quayage - a charge for the use of a quay
- a system or group of quays
- the space available in a system of quays
a quay is a wharf
Friday, January 23, 2009
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Words Recently Used in Lexulous
Jota - a Spanish dance in triple meter, performed by a couple and marked by complex rhythms executed with the heels and castanets.
- the music for this dance
ort - a scrap or morsel of food left at a meal (generally used in the plural, orts)
pes - a foot or footlike part (pl. pedes)
- the music for this dance
ort - a scrap or morsel of food left at a meal (generally used in the plural, orts)
pes - a foot or footlike part (pl. pedes)
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
A Heart So White - Javier Marias
I've been reading a lot recently, and will be posting some reviews of the books as I please. My most recent read is a Heart So White by Javier Marias, a Spanish novel. This is the 7th book I've read thus far in 2009. Here is my review.
At some point, everyone becomes aware that their parents are not just abstract concepts (Mom and Dad) but actual people as well. This can be a startling revelation for kids, realizing that Mom and Dad haven't always been so, are people that have pasts that extend beyond when you were born (but surely no farther than when they met, right?) This does not, however, mean that a person wants to discover what lies in the past. Indeed, many try to avoid any knowledge of the past whatsoever. Such is the case with our narrator, Juan, who is (blissfully?) ignorant of the past of the history of Ranz, his father. He has vague awareness of the past - his father had originally been married to his aunt (who never could have been his aunt) and, when she died, he married her sister, Juan's mother. When Juan marries Luisa, he finds himself with vague feelings of terror (both at the fact that they are bound together and that he might lose her). When a childhood acquaintance mentions new information about his father (the aunt committed suicide, there was another wife before the aunt) Juan does not want to know any more but realizes he has to find out.
The book deals with a wide range of themes, prominent among them the problems of marriage (and in that sense it might speak more to people who are married or are at least nearing it) but also balances it out by having Juan visit a single friend in New York to see the alternative. The power of the past also plays a prominent role, as do the the intersections between love and power, photographs and memories. Stylistically, the prose is elegant, although the sentences do tend to run on quite a bi. The latter may have something to do with the Spanish language (I know it has been mentioned that German language sentences tend to run on, I'm less sure of Spanish). Marias tends to circle back to ideas he has already introduced, not just subtly referencing them but inserting the same sentences into a later conversation in parentheticals. This works well, though, both because of the subtelty of the connection and the mass of ideas Marias has crammed into the book. A blurb on the back of the book compares Marias' depiction of the marriages to the "compelling intricacies of Henry James," although not having read any Henry James I am unqualified to comment on the accuracy of the comment. And the book offers a very good, although not amazing, conclusion, a rarity it seems.
At some point, everyone becomes aware that their parents are not just abstract concepts (Mom and Dad) but actual people as well. This can be a startling revelation for kids, realizing that Mom and Dad haven't always been so, are people that have pasts that extend beyond when you were born (but surely no farther than when they met, right?) This does not, however, mean that a person wants to discover what lies in the past. Indeed, many try to avoid any knowledge of the past whatsoever. Such is the case with our narrator, Juan, who is (blissfully?) ignorant of the past of the history of Ranz, his father. He has vague awareness of the past - his father had originally been married to his aunt (who never could have been his aunt) and, when she died, he married her sister, Juan's mother. When Juan marries Luisa, he finds himself with vague feelings of terror (both at the fact that they are bound together and that he might lose her). When a childhood acquaintance mentions new information about his father (the aunt committed suicide, there was another wife before the aunt) Juan does not want to know any more but realizes he has to find out.
The book deals with a wide range of themes, prominent among them the problems of marriage (and in that sense it might speak more to people who are married or are at least nearing it) but also balances it out by having Juan visit a single friend in New York to see the alternative. The power of the past also plays a prominent role, as do the the intersections between love and power, photographs and memories. Stylistically, the prose is elegant, although the sentences do tend to run on quite a bi. The latter may have something to do with the Spanish language (I know it has been mentioned that German language sentences tend to run on, I'm less sure of Spanish). Marias tends to circle back to ideas he has already introduced, not just subtly referencing them but inserting the same sentences into a later conversation in parentheticals. This works well, though, both because of the subtelty of the connection and the mass of ideas Marias has crammed into the book. A blurb on the back of the book compares Marias' depiction of the marriages to the "compelling intricacies of Henry James," although not having read any Henry James I am unqualified to comment on the accuracy of the comment. And the book offers a very good, although not amazing, conclusion, a rarity it seems.
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