Again with the length, Chris. A book in a day is doable, regardless of length (within reason), but even so, 500 pages of literary fiction wasn't on paper the quickest read, even factoring in three hours or so of travelling to get to grips with it. But having been recently recommended it very strongly, the fact I'd been meaning to read it for ages anyway, and finally with it having been chosen for a forthcoming book club, it must have been fate. Or something.
And so my penultimate book of the year was Alan Hollinghurst's The Line of Beauty. It even has the distinction of being a Booker winner, so that's another one I can tick off on that count too. It was also a very good one and it's certainly much easier to read a book in a day if it's good and you're enjoying it and this definitely succeeded on both counts. Set in the Thatcherite heydays of the 1980s, it has everything you would expect from that decade – money, class, politics, homosexuality, sex, drugs, AIDS, snobbery, prejudice and hypocrisy by the shed load.
For the most part a celebration of the decade, at least as far as most of the characters are concerned, for they live lives apart from the masses. Yet throughout there are portents and shadows of things to come and in the third part of the book, things come crashing down as, to mix my metaphors, the dark underbelly of the decade rears its ugly head. The savagery and hypocrisy with which this happens, the limits to the tolerance shown throughout, the destruction of relationships and friendships, leads one to as whether they were really there or if simply it was convenience or the classic fair-weather friend scenario as the protagonist gets hung out to dry.
Throughout it, the lives of the people involved are woven together with skill and the writing is, like much of the subject matter, at least to the characters and possibly the author, a thing of beauty. The imagery and idea of lines is referenced throughout, but whether these things are natural or artificial (superficial?) varies depending on the observer. A coming of age story, a family affair and definitely a moral tale too, this book superbly captures many facets of a decade much maligned, ruled by greed and strife, and does so with a streak of dark humour throughout.
Book number: 99
Title: The Line of Beauty
Author: Alan Hollinghurst
Category: Books that have been sat on my bookshelf for too long
Friday, 30 December 2011
Thursday, 29 December 2011
Don't look back in amber
With three books left to read and the date rapidly approaching Christmas Eve, it would probably make sense to stick to something short and sweet. Three helpings of Spot the Dog, for example. However, these cursed categories meant that such a plan wasn't really a possibility. And while I like Spot, I also wanted to read what I wanted to read. Which would probably explain why I decided it would be a good idea to get stuck into an 800 page behemoth. In actual fact it was a quintet (or pentad, if you prefer) collected together, but either way it was a bit of a beast.
It was also Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny, one of a set of classic fantasy stories that I have now collected all of and read at least half of. And it seemed like a good idea to tackle it at the time. Combining snippets of a modern setting with the true city world, Amber, and the infinite number of reflections, or Shadows, it deals with the royal family, a classic example of blood being thicker than the proverbial. All centuries old, they have many rivalries and friendships as they all play what could happily be called a game of thrones.
Through deceit, lies, memory and skill with arms and words, the reader follows Corwin, Crown Prince of Amber as he tries to pick his way through a series of challenges in order to gain and then protect the throne from not only his siblings, but also a series of outside influences from the Court of Chaos. A masterwork for a reason, the mysteries are unravelled amidst the politicking and the nature of power and those who seek it is brought into question. One thing I will comment on though is the copyediting (or the typesetting), as the book was riddled with so many errors it was ridiculous. I'm aware of how easy it is to make mistakes and I'm sure there are numerous typos throughout the blog, never mind my day job, but the number that slipped through the net in this case was rather silly.
Book number: 98
Title: Chronicles of Amber
Author: Roger Zelazny
Category: Books with colours in the title
It was also Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny, one of a set of classic fantasy stories that I have now collected all of and read at least half of. And it seemed like a good idea to tackle it at the time. Combining snippets of a modern setting with the true city world, Amber, and the infinite number of reflections, or Shadows, it deals with the royal family, a classic example of blood being thicker than the proverbial. All centuries old, they have many rivalries and friendships as they all play what could happily be called a game of thrones.
Through deceit, lies, memory and skill with arms and words, the reader follows Corwin, Crown Prince of Amber as he tries to pick his way through a series of challenges in order to gain and then protect the throne from not only his siblings, but also a series of outside influences from the Court of Chaos. A masterwork for a reason, the mysteries are unravelled amidst the politicking and the nature of power and those who seek it is brought into question. One thing I will comment on though is the copyediting (or the typesetting), as the book was riddled with so many errors it was ridiculous. I'm aware of how easy it is to make mistakes and I'm sure there are numerous typos throughout the blog, never mind my day job, but the number that slipped through the net in this case was rather silly.
