What are we reading? 16th August 2021

[Sandya]

Berkley wrote: "AB76 wrote: "My next classic fiction will be She by H Rider Haggard, i had meant to read it over 15 years ago but was less interested in colonial fiction from the masters pen, so to speak, then i a..."

I very much enjoyed "She", the book, not the film. Ayesha was apparently one of the many inspirations for Tolkien's Galadriel. The late Maharani of Jaipur, Gayatri Devi, was called "Ayesha" by family and friends as her mother, Indira Devi, Maharani of Cooch Behar had read and loved the book too.

[Berkley]

Sandya wrote: "I very much enjoyed "She", the book, not the film. Ayesha was apparently one of the many inspirations for Tolkien's Galadriel. The late Maharani of Jaipur, Gayatri Devi, was called "Ayesha" by family and friends as her mother, Indira Devi, Maharani of Cooch Behar had read and loved the book too. "

The influence on Tolkien's character is very clear, I think. Interesting to hear about some of the book's admirers ... my impression is that for several decades after the publication of She, Ayesha was as famous a genre-fiction figure as there was, but for some reason has largely faded from the pop-culture consciousness - perhaps with the passing away of the Colonial era it was so much tied up with? There was a Colonial-era French novel that Jung liked to compare it to, the title of which escapes me at the moment.

[AB76]

Sandya wrote: "Berkley wrote: "AB76 wrote: "My next classic fiction will be She by H Rider Haggard, i had meant to read it over 15 years ago but was less interested in colonial fiction from the masters pen, so to..."

thats interesting Sandya, i wasnt aware of the influence on Tolkien

[Berkley]

Berkley wrote: ""The influence on Tolkien's character is very clear, I think. "..."

As is, I should have added, the influence on CS Lewis's White Witch from the Narnia books - in an all too predictably negative way, Lewis being Lewis.

I was just looking at the wiki write-up and it seems there is a recent rock-opera version of She! I think I'll have to give this a listen, even though I'm not familiar with the artist responsible, one Clive Nolan.

[Berkley]

Sandya wrote: "#20. The Case of the Married Woman: Caroline Norton. Antonia Fraser

I first came across Caroline Norton (1809-1877) in my late teens, reading about the struggle to improve the status of women in B..."

Looking her up, I see that she wrote a few novels herself, might have to look around for one sometime.

[Sandya]

Berkley wrote: "Sandya wrote: "#20. The Case of the Married Woman: Caroline Norton. Antonia Fraser

I first came across Caroline Norton (1809-1877) in my late teens, reading about the struggle to improve the statu..."

She wrote far more than I was aware of from my previous reading and Fraser covers her writing in detail.

[[deleted user]]

L’Homme à l’envers (Eng. title: Seeking Whom He May Devour) – Fred Vargas

An excellent story of savage killings in the high hills of Provence, with a crew of misfits leading the pursuit, until Commissaire Adamsberg, misfit himself, comes on the scene. FV has the drollest sense of humour.

[Sandya]

Berkley wrote: "Sandya wrote: "I very much enjoyed "She", the book, not the film. Ayesha was apparently one of the many inspirations for Tolkien's Galadriel. The late Maharani of Jaipur, Gayatri Devi, was called "..."

"In earth, and skie, and sea,
Strange thynges there be"

Dorothea Vincey

This came immediately to my mind on thinking about "She".

There's a great deal of mystery in "She" that I have always found alluring, starting with the Sherd of Amenartas. Rider Haggard does a very good job of creating this atmosphere.

I also own the sequel, "Ayesha: The Return of She" which is also worth reading though less well known than "She". It deals with reincarnation.... "She, Hes, Ayesha upon earth....and in Avitchi, Star-that-hath-fallen......"

When I first read these books, in my 20s (my Penguin edition copy dates from 1982 and is getting fragile), they embodied a perhaps ultimately unrealized potential to develop a more inclusive literature. I know Rider Haggard has been accused of racism, but I liked his interest in Indian and Asian philosophies.

