Book Review: CHESS STORY by Stefan Zweig

Chess Story by Stefan Zweig
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

"Anyone who has suffered from a mania remains at risk forever."

Short but horrific.

An unknown, a no one, dares to challenge the reigning world champion in chess.

He wins the first round.

But what happens next has us reeling and wondering what on earth could possibly happen to make someone so good in this game.

The things we learn to escape pain and torment leave a lasting scar, compared with things we learn to merely be entertained.

This book means I will never look at a chess board the same way again.

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Book Review: THE OPPERMANNS by Lion Feuchtwanger

The Oppermanns by Lion Feuchtwanger
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

"One man may ask: ‘Is this thing safe?’ The second: ‘Is it right?’ Their queries show us in one phrase, which free man is, which a slave."

It was in Anne Frank's diary that I first encountered the horror of reading about liberties taken for granted, taken away bit by bit. The slow dehumanization of an entire people is not the work of one man, nor accomplished in one day. I remember being so appalled as a fourth grader, I couldn't stand it, I had to talk about it with all my classmates, who accused me of making it up. Such was the horror of childhood innocence in the face of such evil.

This fresh horror was renewed when I read The Oppermanns, written in real-time by one who was actually subjected to this furious hate, but was lucky enough to live to tell his tale.

The Oppermanns is a family story. Growing up in comfort, in a civilization they were proud to count themselves members of, they were slow to acknowledge the signs when they first began, until the small became a tidal wall of unstoppable violence that swept an entire continent into a world war.

It was the mistake of overly civilized folk to think that "the Nationalist movement merely stood for a brutal agitation, stirred up by military and feudal elements who hoped to derive a profit from the low instincts of the small citizen."

What makes this book a horror is how contemporary it sounds. How obvious the rise of barbarism is in these unkind times.

The most heartbreaking story within was, for me, about the Jewish school boy who was unjustly persecuted by a Nazi teacher, and how ineffective the school headmaster was to counter such blind fanatic hatred, passing itself off as nationalistic virtue.

It hits close to home, when there are those who also try to spread fear based on lies around. Feuchtwanger ominously warns that "lies and violence went hand in hand."

Feuchtwanger wrote this as a warning to the rest of the world, of how easy it was for such a great country of poets and musicians, of elevated consciousness, to be taken over by the illiterate thug who, "due to an inferiority complex, had encased himself in an armor of the cheapest nationalism, through which not a ray of common sense could penetrate."

And yet, for all the fire breathing, there is amazingly still hope that man is better than the beast within.

Over and over, so often I've lost count, the quote appears in the book: "It is upon us to begin the work. It is not upon us to complete it.”

This is an important book, especially in 2023, and deserves wider readership.

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Book Review: THE COLLECTED STORIES OF GREGORIO C. BRILLANTES

"For certain things, like love, there was only so much time."

There are authors who are put in the canon for a reason, whose works are analyzed and studied by English majors for generations.

Reading Gregorio Brillantes' 500 page collection of 39 short stories is just like seeing the past 90 years of Philippine history through the eyes of a caring grandfather, eager to pass on his wisdom to the younger generation.

He was born into a comfortable life, and wrote of what he knew: exclusive private schools, witty repartee in soirees with the inevitable teenaged wild ride in a fancy car... and also, the loneliness of growing up feeling alien in one's home town, the soul-tearing quest to remain committed to ideals when the grown-up world demands compromise.

It's difficult to pinpoint a favorite when several have similar themes and characters. So it's the ones that are very different that stand out. Despite middle-class comfort, there are always the extremes of violence and passion that erupt. The stories show how one cannot escape from the river of history, despite the buffer that financial security offers.

I thought one of the most hopeful was THE DISTANCE TO ANDROMEDA. A young boy from Tarlac watches a scifi movie and feels what Catholics call "the communion of saints," that feeling of being connected to the vast universe all around us.

Some of the stories are terribly poignant, one can't help but shed a tear as a doctor to the barrio ministers to patients who have lost newborn babes, or a middle-aged man realizes his daughter's friend so closely resembles a lost love.

The story I found most moving was FAITH, LOVE, TIME, AND DR. LAZARO. A phone call in the middle of the night rouses a doctor duty-bound to try to save the children of others. He knows that he can't save them all, but he perseveres nonetheless. When desire wavers, duty and honor are there to see us through. 

"The sparrow does not fall without the Father’s leave...but it falls just the same. But to what end are the sufferings of a child?"

