tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-72632437409495406322024-03-13T20:05:25.692+00:00grumbooksobservations on recently read booksGraeme K Talboyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00147746990011686351noreply@blogger.comBlogger303125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7263243740949540632.post-59605517486717073742013-06-03T12:13:00.002+01:002013-06-03T12:13:44.619+01:00Books read in May
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Secret Water – Arthur Ransome</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Of all the Swallows and Amazons books, this has a special
place in my affections. I read very few children’s books when I was young; I
was much more interested in what the adults were up to. The Ransome books were
amongst those few that I found interesting. And as we lived in Norfolk at the
time, I had an affinity with the East Anglian set books (much as I loved and
still love the Lake District). And of them all, I like this one especially
because my sister bought me a copy of the hardback when I was about ten.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Of course, without a decent story, it would never have held
my interest, all that other stuff notwithstanding. Like them all, on the
surface not a lot happens. Kids go camping and sailing. But under this is a
kind of anarchy (in its proper meaning). Their lives away from their parents
are communal. They care for the weakest. They look after themselves and take
responsibility for their actions. They also have a respect for the world around
them.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There is another element to this particular story that
fascinated me and that is map making. Hardly the stuff of high adventure, but I
loved the idea that you could make a place your own without having to own it.
Mapping and naming places so that they mean something to you rather than some
official cartographer is an important way of keeping in touch with the world
around you. A kind of nascent psychogeography.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Finally there is the innocence. It is not fey or naïve, it
is what kids should be. And given that book was written on the eve of the
second world war, it must have been at the back of Ransome’s mind that the
Walker children had a father who was serving in the Royal Navy. However, this is
fun and I love them.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>A Hearse On May Day – Gladys Mitchell</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Not one of Mitchell’s best, largely because any tension in
the first section (despite the attempt at menace) and the fact that there is
way too much business. In terms of an isolated village with strange goings on,
it is more like an early episode of The Avengers. You know who the villains
are, the red herrings are a tad too red and smelly to be taken seriously, there
is zero characterisation, and Dame Beatrice and the police amble through
familiar territory at a leisurely pace. Even so (and despite the poor
production of this particular edition) it is a pleasurable enough read.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Daughter Of Dreams – Michael Moorcock</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
An Elric/von Beck novel, first of a trilogy, and originally
titled <i>The Dreamthief’s Daughter</i>. Set during the first half of the
Second World War, this is less pacy than the earlier Elric novels. It does not
suffer much because of this, it is after all a first person narrative and Ulric
von Bek is given to philosophical discursiveness. The Elric/von Beck adventures
tie in with the strange pick ‘n’ mix mysticism of the Nazis who were known to
have collected various holy relics in the belief they would aid them in their
attempt to impose their twisted vision on the world. As a guardian of the grail
and a mystical sword, von Bek becomes their target. He is aided by Oona, a
mysterious woman, and by Elric, of whom von Bek is an avatar.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Weaving real world events with fantasy in a seamless
fashion, Moorcock has extended his Elric novels into yet another dimension. His
writing style has matured over the years (and relaxed without the pressure to
produce novels on an almost weekly basis). Yet the pace and excitement is still
there, never faltering despite the greater depth to the work with its
ruminations on cruelty and the parallels it draws with today’s world.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I am, of course, a huge fan of Moorcock and have been since
the late ‘60s. I’ve read this one before a number of times. It just keeps
getting better.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Mercury – Anna Kavan</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A manuscript discovered and published posthumously, this
book is a close cousin to her work <i>Ice</i>. It employs the same basic
themes, has a similar storyline, and explores the same ideas. In most cases,
such a work would only be of interest to scholars looking to see how a work
developed. But in the case of <i>Mercury</i>, it is a work in its own right and
stands completely separate from <i>Ice</i>. Indeed, it draws power from the
similarities simply because both books are about layers of reality, about
dreams, about the ways in which we invent our lives and replay the incidents in
them. <i>Mercury</i>, therefore, is another layer of <i>Ice</i>.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The remarkable thing is that this book that never made it to
publication (for whatever written) is far better written than many that do.
Compact, simple language that is made to do remarkable things and produce
complex effects. Kavan is a proper writer who deserves much greater
recognition.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Destiny’s Brother – Michael Moorcock</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Originally ‘The Skrayling Tree’, this new edition has been
retitled and packaged as part of the Gollancz re-issue. And as well as the joy
of having it as part of a uniform paper edition, I can now collect and read
Moorcock on my ereader.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This is an Elric story. Of sorts. He is a major character,
but this is not the Elric of old. For one thing it is himself dreaming himself
(you’d need to know about the Elric stories and the Melnibonean dream couches
and I’m not going to explain all that – buy the books, the first: ‘Elric of Melniboné’
is now available and if you’ve never read them I envy you the journey). These
later books are also written in a different style. The original Elric books
were pulp fantasy at its very best – dark, pacy, and with as many ideas in a
page as most writers today struggle to stretch across a 300 page volume.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The books, as the series progressed and tracked back on
itself, became more settled affairs and took a bit more time. I have to confess
I prefer the earlier ones, but that has as much to do with discovering a new
writer and reading them for the first time. I fully appreciate Moorcock’s
maturing as a writer; and I fully appreciate how he has made a virtue of that
in the stories, especially when tackling our own dark history.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This book cleverly uses the Longfellow/Hiawatha story as one
of its themes with the whole thing set in a mythical North American past. They
myth and magic of native Americans is touched upon and woven skilfully into the
wider Moorcock mythology of the multiverse with Elric and the von Beks
combining to defeat an attempt to bring down the very Tree of Life.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And if the pace is now a little slower as we grow older, the
chance to enjoy the scenery and one’s companions on the way is very much
appreciated. Excellent stuff.</div>
<br />Graeme K Talboyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00147746990011686351noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7263243740949540632.post-59760482105132583582013-05-04T14:25:00.002+01:002013-05-04T14:25:21.439+01:00Books read in April
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Chinese Agent – Michael Moorcock</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A comic romp. Developing early work for Fleetway, especially
Sexton Blake, this is one of several novels that fringe the multiverse and play
with characters in a light-hearted fashion. It’s a very simple story of
mistaken identity and secret plans, which is rather more interested in
character and in the truly horrible family of the central character, Jerry
Cornell. This is one of the first tranche of the definitive Moorcock being put
out by Gollancz – available as an ebook only (most of the others will be ebook
and pbook).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Maigret In Exile – Georges Simenon</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Atmospheric evocation of claustrophobia, all the more
remarkable in a setting one normally associates with quite the opposite.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Maigret And The Toy Village – Georges Simenon</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Some of the English titles are baffling. True, Maigret
compares the new suburban development with a set of toys laid out in the
fields, but the story is related only inasmuch as that is part of the setting. <i>Félice
is there</i> would be a more accurate translation, with the extra meaning
hidden in the name of the central female character for whom happiness is an
elusive commodity. And, as ever, with Simenon, it is this character which sits
at the heart of the story. Beautifully drawn, annoying to the last, yet
compelling in her own way. One is left hoping that she does, against the odds,
find the happiness she craves.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Four Days In A Lifetime – Georges Simenon</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A fine novel in which Simenon proves what an exponent he is
of the psychology tale. It is true plenty of action occurs, firstly in the two
days surrounding the death of François’ wife, and secondly three years later in
the events leading up to... well that would be a spoiler. Simenon is both
sympathetic toward his characters, but never less than honest about the kind of
people they are. They might blame each other, but Simenon, as an author, never
does lay blame – his characters are what they are and he subjects them to an
almost forensic examination that somehow never ignores their humanity.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In this book, the characters struggle their way out of
poverty. It is not done in a savoury fashion, but then the system that put them
in poverty is not savoury either. And through this struggle we have layers of
Parisian society opened up for us and we see the consequences of failure in
playing a dangerous game. As a fan of the Maigret novels I sometimes half
expect him to ake an appearance; these are the people that Maigret often deals
with as a policeman, yet the novel is distinct from his detective fiction.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Russian Intelligence – Michael Moorcock</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The second Jerry Cornell comic spy novel. This is developed
from an earlier novel (as was The Chinese Agent) and is of particular interest
in that it has, as part of its setting, a company called Wayflete Publications.
Moorcock’s early writing life was spent with Fleetway Publications and he no
doubt used his experience there to create background for this book. It is a
ffectionate and peripheral part of the book, but nonetheless illuminating. The
novel itself is something of a curio, but a pleasant and amusing diversion that
clearly grew out of those Fleetway days.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Maigret Afraid – Georges Simenon</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Another small town case where the old prejudices and ways,
although dying, leave a lingering distaste and enmity, both of which cloud
judgement. Although not, it has to be said, on the part of Maigret this time.
Indeed, he resolutely stands well back from events and lets others bumble on.
Despite that, he navigates past all the false trails and identifies the real
culprit.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It has the feeling of one of those westerns in which a
stranger comes to town, does very little, yet by the time they leave, events
have been resolved (even if the people’s prejudices have not). Maigret’s powers
are almost zen like in this book and shows just what you can do with a central
character who does virtually nothing.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Drowning Of Arthur Braxton – Caroline Smailes</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I don’t take to much in the way of contemporary writing. It
is often bland (even if full of pretty sentences), pre-occupied with
middle-class, first world concerns, and largely a waste of even the tiny amount
of intellect required to read it. This book had none of that. It was
captivating from the first and clearly had things to say and ideas to explore.
What is more, it was evident that it was going to say and explore those things
in an interesting way.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Arthur Braxton is one of those kids that feral packs feed
on. Consequently, he is one of those kids found lurking in out of the way
places, exploring (whether willingly or not) the borderlands – between sanity
and insanity, the upward climb and the downward fall, the outside world and the
strange places inside their heads. Mostly, life grinds the poor sods down.
Sometimes they shine. On rare occasions they escape into places we can barely
dream of. Where Arthur goes, you will have to find out for yourself, because
his journey is the story and to start talking about that would be to give
things away, save to say, one of the places in which the borders exist is where
water meets the land. It is along that strand that Arthur’s journey proceeds.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So far I have perhaps made this sound like a YA fantasy book
of some kind. Well, there are elements of that and it could, no doubt, be read
on that level. You’d be missing 99% of the book if you tried it that way.
Because there are many other such elements running through the book, nods to
this and that. Yet it never becomes any one of those because it is unique. It
is its own story acknowledging popular culture along the way (it would take
someone who hadn’t been near a television in the last few years not to hear the
echoes of the final words) without ever being trapped by any of it. That is
down to two things, in the end. The first is a strong story. The second is a
strong writer.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is not just popular culture that feeds the book. Indeed,
much more important is myth. Certain myths featuring water. They are common to
all myth cycles. Water is such a fundamental part of our existence, and clean
water so fundamental to our survival and the fertility of the land, that it is
no wonder every tribe and every nation has stories about the origins of
streams, wells, springs, and pools; has stories about the guardians of such
places, of the beings that inhabit them, of the curative qualities, of the
terrible consequences of misusing them. Our native mythology is replete with
such references, none more so than the Arthurian stories. Ladies in the Lake,
swords appearing from and disappearing into water, battles fought at the
water’s edge, water as a source of healing and wisdom, and key to the Arthurian
stories, the rape of the guardians of the wells that led to the wasteland and
the quest to restore fertility to the land. As someone who has studied these
tales for decades, it was a genuine thrill to see them explored so thoroughly
in such a vibrant way that whilst paying all due respect to the source of such
tales, made its own statement.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It should not be taken from this that we have some kind of
dull thesis, some rewriting of ancient myths. They are the source and the story
drinks deeply of them in a way that displays a deep understanding of the archetypes.
But what emerges as a result is a new story, a new myth for today, sung with a
voice every bit as mesmerising as the bards of old. And if you still can’t
quite figure what kind of book this is, the film should be made by Terry
Gilliam or by Jeunet and Caro.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
You can probably gather I like this book. I have a jaded
opinion of modern writing, but this has restored my faith. Because for all that
stuff about mythology, for all the fact that author here is doing for myth what
Angela Carter did for fairy tales, at the heart of it all is a solid and
heartbreaking story about ordinary folk and the truly shitty lives some of them
lead. A story told with eloquence and sympathy. Buy it. The author deserves
your support.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>St Peter’s Finger – Gladys Mitchell</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A typically competent mystery. Well-written although a
little lacking in the tension one might expect from the story – with one child
murdered and others (possibly) in danger. However, it is a wonderful portrait
of a closed society and, in retrospect a paean to the imperturbability of the
British in the face of threats (it was written in 1938). And, as ever, there is
a neat twist in the tale.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Maigret And The Reluctant Witnesses – Georges Simenon</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A portrait of past glories refusing to die and dragging
others down as they decay – asituation that resonates with a Maigret close to
retirement. The usual intriguing plot and superb psychological insights.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Maigret On The Defensive – Georges Simenon</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A classic example of Maigret’s (and by extension, Simenon’s)
interest in the psychology of the criminal; his understanding of the damaged
and his ability to empathise. In this case going so far as to promise to stand
witness for the man who nearly destroys him.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Maigret Hesitates – Georges Simenon</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
An interesting story with relevance today. How do you
prevent crime? How do you identify a criminal? Can you identify a criminal? Can
you morally intervene before a crime has been committed? Is it a crime if the
perpetrator is considered insane? What is insanity? Simenon doesn’t attempt to
answer these questions and they come naturally to the story, providing a
poignant reminder that sometimes we are unable to intervene and people suffer
as a result.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Maigret And The Killer – Georges Simenon</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A young man is found stabbed in the street and he
subsequently dies. Something of a loner his main interest was wandering the
streets of Paris and recording people’s conversations. Did he record something
that would incriminate someone. It is possible, but Maigret has his doubts.
Another intriguing psychological study.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />Graeme K Talboyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00147746990011686351noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7263243740949540632.post-36332724613965574432013-04-03T09:44:00.002+01:002013-04-03T09:44:35.003+01:00Books read in March
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Zen Gun – </b><st1:city><st1:place><b>Barrington</b></st1:place></st1:city><b>
J Bayley</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This book has it all. Vast galactic empire on the edge of
collapse, space battles, aliens, space pirates, rebellions, philosophy,
plausible pseudoscience, traction cities (decades before Reeve) that roam the
dried up sea beds of Earth, escape pods followed down to a planet where storm
troopers go in search of fugitives (sound familiar?), great helpings of satire
(along with pigs taking over the empire decades before Angry Birds), all wrapped
inside 55,000 words.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Bayley is really good at this sort of thing. He knows his
pulp sci fi inside out and squeezes every last drop out of it to build familiar
landscapes with a few deft sentences so he can get on with the meat of the
story. And what precisely is that? ‘Nothing moves. Where would it go?’</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Bayley didn’t write conventional stories. He pulled dense
handfuls out of alternate universes and arrayed them before us for our
amusement and edification. He takes ideas and examines them (almost like the
aliens in this book), turning them upside down and inside out, pulling them
apart, reassembling them in different ways, mixing them, so that by the time
you get to the end of your 150 pages you feel like you have read 1500. This was
his skill as a writer. Something we could do with more of these days because I
would rather read this than some bloated space opera that goes on and on with
ideas as rare as atoms of hydrogen in deep space.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As well as being able to condense his work in this
phenomenal way, Bayley was also a master at creating atmosphere and
strangeness. His aliens are truly alien, even those that share our universe.
His future cities are not just bigger, taller versions of our own, his
technology is well thought out and does not feel dated, and he has a sense of
fun. There is a smile in his work that is so often missing from a lot of
writing.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I went drinking with Bayley back in the late ‘70s, so I’m
probably biased, because he was a great bloke. His work always deserved to be
better known. At least it is now (most of it) available in ebook form. Take a
look.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Maigret And The Flea – Georges Simenon</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A standard Maigret, but none the worse for that. These are
not about convoluted plots (most real-life murders are straightforward), but
about the people involved. In this case small time gangsters who are so cocky
they think they are untouchable but who crack once the pressure is applied. The
characterisations are superbly done and it is always a joy to read Simenon
because he packs so much in to so few words.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Foam Of The Daze (L’Écume des jours) – Boris Vian</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
To get an understanding of this book you have to go and
watch some old black and white Betty Boop cartoons – Jazz, surrealism, and
bizarre storylines. Indeed, you have to wonder what the artists were taking.
The same goes for this book. Indeed, reads as if it were a treatment for just
such a cartoon. The characters live in a world that has no real connection with
reality other than as a strating point for people, places, and events that in a
cartoon would make you smile, but as words on the page seem truly unusual and
at times macabre.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That, on its own, would not be enough to sustain an entire
novel. Here we have a number of layers, at the heart of which is a tragic love
story. This too is surreal in the extreme, yet nonetheless touching for that
(and in some ways, because it is stripped of the usual for of sentiment, it is
far more poignant than it would have been if presented as a straightforward
narrative). There is also a sustained expose of obsession and the industries
that grow up to feed those offlicted (in this case it is the obsessive cult
growing up around a philosopher named Jean-Sol Partre, with devotees scrabbling
about trying to buy every last publication, every last recording, even used
underpants).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I struggled through a battered copy of the original with
dictionaries at hand, back in early 80s. I also came across a translation<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(which these days is almost impossible to
find unless, ironically, you are prepared to pay over huge sums of money). I
wish I had kept that early translation because although it has been good to
read this again, this new version is crap. It might be technically accurate and
based on a revised version of the original, but it has no soul and the thing I
remember about the original and the translation I read was how gripping it was.
The excuse given for the dullness and for the endless notes is that Vian used a
lot of puns and obscure references. But a good translator will be able to
reproduce all the vitality and playfulness of the original. For all that, it is
still worth a read if only to remind ourselves that there are forms of
literature that rarely get a look in these days.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Maigret And The Lazy Burglar – Georges Simenon</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A fascinating character study built up of a murder victim,
the lazy burglar of the title. A man who never hurt anyone, who was never
violent, who led a secret life, and who was such an expert he never left signs
of having been in the houses he had burgled. Except for the last time when something
goes wrong.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Maigret uncovers what happened and knows from the slender
evidence he has collected (he is not even officially on the case) that an
arrest will never be made. The investigation into the murder (paralleled by an
official investigation into a series of robberies) is also a look at the ways
in which policing was changing. Maigret was getting close to retirement and all
around him, the bureaucrats and lawyers were taking over, people who have no
idea of how policing works, who have no knowledge of the streets, who have
devised a penal code in which murder is not considered until all the crimes
against property and money.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Although the law cannot serve the lazy burglar, someone with
whom Maigret felt an affinity, justice does. Maigret makes sure of that in his
own quiet way.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Maigret And The Millionaires – Georges Simenon</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Maigret is rarely comfortable around the wealthy or the
elite, even though he grew up on a large estate. Or maybe because he grew up on
a large estate. The problem is, as a working man from a working background, he
finds it difficult to understand people whose lives are spent filling in the
time, moving restlessly from place to place, living in hotels, helpless as
babies as everything is done for them. In the end, however, that turns out to
be the key, and after travelling across half of western Europe Maigret returns
to the scene of the crime and more familiar haunts where he starts afresh and
solves the case.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Once again this a pyschological study of privilege, of
infantilism, and of the low esteem in which life is held when compared with
money. Atmospheric, it captures both sides of the door in the grand hotels in
which the privileged live and strips away all the pretensions of the rich to
show them as being exactly the same as everyone else.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Maigret And The Gangsters – Georges Simenon</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
More action than is normal for a Maigret, this is about a
collision of cultures. An American criminal is on the run having witnessed a
gang murder. The gangsters send hit men to get to the witness before he can be
persuaded to return and give evidence. This happens on Maigret’s patch and he
is less than pleased that the Americans assume they can play out their domestic
squabbles in another country without so much as a hint as to what is going on.
