markoff

Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes

1776 by David McCullough

Riverman: An American Odyssey by Ben McGrath

A Long Strange Trip: The Inside History of the Grateful Dead by Dennis McNally

The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels by Jon Meacham

River of the Gods: Genius, Courage, and Betrayal in the Search for the Source of the Nile by Candice Millard

Literary Wonderlands: A Journey Through the Greatest Fictional Worlds Ever Created by Laura Miller

Forever Young: A Memoir by Hayley Mills

The Last Wilderness: A History of the Olympic Peninsula by Murray Morgan

Wilderness at Dawn: The Settling of the North American Continent by Ted Morgan

The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris

Theodore Rex by Edmund Morris

Inventor of the Future: The Visionary Life of Buckminster Fuller by Alec Nevala-Lee

Greek to Me: Adventures of the Comma Queen by Mary Norris

The Library Book by Susan Orlean

A Place of My Own: The Architecture of Daydreams by Michael Pollan

This Is Your Mind on Plants by Michael Pollan

Bird Cloud: A Memoir by Annie Proulx

Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire by David Remnick

Tibetan Peach Pie: A True Account of an Imaginative Life by Tom Robbins

The Writer's Crusade: Kurt Vonnegut and the Many Lives of Slaughterhouse Five by Tom Roston

Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore by Elizabeth Rush

Lost in the Valley of Death: A Story of Obsession and Danger in the Himalayas by Harley Rustad

Citizen Hearst: A Biography of William Randolph Hearst by W. A. Swanberg

They Called Us Enemy by George Takei, Justin Eisinger, Steven Scott, and Harmony Becker

The Believer Book of Writers Talking to Writers Edited by Vendela Vida

The Consequential Frontier: Challenging the Privatization of Space by Peter Ward

Like a Rolling Stone by Jann Wenner

Homewaters: A Human and Natural History of Puget Sound by David B. Williams

Pacific: Silicon Chips and Surfboards, Coral Reefs and Atom Bombs, Brutal Dictators, Fading Empires, and the Coming Collision of the World's Superpowers by Simon Winchester

On the Reading and Implementation of Self-Help Books

End Notes

Introduction: Sharing the Treasure

It has been only a few years since the publication of Reviews and Reflections on Books, Literature, and Writing: Volume 2, and yet here I am already compiling a sequel. Part of the reason is that, as I mentioned in the introduction to Volume 2, I had waited too long before putting together that collection, and I had to leave some worthy reviews out so that the book would not be too thick and unwieldy. As I wrote: although "some of the titles I was leaving out were as impressive as those I had decided to retain, I relegated these essays into another folder in my computer for a possible third Reviews and Reflections." And here it is. The other reason, of course, for Volume 3 is that I have continued in my habit of voluminous reading, and there are many more books whose insights I want to share with you. I assume that readers of these Reviews and Reflections volumes are as hooked on reading as I am and that reading these reviews is part of their process of feeding their insatiable craving for books. I'm happy to oblige, happy to share whatever knowledge I have of the treasure house of literature.

The past two years, in which COVID has killed so many and has ravaged the economic systems of the world, have not been easy. Along with that of many other people around the world, my income has decreased, and I struggle to raise enough money to pay the rent and bills. As a result, with all but a few rare exceptions I have had to stop buying books. I rely heavily on the local libraries, which in my case comprise the Seattle Public Library System. The libraries shut down for many months during the worst stages of the COVID epidemic, but now they are open again and functioning efficiently. I go to the local library around once a week, or at least once every two weeks. I usually peruse the new book shelves and some of my other favorite sections, but I also make use of the library's online catalog, searching for books presently available at my local branch, requesting transfers of volumes from other branches to mine, and reserving popular titles for future reading. During my reading or internet browsing, whenever I come across references to potentially interesting books I write down the titles and authors on scraps of paper that I keep stacked on my desk. When I have time, I conduct searches for those titles in the library database. In this way I try to avoid running out of things to read, which would be an intolerable situation. In the past, I have sometimes obtained a book with great anticipation only to find that it was a dud; therefore I always try to check out at least two or three books at a time from the library, so that if my primary acquisition turns out to be uninteresting, I have backups. A few times the backups didn't pan out either, and then I had to find a short story or two off my personal shelves to tide me over until I could make it back to the library to try again.

