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Underground > Books, Criticism & Writing >

Welcome to 2009. Let's read!

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nyarlathotep's shoe horn

05:06 / 10.03.09

finished Molloy some time ago - not as much a challenge as I was expecting, although the depths meaning are surely not plumbed to their fullest. There is a great deal of Beckett smirking through the text, as his protagonists prove to shift the details of narrative constantly. There is no surety upon which to anchor one's idea of plot or linearity.

sped through Making Comics by Scott McCloud, and although it's a comic about creating comics, it has a lot to offer in the basics of narrative construction in pure text.

Reread Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony, which is a dense tale for only 260 pages. The story is a mixture of traditional SouthWest Indian tales (or at least their format), the protagonist's psychological healing from the trauma of having survived the Bataan Death March, and the mythological nature of our current lot.

Silko reminds us that we need to update our ceremonies and rituals as much as protect/respect the ones we've inherited - the world changes, and we must adapt. Sound advice, and ironic, considering the written word is considered immutable compared to the oral tradition.

Solitaire Rose as Tom Servo

04:30 / 12.03.09

I am going full on nuts with the output of Hard Case Crime, mostly the old 50's noir novels they are reprinting. The ones I've liked so far are:

Wounded and the Slain - David Goodis
Grifter's Game - Lawrence Block
Dead Street - Mickey Spillane
The First Quarry - Max Allen Collins

Nothing special about any of them, just throwbacks to when a paperback crime novel was all plot and a way to pass an afternoon. I'll read something of substance in a while, but lately it's all been about plot for me.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

05:02 / 13.03.09

I'm in the middle of a Reacherthon at the moment. Figured I should plug the gaps in my Lee Child reading by grabbing them, where available, in chronological order. A guy like me has to.

Echo Burning is the title of the current one. It's good. Has Reacher in it. Desert, heat, horses, woman in trouble. A lot of asses to be kicked, I thought, looking around at the characters.

Closed for Business Time

11:45 / 13.03.09

Mike Davis - City of Quartz. Only about 60 pages in but woman, this guy's full of rage! Learned left-leaning rage for sure, but when he writes like that anyone would wanna take up urban studies. Also have his Dead Cities on the office book-shelf. On a real mission to dive into the world of urban/home studies at the moment. Lots and lots of good stuff to explore.

12:29 / 13.03.09

I finally finished Henry Fielding's Amelia. As much as I wanted to love it and realize that it was unjustly maligned and actually just as good as Tom Jones or at least Joseph Andrews, the truth is it's not. It wasn't horrible. Some scenes were excellent, and it's a meticulously constructed book: no plot thread is left dangling. But it's also full of sermonizing (on the ills of society, on religion, etc.), and too much of the action relies upon the main character (not Amelia, but rather her husband William Booth) being an idiot, while his wife is almost characterless in her perfection. This was Fielding's attempt at a serious book after the comic epic of Tom Jones, but he's not nearly as deft at drama as he is at comedy. The most shining moments were the comic relief, and the worst moments were when the real sermons and contrived idiocy recalled the brilliant mock sermons and comic idiocy of his previous novel. I'm not sorry I read it, but it really doesn't compare to the greatness that is Tom Jones.

nyarlathotep's shoe horn

17:24 / 14.03.09

I just blasted through Timothy Findley's "Spadework," 520 pages in 3 days. I can't quite put my finger on what made it such a page-turner. Easy to read, I suppose, a welcome relief after Beckett & Silko.

The tale is a drama, based in Stratford Ontario, in and amongst the Stratford Festival's thespians, directors, producers and sub-culture. The novel itself reads like it could easily be adapted for the stage.

It is very much a story about its characters. In essence, it's protagonist, Jane Kincaid, struggles to find herself amidst the mysteries that surround her: her husband's sudden secretive goings on, her son's withdrawal into himself, and the arrival of a quiet, and unaware angelic telephone repair man.

Oh, yes, and there's a bit of murder that happens.

Kali, Queen of Kitteh

17:31 / 15.03.09

(MattS logged in under Kali's account) -- by sheer coincidence, I picked up Findley's The Piano Man's Daughter on my way through Montreal to visit Ms. K down here, and I'm quite enjoying it.

