Haahahahaa! Karen this is SO funny. I'm bursting into laughter reading these posts again, and remembering writing and reading them at the time. Well done! And my favourite part about Martha Stewart dropping in with her dish towel parachute!!! WAY too funny!

jwttrans, I think our two readings may be compatible--the ambiguously misread situation having to do with misread racial stereotypes, the captain's fixation on skin color blinding him to unrevealed dark designs. And with time the hidden darkness or "evil" is revealed--the desperate escaped slaves are truly murderous and do practically wipe out TWO ships--the one they are in at the beginning of the story and that captain's ship they attack near the end of the story. My only hesitation about our combined reading is that Benito Cereno, read by itself, would tend to solicit an allegorical reading associating innocence with whites and evil with blacks. However, that would be to overlook the blame Melville heaps on the "innocent" white captain whose self-willed "innocence" is not true "innocence," but rather a wilful refusal to see and acknowledge the evil lurking in the depths. He nearly makes himself an accessory to murder, as a result--equally culpable, in other words. That would not be white "innocence," but white culpability. And if anyone has read Melville's other sea fictions, they would know he often depicts the blackness/evil in all men's hearts. (I'm not sure if he includes women or not. Anyone remember any portraits of women in his works? Certainly, a half century later, Conrad writing on racial themes in Heart of Darkness exempted the lovely fiancee--the "intended" -- from the darkness in human hearts, for instance.) But you have a good point on ambiguity--probably works on anything Melville and Hawthorne wrote. That was the way they often set up their allegories as the reader moves from the literal to the figurative/spiritual. Just as Melville explores the ambiguity of whiteness in Moby Dick, so he does by depicting an "innocent" white captain whose innocence is just as ambiguous since he becomes the reason why they are all nearly murdered. That good and evil are NOT black and white, but quite ambiguous in nature, would seem to be Melville's point? Kate

I'm not frieda, but IMHO I would have ended it when they finished the exhibit and went home. No scandal, no DaVinci code/Mission Impossilbe ending. The only thing I might have included - and was surprised that she didn't - was the visit Lola's real life person made with David, the son of the family who took her in. That takes place in the NYer excerpt and was very surprised she left it out. I can well imagine an editor insisting on some thrilling ending, which is too bad because in a book like this its the last thing you need. >This sort of novel will lead me on to other readings, hopefully, about the history of Bosnia, the former Yugoslavia, the Ottoman Empire, and the "Convivencia" time period of Spain's history Ones I've read: The Fracture Zone by Simon Winchester (non fiction), Birds without Wings (fiction). I also have read lots of history of the areas because I read travel narratives. I would recommend the classic Black Lamb Gray Falcon by Rebecca West - however its dated, and you'll get lots of gripes from all sides of the story of her different take on situations. But its worth reading just for the travel sections. I don't know any from the Convivencia period, tho I've read bits and pieces about it in other books. I'd love to know some of those as well - pass them on when you find them.

I keep a reading journal and it has a place to rate your reads on a scale of 1-10. So, I'll list the books I read this year according to how I rated them. (I know this message is way too long, but hey--I hardly ever get a chance to post, horrible lurker that I am, so a once-a-year overly long posting isn't too horrible, right?) 10-Cheaper by the Dozen by Frank B. Gilbreth, Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey Sentimental 10 rating--remember reading it as a child and it held up. Good fun. 10-Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell What a mind-blowing book with so many layers and connections. LOVED IT! 10-Gilead by Marilynne Robinson Such a beautiful and contemplative book that examines aging, new life, regrets, families, grudges, grace and God. Particularly loved how the main character finds beauty in sunlight catching a sprinkler's spray or birds roosting on a phone wire (two things that would have been impossible to see in the 1800s). 10-Gonzalez and Daughter Trucking Company: A Road Novel with Literary License by Maria Amparo Escandon This is the "One City, One Book" pick for 2009 in our town. It is such a page-turner! The main character is in a women's prison in Mexico for a crime that remains a mystery for most of the book. She starts a reading group for the inmates, only she doesn't actually read the text, rather tells her story. 10-I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith This book has been mentioned time and again on this forum and I finally got around to reading it this year--THANK YOU to whoever recommended it. I loved it so much! 10-There is Room for You by Charlotte Bacon Such beautiful descriptions of India, both in the 40s and the 90s. Loved the two intertwining narratives of mother and daughter, both outsiders in India but at two different times. A very lush book. 10-The Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys I'm sure everyone in the world had read this but me. Written in the 1960s, it imagines the story of Mrs. Rochester (Mr. Rochester's crazy wife that he kept locked in the attic in Jane Eyre.) It was hard to read and I gave it a 10 not because I loved it, but because it did perfectly what it meant to do. It said so much about patriarchy, post-colonialism, feminism, and madness in ways I'd never thought of. I need to re-read. 10-The Woman I Kept to Myself by Julia Alvarez This book of poems was so great that I am going to buy the book. There's one poem in the particular about how she can tell who her husband is talking to on the phone by the tone of his voice. Another one talks about how she can't bear to throw out her headbands, even though she has short hair now, because they are such a symbol of her girlhood. You have to read these poems out loud so that you can hear the sound of them. 9-Five Skies by Ron Carlson Loved this book! Three men out on the plains building stuff and eating really good food. I have no idea why I related so strongly to them! It was downgraded to a 9 because of the...