Review - The Compass Rose

I've come to the conclusion that with Le Guin's work, by far the smartest thing to do in a review is to do the linguistic equivalent of smiling, vaguely, mysteriously, and nodding slightly. You look smarter that way.

Probably the best way to read The Compass Rose does not involve a distracting girlfriend or a reading list as long as your leg with a time limit of about a month. As always, though, Ursula Le Guin's writing is beautiful, and her ideas are amazing and clever. "Some Approaches to the Problem of the Shortage of Time", for example. A touch silly, a touch political (or I thought so, anyway: it looks much like commentary on global warming to me!). Some of her little phrases or conversations in this book made me grin. For example, from "The Water is Wide":

"I have to get out, Anna."
"You're not well yet."
"I am not a patient. I am impatient. Help me get out. Please."
"Why, Gid? What for?"
"They won't let me go where I have to go."
"Where do you have to go?"
"Mad."

Some of the stories, though, I just didn't get. I like Le Guin best when she's expanding her ideas out into a novel.