What are we reading? 17/06/2024

[Gpfr]

Hello everyone and welcome to the new thread.

I'm revisiting Barsetshire at the moment. The Warden was on my parents' bookshelves at home, but it was much later that I took to reading Trollope with enjoyment. I've just re-read that and am going on to Barchester Towers. I must have borrowed it from the library before but found a very cheap second-hand copy. I've never seen the much-praised TV series — I'll watch it some time.

Happy reading!

[giveusaclue]

Thanks again G for the new thread

Berkeley wrote in the last thread"As is often the case, I'm torn between reading A Very British Coup or watching the tv adapation, which apparently is also rated very highly. Probably I'll do both, eventually, assuming I like whichever one I try first but so far I continue to be paralysed with indecision"

If I were you I would read the book first, as that is the original, then watch the adaptation and see how you think it compares.

[Lass]

Re A Very British Coup, have a copy from seeing Chris Mullin in 2010? He signed it from “ Harry Perkins”! Also have “ Decline and Gall.”, and his diaries, “:A View from the Foothills.”

Speaking of politicians also have of Roy Hattersley’s account of Britain Between the Wars, “ Borrowed Time”, and his memoir.

[Lass]

That would be Decline and Fall….though probably a few politicians may have been galled after reading it!

[Gpfr]

As well as re-reading Trollope, I'm also re-visiting Inspector Wexford. I've read many of Ruth Rendell's earlier books more than once, but not the later ones, so that's where I am: and now .

Lass, you first started me reading Linda Grant. After hearing it recommended on A Good Read, I've just bought her A Stranger City: Winner of the Wingate Literary Prize 2020.

[AB76]

busy family weekend at my parents, my legs are now like iron and i'm knackered, five neices/nephews running amok, aged 5-10

my youngest brother(43) is struggling with Great Expectations , impressed he is trying as he isnt a great reader

as yet i havent read a word since Saturday morning, my oldest neice(10) is devouring more books than ever, a trip to any bookshop ends up with her having read 90% of the kids section!

in last thread i think robert or berkley were debating reading or watching A Very British Coup. my rule of thumb is always read the book rather than watch a serialisation...

[giveusaclue]

Lass wrote: "That would be Decline and Fall….though probably a few politicians may have been galled after reading it!"

🤣🤣

[giveusaclue]

Gpfr wrote: "As well as re-reading Trollope, I'm also re-visiting Inspector Wexford. I've read many of Ruth Rendell's earlier books more than once, but not the later ones, so that's where I am: [bookcover:The B..."

Thanks for another recommendation G and Lass that looks interesting.

I read most of the Wexford novels then, like you, came upon the later ones after quite a gap. Enjoyed them all.

[Gpfr]

giveusaclue wrote: "Gpfr wrote: "As well as re-reading Trollope, I'm also re-visiting Inspector Wexford. I've read many of Ruth Rendell's earlier books more than once, but not the later ones, so that's where I am: [bo..."

I've read all the Wexford novels before, but the later ones I hadn't re-read and that's what I'm doing now.

[AB76]

Santa Monica was a location that Chandler loved and Dorothy Hughes too. Its familiar to me for so much of the LA-Hollywood pap we all get fed over decades but somehow as i got older, i fall more in love with LA and especially the 1940s version of the city

Its always been a public transport desert,a city of cars but in the 1940s literature of Chandler or Hughes i find it becoming familiar, like what Hammett did for Frisco.

Santa Monica was a large town and part of the Greater LA area in the 1940s, now it seems to have been sucked into the city.

[Berkley]

Thanks once again for the new thread Gpfr.

giveusaclue wrote: "If I were you I would read the book first, as that is the original, then watch the adaptation and see how you think it compares."

That's my usual instinct and probably what I'll end up doing. I'm not sure why in this case I feel almost 50/50 between reading the book first watching the show. Possibly it's just that I heard about the tv series way back and have long had it on my list, while it was only a few years ago that I realised it had been adapted from a novel.

