Ersatz TLS discussion
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Weekly TLS
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What are we reading? 15 August 2022
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Thank you — I had to try to live up to your standard!
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" it seems to be out of print in French as well as English ..."
'even in french? gosh that is suprising"
There's an October 2020 edition of Les Oliviers de la Justice and Le Maboul in 1 volume (Terrasses éditions), but it's not very cheap, 17 euro.
There's another older re-edition with documents about the film (EditionAtlantiS) - more expensive.
Gpfr wrote: "There's an October 2020 edition of Les Oliviers de la Justice and Le Maboul in 1 volume (Terrasses éditions), but it's not very cheap, 17 euro..."Thanks... we're off to France next month - maybe it'll show up second hand somewhere!
I finished The Widows of Malabar Hill this evening. It is set in Bombay, 1921, as I mentioned before and I continued to have to find some illustration for the clothes the people were wearing and the details of the food eaten. There was much information about the customs and etiquette relating to the various religious beliefs that was quite interesting but to tell the truth I started to get bored and even considered abandoning the book.However, round about half way it started to pick up and although a little predictable it was worth persevering. I cannot quite put my finger on the change but the book seemed to flow more in the second half and that is probably why it held my attention,
When I finished the story I found that there was a detailed explanation of all the words that I had been looking up so I felt a tad daft and wished I had found it sooner. I shall look for it next time
AB76 wrote: "Berkley wrote: "AB76 wrote: "I am quite impressed at how much great latin american fiction has been translated in the last 50 years, have you ever tried any Onetti novels Berkley? Onetti was Urugua..."Any particular recommendations? Since I've been reading some things from the late 1950s lately, I was thinking A Grave with No Name (1959) might be the one I'll look for.
Berkley wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Berkley wrote: "AB76 wrote: "I am quite impressed at how much great latin american fiction has been translated in the last 50 years, have you ever tried any Onetti novels Berkley? Onet..."A Brief Life and No Mans Land were very good, if rather mysterious, the one translation i havent read yet is The Shipyard. The first two are set in Buenos Aires...
only just found out his surname is O'Netty, his great great grandfather(born in Gibralter) italianized the name to Onetti
CCCubbon wrote: "I finished The Widows of Malabar Hill this evening. It is set in Bombay, 1921, as I mentioned before and I continued to have to find some illustration for the clothes the people were wearing and th..."i love backing up my reading with photos, fashions and other media linked to the settings and locations of novels i read
I finished reading
The latest in the follow on series from Thatcher to Mills. Fewer editing mistakes in this one, and a good story despite a particular "but why didn't they..."
After that I have started and abandoned one or two more crime novels so perhaps it is time for a change of genre for a while.
I do hope AB is feeling a little better now the weather has cooled down a bit! 😀
Breezy and pleasent in the shires, my last day of dogsitting and finished the superb Pelegri novel The Olive Trees of Justice, possibly my best fiction read of 2022 so farNext up will be a collection of Gellhorn stories i found in Oxfam bookshop The Honeyed Peace
@AB, if you’re interested Caroline Moorehead’s Martha Gellhorn. A Life is worthwhile looking out for.
Talk about dropping the ball, I just tried to find https://www.mysteriousbookshop.com/products/vincent-starrett-murder-on-b-deck?_pos=1&_sid=94247e37e&_ss=r here, and both Amazon and Otto Penzler have let me down. I was originially going to say that Otto Penzler does not miss much having seen the popularity of British Library Crime Classics, he has begun a companion series "American Mystery Classics" as shown above. Now I do not know how widely these are available, but I will say that I am within 40 (I looked!) pages of the end of Murder on "B" Deck, and I haven't a clue who the culprit is.
PS - Checked link. Doesn't work. If interested, I guess a copy and paste is in order. I'm sure the onus is on me.
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Here's the link — had collected some extra stuff on the end :)
https://www.mysteriousbookshop.com/pr...
