A Book Blog by Books do Furnish a Room 2014

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Thanks weave and poppy

I’ve had The Recognitions on my horizon for some time. Now finally I have read it!
This is not a book that you can pick up and casually read; it demands work of the reader. However erudite or well read you are you will not get all the references because they are so varied. There are sites available which provide annotated notes so you can follow the references and I would recommend one of these as you can get more out of the whole experience. Gaddis quotes Shakespeare a good deal; there is also a lot of T S Eliot, especially the Four Quartets and The Wasteland. On reflection it is more difficult to list things that are not included! As there is a religious theme running through the book knowledge of the Early Christian Fathers and varieties of theology (not to mention the cult of Mithras) is a necessity (hence the need for a guide). Gaddis also makes reference to a great deal of early twentieth century popular American culture (songs and popular novels). Goethe’s Faust is a backdrop and starting point and the relationship between Wyatt and Recktall Brown is fascinating. The Faust legend goes back to Clementine literature, supposedly written by an early Pope called Clement. Part of this literature is the Clementine Recognitions (hence the title) and here is found the story of Faustus. There are myriads of other references and it is a complex and enthralling work.
The story itself is fairly simple; Wyatt means to follow his father into the Christian ministry, but takes to art and forgery for a dealer called Recktall Brown. He becomes disillusioned, his father becomes attracted to Mithras and goes mad and there is a supporting cast of many interesting characters who revolve around Wyatt and his doings. Most of the story is set in New York around Christmas. As stories go it is ok and would rattle along nicely in a 200 page novel. There is humour; the suit of armour, counterfeit money (forgery and what is real figures a lot) and there is tragedy; all the necessary ingredients. The minor characters are excellent; Otto in particular, Agnes Deigh (the play on words of course has meaning). Anselm is fascinating and there is a self-inflicted Abelard moment in a public toilet.
So far I’ve managed to avoid saying what I thought of it. The Recognitions is undoubtedly a great novel and it was fun and challenging to read. I loved the trails that Gaddis leaves and following links and it is undoubtedly a literary masterpiece, worthy of its place in all the lists. The “but” you are sensing is that although I thoroughly enjoyed reading it; I didn’t love it. It didn’t invoke the passion that my favourite novels have, great though it is. But do read it for yourself and make your own mind up.

8 and a half out of 10

Starting Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace

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The Skating Rink by Roberto Bolano

I think I’m rather on the fence about this one; Bolano’s first novel. It is a mix of genres; a touch of murder mystery, which is entirely secondary to the plot. Throw in obsession, political corruption, immigration, poets, a seaside resort on the Costa Brava, a homeless opera singer, an Olympic skater, a ruined mansion, the influence of Borges, a secret skating rink, a love triangle and lots of individual oddities.
The novel is set in a Costa Brava town over a summer season and the narrative is told alternately by three men; a Mexican poet, who is an illegal immigrant and works as a night watchman at a camp site; a civil servant who embezzles public money to build the skating rink for Nuria Marti, a beautiful skater who has been dropped from the Olympic team and needs somewhere to practice; and a Chilean writer who runs a group of jewellery shops. Working out who the victim will be is fun; working out the murderer much more difficult and unimportant. There are some stunning descriptive passages, but also some oddity and a few passages that, for me, didn’t work.
One of the issues I had was that the narrative voices were a little alike and tended to merge into each other. However it is a minor point and the word play is very good; the sky appears like “a lung dipped in blue paint” before going pink “like an enlightened butcher”.
It’s a good read, quirky and off the wall; a little slight with the narrators too alike, but colourful and interesting.

7 out of 10

Starting Ragged Banners by Ethel Mannin

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The Poorhouse Fair by John Updike

I keep persisting with Updike; it’s the triumph of hope over experience I suppose. This is his first novel, written in 1957 and set in 1977. Thankfully it was better than the last one I read; Memories of the Ford Administration.
I am reminded of a quote from Harold Brodkey’s autobiographical work about his death from AIDS; “Living with AIDS is like being a character stuck in a bad John Updike novel”.
This is a rather brief novel set in an almshouse and it takes place in one day; the day of the annual fair. It’s a half-hearted attempt at Modernism with a touch of dystopia. The Poorhouse is basically a residential care home for older people who are whiling away their remaining days. As is usual with Updike the female characters are rather limited and not very well drawn.
There are two strong characters; Hook is a man in his 90s who has a strong sense of his own wisdom and a feeling that modern life is going to hell in a handcart. The main redeeming character in the book is Connor the manager of the home. He is a young man with a mission, a sense of what is right and wrong. He has that particular malice that only those who have the zeal to do good to others no matter whether they like it or not can have. His attempts to relate to the residents inject some humour into the proceedings as events spiral out of his control.
There is a sense of anarchy in the older men and making Connor a rational humanist was a clever move. However I didn’t feel Updike really understood or have control of the older characters and what was actually a rather good premise didn’t quite work.  The minor characters are not strong enough to carry the points Updike is trying to make. For once I think this novel was too short; it needed more character development to carry the storyline. However the thought of asking for a longer Updike novel worries me!
It’s brief and worth reading for a couple of the characters, but lacks the real punch it could have had.

