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What Are We Reading? 17 May 2021
CCCubbon wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "Lass wrote: "I take it those fans of Alice Munro have read Carol Shields too?"The converse is also true! ;-)"
Well, scarletnoir, here’s someone who hasn’t read any Anne Tyler,..."
Oh, CC..I am quite cast down! Perhaps try Alice Munro’s The View From Castle Rock? Or her most recent collection, Dear Life. But if they’re not for you then c’est la vie. Our differing views are what make the world go round, and this exchange of views enlivening and uplifting.
The Way to Santiago by Arthur Calder-Marshall (1940) gets better and better as it gets deeper into its intricate plot.Calder-Marshall has already identified his "villain", who the "hero" does not recognise as such, though in the fog of war, i am suspecting that there is a lot more to this character (who i wont name)
My knowledge of Mexico is limited, i've never been that interested in Central America's colonial word, as opposed to the ancient world but recently i am getting into 1930s and 1940s era Mexico. The Serge diaries and their exquisite paragraphs on the landscape around Mexico City in 1940-41 was a major inspiration
Lass wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "Lass wrote: "I take it those fans of Alice Munro have read Carol Shields too?"The converse is also true! ;-)"
Well, scarletnoir, here’s someone who hasn’t rea..."
I will try one soon just to see!
Some time ago I wrote that I was asked to recommend a book(s) for someone’s book club choice and I suggested A month in the Country by Carr amongst others. This was chosen with The Housekeeper and the Professor a near miss. I have been told today that it was a success and all twelve members loved it. Such a lovely book I am not surprised ( but a little relieved because I hesitate to recommend)
Ok, finished Das Leben ist zu kurz für später. The author started a self experiment what is really of importance in her life. She chabged first her attitude about social norms and pride and overcame fear and laziness. In the end she had not only changed her own life, but also that of some of the people around her. (Not sure if all of it was true. Sounded very Hollywood like) But her tone was rather humurous and not self-righteous. Liked the reading. Will I act accordingly? Very unlikely.
CCCubbon wrote: "Lass wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "Lass wrote: "I take it those fans of Alice Munro have read Carol Shields too?"The converse is also true! ;-)"
Well, scarletnoir, here’s someone w..."
i must re-visit " a month in the country"
“Germinal” – Emile Zola
Grim and desolate, a great cry of rage against social injustice which at the same time is eminently readable. Though it may be heresy to say it, I also think it shows the limits of Zola’s technique. Factual knowledge gained from research among the miners is used to telling effect. People of every grade and disposition are invested with feeling and life. It all bonds together. Yet it is as if each person is outlined in black ink. Shading and nuance are infrequent. Everyone does what their character determines. I’m not complaining. It’s still hugely impressive, and enjoyable, if human misery can ever be enjoyable.
@Andy – Interesting note on Simenon’s The Mahé Circle – will look out for that.
Grim and desolate, a great cry of rage against social injustice which at the same time is eminently readable. Though it may be heresy to say it, I also think it shows the limits of Zola’s technique. Factual knowledge gained from research among the miners is used to telling effect. People of every grade and disposition are invested with feeling and life. It all bonds together. Yet it is as if each person is outlined in black ink. Shading and nuance are infrequent. Everyone does what their character determines. I’m not complaining. It’s still hugely impressive, and enjoyable, if human misery can ever be enjoyable.
@Andy – Interesting note on Simenon’s The Mahé Circle – will look out for that.
Russell wrote: "Though it may be heresy to say it, I also think it shows the limits of Zola’s technique."That's fine by me, I abandoned it very early on. Part of the reason was stylistic, which could have been relevant to the copy, but I think the rage against social injustice wearied me very quickly. These sorts of books are essentially ideology-driven texts. But that shouldn't detract from Zola's other achievements.
Mod
I've just finished it - and what a joy it was! Picking up and putting down the interweaving threads of the lives of this group of people in the end of empire and post-empire days. Last Friends brings to centre stage Old Filth's great rival in law and love, Terry Veneering.
I've just read a short interview with Jane Gardam from June 2020 in which she doesn't rule out a 4th book. How lovely that would be.
Gpfr wrote: "The Old Filth Trilogy by Jane GardamI've just finished it - and what a joy it was! Picking up and putting down the interweaving threads of the lives of this group of people in the end of empire a..."
SydneyH wrote: "Russell wrote: "Though it may be heresy to say it, I also think it shows the limits of Zola’s technique."
That's fine by me, I abandoned it very early on. Part of the reason was stylistic, which c..."
@Gpfr…so glad you feel the same way about the conclusion of Last Friends. I probably mentioned that I met Jane Gardam who seemed pleased when I expressed my feelings about it, particularly the Terry Veneering aspects. BTW… Signed copy!
