One Year, 25 Books: Blindness by: José Saramago

“Blindness" is one of the most intriguing books one will ever read as its premise will never leave you. Imagine a world with pandemic blindness, with that, imagine all the fear, widespread panic and then envision the degradation that would follow. This book is part science fiction, part parabolic and all original. Indeed very worthy of the Nobel prize it gained for Literature in 1995.

Book:

"White Blindness” (rather than “dark” blindness) is the illness that sweeps the city in this story. It begins with one man who is driving a car, then it afflicts the bloke that helps him, then on to the ophthalmologist who attempts to treat him, and on to other patients present in the clinic during the first blind man’s visit, and further still, on to people who come in contact with all the preceding characters then eventually to everyone in the city and perhaps the world.

Entropy. The first set of people to be afflicted are interned in an empty mental hospital and at the start, government, society, and the diseased try to keep the peace, order and reason, however, due to lack of information on the ailment, its mode of contamination, incubation period and other queries,  the ones afflicted are neglected, threatened and even abandoned. With the arrival of the succeeding packs of newly blinded people, disintegration takes residence in the wards and a “Lord of the Flies” scenario occurs. A group of thugs in one ward decides to go feudal on the food and supplies for everybody in the hospital until they get their retribution.

Meanwhile in the world outside, it appears that blindness has set upon all humans of all the social strata; pet animals are roaming about left to fend for themselves and have reverted back to their wild instincts. Chaos defines the place and groups grapple together in packs to find food and shelter day by day, night after night wherever possible with their world narrowing down to holding out for survival. If we pan out circumspectly, we can study the behavior of how our specie might be able to survive in such a drastic and horrifying scenario, yet our depravity will always get in the way with our hope and potentials as people.

One woman lives to see all of this and she is spared of the illness, the reason behind her immunity is as mysterious as how the blindness came about in the first place. Though the tale is not told in her perspective, we see her dilemma of being fortunate enough not to go blind but conversely she witnesses the erosion of the world she lives in and the people around her. Was her sight worth having?

The plot though begs the question as to why couldn’t people who were blind prior to the epidemic, having already mastered their surroundings without sight not step up to the plate to some degree? Couldn’t they have helped guide and teach the ones afflicted how to adapt to their new condition? However, to be finicky is to take the essence away from the story. Give this one a tumble, it’s quite thought-provoking and will leave you thinking about it days after you finish it.

One Year, 25 Books Overture: A Natural History of the Senses by Diane Ackerman

Reading “A Natural History of the Senses” is like diving into a Niagara Falls of information about our constitution as human beings. In the book, Diane Ackerman delivers an expository of each of our senses that is vastly interesting, outlining the macro and microcosm of it all.  The author divided the book into major chapters (Smell, Touch, Hearing, Vision, Taste Synesthesia) with subchapters for compartmentalization. Upon reading, it was as though Sir David Attenborough’s voice was narrating in the background like in a documentary as it had that feel to it.

Book:

The chapter on “smell” discussed about how the stimulation of the olfactory nerves affect our appetite for food, life, bodily drives and memories. Ackerman for example is reminded of her childhood as we would be when we smell something familiar. I for one am endeared to the smell of smoke coming from the fire of dried leaves, papers and kindling because it reminds me of the rubbish we burned from what was swept at our yard in the Philippines (sans plastic). The memory of my mother and I watching the smoke rise higher in the afternoons is invoked and I remember them with clarity every time I get a whiff of that brand of smoke.

The chapter also tells of a Russian perfumer responsible for many high fashion fragrances and how she is paid exorbitantly to be “The Nose” for a famous atelier of perfumes in New York. She is able to draw scents harmoniously from numerous elements around the globe i.e., trees, flowers, fruits and is able mix and match them so a chemist can put it all together and concoct a scent that you or I might already be wearing at this very moment. Take note as she casually exposes the formula for the celebrated eau de toilette Chanel No. 5 which contains Gardenia, ha! no wonder I never took to it, I have bad recollections with Gardenias. 

