www.richardjespers.com - Blog

QUEENS OF SOLVING CRIME

3/21/2025

A WRITER'S WIT
There are certainly times when my own everyday life seems to retreat so the life of the story can take me over. That is why a writer often needs space and time, so that he or she can abandon ordinary life and “live” with the characters.
Margaret Mahy
Author of A Lion in the Meadow
Born March 21, 1936

M. Mahy

MY BOOK WORLD

Benedict, Marie. The Queens of Crime: A Novel. New York: St. Martin’s, 2025.

I sometimes think that wish fulfillment may be a driving force in writing fiction. The writer is able to bring to life a scenario by way of fiction that was impossible for its time in real life. Perhaps that is the case for Ms. Benedict, who takes five of the most celebrated female mystery writers of the 1930s and places them as characters in the same novel setting of London: Dorothy Sayers, Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham, and Baroness Emma Orczy.

The women essentially crash the local Detection Club, which is male dominated in every way. The women plan to solve a local murder not only to show the men in the club that they can but also the local police who otherwise treat them with disdain. The case they tackle involves a young English nurse who makes what is to be a short excursion to France (the ferry provides a day trip). She never returns alive, as her body is discovered in a wooded area. The five queens of crime set about working together to solve the murder. Though they have their squabbles, they see that cooperation is quite useful.

I don’t usually read mysteries, but my curiosity, for some reason, was piqued by this one. I’m not sorry I read it. It’s a page-turner, all right, but an intelligent one! Perhaps I shall read more of the genre.

Up Next:
TUES APR 1: A Writer's Wit | Jesmyn Ward
WEDS APR 2: A Writer's Wit | Hans Christian Andersen
THURS APR 3: A Writer's Wit | Jane Goodall
FRI APR 4: My Book World | Brandon Taylor, Real Life: A Novel

A WRITER'S WIT: LOIS LOWRY

3/20/2025

Submitting to censorship is to enter the seductive world of The Giver: the world where there are no bad words and no bad deeds. But it is also the world where choice has been taken away and reality distorted. And that is the most dangerous world of all.
Lois Lowry
Author of The Giver
Born March 20, 1937

L. Lowry

Up Next:
FRI: My Book World | Marie Benedict, The Queens of Crime: A Novel
NO POSTS MARCH 25-28 | Will return on
TUES APR 1: A Writer's Wit | Jesmyn Ward
WEDS APR 2: A Writer's Wit | Hans Christian Andersen
THURS APR 3: A Writer's Wit | Jane Goodall

A WRITER'S WIT: GARTH GREENWELL

3/19/2025

I guess I think that sex and desire and humiliation are central to my experience of consciousness—to my experience of humanness—and I wanted to explore the ways that they circle around and approach and fail to add up to love, or the ways that those three terms—sex, desire, love—can in some lights seem synonymous and in others like elements entirely alien to one another.
Garth Greenwell
Author of Cleanness
Born March 19, 1978

G. Greenwell

Up Next:
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Lois Lowry
FRI: My Book World | Marie Benedict, The Queens of Crime: A Novel

A WRITER'S WIT: WILFRED OWEN

3/18/2025

Be bullied, be outraged, be killed, but do not kill.
Wilfred Owen, Poet
Author of "Arms of the Boy"
Born March 18, 1893

W. Owen

Up Next:
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Garth Greenwell
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Lois Lowry
FRI: My Book World | Marie Benedict, The Queens of Crime: A Novel

'PREP': SMARTASSES ON STEROIDS

3/14/2025

A WRITER'S WIT
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Albert Einstein
Author of The Evolution of Physics
Born March 14, 1879

A. Einstein

MY BOOK WORLD

Sittenfeld, Curtis. Prep: A Novel. New York: Random, 2005.

I’m not sure why, but I’m drawn to so-called campus novels—perhaps it is something against which I can hold up my own experiences of adolescence. This one takes place at a prep school, Ault, in Massachusetts. Prep, at least this school, is a cross between an all AP-class high school and a small college occupied by smartasses.

