For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway (novel #232)

No man is an island,

Entire of itself;

Every man is a piece of the continent,

A part of the main.

If a clod be washed away by the sea,

Europe is the less,

As well as if a promontory were:

As well as if a manor of thy friend’s

Or of thine were.

Any man’s death diminishes me,

Because I am involved in mankind.

And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;

It tolls for thee.

~ John Donne

 

 

In him, too, was despair from the sorrow that soldiers turn to hatred in order that they may continue to be soldiers. Now it was over he was lonely, detached and unrelated and he hated every one he saw. ~ narrative regarding Robert Jordan, the hero of For Whom the Bell Tolls

For Whom the Bell Tolls is set in Spain, during the Spanish Civil War. The main character, Robert Jordan, is an American fighting for the Republic against the fascists. He is a man on a mission: to blow a bridge. To do so he must travel behind enemy lines and seek the assistance of guerrilla fighters. As the novel opens, he has already found Anselmo, who in turn introduces him to a small band of guerillas ostensibly led by Pablo, but in truth led by Pablo’s wife Pilar.

 

There is immediate friction between Pablo and the Ingles as Jordan is called. Pablo believes the dynamite can be put to better use than a bridge, while Jordan has orders from the organized Republican Army. Blowing the bridge will prevent the fascists from sending reinforcements to an upcoming battle.

 

Among the guerrilla band, there is Maria, an emotionally scarred young woman the fighters rescued from the fascists. Romance develops between Roberto and Maria. They seize each possible moment and pledge themselves to each other for whatever time they have.

 

There are complications with the bridge, with Pablo, with the dynamite, with true love, but there remains the chance that things will work out, including escape after the bridge is blown.

 

The opening line of the book, and the closing find Robert Jordan in ironically similar physical positions, yet with drastically different prospects.

 

Opening line:

He lay flat on the brown, pine needled floor of the forest, his chin on his folded arms, and high overhead the wind blew in the tips of the pine trees.

Closing line (three days later):

He could feel his heart beating against the pine needle floor of the forest.

This was a reread, but it’s been over 30 years since I last read it. I appreciated it more this time, understanding the inescapable interconnectedness of our lives that Hemingway portrayed and that he alluded to in the title. He initially intended to call it The Undiscovered Country, but eventually decided on a line from Donne. Good choice, I think.

 

Like many of Hemingway’s novels, the main character resembles Hemingway, without the novel being autobiographical. The most poignant similarity between Jordan and Hemingway, is that their fathers both shot themselves.

 

And that Jordan contemplates becoming a writer. While watching some planes overhead he muses…

They are shaped like sharks, Robert Jordan thought, the wide-finned, sharp-nosed sharks of the Gulf Stream. But these, wide-finned in silver, roaring, the light mist of their propellers in the sun, these do not move like sharks. They move like no thing there has ever been. They move like mechanized doom.

 

You ought to write, he told himself.

 

This is the fourth novel I’ve read by Hemingway. The others: The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms, and The Old Man and the Sea. The Old Man and the Sea is my favorite, but For Whom the Bell Tolls is a close second. The message is profound, and the characters are memorable, believable, lovable, pitiable. One complaint, that I’ve had before with Hemingway, the dialogue between lovers is absurd, preposterously cloying. (I would cite an example, but I don't want to nauseate you.)

 

Nevertheless…

 

My rating: 4 out of 5 stars

 

 

For Whom the Bell Tolls is not a glorification of war. In the introduction, Sean Hemingway describes the reason for his father’s interest in war…

Hemingway appreciated the deep bonds forged in wartime among its fellow combatants, but he viewed war itself as a crime against humanity.

 

And now the movie: 1943 starring Gary Cooper and Ingrid Bergman. It’s nearly 3 hours and quite faithful to the novel. I’m not a fan of Cooper, But Ingrid Bergman as Maria? I like Bergman in most things, but were there no Hispanic actresses in the 40s, or at least someone who could attempt a Spanish accent? Full on Swedish accent all the way. Baffling. But again, a faithful adaptation worth watching if you like the book.

