Eyes have always been described as a way of looking into someone's soul and when you are lying it's often hard to look someone in the face for fear of eye contact giving you away and some of the best examples of characterisation around eyes can be found in John Steinbeck's East of Eden.
Cathy Ames is someone who clearly does not operate to the same rules as you or I and Steinbeck is quick to label her a "monster". In the book Ames is introduced with the story of how she kills her parents. But as the story develops the challenge is to make it obvious to other characters and to the reader that she is dangerous, even when she is not burning people alive, and the way that this is expressed is nearly all through the description of her eyes.
When people meeet her, like Samuel Hamilton, Adam's brother Charles or even the servant Lee, they describe feeling uncomfortable and what they remember most are the eyes - black, cold without a spark of love or kindness.
So many writers use the eyes as a shorthand way of letting the reader know what type of person they are. Some characters seem to always have tears in the corners of theirs or in the other extreme like Cathy they are a window onto a cold soul. I haven't finished East of Eden but for me Cathy Ames is one of the most brutal cold hearted characters that I have so far come across in any book and the reason you know is because of what's in her eyes.
Saturday, January 06, 2007
Lunchtime read: The Plato Papers - post V
After having returned from the past and explained the mysteries of Mouldwarp Plato faces his trial for misleading the young and lying but fights his corner in a bid to keep a hold on his sanity and his position
Highlights from pages 110 – 139
* Plato starts arguing with the guardians of the city and as he argues he is feeling his way round what he has discovered and he frustrates those trying to pin him down to some sort of admission of guilt
* Plato’s old friends despair about his slip into trouble and wonder if he has gone mad, a likely outcome after Plato starts talking about communicating with his soul, but hope that he will come through unscathed
* The guardians ask the citizens of London to make a judgement and they clear Plato of the charges but in response he demands that he been thrown into exile and as he is leaving hints that he believes that they are the founding fathers of Mouldwarp, a point completely lost on his old friend
Review will come in the next couple of days…
Highlights from pages 110 – 139
* Plato starts arguing with the guardians of the city and as he argues he is feeling his way round what he has discovered and he frustrates those trying to pin him down to some sort of admission of guilt
* Plato’s old friends despair about his slip into trouble and wonder if he has gone mad, a likely outcome after Plato starts talking about communicating with his soul, but hope that he will come through unscathed
* The guardians ask the citizens of London to make a judgement and they clear Plato of the charges but in response he demands that he been thrown into exile and as he is leaving hints that he believes that they are the founding fathers of Mouldwarp, a point completely lost on his old friend
Review will come in the next couple of days…
Friday, January 05, 2007
East of Eden - post VI
A terrible day on the reading front because I couldn’t find the book for many hours and so the page count is very low but it is still worth posting because the side story, that of the Hamilton’s as told by the grandson of Samuel, who is the narrator, develops
Bullet points between pages 312 – 346
* Samuel visits Adam and beats him out of his trance and they name the boys Caleb and Aaron and Adam seems to be starting to think of life beyond Cathy
* The story then shifts to focusing on Tom, as told through the eyes of his nephew, who loves his visits and recalls the times they went fishing together but Tom seems to be unsatisfied despite his talent
More tomorrow…
Bullet points between pages 312 – 346
* Samuel visits Adam and beats him out of his trance and they name the boys Caleb and Aaron and Adam seems to be starting to think of life beyond Cathy
* The story then shifts to focusing on Tom, as told through the eyes of his nephew, who loves his visits and recalls the times they went fishing together but Tom seems to be unsatisfied despite his talent
More tomorrow…
Lunchtime read: The Plato Papers - post IV
Things change dramatically for Plato but the outcome is not too good landing him in trouble with the authorities.