Sittenfeld, given that she is about thirty as she publishes this novel, is perhaps the proper age to recreate such a world, about a half a life ago. The memory is still sharp concerning details she uses: aromas of freshly pubescent boys and girls, smells of institutional food, smells arising amidst the chalk dust and musty books and papers of a long-established institution. She recreates the emotions of that age, yet instead of going home to your parents each night, you’re returning to a dorm to eke out a life with someone you either hate or someone you adore (maybe the sophomore year onward).

Lee Fiora, a fourteen-year-old frosh, is bright enough to be on scholarship, and yet she feels insecure much of the time. At her middle school in South Bend, Indiana, she was a genius, but at Ault she is just one among many—many who seem to be far more ambitious than she is, as well. They seem not to have holes in their education as she does in the field of math. Not only that, but most of the students hail from rich families from the Northeast, and even though some of them befriend her, she never feels quite at home with such people.

One might be jealous of Sittenfeld for writing such an engaging, successful novel the first time around if it weren’t such an enjoyable piece of literature to read. It isn’t just about a bunch of teenagers but it is about those teenagers’ education: academic, personal, literary, social, and cultural. In this novel, they seem to learn it all—in four short and quick years.

Up Next:
TUES: A Writer's Wit | Wilfred Owen
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Garth Greenwell
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Lois Lowry
FRI: My Book World | Marie Benedict, The Queens of Crime: A Novel

A WRITER'S WIT: MARGARET CRAVEN

3/13/2025

The Indian knows his village and feels for his village as no white man for his country, his town, or even for his own bit of land. His village is not the strip of land four miles long and three miles wide that is his as long as the sun rises and the moon sets. The myths are the village, and the winds and rains. The river is the village, and . . . the talking bird, the owl, who calls the name of the man who is going to die.
Margaret Craven
Author of I Heard the Owl Call My Name
Born March 13, 1901

M. Craven

Up Next:
FRI: My Book World | Curtis Sittenfeld, Prep: A Novel
TUES: A Writer's Wit | Wilfred Owen
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Garth Greenwell
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Lois Lowry

A WRITER'S WIT: DAVE EGGERS

3/12/2025

Because I grew up with this naive expectation of people doing right, I get shocked by every little violation.
Dave Eggers
Author of The Eyes and the Impossible
Born March 12, 1970

D. Eggers

Up Next:
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Margaret Craven
FRI: My Book World | Curtis Sittenfeld, Prep: A Novel

A WRITER'S WIT: DEBORAH COPAKEN KOGAN

3/11/2025

Photography forces one out into the world, interacting with people and the environment. It flexes all those right brain, spatially-adept muscles.
Deborah Copaken Kogan
Author of Shutterbabe: Adventures in Love and War
Born March 11, 1966

D. Copaken Kogan

Up Next:
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Dave Eggers
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Margaret Craven
FRI: My Book World | Curtis Sittenfeld, Prep: A Novel

SPYING, SERIOUS BUSINESS

3/7/2025

A WRITER'S WIT
I am the daughter of Black writers who are descended from Freedom Fighters who broke their chains and changed the world. They call me.
Amanda Gorman, Poet
Author of Call Us What We Carry
Born March 7, 1998

A. Gorman

MY BOOK WORLD

Haseltine, Eric. The Spy in Moscow Station: A Counterspy’s Hunt for a Deadly Cold War Threat. With a foreword by General Michael V. Hayden. New York: St. Martin’s, 2019.

I’ve never seen so many abbreviations for governmental organizations in one book, the easiest to remember of which may be NATO or NSA. Memorize these and more—OPS2, DARPA, IARPA, NSAAB, DS&T, SIGINT, TOPS, RSO, HUMINT—and the book is a joy to read. Seriously, the story, once the author gets to the heart of it, is quite titillating—especially if you’re into reading spy craft literature.

In the late 1970s, Charles Gandy is an NSA operative sent to Moscow to investigate the US embassy there. He discovers a “chimney” in the embassy building which is adjacent to a Russian government structure, which is not a chimney at all but a tall empty chamber aiming what looks like an antenna directly at the ambassador’s apartment in the embassy. For six years, Gandy fights others in his own organization, not to mention the CIA and the State department, to bring what seems may be a breach to the attention of muckety-mucks in the US government. Many interesting pages unravel that story, the gist of which is: A certain underling working for Gandy uncovers in about half of the thirty IBM Selectric typewriters a bar in which is embedded a transmitter that “reads” each typewriter key and thus translates important memos for the Russians. Since most everything is typed before being sent officially, this is a boon to the Russians.