 

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Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (novel #222)

Thinking back now, I can see we were just at that age when we knew a few things about ourselves – about who we were, how we were different from our guardians, from the people outside… ~ Kathy: first-person narrator

 

Never Let Me Go is the tale of Kathy H. She tells us she is thirty-one years old and a carer. The reader doesn’t know what this means, but it sounds like a good thing, and Kathy is proud that she’s been a carer for over eleven years, which is apparently well beyond the norm. Her long tenure is partially due to her being a very good carer.

 

Ishiguro uses this device throughout. Kathy uses phrases or descriptions of events that don’t make sense initially, but slowly, the reader infers the meanings and settings.

 

Most of the novel is Kathy’s account of her childhood, education, and relationship with her two best friends, Ruth and Tommy. In their childhood and adolescence, they are at Hailsham, a boarding school in England. They are clearly a privileged set but also closely controlled and sequestered. Their teachers, known as guardians, and the rules at Hailsham are an odd mix. In some ways strictly regimented; in others strangely permissive. The guardians are never cruel and seldom even harsh, though they are somewhat aloof.

 

The school seems to be preparing the children for some special role in society. When their training is complete, they become carers.

 

But carer…is not the ultimate role. There is another function the reader begins to grasp with outrage and horror. The children slowly understand their fate by degrees, like the reader, but unlike the reader, the children calmly accept their future and even seem to almost look forward to it.

 

Thinking back now, I can see we were just at that age when we knew a few things about ourselves – about who we were, how we were different from our guardians, from the people outside – but hadn’t yet understood what any of it meant.

 

My Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars

 

 

Never Let Me Go has to be considered dystopian, though most of the time, it doesn’t feel like it. It is also Sci-Fi, though it doesn’t feel like that either. It raises some very relevant bio-medical ethics questions. I say relevant because they could be applied to different medical ethics today, and I don’t believe it is impossible that they may become relevant in a precisely similar way.

 

This novel satisfies the You or Me category (book with “you” or “me in the title) in the What’s in a Name 2023 Challenge.

 

 

The title is taken from the title of a song by real-life singer Judy Bridgewater. Kathy obtains a cassette tape of Bridgewater that includes the song. It resonates with Kathy, though she cannot explicitly explain why.

 

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A House for Mr. Biswas by V. S. Naipaul (novel #207)

…he [Mr. Biswas] had thought profoundly and with
despair of the future.

 

Mohun Biswas is the son of Indian immigrants in Trinidad. The story begins with his birth, probably late 1920s, early 1930s. The story doesn’t begin well. A Hindu pundit gives a not very promising prophecy about the child, and it is considered a bad omen that he is born breech with an extra finger.

 

It never gets much better.

 

The story is set in Trinidad, but it feels more like India, as Mr. Biswas and his family keep pretty well within the Indian community in Trinidad. (Mr. Biswas is reportedly based on Naipaul’s father.)

 

I’m not going to spend a lot of time on this review. I didn’t care for this story. There isn’t one admirable person in it. A few are pitiable, like Mr. Biswas, who is never contented, never happy. Life isn’t working out for him, and it’s always someone else’s fault.

 

Blech!

 

Mr. Biswas tries to rise above his lot in life, but he does it so foolishly that it never works out, and it’s hard even to feel too sorry for him. He is married, almost by accident, to a woman he nearly despises and lives with her family, where he is constantly reminded of his worthlessness and dependence on their patronage.

 

He could go to Hanuman House whenever he wished and become lost in the crowd, since he was treated with indifference rather than hostility.

 

He had spent all his life among people without even thinking that he might be afraid of them.

 

He tries several times to build or buy a home of his own. He eventually succeeds, but it is poorly constructed, not worth what he pays, and more than he can afford. He still isn’t happy.

 

Living had always been a preparation, a waiting. And so the years passed; and now there was nothing to wait for.

 

I don’t think I comprehended Naipaul’s message unless it was contempt for his people.

 

This is the first time I’ve read A House for Mr. Biswas. I’ve read one other work by Naipaul, A Bend in the River, which I didn’t love either. I’ve read that Naipaul’s early works were “wistfully comic.” I hope that doesn’t refer to this one. Wistful? Perhaps, but not comic. He does write well. For that, I give A House for Mr. Biswas…

 

 

My rating:  3 out of 5 stars

 

 

 

This novel satisfies Black, Indigenous, Person of Color Author category in the Back to the Classics 2022Challenge.