Gpfr wrote: "The Old Filth Trilogy by Jane GardamI've just finished it - and what a joy it was! Picking up and putting down the interweaving threads of the lives of this group of people in the end of empire a..."
Just reading Denise Mina’s book choices in today’s Graun. The book she considers most underrated? Jane Garden’s Old Filth trilogy. Yes!
Conversations with Stalin by Milovan Djilas (1962)
Djilas was a senior confident of Tito in the Yugoslav partisan fighting in WW2 and famously broke with his friend and was imprisoned in the 1950s for his less than loyal views of what had happened to international communism. His 1957 book The New Class exposes the monstrosity of Stalinist communism from the inside
This slim Penguin volume contains a few essays on his encounters with the mass murderer Josef Stalin. Djilas is an intelligent and perceptive writer who fully admits his mistakes in his veneration for the USSR in his first two visits in 1944. The sumptious all night feasts he attends make me wonder how he hadnt realised already the USSR was a deeply class based system and loaded with inequality
CCCubbon wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "Lass wrote: "I take it those fans of Alice Munro have read Carol Shields too?"The converse is also true! ;-)"
Well, scarletnoir, here’s someone who hasn’t read any Anne Tyler,..."
You know what I always say - we're all different, have different tastes etc. I don't mind at all if someone doesn't 'get' one of my favourite authors - it often works the other way around!
Lass wrote: "Gpfr wrote: "The Old Filth Trilogy by Jane GardamI've just finished it - and what a joy it was! Picking up and putting down the interweaving threads of the lives of this group of people in the en..."
Do any of the characters have 'redeeming characteristics'? ;-)
Alerting any Bob Dylan fans. Lovely, funny Richard Curtis play, Dinner with Dylan, on R4 just finished. The glorious Eileen Atkins in it too. Prob able to access it on Listen Again.
Mod
Ooh, thanks. I'll check out BBC Sounds.
Mod
Let's see if I still feel the same way now!
Late May and early June always makes me think of the coast , the southern english coast and days on the sea walls and marshes....the English Channel and the two coasts....even if in 2021 it remains wet and very cool stillI have found a very interesting book on the Channel and its meaning for France and England during the 18th century: The Channel by Renaud Moireux (Cambridge University Press) its quite an unusual topic and as a history graduate, i am keen to get back to some historical reading after a long run of more autobiographical memoirs in the non-fiction sphere
the author is french but writes in english:
https://www.hist.cam.ac.uk/people/dr-...
Looking foward to reading this!
The last NYRB (i'm just starting the issue dated May 27th) had a good article on the Roth biography and its author, comparing it with other recent books about RothI am tempted to read the much mentioned Portnoys Complaint but baulk at its content, does anyone suggest its worth a go, i have never been very interested in overtly sexual novels...
AB76 wrote: "The last NYRB (i'm just starting the issue dated May 27th) had a good article on the Roth biography and its author, comparing it with other recent books about RothI am tempted to read the much me..."
having been there, and read it, in my teenage years, it isn't worth the bother. A simple synopsis of the book would be quite sufficient, to get the gist of the matter....
AB76 wrote: "The last NYRB (i'm just starting the issue dated May 27th) had a good article on the Roth biography and its author, comparing it with other recent books about RothI am tempted to read the much me..."
Well, if you like to eat liver do not read it. If you don't you could read it. But you should be "in touch" with your inner 13yo male self. Otherwise you might not get the "humor".
AB76 wrote: "I am tempted to read the much mentioned Portnoys Complaint but baulk at its content, does anyone suggest its worth a go"Portnoy's Complaint is one of the Roth novels I read when it was fairly new – it was pretty outrageous and serves as one of the markers of the time when artists were taking advantage of more liberal standards to push the envelope on taste and extreme material. I enjoyed the novel (more than its contemporary, Myra Breckinridge, another outrage-seeking novel I read around the same time), and laughed quite a bit, but I was a fairly horny young guy at the time and identified with Alexander P. to some extent.
I can’t recommend much Roth - I gave up around the time of My Life as a Man / The Professor of Desire (I can’t remember if I ever read the latter) – but if you’re looking for quality early Roth, try Goodbye, Columbus; if you like that, by all means give Portnoy a try.
AB76 wrote: "I am tempted to read the much mentioned Portnoys Complaint"I read this earlier in the year, and it's a shame that I can't share the discussion with you as I would have if it was on the Guardian. The short answer is no, I don't think it's really worth trying. I still have the Counterlife on my list though, I may try that at some point.
Tam wrote: "AB76 wrote: "The last NYRB (i'm just starting the issue dated May 27th) had a good article on the Roth biography and its author, comparing it with other recent books about RothI am tempted to rea..."
reading through the other comments I have to say, its still a well written book, and was somewhat eye-opening to me, as a teenage girl, as to how simplistic a young horny males perspective could be! So I would recommend it as a read to other teenage girls, as I'm sure that many of the typical male attitudes to 'girls' are still here to this day, and there is an educative process, for many girls, in learning that. But I'm not sure it would be of much interest to those who have thankfully moved on from that stage, to my mind at least...
