Millennium People - post III

Markham finds himself getting deeper into the fight with Kay Churchill (ironic last name there) and some of the more determined residents on the Chelsea marina site. Along with a deranged ex-MOD explosives expert Markham finds himself setting light to the NFT and experiencing the thrill of violence. As his second wife starts an affair so too Markham moves into Kay's house and despite her obsessions and willingness to abandon Markham at the first sign of trouble he is intoxicated by the action.

As a psychologist he fools himself into thinking that some how he is detached from events but as he draws closer to the damaged Dr Gould he has to face the question that actually he is not able to stay on the fringes forever. he is bridging the gap between the enthusiastic amateur in the shape of Churchill and the fundamentalist in Gould.

What starts to bring things to a head are the duel events of a bomb exploding in the Tate killing the girlfriend of one of the protesters as well as a Jill Dando type shooting of a TV presenter on her own doorstep. Markham is trying to find something but faces losing himself in the process. Is that the real danger of getting involved with protests that as it knocks you out of your comfort zone you face questions of just how far you are prepared to go? Would you kill someone? Maybe not but can you always prevent that and how do you counter the buzz you get from the possibility?

More tomorrow...

Millennium People - post II

As David Markham picks up the pieces of his life following the death of his first wife in an unmotivated bombing at Heathrow he starts to look for extremist groups that might hold the clue to finding his wife's killer.

After getting involved with cat liberationists he gets picked up by one of the residents of Chelsea Marina and the name of Dr Gould is introduced into the conversation. This shadowy character seems to be the inspiration and main string puller behind resident unrest at Chelsea Marina. As he gets drawn into the world of trying to break down middle class apathy Markham starts to find himself attracted to the ideas and his own middle class life in leafy St Johns Wood becomes less appealing.

The question, delivered with great humour and style, is around the idea of the right to protest and the question of how far you should go to knock people out of their slumbers.

More tomorrow...

bookmark of the week

My parents arrived from America this week bearing gifts in the form of a bookmark from the Art Institute of Chicago showing a detail from the Cezanne picture Boy in a Red Waistcoat. I'm sure I already have this but you can never have too many bookmarks. Gives you a reason to keep buying books to put them into.

book review - The Slaves of Solitude - Patrick Hamilton

The moment I put this book down I realised that it might just have described one of those scenes that inspires you to change your life.

Patrick Hamilton is expert at taking a small world with a select cast of characters and putting it under the microscope. There every detail is magnified and what might seem trivial to outsiders or in the world at large becomes monumentally important to those in the group.

Whereas it was a group of drinking friends in Hangover Square here with Slaves of Solitude it is a boarding house. A few years have passed since the events of Hangover with the country at war and the main character, Miss Roach, living in the suburban outskirts of the capital in a boarding house.

The boarding house is almost exclusively inhabited by old people. But once an American soldier and a young German woman Miss Kulgeman are added to the mix it becomes explosive. Before those two additional characters arrive the battle is between Roach and the old gentleman Thwaites. They verbally joust over the dining room table night after night.

But in her effort to be friendly and find an ally Roach invites the German girl into the boarding house just at a moment when her relationship with the lieutenant Pike is stoking her fantasies of escaping the drudgery of her life. But that starts to fall apart and the German girl highlights the stuffiness of Roach and manages to spoil that relationship.

But things start to become unbearable and Hamilton manages to crank up the rivalry and the bitterness of the women with the added vitriol of Thwaites. It all looks as if it is going wrong for Roach and she is not only going to be eclipsed by Kulgeman but destroyed by her. But the German over reaches herself and as the lieutenant pours out the drinks and pushes Thwaites over the edge the boarding house becomes off limits for Kulgeman.

But Roach has come into some money and as she heads for Claridges and London suddenly all those moments of bitterness and rivalry, fighting over the comb etc. That is the moment that anyone stuck in a dead end job or a relationship they cannot stand can dream of. That is what it must feel like to come out on the other side. That is the inspiration.

In many respects because of the upbeat ending and the release for the main character this is a more satisfactory read than Hangover Square and one that will have a lasting influence on my life.

what i talk about when i don't do any running

not sure if this is normal because this is the fist time I have ever run in a 10k before but the closer it gets to the race on 12 July the harder it becomes to motivate myself to run.

Up to now been hitting the streets every week night with the occasional 5 or 10k at the weekend but this week ran twice and nothing since Wednesday night. When I read Huraki Murakami's book about running he seemed to be in such a groove that the idea of not doing it was not something that passed his mind that often.

Not sure if its normal but hoping to get into Murakami mode and return to normal next week.

Millennium People – post I

Having never really read Ballard before in any determined sense this novel was opened up with some expectations of discovering a writer that has real talent.

