| 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 ! | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 10797 Registered: 05-2005 |
Phew, eh readers? The Life and Writing of Tom Hibbert. I loved his writing in music magazines in the 80s and 90s, but then he seemed to just disappear. Very sadly, there was a tragic reason for that. It’s great that this anthology has been published. | ||
| David Gagen Member Username: David_g Post Number: 549 Registered: 02-2007 |
The Wapshot Chronicle - John Cheever A Sport and a Pastime - James Salter | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 2357 Registered: 10-2006 |
Salter's As it is is on my Summer Reading list! Hope you get ahead with Dickens, David, who is always superb entertainment. Given the three you mention above, I'd suggest Copperfield, BH, then Great Expectations. I've just finished rereading some Kipling short stories, which reminded me of the man's astonishing genius. Hope to pick up some more of his stuff when I'm back in the UK. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 4962 Registered: 03-2005 |
I'm a day late on this. Yesterday morning in California it was very satisfying to read about Albanese's and the Labor Party's decisive victory in Australia. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 4963 Registered: 03-2005 |
Dorothy Thompson - Dorothy Thompson's Political Guide Originally published in 1938, the bulk of this very unbulky book (120pp) outlines the attributes of Nazism, Fascism and Soviet Communism and compares them to liberal democracy. Ms. Thompson also lays out the tensions and confusions extant at the moment not only political but economic and technological. It's amazing how relevant it is in 2025. Dorothy Thompson was an American foreign correspondent who spent time first in the Soviet Union and then Germany during the Nazi era until invited to leave. She was the inspiration for the character named Nancy in the WWII dramatic series World On Fire. She was married to Sinclair Lewis until 1942. This slim volume's clarity and big picture view aided by the leavening of almost 90 years impressed me so much that by the time I was half-way in I decided to buy a couple additional copies to put in my neighborhood's local streetside free library kiosk. It's ineffably comforting to read this proof that we USians were once a people at least interested in reason. Nothing is perfect of course. As she devolves into brief discussions of some more specific issues near the end of her Political Guide Ms. Thompson steers into the opposing lane of popular modern liberal sentiment. She expresses concern that the new National Labor Relations Board--the New Deal era entity that safeguarded the rights of industrial labor unions--would lead to oppression of the country by the unions. Then she writes about the declining birthrate of the era, now understood to be the inevitable consequence of the Great Depression. Some of it sounds amusingly familiar today: "The spoiled child is a peculiarly American phenomenon: selfish, demanding, pampered far beyond the necessities of his years, growing up to expect from society what he has always had from his parents--returns entirely incommensurate with his own contributions." More eyebrow-raising is this passage: "What do parents owe their young? They owe them a decent inheritance of health, untainted by congenital disease, and society owes it to itself to demand greater eugenic control over prospective parents." That stint in Berlin rubbed off after all. | ||
| Simon Withers Member Username: Sfwithers Post Number: 844 Registered: 08-2005 |
The great man is in the Guardian today: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle /2025/may/24/robert-forster-you-improve- as-a-person-as-you-get-older-i-think-tha ts-a-fact And while I'm at it, the Guardian had a top 20 of Teenage Fan Club songs a few days ago, which may be of interest to people here. https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/m ay/22/scotlands-most-reliable-sunshine-t eenage-fanclubs-greatest-songs-ranked | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 10803 Registered: 05-2005 |
Simon, I made a playlist of that Guardian list, minus the missing b-side. It’s a very well chosen selection. | ||
| Andrew Kerr Member Username: Andrew_k Post Number: 1588 Registered: 04-2005 |
Cheers Simon ! That Guardian RF article is wonderful and the comments interesting too. | ||
| Simon Withers Member Username: Sfwithers Post Number: 847 Registered: 08-2005 |
The Guardian piece wasn't open for comments when I read it - had it been so, there would have been an sfwithers (not switchers, thank you spellcheck!) comment. | ||
| Simon Withers Member Username: Sfwithers Post Number: 854 Registered: 08-2005 |