Newsflash. Remember in the last decade or so when pheromones in perfumes were the fad?  (even now really), well, our good author debunks the notion that if a bodily fluid were incorporated in a scent, it would be  efficacious in making one attractive to the opposite sex. In the case of a woman, Ackerman argues, males from all manner of species would be trailing after her with something crazy in mind if this were so and I concur. Astonished was I to find too that sometimes, minute amounts of excrement from the anal sac of choice animals are mixed in our perfumes or colognes for an optimum whiff of musk. Nice.

The discourse above is an example on how the rest of the book goes. The other chapters on sight, hearing, taste, touch and that hyperdrive sense “synesthesia” are infused with this kind of exposition also.  Science, anatomy, physiology, the cosmos, history and some mysticism and poetry are mixed in. Ackerman is a very palpable believer of evolution yet there are acknowledgements of a Creator and of creation, she flip-flops this way throughout perhaps because she attempts to be all-encompassing and is accepting. The Chicago Tribune  parallels this book primarily with amorousness; as a naturalist, Ackerman does foray into sensuality as it relates  with our senses but not as a rule. She can be just as effusive with savagery as she is with sensuality, take as an example the recipe for Roasted Goose from the Dark Ages found in the chapter for Taste. Egad!

Ironically, the person known in history that is a frequent point of reference here is one who has lost her sight, hearing and ability to speak, Helen Keller. Though unable to see she can describe what she “sees" eloquently and though unable to hear or speak, she can convey most effectively. I understand Helen Keller to be a woman of faith and I would venture to say that her optimism is a testament that even if physical senses are infirmed, imagination and intuition can make up for it, a case for the human being’s sense of hope. 

This is quite the requested book, it was a bestseller and it initially came out in 1990, it is both subjective and objective and is a veritable education bonanza.  

 

One Year, 25 Books Overture: The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak

The Book Thief is about a girl named Liesel Meminger in Nazi Germany after she was dispatched to her foster parents named Hans and Rosa Huberman who turn out to be cool. After witnessing her little brother die en route to the destination of her new life, the book follows Liesel's journey from mistrust to becoming acclimated with her new environment. It would otherwise be rosy for Liesel except that she is in a time in history where an evil-fueled despot has risen in Germany who is bent on annihilating Jews and conquering the rest of Europe with this mindset. Since this is an unacceptable proposition for the rest of the world indeed (except Italy and Japan), Germany will just have to make do with the full assault of the allied countries against her and that is the backdrop of our book. 

Foster parents Hans and Rosa and now Liesel live in Himmel St. (German for Heaven), Liesel makes friends with kids in the neighborhood, some adults, even the Mayor’s wife who lives at the villa on the hill, but not with the Nazi woman store owner. In my head her visage is like that of Frau's in the Austin Powers movies but without the humor. The Huberman household gives shelter to a Jew who they all protect and fall in love with and because of this, we surmise that not all Germans were willing SS members or Furor fanatics during WWII. It is this theme of hope and caritas that makes this book a gem. That, the writing and the viewpoint from whom the whole story is told. Death (himself) tells the story of the book thief and it would be apropos as this is one of the periods in history wherein he would be the busiest too, taking lives here and there and all over. Death here in this book is verbose and takes on a personality if you please.

Thief. Liesel stole books for a few reasons. At first it was by accident and complacency really, the second out of passive protest from the periodic book-burnings headed by the Nazis and the succeeding ones were because of repressed anger under the tedium of being subjugated in a hell created by a demented man and his cohorts. A moral question, since the owner of the books Liesel mostly steals from knew and accorded the act, is it still stealing? In the book, a justification for Liesel’s thefts is made with the explanation that she did not steal with greed, for example, she reads the stolen books repeatedly before she takes another one. This reminds me of that argument by a son stealing from her mother’s purse and declaring, he wasn’t stealing but merely borrowing without consent. Haha.

