Slaughterhouse 5
Slaughterhouse 5 has long been pinned in the back of my mind as 'To Read'. It appeared on that bygone BBC list of books that must be read for a start, and that came out when I was still at school. A friend of mine is a massive Vonnegut fan and I ended up buying it for a train journey a while ago.
There the problem started, I read about half of it on that journey, and at roughly 173 pages it shouldn't have been hard to finish at yet somehow it was.
About the serious folly of war and the damage that it inflicts on the individual fighting it, the novel has a lot of merit; even the science fiction element wasn't what grated because I thought it was a clever way of illustrating the nature of PTSD and its feeling of being outside your linear chronology.
I couldn't and in many ways still can't explain why I couldn't engage with this book, why its prose disengaged me so. At one point, with all the restarts I must have read the section where Billy wakes up to find his 'fat, ugly' fiance Valencia, at the bottom of his bed eating chocolate FIVE TIMES.
This book took me with about 4 restarts and one mid book reconvene about 8 weeks to read, twice I went to my monthly book club and told my friend 'still haven't finished Slaughterhouse 5' and seriously that must be some kind of record for me.
With that, I acknowledge the importance of the book and its message. So why didn't I like it? Why did it get on my nerves so much? I still don't know. If you've also read Slaughterhouse 5 and didn't like it, I'd love to hear from you.
Verdict : 4/10
Sunday, 8 June 2014
Book #15 Let's Explore Diabetes With Owls by David Sedaris
Let's Explore Diabetes With Owls
Let's Explore Diabetes With Owls is the third David Sedaris short story collection I have read following Naked and Me Talk Pretty One Day. Of the 3 I have read it is probably the most consistently enjoyable.
Included are four short stories, though whilst authored by Sedaris are not his usual style - one is from the point of view a selfish teenager and another the POV of an ignorant American mother. These are a bit weird, Sedaris says he has included them as offerings for teenagers who might be doing "Forensics" at school which sounds nothing like its title and is more like the Speaking and Listening portion of GCSE English. None of these work particularly well as short stories and all illustrate an extreme of some kind.
The main body of the work is the sort of stories I've come to expect from Sedaris. What differed this time round is that whereas in Naked, and Me Talk Pretty there were stories that I thought were brilliant and others which I thought terrible or boring, all of the stories in 'Owls' are good. Whilst this means there are no standout boring ones, it is also true that there's no standout amazing one either. They are all of a similar average.
The best Sedaris stories by far are the ones about his Greek immigrant family living in Raleigh, North Carolina and the best in 'Owls' are, customarily, the ones about his Dad. All however are imbued with his customary strong wit. Sedaris recently read in Liverpool and I couldn't go because I had to honour a prior commitment, reading 'Owls' has made me more sorry that I couldn't.
Whilst the reference to Owls in the title is for reasons that become obvious, I can't fathom what diabetes had to do with anything. There isn't a diabetes story, that I noticed. Anyone?
Verdict : 7/10
Let's Explore Diabetes With Owls is the third David Sedaris short story collection I have read following Naked and Me Talk Pretty One Day. Of the 3 I have read it is probably the most consistently enjoyable.
Included are four short stories, though whilst authored by Sedaris are not his usual style - one is from the point of view a selfish teenager and another the POV of an ignorant American mother. These are a bit weird, Sedaris says he has included them as offerings for teenagers who might be doing "Forensics" at school which sounds nothing like its title and is more like the Speaking and Listening portion of GCSE English. None of these work particularly well as short stories and all illustrate an extreme of some kind.
The main body of the work is the sort of stories I've come to expect from Sedaris. What differed this time round is that whereas in Naked, and Me Talk Pretty there were stories that I thought were brilliant and others which I thought terrible or boring, all of the stories in 'Owls' are good. Whilst this means there are no standout boring ones, it is also true that there's no standout amazing one either. They are all of a similar average.
