Caroline's Reading boat on the River (Caroline_McElwee)

Hi, I’m Caroline and I’ve been on LT for 7 years now, but this is my first go at a Club Read – I am going to have a bit more time this year – taking a late gap year from April – and so hopefully will have time to make regular entries here. I’ll try and put a line or two at least, about each book read (even if not immediately entered – some things need a little meditation!).

So far the only LT Challenge I have taken on is the American Author Challenge:
http://www.librarything.com/topic/162960#4440387

I am likely also to begin on the F Scott Fitzgerald College of One list of reading, you can find the books on that list in my collection here: http://www.librarything.com/catalog/Caroline_McElwee/collegeofone I loved Graham’s book about the ‘college’, and in the 1980s set out to collect them, it took me over 15 years to track down copies of all of them, and they have been sitting on my shelf winking at me ever since.

This year I want to read mostly my own books – I’ve read about 25% of the books I own; with occasional books from the library. I am a lucky member of the London Library: http://www.londonlibrary.co.uk/?gclid=CL_FmaX9gJ4CFRCY2Aod62SKpQ

I have started a separate catalogue to list the library books I’ve read here:

http://www.librarything.com/profile/CJM_at_LondonLibrary

When I am asked what my favourite book is, of course, I cannot really say. What I answer is that the book I have read the most is F Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby for the writing, and the tone. I have now read it more than 30 times, and re-read it at least once a year. Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway is the novel I have read most frequently after that (but only about 8 times), and non-fiction is probably Karen Blixen’s Out of Africa (8-9 times).

Currently reading:

All we Know of Heaven (Remy Rougeau) (novel)
The Married Man: A Life of DH Lawrence (Brenda Maddox)
The Complete Short Stories of DH Lawrence
Slow Reading in a Hurried Age (David Mikics)
A Year to Live: How to Live this year as if it were your last (Stephen Levine) (re-read)
The Battle for Scotland (Andrew Marr) (Politics/history)
On Further Reflection (Jonathan Miller)

Think (Simon Blackburn)
The Great Cosmic Mother (Monica sjöö and Barbara Mor)
Wolf Khan (Justin Spring)

Questions of Travel: William Morris in Iceland
Don Juan Lord George Byron
The Moor: Lives, Landscape, Literature (William Atkins)
23 things they don't tell you about Capitalism (Ha-Joon Chang) - economics

I'm also dipping into a number of other books too.

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(All photos - other than book covers - are mine unless otherwise cited)

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My reading year so far

The Writing Life (Annie Dillard) (03/01/14) ***** re-read Memoir
The School for Love (Olivia Manning) (05/01/14) ***1/2 Novel
Sempre Susan (Sigrid Nunez) (06/01/14) ***1/2 Memoir
Standing in the Light: My Life as a Pantheist (Sharman Apt Russell) (11/01/14) **** Memoir/Spiritual
The Violins of St Jacques (Patrick Leigh Fermor) (12/01/1304) *** Novel
O Pioneers! (Willa Cather)(15/01/14) **** Novel, US
Meditations (Marcus Auralius) (18/01/14) **** Philosophy
The Insulted and Injured (Fyodor Dostoyevsky) (25/01/14) ***
It's Fine By Me (Per Peterson) (26/01/14)***1/2
The Outlander (Gil Adamson) (08/02/14) ***1/2
The Hamlet (William Faulkner) (20/02/14) ****
Persepolis 1 (Marjane Satrapi) (27/02/14) ***
Day (A L Kennedy) (03/03/14) **** 1/2
What W. H. Auden can do for you (Alexander McCall Smith)Essays (09/03/14) ****
Tinkers (Paul Harding) (16/03/14) ****1/2
The Road to Middlemarch: My life with George Eliot (Rebecca Mead) (21/03/14) ****
The Lives of Stella Bain (Anita Shreve) (24/03/14) ***
The Legacy of Elizabeth Pringle (Kirsty Wark) (05/04/14) ****
Life Lessons from Byron (Matthew Bevis) (08/04/14) ****1/2
On Leave (Daniel Anselme) (13/04/14) ***1/2
How to be a Woman (Caitlin Moran) (memoir) (18/04/14) ***1/2
Summer in February (Jonathan Smith) (22/04/14) ****
Soil, Soul, Society (Satish Kumar) (23/04/14) ****
I've lived in London for 86 1/2 years (Joseph Markovitch/Martin Usbourne) (26/04/14) *****
Woolgathering (Patti Smith) (27/04/14) ****
Margaret Fuller: A New American Life (Megan Marshall) (biography) (04/05/14) ****
The Song of Solomon (Toni Morrison) (12/05/14) *****
The Lie (Helen Dunmore) (16/05/14) ****1/2
The Murder Bag (Tony Parsons) ****
Rumi: the Persian, the Sufi (A Reza Aresteh) (27/05/14) ****1/2
Loudness (Judy Brown) (27/05/14) ***1/2
The Dept of Speculation (Jenny Offill) (28/05/14) ****
The Sandalwood Tree (Elle Newmark) ***1/2
Virginia Woolf in Manhattan (Maggie Gee) (novel) . (14/06/14) ****1/2
Amours de Voyage (Arthur Hugh Clough) (15/06/14) ***
The Clothes on heir Backs (Linda Grant) (22/06/14) ****
This Boy (Alan Johnson) (autobiography) 23/06/14) ****
Carl Jung (Paul Bishop) (30/06/14) ****
Sanctuary (Brian Dillon) (30/06/14) ****
In the Light of What We Know (Zia Haider Rahman) (13/07/14) ****1/2
The Information Officer (Mark Mills) (17/07/14) ***1/2
Youth Without God (Odon von Horvath) (novel) (18/07/14) ****
Madame Bovary (Gustave Flaubert) (31/07/14) ****
Suddenly, Love (Aharon Appelfeld) (03/08/14) (novel) ****1/2
Andrew Wyeth: A Spoken Self-Portrait (with Richard Meryman)(03/08/14) ****

Total read: 45

What stood out in 2013

Fiction

Top 5

Orkney (Amy Sackville) ****1/2
Pnin (Vladimir Nabokov) ****1/2
Frances and Bernard (Carlene Bauer) ****1/2
The Goldfinch (Donna Tartt) (02/11/13) ****1/2
Toilers of the Sea (Victor Hugo) (07/04/13) ****1/2

Best of the rest

The Poetry Professor (Grace McCleen) ****
The Orchardist (Amanda Coplin) (novel) (Debut) ****
Americanah (Chimamanda Ngosi Adichie) ****
The Orchard (Drusilla Modjeska) ****1/2 (Australia)
Beowulf (Seamus Heaney trans) ****1/2
The Selfish Giant and other Stories (Oscar Wilde)*****

Non-Fiction

Top 5

Airmail: letters of Robert Bly and Tomas Tranströmer (27/07/13) *****
The Twilight of American Culture (Morris Berman) (NF) (05/01/13) ****
Straw Dogs (John Gray) ****1/2 (Essays)
William Morris (Fiona MacCarthy) ****1/2
Feral: Searching for Enchantment on the Frontiers of Rewilding (George Monbiat) ****

Best of the rest

The Letters of Leonard Woolf (ed Frederic Spotts) ****1/2
Living, Thinking, Looking (Siri Hustvedt) **** (Essays)
On Writing (A L Kennedy)) ****1/2
The Time by the Sea (Ronald Bythe) ****
This is it (Alan Watts) (Essays) ****
The Rings of Saturn (W G (Max) Sebald) *****
Virginia Woolf's Garden (Caroline Zoob/Caroline Arber: photographer) *****
At the Source (Gillian Clarke) memoir/Wales/poetry/nature ****

Special mention
Vincent Van Gogh sketchbooks ***** Folio Society Facimillies

When I first picked these sketchbook facimillies up, it felt like touching the originals!

