What Are We Reading? 8 February 2021

[Justine]

Apologies for todays’ very late start!

Meanwhile, there are the usual stimulating and intriguing recommendations worth repeating here, just what’s needed to keep on ploughing through February.

Reen directs our attention to the Hungry by ‘the brilliant’Grace Dent :

a gloriously easy, funny and poignant read at bedtime. Anyone who grew up in the 70s/80s won't fail to be transported back to their childhood in this memoir of food and family and popular culture. She's a great writer, as you'd expect, and her hair should have its own Insta account and possibly does. I'd love to go out on the town with her for a good dinner and drinks. S0 … easy but very pleasurable going for me these days.

Although surprisingly disappointed by Jane Smiley’s Perestroika in ParisLLJones then discovered When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka:

This sparse, harrowing, evocative, flawless story of a Japanese-American family evacuated to internment camps during WWII is … divine. I highly recommend it.

Among several longer, analytical reviews are Julian.’s comments onJoseph and His Brothers by Thomas Mann (Original title: Joseph und seine Brüder) - translated by H.T. Lowe-Porter.:

I think that what a reader will remember […] is first and foremost what an epic journey it is. It is a journey for the reader and the narrative encompasses many journeys for the characters. Mann creates a mighty edifice from the Old Testament episode. He recreates the Ancient Near East with a fidelity that borders on obsession. I remember landscapes portrayed with a cinematic splendour and festivities that play out as moving images crowded with movement and life.
If the original story is passionate and dramatic - this drama in Mann's work is always contained by his authorial voice. This above all seeks to find truth in character portrayal and to see truth as a destination that is dearly attained - a celestial city appearing on the horizon - drawing the reader as a pilgrim, a seeker after wisdom who must negotiate an imagined reality, a recreation of what might have happened if you were a witness to the events or an interpreter of narratives that are constructs of both the participants and those who write the accounts. We can live with the vivid dramas of Joseph's suffering as prisoner, his seduction by Potiphar's wife or the moving reconciliation with the brothers and Jacob the patriarch submissive to the deity, guided always by an all knowing power - experiencing these events as drama on the highest plain, and yet overlaying this is the serene progress of the narrator's voice, distancing us, allowing us to contemplate the events as a divine plan, bringing confidence and certainty to quieten humanity's frail condition and moral questioning. We have a candle to guide us through darkness and to light the way for the troubled being caught between animal and angel.

Joseph's and Jacob's dilemmas and failings, their triumphs and sorrows more than ever in Mann's narrative bring echoes and a foreshadowing of other famed Biblical narratives - the story in Mann's work is seen as part of a huge tradition stretching backwards to the earliest patriarchs and forwards to the Gospels. Mann's account also anticipates some of the concerns of the 20th and 21st centuries. It is a world where dreams can displace reality, where individual selves are split and identities are malleable and shifting and relationships are threatened by deception and duplicity. This insecurity permeates the narrative through to the final pages as Jacob leaves his beloved son a dying wish that all will be healed between him and his brethren - he does not have confidence that this will really happen without a formal intervention from beyond the grave. Joseph himself perhaps personifies the strength of God's overarching plan - a figure who comes to embody the progress of God's story that gives meaning to all events and leads the characters towards a destiny may be mirage or salvation but one that will have design and ultimate purpose.

Journeys of a different sort are to be found in Alistair Moffat's The Hidden Ways: Scotland's Forgotten Roads. Andy writes that

[Moffat is] a historian, and often goes deeper than I personally need him to, and likes to include some religious aspects […] but it’ s good writing, and certainly makes me want to go there and see it for myself.

In the first chapter he follows the River Tay as it flows east from the heart of Perthshire. At Fortingall he encounters a graveyard with a Yew Tree aged between 2,000 and 3,000 years old. Recently it bore berries, apparently for the first time, making locals wonder if it has undergone a sex change. More than 500 graveyard Yew Trees in Britain are older than their churches. The most desirable graves were those next to the tree. One such tree in Sussex in recent years was felled by a huge storm. Upended, its now visible roots had grabbed skeletal remains and pulled them closer and closer to the tree over the years.

Wonderful stuff.

And finally, the answers from CCCubbon’s quiz:

Quiz answers 1. John Dryden. 1668 Charles II. Simon Amitage
2. DH Lawrence
3. Mrs Gaskell
4.Longfellow. The Song of Hiawatha
5. Anatole France. Catholic Church
6. Leon Tolstoy
7. Margaret Mitchell. Gone with the Wind. Clark Gable. Vivien Leigh. Olivia de Havilland. Leslie Howard
8. Daphne du Maurier. Rebecca. The Birds
9. Barbara Cartland
10.Margaret Atwood. Iris Murdoch. six nominations each
11.Chaucer. The Parlement of Foules
12. Dr Samuel Johnson
13. Enid Blyton
14.The Leopard. Giuseppe Tomasi. Principe di Lampedusa
15 Mark Twain, Sir Walter Scott, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Ivanhoe
16. A A Milne. EH Shepherd, Winnie-the-Pooh, Eeyore, Piglet, Owl, Kanga, Rabbit, Roo. NB Tigger came in sequels
17. Kenneth Grahame. The Wind in the Willows. Toad, Mole, Rat, Badger 18. Eric Ambler Incidentally, in case anyone was wondering, the statesman, politician named Stamford was Stamford Raffles, founder of Singapore. His real full name was Thomas Stamford Bingley Raffles but always known as Stamford Raffles. The cockerel also mentioned was Chanticleer from the Nun’s Priest Tale from Canterbury Tales by Chaucer. The fact that surprised me most of all was that The Leopard was not published until after Tomasi’s death. Mark Twain was very disparaging about Walter Scott’s novels and that was why he named his sinking ship after the author. He went as far as to blame the popularity of Scott’s novels with their notions of chivalry for the civil war. You may like to read what he wrote about Scott here; http://www.twainquotes.com/SirWalterS...