Book number: 98
Title: Chronicles of Amber
Author: Roger Zelazny
Category: Books with colours in the title
The people's princess
Well, ok, not the People's Princess – I get enough of her from the Little Fat One, including a bizarre reenactment of a famous car crash in Paris during a family game, though that's a different story – but rather a princess for the people. Which is perhaps the kind of thing that only happens in fairy stories. And now I have the Monkees stuck in my head. Hmm. You may, quite rightly, wonder what the hell I'm rambling on about this time, but it all kind of makes sense, in my head at least. And in some ways this kind of vaguely anecdotal riffing is quite fitting for a fairy story that is both wonderful in and of itself, as well as holding up a mirror to the genre as a whole.
I refer, of course, to William Goldman's The Princess Bride. Which was right up my street really, and finally made sense of one of those quotes that infiltrate your consciousness somewhere along the lines, yet you have no idea from whence it came. If you know the book or, more likely, the film, you probably know which one. Anyway, it was a name I knew, but knew nothing about and as it turned out, I can only really say I wish I'd known about it sooner.
I've always been a sucker for the fantastic, for a happy ending, and for a well-told tale – this gave me all three. The "author's" narrative interwoven with the story itself added an extra layer to the story, giving it a different perspective and peering closely at the nature of fairies stories and of the nature of storytelling itself – how we deal with tragedy, what we tell people to protect them, and life's hardest lesson, that no, it is very much not fair. Throw in an entertaining cast, full of seemingly archetypal characters, but who all have rather more going for them, a classic adventure yarn, and a narrator of no small skill and you have all the ingredients for a fine novel. Even better, they were blended together successfully in order to create a book worthy of them.
Book number: 97
Title: The Princess Bride
Author: William Goldman
Category: Charlotte's choice
I refer, of course, to William Goldman's The Princess Bride. Which was right up my street really, and finally made sense of one of those quotes that infiltrate your consciousness somewhere along the lines, yet you have no idea from whence it came. If you know the book or, more likely, the film, you probably know which one. Anyway, it was a name I knew, but knew nothing about and as it turned out, I can only really say I wish I'd known about it sooner.
I've always been a sucker for the fantastic, for a happy ending, and for a well-told tale – this gave me all three. The "author's" narrative interwoven with the story itself added an extra layer to the story, giving it a different perspective and peering closely at the nature of fairies stories and of the nature of storytelling itself – how we deal with tragedy, what we tell people to protect them, and life's hardest lesson, that no, it is very much not fair. Throw in an entertaining cast, full of seemingly archetypal characters, but who all have rather more going for them, a classic adventure yarn, and a narrator of no small skill and you have all the ingredients for a fine novel. Even better, they were blended together successfully in order to create a book worthy of them.
Book number: 97
Title: The Princess Bride
Author: William Goldman
Category: Charlotte's choice
Thursday, 22 December 2011
Changing rooms
And so earlier this week, the final book club session of the year was held. Still going strong into its third year now, I'm still enjoying it and every time the mix of people, the range of opinions and the chance to chat with good company and share ideas make it a great experience. I wasn't sure how I'd feel about the concept, but I really like it. Even if I feel pretty stupid at times compared to some of the fantastic minds brought to bear on the subject at hand. And I still like the fact it throws up things that I'd not usually choose for myself.
Such as E.M. Forster's A Room with a View. Never read any Forster before now but did rather like it. It was short (a bonus for both book club and this challenge) and amusing, being a satire on English pretensions and values, a social comedy if you will and definitely reminded me of Evelyn Waugh. Which is a good thing, by the way. It did take me a while to get into and I preferred the second part in England more than the opening in Italy, but it was wittily observed and cleverly written. Indeed, stylistically, I'd not have guessed it's now over a century old. Which is also intended as a compliment.
And with a lot of chat about the film adaptation, a viewing of which occurred straight after the discussion, it was certainly very faithful to the book. I liked the way it was put together, even if some of the characters weren't quite how I imagined them and it kept the humour of the story very well. My companion felt it lacked the energy of the book and was, I sense, slightly disappointed by it, but perhaps the more so because she really liked the book. Some cast though and I was glad to have seen it.
