What Are We Reading? 5 July 2021

[scarletnoir]

Hushpuppy wrote: "I don't quite understand yours and his reaction tbh."

Well, I'm sure that this happens in different circumstances - say, for example, the waiter/ress is studying English and seeking an opportunity to practise - this has definitely been the case at times.
However, when my French is significantly better than their English, I am not sure what, exactly, they are trying to prove.... Let's just say that the way I feel about it depends on my best guess about their reasons - to learn, or to prove some superiority? And, of course, I can be mistaken about their motives...

[scarletnoir]

Sandya wrote: "I once ran into some Hare Krishnas at the DMV of all places and THEY tried to convert me. I think they assumed I was Hispanic. So many levels of stupid + racism. I set them right and then they started referring to "my people", to my face, which is beyond offensive. I am a Hindu. I don't need a bunch of doped out HKs to tell me how. Morons."

Haha! I don't know if you intended that to be funny, but it did make me laugh!
I suspect that those who have seen religious bigotry at close quarters are less inclined to give these people any rope, unlike AB whose experiences appear to be very mild by comparison.

[Slawkenbergius]

Bill wrote: "My reading of SF dropped off quite a bit many years ago when I realized that I kept encountering Messiah figures in the stories."

Read Mahdi.

[scarletnoir]

Hushpuppy wrote: "@scarlet, I’m surprised you didn’t like it ..."

I delayed posting that review for ages, as I didn't wish to offend you (if that's the word)... suffice to say that the characters didn't come to life for me, even though some of the writing was reasonably good. A pot-boiler, maybe? I may try some of the more substantial works... eventually!

I may as well respond to your other posts here - I'm baffled as to why any teacher takes against a pupil for no apparent reason, and am very sorry to hear that you had that experience. Fortunately, it does not appear to have caused too much damage in the long term!

Dupuytren - I can't be 100% sure I have this, but having looked at some online photos it does seem very likely. Fortunately, in my case it doesn't seem to be progressing - or if it is, it's at a glacial pace. I'll probably croak before it becomes a problem!

Men reading women - I've never really understood what this is about, and rarely (if ever) consider the gender of the author before choosing a book. In childhood, like many others, I read a vast quantity of books by Enid Blyton and the like... later on, many crime/detective fiction writers are female (Christie, Sayers, Marsh, Allingham, Rendell, Highsmith etc.) - again, I read loads of those. More serious authors included Colette, de Beauvoir, Jean Rhys, Anne Tyler, Helen Dunmore...

The sole criteria are that the book needs to be interesting and at the least reasonably well written, and that remains the case.

[Georg]

https://www.theguardian.com/books/202...

What an underwhelming article.

It starts with:

The byline at the top of this piece reads MA Sieghart, not Mary Ann. Why? Because I really want men to read it too.

Concealing you gender in the byline only to reveal it in the first sentence seems pretty pointless. And you don't need to be a Sherlock to guess that this article has been written by a woman when you look at the title in the first place.

For the top 10 bestselling female authors (who include Jane Austen and Margaret Atwood, as well as Danielle Steel and Jojo Moyes), only 19% of their readers are men and 81%, women

Throw an uspecified number of apples and pears respectively into a basket and then draw statistical conclusions. Most people fall for dodgy statistics. And these are about as dodgy as they get.

All five of the top five bestselling literary novels in 2017 were by women, and nine of the top 10.

followed a little later by

But it also impoverishes female writers, whose work is seen as niche rather than mainstream if it is consumed mainly by other women. They will earn less respect, less status and less money.

No need to comment, I think.

If men are sceptical that women will write about subjects that interest them, they could try Pat Barker on the first world war or Hilary Mantel on the machinations of Henry VIII’s court. Once they become used to it, they may even find that these turn into human stories rather than niche female ones – and that they enjoy them.

So men would eschew books about Cromwell or WWI written by women because they'd expect these might turn into niche female stories? Yeah, that sounds most logical...

