Wrapped Up In Books

My musings on what I've read since January 2006.

Thursday, December 28, 2006

Slow Man - J.M.Coetzee

Despite the narrative failure of the earlier book, I was pleased to see the cantankerous Elizabeth Costello reappear in Coetzee's next novel. The focus is on the process of aging and the physical and emotional toll it takes on the central character, an amputee living in Adelaide. Some of the metafictional business felt a bit 1970s era John Fowles, but Coetzee has rediscovered his interest in plot, which helps make Slow Man a lively and thought-provoking read.

I Married A Communist

I am not an expert in such things, but I reckon that Philip Roth is probably the best writer in the world right now. This is a superbly crafted telling of how the McCarthy era crushed people in an absurd parody of American values, ranging in tone from lament to rage to despairing laughter. It is typical of Roth that instead of creating a central character with whom it is simple to sympathise, Ira Ringold is conniving, destructive towards himself and others and, yes, a communist.

As in several of his recent novels, Roth tells his tale through the proxy of Zuckerman, his regular narrator. The tale then unfolds in a nuanced way through a series of layers - Roth/Zuckerman/Reported Speech/Second Layer of Reported Speech. I love this kind of stuff, which goes back to our earliest literature; think of The Arabian Nights, The Decameron or The Canterbury Tales. It takes a great author to make it work this well, and Roth is certainly that.

Sunday, December 17, 2006

The Nun - Denis Diderot

The blurb on this 18th century classic promises "madness, the paralysing effect of a powerful saintly personality, sadistic cruelty and febrile sexuality". How could I resist?

Actually, it doesn't quite read as excitingly as that would suggest but it's good stuff nevertheless. Diderot's target is the suffocating institution of the convent, as experienced by an impossibly naive young novice who falls victim to her fellow nuns. The bit where she is seduced by her Mother Superior is pretty entertaining and the ending is odd but works well.

A Room With A View – E.M. Forster

Forster is one of my all-time literary heroes, so I don’t know why I hadn’t got round to this earlier, really. It’s a marvellous social satire and love story and it contains some memorable characters and scenes.

If you’ve never read Forster, this is probably a good place to start. His real masterpieces, though, remain the magnificent "Howards End" and "A Passage To India".

Thursday, December 07, 2006

Elizabeth Costello – J.M. Coetzee

This is a frustrating oddity from a writer I have really admired in the past. We follow the eponymous character, a fading Australian author, around the circuit of conferences and guest appearances as she struggles to articulate her views to apathetic audiences. Part of my problem was that I strongly disagreed with her on many of the issues discussed (animal rights, rationalism) although on occasion the arguments were worth considering. As a novel, though, the book struggles with an overtly didactic structure, lack of narrative drive and a baffling, weak last couple of chapters.

I was reminded a little of an old favourite of mine, Small World by David Lodge, a far better evocation of the literary conference circuit.

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

The Loved One - Evelyn Waugh

More Evelyn Waugh, this time a later, less well-known satire of the funeral industry in Los Angeles. Like the other Waughs I have read it is a tragedy disguised as a comedy. The plot and the satire both work well, and there is also lots of entertaining transatlantic culture clash stuff.

Monday, December 04, 2006

Aesop’s Fables – Aesop

306 – The Monkey and the Camel

At an assembly of the beasts, a monkey got up and danced. He was enthusiastically applauded by everyone present. A jealous camel wanted to earn the same praise. He got up and also tried to dance, but he did such absurd things that the other animals became disgusted and beat him out of their sight with sticks.

This fable is suitable for those people who, through envy, compete with those who are their betters.

And so on. I read the very impressive
Penguin Classics edition which includes all 358 fables in a highly readable and fascinating collection. The famous ones are all there – The Tortoise and the Hare, The Boy Who Cried Wolf and The Hen (sic) Who Laid the Golden Eggs – plus lots that are more obscure involving Greek gods. Aesop didn’t write most of them, but this is the accepted canon apparently.

I enjoyed the insights into pre-Christian attitudes. The humour is invariably cruel and there seems to be no presumption that help will be offered when a neighbour is in trouble. In fact, you are considered a fool if you don’t take advantage of the misfortune of others to promote your own interests. There is also a strong sense of conservatism and social rigidity to the morals.

As a bonus, I learned that killing storks was illegal in ancient Greece because they were regarded as excellent at killing snakes. Who knew?


(Incidentally, this fable appears to be the bases of a children's book that I've read many times. Many, many times. Many, many, many times.)

The Man Who Was Thursday – G.K. Chesterton

This is a highly entertaining romp from 1908 about a bunch of stiff upper lipped English types battling anarchy. There is a mixture of detective and adventure styles, and the characters tend to speak in somewhat unlikely epigrams. The reader is expected to share assumptions about such untrustworthy types as Jews, Frenchmen and vegetarians – although to be fair these assumptions are as often as not undermined by the next plot twist.