book review - The Book of Fame - Lloyd Jones

"We who had come to discover
found ourselves discovered
and, in the process, discovered
ourselves-"

This book has been written with a great deal of pride as it weaves a narrative around the facts of the first New Zealand All Blacks your back in 1905. The Originals, as they came to be known, faced not just the mind boggling adventures of being overseas but turned from unknown names on a ships passenger list into famous legends.

They faced cheating, hostility and petty acts of jealously but above all they found fame as they toured England, Scotland, Wales, France and played a couple of games in the US. The record of the tour is staggering with only one defeat, and that is still being debated, and a points tally that rightly made them legends.

What Jones does is takes a largish cast of people and in a style that reminds you of a diary or even poetry weaves a story from the moment the boat leaves New Zealand to its arrival in England. The team, which struggles with homesickness and the conditions but maintains a pride in its performance that last until the very end.

An author using the skeleton of facts about team selection and scores has the option to either stick largely to the facts and fill in the blanks with a narrative based on diaries or to depart from reality and go off into the flights of fantasy. Jones is sympathetic, almost in awe, of the characters and that comes across in this book. But it also chimes in with his larger themes as a writer.

There is a theme that echoes Mister Pip which is about the idea of taking yourself out of a location and seeing how the changed environment helps you discover yourself. here the team find that away from what they know, the sights and smells of home, they are not only drawn closer together but in those moments of leisure time find themselves developing interests in different things, art and culture, and see sights that will never leave them. Going through that experience is as important as the scores run up at the thirty odd games they played on tour.

Although the All Blacks are now an almost invincible rugby team the 1905 tour was a period when they were not only completely unknown but when the black kits with the silver fern leaf were first introduced. The legend that most of us now take for granted was born on that tour. Despite that Jones leaves you wondering at the end of the book just why so little has been done to commemorate the achievements of the Originals. Even as someone completely unfamiliar with those men and their achievements you end up feeling the same. But of course The Book of Fame is its own commemoration and one that takes the legend of the All Blacks to a completely.

Thoughts at the half way point of All Quiet on the Orient Express

There is a an ominous sense that what starts out as a camper deciding to stay on and carry out a few odd jobs is moving towards something much darker.

We all recognise the sense that without resolve our lives can be controlled by others and so it seems is happening to a camper who decides to stay on in a lakeside campsite after the other holiday makers have gone. As the season ends the lone tourist finds himself being dragged more and more into the small lakeside community.

The farmer who owns the campsite seems to be the one propelling him into not only extending his stay but also into getting committed to carrying out an ever longer list of jobs after his attempt to leave fails because of rain flooding his motorbike engine.

Despite the sense of danger you can feel as a reader the main character seems happy enough allowing himself to be dragged back to the farm and ever deeper in debt to Mr Parker the farmer in charge.

More soon…

From the press - technology saving books

There is one school of thought that argues the rise of the ebook means death to the printed book and the end of the world as we know it. The collapse of Borders, the increasing pressure on local bookshops and the sorry state of libraries is all used as ammunition to fuel that argument.

So it is refreshing to see another point of view being put forward by Observer writer Robert McCrum arguing that the spread of English as the primary language, fulled by technology, means that in fact the market for books could be about to spread even further than in the past.

Is it really doomsday for books? Not while English casts its spell

Thoughts at the half way point of The Book of Fame

Occasionally you come across a book where the style of the text and presentation is as much of the experience and that is the case here.

As the All Blacks set sail in 1905 on a voyage to arrive in the UK to play 37 games against almost every team you can think of the story starts like a diary. Because rugby teams include a largish number of players it is hard to get to grips with the main characters.

But after a while you realise that knowing the names is enough as this is a study of a group of people that are very tight knit reacting almost as one to the experience of travel, meeting different people and crucially fame.

Above all else the book, of course the title gives it away, is about fame and the impact that being thrust into the limelight has on the All Blacks. As you follow them through their British and Irish tour the fame spreads and you start to wonder what might come in the second half when presumably that fame catches up with them at home.

More soon…

bookmark of the week

One of the most famous landmarks in london is St Paul's Cathedral and really I should get in there more often but with parking not being too easy round there and coaches blocking up the place it is very rarely i manage to get inside. This tile was like most of the others and involved a flying visit to the shop to get this bookmark.

book review - The Dream Life of Sukhanov - Olga Grushin

One of the best kind of reading experiences are those where a book starts solidly enough but then in the second half gets better and better. In the case of the Dream Life of Sukhanov you get to that half way point and sit back plotting out where you expect the story to go.

