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[BillF]

1 hour ago, A Lark Ascending said:

Don’t read classic books because you think you should: do it for fun!
A new poll shows Britons are weighed down with regret over novels they haven’t found ‘time and patience’ for. Why do we shame ourselves over entertainment?

http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2016/jan/21/dont-read-classic-books-because-you-should-war-peace-fun

Not that good an article but I love the idea behind it (and not just with regard to lit-er-a-tuh. The stranglehold elite ideas of 'culture' continue to have over those of us with a middle or more class education is more than a little remarkable). I too have a copy of Ulysses that I never got more than 50 pages through. On the other hand I'm currently having a second crack at Moby Dick - not an easy read with all those diversions and biblical references but am enjoying it. Can't manage more than two or three chapters at a time so it'll take a couple more months (about 200 pages through at present). I imagine Moby Dick is something of a white whale for many a reader with those elite cultural prejudices. 

[Hard to believe 7% of Brits have read Moby Dick...I somehow doubt the 1 664 people used in the survey were a proper socio-economic reflection of Britain]

 

 

I was fortunate in my course of English Literature at Leeds University in the 60s to be able to take what nowadays would be called a module on American Literature and so was introduced to Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Twain, Whitman, Melville and Henry James - even had an imported American tutor! - and so I became one of those few Brits to have read Moby Dick, which I thought was a great book, particularly when read in the studious atmosphere of a reference library. It's obviously read - or was read - far more generally by Americans. Discussing his recording contract with Whaling City Sound of New Bedford, MA, I remarked to Greg Abate that I'd read Moby Dick at college. "Didn't we all?" he replied.

[jlhoots]

Thomas McGuane: Crow Fair

[A Lark Ascending]

8 hours ago, BillF said:

I was fortunate in my course of English Literature at Leeds University in the 60s to be able to take what nowadays would be called a module on American Literature and so was introduced to Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Twain, Whitman, Melville and Henry James - even had an imported American tutor! - and so I became one of those few Brits to have read Moby Dick, which I thought was a great book, particularly when read in the studious atmosphere of a reference library. It's obviously read - or was read - far more generally by Americans. Discussing his recording contract with Whaling City Sound of New Bedford, MA, I remarked to Greg Abate that I'd read Moby Dick at college. "Didn't we all?" he replied.

I read a smattering of those writers but from a different perspective - a course on late-19th to 1960s American history. I had a couple of essays to write on the emergence of American cultural identity (The Transcendentalists, I vaguely recall). I remember especially enjoying Twain's 'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court', a much darker tale than the Danny Kaye/Bing Crosby film I half-remembered. 

I've read a couple of Henry James novels but found them hard going. I did like 'The Turn of the Screw'...read that twice...but was helped there by a 60s/70s film version (THe Innocents) and later getting to know the Britten opera. 

[paul secor]

Elaine Sciolino: The Only Street in Paris

Somewhat entertaining but, overall, too much fluff included.

[Joe]

Recommended. I think this book -- not Knausgård, not Ferrante, not Houellebecq, not Bolano, or Vila-Matas, or McBride -- might truly represent the future of the novel.

[Leeway]

ONE FAT ENGLISHMAN - Kingsley Amis

A little digression from the Victorians lately, but I have to say not a  very edifying one. I found the humor sour and, well, not very funny. For a short novel, it rather dragged. Guess I'm not an Amis fan (father or son). BTW, the cover reminds me of that infamous Herbie Mann LP cover. 

[BillF]

1 hour ago, Leeway said:

ONE FAT ENGLISHMAN - Kingsley Amis

A little digression from the Victorians lately, but I have to say not a  very edifying one. I found the humor sour and, well, not very funny. For a short novel, it rather dragged. Guess I'm not an Amis fan (father or son). BTW, the cover reminds me of that infamous Herbie Mann LP cover. 

Sorry you don't like Amis (père), as I have most of his books on my shelves, plus a couple of biographies. Hopelessly politically incorrect nowadays, of course. Anyway, I still rate certain passages in Lucky Jim as among the funniest things I've ever read.

