E. M. Forster, A New Life, by Wendy Moffatt

I think I first heard about E.M.Forster on Virginia Woolf's diaries, then I watched the movies based on A Room with a View, Maurice, Howards End and A Passage to India, and only then started reading his books. And I like them immensely, in a couple of years I read the novels that had been adapted to movies and a few collections of short stories and essays. He's a wonderful writer; not as famous or influential as his contemporaries Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, D.H. Lawrence or Christopher Isherwood, he is perfectly at the same level. My favourites are by far Howards End, A Passage to India and Pharos and Pharillon, I intend to read them again sometime soon. For many years, and still now, the words only connect are specially meaningful to me. And I remember my first time in Florence, when I thought to myself I'm in Santa Croce without a Baedecker and laughed silently.

Then, there's his life - I always liked biographies, particularly of people I admire or that interest me in some way. I knew the main facts of Forster's life for a long time, but recently I noticed this biography mentioned by someone whose opinion in books I value very much, so I ordered it, and I'm glad I did. Elegantly and affectionately written, some may say is to centered on his homosexuality, but in Forster's case, his homosexuality was the determinant fact about his life and his writing, according to his own words. I probably would have liked to read more about the conception and writing of his major novels, which is something that always interests me about a writer, but there's still just enough about that - I particularly liked the parts about the genesis of The Longest Journey (that I haven't read yet) and A Passage to India, and his discovery of and reaction to Cavafy, one of my favourite poets. There's plenty of gossip and details about his relationships and affairs - and who isn't pleased, even if guiltily, with gossip? - which are very informative about his character and personality, and also much information about his connections with many gay artists I didn't know, like the American Greenwich Village set of the late 1940s. In our present day identity-politics obsessed society, his lifelong attitudes regarding sex, race and class may be dismissively considered tibious or coward, but that's a very judgemental position, in my opinion. Not everybody is shaped to be an activist, and in his way, he actually contributed a lot to causes I cherish, like civilisation, tolerance and intellectual, personal and artistic freedom. Life is complicated, and there are many different ways to take your stand. And I think that through his art and his life, E.M. Forster contributed to make the world a better place, and what more can one wish from someone?

Beautiful Ruins, by Jess Walter

This is a very nice book, an engaging, romantic and enjoyable novel. The plot is clever, the writing smooth, intertwining funny and dramatic bits effortlessly. It's an optimistic, feel-good book, the kind that pleases you while you're reading and leaves a happy aftertaste. It's a great novel to make you feel better about life and its memorable moments.

Ulysses, by James Joyce

It took me literally decades to start reading Ulysses, but I finally did it. When I started reading more "serious" books, the only Portuguese translation available was in Brazilian Portuguese, that I dislike, so I never read it. Later, when I became able to read fluently in English, I lacked for a long time the courage to tackle such a long and famously difficult text - I bought it in 2007 but it stayed on the shelf all these years. Was it worth the wait? Sometimes I didn't think so, but in the end I'm glad I read it, not only because I would always feel I should have read such a famously celebrated work. It's certainly not an easy read. Several times I had to struggle to get by, but it actually got easier along the way, and the final impression was rather positive.
It's certainly a work of genius, the writing is amazing, in several different styles, extremely rich and clever. I'm not so familiar with the Odyssey to be able to recognise many of the episodes, but the narrative is nevertheless interesting and fetching by itself. So why not give it 5 stars? Because in some way it felt somewhat dated. I'm sure it must have been a remarkable breakthrough at the time, due to the the frankness of the narrative and the experimental style, but 100 years later, after so many stream-of-consciousness and experimental books, after Virginia Woolf, Samuel Beckett, Mikhail Bulgakov, etc, it doesn't convey anymore the kind of shock it must have done at the time it was written, and those other many books can connect with us today more easily than Ulysses - at least, that's my opinion, that's how I felt about it.
Anyway, it's still worth reading, if for no other reason for the incredible and beautiful mastery of the English language, it must have been one of the most impressive books I have read in that regard.

