A change for the worse, surely. One of the key jobs of 'art' is to question current thinking. I should very much hope books are still 'allowed' to satirize whatever they like, though sadly you may be right that this occurs less readily now.
December 2022 Reading Thread
- Thread starter The Judge
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AE35Unit
]==[]===O °
I'm in between reads at the moment, I really don't know what to read next. Something on my ebook, moby dick perhaps or some Dickens. No idea
Victoria Silverwolf
Vegetarian Werewolf
Moving on to Magic or Not? (1959) in the same series. Maybe a bit different than the others, as the blurb (and title) implies that the events of the story may not really be magical, but just seem that way. There is no such ambiguity in the other books.
pogopossum
Swamp Critter
I am traveling for the holidays. The books that I chose to travel with on the plane and at my daughter/grandkids house were the last (fifth) volume of the second Amber series by Zelazny, described elsewhere and We Don't Know Ourselves: A Personal History Of Modern Ireland, by Fintan O'Toole.I ordered it from the library as I am both a history and political geek and because the editors of the New York Times picked it as one of the ten best books published in 1922. (ed correction 2022- thanks hitmouse) -Not best of a certain category, but of all the books published (presumably in English in the USA) this year.
The years covered are 1958 through 2018. The author was raised a poor kid, in Crumlin, a mostly working class development outside Dublin, that was substantially modern in that unlike 3/5 of Eire at the time he was raised, it had indoor plumbing. His experiential viewpoint, through attending school run by the Christian Brothers, who served the non-elite, eventually attending university and watching, knowing, interviewing the families, mistresses, political cohorts and many of the individuals who made the news and the headlines over the years is fascinating reading.
But it is a history, both social and political. Central to much of the story is the Catholic Church, the arbiter of morals, politics and what was publicly said. The other large coverage of the country is the politicians. Descriptions of media, particularly broadcast, are used to show what was and what was not said publicly.
O'Toole expresses admiration for many church and political figures. But the constant is the description of a conspiracy of silence which allowed the illusion of morality among both institutions. Don't like the rules of Birth Control? Huge numbers didn't, but avoidance was practiced by any who could afford it while women who were too poor to find ways around the "morality" were targeted. Descriptions of child abuse by clergy (covered up) and mouthing of moral Catholicism by personally corrupt politicians is a constant.
O'Toole interviews IRA as well as Northern Protestant terrorists about murders, opinion and individuals.
The personal view of the events on the history and nature of the society is certainly what attracted the NYT reviewers. There is a charm to the work, although the constancy of the sad silence about "What everyone knows" is almost overpowering.
Personally, for me, a high note of moral Irish behavior is when Bernadette Devlin, member of The British Parliament is ruled out of order as she tries to respond to the British Home Secretary who has just stated the lie that British troops who killed 31 peaceful demonstrators, most of whom were running away, (aka "Bloody Sunday") had been fired upon. No Brits were shot or injured.She ran up the center isle of Parliament shouting, "If I am not allowed to inform the House of what I know, I'll inform Mr. Maudling of what I feel."- and hit him three times in the face.
edit: The last eighth of the book discusses the settlement between the Republic, the Brits and the extreme partisans that violence and repression were not working to achieve anyone's goals. Almost uniquely in the book, the author gives credit to politicians facing the truth an acting on it.
Also covered is the the "Celtic Tiger", the economic boom that at first drew the admiration of the world and then due to the overextension of banks, the inability of the government to deal in reality and the fact that most of the boom left the island, led to a massive collapse. As throughout the book, the author characterizes much of the problem to be that the powers that be operated on wishful thinking rather than reality.
There seems to be a happy ending in that the economy has somewhat stabilized and reality seems to be prevailing.
My stepmother left Ireland. I think that she would be glad.
The years covered are 1958 through 2018. The author was raised a poor kid, in Crumlin, a mostly working class development outside Dublin, that was substantially modern in that unlike 3/5 of Eire at the time he was raised, it had indoor plumbing. His experiential viewpoint, through attending school run by the Christian Brothers, who served the non-elite, eventually attending university and watching, knowing, interviewing the families, mistresses, political cohorts and many of the individuals who made the news and the headlines over the years is fascinating reading.