 

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The Wonderful Adventures of Nils by Selma Lagerlöf (novel #181)

(translated from the Swedish by Velma Swanston Howard)

 

Once there was a boy. He was – let us say – something like fourteen years old; long and loose jointed and towheaded. He wasn’t good for much, that boy. His chief delight was to eat and sleep; and after that – he liked best to make mischief.

 

This children’s book was originally written and published as two: The Wonderful Adventures of Nils, and Further Adventures of Nils. My version, like most today, is combined into one. It’s also a sneaky book, intended to teach Swedish children about Swedish geography, topography, and spelling. But it is disguised as a fanciful story that would appeal to children. 

 

It is set in very early 20th Century Sweden, and is of course, the adventures of Nils – Nils Holgersson. Nils as you can see from the quotation, was a mischievous lad, and a source of sorrow and concern for his parents. His chief form of mischief was tormenting the animals on the family farm. One day while left alone, he captures a magical elf, who eventually turns the tables, and turns Nils into an elf. Tiny elf Nils discovers he can talk to the animals, and learns they are none too anxious to help him. 

 

And then the real adventure begins. One of the tame geese, Morten-Goosey-gander, takes off to follow a flock of wild geese, with Nils on his back. Neither Goosey-gander, nor the wild geese are keen to have Nils along, but he eventually makes himself useful, and they develop a mutual devotion and loyalty. There are many adventures, perils, and comic circumstance along the way, as Nils becomes a kind and compassionate human being. 

 

I think the purpose of Lagerlöf’s writing was a noble effort. I don’t think it would teach much geography, if the children didn’t read it with a map at hand – but perhaps that was the norm. If I were starting over, I’d read it with a map. I can’t say I enjoyed it much, but I wouldn’t expect to. Lagerlöf weaves some Scandinavian folk-legend into the tale that I found interesting, but that was about it. I believe it’s an important work. Glad to have read it, glad to be done.

 

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

 

This book satisfies A Children’s Classic in the Back to the Classics Challenge 2021.

 

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Rudyard Kipling: Selected Poems

Rudyard Kipling: Selected Poems

 

Rudyard Kipling is perhaps best known for The Jungle Book, but he was also a prolific poet, writing over 500 poems. Some of his most beloved and best known are included in Selected Poems, such as: If, The White Man’s Burden, Gunga Din, and The Law of the Jungle.

I am not a serious student of poetry, but as a layman, I can say his poetry is at times fun, at others poignant, at others bitter-sweet, and at others rather bewildering. Kipling was certainly not bound to any particular meter or form. Some of his poems were quite easy to read, with a pleasing rhythm, and others were quite complex, with unusual meter, and for me, somewhat less enjoyable. 

I think T.S. Eliot put it very adeptly. He says Kipling was

…a writer impossible to wholly understand and quite impossible to belittle

Or another poet, Alison Brackenbury put it

Kipling is poetry's Dickens…

By today’s standards he was a shameless imperialist, as seemingly revealed in The White Man’s Burden, when he refers to

          Your new-caught sullen peoples, 

          Half devil and half child

But it is difficult to know when Kipling is being arrogant and when he is being ironic – a point debated even among scholars.

If you care for this reader’s unscholarly opinion: I think a little of both. Kipling was a British Imperialist, there is no doubt

Excerpt from The English Flag

          What is the Flag of England? Ye have but my reefs to dare,

          Ye have but my seas to furrow. Go forth for it is there!

But I think he also saw cost, and sin, and shame in it, and used his art to lament and to glory.

Such as in The Settler, which is about living in peace after war (British settler in South Africa after the war)

          And when we bring old fights to mind,

          We will not remember the sin – 

          If there be blood on his head of my kind,

          Or blood on my head of his kin

So back to his art – the man could write.

I particularly liked The Law of the Jungle, which to be more precise is the Wolf Pack law

          As the creeper that girdles the tree-trunk

          the Law runneth forward and back – 

          for the strength of the Pack is the Wolf

          and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack

(stanzas later)

          Ye may kill for yourselves, and your mates, and your cubs

          as they need, and ye can;

          But kill not for pleasure of killing,

          and seven times never kill Man!