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I enjoy these but the two latest are still too expensive in e-book form, so waiting for the price to come down.
Lass wrote: "@AB, if you’re interested Caroline Moorehead’s Martha Gellhorn. A Life is worthwhile looking out for."thanks lass....i have two of Gellhorns books in my pile, the short stories and a novel set in Czechoslovakia. i decided on the short stories as next read..
I am in a book group with some good friends, ex colleagues. Because of our long connection, we are very relaxed about book choices and don’t argue too much, though we have had some spats when it came to the book discussion. So, my question is this: how do others choose books? I believe it has to be done in a spirit of compromise - we are all different and have different tastes - obviously. We accept that we will not all like every book. But in a long-standing friendship group, it is hard to diversify choices. Or is that just us?
Any suggestions or comments on book choices?
We have in the past had a monthly pick each, but we tend to volunteer a few choices and then there are a couple of front runners which we decide on.
How do you negotiate a choice you really really don’t fancy? I sometimes mention a negative review trend but I just keep quiet if I think someone is really invested in their suggestion on the basis that good relations with a friend is a more important consideration than a book choice!
Uruguay: Portrait of a Democracy is a brilliant study of nation that slips in the back door of publicity and is dwarfed its South American neighbours Brazil and Argentina.Now i know a study of Uruguay in the 1950s is incredibly niche, even for me, however this secondhand book was referenced in an article i read on Uruguay and is one of those 1950s books that reads so well, so much depth and studying involved but falls under "general" rather than "academic" history.
I cant imagine anything like this being written as general history in 2022, certainly not about a small, obscure nation but i'm enthralled by every chapter and it continues my interest in Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil.
For anyone interested in latin americas first true welfare state system, google President Batlle, who impressed me greatly with his vision for the country over 100 years ago
The sadness is that by the time this book was written (early 1950s), the state was being buffetted by post-war declines in essential exports and the burden of a well insured populace was starting to bite into the coffers of the state. The inability to maintain the 1930-1950 social security and prosperity, led to the polarising of politics, the emergence of left wing militancy and then inevitably dictatorship from 1960 into the 80s. In the book Fitzgibbon is still basking in the "Switzerland of Latin America"....
Storm wrote: "I am in a book group with some good friends, ex colleagues. Because of our long connection, we are very relaxed about book choices and don’t argue too much, though we have had some spats when it ca..."It must be very difficult. I wouldn't find it easy because I would hate to think I had to read a book I didn't like.
Storm wrote: "I am in a book group with some good friends, ex colleagues. Because of our long connection, we are very relaxed about book choices and don’t argue too much, though we have had some spats when it ca..."I think you have answered your own question, it is a friendship group, and people compromise a bit because the friendship is what is valuable. I haven't ever joined a book group as I suspect that I would not have the patience to read a probable majority of books that I didn't actually want to read.
But if I do come across someone where we have both enjoyed, or at least appreciated, the same book then its always a great pleasure discussing it. My neighbour was a member of one, and she had the same problem as you , perhaps, that there was a positive experience, for her, in only about 50 per cent of the books that were chosen, but the two of us had some interesting chats about the books we incidentally shared, in her garden with a glass of wine... or two. A sort of book club, without the hard work attached...
Unfortunately I haven't been surrounded by many (fictional) book readers in my life, despite working in academia for 20 years or so but occasionally I have really appreciated being put outside my comfort zone and being introduced to a book that I would never have dreamed of reading such as, I think it was AB's suggestion, to read 'The Grand Scuttle' about the sinking of the German Fleet off the Orkney Islands after WWII... Just don't ask me about my own field of training, in Art, as fellow-travellers are even rarer beasts, out on the high plains of visual acuity appreciation...
It's hard for me to pass up a library book sale, and today I found a private eye anthology and Bucking the Sun
which is later than a favorite Dancing at the Rascal Fair
.Ivan Doig was an excellent writer about the west and Montana in particular.
