Current Reading - Books best thread

[Anton Gramscescu]

Best Books I've read so far this year:

Fiction: The Sympathizer, by Viet Thanh Nguyen. Thumbs up also to Juan Gabriel Vazquez's "The Informers", Francis Spufford's 'Golden Hill" and Joseph O'Neill's "The Dog". The new William Gibson was disappointing.

Non-fiction: "Learning from the Germans" by Susan Nieman, about what the US can learn about memorializing slavery and Jim crow from the way Germany remembers the nazis, is *fucking great*. I enjoyed Kingfish: The reign of Huey Long, by Richard D. White - probably not a great book, actually, but it was a story I did not know well and so learned and enjoyed a lot. Maria McFarland Sanchez-Morneo's "There Are No Dead Here" is an excellent book about the fight against drugs and paramilitaries in Colombia (good background if you happen to be watching Narcos, too, which turns out to be more historically accurate than I'd expected).

[Amor de Cosmos]

I enjoyed The Sympathizer but it didn't really stick in my mind for very long. Not really sure why. I did enjoy the 'Apocalypse Now' segment, but the rest faded rather quickly.

I was about to buy the new Gibson, now I'm having second thoughts. Did you read the preceding book? The new one is apparently a sequel.

[Anton Gramscescu]

The Peripheral was fun. But plot-wise, Agency is just one huge Deus Ex Machina after another, if you ask me. Not uninteresting...some of the background on "The Jackpot" certainly makes you think differently about some current events...and a mediocre Gibson book is still pretty good compared to the rest of the field...but honestly, this was my least fave Gibson book since I;m not sure when.

I only read the Sympathizer this weekend. Possibly I will share your assessment in a few weeks.

[Satchmo Distel]

'The Last Word' by Quentin Crisp. Absolutely gorgeous. The person Morrissey could have been if he'd remained as articulate as his predecessor as one of the top wits in the public eye.

[slackster]

Been reading The Salt Path, mentioned and recommended up thread. The first couple of chapters weren’t promising, as it set out the back story about a couple of soppy middle aged hippies who lose their house after a stupid investment the same week the bloke gets a terminal diagnosis, and decide to tramp it round the 630 mile SW Coast Path instead - living on about a fiver a day and wild camping. They sound like a right couple of dopes, and the bloke having a ridiculous name (Moth) didn’t exactly endear me either. But it’s very well written and you get to like and root for the numpties as their walk progresses.

[Incandenza]

I forced myself to finish Trust Exercise by Susan Choi. I think it won the National Book Award last year, or at least was nominated for it and it received a lot of rave reviews and it was discussed as a book for the #MeToo times.

I said forced myself to finish it, because I couldn't stand it, but it's only around 275 pages so it seemed that I should just finish it, and I know you haven't liked it so far, but everyone says that the big shift in the book will knock you over, and maybe the pages will fly by after that, but oh no it's not as unenjoyable as it was before, and it makes sense why the first section was like that now but now I don't like this second section either but for different reasons and now you finally made it to the last section and what the hell is happening now?

[imp]

Been reading The Salt Path, mentioned and recommended up thread. The first couple of chapters weren’t promising, as it set out the back story about a couple of soppy middle aged hippies who lose their house after a stupid investment the same week the bloke gets a terminal diagnosis, and decide to tramp it round the 630 mile SW Coast Path instead - living on about a fiver a day and wild camping. They sound like a right couple of dopes, and the bloke having a ridiculous name (Moth) didn’t exactly endear me either. But it’s very well written and you get to like and root for the numpties as their walk progresses.

Ha ha, I found that a bit hard to get empathetic with as well at first, but stay with it - Moth turns out to be a top bloke, in my view. I wouldn't say the writer's that likeable, but she's very honest and a good writer, and it's classic 'on-a-journey' narrative that sweeps you along.

[Lurgee]

I bought The Mirror and the Light at the weekend and am massively, massively looking forward to losing myself in it or a week or two. Got to finish re-reading Bring Up the Bodies first, so all the gory detail of who got killed and why is fresh in my mind.

[WOM]

Strong recommendation for The Big Goodbye from Warren Ellis.

“What kind of ointment is that?” Elia Kazan, Sylbert’s first feature director, had asked of one of Sylbert’s sketches for Baby Doll. Sylbert had drawn a fluted column beside an old rocking chair, and on the floor a squeezed-out tube of ointment. “Gee, I don’t know,” Sylbert answered the master. “What kind of ointment is that?” “It’s pile ointment,” Kazan improvised. Lesson learned—and never forgotten. In a Sylbert film, if something was in the frame, it was either because Sylbert put it there or because he allowed it to be there. All other design departments on the picture reported to him.