We, by Yevegny Zamyatin

This is such a wonderful book, I wonder how I had never heard of it until recently, when I noticed it on the GoodReads list of a friend (thanks, JR, for the excellent find!). I always loved dystopian novels, and this is one the first, and SO good. Written at about the same time that Brave New World and a big influence on Orwell's Nineteen Eighty Four, it's really a masterwork, not only in plot but in style too. It's extremely well written, it eerily conveys the atmosphere of that kind of brave new world - that I couldn't but imagine as set in a Metropolis like place - and the characters are believable and moving. The final is heartbreaking, but it feels utterly inevitable (like in Nineteen Eighty Four). All in all, an excellent and beautiful book, I highly recommend it.

Hard to be a God, by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky

Many years ago, when I used to read a lot of science fiction, I read a book by Arkady and Boris Strugastky, Prisoners of Power. I don't remember any of it, except that I liked it. Recently, I came upon a reference to Hard to be a God in Masha Gessen's excellent The Future is History, and ordered it.
It's a very good book, a metaphor of the rise of totalitarian dictatorships and a reflection on the frustrating powerlessness of informed individuals to affect the course of the events unfolding before their eyes, which is always relevant, today as in times past.
Written as a swashbuckling tale, with more blood and gore than even Game of Thrones, it makes for an exciting read. And it manages to deliver what any good sci-fi book should - thought provoking about important issues relevant to our world, because any sci-fi book is really about our own world. The talks between the protagonist Rumata - a very engaging character - and the healer (proto-scientist) Budach and the rebel Arata are particularly moving. I highly recommend this book, and it made me want to read more by the Strugatsky brothers.

Uma Mulher Desnecessária, de Rabih Alameddine

I loved this book, because it's such a love letter to books and literature and the way they can redeem one's life, giving it meaning and purpose. The main character is extremely humane and believable, the evocation of Beirut, a city torn by war and modern development, is moving and real, as are the people described, particularly the three neighbours. The nostalgic tone reminded me of Mathias Enard's Boussole, another powerful and touching hymn to literature.

And I was glad for so many references to Fernando Pessoa and a few to Saramago.

21 Lessons for the 21st Century, by Yuval Noah Harari

I cannot recommend enough Harari's books, I definitely think they should be mandatory reading in high school in any civilised country. You cannot find more insightful, sensible and lucid information about the problems our species faces today. I would like to quote so many of the book's sentences that I end up not quoting - you just have to read it, it's SO worth it. The author is certainly one of the greatest minds writing at the moment. Please read it.

Os Despojos do Dia, de Kazuo Ishiguro

I haven't read many books by Ishiguro - just A Pale View of the Hills and Never Let me Go - but liked them immensely, especially the second. His writing is extremely beautiful, in a peculiarly restrained way that makes it so much stronger. And this is another perfect example of his masterly writing (I read it in Portuguese, but I found the translation very good, one can hear the English original in some way). I watched the movie with Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson many years ago, and it's an excellent adaptation, but of course the book is much more nuanced and complete. It's a sad and nostalgic story, about what could have been and the alienation of class and job sense of duty, beautiful, and that leaves us wondering about the fleetness of life.

The Heart Goes Last, by Margaret Atwood

Another good dystopian novel by Margaret Atwood, not as good as the Maddadam trilogy or The Handmaid's Tale, but still very clever and with a sardonic humour. It's funny, with a sardonic humour, and it reminds us of a sci-fi B-movie from the 1950s or an episode of Black Mirror. The writing is excellent, even if sometimes it looks like the author is having too much fun lingering on the pulp details - but Margaret Atwood is too elegant to step over the borders of good taste. All in all, a very interesting book.

The Future is History - How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia, by Masha Gessen

An extremely interesting book, both thought provoking and chillingly frightening. I usually like Masha Gessen's column in the New Yorker, and the book's subject always fascinated me - how, after the fall of Communist Soviet Union, Russia evolved back to the same kind of non-democratic regime it had before; besides, the analysis of the drift to authoritarianism, intolerance and democratic deficit is extremely relevant now, when we are witnessing it not only in former dictatorships but in the heart of the Western world.

