Zina Rohan's Blog, page 8
May 5, 2011
What do you read on?
Can I ask a question? Does anyone out there read fiction in digital form by preference? And is it the lower cost that appeals, or the fact that the device isn't as heavy as a book? Or do you feel you are not reading a book at all unless it's on paper?
I've limited this to fiction because I think the technology needs to improve before non-fiction will work well digitally.
I've limited this to fiction because I think the technology needs to improve before non-fiction will work well digitally.
April 28, 2011
Poem for Tomorrow (not by me)
All-Purpose Poem for State Occasions
The nation rejoices or mourns
As this happy or sombre day dawns.
Our eyes will be wet
As we sit round the set,
Neglecting our flower beds and lawns.
As Her Majesty rides past the crowd
They'll be silent or cheer very loud
But whatever they do
It's undoubtedly true
That they'll feel patriotic and proud.
In Dundee and Penzance and Ealing
We're imbued with appropriate feeling:
We're British and loyal
And love every royal
And tonight we shall drink till we're reeling.
The nation rejoices or mourns
As this happy or sombre day dawns.
Our eyes will be wet
As we sit round the set,
Neglecting our flower beds and lawns.
As Her Majesty rides past the crowd
They'll be silent or cheer very loud
But whatever they do
It's undoubtedly true
That they'll feel patriotic and proud.
In Dundee and Penzance and Ealing
We're imbued with appropriate feeling:
We're British and loyal
And love every royal
And tonight we shall drink till we're reeling.
April 27, 2011
The Great Escape
On Friday morning, all being well, some friends will happen by in their car (I don't have one) and we shall drive to Wales for a long weekend of yoga and gardening. There is no TV, no radio - ergo no Royal Wedding. Hooray!
My kindle has been told it can come too. I read less when I write, but on holiday I can pretend it's all okay.
Apparently 1 in 5 Londoners is also running away, so perhaps most of the crowds on the streets will be visiting tourists. And it may rain - after weeks without. I wish them well.
My kindle has been told it can come too. I read less when I write, but on holiday I can pretend it's all okay.
Apparently 1 in 5 Londoners is also running away, so perhaps most of the crowds on the streets will be visiting tourists. And it may rain - after weeks without. I wish them well.
April 24, 2011
Jennifer Egan - new to me
A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer EganMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
At first I thought I wasn't going to like this. I was a little irritated, but not for long. It's extremely clever, post modern (but bearably so), up-to-the-minute, funny and deeply, deeply disheartening. Egan must have done some very careful plotting - I imagine plans and post-its on a huge board - but who knows how someone else puts complex structures together.
Multi-voiced...but perhaps not quite enough distinction between the voices. Is that deliberate? I think not because in one or two cases there is an individual sound. Underpinning this is the music scene at various points of recent history set in an increasingly dystopian New York City. Not going to say more for fear of a spoiler. But I am going to put it front of my kids, for sure. And thanks to the friend who lent it.
View all my reviews
April 15, 2011
Eugene McCabe again
Christ in the Fields by Eugene McCabeMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
I cannot understand why it has taken so long for me to learn about Eugene McCabe. He is truly extraordinary. This short volume, made up of a short story and two linked novellas, is Irish border country in the troubles of the 70s. It is about sectarian hatred and about occupation. It could be about the Balkans or the West Bank: its very particularity makes it universal. As I know I have said about Death and Nightingales, his ear for dialogue is terrific - at all levels of society, and all accents. His changes of viewpoint are skillful and completely convincing. Description (minimal) is to the point, precise, evocative. Please read him. I shall now hunt for more.
View all my reviews
April 14, 2011
Beware the Certainties
I was waiting in the lobby? foyer? of the British Library this morning - as it happens to meet a Goodreads friend - and quietly reading the NYR. I sensed a young man sit down near me, talking on his mobile phone. I didn't look up but as ever eavesdropped (if people talk on their phones in public they must expect to be overheard).
