The Counterfeiters by André Gide (novel # 248)

 

The Counterfeiters by André Gide

            Translated from French by Dorothy Bussy

Oh, simplicity! What a pure angelic soul you possess! And consciously. Life, my dear fellow, is nothing but a comedy. But the difference between you and me is that I know I am playing a part, whilst … ~ Olivier to Bernard

For starters, I did not like this novel.

 

But, I am trying to adopt John Updike’s rules for literary criticism (I don’t truly consider my “reviews” as criticism, but merely my own reaction). Nonetheless, rule #1 is:

• Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

As best I can discern, and as concisely as I can put it, I believe Gide intended to show that we all wear masks. If I am half-correct, I have to admit that he portrayed that premise fairly well, though I am not half-convinced that it is universally true. In this regard, and only this, The Counterfeiters reminds me of To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf.

 

Updike’s second rule:

• Give enough direct quotation—at least one extended passage—of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

A conversation between two main-characters Oliviers and Bernard:

“Then why am I telling you all this? … Because, reflecting on my own case, I became aware that not only images but ideas may strike the brain with more or less clearness. A person with a dull mind receives only confused perceptions; but for that very reason he cannot realize clearly that he is dull. He would only begin to suffer from his stupidity if he were conscious of it; and in order to be conscious of it, he would have to become intelligent. Now imagine for a moment such a monster—an imbecile who is intelligent enough to understand that he is stupid.”

“Why he would cease to be an imbecile.”

 

“No my dear fellow; you may believe me, because as a matter of fact, I am that very imbecile.

The Counterfeiters is a complex, character-driven story with no central plot but several interconnected subplots, including a group of schoolboys passing counterfeit coins to collect change in real currency—a literal and allegorical nod to the title. Gide uses numerous unreliable narrators, shifting perspectives, and even metafiction: one character, Édouard, is writing a novel also called The Counterfeiters, possibly as Gide’s alter ego. A chapter titled “The Author reviews His Characters” left me wondering who was speaking, Édouard or Gide.

 

Updike’s third rule:

• Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy précis.

Consider a line from the character Sophroniska:

“Yes, yes; I’m beginning to see,” said Sophroniska politely, though Laura’s laugh was very near conquering her. “But you know it’s always dangerous to represent intellectuals in novels. The public is bored by them; one only manages to make them say absurdities and they give an air of distraction to everything they touch.”

I quite agree with the Sophroniska. All the brilliant intellectuals and their absurd navel-gazing left me bored and distracted.

 

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

 

 

This novel fulfills the “Crime” category for the What’s in a Name? 2025 challenge, as the title features the crime of counterfeiting.

 

The rest of Updike’s rules for literary criticism can be found HERE 

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The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge: a Sherlock Holmes short story

"The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge” is a Sherlock Holmes short story from The Sherlock Holmes collection His Last Bow. According to The Annotated Sherlock Holmes, it was Holmes’ 28th case chronologically.

A respectable British gentleman, Mr. Eccles, employs Holmes to discover the meaning of an unusual encounter. Eccles was visiting the home of a new acquaintance and as arranged in advance spent the night. In the morning the house was abandoned without a trace by the master and all servants. Shortly after Eccles begins to recount the evening, the police arrive to question him. His acquaintance was found dead that morning and a note on the deceased revealed the previous evening’s plans, leading them to Holmes’ client.

From there, the police follow one theory, while Holmes follows his own. In spite of this divergence, Holmes notes, with rare admiration, the powers of observation of Inspector Baynes, a new Holmes character.

 

And for once, the police are not utterly inept. Baynes is surreptitiously on the same scent as Holmes, but uses a false public investigation as misdirection to lull the real culprit into a false sense of security.

 

And the game is afoot.

 

Dr. Watson is not very enthusiastic about the case.

But there was something in the ice-cold reasoning of Holmes which made it impossible to shrink from any adventure which he might recommend. One knew that thus, and only thus, could a solution be found. I clasped his hand in silence, and the die was cast. 

And for those of you counting, that makes two allusions to Shakespeare! 

 

It is a fun adventure with creepy specters, bizarre clues, and still more misdirection. And as I’ve hinted, a very rare occurrence in the Sherlock Holmes canon: a police detective very nearly the equal of the great Sherlock Holmes.

 

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The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen (novel #247)

Arthur Machen’s novella The Great God Pan (1894) is set in England and Wales at the turn of the 19th century. It is commonly categorized as horror. I would add sci-fi and fantasy.

