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What are we reading? 17 April 2023
Out of the Past: Adventures in Film Noir by Barry Gifford.
In a review of a favourite book or a film the most important thing is to answer the question, ‘why is this good?’.
This book, of 120 film noirs that have been significant in the author’s life, has an additional attraction, as it addresses the more specific question of ‘why does Barry Gifford think it’s good?’, and the effect it had on his life and his writing.
Read it with a notebook to hand, as you will pick up many recommendations of films, and the books they were adapted from, or influenced by. Like no other in the genre of film noir actually. There are many of the most recognised pillars of the genre, but a greater number of what you won’t be aware of.
But, it’s far more than a reference book, and that’s why it is good (as far as I’m concerned at least). It’s Gifford’s anecdotes that make it so fascinating. Even a film like Double Indemnity, which I’ve seen several times, demands a rewatch after reading Gifford’s essay on it.
I’ve enjoyed much of Gifford’s fiction, and I’m less than a half of the way through it, but probably most of all, The Roy Stories, based around his own childhood. Here, the influences on Gifford as a young writer, about his own experience, soon become evident.
And, most importantly, the impact that good cinema has in forming character.
and, Shy by Max Porter.
Shy is the third of Porter’s novels to place a youngster at its heart, he describes it as the “climax of my books about boyhood”, in an interview I heard on the BBC, and supports the idea that they are referred to as a trilogy.
For me, this is the best of them, centring around an evening in the short life of Shy, a troubled fifteen year old who has spent his teen years mostly in custody, and now staying at a reform home called Last Chance.
His only consolation is the music from his Walkman, an escape from a world in which so many situations trigger his rage.
Porter doesn’t attribute a single reason as to Shy’s circumstance, but rather a build up that suggests undiagnosed autism. He also makes it clear that Shy is privileged. One of his friends at Last Chance reminds him..
You had all these chances. Eh? Wasn’t so easy for the others, was it? You’ve seen how this country works. Police, judges. Walk a mile in Benny’s shoes…(Benny is black)
It is set in the mid 1990s when the care system has suffered much through government policies. The institution, Last Chance, where Shy and the other boys stay, is under-funded and under-valued. They await eviction from the manor house they use, to be converted to luxury flats.
This greatly unsettles the already fragile boys. Rejected by society, their own community they have formed, is all they have left.
One can’t help but wonder what would happen to a similar institution today. In these times, that, I think, is Porter’s message, or perhaps warning.
Porter writes in his usual style, fragmentary and dreamlike, as Shy’s story unfolds. Misunderstood adolescence suits this more than his other two books about young men; uncertainty when faced with the adult world, torment when faced with a loss of control, and the complex web of desire, embarrassment and frustration so frequently observed in masculine youth, and it boiling over into violence.
Reading going well, as it has done it 2023 so far:in A Difficult Young Man(1955), Australian novelist Martin Boyd observes an Anglo-Australian family and its emergence in the early decades of the 20th century. Crisp and clear, it contains a lot within its short paragraphs and dialogue
Red Birds (2018) is a novel by Pakistan writer Mohammed Hanif, he has staked his claim to being one of the funniest sub-continental writers, he writes in english and deserves more readers.
In non-fiction, Shiva Naipaul, younger brother of VS, explores East Africa in North of South (1978). He shares some similarities of style with his older brother but is possibly funnier and less fussy.
Fascinating article in Past and Present, on the link between Swiss and German mercanries in the Dutch East India Company and their part in the imperial world. It follows a Swiss mercenary who married an Indonesian woman, who was orginally his concubine, ending with his son being an important politician in the newly federalised Switzerland in the mid19c. The sadder part is it seems like he or someone else erased much content in his diaries of his Indonesian wife, later on.
The music of Argentinian 80s New Wave band Virus has been soothing the soul as well...
Greenfairy wrote: "Carry on Jeeves, or any of the Blandings stories, you will be an addict in no time! :)"Those are good suggestions. I'm also partial to the Psmith books, the Ukridge stories, and the Drones Club.. My introduction to Wodehouse was an omnibus that contained samples from several of those - not Psmith, as I believe that character appeared only in novels, not in any short stories.
Andy wrote: "Out of the Past: Adventures in Film Noir by Barry Gifford. In a review of a favourite book or a film the mos..."
I've been watching a lot of film noir and other 1930s-50s movies the last year or two, so this sounds interesting. I haven't read any of Gifford's fiction or non-fiction but I do very much like the two movies he worked on with David Lynch, Wild at Heart and Lost Highway.
I’ve been reading some HG Wells, prompted by a biography by Michael Foot.