More on book choices. Locally, there is a “super” book groups meeting once a year for groups all over the area. A list of six books is sent out, you sign up and have a day out at a nice hotel with lunch and choose two books to meet in groups to discuss with strangers. It is interesting to get different input but I have another question. Are there any men here who can tell me how men behave in a book group? Women tend to dance around trying either not to hurt someone’s feelings, or being icily snappily polite in disagreement! I am of the opinion you should be direct but not offensive, but some people/women? don’t handle that well. I hated Ali Smith and one of the organisers was smilingly, frostily adamant it was a wonderful book. Do you find others get upset if you criticise their baby?Yes, it is true, sometimes you are required to read a book you don’t like, or at least are lukewarm about, but often these can be rewarding. You still might not love it but the reading brings unexpected insights. You have to be much more precise and focused in your criticism.
Which brings me to another point and depends on your group. Just how deep does a group want to go? The Magician was our last book and a 5* for all of us. I will be interested to see what everyone makes of our next, The Echo Chamber by John Boyne. Satire I believe is notoriously hard to pull off, so did he pull it off?
Prompted by the book choices, comes my unease with a goodly amount of contemporary fiction. My complaint is basically the overhyping of recent releases. When there is a buzz about a book, I have to wonder how much of the hype is justified and how much is clever, focused advertising?Books are reviewed because they are new, (pushed on reviewers by the publisher) not because they are good necessarily. I am sure many of you know much more about this than I do. Modern reviewing can often be a non judgemental analysis of a book without a conclusion as to whether you should read it or not.
In reviewing much contemporary fiction, we hear of the themes “dealt” with but my contention is that in many of them, these themes are more window dressing, than actually dealt with in depth. Harsh? Too general? I would say overhyped book descriptions. The important point is not that a book is “about” a topic, but that it deals with the topic well. I am a bit sceptical of the critical writing graduates who churn out a competently written book but with little or nothing new or interesting to say. Are these books the literary version of Primark? Cheap, dubious quality, not going to last…..
Is it because I am an Official Old Fart or do I have a point?
giveusaclue wrote: "Storm wrote: "I am in a book group with some good friends, ex colleagues. Because of our long connection, we are very relaxed about book choices and don’t argue too much, though we have had some sp..."my thoughts exactly, part of the attraction of my reading is it always my choice, as opposed to my school days where various great novels were battered into my head till i hated them. Thankfully almost all those novels are now firm favourites but as a choice....
my next modern novel is The Promise by Damon Galgut, i have been mostly underwhelmed by his work, despite being interested in South African fiction, lets see how it goes
AB that word underwhelmed strikes a chord. I think perhaps that is what I am not very successfully trying to articulate. There is much that I read in contemporary fiction that underwhelms me. I wonder if it is partly my viewpoint as when you are older there is a lot of been there, seen that, got the T-shirt when it comes to novels. I try to be fair but we all have our preferences and history of reading.I think what I am talking about - can anyone relate? - is that feeling that certain, very few, books give you, when they fill you with joy, a visceral, physical response that pervades your whole body, lifts your spirits, and just makes you grateful that this book exists. When this hits, and it isn’t that often, I feel I have been knocked sideways, and I need to take a moment, sit back and just savour the enjoyment of a well written, deeply meaningful literary experience.
I am sure this is the case with poems but I am thinking just about contemporary fiction right now. And I didn’t get the all over body experience with The Promise by the way!
Storm wrote: "AB that word underwhelmed strikes a chord. I think perhaps that is what I am not very successfully trying to articulate. There is much that I read in contemporary fiction that underwhelms me. I won..."i'm in a rich vein of reading in last 4 years, so am only about 10% underwhelmed, maybe i'm lucky that over 22 years of serious reading the underwhelming % is maybe 25%. its certainly lower than i would expect, obviously the first 3-4 years as a world of discovery, released from school and uni set texts, free to explore
However if i take novels written since 1990, then the underwhelming % is about 50% but i read a lot less modern novels, so that can be misleading
one important caveat is that i rarely read to escape, i read for education, exploring cultures and experience and i generally read quite downbeat and quite grim novels. however, novels have helped me "escape" in tougher times and at 46, as i get older and the body fails, there will be many many more tough times, as many of you on here have described....and how welcome a re-read may be , a comforting factor...
