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What are we reading? 7/10/2024
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giveusaclue, I think you might enjoy them, too, if you don't know them. I don't know if the books are very available now, I bought them a long time ago, but I think they're available as e-books.
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I'm reading and enjoying Notes from the Henhouse: From the author of O CALEDONIA, a delightful springtime read full of pigs, ponds and fresh air, collected essays by Elspeth Barker, after reading the article about it by her daughter, Raffaela, in the latest issue of Slightly Foxed. I've enjoyed reading Raffaela's novels previously.Elspeth Barker was the last, much younger, partner of the poet George Barker, little read now, I think, though acclaimed by T.S.Eliot among others. His relationship with Elizabeth Smart was the subject of Smart's novel, By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept. Elspeth was the mother of 5 of his 15 children. They lived in a ramshackle house in Norfolk, where Barker wrote poetry all week and got drunk on Saturday nights with a collection of visitors... The essays are about her childhood, her life with George, widowhood (which I'm just starting).
I was amused to read that the only 20th century novelist he would read was Georgette Heyer. The heroine of Raffaela's novel Hens Dancing is a compulsive Heyer reader.
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I read your comment on Elspeth Barker over on WWR and failed to make the connection with the wonderfully witty-sad O Caledonia. Now that I'm tuned in, the that set of essays does look interesting.
Gpfr wrote: "Tam wrote: "I have lost my automatic updating system, on Goodreads. Does anyone know why this might have happened? ... I used to get notifications when people have commented...."I don't really kn..."
Yes that is the box. I had it ticked, along with add to my update feed but it does not seem to apply itself any more! I'll see how long I can accept the long winded having to scroll down to one of my still existing comments sent by others, in the September thread, in my e-mail, to get into Goodreads... The 'Not Tam' was a joke Scarlet! r.e. your review of Percival Everetts book 'Not Sydney Poitier'!... Obviously my sense of humour is slipping its usual moorings as well!...
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Gpfr wrote: "I've been re-reading some of Margaret Frazer's medieval mysteries. There are 2 series, one with a nun as the central character, Dame Frevisse, and the other about a group of players whose central c..."Thanks G. I will investigate.
AB76 wrote: "impressive to have read double that last yeari read about 70 a year it seems max and i'm on 63 now, so close to matching 70."
Yes, but your books are generally much more erudite than mine, so take more concentration. Although this one is more serious and, so far, very good.
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i have read some Marx but none of those...i want to read the Bonaparte one, Marx was scathing about him in the collection of journalism i read a few months ago
I'm thinking of the Bonaparte one too, if only because it ties in with the start of the Rougon-Macquart cycle.
Tam wrote: "Gpfr wrote: "Tam wrote: "I have lost my automatic updating system, on Goodreads. Does anyone know why this might have happened? ... I used to get notifications when people have commented...."I do..."
No, no! I understood 'Not Tam'... I didn't understand the 'automatic dating system' and TBH, despite the discussion here, I still don't really get what it is or whether I have it (switched on)!
What, exactly, does it do?
On the RH side of the discussion column on my laptop, there are five symbols, the first being a bell - this shows a red number if there are comments in any of the threads... or are you talking about something much more sophisticated?
That's all I use.
Logger24 wrote: "I’ve finished a rewarding re-read of A Sportsman’s Notebook by Ivan Turgenev (Everyman edition, translators Charles and Natasha Hepburn – he at one time our man in Canberra, she born a Bagration). ..."I read some Turgenev a long time ago, and enjoyed it. Little did I know then - and not until a year or two ago - that Turgenev and Dostoyevsky (one of my all-time favourites) shared a strong antipathy. So it is that we readers can admire and enjoy two authors who strongly disliked each other!
https://fyodor-dostoevsky.com/article...
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Now I'm even more confused! I understand nothing 😯
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Here are some autumn leaves:
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Logger24 wrote: "I’ve finished a rewarding re-read of A Sportsman’s Notebook by Ivan Turgenev (Everyman edition, translators Charles and Natasha Hepburn – he at one time our man in Canberra, she born a Bagration). ..."Turgenev also has moments of humor, like the hunters spilling over and standing up to their asses in water, and a fine supernatural story. He tries to show the hunters-- and the countryside- in the round.