The Time Machine is lodged in our collective awareness, but does anyone in 2023 read it for its literary quality, or for its futuristic vision, or even for fun? I was catching up on a book I missed in my teens. While it had its exciting moments, I have to say the writing style was fairly ponderous, and there were long, long passages of unstimulating description. It was his first published novel and a runaway hit. Today, to me, it felt like a relic. Because character and motive and relationships were subordinate to the fantasy-science it lacked the readability qualities I hope for in a classic.
The History of Mr Polly, by contrast, had all those elements, with a confident wittiness as well, and as a result it felt very definitely alive. To be exact, it is the intangible absence of motivation that is played upon. It makes the self-taught Alfred Polly - who reads Boccaccio and Shakespeare and Rabelais “with gusto” but is not much of a hand in the drapery business - something of a mystery, even to himself. I thought it was well crafted and really interesting as a picture of life, and finally endearing.
The Invisible Man might possibly still be entertaining for a younger reader. The invisibility does allow for some high jinks. Whether that counts for much in the age of invisibility cloaks I rather doubt. The idea of a scientific experiment gone wrong is still relatable.
I’m uncertain whether to try Ann Veronica. MF says it was inspired by HG’s lover, the brave and brilliant Amber Reeves, and recounts the scandal caused by both the affair and the book, but says nothing about how good it is as a novel.
The Time Machine is lodged in our collective awareness, but does anyone in 2023 read it for its literary quality, or for its futuristic vision, or even for fun? I was catching up on a book I missed in my teens. While it had its exciting moments, I have to say the writing style was fairly ponderous, and there were long, long passages of unstimulating description. It was his first published novel and a runaway hit. Today, to me, it felt like a relic. Because character and motive and relationships were subordinate to the fantasy-science it lacked the readability qualities I hope for in a classic.
The History of Mr Polly, by contrast, had all those elements, with a confident wittiness as well, and as a result it felt very definitely alive. To be exact, it is the intangible absence of motivation that is played upon. It makes the self-taught Alfred Polly - who reads Boccaccio and Shakespeare and Rabelais “with gusto” but is not much of a hand in the drapery business - something of a mystery, even to himself. I thought it was well crafted and really interesting as a picture of life, and finally endearing.
The Invisible Man might possibly still be entertaining for a younger reader. The invisibility does allow for some high jinks. Whether that counts for much in the age of invisibility cloaks I rather doubt. The idea of a scientific experiment gone wrong is still relatable.
I’m uncertain whether to try Ann Veronica. MF says it was inspired by HG’s lover, the brave and brilliant Amber Reeves, and recounts the scandal caused by both the affair and the book, but says nothing about how good it is as a novel.
AB76 wrote: "Greenfairy wrote: "Carry on Jeeves, or any of the Blandings stories, you will be an addict in no time! :)"thanks GF..i think my mother should have a copy of either of those, will ask her when i n..."
There was a large anthology of Wodehouse's stories, with an introduction by Ogden Nash, that I read years ago. Stories about all of Wodehouse's major characters, and a complete novel. My favorite Wodehouse story is probably "Uncle Fred Flits By," which I tried to adapt into a play in my high school days.
Russell wrote: "I’ve been reading some HG Wells, prompted by a biography by Michael Foot.The Time Machine is lodged in our collective awareness, but does anyone in 2023 read it for its literary quality, or for i..."
Tono-Bungay is one i would recommend and any collection of his short stories. Mr Polly is my favourite Wells
I thought I would post up a few photos from my German trip. Starting with my favourite painting which is in a the Dom Gallery in Wurzburg, which is a sort of take on 'The Last Supper'. It is an installation called 'Supper with twelve Companions' by Henning von Gierke 2010/2011. https://i.postimg.cc/7Ld7g4Xw/IMG-086... But if you look closely, they have an extra guest at the feast!...On my way to the Harz mountains, to Quedlinburg, I was dropped off, in the early evening at this tiny stop in what felt like the middle of nowhere. There were two long abandoned buildings from the Victorian age, Warehouses? A farm in the distance and a tree with an eagle in it. Me and the eagle circled around each other, with a very wary eye. I was on his territory after all. After half an hour or so there was no sign of the train that was supposed to pick me up. I resigned myself to perhaps having to spend the night in the abandoned building. It was a baffling and very silent place... Wegeleben. I took this photo from the train I was on, which passed through it, 3 days later. https://i.postimg.cc/RVgW79Vy/IMG-078... The place, and the eagle have stayed with me ever since. Eventually a small train tootled through and carried me off to the medieval town of Quedlinburg.
