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Weekly TLS
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What are we reading? 11th May 2022
Until now I never picked up that In the UK birthday congratulations could be issued before the day.In Germany (or at least in the part of Germany I come from) this would be a big No. Because it is believed to bring bad luck to the recipient.
Georg wrote: "Until now I never picked up that In the UK birthday congratulations could be issued before the day.In Germany (or at least in the part of Germany I come from) this would be a big No. Because it i..."
Strange how customs vary from country to country. The pedant in me grumbles when I see "a happy belated birthday." No! It is "a belated happy birthday". The birthday is not belated. Bit like and empty bottle of milk, no it is an empty milk bottle!
Just me.
Thanks to all for the birthday greetings for Mam!Mixed news from the opticians - perhaps some marginal gains possible for a distance prescription, but oddly reading/short distance specs seem to be impossible. No idea why. We'll see how that plays out.
Russell wrote: "La Terre – Emile Zola (1887)A despotic old man conceives the idea of dividing his land among his three children, who will support him in his last years. His reward is bitterness, ingratitude and ..."
one of my favourite Zola novels!
giveusaclue wrote: "Georg wrote: "Until now I never picked up that In the UK birthday congratulations could be issued before the day.In Germany (or at least in the part of Germany I come from) this would be a big No..."
Where I live a child born out of wedlock was (maybe still is) called "a ledigs Kind". Now "ledig" translates as "unmarried". So a "ledigs Kind" is, literally, a child that isn't married..
AB76 wrote: "Russell wrote: "La Terre – Emile Zola (1887)one of my favourite Zola novels!.."
I agree, and the 'rude' bits are astonishing - nothing approaching that would/could have been written in Britain at that time. When Vizetelly was translating it he must have had to leave out an awful lot - so a modern English translation is a must.
scarletnoir wrote: "Andy wrote: "Those Celestin’s are part of the City Blues Quartet FW. I’ve not long ago finished the 3rd, but someone here, pardon me for not recalling who, had finished all four. They just keep get..."Yes of course it was you SN.
Russell wrote: "Andy - I enjoyed those Carson McCullers quotes."I do like to do that.
I keep them on my tablet and occasionally look back at the ones I’ve collected over time.
Good reminders.
I think also selecting quotes is a very personal thing.
Goodreads has a large selection, but they are very rarely the ones that I would choose.
Two from me.. Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse by Victor Gischler.
Gischler imagines a nightmare of an apocalypse, one in which civilisation is collapsing, law and order has pretty much disappeared, and rape, murder and looting are rife.
It is all observed by Mortimer, who since the world ended, has been living as a hermit in a cave in the mountains, but decided to rejoin what is left of society - which happens to be all but nothing.
It is a violent and savage novel, and one that stretches the imagination to the max, intentionally I think. Those who have survived cling to each other, but not for sensitivity, rather for a Brautigan-esque humour.
It doesn’t shy from controversy also. Women are often depicted as in slavery, being bought and sold. Strip joints and speakeasies of home distilled alcohol are common place.
There’s no question in my mind that this isn’t to be taken seriously, though no doubt some readers will. It’s a vicious satire.
In a war zone, or after a disaster, such as Katrina, society can breakdown. Even though it may take some time, again with the example of Katrina, it is reestablished, albeit with long term damage.
and, Give Us a Kiss by Daniel Woodrell.
I’m very big on Woodrell, and having read everything by him, this was the last of his southern noir’s. He does seem to split opinion more than most, but for me, when he is at his best, he is right up there with the great southern writers. I refer particularly to The Death of Sweet Mister in which, in Red Atkins, he describes one of the most evil characters in a genre that has plenty of them.
But this is his weakest novel. He began his writing with the Rene Shade novels, The Bayou Trilogy: Under the Bright Lights, Muscle for the Wing, and The Ones You Do, which are more crime noir writing. Almost ten years after those, this is the second of his books trying to shrug off the genre tag he had been labelled with. But his best was to come.