I just reread the opening chapters of "She"-to my mind the most mysterious, and enjoyed them thoroughly! "adveneslasaniscoronantium", "the people who place pots upon the heads of strangers"! It is full of delightful things!

[Sandya]

Berkley wrote: "Sandya wrote: "I very much enjoyed "She", the book, not the film. Ayesha was apparently one of the many inspirations for Tolkien's Galadriel. The late Maharani of Jaipur, Gayatri Devi, was called "..."

RE: There was a Colonial-era French novel that Jung liked to compare it to, the title of which escapes me at the moment.

L'Atlantide? I think it was made into a movie in Germany in the 1930s too.....

[scarletnoir]

Shelflife_wasBooklooker wrote: "
I wonder if any of the bookworms here already know the 100-page novella The House of Paper by Carlos María Domínguez?
It certainl..."

Thank you for that fascinating review, and the excellent quotes, which I suspect could be applied to a good many of us... it's just as well that my wife values tidiness more than I do, and insists every so often on a weeding process to the benefit of Oxfam, clearing some room for the new arrivals!

The book appears to be out of print, and second-hand copies are fairly expensive considering its (lack of) length. Also, rather bafflingly, it has been published under two similar titles: The House of Paper and The Paper House. Are they in any way different? The asking price (second hand) for one of these is twice that of the other! So, I'm in two minds - especially considering Mach's comment that he wasn't sorry it was not longer.

[scarletnoir]

AB76 wrote: "my family had an autumn canal holiday and i became fascinated by thesw waterways snaking through industrial Birmingham, Georgian Bath, the Oxford countryside or the north welsh rolling hills."

Lucky you... my one foray onto the canals with my brother and our better halves took us along the Trent and Mersey, from somewhere near Runcorn down to Burton on Trent. We 'climbed' something rightly called 'Heartbreak Hill' in order to pass through a long, dilapidated one-way tunnel (presumably, the Harecastle tunnel) before nightfall (next day was one way in the other direction!). There must have been 24 locks or so on that hill... no nonsense about booking a passage through the tunnel in those days... I have never felt so intrepid as when passing through that black tunnel with a feeble lamp on the boat, water dripping from the roof, signs of the towpath having fallen in here and there... what if we got stuck? But we didn't, and emerged to stop overnight with a magnificent view of a power station's cooling towers.
(Anyone curious to experience the tunnel and locks vicariously could watch this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-92b3...
where our guide is heading in the opposite direction.)
Later highlights included a night stop in a thunderstorm at Stone, Staffordshire (again after descending a hill through many locks), and finding a lovely pub to serve an evening helping of beer and chips. We saw the fascinating bottle kilns canalside in Stoke, and ended up at the Bass museum in Burton. A superb experience.

[Robert]

Sandya wrote: "Berkley wrote: "Sandya wrote: "I very much enjoyed "She", the book, not the film. Ayesha was apparently one of the many inspirations for Tolkien's Galadriel. The late Maharani of Jaipur, Gayatri De..."

Ayesha probably inspired Edgar Rice Burroughs' Queen La, a mysterious beauty met by Tarzan in his second Greystoke novel. La is the ruler of a lost city, originally a colony of Atlantis...

L'Atlantide was the title of a French adventure novel, apparently adapted several times, in which two French officers find Atlantis, ruled by an immortal queen who has taken a succession of lovers.

Burroughs' "Return of Tarzan" came out in 1913, and the French novel by Pierre Benoit in 1919, so the French adventure may have been influenced by Haggard, by Burroughs, or by both .

[scarletnoir]

Lljones wrote: "Back in my mystery-reading days, I enjoyed the books of Dutch author Janwillem van de Wetering. Plenty of dikes and canals, with a dash of Zen Buddhism."

Thanks very much for the tip - I wanted to buy The Corpse on the Dike - excellent title! - as a bit of holiday reading, but it's unavailable (they all seem to be out of print), and so settle for a used copy of Outsider in Amsterdam instead. Amsterdam is one of my favourite cities, so why not?