More birds, metal ones this time, decorating the street furniture in this picture-book, half-timbered, town. https://i.postimg.cc/QN08PmGW/IMG-077...
And then on to Wurzburg and the fabulous ceiling paintings of Giovanni Tiepolo in the Residence Palace. https://i.postimg.cc/kXTyB0rX/IMG-080...
And finally I meet one of my 'Doors of the Day' in Marburg, https://i.postimg.cc/bvkbHM5n/IMG-092... a town which inspired the Brothers Grimm, whilst being students at the University, to go on to collect wonderful 'fairy tales' from the locals that lived around Marburg.
Tam wrote: "I thought I would post up a few photos from my German trip. Starting with my favourite painting which is in a the Dom Gallery in Wurzburg, which is a sort of take on 'The Last Supper'. It is an ins..."thanks for this tam, looks like bright skies...is it bracing or mild?
love the half timbered beams in the 3rd photo, a lot of houses in the shires where i am, including mine, have half timbered beams like this, though not as exposed to the elements, a lot of natural lime render used round here to protect external timber but woodwork retained on the inside walls
i will attach a photo of indoor half timberwork in my house, to foto section. (forgot to add to the photo section, while my house is a modest end of terrace, the terrace is in fact 3 or 4 seperate houses, made to look like a uniform terrace, mine was first in 1798 and stood alone till around 1820)
AB76 wrote: "Russell wrote: "I’ve been reading some HG Wells, prompted by a biography by Michael Foot.The Time Machine is lodged in our collective awareness, but does anyone in 2023 read it for its literary q..."
I second the recommendation for Tono-Bungay, it's a wonderful book
I finished the Everyman selection of the poems of Anna Akhmatova. This is going to sound very overwritten. They brought home to me how poems work by concentrated sound and image. In her later work there are no direct descriptions of her appalling reality – revolution, war, siege, hunger, execution of husband, imprisonment of son - and yet they express everything through mood and colour. The many allusions to the wider literary culture of Europe also underscore her deep sense of an artistic inheritance. DM Thomas says at the end that he will be happy if his translations give a faint impression of her greatness. I think he succeeds. You feel that you are in the presence of a great spirit.
Russell wrote: "I finished the Everyman selection of the poems of Anna Akhmatova. This is going to sound very overwritten. They brought home to me how poems work by concentrated sound and image. In her later work ..."I have posted one of her poems over in Poems - a favourite
willow
Too tired to read the latest comments after yesterday's long trip home from France (up before 5am, arrived 8pm - or 9pm French time) then some 5h sleep... but especially look forward to reading Andy's on the Film Noir book.Had a problem before leaving - didn't want anything too heavy for the last day or two before the trip, but most things on the reader looked like they'd need careful thought. Chose Le Séminaire des assassins by Petros Markaris - which AFAIK is not available in English - but was a bit worried by reading in French, which I only do occasionally. In fact, it proved to be pretty easy and I'm enjoying it a lot. Review when I finish, but an interesting word cropped up which I'll discuss in the 'Words' thread, to do with musical metaphors. Later, I'll have a siesta...
(Last night I lay in bed reading a Greek book translated into French; my French wife, next to me, was reading 'Golden Girl by Juan Marsé - a Spanish book translated into English... that's where we are these days.)
Down South by Rear Admiral Chris Parry is quite possibly the best account of the Falklands War i have read, from the unique vantage point of a helicopter pilot on the destroyer HMS Antrim.Other accounts have come from the ground war, or from HQ on the Hermes, or from fighter pilots in the FAA(Fleet Air Arm). Parry is FAA, though due to his rank and youth, he is more absorbed into the world of warfare than a solo fighter pilot or admiral. He was a Lieutenant with responsibilities for manning the bridge on watch, deck machine guns as well as flying helicopter sorties.
Bookish and religious, it is mature diary for a 28yo, he is not totally aloof from the laddish world of bundles of copies of penthouse delivered in the post and male bonding but always seems to be seeing beyond the simplicities of men at war and also the vulnerabilities.
Most of his war was spent around South Georgia and a few weeks around San Carlos in the Falklands, in appalling weather. The constant sea swell and cold gets worse as the southern winter grips, by the end, in South Georgia ice forms on every deck surface and is effecting the electrics, deep snow on the land.
Parry is honest and scathing in equal measure about the performance of both sides in the war and remains today an outspoken voice on defence issues. (He remarked in an interview last year how as a Rear Admiral nobody listened to his warnings about China, that global Britain needed a mobile naval force not the kind of halfway house the govrnment were building on the cheap)
Tired, weather beaten but victorious, though suffering a lot of losses in ships and personnel,as the Task Force prepares for home Parry admits as he loojks over a chilly Grytviken church at dusk, that he will miss the feelings of the last 3-4 months, life will never quite be the same again...
