tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-68747881807521577612024-03-19T02:46:10.400+00:00BOOK DOG | THOMAS QUINNOne page at a timeThomas Quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01017982027162041620noreply@blogger.comBlogger241125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6874788180752157761.post-13467638611780135412013-06-10T09:44:00.003+01:002013-06-10T11:42:21.798+01:00Goodbye Iain Banks | Scottish author of The Wasp Factory, Culture, The Crow Road<div class="MsoNormal">
The end when it came was far more sudden, far swifter than anyone had
thought. <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-22836412" target="_blank">Ian Rankin, his friend and fellow Fifer, in a touching, off the cuff,passionate tribute, told the BBC news last night</a> that even as recently as last
Tuesday doctors had told the author that he had months rather than weeks to
live. It turned out to be days.</div>
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Banks was 59. A prolific novelist, he has written science
fiction and ‘mainstream’ novels since his early twenties – his breakthrough, <b><i>The Wasp Factory,</i></b> was
published when he was just 29. He was a storyteller first and foremost, which is
perhaps why he was never feted by the literary judges. His fans loved him,
forgave him, delighted in his success when he got things right. The comments on
social media over the past 24 hours have been telling: Banks wrote about a world
people recognised as their own time and place.<o:p></o:p></div>
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North of the border this meant a lot. Banks’ novels with
their Scottish settings, accents and colour offered his fellow countrymen a
strong sense of identity in a culture that was otherwise dominated by American
TV and film; not to mention a London-centric culture.<o:p></o:p></div>
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His Scottishness might have been off-putting to those who
didn’t come from the land of his beloved whisky – but the opposite was the
case. If anything it made him more endearing.</div>
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<b>Neil Gaiman: He was
one of us<br />
</b>One of the most moving pieces about him I’ve read this morning is <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/jun/09/neil-gaiman-iain-banks" target="_blank">Neil Gaiman’s in the Guardian</a>. There’s a degree of respect there, of love, even
though the pair were, as Gaiman puts it, not strictly speaking that close.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Gaiman is English-born, American-based, but Banks was “one
of us”, noting: “<span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">If
you've never read any of his books, read one of his books. Then read another.
Even the bad ones were good, and the good ones were astonishing.”</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="http://thomasquinn.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/iain-banks-when-science-fiction-is.html" target="_blank">I interviewed Banks a year ago, on the phone, about his thenlatest novel Stonemouth, for the Big Issue’s books pages</a>. It’s a brief
article and one that didn’t really do him justice. But at the time it wasn’t Iain
Banks The Author we were talking about it, was simply The Latest Iain Banks
Book, and I’d never have held it up as one of his best.<o:p></o:p></div>
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That said, there was something about <b><i>Stonemouth</i></b>, as Gaiman
says, that makes it worth the read. And you felt reading it that this was the
same man who had written <b><i>The Crow Road, The Bridge </i></b>and <b><i>The
Wasp Factory</i></b>. There was a heart to it along with the darkness. It
suggested there was more to come…<o:p></o:p></div>
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Just two books have followed. The first was his last Culture
novel, <b><i>The Hydrogen Sonata</i></b>, and now this month we get <b><i>The
Quarry</i></b>, which focuses on a boy whose father is dying of cancer. Yeah.
Worth reading. Expect a lot more heart.</div>
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Thomas Quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01017982027162041620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6874788180752157761.post-69223965631538045992013-01-22T11:35:00.001+00:002013-01-22T11:35:28.524+00:00A26 | Roadkill | Pascal Garnier<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBNViAKVKjBumgrCHnqQL3H7gkCuZg8AQ8d9EMFh3QsEWYvedwWYTRuwpN4XSo8Qsm5ZFwAc-sqBtaFWBcnWd6YODWKq6A8qhFqdUmEZL3xr85bX150YAQ36D7iwrjD9SfZGYuRx1muNzm/s1600/pascal-garnier-itw2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBNViAKVKjBumgrCHnqQL3H7gkCuZg8AQ8d9EMFh3QsEWYvedwWYTRuwpN4XSo8Qsm5ZFwAc-sqBtaFWBcnWd6YODWKq6A8qhFqdUmEZL3xr85bX150YAQ36D7iwrjD9SfZGYuRx1muNzm/s320/pascal-garnier-itw2.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Pascal Garnier’s The A26... this is literary fiction with a hapless, desperate serial killer.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">At first I didn’t think it really came off. We’re introduced to Yolande and Bernard, a peculiar brother and sister who live together in a small town outside Paris. Yolande hasn’t left the house in years – not since the end of the second world war. Her brother has just discovered he is dying, which spurs him, oddly, into a killing spree.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">At first Garnier seems intent on playing this for laughs as if the victims are utterly meaningless and that jars a bit.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">But as the book went on it began to really grip me. The truth that is revealed is that for these Frenchmen and women the war has never really ended, and they are the poorer for it.</span></div>
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Thomas Quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01017982027162041620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6874788180752157761.post-80545944486005927242013-01-22T11:32:00.003+00:002013-01-22T11:37:28.509+00:00Pow! First impressions of a controversial Chinese literary POWerhouse<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Thinking about it, 2013 has to be the ideal time to
focus on the big wide world. The last twelve months have, after all, been so
bloody British: Jubilee, Olympics, about a dozen pageants, Dickens, Shakespeare,
even Scottish independence. There were entire weeks when you wondered if the
rest of the globe had shut down completely.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">So it’s a relief to pick up a book and travel without
leaving your armchair – and a good novel is better than the average airport
departure lounge or hotel swimming pool. A trip to China? I was sceptical of
reading my first Mo Yan, what with his comments about Chinese state censorship
which led to Salman Rushdie calling him a “patsy”. Ouch. But <i>Pow!</i> is a pleasant surprise. A strange,
dirty, picaresque novel that struck me as entirely political and hugely
critical of Chinese society.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I’m no Mo Yan expert (who is?). But it’s worth recalling
that much of what we now consider our own great art was written under British
state censorship – Shakespeare included – both moral and political. This isn’t
to excuse China’s one party state, but surely each individual artist must
address the realities of his time, and work within them, if he is to be heard
at all. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And <i>Pow! </i>doesn’t
read like an apology for anyone. Told in a complex fashion in two parallel
narratives by Luo Xiatong, aged ten and twenty, it describes a corrupt, rural
village which to some extent could be anywhere, east or west, in the past three
centuries. It’s shocking that this is actually a description of China as
recently as the 1990s: a time when its peasant communist society was being
swept aside by the crudest most amoral brand of capitalism. The village makes
its money from selling meat, any meat – beef, pork, camel, dog, you name it –
which the butchers pump with water and formaldehyde to boost profit.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I found it didn’t matter that the book’s
construction was a bit strange and rambling. I was travelling an alien landscape
and I’d take whatever was coming. What I got was part social commentary, part
satire... and a lot of stuff about meat and sex. Yes, the world’s new
superpower is eating a lot of pork. But is Mo Yan worth his Nobel? Is anyone?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Thomas Quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01017982027162041620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6874788180752157761.post-89247311574526138672013-01-22T11:24:00.002+00:002013-01-22T11:30:23.121+00:00An Elk is for life, not just for Christmas... Doppler<br />
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The cover of <i>Doppler </i>by
Erlend Loe comes with a neat little tagline: “An elk is for life... not just
for Christmas.”</div>
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John Lewis, eat your heart out. But clearly we are in
Norway, where elk roam free. I don’t know if you’ve ever been to Scandinavia
and seen one but a few years ago I drove past several while in Sweden and
marvelled at their big dopy faces, loping walk, and vast antlers. If the elk
was a Coen Brothers movie it would be <i>The
Big Lebowski</i>.<br />
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Doppler is middle aged, his father has just died, and he’s
fallen off his bike. So he leaves his comfortable Oslo home, takes a tent and
heads off to live in the woods, “adopts” an elk calf and calls him Bongo.</div>
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He stays put for over a year, carves a totem pole and becomes
the focal point of an ad hoc all-male, tree-hugging cult. “The forest is gentle
and friendly,” he says at one point, like a Nordic Obi Wan. “It’s the sea which
is fickle. And the mountains. But the forest is predictable and less confusing
than almost every other place.”</div>
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The whole thing is funny and a touch dark. Norwegians seem
to have an endearing offbeat humour these days – the tone isn’t unlike <i>Lillyhammer</i>, the Steven Van Zandt comedy
BBC4 ran recently – perhaps due to being fabulously rich thanks to all their
oil. (Notably, this book’s satire dates from 2004, before the credit crunch,
austerity and the squeezed middle.)</div>
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It’s charming. And it made me think: Doppler’s decision to live
in a forest really isn’t so crazy. In fact, it is kind of extraordinary that
more men don’t follow his lead. That the woods aren’t stuffed full of middle-aged
IT workers, accountants and company directors who, like him, have grown fed up
of the routine drudge, their wives’ moods, and the sound of the Teletubbies on
TV. Men who only really want their own company. And to urinate in the open air.</div>
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Another short novel that caught my eye for entirely
different reasons was <i>The Black Lake</i>
by Hella S. Haase. A Dutch writer I’ve been meaning to introduce myself to for
a while, she writes about her country’s colonial history. She died in 2011 and
this novel actually dates back to 1948, but the translation is as fresh and as
current as any Booker nominee.</div>
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Haase’s young narrator grows up in Java in the 1920s and 30s,
his distant plantation owning parents a mystery, his only friend Oeroeg, the
native son of the estate’s foreman. As the boys get older they become aware of
the racial and cultural divisions which eventually will tear their world apart.