I've never seen a copy around anywhere, so I suppose I'll be reduced to looking online.

[giveusaclue]

Is this any good?

https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/Book...

Does ABebooks have a Canadian site?

[Alan]

I don't suppose I'm allowed to mention my own novel...

[giveusaclue]

Alan wrote: "I don't suppose I'm allowed to mention my own novel..."


Of course you can. I think.

[Alan]

giveusaclue wrote: "Alan wrote: "I don't suppose I'm allowed to mention my own novel..."


Of course you can. I think."

Thank you. Well, it's called The Sparkler and it's a reimagining of the life of Charles Dickens. It came out a couple of weeks ago. I'm just checking it over one last time...

[Berkley]

giveusaclue wrote: "Is this any good?

https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/Book...

Does A..." Yes, thanks. I'll probably try to see if I can get a few other things along with it from the same bookseller, in order to make the shipping costs more bearable.

[scarletnoir]

Gpfr wrote: "As well as re-reading Trollope, I'm also re-visiting Inspector Wexford. I've read many of Ruth Rendell's earlier books more than once, but not the later ones..."

I've read most of the Wexford series... generally pretty good, though I felt that the very late ones were weak, especially 'The monster in the box'.
I thought that George Baker was excellent in the TV series.

Thanks for the new thread! Too busy to post much ATM, plus some technical problems...

[scarletnoir]

AB76 wrote: "Santa Monica was a location that Chandler loved and Dorothy Hughes too..."

Another California author who wrote hardboiled fiction was the very good Ross Macdonald... he lived in Santa Barbara, and used it as a location under one or two other names in many of his novels. His PI Lew Archer also spent much time on the road, visiting LA, San Fran, Dago and other towns and cities in the state, as well as on occasion going further to Las Vegas, Detroit (I think), Chicago...

I've posted before a link to Chandler's LA locations, but here it is again in case anyone is interested:
https://la.curbed.com/maps/raymond-ch...

Didn't get on with the only Dorothy Hughes I tried... it was set in Mexico, not LA.

[AB76]

scarletnoir wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Santa Monica was a location that Chandler loved and Dorothy Hughes too..."

Another California author who wrote hardboiled fiction was the very good Ross Macdonald... he lived in Santa..."

i have a macdonald on the pile and read one novel by his wife

The New Mexico one you read could have been The Blackbirder, which i loved

[AB76]

Next modern novel will be Vuillards An Honourable Exit covering the French Indochina War and the machinations of French big business to extract something from the gruelling conflict in their old imperial backyard

The French retreat from Empire is almost unique in my opinion in its arrogance and brutality in the face of regions, like Indochina where control had been lost in WW2. Though unlike the Dutch East Indies or the British eastern empire, the french were still in some ways occupying the area under Vichy, the Japanese were never quite accepting of Vichy France rule over the area

After Indochina, came Algeria and a second major folly, with even worse results for the French mainland as it led to the instability of the late 1950s, where De Gaulle stepped up to reform the nation and create the French Fifth Republic. France has had quite a few revolutions or upheavals since 1789, more than most other western european nations. (Post Waterloo, 1830s, 1848, 1870, Boulanger, Vichy France, 1958(inc two military putsch attempts)

[scarletnoir]

AB76 wrote: "The New Mexico one you read could have been The Blackbirder, which i loved..."

'Ride the Pink Horse'... my summary from 2021 read:

Quick review: This book has a lot of short sentences. And mediocre writing. Plus cardboard characters. I wouldn't bother.
I did provide a longer review, with more detailed reasons...

I won't be reading Hughes again.

[scarletnoir]

Even the Darkest Night by Javier Cercas (trans. Anne McLean)

I don't quite know how to evaluate this book, as it attempts to reach more than one target, with some success and some significant failures. But I'll try.

