Wednesday, June 30, 2004
Between Extremes by Brian Keenan and John McCarthy
This is a strange book. I admit I picked it up from some charity shop to satisfy my craving of further information about these two. Keenan's An Evil Cradling was one of the most agonised autobiographical works I've ever read (never dared to even try Primo Levi's If This Is a Man) which delved into the nature of humanity and inhumanity and I've been fascinated ever since. I was also at primary school when the 'event' of the Lebanese hostages unfolded and I guess that it has entered some part of my upbringing, and is forever branded on my imagination.
Yet, it's not a book like that. It's the travel journals of the two as they travel around Chile. It's written in a style that suggests to me that the trip was funded by the publishers with the intentions of producing this book. There is a self-consciousness and a purposefulness that is present throughout, with little comments, mainly by McCarthy of 'when we were in Lebanon...' which seem to remind us why this book has been commissioned. Which isn't to say it's not a good book because it is. It's an honest travel diary which includes the boring bits (and luckily the fact that they were bored), the amazing sights that we can't see and a lot of history and poetry. There's a wonderful comparison between the organisational skill behind both travellers which adds an insight into their pschological makeup and when i didn't take this book with me to Glastonbury, I did miss them. But I'm glad they've gone home now.
This is a strange book. I admit I picked it up from some charity shop to satisfy my craving of further information about these two. Keenan's An Evil Cradling was one of the most agonised autobiographical works I've ever read (never dared to even try Primo Levi's If This Is a Man) which delved into the nature of humanity and inhumanity and I've been fascinated ever since. I was also at primary school when the 'event' of the Lebanese hostages unfolded and I guess that it has entered some part of my upbringing, and is forever branded on my imagination.
Yet, it's not a book like that. It's the travel journals of the two as they travel around Chile. It's written in a style that suggests to me that the trip was funded by the publishers with the intentions of producing this book. There is a self-consciousness and a purposefulness that is present throughout, with little comments, mainly by McCarthy of 'when we were in Lebanon...' which seem to remind us why this book has been commissioned. Which isn't to say it's not a good book because it is. It's an honest travel diary which includes the boring bits (and luckily the fact that they were bored), the amazing sights that we can't see and a lot of history and poetry. There's a wonderful comparison between the organisational skill behind both travellers which adds an insight into their pschological makeup and when i didn't take this book with me to Glastonbury, I did miss them. But I'm glad they've gone home now.
Sunday, June 20, 2004
Hey Nostradamus! by Douglas Coupland
After the seeringly painful tragedy of the last book (how is it possible to get so much emotion into such a little volume?) I couldn't face reading anything too heavy so was happily surprised when I found this Douglas Coupland novel waiting for me in a bag of books I haven't opened since purchasing. That was, until I began to read it.
Perhaps foolishly, I hadn't even read the blurb in the bookshop - just remembered discussing it with someone as part of a 'what are you reading' conversation. It's based on a Columbine-like school massacre and told from four affected people over the course of a decade. The longest of these chapters is Jason's story - boyfriend (and secretly husband) of one of the dead who ten years after the event is the one who 'never got over it'. It's a sad and upsetting study of human interaction.
I do think it's a good book and it shows the natural and upward progression of an intelligent and sensitive author. (Generation X may have had its flaws but it still remains a perennial favourite.) Yet, I didn't really want to read it. Having seen Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine and Gus Van Sant's haunting Elephant, how many more artistic reincarnations of Columbine is too many? Yes, anymany is too many since it shouldn't have happened but without wanting to sound like too petulant, how many do I have to endure? Because it is about enduring. It's not enjoyable to see or read or hear or even to know of these tradegies. So how many should we say before we are allowed to put our heads in the sand or turn the channel? And how does this reflect on every other decision we make, whether it's about buying fair trade coffee or who to vote for?
How many questions will I ask before I sound like a country song? To paraphrase Joan Baez, how many roads must a person walk down...?
After the seeringly painful tragedy of the last book (how is it possible to get so much emotion into such a little volume?) I couldn't face reading anything too heavy so was happily surprised when I found this Douglas Coupland novel waiting for me in a bag of books I haven't opened since purchasing. That was, until I began to read it.
Perhaps foolishly, I hadn't even read the blurb in the bookshop - just remembered discussing it with someone as part of a 'what are you reading' conversation. It's based on a Columbine-like school massacre and told from four affected people over the course of a decade. The longest of these chapters is Jason's story - boyfriend (and secretly husband) of one of the dead who ten years after the event is the one who 'never got over it'. It's a sad and upsetting study of human interaction.
I do think it's a good book and it shows the natural and upward progression of an intelligent and sensitive author. (Generation X may have had its flaws but it still remains a perennial favourite.) Yet, I didn't really want to read it. Having seen Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine and Gus Van Sant's haunting Elephant, how many more artistic reincarnations of Columbine is too many? Yes, anymany is too many since it shouldn't have happened but without wanting to sound like too petulant, how many do I have to endure? Because it is about enduring. It's not enjoyable to see or read or hear or even to know of these tradegies. So how many should we say before we are allowed to put our heads in the sand or turn the channel? And how does this reflect on every other decision we make, whether it's about buying fair trade coffee or who to vote for?