Read in 2014 January

The Writing Life (Annie Dillard) (03/01/14) (re-read) (Memoir) – this is about the third or fourth time I have read this book. I love the rigour of it. The sparseness.

The School for Love (Olivia Manning) (05/01/14) (Novel, UK) – I enjoyed this novel, but it didn’t hit the spot as much as Fortunes of War: Balkan Trilogy.

Sempre Susan (Sigrid Nunez) (06/01/14) (Memoir) – Susan Sontag has always fascinated me as a woman. I have read a number of her essays and 2 of her novels. But she is one of those writers who is ‘a personality’ or ‘an entity’ in addition to being a writer somehow. Nunez gives us the perspective of being part of the family, as she was the girlfriend of Sontag’s son, and lived with both of them for a couple of years. Having read David’s memoir written after his mother’s death, I thought this would round out the picture. It certainly confirmed some of my assumptions, and added colour to what I already knew of this complex woman.

Standing in the Light: My Life as a Pantheist (Sharman Apt Russell) (11/01/14) (Memoir/Spiritual) – For years I have wondered how to describe what it is I believe, and coming on some books recently, I settled on pantheistic beliefs, so was interested to read this memoir, which aside from being personal, also cites the philosophers with pantheistic leanings, most of whom are already personal friends.

The Violins of St Jacques (Patrick Leigh Fermor) (12/01/1304) (Novel, UK) – I enjoyed this novel, but ultimately it was a disappointment. The trouble with Leigh Fermor is that you have such high expectations!

O Pioneers! (Willa Cather)(15/01/14) (Novel, US) – Read this as part of the American Author Challenge and loved it. Rich and lucid writing. I have read one or two other Cather novels, and this confirms I will be reading more.

Meditations (Marcus Auralius) (18/01/14) (Philosophy) – this has long been on my pile to be read and wasn’t a disappointment. It tilts on the pantheistic theme.

The Insulted and Injured (Fyodor Dostoyevsky) (25/01/14) (Novel, Russian) – As I read the letters of Virginia Woolf I noted down the books she recommends to her friends, and intend to read some of them, this book comes from that nascent list. I enjoyed it, especially the first 100 pages, but felt that it could have done with some editing and be at least 100 shorter! I can understand why it is one of his lesser known novels.

It's Fine By Me (Per Petterson) (26/01/14) (Novel, Norwegian) – Out Stealing Horses is still my favourite of Petterson’s novels, but I soon fall into the tone of his fiction.

Total read: 09

(Photo of a stash of books bought in York a few years ago - and there was another box full sent from the shop - thanks Ken Spelman's!)

Read in 2014 February

The Outlander by Gil Adamson (see >24 Caroline_McElwee: below)
The Hamlet by William Falkner (see >28 Caroline_McElwee: below)
Persepolis 1 by Marjane Satrapi (see >45 Caroline_McElwee: below)

Total read in February: 3
Total Read this year: 12

Welcome, Caroline! So glad to be able to find you here! Wow, 9 books already in January! I'm very impressed.

Welcome to Club Read! What a beautiful thread you've started - love the book pictures.

So good to see you here, Caroline! I'm looking forward to following your reading year, in words and (especially) pictures!

Love the book picture, good to see so many old books.

Nice little review of Sempre Susan which I would be very tempted to read.

At the risk of being pedantic, some of the choices in the college of one seem strange.

For D.H. Lawrence, Sons and Lovers, or Women in Love would be better, I think.

For David Garnett ( who really doesn't deserve a spot there), I have only read Lady into Fox which is often anthologized.

Why was Compton Mackenzie there at all?

I have read all but a few of the books on the list, but the choices often seem strange. I thinkThe Brothers Karamazov has more 'soul' and so does 'Notes from the Underground than crime and and Punishment which is grim.

There are very few women on the list, and I miss George Eliot and Jane Austen. Why so many second raters when there are so many first raters left out? Did Fitzgerald compose the list?

Jennifer, nice to meet you. I do like to scatter pictures through my threads, and love pictures of books, of course!

Lois, not sure how I have managed 9 books in January, but then none have been massive tomes.

Good to see you Chris, I have to have a peek at your thread today.

Barry, I hope you enjoy Sempre Susan, I love putting together the collage of who an interesting person is.

Miriam, yes, Fitzgerald chose the books, but he chose them in tandum with H G Well's A Short History of the World and apparently married each literary book to a chapter in the history (Sheilah was meant to work out why he had tied the novel to the chapter).

I guess at the end of the day if every list suggested by someone only had 'the greats on' it would be the same list for the most part. Its interesting to see what other things have been chosen. Very few writers have not had some flawed works, and often they give you an insight into the writers development.

I was mesmerised by Crime and Punishment and can vividly remember reading it, I was helping coordinate a conference, and whilst it was running, I sat outside the main hall reading C&P.

Thought I needed to have a little treat on this thread, that isn't a book!

Reading prospects discovered from the lists and reviews of other LTers!

Point Counter-Point Aldous Huxley (Chris - cabegley's thread)


The Grass is Singing by Doris Lessing (Baswood's thread)

The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker (Tui's thread)

Why is it that photos of piles of books are so interesting? I've just spent ages gazing at yours. And you say there'll be more? I'll be back! (And to see what you're reading, of course ;-) )

Will be nice to have you about rachbxi (? Rachel).

I get very miffed when you can see bookcases behind folk in photos, but you can't get near enough to read them ha!

I love the look of that bookshelf in post #2. I see Americanah and The Goldfinch on your "best of" list. I want to get to them soon. Seeing them on a best of list makes them even more tempting.

Hi Colleen, I have to own to being a bit of a fan of Folio Society books (bookshelf in >>2 Caroline_McElwee:). I started collecting back in the 1980s, and continue to add to my collection - although in a contained way now, space being a problem. They are all over the flat, only a couple of shelves which are just Folio Books.

Hope you enjoy both books when you get to them. For me Americanah was good, but not my Adichie favourite, which is still Purple Hibiscus although Half of a Yellow Sun comes close behind.

Hello Caroline

I've lurked in your virtual library for a couple of years now. Lovely to see the photos of the physical manifestations and the chocolate looks divine as well.

Looking forward to more of your reviews. Willa Cather is on my list for this year too.

Hi SassyLassy, glad you have come out from behind the thicket! The chocolate WAS divine I have to admit. Books and chocolate, the perfect combination.

*starred*

Caroline, my daughter, Chris / cabegley, has suggested I read Half of a Yellow Sun before reading Americanah. She is my go to library.

I love your pictures - you appear to have a lot of lovely older books.

I knew Chris's mum was on LT, but hadn't realised it was you Colleen. Good library to be able to go to.

Glad you like the photos FannyP Kris. I like to have some visuals too.

Almost no time for reading over the past few days, but hopefully more time in the coming week. x everything.

Nice to see you here, Caro! I look forward to following your reading.

Good to see you about too Rebecca.

