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[Chrome]

Ghost: I'm a huge Amis fan, but to me, Night Train was pretty disappointing ... and while London Fields is excellent, his Time's Arrow is an absolute tour de force. It was one of the best books I've ever read in my life, both stylistically and content-wise.

It's about a Nazi doctor who had worked at Auschwitz but escaped to the U.S. ... when he dies in some unrelated accident, his "soul" tells the doctor's story, but going backward in time ... for example, he describes his "work" at the camps as helping people ... taking dead Jews and healing them (the reverse, obviously, of what really happened) and then sending them in crowded trains back to where they originally lived. So it's like watching a movie going backwards and then making up a narration to describe the backward events.

Hard to explain, but he totally pulls it off and uses it to great effect in describing some of the horrors of WWII.

[Dr. Rat]

Spent most of Sunday reading and got through two novels--the above-mentioned FOLDED LEAF and my first Martin Amis, NIGHT TRAIN. Devastating--any other recommendations regarding Amis? I'm currently eyeing LONDON FIELDS and THE INFORMATION.

I'd be interested in your thoughts on Amis.

I started one of his books and left it off after a while because his manner annoyed me at the time, and recently he ran a completely idiotic pangyric for Saul Bellow in the December Atlantic. (Summary which can stand for the whole: "I'm Martin Amis, and, dammit, I think Saul Bellow is just the greatest.")

Unfortunately, The Atlantic hasn't posted the article to its website. (They've run a bunch of articles lately which they probably wish had never happened.)

But, I'm still looking for an excuse to give Amis another try.

--eric

[Chrome]

eric: see above.

The Amis/Bellow love affair has been going on a while ... I met Amis at a book signing in Chicago back in the mid/late 1990's ... Bellow was there, too!

[Dr. Rat]

Ghost: I'm a huge Amis fan, but to me, Night Train was pretty disappointing ... and while London Fields is excellent, his Time's Arrow is an absolute tour de force. It was one of the best books I've ever read in my life, both stylistically and content-wise.

It's about a Nazi doctor who had worked at Auschwitz but escaped to the U.S. ... when he dies in some unrelated accident, his "soul" tells the doctor's story, but going backward in time ... for example, he describes his "work" at the camps as helping people ... taking dead Jews and healing them (the reverse, obviously, of what really happened) and then sending them in crowded trains back to where they originally lived. So it's like watching a movie going backwards and then making up a narration to describe the backward events.

Hard to explain, but he totally pulls it off and uses it to great effect in describing some of the horrors of WWII.

Cool. Thanks.

I'll put "London Fields" at the top of my list and report back.

"Can an aversion to Martin Amis Be Overcome? Find out at 11 (about two weeks from now)"

[ghost of miles]

Ghost: I'm a huge Amis fan, but to me, Night Train was pretty disappointing ... and while London Fields is excellent, his Time's Arrow is an absolute tour de force. It was one of the best books I've ever read in my life, both stylistically and content-wise.

Thanks, Chrome, I was looking at a copy of TIME'S ARROW the other day and considering it. Why did you find NIGHT TRAIN disappointing? I'll tell you the one misgiving I had about it--I"m still not sure I buy the motivation (or non-motivation, as it were) for the death of Jennifer Rockwell. I was drawn in much more by the story of the detective, actually.

But hey, if that's Amis on a bad day, I can't wait to read the better stuff.

[Chrome]

Ghost: I think the basic problem comes down to the length (or lack thereof) of the book. Amis is a great stylist, but he needs “room” to in which to work. With enough pages, he could provide anyone with a believable, readable motivation to do just about anything.

With Night Train, I often felt he was holding something back. Occasionally he couldn’t help himself and he’d get into a groove, but then those sections didn’t feel integrated with the rest of the book.

I think he could have gone the short, hardboiled route on this … or kept closer to his usual style … and I would have like it more. But he tried to do both and it was kind of a muddle.

Also, the intro paragraph really grated on me, so the book and I got off to a bad start. I had a hard time believing cops say stuff like “I’m a police” and I thought naming the main character “Mike” when she was a woman was kind of gimmicky. Again, maybe if Amis had more room he could have made the latter point more believable to me.