For some reason, during that period CIA and State leadership underestimated Russian intelligence, mainly because they didn’t think Russia had the money to conduct this kind of research and experimentation. The US looked at the primitive products (including automobiles) that Russian produced and extrapolated the wrong conclusion. The thesis of this book may be that this was a strategic mistake for which our country is still paying quite a price (i.e. Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election which most probably helped to elect Trump). Enough said. And as far as we know, our government is still underestimating the damage the Russians continue to do to our well-being each day.

Up Next:
TUES: A Writer's Wit | Deborah Copaken Kogan
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Dave Eggers
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Margaret Craven
FRI: My Book World | Curtis Sittenfeld, Prep: A Novel

A WRITER'S WIT: ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

3/6/2025

How many desolate creatures on the earth have learnt the simple dues of fellowship and social comfort, in a hospital.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Poet
Author of An Essay on Mind, with Other Poems
Born March 6, 1806

E. Barrett Browning

Up Next:
FRI: My Book World | Eric Haseltine, The Spy in Moscow Station: A Counterspy's Hunt for a Deadly Cold War Threat
TUES: A Writer's Wit | Deborah Copaken Kogan
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Dave Eggers
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Albert Einstein

A WRITER'S WIT: ROSA LUXEMBURG

3/5/2025

Freedom is always freedom for the one who thinks differently.
Rosa Luxemburg
Author of The Accumulation of Capital
Born March 5, 1871

R. Luxemburg

Up Next:
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Elizabeth Barrett Browning
FRI: My Book World | Eric Haseltine, The Spy in Moscow Station: A Counterspy's Hunt for a Deadly Cold War Threat

A WRITER'S WIT: JAMES ELLROY

3/4/2025

The truth of the matter is, you lose a parent to murder when you’re ten years old, and in fact at the time of the murder you hate your lost parent, my mother in my case.
James Ellroy
Author of The Black Dahlia
Born March 4, 1948

J. Ellroy

Up Next:
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Rosa Luxemburg
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Elizabeth Barrett Browning
FRI: My Book World | Eric Haseltine, The Spy in Moscow Station: A Counterspy's Hunt for a Deadly Cold War Threat

BURROUGHS'S 'QUEER' EXPLORES PREDATION

2/28/2025

It’s painful and terrible that youth is over, and with it that whole game of looking and longing and vying for attention, hoping for something, for some absolute transformation of everything. But it’s also a reprieve to be let off that hook and know that you’re simply in your own hands at last.
Tessa Hadley
Author of Accidents in the Home
Born February 28, 1956

T. Hadley

MY BOOK WORLD

Burroughs, William S. Queer. New York: Viking, 1985.

I first read this book before I started keeping records of my reading history, and that 1985 reading reflects not a single annotation—assuming I perused it entirely for pleasure. Not long ago, my partner and I watched the recent film of Queer starring Daniel Craig, and my interest in Burroughs’s novel was rekindled.

Bars and hotels play a great role in this short novel. The primary bar related to Mexico City where forty-something American, William Lee, is now living is the Ship Ahoy (the real name of the bar upon which it is based)—which seems particularly significant. Lee uses the bar as one might use a vessel, to search out sexual partners. In that sense he is a predator, particularly when he first sights Gene Allerton, a young American: “His mouth was a little open, showing his teeth in the half-snarl of a baffled animal. He licked his lips” (25).

Burroughs painstakingly portrays the exhaustion caused by Lee’s desires for Allerton: “In the dark theater Lee could feel his body pull towards Allerton, an amoeboid protoplasmic projection, straining with a blind worm hunger to enter the other’s body, to breathe with his lungs, see with his eyes, learn the feel of his viscera and genitals . . . Lee felt a sharp twinge, a strain or dislocating of the spirit. His eyes ached. He took off his glasses and ran his hand over his closed eyes” (36). All Lee and his bar friends seem to do, with the singlemindedness of the amoeba, is drink, eat, and fuck.