Still reading The Outlander, I've had so little reading time the past 10 days, but hopefully will finish it by tomorrow morning. My sister is in the queue to borrow it (she gifted it to me at Christmas) and is in London at the weekend.

The Outlander Gil Adamson (08/02/14)


I really enjoyed the beginning of this novel, finding it quite a page turner, but ultimately, there were times when I wanted to stay with parts of it that were passed over quite quickly.

That said, I had very little reading time over the past ten days, and possibly only being able to consume it in such small bites from the middle on, may have had a detrimental effect.

A young woman is being persued out in the wilds of Canada by her two brothers-in-law who are chasing her for the murder of her husband. This is her journey and the story of those whose paths she crosses. Not a spoiler as you are told at the outset.

Interesting comments, as I enjoyed this book more the greater the chunks of time I had when I was reading it. It looks like the cover may have been tarted up a bit; I remember things being more basic.

Marvellous start of the year, Caroline. With such wonderful books, great photos and interesting posts, I will surely regularly follow your reading log here.

Hi Edwin, pleased to meet you.

I have had a lot less time to read this month it feels, but hopefully that will be changing soon!

The Hamlet William Faulkner (20/02/14)



I finally finished reading William Faulkner's The Hamlet this morning, first in a trilogy of novels about the Snopes family.

I was not surprised to read in a note at the end, that the trilogy started out as short stories, and only latterly were turned into novels. This was the thing I kept feeling. That although there was some cohesion, they didn't feel as if they were an original fit.

On the whole though, I liked the book. Floating along on the words for long periods. Getting lost from time to time, when there were quiet character shifts, easy to miss if you had been lulled by the rhythm of the storytelling, so I had to go back a few times.

I have a sense that I will find a deeper connection the more I read the books, and I will read the others over the year. But another writer that benefits from long periods of reading in one sitting. This is my 3rd or 4th Faulkner, I don't yet have the Faulkner gene, but I don't have an aversion either.

I need to have time to digest before actually writing a review of the book, rather than a piece about my experience with it, which this is.

I read this as part of Faulkner February: The American Author Challenge - see link in the first post at the top of the page.

Enjoyed reading about your thoughts on reading the Hamlet.

Also enjoyed your thoughts on the Faulkner, Caroline.

(The bust of Oscar Wilde is by Stephen Paterson http://www.stevepaterson.co.uk/)

Time for some flowers!

Thanks Barry and Lois.

My planned week snuggled away at the Gladstone's Library didn't happen (weather causing train stoppages), so I got to read far less in my week off than planned, although achieved other things. I was in need of a more cerebral week though. But soon.

I'm about a third through A L Kennedy's Day, which is a fine novel, but not one of those books to love. A friend was talking about not having loved any recent reads, and I feel pretty much the same this year, several very fine reads, but nothing that totally swept me away.

How books fulfil so many very different needs in us.

I am so ready for spring. :)

Hope you find some books that sweep you away soon!

Me too Colleen. We have had a few sping-like days here, but I think it might be a while. The tree opposite where I live is a mischievous early blossomer!

Rebecca, I might get swept up in the Christina Stead biography I have just started, but I'm not going to be able to settle with it properly til next weekend.

I think I've got too many things going on at the moment.

>28 Caroline_McElwee: I have not yet worked up the courage for a Faulkner novel. I'm all for "floating along on the words for long periods" though.

>31 Caroline_McElwee: Those flowers are gorgeous! Love all your book-ish pictures & am very curious about Monkey In the House!

Fresh flowers and scent: how wonderful and needed! Nice to see those old J M Dent books too.

I'll be interested to see what you think of Day when you finish it. Kennedy is one of my favourite authors. Like many of her books, this one was sort of up and down as I read it, but it has stayed with me for a long time, and I think of it often, especially around discussions of war and class.

Hi AvidMom and Sassy, glad you enjoyed the flowers.

I am a fan of monkeys AM and this was an amusing book about life with a monkey in the house. Not something I approve of, but not illegal back then. I did a couple of stints in a monkey sanctuary in Looe in Cornwall years ago, looking after Brazilian Wooley monkeys. I'll post a picture tomorrow. They are such social creatures, monkeys and Apes.

Further to >>37 Caroline_McElwee: above: This is Bella – the colony matriarch when I was at the Monkey sanctuary back in the early 1990s:


I think their ‘nickname’ is rather appropriate don’t you, she looks like she has a cosy woolly jumper on. Their Latin name is Lagothrix Lagotricha.

The sanctuary I volunteered at for two stints of a month each was started by the Zoologist/Spanish Guitarist Leonard Williams (father of guitarist John Williams), who took in individual monkeys when people who had bought them as pets found them too much to handle once they reached early maturity. The monkeys I worked with were the decedents of the original group.

http://www.monkeysanctuary.org/files/2010/08/What-is-a-Woolly-Monkey.pdf

As I said, I was last there in the early 1990s. About 4 years ago I went to visit Monkey World with a friend, and we came upon a small family of Woolly monkeys in their sanctuary, and within minutes I could hear in my head the communication sounds they make, a cross between a grunt/bark, and started making it at the side of the enclosure, and to my friend's amusement, suddenly two of the group immediately looked up, and then came nearer, and started to ‘reply’ to my communication.

What a great picture. She does look like she's wearing a cozy sweater.

Colleen, I had a great experience working with these delightful creatures. They are inquisitive, totally know how to manipulate you, woo you and get under your skin.

They also loved music, any kind, they didn't seem to be judgemental, but if you ever took a radio or a tape recorder out into the grounds, you would often find a number of them had gravitated towards where you were. Obviously, this was one of the interests of Leonard Williams, and I think he wrote about it somewhere.

Oh how adorable. That must have been a very interesting experience.

Hello, Caroline. Just found your thread! I'm glad you enjoyed The Hamlet. If you continue with the trilogy, you will find less of that "collection of stories" feeling to the other two books.

Linda, I certainly intend to continue with the trilogy this year.

Laura, it was one of life's special experiences. Feeling a sense of trust with another species is quite extraordinary. Although this was no wilderness adventure, it is still precious and memorable.

>38 Caroline_McElwee: I've never seen a monkey like that before! She looks so sweet. :)

What a wonderful experience you got to have; thanks for sharing!

Persepolis – 1 Marjane Satrapi 28/02/14



This was my first read of a graphic novel (for my local book group). It didn’t put me off. However, it is certainly a very different experience. I’m not sure if it applies to all graphic novels, but I found that it was possible to include a high level of complex information within the illustrations – as text, but also as image. But the thing I missed most, was the depth of character that is possible in a more conventional novel. I loved the stark black and white imagery.

Marjane is a 13 year old girl in a liberal home in Iran when the revolution occurs. This is the story of her journey, and that of her family in the 5 or so years that follow. How the young assimilate revolutionary change into their lives, as most of us do change as we are growing up, how she attempts to subvert the rules. This is a semi-autobiographical novel, though I suspect it is more novel than strictly her biography, I noticed in my reading group somehow the graphic novel made it easier for its readers to presume that it was autobiography, that and the fact that she uses her own name (or is it her real name). Actually, looking at comments on the web, this does seem to be promoted as an autobiography.

Read in 2014 March


And in London at least, it is beginning to feel like Spring!



