The Magician

The Magician by Colm Tóibín
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

After few chapters of this book I felt uncomfortable - Thomas Mann goes to his study and writes, writes, writes.
The book mentions only 3 titles.
I looked for some reviews, and I like title of one of them: Colm Toibin imagines the life of Thomas Mann .
From this point I stopped bothering about T. Mann's writing and historical events around him.
What was left - fascination with young boys, young men.
And quite a number of family scenes, mostly toxic.
Was it enough?
I got a strong personal sentiment to T. Mann books, which I do not bother to explain, so reading this book let me feel being close to him. Otherwise I would consider it a waste of time.
Still I preferred other books on this topic - first of all - House of Exile . Also T. Mann's relation about writing Dr Faustus - Die Entstehung des Doktor Faustus . I read a translation to Polish, cannot find English translation so I got impression that Colm Toibin did not read this book which explains some discrepancies in his story.As for me, I stay some 60 years under magic of Magic Mountain, some memory HERE .

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Sunday Reign

Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?”

“Is that your own idea,” Jesus asked, “or did others talk to you about me?

“Am I a Jew?” Pilate replied. “Your own people and chief priests handed you over to me. What is it you have done?”

Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.”

“You are a king, then!” said Pilate.

Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”

Gospel according to John 18: 33-36

Most of this liturgical year we heard St Mark's gospels.
This one, ending the year was by St John.
In my opinion, not very realistic.

In Mark's words it was much simpler:

Very early in the morning, the chief priests, with the elders, the teachers of the law and the whole Sanhedrin, made their plans. So they bound Jesus, led him away and handed him over to Pilate.

“Are you the king of the Jews?” asked Pilate.

“You have said so,” Jesus replied.

The chief priests accused him of many things. So again Pilate asked him, “Aren’t you going to answer? See how many things they are accusing you of.”

But Jesus still made no reply, and Pilate was amazed.

Gospel according to Mark 15: 1-5

Today I was pondering over the next sentence of Pilate, not included into Sunday's reading
After Jesus' words: Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.

"What is truth? retorted Pilate.

What is truth?

I am only an old, small man, so my truth on Sunday was simple.

Last Sunday our parish was visited by Society of St Vincent de Paul representatives who handed Certificates of Appreciation to some hard working members of the Society.

One of them was...

Here comes the true story -
When they started reading the names, I did not wait for mine, but stormed to the front of the church.
The officials were so concentrated on their actions that they did not bother that when they read name Lucia, some male came to them, parish priest had to intervene.

And then - attention please - when they finally read my name they gave me the title - King of Treasurers.

It all emboldened me so much that I asked for a microphone - look HERE.

Attentive readers/watchers noticed in this video clip a strong, healthy laughter - this was my wife.
My sub conscience remembered her - when I was to say:  Society gave a purpose to my life - my tongue slipped and said: gave purpose to my wife.

P.S. I retired from the function of a treasurer in March this year.

The dictionary of Lost Words

The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The story starts with paper slip falling under the table and being caught by a little girl.
I was delighted to realize that this is the essence of the book - the girl catching, or being caught by words.
The book has over 400 pages, my full respect to the author, that she managed to use them so wisely and tactfully.
Note: this is a stub of a review. Maybe I will elaborate on it a bit more.

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Comrade Koba

Comrade Koba by Robert Littell
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Probably most complicated way (so far) to tell enigmatically about some events from history of Soviet Union.
I acknowledge author's knowledge of Soviet Union's history and effort he put to write this book.
Yes, there were some lines when I smiled, but generally I was bored and frustrated.


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Pedalling Poland

Pedalling Poland by Bernard Newman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was motivated to read this book when I learned it has been recently published in Poland.
Firstly I found the idea strange - to publish a sort of cyclist's memories some 90 years after they have been originally published.
The second reservation was - memories from cycling trip.
My own experience says, that it cannot avoid frequent references to condition of the roads and some details of cycling effort.
That's correct - I would say it takes some 20% of the book.
What remains?
Many, many scenes from the world which no longer exists.
Poland between world wars was a strange country.
It has been created at the conference table in Versailles after 123 years of non-existence. Politicians who created it, had to consider interests of many countries and a very volatile political climate. In the effect, Poland had a very irregular shape and included few areas boiling with political conflicts.
Effect on the book - we read quite a number of stories from a very volatile world, which was doomed for disappearance and which disappeared.
Here I give credit to the author for being an honest and compassionate judge.