As in volume 2, you might find that I have reviewed more nonfiction titles than fiction. I might read slightly more nonfiction than fiction these days, but that's not the main reason for the discrepancy. I have chosen not to include the reviews of some of the short stories collections I have read, such as best-of-the-year volumes, because reactions to disparate short stories do not form cohesive narratives as well as reactions to full thematically connected books.

While gathering these reviews, I have noticed that certain subjects and themes, especially in nonfiction, seem to stand out. For instance, there are quite a few travel memoirs, a genre of literature of which I am especially fond. Besides these, there are a number of books about the sixties and seventies, especially those that focus on the countercultural upheaval and resultant outstanding examples of artistic expression that blossomed back then. These include volumes such as A Long Strange Trip: The Inside Story of the Grateful Dead, A Vision of the Past: The Sixties in American History, Inventor of the Future: The Visionary Life of Buckminster Fuller, Rock Me on the Water, Whole Earth: The Many Lives of Stewart Brand, and Like a Rolling Stone. Why do I read so many books about this time period? I grew up in it; it fascinates me. I gain insight about my background by reading about the history of the era when I came of age. But when you get down to it, I am fascinated by just about everything, and if I had time I would get around to reading about everything. The universe is a mind-boggling place. There is always more to learn about and appreciate.

A popular topic in science fiction these days is the multiverse, the concept of an infinite number of parallel worlds. We see this in films such as Spider-Man: No Way Home, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and Everything Everywhere All at Once. Remember, though, that the multiverse is not as far away as you suppose. Each book that you read takes you into a new universe, the universe of the writer's soul and spirit. When you enter a bookstore or a library (whether physical or digital), you are in the midst of thousands of portals to other worlds. To enter all you have to do is follow the words that the authors have set down to guide you. If they have done their jobs effectively, you find yourself in strange lands and alternate timelines with all sorts of different types of characters. The best part is that you can do it from anywhere and at anytime. Just open up the door, namely the cover of the book, and dive in.

What more is there to say then? I compile these collections of book reviews to serve as maps leading to wondrous worlds. I wish you joy, amazement, prosperity, fun, and adventure in your explorations.

In Calabria by Peter Beagle

Allow me to indulge in a few relevant personal reminiscences, and then I will talk about the book and the story. This novella has great personal appeal to me, and I want to lead up to it properly.

A young writer named Peter Beagle was one of my teachers at the Clarion West science fiction writing workshop back in 1973. I don't remember much of what happened at the workshop - it was over four decades ago and I had just turned twenty - but I remember Beagle's author's reading. Each of the weekly guest instructors held a reading from their works at the end of their session, and during at least part of Peter Beagle's evening he read a passage from The Last Unicorn, which had been published a few years previously. It was a description of the unicorn running through a dark forest written in beautiful poetic prose. I still have a vivid picture of the scene in my mind after all these years. Afterwards, when Beagle was answering questions, someone asked about his writing technique. He said that when he sat down to write he generally had no idea where the story was going. It unfolded as he wrote, one sentence at a time. That explanation was a source of wonderment to me, as I was having such a difficult time coming up with ideas for stories. I don't know if Beagle wrote In Calabria the same way - as I said, it has been a long time; perhaps his method has evolved. I have tried the technique myself in a number of my novels and short stories, and there's always a sense of adventure about it.

My next memory concerns mystical and mythical Calabria, one of the poorest and most undeveloped of Italy's provinces. It's the area on the southernmost end of mainland Italy. I have passed through it numerous times, having lived in Italy with my ex-wife and young sons for several years. We stayed in Sicily for a year or so, a short ferry ride away from Calabria, where our third son was born in a small town just outside of Palermo. Back then at least, people from the rest of Italy generally considered Calabria rough, rugged, uncultured, and backward, but in my travels I invariably found Calabrese folk to be kind, generous, and hospitable.

