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Weekly TLS
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What Are We Reading? 7 December 2020
Andy wrote: "Sandya wrote: "Gpfr wrote: "There have been several mentions of Iceland recently - I've just received this in an email from Stanfords:Icelandic tradition at Christmas
... the Icelandic tradition ..."
Hope it makes it to the US!
Bill (205) wrote: "Justine wrote: "My nonfiction read - doubtless for some time to come - is Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus by Rick Perlstein....
What I ha..."
Perlstein gives much of the credit for Arizona's political change to one Stephen Shadegg, who managed Goldwater's first campaign for the US Senate:
a master of appearances, a man fascinated by the space between deception and detection; he was a trained actor and the author, under a pseudonym, of hundreds of True Crime stories. He made most of his money as proprietor of "S-K Research Laboratories"--which researched nothing but manufactured an asthma remedy he had invented.The pages on Shadegg's tactics are most interesting. Perlstein also mentions demographic changes in the state
Glass Town. Isabel GreenbergHow do I describe this? It is a thick, large format graphic novel, beautifully produced, of the Brontës’ juvenilia, of which there was a massive quantity, more than all their novels combined! I am not in general a devotée of graphic novels, but I loved this and my graphic version of Jane Eyre. It is not the genre perhaps, but the matter dealt with that makes a graphic novel memorable to me. Here Isabel Greenberg weaves together the juvenilia and the Brontës’ lives to form a coherent whole. Much of the incident in the juvenilia and in their lives is familiar, but she also indulges in a few creative flourishes, which fit well with the overall tone of the book.
The opening does not bely its promise! Glass Town opens with Charlotte being immediately accosted by her Animus in the guise of Lord Charles Wellesley, the male protagonist who often carried her voice in her early writings. It is such a clear picture of the way the Animus works that I gasped! For those of you unfamiliar with Jungian psychology, the Animus is the male aspect of a woman’s personality. I think it is quite enlightening to view CB’s writing through a Jungian filter, especially here! The book is structured as a conversation between CB and her Animus and it works brilliantly!
The juvenilia focus more on CB’s and Branwell’s writings about Angria than Emily and Anne’s writings about Gondal, which are nearly all lost except for the poems. This is reflected here. Despite this, Greenberg still manages to create an exciting story about the intrigues in Glass Town and at the same time suggests how these youthful idols, transformed and changed, survived in her novels. From passive Mary Percy to feisty Miss Eyre. From the Byronic Zamorna to crotchety M. Paul Emanuel. In the end CB leaves Glass Town and the "Infernal World" behind for “real life”-but Lord Charles is still here, made immortal by her genius. A wonderful Christmas gift for any lover of serious literature and any Brontë aficionado. I enjoyed it very much!
PaleFires wrote: "Bill, I have just enjoyed your review of 'Lincoln in the Bardo'. I got a kick out of the note from Saunders himself who wishes that all readers were as estupendo as you!"It’s funny – it never occurred to me to ask an author a question like that before either. After I finished Lincoln in the Bardo, I was talking to my wife about what I felt was the unresolved issue, and she was the one who suggested I ask him. I have to admit, I haven’t looked at Facebook again since I got the response from Sanders.
Prior to that, I did write twice to OUP about issues in their music books. I noted that a bibliographic reference was missing in Hans Von Bülow: A Life and Times, and also that a passage from a Wagner opera was misidentified. I received a kind note from Alan Walker, the author, in response. An earlier letter to the same publisher, suggesting a misidentification of “Adler” in one of the footnotes in Glenn Gould:Selected Letters was never acknowledged.
Mod
I do so agree with you about Le temps retrouvé - I thought it was wonderful. I got stuck on Albertine disparue : it took me 3 attempts and about a year to get through it, but then I got to that last volume ...
This has led to me taking down from my shelves Proust contre la déchéance by Joseph Czapski.
Czapski, a Polish officer in the second world war, was taken prisoner by the Russians. In early 1940, the prisoners in 3 camps were deported northwards. Of the 15 000, the 400 imprisoned at Griazowietz 1940-41 were, as he writes in the preface, almost the only ones 'found again'.
