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What are we reading? 26th July 2021
message 251:
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SydneyH
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Jul 29, 2021 01:30PM
Does anyone have a favourite novel by Elizabeth Jane Howard? I have The Long View lined up because of Hilary Mantel's endorsement: https://www.theguardian.com/books/201...
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giveusaclue wrote: "AB76 wrote: " Holiday by Stanley Middleton(1974), makes me long for a pre-Thatcherite England and to explore it via time travel...I know that the right always are happy to slag off the 1970s as a..."
exactly....born in 76, i remember Callaghan on my parents tv set when i was 3 and thats it....would love to time travel back
Anne wrote: "I wonder if you'd say that if you were in a (monthly) book group."I never joined a book group –probably not so much from fear of reading bad books that I hadn’t chosen as fear of facing a room full of people who liked the bad books. My reading is too free-range for me to indulge in a monthly book that isn’t on my TBR – I can’t even stick to my own reading plans beyond a series of one or two books that seem appropriately read in close proximity.
What’s the worst book you remember reading for the group? I remember you used to mention titles occasionally on TL&S, but I don’t recall any specific names. My own worst book is probably The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which was on the 100 Greatest Beach Books list – in my estimation, to really achieve epic badness, a book probably has to have achieved a certain level of reader acclaim.
AB76 wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "AB76 wrote: " Holiday by Stanley Middleton(1974), makes me long for a pre-Thatcherite England and to explore it via time travel...I know that the right always are happy to sla..."
I remember three day weeks, strikes, 20% inflation. Burnley getting relegated, promoted, relegated (bit like the last decade come to think of it) House price inflation - bought my first house in 1978 which cost 3 times as much as the one my friends bought in 1972. Rolls Royce going under and having to be rescued......
I started reading The Capital (Die Hauptstadt) today. The first edition I clicked on for "currently reading" had the title The Capital: A "House of Cards" for the E.U.. I had to Google "House of Cards".
AB76 wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "AB76 wrote: "
[book:The Fall of Heaven: The Pahlavis and the Final Days of Imperial Iran|...""Revolutionary tribunals" common to many revolutions.
Bill wrote: "Machenbach wrote: "'though some of the reviews suggest that his skills might not stretch to writing"I don't read many comic books at all any more, so most of the artists are unfamiliar to me unle..."
Roy Thomas has written that, after a two-issue hiatus, Barry Smith came back "drawing and co-plotting up a storm." In those days, a partnership between writer and artist could produce a joint effort.
I'm a big fan of Barry Windsor-Smith's artwork but I don't think I've read anything by him, comics or prose. I have his two art books, which are beautiful to look at but I haven't read the accompanying text. After he left Marvel Comics in the early 70s, I think he spent most of his creative energy doing illustrations and paintngs, in the sort of neo-Pre-Raphaelite style that had already shown itself to some extent in his comics work.I'll likely buy his new book, though I'm not sure about the story as opposed to the art. I was hoping there'd be a cheaper, softcover edition, but the thing with comics is that if you wait too long, these things often go out of print before you know it and the used copies skyrocket in price, for some reason, so I might have to go ahead and get the hardcover just in case.
I always forget to talk here about the comics I'm reading: right now I have a new French B-D on the go, Le Choix du Chômage, by Benoît Collombat and Daniel Cuvillier. And I just finished the first Constantine, Hellblazer collection from the late 80s - this is a character created by Alan Moore in the pages of Swamp Thing, but the solo series was written by another English comics writer, Jamie Delano.
I'm also reading a book from the same late-80s era, William Vollmann's Rainbow Stories. And listening to some music from the time as well: Galaxie 500, My Bloody Valentine, the Pixies, ... oh, and I'm watching the 2nd series of Red Dwarf, and I just re-watched Lynch's Wild at Heart (1990) because it was playing at a local cinema that just re-opnened after a Covid lock-down. So I've been all in on the 1988-1990 lately, whatever you'd call that era.
Bill wrote: "I started reading The Capital (Die Hauptstadt) today. The first edition I clicked on for "currently reading" had the title [book:The Capital: A "House of Cards" for ..."The Capital is more of a highly amusing and complex satire/political thriller than House of Cards which is a bit of a one man show. The Capital also addresses the profound issues of the economic conflicts the EU has to face, the cheapening Holocaust memorials and islamophobia. All very engrossing. Hope you also enjoy it
Robert wrote: "AB76 wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "AB76 wrote: "[book:The Fall of Heaven: The Pahlavis and the Final Days of I..."Yes, very true
As i reach the mid 70s stage in my reading, it is becoming clear that the massive economic progress of Iran is not having the positive social effect the Shah wanted, a kind of soulless materialism had descended on the wealthy, while poverty due to endemic overcrowding in city suburbs was actually getting worse
An essay i read on the Tehran Plan of 1968, exposed the reality of the much trumpeted rural reforms that the Shah instigated. He did indeed manage to transform the landowning situation but not as a much as he needed to.
