Ersatz TLS discussion

Hello, everyone.
After another very hot day yesterday, the forecast for today and the rest of the week is around the average for the season, which is a relief ...
Anyway, I hope you all get good reading weather wherever you are and plenty of fine books to share!

Thanks:)

Really enjoyed The First Man by Albert Camus, his unfinished last novel that contemplates memory, family, legacy and life in the lost world of white Algeria

Its heavily autobiographical, covering a life of poverty in an illiterate family in the poor Algiers suburb of Belcourt and how the main character "Jacques"(aka Camus), manages to get into the lycee and find a world of books and reading very different to his life in working class Belcourt. Its a warm novel, he doesnt look down on his origins or try and deny them and he celebrates so much of the small things of childhood and adolescence, good and bad

Its good that there are two novels about Algeria and its white community from the 1950s. This one and The Olive Trees of Justice by Jean Pelegri(which i read last summer). They are similar in many ways, confronting the idea of being French but living accross the sea, in a hostile land.

Next up is a 1960s Mexican classic by Juan Garcia Ponce The House on the Beach, set in Yucatan which i am looking foward to. I am also going to attempt (as is always the case with any post 2000 literature), to read James Meeks To Calais, In Ordinary Time but i fear it will not be that good a read.
Bowles Travels is also of a very high quality and i have started my next John Muir non-fiction, linked to my interest in the american west My First Summer In the Sierra

Other culture i'm enjoying is some of Bowles classical compositions and the brooding but excellent new Depeche Mode album Momemto Mori

As I finish listening to Night Soldiers while I tackle kinnikinnik (It's a hardy, prostrate shrub with intricate branching that often forms mats up to 3 feet wide, by runners) runners, I've decided to follow Tom Gauld's advice on my next reading effort - https://www.theguardian.com/books/pic...

I tried to read Z by Vasilēs Vasilikos (what? nothing on Amazon?), but with a similar nastiness found in the wide ranging (1934-Bulgaria, Russia, Spain (Spanish Civil War), France (WW2), USA) Night Soldiers, I need a beach read or maybe a cozy mystery for my palate.

AB76 wrote: "Really enjoyed The First Man by Albert Camus, his unfinished last novel that contemplates memory, family, legacy and life in the lost world of white Algeria

Its heavily autobiographical, covering ..."

The book I am reading now, 'Confabulations' by John Berger name-checks 'The First Man' by Camus as one of his inspirations throughout his life. Its also, interestingly to me, like Camus's 'The First man' one of Berger's last books, looking, and rounding up his life times experience and the people that have inspired him. The most affecting part so far is his tribute to the life of Polish/German revolutionary, and anti-war activist, Rosa Luxemburg, and her assassination. Heartbreaking... Do any others here have any other authors 'Last books' to recommend?

For a good 15 years, i have meant to read some adult Tove Jansson, the Moomins were a childhood delight and treasure, introduced by my mother and i re-read Moominland MidWinter as an adult about 4 years ago. It had lost none of its magic and storytelling wonder, even if i was larger, older and less naive.

So i picked The Summer Bookoff a pile and have started it, a tale of an island in the Gulf of Finland, a grandmother and her neice. I like to change styles and genre's of books as much as i can and this washed over me so well as i read a small section this evening. Dunno why it took me so long to read it. Its a short novel, so i should finish it by the end of the week

the odd thing is, the real life island is almost totally treeless but the book has an island on the cover, festooned with trees labelled as Tove and Lars Janssons island...seems a bit odd that the point isnt made that its another island, in the Alands, nothing to do with the island in the novel, which Jansson owned in the 1950s onwards

Dark Avenues - Ivan Bunin (trans. Hugh Aplin)

A satisfying collection of forty short stories from a writer who won the Nobel Prize in 1933. Most are no longer than a few pages, all he needed to call up a small world. They are told in precise language, as if exquisitely cut from some larger cloth. From the brilliant title story onwards, the finest, to my mind, are those that bring us to the heart of a connection between a man and a woman, whatever might follow in the way of parting and loss.