Aha! I am Klarion

00:34 / 16.03.09

Death in Venice by Thomas Mann, now.

nyarlathotep's shoe horn

13:59 / 16.03.09

Matt S - strange coincidence indeed. Glad you're enjoying it. I think I've read all of Findley's novels, save his last one, which is waiting on my bookshelf. He's got a great sense of narrative, and his characterisations are well-tempered - you can see his skill develop with each successive publication.

happy visiting in Canada's greatest city.

nyarlathotep's shoe horn

22:47 / 17.03.09

Read "Coming Through Slaughter" by Michael Ondaatje. A short piece (156 pages) written in 1976, it's a fictionalised account of a slice of the life of Buddy Bolden, a jazz cornet player who influenced many, but was never recorded.

It follows Webb, Bolden's childhood friend, now police detective, as he tries to locate where Bolden had vanished off to. It takes us through the seedier side of New Orleans at the turn of the 20th Century, and inevitably through the muddy birth of jazz music.

What makes this story so special is how Ondaatje writes it as if it were a piece of early jazz. The narrative sails and wails, has its own poetry, and at times loses the reader completely, only to bring them back with something familiar.

The title refers to the town of Slaughter, through which Bolden passed on the way to a mental asylum where he lived out the last 24 years of his life (d. 1931) without having played another note.

23:27 / 17.03.09

I'm using Further Cuttings from Cruiskeen Lawn as my waiting room book, the thing to take with when you know you'll be killing time for other people. Brian O'Nolan, in all forms, is just an irrevocable genius, but there's something special about someone who can write a very very short story and still never actually come round to the point (or, what we're trained to think of as the point).

The second paragraph of one short is a parenthetical, that begins, "But, first, an anecdote..." and that acknowledging that there are always more stories, sidestories and missed stories, to life is simply magical. Another deals, primarily, with one-sided conversations, heavily done in accents that, in forming new words out of those intended, add smoothly extra meanings in a most unobtrusive way.

nyarlathotep's shoe horn

03:20 / 18.03.09

Is that the same Brian O'Nolan who went by Flann O'Brien and wrote "At-Swim-Two-Birds?" If so, I'm definitely going to seek out more. The lad is truly a genius of another sort.

04:14 / 18.03.09

That's him. He used several pen names, including the aforementioned Flann O'Brien, and Myles na Coppaleen. I also have a theory that he was entirely the invention of Kevin Nolan, even though I know it isn't true.

nyarlathotep's shoe horn

03:39 / 19.03.09

Started "the Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini last night, and finished it tonight - about 390 pages.

I get the impression this thread has done something to improve my reading speed, because generally, I take forever to get through novels.

This solid debut novel takes us through the life of a Amir in Afghanistan through the turmoils of his upbringing, the country's political upheaval, and his eventual settling into adulthood in San Francisco...

I found the insider's view of Afghanistan particularly intriguing, as what we're getting on the news here in Canada isn't particularly insightful (and may in fact be contributing to my ignorance of the place).

The title refers to the children who chase down kites shorn from their strings in the pasttime of fighting kites.

And as with all stories, there are stories within the stories, many of which refer to Persian literature, for which I am developing an increased curiosity.

the Narrative style is pretty straightforward, and reminds me of "A Fine Balance" by Rohinton Mistry in its tone.

nyarlathotep's shoe horn

05:35 / 24.03.09

just put down "Pilgrim" by Timothy Findley. I think I'm sated with his work for a spell, so I'll likely move on to Flann O'Brien or something else next.

At any rate, Pilgrim combines a number of Findley's devices, historical characters (Carl Jung, Davinci, et al), psychoanalysis (much of it is set in an asylum in Switzerland), and the mysteries of the mind, life and art.

The title character, called simply Pilgrim, is the subject of much speculation. I really don't want to spoil any of this for those who might be interested to read it. He has an interesting relationship with the past is about as much detail that I wish to divulge.

Anyways, there is a lot of meat to chew on in this, and there are enough characters with enough detail to provide a good amount of story arcs beyond the main. It ranks pretty high up among his novels, although I'd still put "Headhunter at the top of my list.

back to the bookshelf.

Jawsus-son Starship

21:53 / 24.03.09

After moving it around three houses in two years I've decided to finally read Generation Kill, so that I may watch the TV series when I'm done. And I must say, what took me so long?

09:07 / 25.03.09

(my first post in Barbelith in a long long time...)

Reading in these days:

-"The Road to Liberation", by Jiddu Krishnamurti. This is his first book I read. Krishnamurti is a figure who has intrigued me for long, and the reading is being up to my expectation. Pretty enlightening, and right now I need this.