The book is well structured and researched, following the lives of four young people born in the 1980s and three older intellectuals. Their lives and development are depicted along the context of the changing political and social atmosphere; the turbulent 1990s and the rise of Putin until the present undemocratic, nationalist and chauvinistic regime are chillingly clear. It's a depressing read in a way, also a kind of very timely warning. I could do with less references to psychoanalysis, which is a somewhat outdated theory, but it's a minor shortcome.

It's terribly sad to watch how countries that have been authoritarian for the most part of their existence and where for a time a window of democratic hope opened revert to authoritarianism - like Russia, Brazil, Turkey, even Hungary or Poland - but even worse is to witness the same tendency, through a rise in populism, nationalism, xenophobia and intolerance, in countries that have been democratic for a long time - like the US, Britain, France, Israel, even Sweden. It looks like madness has taken possession of the Western world, as it forgets the values that gave us the longest and most prosperous period of peace in our long History.

Americanah, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

There are two great things in this book: the extremely insightful and lucid portrait of racism in the US and the very interesting and informative depiction of the present state of life and aspirations for learned middle class people in an African country (in this case Nigeria) seen through the eyes of one of them. Fortunately, these compensate the book's shortcomings - the lameness of the romantic plot, a sometimes too morally righteous undertone and its length (it should be at least 200 pages shorter, and I admit that if it went on for another 100 pages I would downgrade it from 4 to 3 stars).

Chimamande Ngozi Adichie's writing is elegant and fluid, so the book is an easy read. So, even if it's too long, I still think it's worth reading, though not nearly as good as Half of a Yellow Sun, the only other of her books I read.

Five Quarts - A Personal and Natural History of Blood, by Bill Hayes

Another very interesting and most enjoyable book by Bill Hayes. I love the way he writes about medical subjects, extremely clear and knowledgeable - and I should know, since I'm a doctor myself - and how he intertwines his personal experiences and feelings in his narratives. His writing is elegant, witty and endearing, and the book is full of interesting anecdotes and valuable information, not only on the history of our relation with blood across the centuries but also present day important issues, like the still recent AIDS history and what blood, its perils and values, mean to us (I would like him to have also approached the Jehovah's Witnesses' particular attitude towards blood!). All in all, a very good book, and I recommend it, as his other books.

My Lives, by Edmund White

I always enjoyed reading autobiographical literature, like memoirs, correspondence, etc; it gives one a most vivid sense not only of the author's personality and ideas but also of his time and contemporaries, someone a History nerd like me finds always fascinating. I hadn't read much by Edmund White - I liked Skinned Alive, but found A Boy's Own Story somewhat dull - but recently I was reminded of him when I read Everyone is Watching, where he is one of the characters, then there was an article about him in the new York Times, where he was praised by several writers I admire, like Garth Greenwell, Edouard Louis and Pajtim Statovci, so I ordered My Lives to give it a try.

I was not disappointed - it's a very interesting book, extremely well written, organised not chronologically but by themes, describing the life and development of an intelligent man through most interesting times. The chapters about his parents, his shrinks and Europe are five star writing; I don't share his admiration for Genet, who I always considered an overrated writer and a disagreeable character, and I found his opinions on women somewhat silly, even if I liked the candour with which he states them. As for his sex life, when at a certain point he writes: "I can imagine some of my friends reading this and muttering, 'TMI - Too Much Information', or 'Are we to be spared nothing? Must we have every detail about these tiresome senile shenanigans?'", I thought: "this is exactly what I'm feeling!". But then the simple fact that he wrote this in such an ironic self deprecating way reconciled me with the narrative, even if sometimes so detailed and graphic that bordered on boring. But I also found it refreshing to see someone writing about subjects usually considered too scabrous to be approached by "serious" writers in such a candid way, and never distasteful. White speaks about gay sex, gender issues or prostitution in a most common-sensical way, never bothering with the political correctness and puritanism that haunt these issues in the present time, so dishearteningly dominated by Byzantine discourses of identity theories and such. Just for that, he deserves my praise.