[crisp]

It's minor Amis pere. I've read almost everything and would recommend long before OFE:

Take a Girl Like You / The Green Man / The Egyptologists / Ending Up / You Can't Do Both

And if you like those:

Girl, 20 / The Alteration / Jake's Thing

Most of those I like better than Lucky Jim, which many people seem to read without exploring him further. My way in was the collected letters, which is hilarious and gives a good overall impression of this spoilt, strong-minded, funny and interesting man.

Oh, and if you drink, this is great fun:

[Larry Kart]

I very much like K. Amis' 1966 science fiction novel "The Anti-Death League." Unexpectedly perhaps, it's full of deep, semi-hidden (perhaps, to some degree, from Amis himself) currents of feeling -- an un-ironic yearning for emotional connection. A strange, touching, unguarded book. Reminds me a bit of Jocelyn Brooke's Kafka-esque (though Brooke didn't know Kafka's work when he wrote it) novel "The Image of a Drawn Sword" (1950).

Link to a very good piece about "The Anti-Death League." It does, however, of necessity give away all the plot points. So don't look unless you've read the book or don't intend to.

https://astrofella.wordpress.com/2015/07/02/the-anti-death-league-kingsley-amis/

[crisp]

Yes, I almost added that one but it isn't for all tastes. There's an interesting idea at its centre: God exists but he is malevolent.

[BillF]

14 hours ago, BillF said:

Sorry you don't like Amis (père), as I have most of his books on my shelves, plus a couple of biographies. Hopelessly politically incorrect nowadays, of course. Anyway, I still rate certain passages in Lucky Jim as among the funniest things I've ever read.

I've never taken to Amis fils though, but then neither did Dad. Martin said eventually he was able to calculate to the minute just when his latest book would go spiralling across the room after he had given it to the old man to read.

[paul secor]

David Park: The Light of Amsterdam

[BillF]

Another Highsmith.

[ejp626]

I finished God's Grace by Malamud last night.  It is the freakiest book by a well-known member of the "literary establishment" that I can recall.  Maybe Bear by Marian Engel, but she is basically an unknown outside of Canada, and I'm not really sure she was ever part of the establishment.  I didn't like it for lots of reasons, but I can't really go into them now.

I am starting Galapagos by Vonnegut.  I'm enjoying this more, though the narrative voice is a bit overbearing at times (and even smug) as John was discussing.  Still, even though Vonnegut probably has an even bleaker worldview than Malamud, the tone is not as off-putting.

I've read a couple of the stories in Faulkner's Go Down, Moses, and think they were pretty good.  I'll turn back to reading this full time after Galapagos.

[HutchFan]

On 1/22/2016 at 1:20 PM, A Lark Ascending said:

I've read a couple of Henry James novels but found them hard going. I did like 'The Turn of the Screw'...read that twice...but was helped there by a 60s/70s film version (THe Innocents) and later getting to know the Britten opera. 

Oi, yes. Henry James' novels are a tough slog! The prose is so heavy and labyrinthine. I prefer his short stories too. I guess he's more effective in smaller doses!

...Besides, I'd much rather read the writings of Henry's brother, William James, the psychologist and philosopher. 

[HutchFan]

On 1/24/2016 at 5:52 AM, BillF said:

I've never taken to Amis fils though, but then neither did Dad. Martin said eventually he was able to calculate to the minute just when his latest book would go spiralling across the room after he had given it to the old man to read.

Bill -- Funny story. Did Kingsley object to the lewdness of Martin's writing? Or was it something else that bothered him?

[BillF]

I don't think lewdness was the issue. The old man could be as lewd as you like. It 's a generational thing - why I've read all of Kingsley's books, but never got anywhere with Martin's.

Edited January 26, 2016 by BillF

[Kevin Bresnahan]

[BillF]

16 hours ago, HutchFan said:

Oi, yes. Henry James' novels are a tough slog! The prose is so heavy and labyrinthine. I prefer his short stories too. I guess he's more effective in smaller doses!