Day A L Kennedy (03/03/14) (See 47 below)
'What W. H. Auden can do for you' Alexander McCall Smith (See 56 below)
Tinkers Paul Harding (see 63 below)
The Road to Middlemarch: My Life with George Eliot (Rebecca Mead) (21/03/14) (see 71 below)
The Lives of Stella Bain (Anita Shreve) (24/03/14) (see 71 below)

Total Read in March: 5
Total Read this year: 17

Day A L Kennedy 03/03/14


Stream-of-conscious novels always take a little while to get into, they require more work from the reader, but in my view, offer a just return.

The ‘Day’ of the title is Alfred Day, a gunner in Lancaster airplanes (Lancs) in WW2. The novel shifts from post war, when Alfred and others have volunteered as extras on a war film being made in Germany (!), and his memories of his war experience, working with his ‘crew’ and his affair with a young married woman during that time.

So, on your toes Reading Officer’s – ATTENTION is required, as you will have to keep up with these two shifts, as well as the at least two inner voices of Alfred Day, at the beginning as he is practicing the voice of the man Alfred believes he needs to become, and his own voice, shifting between the past and present. Don’t panic, it all becomes second nature soon enough, but I would recommend starting the novel when you have a couple of hours to spare.

For me, S-o-C novels take me to places I have only ever been in my own head, right inside the thinking mind and its levels and voices. You don’t even totally experience this with your friends and family per se. Most people edit or give you only part of what they have going on inside them at any given time. But being inside a fictitious mind, allows the author to attempt to capture several things running concurrently in the mind, as well as out in the external world of the character.

With Virginia Woolf’s characters, for example, you hear what they are saying, and what they are thinking at the same time. Kennedy has written before about her admiration of the work of Woolf, and in this novel certainly, you can feel the influence.

The two things that stood out for me were the sense of what it is like to be a young man who is expected to participate in a war, and the camaraderie that evolves and is vital for survival with his fellow flyers. And what it is that a person has to hold at a distance: the good memories, experiences beyond the active life, the emotional life.

Ultimately a very satisfying read.

Enjoyed your review of a novel that for me is one of the best by one of the best contemporary authors. It has stayed in my mind since first reading it.

Interesting about the admiration for Woolf, which I didn't know, but which makes a lot of sense.

From a London perspective, did you find social class to be an element in this novel? It struck me strongly and added an element of pathos to Day's story, in the sense that the reader knows there are some things that just won't change for him.

Lovely review of the Kennedy book, Caro. Intrigued! And that Keats cover, oh my.

Sassy, yes, there was that social hierarchy. But I felt this less of a London novel than, say, Sarah Walters's The Night Watch in which, for me, London is one of the main characters.

Tui, I inherited that book from my maternal grandfather's second wife.

Sorry, I was unclear, I meant from a perspective in England versus North America.

That being said, London as a character is an interesting idea, and so I will check the library for The Night Watch.

I was very impressed with Everything you need: A Novel and so I was interested in your excellent review of Day. I shall try and read another novel by her. I like what you said about reading stream of conscious novels. The trick is to realise what is going on and then go with the flow.

Caroline, interesting thoughts on the Kennedy novel. I started Day ages ago after picking it up at a library sale, but set it aside. After reading your review I think perhaps I did not have the attention span at the time. I remember citizenkelly was a big fan. I did read a collection of hers last year ( Now That You're Back) and liked it well enough. Will have to check when the boxes are unpacked to see if I kept Day or whether it went away in the great 2013 purge. If not, I might have another go at it.

>31 Caroline_McElwee: Glad you posted that photo here. It's such a lovely photo.

Great review of Day, Caroline. There's so much to explore in that short novel. And we gave matching high scores: 4½ stars!

Thanks Barry, Lois and Edwin. I certainly think A L Kennedy is worth the effort. Lois, I struggled a bit with the first 25 pages or so, wondering whether it was what I wanted to read.



I am really not enjoying & Sons though, and despite being 2/3rds through am going to put it aside for now. It bores me, it's characters bore me... It got good reviews, and I suspect will appeal to men more than women as it is almost totally about men, but I've spent much of my life reading novels about men, but few have made me as bored as this lot. I'll finish it down the line, as not to, having got this far, will feel like I've wasted my time.

'What W. H. Auden can do for you' (Alexander McCall Smith) (09/03/14)



I really enjoyed this little book of essays about how Auden nudged his way into Alexander McCall Smith’s life, and has taken up residence. I love writers who do that, for me it started with Oscar Wilde, then F Scott Fitzgerald, George Eliot and Virginia Woolf. These writers I cannot do without. They have become personal friends (as has the artist Vincent Van Gogh). They sit on my shoulder, they inform my life, they are my intellectual companions and creative friends, and they can be great gossips (it’s good to read the letters of your literary friends, they generally have plenty to entertain you with). They are writers who you will not only read, but will read extensively about. McCall became friends with Auden’s executor and biographer, and Auden (and his biographer) bled literally into McCall Smith’s work. Well, if you can work with friends, why work with anyone else! Art imitating life, imitating art.

>55 Caroline_McElwee:: well pooh.

Quite so Tui! The characters weren't even worth the effort of hate or dislike!

>56 Caroline_McElwee: I love McCall Smith's stuff (usually). I'll have to keep my eye out for that one!

I agree re the nudging of writers into our lives. And yes, they do become personal friends of a kind, don't they? Loved your comments in #55. Refreshing in a way. :-)

Yes Lois, sometimes we have to declare when we find something tiresome. It is rare I have such a negative response to a book, I always try to see some positive aspects (and when I finish and review this book I probably will find things) because I know how much work goes into anything creative.

The other thing that I am finding in a lot of contemporary fiction at the moment is the obsession with drug taking characters. It is almost treated as the norm. Are all Americans drug takers - I think not, but if an alien landed and darted into Barnes and Noble and grabbed the latest fiction from the shelf, they might think that was a truth!

>>59 avidmom: It is the only Alexander McCall Smith I have read, but I have some of both the African and the Edinburgh novels in one of the TBR piles (don't tell me you only have one of those!).

Which writers have pushed themselves into your lives?

Which writers have pushed themselves into your lives? oh dear! my personal friends are D H Lawrence and Ted Hughes

Tinkers (Paul Harding) 16/03/14



I don’t know how this novel flew under my radar, but it was gratefully received (with its sequel) as a gift, and I lowered myself into the slow, deep waters of the story of George, who is dying, and the stories of his father Howard, that his final journey return to his memory. The novel interweaves the stories of the two men, epileptic Howard a salesman who takes his horse-drawn bespoke cart of household and other goods door to door, keeping the lives of his customers connected and providing rough but quiet care where needed, as many see no others than those they find on their doorsteps at the appropriate seasons; and George, his son, who tinkers with clocks, and in telling their stories, winds the stories of others alongside them.

A Pulitzer prizewinning debut, and deservedly so.

It is tempting to pick up the sequel immediately, but I will savour it a few weeks more.

I have the sequel sitting here, although I haven't read Tinkers...I remember reading some reviews of the latter that were both pro and con, and I let it fall off my radar. But now, I think I'll bring it back into view.

O, not a sequel, but connected by setting and in that the main character of Enon is the grandson of George Washington Crosby. Harding said he admired Faulkner's fictional Yoknapatawpha County and liked the idea of connecting his books this way. And very differently written books, I think. Enon doesn't have the dense lyricism that Tinkers has (which was not appreciated by many readers).

