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What are we reading? 13th April 2022
The Museum of Modern Art has put all its exhibition catalogues online: I remember taking this one, Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism, out of my local library as a teenager. https://assets.moma.org/documents/mom...
Thanks Anne for the excellent report.I finished Shadowlands the other day. The last chapter concerns the way that Trywerwyn valley was flooded in the sixties, destroying the Capel Celyn community, village, farms, school and church to provide extra water for Liverpool. This was a valley steeped in Welsh tradition and language and a strong opposition to the plans was mounted to no avail. It took forty years for Liverpool Corporation to express regret at the way the people of the valley were treated.
Scarlet and Mach would find the discussion about the Welsh language interesting and it is mooted that in some way the flooding of Trywerwyn acted as a spur to renewed interest in Welsh nationalism and language.
Overall a most interesting book. I found it odd at first that the copious notes were placed at the end of each chapter but this worked fine for me.
On now to the latest Flavia Albia book by Lindsay Davis called Desperate Undertaking set in ancient Rome. I have studied the map and the list of characters and am ready to begin.
CCCubbon wrote: "I finished Shadowlands the other day. The last chapter concerns the way that Tryweryn valley was flooded in the sixties, destroying the Capel Celyn community..."
Some 5 miles south of Aberystwyth, just off the main road, there is an old wall on which the words "Cofiwch Tryweryn" were painted in the 1960s by author and activist Meic Stephens... this means "Remember Tryweryn" and was intended as a reminder to us Welsh of the treatment we had received by the English parliament. The wall became a symbol of Welsh nationalism and resistance to English dominion - as a result, the slogan was frequently vandalised and then restored by opposing factions.
Amusingly, the slogan in its original form was grammatically incorrect, as the 'T' in 'Tryweryn should have been mutated to 'D'... the current version, which is often reproduced on car stickers and T-shirts, has been corrected to 'Cofiwch Dryweryn'.
I drove past the wall only yesterday, for (probably) the thousandth time, or so...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cofiwch...
(Footnote: I used to confuse the author Meic Stephens with the singer Meic Stevens... just a warning to others... it's easy to get it wrong!)
Spring is here in the shires, temps in the mid teens, touching 17-18cSadly the Hennessy book on Britain in the early 60s died a death, i found a chapter on the otherwise fascinating situation with CDG and Macmillan over the EEC was killed dead by long quotation paragraphs that just kept hammering the nail in the coffin of my interest. Skillful modern or popular historians need to tell the tale in the own words and use less long quotes. I'm dissapointed but onwards and upwards
My Marraige by Jakob Wasserman is an interesting study of marital breakdown, with portents of future doom hinted at in the lighter earlier sections. The translation scans well and the style is perfect. I'm reading it fairly slowly but enjoying it.
Higher Ground and Other Storiesby John McGahern remains enchanting and i'm transported to damp, wonderful Ireland on every read
Am replacing Hennessy with Guevara's Reminisces of the Cuban Revolutionary War (1962), another part of a latin american trend in my reading in 2022 and lastly VS Naipaul's Literary Occasions:Essays is very readable and humble as the great writer looks back on his life in Trinidad and on the art of writing
Great summary Anne, thanks for all your work as usual
Mod
Thank you for the splendid intro, Anne.
Thank you for the links, Bill. Museum websites are a marvellous resource.
I've been to 3 exhibitions over the past couple of weeks:
Pionnières: women artists of les années folles https://museeduluxembourg.fr/en/agend...
Whistler from the Frick collection https://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/exhibit...
Akseli Gallen-Kallela, a Finnish artist https://www.musee-jacquemart-andre.co...
I bought some things in the shop of the Musée Jacquemart-André and I was given (free) a beautiful catalogue of a Turner exhibition which was unfortunately in 2020 and so was only able to open for a short time. Presumably this left them with a lot of unsold catalogues: 'Turner Peintures et Aquarelles Collections de la Tate'. I've been enjoying it over the past few days.
Mod
The fascination exerted by his character on his contemporaries made him the model for many heroes of novels: des Esseintes in Huysmans' À Rebours (1884), the Count of Muzaret in Jean Lorrain's Monsieur de Phocas (1901) and, above all, Baron de Charlus in Marcel Proust's À la recherche du temps perdu. (Babelio)This was one of the illustrations in the splendid The Man in the Red Coat by Julian Barnes which I read recently. The hardback received praise as a beautiful book in TLS, as well as a good read, and the paperback is also very attractive. The man in the red coat is Dr Samuel Pozzi, an eminent Parisian gynaecologist, holder of the first chair of gynaecology in France. Rather than his biography, the book is a portrait of his circle in the late 19th and early 20th century.
I've got another Barnes waiting, The Only Story, borrowed from the library.
Anne wrote: "Hello, everyone. Welcome to the new thread. I open with this lovely description of the season by AB46:
“Spring is starting to find strength in the shires....my rowan is leafing (always the earlie..."
