| Author | Message | ||
     Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 10754 Registered: 05-2005 |
Sophie, the Final Verdict, by Senan Molony. A true crime book about an English man who murdered a French woman in Ireland. He was never convicted, but he died last year, so it’s OK to say out loud that he was a murderer. I have never doubted it. | ||
| Andrew Kerr Member Username: Andrew_k Post Number: 1577 Registered: 04-2005 |
Anthony Doerr - "All the Light We Cannot See" What a crock of sh*t. OK I'm a little harsh, but considering that this book won the Pulitzer prize in 2015, I expected a lot more than this. It frankly reads like a novel aimed at teenagers. With very short chapters ! And also one written with film/tv adaptation in mind, and yes apparently Netfliw have already made a series. Incidentally I have nothing against books for teenagers. Someone once bought me "Skellig" by David Almond and apologised because they didn't know that it was "a book for children". "Skellig" is a fascinating and mysterious tale that works on several levels and is miles above Doerr's clichéd tale. It's like modern cinema. Or maybe mainstream US and UK cinema, where the studios don't make films for adults anymore. This book certainly does not merit to have won the same literary prize that Hemingway, Wharton, Steinbeck, Morrison, Faulkner etc won. Dumbing down ! | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 2329 Registered: 10-2006 |
Ah, I'm so glad you agree, Andrew! Not harsh at all, you're absolutely right, a steaming concoction of the already seen. The rave reviews were mystifying. The TV version didn't get off so lightly. | ||
| David Gagen Member Username: David_g Post Number: 544 Registered: 02-2007 |
Agree Andrew, I barely finished it. Think I gave it 2.5 stars out of 5 maybe but I have family members who loved it. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 10756 Registered: 05-2005 |
Killing Thatcher by Rory Carroll. Another true crime book. | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 2332 Registered: 10-2006 |
Ross Macdonald - The Drowning Pool Penguin edition, P.51: "What is your favourite place in the whole wide world, Mr Archer?" "Ten feet underwater... watching fish through a face-glass." I guess it's possible Robert is a Macdonald fan? | ||
| Simon Withers Member Username: Sfwithers Post Number: 818 Registered: 08-2005 |
Stuart, I'm a huge fan of Ross Macdonald (with a lower-case D), who often gets overlooked in favour of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 2333 Registered: 10-2006 |
I remember you are, Simon! But I think he has taken his rightful place alongside those other two greats by now. He detested Chandler, apparently because the latter wrote a very grumpy review about the first Archer novel - probably scented a rival on the way. There is a lot of florid overwriting in this early one that he would later cut back on, together with his usual deft lyrical touches, plus some interesting pre-Bond antics - overweight, waddling millionaire villain, tense encounter on a luxury yacht, sadistic torture scene in a specially-equipped water room (very Doctor No), ambiguous, dangerous femme fatale and so on. Always good, though. | ||
| David Gagen Member Username: David_g Post Number: 545 Registered: 02-2007 |
The March - E.L.Doctorow | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 4948 Registered: 03-2005 |
Speaking of florid overwriting, I've picked up a copy of the 1961 compilation of all of Ronald Firbank's fiction. I don't propose to power my way all the way through the volume in one go but I'll be coming back to it from time to time to resume wherever I left off after taking suitable stylistic breaks elsewhere. | ||
| Simon Withers Member Username: Sfwithers Post Number: 820 Registered: 08-2005 |
Pastime - a Spenser novel by the late, great Robert B Parker. | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 2338 Registered: 10-2006 |
Chances are if someone likes Ross Mcd, they’ll also like RobertB, Simon! I think the first 14 Spensers are really worth reading, up to Taming a seahorse anyway, after which the books start to look like lyric poetry with a lot of white and delicate scatterings of print; though the April Kyle trilogy (Ceremony, Taming a sh and Hundred-Dollar Baby) is worth getting to the end of. Always a lot of wit though – Parker was funnier than Mcdonald, but the latter could craft a more substantial & deeper story. Early Autumn would probably get into my Top Ten of alltime reads. Off to dig out Pastime. | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 2344 Registered: 10-2006 |
Pastime - Robert B Parker A worthwhile reread thanks to Mr Withers’ mention above and, with that slightly weird karmic resonance that often flickers through life, it turned out to be a sequel to that favourite Spenser story, Early Autumn (it’s a bit of a bareknuckle fight out with Rachel Wallace) and one of the few I didn’t actually own any more. It also features a lot of merry dog stuff (Parker is very good on dogs) and a penultimate chapter that has some of his best writing, as well as a misremembered denouement in Boston Public Gardens that has always lingered (inaccurately) in my mind. Action highlight has a wounded Spenser (and mutt) escaping through the woods followed by a well-armed posse of bad guys (Spenser was, we are reminded here, born in Laramie). Very good later Parker. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 10782 Registered: 05-2005 |
This fabulous article on the power of jokes. https://insidestory.org.au/the-potency-o f-jokes/ | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 4952 Registered: 03-2005 |