I remember reading some reviews of the latter that were both pro and con... Linda, I was thinking about this the other day as I was on a book's page (of a book I had read, but I forget which one now) and quite shocked that there were so many reviews by readers, that I thought, just didn't get the book, and how that affected the overall rating, and probably affects other potential readers. This is not the first time I have thought this in my years on LT, of course, but it saddened me and it's why I never (and I mean never) look at the LT reviews and rating of a book I think I might like to read. Actually, I think it was Enon's book page I was looking at. Enon is like a hero's journey, where the author has dispensed with other possible complications to the story, and avoids mention of technology*, in service to making this a more timeless story about one man's "journey". OK, I'll stop now. ....Except to say, that one really needs to know the reader in order to give weight to a review (and I know you two know this, I'm just sayin' it to myself).

*McCarthy does this in The Road to give it a more epic or Biblical feel. Harding doesn't go any where near that far.

Funny Lois, I thought of Faulkner (having recently read The Hamlet), as I was reading Tinkers.

Many readers don't like the effort more dense books command I suspect. Possibly especially younger readers who are used to visuals that flick from one thing to another in seconds, never allowing long, close observation that a lyrical book requires.

I am looking forward to Enon a lot, saving it for my first week of liberation, along with my re-read of Middlemarch.

I'm enjoying The Road to Middlemarch: My Life with George Eliot, being a sucker for books about books!

I very rarely read any reviews in full, before reading a book. I read enough to try and get a sense of whether the book might be for me. First and penultimate paragraphs generally, and the header. Later I might go back and see if I agreed with the review.

It is disconcerting to find reviews that say something so different to my own feelings. But it can interest me as often I think we don't see everything in the first reading of anything, and someone might highlight another layer that I didn't find/notice.

Occasionally I come upon a review that makes me think I must have been reading a different book. Or that I simply don't recognise as the book I read. Very weird!

>65 avaland: I knew that distinction, and shouldn't have used the shorthand "sequel". Like calling The Sound and the Fury a sequel to Absalom, Absalom! or vice versa because they have a common character.

" one really needs to know the reader in order to give weight to a review"---absolutely. I now know a lot of the reviewers and their preferences much better than I did when I first encountered Tinkers on LT, I think. And, of course, well-done "dense lyricism" is very dear to my readerly heart.

Caroline, I've just come across your thread (I'm gradually working my way through Club Read threads) and am enjoying it very much.

I've always been intrigued by the London Library. Have you read James Lees-Milne's war time diaries? They include description of the Library taking a hit and people rescuing the books.

I've recently bought the PLF novel but not yet opened it. Well, if it turns out to be a disappointment (a) it is short and (b) it is after all PLF.

I find the biggest difficulty with reading people's threads is being seduced by their books when I ought to be getting on with my own. It's nice that you have so many lovely old books.

As well as the woolly monkeys (which do look exactly like they are wearing felted grey jumpers) do I detect a soft spot for owls?

>66 Caroline_McElwee:, 67 You guys are the coolest! Caroline, the book on Middlemarch intrigues me.

>68 Oandthegang: Hi and welcome to my reading boat. Yes, owls and other feathered beasties are favourites too.

I know what you mean about being distracted by other people's reading and buying habits, and not getting on with the warehouse of books we own already. Guilty as charged.

>69 avaland: Lois, I need to review this today if I can, though I'm not sure I can do a critical review as I just lowered myself down and let it flow through and around me with pleasure, thinking every few pages 'yes, time to re-read Middlemarch'.

The Road to Middlemarch: My Life with George Eliot (Rebecca Mead) (23/03/14)



Not surprisingly I really enjoyed this book, I love books about books and about writers (or any other creative person). Mead talks about how the novel has grown with her, how her readings have changed and evolved as her own life has progressed, what elements of the novel have ‘sung’ for her in her own life experience, and how that life experience has shaped her reading of the novel as time has gone on. There is memoir (Mead’s) and biography (Eliot/Lewes), and interestingly one of the people who has shone for me in this book is George Henry Lewes, Eliot’s partner in life. I have a biography of him in my Amazon basket, and a couple of his books were drawn from the library last night. Mead has given a great deal of focus on their relationship and how they were together as a couple. Two ugly ducklings - although we might not agree with that observation, plain perhaps, Mead is quoting others - who turned into swans on the page (although Lewes is on the whole not read now).

The Lives of Stella Bain (24/03/14)



I’ve always enjoyed Shreve’s tone, and it isn’t missing here, but ultimately this novel didn’t mesmerise me. Published to coincide with the anniversary of WW1 it takes a slightly different slant. The main character, a woman VAD, turns up at a medical tent in the Marne with some physical injuries, but more importantly the absence of memory. The book’s journey is her passage between ‘selves’ in order to regain and reclaim it. There are some fine passages, and a reasonably authentic feel, but perhaps the territory is just too familiar, and falls a little between two stools, a war novel and a domestic story. They don’t quite meld enough for me.

That Mead book has been calling my name ...

There will be a bookshop at the airport Laura!

Glad to hear the Mead book works well. I have heard her being interviewed twice now and both times she came through well. I really like the idea of rereading books at different times. Middlemarch is one I have read three times, but it has been some time since I last read it, although it has been on the radar for the past couple of summers. Maybe this will be the year, with Mead as a companion book.

It's good to hear that Lewes shines in this book; she didn't mention him much in the interviews. Have you read Parallel Lives? That was where I first saw him as an important figure.

Too bad about the Shreve book; she is an author I usually enjoy. I may just read it anyway, completist that I am.

>73 Caroline_McElwee: nooooo !

>75 lauralkeet: Yes Laura, they do :-) .

>74 SassyLassy: Funnily enough Sassy, I dropped that in my Amazon basket too last week, I was looking for Phylis Rose's new book, due soon, and noticed 'Private Lives'.

The Shreve book isn't bad, it just didn't wow me. That said, images are coming back to me, and at a remove it may gain another half star!

I'll watch for the Mead book at the library. Thanks, Caro!

I did not succumb to airport bookshop temptations, but I've added this to my Amazon wish list for future consideration. I have a Kindle credit to spend ...

Well for the second time this year - and it is normally very rare for me - I have pushed a book aside. I was reading Iain Banks' final novel The Quarry for my reading group, but at 80 pages I really didn't want to know what happened next.



The rest of the group though seemed to like it, so I was persuaded not to part with it until I'd given it a second chance, so it will go on the pile with & Sons and we will see whether I feel like finishing them off a few months down the line.

Oh heavens, is it three weeks since I have been in here. I will update in the next few days.

I have read some good books!

I decided I have become so far behind with this thread, I will just pick up from here. I have updated the list of things read this year at the top, and maybe put a couple of reviews in here in the next couple of days.

I am currently reading Helen Dunmore's The Lie which hooked me from the first page.

I'm also reading Ha-Joon Chang's 23 things they don't tell you about Capitalism, which is fascinating.

I see you read the new Margaret Fuller biography and gave it 4 stars. I have it waiting on my shelves and I'm hoping to get to it soon. I really loved the author's other book The Peabody Sisters, but I bought this right away when I heard about it.

>81 Caroline_McElwee: What pretty flowers!

>82 japaul22: I bought The Peabody Sisters as I liked the Margaret Fuller biog so much Jennifer.

>83 avidmom: Thanks, I don't have a garden, so indulge in cut flowers as often as I can, and love taking photos of them among the books!

Books not just for reading: I have been loving cooking from my new cookbook Persiana, with some scrumptious results. And I love my kitchen smelling of lemon, mint and garlic.