Have started a new book: Miss Merkel Mord in der Uckermark (murder in the Uckermark - North-Easter region of Germany) by David Safier. Liked the two earlier books I have read by him, Mieses Karma (Karma is a bitch) and Jesus liebt mich (Jesus loves me), humorous books which had spirituality themes as humor base. This is a satirical murder mystery. Safier takes his plot seriously , but never his characters. So he made the now retired chancellor of Germany to his mystery's detective. She is now living in the region she stemmed from before the unification, and encounters a murder in her new place of living. She has her scientist husband and her secret service bodyguard to her aid. Safier also invented a new pet, a pug, not exactly a dog breed named for grace or intelligence. Just 7%in, can't say much yet. All in all 320 pages.
Georg wrote: "AB76 wrote: "The last NYRB (i'm just starting the issue dated May 27th) had a good article on the Roth biography and its author, comparing it with other recent books about RothI am tempted to rea..."
i should have read it when i was 18 and as Bill mentioned " a horny young guy". At 45, i'm a lot less interested in the subject matter.....
Thanks everyone for feedback on Portnoys Complaint and i think my decision is made and its a "no"I loved Goodbye Columbus as i was interested in the world of 1950s Newark and exploring the younger style of Roth
I'm also aware that the generation of Mailer, Roth and Updike was a very phallocentric one. I read a mid 1960s collection of Updikes shorter fiction and enjoyed it, yet to reach into Mailer fiction
Gpfr wrote: "Speaking of trilogies, I'm looking forward to re-reading [book:The Salterton Trilogy..."
Another Davies fan here. I reread The Lyre of Orpheus a few weeks ago and it was wonderful escapism. He is just so entertaining. I've bought What's Bred in the Bone for the summer (dunno why I'm reading them backwards!). The first of the trilogy is on the shelf next to The Salterton trilogy and now you have me wondering if I could just squeeze the Salterton ones in to my summer schedule somewhere ...
Another Davies fan here. I reread The Lyre of Orpheus a few weeks ago and it was wonderful escapism. He is just so entertaining. I've bought What's Bred in the Bone for the summer (dunno why I'm reading them backwards!). The first of the trilogy is on the shelf next to The Salterton trilogy and now you have me wondering if I could just squeeze the Salterton ones in to my summer schedule somewhere ...
Is anyone watching the current adaptation of The Pursuit of Love ?
AB76 wrote: "Does anyone here like [author:Rose Macaulay..."
I've started The Towers of Trebizond three times and gave up early on each time. She should be right up my street but that's put me off trying anything else by her.
I've started The Towers of Trebizond three times and gave up early on each time. She should be right up my street but that's put me off trying anything else by her.
Hello all, I've been lurking on TLS in the Guardian and here since last summer, and finally decided to take the plunge in response to a couple of comments this week.Firstly, I really enjoyed all 3 parts of Jon McGregor' s Lean Fall Stand, each about the tragic loss of communication from the thrilling opener in Antarctica , poignantly within a family in the second part and the almost poetic responses in group therapy at the end.
Secondly , I remember being very impressed with Norman Mailer's The Executioner's Song when I read it while lying on a beach in a Greek island several decades ago. The book (non fiction) conveyed a clear understanding not only of a psychopath, a banal, ordinary character, occasionally beguiling and capable of extreme, unremorseful violence but also of a criminal justice which has to deal with such individuals.
Finally , I would like to say many thanks for the great recommendations in TLS/Ersatz which I followed up on in the last few months, particularly A Fortnight in September RJ Sheriff; As Strangers Here Janet McNeill and The Merchant of Prato Iris Origo; on the TBR list The Forty Days of Musa Dagh.
Oggie wrote: "Hello all, I've been lurking on TLS in the Guardian and here since last summer, and finally decided to take the plunge in response to a couple of comments this week.Firstly, I really enjoyed all ..."
I am so glad that you did. Good to hear from you.
Anne wrote: "Gpfr wrote: "Speaking of trilogies, I'm looking forward to re-reading [book:The Salterton Trilogy..."Another Davies fan here. I reread The Lyre of Orpheus a few weeks ago and it was wonderful e..."
The Pursuit of Love? Disappointed. But then I’m probably holding on to the 80s version, with Judi Dench.
Mod
Ha! Just came across this via LitHub, then turned to GR to find it here! Will you read it?
Mod
Any good? Wonder if I can find it here in US...
I found this conversation about Philip Roth, Blake Bailey, and life imitating art pretty interesting.
Anne wrote: "Gpfr wrote: "Speaking of trilogies, I'm looking forward to re-reading [book:The Salterton Trilogy..."Another Davies fan here. I reread The Lyre of Orpheus a few weeks ago and it was wonderful e..."
