I mean..... ...to this blog?
That's better. My loyal band of three readers deserve so much more from me. So much more.
Reading
Well, my friends, what haven't I been reading? I ask ye. As you could tell because of the question mark thingy. When assignments and lesson planning all beckon, one turns to the comfort of an old (or new) book. Not that they all necessarily provide the succour for which one is looking.
Here's a sample:
Disquiet by Julia Leigh
I read Ms Leigh's The Hunter a few years ago and quite enjoyed it so I picked this novella up with great enthusiasm. While I very much like her style of writing, - so cool and detached, which reflects, I suppose, the emotional detachment of her characters - I'm afraid the story here left me a bit cold. A woman escaping a violent marriage in Australia returns to her family home, presumably in France, with her two children to find her family embroiled in turmoils of their own. We know that her brother and his wife are in crisis because their baby has died and the brother is having an affair but it seems as though much more is going on - hinted at but never revealed. Unfortunately, the hinting is so oblique as to be a bit pointless. I thought of Seinfeld:
Elaine: Perhaps there's more to Newman than meets the eye.
Jerry: No, there's less.
What did work well was the children's reaction to their new surrounds and their perceptions of what was happening - I remember that this was also well done in The Hunter. I also have to note that both books have a scene devoted to male masturbation. Really, I'm going to have to buy her next book just to satisfy my curiosity.
The Man in the Queue by Josephine Tey
Did this woman ever put a foot wrong? Well, yes, there was the antisemitism... Truly, Josephine Tey is in a class of her own for writing mysteries. A man is murdered while waiting in a queue for show tickets and Inspector Grant is on the case. If crime novels don't do it for you, you might read it simply for the descriptive prose:
The stillness was full of the clear, far-away sounds of evening. The air smelt of peat smoke and the sea. The first light of the village shone daffodil-clear here and there. The sea grew lavender, and the sands became a pale shimmer in the dusk.I think only PD James matches her.
Fault Lines by Nancy Huston
I didn't expect much of this number, and it turned out to be very rewarding. This is the tale of three generations of a family, told through the eyes of its children. The chapters move back in time, revealing more of the story as they go. When I'd finished I had to go back and reread bits and pieces to get the story straight. It's moving and astonishing and Nancy Huston builds a dreadful picture of a family doomed to always find happiness so fleeting, so just of reach.
Portrait of a Marriage by Nigel Nicholson
I grabbed this when I saw it in a second-hand bookshop, a book I've had on my 'must get' list for such a long time. For ever such a long time, darlings. And it did not disappoint in the slightest. This is the marvellous story of Nigel Nicholson's parents, Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicholson, and their long and very loving marriage, despite both being homosexual. The book is based around Vita's passionate affair with Violet Trefusis in the early years of the marriage, which nearly destroyed it. The book alternates between Vita's manuscript, written towards the end of the affair, and Nigel's recount, which fleshes out the events and discusses his parents' relationship beyond the affair. Nigel quotes extensively from letters and journals and Vita's account of her childhood at the family home, Knole, is wonderful for its depiction of her eccentric grandfather and mother, and for her love of the house and its grounds. You could say something cynical about the privileged and debauched lives of the English gentry, but this little book is a true testament to what loving companionship can be, if you want it enough.
Top 5 Songs:
You Upset the Grace of Living When You Lie - Tim Hardin
Mama Nantucket - Michael Nesmith & The First National Band
Siren - The Divinyls
I'm Housin' - Rage Against the Machine*
Stompin' at the Savoy - Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong
*Or as Grumpy likes to say of Pounce: "She's meowsin'".
5 comments:
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Although my comment probably will not be as beneficial as that of 'sening', it is fantastic that you are listening to two of my favourite artists in RATM and Louis Armstrong. Without a word of a lie these two probably fill 30% of my ipod
What I want to know is, how keen is old sening, given that he had to do the word verification thin?
I'm rather impatiently waiting for my man in the queue.
I also wish my comment spam was as awesome.
When I read your comment, Carol, I wasn't thinking of the book. I thought Don was standing in line somewhere and rather than tap your feet, you were using amazing technology to blog right then and there.
Then I realised.
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