Baswood's books part 1

Reading plans 2024

I enjoyed my reading last year and so the projects for this year will be very similar.

16th century literature
Last year I started on the year 1595 and didn't finish all of the material that is available. Clearly I am not going to progress very far if I continue to read all the poetry, plays and prose that I come across. I did however find it an interesting experience to drill down into all the available works of a single year. I did read some not very good poetry and so I will be from now on reading the more critically acclaimed pieces, with a target of getting to the turn of the century 1600.
I hope to read the following plays by Shakespeare:
The Merchant of Venice
King Henry IV parts I and II
The Merry Wives of Windsor
Much Ado About Nothing
As You Like It
Julius Caesar
King Henry V
There will be more poetry to read from Edmund Spenser which will include parts IV to VI of The faerie Queen. Plays, prose and poetry by George Chapman, Thomas Lodge, Thomas Nashe, Michael Drayton and Samuel Daniel

Science Fiction
Science fiction published in 1951. There are just over 20 books to read to complete this project and so this will be my target for this year:
Mack Reynolds - The case of the little Green Men
James Blish - The Warriors of Today
Frederick Brown - What mad universe
John W Campbell - The moon is hell
John Russell Fearn - The petrified Planet
Paul W Fairman - Whom the gods would slay
Daniel R Gilgannon - Stopwatch on the world
Fletcher Pratt - World of Wonder
E E Doc Smith - Gray Lensmen
Wilson Tucker - The City in the sea
S Fowler Wright - The Amphibians
S Fowler Wright - The world Below
Willy Ley - Dragons in Amber
Willy Ley - Rocket missiles and Space Travel
Cyril Judd - Mars Child (Galaxy magazine May, June, July 1951)
Gerald Heard - Is another world watching
Eric Frank Russell - Dreadful Sanctuary
Fred Hoyle - The nature of the universe
L. Sprague de Camp - The Undesired Princess
Fletcher Pratt - World of Wonder.
Isaac Asimov presents the Great SF stories N.13 1951.
The Best Science Fiction stories: 1951 Everett F. Bleiler and T E Dikty
Raymond Z Gallun - Passport to Jupiter (Internet archive startling stories mag)
Manley Wade Wellman - Devil's planet (Internet archive)

I will continue with the Science Fiction Masterwork Series and Hope to fit in some novels by Jules Verne.

Books published in 1951
Plenty of books still to read for this project

Unread books from my shelves
John Le Carré - The Tailor of Panama
Robert Coover - A night at the movies
Peter Carey - The Tax inspector
J M Coetze - Disgrace
John Le Carré - Absolute Friends
Jonathan Coe - The Rotters Club
Joseph Conrad - Nostromo
Orson Scott Card - Xenocide
John le Carré - the mission song
John Cheever - The stories of John Cheever
Raymond Chandler - The Chandler Collectioin
John Le Carré - A most wanted Man
Wilkie Collins - The Moonstone
Peter Carey - The history of the Kelly gang
Colette - Collected stories

I will also continue to read books from the London Review of books "recommended reads for the next twenty years"

A category I have not listed above is books from my local library and one of those makes my first review:



Olivia Rosenthal - On n'est pas là pour disparaitre
Monsieur T stabbed his wife five times with a kitchen knife. After the police arrive and to take him away under interrogation Mr T says he does not know why he did it. After this short first chapter the following chapter is an interrogation of a quite different kind: a test for someone who might be suffering from Alzheimer's disease. This is a short book dealing with issues of caring for somebody with Alzheimers and the effects on those who suffer its consequences. It is written as a novel and its short jerky chapters imitate perhaps the actions and thoughts of sufferers and carers.

Chapters that reflect the repetitious thoughts of Mt T are interspersed with a short history of the discovery of the disease and the medical effects on sufferers, but they are written in simple chatty format that are interesting rather than informative. There are also thoughts expressed by the wife and family of Mr T. and questions for the reader set apart on otherwise blank pages for example:

An exercise for you
Imagine that you can erase from your memory a person close to you with all those events in which you were involved. Who would you chose?

Questions like this are designed to demonstrate to the reader what it might be like for Alzheimer victims. The book lightly touches on the events in Mr T's family life with some thoughts that the disease can be hereditary and how family members (Mr T had three daughters) may react to this information. The most affecting chapters are those focusing on the carers: in this case Mr T's second wife; she feels like a prisoner locked in the house with her husband who fails to recognise her.

The book will not be much comfort for anybody caring for a victim of Alzheimers, but it may enlighten those who have no direct experience of it. I cared for an aunt who was a sufferer and the book reflects some of the issues involved. There is a test that you can do online which I hastily took just to be sure, it did lead me to think on the risks of entering a relationship later in life, however Alzheimers might be the least of ones concerns. I thought the fragmented style of the book was effective and so 4 stars.

Re your unread books from your shelf, have you ever read anything by Robert Coover? I've had The Public Burning (about Nixon and the Rosenbergs) languishing on my shelf for years--I should try to get to it soon.
Re the two by Peter Carey, I loved The History of the Kelly Gang but wasn't so impressed by The Tax Inspector. And although I read it many, many years ago, and I don't usually love short stories, I recall the John Cheever collection as being excellent.

Happy New Year Bas. Kudos on being within 20 books of completing your 1951 sci fi project. Enjoyed your review of this French novel on Alzheimer disease.

>3 arubabookwoman: I have not read anything by Robert Coover. I have recently read Peter Carey's Illywhaker which I did not like very much. Happy new year
>4 dchaikin: Happy new year Dan

Welcome back for another year of Club Read, Barry. Although our reading doesn't overlap significantly, I always learn something from your reviews, like Canto Ostinato, which was such a hit with my niece. I'll be curious to see what you think of Xenocide. I thought it couldn't quite hold up against Speaker for the Dead, which was so good.

Bonne année, bas!

Eric Linklater - Laxdale Hall
Linklater is described in wiki as a Welsh-born Scottish poet, fiction writer, military historian and travel writer. His most famous book is probably The Wind on the Moon which is a children's fantasy novel. Laxdale Hall was published in 1951 and it was made into a film of the same name; I have not seen it, but imagine it as a British made 'b' movie following on the coat tails of Whiskey Galore, however looking at the cast list: Ronald Squire, Kathleen Ryan, Raymond Huntley, Sebastian Shaw and Fulton Mackay I am thinking it might have had pretensions of better things.

The novel is very much of its time. An isolated Scottish village on the west coast is preparing to put on an amateur production of a play by Euripides. The villagers have been canvassing their MP in London for money to build a new road and an improved docking facility and are thrilled to learn of the arrival of a delegation from London. They have been refusing to pay their road tax because they claim they have not got a road on which they can safely drive their cars. The General who owns Laxdale Hall is leading the protest group and his large house is the only suitable accommodation for the delegation. A criminal group from Glasgow have targeted the salmon river running by Laxdale hall for a poaching expedition. The villagers must persuade the London delegation they are worthy of monetary support, fight off the criminal gang and make a success of a controversial play.

Linklater's book never quite hits the right note, not quite funny enough, not serious enough about the problems facing a remote highland village and underestimates the problems of putting on such a play. The General tries to be all things to all men while various other characters become caricatures of half crazy people living in a remote village that still have the wit to outfox a criminal gang and dupe a bunch of stuffed shirts from London. Linklater writes some excellent prose describing the countryside and the beating of the criminal gang is carried out like a military exercise, however there are still fifty pages to go, when most of the issues have been resolved and there is only the play left to bring the story to a climax that unfortunately has already been largely resolved. The book is entertaining enough and the colourful characters have their moments, but it all seems so old fashioned; and not in a good way, to be reading this now. 3 stars.

I’m curious which Euripides play they chose.

>9 dchaikin: The Bacchanals - it was supposedly a new translation

>10 baswood: ok, that’s kind of a cute choice. Maybe echoes some of the plot chaos (at least in the summary).

Happy new year and thanks for your comment on my thread. I'm looking forward to following your reading and all that jazz.

Jean-Christophe Rufin - Le suspendu de Conakry
I enjoyed reading Jean-Christophe Rufin's Immortelle Randonée recently and found another of his books in the library. Le suspendu de Conakry is the first in the series: Les énigmes d'Aurel le Consul which are detective stories featuring a french naturalised Romanian man who works in the diplomatic service in Africa. This first book finds him in Conakry a coastal city which is the capital of Guinea working in the french consulate which has an uneasy relationship with the government of Guinea which used to be a french colony. Aurel is a misfit and although second in command has problems with the chief of the bureau and to compensate he amuses himself by being an amateur detective.

One morning the port officials of Conakry wake up to find a dead man suspended from the mast of his yacht. He is french and Aurel takes it on himself to launch his own investigation, not believing the local police version of events: that is was a robbery, carried out by local criminals. Aurel uses his connections in the consulate, playing his cards close to his chest, so as not to fall foul of his boss, the local police chief and the customs officials. He is helped by the dead man's sister who appreciates the unconventional work of Aurel and flies out to Conakry to assist.

Jean-Christophe Ruffin is a doctor and worked as a french diplomat in Africa and so has plenty of experience of life in a foreign consulate. His story is full of the internal strife of the workings of the diplomatic service along with the colourful life of the Africans who live and work inside and outside its doors. The plot works well enough, but the success of these types of books is the setting of the story and this one held my attention throughout. Aurel Timescue is a great character and I look forward to following more of his adventures. Jean-Christophe Ruffin writes clearly and well, wrapping up his story with ease. 4 stars.

>13 baswood: I made a mental note of Jean-Christophe Rufin after you read the last one, and this one sounds good too - if I see anything by him in the library I’ll give it a go.

>13 baswood: sounds fun. Are you reading French as well as English these days?

>15 dchaikin: yes I tend to alternate between the two

The House of Coalport - Compton Mackenzie
When I compiled my list of books published in 1951 and came across this book by Compton Mackenzie I was expecting it to be a light hearted but social comedy. I was not expecting it to be a history of a pottery china works on the banks of the river Severn in Shropshire, but this is what I got. I suppose it being subtitled 1750-1950 was a bit of a giveaway. Compton Mackenzie is best known for his two comic novels Whiskey Galore and The Monarch of the Glen, but he also wrote a number of biographies and histories as well as poems, plays essays and children's books, he was nothing if not prolific.

It looks like a book that Mackenzie was commissioned to write, although I can find no details that this was the case. It is a sympathetic story as far as the founders and owners of the works are concerned and tells the story from the beginning with the establishment of the first worksop at Caughley some 4 miles from Coalbrookdale on the banks of the river where it was established as a major pottery works. It specialised in fine hand painted bone china with its production method being a closely guarded secret for a number of years. The factory was established by William Reynolds and was then owned outright by John Rose. It made a connection with the Sèvres the porcelain city just outside Paris, where patterns were exchanged and workers were persuaded to come over to England.

In 1799 there was a ferry-boat disaster when the ferry transporting workers across the river Severn capsized and 28 people were drowned. Under The Rose familie's management the company established itself as a leading producer of fine pottery, but spiralled into a slow decline. In 1885 it was taken over by the Bruff family and John Bruff revived its fortunes for a time. The first world war and then in 1923 a long strike made it increasingly unprofitable and the old factory was sold dismantled and rebuilt in Shelton Staffordshire. It then became part of the Crescent works in Stoke on Trent and Mackenzie's final chapter is a walk through the factory in 1950 with some pictures of the workers hand painting the pottery items, some surviving from Coalport.

The book which looked to be finely illustrated serves its purpose as a story of Coalport pottery, it is more a story of the ownership and the people who worked there, than a technical explanation of the production of the pottery. 3 stars.

That might be more obscure than some of your 1590’s reading. Still, interesting review.