But it is a history, both social and political. Central to much of the story is the Catholic Church, the arbiter of morals, politics and what was publicly said. The other large coverage of the country is the politicians. Descriptions of media, particularly broadcast, are used to show what was and what was not said publicly.
O'Toole expresses admiration for many church and political figures. But the constant is the description of a conspiracy of silence which allowed the illusion of morality among both institutions. Don't like the rules of Birth Control? Huge numbers didn't, but avoidance was practiced by any who could afford it while women who were too poor to find ways around the "morality" were targeted. Descriptions of child abuse by clergy (covered up) and mouthing of moral Catholicism by personally corrupt politicians is a constant.
O'Toole interviews IRA as well as Northern Protestant terrorists about murders, opinion and individuals.
The personal view of the events on the history and nature of the society is certainly what attracted the NYT reviewers. There is a charm to the work, although the constancy of the sad silence about "What everyone knows" is almost overpowering.
Personally, for me, a high note of moral Irish behavior is when Bernadette Devlin, member of The British Parliament is ruled out of order as she tries to respond to the British Home Secretary who has just stated the lie that British troops who killed 31 peaceful demonstrators, most of whom were running away, (aka "Bloody Sunday") had been fired upon. No Brits were shot or injured.She ran up the center isle of Parliament shouting, "If I am not allowed to inform the House of what I know, I'll inform Mr. Maudling of what I feel."- and hit him three times in the face.
edit: The last eighth of the book discusses the settlement between the Republic, the Brits and the extreme partisans that violence and repression were not working to achieve anyone's goals. Almost uniquely in the book, the author gives credit to politicians facing the truth an acting on it.
Also covered is the the "Celtic Tiger", the economic boom that at first drew the admiration of the world and then due to the overextension of banks, the inability of the government to deal in reality and the fact that most of the boom left the island, led to a massive collapse. As throughout the book, the author characterizes much of the problem to be that the powers that be operated on wishful thinking rather than reality.
There seems to be a happy ending in that the economy has somewhat stabilized and reality seems to be prevailing.
My stepmother left Ireland. I think that she would be glad.
Last edited:
hitmouse
Well-Known Member
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Presumably that is 2022 not 1922.
pogopossum
Swamp Critter
I do live in the past.
Victoria Silverwolf
Vegetarian Werewolf
Next up is The Well-Wishers (1960), a direct sequel to Magic or Not? The author experiments with point of view in this one; each chapter is written in first person by one of the children involved.
Was the conclusion of the experiment, “don’t do it”?
Victoria Silverwolf
Vegetarian Werewolf
Could be. The very first sentence of the book suggests an ambiguous attitude on the part of the author (speaking as one of the kids.)
I know people who say they can read any kind of book except an "I" book, and sometimes I think I agree with them.
JunkMonkey
Lord High Vizier of Nowt
I have recently rediscovered Posy Simmonds - whose strips I used to read back in the day when I used to buy The Guardian. I never really liked her stuff. Too upper middle-class yuppie guilt, first world problem navel gazing for me. (What else did expect from The Guardian in the 80s? I have no idea.)
I was wrong. Her stuff is very funny; 'acutely observed' as they say. Ok, the characters are upper middle class horrors and guilt-ridden, well to do, leftist academics but they are all deliciously skewered.
For Christmas my Number Two Daughter presented me with a copy of Gemma Bovery. Simmonds' graphic novel reworking of the Flaubert. And it is wonderful! It's been a long time since I fell for a fictional character like I fell for Gemma.
Cherry on the cake is that it's a signed copy.
As a total counterpoint I am now giggling my way with childish glee through X Esquire by Leslie Charteris which is the most ludicrous ferrago of upper class twat derring do murder mystery adventure cliches. An industrialist with a foreign name and "Semitic aspect" to his face is murdered (on page 6 before he even got to utter a line of dialgue) in a country house where one of the weekend guests is a Scotland Yard detective - about 10 pages later the mysterious sniper who has been attempting to assasinate another guest is given a drubbing, had his rifle taken off him and sent off (with a flea in his ear) back to London by the local train. It's all jolly spiffing and exciting, don't you know?