 

Recently someone expressed surprise that I'd managed to read James's The Ambassadors. But it was at the end of a three-year course in English Literature and after such things as Sir Thomas Browne and Gibbon's Decline and Fall, I was well in training!

[ejp626]

2 hours ago, BillF said:

Recently someone expressed surprise that I'd managed to read James's The Ambassadors. But it was at the end of a three-year course in English Literature and after such things as Sir Thomas Browne and Gibbon's Decline and Fall, I was well in training!

I've not read that many of Henry James novels, either the early or later ones.  I'll probably get around to it one day, and have 3 or 4 that will someday make my to read pile.  The one that I read in college was indeed The Ambassadors.  I found it a novel that one admired more than really enjoyed, which is the case with a lot of late James.

[ejp626]

Midway through Faulkner's Go Down, Moses.  Enjoying it, some stories more than others.  Some of the humorous scenes in "The Fire and the Hearth" are the equal of anything in The Reivers, which is to me just an excellent comic romp.  Granted, Faulkner deals with many heavier themes in Go Down, Moses, particularly when looking at black characters with "mixed" blood. 

I'm going to take a short break before starting in on "The Bear" and read Bove's very short novel Armand.

[paul secor]

Angela Carter: Nights at the Circus

[A Lark Ascending]

Very good Cold War thriller set in the mid-50s at the time of Britain's nuclear research, set against the background of US/UK tension in the run up to Suez. A lot of the book is set around Aldeburgh in Suffolk near the Orford nuclear research station (Britten's contemporary rehearsal's of 'Noye's Fludde' are there in the background). Wilson is American but lives there - his main character is an American who has gone native. You get the impression Wilson is at least partly writing about himself. 

Recommended to lovers of historically set thrillers. I've read three of his books and like him as much as Alan Furst. More tight in the narrative and with more twists but equally as engaging (not a criticism of Furst...the latter is more impressionistic). Though you are constantly thinking 'Did this really happen or has he made this bit up?' 

[Jazzjet]

2 hours ago, A Lark Ascending said:

Very good Cold War thriller set in the mid-50s at the time of Britain's nuclear research, set against the background of US/UK tension in the run up to Suez. A lot of the book is set around Aldeburgh in Suffolk near the Orford nuclear research station (Britten's contemporary rehearsal's of 'Noye's Fludde' are there in the background). Wilson is American but lives there - his main character is an American who has gone native. You get the impression Wilson is at least partly writing about himself. 

Recommended to lovers of historically set thrillers. I've read three of his books and like him as much as Alan Furst. More tight in the narrative and with more twists but equally as engaging (not a criticism of Furst...the latter is more impressionistic). Though you are constantly thinking 'Did this really happen or has he made this bit up?' 

Two new names to me and the themes sound right up my street so thanks for the tip. I've recently finished Charles Cumming's 'The Trinity Six' and enjoyed it very much. This one has a more modern setting but the background is the world of Burgess, McLean, Blunt etc. He's written several other novels in the espionage genre so I will definitely try those. Another fairly recent read is 'Dominion' by C.J. Sampson. This is one of those novels set in a world where Britain has surrendered to the Nazis but is very atmospheric with lots of period detail. Again, highly recommended.

[A Lark Ascending]

I've read that Cumming's book (and another by him) - enjoyed them. The only Sampson I've read was 'Winter in Madrid' about the Spanish Civil War and that one put me off him - think it was an improbable love story which wound me up (had the same reaction to 'Birdsong' at the start though that one got better once it got to the trenches). 

Furst is superb. His books cover the 30s and 40s but have the good sense to explore the nooks and crannies of the period rather than aiming for the big events. So you end up in odd places like Bulgaria and Macedonia as well as Paris, Britain, Russia etc. You can read them in any order as they don't follow a chronological or thematic sequence though they do overlap in places - I think I'm right in thinking that at some point in every book a situations happens in a bar in Paris with a bullet hole in a mirror.