The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Who will ever forget this first sentence: "One morning, as Gregor Samsa was waking up from anxious dreams, he discovered that in bed he had been changed into a monstrous verminous bug."? In fact, I prefer the original German "Als Gregor Samsa eines Morgens aus unruhigen Träumen erwachte, fand er sich in seinem Bett zu einem ungeheueren Ungeziefer verwandelt." It makes less of a fuss of the transformation, and to my ear, it makes the event sound more natural.

Franz Kafka's "The Metamorphosis" was first published exactly 100 years ago, in 1915, and I read it for the first time exactly 50 years ago, in 1965; I remember it because I was in the freshmen grade of high school in Poland. Of course, at that time, I was fascinated by the fantasy aspect, and if I remember correctly, I found the whole premise humorous. Well, although my wife does not believe it, I have matured a bit during these 50 years, and do not find any trace of humor in the novella - exactly the opposite.

I am reading possibly the worst edition of the novella, in the so-called Enriched Classic series by Simon and Shuster, where as many as 55 pages (while the whole novella takes 80 pages) are dedicated to Kafka's biography, interpretations of his work, explanations of such esoteric terms as "servant girl" or "slight indisposition", and - horror of horrors - "Questions for Discussion". The edition is clearly designed for use in schools or book clubs.

I am of a rather extreme opinion that a true work of art should not be interpreted; it should stand on its own. Do we ask why in some Picasso's works the left eye is almost perpendicular to right one? Do we ask why "Guernica" is not realistically painted? Why are Beethoven's late string quartets so "abstract"? In the same way, it does not bother me that Mr. Samsa, a traveling salesman, wakes up as an insect. I can only shrug at the early attempts to interpret the novella as masochistic, as showing "a man becoming a beast", as an allegory for alienation. I can add my own, equally idiotic interpretation. One day, when I was 37, I woke up and with utter clarity realized that I am not young any more; I realized I am now middle-aged, and the days of youth are irretrievably gone. This was my metamorphosis.

Gregor Samsa changes into a monstrous verminous bug, but it is really his family, and primarily his loving sister Grete, who are subject to real metamorphosis. The used to love Gregor, the family breadwinner. Now, when he loses his usefulness and his looks, even Grete wants "it" to disappear. Gregor (the "it") understands it well: "He remembered his family with deep feelings of love. [...] His own thought that he had to disappear was, if possible, even more decisive than his sister's." How inconsequential we are!

The last sentence of the novella is even more terrifying than the first one: "And it was something of a confirmation of their new dreams and good intentions when at the end of their journey their daughter got up first and stretched her young body."

Great work of literature.

Five stars.


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Mordet på Harriet Krohn by Karin Fossum
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I believe there exist authors and readers that are made for each other, almost like love at the first sight. Norway's author Karin Fossum's works always resonate with me. This is my ninth book by this author and, although I rated two of them with only three stars, and am hesitant - because of the subject - to read other two, I rate the remaining seven of Fossum's books with at least four but mostly five stars. I love how she writes about little things in life that lead to bigger and worse things. I love her powers of observation and the depth of knowledge of human psychology.

It would be really inappropriate to call "The Murder of Harriet Krohn" a mystery. We know from the very beginning who the killer is, and we know his motives. We even know why, how, and by whom he will be caught. This is precisely what I love in the novel. Instead of insipid twists and turns of a run-of-the-mill mystery, the plot logically and inexorably moves from the gruesome beginning to the natural end. Toutes proportions gardées the novel reminds me of Dostoyevski's "Crime and Punishment". This may sound like sacrilege, but I prefer Fossum's book as it is not as dated.

Charlo, a widower, and a father of a sixteen-year old girl whom he adores, is a gambler. He owes a lot of money to a local gangster, and decides to steal money, jewelry, and silver from an elderly woman, Harriet Krohn. Alas, he kills her in the process, as she resists the robbery. The first fifty-something pages of the novel are an absolute psychological masterpiece. There are deeply moving scenes further down as well, as Charlo tries to explain away his actions, as he tries to weigh good deeds in his life with a few bad ones (like the murder). But wasn't it accidental? Why did Mrs. Krohn resist? It was really her fault.

There is a heartbreaking thread in the novel about Charlo's daughter, Julie, who eventually loses everybody and everything she loves. There is also a fascinating thread about Charlo's health, and how his stumbling is way more important to him than being a murderer.

"The Murder of Harriet Krohn" is a great novel: one of the wisest, most mature, and sad books I have ever read. It is way more than a mystery or a police procedural. It exposes human frailty, utter stupidity, and the people's inclination to cheat themselves. Read the book not for the mystery, but for truth about our wretched species.

Five stars.


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Software Engineering by Ian Sommerville
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Well, I know this borders on cheating, but I hope you will forgive me. It is 6 p.m. Eastern Time (3 p.m. here, in California) on 12/31/2014. I have read 99 books in 2014 and I pledged to read 100. I hate breaking pledges, so I will briefly review the textbook I have been teaching from all year. I had to read over 50 pages of the textbook today while grading the final exam, so I hope this justifies the inclusion of this review here.