The two best Davies novels I've read are What's Bred in the Bone and The Manticore (change my mind from time to time as to the favorite), with The Cunning Man and World of Wonders tied for third. Remarkable imagination, and theatrical skill in constructing scenes.
Lljones wrote: "Will you read it?"My understanding is that its publication is not at all a sure thing. (Here's a Twitter thread arguing against publication.)
But, alas, I think that if it were published, I would be more likely to pick it up than Steinbeck's more honored and probably much better books.
I've been thinking lately that I may be more inclined to want to read bad or at least critically divisive books than I am those that are widely praised or honored. I'm not sure why that is - maybe the Bible verse about the stone that the builders rejected has something to do with it.
It's also interesting that since the time when Steinbeck was condescendingly writing "pulp", many of the works he would have classed in that category have come to achieve literary standing equal and in some cases arguably exceeding that of him and his admired contemporaries.
Mod
Thanks for the link, Bill, but I've decided to completely ignore the Roth/Bailey story.
Mod
The Manticore is my favorite, World of Wonders right up there too. I found a copy of The Cunning Man amongst my brother's books; I don't think I've read it, but have packed in up for future enjoyment.
I've finally received my delivery, and I'm super excited to begin Dead Souls by Gogol.
Bill wrote: "There's much interest in John Steinbeck's werewolf novel being expressed on Twitter this week."In terms of the iconic monsters of horror, literary or film, it's usually taken for granted that the seminal vampire novel is Dracula, sometimes with a nod towards Le Fanu's Carmilla. Is there an equivalent for werewolves? I've seen Guy Endore's The Werewolf of Paris (1933) mentioned but according to the Guardian story Steinbeck's was earlier, which makes me wonder if they weren't already a thing in the pop culture of the time. I forget when the first Hollywood werewolf movie was made.
AB76 wrote: "Thanks everyone for feedback on Portnoys Complaint and i think my decision is made and its a "no"I loved Goodbye Columbus as i was interested in the world of 1950s Newark and exploring the youn..."
I thought Ancient Evenings was really good, though patchy, especially towards the end. One of the more interesting 20th-century attempts at fictionally recreating a lost world, in this case ancient Egypt, I've come across.
Harlot's Ghost I'd be tempted to name as his masterpiece, except I haven't read enough of his work to judge. It's a fantastically well-wrought evocation of another, more recent era, the late 40s to the early 60s, ending with the Kennedy assassination - though one of its flaws is that it doesn't really have an ending: it kind of just stops, and left me with the sense that a sequel must be forthcoming.
Oggie wrote: "Hello all, I've been lurking on TLS in the Guardian and here since last summer, and finally decided to take the plunge in response to a couple of comments this week ..."
Welcome.
Welcome.
Lljones wrote: "Anne wrote: "Is anyone watching the current adaptation of The Pursuit of Love ?"
Any good? Wonder if I can find it here in US..."
It's really hard to advise! It's been a very divisive adaptation. I think it's flawed but have enjoyed elements of it.
Any good? Wonder if I can find it here in US..."
It's really hard to advise! It's been a very divisive adaptation. I think it's flawed but have enjoyed elements of it.
SydneyH wrote: "I've finally received my delivery, and I'm super excited to begin Dead Souls by Gogol."a great read, sumptious descriptions of meals and russian life before the reforms of the 1860s
Anne wrote: "Oggie wrote: "Hello all, I've been lurking on TLS in the Guardian and here since last summer, and finally decided to take the plunge in response to a couple of comments this week ..."Welcome."
Anne, I would say “ flawed” is a good description. It has certainly generated a huge amount of interest, which can only be a good thing. If I hadn’t held the memory of the 80s adaptation so closely I think I would have embraced it more fully. Sometimes I’m just a miserable old sod! Though I had forgotten Linda’s fate, nevertheless the Boulter’s final lines have been in my memory for many years, so was delighted to see those had remained.
CCCubbon wrote: "Oggie wrote: "Hello all, I've been lurking on TLS in the Guardian and here since last summer, and finally decided to take the plunge in response to a couple of comments this week.Firstly, I reall..."
Hello and welcome, it's lovely here 🙂
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Ersatz TLS
Books mentioned in this topic
The Professor of Desire (other topics)Portnoy's Complaint (other topics)
Myra Breckinridge (other topics)
My Life as a Man (other topics)
Goodbye, Columbus (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Rose Macaulay (other topics)Jon McGregor (other topics)
Georges Simenon (other topics)
Larry McMurtry (other topics)
Jon McGregor (other topics)
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I started googling her and found an extensive array of interesting novels, i have ordered her book Non-Combatants direct from the publisher called Handheld Books and i will slot that into my summer TBR pile
Handheld press video: Q+A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylZEh...