Nothing But the Night by John Wiliams

Arthur Maxley wakes in his room, which he thinks is like his soul--dirty and disarranged. Shrugging off that thought, he slaps cold water on his face and determines to go for a walk. But he never gets to his destination, sidetracked to a cafe. His egg makes him think of an evil eye and depressed by the little cafe and ends up back home, the windows in his building seeming to leer at him. Maxley's nerves are disturbed by memories. Everything he encounters is magnified in grotesque ways, like circus sideshow mirrors, reflecting his inner world.

Every word in John Williams' novel Nothing Like the Night reveals Maxley's claustrophobic and overwrought psyche, the story culminating in the revelation of the horror Maxley witnessed and his irrational acting out of his trauma.

Is this book by the same man who created William Stoner in Stoner, the novel so constrained and elegant, austere and yet moving? Both novels are dark, but Stoner's resolution is comforting in his final acceptance of his life. Night leaves the protagonist still lost in the dark. Violence becomes his speech and there is no health in him.

Nothing But the Night was Williams' first novel, written during the war when he flew supplies "over the hump" and saw his fellow soldiers die. Only a mentor with a small press believed in him enough to publish this novel. Williams learned from his mistakes and went on to write "the perfect novel" Stoner and the National Book Award winner Augustus.

It was fascinating to read this early novel, at once a failure and yet showing Williams ability with words and insight into human nature. The story is disturbing and memorable, a psychological noir more suited for 2018 than 1948.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through Edelweiss in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

from the publisher:

Stoner author John Williams’s first novel is a searing look at a man’s relationship with his absent father, and how early trauma manifests throughout one’s life

John Williams’s first novel is a brooding psychological noir. Arthur Maxley is a young man at the end of his emotional rope. Having dropped out of college, he’s holed up in a big-city hotel, living off an allowance from his family, feeling nothing but alone and doing nothing but drinking to forget it. What’s brought him to this point? Something is troubling him, something is haunting him, something he cannot bring himself either to face or to turn away from. And now his father has come to town, a hail-fellow-well-met kind of guy. They’ve been estranged for years, and yet Arthur wants to meet—and so he does, reeling away from the encounter for a night of drinking and dancing and a final reckoning with the traumatizing past that readers will not soon forget.

Nothing But the Night includes an interview with Nancy Williams, John Williams’s widow.

Publication History: 1st pub 1948; OP since 1990

Nothing But the Night
by John Williams
NYRB Classics
On Sale Date: February 12, 2019
9781681373072, 1681373076
$14.95 USD, $19.95 CAD

Learn more about John Williams--

My review of The Man Who Wrote the Perfect Novel by Charles J. Shields can be found at
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-man-who-wrote-perfect-novel-john.html

Read my review of Stoner by John Williams at
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2018/02/favorite-new-classics-stoner-by-john.html

Read my review of Augustus by John Williams at
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2016/03/pax-romana-and-ephemeral-power-augustus.html

Helen Korngold Diary: February 3 - 9, 1919

Helen Korngold, December 1919, New York City

February, 1919

Monday 3
Wellston—Class. Made 2nd Basket Ball team. That’s pretty good. All the other girls have been playing for 4 years. I just started. Home—practiced.

Tuesday 4
Wellston. Class as usually. Nothing startling. Lecture—Dr. Hudson of Mizzoo [Missouri State University] a philosopher & a good one too.

Wednesday 5
Wellston—class—Practiced basket ball. Letter from papa. Home.

Thursday 6
Wellston—Class. Luncheon & a senior party in the evening. We had one swell time. Came home with Willis Bliss, nephew to General Bliss who is sitting in the Peace Conference. Home at 12 bells.

Friday 7
Wellston—Class-Dancing—it’s so refreshing.

Saturday 8
Class. Dr. McCourt certainly does quiz one. Dr. Usher was so sweet today. Downtown—Party is off. I’m not sorry.

Sunday 9
Fooled around—studied & took a lesson. I’ve been good this week. Special delivery letter from J. Koloditsky. He’s discharged. I haven’t even answered his last letters. Papa came home. I’m thrilled to death! Ruth thinks I’m a fool but Arthur doesn’t - Why worry.