To help get through their imprisonment, they got permission to give talks, the text of which had to be submitted beforehand, "each of us spoke of what he remembered best": the history of books, architecture, the history of England, South America ... And Czapski spoke about Proust.
This book includes an introduction by Czapski, the text of his talks, facsimiles of pages of his notes and some information about his life.
Delighted to see that Justine and others are enjoying ‘Apeirogon’ as much as I did!For those who have yet to take the plunge, I wouldn’t let that Dwight Garner review put you off; it has all the intellectual acuity and literary insight of a puddle of cold dog vomit.
Good article in NYRB on the S'aadi Levy family of Salonica, Sephardi Jews who were a key part of the Ottoman society of the city when it was under Turkish ruleThe wonderful mix of a Jewish majority city in a Muslim empire, loyal Jewish subjects, mixing with the Turks reminds us of the contradictions within the Ottoman world (only 20 or so years later the Armenian minorities would be massacred)
A nasty footnote is that one of the members of this established Jewish dynasty would become a bounty hunter for the Nazi's and a vicious cruel head of the Jewish Police in the city. Salonica's jews were almost eradicated by the Nazi's and Vital Hasson was a key persecutor. He was a hated tyrant, later executed by the Greek government as a collaborator
Alwynne wrote: "Gpfr (222)wrote: "JayZed (213) and À la recherche du temps perdu ...I do so agree with you about
Le temps retrouvé
- I thought it was wonderful. I got stuck on
Albertine disparue
: it took m..."
I must read Inhuman Land and his Proust lectures,Czapski seems a very interesting man
AB76 wrote(#225): "Good article in NYRB on the S'aadi Levy family of Salonica, Sephardi Jews who were a key part of the Ottoman society of the city when it was under Turkish ruleThe wonderful mix of a Jewish majori..."
There were quite a few/plenty of (take your pick) Jewish Nazi collaborators, even in the concentration camps.
The problem: they did not fit into the narrative at all, afterwards. They were "totgeschwiegen". Afaik (I might be mistaken and anybody with more knowledge is most welcome to correct me)) there is, to date, no comprehensive body of work/publication dealing with that can of worms.
Georg wrote: "AB76 wrote(#225): "Good article in NYRB on the S'aadi Levy family of Salonica, Sephardi Jews who were a key part of the Ottoman society of the city when it was under Turkish ruleThe wonderful mix..."
If you mean the Ghetto leaders, the camp "kapos" and the jewish police, then yes, there was a lot of collaboration, some of it subtle, some of it forced by the circumstances and by self preservation
i havent come accross much written work on this but Lanzmann did interview one of the Ghetto leaders who survived the war in his films.
My Top 3 Books of 2020Classic Fiction:
AS STRANGERS HERE by Janet McNeil
Discovered as i browsed for post-war Ulster fiction, this was a real suprise for its quality of writing, the evocative descriptions of late 1950s Belfast and the religious tensions, quietly simmering. McNeil creates characters you believe in, matched to a harsh and unflinching portrayal of life, for working and middle class Belfast people
Modern fiction:
THE BAGHDAD EUCHARIST by Sinon Antoon
A short novel dealing with a day in the life of a Iraqi christian family, using flashback devices to the lives they led in Iraq through the last 50-60 years.
Non-fiction:
CONFEDERATE CITIES
A medium length collection of essays looking at the Confederate South from roughly 1850s to 1870s,(ie before and after as well as the war). Looking at the urban south that normally gets less attention than the rural south, the book covers all areas of urban life( white and black). It is tinged with sadness that the tales of african-americans reclaiming their lives somewhat was to be dashed on the rocks of Jim Crow by the 1880s and 1890s
AB76 wrote: "AS STRANGERS HERE by Janet McNeil."This looks brilliant, as does 'Tea at Four O'Clock', by the same author. I can't decide which to start with! Have you read both, by any chance?
I am just finished being totally engrossed with Tram 83 by Fiston Mwanza Mujila, excellently translated by Roland Glasser.
