on fiction
i have a little crush on the boy who works at waterstones bookshop on saturdays. i tease him about his fondness for the beat poets and he recommends obscure novels to me. i always ignore these recommendations because i'm worried i'll read it and won't 'get' it and my chances with him will be dashed forever. anyway, this little flirtation has meant i've been spending a little too much money on brand new books since i've been here:
a list and pontification:
small island, andrea levy
i read this in three days during my first week in england.. it's about new immigrants to england just after the second world war so it seemed quite relevant. though the immigrants in this book were from the caribbean and had an infinitely more difficult time of it than i did.. it's a novel full of big themes which are explored through the experience of white and black characters. and though it's pretty heavy and all the different forms of racism are explored, it's not a depressing novel as it is written with an underlying humour. i liked it very much.
utterly monkey, nick laird
nick laird is the gentleman friend of zadie smith. they have matching thank-yous for each other in their latest novels (and lastly, nick/zadie... for all your support, love, spew...) as if they mean to rub in the fact that not only are they budding young writers but also cohabit with a fellow talented young writer - 'read it and dream dear reader'. anyway. mr laird has managed to write a sex scene in this book almost as awkward as ms smith's sex scene in on beauty. do you think they sit together on a sunday afternoon and workshop their literary sex scenes trying to make them as 'realistic' as possible? if that is the case i bet their own sex life is whack. which makes me feel a bit better about them being 'literary sensations' and in love.
untold stories, alan bennett
before england i hadn't heard much of alan bennett. then penny and i went to see the history boys and it made me laugh a lot and feel superior to many types of people. exactly the type of feeling i enjoy getting out of my light entertainment. so when i saw this on the 2 for 3 table i picked up a copy. i read most of it lying on the bottom bunk of a hostel in krakow and giggling to myself late at night and annoying my roommates. the stories are mostly from his own life and there is a chapter on his battle with cancer which was particularly interesting as he seemed to articulate in a very humorous way some of the stuff my dad has been through in the last few months..
the history of love, nicole krauss
i thought this was a little contrived actually. and liked it even less when i found out that nicole krauss is cohabiting with jonathon safran foer.. man, these literary power couples really piss me off..
i liked the older characters but thought that the children were really badly written. it has a lot of threads which she seems to attempt to tie up at the end but she missed a lot of them which was very unsatisfying. either leave me totally mystified a la haruki murakami or round things off nicely please. don't leave the job half finished!
she did manage to convey different ideas of what it meant to be alone and loneliness very well though. i was reading in the middle of a busy cafe in berlin and it really hit me that i was alone in the middle of europe, half a world away from people i love best..
the historian, elizabeth kostova
i actually bought this one in a barcelona bookshop from an equally spunky spanish bookseller. it was thick and the text was tightly packed so i thought it would be ideal for holiday as it would hopefully last the week and i wouldn't need to buy another. turns out it is about vampires. so i feel a bit embarrassed to say that i thoroughly enjoyed it. it was very compelling and it has made me desperate to travel to istanbul, drink tea from glasses and peer into mysterious shadows looking for adventure..
suite francaise, irene nemirovsky
this has been in the press a fair bit lately.. the manuscript was found only a few years ago but was written during the war by a russian jewish woman living in france. she was taken away by the nazis sometime in 1941 and killed in auschwitz soon after that. the 2 existing parts of the novel have been published along with the notes the author made on the other 3 parts that she had planned but not written. it was pretty interesting to read her writing process, though i couldn't help but feel it spoiled the magic a little bit. of course logically i know that novels need to be planned and written and revised and agonised over.. but i'm not sure i want to know about it. i just want to imagine a writer sitting in a red armchair, writing away on a clickty clack typewriter pausing to look out the window and stroke the cat.. it was a beautiful book though and very unfortunate that it was never finished. yet another reason to hate the nazis.
the accidental, ali smith
don't really get why this was so hyped and well reviewed. i thought it was stoopid and implausible. it annoys me when *every* character in a novel is totally dysfunctional.