Much land remained with the wealthy and the parcelling of new "free" land was inadequate for subsistence( as the average area of land in hectares was less than needed to remove a life of poverty).
Subsequently there was a significant migration of the rural poor from these allocated lands to urban areas, which created (or increased the numbers of) an urban class that leaned towards the Ayatollah or left wing parties.
A similar situation was created in Syria from 2000 to 2012, as Bashar Al Assad's neo-liberal reforms and drought led to a migration from rural Syria to the cities.
by Scott PhillipsI don't recall where the recommendation for this one came from - or perhaps just an impulse buy from online browsing - but my second-hand copy was published in 2001 by Picador (oh, yes!) in a white-spine edition.
This noir tale starts in Wichita, 1979 on Christmas Eve. The protagonist, Charlie Arglist, is a lawyer for some gangsters - but is looking to get out of town by Christmas day. It's decently written, but has its weaknesses... the book is some 200 pages long, and for the first half we follow Charlie around town as he visits a good number of bars which for the most part double up as brothels or at least pick-up joints. There is a lot of drinking, quite a bit of puking (this week's hot topic, it seems) and some whoring as well. But not much else happens, so this opening rather outstays its welcome. (I should also point out that there is a lot of 'language', plus some references to the explicit titles of a few porno tapes...)
The pace picks up in the second half, as the corpses mount up, but the main problem (for me) was that Charlie's behaviour in particular seemed unbelievable at times - this also applied to some other characters. Given his need to disappear pronto, he seemed quite relaxed about boozing to the point of stupidity, and then delaying his trip by some unnecessary diversions.
So - an OK read, but not good enough for me to be interested in the sequel.
(As for puking - it seems to me that if you remember where you puked, you weren't trying hard enough... I hope we are all older and wiser by now, though!)
Bill wrote: "Being memorable in some fashion is probably my fundamental requirement for a book. I’d rather read a memorable bad book than a forgettable pleasant one."Only if it's in the "so bad it's good" category, surely? I'd hate to read a really boring door-stopper!
scarletnoir wrote: "Bill wrote: "Being memorable in some fashion is probably my fundamental requirement for a book. I’d rather read a memorable bad book than a forgettable pleasant one."Only if it's in the "so bad i..."
with me, i like to think i find some things enjoyable in books that rather let me down, so i feel i made an effort of some kind but awkwardly, i am more and more resolute in dropping books that just fail to capture my interest and instead annoy.
The last book of that ilk remains sadly "Lord Jim", so many wonderful scenes, the exotic world of the empire and the sea but reduced to me just getting more and more bored with the character of Jim. However if modern novels were counted, there would be a dozen in last 3 years, where i just threw them into the virtual dustbin
CCCubbon wrote: "So you think it not too bad that he sexually abused his daughters and boasted of it…"Please do not think that - his behaviour in real life was disgusting. I referred only to his gurning ability...
Indeed, you will be glad to know that the character in the clip was gunned down soon afterwards. Werner Herzog, who used Kinski often but found him infuriating, once threatened to shoot him on set... perhaps it's a pity he didn't pull the trigger!
giveusaclue wrote: "I remember three day weeks, strikes, 20% inflation. Burnley getting relegated, promoted, relegated (bit like the last decade come to think of it) House price inflation - bought my first house in 1978 which cost 3 times as much as the one my friends bought in 1972. Rolls Royce going under and having to be rescued......."Yes, the three-day week - brought to you courtesy of Ted Heath's Conservative government:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-D...
House price inflation is a periodic 'thing' in the UK, driven, usually, by shortages - which have never been addressed - and by the banks' loosening of the purse strings - see where that got us in 2008:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subprim...
(OK, that started in the USA but spilled over here - see Northern Rock, for example:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norther... )
Of course, following the 1970s we had 'Thatcherism' and the rise of 'greed is good' capitalism, the miners' strike, the Falklands war and other joys.