The stories were written when he was in his late sixties and seventies, living in WWII France. One group is set in the rural Russia of his early manhood, long before the Revolution. Servants, horses, dogs, country houses, gardens, pine forests, the steppe. The austere will call it all imaginary, an emigré dreamland (see Figes, Natasha’s Dance). I like it. The other broad group is more cosmopolitan, but still mostly pre-WWI. Moscow, Vienna, Paris, Côte d’Azur, restaurants, railway carriages. Sexual relations throughout are surprisingly frank and unrestrained. I found that with all the stories two or three at a sitting were enough, because the intensity has to be absorbed. Also, it takes a while to realise that this is a book without irony. Everything is truly felt.

AB76 wrote: "For a good 15 years, i have meant to read some adult Tove Jansson ... So i picked The Summer Book off a pile ..."

I loved The Summer Book — short and perfect. I've got A Winter Book waiting to be read.
But I never read the Moomins.

Russell wrote: "Dark Avenues - Ivan Bunin (trans. Hugh Aplin)

A satisfying collection of forty short stories from a writer who won the Nobel Prize in 1933. Most are no longer than a few pages, all he needed to ca..."

I am a big fan of Bunin, though havent read this book. His diaries are interesting too, i would recommend Leonid Andreyev and Andriy Bely too as writers of the same era to be explored

Andreyev is an expressionist writer who also was a photographer, his skills with the camera are remarkable. Bely is possibly a tricker read but i loved his rural novel The Silver Dove

Article on the photography of Andreyev:
http://thebluelantern.blogspot.com/20...

Gpfr wrote: "AB76 wrote: "For a good 15 years, i have meant to read some adult Tove Jansson ... So i picked The Summer Book off a pile ..."

I loved The Summer Book — short and perfect. I've got [b..."

you would love the Moomins, so much going on in such a vivid world of imagination

Tam wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Really enjoyed The First Man by Albert Camus, his unfinished last novel that contemplates memory, family, legacy and life in the lost world of white Algeria

Its heavily autobiographic..."

as i am due to read it after the Jansson novel, i cant recommend island by Aldous Huxley, yet but it was his last novel!

Gpfr wrote: "AB76 wrote: "For a good 15 years, i have meant to read some adult Tove Jansson ... So i picked The Summer Book off a pile ..."

I loved The Summer Book — short and perfect. I've got [b..."

Thanks to both of you - I have been minded to read this for a while, and so as a result of these comments I've downloaded a sample to see if it is for me.

AB76 wrote: "as i am due to read it after the Jansson novel, i cant recommend island by Aldous Huxley, yet but it was his last novel!"

I can recommend Huxley's Island, I thought it was outstanding - and it does feel like a "last book", a summing up of the author's beliefs or conclusions about the world, existence, however you want to phrase it.

AB76 wrote: "Russell wrote: "Dark Avenues - Ivan Bunin l..." I am a big fan of Bunin...

Thanks for the tips. This set came out in 2016. I'm getting a set of the earlier stories in a 1992 Penguin. The other writers look interesting too.

I love the Summer Book Scarlet I hope you join the fan club:)

I just came to say Congratulations to Michael Rosen on his well deserved PEN Pinter prize.

Berkley wrote: "AB76 wrote: "as i am due to read it after the Jansson novel, i cant recommend island by Aldous Huxley, yet but it was his last novel!"