Cookbooks are not just for cooking: I have just started reading The Bloomsbury Cookbook and it is a visual and intellectual feast - I've yet to try the recipes, but I will. I thought there was little I could add to what I knew and loved about Bloomsbury, but this is a delicious addition.

I have to say that Thames and Hudson books are some of my favourites. The Bloomsbury Cookbook has high quality painting reproductions, on high quality paper. Their art books are always a joy to own, peruse, sigh through and be engaged by.

I thoroughly agree that "Cookbooks are not just for Cooking" If beautifully produced they can be such a pleasure to leaf through.

Do you have a favourite cookbook to read and cook from Barry?

I cooked Creme Brûlée from the The Bloomsbury Cookbook, don't know why I thought it would be difficult. Yum.

Heading to the Gladstone's Library for a few days next week. Trying not to take too many books, as ... well, it's a library! however, will be taking :

The Gilden Apples (Eudora Welty) (American Author Challenge)
The Undertaking (Audrey Magee) (Baileys Shortlist)
The Unteathered Soul (Michael A Singer) (like to take something philosophical)

Along with a few journals: Resurgence/Slightly Foxed/Apartmento.

>87 Caroline_McElwee: Caroline, I have restricted my choice to two, because they are the most beautiful books to look at and because the recipes are excellent and I use them still, both are fairly old books.

Cooking of India, Santha Rama Rau. A beautiful coffee table book in the Time-Life series which has a separate attachment that repeats the recipes in a smaller ring binder format. (spilt curry sauces can play havoc with your beautiful books)

Taste of Morocco by Robert Carrier, really excellent photographs.

I have travelled in both India and Morocco and so both books also have sentimental value.

I used to cook Robert Carrier recipes a lot. I will certainly keep a lookout for those Barry.

ETA: Taste of Morocco ordered.

>88 Caroline_McElwee: Caroline, when will you be at Gladstone's? I've just arrived there myself, and am staying until Tuesday late afternoon. I posted on Facebook that I'd arrived, and Laura (again) spotted the coincidence and mentioned that you were coming too. I hope we overlap at least a little!

>91 gennyt:: smiling

Love reading cookbooks. And hope Caro and Genny meet at Gladstone's. Serendipity!

Yes Genny, I arrive tomorrow afternoon, so hope to catch up. Will leave you a message on your profile page.

Laura, what would we do without you. Do you graph all our whereabouts :-)

>94 Caroline_McElwee: ha!! I have no idea Caro, but I seem to have a knack for spotting the two of you at Gladstones!

>93 tiffin: We caught up with each other at breakfast today and had a good chat over the cereal and toast!

>96 gennyt:: hooray, Genny!

Yes, lovely to catch up as ever. Hope your journey back was smooth Genny.

A couple of pictures of the Gladstone's Library:



My reading nook. My favourite time for sitting in the library is in the hushed after dinner period.



I'm not being very good at all at writing up mini reviews in here, note to self: Must improve!

Currently reading The Sandalwood Tree by Elle Newmark, a recommendation from someone I met at Gladstone's. A novel set in India in the run up to partition (with a thread running through about two women in India in Victorian times). Evocative of the lives of the outsiders in India.

Great photos of Gladstone's Library!

I found this novel out of the blue, had seen no publicity about it, but grazing in the London Review of Books bookshop, there it was. Yay! As a big Virginia Woolf fan I just had to have it, and Maggie Gee was surely not going to let me down, and she didn’t. A reason to support our increasingly rare independent bookshops.

It is a multi-layered exploration of a lot of things (some of which I am sure I missed and will find in later readings). The novel’s backbone is that a 21st century writer goes to NY on her way to a conference in Istanbul, to see the originals of Virginia Woolf’s work, but when she gets there, what she encounters is the woman herself, reborn in the 21st century, and all that entails. Angela takes it upon herself to marshal this reincarnation of her literary heroine, and it isn’t exactly what she expects.

The novel is about literary icons, and how they both succeed and fail us, it is about how outsiders are sometimes more adept than insiders at survival, often Virginia’s curiosity makes her far more able to tolerate the 21st century than Angela can. Worn down by the barrage of modern life Angela has less patience and misses so much.

Angela also has a daughter she constantly tells us she loves, but rarely spends time with, and a husband with very much his own life (their relationship is under strain). In some ways the daughter, Gerda’s story interested me less, but it had aspects that mirrored the main narrative, and certainly came together with the central story at the end.

In contrast, Virginia was childless due to her health issues, with a husband who worshiped her, but a complicated relationship that hinged mostly on intellect. Complicated but equal, possibly rare for her era.

Virginia persuades Angela to take her to the conference about herself in Istanbul, and as well as exploring the emotional and sexual world of Virginia, there are the comparisons of the city, as Virginia had visited Constantinople, as it then was, twice in her twenties.

The conclusion is very much about how literature of the past can teach, enliven and be relevant to the present. In this case how Virginia’s work and life can inspire and challenge new readers in the 21st century.

Excellent review of Virginia Woolf in Manhattan

Fascinating review of a book that seems to have slipped under the radar here too. Thanks for the review and for bringing attention to the book.

Thanks Barry and Sassy.

Just finished Amours de Voyage (Arthur Hugh Clough) ***

It's not quite what I was expecting, letters in poetry form whose narrator is not enchanted especially with Rome. It picked up a bit in the middle, but I suspect reading again in time, without the expectations I had may change my perspective.

I am curious to know why Persephone published it, as very few men are published by them, and it is generally very obvious why (ie often the main character is a strong woman).

Just finished Amours de Voyage (Arthur Hugh Clough) which didn't grip me as much as I hoped. The narrator isn't especially enamoured of Rome, and unsuccessfully wanders in search of a woman he doesn't even know he is enamoured of either, after the initial feeling (nor apparently initially reciprocated!) The historical background isn't drawn as strongly as I expected either.

However, it may improve if reread without expectations! I am curious to know why it is published by Persephone, who publish few male writers, and generally only those with strong female characters.

Thanks Barry and Sassy. Interesting how that is still unreviewed, maybe the LRB bookshop put it out a bit early and I was just lucky!

Just checked it out on the Persephone website and Clough's books does seem like an odd choice for them: http://www.persephonebooks.co.uk/amours-de-voyage.html

Reading their newsletter though, it seems the odd title is published at the suggestion of people involved with the publisher at one level or another. Perhaps that was the case here. I guess it helps to maintain that wonderful inability to neatly categorize their books.

I had a lovely day at Sissinghurst (home of Vita Sackville West) yesterday, here are just a few photos:





I was a bit startled to realise I had more books in my one bedroom flat than they in the whole of Sissinghurst (by about a thousand!)

Nice photos, Caroline!

Went to see 'The Crucible' at the Old Vic, WOW!



They have temporarily converted the theatre to a theatre in the round. Very intimate. Stunning performances. Still a play with relevance and incredible power.

>108 kidzdoc: Thanks Darryl.

In the Light of What We Know Zia Haider Rahman


This is a very adept debut novel, but if you do not enjoy digression, this is certainly not the novel for you. In many senses it is almost a plotless novel. There are some acts that have outcomes, but it is more a novel about the human condition. An unnamed narrator telling the story of the life of his friend Zafar, via conversations with that friend, recordings and notebooks, as well as his own memory. The timeline shifting forward and backwards, digressive segues and many interesting epigraphs.

