Booknotes 4.19

Broken Country, by Clare Leslie Hall, published 2025, fiction. I did not in the least intend to finish two “[Something] Country” books on the same day (a fact more evident on the reading log), but here we are. I read this one for book club. Spicy bits aside, it was very readable and compelling — I scarfed down the last two hundred pages in one day — and felt kind of like watching a sad, avoidable trainwreck.

The Tragedy of Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, published 1623, play. Another tragic masterpiece by the Bard. It’s full to the brim with coinages still in circulation, which isn’t necessarily a good metric for anything, but it’s fun to read the original. Particularly liked Macbeth’s soliloquy in act V scene V.

Ajax, by Sophocles (translated by Francis Storr), published 442 BC (translated 1919), play. A fascinating look at momentary bloodlust and consequent grief and regret and depression, with a predictably tragic end. (And yes: minus the bloodlust, I was reminded of my father throughout the play.) There are heartbreaking passages like this: “For I am going whither I am bound. / Do ye my bidding, and perchance, though now / I suffer, ye may hear of my release.” And sharp bits of imagery like this: “E’en I whose will aforetime was as iron / Steeled in the dipping, now have lost the edge / Of resolution.” Even though this play struck home in ways uncomfortable and sad, I really liked it.

Ethan Frome, by Edith Wharton, published 1911, fiction. Another compelling, haunting trainwreck tale, with the frame story infusing the inner narrative with a sense of dread. I liked it. I think I like sad stories. [Looks at the three books above. Yep.] The writing clicked with me, with passages like this: “About a mile farther, on a road I had never travelled, we came to an orchard of starved apple-trees writhing over a hillside among outcroppings of slate that nuzzled up through the snow like animals pushing out their noses to breathe.” Even with some similar themes, by the way, this felt tonally very, very different from Age of Innocence. Looking forward to reading the rest of Wharton’s work.