(I suspect we are not going to agree about all this! FWIW, I don't consider the 70s a 'golden age' - still less as I spent 1971-74 in Northern Ireland, where the Power Workers' Strike made anything 'suffered' in mainland UK seem like a Sunday school picnic by comparison:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulster_...
Of course, we can only judge things through the spectrum of our own experiences...)
scarletnoir wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "I remember three day weeks, strikes, 20% inflation. Burnley getting relegated, promoted, relegated (bit like the last decade come to think of it) House price inflation - bought ..."i have to confess that most ppl i know who lived through the 1970-79 era, were not enthusiastic about it, so naturally i kind of feel curious about an era i never saw.
AB76 wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "I remember three day weeks, strikes, 20% inflation. Burnley getting relegated, promoted, relegated (bit like the last decade come to think of it) House price..."The 70s weren't great, but no worse than the 80s - IMO.
scarletnoir wrote: "AB76 wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "I remember three day weeks, strikes, 20% inflation. Burnley getting relegated, promoted, relegated (bit like the last decade come to think of it..."As an adult...the 1990s was my first decade where i could get a real feel for the state of the nation etc,
Booklovers, and possibly book hoarders (looking at you, fuzzywuzz, and at myself, too, of course...), what are your experiences with moving, and moving books, if I may ask? (I know Lisa has worked very hard on this... hats off.) Remembering today an incredibly exhausting, yet very funny move when lots of us helped a good friend move his previously unsuspected hoards - the small flat had not looked so crowded, I really don't know where all the stuff came from!
Ah well, now I remember, there was an evil cellar, a big one...
I am recalling this, very fondly, because I attended this friend's funeral today. He was a great booklover, and collected music and (political) standup comedy recordings, too. (At the time of the move, non-digitized - what a schlepp.)
His wife loved the story of the move, which was new to her! That's something, at least.
Though of course she knows about the hoarding - that did not change... no surprise there.
My last move took place more than nine years ago and it was less funny than the one with the friend (that one is unsurpassed and will be forever, I think), though Mr B, with whom I moved into this house we now still live in, is a hoarder too. Or maybe he isn't: He would deny it, as we are writing of "necessities"... I think you may know what he means! I have an inkling, too.
What took quite a while when we first moved in together was the finding of the doublettes (? don't know if this term is correct - books we both owned, anyway) and the, mostly enjoyable, debates about which copy to keep... however, potential for conflict, too!
@ fuzzywuzz & Mach: Due to your record of the puking/ nosebreaking locations (that one sounds so painful, Mach... ouch. Hope you were treated well soon afterwards?), I wonder if people would be interested, in general, in slightly crazy nostalgia tours? I do not have an eye for spotting new markets, but I do wonder... On the other hand, I suspect scarletnoir might be right about the "not drunk enough" part!
Mach: Will get back to you about Imperium: A Fiction of the South Seas and the Picadors. My thought processes are lacking more depth than usual just now, as the last two days have been pretty intense.
Yes, only the three pure white picadors without the pictures or fancified logos (picture, see St Aubyn, fancified logo, see "Waterland" example - liked the older versions better) would have been counted by Royle (loved fuzzywuzz' comparison with corals), but they looked a bit lonely when I wanted to photograph them, so I gave them some company. Yeah, I know I am weird, and I suspect others know it, too!
Two from me...Arturo's Island by Elsa Morante, translated by Ann Goldstein.
This is the story of a young boy with a mostly absent father, whom he worships, on the island of Procida in the Bay of Naples in the years just before World War II.
It is one of those books that you feel must be partly autobiographical, though obviously isn't as the author is female, and that is very much to Ferrante's credit.
The large house in which Arturo grows up is falling apart, and its history is of great interest, though its story told in just a few pages; it deserved more. In the buildings lifetime, no woman has lived there, until Arturo's young father brought his 17 year old wife there, and she died, almost immediately, giving birth to Arturo. So Arturo grows up, largely self-educated, with a garden labourer to cook for him, in a woman-scorning world. The house’s previous occupant, a wealthy and apparently gay man, threw elaborate parties and refused entrance to women. His father, who inherited the house from the man, after the death of his wife, also inherited most of his opinions.
After one of his many trips to the mainland and overseas, Arturo's father brings back a new wife, Nunziata. Both father and son treat her badly, but it isn't long before the father is away again, and Arturo left with a pregnant Nunziata, and their relationship blossoms, as the boy falls in love with her. With Arturo now 14 years old, this period occupies the large part of the novel.