But my favorite was If – a father’s advice to his son

          If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;

          If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;

          If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

          And treat those two impostors just the same;

(concluding stanza)

          If you can fill the unforgiving minute

          With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,

          Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,

          And – which is more – you’ll be a Man, my son!

Other poems I liked:

The Young British Soldier

When Earth’s Last Picture is Painted (about how artists will employ their craft in Paradise)

Pussy Can Sit by the Fire and Sing (the virtues of dog vs cat)

Dirge of Dead Sisters (a tribute to nurses who died in the South African War)

The Benefactors (ironically named, recounts the tale of how man’s weapons have “progressed” thru the ages.)

Quite fittingly, and cited in entirety, The Appeal is the final poem of this collection:

         The Appeal

          If I have given you delight

          By aught that I have done,

          Let me lie quiet in that night

          Which shall be yours anon:

          And for the little, little span

          The dead are borne in mind,

          Seek not to question other than

          The books I leave behind.

This collection satisfies square G-3, Poetry or Essay Collection, in the 2020 Classic BINGO Challenge

The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway (novel #126)

"Fish" he said, "I love you and respect you very much. But I will kill you dead before this day ends."

The Old Man and the Sea is a novella by Ernest Hemingway. It tells the story of Santiago – the old man – a Cuban fisherman who has not caught a fish for 84 days.

 

Santiago, well past his prime, and impoverished by lack of success, takes to the sea each day in a dilapidated skiff.

The sail was patched with flour sacks and, furled, it looked like the flag of permanent defeat.

 

But in spite of his reduced estate, he is a seasoned fisherman, with a healthy respect for the sea and his prey.

…the old man always thought of her [the sea] as feminine and as something that gave or withheld favors, and if she did wild or wicked things it was because she could not help them. The moon affects her as it does a woman, he thought.

 

His young apprentice, Manolin, just a boy who loves the old man, is prohibited from fishing with Santiago because the old man is considered bad luck.

 

On the 85th day of his draught, Santiago hooks an enormous Blue Marlin that will test his skill, stamina, and resolve. He battles the fish for three days and two nights. Santiago gets little sleep and must eat raw fish to maintain his strength. Although, he is not religious, Santiago prays and adds a little something to the standard Hail Mary…

Blessed Virgin, pray for the death of this fish. Wonderful though he is.

 

He considers the fish a friend or brother, even though he knows he must kill it, and he often talks to it.

“Fish” he said softly, aloud, “I’ll stay with you until I am dead.”

 

Santiago is a fan of the New York Yankees and admirer of Joe DiMaggio. He wonders if the great DiMaggio would be proud of his epic struggle. Being a Tigers fan myself, I smiled when Santiago worried about the Yankee’s chances…

I fear both the Tigers of Detroit and the Indians of Cleveland.

 

I’ll spare the spoiler – though you probably know how it ends. This is my first read of The Old Man and the Sea, though I have read several works by Hemingway. I always admire Hemingway’s writing, but I don’t always love his stories. This one however, was superb; it is now my favorite work by Hemingway. It is a tender, thoughtful story, heartbreaking and heartwarming.

 

Hemingway was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for this work in 1953, and it was cited as one of the factors for his award of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954. Hemingway’s friend Charles Scribner wrote:

It is a curious fact of literary history that a story which describes the loss of a gigantic prize provided the author with the greatest prize of his career.

 

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

 

 

I read this for The Classics Club spin #20.

 

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Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (novel #105)

As happens sometimes, a moment settled and hovered and remained for much more than a moment. And sound stopped and movement stopped for much, much more than a moment.

(update: July 13, 2018)

I reread this for the Back to the Classics Challenge 2018 – a classic reread.

I lot of people hate this tale, but Oh how I love it. It is desperately sad – and beautiful. Don’t let anyone tell you different – it is about unconditional, sacrificial love. Misguided in its action, but love nonetheless.

George came quietly out of the brush and the rabbit scuttled back into Lennie’s brain.