Book number: 96
Title: A Room with a View
Author: E.M. Forster
Category: Book club/recommendations
Such as E.M. Forster's A Room with a View. Never read any Forster before now but did rather like it. It was short (a bonus for both book club and this challenge) and amusing, being a satire on English pretensions and values, a social comedy if you will and definitely reminded me of Evelyn Waugh. Which is a good thing, by the way. It did take me a while to get into and I preferred the second part in England more than the opening in Italy, but it was wittily observed and cleverly written. Indeed, stylistically, I'd not have guessed it's now over a century old. Which is also intended as a compliment.
And with a lot of chat about the film adaptation, a viewing of which occurred straight after the discussion, it was certainly very faithful to the book. I liked the way it was put together, even if some of the characters weren't quite how I imagined them and it kept the humour of the story very well. My companion felt it lacked the energy of the book and was, I sense, slightly disappointed by it, but perhaps the more so because she really liked the book. Some cast though and I was glad to have seen it.
Book number: 96
Title: A Room with a View
Author: E.M. Forster
Category: Book club/recommendations
What I talk about when I talk about love
By which I mean (and By which I mean I'm referring to the title), this book. Pretty much. Put simply, A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan was one of the best things I've read in a very long time. Stunningly good on just about every level. It was funny, sad, wise, touching, uplifting, warm, beautiful, witty, satirical, had a massive heart, broke mine and repaired it more than once during its course, and overall pretty bloody good really. It made me laugh, it made me cry and verily I loved it.
So what's it like then? Other than the aforementioned, obviously. It's like J.D. Salinger without the neuroses, Douglas Coupland minus the geekery, Jeffrey Eugenides with added zip and zing, Irvine Welsh with a bigger heart, Kazuo Ishiguro on speed, Nick Hornby with more sex and drugs (but no less rock and roll) and a whole lot more, as well as being itself. And like I said, pretty bloody good.
Following the lives of an interconnected group of people across different periods of their lives, it captures the moments when lives collide, seeing into people's worlds, the events that shape them, witnessing their failures, disconnectivity and disappointments, but also seeking redemption, nurturing friendships and finding happiness. The connectivity of the stories, growing and changing with characters as we move back and forth through time, and the genuine warmth towards the characters.
A worthy winner of the Pulitzer, absolutely no question in my eyes and the news that it's being adapted for TV by HBO certainly has me curious to see what they do with it. In the meantime, while it's in production, you could do an awful lot worse than reading. Go on, I dare you.
Book number: 95
Title: A Visit From the Goon Squad
Author: Jennifer Egan
Category: Pulitzer Prize winners
So what's it like then? Other than the aforementioned, obviously. It's like J.D. Salinger without the neuroses, Douglas Coupland minus the geekery, Jeffrey Eugenides with added zip and zing, Irvine Welsh with a bigger heart, Kazuo Ishiguro on speed, Nick Hornby with more sex and drugs (but no less rock and roll) and a whole lot more, as well as being itself. And like I said, pretty bloody good.
Following the lives of an interconnected group of people across different periods of their lives, it captures the moments when lives collide, seeing into people's worlds, the events that shape them, witnessing their failures, disconnectivity and disappointments, but also seeking redemption, nurturing friendships and finding happiness. The connectivity of the stories, growing and changing with characters as we move back and forth through time, and the genuine warmth towards the characters.
A worthy winner of the Pulitzer, absolutely no question in my eyes and the news that it's being adapted for TV by HBO certainly has me curious to see what they do with it. In the meantime, while it's in production, you could do an awful lot worse than reading. Go on, I dare you.
Book number: 95
Title: A Visit From the Goon Squad
Author: Jennifer Egan
Category: Pulitzer Prize winners
Short and sweet
Short stories are something I don't read a lot of. In spire of this, I do enjoy a good short story and there's definitely an art to them. Indeed, I suggested it as a possible category for this very challenge, but the idea was vetoed. On my mental reading list for a long time now has been to give this area some love and in particular some love to Raymond Carver, as his reputation as a master of his craft preceded him.
And for my birthday I was served What We Talk About When We Talk About Love. As it transpires, what we talk about is an awful lot of things. And of everything about his writing, which was sharp, direct and spare (excellent, in other words), his dialogue was brilliant. It captured the way people really speak and interact. Each story (and some were very short indeed) worked as a snapshot and despite the lack of links between them, there was certainly an overall feel to them, a flavour, a sense of place.
So basically I liked it just as much as I thought I would, which is pretty hard to complain about when I had pretty high expectations in the first place. I will definitely look to try some more, Carver's canon is not large, and then I shall move on to other short stories. David Vann has been mentioned in the same breath and I liked Caribou Island from way back over Easter, so watch this space...
