This book is a mixture of histories: a brief biography of St George Gilbert Scott, the architect behind the St Pancras Hotel and the Albert Memorial; an architectural history of the St Pancras hotel and "train shed"; a history of the railways; and a description of the development and decline of the hotel and its subsequent regeneration (unfortunately the book was published before the opening of the new concourse; or course the hotel is not yet reopened).
It was surprisingly interesting. I learned about the revival of Victorian Gothic architecture with its homage to the late medieval. I found out that the reason that the St Pancras platforms are on the first floor is because the line approaching them had to either go under or over the Regents Canal and over was cheaper. I discovered that the iron pillars that support the platforms were spaced a certain number of beer barrels apart so that the undercroft could be used as a beer warehouse to bring Burton Ales to London and the South (freight from the Midlands being a principal source of revenue for the new Midland Railway). I was informed that the reason for the stations along the Euston Road (Paddington, Euston, King's Cross and St Pancras) was the early legislation that prevented the rampant railways companies from intruding further into London. I also became aware that the railways were a great catalyst for social change, promoting milk drinking in cities, national brands, out of town printing (Clay's in Bungay could undercut London printers and still distribute through the trains), Melton Mowbray pork pies and Chivers jam (Mr Chivers owned a fruit farm in Histon near Cambridge and converted his surplus fruit into preserves which he then distributed via the brand new railway system).
The single arch train shed of St Pancras, at the time the world's largest single span structure, was conceived so that more platforms could be fitted beneath. Previous constructions such as King's Cross's had pointed roofs (KX has a pair) but this means that you need supports and that can get in the way of platforms. Furthermore a twin roof idea such as KX means extensive extra guttering to carry away water. Form follows function. I really got interested in station design and I much pay more attention to the built environment. I even started to appreciate the massively over-ornate architecture that is Victorian Gothic.
Fascinating stuff!
May 2009, 174 pages
Saturday, 2 May 2009
Wednesday, 29 April 2009
"My Life as a Fake" by Peter Carey
I have read three other books by this Australian author: Illywhacker which I cannot remember, the True History of the Kelly Gang which was a brilliant purported biography of Ned Kelly, and Theft about an Australian painter which was one of the most fantastic characters I have met in fiction. I think this book is the best.
I could scarcely put it down. It is written from the point of view of a naive editor of a London poetry magazine who travels with poet and novelist John Slater to Kuala Lumpur where she meets an Australian poet, Chubb. He had hoaxed an Australian poetry magazine editor by inventing "McCorkle" a working class classical poet who wrote verses of genius. The editor had then been tried for publishing obscenity (the verses were obscurely risque); at the trial a man had stood up claiming to be McCorkle!
This is a retake on the story of Frankenstein and, like before, the creator and his monster pursue one another although into Malaysia rather than the Arctic.
In KL the London editor discovers that Chubb has a copy of McCorkle's work (which is truly genius). But is this Chubb's work writing as McCorkle or has McCorkle a truly independent physicality and, if so, was he created by Chubb or was he discovered by Chubb? And what is the family secret that the London editor possesses and John Slater knows? Nothing is certain as we listen to the stories in the febrile atmosphere of KL.
Carey can't half write! On page 2 Sarah Wode-Douglas, the London editor, writes "I cannot say that I understood his [Slater's] role in my parents' marriage, and only when my m other killed herself - in a spectacularly awful style - did I suspect anything was amiss. In the last minutes of her life I saw John Slater put his arms around her and finally I understood, or thought I did."
If that sentence doesn't make you NEED to read on I don't know what will.
April 2009, 266 pages
I could scarcely put it down. It is written from the point of view of a naive editor of a London poetry magazine who travels with poet and novelist John Slater to Kuala Lumpur where she meets an Australian poet, Chubb. He had hoaxed an Australian poetry magazine editor by inventing "McCorkle" a working class classical poet who wrote verses of genius. The editor had then been tried for publishing obscenity (the verses were obscurely risque); at the trial a man had stood up claiming to be McCorkle!
This is a retake on the story of Frankenstein and, like before, the creator and his monster pursue one another although into Malaysia rather than the Arctic.