6 out of 10

Starting The Night Life of the Gods by Thorne Smith
 

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The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst

Booker prize winner in 2004, Hollinghurst writes about the 1980s and more particularly about Thatcher’s Britain and the onset of HIV/AIDS. It is the story of Nick Guest, a young gay man from a middle class background. He meets the son (Toby) of a rising Tory MP (Gerald Fedden) at Oxford and after graduating moves in with Toby’s family as a lodger.
The backdrop is London of the 1980s. Nick moves in glamorous circles and the line of beauty goes back to Hogarth’s s shaped curve in his book. It runs through the book via Henry James, (Nick is studying him at post-grad level) to cocaine; another beautiful line in the book and on to the concept of beauty in physical terms. For Nick this is male beauty. Against the glamour and the wealth is a political backdrop of the conservatives in power. The shadow of Thatcher is never far away as Gerald works hard to ingratiate himself and gain political power. Nick’s sexuality is also to the fore as we follow him through two relationships; with Leo who is black and working class and Wani who is very rich and Lebanese. The spectre of AIDS gradually grows as the book goes on, although it does not really affect the Fedden’s  and their political circles, nor the sections of the upper class they mix with. It’s all beautifully written and Hollinghurst captures an aspect of the culture of the time very well. Nick is an amiable narrator who seems to drift through the book without being too greatly affected by it all.
Inevitably comparisons have been made with other works. I can see the similarities to Brideshead Revisited, less so to Maurice. The more obvious comparison is to Powell’s Dance to the Music of Time series, but it doesn’t have the scope and depth Powell gave to his series.
There was, for me, hollowness at the centre. Nick is amiable, but for me his character is summed up by an incident near the end of the book. He goes into a bar and sees someone he had a relationship with earlier in the book. This someone is gaunt, very ill, and dying of an AIDS related illness. Nick avoids him and manages to leave without being seen. He manages to drift through the lives of the Fedden’s and their circle with few moral qualms. I do remember the 80s; I was living in the north of England, mostly in working class and mining areas; the Tories and Thatcher were the enemy. It was difficult to engage with any of the characters, apart from Leo; but it does capture a place and time.
6 and a half out of 10

Starting Minaret by Leila Aboulela

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Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry

This is an influential book; Bolano opens The Savage Detectives with an epigraph from it. Under the Volcano isn’t just a book about a drunk and a record of his drunken ramblings. Our protagonist, the British Consul, Geoffrey Firmin is not a classic hero in the Hemingway mould; craggy and square-jawed. Nor is he drowning his sorrows. His primary relationship is not with Yvonne, his estranged wife, but with alcohol.
There are oceans of allusions and references here; the book is packed with them. The Faust myth was there in abundance with references to Goethe and Marlowe. The fall from grace myth also takes us to Paradise Lost. Dante’s Inferno is the backdrop to some of the more hellish descriptions. However the allusions that interest me relate to John Bunyan, I was brought up with Bunyan; “Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners” has an epigraph and it has been pointed out that Under the Volcano is a sort of Pilgrims Progress in reverse; although there is a redemptive theme. There are equivalent companions related to those who journeyed with Pilgrim at various points. That’s a line I would like to consider if I re-read; particularly the feeling of being enmeshed/tangled.
The numbers are also important; the novel takes place on the Day of the Dead one year apart; there are 12 chapters; signifying 12 hours and 12 months. Books have been written about all this and many academic essays produced.
It seemed to me that disintegration was one of the underlying themes; the world is beginning to disintegrate. It is 1938 and the world is almost at war. The alcoholic disintegration is also well written; Lowry had some experience of this! Alcoholics who drink long enough and hard enough develop a type of dementia (known as Korsakoff’s syndrome) and some of Firmin’s experiences feel a little like this and his conversation reminds me a little of people I meet with this condition (in structure rather than content). There are also contradictions here; redemption and loss, ascent and descent, identity and annihilation; I could go on. The atmosphere and heat you can cut and it exudes noir film of the 30s and 40s.
If I live long enough to read this again I think I will read it with Bunyan to pick up more of the crossovers.
8 and a half out of 10

Starting A Harlot's Progress by David Dabydeen

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The Passion According to G.H. by Clarice Lispector

How to review this! Much more introspective than The Hour of the Star. G.H. means genero humano; basically human kind; otherwise we don’t know her name. She is reflecting on something that happened the day before. The premise is fairly simple G.H. is well to do; lives in a penthouse and has a maid who has just left. She decides to clean the maids room which she expects to be cluttered. The room however is clean apart from some drawings on the wall; a man, a woman and a dog. There is also a wardrobe with the door slightly ajar. Out of the door is emerging a cockroach; G.H. slams the door and splits the body of the cockroach. The white innards begin to ooze out. G.H. has what might be termed an existential crisis and seeing the white matter, she perceives this as a type of elemental matter and puts it in her mouth. That’s the plot.
This is a description of a crisis of being; most of us have them at some point. Lispector dissects it and lays it out before the reader. The structure is neat; the last sentence of the chapter is the first sentence of the next chapter. I saw some parallels with the Kafka story Metamorphosis, although the protagonist does not become the cockroach but she does take its essence into her. I saw more parallels with Camus’ Myth of Sisyphus; the absurdity of the revolt of the flesh. But also the religious imagery gives a Catholic backdrop as well. It feels a little like the accounts of medieval mystics who have been locked away in their cells for way too long with too little food and social contact. Except it is in a modern setting and is more immediate. The metaphors and allusions can be reworked in a number of ways; I’ve seen the penthouse room described as a minaret above the desert and the wardrobe as a sarcophagus (New York Times) ; but the Brazilian jungle is never far away.
Although the religious imagery is present and especially that of the mass and ingesting the body of Christ; I found no sense of transcendence. Plenty of immanence and so I think the spirituality here is probably secular. It was an interesting journey and it made me think in the same way I had to when I first encountered existentialism. I didn’t enjoy it as much as The Hour of the Star because for me it did not have the same power. For me the introspection has little use in and of itself; unless it leads to some other connection, but it’s great stuff and will need to be re-read.