Book number: 94
Title: What We Talk About When We Talk About Love
Author: Raymond Carver
Category: Chris' choice
And for my birthday I was served What We Talk About When We Talk About Love. As it transpires, what we talk about is an awful lot of things. And of everything about his writing, which was sharp, direct and spare (excellent, in other words), his dialogue was brilliant. It captured the way people really speak and interact. Each story (and some were very short indeed) worked as a snapshot and despite the lack of links between them, there was certainly an overall feel to them, a flavour, a sense of place.
So basically I liked it just as much as I thought I would, which is pretty hard to complain about when I had pretty high expectations in the first place. I will definitely look to try some more, Carver's canon is not large, and then I shall move on to other short stories. David Vann has been mentioned in the same breath and I liked Caribou Island from way back over Easter, so watch this space...
Book number: 94
Title: What We Talk About When We Talk About Love
Author: Raymond Carver
Category: Chris' choice
Tuesday, 13 December 2011
Smuggle up by the fire
If there's one kind of pre-20th century book that I do go for, this year seems to have highlighted that I do enjoy a good adventure yarn. Jules Verne, Alexandre Dumas, throw in a dash of Holmes, a pinch of mystery and suspense, and garnish with some swashbuckling and I'm likely to be sold.
J. Meade Falkner's Moonfleet was therefore pretty much ideal when I stumbled across it. A tale of smuggling and the sea, treasure and treachery, it certainly ticked all of the requisite boxes. And I seemed to rattle through it at a fair enough pace, which is no bad thing as the year is drawing to an end and I've not had so much time to devote to the pleasures of the printed word.
Anyway, it largely did what it said on the tin. I liked the Dorset setting, especially as I'm now passingly familiar with some of the places and the ongoing theme of the 'Y' and the making of decisions and their implications was a neat touch. I was slightly suprised at the scale of the adversity faced by our hero and his mentor, which went beyond what I would suppose to be the norm, and I wasn't actually expecting the ending that came. I thought it was more like to be a moral tale than one of material gain, but following matrimony, it ended up being both. And because it was a little unexpected, I suppose I liked it all the more.
Book number: 93
Title: Moonfleet
Author: J. Meade Falkner
Category: Pre-20th century fiction
J. Meade Falkner's Moonfleet was therefore pretty much ideal when I stumbled across it. A tale of smuggling and the sea, treasure and treachery, it certainly ticked all of the requisite boxes. And I seemed to rattle through it at a fair enough pace, which is no bad thing as the year is drawing to an end and I've not had so much time to devote to the pleasures of the printed word.
Anyway, it largely did what it said on the tin. I liked the Dorset setting, especially as I'm now passingly familiar with some of the places and the ongoing theme of the 'Y' and the making of decisions and their implications was a neat touch. I was slightly suprised at the scale of the adversity faced by our hero and his mentor, which went beyond what I would suppose to be the norm, and I wasn't actually expecting the ending that came. I thought it was more like to be a moral tale than one of material gain, but following matrimony, it ended up being both. And because it was a little unexpected, I suppose I liked it all the more.
Book number: 93
Title: Moonfleet
Author: J. Meade Falkner
Category: Pre-20th century fiction
Sunday, 11 December 2011
The culture of affluence
A worringly large number of years after graduating from my first degree, I have finally accomplished something perhaps I should have done at the time. Admittedly it doesn't seem to have done me too much harm, but I can at last now claim to have fully got to grips with it. My special subject in final year was on the culture of affluence, Britain in the 1950s and 1960s – and I unashamedly loved it. The politics, the social and cultural changes, and even, to a lesser extent, the actual economics.
And now, finally, I can say I've read what was probably the most influential economic text of the period, John Kennet Galbraith's The Affluent Society. Light bedtime reading it probably is not, but it was pretty accessible, which was fine by me. It gave a basic overview of the development of economic thought (useful for simpletons such as myself), before going on to explain the current problems of the existing system, at least from the author's perspective. Although first published almost 60 years ago now, it was interesting to see how little has changed in that period. Indeed, few of the problems have been rectified and if anything, they have been exarcerbated.
Still, it was interesting to understand more about how theories fit in with practice and the historical precedents which are used and have been applied over time with varying degrees of success. Mr Galbraith was clearly a wise man who had an exceptional grasp of his subject, not least in the fact he was able to make it relatively accessible to a lay reader. Just a shame that his message and ideas seem not to have been picked up on by those with the ability to do something about how we live.
