Books do furnish a room Posted July 30, 2011 Author Share Posted July 30, 2011 A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole I think this is a love it or hate it book and I know many people just didn't get it. I did love it and Ignatius J Reilly is a brilliant comic creation amongst many other hilarious characters. The book is set in New Orleans in the early 60s and tells the story of Reilly, a "slob" who is forced by his mother to seek work and connect with the world. Reilly, though self absorbed, with many unfortunate personal habits, is an innocent with a medieval mind who really does want to change the world. There are some wonderful comic episodes. The part where Ignatius decides to save the world through degeneracy is hilarious; persuade all politicians and military to be gay, then they would have other things to occupy them rather than conflict and oppression. There are lots of hidden and not so hidden references to other works. On the whole not a great deal happens, but that is not the point; it is ordinary life drawn in an extraordinary way and Reilly is really a shakesperean character in his breadth and vision. 8 out of 10 Starting Tortilla Flat by Steinbeck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vodkafan Posted July 30, 2011 Share Posted July 30, 2011 (edited) Human Traces by Sebastian Faulks On the whole I enjoyed this; it was a wide scope, from the 1860s to the 1920s and ranges across Europe the US and Africa. It tells the story of two men, Thomas Midwinter and Jacques Rebiere and their dreams of working out how the human mind functions and solving the problem of madness. There are lengthy descriptions of nineteenth century psychiatry and the development of some modern ideas with the theory of evolution and the human condition thrown in. The book is at its strongest when dealing with human relationships; friendship, love, loss, betrayal and family. The beginning and end of the novel are particularly strong. The middle plodded a little and there are some overlong passages about anatomy and psychiatry which are superfluous. There are also a couple of plot lines which are not followed through which were intriguing, but left open. Not as good as Birdsong, in my opinion, but an epic novel dealing with life's mysteries with great sadness at the heart. The last paragraph is heart rending. Are Midwinter and Rebiere historical characters Books Do or are they totally fictional? This books sounds interesting. I read a book last year that had Freud and Jung in a murder mystery...just checked : The Interpretation of Murder by Jed Rubenfield Edited July 30, 2011 by vodkafan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kylie Posted August 2, 2011 Share Posted August 2, 2011 A Confederacy of Dunces was such an intriguing read. I really enjoyed it but I think I need to re-read it at least a couple of times in order to really take it all in and fully appreciate it. I'll be interested in your thoughts on Tortilla Flat. I adore Steinbeck but have so far only read Of Mice and Men and The Grapes of Wrath. Have you read anything else by Steinbeck? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Books do furnish a room Posted August 2, 2011 Author Share Posted August 2, 2011 Vodkafan; Rebiere and Midwinter are fictional, but take on some of the theories around at the time. It is a good read and I would recommend it. Kylie; I have also read Of Mice and Men. I plan to read more, but it is getting round to it!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kylie Posted August 3, 2011 Share Posted August 3, 2011 I understand! It took me two tries to get into The Grapes of Wrath, but it was well worth it - a brilliant book! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Books do furnish a room Posted August 5, 2011 Author Share Posted August 5, 2011 The Man from Beijing by Hening Mankell This is the first Henning Mankell I have read and it was a disappointment. It started well and set it self up to be a good thriller then sort of just wandered off in all sorts of directions and started preaching! The story revolves around a massacre in a small hamlet in Sweden. There is a link to a female judge in another part of Sweden and she becomes involved in the proceedings. The local police are dim and miss all the clues. Then the story shifts to nineteenth century China and America, eventually you realise why and are returned to the present day, to China and Africa with several more murders on the way. Eventually there is a resolution. In its favour, it was easy to read and the main character was engaging. However it was not convincing and too disjointed.I'm not really selling this am I!! 4 out of 10 Starting Tales from Firozsha Baag by Rohinton Mistry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chesilbeach Posted August 6, 2011 Share Posted August 6, 2011 (edited) Looking forward to your thoughts on Tales from Firozsha Baag. I've read a couple of books by Mistry and think he's a great writer. Edited August 6, 2011 by chesilbeach Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Books