It’s barely a hundred pages but beautifully judged, and a genuinely intriguing
insight into the end of a European empire.</div>
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All of which has nothing whatsoever to do with tennis, the
subject of the first essay in <i>Both Flesh
And Not</i> by David Foster Wallace. You’ve heard of him: friend of Jonathan
Franzen; highly regarded in America’s literary circles; dead at 46, having
committed suicide following a long battle with depression.</div>
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These essays span two decades, and range from some thoughts
about <i>Terminator 2</i> to a list of under
rated American novels. (Including <i>Blood
Meridian</i> by Cormac McCarthy, of which all he says is “Don’t even ask”.)</div>
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The most enjoyable is about watching Roger Federer play
tennis and dates from 2006, when the Swiss was at the height of his domination.
It manages to be detailed, strangely moving, and highly readable.</div>
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But no elks.</div>
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<b><i>Doppler</i> by Erlend
Loe (Head of Zeus, £7.99)</b></div>
Thomas Quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01017982027162041620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6874788180752157761.post-55070576901480015412012-11-23T11:06:00.001+00:002012-11-23T11:06:44.563+00:00SAS man hits the high street | Theo Knell struggles to adjust <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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If there is ever an invasion....<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/AHellForHeroes" target="_blank">I want </a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/AHellForHeroes" target="_blank">TheoKnell on my side.</a></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Theo served with the British Army, including the SAS, for 22
years. <i>A Hell for Heroes</i> is his attempt
to give an honest account of army life and very importantly, life after the
army.</span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">It’s a fascinating read, warts and all – covering service in Ireland and
Africa - which will leave you with deep respect for the military. Even Paras
puke with fear, but they jump just the same.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
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could ever be. They can load weapons under fire, run 40 miles, cure a village
of dysentery and perform surgery, as and when required. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">But when they are thrown out into Civvy Street, all the structure,
camaraderie and usefulness is gone, leaving a terrible vacuum.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
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was when the nightmare of post-traumatic stress disorder began. He found it
hard to land even the most menial of jobs: a leader of men it took him years to
find his feet. He urges the services to do more to make the transition from
military life to civilian life better. They should.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Thomas Quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01017982027162041620noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6874788180752157761.post-34141172035380930202012-11-23T11:01:00.002+00:002012-11-23T11:01:56.325+00:00CJ Sansom | Dominion | Nazis in Great Britain<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He is best known for his historical detective series
starring the Tudor hunchback, Shardlake – think Wolf Hall crossed with
Inspector Morse. But with Dominion, CJ Sansom takes history by the neck and
sends it flying. “What if,” he’s asking, “Germany hadn’t lost the war?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">We’ve been here before. The author has already highlighted
two influences in Len Deighton’s <i>SS-GB </i>and
Robert Harris’ <i>Fatherland</i>. But Sansom
has a different approach and the result is a highly entertaining, thought-provoking
page-turner.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">His scenario is that when Chamberlain resigns as PM
in 1940, Churchill is sidelined. Winston wasn’t really the favourite at the
time, so perhaps it isn’t that big a stretch to imagine Lord Halifax, the senior
Tory, squeezing him out. Sansom argues in a lengthy historical note at the back
of the book, that had this happened Britain would have likely sued for peace
and learned to live with the Nazis.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The consequences of this become clear as we flash
forward to a fictional 1952, where Sansom weaves a story of resistance
fighters, spies and Gestapo detectives. It hangs together, just about, and
certainly kept me gripped. There’s a large cast, but it is handled well, with
plenty of time taken to make you care about each character, just enough. Sansom
manages another trick too: he is able to remind you why Nazis are so scary </span></div>
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capturing both their deranged logic, and their cruelty – while avoiding the
worst stereotypes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He’s clearly done his research: barely a page goes
by without some sort of clever twist on reality. The newspaper magnate Lord
Beaverbrook has become a Nazi-sympathising PM, Enoch Powell is in the Indian
Office, the fascist leader Oswald Mosley – who in reality spent the war in
prison – in the Home Office. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">As a Scot, Sansom saves some of his most vitriolic
contempt for the Scottish Nationalists – having one character note how they
voted against conscription at the start of WW2 – which they did, in 1939. And in
his lengthy historical note he brands the SNP “dangerous... shrewd political
manipulators”, an outburst that has already earned him column inches north of
the border.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Actually, I thought at times the author dwelt a little
too much on his re-writing of history, allowing his characters to discuss
events a bit too often. But the plotting is both complex and well paced. Yes,
there’s a sort of ITV drama feel – perhaps because the prose comes without F or
C-words, explicit sex scenes and the violence is never overwhelming. In fact, everything
is somehow quite proper, like a 1950s black and white movie. But that will only
help it, deservedly, find a big audience.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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Thomas Quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01017982027162041620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6874788180752157761.post-31902237108846339092012-11-12T14:34:00.001+00:002012-11-12T21:23:22.199+00:00Tulisa Honest My Story So Far | Celebrity Biographies, two for a pound | Oh no, it's Christmas<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">You can tell it’s getting close to Christmas from
the glossy tell-alls piling up in the shops. Out of the current top ten
hardback non-fiction chart no fewer than six titles are celebrity memoirs.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Getting well groomed, expensively dressed actor and
singer types to turn up at the annual staff barbecue is a nice bonus for publishers,
but the real reason these books exist is that folks like Cheryl Cole have the
kinds of fanbases mere fiction authors can only dream of.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Consider: 12 million people watch <i>The X-Factor</i>. So if just ten percent stumble
into a shop and accidentally buy Tulisa’s new book... kerching!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Be warned though. Sleb books (as I shall now irritate
you by calling them) come in two broad categories. There is highly rare but
prized “great story involving a Sleb”. Remember Richard Hammond from <i>Top Gear</i> writing about the crash that nearly
killed him? Corking stuff. Sold a shed-load. But the follow up in which he
mused about stunt biker Eval Kneival....er... didn’t.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Which brings us to the common or garden “Sleb in
search of a story, any story”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Take Miranda Hart for instance. If you love her BBC1
comedy series, ahem, <i>Miranda</i>, and
many apparently do, then I guess you might well get a kick from <i>Is It Just Me?</i> in which said famously
tall person discusses life themes with her 18 year old self. (Yup. She really
does.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Literary types might suspect the well-educated Ms
Hart (she went to boarding school and played Lacrosse) is channelling not just
the classic dialogues of Plato and Aristotle, but also Tristram Shandy, the
celebrated 18<sup>th</sup> century meta-novel which spends most of its time
worrying about how to begin. She even addresses us as My Dear Reader Chum or
MDRC for short. But ol’ Shandy just wasn’t as “hilaire”, a term that crops up a
lot, as ol’ Miranda.<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">A lot of Hart’s comedy is based on embarrassment,
but the embarrassment that oozed from these pages was that of an otherwise
talented performer and writer who had a highly lucrative contract to deliver a
book when she had very little to put in it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Perhaps Miranda is too young, at 37, to have a
proper biography or a memoir in her. But then there’s Tulisa, who has just
published <i>Honest</i> at the grand old age
of 24. And it’s packed with... stuff. No Lacrosse jolly sticks here: Tulisa
grew up in gritty North West London, lost her virginity at 14, and was a pop
star about five minutes later. She likes to “get up to mischief”, a phrase she
actually uses, and the detail, as you would expect, is fairly intense: <i>“Chapter Five: After my success in Bugsy
Malone at primary school, I was determined that I would become a recording
artist.”</i> Gasp.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">High points include going to a strip club with her
non-boyfriend record producer (<i>“Of
course, the press were all over it”</i>) and how she never slept with Mark
Wright from <i>The Only Way is Essex</i> (<i>“Why is it that I can’t be friendly, or even
a bit of a flirt with a guy without everyone presuming I banged him?”</i>)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Saturday night TV fans will note that Tulisa is up
against <i>Strictly Come Dancing</i>’s Bruno
Tonioli, not only as judges on rival shows but on the bookstand, which brings
me to one of the few genuinely good reasons to buy Sleb books: embarrassing
pictures of the subject’s youth.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Bruno’s pics are particularly <i>hilaire: </i>as a toddler he was clearly rescued from the Italian
version of <i>The Addams Family</i> and as a
teenager from the Italian version of <i>The
Breakfast Club</i>. You’ve never seen so much hair and teeth. Or man nipple.
