kidzdoc's back for more in 2013 part 3

  










Currently reading:

    

The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
Spitting Blood: The History of Tuberculosis by Helen Bynum
Algerian Chronicles by Albert Camus

Completed books: (TBR = To Be Read book, purchased prior to 1/1/12)

January:
1. Quiet London by Siobhan Wall (review)
2. The Chip-Chip Gatherers by Shiva Naipaul (review)
3. Our Lady of Alice Bhatti by Mohammed Hanif (review)
4. The Eleven by Pierre Michon (review)
5. Pediatric Advanced Life Support Provider Manual by Leon Chameides, MD (review)
6. Communion Town by Sam Thompson (review)
7. Damascus by Joshua Mohr (TBR) (review)
8. The Walls of Delhi by Uday Prakash (review)
9. Inspiring Quotes: The Greatest Quotes of Martin Luther King Junior by Martin Luther King, Jr. (review)
10. A Happy Death by Albert Camus (review)
11. Place of Mind by Richard Blanco

February:
12. Great House by Nicole Krauss (TBR) (review)
13. In the House of the Interpreter by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o (review)
14. Bill Veeck's Crosstown Classic by Bill Veeck with Ed Linn (review)
15. Stone Upon Stone by Wiesław Myśliwski (TBR) (review)
16. Big Machine by Victor LaValle (TBR) (review)
17. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce (review)
18. How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia by Mohsin Hamid (review)
19. The Other City by Michal Ajvaz (TBR)
20. A History of the Present Illness by Louise Aranson
21. Domestic Work by Natasha Trethewey
22. Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome
23. Vertical Motion by Can Xue (TBR)

March:
24. Liquidation by Imre Kertész (TBR)
25. Philadelphia Fire by John Edgar Wideman (TBR)
26. Paradise by Abdulrazak Gurnah (TBR)
27. Dream of Ding Village by Yan LIanke (TBR)
28. Mortality by Christopher Hitchens
29. The Jokers by Albert Cossery

April:
30. All My Friends by Marie NDiaye (review)
31. Palliative Medicine in the UK c. 1970-2010 by Caroline Overy and E.M. Tansey (review)
32. Childhood Asthma and Beyond by Lois Reynolds and E.M. Tansey (review)
33. Five Star Billionaire by Tash Aw (review)
34. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (TBR)
35. Pow! by Mo Yan
36. Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
37. There Was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra by Chinua Achebe
38. Burmese Days by George Orwell
39. Requiem: A Hallucination by Antonio Tabucchi
40. No Longer at Ease by Chinua Achebe

May:
41. A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis (TBR)
42. The Redundancy of Courage by Timothy Mo (TBR)
43. Never Mind by Edward St. Aubyn (TBR)
44. Bad News by Edward St. Aubyn (TBR)
45. Some Hope by Edward St Aubyn (TBR)
46. Bad Pharma: How Drug Companies Mislead Doctors and Harm Patients by Ben Goldacre
47. Why Me? : A Doctor Looks at the Book of Job by Diane M. Komp, M.D. (TBR)
48. The Sound of Things Falling by Juan Gabriel Vásquez
49. Skios by Michael Frayn
50. The Aftermath of War by Jean-Paul Sartre
51. Where There's Love, There's Hate by Adolfo Bioy Casares & Silvina Ocampo

June:
52. The Philadelphia Chromosome: A Mutant Gene and the Quest to Cure Cancer at the Genetic Level by Jessica Wapner (review)
53. The Alienist by Machado de Assis
54. The Singapore Grip by J.G. Farrell (TBR)
55. The Hired Man by Aminatta Forna (review)

July:
56. Enon by Paul Harding (review)
57. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
58. The Amen Corner by James Baldwin (review)
59. The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks (review)
60. The Cripple of Inishmaan by Martin McDonagh (review)
61. A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
62. The Blue Riband: The Piccadilly Line by Peter York (review)
63. Drift: The Hammersmith & City Line by Philippe Parreno (review)
64. A Season in the Congo by Aimé Césaire (review)
65. TransAtlantic by Colum McCann

August:
66. The Testament of Mary by Colm Toíbín
67. What We Talk About When We Talk About the Tube: The District Line by John Lanchester (review)
68. The Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan (review)
69. The 32 Stops: The Central Line by Danny Dorling (review)
70. The German Mujahid by Boualem Sansal (TBR) (review)
71. Dark Heart of the Night by Léonora Miano (TBR) (review)
72. 419 by Will Ferguson (review)
73. The Last Brother by Nathacha Appanah (TBR) (review)
74. Harvest by Jim Crace (review)
75. Massacre River by René Philoctète (TBR) (review)
76. Almost English by Charlotte Mendelson (review)
77. The Return by Dany Laferrière

Books acquired in 2013: (✔ = completed book, bold = purchased book)

April:
1. The Eleven by Pierre Michon (5 January; LT Early Reviewers book) ✔
2. Place of Mind by Richard Blanco (21 January; Kindle e-book) ✔
3. A History of the Present Illness by Louise Aranson (29 January; Kindle e-book) ✔

February:
4. Old Man Goriot by Honoré de Balzac (15 February; Kindle e-book)
5. How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia by Mohsin Hamid (15 February; LT Early Reviewers book) ✔

March:
6. The Return by Dany Laferrière (1 March; Alibris)
7. Brazil Red by Jean-Christophe Rufin (7 March; Alibris)
8. Palliative Medicine in the UK c. 1970-2010 by Caroline Overy and E.M. Tansey (9 March; free e-book) ✔
9. Lamb by Bonnie Nadzam (16 March; Kindle e-book)
10. All My Friends by Marie NDiaye (16 March; ARC copy received from avaland) ✔
11. Mortality by Christopher Hitchens (17 March; Barnes & Noble) ✔
12. Burmese Days by George Orwell (17 March; Barnes & Noble) ✔
13. Searching for Zion: The Quest for Home in the African Diaspora by Emily Raboteau (17 March; Barnes & Noble)
14. Ghana Must Go by Taiye Selasi (17 March; Barnes & Noble)
15. Five Star Billionaire by Tash Aw (19 March; LT Early Reviewers book) ✔
16. The Outsider by Albert Camus (21 March; The Book Depository)
17. Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver (24 March; Kindle e-book)
18. The Marlowe Papers by Ros Barber (24 March; Kindle e-book)

April:
19. Childhood Asthma and Beyond by Lois Reynolds and E.M. Tansey (1 April; free e-book) ✔
20. El Narco: Inside Mexico's Criminal Insurgency by Ioan Grillo (7 April; Barnes & Noble)
21. Bad Pharma: How Drug Companies Mislead Doctors and Harm Patients by Ben Goldacre (7 April; Barnes & Noble)
22. Life After Life by Kate Atkinson (7 April; Barnes & Noble) ✔
23. There Was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra by Chinua Achebe (7 April; Barnes & Noble) ✔
24. Crock-Pot Slow Cooker Bible (7 April; Barnes & Noble)
25. The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks (16 April; Barnes & Noble)
26. The Crow Road by Iain Banks (16 April; Barnes & Noble)
27. Experiment Eleven: Dark Secrets Behind the Discovery of a Wonder Drug by Peter Pringle (21 April; Strand Book Store)
28. Lenin's Kisses by Yan Lianke (21 April; Strand Book Store)
29. Requiem: A Hallucination by Antonio Tabucchi (21 April; Strand Book Store) ✔
30. No Longer at Ease by Chinua Achebe (21 April; Strand Book Store) ✔
31. All Decent Animals by Oonya Kempadoo (21 April; Strand Book Store)
32. Julius Caesar (Modern Library Classics) by William Shakespeare (21 April; Greenlight Bookstore)
33. The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander (21 April; Greenlight Bookstore)
34. Firefly by Severo Sarduy (22 April; gift from Caroline)
35. The Gate by François Bizot (27 April; Kindle e-book)
36. In the Land of Israel by Amos Oz (28 April; Kindle e-book)

May:
37. You Were Never in Chicago by Neil Steinberg (1 May; free e-book from the University of Chicago Press)
38. Hack: Stories from a Cab by Dmitry Samarov (8 May; free e-book from the University of Chicago Press)
39. The Hired Man by Aminatta Forna (15 May; Amazon UK)
40. The Sound of Things Falling by Juan Gabriel Vásquez (15 May; Amazon UK)
41. The Remarkable Story of Great Ormond Street Hospital by Kevin Telfer (15 May; Amazon UK)
42. Basti by Intizar Husain (18 May; Joseph Fox Bookshop)
43. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (18 May; Joseph Fox Bookshop)
44. What to Feed Your Baby: Cost-Conscious Nutrition for Your Infant by Stanley A. Cohen, M.D. (20 May; advance review copy)
45. Where There's Love, There's Hate by Adolfo Bioy Casares and Silvina Ocampo (26 May; City Lights Bookstore)
46. The Bottom of the Jar by Adellatif Laâbi (26 May; City Lights Bookstore)
47. Arrow of God by Chinua Achebe (26 May; City Lights Bookstore)
48. And Still the Earth by Ignácio de Loyola Brandão (26 May; City Lights Bookstore)
49. Blue White Red by Alain Mabanckou (26 May; City Lights Bookstore)
50. Transit by Abdourahman A. Waberi (26 May; City Lights Bookstore)
51. The Girl with the Golden Parasol by Uday Prakash (26 May; City Lights Bookstore)
52. Salt by Earl Lovelace (26 May; City Lights Bookstore)
53. A Muslim Suicide by Bensalem Himmich (26 May; City Lights Bookstore)
54. The Philadelphia Chromosome: A Mutant Gene and the Quest to Cure Cancer at the Genetic Level by Jessica Wapner (26 May; City Lights Bookstore)
55. Southern Cross the Dog by Bill Cheng (26 May; City Lights Bookstore)
56. Raised from the Ground by José Saramago (26 May; City Lights Bookstore)
57. From the Ruins of Empire: The Intellectuals Who Remade Asia by Pankaj Mishra (26 May; City Lights Bookstore)
58. Ten White Geese by Gerbrand Bakker (29 May; City Lights Bookstore)
59. A Golden Age by Tahmima Anam (29 May; City Lights Bookstore)
60. Percival Everett by Virgil Russell: A Novel by Percival Everett (29 May; City Lights Bookstore)
61. Algerian Chronicles by Albert Camus (29 May; City Lights Bookstore)
62. Blacks In and Out of the Left by Michael C. Dawson (29 May; City Lights Bookstore)
63. The Amazing Bud Powell: Black Genius, Jazz History, and the Challenge of Bebop by Guthrie P. Ramsey, Jr. (29 May; City Lights Bookstore)
64. Mingus Speaks by John F. Goodman (29 May; City Lights Bookstore)

June:
65. The Alienist by Machado de Assis (1 Jun; City Lights Bookstore) ✔
66. Ways of Going Home by Alejandro Zambra (1 Jun; City Lights Bookstore)
67. Satantango by László Krasznahorkai (1 Jun; City Lights Bookstore)
68. The World Is Moving Around Me: A Memoir of the Haiti Earthquake by Dany Laferrière (1 Jun; City Lights Bookstore)
69. That Deadman Dance by Kim Scott (1 Jun; City Lights Bookstore)
70. City of a Hundred Fires by Richard Blanco (1 Jun; City Lights Bookstore)
71. On the Imperial Highway: New and Selected Poems by Jayne Cortez (1 Jun; City Lights Bookstore)
72. Engine Empire: Poems by Cathy Park Hong (1 Jun; City Lights Bookshop)
73. Disposable People by Ezekel Alan (2 Jun; Amazon Kindle e-book)
74. Sons for the Return Home by Albert Wendt (8 Jun; Amazon Kindle e-book (free))
75. The Secret River by Kate Grenville (11 Jun; gift book from Paul Cranswick)
76. Enon by Paul Harding (12 Jun; May LT Early Reviewer book)
77. The Code of the Samurai: A Modern Translation of the Bushido Shoshinshu of Taira Shigesuke by Yuzan Daidoji (19 Jun; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)
78. What Doctors Feel: How Emotions Affect the Practice of Medicine by Danielle Ofri, MD (19 Jun; Harvard Book Store)
79. The Dark Road by Ma Jian (19 Jun; Harvard Book Store)
80. Spitting Blood: The History of Tuberculosis by Helen Bynum (19 Jun; The Harvard Coop)
81. AIDS at 30: A History by Victoria A. Harden (19 Jun; The Harvard Coop)
82. Contagion: How Commerce Has Spread Disease by Mark Harrison (19 Jun; The Harvard Coop)
83. She Came to Stay by Simone de Beauvoir (19 Jun; The Harvard Coop)
84. The Quiet American by Graham Greene (19 Jun; Raven Used Books)
85. Chronicle of a Blood Merchant by Yu Hua (19 Jun; Raven Used Books)
86. Regeneration by Pat Barker (20 Jun; gift book from Caroline)

July:
87. Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace (4 Jul; Amazon Kindle e-book)
88. My Struggle: Book Two by Karl Ove Knausgaard (14 Jul; Archipelago Books)
89. The Flying Creatures of Fra Angelico by Antonio Tabucchi (14 Jul; Archipelago Books)
90. The Woman of Porto Pim by Antonio Tabucchi (14 Jul; Archipelago Books)
91. Country Boy by Richard Hillyer (16 Jul; Slightly Foxed Bookshop)
92. Wreaking by James Scudamore (16 Jul; Slightly Foxed Bookshop)
93. Perfect by Rachel Joyce (16 Jul; Slightly Foxed Bookshop)
94. TransAtlantic by Colum McCann (16 Jul; Slightly Foxed Bookshop)
95. Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch (16 Jul; South Kensington Books)
96. Othello by William Shakespeare (16 Jul; South Kensington Books)
97. The Blue Riband: The Piccadilly Line by Peter York (17 Jul; Foyles Bookshop)
98. Fireflies by Shiva Naipaul (17 Jul; Foyles Bookshop)
99. North of South: An African Journey by Shiva Naipaul (17 Jul; Foyles Bookshop)
100. A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry (17 Jul; Foyles Bookshop)
101. Between Friends by Amos Oz (17 Jul; Foyles Bookshop)
102. The Childhood of Jesus by J.M. Coetzee (17 Jul; Foyles Bookshop)
103. The Amen Corner by James Baldwin (20 Jul; National Theatre Bookshop)
104. The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh (20 Jul; Waterloo Bridge stalls, South Bank, London)
105. The Reprieve by Jean-Paul Sartre (20 Jul; Waterloo Bridge stalls, South Bank, London

2013 reading goals (✔ = completed goal):

1. Booker Prize group
     a. Finish reading the 2012 longlist
          8. Communion Town by Sam Thompson
          9. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce
          10. Skios by Michael Frayn
     b. Read the entire 2013 longlist by year's end, and the shortlist in advance of the award ceremony
          1. Five Star Billionaire by Tash Aw
          2. TransAtlantic by Colum McCann
          3. The Testament of Mary by Colm Tóibín
          4. The Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan
          5. Harvest by Jim Crace

2. 2013 DSC Prize for South Asian Literature ✔
     a. Finish the shortlist in advance of the award ceremony in late January
          Our Lady of Alice Bhatti by Mohammed Hanif
          The Walls of Delhi by Uday Prakash

3. Orange January/July group
     a. Read selected books from the shortlist of the 2013 Women's Prize for Fiction (WPF) in advance of the prize ceremony
          Bring Up the Bodies by Hilarly Mantel (read in 2012)
          NW by Zadie Smith (read in 2012)
          Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
     b. Read 8-12 or more books nominated for the Orange Prize or the WPF in any year, or novels written by women which would be eligible for the prize
          Great House by Nicole Krauss
          Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
          The Hired Man by Aminatta Forna
          Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

4. Reading Globally group
     a. Read 3 or more books for each 2013 quarterly challenge
          *Central & Eastern European literature
               Stone Upon Stone by Wiesław Myśliwski
               The Other City by Michal Ajvaz
               Liquidation by Imre Kertész
          *Southeast Asian literature
               Five Star Billionaire by Tash Aw
               Burmese Days by George Orwell
               The Redundancy of Courage by Timothy Mo
          *Francophone literature
               A Season in the Congo by Aimé Césaire
               The German Mujahid by Boualem Sansal
               Dark Heart of the Night by Léonora Miano
               Massacre River by René Philoctète
          *South American literature
     b. Read 6 or more books for the 2012 4th quarter challenge, China & neighboring countries
          Vertical Motion by Can Xue
          Dream of Ding Village by Yan Lianke
          Pow! by Mo Yan

5. Author Theme Reads group
     a. Read 2-3 books by Simone de Beauvoir

6. Literary Centennials group
     a. Read books by Albert Camus throughout the year
          A Happy Death

7. Patrick White 100th 101st Anniversary challenge
     a. Read at least 1 of the 3 books that I own and was supposed to have read last year

8. Medicine group
     a. Read 12 or more books on medicine, science and public health throughout the year
          A History of the Present Illness by Louise Aranson
          Palliative Medicine in the UK c. 1970-2010 by Caroline Overy and E.M. Tansey
          Childhood Asthma and Beyond by Lois Reynolds and E.M. Tansey
          Bad Pharma: How Drug Companies Mislead Doctors and Harm Patients by Ben Goldacre
          The Philadelphia Chromosome: A Mutant Gene and the Quest to Cure Cancer at the Genetic Level by Jessica Wapner

9. African/African American Literature group
     a. Read 20 or more works of fiction from the African diaspora
          1. Big Machine by Victor LaValle
          2. Philadelphia Fire by John Edgar Wideman
          3. Paradise by Abdulrazak Gurnah
          4. All My Friends by Marie NDiaye
          5. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
          6. No Longer at Ease by Chinua Achebe
          7. The Hired Man by Aminatta Forna
          8. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
          9. The Amen Corner by James Baldwin
          10. A Season in the Congo by Aimé Césaire
          11. Dark Heart of the Night by Léonora Miano
          12. Massacre River by René Philoctète

10. Read Mo Yan group
     a. Read 2-3 books written by Mo Yan
          Pow!

11. Other
     a. Read books longlisted or selected as finalists for these other literary prizes:
          * Wellcome Trust Book Prize (medicine in literature)
               Our Lady of Alice Bhatti by Mohammed Hanif
          * National Book Award
          * Hurston/Wright Legacy Awards (African diaspora)
     b. Read more books spontaneously from my TBR collection:
          The Chip-Chip Gatherers by Shiva Naipaul
          Damascus by Joshua Mohr
          The Jokers by Albert Cossery
          Never Mind by Edward St. Aubyn
          Bad News by Edward St. Aubyn
          Some Hope by Edward St Aubyn
          A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis

Planned reads for July (as always, subject to change):

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Americanah - completed
James Baldwin, The Amen Corner - completed
Iain Banks, The Wasp Factory - completed
Helen Bynum, Spitting Blood: The History of Tuberculosis - reading
Albert Camus, Algerian Chronicles
Aimé Césaire, A Season in the Congo
Stan Cohen, What to Feed Your Baby: Cost-Conscious Nutrition for Your Infant
Assia Djebar, Algerian White
Paul Harding, Enon - completed
Mark Harrison, Contagion: How Commerce Has Spread Disease
A.J. Liebling, Just Enough Liebling
Colum McCann, TransAtlantic
Rohinton Mistry, A Fine Balance - reading
Joseph Mitchell, Up in the Old Hotel
Boualem Sansal, The German Mujahid
Peter York: The Blue Riband: The Piccadilly Line - reading

Favorite reads of the first half of 2013 (4½ stars or higher, in the order in which I read them):

Fiction:

The Chip-Chip Gatherers by Shiva Naipaul: A superb novel about a coastal community of struggling Indians in post-colonial Trinidad, which won the Whitbread (now Costa) Prize in 1973.

