It's a mad bad world

Please forgive this indulgence with a lot of first person ranting but I’m afraid there is not going to be a post about The Madhouse tonight because it feels rather odd writing about a fictional madhouse when it feels like you are living in one.

After a hard day at work I returned to the station tonight to discover that my bike had been stolen. Although Brockley station bike shed is it covered by CCTV nobody at the station apparently watches it, so £225 worth of bike and accessories just disappeared while I was at work. Sometimes it is safer to live in a world of fiction and keep away from the real world.

I still feel angry and although it might be incredibly naïve it just seems so unfair that you slog your guts out doing a job that some days you can’t stand to earn the money to pay for things like a bike – which every Londoner is being told to use – and then some little scroat, for either drug money or just for a laugh, decides to take it from you. This loss will cause disruption and grief until I sort out a replacement but it will also produce a sense of suspicion and unease that will take a lot longer - perhaps it’s permanent - about that area in London and might make me change my commute.

Fiction not quite worthy of Rowling

A colleague picked up a copy of The Sun at lunch to find out all about this great white shark off the coast of Cornwall and inside among the usual guff about celebrities and Big Brother was a piece about a head teacher who had decided to read out the last page of the final Harry Potter and ruin the ending for 400 pupils.

Bearning in mind the book came out on the 20 July at midnight and most schools broke up that afternoon you start to suspect that the story might be the work of fiction itself…

Lunchtime read: Franny and Zooey

The relationship between mother and son is strained as she looks to him to provide help and answers for Franny’s current condition. While she focuses on her daughter it is subtly clear that Zooey himself also needs some attention but that is not going to be forthcoming. Realising that the focus only seems to fall on the child that is in obvious trouble explains why both Zooey and Buddy are left to carry on their troubled lives because they have not broken down visibly.

Highlights between pages 70 – 82 (not much today)
After being badgered by his mother to speak to Franny about what is wrong with her Zooey tells her about the books she has been reading and about the incessant praying that the Russian peasant has managed to get to. The mother seems slightly relieved that Zooey seems to know what is going on and asks him to talk to Franny, something that despite initially seemingly to be uninterested, he does agree to do.

More tomorrow…

The Madhouse - post I

It is unusual to have an author set out in the foreword a declaration that the book you are about to read is about a non-entity. Most would at least try to give the impression that the main character was perhaps flawed but worth sticking with but Zinoviev from the off explains that the story will focus on the trials and tribulations of JRF, a Junior Research Fellow, who is destined never to fit into Soviet society.

Bullet points between pages 1 – 64

* JRF has moved out of his parents house and shares an apartment with a couple and their daughter and works at the institute of ideology trying to work his way through academia and up the greasy pole

* His academy is known as the madhouse because it is painted yellow, which was the colour the state used to distinguish those buildings that housed the mentally ill and insane and so although having a weekend of it being blue the nickname has stuck

* He manages to lead a pretty undistinguished sort of existence neither gaining the eye of his superiors or the respect of his family and manages to stir some sort of love hate relationship with the man he shares an apartment with

* The problem he faces is summed up in poetry by his friend who has the ability to produce lyrical verses that pack a punch:

What really matters is, I find,
You have to be one of Their kind.
Not one of Them up at the top,
But down below among the slop.
To she with Them identity
The watchword is ‘nonentity’.
You see, when all is said and done,
The thing to realise is one
Is joining not the brightest wits,
But a Brotherhood of Shits.

* Despite being a slight nonentity JRF has too much of his own mind – described almost like a schizophrenic at times with different voices advising him what to do – and he is able to conjure up the voices of the past, particularly Lenin and Stalin and the old head of the KGB

* He is not a member of the party but realises that you have to become one to make your way and there are hoops you have to jump through and he doesn’t seem to make the right connections

Those lines taken from a poem will stick with me, tempted to print them out and have them around my desk at work, that has been a real highlight from today’s reading.

More tomorrow…

Lunchtime read: Franny and Zooey

Salinger interweaves his stories so it is no surprise that this moves onto dealing with the consequences of Franny’s mental problems outlined in the first story. Having returned home still gabbling about prayers and not eating the family have to deal with her and that is the cause of tension.

