Once in a while you read something that really strikes a chord with you, managing to capture exactly what you're feelign at that moment in time. And when it really works, it manages to summarise it so succinctly, far better than you can manage by yourself (why I'm reader not a writer I would guess), and even to help explain why you might be feeling like this. Such a book is Oliver James' Affluenza. Whether it has done anything to improve my mood is debateable, being that I'm feeling lsot, frustrated and wondering what the point is in a lot of things. What is more reassuring is that it tells me that I'm not a lone in feeling like this and James' research also works wonders in explaining why.
An explanation of what has gone wrong for people, mentally, predominantly in English-speaking countries over the last thirty or forty years, how our values have been eroded and changed, and how our emotions have been manipulated into so many distressing situations, is a pretty large subjetc matter. Placing the blame squarely on the shoulders of consumerism, the cult of individuality, or to borrow the author's term, selfish capitalism, also initially seems like a bold stroke. And yet the evidence seems very difficult to argue with. The more consumerist, the less equal (see Wilkinson and Pickett's The Spirit Level) a society, the greater the desire in that society to have rather than to be, the unhappier it is and the greater levels of mental ill health.
Focusing on several different aspects of life, across many different countries, incontrovertible proof is used to show that, as The Beatles pointed out, money can't buy love, or, for that matter, happiness. Also, it seems that no matter how much you have, you never think you have enough, you always want more and that our whole economy, seemingly our whole point now, is to consume. None of which may necessarily appear that radical, but for me at least it has a different ring to it when it's backed up with evidence, rather than simply the ring of conventional (or not) wisdom. At a time when we've had disaffected swathes of the population rioting and looting in a haves versus have nots kind of way, at a time when I'm struggling to work out what I want from life, a job, a career, it all seems rather apt.
What makes this so good though, is not just the evidence, imperial and anecdotal, but the fact that suggestions are made for solutions and cures. Sure, they're not necessarily easy and sadly are most likely pipe dreams – there's poison coursing through the veins of what remains of our society, which has in itself been largely dismantled through consumerism and individuality. In parts these are just the opinions of the author, but he states as much, and often calls on a great deal of evidence and experience, and, to me at least, make a lot of sense.
A fascinating books, showing how things have been corrupted from their original intent in the post-war order, how money and business and advertising are all, at the expense of the things that really matter. It was also particularly interesting for me as my special subject at undergrad was on the culture of affluence in Britain in the 1950s and 60s, so this work references various old friends (hello Young! nice to see you Marcuse!). It's interesting to see how things have changed, how this situation has come about, how it was predicted, and how we seem to have lost ourselves. If, like me, you wonder why the hell you've been doing everything you've been doing, wondering to what end you've simply been jumping through hoops for your entire life, especially if it doesn't make you happy (it doesn't) and isn't that important (it isn't), why so many people fill their lives with so much shit, why we buy and consume in the hope of some kind of meaning, read this book. It might not help and it might not solve anything, but it might just make things a little clearer.
Sure, I fail on all kinds of levels at a lot of these thing; I'm not perfect and am happy to admit that and having alll kinds of paradoxes and hypocrisies is one of the perils of being human. And yeah, maybe it hasn't improved my mood and maybe I do feel rather disaffected at the moment, but in understanding I hope that it will help me to unravel things a bit and find some more of the important things in life – happiness, purpose, intimacy. Right now I might want to spend most of my time catching bodies coming through the rye, but goddamn it, I might just be better off that way.
Book number: 64
Title: Affluenza
Author: Oliver James
Category: Non-fiction
Tuesday, 23 August 2011
Monday, 22 August 2011
Chasing the dragon
Sometimes you don't realise quite how long you've been doing something. Seemingly fifty percent of conversations I have these days at some point include a brief interlude or a long debate about how we've gotten older or how time seems quite literally to fly these days. Bearing that in mind, it shouldn't be amazing how much things become habit; you do them because you always have or because you haev for so long, even if they now don't necessarily play such an important role in your life.