The best Sedaris stories by far are the ones about his Greek immigrant family living in Raleigh, North Carolina and the best in 'Owls' are, customarily, the ones about his Dad. All however are imbued with his customary strong wit. Sedaris recently read in Liverpool and I couldn't go because I had to honour a prior commitment, reading 'Owls' has made me more sorry that I couldn't.
Whilst the reference to Owls in the title is for reasons that become obvious, I can't fathom what diabetes had to do with anything. There isn't a diabetes story, that I noticed. Anyone?
Verdict : 7/10
Book #14 The Five People You Meet In Heaven by Mitch Albom
The Five People You Meet In Heaven
Next months choice for Book Club is The First Phonecall from Heaven by Mitch Albom - having not read any of his, I thought it best to read 'Five People' first as everyone from Book Club read it ages ago.
At the start of the novel, an elderly man named Eddie, a maintenance man at a fairground dies, and meets five people whose lives he impacted along the way.
The clear purpose of this novel is to give rather a spiritual lesson to its readers on how all lives intersect and how everyone impacts each other. At times this feels trite, earnest and worthy. Also I found it highly American in its moralising.
However when I reached Eddie's fifth person, and the ultimate spiritual lesson of his life, my blood ran cold, and I got rather emotional.
It's a good book, and a very short, quick and easy read, it reminded me a bit of one of Paulo Coelho's lesser efforts though.
It's all rather wholesome and rather cheesy, but I think has had a great deal of popular appeal, and the reasons for this are clear whilst reading.
Verdict : 7/10
Next months choice for Book Club is The First Phonecall from Heaven by Mitch Albom - having not read any of his, I thought it best to read 'Five People' first as everyone from Book Club read it ages ago.
At the start of the novel, an elderly man named Eddie, a maintenance man at a fairground dies, and meets five people whose lives he impacted along the way.
The clear purpose of this novel is to give rather a spiritual lesson to its readers on how all lives intersect and how everyone impacts each other. At times this feels trite, earnest and worthy. Also I found it highly American in its moralising.
However when I reached Eddie's fifth person, and the ultimate spiritual lesson of his life, my blood ran cold, and I got rather emotional.
It's a good book, and a very short, quick and easy read, it reminded me a bit of one of Paulo Coelho's lesser efforts though.
It's all rather wholesome and rather cheesy, but I think has had a great deal of popular appeal, and the reasons for this are clear whilst reading.
Verdict : 7/10
Book #13 In Tearing Haste ed. by Charlotte Mosley
In Tearing Haste
Sitting here, about to write my review of In Tearing Haste, I am trying to figure out how I ended up buying it. I had certainly never heard of it before the day I did, and I bought it on Kindle so I downloaded it somehow without even actually searching for it, I think it came up as a recommended or something and I thought it sounded interesting.
Charting the lengthy correspondence of Deborah, Duchess Of Devonshire and the writer Patrick Leigh Fermor who first met in the 1940s, the letters between them run from 1954-2007, at the time In Tearing Haste went to press they were still corresponding but 'Dear Paddy' died aged 96 in 2011, Deborah, the last surviving of the famous Mitford sisters, still going strong in 2014 aged 94.
Patrick Leigh Fermor was a spy in World War Two, and went on to be a successful travel writer, but though his letters are the more erudite and lengthy, I did find myself less interested in his travelogues and such like then I was in the high society hilarity dashed off with no particular care by 'Darling Debo'
Debo's life is one to marvel at, really and truly. Her letters include reference to 'Dear Evie' and how he sent her a copy of his latest book which he 'felt sure' would not offend her this time. 'Dear Evie' was Evelyn Waugh, and the copy he sent her blank.
On another much later occasion she is at dinner with Jon Snow (Channel 4 News) and when he gets a phonecall at dinner they all 'presume Blair has gone and started another war'.
She attended JFK's inauguration, was devastated by his death, and travelled to his funeral on a private plane with the Prime Minister and 'the D of E'.