The result is to harden Maigret’s resolve and to bring down the gangsters,
which he does in style.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Maigret’s Christmas – Georges Simenon</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A collection of short stories. This being Simenon, ‘short’
is a relative term. Most of his Maigret novels were about 40,000 words in
length. And in fact one of the short stories in this collection is in fact a
novel. But length is immaterial. Simenon can pack more into a short story than
most writers can fit into a 100,000 word book. And all of these stories are
Simenon at his best.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Even the story in which Maigret does not appear (it is set
in the Police Emergency Control Room with a number of secondary characters and
forms a companion piece to the title story) has Simenon’s trademark melding of
an intriguing story with a detailed character portrait, all done through the
medium of telephone calls and meetings in the one room.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Through his stories and through his character studies, an
intimate picture of Paris is slowly built up, layer on layer until you are
convinced you could walk down any Paris street and know what is going on behind
the doors and windows. It is a fiction, of course, but only insofar as any life
is a work of fiction, told and retold to bring some narrative sense to where
none exists other than in brief flashes.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Popular writing at its very best. Accessible and insightful.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Maigret And Monsieur Charles – Georges Simenon</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is clear by now that I’m a Simenon fan. More specifically
a Maigret fan, although I do like his other work. This involves a missing high society
solicitor whose body is eventually fished out of the Seine. As with many other
Maigret’s there is no convoluted twisting. As in real life, the solution is
fairly simple; it is the finding of the evidence and the studying of those
involved in the case that Simenon does so well. His portraits of people,
especially their inner lives which are so often at odds with their material
existence, are always pin sharp. And in this we see how the expectations of one
person and the refusal to accept responsibility on the part of another lead to
the tragic downfall of a woman. Heartbreaking. And perhaps a fitting last
Maigret novel.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Maigret And The Dosser – Georges Simenon</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Much like the previous book there is an element of
protecting what one loves, of going beyond the limits to fight for what one
values. In this case, a dosser, one of the ones who sleeps under the bridges
that cross the Seine is attacked and thrown in the river. His cries for help
rouse some bargees and he is rescued. Uncovering the identity of the dosser and
how that links with the attack is a prime example of what makes Simenon’s work
so good. The fact that this character is a down and out does not obscure his
very real story and the wholly credible reasons for him being where he is and
behaving as he does.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Although Maigret ends up knowing why he was attacked and the
crimes that lie behind it, there is not enough evidence to arrest anyone. The
attacker goes free, yet in the end there is a sense of a bond between Maigret
and the victim as well as a sense of understanding that Maigret feels is more
than compensation for the loss of an arrest.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Maigret And The Hotel Majestic – Georges Simenon</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Brilliant!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Notes From The Underground – Fyodor Dostoevsky</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The whining of a miserable scrote. Waste of an evening’s
reading.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Maigret And The Ghost – Georges Simenon</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Excellent.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Factotum – Charles Bukowski</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Harder edged than <i>Post Office</i>, some of those edges
jagged. There are parts of the book that make you step back, that make you
laugh, but most of all they make you cry. This kind of life is a reality for so
many people. Bukowski skillfully portrays the tedium and pointlessness of most
work; of the destruction of the soul and how it drags down everything else as
it crumbles. That he was able to turn this into such a brutal and lyrical
portrait is writing at its very best. That he survived such a life to be able
to write about it is a blessing.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Star Virus – Barrington J Bayley</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Space opera at its best. But that’s what you expect from
Bayley. And as always he packs more into 120 pages than most other writers
could squeeze into a twenty volume series. Action, philosophy, ideas (no, the
two are not the same), two colliding ‘empires’ and an ancient race long since
gone but still affecting the lives of everyone in the galaxy. And characters.
Real ones, with whole lives as ghostly afterimages trailing out behind them.
Even the slave singer toward the end who appears for just a few pages. In that
very brief encounter, there is so much backstory without the slightest hiccup
in the forward story. And the central concept, that humans are a virus, sounds
hackneyed now, but it was new back than and is used here with subtlety. Bayley
might easily have made a longer novel of this, but it would all have been
padding, and he was far too good a writer ever to do that.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Maigret’s Revolver – Georges Simenon</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Spot on. And one of those novels in which Maigret does not
get his ‘man’.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Song Of Phaid The Gambler – Mick Farren</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Farren is an original. His writing can be unusual and it is
no surprise some of it is now out of print (although it really shouldn’t be –
he was doing modern vampires long before Rice and Whedon). This is a
post-apocalyptic fantasy, a road novel, a picaresque. Less way out than the DNA
Cowboys, it offers a unique and dirty vision of the future.</div>
<br />Graeme K Talboyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00147746990011686351noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7263243740949540632.post-91131083379138201002013-03-02T11:33:00.000+00:002013-03-02T11:33:06.854+00:00Books read in February
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Mystery Of The Hasty Arrow – Anna Katharine Green</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is instructive to see how tastes have changed
editorially. This is an interesting mystery. A young girl is murdered in a
museum in front of witnesses with the subsequent investigation setting the
pattern for many later works. Reconstruction of the crime, expert testimony,
dogged investigation. It reads more like a modern spy novel in that respect.
Slow, philosophical, yet never losing interest or focus. Yet once the mystery
is resolved and justice served, we are given chapter after chapter of back
story which feels like an enormous anticlimax as much of it can be inferred
from the main narrative. I suspect an editor would want it re-written today so
that all that information was revealed as the story progressed. In a way, it would
spoil the mystery as there is just too much information that would give the
game away.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
All that aside, this is, as I mentioned, an interesting
mystery (although the version I read was missing the diagrams that would have
made it easier to follow). And what seems to be horribly coincidental and
accidental is neatly tied up during the long tail. Editions of these books
illustrated with photographs of the period would be wonderful.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Sword Of Damocles – Anna Katharine Green</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A Detective Gryce novel by the skin of its teeth. He makes a
very brief appearance in one chapter. The rest of the story is grand melodrama,
the sort of thing that you can imagine as a silent movie with grand physical
gestures and lots of exaggerated facial expressions. Apart from one or two
passages that teeter on the edge of mawkish sentimentality and moralising, it
rattles along with its tale of wrongdoing, blackmail, and the ghosts of the
past coming back to haunt the characters in ways that stretch the notion of
coincidence to the limit.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Hopeless, </b><st1:state><st1:place><b>Maine</b></st1:place></st1:state><b>:
Personal Demons – Tom & Nimue Brown</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It isn't often you pick up a book that combines excellent
writing and excellent illustration within an excellent piece of production.
Even before you open the covers, you know you have something of quality in your
hands. The book is weighty (a solid cover and no skimping on the weight of
paper inside). Front and rear covers are beautifully illustrated and the
embossing adds that extra level that shows someone went the extra mile when it
came to production.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And then you open the book. Sumptuous. The overall palate of
colours is suggestive of the mood of the story and for me brought to mind a
whole mix of references (Dark City where it is always night; Mythago Wood where
the sun finds difficulty penetrating the depths of the forest; those dreams
where one can never quite see clearly). This tone is enhanced by having the
panels framed in black, like an endless succession of funeral notices. And the
illustrations... I cannot praise enough. Here is an artist who draws with
enormous skill and clarity and who knows exactly the right level of detail to
include so that each picture is a work of art in its own right, each picture
moves the story forward, each picture contains sufficient detail to make it interesting
and worth exploring and revisiting without cluttering the page.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The story is wonderfully developed. Simple enough to follow yet
filled with layers of meaning that build as the story progresses. Very often
this aspect of graphic novels is overlooked, especially where the book is for
younger readers. It is often assumed that this is the easy bit; it's just a few
speeches. But that is why it is so difficult. Writers are rarely self-effacing
enough to stand back and let the combination of text and illustration make the
point. Here the two combine perfectly and this partnership has produced
something truly wonderful.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>What Video Games Have To Teach Us About Learning And
Literacy – James Paul Gee</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Books where a specialist in one field strays into another
and puts the world (or that other field) to rights often fail because it is
clear from the first page that the author hasn’t grasped the basics of the
field he has strayed into, let alone the subtleties. Sometimes, though, there
are people who take the time to understand something they have seen and explore
it fully before expounding their ideas. This book is of the latter variety. Gee
clearly knows about education and has taken the time to understand how video
games work.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Noticing how easily youngsters become absorbed in such games
and devote a huge amount of time to learning how to play them and noticing that
games are designed to make learning easy (because they don’t sell otherwise),
Gee began to investigate just how games managed the trick. Except it isn’t a
trick. Good game writers and designers have worked out how to involve players
and teach them the rules of the game without the need for huge manuals. Most
good games can be played from scratch, all the skills required to progress
being taught in the early levels, success rewarded and the game set up in such
a way that failure means you try again and learn from the mistakes you made.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Wondering if and why schools do not do the same, Gee
isolates the principles that seem to apply and examines whether they would work
in schools. And as they are such universal principles, ones that are more
relevant to real life than learning models in education, he has a point. He
isn’t always correct, but this is an exploratory work, one that sets out to
propose a possible alternative. By the very principles he sets out, the work is
a success, whereas under old models it is looked at askance as it does not
conform to the principles currently in use in education.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
More books like this are needed, even if the ideas are not
adopted. They make people think, go back to basics, and that is always a good
thing. When I was training to be a teacher I was (and still am) fascinated by
the likes of Neill, Illich, Goodman, and Russell who had ideas about
alternative models of education and in many cases put them into successful
practice. I like to think they made my teaching better even though I was never
in a position to work in a school dedicated to their ideas. In a period (in the
<st1:country-region><st1:place>UK</st1:place></st1:country-region> and
elsewhere) where politicians are trying to push education backwards and revive
all the arguments they lost half a century ago, such books are essential.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Hand And Ring – Anna Katharine Green</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Although I worked out fairly early on who had really
committed the murder, this is (apart from Green’s propensity to throw in the
hand of God now and then) an intriguing courtroom thriller. It was difficult at
times to remember that this was one of the earliest of its kind as it seems to
come fully formed. There is drama in the courtroom. Investigations on behalf of
various of the accused, a detailed examination of people’s movements, lies and
cover-ups that are, for the most part, done with the best of intentions.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The book doesn’t quite have the sense of peril you would
expect from the story had it been written today, and the emotional scenes tend
to the melodramatic, but it is a fine mystery and well worth a read for anyone
who is interested in the history of crime novels.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>That Affair Next Door – Anna Katharine Green</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Amelia Butterworth has to be one of the most self-satisfied,
priggish, bigoted, and annoying central characters I have ever come across, and
at the same time one that carries the reader and undergoes a mellowing of her
less pleasant side as the story progresses.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Witnessing an event that is not in keeping with the area in
which she lives (a youngish couple she does not recognise enter a house she
knows to be empty at <st1:time hour="0" minute="0">midnight</st1:time>), Amelia
Butterworth becomes intrigued. The man leaves shortly afterwards and she is
unsettled at the idea of a young woman alone in the empty house. When the place
is still shuttered at <st1:time hour="12" minute="0">midday</st1:time> the next
day she finds a policeman and encourages him to enter (with the help of a
cleaning woman who turns up with a key). They find a body, just as Amelia
Butterworth feared.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Being the sort of woman who pushes her way into a situation
simply because she believes she has a right to be there, she finds herself
investigating the murder in parallel with Detective Gryce. It is an intriguing
mystery. You cannot say all the clues were there, but there were certainly
enough to make you realise that suspects brought forward by the author in
succession were not a perfect fit. And as the novel progresses, you realise
that someone in the background has a more prominent role than at first suspected.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The means by which Miss Butterworth follows leads and
develops her ideas would not be out of place in a modern mystery and the ending
is sufficiently melodramatic to satisfy her original audience. Yet the reliance
on melodrama and coincidence is much muted in this book and that makes it all
the better. My only regret is that Miss Butterworth’s maid <st1:place>Lena</st1:place>
was not given a stronger part to play as there seemed to be a genuine character
there ripe for development.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Julia And The Bazooka – Anna Kavan</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Published shortly after her death, these short stories show
a remarkable insight into her own condition, one that is bare of any false
sentiment or self-pity, but which shows the unsettling reality in which she
lived. Whilst some of the pieces are highly autobiographical in that they
relate real events in the outside world, they are all accurate portrayals of
her inner life.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Her writing is intense whilst also being relaxed as if the
mind was wildly alive in a body that lay back and was powerless to stop it happening.
The landscapes are sharply drawn, hard and echoing, cold, floodlit. It is her
world, but she does not feel at ease there. Like her novels, there is always
movement with nowhere to settle.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Haunting and painful, these are writings that touch the soul
without once asking you to feel sorry for the author. And such honesty is at
times painful. Not that cringing pain one feels for people who are making fools
of themselves, not the pain that is tinged with annoyance at someone who you
wish would snap out of it. You know there can be no snapping out of it.
Addiction doesn’t work like that. Depression doesn’t work like that. The pain
comes from seeing the tragedy and from recognising that we all stand on the
crumbling edge over which she has slipped and we know that in her case there is
no way to reach down to her. She knows it as well and wastes no time in
screaming, but calmly records everything she sees so that we may have a chance
of stepping back.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The final, title story, is the most poignant of all. Seven
sides in which her whole life is summed up and fades into nothing. Except, of
course, we have her exquisite writing.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Lost Man’s Lane – Anna Katharine Green</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The tale of people disappearing from a road through the
woods along which just a few people live gets lost in the author’s delight in
writing gothic tale. It’s quite a good gothic tale and if it had concentrated
on that it would have been much better. Or if it had concentrated on being a
detective mystery it would have been better. This is not to say you cannot have
good gothic detective mysteries, it is just that in this case the one swamps
the other. There are detectives at work, but precious little detecting.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Presumably at this stage in her writing career, Green was
playing with a form that she had more or less invented, and that is to be
commended. That it doesn’t quite work doesn’t mean it is not a good novel of
its kind. I certainly enjoyed it.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Post Office – Charles Bukowski</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
‘Maybe I’ll write a novel, I thought. And then I did.’ And
this is it. Post Office. The machine that sucks you in, grinds you up, and then
spits you out. And Bukowski conveys the dull horror of this so beautifully in
every single word. Poverty, pain, pleasure, living under the heel of petty
bureaucrats who pass their own agonies and inadequacies down the chain.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This portrait of urban American existence is raw and
uncompromising. Chinaski (the author’s alter ego) lives hand-to-mouth and yet
survives the brutalisation of his work in the Post Office – a metaphor for life
in the <st1:country-region><st1:place>US</st1:place></st1:country-region> (and
any other society for that matter). He’s no angel, but he’s no devil either.
Just an ordinary man getting by.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And along with the portrait of life and the jokes and the
weirdness of life, there is also an underlying sadness. One gets the sense of
that question: we are human beings and this is all there is? Yet a combination
of upbringing and the sheer weight of everything stops the question being
properly formulated, let alone answered or the answer acted on.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One thing I would take issue with and that is the constant
description of Bukowski as being a chronicler of low life <st1:country-region><st1:place>America</st1:place></st1:country-region>.
These people are not low life. That is the vocabulary if division. You call
your enemy ‘gooks’ so you don’t have to think of them as people. You call one
section of society ‘low life’ so you can feel superior to those people and
start blaming them for their troubles. If there is one thing that Bukowski
does, it is to show that people kicked down the ladder and trodden on are just
that: people.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Circular Study – Anna Katharine Green</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A shorter outing for Amelia Butterworth and Detective Gryce.
Not so much a whodunit as whydunit involving the end result of a long running
family feud. As such, it lacks the tension of her longer, more involved works,
but contains enough of the gothic and of the well thought out plot to hold the
reader.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Maigret’s Rival – Georges Simenon</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When a young man’s body is found on the railways track just
outside a rural town, rumours start to fly. A concerned relative of the object
of the rumours asks Maigret to take a look. Reluctantly, he leaves <st1:city><st1:place>Paris</st1:place></st1:city>
and finds himself dropped into the heart of the sort of community that
depresses him to the core. Upper middle classes whose days are spent rehearsing
family pedigrees and peasants who dare not speak out of turn because their
livelihoods depend on those same bourgeoisies. And if that wasn’t enough, there
is an ex policeman clearly hired to make sure all evidence of the crime is
destroyed.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Maigret is off form, depressed by the place (fenland and
perpetually misty), and wishing he had never agreed to investigate. But
investigate he does, uncovering untrammelled immorality, but too late to find
any evidence to bring a case.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is a dark story, written in 1943 during the Nazi
occupation of <st1:country-region><st1:place>France</st1:place></st1:country-region>.
It never once alludes to this period, yet can be taken as a snapshot of the
type of society at the time of the German invasion, with all the implications.
In the novel, it is the peasants who move about under cover of darkness and
take risks to try to expose wrongdoing and fight against the bourgeoisie who
they see as occupiers. It is the bourgeoisie who behave as if they are above
the law. They have taken what they want by force. Anyone who gets in their way
is eliminated. Others are used to further their ends.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Although Maigret is too late to bring the law down on those
involved, he does mete out a form of justice and rids the town of the
perpetrators and it is clear where Maigret’s sympathies lie. The question still
asked is if that is a clear reflection of where Simenon’s sympathies lay as
well.</div>
<br />Graeme K Talboyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00147746990011686351noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7263243740949540632.post-34932060204781619172013-02-01T11:06:00.001+00:002013-02-01T11:08:07.475+00:00Books read in January<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Ice – Anna Kavan</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
An unnamed narrator undertakes an obsessive search for a
girl he has known. She is frail, timid, and thin and she has long white hair.
His pursuit puts him at odds with a man known only as the ‘warden’ whose
pursuit of the girl is equally obsessive. Between them they chase across a
dying landscape as ice coats the planet.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On the surface it does not sound too promising – a
sadomasochistic science fantasy of the sort that is all too common these days.
But this was written in the mid 1960s and it was written by Anna Kavan. The
actual story is a simple metaphor for all the obsessions and addictions that
our flesh is heir to, yet it is the telling of the story that elevates this
work. The language is simple, the forward narrative almost relentless with the
periods of calm enforced on the characters but never the reader.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Kavan was addicted to heroin for many years. She took it
originally to relieve the excrutiating pain of a spinal disease. In the end, it
took her. We should not imagine her as the frail woman of the book, hiding away
and waiting. Anna Kavan was active beyond her writing. But her inner world if
not directly portrayed here must surely have contributed. The encroaching ice –
seen both as a disaster and as a means of ending all troubles – is
psychological, it is the past catching up, it is metaphysical, it is the result
of passing that tipping point when the addict can do nothing to save
themselves.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is a grim tale of dissolution and war, of cruelty and
destruction. Yet there are also acts of kindness struggling through the
suspicion, revelations that surprise yet which are entirely believable. And in
the end, there is a kind of peace, even if it is not the conventionally cosy
happy ending.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
All of Kavan’s work is worth reading. It is poetic and
surreal and in that it is starkly simple and so real it hurts. There is nothing
fussy about her work. It is sharp and disturbing, yet it is entirely human and
there is always a real person beneath and behind the words. One could only have
wished she had been better regarded as a writer during her lifetime. One could
wish she were better regarded now.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Kindness Of Women – J G Ballard</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This book is a crucial turning point in Ballard’s writing.
It marks the point where he seems to realise that the real world now easily
outstrips his surreal imagination. There are those who claim this for <i>Empire
of the Sun</i> but that still contains many elements of his earlier works
(indeed it is an exposition of the source material of those works) and it is
only the setting that anchors it in the real world. For all the events are
‘real’ (that is, a fictional rendition of real events), the world is still seen
through the filter of a boy’s imagination.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In <i>The Kindness of Women</i>, Jim has grown up, gradually
leaving behind the trauma of his early life, slowly waking from the dream,
jolted on the way by very real and very personal events that begin chipping
away at the carapace. And whilst the book focuses on the more bizarre and
unsettling aspects of his life (some more thinly veiled than others, some
strangely changed), at heart is revealed a very ordinary man who has witnessed
extraordinary things and found a unique way of articulating how these have
skewed his vision of the world.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Anyone expecting the kind of writing Ballard used at his
most exploratory stage will be disappointed. This is fairly straightforward
narrative. But Ballard’s use of language is highly cinematic. There are cuts,
fades, flashbacks, close-ups, pans, and he can even go into slow motion. And it
is a novel. He has arranged real events to create a satisfying emergence of a
butterfly from its pupal stage, something that does not happen so readily in
the real world for humans.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is also a mark of Ballard’s maturity as a writer that he
moves on, not just in terms of style, but also in terms of content. He never
completely leaves behind his major concerns, but he has learned enough as a
person to know that there are other and more relevant ways to express them as
he does in his later novels.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Rising Of The Moon – Gladys Mitchell</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Ostensibly a Mrs Bradley mystery this book centres on the
exploits of two young brothers (aged 11 and 13) when their town is visited by a
series of murders. It sounds clichéd now, but this example (from 1945) was an
early version of an a book for adults about children. It captures the two
central characters with great accuracy and affection, makes their exploits feel
believable, delivers a good crime novel (not much of an actual mystery as it is
fairly obvious who is doing the killing), and covers the psychological aspects
with Mitchell’s usual insight.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In addition this is wrtten through the eyes of the thirteen
year old and captures that slight formality one might expect from a youngster
tasked with telling the story as accurately as they could. And to leave her
great detective in little more than a cameo role was also a brave move. All in
all, Mitchell at her very best in which much is left unsaid and makes all the
more impact for it.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>A Blink Of The Screen – Terry Pratchett</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Collected shorter fiction and nothing much that anyone who
likes Pratchett’s work hasn’t seen before. Even his juvenilia is good, although
it is juvenilia. Sadly it feels like a tidying up of a life, especially the
extremely poignant photograph on the back flap.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Inquisitory – Robert Pinget</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A monumental work in which his fictional district of <st1:country-region><st1:place>France</st1:place></st1:country-region>
is examined in the minutest detail through the questioning of an elderly, deaf
servant. Buildings, rooms, inhabitants and events are all subject to the
inquisitorial gaze in a work that is so hypnotic I found myself going back over
sections to make sure I hadn’t dreamed bits (I had). Yet beneath this
encyclopaedic surface (the sort of thing one would expect of Robbe-Grillet)
lies the human stories of the place, principally that of the old servant.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We learn of the goings-on amongst the landed gentry, the tax
evasion, sexual romps, and other less specified unpleasantnesses that those who
believe they are above the law get up to. And on a more subtle level we learn
of the lives of the ordinary working people and how they get caught up in the
nets of the wealthy. And at the heart are two parallel tragedies. At the very
centre is the death of the servant’s child and wife and the people he blames for
his loss. Running along side are three connected murders.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Throughout the inquisition we are left wondering just what
is being investigated. It has the hall marks of a detective novel, of a suspect
or witness being questioned, but in the end we know it is about an old man
reviewing his life, trying to make sense of things and realisng the absurdity
of it all.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The remarkable thing is that such a dense compendium with
pages and pages of minute description and listing can be so absorbing and
reveal so much about what is going on. Layers of things hidden are revealed,
layers of things that are important are discovered and ends with the truly
poignant dream of the old man of a world where he is reunited with wife and
child and can talk about the stars with an elusive resident and find peace and
rest. And so say we all.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Innocence Of Father Brown – G K Chesterton</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Chesterton liked detective stories. He wrote quite a few.