Reading web comics is not something I do a lot of, but largely falls into that category. Sure it's pretty geeky – the name web comic itself contains two stereotypically geeky elements, and the subject matter invariably is – but at the same time, if it makes you laugh, or smile wryly (which is rather the point in my book), go for it.
Snips, Snails and Dragon's Tails by Rich Burlew is a compilation of ocmics and other pieces from one I've been reading for what turns out to have been a rather large number of years now, hence the rather long preamble at the start of this entry. Perhaps, as with a lot of sitcoms and similarly long-runnign series, it becomes more about the story and the characters than the cheap and easy laughs, but I don't necessarily have a problem with that. Certainly in this instance, for me that's become more important. I want to know what happens next and be entertained first and foremost, and entertainment often comes from a good story. Balancing this with the humorous elements and keeping them alive isn't alwasy easy, but here it is largely accomplished in the right way. It has evolved from just being a vehicle for gags into something more, but part of what makes people come back and part of what makes many of the best comedies so good is that the reader or the viewer cares about the characters and what happens to them.
Anyway, this was a little different as a compilation, containing a few separate parts rather than an overall narrative, but it largely worked. The first experiemental section was interesting, the main section was more old school in how it picked and chose jokes, framing each strip around one, and the section parodying other stories (admittedly hardly a new idea), put its own twist on the subject matter.
Book number: 63
Title: Snips, Snails and Dragon's Tails
Author: Rich Burlew
Category: Chris' choice
Reading web comics is not something I do a lot of, but largely falls into that category. Sure it's pretty geeky – the name web comic itself contains two stereotypically geeky elements, and the subject matter invariably is – but at the same time, if it makes you laugh, or smile wryly (which is rather the point in my book), go for it.
Snips, Snails and Dragon's Tails by Rich Burlew is a compilation of ocmics and other pieces from one I've been reading for what turns out to have been a rather large number of years now, hence the rather long preamble at the start of this entry. Perhaps, as with a lot of sitcoms and similarly long-runnign series, it becomes more about the story and the characters than the cheap and easy laughs, but I don't necessarily have a problem with that. Certainly in this instance, for me that's become more important. I want to know what happens next and be entertained first and foremost, and entertainment often comes from a good story. Balancing this with the humorous elements and keeping them alive isn't alwasy easy, but here it is largely accomplished in the right way. It has evolved from just being a vehicle for gags into something more, but part of what makes people come back and part of what makes many of the best comedies so good is that the reader or the viewer cares about the characters and what happens to them.
Anyway, this was a little different as a compilation, containing a few separate parts rather than an overall narrative, but it largely worked. The first experiemental section was interesting, the main section was more old school in how it picked and chose jokes, framing each strip around one, and the section parodying other stories (admittedly hardly a new idea), put its own twist on the subject matter.
Book number: 63
Title: Snips, Snails and Dragon's Tails
Author: Rich Burlew
Category: Chris' choice
Saturday, 13 August 2011
Like a circle in a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel
The opening line to The Windmills of your Mind seems a rather fitting title for an entry about a story that is many stories within a single volume. Indeed, it it not just many stories, but many books. And on top of all that, it's a probing insight into what it is to read, how we do so and why. If that seems like a lot to ask from what is a pretty slim volume, it manages it with aplomb. I refer (of course?) to Italo Calvino's If on a winter's night a traveller.
Intrigued enough to acquire it some time ago now after a spate of friends were reading it, I scoured my shelves not only for something that had laid dormant for too long, but also because it's a lot more exciting than packing and it never ceases to amaze me what people will do to put it off. Like write a blog... Anyway, I'm pleased to say that it was a great find and didn't turn out to the complicated headfuck I was worried it might be. Although it took me a little to get into it and work out what was going on, the premise is at heart very simple and exceedingly clever.
The many different stories and styles, all elegantly written combine to make a whole that fits together in myriad ways. The execution is excellent; the reader hardly notices the ebbs and flows as the narration changes and this is to the writer's great credit. In the hands of a lesser writer it could have been a complete mess of ideas jumbled together, pastiche and a sense of trying to be too clever. Fortunately, it isn't. It's skilfully constructed and as well as the central plot strand, which is gripping, each vignette makes the reader – both this one and the one in the book – want more. Which can only really make it a success.