On some levels it is a story about the art of biography, and whether it is possible to keep biography out of a work of fiction. Mischievously perhaps the author muddying the waters with mention of a real personage called Rahman late in the novel, and many of the things the character Zafar has done in his life, are on record as being things the author to has done; he also quotes other novelists on the subject of biography and fiction, as well as other literary/cultural references.

There are explorations of human psyche, ponderings on psychology, finance and the financial crisis, partition, relationships, Bangladesh and Pakistan, as well as Afghanistan where part of the story takes place.

For me, if it has a weakness it is that the two women who hold centre stage from time to time are cold and rather monochrome, if manipulative, and seen only from the outside.

This is a novel to be read in long sessions or you will certainly lose the multitude of threads. If not a novel I am in love with, it is certainly a novel I will re-read in time.

Hello Caroline, I've finally found time to read your thread! Your photos are lovely, especially those of Sissinghurst. And I've had to add the Margaret Fuller biography to my wishlist (although perhaps I should read the copy of The Peabody sisters that has been sitting on my shelf for several years first!)

Thank you again for a lovely day at the Chelsea Physic Garden; I can see why it is such a special place for you. I will definitely be returning in the future.

>111 Sakerfalcon: - Hi Claire, it was lovely to spend the day with you at the Chelsea Physic Garden, it is a lovely sanctuary in the heart of London isn't it?

Just a few photos of my trip to Malta:

Valetta:



The traditional balconies, which apparently are Italian influence, but have long been part of Maltese aesthetics.



Mdina - the original capital city (now only home to 400 people):



Hagar Qim (pron Hajar eem) estimated to have been created around 4000 bc



Canopies are now necessary to protect it and its sister site Mnajdra.



The fishing village of Marsaxlokk - thought to have been inhabited since 3000 bc at least.

Those Mediterranean blues! Lovely thread, Caro. I'm still smiling at you having more books than Sissinghurst.

That last photo is just so pretty...I love how they paint the boats to match the water.

The boats are lovely. Was this your first visit?

Thanks ladies.

Yes Colleen, my first visit, and there is enough I didn't see to tempt me back sometime in the future.

>113 tiffin: Well it was a little bit startling to say the least Tui. Vita and Harold and their sons and grandsons are no slackers where reading is concerned!

Wow! Fabulous photos of Malta, Caroline.

Thanks Darryl, I really enjoyed my visit there.

Virginia Woolf In Manhattan sounds very interesting, and quite different from the other Maggie Gee books I have read. I'll definitely check it out.

>119 wandering_star: I hope you enjoy it.

I've just updated what I've read and am reading in >1 Caroline_McElwee:, and adding reviews for this weekends reading:


Suddenly, Love (Aharon Appelfeld)

I have never heard of or read this writer before (despite his 40 works of fiction and non-fiction) and am delighted to have discovered him now. Suddenly, Love is a deceptively quiet novel about an aging and ill Jewish writer living in Jerusalem, Ernst, and the woman who comes to look after him, Irena. And how their daily proximity together turns into love, despite that she is half his age – not much new there then! However Ernst is attempting to settle down to write the book he has long tried to write, which in many respects is a book in search of redemption. Ernst has much to process and much to regret in the Communistic ante-Semitism of his youth, and war years. He begins by trying to write with his head (rationale/intelligence), but in trying to make the less sophisticated Irena understand him, he succeeds more in finding the words when he starts to write with his heart.

There is rich, deep soil here, but I won’t tell you more, you may discover it for yourself.

I have now ordered another novel, and one of his memoirs.


Andrew Wyeth: A Spoken Self-Portrait (with Richard Meryman)

I have long been a fan of the work of artist Andrew Wyeth, and this fascinating book takes us into his inner-workings. Transcriptions of interviews done over several decades, by Richard Meryman, who wrote the definitive and very readable biography of the artist. It made me pull the two volumes of his work from the shelf and look again, look better, and order the new volume Rethinking Andrew Wyeth from the University of California Press.

I can also recommend the new catalogue of Wyeth’s son Jamie Wyeth by Elliot Bostwick Davis, for its reproductions alone (I will be reading it this week) which show how he has both been influenced by his father, and struck out into his own territory too.

>120 Caroline_McElwee: Suddenly, Love goes on the WL. I love that simple, beautiful cover too.

>121 avidmom: It is a beautiful cover AM.

Among my current reading I am really enjoying my DH Lawrence thread. Brenda Maddox's biography The Married Man: A Life of D H Lawrence is very readable, I suspect I might have liked him, despite some of his more difficult behaviour (his love of women cracking hard against the rock of his anger with them, at times read as - and may be - misogyny). I am also loving his writing in both short story and poem form. The novels must wait for now however.

A couple of Shelfies as 3 new bookcases came through the door to house many of the teetering towers of books I had!



They are a bit of a hotch-potch of things for now, I'll tweek in the coming weeks.



Also there is not much room to stand back and photograph from either! Ah well, these will have to do.

Excellent!!

Nice!

How satisfying!

Thanks ladies. It is great seeing what I have (though there has been a little double parking, but I will keep that to a minimum). Before it was often the case that the book I wanted was at the bottom of a pile. I still need some more shelves though.

It's also great handling them all, giving them a little stroke, a flick through the pages, and reminding yourself of what you have and maybe when and why you bought a particular book.

I will have some reviews to post this weekend :-)

*settles in to wait patiently*

While joining laytonwoman in the wait, I noticed that while I thought I had left a comment on your wonderful shelves, it appears to have disappeared, or maybe I got sidetracked searching for some of the books. Anyway, I really envy you your photography books: lovely and varied choices.

>129 laytonwoman3rd: - glad you were patient! See below.

>130 SassyLassy: Thanks Sassy, I do love great photography as well as great art.

Some of August’s reading:


I read thirteen books this month – intentionally a reading month, just a few lines about some of them:

Until Further notice I’m Alive (Tom Lubbock) (Memoir)

A deeply moving memoir by the artist and art critic Tom Lubbock who was diagnosed with a brain tumour, he wrote this book in the final two years of his life, and it is a testament to the loss of an extraordinary mind. Never morbid, always curious, creative and actively alive, whilst facing head on the diagnosis received.

Great Works – 50 Paintings Explored (Tom Lubbock)

Having read the above memoir, I had to acquire and read this book, which he was also finishing during his final years. Incisive, original, bite-sized explorations of 50 great works, but almost never the most predictable ones. Tight, spare and inordinately original ideas about the works and the artists.

Later this month I will read the companion memoir The Iceberg by Lubbock’s wife Marion Coutts.


Van Gogh at Work (Marije Vellekoop et al)

Now, Vincent – Life would be far duller without the work of dear Vincent Van Gogh. Too much space tends to be given to his mental problems (it provides drama), this volume is about the life of a working professional, and is part of a project undertaken by the Vincent Van Gogh Museum and other participants (there is a more scholarly companion, which I bought and may read another time).

What is extraordinary is that the work we know was completed, from learning to mature execution, over ten years. This was a man with fire in his belly and a great capacity for craft, professionalism and practice, practice, practice – I imagine he would not have believed he was finished in regards to development, at the time of his death. This volume quotes from his letters, wherever they mention specific works, carries high quality reproductions and encourages you to look, look, look.

It has also used the advanced technology we have now to look at how Vincent worked, what colours he used, what mediums he worked in, what materials; what conditions he worked in, able to see the grains of sand in paintings he did on the beach, for example. And to see when he was too broke to buy new canvases and re-used old ones of paintings one assumes he was less satisfied with, visible via x-rays beneath the paintings above.