8 and a half out of 10

Starting Sam Selvon The Lonely Londoners

[bobblybear]

 Out of the door is emerging a cockroach; G.H. slams the door and splits the body of the cockroach. The white innards begin to ooze out. G.H. has what might be termed an existential crisis and seeing the white matter, she perceives this as a type of elemental matter and puts it in her mouth. That’s the plot.

 

Sounds like an interesting book, but this part just turned my stomach!

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Not to be read close to meal time Bobbly!!

Minaret by Leila Aboulela

This is a simple and clearly written story which takes a different look at the tensions within Islam, between men and women and life as an immigrant. Najwa is born into a high-ranking family in Sudan; she is a Muslim, but a secular one which consists mostly of good works. Her father is a business man who is closely connected to the regime. Najwa is studying to go to university and her life is westernised and privileged. She meets Anwar, also studying, but he is radical and left wing. He teases her about her family and connections. Then there is a coup and Najwa, her brother and mother flee to Britain; her father is arrested and hung. Over time Najwa’s life disintegrates; her mother dies, her brother is imprisoned for drug related offences. She meets Anwar again and they have a relationship, but she discovers his view of it is very different to hers and she is left humiliated. This takes the story from the mid 80s to the early 90s. The narrative jumps between the mid 2000s and earlier so the plot is not revealed in a linear way.
Najwa becomes increasingly religious and over time takes work as a maid to wealthy Middle Eastern families and starts to wear the hijab. Najwa works for one particular family as a maid/childminder and becomes involved in some of the complex relationships within the household.
What I found most interesting was the behind the scenes in the women’s side of the mosque, which provided insight in the community of women, which was gentle and supportive. This was in contrast to the men’s side; which although we don’t see it, we sense the different atmosphere and the tensions and much more competitive and aggressive form of religion. This has a particular effect on Tamar, the young man in the household Najwa works for.
The usual assumptions that a westernised approach to life is always better and that Islam is fundamentally problematic are challenged. The growth of Najwa as a character is interesting as is her interactions with the other characters. Essentially, apart from being a story of personal change and adaption to circumstance Aboulela reminds us that the issue of extremism is more of an issue in the community of men, rather than in the community of women. It is also a window into a hidden life in the women’s section of the mosque which is communal, supportive and often centred around children. It was a refreshing perspective, a well put together novel, which adds a great deal to the general debate about the interface of religion, culture and politics which continues in all mixed societies.

8 out of 10

Starting The Road Home by Rose Tremain

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The Night Life of the Gods by Thorne Smith

I must admit, I knew very little about Thorne Smith before I picked this one up as a second hand penguin book. It is an oddity and Thorne Smith is much better known in America. He wrote semi-science fiction/fantasy novels. His best known creation is Topper, a much more well-known novel and a ghost story. Smith is a comic novelist, and has been compared to P G Wodehouse.
This offering is set in and around New York. It concerns Hunter Hawk a middle aged and eccentric inventor. He is plagued by his sister, brother-in-law and nephew who disapprove of him, but likes his niece. He invents a small portable device that can turn living things into stone and vice versa. After some fun with his family he meets a leprechaun and his daughter. He strikes up a relationship with the daughter (a mere 900 years old). They journey to New York with Hunter’s niece and her boyfriend after some unfortunate incidents at a party.
In a museum Hunter has the bright idea of bringing to life some statues of Greek gods. He chooses Diana, Hebe, Venus, Bacchus, Mercury, Neptune, Perseus and Apollo. A series of adventures follows which mainly involve lots of alcohol, fighting, sex (not explicit), fish and casual shoplifting and pickpocketing. A series of what might be described as high jinks follows.
This isn’t P G Wodehouse and isn’t really that funny. The plot has enough holes to steer a supertanker through. It’s formulaic and some good ideas are badly used. I think my 13/14 year old self may have enjoyed this more. It is essentially farce and comic book and very much of its time.
5 and a half out of 10

Starting A Month in the Country by J L Carr

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The Lonely Londoners by Sam Selvon

I’m reading a biography of V S Naipaul at the moment and reading about his Caribbean Voices period reminded me of this book, which I’ve been meaning to read for some time. Like Naipaul, Selvon was from Trinidad and was trying to make a living as a writer in Britain in the 1950s.
This is a record of the Windrush generation who came to Britain to work after the Second World War; their trials and tribulations, searching for work, trying to make ends meet (the section about the pigeons and seagulls is hilarious), finding somewhere to live, dealing with racism, living and loving.
The novel switches between characters with a central narrative voice and uses the slang of the time. There are some remarkable passages and some telling descriptions of relations between communities and the sense of being alien. It is a series of snapshots written in an almost stream of consciousness way. It describes the disillusionment and broken dreams with a sharp humour. The descriptions of the English summer are very good. The attitudes to white women were illuminating and troubling; black women were almost invisible (apart from the wonderful Tanty).
There is a great rhythm and musicality to this book and even when times are hard and life is struggle, there is a sense of optimism. It is a window into another world and for me could have been longer. It is a novel of great warmth and heart and it opens a window onto pivotal time in London’s history. Highly recommended.
8 and a half out of 10

Starting The Catcher in the Rye

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A Harlot's Progress by David Dabydeen