Lovely intro as always. That personal touch is what I am really missing in the Guardians WWR.
I am sure your personal reading rut will come to an end. May it be sooner rather than later.
CCCubbon wrote: "Thanks Anne for the excellent report.I finished Shadowlands the other day. The last chapter concerns the way that Trywerwyn valley was flooded in the sixties, destroying the Capel Celyn community..."
I was 12 when we first drove past Lake Reschen in South Tyrol. I was so upset seeing a belltower half submerged in water.
For weeks I imagined this sunken village.
https://www.geckofootsteps.de/kirchtu...
I only found out very much later that there was no underwater village anymore. It had been blown up, save the listed 14th century belltower. 170 houses and agricultural buildings. 100 families lost their homes and the land they made their living from when the reservoir was flooded in 1950.
And it must have been so distressing for most of them to lose their graves as well.
I wonder how many people around the world had to share this experience. There must have been thousands.
I read that the people could choose whether or not those buries were re- interred elsewhere or had a slab of concrete laid over the grave. Such a difficult choice, you are right.The objections in the valley centred around a belief that the water was mainly for industrial use and the people seem to have been treated with little consideration or respect.
The history of the English dominance of the Welsh recurs in the book going back to the time of Edward l and the fact that the valley
was Welsh speaking was emphasised. I felt almost ashamed that during the time when all this was going on I knew nothing about it being more concerned with my three young children.
The village was destroyed like the one you mention but remains have resurfaced several times since during exceptionally dry periods; itmust be very strange and sad for anyone who lived there as a child to visit.
Great intro, Anne, thanks.
Jena 1800: The Republic of Free Spirits – Peter Neumann (2018)
Not a book of philosophy, which I might struggle with, but a group biography of philosophers and writers which in a short space gives a lively overview of their thought and outlook, as well as their lives.
The Schlegels (Friedrich, Wilhelm, Caroline), Dorothea Veit, Ludwig Tieck, Wilhelm Schelling, and Friedrich von Hardenberg aka Novalis, all live together in a house in Jena. The atmosphere in this little republic is mostly convivial, the air buzzing with the exchange of ideas, but tensions, both intellectual and sexual, are not far off, and of course the women find the housework is left to them.
In Jena itself, a town of five thousand, a fifth of them students, the life of the mind is vigorously active. Fichte was lecturing at the university until dismissed recently for atheism, Schiller a lecturer there too is writing his Wallenstein trilogy, Goethe visits for weeks at a time from Weimar, the nearby ducal seat, where he is staging the plays, Schelling’s friend Hegel is about to arrive, and Kant is omnipresent in spirit.
While the lives of the group are full of interest, the prose unfortunately is not very pleasing to read. Neumann shows method and care when he describes their work and their thinking. At other times his style falls into a loose familiarity: “right across from… right down the line… right in the middle… right from the start… right over… right there… right then and there… right around the corner… right in front… headed up… free them up… wound up… met up… measure up… show up… fire up… bumped up against… every which way [twice in two pages] … Rebellion was in; decorum was out.”
Not exactly slangy, but certainly casual. I have no idea if the 2022 translation by Shelley Frisch, who sits on juries to award translation prizes, is true to the original. I compare the writing unfavourably with, for example, the Ritchie Robertson translation of Heine’s history of German philosophy, and other books in the same area.
Jena 1800: The Republic of Free Spirits – Peter Neumann (2018)
Not a book of philosophy, which I might struggle with, but a group biography of philosophers and writers which in a short space gives a lively overview of their thought and outlook, as well as their lives.
The Schlegels (Friedrich, Wilhelm, Caroline), Dorothea Veit, Ludwig Tieck, Wilhelm Schelling, and Friedrich von Hardenberg aka Novalis, all live together in a house in Jena. The atmosphere in this little republic is mostly convivial, the air buzzing with the exchange of ideas, but tensions, both intellectual and sexual, are not far off, and of course the women find the housework is left to them.
In Jena itself, a town of five thousand, a fifth of them students, the life of the mind is vigorously active. Fichte was lecturing at the university until dismissed recently for atheism, Schiller a lecturer there too is writing his Wallenstein trilogy, Goethe visits for weeks at a time from Weimar, the nearby ducal seat, where he is staging the plays, Schelling’s friend Hegel is about to arrive, and Kant is omnipresent in spirit.
While the lives of the group are full of interest, the prose unfortunately is not very pleasing to read. Neumann shows method and care when he describes their work and their thinking. At other times his style falls into a loose familiarity: “right across from… right down the line… right in the middle… right from the start… right over… right there… right then and there… right around the corner… right in front… headed up… free them up… wound up… met up… measure up… show up… fire up… bumped up against… every which way [twice in two pages] … Rebellion was in; decorum was out.”