I still give it 4 stars

(review from March 11, 2016)

This is the second time I’ve read Of Mice and Men and the third work I’ve read by John Steinbeck. The book is a novella, and the third-person narrative of George and Lennie, two migrant workers trying to make their way in California during the great depression. This book is not part of my 100 Greatest Novels Quest.

George and Lennie are a bit different from most of the migrant workers, because they travel together; they have each other. This distinction is noted by themselves as well as others. George is the brains of the operation. Lennie is a powerful, childlike, giant who always seems to get in trouble, due to his innocence, and George has to get him out – usually by taking it on the lam. The two were probably childhood friends, and George was entrusted with watching out for Lennie, by Lennie’s aunt Clara. The two do the best they can, which isn’t very good, but dream of owning a small farm and 

livin off the fatta the lan

SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers

A very wise man once said: sorrow holds a beauty that joy will never know.

Of Mice and Men is miserably sorrowful, and poignantly beautiful.

This is not the only paradox. There are two murderers in this tale: one of them is the embodiment of innocence, while the other offers a display of unconditional, sacrificial love.

At a moment when George and Lennie seem to be closer to getting their little farm than ever, Lennie commits his greatest blunder, he accidentally kills a young woman. Out of desperation, and seeing no way out this time, George shoots Lennie to spare him the confused terror he will certainly face when brought to justice.

Let me be clear, George’s terrible, desperate act is morally and legally wrong. I don’t condone it. But George loved Lennie. His action was misguided, but to his simple intellect, and hard worldly wisdom, it was the only course of action to save his friend.

I used the adjectives unconditional and sacrificial; let me explain. Early in the narrative, George is often stern with Lennie. He is like a parent hoping to correct childish foolishness. Again, I would say misguided. His words were too hard, too cruel, too insulting, but I believe he was trying to teach Lennie. And Lennie was after all, exasperating. The unconditional love is evident when Lennie commits his greatest blunder. There is no chiding from George – not a harsh word – just words of comfort. Words to let Lennie’s final moments be happy ones. And sacrificial: The agony it causes George is nearly unbearable. He wasn’t acting for himself. He knew if the mob found Lennie first, Lennie’s final moments would be ones of confused terror. If somehow he survived, he knew the gallows would be more terror, and if somehow the law spared him the death penalty, George knew prison would be slow, unending agony for Lennie.

George loved Lennie. He loved him in a simple, misguided, desperate way. It was heartbreaking and beautiful.

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A Bend in the River by V.S. Naipaul (64 down 36 to go)

I could no longer submit to Fate. My wish was not to be good, in the way of our tradition, but to make good. ~ Salim 

 

This is the first time I’ve read A Bend in the River or V.S. Naipaul. The book is a post-modern novel set in Africa in the early to mid 1960s.  It is the first-person narrative of Salim, an ethnic Indian Muslim and lifelong resident of Africa.

 

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This novel satisfies square B3 of 2015 Classics BINGO Classic of Africa. This completes the 2015 Classics Bingo challenge, as I have completely blacked out the Classic Bingo card.

 

Salim grew up in an unnamed East African country, but in his early twenties, he buys a small business in an unnamed country in the interior, in an unnamed town – identified only as being at the bend in the river. He buys the business on the cheap, as the country has recently been through a violent revolution that wasn’t good for anyone except of course the new powers that be. There is relative peace and stability now, so Salim hopes the fortunes will turn and the town at the bend in the river will flourish as it did before the revolution.

 

And for a while, it does. But then, well then post-colonial Africa happens.

 

I’m not going to say much more. Naipaul’s writing is superb and his characters are all marvelously flawed – perfectly believable.

 

But I didn’t really care for this novel much, though I may very well be biased. Out of respect to a living author, I’ll just say, that based on what I’ve read about V.S. Naipaul, I don’t care for him much. It's quite possible that tainted my opinion of his novel.

 

Speaking of bias, I had a very distinct feeling that Naipaul’s narrative about Africa is not completely reliable. I’m no historian, and a historian of Africa even less, so on most points I must defer to Naipaul’s knowledge, but I reserve the right to be a bit dubious about an indistinct ethos he creates.

 

Meh – sounds like rubbish. I just didn’t care much for this novel, but I definitely wouldn’t recommend against it.

 

Excerpts (all thoughts or words of Salim):

 

Even hypochondriacs sometimes have real illnesses.