What materialises is a drama that is hilarious on the one hand, and shocking on the other.
Ferrante's best achievement is to capture the overlap between childhood and maturity so accurately.
To enjoy it the most requires the reader to indulge Ferrante somewhat; how could a 14 year old be so well read and educated when left almost completely to his own devices. Some passages are overwritten, and others left me wanting more, but overall it is a fascinating insight into Arturo's emerging sexuality, and no doubt Ferrante's herself, as well as having quite a spectacular setting.
And, The Cormorant by Stephen Gregory .
Not a literary masterpiece by any means, but good harmless fun. First published in 1987.
Loud shouts of praise from me for Valancourt who are brave enough to publish stuff like this that might otherwise not get a look in. They really do put out some great horror writing, and often quirky and off-the-wall.
A young couple and their small son inherit a Snowdonia cottage from their Uncle, along with an unusual pet. They pack up their jobs in the town and head up to live a quieter life in the mountains. Their story takes place over a snowy Christmas, which may be the best time to read this; so excuse me that it’s mid-summer.
Ive read the Banville MB, but can't remember it at all...
Andy wrote: "Two from me...Arturo's Island by Elsa Morante, translated by Ann Goldstein.
This is the story of a young boy with a mostly absent f..."
Valancourt are a very interesting publisher with a significant percentage of their large catalogue devoted to unusual tales and forgotten classics. Glad you have enjoyed some of their work Andy!
Machenbach wrote: "Yes, I thought McKean might have been too recent for you, 'though you might have heard of him as an illustrator for some of Gaiman's (he did The Sandman covers) and Morrison's (Arkham Asylum) stuff. "Ah, I guess I do know some of McKean’s work, then. I read Gaiman’s original Sandman series, but to be honest, the covers would never have sold the series to me: I would never have wanted to buy whatever it was they seemed to be selling.
I also read Batman: Arkham Asylum - A Serious House on Serious Earth – but don’t remember it as clearly as most of the other auteur-type Batman stories I’ve read (Frank Miller, Alan Moore). I’m kind of resistant to comics done in a painterly style: they don’t “read” as smoothly to me as the traditional (and more easily reproduced) pen-and-ink styles.
On comics covers: as a youngster I always felt a bit cheated by “bait-and-switch” type covers, covers that were done in a very different style or by a superior artist than the actual art inside the comic.
Mod
Apologies for the delay in responding, CCC. I've notified the powers that be that we are still waiting for a fix on this problem, and I'll let you know when I hear back.
They did send a so-called 'work-around' sometime ago, but I don't find it very satisfactory. Let me know if you want to try it, and I'll try to explain - it's klugy and messy.
Mod
In my college and post-college days I moved something like 57 times. I had already acquired more books than a person without a permanent address should have. And my bookshelves were made of planks and concrete blocks! My poor friends...
...some of whom will be helping me with the next move. I have no idea how many books (or what sort of boxes) are in Storage Unit A, but the one's I've acquired in recent years, including my brother's, are packed in sturdy, small banker's boxes with built-in handles. And the bricks are long gone. Hopefully I won't send anyone to the hospital on moving day!
Mod
Shelflife_wasBooklooker wrote: "Booklovers, and possibly book hoarders (looking at you, fuzzywuzz, and at myself, too, of course...), what are your experiences with moving, and moving books, if I may ask? (I know Lisa has worked ..."I've moved house 3 times in the last 9 years. The first was the most difficult, especially sorting out books. I had got sucked into the 'Buy 3 for 2' offers at my local bookshop. Usually, the third book was something I hadn't intended to read, but I'd be daft to turn down a free book.
So, I had got rid of most of those books, but I had a 'cull' of other books, some of which I had agonised over giving away and later regretted. However, the transit van Mr Fuzzywuzz and I hired to move our stuff (very little furniture) was full, so in hindsight it was good I had a clearout beforehand.
I bought some of the books (again) that I regretted giving away.
Just had a chat with my family and they concur with the notion of me being a book hoarder!
Lljones wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "Now that’s over Lisa, could you ask if there is any progress with our inability to comment on photos yet for it’s been months since we were able to do so. Many thanks...."Apologi..."
Thanks for trying Lisa. I don’t think that I will try the klugy method. There is the separate Comments on Photos but it is rarely used. Not to worry. Guess it will be fixed at some point.
I feel for you in the heat, everything becomes such an effort. It’s cold and rainy here - I had to go and find a jumper.