This is, purportedly, a police procedural and a whodunit - though not in the 'puzzle' style. As such, it is a failure... the story is improbable to say the least, and the structure works against it. The author has chopped the timeline about, but in a way that doesn't maximise the potential of what is being laid out. The first half (or more like 40%) is really very ordinary fare, which surprised me. The language used was plain and uninvolving... I did wonder if the translation was to blame, but saw that McLean is an experienced and well regarded translator, so I assume the text gives a fair reflection of the original. The second half of the book is much better... because it ceases to be mainly a cop story and goes off in different directions... which are:

1. Some literary discussions between various characters... The protagonist, criminal turned policeman (you see about the improbability?) Melchor owes his salvation in large part to his obsession with 'Les Misérables', and in particular his determination to become a cop is based on his admiration for Javert. He only gains a better understanding of Valjean/Madeleine much later.
2. Links to the historic battle of the Ebro - the greatest battle of the Spanish civil war. These passages are written with far more verve than the cop stuff.

I think what happened here is that a literary author decided to try for greater sales by writing genre fiction, but feels as if he's slumming it, rather. This would explain the dullness of the cop story. Once he starts to involve his own interests - literature (he draws parallels between 'Les Mis.' and his own characters) and the civil war (his novels have apparently been based around events of that period) the writing improves considerably.

So I'm left with a problem: is it worth reading more Cercas, and if so, what? I don't know what more he can do with the police procedural genre; maybe it'd be better to look at his civil war books - though I may already be spoiled for that by the excellent Juan Marsé. As it happens, while casting around for more books I came across one of his out-of-print books - The Fallen - and ordered it. Cercas would have to write much better to match Marsé - IMO, of course.

[scarletnoir]

Just got the energy to read the end of the last thread...

Good news from CCC about the eyesight - these things can be a major problem with old age. My mother had a new stairlift installed this week as the old one kept breaking down... the engineer was confounded by the difficulty she had in using the safety belt, but as she couldn't see what was going on with it... She's getting used to it, gradually.

'Grumplit', eh? Don't think that I'm ready for that yet, though I do like to claim to be a 'codger' and a 'curmudgeon'. Probably only the second term is accurate, if only as an occasional pose. I'm still a little too sprightly for 'codger' status! (I introduced my Danish friend to these terms this week - she was delighted.)

[Robert]

I have an unusual number of interesting books around the house, and am bouncing through them.

I've received Airey Neave's book on the fall of Calais. A small number of brave men left in a tight corner by muddle.

Colonel Roosevelt, the third volume of Edmund Morris' TR biography. Alice Roosevelt once commented that Churchill and her father were probably too much alike to like each other-- both were men of letters and men of action. Both worked as Jounalists when they were out of power. And both were talented above their peers. In one chapter, Morris tells the story of Roosevelt's weeks in a Syracuse NY courtroom-- another trial in my reading. Roosevelt had written an article condemning the New York political system, which he said was dominated by two bosses, the Tammany Democrat Murphy and the upstate Republican Barnes. Barnes sued Roosevelt for libel. TR was on the stand for days, facing Ivins, a defense attorney who peppered him with objections. When Roosevelt appealed to the judge that he wanted to describe the political system that he objected to-- to explain to the jury why he'd written the article in the first place-- the trial judge excluded almost everything except testimony regarding Roosevelt's own years as New York State governor.

Morris brings out an incident one sleepy Friday afternoon, which shows the extraordinary turns that Roosevelt's life could take. Roosevelt was not going to testify that day. It would be consumed by legal argument between opposing counsel. Ivins stepped over to the defense table and presented Roosevelt with a book-- a translation of Aristophanes. Roosevelt had written a book review criticizing a German scholar's translation from the Greek, complete with learned notes explaining all of the jokes. Ivins assured Roosevelt that he had found a "first-rate translation." Would TR care to read it? "Dee- lighted, Mr. Ivins." So, as the attorneys argued, Roosevelt leafed through ancient Greek satire. And the argument was important, too-- the court was deciding what evidence Roosevelt could offer in his own defense during the following week. Then a message came to Roosevelt, who scowled. A journalist friend, Cal O'Laughlin, had already sent him a copy of the German threat, posted in several New York papers on the day that the Lusitania sailed. Roosevelt seethed at the arrogance of this, but vented only privately to O'Laughlin. And now he had received notice that the Lusitania, a huge liner with a great number of passengers, had been torpedoed off the coast of Ireland. By the time that court closed for the day, the Syracuse paper had printed an extra edition. One side of the front page was filled with the latest developments in Roosevelt's trial; the other was filled with news of the Lusitania. Roosevelt knew a number of the passengers...
I flip back and forth between the biography and a used copy of Diana Preston's Lusitania, which I bought from the local Friends of the Library. (A good account of the sinking, filled with survivor accounts.)
But there are library books, too, on Russia and Ukraine. Sour reading-- I'd forgotten that there were such things as Minsk Accords, signed by the great and good, and promptly violated.
And the John Marshall biography I bought beckons, too...