Hired - Six Months Undercover in Low-Wage Britain, by James Bloodworth

This is a very important and timely book, a journalistic piece in the respectable tradition of Orwell's Down and Out in Paris and London or Ben Judah's This is London. The author goes undercover working in a few of the typical jobs on the rise - at an Amazon warehouse, an insurance company call centre and as a Uber driver. I was not surprised; my daughter worked for a while as a Uber driver, and I was always most suspicious of these very cheap services - if it is that cheap, someone is bearing the costs, because obviously the businesses must make profit, and who bears the cost is of course the worker. These companies make lots of money by cleverly circumventing work and tax laws, taking advantage of most people's wish to get cheap services by shamelessly exploring their workers. We don't think about it, and use them for the said cheap services, but the fact is they're eroding all worker's rights that were so painfully conquered along decades of struggle, and we should realise that by accepting it we're actually paving the way for our own rights - that we enjoy as "regular" workers - to be the next ones taken away. It's a chilling account, excellent food for thought.

L'Angoisse du Roi Salomon, de Romain Gary (Émile Ajar)

Another wonderful book by Romain Gary, written under his pseudonym Émile Ajar. It's funny how his writing style is similar to La Vie Devant Soi and different from Les Cerfs-Volants, the true mark of a heteronym, like our Fernando Pessoa, who was able to create several writing personas with very different styles.

But writing genius apart, this book is a jewel in its own right, moving, sensitive and intelligent. I don't want to describe it, just recommend it - you must read it. It kind of restores your faith in humanity.

Homo Deus, a Brief History of Tomorrow, by Yuval Noah Harari

It took me some time before deciding to read this book, after having liked Sapiens so much, I was somewhat afraid of being disappointed. But I wasn't - Homo Deus is perfectly on a par in what quality is concerned with its predecessor. Once more, Harari deals with the history and evolution of mankind, religion, science and technology, what it means to be human, and the challenges ahead of us in a most knowledgeable and insightful way, and the most objective, considering the limitations of our current minds and present knowledge, whose limits he manages to make us understand so cleverly. And the writing is always so clear and elegant, exactly like a book about science should be so it can reach a wide lay audience.

I felt sometimes skeptical about the time frames suggested in the book, I doubt things will move so fast, based on my personal experience, I know scientific and technological developments take more time than the hype makes us think: for instance, when I started working in Nephrology, more than 25 years ago, xenotransplantation and artificial wearable kidneys seemed just around the corner - well, they obviously weren't, even if treatments are much better now, they still are basically the same, and xenotransplantation and bionic kidneys seem just around the corner... still. I do believe we'll get there eventually, but it will take probably longer than he suggests.

Also, I think he disregards the importance that old religions and ways of living still have in most of the world. His possible futures apply mostly to the western world, but I think the West will still have to contend with the millions of non-Western people in interactions that will surely influence its own development and the way its technology will change its life. I certainly agree with him on how ancient religions are obsolete and unable to deal with modern challenges, but there are still lots of people under their influence and they will perforce influence the pace of Western development. Still, I believe his views to be mostly correct, especially if one takes the "satellite view" looking at history. In the near future, I envisage as more probable a kind of future (in the West, at least) as depicted in the excellent dystopian trilogy of novels by Margaret Atwood Oryx and Krake.

But then, the author repeatedly states that his provocative predictions are not prophecies, and that things can develop in a totally unexpected way. But making us to look at the history of man and to consider the challenges that present technology poses in such a clear and insightful way is invaluable to make us understand ourselves and consider our future.

I think these two books by Yuval Harari - Sapiens and Homo Deus - should be mandatory reading in high school, by the 10th grade. The teaching of History, Biology and Philosophy would surely be much improved.

En Man som Heter Ove, av Fredrik Backman

This is a lovely book. I read it mostly to practice my Swedish, and I'm glad I'm did. It fulfilled its purpose - even if there were many words I didn't know the meaning of, I managed to understand the context and read it fluently enough. The story is really moving, the main character very endearing and very Swedish - I was actually happy to be able to read it in Swedish, the cadence of the language agrees so much with the dry humour of the narrative. And it's a nice depiction of a multicultural and civilised country, with its flaws but also with all that makes it one of the most civilised places of our time. Even if dealing with a suicidal and depressed character, it ends up as an optimistic celebration of life.

