Night Train to Lisbon by Pascal Mercier

“The real director of our life is accident—a director full of cruelty, compassion and bewitching charm.

It’s an unrecognized form of stupidity, you have to forget the cosmic meaninglessness of all our acts to be able to be vain and that’s a glaring form of stupidity.

How boring and stale it must be to know that what happens today, this month, this year, doesn’t matter, endless more days, months, years will come.

A feeling is no longer the same when it comes the second time.  It dies through the awareness of its return

In the immortal soul, a gigantic weariness and a flagrant despair must grow in view of the certainty that it will never end, never.  It is death that gives the moment its beauty and its horror.  Only through death is time a living time.  Why does the Lord, the omniscient God, not know that?  Why does he threaten us with endlessness that must mean unbearable desolation.”

Had enough?  Can you tell this novel was written by a Professor of Philosophy?

These and other rantings are on full view in Night Train to Lisbon.

This is a story with two main protagonists.  First is Raimund Gregorius,   He has led a dull, unfulfilling life as a teacher of classic languages at a private school in Bern Switzerland.   He learns of his exact opposite in Amadeu de Prado, a brilliant student who goes on to be a brilliant doctor and also a leader in the Portuguese Resistance to Antonio de Oliveira Salazar, whose dictatorship dominated Portugal for 1932 to 1974.  Gregorius spends most of the novel  pursuing information about the life of Amadeu  who has been dead for a while, first through an obscure book  that Amadeu published and then by tracking down and talking to most of the people that knew him.

Both Raimund and Amadeu are angsty people.  Both suffer from life threatening, chronic ailments that may be their undoing.  To my disappointment, not much is mentioned about the resistance other than showing the effects on some of the characters, such as deformed hands and broken minds.

I made it through this book and it had its redeeming qualities but on the whole was a real downer. The book is now a movie, starring Jeremy Irons. It was filmed in Germany, and has not yet been releases in the United States.

Joel

That’s how he was, the godless priest: He thought things through to the end.  He always thought them through to the end.  No matter how black the consequences were.

The House Girl by Tara Conklin

A recent book that’s been getting rave reviews and that’s being compared to “The Help” is “The House Girl”. Set in both present day New York and 19th century antebellum Virginia, it follows the story of 17 year old slave Josephine Bell, and her artist-mistress, Lu Anne Bell. We’re also introduced to a determined present day lawyer, Lina Sparrow, who is up for the trial of a lifetime in her attempt to find the perfect plaintiff for a multi-million dollar lawsuit in reparations for the descendants of American slaves. In her research, Lina stumbles upon Josephine Bell’s story, and the big question everyone wants to know is this: did Lu Anne Bell create art, or did her slave? Filled with impeccable historical scholarship and multi-layered character development, this is an important and fascinating read. I believe this book has that same magic effect “The Help” has had for so many readers. It also calls up some nagging questions that need to be answered. For instance, how many generations does it take to repair wrongs done to a people group? Are there current repercussions for descendants of slaves today that the American people are not aware of? How would the US government count the cost of so many unnamed lives, over 246 years of American history? This book grabbed me and wouldn’t let me go. I’ve been recommending it everywhere, and the plot is a great conversation starter, too.

Joy