I can recommend Huxley's Island, I thought it was outstanding..."

i meant to re-read BNW but settled on Island instead, should be starting it after Jansson, this maybe subject 2 change

Aussie literature from 1930s to 1980 doesnt get much coverage here sadly, what i find remarkable thought is the high standard of novels barely mentioned that people miss out on from Down Under Text Classics and Allen+Unwin have so many in print, though its lamentable how difficult it is to find them decently priced and available in the UK or USA I also want to draw attention to the great female writers down under in this period. Such as Elizabeth Harrower, Eleonar Dark, Thea Astley, Dymphna Cusack and Mena Calthorpe. All write as well as the household names of their UK or USA contemparies bringing emerging post-war Australia to life. Their style mixes humour, subtle feminism and a hard edge which makes them even more readable

AB76 wrote: "Aussie literature from 1930s to 1980 doesnt get much coverage here sadly, what i find remarkable thought is the high standard of novels barely mentioned that people miss out on from Down Under Text..."

I will also mention Arthur W. Upfield and his Bony mysteries. They are what I call - a twofer - in that there's the mystery itself and then, because they were written beginning ~1940, the reader gets a sense of a more primitive Australia where sheep stations were miles apart, people in the outback talked via some sort of radio telephone, doctors flew into those remote homes to set broken bones and otherwise minister to those folks, lakes dried up and re-appeared. And I must not forget the rabbit fence - Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence.

Darn, looks like I need to put a bony on my TBR or TBRR (reread) shelf.

MK wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Aussie literature from 1930s to 1980 doesnt get much coverage here sadly, what i find remarkable thought is the high standard of novels barely mentioned that people miss out on from Do..."

i have the bachelors of broken hill on the pile, i dont read a lot of crime novels but i like to read a few a year, mix them in among the less formulaic choices..

AB76 wrote: "i meant to re-read BNW but settled on Island instead ..."

I've read only three of Aldous Huxley's novels: BNW, Crome Yellow, and Island. I liked them all very much and have long meant to try the rest so thanks for the reminder. I think I'll have a look for The Genius and the Goddess while I'm still reading other things from the 1950s.

Berkley wrote: "AB76 wrote: "i meant to re-read BNW but settled on Island instead ..."

I've read only three of Aldous Huxley's novels: .."

Point Counter Point is the one that's stayed with me for very many years. I mean to re-read it but not sure when!

FrancesBurgundy wrote: "Berkley wrote: "AB76 wrote: "i meant to re-read BNW but settled on Island instead ..."

I've read only three of Aldous Huxley's novels: .."

Point Counter Point is the one that's stayed with me for..."

I've got Point Counterpoint on my shelves, but was just thinking I remember little about it.

I was surprised to hear fireworks late yesterday evening, but now see the violence which started in Nanterre after a policeman shot a 17-year-old boy 2 days ago, spread last night to all the département 92 —

Including the districts (most of them) which don't usually see this kind of thing.
There is a video which shows the original police version of events wasn't true.

Gpfr wrote: "I was surprised to hear fireworks late yesterday evening, but now see the violence which started in Nanterre after a policeman shot a 17-year-old boy 2 days ago, spread last night to all the départ..."

Here's the latest from the unrest in France according to the NYT (gift link) - https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/06/...

MK wrote: "Gpfr wrote: "I was surprised to hear fireworks late yesterday evening, but now see the violence which started in Nanterre after a policeman shot a 17-year-old boy 2 days ago, spread last night to a..."

this looks serious for France and its policing model, they are possibly harsher and less flexible with borderline criminal elements in the suburbs and less believing in community policy than in the UK, though tory cuts have killed off uk community policing over 13 years

the problem is with police forces who see entire suburbs as "borderline criminal" and fail to try and engage with the communities, which then leads to events like this, a disaster,a version of events that only weakens public confidence in the police and then mayhem

this US supreme court is a disgrace, the conventions of common law, in the US and UK, dictate that precedent drives all common law decision making, with occasional opportunities for the SC to override precedent in some cases

however i can see no grounds for roe vs wade or affirmative action being repealed, in a nation with a sexist and racist history. Its disturbing that a disgraceful 4 years of bad presidency(Trump) has left us with such a bad set of justices. Trump went for 2 young catholic justices, sure to be around for other 30 years and both in line with Republican-Christian Right wing thinking....this has simply emboldened the existing right wing judges

In a majority Protestant nation, an almost 90% Catholic supreme court is also very un representative.