Gpfr wrote: "After unseasonably cold weather, 25° here today, a really beautiful day (though still unseasonable). Here are some autumn leaves:
"
19c here, just had a lovely walk with my 79yo father and dog round Waverley Abbey in Surrey and the adjoining Moor Park estate(where Johnathan Swift lived)
By the end of the walk i was in shirtsleeves which felt odd with some wonderful autumn colour all around
Logger24 wrote: "Has anyone here read the writings of Karl Marx on contemporary French history - The Class Struggle in France (of 1848-50), The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte (of 1852) and The Civil War in ..."I've read Marx on Louis Napoleon's coup. I combined the experiment with Hugo's Napoleon the Little, a furious head-to-toe slam on this adventurer. Once, if I recall, Hugo relates a conversation with businessmen friends: "Do you want him to be ruler of France?" "Yes." "Would you hire him as your cashier?" "No."
Robert wrote: "Logger24 wrote: "Has anyone here read the writings of Karl Marx on contemporary French history - The Class Struggle in France (of 1848-50), The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte (of 1852) and ..."i feel that i have been foolish with my historical appreciation of Boney the Lesser as i call Louis Bonaparte. I did see him as a tragic fool who ended up hanging around a mansion in west london i used to work close to
In reality he was a dangerous, shifty character who wheeler dealed his way back and forth and totally deserved the defeat of 1870-71 that ended his time in the sun. Marx is almost pathological in his hatred of Boney the Lesser...but i also think we wouldnt have Paris as it is now...
Having finished the book on the end of Czechoslovakia, my mind casts back to the heady days of 1989 and the fall of the old regime in the EastI was 13 and enthralled by the rolling news of the slow collapse of the iron curtain during that year, from the first summery glimmers to those October and November nights, culminating in the fall of the Berlin Wall and then a bit later the end of Ceacescu, as the dictator stood in astonishment as he was booed by his people.
I think how young Havel(53) and Walesa(46) were as figureheads of the time, they seemed older and wiser when i was 13, now they would broadly both be my generation.
Before 1989, my only experience of people from behind the curtain was when Chernobyl children came to schools where we lived and the awkward chat in broken english about life "over there". A year or so later in 1987, my best friend had a polish girl staying on an exchange with his older sister, she seemed dour and very dogmatic but educated us on life "over there"
That part of the world and its history over 400 years or more has always fascinated me and i am happy i was just about grown enough to be take in and understand a lot of the events. (though aged 13, i had no idea that the western idea of "freedom" would be accompanied by neo-liberal austerity, plunder and heartlessness. parts of the communist welfare state worked extremely well, especially healthcare, these needed preserving and funding but didnt get it)
Robert wrote: "Do you want him to be ruler of France?" "Yes." "Would you hire him as your cashier?" "No."Haha, I think that, particularly the second part, could relate to a few politicians that come to mind.
AB76 wrote: "Having finished the book on the end of Czechoslovakia, my mind casts back to the heady days of 1989 and the fall of the old regime in the EastI was 13 and enthralled by the rolling news of the sl..."
Might have mentioned this before, in which case I apologise.
A friend of mine worked for a very large UK company and at a conference in Oxford they were sitting round the lunch table, Brits and Russians. As usual the Brits were slagging off the politicians of the day. The Russians were amazed and very nervous. They couldn't believe the Brits dared to talk like or that someone/anyone wouldn't be reporting them back to the powers that be.
That is a freedom we should cherish and not need to be afraid of being charged with hate speech just because someone else disagrees with us.
giveusaclue wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Having finished the book on the end of Czechoslovakia, my mind casts back to the heady days of 1989 and the fall of the old regime in the EastI was 13 and enthralled by the rolling n..."
i agree!
