Review: The Diary of Vaslav Nijinsky (Unexpurgated Edition)

Title: The Diary of Vaslav Nijinsky
Author: Vaslav Nijisnky; Edited by Joan Acocella and Translated by Kyril FitzLyon
Date Begun: June 23, 2007
Date Completed: June 28, 2007

There is a blurb on the back of this edition of Nijisnky's diary which nails the experience of reading it, in a way promotional blurbs hardly ever do: "Like watching the permanent eclipse of the sun."

That sums up the experience. While watching Nijinsky approach insanity must have been like watching a racehorse break its legs, experiencing the same time period through his own words is infinitely worse. It is not that the prose is difficult to comprehend - the short, abrupt sentences are fairly easy in and of themselves - but it is a very difficult book to actually read. I find that I want to cry but am entirely unable.

Perhaps the most difficult part is that Nijinsky seems completely aware of his disintegrating mental status. He makes references to other artists and intellectuals that went mad. He references Hamlet (this might have been written by Hamlet, almost). But there are moments when Nijinsky seems equally oblivious to his madness.

I certainly didn't expect such a preoccupation with politics. But I suppose anything written during the post WWI peace conferences must be political.

It's a very difficult book, but I'm glad I read it.

Review: Athénaïs, Lisa Hilton

Title: Athénaïs: The Life of Louis XIV's Mistress, the Real Queen of France
Author: Lisa Hilton
Date Begun: May 25, 2007
Date Completed: May 29, 2007

Look, I don't have any problem with revisionist historians. Unpopular historical characters are some of my favorite people. So it's easy to understand the desire to rehabilitate such characters, and Hilton wants to do that here. The problem with the book is that Hilton goes much too far in her quest. Instead of recognizing the flaws in her subject, Hilton ignores all of them in order to make Montespan into the goddess her name implies.

Really, this is the bitchiest, cattiest biography I've ever read. It's like Regina George wrote it. Except then it would have been funny. And on one level it is plenty of fun, but really it's simply exasperating. Life isn't high school. The role of mistress is not synonymous with prom queen. There is more to it than looks or popularity - just as there is more to the role of queen.

I don't understand why Hilton is only interested in such a shallow analysis. Obviously beauty was important and Athénaïs was quite amazingly lovely - but it was not the end all and be all of women's political involvement, even in the seventeenth century. Nor was beauty the entirety of a courtier's life. But Hilton equates stupidity and unattractiveness. Maria Theresa was unattractive, so she wasn't worthy to be the queen of France. OBVIOUSLY. I wonder what Hilton would have done if she'd tried to write about Catherine de Medici (and for a book about that unattractive and politicall able Queen of France, I recommend Leonie Frieda's biography).

Athénaïs left me with a bad taste in my mouth. Between Hilton's overly credulous discussion of the Affair of the Poisons - seventeenth century superstition made Satanism/witchcraft a bit more complex than I think Hilton treats the matter - and the hero worship she heaps on Montespan, I just want my five bucks back. And you know, I didn't have high expectations to begin with.

(Points to Hilton, though, for citing Anthony Blunt and Nancy Mitford.)

Driveby Reviews

I don't have time to write up a long, incoherent review for these. So you're getting short ones.

Title: Strange Attractions
Author: Emma Holly
Date Begun: December 28, 2006
Date Completed: December 29

Hot, hot, hot. Okay, so it's not exactly mentally challenging and I'm definitely not going to recommend it to my mother (because...ew), but this was a hot, fun read. It's also my first Holly - I know she generally comes pretty highly recommended, but personally I find contemporary romance dull. If I'm going to read about two heterosexuals getting it on, I want them to have pretty pretty clothes and historical context and I want to be able to fantasize about their messy, early deaths if I dislike them. But this book, has the traditional M/F pairing, as well as M/M and M/M/F and...oh, yes, I liked it. (Which really shouldn't be any surprise.) Grade: B

Title: The Name and Nature of Poetry (and other selected prose)
Author: A. E. Housman
In progress

I love Housman. I love him mostly for his poetry and the way the table of contents reads in my Collected Works of A. E. Housman. It goes like this: A Shropshire Lad, Last Poems, More Poems because, of course, he always thought he would stop writing poetry. And he didn't and thank god. Because his poetry is AWESOME. But so is his prose. This book, a Christmas present, has only very little on poetry. I'm great with that, poetry is always interesting and not difficult to relate to. But even his prefaces to translations of books I have never read (I've heard of Juvenal, but I have no clue who this Manilius guy was), which frequently contain lengthy quotes in languages I don't speak or even read, is so much fun. He's snobby and nasty in a way someone like Nancy Mitford (whom I also love!) could never be. Because Housman is being nasty about people who are long dead and generally regarded as terribly clever and it's always hilarious. At least, it is if you are a geek like me. (Although, clearly, I am not geeky enough. It's like the indie music geek who is confronted with a true classical music geek and...well, we know who wins that one.) Grade A

Title: Zelda
Author: Nancy Milford
Date Begun: December 20, 2006
Date Completed: January 1, 2007

Apparently, a lot of Amazon reviewers felt that Milford lacked compassion for her subject. I don't know what they're on, but I would really like some of it. Zelda is a good biography. Not only does the central focus (Zelda) remains sympathetic and interesting throughout - so do the other people in her life. It would be incredibly easy to make Fitzgerald into a villain (as happened to T. S. Eliot in this one biography of Vivian Eliot I read, but Eliot had real problems) and blame him for everything. It's clear, however, that Zelda and Scott are both responsible. Neither of them are blamed. I did find Milford's heavy use of primary sources a little jarring, but enjoyable all the same. She seems to have conducted many interviews with people who knew the Fitzgeralds personally (I suppose in 1970 many of them were still alive) and she draws from many letters and diaries. I admit, I'll probably enjoy any biography of someone who a) hated Hemingway and b) accused her husband of being gay for him. Points off, though, for ommitting the meeting with Edith Wharton. ("Yes, and then what?" You'd think the person who could get along with Henry James would get along with anyone!) Grade: A-