"The reflections of Sir Mulberry Hawk--if such a term can be applied to the thoughts of the systematic and calculating man of dissipation, whose joys, regrets, pains, and pleasures, are all of self, and who would seem to retain nothing of the intellectual faculty but the power to debase himself, and to degrade the very nature whose outward semblance he wears--the reflections of Sir Mulberry Hawk turned upon Kate Nickleby, and were, in brief, that she was undoubtedly handsome; that her coyness MUST be easily conquerable by a man of his address and experience, and that the pursuit was one which could not fail to redound to his credit, and greatly to enhance his reputation with the world. And lest this last consideration--no mean or secondary one with Sir Mulberry--should sound strangely in the ears of some, let it be remembered that most men live in a world of their own, and that in that limited circle alone are they ambitious for distinction and applause. Sir Mulberry's world was peopled with profligates, and he acted accordingly." I am nearly finished reading Charles Dickens' "Nicholas Nickleby"--thank you, Stuart!--and this passage has stuck with me for the nearly 500 pages I have read since. While a bit prolix thanks to the influence of a per-word scheme of payment of the author, this is a devastatingly accurate description of my country's current "leader" and his lickspittle minions. I take great comfort from the reminder that this distorted form of human has been with us at least as long as the written word and has always ultimately been rejected. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 4953 Registered: 03-2005 |
"The reflections of Sir Mulberry Hawk--if such a term can be applied to the thoughts of the systematic and calculating man of dissipation, whose joys, regrets, pains, and pleasures, are all of self, and who would seem to retain nothing of the intellectual faculty but the power to debase himself, and to degrade the very nature whose outward semblance he wears--the reflections of Sir Mulberry Hawk turned upon Kate Nickleby, and were, in brief, that she was undoubtedly handsome; that her coyness MUST be easily conquerable by a man of his address and experience, and that the pursuit was one which could not fail to redound to his credit, and greatly to enhance his reputation with the world. And lest this last consideration--no mean or secondary one with Sir Mulberry--should sound strangely in the ears of some, let it be remembered that most men live in a world of their own, and that in that limited circle alone are they ambitious for distinction and applause. Sir Mulberry's world was peopled with profligates, and he acted accordingly. I am nearly finished reading Charles Dickens' "Nicholas Nickleby"--thank you, Stuart!--and nearly 500 pages later this passage has remained with me. While rather prolix thanks to the per-word scheme of payment at the time, this is a devastatingly accurate depiction of my country's current "leader" and his cynical lickspittle minions. I draw comfort from the reminder that this distorted form of human has been with us at least as long as the written word and has always eventually been rejected. Apologies if this turns out to be a double post. The first one showed up in truncated form on my computer screen. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 4954 Registered: 03-2005 |
Oh, I should have known. Sorry. | ||
| Mark Leydon Member Username: Mark_leydon Post Number: 375 Registered: 05-2005 |
That's worth repeating twice Randy! No doubt he will eventually be rejected but based on his first two months the damage will devastating and long lasting. | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 2354 Registered: 10-2006 |
Glad you enjoyed NN, Randy! If you don’t, or didn’t, shed a tear at the end, as of course the author certainly intended, you’re a tougher man than me! If you liked Sir Mulberry, you could do worse, if you’ve never read it, than move on to Martin Chuzzlewit, and the wonderful character that is Mr Pecksniff. Also Dickens’s most purely funny book, I think, despite some very dark chapters set in a swampy, primeval, knife-infested America. | ||
| David Gagen Member Username: David_g Post Number: 546 Registered: 02-2007 |
Sanctuary - Faulkner Elizabeth Costello - J.M.Coetzee West With The Night - Beryly Markham | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 10783 Registered: 05-2005 |
Loveless by Mike McGonigal. It’s part of the 33 1/3 series and is about the My Bloody Valentine album. I bought it in the Flying Nun shop in Auckland last weekend. Before that I read The Wrong Woman by JP Pomare. He’s a New Zealander who lives in Melbourne and the book is set in America. I started reading it in Sydney Airport and finished it in Auckland. It’s really good. | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 2355 Registered: 10-2006 |
Rich trio, David! What's Sanctuary like? I always held off on it because of its reputation as a sensational shocker to earn some cash, but it might be better than I imagine! | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 4955 Registered: 03-2005 |
David, you probably read those three books--and more!--in the time it took me to read the Dickens novel. I am a slow reader. Stuart, if by "the end" you mean the last 30 to 40 pages, yes I did. But I'm a hopeless softie nowadays so that's not necessarily an achievement in my case. Mark, I'm afraid I must agree with you that the damage will be devastating and long lasting. And we're still just beginning the descent. I cannot understand the nihilism of so many of my compatriots. | ||
| David Gagen Member Username: David_g Post Number: 547 Registered: 02-2007 |
Yes Stuart, I did read that Faulkner said that about Sanctuary, but I believe it was more to do with the original draft (rejected by the publishers) and by the time he had reshaped it, it became a more serious piece of writing. It remains however a confronting reading experience in many ways. The narrative is fairly straight forward by Faulkner standards but there are still challenges determining the order of certain events. This is the 5th Faulkner novel I have now read (As I Lay Dying, Absolom! Absolom!, The Sound & Fury, Light In August, Sanctuary.) Light In August was my starting point and in many ways the most straight forward. Absolom! was especially difficult (I needed some reference notes from study guide to understand exactly what I was reading!) His novels require a particular disciplined approach to slow careful reading - it can become quite frustrating, and I do need a break from him now I think. Just finished John Williams "Butcher's Crossing" | ||
| David Gagen Member Username: David_g Post Number: 548 Registered: 02-2007 |
Randy, Dickens is on a whole other level! I have on my list this year to read one or two of his - I own a copy of Bleak House from when I was supposed to read it at uni back in the 70s (and didnt). Or start with Great Expectations or David Copperfield. I have not read any Dickens except A Christmas Carol & A Tale Of Two Cities, so kudos to you for Nicholas Nickleby ! |