do furnish a room Posted August 18, 2011 Author Share Posted August 18, 2011 Finished Rum, Sodomy and the Lash by Hans Turley; This is quite an academic book, despite the title sounding like a quiet night in for some friends of mine. Turley examines the contemporary literature about piracy; from sensationalist accounts, court records and novels written at the time. He relies quite heavily on Defoe, who wrote a history of priacy and several relevant novels (especially the Crusoe novels and Captain Singleton. Turley draws on other historians and even that doyen of Marxist historians Christopher Hill turns up arguing that the radicals of the English Civil War may have, after the Restoration have become outlaws and pirates seeking an alternative society (possibly in the pirate El Dorado Madagascar). The evidence for this is so thin as to be transparent. This is the problem all the way through; there is little solid evidence, for what went on board ship, for homosexuality, for clues about lifestyle; although it was certainly a very masculine world and apart from society. Turley examines the virtually non-existent boundary between privateer and pirate and does his best with what he has; there are lots of interesting ideas and thought provoking asides. Much of the book examines Defoe's contribution, which is certainly ambiguous. The relationship between Singleton and Quaker William in Captain Singleton is clearly homoerotic. They swear to stay together forever, to pass as brothers and live like Greeks! Turley has some fun here with Foucault's concept of identity and heterosexual desire driving capitalism. Turley does not argue all pirates are sodomites, but with the evidence he has he provides interesting arguments, not all of which can be supported I feel. However it is worth reading for the arguments and it is a window onto a lost and barely visible world. 7 out of 10 Starting Essays on the pleasures of death; from Frued to Lacan by Ellie Ragland Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Books do furnish a room Posted August 19, 2011 Author Share Posted August 19, 2011 Finished Tales from Firozsha Baag by Rohinton Mistry This is a collection of short stories based around an apartment complex in Bombay occupied mostly by members of the Parsi community. The stories stand alone but are closely intertwined and set over a period of years, so children in the earlier stories are seen as adults later. Mistry picks out the idiosyncrasies and indelicacies of daily life; foibles and habits are laid bare. Neighbours fall out and get along. Birth and death take their place, faith, superstition and scepticism also. Ordinary life and its processes are laid bare with all its hopes and fears. This could have been banal, but was in fact brilliant with real compassion for the extraordinary ordinary people populating its pages. The nature of change, decay and aging are outlined in touching and thought provoking ways. Moving comic and thoroughly enjoyable. 9 out of 10 Starting The Horseman on the Roof by Jean Giono Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Books do furnish a room Posted August 21, 2011 Author Share Posted August 21, 2011 Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck This novel could easily be a set of short stories, a morality tale (or immorality!), a retelling of the Arthurian legends or a retelling of the gospels with a very alternative last supper! Danny and his friends (all paisanos) spend their time looking for food, wine, shelter and women and this is pretty much all they need in life to be content. Getting hold of wine is a thread through the book and its role is important; sharing your wine is true friendship and there are some excellent quotes "Two gallons is a great deal of wine, even for two paisanos. Spiritually the jugs may be graduated thus: just below the shoulder of the first bottle, serious and concentrated conversation. Two inches farther down, sweetly sad memory. Three inches more, thoughts of old and satisfactory loves. An inch, thoughts of bitter loves. Bottom of first jug, general and undirected sadness. Shoulder of the second jug, black, unholy despondency. Two fingers down, a song of death and longing. A thumb, every other song one knows. The graduations stop here, for the trail splits and there is no certainty. From this point on, anything can happen." Steinbeck has been accused of recism and stereotyping. I can understand why and the book is of its time. Howeverthere is no real malice in the portrayal of Danny and his firends. I was strongly reminded of a group of friends I had when I finished university in 1981. I was living in bedsit land as were we all and our lives revolved for a short time around food, drink, interesting liaisons (more detail on application!!) and arguing about life. The bonds were loose and people drifted in and out, but there was the same sense in the group as I found in Tortilla Flat. Ultimately friendship and wine do mean more than money. I know this isn't a substantial or important work but I loved it and its themes are universal. 