Quite early on in the correspondence she recounts being forced to chat to "Cake" and saying loudly "Oh Dear, now I'm stuck" - later she sits in pride of place at Cake's funeral and 'can't think why'.
Cake, for reasons which are never made clear is what the Mitford Sisters called The Queen Mother.
She refers to both her homes, one being Chatsworth, the other being Lismore Castle as 'the dump' without the merest hint of irony. She is quite consistently a hoot.
On the strength of Debo alone, and through the references she makes to her sisters, I've gone and downloaded, The Mitfords : Letters Between Six Sisters. Already, it is absolutely brilliant. Debo herself would probably be scandalized that I found her the star of this show and never quite took to PLF, but the little glimpses of bygone days are quite wonderful. We find out for example through Debo's potted biography that PLF was expelled from school. Why? Because he held hands with a greengrocer's daughter in public! SCANDALOUS!
I find all this fascinating and can't wait to read all the quaint historical moments of the lives of all sisters. Also I simply must know all there is to know about Sybil Cholmondeley who sounds like a proper ledge.
7/10
Sitting here, about to write my review of In Tearing Haste, I am trying to figure out how I ended up buying it. I had certainly never heard of it before the day I did, and I bought it on Kindle so I downloaded it somehow without even actually searching for it, I think it came up as a recommended or something and I thought it sounded interesting.
Charting the lengthy correspondence of Deborah, Duchess Of Devonshire and the writer Patrick Leigh Fermor who first met in the 1940s, the letters between them run from 1954-2007, at the time In Tearing Haste went to press they were still corresponding but 'Dear Paddy' died aged 96 in 2011, Deborah, the last surviving of the famous Mitford sisters, still going strong in 2014 aged 94.
Patrick Leigh Fermor was a spy in World War Two, and went on to be a successful travel writer, but though his letters are the more erudite and lengthy, I did find myself less interested in his travelogues and such like then I was in the high society hilarity dashed off with no particular care by 'Darling Debo'
Debo's life is one to marvel at, really and truly. Her letters include reference to 'Dear Evie' and how he sent her a copy of his latest book which he 'felt sure' would not offend her this time. 'Dear Evie' was Evelyn Waugh, and the copy he sent her blank.
On another much later occasion she is at dinner with Jon Snow (Channel 4 News) and when he gets a phonecall at dinner they all 'presume Blair has gone and started another war'.
She attended JFK's inauguration, was devastated by his death, and travelled to his funeral on a private plane with the Prime Minister and 'the D of E'.
Quite early on in the correspondence she recounts being forced to chat to "Cake" and saying loudly "Oh Dear, now I'm stuck" - later she sits in pride of place at Cake's funeral and 'can't think why'.
Cake, for reasons which are never made clear is what the Mitford Sisters called The Queen Mother.
She refers to both her homes, one being Chatsworth, the other being Lismore Castle as 'the dump' without the merest hint of irony. She is quite consistently a hoot.
On the strength of Debo alone, and through the references she makes to her sisters, I've gone and downloaded, The Mitfords : Letters Between Six Sisters. Already, it is absolutely brilliant. Debo herself would probably be scandalized that I found her the star of this show and never quite took to PLF, but the little glimpses of bygone days are quite wonderful. We find out for example through Debo's potted biography that PLF was expelled from school. Why? Because he held hands with a greengrocer's daughter in public! SCANDALOUS!
I find all this fascinating and can't wait to read all the quaint historical moments of the lives of all sisters. Also I simply must know all there is to know about Sybil Cholmondeley who sounds like a proper ledge.
7/10
Tuesday, 3 June 2014
Book #12 The Heart Of The Matter by Graham Greene
The Heart Of The Matter
The Heart Of The Matter by Graham Greene was my Book Club's choice this month. It is the third Graham Greene novel I have read after The End Of The Affair and The Human Factor. Having read those novels, I had some idea of what to expect here, and indeed the novel shares a number of deep similarities to The End Of The Affair.