Highlights from pages 86 – 110
* Plato discovers that the inhabitants of Mouldwarp still exist in a cave under the City with the roof of the cave covered in stars, the limits of their perception, and he discovers that a lot of what he assumed is wrong
* He comes back and starts talking about what he discovered wearing a watch and rolling a dice for example but that soon lands him in trouble and he is put under trial for spreading fear and deceit
* In his trial Plato argues that he has not called on anyone to reject the principles of society but has discovered the joy of stumbling on individualism but his defence appears to be rejected and he is accused of going against “the way” and disturbing people, particularly children
Final instalment lunchtime tomorrow…
Highlights from pages 86 – 110
* Plato discovers that the inhabitants of Mouldwarp still exist in a cave under the City with the roof of the cave covered in stars, the limits of their perception, and he discovers that a lot of what he assumed is wrong
* He comes back and starts talking about what he discovered wearing a watch and rolling a dice for example but that soon lands him in trouble and he is put under trial for spreading fear and deceit
* In his trial Plato argues that he has not called on anyone to reject the principles of society but has discovered the joy of stumbling on individualism but his defence appears to be rejected and he is accused of going against “the way” and disturbing people, particularly children
Final instalment lunchtime tomorrow…
Thursday, January 04, 2007
East of Eden - post V
Although you sense what is coming with the murder of the madam Faye by Cathy the way she goes about it is chilling and her body count is now up to three and it would have been four if Lee had not come back and stopped Adam bleeding to death
Bullet points between pages 232 - 312
* Samuel goes to help Cathy have her babies and in an odd encounter she bites his hand so hard she tears flesh and it bleeds and all through the birth of her twins she shows no emotion and at the end asks for them to be taken away
* She ignores the twins and keeps this image of quiet reserve up even when Samuel sends his wife Liza to help and things come to a head when Cathy sends Lee away and asks the workers to leave them alone
* Adam hears her rustling around in her room and asks her to unlock the door to discover that she is dressed and ready to leave him and after he argues leaves but comes back into argue with her she shoots him in the shoulder and leaves
* The story runs parallel from that point with Adam a ghost of himself letting the house go to ruin and ignoring the twins while Cathy becomes a whore and starts to ingratiate herself with the madam slowly poisoning her until she finally takes her life
* There is a passage about how calculating she is about murder – prepared to take her time and work around obstacles – that gives a chilling insight into her psychopathic tendencies
* Meanwhile Samuel meets Lee and discovers that the twins have still been unnamed and so he gets ready to visit Adam to try and beat him out of his mental stupor
You sense that Adam is key to Cathy being discovered and if possible saved but first he needs to be brought back to life himself. More tomorrow…
Bullet points between pages 232 - 312
* Samuel goes to help Cathy have her babies and in an odd encounter she bites his hand so hard she tears flesh and it bleeds and all through the birth of her twins she shows no emotion and at the end asks for them to be taken away
* She ignores the twins and keeps this image of quiet reserve up even when Samuel sends his wife Liza to help and things come to a head when Cathy sends Lee away and asks the workers to leave them alone
* Adam hears her rustling around in her room and asks her to unlock the door to discover that she is dressed and ready to leave him and after he argues leaves but comes back into argue with her she shoots him in the shoulder and leaves
* The story runs parallel from that point with Adam a ghost of himself letting the house go to ruin and ignoring the twins while Cathy becomes a whore and starts to ingratiate herself with the madam slowly poisoning her until she finally takes her life
* There is a passage about how calculating she is about murder – prepared to take her time and work around obstacles – that gives a chilling insight into her psychopathic tendencies
* Meanwhile Samuel meets Lee and discovers that the twins have still been unnamed and so he gets ready to visit Adam to try and beat him out of his mental stupor
You sense that Adam is key to Cathy being discovered and if possible saved but first he needs to be brought back to life himself. More tomorrow…
Lunchtime read: The Plato Papers - post III
As more relics from the past are found the uncertainty in Plato increases as he doubts he is giving a true reflection of what happened in the past. Meanwhile the almost comical presumptions continue as Plato tries to fill in the blanks of an unknown past.
Highlights between pages 52 – 86
* Plato talks to his audience about what happened when the age of Mouldwarp ended and the age of Witspell began with a return of unicorns, pixies and Atlantis, which had all been hidden by the collective consciousness of the Mouldwarp population
* He then continues the dialogue with his should trying to ascertain whether or not the vision of the past he is painting is correct but his should is not prepared to be drawn on the subject
* The subject of his public lectures then returns to Mouldwarp and he extrapolates based on a film poster found on the South Bank advertising a Hitchcock film and so you get moments when he describes those in a pub worshiping the fire god by putting lit sticks in their mouths (cigarettes)
* But the doubts continue and he questions his soul again who announces that he will leave Plato to discover the truth but warns him that perhaps he has been used to keep the population content regardless of the truth of his proclamations
* Plato then starts to see visions of the past and tells his friend that he is going on a journey
More tomorrow…
Highlights between pages 52 – 86
* Plato talks to his audience about what happened when the age of Mouldwarp ended and the age of Witspell began with a return of unicorns, pixies and Atlantis, which had all been hidden by the collective consciousness of the Mouldwarp population
* He then continues the dialogue with his should trying to ascertain whether or not the vision of the past he is painting is correct but his should is not prepared to be drawn on the subject
* The subject of his public lectures then returns to Mouldwarp and he extrapolates based on a film poster found on the South Bank advertising a Hitchcock film and so you get moments when he describes those in a pub worshiping the fire god by putting lit sticks in their mouths (cigarettes)
* But the doubts continue and he questions his soul again who announces that he will leave Plato to discover the truth but warns him that perhaps he has been used to keep the population content regardless of the truth of his proclamations
* Plato then starts to see visions of the past and tells his friend that he is going on a journey
More tomorrow…
The ebook debate
The occasions when I can put on the hat I wear during my day job can be worn when posting on the blog but all this talk of digital book does have some crossover.