Tram 83 is a bar cum nightclub in City-State, a mining town somewhere in Central Africa. Its the only place of its sort in town, and is the centre of the action; a place where underage girls beckon and men drink themselves blotto. Two of its regulars are Lucien and Requiem, the former is a writer, the latter is a kind of ex-Marxist wideboy. In the microcosm of the bar, which is embraced by Requiem, the counter-argument put by his (ex-)friend Lucien, is whether a better world is possible. Tram 83 is the focus for dreams but too often they are rendered futile by the destruction of Congolese civil society.
But the plot, though it gives the novel structure, is a very small part of this. The fun is in with the wider ensemble of colourful characters, its language, and its digressions. Mujila creates a mixture of the three which is hugely appealing .
It is a novel composed like a jazz score with its brief chapters, erratic pace, and repetition. Its a fascinating glimpse into humanity, and at the same time, a debaucherous adventure into lawlessness, with a sense of revolution in the air.
I loved it.
Eyes shrivelled by cigarettes and alcohol. Potbellies full to bursting with roundworms, amoebas, earthworms, and assorted mollusks. Heads shaved with knives. Arms and legs stiff with digging graves from morning till morning. They were close to ten, maybe twelve years old. They toted the same justifications: “We’re doing this to pay for our studies. Dad’s already gone with the locomotives. He doesn’t write no more. Mom’s sick. The uncles and aunts and grandmothers say we’re sorcerers and it’s because of that dad got married a third time and that our sorcery comes from our mom and that we should go to see the preachers who will cut the links by getting us to swallow palm oil to make us vomit up our sorcery and prevent us flying round at night.” They lived off a multitude of rackets, like all the kids in town.
They worked as porters at the Northern Station, and on the Congo River and at the Central Market, as slim-jims in the mines, errand boys at Tram 83, undertakers, and gravediggers. The more sensitive ones stood guard at the greasy spoons abutting the station, whose metal structure recalled the 1885s, in exchange for a bowl of badly boiled beans.
It was incredibly, Mujila’s debut, in 2014, and seems to have been very well received, so strange again, that we haven’t had anything from him since. The edition I read had an introduction from Alain Mabanckou writes with the same self-deprecating style about his homeland, though more prolifically, and from the neighbouring Republic of Congo (or Congo-Brazzaville); Mujila is from DRC.
Jayzed (213) on the final volume of Proust: “one of the great reading experiences of my life”. Like Gpfr (222), I so agree. It is wonderful, luminous, peerless.
I’m sure we would all also say there can be no shortcuts. To appreciate it you have to have read every preceding volume, including La Prisonnière and the very grim Albertine Disparue. Obsessive jealousy is such an unlikeable trait, even in oneself, and an entire book of it is a struggle.
Gpfr tells the extraordinary story of the Joseph Czapski lectures. NYRB brought out a quite beautiful little English edition a year or so ago, a pleasure to look at and hold as well as read.
I’m sure we would all also say there can be no shortcuts. To appreciate it you have to have read every preceding volume, including La Prisonnière and the very grim Albertine Disparue. Obsessive jealousy is such an unlikeable trait, even in oneself, and an entire book of it is a struggle.
Gpfr tells the extraordinary story of the Joseph Czapski lectures. NYRB brought out a quite beautiful little English edition a year or so ago, a pleasure to look at and hold as well as read.
AB76 (229) wrote: "My Top 3 Books of 2020Classic Fiction:
AS STRANGERS HERE by Janet McNeil
Discovered as i browsed for post-war Ulster fiction, this was a real suprise for its quality of writing, the evocative d..."
Hi AB, I was hoping to accumulate all the 'best books' in the 'Best of 2020' discussion under Special Topics. Would you mind if I copied and pasted your list there (unless you prefer to do so yourself)? It would be nice if people could read and compare all the favourites together.
AlbyBeliever (230) wrote: "AB76 wrote: "AS STRANGERS HERE by Janet McNeil."This looks brilliant, as does 'Tea at Four O'Clock', by the same author. I can't decide which to start with! Have you read both, by any chance?"
