The Shepherd's Crown by Terry Pratchett

How sad, and how glad.  The Shepherd's Crown is the latest and last novel from the very great Terry Pratchett.  While it is not his best, finest or funniest creation, it may be his wisest, and that makes it a fitting finale.

The fifth novel in the Tiffany Aching series for young adults, The Shepherd's Crown begins by recapitulating the device of the first Granny Weatherwax book, Equal Rites (1987), and turning it on its head: this time a boy wants to become a witch.  Then something  big happens, and the walls separating the worlds weaken sufficiently so that an old enemy is able to enter from the other side.  It is up to Tiffany Aching and all the friends she can make and muster to save the world one more time.

Unlike in his Discworld novels for adults, Pratchett states his themes out loud rather than through the use of satire and parody: leave the world a better place than you found it; be kind to others, especially those worse off than yourself - it is good for you; make friends where you can; do not kill without need; believe that redemption is possible, even for the worst of us; and remember that there is no place like home.  This is magic indeed, and it is everywhere you go (if you take it with you).

In the end, Terry Pratchett has left us with a consolation rather than a conclusion.  There are loose ends, to be sure, and what happens to his characters is now left for us to imagine: the witches, the wizards, the City Watch, the Librarian, Death, and the cavalcade of minor-but-memorable characters - good and bad - that accompanied them.

Farewell, Terry Pratchett, and thank you.  You made my world a better place.  And, yes, I like cats.

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

I recently came across an interview featuring Kurt Vonnegut in which he stated that the novel Catch-22 is based on Homer's The Odyssey.  This piqued my interest: if Vonnegut is correct, then it was something I missed in my original reading of the novel.  So I re-read it, and Vonnegut is right.

The action is set in the Mediterranean basin, mainly on the island of Pianosa (Odysseus - or Ulysses - visits many islands in the Mediterranean).  Captain John Yossarian (Odysseus) is a soldier trying to get home from the war.  He is prevented from doing so by the orders of his wrathful superior officer, Colonel Cathcart (Poseidon).  One by one almost all of Yossarian's comrades die (as did Odysseus' crew).  At one point, Yossarian even likens himself to Ulysses; and like Odysseus, he sustains a wound to his thigh.  So there it is: The Odyssey, this time set in 1943 during the Second World War.

But Catch-22 is so much more than The Odyssey. On one level it is about how humans stay sane or succumb to insanity in an insane situation:

Men went mad and were rewarded with medals.  All over the world, boys on every side of the bomb line were laying down their lives for what they had been told was their country, and no one seemed to mind, least of all the boys who were laying down their young lives.

On another level it about self-serving bureaucracy and the abuse of power:

You have no respect for excessive authority or obsolete traditions. You're dangerous and depraved, and you ought to be taken outside and shot!

Of course, there is the title of the book: Catch-22.  This phrase was invented by Heller to describe and give a raison d'etre to the logical double binds found throughout the book.  The central Catch-22 of the novel runs like this:

1. Regulations say a military doctor must ground anyone who is crazy and asks to be grounded.
2. Only a crazy person would voluntarily continue to fly on highly dangerous bombing missions; and being crazy, they would never ask.
3. Only a sane person would make the request, and so cannot be grounded.
4. Therefore, both the sane and the insane, if so ordered, must continue to fly.

And this is exactly the position the sane Yossarian finds himself in: he must continue to fly or, otherwise, disobey Colonel Cathcart's orders.  Both options could lead to his death.

I was a teenager when I first read Catch-22.  I remembered it as a quirky and comical tale I enjoyed greatly.  On re-reading it, I found it at turns puerile and profound, or frustrating but compelling. I suppose that is also true of war (and bureaucracies) as a lived experience.  There is a lot in this book to offend modern feminist sensibilities; but it was written in a time different from our own and describes an even different time: total war, with its concomitant brutalities. On the other hand, there is also the tenderness that is to be found in life's little acts, such as Yossarian's poignantly impotent 'There, there' as he nurses his injured comrade Snowden.

Catch-22 is one of the great books: dangerous and depraved, sane and crazy, comical and serious, crushing and elevating, and well worth reading.  Thank you, Joseph Heller.

Moving Pictures by Terry Pratchett

Moving Pictures is the 10th novel in the Discworld series, and this time Terry Pratchett has Hollywood in his satirical crosshairs.

The ancient hill of Holy Wood has lost its last guardian, and something within it begins to stir and  call out to the world.  Meanwhile, the alchemists of the city of Ankh-Morpork have developed a process for creating moving pictures.  Almost immediately, entrepreneurs and wannabe stars hear the call, and the action moves from the city to Holy Wood.  But Holy Wood has more magic than just that of the silver screen.  Who can tell what danger it will pose to the inhabitants of the Disc?

As is usual with Discworld novels, Moving Pictures has several plots running simultaneously.  The main one features Victor Tugelbend, a student wizard who does anything but wizardry, and Theda Withal, a country lass who has come to hit the big time.  They soon become the new stars of Holy Wood.  Also hoping to hit the big time, in this case as a producer, is the failed-but-ever-hopeful Ankh-Morpork small businessman Cut Me Own Throat Dibbler.  Throw in a talking dog and a librarian who is in fact an orangutan, and you have the basis for a lot of fun.