Burroughs’s economic use of words is admirable: “He must have slept. Mary and Allerton were gone. Tom Weston brought him some hot coffee. He drank the coffee, got up and staggered out of the apartment. Exhausted, he slept till the following morning” (62). The ellipsis between leaving his friend’s apartment and landing in his own bed is understood. Burroughs does this all throughout, and it is a good lesson for writers of fiction. You need to show (rather than tell) the important things, yes, but not necessarily that which is easily understood or taken for granted.

Lee convinces Allerton to take a trip deeper into South America in search of Yage (Ayahuasca), a psychoactive drug used by certain tribes in the region. The recent film departs severely from the book in that it makes this search a more exciting climax than in the book, where it seems to be just one more of Lee’s (and Allerton’s) endless scavenging for that great drug high.

Up Next:
TUES: A Writer's Wit | James Ellroy
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Rosa Luxemburg
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Elizabeth Barrett Browning
FRI: My Book World | Eric Haseltine, The Spy in Moscow Station: A Counterspy's Hunt for a Deadly Cold War Threat

A WRITER'S WIT: JOHN STEINBECK

2/27/2025

I have come to believe that a great teacher is a great artist and that there are as few as there are any other great artists. Teaching might even be the greatest of the arts since the medium is the human mind and spirit.
John Steinbeck
Author of Cannery Row
Born February 27, 1902

J. Steinbeck

Up Next:
FRI: My Book World | William S. Burroughs, Queer
TUES: A Writer's Wit | James Ellroy
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Rosa Luxemburg
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Elizabeth Barrett Browning

WRITER'S WIT: ELIZABETH GEORGE

2/26/2025

Writing is no dying art form in America because most published writers here accept the wisdom and the necessity of encouraging the talent that follows in their footsteps.
Elizabeth George
Author of With No One As Witness
Born February 26, 1949

E. George

Up Next:
THURS: A Writer's Wit | John Steinbeck
FRI: My Book World | William S. Burroughs, Queer

A WRITER'S WIT: BENEDETTO CROCE

2/25/2025

All history is contemporary history.
Benedetto Croce
Author of Manifesto of the Anti-Fascist Intellectuals
Born February 25, 1866

B. Croce

Up Next:
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Elizabeth George
THURS: A Writer's Wit | John Steinbeck
FRI: My Book World | William S. Burroughs, Queer

GUNN MAKES QUEER COOL

2/21/2025

A WRITER'S WIT
Whatever its actual content and overt interest, every poem is rooted in imaginative awe. Poetry can do a hundred and one things, delight, sadden, disturb, amuse, instruct—it may express every possible shade of emotion, and describe every conceivable kind of event, but there is only one thing that all poetry must do; it must praise all it can for being and for happening.
W. H. Auden
Author of The Age of Anxiety
Born February 21, 1907

W. H. Auden

MY BOOK WORLD

Nott, Michael. Thom Gunn: A Cool Queer Life. New York: Farrar, 2024.

As an American, I had never heard of British-born poet, Thom Gunn, but I was intrigued by the cover (dig those shades reflecting the half-naked photographer) and so bought the book. Almost expecting to lose interest, I, instead, read right to the end (not including Notes, egad) about this transplant to San Francisco. I am now looking forward to locating and reading Gunn’s published works with a certain understanding.

The key to getting at the core of Gunn’s life may be that his mother committed suicide when he was a child, and he never really recovered from it. He continued to ruminate over her death, and the topic dominated, at times, his poetry. But as one comes to understand, writing fine poetry (to him, not necessarily editors) helped him to understand all the important elements of his life, including this loss.

In one sense, Gunn was successful from the start, the Cambridge graduate placing poems in small journals in London as a young man. Though critical success was important to him, he seemed to be one of those rare artists who could analyze his own work and see what was needed—hardly ever following all the invited advice his (critical) readers would bestow upon him. From the beginning there was tension between how much he would reveal about being gay (many times his only subject matter) and being more veiled about it. Until, that is, he moved to the United States. At any rate, Gunn came to define (with the help of W. H. Auden and John Garrett) poetry as “memorable speech” (42). He never lost sight of that goal—leaving and returning to individual poems, sometimes for years, until they seemed memorable.