Not at bad read this, and it can be lighthearted even in its dark setting.

One-Yr Book Challenge: The Sisters Brothers

Patrick DeWitt is a relatively new author we could be curious about. “The Sisters Brothers” I believe is his first or second and already one can see the direction the writer is going just with the pun-filled title alone. “The Sisters Brothers” was in the NYT best list, was shortlisted at the Man Booker Prize and won the Governor General’s Award. The book trails the mishaps and spirit of independence of two guns for hire in the once lawless west and what a trip it is. 

Book Review:
Charlie and Eli Sisters are guns for hire in the old west, Oregon to be exact. They are under the employ of an old western gangster known only as “The Commodore.” Their job was to track down a man in San Fransisco named Kermit Warm and kill him, simple as that. During the trek however, the one brother Eli begins to grow somewhat of a conscience and starts questioning his life’s path. Charlie on the other hand, the hot-headed one is hell bent on his task and because Eli is bound to a protective bond for his brother, he strings along. Waggish characters appear all over the story like a soothsayer in a cabin, the sweet bookkeeper dying of the consumption and a special mention to Eli’s ride named Tub, a bilious horse with a bad right eye whose head is bent to the side in order to see what's ahead. I can already see how a horse chase scene would pan out. It’s moments in the book like these where I laughed like I did in “O’ Brother Where Art Thou.”

Unexpected events follow when the Sisters meet their target and the whole affair does not proceed as planned. Alchemy comes into play when instead of an assassination, a collaboration in the search for gold ensues. Mr. Warm has found a formula that is able to visualize gold in the river at a particular time during dusk, why, it is the age of the California gold rush after all.

The dialogue is only a tobacco short of a slapstick comedy and if you read it like how they used to speak in the old west you’ll get the whole experience. While you’re at it, go ahead and pretend spit in a spittoon. There is good continuity and the book’s ending turn symbolic in the vicinity of western tales with a figurative mellow ride towards the sunset for a conclusion. I am not a man but even I can appreciate that. 

Your call if you're inclined to read it.

The One-Yr, 25 Books Overture: Love In the Time of Cholera

*not my book cover

I am having difficulty writing about this book because I did not have a religious experience with this one the way everyone undoubtedly had. As I recoil for the impact of lynching from all the devotees, I will concede that stories of undying love and waiting a lifetime for your forever one is heroic.

Book Review:

A young Florintino Ariza falls in love for eternity with a young Fermina Daza. They are living in a thick Catholic Latin American country at a time when if one wanted to be suitable, the person would court through letters and through proper channels i.e., a chaperone. Yet despite the odds Fermina and Florintino Ariza fall in love. Ariza at this point hasn’t had much luck as he is the illegitimate son of a man whose family owns the river transport of their city. Nameless and penniless, his love is unrequited not by Fermina but by her father and the society and customs they are imprisoned in. Upon discovery of their non-tactile love affair, the nuns in Fermina’s convent school and her father vehemently rejects any possibility of their union and orders them to cease and desist. After her defiance, Fermina was forced by her father to take an arduous and long trip far from the city in the hopes that she will forget Ariza.

Upon returning, a changed and hard-bitten Fermina finds that her love has been washed out for Ariza and she refuses him flatly this time around. Fermina then meets her husband, Juvnenal Urbino, a man of good standing, a physician in fact and she decides to marry him. Urbino is the dashing sort, popular, rich, highly educated, the works, sort of the antithesis of Ariza. One can't really refer to him as "the villain" as he too has a good heart and even befriends Ariza, unaware of his history with his wife.

For over half a century the scenes in the book volleys between Ariza’s barren existence interrupted only by his dalliances with widows or harlots, Dr. Urbino's life in the community and with his wife and Fermina’s seemingly blissful family life. Ariza's and Fermina's situation changes after Urbino dies and they become reacquainted and pick up where they left off.