7 and a half out of 10 Starting A Jealous Ghost by A N Wilson Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Books do furnish a room Posted August 25, 2011 Author Share Posted August 25, 2011 The Night Ferry by Michael Robotham; Fairly readable thriller which covers surrogacy and human trafficking. The main character is a female sikh detective. This is the third in a series but can be read as a stand alone. However reading this one has not prompted me to read the others. The characterisation did not convince me and some of the minor characters were a bit two dimensional. however it was an easy read which sent me to sleep several nights in a row. Here's a borrowed summary of the plot; DCI Alisha Barber agrees to attend a school reunion, even though she knows such occasions are often grisly ones. Alisha has received a letter from someone she hasn’t heard from in quite a while, Cate Beaumont, asking for help. Cate is pregnant and in danger – and before the two women can talk, she is hit by a speeding car (which also kills her husband). Alisha is there as she dies – and learns the pregnancy is a fake. But why the deception – and the death? With the help of an ex-associate, DI Vincent Ruiz, Alisha soon finds herself investigating a dark world of slavery and sexual trafficking. 6 out of 10 Starting the House at Riverton by Kate Morton Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Books do furnish a room Posted August 29, 2011 Author Share Posted August 29, 2011 A jealous Ghost by A N Wilson A reworking of Turn of the Screw which is bleak with an element of tragi-comedy. Sallie, an American phd student, doing her thesis on James's Turn of the Screw is alone and studying in London. She begins to be depressed and decides to take a nanny job looking after two children in a remote country house; housekeeper and all. Because this is based on Turn of the Screw you know it isn't going to end well. Sallie is so unsympathetic a character and the father of the children so unbelieveable in his sloppiness (entrusting his children to a complete stranger with unchecked references)that credulity is overstretched. This is also more of a psychological thriller than a ghost story and the ending is way too obvious. For me a ghost story is enhanced if the haunted person is generally sane and balanced rather than an emotional and psychological wreck. This just did not work . 4 out of 10 Starting Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S Thompson Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Books do furnish a room Posted September 10, 2011 Author Share Posted September 10, 2011 The horseman on the roof by Jean Giono Wonderfully written novel with a strong element of the picaresque. There is a touch of allegory/parable, adventure, romance (understated and hinted at), geoegraphy and history. The descriptions are vivid and you can feel the heat of southern France. The main protagonist is Angelo Pardi, a piedmontese colonel (but still very young), who has temporarily left Italy and is wandering around southern France looking for a friend. He is doing this in the middle of a cholera epidemic and death is ever present in the book. It is also high summer and very hot. He comes across a wide variety of people, all affected by the epidemic (for good or ill) and has a variety of companions and some clashes with authority and with frightened natives. One particular companion, a young woman stays with him for the last half of the book. The vivid descriptions are what make the book. There are some truly horrific descriptions of death by cholera. The counrtyside is described in detail and vividly. Food is an important elemnet and odours are almost smellable and the wine tasteable. Wildlife (most especially birds) comes to life in an exraordinary way; look out for the swallows and nightingales! The heat can almost be felt; even in a cold August/September. The characters Angelo comes across are all to human and appear and disappear or die very quickly. There is a strong streak of compassion running through the book. Angelo is a hero in the Jean Valjean mould who has little care for his own safety. The villians (in authority and ordinary people) are understandable and all too human. I was worried towards the end as I thought that the author might well give way to the temptation to tie up loose ends or go for the obvious. But he didn't and the ending was perfect. I would highly recommend this book! N 9 and a half out of 10 Starting Sunset Park by Paul Auster Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Books do furnish a room Posted September 17, 2011 Author Share Posted September 17, 2011 A Prayer for Owen meany by John Irving Another thought provoking and enjoyable book by Irving. Great storytelling and strong characters. The topics covered were big too; faith, doubt, fate, fathers and modern american history. Charting America in the 1950s and 1960s; hope and disillusionment. Most of all a wonderful story; you can tell Irving is an admirer of Dickens. Owen and John are two boys growing up in 1950s America. Owen kills