Short piece in the Guardian on the book coming about Lawrence, former Felt frontman, who seems to be leading an unusual life. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/j ul/03/street-level-superstar-a-year-with -lawrence-by-will-hodgkinson-audiobook-r eview-indie-pops-ultimate-underdog | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 10814 Registered: 05-2005 |
Thanks for the link, Simon. Lawrence has come across in interviews as a very strange man for decades. I can’t name a single Felt song, but many writers whose recommendations I respect have praised them to the hilt, so one day I’ll have to check them/him out. | ||
| Burgers Member Username: Burgers Post Number: 259 Registered: 05-2005 |
Hodgkinson’s book came out last year, it’s the audio version that’s new. I don’t particularly rate Hodgkinson’s taste in music or his writing. Like everyone else who writes for The Times 2, he ends up writing mainly about himself. I quite like Felt. The later stuff is better than the earlier, largely instrumental stuff. I’m not really up on his later bands. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 10815 Registered: 05-2005 |
A nice article about Rocking Horse Records in Brisbane turning 50. https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/j ul/09/brisbane-rocking-horse-records-50- year-anniversary-is-the-f-word-offensive -in-queensland-court-case | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 4968 Registered: 03-2005 |
Thanks for that link Pádraig. It was fun to read. I think I knew that there'd been some hassling of Rocking Horse though I assumed it was Bjelke-Petersen's regime who did that. The Guardian fleshed it out well. I still have a fond memory of visiting Rocking Horse in the Australian winter of 2007. It was located on a street perpendicular to the Queen Street Mall back then, no? (I think there was another record store on the actual Mall.) It was hard to keep a good sense of direction with that twisty river deranging everything. At Rocking Horse I remember buying a Machine Translations album and also a compilation of early recordings by Gaslight Radio. I probably bought something else but those are the ones I remember after all these years. And I remember meeting Christina Gallagher, then active on this board, at the store. I still purchase things by mail order from Rocking Horse, as recently as April this year. They are one of my go-to places for exotic Australian releases, especially from Brisbane and nearby areas. Warwick Vere is such a great name! | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 10816 Registered: 05-2005 |
Randy, it’s still on the same street, though in a much smaller space in a basement a couple of doors from where it was when you were there. I asked Warwick when they had moved but he seemed to think I was making a comment about being in a smaller space. I wasn’t. I was just glad the shop was still going. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 4969 Registered: 03-2005 |
It is remarkable longevity, maybe because it is one man's project. Which unfortunately probably also defines its eventual span of existence. I just ordered another six titles. Obscurities of course. CDs because I prefer those. | ||
| Simon Withers Member Username: Sfwithers Post Number: 859 Registered: 08-2005 |
Article in the Guardian on European acts who were one-hit wonders, or similar in the UK, after Brits discovered their songs on holiday. Happy memories for me. https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/j ul/11/wish-you-were-still-here-what-happ ened-to-the-one-hit-wonders-of-80s-packa ge-holiday-pop | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 10818 Registered: 05-2005 |
There is a four page feature on The Go-Betweens in the August edition of Record Collector, with Robert talking about band and solo albums. | ||
| Simon Withers Member Username: Sfwithers Post Number: 861 Registered: 08-2005 |
Pádraig, thanks for that - I'll buy a copy if I can find one. | ||
| David Gagen Member Username: David_g Post Number: 550 Registered: 02-2007 |
Just finished Moby Dick. Quite challenging in places being ignorant of a lot of the Milton/Biblical/Shakesperean references which the youtube video referred to. But a remarkable work nevertheless. | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 2365 Registered: 10-2006 |
That's one of the biggies I've never got round to, David, though I've enjoyed some of the shorter Melvilles. Maybe one day... Meanwhile, another American biggie, at least in poundage, Lonesome Dove, and highly absorbing it is, too. None of the cover blurbs mention how funny it is, but the tone is essentially comic for about 200 pages, so that when the real violence kicks in it's all the more effective. "For God's sake, what's happened now?" asks the wife as I let out another long groan. Tremendous stuff. | ||