Book number: 92
Title: The Affluent Society
Author: John Kenneth Galbraith
Category: Non-fiction
And now, finally, I can say I've read what was probably the most influential economic text of the period, John Kennet Galbraith's The Affluent Society. Light bedtime reading it probably is not, but it was pretty accessible, which was fine by me. It gave a basic overview of the development of economic thought (useful for simpletons such as myself), before going on to explain the current problems of the existing system, at least from the author's perspective. Although first published almost 60 years ago now, it was interesting to see how little has changed in that period. Indeed, few of the problems have been rectified and if anything, they have been exarcerbated.
Still, it was interesting to understand more about how theories fit in with practice and the historical precedents which are used and have been applied over time with varying degrees of success. Mr Galbraith was clearly a wise man who had an exceptional grasp of his subject, not least in the fact he was able to make it relatively accessible to a lay reader. Just a shame that his message and ideas seem not to have been picked up on by those with the ability to do something about how we live.
Book number: 92
Title: The Affluent Society
Author: John Kenneth Galbraith
Category: Non-fiction
Pride and prejudice
Right now, what with the season of goodwill approaching and my social life going into overdrive, probably the first word that springs to mind regarding this blog (and also my reading habits) is neglect. However, approaching the next title, the words that sprang most to mind were those two Ps: pride and prejudice. The former is not something I possess in abundance, I'm happy to try new things and willing to speak my mind and stick my neck out and not worry about embarrassing myself. The latter is something I try to avoid too, preferring to judge and to speak from a position where I am qualified to do so.
And on that note, while I'm happy to pour scorn on Twilight (and a large number of people who I usually believe to have good taste have fallen foul of this one), I have never read it, though I will admit that a lot of what I've heard isn't positive. Anyway, I no doubt will eventually grapple with it (or maybe life's just too short), but I have just finshed reading Stephenie Meyer's other book, The Host. I'd been told a variety of things about this, from "It's actually quite good" to "A good idea, terribly executed" and now I can actually put some thoughts together on this one.
Where to begin? Well, a great writer she ain't. More disappointing is the fact that there was a lot of potential for it, but sadly very little of it was realised. In terms of the story, well, it was only twice as long as it needed to be to tell, well, not very much. A quarter of the way in, having been pleasantly surprised by the growing relationship between the two protagonists (human and soul) and the fact I assumed it would be a quest novel and had been proved wrong, I had reasonably high hopes that it could go in a few different interesting ways. Sadly, having shared these ideas at this stage, I was told I was going to be disappointed. I was. At this point, very little happened both in terms of story progression and character development and the potentially kick-ass dystopian fight for freedom or internal conflict never happened. There wasn't even any freaky alien sex – Meyer, you clearly have some very fucked up fantasies – to chuckle at.
So perhaps it was what I was told, a good idea badly executed. The concept was an interesting one but instead of something interesting, all I got was a bizarre love triangle (square?) and a lukewarm relationship drama from the back of a cereal box. It could have been so much more and I think it's that which disappointed me the most.
Book number: 91
Title: The Host
Author: Stephenie Meyer
Category: Charlotte's choice
And on that note, while I'm happy to pour scorn on Twilight (and a large number of people who I usually believe to have good taste have fallen foul of this one), I have never read it, though I will admit that a lot of what I've heard isn't positive. Anyway, I no doubt will eventually grapple with it (or maybe life's just too short), but I have just finshed reading Stephenie Meyer's other book, The Host. I'd been told a variety of things about this, from "It's actually quite good" to "A good idea, terribly executed" and now I can actually put some thoughts together on this one.
Where to begin? Well, a great writer she ain't. More disappointing is the fact that there was a lot of potential for it, but sadly very little of it was realised. In terms of the story, well, it was only twice as long as it needed to be to tell, well, not very much. A quarter of the way in, having been pleasantly surprised by the growing relationship between the two protagonists (human and soul) and the fact I assumed it would be a quest novel and had been proved wrong, I had reasonably high hopes that it could go in a few different interesting ways. Sadly, having shared these ideas at this stage, I was told I was going to be disappointed. I was. At this point, very little happened both in terms of story progression and character development and the potentially kick-ass dystopian fight for freedom or internal conflict never happened. There wasn't even any freaky alien sex – Meyer, you clearly have some very fucked up fantasies – to chuckle at.
So perhaps it was what I was told, a good idea badly executed. The concept was an interesting one but instead of something interesting, all I got was a bizarre love triangle (square?) and a lukewarm relationship drama from the back of a cereal box. It could have been so much more and I think it's that which disappointed me the most.
Book number: 91
Title: The Host
Author: Stephenie Meyer
Category: Charlotte's choice
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