It opens in the laboratory of the mad scientist, Dr. Raymond, though some might say I’m being unfair. I don’t believe Machen intended to portray him as absolutely mad, just a bit obsessed. Dr. Raymond intends lift the veil between the physical world and the spiritual, an occurrence the ancients called “seeing the god Pan”. No problem thus far, but it is Raymond’s method that condemns him. He will perform brain surgery on a young woman, a sort of lobotomy, that he is absolutely convinced will allow the subject to witness the spiritual realm. He claims it is completely safe, and that…

I rescued Mary from the gutter, and from almost certain starvation, when she was a child; I think her life is mine, to use as I see fit.

Mad says I. He reminds me of Dr. Frankenstein.

Mary does not come through the operation unharmed. Dr. Raymond calmly observes…

…it is a great pity; she is a hopeless idiot. However, it could not be helped; and after all, she has seen the Great God Pan.

In other words, not a total loss.

Mad!

By the way, he has not one bit of evidence that his conclusion is fact…he just knows it 

Ugh!

And indeed it did lift the veil briefly. Raymond’s reckless experiment unleashes an unholy terror on the world, setting the stage for the bulk of the tale. The entity’s terrifying menace on humanity and the suspenseful pursuit by investigators are compelling, but the story stumbles at the start and is ridiculous in the end. Such an opinion begs justification; be warned:

SPOILER ALERT

Just the high points: two amateur sleuths track down the otherworldly menace and threaten to call the police unless it hangs itself. Yes, a supernatural being with mind-bending powers commits suicide out of fear of the cops.

Ugh!

My rating 2.5 of 5 stars

 

This novel fulfills the “Deity” category for the What’s in a Name? 2025 challenge, as the title features deity.

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Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carré (novel #246)

Smiley feared…the secret fear that follows every professional to his grave. Namely, that one day, out of a past so complex that he himself could not remember all the enemies he might have made, one of them would find him and demand the reckoning.

 

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is a gripping tale of espionage set within the British intelligence apparatus during the Cold War of the 1970s. George Smiley, the recurring protagonist of John le Carré’s spy novels, is recalled from forced retirement to uncover a “mole” in MI6, Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, affectionately known as the Circus.

 

This dizzying saga brims with duplicitous characters, esoteric jargon, clandestine encounters, and treacherous relationships. Smiley must discover facts buried in the memories or encrypted records of master spies, each uniquely trained in the art of deception.

 

I initially called this a tale of espionage, but as a word-nerd and former member of the American intelligence community, I must clarify: it’s more precisely a tale of counterespionage—efforts to thwart espionage. This is Smiley’s fearful mission.

 

He feared…

…the secret fear that follows every professional to his grave. Namely, that one day, out of a past so complex that he himself could not remember all the enemies he might have made, one of them would find him and demand the reckoning.

The novel immerses readers in an uncomfortable world of deception, loyalty, betrayal, ambition, ego, and paranoia—or perhaps justified suspicion. The suspicion centers on one of five top Circus officials, codenamed Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Poor Man, and Beggarman. Smiley himself, once a suspect, was Beggarman.

 

This is a fascinating read, though it may challenge some readers. The large cast of characters can be confusing. Additionally, the British intelligence jargon is unfamiliar. I inferred some meanings, but others required a jargon guide from the novel’s Wikipedia article. Unlike typical spy novels, Tinker, Tailor isn’t action packed and Smiley is no action hero. Instead he wields his wits and decades of experience in a profession half spent concealing truth and half spent discovering it. It’s not quite a psychological thriller or suspense novel but rather a work of cerebral suspense—My occupational hazard.

 

My rating 4 of 5 stars

 

 

 

This novel fulfills the “Alliteration” category for the What’s in a Name? 2025 challenge, as the title features alliteration.

 

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Skellig by David Almond (novel #245)

 

“What are you?” I whispered.

He shrugged again.

“Something,” he said. “Something like you, something like a beast, something like a bird, something like an angel.” He laughed. 

“Something like that.”

Skellig is a young adult novel of magical realism set in Newcastle, England, in the late 1990s. It tells of 10-year-old Michael and his family. Michael has a lot to deal with: a move to a new neighborhood, a seriously dilapidated home, a newborn sister fighting for her life, and the lack of attention his parents can afford him at the moment. Oh, and he discovers Skellig, an otherworldly creature in the garage. 

Both Skellig and the garage appear to be in their final moments.

It's a charming story, probably suitable for children of Michael’s age and older. There is some eerie suspense, but nothing frightening. It is more about faith, wonder, courage, and friendship. Michael manages to make one new friend, independent-minded Mina, who becomes his one confidant regarding Skellig.

 

And Skellig? Well, he has something to offer…perhaps, if he lives long enough to show it

...he [Skellig] reached out and touched Mina's face, then mine.

