Now reading...

[BillF]

Just read McEwan's much-hyped latest, which I ordered from the public library. As always, clever but slight. I never feel I want to buy copies of his books to keep.

[jlhoots]

Michael McGarrity: The Last Ranch

[A Lark Ascending]

Popular science book explaining recent (at the time of publication) research on how the brain processes music and delivers its pleasures. Very clear about what is commonly accepted, what open to competing theories, what is still speculation with only a limited evidence base. Written in a straightforward and unpretentious way for the lay person (though my ageing brain couldn't lay down the memory traces on the bits of the brain and what they did in order to make full sense of what was explained five pages later!). Nice to read about the impact of music in this matter of fact way - we tend to discuss it in a terminology that goes back to 19thC Romanticism (at least!).  

[ejp626]

On 9/15/2016 at 1:49 AM, ejp626 said:

I enjoyed the philosophical crime novella One Way or Another by Sciascia.

I just got Christodora by Tim Murphy from the library.  There are a lot of holds on it, so I'll have to make sure to wrap it up in one borrowing period!  The reviews have been pretty good, so I hope it lives up to them...

Christodora does have quite a large cast of characters, and seems to be at least sort of influenced by Wolfe's The Bonfire of the Vanities in how they are juggled.  What is different, and actually more than a little annoying, is that Murphy insists on moving the chronology all over the place.  So chapter 1 is 2001, chapter 2 is 2009, chapter 3 is 1981, etc.  I guess it is sort of to draw attention to little continuities that might otherwise escape the reader if the story was largely chronological with just a flashback or two.  For instance, the parents fairly casual drug use has escalated in their adopted son to the point he looks well on the way to becoming a junky at 17, etc.  Still, if a writer needs to rely on these gimmicks throughout a fairly long book, that is not a good sign in my mind.

I've also dipped a bit into Sciascia's Open Doors, which is a collection of 4 novellas.  They don't really function that well as mysteries, but they do show just how much contempt Sciascia had for Sicilian society or at least its upper rungs, particularly the convergence/conspiracies between the Catholic Church, the police and other government bureaucrats and the Mafia.

[Leeway]

 

Consisting of THE GHOST WRITER, ZUCKERMAN UNBOUND, and THE ANATOMY LESSON, and the epilogue, THE PRAGUE ORGY.  I enjoyed the first and last of these (novellas) more than their longer companions, which while interesting seem to miss their mark.  Roth's narrative voice is vibrant and compelling throughout, one is inevitably pulled in, his intelligence is undoubted, but the obsessive qualities of the narrative can be too much at times. 

 

[ejp626]

17 hours ago, Leeway said:

Consisting of THE GHOST WRITER, ZUCKERMAN UNBOUND, and THE ANATOMY LESSON, and the epilogue, THE PRAGUE ORGY.  I enjoyed the first and last of these (novellas) more than their longer companions, which while interesting seem to miss their mark.  Roth's narrative voice is vibrant and compelling throughout, one is inevitably pulled in, his intelligence is undoubted, but the obsessive qualities of the narrative can be too much at times. 

 

Still my favorite Roth work to date.  I liked it a lot at the time.  It's on my list to read again, though that probably means a year or two away! 

Have you read Exit Ghost, which is the sequel to The Prague Orgy?  I have not, but I will when I reread Zuckerman Bound.

17 hours ago, Leeway said:

Consisting of THE GHOST WRITER, ZUCKERMAN UNBOUND, and THE ANATOMY LESSON, and the epilogue, THE PRAGUE ORGY.  I enjoyed the first and last of these (novellas) more than their longer companions, which while interesting seem to miss their mark.  Roth's narrative voice is vibrant and compelling throughout, one is inevitably pulled in, his intelligence is undoubted, but the obsessive qualities of the narrative can be too much at times. 

 

Still my favorite Roth work to date.  I liked it a lot at the time.  It's on my list to read again, though that probably means a year or two away! 

Have you read Exit Ghost, which is the sequel to The Prague Orgy?  I have not, but I will when I reread Zuckerman Bound.

[Leeway]

9 hours ago, ejp626 said:

 

Have you read Exit Ghost, which is the sequel to The Prague Orgy?  I have not, but I will when I reread Zuckerman Bound.

I have not read EXIT GHOST either, but I plan to read more Roth, so will include that. 

 

[BillF]

1965 novel by little-known American author, telling life story of a provincial university teacher. Excellent.

[paul secor]

1 hour ago, BillF said:

1965 novel by little-known American author, telling life story of a provincial university teacher. Excellent.

Not so little known here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/166997.Stoner?from_search=true

A wide range of ratings and comments - mostly positive, but a number of people (including myself)  whose tastes I respect don't care much for it.

[A Lark Ascending]

Macdonald wrote a wonderful series of books in the 70s/80s based around her interviews with veterans of the Great War, aware that they weren't going to be around much longer. I bought her 'They Called it Passchendaele' at the Sanctuary Wood museum outside Ypres on the first school trip I assisted with there around 1980. Had a huge effect on me.

