*What book are you reading? (part 2)

[Dirty Martini]

i get how it was about being shaped by your memories but there were pages and pages and pages of interior monologue, i thought it was just a bit overkill. But the guy can write

The digressions didn't add up to a lot, I agree. Exercises in sparkling writing, I guess, and not a lot more.

 

[Dirty Martini]

Now reading Leviathan by Paul Auster. I have mixed feelings about Auster, but this was lying around, so ...

 

[Dillinger4]

Now reading Leviathan by Paul Auster. I have mixed feelings about Auster, but this was lying around, so ...

Vintage Paw is writing her thesis on Paul Auster, if I remember correctly.

 

[Dirty Martini]

Vintage Paw is writing her thesis on Paul Auster, if I remember correctly.

Has to be a hell of a task -- he writes his own theses on himself.

 

[Pieface]

I am currently wallowing in anarchist fantasy land with China Mieville and a load of aliens. I'm really happy there and while I know there are more important books to be read I secretly want a massive iron claw for a hand, to know where the cactocopic stain is and to speak ragamoll with people who have pipes for intestines.

 

[marty21]

i loved the writing, but couldn't find much beyond the writing - the only thing that kept me going through the "not very much" was how well it was written

pretty similar reaction from me as well

currently reading "One" by Conrad Williams, post apocalyptic UK. majority of the population wiped out by a massive nuclear explosion, with some mysterious germ warfare too, the survivors are either zombie like, eating the non zombies and the rest trying to find out what happened and whether there is life elsewhere

it's high culture hugely enjoyable

 

[electrogirl]

pretty similar reaction from me as well

currently reading "One" by Conrad Williams, post apocalyptic UK. majority of the population wiped out by a massive nuclear explosion, with some mysterious germ warfare too, the survivors are either zombie like, eating the non zombies and the rest trying to find out what happened and whether there is life elsewhere

it's high culture hugely enjoyable

That sounds amazing.

I've nearly finished From Hell. Really enjoying it but it made my brain hurt a bit trying to remember all the characters. But that's not a bad thing.

 

[Rollem]

i have started reading Child 44 and its bloody good!!!

blurb form the back

In Stalin's Soviet union, crime does not exist. But still millions live in fear. The mere susicion of disloyalty to the State, the wrong word at tehwrong time, can send an innocent person to his execution. Office Leo Demidov, an idealistic war hero, beliees hes building a perfect society. But after witnessing the interrpgation of an innocent man, his loyalty begins towaver, and when ordered to investige his own wife, Leo is forced to choose where his heart truly lies [not as soppy as it sounds ]

Then the impossible happens. A murderer is on the loose, killing at will, and every belief Leo has ever held is shattered. Denounced by his enemies and exiled from home, he must risk everything to find a criminal that the State won't admit even exists. On the run, Leo soon discovers that the danger isn’t from the killer he is trying to catch, but from the country he is trying to protect…

not my usual sort of read at all, but im thoroughly enjoying it

 

[Pieface]

pretty similar reaction from me as well

currently reading "One" by Conrad Williams, post apocalyptic UK. majority of the population wiped out by a massive nuclear explosion, with some mysterious germ warfare too, the survivors are either zombie like, eating the non zombies and the rest trying to find out what happened and whether there is life elsewhere

it's high culture hugely enjoyable

I am definitely liking the sound of that as well.....

I have another Mieville to read but I need a break from New Crobuzon after one of his fat old books. I think I'll read some Muriel Spark to counter it

 

[El Jefe]

i've put Peter Carey's Oscar & Lucinda on hold - it deserves more careful attention than my addled brain can provide at the moment so I too am ploughing through another Mieville book (The Scar)

 

[DotCommunist]

Gave that a re-read some weeks ago. In some ways it's tighter plot-wise that Perdido Street Station, I think.


I'm currently reading a book on Creation Science for lulz.

 

[Pieface]

I think that Iron Council is much better written than Perdido St DC - he's not trying so hard and he's dropped the really overwrought metaphors.

Not read the Scar yet.

 

[big eejit]

The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles.

Surprised to find myself rather gripped by it.

 

[Dillinger4]

The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles.

Surprised to find myself rather gripped by it.

Paul Bowles.

He is the one who lives in Morocco, isn't he?

 

[DotCommunist]

I think that Iron Council is much better written than Perdido St DC - he's not trying so hard and he's dropped the really overwrought metaphors.

Not read the Scar yet.

It's better than Iron Council imo-I was slightly disappointed with IC's ending.

The Scar has an absolutely insane cityscape that isn't New Crobuzon

 

[big eejit]

Paul Bowles.