In KL the London editor discovers that Chubb has a copy of McCorkle's work (which is truly genius). But is this Chubb's work writing as McCorkle or has McCorkle a truly independent physicality and, if so, was he created by Chubb or was he discovered by Chubb? And what is the family secret that the London editor possesses and John Slater knows? Nothing is certain as we listen to the stories in the febrile atmosphere of KL.
Carey can't half write! On page 2 Sarah Wode-Douglas, the London editor, writes "I cannot say that I understood his [Slater's] role in my parents' marriage, and only when my m other killed herself - in a spectacularly awful style - did I suspect anything was amiss. In the last minutes of her life I saw John Slater put his arms around her and finally I understood, or thought I did."
If that sentence doesn't make you NEED to read on I don't know what will.
April 2009, 266 pages
Sunday, 26 April 2009
"Thames Sacred River" by Peter Ackroyd
Peter Ackroyd is a phenomenon: he writes good books and he writes lots of them. A fervent Londoner, he has written some wonderful novels and many biographies, including Dickens, Chaucer and Blake (he specialises in Londoners). My favourite Peter Ackroyd book is the novel Hawksmoor which purports to be written by the architect Nicholas Hawksmoor who built churches with and alongside Christopher Wren (but Hawksmoor churches always contain something a little sinister). The novel is written in seventeenth century prose which is a little difficult for the first page but then you race along.
Thames Sacred River is also well written and has many points of interest. I was particularly interested because of my walk along the Thames from the Barrier upstream to Windsor (see pictures here). Otherwise I would have found it terribly heavy going.
Part of the problem is that I was much interested in the history of the communities alongside the Thames than in the sanctity of the river. Ackroyd goes overboard on the mystical communion between man and water citing Celtic deities to Stanley Spencer's paintings. There are many pages about these themes. Sometimes the work degenerates into lists such as the three pages of churches named for St Mary.
There are many points of interest in this book and Ackroyd's reading has clearly been immense but it is eclectic. The Hell Fire club receives about two sentences whilst Lewis Carroll's boat trip on the river recurs again and again. As a work of reference it is patchy and marred by its meandering organisation; I would rather have had a chapter on every town along the river or the material organised into centuries or something rather than this thematic approach: sacred river, river of trade, working river, stream of pleasure etc.
Hard going.
April 2009 447 pages
Thames Sacred River is also well written and has many points of interest. I was particularly interested because of my walk along the Thames from the Barrier upstream to Windsor (see pictures here). Otherwise I would have found it terribly heavy going.
Part of the problem is that I was much interested in the history of the communities alongside the Thames than in the sanctity of the river. Ackroyd goes overboard on the mystical communion between man and water citing Celtic deities to Stanley Spencer's paintings. There are many pages about these themes. Sometimes the work degenerates into lists such as the three pages of churches named for St Mary.
There are many points of interest in this book and Ackroyd's reading has clearly been immense but it is eclectic. The Hell Fire club receives about two sentences whilst Lewis Carroll's boat trip on the river recurs again and again. As a work of reference it is patchy and marred by its meandering organisation; I would rather have had a chapter on every town along the river or the material organised into centuries or something rather than this thematic approach: sacred river, river of trade, working river, stream of pleasure etc.
Hard going.
April 2009 447 pages
Tuesday, 21 April 2009
"Garibaldi" by Christopher Hibbert
This is a very easy book to read chronicling the adventures of Giuseppe Garibaldi as he sought to unify Italy between 1848 and 1870.
Italy had been invaded by Napoleon and turned into three major states in the north, the centre and the south. However, the 1815 Congress of Vienna returned the conquered principalities back to their original owners so that Italy was a patchwork of states. Piedmont in the North was ruled by the House of Savoy. The Kingdom of Two Sicilies was run from Naples by the Bourbons. The Pope ruled the Papal States between these two. And the massive Austro-Hungarian empire ruled substantial chunks of Italy including Venice and Tuscany.
Garibaldi was born to a seafaring family in Nice (then part of France but soon to become part of the Kingdom of Piedmont) and then became a sailor. He became converted to the cause of Italian unification as a young man by the Saint-Simonians who preached, among other things, free love. His revolutionary zeal soon led to his escaping to exile in South America.