Not exactly slangy, but certainly casual. I have no idea if the 2022 translation by Shelley Frisch, who sits on juries to award translation prizes, is true to the original. I compare the writing unfavourably with, for example, the Ritchie Robertson translation of Heine’s history of German philosophy, and other books in the same area.
Thanks Anne. It’s a great way to start the thread. Really appreciated. Even better when it’s been a couple of weeks.
Two really good reads for me to report on from a warm sunny afternoon on Lake Bohinj.
Land of Snow and Ashes by Petra Rautiainen
The translator of this novel, David Hackston, writes a very informative afterword..
Naturally, Finland has its own unique narrative of the Second World War. Finns consider the war as at least three separate conflicts: the Winter War (1939-40), the Continuation War (1941-4) and the Lapland War (1944-5), and it is during the latter conflict and its aftermath that the events here take place..
The definitive novel about the Winter War (for me at least..) is Roy Jacobsen’s The Burnt-Out Town of Miracles. This makes an excellent accompaniment, Rautiainen tells the story of Nazi crimes against the Sámi people.
There are two timelines: one, set in 1944 during the German occupation, shortly before Finland’s peace treaty with Russia; the other, takes place five years later when Inkeri, a journalist and the Finnish protagonist of the novel, visits Lapland. Inkeri arrives to report on the rebuilding of Lapland and the continuing attempt to integrate the remaining members of the indigenous Sámi into Finnish society.
The key to the narrative though, is a young girl, Bigga-Marja (a name half Finnish and half Sámi), who at 12 years old witnessed the genocide perpetrated by the Nazis, and the some years later the new Finnish government’s attempts to integrate the Sámi with the help of scientists. Incredibly it is the latter that is the most affecting and disturbing, as “researchers” appear in their village measuring skulls and taking photographs of naked children when ‘researchers’ appear in their community measuring skulls and taking photographs of naked children, Bigga-Marja suffers flashbacks to the Nazi atrocities and runs away into the freezing wilderness. Though she is found by her grandfather, she has retreated into herself and will not communicate.
Like Jacobsen’s novel, this is frequently disturbing reading, but a very necessary insight into the barbarism that took place in Lapland.
The narrator of the 1944 timeline is an interpreter and observer of the concentration camp, writing in diary format. Towards the end, in which there are many reveals, he records that the camp is one of the places that body parts are harvested for Mengele’s experiments.
Here is one of his earlier entries..
A woman arrived with the doctor. I understand she is a shamanistic bloodletter. A witch. Noaidi, in the local tongue. For some reason she is working here as a nurse. She didn’t say anything to us and got straight to work. But I did catch sight of her eyes. They are a strange colour. I have never seen anything like it. I was afraid to look into them but couldn’t help myself. They were like freshly blossomed heath violets or fat bilberries glistening in the morning dew. Not quite blue, but something altogether different..
A hue reflecting the piercing Arctic light and the universe.
This is a very skilfully written novel, that though it’s roots are firmly in Finnish history, provides all the elements of a thriller that makes it particular gripping.
It also manages to do what few other novels about the war do, which is to end on a bright note, as Inkeri becomes so involved, that she decides to stay and immerse herself in Sámi culture.
and, Dinner by César Aira, lovingly translated by Katherine Silver.
This is a challenging review to write, more so than almost anything I can think of. Typical of Aira I guess; he would feel he had achieved what he had set out to do - to confound, to be pretty much indescribable. I can’t say I know another author he can compare to. He remains a favourite.
I’m going to stick my neck out and say this is about what it means to be alive.
The unnamed narrator, a 60 year old unemployed, bankrupt, depressed and morose bachelor, living with his mother in Coronel Pringles, Aira’s own home town, is our protagonist (but then again, not really..).
One night he and his mother are invited to his friend’s house for dinner, and are regaled by his fantastic stories of travel. He has pretty much the opposite life.
They return home; his mother to bed, and he to channel surf on TV while contemplating his futile existence.
Cue a dramatic change of pace. To say the least.
The local news channel shows a young female presenter and her cameraman chasing adventure through the late night as they stumble upon reports that the dead are rising from the grave.
Gruesome scenes follow…
Here’s a clip..
The Palacio had ceased to be a refuge. In fact, several corpses had entered behind them, sending the group racing every which way through dark rooms, up and down staircases, and along corridors. After a few minutes everybody was thinking they were the last survivor, and a few seconds later everybody was right, or rather one was.
The mayor, having lost all dignity, was curled up in the back of a wardrobe whose door he closed from the inside, and there he stayed, still and quiet, holding his breath.
Unfortunately, right at that moment, the phone in his pocket, which had been ominously quite for a while, rang. To make matters worse, it took him a while to find it and silence it, what with the state of his nerves; he looked through all his pockets before looking in the right one. When he finally had it in hand, he answered the call. Precautions were no longer worth taking, and the company of a voice was preferable to nothing.
The following morning everything seems apparently normal, as the narrator calls to thank his friend for dinner, just lip service paid to the zombie mayhem of the previous night.