In Calabria is a short novel with few characters and a simple plot about a Calabrese farmer who one day discovers a pregnant unicorn in his orchard. For some reason that the simple, gruff farmer cannot imagine, the unicorn chooses his land as the birthplace for her colt. I don't want to give away more of the plot because I want you to discover the joy and wonder of the story for yourself. It's a beautiful tale told in simple yet elegant language. Although Beagle is almost eighty years old, he has lost none of his gift of writing spellbinding prose that so enthralled me as his young student back in 1973. He must have spent extensive time in Italy and traveled through Calabria, because he perfectly captures the feel of the place, the character of the people, and the scattered Italian expressions. This book is a delight to read from start to finish, and I hope that many readers are carried away by its poetic enchantment.

On Borges

My thoughts have recently turned to Jorge Luis Borges, one of the greatest fantasy short story writers that ever lived. I have read Collected Fictions, a comprehensive collection of his short stories, several times cover to cover. His story The Aleph is on my list of the greatest short stories of all time. Two things brought Borges back to my attention.

First of all, I saw a notice online that interested persons can cast votes for Seattle's EMP science fiction museum hall of fame, and one of the names on the list of nominees was Borges. I was surprised and pleased to see his name among more ostensibly popular modern writers, as he is truly worthy of the honor. In fact, I took the trouble to cast my vote just so I could vote for Borges.

Also, while browsing the books at the Friends of the Library book sale last weekend, I came across a volume called Jorge Luis Borges: A Literary Biography by Emir Rodriguez Monegal. The author evidently had known Borges for decades and was a personal friend.

I had great hopes for this book. As soon as I finished my previous reading project, I jumped on it.

Alas, it did not live up to expectations. To put it bluntly, it's boring. The author spends too much time psychoanalyzing Borges' intentions in writing and too little time simply telling the story of his life and how he came to write his books. Every little detail about his past is punctuated with analyses of how, consciously or unconsciously, it eventually erupted in his prose. The author goes way overboard with it. Writers themselves generally don't take things to such extremes. It's true for every writer I've ever read about or spoken to: we write what we write. We want to tell a story, or evoke mystery, or create mood, or whatever. But to nitpick it apart like this biographer does takes all the fun out of it - plus his explanations do not ring true. For the most part, they smack of wild speculation.

Especially for a writer like Borges, to pick apart what he has written in such a manner does him a great disservice. Although the writer was supposedly his friend, Borges did not approve the biography; it is not official.

The book got so boring, in fact, that I stopped reading it all and started skimming through for the good parts. It is intermittently interesting, but you have to dredge through a lot to get to the gold. The chapter discussing the period when he got a job at the public library to help provide for his household resonates with me. Until he was forty, although he had published several books of poetry and essays, he lived with his parents and relied on his father's pension for subsistence. Here he was, writing brilliant, innovative prose, but he couldn't make enough money at it to support himself. So he was forced to seek employment, and ended up at a position in which he was profoundly dissatisfied. That's the way it is with me right now. I'm forced to use most of my time writing internet articles to keep myself and my household going so that I can also, in whatever snatches of time I can manage, write my stories and memoirs.

In the end, of course, Borges became renowned as a short story writer, won all kinds of honors, and got invited all over the world. But he was already elderly and blind by the time that happened.

What a shame that this biography could not have been what it should have been. This shining light of world literature who probably should have won the Nobel Prize deserves a definitive biography. In the meantime, read Collected Fictions. You won't be disappointed.

Collected Fictions by Jorge Luis Borges, translated by Andrew Hurley

Part One: The Early Works

I recently gave a copy of Collected Fictions by Jorge Luis Borges to a young writer as a Christmas present. This is not the same as presenting someone with a more or less standard or normal science fiction or fantasy novel. The short stories of Borges are much more challenging than the works of most other writers. You can't approach him lightly or flippantly or you're going to be blown away by the intricacy and intelligence. After he had read several of the stories, this writer and I had a long phone conversation about Borges, his significance, how to approach him, and what other writers can learn from his work.