And he never much paid attention to the conventions (of the form or anything
else for that matter). Rather, he knew the conventions inside out and the
showed you could work outside them.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is true that Father Brown is not a detective in the
modern sense of the word. He is an observer and makes intuitive leaps from what
he has seen to create solutions to enigmas. There is a moral edge to the
stories and they may have been the reason they were written, but Chesterton is
far too good and far too sensible a writer to hit his readers over the head
with that. Instead, he presents intriguing puzzles solved by an equally
intriguing character (who seems to have an awful lot of time on his hands for a
priest).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One of the attractions of the stories is their setting, not
just in time, but also in place. Why anyone would think that turning them into
sunny, 1950s, west country, feelgood tales enhances them is anyone’s guess.
Give me the grimy backstreets and the rough edges where poverty rubs up against
wealth. Indeed, if you have to update it for television, the present day would
be a far better setting.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That aside, these are the epitome of well-written,
intelligent entertainment. And having been prompted to read the first
collection, I have no doubt that GKC will be getting a major revisit this year.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>We Didn’t Mean To Go To Sea – Arthur Ransome</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’ve been a fan of Arthur Ransome’s books ever since I was
acquainted with grasshopper’s kneecaps. So being objective is not easy. So I
won’t bother. I first read this at night, uner the blankets, with a torch, in a
friend’s house where I was staying for a week. Where he lived was something of
an adventure in itself – a flat behind the cinema (his father was chief
projectionist) that had all sorts of levels and an open space with a metal
bridge over a four storey light well.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In this, the <st1:city><st1:place>Walker</st1:place></st1:city>
children, waiting for their father to return from the farEast, befriend a
sailor and go aboard his yacht as crew for a few days to sail up and down the
rivers <st1:place>Stour</st1:place> and Orwell. Because of a mishap, the boat
slips its mooring in fog and drifts out to sea on the tide, minus its captain.
With a storm at their heels they guide the boat across the southern end of the <st1:place>North
Sea</st1:place> and end up in <st1:place>Flushing</st1:place>. There they meet
up with their father and sail back again.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It sounds boring when put like that, but this is pure
adventure all the way, with the <i>Goblin</i> (just a different name for
Ransome’s own boat the <i>Nancy Blackett</i>) a fifth character. There is
nothing fantastical here. Everything is realistic. Yet it is never boring and
we see the <st1:city><st1:place>Walker</st1:place></st1:city> children as we
have never really seen them before (unless you count <i>Peter Duck</i> which <i>is</i>
a fantasy). Seasickness and arguments, mistakes through lack of experience, and
the serious possibility of a falling out with their parents.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Everything works out in the end (and that’s no bad thing –
life isn’t all crises and misery), but there was a real sense of peril during
the story, and the satisfaction of getting to know his characters at a deeper
level. And even if none of that were true, it is still marvellous comfort
reading.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Lady Audley’s Secret – Mary Elizabeth Braddon</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Being a Talboys, this is almost compulsory reading. It
wasn’t much to my taste when I first tried it many many years ago, but people
change. This time round I thoroughly enjoyed it. I suspect last time it was a
case of being told I ought to read it and I automatically take against books
I’m told I ought to read. It’s in my nature.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What struck me about this reading is that Mary Braddon has a
dry sense of humour. It’s like a fine white wine and acts as the perfect
accompaniment to this tale. Described as a novel of sensation, one can only
wonder at how sheltered the reading public must have been to class this book in
such a way. By today’s standards (putting the coincidences and occaisonal slips
of language aside) it is rather insightful work that succeeds to make a
sympathetic character out of a reprehensible villain. She is not evil, simply
using a particular strategy to survive and to avoid the kind of life her maid
ended with.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The sympathy evoked in the reader for Lady Audley makes
everyone else’s actions all the more difficult and credible. And whilst it is
not a novel that out and out condemns aspects of society that deserve
condemnation, it does raise a lot of questions about the status quo. In
addition to all that, it is a fascinating read and succeeds in moving the story
along with sufficient suspense to keep the reader to the very last page.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The </b><st1:city><st1:place><b>Leavenworth</b></st1:place></st1:city><b>
Case – Anna Katharine Green</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Published in 1878, this is one of the earliest detective
novels and is marked by its special attention to gathering sufficient evidence
for a legal case to be made (rather than relying on purely circumstantial
evidence). As a precursor to the police procedural (only a precursor because
the methods of the police and their organisation are not really touched on) it
also introduces other elements of crime fiction with which we are now all too
familiar.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There is a form of locked room mystery at the heart of the
story which itself is an isolated house mystery. However, the work of the
investigating lawyer begins to pick away at the stories offered by those
present in the house and the mystery of the missing servant becomes a sub-plot
of equal intrigue to the main. It is also the first of a series of books
featuring the same detectives, each with their idiosyncracies that lift them
above the normal.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
None of which would be of much interest if the book itself
were not also lively and satisfying. Which rather sets up the question as to
why it and its sequels are not better known.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>A Strange Disappearance – Anna Katharine Green</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A little more melodramatic (with nods to the gothic) than
its predecessor, this is, nonetheless, an entertaining read. Although Gryce and
Q reappear from the previous book, this one is a tale of a case as told by Q to
some of his colleagues. With the shift in perspective, we have a different feel
to the tale and a different investment by the central character in the events
and outcome.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The story centres round a member of the household staff of a
wealthy New Yorker who goes missing, possibly abducted. Mystery surrounds her
and the circumstances of her disappearance and Gryce puts Q on the case. After
mch following of the principles and a hair-raising jaunt into the wilds of the
countryside, matters begin to fall into place.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If you can accept certain conventions of this type of tale
(which I cannot discuss without spoiling the book), it is a great book that
succeeds in painting more of a picture of life in the city than was the case in
the earlier book. Great fun.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />Graeme K Talboyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00147746990011686351noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7263243740949540632.post-7596922104609015222013-01-01T14:01:00.003+00:002013-01-01T14:01:57.886+00:00Books read in December
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Return Of The Thin Man – Dashiell Hammett</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Hammett wrote some of the quintessential hard-boiled
detective novels of the 20<sup>th</sup> century. Based in part on his
experiences as a Pinkerton Detective, they combine gritty realism, social
comment and excellent plots with a skill for writing that really is top class.
Yet Hammett also had a great sense of humour and this was ably displayed in his
novel <i>The Thin Man</i> which featured the detective Nick Charles and his
wife Nora. The novel is a wisecracking mystery with Nick and Nora always just
the right side of innebriated seeming to blunder through an investigation yet
using their apparent foolishness as the perfect cover.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So successful was the novel that it was turned into a film.
So successful was the film that the studio clamoured for sequels. Reluctantly
(Hammett did not enjoy his time in bondage to MGM), he produced treatments for
two more films and a brief outline for another. These have recently been
unearthed and are published together in this volume.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This is a wonderful book on so many levels. To begin with we
get more genuine Hammett. Secondly, we get two new stories that sparkle as much
as the original novel. And finally we get to see part of the process by which
movies can be made – always a bonus for anyone trying to work on their
screenplay. Hammett didn’t write the screenplays, but he did provide detailed
stories and most of the dialogue (screenwriters lifted his dialogue by the
pageful when preparing screenplays as he was recognised as a master). Indeed,
so detailed are these, they could as easily have been developed into novels as
movies. Whatever the case (and the movies do differ slightly from the
treatments) these were very readable stories and so vivid that one could see
them playing out as movies whilst reading them. This is writing at its very
best, even when Hammett was losing interest in the project, he did not once
short change the reader.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Saltmarsh Murders – Gladys Mitchell</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Another wonderful line-up of bonkers characters. Another
wonderful mystery. In this case, Mitchell has also demonstrated her skill as a
writer by making a first person narrative from the point of view of one of the
characters involved, with Mrs Bradley seen through his eyes. That in itself as
an excellent little character study of a young man with all his prejudices,
foibles, desires, and in a number of cases fairly advanced thinking for a man
of the cloth in the 1930s.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
They mystery is, as ever, intriguing and whilst the book
does display some of the views of its day that seem shocking to us (especially
with regard to the question of race), it also manages to air that problem and
show up much of it for the prejudice that it is. It is a question that is
thrown into sharp contrast a decade later with the arrival of American troops
in the <st1:country-region><st1:place>UK</st1:place></st1:country-region>, so
kudos to Mitchell for giving it a walk around the park so early.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Death At The Opera – Gladys Mitchell</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Typically convoluted and, evidenced at one point when a
whole new novel appears to start, resolutely its own style of mystery novel. A
co-educational private school with a head who has mildly progressive ideas
decides to put on a production of the Mikado for its annual concert. Around
this the relationships of the staff are explored, particularly those pertaining
to Miss Ferris, the self-effacing mathematics mistress who puts up the money to
put on the show.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The investigation into why she winds up dead lifts stones on
a whole set of things that people would much rather had stayed hidden. Although
the story does have truly absurd elements and appalling coincidences, it is
still a satisfying read and the characters are wonderfully drawn in a way that
portrays the slightly barmy Mrs Bradley as normal and everyone else as a
complete basket case.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Poor Things – Alasdair Gray</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Part gothic horror (although with tongue in cheek), part
social commentary, wholly entertaining, and of course beautifully illustrated.
The book is presented as the reproduction of a privately printed volume found
outside a solicitor’s offices amongst other papers. As such it is a series of
stries nested inside each other. The story of the book’s finding (and a
commentary on the parlous state of the finances for preserving and conserving
Scottish culture); the discussion between the person who found the book and
Gray (as editor) about its veracity and reliability; the story told within the
book about a woman who became one of the first female doctors in Scotland and
her bizarre origin; a letter written by the woman (at one time married to the
author of the book) giving her real origins and life story; plus a whole host
of notes.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The whole thing is, of course, a work of fiction. It can be
read on so many levels, achieves so much in terms of creating a parallel
history, and remains throughout both well-written and entertaining. Gray does
wobble sometimes in his writing, but he is never less than bold, never less
than entertaining, and never gives less than his whole to a project. This alone
makes him a writer to be treasured. That he has a social conscience and manages
to discuss important social matters without once dropping into polemic makes
him doubly wonderful.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Come Away, Death – Gladys Mitchell</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Always literate, Mitchel lifts what might have been a
straightforward murder mystery to an altogether different and chilling level.
The usual conventions of such books are in place. Mrs Bradley happens to be a
guest of a family about to embark on a pilgrimage to sacred sites of ancient <st1:country-region><st1:place>Greece</st1:place></st1:country-region>.
There are tensions and it quickly becomes obvious who the victim will be. So
far, so normal.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What is chilling about this is the way in which it exposes
the awful assumptions of certain classes of British society and the casual way
in which an irritant is dealt with (the victim is a pain in the arse but no
more so than the family he has attached himself to like a leech). Murdered,
disposed of, and the assumption that that was the way to handle it and that it
should be hushed up.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As such it is a scathing and unflinching view of British
society and how little distance it had travelled even after the horrors of the
First World War. It is also a an excellent novel in its own right, lost to most
readers as it is a genre novel, one by a sadly neglected writer who produced
much better work than Christie but one who exposed the dark underside of
society rather than smoothing over the cracks and making it look cosy and
normal again.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Chain Of Chance – Stanislaw Lem</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Another of Lem’s metaphysical investigations where noir
meets the absurd (in a territory in which both happily exist). I love both
kinds of writing and to have them in one story (much as Goddard did with his
movie Alphaville) is perfect.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In this book an ex-astronaut (dumped from a Mars programme
because of his hay-fever) agrees to help into the investigation of a series of
mysterious deaths in <st1:country-region><st1:place>Italy</st1:place></st1:country-region>.
This is a world that is both contemporary and in the future; a world plagued by
all the concerns of the mid-70s when it was written, but viewed through the
filter of a highly analytical mind.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
With all the hallmarks and proceedings of a murder
investigation it soon becomes something else – mostly a meditation on modern
life with aspects of mathematics thrown in. The denoument is suitably downbeat
and quirky and whilst it might not satisfy mystery buffs, it is intellectually
satisfying and thoroughly enjoyable.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Father Ted, The Complete Scripts – Graham Linehan &
Arthur Mathews</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What’s to be said that hasn’t already been said? Lots, I
suppose. Collected here in a single volume, with notes, are the final written
drafts of the scripts of the TV series Father Ted. They differ slightly from
what appears on screen as decisions are made during shooting about what
transfers from the page, but the differences are tiny (mostly scenes cut
because they were too long or went nowhere). It is the genius of the writers
that what is on the page is as funny as what appeared on screen, although for
different reasons. The performances in the series were superb and brought a
whole new dimension to the written word (and it is very difficult to read the
scripts without hearing the actors and visualising them – especially if you
have watched it a few more times than once). However, the written word here is
funny in its own right and has that deceptive simplicity of all good writing.
It’s the sort of thing that makes you say, ‘I could do that’ until you try and
realise that you have to be very gifted indeed to translate surreal humour into
first the written word and then a written form that then translates to TV.
Excellent.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>When Last I Died – Gladys Mitchell</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Another superb piece of writing from Mitchell. Well informed
(as are all her books), solid, and believable. This involves a tangle of family
relationships and what happens when the family members come together over a
slightly dodgy scheme to convince people that a house is haunted in order to
make a bit of money and a reputation on which to live. Stepping out onto that
limb makes everyone vulnerable especially when one of the is determined to stop
at nothing to saw the branch off at the base.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is also extremely refreshing to have children portrayed
realistically rather than as the jolly, precocious brats they often are in such
stories. But then Mitchell was a teacher so she knew what children were really
like in all their moods – even the children that had long since grown up.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Death and the Maiden – Gladys Mitchell</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
No happy ending in this book, although justice is served at
a terrible cost. Set in <st1:city><st1:place>Winchester</st1:place></st1:city>,
mostly along the banks of the Itchen, this is a complex tale of greed and
murder which, in true Mitchell style, manages to be seamlessly erudite,
disturbing, and entertaining.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Tom Brown’s Body – Gladys Mitchell</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Whilst this is well-written and contains a mystery every bit
as intriguing as her other books, the ending feels rushed. There are no cheats,
but suddenly Mrs Bradley and the police make an arrest and it’s all over. That
may well be the experience in real life, but in a book of this sort one would
like something a little more satisfying.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Dwarfs – Harold Pinter</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I remember thinking when I first read this that it had only
seen the light of day because it was interesting to see how Pinter’s writing
had developed and people who enjoyed his plays (as I did and still do) would
want to. As a work it already displays Pinter’s interest in dialogue. There is
very little of anything in the novel that could be described as action, little
more than would be found in a play as stage directions.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the sense that the author already has a mature and
idiosyncratic style where the dialogue is already ‘Pinteresque’, the novel
works. Many of the sections of dialogue work within themselves. But there are
passages that display the immature side of Pinter as a writer. They ramble
without adding anything to the work. There is no plot to push forward and the
characters are types rather than individuals.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Despite its faults, it is still a work I will champion and
suggest people read simply because it is one of the hidden treasures of British
literature. It follows its own course, speaks with an individual voice, tries
something that writers at the time would have found alien, and succeeds in its
failure by being a far better and more interesting book than much of the dross
that purports to be literature these days.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Watson’s Choice – Gladys Mitchell</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A rather pleasing mystery with a Holmesian background,
supplied by an eccentric who holds a party Holmes themed party out of which the
rest of the story flows. Fluent, filled with wonderful characters who are just
on the right side of caricatures (as befits a novel of this kind), and a solid
mystery at the heart. The ending is also considerably more satisfying than the
last one I read. The deductive steps were clearly shown and suspects whittled
down until it was inevitable at the end just who it was who committed the
murder.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Twenty-Third Man – Gladys Mitchell</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Set on an island this is a tangled tale in which truth and
identity are never what they seem. Mrs Bradley, having hoped for a holiday
stumbles upon murder and deceit. And in a neattwist that disposes of the ‘why
does the investigator always happen to be on the spot when a murder occurs problem’,
it is the arrival of Mrs Bradley that triggers the events that lead to murder.
Pleasingly convoluted yet nonetheless plausible, this is another excellent
mystery from Gladys Mitchell.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Compleat Ankh-Morpork City Guide – Terry Pratchett et
al</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For the compleatist, a nonetheless entertaining book and the
ideal gift (as this was). Based on Victorian directories, this is the ultimate
guide to Pratchett’s premier city on Discworld with a huge fold-out map. One
wonders how long before there is a Google Street View version.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Caligula & Other Plays – Albert Camus</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The volume contains ‘Caligula’, ‘Cross Purpose’, ‘The Just’,
and ‘The Possessed’. And despite these being for a theatre of ideas they each
display a tendency toward a theatre of personal psychology (character driven,
in other words). This is manifest in ‘Caligula’ which clearly starts out as
examination of nihilism and other similar philosophical stances, driving them
to their logical conclusion, but which transforms into a study of an individual
and his descent into what we might call madness, but which is clearly much more
complex than such a sweeping diagnosis would suggest.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Very often the term ‘madness’ is used in this way – as a
convenient means of pushing a problem to one side and refusing to deal with it.
Which is, itself, a form of madness. Failure to engage with the real world and
deal with it is not, of course, confined to history. Every year people set out
on killing sprees, the extent of the body count determined by the position in
society of the killer. Even the lone and lowly killer can rack up body counts
that are horrific. And every time, the root causes are ignored.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As ‘Caligula’ shows it is not always easy to determine the
root causes, any more than it is easy to stop such murderers. Far too many
other people stand ready to support the cause. Very often, such murders as well
as violence and astonishing cruelties are committed in the name of politics, or
revolution, or the fight for liberty or however it is dressed up. ‘The Just’ and
‘The Possessed’ examine these latter issues in particular.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I have never seen any of these performed, but with a
background in Drama and Theatre, it is not too difficult to imagine them on the
stage. And despite the sometimes stilted feel (they are expository to a degree
not normally found in British theatre), an appropriate style of delivery would
surely make these worth seeing.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<strong>Summary</strong></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That's a total of 164 books read this year (and that doesn't count the parts of books read for research). Very few were newly published works; a large number were re-reads; a considerable proportion were 'light' - mostly because I was writing my own (two novels drafted and a lot of other stuff scribbled). So, here's to next year with a book already being read (and another already being written).</div>
<br />Graeme K Talboyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00147746990011686351noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7263243740949540632.post-36351686114511371552012-12-01T10:40:00.001+00:002012-12-01T10:40:25.857+00:00Books read in November
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Hound Of The Baskervilles – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Considered by many to be Conan Doyle’s best Sherlock Holmes,
it certainly contains all the ingredients and is an efficient enough tale, but
it does suffer from a rushed ending and a lot of plot holes (for example, if
Holmes’s young helper on the moor was so easily spotted through the telescope,
why hadn’t the escaped convict and his helper been seen?). One could also wish
that Doyle had taken the time to explore in a little more depth the social
side, that it’s the toffs causing the problems and dumping on the lower classes
and cast out folk. That said, it is still an intriguing tale and an enjoyable
read.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The </b><st1:place><st1:placetype><b>Valley</b></st1:placetype><b>
Of </b><st1:placename><b>Fear</b></st1:placename></st1:place><b> – Sir Arthur
Conan Doyle</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Although on the face of a mash-up of two novellas (one as
backstory to the other to make it up to novel length), there is more to the
structure of this book than first meets the eye. On the face of it, it is much
like ‘The Sign Of Four’ and, indeed, has a similar setting, replete with a
secretive society part of which has gone to the bad. But in this later novel,
Conan Doyle has used the same structure to add a layer of uncertainty. In the
first half we have a classic Holmes puzzle which leads to a denouement of some
uncertainty. The back story, presented in the second half, compounds that
uncertainty to the end. A very clever use of what could have been
straightforward and boring kept alive by turning reader assumptions on their
head several times.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>His Last Bow – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Clearly not, of course, as there is a further collection,
but although Conan Doyle later declares that he has been happy writing the
Holmes stories it is clear that whilst there may be ideas, there is less
enthusiasm for their working out and presentation. One might argue that as
Holmes ages his style changes, but as the stories are not chronological it is
obviously more to do with the author. There are one or two intriguing stories
of the old style, but for the most part they read like reminiscences long after
the fact rather than having been written just after the event occurred.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Case-Book Of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The final collection of Holmes stories is a hotch potch
affair. Different view points and approaches, all of which demonstrate Doyle
limitations as a writer – it is difficult to tell a narrative by Holmes from a
narrative by Watson as well as the fact they characters have not changed or
developed over time. But this is not serious literature. The Holmes stories are
entertainments and in that they succeed admirably.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Franklin’s Tale – Geoffrey Chaucer</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I did this for A level and as part of a plan to re-read all
those A level texts I finally got round to this (it is taking me considerably
longer than the original two years – so many other things keep<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>attracting my attent – SQUIRREL). It is a
tribute to my English teacher (Colin Silk, a gentleman and excellent teacher) that
I could sit down and read the Chaucer in the original, straight through, with
no need to refer to notes. And enjoy it.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A tale of personal sovereignty and of sexual obsession it
clearly owes its genesis to the tales of chivalry and courtly love told by the
troubadors. I am inspired now to revisit the rest of the Tales which, I am
ashamed to say, I have only ever read in a modern English prose version.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Lost World – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Although not the first work to posit the survival of
prehistoric species into the modern day (Verne used the idea years before),
Conan Doyle created the most plausible of settings compatible with scientific
understanding at the time. A remote, sheer-sided plateau in <st1:place>South
America</st1:place> on top of which species have been isolated from the rest
of the world. To this he added the memorable and annoying character of
Professor Challnger and the small group that makes the journey with him to
verify his claims.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is a fairly straight forward, gung-ho adventure with some
(by modern standards) appalling attitudes. Which is instructive as Conan-Doyle
was fairly forward thinking for his day. Whilst it is fairly tame adventure by
today’s standards (and many of the film adaptations not only muck around with
the casting but add incidents to pep the story up), it is remarkable in that it
sets up a standard by which many subsequent and far worse stories have been
created. It also highlighted the fascination with dinosaurs which exists to
this day, creatures that have turned up in all sorts of isolated spots (or been
reborn) to cause wonder and havoc.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Poison Belt – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A novella that brings together the characters of ‘The Lost
World’ at a moment when the Earth passes through a belt of poison gas that
affects everyone on the planet. Having had some foresight with regard to the
disaster, Professor Challenger has set up a room in which the characters sit
through the events, kept alive by oxygen. They witness a train crash and fires
and, in the aftermath, drive through a stricken <st1:city><st1:place>London</st1:place></st1:city>
believing themselves to be the only remaining humans on the planet.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Again, whilst not the first global disaster story (Mary
Shelley was an early precursor), it is a remarkable short piece that seems to
lay the foundations for works by the likes of John Wyndham. The depictions of the
everyday world brought to an end are particularly potent and it is a shame that
Conan Doyle did not develop the work into a full-length piece.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Professor Challenger is also an interesting character as he
seems to prefigure many of the brilliant, obstinate, and angry scientists
beloved of pulp fiction and B movies, perhaps culminating in Professor
Quatermass.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Naked Nuns – Colin Watson</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A Flaxborough novel, and if you don’t what that is, shame on
you. The Flaxborough novels are some of the finest humorous crime novels of the
twentieth century. Superb dry with, wonderful characterization, and a portrait
of a provincial town that is both over the top and deadly accurate. Because
beneath the respectable surface of Councillors and business owners, their wives
and all the the other folk of dubious means of support lies an unpleasant
truth: that these people are for the most part criminals, cheats, and liars.