In the closing paragraph:

Just because a book is written by a woman or is about women doesn’t mean it has nothing to offer them. It opens their eyes to what it’s like to live as a woman in the world, the first step to learning empathy.

Holy moly. Maybe Priti Patel should write a book. She is a woman and obviously has the innate empathy women have and men lack.

I do not doubt that there is some truth in the argument. That Kamila Shamsie, for example, has a point.

But the author of this article is not best suited to make this argument, to put it politely.

And I generally do not think that people should read books they are not interested in just to conform to some kind of political correctness. I read books by black authors out of interest. Over the last two years I really disliked some of them for various reasons. The only things they had in common: they were preaching. And they had unpleasant protagonists. Both were written by women.
The ones I liked were written by men. Moving characters spoke for themselves.

[scarletnoir]

AB76 wrote: "On here, i think 75% of what i have read in 2021 has gone without comment..."

I think the reasons are 1. that you read faster than anyone else who contributes, except maybe for Andy, and 2. the books you read are frequently not mainstream, so others won't have read them and so won't feel qualified to comment.

[Georg]

scarletnoir wrote: "AB76 wrote: "On here, i think 75% of what i have read in 2021 has gone without comment..."

I think the reasons are 1. that you read faster than anyone else who contributes, except maybe for Andy, ..."

I agree.

@Andy: I really like your reviews. All substance, no waffling. I would love to comment, but I can't.

@AB: your reading is even more eclectic than Andy's.

I can understand how frustrating it must be. In this very much diminished group of TLS regulars, and without the hundreds, if not thousands, of serendipitous passers-by.

[Slawkenbergius]

Fuzzywuzz wrote: "I've not updated what I've been reading on this site, out of lazyness"

Same here; lazy as lazy can be...
But, schoolchores slackening permitting, I've managed a tummyful of reading in the last month or so.
So, without further ado, here's a digest:

* 2 novels I was ashamed of never having read before:
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
George Orwell, 1984

* Re-read of Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
[Better enjoyed the second time round.]

* James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
[Wonderful feast of prose, although, much to my surprise, I found the middle chapters about theology quite a slog. Nevertheless, the last third of the book is the bee's knees; I felt the same sort of elation I experienced when I read Ulysses]

* Burgess, The Enderby Quartet
[Cracking set of novels! One of my favourite reads this year so far, alongside Underworld and Portrait of the Artist. The last one - Enderby's Dark Lady - is arguably the weakest, but still more than worthwile the time! and compulsory for anyone interested in Shakespearean stuff.]

* Idem, Honey for the Bears
[Nice.]

* Idem, M/F
[Lots of fun. A Nabokovian puzzle on the Oedipian topos, with a Lévi-Straussian backdrop and a po-mo twist. Fun of lots.]

* Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale
[Another book I felt everyone had read but yours truly. Very well written - depressing too, as any Orwellian dystopia should be - and the metafictional epilogue works nicely - I only wish she had changed the language and syntax, à la Russell Hoban. And no, before anyone asks I haven't watched the TV series.]

Currently tackling Barthelme's hilarious stories and Huysmans's Nouvelles

[[deleted user]]

Fuzzywuzz wrote:“…I'm still in awe at some of the writing skills evident here…”

Not only the writing skills. I’m also amazed at how many people here have some sort of immediate access to their inner thoughts and can articulate their responses with ease. I’m not like that at all. I have to think about what I think. But we all contribute in our own way. I read everything even if I feel qualified to comment on only a few.

[Oggie]

scarletnoir wrote: "AB76 wrote: "On here, i think 75% of what i have read in 2021 has gone without comment..."

I think the reasons are 1. that you read faster than anyone else who contributes, except maybe for Andy, ..."


Even though I am still a reluctant poster I do follow up on many of the recommendations without commenting; the latest being Party Headquarters by Georgi Tenev as we were planning to visit Bulgaria and I like to reads books of a country I am visiting ,but Bulgaria has just announced it is banning Brits!