[giveusaclue]

Hi Justine, Glad you made it back and I hope you are doing ok. Stay safe and warm.

[AB76]

Welcome back Justine....

OK so new week..new books and some still in process, there is light snowfall in the Shires, small flakes fluttering down and its perishing...1c only. (heating may remain on till 4pm....gadzooks, then back on around 8pm)

The next classic novel will be:

I Shall Not Hear The Nightingale BY Khushwant Singh(1959)

Its been too long since my last Indian novel (8 years in fact, though 4 Pakistani novels in that period) and the setting of early WW2 Amritsar is fascinating. Singh was a maverick voice of India in his lifetime and i loved his column in the Hindustan Times


Suprised by Joy by CS Lewis (1955) Non-fiction/Memoir

Its WW1 and Lewis is ensconced in Great Bookham, not far from me, cramming with an eccentric old Ulster compadre of his fathers. Lewis is fascinated by the Surrey countryside, so different to his native County Down

Memoirs of a Life Cut Short by Ricardis Gavelis (1989) Fiction

Written in the perestroika era, this Lithuanian novel published by Vagabond "Changelings" is a wry,stark account of a dead man writing letters to an estranged friend and is the latest in my Cold War series of novels written east of the curtain from 1955-1990

Letters from London and Europe by Di Lampedusa

A wonderful collection of witty,observational letters from the author of "The Leopard". Like when reading the letters of Eca De Querios in the autumn, london and england comes to life in the eyes of a foreign writer...

[Reen]

I feel I may have missed a chapter but hope all well with you Justine (and indeed with everyone).

I'm still enjoying Grace and half reading other bits and pieces that won't bring anything to the party here, not yet anyway. On the subtitled television viewing front, we've moved on to the very entertaining Call My Agent! (Dix Pour Cent in the original ... but don't try to learn French this way). Funny, clever, stylish (what I'd like my headstone to read, mwahahaha).

Shelflife ... down with your creamy mushrooms but I do hope you are fortified anew. It is trying to snow here, but unsuccessfully. I'd weep with joy to look out the window and see something new ... I would even reprise my drunken snow angel of 2017.

[Sandya]

I decided to re-post my review on the week's new page. Glad to see Justine is back! I wrote it for a FB review page- hence the opening-I assume more of you are familiar with the subject. This is a book I re-read this weekend after a long gap. I bought my copy in the mid 70s and have reread it many times with pleasure. Re-reading it confirmed my admiration.

The Young Melbourne. David Cecil.

Most readers here will probably only know Lord Melbourne from early episodes of “Victoria”, where he is rather well portrayed by Rufus Sewell. Lord David Cecil, who was descended from Melbourne’s sister, Emily, Countess Cowper, Viscountess Palmerston, wrote a wonderful biography of the man who became Prime Minister, then Queen Victoria’s mentor, guide, and essentially Personal Secretary at the start of her reign.

The Young Melbourne, volume 1 of this 2-volume work, shows how the various influences in his life came together to form the person he eventually became. These influences were the World, in the 18th century meaning of the word, the Whig aristocracy, his mother, Lady Melbourne, the Devonshire House Circle, and his disastrous marriage to Lady Caroline Ponsonby. Today, Lady Caroline would probably be diagnosed with a mental illness, my guess, bipolar disorder. The personality that resulted was very complex, characterized by a precarious balance between a cynical, worldly viewpoint and disinterested intellectual questing. This took time, so that he entered active public life relatively late, at age 47.

The book is beautifully written, rather in the style of Duff Cooper’s “Talleyrand”. It takes its history lightly, without intimidating the reader with footnotes, references, and superscripts. Yet its subject is well researched and it probably benefited greatly from family records. It is full of memorable quotes. On Fred Lamb, Melbourne’s younger brother-“Did he not read Shakespeare to his mistress? And what is more, persuade her to enjoy it?” This sparkling surface makes it easy to read and one ends up with a detailed knowledge, painlessly gained, of the time and place-London in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

The book was published in 1940, and there has been much modern scholarship since-for example, “Lord Melbourne’s Susan” which I own and which presents a more positive picture of Lady Caroline Lamb, new biographies of Lady Byron and others. However, this remains a delightful biography, made accessible by the beautiful writing. Volume 2 is titled “Lord M” and covers Melbourne’s career as PM and guide to Queen Victoria. My copy, bought in 1979 on my birthday, originally belonged to Wolstan Weld-Forester, a diplomat and relation of “Lord M”. Fred Lamb's widow, Adine, Lady Beauvale, married Lord Forester en deuxième noces. It is also eminently readable.