Having since googled this, four of Greene's novels, including Heart Of The Matter and End Of The Affair examined Catholic themes with Heart Of The Matter being the final one. Some at my Book Club could not understand why the protagonist becomes so deeply religious towards the end, but I, having grown up in modern Catholicism with an awareness of its history, could.
The unforgiving Catholicism on show here, in the days of the Tridentine Rite and prior to the Second Vatican Council is one I think not easily understood by a lay reader, which I think makes the book lose something in translation to the non-religious or non-Catholic.
Aside from this issue the novel covers a number of other themes. First and foremost it is a novel about Colonials and Colonial society. Various Brits abroad, largely public school educated, despairing of the heat and disparaging of the natives, illustrating as they go via their behaviour the levels to which the British Empire damaged various nations and their peoples with their sense of paternalistic right and entitlement.
Our protagonist is Scobie, and our colony is a "West African State" later revealed by Greene to be Sierra Leone. Scobie is that rare thing, an honest man who likes the people and seeks to do the job well, something which makes he and his wife objects of unpopularity and scorn. As the novel turns, and Scobie is forced to act in an unprincipled way, his popularity increases, a remark perhaps aimed by Greene at the corrupt nature of those who enter Foreign Service.
It is a very male book set in a man's world and I found myself frustrated that we only see women in this book in the way Scobie views them, as needy and a burden. The two main female characters Helen and Louise are two-dimensional with only merest hints that they are more than Scobie is allowing them to be. Other men like Wilson, Bagster and Harris are priggish and annoying, and perhaps in some respects, stereotypes.
Despite this the prose itself is engaging, though the novel does not really become consistently readable until perhaps mid-way through. It has dated, but is also an interesting portrait of its time, both historically speaking and in terms of comparative literature.
It is an interesting book, and I enjoyed certain lines of prose very much, but this being my third Greene, I feel like I've got a certain handle now on the type of novel he wrote and can't say I'm eager to read his complete works.
Verdict 7/10
The Heart Of The Matter by Graham Greene was my Book Club's choice this month. It is the third Graham Greene novel I have read after The End Of The Affair and The Human Factor. Having read those novels, I had some idea of what to expect here, and indeed the novel shares a number of deep similarities to The End Of The Affair.
Having since googled this, four of Greene's novels, including Heart Of The Matter and End Of The Affair examined Catholic themes with Heart Of The Matter being the final one. Some at my Book Club could not understand why the protagonist becomes so deeply religious towards the end, but I, having grown up in modern Catholicism with an awareness of its history, could.
The unforgiving Catholicism on show here, in the days of the Tridentine Rite and prior to the Second Vatican Council is one I think not easily understood by a lay reader, which I think makes the book lose something in translation to the non-religious or non-Catholic.
Aside from this issue the novel covers a number of other themes. First and foremost it is a novel about Colonials and Colonial society. Various Brits abroad, largely public school educated, despairing of the heat and disparaging of the natives, illustrating as they go via their behaviour the levels to which the British Empire damaged various nations and their peoples with their sense of paternalistic right and entitlement.
Our protagonist is Scobie, and our colony is a "West African State" later revealed by Greene to be Sierra Leone. Scobie is that rare thing, an honest man who likes the people and seeks to do the job well, something which makes he and his wife objects of unpopularity and scorn. As the novel turns, and Scobie is forced to act in an unprincipled way, his popularity increases, a remark perhaps aimed by Greene at the corrupt nature of those who enter Foreign Service.
It is a very male book set in a man's world and I found myself frustrated that we only see women in this book in the way Scobie views them, as needy and a burden. The two main female characters Helen and Louise are two-dimensional with only merest hints that they are more than Scobie is allowing them to be. Other men like Wilson, Bagster and Harris are priggish and annoying, and perhaps in some respects, stereotypes.
