A Book Blog by Books Do Furnish a Room 2012

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First book of 2012; finished today. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

 

I think everyone knows this one now following the film. It is a love story set in a circus. The plot uses the now common device of the protagonist in great old age looking back at his youth (from a care home), so the narrative jumps between past and present. Set in 1930s America there is murder, love, obsession, lots of animals, friendship, devotion and madness. Not a bad story, a bit formulaic, but designed to leave the reader with a warm feeling. I tend to read this sort of book late at night to send me to sleep and it did the job. Normally this would have been five or six ot of ten, but my first kiss was at the circus (many years ago now) and so nostalgia bumped up the rating! I think I'm getting sentimental in my old age.

7 out of 10

Starting The Illumination by Kevin Brockmeier

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Finished The Drop Edge of Yonder by Rudolph Wurlitzer.

This is a western, but High Noon or John Wayne it is not. It is much more in the mould of Clint Eastwood's more mystical offerings and it did not surprise me to read that Wurlitzer had started it in the 70s and intended it to be a film; it almost reads like a film script with lots of short scenarios or action sequences. One reviewer has described it as "Sam Beckett with a six-gun and a sack of rattlesnakes". Not sure I would go that far, but it is mystical and it times almost poetic with some good descriptive passages.

It is the story of Zebulon Shook set at the time of the California gold rush; he is a mountain man with some rather complex family relationships and there is a bit of searching for dad in this. He is also an outlaw, lover, killer and saviour at various times. There is plenty of violence, card sharpery, sex. mystic religious mumbe-jumbo and general chicanery enough for about three books. There are also comic moments which really should not be funny, but are. Another reviewer has described it as a combination of William Burroughs and Mel Brooks and this is closer to the truth. The bad guys are suitably bad, but the good guys are a lot worse.

This is not a calm and sedate read, if you like thrills, spills and excitement this may be for you. On the whole I really enjoyed it, or part of me did; the bit the enjoys the old shoot em up westerns with added spice when the mood takes me.

 

7 and a half out of 10

Starting Higher Ground by Caryl Phillips

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Dissolution by C J Sansom

Reasonably good crime thriller set in Tudor England at the time of the dissolution of the monasteries (1537). Matthew Shardlake is one of Thomas Cromwell's commissioners who is charged with investigating the death of another commissioner at Scarnsea, a Benedictine Monastery on the south coast. Shardlake is a hunchback and physically weak; another addition to the detectives with imperfections genre. It is pretty well written, a bit flowery at times, but an easy read and not too demanding.

I found it interesting to contrast the character of Cromwell as he is portrayed here with the account in Wolf Hall, but few other historical characters popped up. There are good descriptions of daily life, smells and all. There is an good can you spot the killer out of the line up build up, and before our detective does; a vital element in all decent detective stories.

The story has mad monks, torture, lust, avarice, plenty of religiuos zeal (both Catholic and Protestant), blasphemy, murder and a good deal of English weather.

This was one of my bed time reads; I enjoyed it and it was not too taxing; if you like detective stories this may be for you; reminded me a little of Cadfael

7 out of 10

Starting Trout Fishing in America by Richard Brautigan

[frankie]

First book of 2012; finished today. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

 

I tend to read this sort of book late at night to send me to sleep and it did the job.

 

I laughed out loud! It's nice that books have so many different tasks to perform

 

Normally this would have been five or six ot of ten, but my first kiss was at the circus (many years ago now) and so nostalgia bumped up the rating! I think I'm getting sentimental in my old age.

 

Awww, that is so sweet! I'd like to know more about that nostalgic event, but if it's too much to ask, feel free to ignore this

 

Starting Trout Fishing in America by Richard Brautigan

 

I'm looking forward to seeing what you make of this!

 

Happy reading in 2012

[Books do furnish a room]

Thanks for the comments Frankie. I was in my early teens (possibly14), during a boring bit! Sadly it didn't last; she lives in New Zealand now; hopefully these two facts aren't linked!!

