Now reading...

[Matthew]

Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh

[ejp626]

I'm most of the way through Satin Island by Tom McCarthy. It is a little hard to describe, but basically it is partly a satire of trendy corporations that have succeeding in selling blather, so they have excess funds to hire anthropologists (I think he is imagining an ad agency with the resources of Google) and partly this anthropologist then musing about contemporary culture, oil spills, creative destruction and so on.

There are vague connections to Don DeLillo, Thomas Pynchon, Jonathan Lethem and David Foster Wallace, but this is much flatter, almost affectless writing. It is basically plotless, so it is definitely not going to be everyone's cup of tea. It is certainly not going to make my top 10 novels of the year, let's put it that way.

I should wrap this up tonight. Then I will return to Of Human Bondage. I've finally reached the point where Philip is in London and the real action is about to begin.

[BillF]

Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh

[Simon8]

[Leeway]

A WORLD OF STRANGERS - Nadine Gordimer - 1958.

My first exposure to Gordimer. The story of 26-year old Toby Hood, who heads to South Africa to take up the family's publishing business. Toby comes from a family of social progressives, but Toby intends to live his own life. He becomes friends with some of the Africans in J-Burg and runs into the repressive race laws of the country, causing him to see the world in a new light. If Naipul dislikes his characters, Gordimer I think loves them. Really a novel of manners, that ends up throwing some political punches, Gordimer loves describing the social scene- shipboard life (another novel that starts with a boat trip to Africa), luxurious parties, after-hour booze joints, hunting trips. Often enough, it seems rather pleasant, really, not at all didactic or polemical. But the political aspect is never quite lost, and seems all the stronger for that understatement in the end.

[BillF]

A WORLD OF STRANGERS - Nadine Gordimer - 1958.

My first exposure to Gordimer. The story of 26-year old Toby Hood, who heads to South Africa to take up the family's publishing business. Toby comes from a family of social progressives, but Toby intends to live his own life. He becomes friends with some of the Africans in J-Burg and runs into the repressive race laws of the country, causing him to see the world in a new light. If Naipul dislikes his characters, Gordimer I think loves them. Really a novel of manners, that ends up throwing some political punches, Gordimer loves describing the social scene- shipboard life (another novel that starts with a boat trip to Africa), luxurious parties, after-hour booze joints, hunting trips. Often enough, it seems rather pleasant, really, not at all didactic or polemical. But the political aspect is never quite lost, and seems all the stronger for that understatement in the end.

I'll give it a try.

[erwbol]

Ken MacLeod - The Night Sessions (Orbit, 2008)

A bishop is dead. As Detective Inspector Adam Ferguson picks through the rubble of the tiny church, he discovers that it was deliberately bombed. That it's a terrorist act is soon beyond doubt. It's been a long time since anyone saw anything like this. Terrorism is history . . .

After the Middle East wars and the rising sea levels - after Armageddon and the Flood - came the Great Rejection. The first Enlightenment separated church from state. The Second Enlightenment has separated religion from politics. In this enlightened age there's no persecution, but the millions who still believe and worship are a marginal and mistrusted minority. Now someone is killing them.

At first, suspicion falls on atheists more militant than the secular authorities. But when the target list expands to include the godless, it becomes evident that something very old has risen from the ashes. Old and very, very dangerous . . .

Edited May 7, 2015 by erwbol

[HutchFan]

Last night, while listening to Steve Lacy/Mal Waldron recordings, I started reading this compilation of Steve Lacy interviews:

Fascinating stuff! Lacy is wonderfully articulate.

[BillF]

Humphrey Lyttelton's autobiography written in 1954 at the age of 32. Charming, witty and charts the establishment of "trad" in the UK.

Edited May 7, 2015 by BillF

[ghost of miles]

Philip K. Dick, THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE.

[paul secor]

Zachary Klein: Ties That Blind

[BillF]

Philip K. Dick, THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE.

A fine book, David.

[erwbol]

Philip K. Dick, THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE.

A fine book, David.

The only Philip K. Dick novel I truly enjoyed. I've even read it twice.

[BillF]

Philip K. Dick, THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE.

A fine book, David.

The only Philip K. Dick novel I truly enjoyed. I've even read it twice.

So have I!

[Matthew]

Philip K. Dick, THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE.

A fine book, David.