Doyle Redmond, a 35 year old writer, has maintained through the years ``a crippling allegiance to his roots.'' - the dark, semi-lawless, hillbilly Ozark mountains of the Arkansas-Missouri border. So Doyle returns home from California at the request of his parents, to find his brother, Smoke, and sort various matters of the law out.
I think it’s a case of Woodrell learning the ropes of the tough guy fiction. It’s reminiscent of Jim Harrison, but he doesn’t quite have the balance right. The Redmonds are far from being stricken by poverty, the dialogue isn’t as convincing as it is in his later work.
It entertains well enough, but doesn’t stand up next to Sweet Mister or Winter's Bone.
FrancesBurgundy wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Russell wrote: "La Terre – Emile Zola (1887)one of my favourite Zola novels!.."
I agree, and the 'rude' bits are astonishing - nothing approaching that would/could have been written in Britain at that time. When Vizetelly was translating it he must have had to leave out an awful lot - so a modern English translation is a must."
Yes, agreed on all counts: one of Zola's best - and one of his darkest.
This is a bit of a catch up.Congrats to your Mum, Scarlet for Friday, wonderful.
It was my birthday a few days ago, never thought I would get to be 84! The bones creak and we won’t talk about the eye ( but do look at the photo of the scallop with its 200 eyes that I posted if youhave a moment)
One of my birthday books was Modern Women Poets which I wanted - they’re all there……Plath, Few…..
This is a physical book . Still prefer my poetry in book form.
For my bedtime reading I read the six book series by Ann Swinfen about a bookseller in 14C Oxford. They were gentle, rather cosy, undemanding. I did like to learn the book making techniques of those times, didn’t much like the repetition of street directions after a while. It felt as though the author had a map before her as she wrote. It would have been good to have a map in the
book. Sadly Ms Swinfen died in 2018 so that will be the end os the series. I shall now make Scarlet green by saying I am starting The Fallout by
Yrsa Sigurdardottir .
I have also down loaded Portable Magic A history of books and their readers by Emma Smith.
Mr C is building a small bookcase for me downstairs . I plan to keep my favourite poetry, non fiction to hand. I swear the stairs get steeper every day. There is one bookcase in the corner of the dining room but that’s full of cookery books, all the rest line the walls of a room upstairs.
Georges by Alexandre Dumas (1843) is a fascinating read so far, its always good to return to the foundational 19th century style of writing, the laying out of a solid plot and the historical themes, without the cluttered faff of modern novelsIn some ways it feels like a punchier,shorter "Monte Christo" with racial overtones, rather than class or double crossing, there is also elements of "passing", as the eponymous hero looks white,with a dual heritage father. What also appeals to me is the Mauritian focus, in the decades after the British captured the island from the French during the Napoleonic Wars.
Barely a word is wasted, its a tight, lean read, with great turns of phrase and observation. I was a little suprised to see that the dual-heritage father of Georges "owns" 200 slaves, however my reading about Haiti(CLR James and others), reminded me that the dual-heritage class on the island was a strong part of the slavery institution as masters and in the Haiti rebellion, many dual-heritage Haitians were slain, while many took part in the upheaval, so i would expect the same on another French imperial island accross the other side of the world.
Of course in terms of production of sugar and goods, French Haiti dominated the Carribbean producing more goods in 1790 than the entire British Carribbean(found these stats on a french document from 1790). Mauritius, before the British took over, had a population ten times smaller than Haiti, almost a backwater, till the British turned it into another sugar monster.
CCCubbon wrote: "This is a bit of a catch up.Congrats to your Mum, Scarlet for Friday, wonderful.
It was my birthday a few days ago, never thought I would get to be 84! The bones creak and we won’t talk about the ..."
Happy birthday for t'other day CC. I think it might have been Hushpuppy who sent me a link for map of that era of medieval Oxford when I was reading the first of the Swinfen books. I did like the first two of them but found the later ones not as good and gave up. I might go back to them sometime.
