Books - What are you reading?
Discussion
I forgot to mention in my previous post about Giorgio Bassani’s ‘The Garden of the Finzi-Continis’ that it was translated by Jamie McKendrick. It reads very well, despite Bassani’s use of slang and colloquialisms, as well as Italian literature and poetry.
Almost all the characters are educated members of the Jewish intelligentsia, bound together by the tennis courts in the garden of the Finzi-Continis after being struck off from Ferrara’s main tennis club following Italy’s introduction of the Racial Laws in the late 1930s. It is here that the protagonist, who chooses to remain nameless, falls in love with Micól, the youngest daughter of the Finzi-Contini family, who he believes must surely be the brightest star in the whole family tree.
Nostalgia is crucial to ‘The Garden’ and how it is structured; Micól talks about accepting the loss of a prized carriage to the ravages of time by enjoying the memories of having possessed it, while one of their servants harbours a desire to restore it so that it may be used instead of their modern Lancia Dilambda, favouring the older mode of transport. Written in the 1960s, the same nostalgia permeates the protagonist’s recollection of long summer days spent playing tennis at the house.
From the very introduction we know the fates of almost all concerned, thanks to Bassani’s retrospective construction. For some that will rob the story of any suspense, leaving only the journey between pages 1 and 250-ish, but others may appreciate that for its nostalgic element.
Anyway, I thought it was decent despite not particularly liking any of the characters. At times I’d have loved to shake the protagonist by his shoulders and tell him to sort himself out, and at other times I’d have done the same thing to Micól. A fine read but certainly not a favourite.
I’m returning to the front now, staring down the cratered moonscapes of Polygon Wood and the Menin Road with Nick Lloyd’s ‘Passchendaele: A New History’.
Almost all the characters are educated members of the Jewish intelligentsia, bound together by the tennis courts in the garden of the Finzi-Continis after being struck off from Ferrara’s main tennis club following Italy’s introduction of the Racial Laws in the late 1930s. It is here that the protagonist, who chooses to remain nameless, falls in love with Micól, the youngest daughter of the Finzi-Contini family, who he believes must surely be the brightest star in the whole family tree.
Nostalgia is crucial to ‘The Garden’ and how it is structured; Micól talks about accepting the loss of a prized carriage to the ravages of time by enjoying the memories of having possessed it, while one of their servants harbours a desire to restore it so that it may be used instead of their modern Lancia Dilambda, favouring the older mode of transport. Written in the 1960s, the same nostalgia permeates the protagonist’s recollection of long summer days spent playing tennis at the house.
From the very introduction we know the fates of almost all concerned, thanks to Bassani’s retrospective construction. For some that will rob the story of any suspense, leaving only the journey between pages 1 and 250-ish, but others may appreciate that for its nostalgic element.
Anyway, I thought it was decent despite not particularly liking any of the characters. At times I’d have loved to shake the protagonist by his shoulders and tell him to sort himself out, and at other times I’d have done the same thing to Micól. A fine read but certainly not a favourite.
I’m returning to the front now, staring down the cratered moonscapes of Polygon Wood and the Menin Road with Nick Lloyd’s ‘Passchendaele: A New History’.
Roofless Toothless said:
I finally finished all eight volumes of Gibbon, with little holidays for something lighter now and then. And very well worth the effort it was too.
I have now turned to Dickens' Barnaby Rudge, and besides being a very early and empathic study of someone with mental incapacity, or learning difficulties as we might call it now, it also is a semi-historical account of the Gordon Riots in 1780. Dickens questions the moral issues about the law and mental illness, incidentally at about the same time that Judge Nicholas Tindall was making the first verdicts on limitations of responsibility for criminal acts of the insane.
Lord George Gordon, an English eccentric (and one is invited to wonder if 'mad') with a pathological hatred of Catholicism, and who is a character in the book, instigates an uprising of the bigoted and ill informed dregs of the London population, in a religiously inspired orgy of violence and arson. Substitute the name Gordon with that of certain other modern politicians and it becomes an uncannily contemporary theme. The book examines the real motives behind the behaviour of the many characters who become caught up in the most destructive street rioting the capital has ever seen.
I love Dickens but Barnaby Rudge has to be one of, if not his worst. Certainly wouldn’t recommend to someone new to Dickens.I have now turned to Dickens' Barnaby Rudge, and besides being a very early and empathic study of someone with mental incapacity, or learning difficulties as we might call it now, it also is a semi-historical account of the Gordon Riots in 1780. Dickens questions the moral issues about the law and mental illness, incidentally at about the same time that Judge Nicholas Tindall was making the first verdicts on limitations of responsibility for criminal acts of the insane.