-"Allen Ginsberg: Collected Poems". I use to read one or two poems before going to sleep. Marvellous.

-"The Road to Reality", by Roger Penrose. Most of the topics I studied in my five years of physics at college in one single book.

(Until now, I hadn't realized that most of the books I'm reading begin with "The road to...". It may mean something...)

07:15 / 30.03.09

After I finished Krishnamurti's book, now I'm reading a book with some short stories by Jack London.

23:04 / 31.03.09

I've just read Haruki Murukami's Kafka on the Shore, which I loved, probably because I'm a bit of a Murukami fan, although it was perhaps a tad long.

Janean Patience

05:53 / 01.04.09

Finished Bill Drummond's 17 last night, and it was a bit of a messy failure. His books are always messy, chronicling some misbegotten project that he's conceived to try and express feelings or points of view that he can't articulate. This one's about the end of all recorded music and creating site-specific pieces in which the audience are also the participants, and there are some great bits about Pete Waterman being a genius and Push The Button being the best song ever, but the substance of what's being created isn't interesting. The17, these site-specific choirs, aren't an end worth striving for. Dave Balfe pulls it all apart in the end and you can't help agreeing with him; what Drummond's trying to articulate in this particular case isn't profound. It's childishly simple and it's to do with age.

Read The Day Of The Triffids not long ago, inspired by the Wyndham reader on this thread. It's a weird read. According to Wikipedia it's not the first of the post-apocalyptic novels but it feels like it. Everything it does - riots for food, military strongmen, communities clinging to outdated social mores, the empty countryside, the overgrown cities - has been done since. There's hardly any plot and the triffids are only there to stop the world becoming too easy. I quite enjoyed it, but it suffers from breaking new ground that others have since overpopulated.

Loved the treatment of drink as medicinal, though. Every five minutes the narrator's knocking back a few whiskies to steady his nerves. That's how I'd be, post-apocalypse, only more so.

nyarlathotep's shoe horn

20:38 / 01.04.09

just finished Rush Home Road by Lori Lansens.

It's the story of a black woman (calls herself coloured) living in Southern Ontario, as it jumps back and forth between her life as an elderly woman in a trailer park, and her growing up from childhood through to adulthood.

It addresses the population of people descended from slaves who escaped to Canada along the underground railroad, but more than anything, it's a story about one woman's quest for understanding, forgiveness and compassion. She undergoes an awful lot of tragedy, so if you're in the mood for a tearful read, this may be the one for you.

Overall, a fast read, well told.

Whoopi Goldberg has optioned the novel for film.

23:01 / 02.04.09

I've just started what is possibly the best-written history book I have ever read - Seven Ages of Paris by Alistair Horne. It's a bloody marvel, fascinating, entertaining, engaging, but scholarly and detailed at the same time. It's a bit dense, so I think I'll be reading it for a while, but if the first couple of chapters are anything to go by, that's fine by me.

13:29 / 03.04.09

Wanted to step in with a counter-recommendation on Cervantes in English.

I've found the Burton Raffel translation of "Don Quijote" to be the best. It was published in '96 and still in print. The only translation that's made me laugh out loud at the right parts.

13:32 / 03.04.09

As for my own reading -- in the final third of Gary Jennings's "Aztec," which I'm enjoying the hell out of.

nyarlathotep's shoe horn

01:23 / 05.04.09

the Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

I was certain that this was a work of fiction, but no, it's a memoir of Jeannette growing up in the Southwest and South of the US with her rather eccentric family. It was quite an amazing tale of poverty, dreams, hope, survival, good humour, bad fights and episodes that just couldn't have been invented.

nyarlathotep's shoe horn

23:17 / 07.04.09

Fifth Business by Robertson Davies

standard fare for Canadian High Schools - I haven't read it in years, and upon revisiting this "modern classic" I couldn't get much past page 100. He somehow manages to suck the life out of a character during the fighting of WW1.

Too much condescending pomposity in his tone... He wrote this in 1970 and it has the feel of something from the 1870s.

20:59 / 14.04.09

Finished Aztec (1,038 pages in its mass market paperback incarnation!), loved it. Best month I've ever spent with a book. I have all of Jennings' other historical epics laying around, and will get to them in turn.

