Current Reading - Books best thread

[jameswba]

Any other good marsh or estuary books? I have River by Kinsky in my to read pile. The first few pages seem extremely Sebald-ian.

PD James' Death of an Expert Witness is set in the Fens. Her politics can make Anne Widdecombe seem progressive, but it's an atmospheric story.

Not a novel, but Lisa St Aubin's Off the Rails : Memoirs of a Train Addict has a chapter on trains from London up to Ely.

[Jon]

The first part of great expectations is set in the coastal marshes of Kent.

[Jon]

And best of all of the lord Peter wimsey books, the nine tailors, by Dorothy l sayers, is set in the Lincolnshire fens. I'm fairly sure that how steeple sinderby wanders won the fa cup is also set around there too.

[Jon]

Finally, sybil marshall has written both memoirs and semi-biographical fiction set in the Cambridgeshire fens.

[imp]

I've just read Melancholy I-II by Nobel Prize winner Jon Fosse. I almost gave up 40 pages in due to the repetition, much as I did with David Peace's Shankly book. But then I started to get into the literary rhythm, like it was an on-page version of a minimalist symphony. It's either genius, or he's a complete fraud. But the book has left a massive impression on me and I can't stop thinking about it, so I'm leaning towards genius. On the other hand, I'm not in any hurry to read anything else by him.

[jameswba]

I finished Matt Haig's The Midnight Library last night.

This was a bit of an attempt at trying to keep up with the kids, as a few students at our school either have read or are about to read this book. It's about a woman called Nora who's in her mid-30s and feels she's failed at life. None of her ambitions have come to anything, nor have any of her relationships. She's just lost her job, dead-end though it was, and her cat has died out on the road. She decides to take an overdose and end it all. However, in the seconds between life and death, she is transported to a vast library, run by a woman she recognises as the librarian at her secondary school. Nora has never forgotten this woman's kindness to her, and is ready to listen to what she has to say. She learns that the library contains all the books of the possible lives she could have led. She can try out as many of these as she likes and eventually choose to live one of them, to return to her 'root life', or to die.

The novel owes at least two debts to other works. One is an unacknowledged debt, to Jorge Luis Borges' story The Library of Babel. The other is to Robert Frost's poem, The Road Not Taken, which, by contrast, is mentioned numerous times, especially by the librarian. It also has very obvious faults which become irritating at times, notably a frequent tendency to lapse into self-help speak ('success isn't something you measure and life isn't a race ypu can win'). Haig also uses chess as a motif, yet it's fairly clear that he has no real grasp of the game ; the librarian talks at one point of how the pawn is the most significant piece on the board, able to overcome the combined might of an opponent's queen and rooks if only the player is determined to keep going.

There was enough in it to keep me interested though. There are a few humourous moments, and I found myself caring about Nora's fate, even when she herself seems to have lost all interest.

[Sam]

a frequent tendency to lapse into self-help speak

That is Matt Haig's whole thing, in fairness. I very much enjoyed the two novels I've read by him (this one and The Humans) but I think it helps to be aware that that's the angle he's coming from before you start, otherwise I can see how it would get a bit much.

[jameswba]

That is Matt Haig's whole thing, in fairness. I very much enjoyed the two novels I've read by him (this one and The Humans) but I think it helps to be aware that that's the angle he's coming from before you start, otherwise I can see how it would get a bit much.

I suppose the premise of the novel hints strongly enough that that's his angle. I only found out after reading it that he has suffered from breakdowns and anxiety himself.

It would be an easy novel to rip apart if one were so minded, but I liked it overall. And if even one of our students feels a bit happier with life for having read it, then it's definitely a good enough novel for me.

[Sam]

Yeah, that was what I thought too. He's never going to win the Booker or another Big Important Literary Award* (and nor is he trying to!) but his novels (in my experience) are perfectly enjoyable for something quick to read, and might help you feel more optimistic about being a person than you did before, and that's got great value in itself. I can't remember much of it now but I do distinctly remember having to put my Kindle down for five minutes because I was laughing so hard at the opening chapter of The Humans, as well.

*For the record, as I hope my history on this thread will demonstrate, I don't say this as a judgement of quality at all, merely of style.

[imp]

For Xmas I got Rafik Schami's "Wenn du erzählst, erblüht die Wüste" (When you tell stories, the desert blooms). It's essentially an anthology, by theme, of 100 ancient short stories from the Middle East, transcribed from a nineteenth century book rescued from Schami's father's book collection in Syria. A beautiful paean to the art of story-telling. Don't think it's been translated into English yet.

[Exiled off Main Street]

Finally getting around to 'Remain in Love'; by Chris Frantz, one of 15 unread music books piled in my office...

I was desperate to get to the chapter that would hopefully talk about their gig in Liverpool with Dire Straits in January 1978. He did. He simply says they played there. No mention of the young teenager standing at the edge of the 6 inch stage staring at his wife (stood barely 18 inches away from the teenager), for the entire gig.