Lord George Gordon, an English eccentric (and one is invited to wonder if 'mad') with a pathological hatred of Catholicism, and who is a character in the book, instigates an uprising of the bigoted and ill informed dregs of the London population, in a religiously inspired orgy of violence and arson. Substitute the name Gordon with that of certain other modern politicians and it becomes an uncannily contemporary theme. The book examines the real motives behind the behaviour of the many characters who become caught up in the most destructive street rioting the capital has ever seen.
Edited by Roofless Toothless on Saturday 21st July 10:17
tertius said:
I love Dickens but Barnaby Rudge has to be one of, if not his worst. Certainly wouldn’t recommend to someone new to Dickens.
I would agree it is not Dickens at his best. I think the trouble is that the events take place some sixty years before he wrote it, and he is deliberately trying to write the dialogue in an antiquated style. I don't like Tale Of Two Cities much either, and that is also a 'historic' novel. Dickens is at his best dealing with contemporary injustices and social issues.It is also an attempt at a Gothic novel (only 23 years after Frankenstein, and 6 years before Wuthering Heights) and has a strong theme about parent/child relationships across a series of five different family situations. Perhaps it is over ambitious.
What attracts me about the book, though, is its examination of legal responsibility in the case of mental incapacity, which is advanced for its time.
'Flowers for Algernon' by Daniel Keyes.
From the Gollanz 50th collection.
I knew the story, or at least the plot, but knew I had never actually read the book.
I recall immediately recognising the reference in the Simpsons episode HOMR
I can only assume that I had likely been shown the 1968 film 'Charly' in school.
Many thanks to whoever it was that mentioned this book many pages back, I ordered it almost immediately and it finally made it to the top of my rather randomly 'ordered' reading list.
"Anyone who has common sense will remember that the bewilderments of the eye are of two kinds, and arise from two causes, either from coming out of the light or from going into the light, which is true of the mind's eye, quite as much as of the bodily eye."
Plato, The Republic.
A fascinating passage in its full length.
Charley Gordon makes both of these journeys.
From the Gollanz 50th collection.
I knew the story, or at least the plot, but knew I had never actually read the book.
I recall immediately recognising the reference in the Simpsons episode HOMR
I can only assume that I had likely been shown the 1968 film 'Charly' in school.
Many thanks to whoever it was that mentioned this book many pages back, I ordered it almost immediately and it finally made it to the top of my rather randomly 'ordered' reading list.
"Anyone who has common sense will remember that the bewilderments of the eye are of two kinds, and arise from two causes, either from coming out of the light or from going into the light, which is true of the mind's eye, quite as much as of the bodily eye."
Plato, The Republic.
A fascinating passage in its full length.
Charley Gordon makes both of these journeys.
TheJimi said:
It was probably me, Goaty.
Brilliant book and I'm really pleased you enjoyed it
It was great to be reminded of one of those books that everyone should have read, and I hadn't. There have been a few of those over the last couple of years; some my fault, some the fault of a poor education system run by fools, has-been hippies and ideologues.Brilliant book and I'm really pleased you enjoyed it
The responsibility for correcting that is all mine now.
havoc said:
Really good book...last part is tough to read, at least for someone who prizes their intelligence...
Even when he is being a jerk, it is easy to empathise. It is frankly a terrifying situation to imagine oneself in.Also, that I grew up knowing a few lads that were similarly 'gifted' as young Charley. Thankfully most people around them were better behaved and more sympathetic than many of the characters portrayed in the book, but there were exceptions.
As one grows older, it becomes clearer; the things one could have done and should have done, to prevent even the small cruelties, though many were perpetrated without any real malice, and most often foolishness.
I have finished Nick Lloyd’s ‘Passchendaele: A New History’, several months after reading Robert J. Parker’s work on the infamous 1917 campaign. Lloyd does not sub-divide the campaign into specific battles as clearly as Parker, though his chapters are divided according to weeks and days in the campaign. Neither method is better; indeed, together it underscores the fact that so much blood was shed in so little time, across all the armies fielded in Flanders.
Lloyd and Parker, fundamentally, share similar views on how the Passchendaele campaign was fought; both works identify the limited ‘bite and hold’ tactics of General Sir Hubert Plumer as superior to the thrusting strikes favoured by both Gough and Haig, and Lloyd cites several diaries of German soldiers suggesting that the strategy was borderline unbeatable - though neither work conclusively identifies the reason Plumer abandoned this tactic following the victory at Broodseinde. It may remain a mystery.
While both works hold generally similar views, Lloyd also cites historians Robin Prior and Trevor Wilson, authors of ‘Passchendaele: The Untold Story’, and, it appears, believers in Gough’s strategy. Their hypothesis was that Gough attained a greater victory at Pilckem Ridge than in any of the attacks that follow, with fewer casualties per square mile than at the much-vaunted success of Plumer’s attack on the Menin Road. It is a view I would not have been likely to read for some time, but it is my intent to read more about Passchendaele in future. The Prior and Wilson book sounds promising; a balanced assessment of the battle may be found somewhere in the middle with what I have already read.