 

Finished Phineas Redux by Anthony Trollope

 

The fourth of the six Palliser novels revisits Phineas Finn and looks at the political stage in Victorian England. It is wide ranging and Trollope is at his best. He had recently stood for Parliament (unsuccessfully) and his disenchantment with politics shines through. The is a level of cynicism here not present in the first outing of Phineas Finn. Trollope dwells on the intricacies of elections and the party system and the towering political figure, Daubeney is clearly based on Disraeli.

Our hero goes through the mill a bit, with a trial for murder, the death of his wife at the very beginning and two women in love with him. There are some wonderful hunting types and well crafted sub plots to divert and entertain. Trollope ties up the loose ends neatly, well almost. As one reviewer points out one character dissents form the general happiness (like Festse and Malvolio in Twelfth Night). Trollope at his best; if you like him you'll love this.

 

8 and a half out of 10

Starting The Prime Minister; Palliser number 5

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The illumination by Kevin Brockmeier

This was an odd one and I have mixed feelings, I found it difficult to score. The idea is a good one; one day, very suddenly everyones pain is illuminated; shines in the form of light. Cuts and bruises, cancer, arthritis etc all shine from peoples bodies.

The story revolves around a journal put together by a wife whose husband left her a note on the fridge every day. These notes started "I love the way you...." The notes have been pasted in a journal. This journal travels between six people, each of whom have a different relationship with pain and with the journal.

Brilliant idea with lots of possibilities, but I feel that idea loses its way in the book. the stories are tremendously sad and some might say the book is over sentimental. The characters are all very isolated and interrelationships are not very well explored in the second half of the book.

Much more could have ben done with the idea and the book begins brilliantly; the second story concerning self harm is very thought provoking; I also liked the construction of the story about the missionary struggling with faith. But having thought about what I felt was missing; it's hope, there isn't a great deal and the ending is rather bleak.

One plus point; I got the hardback edition and as I was reading this in bed; when the light was off I noticed the white dots on the cover glowed in the dark!!

6 and a half out of 10.

Starting The Tin-Kin by Eleanor Thom

[frankie]

Thanks for the comments Frankie. I was in my early teens (possibly14), during a boring bit! Sadly it didn't last; she lives in New Zealand now; hopefully these two facts aren't linked!!

 

Haha, when I got to the New Zealand part in your post, I thought of what you wrote in the last bit Surely that wasn't the case!

 

Read on

[Books do furnish a room]

Frankie; the boring bit was at the circus, not in my teens!! Pleasant memories though.

 

Higher Ground by Caryl Phillips

 

 

This is a powerful and heart-rending book about racism and being an outsider. I'm baffled that it appears to be so little known because it is a truly great book.

There are three parts. The first takes place at the height of the slave trade and is set in a fort in Africa. A black man (unnamed throughout) is providing involuntary assistance to the soldiers at the fort. He translates, provides information and generally does as ordered. The story outlines his relationship with the authority figures at the fort, the reluctant white soldiery who are homesick and the local village who regard him as a traitor. Various events relating to day to day life and an incident with a young girl serve to iilustrate the psyche of those involved and how they feel about each other.

The second story is set in 1967/1968 at the time of Vietnam, civil rights and black power. The protagonist, Rudi, a follower of Malcolm X is in jail and is writing to various members of his family. This is about idealism, the desire for an African homeland and a gradual grinding down of hope; the onset of despair. The letters, all one way are alternately comic, poignant and challenging.

The third story is set in Britain in the 40s and 50s and concerns a polish refugee who ends up alone in Britain after the war. She encounters ignorance and some unfriendliness and feels very alone and alien. Shafts of light are received from some people, but these are brief.

Higher Ground is beautifully written, a powerful indictment of racism and man's inhumanity to man. Highly recommended.

9 out of 10

 

Starting The Palace of the Peacock by Wilson Harris

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Trout Fishing in America by Richard Brautigan.

 

Short and completely off the wall; published in 1967 and immediately a success with the counterculture. The favourite book of a number of ageing hippies I have known!