| David Gagen Member Username: David_g Post Number: 551 Registered: 02-2007 |
Stuart, I have read all 4 books in the Lonesome Dove series, prequels and sequels. I am going to reread them after the guy I lent them to returns them eventually. Wonderful story telling. | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 2366 Registered: 10-2006 |
So the others are good too? I wouldn't mind going on to the sequel, despite the lack of several of LD's most colourful characters, and one marriage in particular (revealed in the back cover blurb, darn it) is a bit of a shocker. Don't know if I'll ever get round to the prequels though! | ||
| David Gagen Member Username: David_g Post Number: 552 Registered: 02-2007 |
The Secret Agent - Joseph Conrad Paris Trout - Pete Dexter | ||
| Fred Tadrowski Member Username: Ftadrowski Post Number: 155 Registered: 03-2015 |
"We were the best worst band. We died but we died in style." Speedy Keen I just finished Hollywood Dream: The Thunderclap Newman Story by Mark Ian Wilkerson (Third Man Books), which is a wonderful book telling the story of their number one hit song and one amazing album. It also has chapters on each diverse and talented member before and after their short two years together. Thunderclap Newman lives! | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 10842 Registered: 05-2005 |
Mick Herron - Bad Actors. | ||
| Simon Withers Member Username: Sfwithers Post Number: 874 Registered: 08-2005 |
An article by the always-interesting Go-Betweens fan Stewart Lee on the improvisational guitarist Derek Bailey. https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/s ep/15/petula-clarks-downtown-stewart-lee -improv-guitar-hero-derek-bailey | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 4977 Registered: 03-2005 |
The Decameron - Giovanni Boccaccio I should have read up on this book before ordering one of the vintage leather bound editions that can be found for small money on eBay. It was cited so many times during the Covid episode that I thought it was an account of the plague. 107 pages in, it seems to be an extra long and tedious alternative to Canterbury Tales. This is yet another of those volumes (like The Uncollected Stories of William Faulkner) that I'll have to force my way through to the end with precious little enjoyment on the journey. Stuart, please tell me the book eventually starts to develop into something as the characters recount their little tales! Maybe I'm just too American and too 21st Century for this one. | ||
| Simon Withers Member Username: Sfwithers Post Number: 875 Registered: 08-2005 |
Randy, did you ever try Ulysses? I tried to read this when I was at uni, not as part of my course but for my pre-sleep relaxation. I usually manage a novel a week or more, but with Ulysses I managed/struggled through about 200 pages in a month; and it's about 1,000 pages. Life's too short for that. I'm tempted by Moby-Dick, but feel that may be a similar experience... | ||
| Simon Withers Member Username: Sfwithers Post Number: 876 Registered: 08-2005 |
I've also struggled with Jack Kerouac (and I love a bit of 'beat' movement) and Bernard Malamud, and this was when I used to read 'literary' fiction! I like a lot of Thomas Pynchon, Joseph Heller (including the darker than dark Something Happened), Philip Roth, Norman Mailer... | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 2373 Registered: 10-2006 |
Never given Boccaccio a try, Randy! More fun to be had from Chaucer and Dante from that period, I suspect, although that’s just an impression. For Italian classics with a robust story (and a touch of plague as well), Manzoni’s The Betrothed is a really good read, taking Walter Scott’s influence on board, giving it a good shake and packing it with colourful characters and a stirring plot. Reviled in Italy because scowling teenagers here are force-marched through it word for word in high school, it’s actually highly enjoyable stuff. Faulkner’s Uncollected stories might not be so bad, perhaps some garish things he wrote for cash along the way in between masterpieces? I think with Ulysses, it’s best to adopt an attitude of “ok, I’m not going to get all of it, but I’ll see what happens and take what I can”. Joyce’s humour helps things along and in the end it’s a fascinating piece of work. I’ve just finished “The Island: W. H. Auden and the Last of Englishness” by Nicholas Jenkins which (“part biography, part literary study, part marathon”, Guardian) takes us virtually line by line through the poet’s earliest work and shows in enthralling detail how he built up to the extraordinary things he would lob into British cultural life in the 1930s. Auden is one of those figures I regard as inexhaustible, so this was lentils and drink to me. I really hope Mr Jenkins is hard at work on a sequel. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 4978 Registered: 03-2005 |