I shall not, however, be lingering on the topic of Passchendaele. Previous conversations about Stephen King’s ’11/22/63’ put me in the mood for some of his writings, and accordingly I have ‘Misery’ ready to start. A single word apt for describing Passchendaele, but is it any good as a novel? I’ll find out soon enough.
Lloyd and Parker, fundamentally, share similar views on how the Passchendaele campaign was fought; both works identify the limited ‘bite and hold’ tactics of General Sir Hubert Plumer as superior to the thrusting strikes favoured by both Gough and Haig, and Lloyd cites several diaries of German soldiers suggesting that the strategy was borderline unbeatable - though neither work conclusively identifies the reason Plumer abandoned this tactic following the victory at Broodseinde. It may remain a mystery.
While both works hold generally similar views, Lloyd also cites historians Robin Prior and Trevor Wilson, authors of ‘Passchendaele: The Untold Story’, and, it appears, believers in Gough’s strategy. Their hypothesis was that Gough attained a greater victory at Pilckem Ridge than in any of the attacks that follow, with fewer casualties per square mile than at the much-vaunted success of Plumer’s attack on the Menin Road. It is a view I would not have been likely to read for some time, but it is my intent to read more about Passchendaele in future. The Prior and Wilson book sounds promising; a balanced assessment of the battle may be found somewhere in the middle with what I have already read.
I shall not, however, be lingering on the topic of Passchendaele. Previous conversations about Stephen King’s ’11/22/63’ put me in the mood for some of his writings, and accordingly I have ‘Misery’ ready to start. A single word apt for describing Passchendaele, but is it any good as a novel? I’ll find out soon enough.
Heads up for anybody who enjoys the best travel literature but hasn't read Jonathan Raban , who virtually re -invented the genre in the early 80s , along with his pal Paul Theroux. Two of JR's best , Old Glory and Hunting Mr Heartbreak, have been re published .
Raban is a sublimely gifted writer and his insights into the USA are wonderful . OG is about a solo trip down the Mississippi in a small boat and HMH is even wider raging. I reread both last year and loved the as much as on my first reading
Raban is a sublimely gifted writer and his insights into the USA are wonderful . OG is about a solo trip down the Mississippi in a small boat and HMH is even wider raging. I reread both last year and loved the as much as on my first reading
I finished East West Street by Philippe Sands a while back but forgot to write it up, and what an detailed work it is. Based around the history of his family called Lauterpacht it explores the history of his Jewish family and ends with the Nuremburg trials. An eminent lawyer, he is responsible for the phrase "crimes against humanity" coming into being, and is also about Professor Lemkin who invented the word genocide. It is very poignant as he traces his Jewish roots and his family being murdered in Poland while was under the rule of Hans Frank, who was hung for his crimes. Indeed, the last page of the book is a photo of Hans Frank laid out with an identification plaque around his neck just after being hung. It is intense, incredibly researched, heavy going but somehow I am pleased to have read it and imbued the historical implications with it.
Just finished Don't Let Go - Harlan Coben - pretty good, easy reading - somewhere between Bosch and Reacher - a few too many 'conveniences' but nothing that spoils it from being a good beach read. Some nicely observed touches though. First book of his that I've read and I'd happily explore some others.
Incoming now are The Zürau Aphorisms and The Trial by Franz Kafka, plus one I saw today on another thread that looks interesting - The Utopia of Rules by David Graeber - about "how people 'relate to' and are influenced by bureaucracies".
All cheery reading, no doubt...
ETA WelshBeef being a pain...
Incoming now are The Zürau Aphorisms and The Trial by Franz Kafka, plus one I saw today on another thread that looks interesting - The Utopia of Rules by David Graeber - about "how people 'relate to' and are influenced by bureaucracies".
All cheery reading, no doubt...
ETA WelshBeef being a pain...
Edited by andy_s on Tuesday 31st July 23:24
andy_s said:
Just finished Don't Let Go - Harlan Coben - pretty good, easy reading - somewhere between Bosch and Reacher - a few too many 'conveniences' but nothing that spoils it from being a good beach read. Some nicely observed touches though. First book of his that I've read and I'd happily explore some others.
I've read a lot of his - both the Myron Bolitar series and the stand-alones - and I've pretty much enjoyed all of them. Sometimes the friend is a bit too convenient.I've just finished "Original Skin" by David Mark, a decent read though it seemed a little disjointed in some parts.
finished Fortune of War Patrick O'brian - fairly raced through it towards the end which was a bit odd, because it just sort of ended. no denouement or book end.
maybe it will pick up at the start of the next one where this one left off...still a cracking read and so well written...
what next....
maybe it will pick up at the start of the next one where this one left off...still a cracking read and so well written...
what next....
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