The Walls of Delhi by Uday Prakash: A collection of short stories set in modern Delhi, each featuring a character who struggles to overcome poverty, corruption and caste prejudice.

Great House by Nicole Krauss: A difficult but richly rewarding novel about four characters, each of whom shares a connection to a remarkable and overwhelming writing desk with a secret past that affects all of them.

Stone Upon Stone by Wiesław Myśliwski: An epic novel about life in a Polish village, as told by a resident nearing the end of a life lived richly yet badly.

Dream of Ding Village by Yan Lianke: A humorous yet dark and unsettling book about the residents of an impoverished Chinese village, whose leaders encourage them to enrich themselves by donating blood, in a scheme that is initially successful but turns tragic when many townspeople contract AIDS through the use of shared needles. This novel was based on a true story that was told to its author.

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe: The first great African novel and the most widely read one from the continent 55 years after its release, which is a tragedy about a Nigerian village leader whose downfall comes about after British colonialists and missionaries invade the region in the late 19th century and impart their European rules and Christian beliefs on the local communities.

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson: A clever and captivating novel about a British woman who is born in the early 20th century, dies at various points in her life during in the narrative, and is reborn multiple times throughout the book, as her fate is altered by personal choice and choices external to her.

The Redundancy of Courage by Timothy Mo: A fictionalized account of the war between Indonesia and Timor-Leste (East Timor) beginning in the mid 1970s, after Portugal renounced its claim to the former Portuguese Timor, told through the eyes of a Chinese merchant, freedom fighter and medic.

The Singapore Grip by J.G. Farrell: The last novel in Farrell's famed Empire Trilogy, which takes place in Singapore and Malaya at the onset of World War II and the Japanese war against an ill-prepared army led by bumbling British officers, and set against the lives of several wealthy European and American expatriates, which also serves as a detailed and damning condemnation of the deleterious effects of the British Empire on the residents of that island nation.

The Hired Man by Aminatta Forna: An excellent follow up to Forna's Commonwealth Writers' Prize winning novel The Memory of Love, which is set in a contemporary Croatian town in which an English family purchases a house that holds great meaning and bitter memories to several people who live there.

Nonfiction:

Quiet London by Siobhan Wall: A lovely collection of places of solitude within the capital, with photographs and brief descriptions of and directions to each site.

Bad Pharma: How Drug Companies Mislead Doctors and Harm Patients by Ben Goldacre: An eye opening and superb analysis of the largely negative effects that Big Pharma has on the cost of medical care, physician practice and patient safety in the US and UK, written by a British physician and frequent columnist for The Guardian.

The Philadelphia Chromosome: A Mutant Gene and the Quest to Cure Cancer at the Genetic Level by Jessica Wapner: An outstanding contribution to the history of medicine, which describes the discovery of the genetic cause for chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), and the painstaking research that led to the understanding of the mechanism by which the Philadelphia chromosome causes cancer, and the development of a targeted drug that has transformed CML from a universally fatal illness to one which can be successfully managed and controlled in the vast majority of patients.

Great list of reads, Darryl. Some of them interested me along the way as you read them, but it's fun to see them all in one place.

Posted on previous thread and don't want to get lost so again:

198 - Looks like Amazon has it now in U.S. On my list! Excellent review, as usual. Sounds intriguing. Also thanks for the link to the author interview. Wow! Also nice to know others also walk away from ATM's without their cash! I actually think I almost bought about $300 worth of stamps at an ATM in Holland thinking I was getting cash. Close one.

Also thanks for the most anticipated books link. That is always fun. I also already have Five Star Billionaire on my WL

Oh Lord and now a speculation thread! I love that!

Too bad for me I have horrible internet while traveling in the desert so I missed the Archipelago sale. 50% off - dang!

Off to read the speculations!

Course now the 198 doesn't work.

Cariola just posted a review of Life After Life that convinced me - now Im double convinced.

>6 rebeccanyc: Thanks, Rebecca. The other reason I wanted to post that list is that I haven't reviewed several of them yet, so this allows me to at least acknowledge that I did enoy them.

>7 mkboylan: Thanks, Merrikay. You can purchase The Hired Man through a seller on Amazon US, or directly from Amazon UK as I did, but it won't be published in the US until October 1st. The list price of the edition I have is £16.99, but I was charged £10.87 for it. I ordered two other books in this order, and although I had to pay £12.96 in posting and handling, the total cost of the order (£47.50) was less than the list price of the three books combined (£53.98).

I wondered where you were that would have caused you to be in the desert. I looked up your home location, and I now understand. One of my work colleagues got together with friends in Las Vegas the week before last, when it reached as high as 117 degrees. She vows that she'll never return there, and although I do have a close friend who lives there, I don't plan to visit her there anytime soon.

>8 mkboylan: Definitely read Life After Life!

to Sassy from the previous thread -- about Enon and "none" -- I wondered if it fit the bleakness of the story, the general sense of "nothing" in the man's life.

I had gone into the book thinking Enon was going to be a character's name. When it wasn't, I did google it -- because I learned in Tinkers that Harding does things with intention -- and one reference fit but is spoilery.

From the last thread - great review of The Hired Man which sounds really interesting.

Too bad about Enon though.

The list of upcoming releases was very helpful - I used to be pretty good about keeping up with the big new releases but not so much anymore.

>10 detailmuse: Interesting comment about the origin of the title of Enon, MJ. I assume that Tinkers, which is based on the grandfather of the protagonist in Enon, is also set there.

>11 DieFledermaus: Thanks, DieF. To be honest, I posted that list mainly for my benefit, so that I could keep abreast of the release dates of these books, although I did want to share it with everyone else. :-)

Darryl so interesting, Enon surely must have been mentioned in Tinkers but I don’t remember it. The word actually annoys me!

btw thanks again for the info about the Archipelago promotion -- I ordered two longtime wishlisteds, Spring Tides and The Twin.

Thanks, MJ. I had meant to buy Spring Tides, as I enjoyed Translation Is a Love Affair. I look forward to your comments about it.

I'm currently on vacation in London, and yesterday I met five other LTers, who are all members of the 75 Books group. A good time was had by all, and in keeping with every past meet up I've attended there was plenty of delightful conversation, trips to multiple book shops, good food...and plenty of photos! Unfortunately I'm having a hard time at the moment transferring my photos from my smartphone to Facebook or some other source (without paying an exorbitant roaming fee), so it may take me a day or two to figure out how to do this.

In lieu of photos, here's a description of the day's events.

The meet up started in South Kensington, where I met Genny (gennyt) at the Gloucester Road Piccadilly Line tube station. Heather's (souloftherose) train was running late, so Genny and I stopped in a branch of Starbucks for iced coffee. We then walked a block or two down Gloucester Road to Caffè Nero, a popular Italian coffee shop that is nearly as ubiquitous as Starbucks is in central London, as it was next door to Slightly Foxed Books, our first planned stop. Heather joined us soon afterward, and we had a light lunch and iced fruit drinks al fresco, as we enjoyed the summery and, at that time, non-humid afternoon. Bianca (drachenbraut23) and Luci (elkiedee) joined us within the hour.

Our next stop was to Slightly Foxed Books, which contained a small yet rich collection of new and secondhand books, along with previously out of print books under its own label. As I was typing this message Genny posted photos that she took of us in and outside the bookshop on Facebook, so I'll post one of them here:



Left to right: Bianca, Heather, me and Luci

I came away with five books:

Country Boy by Richard Hillyer (a Slightly Foxed Edition)
Good Offices by Evelio Rosero
Wreaking by James Scudamore
Perfect by Rachel Joyce
TransAtlantic by Colum McCann

From there we walked on Stanhope Gardens and Exhibition Road to the Victoria & Albert Museum, one of the great London museums. Entry was free for the standard exhibits, so we split up and each spent a little over an hour viewing a couple of rooms in the massive collection.

Afterward we had a light snack on a plaza near the V&A (tea and scones with clotted cream and jam for me), and then proceeded to South Kensington Books, another small secondhand shop that has come under new management and has a much beter selection of books than the last time I visited it in 2007. I came away with two more books:

Othello by William Shakespeare (purchased because I'll see the National Theatre performance on the 24th)
Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch (recommended to me by several LTers)

From there we took the Underground from South Kensington to Camden Town, and had a superb vegetarian dinner at inSpiral Lounge, close to Camden Lock, which had a very friendly staff and a warm and welcoming atmosphere. Fliss (flissp) traveled by train from Cambridge to join us, and we continued our good conversation past 10 pm, where the remaining LTers parted company.

It was great to meet Bianca, Genny and Heather, and to see Fliss and Luci again. I'll meet up with a couple of them during my remaining nine days here, and see several other LTers as well.

Nice to see a picture of you in London Darryl. I didn't realise that slightly foxed was an actual book shop as I have been dipping into one of their: The Real Reader's Quaterley

Thanks, Barry. Yes, Slightly Foxed Bookshop is on the corner of Gloucester Road and Stanhope Gardens in South Kensington, a short walk south of the Gloucester Road tube station.

I'll be here through next Friday. I missed a play on Monday that I was marginally interested in, due to the effects of a cold and asthma exacerbation that is beginning to improve, but I have tickets to six other plays, including A Season in the Congo by Aimé Césaire, which I'll see at the Young Vic tonight. I'll buy plenty more books before I leave as well.

Sounds like you're having a great time -- no surprise there, though!

Enjoy your stay in London, Darryl. That bookshop is not far from the hotel I was in a month ago, the Radisson Vanderbilt on Cromwell Rd. Unfortunately I didn't have any free time to go shopping.

>18 rebeccanyc: Thanks, Rebecca! It definitely promises to be a very enjoyable stay, despite the current heat wave, which is the most prolonged one in the UK since 2006. The temperatures have been in the high 80s to low 90s all week so far, but the weather should be more seasonal starting this weekend.

I went to Foyles Bookshop on Charing Cross Road, and bought six more books, five of which were from the top of my wish list:

Fireflies by Shiva Naipaul
North of South: An African Journey by Shiva Naipaul
A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
Between Friends by Amos Oz
The Childhood of Jesus by J.M. Coetzee
THe Blue Riband: The Piccadilly Line by Peter York: This was the only book that wasn't on my wish list. The London Underground is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year, and Penguin has put out a series of short works by different local authors for each of the tube lines, along with the old East London line, which has become the London Overground. The Piccadilly Line is the one I ride the most, so I thought I'd start with this one.

>19 StevenTX: Thanks, Steven. The hotel you stayed at is, I believe, very close to the hotel I stayed at on my first visit to London, which was on Lexham Gardens near the Cromwell Hospital on Cromwell Road. I'm sorry that you didn't have time to go shopping, though.

Good to know you're enjoying yourself in London Daryl! Hope the fine summer weather we're enjoying isn't too much in sticky old London... walking along the riverside walks is usually a nice bit of relief when it's hot.

A little bit out of the way I suppose, but who knows {shrugs}?... But if you find yourself anywhere near Golders Green in north London (up the Finchley Road) you MUST try and find Joseph's Books in Temple Fortune. It's my favourite book shop in the United Kingdom! Small but perfectly formed - http://www.josephsbookstore.com/bookstore/ .

Theatre review!

A Season in the Congo by Aimé Césaire
The Young Vic Theatre, South Bank, London

My rating:

Aimé Césaire (1913-2008) was a legendary and influential Caribbean poet, playwright and public intellectual, who was also one of the creators of the Négritude movement in Francophone literature, whose aim was to unite the peoples of the Caribbean and African French colonies in opposition to the "mother country".

One of Césaire's most famous plays is Une saison au congo, written in 1968, which is a description of the rise, fall and assassination of Patrice Lumumba, who rose from humble beginnings to become a leader of the Congolese independence movement from Belgium and the first democratically elected prime minister of the newly formed Republic of Congo in July 1960. The King of Belgium attended the Independence Day ceremony, but was publicly embarrassed when Lumumba gave an unplanned speech that was highly critical of the brutalities inflicted upon the Congolese people by the Belgians, and which celebrated the victory of the people over their former enslavers.

Lumumba was faced with crises through his seven month term in office. The Belgian government, concerned that losing the wealth contained in the Congolese mining industry would cause it to become the "Liechtenstein of Europe", secretly collaborated with the leader of Katanga, the richest province, and supported a separatist movement whose aim was to keep profits flowing from the Congo to Belgium in exchange for enriching the Katangan leader and his cronies. Lumumba, with the support of President Kasa-Vubu and the chief of the military, Joseph Mobutu, engaged in a military strike against the separatist movement. Lumumba sought support from the United States, which turned him down, and the United Nations, which took a passive and indifferent stance toward the Congolese government. He then turned to the USSR for support, which led Belgium, the US and possibly the UK to secretly plot his removal and assassination. Mobutu removed both Lumumba and Kasa-Vubu from power, and ultimately Lumumba was captured, brutally tortured and executed by Congolese and Belgian troops loyal to Mobutu on 17 January 1961.





A Season in the Congo was a brilliant, powerful and innovative interpretation of Césaire's play, which starred Olivier Award winning actor Chiwetel Ejiofor as Patrice Lumumba. His physical resemblence to the Congolese leader was striking, but was exceeded by the strength and convicton of his outstanding performance. The supporting cast was solid, and the play was enhanced by the use of puppetry to represent the colonial powers and the UN (such as the Belgian government in the second photo above), a wise old man who spoke in Swahili throughout the performance, soothing African music, and especially the very athletic and stirring dance routines that were mesmerizing. I couldn't have been any closer to the stage of the Young Vic, located on The Cut a block or two away from the famed Old Vic Theatre. The audience on the floor sat in chairs around small patio tables, and my chair abutted the front of the stage, as several of the actors including Ejiofor were within easy reach on numerous occasions, which made the performance that much more powerful for me. It lasted over 2-1/2 hours with a 15 minute intermission, making it one of the longest plays I've seen recently, but I was engrossed from the first scene to the shocking one at the end of the play, which caused an audience member to scream in horror. The cast was given a solid 4-5 minute standing ovation at the play's conclusion, which was well deserved. A Season in the Congo closes at the Young Vic on 24 July, and I can only hope that it finds a new home in the US in the near future.

>21 Polaris-: Thanks, Paul. It's rather odd that I had to come to London to experience a proper summer, as it's been mainly rainy and gloomy in Atlanta the past few weeks. I did contract an upper respiratory infection just before I left, which has turned into a moderate asthma exacerbation, so the current heat wave isn't helpful. I did forego one play on Monday that was only mildly interesting, but I was able to get out this afternoon and attend tonight's play at the Young Vic without problems. I am planning to meet up with one of the LTers I met yesterday in South London for a day out tomorrow, including one or more lengthy walks, so I hope that I'm not as wheezy then.

Thanks for that glowing recommendation of Joseph's Bookshop. Another LT friend (Luci) lives in North London, and I believe she lives near Finchley Road. There's a good chance I'll meet up with her again next week, and I'll definitely mention this shop to her the next time we chat.

Enjoying reading about your London trip! What other plays are you planning to see while you're there?

Darryl - you just arrived and already I'm behind in hearing about your adventures! Sounds (and looks) like you're having a blast. Enjoy!

Thanks, DieF. I'll see the matinee performance of The Amen Corner by James Baldwin at the National Theatre with Fliss on Saturday, and the NT (National Theatre) Live broadcast of Macbeth starring Kenneth Branagh at a movie theatre in West India Quay that evening (it's currently playing at the Manchester International Festival through Saturday). On Sunday I have a ticket to see "Celebration", which celebrates 50 years of contributions by black playwrights and actors to the National Theatre, which was created in 1963. It's possible that I may skip that one if I spend the day in Cambridge with a friend who couldn't make it to Tuesday's meet up. On Monday I'll see Othello at the NT, and on Wednesday The Cripple of Inishmaan, starring Daniel Radcliffe of Harry Potter fame, in Soho.

Thanks, Joyce. The weather has been unusually hot here, as you may have heard, but it should be much more temperate by the time you arrive here.

Delighted to read your review in #22 as I booked myself tickets earlier today - they've extended the run to early August due to great reviews, so I can squeeze it in during my flying visit to London.

I first saw Chiwetel Ejiofor in a play at the National Theatre called Blue/Orange, a very interesting play about mental illness and racial stereotyping. (Just looked it the production and discovered it was 13 years ago!) He was excellent in it, so that was one of the things which attracted me to A Season In The Congo. Good to have your seal of approval ;-)

Wednesday The Cripple of Inishmaan, starring Daniel Radcliffe of Harry Potter fame, in Soho.

Did you have trouble getting tickets for this? My 16 year old is going to want to see it.

ETA: nevermind - I'm buying tickets for this from home. Hope it's good!

Just caught up with the end of your previous thread Daryl - thanks so much for posting that link to the anticipated books of the second half of the year. There are certainly some interesting books there - all of those that intrigue me are mainly new authors for me.

I hope you had a good time down south of the river - I'm a south Londoner originally - and enjoy the rest of your fabulously culture-packed visit.

Very interesting about the Cesaire play, which I didn't know about. Did you ever see the movie about Lumumba that came out about 15 years ago or so? Very powerful.

Another South Londoner here, (yes it is important which side of the river you live.). Enjoyed your theatre review; The Young Vic gets you close to the action; a great place to watch a play.

Yesterday I met LT member Bianca (drachenbraut23) at noon at the Denmark Hill railway station in Camberwell, which is close to where she lives.



The station was built in 1865, and is served by London Overground and National Rail trains.

From there we walked through Dulwich Village, a upper middle class neighborhood filled with lovely old homes. When we reached the main shopping area we had a long and pleasant lunch at Gail's Artisan Bakery, a small restaurant chain that sells enticing breads, pastries, tarts and sandwiches:



We proceeded from there to Dulwich Park, a 72 acre urban oasis that was created from farmland in the Victorian era. We walked through wooded paths for a couple of peaceful hours, stopping midway through for a snack overlooking the park's golf course.



We emerged in East Dulwich and walked through the neighborhood until we reached Lordship Lane, the main shopping street. Unfortunately the charity shops with their secondhand book offerings were closed, but we did stop for dinner at Jaflong, an excellent Indian restaurant. Bianca then walked with me to the East Dulwich railway station, and we parted just after 10 pm. At one point her pedometer indicated that we had walked for over 11 kilometers, and I'll bet that we added another 2-3 km on to that total before we parted. It was a splendid day, with great conversation, beautiful scenery, good food, and much needed exercise. Fortunately my current asthma exacerbation didn't affect me significantly, although we walked at a very leisurely pace.