AB76 wrote: "Tam wrote: "I thought I would post up a few photos from my German trip. Starting with my favourite painting which is in a the Dom Gallery in Wurzburg, which is a sort of take on 'The Last Supper'. ..."It was a bit on the cold side, I should have left it a month or so. Though out of the wind, and when the sun shone it was really pleasant. Just hard to avoid the wind coming in from across the Baltic I guess. I read what I thought was 'The Harz journey' by Heinrich Heine as an e-book, but alas it turned out to be just an excerpt, along with other excerpts from his writing. Its interesting but I found him somewhat over the top as a writer, so full of himself and his opinions. I thought I would have found him, briefly, an interesting companion, but I suspect quite exhausting, in the flesh, so to speak.
Ol downloaded it for me on to kindle, so its obvious that I did not give him explicit enough instructions. Other reads were 'The Hiding Game' by Naomi Wood. OK, about the Bauhaus but a bit 'chick lit' for my inclinations, and Rainer Maria Rilke's 'Letters to a young poet' which was disappointing to me. I think there are possibly too many books made out of long ago authors 'correspondence' with random individuals. Though no doubt there are people here who would say that the point of these books was to 'round out' the authors life...
Sometimes a bit of mystery can be quite a good thing, to me... "Less is more" in Modernist terms perhaps? Any others opinions most welcome...
Paul wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Russell wrote: "I’ve been reading some HG Wells, prompted by a biography by Michael Foot.The Time Machine is lodged in our collective awareness, but does anyone in 2023 read it for i..."
Tono-Bungay? A book of great mischief.
Gpfr wrote: "Hello everybody and welcome to the new thread.As always, happy reading!"
Thanks for your help.
Mod
And for those who haven't seen it, it's not a joke!
https://twitter.com/BestForBritain/st...
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/...
Gpfr wrote: "Sorry to introduce politics, but I've just been reading about Britain's re-branding as the Unicorn Kingdom. 😨And for those who haven't seen it, it's not a joke!
https://twitter.com/BestForBritain..."
I've read it - it's crazy stuff.
The Tory party is really away with the fairies at the moment (as they say in Ireland).
MK wrote: "The modern practice of ships being registered in a foreign country began in the 1920s in the United States when shipowners seeking to serve alcohol to passengers during Prohibition registered their ships in Panama."Thanks - I didn't know that. The practice allows ship owners to apply far weaker safety standards etc. than would be the case if the ships were registered more 'honestly'.
The law is a complex area in which I am not an expert, but it seems to me that the decision of ferry operator P&O to summarily dismiss 700+ British workers and replace them with cheaper foreign workers about a year ago stems from much the same mindset - if it's cheap, it's good for the company - and to hell with the 'mother' country and its workers. This must have been a Brexit bonus, since I think that under EU law it would not have been permitted. I'm sure the French would not have allowed it in any case.
https://www.tuc.org.uk/research-analy...
Andy wrote: "Crocodile Tears by Mercedes Rosende translated from the Spanish (Uruguay) by Tim Gutteridge. 
The plot is so secondary significance as the strength of Rosende’s writing is the dark humour she writes with..."
Sounds like it might be right up my street... Thanks.
Andy wrote: "Out of the Past: Adventures in Film Noir by Barry Gifford. In a review of a favourite book or a film the mos..."
I'm not sure about how well known Gifford is, but at the risk of sounding like an ignoramus I have to admit that I'd never heard of him before. Still, this sounds potentially fascinating...
You seem to be on a bit of a 'crocodile kick' ATM, since Roy lives a mystical kind of life, skinning crocodiles in Southern Florida at age nine in the 1940s... follows directly your review of 'Crocodile Tears'. Coincidence? Or did the stars align in some mysterious way...
I like what you say about: In a review of a favourite book or a film the most important thing is to answer the question, ‘why is this good?’ because, to me, that is the whole point of writing a review. I'm frustrated by people who post 'I liked/didn't like this' but give no reasons.
If someone says (and I saw a review recently a bit like this) that "I enjoyed the lengthy descriptions of" ... whatever it was, I can be pretty sure that they are on a different wavelength, and that I probably won't like the same books as they do. It's useful to know that stuff.