[Bill]

Here's a literary puzzler for you; the NYRB Classics account Tweeted:

The chaos that publishing an author with the same name as a WWF wrestler brings to your google alerts.

A further hint in a later tweet:

I've just discovered that this wrestler died 15 years ago. You'd never know it from the number of google alerts about him I get.

[Bill]

I haven't figured out who it is yet, but thought William Roughhead a promising wrestler name.

[Sandya]

Bill wrote: "I haven't figured out who it is yet, but thought William Roughhead a promising wrestler name."

Pronounced "Rockheed" I'm sure.

[Bill]

Sandya wrote: "Pronounced "Rockheed" I'm sure."

According to Wikipedia

William Roughead (pronounced Ruff-head) (1870–1952) was a well-known Scottish lawyer and amateur criminologist, as well as an editor and essayist on "matters criminous". He was an important early practitioner of the modern "true crime" literary genre.

[scarletnoir]

Justine wrote: "Apologies for todays’ very late start!

First of all - welcome back Justine! I was not aware of the 'concerns' about your wellbeing last week until this moment of insomniac catch-up.

Thanks also to Sandya for an interesting review of a book in a genre I'm unlikely to read - reviews can sometimes be more to one's taste than the books themselves...

Which brings me to that link from CCC's quiz to Twain on Walter Scott (not certain if CCC posted it, or if Justine added it)... there is little which brings more joy than a really good hatchet job or put-down, and here is an excerpt from Twain's remarks:

Sir Walter had so large a hand in making Southern character, as it existed before the war, that he is in great measure responsible for the war. It seems a little harsh toward a dead man to say that we never should have had any war but for Sir Walter; and yet something of a plausible argument might, perhaps, be made in support of that wild proposition...

One may observe, by one or two signs, how deeply (Scott's) influence penetrated, and how strongly it holds. If one take up a Northern or Southern literary periodical of forty or fifty years ago, he will find it filled with wordy, windy, flowery `eloquence,` romanticism, sentimentality-- all imitated from Sir Walter, and sufficiently badly done, too-- innocent travesties of his style and methods, in fact.

It brought to mind a wonderful put-down of a popular French comedy film Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis, which plays with popular stereotypes of the Northern French... our commentator wrote that this determinedly low-brow and unpretentious piece of entertainment "has done more harm to the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region than Hitler's 7th Panzer division in WW2".
(FWIW, I enjoyed it a lot - many laughs - more 'Father Ted' than 'Mrs Brown's Boys', in fact. Some of the humour is untranslatable, as it depends on the regional accent/pronunciation... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welcome...)

I'm also intrigued by the references to Grace Dent, who I had never heard of before... somehow, despite reading the Guardian and having more than a passing interest in food (!), I'd missed this name. The reviews seem promising, but celebrity autobiography is outside my usual field of interest. This sounds good, though, so I may give it a whirl.

[Magrat]

scarletnoir wrote: "Justine wrote: "Apologies for todays’ very late start!

First of all - welcome back Justine! I was not aware of the 'concerns' about your wellbeing last week until this moment of insomniac catch-up..."

I have seen 'Welcome to the Sticks' and thought it was very funny, even though the subtitle writers were struggling heroically with the linguistic jokes - bit like translating Asterix I reckon.

[CCCubbon]

Yes, Mark Twain certainly had it in for Scott, didn’t he? Maybe naming a sinking ship after him was a bit much.

One of the quiz questions last week concerned Geoffrey Chaucer and his Parlement of Foules and I found an excerpt from the chorus which the birds sing. For those who did not indulge last week the poem tells of three eagles who want to mate with a reluctant female so a parlement is held by Nature on St Valentine’s Day. The duck, goose cuckoo and others have their say , put downs here,too. It is decided that the female eagle may wait another year and they all sing.


The Parlement of Fowls
BY GEOFFREY CHAUCER

(excerpt)

Now welcome, somer, with thy sonne softe,
That hast this wintres wedres overshake,
And driven away the longe nyghtes blake!

Saynt Valentyn, that art ful hy on-lofte,
Thus syngen smale foules for thy sake:
Now welcome, somer, with thy sonne softe,
That hast this wintres wedres overshake.

Wel han they cause for to gladen ofte,
Sith ech of hem recovered hath hys make;
Ful blissful mowe they synge when they wake:
Now welcome, somer, with thy sonne softe
That hast this wintres wedres overshake
And driven away the longe nyghtes blake!

[scarletnoir]

Magrat wrote: "I have seen 'Welcome to the Sticks' and thought it was very funny, even though the subtitle writers were struggling heroically with the linguistic jokes...

I can imagine... the scene where our intrepid Southerner is shown around the flat that goes with his post, and asks about the lack of furniture - removed by the previous occupant - is great, if you can understand what they are saying... it's in this promo trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOyon...