Moving Pictures is more than liberally sprinkled with references to Hollywood: Gone with Wind, Casablanca, Sam Goldwyn, Marlene Dietrich, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, to name a few.  All is done with great intelligence and sparkling wit, and the episode featuring the Librarian and the Tower of Art is absolutely side-splitting.

Not the deepest of the Discworld novels, nor its best, Moving Pictures is definitely good for more than a giggle.

Persuasion by Jane Austen

There is something oddly comforting about re-reading a book, so it an interesting exercise to revisit a book one disliked on first reading. I was 18 and a student when I was conscripted into reading Persuasion, and I grudged every minute of it.  Talk about hammering a square peg into a round hole, I was entirely the wrong shape for receiving whatever it was Jane Austen had to say.  Things change, including me - thank goodness - and I thoroughly enjoyed re-reading Persuasion. 

How relevant it is that I gave this book another whirl, because it about second chances - in this case, a second chance for two characters to find true love. 

Sir Walter Eliot - a baronet, the lowest rank of the British aristocracy - is a widower with three daughters.  Elizabeth, the eldest, is a true beauty; Mary, the youngest, is safely married; but Anne, the unmarried middle child, has lost the bloom of youth.  As a result, Anne's prospects are very uncertain.  Not that this was always the case.  Eight years earlier, when Anne was in the full blush of youth, she was in love with, and was loved by, one Mr Frederick Wentworth, a commoner; however, Anne was persuaded by her father and Lady Russell, a family friend, to discontinue the romance on the grounds of social incompatibility.  But now Frederick has returned with a substantial fortune behind him.  Is there a chance of the romance being rekindled, or will other eligible suitors win Anne's hand, if not her heart?

Persuasion is set just after the end of the Napoleonic Wars.  Austen contrasts the prejudices and petty spites of the minor aristocracy with the goodwill and fellowship of the returning admirals and captains.  The interplay of these two groups provides the ground for the action of the novel.  Caught between them is Anne Eliot, mostly alone and without a settled home.  It is of interest to the reader observe how (and if) Anne rises to meet the challenges facing her. 

Austen has a fine talent for setting the stage for her tales and filling them with memorable characters.  In Persuasion some are little better than caricatures, but the central actors are well drawn and have an emotional depth to them.  The action builds slowly but surely, but there is never any great danger.  The tale is more comfortable than challenging, and yet is also engaging, even compelling.  That is, if you are the right shape for it.

Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey

In the little two-horse town where I grew up there was a general store.  It had twin doors at the front.  The keeper opened these every morning and lined the little built-in shelves with cheap paperback novels.  You had two choices: romances or westerns.

I always passed up the chance to buy either - romances and westerns are generally not appealing to my tastes. Well, I finally bit the bullet and read a Zane Grey novel.  Did I enjoy it?  I reckon I surely did, y'all.  I liked it a lot.  All up, Riders of the Purple Sage is a real surprise package.

The story is simple enough.  The year is 1871, and the setting is southern Utah.  Jane Withersteen has inherited a substantial, well-watered cattle ranch.  She is single, rich and a Mormon.  Unlike her brethren, Jane has no qualms about hiring and befriending 'gentiles', as non-Mormons are called in the book.  This puts her at odds with elements within the Mormon community, especially those who are interested in winning her hand in marriage.  A campaign of attrition is waged against Jane to bring her to heel, and her cattle and horses are rustled in large numbers.  Standing by her side are two gentiles: Bern Venters, a hired hand, and Jim Lassiter.  Lassiter is a new-comer with a dread reputation as a deadly gunslinger.  Can these two help Jane recover her stock and keep her homestead?  The answer may surprise you.

The first notable thing about Riders of the Purple Sage is Zane Grey's facility for nature writing.  The weather and the landscape are almost characters in this tale, and they are never far away from the main action.  It is easy to write about nature, but it is very hard to do it well.  Tolkien and John Buchan are masters at it, and Grey can hold his own in this department.  He is a bit more prolix than either Tolkien or Buchan, but he particularly adept at imbuing his descriptions with the dynamism found in nature itself.

Then there is the smouldering-but-understated sexual tension. It's there, there's lots of it, and it runs throughout the book.  It blossoms into love, sometimes in unexpected places and for unexpected reasons, and has unforeseen consequences all round.  A brutal heart is counterpointed with its capacity for tenderness.

The story pivots around Jane Withersteen, and she is the most finely drawn character in the book.  She has to contend with the conflicts between the outward demands of  her religion and the inward demands of her personal faith, and between her common-sense and her emotions.  Sometimes Grey expresses  old-fashioned attitudes (the book was published in 1912), but for the most part Jane Withersteen would not be out of place in the modern world.

Finally, there is the action.  Riders of the Purple Sage does have a lot of action, but it is heavily punctuated with lengthy periods of introspection.  Psychology is just as important to the story as guns and horses.  What gun violence there is happens mostly out of sight, and more is made of the characters' attitude to weapons and the circumstances under which they are used.  There are a couple of thrilling chase sequences, and the nobility of the horses is brought to the fore in rather a stirring way.  One can't help but love Venters' horse Wrangle.

Yes, Riders of the Purple Sage is a surprise package worth opening.