But in the meantime...right now I'm 60 pages into Tim Willocks' 2006 historical epic "The Religion," first in a trilogy featuring main character Tannhauser; this initial installment concerns the 1565 siege of Malta. Ah, pure trash fiction -- 50% Robert E. Howard-esque blood and guts (the smell of feces ALWAYS ripe in the air upon each and every blood-sopping death-in-combat), the other 50% written with an eye on the Oprah Book Club (full paragraphs of oh-so-poetic "literary" exposition upon each character's introduction...before said character has even uttered a word). I'm loving it.

23:43 / 14.04.09

About a third of the way through 'The Kindly Ones' by Jonathan Littell, this being the sentimental, fictional memoir of an SS officer.

It's really very good, to the point where you almost find yourself sympathising ... Could this be the most important novel since 'American Psycho'? Possibly, yeah, though it won't be as influential, because how to follow it?

23:54 / 14.04.09

A strong stomach's required, and this is only so far - God knows what horrific antics the herr Doktor's going to get up to later, but, honestly, 'The Kindly Ones' is highly recommended

14:12 / 17.04.09

Squib, trawling through this thread, I notice you mentioned you were reading the Aeneid at one point. Did you finish it? If you found the particular English translation you were reading was subpar, I highly recommend Frederick Ahl's. It was published by Oxford two years ago, and is now available in trade paperback.

I'm wondering if any of you have read any Lawrence Norfolk. A British writer who has released 3 novels since '91. I've always meant to start a thread about him, just never got around to it. Lempriere's Dictionary was his first, but be sure to get the UK printing, as the US version was bowlderized (a subplot about proto-robotics was cut out at the US publisher's behest) and the ending was rewritten (a fake Hollywood "happy ending" tacked on).

Meanwhile I'm still enjoying Willocks' "The Religion." It's so calculative how he's written it. Dialog and narrative that makes you groan ("...he tried to contain the ache of love in his chest..."), but then Tannhauser kills yet another unarmed priest and the overwhelming gradiosity of the whole thing whallops you and you just can't help but love it.

nyarlathotep's shoe horn

22:14 / 17.04.09

buttergun - No, I didn't make it through the Aeneid (Michael J Oakley translation). My preference is for modern fiction, and I find the classics (i.e. pre-20th century) tedious.

Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden
this was the second time through this book in about 6 months, and I love it love it love it. It's a tale of two Cree boys who leave the bush to fight in WW I, interspersed with flashbacks, and the return journey for the lone survivor.
A greatly evocative story, brilliantly told with a clear voice. My favourite theme involves the medicine that exists within the stories we tell one another.
Highly recommended.

nyarlathotep's shoe horn

18:09 / 22.04.09

The Rez Sisters & Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing two plays by Tomson Highway, a Cree playwright and author who also writes children's stories.

The Rez sisters are 7 Cree-Ojibway women on a fictitious reserve (the rez) who go on a road trip to the biggest bingo in the world in Toronto. Dry Lips... is about 7 Cree-Ojibway men from the same reserve, as they stand back while the women put together an ice hockey team.

both plays are dark and amusing - too dark to be dark comedies, yet somehow, the funny moments help to deal with the nastier side of living on the rez, and being subjected harshly to the will of the Catholic church.

I saw Dry Lips... some years ago, and I really enjoy Highway's works.

nyarlathotep's shoe horn

18:11 / 22.04.09

I must add that in both plays, the trickster god Nanabush, a male figure in the Rez Sisters and a Female figure in Dry Lips... dances around during the course of most of both pieces, interacting with the characters, although rarely seen except by the simple and the ecstatic.

Nanabush is key to both plays.

nyarlathotep's shoe horn

05:25 / 29.04.09

just about done "The Book of Negroes" by Lawrence Hill.

It's a Canadian bestseller, and is doing well abroad.

It's a first-person fictional account of a Aminata Diallo, a West African woman who is enslaved and taken from her homeland across the ocean to the American Colonies.

It's been an eye-opener as far as Canada's history with respect to slaves, and throws the claims that slavery was never practiced here out the window.

A compelling read, most notably for the author's talent at capturing the voice of a female character better than any other man I've read.

nyarlathotep's shoe horn

06:16 / 11.05.09

Perfume by Patrick Suskind.

one of the best novels to focus on the gamut of olfactory sensations. It is truly a tale that combines revulsion with wonder in 18th C. Paris. I refuse to see the film I like this book so much.

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