What are we reading? 13th April 2022

[Gpfr]

AB76 wrote: " Literary Occasions by VS Naipaul, a collection of essays from the 1960s-80s was an interesting read.

I haven't read much by Naipaul: A House for Mr Biswas and An Area of Darkness, this second being on the shelf over my desk as I write, with other travel books and memoirs. Naipaul's family had left India 2 generations before, but he didn't know it until he travelled there in the early 60s I don't remember it too well - maybe a re-read.

Next up in the diaries/memoirs/essays category is Wilde's De Profundis and Other Writings..."

This prompted my taking up a volume of Wilde's collected writings with illustrations by Aubrey Beardsley, given to me years ago by my late ex-father-in-law. I've never read De Profundis, nor all the plays or stories. You've encouraged me to give it a go!

[AB76]

Gpfr wrote: "AB76 wrote: " Literary Occasions by VS Naipaul, a collection of essays from the 1960s-80s was an interesting read.

I haven't read much by Naipaul: A House for Mr Biswas and An Area of Darkness, th..."

always good to hear GPFR, i hope you enjoy it

i'm amazed i havent read De Profundis before ,my edition includes The Ballad of Reading Gaol and a selection of Wilde's letters. Its amazing to think that the Anglo-Irish gave us Wilde and Shaw in the same generation, such talent, such characters but one dying so young,tragically.

i recommend Wilde's short but brilliant The Portrait of Dorian gray too

i also just finished McGaherns mid 80s short stories, brilliant, well worth the read

[MK]

I had put down Michael Dirda's An Open Book: Coming of Age in the Heartland one-third of the way through because I had to finish a library book that I could not renew (others were in line).

Now I have taken up An Open Book: Coming of Age in the Heartland once again. It's a lovely story - what is a family to do with this kid who always has his nose in a book? As a teen he overhears his parents arguing about him and why he's not out there doing boyish things. So Michael runs away from home (with a classmate) and hitches as far as Pittsburgh (150+ miles) before sidling back home.

Here's a link (from Wikipedia) of a bookstore visit with Michael Dirda as companion - https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2...

[Gpfr]

I've just discovered Eland Books - they reissue travel books.
I bought a while ago (from Stanfords) Martha Gellhorn's Travels With Myself and Another: 'Five Journeys from Hell'. The first is a trip to China in 1941. I'll write more about the book later as I only started it this afternoon, but I just wanted to draw the attention of those who might be interested to the publisher. They have what looks like a very interesting selection to me. One can read extracts from the books on the website.
https://www.travelbooks.co.uk/

[Gpfr]

I've mentioned before E.C.R. Lorac (who also wrote as Carol Carnac) - I'm steadily reading my way through her books. There are several in the British Library Crime Classics series and also 99 centime e-books.

In more modern (and more gruesome) crime novels, I've been reading Kate Rhodes' Dr Alice Quentin series. I'd posted about her Locked-Island mysteries set on the Isles of Scilly. Alice Quentin is an earlier series. The first (of 5) is Crossbones Yard.

[AB76]

Always been a fan of Brian Moore, the Ulster novelist and discovered a 1971 novel based around the 1970 Quebec Crisis in Canada The Revolution Script

Moore lived in Canada at the time and the novel is a fictionalised study of the events of 1970, when a Quebecois terror group the FLQ, kidnapped the british trade comissioner and murdered a Quebec government minister. It led to a state of emergency in Quebec and PM Pierre Trudeau(Justins father), ordered troops onto the streets of Montreal.

Moore, having grown up with the IRA situation in Ireland, pre-troubles, found similarities between the FLQ and its supporters and Irish sympathies towards the IRA

[AB76]

Gpfr wrote: "I've just discovered Eland Books - they reissue travel books.
I bought a while ago (from Stanfords) Martha Gellhorn's Travels With Myself and Another: 'Five Journeys from Hell'. The ..."

am a big fan of Eland already

[Robert]

AB76 wrote: "With Marioupol almost destroyed, i wonder what has happened to the small Pontic-Greek minority in the city, Serhi Plokhiy had written about these Black Sea greek immigrants

Does anyone know of goo..."

Putin is following the same playbook that Hitler used in Leningrad.