[Paul]

Last week, I found myself longing for a book with the narrative space in which I could walk and wander, a book without all of the thoughts thought, the words said and all the balls busted.

I sure got that space in Juan Rulfo's Pedro Páramo. However, in the world of Juan and Pedro, the free spaces were full of ghosts and echoes of memory. Juan Preciado's mother dies and he has to fulfill her command from the deathbed, to go find his father in Comala, the titular Pedro. What or who he finds is entirely different, and I won't go into details.
It was a brilliantly evocative, ethereal novel in which all was wispy and direction was hard to establish. It switches between Juan and Pedro and the other inhabitants so suddenly that it can take you a sentence or two to realize you've been transported back in time, or onward to the hacienda or back to the sickbed.
Rulfo is the first Mexican author that I've read in a very long time, and his book seemed wonderfully dusty, poorly governed, prone to warlord-driven madness but still matrilineal and welcoming. I've seen it described as a progenitor of the Magical Realism branch, but I'm not really sure how well it fits in there. Suffice to say, the Dia de los Muertos seems particularly relevant to the narrative and its celebration would be difficult, if not insensitive, to call magical.

I enjoyed it quite a lot, a very sparse, brief, but multilayered discombobulating narrative, it was the perfect remedy to the completeness of the over-written.

Now, I'm onto Jack London. My son has gotten his reading list for the remainder of the school year and one of the books he chose was The Call Of The Wild, so I'll be slowly re-reading that alongside him for the first time in 30-plus years. On my own I'll try giving London's Martin Eden a shot. It'll be interesting to read his adult and children's narratives alongside one another to see if there is really a difference in writing style, or whether it is only a question of subject.

[AB76]

Paul wrote: "Last week, I found myself longing for a book with the narrative space in which I could walk and wander, a book without all of the thoughts thought, the words said and all the balls busted.

I su..."

Jack London has such good variety to choose from, you have the yukon tales, the south sea tales, the other maritime tales, the novels and non-fiction too

[scarletnoir]

Machenbach wrote: "I would recommend the story collection El Llano in flames (also published under other titles) to just about everyone."

Looked this up on GR - some reviews compare Rulfo to Cormack McCarthy - does that make sense to you? (I don't much care for McCarthy!)

[AB76]

The Khushwant Singh novel has started with the killing of a Sarus Crane (a very,very large bird) by the main character Sher Singh. A macabre chain of events follows as the carcass is looked over and a local headman questions the killing of an inedible bird. (on the surface i agree with the headman but on checking an image of the Sarus Crane i find that Hindu mythology deems anyone who kills a Sarus Crane is cursed, the meat is taboo, the main character is a Sikh but seems unaware of this omen....interesting)

[AB76]

Machenbach wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "some reviews compare Rulfo to Cormack McCarthy - does that make sense to you?"

Not really, no. They share a broadly similar unforgiving landscape in which their characters eke ..."

despite being a non magic realist fan, i enjoyed "Pedro Paramo" but still havent followed by reading his short fiction. I like the Webster to Shaky comparison Mach, Webster is a fave of mine!

[Tam]

Paul wrote: "Last week, I found myself longing for a book with the narrative space in which I could walk and wander, a book without all of the thoughts thought, the words said and all the balls busted.

I su..."

On the whole I have found Spanish speaking writers overly flowery, I tried one of Javier Marais's books, I forget which one, but I couldn't take the density of descriptive longueurs!... Probably my loss, but it made we wonder how Ernest Hemingway actually got on with the Spanish Republicans. The terse, masculine, punchy diction, v's the flowery effervescence of the Spanish tongue. A night propping up the bar must have been a bit of a hoot, for a local eavesdropper!...

I did quite like getting lost in say 'A Hundred Years of Solitude', but that was many years ago, when I was a young and callow fellow, I'm not sure I'd have the patience now. Though I did really like a film version of Mexican author Laura Esquivel's book 'Like Water for Chocolate' so maybe I should check out the book. Has anyone here read it? And I have a soft spot for Leonora Carrington, who I am sure counts as an 'honoury' Mexican. I'm looking forward to the new 'Leonora in the Morning Light' due out soon.

[Paul]

Machenbach wrote: "but it's also sometimes quite tricky to find your bearings isn't it, and those averse to a whiff of 'magic realism' might find the coexistence of a dead present and a live past a bit of a turn-off"

Yeah, it's definitely somewhat difficult to get a grasp on when, where and on which side of the divide you find yourself. It actually reminded me a bit of Under The Volcano, with the destabilizing dizziness and a sense of veering into an open grave. Firmin's blurriness was mezcal-dependent, but the live-dead blurriness in Pedro Páramo was more cultural. I don't think it would have been seen as magical to a fairly large chunk of the Mexican populace when it was published.

[AB76]

Tam wrote: "Paul wrote: "Last week, I found myself longing for a book with the narrative space in which I could walk and wander, a book without all of the thoughts thought, the words said and all the balls bus..."

Marias stinks, i was interested in him after i found a number of good Spanish writers like Marse(Catalan), Rivas (Galician) and Munoz Molina in the mid 2000s but i hated all the books of his i read, unlike the ones by marse, rivas and molina

[Sandya]

Bill wrote: "Sandya wrote: "Pronounced "Rockheed" I'm sure."

