Soldiers Berserk

"Soldiers Berserk" by Kitsy Bouchard, in French, 1912, Éditions CCS Frequel, Carcassonne, Aude, Calabria, Hardcover, 284 pages, no graphics.

I read and reviewed this volume when cataloging and creating an inventory of the books found as part of the "The Evart-Gunn Publishing Company Book Salvage Operation" (see first entry of this blog).

This book is exactly what a book should NOT be. Messy, incoherent, aimlessly starting ideas and not following up on them, starting others and leaving them hanging.

A mystery for me is how an editor recommended and a publisher approved this to make it to print.

Water-snakes and Millibrand

"Water-Snakes and Millibrand" novel by Ben McGrenatleyson, 1899, Cauldron Publishing, Printing and Issuing, Ayr, Scotland, Hardcover, 412 pages, one drawing. I read and reviewed this volume when cataloguing and creating an inventory of the books found as part of the "The Evart-Gunn Publishing Company Book Salvage Operation" (see first entry of this blog Read this first ).

Great read, interesting story, well written will leave you wanting more from where this came from. The hero of the story is Craig Coulton described as a tall, dark, handsome figure with a permanent brooding look, a man of few words and firm beliefs. He has a small glove shop on Hunt Street, in downtown Swindon. He makes, cleans, mends and sales gloves. Craig lives alone above the shop and his only friends are the lads he has pints with at  at the Thistle and Whistle, around the corner on Victoria Road. One day, a middle-aged lady of noble bearing and great poise walked into the shop asking if they carry Rowan's goatskin gloves, colours she prefers, she said, was light burgundy and dark ochre. That is where the action here takes a fantastic turn, Craig has a psychotic episode feeling he can fly above the North Wessex Downs  and see as far as he wanted to.

Night Baker

I have reviewed this book as part of my activity for the Evart-Gunn Publishing Company Book Salvage Operation,   Read This First

"The Night Baker" is the second novel of the South Carolina native, Toronto transplant writer and critic Eve St. Wello published in 1991 by Kiva's Koroneth Publishing of Willowdale, Ontario, Hardcover, 488 pages, no graphics.

I read and reviewed this volume when cataloguing and creating an inventory of the books found as part of the "The Evart-Gunn Publishing Company Book Salvage Operation" (see first entry of this blog).

This is the very well written story of Glenda H. who just opened a French patisserie and thought that hard work, skills and imagination are (theoretically) sufficient to guarantee success. What Glenda did not expect is the difference between practice and theory to be so much bigger in practice than in theory. Glenda must have everything fantastic, fresh and fragrant, so she bakes all night and takes trips all day. (It takes us long to find out that she was a day tripper, a Sunday driver, yeah!). So when the time came to name the store she narrowed it down to: "The Day Tripper" and "The Night Baker", in the end she went with the latter.

The novel is entertaining and the narrative flows well with beautifully defined characters and clever descriptions. The best part of the writing deals with the recipes and the depiction of the baked wares, but the most exciting and satisfying tales are about Glenda's frequent, very short (and mostly unhappy) trysts.

The novel ends with Glenda opening Wednesday's Toronto Start, the Food Section, to see a picture of her in front of the store with the title "Get Your Kicks at the most excellent Night Baker's".

It takes an astute, canny and discerning reader to adjudge that between "The Day Tripper" and "The Night Baker" Glenda definitely goes with the former.

Speight's Exquisite Inn and Tap

"Speight's Exquisite Inn and Tap" Three short stories by Isaiah Veniamin, 1929, Minton & Sons Press, Hazlehurst, Copiah County, Mississippi, Softcover, 280 pages, three photographs. I read and reviewed this volume when cataloguing and creating an inventory of the books found as part of the "The Evart-Gunn Publishing Company Book Salvage Operation" (see first entry of this blog).
A very good read, maybe a little confusing if not familiar with the Deep South of the Twenty's atmosphere, habits and ways of life. The best story is "Carroll County", the last in the book, a strange, eerie and dark love story, a first-person narrative written in a non-linear fashion. It starts with one of the young lovers (unclear if boy or girl) mourning by spending a lot of time picking flowers and dropping them off the bridge into the muddy waters of the Tallahatchie River. We are given to guess it being the place where the lover's counterpart (of equally undisclosed gender) jumped or fell to his or her death. Throughout the narrative, there are flashbacks or jump-ahead of  scenes from everyday life