[AB76]

Robert wrote: "AB76 wrote: "With Marioupol almost destroyed, i wonder what has happened to the small Pontic-Greek minority in the city, Serhi Plokhiy had written about these Black Sea greek immigrants

Does anyon..."

yes, brutal. its incredible that one man has caused so much suffering in just two months, for all the heroism of the brave Ukrainians (including an old man who poisoned some chechens living in his yard with rat poison), the hands of Putin are soaked in blood.

[AB76]

Brian Moore's novel on the crisis of 1970, has led me to a 2020 documentary by the son of one of the FLQ cell that killed Pierre Laporte.

https://www.nfb.ca/film/rose-family/

I will watch this tommmorow

Aside from his evil murder, the story of poverty and second class status for working class Quebecois in Montreal was a motivating factor for the FLQ. Prominent in their aims were plans to sabotage the Anglo-Canadian elites in the city, in Westmount and elsewhere. I hope the documentary will supply more info

[SydneyH]

AB76 wrote: "It has become very quiet on here in last 7 days, has there been a mass migration to the Guardian forum?"

It has been quiet there as well. I think a few people are taking an Easter break. Hopefully they will have reading to report when they get back.

[AB76]

SydneyH wrote: "AB76 wrote: "It has become very quiet on here in last 7 days, has there been a mass migration to the Guardian forum?"

It has been quiet there as well. I think a few people are taking an Easter bre..."

i guess first proper break in 2 yrs but its amazing how quiet it is

[[deleted user]]

AB76 wrote: "It has become very quiet on here in last 7 days, has there been a mass migration to the Guardian forum?"

Quiet out here in the woods mainly because I’m busy building a chicken coop and working in the kitchen garden, and busy also with a possible property venture, where a family member is planning to open…a specialist independent bookshop. In consequence my own reading level has dropped. Finding Herodotus Book 5 a bit scrappy and uninteresting, reading Zola’s La Terre at a slow but satisfying 10-15 pages a day, dipping into the excellent This is Shakespeare by Emma Smith, read the long chapter 1 of Ian Kershaw’s Fateful Choices but don’t think it told me anything I didn’t already know from John Lukacs’ engrossing monograph Five Days in London, May 1940, and waiting for the library to get in The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim (mentioned here? not sure).

[Andy]

I’ve had a couple of books that aren’t even worth mentioning, and been reading some short stories, Bradbury’s The Veldt, and Lessing’s To Room Nineteen.
It’s a rainy weekend up in the Italian Alps, just below the snow line at Ravascletto. There are enough breaks in the moisture to get some activity in. Best of all, I’m pretty much the only visitor here.
Just finished The Zoo by Christopher Wilson

‘Tragi-comedy’ is a tough mix to get right, especially when it concerns the Soviet Union. It is rarely attempted, notably though Iannucci writing what should be so bleak, The Death of Stalin, which is an absolute riot.
This is in a similar vein. It is also set in 1953 and is narrated by a very unfortunate 12 year old, Yuri Romanovich Zipit. Physically he was run over by a milk cart as a young boy from which he still has disabilities. Just one of several accidents he has suffered. He is also an epileptic.

I am damaged. But only in my body. And mind. Not my spirit, which is strong and unbroken.

Mentally he is different also. He has an innocent and trusting manner, and comes over as ‘half-witted’, though the reverse is true.

I attract confessions. Strongly. From all directions.
I only have to show my face in public and total strangers form an orderly line, like a kvass queue, to spill their secrets into my ears.

He lives with his father, who is a professor of veterinary sciences, in a apartment at the Moscow Zoo.
The story opens with him and his father taken by the Ministry of State Security to deal with a medical emergency, a high profile patient, Comrade Iron-Man, who will only trust himself with veterinarians.
The man is of course, Stalin. Though there is little his father can do, Yuri finds he has much in common with the seriously ill Stalin, and is soon appointed ‘food tester’; thus finding himself in Stalin’s innermost circles in his final days.

This all works remarkably well. Wilson voices Yuri really well, his naïvety coming across with charm and gentle humour, in what of course is a grimly dark tale. It’s an odd story, but all that much better for it.

[AB76]

Russell wrote: "AB76 wrote: "It has become very quiet on here in last 7 days, has there been a mass migration to the Guardian forum?"