I've taken numerous photos during this trip, but I'm still trying to transfer them from my Samsung smartphone to my iPad, so that I can post them on LT and Facebook.

>27 wandering_star: I'm glad that the Young Vic has extended the run of A Season in the Congo and that you'll be able to see it, Margaret. I hadn't heard of Chiwetel Ejiofor before, but he is a magnificent actor and gave a masterful performance that night.

>28 Nickelini: I didn't have a problem getting a seat for The Cripple of Inishmaan, Joyce, but I did buy my ticket for it several weeks ago. I'll let you know how I liked it next week.

>29 Polaris-: You're welcome, Paul. I had a splendid time with Bianca in South London yesterday; before then my knowledge of the area was limited to the South Bank (NT, Tate Modern, Borough Market, Waterloo station). I loved Dulwich Village and East Dulwich, and the walk through Dulwich Park was invigorating and peaceful, even on a hot summer day.

>30 rebeccanyc: I didn't see the movie about Lumumba, Rebecca. Do you remember the name of it? I have a book about his assassination and the efforts by the CIA and the US and Belgian governments to get rid of him, but I haven't read it yet.

>31 baswood: Right, Barry. That was my first visit to the Young Vic, and even the most distant seats there seemed to be very close to the stage.

Today will be a relatively light one, as my only planned activity is a visit to the NT tonight, where several black playwrights and actors will engage in a discussion about their contributions to the National Theatre over its 50 year history.

Wonderful review of A Season in the Congo, Darryl. Thanks for sharing the highlights of your trip with us!

I am enjoying the reports about your London trip!

It sounds like a wonderful trip. I am quite envious.

Another South Londoner here! I like the idea of you poking round the charity shops for their second-hand book offerings - I do the same, as you can get some real gems in unexpected places.

Here are some of the LT meet up photos I took on Tuesday.

In front of the Slightly Foxed Bookshop. From left to right: Bianca (drachenbraut23), Heather (soulofthrose), Luci (lucidavin) and Genny (gennyt):



At the entrance to the V&A:





Afternoon tea at Greenfield's Cafe on the Exhibition Road plaza:



And, finally, the group descends upon South Kensington Books, like bees to nectar:

And here are photos from my meet up with Bianca in South London yesterday:

Houses at the entrances to Dulwich Park:





Entering Sydenham Hill Woods:



Walking through Sydenham Hill Woods (or was it Dulwich Woods?):

>34 Linda92007: You're quite welcome, Linda.

>35 torontoc: Thanks, Cyrel. I'll continue to post messages about meet ups, plays and museum exhibits this weekend and next week.

>36 NanaCC: Thanks Colleen. Quite a few people in the 75 Books group wish they could be here, too.

>37 wandering_star: That's what Bianca said too, Margaret. Unfortunately we didn't reach Lordship Lane in East Dulwich, where the charity shops were, before they closed. Hopefully I can go back there later this year with Bianca.

Looks like a fun time was had by all. Glad you're having a good time.

Taking notes here . . . it's too funny that you post this because my 16 yr old daughter asked me this morning "do you think there are any forests for us to walk in?" and I just laughed, "we live in one of the most gorgeous and famous forests on the planet--I don't think we expect to see forests in London," to which she said "but don't they have A WOOD for us to walk through?" Well, it does appear so, doesn't it. Syndenham Hill Wood. Noted!

>41 rebeccanyc: Thanks, Rebecca. Yes, the six of us had a splendid day on Tuesday, and Bianca & I had a marvelous day yesterday. I'll see Fliss tomorrow afternoon (actually this afternoon, as it's past 1 am here), as we have tickets to see the afternoon performance of The Amen Corner by James Baldwin at the National Theatre.

>42 Nickelini: Ha! Glad to be of help, Joyce. Hampstead Heath in North London is also a popular area to walk through, although I don't know if it's as wooded as Sydenham Hill Woods and Dulwich Woods are. I suspect the true Londoners here could give you additional recommendations.

Were you able to get tickets for The Cripple of Inishmaan?

Were you able to get tickets for The Cripple of Inishmaan?

Yes! On my birthday, even. I'm glad you pointed this show out--I hadn't looked at the play selections (just the musicals), and looking at the list, it's not immediately apparent who is starring in what, so I'm sure I wouldn't have found this on my own. (Researching plays isn't the top of my list--I'm more concerned about figuring out the Mrs Dalloway walk through Westminster. And I'm in luck, because several websites have it well mapped).

Dulwich sounds interesting though--one of those things you wouldn't see on a 3 day trip. I'm looking forward to a nice long stretch in the city and the off beat things to see. For example, my daughter and I are going out to Thamesmede near Greenwich. Not exactly on the tourist track.

>44 Nickelini: Well done, Joyce! I look forward to your upcoming London travelogue.

Darryl -- everything in >32 kidzdoc:: I want to go to there! But that holds for most everything else you've posted, too.

>Joyce -- figuring out the Mrs Dalloway walk through Westminster. And I'm in luck, because several websites have it well mapped
I'll be watching for any posts you do about this.

Theatre and book review:

The Amen Corner by James Baldwin
National Theatre, London



My rating:

James Baldwin began to write this play in the summer of 1952, after he returned to New York after spending four years in Paris. While he was there he completed his first novel, Go Tell It On the Mountain, and after he borrowed money from Marlon Brando he returned home in an attempt to sell the novel. The Amen Corner, like Go Tell It On the Mountain, is set in a black church in Harlem and is semi-autobiographical in nature, as both works feature young men who are brought up in a religious environment which is simultaneously nurturing and stifling, and each must decide whether to reject the church and the hypocrisy contained within it, in order to be true to himself and his personal desires, or embrace it and become subjugated to the parent or community that desires to keep him within it.

Unlike Go Tell It On the Mountain, whose protagonist is the young man John, The Amen Corner's central character is Sister Margaret, pastor of a church whose members respect her more than they embrace her. She is firm in her faith in God, but she is unyielding and harshly critical toward those who would challenge or question her opinions as the church's leader. She has a teenage son, David, who plays piano in the choir, who she puts forth as an example of a good Christian young man and as a personal vindication to those who doubted that she could raise him as a single mother, given the numerous worldly temptations that brought down many black young men in postwar America.

Margaret is shaken by the news that her former husband, Luke, a talented jazz trombonist, has returned to town to perform a gig downtown. Neither she nor David has not seen him for the past 10 years, and Luke is in poor health due to tuberculosis and the ravages of life on the road. He turns up at her apartment, located beneath the church, just after Sunday service, and both David and several church elders learn about the secret that Margaret has hidden from all of them, which leads to crises on several levels. David feels betrayed by his mother as well as his father, and must decide whether to follow her wishes to stay with her in the church, or to pursue a career as a musician. The elders question whether Margaret is spiritually fit to lead the church, given this new information about her and Luke. And Margaret herself faces a crisis of confidence and faith, as her son appears to be drifting away from God and to the lure of the world, while Luke's presence makes her realize that her own house is not in order.





The National Theatre's production of The Amen Corner was a very spirited one, filled with humor and pathos within the rich experience of a sanctified black church. As I mentioned to Fliss, who accompanied me to this play, during intermission, when Sister Margaret asked the congregation to bow its heads in prayer during the first act, I started to do the same, until I realized I was watching a play and not in a church service! The gospel songs were very well done, and each actor, major or minor, was very good and portrayed his or her character quite accurately. This was another superb National Theatre performance, and at £12 it has to be one of the best bargains in London at the present time.

I realized I never answered your question about the Lumumba movie; I think it is just called "Lumumba". Here's a link to the Wikipedia article about it.

Sounds like you're on a roll with great theater productions!

>46 detailmuse: Thanks, MJ! I'll also follow Joyce's exploits in London after she arrives here next week.

>48 rebeccanyc: Thanks for the link to Lumumba, Rebecca. I'll try to rent that movie sometime in the near future.

I've probably said this already, but the #1 reason I come to London as often as I do is to see the fabulous and very affordable plays here, although meeting LT friends, book shopping, attending museum exhibits, and experiencing the rich culture of this city are very close behind. I still can't believe that a performance like The Amen Corner, which is as good as anything you'd see on Broadway IMO, cost roughly 18 USD, instead of four to five times as much. I still have five more plays to see over the next five days, four live performances and the NT Live rebroadcast of Macbeth (I'll actually go on Wednesday, as I was too tired to make it to tonight's broadcast of the play that was on in Manchester).

Thanks for your very excellent stories of your trip, as well as the reviews and great pics. I so much enjoyed all of it. I'd love to see the Baldwin play.

You're welcome, Merrikay! I'll have to read the playbill for The Amen Corner, to see if it might make its way to the US after its run at the NT has finished.

The Amen Corner sounds really good!

ETA: I love that top picture in your review.

The Amen Corner sounds wonderful. If it does come to the NY area, I am sure the ticket prices will be much much higher. It sounds like you are getting your money's worth.

The Amen Corner was very good, avidmom and Colleen. However, I found the script to be especially lifeless compared to the humor, pathos and power in the NT interpretation of it, and particularly compared to Baldwin's searing novels and nonfiction work, so I wouldn't recommend getting this book (at a cost of £10.99 from the National Theatre Bookshop it was overpriced, although I'm happy to support the NT by buying it).

That photo (which I took from the Internet, as the London theatres forbid audience members from taking photos, even during intermission) is from a memorable scene in the play, and both feature the current set of actors.

The NT sells dozens of £12 Travelex tickets to many of its performances, and even the highest priced tickets are half or less of what you would pay on Broadway. The West End musicals are very pricey, but those productions don't interest me nearly as much.

Well I want to know if David left the church to pursue a career as a musician; I guess I will have to read the novel to find out.

Great review of the National Theatre production.

I know bas! me too!

Love the meetup photos! I’ll be in London in a couple of weeks, briefly with no time to spare, so alas no meandering around to book stores and theatres. Your photos make me wish for a longer visit.

Theatre review #3: A Walk in the Light, Part 4: Centre Stage a Celebration
National Theatre, South Bank, London

My rating:

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Royal National Theatre, and this past week featured several talks by noted black British playwrights and actors about the contributions of blacks to English theatre.. The week culminated with this afternoon's celebration at the Lyttleton Theatre of the NT, in which dozens of playwrights and actors of all races came together to honor and recognize their predecessors, perform scenes from several notable past productions, and acknowledge that although great strides have been made in the past 50 years, further efforts must continue to ensure that the voices and faces of all Britons are represented on the stage.



The performance began with a gospel song by the Walk in the Light Mass Choir, a multiracial compilation of up and coming actors, with solo performances by the lead actress and a supporting actress from The Amen Corner, as seen in the above photo. Actor Giles Terera served as the main host of the event, and he and his colleagues chronicled the history of black Britons and those from the US, Africa and the Caribbean who performed on and wrote for the stage, starting with Ira Aldridge, who played Othello in London in 1833. Blacks were marginalized and stereotyped on stage until the 1970s, and it wasn't until the 1980s and 1990s that black actors assumed central roles and plays written by blacks were shown at mainstream and leading theatres such as the NT. The Thatcher years and those that followed were characterized by severe cutbacks to funding for the arts, and independent theatre companies, especially those which featured nonwhite actors and playwrights were often shut out or given a tiny fraction of what others received. Two white theatre directors, including the head of the Tricycle Theatre, were honored and applauded for their efforts in providing support to black actors and playwrights during those lean years.

The highlights of Centre Stage a Celebration were Clive Rowe's performance of his song Sit Down You're Rockin' the Boat from the 1997 NT production of Guys and Dolls; a reading of a poem specifically written for this event, read by 12 young actors; readings from the work of Kwame Kwei-Armah and other noted playwrights; a reading from a statement by Edgar Lawrence, father of Stephen Lawrence, a young man who was killed in 1993 by racist thugs in SE London in a crime that was covered up by local police and led to significant institutional and cultural changes in the UK; and two spirited songs by the Mass Choir that closed the celebration on a high note.

This was a moving and, particularly for me, instructional performance, which included several black actors I have seen on stage in past performances at the National Theatre and elsewhere. The event was well attended, with a very appreciative audience of all races, and at £10 it was worth the price of admission several times over.

>55 baswood:, 56 David announced his intention to pursue a career in music at the end of The Amen Corner. However, the script ended without a clear resolution of the dilemmas that its main characters faced.

Thank you!

>57 qebo: Thanks, Katherine! I'm sorry to hear that you won't have any time to spend in London next month. It's a great town, and I continue to make new friends and see old ones on nearly every visit here.

>60 mkboylan: You're welcome, Merrikay!

Book #59: The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks



My rating:

Iain Banks' debut novel is set on a small island adjacent to a Scottish town and is narrated by Frank, a 16 year old boy who was greviously maimed as a younger child. He spends his days protecting the island from real and perceived invaders, using embedded poles crowned with skulls from animals he has killed to mark off the territory around the house that he shares with his father. Frank had murdered three younger members of his family on separate occasions when he was younger, and somehow managed to convince his father and local authorities that each one was a tragic accident, to his great pleasure. He is viewed as a pariah by most people in town, except for a couple of friends with whom he gets stinking drunk on a regular basis.

Frank is not the most dysfunctional member of the Cauldhame family, though. His older brother Eric was institutionalized after a traumatic event as a student led him to torment humans and kill dogs for enjoyment. Frank and his father have learned that Eric has escaped from an asylum, and through regular phone calls to Frank he tells his younger brother that he plans to pay them a visit, which strikes fear in them and the town's residents. As he comes ever closer, Frank bolsters the island's defenses, while knowing that a potentially violent showdown with his brother is all but inevitable.

The Wasp Factory was one of the most depraved, nauseating, and meritless books I've read in a long time. Many readers hold it in high opinion, though, as it has been selected by a group of British readers as one of the top 100 novels of the 20th century. Based on comments I've read, I suspect that readers will either love it or, like me, think that this adolescent fantasy is complete rubbish.

>The Wasp Factory sounds icky.

*blech*

Definitely so, avidmom. I wanted to read something by Iain Banks after I heard about his death earlier this year, and several LTers convinced me that this would be a good book to start with. Big mistake.

Wow!

Excellent review of The Wasp Factory, Darryl. It does not sound at all appealing and based on this alone, I would hesitate to pick up anything by him.

Well, I liked The Wasp Factory, but then I'm kind of depraved myself. ("What do you mean 'kind of'" I hear you think.)

Yuck!

>65 rebeccanyc: Wow indeed, Rebecca. Or maybe ow, as it was a painful book to read.

>66 Linda92007: Thanks, Linda. Fortunately I'm told that Iain Banks' other books are very different from The Wasp Factory, so I'll still plan to read The Crow Road in the not-so-near future.

>67 StevenTX: LOL! I didn't say anything, Steven...

>68 mkboylan: Right, Merrikay.

The Crow Road is indeed very different from The Wasp Factory. Banks had two different writing streams. It might help to know that if someone's gone "awa' the crow road", they have died.

I always thought Iain Banks looked like such a nice guy from his pictures. He doesn't look like he'd have it in him to write like that. ;-) I will make sure Wasp Factory isn't the first of his I read. Thanks for the warning.

#45 & 46 - I look forward to your upcoming London travelogue and I'll be watching for any posts you do about this.

I promise to give lots of details, but it may be when I get home. For reasons both practical and philosophical, I tend to go on a bit of a technology-fast when I travel. Mostly practical--I won't have a keyboard along with me, and my patience with typing on a screen is short.

Hmmm, I gave The Wasp Factory 4 stars, but I can't remember why. I think it may be because I thought it wasn't terribly written. But it definitely contains disturbing themes and passages. I certainly didn't love it, but I didn't completely hate it, either. I did find the "twist" at the end a bit pointless, though.

I loved Crow Road and I enjoy Ian M Banks Science fiction novels. I had no idea what The Wasp Factory was about. It doesn't sound like I would enjoy it.

Joyce, you may want to skip this review until after you've seen the play.

Theatre review: The Cripple of Inishmaan by Martin McDonagh
Noël Coward Theatre, Soho, London

My rating:

This play, which initially premiered in London in 1997, was based on a true event, in which noted Hollywood director Robert Flaherty, who became famous for his 1921 documentary film Nanook of the North, came to the Irish island of Anan in 1932 to create another documentary about its people. The resultant film, Man of Aran was released in 1934 to critical acclaim, but the residents of the Irish Republic in general and Aran in particular denounced Flaherty for his condescension in his treatment of the islanders (as he put the lives of several local men at risk during the filming of one scene at sea), his stereotypical attitudes toward the Irish, and his ignorance of the poverty and struggles that they regularly faced.





The central character of The Cripple of Inishmaan is Billy Craven, known by the town's residents as Cripple Billy, a unattractive young man afflicted with cerebral palsy from a birth defect who lives with two unrelated "aunts" that operate a small grocery store; he was orphaned at a young age after the simultaneous deaths of his parents at sea. His days are filled with boredom, and his only escapes are reading books and staring at cows. Due to his physical deformity and homely face he has little hope of finding a mate, although he is very attracted to Helen McCormick, a stunning 17 year old redhead whose feistiness is exceeded only by her sharp tongue and good natured cruelty toward everyone in town, including Billy.

One day Johnnypateenmike, the local gossip, comes to the store to report that an American film director has come to a nearby town on the mainland, in order to recruit local actors for a film about Ireland, and those selected would travel to Hollywood and be guaranteed fame and a life free from work (since, as he said, "actors don't really work"). Helen convinces a local fisherman, Babbybobby, to transport her and her younger brother Bartley to the mainland town, as she is sure that her beauty will allow her to be chosen for the film and escape from her tedious life in Inishmaan. Billy manages to convince Babbybobby to secretly take him to the mainland as well, as he wants to pursue a career in acting and escape from his meaningless existence, while knowing that his aunts would strongly disapprove of this decision. Babbybobby returns to Inishmaan several days later, but he only brings back Helen and Bartley, as Billy was one of the ones chosen to travel to Hollywood for a screen test for the film.

The Cripple of Inishmaan is a dark and wicked comedy about Ireland, its people, their attraction to the perceived riches that America offers, and how the hopes and dreams that America promises don't always reflect the reality of life there. Daniel Radcliffe of Harry Potter fame was fabulous in the role of Cripple Billy, but Sarah Greene (Helen) and Pat Shortt (Johnnypattenmike) were also excellent, and the cast as a whole was a solid one.

Joyce, you may want to skip this review until after you've seen the play.

Okay, I did. Happy to see the 4 stars though.

>70 SassyLassy: Thanks for that information about The Crow Road and the meaning of the term, Sassy. I'll still plan to read it, but I doubt it will be before next year.

>71 Nickelini: You're welcome, Joyce. Iain Banks does look like a genial man in the photos of him that I've seen, and I'm also surprised that he could write such a depraved book. I'd be interested to read an interview of him in which he discusses The Wasp Factory.

>72 Nickelini: That makes sense, to take a technology break during vacation. I have a case for my iPad that includes a full sized Bluetooth keyboard, so it's much easier to type on this than on the pop up keyboard on the tablet.

>73 dmsteyn: I agree with you that The Wasp Factory was well written, Dewald, but I found the subject matter abhorrent and pointless.

>74 baswood: Splendid! I'm very glad to hear that you liked The Crow Road, Barry, as this will encourage me to give it a go.