The funniest for this reader was EXCERPTS FROM THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A MIDDLEAGED GHOSTWRITER WITH INSOMNIA, with all the tongue-in-cheek references to other Filipino authors and their works. Bookish folk might wish to award themselves points for every real name decoded, every title unlocked. Perhaps some of my book club friends would care to try? And if one gets a low score, that means you need to read more Filipinana! 

No one goes through Life, the war, and Martial Law unscarred. Brillantes' vivid descriptions of the Filipino middle class existence prove this. For Death and Decay visit each man alike, and it is this universal sphere of sorrow that Brillantes explores, highlighting darkest lusts and most piercing pains, helping us come to a fuller understanding of self and country.

Book Review: NOTES ON THE THEATER by Rolando Tinio

Notes on the Theater by Rolando Tinio
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was my first book from Everything's Fine's REQUIRED READINGS series, and I enjoyed the experience so much, I look forward to collecting the others! Short enough to be read over a prolonged coffee, but offering a lot to mull over... it's perfect for that quick read-and-reflect break over a weekend.

This particular slim volume contains two essays written by this National Artist around 60 years ago, where the great Rolando Tinio tried to describe contemporary Philippine theater of his day, and offered thoughts on what could be improved.

Perhaps a reader's reaction to this important book will depend a lot on your personal stance towards "Art for art's sake." This, Tinio acknowledges, is his "personal battle cry," but he further explains that "in the act of creation, the artist can serve only one loyalty, that of the integrity of the art work." Ever the idealist, as one might expect of such an esteemed National Artist.

Having been lucky enough to watch some of his Filipino translations of various plays by Shakespeare, Moliere, etc., I always knew he was a genius. To have that kind of mastery over verse in both languages!?!?! Reading these academic essays, I was struck anew by the highly learned vocabulary of the man. Tinio expected much from his expected reader, a lover of theater, as he did for theater artists, and wrote "At the same that I espouse the cause of Theater without an Audience... I am espousing too the cause of Criticism without Readership."

While some descriptions of theater are, understandably, outdated (he wrote this in a time when local professional theater was just being born, when today it is a very rich reality), he knew the importance of adapting to the times.

"In art, particularly in the theater, to cling to old forms is to satirize them... even the classics, for all that is monumental in them, speak esoteric dialect. The permanent and the universal are there, but they are hopelessly interlocked with touches of antiquity, dated gestures which mean nothing... it is essential that theater reflect these modulations if it is to stay vigorous and not merely a museum for archeological wonders."

He spoke against the idea that artists are born. He argues for the importance of having a thinking actor, and comprehended a great deal in the requisite education for one.

"The richness which both play and actor can offer is revealed to spectators only after 'violence' has been done to them- to the play, by extracting from its text levels of action otherwise overlooked; to the actor, by cultivating in him a vocabulary of acting he never dreamed he would be able to yield."

If Tinio at times comes across as inflammatory or impractical in the essays, I think it is only because he has such high respect for the art form. "Behind every tradition of Theater," he reminds us, "lurks the shadow of its ancestral office: religious experience... this was a divine theater."

And if divine, then lofty its intentions must be.

"Man has become the market of fires and thunder-bolts; to re-direct the flow of events through a re-direction of his motives must be the métier of the human theater."

He reminds us of theater's goal: empathy and understanding which ends in compassion.

Whether one agrees or disagrees with Tinio's highly idealistic take, the book is a must-read for any theater lover.

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Book Report: SHADOWPLAY by Joseph O' Connor

Shadowplay: A Novel by Joseph O'Connor
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"You must choose to step into the scene or remain in the wings."

Everything is grist, fodder to the mill of the creative genius for Bram Stoker.

Joseph O' Connor has written a memorable novel about the author of one of the most beloved horror stories of all time. Before reading this, I didn't know that Bram Stoker was a former theater critic turned manager of a West End theater that housed two of the greatest living actors in London: Henry Irving (who became the basis of Count Dracula) and Ellen Terry.

"An actor remembers every part ever played. There are times when he wonders why... What they call life is a ghost-ship. On the ship are many rooms. Small. Others grand. Some princely. Some poor. An uncountable number. There is always another. This is how they escape the prison of the self. To see the world through the windows of someone else’s room."

It's a tribute to creative artistry of writers and thespians. Joseph O' Connor writes dialogue like no other, and the pages with Oscar Wilde in them simply beg to be delivered out loud!

This is no horror book, but any theater lover will enjoy reading about the pains and joys of performing in the London of Jack the Ripper. The ending was especially touching, and brought a tear to my eye. For theater people are unafraid to challenge convention, loving more than what is wise and living more fully than most. And O'Connor brought these three theater greats to life in a delicious page turner that honors creativity and artistry in all its forms.


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