THE BIG GOODBYE: CHINATOWN AND THE LAST YEARS OF HOLLYWOOD by Sam Wasson is a fascinating book. It's been so long since I watched CHINATOWN that I frankly recall very little about it, but the story around its making, and the stories of the people who made it, range between engaging and quite riveting. It is also entirely the most sympathetic portrayal of Robert Evans I've ever read, and that includes his autobiography. It sits interestingly next to Biskind's EASY RIDERS RAGING BULLS on the same period, and while Biskind often has more texture and detail, Wasson is cold where Biskind is vicious, and Wasson is gentle when Biskind is pissy.

And Wasson has receipts Biskind didn't. Chiefly, that Robert Towne isn't Robert Towne. Robert Towne, writer, was, for forty years, Robert Towne and Edward Taylor. Unacknowledged in Taylor's time, and, indeed, at Taylor's funeral.

In retrospect 1974 represents the final flowering of a film garden passionately tended by liberated studio executives and an unspoken agreement between audiences and filmmakers. As Towne had once observed, the American films of World War II benefited from shared beliefs; now, “there was a common assumption that something was wrong,” he said, “in the wake of Vietnam and Watergate and assassinations and riots” that gave rise to “a hunger on both sides for something new” and produced a Hollywood year as powerful as 1974. But the poison was in the perfume: These films, Towne said, “did their jobs too well. There was”—presently—“nothing left to expose.”

It is an extremely well-structured story of the end of an era, giving primacy to female voices and perspectives wherever possible, and well worth a read on a number of levels.

THE BIG GOODBYE: CHINATOWN AND THE LAST YEARS OF HOLLYWOOD (UK) (US)

This just arrived and I'm struggling mightily to keep my hands off it while I finish the last pages of "The Last Flight of Poxl West", which is lovely.

[ale]

Anybody else read any Sadie Jones novels? I started with The Snakes and am now tackling debut The Outcast.

Lots of slivery metaphors in the former, which is a bit of a didactic morality tale about the evils of excessive money and narcissism with a few twists and a clunky unexpected ending, but I like her prose style - nothing terribly trying and the plots romp along nicely.

Just the snakes one. And gotta admit didnt work for me. The snakes sub plot itself seemed to go nowhere before fizzling out completely and abruptly. There was a distinct lack of main characters with whom to engage with or warm to-the mother sexually abusing the son was never really adequately thought through. The father was nothing more than an idea on paper that never developed any further. Agree the ending was unexpected and maybe the one thing that made one pause for thought.

[WOM]

Strong recommendation for The Big Goodbye from Warren Ellis.

“What kind of ointment is that?” Elia Kazan, Sylbert’s first feature director, had asked of one of Sylbert’s sketches for Baby Doll. Sylbert had drawn a fluted column beside an old rocking chair, and on the floor a squeezed-out tube of ointment. “Gee, I don’t know,” Sylbert answered the master. “What kind of ointment is that?” “It’s pile ointment,” Kazan improvised. Lesson learned—and never forgotten. In a Sylbert film, if something was in the frame, it was either because Sylbert put it there or because he allowed it to be there. All other design departments on the picture reported to him.

THE BIG GOODBYE: CHINATOWN AND THE LAST YEARS OF HOLLYWOOD by Sam Wasson is a fascinating book. It's been so long since I watched CHINATOWN that I frankly recall very little about it, but the story around its making, and the stories of the people who made it, range between engaging and quite riveting. It is also entirely the most sympathetic portrayal of Robert Evans I've ever read, and that includes his autobiography. It sits interestingly next to Biskind's EASY RIDERS RAGING BULLS on the same period, and while Biskind often has more texture and detail, Wasson is cold where Biskind is vicious, and Wasson is gentle when Biskind is pissy.

And Wasson has receipts Biskind didn't. Chiefly, that Robert Towne isn't Robert Towne. Robert Towne, writer, was, for forty years, Robert Towne and Edward Taylor. Unacknowledged in Taylor's time, and, indeed, at Taylor's funeral.

In retrospect 1974 represents the final flowering of a film garden passionately tended by liberated studio executives and an unspoken agreement between audiences and filmmakers. As Towne had once observed, the American films of World War II benefited from shared beliefs; now, “there was a common assumption that something was wrong,” he said, “in the wake of Vietnam and Watergate and assassinations and riots” that gave rise to “a hunger on both sides for something new” and produced a Hollywood year as powerful as 1974. But the poison was in the perfume: These films, Towne said, “did their jobs too well. There was”—presently—“nothing left to expose.”

It is an extremely well-structured story of the end of an era, giving primacy to female voices and perspectives wherever possible, and well worth a read on a number of levels.

THE BIG GOODBYE: CHINATOWN AND THE LAST YEARS OF HOLLYWOOD (UK) (US)

This was an exceptional book and well worth the time. The Robert Towne / Edward Taylor thing was particularly interesting. The whole Polanski story was much more deep and interesting than I'd previously understood, and the whole 'he drugged and anally raped a child*' thing was handled with tact and respect for the victim.

