101 Books, Number 19

Favorite Books Throughout My Life

19: A Farewell to Arms, 1929, by Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961)

This was the first by Hemingway

That I had ever read at all.

A college frosh—back in the day—

I fell for Papa’s waterfall

Of words. A book suggested for

The frosh beginning their careers,

It drew me in—it was no chore

For me and others of my peers.

Okay, I cried there at the end—

My first “book cry”—but not the last.

There was no way I could pretend:

Oh, yes, my tears were leaking fast.

I read much more of Hemingway—

I saw his homes, stood by his grave.

I loved his stories—war and play—

And men who sometimes … misbehave.

I later taught some stories, too*—

And liked to see each student’s face

When Hemingway—in ways so true—

Showed them the injured human race.

*“The Killers,” “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber,” “Hills like White Elephants,” “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place,” and others.

101 Books, Number 20

Favorite Books Throughout My Life

20: Much Ado About Nothing, 1598, by William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

I saw this film when it came out

In 1993.

And I knew right away that it

Would work in class for me.*

The Taming of the Shrew had been

The play I’d had kids read—

But Much Ado was fresher now—

I knew it would succeed.

And so it did—we had such fun

With Benedick and all.

The cast was varied—talented—

From large parts to the small.

With Branagh,Thompson, Beckinsale,

With Leonard and Denzel,

With Reeves and Biers, and Keaton, too—

They all did very well.

Like all the Bard’s great comedies—

And all I do adore—

This Much Ado had lightness, yes—

But darkness at the core.

But love, in comedies, must reign—

So it reigns here, as well.

The Good Guys won—the Bad Guys lost—

Before the curtain fell.

*I was teaching 8^th grade English at Harmon Middle School; Aurora, Ohio, near the end of my public-school teaching career (in 1997).

101 Books, Number 21

Favorite Books Throughout My Life

22: One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, 1960, by Ken Kesey (1935–2001)

I read this novel well before

That film came out—mid-70s.

The movie was a magnet-lure

For readers—such refreshing breeze!

And Kesey was a character—

The drugs, the travels—all of it

Would add to all the gold and myrrh

And frankincense of Kesey’s wit.

His promise—never realized—

At least not as it could have been.

He could have been, well, super-sized—

Among the greats of writing men.

But what a story, Cuckoo’s Nest!

A madhouse and a man most mad.

A nurse who was his gravest test—

And Kesey’s tale—far more than sad.

101 Books, Number 22

Favorite Books Throughout My Life

23: Texasville, 1987, by Larry McMurtry (1936–)

I had not heard of him until

I saw the film Last Picture Show.

And it became just like a pill—

An addict, I just had to know

McMurtry’s other books, and so

I’ve read them all—from first to last.

Along the way I came to know

In many ways he’s unsurpassed—

At least in “getting” Texas folk.

He writes of rural—urban, too—

And never settles for a joke

But sinks his spade and digs right through.

And Texasville? From Sentence One,*

I loved it—did much more than smile!

And I was sorry it was done—

Some books are just an easy trial.

The film, I fear, was not so good,*

But that’s beyond the author’s pale:

A golden novel turned to wood—

A train diminished—monorail.

*“Duane was in the hot tub, shooting at his new doghouse with a .44 Magnum.”

**1990, also directed by Bogdanovich (as was The Last Picture Show, 1971); starring Jeff Bridges, Cybill Shepherd, Cloris Leachman, Timothy Bottoms, Randy Quaid, et al.

101 Books, Number 23

Favorite Books from Throughout My Life

24: Eight Million Ways to Die, 1982, by Lawrence Block (1938–)

I saw the movie first* (I know:

That is lazy way to go),

But once I saw it, I was hooked—

And with L. Block, well, I was booked.

I loved his Matthew Scudder tales—

An alcoholic P. I. fails

At times to stay away from booze—

But will not quit or lose.

His other works I read a bit—

But never got too hooked on it.

But Matthew Scudder? I’m a fan.

And read them all—that was my plan.**

I met Block at a signing once—

He acted kind of like a dunce—

So arrogant, dismissive, Yo.

I smiled when it was time to go.

But in those Scudder pages, man,

He leads the mystery caravan.

Who cares—if he can do such work—

If he can sometimes be a jerk?***

*1986. With Jeff Bridges and Andy Garcia; screenplay by Oliver Stone (among others); dir. By Hal Ashby

**And I’ve so far succeeded.

**As I can be!

101 Books, Number 24

Favorite Books from Throughout My Life

24: The Raj Quartet, 1965–75, by Paul Scott (1920–78)

Paul Scott had only newly died

When I began The Raj Quartet—

Four novels,* all of which were set

In India while British tried

To keep their dominance in force—

But local people—culture, too—

We pushing all toward something new—

And so the British left, of course.

I loved those books—and learned so much,

For Scott had done the needed work—

The research (clearing all the murk)—

Completed with his artist’s touch.

I passed them on to reading friends,

Who then devoured the series, too—

And watched the films (so good, so true)**—

Then grieved because a good thing ends.

*The Jewel in the Crown (1966), The Day of the Scorpion (1968), The Towers of Silence (1971), A Division of the Spoils (1975)

**The Jewel in the Crown, 1984

101 Books, Number 25

Favorite Books from Throughout My Life

26. The Rocksburg Railroad Murders, 1972, by K. C. Constantine (Carl Constantine Kosak, 1934–)

My older brother clued me in:

I had to read this Constantine.

And so I did (where had I been?)—

Such mysteries—so lean, so mean.

He is a very quiet man,

This Constantine. No interviews.

But I can roll with this guy’s plan:

You write like this? You can refuse!

His mysteries in Rocksburg* reel

With much invention and much art.

Chief Balzac is the cop—real deal!—

The town plays, too, a major part.

And gunplay in these books is rare—

Old Balzic doesn’t care for it.

But mystery-lovers do not care—

Not in a book with genius lit!**

*fictional Pennsylvania small town.

** nearly 20 books in the series