[AB76]

Robert wrote: "I have an unusual number of interesting books around the house, and am bouncing through them.

I've received Airey Neave's book on the fall of Calais. A small number of brave men left in a tight c..."

i hope you enjoy the Neave book Robert! the aerial photos of Calais i uploaded last month may be of help with the geography of the port city

[Gpfr]

Some might be interested in "Around the world in 5 books" from Stanfords:
https://mailchi.mp/stanfords/27-27207...

[AB76]

In A Lonely Place> by Dorothy Hughes has started so well, the prose is perfection, elements of Chandler and other hard boiled authors with a feminine skill at observation and emotional intelligence

The story is dark, tense and very noir....sadly i already kinda guessed the twist but the horror and the tension is so well done, after only 40 odd pages

[Robert]

Gpfr wrote: "Hello everyone and welcome to the new thread.

I'm revisiting Barsetshire at the moment. The Warden was on my parents' bookshelves at home, but it was much later that ..."

Thanks for the new thread.

[Robert]

AB76 wrote: "Robert wrote: "I have an unusual number of interesting books around the house, and am bouncing through them.

I've received Airey Neave's book on the fall of Calais. A small number of brave men le..."

Thanks.

[Robert]

AB76 wrote: " In A Lonely Place by Dorothy Hughes has started so well, the prose is perfection, elements of Chandler and other hard boiled authors with a feminine skill at observation and emotional intelligence..."

There was a good film noir version of this story.

[Bill]

Robert wrote: "There was a good film noir version of this story."

Well, the film took the book's title and milieu, but pretty much threw away Hughes' story for what amounts to an original screenplay.

[AB76]

Robert wrote: "AB76 wrote: " In A Lonely Place by Dorothy Hughes has started so well, the prose is perfection, elements of Chandler and other hard boiled authors with a feminine skill at observation and emotional..."

i will make a note of that

[AB76]

Almost finished White Torture: Interviews with Iranian Women Prisoners and its a very sad reflection of the violence and the organised repression of women in the Islamic state of Iran

I was suprised at how many of the women seem religious and refer to the Shia calendar, in fact faith of all kinds is prominent, very few secular or non-religious interviewees but all victims of the theocracy in Iran

While actual violence or sexual harassment in prison seem rare there is the organised neglect of the female body and medica l care, women reduced to shadows by deliberate playing on their medical conditions, witholding meds and and enjoying breaking women over months of isolation...very sad

[AB76]

Just finished White Torture, two examples were very interesting from females interviewed.

A Bahai believer says that she took her imprisonment as something like an opportunity for devotion to her Bahai god and to treat it as like being in a monastery to learn more how to love.

Another woman said the following "in the highly unequal and unjust situation created by the interrogator, a woman who has herself been wounded by a more generally unequal situation in her own life can develop resistance that is rooted in her daily experience"

An interrgator admits it is harder to question and interrogate "girls", i would imagine as the physical beatings and violence are less of an option.

