Poets and Poems: Paul Mariani and “Ordinary Time”

Paul Mariani has given a new perspective on “ordinary time.”

In the liturgical calendar of the Roman Catholic Church, “ordinary time” is the period that falls outside the official holidays. It’s divided into two parts – from Christmas to Lent, and from Lent to Advent. Mariani uses the idea for the title of his latest collection of poetry, Ordinary Time. Instead of the period or periods that fall outside the official church holiday observances, he uses it to focus on what we might call “the rest of life.”

And what is the rest of life? Childhood and growing up. Parents. Grandchildren. Vacations and visits. What happened when his rough-and-tumble father learned Mariani was writing poetry. Discovering the madness of Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Teachers. His young mother trying to drive a car in New York City. His mother reaching out to a young woman whose husband has just died in World War II Europe. What East 51^st Street in New York was like in the early 1940s, and how that world vanished.

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.

"Crimes of August" by Rubem Fonseca

It’s 1954 Rio de Janeiro. Alberto Mattos is that rarest of all birds – an honest police detective in a department where everyone’s on the take. Everyone, including his boss, his subordinate, the cops on the beat, and all the other departments. He is also that rare bird who believes in following the law, which means letting suspects go when there’s no evidence. 

It’s a perilous time in Rio and Brazil. A failed attempt to kill a journalist is leading to protests, condemnations, and the military beginning to become more than restless. Politicians, even those who support the current president of the country, are considering changing allegiances for their own safety and survival. The press is do its best to keep public opinion inflamed. One senator, a supporter of the president, has his plate full of worries, including the possibility that his own involvement in graft and corruption may come to light.

Mattos is called to a murder scene. A man of about 30 has been found strangled in his bed; he turns out to be the head of a finance and trading firm at the center of graft and corruption. The evidence is strange – blood on the bed does not belong to the victim, and someone, likely the killer, took a shower after the murder. The man’s wife is having an affair with the husband of a former girlfriend of Mattos. Mattos soon learns that every suspect has a motive, and every suspect has an alibi.

Rubem Fonseca

Through a multitude of interlocking and overlapping circles of relationships, Mattos must thread his way through passion, infidelity, corruption, political instability, and colleagues who assume they are the law. And all the while he’s nursing a serious stomach ulcer.

Crimes of August by Rubem Fonseca was first published in Portuguese in 1990. The English edition, published in 2014, was translated by Clifford Landers. It is a dark tale, tracking several different stories simultaneously, all framed by the detective’s investigation but eventually leading to a fusion of motives and events. Fonseca included a number of real people as characters and real events, artfully blending them into a coherent story. The novel includes a multitude of names, some looking and sounding close but actually belonging to characters. As a result, the novel requires a close reading, but the reward for doing so is a large one.

Fonseca began writing later and he specialized in crime writing. He lived most of life in Rio de Janeiro. He became a police officer in suburban Rio in 1952, writing the crime reports that would later become the basis for his stories. He studied business administration at New York University from 1953 to 1954, returning to the police force in Rio until 1958. He began writing stories in the early 1960s, and published his first collection, “The Prisoners,” in 1963. His works were often censored by the Brazilian military government for their violent and sexually graphic content. Fonseca received numerous prizes for his writing, including the Luís de Camões Prize for Literature and the Juan Rulfo Literature Prize for Latin American and Caribbean Literature. He died in April of 2020.

While Crimes of August is set in a Brazilian city some 66 years ago, and published 30 years ago, at times it seems eerily contemporary and transcending its geography – fearful and power-hungry politicians, elites who believe the law doesn’t apply to them, crime in the streets that seems out of control, and a press less concerned with the news and more concerned with using its power to bring down a government. It’s a compelling story.

Related:

The Taker & Other Stories by Ruben Fonseca.

The Lost Manuscript by Ruben Fonseca.

What was isn't now

After Romans 6:1-14

The old is gone, not

merely cast aside,

but taken,

a violent act, and

nailed to a tree

of all things, and

there to die

in the only way

it could, With

it gone now, 

the new remains,

a sprouting seed,

set free to grow,

set free from the old,

the old left lifeless,

powerless, forgotten,

absolved.