But the actual content? How can I break it to you darling? You write like a
moose... doing a tango... wearing a swimsuit... on its head. Pass the sickbag.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://www.bigissue.com/reviews/book-reviews" target="_blank">Check out the Big Issue website for more book reviews</a></span></div>
Thomas Quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01017982027162041620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6874788180752157761.post-2129659037804427002012-11-05T21:20:00.001+00:002012-11-05T21:22:46.641+00:00JK Rowling | Lennoxlove book festSo I'd actually booked tickets to go to Lennoxlove for the JK Rowling event. The main tent, where JK was appearing, was sold out, but they had a cheaper ticket for another marquee where the interview would be streamed live. So I bought a pair for Carmen and I.<br />
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Yes, we're Harry Potter fans, and as writers we were both extremely interested in what Rowling was up to writing a grown up book about ....</div>
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Well at the time we didn't know what it was about. This was back in September, or August, and The Casual Vacancy was still a mystery. Actually, most of us hoped it would be a mystery. What we got instead was a highly serious, literary novel with a million different characters which was funny in parts, impressive in parts, emotional in parts, but hard to like.</div>
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<a href="http://www.thomasquinn.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/jk-rowling-marian-keyes-middle-class.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: red;">JK Rowling <i>The Casual Vacancy </i>review is right here</span></a></div>
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Anyways, we were resigned to being in the satellite tent when Carmen's sister got in touch. Would we like VIP tickets?</div>
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Turns out a business contact of hers had sponsored the book festival and had a handful of spare tickets. Two to be precise. Carmen's sister was booked to do something else that night, but the contact was happy with the idea of us going.</div>
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<a href="http://carmenreid.wordpress.com/2012/11/03/jk-rowling-at-the-lennoxlove-book-festival-wow/" target="_blank"><span style="color: red;">Read Carmen Reid's brilliant blog post on JK Rowling at Lennoxlove</span></a></div>
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I really enjoyed myself. Rowling is a highly polished speaker and in person, at a literary event -- and, admittedly, with an interviewer who couldn't have fawned more (Muriel Gray, take a bow, you are in Hufflepuff) -- she comes across as far more relaxed and humane than she ever does on TV.</div>
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She has a wicked, almost boozy laugh, too, which was put to good use on discussion of the stronger launguage in the book. Telling one woman that she should "reclaim that word" -- the c-word -- because it is, after all, a reference to part of a woman's body. Also she spoke very passionately about the politics of the book. And she kept the Daily Mail jibes to a minimum, which was probably a good idea. Because by the look of the audience almost all of them were Daily Mail readers.</div>
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Actually, the audience was very sweet. Refined certainly -- a cut above that crowd who go to Edinburgh book fest -- and we did have a Duke at the next table during dinner. <a href="http://www.lennoxlove.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: red;">The Duke, it was his house, you see. </span></a>But I found the people I spoke to very entertaining.</div>
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Lennoxlove is a terrific venue, actually. Small and intimate, but stunning visually. I'd definitely try to go again.</div>
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Thomas Quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01017982027162041620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6874788180752157761.post-53817831133887138602012-11-05T10:07:00.002+00:002012-11-06T20:30:27.389+00:00Robyn Young on Robert the Bruce and Scottish independence from England<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I really enjoyed my recent interview with Robyn Young.<br />
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There's a lot to admire about an author who stuck with it, for so long, in order to get her first book published. Seven years, and as she put it, countless re-writes.<br />
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Eventually she found an agent and eventually she and that agent were able to get a small huddle of publishers interested. Her recent book, Renegade, part two in her second trilogy -- this one is about Robert the Bruce -- was a top ten hardback bestseller. Her books also sell round the world. So it makes you wonder what the problem was -- why did it take so long to get one publisher to back her with her first book, Brethren?<br />
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<a href="http://thomasquinn.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/brethren-by-robyn-young.html" target="_blank">Brethren blog I</a></div>
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<a href="http://thomasquinn.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/crusades-and-all-that.html" target="_blank">Brethren blog </a>II</div>
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Well, sometimes it just does that's all. I know from personal experience how many times you can redraft a book, how you can take a manuscript that you thought was done and improve it in ways you never thought possible. Interestingly, Robyn changed the narrative point of view -- I think twice -- taking an MS that was at one point told in the first person into the third person.<br />
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These technical things make a huge difference to the reader's experience and to the kind of market you can reach. Young's books are "mainstream historical fiction". they appeal to Bernard Cornwell fans. I actually prefer her writing to Cornwell's.<br />
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Here's the interview that appeared recently <a href="http://www.bigissue.com/features/interviews/1626/robyn-young-robert-bruce-has-been-shortchanged" target="_blank">in Big Issue:</a><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The best historical fiction doesn’t just recreate
the past, it speaks to the present. Robyn Young has the knack of finding
subjects that resonate. Her debut trilogy – <i>Brethren</i>,
<i>Crusade</i> and <i>Requiem</i> –told the story of a young Templar knight while offering a
startlingly fresh view of Christian-Islam relations in the 13<sup>th </sup>and
14<sup>th</sup> centuries – just as 9/11 threatened our own 21<sup>st</sup>
century safety.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Young is currently deep into her second trilogy –
and this time her concerns are closer to home. The action is centred not on
Accra and the Middle East but on Scotland and its wars for independence, just
as talk builds of a referendum north of the border.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Insurrection</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">
and the just released <i>Renegade </i>follow
the controversial career of Robert the Bruce: King, warrior, turncoat and/or
murderer, depending on your point of view.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“I was in Scotland doing research for <i>Requiem</i>, in which I thought Bruce and William
Wallace would have their part to play,” Young explains. “But the moment I
started looking in-depth into Robert’s story, I realised a sub-plot in a story
about the Templars and their downfall would not do it justice.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Young has since retraced Bruce’s steps from the
remotest parts of the Highlands and Islands, to battle sites like Caerlaverock
Castle near Dumfries in the south.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Wallace’s story is simpler, more black and white,”
she notes. “But Bruce’s is so complex, convoluted and shifting in terms of his
allegiances -- I couldn’t have conveyed all of that in the earlier book.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">So compared to the hero Wallace, lionised by Mel
Gibson, does Bruce gets a bad press? “He gets really short-changed in the film <i>Braveheart</i>,” Young says. “It narrows his
story down to a very simplistic role. But he was far more complex than a
Hollywood film can portray. I don’t know how you’d even begin to fit Robert
into a movie.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Part of the Bruce appeal was undoubtedly the
novelty. Born and educated in England Young admits she was completely unaware of
his part in British history – it wasn’t on the syllabus at school when she sat
her History GCSE, and she isn’t a formally “trained” historian. As she
conducted her research, she quickly found herself transfixed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“I got the sense not just of how important it was
for Scotland but for Britain as a whole,” she says. “And I wanted to convey the
many crossovers and similarities there were between the kingdoms – as well as
the differences. There were marriages and relationships that crossed the
border. On the ground, the armies weren’t Scots v English, it was more mixed
up.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">So are their parallels with the current debate about
Scottish nationalism? “Doing the research makes me understand why there is such
a strength of feeling behind Scottish nationalism. But my own family goes back
to Scotland, Ireland and Wales more than England. I’m English but I think of
myself as British and I would like to see us stay together.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The thrust of <i>Renegade</i>
is the English King Edward I’s attempts to gather together the <span style="background: white;">Scottish Stone of Scone, the English Sword Curtana,
the Crown of Arthur from Wales, and from Ireland, the Staff of Malachy</span>.