A great deal of fuss was made yesterday about a Cambridge-based company called Plastic Logic which is producing plastic microchips that can carry around large amounts of information and display them in an electronic A4 format (see picture) that is a potential way of storing e-books. Add to that development the planned arrival of the Sony eBook Reader into the UK in June and you just know that this year is going to be one dominated by a technology debate.
Getting in early my view is that these products will appeal to certain markets and can learn a lot from the Tablet PCs which have carved out a niche in hospitals and education but failed to go mainstream. The idea of an A4 ebook machine will appeal to academics and those working in government wanting to store lots of documents in one device but beyond that who wants to lug around yet another device when a handy paperback will suffice? In regards to the Sony product it sounds like a great idea but the iPod has been a success not just because of the technology but also because it can be hidden in a pocket. Try that with the eBook Reader and it defeats the purpose of the product but of course sit there in public and use it and it hands the muggers a perfect source of revenue to fund their crack habits.
There is nothing wrong with being niche but you can bet your house on the advertising folks taking a broad sweep approach claming the traditional printed book is dead.
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
East of Eden - post IV
There is a lull while you wait to see what the ‘monster’ Cathy does next after she becomes pregnant but she makes no secret of the plan that she intends leaving California as soon as she can and seems not to care what Adam thinks about it.
Bullet points between pages 160 – 232
* Cathy tires to abort her baby with a knitting needle but fails and the doctor threatens to report her if she attempts it again and informs Adam that he is going to be a father leading him to get excited about settling down
* Adam sets his heart on a property owned by a Swiss man and as part of the process of sounding out opinions on the land is introduced to Samuel Hamilton who offers him friendship and some advice about water
* Adam goes ahead and buys the farm and starts to do it up and sends his Chinese servant Lee to get Samuel Hamilton to come and visit and offer advice about water and on the way back Lee reveals that he is not stupid and can speak English fluently
* Cathy is already on her guard against Lee and when introduced to Samuel she leaves him cold and doesn’t seem to share any of her husband’s warmth or enthusiasm about the farm of Adam’s dream of turning it into an Eden
* The Hamilton’s are taken on to dig three wells and build windmills and as the process starts Cathy goes into labour, a process that Lee describes as strange when he calls on Samuel to come and deliver the baby
What does Lee mean and what will Cathy do next - suspicions are that she will start flirting with the Hamilton boys Joe and Tom who are helping dig the wells. More tomorrow…
Bullet points between pages 160 – 232
* Cathy tires to abort her baby with a knitting needle but fails and the doctor threatens to report her if she attempts it again and informs Adam that he is going to be a father leading him to get excited about settling down
* Adam sets his heart on a property owned by a Swiss man and as part of the process of sounding out opinions on the land is introduced to Samuel Hamilton who offers him friendship and some advice about water
* Adam goes ahead and buys the farm and starts to do it up and sends his Chinese servant Lee to get Samuel Hamilton to come and visit and offer advice about water and on the way back Lee reveals that he is not stupid and can speak English fluently
* Cathy is already on her guard against Lee and when introduced to Samuel she leaves him cold and doesn’t seem to share any of her husband’s warmth or enthusiasm about the farm of Adam’s dream of turning it into an Eden
* The Hamilton’s are taken on to dig three wells and build windmills and as the process starts Cathy goes into labour, a process that Lee describes as strange when he calls on Samuel to come and deliver the baby
What does Lee mean and what will Cathy do next - suspicions are that she will start flirting with the Hamilton boys Joe and Tom who are helping dig the wells. More tomorrow…
Fiction v non-fiction - the wrong battle
One of my resolutions for this year was to write more posts that had some sort of intellectual substance. This first stab at more of a think piece concentrates on the rewards and differences between reading fiction and non-fiction. For the last few years, partly as a result of undertaking an MA in historical research, plus a life-long love of history, my reading was devoted to history almost exclusively.