AB76 wrote: "John Fowles is an enjoyable diarist, my late night diary reading which has been so rich in suprises since 2020 has continued wellBUT, i do wonder why he was so immensely popular from 1966-1974, h..."
Fowles' career arc reminds me of "Calliope," one of Neil Gaiman's stories, the one where the ambitious young novelist buys an older writer's muse. Rick has a remarkable streak of creativity, not only bought by the public but praised by critics, until... no, I can only recommend Gaiman's story.
AB76 wrote: "Robert wrote: "Logger24 wrote: "Has anyone here read the writings of Karl Marx on contemporary French history - The Class Struggle in France (of 1848-50), The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte...""Soldiers of France: From the Pyramids the forty thieves look down on you." --Victor Hugo, Napoleon the Little.
giveusaclue wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Having finished the book on the end of Czechoslovakia, my mind casts back to the heady days of 1989 and the fall of the old regime in the EastI was 13 and enthralled by the rolling n..."
It was astounding to watch. The more-or-less free elections in Poland, with a humiliating defeat for the Communist Party, the flight of over 100,000 East Germans through Czechoslovakia and into the West, then the fall of the false idols-- it must have been rather like that in 1848, only in this case the tyrants fell. Incredible!
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Laying Out the Bones by Kate Webb.This is the 2nd cold case mystery with Lockyer and Broad. Unsolved murders, family secrets and lies ... twisty and all gets worked out in the end.
I think you'd like this, give, if you haven't read it.
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In reality he was a dangerous, shifty character who wheeler dealed his way back and forth and totally deserved the defeat of 1870-71 that ended his time in the sun. Marx is almost pathological in his hatred of Boney the Lesser...but i also think we wouldnt have Paris as it is now...
Sounds about right. I think you do have to allow that he showed a marked degree of determination and organization and ruthlessness when he had to, achieving his coup d’état - unless that all came from his brother-in-law Morny, the Minister of the Interior.
As for Marx - did you find it an interesting read, Robert? - you wonder if the hatred was due in large part to resentment, that a conspiracy on the right managed to bring off in 1851 what all the forces on the left so manifestly failed to bring off in 1848. I’m acquiring a copy of Christopher Clark’s Revolutionary Spring, so look forward to being educated on that subject.
Logger24 wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Robert wrote: "Logger24 wrote: "Has anyone here read the writings of Karl Marx on contemporary French history - The Class Struggle in France (of 1848-50), The Eighteenth Brumaire of Lo..."i'm hoping to read the Clark book next year
Robert wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Having finished the book on the end of Czechoslovakia, my mind casts back to the heady days of 1989 and the fall of the old regime in the EastI was 13 and enthral..."
it caught a decaying repression apparatus napping really, they had no common strategy once the dominos started to topple and crucially the USSR was no longer backing them with force. Gorby made that clear
AB76 wrote: "Having finished the book on the end of Czechoslovakia, my mind casts back to the heady days of 1989 and the fall of the old regime in the EastI was 13 and enthralled by the rolling news of the sl..."
Good post with interesting points.
I'm a bit older than you, and have a number of points of reference WRT refugees from various countries...
First up, when I was a student, we met at uni a Czech student who had escaped after the Prague Spring was repressed by the Russians... unfortunately he was a bit of an arsehole (being on the right side of history is no guarantee against this condition) so I never bothered to question him about it. In any case, I was already aware of Havel and other dissidents... and later read the novels of leavers and remainers.
In Liverpool in the 1970s I met many Hong Kong Chinese pupils whose parents had sent them abroad in anticipation of the Communist takeover... showing admirable foresight.
Later, in Cannes and Paris in the 1980s I came across many who escaped from Iran and Lebanon - both involved in wars at that time.
The vast majority were determined to make a success of their 'new lives', since they were unsure if or when they would ever be able to return to the lands of their birth. (In Paris I also met one or two displaced individuals from other countries such as Chile and Poland.)
Political upheavals make life difficult or impossible for those who are simply trying to live their lives peacefully and productively, which is not to suggest that revolutions are never justified... but the outcomes are always messy and unpredictable.