Ariza is impractical and a very melodramatic lover to Fermina to the point of being fantastical, example, upon receiving his very first letter from her, he reads it over and over again as he eats rose petals mindlessly the entire day. He writes poetry endlessly and everything he does or plans is in the light of Fermina, even as she actively lives her life as a wife to another man and a mother to that man’s kids for more than half a century. While many will see this as exponentially romantic I see pathos, falling in love is beautiful, but not to this chimerical extent. I will concede, the violin playing at the catacombs at night for Fermina is dreamy; and the night where he supposedly plays for her one last time prior to departing after her wedding to Urbino broke me to tears. But with him coming back home so soon only to hit the streets like a stray dog in heat, the chivalry fades. Of course this is supposed to be justified because he keeps his heart “a virgin” for her, but syphilis or gonorrhea be danged (which is inferred he contracts), the book explodes in chapters of these backdoor liaisons.

The redeeming character in this story is that of Fermina Daza, in the case of the nuns and her father where everyone else is obtuse, she isn’t. Amidst victimization she does not buckle. She survives a heartbreak and uses all her talents to her advantage, her realism is a sort of a light in her imperceptive world. That's my girl. As for cholera, yeah, there was an outbreak of the disease in the country the story was set in but none of the major characters die from it. Why was it called that you’ll ask? I guess because it’s more convenient than calling it, “The Importunate Nerd, A Dashing Doctor and the Girl They Both Get Anyway, But Not At The Same Time.”

Devotees, that’s just my 2 cents OK? peace. 

One-Yr, 25 Books Overture: Cooking with Fernet Branca

I read this book because it’s by James Hamilton-Paterson, the British author who wrote “America’s Boy,” an extensively researched book about Ferdinand Marcos and “Playing with Water” one about how the author imbibed the salt life in the Philippines. Some of his previous works have been given awards like "Gerontious" (which I haven’t read) and I will say Hamilton-Paterson has quite the alacrity in his descriptive narratives.

Book Review:

Gerald Samper is a reclusive ghost writer for sports stars who lives in the hills of Tuscany and as he builds his cottage, an Eastern European female neighbor comes along to make his life interesting, to say the least. Marta is the neighbor’s name, physically described as a frumpy woman with frizzy hair, she writes musical scores for films in Voynovia (is this a real country?) and she annoys the Dickens out of Gerald. The neighbors’ relationship is one of like and dislike, dislike when they are not in front of each other and conversely there is politeness face to face because Europeans have to be egalitarian after all.

Comedy is found in the situations and circumstances throughout the book as well as in the internal dialogue in Gerald’s head and in the letters Marta sends to her sister Marja which is full of drivel about Gerald.  With wine being a social lubricant, the use of this cheap concoction named “Fernet Branca” is the common denominator for their meetings as well as in Gerald’s recipes. Gerald who also happens to be a chef of exotic foods (i.e., Otter with Lobster Sauce), posts the ingredients and the processes of the dishes as intermissions. Check out the conspicuous Liver Ice Cream with Fernet Branca that Gerald makes for Marta in an effort to redirect her away; here I thought that the Rhubarb or Mushroom Ice Cream that the American Iron Chefs make on TV are a far stretch. How about having a slice of his Alien Pie which requires cat in the recipe? (Shucks man, you’re nasty even for someone who eats Balut!).

To continue, Marta, for her good fortunes is in Italy because she was hired by a foremost Italian filmmaker who is part Sergio Leone - part Federico Fellini to write a score for his new film. Marta, not as creative as one would have her, plagiarizes Gerald’s renditions of Puccini’s Arias while working on his house and applies his singing to her score, though in an abstract way. Other hilarious bits found are in Marta's broken English which reads like they were extracted from Google's language translations such as, "I love you British Queens and Kings tradition..." Or "I want to learn you all of Voynovia, the fooding number one of all." LOL!.