Russell wrote: "The Time Machine is lodged in our collective awareness... character and motive and relationships were subordinate to the fantasy-science it lacked the readability qualities I hope for in a classic."Books that lack those aspects don't interest me... I'm afraid that they are often missing in Sci-Fi, which I don't read any more, but not only for that reason.
scarletnoir wrote: "MK wrote: "The modern practice of ships being registered in a foreign country began in the 1920s in the United States when shipowners seeking to serve alcohol to passengers during Prohibition regis..."What I like about items like these are the unintended consequences in an area divorced from the original intent.
Weather report for the PNW - SUN! For the whole week. And even 74° (23+°) by Saturday. I have to get out the lawn mower for my little backyard patch - otherwise we are looking at too tall grass.
So far Donna Leon has mentioned Tiepolo three times in So Shall You Reap (audio download from library).
MK wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "MK wrote: "The modern practice of ships being registered in a foreign country began in the 1920s in the United States when shipowners seeking to serve alcohol to passengers duri..."Sunshine here in S Derbyshire. Both lawns scraggled (i.e. electric lawn raked) after moss treatment left large black areas, again.
giveusaclue wrote: "MK wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "MK wrote: "The modern practice of ships being registered in a foreign country began in the 1920s in the United States when shipowners seeking to serve alcohol to pass..."We live with moss here - or I should say I do. I've had workmen want to take a power washer to my concrete patio and walkways. I tend to live with it, although I do wish it would take over the backyard, but as the weather warms and the rains go away, the moss disappears and I have to mow until mid-summer when even the grass stops growing.
scarletnoir wrote: "Andy wrote: "Crocodile Tears by Mercedes Rosende translated from the Spanish (Uruguay) by Tim Gutteridge. Th..."
I did think that it might be..
scarletnoir wrote: "Gpfr wrote: "Sorry to introduce politics, but I've just been reading about Britain's re-branding as the Unicorn Kingdom. 😨And for those who haven't seen it, it's not a joke!
https://twitter.com/B..."
Are you familiar with the lyrics of David Byrne? More applicable than ever.
Those civil servants are just like my loved ones
They work so hard, and they try to be strong..
Don’t Worry About The Government.
But, it’s a piss-take of course..
Still cool in the shires, 11c with sun, no temps over 15c since November, the treeline is a lovely mix of green shoots and bare branches, daylight now stretches well past 8pmMy next diary-journal read now Parrys Falklands diary is finished will be Journal of a Novel by John Steinbeck. Published after his death it compromises daily letters he wrote to a friend while working on East of Eden.
I am not sure how this read will go but am keen to get into the long grass of a writing project, the novels we read are sometimes years in the making, lonely hours in front of typewriter and its interesting to get a look inside the writers mind. I loved the novel but read it 20 years ago, so it will revisiting an old favourite. Greene's Congo diary was a much briefer version of this as he worked on A Burnt Out Case
scarletnoir wrote: "Andy wrote: "Out of the Past: Adventures in Film Noir by Barry Gifford. In a review of a favourite book or a..."
scarletnoir wrote: "Andy wrote: "Out of the Past: Adventures in Film Noir by Barry Gifford.
In a review of a favourite book or a..."
A number of interesting points SN..
Lately, I’ve also come to believe in writing reviews as to ‘why is this bad?’ also.
You may remember when Tom Mooney was challenged by the author on GR for a review he wrote on an advance copy for his work. I had a similar experience.
I read a lot of reviews on GR, from prospective ‘friends’. Many just rehash a summary, often with spoilers. Or, as you say, just comment that it’s really good. It’s actually hard to find critical reviews of books, cynically I add because a lot of the prolific reviewers here on GR are on ARCs or DRCs..
If we have similar tastes it’s a service to inform others if a book is a let down I think.. though it does seem an imposition to spend even more time on it..
Crocodiles is a coincidence, but it is surprising how often that sort of thing occurs, like a link between two successive and complete different books you are reading..
And Gifford, I hadn’t heard of him either until quite recently. But he does write really well. He’s probably best known for writing Lost Highway , with David Lynch for the screenplay for the film, but originally his novel.
Andy wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "Andy wrote: "Out of the Past: Adventures in Film Noir by Barry Gifford. In a review of a..."
ARCs and DRCs...?
⚽🎉🎉🎉🍾🍾🍾🏆🏆🏆 Burnley champions.Sorry had to do it!
Andy wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "Andy wrote: "Out of the Past: Adventures in Film Noir by Barry Gifford. In a review of a..."
I do my best to write reviews and saying whether I liked a book after being taken to task by Scarlet.