[ghost of miles]

Just finished John O'Hara's BUTTERFIELD 8, a book that must have been pretty racy for its time (1935); you can tell he was really running with the 1934 ULYSSES obscenity decision!

Currently meandering through a couple of books about Soviet purges and espionage in the 1930s: Walter Kirivitsky's IN STALIN'S SECRET SERVICE (he was one of the first high-level Soviet defectors, "suicided" in 1941, probably by an NKVD agent) and another book called THE ROAD TO TERROR: STALIN AND THE SELF-DESTRUCTION OF THE BOLSHEVIKS, 1932-1939.

[king ubu]

Just starting Lewis Porter's "Lester Young".

ubu

[Jazzmoose]

Started rereading Neil Gaiman's Good Omens this morning. I haven't read this since it came out about ten years ago. It'll be interesting to see if my fond memories of it are due to it's writing or my "comic geek" love of Gaman's work back then...

Edited February 1, 2004 by Jazzmoose

[Matthew]

About at the end of vol. 1 of Anthony Powell's A dance to the Music of Time. I had read it about two years ago, but felt that I rushed it, and missed a lot of what Powell was trying to say. This time, I'm taking my time and I seem to be picking up a lot more detail. It's kind of a strange book, it seems to go from event to event, not much "stopping to smell the roses" in the writing. The theme of a characters "will of power" keeps coming up, which I'm still amazed at in a English novel -- can't remember another English writer that spoke so much of that aspect of life. Just on a side note: Is there any class of people that has been written more about than the English upper-class? Why the fascination?

[ghost of miles]

Matthew, Powell really seems to have come back into vogue in the past few years... just last year I read an article about Powell discussion groups that had formed in the L.A. area. I picked up a used pb copy of V. 1 to see what all the fuss was about but haven't gotten around to reading it yet. I know that Alan Furst, a historical espionage writer whose work I've been enjoying of late, claims to have been heavily influenced by Powell's epic work. People sometimes tout him as the English Proust, which I'd guess is a rather reductive, specious comparison, but I'll be curious to hear your thoughts if you soldier on with the series.

[brownie]

Took time off today to plunge myself in one of my favorite reading: the letters of Franz Kafka in the French Pleiade edition. This is always a complete experience in itself. A mix of a brillant mind at work and near total frustration.

[BruceH]

Been re-reading Scott McCloud's "Understanding Comics" (in short snippets) lately, after having gone to it to look up what he said about Lynd Ward. I've been a big fan of this book ever since it came out, over ten years ago. Nice to see it's still as entertaining as ever.

[ghost of miles]

It's a cool book, isn't it, Bruce? I picked it up a couple of years ago when I was writing a story for our local alterna-weekly about graphic literature. McCloud went on to write what I understand is a controversial sequel called RE-INVENTING COMICS, but I haven't read that one yet.

Now reading THE BIG TOMORROW, a book by Lary May about utopian vision in 1930s American cinema.

[Chrome]

Just finished John O'Hara's BUTTERFIELD 8, a book that must have been pretty racy for its time (1935); you can tell he was really running with the 1934 ULYSSES obscenity decision!

If you can ever track down a copy, check out O'Hara's "Lovey Childs: A Philadelphians Story."

People would find this pretty racy today ...

He's pretty far out of vogue nowadays, but I really enjoy his work.

[ghost of miles]

I think you're correct in saying that he's out of vogue, Chrome... but I also think there's been a flurry of renewed interest following the biography that came out recently. (Although the bio itself didn't get great reviews, as I recall.) The only things I'd read before BUTTERFIELD were APPOINTMENT IN SAMARRA and a handful of his early short stories... I'll keep an eye out for that title that you mentioned.

[Chrome]

Ghost: Do happen to know where that little epigram or whatever at the beginning of "Appt." came from?

I read the book years and years ago, and I still can't that out of my mind.