There is no sense of disappointment as the story about the middle class activists fighting for the rights in Chelsea Marina opens up. At the heart of it is a psychologist who starts to infiltrate cells of activists in order to answer the question of who planted the bomb that killed his first wife.

Dr Markham straddles the divide between good and evil as he is both recruited by the groups and allowed to carry on with the nod of the authorities.

The story unfolds against a London that is real but also of the imagination. As a reader you are being asked to suspend judgment but not thought as Ballard starts to weave together a story asking some big questions around terrorism, state response and in the current climate they are incredibly relevant.

But he does all that with the ability to provoke a smile on the readers face with touches of humour and confidence as his London open up before you.

More soon...

Taking a break from Couples

This book has so far failed to grab me. It has not lost me either but as it starts to catalogue the history of infidelity between the first couple of couples it is establishing not just the experience of adultery but a context where it’s almost expected.

Against that background of course the new couple become playthings to amuse those that have become bored of each other and stuck in their ruts. The pressure for one or both of them to stray seems to be building with the husband ken the initial most likely suspect.

I will go back to this but need something that is slightly more instant in its delivery of gratification.

Couples - post III

This is slow going. The pages feel dense and the way Updike writes forces you to concentrate. Through his descriptions of the landscape, buildings and interiors he is making a statement about the state of Kennedy's America compared to the past.

As the new couple, Foxy and Ken, start to get dragged into the world of the couples an attitude to life where people try to get away with pleasing themselves as much as possible starts to be detailed in greater depth. The central character Piet seems to have time to see his mistress, construct hamster cages and plan his social life as well as keep down a job as a builder/developer.

his inability to see how fortunate he is feels like a point being made by Updike and presumably Piet's life seemed as self-indulgent when this was first written as it does now, particularly in a time of recession.

One of the main struggles you suspect as the first 100 pages gets passed is trying to attach any likeability to any of the couples. So far none of them appear to be the sort of people you would go out of your way to meet. Again that is the point but it is going to be a challenge.

more tomorrow...

bookmark of the week

This was kindly given to me by my children for Father's Day yesterday. it is part of the set currently being sold in most major bookshops. I have to confess I have never been a big Beatrix Potter fan other than appreciating the idea of animals that have human characteristics but these bookmarks are very well made with a lot of information about the author and the book.

book review - Strange Energy - Benjamin J. Myers

I did this for Waterstones.com but wanted to share it because after all it is another book consumed this year and although aimed at an audience much younger than myself it showed if the pace and passion are there you will get something from a book.

From the first page as the Bad Tuesdays, 14 year-old twin brothers Splinter and Box and their 11 year-old younger sister Chess, jump from a train over razorwire into a guarded factory this book is gripping.

The siblings, street rats that have to steal and live on their wits, are a fundamental part of the fight between The Committee and Twisted Symmetry with both forces working across time and space to dominate the universe.

Sent through a time hole by The Committee to discover why children are being taken by the Twisted Symmetry the Bad Tuesdays face a battle with dog troopers, man-eating plants and the dreaded Inquisitors.

Before they head off into the unknown they are warned “trust no-one” and as the youngsters are forced to choose sides the question of working out right from wrong becomes pivotal.

In a new world with deadly challenges Chess becomes more important in the trio and sibling rivalry bubbles up and Splinter is forced to decide who he is fighting for. Can he cope with losing authority and share in his sister’s talents or is he unable to deal with her eclipsing him?

This is written with pace and verve with the reader being captivated as the characters enter different worlds and come into contact with various friends and foes. Strong descriptions mean that lands with two suns and volcano’s emerge with a convincing vividness.

This is the second book in a six title series from Benjamin J. Myers and with plans to print the rest of the books at the rate of two a year those waiting to find out what happens to the Bad Tuesdays and the next phase of the battle to control the universe will not have to wait long for the next gripping instalment.

World Literature Weekend

there can be fewer ways to enjoy a Saturday afternoon than in the company of some great authors and a bookshop full of readers. The London review of Books world literature weekend offered a series of events but the two I went along to showed just how different voices in literature can be but also proved how there is a story wherever you look.

First up was Chinese author Ma Jian who was talking about his work about the story of Tiananmen Square and how his book Beijing Coma is still banned in his home country. Just hearing someone talking Chinese and show a combination of passion and a slight weariness at having to talk about something that clearly gives him grief was worth turning up for.

But what made his session so compelling was the wisdom he could bring to the debate not just about China but also about Iran. A generation that was slightly too optimistic and failed to understand its own brutal history is perhaps a description that could also apply to those in Tehran.

As he left thanking people for turning up you sensed that this was a man with great humility who managed to puncture the savage brutality of a totalitarian state with his words and wisdom.