John's mother with a baseball. They are best friends whose futures are inextricably linked. Owen believes he has a destiny, God has given him a purpose and a unique voice. The book is the working out and even the endless basketball practice has a reason. So much has been written about this that more is superfluous. A damn good read! 9 out of 10 Starting Cold Earth by Sarah Moss Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Books do furnish a room Posted September 18, 2011 Author Share Posted September 18, 2011 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S Thompson Wild and wacky; completely trashes the American Dream. On the whole I prefer Thompson as a political writer rather than a novelist, but the lucid passages are excellent. There is a great deal of criticim surrounding this book, implying it promotes drug use. Having read it I think the opposite is true, this would put you off drugs for life!! There is little in the way of plot, apart from the two protagonists spend a few days in Vegas taking copious amounts of drugs and alcohol under the guise of writing about a police convention and a race. Ralph Steadman's illustrations also add something to the lunacy. However one note of warning; reading about somone else taking drugs and getting drunk can be like watching paint dry! 7 and a half out of 10 Just starting Tolstoy and the Purple Chair by Nina Sankovitch Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Books do furnish a room Posted September 25, 2011 Author Share Posted September 25, 2011 Ulysses by James Joyce How to review a book like Ulysses ... Reading other reviews and opinions, I doubt if I can add anything new or original; but here goes. I want to make the following points; 1) I have no doubt that this is a work of genius, a classic. I can understand why for some people this is THE book and it changed their lives. 2) Having read The Odyssey and being reasonably well educated, I got the references and many of the meanings within meanings. My nineteenth century Irish history is just about good enough to get those references. 3) Setting it in one day was a stroke of genius. 4) There are parts of this book that made me laugh and some brilliant individual passages. There is a however coming; only 4 out of 10. How can I justify that? Here goes; 1) For most people this is not an accessible book. Structuring a 20 year journey in one day means that the journey rambles a great deal and becomes convoluted. The work you have to put in does not justify the returns. 2) I would make a comparison with books like 1984, Jude the Obscure,The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist, which for me are better books. Orwell was reportedly depressed when he read Ulysses because he felt such work was beyond him; he shouldn't have been. A book that is really limited to such a small group who can understand it, for me is flawed. 3) Stream of consciousness works well (Virginia Woolf), but not here, not for me anyway. I do feel like a bit of a heretic, but having read it I won't be going back to it 4 out of 10 Starting Clarissa by Samuel Richardson (1500 pages; see you next year on this one) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Books do furnish a room Posted September 26, 2011 Author Share Posted September 26, 2011 The Yellow Wallpaper and other stories by Charlotte Perkins Gilman Interesting set of short stories about the role of women. Charlotte Perkins Gilman was a feminist writing in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The stories vary greatly in quality and some are formulaic, although they make a point that needed to be made again and again; women are perfectly capable and independent and tend to be held back by domineering and thoughtless men. The gothic stories are excellent, especially the title story about a descent into madness. The Yellow Wallpaper has been used by analysts (especially Freudian and Lacanian). It is deliberately ambiguous and tries to dispose of the nineteenth century ideal of the true woman being angelic. The other gothic stories (The Giant Wisteria and The Rocking Chair)are genuinely creepy. The stories do vary in quality, but the message is clear and still relevant and thought provoking. Developing Darwinian ideas the point being made is that women not men are the central and driving force of human evolution. 8 out of 10 Starting Jhumpa Lahiri; The Inerpreter of Maladies Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Books do furnish a room Posted September 28, 2011 Author Share Posted September 28, 2011 Tolstoy and the Purple Chair by Nina Sankovitch This is a lovely, heart-warming book about a woman grieving the loss of a sister who decides to read a book every day for a year in response to the working out/not working out of her grief. The author loses her older sister at 46 to an aggressive cancer and spends two years running form her grief. She finally decides to face her grief through reading. The book never quite seems to make up its mind whether it is a book about grief or a book about reading. In truth it is both. As a reader there are more books to add to my to be read list (the author provides a list of everything she read)... Oh God, it gets longer not shorter!!!! The book is also a history of an immigrant family in America and there are moving passages relating to the second world war and family history. The working through of grief is interesting and illuminating and as always very individual. 