*****

Notes:

February 4

Dr. Nellie Hudson taught education at Missouri State University (Mizzoo)

Dr. Nellie Hudson

http://semo.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/Sagamores/id/1829

February 6

Wyllis King Bliss was in the 1916 Washington University Freshman class. He was born in St. Louis and later studied at the University of Illinois. He graduated from Washington University in 1920 with a B.S. in Commerce. His WWI draft registration shows he was of medium height, slightly built, with blue eyes.

Wyllis was the son of Malcolm Andrews Bliss (1863-1934), an important physician specializing in mental health who campaigned for zoning laws to restrict congested slum neighborhoods, the noise and crowding of which he saw as destructive to St. Louisan's nervous systems. He organized the Malcolm Bliss Psychiatric Institute and dedicated his life to helping the poor. He was also an Instructor in the Washington University School of Medicine.

http://www.historyhappenshere.org/sites/default/files/250%20Master%20People%20List.pdf

http://collections.mohistory.org/archive/ARC:A0137 

General Tasker Howard Bliss (born in Lewisburg, PA in 1853 and died in Washington, D.C. in 1930) was U.S. Army Chief of Staff during WWI. He accompanied President Wilson’s adviser Colonel House to London in 1917 and was appointed U.S. representative to the Allied Supreme War Council at the Paris Peace Conference. He supported lenient treatment of Germany and Austria-Hungary and lobbied for U.S. involvement in the League of Nations. General Bliss’s assignment concluded in December 1919. He dedicated the last years of his life to eliminating war which he considered a “primitive response” to national issues.

http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/thbliss.htm

The Peace Conferences began on January 18, 1919. World War I had not yet ended, although the fighting had stopped. Diplomats from over two dozen countries gathered to seek a way to end the war. The Treaty of Versailles was signed, and the League of Nations was formed out of this conference. 

The Last Romantics by Tara Conklin

The Last Romantics by Tara Conklin is the moving story of the family bonds that both save us and tear us asunder. 

''...this is a story about the failures of love, and the Pause was the first." from The Last Romantics by Tara Conklin

Fiona Skinner, 102 years old and a renowned poet, returns to the podium for the first time in twenty-five years. A girl arises from the audience with a question: Who was Luna?

The Luna of Fiona's most famous poetry inspired women to name their daughters Luna. And this girl, named Luna, asks for her mother the question--who was Luna?

Fiona wrote the poem "a lifetime ago," "back when I was a romantic," she responds. The girl presses. And for the first time ever Fiona reveals the story of her family and the secret she has held in her heart for so long.

"Once upon a time," she begins, "there was a father and a mother and four children...and for a time they were happy."

And like Fiona's audience, enrapt, I was carried away by her story of the ways love carries us and fails us and how we turn from each other and how we carry each other. Her story of love's truth, it's bitterness and how it is the only thing that makes life endurable, and our deeply held illogical hope, which experience tells us is fantasy, that love can and will save us.

And that is all I am going to tell you. I still feel the warm heartache, the fullness and pressure in my chest, the awful truth I encountered in this fiction. 

Look around at your beloved family, the people you have given yourselves to, the people who cut the deepest and brought the fullest healing, who made you strong and brought you to your knees. The people you endeavor to protect and save, the people you have lost and haunt you. And tell me--what is love? 

I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

The Last Romantics

by Tara Conklin

William Morrow

publication February 5, 2019

$26.99 hardcover

ISBN: 9780062358202

ISBN 10: 0062358200

This is Not a Love Song, Stories by Brendan Mathews

Last year I enjoyed reading Brendan Mathew's first novel The World of Tomorrow. Reading his first collection of stories This is Not a Love Song brought me a new appreciation of Mathews. If World was a fun romp into the past with an action ending, the short stories are an examination of the human experience on a deeper level. I was moved, I related, and I was entertained.

There are stories about we believe we know--about love and family and life--but discover aren't true. Stories about coming to terms with life, or not coming to terms. 

The first story, Heroes of the Revolution, was also one of my favorites. An American female college student is responsible for providing visiting foreign journalists with typical American experiences. She takes them to pick apples, but walking through the orchard stirs memories, revealing the student's sheltered life while the journalists grapple with the lasting damage of the atrocities they personally lived through.

This is Not a Love Song questions the nature of art and friendship as one woman pursues a music career while her friend captures her life on film.

I loved Airborne, the story of how having a child transformed a couple's life and relationship, the crazy obsession over a child's safety, which in the story goes to an extreme, but which I well remember with the birth of my only child.