Mack Reynolds - The Case of the Little Green Men
The Case of the Little Green Men published in 1951 was Reynolds first novel. Once he got going there seemed to be no stopping him. He had 100's of short stories published in Science Fiction magazines and nearly as many novels between 1961 and 1985. His main claim to fame seems to have been Mission to Horatius which was the first original novel based on the Stare Trek series. He is one of those science fiction writers that had escaped my attention completely until this week.

This is a first novel by a pulp science fiction writer and so I had no great expectations, especially on reading the title of the book, however I was pleasantly surprised. The Case of the Little Green Men is a detective story, set against a background of science fiction fandom. Jeb Knight is a not very good or very successful private investigator. He drinks too much and has recently suffered with some bad publicity and so when three men come into his office and hire him to investigate the possibility of aliens living on earth, he is inclined to accept the job. The three men are members of a committee that are organising a science fiction convention highlighting the possibility of extraterrestrials and wish to present to the convention a scam investigation by a private detective. Jeb is unaware that he is being made use of in this fashion and wonders how to set about his investigation into aliens on earth and It is suggested that the people around the committee would be a good place to start. He is invited to attend a get together of the group and at the event one of the group is found dead. Jeb gets to the body to find that the corpse looks as though it has fallen from a great hight, but there are no buildings tall enough in the vicinity. The police are called and the Inspector warns Jeb not to interfere. Next day one of the committee rings Jeb in a panic saying he has been attacked by a ray gun.......

Jeb finds himself caught between the committee and the police investigation and finds himself as prime suspect for the murder and so he must find out what is happening to save himself. The story becomes a detective novel but Mack Reynolds has plenty of fun with the science fiction fans. The dressing up for the convention, the comic books and magazines on sale, the arguments as to who are the best science fiction writers. Reynolds writes well enough and the name checks and discussions about extraterrestrials will amuse science fiction readers. Not bad 3.5 stars.

>19 baswood: I keep waiting for 1951 to bottom out and go dry. But not yet. This sounds fun.

>19 baswood: Interesting, for how prolific he seems to have been and for all my past classic sci-fi reading I don't think I've ever encountered Mack Reynolds. This one sounds quite a fun read.

James Blish - The Warriors of Day
More science fiction from 1951, although The Warriors of day was published in book form in 1953 it started out as Sword of Xota in the Science-Adventure Books pulp magazine 1951 summer edition. By 1951 Blish was well and truly launched on his career as a science fiction writer, and early stories that would eventually be included in his Cities in Flight series were beginning to appear.

The Warriors of Day is novella length and we meet Tipton Bond an intelligent superfit man pitting his strength against a Kodiak bear somewhere in Alaska, the scenario changes around him and Bond finds himself in a landscape he does not recognise. Birds, animals and plants are hostile and he seeks sanctuary in a curious building shaped like a fallen man. He undergoes some form of mind warp before finding his way out again and heads for a city that he has seen in the distance. A beggar women throws herself in front of him calling out to him that he is the Sword of Xota. In its 125 pages the book moves effortlessly through is gears from being an Edgar Rice Burroughs jungle adventure to a full throated space opera.

From its atmospheric beginning until its interplanetary ending the adventures keep the story moving along. Blish was good at writing stories with ideas that had some sort of incredible science base and could convince his reader of their possibility. This novella has a bit of everything, that a young adult (probably male) might enjoy, a powerful but intelligent hero, a fantastical setting, scantily clad sexy women and a story line that delivers on that sense of wonder the stirs the better science fiction books. The story moves too fast to be bothered by character development and is typical of such stories in the pulp magazines of its time, but it is well written and is an entertaining read 3 stars.

Sounds fun. Very entertaining cover.

I finally got to your thread. Belated Happy New Year and continued happy reading this year.

A list of books published/copyrighted in 1951 that I have read. Total 44 so far..................

Ray Bradbury - The illustrated man 5 stars
L Sprague du camp - Rogue Queen 3 stars
Arthur C Clarke - Prelude to Space
Hal Clement - Iceworld (read and reviewed) 3.5 stars
Philip Jose Farmer - The lovers) 3stars
Austin Hall - The Blind Spot ( 2.5 stars
Robert A Heinlien - The Green Hills of Earth 3.5 stars
Robert A Heinlien - The Puppet masters 3.5 stars
Clifford Simak - Time and Again 3.5 stars
Philip Wylie - The Disappearance 4 stars
John Wyndham - The Day of the Triffids 5 stars
Leigh Brackett - People of the Talisman Shadow over Mars 3 stars
Fritz Leiber - Gather Darkness 3 stars
H P Lovecraft - The Haunter of the dark 5 stars
Isaac Asimov - Stars like Dust 2 stars
Robert Spencer Carr - Beyond Infinity 3 stars
Arthur Koestler - The age of Longing 5 stars
Lewis Padgett and C L Moore - Tomorrow and Tomorrow and the fairy chessman 3.5 stars
William F Temple - four sided triangle 4 stars
Jack Williamson (Will Stewart) - Seetee ship 3 stars
Stanley Mullen - Kinsmen of the Dragon 3.5 stars
L Ron Hubbard - Typewriter in the sky/Fear 3 stars
Raymond F Jones - Renaissance 3.5 stars
The Frederic Brown Megapack 3.5
Sam Merwin jnr - The House of Many Worlds 3 stars
Malcolm Jameson - Bullard of the Space Patrol - 2.5 stars.
Lord Dunsany - The Last revolution 2.5 stars.
Jack Vance - Son of the Tree 3 stars
Raymond F Jones The Alien 3 stars
Ed Groff Conklin Possible Worlds of Science Fiction 3.5 stars
Jack Williamson Dragon's Island 4 stars
John D Macdonald Wine of the Dreamers 3 stars
Arthur C Clarke The Sands of Mars 3.5 stars
Sterling Noel I Killed Stalin 2 stars
Ed. August Derleth The Outer Reaches
George O. Smith Pattern for Conquest 3 stars
Hal Annas The Longnozzle Event and maid to Order 2 stars
Clifford D Simak Empire 3 stars
Manly Wade Wellman Twice in Time 3.5 stars
Robert A Heinlein Between Planets 3 stars
John Taine Seeds of Life 3.5 stars
Cyril Judd Sin in Space 4 stars
Mack Reynolds The case of the Little Green Men 3.5 stars
James Blish The Warriors of Day 3 stars

Well, that’s beautiful. Great reading, bas. Not too many under 3 stars

Julia Bell - Radical Attention
Smombies

Julia Bell says that she regularly bumps into people on the street staring at their phones; she calls them smombies.

This is an essay published in book form which discusses how much humanity is losing by overuse of smartphones and other internet activity. I have to say that she is preaching to the converted with me, because I hardly use my smartphone, certainly not referring to it every 12 minutes which she claims is average for most people. The essay makes the following points.

People continually scrolling on their phones are unaware of what is going on around them and a public announcement system in San Francisco puts this into perspective:

"For your comfort and security keep your eyes on the scenery and not on the screen"

People are behaving like automatons scroll/click/reward, they are losing their personality, instead of being liberated by technology people have become weirdly trapped.

We are losing the capacity to connect with others, to be present with them and this is particularly the case with children born into a world of late capitalism; in an environment of individual competition, where the pressure is to exploit others, which is heralded as the primary model of success.

The constant buzz of information on the internet does not give us time to think, it is all about instant reaction, we are losing the art of radical attention. Our online attention is worth money because it generates data. It is this data that is mined to push products, deals, schemes our way. Google knows us better than our family, our partners or our closest friends. Alerts are pushed at us in a way that generates fake urgency, they do not want to give us time to think.

The internet is the home of much hate propaganda, certain groups of society are targeted. The internet also provides a platform for people to make outrageous statements; this is welcomed by internet companies, because it generates more data as people respond in like fashion; Donald Trump on twitter is used as an example. If we are enraged then we are engaged.
A professional in the field of data mining claims that most people are really easy to manipulate, because they are generally stupid.

Julia Bell quotes Iris Murdoch:
Unsentimental, detached, unselfish objective attention is a prerequisite of the ability to perceive what is true.

Bell concludes her essay saying:

Allowing ourselves to experience our individual wedge shaped core of darkness, without being nudged, or pushed, or spied upon, is the most difficult, necessary and radical act of all.

The essay is composed in fairly concise paragraphs, interspersed with news items that give examples to the points she is making. Is is almost as though she is writing for people with short attention spans. It worked well enough for me, with sections briefly covering pornography, incels, skills based education and of course artificial intelligence. It was published in 2020 at the time of covid lockdowns and raises the question of the loneliness of continual online usage. It is a little like a clarion call and it skates perilously close to being somewhat of a conspiracy theory in that white, male, super-rich people are shaping our destiny. It was another book recommended by contributors to the London Review of Books and I am glad I read it - 4 stars.

I expect I'll be sporadically on LT as per 2023, but looking forward to dipping in and out of your reviews.

Belated happy new year >13 baswood: Barry!
I will continue following your thread, which is always full of interesting anddiversified books. I hope you'll have a great reading year!

>13 baswood: I enjoyed Le Suspendu de Conakry a lot. Unfortunately, I read the second instalment in the series Les trois femmes du consul a few months ago, and felt it was horrible. I will not continue with the series. If you do so, I'll be interested in your thoughts on the following book, to see if I missed it entirely!

>14 rachbxl: Still on jean-Christophe Rufin, the first book I read from him, L'Abyssin is great. A bit Dumas-like, so can't help mentionning it every time someone talks about this author!
I keep on meaning to read Asmara, les causes perdues again, but have not yet.

>27 baswood: hell, I’m doomed. (Posted on my iPhone)

>29 raton-liseur: I saw L'Abyssin sur l'etal des livres d'occasion in the market this morning. I will buy it next week - thank you for the recommendation.

>27 baswood: Though in general I agree strongly with the propositions put forth in Bell's essay, as per your review, there are some aspects of it that I'm not sure are really as specific to the smartphone age as someone who came of age during this era might presume. I see that Bell was born in 1971, however, which would mean that she actually came of age before the smartphone era.

At any rate, I as said, I mostly agree with the premises presented. As someone now living in New York with a large dog to walk, my current main grudge is against people who stare at their phones while walking their dogs. There are all sorts of reasons why this is hazardous and irritating. Knock it off, people!

>13 baswood: Great cover, and looks like a fun book.

>19 baswood: Do you know if this is the first use of the term "little green men"?

>27 baswood: Amen! from someone who doesn't have such a device.

>33 SassyLassy: According to Wikipedia, "the first use of the specific phrase 'little green man' in reference to extraterrestrials that Aubeck found dates to 1908 in the Daily Kennebec Journal (Augusta, Maine), in this case the aliens again being Martians."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_green_men

>32 rocketjk: I wonder if this walking while looking at phones is a NYC thing. When I just traveled overseas about 8 years ago, people did have phones and seemed to use them a lot in restaurants and on trains but not while walking. I actually spent a week photographing them in Manhattan for a personal project. They’d be almost on top of me when I snapped the photo. Some didn’t even notice they’d been snapped.

>34 KeithChaffee: such charming trivia

>35 kjuliff: I can vouch for it happening in the Houston suburbs…because i do this sometimes…

>32 rocketjk: Bell also mentions mothers/fathers at a playground immersed looking on their phones while their kids are playing.

And of course there are those people that kill themselves taking selfies.