A few years ago when Facebook was a thing, I had a brief DM back and forth with Chris Frantz about some gigs the Tom Tom Club were playing in Connecticut and of course about a Heads reunion. He kindly reiterated that 3 members of the band were standing by their phones waiting for a phone call from the other guy. Which was never going to happen.

The book lays out without any subtlety how David Byrne was a prick and dissed on the other 3 throughout the Heads lifetime. Eno doesn't come out smelling of roses, neither does Joey Ramone (but then his shitty attitude to people and life is well documented elsewhere).

I could have done without the first few chapters about his childhood, and quite a lot about RISD as well - up to when he meets Tina and David Byrne.- although I realize this is a story of Chris and Tina not just the Talking Heads. The writing itself is OK - but there is way too much of 'the greatest day of my life'; 'we rocked the house'; 'Tina looked lovely'; 'We left them wanting more'. It's all about golly gosh.

David Byrne is a weirdo prick.

I like the fact that he's open about his drug use, he doesn't glamourize it, he doesn't talk about it as a stupid thing he did when he was young but he is matter of fact in that he clearly enjoyed doing drugs. He seemed so clean cut....(sic)

I wanted more on the Heads recording sessions. Clearly Byrne took all the credit for Heads material when it clearly wasn't the case, they must have had arguments about it and what did Byrne say when confronted? Needed more about the shit that went on touring with various bands. It's amazing to think they sold out a European tours with the Ramones and then themselves in consecutive years and came back to the States to play high school gyms and College refectories. He doesn't give any inclination about how this would seem to be a weird situation? There was enough in the book to satisfy my initial questions but I really wanted more in depth stuff about the band and what made them rather than stories about his grandma and there old Kentucky homes..

[Gangster Octopus]

Hmm, those two European tours that you describing (supporting The Ramones and headlining over Dire Straits) included the Doncaster Outlook, which I can imagine being about the same size as a US college refectory. Admittedly with a bar...

[Jobi1]

Wondering if there's any mileage in a poetry thread? There have been a couple in the past that have been on a specific topic (sharing a favourite poem of the day, National Poetry Day, own work, etc.) but they've quickly fizzled out and there doesn't seem to have ever just been a general discussion thread.

I ask because I've just read Seán Hewitt's latest collection, Rapture's Road, and it's absolutely stunning.

[Sam]

Finally finished Thomas Bernhard's Extinction on Monday evening. Having got through three books during the first three weeks of the year, it's taken me four and a bit weeks to get through this not massively long novel. As I said when I was a little way in to it, it's bloody hard going. Gets a bit easier and a lot more interesting, but his writing style is almost trying to exasperate the reader (something even the afterword, written by someone who professes to be addicted to Bernhard's writing, says). The book is two paragraphs long, with the only break coming roughly in the middle where there's also a 'Part 2' page divider. Apparently much of his other work has no paragraph breaks at all. I might give something else of his a go one day, but it won't be immediately.

Off to bed now, and I'm going to start a short but very interesting-looking history book: Pirates & Privateers: From Long Island Sound to Delaware Bay by Jamie LH Goodall.

[Felicity, I guess so]

Picked a James Lee Burke (Half of Paradise) off the second hand shelf assuming it was another Robicheaux but turns out to be a 1965 publication with multiple characters, one of whom is a musician. It is a crime novel but with more social colour than usual, interesting so far.

[Jobi1]

Just finished Pity, the debut novel by poet Andrew McMillan. I'd been really looking forward to this as a huge fan of his poetry (much as I love his dad as a person and champion of the written word, Andrew is a much better poet already, in my opinion), but I'm left with slightly mixed feelings.

The general themes of the book are (unsurprisingly, if you're in any way familiar with McMillan's poetry) masculinity, sexuality, and Barnsley (the lump of coal doesn't fall far from the scuttle), centred around several generations from the same family. It's written in a really interesting way – no named or numbered chapters, but sections demarcated by different typeface and style. The ones covering the oldest of the three generations are essentially prose poetry, while another recurring section is extracts from a report by a university anthropological research team. While the quality of writing is undoubtedly extremely high, I just felt like I wanted a little more from the book overall. What, I'm not exactly sure! I just felt that perhaps something was lost in the constant shifts of perspective and style – I think in trying to create something really unique and clever, McMillan has perhaps missed some of the key elements of the very best novels, particularly really embedding the reader with one or two characters. In this case I just didn't feel like I spent enough time with any of the characters to really care about them or indeed truly know them.

So, overall, admirable aims and intentions, and some really beautiful writing, but perhaps just missing the mark in terms of the overall package.

[jameswba]

I recently completed Kathy Page's The Story of my Face, a 2003 novel which I'd never heard of before. It must be one of our local library's recent acquisitions, as I thought I'd read all its English language stock.

It's the story of a woman who goes to a fairly remote part of Finland to research the life of the locally-based leader of a fringe Lutheran sect, set up in the C19th.

His story has personal significance for the main character (and narrator) because, some 30 years earlier, aged 12, she had insinuated herself into the life of an English family of followers of this sect. She experiences one of its camps in England (for reasons crucial to the plot, it is extremely difficult for foreign-based followers to travel to Finland), but is also fascinated by coverage of the moon-landing, which is going on at the same time.