Currently still reading
I can just about remember the scandal when the story of his betrayal came out but never realised just how many deaths he was responsible for, particularly among the underground German Catholics. One of their number managed to get to England via Turkey and brought a list of them all believing that they could be of help after the war. In fact Philby sent the list to the Russians and when they moved into East Germany at the end of the war they rounded up and killed around 5,000 of them. But I am left wondering, in respect of the betrayal of agents sent into Albania, it never clicked that there was a traitor in place.
Something else that stood out was, with the amount of drinking that went on in MI6 and MI5. it is a wonder that any secrets every got kept or that they didn't all die of cirrhosis of the liver! I am about half way through and enjoying it (which doesn't seem quite the right word given the subject) but it is eye opening.
It seems that Philby was very charming and charismatic, rather like some politicians I can think of! I would have preferred him to be more faithful to his country, and politicians more competent.
As usual I have forgotten who recommended this book, but thank you.
MK wrote: "We live with moss here - or I should say I do. I've had workmen want to take a power washer to my concrete patio and walkways. I tend to live with it, although I do wish it would take over the backyard, but as the weather warms and the rains go away, the moss disappears and I have to mow until mid-summer when even the grass stops growing."
I have quite a lot of block paving which is a pest as far as moss is concerned but have given up pressure washing it (filthy job) and just spray it with a powerful weed/moss killer and let it die back.
My front lawn is hard work in that half of it is in shade and the other half I think has rubble under so it drains quickly. So that half dies back in a dry summer and then the moss comes.
Mowing until summer - I have been known to have to mow mine in December!
giveusaclue wrote: "Andy wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "Andy wrote: "Out of the Past: Adventures in Film Noir by Barry Gifford. In ..."
i didnt know about those German catholics, seems a bit extreme they were killed, but the communists after 1945, were ruthlessly killing many people. they re-opened Sachesenhausen concentration camp and it resumed an atmosphere of violence and death, under communist, not Nazi hands
AB76 wrote: "Andy wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "Andy wrote: "Out of the Past: Adventures in Film Noir by Barry Gifford. In ..."
Sorry. Advanced Review Copy, Digital Review Copy.
Publishers will send them out free to regular reviewers, especially those with blogs,
You may get authors trying to befriend you on GR.
I have refused any offers, except in one case, which was the guy from Quebec books who has been a friend on here for many years.
Andy wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Andy wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "Andy wrote: "Out of the Past: Adventures in Film Noir by Barry Gifford. [bookcover:Out of the Past: Adventures in Film Noir..."ah, thanks andy, i apologise for my ignorance
i';m still baffled i have 8 supposed "friends" who jumped on my profile but have never communicated with me once. I forget why i even added them now and its a warning maybe, to not fall for people trying to maxmimise their presence. These 8 have NEVER commented on Ersatz TLS
Andy wrote: "It’s actually hard to find critical reviews of books, cynically I add because a lot of the prolific reviewers here on GR are on ARCs or DRCs."Thanks for explaining those terms in response to AB - I had no idea, either.
Following your review, I have ordered Out of the Past: Adventures in Film Noir - a 'pre-owned'- copy (I love the absurdity of the euphemism); at worst, it should be good for a few reviews that I may strongly disagree with! I'm almost bound to find some pleasure in it.
Lately, I’ve also come to believe in writing reviews as to ‘why is this bad?’ also.
Indeed - I think a review needs to be both an honest response to the text, and an explanation of that response. Since in my usual formulation "we're all different", what I dislike (lengthy descriptive passages, especially by dictionary-swallowers) may be catnip to others. Neither do I like books where plot is everything but the 'characters' are one-dimensional... I could go on for some time...
It's very useful to find a few fellow readers where there is at least a degree of overlap in tastes (it's never going to be 100%) so that both positive and negative recommendations can be used in the weeding process.
Crocodiles is a coincidence, but it is surprising how often that sort of thing occurs, like a link between two successive and complete different books you are reading..
Indeed... it was pointed out to me not long ago (by Gladarvor, I think, on the Guardian WWR threads) that this is called a "frequency illusion" or - more amusingly to someone of my generation - the "Baader-Meinhof phenomenon" - when we spot something a couple of times in rapid succession, and feel that the frequency with which it has been referred to has increased (it hasn't):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frequen...
(Madame pointed out that when she was pregnant, she kept noticing other pregnant women; when the babies were born, we kept noticing babies; when we got a dog, we kept noticing dogs... and so on.)
To finish this random collection of thoughts: I've been a cinephile for a long time, and for others who are interested I can recommend:
The New Biographical Dictionary of Film Sixth Edition by David Thompson
(I have mentioned this before.)