in the company of the courtesan, sarah dunat
i was a bit embarrassed to take this to the counter as it is so obviously *girly*. so i distracted spunky waterstones boy from analysing my choice too closely by asking him if he had added any women to his 'recommended reading' shelf yet.. he hadn't. maybe i'll add some there for him. anyway. i'm a sucker for 'historical fiction' set in romantic settings like venice or paris or 18th century palaces.. i shouldn't be ashamed. it's better than being into meg cabot.
of love and other demons, gabriel garcia marquez
this guy comes up with the best titles ever.. mostly i read this to see if i agreed with clementine's analysis that marquez is perhaps a touch of a misogynist. i'd never spotted it before but i think that i agree, he has a lot of female characters but all of them a little unsympathetic. or totally mad. still love the titles though.. and the weirdness.. this story involves a possessed girl, a rabid dog and a lunatic asylum.
this could go on a lot longer but i'm a little bored of it now. and i've got 3 lessons to plan before 8:45 am tomorrow for the ungrateful little punks. i know i've told a number of you in outraged tones already but for those who are still unconvinced of the madness i'm working in: a kid took a shit in the corner of the classroom! these children are not normal. only 6 more weeks to go..
a list and pontification:
small island, andrea levy
i read this in three days during my first week in england.. it's about new immigrants to england just after the second world war so it seemed quite relevant. though the immigrants in this book were from the caribbean and had an infinitely more difficult time of it than i did.. it's a novel full of big themes which are explored through the experience of white and black characters. and though it's pretty heavy and all the different forms of racism are explored, it's not a depressing novel as it is written with an underlying humour. i liked it very much.utterly monkey, nick laird
nick laird is the gentleman friend of zadie smith. they have matching thank-yous for each other in their latest novels (and lastly, nick/zadie... for all your support, love, spew...) as if they mean to rub in the fact that not only are they budding young writers but also cohabit with a fellow talented young writer - 'read it and dream dear reader'. anyway. mr laird has managed to write a sex scene in this book almost as awkward as ms smith's sex scene in on beauty. do you think they sit together on a sunday afternoon and workshop their literary sex scenes trying to make them as 'realistic' as possible? if that is the case i bet their own sex life is whack. which makes me feel a bit better about them being 'literary sensations' and in love.untold stories, alan bennett
before england i hadn't heard much of alan bennett. then penny and i went to see the history boys and it made me laugh a lot and feel superior to many types of people. exactly the type of feeling i enjoy getting out of my light entertainment. so when i saw this on the 2 for 3 table i picked up a copy. i read most of it lying on the bottom bunk of a hostel in krakow and giggling to myself late at night and annoying my roommates. the stories are mostly from his own life and there is a chapter on his battle with cancer which was particularly interesting as he seemed to articulate in a very humorous way some of the stuff my dad has been through in the last few months..the history of love, nicole krauss
i thought this was a little contrived actually. and liked it even less when i found out that nicole krauss is cohabiting with jonathon safran foer.. man, these literary power couples really piss me off..i liked the older characters but thought that the children were really badly written. it has a lot of threads which she seems to attempt to tie up at the end but she missed a lot of them which was very unsatisfying. either leave me totally mystified a la haruki murakami or round things off nicely please. don't leave the job half finished!
she did manage to convey different ideas of what it meant to be alone and loneliness very well though. i was reading in the middle of a busy cafe in berlin and it really hit me that i was alone in the middle of europe, half a world away from people i love best..