Book number: 62
Title: If on a winter's night a traveller
Author: Italo Calvino
Category: Books that have been sat on my bookshelf for too long
Intrigued enough to acquire it some time ago now after a spate of friends were reading it, I scoured my shelves not only for something that had laid dormant for too long, but also because it's a lot more exciting than packing and it never ceases to amaze me what people will do to put it off. Like write a blog... Anyway, I'm pleased to say that it was a great find and didn't turn out to the complicated headfuck I was worried it might be. Although it took me a little to get into it and work out what was going on, the premise is at heart very simple and exceedingly clever.
The many different stories and styles, all elegantly written combine to make a whole that fits together in myriad ways. The execution is excellent; the reader hardly notices the ebbs and flows as the narration changes and this is to the writer's great credit. In the hands of a lesser writer it could have been a complete mess of ideas jumbled together, pastiche and a sense of trying to be too clever. Fortunately, it isn't. It's skilfully constructed and as well as the central plot strand, which is gripping, each vignette makes the reader – both this one and the one in the book – want more. Which can only really make it a success.
Book number: 62
Title: If on a winter's night a traveller
Author: Italo Calvino
Category: Books that have been sat on my bookshelf for too long
Monday, 8 August 2011
Television man
Before Marilyn Manson caused Columbine, before the internet brought about paedophilia, television was one of life's great evils. Sucking away at people's souls, brainwashing them, inhibiting their ability to develop and function in society. So the theory went anyway, especially if you listened to Mary Whitehouse and her ilk. You can trace the story back further, at least through the bile of punk and the swagger of rock 'n' roll, but pretty consistently in the post-war world, television has been the chief symbol of consumerism, mass media and all that comes with it, both good and bad.
It is this symbolism that is of chief importance in White Noise, Don DeLillo's perspicacious commentary and satire on contemporary life. It may now be over 25 years since it waas written, but its ideas, thoughts and fears remain just as relevant today. Indeed, in these times of man-made catastrophe, total media immersion and unrestrained consumerism, it is showing that it has some legs, and like the best works of art, speaks through the ages. For despite all of these thoroughly modern aspects, it's beating heart is that of a relationship between man and woman, husband and wife, mother and father, plus their various offspring.
Jack and Babette's relationship is touching and heartfelt, one that perhaps they have been looking for all their lives and only reached having lived through several others. The first central point is universal, that of love, in various guises – familial, companionable and true. The other is that of death, the spectre that one days gets us all. And they fear it, do our heroes, as do we all in some way I suppose. Fear of the unknown, fear of loneliness, abandonment, lack of purpose. As the novel reflects, of those two great powers, death will always win.
A cheerful thought then, but there is also hope in there. Fall and redemption at the climax, and glorious hope right at the end. Slotting neatly in as the missing link between Heller's Something Happened and Coupland's Generation X, this social commentary-cum-family portrait is worthy of all the plaudits that have been heaped on it.
Book number: 61
Title: White Noise
Author: Don DeLillo
Category: Books with colours in the title
It is this symbolism that is of chief importance in White Noise, Don DeLillo's perspicacious commentary and satire on contemporary life. It may now be over 25 years since it waas written, but its ideas, thoughts and fears remain just as relevant today. Indeed, in these times of man-made catastrophe, total media immersion and unrestrained consumerism, it is showing that it has some legs, and like the best works of art, speaks through the ages. For despite all of these thoroughly modern aspects, it's beating heart is that of a relationship between man and woman, husband and wife, mother and father, plus their various offspring.
Jack and Babette's relationship is touching and heartfelt, one that perhaps they have been looking for all their lives and only reached having lived through several others. The first central point is universal, that of love, in various guises – familial, companionable and true. The other is that of death, the spectre that one days gets us all. And they fear it, do our heroes, as do we all in some way I suppose. Fear of the unknown, fear of loneliness, abandonment, lack of purpose. As the novel reflects, of those two great powers, death will always win.