It has been compared to Kerouac and Burroughs, but I think that is mistaken; it is a different type of approach to the world. The chapters are short and informal. Trout Fishing in America appears as a person/persons throughout and has spawned at last one modern band and several sets of parenst naming their unfortunate offspring Trout Fishing in America. Regarded as a 60s classic, it was actually written in 1961 and I think it has more of a 50s feel to it. Brautigan wrote much of it on a camping holiday with his wife and daughter. That for me is the key, some of the flights of imagination (going to the garden centre to pick up trout streams by the foot with waterfalls, flowers, insects as extras) and the odd names feel like something that a parent might make up for a child; almost a bed time story. Some of the more adult parts seem like later add ons and parts are certainly Brautigan's reflections on life in his America.

On the whole it is entertaining and odd, but I think it is as much a story for a child as anything else.

7 and a half out of 10

Starting The Master by Colm Toibin

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Palace of the Peacock by Wilson Harris

 

I do wonder why Wilson Harris is not better known; he has been writing for over 50 years and was knighted in the 2010 honours list (that didn’t make the popular news I seem to recall). He was originally a surveyor in Guyana and his early work is very much set in the Guyanese/South American jungle. There are strong links to Hegel and Heidegger. Harris also rejects conventional plot, settings and particularly realism which he equates with colonialism.

 

In Palace of the Peacock Donne and his crew journey by boat into the interior and the rain forest, in a voyage which parallels the creation story and takes place over seven days. Donne embodies creation and destruction and using the name of the metaphysical poet was deliberate according to Harris. There are strong links with the search for El Dorado and also with Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, but whilst Conrad’s Marlow embodies alienation and breakdown; Harris’s characters progress to restoration and repossession via death and the destructive cycle. I must admit I haven’t as yet thought through the contrast between Conrad’s Marlow (Christopher) and Harris’s Donne (John). The inheritance of colonialism and slavery are transformed with an alternative renewal which has everything to do with the spirit of the land and the music at the end of the book that comes with the second death of the crew. Don’t expect an easy read, but the whole story flows linguistically like the river it describes with hidden rapids and magnificent waterfalls. Harris himself says the images are convertible and speaks about the mixed metaphysic of the crew. The images are complex but with thought and careful reading the story is a magical one.

8 out of 10

Starting The Far Journey of Oudin; the second volume in the Guyana Quartet

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Brian Howard; Portrait of a Failure by Marie-Jacqueline Lancaster

 

This is an interesting biography and feels almost like an autobiography. This is because Lancaster uses Howard’s extensive letters and writings, so he speaks for himself and also draws on his friends (and enemies) letters and writings to and about him. This does tend to make the book a little disjointed.

 

Howard was one of the central figures in the group known as the Bright Young Things in the 1920s. He was outrageous, openly gay (most of the time) at a time when it was dangerous to be so, a would be poet and writer, perpetually broke, a practical joker and generally a failure at most everything he turned his hand to. This is the legend that survives. It was perpetuated by Evelyn Waugh (who disliked him), who referred to him as “mad, bad and dangerous to know” (though his poetry was not of Byron’s standard) and used parts of his personality in Brideshead Revisited as Anthony Blanche. He was central in the Bruno Hat hoax which he devised with the help of Bryan Guinness and Tom Driberg. Brian set himself up as a newly discovered German modernist painter and an exhibition was set up; with some hastily cobbled together art. Pretty much everyone in society bought it and some of the paintings even sold. Much fun was had by the hoaxers.

 

Looking back on Howard’s life; he became an alcoholic and dependant on sedative drugs later in his life; he produced some poems of promise and wrote some reviews, travelled almost constantly and was known for his promiscuity. He continued to try to write, but failed to produce. His personal life was troubled, but he did have two relationships that lasted several years. Like his contemporary Stephen Tennant he has been dubbed a failure and talented underachiever.