But by merging long past, near recollections with the present at an ever increasing speed any attempt to work out where you thought this might be going has to be abandoned. Instead you let XX take you on a journey that not only shows the danger of hearing only one side of the story and forgetting to make the effort to find out the truth.

In some respects it is of course a metaphor for a generation of Russians who allowed truth to be buried under fears and lies during the Communist years because to face reality was not only too dangerous but also difficult given that lies were produced officially continuously. The book is set in 1985. The winds of change are starting to blow through the art world as well as the political arena and for those that have pinned their colours to the party mast the times are getting challenging. It provides a chance for those that have buried themselves and beliefs in the years since their introduction to the ugly side of communism and the thaw to come out and show themselves. But what if they can’t remember what drove them then? What if they have locked up the dreams of their youth so securely in a commitment to personal safety and advancement that now when the time comes they are unable to unlock them? Or as with Sukhanov how does someone cope with dreams flooding back in a tide that turns into a flood that not only overwhelms them but as we all know because of the events in 1989 overwhelmed the USSR?

The main character has reached a certain position in life through compromising everything he believes in but as his life starts to fall apart he realises that although the state didn't do anything to help he is ultimately to blame. By not bothering to ever be bold enough not just to be himself but to invest in the relationships with his wife, children and friends that really mattered he is left alone in every respect.

Although the first part might at times feel a bit predictable with the rich and successful critic shunning his failed former artistic friend and looking down on the little people who drive and cook for him. But the way the dominoes fall comes in a skilful way. Starting off with dreams starting to blur into reality towards the end you are reading the past and the present at almost the same time as the memory of places and moments leads directly into the present.

The scales might have fallen from Sukhanov’s eyes but he is almost unable to say those words you want him to say to his wife and children. His father's suicide, or rather the fatal misunderstanding about it, haunts him and when he finally understands why his father died the blurs of time melt away completely.

At times it might feel like reading an art history text book but the knowledge of Russian art, politics and society is so well detailed that you never question the background. Those operating in the foreground grow as the camera comes into sharper focus not just on Sukhanov but also on his dreams.

A great read to kick off 2010. The word haunting is so over used but it is. To describe the impact of this book in a personal way it made me think about the life I had 15 years ago and how the little signs of change had perhaps been ignored and there is a warning here about the dangers of lying to yourself.

Determined not to be swamped by books

After a frustrating year in 2009 when the piles of books stayed tall and discouraging I'm trying not to let it get to me as much. I hopefully have plenty of life left to get through books and it is not a competition. Sure the book piles remain high and are growing but for now I'm trying to be chilled out about it.

Doing things slightly differently

For the past three and a half years the approach has been to blog about books I'm reading on a daily basis. Great for me to remind myself what they are all about but not so interesting for those that simply want to see what i have read and thought about it. As a result the approach this year will be to do a half way through blog post and then a concluding review.

It makes more sense to summarise the progess of a book at the half way stage and then to produce a review at the end rather than a daily diary with potentially a big pause before the review appears.

I am concious that I am still working through a backlog of reviews of books read last year. I will try to get those up in the next few weeks sprinkled in among other more current reading.

Reasons for leaving books unread

There is an interesting post at Abebooks.com where Beth Carswell lists the top ten reasons why she leaves books unread.

Among the reasons she lists I would agree with her about the size of books putting you off. The idea of a 2666 or Kindly Ones is not just a question of intimidation but there is also the time reading those books will demand. If you have ambitions to read a fair bit then those books, good as they might be, will sidetrack you from that.

Also found myself nodding at the comments about the problem that often happens with books on the to be read pile. Distractions and other recommendations often leave you leaving certain books at the bottom of the pile.

For the full article click here:

Remaining Unread: The Top Ten Reasons We Don’t Get to Certain Books

Thoughts on The Dream Life of Sukhanov at half way point

One review has used the word 'confusing' to describe this book and it is confusing because dreams merge into waking hours and the past crops up in the present.