>34 KeithChaffee: Thanks Keith

I feel like smartphones aren't inherently bad—like sweets, tv, and much else in life, it's overindulgence that causes problems. I love having information at my fingertips. I need directions to the nearest bookstore? something to read while stuck somewhere unexpectedly? how many teeth a megalodon had? an address so I can mail off a book? My smartphone is a quick and immediate resource much more convenient to carry around than an atlas, novel, encyclopedia, and address book. I also don't necessarily see anything bad about parents reading either books or phones while their kids are at the park. I have a much harder time with parents who hover, ever vigilant, while kids are trying to play with other kids. That said, there are obviously drawbacks, especially to the downsides of social media and screen addiction. An obvious plus, I think for all of us here, are things like LibraryThing, however you access it.

>38 labfs39: I like smartphones too. But unlike past communication innovations such as TV and video games, they are not easily regulated by parents. Kids can get addicted to them by parents who need a break. I remember feeling guilty when I’d park my three year and four year olds in front of a TV. But that was easily undone, and I could get my act together and do something else with them.

In 2016 my grandson was hospitalized in a New York hospital. It turned out to be nothing serious but they kept him in for a few days. The first thing the nurse did after they found a bed for him, was to give him a tablet with a video game pre-loaded. The aim of the game was got points by zapping space aliens.

It was all hell prying his tiny hands away. He was three. In the end my daughter and I gave up, as the nurses were horrified at us and kept giving it back to him. Eventuality the battery ran out.

It takes so much self control to regulate one’s young children who are so easily addicted, and don’t use phones like you or I.

Barry, I had the idea of reading a book published each year since I was born. I started with Martian Chronicles for 1950. And thinking about The Day of the Triffids for ‘51. But I’m having trouble getting reliable lists of books published in specific years. How did you do it?

>27 baswood: I took a hit on this one.

>40 dianeham: That sounds like a great idea. A good place to start is over on Goodreads they have lists of favourite books for each year. Then its over to Wikipedia to find authors that were publishing books in the years that you are looking at. There are also timelines on magicdragon.com if you are more interested in science fiction.

>38 labfs39: >39 kjuliff: >41 Jim53: Usage of smart phones is a hot topic at the moment. A point that Julia Bell also makes is the confusion now between public and private.
When you are using the phones in the privacy of your own home you are in fact very much in the public sphere. People know where you are, what you are interested in etc.... When you are out on the street and using your phone in public you are in your own private world on the phone, but in a public space.

>40 dianeham: Doing a Wikipedia search for “(year) in literature” will give you an overview of that year, including a list of the year’s major books. Not comprehensive, of course, and probably gets less useful the farther back you go, but it would be a starting point. And anything important enough to have made that list will probably still be relatively easy to find copies of.

>42 baswood: >44 KeithChaffee: Thank you both. If I just read the books/year - I could probably do all 74 in a year. But I’ll probably want to read other stuff too. I’m habing fun with the ‘50s so far.

>40 dianeham:"I’m having trouble getting reliable lists of books published in specific years. How did you do it?"

Another spot to visit is the LT group "Bestsellers Over the Years" which features bestseller lists for each year going back a long time (with a separate thread for each year). Obviously, "best seller" doesn't always represent quality, but you are likely to get some good ideas there. Cheers!

Link to the group: https://www.librarything.com/ngroups/2847/Bestsellers-over-the-Years

>46 rocketjk: Thank Jerry. I’ve been having trouble finding a good one for 1952. The nf list for 1952 looks helpful.

>47 dianeham: There are so many novels I would chose for 1952!
Invisible Man by Ellison, Stalingrad by Grossman, The Old Man and the Sea by Hemingway, The Price of Salt by Highsmith, The Natural by Malamud, Wise Blood by O'Connor, Excellent Women - by Pym!, East of Eden by Steinbeck!, Player Piano by Vonnegut

(But, of course, I don't know if you've already read these).

>48 ELiz_M: thank you. I’ve read most of them but that doesn’t mean I can’t read them again.

Back to the Elizabethans.



The Pedler's Prophecy - Anonymous (Robert Wilson)
A Fig for Momus - Thomas Lodge
Two more works from 1595 which are typical of the sort of secular literature which was rolling off the old printing presses: they are both satirical in nature. Neither of them could claim to be great literature, but both have their moments of charm and for readers versed in the works of the time, they may provide some entertainment.

Robert Wilson is one of those playwrights who worked in a theatre company in collaboration with others during the 1580's and 1590's It is thought that he worked for Philip Henslowe's Rose Theatre. The Pedler's prophecy is written in mainly rhyming couplets and contains a number of stock characters who recite their parts with no call for any stage action. A Pedler appears on stage claiming to have wondrous articles in his heavy pack, a young maiden approaches and asks for some sharp needles. The Pedler is more intent on telling her about the problems of the world. A mother and then a father join their daughter and the pedler carries on in the same fashion, warning them of devastation to come and angling for food and wine and a place to stay. A traveller, a mariner and an artisan join in and the pedler tells them he has magic stones in his pack to help them in their profession. A Landlord, a judge and a government official join the crowd and the pedler tells them how badly people in their profession behave. Everybody has something to complain about and they all vent forth. This is the mother complaining about the immigrants:

Yea either they be Alians, or Aliant sonnes indeed,
Who through marriage of English women of late,
Hath altered the true English blood and seed,
And therewithall English plaine maners and good state.
All the naughtie fashions in the world at this day,
Are by some meanes brought into England.
If by some meanes they be not commanded away,
Within a while they will vs all withstand.
For here they do not only deuoure and spend;
As they be most deuourets truly:
But our commodities away they do send,
Rob and steale from English men daily.

The play ends with all the characters paying homage to Queen Elizabeth and praying for her safety.

Charles Sisson says of Thomas Lodge; "There was never a truer Elizabethan" in that he explored ways of earning a living or paying his debts, by endless zest and persistence, challenging circumstances by asserting his own wit, his own powers and his own desires. He trained as a lawyer, but there is no record of him practising, however he used his knowledge in a series of endless litigations many of which were against his brother. In Sisson's view he paid a heavy price for the privilege of writing a few charming lyrics, a poor play or two, some second rate satires, a few novels and a pamphlet in defence of the stage. This is a little harsh because Lodge adapted a story by Geoffrey Chaucer Tale of Gamelyn into a prose romance Rosalynde; Euphues Golden Legacy which proved popular and his play The Wounds of Civil War was also not without merit. A Fig for Momus was his last printed work and although he lived for another thirty years nothing more from him was printed.

Momus in Greek mythology was a personification of satire. Momus as a sharp tongued spirit of unfair criticism was eventually expelled from the company of the Gods on Mount Olympus; perhaps Lodge took this as a hint and decided not to write any more. A Fig for Momus is a variety of longer poems, there are satires, eclogues and epistles. Epistle number one is addressed to Ad Momum and warns of the dangers to the world and looks at examples in the animal kingdom. There are four eclogues which are pastoral poems usually written and sung by educated shepherds musing on the perils of making ones way in the world outside Arcadia. One is an old persons reflections on life and the contentment to be found when one is at peace as compared with young people striving in the real world for gain. A couple address the problems of being a poet, poorly paid, difficult to find sponsors and a lack of appreciation. The fourth eclogue takes the form of a debate between a poet and his love of the arts and a young man who sees glory in war. This ends on a note of compromise:

Peace, doth depend on Reason, warre on force,
The one is humane, honest, and vpright,
The other brutish, fostered by despight:
The one extreame, concluded with remorse,
The other all iniustice doth deuorce.

This said, he ceast, and would no more proceed,
Felicius left him setled in this thought,
I, hearing both the reasons they had brought,
Resolu'd that both deserue true fame indeed,
And pray that wit may thriue, & war may speed.

There are five satires on similar subjects, with the final two looking at covetousness and ambition. Amongst the seven epistles are a note to his mistress following a letter from her worrying about getting fat. There is a letter to Michel Drayton on how to use poetry and one in praise of his mistresses dog, quoting extensively from classical literature. These works are very much representative of popular books at the time and both of these authors needed to earn money at the writing game. 3 stars.

>50 baswood: I really enjoyed your review. Writers have always had a tough time getting published and I hadn’t thought of their everyday woes harking back to Renaissance times.

You write “These works are very much representative of popular books at the time”, what sort of people read them, or were they mostly communicated by being performed?

>50 baswood: fascinating stuff, great post. Always appreciate learning about what 1590’s works you are pursuing.

>51 kjuliff: What sort of people read books in Elizabethan times is a question that we can only guess at. There are no records. I suppose one might start with how many people could read - perhaps those that were able to sign their name might be a start. There are records of printed editions of books which gives a clue as to how popular they were within the group of people that bought books. Not an easy question to answer.

>53 baswood: presumably they would have been read out loud to an (intimate?) audience.

John Le Carré - The Tailor of Panama.
"You know what you are going to get when you pick up a Le Carré novel" i wrote after reading The Russia House last year. Now I am not so sure after reading The Tailor of Panama published in 1996. In previous books I have read, le Carré's stories are set in the culture of operational British Spies, with just as much attention paid to office politics as to the adventures of the spies themselves. Usually any violence or assassinations take place outside of the narrative and it is the effect these events have on the professional spies controlling their operatives, that are important to the narrative. Certainly the British spies are very much old school in fact many of them went to the same school; you know the ones that produce many of our Tory politicians. They all play the game however ruthless it maybe, in a rather closed world, seemingly for the good of the country, they are honourable men doing their best and although the reader might pick up a wiff of irony he will not encounter the satire which permeates The Tailor of Panama.

Harry Pendel is the Tailor of Panama working as a bespoke tailor in the city of Panama. A refugee from Saville Row in London he has established a very British institutional clothing store for those people with money who want to buy the best suits in town. Most of the top politicians are dressed by Harry Pendel and he routinely travels to the President of Panama's residence to fit him out. He is a model employer and his premises cater to clothe and flatter all the men who want the best, however Harry is in debt, a bad investment in an upcountry rice farm has drained his resources. Le Carré's character portrait of Harry Pendel and his world is masterly, his ability to flatter his customers, but also command their respect makes for an entertaining first few chapters. His position as an outsider with a way in to the heady political machinations of Panama city, along with his money problems make him a perfect target for the British Intelligence Services. Andrew Osnard newly posted to the British Embassy sees his chance to enhance his career and make a lot of money.

Harry takes some persuading, but Osnard soon has him hooked and from then on the adventures begin in a highly sexed up world of political manoeuvring. There are assassination attempts, suicides, femme fatales, revolutionaries and counter revolutionaries with Harry at the centre of it all. The Americans, the Japanese, the Chinese are all vying to ensure they can control their access to the Panama canal. The press barons in England and America are working behind the scenes, while officers in the British Intelligence service are thinking of ways to make money.

Le Carré seems to have lost all respect for intelligence services whose aim was to keep the world safe or to further national interests, they are all crooks and fly-by nights. Perhaps it is because his story is set in the volatile world of Panama city, but more likely it is a complete loss of integrity: a world going to seed with the biggest and most powerful liars and managers playing the game. It makes for a novel that ups the octane, moving into spy-thriller territory. An entertaining read and Harry Pendel is one of le Carrés best creations, but I missed the more ironical, gentile, more rounded approach of previous reads by this author, 3.5 stars.

>56 baswood: Probably completely different, but your review made me think of Our Man In Havana. That book made me laugh to tears.

I avoid spy stories because I’m afraid to be scared, but maybe I should give Le Carré a try some day.

Thoroughly entertaining review. I own le Carré’s The Constant Gardener. Should I read it?

>58 dchaikin: It is one of his more recent spy thrillers which I think started with The tailor of Panama I prefer the earlier cold war spy books. I have seen the film but I can't remember it

>59 baswood: thanks. That’s helpful. 🙂

A few years before he died Le Carré gave some excellent interviews on Democracy Now!:

John le Carré (1931-2020) on the Iraq War, Corporate Power, the Exploitation of Africa & More

Didn't help me to enter his books but it did make me feel guilty about that!

