Patricia Lockwood Archives

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The Weekly Wrap: September 21-27

Pagination

A pet peeve. I recently read a book where I had to read fifty pages before getting to page 1. There was a foreword, preface, and then a biographical sketch of the author and introduction to his work. Following convention, the pages were numbered in lower case Roman numerals. I usually don’t mind these when they are just a few pages. In this case, all this front matter occupied a quarter of the book.

I do like to read this material. It helps me better understand the author and what they intended to accomplish. Yet as a reviewer, I have page goals for each book based on the numbered page count. So, it can be a dilemma. Do I skip the front matter, which I don’t tend to comment on in reviews? Do I take an extra day to read this? Or do I go extra long and read both this and up to my page goal? As I read this, I realize it may sound OCD. But I really get into what the author has written, don’t you?

On the other hand, I’ve come across other books where the first page of text might be numbered page 11. In this case, blurbs, cataloging info, title pages, and contents were counted as pages. It’s nice to be ten pages into a book before I’ve read anything. The one thing all these books have in common is that their page counts represents the Arabic numeral pages, significant when a 200 page book really has 250 pages of text.

My solution? I’d start the front matter with page 1, and eliminate the Roman numerals. Usually title pages, copyright and cataloguing info and contents pages are not numbered. This makes it easier for the reader to know what the length of the book is, and is probably easier for footnoting purposes. And if the front matter is lengthy, it gives the reader a heads up when they learn chapter 1 begins on page 53. Too many times, I’ve wondered, “when is this going to end?”

In the grand scheme of things, this is minor–even picky. But if I were to organize the world…

Five Articles Worth Reading

One of the big novels of the fall is Ian McEwan’s What We Can Know. It is a fictional lookback at our time from a Great Britain of 2119. One preview is that those from the future call our time “The Derangement.” The book is sitting on my TBR. “Ian McEwan Knows History Is an Imperfect Judge” is Sarah Lyall’s review for The New York Times.

I posted a “By the Book” interview with Patricia Lockwood last week. “Patricia Lockwood’s Mind-Opening Experience of Long COVID” is a review of her new novel, Will There Ever Be Another You. Perhaps you are like me and know more people suffering from long COVID than people who died of it. Maybe this will help us be more sympathetic.

I reviewed a book from 1954 the other day. It won a book award. But it, like many other books and other works from the mid-twentieth-century, is fading into oblivion. Or so contends Ted Gioia in “Is Mid-20th Century American Culture Getting Erased?” He asks if any of these great authors, composers, and works exist for Americans under forty.

Children of the Book by Ilana Kurshan is a memoir of the books read together in a Jewish family and how Torah was woven into those readings. In “Between the Covers” Mark Oppenheimer hosts a discussion of the book with Molly Worthen, Ross Douthat, Cyd Oppenheimer, and Stuart Halpern. All five are parents and discuss their own reading practices as families.

Finally, our local news announced that a local data center will be among the first gigawatt consuming data centers in the country. I estimated, after some research that this one data center alone could increase our region’s power consumption by nearly 40 percent! In light of that, “Toward a Just and Sustainable Energy Transition” a review of two books, caught my attention. The article notes that sustainable power generation is not replacing fossil fuels but merely helping to meet increased energy needs.

Quote of the Week

William Faulkner, one of those mid-century writers, was born September 25, 1897. He observed:

“Unless you’re ashamed of yourself now and then, you’re not honest”

Miscellaneous Musings

I’m reading David McCullough’s History Matters, a wonderful posthumous collection of speeches and articles. McCullough notes that one of the criteria he used for book subjects was whether he liked the person, since he would end up spending several years with them, ten in the case of Harry Truman who was the subject of a nearly thousand page biography. I loved reading that book back in the 1990’s and still have it. I think it was my first McCullough book. I’ve since read all the others. I’m so glad for the people he liked enough to spend several years writing about them.

Ronald Rohlheiser’s forthcoming Insane for the Light explores the spirituality of our later years. He uses a phrase to frame this I’ve not heard before–“giving away our deaths.” The book explores how we make our last years, and even our dying, a gift to others. When you notice in obituaries that most people, apart from the long-lived, are either your age or younger, or ten to fifteen years older, it’s something worth thinking about!