Storm wrote: "Prompted by the book choices, comes my unease with a goodly amount of contemporary fiction. My complaint is basically the overhyping of recent releases. When there is a buzz about a book, I have to..."Kurt Tucholsky mocked the book reviewers for declaring at least thirty books a year to be "masterworks". That was almost 100 years ago. Made me smile when I read it: nothing has changed.
Nowadays a hyped book for me spells, more or less, "avoid". Although I do lapse if my library has it and I am interested in the subject. These lapses rather feed my confirmation bias. About 7-8/10 are either mediocre or downright bad.
When I look at goodreads I am more often than not part of a tiny minority who dislikes what tens or even hundreds of thousands like.
So it's more and more classics and modern classics for me. Very few disappointments so far.
And, as serendipity has it, the occasional un(der)hyped book that stands out from the crowd.
The book I am currently reading (almost finished) was published in 2009. It has just under 8000 ratings on GR. It is, as you put it so aptly, a book that makes me grateful that it exists.
Which has always been my gauge for my most favourite books: they make me grateful that the writer exists/existed and wrote them. They didn't write them for me, but they feel like precious personal presents.
Good point re Tucholsky’s comment, Georg. The past is seen as golden…..Traditional reviews are being pushed into the background and have to be actively searched out. Meanwhile, bloggers, vloggers, Instagrammers, TikTokers and YouTubers have thrust themselves forward, many with no more recommendation than their desperate wish to be noticed, or their laudable enthusiasm. Many are sincere and worth listening to but many have an influence way beyond their quality or content.
To such an extent, that Waterstones you may have seen, have had TikTok events and tables of TikTok gushed over books. Is this a bad thing? Many of the “influencers” (how my curmudgeonly old heart hates that word) are young and push YA books. Well, if they are a gateway drug, and develop a lifelong reading habit, I have no problem with that. And it is clear that bookshops and the publishing industry are sensibly taking advantage of the trend.
But we who have been reading for decades are more wary and less likely to heed the siren call of vampires and witches, and right on themed books. I am hopefully not being patronising, simply I think that with lots of reading, people may move on to more challenging, satisfying reading experiences.
Speaking of which, I have just started the Booker longlisted The Colony, by Audrey Magee, and I am gripped.
Storm wrote: "Good point re Tucholsky’s comment, Georg. The past is seen as golden…..Traditional reviews are being pushed into the background and have to be actively searched out. Meanwhile, bloggers, vloggers,..."
Until very recently, I think, "influencers" were the avant garde. People who did things nobody had done before, people who had thoughts nobody else had thought before. Artists and scientists who inspired others.
Recently it seems to have become something like a profession."XY, influencer, said..."....
Well, it doesn't need training, let alone an original deed or thought, but maybe it does need a specific talent to find enough sheep aka followers to make a living. Thankfully I can live an analogue life on another planet and block out that stuff.
Not even tempted by book sites.
I have often thought how I would love to be part of a reading group. But it was always with the caveats you pointed out: having to read the dish of the day, so to say, and having to hold back if I hated it so as not to risk offending others. Thanks for sharing your insider's view.
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I've just seen she has a new book coming out, Lucy by the Sea.
Two five star reads for me on a day of heavy rain up here on the far north coast of the Gulf of Bothnia.. just what was needed.. Firstly, one I’ve had on the go for a week or so, ploughed through and finished it today.
Eating to Extinction: The World's Rarest Foods and Why We Need to Save Them by Dan Saladino
The Shortlist for the Wainwright Conservation Prize this year is particularly strong. This is the fourth book out of the seven that I have read, and the third I’ve given five stars to, the others being Wild Fell: Fighting For Nature On A Lake District Hill Farm and The Treeline: The Last Forest and the Future of Life on Earth.