And in some cases their actions lead to murder.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In Flaxborough, thankfully, the police have the superb
Inspector Purbright who understands exactly what these people are like and what
they are capable of. And Colin Watson delivers each of these books with superb
writing that looks simple but which is the work of a master.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Pulp – Charles Bukowski</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Bukowskis final novel, a pastiche of the kind of noir
detective story in which the detective doesn’t detect, just stumbles around
getting beaten up until the case resolves itself. A bit like life. Which is
pretty much the point of the book. It is also about death and in fact the
central character, Nicky Belane, may already be dead when the book opens and
this is his rite of passage.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Bukowski substitutes the weird characters of <st1:country-region><st1:place>America</st1:place></st1:country-region>’s
underbelly with weird characters from its fictional psyche. Aliens, Lady Death,
a succession of stupid bartenders presiding over bars with one person in them,
usually aggressive. The only real character is the man who wants evidence of
his wife’s infidelity and then gets angry about it, turning his fear and his
ire on the detective he has hired.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The whole thing is written in Bukowski’s tight, unflinching
style and is a real joy to read.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Hour Of The Star – Clarice Lispector</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A short, intense, and demaning work that defies comparison
(despite attempts through the years). It also, in a number of ways, defies
categorisation. This is often described as a portrait of an anti-heroine, but
Macabea really is nothing of the sort. Born in a poor region of <st1:country-region><st1:place>Brazil</st1:place></st1:country-region>
and living in a slum of Rio de Janairo she is an everygirl and a nogirl; representing
the many tens of thousands who live similar lives, yet unique for she is an
absolute innocent, as attached to the world as any star.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For all its intensity and introspection there is a lightness
of touch to the style that creates an easy read. The book can be finished in a
few hours, but it is a story that will stay a lifetime because inconsequential
details and events start to surface long after the covers are closed and
Macabea has died.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There is an intriguing subtext as well in that the narrator at
one point admits he is her boss (although he also calls himself a writer and
speaks of her boss in the third person). The whole thing is also a metatext as
we are privy to the thoughts of the (fictional) author not only about the
character with whom he is falling in love despite her having no real redeeming
features, but about the process of creating her and telling her story.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Definitely a book to return to.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Lonelyheart 4122 – Colin Watson</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Lonely women disappear, apparently after making use of a
matrimonial service. The police investigate, but the set-up seems to be above
board and fool-proof. But it’s not just the police who are investigating and we
are introduced to one of the truly enigmatic characters of crime fiction,
Lucilla Teatime. From what we learn of her, one suspects she is the type of
women who spent the second world war being parachuted into occupied <st1:place>Europe</st1:place>.
Whatever her past (which is not altogether on the right side of the law), she
develops into a wonderful addition to this series.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As well as all the other praise I could heap on these
novels, it is their subtlety I love. Watson does not spend pages telling us
about the motives of characters. They are there in front of us. Only once is
made explicit in this story and even then if you blink, you miss it. It is that
level of respect for the reader, that level of confidence and intelligence in
the writer that I really do appreciate in an age when subtlety has become
something of a lost art.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Charity Ends At Home – Colin Watson</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Another fine example of Watson’s work with a wonderful
portrait of a couple gleaned mostly from the people around them and those
questioned during the murder investigation. The story is approached obliquely
and even the red herring does not look red, smell of fish or swim about.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Flaxborough Crab – Colin Watson</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Goings-on in the world of medicine as seen through the prism
of Flaxborough. Watson’s trademark dry wit creates convincing portraits of
people and a time. It also dissects social attitudes and finds them wanting.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Plaster Sinners – Colin Watson</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This is an altogether more sombre book, despite the ‘guest
appearance’ of a London DI whose method of working is to upset people and see
what happens. It is sombre because it involves family and the lengths to which
some (in this case, landed gentry) will go to cover up past indiscretions. To
match the mood we get an excellent story, equally wonderful characters, and
Watson’s acidity aimed at the usual targets – very often the institutions that
dehumanise us.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The </b><st1:place><st1:placetype><b>Land</b></st1:placetype><b>
Of </b><st1:placename><b>Mist</b></st1:placename></st1:place><b> – Sir Arthur
Conan Doyle</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Thirteen years after his last outing, Professor Challenger
is revived as a minor character (to Malone’s central role) in this work.
Malone, still working for his newspaper is tasked with writing a series of
articles (along with Enid Challenger, the Professor’s daughter) about religion.
Each week they take a different one and eventually attend a Spiritualist
meeting. Thereafter, Malone investigates much more deeply and becomes convinced
of the truth that lies behind Spiritualism.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Not so much a novel as a means of presenting a Spiritualist
case to the public, this is nonetheless well written and thoughtful (if at
times overly sentimental). Doyle’s involvement with Spiritualism is well known
and he was clearly well read and well versed. If nothing else this is an
interesting fictional documentation of a movement that gripped the public
imagination in the aftermath of the First World War.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Blue Murder – Colin Watson</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Whilst the humour is still there, this is a much more
serious outing and with a much more convoluted (although plausible) plot. The
focus here is on a group of outsiders – a team of journalists from a Sunday
newspaper intent on digging the dirt on what they have been told is the
production of blue films by the local photographic society. As a background, it
could not be more relevant as it is clear the newspaper in question is modelled
on a newspaper that is mired in sleaze of its own making.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The story itself also grows out of the misery caused by the
sanctimonious dirt digging of such newspapers and the collateral damage that
ensues. As such it is the most realistic of the Flaxborough novels.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Whatever’s Been Going On At Mumblesby? – Colin Watson</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Snobbery with violence. It’s the title of a book by Colin
Watson in which he discusses murder mysteries. It can also apply to this, his
final novel. Although there is a degree of exaggeration in his character
portraits, it is only a degree. He has caught exactly the degree to which
certain people think they are (a) above the law and (b) entitled to behave
exactly as they wish toward people not in their own feral group. Exactly how
that manifests is the fascinating plot of this book.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I was a little disappointed by the device used toward the
end (letter left to be opened in the event of death explaining most of the
plot), although given that it was a lawyer, not entirely out of character. That
aside, a wonderful addition to the Flaxborough series.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>In A German Pension – Katherine Mansfield</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Considered by <st1:city><st1:place>Mansfield</st1:place></st1:city>
to be an immature work, this may be true compared with her later stories, but
by anyone else’s standards, these are first class. For the most part these are
studies of people staying in a German hotel for a ‘cure’. And whilst they veer
slightly toward caricature, that is simply a device by which to heighten points
of interest rather create grotesques. Indeed, far from being critical of
Germans (as some have suggested) it strikes me as being a far more universal
critique of the kind of pretentiousness to be found in any upper-middle class
group of people who can afford to take a few months away from ‘normal’ life to
stay in a hotel and indulge in pampering their bodies.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The narrator/observer is always coy about their own reason
for being there and one really only need look at <st1:city><st1:place>Mansfield</st1:place></st1:city>’s
own life to fill in that background. And even if they are to be regarded as
immature works, it is clear that as an author she already has a keen eye and a
way with words that builds with assured strokes convincing and sometimes
humorous portraits of people.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There are also other stories here which owe more to fiction
than observation as they look into events and lives to which <st1:city><st1:place>Mansfield</st1:place></st1:city>
probably had no direct access. That these are interleaved quite seamlessly with
the other works is a testament to her work and they provide a wonderful
contrast to the lives of the privileged and their petty concerns.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Sleeper Awakes – H G Wells</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One of Wells’ fictions – a future history in which a man
goes into a coma, is left a fortune, and on waking finds he owns half the
planet and that those administering in his name have created the kind of
society we can see evolving at this very moment. Giant corporations rule,
democracy is dead, the workers earn just enough to live in company workhouses
and the wealthy migrate to Pleasure Cities.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Unfortunately, fascinating as it is, the story on which this
is hung is thin stuff and is clearly a device for Wells’ warning about what the
future might hold. If it is read as political tract, it works a lot better, but
even then it cannot be considered one of Wells’ better fictions. Neither fish
nor fowl, even Wells wasn’t that happy with it. It was written in haste as a
serial and he extensively rewrote it when it became a novel. Even then, it is
clear the flaw is in the structure and without changing that it was never going
to be more than one of his ‘other’ works.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Mystery Of A Butcher’s Shop – Gladys Mitchell</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Superb. Glorious. I have always enjoyed Mitchell’s books.
Far superior to Christie in every way in my opinion. Better written. More
intriguing plots . A central character far better conceived (and as ageless) as
any other detective in fiction. And not afraid to be off the wall. Indeed, it
is the battiness and sheer fun of the puzzle in Mitchell’s books that I find so
attractive.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In this, a dismembered and headless body is found one
morning hanging in a butcher’s shop. Who it is and how it got there takes us
back to a fairly stard country house scenario but with a cast of characters
that are broadly drawn but intriguing. And one by one they all fall under
suspicion and indeed most of them had opportunity. But piecing it all together
and always one step ahead of the police with her speculations is Mrs Bradley.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If you enjoy golden age detective fiction then you should give
Mitchell a go. Her work is sadly neglected, only about ten of her sixty plus
novels are in print. But they can be found if you hunt them out.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />Graeme K Talboyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00147746990011686351noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7263243740949540632.post-74893677823628876582012-11-07T10:21:00.000+00:002012-11-07T10:23:26.867+00:00Books read in October<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Memoirs Of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And just as we really start to get to know Sherlock Holmes,
Conan Doyle kills him off.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The paradox,
of course, is that the stories are more relaxed and mature as pieces of
writing; less enamoured of the tricks of the detective and more concerned with the
characters involved (although still not high art). As a result, the puzzles are
more intriguing and the stories more satisfying. Indeed, the last story, in
which Holmes meets his fate, has none of the detective’s skills on display
(apart from one example of disguise) and no crime is solved. We never meet the
villain first hand. The story is told simply (some say coldly), and that for me
makes it all the more effective. It has a ring of truth about it for here is a
man setting the record straight on events and people that are still painful to
him.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Edison’s Conquest Of Mars – Garrett P. Serviss</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Written in 1898 this unauthorised sequel to Wells’ War of
the Worlds is a truly awful book. The author was an astronomer and should really
have stuck to that. It is dull (even by late nineteenth century standards),
jingoistic, militaristic, and to call it adolescent would be to pay it a
compliment. It is an early form of fan fiction, I suppose, in the days before
copyright protection. Should copyright go out of the window, this is the level
of stuff we can expect in the future.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The reason it still circulates, we are told, is that it came
up with some of the staples of science fiction first. In other words later
writers have been lazy enough to bump along in the rut left by this clunky
cart. When compared with other classics of sf set on Mars, this should really be
left in a dark room and forgotten.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Martians Are Coming! – Alan Gallop</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This is the story the of Orson Welles’ Mercury Theatre
Company’s broadcast of H G Wells’ War of the Worlds and the subsequent panic it
caused. The book is well researched and well written with a lightness that
makes the subject both interesting and entertaining. It gives background to
Welles’ career and how he came to be in a position to put on the play and in so
doing gives some insight into the character of a man often cited as a genius,
yet whose output rarely ever reached that level. We are told how the broadcasts
were done, and treated to an overview of the ensuing panic. One could have
hoped for a more in-depth look at events and the reasons given, but as an
introduction, this is ideal.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Sword In The Stone – T H White</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This book is important to me on so many levels it would be
difficult to know where to begin with a full scale appreciation. I won’t
attempt that here. Just to say that every time I read it, I enjoy it more (although
I do wish someone would sit down with White’s notes and work out the definitive
version of the five book sequence). White’s erudition shines through; not just
his understanding of natural history, but his understanding of the spiritual
underpinning of the Arthurian mythos. Yet it never gets in the way of a
beautifully told tale of childhood and growing up, with all the poignancy not
just for loss of innocence, but for the loss of an idealised chidhood that many
in my generation (even those of us who lived in cities) came close to having.
Glorious.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Witch In The Wood – T H White</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The second book of White’s tetralogy is remarkable in that
it is both the same and different to the previous book. The tone and style
remain the same, with the same unique setting. But where the previous book was
clearly about childhood, this is clearly about ‘growing to man’s estate’ and
how younger generations overturn the ideas and expectations of the previous
generation.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The focus moves away from Arthur and we are introduced to
the family that will, with all the inevitability of tragedy, bring ruin down on
Arthur’s enterprise. Consequently there are shadows in this book not present
before; cruelties that, through the various reactions of Gawain and his
brothers, show how complex an issue evil is. No one here is out and out evil.
They are all a product of their upbringing and their individual natures against
a social background of turmoil and centuries of mythologised enmity. Very much
like today, in fact.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Merlyn’s attempts to guide the setting up of the Round Table
and all it stands for are flawed and Kay, despite depicted as not very
intelligent, often sees these flaws and is puzzled by them. Yet flawed as they
are, and dependent on methods Merlyn despises, it is clearly a vision of a more
equitable world.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For all it is part of a longer story and was never intended
as a work in its own right, White manages to make an entity of it, a complete
episode. And all the time he does it with a lightness of touch that allows deep
questions about the nature of personal and political power to be aired. More
remarkable is that in the almost cartoonish atmosphere of the book walk some
complex characters who have, as yet, to reach their full flowering.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Kim – Rudyard Kipling</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A curious hybrid of a story that probably wouldn’t get to
see the light of day these days. Partly a spiritual quest and partly the story
of the training of a spy, it is also often presented as a children’s book.
Presumably because the central character is a child. It is of course all these,
but most of all it seems to me, it is an affectionate portrait of <st1:country-region><st1:place>India</st1:place></st1:country-region>.
The book is exuberant and loving, a love letter to the sub-continent with all
its beauties and faults and idiocies.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For those who enjoy children’s books in which children avoid
or fight against the influence of adults to greater or lesser degree, this
belongs there with the best (if not rightfully claiming to be the best. For
those who enjoy gentle tales of spiritual quest, this belongs with the best,
etc. For those who enjoy spy fiction (and have an interest in the history of
espionage), this is an essential read. That someone could combine the three
seamlessly proves that Kipling, for whatever faults you may perceive him to
have, was a genius writer.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Welcome To Alflolol – Mezieres & Christin</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The fourth in the Valerian and Laureline series. Yes these
are for a youngish audience, and yes they are fairly straightforward, but they
are also deeply political, reaching an audience that might otherwise be missed.
In this adventure, aspects of colonialism are examined and found desperately
wanting. And the framework continues to delight, with Valerian, as ever, coming
round to the wisdom of his female partner Laureline. He might be slow, but he
gets there in the end.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The graphics, too, are a delight and underpin much in the
way of science fiction film since the ‘70s, much of it unacknowledged. Indeed,
with proper handling and faithfulness to the stories, these would make
excellent movies.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Tarzan Of The Apes – Edgar Rice Burroughs</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In celebration of the book’s centenary, I decided to
revisit. I can only assume the version I read as a child was bowdlerised as I
don’t remember it being anything like as blood-thirsty (and I doubt my Junior
school would have had the full version in the library in any case). The tale is
so familiar that it is hardly worth repeating; orphaned child raised by great
apes of unspecified type, encounters humans, becomes ‘civilized’.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Those bare bones (and many subsequent versions) do not do
the story justice. Although there is savagery, Tarzan is a sophisticated
character. And although the implausibilities pile up a bit, the book is an
enjoyable read and ERB is not above taking a none too subtle swipe at
‘civilized’ man. It may lie firmly within the tradition of pulp, but it is one
of the better offerings, far superior to a great deal of writing within that
genre.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Return Of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The observational skills of Holmes are much less on display
in these stories. Presumably it is a trick that Conan Doyle could not or did
not want to keep up, and whilst there are occasional flashes, the tales focus
much less on this and more on the characters involved and the situations in
which they find themselves. It makes for a more introspective set of tales
which offer a glimpse into late Victorian society.</div>
<br />Graeme K Talboyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00147746990011686351noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7263243740949540632.post-18688203951995887782012-10-01T12:15:00.001+01:002012-10-01T12:15:50.922+01:00Books read in September
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Deep Water – Debi Gliori</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Middle books are always problematic. Most could be dispensed
with but we do love a trilogy. The problem is they are usually bridges from
book one to book three and very little happens. Those criticisms could be
levelled at this book, after all at the end we are pretty much where we were at
the beginning. But some writers can do that with such fun and such style, going
in a circle is a joy. Needless to say, Debi Gliori is one such writer. We get
more of the strangeness that is life at StregSchloss and we learn about the
characters - the absence of pretty much any story except an almost accidental
search for someone forcing a concentration on those involved. Because of that,
the outrageous fantasy characters suddenly become very real people with very
real problems. Which puts this series onto a whole new level and sets up
intriguing possibilities for the final book.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Near To The Wild Heart – Clarice Lispector</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I have only recently ‘discovered’ Claric Lispector. What a
joy to think I have all her writing to devour. What a crock to think that I am
this old and never once heard mention of her before. But that is how it goes.
The same might be said of Dorothy Richardson. I have known of her for decades,
but I still talk with well read people who have never heard of her.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Lispector uses powerful writing of weight and depth to
create fragile scenes; still lives that, on closer inspection, are a ferment of
thought and emotion. The climactic scene between Joana and Otavio in particular
is a tour de force. In itself it would have been a fitting end to the work both
in terms of content and power of writing, but Lispector then tops it with two
truly magnificent chapters – revelatory, stunning.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Lispector has been compared with the likes of Woolf, Joyce,
even Kafka. But her work, whilst of comparable skill, takes a different tack.
There are certainly great similarities with modernist work from other writers,
but there is a unique quality here that has drawn on an unlikely meeting of
disparate heritages and transcended any mere melding of these. That it is a
first novel, starting where many writers would be pleased to finish, makes it
all the more remarkable.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Walk To The End Of The World – Suzy McKee Charnas</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The late 60s and 70s saw a flowering of science fiction and
fantasy. New doors opened. A lot of new writers saw the potential that had been
there (and often realised) all along. As always, much of what was produced was
mediocre at best. Some of it stood out as rare and beautiful, orchids that
beguiled. This is one such.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Of course, much of sci fi and fantasy has swung back the
other way. In that brief, bright period we had work that explored ideas and
expanded horizons, that went in as well as out, which weren’t afraid of
politics and philosophy on a level of sophistication that made previous efforts
look crude. And there were women writers.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There had always been women writers and intelligent books,
but you had to look hard to find them. For a while they were everywhere. Now we
are back in the ante-diluvian swamps. So what are we missing? Books like this
one.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I have so far resisted the portmanteau that would have most
people diving for cover, but it now has to be used. Feminist fantasy. There.
