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Journal Entry 2 by The-Abbott at Exclusively Egyptian Bookbox in Bookbox, Postal Release -- Controlled Releases on Wednesday, October 06, 2004
Released 7 yrs ago (10/6/2004 UTC) at Exclusively Egyptian Bookbox in Bookbox, Postal Release -- Controlled Releases WILD RELEASE NOTES:
 RELEASE NOTES:
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Journal Entry 4 by cattail at Bookbox to JeepACV in Baltimore, Maryland USA on Wednesday, December 08, 2004
Released on Thursday, December 09, 2004 at about 1:00:00 PM BX time (GMT-06:00) Central Time (US & Canada) at Bookbox to JeepACV in Baltimore, Maryland USA.
RELEASE NOTES:
Sent in an all Egyptian bookbox, started by shaunesay.
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Journal Entry 5 by JeepACV from Baltimore, Maryland USA on Friday, December 17, 2004
Selected from bookbox and placed on Mt. TBR
Quoted from a review found on web:
"Voice From The Desert
Ancient Evenings
Norman Mailer
Ian Hocking
It is difficult to review Ancient Evenings, but not as difficult as reading it. It is 300, 000 words long. Its American author, Norman Mailer, is recognized as one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century. His first book, The Naked and the Dead, was a New York Times bestseller for eleven weeks in 1948. Subsequent works were not well received, but two non-fiction offerings, Armies of the Night (1968) and The Executioner's Song (1979), were acclaimed by critics and received Pulitzer prizes.
Towards the end of the 1970s, Mailer revealed that he was working on a project that would cap his career. In 1983, Ancient Evenings was published. It is set in Egypt during the nineteenth and twentieth dynasties (1290-1100 BC).
The novel opens with the words: "Crude thoughts and fierce forces are my state. I do not know who I am. Nor what I was. I cannot hear a sound. Pain is near that will be like no pain felt before." These are the thoughts of a soul ripped from its body. It walks the grid-like streets of the Necropolis - the tombs of the rich - and finds its own burial chamber. It slips through the cracks and ponders its sarcophagus. It knows one thing: the body was murdered.
Soon another ghost arrives. This is the narrator's grandfather, Menenhetet, who was once a warrior who sat at a Pharaoh's side. Menenhetet begins to speak and 300, 000 words issue forth. As a reader, you should not hope to fathom his tale. Perhaps, you later think, Menenhetet is a facet of the narrator's soul, that part whose memory remains. Always there is the threat of a failed passage through the underworld: without this knowledge as a guide, the soul may fall into lakes of fire or be consumed by monsters.
In this book, a story is a doll within a doll. The identity of the narrator remains uncertain. The truth of the mythologies recounted by Menenhetet is forever in question. Mailer insists upon magic and sex in equal measure, and describes each in every dimension. His language is biblical, but Mailer is not quite authentic; his repertoire is limited and the prose soon stales with repetition. For this reason and others, the first half of the book is the most effective. Both the reader and Mailer are up for the challenge. But by the end, when the pace of events increases, when the prose forsakes purple for a colour known only to Mailer, the book collapses across its own finish line. The sense of relief is palpable.
I was left with the impression that Ancient Evenings is a bona fide work of genius. There are passages that are literally breathtaking. For example, Mailer relates the thoughts of the soul as its body is prepared for mummification. As the embalmer's hook scoops out the brain via the nose, the soul begins to lose its sense of the physical environment. As its organs are placed in jars to correspond with the partitions of soul and the embalmers begin to pour natron over the corpse, a sense of its other lives begins to emerge, just as strangers may walk into a room: a stranger like Menenhetet, with stories of battles and Pharaohs and magic. There is a sense in which a genius must be inscrutable. Mailer certainly is. Some parts leave the impression of genius, or seem to have such fingerprints, but make no sense whatsoever. But though the writing has these low moments, Mailer's average is still sky-high and makes Ancient Evenings an odd, amazing book."
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Journal Entry 6 by JeepACV from Baltimore, Maryland USA on Thursday, January 12, 2006
I saw a forum post ISO this book from piggykr in Korea, so I'm moving up on TBR. I have a few other committments first, but hopefully will get to this soon and pass it on.
Someone else provided a copy, so I'm placing this back on my Mt. TBR.
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Journal Entry 7 by JeepACV from Baltimore, Maryland USA on Tuesday, May 09, 2006
I took this well-read paperback with me to read on the plane. I find I can usually put a couple of paperbacks away during a trip, but this one was a bit more daunting (844 pages) and it took both legs of the journey to finish.
I'm not sure what I expected. For some reason, I kept looking for a modern thread to tie in, but it never did (no reason to expect this, it was just me). The characters are all ancient and the author portrayed them with ancient morals and views concerning their Gods/Goddesses and their place in the scheme of things.
The writing was described as 'sensual', in this case I might say 'erotic' or even 'graphic'. Not that I minded, but it was somewhat unexpected.
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Journal Entry 8 by JeepACV at Mailed to another Bookcrossing member in N/A, A RABCK -- Controlled Releases on Friday, May 12, 2006
Released 6 yrs ago (5/12/2006 UTC) at Mailed to another Bookcrossing member in N/A, A RABCK -- Controlled Releases WILD RELEASE NOTES:
RELEASE NOTES:
RABCK sent
Enjoy!
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Ancient Evenings