Illicit things happen, and the mother of the family shares a secret she both is and isn't ashamed of. The ultimate result of this is that something happens to the narrator's face, something which will continue to affect her life in her 40s and beyond.

The book effectively tells three stories ; the sect leader's, the narrator's as an adult woman doing her research, and the story of what happened to her face. The book's title indicates that the last is most prominent. It certainly occupies the most pages and, for me at least, is most compelling.

Some other themes are dealt with in an interesting way, most obviously childhood loneliness and the need to belong. The conflicts between the sect followers over doctrine and procedure were also well-observed. As someone who had to go to church most weeks as a kid, this was a neat reminder that few arguments get so bitter, or so cruel, as those between religious people who think their path is the true one.

[Sam]

I finished Pirates & Privateers From Long Island Sound to Delaware Bay a couple of nights ago. Very enlightening, particularly on what a large role the seafaring ne'erdowells of the title had in both the early economies of local communities in that area and the American Revolution itself.

I'm now reading Inside Qatar: Hidden Stories from One of the Richest Nations on Earth by John McManus. Couple of chapters in and it's been a promising start.

[imp]

I finished Pirates & Privateers From Long Island Sound to Delaware Bay a couple of nights ago. Very enlightening, particularly on what a large role the seafaring ne'erdowells of the title had in both the early economies of local communities in that area and the American Revolution itself.

I'm now reading Inside Qatar: Hidden Stories from One of the Richest Nations on Earth by John McManus. Couple of chapters in and it's been a promising start.

The McManus book is great - it was the only one I could recommend in my pre-2022 tournament preview of Qatar-related books.

[Sam]

I'm still enjoying it. And I almost certainly got it on your recommendation (more likely in Books than from the WSC review, as Exact Editions started playing up for me ages ago so I've not read the mag in a few years).

[imp]

I reviewed it for Soccer America, but may well have pasted the review in on the World Cup forum, where we were all talking about how we never read books about the World Cup when there's a World Cup actually on, thus exposing decades of publishers' folly that they surprisingly took no notice of - there's a batch of European Championship-related books ready for market.

[Jobi1]

Finished Isaac and the Egg by Bobby Palmer last night, a really interesting piece of work. Not easy to describe without giving too much away, but it centres around a man (Isaac) struggling to process severe grief after the loss of a loved one, while also dealing with what appears to be an alien presence. It's funny and surreal in places, but achingly sad in others. The story itself is perhaps a little predictable (to describe it as a traumatic, adult E.T. is a bit reductive, but... yeah), but Palmer has a really nice touch, and the balance between silly and sad is pretty much spot on I'd say.

[steveeeeeeeee]

Started reading "The Old Man and the Sea" by Hemingway at the weekend. It's the first Hemingway I've read and I was expecting pace, action and adventure. But the first 20 pages have been Paulo Coelho style wishy washy bollocks. I can't see how it's going to improve, but will crack on as its only 100 pages long.

[imp]

Fucking Hemingway, don't get me started. When I read For Whom the Bell Tolls, I was staggered. This macho crap is what people have been raving about for decades?

I've just devoured Rona Jaffe's 1958 pre-feminist classic The Best of Everything. She was in her mid-20s when she wrote it, it was her debut novel, and it sold millions, mainly to women who for the first time could enjoy an accessible writer who identified with the chauvinistic shit they had to put up with every day. It's set in the NY office world, starting in 1952, and centres around four women who work at a trashy book publisher. Apparently, men at the time didn't like the way they were portrayed. It's very telling that in Mad Men, there's a scene where Don Draper's reading the book in bed - there's a lot of this novel in Mad Men, so that was a clearly a grateful nod of acknowledgment. Which reminds me that I must go back and finally watch the last few series. I stopped around series 5 or 6 a decade ago (possibly longer - these things always take me a while), but so much of it has stayed with me that I don't think I'll have a problem picking it back up.

[ad hoc]

I've been reading Satantango, the novel which (I'm led to believe) has been pretty much unchanged in Bela Tarr's critically acclaimed 7 hour film*. (I think at least one of our cinephile members - DD, Nef or Felicity - has seen the film)

The book is one of those challenging bit incredibly rewarding novels. The sentences are incredibly long and winding, which sometimes makes them difficult but creates an amazing sense of pace and inevitability. It's absolutely riveting. The first 6 chapters create this amazing sense of place and approaching storm (the one about the doctor is one of the most brilliant things I've read, ever). The second 6 (apparently the forward 6 backward 6 is the tango of the title - I don't know enough about the dance to really understand this structure) I'm halfway into and I'm still gripped (though to a large extent the climax of the novel is in the centre).

*the one thing I can't really work out about this "unchanged" thing is that the film , made in the mid 90s, is often mentioned as a portrayal of post-communist societal collapse, whereas the novel was written in the early 80s, decidedly not post-communist in Hungary.