>76 Nickelini: I think I've provided a basic framework of The Cripple of Inishmaan without giving out too much information about the fates of its characters. However, since you'll be seeing it in less than two weeks I didn't want to spoil it for you.

This year's Man Booker Prize longlist has just been announced:

Tash Aw, Five Star Billionaire (available in the UK and US)
NoViolet Bulawayo, We Need New Names (available in the UK and US)
Eleanor Catton, The Luminaries (Sep 5 UK, Oct 15 US)
Jim Crace, Harvest (available in the UK and US)
Eve Harris, The Marrying of Chani Kaufman (Sep 19 UK and US)
Jhumpa Lahiri, The Lowland (Sep 24 US, Sep 26 UK)
Richard House, The Kills (available in the UK; US?)
Colum McCann, TransAtlantic (currently available in UK and US)
Alison McLeod, Unexploded (Sep 5 UK; US?)
Charlotte Mendelson, Almost English (Aug 15 UK; US?)
Ruth Ozeki, A Tale for the Time Being (currently available in UK and US)
Donal Ryan, The Spinning Heart (currently available in UK; Mar in US?)
Colm Tóibín, The Testament of Mary (currently available in UK and US)

More info: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/jul/23/man-booker-longlist-2013-diverse-jud...

Apparently the Booker Prize longlist is the second royal birth in as many days:

Theatre review #5: Othello by William Shakespeare
National Theatre, South Bank, London

My rating: (4.8/5.0)





This production of Othello, which is playing at the Olivier Theatre within the NT until 1 October, has received rave reviews in the British media and the New York Times, and it definitely lived up to the hype. It stars two well known and highly regarded British actors, Adrian Lester in the role of Othello, and Rory Kinnear as Iago, along with excellent performances by Olivia Vinall as Desdemona and Jonathan Bailey as Cassio.

The Venetian Army in this production resembles a 21st century British Army unit set in Afghanistan, and the opening scene takes place in a local pub. Iago and Othello are cast as working class Britons, while Cassio comes across as an Oxbridge gentleman. The characters were utterly believable, as Iago was a convincing liar, even though his bitter hatred for and jealousy toward Othello and Cassio were palpable. All four main characters were superb, and the supporting cast was also outstanding. The audience was rapt throughout the entire performance, which clocked in at just under 3 hours not counting the intermission, and most gave the cast a prolonged standing ovation at its end, which is not at all common at the National Theatre.

Othello may be the best play I've attended at the NT, and I would highly recommend seeing it, either live at the NT or via a NT Live re-broadcast, which will take place in selected US theatres in September.

Just catching up...your thread has just zoomed along since I was here just the other day! Loved your review of 'A Walk in the Light, Part 4'. Iain Banks doesn't entice me. The Cripple of Inishmaan sounds very good, and I love your review of the Othello. So glad to read of a visitor to London really getting their fill of fine stuff at the National Theatre. I enjoyed your posts about book shopping and your day out south of the river as well!

Thanks also for posting up the Booker long list. The Marrying of Chani Kaufman sounds interesting to me, one that I'd not heard of at all before. Harvest has already been wishlisted - I think it looks very intriguing. I enjoyed Jim Crace's writing in Quarantine a few years ago. The Testament of Mary looks very good too, and I've never read anything by Colm Toibin before, but following on from my recent read of The Liars' Gospel this one should be interesting.

>81 Polaris-: Thanks, Paul. Today is my last full day in London, as my flight from Heathrow to Atlanta leaves early tomorrow afternoon. It was a splendid visit, as I saw five fabulous plays, bought 24 books, and met up with several LTers, including two other individual meet ups other than the ones I mentioned above. From this and previous visits to London I've made several friends, and we'll definitely get together again when I return here, which will hopefully be in the fall to see Much Ado About Nothing at the Old Vic and other plays at the NT and elsewhere in the capital.

I'm a huge fan of the NT! I suspect that I've seen at least 15 plays on my six visits to London, counting this one, and each performance has been at least very good.

I bought four of the Booker longlisted books on Tuesday at the London Review Bookshop just before I met Rachael (FlossieT) for lunch: Harvest, The Kills, The Spinning Heart, and The Testament of Mary. I bought TransAtlantic from Slightly Foxed Books last week, and I downloaded A Tale for the Time Being and We Need New Names on Tuesday. I've already read (and reviewed) Five Star Billionaire, so I have all eight books that are currently available in print edition. Three other books, Unexploded, The Marrying of Chani Kaufman and Almost English, are currently available as Kindle e-books, but only for UK customers so far, so I'll have to wait on those titles. The other two books, The Lowland and The Luminaries, apparently won't be available until September, although I wouldn't be surprised if their publishers moved their release dates up a few weeks.

BTW I'm the administrator of the Booker Prize group on LT (it does seem wrong that an American is leading this group, but no one else was doing so at the time I revived it), so I intend to read all 13 books by the time the prize is announced in October. I'll finish A Fine Balance either tomorrow or Friday, and then get started on the longlist, beginning with TransAtlantic.

I envy you Darryl seeing that production of Othello at the NT; thanks for sharing.

>83 baswood: You're welcome, Barry. Hopefully you'll be able to see the NT Live re-broadcast of Othello.

I'm now back in Atlanta, after I flew back from London Heathrow yesterday afternoon. I'll almost certainly return in October or November, to see more plays and meet up with my LT friends.

Book #62: The Blue Riband: The Piccadilly Line by Peter York



My rating:



For many first time visitors the Piccadilly Line is their introduction to the London Underground, as it is provides fast and easy transport from Heathrow Airport to central London. Service on the line began in December 1906, more than 43 years after the first sub-surface line opened in the capital, and it originally ran from Hammersmith in west London to Finsbury Park in Islington, north and east of the City. The Piccadilly Line passes through some of the most elite areas of the city, including Kensington, Knightsbridge, Mayfair and Bloomsbury, and it stops at several areas popular with students and tourists, including Piccadilly Circus, Covent Garden, Leicester Square and Russell Square, close to the University of London and the British Museum. Since its creation the Piccadilly Line has been extended to Heathrow Airport and Uxbridge to the West, and Cockfosters to the east, and it is the fourth busiest line on the Underground.

The Piccadilly Line was also the focus of the worst attack during the London terrorist attack of July 7, 2005. A bomb was set off on a train traveling from King's Cross St. Pancras station to Russell Square station, which claimed the lives of 26 passengers.

In this book, one of 12 published this year by Penguin to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the London Underground, Peter York, a management consultant, broadcaster and newspaper columnist, primarily describes the areas served by the Piccadilly Line rather than talking about the line and its creation. True to his upper middle class heritage he focuses on the wealthiest areas and the people who live there, including well established families, business elites and the global rich, who he fawns over repeatedly. He is quite dismissive of the lower forms that live away from central London in areas such as Hounslow near Heathrow Airport, which he describes as "too poor, too ethnic" and Cockfosters, which is "too small and odd" for his taste. The 2005 bombing was also not worthy of York's attention, unfortunately.



The Blue Riband is recommended for anyone who wishes to read about the moneyed classes of London, but those wishing to learn about the Piccadilly Line, its lovely stations, such as the Russell Square station pictured above, and the Underground are advised to look elsewhere.

>80 kidzdoc: Great review of Othello, Darryl. I am excited to see that there is a rebroadcast scheduled in our area for October.

Please keep us posted about the rebroadcast. I would love to see it. Your trip had me green with envy.

Planned reads for August (subject to change, as always):

NoViolet Bulawayo, We Need New Names
Helen Bynum, Spitting Blood: The History of Tuberculosis
Stan Cohen, What to Feed Your Baby
Jim Crace, Harvest
Assia Djebar, Children of the New World
Danny Dorling, The 32 Stops: The Central Line
Will Ferguson, 419
Richard House, The Kills
Dany Laferrière, The Return
John Lanchester, What We Talk About When We Talk About the Tube: The District Line
Ruth Ozeki, A Tale for the Time Being
René Philoctète, Massacre River
Donal Ryan, The Spinning Heart
Boualem Sansal, The German Mujahid
Colm Tóibín, The Testament of Mary

>86 Linda92007:, 87 Thanks, Linda and Colleen. Here's a link to the NT Live page about Othello, which includes the dates and locations of performances in your area:

http://ntlive.nationaltheatre.org.uk/productions/40168-othello

Darryl if your interest in public transportation is broader than London, you might enjoy Straphanger: Saving Our Cities and Ourselves from the Automobile by Taras Grescoe. I received it as an early reviewer on LT and really liked it, especially reading about the effects it can have on "community", the economics of stand sort of an "If you build it, they will come" attitude. however, it was the only thing I've read on the topic so THAT may be why I liked it.

>90 mkboylan: Thanks, Merrikay; I'll keep an eye out for Straphanger.

Book #63: Drift: The Hammersmith and City Line by Philippe Parreno



My rating: (only because LT won't allow me to rate a book with zero or negative stars)

Although the Hammersmith & City Line was officially named in 1990, the origins of this line go back to 1864, the year after subway service began in London. In that year the Metropolitan Railway extended the Paddington to Farringdon service westward to Hammersmith. In later years the line was extended eastward, reaching its current terminus at Barking in 1902. The line shares stations with District, Circle and Metropolitan Line trains, which run just under the street surface throughout much of its route, unlike the deeper tube lines such as the Bakerloo, Piccadilly and Victoria Lines. The Hammersmith & City Line formed part of the Metropolitan Line until 1990, when it acquired its current name.

Here's a photo of the "new" Hammersmith station, built in 1868 to replace the original 1864 station:



The Hammersmith & City and the Metropolitan Lines are now served by the newest London Underground trains, the S stock, which are the first fully air conditioned lines to operate in the system.



French artist and filmmaker Philippe Parreno was given the task of writing a book about the Hammersmith & City Line for Penguin's Underground series, which celebrates the 150th anniversary of the London Underground in 2013. His contribution is a collection of crudely drawn images, such as the one that appears on the cover of this book, which consists of animals, insects, people and buildings, but no trains or stations, which seem to have no connection to one another and nothing to do with the Underground in general or this line in particular. The only text is found on the cover and on one interior image at the beginning of the book. I have absolutely no idea what Parreno was trying to do here, and, more importantly, I don't understand why Penguin would have published this piece of rubbish as a book or paid Parreno to create it. A six year old child of average talent could have created a more meaningful work than this one, and would have been far cheaper to employ than Monsieur Parreno (and why was a Frenchman hired to write a book about the London Underground?). I feel sorry for anyone who bought this book without looking through it first, and those who paid more than five pence for it should be given an immediate refund.

Darryl trashed the Penguin underground series, great stuff, keep on trashin.

>93 baswood: Ha! I bought the Kindle version of four of the books in the Penguin Underground series, titled East-West: Penguin Underground Lines, which covers the District, Central, Piccadilly and Hammersmith & City Lines. The books on the District and Central Lines, What We Talk About When We Talk About the Tube and The 32 Stops, look to be much better books than the two I've read so far. However I won't hesitate to trash them if they aren't as good as they appear to be. I'll probably read all 12 books in the series, which includes the 11 current Underground lines and the East London line, which is now part of the London Overground, and I plan to read two books per month over the remainder of the year.

Book #64: A Season in the Congo by Aimé Césaire

   

My rating:

Aimé Césaire (1913-2008) was a legendary and influential Caribbean poet, playwright and public intellectual, who was also one of the creators of the Négritude movement in Francophone literature, whose aim was to unite the peoples of the Caribbean and African French colonies in opposition to the "mother country".

Une saison au congo is the third of four plays that Césaire wrote in his lifetime, which is about the brief and tumultuous career of Patrice Lumumba, the first Prime Minister of the Republic of Congo. Lumumba, a former beer salesman and political activist, was elected to office in July 1960 after the country gained its independence from Belgium, but he soon ran afoul of Belgium, the US and other western European nations and the United Nations, which resulted in his arrest by his top general Joseph Mobutu and his subsequent torture and assassination in January 1961 by Belgian and Congolese soldiers.

This play was written in 1966, and was first performed at the Théâtre de l'Est Parisien the following year. The central question of Une saison au congo is the choice that newly liberated African countries must answer: whether to choose dipenda, an state of quasi-independence in which foreign governments, former colonizers or appointed dictators and their cronies choose the country's path and steal the majority of its wealth while the majority are condemned to poverty and premature death, or uhuru, the Swahili word for freedom, in which all citizens can participate in the country's destiny, free from external or internal domination or intimidation, and have the opportunity to succeed and thrive alongside their neighbors. The second path is the more difficult one to take, but it is the one that will more likely result in an improved standard of living for its citizens, and long term stability for the country.

Lumumba was targeted and imprisoned by the colonial police force in 1959 for his political activity as the leader of the Congolese national movement (MNC), after a demonstration in Stanleyville led to the deaths of 30 protestors. Due to political pressure from his MNC colleagues he was freed and allowed to travel to Brussels early the following year, where he participated in the conference that led to the declaration that the Republic of Congo would be granted its independence. He was hailed as a hero by the Congolese people, but he first invoked the ire of the Belgian government on Independence Day, when he gave a spontaneous speech that was sharply critical of Belgium and its colonial rule, in the presence of the Belgian king.

Lumumba was faced with crises through his seven month term in office. The Belgian government, concerned that losing the wealth contained in the Congolese mining industry would cause it to become the "Liechtenstein of Europe", secretly collaborated with the leader of Katanga, the richest province, and supported a separatist movement whose aim was to keep profits flowing from the Congo to Belgium in exchange for enriching the Katangan leader and his cronies. Lumumba, with the support of President Kasa-Vubu and the chief of the military, Joseph Mobutu, engaged in a military strike against the separatist movement. Lumumba sought support from the United States, which turned him down, and the United Nations, which took a passive and indifferent stance toward the Congolese government. He then turned to the USSR for support, which led Belgium, the US and possibly the UK to secretly plot his removal and assassination. Mobutu removed both Lumumba and Kasa-Vubu from power, and ultimately Lumumba was captured, brutally tortured and executed by Congolese and Belgian troops loyal to Mobutu on 17 January 1961.

Césaire portrays Lumumba as an idealistic, fiery and uncompromising leader, whose political naïveté and inability to see the dangers posed by his former close friend Joseph Mobutu led to his downfall. He was passionately committed to a democratic Congo and a united African continent that was free of foreign domination, national corruption and regional differences, but he was also self-righteous in his beliefs and refused to accept counsel from others who urged him to proceed slowly and with great caution, given the political landmines that surrounded him.





As I mentioned previously I saw the interpretation of A Season in the Congo at the Young Vic Theatre earlier this month, and I read the script earlier today. It was a brilliant, powerful and innovative interpretation of Césaire's play, which starred Olivier Award winning actor Chiwetel Ejiofor as Patrice Lumumba. His physical resemblance to the Congolese leader was striking, but was exceeded by the strength and conviction of his outstanding performance. The supporting cast was solid, and the play was enhanced by the use of puppetry to represent the colonial powers and the UN (such as the Belgian government in the second photo above), a wise old man who spoke in Swahili throughout the performance, soothing African music, and especially the very athletic and stirring dance routines that were mesmerizing. The performance was true to the spirit of the play, although it didn't follow the script line for line; in my opinion this provided more freedom to the performance, as it removed some of the rough language and mundane dialogue contained within it, and allowed the spirit of Patrice Lumumba and the Congolese people to be portrayed in greater color and brilliance.

I couldn't have been any closer to the stage of the Young Vic Theatre, located on The Cut a block or two away from the famed Old Vic Theatre. The audience on the floor sat in chairs around small patio tables, and my chair abutted the front of the stage, as several of the actors including Ejiofor were within easy reach on numerous occasions, which made the performance that much more powerful for me. It lasted over 2-1/2 hours with a 15 minute intermission, making it one of the longest plays I've seen recently, but I was engrossed from the first scene to the shocking one at the end of the play, which caused an audience member to shriek in horror. The cast was given a solid 4-5 minute standing ovation at the play's conclusion, which was well deserved. I give four stars to the script of A Season in the Congo, and 4½ stars to the superb interpretation of it by the director and cast of this month's production at the Young Vic.

Wow! That sounds like a wonderful performance of a very depressing play. I think I would enjoy that. Wonderful review of course.

Thanks, Merrikay. The portrayal of Lumumba by Chiwetel Ejiofor was the best performance of the five plays I saw these past two weeks, although I would give a slight edge to Othello over A Season in the Congo due to the brilliant performances of multiple cast members in the former play. A Season in the Congo was filled with lovely music, stirring dance numbers, and more than a little bit of humor, which were significant additions to the script and kept it from being a depressing and relatively lifeless viewing experience.

This month in particular I've found it interesting to see a play, and then read its script shortly afterward. The director's and actors' vision and interpretation of the script are vitally important to the success of the play, along with the design and features of the stage. I'm continually impressed by the high quality of the performances I've seen in London on my six visits there, and I'm completely hooked on British theatre now. I'll almost certainly return to the capital in the fall, to see Much Ado About Nothing at the Old Vic with Vanessa Redgrave and James Earl Jones, along with other plays at the National Theatre and elsewhere in the city.

I also found out today that NT Live will re-broadcast The Audience in an art cinema house in Atlanta that is within walking distance of where I live on August 10-11. I'm off that weekend, so I bought a ticket to the Sunday performance. I missed seeing the NT Live re-broadcast of Macbeth with Kenneth Branagh last week, so hopefully I'll be able to see that here or in the UK later this year.

Great review, Darryl!

Excellent review of A Season in the Congo, Darryl. It's a great idea to see the play and then read the script soon after.

Archipelago is going to be publishing a new edition of Cesaire's Return to My Native Land next year. I have a very old copy that I'm going to try to find; as far as I can tell, it has the same translators as the Archipelago edition.

Darryl, beautiful, illustrated reviews of the Underground ... I dare say better than the commemoratives Penguin chose to publish!

>97 kidzdoc: I've found it interesting to see a play, and then read its script shortly afterward
I’m about to do something similar with Brokeback Mountain: Story to Screenplay, although in reverse* I guess. I’ve previously read the short story and seen the film, but now I’ll reread the short story then the film script then watch the DVD (and maybe it’ll have commentary?).

*I'm curious: ideally, in what order should various forms of a work be approached?

Excellent review of A Season in the Congo. The production you saw at the Young Vic has been getting quite a lot of fine press and deserved attention in the UK media, and your review helps to explain why that is. It sounds terrific, and I've added it to the wishlist.

The Blue Riband sounds awful. I used to be the Tree Officer in the borough of Hounslow - which includes those neighbourhoods from Heathrow up in to Chiswick Park. There are places there of interest and history for anyone with enough curiosity and wherewithal to look for. They are very much 'real' London neighbourhoods. The 'author' is clearly an over-privileged arsehole of the highest order if he chooses to ignore those districts too brown or too mixed or too smelly or too loud for his delicate pampered sentiments. The fact that a so-called writer such as Peter York gets commissioned to write such a book can only be down to the fact that the various Tube lines have all since the Thatcherite Blairism of the 90s (or was it under Major? same thing...) been privatised. It would never of happened under London Transport.

Drift: The Hammersmith and City Line must be completely execrable.