Anyway staying closer to home we enjoyed a very peaceful week in Galloway. In the wonderful book town of Wigtown I picked up a book by local writer Patrick Laurie. He is a young farmer who described his year as he tries to farm more sustainably by introducing crop rotation, hay making and tough Galloway hill cattle in the hope it reverse the rapid decline in wild birds, particularly his beloved curlews. The endlessly descriptive prose can occasionally clog up the writing, but at the same time Laurie is not sentimental. Although he has great respect for his cattle they are his living and they will be sold for their high quality meat.

Other holiday reads were the Silver Pigs by Lindsay Davis , a crime series set in Roman times with a satisfying twisty plot, a bit of humour and good gags, against a backdrop of the pongy streets and murky politics of Rome.

Also got through Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alum. A white family rents an Air BnB on Long Island. The internet, tv and phone connections crash . Then late at night a black couple knock at the door. The book then went off in a whole other direction from what I was expecting.

The book was a bit like Don De Lillo s The Silence, also about the fallout from a crash in electronic communication. And like The Silence I am not sure if this book is really any good, the writing seemed uneven and it has the same jarring sex scenes but I quite enjoyed it nonetheless

[giveusaclue]

I think I will do a mass response to various topics that have come up over the last few days. Feel free to ignore.

Re religion: the more I read books about the Anglo-Saxons, recently, or the Middle Ages, the more I think that the upper echelons of the Christian Church, not Jesus, not early monks or nuns, are/were responsible for more deaths and suffering than the Holocaust; of course, over a much longer period of time. Makes me think of the old saying - all power corrupts and some of the medieval popes were the guiltiest.

Re being academic: I left school after O levels due to ill-health and proudly got my first A level at the age of 58. I am, therefore, very impressed by the depth of and reading matter of several posters here, even it much of it goes over my head. Not having been required to write reviews or repor ts during my careerI am in awe of some of the reviews I see here. I obviously find it easier to review a crime novel but when it comes to reviewing a serious history book I struggle to know what depth I should go to, not wishing to bore people.

[Sandya]

scarletnoir wrote: "Sandya wrote: "I once ran into some Hare Krishnas at the DMV of all places and THEY tried to convert me. I think they assumed I was Hispanic. So many levels of stupid + racism. I set them right and..."

I thought it funny at the time-these HKs were White guys-but I also felt patronized and only now feel I can express that. They were probably on something and no normal Indian person bangs on like this.... Religion is a private matter. It was embarrassing to realize people who know no better think this is Hinduism. It isn't. My Mum is 90, very devout, and doesn't wear saffron garments. She is very tolerant of other religions-her comment is always "There are many roads up the mountain" and despite her conservatism, horrified by the anti-Muslim bigotry unleashed by Modi in India. What actually appalled my Mum, after my sister converted to BAC, was my sister's lack of tolerance, not the reverse.

[Sandya]

Robert wrote: "Berkley wrote: "Sandya wrote: "I was horribly shocked when the Xtianity in the Narnia stories was pointed out to me at age 18-I loved them as a child but I don't feel the same about them now (and p..."

I read Till We Have Faces at university and hated it. That's when I stopped reading CSL. As a feminist I found the ugly, competent, accomplished, intelligent sister Orual who tells the story FAR more interesting than Psyche the beautiful bimbo. The third sister, Redival, was a typical high school "Mean Girl". So much for CSL's range when describing women-limited and predictable. Why do men always think heroines have to be beautiful? Charlotte Bronte proved years ago that they need not be. Why is the story of Cupid and Psyche even interesting? I don't think much of Cupid's taste. To appeal to a god all you need is to be "cute" or "hot". No need for brains, character, or any other interesting quality.

[Bill]

Slawkenbergius wrote: "Same here; lazy as lazy can be...
But, schoolchores slackening permitting, I've managed a tummyful of reading..."