Such books on conservation are packed with scientific information and statistics,
The human diet has undergone more change in the last 150 years (roughly six generations) than in the previous one million years (around 40,000 generations)
Saladino, a former BBC food journalist, argues. World food production exploded after World War II when scientists produced grains, plants, and livestock. Though these developments drastically reduced famine, the mechanics involved required vast amounts of chemicals, fertilisers, and water. They relied on high-yield species and eliminated those that didn’t measure up, diminishing their diversity.
Too much fact thrown at the reader can be hard to handle. Most readers are not new to the subject, but neither are they experts; to please them is a fine line to tread. Most of all though, the book must be readable, not just fact after fact, it needs some other elements; anecdotes, human stories, even humour. And it is this Saladino excels in.
He writes the book in short chapters, perhaps 5 to 8 pages long. Take ‘Criollo Cacao’ as an example, which is actually the last food in the book, under the sector heading of ‘Sweet’.
Saladino travels to Cumanacoa, Venezuela, where the plant is from, as he does with most of the foods described. Once there, he meets people relevant to its conservation and cultivation, then describes the relevant parts of the country, it’s past and it’s present. The short chapters finish with a discussion of the food more generally, in this case chocolate; it’s history from ancient times (in cacao’s case from the Mayans and Aztecs), it’s production, and varieties brought up to date. The style works very well. The book could easily be dipped into, or referred back to - though I read it chronologically.
It’s comprehensive also, from wild foraged foods, to chicken, pork and beef, to fruit, to cheeses from the Accursed Mountains of Albania, to Georgian wines and Belgian beers.
Since the middle of the twentieth century the body mass of the average chicken has increased five fold.
While a dairy cow in 1900 might have been expected to deliver between 1500 and 3000 litres of milk per year, by the end of the century the expectation was more like 8000 litres.
More than 95 per cent of America’s dairy herd is based around one breed of ‘super cow’, the Holstein.
A single bull in Wisconsin can now father half a million offspring in fifty different countries.
And, Snow, Dog, Foot by Claudio Morandini translated from the Italian by J Ockenden
I finally got round to reading the first book in Pereine’s Closed Universe series, and indeed, it was the best.
Though, I must quickly add, the other two, Ankomst and The Pear Field are excellent as well. So, it’s high praise.
An old man, living alone in an isolated mountain shack, with just a dog for company, revelling in the silence and seclusion…that pretty much describes me for most of the time.. writing this review on a rainy day in the Swedish Arctic in my shack, or camper, with just the dog at my feet..
Adelmo Farandola is in the Italian Alps, and has reluctantly taken a dog for company, though credit must go to the dog, who, as is their wont, won’t take ‘no’ for an answer. The first half of the book sets the scene, and soon it is apparent that the backdrop is in effect, the third character in this tale.
Though written with gentle humour, there is an unsettling undercurrent, but not by any means obvious.
Winter comes, but this year age is catching up on Adelmo, and there are two mouths to feed. Provisions are depleted, they are snowed in and a trip down to the village is impossible. Their luck changes when they find the well-preserved and still-edible bodies of goats, ibexes and chamois at the foot of an avalanche, buried alongside in the snowslide, a human foot. The novel takes a darker turn, but remains quite unpredictable. Morandini’s skill is to wrong-foot his reader; man (and dog) against the rocky mountain wilderness.
The writing has that awe-inspiring beauty of the landscape.
Here’s a couple of clips..
Adelmo lost his sense of smell some time ago. When he stopped washing, he became immune to his own odours, and the farts he expels under the blankets at night feel like warm caresses. He is careful to encourage them with a suitable diet.
and
’Where the fuck are you going? What the fuck are you doing?’ scream the crows, the least willing to leave him in peace.
But Adelmo doesn’t reply.
