book review - Lights Out for the Territory - Iain Sinclair

Having read London Orbital you pick up Lights Out for the Territory feeling in some respects it is a dry run for that book. The key personnel with Iain Sinclair writer and marc Atkins photographer are the same but the story is earlier and the landscape different.

Where London orbital was clearly about the M25 this books focuses on a triangle starting up in Hackney and moving down and across through the East End before arriving at Greenwich and finally Charlton.

Sinclair describes the aim of the book as a walking diary of reactions to the graffiti and messages that locals have left on the walls and signs along the route. In a pyschogeoghraphical sense these words should be influenced by the environment around them.

You start expecting a series of semi offensive and profound messages being recorded but quickly Sinclair moves the focus away from just what can be seen on the streets to what has happened to them in the past. There is a particular focus on literary and cinematic references.

The book is full of names and locations that give it a dizzying sense of depth. It is almost headache inducing how many things he manages to cram in. Each event leads to another with connections spinning out of a location like bike spokes. If the point is to prove that under each flagstone there is a story worth telling in London that is well made.

The problem with it is that is feels dated. The Kray's burial service was a long time ago and the area around the dome has changed significantly in the last few years. It was also easy to lose track of the narrative as Sinclair pushed everything he knew at you. That resulted in it being a difficult read in places and a narrative that didn’t really have a conclusion.

bookmark of the week

This is the first of a couple of bookmarks that were picked up on holiday in France. Most of the bookmarks on offer are of Brittany inspired images of lighthouses and the like. This however shows an illustration from the Little Prince that was next to till in a curio shop in Saint Cast le Guido/

The Red House - post II

having got used to the slightly 1930s style you are introduced to a writer clearly familiar enough with the detective story format to have a bit of fun with it. references to Sherlock Holmes make it clear that Milne knows what he is talking about.

But rather than use the Christie approach of a well known detective figure entering the scene Milne introduces a character that has been drifting round not quite sure what to do with his life.

Anthony Gillingham has an uncanny ability to remember details of things he has casually seen and an enquiring mind. as a result it is he, not the police, that starts to uncover the mystery behind the death of the red House owner's brother.

But can he work it out completely? Time will tell...

The Red House - post I

When i was kindly sent The Red house a thriller published by Vintage Classics penned by A.A. Milne the first reaction was surprise. Not having any knowledge that the author of Winnie the pooh had written a thriller it was at first a surprise.

But after an introduction by the author himself that explains part of the problem with having a public idendity linking you to one particularl type of writing he gets into a decent triller.

Starting with an upstairs and downstairs feel as the story of the unwelcome brother returning aftr an absence of 15 years you don't have to wait long for the sound of a shot, a locked door and a dead body on the other side.

Obviously this has a dated feel because it is set in a different era but in terms of engaging the reader Milne hooks you in pretty quickly and has a style where he makes asides to the reader sharing certain details about the importance of a character before ploughing on with the story.

more soon...

In praise of J.G Ballard

Earlier this year sadly j.G Ballard past away provoking as you can imagine a slew of tributes in the national press. One of the more inventive ways to mark his passing came from the Guardian which published one of his final short stories and tributes.

it was through reading that final short story, about a trip to the leaning tower of Pisa, that i finally understood what Ballard was about. he was holding up a mirror to the man made world around us then bending reality slightly and writing about the consequences on society and individual human behaviours.

That led to reading the Millennium People, Drowned World, High Rise and soon to be more.

if there is a lesson from the experience it has to be that making a judgement on a writer based on a book you read many years ago, in this case Empire of the Sun, can be a real mistake. there is probably something to ponder as well around the idea of having to wait for someone to die before appreciating them.

book review - The Drowned World - JG Ballard

As you read this book you can almost feel the heat and are scared to look up at the sun as the destructive nature of solar power is described in a way that is almost prophetic.

Ballard sets the story in a world where the polar ice caps have melted and the oceans have risen and London is underwater with just the tops of the buildings visible and liveable.

In that environment a biological and military team are collecting samples before following the rest of the global population to the only cool place at the pole. But the power of the sun, the power of nature to regain a manmade environment and the primeval urge that some people experience makes it a battle to leave.