The only Philip K. Dick novel I truly enjoyed. I've even read it twice.

So have I!

Me three! and I'm not a big Philip Dick fan by any means....

[erwbol]

Philip K. Dick, THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE.

A fine book, David.

The only Philip K. Dick novel I truly enjoyed. I've even read it twice.

So have I!

Me three! and I'm not a big Philip Dick fan by any means....

I used to own the three volume Philip K. Dick Library of America hardcover collection, but my copy got water damaged before I got to the later novels in the third volume. Oh well.

[ghost of miles]

I happened across a nice used copy of the 1960s PDK Library of America volume last autumn and recently got the urge to read The Man In The High Castle, which is included in that volume. Really enjoying it so far, though I have to confess it's only the second PDK book I've ever read (I read Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep a looooooong time ago). BTW, Amazon Video is offering the pilot of a TV version for free right now, with more episodes evidently to come:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Man-High-Castle/dp/B00RSI5EHQ

Edited May 8, 2015 by ghost of miles

[paul secor]

Ruth Rendell: The Vault

Picked this up at the library shortly before I read of her passing. Ok, but judging from reviews it seems she wrote better novels than this one.

[niels]

Started to re-read "The Black Book" by Orhan Pamuk. Pamuk is one of those authors who I just HAVE to read once in a while.

[A Lark Ascending]

Standard but very enjoyable Scandi-thriller. Occasionally you catch the translation. But I'll read the next in line (for some reason I've already read the third).

About to start on:

[Jazzmoose]

Philip K. Dick, THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE.

Damn. I thought you'd disappeared!

[jlhoots]

Paula Hawkins: The Girl On The Train

[ejp626]

I have to say I am not enjoying Maugham's Of Human Bondage. It is very hard for me understand why it is often considered one of the top 100 books of the 20th Century, aside from the fact that there are lots of people who like watching car crashes -- but only if it is sufficiently high-minded (i.e. they wouldn't be caught dead watching reality TV but they'll read books like Madame Bovary or Anna K. or Of Human Bondage). I really don't like Philip Carey as a character. He is portrayed as a thoroughly unpleasant young man, who goes out of his way to snub his uncle and generally only hangs out with people he can look down on. Maugham seems to justify everything because Carey lost both parents as a child and has a physical handicap as well (a clubfoot). The only section of the book that was bearable (so far) was when he was off in Paris trying to become an artist. Now he is back in London, doing a fairly poor job of studying to be a doctor. And he falls hard for a waitress, essentially only because she snubs him. She instantly becomes forbidden fruit. I know the heart wants what it wants, but anyone with a smidgen of self respect would have broken things off after only one or two of the times she makes it clear just how little she thinks of him, not the 10 times we are up to so far.

It is really hard to fathom how Maugham is going to keep this going for another 300+ pages. I find it tedious and not at all compelling. I am kind of dreading it actually, and would not finish the book except I am going to be seeing a play based on the book in a few weeks. Though if this ends the way I think it will, I should probably skip it (the play) and try to get my money back.

[ejp626]

I have to say I am not enjoying Maugham's Of Human Bondage. It is very hard for me understand why it is often considered one of the top 100 books of the 20th Century, aside from the fact that there are lots of people who like watching car crashes -- but only if it is sufficiently high-minded (i.e. they wouldn't be caught dead watching reality TV but they'll read books like Madame Bovary or Anna K. or Of Human Bondage). ...

It is really hard to fathom how Maugham is going to keep this going for another 300+ pages. I find it tedious and not at all compelling. I am kind of dreading it actually, and would not finish the book except I am going to be seeing a play based on the book in a few weeks. Though if this ends the way I think it will, I should probably skip it (the play) and try to get my money back.

I don't remember if I dissed Vargas Llosa's The Bad Girl here, but certainly also thoroughly disliked that novel. Now that I am far enough into Of Human Bondage, I can see that Vargas Llosa pretty much cribbed the entire thing from Maugham, making me dislike The Bad Girl even more!

[A Lark Ascending]

I did 'Of Human Bondage' back in 1972-3 for 'A' Level - had to read it three times!!!! Answer questions on it!

I recall enjoying it even though we were doing that godawful 'literature' thing of 'dissecting' every sentence in the hope that we could find enough reasons to dislike it.

Probably appealed to a 17 year old being very much a coming of age novel.