He is the one who lives in Morocco, isn't he?

According to the blurb at the start he went to Tangier in 1947 and lived there until his death in 1999. B. Jamaica, New York 1910.

 

[Dillinger4]

According to the blurb at the start he went to Tangier in 1947 and lived there until his death in 1999. B. Jamaica, New York 1910.

Ah yes.

I had heard of him by reading a Paul Theroux book.

Would you recommend him?

 

[goldenecitrone]

Ah yes.

I had heard of him by reading a Paul Theroux book.

Would you recommend him?

Christopher Isherwood borrowed his surname for the Sally Bowles character in Goodbye to Berlin.

 

[big eejit]

Ah yes.

I had heard of him by reading a Paul Theroux book.

Would you recommend him?

So far I would. Only about a third of the way through this book, but it's much better than I was expecting. Didn't notice my train had pulled into Temple Meads this morning, which is always a good test of how engaged I am in a book!

The last thing I read from the same period was The End of The Affair by Graham Greene, which I found really claustrophobic and affected, so maybe I'm just pleasantly surprised that it's not like that!

It's definitely a 'serious' book tho, but none the worse for that.

 

[Dirty Martini]

Ah yes.

I had heard of him by reading a Paul Theroux book.

Would you recommend him?

I'd definitely recommend him -- The Sheltering Sky and Up Above The World are both great.

I'd recommend Jane Bowles's novel Two Serious Ladies, too. It's utterly brilliant and very funny.

 

[marty21]

That sounds amazing.

I've nearly finished From Hell. Really enjoying it but it made my brain hurt a bit trying to remember all the characters. But that's not a bad thing.

I am definitely liking the sound of that as well.....

I enjoyed it, had elements of The Road, and it's set mainly in London, scenes of carnage in Trafalgar square and Paddington

so I too am ploughing through another Mieville book (The Scar)

I enjoyed that, I have another Mieville Book that I started and found a bit dull tbh "Un Lun Dun" I got a bit bored of it, might return to it after i finish "Broken Angels" Richard Morgan

 

[ericjarvis]

Just finished Gaudy Night by Dorothy Sayers. Which was pleasantly engrossing. Now on The Steep Approach To Garbadale which seems to be Iain Banks at close to his best.

 

[Paulie Tandoori]

I'd definitely recommend him -- The Sheltering Sky and Up Above The World are both great.

I'd recommend Jane Bowles's novel Two Serious Ladies, too. It's utterly brilliant and very funny.

Yes, i'd agree that the Sheltering Sky is a very enjoyable read.

 

[Roadkill]

George and Weedon Grossmith - Diary of a Nobody

I haven't been reading much of late, but I'm rather enjoying this.

 

[rekil]

George and Weedon Grossmith - Diary of a Nobody

I haven't been reading much of late, but I'm rather enjoying this.

I thought it'd be something of a literary curio but it has dated surprisingly well and is very funny.

I'm wading through these at the moment.

Beating the Fascists: The German Communists and Political Violence - Eve Rosenhaft.
A Very British Strike - Anne Perkins. About the 1926 general strike.
The Terror - Graeme Fife. You cannot whack a bit of post revolutionary bloodbath.

 

[Dirty Martini]

Finished Leviathan.

Fuck, I really don't know about Auster. This is the fourth of his I've read, I keep getting drawn back to him and I'll probably read everything he's done, but I don't like him. Well, I like him enough to always want to know what happens to the beautiful fuck-ups that he specialises in, but he writes the same book over and over, with different sentences, apart from the one that appears every 20 pages or so, when he feels the strands have to be pulled together, which is: 'No one knows anything about anyone and everything is connected'.

I like the prose, its banality has some purpose; but he seems overwhelmed by purpose and the interpretation that he feels his work is due. And the little I know about his biography suggests that the books come from a dark place (but not too dark) and that he is continually trying to exorcise some guilt.

I dunno.

Can anyone help?

 

[Roadkill]

I thought it'd be something of a literary curio but it has dated surprisingly well and is very funny.

Yes, that's pretty much what I thought.

 

[ViolentPanda]

Paul Bowles.

He is the one who lives in Morocco, isn't he?

Yep, he did. He also wrote some rather beautiful orchestral music that's very resonant of his literary oeuvre.

 

[ViolentPanda]

Yes, i'd agree that the Sheltering Sky is a very enjoyable read.

The film of "The Sheltering Sky" is rather good, too.

 

[Dirty Martini]

The film of "The Sheltering Sky" is rather good, too.

Manages to be OK, despite having John Malkovic in it.