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"the Swinfen books"
Belated happy birthday, CC.
I read the Swinfen books after you mentioned them, give - I liked them even though they got pretty predictable.
It's midnght here and still 23°. This is the 1st day it's been uncomfortably hot in the house. Not much use trying to sleep yet.
Gpfr wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "It was my birthday a few days ago...""the Swinfen books"
Belated happy birthday, CC.
I read the Swinfen books after you mentioned them, give - I liked them ev..."
cooler in SE England...16c, its been a pleasent 20c today but very loud thunder for about an hour...
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giveusaclue wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "This is a bit of a catch up.Congrats to your Mum, Scarlet for Friday, wonderful.
It was my birthday a few days ago, never thought I would get to be 84! The bones creak and we won’..."
Yes they were predictable but that was what I needed. I thought The Merchant’s Tale better. Just before Christmas there is a huge Christmas market in Lincoln. I think it’s one of the biggest in the country. It’s mostly held within the walls of the Castle and around the Cathedral and this does give one a sense of how such markets would have been held so long ago, maybe that’s why I enjoyed the book.
Georg wrote: "Until now I never picked up that In the UK birthday congratulations could be issued before the day.In Germany (or at least in the part of Germany I come from) this would be a big No. Because it i..."
Interesting... no 'bad luck' superstition applies in the UK.
Obviously, it's better if the 'best wishes' can be delivered on the day itself, but given the unpredictability of the postal system, birthday cards often arrive on the 'wrong' day... and will never arrive on the correct day if that coincides with a bank holiday! Must be tough in Germany to have all that bad luck land on you - or does the postal service deliver 365 days a year? ;-)
In this instance, though, the kindly offered congratulations were not delivered to the birthday-ee but to me, and as such they are much appreciated, but won't be passed on as my mother doesn't know any of my online friends, so it would be a bit pointless!
CCCubbon wrote: "This is a bit of a catch up.Congrats to your Mum, Scarlet for Friday, wonderful.
It was my birthday a few days ago, never thought I would get to be 84! The bones creak and we won’t talk about the ..."
Thanks for that, and a belated happy birthday to you, too!
I know what you mean about comfort reading... which is why I read three of the Yrsa Sigurdardottir books in a row, when feeling too tired to tackle anything else. No doubt I'll get on to the next one, eventually!
Interesting scallop photo - I wonder how they made the eyes stand out? Better not show it to my wife - she likes scallops (to eat) and it might creep her out!
Re Zola…I can recommend Michael Rosen’s The Disappearance of Emile Zola, about his life in London following the fallout of the Dreyfus case.
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I'm reading - and loving - Anne Tyler's French Braid. I succumbed and bought the trade paperback instead of waiting for the cheaper version.The book begins in 2010: Serena Drew and her boyfriend James are on their way back to Baltimore after visiting his parents. Serena sees someone she thinks is her cousin, Nicholas. She's not sure and after James brings him over, he turns out to be equally vague about family relationships.
"I have to say," James said finally, "you guys give a whole new meaning to the phrase 'once removed.' "We then go back to 1959 and meet Serena and Nicholas's grandparents + their 3 children, on their first family vacation.
This is a very recognisable Anne Tyler novel - and it's lovely.
scarletnoir wrote: "Georg wrote: "Until now I never picked up that In the UK birthday congratulations could be issued before the day.In Germany (or at least in the part of Germany I come from) this would be a big No..."
I wouldn't rely on the German postal services when it comes to delivering in time. If I were to write a birthday card I'd either send it a day before, risking it arrives a day too late. Or send it well before with a note for the recipient on the envelope not to open it before n-day.
While I am not superstitious at all I acknowledge that other people might be.
As there is no taboo, afaik, on sending belated congratulations: best wishes for a happy and as-healthy-as-possible year to come, CC.
Gpfr wrote: " I'm reading - and loving - Anne Tyler's French Braid. I succumbed and bought the trade paperback instead of waiting for the cheaper version.The book begins in 201..."
