Now reading...

[kinuta]

Did you ever read his first one about the War in North Africa? That was quite good.

Yes, I've just finished it and continued straight into The Day Of The Battle.

[Simon8]

[ejp626]

I haven't read that, but I did read The Hungry Tide. I thought it was great.

[Simon8]

A first for me, never read him before. Auspicious first chapters, lively, well-drawn.

[Matthew]

Soren Kierkegaard: A Biography by Joakim Garff. A very long biography of Kierkegaard, but interesting.

[johnblitweiler]

Halfway through "Tortilla Curtain" by T.C. Boyle - pretty devastating, so far. Is he always satiric, does he always write this well?

[ejp626]

Halfway through "Tortilla Curtain" by T.C. Boyle - pretty devastating, so far. Is he always satiric, does he always write this well?

I haven't read everything but have a few of his novels and most of his short stories. I'd say he is even better in his short stories than novels, so you might want to check some of those out.

I'm nearly done with Taylor's A Game of Hide and Seek. It is well written, but I find the main character (Harriet) to be fairly insipid and yet her love interest not particularly worthy of her attention.

[Joe]

[johnblitweiler]

Oops. Here I was admiring "The Tortilla Curtain" until on page 274 the husband-and-wife illiterate vagrants are running for their lives from a horrific forest fire and Boyle writes, "What would he liken it to?" Good grief. When was the last time you were seized with fear and thought, "I need a simile for this"? That line is so artificial and literary that it smells of Creative Writing School. Down with Literature.

[BillF]

Novelist and literary critic David Lodge's autobiography, Quite a Good Time to Be Born.

Particularly interesting if you've read his novels/have a background in English literary studies. Anglo/American comparisons abound.

[Head Man]

Just finished this one myself last week. Very easy to read, as was the previous volume about the war in North Africa. I'm now awaiting delivery of the third and final volume about the invasion and liberation of Europe. He's an excellent writer....

[ejp626]

Faulkner As I Lay Dying

In the on-deck circle, Julian Barnes's A History of the World in 10½ Chapters and Djuna Barnes Nightwood.

[kinuta]

Just finished this one myself last week. Very easy to read, as was the previous volume about the war in North Africa. I'm now awaiting delivery of the third and final volume about the invasion and liberation of Europe. He's an excellent writer....

'Crusade', his account of The Gulf War is also very good.

I'm on the last few pages of The Day Of The Battle and will start The Guns At Last Light today.

He's a good writer, plenty of detail and anecdotes and a clear narrative type drive that doesn't tire the reader by straying into academia.

[jlhoots]

Emily St. John Mandel: Station Eleven

[kinuta]

[Leeway]

The question was what to read after spending over a month with Clarissa. The answer turned out to be an old friend, Iris Murdoch, and her The Green Knight, published 1993, and her 25th novel. Murdoch was diagnosed with Alzheimers in 1997, so I expected that this novel might find her seriously off her game. I don't think it does. It has the usual Murdoch strengths and weaknesses, but overall it is quite a good read.

And since the novel does make use of the Green Knight myth, I decided to read:

Simon Armitage's modern "Englishing" of the original alliterative poem. I very much enjoyed reading this modern version, but it also has the original Middle English text on the facing page, so one gets the best of both.

[A Lark Ascending]

Largely covers a rock musical era l had little time for but fascinating nonetheless (I knew him mainly through the Fripp association, though have been catching up of late with his own records on Spotify). A chap who seemed to have little if any musical training yet the imagination to conjure up all sorts of unusual things with whatever he could manipulate.

Edited February 26, 2015 by A Lark Ascending

[sonnyhill]

Geoff Nicholson: The City Under the Skin

I've read a couple of other Nicholson novels which were ok, but this one wasn't worth the time I spent reading it.

Have you read his Bleeding London? I've been meaning to read that forever (and moved it like 4 times). I think I'll finally get to it this spring.

I'm also taking a bit of break from the serious stuff and am reading Lauren Beukes' Zoo City, which is sort of a future fantasy novel where people who commit terrible crimes are paired up with animal familiars -- and are then ostracized. It is notable mostly for being set in Hillbrow, South Africa. The set-up is hard to swallow, but it moves along quickly.

Looking at a list of his novels, it appears that the only one I've read is A Knot Garden. I enjoyed that one much more than The City Under the Skin. The City Under the Skin has a cartoon-like quality to it which doesn't appeal to me.

I just read The City Under the Skin and agree with Paul's sentiments. I am currently finishing The Sound and the Fury by Faulkner. Can anyone recommend a non-cartoonish, good mystery/thriller from the last five years or so? Thanks.

Edited February 26, 2015 by sonnyhill

[mjazzg]

The question was what to read after spending over a month with Clarissa. The answer turned out to be an old friend, Iris Murdoch, and her The Green Knight, published 1993, and her 25th novel. Murdoch was diagnosed with Alzheimers in 1997, so I expected that this novel might find her seriously off her game. I don't think it does. It has the usual Murdoch strengths and weaknesses, but overall it is quite a good read.

And since the novel does make use of the Green Knight myth, I decided to read:

Simon Armitage's modern "Englishing" of the original alliterative poem. I very much enjoyed reading this modern version, but it also has the original Middle English text on the facing page, so one gets the best of both.

I saw Armitage read that in a lightly staged production recently. Excellent

[Leeway]

The question was what to read after spending over a month with Clarissa. The answer turned out to be an old friend, Iris Murdoch, and her The Green Knight, published 1993, and her 25th novel. Murdoch was diagnosed with Alzheimers in 1997, so I expected that this novel might find her seriously off her game. I don't think it does. It has the usual Murdoch strengths and weaknesses, but overall it is quite a good read.