In South America he took part in a number of revolutions as various countries sought liberation. This was the weakest part of the book. He was known as the 'Hero of Two Worlds' but the book treated these years very briefly.
He returned to Italy after the election of Pio Nono, Pius IX, as Pope. This pope was initially liberal, granting the papal states a measure of self rule (and even railways!) but this back-fired after the pope's prime minister was assassinated. Suddenly an agitator called Mazzini (who started the Young Italians programme which was later emulated by Ataturk as the Young Turks) led a revolution. Pio had to escape his country and by 1848 Rome was in the hands of republicans. The forces of repression (French, Austrians and Neapolitans) converged on Rome, the French (whose Emperor was Louis Napoleon, nephew of the Bonaparte) getting there first. Garibaldi led irregular forces in heroic (and often stupid) attacks on the French; these were ultimately unsuccessful and Rome was retaken by the Pope.
Garibaldi spent years in honourable exile farming on a little island near Sardinia until another opportunity presented itself in 1860. The Two Sicilies under the Bourbons had become as massively repressive police state; they seemed as repulsive as rulers get. Garibaldi led a volunteer army of 'The Thousand' (ish) to invade Sicily and through the cowardice and incompetence of the opposing armies, conquered it. He set himself up as Dictator. Then he crossed the Straits of Messina and invaded the tow of Italy, fighting his way up to Naples. Again he was amazingly lucky. Not only did every possible bullet contrive to miss him but most of his enemies preferred to surrender or run than fight. When they did fight Garibaldi often lost! Finally he entered Naples in triumph and gave it to Piedmont's King Victor Emmanuel.
He then retired again but went on a number of trips including a tour of Britain where (on page 343) "he was taken ... to the Britannia Works at Bedford to see the new steam plough'. He was now a hero across Europe.
He was recalled later to fight in the war of Piedmont and Prussia against Austria that resulted in the ceding to Italy of Venice and then retired again.
Finally, in 1870, Louis Napoleon was defeated and captured at Sedan at the start of the Franco-Prussian war. This led to Victor Emmanuel riding in triumph into Rome where he set up Italy's capital at the Quirinal Palace, formerly the summer residence of the Pope, while Pio Nono locked himself in as "the prisoner in the Vatican".
Interesting asides:
In the invasion of Sicily a Neapolitan ship was commanded by Ferdinand Acton, great nephew of Sir John Acton who had been Prime Minister of Naples under Ferdinand I. The writer Harold Acton was born in Tuscany and claimed that Sir John was his great-great-grandfather.
A hospital worker uses 'chloride of lime' as a disinfectant. Presumably this is calcium chloride.
Garibaldi sailed up the Tyne to an enthusiastic welcome in 1854, well before he had become a hero for uniting Italy. This may have been when my ancestor was named 'Garabaldi (sic) Appleby'.
April 2009 368 pages
Italy had been invaded by Napoleon and turned into three major states in the north, the centre and the south. However, the 1815 Congress of Vienna returned the conquered principalities back to their original owners so that Italy was a patchwork of states. Piedmont in the North was ruled by the House of Savoy. The Kingdom of Two Sicilies was run from Naples by the Bourbons. The Pope ruled the Papal States between these two. And the massive Austro-Hungarian empire ruled substantial chunks of Italy including Venice and Tuscany.
Garibaldi was born to a seafaring family in Nice (then part of France but soon to become part of the Kingdom of Piedmont) and then became a sailor. He became converted to the cause of Italian unification as a young man by the Saint-Simonians who preached, among other things, free love. His revolutionary zeal soon led to his escaping to exile in South America.
In South America he took part in a number of revolutions as various countries sought liberation. This was the weakest part of the book. He was known as the 'Hero of Two Worlds' but the book treated these years very briefly.
He returned to Italy after the election of Pio Nono, Pius IX, as Pope. This pope was initially liberal, granting the papal states a measure of self rule (and even railways!) but this back-fired after the pope's prime minister was assassinated. Suddenly an agitator called Mazzini (who started the Young Italians programme which was later emulated by Ataturk as the Young Turks) led a revolution. Pio had to escape his country and by 1848 Rome was in the hands of republicans. The forces of repression (French, Austrians and Neapolitans) converged on Rome, the French (whose Emperor was Louis Napoleon, nephew of the Bonaparte) getting there first. Garibaldi led irregular forces in heroic (and often stupid) attacks on the French; these were ultimately unsuccessful and Rome was retaken by the Pope.