I'd been expecting a new book on 1915 last year but apart from several on Gallipoli there was nothing (whereas 1914 and 1916 have seen torrents, as will 1917 and 1918 I've no doubt). So I got a second hand copy of this one I'd not previously read. As ever a superb, very detailed account built round eyewitness testimony with Macdonald placing it in context of the wider events. She tracks the changing mood from the belief at the start that it would all be over soon to the realisation by December that it was going to be long and very costly. Neuve Chapelle, Second Ypres, Gallipoli and Loos are the main focus but you get interesting domestic coverage (including the awful troop train crash near Gretna).

Macdonald was writing before the revisionism of the 90s began to present an alternative view to the 'Lions Led By Donkeys' interpretation; yet she is still very even handed. Her heart is with the troops, she points out the errors made by the generals but does not resort to the standard caricatures. A long read but utterly absorbing.   

Edited September 20, 2016 by A Lark Ascending

[sidewinder]

'Cameron at 10 - The Verdict' by Seldon & Snowdon

[Leeway]

SIEGFRIED  - Harry Mulisch

What if Hitler and Eva Braun had a son? This novel explores a version of what might have happened. Mulisch's philosophical investigation is intriguing. I've read Mulish's THE ASSAULT, which I also found quite compelling. I haven't yet read his opus, THE DISCOVERY OF HEAVEN. 

[paul secor]

Graham Swift: Mothering Sunday

 

[Leeway]

WIDE SARGASSO SEA - Jean Rhys

A sort of prequel to the early life and relationship of Rochester and his wife (the madwoman in the attic of Jane Eyre) Bertha/Antoinettte, and an alternative history to that presented in Charlotte Bronte's novel. It's become somewhat harder to read Bronte's novel without wanting to read this as well. This work has sparked an interest on my part in the quartet of novels that Rhys wrote in the 1920 snd 30s. 

[Leeway]

A story beautifully poised between comedy and tragedy.

[BillF]

5 hours ago, Leeway said:

A story beautifully poised between comedy and tragedy.

[Leeway]

9 hours ago, BillF said:

Wanted to add that I find Italo-English novels, like this one, as well as Muriel Spark's The Takeover and Shirley Hazard's The Bay of Naples, to name a few examples, interesting creatures. Someone should (and probably already has) do a study of them. Italy has long been a part of English imaginative life. I''m reminded of the expression, "An Englishman Italianate is the Devil incarnate." Modern novels seem to play off that notion.  

[BillF]

6 hours ago, Leeway said:

Wanted to add that I find Italo-English novels, like this one, as well as Muriel Spark's The Takeover and Shirley Hazard's The Bay of Naples, to name a few examples, interesting creatures. Someone should (and probably already has) do a study of them. Italy has long been a part of English imaginative life. I''m reminded of the expression, "An Englishman Italianate is the Devil incarnate." Modern novels seem to play off that notion.  

Re Italo-English novels, I expect you've also read Forster's A Room with a View.

[Leeway]

7 hours ago, BillF said:

Re Italo-English novels, I expect you've also read Forster's A Room with a View.

Yes, but it's been a while now and probably due for a re-read. Good example. 

[BillF]

Here's another that fits your category. Or does an Italian-set fiction with Italian characters by an English author fit your category?

[Simon8]

On 20/09/2016 at 10:38 AM, BillF said:

1965 novel by little-known American author, telling life story of a provincial university teacher. Excellent.

Loved it as well. Beautifully written. 

[ejp626]

On 9/19/2016 at 9:11 PM, ejp626 said:

Christodora does have quite a large cast of characters, and seems to be at least sort of influenced by Wolfe's The Bonfire of the Vanities in how they are juggled.  What is different, and actually more than a little annoying, is that Murphy insists on moving the chronology all over the place.  So chapter 1 is 2001, chapter 2 is 2009, chapter 3 is 1981, etc. ...  Still, if a writer needs to rely on these gimmicks throughout a fairly long book, that is not a good sign in my mind.

While Christodora relies a bit too much on coincidence and I have a few reservations relating to how most of the characters do drugs, but the non-white characters get more hooked than the white characters.  Still, I thought the ending was pretty good (some might think it too sappy).  So on the whole it was worth reading.

I've just started Lethem's Chronic City.  I'm liking it so far.

I am just back from an author's reading (which I haven't done in ages).  This was Canadian-Korean author, Ann Choi, reading from Kay's Lucky Coin Variety.  It is one of the finalists for the Toronto Book Award 2016.  I'm sort of fortunate that I put my reserve request in way back before it got hot, so I now have the book waiting for me at the library (and there are still 170 people in queue!).  I should be able to pick it up in a few more days.

[paul secor]

Declan Burke: Slaughter's Hound

[Leeway]

On September 24, 2016 at 10:00 AM, BillF said:

Here's another that fits your category. Or does an Italian-set fiction with Italian characters by an English author fit your category?

No rule here, but I typically have in mind English characters acting in an Italian setting, among themselves, or with Italians. Knowing Fitzgerald, though, I'm confident there are interesting variations being made. 

[ejp626]

I'm about a quarter into Lethem's Chronic City.  Still finding it interesting.  It almost strikes me as a lost novel by Don DeLillo, though it is interesting that there is a subplot involving an astronaut (and 4 cosmonauts) stuck in a space station, probably never to return.  I wonder if this is a shout-out of sorts to PKD's Dr. Bloodmoney.  I would be a bit surprised if Lethem had not read Dr. Bloodmoney.  (Actually, I did a quick search and Lethem is a huge fan of PKD and has read essentially all of his work.)