According to WikipediaWilliam Roughead (pronounced Ruff-head) (1870–1952) was a well-known Scottish lawyer and amateur criminologist, as well as an ..."


Lol. This was a bit of a joke on my part, as a pilot who did graduate work in Scotland. A bloke called Alan Loughead, of Scots origin, started an aviation company in the US which became quite successful. He changed the spelling of his name to a phonetic version that could be pronounced correctly. Lockheed. When I lived in Scotland, it would have been pronounced "Locheed" not "Luff-head.

[Lljones]

Paul wrote: "I don't think it would have been seen as magical to a fairly large chunk of the Mexican populace when it was published...."

This is such an important point, one I remember using in favor of One Hundred Years of Solitude when I first read it, some forty years ago.

[Sandya]

AB76 wrote: "The Khushwant Singh novel has started with the killing of a Sarus Crane (a very,very large bird) by the main character Sher Singh. A macabre chain of events follows as the carcass is looked over an..."

Sikhism is the result of a conscious effort to bridge Hinduism and Islam, though sadly it broke off and formed yet another religion..... Speaking as a South Indian Hindu, I doubt a Sikh would necessarily know of this omen. Furthermore, Hinduism itself has so many regional variations, and such diversity, that the same would be true of many Hindus.

[Tam]

Well I have struggled through with my attempt to launch a Wordpress web site for my 'lazy' blogs. It was quite a learning curve for me. It's an experiment in time and inclination. I'm hoping to put up an article once a month, on the first of every month, and just see how it goes... (I can't keep up with the young ones who seem to blog all the time!...) My 'Door of the Day', now has a home there. Thanks to 'ersatz' TLS for letting me indulge myself on the 'photos' page before Christmas.

There are a few short pieces on the nature of 'pots'. An account of going to a talk by Steven Pinker. An article on Kathe Kollwitz and Otto Dix's Art during WW-I, which may be of interest to any into German 'History or Art' and the nature of 'War'.

The next one will be on comparisons between architects Frank Lloyd Wright, and Le Corbusier's ideas, and their legacies. Oh, and a really cute dragon, the one that swallowed St Margaret!...(https://jediperson.wordpress.com/home/)

I am hoping to get a lot better at loading up pictures. I find them quite a struggle and have needed the help of my long-suffering son, Ollie. Thankyou Ol... and husband Dave, for encouraging me to actually do something with all these bits and pieces...

[Lljones]

A taste for Anne Tyler is a splendid addiction.—John Leonard

This writer is not merely good, she is wickedly good—John Updike

Just ten pages before I reached the end of Saint Maybe, I located Noah's Compass on my brother's shelves. I'm delighted to find Tyler so delightfully re-readable. Food for a troubled soul*, she is.

*Impeachment conviction trial begins today.

[Sandya]

Tam wrote: "Paul wrote: "Last week, I found myself longing for a book with the narrative space in which I could walk and wander, a book without all of the thoughts thought, the words said and all the balls bus..."

I received a copy of "Like Water for Chocolate" when the movie came out but failed to finish it. I still have it somewhere but was never tempted to give it another shot or to see the movie. I notice that people who give me books choose what THEY like not what I like so, despite being a serious reader my entire life, I do not welcome books as gifts. Not sure why I didn't like LWFC.

I couldn't stand "100 Years of Solitude". I thought it was absolute rubbish. Again, it was a gift from someone at work who thought I might like it because the author was awarded a Nobel, therefore it MUST be good, not realizing that Nobel laureates in literature are specifically avoided by me. I don't like magic realism either.

[Tam]

Machenbach wrote: "Tam wrote: "I tried one of Javier Marais's books, I forget which one, but I couldn't take the density of descriptive longueurs!"

I don't mind Marías but, yeah, he's all digression, and accordingly..."

I think this just goes to show that one's own tendencies towards 'digressions' don't actually, or perhaps usually, translate to mutual comprehension!...

[Tam]

Sandya wrote: "Tam wrote: "Paul wrote: "Last week, I found myself longing for a book with the narrative space in which I could walk and wander, a book without all of the thoughts thought, the words said and all t..."

I think a person would have to have a bit of a tolerance to 'magical realism' to appreciate 'Like Water for Chocolate'. But I have a long history of watching 'Art Films', some very obscure, so I have been vaccinated' into an 'empathy', of sorts. We are all different though. I agree that being given books, that someone thought I would like, is a bit of a lottery though. Its nearly always much more about the person who is giving it!...

[AB76]

Machenbach wrote: "Tam wrote: "I tried one of Javier Marais's books, I forget which one, but I couldn't take the density of descriptive longueurs!"

