Quocumque Modo Vivo: Recommended Reading May '24

I am somehow still alive.

Inclined to explain my recent absence, I am obligated to inform my readers that I spent the past two weeks incarcerated. Nothing too serious, of course. What I can say is that while I suppose alcohol to be a vitamin for the soul—and I believe this vehemently—it carries the possibility of legal hold-ups. Most things worth doing do.

As a result, I am regretfully out of touch with current events, and though it may surprise you, I was so preoccupied during my stay at the county jail that I had not even the time to read. That said, Recommended Reading for the month of May is not absconded.

---

—————————————————————

Scaramouche - Rafael Sabatini

To recommend this book is to recommend food for the starving. In classic Breton style, the language is regal, the story is honorable, and the effect is dizzying in the best possible way. Andre-Louis, the protagonist, embodies just and true aristocracy. An excerpt from the book itself:

“It is only fair to give you warning. Provoke me as you have suggested, and I’ll kill you with no more compunction than I should kill a slug, which after all is the thing you most resemble—a slug, Binet; a fat, slimy body; foulness without soul and without intelligence. When I come to think of it, I can’t suffer to sit at table with you. It turns my stomach.”

That’s all I have for now, friends

- M. Shultz