Sorry to butt in here, but I've read them both. They're both great, but As strangers Here has a political edge that, for me, added even greater interest. The next on my list to try is The Maiden Dinosaur.
Justine wrote: "AB76 (229) wrote: "My Top 3 Books of 2020Classic Fiction:
AS STRANGERS HERE by Janet McNeil
Discovered as i browsed for post-war Ulster fiction, this was a real suprise for its quality of writi..."
no problem at all....good idea
While we wait, perhaps in vain, for one of her fans in the group to post a review of Jack, here’s an essay by Marilynne Robinson, My mind and what she remembers And so, for years now, when I can’t figure out what something means or how it works, what metaphor I need or how to make a plot transition, I give the problem to my mind. I put it aside, as far as my consciousness of it is concerned, until the solution occurs to me, an experience as apparently passive as it sounds. Then, Of course! I have a solution much shapelier and more serviceable than I could have arrived at by either forcing a solution or evading the problem.As someone who’s never preferred to grind, Robinson’s method is nothing new to me, even if this tendency to avoid the grind is often seen by others as laziness, a term I have occasionally ironically adopted, though preferring the more elegant dolce far niente, which I originally acquired from Gilbert and Sullivan.
I have often felt that the best advice I could give a student would be to step away from the writer’s block or whatever else is deviling her and let other resources come to bear. It will be your mind at work producing something distinctly your own, effort you will not be aware of but that will earn its reward. People prefer to grind.
Lest anyone think I regularly peruse The Christian Century, I should say that I learned about the essay from Ron Charles’ weekly newsletter. But while on the site, I also looked over this review of A Political Companion to Marilynne Robinson.
Yet Alan Jacobs, in a thoughtful and widely read essay on the decline of Christian intellectuals in America, took Robinson to task for her conversation with Obama, finding her chat with Obama overly genial. “It may be poor form to use a conversation with a friend in order to speak truth to power, but I for one would have appreciated a dose of Cornel West–like poor form,” Jacobs wrote. He cited Obama’s failure to close Guantánamo Bay as one topic she might have raised ( Harpers , “The Watchmen,” September 2016). “Robinson may well be the finest living American novelist, and at her best a brilliant essayist,” Jacobs went on, “but whatever her religious beliefs , her culture seems to be fully that of the liberal secular world.”
Justine wrote: "AlbyBeliever (230) wrote: "AB76 wrote: "AS STRANGERS HERE by Janet McNeil."This looks brilliant, as does 'Tea at Four O'Clock', by the same author. I can't decide which to start with! Have you re..."
Your moving through the Mcneil catalogue fast Justine, good stuff!
AB76 wrote: "Justine wrote: "AlbyBeliever (230) wrote: "AB76 wrote: "AS STRANGERS HERE by Janet McNeil."This looks brilliant, as does 'Tea at Four O'Clock', by the same author. I can't decide which to start w..."
I've reposted your list as agreed, thanks.
Re Janet McNeill, I have really enjoyed her writing, and the mid-20th-century Belfast background she evokes. Surely one of the best things about the TLS model is that we can pick up ideas from one another. Obviously, interests don't always coincide, but when they do, it's one more discovery we might not have otherwise made.
Justine wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Justine wrote: "AlbyBeliever (230) wrote: "AB76 wrote: "AS STRANGERS HERE by Janet McNeil."This looks brilliant, as does 'Tea at Four O'Clock', by the same author. I can't decide whi..."
for sure, i've picked up quite few ideas off here (and the Guardian TLS) in last 2 years
My next ulster novel is middle of the pile(so wont be read for a while yet) and its a novel by Shan Bullock "The Loughsiders" set in 1920s Fermanagh, Bullock was likened to Thomas Hardy in Ulster, writing from 1890s to 1920s. Published by Turnpike books
6 Books Oprah Loves to Give as Gifts During the HolidaysTo my surprise, 3 of those books are on my shelves, though I haven't read any of them (I say this so often, I'm beginning to wonder if I actually read any books, or just accumulate them.)