How many questions will I ask before I sound like a country song? To paraphrase Joan Baez, how many roads must a person walk down...?
Wednesday, June 16, 2004
Brokeback Mountain by E Annie Proux
Fuck me this book is good. I found it for 99p in this Oxfam shop near work (well, until Friday) and bought it because I'd heard about the controversy about the film version that's about to be made/produce/finished and also because it's really short and I've never managed to finish one of her books before. The shortness does not reflect the impact it will have - if anything everything has been pared down to the very essentials making the intensity of the story and images so much more immediate.
Although I can't imagine what will happen if they take out the gayness from the story to make the film as has been rumoured. After all the book is entirely a love story between two cowboys so without that there will be nothing of her story. Which is brilliant. What gives?
Fuck me this book is good. I found it for 99p in this Oxfam shop near work (well, until Friday) and bought it because I'd heard about the controversy about the film version that's about to be made/produce/finished and also because it's really short and I've never managed to finish one of her books before. The shortness does not reflect the impact it will have - if anything everything has been pared down to the very essentials making the intensity of the story and images so much more immediate.
Although I can't imagine what will happen if they take out the gayness from the story to make the film as has been rumoured. After all the book is entirely a love story between two cowboys so without that there will be nothing of her story. Which is brilliant. What gives?
Tuesday, June 15, 2004
"Once upon a time you just went mad and gave everyone a good laugh. They created a special position for you - the village idiot. You didn't mind too much because you were made and being a buffoon was probably no worse than tilling the squire's fields for a living. Later when the world got more enlightened they got rid of the job and called you a fool or an idiot or an imbecile. And it was still IK to laugh. They weren't squeamish about where they put you either, or what they called it. Asylums for criminal lunatics, asylums for incurable lunatics, hospitals for the insane, pauper asylums, workhouses for lunactics... If you were rich you might end up in a chancery asylum, but it was still a madhouse. Then someone had the bright idea of charging for the privilege of laughing at you. It was quite a popular pastime for a while, even more than the zoo. By the outbreak of the Great War and the new age of science they had managed to discern four grades of madness: idiots, imbeciles, feeble-minded people and moral defectives. And nowadays, of course, there are hosptials for the mentally ill, and no one is made any more. Although when you walk down the streets of Aberystwyth on Saturday night you could be forgiven for thinking otherwise."
Last Tango in Aberystwyth by Malcolm Pryce (Chapter 10, page 99)
Last Tango in Aberystwyth by Malcolm Pryce (Chapter 10, page 99)
Monday, June 07, 2004
After finishing that last book I felt I deserved something much lighter so was pleasantly surprised when I received a notice from the library saying that the book I'd reserved had come in. Especially as I'd forgotten reserving it. It was a Colin Batemen book I'm convinced I haven't read which would be fabulous if only it was still at the library. For the first time in my life they had cocked up and given it away which I think entirely justified the re-routing of my shopping spree to include Booksetc.
I'm in the middle of Last Tango in Aberystwyth which is the hilarious and utterly bizarre sequel to an equally odd PI book called Aberystwyth Mon Amour by Malcolm Pryce. They are amazing books that have to be read to be believed. And even then, I wouldn't believe them.
Sometimes when reading, you are hit with something so undeniably true that it stands out a million miles from everything else on the page. There's such a description here which I wanted to quote but now I've realised that the book's downstairs and I'm upstairs so: tomorrow.
I'm in the middle of Last Tango in Aberystwyth which is the hilarious and utterly bizarre sequel to an equally odd PI book called Aberystwyth Mon Amour by Malcolm Pryce. They are amazing books that have to be read to be believed. And even then, I wouldn't believe them.
Sometimes when reading, you are hit with something so undeniably true that it stands out a million miles from everything else on the page. There's such a description here which I wanted to quote but now I've realised that the book's downstairs and I'm upstairs so: tomorrow.
Saturday, June 05, 2004
Oh, just read this on the blogger front page:
Hooray for Bloggywood
Congratulations are in order for one of our users. Film deal for 'Baghdad blogger': "The Baghdad Blog, a book based on an online diary written by an Iraqi man about life during the conflict there, is to be made into a film." First a book, then a movie and it all started at Blogger. Nice!
– Biz [5/12/2004 12:16:00 PM]
Hooray for Bloggywood
Congratulations are in order for one of our users. Film deal for 'Baghdad blogger': "The Baghdad Blog, a book based on an online diary written by an Iraqi man about life during the conflict there, is to be made into a film." First a book, then a movie and it all started at Blogger. Nice!
– Biz [5/12/2004 12:16:00 PM]
I finally finished the book of the Baghdad Blog. By the time I left, Baghdad was bombed and all infrastructure destroyed. Other cities in Iraq were apparently decimated and Salam was travelling around with Raed's information charity to publicize and record the civilian injuries. Was that already a year ago? I don't think I can face checking out his website because I'd rather live with my head in the sand than accept harsh reality.
Also because I'm exceptionally lazy.
Also because I'm exceptionally lazy.
