Thoughts at the halfway point of Tofu Landing

Years ago I stayed up late one night and watched for some odd reason a film starring a youthful looking Michael Hutchence. The idea of Dogs in Space was that a mixed bunch of wannabe rock gods lived in a house together. They shared their dreams and their miseries as they lived in a wreck of a house.

I mention that film because Tofu Landing sparked off memories with its cast of characters living together in a world consumed by ambition, lust and drugs. The central character Declan Twist joins the flatmates as they are on the brink of staging an art exhibition, landing a role in a film, becoming famous with their rock star boyfriend and making a fortune through illegally selling drugs.

Declan loves art, the old masters, but hides a secret - something to do with brain damage - and manages to befriend and influence some of the 'posse' around him. He feels a sense of impending doom and as the reader follows this odd assortment of people it becomes almost inevitable the drug fuelled train will lurch off the rails at some point.

Review to follow soon...

bookmark of the week

There has been an exhibition running at the Imperial War Museum around the idea of growing your own food and making do in war time conditions. This seems to have a great deal more relevance in a recession when people have gone back to home grown allotments in order to save a bit of money.

book review - Old Masters - Thomas Bernhard

"...basically nothing is more abhorrent to me than these so-called old masters here at the Kunsthistorisches Museum and old masters generally, all old masters, no matter what their names are, no matter what they have painted, Reger said, and yet it is they who keep me alive."

On one level the idea of two men in a gallery, one sitting and the other one watching, sounds about as engaging as watching paint dry. But as the two friends arrange to meet and Atzbacher watches his friend Reger through the door the story of Reger's life and view of the world unfolds.

It is an opinionated view covering music, art and a little bit about human nature. But as the story unfolds it becomes clear that the holder of these views is a far from normal character.

having visited the same Viennese museum for thirty years and having made his way to the same room, sat on the same sofa in front of the same picture he is perhaps someone, who he admits himself, should be considered for a lunatic asylum.

As he prepares to meet Reger at a specified appointment for which he cannot be early for but neither will unpunctuality be accommodated Atzbacher recalls the conversation the friends had the day before.

Reger pontificates about a huge range of subjects but one general theme he has is that most art is not as good as it thinks it is and neither is music. Having sat there looking at the same painting for all those years he has gained what he believes is the calm ability to demolish most art and artists.

But of course the humour here comes from the pretentious way that Reger seems to think that having a column in the Times where he writes about music and having opinions makes him able to comment about things in the way he does.

Using Reger as the example the narrative is able to weave a tale that pops the bubble of pretentious critics, shows them to be inconsistent and vain and leaves you in no doubt that most galleries and music halls are just as full of hot air as they are great paintings and orchestras.

From a reading experience point of view it would have been helpful to have had some chapters to break up the stream of recollections and opinions. But in some senses perhaps that would have broken up the rhythm. Personally I like the breaks that chapters bring.

What you are left with at the end of the experience is perhaps more confidence that given the situation you stumbled across a critic sofa-bound in a gallery you could see through them just a bit more than before.

Something magical has happened

Something has happened which I dreamed of for the last year and thought might never happen. Suddenly and passionately my son is reading. Reading so much that he has is finding it hard to stop. I know this blog is about my own reading experiences but what has happened with my son is one of the most satisfying things and I had to share it.

Up to now he has run away from books, found reading boring and seen attempts to make him read as something sinister. But things have now changed. The catalyst has been the Beast Quest book series which appeal to him in a way that other books that have been waved under his nose just never seemed to. he has raced through the first eight books and has already got the next 7 sitting on his shelf waiting to be read.

He cannot put them down for now and that is wonderful. He might tire of them but hopefully by the time that happens he will have been well and truly bitten by the reading bug.

if there is a piece of advice I can pass onto anyone with a child that has got halfway through year 3 without showing much interest in books it is to keep trying different authors.

What appeals about Beast Quest is the number of books in the series - 42 and counting - and the cards that you cut out in the back but also the stories. They are sold in series of six and are interlinked. Maybe they are not for your son but have a look and try out some of the series that have been created for children and don't give up hope. I nearly had but can't believe it now.

Thoughts at the halfway point of Old Masters

This is a stream of thought and opinion that covers the subjects of art and culture. what is great art and what is culture when most of what is consumed is state backed?

These questions are raised by one old man as he recounts the opinions of his old friend the critic Reger who he waits to meet. As the book covers the meeting that the two men had in a Viennese museum the day before it introduces you to Reger and his life which has been one of visiting the museum every other day.

Despite his continued support of art and culture it becomes clear that Reger has a low opinion of of mainstream art and literature. But quite why he has disrupted the routine to bring his friend back for a second day and quite what he plans to say today is far from clear.

review will follow on completion...

Something from Central Europe

There is so much that still needs to be read but the next couple of weeks are going to be peppered with some of Penguin's latest range of Central European Classics.

the first two up are the slimline How I Came to Know Fish by Ota Pavel and then Old Masters by Thomas Bernhard. More will come later in the week and next week.

Looking forward to hearing different voices, being led into different worlds and enjoying the series.

bookmark of the week

Now my son has embraced all things Beast Quest and in the back of each book there are some cards to collect and a bookmark. the bookmarks are in the sacred place on his bookshelf but he allowed me to blog this one before handing it back.

It's a great idea to use a bookmark as a reward for reading and there is always one marking his progress in the latest book. Well done Beast Quest.

book review - The Various Haunts of Men - Susan Hill

This book takes a long time to open up and Susan Hill is investing a great deal of time in developing the landscape of the world where the story is set.

Through the eyes of a newcomer to the area the Cathedral town of Lafferton is detailed with the key family of the Serrallier's coming through via the interaction of the new arival Freya Graffham and her interaction with the mother, father and sister of her boss detective chief inspector Simon Serrallier.