It was all too easy to see reading fiction as something frivolous and a bit like sitting down to swallow the latest Eastenders episode rather than watching the news. But the last ten months, which has been all classic fiction rather than history, has been the most enjoyable reading time in my life. It is not because history was not as rewarding but it touches you in a different way. Reading history makes you think about why and how people reacted to certain situations but fiction makes you dream even more because you never know what is coming next. The best books hide their secrets until the final pages whereas if you choose to leaf through a book on the Russian revolution however much the first chapters might make the communists seem to be weak and vulnerable you know Lenin and company win in the end.
My problem had been to make it a choice between two different broad styles, which was a mistake because they can be complementary. Fiction has provided me with pictures and images that are echoed in history but because they are about ordinary people, the Tara Bulba’s of this world, they somehow seem to be more accessible and feel more real. To keep the example of the Russian revolution, which I’ve chosen going, you can read about the revolution in numerous books but you only start to understand what it felt like to be involved with it when you read Boris Pasternak’s Dr Zhivago and Mikhail Bulagov’s The White Guard. Then you start to understand what Lenin replaced when you read Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky.
My only wish is that I had started to mix up fiction and non-fiction earlier on.
It was all too easy to see reading fiction as something frivolous and a bit like sitting down to swallow the latest Eastenders episode rather than watching the news. But the last ten months, which has been all classic fiction rather than history, has been the most enjoyable reading time in my life. It is not because history was not as rewarding but it touches you in a different way. Reading history makes you think about why and how people reacted to certain situations but fiction makes you dream even more because you never know what is coming next. The best books hide their secrets until the final pages whereas if you choose to leaf through a book on the Russian revolution however much the first chapters might make the communists seem to be weak and vulnerable you know Lenin and company win in the end.
My problem had been to make it a choice between two different broad styles, which was a mistake because they can be complementary. Fiction has provided me with pictures and images that are echoed in history but because they are about ordinary people, the Tara Bulba’s of this world, they somehow seem to be more accessible and feel more real. To keep the example of the Russian revolution, which I’ve chosen going, you can read about the revolution in numerous books but you only start to understand what it felt like to be involved with it when you read Boris Pasternak’s Dr Zhivago and Mikhail Bulagov’s The White Guard. Then you start to understand what Lenin replaced when you read Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky.
My only wish is that I had started to mix up fiction and non-fiction earlier on.
Lunchtime read: The Plato Papers - post II
Plato starts to weave his way through more of the history of our age as he explains to his audience how primitive we all were.
Bullet points between pages 30 – 52
* The main way you discover what Plato is thinking is through a dialogue he has with his soul which reveals that he was chosen to be the orator on history because he had the ability to make people feel comfortable with the past
* Most of the interest in the past has to be substantiated with supporting discoveries so he tells the story of Orpheus and his trip into Hades and mentions that some of the remains of Hades have been found
* Plato then tells of the end of the Mouldwarp era as they discovered that the night sky was a creation of their own perception and the people panicked and smashed up the machines that underpinned the system
* But you sense Plato has doubts about his version of the past because he asks his soul if the versions of history he has been sharing are correct
More tomorrow…
Bullet points between pages 30 – 52
* The main way you discover what Plato is thinking is through a dialogue he has with his soul which reveals that he was chosen to be the orator on history because he had the ability to make people feel comfortable with the past
* Most of the interest in the past has to be substantiated with supporting discoveries so he tells the story of Orpheus and his trip into Hades and mentions that some of the remains of Hades have been found
* Plato then tells of the end of the Mouldwarp era as they discovered that the night sky was a creation of their own perception and the people panicked and smashed up the machines that underpinned the system
* But you sense Plato has doubts about his version of the past because he asks his soul if the versions of history he has been sharing are correct
More tomorrow…
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
East of Eden - post III
The book continues to focus on the Trask brothers Adam and Charles but introduces an explosive female character to shake-up the mix and Adam’s talk of moving to California is no doubt where the link will come with the Hamiltons.