But in a sense that perhaps is the point that in communist Russia your dreams and past remained buried. Ironically it is the inability of art critic Anatoly Sukhanov to tell of his past and dreams that makes his life more likely to fall apart.

he has spent his life towing the party line, thinking of art without emotion but politically and has made a comfortable life for himself. But as his life starts to fall apart he hears echoes in the past and is unable, at this stage at least, to vent his thoughts to those around him that could help him get through.

"'Don't let anyone clip your wings,' Pavel Sukhanov had written, and it was not, as Anatoly had previously believed, a bequest of bravery, a proud expression of defiance. It was a warning instead, a cautioning reminder that the only life worth living was a life without humiliation, a free life, a safe life - and the only sure way to avoid having one's wings clipped was to grow no wings at all."

In addition to the critic finding memories stirring this is set in 1985 where a whole system of political belief had just a few years left. So no wonder there are feelings of change in the air.

From the press: Looking back and ahead

The Guardian has a couple of interesting pieces to click onto. The first is a round-up of all the great writers that have died in the last decade and the second is a look forward to what is on the horizon for this year in the publishing world.

Living in the memory

A look ahead to what’s new in 2010

bookmark of the week

I was debating whether or not to drop this this year but judging by the links this blog generates the bookmarks might well be the only bit people are reading! So with the festive spirit still in the air this is a metal bookmark from Lapland UK. A reminder of a magical day and a bookmark that has been made to last and to be treasured.

Final list of books read in 2009

1. Winter Notes on Summer Impressions by Fydor Dostoevsky
2. What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami
3. Print is Dead - Books in the Digital Age by Jeff Gomez
4. Boy in Darkness by Mervyn Peake
5. Poor Folk and Other Stories by Fyodor Dostoevsky
6. The Reader by Bernhard Schlink
7. The Boy in the Striped Pjyamas by John Boyne
8. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald
9. Crabwalk by Gunter Grass
10. The Interrogation by J.L. le Clezio
11. The Human Factor by Graham Greene
12. 2666 by Roberto Bolano
13. 1974 by David Peace
14. 1977 by David Peace
15. 1980 by David Peace
16. 1983 by David Peace
17. The Diary of a Nobody by George and Weedon Grossmith
18. The Damned United by David Peace
19. American Tabloid by James Ellroy
20. The Spire by William Golding
21. Hangover Square by Patrick Hamilton
22. Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman
23. Falling Man by Don DeLillo
24. Cosmopolis by Dan DeLillo
25. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safrer
26. Slaves of Solitude by Patrick Hamilton
27. Cats Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
28. The Russian Interpreter by Michael Frayn
29. The Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut
30. The Colony by Hugo Wilcken
31. Strange Energy by Benjamin J. Myers
32. Millennium People by J.G.Ballard
33. The Mistress of Nothing by Kate Pullinger
34. The Drowned World by J.G.Ballard
35. Lights out for the Territory by Iain Sinclair
36. Dreams from the Endz by Faiza Guene
37. Just Like Tomorrow by Faiza Guene
38. High Rise by J.G.Ballard
39. The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster
40. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
41. A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
42. The Twelve Chairs by Ilf & Petrov
43. The Red House by A.A. Milne
44. The Drought by JG Ballard
45. The Crystal World by JG Ballard
46. The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters
47. The Ancient Shore by Shirley Hazzard
48. Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
49. The Tenth Man by Graham Greene
50. The Life of Monsieur Moliere by Mikhail Bulgakov
51. Journey to Nowhere by Eva Figes
52. The Glass Room by Simon Mawer
53. Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
54. We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
55. Lost Hearts and Other Chilling Tales by M R James
56. Legend of a Suicide by David Vann
57. Explorers of the new century by Magnus Mills
58. The Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg
59. Man in the Dark by Paul Auster
60. Howards End is on the Landing by Susan Hill
61. Murder at the Savoy by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo
62. Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones
63. The Abominable Man by Maj Sjowall and Per Whaloo
64. The Chalk Circle Man by Fred Vargas
65. The Last Englishman by Roland Chambers
66. Fire in the Blood by Irene
67. Hammerklavier by Yasmina Reza
68. The Haunted Hotel by Wilkie Collins