The 150th anniversary of the world's first underground railway system deserves better than this!

#101 I'd say if the original was a novel or short story, start with that. If a play, I'd rather see it performed before I tried to read it on the page. In fact, I don't care much for reading plays at all. I suppose I feel the same way about movie scripts, although I've never had the opportunity to read one. I view those more as a manual or guide for the actors than as something to read for pleasure.

Sorry that I've been away from my thread for a few days. I had three long work days Monday through Wednesday, and since Thursday I've been in New Orleans to attend this year's Pediatric Hospital Medicine conference, which ends today.

>98 rebeccanyc: Thanks, Rebecca!

>99 Linda92007: Thanks, Linda. I started reading scripts soon after seeing plays at the National Theatre several years ago, as I initially had a hard time understanding actors speaking in Cockney or other accents, especially when I saw the comedy England People Very Nice by Richard Bean. The NT has a bookshop near the main entrance, so it was easy to find these books there.

>100 rebeccanyc: Thanks for mentioning the upcoming publication of Return to My Native Land, Rebecca; I'll definitely read it. I saw that a book by noted Haitian author Franketienne is also being published soon, and I hoped that it would be available in time for this quarter's Francophone literature theme in the Reading Globally group, but it won't be.

>101 detailmuse: Thanks, MJ. My brief review gave far more information about the Hammersmith & City Line than the Penguin Underground Line version of it did, and Monsieur Parreno should be ashamed to have written such a useless excuse for a book. Then again, he could also be laughing for putting one over on Penguin, and the rest of us.

Regarding your question about the order in which various forms of a work should be approached, I completely agree with Linda's response in message 103.

>102 Polaris-: Thanks, Paul. A Season in the Congo was superb, and I've been thinking about scenes from that play since I saw it last month. I'd highly recommend it to everyone, and the Young Vic was a splendid venue to host it.

I agree with your assessment of Peter York; he jumps to the top of the list of "authors" (using the term loosely) that I would least like to meet (unless I could throw rotten fruit at him for being such an elitist and racist jerk). Parreno's "book" is probably the most useless thing I've read in my life, and I would have given it zero stars if LT permitted me to do so.

I briefly glanced at the other two books that were included in the East-West: Penguin Underground Lines, The 32 Stops: The Central Line and What We Talk About When We Talk About the Tube: The District Line, and both look to be infinitely better than the ones I've already read. I'll get to both of those books later this month.

You're right; the 150th anniversary of the London Underground deserves better than this! Shame on the editors at Penguin that accepted the books on the Piccadilly and Hammersmith & City Lines for publication.

>103 laytonwoman3rd: I couldn't agree more, Linda.

Hi Darryl - I finally read and reviewed my S. Naipaul, Journey to Nowhere and had really mixed feelings about him. I see you did indeed pick up some of his other books as well as his brother's, as you had planned. What do you know about Shiva? What made you want to read him? I'm curious to know what someone else thinks about him and his work.

>103 laytonwoman3rd:, 104 thanks!

>105 mkboylan: I just read your excellent review of Journey to Nowhere, Merrikay. Given your comments about it I'm in no hurry to read it.

I first learned about Shiva Naipaul through reading books by and about his older brother Vidya (V.S.). I read that he died at a young age (40?), and that he was a highly regarded author in his own right. One of the members of the 75 Books club read his novel The Chip-Chip Gatherers last year and gave it a very favorable review, which spurred me to buy it last year when I was in London. I loved it as well, so I bought two more of his books last month, Fireflies and North of South: An African Journey. I haven't read them yet, though.

>106 detailmuse: You're welcome, MJ.

Book #68: The Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan

   

My rating:

My father still lives back the road past the weir in the cottage I was reared in. I go there every day to see is he dead and every day he lets me down.

This novel was the most surprising one to be chosen for this year's Booker Prize longlist, as it was rejected by 47 publishers before Doubleday Ireland decided to accept it. It is set in a rural Irish town during the financial crisis of the last decade, after the local building firm has gone under. The book is divided into short chapters, each narrated by a person in the book that is linked to all of the others. The main character is Bobby Mahon, a handsome young married man who is embittered by the recent loss of his job at the building firm and by the knowledge that his boss, Pokey Burke, has cheated him and his work mates out of their pensions. He also has a difficult relationship with his father, a widowed old drunkard who wasted away the family's savings and seems to hang on to life to spite his son, who will inherit the cottage once his father dies. Bobby's loathing for his father is strong enough that he often thinks about killing him, to gain the property and to be rid of his presence forever.

Through the accounts of the other characters the main theme of the novel comes into focus, similar to a tapestry created by multiple weavers, and the reader learns how the country's economic collapse has ruined the lives and dreams of those who live there. Multiple story lines surround the tragic central one, which ends with a surprising twist.

I found The Spinning Heart to be far less satisfying than most other readers. The characters in this novel are almost all deeply unhappy, bitter, and speak ill about those who are closest to them. I found their rants to be frequently repetitive and gossipy, and I soon lost interest in them and the book as a whole. It is a well written book, but I wasn't engaged by it, and I would be surprised if it was chosen for the Booker shortlist. It is a short novel at just over 150 pages, so I may give it another go to see if I like it better the second time around.

Hi, Darryl. I'm back and have had a good night's sleep and am ready to get back to LT conversation again.

#75 Re: The Cripple of Inishmaan - we did indeed enjoy the play very much, both on its own merits and also because Daniel Radcliffe starred in it. My daughters were thrilled to see him live in action. We also ended up seeing a play our last night there--The Woman in Black, which we also enjoyed. I had read the book and seen the movie (also starring Daniel Radcliffe) and it was interesting how this was reinterpreted for the stage (quite a different treatment than anything I've seen before).

#85 & #92 The Blue Riband and Drift: the Hammersmith and City Line - I read your posts while I was in London, which was fun because I had been on both lines that day, and had been to all the stations you pictured. How disappointing that these books are rubbish! It sounds like you're as fascinated with the Tube as we are. My older daughter, Nina, picked up a copy of Tube Trivia from the British Library gift shop and enlightened us with all sorts of facts over the course of our extensive Tube travels. You might like this one. It's arranged alphabetically and the entries range from one paragraph to one page long. Sample topics include "Escalators" (some facts from the page long entry are that the longest escalator is at Angel station), "Stand on the right" and "Underground Rivers in the Underground."

#102 - I used to be the Tree Officer in the borough of Hounslow - which includes those neighbourhoods from Heathrow up in to Chiswick Park. There are places there of interest and history for anyone with enough curiosity and wherewithal to look for. They are very much 'real' London neighbourhoods. The 'author' is clearly an over-privileged arsehole of the highest order if he chooses to ignore those districts too brown or too mixed or too smelly or too loud for his delicate pampered sentiments. The fact that a so-called writer such as Peter York gets commissioned to write such a book can only be down to the fact that the various Tube lines have all since the Thatcherite Blairism of the 90s (or was it under Major? same thing...) been privatised. It would never of happened under London Transport.

Thank you, Polaris! Most of my top memories of the trip were things we did off the beaten tourist route. London is certainly so much more that what they feed you on the Hop on, Hop off tours. For example, Nina and I spent a fun afternoon getting lost on a bus in Thamesmede--it was very educational, and not a tourist or snooty "over-privileged arsehole" for miles. We also spent an interesting evening walking through Stepney Green & Mile End Road. Definitely rounds out my picture of London a little bit.

Darryl - I'm pretty jealous that you get to go back so soon. Not sure when I'll make it back but hope it's not too many years in the future.

>108 kidzdoc: Darryl I'm not a fan of rants and am cautious from your review/rating ... but "I go there every day to see is he dead and every day he lets me down" + the setting and structure = irresistible for me. Thanks for reviewing it!

Book #67: What We Talk About When We Talk About the Tube: The District Line by John Lanchester



My rating:

London as it exists today would not be the same place without the Underground. The Underground is what gave the city its geographical spread, its population growth, its clusters of spaces and places.

This brilliant book by John Lanchester, whose most recent novel was the highly praised Capital, is part of Penguin's Underground Lines series, which celebrates the 150th anniversary of the London Underground, and it is one of the four books contained in the East-West: Penguin Underground Lines e-book I recently purchased. Unlike the trivial and very disappointing books on the Piccadilly and Hammersmith & City Lines, Lanchester's contribution is a superb exploration of the District Line, the Underground as a whole, and the profound effect that the system has had on the growth of the city and the everyday lives of its residents.



A District line train at its terminus at Richmond station

The District Line, which is aptly described as being like 'an older aunt who has seen better days', originated as the Metropolitan District Railway, and was later known as the District Railway, in order to distinguish it from the Metropolitan Railway, which began underground service in October 1863 between Paddington and Farringdon stations. The District Railway was created to provide a circular subsurface link to the major train stations in London, in order to allow commuters coming from the city's suburbs to quickly travel to their work places without having to navigate the city's congested streets. The first District Line service began operation in December 1868, which carried passengers between the South Kensington and Westminster stations, using steam locomotives to pull wooden carriages. The line has expanded significantly over the subsequent years, providing service to as far west as the posh suburbs of Richmond and Wimbledon, and as far east as Upminster.



A photo of Gloucester Road station, built in 1868, which was shared by the Metropolitan and District Railways (this was the first Underground station I entered on my initial trip to London in 2007)

Lanchester begins his book with a journey on the 4:53 am westbound train to Richmond leaving from Upminster, the first train of the day on the system. He observes his fellow passengers, initially blue collar workers from the East End off to their jobs in the City, who are then replaced by professionals who are employed in the financial district as he approaches central London and makes the return eastbound trip. He comments about the differences and similarities of the social and demographic groups that use the Underground, and the eastward displacement of the working classes, as the City and immediate East End neighborhoods have become less affordable to those earning modest salaries. Lanchester also speaks to Transport for London (TfL) workers throughout the book, who provide him with valuable insights into the Underground and the passengers who use it:

I asked TfL workers about the demographic difference between the two ends of the line. 'Put it like this,' one of them said. 'If they're annoyed about something, at this end of the line' — we were at Dagenham — 'they yell at you. You know about it straight away. At the other end,' he said with a shudder, 'they write letters.'

In subsequent chapters Lanchester expands his horizon to view the Underground as a whole, the effect of rapid transit on the development of cities, and the comparison of it to the metros of other cities such as Paris and New York, who created their systems decades afterward. He also discusses the psychology of passengers who ride the system; distinguishes between the terms Underground, which refers to the entire system, and the seemingly synonymous term Tube, which properly refers to the deeper level lines such as the Piccadilly, Northern and Bakerloo lines, and not the subsurface ones such as the Circle, District and Hammersmith and City lines; his personal fear of being in Underground tunnels, particularly when the train is halted between stations; the new air conditioned trains that will soon replace the 30+ year old ones that currently are in service; his experience riding alongside the driver of a train, and how it differs from being a regular passenger; the monotonous work day of an Underground train operator; and the different personas that Londoners assume when they travel underground.

The only complaint that I have about this book is that it ended far too soon. I absolutely loved it, and reading it has made me eager to drop everything else and read Lanchester's latest novel as soon as possible.

Yay! Finally a winner!

Yesterday morning I took a picture of that same Tube station* from my seat at the cafe across the street. :-)

* the true definition of "the Tube" was amusingly explained to me on this trip, but like many others I continue to say the Tube in most instances anyway.

>109 Nickelini: Hi, Joyce! Thanks for your detailed message about your trip to London.

I'm glad that you and your daughters enjoyed The Cripple of Inishmaan. Did they run out of the theatre, in an effort to get Daniel Radcliffe's autograph at the end of the play? I think that was my most dangerous experience of my London trip, as I was nearly run over by several smitten young women.

One of my fondest memories of that play was during its intermission, when a member of the audience announced that the Princess of Cambridge had given birth to the couple's first son.

The Blue Riband: The Piccadilly Line and Drift: The Hammersmith and City Line were complete rubbish, but What We Talk About When We Talk About the Tube: The District Line was superb. I'll probably read the e-books of all 12 books in this series, which covers each of the existing Underground lines along with the East London line, which is part of the London Overground. I'm a bit of a train junkie, dating back to my childhood when my mother and I frequently traveled from our home in Jersey City, New Jersey across the Hudson River to NYC, to visit my grandparents in the Bronx, although I'm not as intense as those fans who know the systems and their stock in great detail. I am amazed that London had subway service during the midst of the United States Civil War (1861-1865)!

I'll have to look for Tube Trivia the next time I visit the British Museum. In his book, John Lanchester praised the book The Subterranean Railway: How the London Underground Was Built and How it Changed the City Forever by Christian Wolmar, so I'll definitely get that when I return to London in October.

London is certainly so much more that what they feed you on the Hop on, Hop off tours.

Absolutely! I loved my day in South London with Bianca (drachenbraut23), as my knowledge of the area below the Thames was limited to the immediate South Bank (National Theatre, Southbank Centre, Waterloo station, Tate Modern, Borough Market). I still haven't done many of the touristy things in London, as I would rather live like a resident of my favorite cities than a wide eyed visitor.

I'm very eager to hear about your experiences in Thamesmede and walking through Stepney Green and Mile End Road, as I'm completely unfamiliar with those areas. Although I think I'm moderately familiar with London as a visitor, I also feel that I've barely scratched the surface of what the city has to offer.

I hope that you do get to return to London soon!

>110 detailmuse: You're welcome, MJ. Most readers liked The Spinning Heart much better than I did, and I may have a different opinion about it when I give it a second chance, which I'll probably do next month.

>112 Nickelini: Yesterday morning I took a picture of that same Tube station* from my seat at the cafe across the street. :-)

I know the cafe that you're referring to; it's close to (and possibly between) the Starbucks and Burger King, right? That station is also where I met Genny (gennyt) during our LT London meet up last month, as we, Bianca, Heather and Luci went to the Slightly Foxed Bookshop a block or two south of that station. I'll use that station frequently in October, as I made a reservation to stay at the Millennium Bailey's Hotel, which appears to be just across the street from it.

* the true definition of "the Tube" was amusingly explained to me on this trip, but like many others I continue to say the Tube in most instances anyway.

Right. I now understand the difference between the Underground (which consists of the deep level and the subsurface lines) and the Tube (which technically refers only to the deep level lines), although like you I think of those terms as being interchangeable ones. I suppose that this is technically the Gloucester Road tube station (which is served by the deep level Piccadilly line), as opposed to the other one (which is served by the Circle and District lines and is visible to the right of it in this photo):



I think the building behind this station might be the hotel that I'll be staying at in October.

What We Talk About When We Talk About the Tube: The District Line by John Lanchester. Excellent review of the John Lanchester book, which brought back memories for me as I was a regular traveller on the District Line. John Lanchester writes fairly regularly for The London Review of Books on the recent Financial crisis, going out of his way to make it clear as to how we have all been shafted by the banks and financial institutions.

>115 baswood: Thanks, Barry. I subscribe to the LRB, but unfortunately I don't read it that often, and I don't think I've read any of Lanchester's articles. Must change that.

ETA: I just finished the fourth and last book in the East-West: Penguin Underground Lines collection, The 32 Stops: The Central Line by Danny Dorling, which was about as enjoyable as eating an unseasoned and severely overcooked turkey breast. So, given that I didn't like three of the four Underground Lines books, I'll reconsider whether I want to read the rest of the books in this series.

I'm glad that you and your daughters enjoyed The Cripple of Inishmaan. Did they run out of the theatre, in an effort to get Daniel Radcliffe's autograph at the end of the play?

Not at all! I told them about your experience and Nina said "I wouldn't know where to go." Otherwise she would have been there. My two girls were the only young people that we saw at the performance we attended, and by the looks of things, possibly the only Potterheads in the crowd ;-). We noted that Harry Potter was downplayed in the playbill.

One of my fondest memories of that play was during its intermission, when a member of the audience announced that the Princess of Cambridge had given birth to the couple's first son.

That's pretty cool! I was surprised that the baby wasn't a bigger deal. Last time we were in London was three days after Michael Jackson died, and the papers were CRAZY. I had to laugh when I opened the first paper I was handed this time and there was an article about MJ's death! They're STILL talking about it 4 years later.

Anyway, I'm so glad you mentioned the Cripple of Inishmaan so I could get tix before we left. We would have found out about it upon arrival, but the anticipation was fun for the girls.

I am amazed that London had subway service during the midst of the United States Civil War (1861-1865)!

I know! It amazed me too. Just think of all those ladies in their long skirts climbing the 175 stairs of the Russell Sq station!

I'll have to look for Tube Trivia the next time I visit the British Museum
We actually bought it at the British Library gift shop, which is a most excellent gift shop, btw. Highly recommended for any book lover (not necessarily for their books, but for their book paraphernalia). I haven't had much luck at the British Museum gift shop but maybe I hit it at the wrong times.

I still haven't done many of the touristy things in London, as I would rather live like a resident of my favorite cities than a wide eyed visitor.

That pretty much describes our philosophy for our European travels, although I keep in mind that sometimes tourist spots are crowded because they're worth seeing. That's why we like Rick Steves--our approach so often match and we can rely on him to give us good advice. Also, I've done my research and know what I want to see--unfortunately sometimes so do a billion other people. But we never blindly follow the crowd. And we hate queues. Despite my comment on the Hop on, Hop off tours, if you've never been to London and you only have a few days, it's an excellent overview of the city and well worth the money.

I'm very eager to hear about your experiences in Thamesmede and walking through Stepney Green and Mile End Road, as I'm completely unfamiliar with those areas. Although I think I'm moderately familiar with London as a visitor, I also feel that I've barely scratched the surface of what the city has to offer.

I will get to it--Charlotte loaded the pictures on to the other computer about an hour ago and now I'm just waiting my turn to get on to it, but I'm third in line. I will post details on my thread in the next few days. I probably won't mention Stepney Green and Mile End Road though since we were just walking to dinner. The reason it was interesting for me was because it was different from any other part of London we saw, and again, completely tourist-free. We wandered past an interesting historical church (St Dunstan's), a community garden that kept chickens and goats, stopped to watch a team play soccer, and then meandered through a Muslim area before reaching . . . Nandos. What can I say? The GPS told us it was the closest one, and my teenagers had a craving. Who knows--One day my husband and I will travel without kids, and maybe we will miss this type of experience. And yes, I will be talking about Thamesmede. We took many pictures there.

I just finished the fourth and last book in the East-West: Penguin Underground Lines collection, The 32 Stops: The Central Line by Danny Dorling, which was about as enjoyable as eating an unseasoned and severely overcooked turkey breast. So, given that I didn't like three of the four Underground Lines books, I'll reconsider whether I want to read the rest of the books in this series.

If only they'd asked us to write the books.

>117 Nickelini: My two girls were the only young people that we saw at the performance we attended, and by the looks of things, possibly the only Potterheads in the crowd ;-).

That definitely wasn't the case at the performance I saw! There were plenty of young women in their teens and twenties in the upper balcony where I sat, and they were the ones who ran out of the Noël Coward Theatre to try to get Daniel Radcliffe's autograph, despite being informed by someone outside of the theatre that he had already departed.

I cringed when Radcliffe made his initial appearance in Act One, as I was hoping that the young women wouldn't start shrieking and applauding. Fortunately that didn't happen.