Add to that mental strain, with the dreams of a primeval world, the letargy caused by heat and it becomes a life of crablike scuttles in the heat from building to building, lagoon to lagoon.

At the heart of the story is a biologist Kerans who is not sure if he will leave. He escapes the moment when the military crew depart and is left with a fellow biologist Bodkin and a rather cold woman Beatrice Dahlo, who seems determined to cling to her apartment. Her selfishness is one of the potential responses that an individual could have to the situation.

Another is to take Bodkin’s path and be lost in a haze of sentimentality and longing for the drowned world that can still be glimpsed below the water but not recaptured.

At that point it feels like a very well written short story that could have ended with a question mark but Ballard introduces the bizarre and frightening character of Strangman who has the technology to drain parts of the city and return London to its pre drowned state. He is fighting the drowning world.

That throws up the biggest challenge to those unsure of where to go. The ghostly world of the past potentially could restore them but it makes the moment of choice even more inevitable. Either you fight nature or you abandon yourself to it.

That choice, set against a brilliantly described world or water, crocodiles and heat, is so well played out that even at the end you are not quite sure what Kerans will do. Having made that choice the reader is given a glimpse with the discovery of a character Hardman who previously made the escape towards the equator what lies ahead. Despite that Kerans carries on South and carries onto the point where he will join nature and the drowned world in every sense.

book review - The Mistress of Nothing - Kate Pullinger

“The truth is that she hated me for being happy. She hated me for finding love when love had deserted her. She hated me for creating a family when she had lost hers.”

The idea of historical fiction is one that tends to conjure up images of book covers for Ellis Peters type thrillers about monks and monasteries or alternatively something about the plague.

So it was with some trepidation that Kate Pullinger’s Mistress of Nothing was picked up. But there are a few reasons why this book works compared to perhaps some of the other offerings on the market. Firstly, Pullinger has clearly done her research and been to the location of her novel’s setting Egypt. That makes it more a work based in fact than imagination.

Secondly, the backdrop and the timing are integral to the novel not just being used for the sake of being different. Let me explain further. Some times a Roman backdrop feels as if it has been put in because of their associations the reader has with that era of excess, war and emperors. Here the reader is likely to come to a world of class and politics in an old Egypt that is new to them. That means that Pullinger has to work at describing and setting the action.

In one sense this is a story about class and jealousy. A loyal servant finds love and chooses to keep that from her faithful employer. Once the secret is out the relationship breaks down completely. That is handled well although as a reader you are left frustrated with the impotence of a system that was only on the side of one set of people. But that was the reality and Pullinger also paints an interesting picture of the politics of a virtual dictator who is taking the men from the villages to build and die constructing his dreams.

What makes this book work so well is the descriptive powers that are deployed by Pullinger. You can visualise the hot Luxor environment, the small Bedouin children and the camel drives. Her ability to develop characters also means you can see the pain and anger as the relationships between the three pivotal characters changes.

A Study in Scarlet - post II

A Study in Scarlet is very much a book of two halves with the second section detailing in rather unnecessary detail at times the background to the murders in London.

Just as you start to think the story has run out of steam and become an almost irrelevant monologue about the establishment of the Mormons and Salt Lake City it pulls back to London.

In a flurry the case is solved and Holmes shows off his powers of deduction and his skill at filling the numerous gaps left by the police. A great read that introduces one of the most famous crime characters of all time. Only criticism is the second half felt like padding and some sort of attempt to have a dig at the Mormons.

A review will follow soon…

Back from hols

Back from a two week break. Did read a bit so will post up the notes i made over the course of the next couple of days.

A Study in Scarlet - post I

This book introduces Dr Watson and the legendary Sherlock Holmes. The later is of course an awkward man subject to great swings in mood that make him a difficult person to share accommodation with.

But Watson enters into the flat in Baker Street with a sense that if nothing else he might encounter adventure. That adventure doesn’t take too long to arrive with Holmes, who seems to spend his time focusing on the minutiae of different types of tobacco and dust inviting Watson to join him as he gets called by the police to help with a murder.