Garibaldi spent years in honourable exile farming on a little island near Sardinia until another opportunity presented itself in 1860. The Two Sicilies under the Bourbons had become as massively repressive police state; they seemed as repulsive as rulers get. Garibaldi led a volunteer army of 'The Thousand' (ish) to invade Sicily and through the cowardice and incompetence of the opposing armies, conquered it. He set himself up as Dictator. Then he crossed the Straits of Messina and invaded the tow of Italy, fighting his way up to Naples. Again he was amazingly lucky. Not only did every possible bullet contrive to miss him but most of his enemies preferred to surrender or run than fight. When they did fight Garibaldi often lost! Finally he entered Naples in triumph and gave it to Piedmont's King Victor Emmanuel.
He then retired again but went on a number of trips including a tour of Britain where (on page 343) "he was taken ... to the Britannia Works at Bedford to see the new steam plough'. He was now a hero across Europe.
He was recalled later to fight in the war of Piedmont and Prussia against Austria that resulted in the ceding to Italy of Venice and then retired again.
Finally, in 1870, Louis Napoleon was defeated and captured at Sedan at the start of the Franco-Prussian war. This led to Victor Emmanuel riding in triumph into Rome where he set up Italy's capital at the Quirinal Palace, formerly the summer residence of the Pope, while Pio Nono locked himself in as "the prisoner in the Vatican".
Interesting asides:
In the invasion of Sicily a Neapolitan ship was commanded by Ferdinand Acton, great nephew of Sir John Acton who had been Prime Minister of Naples under Ferdinand I. The writer Harold Acton was born in Tuscany and claimed that Sir John was his great-great-grandfather.
A hospital worker uses 'chloride of lime' as a disinfectant. Presumably this is calcium chloride.
Garibaldi sailed up the Tyne to an enthusiastic welcome in 1854, well before he had become a hero for uniting Italy. This may have been when my ancestor was named 'Garabaldi (sic) Appleby'.
April 2009 368 pages
Tuesday, 14 April 2009
"The Boys' Book of Survival" by Guy Campbell
This is part of the series The Boys' Book, the Girls' book, Mum's book etc
It contains a mixture of advice from serious (How to Light a Fire, How to Wade through Water) to facetious (How to Survive a Family Christmas, How to Survive your Teachers). The tone throughout is mildly amusing as are the pictures.
Not quite as exciting as the Shackleton survival story I read just before!!!
April 2009, 127 pages
It contains a mixture of advice from serious (How to Light a Fire, How to Wade through Water) to facetious (How to Survive a Family Christmas, How to Survive your Teachers). The tone throughout is mildly amusing as are the pictures.
Not quite as exciting as the Shackleton survival story I read just before!!!
April 2009, 127 pages
Monday, 13 April 2009
"The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition" by Caroline Alexander
This book tells the story of Sir Ernest Shackleton and his 31 shipmates who sailed the Endurance to the Antarctic in December 1914 in an attempt to land and then sledge across the continent. The ship got stuck in pack ice and they sat imprisoned in it till November 1915 when the pressure of the ice broke it apart. They then sat on an ice floe till April 1916 at which point the ice began to break apart and they climbed into 3 lifeboats and travelled to the nearest solid land, the uninhabited Elephant Island. Then Shackleton and five others climbed into another boat and travelled through the Southern Ocean seas to South Georgia. his was an astounding feat of navigation given that they only sighted the sun twice in four days and South Georgia is about the only landfall in one thousand miles. Even landing here was not the end because they landed on the uninhabited side; they then had to travel across the unmapped interior of South Georgia, over mountains and glaciers, to a whaling station which they reached in May 1916. This was STILL not the end because it then took Shackleton four months to organise a rescue boat for the 26 men left on Elephant Island who were finally rescued on August 30th 1916.
And no one died!!