Simon, I did read Ulysses when I was 19 or 20. I managed to get all the way through but I certainly don't remember how long it took. I think I still have that paperback edition in the house somewhere. I knew it spanned only a single day but I doubt that I understood much of anything in it. But that's where I got the notion that I should power my way through whatever tome I attempt. The experience was enough to tell me not to ever think of trying Finnegan's Wake. Stuart, part of the problem the Faulkner Uncollected Stories is that many of them read like rough drafts for longer pieces he never got around to completing. And a huge proportion of them were set in the post-Civil War and Reconstruction era and, well, I just don't have any sympathy for the white folks of that era. We're still living with their pathology today and it threatens to again rip up the country from which I'm writing this. I'll investigate the Manzoni book. My exposure to Italian literature is limited to The Leopard which I loved, The Novel of Ferrara which I think is a fantastic collection and sadly relevant to this present moment and a book of plays by Pirandello which I was never able to bond with. In the latter case, however, I've seldom been able to get much out of reading plays. I have to watch them instead. The last comparatively easy read I had was On Earth We Are Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong. I suspect this autobiographical novel is a bit too vivid for a nongay reader in its depiction of teenage male homosexuality. But the lengthy kaleidoscopic segments of the book recounting the experiences of a grandmother, mother and son during the Vietnamese War and following relocation to the U.S. are profound. | ||
| David Gagen Member Username: David_g Post Number: 553 Registered: 02-2007 |
Just finished: The Old Curiosity Shop - Dickens The Fraud - Zadie Smith The Silence Of The Girls - Pat Barker | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 4983 Registered: 03-2005 |
Still on the Decameron, at about page 500 (out of 750). I am getting something out this exercise. I've learnt that Florentines had a decidedly jaded view of the Catholic clergy in the 14th Century. Celibacy was clearly understood to be a fiction. And friars were popularly assumed to be parasites and knaves. As far as Boccaccio is concerned, there's definitely no truth to the subsequent Victorian conceit that women don't like sex as much as men. In fact if I'm to believe Boccaccio most upper class married women in his era took a lover to supplement the husband. And in one stroke of surprising frankness for so long ago, one tale recounts a wife's canny arrangement to supplement her priggish husband's infrequent and unenthusiastic attentions with those of a young swain who also services the needs of the husband, thus neutralizing his objections. Still, 250 pages to go. | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 2381 Registered: 10-2006 |
Good for you, Randy. I’m pretty sure Pasolini’s film picked up on that sort of story, though after seeing what he did to Chaucer I couldn’t bear to watch it. (One funny Canterbury moment however featured a young Tom Baker flapping his junk out, which had the whole cinema immediately bursting happily into the Doctor Who theme.) I’ve just read two Julian Barnes, Arthur & George and Flaubert’s Parrot: the former, a big juicy story suitably framed as a detail-packed Victorian detective novel (Arthur, the co-hero, is Conan Doyle), is a great read and brilliantly executed, with Barnes playing a delicious piece of authorial sleight of hand in the first fifty or so pages, if the reader hasn’t read the blurb or any reviews or, like me, had forgotten them (although a sort of vague memory persisted until I could say, aha!) Parrot, on the other hand, is a smartawse assemblage of Flaubertian biographical bric a brac loosely held together by a pedantic and obsessive English narrator, a doctor with a dead, unfaithful wife (of course). Each chapter is presented in a different style, a dictionary, a list of museum exhibits, an exam paper, a caustic commentary by Flaubert’s lover, so forth. It left me cold. | ||
| Simon Withers Member Username: Sfwithers Post Number: 883 Registered: 08-2005 |
I read Julian Barnes years ago and must give him another go. He also wrote a four detective novels featuring the bisexual private eye Duffy using the pseudonym Dan Kavanagh; they're worth a read. I went to a Julian Barnes book signing/QandA years ago and asked about how they coexist, and he said that as Julian Barnes he does steal some ideas from Dan Kavanagh but not vice versa. | ||