I'm confident that my own reaction will be the same, as I have yet to see or identify any evidence of 'declining powers', as suggested by one or two... perhaps those reactions are down to over-familiarity in the reader rather than any lowering of standards in the author.
Thanks so much for this 'preview'...!
Too hot for me and the dog in the northern Vosges. Hopefully a storm later to cool things off. We’re back to Cumbria for a couple of months next week, but in the meantime the reading is going well.. Firstly, Mona by Pola Oloixarac.
A Peruvian writer and doctoral candidate at Stanford, leaves California for Stockholm to attend an award ceremony for a prestigious literary prize.
High on drugs, and covered in bruises after incident she can’t remember, the writer boards the plane and embarks on a vodka session. What follows, the journey, and her days in Stockholm, are her meditating on a variety of topics - veganism, racism, politics, South American literature - but none grab the attention.
It overflows with sex, entwined amidst the meditations, but is scant with any cohesion.
Credit to the translator, Adam Morris, who it seems from certain sentences had a real job on his hands..
She’d waxed a few days beforehand and her pores grazed the pink fabric of her panties like the wet snouts of tiny rabbits.
Just an aside for anyone keen to read about Book Award ceremonies, it’s hard to beat César Aira’s The Literary Conference.
Unfortunately this barely kept my attention, and will no doubt be forgotten about as easily as my shopping list.
and,The Rabbit by Ted Lewis.
This is that rare beast, a Ted Lewis novel without a criminal in it.
Though there is another similar novel, which was in fact his first, All the Way Home and All the Night Through, published in 1965 which was to a degree autobiographical, and concerned young men and their tribulations in Humberside, where Lewis himself lived until he was 7.
This is set in the 1950s and again I suspect is autobiographical, and set on Humberside, but is physically and psychologically much darker.
That it is more difficult to ascertain it’s degree of overlap in Lewis’s own life, is no surprise. It’s not glamorous to look back on. There’s nothing to be proud of in doing so. This was a society of chauvinistic, bullying, hard-drinking men, some of whom were frustrated closeted homosexuals, whose behaviour these days would be seen as unacceptable.
Specifically, it concerns Victor, an art student, who returns home to Hull for summer work at a quarry. Uneasy with his student-tag he sees a need to prove himself, and spends the summer drinking heavily, insulting many, and fighting often.
This may well not be one of Lewis’s more memorable novels, but it is interesting and important.
He is of course known, for his crime which followed in the 1970s, specifically Jack's Return Home which was filmed as Get Carter, but also Plender GBHand Billy Rags.
Lewis died young at 42, of alcoholism, and will be remembered as a forerunner in British noir, prepared to explore the darker places in the souls of men. The words of Raymond Chandler summarise him well..
The crime story tips violence out of its vase on the shelf, and pours it back down into the street where it belongs.
The Bank of England is promoting a book! Since I have already bought books this month (I'm in economizing mode), I've put it Can’t We Just Print More Money?: Economics in Ten Simple Questions
on my wish list at Book Depository in case they are the lucky winners for any purchase from me next month.Perhaps I can also purchase Along the Amber Route
at the same time, as it has just come out in paperback.
MK wrote: "The Bank of England is promoting a book! Since I have already bought books this month (I'm in economizing mode), I've put it [book:Can’t We Just Print More Money?: Economics in Ten Simple Questions..."I am not that well versed in the study of economics but your piece here reminds me of, many years ago, coming across the theories of Silvio Gesell, a German economist, whilst I was particularly studying the ideas of Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier. I would have loved to have had a knowledgable economist to hand, to talk about the theory behind his ideas... but sadly, I didn't...
Anyway I still have the old academic essay, from many years ago, and if I knew of a way to post you a pdf of the original article, I would happily do so, if you were interested.
I did rewrite the original essay on my blog, but omitted quite a lot of the original essay, especially the bits on economics, as I thought that the majority of people would not be that interested in obscure bits of history from the field of economics.