Quiet out here in the woods mainly because I’m busy building a chicken coop an..."

family member opening an indy bookshop? sounds good

[CCCubbon]

I read the latest Flavia Albia book, Desperate Undertaking from Lindsey Davis set in ancient Rome but didn’t enjoy it as much as some of the others. There is a map and cast of characters as one has come to expect, some bizarre deaths including being eaten by bears, a lively style of writing but I began to feel that there was simply too much information about Rome of those times. Every journey was given travel instructions, every building a history. I learned of Roman plays, their plots, how funerals were conducted, Roman society……it was too much and I found myself skipping to the next bit of the actual story. To be honest it felt like padding.

[giveusaclue]

CCCubbon wrote: "I read the latest Flavia Albia book, Desperate Undertaking from Lindsey Davis set in ancient Rome but didn’t enjoy it as much as some of the others. There is a map and cast of characters as one has..."

It is a while since I read any of her book and didn't catch up with the Flavia ones. It is a shame that they have become like this. I have read one or two books by Jean-Luc Bannalec set in Brittany and have just given up on the latest after reading three pages on aspects of the history and culture of the area AGAIN. The same with the Jack Reacher novels - I don't need several pages on how one particular gun works. You start to wonder if they are getting paid by the word! Kathy Reichs was the same after a few of her novels.

[AB76]

interesting new publisher here, i have ordered the book about Romania entitled Spy Artist Prisoner by George Tomaziu

https://www.envelopebooks.co.uk/

[CCCubbon]

@give

Yes. I have noticed this padding in other books that were writtenin lockdown. I felt rather cheated

[Lass]

What I’m reading now….….interview in today’s Observer with Alan Bennett. Extracts from his lockdown diaries. Yaaaay!

[AB76]

Nietzsche in Turin by Lesley Chamberlain is a great read and what a chance find in Waterstones a few weeks back

Chamberlain offers a commentary on the great philosophers year in the northern italian city,having moved there from Nice in April 1888. Nietzsche enjoys a brief stop in Genoa and then waxes lyrical about Turin, its location, the colonnades and the future it may offer him, inbetween crippling migraines and lamentations on loneliness.

Am looking foward to the rest of the book..

[Tam]

AB76 wrote: " Nietzsche in Turin by Lesley Chamberlain is a great read and what a chance find in Waterstones a few weeks back

Chamberlain offers a ..."

I have a memory of a quote from Nietzsche from a visit to Italy where he falls for a young lady, to no avail, alas for him, but it gave rise to one of my favourite quotes from him which was "the trouble with women is that they are only interested in me for my mind". Let me know if you come across it in the book, as I have forgotten from whence it came...

[AB76]

Tam wrote: "AB76 wrote: " Nietzsche in Turin by Lesley Chamberlain is a great read and what a chance find in Waterstones a few weeks back

Chamberl..."

great quote, i will report back if i do, so far no romantic interest has emerged, just a rather irritable philosopher with a migraine

[Andy]

A morning soaking up Friulian folklore here in a Ravascletto forest.. but more about that later, as I’m still researching the origins of some of it..

And a short, but very entertaining book..

Wild Wives by Charles Willeford

Willeford’s forte is not adhering to a stereotype. Sure, this is hard-boiled noir, but few things are as expected in his novels.
Here, what on the surface of it seems to be a fairly typical Private Investigator as protagonist, gradually gets turned on its head. Initially Jake Blake comes across as just another hard up and short of work detective..

The rain hit hard at my window. It slowed down to a whisper, then hit hard again. All afternoon the rain had been doing this while I sat behind my desk with my feet up, doing nothing. I looked around at the ratty little office and wondered vaguely what time it was.
It wasn’t much of an office. The four walls were painted a sickly lime-green, and the only bright spot in the room was the famous Marilyn Monroe calendar with its flame-red background. Two ladder-backed straight chairs, a two-drawer file cabinet, a cheap combination typing-and-writing desk and a swivel chair completed the furnishings. The rugless floor was laid with brown and yellow linoleum blocks.

Blake is aghast when the unexpected happens. It seems his luck is in. A beautiful, but psychotic young woman, the wife of a socially prominent San Francisco architect, calls at his office requesting his help for plenty of cash.