The author’s tone in the narrative is cynical and incredulous of people and the continuity is effective. This is the part that will make one read through the book even if you have no interest in outrageous cuisine or fractious interpersonal relationships between humans. “Cooking with Fernet Branca” has spawned 2 more books, namely "Amazing Disgrace" and "Rancid Pansies" at the behest of the publishers because it did garner a following from people who found it quirky and entertaining. Your call if you want to read it. 

The One-Year Twenty-Five Books Overture: The Harry Quebert Affair

This book was given to me by a sweetie of an aid worker for "All Hands" prior to her leaving my island town. It reminded me of the Millennium Trilogy because it was about investigation and crime. It was 658-pages thick and written by a European named Joël Dicker. Though the writing style is not as deep as Steig Larsson’s, I will not take it against the writer as it might be worth it's weight in gold in the original language. The woman that gave this to me was reassuring and said this is a "can’t-put-down-book" and may I say, she was right. It was one of those wherein you wanted to get to the bottom of it all fast as possible - two days and a half fast in my case, with the complimentary dark circles around my eyes from foregoing sleep. If you do start it you will have the same experience as I had, having unbridled curiosity.

Book Review:

Marcus Goldman, a newly crowned best-selling author is suffering writer’s block with his second book. His mentor named Harry Quebert, already a celebrated and established author for decades is arrested for the murder of a fifteen-year-old girl who disappeared 30 years prior. Marcus takes on the burden of clearing the name of his friend and teacher but this is not easy.

Marcus sets out to investigate already with the premise that his friend is definitely innocent but as it turns out, Harry Quebert had an affair with the 15-year old victim (Nola Kellergan) when he was in his mid-thirties. In a recessed town in New Hampshire called Somerset, readers are taken far back three decades ago for a closer look at the citizens of said town as well as the events and the mood during the disappearance.  All of the characters featured save those who had not been in the town when Nola went missing are suspects. The twists and turns will lead the reader to think of every character being focused on as the perpetrator and this is what will prevent you from taking a break from reading. It was notable that the encounters between Quebert and Nola are not elucidated because the whole thing might become dodgy. 

Naturally when it all comes down, the culprit(s) is one who you thought of at first but because of some deception in the story’s presentation, you rule the character(s) out. I will not write about the plot extensively because it is worth a read and one where you'd like to solve the case yourself.

The book is sensational, suspenseful, delves into complex characterization; it also has psychiatry, emotionalism, corruption of power and even plagiarism.

In my view it was riveting, quite the success in Europe from what I read but this was not the case in the US, one of those "lost in translation" kind of things again, I suppose.

The One Year, Twenty-Five Books Overture: The Elegance of The Hedgehog

This book was written by Muriel Barbary, a Moroccan-French author who also wrote "The Gourmet" which though I believe is a separate story, has an element of connection to this book. This was originally written in French and the translation by one Alison Anderson I feel has captured Barbary’s intentions of levity. I had just completed a period classic by Elizabeth Gaskell’s named “Cranford" prior to reading this and I wanted to read something contemporary and witty. Well, cometh the hour, cometh the book.

Book Review:

Renée, our heroine is in her 50’s, a bit on the frumpy side and is a closet intellectual. She is also the concierge at 7 Rue de Granelle to eight families in this posh residence building of spoilt bourgeois families. Renée thinks that her acumen in the realm of philosophy and literature are best kept a secret so as not to disrupt her clients’ proclivities and not to mention, her employment. In truth, Renée disdains her employers for their pretentious altruism and what I call "cocktail party intellectualism,” which is to say, one will indulge in intellectual pursuits simply for the benefit of sounding astute in gatherings and nothing more. Renèe has to keep this facade of being the stereotypical help by turning her TV volume up in her place at the basement area, when in fact she is listening to opera and reading her books. Hilarity is found in how she describes the people in the residences and how in their snobbery they become daft.