And since the novel does make use of the Green Knight myth, I decided to read:

Simon Armitage's modern "Englishing" of the original alliterative poem. I very much enjoyed reading this modern version, but it also has the original Middle English text on the facing page, so one gets the best of both.

I saw Armitage read that in a lightly staged production recently. Excellent

I would have liked that.

[ejp626]

Faulkner As I Lay Dying

I'm actually having more trouble following the action, as quite a few of the characters seem to be "feeble-minded" not just one as in The Sound and the Fury. I'm not enjoying it as I have nothing but contempt for the father and his stupid quest. I'll probably get around (some day) to reading most of Faulkner twice, but I think I'll pass on this one.

I can't exactly explain why I am so angry about this novel, other than perhaps the stupid, stubborn and often lazy characters that Faulkner is portraying (with a higher percentage here than in many other of his novels) did not fade away but actually have taken charge of U.S. politics. I was going to write more, but it would just take me further off tangent.

[Leeway]

Faulkner As I Lay Dying

I'm actually having more trouble following the action, as quite a few of the characters seem to be "feeble-minded" not just one as in The Sound and the Fury. I'm not enjoying it as I have nothing but contempt for the father and his stupid quest. I'll probably get around (some day) to reading most of Faulkner twice, but I think I'll pass on this one.

I can't exactly explain why I am so angry about this novel, other than perhaps the stupid, stubborn and often lazy characters that Faulkner is portraying (with a higher percentage here than in many other of his novels) did not fade away but actually have taken charge of U.S. politics. I was going to write more, but it would just take me further off tangent.

Not sure if you picked up on the humor of the story. Definitely swathed in Gothic humor. As for the characters, they would have been (be) considered "poor white trash," but that is what Faulkner wants us to perceive, then he goes deep into their minds and spirits, humanizes and elevates them to nearly epic proportions. As for drawing a direct line between fictional characters of that time and Tea Party types of today (I'm assuming that is the reference), it's an interesting thought, but I'm not sure the line is that straight.

[ejp626]

Faulkner As I Lay Dying

I'm actually having more trouble following the action, as quite a few of the characters seem to be "feeble-minded" not just one as in The Sound and the Fury. I'm not enjoying it as I have nothing but contempt for the father and his stupid quest. I'll probably get around (some day) to reading most of Faulkner twice, but I think I'll pass on this one.

I can't exactly explain why I am so angry about this novel, other than perhaps the stupid, stubborn and often lazy characters that Faulkner is portraying (with a higher percentage here than in many other of his novels) did not fade away but actually have taken charge of U.S. politics. I was going to write more, but it would just take me further off tangent.

Not sure if you picked up on the humor of the story. Definitely swathed in Gothic humor. As for the characters, they would have been (be) considered "poor white trash," but that is what Faulkner wants us to perceive, then he goes deep into their minds and spirits, humanizes and elevates them to nearly epic proportions.

That may be what he is selling, but I'm not buying it. I don't see any nobility in their stiff-neckedness or getting bent out of shape when a neighbor won't lend them another set of mules for them to kill trying to cross the river in a pointless endeavor.

I'm basically with Cora who presumably was expecting and perhaps hoping that Anse would drown in the first river crossing.

To me, the balance is off and I can handle one of these characters like Sartoris or Ab Snopes, but when the entire book is populated with characters that I don't like and have no sympathy for at all, then I don't plan on returning.

[Leeway]

I very rarely give up on a book, but 145pp into John Wain's The Pardoner's Tale, I had to throw in the towel, and admit that the book was simply wretchedly written. The structure of the book might be part of the problem. It opens with the tale of Gus and Julia. Gus rescues troubled Julia (but alas not her Mini) from a rising tide on a Welsh beach (shades of Iris Murdoch!). Gus's passionate pursuit of Julia through a variety of obstacles is one of the main narratives of the novel. It is all written in fevered adventure-story, matey sort of prose. At the start of the next chapter, we realize that the story of Gus and Julia is actually a novel-in-progress being written by Giles Armitage, whose own story is told in the 3rd person by yet another narrator (Wain?). This story is faux-James (or Iris? or Penelope?), and while pitched a bit higher than the Gus-Julia tale, is not much better. The two stories alternate throughout. I literally couldn't stand reading it. The prose is execrable, and the stories without depth.

Puzzling, since Wain is well-regarded. I have his bio of Samuel Johnson, which is quite good. I was expecting much more, otherwise I might not have made it to Chapter 2. I would like to think the novel is some sort of joke, but if it is, it exacts too high a price on the reader. Plus, the Chaucerian

reference implied in the title doesn't seem to have a place in the book. Is it a hoax or just very badly written, slung out for the pop book trade? I'm inclining to the latter. BTW, the publisher must not have put stock in the book; the hardcover glue binding literally disintegrated as I read. I also noticed that this title is rarely referenced in lists of his writing.

Maybe others have checked out Wain's fiction? I've read that his first novel, which has a jazz theme, is very good.

[BillF]

I haven't read The Pardoner's Tale, but written in 1978 it sounds well after Wain's vintage period - I always see him as a novelist of the 50s or 60s. Glad you've read Hurry On Down, which must be one of the best English novels of its times. The Contenders was sufficiently interesting to take me back for a re-reading some years later (as Hurry On Down had been.) The other Wains I've read - all from his earlier period - are now just a blur in my memory. I seem to recall that Strike the Father Dead had a jazz theme.