 

BUT; for me he has a significant saving grace and I came to have considerable admiration for him as the book progressed. He was one of the first English people who saw the Nazis for what they really were and vocally said so. I was impressed by the following quote from Erika Mann (daughter of the novelist Thomas Mann) describing the time Brian went with her to a Nazi rally (at his request) to see what they were really about. This was the summer of 1931; two years before the Nazis came to power, there is a member of the Nazi party speaking in a large tent full of people;

 

“ “The Jews!” hurls the barking voice, in a monotonous paroxysm of fury. “Those filthy Jews have done it, who else?” A young chap not far from our place screams abruptly, as if bitten by a snake and unable to repress his outcry: “Hang the Jews!” Whereupon the voice with slimy banter: “Patience! Patience, my friend! They’ll hang all right.” ....

 

“Dear me!” whispers our English friend {Howard} ... “He is a paranoic”

 

The voice bellows “Who dominates this so-called republic?” The crowd responds “The jews!”

 

“How extraordinary!” whispers the English friend, “He is positively demented. Don’t they notice it? Or are they crazy themselves?” He looks aghast with surprise.

 

The speaker continues to attack the League of Nations, the Catholic Church and especially the Jews.

 

“Are they mad? Or what?” our friend keeps asking. He repeats his question in various idioms, finally in German. “Sind Sie toll, mein fraulein?” he inquires politely of a buxom Hitler maiden sitting next to him.

 

Happily she is too excited even to hear his question. Brian however persists and insists with merciless courtesy “I beg your pardon, Madam. Did you ever consult a really good psychiatrist?”

 

How much like him that is! That’s the way Brian is, Brian Howard, a young writer from London ... he doesn’t care a straw about people hissing him and piercing him with their looks. One of those husky fellows might rise and knock him out with his little finger. Brian doesn’t care.

 

In retrospect Erika Mann said of Brian in that summer;

 

“Like every decent person he was, of course, an anti-Fascist, but he was probably the first Englishman to recognise the full immensity of the Nazi peril and to forsee, with shuddering horror, what was to come. While people like Klaus and myself could still laugh disdainfully at the Nazis, any mention of them put an end to gaiety as far as Brian was concerned.”

 

Brian began to write about the Nazis, he tried to persuade Unity Mitford to introduce him to Hitler, but they fell out. Alannah Harper (another Bright Young Thing who changed in the 30s) summed up Brian in the 30s;

 

“He was acutely aware of the evil forces at work in the early thirties – a time when most people considered Nazism a joke – Brian was by the knowledge that Concentration Camps existed all over Germany even by 1933-4. How few people cared enough to find out, as Brian did, or even wanted to know. I can hear Brian’s voice saying; “The knock at the door in the night, the brute in uniform, then – hurled into the darkness – the Jew, the Liberal, the leftist and the artist – never to be heard of again.” Brian watched the evil monster .... he saw only too clearly what was to come. When the inevitable came, the horror and cruelty of war broke his heart.”

 

Howard was in France when war broke out; he confided to friends and acquaintances like Somerset Maugham that he was afraid that when danger came he would be a coward. He had to leave France via Nice in a cargo ship with other civilians and he would soon find out if he was a coward. They were found by an Italian submarine and he recalled looking at the sea watching a torpedo track towards them; it narrowly missed. Howard, as he had binoculars, volunteered to be a spotter for torpedoes and to the consternation of the crew sat on a box of the high explosive cordite with a cigarette in one hand and his binoculars in another. After dark he teamed up with a man with two young children, offering to take charge of one of them if they had to swim for it.

 

During the war Howard initially worked for MI5, but wasn’t really discreet enough to be an intelligence officer. He wrote scripts for the BBC about Nazi eugenics and joined the RAF. After the war he declined into alcoholism and drugs. He had a long standing partner called Sam. Four days after they moved into a house together in France in 1958 Sam died in the bathroom of carbon monoxide poisoning. Brian couldn’t live without him and took his own life. They were buried together.

 

Howard was selfish, temperamental, a derivative (though talented) poet, dangerous and unpredictable when drunk. He was also brilliant and witty; a wasted talent. I can forgive him a great deal and if more people had listened to him sooner who knows what may have happened.

 

I want to end this review with one of Brian’s poems. It was written during the war and is his reflection on the Bright Young Things and their era. It is called;

 

Gone to Report

 

 

For twenty-one years he remained, faithful and lounging

 

There, under the last tree, at the end of the charming evening street,

 

His flask was always full for the unhappy, rich, or bold;

 

He could always tell you where you wanted to go, what you wanted to be told,

 

And during all the dear twenty-one years he remained exactly 21 years old.

