book review - The Ballad of Peckham Rye

On the face of it this is a story of what happens when a bit of devilry enters the lives of ordinary people. But Muriel Spark is also using this often humorous book to tackle other issues.

One of them is the sense of place with this being a Peckham that is almost totally unrecognisable from today. Not because of the reasons you might think but because in this book it is an area in London that supports two factories and their respective communities. It is because this is such a close-knit community that the arrival of someone out of the ordinary can have such an impact.

Then there is the sense of traditional. The main character Dougal Douglas is quirky because he refuses to adhere to social convention, which means being silent about indiscretions. He manages to do very little work but spend his time unravelling the paranoia’s and jealousies of those around him with in some cases devastating effect. He is also prepared to cry publicly, be far too informal and discuss sexual matters in a very carefree manner. It is almost like a herald of the free thinking sixties to the population of the 1950s. That is one major cause of a feeling of unease.

But the other comes from the key theme is the idea of someone being sent from the devil to cause havoc. In the same way that Mr Pye shakes-up the community of Sark in Mervyn Peake’s book Douglas here claims at one point to have horns. He confesses to being the devil and certainly in some cases he causes grief. One of his associates has a breakdown, the other in a jealous rage murders his mistress and in the case of the local hard man Trevor he drives him to distraction by taunting him with threats of fights on the Rye.

There are funny moments, because the way Douglas impacts people is through humour and oddness, and these make an otherwise uncomfortable read much more pleasurable. At the end as Douglas flees Peckham leaving his landlady suffering a stroke and Trevor the hard man swinging for him the sense of damage to the community is palpable. But as Spark makes clear in the closing pages things revert back to normal and the madness that was Douglas becomes part of Peckham folklore.

In that sense it could be an allegory for the madness of the war and the resilience of Londoners able to carry on after the destruction of the blitz. But it is more of a personal story a modern day Jekyll and Hyde inviting the reader to ponder the reactions of the characters Douglas churns up and to wonder what they might be capable of if provoked by a devilish acquaintance like Douglas.

Version read – Penguin paperback

Tree of Smoke - post I

Each chapter is an advanced year so it does have a disjointed feel with an assassination attempt then being followed by Skip the CIA intelligence officer sitting in Del Monte executive retreat going through card files.

It looks like he is about to be sent to Saigon, with the year now being 1965, but there is some background about local customs that implies that there a temptation from the Westerners to take the locals as fools.

The 1964 chapter details the mind of a Viet Ming fighter who views the Americans as the latest in a long line following on the heels of the French and the Chinese as people who would invade and dominate their country. But as he tries to recruit some local bandits you also get a glimpse of the apathy about the potential fight and the different cultures that pervade the country.

Part of the problem with Vietnam was a lack of understanding from those that arrived there to fight and those that lived there hoping to win independence. In just a matter of pages this has already come through.

More soon…

Lunchtime read: Shakespeare

Bryson is happy to accept that there was a person called William Shakespeare and he was a genius responsible for creating some of the most well known works of English literature.

The problem is that there are plenty of others who seem to be hell bent on dedicating their lives and careers to proving that he wasn’t. Some of them went mad trying to talk up Bacon and Lord Oxford but Bryson very gently but firmly picks apart the other claims and leaves the reader holding the opinion that Shakespeare was and is the only real option.

For those who have an Indiana Jones side to their character there is a glimpse of a literary treasure trail with lost plays and manuscripts possibly out there somewhere to be had by a collector for a price that you can only guess at.

In the meantime the arguments will continue to roll on and Bryson’s book will be added to the pile of thousands.

A review will follow soon…

The Kindly Ones - post V

The end of the book echoes the previous volume with Moreland popping into Jenkins path at Lady Molly's. the musician's marriage has fallen apart continuing on the theme of marriage that Moreland so dominated Casanova's Chinese Restaurant with.

But this is not a time to be concerned because as Ted Jeavons obsesses with putting up the blackout this is a time for war. There are echoes of the start of the book when his youth is ended by the announcement of the start of the First World War.

You sense with the last paragraphs that there is a gear shift now and the volumes that will cover the war are now going to begin.

A review will follow soon...

Lunchtime read: Shakespeare

The more you read about Shakespeare the more it strikes you that it is amazing anything of his life is left. If his plays hadn‘t been pulled together in the First Folio what would be left of him?

Most of what he left behind were questions providing academics with various life times work to argue over his sexuality, sequence of plays and his relationship with his family.