I don't mind Marías but, yeah, he's all digression, and accordingly..."

i am still pondering whether to re-read any Henry James, it was so painful the first time, minus The Turn of The Screw, due to its brevity

[AB76]

Sandya wrote: "AB76 wrote: "The Khushwant Singh novel has started with the killing of a Sarus Crane (a very,very large bird) by the main character Sher Singh. A macabre chain of events follows as the carcass is l..."

good point, i have worked with a good number of Sikhs and had good conversations about the Guru and Sikhism but i have much to learn still

the novel is published by Penguin India, so probably they didnt think it needed a glossary for ignorant westerners! glad i looked up the Sarus Crane or i may be none the wiser for the significance of this kill, Singh does not elaborate on the myth

[Sandya]

Tam wrote: "Sandya wrote: "Tam wrote: "Paul wrote: "Last week, I found myself longing for a book with the narrative space in which I could walk and wander, a book without all of the thoughts thought, the words..."

So true. In grad school I had a friend-an undergrad at the time who later did a year in China. She would invariably give me books by Maoist authors which I never read on principle. I have no interest in politics per se and certainly not Mao. Why not something interesting about Chinese art FGS? Or T'ang Dynasty poetry? Ceramics? The Short Stories of Lu Hsun is one such-actually I wish I had kept that one. But in general her book choices were light years away from what I actually read.

She really annoyed me when I moved to the US from the UK, by giving me "A Rap on Race" by James Baldwin. She thought I should "educate myself" on the subject of racism. She and her friends -all white-all thought me insufficiently feminist and anti-racist. Looking back-this was the late 70s, I don't think they 1) knew any Indian women and 2) knew none who were in grad school, several years ahead of them, had nearly finished their PhDs, were unmarried, and were feminists to boot. This is a form of patronization I no longer tolerate. As a POC, I experienced a great deal of racism growing up in England. I do not need some white American to tell me I need to "educate myself" about it. Right now there is a great deal being published by colored authors on the subject. It is white people who need to read this material, not me. It is just too painful going through it all again.

[AB76]

Machenbach wrote: "AB76 wrote: "i am still pondering whether to re-read any Henry James, it was so painful the first time."

I refer the Honorable Member to the answer I gave some moments ago."

i thank my learned friend for the advice, i am in no hurry to vanish down a Jamesian digression hole...unless insomnia strikes!

[Hushpuppy]

I read this from the Books section over the weekend and it made me mad, so read it at your own perils! 'I’ve been called Satan': Dr Rachel Clarke on facing abuse in the Covid crisis

Also, @AB76 (and others) I don't know if you've seen this? California cool and Magical Thinking: Joan Didion at 86

Gpfr Yes I was one of those who has watched The Queen's Gambit (it was first Reen and Alwynne I think, then Magrat and me. Magrat is the one who's read the book). Glad you enjoyed it, I thought it was really well done, if perhaps not worthy of the amazing praise it received.

Reen I was also the one watching Dix pour cent (Call My Agent). Maybe as a French person I am more immune to the je-ne-sais-quoi of French TV series, but while I thought it was entertaining, and occasionally well written, it is not rocking my world*. Far too many intrigues which resembled musical chairs for writers running out of steam. But bear in mind I was also not completely sold on Engrenages (crime de lèse-majesté, I know), although my husband was. Again, I may be fussier when it comes to French language, perhaps the other side of the same coin from being very forgiving when it comes to English lyrics in songs!


*Ok, it does make me weep quietly on occasion, with a lovely shot of Paris, or with tales of going to an indie cinema there.

[Gpfr]

I've just tried my hand at a quiz - it's in Special Topics.

[AB76]

Hushpuppy wrote: "I read this from the Books section over the weekend and it made me mad, so read it at your own perils! 'I’ve been called Satan': Dr Rachel Clarke on facing abuse in the Covid crisis

Also, @AB76 (a..."

i havent read it HP but Didion is going to be a regular read for me, was hugely impressed by "Slouching Towards Bethlehem", which suprised me as i disliked one of her novels i read, set in LA.

she is one of the best non-fiction writers i have come acrross so late in life

[Amelia]

I'm loving the discussion of digressions! Personally, I am almost always in favour of digressions - when I was 16, I fell in love with Moby Dick's multide of digressions, and tried to share my passion with everyone I knew who read (to the great horror of everyone around me, I'm sure)

I would also like to second Machenbach's recommendation of El llano en llamas / the burning plane / el llano in flames. Hopefully one day my Spanish will be good enough again to read the original.

I'm currently enjoying the snow (though I imagine it's not so fun for people who have to drive in it). Someone down the road has built an igloo & plans to stay the night in it for charity!

Meanwhile I'm reading Altitude, a beautifully illustrated graphic novel about the author's lifelong obsession with mountain climbing, and Milkman by Anna Burns. I've been meaning to read Milkman for ages and have finally got round to it - I quite like the style, but am finding the claustrophobia of the narrator being stalked by the 'milkman' a little unsettling. I really must try and find something cheerful to read next!

[SydneyH]

scarletnoir wrote: "some reviews compare Rulfo to Cormack McCarthy - does that make sense to you? (I don't much care for McCarthy!"

The stories aren't like McCarthy in style, but a bit in genre - I called it 'Mexican Gothic' when I read it, as in a bit like the Southern Gothic writers like Faulkner and Flannery O'Connor, but set in Mexico.