>61 LolaWalser: Thank you for that link - a superb interview. I still have a couple of his books on my shelves and I will read them with the sound of his thoughts in my head.

Carson McCullers - The Ballad of the Sad Cafe and Other Stories.

Only the Lonely

Published in 1951, the title story is of novella length with six other shorter stories. It is the The Ballad of the Sad Cafe that dominates this reading experience and it was the first thing that I have read by this author. It is set in the deep South of the U. S. A. in a run down town with 100 yards of high street. Miss Amelia Evans a tall strong Amazon of a woman owns the biggest store in town which she has built up and financed by her own hard work and guile. She has a still and some land out in the swamps and makes the best liquor in town. Some years ago she married a local no good, but charismatic man (Marvin Macy) who only lasted 10 days before she kicked him out. She has had no truck with any other man since and so when a hunchbacked man arrives in town claiming to be a cousin everybody is surprised when she takes him in. Cousin Lymon's presence in the house causes Amelia to open the downstairs as a bar and restaurant which soon becomes a place where most of the social men come to drink. Marvin Macy is released from the penitentiary and comes back to find Amelia.................

The novella has similar themes to some of the short stories. The unlikely love stories of strong, self sufficient characters, the mystery of unequal power in a relationship: why should Amelia choose Marvin for a husband and why should she entertain Cousin Lymon. These are mysteries that get everybody in town thinking and talking, but nobody can predict the outcomes. The reader is left in suspense, sees how the story pans out, but can offer no explanation for the events, which stay as secret as the characters McCullers presents. As the story is told in a third person narrative it is for the reader to imagine the passions that drive the characters in this story. The setting of the story, the daily life in the small town, the sharp changes in climate, will all have their effect. It is a fascinating story, told superbly well.

The second story Wunderkind shows how a female musical child prodigy finally realises that she has not got that extra something that will make her a star. Madame Zilensky and the King of Finland is another story that has a musical theme. Madame Zilensky is a conductor seeking employment as a teacher, she is a pathological liar, but her male employers are willing to accept this side of her character. The Sojourner tells of a man meeting his ex wife by chance and being invited home to meet her new family and A Domestic Dilemma tells how a husband will forgive and protect his wife who he knows has become an alcoholic and a danger to their children. A Tree, a Rock and a Cloud has a 12 year old paper boy listening to a story told to him by a man in a cafe; of his impossible love for a woman who will not entertain him.

Apart from stories of unrequited, impossible, or overwhelming love, music features strongly in some of them. At the end of The Ballad of the Sad cafe as a sort of postscript; a chain gang of seven black and 5 white convicts usually start songs or a chant while they work, which well up from out of them and swell up to a climax before petering out. It follows the graphical line of the story. I enjoyed and was impressed by my first delving into the work of Carson McCullers - 4 stars.

>63 baswood: Fantastic review, Barry. I know I read something by McCullers in college, Member of the Wedding, perhaps? But because I didn't like the class (required), I think I gave the authors short shrift. I should try her again.

>63 baswood: Wow, McCullers. What a great writer. Haven't thought of her in a while. I used "Madame Zilensky and the King of Finland" in one of the courses I taught at San Francisco State University many moons ago. So many moons ago, in fact, that I can't recall whether it was the Creative Writing 101 course or the English Composition course. As I remember it, though, there is enough ambiguity there to make the story a very good conversation/analysis vehicle. Also, it's a fun story.

>56 baswood: I have just started reading John le Carre, and so far have read the first two Smiley books. They were not what I expected, very short and more like police procedurals than a spy novel. But I liked them well enough and will continue the series and venture into other works by him.

>63 baswood: Carson McCullers is one of my favorite "Southern" writers, but The Ballad of Sad Cafe is the one book of hers I haven't read ( or if I read it, it was so long ago I have no memory of reading it. So I'm glad you liked it.

>63 baswood: I loved this review. I don’t think I’ve read any Southern American literature, but your review has inspired me. I don’t know how or if it will work in. audio but I’ll give it a try.

>63 baswood: somehow I had imagined Carson McCullers younger than that. But I haven’t read her. Enjoyed your review

>63 baswood: I think I read that in high school.

I thought I’d read a book by Cardon McCullers in my youth, but it turns out it was Mary McCarthy. I remember seeing Reflection in a Golden Eye on my parents’ shelves, but I never read it or anything else by her. I guess I should. Her and so many others.

Wonderful review of The Ballad of the Sad Café and Other Stories, Barry. I'm a huge fan of Carson McCullers, and your review brought back fond memories of this book. I absolutely adore her astonishing book The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, which is my all time favorite début novel, as it brilliantly captures the Jim Crow South and the relations between races better than any other book I've read.

>71 kidzdoc: Thats an interesting recommendation Darryl I will follow that up

>71 kidzdoc: I agree about The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Darryl, and, as I said above, McCullers in general. There's also a beautiful movie version of The Member of the Wedding starring Julie Harris. There's a highly regarded movie version of The Heart is a Lonely Hunter starring Stacy Keach, but I don't remember ever having seen it.

I read The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter a couple/few years back and really liked it, but haven't gotten around to any other McCullers so far.

I also highly recommend The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter.

Norman Mailer - Barbary Shore
My next read from books published in 1951 was Barbary Shore by Norman Mailer. It was his second novel and did not sell well after his first success with The Naked and the Dead. Barbary Shore was the first book I have read by this author having been wary of his machismo profile and I was surprised by what I found in this highly political novel: most of the action takes place inside of a rooming house in Brooklyn Heights,

Mickey Lovett rents a room; he calculates he has enough money to last for a couple of months and he wants the peace and quiet to write a novel. He is suffering from amnesia after being injured during the war. He soon finds too many distractions to work at his writing; the first is Guinevere his well rounded landlady who teases him with her sexuality, which seems to be echoed by her precocious four year old daughter Momina. Then there is McLeod an intellectual who fascinates Lovett with his books and knowledge and Mickey finds himself wanting to 'sit at his feet' in his room upstairs. Another tenant Hollingsworth seems to want to get Mickey on his side in a dispute with McLeod. Finally there is Lannie a woman hurt by electric shock treatment suffered in a mental institute and now in love with Guinevere. It soon becomes apparent that the rooming house is a hot bed of intrigue. McLeod is a revolutionary, a socialist who may have committed murder, Hollingsworth works for the Bureau and is intent on breaking McCleod who is now a fugitive. Lannie has been a follower of McLeod and Guinevere has a mysterious husband who visits her from time to time.

The novel is written in the first person from the point of view of Mickey who with his amnesia represents a 'tabla rasa' for ideas. McLeod is the intellectual revolutionary, Hollingsworth works for a government intelligence agency and Lannie is a woman damaged by her past. Mickey slowly puts all this together as he finds himself a witness to the drama which unfolds in McLeod's room. Hollingsworth suspect's that McLeod has stolen something from the government and undertakes a series of gruelling interviews. McLeod describes himself as a revolutionary socialist, believing that Capitalism will destroy itself and he wants to be prepared to take advantage, but admits that:

it is the paradox of the revolutionary who seeks to create a world in which he would find it intolerable to live.

Man is only capable of founding societies based on privilege and inequality.

However the book becomes a battle of wills between Hollingsworth and McLeod with Mickey and Lannie witnessing the struggle and trying to sort out their own relationships with Guinevere. There are long speeches by McLeod justifying his position, but also wondering if the struggle has been worth the sacrifices he has made. Where does love come into all this? he asks.

In 1951 when the novel was published, some American intellectuals were reeling under the aggressive accusations from Senator McCarthy of un-American activities. Norman Mailer does not hold back in challenging what he calls state capitalism: McLeod is by no means the bad guy and the outcome seems to hinge on which side Mickey Lovett will fall. Looking back from our subsequent knowledge of the author and his viewpoint it could be argued that the two female characters and the little girl do become, kind of collateral damage with the men battling away in the room upstairs. However I do think it is a brave piece of fiction writing and Mailer creates tension in his description of the relationships, within the household, with everybody suffering during the blistering heat of summer. Politics and sexual politics are king here and the reader will judge for himself whether Mailer presents us with a naive or more nuanced view of the world. Much better than expected and so 3.5 stars.

>76 baswood: fantastic review (curious cover for such a book). Your review humanizes Mailer a little for me. I’ve been hesitant to read him. This sounds good.

>76 baswood: Love those two quotes.

Great review of Barbary Shore, Barry.

Great review of Barbary Shore. I thought I was somewhat familiar with Mailer's books, but I had never heard of that one. I was very young when I read The Naked and the Dead, but I remember being very impressed by it. I may want to do a reread at some point.

Philip K Dick - Martian Time-Slip
Published in 1964 Martian Time Slip is one of the many Philip K Dick novels in the masterwork series and I find Dick at the top of his game with this one.
It is set on the planet Mars, which has been colonised for some years, however despite the advertising life is tough. Water is strictly rationed, colonists cannot be self sufficient and so rely on expensive imports from earth. The earlier enthusiasm for a new life on a new planet is faltering despite issues of overcrowding on earth. Jack Bohlen is a repair man flying around the desolate planet patching up faltering machinery. Arnie Knott has become a powerful man in the colony and lures Jack to work for him. Jack has suffered from schizophrenia in the past and contact with a neighbours ten year old son who is currently totally uncomunicative is drawing Jack back to another bout of illness. Mars has an indigenous population (Bleekmen) something like the aborigines in Australia and the colonists confine them to the desert, however they have a latent power and can communicate with those children whose mental illness is severe in nature. There is a rumour that important mineral deposits have been discovered in the desert and speculators from earth are arriving to buy up the land. Arnie Knott believes that he can make use of the Bleekmen and the schizophrenics to beat the speculators to the land grab.

The time slip in the title of the book refers to the idea that the schizophrenics live outside of time and may have the power, when harnessed with the Bleekmen to slip backwards in time. Philip K Dick slowly reveals this narrative as he concentrates on setting out the lives of a few of the inhabitants. I enjoyed his portrayal of most of the characters especially Arnie Knott and Jack Bohlen, however it was his experiments with the narrative drive that was most eye catching. He repeats certain scenes from different points of view as though there has been a slippage of time not quite flashbacks but interruptions in the linear narrative. They are not intrusive and easy enough to follow when the reader understands what is happening. Three major themes emerge; the ravages of time on people and buildings, the colonists failure to understand or adapt to their environment and the treatment of people with severe mental illnesses.

The world building of the earlier chapters is effective enough and the characters that populate the book are believable. There is the mystery of the Bleekmen and the machinations of Arnie Knott leading to the narrative climax, this was more than enough to keep me reading as well as some interesting comments on education, loneliness and the sex lives of people living in harsh conditions. 4 stars.

>81 baswood: I've been under the impression that this was one of the Philip K Dick books that I'd already read, but reading your review and then double checking on my lists has made me realise I haven't. This seems like one of the good ones.

>82 valkyrdeath: I really enjoyed this review and it’s made me thirsty to re-read Philip K. Dick’s books again. Thank you for bringing Martian Time-Slip to my attention.

Such a great review. PKD- some day.

>81 baswood: This is a great review. I'm tempted to pick up this one and read it. I haven't really gone beyond the most well-known PKD books.

>82 valkyrdeath: >83 kjuliff: >84 dchaikin: >85 rv1988:. I have not liked everything I have read by PKD for example Counter-clock World was a particular low point.

>81 baswood:

My tags on that: sf, Mars, schizophrenia, 1960s, racist, sexist. But, ten years and I don't recall enough to pummel it properly. :) Dammit, MUST take up writing reviews!

>87 LolaWalser: sexist - yes - although there is a strong female character. racist - not so sure, anyway certainly no worse than most of the science fiction writing of that era. A certain frisson in the love/sex scenes that might have appealed to young male readers, this cannot be denied.