(As for 'holiday reading', I'm retired so I'm always sort of 'on holiday', but we hope to get over to France for a change, soon.)

[scarletnoir]

Russell wrote: "L’Homme à l’envers (Eng. title: Seeking Whom He May Devour) – Fred Vargas...has the drollest sense of humour.."

I didn't much care for the only Vargas I read, but that was in English translation, and humour is notoriously difficult to translate effectively. Perhaps I should give her a try in French, though I see that she refers to her books as 'puzzles'. As I prefer character-driven stories rather than books where plot is paramount, I'm not so sure the result would be different...

[AB76]

scarletnoir wrote: "AB76 wrote: "my family had an autumn canal holiday and i became fascinated by thesw waterways snaking through industrial Birmingham, Georgian Bath, the Oxford countryside or the north welsh rolling..."

we did a few staircase locks in my time too, i think one was in the Birmingham area, my grandfather and youngest brothers leaping about with the lock keys. We also went down a few dark tunnels, with water dripping.

Furthest towards liverpool was ellesmere port on the Llangollen Canal, the Pontcyllte aquaduct remains a highlight of that canal.

I used to love making "landfall" and having a big meal in a pub near where we stopped, we always took the trip on autumn half term so the cosy canal berths are a strong memory in the chilly mornings.

The last trip was as an adult on the Oxford Canal with my brother and his daughter, that was the warmest October trip ever, bright beautiful sunshine by day, chilly by evening. The Port Meadow section in Oxford was like a dream, beautiful weather..

[AB76]

Sandya wrote: "Berkley wrote: "Sandya wrote: "I very much enjoyed "She", the book, not the film. Ayesha was apparently one of the many inspirations for Tolkien's Galadriel. The late Maharani of Jaipur, Gayatri De..."

according to wikipedia(never 100% reliable), there was an allegation that Pierre Benoit had plagiarized Haggard in "L'Atlantide" but Benoit countered as he could not read or speak english and no french translations of "She" were available at the time

[Gpfr]

Machenbach wrote: "AB76 wrote: "the Pontcyllte aquaduct remains a highlight of that canal..."
Gives me vertigo just looking at that thing."

Looked up photos on reading your comment - "the highest navigable aqueduct in the world". Very impressive but I definitely don't see myself crossing it.

[Georg]

Machenbach wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "ended up at the Bass museum in Burton. A superb experience"

Well planned. And not by the other halves, I suspect."

Of course, women like babycham and/or sweet white wine, only real men can appreciate beer....

[scarletnoir]

AB76 wrote: "...leaping about with the lock keys. We also went down a few dark tunnels, with water dripping.

What you call 'lock keys' (I'm sure it's a perfectly correct term) were referred to by my brother - the organiser, and therefore the 'captain' of our boat - as 'the windlass' - an interesting word which I knew before our trip, without the slightest idea as to what one would look like, or what it was for. Here's a reference:

https://betterboat.com/boating/canal-...

Furthest towards liverpool was ellesmere port on the Llangollen Canal, the Pontcyllte aquaduct remains a highlight of that canal.

No, no, no! Sorry - I can accept typos, but you have dissed the famous Pontcysyllte aqueduct by losing a whole syllable. It really won't do, my friend!

https://www.pontcysyllte-aqueduct.co.uk/

I would love to have crossed that... I always wanted to 'do' the canals again, but life got in the way and somehow it never happened. A pity.

[scarletnoir]

Machenbach wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "ended up at the Bass museum in Burton. A superb experience"

Well planned. And not by the other halves, I suspect."

Haha! No, I suspect not... there were an awful lot of wonderfully welcoming and old-fashioned pubs along the canal, many selling not Bass but Marston's Pedigree. I think Marston's has grown into probably an over-large and too powerful pubco since then, but in those days it was just a very good medium sized regional brewer. The 'other halves' may not have approved of Bass (which has legendary consequences for drinkers), but my wife certainly enjoyed the massive dray horses at the museum. A good day out!