the historian, elizabeth kostova
i actually bought this one in a barcelona bookshop from an equally spunky spanish bookseller. it was thick and the text was tightly packed so i thought it would be ideal for holiday as it would hopefully last the week and i wouldn't need to buy another. turns out it is about vampires. so i feel a bit embarrassed to say that i thoroughly enjoyed it. it was very compelling and it has made me desperate to travel to istanbul, drink tea from glasses and peer into mysterious shadows looking for adventure..suite francaise, irene nemirovsky
this has been in the press a fair bit lately.. the manuscript was found only a few years ago but was written during the war by a russian jewish woman living in france. she was taken away by the nazis sometime in 1941 and killed in auschwitz soon after that. the 2 existing parts of the novel have been published along with the notes the author made on the other 3 parts that she had planned but not written. it was pretty interesting to read her writing process, though i couldn't help but feel it spoiled the magic a little bit. of course logically i know that novels need to be planned and written and revised and agonised over.. but i'm not sure i want to know about it. i just want to imagine a writer sitting in a red armchair, writing away on a clickty clack typewriter pausing to look out the window and stroke the cat.. it was a beautiful book though and very unfortunate that it was never finished. yet another reason to hate the nazis.the accidental, ali smith
don't really get why this was so hyped and well reviewed. i thought it was stoopid and implausible. it annoys me when *every* character in a novel is totally dysfunctional.in the company of the courtesan, sarah dunat
i was a bit embarrassed to take this to the counter as it is so obviously *girly*. so i distracted spunky waterstones boy from analysing my choice too closely by asking him if he had added any women to his 'recommended reading' shelf yet.. he hadn't. maybe i'll add some there for him. anyway. i'm a sucker for 'historical fiction' set in romantic settings like venice or paris or 18th century palaces.. i shouldn't be ashamed. it's better than being into meg cabot.of love and other demons, gabriel garcia marquez
this guy comes up with the best titles ever.. mostly i read this to see if i agreed with clementine's analysis that marquez is perhaps a touch of a misogynist. i'd never spotted it before but i think that i agree, he has a lot of female characters but all of them a little unsympathetic. or totally mad. still love the titles though.. and the weirdness.. this story involves a possessed girl, a rabid dog and a lunatic asylum.this could go on a lot longer but i'm a little bored of it now. and i've got 3 lessons to plan before 8:45 am tomorrow for the ungrateful little punks. i know i've told a number of you in outraged tones already but for those who are still unconvinced of the madness i'm working in: a kid took a shit in the corner of the classroom! these children are not normal. only 6 more weeks to go..
posted by melissa the kisser at 9:42 am
4 Comments:
I love bookstore crushes!
On your books:
I've wanted to read Small Island for awhile now.
Nick Laird and Zadie Smith - pfftbt. I've decided Smith is a wonderful character writer but her skills at drawing together a tight story are somewhat lacking. White Teeth was brilliant, but it would have worked quite well as a serial novel if she'd twigged it in a few places and massively changed the ending. I'm loving Scotland Street in case you can't tell...do you think there will be a fourth one?
Alan Bennett - I've been meaning to buy that one for awhile. I'm very much looking forward to the story about the old woman who lives in his garden.
The History of Love - I really liked this! I thought you would have loved it too. Hmmm..
Skip skip skip...
Thanks for the warning re Ali Smith. I was going to buy that one too but I shall scratch it off the list now.
GGM - Excellent titles indeed. But his women are all mad or spinsters and the excess of weird incest and pedophilia is disturbing I find.
I've just finished the Scotland Street trilogy. Brilliant! McCall Smith is a genius storyteller. Simple and funny.
I've also read Elenor Lipman's My Latest Grievance. I think you'd like that one. It's set in a ladies college in New England in the seventies and is full of unlikeable characters and actions that make you want to punch people, but I enjoyed it very much xoxo
Ummmm I feel the need to comment drastically on something here.... but not overly sure where to..... I am thinking along the lines of how you feel that the students are horrible because the mock what you do yet you don't feel people can write in a way that allows them to reach their full potential. Always interesting to note. Anyway I haven't read a book for weeks, and that was only the history of Stalin. So I feel I cannot comment on what a "quality" fiction is. happy reading, but that is a lot of books to ship home!!
audrey: i haven't read scotland street! but love his other stuff.. can't remember the name but the professer series are hilarious. will put those others on my list. i quite like the idea of living in a college for grown up ladies..
garth: can you translate that for me?
linley: sigh.. nop topic is safe..
I too thoroughly enjoyed The Historian. It's a blast and despite being called 'The Da Vinci Code for vampires' it's well written, surprising and sexy (ok, minus the sex, but I fell for the couples). Everything else I have read over here has been utter tripe, although some of it was quite enjuoyable. But 'The Expected One' is jumping on the Dan Brown bandwagon and is equally awful. Possibly worse because the author seems to think that she is descended from Mary Magdelene.
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