But as the story develops, his methods become more and more unorthodox, and his behaviour eccentric and often bizarre.
It’s evident that even early in his writing career, this was published in 1956, Willeford feels obliged to experiment with the genre. There’s an evident nod to Hammett / Goodis / Thompson / Leonard here, but always with a sense of irony. Law and order are out the window. Willeford’s plot is driven by fate. For anyone coming to Willeford for the first time, don’t expect a happy ending.

Just unfortunately, this isn’t as well developed as many of his other novels, and loses something because of it. It’s too short, and consequently some of the aspects of the plot are slight and appear hurried. The novel was apparently written in a sleazy San Francisco hotel room in a few hours when Willeford was at home on leave from the Army.
Nonetheless, it’s very different to your usual US noir writing, and easily read inside a couple of hours.

[AB76]

Andy wrote: "A morning soaking up Friulian folklore here in a Ravascletto forest.. but more about that later, as I’m still researching the origins of some of it..

And a short, but very entertaining book..

[b..."

Piero Pasolini ,italian film diector whose essays i read a few months ago, wrote poetry in Fruilian dialect, which was fascinating to read about

[Gpfr]

I've just finished In Deep Water by Christobel Kent. It's pretty gripping - internet dating, a remote Greek island ... - but I prefer her earlier books to her more recent thrillers.
For example The Summer House, A Party In San Niccolo and the Sandro Cellini series (a policeman who becomes a private detective). All of these are set in Italy.

[[deleted user]]

Thanks to Bill, LL and MK for the Dirda responses. I'm working my way through all the links. I did belatedly remember after my last post that I was aware of an Anne Fadiman book on being a reader. I think maybe Lisa mentioned it sometime?

[Veufveuve]

Of all the bars in all the world ... Favourite literary bars? I have a new contender: "Bar des Artistes" in Tom Kristensen's "Havoc." Just slipping in the side door now ...

[Gpfr]

Anne wrote: "I was aware of an Anne Fadiman book on being a reader. ..."

I've got her 'Ex Libris. Confessions of a Common Reader' which is charming and I seem to remember there's been talk of another one.

[AB76]

I only read a few pages of De Profundis and Other Prison Writings by Oscar Wilde but Colm Tobins introduction was a brilliant summary of the life Wilde was living just before his world came crashing down.

What shocked me was the reality of what "hard labour" actually was for him in jail, i'm suprised as prisons and the law are areas i am very interested in but i had never heard of Cubitts utterly pointless and cruel "treadmill".

This device was invented as a punishing tool to keep convicts busy and to pay for their misdeeds. Men would walk up a paddle wheel in some cases or a sort of rotating staircase for hours with a few minutes rest between long,tedious, tiring passages of treading

Wilde, a large unfit man, was walking the treadmill for hours a day with no point at all. This system ground men down and i am appalled at its use. The other detail is that Wilde had committed no crime, apart from love and even if the law of the day judged him guilty the sadism involved in the sentence is appalling, he could have been left for 2 years to run a prison library, help inmates with education or somehting more humane

A warder commented that that kind of hard labour crushed people and they usually died a few years after release.Wilde was saved from 2 years of the treadmill by a more caring prison warden but still died two years later

[FrancesBurgundy]

Gpfr wrote: "Anne wrote: "I was aware of an Anne Fadiman book on being a reader. ..."

I've got her 'Ex Libris. Confessions of a Common Reader' which is charming..."

I enjoyed that too but I've been meaning to recommend Clifton Fadiman's 'Reading I've liked'. It turned me on to Jules Romains, and revisiting it I see so many 19th and 20th century writers who I've not read, and many I've not even heard of. It's 800 small print pages and I have other things to do, but I'm very tempted to drop everything for a few days and ferret through it to get more recommendations for my TBR shelf.

[[deleted user]]

Veufveuve wrote: "Of all the bars in all the world ... Favourite literary bars? I have a new contender: "Bar des Artistes" in Tom Kristensen's "Havoc." Just slipping in the side door now ..."

For a real live bar and bookstore combined, I can recommend the stellar Battery Park Book Exchange and Champagne Bar in Asheville, North Carolina. The pics here give a good idea:

https://grovearcade.com/stores/batter...

A few years ago the wine writer in the WSJ called it her favorite bar in the whole of the US.

I’m another fan of Anne Fadiman’s book. One to go back to, for sheer pleasure.