That didn’t hurt. Now, I know there were some awful feminist works written.
Their assumptions and clichés were every bit as dire as you would find in books
by non-feminists. But, face it, many of these authors were fighting their way
out of a system and they paved a way for the really good writers, let sunlight
into gloomy glades to encourage the true and rare flowers to break out.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Charnas writes well and with intelligence. Her future world
whilst apparently built on the cliché of sex war very quickly undermines all
assumptions by examining (as one of its many themes) the power of myth in
underpinning systems of control. The world as it exists is always well realised.
But what is most important is that the book is character led. World building,
realistic settings, all these count for nothing if you cannot populate them
with realistic characters. And that is what we have. A vicious patriarchy on
the point of collapse. Sceptical men, most of whom cannot see the lies on which
their society is built but who still wish to bring it down. Others with a
glimmer of what the world has truly become and what it once might have been.
And women, finally breaking free after centuries of the kind of oppression that
is nothing less than brute slavery.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I know this has already lost a lot of people. Believe me,
this is a far more realistic (in all senses) future than many I have seen. It
is also a realistic present in many parts of the world. That Suzy Charnas can
take this reality and weave a gripping story through it without it once feeling
like a sermon is a credit to her skill as a writer and as a story-teller.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Wizard Of Oz – L Frank Baum</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A classic. Objectively it is not that well written, even for
its young audience in the period it was conceived. However, it is not so much
the style or craftsmanship for which it is loved as for the characters and the land
of Oz itself which to begin with is not so very different from the real world,
except it is imbued with the kind of things a child imagines. In that respect
it is a great step forward in terms of when it was written. It is certainly
much lighter than the film which played fast and loose with the story and its
details.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The basic story is too well known to recount and for a long
time, Baum resisted writing more. In the end he wrote fourteen Oz books (and
there were others after his death). Thanks to the wizardry of electronics, I
now have all fourteen and will have great fun reading them all – because that
is what they are about. Fun. There may be moral messages in there, but they
don’t get in the way of the story.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Marvellous Land Of Oz – L Frank Baum</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
An altogether more sophisticated book, perhaps aimed at
those readers who had read the first one and had since, of course, grown up a
bit. Not only is the language more sophisticated, the story is also more complex.
There are also hints of the social questions that were being asked at the time
of publication, particularly with regard to women’s rights. Another fun read.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Ozma Of Oz – L Frank Baum</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Although perhaps nowehere close to the sophistication of
modern children’s books in tackling issues, for its day this was quite
advanced. Baum never put issues at the centre of his stories, they were fun
entertainments, but they were there for readers to pick up on. On top of this,
Baum is wonderfully inventive.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Orlando – Virginia Woolf</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I had forgotten how funny this book is. Dry, mocking in a
gentle way its own pretensions (or those of biographers – especially of
writers), and with wonderfully witty observations of people and life. I had
also forgotten just how good the writing is. I knew it was good, it is one of
my favourite books, but the final chapter in particular flows with such ease,
you know just how much hard work went into it.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The importance of the work lies in its treatment of gender
and its view of the world from a woman’s point of view with all the conflicting
pressures laid upon one because of gender and status. Although not the first to
do this (see Dorothy Richardson), Woolf does so with a light touch that makes
the work highly accessible. At the same time, it contains many layers of
meaning and reference that repay the reader who revisits. And although not
often cited as such, this is a fine example of literary magic realism,
fulifilling all the criteria since set out as defining that form of writing.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>A Study In Scarlet – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In some respects this is a dog’s dinner of a book. It breaks
off half way through and suddenly presents chapters of detailed backstory that
are, in many ways irrelevant to the story. It’s almost as if Conan Doyle wrote
his tale and came up short 15000 words. But then, this is the first outing for
Sherlock Holmes and despite the odd structure, the tale rattles along in
friendly fashion and with an authorial awareness of the form and the
competition.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Perhaps the most interesting thing about the book these days
(and I have read it a number of times) is how one’s image of the original
stories is coloured by later film and television portrayals. A lot has
transferred, much hasn’t, and plenty that has appeared on screen has little to
do with the originals which, when all is said and done, are rather wonderful
tales with superb characters at their heart.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Sign Of Four – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
An altogether more sophisticated outing for Sherlock Holmes
and one that is much better written. To modern sensibilities, the long explanations
at the end can seem a little overdone, but that is how it was done in those
days. Nowadays an editor would blue pencil most of that and tell you to work
into the text, but Conan Doyle creates a wonderful atmosphere so that, in a
sense, you get two stories for the price of one. Because whilst the book initially
concentrates on the solving of a mystery and subsequent crime – showcasing
Sherlock Holmes – we are then presented with the story of the villain of the
piece and the story suddenly goes from black & white to a much more complex
level of story-telling. At the heart of this is a man who, once forced into
making a pledge to save his life, stays true to that pledge as he sees it.
Indeed, the one-legged man becomes by far the most interesting character as
Homes and Watson have yet to develop.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan
Doyle</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is in the short stories that we finally see the
characters being given a chance to breathe. Although Watson stays very much in
the background (and the stories are out of chronological order), we get to see very
much more of the character of Holmes than was presented in the novels. In
those, he was shown as he tends to consider himself – a problem solving machine
that uses logic applied to fact. The short stories, however, revolve around
character. Most of the puzzles, even if intriguing, are slight. Around them we
have a parade of representatives of various late Victorian social classes
bumping up against a Holmes who becomes ever more interesting the more we learn
of him. Because we do learn more – his habits, his prejudices, his compassion
(which he would probably deny), and the things which drive him.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />Graeme K Talboyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00147746990011686351noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7263243740949540632.post-46073383424264449682012-09-02T12:59:00.000+01:002012-09-02T12:59:22.062+01:00Books read in August
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Entropy Tango – Michael Moorcock</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I think this is my favourite of the Cornelius books, or
perhaps it is the peak of an otherwise exceptional collection of novels and
stories. It has all the familiar ingredients and characters presented without
any explanation or backstory, yet it is written with an unforced maturity and
has an air of melancholy that chimes with my own natural temperament. The
ending, in particular, is heart rending without any attempt at false
sentimentality. Plus it centres on Una Persson. If ever there was a fictional
character I would like to meet...</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Gold Diggers of 1977 – Michael Moorcock</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Originally titled ‘The Great Rock n Roll Swindle’ to tie in
with the movie of the same name. This is Moorcock’s own anarchic view of things
(and probably closer, in its own way, to the truth). Although it it uses the
punk band as a platform for the story, it takes a wider look at the music
business (Mo Collier, a burned out musician forever in search of his wages with
everyone else telling hime no money has been made) and the way in those who
died young have become idols both adored and exploited long after they are
dust.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Muddle Earth Too – Paul Stewart & Chris Riddell</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Gentle fun at the expense of every childhood favourite
fantasy. Enough of a story to hold interest, excellent illustrations (as ever)
from Chris Riddell (some quite subversive if you start looking for likenesses),
the occasional fart joke, and general mayhem. And a flower fairy called
Pesticide. How can it go wrong. Very different from some of Paul Stewart’s
earlier darker work for older children, but no less worthy for that.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Roadside Picnic – Arkady and Boris Strugatsky (tr Olena
Bormashenko)</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Quite possibly my all time favourite ‘science fiction’ novel
(sf being in inverted commas because whilst the premiss is science-fictional,
it is a book about ordinary people). When it was first written, in Soviet
Russia, the authors had terrible trouble with the censors. Not because of
political subversiveness (although the text certainly has its fair share of
that which goes to show how dumb some of those censors were), but because of
moral questions (too much swearing, not a good example to Soviet youth,
apparently). As a result the version that appeared in print and was later
translated was a much watered down version.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This new edition is the Director’s cut, as it were. Not all
‘author’s versions’ are better than the version that was edited by another
hand, but in this case the book, even though the changes are subtle, is far
better than the original (which I read alongside this. This version is harder,
rougher and, as a consequence, bleaker. It is also far more realistic.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The background to the story is that the Earth is visited by
aliens who land, ignore us as if we were harmless insects, and then take off
again. They leave behind them (in the only human aspect of them) a whole load
of junk – as if they had stopped, cleaned out their garbage cans, and then
moved on.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The places in which they landed are deadly to people
although there are some who risk the perils to bring out artefacts to sell.
These Stalkers work illegally in an uneasy relationship with the scientists who
study the sites. The book follows the fortunes of one Stalker through eight
years of his life and is about the effects of the Zone on him, his family, and
the people he knows, mirroring all the implications for society as a whole.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There are no heroes, no super-scientists solving every
problem, there is no resolution. What we have, caught in the brilliant
spotlight of the Strugatskys’ writing, is a sad tale of how what could
otherwise have been the most remarkable event in human history is turned, like
everything else, into an excuse for exploitation and criminal behaviour. It is
also about how we make myths for ourselves, even in the darkest of situations.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is a mystery to me that the works of the Strugatskys,
along with Stanislaw Lem, are not more widely known and are not readily
available in new translations like this volume. They certainly deserve to be
better known.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Alchemist’s Question – Michael Moorcock</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A Jerry Cornelius novel with a different feel. Subtitled as ‘being
the final episode in the career of the English Assassin’, it seemed unlikely
even at the time. Be that as it may, this book tapped into a different kind of
1984 (the year it was published) in which the gentle anarchy and alchemy of the
hippy spirit of the west overcomes the beautifully satirised vision of what
Thatcherism was in danger of doing to the country (and which project has since
been revived).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Tapping into Celtic mythology the novel draws a battleground
where one side tries to tap into a mythos of Arthurian/Gloriania in the form of
Brigantia and the other simply opens themselves to whatever form the powers of
the land decide is right to defeat the cynical misappropriation of values they
know nothing of. Merrie <st1:country -region="-region"><st1:place>England</st1:place></st1:country>
with its mock tudor frontage is demolished by those who have always lived off
that particular grid in a wilder world. The ending is ambiguous, although the
forces of stagnation, the lovers of nuclear winter, are confounded.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Whilst this does not capture the immediacy<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>of the earlier novels, it is good to go back
and see how they develop this far. The underlying ideas are still there: the
playfulness, the exploration of alternatives, and so on. However, the form and
the characters have matured and in the end it is a fitting end to a major cycle
of work.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Maigret Sets A Trap – Georges Simenon</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On the track of a serial killer, this is about how failure
and success go hand in hand, about the pyschology of killing, about the effects
of the police. All wrapped up in 140 pages with Simenon’s usual economy of
style and the ability to leave his readers feeling they have read a much longer
book.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Maigret And The Madwoman – Georges Simenon</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Pragmatism and compassion in equal measure drive this story.
As with every traumatic disruption of personal life, things emerge that both
horrify us and make us look to ourselves. In this case, a small old lady plucks
up courage to approach the one policeman she admires and trusts to say that
things in her flat have been moved while she is out. Maigret promises to go and
see her, but puts it off (it is just a mad old woman) until it is too late and she
is found murdered.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What is exposed is a series of lonely lives, people lost in
an existential bleakness and clutching at whatever straws they think might keep
them afloat. Justice is served on several levels and the one who seems to have
come to terms with life, despite all that he sees and deals with, is Maigret
himself.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Pillars Of Eternity – </b><st1:city><st1:place><b>Barrington</b></st1:place></st1:city><b>
J Bayley</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When it comes to Barry Bayley, I am biased. I was introduced
to him by Mike Moorcock [enough name dropping – ed] and went drinking with him
back in the late ‘70s. He was witty, charming, frighteningly intelligent, but
most of all was kind to a young and not at all successful writer. It has always
been a mystery to me why his work has not been lauded and reprinted until book
shop shelves are groaning under the weight (as they do for lesser writers).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’m not a great fan of science fiction because it is
generally devoid of interesting characters or the kind of issues I find
interesting. Bayley, however, never fails to satisfy. He wrote using space
opera as form for the most part. There is no lack of spacecraft, planets,
exotic civilisations, and so on. These, however, are the means by which he
explores some very deep philosophical, ethical, and psychological questions:
the nature of and our relationship with reality, time, human nature, ethics.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Like any great writer he makes his story work these
explorations out. Whilst characters may have philosophical discussions, they
are always in character, essential to the plot, and never go on for too long.
Bayley knew something about the readership of science fiction books. They are,
for the most part, extremely intelligent. They don’t need things to be spelled
out for them. In <i>The Pillars of Eternity</i> there is a whole background
that you see glimpses of – it is a coherent and complex whole, but time is not
wasted telling us about it. Where it touches the story it is relevant,
otherwise, like real life, it just gets on with itself in the background.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>The Pillars of Wisdom</i> concerns some of the things
that Bayley was most interested in – the nature of time, predestination, what
it is that makes us and how (and if) we can alter that. The central character
(who names himself Joachim Boaz) has undergone a physical and psychological
trauma unmatched by anyone else in the universe (the why and how are
beautifully integral to the overall metaphysical basis of the story) and he is
searching for a way to undo it so that he does not have to experience it in his
future lives. He is convinced the answer lies in the manipulation of time so
that he can focus on a pre-ordained event and change it.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Tightly written, brimful of ideas that were way ahead of
their time (in fact and in fiction) and never afraid to stray into areas others
would feel uncomfortable even admitting they were interested in (the Tarot, for
example). A number of his books have been revived as e-books, but it is a great
shame to me that all his works are not still in print.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Sleep Has His House – Anna Kavan</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Unique. In my experience. I can think of no other novel that
I have read that comes anywhere near this. Based in part on her own life and
withdrawal from the world, it is a truly surreal journey from day into night,
from reality into dreams, from normality into a world of symbolism that is cut
off from the mainstream. Yet it manages at the same to imply that, in fact, the
night and the dreams and the symbols are a much more fundamental reality
underlying the chaotic world in which we are expected to live.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Taking epsiodes from her own life which are used to
introduce each episode, we see how that is converted into dream, how the real
world is painful and desolate place. Each surreal flight, each dream is an
escape, not from but to. The language and the episode offer new perspectives.
And even where events are chilling (the brief visions of nuclear war are horrific)
there is always a sense that somewhere in the twisted cosmos there is a way
out.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For Anna Kavan, the struggle to escape was lifelong. She
wrestled with addiction and mental illness. Her writing proves that sometimes
she won, if for no other reason than that she made the world a better place for
the rest of us through the very words she put on paper. Because in those words
is not just a record of the struggle, but a glimpse of beauty and hope.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Deep Trouble – Debi Gliori</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We are back at StregaSchloss with all the old crew.
Outrageous, revolting, anarchic and truly wonderful. This one does get a bit
dark but where an adult book would end, this one has a last chapter that offers
a glimmer of hope. Quality writing for kids that treats them as intelligent
beings (albeit with a penchant for stickiness, goo, vomit and other nauseating
substances).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />Graeme K Talboyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00147746990011686351noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7263243740949540632.post-61687465971780906612012-08-01T11:04:00.000+01:002012-08-01T11:04:21.781+01:00Books read in July<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Snuff – Terry Pratchett</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Almost a return to form. The subject matter certainly lines
up with the best that he has done – the way in which a wealthy elite regards
the law as something to be ignored in pursuit of greed whilst at the same time
demonising those least able to defend themselves. However, the edge is a little
dull and yet again there is no feeling of jeopardy. Yes, this is Sam Vimes. But
at no point in the book did I feel the he or his family would suffer. And when
there is no uncertainty the story lacks the tension it needs.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The English Assassin – Michael Moorcock</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Third in the original Cornelius Quartet and more layers of
the story are peeled away. In the end of course there is no conventional
narrative, which is somewhat the point of the book. Life isn’t like a novel;
the world doesn’t unfold to a plan; our psyches are not built to deal with
everything in a linear fashion.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So much for the structure. The content is a sharp
observation of twentieth century culture from a ‘western’ perspective.
Examining a number of possible realities (none of them all that appealing),
Cornelius does what we all do: search for the best possible outcome amongst the
detritus heaped on us by politicians, warlords, and greed-crazed industrialists
(who are very often one and the same).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At all times this is done with erudition and with humour. As
Mrs C says, just after her latest husband has been shot dead: “Yer gotta larf,
aintcha?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Condition Of Muzak – Michael Moorcock</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The title is a take on Pater: ‘All art constantly aspires
towards the condition of music.’ Muzak, of course, is the pap you hear in lifts
and other public places. As ever, an erudite commentary on pop culture with the
many story strands of the entire quartet being given some kind of resolution
(with many dropping into the start position of the first book).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There is a point toward the end of this book I always find the
commedia del’arte references become a bit forced, as if the book is playing to
that rather than the other way round, but this is more than redeemed by the
fantasy Christmas which is then capped by the devastating finale – the death of
Honoria Cornelius. Knowing what she has been (and you have to go to the Pyat
quartet to find out more of that) plus the feeling that of them all she is the
one that will live forever, a bawdy goddess, the simply told demise is both
shocking and extremely touching.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For me the Cornelius quartet is the quintessential chronicle
of the pantomime that was the 1960s. A bright, gaudy, bawdy show where for a
while everyone could be what they wanted and dream of a brighter, cleaner world
whilst all the time the money men are waiting in the wings to dismember the
whole thing and sell on those bits from which they might hope to make a profit.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Adventures Of Una Persson And Catherine Cornelius In
The Twentieth Century – Michael Moorcock</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A continuation of the Cornelius quartet but from the
perspective of two of the main female protagonists. Although lovers, their
lives expose certain disastrous extremes of the twentieth century – an inward
looking self-pleasuring disregard for everything else; and the constant desire
to meddle in the affairs of at the other end of the spectrum. Both tore the
world apart, scavenging on the corpses left by the major conflicts of the time.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There is a weariness about the book. The characters are all
tired of the parts they have been playing. The text also feels as if it is
something that has to be side but that the author, like Una Persson, is tired
of having to go over the same arguments, wondering if anyone is listening.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Despite that, it is a fine piece of social observation,
especially the backstage stuff covering the 60s music scene.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Scrivener’s Moon – Philip Reeve</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Back on form after the previous book in the series (which
was not bad and probably a set-up for future events, but felt slow and
something of a non-sequitor). Fever Crumb returns to <st1:city><st1:place>London</st1:place></st1:city>
to find that progress into creating the first traction city is well under way.
And that forces are massing to stop this step into municipal darwinism.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Exciting, fast paced, and suitably open ended, a great
addition to Mortal Engines series.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Artemis Fowl And The Last Guardian – Eoin Colfer</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One of the better (and possibly last) entries in the series,
despite the bad copy editing. Come on Puffin, readers deserve better than this.
Colfer has delivered his usual fast paced story. Nothing new, but a great read.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Maigret Goes Home – Georges Simenon</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Intrigued by a message that arrives via a provincial police
station stating that a crime will be committed during first Mass on a given
date in a certain church, Maigret decides to be present. That the church is in
the village where was born and where he was once a choir boy intrigues him
further. And it is there, during first Mass, that the ageing Comtess keels over
dead.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There follows a chilly psychological portrait of an inward
looking society that is crumbling, a half dead institution pick at by vultures
not waiting for it to die. And it is also Maigret’s memories that are savaged,
leaving him almost powerless to act.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A spectator on the past, a spectator on the present, he
watches as eveything unfolds in an almost gothic climax. And whilst it sounds
melodramatic, Simenon as ever, through a barebones economy of language and plot,
focusses on what really matters in the story and carries it through with great
style.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Theatre: A Concise History – Phyllis Hartnoll</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A standard text on the subject and a set text for me when I
was at college. It is exactly what it says on the cover – a concise history. It
is however extremely informative, heavily illustrated, and has a short but very
useful bibliography.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Recollections Of The Golden Triangle – Alain
Robbe-Grillet</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Set in an unspecified South American country, this is a
typical Robbe-Grillet maze. A very simple linear exposition is told from
different viewpoints and without regard to to any of the normal conventions of
narrative. We move back and forth in time, the narrators change without any
warning, symbols are discussed, not just by characters but by the author, and
yet what sounds like it would be an unholy mess flows smoothly and, eventually,
tells a story.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Of course, it is not the story set out at the end in a
chronology of events. One point of the text is to demonstrate that a narrative
is not necessarily (and probably never is outside a book or film) a chronology
of cause and effect. Paths cross and re-cross building up a picture in much the
way something is woven. Individual strands mean nothing. Follow a thread to its
end and you see nothing. Stand back and let the process do its work and in the
end you have a picture that makes sense. The beauty of a Robbe-Grillet is that
the finished picture is merely a surface effect. He weaves in four dimensions,
using colours that go well beyond the visible spectrum. Whilst we admire the
picture, beneath it and deep within ourselves, doors have been unlocked...</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The True Heart – Sylvia Townsend Warner</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A modern fairy tale transposing Cupid and Psyche into late
19<sup>th</sup> century <st1:place>Essex</st1:place>. Sukey Bond is a
beautifully drawn character who floats through life in what is an exceedingly
deceptive novel. It seems simple and light (and the writing style suits this
perfectly), but there are many layers to this. To begin with, it is rare for
writing to convey both the sparkle in the author’s eye as well as the
occasional flicker of a wink. And if you know your late nineteenth century
slang there are more than few outrageous statements made in the guise of
innocence (not least when Sukey finds herself in a brothel). And beneath that
is an essay on the power of love that is uplifting and quite glorious.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Empty Space – M John Harrison</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A beautifully written continuation of <i>Light</i> and <i>Nova
Swing</i>. An experience such as this is difficult to express as a review.