Though there was a notorious prison governor at Evin Prison soon after the 1979 Revolution who gloried in abusing and electrocuting female prisoners, he was a convicted wife beater who became the arbiter of life and death for so many women after the revolution, he revelled in inventing new torture methods

[CCCubbon]

I sat and finished Robert Goddard’s the Fine Art of Uncanny Prediction this morning and appreciated the way all loose ends were tied.
I do find Goddard a bit hit or miss and have been known to bin books but the two set in Tokyo were definitely not. It was a long time ago that I read the first one (The Fine Art of Invisible Detection)and confess have forgotten but this did not mar my enjoyment.
The Fine Art of Uncanny Prediction

The Fine Art of Invisible Detection

[giveusaclue]

CCCubbon wrote: "I sat and finished Robert Goddard’s the Fine Art of Uncanny Prediction this morning and appreciated the way all loose ends were tied.
I do find Goddard a bit hit or miss and have been known to bin ..."

G and I have both read and enjoyed both those books too CC. And I agree over his books. Some have been great and others not so much.

[scarletnoir]

giveusaclue wrote: "I agree over his books. Some have been great and others not so much..."

I read one Goddard - set on or near Offa's Dyke, iirc... I didn't care for it, and didn't return for more.

[AB76]

looks like the G has censored another post, this one about the Robert Musil essays i have just read

i must remember to copy and save anything i do on the G and post it here to preserve it. Its almost not worth posting on the G anymore

maybe i shouldnt mention the USSR and negative connotations....lol

[Gpfr]

AB76 wrote: "looks like the G has censored another post, this one about the Robert Musil essays i have just read..."

Sometimes you have to wait a bit — your post is there :)

[AB76]

Gpfr wrote: "AB76 wrote: "looks like the G has censored another post, this one about the Robert Musil essays i have just read..."

Sometimes you have to wait a bit — your post is there :)"

ah, patience is not a virtue of mine GP, thanks

and also thanks for your work at the helm of Ersatz, i think its almost 4 years of Ersatz now....

[AB76]

I have just started the collection of essays or part-memoir of India by Octavio Paz entitled In Light of India.

The Mexican writer was ambassador to India for two spells between 1950 and mid 1960s and his book is about trying to explore the ideas of India. Its roots were in a 1985 lecture delivered in India which he subsequently re-wrote and became this book

This will be my third study of India by a non-Brit, after VS Naipaul(essays) and Mircea Eliade(novel) and its has started well. In the first few pages he remarks that India has never truly managed to unite its various peoples into one true nation. I think that is broadly correct though it made progress up to 1984 and the Sikh tensions and then Modi started to destroy any real unity by promoting Hindu chauvinism, though Paz was dead by the time Modi scurried onto the scene

[Gpfr]

AB76 wrote: "Almost finished White Torture: Interviews with Iranian Women Prisoners and its a very sad reflection of th..."

Sounds an impressive, shocking book ...
One thing that strikes me, how were the interviews made?

[AB76]

Gpfr wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Almost finished White Torture: Interviews with Iranian Women Prisoners and its a very sad reflection of th..."

Sounds an impressive, shocking book ...
One thing that ..."

i think most of them were conducted when the women were on bail or at times when they were released from prison. One theme is the constant re-arrests for things that seem almost trivial and then the repeated routine of isolation, interrogation and dreadful conditions

Solitary confinement with a light on night and day is a pattern of the regime, with lashes with a whip a common punishment. Mohammadi herself fell very ill in prison and a had a heart attack. Denial of medication is common and using medical records to cut off medication and work on prisoners minds and health. All the women suffered health problems and fell ill during incarceration.

The few interviews that cover the 1980s show women were treated even worse then. Mass electrocutions with cattle prods and beating was almost normalised, later on, from about 2000, the violence changes to co-ercian and mental torture as a much more common tool

One creepy element was constant sexualised discussion from the interrogators, no evidence of sexual abuse oddly but asking women about their sex lives, how they had sex and this seems to have been a fascination of the interrogators.

So while no sexual abuse is described in the book, it was widespread according to other sources, especially regarding the Governor of Evin Prison after 1979. a convicted wife beater and rapist, he abused women and invented new tortures every day. He lived a long life and clearly enjoyed his role.