[Robert]

AB76 wrote: "Tam wrote: "AB76 wrote: " Nietzsche in Turin by Lesley Chamberlain is a great read and what a chance find in Waterstones a few weeks ba..."

Things may liven up when Lou Salome shows up.

[Lljones]

Anne wrote: "Thanks to Bill, LL and MK for the Dirda responses. I'm working my way through all the links. I did belatedly remember after my last post that I was aware of an Anne Fadiman book on being a reader. ..."

Yes, Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader, as @Gpfr cited. Lovely book.

[Robert]

AB76 wrote: "With Marioupol almost destroyed, i wonder what has happened to the small Pontic-Greek minority in the city, Serhi Plokhiy had written about these Black Sea greek immigrants

Does anyone know of goo..."

Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago mentions the Greeks of the Black Sea region as one of the ethnic groups swept to Kazakhstan by Stalin. Koreans, Volga Germans, Greeks, Chechens, all appeared in the markets during Solzhenitsyn's exile there.

[Berkley]

Robert wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Tam wrote: "AB76 wrote: " Nietzsche in Turin by Lesley Chamberlain is a great read and what a chance find in Waterstones a..."

I think she was out of the picture by the time of his stay in Turin - though probably not out of his mental picture, so now that I think of it, I'm curious if she does get a mention in Chamberlain's book.

[Berkley]

Andy wrote: "A morning soaking up Friulian folklore here in a Ravascletto forest.. but more about that later, as I’m still researching the origins of some of it..

And a short, but very entertaining book..

[b..."

I do't think I've heard of this one before. Which Willefords do you recommend to start with? Pick-Up is the earliest one I have on my to-read stack, I should get to that soon.

[Veufveuve]

Thanks @Russell, that looks great. We have friends in Asheville, but I'm yet to make it to either of the Carolinas.

A couple of books finished in the last few days. First, Carsten Jensen's "We, the Drowned." I liked this big, open-hearted novel tracing Marstal's seafaring community from the early C19th to the closing days of WWII. There are elements that if not strictly magical realist, are certainly in the more far-flung realms of possibility. Normally, I don't like the more fantastical, but I could live with this in exchange for the group portrait of the town/community, the tides of time, change and continuity. A lot of it is told from children's perspectives. I realised that is something I don't often encounter but was really enjoying. All brought to a very satisfying conclusion.

Eric Williams, "Capitalism and Slavery" (1944), an incredibly important piece of economic history that I really should have read before. Brilliantly, crisply argued by Williams, it remains hugely influential, if not unchallenged. Williams was really the first to place slavery as central to the history of capitalism in Britain, first mercantile and then industrial. His account of the decline of the sugar economy and of British Caribbean slavery more generally is now undoubtedly weakened but his yoking together of capitalism and slavery is today firmly entrenched and being extended by new generations of scholars. A hugely rewarding read.

Finally, Friday I picked up "Havoc" by Tom Kristensen from the library and - oof! - another 600+ page monster. This will the third mammoth Danish novel I've read so far this year. Happily, the first 100 pages have sped by in a very enjoyable fashion. As has been the case with every Danish novel I've read, this is again very specifically located in particular (real) streets, many of them not far from where I live or work.

[Veufveuve]

I also wanted to say Happy (Orthodox) Easter - Christos Anesti - to any who celebrated yesterday. We did, principally by cooking lots of food and dyeing eggs red. We're not Orthodox, or even religious at all (I would describe myself as profoundly atheist) but my wife is Greek-American and grew up spending Easter with Greek relatives, largely in the tenements of mill towns in New Hampshire. It's a very important holiday to her and, now, to me also. It is, of course, a profoundly sad and poignant occasion this year, with the Orthodox world riven by such terrible, destructive conflict.

[AB76]

Berkley wrote: "Robert wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Tam wrote: "AB76 wrote: " Nietzsche in Turin by Lesley Chamberlain is a great read and what a chance find i..."

i will keep you posted if the "great mustache" is drawn into a romantic adventure!

[AB76]

Veufveuve wrote: "I also wanted to say Happy (Orthodox) Easter - Christos Anesti - to any who celebrated yesterday. We did, principally by cooking lots of food and dyeing eggs red. We're not Orthodox, or even religi..."

i wish the Ukrainian people a happy (orthodox) easter, in these terrible times

[AB76]

Veufveuve wrote: "Thanks @Russell, that looks great. We have friends in Asheville, but I'm yet to make it to either of the Carolinas.