 

His eyes were the most honest of all, his smile the most naturally sweet.

 

 

Many, many trusted him who trusted no one. Many extremely clever

 

Persons will kill themselves unless they find him. They search

 

Sparkling with fear, through the whole quarter. They even enter the Church.

 

Crowds, across all Europe, are beginning to feel they’ve been left in the lurch.

 

But it’s worse than that. It’s something they couldn’t tell anyone, ever.

 

 

He’s abandoned his post because he was the greatest of all informers,

 

And now he’s gone to report. He never had a moment’s leisure.

 

He was paid by so many powers that one shakes with shame

 

To think of them. Time, the Army and Navy, Pain and Blame,

 

The Police, the Family and Death. No one will escape. He got every name

 

And he wasn’t at all what he said he was. Mr Pleasure.

8 out of 10

Starting Perfect Summer by Juliet Nicolson

 

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The Tin Kin by Eleanor Thom

This is a novel about family secrets stretching over time and generations. Dawn returns to Elgin with her child form her aunt's funeral.She gradually uncovers family secrets. There are four narrators; one in the present (Dawn)and three in the 1950s. The 1950s narrators are from a travelling family and there is an ill-fated love affair between two people from different social backgrounds. The child's narrative voice is very good and some of the descriptive passages are excellent. The dialect the 1950s narrators use takes a little getting used to.

It is an intersting story and there are shades of Romeo and Juliet; love and loss are central themes, but the pace is a little slow. nevertheless I enjoyed it and would read more by this author in the future.

7 out of 10

Starting Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

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The Far Journey of Oudin by Wilson Harris

Second in the Guyana Quartet; this is much more a traditional narrative style of story than Palace of the Peacock. It centres on the Indioan community in Guyana and indenture. The main protagonists are Oudin and his wife Beti, Ram (a moneylender) and Mohammed and his brothers.

The story begins with the death of Oudin. His wife Beti is pregnant and eats a piece of paper in Oudin's hand which may be a contract of some sort. The story then replays the past. Oudin emerges as the moneylenders slave, but his presence is heavily laced with symbolism as he appears to Mohammed's wife as the double of Mohammed's half brother who was mudered by Mohammed and his brothers.For me, the story reads almost as a parable set against the background of flood and the edge of the jungle. Some of the animals are symbolic and there is a great depth of meaning.

Harris apparently writes several hundred pages of text and condenses the work to between one and two hundred pages. This has the effect of making the narrative feel concentrated in terms of meaning. A story to make the reader think and demanding of several re-reads.

8 out of 10

Starting the 3rd book in the Quartet; The Whole Armour.

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1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

Certainly an epic and immense novel. The story itself is way too detailed to outline here and do it any sort of justice. Suffice to to say there is a parallel reality involved based on the wordplay in Japanese; 9 and q being homophones. It is in the third person which makes it a little more difficult to relate to.

The first two volumes are excellent and the tension and the narrative builds well. I found the third volume somewhat superfluous and a little convoluted. I felt like telling the author to get on with it and stop putting up obstacles for the plot to jump over.I wasn't expecting quite so sentimental an ending; that satisfied the romantic part of me, but I also felt somewhat disappointed and maybe would have preferred the book to end after volume 2. However that is a quibble. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading it and have been entertained. That in itself is a good recommendation, but I don't think it is a classic. I found Christopher Taylor's review in the London Review of Books very good and agreed with some of his premises.

The brief passage about Jung at the end of the book, is, I think pivotal and laden with meaning and quite a number of threads fell into place. But this can be read at a number of levels, some simple and some complex. However you read it, it's still a good book.

8 out of 10

Starting To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

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The Perfect Summer; Dancing into the Shadow in 1911 bt Juliet Nicolson

Enjoyable, although slightly odd look at the long hot summer of 1911. There are lots of interesting facts and insights into daily life; mainly for the upper classes and their servants. There were also some interesting leads to other books and references to follow and find. The focus is mainly on the upper classes with the Royal Family and members of the government having some prominence, along with some of their wives and daughters. These are predictable and confirm that the sex lives and loves of the rich and famous continue as always. There are interesting insertions about the national dock strike and the trade unionist Ben Tillett.