Storm wrote: "Prompted by the book choices, comes my unease with a goodly amount of contemporary fiction. My complaint is basically the overhyping of recent releases. When there is a buzz about a book, I have to..."Hi Storm, I think this is the conundrum that most well-read individuals face - it becomes increasingly difficult to be awed by new releases. Advertisers attempt to overcome this with using buzzwords or booksellers by placing new books in key locations to catch the eye and purse/wallet of the perusing purchaser.
I do try to read the first page or two of a prospective purchase before buying or borrow the book if it is in the library first. That being said, I've bought 3 books this weekend and about 80 or so already in my TBR pile.
Book recommendations are so subjective, it is not an exact science, so I usually try to ignore hype around new book releases.
I love the idea of a bookclub, it would get me out of my comfort zone and try things I wouldn't normally read but I work irregular hours so can't commit to fixed times and I'm also very quiet when in group settings - and there's always at least one or two people who like the sound of their own voices who end up setting the dynamic of the group. This is why I like it here - everyone has a voice :)
Storm wroteI am sure this is the case with poems …
when writing about literary experiences and it’s true for me. Book clubs are not for me although I would probably enjoy the social side but like to choose what I read.
I was thinking that it’s not necessarily the whole book or the whole poem. As a girl I can remember being gripped by Mrs Danvers urging the young bride in Rebecca to throw herself out of the window; still go back to laugh when Mr Collins proposes to Elizabeth; be afraid for Pip in the churchyard at the beginning of Great Expectations…I am sure each of us has those very special book excerpts.
It’s the same with poems. I am still in awe at the beginning of Burnt Norton; carried away by Dylan Thomas being young and easy and then imploring his father not to go gently; Auden walking out one evening……….aaaaah.
I don’t find it often amongst any modern writers and have a suspicion that is an excess of ‘creative writing’ that seems to kill the rare spontaneous brilliance that gives us those wonderful literary experiences
Andy wrote: "Two five star reads for me on a day of heavy rain up here on the far north coast of the Gulf of Bothnia.. just what was needed.. Firstly, one I’ve had on the go for a week or so, ploughed through..."
the dog will love the rain andy....much tail wagging i'm sure!
Good piece in this fortnights LRB by James Meek on the Ukraine frontline in Mykolaiv.Once a massive shipyard city, it lies close to Russian occupied Kherson, where the Ukrainian army is expected to launch an offensive soon, the more i read about South Ukraine, its Greek and Ottoman history, the more i am fascinated by the region.
I hope Anastasia is ok in Madrid, when i was dogsitting the family opposite had a Ukrainian family staying with the beautiful flag of Ukraine flying on the lawn...
https://www.theguardian.com/books/202...Excellent review on Joyce Carol Oates new book Babysitter. I am awed at the idea this woman could write such a searing vibrant book and she is well into her nineties. Her 59th book. That is some serious achievement.
Anyone a fan of JCO? I don’t think I have read her. Where should I start (or should I not bother….)?
Gellhorns The Honeyed Peace has started well, the stories are quite angst ridden and longing for the past, it seems many are fairly autobiographical as Gellhorn adjusted to the peace after her adventurous time in WW2 as a journalist.The two stories i read last night were superb, great turns of phrase and style. One seemed to involve Hemmingway, veiled as somebody else, the other to my suprise was set in drizzly Grimsby. The tone and style of "Weekend at Grimsby" was immensely sad, themes of nostalgia for the fighting days of WW2, Italy and africa, with brave polish ex-servicemen now fishing (badly) for plaice in the north eastern fishing port and the narrators feeling that all those good times were gone, an interesting look on war
Settling in to Nadifa Mohamed’s The Fortune Men. She was on good form at the Ed Bookfest. As was Monica Ali, her Love Marriage next to be read.
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Anyone a fan of JCO? I don’t think I have read her. Where should I start (or should I not bother….)?...."
I agree it's a good review but I don't think I can face the sexual violence just now.
I've read some of her books. The ones I've read and enjoyed in recent years are The Falls, Carthage, and The Accursed — 3 quite different books.
