Suite Francaise, Irene Nemirovsky

Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky

I had been reluctant to read this book, but once I started reading it, I found it fascinating and moving. I had thought it was a book about the Holocaust, but of course, it is not. Instead, it is a very interesting book about the reactions of French people during and immediately after the German invasion of France during World War II.

When I began reading the book, I found the writing style very interesting. The book seemed to be written as an outline, with short declarative sentences, as if the intent of the author was to write a rough first draft and then fill in the details later, in a second draft. Later, I learned that the book was indeed a "first draft" written in long hand. I am certain that a second draft would have been written, and possibly more drafts as well as the editing by the publisher prior to publication; however, as I learned later, that opportunity did not come. To me, the succinct writing style added much to the appeal of the book.

As I read the book, I felt that the author concentrated on writing about wealthy people, but later, when I read the author's notes in the Appendices, I came to realize that she had drawn on people in her own life for all the characters in the book. Her father and husband were bankers, so several of her characters were bankers; she had lived her entire life in high society, so she wrote about characters in high society. The book made much more sense to me after reading the Appendices.

The writing styles of women and men are very different. As a woman, she wrote in a very descriptive style, and I found her careful, detailed descriptions to add greatly to the book. In particular, her descriptions of people fleeing Paris were very interesting. I also found her descriptions of the feelings of the women characters to be unexpected and very moving; only a woman could have written about those feelings. All in all, the book was a woman's book, even though I found it very interesting. Indeed, I didn't want the book to end. I wanted it to be completed, especially after reading her outline for the remaining parts of the book.

One cannot read the book, of course, without also having feelings about her death. The world is filled with death and atrocities; it goes on today as it has since the world began. Some of my own ancestors were slaughtered by immigrants to America, and reading about them is painful to me. America also suffered the stain of mistreating our own citizens of Japanese ancestry during World War II. We feel the pain of atrocities in all parts of the world, to all people, and any reminder of such atrocities is painful for me. I was deeply moved by the Appendices, particularly the letters. One can understand that Jews had no idea that their being arrested would lead to death; the whole world found out only later. So it is understandable that she and her husband would be fearful, but also would not flee. Equally moving was the heroism of the woman who hid and protected the daughters; what a wonderful woman she was.

In summary, this was a very interesting book, and the Appendices were very moving. Two separate stories connected by the author.

Grandeur of the Seas Tour, July 22, 2007

Two free daily newspapers are handed to passengers each morning as they enter the Metro system, the "Express" published by the Washington Post, and the "Examiner", published independently. Usually, I scan both of them as I commute to work, a trip of about 45 minutes. On June 23 as I read the "Examiner", I noticed an advertisement announcing the start of a little contest. Each day for 10 days, a question would be printed in the "Examiner" related to the Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines ship, the Grandeur of the Seas, or about the Port of Baltimore. At the end of the contest, 10 winners would be selected by a drawing, and winners would receive a tour of the ship and lunch aboard the ship on July 22, as the ship was docked in Baltimore. I decided to enter the contest for fun.

I looked up the answer to the first question, and made a note of it, and each day, I continued to look up the answer to that day's question and note it. As I went along, I began to realize that very few people would enter this contest, both because it was spaced out over more than 10 days (no paper on Sundays) and because finding the answers online was not always easy. Making the contest more difficult was the fact that it ran over the July 4th holiday. I began to think that my chances of winning might be good. At the end of the contest, I emailed my answers to the questions to the Examiner, and the following week, I was notified that I had won and would be one of not 10 but 25 people to take the tour. During the tour, I learned that 286 correct responses had been received, although probably not more than 50 people had actually participated, and they had given the answers to friends.

So, on Sunday, July 22, I drove over to Baltimore to the Port and took the tour of the ship. I learned that access to the Port of Baltimore is extremely easy; the Port is located directly beside Interstate 95 in Baltimore, at Exit 55. Parking is also extremely easy; it right beside the ship. When I arrived at the port, I noticed that this ship seemed smaller than other ships I have cruised in the past, and that turned out to be true. At lunch, I sat beside the manager of the Port of Baltimore, and one thing I learned from him was that the larger ships are not able to use the Port of Baltimore because they are too tall to pass beneath the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, which is only 192 feet above the water surface. Most cruise ships are taller than that. So this ship was smaller than other cruise ships, and that is the reason that it was able to use the Port of Baltimore.

I posted a few photos of my tour on my Flickr site.

Here are the contest questions and answers:
June 23 – What are the four different itineraries (not ports) that Royal Caribbean sails from the Port of Baltimore in 2007?
Answer:
(1) 5 Night Bermuda Cruise
(2) 9 Night New England/Canada Cruise
(3) 9 Night Eastern Caribbean Cruise
(4) 13 Night Baltimore to Tampa Cruise

June 24 – No newspaper.

June 25 – What is the charge per day for passenger cars to park at the Port of Baltimore cruise terminal? Answer: $10 per day.

