Category Archives: Reading

“Tinker Sailor Soldier Spy” by John le Carré

Posted on December 23, 2011 by Houyhnhnm

As the later “A Most Wanted Man”, a slow-burning ascent, but different, and superior, in its significantly bathetic climax. There’s no real surprise when we see the traitor with Polyakov (a point made tellingly in the recent film), and the … Continue reading →

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“On the Road” by Jack Kerouac

Posted on December 23, 2011 by Houyhnhnm

A sustained poem, genuinely great in that it combines a modern(ist) absence of overall narrative, and a concentration on the modern, young, world, with a profound literary resonance both explicit (references to e.g. Le Grand Meaulnes & Proust), and implicit, … Continue reading →

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Plato’s “Euthyphro”

Posted on December 23, 2011 by Houyhnhnm

The best thing I’ve read for ages. Fabulously tight, funny, profound, and challenging. I’d never noticed how Plato sets the (in itself important) argument about holiness in the context of Socrates’ forthcoming trial, and sets up Euthyphro and his father … Continue reading →

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“A Time for Silence” by Patrick Leigh Fermor

Posted on October 9, 2011 by Houyhnhnm

A careful and honest writer, Leigh Fermor has above all a serious concern to communicate the truth both of what he observes and of his reactions to it. He’s most interesting and important when describing his first Benedictine experience – … Continue reading →

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“The Death of Socrates” by Emily Wilson

Posted on October 9, 2011 by Houyhnhnm

Thoughts ad loc.: 29 Protagoras began a book with “I have no way of knowing either that the gods exist, or that they do not exist” 30f αθεος normally meant ‘hated by the gods’ 48 The idea that all virtue … Continue reading →

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“The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ”, by Philip Pullman

Posted on October 9, 2011 by Houyhnhnm

A bit of a surprise. Some disappointingnesses: why does Pullman “explain” the miracles (e.g. the Feeding of the Five Thousand a result of sudden sharing, and the Resurrection… Well, I’ll try and get on to that later)? I did Scripture … Continue reading →

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“Of Truth” by Francis Bacon

Posted on October 9, 2011 by Houyhnhnm

A brief essay on the importance of truth to man, religiously and philosophically. One of the Fathers called Poesy: “vinum daemonum, because it filleth the imagination”. Replacing contemplation of the Divine, presumably. Montaigne: “to say that a man lieth, is … Continue reading →

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“Spies of the Balkans” by Alan Furst

Posted on September 13, 2011 by Houyhnhnm

[SPOILER ALERT] Furst’s hero Zannis is hard-working, principled, hunky, honest, pragmatic, successful, respected by Greek and foreigner, and human, yet (significant to our final inability to fuse with him) unflawed. I think it’s the fact that he actually gets away … Continue reading →

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“Ascog – Notes on its past and some of the people who have played a part in its story”, by George Bell Barker

Posted on August 29, 2011 by Houyhnhnm

[Robert Bontine Cunningham Graham, from “Up Stage”, an essay on Reginald Montague’s Ascog grave:] ‘”Failure”, he wrote, “alone can interest the speculative mind”, adding “For those who fail, for those who have sunk beneath the muddy waves of life, we … Continue reading →

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“Imperium”, by Robert Harris

Posted on August 28, 2011 by Houyhnhnm

Not a novel. No characterisation, just a story reasonably well told. But the crux is that Harris doesn’t appear to be trying to make me think, or to tell me anything. He is simply putting into narrative form a story … Continue reading →

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