Lljones wrote: "Heading back over 100 F today in Portland...pray for me."oh gosh LL, thats not good. The Pacific NW is having a shocking summer!
Berkley wrote: "I'm a big fan of Barry Windsor-Smith's artwork but I don't think I've read anything by him, comics or prose. I have his two art books, which are beautiful to look at but I haven't read the accompan..."I've posted a couple of Barry Windsor-Smith's drawings.
Machenbach wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "First year at grammar school 1949/50 and I was asked to choose a book as a prize and I asked for that book. Didn’t get it but was given Puck of Pook’s Hill instead by Kipling which..."Once I found a set of Carlyle's French Revolution in a used bookstore. Very old set, a stern warning against browsers written in the flyleaf.
The pages weren't cut.
Snap. I found a set too with the pages uncut. Did you cut them?
CCCubbon wrote: "Snap. I found a set too with the pages uncut. Did you cut them?"Yes. I wanted to read the books.
AB76 wrote: "Lljones wrote: "Heading back over 100 F today in Portland...pray for me."oh gosh LL, thats not good. The Pacific NW is having a shocking summer!"
How is Mario taking the heat?
Lljones wrote: "Shelflife_wasBooklooker wrote: "Booklovers, and possibly book hoarders (looking at you, fuzzywuzz, and at myself, too, of course...), what are your experiences with moving, and moving books, if I m..."I gave some 20 years accumulation of books to the San Francisco Friends of the Library when I moved up here. There were a surprising number of boxes, even after I sold a few books. I've had to move several times since, and the pile isn't too big... which reminds me, I'd planned to go to the library....
Robert wrote: "Lljones wrote: "Shelflife_wasBooklooker wrote: "Booklovers, and possibly book hoarders (looking at you, fuzzywuzz, and at myself, too, of course...), what are your experiences with moving, and movi..."i've been in my present house since 2002 and havent moved since, was living with my folks fr about 18 months after uni before that, so i havent had to plan which books to keep or take, which i am sure is a traumatic experience
I guess e-readers dont have that issue but i just dont like the e-reader idea and never have....
I'm jealous as I haven't figured out a way to see this - Write Around the World with Richard E Granthttps://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p09p...
Of course it may be old news to you 'stiff-upper-lippers'.
MK wrote: "I'm jealous as I haven't figured out a way to see this - Write Around the World with Richard E Granthttps://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p09p...
Of course it may be old news to you 'stiff-upper-lip..."
Thanks - that looks interesting. ATM, there is only that short trailer available - it hasn't aired yet.
Can you not see it because you are outside the UK? I understand that it's possible to get around such restrictions using a VPN, though I have never used one... they can be had for a monthly fee.
Lljones wrote: "In my college and post-college days I moved something like 57 times. I had already acquired more books than a person without a permanent address should have."Well, that is impressive! At one point - also during and after uni - I moved 17 times in 17 years, which I considered a bit of an ordeal... fortunately, I was able to leave books in the family's 'home base' of my grandparent's house (bought around 1910, and already full of my granddad's books... he used to go on long country walks, and read as he walked along!). It was also the house I grew up in, and where almost by chance (a job came available, which may never have happened) I returned some 32 years ago.
So, during those many moves quite a few books got 'lost' one way or another; since my return here, my wife carries out occasional purges - granddad's landing bookshelf is no more, many books are gone - but there are still books and/or bookshelves in practically every room, including the attic. Perhaps the nicest remaining set from granddad's time is the 1911 Britannica (Eleventh edition).
LL, i hope you have air-con? Or maybe invest in an air cooler, they are cheaper but can cool the area you are in well, if you get a good size unit...
scarletnoir wrote: "Lljones wrote: "In my college and post-college days I moved something like 57 times. I had already acquired more books than a person without a permanent address should have."Well, that is impress..."
Lovely to have the 1911 Britannia at hand, my grandfather had the whole set of the Harmsworth Encylopedia from 1921-22 and managed to find the same set to buy me when i was in my early 20s, one of the best presents ever. A 12 volume reference encyclopaedia always to hand when needed!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmswo...
Mod
He doesn't appear to have noticed. Just mad because I won't let him sit in my lap.
Mod
Not central air, but the bedrooms have room units. Not sure what you mean by "air cooler" - ?