Broadsword Calling Danny Boy by Geoff Dyer - for those who enjoy the guilty pleasure of a film ("Where Eagles Dare") publicised with the wonderful tagline: Burton speaks: Clintwood shoots.
My Last Breath by Luis Bunuel (16-Jun-1994) Paperback
"The Films in My Life" by François Truffaut - which shows up on Amazon but not on GR. Go figure...
Hitchcock by François Truffaut
giveusaclue wrote: "⚽🎉🎉🎉🍾🍾🍾🏆🏆🏆 Burnley champions.Sorry had to do it!"...
I do my best to write reviews and saying whether I liked a book after being taken to task by Scarlet.
Congratulations! I think I mentioned before that I'm old enough to remember when Burnley won the first division in 1959-60 with Adamson and McIlroy.
As for 'taking (you) to task' - I hope it didn't come across as being that aggressive! If it did, I apologise... as I said in my post (above), it just isn't helpful if someone says "I like/don't like this book", but give no reasons. Unless there is an explanation the rest of us have no idea if we share or don't share a similar outlook or set of criteria and tastes.
Once we know that we have some overlap (or none), more specific discussions can further narrow our choices and reduce the chance of disappointment/waste of money/waste of time.
I'm posting this as a new comment, even though it just carries on from the previous no. 141: in Truffaut's "The Films in My Life', he wrote this:In the introduction, "What Do Critics Dream About?", Truffaut says:
"When I was twenty, I argued with Andre Basin for comparing films to mayonnaise -- they either emulsified or did not. 'Don't you see,' I protested, 'that all Hawks's films are good, and all Huston's are bad?' I later modified this harsh formula when I had become a working critic: 'The worst Hawks film is more interesting that Huston's best.' This will be remember as "la politique des auteurs" (the auteur theory); it was started by Cahiers du Cinema and is forgotten in France, but still discussed in American periodicals."
I laughed out loud... I am a huge admirer of Hawks, and Huston is certainly someone whose mayonnaise didn't take... IMO, of course.
giveusaclue wrote: "MK wrote: "We live with moss here - or I should say I do. I've had workmen want to take a power washer to my concrete patio and walkways. I tend to live with it, although I do wish it would take ov..."Continuing on the 'outside' front, I live in what might be called a 'step' house in that from the sidewalk to the house are 6 steps, another 5 or 6 to get to the front door, and, in the rear, another 6 to get to the back yard and garage (alley access). It's that back yard that has the grass which will be mowed during this dry spell.
One of the first things I did after buying the house was to have the grass pulled up in the parking strip (don't ask me why it's called that because you don't get to park there). It now has native plantings - mostly roses and ground cover so no mowing. Yesterday, however, I was out clipping dead wood from the roses and will continue that today (at least it's on my mental agenda).
Later, I also had the grass in the front yard pulled and replaced with more (kinda) low maintenance stuff. No matter what, though, there always seems to be some part of the outside that needs care.
All this means I don't have to trundle a mower either up and down steps or around to the house front (I'm mid-block). Thank heavens.
Of course while I am doing this outside stuff I'm tuned in to my MP3 player and a download from the library. I finished Donna Leon's latest yesterday - So Shall You Reap. While she is still on a hobby horse, I did find this one less 'in your face' than others.
I shall probably be accompanied in today's outside work with a new book by Lisa Scottoline - Loyalty. I've never read any of her books - Chicago PI? - and this latest of hers looks to be a 'one-off' as it takes place in Sicily.
I don't know if there are any audio hoarders like me here, in case there are, I am sorry to say that Overdrive is discontinuing the app as of the end of this month. I suppose at some point, I'll have to turn to my phone and use that instead. Of course the beauty of an MP3 player is one gets to keep the book (or whatever) forever or until erased. That should be incentive enough for any commercial entity to say - wait, a minute, we can't let that happen.
I've been downloading Kate Shackleton's for future listening - in case they disappear from the library. I always like to have a mystery in reserve because they are easier listening when doing another task. I'm afraid I have to be a one-trick pony when it comes to non-fiction. I have to just listen!
Mod
The Chicago PI is VI Warshawski by Sara Paretsky :)
I read some of Lisa Scottoline's books some time ago — mostly about lawyers, an all-woman law firm in Philadelphia.
giveusaclue wrote: ...
I do my best to write reviews and saying whether I liked a book after being taken to task by Scarlet.
Currently still reading A Spy Among Friends Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal by Ben Macintyre...
As usual I have forgotten who recommended this book, but thank you."
I do my best to write reviews and saying whether I liked a book after being taken to task by Scarlet.
Currently still reading A Spy Among Friends Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal by Ben Macintyre...