The other major character is Paloma, a daughter of a French minister living in one of the apartments in the building. She is twelve years old, an introvert and is quite prodigious for her age, she studies the other characters' psyche, loves Japanese culture, Manga and absorbs many of the things in her environment. Like Renée, Paloma is not taken seriously and postulates that she shouldn’t disturb all the conventions of everyone around her on what a twelve-year old should be. Paloma’s journal entries reveal her thoughts and her genius in the book. Paloma has a dark secret she is keeping though, and that is to commit suicide sometime in June. She has laid out this plan in her head as she believes that nothing is worth living for. Her burden in life is not one of emotionalism necessarily as it is of exasperation for the humans around her. She is vastly misunderstood and does not have the inclination to implore anyone to make them see her point. Nothing is left for her to figure out, therefore she has to check out. This reminds me of Alexander the Great who supposedly wept to his mother at twenty nine because he had already conquered all of the known world at that time and there was nothing left to embark on, (first world problems).

The viewpoints of both protagonists are presented interchangeably with Renée’s written in the third person and Paloma as I mentioned in journal form. Most of the people of 7 Rue de Grenelle are self absorbed and oblivious to anything other than their own follies. They are not aware of the value of the people who work for them, not their own loved ones and let alone the tramps on the street across their building. This sort of routine continues until the advent of Mr. Kakuro Ozo, a wealthy Japanese businessman who moves into the building. Mr. Ozo initially suspects that his concierge is not who she seems when on their first meeting Renée quotes the first line of "Anna Karenina" and the former finishes that sentence. I really like code-speak among kindred spirits, don't you? So, he invites Renée for dinners to discuss their passions i.e., literature, opera, culture and even cuisine and her life livens up. Mr. Ozo, Renée and Paloma it turns out are like-minded in being erudite and fun-loving but has to keep it under wraps.
 
Themes on philosophy and human behavior are all over in this book and the presentation is not didactic which makes the discourses engaging. I liked how the book held my attention despite the absence of action or sensationalism in that sense. At the world's stage, the book held it’s place at no. 1 in France for 102 weeks and has won 3 distinguished awards. It was made into a film which I am scrambling everywhere to find because I am curious as to how it appears onscreen. Other works of Muriel Barbary include “Une Gourmandise" (The Gourmet) and the latest from 2015 titled “La Vie des Elfes";  if those books are anything like The Elegance of The Hedgehog, I pray I find them for I wish to be entertained once again by her storytelling. 

The One-Year Twenty-Five Book Overture

The ante is up for me, I am challenging myself to read 25 books (hopefully more?) this year. I also intend to give my 2 cents about the respective books I read and hope that you might be able to glean a thing or two with the reviews.

There is no preset list, I will just have to add and update the list as I go along because that’s how I roll, and so far I have finished the following:

LIST:

1. (January) The Elegance of a Hedgehog, Muriel Barbery
2. (February, March) War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
3. (March) The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair, Joel Dickson
4. (March) Cooking with Fernet Branca, James Hamilton Paterson
5. (April) Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia-Marquez
6. (April) The Sisters Brothers, Patrick DeWitt
7. (May) The Book Thief, Marcus Zusak
8. (May) The Natural History of the Senses, Diane Ackerman
9. (May, June) Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Jules Verne  
10. (June) Blindness, José Saramago
11. (July) Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton
12. (July) The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Annie Barrows, Mary Anne Shaffer
13. (August) Balzac and the Little Seamstress, Dai Sijie
14. (August, September) Kitchen Confidential, Anthony Bourdain
15. (September) The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden, Jonas Johansson
16. (September) The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
17. (October) The Old Curiosity Shop, Charles Dickens
18. (October) Cousin Bette, Honoré de Balzac 
19. (October, November) Persuasion, Jane Austen  
20. (November, December) Little Bee or The Other Hand (UK), Chris Cleave
21. (December) Romola, George Eliot
22. (December) A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
23. (December) Sign of the Four, Arthur Conan Doyle
24. (December) A Study in Scarlet, Arthur Conon Doyle     
  
 
The piece on War and Peace is in the previous entry. I will submit the reviews for the other books in the succeeding blog posts. So, let's go!