Despite this the prose itself is engaging, though the novel does not really become consistently readable until perhaps mid-way through. It has dated, but is also an interesting portrait of its time, both historically speaking and in terms of comparative literature.
It is an interesting book, and I enjoyed certain lines of prose very much, but this being my third Greene, I feel like I've got a certain handle now on the type of novel he wrote and can't say I'm eager to read his complete works.
Verdict 7/10
Book #11 The Invention Of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd
The Invention Of Wings
The Invention Of Wings is the third Sue Monk Kidd novel I have read following The Mermaid Chair and the highly regarded The Secret Life Of Bees.
The novel works as a dual narrative, switching between daughter of wealthy plantation owners Sarah Grimke and her slave girl Handful whom she is "given" as a gift on her 11th Birthday to literally be her personal slave.
Where this story alters from standard slave/mistress or slave/master stories is that Sarah despite her background and upbringing is vehemently pro-abolition daring and incurring the wrath and disapproval of the society she finds herself in. She refuses the gift when Handful is presented to her only to be punished and to have the honour forced upon her in the coming days.
Both Sarah and Handful are beautifully drawn as the novel follows them from childhood right through to their early 40s. Sarah is a unique and fairly admirable character, repeatedly flying in the face of what would be the easiest and most comfortable for her and her own life to stand up for her rights as a woman and the rights of all women.
I was really glad to read this novel, for too often, stories like this are told in a pardon-the-pun black and white way. We rarely if ever hear the voice of the minority white in the slavery era, who thought slavery was abominable and strove to change it. It also stays honest, at times we see Sarah Grimke, though a heroine, her heart in the right place, act in the racist way that has been indoctrinated in her.
I thought it was unique and clever and then wondered : But is this realistic, would a person with the background of Sarah Grimke ever have been able to do this? Ever acted in such a way in the face of such huge censure, at one point unable to return to her family home for fear of being lynched?
Imagine my delight therefore to discover upon closing an Authors Note that revealed Sarah Grimke was in fact a very real person, who did many if not all of the things ascribed to her. I had never heard of her before and this seems a real pity as she truly was a heroine of her time. The novel also made me question, question if I had been born Sarah Grimke or someone like her, would I have been brave enough to stand up the way she did or would I have conformed? I really hope I would have been brave.
Whether Handful ever existed or certainly the Handful that is portrayed is unlikely and unknown which seems a shame - and a little like a betrayal of all the real Handfuls who did. The story begins with Sarah's refusal of her, a real event, and so in some ways it would have been a further betrayal of those women to have the girl who was offered and rejected be silent in the novel, but her story cannot be considered authentic in the way that Sarah's is.
I would love to see this made into a Hollywood film mainly because Sarah Grimke deserves to be more widely known, and the story of the women who were part of the abolition movement more widely honoured.
Verdict 10/10
The Invention Of Wings is the third Sue Monk Kidd novel I have read following The Mermaid Chair and the highly regarded The Secret Life Of Bees.
The novel works as a dual narrative, switching between daughter of wealthy plantation owners Sarah Grimke and her slave girl Handful whom she is "given" as a gift on her 11th Birthday to literally be her personal slave.
Where this story alters from standard slave/mistress or slave/master stories is that Sarah despite her background and upbringing is vehemently pro-abolition daring and incurring the wrath and disapproval of the society she finds herself in. She refuses the gift when Handful is presented to her only to be punished and to have the honour forced upon her in the coming days.
Both Sarah and Handful are beautifully drawn as the novel follows them from childhood right through to their early 40s. Sarah is a unique and fairly admirable character, repeatedly flying in the face of what would be the easiest and most comfortable for her and her own life to stand up for her rights as a woman and the rights of all women.