I had taught Software Engineering, since mid-1990s, from various textbooks before I found Sommerville, Edition 6. Now I teach from the most current Edition 9, which is a truly mature textbook. It is divided, quite logically, into four main parts: Introduction to Software Engineering, Dependability and Security, Advanced Software Engineering, and Software Management. These parts comprise 26 content-packed chapters that I all manage to cover in the Software Engineering course. Sommerville is by far the best textbook on the subject I have ever read. The best feature of the text is that it is comprehensive, deep enough, and readable, if a bit boring (simply because the subject is quite boring).

Of course, I have minor qualms as to the allocation of space for individual topics. I would use more space for the Web-based programming and portable-device programming and less on obsolete concepts such as, say, the spiral model. I would expand space dedicated to agile methods. I am sure this will all come in the next edition.

My students programmatically do not like textbooks from which they are learning, yet they tolerate this one, and they do read all 716 pages (and are quizzed on all the material). This is another indication that it is quite a good textbook.

To lighten this overly serious review, let me quote a funny bit from Edition 8 of this textbook. Sommerville listed factors that influence programmers' productivity. One of these factors was termed "Outside awareness". The explanation made it clear that "outside awareness" meant "a window". Don't you love euphemisms?

Four and a quarter stars.

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Boundary Value Problems by David L. Powers
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I have been teaching undergraduate Partial Differential Equations for 31 years. I have tried various textbooks, including classics such as, for example, Brown and Churchill, and other well-known texts, for instance, by Colton, Jeffrey, Pinsky, Duchateu and Zachman, and others. After each such experiment I come back to David L. Powers. It is a perfect undergraduate text on boundary value problems, Fourier methods, and partial differential equations. The level is just right - not too difficult yet not too trivial. The selection of problems is great, with varying level of difficulty. The author's writing is clear and understandable even by medium-level undergraduates.

I have just reread the textbook in preparation for my spring course, so I am listing the date of finishing as December 20, 2014, although the first time I read this book was in 1989.

Of course, the text would be too low level for a graduate course, but it provides a wonderfully clear introduction to Fourier methods. Highly recommended!

Five stars in its particular niche.

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Without Feathers by Woody Allen
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I have recently read and reviewed here "Side Effects" by Woody Allen - perhaps the funniest book I have read in my entire life. Allen's "Without Feathers" is also very funny, but it is far from the greatness of his other work. The humor feels belabored. Let me quote: "On March 16, 1882, Mr. J.C. Dubbs awoke in the middle of the night and saw his brother Amos who had been dead for fourteen years, sitting at the foot of his bed flicking chickens. Dubbs asked his brother what he was doing there, and his brother said not to worry, he was dead and was only in town for the weekend. Dubbs asked his brother what it was like in "the other world", and his brother said it was not unlike Cleveland. He said he had returned to give Dubbs a message, which was that a dark-blue suit and Argyle socks are a big mistake."

Coming from a less talented writer than Woody Allen this would be hilarious, yet coming from Allen it is humor of inferior quality. There are two long plays in the collection, "Death (A Play)" and "God (A Play)", which I had trouble with following, despite some hilarious passages. The best pieces are two short stories, "The Whore of Mensa" and really funny "If the Impressionists Had Been Dentists".

If the author were some unknown, just beginning his or her career, I would assign three and a half of maybe even four stars. For Woody Allen, though, the rating is just

Two and a half stars.

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Laughing Dog by Dick Lochte
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Having taken the challenge of reading 100 books in 2014 I was pretty confident in November, when I was 16 books ahead of schedule. Alas, health problems of my own making and incredible amount of work in Novemeber and December prevented me from reading any books over the last 50 days. I have one more day and three books to read, so I will retort to plain cheating. As I mentioned yesterday, I was unable to finish just two books over the last about 10 years - one was "The Blood Knot" by John Galligan, a rare book, where I do not have a faintest idea what it is about, where I understand individual sentences, but do not understand the paragraphs. The other book that I was unable to finish this century was "Laughing Dog" by Dick Lochte. Mr. Lochte is a prolific and competent author, but I can't stand mysteries that feature kids as protagonists. Call me elitist, but to me kids belong in kid or young adult literature. I do not want to read about the precocious fifteen-year-old Serendipity Dahlquist, who helps solve a crime. So I opened the book the other day at the page that I bookmarked ten years ago, and in twenty minutes the book flew across the room. I still hope dumping two books out of about one thousand does not make ma a capricious hothead.

One star m- one star too many

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The Blood Knot by John Galligan
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I would estimate I have read about one thousand books during the last ten years or so. This is one of the only two books that I was unable to finish. Well, I was not even able to get through 20% of the text and with extreme effort I just managed to get to page 61. I simply do not have the faintest idea what the book is about. According to the blurb on the back cover, "This is not a fly fishing mystery. It is a riotous account of what happens when your life goes horribly awry and you run out of money in the middle of Wisconsin...". Well, to me it would help if the characters were in even smallest way similar to real people. Alas, they are not. They are paper cutouts reciting their lines. It also does not help that I am totally uninterested in fishing.

Hoping I have matured enough to read the book I just picked it a few days ago and opened it at the bookmark. Tried to read three pages and I did not understand a single sentence even though they are written in English, which I more or less know. I am sorry, I hate throwing books away, but in my view this one richly deserves it.

Why do I have to assign one star?

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