This account was put together from the recollections and diaries of the men involved. The book includes stunning photographs from Frank Hurley who was a member of the expedition. It ends by telling of the lives of the men after their incredible survival, ranging from becoming a down and out in New Zealand to becoming Vice Chancellor of the University of Cape Town and another who was Master of St John's in Cambridge.
It is an astonishing story of almost unbelievable courage and fortitude under horrendous conditions and a thrilling read.
April 2009, 203 pages
And no one died!!
This account was put together from the recollections and diaries of the men involved. The book includes stunning photographs from Frank Hurley who was a member of the expedition. It ends by telling of the lives of the men after their incredible survival, ranging from becoming a down and out in New Zealand to becoming Vice Chancellor of the University of Cape Town and another who was Master of St John's in Cambridge.
It is an astonishing story of almost unbelievable courage and fortitude under horrendous conditions and a thrilling read.
April 2009, 203 pages
Thursday, 9 April 2009
"Going Dutch in Beijing" by Mark McCrum
This is one of those miscellany reference books: full of interesting tit bits of information based around a theme. In this case the theme is "the weird things that foreigners do when abroad" but made pc by purporting to be a manual to assist the visitor in not offending his or her hosts.
But if this were truly so it should surely be organised by country (what not to do in China etc) rather than by theme (weddings, funerals etc).
It has moments of interest which make one wonder whether there is any truly worldwide culture and how some of the bizarre customs grew up in the first place. On the whole, however, it fails to develop any long lasting interest. Truly a dip in book.
However, I did find some lasting value from the last section which describes the general philosophies of various different cultures from the fatalistic middle east (Inshallah - god willing - bukra - tomorrow - ma'alesh - don't worry) to the saudade ('might have been') wistfulness of the Portuguese. But the best philosophy is the African ubuntu, the "deep sense that life is meaningful only if lived for and through other people".
But if this were truly so it should surely be organised by country (what not to do in China etc) rather than by theme (weddings, funerals etc).
It has moments of interest which make one wonder whether there is any truly worldwide culture and how some of the bizarre customs grew up in the first place. On the whole, however, it fails to develop any long lasting interest. Truly a dip in book.
However, I did find some lasting value from the last section which describes the general philosophies of various different cultures from the fatalistic middle east (Inshallah - god willing - bukra - tomorrow - ma'alesh - don't worry) to the saudade ('might have been') wistfulness of the Portuguese. But the best philosophy is the African ubuntu, the "deep sense that life is meaningful only if lived for and through other people".
Wednesday, 8 April 2009
"God's Own Country" by Ross Raisin
Sam Marsdyke, 19 year old son of a Yorkshire farmer, sits at the top of the Moor watching ramblers and the new people ("towns") arriving at the neighbouring farmhouse. In beautiful dialect he records the circumstances that led to his expulsion from school and subsequently lead to his friendship with the young daughter of the towns. A lad perfectly adapted to the Moors he has very little idea of other people; he is a primitive savage who is a lost innocent in the world of folk. He is like a fish, utterly at home in his natural environment but doomed the moment he is taken out of it. He just doesn't understand how other people think. Almost every interaction he has with people leads to disaster. Soon events build to their inevitable climax.
Although the plot is, on the whole, predictable, and employs mostly stock characters the novel is redeemed by the wonderful, faultless language used for Sam's monologue and which lends depth to his unique vision of the world.
April 2009, 211 pages
Although the plot is, on the whole, predictable, and employs mostly stock characters the novel is redeemed by the wonderful, faultless language used for Sam's monologue and which lends depth to his unique vision of the world.
April 2009, 211 pages
"In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote
This is a step by step account of a true life murder of 4 people in a farming family by two young men in Kansas in 1959. It deals with the last day of the family, the early stages of the investigation and the flight of the killers, the late stages of the investigation and the capture of the killers, and the trial and execution of the killers. It is incredibly detailed.