David Dabydeen is a Guyanese novelist who is not as well known as he should be. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (the second West Indian writer to be a member; the first being V S Naipaul) and has won numerous awards for his poetry and novels. He is currently the Guyanese ambassador to China.
This novel takes its starting point from Hogarth’s series of portraits named A Harlot’s Progress (1732). In the second print there is a black slave boy and Dabydeen takes the slave boy and weaves a novel around him and some of the other characters.
This is a retelling of the story of slavery and a telling of the black boy’s (named Mungo) tales. Dabydeen takes all the tropes and received wisdom and subverts and retells them; making some powerful points on the way.
The tale is told by Mungo as an old man to a Mr Pringle, an abolitionist who is looking for a sensational story to help with the abolitionist cause. In terms of time the series of paintings by Hogarth was in 1732 when Mungo was about 16. He is telling his tale in the 1780s or 90s. Mungo doesn’t want his story to be appropriated by the white abolitionists so he tells and retells it in a seemingly contradictory way using myth, legend and tribal tradition. The contradictions all relate to the time in Africa before he was captured and transported to Britain. As Mungo sails in the slaver his tale seems to become clearer and more traditional in nature until he reaches Britain when it becomes a westernised narrative.
Mungo tells stories about his childhood in Africa, about his village; Mungo appears to be the only one who survived the capture and the voyage. He tells stories of his mother, father, the women who cared for him, the villagers (each with their own role). The stories appear contradictory and have a strong mystical/magic realist element. The notion of what is true almost becomes irrelevant as Mungo seems to become a repository for all the tribe’s stories.
Mungo survives the voyage because he becomes a favourite of the captain; a sexual favourite. Although he is beaten, raped and branded he is better off than his peers who are below deck and subjected to awful conditions and treatment; the descriptions are vivid and powerful. The deceased villagers come back to Mungo to give him advice, tell him stories and try to ensure they are not forgotten; their voices are unique and magical. Manu dies trying to swim back to Africa; now when he comes back and speaks to Mungo, “Instead of words, fish tumble out, gorgeous and bizarre and dreadful in shape and hue”.
The narrative describes the voyage to Britain, followed by a period of time being looked after by Betty, who was preparing him for sale. His relationship with Betty was unpredictable as her behaviour was shaped by her own particular guilt. Mungo is bought by Lord Montague for his wife; where he is treated as a pet by her, but mistreated by the servants who resent him. He escapes from a difficult situation (with various bits of finery) and goes to assist a Jewish quack doctor who is treating a group of prostitutes; here introducing the prostitute portrayed by Hogarth.
The narrative voice varies between first and third person and there is a tension between told and untold; what is told depends on the motivation of the telling. Mr Pringle and Thistlewood the sea captain are actually part fictional, part real. Mungo knows what Pringle wants to hear so he has to edit Thisltewood’s paedophile leanings and Gideon the Jew’s humanity as these were not what he wanted to hear. There are many interesting byways to explore; at various times Mungo is renamed; Noah and Perseus; both names redolent with meaning. Dabydeen also draws an interesting comparison between white and black women when talking about Lady Montague “she is a woman like my mother, like Rima and all the others, who are sent away from view by the order of men”.
There is no romantic interpretation of sexuality, but more Blake’s tension of pain and love, violation and adoration. It is a post-modern retelling, reconstruction/deconstruction and Dabydeen has done an excellent job of posing questions in new and telling ways. A thought-provoking novel that is well worth looking up.
9 out of 10

Starting The Public Image by Muriel Spark

Edited May 10, 2014 by Books do furnish a room

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Ragged Banners by Ethel Mannin

I bought an old penguin edition of this in my favourite local bookshop. I vaguely recognised the name. Ethel Mannin is apparently best remembered for affairs with W B Yeats and Bertrand Russell. What she should be remembered for is her six volumes of autobiography, numerous short stories, travel books and about thirty novels. She even wrote children’s books in her older age. She also wrote philosophical and political books. Politically she was left leaning; initially supporting the Labour Party and then Independent Labour Party. Disillusionment with the Soviet Union led her to espouse anarchism under the influence of Emma Goldman. Mannin argued for an end to blood sports and capital punishment and in 1941 wrote a book arguing for what would now be called a green agenda. She led an interesting life and from what I can gather was an original and provocative thinker. I just wonder why she seems to have dropped into obscurity.
Ragged Banners is an interesting novel; easy to read with a few surprises. It is principally about Anthony Starridge, born of middle class parents and educated at Oxford. He is blond and blue eyed, described as beautiful. However he does not relate well to others physically or in a social way; his life is essentially interior. He is moved by nature and is a natural ascetic. The novel documents his attempts to find a place in the world, first in England, then Italy, then Germany. His time in Italy in a remote cottage has shades of Thoreau. There is an excellent supporting cast. Lattimer is suitably nihilistic and cynical; but he is rather perceptive. Mary Thane is also very interesting; unconventional in many ways; repudiating marriage, bur seeking companionship and relationship. There is a good deal of what would have been called bohemian relationships at the time. Lattimer and Thane periodically sleep with in each other; not because they are in a relationship, but because it suits them. There is an edge in the Lattimer/Thane relationship though; there is a undercurrent which suggests that this is how the men want things, but the women would organise things differently. Mannin has the ability to imply a great deal. She also has the ability to turn tables; Mary Thane has what can only be described as a “diet coke moment” looking at a gardener from her balcony. This appears mundane now, but was probably rather unexpected at the time and making the point that women have the right to chose their objects of desire.
However Starridge is the centre of the novel. He has been described as a poet hero and a noble savage; but this misses the point. Mannin builds up a picture of a person of the mind and nature; not really reachable by ordinary human contact and relationship. He is moved only by nature and simplicity; a trope popular at the time. Both Lattimer and Thane try to reach him in different ways and both fail. When Max does break through the shell, when Starridge is in Germany disaster is not far off. Mannin with a really savage and surprising twist shatters the idea of the nobility of this way of life and making very strongly the point that the community of others is at the centre of life. Is Starridge hero or villain is the question the reader is left with.
There are flaws, but this was a good novel and I am very surprised that she is not much better known than some of the more mediocre male writers of the time; although perhaps I am not surprised. She does deserve to be better known and i will certainly keep an eye open for more of her work; especially her autobiographies.