Justine (233) wrote: "AB76 (229) wrote: "My Top 3 Books of 2020Classic Fiction:
AS STRANGERS HERE by Janet McNeil
Discovered as i browsed for post-war Ulster fiction, this was a real suprise for its quality of writi..."
I think your idea about the Special Topic is excellent. At the moment it is still possible that I have yet to read one of my favourite books for 2020!
Alwynne wrote: "Justine (238)wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Justine wrote: "AlbyBeliever (230) wrote: "AB76 wrote: "AS STRANGERS HERE by Janet McNeil."This looks brilliant, as does 'Tea at Four O'Clock', by the same autho..."
i didnt know Virago had published it as well, Turnpike Press, specialists in Northern Ireland fiction publish most of her back catalogue and she is a downbeat writer. Interestingly she only took up writing in later life after a severe illness
Alwynne wrote: "Review 
[book:The Penguin Book of Christmas Stories: From Hans Christian Andersen to Angela ..."thanks for this review...interesting
Alwynne (241) wrote: " Janet McNeill ... 'Tea at Four O'Clock' ... family dynamics ... 'Furrowed Middlebrow' ...""
I'm coming to accept that I'm probably the perfect 'furrowed middlebrow' reader! Despite occasional wanderings into other territories. And, curiously enough, I'll be reviewing next a Swedish crime story which woke me up to the fact that family dynamics are my favourite fictional situation: Anne Tyler, Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Yates et al.
So Janet McNeill, yes. As strangers Here probes some of the same intimate territory as Tea At Four O'Clock, but is also concerned with the Troubles and the conscience of a Protestant clergyman.
Good morning everyone.In case you had not seen it yet, Sam Jordison is back over at the Guardian with a selection of "The sexiest moments in literature that aren't sex scenes": https://www.theguardian.com/books/boo...
I was so pleased to see him back yesterday evening, and would be even more pleased should TL&S be continued... PatLux also made an appeal concerning the Reading Group over there.
I do not feel awake yet - as it is still so darkish outside. Will be back later. Have a nice day.
Justine wrote: "Alwynne (241) wrote: " Janet McNeill ... 'Tea at Four O'Clock' ... family dynamics ... 'Furrowed Middlebrow' ...""
I'm coming to accept that I'm probably the perfect 'furrowed middlebrow' reader!..."
my only furrowed middlebrow read so far was "Table Two" but i aim to read more, especially as i want to read more female fiction. 2020 has been good for female fiction in the first half of the year but i have slacked off a bit since September....
Shelflife_wasBooklooker wrote (#251): "I was so pleased to see him back yesterday evening, and would be even more pleased should TL&S be continued... PatLux also made an appeal concerning the Reading Group over there."Good morning bl. Yes, I was alerted to it yesterday by somebody here after not going on the G for a day or so, and I'm glad I was! As often, I had missed a lot of the newer comments until you mentioned it this morning, thanks. Has anybody seen what Natasha's comment was? I can't believe that his first comment in over a month got moderated, grrrr.
Alwynne (245) wrote: "Review [book:The Penguin Book of Christmas Stories: From Hans Christian Andersen to Angela ..."As an antidote to the Hallmark saccharine let me suggest Murder on Christmas Eve: Classic Mysteries for the Festive Season. The stories are not all from the golden age, but cat lovers - looking at you Lisa - will particularly enjoy The Trinity Cat by Ellis Peters.
Shelflife_wasBooklooker wrote: "Good morning everyone.In case you had not seen it yet, Sam Jordison is back over at the Guardian with a selection of "The sexiest moments in literature that aren't sex scenes": https://www.theguar..."
Very nice! I like his list!!
Alwynne (253) wrote: "Justine (248) wrote: "Alwynne (241) wrote: " Janet McNeill ... 'Tea at Four O'Clock' ... family dynamics ... 'Furrowed Middlebrow' ...""
I'm coming to accept that I'm probably the perfect 'furrow..."