How Long Does the First Part Last? is about unrequited love.

Dunn & Sons is "the story my father never tells;" three generations of men share stories that connect them and those that split them, and the stories that "might save us" if "ever told the right way."

Look at Everything is an amazing story about a photography student who by accident causes a fire and responds by taking photographs instead of reporting it.

The Drive takes an ironic peek behind the ubiquitous story of a dad taking the babysitter home.

Henry and his Brother speaks to the bonds of fraternal love and a mutual need that transcends family ties.

In Salvage, a man working in the shady business of removing architectural pieces from ruined buildings finds the item that he thinks will finally change his luck and life.

The last story, My Last Attempt to Explain to You What Happened with the Lion Tamer, reads like a parody and comedy but feels like a tragedy involving the love triangle between a clown, a tightrope walker, and a lion tamer.

I can't wait to see what Mathews does next.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

This Is Not a Love Song
by Brendan Mathews
Little, Brown and Company
Pub Date 05 Feb 2019
ISBN 9780316382144
PRICE $26.00 (USD)

Jane Austen for Kids

Jane Austen for Kids: Her Life, Writings, and World by Nancy I. Sanders was written for ages 9 and up, but don't think you are too old to read it! This is a great resource for any reader new to Jane Austen and her world. I have been reading and learning about Austen since 1978 and Sanders taught me a few things.

One biographer stated that Austen led an uneventful life, which is how her Victorian Age family wanted her portrayed. Sanders touches on the many ways Austen's life was far from uneventful: family scandals, illness and horrible deaths, wars and epidemics, the loss of a beloved home, romances gone awry, and fame that brought her to the attention of a Prince.

I loved the excerpts from Austen's juvenilia! Her wicked humor and parodies are such fun. What a great way to get kids to connect. A summary of each novel is given.

The 21 projects included are great ideas to make Austen's world come alive. There are instructions on how to play Whist and illustration of popular dances. Kids can create imitate side whiskers and roll their hair with tied cotton strips. There are writing activities.

I can't wait to try the Knight family gingercake recipe! And as a sewer, the reticle will be fun to make.

Jane Austen model

This is a great introduction to Austen.

This book is part of the For Kids series from Chicago Review Press. Books cover a wide diversity of subjects from history and biographies of authors, artists, inventors, explorers, and more. Learn more about the series here.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through Edelweiss in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Jane Austen for Kids
by Nancy I. Sanders
Chicago Review Press
Publication February 5, 2019
ISBN 9781613738535, 1613738536
Trade Paperback  $16.99 USD, £14.99 GBP

Helen Korngold Diary: January 27- February 2, 1919

Helen Korngold, December 1919, New York City

January
Monday 27

Yesterday the gods showered flowers upon me—roses—carnations and sweet peas. That dance last night was a regular E. St. Louis affair. Nothing special today. Talked with Pauline a whole hour in library. Mr. Russack told us all about my friend E.—Gee, I’m all off him for life! He called up today, but I was asleep.

Tuesday 28
Wellston—Class! It’s all wrong—I almost fell asleep in Ed. That fellow Ellenburg calls up too often. Lecture was wonderful—all about paper & China—by a Dr. Willet of Chicago University. Since Mr. Goldstine told us about Ellenburg I’m sorry I ever went out with him, or yet, he treated me fine.

Wednesday 29
Wellston—Actually dozed in Ed 4. Ordered gowns & caps. They told me Ellenburg phoned again, but thank goodness it was Joe Raskas! At least, he doesn’t pester me with proposals. Beastly tired. To bed at 10 P.M.

Friday 31
Wellston—This is the first day I’ve felt gay for at least 72 hours! I don’t know why, but—oh well, I suppose it’s the effect of last night—I do love chop suey!—especially chicken. Dancing in gym is getting complicated. Miss Grant is wonderful. Last night Summer told me Dewey Pierre has been sent to New Mexico—he’s bound for the coast, I suppose.

February

Saturday 1
Papa left for N.Y. and I gave him a long list of questions to answer. I know he won’t do it. Junior Council luncheon at Grand Leader—Mrs. Leonard spoke—so also did Mrs. Halpern—she’s a doll. Beatrice appointed me chairman of party committee—I’ve got one big job before me. Went around curio room in Leader with Mrs. H. - Shopped & home.