Highlights from pages 48 – 70
Zooey and his mother are in the bathroom talking and then arguing about how to treat Franny who is still not eating and reading her religious books. Zooey points out that not only are the books from Seymour’s room but there are deep problems in the family that have never really been addressed that focus on the way Buddy and Seymour, the two oldest boys influenced their younger siblings. Zooey expresses rage at the way they indoctrinated them and then points out that no one is able to deal with Seymour’s suicide. Mrs Glass listens but provokes by talking of her desire to get a psychoanalyst involved with Franny.

More tomorrow…

bookmark of the week

This is as English as they come - Stonehenge - and is a bookmark that was purchased when visiting the famous stone circle a couple of years ago. All I remember about the trip was a sense of dissapointment over how far away you were kept and how close the roads came breaking the tranquil scene with noise and exhaust fumes.

book of books - The House on the Embankment

There are two approaches to trying to illustrate how oppressive a political system is. The first is to go head on and try and show how those at every level are impacted and that is where Vasily Grossman was sort of coming from with Life and Fate. Then there is an alternative approach, which is more on display here with Yuri Trifonov. He focuses on a small group of school friends but in particular Glebov and shows how in order to survive he has to become a man of almost no opinions or loyalties. Those he cares for he lets down and those he should love he betrays with indifference.

Plot summary
Glebov pops into a furniture shop to buy a dining table and when there meets an old school friends Lev who is a shop assistant and clearly down on his luck. The encounter is topped with a phone call that night after Lev blanked him in the shop with Lev explaining that he hated him and that’s why he did not want to talk to him. Then the story goes back to school and Glebov is vying for attention with Lev who seems to have a well-connected father and money. An uneasy friendship exists for years but starts to turn sour after it is Glebov who manages to win the heart of Sonya, the professor’s daughter, and not Lev who really wants her. Without realising the hatred Lev has for him or the way the academic authorities plan to use him to discredit the professor Glebov manages to get to the crossroads in life and then delay having to make a decision. Those around him that do seem to make wrong ones, with Lev falling from grace and Sonya going mad before dying. But the question you are asked at the end of the book is whether or not Glebov regrets what happened in the house on the embankment where Sonya lived.

Is it well written?
It is a struggle to get into because there are no chapter breaks, just a couple of paragraph returns and you have to work hard not just to work out what period of Glebov’s life is being discussed but also when the narration switches voices to understand another point of view. It manages to convey the sense of how the fear of standing up for anything terrorised people in the Soviet Union. It also gets across brilliantly the differences that influence can bring with Lev having access to clothes and films that his school friends could only dream of. Finally it shows that no matter what your record, in the professor’s case an exemplary one with the revolution, you are always vulnerable to attack.

Should it be read?
It is not going to be on anyone’s summer reading lists but it should be read by anyone who is interested in Soviet literature and in particular seeing what the 20th century writers were doing updating the story from the 19th century greats like Dostoyevsky. It also deserves to be read because the story here might be set against a regime that is trigger-happy about destroying people’s lives but putting that to one side there is a morale here about standing up for what you believe in. Do you let down a friend, a love and your own ideals just for immediate self-preservation? Quite a question to be asked from a novel.

Summary
Glebov gets through life unscathed while those around him die and crumble but he ends up without much more than regrets of the life in the house on the embankment he left behind

Lunchtime read: Franny and Zooey

I have only just started this really today and it is a chance to get reacquainted with Buddy Glass and his attempts to use writing as a way of coping with the suicide of his brother. Each of the Salinger stories that are meant to have been penned by Buddy provide a little bit more information about what happened to Seymour and this starts by describing how Buddy felt to have to go and pick up the body and fly back home with it.

Highlights from the first few pages of Zooey
The character the story is named after is the youngest of the Glass family, an actor who is reading a letter from his brother Buddy in the bath. The letter is old and faded and is four years old but in it Buddy tells his brother that he has been asked to write by his mother to encourage him to take up his PhD and have it as a fallback if the acting does not work out. But Buddy uses the letter as a confessional for past actions and gaps in communication and it is more illuminating about Zooey’s family than it is about him at this stage.

More tomorrow…

Story of a Life - post V

The book ends and you really want to carry on to discover what happened next. That is the sign that it has got through to you and the fact it does is testament to the likeability of the author. There is an innocence here that he hints at being lost through later events with friends dying in the world wars. There is also an acute understanding of what it means to be growing up looking for independence while at the sane time being fearful of what the world has to offer.

