Footprints In The Jungle by Somerset Maugham – author of many wonderful short stories https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/04/mr-know-all-by-somerset-maugham.html and acclaimed novels, one of my favorite writers - 10 out of 10

 

Footprints In The Jungle by Somerset Maugham – author of many wonderful short stories https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/04/mr-know-all-by-somerset-maugham.html and acclaimed novels, one of my favorite writers

10 out of 10

 

 

Somerset Maugham has been my absolute favorite writer, alongside Marcel Proust, and his soties and novels have brought joy and solace starting some forty years ago, even when I was in hospital for an ulcer, but also because I have had some scheme regarding my studies, during the rule of Ceausescu, someone like Putin

 

This story takes place in Malaya, as it was called then, which probably encompasses Malaysia today, and maybe Singapore, I think I have read that the two have been part of the same colony, and then they separated, with their independence, the latter is much more prosperous, however outré and small, dwarfed by the much bigger Malaya

We are taken along by a policeman, who joins the narrator and a couple for game a bridge, the other two are Mrs. Olive Cartright and her husband, Theo, she is very astute, gifted, in control, and she wants to make a pair with her spouse, saying ‘it is no fun to win money from each other’, she has an indefinite age, and is very interesting

 

Somerset Maugham has some very original propositions here ‘it not what the man does, but what he is that matters’, or maybe we should say the policeman in the narrative, who may not share the same perspective with the narrator, albeit we do have a very strong opinion on that, from another fantastic book

In According to Mark https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/02/according-to-mark-by-penelope-lively.html by fabulous Penelope Lively, we read that the writer is something of a God, he has the absolute power over the plot, the personages, what is happening to them ‘perhaps novelists are the only people telling the truth’

 

Cartright seems to be living in the shadow of his wife, and indeed, as we get along with the tale, we see that the first impression is not wrong, and when I say that, I think of the psychology classic Blink the Power of Thinking Without Thinking https://realini.blogspot.com/2013/05/blink-power-of-thinking-without.html

There is the Herding Effect, also the Thin Slicing Theory and Malcolm Gladwell has written an impressive work, and he also has the equally astounding Outliers, where we find about the ten thousand hours of practice, over ten years, which means three hours every day, will get you to the very top, if other ingredients are there

The Cartrights have a daughter, Olive, and they are considered an asset to the community, even if some do not agree with too much talking at cards, and the woman is chatting, the policeman then tells the narrator about the past, how Mrs. Cartright had been married to a man named Reggie Bronson, the best looking in the region

 

Theo Cartright had had some very bad luck, and was left without means, so he had to appeal to other men, for a job and support, alas, he did not find anything, and eventually, he also asked Reggie Bronson, and the latter was so generous as to say ‘come to our place, you live here’, words to that effect, and then even gave him an allowance – they had been friends, and then many were left in the cold, even in that tropical climate

Spoiler alert, they would even say at some point…but let us get there later – Reggie Bronson was a sweaty man, with the mind of a school boy, he is going with money at one point, through the jungle – hence Footprints in The Jungle – and then he gets killed, and this becomes a sort of psychological, mystery novel

 

They come to the club, where Olive is with Theo Cartright, and then they see that Reggie Bronson is missing, and later, the policeman arrives with the news ‘your husband has been wounded’ and at this news, she is aghast – I cannot help it, it is because she was told the man was wounded that she is so scared

When she finds he is in fact dead, she starts crying, but because she is relieved that there is no danger there, the spouse of the doctor tells her to be careful, and not tire herself too much, she is pregnant, but it is not the child of the husband, it could not be, spoiler alert number two – he would know that the infant was not his

 

‘He had been so kind to them, they could not tell him, so they killed him’, that is what will come to light, but for a long time, the murder is a puzzle, Reggie Bronson is found dead, in the jungle, half his head is shot off, the money, watch are missing, and so it is presumed that he was the victim of a robbery, the killers escaped

Only some time later, at a pawn shop, a Chinese man comes with a watch, that is identified and ergo, they think they have their murderer, and take him for interrogation, which leads to the truth, the poor fellow had been walking in the jungle, and so the watch in the foliage, and so they get back there for further investigation

 

They do find the money, and the pieces are placed together, since this was not the motive, it must have been something else, it was a ‘crime of passion, or, as already stated, the lovers could not face Reggie Johnson, with his magnanimity towards them, and tell him that this child will be born, thus revealing the affair and philandering

They had to kill in other words, which sounds so absurd, and somewhat amusing, in a funereal way, I mean, the man was better off dead, then alive and a cuckold, really, that was your logic…and then these are such nice people, playing bridge and all that, with the conclusion ‘it is not what they do, but what they are…

 

Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

 There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

 

Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works

 

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’

 

‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’

 

“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”

 

 

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