If you'd like to try out her short stories, you can hear some on The New Yorker: Fiction podcast. For example, there's one in the 1st July episode. And on The New Yorker: The Writer's Voice she's reading one of her stories in the 8 October 2019 episode.
You might be interested in this article:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/20...
Thanks for the link, Gpfr. I am intrigued now.I particularly like the way the article links Joyce Carol Oates writing with the writers who have gone before. It struck me because I have just finished The Colony by Audrey Magee, an unsettling novel, and I highly recommend it. A Frenchman studying the Irish language and an Englishman come to paint on an Irish island and their presence causes ripples that disturb the life of the islanders. The story develops why their presence is so disruptive and it arises from history and it is cleverly done. Throughout the book are interspersed reports of violent terrorist deaths perpetrated by both Catholic and Protestant. These set off the background for the events on the island. The ending is harsh but entirely within context. The book’s title is important. (I don’t want to give away any spoilers).
However, one interesting point is this idea of building on the writers/artists of the past. In the Colony the idea of stealing the ideas of others is raised. What does it mean to be original? How can you include elements of what has gone before and yet still have your own voice? This is a catalyst in The Colony.
A browse in Waterstones may have revived my modern fiction reading, in over a month i havent read anything contempary since the short stories of Nadia BelarousetsI picked up:
The Netanyahu's by Joshua Cohen (recommended here by Mach)
The Fortune Men by Nadifa Mohammed
Am starting the Mohammed novel right now, both are based on real life events....
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I see you're both reading The Fortune Men — it'll be interesting to see if you feel the same about it!
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I'm interested in reading this, glad to hear you recommend it — it's on my wishlist!
Gpfr wrote: "@CC & ABI see you're both reading The Fortune Men — it'll be interesting to see if you feel the same about it!"
well its a total chance purchase for me GPFR, i had seen it on an earlier browse but didnt pick it up but the setting(Tiger Bay) and the real life link made me think....yes...buy it, plus being written by a modern female author. i shall keep you all posted, i liked the first 20 paghes so far
@CC, AB & Gpfr…Good to see you’re taken with Nadifa Mohamed’s The Fortune Men. I mentioned recently that she was on good form at the Ed Bookfest last week. Am enjoying my (signed!) copy. First came across her novels several years ago when Black Mamba Boy was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award. Only a couple of chapters in, and already drawn in by the character development.
Storm wrote: "Are there any men here who can tell me how men behave in a book group? Women tend to dance around trying either not to hurt someone’s feelings, or being icily snappily polite in disagreement! I am of the opinion you should be direct but not offensive, but some people/women? don’t handle that well. I hated Ali Smith and one of the organisers was smilingly, frostily adamant it was a wonderful book. Do you find others get upset if you criticise their baby?"Haha!
Well, I'd been thinking about saying something about book groups - basically, that I (a man) have never wanted to join one, because (like some others who commented) I could not tolerate the sense of obligation to read a book I didn't fancy. At least, if I don't enjoy a book it's my own fault for making a bad choice based on whatever reviews or opinions were to hand.
But... I do like what you say about opinions. I have taken flak from one or two people for expressing honest and forthright opinions about certain books or authors. I never set out to offend anyone, but it seems to me that books are too important to lie about - so I'm sorry if my views hurt one or two others, but that is not the intention. I can honestly say that when my own favourites are criticised or belittled, I don't take it personally. We all have different tastes and prioritise different aspects of writing and storytelling.
In lieu of book groups, I do enjoy the to-and-fro on this site and on the Guardian's WWR (except when people get personal). I don't think the Venn diagram of taste ever totally overlaps with anyone else - it would be very odd if it did - but over time, I do get a sense of which other 'members' have roughly similar tastes within certain genres - for example, CCC and I seem to like similar crime writers. This is definitely useful, and can save a bit of time and grief!