What grinds my gears sthe fact that these anti abortion zealots couldn't care less about the children once they are born.
Pro life? really? As far as I can tell the majority of them are all for the death penalty. .

MK wrote: "Arthur W. Upfield and his Bony mysteries.."

I read some of these ages ago - in my teens, probably. From possibly faulty memory, I have a feeling that they weren't bad but not outstanding.

I guess the 'Rabbit Proof Fence' book was used as a basis for the film of that name? I thought that was outstanding.

Gpfr wrote: "I was surprised to hear fireworks late yesterday evening, but now see the violence which started in Nanterre after a policeman shot a 17-year-old boy 2 days ago, spread last night to all the départ..."

It sounds as if the cop had no justification and has been arrested if I understand correctly.

As for the demonstrations - justifiable anger from the local community, but as so often happens the 'casseurs' have seen fit to torch cars belonging to - who knows? - probably locals who were just as incensed by the senseless shooting. And so it goes.

Greenfairy wrote: "What grinds my gears sthe fact that these anti abortion zealots couldn't care less about the children once they are born.
Pro life? really? As far as I can tell the majority of them are all for th..."

For them - it's just politics - what they perceive will win them votes.

This blue state stands strong for women - https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-...

It has taken the US a long time to get here. I hope most will click on this - https://heathercoxrichardson.substack...

It is worth a read. Needless to say, Biden is my choice for the next election.

By the way, did anyone notice that Trump is trying to get one of his indictments (I think NY) moved from state court to Federal court? I expect he is banking on being able to wave a magic wand once he is elected and absolve himself of the actions that are perceived to be wrong (by others, not by him). I await his indictment in Georgia where he will try again. After all it is only with Federal crimes that he could pardon himself.

MK wrote: "It has taken the US a long time to get here. I hope most will click on this - https://heathercoxrichardson.substack...

It is worth a read. Needless to say, Biden is my choice for t..."

it amazes me how trump manages to drag every court case out for ever, with the usual problem in the USA, that $$$ buys the best briefs. if he was just obese Donny T from NYC, he would have been doing porridge long ago!

scarletnoir wrote: "Gpfr wrote: "I was surprised to hear fireworks late yesterday evening, but now see the violence which started in Nanterre after a policeman shot a 17-year-old boy 2 days ago, spread last night to a..."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfjon...

I think Janis Joplin had it right - the rioters (I think back, too, to the Watts Riots) have nothing left to lose.

AB76 wrote: "MK wrote: "It has taken the US a long time to get here. I hope most will click on this - https://heathercoxrichardson.substack...

It is worth a read. Needless to say, Biden is my c..."

Don't forget to read Heather - there's hope there.

scarletnoir wrote: "Gpfr wrote: "I was surprised to hear fireworks late yesterday evening, but now see the violence which started in Nanterre after a policeman shot a 17-year-old boy 2 days ago, spread last night to a..."

the biggest problem with most riots or unrest in these circumstances is that they trash and burn the places where they live and socialise, so in poorer areas, things just get worse for everyone

5,000 extra cops in Paris tonight, the CRS will be busy and they dont mess about. one legacy of Vichy that remains...

Joseph Conrad represents the most curious of my literary loves, i remain divided between some of his earlier novels that i cannot stand and total admiration for his later novels where he mastered his craft

Lord Jim left me cold, Nostromo killed my interest in him at 19 stone dead, for another 15 years but after reading Victory in 2018, i was transformed into a fan again, a wonderful novel.

I lovedHeart of Darkness The Secret Agent, Under Western Eyes and The Shadow Line. I aim to re-read Nostromo soon, anyway to get the point, i just found a new OUP collection of 4 stories of strife collected together for the first time The End of the Tether and Other Tales, its on order and i aim to read it before Huxley or after Huxley.