7 and a half out of ten

Sfarfing Textermination by Christine Brooke-Rose
 

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A Month in the Country by J L Carr

I intend to read some novels that are first World War based for this year’s anniversary and this one is the first. It is a novella by a rather eccentric teacher turned writer which absolutely captures a time and place. The plot is straightforward. Tom Birkin is a WW1 veteran who was injured at Paschendaele and is troubled by his memories and dreams and by a failed marraige. It is the summer of 1920 and Birkn has taken a job in the remote Yorkshire village of Oxgodby. He is to uncover a medieval mural that has been painted over for many years. His living accommodation is the belfry of the Church. Nearby another war veteran, James Moon is digging for a lost grave which may hols some sort of secret because it was placed outside of the churchyard. He also has his scars from the war.
There is a full cast of local characters; the local vicar and his beautiful wife and the rival Wesleyan Methodists. Carr, being brought up in the Wesleyan tradition captures the chapel rituals and attendees very well. Carr said he wanted the effect to be something like Hardy’s Under the Greenwood Tree in relation to the local characters.
The novella is beautifully written. It is a hot summer and has the nostalgic feel of soporific summers long gone and barely imagined. It feels a little like Cider with Rosie; the end of an age. The remoteness of the village means there is a lag with the changes taking place in society. It feels like the end of something and Birkin feels that as well. Carr illustrates rural crafts and customs about to disappear. He even mentions the food. Seed Cake!! My grandmother used to make seed cake; it’s rarely seen now. It is about love, loss, pain and healing; but it is all subtly done.
Birkin is looking back from 1978 and I am reminded of Hartley’s quote “The past is a foreign country, they do things differently there”. There are also interesting reflections about art and the relationship between the painter and the latter day restorer. There is potential for Birkin to have a relationship, but that would have spoilt the subtlety of the whole thing. It is a wonderful, subtle and heartbreaking novel; one of the best in this genre I am sure.

9 and a half out of 10

Starting Moths by Rosalind Ashe
 

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The Public Image by Muriel Spark

An interesting novella about an actress, Annabel Christopher, who lives in Rome and whose star is rising. Her husband is jealous of her increasing fame and begins to despise her, believing her to be vacuous and failing to understand her fame. It is difficult to avoid spoilers as the whole plot is written on the back of the book. Annabel appears to be rather unaware at the beginning, but by the end the reader begins to doubt this. The coup de grace is that her husband sets up a party at their flat without her knowledge, and whilst it goes on he takes his own life leaving damaging and accusatory notes. Will Annabel’s image survive?
It is a clever and amusing satire on celebrity culture and the tension between real and fake identity. It is also, incidentally the inspiration for the name of John Lydon’s post Sex Pistols band. Spark is quite clinical and detached, almost surgical as she lays out the unfolding events. There are few likeable characters apart from Annabel and there is a certain ambiguity about her. It’s a brief book and has a 1960s feel to it and mirrors a little of Spark’s own experience.
Although it is a comedy of manners, it is also a blast at the cult of celebrity and marriage. It’s a good read and most of the men are truly awful!
6 and a half out of 10

Starting Jack Maggs by Peter Carey

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The world is what it is; the authorised biography of V S Naipaul

How do you solve a problem like Naipaul? I’ll stop the Sound of Music references straight away; but this will be a difficult review to write. Naipaul is a Nobel laureate and is certainly one of the great writers of the twentieth century. Notably irascible and difficult to pin down. Accused of a great deal, including racism and imperialism; more British than the British, a fan of Margaret Thatcher. He wrote some great novels and a good deal of reportage from his extensive travelling. He was an acute observer, especially of ordinary people and their thoughts and feelings. His views have often been controversial and he began writing about political Islam long before most others. He also had a complex private life; marrying Pat Hale, a woman he met at Oxford. He also conducted a twenty year affair with an Anglo-Argentine woman, Margaret; never deciding between them and making contradictory promises to both. His relationship with Margaret was sometimes violent and she was seen with bruising round her eyes on a number of occasions. He admitted in a newspaper interview in the 1980s that he had regularly visited prostitutes for many years in the 1950s and 60s. Pat found out by reading the interview. When Pat was dying in the mid 1990s Naipaul travelled to Pakistan where he met Nadira, a journalist. They fell in love. It is recorded that Naipaul felt Pat wasn’t dying quickly enough. A few days before she died he told her about Nadira and that she would be his new companion. Nadira moved into Naipual’s house the day after Pat’s cremation and they married a couple of months later. Margaret, the mistress, found out about the wedding from the papers. How do we know all of the private details? When Naipaul agreed to allow Patrick French to write his biography he gave him access to absolutely everything, with no restrictions; including Pat’s diaries which detailed her feelings of inadequacy and Naipaul’s treatment of her. All of the skeletons in the cupboard were to be open to view. That is the contrariness of the man, and that is why this biography is so brilliant. The Guardian review sums it up; “Must be the frankest authorised autobiography of anyone alive and in possession of their senses.”
Naipaul is a contradiction; he lived in Britain as a struggling writer, experiencing the racism that was commonplace, and in a relationship with a white woman. He arrived in Britain having won a scholarship to Oxford from his native Trinidad. He is a perceptive observer of people and his writing is at times brilliant. Does that excuse his treatment of others? For me, No. But I recognise his sense of being an outsider and not belonging anywhere, his ambivalent relationship with India; changing from quite negative in his early work, to much more positive in later years. Here is not the place to talk about his work; French does that in detail and he is a perceptive analyst. I admired Naipaul’s tenacity and perception, but I wouldn’t like to know him or be in a relationship with him and Pat Hale’s story is so very sad. She deserved better.