The book felt a little disjointed with a lack of focus and there are sections which felt superfluous and over descriptive. However there are fascinating snippets of information and it is an easy read. A good intro to pre world war 1 Britain.

6 out of 10

Starting Bound for Glory by Woody Guthrie

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Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Brief and easy to read dystopian novel that has not dated as much as it might have, given that it was written almost 60 years ago. Bradbury's dystopia is remarkably prescient, given that TV is dominant on four walls in a room with reality shows the most popular. The story is well known; Guy Montag is a fireman, and firemen now are responsible not for putting out fires, but for burning books, which are now banned. Montag begins to see another way of thinking and rebels.

Bradbury described this tale as myth and metaphor and I understand what he was driving at, because a number of levels are in operation. The emptiness of personal relationships was striking and I loved the idea that the hobos living along the unused rail tracks are all ex-academics and English Professors. The book had resonances for me because of my own Pentecostal upbringing. For most of my fellow church members only one book was needed (all others were superfluous)and that was the Bible; more particularly The Authorized Version. And yes, I really did hear more than one person say, "If it was good enough for St Paul...". I remember well getting into serious hot water in my early teens when I brought home 1984 and The Blackboard Jungle from the Library. Fortunately I didn't learn and it's been downhill from there.

We need books like this to remind us where we might have been and to warn us to be aware of where we might be heading.

8 out of 10

Starting Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt

Edited February 18, 2012 by Books do furnish a room

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The Whole Armour by Wilson Harris

Third book of the Guyana Quartet; again heavy going and intense but a rewarding read. Set on the banks of the Pomeroon river the symbolism of the jaguar is central. The story revolves around mother and son, Magda and Cristo (the levels of meaning in this extend to the names as well) and their umbelical connection. Cristo may or may not be a jealous lover who has murdered a rival. Magda persuades Abram (someone to whom she has previously sold her body), to hide him. Abram dies and Magda forces Cristo to exchange clothes so it appears he has died and there is a wake for him (at which he briefly appears). Cristo is reunited with his lover Sharon, but there is another death at the wake.

There is jealousy, passion, guilt, trials to be endured and some of it almost feels like the "stations of the cross". Not to mention a dead man returning to assert his innocence. Harris has argued that there is the perceptual intuition of early childhood at play in the imagery.

Underlying it all is a tremendous sense of the fragility (economic and social) of the society.

I will have to reread this at some point because of its depth and intensity, and I suspect that when I do I will find even more in it than this time.

7 and a half out of 10

Starting the last book in the Quartet, The Secret Ladder

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The Master by Colm Toibin

Thoughtful and well considered novel about a short period in the life of Henry James the novelist. It is set in the late 1890s when James lived in Rye and is entirely told from the point of view of James and is placed in his interior life. James is not an author I have read; apart from The Turn of the Screw, but that didn't present any problems in reading and appreciating the book. The basic knowledge I had about his life and family was enough.

This novel moves slowly and is very descriptive,but is none the worse for that. James's reluctance to become too close to anyone is delicately observed and the oft debated question of his sexuality is explored in an oblique way through well described flashbacks and current encounters. The relationships with the novelist Constance Woolson and the sculptor Henrik Anderson and James's reticence: his wish to be private and alone conflicting with his wish to be close to someone. Aloneness won. There are interesting accounts of his relationships with his formidable family.

Beautifully written, rather slow, James was somewhat infuriating in his reticence. I wanted to shake him and make him express some passion, grab one of his adored but distant objects and feel some human warmth (the bloke, the girl; I didn't care which; as they weren't around at the same time, preferably both). It may be that it was that very reticence, being an observer rather than a participator that made him the novelist he was. I ended up feeling rather sorry for him.