"But i'm getting strong, thanks to the angels and the owls." 

 

My rating: 3 1/2 stars

 

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O Pioneers! by Willa Cather (novel #244)

But the great fact was the land itself, which seemed to overwhelm the little beginnings of human society that struggled in its sombre wastes.

Willa Cather’s O Pioneers!, published in 1913, is the first book of Cather’s Great Plains Trilogy: O Pioneers! Song of the Lark, My Ántonia. O Pioneers! tells of the Bergson family, Swedish immigrants to the Nebraska frontier. The story focuses on Alexandra, the only daughter, who, at her father’s death and by his wishes, becomes the business head of the family farm. The Bergsons, like others around them, are struggling to make ends meet, and there is mounting pressure to sell out and move back east.

 

Alexandra’s father is determined not merely to take a living from the land, but to love it and prosper.

 

John Bergson had the Old-World belief that land, in itself is desirable. But this land was an enigma. It was like a horse that no one knows how to break to harness, that runs wild and kicks things to pieces. He had an idea that no one understood how to farm it properly, and this he often discussed with Alexandra.

 

Alexandra inherits the vision from her father, and when he is unable to realize it in his lifetime, he wisely chooses Alexandra to see it through.

 

She had never known before how much the country meant to her. The chirping of the insects down in the long grass had been like the sweetest music. She had felt as if her heart were hiding down there, somewhere, with the quail and the plover and all the little wild things that crooned or buzzed in the sun. under the long shaggy ridges, she felt the future stirring.

 

It is a sweet tale, though not fast-paced nor thrilling. There are sometimes gaps of many years in the narrative. Contextual clues make it clear they were filled with slow, determined struggle, resilience, sacrifice, and human drama.

 

In addition to man, or in this case, woman, versus nature, there is indeed human drama. Alexandra is often at odds with her two oldest brothers, though they acquiesce for the most part. They seem to understand, but never acknowledge, that she is the brains of the operation. And there are two love stories: Alexandra and a family friend, and her youngest brother and his childhood friend. Circumstances don’t allow much of a chance for either.

 

Cather does an expert job of creating empathy for Alexandra. Remarkable since this reader at least has little pioneer spirit, nor any sense of connection to the land, which is Alexandra’s defining trait. She is a completely likable heroine in a story with few villains.

 

I did live in Nebraska a century after Cather, who moved there when she was nine. I lived in a modern city, and she grew up on the plains, so I defer to her portrayal of frontier life.

 

My rating 4 of 5 stars

 

For its timeless portrayal of American frontier life, for its themes of pioneer courage and vision, sacrifice, family, community, and love.

 

This is the second novel by Cather that I’ve read. The other being Death Comes for the Archbishop. I enjoyed both and will certainly read more by Cather, probably from the Great Plains Trilogy. I understand the trilogy is a new set of characters and non-chronological, so it may be read in any order.

 

This novel satisfies the “Wanderlust” category in the What’s in a Name? 2025 challenge. Titles for this category need to include words or phrases related to wanderlust.

 

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They Shoot Canoes Don’t They? by Patrick F. McManus

This is a collection of humorous short stories by Patrick McManus that originally appeared in Outdoor Life and Field and Stream magazines. All of McManus’ stories revolve around his outdoor misadventures – mostly hunting and fishing.

 

This particular volume includes the first story I ever read by McManus, the title story: "They Shoot Canoes Don’t They?" I read it in a doctor's waiting room, and I’ve been hooked ever since. One of very few authors who can actually make me laugh out loud.

 

The stories are droll and self-effacing, and although they are preposterous, I get the distinct impression many might just be based on actual events, albeit wildly embellished – perfectly appropriate for any sportsman yarn-spinner.

 

They are also marvelously relatable and often reminiscent to any outdoorsman.

 

In one story, "The Fishing Lesson", McManus reminisces...

 

Over the years, I’ve introduced several dozen people to the pleasures of outdoor sports. So what that some of them didn’t want to be introduced!

 

Yep, been there, done that.

 

They might otherwise have ended up as criminals or drug addicts or golfers. I like to think I’ve had some small part in saving them from such dismal fates.

 

This is the third collection published of at least 14. There are numerous recurring characters: Ma and Gramms, sister known affectionately as The Troll, dog Strange. There is his novice outdoorsman neighbor Al Finley and hunting and fishing companion Retch Sweeney. My favorite: the curmudgeonly mountain man and mentor from Patrick’s youth Rancid Crabtree (Crazy Eddie Muldoon does not yet appear).

 

Just good clean hilarious fun!

 

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