AB76 wrote: "I was 13 and enthralled by the rolling news of the slow collapse of the iron curtain during that year..."I meant to also mention watching the Romanian revolution live on TV in France - it was astonishing to watch events unfold in real time on a now-defunct news channel, which gave over its coverage entirely to show what was happening in Bucharest.
giveusaclue wrote: "That is a freedom we should cherish and not need to be afraid of being charged with hate speech just because someone else disagrees with us."Absolutely... which is not to say that such a thing as hate speech does not exist. We in the UK are fortunate to have laws which protect free speech, but which draw the line at 'hate speech' which is aimed to stir up racial hatred, especially if it encourages violent action.
Today, the wife of a Conservative councillor has been sentenced to 31 months in prison for an online post full of f-words, in which she encouraged others to “set fire to all the fucking hotels full of the bastards for all I care” and concluded “if that makes me racist so be it”. I think it's an important distinction.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2...
Gpfr wrote: "After unseasonably cold weather, 25° here today, a really beautiful day (though still unseasonable). Here are some autumn leaves:
"
Beautiful. How did you post the image?
Logger24 wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Robert wrote: "Logger24 wrote: "Has anyone here read the writings of Karl Marx on contemporary French history - The Class Struggle in France (of 1848-50), The Eighteenth Brumaire of Lo..."I recall that it was interesting reading. I also recall the older Marx, now the intellectual godfather of the German Socialists, was in favor of patience and preparation-- in contrast to the young Marx, who said "Here is Rhodes-- now jump!"
scarletnoir wrote: "AB76 wrote: "I was 13 and enthralled by the rolling news of the slow collapse of the iron curtain during that year..."I meant to also mention watching the Romanian revolution live on TV in France..."
In the US, the Romanian uprising was juxtaposed with our landings in Panama. (Personal note: my father, a retired soldier watched from his yard as military transport planes flew low overhead, struggling to gain altitude. These were heavily-loaded planes headed south-- which meant that the Striker Brigade had left the military bases north of us and were headed to Panama.)
I had just read Rhodes James' biography of Anthony Eden (I was deep into the eras he bridged-- from the Second World War to the Cold War).
Eden and his ministers followed a curious course, allying themselves with France and Israel with the goal of seizing the Suez Canal from Egypt, and the hope of forcing Nassar from power. Israel was to start an attack, then Britain and France would step in. They did not tell Eisenhower what they intended. Eden's reasoning was that the French insisted on secrecy, especially as to Israel's involvement. Eden and his colleagues simply assumed that, even without a direct question to Eisenhower as to the US attitude toward the invasion, they would have his support.
It didn't work out as hoped. And Hungary revolted against the Communist dictator, Rakosi, creating a very different crisis as Russia invaded.
It struck me that December 1989 was very much a replay of late 1956-- a colonial invasion by western powers, and the struggle of freedom fighters in a Communist dictatorship. In Romania, it was the army and the freedom fighters versus the secret police, with the Russians neutral. As pointed out in the posts above, Russian neutrality permitted an entirely different outcome than in 1956. (I was cheering on the landings in Panama, of course.)
scarletnoir wrote: "AB76 wrote: "I was 13 and enthralled by the rolling news of the slow collapse of the iron curtain during that year..."I meant to also mention watching the Romanian revolution live on TV in France..."
yes, Ceacescu in his fur hat, a cold winters day and that vast crowd. the dictator starts to shout and rant and then the boo's start to ring out, for somebody used to zero dissent allowed publicly, you can see a confused expression creep over his face, an admission the game must be up if he has no applause and red banners waving in the wind. he remains for me the lasting image of fading old dictators, as in the other countries the faceless just wandered off stage, though Honecker had a role in the final days in East Germany.
on my volunteering days, we had a bulgarian of my age doing the driving to pick old people up in the summer and he was an amusing source of 48yo memories of 1989-90. He said the Bulgarian dictator Zhivkov wasnt as bad as many but liked to "hide" when things got tough and was seen as a slightly comical father figure by many, not quite how Ceaucescu was seen to Romanians
Robert wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "AB76 wrote: "I was 13 and enthralled by the rolling news of the slow collapse of the iron curtain during that year..."I meant to also mention watching the Romanian revolution ..."