Having seen the words "Simon Serrallier story" on the front you expect the story to unfold based on him. But the opposite happens and even near the end he fails to step into prevent some of the bad things happening. It's not until you get through a couple of hundred pages that the killings start to make any sort of sense.

The story of a serial killer on the loose does grip you although the chapters being broken with the details of the killer confessing didn't do a great deal for me. It picked up its pace towards the end and Hill does manage to use the world she has created as a clever backdrop to dark deeds. The comfort and love that can be found leaving a choir group at the cathedral can also turn threatening when the darkness and fear creeps down Cathedral Close.

Ultimately with a thriller that is part of a series the question of success is around the question of whether or not the reader will go onto see how the series develops. I will, not in a rush, but I will at some point. But one of the main motivations for that will be to see if Simon Serralier actually has more to do with cracking crimes in the next volume.

Hopes for the new library

My local library has been a general disappointment with a poor selection that is infrequently updated.

But it has been closed for the last month and cycling past last night there are new shelves, a new layout and hopefully lots of new books to choose from. People often ask why my spending on books remains so high but the old cliche of 'get them from the library' hasn't been true for a couple of years.

Fingers crossed that the new library will have a better stock.

book review - A Month in the Country - J.L Carr

"The marvellous thing was coming into this haven of calm water and, for a season, not having to worry my head with anything but uncovering their wall-painting for them.And afterwards, perhaps I could make a new start, forget what the War and the rows with Vinny had done to me and begin where I'd left off. This is what I need, I thought - a new start and, afterwards, maybe I won't be a casualty anymore."

This short book is part of Penguin's Decade series representing along with a handful of other books the decade of the 1980s. So why does this book stand out and get that sort of treatment is the question that is at the forefront of the mind as you start reading of Tom Birkin and his antics in a Northern village.

Set in the 1920s with the memories of the First World War still vivid the story centres on the shell-shocked signaller Birkin as he leaves the capital behind, with problems with his wayward wife Vinny, and heads up to a remote village chapel tasked with the job of uncovering a medieval mural hidden for centuries under paint and grime.

The time spent on the job and the ease with which Birkin slips into village life provide him with a chance to try and forget the past and get beyond the facial tick and stutter and back to a more normal life. But there are reminders with a fellow veteran working on an archeological dig next to the chapel.

But memories of the past are everywhere and life throws up new problems and temptations and Birkin is left leaving his time in the country with fresh regrets and as many things to think about as he did when he first arrived.

"'...the friends you have made, this marvellous summer, the splendid job you've done. I mean the lot. You can only have this piece of cake once; you can't keep on munching away at it. Sad, but there it is! You'll find that, once you've dragged yourself off round the corner, there'll be another view; it may even be a better one.'"

The themes in this book of covering up the past, revealing the truth, facing that sense of being in the wrong place return again and again and are played out in the connections with the war, the peeling back of the mural as well as the failed relationships of the vicar and his wife with the villagers.

Birkin fails to take the option for a quick affair or the longer option for a new life away from London but that's because this is a man still coming to terms with himself and his past and a month in the country might well remind him of who he is and the beauty that can exist after the hell of war but it cannot keep away temptation and doubt completely.

Thoughts at the halfway point of The Various Haunts of Men

It takes a while for this to get to the point where you start to click how and who has been murdered. But you can understand why because the dominos are being lined up and the pace should crank up as they topple one by one.

Hill leads you gently by the hand into a Cathedral town where the local doctor and top policeman are related and both actively trying to keep the townsfolk healthy and protected.

But in the face of alternative health and what looks like a serial killer both are going to be tested to the limit.

It has been a slowish start but with things now ready the second half should motor along.

Review will come shortly...

Happy Easter

Happy Easter everyone hope that as well as some chocolate eggs the bunny remembers to drop in between the daffodils and snowdrops a book or two.

bookshops worth a visit - Harbour Books, Whitstable

Struggling to find an image of this bookshop and its website seems to be down which might be a a bad sign. But occasionally in the summer there is a chance to head to Whitstable for a day by the sea and some ice cream. One of the highlights is to pop into Harbour Books which has a decent selection of classic literature at discounted prices. It is hard to come out without having spent some money and without a couple of bulging carrier bags.

i am told that Oxford Street bookshop is also good and next time I am there it is on the agenda to pop along for a visit to browse the second-hand books.

Thoughts at the halfway point of A Month in the Country

This book is one of the 1980s books of the decade in the Penguin Decade series and leaps out at you because it is not only selected from a very wide field but looks like an idea Easter read because of the slim nature of the book.

It is an account of a man who has returned from the trenches of the First World War with a facial tick and a habit of stammering as he works through the shock of the trenches. He heads off to the country to help his recovery focusing on his skills as a restorer and discoverer of old murals in churches.

As he settles in to a country life the setting is right for some rehabilitation but is it going to be the result? A review will follow shortly...

The month in review - March

Looking back on March it managed to turn out to be quite a positive month. Would have liked to have done slightly more reading and more consistent blogging but those are both ambitions to take forward into April.

The month included one of the most expected books of the year so far in the form of Solar by Ian McEwan and also saw me take the penultimate step towards completing the Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo ten book Martin Beck crime series.

The books read were:
Bel Ami Guy du Maupassant
All the Conspirators by Christopher Isherwood
The Professor + The Housekeeper by Yoko Ogawa
The Summer Book by Tove Jansson
Cop Killer by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo
Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith
Solar by Ian McEwan

Highlights included the moving The Professor + The Housekeeper and Bel Ami which not only has stood the test of time as a satire on journalism but also as a sharp focus on greed and the lust for power.

Expecting April will be another fulfilling month.