[Gpfr]

The Artificial Silk Girl - Irmgard Keun translated by Kathie von Ankum
Das kunstseidene Mädchen
Have our German speakers read this? I'm just about to start it, mainly having fallen in love with the cover.
I bought it in a quick book buying session between trains in London. W.H.Smith's having opened a 'proper' bookshop on Euston station cheers me each time I go through there now.

[scarletnoir]

Machenbach wrote: "Shelflife_wasBooklooker wrote: "I have known some bookowners who stamp them [...] Nobody wants to mislay a book"

This reminds me of one of my favourite ownership stamps, that of the poet and one-time patricide suspect Jeremy Cartland"

Very interesting - I had forgotten this case (I tend to take an unhealthy interest in such matters), assuming I heard about it in the first place (it doesn't ring a bell). I have had a look at an interview with Cartland prior to a self-penned book denial - "The Cartland File" - online at the British Newspaper Archive: https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.c...
(That takes me back to a previous life, where I spent several days at the British Newspaper Archive in Colindale, back in the mid-70s, researching a very fishy character who was a self-proclaimed 'archbishop' and a fancier of young boys... on behalf of Yorkshire TV. I see that the physical archive moved to Boston Spa in 2013.)

So - good that the archive is now online (much easier for everyone)... I'd be a bit suspicious of anyone who printed such a claim to ownership on their books, though. And how did you come to have it in your collection, BTW? ;-)

Edit: I just found this online reference to the case:
https://countrysquire.co.uk/2021/07/0...

[scarletnoir]

Georg wrote: "Of course, women like babycham and/or sweet white wine, only real men can appreciate beer...."

Haha! Babycham, eh? Does that still exist? You are showing your age, there!

I suspect my then sister-in-law - a rather large lady - quite enjoyed a good pint of beer. My wife - French and not one of nature's big drinkers - never developed a taste for most beers, though she does enjoy dark, strong ale such as Guinness and (believe it or not) my favourite - Chimay Blue Label.

[[deleted user]]

scarletnoir wrote: "Russell wrote: "L’Homme à l’envers (Eng. title: Seeking Whom He May Devour) – Fred Vargas...has the drollest sense of humour.."

I've read only two Vargas stories, this one and L'Homme aux cercles bleus, the first two in the Adamsberg series. I thoroughly enjoyed both of them. I would say that while plot was important it did not outweigh character. Reading this one I did find myself wondering how the humor could be translated. I haven’t looked at an English version yet to see how a professional does it. My French, by the way, is some way short of completely fluent, especially when it comes to modern slang, and I could still read them quite easily, so it might be worth your trying one in French.

[scarletnoir]

Machenbach wrote: "Georg wrote: "Of course, women like babycham and/or sweet white wine, only real men can appreciate beer....."

Absolutely. Or a fruit-based drink for the ladies. Not my rules:
https://youtu.be/Z4eE..."

Brilliant! The first minute had me laughing!

[Georg]

scarletnoir wrote: "Georg wrote: "Of course, women like babycham and/or sweet white wine, only real men can appreciate beer...."

Haha! Babycham, eh? Does that still exist? You are showing your age, there!

I suspect ..."

When I moved to England in the mid-90s babycham was already the stuff of legend, I only read about it.
But I was really puzzled the first time I ordered a beer to be asked whether I wanted a 'lady's glass'. I felt a bit embarrassed when I declined in favour of a pint and got a strange look. There were no 'lady's glasses' where i came from. Just "Halbe" (0.5l) or "Mass" (1l). The latter was only to be had in beergardens, not pubs, but nobody would have batted an eyelid if a woman had ordered it.

[scarletnoir]

Russell wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "Russell wrote: "L’Homme à l’envers (Eng. title: Seeking Whom He May Devour) – Fred Vargas...has the drollest sense of humour.."

I've read only two Vargas stories, this one and ..."