You all know I like baseball books. I’m hoping one will be written about this year’s Cleveland Guardians, currently tied for first place in their division. I am a long-suffering Cleveland fan. Could this be the year? Hope springs eternal. With all the setbacks this team has faced, that would be quite a story!

Next Week’s Reviews

Monday: John Calvin, Behold My Servant

Tuesday: Agatha Christie, Hickory Dickory Dock

Wednesday: The Month in Reviews: September 2025

Thursday: Mark S. Hansard, Star Trek and Faith, Volume 1

Friday: William Kent Krueger, Windigo Island

So, that’s The Weekly Wrap for September 21-27

Find past editions of The Weekly Wrap under The Weekly Wrap heading on this page

Reading as Resistance

In the past, I’ve been skeptical about Banned Books Weeks. At one time. relatively small numbers of books were being challenged and it almost felt like a ploy for booksellers to sell more books. I’ve always opposed book banning. It is contrary to the American spirit embodied in our first freedoms. But I’ve never opposed parents curating their own children’s book choices. However, it is wrong for a small number to prohibit the circulation of a book for everyone.

In recent years, the number of challenges and bans, and the number of books banned has shot up dramatically. And not only are we speaking of children’s books. We’re talking about books in service academy libraries, books secondary school students would read as well as adults. Many are books by people of color. They reveal the instances when our nation has failed to live up to its professed ideals. Some dissent from current political orthodoxy.

Publishers and authors, regardless of political affiliation are facing threats. Moreover, authors are thinking twice about book tours and other appearances.

Many of us observe encroachments on speech and press freedoms and wonder what we can do. Beyond engaging our elected representatives, may I suggest reading as an act of resistance. Any book can be dangerous, especially in a culture whose siren songs of streaming and digital media lure us from books But I’m particularly thinking of the books “they” don’t want us to read.

Why not find books people have opposed and read them as an act of resistance. Some in my personal library that I’ve not read include Howard Zinn’s People’s History of the United States, Anthony Fauci’s memoir, one of fellow Ohioan Toni Morrison’s books, and several books on climate change. And maybe it’s time to re-read Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.

Buying and reading the books people don’t want read communicates to publishers and authors support for their work. It asserts a freedom not often discussed, the freedom of conscience. And who knows how long we will be able to obtain these books? To even raise the possibility tells us how far things have come. So, something to keep in mind the next time you visit the bookstore.

Five Articles Worth Reading

In a similar vein, Judith Butler writes of “Kafka-land at UC Berk e ley.” Specifically, 160 faculty from Berkeley learned that allegations against them have been forwarded to the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. They were not informed of the nature of those allegations. The Trial is sounding less and less like fiction.

Phil Christman grew up in a fundamentalist home in Michigan. In “Hope External: Phil Christman’s Prophetic Ambivalence,” reviewer Todd Shy traces the development of Christman’s convictions as he reviews Christman’s new book, Why Christians Should Be Leftists. Whatever you think about the contention in the title, I found Christman’s wrestling with the teaching of Jesus of great interest.

I still have my Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 7th Edition from college. However, Stefan Fatsis asks of our present time: “Is This the End of the Dictionary?” Find out what’s happening to dictionaries.

Then Patricia Lockwood talks books and her longing for an easier way to eat (or be fed) while reading in “Patricia Lockwood Craves an Easier Way to Eat While Reading.” This is the latest installment in the NYT’s “By the Book” series.

Miscellaneous Musings

The squirrels around our house are busy gathering acorns from my oak tree. Likewise, my TBR pile grew this week with a posthumous work by David McCullough and a new history of the Edmund Fitzgerald..

Meanwhile, our “sell back” pile is also growing to the point that it’s time for another trip to Half Price Books. Not only do we usually walk out with cash in our pockets but we go on Tuesdays, which is “Golden Buckeye” day, worth an extra 10% off what we buy. In other words–senior savvy!

Lastly, I’m reminded of the gift of good translations. Isaiah 52:13-53:12 is one of my favorite biblical texts. Robert White has recently translated seven sermons of John Calvin on this passage from the French and they read like contemporary preaching–or better.