Writing reviews does mean less time available for reading, but is essential for me to remember anything I have read.

George Chapman - Ovid's Banquet of Sense

Last year I read Chapman's Shadow of Night consisting of two poems that celebrate the intellect and asserting the superiority of darkness over light. I enjoyed his robust style, which sets him apart from the more typical Elizabethan love sonneteers. In Ovid's Banquet of Sense (published 1595) he imagines the famous Roman classical poet Ovid, spying on a noble lady taking a bath, in a secluded pool, but here is Chapmans own introduction to the poem:

Ovid, newly enamoured of Julia, daughter to Octavius Augustus Caesar, after by him called Corinna, secretly conveyed himself into a garden of the Emperor's court, in an arbour whereof Corinna was bathing, playing upon her lute and singing ; which Ovid
overhearing was exceedingly pleased with the sweetness of her voice, and
' to himself uttered the comfort he conceived in his sense of Hearing.
Then the odours she used in her bath breathing a rich savour, he expressed the joy he felt in his sense of Smelling.
Thus growing more deeply enamoured in great contentment with himself, he ventures to see her in the pride of her nakedness ; which doing by stealth, he discovered the comfort he conceived in Seeing, and the glory of her beauty. Not yet satisfied, he useth all his art to make known his being there without her offence ; or, being necessarily offended, to appease her, which done, he entreats a kiss, to serve for satisfaction of his Taste, which he obtains. Then proceeds he to entreaty for the fifth sense, and there is interrupted.

Chapman takes the reader through the five senses; Hearing, smelling, seeing, touching, tasting. There is no doubt that this is an erotic poem, what is more questionable is Chapman's own moral message. He states in a letter to his patron that he "hates the profane multitude and only consecrates his strange poems to those searching spirits whom learning have made noble, and nobility sacred. In my opinion (he says) that with a little endeavour searched, adds a kind of majesty to poetry and is better than any cobbler might sing to his patch. Obscurity in affection for words and indigested conceits, is pedantical and childish: but where it is shroudeth itself in the heart of the subject uttered with fitness of figure and expressive epithets, with that darkness will I still labour to be shadowed". His poetry then is not going to be simple, and his introduction serves as a guide through the 117, nine line stanzas.

Ovid hears Corinna's song first of all and it is a song about love, she says that it is better to despise than to love, better to be beautiful than to be wise; it is the sight of beauty that will win over the souls of admirers rather than any intellectual sympathy. He then picks up the scent of the many unguents that Corinna is using for bathing, which delight his senses. He must see her and peers through the bushes.

Now as she lay attired in nakedness,
His eye did carve him on that feast of
feasts ; ~-
" Sweet* fields of life which Death's foot
dare not press,
Flower'd with th' unbroken waves of my
love's breasts,
Unbroke by depth of those her beauty's
floods :
See where, with bent of gold curl'd into
nests
In her head's grove, the spring-bird
lameat broods ;
Her body doth present those fields of
peace,
Where souls are feasted with the soul of
ease.

She sees his face in the bushes and he rushes over towards her, she is frightened at first, but he speaks to calm her down and then a conversation develops, where Ovid uses all his skills in seduction to beg for a kiss. Here, the poem takes on added life, a quickening, when Ovid rushes over and the two lovers engage in conversation. Corinna hesitates pointing out that she is of noble birth and far above him in the order. Ovid must use all his intellect to get what he wants and it is eventually granted. He then wants to go further and Corinna undoes the upper part of the garment so that he can feel her breasts. It is at this point in the proceedings that they are interrupted by other bathers. It has indeed been a banquet of the senses and Chapman says towards the end of the poem:

Love is a wanton famine, rich in foode,
But with a richer appetite controld,
An argument in figure and in Moode
Yet hates all arguments: disputing still
For sence, gainst Reason, with a senceless will.

George Chapman 1559-11634 was an English dramatist, translator and poet. He was a classical scholar. Chapman is best remembered for his translations of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. He is the subject of one the most famous early sonnets of John Keats On First Looking Into Chapman's Homer (you know the one that starts with 'Much have I travelled in the realms of gold'). In that sonnet Keats says he heard "Chapman speak out loud and bold". It would seem that Chapman does not do subtle, and although his poetry bears much witness to his classical background there is no toning down of the language: not so much of the polite poetic conventions that can be found in most Elizabethan poets. We are back in the world of Christopher Marlow. I enjoyed my read of The Banquet of Sense, the poet does take us on some deviations, his meaning is not always clear and the syntax can be clumsy, but it is poetry full of life and I loved it - 5 stars.

>88 baswood: The racist label may have been applied because of the writer’s use of the N-word. I was quite surprised when I heard it. Perhaps it was edited out in your version? I took the use of the N-word as ignorance but certainly it’s dicey as the book was published in the sixties. Dick should have known better.

Or perhaps it was made because of the depiction of the indigenous Martians. I didn’t get it there, as he is not describing Earth-born or real humans, and it is SciFi.

As for the sexism, I haven’t seen any overt sexism yet but I’m only a few chapters in. I don’t have my sexism radar on for SciFi books as they are pretend, and until recently many men didn’t even know what sexism meant.

As for writing reviews - I also need to write them if I am to be able to remember details of what I’ve read.

>89 baswood: what a great experience. Loved your review

Ovid was a baldy with a pelican-sized honker, him chasing girls to feel them up is like something out of Brothers Marx.

<92 Ha ha

>92 LolaWalser: Lucky for me, I was away the day they did Classics. :)

Publius "The Schnozz" Ovidius, with rug :p

>95 LolaWalser: 😊

>95 LolaWalser: awe, come now, he was cute.

>81 baswood: Am I remembering correctly that Martian Time-Slip was the one where a hopeful moment of connection near the end was symbolized by the offer and acceptance of a cigarette? I remember thinking it was effectively done. But maybe I hallucinated it. My recollections of PKD were that he was often all over the place, but often fascinating.

>98 Jim53: yes that is the one. PKD was in the business of writing in the pulp science fiction market and so not all of his published books are going to be great. I recently read his Counter Clock World published in 1967 which was an expanded short story and it was a bit of a car crash. it started well enough, but became almost unreadable.

>89 baswood: Wonderful review. I'm familiar with Chapman's Homer; I hadn't heard of this book before.

>100 rv1988: Chapmans translations of Homer are on my to read list

Laurine Roux - Sur l'epaule des géants
Laurine Roux won the Alexandre-Vialatte for this novel published in 2022. The prize is awarded for a french language author for the elegance of writing, a vivacity of thoughts and a pleasure for the reader. That may be the case, but I struggled a bit more than usual reading this book in french. It is a story of four generations of the family Aghulon told by Gabriel a surviving member of the family at the time of the covid pandemic. It is a story of a family touched by greatness throughout their span of living either from their own abilities or through the people they meet, or with whom they socialise. There are elements of magic realism, supplied mainly by the generations of philosophising cats who sometimes help the family in times of crisis.

The story starts with Barthélmy a young man interested in science who becomes a pupil of Louis Pasteur, and participates in the science of pasteurisation. His son Jacques horribly mutilated in the first world war uses this knowledge to make a fine wine from the families vineyard which becomes the toast of Paris. His sister Marguerite lives with their relations who own a restaurant in Paris; a beautiful and intelligent woman who with the help of her cat Socrates locates Jaques who has shut himself away in a flat, somewhere in Paris, because of his cruel injuries. Marguerite lives to the age of 107 and becomes the backbone of the family, in her youth while working in the restaurant she has her portrait sketched by Picasso and becomes associated through her art with Diaghilev. The family loses the restaurant after Marguerite's husband Audran, an anthropologist, is tricked by Stavisky the infamous swindler. Their daughter Rose becomes a famous classical pianist and the family retire to the family home in the South of France where Jaques is still making his famous wine to sit out the second word war.

The charm of the book is the way historical event brush or sometimes overwhelm this talented family. The elements of magical realism are not too intrusive and add to the enchantment of the story telling. I warmed to the book the more I read through and so 3.5 stars.

When COVID came around, that was how you could tell someone had read Ovid—they pronounced the virus name with the soft "o."

That's about all I got, but these are great reviews to catch up on, Barry. Makes me really want to reread some Carson McCullers, in particular—I was a fan in high school and college, but haven't revisited any of her work since.

Add me to the list of folks in whom you've inspired a desire to get back to McCullers.

Tatiana de Rosnay - Spirales
The next book on the Library shelves was Spirals by Tatiana de Rosnay. A french author of popular fiction who has also more recently written a couple of novels in English A Secret Kept and The House I Loved. She sells a lot of books.

Spirales is written in the third person from the point of view of Helen: a 50 year old woman, very attractive and well liked in her community of rich bourgeoise in Paris. Her husband is an editor in a publishing house and appears on television from time to time. Helen does not work herself but helps out at a creche and makes visits to the elderly and infirm, her son nicknames her Saint Helen. A hot summers day in Paris finds Helen on a visit to a sick relative, she passes an apartment block and is propositioned by a man; for the only time in her life she is tempted and goes into his apartment, where she has rough, painful sex, but thinks it is the best sex she has ever had. (yes its that sort of novel). She ends up pinned to the bed with the man lying heavily on top of her, she struggles free and realises that he has died, she panics, gathers herself together and rushes out to her car and the safety of her home. Later that evening while she and her husband are entertaining a client she receives a call from the police requesting that she come to the station because her purse and identity card have been found in the bedroom of a dead man. She goes with her husband and claims that her purse was stolen and she knows nothing about the dead man. Her story is accepted, but some weeks later a young woman turns up on her doorstep, saying she knows Helen has lied.......................

Everything is in place then for a psychological thriller which sees the world through the eyes of a rich, basically decent woman whose life could easily spiral out of control because of one reckless sexual encounter. A good woman from a good family who has encountered an immigrant (the man was Serbian) and her blackmailers are youngsters without 'papers'. The book does have a bit of the feel of 'keeping the barbarians outside the city gates'. Helen comes to realise this and so cannot confide in her friends or her husband. This is not an original story and it is weighted in favour of the reader feeling sympathy for Helen's situation, although her lack of courage might give pause for thought. Efficiently written and 3 stars.

>105 baswood: I read de Rosnay's novel Sarah's Key some years ago, but wasn't overly impressed and haven't been moved to read anything else by her.

Robert Coover - Gerald's Party (1985)
Phew! this took some reading, but I didn't give up and struggled through till the end. Somewhere in an American city a rich guy throws a party. It is probably in a city where movie people hang out; perhaps Hollywood. These are party regulars and Gerald and his wife are on the party circuit. Nothing phases Gerald who narrates the events in painstaking detail:

None of us noticed the body at first. Not until Roger came through asking if we'd seen Ros.

It is Ros who is laying on the floor still bleeding from a knife sticking out of her chest. Somebody calls the cops, but the party goes on; everybody is out on their feet. It seems that all the men at the party have had sex with Ros at some time and tales are told. Inspector Pardew arrives looking like something out of a 1930's movie and starts his investigation and it is only when he removes the knife and hands it round for the partygoers to look at, that I realised this was going to be a blacker than black comedy. Roger hopelessly infatuated with Ros stumbles back into the room and throws himself on top of Ros: he has to be dragged off the body. The investigation goes on, more cops arrive Ros's clothes are removed pictures are taken and someone wants to re-create the crime scene, meanwhile Gerald has the hots for Allison and is searching the house to find her, while his wife is calmly preparing more food or clearing up the mess.