9 out of 10

Starting South from Grenada by Gerald Brennan
 

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The Catcher in the Rye by J D Salinger

This is another of those books I should have read as a teenager, but never got round to. I hope my teenage self would have been just as irritated by it as I was. However I recognise feelings about this are mixed and friends on here seem to love and hate it equally.  It’s been one of the most regularly banned books in US schools for its language and “adult themes” and at one point for being part of a communist plot!
The plot and themes are well known; but it’s the voice of Holden Caulfield that marks out the book. The narrow timescale and scope put a heavy burden on the character of Holden, which for me the character couldn’t carry. He starts and ends the book as an irritating, self absorbed and whining brat and there appears to be little development and spending the whole book inside his head is a painful experience.
I need to move onto something entirely different.

4 out of 10

Starting Efuru by Flora Nwapa
 

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Moths by Rosalind Ashe

Another penguin from my favourite bookshop. This one is an oddity, a ghost story. I must admit I hadn’t heard of Rosalind Ashe; she’s written a few other novels and a couple of books on Literary Houses. This was her first novel, I think, and was praised by Iris Murdoch.
The plot does stretch believability. Harris is an Oxford don in his late 30s and a bachelor. He finds and old house on the market; grand and beyond his price range. He spends a good deal of time in its grounds (and in the house) while it is on the market. He meets the potential purchasers, James and Nemo (Latin for no one) Boyce and befriends them, falling in love with Nemo. Things drift along well with good descriptions of the gardens and the grandeur of the house and Harris getting along well with the Boyces’. Nemo becomes obsessed with the house and how it should look and slightly odd things begin to happen; mostly related to a former resident, Sarah Moore, a regency actress. Harris begins to believe Sarah Moore is still around. To cut a ,ong story short; Nemo begins to bump off men having had sexual intercourse with them first (they are the moths). Harris is a potential victims, but survives and realises that Sarah Moore has taken over Nemo (?!?). Instead of doing the obvious and telling the police, he decides his love for Nemo overrides this and he wants to save her/help her etc. Events spiral with a few twists and turns. It’s all a bit mad and strange.
I don’t mind a good ghost story; Susan Hill and M R James being among my favourites. Virago have also published an excellent compilation. This is ok, but the notion of a homicidal female bumping off deluded males led by the one thing males are usually led by is a little formulaic and the ending leaves much open. However the late great Dennis Potter was working on a film version of Moths when he died (called Midnight Movie) and I do like much of his work. It’s interesting, but too much focussed on Harris and too little on Nemo for it to work entirely.

6 and a half out of 10

Starting Linda Tressel by Anthony Trollope

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Textermination by Christine Brooke-Rose
This is a comedic satire that pokes fun at literary criticism. A large number of characters form literature congregate together in a Californian hotel for a conference/gathering. They meet to pray for their continued existence in the mind of the readers and therefore for their own existence. The list of characters is impressive with escapees from Austen, Dickens, Twain, Melville, Eliot, Flaubert, Hardy, Pynchon, Bellow and so on. The list is lengthy. After a particular piece of mayhem all the detectives wandering around are also fictional (the usual suspects), but also from film and TV. It was quite surreal having Columbo questioning major fictional characters. The book was written not long after the Rushdie affair and some of the characters from the Satanic Verses are also present. There are also one or two real characters like Goethe and numerous members of the classical canon (Aeneas, Odysseus etc). It’s fun to try to recognise the characters and novels and Brooke-Rose throws in one or two of her own; one of whom reads her name on a list of characters no longer read and promptly disappears. A wry comment about her own failure to become part of the literary canon. Of course the literary canon is now potentially so large that it is impossible to be familiar with it all and Brooke-Rose is playing with Leavis’s idea that one could be acquainted with all the literature that mattered. Here, of course you have to ask who decides what matters and a whole new debate starts.
There are some comic scenes/meetings: Becky Sharp talking to Friday, Rev Casuabon going to a lecture he thinks is about him, only to discover it’s about his namesake from Foucault’s Pendulum. There are philosophical discussions about Derrida, multiculturalism and many other things and to juxtapose them with the thoughts of JR about the temporary nature of TV fame is just hilarious. A comment on the mortality of everything apart from the all-powerful reader/watcher. There isn’t a great deal of plot, but you don’t really notice and its great fun. There is a serious point being made and lots of sharp one-liners; a must for any serious reader.

8 and a half out of 10

Starting The Autobiography of Alice B Toklas by Gertrude Stein
 

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The Road Home by Rose Tremain

This is the tale of Lev an immigrant from an unnamed Eastern European accession country comes to London to seek his fortune, He is 42, his wife has recently died and he leaves his daughter, Maya with his mother. There is an element of the fairy tale about this and we see London as a foreign and unfamiliar land through Lev’s eyes.
Most of the people who are kindest to Lev are also similar to him. Lev works in a variety of restaurants and take aways and for a brief while on the land in East Anglia. He also helps out in a care home for older people, manages to fall in and out of love and finds a friend in a divorced Irishman called Christy. Lev sends money home and develops a dream of returning to his own country to open his own restaurant; if only if he could raise enough money. 
There you have it; there are some engaging characters, especially Christy and Rudi (Lev’s best friend back home) and it does feel a little like a fairytale. There are a couple of coincidences and plot turns which reinforce this. At times the dialogue doesn’t sit easily and there is one particular moment of violence which strikes a discordant note. The reader spends most of the book in Lev’s head and he is likeable until one act which feels very out of character and is difficult to reconcile with what has gone before. Apart from that one note the characters are flawed and loveable and there is a sense of community amongst the poor and oppressed which is illuminating and uplifting, sad and melancholy at the same time.
There were some serious flaws and irritations but I’m a sucker for a fairy tale and it provided a different perspective on my country which was welcome and thought-provoking.
7 out of 10