For almost every aspect of his life and work there is an academic that has made to their contribution to summarise and collect and interpret information. As a result you know how many new words Shakespeare introduced to the English language, how many references he made to various countries and how many different words he used across all of his plays.

What these things tell you is not just how hard working the great man was but just how important he has become and continues to be for anyone working in the world of English literature.

Final bit of this enjoyable book tomorrow…

The Kindly Ones - post IV

There is a real sense of a generation standing aside letting the Second World War usher in the chance for another group of people to have a go and make legends for themselves. Uncle Giles dies, the old cook from Jenkins youthful home is domesticated and showing his age and the old doctor who had strolled past Jenkins boyhood home with his followers in tow is also nearing the end.

But Jenkins, ever the watcher not the participant, discovers that he is slightly too old to get into the army and take part in the forthcoming conflict. He finds, along with his own father, that he is slightly caught in the no-man’s land of being in the wrong generation.

The sense of that panic that also pervades the early sections of Evelyn Waugh’s Sword of Honour trilogy is here with the phoney war a time of no bombs but constant clamouring for a chance to get into uniform. Without firing a shot Hitler had already managed to endanger honour and question the worthiness of many people represented by Nicholas Jenkins.

Final chunk tomorrow…

Lunchtime read: Shakespeare

Bryson paints a concise picture of the world Shakespeare would have encountered when he came to London. A City within walls with gates closed at certain hours and theatres that had to pack them in and do so on a regular basis just to make a paltry profit.

Eluding nearly all of the engravers, diary keepers and official signature catchers is Shakespeare who seems to disappear for years before cropping up only in second-hand references.

The fact he is not around does not seem to matter because this is an enjoyable Elizabethan travelogue with plenty of easily digestible history. Bryson exposes various historical debates, for instance was Shakespeare a Catholic? Did he travel to Italy? Without forcing himself or the reader to commit to any of them.

More tomorrow…

In the queue for Devil May Care

Succumbed to the hype/temptation and popped out and picked up Devil May Care. Although it is being described as the literary event of the year it was all very low key in Waterstones Sutton. Walking in the book was there staring you in the face with a large half price sticker on the front but there was none of the excitement and imaginative shop decorations and point of sale stuff that had accompanied the Harry Potter launch.

Just because this is aimed at adults it seems a shame to reduce any fun to the bare minimum.

The Kindly Ones - post III

Turning back to The Dance... is like picking up an old family photographic album, the ones full of black and white photos held in with gummed triangular edges, reading about how Freddy and Charlotte enjoyed the beach at Brighton in 1921. The only place I ever remember coming across that is the cloakroom at Claridges where the old family photographs made you feel even more alienated from a five star world, but even keener to rub your nose up against the window and peer inside. The difference with Powell is that he lets you come in and sit quietly and watch.

As the threat of war moves closer the party at Sir Donners is spoilt by the arrival of Widmerpool in uniform and unlike the anticipation of 1914 there is distaste at the reminder of death and destruction.

Although Templer and Widmerpool are echoes from the Jenkins past the friendship that appears to be one of the strongest is with the musician Moreland. Although they seem to go years without seeing each other there is something very similar between them - married at toughly the same time and one a man of music with the other a man of letters. When it comes to that other original old friend Stringham there is complete silence.

But before the story can move into full-blown pre-war preparations there is a family bereavement in the form of Uncle Giles finally dying. As he picks through his belongings Nick Jenkins finds his original commission from the Queen, hence his title of Captain Jenkins. For the first time seriously he ponders on his own possible fate as a solider. Something more poignant against the background of his wife expecting a child.

More tomorrow…

Lunchtime read: Shakespeare

Having missed most of the Bill Bryson travel books the attraction of this one was not just the recommended mentions here there and everywhere but the attraction of seeing how he would tackle well trodden ground.

The first chapter reveals that barely nothing is really known about Shakespeare other than just a few scant facts and most interpretations of his life were written after his death.

That opening surprises you because it would almost be possible to close the book right now there but Bryson manages to then move on to paint a picture of the world Shakespeare was born into, using the facts he has about the Bard’s family to explain his circumstances.

Bryson then starts to paint a picture of the world in the 16th century and it is done without any of the heaviness that usually dogs history books. The fact you don’t know a great deal about Shakespeare starts to become almost irrelevant because what takes his place is the world of Elizabeth’s England.