This is a delightful McGuffin, which not only drives the action but is placed
on sound historical evidence.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“At a point in 1307 just before Edward I’s death,
there is an odd little reference in history that the<i> Prophecies of Merlin</i> were being re-told throughout the land so
that when the covetous old king dies, Britain will live together in harmony,”
Young explains.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“We know Edward definitely owned a copy of </span><i style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 18px;">Prophecies of Merlin</i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">, and then you look at what he did – in taking the crown of Arthur from
Wales and the Stone of Scone from Scotland. I read about this early on in my
research and just went with it. But whether he believed in it himself or
whether it was all clever propaganda I don’t know.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Stone of Scone of course was returned to
Edinburgh in 1996, a year before a referendum gave the Scots their own
parliament. But who believes in Merlin nowadays?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;"> <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Renegade-Insurrection-Trilogy-Robyn-Young/dp/0340963670/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1352110039&sr=1-1" target="_blank">
</a></span></span><!--[endif]--><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Renegade-Insurrection-Trilogy-Robyn-Young/dp/0340963670/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1352110039&sr=1-1" target="_blank">Renegade</a> </span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Renegade-Insurrection-Trilogy-Robyn-Young/dp/0340963670/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1352110039&sr=1-1" target="_blank">by Robyn Young is out now (Hodder and Stoughton, £16.99)</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Thomas Quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01017982027162041620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6874788180752157761.post-10960389346706546252012-11-05T09:52:00.001+00:002012-11-05T09:52:03.321+00:00Patrick Leigh Fermor | A Time Of Gifts | Mr Foote's Other Leg<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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These days, “adventurous” is buying an airline ticket and
Skyping home to mum from a Thai beach bar. For Patrick Leigh Fermor, “adventurous”
was flunking school and heading off, aged 18, to <i>walk across Europe on a pound a week.</i> No iPhone for him, it was 1934,
and the journey took him a year.</div>
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He ended up in Greece, but when WW2 began dashed back to join
the Irish Guards, because he thought if he was going to die he might as well
have an attractive uniform. When he missed out on a commission he grudgingly
accepted a transfer to the Intelligence Corps.</div>
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But Fermor was an extraordinary individual: outgoing, widely
read, good with languages. His walk across Europe, “from the Hook of Holland to
Constantinople”, immortalised in the much lauded travelogue<i> A Time Of Gifts (1977),</i> had broadened his horizons and formed his
life view and he turned out to be a brilliant wartime agent.</div>
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The SOE sent him to Nazi occupied Crete where, for almost
two years, he led a group of resistance fighters. Apparently he was one of
several classical scholars working there – a knowledge of ancient Greek seen as
a shortcut to the modern language.</div>
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Later, he was awarded
the DSO for a daring mission in which he kidnapped a Nazi general and smuggled
him off the island. He even left a note in the man’s car making it clear that
it had been a British operation, signing it <i>PM
Leigh Fermor, Maj, O.C. Commando. </i>In peacetime, his activities on the
island earned him a “blood vendetta” from those who blamed him for terrible Nazi
reprisals. And yet he carried on living on Crete for most of his life.<i><o:p></o:p></i></div>
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When he died last year at the grand old age of 96, Fermor
was fittingly described as a cross between “Indiana Jones, James Bond and
Grahame Greene.” Artemis Cooper’s excellent, un-put-downable biography of lives
up to this mix and offers a third person viewpoint Fermor’s own books, by
definition, lack. She is lucky in her subject, not just because his life is
littered with famous connections – the Sitwells, Lauren Van Der Post, Michael
Powell and Emeric Pressburger – but because even from birth Fermor’s
circumstances were extraordinary, and his attitude to life formidable. He loved
to party, drank like a fish and squeezed the maximum from life.</div>
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While Fermor was famous for crossing Europe on foot, Samuel
Foote was famous for having just one foot – he lost one in a riding accident. I’ve
been relishing Ian Kelly’s <i>Mr Foote’s
Other Leg</i>, about this once-celebrated 18<sup>th</sup> century actor,
comedian, true crime author and friend to Princes.</div>
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Like Oscar Wilde in a later era, Foote was said to be the
wittiest, most famous man in London, at a time when a clever remark in a coffee
house was the equivalent of appearing on Radio 4 or getting a million followers
on Twitter.</div>
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He made his name with a scandalous pamphlet describing how
one of his uncles killed another in an argument over a will – a long running
family dispute Dickens is said to have used as the basis of the interminable
legal case Jarndyce and Jarndyce in <i>Bleak
House.</i> Then he traded on his fame by taking to the stage.</div>
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But rather like Wilde, Foote was brought low by the
scandalous suggestion that he was homosexual. For a 21<sup>st</sup> century
reader, the transcripts from the court case are shocking and yet also, strangely
hilarious. Foote might have recovered from the scandal, but according to Kelly
his bitterness and wit got the better for him. He was ruined, forgotten and
died, his one remaining foot in his mouth.</div>
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This review appeared in <a href="http://www.bigissue.com/reviews/book-reviews/1618/patrick-leigh-fermors-time-gifts-greek-odyssey" target="_blank">The Big Issue</a><br />
<br />Thomas Quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01017982027162041620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6874788180752157761.post-30279454497653565212012-10-24T11:07:00.000+01:002012-10-24T11:07:01.424+01:00JK Rowling | Marian Keyes | Middle Class angst<br />
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This book review is <i>middle class</i> because it feels <i>awkward</i>
and <i>insecure</i>. (There’s something I <i>can’t</i> say, but I may put it on the
agenda for the parish council.)<u><o:p></o:p></u></div>
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Marian Keyes makes a fine point near the beginning of hugely
entertaining and often very moving <i>The
Mystery of Mercy Close</i>. The Walshes, she explains, didn’t trust “the outside”,
“especially because the lead on the telly didn’t stretch that far”. And yet her
new boyfriend Artie’s family can happily sit outside of an evening, doing a
jigsaw while drinking homemade valerian tea.<u><o:p></o:p></u></div>
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<i>Whatever valerian tea
is.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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Keyes’ book is beautifully judged and extremely funny. A
regular number one bestseller, her popularity doesn’t rest on an ability to
make you laugh but on the fact her jokes pack a huge heavyweight emotional
punch. It comes here as she explores her lead character’s suicidal tendencies. Keyes
has herself suffered from depression and you sense her honesty.</div>
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Set in contemporary Dublin, this is a timely reminder of the
hellish reality of the collapse of the Celtic Tiger economy. Helen Walsh is a
private investigator, yes really, who was laughing back in the day when <i>everyone carried a thousand euro handbag and
got their husband followed</i>. But Helen’s flat has been repossessed and she’s
now living with mum and dad.</div>
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Yet her mother insists the Walshes are <i>middle class</i>. It seems the quest for social identity exists
everywhere, not least in my loo where I have installed a very funny little
hardback: <i>The Art of Being Middle Class</i>.</div>
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The average “MC” person lives in a “constant state of
insecurity” unsure of their “tastes, pre-occupations, behaviours and
sensibilities”, its authors inform me while offering expert guidance on “How to
behave in a gastro pub”, “The proper position of a waistband” and “Real gravy – the dinner party weapon”.</div>
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Dinner parties are a staple of JK Rowling’s first book for
grown-ups, <i>The Casual Vacancy</i>. Or <i>Mugglemarch</i>, as Britain’s fastest
selling book has been unkindly, but perhaps not unjustly described.</div>
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Samantha Mollison the owner of an outsized lingerie shop in
nearby Yarvil, is a terrible cook and her casserole goes uneaten by her guests,
so she gulps down a bottle of wine and says horrible things to wind up Kay, the
social worker who has moved to Pagford from London in order to pursue her
relationship with Gavin, a solicitor, who was born with two cold feet. Kay was
quite flattered by the way Gavin didn’t bother to set the table while preparing
a quick spaghetti Bolognese. And so on.</div>
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While Keyes’ novel belongs to the moment, for all its social
realism and much talked about satire Rowling’s exists in a strange sort of a
bubble. With its snobby bourgeoisie and its desperate underclass, Pagford is a
made up everytown – JK herself has likened it to Anthony Trollope’s Barsetshire.
And yet, no one there ever seems to watch much telly or care about the football
score.</div>
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While the Potter novels are told clearly and consistently from
Harry’s point of view, the Pagford pantomime is played out with a cast of what
feels like dozens. Many literary novels do this. Few are any good. And <i>The Casual Vacancy</i> is a slow trudge for
the first half. (She is clearly besotted with her characters and regularly uses
parenthesis, like this one, to cram in extra detail).</div>
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<i>And inner monologue,
like this.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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It does eventually pick up speed and yes of course, she
draws you in before providing an emotional, and quite shocking pay off. But it
is bleak. This is the world of the Durlseys, with Harry/Barry dead in the first
few pages. And the reason why I’m feeling so awkward and middle class about it?
