Welcome to Litsy!

(1926)
Banned in Boston for ... I don't know, might've been the free love, might've been the Bolshevism, might've been both. It's an indictment of capitalism, set against the background of the early twentieth-century oil industry, Hollywood, and WWI. It has a sense of humor to balance its earnestness, which is nice, but it rambles a lot too and feels every bit of its 550 pages.

#BannedBooks

#DanielDayLewis has had quite the literary film career; some good ones pictured here. Have you seen any of these? #MoviesInMay
@Klou

I read this because my favorite film is There will be Blood, which was inspired by the first section of this book. While different in scope and tone from that film, both serve as an indictment of capitalist greed and corruption. The novel is satirical, surprising entertaining, and horrifyingly still relevant 93 years after its publication.

“‘My gosh!‘ said Dan. ‘Have you seen the things we‘ve been sending out about Roscoe‘s foreign concessions, and what the state department is doing to make him rich? That story would beat the Sunnyside lease, if we could get the Senate to investigate it!‘”

“He recognized it, of course - a proof of his story, left there by the mercy of the Lord! When this fresh miracle was announced, the hosannas of the faithful shook the roof; and presently the angel‘s feather was mounted in a glass case, and set up behind the place where Eli preached, and, such was the Lord‘s mercy, whoever even looked upon this relic, was instantly cured of all his ailments and had his sins forgiven...”

“And so there was a bust-up in Local Angel City, as everywhere else in the world; the ‘reds‘ withdrew, and presently split into three different Communist groups; and Joe and Ikey Menzies left home, and set up house-keeping with two girl-workers of their own way of thinking. So Bunny was more perplexed than ever; life appeared so complicated, and happiness so hard to find!”

An iced dirty chai, some home fries, a book (Library curbside pickup was easy), and a spot in the shade. Sounds like a good Saturday to me!

“Why didn‘t Bunny do it? It wasn‘t cowardice - he didn‘t know enough about life as yet to be afraid of it. He had never earned a dollar in his life, yet he had the serene conviction that he could go out and ‘get a job,‘ and provide for himself those comforts and luxuries that were a matter of course to him. But the trouble was, he couldn‘t bear to hurt people. It was what Paul meant when he said that Bunny was ‘soft.‘”

“Bunny felt his old embarrassment in connection with the Paradise tract; his title to these vast possessions was not clear, and Paul was bound to be jealous, realizing how his family had been tricked. But, then, in swift flashes of revelation, Bunny discovered how completely out of date these old feelings had become. Nevermore would Paul be jealous for his lost heritage; never would he consider the claims of the Watkins family...”

“But that was not enough for Ruth, what she wanted was for Paul to come home. Surely, now that the war was over, he ought to be on the way! But Bunny said she‘d have to make up her mind to wait, because an armistice wasn‘t the same as a peace, there was a lot of negotiating to be done, and the army would sit tight meantime. But when peace was declared, then surely Paul would come back...”

“Dad gave the answer, they‘d have to go back to work! ‘And lose the strike, Dad?‘ Yes, he said, if they couldn‘t win, they‘d have to lose - that was the law of strikes, as of everything else. Life was stern, and sooner or later you had to learn it. They must give up, and wait till a time when their union was stronger. ‘But Dad, how can they make it stronger, when the operators boycott them? You know how they weed out the union men...‘”

“Bunny didn‘t say so, but he thought Dad was a little too pessimistic about one-half the human race. Bunny knew there were women who weren‘t like that, for he had found one - Rosie Taintor, who had been his sweetheart now for a year or more. Rosie always tried to keep him from spending money on her, saying that she didn‘t have any money, and it wasn‘t fair; she would ride in his car, but that was all. She was so gentle and good...”

“They read that over twice, and Dad signed it, and Mr. Hardacre signed it with a rather shaky hand, and Dad said fine, and counted out ten one hundred dollar bills on the desk, and said for Mr. Hardacre to get to work right away. He would do well to have his options all ready for the other party to sign, and Dad thought he had some blanks in the car - he wasn‘t jist sure, but he‘d see.”

“So Bunny, in the midst of his father‘s glory, would pass down the street and encounter poor Mr. Dumpery, coming home from the trolley with dragging steps, after having driven some thousands of shingle-nails into a roof; or Mr. Sahm, the plasterer, tending his little garden, with its rows of corn and beans that were irrigated with a hose. Bunny would see Mrs. Groarty, feeding her chickens and cleaning out her rabbit-hutches...”

“With them came Mr. Sahm, a plasterer, who lived in a temporary ‘garage-house‘ on the ‘little lot‘ adjoining the Sivons. His dwelling amounted to nothing, nevertheless he had been the one who clamored most strenuously that the houses should be moved at the lessor‘s expense; he had even tried to put in a provision for compensation for the rows of beans and tomatoes he had planted on his lot.”

Today‘s #bookhaul

I struggled with this book, and I'm trying to process why. It just never reached me emotionally, and rarely struck a chord intellectually. That being said, I read it nine years ago, so my palette might have been too rudimentary. I will give it another try. No book is read until it's read twice.

Getting a tenth anniversary screening of There Will Be Blood in before the end of 2017!

Reading while I wait for my oil change. This is my mantra that I text my husband every time I go to the mechanic 🙄my dad is a mechanic and I know my way around a car, so the sexist fear mongering that is the norm towards a woman who is alone is disgusting.

Reading tools: Kindle Fire, book, tablet, book journals. #litsyAtoZ #letterO