My Piece on War and Peace

I wish it was but this is not my photo...

After ages of just watching this book from afar, I was finally able to finish every bit of War and Peace two weeks ago. Yes, yes, the impulsion was from the BBC drama with the new hottest Brit actors and yes, yes, they are all fabulous but the main reason as to why I read it through this time was because, I finally had the time.

The translation I read was that of Pevear and Volokhnosky or the P & V. If you want to get on with a novel containing 1,225 pages, the P&V will grip you from the first paragraph. It’s practical but does not compromise meaning, at least I like to think so. This translation was proficient enough to hold you through Tolstoy’s philosophizing which contains so much more than the love story in the novel.

For my own clarity, I made a chart of the characters with their respective traits though I threw that out the window after key characters either died or their personality practically pivoted 180 degrees . As for the death of major characters, I found out that the first George R.R. Martin was Leo Tolstoy. It may also be advisable for one to at least have a cursory review on the Napoleonic Wars because it’s a good guide to understanding the ideology and timeline as one reads the book.

This was my first full on Russian lit other than reading some Chekov and watching Doctor Zhivago because, the Russians do have the penchant for making even musicals like "Fiddler on the Roof," well, dejecting. May I say as a post script that if one will read War and Peace only for the love story element of it as was shown in the TV drama, important contexts and pretexts will be missed especially the mindset of the author which is crucial to understanding the entire book and having a great experience with it.

War and Peace:

The story unfolds at a time when Russia was still luxuriating under Catherine the Great’s majestic shadow with her grandson Alexander I as the sovereign. It is glorious all over and our main protagonists Prince Andrew and soon to be Count Bezukhov, Pierre, are introduced in a grand fete at hostess du jour Anna Pavlovna Scherer’s palace. In this party there is enough nobility to throw around that one will wonder if peasants ever existed in Russia at all. The main characters are: Prince Andrew Bolkhonsky, a soldier ready to serve the motherland as an adjutant; Pierre Bezukhov, the illegitimate son of the dying Count Bezukhov, the third richest man in Russia; there is the family Kuragin which all of them from the father Prince Vasily and offspring Princes Anatole and Hippolyte and Princess Helene you’ll find cringeworthy; there is the Rostov family where our heroine Natasha comes from, they are generous and trusting, and there is mother and son tufthunter-tandem, Anna Mikhailovna Drubetskoya and Boris Drubetskoy.

Extensive depiction of the characters, locations, internal dialogue and description of events fill up the pages and are only interrupted by Tolstoy’s discourse on the philosophy of man, war, science and existence. War breaks out at first in 1805, the Battle of Austerliz begins and the Russians are very well defeated and Prince Andrew is wounded. After this,  a truce is met between Napoleon and the Alexander I and peace ensues but not without casualties.

The temporary armistice gives way to the love story between Prince Andrew and Countess Natasha Rostova; also, Pierre (now Count Bezukhov), marries the insatiable and capricious Helene Kuragin and the fruitful ascent of the Drubestskoys in Russian society's pecking order unfolds. Supporting but notable personages such as the insidious Dolokhov who becomes Countess Helene’s consort; the highly irritable Prince Bolkonsky Sr. (father of Prince Andrew), along with the pious Princess Mayra (Prince Andrew’s sister); the rest of the family Rostov and the plucky comic relief Denisov (with the “R” defect) are portrayed and expounded. Quite a highlight was given to Freemasonry at this juncture as Pierre Bezukhov chooses to join the brotherhood and we are even afforded an extensive view into their views and funky rites and rituals.