Bullet points between pages 76 – 160
* Adam comes home to discover that his father has died and left a large fortune making Charles believe he is capable of theft and deception and when he asks Adam is he loved his father his brother tells him no but he doesn’t believe he was a liar
* There are several mini-chapters spent telling the story of Cathy Ames who burns her parents alive after displaying a callous streak that is quite beyond belief ensuring that she escapes and heads off to Boston to start a new life
* Part of that new life involves ensnaring the whoremaster who is responsible for delivering girls to the inn near the Trask's farm but he discovers her real aim and almost kills her on the way to dropping her off at the inn
* She struggles to the Trask's farm and is taken in by Adam who is desperate for adventure and nurses her back to health despite the fact Charles does not trust her or like her
* In the meantime the Trask brothers have been at each other and Adam has gone on his travels to try and get rid of his restlessness and visits South America and then returns but keeps talking about California
* In an bid to save Cathy from further trouble Adam married her and then tells her they are going to move to California but, and this is an indication of how black her heart is, because she does not want to go she drugs him with sleeping medicine and sleeps with Charles no doubt in the hope he will encourage them to stay
Will Cathy be found out (I hope so) and when will the Hamilton’s appear? More tomorrow…
Bullet points between pages 76 – 160
* Adam comes home to discover that his father has died and left a large fortune making Charles believe he is capable of theft and deception and when he asks Adam is he loved his father his brother tells him no but he doesn’t believe he was a liar
* There are several mini-chapters spent telling the story of Cathy Ames who burns her parents alive after displaying a callous streak that is quite beyond belief ensuring that she escapes and heads off to Boston to start a new life
* Part of that new life involves ensnaring the whoremaster who is responsible for delivering girls to the inn near the Trask's farm but he discovers her real aim and almost kills her on the way to dropping her off at the inn
* She struggles to the Trask's farm and is taken in by Adam who is desperate for adventure and nurses her back to health despite the fact Charles does not trust her or like her
* In the meantime the Trask brothers have been at each other and Adam has gone on his travels to try and get rid of his restlessness and visits South America and then returns but keeps talking about California
* In an bid to save Cathy from further trouble Adam married her and then tells her they are going to move to California but, and this is an indication of how black her heart is, because she does not want to go she drugs him with sleeping medicine and sleeps with Charles no doubt in the hope he will encourage them to stay
Will Cathy be found out (I hope so) and when will the Hamilton’s appear? More tomorrow…
A classic case of computers setting the rules
No doubt the trend that is happening in the US to get rid of books that have not been checked out for two years will come to the UK. Libraries are now struggling to house books, DVDs, computers and areas for people to read books and newspapers so the prospect of freeing up some shelf space will be irresistible for some libraries. The Bookseller Blog points to an article in The Washington Post, which covers what is happening in America and it seems that there is no reprieve for a book based on its ‘classic’ status. For those people with enough disposable income to head to eBay and Abe then getting the books they were after might not be too much of a problem but for those without that luxury the idea that books could be taken out of the library because they haven’t been read for a set period of time is going to exclude them from those authors and titles.
My secret plan, should this approach be taken at my local library, is to check out old unloved classics with each visit to make sure myself and others can continue to enjoy them - an Adopt a Classic campaign should do the trick.
My secret plan, should this approach be taken at my local library, is to check out old unloved classics with each visit to make sure myself and others can continue to enjoy them - an Adopt a Classic campaign should do the trick.
Lunchtime read: The Plato Papers - post I
I have read a few book by Peter Ackroyd with his biography of London being one of the most enjoyable. Like his other fiction this is based on a knowledge of London that can often become a character in its own right. This is slightly different from some of the books I have read before because it is set in the future rather than the past.
Highlights from pages 1 – 30
* Before the book even starts there are quotes taken from various fictional sources in the years 3000 plus to indicate that there is a great deal of soul searching going on in the present, which is defined as from the year 3700 onwards
* You are introduced to a few characters who are discussing Plato’s speeches on the age of Mouldwarp – the current era – mocking some of the beliefs that were held in Victorian times and by our generation still
* Everything is mixed up though: Plato of course is not a figure from London’s history, he describes Origin of the Species as a comic book by Charles Dickens and then there are entries from his glossary of terms that at first seem comically wide of the mark but at the same time are a comment on perhaps our own stupidity?
* Plato seems to be seen as someone who can hold the answers and keep the city as a source of protection for its inhabitants and whenever relics of the past are found he is the one people go to for an explanation
More tomorrow...
Highlights from pages 1 – 30
* Before the book even starts there are quotes taken from various fictional sources in the years 3000 plus to indicate that there is a great deal of soul searching going on in the present, which is defined as from the year 3700 onwards
* You are introduced to a few characters who are discussing Plato’s speeches on the age of Mouldwarp – the current era – mocking some of the beliefs that were held in Victorian times and by our generation still
* Everything is mixed up though: Plato of course is not a figure from London’s history, he describes Origin of the Species as a comic book by Charles Dickens and then there are entries from his glossary of terms that at first seem comically wide of the mark but at the same time are a comment on perhaps our own stupidity?