Nicholson is Nicholson, and there wasn't much new there. Some, of course, but not much. Once again, the actors were the least interesting part of 'it'.

The whole 'end of an era' [Last years of Hollywood] thing was weak and pointless. It was neither and his case was, I thought, poorly made. In fact, I'm not sure why he tried to make it.

Otherwise, well worth a read.


*It really does need to be said.

[Incandenza]

Finished Normal People by Sally Rooney. Really enjoyed it--a very straightforward love/friendship story about two young people. Both characters sympathetically drawn. I don't quite know if it was worth all of the buzz that it got last year, but it was very good.

[Patrick Thistle]

I've started reading Wolf Hall

[Levin]

Well this has gone straight on my to buy list.

https://twitter.com/john_self/status/1238428547305398273

[via vicaria]

Oddly, reading time for me has plunged with the onset of the lockdown. It's something that I always did while commuting for the most part, and I can't get into a rhythm of reading at home. Just one book finished in the last month or so, which is Ottoman Odyssey, Alev Scott's book about her travels around former Ottoman territories, looking at what legacy the empire left, and what influence modern Ak-Parti-led Turkey has in those regions.

An interesting book, with certain well-trodden subjects like Turkey's refusal to acknowledge the scale and responsibilities of the Armenian Genocide given a better edge through the author's self-reflection on what she had been taught and understood growing up (her visit to the Genocide memorial in Yerevan in particular). It's a little dry at times, so not a book I whizzed through, but certainly interesting enough to keep with to the end.

[imp]

In the middle of Masha Gessen's magnificent 'The Future is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia'. It's not good for insomnia - when I can't sleep I pick it up in the middle of the night and have so far kept reading for between 90 minutes and three hours. That's when I'm getting the bulk of my reading done right now. Doesn't seem right to plonk myself in a chair during the day between two home office workers and to start reading (and likely fall asleep after a few minutes).

[Incandenza]

Well this has gone straight on my to buy list.

https://twitter.com/john_self/status/1238428547305398273

Gornick's book got a lot of attention after some articles in recent years discussing the re-emergence of socialism in the US mentioned the book. It was out of print, and copies started going for hundreds of dollars (or, at least that's what they were asking for them). I don't know if it being re-issued was a result of that, or if it was just a coincidence and it was planned since Gornick has a new book out. She's sort of disowned it now and thinks she wasn't mature enough when she published it.

[Furtho]

I listened to this podcast about Leonora Carrington, probably best known as a painter but who also wrote some fiction. The podcast mentioned a novella of hers called The Hearing Trumpet, of which I managed to find an I think legal pdf. The introduction contains the following anecdote about a friend Carrington made while living in Mexico.

[Incandenza]

Finished Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe, a book I thought was going to be mostly about the disappearing of Jean McConville, but becomes a bigger story of the Troubles and the process of historical memory. It's funny, as I was reading it I thought he was biased against the republicans, then I read a review from NPR that said that he is biased against the British.

[Sam]

It took me a good while, but I've just finished the very excellent Black Leopard Red Wolf by Marlon James. I'm now about to start Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell, the story of a dying boy and his sister in plague-era Warwickshire, their relationship with their mother, and how their father's absenteeism (you might have guessed, but he moved to London to be a playwright ... perhaps you've heard of him ...) affects the family.

I mean, I'm under the impression that's what it's about. It was published to rave reviews a couple of months ago. I actually wanted to buy a physical copy of it, but of course imports of it (and all other recently published books) are delayed until God knows when, and I wanted to at least have started it before 'attending' O'Farrell's talk at the Hay Festival (totally free and online this year, check out the programme!), which is on Saturday. So, ebook it is.

[Lang Spoon]

Can't seem to get a decent version of the Good Soldier Svejk on kindle and my hard copy is 35km away. Piss annoyin.

[Lang Spoon]

So I'm reading Look Who's Back. 50 pages on I'm not sure how I feel about it.

[Incandenza]

Just finished Amnesty, the new one from Aravind Adiga. I liked the the story and the plot, but the dialogue between the main character and the protagonist was largely over repetitive mobile conversations that just felt like they ground the book to a halt every 5 pages or so. So I liked it in theory, but not that much in execution.

[Vicarious Thrillseeker]

So I'm reading Look Who's Back. 50 pages on I'm not sure how I feel about it.

I couldn't finish it.

[Felicity, I guess so]

Am reading Madrid Underground, a1982 novel by David Serafin.

I have researched and collected crime novels set in Spain for a while and this was a nice hardback copy for a fiver.

Didnt realise its central conceit is each section (many much shorter than a chapter) is titled/set in a different metro station. Which is fun. More importantly it’s set in 77 against the backdrop of the 1st election after Franco’s death and perhaps the deaths are connected to the political turmoil...