The royal birth was a very big deal that day, at least on BBC One and ITV, which broke away from their regular broadcasting to cover the (non) event live. After the initial news that Kate had been taken to St. Mary's Hospital there was no significant news for the rest of the morning and afternoon, and the BBC reporters resorted to interviewing their colleagues from other countries and the well wishers who were camped outside of the hospital for days. The following day was more of the same, until the couple emerged with the baby.

I happened to be in London on the 10th anniversary of Princess Diana's death, and I went to Kensington Palace to watch the public tribute to her, which was covered by the BBC and CNN. It was a somber and emotional event, as several people were crying and others were respectfully silent or spoke in hushed whispers. I took several photos, which (I think) you can see here:

Princess Diana memorial ceremony

I cringed when Radcliffe made his initial appearance in Act One, as I was hoping that the young women wouldn't start shrieking and applauding. Fortunately that didn't happen.

I thought that too, and held my breath. By the end of the play, I figured everyone was oblivious to his former career. Good for him for going this direction, I think. He could do so much worse. My husband, who enjoys the HP movies but not so much of his talent, thinks he's come along with his acting.

I happened to be in London on the 10th anniversary of Princess Diana's death, and I went to Kensington Palace to watch the public tribute to her, which was covered by the BBC and CNN. It was a somber and emotional event, as several people were crying and others were respectfully silent or spoke in hushed whispers.

That's nice. Good to hear people were respectful. We went to the Princess Diana Memorial "fountain" in Hyde Park (sometimes called Kensington Gardens, although to me that area of the park isn't KG anymore, but what do I know). You're invited to sit on the edge and splash your feet. It was a very hot Saturday afternoon, and there was a steady stream of people walking in that stream. We laughed when we left and read the sign that asked people to act quietly and reflectively, and also not to walk in the fountain--yeah, right! Actually, I think Diana would have been pleased with the delight that people were having there (and also, London clearly needs more public areas to cool off in these hotter summers!)



Took this shot of Charlotte when there was a break in the steady stream of people.

>117 Nickelini: Just think of all those ladies in their long skirts climbing the 175 stairs of the Russell Sq station!

Right! Although, Russell Square station is on the Piccadilly line, so it's over 40 years newer than the oldest stations, such as Paddington and King's Cross St. Pancras. I'd like to think that Russell Square had lifts when it first opened. I've taken the stairs to go down one of the deep level tube stations, probably Camden Town on the Northern Line, but I wouldn't want to walk up 175 stairs, especially in a station that lacks air conditioning in the summer.

Ah, I misread your post; I didn't realize that the British Library had a gift shop. I've never been in the library, although I have sat on one of the benches in the garden outside of it a time or two.

I normally go to the British Museum just after it opens, see one or two free exhibits, and then leave before the bulk of the crowds arrive. It's much easier to peruse the gift shop during those times as well.

Oof.I can't keep my eyes open after I took a dose of Nyquil for a summer cold that began yesterday. I'll finish this reply in the morning.

Although, Russell Square station is on the Piccadilly line, so it's over 40 years newer than the oldest stations, such as Paddington and King's Cross St. Pancras. I'd like to think that Russell Square had lifts when it first opened.

Good point, and I didn't think of that. Still, long skirts were worn right into the WWI era, so women somewhere in London walked up stairs in a long skirt. I remember the first time I watched the film version of The Wings of a Dove and they showed Edwardian people in the Tube--it was a very confusing image for me!

We arrived at Covent Garden tube on Tuesday night and I decided not to wait for the lift--193 steps (15 stories) later, I thought the lift queue didn't sound so bad after all.

You must go in to the British Library! But I'll talk all about it when I get to posting comments on my thread (will I ever get to use the computer where the pictures now sit?)

Sorry to hear you have another cold!

Talking about Covent Garden Tube station: While reading Tube Trivia, Nina informed me that closure of Covent Garden tube is being considered because it is so close to Leister Sq Tube. Based on the queues that I saw after show time, I think it's needed. However, I just stumbled across this interesting paragraph on Wikipedia, and thought you too might find it interesting:

"The journey between Leicester Square station and Covent Garden takes only about 20 seconds, and measures only 260 metres (0.161 miles), the shortest distance between two adjacent stations on the Underground network.7 The stations are so close that a pedestrian standing halfway between them on Long Acre can see both tube stations by turning around 180°. The proximity means that London Underground's standard £4.30 single cash fare for the journey between these two stations8 equates to £26.71 a mile, making the fare for this particular journey more expensive per mile than the Venice Simplon Orient Express.9 Posters at the station give details of the alternative methods of getting to and from Covent Garden using surrounding stations."

>117 Nickelini: sometimes tourist spots are crowded because they're worth seeing

Right. I do want to take the tour of the Tower of London, and visit the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey. I'll probably go there on a weekday during the off season (does London have an off season?), when there will be smaller crowds.

But we never blindly follow the crowd. And we hate queues.

Yep. I couldn't agree more. Queues are a necessary part of life in London, and I do like that Britons stand in organized lines, unlike many people in the US, but I prefer to avoid them if I can.

I will post details on my thread in the next few days.

I see that you have four unread messages on your thread, so I will head there shortly!

>118 Nickelini: If only they'd asked us to write the books.

I wish they had asked us who should be chosen to write them. Of the four "authors" whose Underground Lines books I've read so far, one was a novelist (Lanchester), one was a management consultant (York), one was a French artiste (Parreno), and the last was a geography and maths professor from Sheffield in northern England (Dorling). I could be wrong, but I suspect that there are plenty of authors like Lanchester who live in London and ride the Underground on a daily basis; they would have been much better choices for this series.

which was about as enjoyable as eating an unseasoned and severely overcooked turkey breast. I think you should include one of these food metaphors in all your reviews.

>120 Nickelini: By the end of the play, I figured everyone was oblivious to his former career. Good for him for going this direction, I think. He could do so much worse.

I agree completely. It will be tough for many to view him as anyone other than Harry Potter, but IMO this is the best route for him to take to gain consideration as a serious actor. I thought he gave a good performance as Cripple Billy, but the lead actors I saw in A Season in the Congo and Othello were considerably better (although, to be fair, they are among the most highly regarded British actors).

We went to the Princess Diana Memorial "fountain" in Hyde Park (sometimes called Kensington Gardens, although to me that area of the park isn't KG anymore, but what do I know).

I enjoyed your description of the fountain, and your photo of Charlotte was quite amusing. Do you remember what she was saying? ("Mom! Not another photo!") ;-)

>122 Nickelini: Still, long skirts were worn right into the WWI era, so women somewhere in London walked up stairs in a long skirt.

Right. Russell Square station was built in 1906, so women would have had to walk up those 175 steps from the train platforms to the station entrance if it didn't have lifts back then. That's hard to imagine!

We arrived at Covent Garden tube on Tuesday night and I decided not to wait for the lift--193 steps (15 stories) later, I thought the lift queue didn't sound so bad after all.

Yikes. Were the stairs in a tight circular configuration, like those at Camden Town and other deep tube stations?

You must go in to the British Library!

Definitely! I should have gone there last month when I stayed at a hotel on Gray's Inn Road, which is within walking distance of the British Library. Depending on my plans I'll consider going there in October.

Sorry to hear you have another cold!

Thanks; fortunately this one isn't anywhere near as bad as the cold I had last month, and I bet I'll be completely back to normal later today or tomorrow (touch wood).

>123 Nickelini: Nina informed me that closure of Covent Garden tube is being considered because it is so close to Leister Sq Tube. Based on the queues that I saw after show time, I think it's needed.

I've never been in Covent Garden station, although I've passed through it on a Piccadilly Line train dozens of times. I still haven't visited Covent Garden itself, even though the hotel I stayed in two years ago was a short walk from it. On one hand it would make sense to close Covent Garden station, as it don't connect to any other Underground lines (I think), whereas Leicester Square station is a key connecting point between the Piccadilly and Northern lines. However, if it was closed it would seem to me that Leicester Square station would become insanely crowded and possibly unsafe during rush hour and when the theatres let out. Holborn station is a much more considerable distance from Covent Garden, and it's a very busy station, as it serves as a connecting point between the Piccadilly and Central Lines. My vote would be to keep Covent Garden station open.

I enjoyed that quote about the ultra short distance between Leicester Square and Covent Garden. I'm mildly surprised that it takes that long to travel between the two stations, as it seems that you enter one almost as soon as you leave the preceding one. Philadelphia's Market-Frankford Line also has very closely spaced stations on Market Street in Center City, with stops at 2nd St, 5th St, 8th St, 11th St, 13th St and 15th St. Initially this made no sense to me, as I was used to the NYC subway system which has stops roughly 6-8 blocks apart, but these frequently spaced stations do help to decrease crowding on the platforms and improve passenger flow on and off of the trains, which probably permits the trains to travel through Center City more quickly.

>125 baswood: Good idea, Barry! I'll try to do that, especially for bad books such as The 32 Stops.

Ah I feel like I've just had a short trip to London!

Is 47 rejections a record?

I enjoyed your description of the fountain, and your photo of Charlotte was quite amusing. Do you remember what she was saying? ("Mom! Not another photo!") ;-)

I think she was saying "I'm so hot!" and knowing her, probably "I'm tired!"

Right. Russell Square station was built in 1906, so women would have had to walk up those 175 steps from the train platforms to the station entrance if it didn't have lifts back then. That's hard to imagine!

I did some more reading about this last night, and it appears that the lifts were installed from the beginning in at least some of the stations. They are certainly older than escalators (the first of which was installed in a Tube station in 1911). I shall continue to look for info on this topic ;-)

Were the stairs in a tight circular configuration, like those at Camden Town and other deep tube stations?

For the most part, yes.

My vote would be to keep Covent Garden station open.

Based on the crush of people I saw there after the theatres got out, I agree!

That's interesting about the trains in Philadelphia vs NYC.

Yes, interesting about the closeness of stops in Philadelphia's Center City. It seems counterintuitive (to me) that more stops would speed things up -- every time the train stops, that takes time. I compare it to buses in NYC, which do stop every 2-3 blocks (or every block on crosstown buses); of course, buses go more slowly than the subway to begin with, but every stop seems to take up a lot of time.

>128 mkboylan: Ah I feel like I've just had a short trip to London!

I think that Joyce and I should receive acknowledgment from Boris Johnson and David Cameron for waxing fondly about London. A free two week vacation would be greatly appreciated, right Joyce?

Is 47 rejections a record?

I wouldn't be surprised if it was a record for any book that was chosen for any Booker Prize longlist, although I don't know if any other book has had so many rejections before it was finally accepted.

>129 Nickelini: I think she was saying "I'm so hot!" and knowing her, probably "I'm tired!"

Yep; that seems right based on her expression. Did it cool down at all during your visit? The high temperatures were mainly in the 28-32 C range during the two weeks I was there.

I did some more reading about this last night, and it appears that the lifts were installed from the beginning in at least some of the stations.

I did read today that Russell Square station had lifts installed as it was being built. It's such a small station that I can't imagine how elevators could fit in there, in comparison to the much larger Holborn station one stop west on the Piccadilly Line, which does have them.

Interesting that the first Underground lifts were installed in 1911. I wonder if Holborn station, which also opened in 1906, had lifts before it had escalators? It has the second longest escalators after Angel station, so that would have been an arduous journey from the platforms to street level. (I don't think it has lifts now, but I could be wrong.)

>130 rebeccanyc: It seems counterintuitive (to me) that more stops would speed things up -- every time the train stops, that takes time.

I'm not completely sure about my hypothesis, Rebecca. It certainly wouldn't hold true outside of the times when the Center City stations were jammed with passengers, but I could conceive that it may take longer for riders to get on and off trains that have twice as many passengers as it would if their were half the number of passengers on twice as many stations (any civil engineers out there?). I don't ride the Market-Frankford Line very often now, but in the 1970s and 1980s its trains were split into "A" and "B" trains, which alternated stops during rush hour, if I remember correctly, to allow the trains to proceed more quickly through Center City.

I think that Joyce and I should receive acknowledgment from Boris Johnson and David Cameron for waxing fondly about London. A free two week vacation would be greatly appreciated, right Joyce?

At the minimum!

Did it cool down at all during your visit?

It was on and off hot, but did cool down a bit some days. And we had some showers, but then it would get sunny within a few hours. August 1st was apparently the hottest August day in 10 years (34 C at Heathrow). London weather is similar to Vancouver's year round, but I did find at times it was more humid than we get here.

>132 Nickelini: Ugh. I think the highest temperature when I was there was 33.9 C at Heathrow and 33 C in central London, which was the hottest day in the capital since July 2006. It was considerably warmer and drier there during my visit than it was in Atlanta, which is completely opposite from normal.

Enjoying all this talk about London...I should take notes, I'll likely be visiting next summer.

Is 47 rejections a record?

The Help was rejected 60 times before it was finally published.
I think it did OK ;)

Thanks for the theatre reviews, Darryl (and Joyce) -- sounds like a wonderfully dramatic trip to London. Nice to know that the theatre tickets aren't sky-high there yet (like you, I could care less about musicals). Have you ever seen in a production in the new Globe? I'm not sure the acting is quite up to the National's standard, but the atmosphere is definitely worth a visit.

>134 dchaikin: Thanks, Dan. You'll have to let me know when you'll visit London, in case your time there overlaps with mine.

>135 avidmom: Wow; I'd say!

>136 janeajones: You're welcome, Jane. I think the most I paid for any performance last week was £38 (roughly 58 USD) for Othello. I bought a £12 ($18) Travelex ticket for The Amen Corner, and Walk in the Light Part 4: Celebration was only £10 ($15). The National Theatre frequently sells Travelex tickets for its performances, which are available to all customers, and the other seats are heavily discounted compared to similar performances on Broadway, as the British government subsidizes the NT to a great degree. Several years ago I noticed that the price of my ticket for the Broadway production of God of Carnage was more than the combined cost of the four or five plays I saw at the NT. I certainly paid far more to see the Royal Shakespeare Company's rendition of Julius Caesar at the Brooklyn Academy of Music ($125-150, I think) than those three NT plays I just mentioned (£60, which is roughly $92). Julius Caesar was fabulous, but Othello was just as good.

ETA: I haven't yet seen a production at the Globe Theatre. I think it's close to the Old Vic, which is a short walk away from the Waterloo railway and Underground stations, so it would be easy to get to. I'll look to see what's on there in October.

ETA 2: Actually the Globe Theatre is next to the Tate Modern in Southwark, very close to the Millennium bridge. I usually visit the Tate Modern on my trips to London, so it will be easy to find.

Book #66: The 32 Stops: The Central Line by Danny Dorling



My rating:



The Central Line, as its name implies, cuts through the heart of central London, traveling from West Ruislip station in Hillingdon eastward to its terminus at Epping station in Essex. It passes through several key junctions with other lines en route, particularly those at Oxford Circus, Tottenham Court Road, Holborn, Bank and Stratford stations. It is the longest Underground line, as the journey from West Ruislip to Epping is nearly 55 kilometers (just over 34 miles), and it serves over 260 million passengers every year. Service between the Shepherd's Bush and Bank Stations began in 1900, and the line was lengthened considerably in the years following World War II.



Mosaic tiles in Tottenham Court Road station

Danny Dorling, a professor of human geography at the University of Sheffield, has written widely on social inequalities in England. In The 32 Stops: The Central Line, he applies that topic by comparing and contrasting the average General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) scores, life expectancies, percentage of children in poverty, household incomes, etc. of the residents who live in the neighborhoods served by 32 of the 49 stops on the Central Line. Each station includes a brief narrative about a typical person or family that lives there, which is interspersed by the author's descriptions of the differences and similarities of those who live from one station to the next, which are enhanced by graphs and charts.

Although I applaud Dorling's work in elucidating the human geography of the Londoners who live alongside the Central Line, I did not enjoy reading this book. The narratives felt contrived and quickly became tiresome to read, especially when the characters began to quote statistics that enhanced Dorling's points but seemed forced and surreal. Other than very brief descriptions at the beginning and end of the book there was no discussion of the Central Line itself, which made this a very dry and tasteless read, similar to eating a dessicated turkey breast on Irish soda bread.

It's pretty prominent on the South Bank -- very distinctive and hard to miss. They built it as close to where they think the original Globe was and in the same style. As it's open to the elements, I don't know how long the season lasts into the autumn.



the groundlings gathering:

Thanks for posting those photos of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, Jane. Given its proximity to the Tate Modern (which is located just west of the theatre) you would wonder how I could miss it, especially since I often go to the Borough Market and pass in that direction. I usually exit the museum on its western side, and walk around it to reach the market via Park Street. There has been a lot of construction of new high rises along the street between the museum and the market, with high fences that obstruct the view of the theatre. On my next visit I'll walk along the river from the museum, which should pass directly in front of the theatre.

There didn't seem to be any performances during my visit, although it was more difficult to navigate this site than those of other theatres.

In The 32 Stops: The Central Line, he applies that topic by comparing and contrasting the average General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) scores, life expectancies, percentage of children in poverty, household incomes, etc. of the residents who live in the neighborhoods served by 32 of the 49 stops on the Central Line. Each station includes a brief narrative about a typical person or family that lives there, which is interspersed by the author's descriptions of the differences and similarities of those who live from one station to the next, which are enhanced by graphs and charts.

This sounds so interesting--too bad it doesn't come together. I love people watching on the Tube and wondering who they are and what they do and where they are going.

>141 Nickelini: The Underground is an interesting venue to watch people, and those who ride it aren't nearly as uptight as those who ride subways in NYC. During my second trip to London I arrived too early to check into my hotel, so I dropped off my bags there and took a Circle or District line train from Paddington to...somewhere...after an overnight flight. I was reading the Bellevue Literary Review, and the distinguished south Asian man that sat next to me asked me about it, as he was familiar with Bellevue Hospital from his visits to New York. It turned out that he was a professor and author (not well known), and we had a pleasant chat for 15-20 minutes. We exchanged e-mail addresses, and wished each other well. That probably would never happen in a NYC subway train!

I eagerly await your reading of the book about the Northern Line, which is my favourite line (this statement usually results in incredulity, but it goes pretty much everywhere I need to go! - all four places I have lived in London and all three where I have worked).

I loved A Season In The Congo too - a really fantastic production, innovative and vivid, plus top-quality acting.

That probably would never happen in a NYC subway train!

Probably not, but I have had conversations about books on the subway, but more on buses.

I went to sleep early this evening, woke up at 1 am, and finished Dark Heart of the Night by Léonora Miano, a Francophone author from Cameroon, which was a powerful and disturbing novel set in an isolated African village that is set upon by militants. Its main themes were fatalism and the responsibility that each person has (or should have) toward others. I'll give it 4 stars for now and review it early next week, after I catch up with previous ones from this month.

I'll head out shortly to a local art cinema to see the National Theatre Live rebroadcast of The Audience by Peter Morgan, which stars Helen Mirren as Queen Elizabeth II. She won the 2013 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress for her performance in this play, and the 2006 Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of Elizabeth II in The Queen, so I'm looking forward to this broadcast.