More tomorrow…

A Void - post VII

Finally coming to the end you have to sit back and wonder at the feat and also applaud the plot. With its twists and turns it only becomes clear at the end what has happened although justice is not forthcoming.

Anton Vowl never reappears nor does any chance that the curse that has followed him and his siblings will be avoided. A twisted case of sibling rivalry means that all those that are the children of two sons that were meant to have died are destined to be murdered. Not only were Haig and Vowl brothers but also Olga was their sister and Ottivani the policeman turns out to be a brother as well.

He dies revealing that the text contained not a single

But there follows a postscript with Perec admitting that he set out on the project partly as a bet to prove he could to a friend and then because he enjoyed the discipline that having to stick to a formula gave him. He expresses a feeling that is palpable in the text that unlike other stories he had written this one really did force him to be inventive in a different way.

“Initially I found such a constraint faintly amusing, if that; but I stuck to my guns. At which point, finding that it took my imagination down so many intriguing linguistic highways and byways, I couldn’t stop thinking about it, plunging into it again and again, at last giving up all my ongoing work, much of which I was actually about to finish.”

It is a strange book that doesn’t come together until the end and the void is the missing e but it is a work of real concentration. The best description of what it is all about comes from ones of the quotes Perec chooses to print over the last two pages:

“...should we retrieve the letter which has been lost or the sign which has been effaced, should we reconstruct the dissonant scale, we shall regain our authority in the world of the mind.”
Gerard De Nerval

first chapter, first impression

This is an idea that is designed to share that first impression of what it feels like to open a new book – that coffee jar lid splitting moment. Opening a book and reading the first words is one of the most enjoyable things in life and makes reading the special activity it is. All of your attention is on those first few pages. What is this about, where is this going and who is showing me this world? All those questions get tackled to some extent in the first chapter.

Tree of Smoke - Denis Johnson

1963
Kennedy has just been shot and you are introduced to two brothers, a colonel and a Vietnamese pilot milling around a US army base in the Phillipines. You are also introduced to the idea that Vietnam is already a country at war not just against the Viet Cong but also against itself with whores and US dollars already starting to corrupt the country.

But as the solider, William Houston and Lucky the Vietnamese pilot mooch around the Philippines military base the events elsewhere in South East Asia seem reasonably far away. The death of Kennedy threatens to change that.

More to come…

bookmark of the week

This was one of several bookmarks available at the For Your Eyes Only exhibition about Ian Fleming and James Bond at the Imperial War Museum. The quote on the front is from Goldfinger: "You underestimate the English. They may be slow, but they get there in the end." This is a magnetic bookmark, seems like the leather ones are going out of fashion.

Devil may care

Went to the Imperial War Museum briefly this afternoon and popped into the For Your Eyes Only exhibition about the world of Ian Fleming. The kids were playing up so it was impossible to be in there for more than five minutes. But even in that space of time it was possible to come to the conclusion that it was disappointing.

It was quite expensive to wander through and discover that Fleming came from a background of wealth and privilege. Then there was a short bit about the cold war and then the success of the films. I thought they might take it beyond Fleming a bit and do more about the real world of espionage but there just didn’t seem to be much there.

But there is going to be plenty of opportunities to see what it was all about with the large amount of activity on the Bond front. The Times used up a fairly large chunk of its magazine yesterday to give an extract to Sebastian Faulks new take on the world of Bond, Devil May Care. It had the Fleming style, cool clipped sentences that show Bond is in control.

As the Imperial War Museum exhibition showed, graphically with a wall of translated Bond paperbacks, the market for Fleming's world was wide and presumably Penguin will be hoping for the same again as it publishes Devil May Care.

A Void - post VI

Wikipedia can be great but it can also plant ideas and thoughts in your mind that might not have been there and as a result it clouds your thinking. For example the reference to A Void quotes from an article by an academic that argues that the void is the absence of the letter e, which in turn means that key words like mother and father in French cannot be uttered.

But there is a point at which two of Vowl’s friends realise they have the same father and refer to him as papa making you wonder. It also gets you thinking about how the absence of the letter in itself would become the void. There seem to be other issues here about hereditary curses and the coincidence of blood ties.

It has now entered the territory of an Agatha Christie novel in terms of there just being a few characters left standing, with one dropping dead with almost every other chapter. The police have arrived but they don’t seem to be getting anywhere and if anything face being sucked into the void along with everyone else. The only one who seems to be above the fray is Squaw the housekeeper and my money is on the key to the mystery being with her.

Tomorrow should tell…