Anyway here is the quote from it on Silvio Gesell, (I was discussing the broad concepts behind his plan for 'Broadacre City') Anyway here is the basic concept.
"Wright was introduced to the ideas of Silvio Gesell, a German economist. Wright endorsed his book ‘The Natural Economic Order’ and described it as ‘anti-Marxian socialism’. From Gesell he took the novel idea of printing “free money”12 arguing that just as perishable goods rotted over time, so should money. If it had a built-in annual decrease in face value, then it could no longer be speculated upon, or hoarded, but had to be circulated with in the (localised) economy as efficiently as possible. A bit like the modern day ‘LETS’ bartering systems that some British towns have set up to keep goods and services of localised value."
If you had any thoughts on it, as an idea, as to why/how it might work, or not, I would be pleased to hear them...
Well yesterday I finished reading
the latest (last?) of the Sandro Cellini series. The private investigator is called back to help the police decades after he had been forced to leave. A woman is found dead in the ruins of a house she lived in as a commune when Sandro was a young policeman. A man and his dog are also dead in the same place but having died some weeks later.
I think I have only read one in this series, and many years ago and can't have been too impressed as I didn't carry on with further books. I have to say I was very disappointed and don't feel tempted to read the others. I felt the whole book was too disjointed and confusing. There was plenty of angst (my latest favourite word it seems) which got pretty boring to be honest.
I have now moved on to
Given the number of crime novels I have read it is probably surprising that I have never read any of his books before. A serial child killer is on the loose in Aberdeen, where it never seems to stop raining. I'm enjoying it very much so far.
Tam wrote: "MK wrote: "The Bank of England is promoting a book! Since I have already bought books this month (I'm in economizing mode), I've put it Can’t We Just Print More Money?: Economics in Ten Simpl..."</i>Whoa! That is definitely over my head.
Not sure if this has any correlation, but I used to buy a six roll package of TP for ~$5; yesterday it was a four roll package for $5. Looks like my money isn't quite what it used to be a year or so ago.
A favorite 'money' author of mine is [author:John Lanchester. His Whoops!: Why Everyone Owes Everyone And No One Can Pay
about the 2008 meltdown (non-fiction) and Capital 
(fiction) also about the meltdown which is really funny. Lanchester's Dad was a banker (HSBC-Hong Kong). I think he may have money in his DNA.I'll give everyone my 2¢ on the Bank of England book after next month.
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Congratulations on your mother's 100th! Has she had a card from the queen?
Gpfr wrote: "@scarletnoirCongratulations on your mothers' 100th! Has she had a card from the queen?"
Hi Scarlet may I add to the congratulations to your mother
Hello everyone, great to be back in touch . We changed internet provider and have been having problems with a very intermittent service. Plus the fact that I really haven't been reading much as I have been seeing a lot of of my grandsons at long, long last We have been out and about going to theme parks , long walks, watching one of them play rugby - glorious !
Every time I have picked up a book though, I have found myself nodding off after a couple of pages!
I was given a set of the. Dune series by Frank Herbert and am reading it in the correct order at last- although I wiil probably miss out 'heretics' as I found that a bit of a slog before.
I read Pratchetts masterpiece Small Gods, , and the villian, the close minded Vorbis, was so like Putin that it made me weep.
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The Honjin Murders by Seishi Yokomizo (transl. Louise Heal Kawai)A short and entertaining murder mystery - a locked room mystery set in 1937. The narrator (the author of the book) reminds us of classic examples of this type of detective fiction by John Dickson Carr and others.
A honjin was an inn which government officials used when travelling and the families who ran them had status which their descendants continued to have when only the name of honjin remained. The eldest son of one such family is getting married - alas on his wedding night he and his bride are found stabbed to death in a room locked from inside. A bloody sword is outside in the snow, but there are no footprints.
The police are called and are later joined by an eccentric but brilliant young private detective.
A fun read.