Nominally a work of science fiction, it is actually a work that explores
metaphysics as well as physics, inner space as well as outer space (and,
indeed, recognises that these are false distinctions), and the dynamics of
personal relationships. The whole thing is a glorious feast of symbolism that
will provide generations of students material for their theses, none of which
will ever come close to exhausting the deep veins of meaning – although like
the aliens who gave up trying to understand the Tract, the universe will be
littered with these long abandoned and forgotten experiments in understanding
whilst the thing itself will still provide pleasure and a rich metaphorical
background.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<st1:place>Harrison</st1:place> (even in his earliest works)
has always been a writer able to find ways of discussing ideas through action
and events. And not content with that skill, he writes with a confidence, wit,
and intelligence that leaves a lot of other writers gibbering incoherently on
the starting blocks. Literate, entertaining, and clearly working at his craft
in order to enhance his art. One could wish that we could say as much of many
of our so-called literary authors.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Despite having written ‘straight’ novels, there is a
perception that <st1:place>Harrison</st1:place> is a science fiction writer (or
worse, a writer of fantasy). But like all good writers, he transcends that. For
one thing, he always manages to turn any genre tropes he uses inside out and
upside down. At the heart of his work are human beings trying to come to terms
with being human. People who dismiss his work because of the way he chooses to
explore these fundamental ideas are missing not just a treat, but work that
leaves shadowy forms flickering just out of range of your internal sensors,
teasing you to leave the gaudy neon life of the surface to explore the darker
alleyways of your psyche where the real you is probably lost.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Snapshots – Alain Robbe-Grillet</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A collection of short fictions. Not so much snapshots as
short films lacking all context but that which can be derived from within.
Children walking on a beach, people in the Metro, and so on. They are vivid and
described in minute detail, but lacking that broader context it is initially
difficult to decide what, if anything, is important. We are simply given a
surface – a series of events and actions. Yet even this is illusion, because
each reader brings their own context, creating a largely unconscious set of
connections that create a story beneath the surface (we are a storytelling
species). This may, in part, defeat the object of the author’s purpose, but it
does demonstrate what an important contribution that Robbe-Grillet has made to
an understanding and development of literary work.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Arsène Lupin Versus Holmlock Shears – Maurice Leblance</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So glad to see this (along with three other volumes) in an
omnibus from Wordsworth. Arsène Lupin is one of the all time great creations of
crime fiction and deserves to be much better known. And not only are they
significant in terms of the history of crime fiction, they are great fun.
Written with tongue firmly in cheek, yet always presenting an excellent story,
Lupin stands with Sherlock Holmes, Raffles, and Zenith the Albino – more the
latter two than the former.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Lupin is the ‘Prince of Thieves’. A dashing Parisian who finds
a challenge in the most difficult of robberies and whose humour and conceit
make him both difficult to catch and a supreme annoyance to the authorities.
Even Sherlock Holmes (her thinly disguised as Holmlock Shears as Conan Doyle
was less than happy to see his detective made fun of) has trouble with Lupin.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yet Lupin is not just a thief. He is, in his own way (as the
second of the two stories in this volume demonstrates), a man of honour who
will put himself at considerable risk to save the honour of someone else. For
someone like me who enjoys French literature, who enjoys crime stories with a
bit of flair, who enjoys something well-written and entertaining, this is a
real feast. I hope Wordsworth can, over time, collect more of Leblanc’s
wonderful stories and present them in their equally wonderful (and deliciously
cheap) editions.</div>
<br />Graeme K Talboyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00147746990011686351noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7263243740949540632.post-21423684827328049452012-07-04T10:51:00.000+01:002012-07-04T10:51:01.762+01:00Books read in June<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Leaping Hare – George Ewart Evans & David Thomson</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
First published in 1972 and recently re-issued, this is a
classic work. It gathers together what was known of the natural history and
mythology of the hare at the time. Of the natural history, little was known as
no systematic study of the hare in the wild by scientists had been undertaken.
Enough was known to give a concise and informative overview of the different
types of hare, their habitats and their habits. The bulk of the book of the
book is given over to folklore and mythology. At all times, references are
given which provides plenty of material for follow-up reading. Fascinating as
the book is (and I love hares dearly) it is a terrible indictment that the bulk
of the information in the book is about hunting the hare and provided by
poachers and gamekeepers, those well-known ‘guardians’ of life in the
countryside. Amongst all this are moments of wonder, usually when a hare has
taken refuge beneath the skirts of woman – itself a telling addition to the
mythos of such a beautiful creature.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Futurological Congress – Stanislaw Lem</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Think New Wave (this was written in 1971) and you’ll get
some idea of the book, not so much the style as the content. Think also a mix of
Sladek, Dick, Moorcock, and Aldiss and you’ll begin to get some idea of the
books’ flavour. If it were to be filmed, it would have to be Terry Gilliam.
Throw in the sensibility of a writer who is a master of satire, delivered with
wit, and you have this book – one that imagines a future where the vast
population of the planet is controlled and kept happy by ever increasingly
complex cocktails of hallucinogenic and mood altering drugs.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On the surface, it is a comic novel. The situations that
Ijon Tichy finds himself in are funny, outrageous, and wicked. The names of
many of the drugs and their uses are wonderful plays on words (and hats off to
the translator Michael Kandel). The situations stray into the absurd and one is
never certain about the degree of reality, especially given that mind-altering
drugs are involved.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As with all good comic novels, there is a serious side. You
are not hammered with it. Lem is far too good a writer for that. Yet you cannot
read the book without considering the moral questions posed – about population
levels, about systems for living peacefully, about corruption, about how
companies have so subverted the world to their own ends that they effectively
control what happens. Except, of course, they are no more in control than anyone
else. And the other big question is about how much we can rely on science and
technology to solve what are not scientific or technological problems.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Dimple Hill – Dorothy Richardson</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This and the following, last, book of <st1:city><st1:place>Richardson</st1:place></st1:city>’s
Pilgrimage cycle is shorter, more compact, and much more self-assured than her
previous works. Her personal circumstances were altogether uncertain and it is
something of a miracle she managed these last two volumes at all. Yet she is by
now clearly a writer at home with her method and with the world she has shaped
out of her own.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Dimple Hill</i> marks the moment when Miriam is told by
her doctor that she is so near physical (and possibly mental) collapse that she
must get away for six months. Having lived all her life with financial
insecurity and with all the distractions of <st1:city><st1:place>London</st1:place></st1:city>,
there seems no more danger in this than in any other enterprise of her life.
And she exults at the chance so long denied, time for herself and time to
devote to a project that has been growing in her mind – to write a novel that
expresses the true nature of the feminine.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Her first move is to Dimple Hill (Windmill Hill in <st1:country-region><st1:place>Sussex</st1:place></st1:country-region>)
to stay with a Quaker family. Whilst the book marks her (Miriam and Dorothy)
first foray into the writing of fiction, the act barely warrants a few pages –
that she tries and that she is deeply disappointed with her first effort.
Instead, life with the Quaker family (all that is said and left unsaid) is
examined as one might a rare and beautiful flower.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The writing is relaxed, open, and exquisitely captures a
moment in rural life before the destructive forces of ‘agribusiness’ begin to
erode a whole culture. One is left wondering what would have happened had the
agricultural revolution of the time been based on a gentle Socialism rather
than the voracious needs of the nascent military-industrial complex.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That aside, the novel as a whole is a triumph of atmosphere
and emotional enlightenment, of a feeling of old ways passing with a new and
uncertain future emerging in the dawn. For whilst Miriam returns to London it
is with a different perspective and a certainty that a new language must be
found to express herself in her writing and leave us a lasting legacy by which
to carry forward literary culture.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Light Thickens – Ngaio Marsh</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As an exposition on the playing of Macbeth, this is much
better than many non-fiction works on the subject. As a detective story, it is
as thin as you can get and still legitimately claim it as one. In a sense it is
a short(ish) detective story (based on which cast member has the opportunity in
the staging of a play to kill another cast member) tacked onto the end of the
description of the rehearsal and performance of that play. It is all skilfully
done. Marsh knows and loves the theatre and those who work in it (even the
monsters). One suspects, given the dedication, that much of the staging was
based in fact (or an idealised version thereof). Having played the Thane
myself, I found this fascinating. I’m not sure how devotees of Inspector Alleyn
come to it if they don’t have such a specific interest as my own.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Solaris – Stanislaw Lem</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Arguably Lem’s best novel in which all his preoccupations
are brought to bear. The concept is simple. A research station hovers above the
surface of the planet Solaris. The planet is mostly ‘ocean’, a single, fluid
entity that may or may not be intelligent but which is so alien that all
attempts to make contact with it have failed. Or not. Because one of the ideas
explored is just how do you know if something that alien is even aware of your
presence?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The question seems to be answered when a psychologist called
Kelvin is sent to the station. There he finds his mentor has committed suicide
and the other two inhabitants are coping as best they can with the ‘visitors’.
Each visitor manifests itself in a different way. For Kelvin it is the woman he
loved, a woman who committed suicide many years before. Clearly a creation of
the planet below, the visitors seem to serve no purpose. They have no message
and seem not to know their own origin. But then nothing is as it seems in a Lem
novel. Because this is a book about what it is to be human.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is haunting, lyrical, and conveys a sense of alien-ness
that most science fiction never comes close to. No literary equivalent of
actors in rubber suits. No battles. No spectacular scenes (unless you count the
descriptions of the planet). No monsters trying to eat anyone’s brains. Just
human beings in an isolated world; humanity taking its early steps out of the
nursery.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Freshwater – Virginia Woolf</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A comedic sketch written for private performance. The
subject matter is Woolf’s great-aunt Julia Margaret Cameron and the artists
with which she was acquainted. There are two versions of the play, one a heavy
revision of the other. Both, however, are funny and at times almost savage in
their mockery of the figures involved (principally Cameron, Tennyson, <st1:place>Watts</st1:place>
and Ellen Terry). Whatever else it may be, it shows that Woolf had a light side
and a sense of the absurd that went hand in hand with her sense of humour.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Repetition – Alain Robbe-Grillet</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
An aptly named book as the author returns once more to
scenes and ideas that have featured in earlier novels, not least childhood
memories. The overall theme of the book, that of identity, is also a repetition.
In this case the framework on which these issues are hung is that of a spy
novel set in post-war <st1:state><st1:place>Berlin</st1:place></st1:state>. It
does not flinch from the sleaze that afflicted the city, although the obsession
with adolescent girls does make for uncomfortable reading. And whilst
Robbe-Grillet tackles his themes with all his usual form, he never quite hits
the mark. Perhaps because he has done it before (and better in something like
The Erasers) or because in using the tropes of the spy novel he fails to come
close to the sense of alienation and displacement that is to be found in works
by the likes of le Carré and Deighton. Not uninteresting, but in the end
unsatisfying.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Final Programme – Michael Moorcock</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The first Jerry Cornelius novel. A bit rough round the
edges, an indication of the speed with which it was written, it is nonetheless
strikingly prescient. A <st1:place>Europe</st1:place> in financial chaos and on
the verge of collapse, <st1:country-region><st1:place>America</st1:place></st1:country-region>
(as always) with global ambitions, greed rampant... one might think the author
had access to newspapers from the early twenty-first century. The actual story
is thin, but with Jerry Cornelius it has never been about the story, it is
about the mood. This captures the mood of when it was written (which is
probably why it made such an impact on me then) and so very little has changed.
I always enjoy this one and always find something new.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>March Moonlight – Dorothy Richardson</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The final book written by <st1:city><st1:place>Richardson</st1:place></st1:city>
during extremely difficult circumstances, yet still managing to be the most
accomplished. She never stopped developing as an author, refining her
techniques and improving her presentation. The brevity, of course, is probably
down to her circumstances, but she makes a virtue of it and the narrative that
underlies her work moves forward to the goal she had, perhaps, intended to
reach at a more leisurely pace.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is an intriguing question to wonder whether her writing
would have been better or worse had she had to worry less about external
factors. She chose a life of poverty to gain freedom, yet she and her husband
were abysmally served by the world. But the world is always suspicious of such
pioneers.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Having reached the end, I feel an immense sadness. The
sequence of novels is an immense achievement and it is such a shame that
compared with those who followed (like Woolf and Joyce), <st1:city><st1:place>Richardson</st1:place></st1:city>
is neglected.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>A Cure For Cancer – Michael Moorcock</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The second Cornelius novel and a far more sophisticated
piece of work than its predecessor. Less story but a greater evocation of mood;
the arrival of characters who grow in importance in the Moorcock multiverse;
and a much stronger sense that Moorcock had his finger on the pulse more firmly
and accurately than any other writer then or since.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Revived from the dead, Jerry Cornelius searches for a way to
revive his dead sister, Catherine. That’s the story. Along the way we seen an <st1:country-region><st1:place>America</st1:place></st1:country-region>
(Amerika) that now shows every sign of becoming a reality; tap into the most
basic myths of <st1:country-region><st1:place>Britain</st1:place></st1:country-region>
(the story begins at Tintagel with Jerry washed ashore); and are treated to a lexicon
of all that was cool in the late ‘60s.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Very tasty.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Investigation – Stanislaw Lem</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This is the sort of book that baffles blurb writers. It uses
the framework of a police mystery set in southern <st1:country-region><st1:place>England</st1:place></st1:country-region>,
but that is where the likeness ends as this is much more akin to a
Robbe-Grillet or a Pinget than anything else. The framework and the
metaphysical theories are the means by which a mood is created and we are able
to study the sense of alienation felt by the central character. Lem does this
in his science fiction as well, another genre that provides ample opportunity
for psychological study.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is an intriguing book and one I found fascinating,
despite all the faults (of which more in a moment). The bewilderment leading to
anger and back, the weariness that drives Gregory on, the dreamlike quality of
events and places, are all wonderfully drawn and make best use of the ironic
qualities inherent in the noirish tropes. But always the flaws.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The first level of these can be forgiven. Lem wrote the book
in mid-1950s. His grasp of English geography was a trifle hazy; as was his
understanding of the structure of the British police (he seems to have used a
Polish model). I have no problem with that as they are incidental to the story
and could easily have been rectified by a decent translation and translator’s
note. Sadly, this book has not had a decent translation. This is the second
level. Knowing Lem’s writing from before and after this book, it can only be
the translation that is at fault (it is a different translator to those other
books). It is dull and the translator’s grasp of English is faulty. Again, I
can forgive that, because the translator should not be the final arbiter of the
word on the page. What has really let this work down is the appalling editing.
Whoever did it must have been asleep at the time or had an equally poor grasp
of English culture and language. As an example, we several times have: ‘He
shined his torch into the dark room.’ we have American makes of car, we a
police Lieutenant, uniformed constables carrying pistols... It goes on and on.
It made me itch to rewrite it in a way that kept to the text but simply made it
sit comfortably in an English landscape.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I have gone on at some length about this simply because it
demonstrates that an author’s work can be made to suffer by the ineptness or
laziness of others in the process. And as a plea if anyone out there with the
necessary clout is reading this to have a whole new and improved collection of
Lem’s work in new (and better) translations into English.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />Graeme K Talboyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00147746990011686351noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7263243740949540632.post-37297809830713441392012-05-30T11:09:00.001+01:002012-05-30T11:09:49.976+01:00Books read in May<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Clear Horizon – Dorothy Richardson</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Although perhaps the most understated of the novels so far,
this is where Miriam finally makes a break and begins the process that will
lead to her writing her first novel. That is in the future, however, and she
has no inkling, as yet, that this will be the outcome. Instead she finds new
(and sometimes uncomfortable) truth in the world, experience that begins to
ripen the nascent writer.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That <st1:city><st1:place>Richardson</st1:place></st1:city>
manages to capture her own past with such clarity is remarkable. That she sees
herself with such honesty (perhaps even harshness given what others say she was
like), is doubly so. And it is all carried of in such remarkable prose that has
never justified the oft-repeated male critics’ assertion that it is
‘difficult’. The more I read, the more I love these books. There are just two
novels left now and I’m torn between devouring them and taking them slowly.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Passacaglia – Robert Pinget</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Like the music for which it is named, this piece rings the
changes on a simple story. Variation after variation is given, creating a
complex picture of an event; as if we were presented with hundreds of witness
statements and photographs all from different perspectives and produced with
different motives. Yet far from becoming a meaningless hodgepodge, what emerges
is a vibrant picture, as if layers of coloured glass were used to build up a
rich, deep and complex picture. What is more, toward the end, the piece seems
to become self-aware. It reaches a point where the accumulation of the parts
(each in themselves meaningless) begin to present enough information in which
to see the whole. At that point, the piece changes direction and emphasis.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For all its concentration on a very specific event in a very
specific place, there is a sense of timelessness, of dream, of the ultimate
verities that inhabit the everyday. Pinget is, of course, a master of this kind
of writing and this is perhaps his most concentrated work. The imagery is
sparse, yet haunting; the language is simple, yet profound. There is enormous
intelligence at work here. And it is clear that it is also, at one and the same
time, an intelligence at play.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Invention Of Morel – Adolfo Bioy Casares</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Another short work of intense writing. Written in 1940 it
uses a science fiction trope as a vehicle to consider notions of immortality,
love and obsession. I won’t discuss the details of the plot as that cannot be
done without spoiling the book. And it is a story that needs to be read for the
first time in ignorance of what is happening.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
However, it is possible to discuss the presentation, and
Casares is a writer who uses the simplest of language to convey the most
complex of ideas and emotions. A series of short chapters draw us through the
strange events and echo, as well, another island, that of Dr Moreau. One of a
great tradition of surreal writing to emerged from <st1:place>South America</st1:place>,
this is worthy of Jorge Luis Borges opening comments.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Last Ditch – Ngaio Marsh</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A book that almost manages to shuck off the feeling that the
author has once again gone to the same cast of characters. And it is all the
better for it. Whilst the new actors have, as yet, to settle into their roles,
there is a feeling that Marsh may have been starting a new phase in her writing
career. The interlinked story lines work well together – there is a genuine
whodunnit working alongside an acceptable thriller, and the end is sufficiently
downbeat to match the age in which it was written.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Wings Of The Sphinx – Andrea Camilleri</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Having watched the TV versions of the Inspector Montalbano
stories, I thought I’d boorw one of the books from the library. I suspect this
is a case of preferring the one you come to first. The writing is good
(although I suspect not easy to translate and it does suffer from the attempts
to convey Catarelli’s unusual approach to language), but the characters do not
shine through as they do on television where there is the bonus of having a
quality cast to watch. I will probably read more, but I doubt this is an author
I would buy.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Land Without Stars – Jean-Claude Mézières &
Pierre Christin</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The third adventure of Valerian and Laureline, this is comic
par excellence. Inventive storyline (remembering this first appeared 40 years
ago), great graphics, and some wonderful characters. And for all those of you
who think steampunk was just invented or that Stars Wars was innovative, just
take a look at these to see where it all began (and from where some of it was
stolen).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Le Labyrinthe Infernal – Jacques Tardi</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The ninth installment of the adventures of Adèle Blanc-sec.
Witty, touching, and completely bonkers (more mummies, monsters, secret
societies, and a handful of clones - even though it is only 1923). And Adèle
remains as beautiful as ever, with a whole cast of wonderfully strange
characters weaving through all the interconnected storylines. As ever, the city
of <st1:city><st1:place>Paris</st1:place></st1:city> is a main character,
lovingly drawn.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Grave Mistake – Ngaio Marsh</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Marsh really hit her stride with this. It is clear from the
writing that she was enjoying it. The whole thing is very relaxed, unforced and
moves along at a smooth pace. The style is slightly different to earlier
offerings. You are more conscious of being invited into the world she has
created without it once compromising the fourth wall. The settings are familiar
and the characters are still from the same repertory, but they are fresh enough
to be believable.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Glass Bees – Ernst Jünger</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A subtle work that requires a lot of the reader. On the
surface, the novel is about an unusual (if not altogether surreal) job
interview. Down on his luck, an ex cavalry officer goes to an old colleague for
help and is recommended for a post working in security at the headquarters of
an industrialist whose work is a mix of that of Walt Disney and Bill Gates with
a good measure of Tyrell thrown in. Given that this was written in the mid
1950s it is remarkably prescient in its view of society and its treatment of
technology.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But this is no piece of pulp sci fi. There are no chases,
fights, thrills or spills. It is, rather, a philosophical discourse following
the thoughts of Captain Richard as he goes through his interview and watches
the glass bees of the title. A discourse on technological process, on warfare,
on what makes us human. In that sense it parallels the work being produced by
Philip K Dick, which shares the same concerns.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Of the two, Jünger is the greater stylist, although he
probably had more time (he lived to be 102 whereas Dick died at the age of 53).