I was wrong. Her stuff is very funny; 'acutely observed' as they say. Ok, the characters are upper middle class horrors and guilt-ridden, well to do, leftist academics but they are all deliciously skewered.
For Christmas my Number Two Daughter presented me with a copy of Gemma Bovery. Simmonds' graphic novel reworking of the Flaubert. And it is wonderful! It's been a long time since I fell for a fictional character like I fell for Gemma.
Cherry on the cake is that it's a signed copy.
As a total counterpoint I am now giggling my way with childish glee through X Esquire by Leslie Charteris which is the most ludicrous ferrago of upper class twat derring do murder mystery adventure cliches. An industrialist with a foreign name and "Semitic aspect" to his face is murdered (on page 6 before he even got to utter a line of dialgue) in a country house where one of the weekend guests is a Scotland Yard detective - about 10 pages later the mysterious sniper who has been attempting to assasinate another guest is given a drubbing, had his rifle taken off him and sent off (with a flea in his ear) back to London by the local train. It's all jolly spiffing and exciting, don't you know?
Danny McG
Lid closed, monkey dead.
After watching on telly I've downloaded The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde and I'm making a start on it now.
It seems very familiar, I think I must have read it already at some time.
It seems very familiar, I think I must have read it already at some time.
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Harumi Murakami
Continuing my chronological reading of Murakami following my introduction with 1Q84 and Kafka on the Shore. This one is without a doubt the weirdest of his books so far. The book is split into too separate stories told in alternating chapters. Hard Boiled Wonderland is a noir-ish, almost cyberpunk, story though not quite really science fiction, whilst The End of the World is almost fantasy but, again, not quite, whilst both contain elements of magical realism. I really don’t understand some reviews that talk about the two stories being loosely connected; for me they are incredibly tightly connected and become steadily more so as the stories progress. There is very little conclusion to the book which is something that usually annoys me but Murakami’s writing I don’t seem to have a problem with; it’s as if the normal idea of the words, sentences and paragraphs providing the structure on which a story is built has been turned on it’s head and now the story provides the structure upon which prose can be built and explored. Something I have found in other magical realism authors like Marquez and that I find works unexpectedly well for me. I loved this book and was interested to read that in an interview a while back (before writing 1Q84) Murakami apparently stated this was his favourite book. 5/5 stars
Downward to the Earth by Robert Silverberg
An interesting book this one. I hadn’t realised previously that this is based on Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. Inspired by might be a more accurate description; whilst it does condemn colonialism and even have a character called Kurtz who does mention the ‘horror,’ Silverberg very much makes the story his own. And, though it does now feel a little cliched with its portrayal of humankind so focused upon its own cleverness that it fails to identify alien sentience, and especially when such recognition might get in the way of human interests, it would have felt much less so back in 1969. One of the better classic SF books I’ve read of late. 4/5 stars
Freedom’s Last Gasp by M A Rothman
Freedom’s Last Gasp is a sequel to Primordial Threat and, sadly, a very poor one. The first book was a good, but not brilliant, piece of largely hard SF, this second book rapidly degenerates into poor political story of American libertarianism fighting against a United Nations that has become a totalitarian world government, and frankly became quite distasteful. Even the writing was worse with one dimensional characters and completely lacking any sense of plausibility. Even if you have enjoyed the first book, I would recommend skipping this one; it is not necessary and doesn’t continue or enhance the original story in any meaningful way. I probably wouldn't have finished it if it had any longer than it was. 2/5 stars
Rome’s Lost son by Robert Fabbri
Another good volume in the ongoing story of the Emperor Vespasian, this time taking place during the end of Claudius’ reign. As ever Fabbri gives notes at the end about how much of the book is speculative and how much based on known history. In this particular case the main events are real but Vespasian’s part in them is all pretty much fictional; the reality being that little is know of Vespasian’s activity at this time and it’s actually most likely he was keeping his head down and out of the line of fire in his country estates. But never mind it’s still a good story covering the events of that period. My only complaints are, as ever, for my taste, when Fabbri gets into battle and fight sequences he tends towards the gratuitous end of the scale with his descriptions of the violence. Also, I find him getting ever more critical of the emerging Christian movement of the time and especially so of Paul. Was he really as nasty as Fabbri makes him out to be? I don’t have that knowledge but Fabbri’s constant sniping at him does become steadily more tedious. Overall, a very good if somewhat flawed historical novel. 4/5 stars
I'll maybe get another couple of books read before the end of the year taking me to 86 books for this year, which I'm quite comfortable with!