Gerald is constantly interrupted; either in his search for Allison or dealing with other issues. People are arriving, blocking doorways, having sex in various rooms, Geralds young son is wandering around and a teenage girl is desperately wanting to have sex with Gerald, the upstairs toilette is blocked and one of the women can't stop poohing, people are trying to clean her up. There are more murders and something is going on in the basement, but Gerald can't get down there. He lurches from one crisis to another never managing to see anything through. His house is wrecked, people are stealing things and he hardly bats an eye and one of the cops hands him a gun to finish off one of the guests who has been shot, but is taking too long to die.

The party seems to go on forever; 330 pages of forever and I found it an exhausting read. There are graphic descriptions of bodily functions and different types of sexual intercourse, police brutality of course and extreme drunk behaviour. I get the black comedy and the irony of rich people behaving very badly and in many ways it is a brave and technically impressive novel which sometimes lurches into social commentary, but just not for me and so 3 stars.

>107 baswood: I really enjoyed reading this review of Geralds Party, a book I’ll never read. Your review drew me right into the book, and I could sense your exhaustion of seeing it through to the end. I guess you felt the relief and sense of achievement and closure when you put the final full stop on your review. Or am I projecting?

>108 kjuliff: Yes you are right, I felt relief - it was like coming up fo air after a near drowning (in a sewer) experience.

Excellent review. Now I hope you can recover. It maybe doesn’t sound like a book to read sober.

Coover is one of those emblematic faves of briny, aged edgelords, in a sequence that begins with Bukowski, snakes past the dimmed lights of Kingsley Amis and J. P. Donleavy, and ends with Alexander Theroux and Paul West.

I could kick them in the shins with unabated pleasure as the day is long.

Gladys Mitchell - The Devil's Elbow
A murder mystery story published in 1951 which I enjoyed more before the murder mystery plot kicked in. Gladys Mitchell was an English writer mainly of detective novels. She was considered in the 1930's as one of the big three female detective novelists, the other two being Agatha Christie and Dorothy L Sayers. She wrote 65 novels featuring her amateur polymathic psychoanalyst Mrs Bradley and Devil's Elbow was one of them. It would seem she is far less fashionable now as most of her books are out of print.

The novel starts with a narrative of a two weeks coach trip around Scotland, starting in London. It has been gathered from a series of letters written by the courier young Dan Jeffries to his girlfriend Em. It is a lively account describing all of the 31 passengers and the various stopping off points on the way up to the Scottish highlands. Miss Pratt one of a number of spinster passengers is the person who makes the most trouble for the likeable Dan Jeffries and it is she who is murdered following a tortuous journey over the Devil's Elbow. An investigation is launched and Mrs Bradley is called in to assist two detectives one English and one Scottish. The narrative turns to the third person at this point as Mrs Bradley guides the investigation and starts to sift the clues. Young Jeffries first person account resumes when he embarks on a boys own adventure involving motor boats and smuggling, which has been instigated by Mrs Bradley. The novel ends with Mrs Bradley solving the mystery, ahead of the two detectives who are left floundering in her wake.

The novel is well written and entertaining, but there are 31 suspects, which was far too many to hold this reader's interest and so when the big reveal was made it all felt a bit of a let down. I had to re-read a bit of it to see If I had missed anything; to aficionado's of murder mysteries it might have hit the mark. There are some strong female characters, but sexist attitudes are in keeping with the early 1950's, it became apparent that the problems caused by Miss Pratt were because of her pestering of the male passengers.
I enjoyed being plunged back into a 1950's coach trip with all the petty foibles of the passengers and the remarks and expressions typical of the period - 3 stars.

>112 baswood: There’s a new Australia book out called Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect. It’s set on the Ghan - an actual train that that runs `3,000 km between Adelaide and Darwin. It was originally called the Afghan Express after the pioneering Afghan camels used in the early days of white settlement.

It’s a new take on the locked-room golden-age murder mystery. It’s probably terrible but I might read it for fun and to assuage my occasional homesickness.

>112 baswood: Another great cover, and the book sounds like fun.

Wright Morris - Man and Boy
My latest plunge into the archives of books published in 1951 has come up with Man and Boy by Wright Morris. It is perhaps the strangest novel from that year that I have read. Not because of its content or its flirtation with experimental writing, but just because of its feeling of oddball people and oddball behaviour. One wonders if readers were expected to believe that such characters were the norm in America at that time.

The book is really of novella length and alternate chapters carry the point of view of Mr Ormsby and Mother. They are retired and Mr Ormsby is starting his day as usual at the bec and call of Mother, who is actually his wife. They had a son Virgil referred to as the boy, but he was killed in the second world war at Guadalcanal. Mother no longer finds it necessary to speak to Mr Ormsby apart from calling for him and writes a series of notes that amount to tasks for the day. Mother is an expert on wild birds and from time to time lectures to interested groups. Mr Ormsby does not go out much spending his time catering to Mother. Mother has received a notification from the American Navy that they are about to name a boat after their son for his heroic service in the war. Mr Ormsby must find his old travelling bag which has been mouldering in the loft for many years. They take the train and Mr Ormsby sits apart from his wife, next to a service man; private Lupido. A strange conversation about the candling of eggs ensues. Lupido is described as having an overlarge head and a boyish face and easily takes offence. Mr Ormsby invites him to come along with them to the commemoration service at the Brooklyn naval yard. The novel features strong female characters whose command and energy contrasts with the rather foolish men in their life.

Wright Morris was an American novelist, photographer and essayist and according to Wikipedia was known for his portrayals of people and artifacts of the Great Plains. His most read novels were The field of Vision 1956 and Plains Song: for female voices 1980. Man and boy with its rather curious perspective of the dominant female and its sense of characters isolated from the rest of the world, holds the readers attention. We are immediately immersed in the odd, ironic, humorous world created by Wright Morris to the extant that we don't question its existence. It is a rather slight novel, but I enjoyed it well enough 3 stars.

>115 baswood: A strange conversation about the candling of eggs ensues. .

This seems an oddball novel Baswood. I am enjoying your reviews of these 1951 books.

The cover of Gerard's Party was tempting but I'm glad to have your review so I'll avoid a bad time. That definitely sounds exhausting.

Glad for the reminder of Gladys Mitchell, even if that's not the book to start with. I remember really enjoying the Mrs. Bradley mini-series with Diana Rigg.

Fun review. Sadly you’re the only review on the page. The poor book has been neglected. I had to google candling.

Marie-Sabine Roger - Bon rétablissement (Good recovery)
A man wakes up in hospital in plaster from head to foot and with various tubes attached to some complicated looking machinery. He is told that he must stay immobile for some time to aid his recovery. He vaguely remembers falling from a bridge over the river Seine in Paris. This is not the start of a mystery thriller but a very humane story of recovery from a serious accident.

Jean-Pierre Fabre is 67 years old, he is a widower and currently lives alone in an apartment in Paris. Marie-Sabine Roger writes about his painful and slow recovery from the accident. He is visited by the police who want to establish wether it was a suicide attempt and learns that he was dragged to safety by a young student who happened to be passing by. He adapts to the pace of life in the hospital, the visits of the surgeon and his entourage, the girl who comes to empty his waste fluid, the nurse who attends to his general health. He certainly has time on his hands and a whole new small world to get used to. He thinks about his life, and we learn it has not been exemplary, while he has not been cruel he has certainly been self possessed and was a tear-away when a teenager. His male chauvinism runs deep and he slowly comes to terms with making new relationships with the people that work in the hospital. When he is able, he starts to write his thoughts down on his lap-top, but then must cope with the young ward orderly who claims use of his computer. He meets the student who pulled him out of the river, a gay youth turning tricks to get himself through college. Jean-Pierre adapts to these new relationships in his life, sometimes wittily, sometimes cringe worthy, but increasingly with more compassion.

The novel has moments of wry humour, some thoughts on the quality of life, with death not too far away, but always from Jean-Pierres point of view. The success of this book is that it puts the reader in bed with John-Pierre, which is by no means a comfortable place to be. It has to be said that the book is also an endorsement of the health service in France. John-Pierre usually has a room to himself, the workers in the hospital are quietly efficient and everything runs smoothly, there is no lack of care or attention, in fact too much attention from John-Pierres point of view.

The book only covers John-Pierre's stay in hospital and so we don't know if his experience had a lasting effect, but from actions that he takes towards the end of his recovery, we suspect he leaves a wiser person than when he was brought in. Philosophical thoughts are not overdone, as the novel concentrates on the here and now, while allowing memories of John-Pierres earlier life to colour his thoughts, while inactive in his hospital bed. A good novel and four stars.

>119 baswood: That sounds interesting, Barry!

>119 baswood: What motivated to read this little gem?

>121 kjuliff: It was the next book on the library shelf

>122 baswood: Makes life simple. Do you choose your music the same way? ;-)

>107 baswood: I read a book by Coover, The Origin of the Brunists, and gave it 2 stars!

>124 dianeham: He is not our favourite then
>123 kjuliff: Funny you should sat that - but yes

>115 baswood:
I have read several books from the 1950s or early 60s that were quaint, and I enjoyed them for it.

>125 baswood: I was pretty sure of it.

The Goddess of Atvatabar - William Richard Bradshaw

A fantasy novel published in 1892, which has been largely forgotten, but is an interesting addition to a genre which can be described as proto science fiction novels of the Victorian era. William Richard Bradshaw only wrote this one fantasy novel and little is known about the author, but this book lavishly produced with illustrations by eight different artists is something quite extraordinary. It has to be said though, that it does have its longueurs and takes some concentration to stick with it till the end.

It is an inner world novel, following in the footsteps of The Journey of Neils Klim's to the World Underground by Ludvig Holberg and more relevantly Symzonia by Adam Seaborn in 1820. Commander White and his handpicked crew of scientists and adventurers are searching for the fabled North West passage, determined to go further north than all previous exploration. After battering a passage through an ice wall they find an arctic sea and a passage to another world under the earth. They name this new world Plutusia and discover that because of it low gravity they can leap prodigiously; two human like men flying with the aid of metal wings approach their boat and are easily captured. They learn from these two the rudiments of the civilisation and sail on to meet the governing body. They find a near utopian civilisation and are welcomed as honoured guests.

The continent that they discover has been at peace for over 100 years and the people pride themselves on the scientific progress that they have made. Inventors, scientists are revered as god like figures. They have electricity and battery power which is used for winged transport. Huge metal, robot like machines provide transport overland. They have a king and governing body that are both elected on democratic principles. Commander White learns that there is also a mystical element to the civilisation, there is a living goddess who has her own magnificent city where can be found a priesthood made up of magicians, sorcerers and their acolytes, who in their search for Nirvana have achieved wonderful things. White is anxious to meet the goddess Lyone and has no trouble in gaining an audience. Lyone tells White that :

"By degrees, as the pride and power of the wealthy few were curbed and the condition of the masses raised to a more uniform and juster level, universal prosperity, growing rapidly richer, produced a fusion of art and progress. The physical man made powerful by science and the soul developed by art naturally produced the result of spiritual freedom. The enfranchised soul became free to explore the mysteries of nature and obtain a mastery over the occult forces residing therein."

The mastery over occult forces has enabled powerful sorcerers to create their own worlds and the power for this is provided by what they term as ideal love. The huge congregation surrounding Lyone are focused on merging twin souls in two bodies. Male and females come together in a sort of ecstasy of unrequited love, physical desire is encouraged and harnessed by the priesthood, but partners are not allowed to indulge in the forbidden fruit of sex. White is a witness to one of these extraordinary non sexual orgies which are interrupted when a couple are brought up to the dais accused of fornication: they are separately imprisoned for life. White falls in love and lust with Lyone which results in a challenge to the priesthood and leads to conflict and war. White launches a military campaign against the king which divides the country into civil war; tremendous battles are fought in the gravity less atmosphere 50 miles above the earth.

