Belated Blogoversary

I've had about a dozen false starts writing this post, so I’m super late with it, but that silly thing called “life” got in my way again. Anyway, this is my belated six-month blogoversary post! Yay! To start out, congratulations to the anonymous winner of the comment contest whose favourite books are the Charlaine Harris “Sookie Stackhouse” series – you’ve won a hard cover copy of J.G. Farrell’s “Troubles” & “The Siege of Krishnapur”! I hope you enjoy them as much as I did!

I had intended to give you a recap of the titles I've already read, but every time I started thinking about a book I didn't enjoy, I got frustrated and discouraged. So I've given up on that idea. Instead I'm going to list my top 5 favourite titles, so far, and why I think you should read them.

5) The Sea, The Sea by Iris Murdoch (1978)
A surreal novel about lost love and obsession, I really enjoyed the paranoia and suspense of this character driven novel.

4) Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner (1984)
A bittersweet drama, this one is about not "settling" in love and becoming independently happy.

3) Schindler's List by Thomas Keneally (1981)
Based on a true story, this haunting novel about risking everything to do the right thing is truly a masterpiece of humanity.

2) The Bone People by Keri Hulme (1985)
If you want a novel that will make you look at the world differently, this one could be what your looking for. It's an emotionally difficult read dealing with abuse, but also about the different kinds of love in the world. It's a really brilliant novel.

1) Troubles by J.G. Farrell (Lost Man Booker Prize)
The first book in Farrell's "Empire Trilogy", this is a humorous drama set in Ireland. I loved the style of this novel. The narrative is interspersed with 'news reports' which emphasize the distance between the characters and the action of the revolution. I can't wait to reread this one!

I’m about ¾ through Peter Carey’s “Oscar and Lucinda” and ‘God-willing and the creek don’t rise’ I should be finished it and have a new post up for you by Monday. I am enjoying this novel, it's a bit silly but endearingly so. I'm getting a bit anxious that it will have a 'literary' conclusion rather than a happy one (oops, are my genre prejudices showing?) but hope springs eternal. Depending on the conclusion, this novel may worm it's way onto my top five list - the protagonists are so charmingly odd, I find myself grinning like a loon on the bus and reading while I walk. They are adorable, I really can't help rooting for them to have a lovely story book ending! Please, Mr Carey, don't break my heart on this one!!

I also thought I'd share a picture of my book list. Some days I feel like this sheet of paper is the only thing keeping me sane!




Happy Reading!

But What Of The Sea Monster?

I should be reading but I feel an obligation to 'blog', especially since I ought to have finished reading "The Sea, The Sea" last night, by the terms of my schedule, and I haven't. According to my KOBO I'm only 32% complete. I don't feel bad - it's a large book, and I've been busy. So there.

I've never read any thing by Iris Murdoch before, so I'm not sure whether this particular book is any indication of her natural writing style, but I kind of hope it isn't. It's divided into three sections (Prehistory, History & Postscript) with the Prehistory styled as a day-by-day memoir, and the History as recent events being recalled in a slightly more formal way. I, of course, have no idea what the third section is like and will not hazard a guess. So far the novel is entirely the first-person narration of Charles Arrowby, a recently retired director who has moved from London to a strange, isolated house on a rocky shore by "the sea" to repent of what he calls his 'egoism'. His peace there is disrupted by women (and some men) from his past, the gentle mockery of the locals, and an assortment of seemingly paranormal events.

The Prehistory has passages describing the sea which are deeply lyrical, with a beautiful rhythm that echoes the waves against the rocks. There are also many humorous segments relating meals, and there is mention of Charles having considered writing a four-minute cookbook. It was also exciting, with a sea monster and a 'haunting' - it really got my heart rate going at one point! Maybe I just scare easily, but it was good! I was really enjoying the Prehistory section, even though I kept thinking that it could probably have benefitted from a more thorough editing. I realize that the train of thought/meandering style was fully intentional, but I still found it slightly irritating.