A cheerful thought then, but there is also hope in there. Fall and redemption at the climax, and glorious hope right at the end. Slotting neatly in as the missing link between Heller's Something Happened and Coupland's Generation X, this social commentary-cum-family portrait is worthy of all the plaudits that have been heaped on it.
Book number: 61
Title: White Noise
Author: Don DeLillo
Category: Books with colours in the title
Master crafted
I'm sure I've said this before, probably even here within these four virtual walls (I'm getting a sense of deja vu, anyway), but size isn't everything. I've read plenty of books that are too long or could have used some more judicious editing, but few that I would genuinely wish were longer. They can be small and perfectly formed, without wasting words or ideas. Many classics can be this way, though I wonder sometimes if today short books aren't taken seriously. Certainly, if you want to publish sci-fi, fantasy, or seemingly increasingly crime, for example, anything less than 500 pages is not enough.
Robin Hobb's first novel (under that name, anyway – apparently it's a pen name) Assassin's Apprentice falls just shy of the 500 page mark. Fortunately, however, she knows what she's doing, it isn't that big for the sake of it. All of the key ingredients are there – strong narration, character development, mystery, suspense, change and growth. When all of these are there in abundance, the length matters a lot less – you don't notice that you keep turning the page because the narrative has gripped you. And in this case it definitely did. Throw in a suitably interesting setting, some new twists on conventional ideas (the wit and the skill), the naming system, and you have all of the ingredients for a successful recipe.
All of the classic elements are there, along, most importantly, with a storyteller's gift that keeps everything together and me coming back for more. She was always an author who had been somewhere on my radar (even if I mistakenly laboured under the misapprehension that she was a man) as someone worth checking out. Turns out it was well worth it and I will certainly be back for more at a later date. It wrapped things up neatly enough for a self-contained story, whilst leaving enough doors open for the next instalment. Which, incidentally, is 50% percent bigger... The more the merrier, I say.
Book number: 60
Title: Assassin's Apprentice
Author: Robin Hobb
Category: Charlotte's choice
Robin Hobb's first novel (under that name, anyway – apparently it's a pen name) Assassin's Apprentice falls just shy of the 500 page mark. Fortunately, however, she knows what she's doing, it isn't that big for the sake of it. All of the key ingredients are there – strong narration, character development, mystery, suspense, change and growth. When all of these are there in abundance, the length matters a lot less – you don't notice that you keep turning the page because the narrative has gripped you. And in this case it definitely did. Throw in a suitably interesting setting, some new twists on conventional ideas (the wit and the skill), the naming system, and you have all of the ingredients for a successful recipe.
All of the classic elements are there, along, most importantly, with a storyteller's gift that keeps everything together and me coming back for more. She was always an author who had been somewhere on my radar (even if I mistakenly laboured under the misapprehension that she was a man) as someone worth checking out. Turns out it was well worth it and I will certainly be back for more at a later date. It wrapped things up neatly enough for a self-contained story, whilst leaving enough doors open for the next instalment. Which, incidentally, is 50% percent bigger... The more the merrier, I say.
Book number: 60
Title: Assassin's Apprentice
Author: Robin Hobb
Category: Charlotte's choice
Monday, 1 August 2011
Hit me baby one more time
The problem with great works of literature is that you almost certainly know that it is supposed to be great before you read it. This can lead to all kind of expectations, plenty of which can be unrealistic and some of which are unsurmountable. The very problem with picking Pulitzer Prize winners as a category is that you expect them to be good. Admittedly, in my experience they usually are and I can certainly recognise them as being good. That, however, is not necessarily the same as liking them, but that's the joy, and sometimes the pain, of personal preference. Anyway, if you know the book you're about to read not only won said literary prize but was also, in the not too distant past, voted the best American novel of the last 25 years, then you can't help but expect something a bit special. In this case, Toni Morrison's Beloved had a lot to live up to.
On the plus side, I thought I was really going to enjoy it – my Yankophilia this year has been burning strong, even if it has perhaps waned a bit recently and the concept sounded right up my street. Or at least as much as slavery, dead babies, ghosts and family dramas are up anyone's street. It's certainly fabulously written, the dialogue in particular is incredibly good and it breathes life into the characters, while the prose radiate life and a certain kind of vitality. And yet...