Thanks - I may do that. Having checked out Vargas on Wikipedia, I learnt that she is in her 'other life' a historian noted for her work on the Black Death. Now, the novel I read had a great deal about the plague - including deaths - and a huge amount of information about rats (at least, that's my main memory of the book - rats, rats, and more rats).

I suspect that Vargas allowed her academic interests to overwhelm the storytelling aspect in that novel. I may give her another go.

[AB76]

scarletnoir wrote: "AB76 wrote: "...leaping about with the lock keys. We also went down a few dark tunnels, with water dripping.

What you call 'lock keys' (I'm sure it's a perfectly correct term) were referred to by ..."

LOL....my welsh spelling has never been good!

Gliding accross the Ponty(as i shall now call it.,...lol) was something else, at 2mph with all that wonderful land below, its easily the best canal experience and far less knackering than staircase locks.

Winding holes were fun, usually accompanied by adult swearing and shouting as we tried to turn an eight berth narrowboat around in a fairly confined space

[scarletnoir]

Georg wrote: "...I was really puzzled the first time I ordered a beer to be asked whether I wanted a 'lady's glass'.

So, you're a lady? i didn't guess, from your name!

It must have been in some posh place - plenty of women drink from normal pint glasses, in Wales anyway. (Of course, maybe on the other hand it's a modern thing - like 'proms' which got imported from the USA probably a good 30 years or more after I left school. I no longer go to pubs, or hardly ever - and then only at lunchtime. Perhaps the town is full of ladies sipping their beer from 'ladies' glasses', for all I know).

Would you believe that GR is querying my use of 'their'? Perhaps GR thinks - like a lot of people - that 'there beer' makes some sort of sense... and, indeed, that abomination has NOT been underlined in red!

Illiteracy via autocorrect - I ask you!

[Georg]

scarletnoir wrote: "Russell wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "Russell wrote: "L’Homme à l’envers (Eng. title: Seeking Whom He May Devour) – Fred Vargas...has the drollest sense of humour.."

I've read only two Vargas storie..."

I thought that the plague-themed novel was one of her best, I really liked it. And some others as well. Until "Wash This Blood Clear from my Hand". I had gotten used to some absurdity by then, but that was so ludicrous I doubt I will ever read another again.

[Paul]

Howdy neighbors, I'm back from avoiding the sun in the mountains of Trentino where I got a pretty decent amount of reading done.

The first was an odd little book, by Adolfo Bioy Casares. Weird, a little wobbly and difficult to pin down, but enjoyable likely due to the unconventional nature of the narrative. Bioy Casares was clearly an acolyte of Borges, because the formlessness and indefinition of his book most closely harkens to Borges.

It details the lone inhabitant of an off-limits island who has escaped a death sentence in Venezuela, apparently having canoed to the French Pacific. The unrealness of the very premise spins out from there as the fugitive finds a pool, a church and a museum as the lone structures. Only 150 pages, it's hard to feel how long time has unspun, how much is fever dream, how survival would even be possible on such a place, why the tides are so erratic... When tourists show up on the island, reality becomes fluxional.
Led by Morel, a mad-scientist type, and Faustine, a willowy, pining type with whom the the fugitive falls in love, the implausibility and untouchability of the tourists becomes increasingly pronounced. It's never quite clear upon which side of the mirror the fugitive lies and how much is projection and how much parallelity.

Weird, very, but enjoyable.

[MK]

Gpfr wrote: "I've just read the Observer article about people living and trading on canals. The book I'm reading at the moment is a murder mystery linked to canals, Steven Booth's Drowned Lives...."

Oh dear - it doesn't look as if Stephen Booth has made a successful Atlantic crossing as far as libraries are concerned. (Time is edging towards the end of the year and, because I bought a new-to-me car this year, I am feeling a bit pinched until January 2022.) I am in miser mode.

But since Drowned Lives can be bought (and shipped free) from Book Depository, I have put it on one of my ever expanding wish lists there in hopes they will dangle a sale which will lower my resistance.