It is perhaps inevitable that a German who served in both wars and whose work
displays a nostalgia for martial orderliness should be accused of Fascism, even
Nazism. But he was on the losing side. Britons or Americans who have written in
the same nostalgic vein have escaped (for the most part) such accusations. He
was a soldier who accepted the discipline of military life. He was also
dismissed from the German army for his closeness to those who attempted to
assassinate Hitler.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Whatever the case, his perspective has allowed him, in this
book, to see the future and to see it accurately enough to make you wonder if
the parts that seem still to be fictional are not, in fact, already taking
place behind the scenes.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Maigret In </b><st1:place><b>Montmartre</b></st1:place><b>
– Georges Simenon</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On the surface a typical Maigret; beneath is the paradox of
easy-going French life and the seedy underbelly that seems to flourish when the
weight of society means the beast can no longer lift itself and sores
accummulate and fester. Drug addiction, runaways, those they run away from,
those they end running into. A sad tale and as fine a piece of social
commentary as you will find anywhere.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Maigret’s Mistake – Georges Simenon</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A little puzzled at the English title. More accurately it
should be ‘Maigret’s self-deception’, and even then... Again a very French situation.
Prominent man keeps mistress in apartment below where he lives with his wife.
Mistress found murdered. Less of a whodunnit than a psychological examination
of the abuse of power and its effects on those involved.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Tales Of Pirx The Pilot – Stanislaw lem</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A perfect blend of outer space and inner space, delivered
with a gentle humour. If taken as pure science fiction, these short stories
have dated badly (cathode ray tubes, bags full of books being lugged around,
and so on). At the same time they could be taken as a glimpse into an
alternative universe, because the pictures that Lem paints of these things are
entirely plausible (think of the computer consoles in the movie ‘<st1:country-region><st1:place>Brazil</st1:place></st1:country-region>’).
Where the stories do stand up is in the soft science, the inner space. Pirx
himself ages and matures as the stories progress and the situations he
encounters are a realistic mix of humour, mystery and heartbreak. Some of the
situations are haunting in the simplicity of their tragedy and told with
dignity and reserve.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Space Merchants – Frederick Pohl & C M Kornbluth</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Although now a familiar trope, the idea that the future
would be run by big business, itself in thrall to the advertising agencies was
new when this work appeared. And because it is written in a fairly downbeat
way, it has not dated. Indeed, although we have some way to go yet to achieve
the future envisaged here, we are already 75% of the way along the road.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Tightly written, understated, free of exposition whilst
still painting a comprehensive picture of a particular dystopia, this well
deserves its reputation as a classic of science fiction. The only thing that
lets it down for me is the over sentimental kiss-and-make-up ending. It doesn’t
quite ring true, which in a book that is otherwise a carillon of veracity makes
it stick out like the proverbial sore digit.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Photo-Finish – Ngaio Marsh</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Her penultimate book is set in her native <st1:country-region><st1:place>New
Zealand</st1:place></st1:country-region> with a classic isolated house
mystery. Well plotted and reasonably well written it nonetheless feels like the
work of someone who is tired. No pace. No peril. Very little mystery.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Memoirs Found In A Bathtub – Stanislaw Lem</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Although set in a future America, one suspects the framework
is there to carry what would otherwise never have been approved by a Soviet
censor. The story tells of a manuscript discovered by archaeologists, one of
the very few paper documents that survived the papyralysis – a phage that
destroyed all paper and thus brought society to its knees. The document was
found in the remains of a vast, sealed, underground complex and recounts...
well, ostensibly a secret mission by an agent. But here the book steps from
science fiction into a Kafkaesque nightmare of convoluted bureaucracy and a
society based on secrets that has slumped into a monstrous pit of its own
creation.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The unnamed protagonist is given a secret mission so secret
that he never learns what it is. Instead he becomes entangled in a web created
by all the doctrines of secrecy. To put it another way, he descends into
madness. And this satirical allegory portrays that insanity with an intensity
that makes this a frightening read. Not only locked in a sealed building
(inside a mountain), we find ourselves locked inside a sealed system, perhaps
inside the head of the one who descends into the madness from which he seeks an
escape, knowing more and more that he is doomed to failure.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Like other science fiction novels that deal with inner
space, it rarely reaches a wider audience. This is a shame because when they
are as well written as this, they deserve to be placed next to any work in the
so-called ‘literary canon’. And if you have an aversion to science fiction,
simply skip the Introduction (although it is an amusing piece in its own right)
and skip to the main text which is timeless and placeless. Then prepare to be
astounded.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />Graeme K Talboyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00147746990011686351noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7263243740949540632.post-24626798740871110392012-04-30T10:08:00.001+01:002012-04-30T10:08:44.114+01:00Books read in April<b>A Clutch Of Constables – Ngaio Marsh</b><br />
Interesting premiss, but sadly lacking in any real tension which is a shame as that would have made it a first class novel rather than the run-of-the-mill example it turned out to be. But this is Marsh and even her also-ran efforts are well written and well constructed.<br />
<b><br /></b><br />
<b>A Storm Of Wings – M John Harrison</b><br />
The second novel set in and around Viriconium, a long life-time after the events of The Pastel City. There is a nod, here, to Wells and to Kneale with the insect-like aliens and their psychic effect, but viewed through Harrison’s inimitable lens.<br />
<b><br /></b><br />
<b>Dorothy Richardson The Genius They Forgot – John Rosenberg</b>
<br />
A concise biography of Dorothy Miller Richardson (and given the way she guarded her private life, it is remarkable there is as much material as there is) which displays how abysmally artists and writers can be treated in the UK. DRM and her husband Alan Odle were both amongst the best in their respective fields, yet they lived in abject poverty all their lives. Interwoven with the biography is a literary appreciation of DRM’s life work. As this is largely autobiographical it is interesting to compare the fiction with the fact. A desperately sad book, yet I couldn’t help feeling I wanted to know more.<br />
<b><br /></b><br />
<b>Peter Pan – J M Barrie</b>
<br />
The bittersweet tale of the boy who didn’t want to grow up. The final chapter gives me shivers every time I read it. And the whole book delivers on so many levels it is always worth a re-read.
<br />
<b><br /></b><br />
<b>When In Rome – Ngaio Marsh</b>
<br />
Efficient, but ultimately there is the feeling this was written to fit an intriguing location rather than because the story came first.
<br />
<b><br /></b><br />
<b>Tied Up In Tinsel – Ngaio Marsh</b>
<br />
Perhaps reading the books in quick succession makes them easier to ‘read’. The particular tricks of the author are easier to spot. However, the book is well-written, the puzzle is genuine and well thought out if under-developed.
<br />
<b><br /></b><br />
<b>Black As He’s Painted – Ngaio Marsh</b>
<br />
Marsh hits form here with an intriguing thriller/whodunnit. She sticks well within the bounds expected of her genre, but nonetheless manages (with its setting and its nod to the after effects of colonialism) to convey a whole other novel lurking just beneath the surface.
<br />
<b><br /></b><br />
<b>50 Literature Ideas You Really Need To Know – John Sutherland</b>
<br />
Part of a series of ‘50 Ideas...’ this would probably be a useful teaching tool for A level students – each chapter the basis for discussion. It starts well and clearly, if with a somewhat random approach. And it never clearly makes its mind up about whether it is a primer on literary criticism, analysis, and theory or whether it is about the creative processes involved in writing.
<br />
<br />
It is also a book that suffers all the problems associated with writing to someone else’s formula. Despite starting strongly, Sutherland clearly ran out of ideas or steam before he got to the fifty. He seems to have packed the end with some pretty trite observations on modern trends that are, perhaps, intended to make the book up to date whereas they just make it look silly.
<br />
<br />
It further suffers from the fact that the author cannot keep his opinions (offered as snide little asides) to himself; and sometimes it is difficult to know whether they are his opinions or those of the theorists he is discussing. Clarity here is essential and it fades the further you get into the book, as if perhaps the author didn’t quite understand his later topics.
<br />
<br />
All in all an entertaining read, but if you want something with depth, clarity, and a clear structure, this is not the book to go to.
<br />
<b><br /></b><br />
<b>The Letter Killers Club – Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky</b>
<br />
It is a real joy to discover an author for one’s self, especially one who wrote work that is so in tune with the kind of thing one likes best. Heartbreaking as well to learn of his life of rejection (hardly surprising in Stalinist Russia) and of how his life ended. At least he had good friends who preserved his work and saw to its eventual publication. And thus, the world of letters is a better place.
<br />
<br />
This novella grew out of an incident in Krzhizhanovsky’s early life. Living in poverty in Moscow he received word of his mother’s death. The only way he could afford to travel the hundreds of miles back home was to sell his only possessions – his books. Having gone through a period of my own when nearly all my books were sold, I can begin (but only begin) to imagine what that meant.
<br />
<br />
In the novella, this is the starting point. It tells of someone who has to sell their books and who then, on trying and failing to recall the contents of the books, populates their shelves with imaginary tomes. This, in turn, provides the material for many successful books of their own – something that had previously eluded them. Later in life, however, this author has become convinced that committing things to paper destroys the purity of their conceptions and starts a secret society where authors meet to speak their ideas to the air and fill a set of empty shelves so that their ideas remain pure and untainted by the interpretations of others.
<br />
<br />
The stories told at the club are philosophical, surreal, and exceedingly rich. Yet this is Russia in the 1920s. What, on the surface, appears to be a slightly offbeat conceit has much darker under currents. The notion that one must gather in secret to share thoughts, that one dare not commit them to public scrutiny, that the club itself begins to mirror the external world... all this and more is both a comment on the construction of fiction and its place in the world as well as casting a sharp eye on the political environment in which the novella was written.
<br />
<br />
The translation is well made and what we know of Krzhizhanovsky through his life is apparent in the writing. He was clearly widely read and had a unique eye with which to view the world. And although he is at times biting in his criticism of the world in which he lived, it never becomes polemical. He makes the stories serve his purpose.
<br />
<br />
I loved this so much I have just ordered another volume of his work and look forward to the day that his other writings appear in English. If you like modernist writing, if you like sharp writing, if you like to see how a writer can be subversive, how surrealism works, if you want a great example of outright good writing, you could do a lot worse than this.
<br />
<b><br /></b><br />
<b>Tous Des Monstres! – Jacques Tardi</b>
<br />
An old adversary returns in another beautifully drawn adventure. Post WWI Paris is lovingly recreated and populated with the usual cast of bizarre characters (including clowns <shudder>) and a whole host of monsters. Adèle now sports a suitably ‘20s hairstyle and is still as lovably acid as ever.
</shudder><br />
<b><br /></b><br />
<shudder><b>Le Mystère Des Profondeurs – Jacques Tardi</b>
</shudder><br />
<shudder>More favourite characters return along with a female assassin who turns out to be... Well, I’m not giving <em>that</em> away. Monsters and criminals still infest a Paris unremittingly bleak beneath rainy skies.
</shudder><br />
<b><br /></b><br />
<shudder><b>Poetics – Aristotle</b>
</shudder><br />
<shudder>A classic, in so many ways. Aristotle analyses tragedy and throws in a side dish on epic poetry. The result is a concise account of the elements of plot, character, and presentation and how they are best combined with other aspects to create the best drama. Although the text is short (less than fifty pages in my edition), Aristotle’s analysis is key to the understanding of literature. It introduces key ideas (such as <em>mimesis</em> and <em>katharsis</em>) that have informed literature ever since. And although many of the ideas have since been deliberately overturned, inverted, and subverted, one can only really understand that in light of the Poetics.
</shudder><br />
<b><br /></b><br />
<shudder><b>The Shape Of Things To Come – H G Wells</b>
</shudder><br />
<shudder>Wells’s classic history of the future. Presented as a history book published in 2106, HG blends reality and fiction with ease and to great effect. As people never tire of pointing out, Wells got a lot of the detail wrong (although if you look at it, he wasn’t that far out, and a damned site more accurate than a lot of predictions from the period). What he got frighteningly right are the underlying trends and causes. Even in the first section of this book that deals with events in Wells’s immediate past, he cuts through all the crap and goes right to the heart of the matter. His description of the First World War is chilling; his analysis of the outcome of the Treaty of Versailles spot on. He told the world what would happen. True, he wasn’t alone, but it’s no wonder his last years were bitter ones.
</shudder><br />
<br />
<shudder>There are other aspects of the book that are less easy to decipher, although one suspects there is very little but Wells shining through. And it is a flawed lamp. He never really got to grips with the idea that social equality should include women. His views on eugenics, although common at the time, are nonetheless difficult for a modern audience. Which is why it is important to know something (if not a lot) about the times in which the book was written, about the arguments that raged, and how ultimately they were used to bury the essential message of socialism (just as a tasty bit of scandal today is leapt on by politicians and press alike to divert the public’s eye from the more fundamental problems of society).
</shudder><br />
<br />
<shudder>As for the press, everyone should read Wells’s analysis of the role of the press. Goodness alone knows what he would make of it today. Wrap his corpse in copper wire and you could light a city at the rate he must be turning in his grave.
</shudder><br />
<br />
<shudder>I have read this a number of times, now, and in common with reading Ruskin and Morris, Shaw and the Webbs, Nesbit and all the others associated with the birth of British socialism through politics, science, and the arts, it makes me mourn for the way in which was systematically destroyed from without and within by all the greedy hypocrites that ever lay claim to socialist principles.
</shudder><br />
<b><br /></b><br />
<shudder><b>Kipling’s Science Fiction – Rudyard Kipling</b>
</shudder><br />
<shudder>A collection of nine short stories. The definition of science fiction is stretched a bit here. Some of these are what I would term ‘wonder tales’, but that is by-the-by. I bought this principally to have ‘With The Night Mail’ and ‘As Easy As A. B. C.’ together in a single volume. These two tales set in the same future world are, ostensibly about a utopian future when the world is largely at peace under the aegis of a benign dictatorship – a company called the Aerial Board of Control. In the first story we are treated to a report of the mail being taken across the Atlantic by airship. Yet the subtext, combined with all the extra bits (which purport to be from the same magazine in which the report appeared – advertisements, notices, answers to letters, and the like) sketch a different picture; one that is given in more detail in the sequel. In essence it tells us that there are no single, simple solutions; that there will always be malcontents; that this may, in fact, be healthy.
</shudder><br />
<br />
<shudder>On a different point, it is a shame this volume had no information on when the stories were published or any background to their composition or reception. It is also a shame that the text was clearly not proofread before going to print. It is riddled with the sort of errors one would expect of a text that has been scanned and converted electronically. It doesn’t take long to go through a text of this length. To neglect such a thing is unprofessional and makes me wary of buying any other books from the same publisher (despite them having some very interesting titles).
</shudder>Graeme K Talboyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00147746990011686351noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7263243740949540632.post-31823992067298252112012-03-31T11:22:00.001+01:002012-03-31T11:25:48.031+01:00Other books read in first quarter of 2012<span style="font-weight:bold;">January<br />Maigret Mystified – Georges Simenon</span><br />A psychological study of a closed society of strangers – people living in the same building, yet so different. Fine character studies, superb atmosphere.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">The Underground Man – Ross Macdonald</span><br />Macdonald at his best with a meditation on the loss of innocence underlying an excellently convoluted plot.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Sleeping Beauty – Ross Macdonald</span><br />Another indictment of a system that puts money before people, creating a machine that churns everyone up and spits them out.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">The Blue Hammer – Ross Macdonald</span><br />The last Lew Archer book and whilst it contains the usual complex plot and thoughtful examination of the modern world, it also sees a certain respite for an increasingly tired and disillusioned Archer.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Large Type Killer – Richard Williams</span><br />Based on a Jack Trevor Story idea (which he later developed as ‘Man Pinches Bottom’) and which he, in truth, probably mostly wrote, this is a Sexton Blake story about a series of innocent events that lead to a man being hunted as a child killer.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Enter A Murderer – Ngaio Marsh</span><br />There are some, I know, who regard the outcome as a bit of a cheat. I’m not one of them. And this second outing also begins to put a little flesh on the bones of the main characters.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">The Nursing Home Murder – Ngaio Marsh</span><br />A classic, simple tale. Well constructed with more development of the central characters.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">The Madman Of Bergerac – Georges Simenon</span><br />Maigret solves a series of murders from a bed whilst convalescing from a gunshot wound. Bad tempered at the lack of co-operation, he nonetheless works out what has been happening. Somewhat controversial in the eyes of some who claim it is anti-Semitic. Whilst it does deal with the question of Jewish refugees, the ire is directed solely at those who exploit them.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Vintage Murder – Ngaio Marsh</span><br />Marsh moves the scene to her native New Zealand with another mystery set in a theatre. The increasing ability of the author as a writer is readily apparent. More show. Less tell. The only annoying this that this is a uniform edition of the works. One would have thought the publisher would have spent just a few quid having someone proof the texts to get rid of appalling typos (I gave up counting after fifty).<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Artists In Crime – Ngaio Marsh</span><br />Inspector Alleyn falls for Agatha Troy. All very civilized against a backdrop of horrible murder.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Deadlock – Dorothy Richardson</span><br />Miriam Henderson discovers the joy of writing and nearly discovers the joy of love.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">The Two Of Them – Joanna Russ</span><br />Irene escapes the patriarchy of 1950s America to find herself freeing a young girl from the even more oppressive patriarchy of a distant planet, only to find that her actions condemn her in the eyes of her own (male) partner. Beautiful writing. Thought provoking.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Death At The President’s Lodging – Michael Innes</span><br />Largely enjoyable if somewhat contrived whodunit. Pleasingly well written and the first of many by the same author (who is not above poking fun at himself from the outset).<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">February<br />Death In A White Tie – Ngaio Marsh</span><br />Absolute classic whodunit in high society which whilst not a social critique does not hide the fact that some, even then, regarded ‘the season’ as little more than a meat market.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Overture To Death – Ngaio Marsh</span><br />Fine variation on the vindictive old lady theme. The characters are a tad clichéd, but the storyline was in part responsible as it demanded certain stock characters. Still good to read something of the period with flashes of ‘modern’ thought.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Death At The Bar – Ngaio Marsh</span><br />Ingenious and impossible to describe without giving the game away. So kudos to the author for managing a whole book without actually doing that.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Surfeit Of Lampreys – Ngaio Marsh</span><br />A mix of procedural and whodunit with some nice character portraits thrown in. Alleyn and Fox take something of a back seat in terms of development.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Death And The Dancing Footman – Ngaio Marsh</span><br />A wonderful whodunit with clichéd elements gently spoofed whilst presenting a solid puzzle that centres round the vivid image of the footman dancing in the hall to a tune on the radio.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Colour Scheme – Ngaio Marsh</span><br />Another mystery set in New Zealand, this time with Alleyn on special service during the Second World War.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Earwig And The Witch – Diana Wynne Jones</span><br />Her last book (unless others surface). Written for younger readers, amusing and wonderfully illustrated, this is about how Earwig is fostered and begins to learn to be a witch.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Died In The Wool – Ngaio Marsh</span><br />Another New Zealand set mystery centred on an isolated sheep station where the owner disappears and turns up weeks later packed in bale of wool. A regular whodunit with a colouring of espionage.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Final Curtain – Ngaio Marsh</span><br />Theatrical portraits abound. And having had some small experience of the professional theatre, they aren’t as exaggerated as one may, at first, think.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Swing, Brother, Swing – Ngaio Marsh</span><br />Not only did she come up with some great titles, but she was excellent, as this book proves, at creating monstrous characters. Not out-and-out evil, but those egomaniacs who annoy you with their blatant idiocy, the ones you know will never listen to reason.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Revolving Lights – Dorothy Richardson</span><br />Exquisitely written novel in the pilgrimage series. Miriam Henderson experiences the dark uncertainties of a disintegrating relationship (the tension and distress conveyed with perfect insight), and the contrasting joy of a holiday away from London.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Opening Night – Ngaio Marsh</span><br />Another theatre-set murder; another book featuring a young woman newly arrived in London from New Zealand. Yet these repetitions in no way distract from the story. Indeed, the very theatricality of Marsh’s work is evident here. She uses a repertory system of ‘characters’ and, like a good actor, makes them her own.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Spinsters In Jeopardy – Ngaio Marsh</span><br />Not a whodunit. Not an especially good thriller, either. More like an attempt to introduce us to the Alleyn’s horribly precocious child in an adventure that has little logic but which is, nonetheless, entertaining.