And yet I wasn't blown away. Indeed, maybe my concentration wasn't at its highest reading it, or maybe I'm just a bit stoopid (postmodernism and magic realism aren't always my cup of tea), but I actually found it pretty difficult to follow in places. Certainly the changing viewpoints, the jumps in time and the lack of signposts made it more of a challenge than I feel it should have been. And if you're too busy trying to work out what is going on, the immersion, the suspension of disbelief just isn't there to the same extent and to my mind inhibits the enjoyment, which is my number one reason for reading. Sure, I like to learn and to think from it too, and 'enjoy' can be a loose term in some cases depending on topic matter, but mostly I read for pleasure.
Maybe I will come back to it again. After all, it was something I'd been meaning to read for a long time. Plenty of books benefit from a second reading, especially once you do know the plot. Then again, nobody is under obligation to like everything and I'm sure there are plenty of great novels and writers that any given individual has an issue with. Don't get me wrong, it was beautifully and powerfully written, it just wasn's always easy to follow and that was a shame.
Book number: 59
Title: Beloved
Author: Toni Morrison
Category: Pulitzer Prize winners
On the plus side, I thought I was really going to enjoy it – my Yankophilia this year has been burning strong, even if it has perhaps waned a bit recently and the concept sounded right up my street. Or at least as much as slavery, dead babies, ghosts and family dramas are up anyone's street. It's certainly fabulously written, the dialogue in particular is incredibly good and it breathes life into the characters, while the prose radiate life and a certain kind of vitality. And yet...
And yet I wasn't blown away. Indeed, maybe my concentration wasn't at its highest reading it, or maybe I'm just a bit stoopid (postmodernism and magic realism aren't always my cup of tea), but I actually found it pretty difficult to follow in places. Certainly the changing viewpoints, the jumps in time and the lack of signposts made it more of a challenge than I feel it should have been. And if you're too busy trying to work out what is going on, the immersion, the suspension of disbelief just isn't there to the same extent and to my mind inhibits the enjoyment, which is my number one reason for reading. Sure, I like to learn and to think from it too, and 'enjoy' can be a loose term in some cases depending on topic matter, but mostly I read for pleasure.
Maybe I will come back to it again. After all, it was something I'd been meaning to read for a long time. Plenty of books benefit from a second reading, especially once you do know the plot. Then again, nobody is under obligation to like everything and I'm sure there are plenty of great novels and writers that any given individual has an issue with. Don't get me wrong, it was beautifully and powerfully written, it just wasn's always easy to follow and that was a shame.
Book number: 59
Title: Beloved
Author: Toni Morrison
Category: Pulitzer Prize winners
It began in Africa
Barring Private Eye, which is a different sort of beast entirely, journalism is not something I can claim to have read during this task. Or indeed outside of it, as my newspaper and magazine intake is pretty minimal these days. Headlines, web journalism and reviews is largely the extent of it, the same as probably a large number of people. There's a time and a place for that sure, but I do also firmly believe that there is a need for journalism still, real quality features, interviews and reporting that is worthy of the name, rather than so much of the mediocre output which is lumped under that umbrella title these days. And with the News International fiasco likely to keep running for some time, it remains a good talking point. The antidote to this? The Shadow of the Sun: My African Life by Ryszard Kapuścinski, a collection of journalism that does exactly what the title suggests.
If you're a fan of post-colonial literature, you should definitely read it. In fact, if you're interested in other cultures at all, or simply don't know where to start in such areas, you could do a lot worse than begin with this. Journalism it may be, but it's top drawer journalism, in short story form and it has a novelistic quality to it, the characters it so quickly brings to life in each of the many episodes and the easy way it transports the reader to numerous different places across this diverse continent. For as our author explains, 'Africa' is itself a very artificial construc.t, an area of land divided neatly by its colonial rulers and now one left to pick up the pieces.