Equally as interesting was Faiza Guene who writes books about the underclass in France. Not just those from the large estates, the banlieues but the immigrants. She talked about a life where you are never accepted by the country your parents have chosen to live in but how you have no connection with the land that they came from. Left in this no man's land are the sorts of people she writes about.

Her lack of arrogance, from someone who struck it big on the literary scene when she was only 17, was great. She made the audience laugh but she also made us think and although it was a different type of oppression she was describing for her and her characters it was just as real as the world that Ma Jian describes.

Already thinking of clearing the weekend to go next year. A great way to spend a Saturday.

Couples - post II

Updike is very good at using a small cast of characters to describe the state of a nation. Through the social club that is the husbands and wives that meet at weekends and sleep with one another the attention to detail on the background and landscape is telling you something about America.

The majority of the group are anti-Kennedy republicans who have no idea what awaits them in the form of the assassination, Vietnam and the social upheaval of the 1960s. So in that respect this is a snapshot into the calm before the storm.

But these people seem to be inspiring anger rather than pity with their lives full of holes that affairs and the intrigue around them are used to try to fill. As a result this is not an easy book to read. The 450 pages lie before you as a long road. But just as with Rabbit Run you know that in those pages you will learn something about America, about the view of that time that Updike wants to recollect and produce and that keeps you going.

More soon...

book review - Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close - Jonathan Safran Foer

This book was recommended as a companion piece to Don De Lillo's Falling Man but it came with a warning that it was very stylised. That determination to deliver a book that is different from the rest is clearly something Jonathan Safran Foer wants to hit you with from the off with the use of photography and pages of clever typography.

The result is that for a while you struggle to get a handle on quite where this story is going. The main character of Oskar the little boy at first is difficult to empathise with. He is grieving the loss of his father but he seems to be an amalgamation of Gunter Grass's Tin Drum lead, reminded me of A Curious Incident... with his touches of odd behavior. In addition to him the character of the dumb grandfather who talks with words on his hands and in notebooks makes it quite difficult to relate to.

The grandparents are there to hold up the parallel of the terrors of war and the Dresden bombing and firestorm reminding you, if you needed it, that terrible things have happened before and sadly will happen again.

But as the story unfolds you starts to understand that although stylised sometimes too much there is a clever story here of one boy searching for a way to come to terms with his grief and sense of loss. As he traverses New York trying to work out the last mystery his puzzle loving father left for him a host of damaged people are introduced and although Oskar can rarely 'heal' them he does seem to start to learn that many people are suffering and the secrets he keeps are perhaps no worse than some of the others eating away at people.

The moment when he finally decides to tell the stranger who can solve the puzzle of the key he has been trying to search for since the start of the story the contents of his father's last message is very powerful.

If the Falling Man expressed the confusion and anger left by the attacks on the twin towers then Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close leaves you with a sense of the struggle that many relatives had as a life far from finished was snuffed out without explanation or a chance to say good bye.

The Colony - post V

Without giving the ending away this book raises questions like puzzles that you roll around the mind long after closing the cover.

What does it mean to be a prisoner and at what stage do you give up your liberty? when do you know that your ideas will never come to fruition? How do you carry on in situations when it would have been better to have died?

Those are the things I will be trying to fathom out following this because those are the big questions that emerge from what on the face of it appears to be a realtively straightforward story with a select cast of characters.

In many ways this feels like a film in the sense that your imagination is called on to roll out the scenes of jungle captivity and this would be one of those movies that left you debating it and thinking about it from the minute the lights came up.

This is not about heroes and villans or even so much about the physical idea of captivity but for me it is about the idea of being a prisoner to your own fears and thoughts whether they come to you in a trench or on an island prison miles from home.

A review will follow soonish...

The Colony - post IV

The murder of Edouard unsettles the camp and inevitable violence begets violence and Sabir finds himself alone. As he sits among some ruins miles from civilisation with his legs cut and swollen and fever rising he seems doomed.

So it is a clever moment for Wilcken to switch the focus back to the Colony and pick up the story with another character. Again Edouard is the connection with an old solider coming to find him. The relationship between Manne and Edouard seems to be a strange one with it more based on mutual respect than friendship.

As he retraces the steps more of Sabir than Edouard he comes across the commandant and his wife and is embroiled in a dying marriage. Does he help her escape? Does he try to find his old acquaintance Edouard who has disappeared into the jungle? What is he really there for? Again there are lies around lies like an onion that make it difficult to get a clear idea of what is really driving these characters and that is what keeps you reading.

The theme of escape is continual not just from the Colony and imprisonment but also the heat. The options range from the drink consumed by the commandant to the fantasies of some of the prisoners about saving their money to pay for transportation out of the dead end that is the islands.

More tomorrow…