Continuing my chronological reading of Murakami following my introduction with 1Q84 and Kafka on the Shore. This one is without a doubt the weirdest of his books so far. The book is split into too separate stories told in alternating chapters. Hard Boiled Wonderland is a noir-ish, almost cyberpunk, story though not quite really science fiction, whilst The End of the World is almost fantasy but, again, not quite, whilst both contain elements of magical realism. I really don’t understand some reviews that talk about the two stories being loosely connected; for me they are incredibly tightly connected and become steadily more so as the stories progress. There is very little conclusion to the book which is something that usually annoys me but Murakami’s writing I don’t seem to have a problem with; it’s as if the normal idea of the words, sentences and paragraphs providing the structure on which a story is built has been turned on it’s head and now the story provides the structure upon which prose can be built and explored. Something I have found in other magical realism authors like Marquez and that I find works unexpectedly well for me. I loved this book and was interested to read that in an interview a while back (before writing 1Q84) Murakami apparently stated this was his favourite book. 5/5 stars
Downward to the Earth by Robert Silverberg
An interesting book this one. I hadn’t realised previously that this is based on Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. Inspired by might be a more accurate description; whilst it does condemn colonialism and even have a character called Kurtz who does mention the ‘horror,’ Silverberg very much makes the story his own. And, though it does now feel a little cliched with its portrayal of humankind so focused upon its own cleverness that it fails to identify alien sentience, and especially when such recognition might get in the way of human interests, it would have felt much less so back in 1969. One of the better classic SF books I’ve read of late. 4/5 stars
Freedom’s Last Gasp by M A Rothman
Freedom’s Last Gasp is a sequel to Primordial Threat and, sadly, a very poor one. The first book was a good, but not brilliant, piece of largely hard SF, this second book rapidly degenerates into poor political story of American libertarianism fighting against a United Nations that has become a totalitarian world government, and frankly became quite distasteful. Even the writing was worse with one dimensional characters and completely lacking any sense of plausibility. Even if you have enjoyed the first book, I would recommend skipping this one; it is not necessary and doesn’t continue or enhance the original story in any meaningful way. I probably wouldn't have finished it if it had any longer than it was. 2/5 stars
Rome’s Lost son by Robert Fabbri
Another good volume in the ongoing story of the Emperor Vespasian, this time taking place during the end of Claudius’ reign. As ever Fabbri gives notes at the end about how much of the book is speculative and how much based on known history. In this particular case the main events are real but Vespasian’s part in them is all pretty much fictional; the reality being that little is know of Vespasian’s activity at this time and it’s actually most likely he was keeping his head down and out of the line of fire in his country estates. But never mind it’s still a good story covering the events of that period. My only complaints are, as ever, for my taste, when Fabbri gets into battle and fight sequences he tends towards the gratuitous end of the scale with his descriptions of the violence. Also, I find him getting ever more critical of the emerging Christian movement of the time and especially so of Paul. Was he really as nasty as Fabbri makes him out to be? I don’t have that knowledge but Fabbri’s constant sniping at him does become steadily more tedious. Overall, a very good if somewhat flawed historical novel. 4/5 stars
I'll maybe get another couple of books read before the end of the year taking me to 86 books for this year, which I'm quite comfortable with!
AE35Unit
]==[]===O °
Just downloaded to my Kobo via Gutenberg
AE35Unit
]==[]===O °
Not in the one I downloaded. Btw, browsing the web on a kobo is a right pain in the (_|_)
AE35Unit
]==[]===O °
Actually, in the contents page it lists illustrations!