I was really glad to read this novel, for too often, stories like this are told in a pardon-the-pun black and white way. We rarely if ever hear the voice of the minority white in the slavery era, who thought slavery was abominable and strove to change it. It also stays honest, at times we see Sarah Grimke, though a heroine, her heart in the right place, act in the racist way that has been indoctrinated in her.
I thought it was unique and clever and then wondered : But is this realistic, would a person with the background of Sarah Grimke ever have been able to do this? Ever acted in such a way in the face of such huge censure, at one point unable to return to her family home for fear of being lynched?
Imagine my delight therefore to discover upon closing an Authors Note that revealed Sarah Grimke was in fact a very real person, who did many if not all of the things ascribed to her. I had never heard of her before and this seems a real pity as she truly was a heroine of her time. The novel also made me question, question if I had been born Sarah Grimke or someone like her, would I have been brave enough to stand up the way she did or would I have conformed? I really hope I would have been brave.
Whether Handful ever existed or certainly the Handful that is portrayed is unlikely and unknown which seems a shame - and a little like a betrayal of all the real Handfuls who did. The story begins with Sarah's refusal of her, a real event, and so in some ways it would have been a further betrayal of those women to have the girl who was offered and rejected be silent in the novel, but her story cannot be considered authentic in the way that Sarah's is.
I would love to see this made into a Hollywood film mainly because Sarah Grimke deserves to be more widely known, and the story of the women who were part of the abolition movement more widely honoured.
Verdict 10/10
Saturday, 26 April 2014
Book #10 Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn
Ella Minnow Pea
I somewhat rather hopefully stated the other day on Twitter that I had only read 12 books so far this year and what a disappointment this is. My life is a lie, as a quick blog check revealed I have only read 10, this book Ella Minnow Pea is the tenth. I have two others in progress so at least that's something.
At least, if I have slowed down in my reading output I have by consequence become more discerning in what I read. Ella Minnow Pea was my Book Club's book this month, so I didn't really choose it per se, but if I'm being more selective about what I give my precious reading time to, I'm really glad that I gave some of that time to Ella Minnow Pea.
It's a book about language and words, and their vital purpose for human beings, Mark Dunn takes this idea to its furthest point and shows how it is not just words but the letters which comprise them that prove essential to human beings, and the vanishing of even one letter - never mind several - proves catastrophic.
As a wider concept the book is a commentary on a number of issues besides language and linguistics - essentially it's a dystopia about Freedom Of Speech and censorship but via its construct, it also takes a rather good aim at both totalitarianism and religious dogma.
Though a short book, in terms of the nature of the premise, it's an incredibly difficult feat to pull off in writing terms and must have been a genuine challenge, yet Mark Dunn rises to this challenge with aplomb.
I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, and have already started recommending it.
10/10
I somewhat rather hopefully stated the other day on Twitter that I had only read 12 books so far this year and what a disappointment this is. My life is a lie, as a quick blog check revealed I have only read 10, this book Ella Minnow Pea is the tenth. I have two others in progress so at least that's something.
At least, if I have slowed down in my reading output I have by consequence become more discerning in what I read. Ella Minnow Pea was my Book Club's book this month, so I didn't really choose it per se, but if I'm being more selective about what I give my precious reading time to, I'm really glad that I gave some of that time to Ella Minnow Pea.
It's a book about language and words, and their vital purpose for human beings, Mark Dunn takes this idea to its furthest point and shows how it is not just words but the letters which comprise them that prove essential to human beings, and the vanishing of even one letter - never mind several - proves catastrophic.
As a wider concept the book is a commentary on a number of issues besides language and linguistics - essentially it's a dystopia about Freedom Of Speech and censorship but via its construct, it also takes a rather good aim at both totalitarianism and religious dogma.
Though a short book, in terms of the nature of the premise, it's an incredibly difficult feat to pull off in writing terms and must have been a genuine challenge, yet Mark Dunn rises to this challenge with aplomb.
I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, and have already started recommending it.
10/10
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