I didn’t like it that much.</div>
Thomas Quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01017982027162041620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6874788180752157761.post-50351963325715394522012-10-01T15:22:00.002+01:002012-10-01T15:24:26.922+01:00The Return of Captain John Emmett | Elizabeth Speller<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This book was recommended to me. I'd completely missed it when it came out, even though it made the <a href="http://www.richardandjudy.co.uk/books/The-Return-of-Captain-John-Emmett/90" target="_blank">Richard and Judy list in 2011.</a><br />
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Richard, in the podcast for it, pithily describes it as a 'rattling good yarn'. It is. Speller's book is hugely enjoyable. Extremely evocative of the era -- the early 1920s, as Europe still struggles to recover from WW1 -- it manages a neat balance. Essentially this is a thriller, and quite a fanciful one at that. And yet it doesn't appear to be this at all, more a lament, and a love story, for a generation lost.<br />
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There are echoes of Le Carre. Laurence Bartram is asked, by the man's attractive younger sister, to investigate the last months of the life of an old school friend, John Emmett, who has apparently killed himself. Gradually he pieces together Emmett's state of mind and in so doing Speller reveals some of the Great War's true horrors.<br />
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Speller is described as a poet and her prose is certainly of the highest calibre. As if every sentence has been pored over. And of course she is clearly highly knowledgeable about the First World War poets, those tragic young men who composed beautiful stanzas in the trenches. Those men certainly inform this novel.<br />
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I described it as fanciful: the plot grows and grows and takes twists that's more boy's own than you might expect. It's a hugely enjoyable journey. I scratched my head a fair bit over the character of Charlie -- who really did seem to be there to perform the function of a between the wars Google. If Laurie ever wanted to find out about someone in the military, he'd mention the name to Charlie and pop, up would come an address. Perhaps it worked that way. The old boys network. But it is certainly convenient for the plot.<br />
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That said, I found it extremely satisfying and I was intrigued by the portrait of the women. Contrasting portraits -- the radical former nurse and the stoic sister. A period when attitudes were changing, clearly.<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Return-Captain-John-Emmett/dp/1844086097/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1349101289&sr=8-1" target="_blank">The Return of Captain John Emmett</a> on Amazon. But available elsewhere. There's a follow up too: <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Strange-Fate-Kitty-Easton/dp/184408633X/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_2" target="_blank">The Strange Fate of Kitty Easton</a>.<br />
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<br />Thomas Quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01017982027162041620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6874788180752157761.post-47215537353954146962012-09-24T15:44:00.003+01:002012-09-24T15:44:25.228+01:00Nemesis | Philip Roth, wine and free books<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgegrkQg2oQyGo89IguleHbNb-cVFoLBI_1geZ8yBqb9EpdIV8EKhE2MHwkZAPuP9EYv8PIM_IZIPrlrcNQ8JOGBGY6D6dB1qdUyoZ0TJPxQjb2I1ta2Eao4cyHUe8TsKVWunKnubGbTGI/s1600/young-boy-collecting-mone-005.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgegrkQg2oQyGo89IguleHbNb-cVFoLBI_1geZ8yBqb9EpdIV8EKhE2MHwkZAPuP9EYv8PIM_IZIPrlrcNQ8JOGBGY6D6dB1qdUyoZ0TJPxQjb2I1ta2Eao4cyHUe8TsKVWunKnubGbTGI/s400/young-boy-collecting-mone-005.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nemesis-Philip-Roth/dp/0099542269/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1348234793&sr=8-1" target="_blank">Nemesis</a></span></i> proved to be one of those books we were all able to agree on. Well, almost. Before George jumps in and accuses me of re writing history again not everyone was UTTERLY BOWLED OVER BY HOW WONDERFUL IT IS. George has doubts about the mid section. Doubting George. Always picking holes. Just because <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><a href="http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=barbara+kingsolver&hl=en&client=safari&rls=en&prmd=imvnsbo&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=SG5cUJHQCaqj0QWQ34HIDA&ved=0CFMQsAQ&biw=1395&bih=860" target="_blank">NOT EVERYONE IS BARBARA KINGSOLVER.</a></span><br />
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The evening was noteworthy in a number of ways. The location was shifted to <a href="http://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/scotsol/homepage/news/4548813/Harry-Potter-author-JK-Rowling-is-selling-her-former-home-where-she-penned-some-of-her-books.html" target="_blank">MY HOUSE</a>, where the red wine flowed like a fast flowing river flowing in a fast flowing way. I drank a bucket load and spent the next day groaning. I stopped groaning about four o'clock in the afternoon. By this time I couldn't remember the evening before. Not clearly enough to write a summary that is.<br />
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So, I had to go back to the CCTV footage. Carmen and I installed the CCTV system years and years ago when we were refurbishing the house. It has proven extremely useful as a means of tracing bunches of keys, shoes, children and various rubber instruments.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">Arabella "I brought a bag"</td></tr>
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This image reminded me that the purpose of the Fergus Drive location was to get rid of some books. But hey, Arabella, if you also need a mini fridge, go for it.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">Mark goes in search of the loo</td></tr>
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We waded through a lot of books. Most "were rubbish" and are therefore "still on my floor". The Winnie the Pooh erotica has disappeared. I think Martin had it in his pocket as he climbed, or was that more of a stagger, into his taxi at 3am.<br />
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Personally I think you missed some real gems. Embossed covers and everything. You will regret leaving those Reginald Hills behind, you know you will.<br />
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I hadn't finished <i>Nemesis</i> by the time of the meeting, so wasn't able to get stuck in to WHAT IT ALL MEANT and the IMPORTANCE OF GUILT as a theme, but I've added some thoughts in a blog below, should you want to wade through them. I did finish the book and LOVED IT. Roth is a genius. He is who I want to be when I grow old.<br />
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I should add, the quality of discussion amongst the group was particularly high. From Mark's extensive quoting of Latin to Martin's re-enactment of the first act of Hamlet, in which he played the Danish Queen Gertrude, were only two of the highlights. When Cathy offered to dissect our family dog I thought at first she was kidding.<br />
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Sadly neither John or Lisa were able to make Wednesday's lushfest. John was prowling the night cityscape taking photographs of the underside of motorways, while Lisa had a prebooking to play the ukelele. There are times when I wish I could make stuff like this up, but it is in fact true.<br />
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I should report that the Group had two special guests. <a href="http://www.carmenreid.com/" target="_blank">Carmen Reid, celebrity author, occasional mother and the TALLEST PERSON PRESENT</a>, sat in on most of the evening, helping with the wine lake.<br />
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And Jimmy, the Jack Russell, also made his presence felt before the heat of the fire, or possibly the intellectual rigour of the conversation, finally drove him to the back sitting room. Where he lay in front of the TV clearly wishing we'd turn it on so he could watch Top Gear, as he usually does on a Wednesday night.<br />
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<br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />Thomas Quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01017982027162041620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6874788180752157761.post-8224480153401014872012-09-21T14:34:00.000+01:002012-09-21T14:34:04.726+01:00Philip Roth | Nemesis | Polio epidemic, guilt and nostalgia<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Books/Pix/covers/2011/9/15/1316093429011/Nemesis.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Books/Pix/covers/2011/9/15/1316093429011/Nemesis.jpg" width="130" /></a></div>
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Roth is known for writing magically precise books. Prose that is as polished as the brass railings on an old style fire truck. <i><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nemesis-Philip-Roth/dp/0099542269/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1348234278&sr=8-1" target="_blank">Nemesis</a></i> is a gem.<br />
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Short, about 230 pages, you'll breeze through this in a couple of sittings. Not just because of the word length but because the narrative is so seamless.<br />
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This is one of the most assured storytellers writing today. Roth begins with a factual account of how the Polio epidemic first hit the Newark area in the summer of 1944, before zooming in on the main subject of his novel, Bucky Cantor. Athletic, pure of heart, hard working. Cantor is a physical education teacher and a playground instructor. He loves teaching sports to young boys, seeing them evolve into men. An accomplished diver with a powerful physique, Bucky is however devastated when his poor eyesight prevents him from joining the Marines to serve in WW2. His two best friends head to Europe for the D Day landings. Bucky teaches baseball. Then the illness takes grip.<br />
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Roth is writing about his childhood here, about an epidemic many will have forgotten. Polio was defeated in the 1950s, but too late for the thousands who succumbed to it in the early part of the 20th century. It spreads around Newark like a plague. People are in a panic.<br />
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Bucky stands tall. He lends support. He encourages the kids to keep playing. Not to worry. But his girlfriend is desperately afraid for him and engineers a job offer -- a chance to get out of Newark, and away from the plague. He is determined to turn it down, but his desire to see her, to have a happy life, takes over. He takes the job. He heads to the mountains.<br />