Yet an entire town just been killed and eaten by the living dead, or has it?
There were times during this short book when I thought I had it figured out, but then Aira wrong-footed me. I read back pages a few times, but to no real avail, other than to wonder at Aira’s brilliance.
Wallowing in the murk though, the Argentinian master gives us just a glimpse of illumination,
You have to know how to see beyond the interests of survival and make the decision to give something to the world, because only those who give, receive.
An Aira to treasure.
after listening to the lovely Wang Chung track "to live and die in la" on a nice, gentle spring afternoon, i must update the TLS on my the rare art of bookshop purchasesAs i go cold turkey on the amazon drip (order book, it arrives on same day or next day), i have been ordering from blackwells, book depositry and publisher website but also, ye good old book shop
So i strolled up to waterstones, i had a book in mind McMeekins study of the last years of the Ottoman Empire but nothing else, lets see what i find and lo and behold, i purchased Nietzsche in Turin by lesley chamberlain. a great find, a book i hadnt heard of
there is a circular theme to this post, i also had never heard of wang chung until last year,i was watching an episode of Pop Quiz from 1984, on youtube, and a track was mentioned....books and music...serendipity. (ofc i could hate the chamberlain book ...but i dont think i will, it enters the bookpile half way up...)
Andy wrote: "Thanks Anne. It’s a great way to start the thread. Really appreciated. Even better when it’s been a couple of weeks.
Two really good reads for me to report on from a warm sunny afternoon on Lake..."
i wasnt aware of anti-sami crimes, though the last stage of WW2 in the Finnish North was violent and merciless as allies fought with each other.
I read a very good finnish classic about WW2 last year Andy, Unknown Soldiers by Vaino Linna
. this is set throughout the war but opens as the Finns advance into Karelia in the summertime. It was a superb read and i posted some photos from the Karelian invasion on here in Jan 2021
Russell wrote: "Great intro, Anne, thanks.Jena 1800: The Republic of Free Spirits – Peter Neumann (2018)
Not a book of philosophy, which I might struggle with, but a group biography of philosophers and writers ..."
hunting this one out now Russ..thanks for the tip
AB76 wrote: "Andy wrote: "Thanks Anne. It’s a great way to start the thread. Really appreciated. Even better when it’s been a couple of weeks.
Two really good reads for me to report on from a warm sunny afte..."
Thanks AB. I’ll look at that.
The new Rautiainen is published by Pushkin, I forgot to add above. That’s a good recommendation usually also.
Russell wrote: "Great intro, Anne, thanks.Jena 1800: The Republic of Free Spirits – Peter Neumann (2018)
Not a book of philosophy, which I might struggle with, but a group biography of philosophers and writers ..."
I'm drawn to the subject matter of this one, so I might have to overlook any shortcomings in the prose, although I agree that the ones you cite are off-putting.
Andy wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Andy wrote: "Thanks Anne. It’s a great way to start the thread. Really appreciated. Even better when it’s been a couple of weeks.
Two really good reads for me to report on from a wa..."
Its seen as "the" classic WW2 novel for the Finnish people, the war that defined so many lives, the soldiers in the unit are drawn from all over Finland, including some Karelians, which gives the novel another angle. these men are fighting for the return of Finnish Karelia, which was conceded in the earlier Winter War with the USSR.
Karelia is a fascinating land, now divided between what is the Finnish part and the Russian part. Most of the Finnish Karelia region before 1940 was Lutheran and homogenous, the Russian karelia region far more diverse with Lutheran and Orthodox Finns. There were still many Finns spread around the St Petersburg border regions in the Tsarist days and in the city.
With Finland now debating whether to join NATO, that brave nation could be on a tense frontline again with Russia
It took me nearly a month, but I finally finished Arabian Nights' Entertainments. The main reason I spent so long on it is that, as with most anthologies, I found I needed to take a break between stories, which intervals I filled with readings from a collection of Johann Gottfried Herder's writings.This edition is the anonymous English translation of Antoine Galland's French Mille et une nuits , the first to have been done in any Europe. The English version appeared over a span of years, from 1704 to 1717, as each successive volume of the French was published, so it seems they were produced at speed to cash in on the popularity of the original.
I like the prose style from this era in a general way and in this particular case I found that it added to the exoticism of the material, though of course for readers at the time I imagine it came across as contemporary and immediate, perhaps even prosaic - IOW the opposite effect to the one it had on myself, reading it in the 21st century.
Out of the fifty or sixty stories in the book (hard to count them because there are many levels of nested narratives) there were only two that dragged a little for me: both were straightforward love stories with little or nothing of the fantastic about them.
Amongst the rest, there were so many highlights it would be impossible to list them all. Just to mention a famous one that surprised me, Ali Baba and the 40 thieves turned out to be less about Ali Baba and more about a clever and accomplished female slave of his who saves him, as reflected in the title given it here, The Story of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, Destroyed by a Slave.