And it is the real Africa that is shown, but it is done with love, with care and with no judgement or moralising. The problems are laid out, cultures are explained and there is a depth of understanding of both of these that comes across simply, effectively and with real empathy. It is the stories of someone who has lived life there, loved life there and has captured the essence of so much through fine writing which comes from the heart, but avoids sentimentality, pity or a plan to solve the numerous problems all know are faced on a daily basis by so many Africans simply to survive. An excellent collection of first-class journalism.
Book number: 58
Title: The Shadow of the Sun: My African Life
Author: Ryszard Kapuścinski
Category: Books by authors I've never heard of
If you're a fan of post-colonial literature, you should definitely read it. In fact, if you're interested in other cultures at all, or simply don't know where to start in such areas, you could do a lot worse than begin with this. Journalism it may be, but it's top drawer journalism, in short story form and it has a novelistic quality to it, the characters it so quickly brings to life in each of the many episodes and the easy way it transports the reader to numerous different places across this diverse continent. For as our author explains, 'Africa' is itself a very artificial construc.t, an area of land divided neatly by its colonial rulers and now one left to pick up the pieces.
And it is the real Africa that is shown, but it is done with love, with care and with no judgement or moralising. The problems are laid out, cultures are explained and there is a depth of understanding of both of these that comes across simply, effectively and with real empathy. It is the stories of someone who has lived life there, loved life there and has captured the essence of so much through fine writing which comes from the heart, but avoids sentimentality, pity or a plan to solve the numerous problems all know are faced on a daily basis by so many Africans simply to survive. An excellent collection of first-class journalism.
Book number: 58
Title: The Shadow of the Sun: My African Life
Author: Ryszard Kapuścinski
Category: Books by authors I've never heard of
Lark ascending
Somewhere in between the borrowing and the odd glut of buying, I noticed I'd been neglecting my long-suffering and trusty bookshelf for a while. Flicking through for something that had been gathering dust for too long, I found something I had high hopes for. I'd never heard of They Came Like Swallows by William Maxwell before I picked up randomly, some time ago now (obviously). Yet it seemed to me the perfect thing for now, I was hoping for something lyrical, elegant and moving.
I'm not sure I got it. It wasn't bad, indeed, it was good. It just wasn't as good as I thought it was going to be. Split into three narratives, younger child, elder child and husband, they all give views on the central character whose life is of the utmost importance to the three of them – their mother/wife. Set against the backdrop of a short period at the end of World War One, it's a candid family portrait from a time gone by.
The writing was very good, particularly the dialogue, though I had been expecting something more poetic. Not quite sure why, probably due to the title, or maybe the fact it was quite a slim volume. So that worked, and the stories were nicely told, particularly Bunny's, which I much preferred to the other two. Maybe it's my heart of stone, but my main problem with it was simply that it didn't affect me in the way I think it should have done. I expected warmth and sadness, yet as well-observed and nicely composed as it worth, I just didn't quite connect with it.
Book number: 57
Title: They Came Like Swallows
Author: William Maxwell
Category: Books that have been sat on my bookshelf for too long
I'm not sure I got it. It wasn't bad, indeed, it was good. It just wasn't as good as I thought it was going to be. Split into three narratives, younger child, elder child and husband, they all give views on the central character whose life is of the utmost importance to the three of them – their mother/wife. Set against the backdrop of a short period at the end of World War One, it's a candid family portrait from a time gone by.
The writing was very good, particularly the dialogue, though I had been expecting something more poetic. Not quite sure why, probably due to the title, or maybe the fact it was quite a slim volume. So that worked, and the stories were nicely told, particularly Bunny's, which I much preferred to the other two. Maybe it's my heart of stone, but my main problem with it was simply that it didn't affect me in the way I think it should have done. I expected warmth and sadness, yet as well-observed and nicely composed as it worth, I just didn't quite connect with it.
Book number: 57
Title: They Came Like Swallows
Author: William Maxwell
Category: Books that have been sat on my bookshelf for too long
Unbelievable
Free books are a good thing, right? That was certainly the thinking behind the book club application to win a set of books courtesy of the library service and the publisher. Even better, we did actually get them, giving us a dozen copies in return for some feedback and reviews. Which seemed fair enough, especially as we were going to be discussing it anyway, that being the raison d'être of a book club. Thus armed with copies of Nigel Farndale's The Blasphemer, we are prepared for Wednesday's meeting.
