Simon8 Posted April 30, 2015 Report Share Posted April 30, 2015 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leeway Posted April 30, 2015 Report Share Posted April 30, 2015 What I got from "Guerillas" was Naipaul's contempt for his characters. That's certainly part of it, in particular, Jane, but Roche is I think a more complicated situation. In most of Naipul's novels, no one is likely to come off terribly well I think. That's part of the heaviness, the brooding, of the atmosphere. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillF Posted May 1, 2015 Report Share Posted May 1, 2015 The Second EJH novel I've read. Where The Beautiful Visit teetered on the edge of melodrama and was very earnest, this, as befits a time when she was married to Kingsley Amis, is something of a comedy of manners, though with a tragic element. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leeway Posted May 1, 2015 Report Share Posted May 1, 2015 The Second EJH novel I've read. Where The Beautiful Visit teetered on the edge of melodrama and was very earnest, this, as befits a time when she was married to Kingsley Amis, is something of a comedy of manners, though with a tragic element. Sounds like a description of the marriage itself, from what little i know. I haven't read her work, but it sounds interesting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillF Posted May 1, 2015 Report Share Posted May 1, 2015 The Second EJH novel I've read. Where The Beautiful Visit teetered on the edge of melodrama and was very earnest, this, as befits a time when she was married to Kingsley Amis, is something of a comedy of manners, though with a tragic element. Sounds like a description of the marriage itself, from what little i know. I haven't read her work, but it sounds interesting. I recommend her. Well up there with the other English female mid-20th century writers we've been reading recently. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kinuta Posted May 1, 2015 Report Share Posted May 1, 2015 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew Posted May 5, 2015 Report Share Posted May 5, 2015 Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ejp626 Posted May 6, 2015 Report Share Posted May 6, 2015 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillF Posted May 6, 2015 Report Share Posted May 6, 2015 Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon8 Posted May 6, 2015 Report Share Posted May 6, 2015 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leeway Posted May 6, 2015 Report Share Posted May 6, 2015 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillF Posted May 6, 2015 Report Share Posted May 6, 2015 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erwbol Posted May 7, 2015 Report Share Posted May 7, 2015 (edited) 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HutchFan Posted May 7, 2015 Report Share Posted May 7, 2015 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillF Posted May 7, 2015 Report Share Posted May 7, 2015 (edited) 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghost of miles Posted May 8, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 8, 2015 Philip K. Dick, THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul secor Posted May 8, 2015 Report Share Posted May 8, 2015 Zachary Klein: Ties That Blind Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillF Posted May 8, 2015 Report Share Posted May 8, 2015 Philip K. Dick, THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE. A fine book, David. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erwbol Posted May 8, 2015 Report Share Posted May 8, 2015 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillF Posted May 8, 2015 Report Share Posted May 8, 2015 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! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew Posted May 8, 2015 Report Share Posted May 8, 2015 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.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erwbol Posted May 8, 2015 Report Share Posted May 8, 2015 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghost of miles Posted May 8, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 8, 2015 (edited) 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul secor Posted May 9, 2015 Report Share Posted May 9, 2015 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
niels Posted May 10, 2015 Report Share Posted May 10, 2015 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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