 

But what had happened was not new. People who had grown feeble had been physically destroyed. That, in Africa was not new; it was the oldest law of the land.

 

When we wanted to speak of the doers and makers and the inventors, we all – whatever our race – said “they.” We separated these men from their groups and countries and in this way attached them to ourselves.

 

But the airplane is a wonderful thing. You are still in one place when you arrive at the other. The airplane is faster than the heart.

 

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A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway (62 down 38 to go)

When you love you wish to do things for. You wish to sacrifice for. You wish to serve. ~ the Priest
I don’t love. ~ Tenente Frederic Henry

This is the first time I’ve read A Farewell to Arms and the third I’ve read by Hemingway. A Farwell to Arms is a modernist novel, first-person narrative of Lieutenant (Tenente) Frederic Henry, an American serving in the ambulance corps of the Italian Army during WWI.  Of course, it was not known as WWI at the time, but rather the War to End War. The Tenente falls in love with a British nurse, Catherine (Cat) Barkley. So, it’s a war story and a love story – or more precisely, the story of lovers trying to escape war. It’s also very depressing. If you saw the movie The Silver Linings Playbook you already knew that.

My rating: 3 1/2 of 5 stars

 

In spite of it being depressing, I found it quite engaging. A shocking review thus far, no? A war story that is depressing and a Hemingway novel that is engaging. To avoid further spoilers…

Spoiler Alert:  The following contains a minor spoiler.

After some preliminary narrative to develop setting, characters, and the love story, Tenente Henry is badly injured and most of his crew killed by a mortar blast. He is taken to a hospital well away from the fighting and Catherine is transferred to work in the same hospital, thus allowing their love to grow. After major surgery to repair his knee and a long recuperation, Henry is sent back to the front, just in time to take place in a massive Italian retreat. In the chaos, a group of self-imposed Battle Police, “arrest” retreating officers, and summarily execute them for the shame they have brought upon Italy. Even though he is American, Henry is arrested and will likely be executed, but he makes a daring escape. During his flight he decides he is finished with the war – hence the title. He eventually finds Catherine and the two spend several relaxing days as if they haven’t a care in the world. Henry learns that the authorities have discovered his whereabouts, and intend to arrest him. Fortunately, Henry and Catherine were staying on the Italian-Swiss border, so they plan a sudden and daring escape: An all-night rowboat trip across the lake into Switzerland. Oh and by the way, Catherine is several months pregnant. I’ll spare further spoilers and let you read it yourself. It’s worth a read.

I liked this much more than The Sun Also Rises, but not as much as For Whom the Bell Tolls. I only had one complaint. The love dialogue between Catherine and Henry is so cloying as to be unbelievable, such as this exchange, with Catherine speaking first:

Oh, darling, I want you so much I want to be you too. 

 

You are, We’re the same one.

I know it. At night we are.

The nights are grand.

I want us to be all mixed up. I don’t want you to go away. I just said that. You go if you want to. But hurry right back. Why darling, I don’t live at all when I’m not with you.

I won’t ever go away, I said.

I’m not good when you’re not there. I haven’t any life at all.

I want you to have a life. I want you to have a fine life. But we’ll have it together, won’t we?

There was one other complaint I might have had. As a veteran myself, I would have been prepared to dislike this novel, for the soldier deserting his unit and duty, but the arrogance and idiocy of the Battle Police made Tenente Henry’s decision perfectly reasonable.

Hemingway served, and was injured in the Italian ambulance corps, and he did fall in love with a nurse, but that’s about as far as the similarities go. I don’t think it would be accurate to call this autobiographical, or even semi-autobiographical. It was just Hemingway doing what writers are always admonished to do – writing about what he knew.

In the end, like the character in The Silver Linings Playbook, I wondered what was the point? Just a theory, but pointlessness may have been the point. Of all the stupid wars, WWI was one of the stupidest. Frederic and Catherine were caught up, in a war that just sort of got caught up, drawn out, and badly concluded by circumstance. 

Film Rendition: Starring Gary Cooper and Helen Hayes. To be honest, I thought this was awful. Hemingway reportedly hated it as well. Skip the movie, read the book.

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