Sadly, I think it's likely to be a bit of a bitch fest. It certainly didn't wow me and I've heard other mutterings that suggest it's in for some scathing reviews. So what was the problem? Well, several things. Firstly, there was just far too much going on, and secondly, lots of it didn't make much sense, at least not to me. If he'd stuck to just one story, with a couple of side plots, it would have been a lot better, namely the main one, with perhaps the exploration of Daniel's relationship with his father, who was probably the most likeable, and probably believable character in the book.
Which leads me on to the next point. Despite their imperfections, the main couple were both just a bit too good. At everything. And though I didn't necessarily like them, they were at least more rounded than the rest. From their oddity of a daughter, through the bizarre subplot involving her teacher/Daniel's guardian angel, to the gay doctor, it was all a bit much. Throw in the frankly sadistic Wetherby (a name I can't take seriously anyway as a result of a bizarre years old in-joke), the completely unrealistic pseudo-counsellor, and the World War I narrative, which stirred nothing in me, and you have a huge mess of a novel.
The whole atheism/faith debate could have been interesting, if it hadn't been handled with all the sensitivity of a breezeblock. It just wasn't subtle, the whole Catholicism debacle – "you go to mass, you're going to be fine, pal" – can't really have shocked anyone and the main guardian angel thread was just pushing the boundaries of belief. Which perhaps was the point, but not the way it turned out. Saved by a turtle? Seriously? And how many near-death experiences can a man have in the space of a few weeks?
I actually thought it had promise and it started off fairly well. It wasn't badly written as such, just in desperate need of some editing. The central premise (by which I mean fight or flight rather than theism) was interesting, and had more care been given to the main theme and we could have ended up with a pared down Richard Yates, perhaps with the war as a subplot rather than another narrative. However, from the crash onwards, so much of it just felt so unbelievable. I did feel there was a good book buried in there somewhere. Just a shame it wasn't the one I read.
Book number: 56
Title: The Blasphemer
Author: Nigel Farndale
Category: Book club/recommendations
Sadly, I think it's likely to be a bit of a bitch fest. It certainly didn't wow me and I've heard other mutterings that suggest it's in for some scathing reviews. So what was the problem? Well, several things. Firstly, there was just far too much going on, and secondly, lots of it didn't make much sense, at least not to me. If he'd stuck to just one story, with a couple of side plots, it would have been a lot better, namely the main one, with perhaps the exploration of Daniel's relationship with his father, who was probably the most likeable, and probably believable character in the book.
Which leads me on to the next point. Despite their imperfections, the main couple were both just a bit too good. At everything. And though I didn't necessarily like them, they were at least more rounded than the rest. From their oddity of a daughter, through the bizarre subplot involving her teacher/Daniel's guardian angel, to the gay doctor, it was all a bit much. Throw in the frankly sadistic Wetherby (a name I can't take seriously anyway as a result of a bizarre years old in-joke), the completely unrealistic pseudo-counsellor, and the World War I narrative, which stirred nothing in me, and you have a huge mess of a novel.
The whole atheism/faith debate could have been interesting, if it hadn't been handled with all the sensitivity of a breezeblock. It just wasn't subtle, the whole Catholicism debacle – "you go to mass, you're going to be fine, pal" – can't really have shocked anyone and the main guardian angel thread was just pushing the boundaries of belief. Which perhaps was the point, but not the way it turned out. Saved by a turtle? Seriously? And how many near-death experiences can a man have in the space of a few weeks?
I actually thought it had promise and it started off fairly well. It wasn't badly written as such, just in desperate need of some editing. The central premise (by which I mean fight or flight rather than theism) was interesting, and had more care been given to the main theme and we could have ended up with a pared down Richard Yates, perhaps with the war as a subplot rather than another narrative. However, from the crash onwards, so much of it just felt so unbelievable. I did feel there was a good book buried in there somewhere. Just a shame it wasn't the one I read.
Book number: 56
Title: The Blasphemer
Author: Nigel Farndale
Category: Book club/recommendations
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