Sunday 2
Just like all other Sundays—fooled around all day. Expect to get lesson tonight if Aunt Beryl ever comes. Awful Ellenberg called up! Threatened to commit suicide if I didn’t allow him to call! I won’t allow it. He’s too much for me. Said he’d meet me on train to Cole! Not if I know it!

*****

NOTES:

January 27

Several Russack families appear in the St. Louis Census. Samuel Russack in 1916 was Vice President of Peckham’s Pleating and Ostrich Feather Renovating Company. Samuel was in Real Estate on the 1920 St. Louis Census, with a son Martin, age 17. Samuel was Magyar in heritage.

January 28

Dr. Herbert L. Willet of Chicago University spoke on “The Changing Orient.”

Albert E Goldstein, B.S.  His June 1917 WWI Draft Card showed he was born February 20, 1896, and was tall with a medium build and had brown hair and eyes. He was a student. Albert E. Goldstein appears on the 1916 and 1917 St. Louis City Directory as a student living on Morgan St.

In 1930 and 1931 he appears as an Assistant Professor in Chemistry at Washington University. He is a full professor into the 1958 City Directories. He died in 1971.

January 29

Joseph Ruvlin Raskas in 1916 was attending the University of Illinois. His June 1917 WWI Draft Registration shows he was a student at Washington University. He appears in the 1917 Washington University yearbook and in the Class of 1919 Freshman Medical School photo.

The 1917 St. Louis City Directory shows  Joseph R. Raskas working for the St. Louis Neckwear Company and living at 4401 Page Blvd., the same street the Korngold family lived on. In 1944 he is working for the Raskas Sales & Service Company and still on Page Blvd.

passport photo for Joseph Raskas

Joseph R. Raskas was born on May 19, 1895, to Isaac S. Raskas and Sophia Saranson, both born in Russia. A 1921 passport request included an Oath of Allegiance. Joe was traveling for personal business to visit his father Isaac who was living in Palestine. Isaac appears to be appointed to the U.S. Consular post in Israel. The passport shows that Joseph was 26 years old, 5’6’ tall with a high forehead, brown eyes, prominent nose, round chin, dark hair and oval face. His WWII Draft Registration shows him living with Lottie in Evansville, IL and self-employed. In 1924, 19230, 1939 and 1943 (living in New York City),  he appears on passenger lists traveling to Europe. R. Raskas also appears on a passenger list in 1950. He was living in Baltimore when he passed away in 1981.

January 31

Miss Florence Grant, A.B. was Director of  Physical Training for Women until June 1919 when she retired to marry. She was cited as having awakened increasing interest in PE among women at the university, which included hockey and swimming.

February 1

article from Jewish Voice

The Grand Leader Department Store was located at 601 Washington Ave. Built in 1906 as Stix, Baer & Fuller, it was one of the premier department stores in St. Louis. Expanded in 1919, it became the Grand Leader Department store.

In 1879 Julius and Sigmond Baer opened a dry goods store in Arkansas which thrived and grew. After they were joined by their brother-in-law Aaron Fuller they decided to relocate to St. Louis. The men contacted Charles A. Stix, a St. Louis civic leader and in 1892 the Stix, Baer and Fuller department store was opened. In the 1980s they were bought out by Dillard's.
'
https://plus.google.com/photos/102332006155314414372/albums/4969145109586378769/4969145400627167250?banner=pwa&pid=4969145400627167250&oid=102332006155314414372

Goggle+ Being Elminated!

Goggle+ is being shut down in April 2019 "due to low usage and challenges involved in maintaining a successful product that meets consumers' expectations."

If you are one of my 74 Goggle+ followers you will need to change to another way to follow my blog posts after April.

On the right column near the top is a "follow by email" option. Each post will appear in your mailbox in total with no need to visit the website.

Further down is another group of followers through Bloglovin' and there is a "follow" button there. You can set up a daily notice to receive all Bloglovin' mail in one email with links to each blog you follow.

I have a Facebook page for The Literate Quilter where I post links to my blog posts.

To follow my book reviews outside of my blog there are many options.

I am on Twitter at @NancyAdairB
https://twitter.com/NancyAdairB

I am on Goodreads at
https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/28397995-nancy

And on Book Bub at
https://www.bookbub.com/profile/2594538394