One special point - Jews in pre-War Poland...

"At Łowicz I really met the Polish Jew. In German Poland he is not numerically strong and scarcely noticeable. As I got into Russian Poland, however, I saw his increasing influence; in town after town I noticed how most of the trade was in his hands, but in Łowicz the effect was startling. The lengthy main street of the town is a succession of insignificant shops, practically every one of which is held by a Jew. The miniature pavement was crowded with men in black coats, wearing round hats with tiny peaks: they also wore whiskers in considerable variety. And though they despise the fruit of the hog, they do not hesitate to sell it to others: only that morning I had bought my ration of ham from a very obvious Israelite!...

Warsaw - their numbers are positively enormous—there are over a quarter of a million Jews in Warsaw, and practically the whole of this number is concentrated in this one small area. Ninety per cent of the people, I imagine, in some of these streets were Jews. The boys were perhaps the most remarkable, in their costume with their curls about their ears, and faces as pale and delicately carved as those of girls. The youths are less attractive artistically; they never shave, of course, and a slow-growing beard is not the best adornment for a young man. The standard of living generally is appallingly low. Both men and women work at beggarly wages, almost invariably for other Jews—for the commerce of Poland is almost exclusively in the hands of Jews. It was unthinkable that these people were of the same breed as members of the Jewish intelligentsia that I had met in England and Continental countries, including Poland itself. Yet so it was. "
For me it was a discovery - I never heard or read this type of report in any media.

Interesting point - the author is quite optimistic about the future of Nazism. He acknowledges economic progress it brought to Germany and is absolutely sure that in years to come, this orderly and hard working nation will turn it in a good way.
How wrong!
But it looks like all European politicians shared the same view.

In the last scenes of the book, the author visits a site of a battle of Tannenberg - a massacre of Russian Army in early stages of WWI. Nazis build there a gigantic memorial glorifying the victors and it looks like the author was strongly and positively impressed by it.
I found this point very disappointing.

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Music you can live without

Basically I am quite sceptical about opinion polls.
ABC/Classic's 100 countdown is an exception.
Reason is very simple - it does not promote any consumables nor any actions. Just music.

This year though it stirred some negative emotions - just the title - Music you can't live without .

It brought to my imagination an image of a young, visibly overweight person, pushing forcefully a monstrous sandwich into his/her mouth and gasping - I am starving. 

The point is that we can live without music as this person would not starve without this sandwich.

This title I interpreted as an outcome of self-centered universe ruled by enormously inflated I.

 I expected ABC/Classic to avoid this trap. I was wrong.

The results are:
1. Beethoven - Piano Concerto No 5.
2. Beethoven - Symphony No 9.
3. Vaughan Williams - The Lark Ascending.
4. Vivaldi -The four Seasons.
5. Elgar - Enigma Variations.

Piano Concerto No 5 - I agree.

In my young years my musical experiences were limited to weekly concerts of Warsaw Philharmonic and the program of Polish Radio.
Somehow I got a number of chances to listen, on radio and live, to Beethoven's Piano Concerto No 4, but Number 5 - never.
I was already in my mid-twenties when it came on me,  unexpectedly, just part 1 - Allegro.
The impact was paralyzing, probably one of most memorable in my life...
But the piece ended, over 50 years ago, and I am still alive.

So to stay alive on a lighter note I recommend a quiz available on ABC/Classic website

Can you recognize a classical piece after hearing just the first note?

A link to Beethoven - HERE

To J.S. Bach - HERE.

I got some reasons for satisfaction...

At the end  - my choice - Opening chorus from J.S. Bach's St Matthew Passion.
I specifically selected performers dressed suitably for our current weather.

Dance, dance, dance

Dance Dance Dance by Haruki Murakami
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

No story about a non-person.
Emptiness interrupted by some memories from swimming club in ancient Egypt and blind wandering in darkness., maybe something more, but it is really irrelevant.
I had a break after some 20 pages, when I realized that a main character is a non-person.
Due to lockdown I could not return book to the library nor borrow another one, so I gave it another chance, but it was too hard.
Looking at gray skies is more exciting.
After all this effort, one question still remains - what Jack's London book was the main character reading?

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