The book has elements of science fiction and fantasy, there is adventure and some good story telling, with the quasi religious, mystical elements amounting to something quite original. There is also however plenty of rather detailed descriptions of pageantry, of fine clothing and perfect manners; everybody behaves like a gentleman apart from the villains. There is certainly some repetition and the quality of the writing is only adequate. The illustrations are of mixed quality, but some are very fine indeed. A mixed bag then, but for the patient reader there is enough to merit 3.5 stars.

I think i’ll pass, but entertaining terrific review.

>128 baswood: I liked the idea of the “enfranchised soul”.

Georges Simenon - Pietr-le-letton
After reading a number of Maigret novels I was curious to read the first one that Simenon wrote, which was Pietr-le-letton. According to my Tout Maigret omnibus, it was not the first of his detective novels that was published, it was one of the eight published in 1931, but this one was written in 1929. It is the first of a long series and people do like to start from the beginning: 1,151 members of LT own the book and there are 57 reviews.

In this stirring tale there are three murders, one being a policeman. Maigret himself is shot, but refuses to stop his hunt for the killers. He is described as a large powerful man and it is his dogged pursuit and solitary stake-outs that are the key to solving the mystery of Pietr-le-letton. The action takes place in tempest like conditions and Jules Maigret is soaked by rain water, by sea water and his own blood. He travels to the seaside port of Fécamp and prowls around the Jewish quarter, all fairly grim in the appalling weather. This is a far cry from later novels that I have read, where Maigret barely leaves his house or the prefecture. In this early incarnation he loves his wood stove that is the centre piece of his office and his pipe is rarely out of his mouth. He is a keen observer of peoples actions and reactions and his interviewing technique is already honed to a fine art. He is already drinking copiously, but horror of horrors we learn that he does not like champagne.

Of course it is fascinating to read a crime novel from the early 1930's when detective work and communications were so different; Maigret relied on people to run errands for him and to deliver messages. The train was used for long journeys and so the pace of detective work was carried out in accordance with train timetables. It was easier for detectives to cut corners, to pressure witnesses and to work on their own and all of this suited Maigret. This early novel has plenty of action and some good dialogue and reflects the suspicion of strangers from Germany and Eastern Europe. The mystery is well wrapped up: 4 stars and onto the next one.

>131 baswood: With increasing rapid advances in technology it’s becoming distracting to read, or even watch films set in 20thC life. I find myself looking for old ways of doing things - like picking up a phone - in films and consciously comparing how people did things with how we do functionally similar things today.

Yesterday I saw a clip of a film where the actor was using a rotary phone and started thinking of those button phones, and how phones were once all black. I find myself dating the decade instead of watching the film itself. Maybe that’s just my IT background.

Of course this is only the case with 20th century books and films. I wouldn’t start thinking about tech when reading a Dickens novel. Actually I don’t read Dickens ….

Interesting about the technologies. I seem to always be surprised how much technology was available in 1920’s and 1930’s.

And, Bas, it was nice to read review of Maigret‘s entry into literature. Sounds like a fun book to read.

>128 baswood: This is such a great review, and especially in light of our discussion on 'forgotten authors' at the Questions for readers thread.

Yasmina Reza - Heureux les heureux
This was the next novel on the library shelf. Yasmina Reza is a French playwright, actress, novelist and screen writer and according to wiki many of her brief satiric plays have reflected on middle-class issues. Her novel Heureux les heureux focuses on a similar strata of french society although more to the upper middle class. This is a novel about people who seemingly have no money problems and are at at peace with their place in the social strata, but are they happy? It would appear not.

Reza focuses on nineteen people who each get a short chapter each (a couple of them get two chapters) and they tell their stories about their hopes and fears mainly concerned with relationships. We meet Robert Toscano in the first chapter; he is in the supermarket with his wife Odile, she has sent him off to join the queue for the cheese and when he returns, she turns sharply on him, because he has chosen the wrong cheese for the evening, he offers to change it, but the queue is too long. From this small incident an argument develops between the two of them and the bickering hints at more serious problems. Odile has her own chapter later in the book which explores her relationships with her children. The other 17 people have connections with the Toscano's or friends and acquaintances of them. Characters appear in each others stories that shed more light on their situations, sometimes giving a completely different view. There is no central plot or story line, but an oncologist and a psychoanalyst at the nearby hospital provide some nucleus.

The people featured are mostly in the 40-60 year old age ranges, having enough experience to provide partial reflections on their life and hopes for the future. It is Paris and so there are liaisons between couples, mostly heterosexual which seem to be part of the fabric of life in the city. It seems to do nobody much harm, no great dramas, but it does get to the nub of this book, which is that these people are lonely. Many are alone within their relationships. it is Chantal Audouin who is the mistress of a cabinet minister who states it most baldly; she is alone in a world of couples, but she sees many couples alone with each other. In her story the cabinet ministers wife discovers messages between the lovers on her phone and she arranges a meeting with Chantal. The wife says that her husband does this sort of thing all the time, she knows of three other current mistresses and hopes that Chantal has not got too involved.

There are no paragraphs in the text which is only divided by the chapter headings. The conversations are contained within the bloc text, which gives a feeling of a stream of consciousness. It is the sort of a book where it is useful, although not essential to keep a list of the characters as they appear and reappear. It is cleverly done as it searches out the interiority of the lives of this group of people and makes for a fascinating reading experience. I thought it was very good and rate it at 4 stars.

>135 baswood: Great review, and you've got me interested. I didn't know Reza wrote novels as well as plays. The escalating argument seems to be a recurring theme in her work.

Dimitri Rouchon-Borie - Le chien des étoiles
Acclaimed french author and journalist Dimitri Rouchon-Borie's latest book was the next one on the shelf of my local library and it is probably a book I would not have read, had I relied on the blurb on the back cover. It is a very dark imaginary tale written in somewhat brutal language that treads a fine line between a folk tale and a horror story. Not an easy book to read with its oral, vernacular style presenting some problems for this reader.

The story takes place in an unnamed country and epoch which could be after some dystopian event has caused a breakdown in technology. Gio has just come out of hospital after a six month stay, probably following a pitched battle between two rival gipsy families. He suffered a screwdriver in his scalp which has left a vivid scar as well as some alteration to his mental outlook. He lives in a caravan with mother and father, a teenage girl who earns her keep by sexual favours and a younger brother Papillion. There is a sense of the inevitability of retribution for the injury, but Gio is more interested in the natural world and his sense of wonderment when looking up at the night sky: he sees himself wandering amongst the stars. Gio is a giant of a young man and when the return battle takes place he becomes disorientated and grabs his brother and the teenage girl and leads them off into the forest. They hitch a ride on a train where Papillion stabs to death a hobo who tries to rape the girl. They get off the train when it stops at a town referred to as the capital and must eke out an existence amongst the ne'er-do-wells in the poor quarter. Gio's size and stature and his talent for managing horses earn them a place in a criminal gang and the teenage girl comes under the protection of a matriarchal figure, while Papillion can indulge his talent for artistic display. Gio continues to have his head in the stars and Papillon's inclination to violence means that the three have a precarious existence and it is no surprise when Gio takes to the road again...........

Doom and foreboding lead to the inevitable violent climax and while the harshness of the language seems to fight against the wonders of Gio's visions, there is no doubt in the power of the writing. It is an atmospheric book that left an impression on this reader, however if there is any moral or significance to the events that unfold then they were lost on me. An interesting reading experience which I would rate at 3 stars.

Always interesting, Bas.

Peter Carey - The Tax Inspector
The Catchprices; a lowlife Australian family all of whom have been sexually abused by their father. They run a second hand car sales business out of some urban sprawl industrial area on the outskirts of Sidney. They are being investigated by Maria Takis a heavily pregnant tax office official. The abusive father is dead, his 86 year old wife Frieda still lives with the family and carries around a block of gelignite in her handbag. The youngest son Benny; lives in a filthy basement below the workshops and is mentally disturbed, Vish his elder brother has become a member of the local Hare Krishna group while Cathy the eldest daughter is a member of a Country music band, but feels tied to the business and dares not go on the road. Its all bat shit crazy.

The story follows Maria's three day investigation. It is obvious that Cathy and her husband Howie have been fiddling their tax returns. Maria the tax inspector is resentful at having to investigate such a crummy enterprise, she is used to dealing with much smarter and richer operators. Benny wants to fuck Maria, Frieda wants to blow up the business, Vish does not want to get drawn back into the nightmare family, Uncle Jack a successful property dealer appears on the scene and fall in love with Maria, Sarkis desperate for a job is hired by Frieda and is tortured by Benny, resentful at being fired by his sister: the craziness goes on and on and on..................................

The plot builds to a violent crescendo and although I get that this is a satire of sorts, it is written so graphically and exuberantly; with enough realism that makes it seem all too feasible for this reader. It is certainly not a good take on Australia or on humanity as a whole and for me it felt like the author was enjoying a little too much the shit show that he was depicting. Ugh not for me, but three stars for the quality of the writing.

>139 baswood: Peter Carey can be tiresome at times.

I love Peter Carey, but that one might just be a bit much for me

I have often picked up books by Yasmina Reza but was not persuaded to buy them. Seeing them around more and more and your review I may eventually try reading a book by this author.

I really enjoyed your review and expected you to say how much you enjoyed reading it. 🙂 But there are other Carey’s to read.

>143 dchaikin: I have still got Carey's True History of the Kelly Gang on my shelf to read, but I am concerned that this will be another opportunity for Carey to indulge in his love of violence.

>143 dchaikin: I could never understand why his Oscar and Lucinda was so well-received. I found it dull.

>144 baswood: I really liked The True History of the Kelly Gang. He's sticking largely to the historical record. There is, of course, violence, but it didn't seem indulgent or excessive to me. The caveat is that it's been several years since I read this book.

An old CR member sent me Carey’s My Life as a Fake several years ago (like 2010-ish). I enjoyed it.

Nicholas Mosley - Look at the Dark
In my continuing search for books published in 1951, I had Nicholas Mosley's "Spaces of the Dark" on my list and gleefully turned up on the net a copy of Look at the Dark. I started reading and it was perhaps on the third page that the seemingly autobiographical author was concerning himself with being "politically correct". Was there such a thing in 1951 I wondered? A quick flip back to the front of the book revealed that I was reading Look at the Dark published in 2005 and not Spaces of the Dark 1951. I was enjoying the style of writing and so carried on with a feeling of being set free from my list addiction.

Look at the Dark is not an autobiography: it is a novel written in the first person. An elderly man popular on television as a pundit and an anthropologist by trade, receives a grant for a lecture tour in America. On his first night in New York, he is run over by a truck and his wallet is stolen. He wakes up in a hospital bed and has all the time in the world to think about his past life; along with how he is going to pay his hospital bill. He traces back his life with his two wives and occasional lovers. His first wife has married again and is now living in America, her current husband is extremely rich, having made money from new technology; he has dark, right wing conspiracy theories about the state of the world and the narrator wonders if the accident he has suffered was a botched assassination. The narrator does not only think about the partners in his life, but also if he, himself has served any useful purpose. He is joking about the assassination attempt, but his view of the world is the other side of the spectrum, his son works for an aid agency and his step daughter is working with poor people in Jerusalem. He himself made arrangements to help a young woman flee from Iran when the Shah was in power, but did not pass up the opportunity to take her virginity. He is on good terms with his wife and ex-wife, who seem to be prepared to indulge his whimsical view on life, but the accident has set his cogs whirring.

Flashes of conversations with friends and colleagues come back to him. Circular arguments are reiterated with the narrator either saying "I see" or admitting that he doesn't know. The question of what differentiates us from animals keeps cropping up, with thoughts like:

'one of the main differences is that humans have a compulsion, to accuse to blame, to demand retribution and the power of language is only used as a tool for humans to deceive one another. Perhaps the best thing would be for humans to be killed off and another species be given a chance to develop.'