June 26 – What is the Grandeur of the Seas passenger capacity? Answer: 2,446 passengers.

June 27 – How many nights is the Royal Caribbean cruise from Baltimore to Bermuda? Answer: 5 nights.

June 28 – When is the last cruise out of the Port of Baltimore with Royal Caribbean for the 2007 season? Answer: November 25 – Grandeur of the Seas to Bermuda.

June 29 – What time does the Port of Baltimore open for departing cruise passengers? Answer: The cruise terminal entrance opens at 10:00AM for departing passengers; however, do not arrive prior to the embarkation time on your ticket.

June 30 – Are most meals (except for specialty restaurants) covered in the prices? Answer from the RCCL Cruise FAQs: The price of your vacation includes: Most meals onboard. The cruise price does not include meals ashore (except as noted) and certain beverages and specialty restaurants onboard certain vessels.

July 1 –No newspaper.

July 2 – How far is the Port of Baltimore's cruise terminal from BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport: Answer: BWI is located 10 miles south of Baltimore City, and it is just 9.6 miles from Maryland’s cruise terminal at South Locust Point.

July 3 – How long and wide (beam) is the Grandeur of the Seas? Answer: Length – 916 feet; Beam – 106 feet.

July 4 – What is the website address for the Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association? Answer: www.baltimore.org

Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin

Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin

So much has been written about this book and the work of Greg Mortenson that I am reluctant to write more here. The reviews of the book on Amazon cover everything that needs to be said. For me, this is one of the most inspiring books I have read in a long time. I believe that every American should read this book. We can do so much better in our foreign policy than we have been doing, and this book shows the way that many Americans would prefer to follow. A path of peace and friendship. I hope that someday Greg Mortenson will be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Some reviewers seem not to have cared for the writing style of Relin, but to me, it was outstanding. Indeed, the writing is what initially drew me into the book and made it so hard to put down. I really liked the writing style of Relin.

One interesting tidbit: it is interesting to me how frequently great achievers are eccentric. Greg Mortenson is an eccentric loner, as so many other great achievers have been. Yet, his eccentricities are fundamental to his success. The hope is that his work will be self-sustaining after he is no longer able to continue to do all that he has done, just as one hoped that the work of other great people would continue after their times. Thank God for Greg Mortenson.

Key Web Sites:

Three Cups of Tea

Central Asia Institute

YouTube "CAI schools"

Greg Mortenson

Hamlet, William Shakespeare

Hamlet by William Shakespeare at the Shakespeare Theater

Hamlet is not one of my favorite Shakespeare plays. I don't care for all the "drama"; it is too much, really. More than drama, it is "melodrama".

Background of the play from the program:

The character of Hamlet first appears as “Amleth,” in the writings of the 12th-century Danish historian Saxo. Amleth’s uncle murders the prince’s father and marries his mother, and Amleth pretends to be insane in order to get his revenge. The narrative ends with Amleth killing his uncle and taking the throne. The story reached England through the 16th-century French author François de Belleforest, who enlarged the role of Amleth’s mother and gave him a young female love interest. Sometime in the 1580s, an English writer seems to have adapted Belleforest’s tale into a stage play called Hamlet.

Apparently using this earlier Hamlet as inspiration, Shakespeare created his own version in 1600 for the newly opened Globe Theatre. He wrote the play at the midpoint of his long career, turning from poetic comedies and histories to revolutionary tragedies and romances. But exactly what play that first audience heard remains a mystery, because the published texts of Hamlet vary widely. In 1603, an inexpensive quarto edition was issued to capitalize on the play’s popularity. It was likely a pirated text, either copied hastily by a spectator or reconstructed badly from memory by an actor in a minor role. A second quarto came out the next year in response, billing itself as “newly imprinted and enlarged to almost as much again as it was, according to the true and perfect copy.” The 1623 folio of Shakespeare’s complete works contained a version of Hamlet very similar to the second quarto, cutting about 200 lines (although it would still run more than four hours uncut).

My thoughts:

My first thought is that as he did in other plays, Shakespeare developed this play based on an earlier work by someone else. It is remarkable to me that he "rewrote" a play by the same name that had been written and performed only 20 years previously. Copyright laws would pevent that from happening today.

Shakespeare was a technical genius who had a great ability to write and produce successful plays. He took ideas from others and reworked them technically to produce successful plays. In his time, audiences seem to have been attracted to great violence, and as he did in other plays, Shakespeare killed off all the main characters in Hamlet in a very melodramatic fashion, the guilty and the innocent alike. But before they died, they first went through great melodramatic wailings.

This play was about revenge, and to be successful, Shakespeare developed a character so bent on revenge that he was willing to die in order to gain his revenge. In addition, he was willing to kill innocent people in order to gain his revenge. Thus, the play reminds us of political suicide killers of today, as well as the armies who seek to kill them and kill thousands of innocent people in the process. The only moral is that they are all equally insane, and their insanity hurts everyone.