The methods of detection used by Holmes are so different from the police that he is almost seen as an eccentric figure of fun. Yet in his flashes of brilliance he reduces the police to idiotic mannequins. A room in a deserted house with a man lying dead on the floor is just the sort of puzzle that Holmes likes to sort out…

Struggling to re-engage

Most readers at some point or another come across a book they struggle to enjoy. sharing views around reading on here and Twitter has made it quite clear that people do find some things a turn-off.

But having made a sort of pact with myself always to finish a book i start, even if it's horrible, in the belief that there will be something worth learning from the experience, it is hard to walk away from things.

But increasingly there are books lying at the bottom of bags started but far from finished. on holiday The Couples by John updike and The Book of Dave by Will Self consititure the two books I am struggling to get through.

It is not for want of trying but maybe a failure so far to connect with characters or plot. Won't bpther on holiday but i am determined to get through both books this year but to learn from the mistake of getting bogged down with future reading selections.

The Turn of the Screw - post II

Once it has been established that the children appear to be haunted by the ghosts of the former man servant and governess then the story picks up the pace.

It becomes a question of trying to stop the children from being destroyed by the ghosts and the governess, with the help of the house keeper, sets out to do just that.

With a fairly limited story and cast of characters James nevertheless manages to get over a sense of growing horror. In the best traditions of tales of this type it is the anticipation of a visitation that keeps the reader on the edge of the seat. Although the ending, which will not be given away here, is also unexpected.

Once you cut through the difficult language conventions and get to the underlying story beneath this is a great little nugget that will provide seeds for future thoughts and nightmares.

A review will follow soon…

Turn of the Screw - post I

What you have to face reading this relatively short story by Henry James is that it is going to take a while because of the language. He uses very stilted phrases that prevent this from flowing.

The only reason this book manages to keep your attention is because underneath the painful construction of the text is a solid story. The mix of the supernatural and the aristocracy is a well used one but never fails to get the hairs on the back of your neck going if done well.

This takes a while to get going with the story being related second-hand at a meeting of friends in the country. One of the guests promises an account of something so disturbing that the rest of the company will never forget it based on the idea of a child being connected with a ghost.

So the story of a governess sent to a large house in the country to look after two children unfolds. The children are angels and yet there is something troubling the governess who is informed that the older of the two, the boy, has been expelled from school.

Tales also of the former governess dying shroud the house in some sort of darkness.

But things get moving when the governess comes across a stranger walking in the grounds, a stranger not to the rest of the staff, who describe him as the former man servant for the owner. So far creepy but no problem but then the screw gets turned with the revelation that the man the governess saw is a ghost.

More tomorrow…

Holiday reading continues

Before heading off on holiday The Times was running a free book offer in conjunction with Penguin and as a result a couple of books were picked up ‘free’. The idea of The Turn of the Screw and A Study in Scarlet was that if dropped on a beach or smeared with sun lotion they would not provoke a tragic outburst.

The New York Trilogy - post III

Of all the stories this one feels most up-to-date in terms of its timing. But for vast tracts the focus is on the past.

Again the character of a novelist is asked to help with the literary estate of an old friend, Fanshawe. He steps into his old friend’s shoes in more ways than one marrying his wife and living off the proceeds of the fortunes created by his old school friend’s novels.

But he alone knows that his old school friend is not dead and faced with the commission of his biography sets out to try and rid himself of the feelings of being haunted by Fanshawe.

He heads out to track him down, despite being threatened with death for doing so, and in the process almost loses himself. His marriage falls apart and his own identity is on the brink of folding into the path taken by Fanshawe when they finally meet. The fact that the old school friend talks through a locked door makes him the body in the locked room.

Throughout the three stories you sense the deep knowledge and appreciation that Auster has for the detective fiction genre. But he leaves you feeling slightly frustrated as the stories are not completed with some great linking together. There are images replicated, like the red notebook and the loss of identity, but there are limits to how far the stories are linked.

In the end this is a book that has the power to make you think about identity and language and about how those that don’t know who they are anymore find it dangerously easy to lose themselves.

A review will follow soon…