[Anastasia]

Machenbach wrote: "But I would recommend the story collection El Llano in flames (also published under other titles) to just about everyone"

I loved it. One of the stories, Luvina, stood out for me more than the others. It's a story told in a bar or a tavern, someone's memory of a less than pleasant place. Populated by the bitter, the old, the lonely it seems grotesque: the people don't leave because that would somehow mean they have suffered in vain for all those years, stranded in the middle of nowhere, neatly put away by the government that doesn't want them. It feels surreal, but there's hardly a touch of magical realism to it

[Anastasia]

The stories aren't like McCarthy in style, but a bit in genre - ..."
Yeah, I was wondering about it. I quite liked Juan Rulfo and the genre appeals to me, but I was thinking whether to grab McCarthy or not.

I've just started Bulgakov's The White Guard and still have quite a lot of unfinished books, but I was thinking maybe.. when I finish reading that Satantango... I might just be looking for some ultra-violence everyone is talking about when weaving that cautionary tale of McCarthy's prose

[SydneyH]

Anastasia wrote: "I was thinking whether to grab McCarthy or not"

You haven't tried McCarthy yet? Well worth a try, but steer clear of The Road. Blood Meridian is the obvious 'Mexican Gothic' one, though some people find the violence repetitive. I'd recommend Suttree (just read the opening first and see how you feel) or Child of God, which is short (assuming you don't mind necrophilia in your novels).

[Shelflife_wasBooklooker]

Favourite library stories? Libraries making people happy? Libraries even fostering mutual understanding between countries?

This one is for inter/Justine, who “love[s] stories about libraries and collections”, as she wrote when I posted the story of Ulrich Fugger in TL&S – a story meant to make us feel less guilty, perhaps, about buying too many books on occasion. ( https://www.theguardian.com/books/boo... )

In my last years of graduate studies, I would visit archives and libraries in other cities from time to time. I did not have a lot of money. So when I had to devote more than a day to research, I would be staying a night or two in youth hostels (and hoping there would not be any teenagers as wild as I had been at their age!).
One collection I remember very well is that of Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research in Braunschweig (or Brunswick, as it is sometimes called abroad). I did research there for a couple of days and attended a library tour on my first. I don’t think I have seen anyone as happy, ever, during a library tour as a couple of people then! But I prolapse…

Maybe it comes a s no surprise that many people are enormously fond of the books they first learnt reading with. So, do you remember the reading primers you had in school? (If any – my mum, for example, starting school in 1943, didn’t have one.) This one was mine: https://images.booklooker.de/x/01OMUH... (the title means “(the) colourful world of reading”)

Anyway, during this library tour various people were shown, by a swift and knowledgeable librarian, their reading primers they had loved many decades before, after sometimes quite stumbling and elliptical descriptions of looks and titles. They were so touched by the found-again treasures, it was lovely and moving to witness. Also, no mean feat regarding the librarian – you have many different primers for different years and federal states!
The collection is very special - in fact, it comprises reading primers “from around the world“! ( http://bibliothek.gei.de/en.html ) They might help with finding yours.

But this library offers even more. Fostering mutual understanding, as promised! The institute and its library were founded in 1951 as “International Institute for the Improvement of Textbooks”. Georg Eckert helped to initiate numerous meetings

“with the goal of identifying hidden antagonistic stereotypes and prejudices in history and geography textbooks and contributing to mutual understanding through the revision of these teaching materials. Understandably, the focus of the first few years was directed above all toward the former enemies of Germany. The ‘Franco-German Agreement on Controversial Issues in European History’ (1951) and the ‘Recommendations for History and Geography Textbooks in the Federal Republic of Germany and the People’s Republic of Poland’ (1975) still represent milestones of international reconciliation.” ( http://www.gei.de/en/institute/histor... )

In 1985, the Georg Eckert Institute was awarded the UNESCO Prize for Peace Education.
Nowadays, its focus is less binational, but still highly relevant, in my view: http://www.gei.de/en/research.html
An Israeli-Palestianian binational textbook on the history of the Middle East conflict is no mean feat to bring about! http://www.gei.de/en/projects/complet... Unfortunately, its use has been banned from schools.

So, to help deconstructing hidden stereotypes, in order to research versions of history and in order to advise on teaching materials for contested subjects, the research library “provides access to an international collection of textbooks and curricula for history, geography, social studies and politics, ethics and religion, as well as reading primers in the German language and from around the world.” ( http://bibliothek.gei.de/en.html )

Here are some digitized materials: http://gei-digital.gei.de/viewer/

Also, the library has been expanded with a huge new annexe to be opened soon.
You see, “cooperation on textbooks and history teaching” ( http://www.gei.de/en/institute/histor... ) is alive - and sometimes kicking hyper-nationalists. Just what is needed, in my view.

Get well/ be well, dear inter.

Good night, everyone. I hope to be back with more dialogue on Barnes, Bachmann, reen-rooms with different views and without the wrong type of soup, Sam’s favourite read as a child (thanks, hushpuppy!),… soon.