Fireworks again and distant sirens. Not used to this round here.

Today I received a copy of Neil Gaiman’s "Dream Country," a collection of four of his Sandman stories. It includes “Calliope,” where an old writer sells the young one his muse, and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” which follows Shakespeare's troupe when the fever-- and the London government-- have forced them into the countryside. This story, where his new play on dreams is performed for a patron, won a special award from the fantasy writers. It also includes the disturbing “Dream of a Thousand Cats.”

AB76 wrote: "Joseph Conrad represents the most curious of my literary loves, i remain divided between some of his earlier novels that i cannot stand and total admiration for his later novels where he mastered h..."

Have you read "The Inn of the Two Witches"?

MK wrote: "It has taken the US a long time to get here. I hope most will click on this - https://heathercoxrichardson.substack...

It is worth a read. Needless to say, Biden is my choice for t..."

If he's trying to remove a case to federal court, my guess would be the New York District Attorney's charges, which depend on interpretation of federal election law to outflank the statute of limitations. I wondered months ago why the defense didn't do that.

Gpfr wrote: "Hello, everyone.
After another very hot day yesterday, the forecast for today and the rest of the week is around the average for the season, which is a relief ...
Anyway, I hope you all get good re..."

Thanks for the update.

AB76 wrote: "this US supreme court is a disgrace, the conventions of common law, in the US and UK, dictate that precedent drives all common law decision making, with occasional opportunities for the SC to overr..."

It didn't "repeal affirmative action," really. The court majority did hold that race couldn't continue to be used as a factor in university admissions policy. Justice Roberts' decision, which appears on the court's website, traces the history of when race has been permitted as a factor, and for what reason.

MK wrote: "It has taken the US a long time to get here. I hope most will click on this - https://heathercoxrichardson.substack...

It is worth a read."

Indeed - though as I have been making the same arguments in BTL comments here and there (OK, mainly the 'Guardian'!) for quite some time, there wasn't anything new except that we now have a mainstream politician - Biden - speaking common sense. I do hope that he, and the author, make use of their wider reach to persuade more people!

MK wrote: "...the rioters (I think back, too, to the Watts Riots) have nothing left to lose."

Oh, I don't know - things can always get worse. I imagine if you live in the area, owned a 20-year-old VW Golf which has been flipped over and burned, you are not feeling too chipper this morning.

In France, the term "casseurs" specifically means people who attach themselves to a protest without any commitment to the specified cause, but who benefit from the crowds to go about creating havoc, destroying both public and private property, and (sometimes) looting from shops. So what begins as a legitimate and peaceful (if passionate) demonstration can end in violence and chaos - unfortunately.

(Of course, the CRS don't mind this at all, since they enjoy breaking heads more or less indiscriminately. Although not involved and at some distance from the demonstrations, I got CS gassed twice during the 'Paris years'!)

Edit: I came across a report in this morning's 'Guardian' - here is an extract:

Kendra, 42, was walking along a row of burnt-out cars in the early morning to locate her father’s torched vehicle, now white with ash, which had been pulled into the middle of the road and set alight. He was a retired railway worker from Cameroon, and his children were trying to help him deal with the insurance claims this morning...
Kendra, who founded a cosmetics business that she closed during the pandemic, was saddened by the night of rioting and struggling to explain the desolate landscape of burnt roads and cars to her young children. “I’ve hardly slept all night. You could smell the teargas in my apartment, I was afraid of my children not being able to breathe. Young people are angry but there has to be another way of expressing that. As residents of this estate, we’re powerless as our cars are burned. We’re the ones who are being affected.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/202...

Robert wrote: "AB76 wrote: "this US supreme court is a disgrace, the conventions of common law, in the US and UK, dictate that precedent drives all common law decision making, with occasional opportunities for th..."

thanks robert for the clarity, i must read the transcript

Gpfr wrote: "Fireworks again and distant sirens. Not used to this round here."

are you in North Paris then GP? i imagined you were a resident of the left bank!