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">March<br />Scales Of Justice – Ngaio Marsh</span><br />A little disappointing in its reinforcement of a type. Although the set-up is intriguing, the characterization is a little thin and, for once, contains no sense of gentle parody.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">The Trap – Dorothy Richardson</span><br />The eighth book of the sequence and Richardson’s maturity as a writer is much in evidence. She handles each episode with consummate ease, weaving a strong thread through so many apparently disparate aspects of Miriam Henderson’s life. Some of the oddities of style that vex some commentators (the movement between third and first person, the use real people and their alter egos) seems to me to be quite logical – the author is engaged with this work and appears quite naturally within it. After all, one of the main concerns is about the difficulty of putting anything to words that adequately convey ones ideas and experiences. Richardson has a found a way of doing this.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Nemesis – Lindsey Davis</span><br />Whilst all the ingredients are there, this turned out to be a very flat cake indeed. No tension, no sense of peril, no horror, and the ‘mystery’ is so obvious that I spent most of the book thinking it must be a massive red herring.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Off With His Head – Ngaio Marsh</span><br />Back on form with this foray into the deadly side of folk dance. Wonderful characters (Dame Alice and Dulcie are vividly sketched) and an intriguing mystery.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Singing In The Shrouds – Ngaio Marsh</span><br />As much thriller as mystery, another top form novel. Set on a boat with a small group of characters, it’s a race against time to discover which (if any) is a psychopathic killer who murders every ten days.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">False Scent – Ngaio Marsh</span><br />After the highs of the previous two, this settles back to a more comfortable level. A return to theatre folk (some of whom really do behave like that, believe me; I’ve been on the wrong end of it), but a well-crafted novel nonetheless.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Hand In Glove – Ngaio Marsh</span><br />The usual repertory company is here with a set of characters one feels might have been better developed. The book is short and feels rushed, yet there is potential there for much more. A good read, however, and it does the job it set out to do.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Dead Water – Ngaio Marsh</span><br />At this point, Marsh seems to have found a new seam to mine. Whilst in some respects this is a fairly standard whodunit, the old repertory of characters has been given a shaking up, the young lovers fade into the background, and the whole thing has genuine elements of tragedy about it.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Death At The Dolphin – Ngaio Marsh</span><br />Back to the theatre, but with a twist. A story that revolves around a glove that would seem to have been made for Hamnet Shakespeare, and the fall out of events from when the glove first came into the hands of a wealthy recluse.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">The Adventures Of Robina – Emma Tennant</span><br />A clever conceit to set an early eighteenth century novel in the mid twentieth century. That is, a female innocent abroad in the mid twentieth century written in the style of the early eighteenth. It is fast, funny, and bitingly satirical.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Le Secret De La Salamandre – Jacques Tardi</span><br />Comic book at its best. Excellent drawing, off the wall story (intersecting with other story strands by Tardi) and the bonus of realising my French is still up to it (with a little help from a dictionary).<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Dawn’s Left Hand – Dorothy Richardson</span><br />On the confusions and uncertainties of personal relationships (particularly Miriam’s with Hypo). Whilst still philosophical, the novels are now becoming more concerned with the personal again (rather than the universal) and we see Miriam’s sensibility and understand of men and women in a far less hypothetical setting.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">The Pastel City – M John Harrison</span><br />Harrison can put more story, ideas, and description in one page than most writers of fantasy can put into a over-long chapter. The richness and depth is astounding with the added layer that is a conscious examination and subtle subversion of the genre. If you want to know how fantasy should be written, this is the book for you.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">The Manual Of Detection – Jedediah Berry</span><br />Curiously flat and lacking in tension, the interest in this book is invested in the world that is created. It has taken a number of commonplace elements and ideas and moulded them into a diverting and well-realised dreamscape. Certainly unusual, well-written, and well worth a read.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Le Noyé À Deux Têtes – Jacques Tardi</span><br />A continuation of the Adèle Blanc-sec series. Amusing, subversive, full of period detail (in both the images and the text) – popular culture in a form at which the French excel.Graeme K Talboyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00147746990011686351noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7263243740949540632.post-84408883219633208542012-03-31T11:20:00.000+01:002012-03-31T11:21:30.328+01:00Journey To Paradise - Dorothy RichardsonYou might think anyone whose life’s work was invested in a massive novel of 2110 pages (each of the thirteen chapters a novel in itself) would have problems with the shorter form. Yet Dorothy Richardson’s genius with words seems to have known few bounds. This collection of short fiction and autobiographical sketches demonstrates just how accomplished she was at reducing whole worlds to a few pages without losing anything in the process.<br /><br />The works clearly have a commonality with the much longer <span style="font-style:italic;">Pilgrimage</span> series. Indeed, they offer an insight into aspects of Dorothy Richardson’s life before the opening of her first novel. Childhood, from the very earliest memories that often recur in <span style="font-style:italic;">Pilgrimage</span> are here explored in detail. Sitting in the garden as a very young child; visits to relatives; the bliss of holidays by the sea.<br /><br />Each is a delicately and subtly cut jewel that reflects all forms of light and changes as the perspective alters. What is even more amazing is that one of the earliest exponents of modernist literature is, to my mind at least, the best. Perhaps that is the enthusiasm of discovery, but much as I love Virginia Woolf (who has always held top place), I fear she must move over and make place on the top step of the podium for Dorothy Richardson.<br /><br />Sadly this, and much of her other short work (not to mention her non-fiction) is difficult to come by. All power to Virago for ensuring <span style="font-style:italic;">Pilgrimage</span> is available. Perhaps they should get this volume back into print as well as the perfect introduction to the work of a still neglected writer.Graeme K Talboyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00147746990011686351noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7263243740949540632.post-19288085037988355532012-03-14T10:30:00.000+00:002012-03-14T10:31:06.353+00:00Oberland - Dorothy RichardsonA marked change here in this ninth novel of the sequence. To begin with (and in common with the four following) this is much shorter. By way of compensation it is much more intense. That is partly the framework (a holiday in Switzerland) and the time scale (two weeks instead of many months or years); but is also the preoccupation of the novel. Rather than London life always on the edge of financial hardship and her relationships with the people around her and how that is part of her growing social and personal awareness; this book is quite literally a holiday.<br /><br />Two weeks in Switzerland away from all her concerns (although there is, as always, an underlying hint of all those things never spoken of) amongst people she has never before met and enjoying freedoms that were perhaps just a little bit daring for the time. A young woman alone tobogganing on the Swiss mountains, sitting on the hotel stairs discussing socialism with two young men... Most of all, however, are the vivid descriptions of the place. Miriam’s life in London, whilst full of life, beautifully conveys what living in a large city is like. There is a mild sense of claustrophobia in a world where the predominant colour is grey and all struggles are worthy. None of this is mentioned directly, yet the sense of it is always there, set against her youthful episode in Germany and here, thrown into shadowy relief by the electrifying beauty of the Bernese Oberland.<br /><br />As a piece of sustained description alone (the precise capturing of the stuffy, overheated air within the hotel is remarkable) this would be a novel to recommend. Yet it does so much more than that on a very subtle level. Miriam, out of her normal environment, must confront her prejudices, defend her beliefs, and accommodate herself to unusual circumstances. And she flowers. There is still something of the petulant child about her at the beginning; something of the teenager who took that first journey abroad to earn her living. By the end, she seems to have become serene. Her thoughts flow in the same direction and much more smoothly (perhaps indicating that they run a great deal more deeply as well).<br /><br />Yet for all her personal development we are not allowed to forget the world beyond, about Miriam’s concerns. These are brought back into sharp focus at the very end of the book with the simple but highly effective incident of the young man showing his sister a hole in his glove and telling her she must mend it.Graeme K Talboyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00147746990011686351noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7263243740949540632.post-75442597004793818452012-01-30T10:43:00.001+00:002012-01-30T10:43:58.578+00:00To The Lighthouse - Virginia WoolfWhat can I say about this that has not already been said? (When did that ever stop me?) Save to say that, as always, I have trouble getting started. The first section of Part One always seems to me to be much longer than it really is. Perhaps an indication of the extreme compression involved in the writing. There is so much to take on board at the beginning of the work that It makes the rest seem daunting, when in fact when has once found one’s balance, so to speak, the rest flows like... well... thought.<br /><br />The best part of the book as far as I am concerned is the short, middle section. Ten years in fifteen pages and the sense of change and decay in an otherwise unchanging universe are conveyed with all the intensity of a poem – a nocturne in which the bursts of light are not stars or comets, but the falling of shells and the shock of sudden death.<br /><br />That it is, for me, the best part of the book does not detract from the context in which it sits. Rather it enhances the preceding and following sections, providing a different perspective on the scene; perhaps even the perspective of the scene itself – a meditation on how the places we live view the passing of time. A triumphant work.Graeme K Talboyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00147746990011686351noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7263243740949540632.post-48968011635514433232012-01-14T14:49:00.001+00:002012-01-14T14:49:25.662+00:00A Man Lay Dead - Ngaio MarshThe first of Ngaio Marsh’s Inspector Alleyn mysteries. As a book written partly to entertain herself and partly to see if she could do it, it is quite remarkable. Focussed, smooth, and well paced with an intriguing storyline, it is an excellent first attempt. In retrospect (I have read a number of her books before, including this, though never in order) it is clear this is a first book.<br /><br />Characterization is sketchy and often so subtle (if at all there) as to make some characters indistinguishable from others, whilst others still are mere ciphers (e.g., the Russian sub-plot). The story is also a little light in places. But in the end, what we have a thoroughly diverting tale that does not rely on a gimmicky detective. It is clearly written without a word wasted, spiced with a dry wit, and full of all the indications that here was a writer who would become a queen of the genre.Graeme K Talboyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00147746990011686351noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7263243740949540632.post-27338487335233551822012-01-09T12:06:00.001+00:002012-01-09T12:06:35.124+00:00Interim - Dorothy RichardsonThe fifth of Richardson’s Pilgrimage series and I can only say these are works of genius. Engaging, witty, written with great simplicity and still finding room to experiment with form and style. Miriam Henderson’s development is so subtly told, that you are carried along, unaware of much change until you glance back and read, again, the fragile uncertainty of the know-it-all teenager of the first book.<br /><br />Whilst Miriam still struggles with some of her pre-occupations (especially that of adequately conveying her inner life to others – which must make these not only the first stream of consciousness novels, but amongst the first meta-narratives), she has matured. Still uncertain about much that goes on around her, she is independent and living a life that quietly questions many of the male-centred and dominated establishments of the day.<br /><br />To have sustained such a detailed and endlessly fascinating psychological study of a single character with such style and maturity; to write so well and explore the way in which words can convey the inner life of a person; to conjure up a picture of society with all its quirks, prejudices, and possibilities; to chart the progress of new ways of thinking; and still not be feted alongside the likes of Woolf, Joyce, and other modernists, suggests to me that there is something sadly awry in the world of literature.Graeme K Talboyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00147746990011686351noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7263243740949540632.post-23046922023055481682012-01-05T13:53:00.000+00:002012-01-05T13:54:25.372+00:00The Moment Of Eclipse - Brian AldissThis collection of short stories from the latter half of the 1960s demonstrates both Aldiss’s craft and art as a writer. The stories are science fiction (in the broadest sense of the term – many of them demonstrating the exploration of inner space that exemplifies the so-called New Wave that centred around Moorcock’s New Worlds magazine), yet they are highly literate. The writing is polished and intelligent. It shares space with some of Ballard’s work.<br /><br />Technically the stories explore language and form without being self-consciously ‘experimental’, particularly so in ‘Orgy Of The Living And The Dying’ which is reminiscent of his novel <span style="font-style:italic;">Report On Probability A</span>. They treat the reader as an intelligent being capable of appreciating subtlety and the jumps in narrative. They are also imaginative, displaying both a social awareness and a dry wit.<br /><br />A third of the book is taken up with three linked stories that explore (at different periods of time) the consequences of a virus that infects animals with immortality. Others explore the consequences of artificial intelligence (‘Super-Toys Last All Summer Long’ and ‘Working In The Spaceship Yards’), and others introduce meta-narratives where the boundaries between the creation and its creator are blurred or dissolved.<br /><br />All in all a fascinating and entertaining collection with stories that stay in the mind, slowly evolving, long after the covers of the book are closed.Graeme K Talboyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00147746990011686351noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7263243740949540632.post-40722767079655134512011-12-30T21:00:00.001+00:002011-12-30T21:02:50.557+00:00Also read in 2011The Man Who Knew Too Much – W Howard Baker<br />Swords Against Wizardry – Fritz Leiber<br />Artemis Fowl And The Atlantis Complex – Eoin Colfer<br />Enchanted Glass – Diana Wynne Jones<br />The Game – Diana Wynne Jones<br />Murder In The Sun – Jack Trevor Story<br />Down With Skool – Geoffrey Willans and Ronald Searle<br />How To Be Topp – Geoffrey Willans and Ronald Searle<br />Whizz For Atomms – Geoffrey Willans and Ronald Searle<br />Back In The Jug Agane – Geoffrey Willans and Ronald Searle<br />Terror Keep – Edgar Wallace<br />Unexpected Magic – Diana Wynne Jones<br />I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream – Harlan Ellison<br />A History Of Monks House And Village Of Rodmell – Julie Singleton<br />Slaughtermatic – Steve Aylett<br />Between Fantoine and Agapa – Robert Pinget<br />The Empire Of A Thousand Planets – Mezieres & Christin<br />That Voice – Robert Pinget<br />Captain Slaughterboard Drops Anchor – Mervyn Peake<br />The Old Man Dies – Georges Simenon<br />Maigret And The Minister – Georges Simenon<br />Maigret And The Young Girl – Georges Simenon<br />The Secret Kingdom – Jenny Nimmo<br />Maigret’s Little Joke – Georges Simenon<br />Maigret And The Old Lady – Georges Simenon<br />Pure Dead Magic – Debi Gliori<br />Maigret And The Headless Corpse – Georges Simenon<br />Maigret’s First Case – Georges Simenon<br />Maigret Takes A Room – Georges Simenon<br />Maigret’s Failure – Georges Simenon<br />Maigret And The Man On The Boulevard – Georges Simenon<br />The Others – Georges Simenon<br />Maigret And The Loner – Georges Simenon<br />Pure Dead Wicked – Debi Gliori<br />Maigret’s Memoirs – Georges Simenon<br />Maigret In Society – Georges Simenon<br />Maigret Loses His Temper – Georges Simenon<br />The Window Over The Way – Georges Simenon<br />The Magic Drum – Emma Tennant<br />Maigret’s Pickpocket – Georges Simenon<br />Maigret And The Nahour Case – Georges Simenon<br />Maigret Stonewalled – Georges Simenon<br />The White Cottage Mystery – Margery Allingham<br />The Crime At Black Dudley – Margery Allingham<br />Mystery Mile – Margery Allingham<br />Look To The Lady – Margery Allingham<br />Police At The Funeral – Margery Allingham<br />Sweet Danger – Margery Allingham<br />Death Of A Ghost – Margery Allingham<br />Flowers For The Judge – Margery Allingham<br />Maigret And The Hundred Gibbets – Georges Simenon<br />Dancers In Mourning – Margery Allingham<br />The Case Of The Late Pig – Margery Allingham<br />The Fashion In Shrouds – Margery Allingham<br />Lock 14 – Georges Simenon<br />A Crime In Holland – Georges Simenon<br />Mr Campion And Others – Margery Allingham<br />A Face For A Clue – Georges Simenon<br />Traitor’s Purse – Margery Allingham<br />Coroner’s Pidgin – Margery Allingham<br />More Work For The Undertaker – Margery Allingham<br />The Tiger In The Smoke – Margery Allingham<br />The Beckoning Lady – Margery Allingham<br />Hide My Eyes – Margery Allingham<br />The China Governess – Margery Allingham<br />The Mind Readers – Margery Allingham<br />Cargo Of Eagles – Margery Allingham<br />Mr Campion’s Farthing – Youngman Carter<br />Mr Campion’s Falcon – Youngman Carter<br />Maigret And The Enigmatic Lett – Georges Simenon<br />A Battle Of Nerves – Georges Simenon<br />Maigret Takes The Waters – Georges Simenon<br />The Friend Of Madame Maigret – Georges Simenon<br />Maigret In Court – Georges Simenon<br />Maigret’s Boyhood Friend – Georges Simenon<br />Maigret At The Crossroads – Georges Simenon<br />The Sailors’ Rendezvous – Georges Simenon<br />At The ‘Gai-Moulin’ – Georges Simenon<br />The Galton Case – Ross Macdonald<br />Maigret And The Tavern By The Seine – Georges Simenon<br />The Wycherly Woman – Ross Macdonald<br />Maigret And The Wine Merchant – Georges Simenon<br />The 50s & 60s The Best Of Times – Alison Pressley<br />My Friend Maigret – Georges Simenon<br />The Zebra-Striped Hearse – Ross Macdonald<br />The Chill – Ross Macdonald<br />The Far Side Of The Dollar – Ross Macdonald<br />Faustine – Emma Tennant<br />Black Money – Ross Macdonald<br />Backwater – Dorothy Richardson<br />334 – Thomas M. Disch<br />Honeycomb – Dorothy Richardson<br />The Instant Enemy – Ross Macdonald<br />Pure Dead Brilliant – Debi Gliori<br />The Goodbye Look – Ross Macdonald<br />The Lion Of Boaz-Jachin And Jachin-Boaz – Russell Hoban<br />The Tunnel – Dorothy Richardson<br />The Mathematics Of Magic – L. Sprague de Camp & Fletcher Pratt<br /><br />A grand total of 139 books read during the year.Graeme K Talboyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00147746990011686351noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7263243740949540632.post-87383426786724122802011-12-13T10:57:00.001+00:002011-12-13T10:59:58.105+00:00Ice Trilogy - Vladimir Sorokin (tr Jamey Gambrell)It is unusual for me to give up on a book. It has to be very badly written or exceedingly dull. This was both. I know it is not the translation as Gambrell has proven her ability to move a work from one language to another with a great deal of skill and sensitivity to the original. But there’s not much you can do when the original is as bad as this.<br /><br />All of which has left me wondering. Sorokin is, apparently, highly regarded. He has won literary prizes. Surely it is my judgement that is in error. Or not. Literary prizes, in my opinion, often go to undeserving but safe work. In Sorokin’s case, it has probably gone to someone who put their head a little way above the parapet and got lots of attention for it. It certainly hasn’t gone to them (on this evidence) for their ability to write.<br /><br />I got part way through the the first book, <i>Bro</i>. It is plodding, dull, almost adolescent in its repetitiveness and peppering of <i>the text</i> with randomly italicised and capitalised WORDS, and by half way I had given up caring about the characters or their story. The potential was there for a story that could have turned the entire history of the Soviet Union inside out, but Sorokin has given no thought to structure or style (or if he did, he made the wrong choice) and ruined his opportunity in a story so dull I literally fell asleep part way through a chapter.<br /><br />One for the charity shop.Graeme K Talboyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00147746990011686351noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7263243740949540632.post-19430519319163424892011-11-24T10:30:00.000+00:002011-11-24T10:31:04.685+00:00Baga - Robert PingetA gentle and surreal fairy tale of a king and his first minister (Baga), written with humour and affection. This makes it seem a lightweight piece of writing, but on the contrary it manages to explore some deep themes; it simply does this without ever taking itself too seriously.<br /><br />As a piece of social commentary, it is still relevant today (if not more than when it was written. Notions of sovereignty, war, and how those of us who just want a quiet life are forever thwarted by the psychopaths who want to dominate and cause misery are all prodded with a stick perfectly designed for the purpose.<br /><br />If you have never read any Pinget before, this is perhaps a good place to start.Graeme K Talboyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00147746990011686351noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7263243740949540632.post-34803783202604093142011-11-20T11:41:00.001+00:002011-11-20T11:41:48.876+00:00Pointed Roofs - Dorothy RichardsonBefore Joyce and Woolf, there was Dorothy Richardson, the writer whose work was the first expression of what was to be called ‘stream of consciousness’. And as first expressions go, it appeared pretty much complete and fully developed. For someone who was redefining the English novel (despite her experience of journalism), this is something to be celebrated. Sadly all the credit these days seems to go to Joyce and (often grudgingly) to Woolf. Richardson seems to have been forgotten.<br /><br /><i>Pointed Roofs</i> is the first of an eleven novel sequence which records in detail the life of Miriam Henderson, a mirror of Richardson herself. Expressing her experiences – personal, spiritual, and intellectual – through her inner voice, Richardson explores a whole new technique for the novel. She also presents the female consciousness with a new and genuine voice – one which clearly states that a woman’s experience of the world is interesting, every bit as valid as a man’s, and vital to an understanding of human experience.<br /><br />With all this theoretical baggage, it might be expected that the novel is heavy and stilted. Far from it. Beautifully written, it runs as effortlessly as a great river. The surface appears serene, but there are deep currents. Miriam leaves her family to become an English teacher in a German school for young ladies. At the fragile age of eighteen it is an adventurous thing to do, but something she feels to be absolutely necessary – an essential part of her growth as a person.<br /><br />The text captures all the certainty and bewilderment of an eighteen-year-old on their first time away from home. Certainty that she knows how the world should be and how she herself should be, bewilderment because there is simply so much she does not understand, including her own emotional responses. She is only in Germany for a few months, but she grows, begins to flower, and begins to understand.<br /><br />Each of the episodes, even the most apparently minor incidents, is vividly portrayed. The misery and humiliation of having her hair washed by the housekeeper, the hysterical atmosphere during the thunderstorm, the frisson of young girls becoming young women in a school where talk of boys is frowned on. These might not seem like much on which to build a novel, but they are so authentically drawn, one can sense the intensity and importance to the individuals involved.Graeme K Talboyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00147746990011686351noreply@blogger.com