Gunn lived a lively and unconventional life, even for an out gay man in the 1950s and beyond. He met Mike Kitay when they were both in their early twenties, and they remained together—in one way or another—for the rest of Thom’s life (dying at age 74). Through teaching and lecturing events, as well as grants, Gunn cobbled together a decent living and bought a house in San Francisco. There he and Mike established a commune of sorts, calling the gathered people their family. It was a good and healthful atmosphere, in the main, because none of them had strong relations with or support from their families.

Nott’s book goes into great detail about Gunn’s drug use. For many years Gunn perhaps kept it under control, mixing but also rotating his heavy use of alcohol, speed, and sometimes heroin. And he managed to keep, until the end, his body in good physical shape—trying to maintain his attractive looks for tricks. But as he retired, giving up both writing and teaching (and purpose), his drug use became much heavier, and an overdose ultimately occurred, ending his life in 2004. As literary biography goes (and it can get a bit into the weeds), this one is very fine, I think. Nott fully researches all aspects of Gunn’s life with great detail and understanding, bringing to light the most important elements of a poet’s life. And yet one also understands the poet as a human being, a very generous and kind man at that.

Up Next:
TUES: A Writer's Wit | Benedetto Croce
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Elizabeth George
THURS: A Writer's Wit | John Steinbeck
FRI: My Book World | William S. Burroughs, Queer

A WRITER'S WIT: HESKETH PEARSON

2/20/2025

A man’s character never changes radically from youth to old age. What happens is that circumstances bring out characteristics which have not been obvious to the superficial observer.
Hesketh Pearson
Author of The Life of Oscar Wilde
Born February 20, 1887

H. Pearson

Up Next:
FRI: My Book World | Michael Nott, Thom Gunn: A Cool Queer Life
TUES: A Writer's Wit | Benedetto Croce
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Elizabeth George
THURS: A Writer's Wit | John Steinbeck

A WRITER'S WIT: AMY TAN

2/19/2025

In America nobody says you have to keep the circumstances somebody else gives you.
Amy Tan
Author of The Opposite of Fate
Born February 19, 1952

A. Tan

Up Next:
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Hesketh Pearson
FRI: My Book World | Michael Nott, Thom Gunn: A Cool Queer Life

A WRITER'S WIT: TONI MORRISON

2/18/2025

At no point in my life have I ever felt as though I were an American.
Toni Morrison
Author of Beloved
Born February 18, 1931

T. Morrison

Up Next:
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Amy Tan
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Hesketh Pearson
FRI: My Book World | Michael Nott: Thom Gunn: A Cool Queer Life

ASK GRAHAM NOW

2/14/2025

A WRITER'S WIT
The lowest form of popular culture—lack of information, misinformation, disinformation, and a contempt for the truth or the reality of most people's lives—has overrun real journalism. Today, ordinary Americans are being stuffed with garbage.
Carl Bernstein
Co-Author of The Final Days
Born February 14, 1944

C. Bernstein

MY BOOK WORLD

Norton, Graham. Ask Graham. London: Blake, 2010.

One is not exactly sure how a future talk-show host would evolve from being a Dear Abby columnist for a London newspaper, but here he is, Graham Norton. If you’ve ever watched his show on BBC America, then you are well acquainted with his quick (and searing) wit and yet his genuine concern for others. Those two characteristics and more are featured in this his first book (I’ve decided to read them all, just for a laugh, you see).

Honestly, some of these letters see so stupid and ridiculous as to be made up to two thirteen-year-old kids on a slow Saturday night. Dear Graham, my Greek girlfriend makes such a racket when we make love that I can’t look my neighbours in the eye when I pass them in the hall (33). Another writer confesses to finding a date online by lying and saying she’s a sporty type. She winds up having sex with a good-looking fellow; only problem: he likes to have sex in public places. Graham advises: Let’s examine the evidence. You ticked the “sport” box on your online form, but I don’t see how that translates into standing on a fire escaped stuffing your knickers into your handbag (46).

Ultimately, Norton’s answers leave a lot of room for his comedic talents to take over, without besmirching the fine advice he’s administering. One person writes in, confessing that her boyfriend’s family are all musicians and how tiresome that becomes after a while. So he answers: I would never encourage anyone to do this, but I wonder if you might feel a little better if you dribbled the juice from a can of sardines inside their piano before you left for the last time? Just a thought (115).