>143 wandering_star: I read the first few pages A Northern Line Minute by William Leith just now on Amazon, and it does look good. I'd like to read it; however, I want to look at the other books in the North-South: Penguin Underground Lines Kindle book, to see if I want to read them as well. If not, I'll probably buy A Northern Line Minute when I return to London in October (I'll arrive on the 11th and leave on the 21st).

I use the Northern Line fairly frequently, especially when I take it to Waterloo station to see a play at the NT or travel to Camden Town, but I use the Piccadilly Line far more often, as I've stayed in hotels that are close to stations on this line on five of my six prior visits to the capital (and, of course, it goes to Heathrow Airport).

I'm glad that you also enjoyed A Season in the Congo, and I completely agree with your assessment of it.

>144 rebeccanyc: Needless to say you ride the NYC subway far more often than I do, Rebecca! When I worked in the city in the mid 1990s I wasn't reading for pleasure often (as I was taking graduate courses at NYU and studying for the Medical College Admissions Test), so the books I read weren't exactly conducive to conversation (e.g. Principles of Molecular Virology and Kaplan MCAT Review). Although I don't remember any significant conversations on the subway I did have several on inclement days when I took one of the crosstown buses on 34th Street to go from NYU Medical Center to Penn Station instead of walking, sometimes with fellow NYUMC employees but often with strangers.

Theatre review!

The Audience by Peter Morgan



My rating: (5.0/5.0)

Every Tuesday, at approximately 6:30 p.m., the Queen of the United Kingdom has a private audience with her Prime Minister. It is not an obligation. It is a courtesy extended by the prime Minister, to bring Her Majesty up to speed. The meeting takes place in the Private Audience Room located on the first floor of Buckingham Palace.

This play, which was sponsored by the National Theatre and performed on the West End at the John Gielgud Theatre, features Helen Mirren as Queen Elizabeth II, during her meetings with 11 of the 12 Prime Ministers of Great Britain that have served her during her 60 year reign.

These audiences were meant to be completely private and confidential, although some details about them were leaked by insiders. However, Peter Morgan, in an enlightening interview during the intermission, said that these conversations were ones that he largely invented, based on knowledge provided by historians and those closest to the Queen and Prime Ministers. The action took place almost entirely in the Private Audience Room, save for one scene at a weekend retreat in Scotland that the Queen and her family shared with the Prime Minister and his or her family on an annual basis.

The relationships between the heads of the British government and the head of the Crown were at times confrontational, but were generally cordial and occasionally warm, ranging from Churchill's paternalistic and dismissive treatment of the young Queen immediately after her father's death in 1953, to her difficult relationships with Margaret Thatcher and John Major. In her closest relationships, one in particular, the two were able to put aside formalities and become close friends who exchanged frequent laughs and witty barbs. One would occasionally serve as a confidant or a therapist for the other during their most difficult days, disclosing sensitive information that they had not yet shared with their spouses. Mirren portrays Elizabeth as a hands on and sharp witted Queen, who read everything that was passed onto her from the Prime Ministers and Parliament, and although she supported the Prime Ministers' decisions and policies faithfully, she asked tough questions of them and made her position clear when she disagreed with them. She is a sensitive and caring woman, one who most Prime Ministers feel comfortable talking with about matters of state, as well as their own personal matters.

Between each meeting of the Queen and a Prime Minister a young Margaret appears, who often speaks to and gets advice from her older self.

The performance was very humorous from start to finish, and occasionally quite moving; at the end of one scene near the end of Act Two I choked up a little bit, and I noticed that my companion wiped tears from her eyes. The costumes of the Queen at the different stages in her life were exceptionally well done, and on at least two occasions the Queen managed to change appearance either just off stage or at the edge of the stage within seconds, in apparent sleights of hand that were discussed but not disclosed during the intermission, when the costume and stage designers and other staff members talked about their work in a short film.

Mirren's performance was easily one of the best I've ever seen on stage, and she certainly deserves the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress that was given to her this year. The actors who played the Prime Ministers were all superb, but the ones who portrayed Margaret Thatcher, Harold Wilson and John Major, as seen in order in the photo below, were magnificent.



Even though this was a re-broadcast in a cinema, several audience members, including myself, clapped at various moments in the performance, and it was all I could do to keep from standing and cheering the actors at its conclusion. My companion and I gushed about The Audience after we saw it, and I can't adequately express in words how much I enjoyed this amazing and unforgettable production.

Wow, that sounds great! I love Helen Mirren.

You're in luck then, Rebecca. If you go to the National Theatre Live web site, http://www.ntlive.com and look for cinemas in NYC that are showing NT Live rebroadcasts, you'll see that The Audience is being shown at Symphony Space at least nine times during August and September. Apparently Symphony Space is showing all of this season's NT Live performances, and hopefully I'll be in the area when Macbeth and Frankenstein are being shown there.

Book #70: The German Mujahid by Boualem Sansal, translated from the French by Frank Wynne
     Original title: Le village de l'Allemand ou le journal des frères Schiller
     UK title: An Unfinished Business



My rating:

Here I am, faced with a question as old as time: are we answerable for the crimes of our fathers, of our brothers, of our children? Our tragedy is that we form a direct line, there is no way out without breaking the chain and vanishing completely.

This powerful, thought provoking and unsettling novel is narrated by Malrich Schiller, a young man born to a German father and an Algerian mother. He was sent from his home village of Aïn Deb in Algeria to a Parisian banlieue by his parents, in order to seek a better life there. Malrich, an abbreviation of his real name, Malek Ulrich, has dropped out of school and has frequently run afoul of the local police in his neighborhood, which is populated by Arab and African emigrants who are largely unemployed, bored and trapped in a meaningless existence, while being cowed by local Islamic fundamentalists. His much older brother Rachel, short for Rachid Helmut, also lives nearby; he has a college degree, a successful career in a multinational corporation, and an enviable but troubled marriage. Despite this, he is viewed as an outsider and a sell out by many residents of the banlieue.

Rachel committed suicide in April 1996, after he became increasingly erratic and unreliable, which caused him to lose his job and his wife, Ophélie. After his death she gave Malrich the keys to their house to live in after she moved to Canada, and he soon discovered his brother's diary.

Their parents and dozens of other residents of Aïn Deb were murdered by Islamic fundamentalists two years earlier, in a senseless response to the Algerian military crackdown that followed the election of an Islamist government earlier in the decade. Rachel traveled to his home village soon afterward, and while retrieving his parents' belongings he makes a shocking discovery. His father Hans emigrated from Germany to Egypt and eventually Algeria at the end of World War II, earned the title Mujahid, or Islamic freedom fighter, after he converted from Christianity to Islam and fought bravely in the resistance during the Algerian War for Independence, and was given the honorary title Cheïkh Hassan by his fellow villagers, who often consulted him and respected him for his wisdom and fairness. However, in his personal effects are honorary medals and papers that indicate that he willingly served in the SS during World War II, and was stationed in several of the most notorious concentration camps.

Rachel is profoundly disturbed by this discovery, and feels a suffocating sense of guilt that haunts him over the remainder of his life. He ignores his responsibilities to his job and his wife, and spends his days retracing his father's path from Germany to Egypt to Algeria, in an effort to learn what role his father played in the Holocaust, and how a man who was dearly loved and respected by his family and neighbors could have participated in such monstrous acts. He is likewise troubled by the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in Algeria and the banlieue where he resides, and he sees an uncanny parallel between the two.

When my parents and everyone else in Aïn Deb were murdered by the Islamists, Rachel got to thinking. He figured that fundamentalist Islam and Nazism were kif-kif—same old same old. He wanted to find out what would happen if people did nothing, the way people did nothing in Germany back in the day, what would happen if nobody did anything in Kabul and Algeria where they've got I don't know how many mass graves, or here in France where we've got all these Islamist Gestapo. In the end, the whole idea scared him so much he killed himself.

Malrich is also deeply affected after reading his brother's diary, as his brother hid this knowledge in an effort to protect him, and he is faced with a dilemma: can he stand by and passively accept the atrocities and restrictions that are being inflicted by the Islamic fundamentalists in the banlieue, or even join them in their cause, or should he stand up to them and openly reject their efforts to impose sharia on the community, knowing that he will could potentially pay for his indiscretions with his life?

The German Mujahid is a valuable and necessary book, which explores the history of former Nazis who escaped to Arabic countries toward the end of the Second World War, and compares their crimes to those being committed by Islamic and other religious fundamentalists and dictators throughout the world. It also questions the roles of citizens in these communities, who frequently passively accept or actively participate in crimes against their neighbors. This novel, and much of Sansal's work, was banned in Algeria after it was released. Sansal was recently vilified after his decision to attend the 2012 Jerusalem Writers Festival, which led to the revocation of the €15,000 prize he was slated to receive after he was awarded the Prix du Roman Arabe last year for his novel Rue Darwin. Sansal is a unique and courageous writer, whose voice must not be allowed to fall silent, and this reader eagerly looks forward to the translation of his past and upcoming works into English and the distribution of his books throughout the Arabic world.

Thought-provoking review, Darryl.

I wish some theatre here would air those NT films.

I've had that book for several years, Darryl, and your review is certainly making me think I should read it, not least because of the courage of the author.

And thanks for the info about NT Live. Symphony Space is a 10-minute walk from my apartment!

>150 janeajones: Thanks, Jane. I would encourage you to look at the National Theatre Live web site, http://www.ntlive.com, to see which NT performance are being rebroadcast in your area. You can enter your city, provided that it is a medium or large sized one, in a search box, which will indicate which cinemas are showing these performances and where, and it will allow you to easily purchase tickets online.

>151 rebeccanyc: I had The German Mujahid on my bookshelf for three years, and it was high on my TBR list, but this quarter's Reading Globally theme provided the impetus to pick it up.

Fabulous news about living so close to Symphony Space! Now it's my turn to be jealous...

Unfortunately, nothing is closer than 55 miles away -- a bit far to go for a filmed performance, I'm afraid.

Excellent review of The German Mujahid, Darryl. I will definitely look for this book.

Great review of The German Mujahid , which certainly seems to show a link between religious fundamentalists and the Nazi regime to the effect that they both bullied the average man in the street and worse than that stirred up religious and racial hatred. Very interesting

Book #72: 419 by Will Ferguson

   

My rating:

"Four one nine is not a game, it is a contest of wills," Ironsi-Egobia continued. "It is Nigerian cunning versus oyibo greed, and in such a tussle, cunning always has the advantage. Why? Because greed clouds men's eyes, fogs their gaze. Cunning focuses it. We are tax collectors, Adam. We charge a tax on greed. We should be congratulated, not prosecuted, and yet it is we who are called the criminals. Criminals! They talk about Nigeria's 'culture of corruption.' What of Europe's 'culture of greed'? What of America's? What of these oyibos agreeing to schemes that are so clearly illegal, were they to be true? Moving millions of dollars out of a poverty-stricken nation, profiteering on Nigeria's hardships? Are the mugus not criminals too? Aspiring criminals, but criminals still. Are they not accomplices as much as they are victims? This is what the fools at the EFCC fail to see."

419, the winner of the 2012 Scotiabank Giller Prize, begins with a mysterious automobile accident in Calgary that claims the life of Henry Curtis, a retired schoolteacher. That is the first of a series of surprises that follow, as his wife, his son Wallace and his daughter Laura soon find out that Henry was the victim of a Nigerian e-mail scam that has claimed his and his wife's life savings and has left them nearly $200,000 in debt. The local Canadian police share details of the conversations Henry had with a supposed Nigerian bank executive, but the family is informed that this money is lost forever, and they should not attempt to reclaim it by contacting Canadian or Nigerian officials. Wallace verbally expresses his anger and frustration with vehemence, while Laura quietly plans what action she can take to gain revenge for her father's death.

Winston is a university educated young Nigerian who operates out of an Internet parlor in Lagos creating 419 e-mail scams alongside other yahoo boys (419 refers to the section in the Nigerian Criminal Code that concerns fraud). He works independently and is quite successful, and as a result he is selected by Ironsi-Egobia, a local strong man, to run his scams in private under his "protection".

Nnamdi is a bright village youth selected by Dutch oil company officials for training as a mechanic, and later becomes a Shell Man, who earns a hefty salary but is loathed by other young men nearby. He later collaborates with some of them, and undertakes an even more lucrative job whose risks are outweighed by its potential profits.

The lives of these three main characters converge in Lagos, a chaotic city where corruption is rampant and danger is always present. The story progressively picks up speed as it reaches its terrifying and unexpected conclusion.

419 is an action packed novel that takes big risks, yet largely fails to deliver on them, in the manner of a batter who takes a mighty swing at a baseball and hits a high drive that falls well short of the outfield fence and lands harmlessly in a fielder's glove. The story regularly strained credulity, and ultimately I lost interest in the lives of its characters. Although it does seem to paint a believable, though bleak, picture of modern Nigeria and provides information about the effects of 419 scams on Westerners and Nigerians, it ultimately was an unsatisfying read.

>153 janeajones: That's understandable, Jane. However, my group's practice manager expressed a willingness to drive 80 miles to Macon, GA to see NT Live performances there if I and hopefully others in my group accompany her, so I suspect we may go there at least once in the next year or so.

>154 Linda92007: Thanks, Linda. The German Mujahid was published by Europa Editions, so it should be relatively easy to find.

>155 baswood: Thanks, Barry. I thought that was the most interesting aspect of this novel, the comparison of Nazism and Islamic fundamentalism, and the role of individuals to speak out against intolerance and hatred conducted by elements of their societies.

Hmm. I had been intrigued by 419 when I read Steven's review; now I'm not so sure!

Finally caught up! Sounded like a really fun trip!

I'm not familiar with the London public transport system but am enjoying reading your reviews of the Penguin series. Too bad about the York and Parreno books.

The Audience sounds fantastic - unfortunately, it doesn't look like it's playing around here.

Great review of The German Mujahid - I will have to look for that one.

419 sounds like an intriguing concept, too bad the execution was lacking.

>158 rebeccanyc: The reviews of 419 on LT are all over the place, Rebecca, with nearly as many 3 star reviews as 5 star ones, although the 4 star rating has received the highest number of votes so far. I went back and looked at Steven's comments about it; I found it hard to believe that intelligent adults could fall for such (IMO) obvious scams, but apparently there are plenty of people who do (which makes sense, of course; if no one was falling for these stories the Nigerian yahoo boys wouldn't continue to propagate them). I thought that Laura's careless actions were out of character for the person she was originally portrayed to be in the opening section of the book, and I had a difficult time engaging with the novel's other main characters. I'd advise borrowing it rather than buying it; if I remember correctly it will be released here on August 27th.

>159 DieFledermaus: Thanks, DieF! It was a splendid trip, and I look forward to returning there in October. We're already making plans to see plays and meet up in London and Cambridge, so there should be more photos and theatre descriptions then.

Last month's trip was my sixth to London in the past seven years, so I've become moderately familiar with many of the Underground lines. I think I will go ahead and read the remaining eight books in the Penguin Underground Lines series, which are available as three e-book collections of four titles each, even though I only liked one of the four titles in the East-West: Penguin Underground Lines collection.

I'm sorry to hear that The Audience isn't playing at a cinema near you. It was the only NT Live rebroadcast that came to Atlanta this year, but I hope that letters to the NT and the cinema which featured it will lead to more broadcasts there next year.

The German Mujahid was published by Europa Editions, so hopefully you'll be able to find it without difficulty.

I was very disappointed in 419, and I'm surprised that it was chosen as the winner of last year's Giller Prize. I wasn't that fond of the 2011 winner, Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan, as I thought that The Cat's Table by Michael Ondaatje was a much better novel.

419 has such an interesting premise. Too bad it didn't deliver.

>161 Nickelini: I didn't like it, but it seems that many, including Steven, did. It's a quick read, so you may want to give it a go, especially if you can borrow it.

Baseball metaphors now Darryl? Are you sure.

I was also intrigued by 419 when I read Stevens review and so its good to get another opinion on it. Who is going to read it next?

>163 baswood: Definitely, Barry, although the North Americans here would probably appreciate that baseball metaphor the most. There is a phrase in the US called swinging for the fences, which originally referred to a hitter who took an especially hard swing at a baseball in order to hit a home run over the outfield fence. It is now commonly used to refer to someone who takes a big risk or is very ambitious, which is IMO what Will Ferguson did in writing this book. Sometimes the batter (or author) will connect and drive the ball out of the park (a home run), but often he misses the ball entirely (a swing and a miss), or swings under it and sends a high fly ball that initially looks impressive, but it doesn't come close to leaving the park and is easily caught by an outfielder (a can of corn). You could certainly say that Ferguson did hit a home run, as 419 won the Giller Prize last year, but I think he hit a can of corn.

I'll send my copy of 419 to richardderus, one of the members of the 75 Books group. Chatterbox, another 75er who is from Canada, is planning to read it this month, and I see that arubabookwoman, who is a Club Read member, has it in her library.

German Mujahid definitely going on my wishlist. Thanks for the very excellent review.

>165 mkboylan: You're welcome, Merrikay!

Book #74: Harvest by Jim Crace

  

My rating:

This novel takes place in an isolated village in pre-Industrial Age England, whose residents have just finished collecting a modest harvest for Master Kent, the benign and fair landowner who employs and befriends them. What should be a day of celebration is interrupted by the appearance of two tufts of smoke; one comes from a hut at the edge of the village recently built by three outsiders, but the other comes from Master Kent's dovecote and manor house, which suffers substantial damage as a result. Despite evidence to the contrary, the outsiders are accused of setting the fire and are punished for it.

Soon afterward the villagers learn that a new owner, Master Jordan, will replace Master Kent. His plan for redeveloping the land causes great consternation amongst them, and within hours the social fabric of the village begins to quickly unravel, as neighbors turn against longstanding neighbors, the new owner and his staff, and the outsiders. Walter Thirsk, a villager who is the narrator of this novel, also comes under intense scrutiny, as he is Master Kent's closest confidant and appears to be aligned with the new landowner. The villagers become progressively more agitated, which leads to violence that threatens to destroy the community and everyone in it.

I viewed Master Jordan as a pre-Industrial Era version of Carl Icahn, the corporate raider who is known for his hostile takeovers of failing or marginally successful companies, which is followed by severe cutbacks to the established work force and a near complete change in its business goals and operations, as the previous CEO/COO (Master Kent) is rendered all but powerless. And the villagers seemed akin to late 20th century factory workers with limited education and skill sets, and even more limited ability to have a vote or voice concerns about the workplace, who must adapt to rapid change or find themselves marginalized or unemployed.

Harvest is a beautifully written and compelling novel about the imbalance of power, revenge and the effect of sudden change on a formerly peaceful village, whose theme of forced adaptation to rapid change is both universal and timeless. I expect that it will be chosen for this year's Booker Prize shortlist, and I look forward to reading it again and exploring it further.

Nice review of Harvest, Darryl. I have enjoyed everything by Crace that I have read (Being Dead, Quarantine and The Pesthouse) and am looking forward to this one also.

Haven't read any Crace yet, but this one looks as if I should. I should also investigate this year's Booker, so this would fit the bill.