Andy wrote: "And, Snow, Dog, Foot by Claudio Morandini translated from the Italian by J Ockenden"I read this a few months ago, and though it isn't perfect, I liked it a lot... I'm glad you enjoyed it.
I have moved on with my non-fiction to The Iran-Iraq War: A Military and Strategic History published by OUP. It is one of a number of works on Iraq using documents and sources captured during the 2003 Gulf War.A few years ago i read a book based on the B'aath Party records and security files of the regime that was an amazing insight into the inner works of Saddam's Iraq.
This covers the grim 8 year slaughterhouse that was the Iran-Iraq War, as Saddam's secular police state battled the religious fanaticism of Khomeini's Iran. Vitally Iraq had the backing of many western powers, while Iran was just emerging from the choas of 1979 and a purge of the military.
In the end Iran's cynical use of mass waves of conscripts * dealt heavy blows to the more efficient and well supplied Iraqi military, Saddam in desperation turned to chemical weapons which then set the Iranian forces and their allies back before diplomacy ended the war in 1988.
* Culturally i should clarify that within Shia Islam, the idea of martyrs and sacrifice is a deeply felt one and maybe calling this cynical could be controversial. (Even today towns in the Alawi(Shia) regions of Syria are festooned with photos and shrines to the martryd fighters who fought for Assad)
scarletnoir wrote: "Storm wrote: "Are there any men here who can tell me how men behave in a book group? Women tend to dance around trying either not to hurt someone’s feelings, or being icily snappily polite in disag..."Think it should be a case of "play the ball no the man" or criticise the book not the person's opinion.
Gpfr – Another classy intro. Thank you.
AB - “…The tone and style of "Weekend at Grimsby" was immensely sad, themes of nostalgia for the fighting days of WW2, Italy and africa, with brave polish ex-servicemen now fishing (badly) for plaice in the north eastern fishing port …”
I shall have to read that. There are not many literary works devoted to north-east Lincs. There was definitely a small Polish community. I remember one Polish gentleman who was quiet and sad-looking and always wearing a suit and tie. He came to the kitchen door selling shoe polish and brushes. We didn’t have a lot of money either and sometimes we had to say we didn’t need anything. He would turn away with a polite but sorrowful smile. Looking back I imagine he was an officer in a Polish contingent during the War and couldn’t go back, so lived in exile, eking out a living in the only job open to him. Fishing, btw, was a very hard life in those days. There were many deaths.
AB - “…The tone and style of "Weekend at Grimsby" was immensely sad, themes of nostalgia for the fighting days of WW2, Italy and africa, with brave polish ex-servicemen now fishing (badly) for plaice in the north eastern fishing port …”
I shall have to read that. There are not many literary works devoted to north-east Lincs. There was definitely a small Polish community. I remember one Polish gentleman who was quiet and sad-looking and always wearing a suit and tie. He came to the kitchen door selling shoe polish and brushes. We didn’t have a lot of money either and sometimes we had to say we didn’t need anything. He would turn away with a polite but sorrowful smile. Looking back I imagine he was an officer in a Polish contingent during the War and couldn’t go back, so lived in exile, eking out a living in the only job open to him. Fishing, btw, was a very hard life in those days. There were many deaths.
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Ersatz TLS
Books mentioned in this topic
The Disappearance of Josef Mengele (other topics)The Combat Zone: Murder, Race, and Boston's Struggle for Justice (other topics)
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Essex Dogs (other topics)
The Last Night of the Earth Poems (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Olivier Guez (other topics)Charles Bukowski (other topics)
Qiu Xiaolong (other topics)
Charles Bukowski (other topics)
William W. Johnstone (other topics)
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I’ve enjoyed all of Burnet’s books so far, but found this turgid and rambling.
It’s a novel that goes off on tangents. These diversions can often be entertaining to read, but detract from the plot, simply by confusion.
That large parts are dedicated to a partly factual biography of the psychotherapist, Collins Braithwaite, damper down any spark that was previously attained.
It would have worked better shorn down by sixty pages.