An admirable collection of thumbnail summaries ... maybe I should try something similar since I haven't felt like posting anything about my reading for some time, though I keep on reading, being too unimaginative to find a substitute activity.

Any brief reactions to the Shelley and / or Orwell?

[MK]

I'm putting in a plug to sign up for the newsletter from the - https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/

There are so many interesting historical tidbits - even about Sherlock Holmes earlier this spring. And online (free!) talks. Plus online (small) jigsaw puzzles to waste my time doing.

[Sandya]

Berkley wrote: "Robert wrote: "Lewis never claimed not to be a Christian; it isn't surprising that when he dealt with epic myth, he included Christian tropes."

Not to an adult or even to some children after a cer..."

Yes, I agree. I knew Tolkien was a devout Catholic and I respect that though I don't share it because it doesn't obtrude into the Middle Earth books in the same way. Hence his preference for applicability v allegory-the one residing in the freedom of the reader, the other in the purposed domination of the author.

[AB76]

scarletnoir wrote: "AB76 wrote: "On here, i think 75% of what i have read in 2021 has gone without comment..."

I think the reasons are 1. that you read faster than anyone else who contributes, except maybe for Andy, ..."

good point, i didnt think i read that fast but as i have 3-4 books on the go, it probably looks faster than if i was reading just one book.

[AB76]

Georg wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "AB76 wrote: "On here, i think 75% of what i have read in 2021 has gone without comment..."

I think the reasons are 1. that you read faster than anyone else who contributes, exc..."

even so, i do love the Ersatz TLS and its lovely to click and read the comments, debates and books spinning about. i didnt expect us to replicate one of the most global websites on the planet(Guardian Online)

[AB76]

Oggie wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "AB76 wrote: "On here, i think 75% of what i have read in 2021 has gone without comment..."

I think the reasons are 1. that you read faster than anyone else who contributes, exc..."

did you enjoy the tenev book?

[Georg]

Sandya wrote: "Robert wrote: "Berkley wrote: "Sandya wrote: "I was horribly shocked when the Xtianity in the Narnia stories was pointed out to me at age 18-I loved them as a child but I don't feel the same about ..."

I always thought the ancient Greeks had a good balance:

The olympians were:

Hera
Athene
Artemis
Demeter
Aphrodite
Hestia

Zeus
Apollon
Ares
Poseidon
Hermes
Hephaistos

I grew up in a virtually book-free home. When I was 10 I got a prize for good grades in form of a book voucher. I chose a book about Greek mythology. My favourites always were/still are Athene and Hermes.

[CCCubbon]

Slawkenbergius wrote: "Fuzzywuzz wrote: "I've not updated what I've been reading on this site, out of lazyness"

Same here; lazy as lazy can be...
But, schoolchores slackening permitting, I've managed a tummyful of readi..."

That part about the pandybat still makes me shudder when I think of it in Portrait

[CCCubbon]

Different kind of reading this afternoon in that I have been making mint jelly to go with lamb dishes and had to find a recipe.
I didn’t realise before that the green colour in shop bought stuff is simply food colouring. It seems to have worked okay and is now setting. Easy recipe with tart apples, mint leaves, lemon juice, a dash of white wine vinegar, water and sugar.

[Hushpuppy]

Slawkenbergius wrote: "But, schoolchores slackening permitting, I've managed a tummyful of reading in the last month or so.
So, without further ado, here's a digest"

Good to hear you've managed some reading more recently!

I still haven't read 1984 either (I have read Animal Farm though)...

I've mentioned several times before on the G how much I detest that little whiny cowardly man that is Dr Frankenstein. And while Shelley was clearly questioning intelligently the nature of what makes us "human", I don't think she intended for him to be as insufferable, but insufferable he was to me.

After enjoying The Blind Assassin very much, I was actually disappointed by The Handmaid's Tale when I read it around Christmas. I liked the ideas she developed, but couldn't believe that such a society could have come about so easily, in such an already codified way. I also didn't really care for the characters, and that tends to be very important to me (more than for a lot of people I suspect). I'll still probably give her another go, with Cat's Eye as the most likely...