It should be noted that for men, prison was a brief, brutal interlude before execution, with bestial violence in the cells.

[AB76]

How is the summer going for our American dwellers?

First proper hot days of 2024 forecast for next week in the Shires, could be 26-27c, though with recent summers, that will probably be 30-32c by the time it arrives

Drier and summery here since mid June but June 1st-15th was easily the coolest and cloudiest i can remember in the Shires

[Tam]

A digression for those that are interested in art. I have posted the piccies in photos.

I had a meander around Kew Gardens, with a friend, and saw the giant flowering plant, titan arum, that has just burst into flower. It was supposed to be very smelly, but, maybe from a lifetime of adult smoking of roll ups, I couldn't smell it, but did manage to smell some other plants along the way! The following day we visited The Tate Modern to see the 'EXPRESSIONISTS
KANDINSKY, MÜNTER AND THE BLUE RIDER' https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate...

It was interesting but a limited take on 'The Blue Rider' art movement. Really, to me, you have to go to Munich, to 'The Lenbachhaus', to see the whole of the flowering of modernist early 20th century paintings, including 'The Blue Rider Group', https://www.lenbachhaus.de/en/

And also possibly to the Franz Marc Museum in Kochel am see, south of Munich https://franz-marc-museum.de/en/
Still it was a good day out. I have posted some pictures of the visit on photos. I seem to be stuck on representations of cows somehow... One is Kandinsky, the other by Franz Marc. Can you spot which one is which? A very happy solstice to you all... And a view across the Thames towards the city. Is the cityscape getting more and more abstract, as time goes on?

[AB76]

Summer reading lists, corroding journals and lit sections of papers into mind-curdling idiot lists...aghhh...the TLS are at it and now the FT Weekend, so that will half my reading time, cos i hate lists!

Anyway back onto actual reading, i am very impressed by the latest Eric Vuillard novel An Honourable Exit. It is different to what i expected as it is entirely removed from the battlefront and set in the austere chambers of the French National Assembly, focusing on the politicians and the businessman behind them and their stakes in the continuation of the colonial wars. How many paratroops died to protect tin mines and other french extraction businesses?

The translation does seem awkward at times though, the only slight negative so far.

[giveusaclue]

AB76 wrote: "How is the summer going for our American dwellers?

First proper hot days of 2024 forecast for next week in the Shires, could be 26-27c, though with recent summers, that will probably be 30-32c by ..."

Looking at next week's forecast I think it is time for you to hibernate! I believe you live in quite an old house, is that right? Does it keep cool?

[AB76]

giveusaclue wrote: "AB76 wrote: "How is the summer going for our American dwellers?

First proper hot days of 2024 forecast for next week in the Shires, could be 26-27c, though with recent summers, that will probably ..."

yes it does, built in 1798(its a modest abode but thick walls downstairs), but the last few heatwave summers have tested it more than ever, whats warm inside for me is nothing like in most modern houses. temps downstairs rarely rise above 21c even on the hottest, hot days, upstairs it can get up to 24, maybe 25c. but every summer the hot days are hotter and the heatwaves longer

i get very little sun on the back of the house, a large hill is tree covered behind the house but on the road side, the sun is free to shine, so i close windows and curtains which keeps temps ok but the longer the heat the bigger the test, upstairs

right now downstairs is 16-17c, upstairs 21c max.

forecast here is for temps of 26-27c nbut i think it will be warmer by mid week

[Robert]

AB76 wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "AB76 wrote: "How is the summer going for our American dwellers?

First proper hot days of 2024 forecast for next week in the Shires, could be 26-27c, though with recent summers,..."

A typical Washington State climate-- at least, west of the Cascade Mountains. Many overcast mornings, hot humid days, rain... our annual short summer will come soon.

[AB76]

Robert wrote: "AB76 wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "AB76 wrote: "How is the summer going for our American dwellers?

First proper hot days of 2024 forecast for next week in the Shires, could be 26-27c, though with re..."

lets hope u get no horrible heatwaves