Bullet points between pages 254 – 277

* Konstantin gets an article accepted, his second or third, and he leaves Kiev in celebratory mood with his graduation also behind him and university beckoning and he sets out for a summer holiday he hopes will include a relationship with the neighbouring Lenya

* But she is not there when he arrives at Uncle Kolya’s and when she does finally turn up she is accompanied by a painter that is obviously intended as her partner for the summer so Konstantin buries his sorrows by throwing himself into the beautiful landscape

* Near the final couple of pages he has his Proustian moment when the art of writing is explained to him by a local chemist who wants him to understand that the key is understanding the needs of real people

“’This is a big thing you want to do, and it needs great knowledge of life. Right? At present you’ve got very little of it, if any. Do you realise how much a writer needs to know? It’s frightening to think of! He’s got to understand everything. He’s got to work like an ox and not think about fame. One thing I’ll tell you. You’ve got to go everywhere and see everything. Go to fairs, factories, night-shelters, peasants’ huts. And to theatres, and to hospitals, and to mines, and to prisons – everywhere. So that in the end life is distilled in you like valerian in alcohol. So that you get a genuine essence. Then you can offer it to people as a miracle cure. In specified doses of course.””

* The last page concludes with an understanding of his mission to understand everything and a longing to get as much of life as he can out of himself and his surroundings

A review will follow shortly…

Lunchtime read: Franny and Zooey

Having read quite a few Salinger short stories someone posted a comment encouraging me to get hold of Franny and Zooey. The book finally turned up in the library so with press day out of the way and a little bit of calm in the office I have managed to do a spot of lunchtime reading getting through the Franny story that starts the book.

Highlights from Franny
Franny is spending the weekend with her boyfriend Lane and he is waiting expectantly at the station after receiving a letter from her saying how excited she is about the trip. He has a weekend planned around a meal, a game and then some cocktails and they head off for a meal in a restaurant. Lane starts by lecturing her on his latest theories and after a while Franny cuts in and contradicts him and then carries on in a confrontational mood. She is irritated by him and goes to the toilet and bursts into tears and clutches a book close to her chest.

Back at the table the odd conversation continues and Lane points out Franny is seating and she empties her bag trying to get Kleenex and the book pops out. Lane asks what it is about and she tells him it is about a Russian holy man that teaches people the special way to pray by saying “Jesus Christ, have mercy on me”. The idea is that you say it in time with your heart beat but Lane is sceptical and critical and then after telling Franny that he loves her in a quite off-hand way she heads for the toilet, faints and is carried to the managers office. Lane is suddenly all chivalrous and goes off to call a cab leaving Franny recanting what must be the holy man’s prayer.

This is one of those stories where you start alongside Lane but as soon as Franny arrives you side with her. But as the story develops it becomes clear just how unhappy the woman is and how unsuitable Lane is. who seems to be unobservant, unable to listen and not willing to take criticism of a point of view. In just a few pages Salinger starts to allow a tight emotional coil to unspring leaving you wondering what might happen next.

Story of a Life - post IV

The narrative becomes harder to stick with as Konsantin returns to Kiev because a lot of the wide open countryside that he describes so well disappears from view. So the minute he gets back out in the wilderness there is a distinct feeling of the landscape breathing again and the skill he has describing his surroundings is again accentuated.

Bullet points between pages 174 – 254

* Back at school Konstantin is immersed in the lives of his fellow students and joins them in various capers including one touching episode when the German master who has been writing an Opera for years loses it and all the boys get together and find it restoring the master to his happy self

* There is a reference to Mikhail Bulagov a fellow pupil who went onto become a famous writer and Konstantin makes the point that not only was it a time when greater writers were alive like Tolstoy but the theatre in Kiev was strong and there was a culture that encouraged creative thinking

* To keep his money ticking over he has to take lessons and ends up teaching a general’s daughter who is thick as two short planks but desperate to improve her education to make her more attractive to a husband

* When the holidays come and Konstantin agrees to visit friends of his brother there is a Robin Hood type character that steals from the rich and plagues those within the community that are seen as evil doers reminding you of the backwardness of the vilages

* he finally after a two year break visits his mother in Moscow and discovers that his sister is not only blind but going deaf and realises that he is now divided from that side of his family by distance and experience

* He spends New Year celebrating with an old friend that might become a love interest for the 18 year-old Konstantin and it is left as a possibility as he heads back on the train to Kiev and back to his life of independence

Last few pages tomorrow...

