alexandretrevisan

Nobody is this smart anymore, so don't even try to read this unless you're a complete egghead. It went sailing right over my head -- woooo! Almost as boring as The Late George Apley, which I also read a modern library edition of. I'm beginning not to think too much of their choice of books to publish. Anyway this is a satire of human society, mostly political and religious aspects thereof. It starts off great: an aged monk, St. Mael, nearly blind, baptizes a flock of king penguins when he gets stranded on their island. Then God, with the help of the communion of saints, especially St. Augustine, decides to make the penguins human, so that they'll have souls, thus forming the isle and nation of Penguinia from decidedly Roman Catholic beginnings. I wish they had stayed Penguins. It would have been more interesting. He uses this awesome beginning as a springboard to say some very dry things about human nature, like basically that we're all stupid and contradictory and selfish and vain. Whatever.

2023-07-13 04:09