This response of Graham’s speaks for itself:

Dear Melissa,
Fat pompous husbands are trying to cheat on their smug wives and you are worried about offending them by saying no? There is a time and a place for etiquette, and trust me this isn’t one of them.

My main piece of advice would be to stop accepting invitations to these hideous dinner parties. As for meeting a like-minded man, well, that many not be so easy. Your letter seems strangely negative to me. The only things that come in for any praise are the Dorset scenery and yourself—nothing else seems to come up to the high standards of Melissa. It is all very well to have opinions and strong ones but don’t expect other people to agree or like them. I imagine that the world according to Melissa is quite a hard one to live in.

You have two failed marriage in quite a short period of time and you are living alone in Dorset mixing with people you don’t like. Something is wrong with this picture. I know I’m making assumptions based on a short letter but maybe you should try to judge less and open yourself up to new experiences.

Make your world bigger not smaller and maybe other people will want to share it (230).

Nuff said? The guy has what it takes to dole out advice. Be kind but tell the truth!

Up Next:
TUES: A Writer's Wit | Toni Morrison
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Amy Tan
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Hesketh Pearson
FRI: My Book World | Michael Nott, Thom Gunn: A Cool Queer Life

A WRITER'S WIT: RICARDO Güiraldes

2/13/2025

If you’re really a gaucho [cowboy of S. American pampas], you can’t change, because wherever you go, you’ll go with your soul leading the way.
Ricardo Güiraldes
Author of Xaimaca
Born February 13, 1886

R. Güiraldes

Up Next:
FRI: My Book World | Graham Norton, Ask Graham
TUES: A Writer's Wit | Toni Morrison
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Amy Tan
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Hesketh Pearson

A WRITER'S WIT: JUDY BLUME

2/12/2025

You know what I worry about? I worry that kids today don't have enough time to just sit and daydream.
Judy Blume
Author of Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing
Born February 12, 1938

J. Blume

Up Next:
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Ricardo Güiraldes
FRI: My Book World | Graham Norton, Ask Graham

A WRITER'S WIT: SANDRA TSING LOH

2/11/2025

I really don’t think our school system is an evil borg force. It’s sort of like the government. It’s not even efficient enough to be a borg of total evil, even if it wanted to be.
Sandra Tsing Loh
Author of The Madwoman and the Roomba: My Year of Domestic Mayhem
Born February 11, 1962

S. Tsing Loh

Up Next:
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Judy Blume
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Ricardo Güiraldes
FRI: My Book World | Graham Norton, Ask Graham

STORY OF THE MASON DIXON LINE

2/7/2025

A WRITER'S WIT
When I run the world, librarians will be exempt from tragedy. Even their smaller sorrows will last only for as long as you can take out a book.
Karen Joy Fowler
Author of The Jane Austen Book Club
Born February 7, 1950

K. J. Fowler

MY BOOK WORLD

Pynchon, Thomas. Mason and Dixon. New York: Holt, 1997.

My partner and I listened to the 48-hour Audible version of this book narrated by a fascinating British actor, Steven Crossley. He seemed to bring life to each character with an singular idiolect, particularly to the principals, Mason and Dixon. Often written without speech attribution, the dialogue was easier to understand with Crossley’s superior reading ability. I followed along with a hard copy of the book.

The story of the two men who created the 233-mile boundary between Maryland and Pennsylvania—the Mason Dixon line—became better known for establishing a line between the warring North and South of the USA. The novel also sets up a much fuller picture of the men’s lives as individuals and as partners in various ventures. One of the most fascinating may be their noting of the Transit of Venus multiple times and places throughout the world. Mason is laconic and melancholy, whereas Dixon is more garrulous and freewheeling in his dealings with the world—challenging their friendship and partnership to the nth degree at times—but also setting up a unique and rare lifelong friendship.

A long slog of a read, but it is quite worth it, especially if you hear someone else (a professional) read it aloud!

Up Next:
TUES: A Writer's Wit | Sandra Tsing Loh
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Judy Blume
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Ricardo Güiraldes
FRI: My Book World | Graham Norton, Ask Graham