7 out of 10 Starting Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Books do furnish a room Posted September 30, 2011 Author Share Posted September 30, 2011 Sunset Park by Paul Auster Reviewing this is quite difficult as I enjoyed parts of this book much more than the other Auster I have read (New York trilogy). The book revolves around Miles Heller, who as a teenager accidentally kills his brother after losing his temper. The ripples from this spread outwards and he severs connections with his family at 21 and wanders around America (slight nod to On The Road). At 28 he falls in love with a girl who is 17 (the same age as he was when he killed his brother). After some problems with her sister he finds himself in New York in a squat with an old friend and two others while he waits for his girlfriend to reach 18. We hear from the other members of the squat and from Miles's parents and step mother. The characters are well drawn and interesting and I had high hopes for the book. However it feels part finished and isn't long enough; I wanted to hear more of some of the minor characters, all of whom were as interesting as Miles. If any judges of the Bad Sex awards are reading; this one is a contender. The conclusion of the book is bleak and doesn't sit well with the rest of the book; We are doomed to repeat history. A neat ending with ends tied up would also have been unsatisfactory, but this felt like a cop out and just didn't feel in keeping with what went before. 6 out of 10 Starting Ours are the Streets by Sanjeev Sahota Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Books do furnish a room Posted October 4, 2011 Author Share Posted October 4, 2011 Cold Earth by Sarah Moss Much to my surprise I quite enjoyed this novel, despite a very unsatisfactory ending. The premise is a simple one. Six people head off on a dig to Greenland in the artic summer. They go to a very isolated spot where there were viking settlements which disappeared (plague or massacre, we are never entirely certain). The six are a varied and suitably irritating bunch, one of whom is a complete novice (a literature student doing a thesis). They have limited contact with the outside world and are there for the brief summer with enough food (unappetising) to last them. The leader is an obsessive with very clear rules about how the dig should be run. The literature student appears neurotic and starts to see/hear the ghosts of previous residents who do not like the graves being disturbed. Towards the end it seems she is probably more sane and realistic than the rest. In the background as they leave a flu pandemic appears to be starting. We hear from each of the characters in letter form (some a lot more than the others). The letter idea works ok. Each of the characters is annoying in the own way and are a pretty typical bunch for this sort of story. There is a good deal of detail about the environment they are in (not surprising as the author has written a good deal about polsr exploration) and about food; real and imagined, as they become more hungry (again not surprising as the author has also written about food in literature). There were some interesting literary links (Villette for instance) with nineteenth century literature and some parallels with the books mentioned in the story. All this was good fun, not especially creepy; however the ending was a definite let down. This may be because it wasn't long enough and could have been fleshed out. 7 out of 10 Starting Duma Key by Stephen King Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Books do furnish a room Posted October 7, 2011 Author Share Posted October 7, 2011 The House at Riverton by Kate Morton An easy and entertaining read; this one has already been reviewed to death. I read it because I am interested in the period and subject matter. The story is told in flashback by an ex housemaid (Grace) who is in her late nineties. It involves a stately home (Riverton) and two sisters Hannah and Emmeline and their family who own Riverton. It spans the period just before and after the First World War and has romance, shell shock, a handsome poet, loss, rivalry, tragedy, terrible Americans, upstairs/downstairs issues and the excesses of the 20s. The story jumps between the present day where Grace is in a nursing home and the historical narrative. For me the upstairs downstairs relationships did not ring true; at least Grace's experience and relationship with Hannah (unlike for instance Gosford Park). The narrative also jumps around a good deal. There are a few nods to actual history (a photographer named Cecil turning up to photograph a party). Some of the minor characters were a bit two dimensional, but