A couple of books finished in the last few days. First, Carsten Jensen's "We, t..."

three very interesting books which i must read and will order that Williams book, its been on the periphery of my West Indian reading and thanks for reminding me of it Veuf

[Veufveuve]

AB76 wrote: "Veufveuve wrote: "I also wanted to say Happy (Orthodox) Easter - Christos Anesti - to any who celebrated yesterday. We did, principally by cooking lots of food and dyeing eggs red. We're not Orthod..."

Indeed, AB. Though my comment may have looked equivocal or an attempt at even-handedness, my thoughts are with the people of Ukraine.

On the Caribbean, I really must read C.L.R. James' "Black Jacobins." Any readers here?

[Tam]

Robert wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Tam wrote: "AB76 wrote: " Nietzsche in Turin by Lesley Chamberlain is a great read and what a chance find in Waterstones a..."

Oh yes Lou rings a bell somehow, didn't she have an idealised intention for setting up an artistic-based 'threesome' based commune.? I forget who the others were... Have vague memories of a very interesting woman... Thanks... I must look her up and remind myself of what i used to know!...

[Georg]

AB76 wrote(#130): "Wilde was saved from 2 years of the treadmill by a more caring prison warden but still died two years later

That is not entirely accurate.

Wilde was "only" condemned to the treadmill for his first month in Wandsworth, to move on to industrial labour after that (in his case picking oakum).
He would not have been able to sustain that punishment anyway because he soon developped severe dysentery (no plumbing in the cells). After a few months he had lost so much weight and looked so ill people who knew him hardly recognized him. He spent over two months in the infirmary before his transfer to Reading.

True is that the new governour of Reading prison who took over from his mean spirited predecessor in July 1896 did his best to make Wilde's life bearable: he ordered a large number of books specified by Wilde. And Wilde was, eventually, allowed to have pens and paper.
Under Nelson's authority Wilde could learn to distinguish Reading from Inferno
One of the ordinary wardens also befriended him, sneaking the daily paper (and the occasional bisquit) into his cell, at a great risk to himself.

I read (most of) some years ago. I still remember the feeling I had reading Ellmann's account of OW's time in prison: I would not wish that on my worst enemy.

Might be good companion reading to your book if you can get hold of it and feel so inclined.

[AB76]

Veufveuve wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Veufveuve wrote: "I also wanted to say Happy (Orthodox) Easter - Christos Anesti - to any who celebrated yesterday. We did, principally by cooking lots of food and dyeing eggs red. We'..."

yes, i thought the CLR James book was a superb, a great history of the situation, i have also read his cricket book "beyond a boundary"

[AB76]

Have finished Wassermanns superb My Marriage, its like the great author has been my companion for the last 15 days, detailing his marriage and travails in this autobiographical novel.

the prose, the pacing , the wit and the musing within was perfect, i didnt want it to finish and the portrait of Julie Speyer (aka Gadda in the novel) was mesmerising, what a woman!

Next up is Rex Warners 1941 novel The Aerodrome

[Berkley]

Tam wrote: "Robert wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Tam wrote: "AB76 wrote: " Nietzsche in Turin by Lesley Chamberlain is a great read and what a chance find i..."

There was a pretty good movie about her not too many years ago, titled simply Lou Andreas-Salomé. And her own book about Nietzsche is very much worth reading for anyone interested in the man and his work.

Looking up her wikipedia entry, I see that a novel of hers has been translated into English just recently, Anneliese's House. I must have a look for that and anything else available in English.

[Gpfr]

AB76 wrote: "Next up is Rex Warners 1941 novel The Aerodrome ..."

This sent me looking on upper bookshelves for the one Rex Warner I own - I couldn't remember the title, but didn't think it was The Aerodrome. No, a slightly earlier work, The Professor, read as part of a university course Committed Literature of the Thirties.

[Andy]

Berkley wrote: "Andy wrote: "A morning soaking up Friulian folklore here in a Ravascletto forest.. but more about that later, as I’m still researching the origins of some of it..

And a short, but very entertaini..."

Yes I think Pick-Up would be a good start. No question about 5 stars from me.
Though his masterpiece is Cockfighter.