The Reading Challenge theme for this month, Fact and Fiction, allows you to read just about anything. If you're looking for ideas from the library collection, you'll find some great fiction in the 800s and factual books on every subject on the rest of the shelves. Scott got hooked on a religion that could easily be fact, and Brenda read a story that cleverly combines real events with fictional characters. What did you read?
Scott Dale read Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut In December of last year, I read a book of essays by Vonnegut called Wampeters, Foma and Granfalloons: Opinions (read that review here). Three of those words were reported to come from one of his earlier novels, Cat’s Cradle. I read Cat’s Cradle and discovered that the words describe aspects of a fictional religion, written in the language of a fictional country.
Cat’s Cradle was typed and set in the 1960s. The narrator, John, sets about compiling a book about what important Americans had been doing the day the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. John’s research leads him to speak to one of the bomb’s creators, Dr Hoenikker, and his children. John discovers that Dr Hoenikker also created a substance called ice-nine which enables water to freeze at something close to room temperature.
The fictional religion comes from the fictional country San Lorenzo, which is situated somewhere in the Caribbean Sea. This is a country ruled viciously by their President with minor crimes punishable by the hook; a cruel and painful death sentence. San Lorenzo is also home to Bokonon and the religion he founded, Bokononism. This is an outlawed religion in San Lorenzo, with followers under threat of the hook. Of course, the entire island practices Bokononism. This outlawed religion’s scripture comes in the form of Calyspsos (written by Bokonon himself) that are both lyrical and cynical. It is a great made up religion.
With Cat’s Cradle, Vonnegut was focusing on the human relationship with science, the militarisation of scientific “discoveries”, and what that can mean for all of us. Vonnegut’s focus on this is not surprising considering the Cold War era in which the book was written (the Cuban Missile Crisis took place a year prior to publication).
I enjoyed this book very much – so will anyone who enjoys a good ol’ science fiction satire.
Fiction, 810 VON 1C CAT
Brenda Carter read Captain Corelli’s Mandolin by Louis De Berni`eres
Love is a temporary madness. It erupts like an earthquake and then subsides… That is just being ‘in love’ which any of us can convince ourselves we are. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident.
Captain Corelli’s Mandolin ticks many boxes for this month’s Challenge. It’s a fiction book based on fact by an author I haven’t read before and, as an added bonus, contains multiple love stories for Library Lover’s Day.
The story is set on the Greek island of Cephalonia during the Second World War. Like many memorable novels, it connects a small set of characters and their particular dramas within a broad sweep of history. Its 73 short chapters move rapidly between different characters, historical as well as invented, exploring different aspects of social history. Captain Corelli's Mandolin explores many varieties of love. We see the initial lust-based love between Pelagia and Mandras, which burns out as a result of the war; the slow-burning love between Pelagia and the mandolin-playing Italian Captain Corelli, despite their political enmity; the nurturing love, based on love and respect between Pelagia and her doctor-father, Iannis, and the heroic, homosexual love that influences Carlo’s feelings and actions towards his fellow soldiers. Most of all, the novel exposes the horrors, hardships and futility of war in this idyllic place.
Captain Corelli’s Mandolin works on many levels, as a love story, a war story and a deconstruction of just what determines the facts that make it into the history books.
Fiction, Fact, An author you haven’t read before, 820 DEBE 1C CAP
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