This book is for anyone interested in the creative mind, whatever form that takes. It is especially for those wishing to acquire a deeper friendship with this great artist.


The Married Man: A Life of D H Lawrence (Brenda Maddox)

I came upon an essay that used one of Lawrence’s short stories as an example of great short story writing, and I wanted to read that short story (still to be done, as I am not allowing myself to jump to it in the volume I bought), and then it led me to reach down this biography that has sat unread on my shelves for 25 years!

Lawrence has to have been one of the most complex, complicated, conflicted and contradictory of writers not only of his era, but since. Reading it I wondered if, perhaps now, he would have been considered bi-polar. A man with a great love for women, and a great loathing of them, or of their power over him perhaps, leading often to the accusation of misogyny. What there is little doubt about though, is he was a great writer.

As yet I haven’t read any of his major novels, just some short stories and poetry, but I shall certainly do so later in the year. I am slowly making my way through both the complete short stories, and poems, and have a couple of volumes of his essays on the shelf too. Then I shall gird myself to read Sons and Lovers still perceived as his greatest literary masterpiece I believe.

Part of my Virginia and Leonard Woolf shelf

September reading

The Stairwell (Michael Longley) (poetry)

Michael Longley is one of my favourite poets, and this latest volume is a fine addition to his existing work. At 75 and having recently buried his twin it is about nature, death, grief and birth. Short verses with poignant lines, returning too, to stories of the first world war and those who fought in it.

The Paying Guests (Sarah Waters)

This novel is tricky to review without spoilers, so I am going to use the ‘spoiler function’ on LT so that those who haven’t read it don’t have to read anything that may spoil their pleasure. In fact I am going to write most of the review in spoiler, with just a few notes at the end – to be on the safe side.

I think this novel works on a number of levels and has several intentions: one is to look at some of the domestic outcomes of the first world war in the years that followed. Leaving families of all classes in difficult situations, it also gives a nod to class movement, some who are having to negotiate down, and others seen to be trying to move up.

A couple who are aiming for upward mobility, move out of the husband’s parent’s house and into the house of a mother and daughter who are on the edge of sliding down the social ladder, two sons lost at war, and a husband/father after his death, whose financial investments were found to be unsound, leaving the women to rent rooms and do without ‘help’, in order to keep their home.

Frances, the daughter of the house owner has become the ‘servant’ in many respects, doing the work a servant would do, as well as being responsible for looking after the tenants. Perceived as a spinster to the outside world, she has worked with the suffrage movement, and is a lesbian who in the end was unable to withstand her mother’s wishes on discovery. She falls in love with the new tenant wife who, living in an unsatisfactory marriage is drawn to her in return.

On a pivotal evening when the husband returns home early finding the women in company (but not in flagrante) in anger at his accusations against his wife – believing her to have other men - Frances tells him that they are in love, and during the scuffle that ensues, his wife strikes him a fatal blow and the women are faced with two choices that they can see – to report the situation immediately, or to get rid of the body and hope things will work out alright.

Eventually this leads to an innocent party being arrested and put on trial, and the women left with the moral dilemma of allowing this person to take the can, or to admit that they were responsible for the death of Mr Barber.

There is only so much that should appear even in a spoiler, so I shall say no more about the story itself.

This is only the second of Waters’ novels I have read, the first being The Night Watch which made me want to read this novel as soon as it came out of the wrapper. Her capacity for characterisation is among the finest of modern writers I feel. In the earlier novel though, I felt that she had an acute eye and ear for era, but I found that missing in this novel, set in the 1920s, I constantly felt I was in the 1950s, so definitely an area I would have liked to have seen more authentic detail. Also, growing up in the South London area that the novel is set, there was almost no detail that made it stand out as any particular place, she might as well have used fictional names (I appreciate this is to make it easier to sell internationally when suburbs unknown beyond the centre of London are used).

The novel was a page-turner (I read its 566 pages in two days), although I felt it could have maybe been 150 pages shorter (and I don’t agree with the current debate in the UK that many modern novels are too long), but there was a fair amount of repetition throughout the book, that could have been reduced.

I was also interested in the moral dilemma at the end, and the outcome. I’m not sure what I felt about that ultimately, perhaps it was almost a cop out of exploring the dilemma posed. I also felt that that didn’t offer the opportunity to explore the likelihood, then as now, that women’s behaviour is expected to be far better than men’s, and when they act outside that expectation they are punished more heavy handedly than men might be (an excellent book about this is Baronness Helena Kennedy QC’s Eve Was Framed).

I'm glad you enjoyed The Paying Guests, Caroline. Being less familiar with London than you, I didn't pick up on the lack of location-specific detail. I agree it could have been edited to a tighter story, but I still found myself unable to put it down.

Just started a re-read of Winston Graham's Poldark series, which I first read in my teens, after the dramatisation of the books. A new tv version is due for release next year. Of course, like most teenagers, I fell for the gallant Ross Poldark in the form of Robin Ellis (now a chef):



>134 lauralkeet: yes Laura, I agree, despite a few flaws it was so well written and very readable.

Nice to catch up with your reading, and interesting to read about the artists in particular.

Thanks for posting a review of Van Gogh at Work , that is a book that I would love to have in my collection.

I have read most of D H Lawrence's novels and while Sons and Lovers is an early masterpiece I think his most mature novels are The Rainbow and Women in Love.

>135 Caroline_McElwee: I just discovered that Winston Graham wrote the novel Marnie that Alfred Hitchcock subsequently turned into a great movie.

>137 baswood: Nice to see you Barry, I must slope over to your thread sometime, I'm well behind. I don't think you would regret the Van Gogh book.

I really enjoyed re-reading Ross Poldark, although as I'm reading quite a bit of other stuff, it has been a bedtime read mostly. I'm tempted to dive into the next Poldark volume, but will refrain as there are so many other novels I really want to read at the moment.

Picking up next Janet Frame's Living in the Maniototo which I think I got because of a review at www.Dovegreyreader.co.uk - I really enjoy dipping into Lynne's blog from time to time. I have read and enjoyed other work by Frame, but had missed this one.

I haven't read that one by Frame, so will look forward to seeing what you think of it.

It was lovely to see you the other evening; hope the rest of your "week of culture" was as good as the Grayson Perry/Claire!

>140 Sakerfalcon: Hi Claire, nice to see you here, and to catch up again when Darryl was in London.

Yes, it was an excellent ten days of culture, as well as the Joan Baez, the Ladysmith Black Mambaza/Zulu ballet, I went to see Al Pacino's 'Salome' and the documentary and Q&A that followed via satellite from the BFI; as well as the semi-autobiographical documentary about musician/singer/songwriter Nick Cave: '20,000 Days on Earth' which was also very good.

Not had much reading time this week, but hoping to sink into the Frame novel this weekend. And am just about to start the new biography Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh by John Lahr. I love Williams' plays, and Lahr's biographies. Its a chunkster though, and could take a while!

This is my first time posting, although I have been quietly reading your thread. I just wanted tell you that I really enjoy your thoughtful comments and I like learning about the interesting books you post about.

Hi Daniel, lovely to have your wave. I'm glad you enjoy visiting. Like you I often visit others threads, but don't always have anything especial to say, though try to leave crumbs occassionally so folk realise they are read and enjoyed by others.