8 out of 10

Starting The Behaviour of Moths by Poppy Adams

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To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

 

Virginia Woolf writes beautifully and I think this is a great book; the best stream of consciousness novel I have read. I’m glad I didn’t read it in my youth because I wouldn’t have appreciated it, and I’m glad I knew a little about Woolf and those around her as it illuminated what was going on.

 

Although the summer home is in Scotland it is based on the summer home Woolf’s family had in Cornwall, lighthouse and all. Woolf’s sister, Vanessa Bell when she read it understood immediately that Mrs Ramsey was their mother and Mr Ramsey their father, Leslie Stephen. Woolf’s feelings about her father and their ambivalence are clear; particularly the flashes of anger where she speaks of stabbing him through the heart.

 

Lily Briscoe is a central character and sets out some of Woolf’s own feelings; especially about art and writing. Lily Briscoe talks about the fashionableness of seeing everything in a semi-transparent way (impressionism) and how she preferred to see under the surface. This refers to 1910; the year the world changed for Virginia Woolf. In December 1910 Roger Fry and Desmond MacCarthy organised the first exhibition of post-impressionist painters in London (Gaughin, Cezanne, Matisse and the like). There was nearly a riot and the establishment hated the exhibition. It had a profound effect on Woolf and the Bloomsbury group and provided a starting point for her fiction and her sister’s art.

 

Woolf also uses Lily Briscoe to express her feelings of loss about her mother as Lily weeps for Mrs Ramsey.

 

What I also found interesting is that Woolf herself found it hard to believe in her work and always asked her husband Leonard to read it and it was usually he that had to persuade her to publish her work and not to destroy it and start again. She found her own talent hard to accept.

 

Enough of this waffle! What is brilliant about this book is the ability of Woolf to capture the minutiae of the human mind; the thoughts that drift below the surface and illuminate events. Unlike many of the other modernist writers of the time, Woolf is essentially poetic and there is an intense lyricism to her prose. She deals with death in a startling and matter of fact way. Mrs Ramsey is there and then suddenly in a sentence she dies overnight. The world goes on in exactly the same way with the same intensity. One can feel the novelist saying “this is how it is” at the same time as saying “how can this be?”

 

A book to be appreciated and re-read

9 out of 10

Starting Sunset over chocolate mountains by Susan Elderkin

[bobblybear]

Great review. I haven't read anything by Virginia Woolf but have obviously heard of her books. Looking on Amazon, people seem to be quite divided about this book. Some hate the stream-of-consciousness, while others love it. I've added it to my wishlist.

[Books do furnish a room]

Thanks bobblybear!

Bound for Glory by Woody Guthrie

This partial autobiography was written in 1943 and is an account of Guthrie's life and his reflections on America in the 1930s. The slang is colourful and takes a little getting used to. Parts of this book are brilliant, but there are a lot of gaps.

The first part of the book is about Guthrie's childhood (apart from the first chapter set in the early 40s. It gives a good deal of family background and dynamics, with a mix of loss and tragedy. His mother's bouts of odd and self destructive behaviour are sad when one considers she had Huntington's Chorea, which remained undiagnosed. There are only so many boyhood high jinks one can take and at times it felt like "just william" for the rough and ready. Guthrie' descriptions are sharp and his observation of human nature excellent; he was also aware of what was going on around him. There is a fascinating conversation between a 9 (ish) year old Guthrie and a black woman to whom he was delivering butter: she explains why certain words are inappropriate and how she would prefer to be addressed. He also describes in detail the grinding poverty of the time and how the American poor lived and died.

The second half of the book describes the dustbowl era and Woody on the move using his hands and learning to use the guitar. He again describes the characters he met and makes them come alive, they are so vivid, as are his descriptions of bumming a ride on the railways. The longer the book goes on the more the music takes over.

However there are gaps and the book jumps from the age of 18 to about 24; there is no mention of his wife and three children at all. All the alluring stories of life on the road are set against the wife and kids at home. There is a romantic passage towards the end, which is rather touching, until you remember he is already married. I am not being judgmental because we all like to edit our own stories and we all have flaws. I just found it interesting that he omitted them from his story.