It's no news to anyone that the Arabian Nights is a seminal work but as far as English literature in particular is concerned, this specific version was the one that started it all, and on that score alone I think anyone interested in the subject will want to give it a look. And it's still eminently entertaining in itself. As a long work comprised of a large number of individual narratives, some of which can resemble one another at times, I might recommend reading it at a more leisurely pace than I did, and taking longer breaks in between sections, but that kind of thing will always depend on he individual reader.
Russell wrote: "Jena 1800: The Republic of Free Spirits – Peter Neumann (2018)Not a book of philosophy, which I might struggle with, but a group biography of philosophers and writers ..."
If you are suffering from bad prose and want to stick with the subject, there is a remedy I cannot recommend highly enough:
Heinrich Heine's "Die Romantische Schule".
Berkley wrote: "It took me nearly a month, but I finally finished Arabian Nights' Entertainments ..."
That’s really interesting. I’ve been looking out for some time for a nice new PB edition of the original Galland in French. There seems to be nothing currently in print. I found a new PB selection in French that looked all right and I had to give it up in disgust – the editor had turned it into modern prose suitable for children and in doing so taken out every bit of bite and zest, never mind the colour of the early 18C writing. So I’m still looking and may have to get an antiquarian edition or a beat-up PB – or go for the old English version you have.
That’s really interesting. I’ve been looking out for some time for a nice new PB edition of the original Galland in French. There seems to be nothing currently in print. I found a new PB selection in French that looked all right and I had to give it up in disgust – the editor had turned it into modern prose suitable for children and in doing so taken out every bit of bite and zest, never mind the colour of the early 18C writing. So I’m still looking and may have to get an antiquarian edition or a beat-up PB – or go for the old English version you have.
Thanks, Anne, for the lovely introduction... and apologies for not mentioning it in my first comment on this thread, which came after an awful sleepless night...It struck me this morning that 4 out of the last 5 books I have read were in translation - and the next one lined up is as well, unless I veer off somewhere else - always a possibility.
Most recently completed: Snow, Dog, Foot by Claudio Morandini, translated by J Ockenden. This tells the tale of Adelmo Farandini, a recluse who lives high up in a mountain valley, only rarely descending to the village for supplies. The narrative style is interesting - the author uses the third person, but the point of view is almost always Adelmo's... who is almost invariably referred to by his full name. I think this may be a way to indicate to the reader that the old curmudgeon takes himself seriously, though I'm sure other explanations are possible.
Anyway - at some point, a dog attaches itself to Adelmo... he feeds it scraps, and talks to it. At some point, the dog starts talking back... we have already seen warning signs that Adelmo is losing his memory, so this 'talking dog' is a manifestation of his increasing confusion. The discussions between man and dog are often funny and also touch on matters of life, death and everything...
It's a short book - a novella, really - and I enjoyed it very much. The translator won a prize from the publisher to enable them to complete the work - I'd like to return to that later, but the dog is telling me he needs to go for a walk!
Yes, thank you Anne for the lovely introduction. I'm slightly embarrassed to make an appearance, being such a paltry and peripheral contributor here. Anyway, Carsten Jensen - I think it is probably his public persona (and pronouncements maybe) that are somewhat divisive, rather than his writing. However, I'm not really sure. In any case, I made a very good start on "We, the Drowned" before going away for a few days last Sunday. Travelling very lightly I had to leave this literally weighty tome at home. But I've been glad to pick it up again since yesterday. It's really a group portrait; or, even more so, a portrait of a town (Marstal) and it's community. It's episodic, but connected by threads of shared remembered events and characters, some of them once children in the narrative but themselves now amongst the old. Some elements are almost fantastical - in far off Samoa or Tasmania - some of them much more mundane and humdrum back home in Marstal. And, of course, times passes, leaving Marstal the same and changed.
It's interesting to read this against Pontopiddan's "A Fortunate Man," itself also essentially about Denmark in a period and process of change (the books overlapping considerably in historical period). In "A Fortunate Man" the struggle is between country and city, largely seen from the capital. Here the perspective is entirely that of the seafarers (with modernity and modernization both friend and foe) and Copenhagen barely features at all. Interestingly, Jensen has just introduced the figure of an engineer bent on bring "improvements" to Marstal. This feels like a direct and deliberate echo of the central character in Pontopiddan's novel and it will be interesting to see how this is developed (I'm a little under half way, in the midst of World War I). The writing is energetic and vigorous and I'm enjoying the book a great deal. Recommended. I've also been notified that Kristensen's "Havoc" is now waiting for me at the library, so that will be next.
Being away without a book I had to buy one, of course, and as I was in Liverpool, Eric Williams' recently reissued 1944 classic "Capitalism and Slavery" seemed the only appropriate choice. I really should have read this before and am greatly appreciating Williams' crisp prose and argumentation. Williams', of course, went on to be the first post-independence Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago.