Now that I'm into the History section, however, the tone seems to have changed completely - and not just because it is now being written by Charles in a reflective state. That is actually an improvement, because the story has a more directional flow to it (yay plot!). On the downside, the paranormal element seems to have been dropped (temporarily, I hope!) in favour of more of a Hallmark movie theme of angst ridden longing. The Charles of this middle section sounds to me like a fourteen year old girl, humming and hawing over what he should do and what did she actually mean. I really hope it's just a phase.

Completely random, non-content related thoughts - I'm annoyed with myself that I wasn't able to finish reading the library copy of this novel before it was due back. It's resulted in my having to purchase a copy on my aforementioned KOBO. I love my e-reader, but I feel like it's mocking me with it's "percentage read" indicator. I wish it would give me actual novel pages read and remaining. It's just a personal preference, and something I'm sure I'll get over. Although it does frustrate me when, for instance, 'Charles Arrowby' refers to "100 pages" ago and I can't just flip back. Oh well.

As it turned out the KOBO site also had copies of Stanley Middleton's "Holiday" and David Storey's "Saville" so I bought them, too. Whenever I read those two will now be out of chronological order, so I'm thinking of them as 'treat' books for myself. Writing that down I realize it sounds a bit (!) crazy, but I'm ok with that.

I set up a display of all the Man Booker Prize winning books we have in stock at work, thought you all might enjoy a look at it. (Pictures of books on KOBO are a bit dull.) There are 28 titles represented here, of the 46 current winners. Yikes! What was I thinking!

Happy reading!

Better Late Than Never

Ok, so obviously I'm quite far behind now. It took me 13 days to finish 'Staying On' - 13!! That's a crazy long time to finish a novel that was barely over two-hundred pages long. I have fantastic excuses, but none of them will help me to catch up on my reading list. Gaining an hour last weekend didn't even help me - I don't think I read at all last Sunday. At least it's still early days, and with luck I'll be able to catch up.

I really enjoyed Paul Scott's 'Staying On', in fact it's probably my favourite of the "Indian" novels so far. Scott's humour is much cruder, almost juvenile when compared to Farrell's. In addition to the social humour of class structure there was a heavy dose of sexual and toilet humour, which I felt made it an overall funnier novel. Which means it automatically gets high marks from me - yay comedy!

It was also a profoundly honest and sad story. I think I may have put off finishing it because I didn't want to reach that sad ending that I knew was coming. Even though the book opens telling us that Tusker will be dying, I was concerned that it may be a maudlin ending and I hate feeling that I've been coerced into tears. I was needlessly worried, as it turned out the balance of comedy and tragedy was perfect. Tusker and Lucy remind me of my parents, but their situation reminds me of my grandparents. I felt connected to the story in a very human way, so Yes I cried, but they were honest tears.

The supporting characters 'BillyBoy' and Ibrahim are both very fun, and it's nice that they aren't just stereotypes but unique and flawed individuals. As usual I'm sure that I'm missing the "real" or deeper meanings of the novel - particularly with these two characters, whose religious identities combined with their "sinful" flaws must be intended as allegory or some such thing. I really don't know what the subtext is, I just feel that it's trying to tell me something that is just outside my reach. I'm trying not to worry too much about that, though.

I attended the Calgary Public Library's 'Read Like a Writer' talk on the 6th, which was one of the events from the One Book One Calgary program of events, with Steven Galloway and Writer-in-Residence Naomi Lewis in discussion. I was slightly disappointed by the Q&A sessions, which seemed more focused on writing than reading, but that's the nature of a Q&A. What I liked, however, was Ms Lewis saying that the first time you read a novel you should suspend your disbelief, don't try to dissect what the author was doing, just enjoy the story. I'm going to try to do that more. It seems to me that our educational system encourages a constant analysis while reading, even with fiction, and while I never try to analyze the genre writing I love so much (that would take the fun out of it!) I automatically try to analyze 'literature'. Obviously literary analysis has it's place, but I'm beginning to accept that it is not during the first read through.

My next book is Iris Murdoch's "The Sea, The Sea" which is just over 500 pages. So I'm not going to make up any time this week, but I am going to try to relax and enjoy the book.

Happy Reading!