There is an interesting paragraph towards the end when Guthrie talking about singing live with Cisco and he describes his audience;

" stealers, dealers, sidewalk spielers; ... dopers, smokers, boiler stokers; ...saviours, saved and side street singers; ... money men, honey men, sad men, funny men; ramblers, gamblers, highway anklers" and so on. It reads, and more particularly speaks pure Bob Dylan.

7 and a half out of 10

Starting In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

[Books do furnish a room]

The Secret Ladder by Wilson Harris

The Secret Ladder is the last book of the Guyana Quartet and no less intense and tightly packed than the rest. On the surface the story is a simple one.

A group of surveyers led by Fenwick is taking measurements on the Canje river. There are tensions between the men and between them and the residents of the area. The local residents are the descendants of slaves and are led by a patriarchal figure named Poseidon. They suspect (rightly as it happens), that the surveying is a prelude to work to create irrigation and to drain their lands, causing them to lose homes they hold dear.

The tensions between Fenwick and his men illustrate a crisis of leadership and on Fenwick's part self doubt and a sudden feeling of vulnerability. In the background again is the Palace of the Peacock,another version of the El Dorado myth.

Symbolism abounds and the death of Poseidon marks the triumph of the modern world. The averted attempt at rape (of Catalena; wife of one of Fenwick's men) following Poseidon's death has a visionary feel to it and she alone is left knowing what had saved her. The book ends on a Biblical note; "It was the dawn of the seventh day".

Again this brief book is tremendously subtle and has great depth and the images stay with you for a long time.

8 out of 10

Starting Ragtime by E L Doctorow

[Angel]

Great review - I have this waiting on my shelf to be read. Think I will move it up that very long list

[Books do furnish a room]

Thank you Angel!

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt

This is what is known as a true crime classic; it is well written, very easy to read and compeling. However I am reading it at the same time as "In Cold Blood" and the two don't compare so well. Capote manages to stay entirely neutral, an outside observer. Berendt is living in Savannah and is part of the community he is writing about.

The first part of the sets the background and characters well, especially Chablis. I just wonder what would have happened without the murder and where the book would have gone; it would certainly have lost much of its impact. Having said that the trials dominate the second half of the book to the exclusion of most of the rest of the characters. There is a certain amount of tweaking the truth in terms of chronology whichmakes one question some of the characterisation.

I read it fairly quickly and if I suspend my critical faculties it reads easily and is enjoyable. However there are parts of the book which bothered me a little; the treatment of the poorer residents of Savannah, the voyeurism of the author felt uncomfortable at times and there was a sense of the characters being exhibits in a zoo.

Nevertheless I am glad I read it and reading it in conjunction with Capote's book has been very interesting.

6 out of 10

Starting The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obrecht

[Books do furnish a room]

The Behaviour of Moths by Poppy Adams

I wasn't sure what to make of this book and it didn't seem to know what to make of itself because the author deliberately leaves most of the loose ends loose. It has many elements which should add up to something; an unreliable narrator, a crumbling isolated mansion in the English countryside, a dysfunctional family, two ageing sisters, a forty year old rift, a touch of madness, surrogacy, lethal lepidopterists, lots of elements that would make a reasonable gothic tale. Somehow the elements do not quite come together.

It is the story of two sisters; Virginia lives alone in the crumbling family mansion and has not seen her sister Vivien for about forty years. Suddenly Vivien announces she is returning to retire. It is set over a single weekend and mostly in flashback form. How much of the story we are told is true is not possible to establish as it becomes clear that Vivien is not an entirely reliable narrator.

There is an awful lot about moths in this book; I wasn't aware that the study of lepidoptera means spending large amounts of time catching and slaughtering the poor little things. I really did not want to know how to remove the innards of a caterpillar so the skin is intact. Did you know that when the caterpillar pupates the contents turn into a liquid called pupal soup? Neither did I.

It reads easily and draws you in, but is ultimately unsatisfactory, unless you like to do some of the work and fill in the story yourself. And just to be picky, representatives of social services, even volunteers, don't cold call on a Sunday.

6 out of 10

Starting We are all made of glue by Marina Lewycka