saw a good netflix docu on Panama and Noreiga. i remember it well as a 13yr old but it was odd seeing it all laid out with more context and how Noreiga had been an ally of the Yanks at one stage
I've read Marx's 18 Brumaire but it was quite a few years ago and mostly I just remember finding it an impressive piece of rhetoric. Many people will be familiar with the following quote even if they haven't read the essay in full:"Hegel remarks somewhere that all great world-historic facts and personages appear, so to speak, twice. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce".
I plan to re-read some of Marx's earlier writings sometime in the near future so I look forward to reacquainting myself with this one, among others.
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Remarkable. I had no idea 18 Brumaire, or Marx even, was the source of that quote. I shall definitely ask the library to see if they can find a copy.
I thought I would see what Christopher Clark says about this in Revolutionary Spring (just received). He paraphrases the idea without quoting the quote itself. Bit of a pity not to give Marx the credit for his acid formulation.
AB76 wrote: "Robert wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "AB76 wrote: "I was 13 and enthralled by the rolling news of the slow collapse of the iron curtain during that year..."I meant to also mention watching the Roman..."
Noriega was a man with many allies, some of them seriously criminal. The book Our Man in Panama detailed the twists and turns of his career.
One of my late wife's ESL students had joined the Army and, she later learned, served as a scout in Panama.
AB76 wrote: "yes, Ceacescu in his fur hat, a cold winters day and that vast crowd. the dictator starts to shout and rant and then the boo's start to ring out..."What I remember are the gunfights around, and for control of, the TV station... glancing at Wikipedia, it seems that at least some of these were between pro-revolution groups who were confused, but don't know who the combatants were in the hours I watched.
scarletnoir wrote: "Logger24 wrote: "I’ve finished a rewarding re-read of A Sportsman’s Notebook by Ivan Turgenev (Everyman edition, translators Charles and Natasha Hepburn – he at one time our man in Canberra, she bo..."Russian literature has a history of feuds and non-meetings between its stars.
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Beautiful. How did you post the image?"
1. Click on (some html is ok).
2. See "image": copy and paste
3. Paste the URL of your image (from internet or your own from postimages) where I've highlighted.
4. Adjust the width and height. Check in (preview) if it's OK.
scarletnoir wrote: "I read some Turgenev a long time ago, and enjoyed it. Little did I know then - and not until a year or two ago - that Turgenev and Dostoyevsky (one of my all-time favourites) shared a strong antipathy. So it is that we readers can admire and enjoy two authors who strongly disliked each other!."I think both Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy felt instinctively suspicious of and antagonistic towards Turgenev's urbanity and the ease with which he moved back and forth between Russia and Europe. Was it in Demons that Dostoyevsky had a caricature of Turgenev? And I remember on the old Guardian TLS, I thnk it was TwoManyWilsons passed on an anecdote about Tolstoy and Turgenev that made clear their difference in temperament.
Thanks to Robert and Berkley for notes on Russian literary feuds!
Logger24 wrote: "I thought I would see what Christopher Clark says about this in Revolutionary Spring (just received). He paraphrases the idea without quoting the quote itself. Bit of a pity not to give Marx the credit for his acid formulation."I wonder if Clarke, presumably having immersed himself in the writing related to his chosen subject, assumed it was too well-known to require formal citation. But I'm like you, I had no idea the phrase or the idea it expresses came from Marx until I read the 18th Brumaire.
(edit:) Marx's relationship with Hegel's philosophy is an interesting subject. Feuerbach, whom I've been reading lately, changed his and Engel's ideas about Hegel drastically - although they both soon diverged away from Feuerbach as well. I've become quite fascinated lately with the latter, Feuerbach, and I want to finish a collection of his writing before I move on to the early Marx and Engels.
by Percival EverettTo adapt a comment I read yesterday (regarding the film 'Fellini Satyricon'), this was a (book) more to be admired than enjoyed.