Drizzle and 13c in the shires...Good reading, with Dumas and the drama of 1820s Mauritius, as i mentioned a few days ago, the plot has elements of Monte Christo in it and a beautiful narrative style.
In The Tsars Foreign Faiths Paul Werth writes with clarity and great style about the policy of Imperial Russia towards its significant non-Orthodox population up to the 1917 revolution. The flirtations that the Tsarist system had with Austrian and French religious tolerance in the late 1780s and 1790s never really lasted, the Orthodox church emerged from attempts at ecumenical councils and settlements to dominate and remain the right hand of the Imperial system up to 1917..... something Putin has revived in his long reign of thieving terror.
The largest minority was always Islam, though the annexation of parts of Poland increased the Catholic and Uniate populations, Protestants remained a steady percentage and possibly were the most well accomodated, geographically located in the Baltics and Finland.
Greenfairy mentioned Dune, i watched the new film in two parts, while the first hour was an impressive rendering of the book, i found the second half, after tthe fall of House Altreides rather dull and the squeaky voiced hero reminding me more and more of the hobbit actor fellow in Lord of the Rings, the charisma of a cowpat.....while his mother, well played in Lynch's film, is a strange cringing bag of nerves
Posted this on the G's WWR. Seems to have fallen into a hole for the time being. But anyway: the chance of anybody wanting to discuss this seem to be higher in this much smaller community.https://www.theguardian.com/books/202...
If somebody thinks a writer should have written a different book they are free to write this different book. That is what Fiona Snyckers did with "Lacuna", in order to give Lucy Lurie the voice JM Coetzee had, in her view, refused her in "Disgrace.
This post is not about FS's book, which I haven't read. It is about some nagging questions in my head, occasioned by this review.
Is it, in principle, acceptable to make a person who ist still alive a fictional character without using a roman a clef ruse?
If it is: are there still boundaries that should never be transgressed?
In "Lacuna" an academic-cum-flagging writer, John Coetzee, uses, or exploits, the traumatic experience of Lucy Lurie (a young colleague of his), who has been gang-raped, to write a book called "Disgrace". Which made him famous .
Snyckers insists that her John Coetzee is "entirely fictional". This is not merely duplicitous, it is insidious.
With that, imo, she has given herself the license to dissolve the borders between a real person and a fictional character she can then represent however she wants. She can insinuate that the real JMC did what his fictional alter ego does: exploit a person's real trauma. She can, on a lesser note, also insinuate that the real JMC only came to fame because of that (in reality he got his first Booker years before with "The Life and Times of Michael K.", one of the bleakest yet most moving books I've ever read).
I am not minded to mince my words: I got the impression that the subtext of FS's novel amounts to a deliberate and undisguised ad hominem attack. Somewhere on the scale between tactless and malicious (or even abusive).
She [FS's Lucy] is similarly outraged that [FS's fictional]Coetzee chose not to describe the rape scene in his novel, leaving instead a “lacuna” – a space unfilled by women’s voices.
Can anybody familiar with Coetzee's writing style imagine him to describe a gang rape? I can't, by a long stretch of the imagination.
And, frankly, I find it utterly bizarre to ask this from somebody who is "a sexist old fart".
I'd even say there would be solid grounds to be outraged had he done so.
Georg wrote: "Posted this on the G's WWR. Seems to have fallen into a hole for the time being. But anyway: the chance of anybody wanting to discuss this seem to be higher in this much smaller community.https:..."
I read that review as well and I had similar thoughts to you. I was surprised that the book was published as written as it seems to stray fairly close to libel. You can't simply say this is a work of fiction and then walk away from the obvious parallels. I doubt Coetzee has any desire to respond to the provocation, but it would be nice to see a challenge.