A Simple Twist of Fate

"A Simple Twist of Fate" Novel by Jan Ondřej Havlak, 1921, Krilovioc & Hrbski Vidavatel, Blansko, Moravia, Czechoslovakia, Hardcover, 508 pages, no graphics.
Mr. Havlak is an extremely talented writer, his book is imaginative and well written, interesting and beautiful ... for me, a very pleasant read. Strange novel that depicts, describes, documents and details a twelve hour period that starts one Wednesday evening at eight, part of the ongoing love story between Karla Kvitova, 21, a beautiful medical student and Horymir Klima, 27, a talented musician (saxophone player) from a wealthy local family. The unnamed location may be České Budějovice, on the Vltava. From the opening scene when "they sat together in the park" through their walk by the old canal, past the arcade all the way to a strange hotel where, later, Horymir wakes up and the room is bare, feeling the emptiness inside and hearing the clicking of the clock and then hunting Karla with the help of a blind man at the gate (holding a cup with a few coins), finally ending up at "the waterfront docks, where the sailors all come in", it is a great example of stream-of-consciousness writing, then, a new and revolutionary method of creation. The book ends just a couple of minutes shy of eight in the morning, on Thursday, when Cymbeline walks by with a parrot that talks and our hero concludes that all he experienced (or imagined) ought to be blamed on a simple twist of fate, one to which he could not relate. Yes.
I read and reviewed this volume as part me cataloguing and creating an inventory of the books found as part of the "The Evart-Gunn Publishing Company Book Salvage Operation" (see first entry of this blog).

The Colours of Lennox

"The Colours of Lennox" novel by Ben McGrenatleyson, 1899, Cauldron Publishing, Printing and Issuing, Ayr, Scotland, Hardcover, 412 pages, one drawing. Great read, interesting story, well written will leave you wanting more from where this comes from.The hero of the story is Craig Coulton described as tall, with dark-red hair, of a strong and handsome figure with a permanent brooding look, a man of few words and firm beliefs. He has a small shop on Hunt Street in downtown Swindon,  where he makes, sales, cleans and mends gloves. Craig lives alone in the small apartment above the store, his only friends are the lads he has pints at night at the Thistle and Whistle, around the corner on Victoria Road. One day, a formidable lady of noble bearing and great poise walks into the shop asking for Rowan's Goatskin Gloves, "light burgundy or dark ocher, please!". The novel takes now a fantastic turn, Craig has a psychotic episode seeming to fly high above the North Wessex Downs searching for the meaning of life and stealing pens off other people's desks. When he comes to, he is alone in the shop holding a piece of white chalk, on the floor, in front of him, chalked in neat handwriting the words "Santiago Colors". Within two weeks Craig sells everything he owns and books passage to Chile. Once in Santiago de Chile, he leases a workshop in the Macul neighborhood and starts experimenting with pigments in chalk. In less than a year he opens a shop with the most exquisite colored chalk sticks anybody could have ever dreamed of and calls it "The Colours of Lennox". His commercial success brings fame and fortune and invitations to the noblest houses in town where he meets, courts and marries Maria Fernanda Lucia Esmeralda Conubles Flores Fernandez y Cocq. The novel ends with Craig sitting on the veranda of his hacienda listening to the Gramophone playing "The Bonnie Banks o'Loch Lomond" watching his three sons and two daughters drawing.

I read and reviewed this volume as part me cataloguing and creating an inventory of the books found as part of the "The Evart-Gunn Publishing Company Book Salvage Operation" (see first entry of this blog).

It is Cold and I am Old

"It is Cold and I am Old" poetry by Yavana Kello, 1928, Krompton & Poe Printing, Murdo, South Dakota, Hardcover, 102 pages, foreword by Joe Bellnow.
According to the very friendly foreword to the book, this is the second volume of poetry Kello published. It turns out that Kello is twenty-three, of Scandinavian heritage, an heir to a scented soap and tooth-powder fortune and lives in a comfortable house in West-Fargo, Cass County, North Dakota. Kello is very unlikely to suffer of cold, hunger, thirst or old age ... so his poetry, although technically refined, neat and polished comes from a fake place. It appears that the author frequently stays out late into the night with friends drinking and having a great time and upon returning home, after a shower and a great breakfast of steak and eggs, takes his beautiful, young fiancee out for a drive in the hills and to have lunch at the country club. Mr. Kello's literary workday does not start until about four when he produces a couple of broken-heart and broken-dreams creations and then goes to the billiard room to relax.
All poems are written in very disciplined quatrains with an ABAB rhyme schema that makes them roll easily off the tongue and are very pleasant to the ear. After a while though, even the most enthusiastic reader finds they sound hollow and "hears vague traces of skipping reels of rhyme". I never found (not that I looked too hard) the first volume of Kello's poems and would not recommend his books to anybody anyway.

I read and reviewed this volume as part me cataloguing and creating an inventory of the books found as part of the "The Evart-Gunn Publishing Company Book Salvage Operation" (see first entry of this blog).