In selecting this volume to give to this other writer, I perused my copy of it first, going over the table of contents, reading random paragraphs, remembering my reactions to the stories when I had read it in the past. I have read the book cover to cover twice, and have read some of my favorite stories many more times than that. Inevitably I got sucked in again. I had just finished my previous reading project and was waiting for another book to arrive, so I started to reread Borges. I couldn't help it. By this time I had already ordered a copy to be sent to this other writer, and as I started at the beginning of my copy and read through, I realized the difficulties of encountering Borges, especially through this book, for the first time.

For one thing, the book is a compilation of all of Borges's fiction, and the various books of stories that he wrote throughout his career are presented in chronological order. The problem with this is that there is a clear development from his early fictional experiments to the much more sophisticated works that he wrote later. This became starkly evident to me as I read the first two sections of Collected Fictions. It would be far easier for readers who have never before encountered Borges to begin with a Best of collection in which his best and easiest to understand stories are highlighted.

The first section of Collected Fictions is A Universal History of Iniquity, which was published in 1935. This is a collection of stories of infamous villains from all over the world, including the outlaw Billie the Kid from America, a female pirate from China, a courtier from Japan, a pseudo-prophet from Turkey, and a gangster from Argentina. Borges lists a variety of sources for the background of these stories, but it is evident that he has taken great artistic license in the telling of them, so that it is impossible to discern which parts are facts and which are Borges's embellishments. These stories are characterized by the author's attention to detail, or maybe it would be more correct to say pseudo-detail. They read like historical accounts but ultimately have to be classified as fabrications.

Part Two of Collected Fictions is The Garden of Forking Paths, originally published in 1941, which is Borges's first real short story collection. Here we can see the progression of Borges's art and storytelling skill, and the beginning of the evolution of themes that he would continue to refine in future works, including elaborate thought experiments, mirrors, labyrinths, libraries, and descriptions of made-up books and authors. Some of the stories take the form of pseudo-reviews of imaginary books. Some, such as The Circular Ruins, The Lottery of Babylon, and The Library of Babel, are thought experiments in which the elaborate ideas are the real protagonists and the human narrators do little more than introduce and describe them. The writer I gave the book to and I agreed that these idea-focused stories remind us of some of the stories of Ted Chiang, another extremely cerebral writer.

The last story in this section is the titular one, The Garden of Forking Paths, and in this story, for the first time, it is possible to see how the evolution of Borges's various paths of thought and technique have come together into a rich, dense, fully-formed short story. The Garden of Forking Paths is intricate, has a brilliant idea meticulously formulated, but also has fully-fleshed characters, historical background, and an elaborate plot that is a type of murder mystery. Here we see the fulfillment of Borges's growth as a writer in a superlative, well-told, complete story. There will be many more to come.

Part Two: Later Writings

Now we come to the heart of Jorge Luis Borges's work. As he matured as a writer, certain themes and subjects began to emerge. One of these is the concept of the double. Numerous stories deal with two seemingly separate characters who in the end turn out to be the same character. More than once, the characters turn out to be Borges himself. He frequently inserts himself by name as a fictional character in his stories, which is an intriguing method of juxtaposing reality and fantasy.

One of the best of the stories about doubles, Borges and I, is less than a page long. It is actually not so much a conventional story as an explanation of the difference between the literary Borges and the Borges who lives his day to day ordinary life. The literary Borges, he writes, is the one that people recognize and the one who receives all the acclaim, while the other Borges is the scholar who reads and writes in solitude; in the end, the narrator is unsure about which Borges is writing the current story. In another story about doubles, The Other, a younger Borges and an older Borges meet on the bank of a river and have a discussion about their mutual life. The younger Borges is in Europe and the older Borges is in New England, and their timelines are decades apart, and yet they somehow link their realities together and share a conversation that they will afterwards forget.

Borges is best known for his fantasies, of course, most of which are elaborate thought experiments. Some of the best deal with fantastic objects or entities people come across that have