| Fred Tadrowski Member Username: Ftadrowski Post Number: 156 Registered: 03-2015 |
Just read "Robert Forster's Danger in the Past" by Patrick Chapman on the plane back from London where we saw Robert Forster at the Union Chapel. The book is a nice addition to the 33 & 1/3rd series and I strongly recommend it. Robert told me before the concert that the new book "Lost in Music, Lost in Dreams" by the Dutch photographer Gijsbert Hanekroot with text by Robert will not have a wide distribution, so I just purchased directly from Gijsbert Hanekroot's website. Shipping cost more than the book, but I am looking forward to receiving it. | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 2382 Registered: 10-2006 |
Did you buy the book in London, Fred? | ||
| Fred Tadrowski Member Username: Ftadrowski Post Number: 158 Registered: 03-2015 |
I purchased the Danger in the Past book at Foyles Bookshop in London. I believe it will be available in the US, Australia, and elsewhere. Robert spoke with some fans, including me, who waiting to get into the venue and was gracious as always. | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 2383 Registered: 10-2006 |
Thanks, Fred. It doesn't seem to be an easy one to track down online, so I'll activate a London asset to see what they can do. | ||
| Simon Withers Member Username: Sfwithers Post Number: 885 Registered: 08-2005 |
Review of Robert's gig in Cardiff. https://monstagigz.com/2025/10/12/gig-re view-robert-forster-and-his-swedish-band -at-the-gate-cardiff/ And thanks to the comment from Fred I've just ordered Danger in the Past and Lost in Music, Lost in Dreams. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 4984 Registered: 03-2005 |
Great info Fred. Both books ordered. | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 2384 Registered: 10-2006 |
Where are you guys ordering the Chapman book from? | ||
| Burgers Member Username: Burgers Post Number: 271 Registered: 05-2005 |
I got mine from UK Amazon. Looks like Amazon.it have it or you could try rarewaves | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 4986 Registered: 03-2005 |
Stuart, I ordered my copy from a seller on eBay. It's taken over from Amazon for my general purchases. | ||
| Simon Withers Member Username: Sfwithers Post Number: 886 Registered: 08-2005 |
I ordered mine direct from Bloomsbury - dearer than Amazon but I made the decision to pay more. (I use Amazon a fair bit but if I can use somebody else I will do so). Lost in Music was bought directly from the Hanekroot website. | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 2386 Registered: 10-2006 |
Thanks for the info, guys. I tried Bloomsbury, but couldn't find shipping cost to Italy; ended up being put through straight to payment without having even given them my postal address or knowing the full cost; baled out. Other companies suggesting OTT shipping (12 quid etc) or a book price of 85 euros (Feltrinelli, nice try!). My asset popped into Foyles but it seems Fred snaffled their one and only copy. I'll give it another try today. | ||
| Simon Withers Member Username: Sfwithers Post Number: 887 Registered: 08-2005 |
Stuart, good luck! If you're struggling message me and I can order one and send it on, for nothing. (I have a huge number of GB postage stamps that I used to use for sending stuff out that I sold on eBay, but eBay changed its system; I've literally hundreds of pounds worth!) | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 2387 Registered: 10-2006 |
Thanks a lot, Simon, very nice of you! I'll let you know how I get on! | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 2388 Registered: 10-2006 |
Housman Country – Peter Parker Engrossing and deeply moving study of the poet whose discreet blend of war, tragic love, nature and homoeroticism in A Shropshire Lad made it one of the last century’s most influential books. It also has the welcome effect of urging you to pack a pair of walking boots and head off immediately for Ludlow. As a little musical addendum, here’s one of my favourite classical singers (he manages to sing English without sounding like Prince Charles straining at stool) performing six Housman poems set by George Butterworth, another golden lad rich with promise who died in the trenches. The songs are (roman numerals refer to the Shropshire Lad numbering): Loveliest of trees II, When I Was One-and-twenty XIII, Look not in my eyes XV, Think no more, Lad XLIX, The Lads in their hundreds XXIII, Is my team ploughing? XXVII https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDv-FUfO XNQ |