I'm currently writing something partly set in Los Angeles in 1917-18 and am dipping into several relevant histories: Clark Davis' "Company Men: White-Collar Life and Corporate Cultures in Los Angeles, 1892-1941," and William Deverell's "Whitewashed Adobe: The Rise of Los Angeles and the Remaking of Its Mexican Past." Along with Chicago, LA is probably the most significant US city I've not visited and I'm finding myself somewhat obsessed with it at the moment. What are people's favourite LA novels?
Veufveuve wrote: "Yes, thank you Anne for the lovely introduction. I'm slightly embarrassed to make an appearance, being such a paltry and peripheral contributor here. Anyway, Carsten Jensen - I think it is probab..."
is that going to be a novel Veuf...or short stories? 1917-19, "before hollywood" (great track by aussie band the Go-Betweens)
Mod
I'd recommend visiting Chicago first (fabulous, vibrant city). It's really hard to ignore the endless freeways and find the 'there' there in LA.
A few favorite novels (and one non-fiction title) come to mind:
A Visit from the Goon Squad - Jennifer Egan (Egan's latest, The Candy House is up next, as soon as I finish current read!)
The Library Book - Susan Orlean
A Single Man - Christopher Isherwood
The Loved One - Evelyn Waugh
West of Sunset - Stewart O'Nan
Tumbledown - Robert Boswell (closer to San Diego, I think. Fabulous novel!!!)
Mod
- Pionnières https://postimg.cc/gallery/fXwyg8q
The sculptures are by Anna Quinquaud, the painting by Suzanne Valadon
- Akseli Gallen-Kallela https://postimg.cc/gallery/hmcnHdj
- Whistler https://postimg.cc/gallery/RhMNXDr
Mod
The only one of these I've read is A Single Man - and what a good one it is!
My suggestions:
The Nowhere City - Alison Lurie
The Day of the Locust - Nathanael West
The Last Tycoon - F. Scott Fitzgerald
Faulty Ground - Gabrielle Donnelly
Georg wrote: "...Heinrich Heine's "Die Romantische Schule."
Thanks for the tip, Georg.
Thanks for the tip, Georg.
Gpfr wrote: "Lljones wrote: "Veufveuve wrote: "What are people's favourite LA novels?..."The only one of these I've read is A Single Man - and what a good one it is!
My suggestions:
The Nowhere City - Aliso..."
i'd add 2:
Farewell My Lovely- Chandler
If It Hollers - Chester Himes
thanks for the Lurie recommendation,, added it to my list
Such an odd city LA, a climate from heaven but LA is a beast polluting that very climate
Lljones wrote: "Veufveuve wrote: "What are people's favourite LA novels?..."I'd recommend visiting Chicago first (fabulous, vibrant city). It's really hard to ignore the endless freeways and find the 'there'..."
My comment disappeared! Hit the wrong key. Never mind - a shorter version:
LA books I like... let's just say that LA is (or feels like) the 'home' of noir, and so it seems perverse to ignore the many excellent examples of the genre, of which I suggest:
The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler - my favourite Marlowe both on the screen and in print (they end differently).
L.A. Confidential by James Ellroy - Ellroy at the height of his powers as a novelist in the LA quartet series (others reference his source material in the autobiographical My Dark Places, in which he recounts his own mother's murder and his attempt to solve the crime many years later.)
Bad Boy Brawly Brown by Walter Mosley - just about any Easy Rawlins tale would do, but this is from a period before he got too comfortable...
Sunset Swing by Ray Celestin - the final volume in his City Blues quartet, and a fitting conclusion.
As for those suggested so far - predictably, I haven't read most of them but laughed hard at Waugh's 'Loved One'. Misanthropy at its best (I read it 50 years ago, though, so... caveats).
Is 'West of Sunset' by Stewart O'Nan a companion piece to Roth's 'Portnoy's Complaint'? Just asking...
Mod
Crime novels set in LA:
Michael Connelly - Harry Bosch series
Joe Ide - IQ series
Robert Crais - Elvis Cole & Joe Pike
Does anyone have any views on Sartre's Roads to Freedom/ Les Chemins de la Liberté trilogy? I heard 'existentially' used today wrt Ukraine, had no idea what it meant in that context, but did think of old Jean-Paul. It was made into a British TV series in the 70's but I don't remember watching much of it, and I've not read the books either. Are they a bit passé now?
FrancesBurgundy wrote: "Does anyone have any views on Sartre's Roads to Freedom/ Les Chemins de la Liberté trilogy? I heard 'existentially' used today wrt Ukraine, had no idea what it meant in that context, but did think ..."i read the second and third books of the triology about 15 years ago,
"The Reprieve" is a superb, experimental novel using a technique a lot like "Manhattan Transfer" by John Dos Passos. Events segue into other events, characters emerge and then it moves to another setting. The Munich crisis is part of the story
"Iron In the Soul" covers the french defeat in WW2 and dissapointed me despite the fascinating subject matter
AB76 wrote: "FrancesBurgundy wrote: "Does anyone have any views on Sartre's Roads to Freedom/ Les Chemins de la Liberté trilogy?"The Reprieve" is a superb, experimental novel using a technique a lot like "Manhattan Transfer" by John Dos Passos...."