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We discussed <i>Nemesis</i> in our book group and the section at the camp was the only one that drew any criticism. It seemed "too perfect". I can't really agree. This is a nostalgic passage. I sense that Roth is trying to capture something of his childhood here, and in doing so speaks volumes for America of the 1940s, for its ambitions. Its innocence. I found myself wishing I could spend my summers in camps like the one here, at Indian Hills. I'd love to swim in that lake too. I'd even eat the macaroni cheese.<br />
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<b>Spoiler alert</b><br />
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What happens to Bucky is devastating but, as with all great stories that are well told, utterly inevitable. The polio follows Bucky to the camp and strikes his closest friend there. He becomes convinced he is the carrier -- and medical tests prove he has the virus. He falls ill just days later.<br />
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Roth wraps the story up cleverly. He projects forward twenty years. Bucky is now an older man and we learn that the narrator of the book is one of the kids from the playground, who caught polio himself, became crippled, but survived.<br />
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There is a stark contrast between them, however. The narrator has coped, built a life for himself, had children, a relationship and a satisfying career. Bucky shunned his fiancee, dwelled on his victim status, tore himself apart with guilt. Guilt that he was the "Typhoid Mary" who had infected all the children in his playground. That he was responsible for their deaths.<br />
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Guilt is a major theme amongst American Jewish authors. <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hope-Tragedy-Shalom-Auslander/dp/1447207661/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1348234314&sr=1-1" target="_blank">Shalom Auslander's <i>Hope: A Tragedy</i></a> is built on it. Solomon Kugel moves into a new house and discovers Anne Frank, now an old woman, living in his attic. He had always been made to feel guilty for having survived the Holocaust -- indeed, for having been born decades later, thousands of miles away -- and for not having suffered as Anne did. And now here she is in his attic, demanding Mitzoh crackers, and she won't go away.<br />
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But guilt isn't an exclusively Jewish thing. I found <i>Nemesis</i> extremely life affirming. Terrible things happen, but life either goes on or it doesn't. And if it does, then you should make the best of it. Not dwell on what went wrong. But build on what went right.<br />
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Poor Bucky Cantor. He might have had a real life. Instead, he became a shadow. Smothered by a sense of guilt, when in reality he was a victim.<br />
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<br />Thomas Quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01017982027162041620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6874788180752157761.post-20807342190090883592012-09-10T14:16:00.001+01:002012-09-21T13:51:40.952+01:00Ian McEwan | Sweet Tooth<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Love the cover of the latest Ian McEwan. The figure on the front is quite clearly intended to be the glamorous lead character, Serena Frome (rhymes with plume).<br />
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This book has one of the most delicious opening paragraphs I've read in a contemporary novel for a very long time.<br />
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After getting a third in Maths at Cambridge, Serena has an affair with a professor, a much older man, Tony, who instructs her in the politics of the Cold War. She's an easy convert and happy to agree to a job interview with MI5.<br />
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What follows never quite becomes a full blown spy story. Serena is beautifully imagined. An awkward, slightly aloof daughter of a bishop, the ultimate English middle class good girl, a compulsive reader of novels (in paperback, she can't afford hardbacks), who is sucked into the shady world of espionage by virtue of chance and her good looks.<br />
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Her former lover's history emerges -- no huge surprises perhaps but it is neatly done. It is however her mission, to fund an author, to encourage him to write anti-Soviet literature, which makes up the meat and bones of this book. She falls in love with Tom Haley in part through reading his short stories.<br />
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This, for me, is the one weakness of the novel. McEwan relates these stories in a "reported" fashion. And you can sense the pace of the novel slacken as he does it. Also, he never quite goes far enough with the spying. McEwan loves a high stakes plot, but here, it doesn't quite become that.<br />
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That said, it is highly enjoyable and the final twists of the novel are hugely satisfying. Being a McEwan, you are left wondering what it was you just read, and flipping back to see where the trick was laid. But of course, it was there all the time. From that very first paragraph.<br />
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<br />Thomas Quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01017982027162041620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6874788180752157761.post-35349984527652937702012-09-10T14:06:00.000+01:002012-09-10T14:06:02.187+01:00Zadie Smith | NW<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Brilliant cover</td></tr>
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"But this isn’t <i>White
Teeth</i>. <i>NW</i> is in its way a
magnificent read. There are passages that really do knock you out. But the
author is developing a style that is far more stripped down and raw than was
the case in her first book. (And I’m happy to take her word on the current
London slang.)<br />
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<i>"NW</i> revolves around
two school friends, Leah Hanwell and Natalie Blake. Leah is white and clever,
but a drifter, one who was into every passing trend but now finds herself
without a goal. Natalie, is mixed race, churchy, bookish and professional. She
changed her name from Keisha (as Zadie herself evolved from Sadie).</div>
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"Leah and
Natalie’s lives go in very different directions. Leah’s career has stalled and
she and her husband Michel, a French-African hairdresser, have constant money
troubles. Natalie is a successful lawyer, married to a banker, living the
middle class dream existence complete with a nanny in the basement. But of
course, there’s more to it than that."</div>
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--- Zadie Smith's NW, reviewed in The Big Issue, Sept 10</div>
Thomas Quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01017982027162041620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6874788180752157761.post-54249382513922062502012-08-29T17:38:00.001+01:002012-08-29T17:38:17.214+01:00What The Family Needed | Steven Amsterdam | What's your superpower?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb8aifUCyo1STRo-ZIChq4_H41GSGi89m4yGxBl9cP1PjrIy_h44TPGWdsJqGkQS8zbqlN2TDj-Tyf-6L-uohw3W1I2TBt8f2_a3ROLEHssUkfcaimMFt_7ln_WMLw9Bj72u0pufWuw3o1/s1600/amsterdam+pic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb8aifUCyo1STRo-ZIChq4_H41GSGi89m4yGxBl9cP1PjrIy_h44TPGWdsJqGkQS8zbqlN2TDj-Tyf-6L-uohw3W1I2TBt8f2_a3ROLEHssUkfcaimMFt_7ln_WMLw9Bj72u0pufWuw3o1/s320/amsterdam+pic.jpg" width="199" /></a></div>
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Given the choice, what superpower would you go for?<br />
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It's a whimsical sort of a question. The kind a kid would ask. Super strength? Mind reader? X-ray vision? So when Alek -- a young, thoughtful teen, considered a bit odd, even by those who love him -- asks it of his cousins, they don't take it that seriously.<br />
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One opts for invisibility. The other for the ability to fly.<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/What-Family-Needed-Steven-Amsterdam/dp/1846555809/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1346256784&sr=8-1" target="_blank">Steven Amsterdam's new novel, What The Family Needed</a>, is charming, light, and yet full of emotion. It keeps you guessing as to whether these special powers are real or imagined.<br />
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Each chapter focuses on a different member of an extended family at a different, crucial point in the family history. Giordana, when her mother Ruth leaves her alcoholic husband. Natalie, Ruth's sister, when her son Alek starts having trouble at school. Peter, Natalie's husband, when his wife dies suddenly.<br />
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The skips in time, the way the book manages to capture the lives of these characters in the round, using what are really quite brief vignettes, turns out to be extremely powerful. This is quite a short book, you could read it at one sitting, but it allows us to race through their lives, experiencing the characters' flaws and sharing in their joys.<br />
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The structure of the book maintains Alek's mystery until the last. Then the "reality"" of what he can do, his magical nature, is revealed. There is a chance that by including this final reveal that the book will end on a down. That the twist doesn't quite live up to the mystery. But Amsterdam's family portrait is ultimately so positive, so loving, it's impossible not to be carried away by it.Thomas Quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01017982027162041620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6874788180752157761.post-89651774595044410382012-08-27T09:50:00.002+01:002012-08-27T10:33:31.813+01:00E Books | Barry Eisler and Ewan Morrison debate<div id="litopia-player" style="clear: both; width: 270px;">
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<br />
This is a really entertaining debate about the whole e-book thing.<br />
<br />
In the red corner is <a href="http://www.barryeisler.com/" target="_blank">Barry Eisler</a>, a big selling thriller writer who has done well out of Kindle self publishing, though he was already established with 'legacy publishing' before digital arrived.<br />
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In the blue corner is <a href="http://ewanmorrison.com/" target="_blank">Ewan Morrison</a>: Glasgow based author of literary fiction who has for the past year or so been railing against digital and Amazon in particular for the way it is threatening to destroy traditional publishing and destroy literary fiction.<br />
<br />
Digital is clearly a huge change for the industry. I'm rather weary of authors bemoaning it and saying it is the work of the Devil and that the Devil's name is now Amazon.<br />
<br />
In saying that, there are certainly challenges ahead. Not least for writers who want to make a living out of writing. Many will have to work on their writing part time. Others may be forced to give up altogether. But I'm not sure that is necessarily a bad thing.<br />