As usual I have forgotten who recommended this book, but thank you."
Try again.
Russell wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: ...
I do my best to write reviews and saying whether I liked a book after being taken to task by Scarlet.
Currently still reading A Spy Among Friends Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal by Ben Macintyre...
As usual I have forgotten who recommended this book, but thank you."
It might have been me. I “enjoyed” it too. Philby was a remarkably charming rat. There’s an unbelievable set of photos of him holding court with a bunch of reporters and photographers at a press conference he called in his own flat, among them Alan Whicker, to deny he was the Third Man, and charming the socks off them. His Soviet handler described his performance as “breathtaking.”
We have a friend who is trying to gain an understanding of why the Cambridge spies did what they did, and is therefore studying Marxism. I think she would be much better off reading a book like this. Macintyre puts it down to friendship. Philby never joined the Communist party, and he never read Marx, though he owned a set. What he did do was spend a lot of time at Cambridge in the early 30s drinking and discussing left-wing politics with a group of friends, among them Burgess and Maclean. “His beliefs were simple but radical: the rich had exploited the poor for too long; the only bulwark against fascism was Soviet communism…capitalism was doomed and crumbling; the British establishment was poisoned by Nazi leanings.” He left university with the conviction that his life must be devoted to communism. And as regards his motivation, that seems to have been it.
Russell wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: ...
I do my best to write reviews and saying whether I liked a book after being taken to task by Scarlet.
Currently still reading A Spy Among Friends Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal by Ben Macintyre...
As usual I have forgotten who recommended this book, but thank you."
It might have been me. I “enjoyed” it too. Philby was a remarkably charming rat. There’s an unbelievable set of photos of him holding court with a bunch of reporters and photographers at a press conference he called in his own flat, among them Alan Whicker, to deny he was the Third Man, and charming the socks off them. His Soviet handler described his performance as “breathtaking.”
We have a friend who is trying to gain an understanding of why the Cambridge spies did what they did, and is therefore studying Marxism. I think she would be much better off reading a book like this. Macintyre puts it down to friendship. Philby never joined the Communist party, and he never read Marx, though he owned a set. What he did do was spend a lot of time at Cambridge in the early 30s drinking and discussing left-wing politics with a group of friends, among them Burgess and Maclean. “His beliefs were simple but radical: the rich had exploited the poor for too long; the only bulwark against fascism was Soviet communism…capitalism was doomed and crumbling; the British establishment was poisoned by Nazi leanings.” He left university with the conviction that his life must be devoted to communism. And as regards his motivation, that seems to have been it.
Russell wrote: "Try again.Russell wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: ...
I do my best to write reviews and saying whether I liked a book after being taken to task by Scarlet.
Currently still reading A Spy Among Friend..."
I think i recommended the Philby book My Silent War. I like your analysis Russell, i sometimes wonder if the various communist spies in wartime did more damage than those in the cold war. In WW2 they could embed themselves within the allied system with very little chance of being misunderstood as there was a common cause that tallied with ours.
I always wonder how much these middle class, educated british traitors knew about what communism was doing to eastern europe and how unpopular it always had been. Were they serving the millions of Eastern Bloc citizens or just the nomenklatura in their Moscow dachas?
scarletnoir wrote: a 'pre-owned'- copy (I love the absurdity of the euphemism)Ha! Pre-owned is only descriptive. What I really really hate is "pre-loved". Everybody who uses it should be sentenced to write "I love pre-loved things" 308 194 times,
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Books mentioned in this topic
Poison Romance and Poison Mysteries (other topics)The Russian Interpreter (other topics)
The Postman Always Rings Twice (other topics)
Double Indemnity (other topics)
Mildred Pierce (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Michael Connelly (other topics)Andrew Lycett (other topics)
Ai Jiang (other topics)
Natascha Bruce (other topics)
Dorothy Tse (other topics)
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Just released from prison for kidnapping a Montevideo businessman, Diego is soon involved in criminal activity again.
He got off because the businessman’s wife denied to the authorities that Diego demanded a ransom for her husband’s safe return, but only because Diego accidentally called a different person, but with the same name.
Once free, he hooks up with a murderer nicknamed the Hobo, recently escaped from prison, and they plan to ambush an armoured truck.
The plot is so secondary significance as the strength of Rosende’s writing is the dark humour she writes with. The key characters, and the police involved, all have flaws, and much of the fun is at their expense. The result is something of an entertaining farce.
The Montevideo she depicts is one of incompetent authorities and corruption, a society affected by great disparities in wealth and a crumbling infrastructure - ideal for a crime novel.