Biology against the machine

How does one cope when one feels like one has no real goal in life? I'm sure that must be rather common when one reaches middle age, especially if one has no significant other, the children are raised and work has become just another routine. There comes a time when one keeps listening in one's mind to John Mellencamp's words: "life goes on, long after the thrill of living is gone", or Sufjan Stevens' "there is only a shadow of me, in a matter of speaking I'm dead".

But then one keeps on living. Because there are friends to talk to, books to read, movies to watch. I remember a passage in Erico Veríssimo's O Tempo e o Vento, when some old woman dies and her friend says something like "poor thing, she will never know like the Toutinegra do Moinho (a very popular novel serialized at the beginning of the 20th century) will end!". (By the way, a disclosure - A Toutinegra do Moinho was my grandmother's favorite book).

So I guess it all comes down to biology. We're animals, living beings product of millions of years of evolution, destined for survival. It's in our DNA, the pressure for survival. That's why, in spite of all the existential and philosophical anguish and whatever, we still hold on to life.

Simone de Beauvoir said it beautifully in La Force des Choses:

Oui, le moment est arrivé de dire: jamais plus! Ce n’est pas moi qui me détache de mes anciens bonheurs, ce sont eux qui se détachent de moi: les chemins de montagne se refusent à mes pieds. Jamais plus j ene m’écroulerai, grisée de fatigue, dans l’odeur du foin; jamais plus je ne glisserai solitaire sur les neiges des matins. Jamais plus un homme. Maintenant, autant que mon corps mon imagination en a pris son parti. Malgré tout, c’est étrange de n’être plus un corps; il y a des moments où cette bizarrerie, par son caractère définitif, me glace le sang. Ce qui me navre, bien plus que ces privations, c’est de ne plus rencontrer en moi de désirs neufs: ils se flétrissent avant de maître dans ce temps raréfié qui est désormais le mien. Jadis les jours glissaient sans hâte, j’allais plus vite qu’eux, mês projets m’emportaient. Maintenant, les heures trop courtes me mènent à bride abattue vers ma tombe. J’évite de penser: dans dix ans, dans un an. Les souvenirs s’exténuent, les mythes s’écaillent, les projets avortent dans l’oeuf: je suis là et les choses sont là. Si ce silence doit durer, qu’il semble long, mon bref avenir!

Yes, the biological pressure is paramount, we are after all just animals product of the time honoured evolutionary process, meant to live. And then, there is always the perfect poem by Dorothy Parker, more insightful than most philosophical treaties.

Razors pain you;
Rivers are damp;
Acids stain you;
And drugs cause cramp.
Guns aren’t lawful;
Nooses give;
Gas smells awful;
You might as well live.

Le Temps Retrouvé, par Marcel Proust

I lack the talent to write a roper critic of this book - considering the ensemble of À La Recherche du Temps Perdu. I'll just say that since the first time I read it, in my early 20s, and every time I reread it - a few times by now - as soon as I reach the end I feel an urge to start reading it all over again. But then I prefer to wait a few years, and the pleasure of rediscovery is all the greatest. This was the first time I read it in French, a challenge I'm happy I took, for the original language is much more beautiful than the Portuguese translation I have. This is definitely the book I would take to that hypothetical deserted island. And who knows, maybe next time I'll be able to write better about it.

In the Shadow of the Sword - The Battle for Global Empire and the End of the Ancient World, by Tom Hoilland

This is an extremely interesting book, about a most fascinating time. As usual, Tom Holland writes about history as an adventure novel, which makes it a very pleasant read, even if sometimes he uses too much the passive sentences, but that's his style. Sometimes he seems to assume too much, but the matter of the book seems very well researched, and his depiction of the development of Islam from the turbulent struggles between Byzantium and Persia, Judaism and Christianity, is very interesting, insightful and thought provoking. I found extremely interesting his depiction of the origins of Islam, and so very likely. And I think it's very praiseworthy for someone to write History is such a readable and pleasant way, in the tradition of Gibbon. Knowing History is the best way to understand the development of our society, and if it's not always comfortable, it's always most useful.