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<br />Thomas Quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01017982027162041620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6874788180752157761.post-80194354095979606602012-08-23T16:40:00.002+01:002012-08-23T17:36:40.504+01:00Hilary Mantel | Wolf Hall | BBC2 adaptation announced<br />
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The publishing world reeled with shock today as the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/aug/23/hilary-mantel-wolf-hall-bbc2" target="_blank">BBC announced</a> that it was going to turn little known author Hilary Mantel's recent, rather obscure literary novel <i>Wolf Hall</i>, and its sequel <i>Bring Up the Bodies</i>, into a hugely expensive megabudgeted costume drama.<br />
<br />
It is undoubtedly a remarkable coup for Mantel, an author who barely ever gets talked about or mentioned in the national press. Hardly ever. Not much at all. In fact, never. [<i>Who is she again? - ed</i>]<br />
<br />
<i>Wolf Hall</i> -- the imagined ramblings of Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII's palace odd job man, famed for his window cleaning skills -- was released in 2009 and utterly failed to capture the public imagination despite being showered with literary awards and critical acclaim.<br />
<br />
Readers avoided it in their droves, finding it to be "no where near as raunchy as EL James' <i>Fifty Shades of Grey</i>".<br />
<br />
"Britain has moved on, we don't need to keep reexamining the past glory of Henry VIII's reign," Nobody said.<br />
<br />
"This is a familiar tale, told with some wit but really offering nothing new to what we already know about Tudor England and the founding of the English state," Nobody added.<br />
<br />
"This is 2012, no one is interested in monarchy anymore. We are too busy watching the Olympics. And looking at Prince Harry's bum online," Nobody pointed out.<br />
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<br />Thomas Quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01017982027162041620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6874788180752157761.post-56875386925353852062012-08-23T16:27:00.001+01:002012-08-23T16:28:52.157+01:00Barbara Kingsolver | Joseph Connolly | New titles<br />
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<br />
The quality reading keeps coming.<br />
<br />
New <a href="http://www.josephconnolly.co.uk/" target="_blank">Connolly out on Sept 6</a>.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.kingsolver.com/" target="_blank">Barbara Kingsolver's Flight Behaviour</a> on Nov 1 (pictured is the press copy).<br />
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<br />Thomas Quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01017982027162041620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6874788180752157761.post-77424910589778684662012-08-22T12:59:00.002+01:002012-08-22T12:59:43.293+01:00JK Rowling | A Casual Vacancy parodied before it is released | A Vacant Casualty<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Is this a first? A book getting parodied before it even comes out. Patty O'Furniture's imagination has run riot for this one. The press release is promising ... "<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px;">a potty-mouthed parody..." "</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px;">a spectacularly silly rural detective novel..." </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua'; font-size: 15px;">"Nothing ever seems to happen in the sleepy English town of <u></u><u></u>Mumford<u></u><u></u>– unless you count the man with the axe in his back, staggering down the street getting blood everywhere and leaving a vacancy on the Parish Council . . ."</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua'; font-size: 15px;"><br /></span></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; font-family: 'Book Antiqua';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 15px;">All very silly.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; font-family: 'Book Antiqua';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 15px;"><br /></span></span>Thomas Quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01017982027162041620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6874788180752157761.post-35200274433738378252012-08-21T16:09:00.003+01:002012-08-21T16:30:31.000+01:00SJ Watson | Before I Go To Sleep | Interview with the author<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
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<a href="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/58839000/jpg/_58839262_steven_watson.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="180" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/58839000/jpg/_58839262_steven_watson.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />
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BEFORE I GO TO SLEEP has been the debut thriller of the year, racking up impressive sales critical acclaim and a raft of award nominations. I spoke to the author, SJ Watson, quite recently.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.convilleandwalsh.com/index.php/news-views/news/hollywood-stars-line-up-for-s-j-watson-film/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The novel has already attracted the attention of Hollywood, with a number of leading actresses said to be interested in playing the woman without a memory.</span></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So when you started BEFORE I GO TO SLEEP, is it true you didn’t actually mean to
write a thriller?</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />
Well, in a way. I wasn’t really sitting down to write a thriller. I just wanted
to write a book as well as I could. But those are the books I’ve always
enjoyed, the ones with a strong plot. Of course in the second draft I
emphasized the thriller aspect a bit more and I decided what kind of book it
was. But it happened organically though.<br />
<br />
<b>You wrote the novel on the Faber Writing
Academy course – but the book is published by Transworld. </b><br />
<br />
The course was very separate from the publishing aspect. With good reason, so
that anyone who entered the course didn’t have any illusion that they would be
picked up by Faber…</span><br />
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<a href="http://robynbateman.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/sj-watson-before-i-go-to-sleep.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://robynbateman.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/sj-watson-before-i-go-to-sleep.jpg" width="199" /></span></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Do you believe writing is a craft that can be taught then, not a God given gift?</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">My take on this is that the only way to write is by doing it, and
teaching yourself almost. If you are on a course and being exposed to some
great writers and working with a tutor and so on it can shortcut the process.<br />
<br />It wasn’t a prescriptive course. It didn’t say this is how a book must begin.
You must use the first person. Present tense. Anything like that. It was about
encouraging you to try new things and to stretch yourself I suppose…<br />
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<b>Explain the inspiration behind BEFORE I
GO TO SLEEP.<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I was working in the field of hearing and balance. It wasn’t directly
from my day job or work though looking back on it I can see why those topics
were interesting to me. <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-17231436" target="_blank">The idea for the book came from an obituary I readabout a man who had an operation at the age of 27 to try and cure his epilepsy.</a>
And he died …he couldn’t form any new memories, his memory was erased every few
minutes. And even at the end of his life, he died 82, the most recent memories
were when he was 25.<br />
<br />
I saw parallels in what I was doing. My first job was working in a
hospital in London for patients with lots and lots of bizarre debilitating
neurological problems and some of them were memory loss…<br />
<br />
So I had kind of been exposed to amnesia and neurological conditions but it
didn’t directly influence the topic I chose to write about.<br />
<br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />
<b>What I took from your book and from
other novels and films that deal with memory, is that it is our memories that
really define us as individuals.</b><br />
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That is not something I appreciated fully – and then I realized how lost I
would be without our memories. It was really interesting as well, I was writing
about a character who is relatively young. Memory loss affects millions with Alzheimer’s
and dementia. Members of my own family have gone through it. There is a very
real sense of losing your own identity. So yes, very much so.<br />
<br />
<b>And the book has done...rather well. You’ve
sold about a million copies, and keep getting mentioned for awards...</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">To say it has surpassed my wildest dreams is a huge understatement.
It is my first book. I daydreamed, hoped, I had a sense that I was finding my
own voice and had found a subject that was interesting – and that it would
interest other people. I was reasonably optimistic that it might find a
publisher but it didn’t feel in any way a foregone conclusion<br />
<br />
And then my mission was just to get the book on the shelf. Sometimes I almost
normalise it and take it for granted – and then it hits me again.<br />
<br />
I thought what would be a success for this book? I thought if I see anyone else
reading it – that I am not related to – I’ll call it a success. So that was a
special moment when I saw it on the tube…<br />
<br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">You decided to use a female narrator
even though you are, unquestionably, a bloke...<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">At the
time it didn’t feel like a brave decision. The job of a writer is to imagine
themselves into the head of someone else. The fact I was writing as a woman was
less of a problem the fact I was writing about someone with no memory.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">By extension, the name on the
jacket is SJ Watson – not Steve.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">That was
a conscious thing. I remember when we sent the book out to different
publishers, although my agent suggested it, I would have mentioned it to her
had she not done so. I felt the whole book would not work if people read it
thinking <i>this is a man pretending to be a
woman</i>. I wanted to be ambiguous. My hope was that they wouldn’t be sure
whether I was male or female. I was really pleased when people emailed and said
what is she like, ahs she got any more books... and Claire had to say, well
he’s a man, his name is Steve...<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It’s a reversal of the norm.