[Hushpuppy]

giveusaclue wrote: "and proudly got my first A level at the age of 58."

That is truly impressive give. Given the choice, I wouldn't have ever stopped studying I think (I kept changing tack, and multiplied the MSc). But now that I have officially stopped studying for ~15 years, I'd be scared shitless to tackle a new subject (in fact, I have nightmares of tackling those I used to know, and keep abjectly failing in those dreams). It takes a lot of guts to even consider trying!

[Hushpuppy]

Machenbach wrote: " The Island of Doctor Moreau (which made me feel sick)."

Care to expand, I'm intrigued...?!

[Hushpuppy]

scarletnoir wrote: "I delayed posting that review for ages, as I didn't wish to offend you (if that's the word)..."

Oh, don't worry about that. I think if you were to say something actually offensive about it, maybe I'd take it a bit more "personally", but otherwise it's no problem at all. In this specific case, the fact that you just couldn't believe the characters in that novella is entirely fine! Which one is it that you've read? I think you don't even need to go for one of his novels, and perhaps Legends of the Fall would already bring you much more enjoyment.

I'm baffled as to why any teacher takes against a pupil for no apparent reason, and am very sorry to hear that you had that experience.

I think it was her way of asserting her authority that she could muzzle the top of the class early on: "see what can happen to her despite her grades last year? You'd better work extra hard" kind of thing. I was lucky that there was no lasting damage (apart from these two months when I completely spiralled out of control), and in fact, I now believe that if that was not for that experience, I might not have "survived" Classe Prepa in pure maths.

I'm with Sandya, and never saw until more recently how much freeing it was to have been at French higher education institutions devoid of frat/sorority houses and religious cliques.

[Sandya]

#18: The Grand Sophy. Georgette Heyer

After the dreariness of my last, Stone Cold Sober, saturated as it was with testosterone and swearing, I needed to read something civilized. I chose The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer, in my latest book-box from John Sandoe. I have never read Heyer, though her novels were very popular when I was growing up. I became a feminist in my mid-teens and it was the fashion at that time-the mid 70s-to slam her books and romantic novelists generally. I wanted a career, not marriage, and God knows that was enough of a challenge as an Indian, so it didn’t seem as if this genre had anything to offer me. Further, I dislike Jane Austen, and I wasn’t sure that a novel inspired by her would appeal. Recently however, I have read more about Heyer, and that she has been re-evaluated as a writer of worth. I decided to give her a try.

I am so glad I did! I enjoyed the book enormously!! Set just after the Congress of Vienna, The Grand Sophy is Sophy Stanton-Lacy, the daughter of a diplomat, who, as her father has been posted to Brazil, arrives in London to stay with her aunt and cousins. Here, she soon proceeds to sort out their problems. The name The Grand Sophy not only describes her but also alludes to the old European title for the Safavid rulers of Persia.

Sophy is a delightful character, unconventional, intelligent, very worldly, a quality I have always admired, and with her hands firmly on the reins of life! While the lives of women were constrained in many ways at that time, Sophy makes full use of her advantages and does not allow anyone to boss her about. Imagine my delight at meeting Princess Lieven and Lady Jersey, both friends of hers-Georgette Heyer was famous for getting the detail right-and immersing myself in society and diplomacy at the time of the Congress! I could not have imagined anything more fun after the dreariness of the previous! Without giving away the plot, I can say I admired Sophy and enjoyed seeing her fix the mistakes her cousins make. Everything works out at the end! These are civilized novels and I will definitely read more.

[AB76]

Sao Bernardo by Graciliano Ramos (1934) is so far. a sly tale in the Brazilian frontier literature that Amado made his own later.