Starting Bonjour Tristesse by Francois Sagan

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Efuru by Flora Nwapa

Published in 1966, this apparently was the first book written by a Nigerian woman to be published (this is from Wiki so take with a pinch of salt). It is set in the same area and tradition as Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. The blurb with the book sums it up;
“Efuru, beautiful and respected, is loved and deserted by two ordinary undistinguished husbands.”
The setting is rural and Efuru is a woman who is independent and competent and trades for herself. The writing style is very similar to Things Fall Apart and if you enjoyed that you would certainly enjoy this. Like Achebe, Nwapa commentates rather than judges, but the messages are clear and this book is about the society of women in the same way Things Fall Apart is about the society of men. In my judgement this novel is every bit as good as Things Fall Apart and yet it is hardly known.  This is not because of a difference in quality; they are both great books and in my opinion Efuru is marginally better. Perhaps because it is written by a woman? Surely not?
The story opens a window onto customs and traditions going back centuries which are beginning to die out with younger generations and the encroachment of white culture and medicine. There is a not too graphic but very powerful description of genital mutilation. Efuru is a wonderfully strong and vibrant character; apart from her father the men in her life are pretty useless and she concludes she is better off without them. She appears to be unable to produce lots of children and this is a source of sadness for her but she finds a role model in the form of the goddess of the lake who is beautiful, powerful, and independent and without children.
This is a great novel; much too neglected and well worth looking out for.

9 out of 10

Starting The Natural Order by Ursula Bentley

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Linda Tressel by Anthony Trollope

I keep coming back to Trollope because I increasingly feel he is one of the better Victorian novelists and in my opinion he writes female characters better than any other Victorian male. This was one of his more experimental novels; he published it anonymously and it was much shorter than usual. Generally Trollope takes a chapter to introduce each of the main characters in a leisurely way. Here he does not have the space to do that and as a result some of the characterisation is not as sharp as usual. Trollope described it as a romance; it certainly is not (more of a Shakespearean tragedy).
The story is set in Germany (Trollope is never quite as sharp when he sets his novels abroad). Linda Tressel is about 21 and an orphan. She lives in a house (a rather nice house) left to her by her father. She has been brought up by her aunt Madame (he mixes up his madames and frauleins a good deal) Staubach who is very religious in a hard-line Protestant Calvinist kind of way. Also living in the house is Peter Steinmarc, an old friend of her father’s who is in his early 50s and single. These are the major characters. Ludovic Valcarm is a young man who is reputed to be something of a reprobate because of his radical political ideas. There is an almost understanding between Linda and Ludovic; unstated but potential.
The deeply religious Madame Staubach sees the possibility of the relationship between Linda and Ludovic and recognises that it would be a deeply sinful match. She realises that Peter Steinmarc (a man who Linda despises)would be a sensible and steady match and would give the house a sensible master. There is pretty much the whole plot; Linda fights against the match but is pulled by duty to her elders and religion. Trollope has a genius for description of characters at times; he describes Steinmarc as honest “with a sort of second-class honesty”. Trollope is taking a swipe at the middle and upper class system of arranged marriage (as he often does) and at strict fundamentalist religion (another regular target).
Linda is an embattled character, so affected by her upbringing taht she is unable to overcome her scruples and tell everyone else where to go; it is after all her house! What Trollope also manages to do is not to make Madame Staubach totally unsympathetic. The reader is privy to her inner struggle to follow her religion and do the right thing and her innate sympathy with her niece which she feels she cannot show. The men, as often with Trollope are motivated by greed and power or by misplaced ideals (Valcarm may be a radical, but he hasn’t a clue about personal relationships).
And so the tragedy is played out. Not Trollope at his best and there are flaws; he is better when giving himself space to develop characters and ideas. However it is an interesting addition and not without merit.

7 out of 10

Starting Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin

[julie]

Books

 

All great reviews. You are reading like a house on fire ! I just wanted to stop in and say howdy -- keep up the good work, you're doing great !

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Thank you Julie; it is much appreciated!

Jack Maggs by Peter Carey

This is an intelligent reworking of Great Expectations from the point of view of the convict; the eponymous Jack Maggs. Carey has a habit of doing this in his novels. The Unusual life of Tristan Smith relates to Sterne and Oscar and Lucinda is a reworking of Gosse’s Father and Son.
Carey populates the novel with fantastical characters and fully immerses himself in Dickensian London with some vivid descriptive passages. Jack Maggs returns from Australia in secret (he has been transported for life); just before he was transported an orphan boy Henry Phipps did him a good turn and Maggs has become his benefactor allowing him the life of a gentleman. In this novel, unlike the original the Pip (or Phipps) character is thoroughly unlikeable. Maggs takes a position as a footman to bide his time and is brought to the attention of a struggling writer Tobias Oates (in actuality Dickens). The plot takes many twists and turns and vividly drawn minor characters come and go with great frequency.
Carey is more open than Dickens could be and we have homosexuality, sexual passion, the brutality of the prison system, child prostitution and the abortion trade. There are powerful descriptions of Maggs as a child being taught how to steal and being sent down a chimney for the first time. The Victorian passion for mesmerism and magnetism and there is some wonderful tomfoolery around this. Oates (the Dickens character) doesn’t come out of this very well. He is a trickster journalist with an already complex private life who steals Maggs’s story for his own purposes. There is plenty of melodrama, violence, twists and turns, an unlikely and surprising heroine, lots of secrets (some confessed, some not), grief and loss. The poor and downtrodden and their lives feature heavily as they do in Dickens.  Carey is an Australian author and although this is an homage, it is also, I think a counterblast and a spot of revenge done with a good deal of verve and panache.
This is an enjoyable reworking that trundles along at a great pace; an enjoyable and not too demanding read.