Now years of working in broadcasting, radio to be precise, editing voices of every sort, have taught me to recognise the origins of accents of all sorts. This was most definitely a Jewish voice, and believe me I know Jewish voices, arguing with his girl friend or wife for not having been at home when he rang, not picking up when she said she was on the bus. Then he paused while she sounded off in her turn...said something, and 'Oy oy oy oy oy!' he exclaimed, proving my point.
In his impatience he got up and began pacing about. I looked up. Young indeed, black, dreadlocks...
Now years of working in broadcasting, radio to be precise, editing voices of every sort, have taught me to recognise the origins of accents of all sorts. This was most definitely a Jewish voice, and believe me I know Jewish voices, arguing with his girl friend or wife for not having been at home when he rang, not picking up when she said she was on the bus. Then he paused while she sounded off in her turn...said something, and 'Oy oy oy oy oy!' he exclaimed, proving my point.
In his impatience he got up and began pacing about. I looked up. Young indeed, black, dreadlocks...
April 13, 2011
Eugene McCabe
I have been so busy I have not yet finished Christ in The Fields - but I have to say, I am humbled.
How come I did not know of this stupendous writer before? Shame on me!
How come I did not know of this stupendous writer before? Shame on me!
April 9, 2011
Brain Juice
Tonight I am going to see a performance of The Tempest - in Russian, at the Barbican Theatre in London. This is a building near St Paul's, and is one of the most irritating arts complexes there is - despite the very good work it does. Once you're, you flail about trying to find the bit (gallery, concert hall, theatre, cinema) you want to attend, then panic all over again at the end trying to get out. (There are, it is true, helpful lines painted in yellow along the bricked walkways that lead to the two underground stations that take one there. Years ago, when they staged a brilliant version of The Wizard of Oz, I took my then young, younger daughter to see her first properly done children's theatre, and we danced out afterwards, singing, 'Follow the Yellow Brick Line').
But this is a diversion. I shall walk there from my house in Kentish Town, in London's north west. It should take a little over an hour, but I find that walking is without doubt the best way to think, and when I am writing it provides solutions and movement in my mind in a way nothing else does. Cycling is no good because it helps to concentrate when one is on a bike in London; sitting on buses and tubes is ueseless. Walking is brain juice.
But this is a diversion. I shall walk there from my house in Kentish Town, in London's north west. It should take a little over an hour, but I find that walking is without doubt the best way to think, and when I am writing it provides solutions and movement in my mind in a way nothing else does. Cycling is no good because it helps to concentrate when one is on a bike in London; sitting on buses and tubes is ueseless. Walking is brain juice.
April 7, 2011
When Reading Blocks Writing
I have started to write a new book. It may work out. It may not. If I knew in advance which, then of course I'd...
Meanwhile, what to read? This is really a problem because mostly I find that when I am writing fiction, reading fiction gets in the way. Either I find myself unduly influenced by what I'm reading, or - just as lethal - easily distracted.
For the moment the three novellas by Eugene McCabe will do (Christ in the Fields) because his extraordinary Irish voice could never be mine. Then I expect I will catch up with back numbers of the NYR, which have been piling up a little of late.
I have just listened to a radio programme about literary translation - in this case Madame Bovary, and it occurs to me that re-reading this taut, highly-polished work, in French, will either help me along or plunge into a total block. Hm. Which will it be?
Meanwhile, what to read? This is really a problem because mostly I find that when I am writing fiction, reading fiction gets in the way. Either I find myself unduly influenced by what I'm reading, or - just as lethal - easily distracted.
For the moment the three novellas by Eugene McCabe will do (Christ in the Fields) because his extraordinary Irish voice could never be mine. Then I expect I will catch up with back numbers of the NYR, which have been piling up a little of late.
I have just listened to a radio programme about literary translation - in this case Madame Bovary, and it occurs to me that re-reading this taut, highly-polished work, in French, will either help me along or plunge into a total block. Hm. Which will it be?
April 4, 2011
All About Tolstoy
Apologies to my American friends, but BBC TV, the past two Sundays, has screened a 2-part documentary about Tolstoy. Really, really interesting, with film I've never seen before and some extremely intelligent comments.