The wild backlands are a constant source of Brazilian literary ideas, these area where a cunning mind and a pistol usually helped you "make it", while the weak or the principled usually ended up in ditches

The main character is slowly swindling his way to wealth in a backland town, always on the make, on the con, on the take. People are compromised and then tossed aside, people die or have accidents and the main character continues his path along the road of bad deeds....

[Slawkenbergius]

Bill wrote: "Any brief reactions to the Shelley and / or Orwell?"

Thanks Swelter ;)

I quite liked both of them.
Frankenstein is not at all the Gothic thing it is frequently presented as, but I was already expecting this Nor is it an early example of SF as I remember seeing somewhere. In my opinion it's a very intriguing book about the ethics of creation, the responsibility of the creator and the boundaries of human vs artificial nature (so in a way very modern). In fact, beyond the ethic and moral debate it suscitates, I'm convinced it to be a deeply spiritual novel. Another case of misrepresentation; there's not much Gothic or horror-erelated material around, to be honest.

As to 1984, even though the narrative is very compelling, I thought the last section clearly too long. I don't know why Orwell decided to expatiate so much on the torture and suffering of Winston Smith; I think the novel would gain from a briefer length in what concerns his emprisonment. Some of the description is needlessly graphic. Anyway, Orwell does raise some very interesting points, and there are some well-orchestrated narrative twists, even though the plotline is not exempt of shortcomings - why the hell did Winston presume that O'Brien was part of the underground resistance? But what interested me most - and perhaps this will surprise you - was the doomed love story between Winston and Julia: very melancholy and surprisingly - dare I say? - romantic.

[Lass]

@Hushpuppy.. Give Margaret Atwood’s The Robber Bride, and Alias Grace a whirl.I enjoyed them both. Still have them. Thinking of re-reading them.

[giveusaclue]

Hushpuppy wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "and proudly got my first A level at the age of 58."

That is truly impressive give. Given the choice, I wouldn't have ever stopped studying I think (I kept changing tack, and mu..."

It was Italian A level. Given that I could never understand spoken French, although did well with Latin at school, I was quite pleased and surprised at myself

[Gpfr]

Lass wrote: "@Hushpuppy.. Give Margaret Atwood’s The Robber Bride, and Alias Grace a whirl..."

I second that - and Hushpuppy, you mentioned Cat's Eye which I also recommend.

[Sandya]

Georg wrote: "Sandya wrote: "Robert wrote: "Berkley wrote: "Sandya wrote: "I was horribly shocked when the Xtianity in the Narnia stories was pointed out to me at age 18-I loved them as a child but I don't feel ..."

I tend to agree with you. I used to read the Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology and bought the Greek Mythology section as a separate book, for myself, at HIgginbotham's famous bookstore in Madras (Chennai) in my teens on a family holiday. A great treasure!

[Slawkenbergius]

Machenbach wrote: "I think I always rather dismissed him as Nabokov/Joyce-lite"

That's not untrue, but the Nabokovian element needs some relativising. I always imagine Burgess's wordplay as more academically-inspired than Nabokov's, though I don't know how to explain it. Maybe it's because he devoted so much of his time to journalism and teaching, or perhaps it's the impression you get after reading his work as a literary critic. In any case, his prose is much more tinged with post-modern twang than old Vlad's - I mean, the influence of Joyce is clearly undeniable.

Give a shot to the earlier Enderby volumes; they're very amusing and Burgess's literary pyrothecnics never disappoint. And since you're a Nabokov buff, be sure to read M/F; it will remind you of the poem we discussed on the Graun's Poem of the Week some time ago.

[Bill]

My order from the NYRB Classics sale arrived today:

[Gpfr]

Sandya wrote: "#18: The Grand Sophy. Georgette Heyer..."

I have a shelf of rather dog-eared Heyer books in my bedroom - perfect for reading in bed when my current read isn't conducive to peaceful sleep or I need undemanding cheering up. Franhunny's a fan if I remember correctly.
They're lots of fun. The Grand Sophy was a good choice to start with. Obviously you'll find some better than others: Frederica is another of my favourites. The only one I think is a real failure is Cousin Kate.