No problems are solved from his hospital bed, nor are they when his wife comes to collect him, but the narrator realises he is running out of time.

The book has undeniable charm, the circular nature of some of the arguments are brief and amusing, even if they are those that might be uttered by a wealthy upperclass British subject. We never learn his name, but we do learn of his struggles to make a place for himself in the hierarchy and in other peoples lives. The narrator can afford to be humorous and if the reader is happy with this approach then it is an enjoyable read 3.5 stars.

Is it this Mosley?
Nicholas Mosley, 3rd Baron Ravensdale, MC, FRSL, was a British peer, novelist and biographer, including that of his father, Sir Oswald Mosley, the founder of the British Union of Fascists. Wikipedia

>149 kjuliff: Yes thats the Nicholas Mosley

>148 baswood: A happy accident and intriguing book. I wonder how much the shadow of Oswald hung over him as he wrote it, and if the "politically correct" was an attempt at a partial correction.

I'm sure I'm reading too much into this!

>151 SassyLassy: This is from wiki:
In 1983, two years after his father's death, Lord Ravensdale published Beyond the Pale: Sir Oswald Mosley and Family 1933–1980 in which he proved to be a harsh critic of his father.

My reading has slowed down in March this year, because I have been spending more time sorting out the garden and the vegetable patch. This work does not usually start until the end of March, but this year everything is three weeks early, no doubt because of climate change.

Ugh, British aristocracy... vive la guillotine!

Happy gardening, bas. We too are having freakish weather -- a warm winter and now, in spring, the first real snowfall.

Lola Olufemi - Experiments in Imagining Otherwise.
A book from the London Review of Books list of 100 books to read in the next ten years, which was selected by Ali Smith. Lola Olufemi is a young black feminist writer and thinker who says near the beginning of her treatise

"I am trying to shake you so that you wake up ready. You are going to have to give something up and it will not be easy. Some of us are not ready for narrative disruption. We will have to be pulled kicking and screaming, from this world and its falsities."

An anti-fascist, anti-capitalist political essay that was like a breath of fresh air (or perhaps even a cold shower) after my usual reading selection which is based on Elizabethan literature or books published in 1951 - you know literature written mostly by dead white males.

This is a book that is looking towards the future and attempts to break away from the past. The archive of past history and literature shapes our future thinking to such an extent it fixes us in a groove from which it is difficult to extricate ourselves. Olufemi intersperses her thoughts with anecdotes of struggles against oppression and authority, mainly struggles of the very recent past for example the squatted self management centre at 121 Railton road in Lambeth, London where the squatters were eventually evicted after a long struggle. Olufemi shows a sketch of an incident during the confrontation and asks what do we see? How was it reported in the press?

A clue to the book is the word experiments in the title. There are lists, poems, redacted copy, spaces for the reader to write their own thoughts, but above all it is the freshness of the thinking, a positiveness in the face of the world that in Olufemi's view needs revolutionising: she wants us to imagine otherwise. She tells an imaginary tale near the end of the book of a group of children who grow to a certain age and then transform into birds and fly away. This group rebel against that prospect, but doing nothing is not the answer because they always transform into birds. They attempt to transform into other animals and have some success, but eventually they transform again into birds. One particular girl perhaps more determined than the rest has worked hard against transforming, but when the time comes feathers start to grow on her body. The other girls group around her holding her down, but it was no use. In desperation they torched their school, burn down the workshops and challenge their commitment to the Boss, The Law, The State and it was only then that the girl fell back to earth, because they had cut their ties. A theme throughout the book is that a collective approach to change is a possible way forward. Individualism is closely linked to the capitalist world structure and the last thing that is needed is more leaders. There should not be one voice, but many voices which should be heard.

Other themes that flow throughout the text are: art and culture, equality, activism and climate change, but it is above all a challenge to the way politics suppresses lives and feelings. The author says:

I keep reminding myself that this book is not finished; I could always add something to it. I could always pick the stitches and seams until the thing falls apart, ready to be assembled again.

It is that kind of book, one that can be dipped into, perhaps one that the reader can pull apart and add their own thoughts. Well worth a read if you have the slightest interest in the future of this planet. 4 stars.

>154 baswood:

I like the sound of that. Is that Ali Smith list accessible somewhere?

>154 baswood: Ali Smith got to choose 5 of the 100 books and they are:
Ali Smith
After Midnight by Irmgard Keun, translated by Anthea Bell
Radical Attention by Julia Bell

Experiments in Imagining Otherwise by Lola Olufemi 

Inventory of a Life Mislaid by Marina Warner 

Scary Monsters by Michelle de Kretser

The full list is here https://www.librarything.com/topic/347513#n8333583
Post no 239

Omg, so many head scratchers... and straight-up junk. White girls, chosen twice, is garbage. Als is one of those insufferable gay men who think queerness gives them a free pass on misogyny, and race to all sorts of "un-PC" hijinks. But then maybe I'm prejudiced against someone who consistently refers to Virginia Woolf as "Suicide Bitch".

Plato's Republic, the Bible, the Qur'an... gag... Stoner, the book tailored to the average English major's taste, produced by someone with a Strunk & White's suppository shoved up his ass.

But there's some okay stuff there. I see why you zeroed in on Ali Smith's choices.

By the way, you can link directly to the posts of interest, click More (on that post), then Link, then copy the url:

https://www.librarything.com/topic/347513#8238121

>154 baswood: Always a fan of authors who present more cooperative approaches to life. Nice review.
I see Olufemi had her own five authors on the list.

P H Newby - A Season in England
P H Newby anyone? Not the most popular author on LibraryThing. He was however the winner of the first Booker prize inaugurated in 1969, with his 1968 novel Something to Answer For. Few of his 22 other novels appear to have been read recently, but I picked up his 1951 novel A Season in England, which held my attention right to the end.

Tom Passmore has been invalided out of the British army after traces of TB had been found in his blood after a fever. He finds a job as an academic in the University of Cairo and becomes fascinated by the country of Egypt. He finds it difficult to make friends, but strikes up a friendship with Tom Nash a fellow academic. Nash also struggles with friends, but Passmore gets invited home for dinner and becomes infatuated with Nash's young Greek wife Renée. Nash and Renée seem an unlikely couple, while Renée is strong and purposeful, Nash is weak and secretive. Tom Nash catches Typhoid, but before he dies he tells Passmore that he fears for Renée, because his estranged parents do not know he has married and she will find it difficult to live in Cairo because of their financial situation. When Nash dies Passmore asks Renée to marry him but she refuses. Passmore has the summer holidays to himself and he decides to go back to England with the intention of telling Nash's parent about the existence of a wife. Nash's parents are elderly and reclusive and they frighten Passmore a little especially when they seem to want Passmore to replace their estranged son. Passmore hesitates to tell them about Renée, but that decision is taken away from him when Renée arrives at the house. Passmore is completely out of his depth, when a merry-go-round of alliances develop in the household. Passmore still wants to marry Renée, but she thinks he is a bigger fool than her deceased husband.

The setting of the novel is towards the end of the second world war but life in the big house belonging to the Nashes feels few effects, Mr and Mrs Nash are an odd couple with Mrs Nash desperate to replace her lost son and Mr Nash worried about doing the right thing. It is a psychological novel that plays on the taught feelings within the household that become stretched to breaking point. P H Newby draws his characters well and leads them a merry dance. The woman are far stronger than the men, who are mostly clueless in understanding what is happening. It is by no means a comedy, but certainly Newby is holding up his characters to a certain amount of ridicule. Guilt, love and pride are some of the themes that run though this novel, which depicts well a social class and milieu that existed towards the end of the war in England. A good novel of its time 3.5 stars.

>160 baswood: Reminds me of the The Alexandria Quartet for some reason, though I read those books a hundred years ago.

Frederic Brown - What Mad Universe
Written in 1949, but I read the 1951 published novel and if this is cheating a bit I am glad I did because this was a great read. Brown was a master of the short story form that was the backbone of the 1940's pulp fiction craze. This was one of his few novel length stories and his hero Keith WInton is a pulp fiction short story writer. He can knock out a story in a coupler of hours of hard pounding on his typewriter. He collects three or four stories and hocks them around the various magazine publishers, he is an established name in the business and so he has little difficulty in getting his stories accepted, counting on a 50-50 success rate. He writes mostly science fiction or mystery stories and so when the first rocket is sent to the moon he finds himself a good vantage point to witness the landing: the rocket will produce a tremendous flash of light which the scientists say will be visible to the naked eye. The flash of light is in fact a lightning strike caused by the rockets descent to earth and Winton is knocked unconscious.

When he wakes up things are different: the large estate belonging to the owner of his favourite publishing house no longer exists, he hails a passing motorist who takes him into town, credit notes are used instead of money. A shopkeeper claims to be a collector of coins willing to exchange a large amount of credit notes for one of Winton's coins, but he is reported to the police who have a shoot on sight policy, he escapes and finds his name and address in the phone book, there is space travel and planet earth is at war with the Arcturians. The first part of the novel finds Winton adapting to his new situation and then trying to figure out what has happened to him. He books in at a hotel buys a typewriter and starts working on new stories to sell to earn a living.

Brown has fun with his novel that manages to include plenty of the tropes and plotting that one might find in the short stories published by the pulp magazines. There is more however, as he includes tension and mystery as well as irony in the adventures of Keith Winton on this different planet. Pulp fiction it maybe, but I enjoyed the invention and the fast pace of this fantasy science fiction novel - 4 stars

>162 baswood: I checked and surpringly several of Frederick Brown’s books have been published as audiobooks this century and are regarded as classics. I’m going to get What Mad Universe as it sounds entertaining. So many mid-20th century books have not made it to audio, and sadly I’m restricted to audio completely now.

Brown's short stories are a lot of fun. There's a 1948 story often described as the shortest SF story ever written:

The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock at the door...

>160 baswood: Gosh, this sounds interesting. I've never heard of PH Newby before. I see that he himself taught at the University of Cairo for a while, so he must be drawing from personal experience there.

Your reading some great stuff. I was so pleased to read your review of a P. H. Newby novel. It sounds terrific.

John W Campbell - The Moon is Hell
Science fiction published in 1951. John W Campbell was a science fiction writer and editor of the magazine Astounding Science Fiction. The Moon is Hell is of novella length and was packaged together with one of Campbells earlier fantasy stories. Wiki tells me that his controversial essays supporting segregation written in the 1960's alienated him from some science fiction writers. One would not be aware of this from reading The Moon is Hell.

It is in diary format written by a member of the first team to stay for any time on the moon; in fact they were due to stay for two years on the dark side of the moon. There were 14 scientists (all male) and the diary starts just as they are awaiting the relief ship to arrive for their journey back to earth. Unfortunately the relief ship crashes and the resulting fire destroys it completely. The team have no means of communication with earth, but know that there was only the one other rocket ship operational and that it would take at least a year for funds to be raised to build another. The diary takes the form of problem solving in extreme conditions. They need air to breathe and they need water to drink and must work out how to provide these two essential elements from the bare rocky lunar landscape. There is no magical solution to their problems: the minerals and rocks of the moon must be worked to keep themselves alive.

Campbell knew how to put sentences together: as an editor and book reviewer in pulp magazines, he could afford to be critical of other writers. This is a good solid story that demonstrates how scientific knowledge is key to human survival in a hostile environment - 3 stars

>167 baswood: interesting that people back in 1951 still thought the part of the moon they couldn’t see was actually dark.

Experiments in Imagining Otherwise sounds very interesting. Unfortunately neither of my local library systems has it in stock, and it costs over $25 on Amazon.