Canals do have an aura about them. Seattle has one. It's only 8 miles long, but it does have 4 draw bridges. Much to the consternation of some - especially newer arrivals - ship traffic gets priority over vehicles. Only during rush hours are there any kind of restrictions on shipping.

A local mystery author ought to set a book on the Canal as there is much going on out of the public's eye.

In other news, it looks as if we may have entered Autumn already with this week's projected high of 71° on Friday. Quite a shift. And the prospect of a La Nina winter may be in the cards - more than usual precipitation (along with our grossly short days) for the PNW, but less precipitation for California.

I continue through my stack of British Library Crime Classics from the library. Currently it's The Long Arm of the Law: Classic Police Stories.

[Hushpuppy]

Paul wrote: "Howdy neighbors, I'm back from avoiding the sun in the mountains of Trentino where I got a pretty decent amount of reading done."

GRRrrrr. Do kindly fuck off. I've been resisting for 3 days turning on the central heating here and finally gave up this morning. I draw the line at being cold despite wearing a tight and thick cashmere jumper in bloody August! Talk about a long bank holiday weekend. Pffftt. https://i.postimg.cc/j2qM2wHD/giphy.gif

(PS@LL: Thanks for the explanation about embedded links. That issue Swelter is describing has been going on for months now, but I guess that's the best way GR have found to counter it...)

[Paul]

Afterwards, I galloped lovingly through Kevin Barry's .

Right off the top, let's say that 1) Kevin Barry may not be for everyone and 2) If you think Sally Rooney is Ireland's best living author, you won;t likely get Barry and 3) are you friggin kidding me? Barry is a lyrical genius.

I LOVE the craft of Barry's writing, he is so clearly a craftsman, whose every word, comma or space is conscientiously suffered over. He writes with a beauty that is difficult to contextualize or compare. Perhaps the author whose writing feels so similarly artisanal would be James Salter.

Somewhat off-putting at first, Barry drops you mid-conversation between two ailing Irish smugglers and career criminals as they show up to the port of Algeciras to search for someone. Their conversation is sufficiently oblique to catch your interest, but also sufficiently unreal as to be off-putting. Barry's characters inhabit a reality all their own, and speak a language unique to their partnership. It reads like a David Mamet or an early David O Russell script.
It can easily buck an untrusting reader in those first few pages, but the gradual peeling back of onionskin by Barry to reveal the wounded, bleeding heart/kneecap at the center of Charlie and Moss' relationship.

I thought it brilliant, poetic, shimmery and lovely. Barry writes with that rhythm unique to Irish-spoken english, it almost rings of Italian opera in its melodic chime, and I can't imagine him creating anything inanimate or dull.

[Hushpuppy]

scarletnoir wrote: "I suspect that Vargas allowed her academic interests to overwhelm the storytelling aspect in that novel. "

I thought that was one of her best ones actually (although even the middling ones are worth it to me). I'd say maybe try them in French (start with the first one, like vtlogger, L'homme aux cercles bleus); for all the Vargas aficionado/as out there, I think it's fair to say that it's really much more about the characters than the plot(s). You can work out quite easily whodunnit according to the same formula iirc, but it doesn't detract from their appeal.

[[deleted user]]

I'm going to close this thread at 5pm.

Paul and MK, can you please repost your reviews/updates on the new thread?

[Hushpuppy]

scarletnoir wrote: "Brilliant! The first minute had me laughing!"

Or the "I'm all for equality, that's why I let women work longer hours so that they can make as much money as the guys" (paraphrasing here).

When I arrived in the UK, I was fooled for a while and had just tuned out the Pub Landlord, until I saw him give an interview and I was quite astonished by how articulate he was. Made me wonder... and indeed, on listening more closely, this was all obviously what we call "second degré".

[Lljones]

MK wrote: "Only during rush hours are there any kind of restrictions on shipping..."

Which lasts about 20 hours a day, right? (Pre-covid, anyway.) :)