[Slawkenbergius]

Hushpuppy wrote: "I was actually disappointed by The Handmaid's Tale when I read it around Christmas. I liked the ideas she developed, but couldn't believe that such a society could have come about so easily, in such an already codified way."

Yes, I get what you mean. The only thing I can say is that one needs a strong measure of willing suspension of disbelief; it's difficult to imagine that such a radical change could happen from the 1980s on and in such a short timespan, but I think the effects of the Islamic Revolution in Iran really marked her. One may very well question the verisimilitude of applying to a Western society the moral premisses of a Middle-eastern worldview, but she also had probably in mind the triumph of moralistic collective behaviour of the 17th century Puritans, so in a way the novel's anatomy is that of a uchronistic roman d'anticipation. Still, I think it's a very good book, and the suspense at the end is quite engrossing.

I sincerely commit to not trying any dystopian fiction in the near future: Orwell + Atwood make for a highly depressive post-reading mood...

[Sandya]

Gpfr wrote: "Sandya wrote: "#18: The Grand Sophy. Georgette Heyer..."

I have a shelf of rather dog-eared Heyer books in my bedroom - perfect for reading in bed when my current read isn't conducive to peaceful ..."

Thank you for the recommendation! Frederica is on my list. I just started "No Name" by Wilkie Collins.

[Robert]

Slawkenbergius wrote: "Fuzzywuzz wrote: "I've not updated what I've been reading on this site, out of lazyness"

Same here; lazy as lazy can be...
But, schoolchores slackening permitting, I've managed a tummyful of readi..."

Only the second time I've heard about the Enderby books. A friend who worked in many little bookstores told me about Enderby's End, a book on the shelves for so long it became a staff mascot. They would joke about whether it would ever sell, whether it would be ever be read, and what sort of person might buy it.
Of course, one day she came back from vacation, and discovered that Enderby's End had finally sold. So she never knew the answer...

[AB76]

Bill wrote: "My order from the NYRB Classics sale arrived today:
[bookcover:Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk: Selected ..."

i can recommend the Reck diary, brilliant to read

[Greenfairy]

Hello TLS! I've missed you!
Tech problems once again ; my decrepit machine at first allowed me to read your posts and not respond, and then Goodreads disappeared altogether. I got a message saying get the app from the play store, which then told me that the app was installed already. So back up and restore settings it was .. I hope everyone is safe and well.
I am reading A Song for Dark Times; Ian Rankin. Rebus, now retired received a call from his daughter saying that her husband has disappeared. Good summer reading.
I hope I can keep in touch without more problems :))

[CCCubbon]

Greenfairy wrote: "Hello TLS! I've missed you!
Tech problems once again ; my decrepit machine at first allowed me to read your posts and not respond, and then Goodreads disappeared altogether. I got a message saying ..."
You have been missed, greenfairy, hope no more tech problems.

[Greenfairy]

Thanks CC, I hope not either, I enjoyed the tiger poems :)

[AB76]

Destinys Journey by Alfed Doblin is another visit to the panic stricken days of May and June 1940

For Doblin,a naturalised frenchman with his birthplace of "stettin" suggesting issues all along the way, its a tiring experience of camps, stations, cars and trains, as he tries to find his wife and son.

The first stage which i have finished covers the retreat south and the demoralising realistion of defeat. Soldiers everywhere, no rooms in hotels, trains that stop or dont run, fuel shortages and endless sad tales of refugees escaping war or the Nazis.

Half way through he has found his family and is in Toulouse, his wife suggests, as Germans, that they need to leave France soon, Toulouse will not be a free city much longer. He is tired and jaded, he admits "not good company" for his wife and slightly shocked by friends he meets(young french officers demobilised), who seem to have no real idea of the disaster of defeat

A theme running through the book is his studying of crucifixes in various churches along the way, the idea of jesus, the saviour and the situation that Doblin finds himself in

[Robert]

Berkley wrote: "AB76 wrote: "The name is Nagai Kafu, he wrote a collection of short stories from his time living in the USA and other novels
Another japanese classic is the wartime "Fires On The Plain" about the o..."