All of the characters come across as complex three dimensional people. The overwhelming question is why these two young men killed four people in an attempted robbery that netted them less than eighty dollars. The character of each killer is carefully scrutinised as is the complicated relationship between them. Each is a young man who has been damaged both physically (Perry has has his legs smashed in a motorbike accident; Dick his skull cracked in a car accident) and emotionally (Perry's circus performing parents split up). Perry fantasises about get rich quick schemes, Dick is more manipulative. Although there is a strong flavour of homosexuality between them (eg Dick repeatedly calls Perry 'honey') Perry strongly disapproves of gay sex and Dick enjoys multiple relationships with women, favouring pubescent girls, and could not bear to think of himself as other than 'a normal'. None of which explains the killings but all of which makes one realise that these monsters are as human as anyone else.
I picked out two quotes:
"Nancy Clutter is always in a hurry but she always has time. And that's one definition of a lady." (p23)
"Used to be I could eat anything didn't eat me first" (p279)
This is a classic book: beautifully written; synthesising journalism and the novel; raising fundamental questions about the nature of deviance; psychologically probing what it is that gives us the characters we have.
Highly enjoyable. Rated 84th in The Guardian's 100 best novels of all time. April 2009, 336 pages
Also by Truman Capote and reviewed in this blog:
Saturday, 28 March 2009
"The Autograph Man" by Zadie Smith
Longlisted for the 2002 Booker Prize and shortlisted for the 2003 Women's Prize.
The Autograph Man is Alex-Li Tandem, son of a Chinese doctor and a Jewish mother (and therefore half-Jewish. His dad takes him and his mates, Adam and Rubinfline to a wrestling match between Big Daddy and Giant Haystacks; at the match his dad dies of brain cancer.
The main part of the book tells of a week in Alex-Li's life. It starts after a three day blank out following an acid trip; it follows him to autograph auctions and through boozy lunches; he travels to New York to meet Kitty Alexander, the old film actress he worships; he returns to London.
He spends an awful lot of the book drunk or hungover or on drugs or wasted. This became tedious. The rest of the time he is meditating on the meaning of life from a Chinese-Jewish standpoint. This also became tedious. I think the main problem was that I couldn't really like him: he was a self-indulgent waste of space. The book is essentially a drunkard's excuse for his drunkenness and we have all been cornered in a bar by some sot who wants to justify himself and explain the meaning of the world.
There are some enjoyable flashes of humour. "How did you find New York?" asks one character; "The pilot knew the way" is the reply. A couple of characters sparkle. There was one moment when one character posed a dilemma that sounded real rather than spoilt: what should your response be when you discover that someone has loved you unrequited for fifteen years; should you not let them love you? But basically I couldn't see the point of the book.
I preferred Zadie Smith's White Teeth and her wonderful NW. Swing Time is excellent as well.
March 2009, 419 pages
The main part of the book tells of a week in Alex-Li's life. It starts after a three day blank out following an acid trip; it follows him to autograph auctions and through boozy lunches; he travels to New York to meet Kitty Alexander, the old film actress he worships; he returns to London.
He spends an awful lot of the book drunk or hungover or on drugs or wasted. This became tedious. The rest of the time he is meditating on the meaning of life from a Chinese-Jewish standpoint. This also became tedious. I think the main problem was that I couldn't really like him: he was a self-indulgent waste of space. The book is essentially a drunkard's excuse for his drunkenness and we have all been cornered in a bar by some sot who wants to justify himself and explain the meaning of the world.
There are some enjoyable flashes of humour. "How did you find New York?" asks one character; "The pilot knew the way" is the reply. A couple of characters sparkle. There was one moment when one character posed a dilemma that sounded real rather than spoilt: what should your response be when you discover that someone has loved you unrequited for fifteen years; should you not let them love you? But basically I couldn't see the point of the book.
I preferred Zadie Smith's White Teeth and her wonderful NW. Swing Time is excellent as well.
March 2009, 419 pages
Thursday, 19 March 2009
"A town like Alice" by Nevil Shute
This is a book of two halves. The first part tells of the experiences of a young woman, Jean Paget, who is with a party of British "mems" captured by the Japanese in Malaya and treks around Malaya under guard before ending up in a Malayan fishing village. During these adventures she encounters a captured Australian who falls "fowl" of the Japs.
The second part tells of her adventures in Australia after the war and contrasts a quite businesslike description of the power of capitalism to build an outback village into a town with a somewhat sedate (by today's standards) love story.