Lljones wrote: "AB76 wrote: "LL, i hope you have air-con? Or maybe invest in an air cooler, they are cheaper but can cool the area you are in well, if you get a good size unit..."Not central air, but the bedroom..."
air cooling works differently, they are cheaper and dont need xternal nozzles. bedroom AC is a good thing then, at least you can sleep well
Machenbach wrote: "One of my favourite bits of guitar work is the last half of "When Will You Come Home".Edit: I was once wearing a Galaxie 500 t-shirt when an American fella said "Great car". I had no idea what he was talking about."
I didn't know about the car either for the longest time - probably not until the internet days when you could look these things up.
That means "Spacemen 3" must be an old car model too, right? I feel so confident this must be so, I'm not going to bother checking.
Yes I'm in Canada so shipping or postage would probably be more than the book itself. I can buy one here no problem, it more just deciding if I want to take the plunge when I'm unsure about the work as a whole, much as I'm sure I'll like the art.
Middleton is just spot on for midsummer reading, a truly fascinating study of northern life, resorts and the England it was written in. Everything seems to chime with the english coastal summer, stuffy interiors, crowds of people, dust and sunshine, strangers in small hotels at breakfast....my female reading is nosediving since spring when it looked so rosy, novels get pushed aside or relegated in my pile and maybe only half a dozen female fiction and non-fiction left on the 2021 pile. By early April it was 33% female, since then its just 13%. So 23% overall out of 44 books read.
How's this for a 'come on?' Up until the 1800s, novels were largely seen as an inferior literary subgenre — and a dangerous corrupting influence, particularly for young women.
The above was clipped from this NY Times piece with link below. (If you are not a subscriber and have used up the few free accesses they might have for each month, try again after midnight NY time when it is August. I hope you can take a peek then. Nice 'old-time' pictures and, of course, a couple of links to further reading.)
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/31/bo...
Back in the days when I was able to go to used book sales, I was always irritated by the presence of resellers scanning book after book looking for rarities without ever glancing at the titles. I took some comfort thinking of the Cordwainer Smith title, "Scanners live in Vain".Well, it turns out that may be true in regards to Dan Brown's out-of-print humor book, 187 Men to Avoid, as the NY Times reports.
Every book she received appeared to have the same bar code printed on its cover — and most of the books’ back covers featured an additional stick-on label from their resellers insistently identifying them as “187 Men to Avoid.” Every label was patently untrue.
Treasure trail, with poised pencil; disorienting labyrinth; or something completely different?Saša Stanišić likes to keep readers on their toes: With Origins (translated into French (Origines) as well as various Asian languages and Catalan, but not into English yet), he offers readers a choice which turn to take in the story, something that can lead to jumps from p. 12 right to p. 306 – but then you are gently led backwards again, as far as I could make out…
With my current read by this author, Before the Feast
, I have started taking such jumps on my own – I am on p. 233 of 318, but I have reread various parts of the book already, just to spot what have turned out to be crucial clues and leitmotifs. I have also started scribbling into the book (arrows and page numbers), which makes it look like work, but it’s fun, too! And, in this instance, I think my meagre scribblings may be forgiven, as the original book features pages like this one just below!
A character in the novel rewrites (hi)stories and fairy tales according to their own taste. The one shown is an example of a fairy tale story rewrite… Complete with unconventional ending.
Have not seen anything of the kind (the text pointing to its materiality) for a while. I remember how fascinated I was by the squiggles etc. in Laurence Sterne’s The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman when encountering them for the first time.
So, what about the story in Before the Feast? It meanders a lot, but I am willing to follow so far. Stanišić really knows how to tell stories, if you are willing to take all these possibly irrelevant sidetracked leaps and turns (again, see Tristram Shandy).
It is a story set in a fictional, yet plausibly composite Uckermark village (Uckermark being the region where Angela Merkel is from, famous for its perceived remoteness, and its people for their taciturnity), digging up some histories that transverse centuries, but also very firmly set in the post-Socialist letdowns of reunification. We get to know – well, to encounter – a huge array of characters, some very likeable, some less so (but viewed with much understanding), and there are also some parts told from the perspective of a vixen trying to get eggs for her young. Affecting, but not too affecting - there's quite a bit of gore once the vixen has managed to enter the chicken coop...
You find this review meandering? Well, meanderings appear to be catching!
Still wondering how the story (much less the plot) will turn out.
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Ersatz TLS
Books mentioned in this topic
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The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (other topics)
Der Raubgraf (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Saša Stanišić (other topics)Cordwainer Smith (other topics)
Elsa Morante (other topics)
Elsa Morante (other topics)
Stephen Gregory (other topics)
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