"Literature: a word of unknown provenance, generally attributed to ‘litter’ or waste."
* Plato seems to be seen as someone who can hold the answers and keep the city as a source of protection for its inhabitants and whenever relics of the past are found he is the one people go to for an explanation
More tomorrow...
Monday, January 01, 2007
Review of the year - fiction
It has been a fantastic year in terms of chipping away at some of the classics that should have been consumed when I was younger. For the sake of making the process easier I will go through it briefly on a country basis and my love for Russian literature should become apparent.
Russia
This was the year of Fydor Dostoyevsky, Ivan Goncharov and Gogol with highlights including Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, The Brothers Kasmarov and Oblomov as well as Dead Souls and Taras Bulba. The general theme of Russian literature is tragedy so you get the father killing his son is Taras Bulba a Russian aristocrat Oblomov marrying beneath him and losing potentially the love of his life because he cannot make the effort and of course the story of brothers who hate their father and a student putting a hatchet into a money lenders head in Crime and Punishment. Great books that really make you think about your own views and behaviour and because of tragic twists leave you wondering where the story will end tight up until sadly it does.
France
Proust dominated the reading with Remembrance of Things Past a book that started with such deep description it was almost suffocating but ended with a paranoid writer obsessed with homosexuality and the sexual encounters of his former lover, who dies after falling off a horse. Apart from that the short but disturbing tale of teenage love and intrigue in Bonjour Tristesse by Francoise Sagan and Jean Paul Satre’s Nausea proved that the French are capable of being passionate about love as well as obsessively introverted about their own thoughts. The other main French writer was Albert Camus who provides a classic in the shape of The Outsider that deserves to be read by more than just US presidents on their holiday reading.
America
Tales of economic hardship in the form of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle and John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath showed how important the depression and the expansion of private enterprise had been on novelists but there were also books like To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee that were capable of leaving you in tears. Other highlights included The Old Man and the Sea and For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway as well as In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, which showed how powerful the combination of journalism and literature can be.
Favourites
One of my standout reads was The White Guard by Mikhail Bulagov who also amazed with The Master and Margarita. A combination of war story, adolescence and growing up the story. A special mention for the penultimate chapter in Ulysses by James Joyce not only because that was one of the few chapters that was readable without use of web based study guides but because it was also the most moving between the two main characters Bloom and Stephen.
More, much more, to come in 2007.
Russia
This was the year of Fydor Dostoyevsky, Ivan Goncharov and Gogol with highlights including Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, The Brothers Kasmarov and Oblomov as well as Dead Souls and Taras Bulba. The general theme of Russian literature is tragedy so you get the father killing his son is Taras Bulba a Russian aristocrat Oblomov marrying beneath him and losing potentially the love of his life because he cannot make the effort and of course the story of brothers who hate their father and a student putting a hatchet into a money lenders head in Crime and Punishment. Great books that really make you think about your own views and behaviour and because of tragic twists leave you wondering where the story will end tight up until sadly it does.
France
Proust dominated the reading with Remembrance of Things Past a book that started with such deep description it was almost suffocating but ended with a paranoid writer obsessed with homosexuality and the sexual encounters of his former lover, who dies after falling off a horse. Apart from that the short but disturbing tale of teenage love and intrigue in Bonjour Tristesse by Francoise Sagan and Jean Paul Satre’s Nausea proved that the French are capable of being passionate about love as well as obsessively introverted about their own thoughts. The other main French writer was Albert Camus who provides a classic in the shape of The Outsider that deserves to be read by more than just US presidents on their holiday reading.
America
Tales of economic hardship in the form of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle and John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath showed how important the depression and the expansion of private enterprise had been on novelists but there were also books like To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee that were capable of leaving you in tears. Other highlights included The Old Man and the Sea and For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway as well as In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, which showed how powerful the combination of journalism and literature can be.
Favourites
One of my standout reads was The White Guard by Mikhail Bulagov who also amazed with The Master and Margarita. A combination of war story, adolescence and growing up the story. A special mention for the penultimate chapter in Ulysses by James Joyce not only because that was one of the few chapters that was readable without use of web based study guides but because it was also the most moving between the two main characters Bloom and Stephen.
More, much more, to come in 2007.
Happy New Year
Still awake at 2.45 am and wanted to say: Happy New Year
I hope 2007 is a great year for all of you.
I hope 2007 is a great year for all of you.
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