7 and a half out of 10

Starting Regeneration by Pat Barker
 

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Bonjour Tristesse by Francois Sagan

Written when Sagan was still a teenager it is the story of Cecile, a seventeen year old girl who lives with her amoral and dissolute father who has a different woman in tow every two months or so. This year seems to be the year for vapid teenagers; having read A Clockwork Orange and The Catcher in the Rye. Admittedly this was better than the latter and at least here there is some self knowledge and development over the period of the book.
There are few players. Cecile is 17, rich, spoilt and supposed to be studying for university over the summer. She is staying for the summer in a villa in the South of France near the beach; there is no studying. Raymond, her father, widowed many years ago has a series of much younger lovers who each last a couple of months or so. Cecile is lacking a mother figure; she is also, it might be argued lacking a father figure as well! Elsa is Raymond’s latest love interest; 29 and red haired with a tendency to sunburn which makes her a figure of ridicule for Cecile. Cyril is an older man with a boat (only 26, but at 17 that is ancient!) who is interested in Cecile; a potential lover. Anne is a sophisticated woman in her early 40s, an acquaintance of Raymond and friend of his late wife, who comes to stay and displaces the young lover. Raymond and she decide to marry and Cecile sees her idyllic lifestyle about to disappear. Anne treats Cecile as a child and expects her to actually do some studying. Cecile resents her and hatches a plan with unforeseen consequences.
Most of the characters are immature; adolescent even and the only person who behaves like an adult in the book (Anne) is the centre of resentment. This may be because it was written by a teenager. Cecile appears to be looking for a parent, but the reality of an adult creating boundaries leaves her cold.
It’s an easy read but ultimately the troubles of the idle rich are rather boring and predictable and it was difficult to have real sympathy for any of the characters.

6 and a half out of 10

Starting The Juniper Tree by Barbara Comyns
 

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South from Granada by Gerald Brenan

The First World War had a powerful effect on many of its participants; Gerald Brenan was one of those. Brenan came from an Anglo-Irish military family. He had the usual public school education, hated it and was bullied. He was expected to go into the army, but at 18 elected instead to walk to China with a friend John Hope-Johnstone. They made it to the Balkans, but events intervened. Brenan served in the army for the whole of the war. In 1919 he decided to move to Spain and chose the remote Alpujurras district in southern Spain. He also selected an even more remote village, Yegen. He stayed there on and off for some years and here he recounts his experiences.
Brenan was a good observer and documenter; his descriptive powers are excellent. The 1920s in Yegen were in time before the disruption of the civil war. Its very remoteness meant that modern life had not reached it and the lifestyle and culture had remained the same for centuries. Brenan wanted to write and he transported (by mule) several hundred books to his remote hideaway. His plan was to immerse himself in the classics and learn to write properly. He had a small amount of money and a small pension from the army and had to live frugally.  His journey was difficult and he had no set destination, stumbling on Yegen by accident. He immerses himself in village life and is accepted by the local inhabitants; a willingness to learn the language and to be hospitable and accepting all helped. The lifestyle was agricultural and the only food imported from outside was fish from the sea, a day’s mule ride away.
It has been argued that Brenan’s choice of home and his exposition of its life and culture was an implicit criticism of what he had left behind. Unlike the reserved “my home is my castle” middle class British, everyone knew everyone else’s business and life took place on the street. The only other expat in the area was an embittered Scottish alcoholic, who despite having a Spanish wife, refused to learn the language. Although he was only nine miles away, Brenan only visited once.
Brenan was on the edge of the Bloomsbury group.  He was a close friend of Ralph Partridge and had an affair with Dora Carrington. Brenan describes various visits to his new domicile. Lytton Strachey, Carrington and Partridge visited and really didn’t enjoy themselves; Strachey in particular missing “mod cons”. The Woolfs were better guests, not minding the asceticism and loving the countryside and also providing intellectual stimulus.
Brenan provides vivid portraits of local residents. He describes rather than judges; Brenan’s landlord was a particularly reprehensible character, especially in his attitude to women. There are descriptions of relationships between the sexes which depended heavily on long established ritual before and after marriage. Village society depended on the rules being kept and generally they were. There was little local justice and those who crossed boundaries tended to be the local landowners/worthies (twas ever thus). However collectively the community did force some recompenses as with one woman who had been taken advantage of who received her olive oil in larger quantities than anyone else. It is an odd story, but Brenan as he usually does, leaves the reader to make their minds up about the characters described.
Brenan also describes in detail the local plants and animals, the topography, archaeology and the perils of travelling. He describes visits to Grenada and travels in the local area. All in all it is an engaging account, written by someone who loved Spain. Brenan wrote a great deal more about his life in Spain and the civil war. He was only allowed back into Spain in 1953 because of his criticism of the Franco Regime. He lived in southern Spain for the rest of his life.

7 and a half out of 10

Starting A Time of Gifts by Patrick Leigh Fermor