I'm sure that years of psychoanalysis at ££££ per hour would reveal why we are drawn to or avoid certain genres, themes, styles or structures in fiction. Heigh-ho - it's cheaper just to enjoy what we enjoy.
Bill wrote #240: "6 Books Oprah Loves to Give as Gifts During the HolidaysTo my surprise, 3 of those books are on my shelves, though I haven't read any of them (I say this so often, I'm beginning to wonder if I actually read any books, or just accumulate them.)
There's nothing wrong with accumulating books - you never know when there is going to be a lockdown!!
Having finished the very enjoyable OUP collected stories of M R James(not whole lot captured here but many good ones), its time for a new classic fiction read, which could be the last of 2020, depending on Xmas duties (neices/nephews etc)Next up is THE ICE SAINTS by Frank Tuohy, written in 1964 and set in Krakow,Communist Poland. I've been hovering around this for 2 months but i feel ready to read it now, to look at how an englishman captures the cold war world and it also fits into three other books i have read about Poland in 2020(one diary, one novel and one history book)
Read this morning (re-translated into English from German translation of English original):In the old pine tree a mountain bird sings a song like finest emboidery
O. thinks - or does the thought think O.? - .....
The rain is hissing like snakes
Doesn't happen often that I feel I have to have a lie-down before I get out of bed
Georg (260) wrote: ."Doesn't happen often that I feel I have to have a lie-down before I get out of bed"Well, after a certain age one gets more used to it with each passing year.
Hi All - Of Interest? Carols & Readings for St. Lucia's Day - info here.https://scontent-sea1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/...
Hello everyone, recently I have been reading little, and if so, mostly poetry (a sonnet anthology -
The Making of a Sonnet: A Norton Anthology
, some Durs Grünbein and a slim volume by Elke Erb), interspersed with the odd chapter in the enjoyably silly
No Bed for Bacon
. So no reviews from me yet, still. Anyway, I hope you are all (as) well (as possible). As Russell, I think reviews are just as good as in the ersatz free TL&S of old! Also think inter’s poetry quiz an excellent one. It’s a good sign we can only crack it collectively.
Gladavor wrote (#254): “Yes, I was alerted to it yesterday by somebody here after not going on the G for a day or so, and I'm glad I was! As often, I had missed a lot of the newer comments until you mentioned it this morning, thanks. Has anybody seen what Natasha's comment was? I can't believe that his first comment in over a month got moderated, grrrr.”
Ah, I am glad then. I did read all of this week’s posts, but a little distractedly on occasion, so I may well have overlooked something (things not going too well over here… nuff said).
No, when I found Sam’s contribution, NatashaFatale’s comment had already been deleted. Shame.
Sandaya wrote (#256): “Very nice! I like his list!!” Ha! I thought you might, not least for the mention of Jane Eyre.
@ Tam/jediperson: I like your pictures of doors (as well as other things) very much. It is lovely to open that photo page.
THE ICE SAINTS has started well, albeit a massive style change from the elegant Edwardian detail and scene setting of MR JamesSwept into a world of characters without much background, hints and ambiguities amid the Krakovian elites, its very much a novel of its time (mid 1960s)
Apollo Classics have done wonders with the design of the book and its great to see slightly neglected classics being published
Bill - 'While we wait, perhaps in vain, for one of her fans in the group to post a review of Jack, here’s an essay by Marilynne Robinson' I just bought this book yesterday. I'm a big fan of MR so I"m looking forward to delving into the pages and I'll definately be posting a review (along with other MR fans here I'm sure)
A little book levity. Lovely headline (unfortunately you must click to see it all and please be ready to smile 😃)-https://www.theguardian.com/books/202...
Shelflife_wasBooklooker wrote: "Hello everyone, recently I have been reading little, and if so, mostly poetry (a sonnet anthology - The Making of a Sonnet: A Norton Anthology, some Durs Grünbein and..."I like you am not reading much either, I don't really know why. I'm reading reviews and articles, anything shortish... and the odd poem... but mostly I am totally distracted by 'doors'... They are not going on forever though, I just decided to make them the equivalent of my 'Advent Calendar'. It's as if I have found a tiny cubbyhole that opens up inside, to somewhere in my mind that is as big as Narnia!... Tomorrows will be from Marburg, Germany. Have you been there? It has made me want to visit it sometime, when we get over this unsettling period of 'time paused'... I hope things get much better for you... whatevers going on... take care...