The first part is compelling reading. The second part one tolerates because one wants to know what happened.
The story is told by a quaint English solicitor who becomes trustee for the young woman. He is clearly a man of his time (I suspect he would have been old-fashioned even then) and this narration device is cute but lends the whole book a slightly musty air.
The author's style is very matter of fact. I believe Shute was an aeronautical engineer (who worked on the R100 with Barnes Wallis; he was English by birth but emigrated to Australia after the second world war) although he sounds like a journalist. He has a very direct, simple style and the plot is clear; there are no complicated literary mannerisms to get in the way.
It is clearly of its time. It is casually racist. There is a clear distinction between the white mems in Malaya and the native women, although here he clearly has sympathies with the natives; the white women who survive do so because they adopt the native way of life. There are references to Negroes and Abos; an aboriginal woman is described as a lubra and is clearly no fit mate for a white man; it is important to the Australian farmers that they have white cowboys because the abos can't be trusted. The most shocking event to my mind was the fact that the forward thinking businesswoman who set up the ice cream parlour deliberately created two counters, one for whites and one for "boongs" because "I don't think you could serve them [the boongs] in an ice-cream parlour, with a white girl behind the counter."
It is also slightly funny in its depiction of Australian speech with the swear words changed to "mugger" or "mucking" and the frequent use of (one suspects bowdlerised) phrases such as "oh my word".
Finally, although it gets quite risque when she gets half-naked in front of him, they wait until they are married!
Nevil Shute is a writer I have never read before. He is very much out of fashion although he was clearly very much in fashion when this was published (1961): it was "specially chosen" as the 1000th Pan paperback. I am glad I have read this book and I would now like to read "On the beach" (read it now, Sept 2022) but I haven't missed great literature.
March 2009 314 pages
Monday, 9 March 2009
"December" by Elizabeth H Winthrop
This is a classic modern American novel in that the detail is incredible. On page 5 we learn what is in the trash can: "cardboard, Styrofoam, wood scraps, newspapers, empty paint cans and oil bottles, and other rags like this one. .... The rag is flannel, printed with purple alligators." Obsessive?
The book is about a man (city businessman) and his wife and daughter. The action starts at their upstate weekend "cottage", in the snow. The daughter is an elective mute. The parents are tearing their hair out because of this.
The father makes lists all the time and gets on with jobs. The mother's conversation is a model of pointless phrases tossed out into the air for comfort rather than communication. The daughter (who is, OF COURSE, very intelligent) chose silence as a means of controlling her environment but is coming to regard it as a prison which she cannot escape.
But it goes deeper than these somewhat stock characterisations suggest. The mother is desperate that her daughter should break through her silence and mostly devises ways to try to force her, trick her or manipulate her into speech. Yet you cannot think of her as an evil woman, rather as a desperate one. The father is far more content to let things be and find ways of really enjoying his daughter. Other family members get involved: the mother's delusional and sometimes violent brother; the paternal grandmother who keeps horses in the countryside.
The child herself is aware that her silence is confusing, damaging and terrifying her parents and she knows she has no right to inflict this on them. At other times, especially when she feels she is being manipulated, she is furious at them. Thus, a typical adolescent.
It is well plotted, perfectly observed and it all builds to a most satisfying climax.
Excellent.
March 2009 373 pages
The book is about a man (city businessman) and his wife and daughter. The action starts at their upstate weekend "cottage", in the snow. The daughter is an elective mute. The parents are tearing their hair out because of this.
The father makes lists all the time and gets on with jobs. The mother's conversation is a model of pointless phrases tossed out into the air for comfort rather than communication. The daughter (who is, OF COURSE, very intelligent) chose silence as a means of controlling her environment but is coming to regard it as a prison which she cannot escape.
But it goes deeper than these somewhat stock characterisations suggest. The mother is desperate that her daughter should break through her silence and mostly devises ways to try to force her, trick her or manipulate her into speech. Yet you cannot think of her as an evil woman, rather as a desperate one. The father is far more content to let things be and find ways of really enjoying his daughter. Other family members get involved: the mother's delusional and sometimes violent brother; the paternal grandmother who keeps horses in the countryside.