[AB76]

SydneyH wrote: "Anastasia wrote: "I was thinking whether to grab McCarthy or not"

You haven't tried McCarthy yet? Well worth a try, but steer clear of The Road. Blood Meridian is the obvious 'Mexican Gothic' one,..."

i loved "The Road", thought "No COuntry for old men" was ok but havent read any others yet

[AB76]

Aussie fiction

Thanks to whoever recommended Elizabeth Harrower to me, i just ordered her debut novel about post-war Sydney and a collection of short stories by an author i already like, Xavier Herbert

Sydney fascinates me in a literary sense, when i visited there i found a city with an english cultural backbone, south of france weather, colonial appearences and an odd tattyness in the 'burbs.

I have read three great novels of Sydney, they were:
The Refuge (Kenneth Mackenzie)
Kangaroo (DH Lawrence)
The Dyehouse (Mena Calthorpe)

While the first is set in Sydney for almost its entire length,focusing on wartime Sydney, the americans in town, the growing menace of the Japanese as a backdrop Lawrence only spends about 1/4 of his novel in the city but he is describing the emerging early 1920s metropolis, the lines of bungalows and houses crammed in, the railways creeping through
Calthorpe writes about a later Sydney, of factories and work, beaches and pleasure, will be interesting to compare Calthorpe and Harrower

[Lljones]

SydneyH wrote: "Anastasia wrote: "I was thinking whether to grab McCarthy or not"

You haven't tried McCarthy yet? Well worth a try, but steer clear of The Road. Blood Meridian is the obvious 'Mexican Gothic' one,..."

I've read (and liked) No Country for Old Men and All the Pretty Horses, haven't felt a strong urge to go any further. But just this minute picked up the next of my brother's books to catalog - The Strange Case of Edward Gorey - and found this quote on the back:

Just read a few weeks ago your book on Gorey and enjoyed it very much. —Cormac McCarthy, April, 2010

May decide to revisit McCarthy, if he's a Gorey fan.

[Sandya]

I Remember Nothing. Nora Ephron

This book was given me, by a friend, about 3 years ago and languished in my bookcase. I finally got around to reading it today. It took about 2 hours to finish. I do not think it is worth the $22.95 price tag. It was a waste of 2 hours of my time and really shows up, particularly in the “essay” on Teflon, the consequences of 1) a lack of a good grounding in science and 2) the limitations of living in the bubble universe that is the entertainment industry. Why is it these people-calling themselves journalists-can only write about one industry? I have never watched any of her movies and I have no plans to do so now. A very slight book that left me disappointed.

[Hushpuppy]

Shelflife_wasBooklooker wrote (#51): "So, do you remember the reading primers you had in school?"

Nice post bl. Yes, I do! My mum taught me to read over the summer before entering primary school using this one http://ecolereferences.blogspot.com/2.... I remember the joy of being able to decipher entire words, and eventually entire sentences by the end of the holidays. I particularly like these 2 pages I've found online:



(Here in higher resolution)

"I hope to be back with more dialogue on (...) Sam’s favourite read as a child (thanks, hushpuppy!)"

Mais de rien!

[Hushpuppy]

Anastasia wrote (#47): "Machenbach wrote: "But I would recommend the story collection El Llano in flames (also published under other titles) to just about everyone"

I loved it. One of the stories, Luvina, stood out for me..."

Have you read it in Spanish (Castillan)? If so, would you recommend it? I'm thinking of tackling one short, and relatively easy - vocabulary-wise - Spanish book this year...

I've only read All The Pretty Horses, but liked it well enough. To me, it read a bit like a screenplay for a (good) film. This might not be a 'true' McCarthy though, as I don't think the violence was anything special. If I hadn't already seen the excellent film, I'd also consider No Country for Old Men.

[Bill]

From the NY Times: Will American Ideas Tear France Apart? Some of Its Leaders Think So

French politicians, high-profile intellectuals and journalists are warning that progressive American ideas — specifically on race, gender, post-colonialism — are undermining their society. “There’s a battle to wage against an intellectual matrix from American universities,’’ warned Mr. Macron’s education minister.

Emboldened by these comments, prominent intellectuals have banded together against what they regard as contamination by the out-of-control woke leftism of American campuses and its attendant cancel culture.

Pitted against them is a younger, more diverse guard that considers these theories as tools to understanding the willful blind spots of an increasingly diverse nation that still recoils at the mention of race, has yet to come to terms with its colonial past and often waves away the concerns of minorities as identity politics.
...
The publication this month of a book critical of racial studies by two veteran social scientists, Stéphane Beaud and Gérard Noiriel, fueled criticism from younger scholars — and has received extensive news coverage. Mr. Noiriel has said that race had become a “bulldozer’’ crushing other subjects, adding, in an email, that its academic research in France was questionable because race is not recognized by the government and merely “subjective data.’’

The fierce French debate over a handful of academic disciplines on U.S. campuses may surprise those who have witnessed the gradual decline of American influence in many corners of the world. In some ways, it is a proxy fight over some of the most combustible issues in French society, including national identity and the sharing of power. In a nation where intellectuals still hold sway, the stakes are high.

[Lljones]

Bill wrote: "From the NY Times: Will American Ideas Tear France Apart? Some of Its Leaders Think So French politicians, high-profile intellectuals and journalists are warning that progressive American ideas — s..."

Ay. After ten hours of watching the Senate hearings, I'm afraid I can't worry about France right now.