Thanks AB it sounds better than I thought it might be. I know some colleagues really liked the TV series. It won't be top of my list but I'm on the lookout for it now.
My Marraige by Jakob Wasserman(1934) is a delight to read, narrated in a straightfoward, classic style, without modernism or any other trends of that time. It covers the actual marriage of Wasserman to Julie Speyer in turn of the century Imperial ViennaThe novel is rich in wit and elements of satire without reading like one, in fact the tone is quite hard to define. Ganna, the wife of the narrator, is a force of nature, a sort of black sheep, youngest daughter of an industrialist, who marries Alexander, a promising writer.
I'm about one third in and have been smiling through many dry observations of the narrator, a house full of women (wife and servants), squabbling, screaming, crying and scheming. The dull rounds of middle class Viennese society exasperate the narrator, children are born and you get the slow impression that Alexander has made a rather serious mistake in getting hitched
Heartening to see Alison Lurie mentioned here. I read read many of her novels years ago, but don’t think I came across Nowhere City.
Inspired by some comments by Susan Sontag on Bertolt Brecht in her Book 'Under the Sign of Saturn' I picked up a biography of Brecht, 'A Choice of Evils', by Martin Esslin, in a charity shop. Sontag commented that Walter Benjamin use to visit Brecht in Denmark. He was also courting one of Brecht's theatre directors at the time. To me they are a strangely matched pair. What caught my interest was that apparently Brecht used to keep a model of a donkey in his office/writing room, with a sign tied around its neck, saying "Even the donkey should understand". I find it hard to imagine such an ill assorted pair getting a lot out of engaging in cultural debates of those times. But maybe ideological challenge is a rich seem for creative thinking wherever it comes from?But I have imaginatively used poor old Bertolt before, in a 'reverie' where he has a love affair with Aunt Ada Doom, so I'm not really one to pass judgement about ill-assorted foray's into surreal encounters. Another thing that surprised me about Benjamin was that he was such a fan of surrealism. Anyway I hope to learn much more. I have seen a few of Bertolt's plays and did very much enjoy 'The Threepenny Opera'. AB might be interested that Benjamin, like Walser, was very attracted to miniaturism, and would talk lovingly of trying to get as many as a hundred lines onto a single page...
Yes, thank you Anne for the new thread and your mention.And Gpfr - those are more books I will have to check out. That tbr pile...................
AB76 wrote: " My Marraige by Jakob Wasserman(1934) is a delight to read, narrated in a straightfoward, classic style, without modernism or any other trends of that time. It covers the actual marriage of Wasserm..."Ich hatte sie {Ganna) noch in die Gewalt bekommen können, wenn ich härter gewesen wäre" (Had I been harder... I could still have made her succumb to my force/coercion)
Thanks for all the responses re: LA. Yes, given the choice, I would almost certainly go to Chicago first. Everyone tells me I would hate LA - and it doesn't help that my wife has zero desire to go there again - but I do have a fascination with the place (for now at least).But lots of great suggestions for novels, many of which I'd not heard of, or had not realised were set in LA. Of all those mentioned, I think I've only read "The Day of the Locust," which is great. I've also enjoyed John Fante's "Ask the Dust" (I liked the whole Bardini Quartet, but AtD is the most LA set) and "Play it as it Lays."
@AB - not fiction at all, just more history, though I'm playing it rather fast and loose with the sources and trying to write quite novelistically.
FrancesBurgundy wrote: "Does anyone have any views on Sartre's Roads to Freedom/ Les Chemins de la Liberté trilogy? I heard 'existentially' used today wrt Ukraine, had no idea what it meant in that context, but did think ..."I've read the first two in the trilogy and they are very different stylistically, The first is more conventional structurally, circling around Mathieu and Marcelle and showing their lives in 360 degrees, full field of view, long focus. Very sharp and fine-grained
The second was more focused on the fragmentary effect of coming war, and was less character-based. It was a bit more difficult to track, as I remember Sartre was switching viewpoints in mid-sentence at times. So, it was a good deal more blurry and tinnitus-ringing.
I enjoyed them both, and I'll surely read the third book if I ever track it down
Apropos Roads to Freedom, I read and enjoyed them as a young man, in a Penguin Modern Classic translation. I remember thinking the third was the best, very satisfying, and rather tragic.
Veufveuve wrote: "Thanks for all the responses re: LA. Yes, given the choice, I would almost certainly go to Chicago first. Everyone tells me I would hate LA - and it doesn't help that my wife has zero desire to go ..."How Los Angeles transformed American literature
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment...
Thanks Bill, that's a really great essay, perfect for my current interests.