Story of a Life - post III

All of a sudden the chapter lengths creep up and you are immersed in a world of lavender smelling summer nights and bitterly cold winters. The movement slows down and the marking of time begins with the deaths of state heroes and the breakdown of the family.

Bullet points between pages 106 – 174

* There are a couple of announcements *that seem to bring the world to a standstill with the first being Tolstoy’s death and then later on Chekhov dies causing real despair and sadness to Russians who saw them both as almost immortal spokesmen for the nation

* With the promises of more freedoms made by the Tsar the students take to the streets and Konstantin’s brother is among them so Konstantin goes along to watch and is there when the army starts shooting at the demonstrators and the Cossacks come in with their sabres

* The family then heads to the Crimea for their holidays but Konstantin falls ill and has to stay behind with his mother and he falls for the charms of Lena a local girl who visits him with grapes

* His mother suddenly has to rush home and leaves Konstantin in the care of their maid and the great love affair with Lena is broken up by the older girl who tells him to head home without turning back

* Once home he discovers his father has left both his job and the family and they are now in a state of poverty and can only survive by selling off their possessions and so Konstantin is sent to live with his Uncle Kolya to protect him

* Finally his father remerges and gets a job near his son but the mother is on the move to Moscow and all Konstantin wants to do is go back to Kiev and be independent so he heads back to the City

More tomorrow…

Joining the book description fun

I stumbled on this via Stephen Lang's blog and couldn't resist having ago on the Blue Pyramid quiz, something that only takes a minute and is great fun. My result, which I think is partly influenced by my working environment at the moment, is not too far off the mark.

"You're Catch-22!
by Joseph Heller
Incredibly witty and funny, you have a taste for irony in all that you see. It seems that life has put you in perpetually untenable situations, and your sense of humor is all that gets you through them. These experiences have also made you an ardent pacifist, though you present your message with tongue sewn into cheek. You could coin a phrase that replaces the word "paradox" for millions of people."

Have a go...

Story of a Life - post II

This book reminds you slightly of Life a user’s Manual in that it is almost like a collection of different tales and anecdotes even though they are connected to one single person. The reason for the comparison is that the scenes change here and there is a great deal of potential story that is just touched on before things move on.

Bullet points between pages 58 – 107

* As the story moves from Konstantin moving from the safe world of home to school he struggles to accept that he is growing up and finds school a bit of an ordeal made worse by one boy shooting himself in front of his class

* What makes it harder is the collection of teachers and older boys that alternatively strike the fear of god into the younger boys or make them uncomfortable with their strangeness including the geography teacher who takes a liking to Konstantin

* Konstantin goes back to his house and a younger woman is there and after he sees the teacher’s collection of odd bits and pieces she takes him for a drink and a cake and asks him what he thought of it and he replies that he liked the butterfly but is sad because no one sees it

* He then overhears his parents explaining to each other that the young woman was the old man’s wife and she has run away – the butterfly finds an audience – and as a result the old man gives up teaching and dies not long after encouraging Konstantin to carry on using his imagination

* One other tale is of a young woman who is skating with Konstantin’s brother and is seen dancing one night by the Prince of Siam who marries her and inherits the throne but the courtiers don’t like a Russian woman being queen and using ground up light bulbs are able to kill her after six months via internal haemorrhaging

* As all of these stories are told the beautiful countryside of Southern Russia slips by and acts as a backdrop to his education and exploration of Kiev

More tomorrow…

A bluffers tip

There is a great article online from Australian publication The Age where a journalist who is pleased to see someone reading one of the classics has to fudge it when the reader asks his opinion of A Man for all Seasons by Robert Bolt.

“It was at around this point my young student began to twig that at no point in my life had I ever actually read a single word of A Man For All Seasons by Robert Bolt. But that didn't stop him.”

“He was trying to smoke me out, the sly bastard. But I was ready for him. As a journalist, pretending to have read books I've only heard about was second nature. We all do it. So I hit him with this: "I think you know the answer as well as I do. If you don't, you'd better read those chapters again, my young friend."

I’m going to try to remember that come back line if I get ever caught bluffing – might not get away with calling anyone young friend though…