Photograph by Dietmar Becker via Unsplash, Used with permission.

Heart of Darkness: All This Stuff Happens in the Middle

Someone forgot to tell Joseph Conrad. 

When you write fiction, you’re supposed follow the rule of thirds. The first third is the introduction of the characters and the development of the conflict. The second third is the development of the narrative, providing a deeper understanding of the characters and conflict. And the last third is the heightened pace of action leading to the climax and resolution of the conflict.

In Heart of Darkness, after the first third of the short novel, Conrad threw the rule book out the window. All this stuff happens in the second third, offering no respite for the reader.

To Continue reading, please see my post today at Dancing Priest.

Saturday Good Reads

The year 1968 was a big one for protest and upheaval; some of us are actually old enough to remember the protests against the Vietnam War, the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, the student protests in France that nearly topped Charles DeGaulle’s government, and more. Don Whitney at the Center for Biblical Spirituality notes that the Jesus Movement followed 1968, and he wonders what will follow 2020. (If you look closely at the photograph of Explo ’72 in Dallas, you might see my wife.)

A cultural pandemic is raging in America, making the old idea of “culture war” seem rather quaint. John Horvat at The Imaginative Conservative says rage is the new standard for public discourse. Peter Savodnik likens the collapse of backbone by the nation’s elites, and the sharp division of Americans into tribes, to what happened in Russia in the late 19^th century – the prelude to what eventually became the Bolshevik Revolution. Abraham Miller weighs in with a bit of perspective, telling the graduating class of 2020 how they won’t really change the world simply by following woke causes.

White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo is (once again) a bestseller on all the lists, but some Black readers are weighing in with negative reviews. John McWhorter at The Atlantic describes its “dehumanizing condescension.” Samuel Sey at Slow to Write says the book is actually pro-racism.

More Good Reads

Poetry

Schubertiana (IV) – Tomas Transtrὄmer at Kingdom Poets (D.S. Martin).

Stones – Daniel Leach at The Chained Muse.

As a fantasy – Eleanor Parker at A Clerk of Oxford.

Writing and Literature

Shakespeare’s Richards – Theodore Dalrymple at CityJournal.

Writing Lessons from Monet – Amy Baik Lee at The Rabbit Room.

Let’s Not Forget the Time Mario Vargas Llosa Sucker Punched Gabriel García Márquez – Olivia Rutigliano at CrimeReads.

‘Something is About to be Illuminated’ – Rod Dreher at The American Conservative.

Ten Great Roman Works – Laurie Wilson at The Scriptorium. 

Faith

How Early Christianity was Mocked for Welcoming Women – Michael Krueger at Canon Fodder.

Life and Culture

Dr. Green’s Dictionary: Narrative – Dominic Green at The Critic.

News Media

China’s Long Tentacles Extend Deep into American Media – Arthur Bloom at The American Conservative.

American Stuff

My Hunt for the C.S.S. Alabama – Sean Michael Chick at Emerging Civil War.

Sayings from Southern Appalachia – Caroline Sanders at Garden & Gun.

A Page of Gettysburg History & Humanity’s Struggle – Sarah Kay Bierle at Emerging Civil War.

Your Will Be Done – City Alight

Painting: Man Reading a Newspaper, oil on canvas by Yehuda Pen (1854-1937).

Review of "Dancing Prince" by Martha Orlando

Martha Orlando has published has a lovely review of Dancing Prince today at her blog: "What I want my readers to understand is that no one comes away from reading Glynn's works without feeling the Lord has blessed them."

You can read Martha's entire review at Meditations of My Heart.

Contradiction

After Romans 6:1-14

Dead to one thing,

live to its opposite,

how can both happen

simultaneously?

Short answer:

They can’t.

Which suggests

the contradiction

exists in our minds,

in our behaviors,

because we still

confront the one thing

while living the other.

Sin’s a powerful

thing.

Photograph by Pawel Czerwinski via Unsplash, Used with permission.