Sister Pelagia and the White Bulldog, Boris Akunin

Sister Pelagia and the White Bulldog
by Boris Akunin

Boris Akunin reminds me very much of Alexander McCall Smith. Both authors write mysteries of a light and amusing nature based in a far-away place that itself is mysterious for the reader. Akunin also bases his mysteries in a far-away time, Tsarist Russia of the nineteenth century. The books of both authors are pleasant to read; they are not ponderous or heavy, and the reader is permitted to know in advance that the sleuth will solve the case in an unexpected and very clever manner, based primarily on keen observations of facts that the reader is not permitted to know in advance. Both authors provide philosophical lectures along with their mysteries. And now both authors have created female sleuths of a light and amusing nature. If one reason for reading is pleasant escape, then these books succeed in that goal. These authors pleasantly transport their readers to another world filled with fantasy and mystery.

In this book, Akunin introduces his female sleuth, Sister Pelagia, and sends her off to solve the mystery of the death of a white bulldog. As she solves this "crime", the reader is led through the culture of a remote village in nineteenth century Tsarist Russia. One of the techniques Akunin uses to entertain the reader is to employ the Russian custom of using two sets of very complicated Russian names for each person in the book -- either the character's first two names, or the single last name. This technique produces a puzzle for the reader, who must quickly learn these names and remember them when continuing to read after the book has been put aside for a time.

These books are meant to be fun, and they are fun. They are not intended as serious books, but as pleasant little escapes into a fantasy world.

Sixty Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong

Sixty Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong
by Jean-Benoit Nadeau and Julie Barlow

Related Website:
Better Understand France and the French

My total time spent in France is less than two months, spread over four visits. Each time I have visited, I have loved it. I have found the people to be friendly, even though I do not speak any French. But most of all, I have loved the beauty of France. It seems incredible to me that an entire nation of people could care so much for beauty that they have made an entire nation beautiful -- and they keep it that way. Beauty is important to French people. Beauty is also important to me, and I have wondered all my life why Americans seem to strive for ugliness in their surroundings rather than beauty.

With that attitude in mind, I was attracted to this book when I saw a friend reading it, and I was happy when it was then presented to me as a gift. The book was written by a husband and wife team of Canadian journalists who lived in Paris for two years on a fellowship whose purpose was to study French culture. This book describes the history of French culture and the French system of government. The book was written not by academic historians, but by journalists; it is not an academic book, but is written in a popular style. The book is enjoyable to read.

When reading a "nonfiction" book, one can never tell how accurate the book is; an accurate description differs with each writer, whether journalist or historian. However, I am comfortable that the book is accurate in an overall way, despite possible errors in details, and all I am interested in is an overall description of the history of French culture and government. Reading this book is like taking a bus tour of a city before delving into its neighborhoods on foot. It is an overview, a broad-brush painting.

As the authors discuss, "France is not what it used to be" and it will not be the same in the future. Like all cultures and societies, France is constantly changing. And yet, this book helps to understand the basic culture of France as it is today. I enjoyed this book very much, and I will enjoy reading it again before my next trip to France.

The Taming of the Shrew, Shakespeare Theatre

The Taming of the Shrew, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Lansburgh Theatre

What can be said about our search for happiness? Every person wants to be happy and every person strives to be happy. Sometimes Fate intervenes and leads us to happiness in unexpected ways, and that is the story of Katharina, the "Shrew" in Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew". Fate married her to Petruchio, a man who taught her how to love and accept love, and be happy.

Early in her life, "Kate" had learned that by being difficult, she could get her way with her parents. As she grew into adulthood, she continued to try to get her way by being a difficult person, constantly raising the level of her "shrewishness" until she got her way. However, as a young woman, she was at a point of learning that no man wanted to marry a difficult woman, and she felt that she would never marry. She was torn. She didn't want to give up her learned behavior that she could get her way by being difficult, but she also wanted to be married and being a shrew was not leading to marriage.

Then Fate intervened and sent Petruchio to her to show her how to be happy by being loving and by accepting love from him in return. Of course, she would not have voluntarily married Petruchio, but in Shakespeare's time, fathers had the authority to give their daughters to a man in marriage, so she had no choice. And once married, Petruchio had the authority and the power to force her to obey him or to suffer unpleasant consequences. She was forced to learn from Petruchio that if she was pleasant and loving to him, he would make her happy. If she was unpleasant to him, he would make her miserable. She had to unlearn a lifetime of thought and learn a new thought pattern. She had to unlearn that by being difficult, she could get her way, and learn that by being pleasant, she would be rewarded with happiness.

So the moral of "The Taming of the Shrew" is that a woman can be happy if she is good to her husband. If she is good to him, he will be good to her.

That moral is not universal, of course. Many women are very loving to their husbands, but their husbands are not loving to them in return. Indeed, many husbands abuse their wives no matter how much the wives try to please them. However, few wives can find happiness by being a shrew, so their only hope lies in being pleasant and loving. (The same moral applies to men, of course.)

I am reminded of the first time I learned of Craigslist. I read a lengthy article in the Los Angeles Times about this new phenomenon, Craigslist, that had gained popularity in the San Francisco area. I went to the San Francisco Craigslist website and wandered around on it for some time, clicking on many of the site's links. At one point, I wandered into a chat room where a group of women were chatting about relationships with men. The topic of the conversation was "high maintenance women", and many of the women in the chat room were commenting how men didn't like "high maintenance women". After some time, a woman whose screen name was "jewishprincess" said something very profound. She said that her husband didn't seem to mind that she was "high maintenance" as long as she gave him a blow job every night. The room was silent for some time, and then several of the women mentioned that they had not thought of that.

It seems to me that Kate had not learned that simple lesson. If a woman is good to a man, he will usually be good to her. Many men are happy to spoil their wives or lovers, if only their wives or lovers take good care of them. Many men are very happy to work and support a woman if she will take care of them sexually. "The Taming of the Shrew" is a wonderful play that teaches a moral about relationships in a very happy way.

My thoughts on the production at the Shakespeare Theater. I thought the man who played Petruchio was very well cast. He was very believable and he helped the audience lose themselves in the play. However, I think the woman who was cast as Katharina was not well cast. She did not help the audience lose themselves in her character. She played the initial part of the shrew pretty well, but she was not at all believable in her transformation to a loving wife.

Once again, I am struck by the history of a Shakespeare play. Shakespeare was a master producer of plays. Time and again, he took plays that already existed and rewrote them for his own productions, as he did in this play. A play by the name, "The Taming of a Shrew" already existed, and Shakespeare rewrote it into his version, which is a wonderful, lasting play that audiences still enjoy four hundred years after he wrote it.