Couldn't bear to watch Burnley's match live last night, and have it all to go through again on Sunday 🤞🤞🤞But it did help me get a good way through Cold Granite which I mentioned above. This morning my neighbour lent me a Vax carpet cleaner in a final attempt to get rid of the coffee stains I caused a few weeks ago. So moving furniture and carpet cleaning has taken up most of the day so far, with finishing the book while waiting for it to dry. I feel quite shattered now! But I will definitely be reading more in the Logan McRae series.
AB76 wrote: "Drizzle and 13c in the shires...Good reading, with Dumas and the drama of 1820s Mauritius, as i mentioned a few days ago, the plot has elements of Monte Christo in it and a beautiful narrative st..."
I loved the soundtrack and sound quality of the new Dune film, and thought the ornithopters were great.I am not sure about the hero either, he does seem a bit wet.
Greenfairy wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Drizzle and 13c in the shires...Good reading, with Dumas and the drama of 1820s Mauritius, as i mentioned a few days ago, the plot has elements of Monte Christo in it and a beautiful..."
those ornithopters were awesome, what an idea!
Anyone heard from Anastasia? Hope she ok with the Russian invasion still causing havoc in Ukraine....
Paul wrote: "I doubt Coetzee has any desire to respond to the provocation, but it would be nice to see a challenge."I think it would be out of character for Coetzee to respond. As far as I'm aware, he still hasn't commented on Martin Amis saying he had no talent. But I think in a sense he wanted the reader to think Disgrace was a confessional text, and so her conflation of Lurie with Coetzee is very much a case of taking the bait.
Gpfr wrote: "@scarletnoirCongratulations on your mother's 100th! Has she had a card from the queen?"
Indeed, yes... I may post a photo of her holding it if I can figure out how to do it.
giveusaclue wrote: "I will definitely be reading more in the Logan McRae series."I have read them all (to date - I think the series continues...) I did pause for a while after one which ended nastily - book 6, maybe? - but enjoyed the rest. I think CCC is also an admirer - certainly, there is at least one other addict...
Tam wrote: "MK wrote: "If (money) had a built-in annual decrease in face value, then it could no longer be speculated upon..."I thought we already had this - it's called 'inflation' and is currently running at 10% overall in the UK (20% for many foodstuffs, 100%+ for gas and electricity...).
(As you can tell, I'm not an economist!)
scarletnoir wrote: "Gpfr wrote: "@scarletnoirCongratulations on your mother's 100th! Has she had a card from the queen?"
Indeed, yes... I may post a photo of her holding it if I can figure out how to do it."
OK, I have posted a photo... I also wrote a comment, but that isn't there. Never mind.
Mod
Congratulations on your mother's 100th! Has she had a card from the queen?"
Indeed, yes... I may post a photo of her holding it if I can figure out ho..."
Great photo - that's lovely to see.
scarletnoir wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "Gpfr wrote: "@scarletnoirCongratulations on your mother's 100th! Has she had a card from the queen?"
Indeed, yes... I may post a photo of her holding it if I can figure out ho..."
Lovely photo, unfortunately the powers that be don't seem to be able to sort out the problem with comments. You post one then it disappears.
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A despotic old man conceives the idea of dividing his land among his three children, who will support him in his last years. His reward is bitterness, ingratitude and contempt.
Set in the wide farming country of the Beauce, home of Zola’s maternal grandmother, somewhere south of Chartres, this 15th book in the cycle is the eternal story of peasant life through the changing seasons, now threatened by a flood of cheap grain from America, and of an extended family seized by a rage for possession - of land, of money, of young women.
It is a long and sordid tale and seems to be regarded as one of the volumes in the second rank. Even so, I found it satisfying pleasurable. Zola is a master at creating the carefully observed setting peopled by characters who are diverse and human, of all ages and temperaments. His balanced sentences roll out so easily.
Early reviewers were repelled by the explicit scenes of lives lived close to animals. Some moments are quite startling even today, because Zola’s eye never looks away. There are brutish sexual assaults. One whole chapter is on farting, very merry and crude. And as always with Zola, the plot is driven by the logic of the circumstances, not by contrivances. Even a second-rank Zola is a strong read.