Alwynne (268) wrote: "Review 
August by Christa Wolf”What can I give you, my dear, if not a few pages of writing, into which a lot of memory has flowed from the time before w..."
I'm glad to say my library has this, as I'd very much like to read it, but the price seems a bit steep for just over 50 pp. Thanks for the recommendation.
Learned on Twitter that John le Carre has died at age 89. I know he had a number of fans on Guardian TL&S, but I'm not sure how many of them have migrated to this site. “I’m not part of the literary bureaucracy if you like that categorizes everybody: Romantic, Thriller, Serious,” le Carre told The Associated Press in 2008. “I just go with what I want to write about and the characters. I don’t announce this to myself as a thriller or an entertainment.
“I think all that is pretty silly stuff. It’s easier for booksellers and critics, but I don’t buy that categorization. I mean, what’s ‘A Tale of Two Cities?’ — a thriller?”
Mod
Alas. I wasn't a le Carré super-fan, but I enjoyed the handful I read. What a year we're having.
Bill wrote: "Learned on Twitter that John le Carre has died at age 89. I know he had a number of fans on Guardian TL&S, but I'm not sure how many of them have migrated to this site. “I’m not part of the literar..."Gosh, what a loss!
Justine (270) wrote: "Alwynne (268) wrote: "Review August by Christa Wolf”What can I give you, my dear, if not a few pages of writing, into which a lot of memory has flowed ..."
I hope it works as well for you as it did for me. But Christa Wolf's one of my favourite writers, she manages to write about history and individuals without sensationalising events, an incredibly disciplined, surprisingly powerful writer.
PaleFires wrote: "The le Carre quote about 'A Tale of Two Cities' being nothing but a thriller vexes me a little bit."I'm not sure that was what Le Carre meant. I think he was pointing out that it is a reductive way of categorising a text. I don't think thriller would be an apt term for A Tale of Two Cities in any case, I think it would be more likely to be called historical fiction.
Justine wrote: "Bill wrote: "Learned on Twitter that John le Carre has died at age 89. I know he had a number of fans on Guardian TL&S, but I'm not sure how many of them have migrated to this site. “I’m not part o..."I'm a fan, which is why I was so disappointed by A Legacy of Spies. I refer you to my review
"If you are fan of le Carré (who remains a masterly writer), if you are a Smiley tragic, if you think The Spy Who Came in From the Cold is possibly the greatest espionage novel ever written, I implore you not to read this travesty written by an old man having second thoughts about the world he created, not to mention being consumed by righteous indignation about Brexit.
Peter Guillam, his slightly ditsy pregnant French wife having inexplicably disappeared, is living probably in the late 1980s on the family farm in Brittany where he is now supposed to have grown up, instead of in England as he once did. Mobile phones play a minor role, but communications rely a good deal on snail mail. He is summoned to London where poisonous young bureaucrats are trying to get him to pin the blame on Smiley for what happened to Alec Leamas (radically altering that plot). Smiley - who would have to be over 100 - cannot be found. Oh dear, where could he possibly be? I can say no more, I feel ill..."
I have yet to read Agent Running in the Field, and can only hope that the old master got his mojo back. Hilary Mantel has said that she writes novels in a historical setting; le Carré wrote novels in an espionage setting.
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Ersatz TLS
Books mentioned in this topic
August (other topics)August (other topics)
The Making of a Sonnet: A Norton Anthology (other topics)
No Bed for Bacon (other topics)
The Making of a Sonnet: A Norton Anthology (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Durs Grünbein (other topics)Elke Erb (other topics)
Durs Grünbein (other topics)
Tove Ditlevsen (other topics)
Tove Ditlevsen (other topics)
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thank you for your kind words.