Thanks all for your views on The Roads to Freedom, It looks like they're much better than I thought, so DV I'll give them a go.
Veufveuve wrote: "Yes, thank you Anne for the lovely Dark Side of Fortune: Triumph and Scandal in the Life of Oil Tycoon Edward L. Dohenyintroduction. I'm slightly embarrassed to make an appearance, being such a paltry and peripheral contributor here. Anyway, Carsten Jensen - I think it is probab..."
Thanks. I've put Whitewashed Adobe: The Rise of Los Angeles and the Remaking of Its Mexican Past on my wishlist. I should also dig up my copy of Dark Side of Fortune: Triumph and Scandal in the Life of Oil Tycoon Edward L. Doheny and add it to the 'current TBR' stack.
As an aside, there is another William Deverell who is an author of legal/law mysteries set in Vancouver, BC. He is Canadian and lives on one of the gulf islands.
PS - Both Vancouver and Victoria are great places to visit with Victoria feeling quite English.
FrancesBurgundy wrote: "Does anyone have any views on Sartre's Roads to Freedom/ Les Chemins de la Liberté trilogy? Are they a bit passé now?..."Can't help with the 'now' bit... I read them in the 1960s... but I did enjoy the first 2 1/2 books... at the time, they seemed like an interesting way of considering philosophical problems within a desperate real-life situation. The second volume, 'The Reprieve', was the strongest IMO - dealing with the period of appeasement following the Munich pact. It was also the first book in which I came across the trick of sentences/paragraphs switching without warning from one narrator's POV to another... this impressed me a lot at the time, though I guess it had probably been used before (?), and I have seen it done since.
The third volume (of a planned four) worked quite well up to a point, then the final section felt tacked on. No wonder Sartre quit without completing the tetralogy. He was probably more suited to polemical writing and the use of plays to demonstrate his arguments rather than the long form novel, but they should most likely still prove of interest (I think).
scarletnoir wrote: "FrancesBurgundy wrote: "Does anyone have any views on Sartre's Roads to Freedom/ Les Chemins de la Liberté trilogy? Are they a bit passé now?..."Can't help with the 'now' bit... I read them in th..."
the switching between narratives and POV was a lift from John Dos Passos and his "Manhattan Transfer" novel of the 1920s. I didnt like Dos Passos at all but loved "The Reprieve", so evidence of a later author doing a better job
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I open with this lovely description of the season by AB46:
“Spring is starting to find strength in the shires....my rowan is leafing (always the earliest to leaf), horse chestnuts too, though sycamore, ash,poplar and of course the mighty oak remain bare, creating my favourite skyline, bare tree branches on the ridges and hangars.”
Of course LL and MK may take issue with that. Is anyone else being snowed upon at the moment?
On to the books. I hope your reading is going better than mine because my dry spell has come back with a vengeance. It was time to pick a new book about ten days ago and I decided on a fresh strategy. Short books, I decided, were the answer. So I selected Of Love and Other Demons by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. 153 pages definitely looked doable. It must be the best part of thirty years since I last read Gabo and I was really looking forward to this. And the first twenty six pages were absolutely beautiful, but then I put it down nine days ago on p 26 and since then, nada. Back to the telly instead, where I have at least managed to include two bookish viewings. Roger Michell's 1995 Persuasion, which I thought charming, and Slow Horses, which I'm very interested in because the couple of times I've tried the books I found them unreadable, despite loving spy fiction. Three episodes down now and I'm enjoying it without being wholly gripped by it.
Lots of activity on the last thread. It's very good to see more of Bill again and the musical inspiration he brings to the thread. I also owe him for that nifty 1st April post which had the additional benefit of reminding me that I intend to read Jennifer Weiner at some point because I do enjoy chicklit - the good variety, that is, which there's not enough of.
Scarletnoir has been reading Summer in Baden-Baden by Leonid Tsypkin (translated by Roger and Angela Keys):
I'm intrigued by Veufveuve's announcement:
Interested in why this novel divides opinion, I took a look at the Goodreads description of it for clues, but it all sounds good to me:
I look forward to hearing more as Veufveuve reads.
CCC has set off on a wonderful journey with Shadowlands: A Journey Through Britain’s Lost Cities and Vanished Villages by Matthew Green, which has led to some great discussions on the thread. Here she is at the very beginning:
I don't think I've ever heard Paul mention another writer in the same breath as Ralph Ellison, so I was very struck by his review:
Gpfr puts right a major omission in her reading:
Has it been a while since you've read a 'London' novel? AB has a recommendation if you're in the market for one:
Nice to have Greenfairy back with us again:
Serhii Plokhy is a name familiar to us currently for the saddest of reasons, but MK has been reading him a little further back in time:
Giveusaclue is restored to health and going about the business of finding new thrillers for us:
And, finally, a question from Berkley which he posted just before the cut-off:
Do please give Berkley the benefit of your knowledge.
Happy reading, all.