Fires on the Plain is harrowing, but I have re-read it several times. The last pages are unforgettable.

[Robert]

Sandya wrote: "Robert wrote: "Berkley wrote: "Sandya wrote: "I was horribly shocked when the Xtianity in the Narnia stories was pointed out to me at age 18-I loved them as a child but I don't feel the same about ..."

In Till We Have Faces, it's the ugly, tough, capable sister who tells the story; the Cupid and Psyche story is given an unfamiliar telling. And the narrator tells an interesting story.

[AB76]

Robert wrote: "Berkley wrote: "AB76 wrote: "The name is Nagai Kafu, he wrote a collection of short stories from his time living in the USA and other novels
Another japanese classic is the wartime "Fires On The Pl..."

i agree....an essential ww2 japanese novel, really quite unsettling throughout and exposes the danger of being an occupying soldier at your lowest ebb

[Bill]

Machenbach wrote: "Ta guv. Will look into M/F sometime."

I highly recommend the first Enderby book, Enderby (or Inside Mr. Enderby and Enderby Outside – first published separately in England; though Burgess said they were intended as one book, they were published in two pieces as he thought, at the time, he had only months to live). Thinking back to it, I am impressed with how casually Burgess introduced an isolated element of at the novel’s opening and conclusion.

If you liked A Dead Man in Deptford (the only later Burgess novel I would really recommend), be sure to check out Nothing Like the Sun: A Novel about William Shakespeare. I tend to think he peaked in the early 1970s with Napoleon Symphony, and though 1980’s Earthly Powers remains a favorite among both fans and novice readers, I never quite embraced it. I think most of his novels of the 1960s are worth reading; he was reviewing a lot of novels (which he recycled and expanded into The Novel Now: A Student's Guide to Contemporary Fiction) and I think this led to him write in a variety of genres, a versatility I found refreshing, as is also true of Thomas Berger.

[SydneyH]

Slawkenbergius wrote: "Fuzzywuzz wrote: "I've not updated what I've been reading on this site, out of lazyness""

Ooh! Please share your thoughts on The Picture of Dorian Gray and Huysmans' Nouvelles.

[SydneyH]

Machenbach wrote: "I say this as someone who is currently reading books at about a 60/40 rate in favour of women writers."

My balance is overwhelmingly in favour of male authors (mainly for historical reasons, because I still read lots of classics) and that is one of the reasons that these type of articles make me a bit prickly, because I feel almost as if the sentiment is being directed at readers like me. The other reason is that the idea of using fiction as an ideological tool is extremely pervasive in literary circles - this is pretty standard fare for the Guardian, but also elsewhere. I think the flaw with the idea is that the people who really need this exposure to other types of experience, who have never read anything by a woman at all and are due for some empathy training, simply don't read at all. I feel articles like these are really just examples of 'preaching to the choir'. The other reason is that I feel things have gotten a bit out of hand in Australia, where ethical concerns have completely displaced aesthetics. When book prize longlists are announced you can generally expect what I consider some pretty political inclusions. For an extreme example, consider No More Boats by Felicity Castagna, which was longlisted for the Miles Franklin a few years back and winner of the Australian Prime Minister's Award - a pointed title directed at Australia's policies for dealing with boats of asylum seekers. One of my Australian Literature professors at university had a research focus on ethics in Australian Literature and I noticed the other day she is now a judge of the Miles Franklin [facepalm]. The pattern is the same for art and film. It's one of those slightly touchy issues that is almost a faux-pas to acknowledge, and at some point I feel someone has to question - does this actually make sense?

On an unrelated note, I wasn't very keen on The Island of Doctor Moreau either, and I think Wells was a much better author of Science Fiction short stories than novels.