Victoria Silverwolf
Vegetarian Werewolf
Last in this series is Seven-Day Magic (1962), which goes back to out-and-out fantasy instead of the stuff that seems magical but really isn't of the last two books.
JunkMonkey
Lord High Vizier of Nowt
You just watched it on the telly, Danny!
JunkMonkey
Lord High Vizier of Nowt
Finished X Esquire totally unable to fathom what half of the derring do and Boys Own Paper japes had been about but our masked opera hat wearing multiple murderer was unmasked at the end and turns out to have been one of the gallant young officer chaps. As all his victims were all jolly foreigners, or working class villains, he was heartily congratulated for his actions and a "high ranking minister", who just happened to be around when he committed his last murder, thought it best if the whole thing was just swept under the carpet. (So too presumably was another off page murder of a cove with a Germanic name who was casually tossed over the side of a ship mid Atlantic by a different one of the innumerable evening dress wearing 'heroes').
The gardener's suspect testimony it turned out was suspect because he'd actually witnessed the first murder. He'd seen his employer's son shoot a house guest through the head and didn't think it was his place to get the young master into trouble.
God's know why we didn't have a revolution in this country in the 30s. I suspect if the Second World War hadn't come along we would have.
Next up - Flash Gordon Book 1: Massacre in the 22nd Century.
The first of a short lived attempt to get a modern (1980s) paperback franchise out of a 1930s character by discarding just about everything from the original apart from the central characters' names. Not badly written - though the writer (whoever they were, there is not an author's name credited anywhere that I can find) does forget from time to time the geography of the giant space ship that plays a central part of the book. There's lots of 'up' and 'down' and people throwing themselves to the floor of areas which were, on the previous page, weightless.
By the end of the book we're heading deep into Perry Rhodan, Lensman, Galactic Peacelord, territory and on page one of the next book of the series I own (#3) Flash is at the helm of an "18.5 trillion ton warship", "over 15 kilometers in diameter", "ploughing its way majestically through hyperspace".
Gosh!
The gardener's suspect testimony it turned out was suspect because he'd actually witnessed the first murder. He'd seen his employer's son shoot a house guest through the head and didn't think it was his place to get the young master into trouble.
God's know why we didn't have a revolution in this country in the 30s. I suspect if the Second World War hadn't come along we would have.
Next up - Flash Gordon Book 1: Massacre in the 22nd Century.
The first of a short lived attempt to get a modern (1980s) paperback franchise out of a 1930s character by discarding just about everything from the original apart from the central characters' names. Not badly written - though the writer (whoever they were, there is not an author's name credited anywhere that I can find) does forget from time to time the geography of the giant space ship that plays a central part of the book. There's lots of 'up' and 'down' and people throwing themselves to the floor of areas which were, on the previous page, weightless.
By the end of the book we're heading deep into Perry Rhodan, Lensman, Galactic Peacelord, territory and on page one of the next book of the series I own (#3) Flash is at the helm of an "18.5 trillion ton warship", "over 15 kilometers in diameter", "ploughing its way majestically through hyperspace".
Gosh!
JunkMonkey
Lord High Vizier of Nowt
Flash Gordon Book 3: Crisis on Citadel ll
After 195 pages of running up and down corridors and getting shot at by, and shooting at, anything that moved (that wasn't Dale Arden or 'aged scientist' Doctor Zarkov) - and pausing only to be battered unconcious several times and have periods of guilt and introspection - Flash Gordon ends a ten thousand year old pan-galactic war.
During several of his periods of guilt and introspection he neatly summerised the events of book 2 so I don't have to bother reading it which is fine by me
After 195 pages of running up and down corridors and getting shot at by, and shooting at, anything that moved (that wasn't Dale Arden or 'aged scientist' Doctor Zarkov) - and pausing only to be battered unconcious several times and have periods of guilt and introspection - Flash Gordon ends a ten thousand year old pan-galactic war.
During several of his periods of guilt and introspection he neatly summerised the events of book 2 so I don't have to bother reading it which is fine by me
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