[Dmitry]

Alain-Fournier -- THE WANDERER [Le Grand Meaulnes]

[Dr. Rat]

I think you're correct in saying that he's out of vogue, Chrome... but I also think there's been a flurry of renewed interest following the biography that came out recently. (Although the bio itself didn't get great reviews, as I recall.) The only things I'd read before BUTTERFIELD were APPOINTMENT IN SAMARRA and a handful of his early short stories... I'll keep an eye out for that title that you mentioned.

There was a reasonably interesting article condemning modern novels in favor of the like of O'Hara in the Atlantic here.

Might be good fodder

--eric

[BruceH]

Ghost---Re-Inventing Comics is a good deal less eye-opening than "Understanding" but still interesting. Deals more with the business of comics, what's wrong with the industry as it's run in the US, ways to improve it, ways to attract more readers, comics on the internet, etc. Worth a look, but not the kind of book I'd give to people as Christmas/graduation/birthday presents, as I did with the earlier one.

[JohnJ]

Dmitry, 'Le Grand Meaulnes' is one of my favourite novels. Very haunting. Currently reading 'Sputnik Sweetheart' by Haruki Murakami. Wonderful, as always. Any other Murakami fans out there?

[Chrome]

eric: so the "Reader's Manifesto" rears its ugly head ...

Try as I might, I've never been able to get all the way through that. To be honest, that might have to do with the fact that I loved reading Delillo when I was younger and still consider "White Noise" to be fantastic.

On the other hand, after being on this board for a couple of months, it was fascinating to revisit the manifesto because it parallels some of the discussions we have here regarding the value/quality of different types of jazz.

Can you imagine posting a similar "Jazz Listener's Manifesto" here?!?!

[Chrome]

JohnJ: Wasn't it Murakami who wrote "The Wind-up Bird Chronicles"? That was a pretty incredible book, I highly recommend it.

If you're interested in Japanese authors/books, I can also point you toward Kenzaburo Oe's "Nip the Buds, Shoot the Children" about a group of kids trying to survive in post-WWII rural Japan, although it's not really a "war" book.

[Dr. Rat]

eric: so the "Reader's Manifesto" rears its ugly head ...

Try as I might, I've never been able to get all the way through that. To be honest, that might have to do with the fact that I loved reading Delillo when I was younger and still consider "White Noise" to be fantastic.

On the other hand, after being on this board for a couple of months, it was fascinating to revisit the manifesto because it parallels some of the discussions we have here regarding the value/quality of different types of jazz.

Can you imagine posting a similar "Jazz Listener's Manifesto" here?!?!

On the Listeners' Manefesto: Now you're scaring me!

He's definitely got his opinions, which is cool. I think his recommendations of old neglected books are pretty spot on (I read Samarra and another of his recs, to my profit).

On DeLillo-- well, it may be because I am deeply contrarian and everybody my age seems to think he's God, but I've never really been able to appreciate him. I guess I just don't think he's half so clever as he thinks he is. I thought, for instance, his Hitler studies joke was on the one hand dreadfully obvious and on the other hand misleading as to what makes academia tick.

I think my disappointment may be that DeLillo doesn't really have any critical distance on academia. His satiric edge is dull, he makes relatively light intellectual demands, his critique is ultimately reassuring to those involved in publicly financed intellection, and that, for me, explains a lot of his popularity.

I find myself agreeing with the manefesto's critique of the opening scene in White Noise, for instance, and, well, I kind of said "yeah, right" when Dale Peck trashed him in passing. (I admit it!) Though I have to say, in spite of my agreement with many of his opinions, I do find Peck's manner gets tiresome pretty quickly.

--eric

[Chrome]

I think reading "White Noise" when it first came out made some of the difference for me ... a lot of it is, obviously, very subjective and I was really into what I call the "Vintage Contemporary" mode back then.

In case it was before your time, Vintage was putting out trade paperbacks with edgy graphics, etc., and all having a kind of similar "feel" ... kind of like the BN "sound" ... I can remember Denis Johnson's "Angels," Steve Erickson stuff, the Barthelmes, Raymond Carver, etc.

Anyway, I don't think Vintage published Delillo, but I always considered him part of that wave of at-the-time new writers I was reading in my early years out of college.

I read Dellilo's more recent "Cosmopolis," and I have to admit it was a loser.