Ogden Walker is a deputy sheriff in a small New Mexico town. He happens to be black, but that fact doesn't impinge greatly on most of the stories, of which there are three - this isn't a single 'novel'. We follow his doings, and those of his colleagues, mother, neighbours and assorted visitors.
It's a rather odd book... I have to assume - or make the 'assumption' - that Everett knew what he was doing when he wrote it. It reads more or less like three conventional cop stories, where there is a search for a solution. The first story ended so abruptly, I wondered whether Everett had simply got bored and decided to wrap things up in a few sentences. Did he write all the stories in succession, or with gaps for other writing? Did he already know where the end-point was at the beginning, or was that a notion which coalesced later as he wrote? It would be interesting to know.
In any case - the assumptions being made are several, including the cops rather naively believing what people say about themselves, without first checking their identities or stories... this seems unrealistic, especially after the first time (fool me once...). They must also include those of the readers, since we discover that we're in the company of at least one unreliable narrator - or if not 'narrative' (it's not first-person) we are at least being given an unreliable point of view.
So, far less fun than his others (to date) - few if any laughs, and a gloomy atmosphere. Everett playing with, or trying out, different styles? Who knows.
I'm really enjoying Death of a Hero by Richard Aldington(1929) and i thank Bill for the recommendation last year.Initially i wondered if i had found a novel of anything but the Great War, from a good start, it seemed to lapse into a slightly wittier version of The Way of All Flesh by Butler, which i didnt finish as i felt it was inferior to the similar but non-fiction and more compact Father and Son by Gosse
However, i quickly have become used to the unusual style and the purpose of the novel in its peacetime stages, the idea of a hero who seemed to be utterly forgotten by his parents and his two lovers, who faded into a name on a monument.
Aldington has been a gem in his short but lyrical descriptions of London in 1912-13(i'm about half way through) although a lot of his ideas on morality and sexuality seem very modern for 1929. I particularily liked a passage that ended my latest reading session where two lovers look upon the mighty Embankment, the curve of the Thames and the Empire Capital in all its glory and then Aldington mentions the sleeping figures on benchs and in doorways, the empire's less fortunate souls...lest we forget them...ever present in a supposed wealthy state, an Empire.
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I wonder if Clarke, presumably having immersed himself in the writing related to his chosen subject, assumed it was too well-known to require formal citation.
Could be – though I tend to think he might have been a bit more conscious of the generalist reader.
I for one would be very interested in your thoughts when you have finished Feuerbach, of whom I know very little.
On a different point, I’ve started on the Clark’s introduction and was struck by what may become one of his main themes: “Nothing demonstrates better than these connected upheavals and their fragmentation in modern memory the immense power of the nation-state as a way of framing the historical record.”
Yes, indeed. Sometimes we must consciously unthink this way of looking at history.
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Books mentioned in this topic
Proust contre la déchéance. Conférence au camp de Griazowietz (other topics)Bretherton: Khaki or Field Grey? (other topics)
Assumption (other topics)
Laying Out the Bones (other topics)
Henry V: The Astonishing Triumph of England's Greatest Warrior King (other topics)
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We soon realise that the narrator is living in the airport, pretending to be a passenger, pulling a suitcase behind her, constantly on the move to not attract the attention of security services. We learn that she has lost her memory, little flashes come back. We meet other homeless people living in the airport, people working there. This is all quite vividly depicted.
Every day she meets a plane coming from Rio de Janeiro and encounters a man whose wife was killed on such a flight when it crashed some years ago. They begin to establish a relationship.
The book has had good reviews and many favourable comments from readers. There are those, like me, whose reactions are mixed.
At first, I was caught up in the depiction of the airport and intrigued about this woman. One thing I didn't get was the extracts from the notebook of another airport dweller who asks the narrator to correct it for him. About three-quarters of the way through, I started getting impatient — she's been there 8 months, she's lost her memory, why isn't she getting help? I didn't really feel the last part of the book lived up to the beginning.