Books read 2010

January
1. The Dream Life of Sukhanov by Olga Grushin
2. The Book of Fame by Lloyd Jones
3. All Quiet on the Orient Express by Magnus Mills
4. The Story of Lucy Gault by William Trevor
5. Nobody Move by Denis Johnson
6. White Ravens by Owen Sheers
7. Rushing to Paradise by JG Ballard
8. Pierre et Jean by Guy de Maupassant
9. The Story of Mr Sommer by Patrick Suskind

February
10. A Dreambook for Our Time by Tadeusz Konwicki
11. The Man Who Knew Everything by Tom Stacey
12. The Locked Room by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo
13. The Belly of the Atlantic by Fatou Diome
14. The Unnamed by Joshua Ferris
15. Strength in What Remains by Tracy Kidder
16. The Woman in Black by Susan Hill

March
17. Bel Ami Guy du Maupassant
18. All the Conspirators by Christopher Isherwood
19. The Professor + The Housekeeper by Yoko Ogawa
20. The Summer Book by Tove Jansson
21. Cop Killer by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo
22. Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith
23. Solar by Ian McEwan

April
24. A Month in the Country by J.L Carr
25. The Various Haunts of Men by Susan Hill
26. How I Came to Know Fish by Ota Pavel
27. Old Masters by Thomas Bernhard
28. Tofu Landing by Evan Maloney
29. The White Castle by Orhan Panuk
30. Untimely Death by Cyril Hare
31. Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley

May
32. Young Hitler by Claus Hant
33. Natasha by David Bezmozgis
34. The Elephant by Slawomir Mrozek
35. The Carpenter's Pencil by Manuel Rivas
36. The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet by David Mitchell
37. The Book of Disquiet by Fernando Pessoa
38. The Cuckoo Boy by Grant Gillespie
39. They Came Like Swallows by William Maxwell

June
40. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
41. Repeat it Today With Tears by Anne Peile
42. Sabra Zoo by Mischa Hiller
43. All My Friends are Superheroes by Andrew Kaufman
44. Amulet by Roberto Bolano
45. Black Water Rising by Attica Locke
46. Stones in a Landslide by Maria Barbal
47. A Preparation for Death by Greg Baxter

July
48. Beside the Sea by Veronique Olmi
49. The Last Will & Testament of Senhor Da Silva Araujo by Germano Almeida
50. Tintin and the Secret of Literature by Tom McCarthy
51. Who is Mr Satoshi? by Jonathan Lee
52. The Opposite of Falling by Jennie Rooney
53. Light Boxes by Shane Jones
54. The Financial Lives of the Poets by Jess Walter

August
55. Prater Violet by Christopher Isherwood
56. Sarajevo Marlboro by Miljenko Jergovic
57. The Luneburg Variation by Paolo Maurensig
58. Wessex Tales by Thomas Hardy
59. The Legend of Elizabeth Siddal by Jan Marsh
60. The Wine-Dark Sea by Leonardo Sciascia
61. The Courilof Affair by Irene Nemirovsky

September
62. From a View to a Death by Anthony Powell
63. Kings of the Water by Mark Behr
64. The Castle of Otranto by Horage Walpole
65. Silence of the Grave by Arnaldur Indridason
66. Vivian and I by Colin Bacon
67. First Love, Last Rites by Ian McEwan
68. C by Tom McCarthy

October
69. Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
70. The Land of Green Plums by Herta Muller
71. The Canal by Lee Rourke
72. The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson
73. Leaf Storm by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
74. The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
75. Maigret and the millionaires by Georges Simenon

November
76. My Friend Maigret by Georges Simenon
77. They Shoot Horses, Don't They? Horace McCoy
78. Men in Space by Tom McCarthy
79. The Ministry of Fear by Graham Greene
80. Who Killed Palomino Molero? by Mario Vargas Llosa
81. Circus Bulgaria by Deyan Enev
82. Coming Up for Air by George Orwell

December
83. The Interrogative Mood A Novel? by Padgett Powell
84. The Dead Beat by Cody James
85. The Small Hand by Susan Hill
86. Rumpole at Christmas by John Mortimer
87. The Passport by Herta Muller
88. The Box of Delights by John Masefield

Happy New Year

This happens to be my 2,000th post on this blog. It is also an opportunity to wish you all a happy new year.

I hope that 2010 will be a year of great things for you. May you read as much and as well as you want to. May you write if that is what you wish to do. But in all things may you be happy and healthy.

I look forward to blogging into 2010 and sharing some great reads with you all next year.