Of Love and Hunger by Julian MacLaren Ross is an absolute favorite of mine and one of the 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read - 10 out of 10

 

Of Love and Hunger by Julian MacLaren Ross is an absolute favorite of mine and one of the 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read

 

10 out of 10

 

For me this novel was glorious, astounding, divine and we could continue up that path, it is the absolute joy that comes every few months – maybe it will happen more often, in between exciting, if not stupendous reads -and all the ingredients, and the ‘je ne sais quoi’ are mixed in to make this a book that I want to read again…

 

Soon, if possible, it is inspired by real life events, we understand that Julian MacLaren Ross has been a travelling salesman, and albeit we have artistic license, and maybe most of what we enjoy is juts made up, still, there is something from reality – in the introduction, the audience is told that the author discussed with his friend…

Who will use this material, and it turns out that this phenomenal book is here to enchant forever – mind you, we have to be aware that this is a personal, biased, and what was exalting for me, could well be banal for others, indeed, I am flabbergasted to see the ‘page’ that this magnum opus has, or better said it lacks

 

Julian MacLaren Ross was the inspiration for Francis Xavier Trapnel in another fabulous favorite of mine, A Dance To The Music of Time https://realini.blogspot.com/2013/07/at-lady-mollys-by-anthony-powell.html by Anthony Powell, who said something like ‘I do not know about in vino veritas, but there is truth in writing’

He spoke about that to another liminary, Magister Ludi Kingsley Amis, who has included this in his Memoirs https://realini.blogspot.com/2022/12/memoirs-by-kingsley-amis-author-of-take.html the idea being that maybe wine makes you genuine, but the writer has to use his own experiences, on every page there is something about him or her

 

Richard Francis Fanshawe is the hero of the novel, the one who experiences Love and Hunger, although we find his Christian name – the two actually – about half way into the story, or at least it felt that way, he is trying to sell vacuum cleaners, travelling around and showing how they work to housewives, soon before World War II starts

The massive conflict will ignite, and we are updated on the news, Hitler, the rattle, the preparations, the predictions, and towards the end of the narrative we will have seen it blow out, with the invasion of Poland, mobilization and the dramatic change in the life of the protagonist and…the world, which will never be the same

 

This is a spectacular combination of humor, from the presentations, the arrival of the mean sister, who cancels the prospect of a sale, to the manner in which we are presented with the facts, the dialogue between Francis and the others, the personages, from Heliotrope, a ruffian, to the supervisor Smiler, a crook

 

Derek Roper is another salesman, and he works like Fanshawe trying to sell vacuum cleaners, without much success, and therefore, when he has no way to make money left, Derek would choose to embark on ship sailing to Australia, so that he will be able to send money to his wife, and return some time in summer…

Before this dramatic departure, taking months, Francis is introduced to Derek’s wife, Sukie, and they go together for a while, to the point where the former would say one night ‘funny (I told you so, mn) they hadn’t asked me to come upstairs and go to bed with them’, however close this will come to a menage a trois…

 

For Derek asks Fenshawe to look after his spouse, while he is sailing to the end of the world, and the latter refuses, he says this is no good, he is not good company, being morose, but when the parting fellow explains how he will be so worried, leaving his wife all along on shore, and it would mean so much to him, a deal is reached

Sukie will lend books to our hero, they meet a few times, exchange some jokes, Francis seems to be if not a misogyn, then afraid of women or something – that is due to some bad experiences, when he went to India, to work as a journalist, his lover would not wait, because Francis played the wrong cards, had the wrong attitude

 

The lonely wife encourages Francis to write, and indeed, he had intended to write about India, though he says ‘I knew I’d never write anything now…why, I hadn’t even the energy to read’, though he does n like The Postman Always Rings Twice, which Sukie was reading, and the intellectual interests seem to be shared

To begin with, she appears to be more political, radical even, with not just a penchant for leftist, perhaps Marxist ideas, she insists that Francis, and her husband, when he was on shore, suffer from the lack of a safety net – she did not use that term, and it is just the gist of what I think I remember and then he was not so keen

 

They meet more often, and suddenly, he tells her he loves her, as readers we have had the benefit of knowing this feeling before, the narrator aka Fanshawe had shared it with us, they go to a picnic, when it looks like they will make love – anyway, they used ‘making love’ in a different sense then, it was not they had coitus

It looks like a match made in heaven, she does not love Derek, Sukie says she loves Francis, so we (as in just me) expect them to find a way, soothe the poor departed cuckold, and then we get the joy of seeing our favorite couple continue, live happily forever after, only this does not look like a fairy tale, and it is not…it has reminded me of Glengarry Glen Ross https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/05/glengarry-glen-ross-by-david-mamet.html

 

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.”