I shall almost certainly edit and (I hope) 'improve' this review later, but this is a first draft:

‘True Grit’ by Charles Portis, with an introduction by Donna Tartt

The title was already known to me from the film versions by Henry Hathaway (1969) starring John Wayne, Kim Darby and Glenn Campbell, and by the Coen brothers (2010) starring Jeff Bridges, Hailee Steinfeld and Matt Damon; however, it was only some time later I became aware that these films were adapted from a book by Portis. I understand that some “people of the left” shunned the book for its incidental connection to Wayne, but that would be a mistake. I have not seen the Wayne version; I understand that the Coens’ is truer to the book, and they themselves have claimed that the earlier version missed the book’s humour. It certainly seems to me iirc that their film does a pretty good job of telling the tale as written, as far as is possible in an adaptation.

So why read the book at all? The broad outlines of the plot were well covered in the film, but the author’s genius lies in his ability to present a unified first-person narrative in the words of 14-year-old Mattie Ross. This is a sustained and focused piece of excellent writing, in which we learn that Mattie’s father has been robbed and murdered by a man he tried to help out, one Tom Chaney. Mattie sets out to find and apprehend the murderer, by hiring US marshal “Rooster” Cogburn. Along the way, they meet another marshal on Chaney’s trail - LaBoeuf - and join forces to hunt down the killer; to the marshals’ chagrin, Mattie insists on accompanying them on the manhunt, despite the dangers and difficult winter conditions.

In telling the tale, Portis perfectly impersonates Mattie’s “voice” and her precise, matter-of-fact and rather prissy ways. She is a one for “keeping up appearances”, and insists on washing whenever she can (the marshals don’t bother); this obsession with cleanliness gets her into trouble towards the end. Mattie is keen on the use of “inverted commas” or “quotation marks” when she uses certain terms, as if she is trying to be exact, or perhaps in some cases does not altogether approve of the word used. Portis makes good use of the comic possibilities of this stylistic tic. And as “Godliness is next to cleanliness” (or is it the other way around?) Mattie is also fond of quoting Biblical authority when seeking support for certain propositions - for example, to justify her opinion regarding the “evil of cats”.

If you have not read it, I strongly recommend this book.

As for the edition chosen - although publishers were persuaded to revisit Portis some 15-20 years ago, it looks as if his novels are out of print again except in a collected version. I chose a “pre-used” copy with Tartt’s introduction, as I expected (and got) intelligent comments on the contents. I was amused, though, that Tartt found it necessary to point out that the book was “humorous”; those who may not have realised as much will now be able to see the ‘humour’ but are not likely to be ‘amused’ by it: “you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink”.

Finally - if I compare this to the other Portis I’ve read - “The Dog of the South” - then “True Grit” has a much clearer plot and will appeal more to those who look for a good structure. There are many deaths, though, so despite the droll style it’s inherently nowhere near as funny as “Dog”, which made me laugh out loud many times. “Grit” is more of a quiet smile type of book.

AB76 wrote: "Gpfr wrote: "Fireworks again and distant sirens. Not used to this round here."

are you in North Paris then GP? i imagined you were a resident of the left bank!"

Not at all. I'm in the south. If you look at the map I posted, #24, showing the 92, go down from the north, follow round from Boulogne Billancourt and I'm just in that righthand corner of the green section, bordering on Paris.
That's why I said I'm not used to hearing unrest. Most of this département is quite middle-class and quiet, which is why it's unusual for there to be incidents all round it.

Gpfr wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Gpfr wrote: "Fireworks again and distant sirens. Not used to this round here."

are you in North Paris then GP? i imagined you were a resident of the left bank!"

Not at all. I'm in th..."

gosh its really spreading then!