The Wall

Originally published in German, this translation of Die Wand by Shaun Whiteside is the only English language translation of any of Marlen Haushofer's novels, even though she has won several literary awards at home in Austria. Considered a "feminist novel" we are ostensibly reading a report written by the main character who remains nameless throughout. She is a wife and mother of two nearly grown daughters, and has come with her sister (Luise) and her brother-in-law (Hugo) to their hunting lodge in the mountains for the weekend. Luise and Hugo go down to the village for some socializing and never return, although their dog does. Next morning, our reporter begins to worry and as she heads down to the village, she runs into an invisible barrier, transparent and apparently stretching for miles in either direction. The first part of the book focuses on her efforts to understand what has happened and conjecturing about what will happen when the creators of this terrible weapon come to check on their work--for she figures out that whatever happened, it has killed all the fauna (human, animal, bird, insect) living on the other side. This chapterless book (which I found maddening when I needed to quit reading of an evening) shifts focus to how she makes her life alone in the mountains with only the dog, a cow and a cat for companions. It was hard to get started (it would have failed Nancy Pearl's Rule of 50 for me) but eventually I couldn't stop. She copes, although not well at times. Certainly we have to wonder what we ourselves would do in such a situation. What is the point of living, after all? She eventually realizes that no one is left alive to read her report, so why write it? Although the reader will anticipate the climax, such as it is, for most of the book, it's still profound in its implications.

Monstrumologist

Monstrumology: (noun) The study of life forms generally malevolent to humans and not recognized by science as actual organisms, specificallly those considered products of myth and folklore. (verb) the act of hunting such creatures. Like his father before him, Pellinore Warthrop is a monstrumologist and Will Henry, his 12-year old ward, is his assistant apprentice. Will Henry tells the story through his diaries which come to light when he dies--apparently at the age of 131--an indigent in a small New England town. Will Henry's father had served Dr. Warthrop as assistant in his travels to far reaches and his investigations into strange creatures. So when both parents die in a fire, Will Henry is orphaned and now serves the monstrumologist in turn. Set in the late 1800's, the book is gory--there are indeed man-eating monsters and they have apparently infested the cemetery of the town in which the story is set, which in Will's diaries is known by the pseudonym of New Jerusalem. Is it just coincidence that these monsters have shown up in the same town where one of the world's eminent monstrumologists lives?? Probably not. The story is based on the first 3 folios of 7 diaries, so you can count on a sequel or two if you like this. The author, Rick Yancey, cunningly only claims editorship of the book.

On Cats

Doris Lessing can always make me care about her subject and in this small volume she reveals her own intense feelings for the cats that have touched her life. I already think cats are amazing creatures so I sometimes found it hard to deal with certain of the events she describes. She was surrounded by semi-feral cats while growing up in Africa and it's wrenching to read about killing off the ones who became problematic--a painful task often delegated to her mother. As an adult however, she makes other decisions I find hard to tolerate, such as letting cats continue to have kittens (instead of neutering them) and then killing the kittens. Admittedly it was hard for her, too. She admires them, she often expends extraordinary resources to save and heal them, she admires their unique personalities. And it is her waxing eloquent about the individual personalities that drew me and kept me reading. The tale of one particular animal "Rufus the Survivor" is the most poignant; though he may not be the one she loved the most, it is in his story that she creates the most heartfelt connection.