The child herself is aware that her silence is confusing, damaging and terrifying her parents and she knows she has no right to inflict this on them. At other times, especially when she feels she is being manipulated, she is furious at them. Thus, a typical adolescent.
It is well plotted, perfectly observed and it all builds to a most satisfying climax.
Excellent.
March 2009 373 pages
Tuesday, 3 March 2009
"Evita the woman with the whip" by Mary Main
This is the biography of Evita that got Tim Rice excited enough to insist that Andrew L-W wrote the musical.
It has some beautiful description: a pueblo "lies like a worm cast on the platter of the plains" and "encompassing as a cup turned down upon a plate and dwarfing the pueblo and man himself to insect size, is the great dome of the sky."
But you could hardly call it unbiassed. It wears its anti-peronista prejudice like a tee-shirt proudly advertising Tommy Hilfiger or Abercrombie & Fitch. Evita cannot do anything without being sneered at. About her only positive quality seems to be her drive and energy and even that is regarded as a rather manic outpouring of unbridled ambition. Thus: Eva is a bad actress who hasn't even worked out what an actress needs to make her good, she is a promiscuous slattern who manipulates men, she is vengeful against political enemies and old friends alike, she resents being sneered at by the oligarchs, she is totally corrupt and on the make and her charitable activities are total shams.
All this might be true. But she must have had something to get her to the top and to keep her there for so long. And she was adored. And Peron clearly adored her too and was prepared to share his Presidency with her when many men would have got rid of the awkward wife.
Aside from this continual negativity (and it sometimes sounds bitchy and snide) the book is mostly a good read. I got a bit bogged down in the details of Peron's first term as President and there was not nearly enough about Evita's final year when the cancer was killing her; the epilogue about Peron's return from 15 years of exile to Argentina was also too rushed.
There is no doubt that the Peronistas did an awful lot of good in Argentina whilst at the same time being a neo-fascist and totalitarian regime that out-mussolinid Mussolini. Main lists their successes such as the minimum wage and decent working conditions and the right for women to vote. Nevertheless they left the country beset by rampant inflation, economically crippled and veering from military junta to weak civilian government. That is why they wanted Peron back when he was basically too old and tired to do any good (he died within a year and was succeeded by his wife who therefore became the first Argentine woman President but who was NOT Evita).
Good book
March 2009 285 pages
It has some beautiful description: a pueblo "lies like a worm cast on the platter of the plains" and "encompassing as a cup turned down upon a plate and dwarfing the pueblo and man himself to insect size, is the great dome of the sky."
But you could hardly call it unbiassed. It wears its anti-peronista prejudice like a tee-shirt proudly advertising Tommy Hilfiger or Abercrombie & Fitch. Evita cannot do anything without being sneered at. About her only positive quality seems to be her drive and energy and even that is regarded as a rather manic outpouring of unbridled ambition. Thus: Eva is a bad actress who hasn't even worked out what an actress needs to make her good, she is a promiscuous slattern who manipulates men, she is vengeful against political enemies and old friends alike, she resents being sneered at by the oligarchs, she is totally corrupt and on the make and her charitable activities are total shams.
All this might be true. But she must have had something to get her to the top and to keep her there for so long. And she was adored. And Peron clearly adored her too and was prepared to share his Presidency with her when many men would have got rid of the awkward wife.
Aside from this continual negativity (and it sometimes sounds bitchy and snide) the book is mostly a good read. I got a bit bogged down in the details of Peron's first term as President and there was not nearly enough about Evita's final year when the cancer was killing her; the epilogue about Peron's return from 15 years of exile to Argentina was also too rushed.
There is no doubt that the Peronistas did an awful lot of good in Argentina whilst at the same time being a neo-fascist and totalitarian regime that out-mussolinid Mussolini. Main lists their successes such as the minimum wage and decent working conditions and the right for women to vote. Nevertheless they left the country beset by rampant inflation, economically crippled and veering from military junta to weak civilian government. That is why they wanted Peron back when he was basically too old and tired to do any good (he died within a year and was succeeded by his wife who therefore became the first Argentine woman President but who was NOT Evita).
Good book
March 2009 285 pages
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