in general it was a light and enjoyable read. 6 and a half out of 10 Starting The Standing Pool by Adam Thorpe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Books do furnish a room Posted October 14, 2011 Author Share Posted October 14, 2011 Ours are the streets by Sunjeev Sahota Not easy to assess this one and not a comfortable read. Imtiaz is a British born young man of Pakistani origin, Sheffield to be precise. He is not particularly religious and falls in love with Rebecca, marries and has a daughter. Following the death of his father he goes to Pakistan for the funeral. here he meets extended family and friends and he is "radicalised" and spends some time in Afghanistan. One of his friends carries out a suicide bombing and Imtiaz returns to Britain with another family member with the intention of carrying out a suicide bombing himself. Past and present are inerspersed in the story and this can be confusing. Imtiaz is the narrator and speaks throughout in a Sheffield/Yorkshire accent. Having spent three years at university there (some years ago!) the accent is much as I remember it. I suspect reading it throughout the book could be irritating, though it didn't bother me. The book also has little conventional structure, but it is easy to read. I wasn't really convinced by Imtiaz's journey, he seemed to drift into planning a bombing with no real moment of revelation or spur. There was also very little religion in the book, it was the backdrop,and the religious motivations seemed to be minimal. In fact it was difficult to work out why Imtiaz was planning to carry out his act. My experience of really hardcore fundamentalists is that there is usually a moment or moments of revelation and there is a hard core of inflexible belief running through it. This seemed to be absent. Despite this reservation this was a rather scary look at how a young man who is loved by family, has a job and everything to live for is suddenly transformed into the sort of person who might commit a northern equivalent of 7/7. The sheer ordinariness of Imtiaz is what is most disturbing, but he is young alienated and rootless and easy prey: like many of our youth. I think the current cuts agenda which is leading to significant youth unemployment and alienation and we may be breeding a new generation like Imtiaz. The danger is that as a society we just sit back and watch it happening 7 out of 10 Starting The Imposter by Damon Galgut Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Books do furnish a room Posted October 19, 2011 Author Share Posted October 19, 2011 Completed The Eustace Diamonds by Trollope Another Palliser novel completed. The characters in this are less likeable and the nicer characters a bit wet. Trollope's plotting is as effortless and clever as ever. The main character Lizzie Eustace is a real anti-heroine (Trollope insists she is not a Becky Sharp) and the plot revolves around a diamond necklace that her late husband may or may not have given her. The various subplots revolve around marraige and who will end up with whom. There are some well drawn minor characters (Mrs Carbuncle, Sir Griffin and Lord Fawn to name a few. A good story, typical Trollope, but for me at this stage the barchester novels still have the edge. 7 and a half out of 10 Starting Phineas Redux Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poppyshake Posted October 19, 2011 Share Posted October 19, 2011 I think his Barchester novels have the edge too though I've only read two Palliser novels so perhaps it's too early for me to judge. The Palliser stories are just that little bit too political for me and I can't always fix the characters in my head which I've always been able to do with the Barchester stories. Great reviews Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Books do furnish a room Posted October 22, 2011 Author Share Posted October 22, 2011 Thanks Poppy; and I think you are right about the characterisation in the Barchester novels. Just finished Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami My first Murakami, and I did enjoy it. I know it has been described as atypical of his work, but it captures the tentativeness of adolesence very well. It is rather bleak at times and some of the characters are just not strong enough to survive to adulthood. Set in the late 1960s it describes one teenagers journey from 18 to 20 whilst at university in Tokyo. Toru is the main protagonist and we are taken through his relationships, love affairs and the minutea of daily life. Sexual and mental breakdowns are carefully described. There is a lot of talk about sex, a lot less actually doing it; very typical of adolesence. These days it's sod the poetry and existential angst; get yer kit off and let's get on with it before arthritis sets in! Murakami handles the story well and it is an easy and satisfying read and I thinks he captures thoughts and feelings I well remember. 8 out of 10 Starting Under the Frangipani by Mia Couto Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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