Extravagant balls are conducted in Moscow and Petersburg and here the reader's imagination will soar to the heights of opulence of Imperial Russia. However, since all good things must come to an end in Russian lit, Prince Andrew and Natasha’s romance suffers an about-face when the former takes a sabbatical at the behest of his father and crafty Anatole Kuragin entices innocent Natasha to elope. Though Natasha fails to abscond with the dastardly Kuragin thanks to the help of her sweet and suffering cousin Sonya, the damage has been done because a letter of refusal to Prince Andrew has been dispatched by the misguided Natasha. Blast. With her reputation tarnished, their family’s wealth dwindling and brother Nicolas off to war, Natasha falls ill and though she recovers, she becomes a changed woman, no longer the carefree songbird that we were first treated to.

On the war front, namely Borodino, Napoleon gets the itch to go to war again in 1812 and war indeed ensues. This time the consequences are of "Game of Thrones” proportions, or shouldn’t it be the other way around? Prince Andrew is mortally wounded, Pierre joins the army finally as Countess Helene’s licentiousness catches up with her, Kuragin Jr. dies and Dolokhov redeems himself by apologizing to Pierre for his past misdeeds. Though the Russians technically won the Battle of Borodino both in the book and historically, the French were still able to lay Moscow under siege as the inhabitants burned and left their capital. The Russians' act of pillaging their own villages instead of graciously surrendering to him was a tactic that frustrated Napoleon and one he could not comprehend. General Kutuzov, the Russian army chief, decides to retreat but not before barricading the French around the surrounding towns, locking them in and depriving them of food and supplies during the brutal winter. With this, Napoleon departs Russia and not long after that he goes to Waterloo where he falls spectacularly under the Duke of Wellington.

On their journey out of Moscow and unbeknownst to them at first, the Rostov family and the injured Prince Andrew were traveling in the same caravan all along. When Natasha learns that the Prince was with them, she devotes her time to nursing him in his last days and redeems herself in his eyes. Meanwhile, not all was turning rosy for Pierre, he was arrested and sentenced to hang for a plot to assassinate the Lilliputian General Napoleon but because circumstances were falling like dominoes for the French, his execution did not come to fruition but he, along with other prisoners were still held captive and were being taken to France. It was on the way there, near Borodino, where Dolokhov and Denisov rescue Pierre. With the war unwinding and everyone just having to improvisate with what’s left of people and country in Russia, the epilogues begin for ca. 1813 to 1820.

The first epilogue tells about what became of the major characters after Napoleon leaves the Russians for good. With the death of Prince Andrew, Natasha finds solace in Pierre Bezukhov and they end up together; though their families were not in good terms once, Princess Marya marries Nicholas Rostov and on this end there is a sense of victory. However, one will surmise where Tolstoy’s heart really belongs, it is in the second epilogue. It consists of eleven chapters of his dissertation on History, Philosophy, Religion, Humanity, Science and even Mathematics. In here I believe he wants to attempt to solve the puzzle that man has vis á vis his world, the Cosmos and his existence and though it is a formidable thesis, it remains only that, a thesis.

Being one of the longest novels ever written, War and Peace is a feat among literature feats. In our modern day it is touted as "one of the central works of  literature,” it was Newsweek’s number one novel among 100 in 2009 and Time Magazine’s third out of the top 10 books in 2007 and accolades have been and still continue to be written for it. While the book itself is not required to have a blissful eternity, it is good for one's curriculum vitae of books read, not in a high brow manner of speaking, but just in a bibliophile kind of way. One will feel as though they have picked up something worthwhile, it is a window to a robust history of a once grand empire, human frailties, conflicts and deficiency in war strategy are portrayed and so is depravity. It shows a madman’s desire to conquer but also, there is hope, the natural inclination to survive and the clamor for victory. 

To conclude, for those born only during and after the Cold War, this book will elucidate that there was once a fluid Russia, not a Russia that’s made of iron, damp cement and "Vodka Videos" we see on You Tube but a Russia that was unmolested by despots. Everyone recommends this book and so do I, the curiosity is there but the question though is only that of time, Da?