Book #73: The Last Brother by Nathacha Appanah, translated from the French by Geoffrey Strachan

  

My rating:

We very rarely notice changes within ourselves at the time, we perceive them later, in the light of events and our reactions to them, but, sitting there as I did, motionless in the dark, I sensed it, a change in myself, I felt as if I were getting bigger, growing, like the trees around me, and it seemed to me that the exhalation of the green, dark forest had something to do with it.

This gorgeous and deeply touching novel is set on the island nation of Mauritius off the coast of east Africa, which is isolated from the horrors of World War II but not from the harshness of life under British colonial rule. It is narrated by Raj, a nine year old boy whose family was among the thousands of Indians that were brought to the island decades before to work in its sugar cane fields for subsistence wages. After a tragic accident he and his parents have moved to a safer town, where his father finds work in a prison that supposedly houses hardened convicts. Raj is a sickly and stick thin boy, who is loved dearly by his mother but is not immune from his father's frequent wrathful and violent outbursts after he returns from his demeaning job. He is bored and lonely in his new home, with no close friends and little to occupy his fertile mind.

One day Raj watches the prison from nearby woods out of curiosity of the men who are housed there, and he is surprised to see a boy who is similar to him in age and size, although his blond hair and blue eyes set him apart. The two make eye contact, and later meet in a local hospital, where they quickly become friends despite their language differences. Raj learns that David is part of a group of approximately 1500 Jewish émigrés who attempted to travel from Eastern Europe to Palestine to escape the Nazis in 1940, but were refused admission because they did not have proper immigration documents. The British government determined that they were illegal immigrants, and condemned them to internment in the prison.

David is returned to the prison after his hospitalization, and Raj continues to observe his new friend from the woods. He escapes after a skirmish within the compound, and Raj helps him to flee from his pursuers. Unfortunately David is not well, and the two boys struggle to find food and shelter, as David's health rapidly declines.

The Last Brother is a wonderful coming of age novel, narrated by Raj as he nears the end of his life, which also highlights a little known chapter of Jewish history. The love and friendship that the two boys share rivals that of the most intimate couples, and these two characters will stay close to my heart for a long time to come.

>168 Linda92007: Thanks, Linda. I think I'll have a lot more to say about Harvest when I give it another go next month. The UK edition is 275 pages in length, so it can be read in a single day.

The only other book I've read by Jim Crace is All That Follows, which I didn't like. I have Being Dead, but I haven't read it yet.

>169 SassyLassy: This would be a good novel to start with, Sassy. I've read five of the 13 books from this year's longlist so far; here's my current ranking:

1. TransAtlantic by Colum McCann
2. The Testament of Mary by Colm Toíbín
3. Harvest by Jim Crace
4. Five Star Billionaire by Tash Aw
5. The Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan

I've liked all of them except for the last one. I'll start reading Almost English by Charlotte Mendelson today.

Glad you liked The Last Brother so much; I did too. Nice review. Do you know if Appanah has written anything else?

Thanks, Rebecca. Yes, she has; according to Wikipedia this is her fourth book. Only one other one has been translated into English, Blue Bay Palace, which is a "compelling novel of doomed love {that} shows how poverty, class divisions, and ramshackle housing become even harder to bear when luxurious resorts and rich tourists arrive on the scene." It was published in the UK but apparently not in the US; I'll add it to the list of books I plan to buy when I return to London in October. Her other novels are Les Rochers de Poudre d'Or, which is based on the arrival of Indian indentured workers to Mauritius, and La Noce d'Anna, which is set in France.

I'm sorry you didn't like 419 as much as I did. I agree the plot has serious weaknesses, but what I especially like about the book is how it shows that the Nigerian 419 fraud schemes are mirrored in the way the oil companies deceive and exploit the Nigerians.

Good point, Steven. That comparison was one of my favorite parts of 419, and my favorite quote (which I posted in my review) concerned that topic.

Great reviews, Darryl. I read Crace's The Pesthouse a few years ago, which I enjoyed, and I look forward to reading more of his novels. Hadn't heard of The Last Brother, but it sounds very intriguing. Thank you for bringing it to my attention.

The Last Brother is very high on my TBR pile...

>176 dmsteyn: Thanks, Dewald. I modified my review of Harvest in message #167, after I read some comments about it and thought of a fitting analogy that was different than those other readers came up with. I've also increased my rating of it by 1/2 star, and I look forward to giving it another go next month.

>177 laytonwoman3rd: Definitely read The Last Brother, Linda, but have a box of facial tissues at your side when you do.

RIP Albert Murray, the African-American novelist, jazz, literary and cultural critic, and biographer, who died yesterday at the age of 97. He was born in rural Alabama and embraced jazz music and the blues, which he chronicled in his memoir South to a Very Old Place, and a trilogy of semi-autobiographical novels, Train Whistle Guitar, The Spyglass Tree, and The Seven League Boots. He attended Tuskegee University in Alabama, and later was introduced to Ralph Ellison, with whom he developed a close, lifelong friendship that was chronicled in Trading Twelves, a splendid collection of letters of correspondence between the two men that discussed jazz, civil rights, American culture and Ellison's efforts to write and publish Invisible Man. Murray was also close friends with the artist Romare Bearden, and the two influenced each other's work over the years. He was also known for his groundbreaking and controversial book The Omni-Americans, published in 1970, which challenged the prevailing mindset that activism and isolation was the only method for blacks to gain equality in American society. He later befriended the critic Stanley Crouch and the jazz musician Wynton Marsalis, with whom he co-founded the successful Jazz at Lincoln Center program. Murray was an underrecognized but highly influential man, whose voice will be sadly missed by many.

New York Times: Albert Murray, Essayist Who Challenged the Conventional, Dies at 97

Nice RIP on Albert Murray Darryl

Thanks, Barry. If you haven't read it I would highly recommend Trading Twelves to you; it's one of a very small number of books I've read twice. Many of the letters between the two men discuss jazz, especially the development of bebop in the late 1940s and early 1950s, which both men decried in favor of traditional small and big band jazz played by Duke Ellington, Count Basie and others. Both men are witty, insightful and quite funny, and the respect and fondness they have for each other is evident in every letter. It's one of my favorite books in my collection, and I'd gladly start it again now.

I did download the Kindle edition of Albert Murray's memoir South to a Very Old Place yesterday, and I'll plan to read it next month. I've only read Train Whistle Guitar, the first novel in his semi-autobiographical trilogy, and that was quite a long time ago, so I'll plan to read the trilogy in its entirety next year.

Thanks for the heads up on Trading Twelves

Glad you liked the Jim Crace book Harvest. After reading and enjoying Being Dead, I will now look to read Harvest.

Book #71: Dark Heart of the Night by Léonora Miano, translated from the French by Tamsin Black



My rating:

From her point of view, the Africans' whole life was spent escaping death. They did not even seem aware that it surrounded them. It ran in rivers seething with worms that covered the children's skin in ulcers. It was in the water they drank, in the pools stagnating outside their huts, sending clouds of mosquitoes to cover the world at nightfall. Death was everywhere in the filthy poverty of Africa. Death was everywhere in the ignorance of peoples, and death was in the traditions; it was in these necrophiliac customs that often involved keeping dead people's skulls; in the witchcraft they practiced when potions would be concocted from crushed human bones or innards; in certain rituals that were liable to end in bloodbaths, and no one was unduly bothered when a woman died because she was not tough enough to restrain the flow of blood she lost at her excision. Death had made Africa its dominion.

This harrowing novel is set in an isolated Central African village, whose people have steadfastly maintained traditional roles and values that are not shared by the residents of neighboring towns and cities. Although Ayané was born there, after her father married a woman from another town and brought her to live with him there, she and her mother are viewed as troublesome outsiders, particularly after her father's death. Instead of staying in the village, Ayané left as a young girl to attend university, then moved to France to pursue a career and a better life. After several years abroad she has returned to the village, as her mother is in poor health, but she immediately antagonizes and angers the village elders due to her thoughtlessness and refusal to accept their mores.

The unnamed country is in a state of crisis, as militants roam the countryside and terrorize soldiers, government officials and ordinary citizens. While Ayané cares for her dying mother the villagers sense a malignant presence in the surrounding jungle, just out of eyesight. Within days they are set upon by a small band of armed men, who are fueled by drugs and their leaders' desire to unite their countrymen in their nationalist fervor. The militants propose a horrific ritual to ensure their solidarity, and after several villagers are openly murdered the remaining villagers, including the elders, passively accept and actively participate in the ceremony, in order to save their own lives. Ayané observes these events hidden from everyone, and after the militants take their leave she openly challenges the village elders for allowing such a thing to happen without protesting or fighting back, and she questions her own responsibility in silently accepting these monstrous acts without trying to save any of its victims.

Dark Heart of the Night, whose English title is a grievous translation of the book's original title L'intérieur de la nuit, is a disturbing look into the roles and responsibilities Africans have and must face when evil befalls them, their towns and their countries. She powerfully demonstrates the tragic effects that result when individuals act on their instinct to survive, instead of standing in opposition to those who torment their friends and neighbors. This was a difficult book to read, as Miano does not shy away from any of the gruesome details of the militants' and villagers' actions, but it is an unforgettable and necessary contribution to African literature, which applies beyond that continent as well.

Sounds compelling if horrifying. "Inside" vs "dark heart" isn't quite as grievous as some title translations I've seen, but I get your point.

Thanks for the info about Albert Murray.

"grievous" is such a fine and underused word, I think Darryl just wanted to give it some exercise. I think I'll probably pass on L'intérieur de la nuit, as I doubt I have the heart or stomach for it.

Book #76: Almost English by Charlotte Mendelson

  

My rating:

Marina is a 16 year old girl who lives with her English mother, Laura, in the basement flat of her paternal grandmother, an immigrant from Hungaria, and her two great-aunts, in the central London district of Bayswater. The older women love Marina dearly and desire that she read medicine at Cambridge, but they are insufferably opinionated and overbearing, which makes it difficult for her to express her own thoughts. Her mother, who separated from Marina's father 13 years before, has never remarried, and she works in a GP's office, where she has an intermittent affair with him.

The older women pool their limited resources in order to provide Marina with the best education possible, and the girl decides to transfer to Combe Alley, an English boarding school in Dorset that is notable more for its quirky traditions than its academic quality. Soon after her arrival Marina realizes that she does not fit in, due to her unfamiliarity with English manners and her lower middle class upbringing, and she is ignored by nearly everyone. However, she is emotionally paralyzed due to her suffocating home environment and inability to communicate with her mother, and she is unable to share her feelings of unhappiness and regret with her mother, her Hungarian relatives, or the few girls she is remotely friendly with.

At the same time Laura, who is even more emotionally stilted than her daughter, struggles with her own feelings of inadequacy and dissatisfaction, as she misses Marina terribly but is unable to share her feelings with her, and she is unable to establish an independent identity for herself in a household where silence is frowned upon.

Almost English for me was a painful and unrewarding read, with two of the most spineless and emotionally repressed women I've ever had the displeasure to read about. The story lines were trivial, and although the book was well written, I couldn't develop any interest in the main or the secondary characters. The repeated use of accented Hungarian words such as von-darefool (wonderful), tair-ible (terrible) and nair-vairmind (never mind) was highly irritating, and the the novel's denouement was unsatisfying and overly convenient for my taste. This was a curious and disappointing selection for this year's Booker Prize longlist, and I can only hope that the judges put down whatever it was they were smoking when they chose this book and realize that it has no place on the shortlist.

>184 rebeccanyc: Compelling if horrifying is a good description of Dark Heart of the Night, Rebecca. The author took umbrage with the English translation of the book's title, which begs comparison to Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, a book that is reviled by many African authors. She also was harshly critical of a preface that appeared in the first edition of the translated book, which fortunately did not appear in my copy of it.

>185 laytonwoman3rd: I think that most people would have a hard time with this book, Linda, and I wouldn't recommend it to a general audience of readers.

Good point, Darryl. I had been focusing on the literal translation and not thinking about the Conrad comparison. It must be infuriating for authors not to be able to control the title of their work in translation.

Excellent review of Dark Heart of the Night, Darryl, despite the difficult nature of its subject matter.

Book #75: Massacre River by René Philoctète



My rating:

"What isn't possible when power turns stupid?"

We people from over here and over there—we are, in the end, the people of a single land.

The Caribbean island of Hispaniola is shared by two countries, Haiti to the west and the much larger Dominican Republic to the east. The two nations are separated by a latitudinal border, part of which is formed by the Dajabon River, which is also known as Massacre River. Haiti is populated primarily by its African descendants, and it is the poorest country in the Caribbean and the Americas; the Dominican Republic contains a much richer mixture of people from Spain and other European countries, East and West Asia, and other Caribbean countries, including Haiti, and it has the second largest economy in the Caribbean.

Both countries have longstanding histories of colonization and subjugation by Western powers, violent civil wars, oppressive dictators, and bloody border battles. Because of the long porous border and the marked difference in the economies and standards of living of the two nations, Haitians have for years crossed over to the Dominican Republic to find work and better lives for themselves, and particularly in the border towns they often established friendship and not infrequently found love with their Dominican neighbors.

In 1930 the notorious dictator General Rafael Trujillo was "elected" president of the Dominican Republic, after a violent campaign in which many of his opponents were eliminated. Trujillo held great admiration for Adolf Hitler, particularly his views on racial purity, and later in that decade he declared the Dominican Republic was a country of white people, in stark contrast to its black neighbors to the west but also in opposition to his country's mixed race majority. The blancos de la tierra (whites of the land) were revered and rewarded, whereas darker skinned Dominicans were reviled and punished.

As part of this effort, Trujillo embarked on a campaign to rid the country of as many Haitians as possible, supposedly to prevent them from robbing their Dominican neighbors, but in actuality to achieve greater racial purity. He focused this effort on the border between the two nations, especially the region adjacent to Massacre River, and in a six day campaign of terror in October 1937 tens of thousands of Haitians were brutally murdered by soldiers in the Dominican Army. This act of genocide became known as the Parsley Massacre, as Dominican soldiers would show dark skinned residents of the border towns a sprig of parsley, and ask them to say the word for it in Spanish, perejil. The Creole speaking Haitians often could not pronounce the word properly, and those who failed to do so were beheaded with machetes on the spot, or taken to fields where they were executed by firing squads.

Massacre River is a novel about the Parsley Massacre, which is centered around a young couple who are deeply in love with each other, the Dominican Pedro Brito and his beautiful Haitian wife Adèle, who live close to the river. A premonition of the massacre comes in the form of an ominous large raptor, which swoops over and shadows the town and its residents. As the townspeople become aware of Trujillo's plans, Adèle becomes fearful for her own safety. Pedro attempts to comfort her and allieviate her concerns, and leaves her at home to go to work on the fateful day that soldiers enter the town. As word comes in on the radio of the massacre that is taking place, with the death toll in each town enthusiastically announced by broadcasters, Pedro rushes to get back home to find out what has happened to Adèle. When he returns he and other workers are met with a surreal and horrific scene, as the heads of the massacre's victims bounce around the bloodied town, giving voice to the day's events and demanding justice for the atrocities inflicted upon them by singing machetes swung by men loyal to Trujillo, "the Lord of demented death".

Massacre River is a superb story, which uses magical realism to both blunt the gruesome details and highlight the profound effects of the Parsley Massacre on Haitians and their Dominican neighbors. It is also a touching love story and, oddly enough, it contains an element of humor, which would seem to be inappropriate in the face of genocide but actually permits a view of the humanity of the Haitian and Dominican people and their respect and love for each other, which is unaffected by this tragedy. René Philoctète, the novel's author, is one of the most revered authors in Haiti, but to date this is the only novel of his that has been translated into English, and he is not well known outside of the Caribbean. I enjoyed this unique and entertaining novel, and I hope that more of his work will be available in the near future.

ETA: The touchstones aren't working for some reason.

>182 baswood: I look forward to your comments about Harvest, Barry. (Touchstones still aren't working.)

>188 rebeccanyc: The only reason I became aware of Léonora Miano's opinion of the book's English title and its objectional preface was because it was mentioned in her page on Wikipedia. Here's a link to an article in which she expresses her view:

Camerounian Novelist Léonora Miano Blasts Her American Publishers

>189 Linda92007: Thanks, Linda.

Very interesting; thanks for the link.

And excellent review of Massacre River. I posted a bug report about the touchstones a while ago, and someone replied that it's probably related to a Search problem, which is in the process of being fixed.

>193 kidzdoc: Thanks for your comment about Massacre River, Rebecca, and for letting me know about the touchstone issue.

Excellent review of Massacre River. Has it been translated recently Darryl, I was wondering how you came across it.

>194 baswood: Thanks, Barry. It was published by New Directions in the US in 2008, and I bought it from City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco last year. I can't remember if it was a book I stumbled upon in the Literature in Translation section in the bookshop, or if I had heard of it somewhere and was on the lookout for it. Mine is the first review of it on LT, and the only two people I know who own it bought or wishlisted it after I did, so I suspect it was a book that I discovered serendipitously.

A public sanity announcement.

I'm sure that most of you have noticed that the touchstones are thoroughly messed up, due to a problem with LT's search index after a reboot yesterday, which also affects the touchstones. LT's system administrator, sryder, reported this morning that the rebuild of the search index is still underway, and it may not be complete until tomorrow.

I thought I'd see how the touchstones worked for the six Booker Prize longlisted novels I've read so far. None of them worked, and I've listed the name of the book that the touchstone links to:

TransAtlantic - Pride and Prejudice
Harvest: A Novel - The Time Traveler's Wife
The Testament of Mary - Testament of Youth
Five Star Billionaire - Surrender
The Spinning Heart - Storms
Almost English - Eragon

Lovely.

I hope that I'm wrong, but I have no faith that this will all be fixed by tomorrow. However, there is a relatively easy work around, which some of you but I suppose not all know about. If you are able to find the book's home page on LT (which isn't easy at the moment unless you or someone else has created a touchstone for it already), the number displayed in its HTTP address is LT's unique identifier for it. For example, the address for TransAtlantic is http://www.librarything.com/work/13353815. If you enclose that number followed by two colon signs and the book's name in square brackets, you'll get the correct touchstone for it. For example {13353815::TransAtlantic}, but substitute the square brackets for the curled ones.

Thanks for the public sanity announcement, Darryl. When I posted a review yesterday, I just used the standard "a ref" format for web links, but your solution is easier.

You're welcome, Rebecca. I learned that trick from an HTML Tips thread in one of the other groups, and I use it fairly often for new books, especially ones that are relatively obscure.

Testing: Damned if You Do .

Damned if it doesn't work! Thanks, Darryl.

>199 laytonwoman3rd: You're welcome, Linda!

It seems as though the touchstones for books not published this year are working properly. Testing:

Wolf Hall - check
Bring Up the Bodies - check
The Song of Achilles - check
White Teeth - check
Invisible Man - check
Giovanni's Room - check
A Place of Greater Safety - check
The War of the End of the World - check
Blindness - check
Travelling with Djinns - check
Wizard of the Crow -check

Some of the touchstones for recently published books that weren't working earlier this morning now are working, such as ones for TransAtlantic, The Testament of Mary and We Need New Names. Maybe this problem will be fixed today after all.