Female authors like JK Rowling and PD James used initials to disguise the fact
they were women... <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I find
it fascinating, there are a couple of countries where the book has been
published and it is with Steve or Steven on the cover -- because people don’t
buy books by a woman, or where they suspect it is by a woman. I find that hard
to believe that you might pick up the book, be intrigued by the premise, the
title, and then put it back on the shelf because it is a woman who has written
it. It’s ridiculous. But clearly it does happen.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">And what’s next?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The book I am working on at the moment is another psychological
thriller. I might want to explore different things. I am drawn to those books
-- I do love books that get inside people’s heads. And have an element of
mystery. Books where exciting things happen. For the foreseeable future I will
be writing psychological thrillers. But who knows…<br />
<br />
<br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> * <a href="http://www.bigissue.com/features/1259/sj-watson-writing-woman-didnt-feel-brave-decision" target="_blank">A different version of this interview is available here, on the Big Issue website...</a></span></div>
Thomas Quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01017982027162041620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6874788180752157761.post-46148262842216451312012-08-20T10:30:00.001+01:002012-08-20T11:00:03.945+01:00Neil Gaiman | American Gods<a href="http://thomasquinn.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/neil-gaiman-edinburgh-fringe-event.html" target="_blank">A full year after getting my paperback copy of the tenth anniversary edition of American Gods signed by the author, at a reading in Edinburgh..</a>. he dedicated it to my then 13-year-old son, who promptly put the book down after chapter two ("not ready for that," he said)... I can now say I have finished it.<br />
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[August's book group pick, you see. Yes, this confirms it, I am a middle aged woman who likes Chardonnay.]<br />
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In case you don't know, after writing some weird and wonderful Victoriana fairy tales, Gaiman decided to pen a monster of a contemporary novel imagining what it would be like if all the Gods people ever believed in were alive and not doing so well in modern USA. So <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odin" target="_blank">Odin, Thor's dad, ruler of Asgard,</a> becomes Wednesday, a con man and serial seducer of waitresses.<br />
<br />
It's an overtly meandering hunk of a book. I loved the first part when Shadow comes out of prison, it is full of grit and mystery and the writing is taut and well paced. But, and I am sure I am not the only person to observe this, the book drifts by the time you get half way.<br />
<br />
Some of the writing -- this is the author's cut version, but whether that has an impact I can't tell -- but it sort of lets him down a bit. Just the odd moment when it is not as precise as Gaiman is in, say, shorter works like Coraline or in his short stories. Which are wonderful.<br />
<br />
And the scenes -- Laketown -- are beautifully done. It's just. You wonder why. Where is this going? And he takes too long to tell you where he is going. And why. And when the pay offs come.... well. I was actually a bit underwhelmed. And considering the finale, that is quite an admission.<br />
<br />
This may be a novel to immerse yourself in and not hurry. Perhaps I was hurrying, wanting to finish it by the weekend because, well, I have other stuff to read, to do. But it struck me as overly indulgent and that surprised me.<br />
<br />
As to the idea of <i>American Gods</i>, I am still puzzled. There's a lot in there. Pagan. Post religion. A man dying on a tree so others can survive. So many messages, symbols, references. But I feel I need help in understanding what it was about. (Forget Gods, humans are what humans are, better just to die. well... yeah... duh) The learnedness of it is striking -- but at times, again, sometimes it isn't.<br />
<br />
Somehow the book hasn't left me feeling uplifted or with a sense that I've learned something. Two things I think I probably expected to feel from this much lauded work. Instead, I thought: this would make a decent tv show. If they could tighten up the plot.<br />
<br />Thomas Quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01017982027162041620noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6874788180752157761.post-19287300616179965752012-08-19T09:23:00.002+01:002012-08-19T09:23:35.298+01:00EL James | Fifty Shades of ... oh whatever... | Why it is OK to NOT finish a bookTime, as the saying goes, is of the essence.<br />
<br />
We are busy people. We have jobs -- some of us. We have kids, commitments, clubs, activities. We need to cook dinner, exercise off the fat, and indulge in various cultural activities that stop our brains turning to soup.<br />
<br />
So what we do not need is to waste our time doing stuff that isn't necessary.<br />
<br />
Like finishing books that aren't... doing it for us.<br />
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You've probably heard of Fifty Shades of Grey. Its a steamy romance that has struck a chord, somewhat bafflingly, with every second person on the planet. Stacks of them are now available at your local Waterstones. Amazon ship them out by the bucket. The author who wrote them is now richer than Midas (fact).<br />
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Well, I got to chapter seven. I think. Crap! I can't remember. I was in a complete... you know. But Crap! I can remember all those Craps!<br />
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I've no problem if people want to read about extreme forms of sexual behaviour. And yes, I really do think butt plugs are a bit extreme (call me old fashioned). But just because everyone else is reading it doesn't mean I need to spend time on a novel that is so patently awful -- wooden characters, bad construction, dreary prose -- when there are so many other well written works to, er, get off on.<br />
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There are those who disagree. My own sister has read all three of the Greys. She hated them from start to finish (she says). Considers them a waste of time (she says). But wanted to read them so when she criticises them she can do so honestly without anyone coming back saying "ah yes but you never read to the end".<br />
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Well, bollocks to that. Life is too short.<br />
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If a book really isn't doing it for me... I toss it off. Yes, sisters, it gets dumped quicker than a billionaire with scabies. I see no point in staying in the red room of pain any longer than I have to. Hell, no one is buying me designer clothes and Apple Mac computers.<br />
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<br />Thomas Quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01017982027162041620noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6874788180752157761.post-86544066508288473272012-08-19T09:12:00.002+01:002012-08-19T09:12:20.279+01:00Young Samurai | Author Chris Bradford | "man mountain"<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Man Mountain</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Authors, by definition, tend to be a bookish bunch. Their
idea of heavy lifting is usually a hardback copy of War and Peace. Not many Mr
Universes write novels for a living, and similarly if there is an international
crisis of some kind you call on James Bond, not the writer who dreamed him up
at the typewriter.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But 38-year-old man-mountain Chris Bradford is a bit
different. A martial arts black belt and expert swordsman, this YA author
practises what he calls “method writing”: if he can’t do something himself, he
won’t include it in his novels.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="https://www.youngsamurai.com/site/YOUN/Templates/General.aspx?pageid=4&cc=GB" target="_blank">In the case of his eight-book Young Samurai cycle</a>, this
didn’t just involve a three-week trip to Japan to scout out settings but also a
long-term commitment to furthering his knowledge of the orient’s deadliest
secrets.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“I’ve been doing martial arts since I was eight-years-old – I
started off with judo and then moved on to karate. I’ve done a lot of different
styles as I’ve moved around the world,” he says. “I trained in <i>Iaido</i>, which is the art of the sword or the way of the
sword, because what I wanted to do was to allow readers to feel like they were
the heroine and they are wielding the sword.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“And the only way to do that I think is to do what I call method
writing. I go out there and learn that skill, learn how to do it, and I
recreate that passion in the books. What I find, personally, is that the truth
is far more interesting and impressive than anything you can make up.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">The </span><i style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">Young Samurai</i><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">
books are a pacy, thrill ride through 17</span><sup style="font-family: Calibri; line-height: 115%;">th</sup><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"> century Japan in the
company of an English lad, Jack Fletcher, who trains as a Samurai.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In the 1600s, Japan was a closed society ruled by a military
elite. The Samurais, loyal only to their overlord, the Shogun, policed the
coastline and, in the main part, prevented westerners from securing a foothold.
However, these warriors also coveted Europe’s technology and weapons, so
limited trading rights were granted.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It’s great fun, escapist stuff, which boys in particular will
lap up. In the opening book, <i>The Way of the Warrior</i>,
Jack is just 13 at the start of the books when his father and crewmates on
board a British trading vessel are all slaughtered by Ninja pirates. Jack
survives and is taken in by a local family.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Bradford admits his books share the same source as James
Clavell’s 70s bestseller <i>Shogun</i> – the
English sailor William Adams who became an honorary Samurai and the second most
powerful man in Japan. “I thought what if William Adams had had a son – and he
was the one to survive? What would have happened then?” Bradford says.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“I imagined Jack going to a martial arts school. That would
have been fine but I thought it would be even better if I could say that these
schools actually existed. That kids actually trained as samurai – at that age. </span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">Then I found out about a guy, Miyamoto Musashi, who was a </span><i style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">kensei</i><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">
– a “sword saint”. He actually had his first real duel 13 years old and he was
fighting an adult with a real sword while he had wooden sword, a </span><i style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">bokken</i><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">, but he still managed to win.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Another winning element as far as young teens are concerned
is the fact that the Samurai, of course, were the template for <i>Star Wars</i> creator George Lucas’ Jedi Knights – who used
light sabres in place of swords, and wore robes instead of trousers. Once
you’ve seen <i>The Empire Strikes Back</i>, the world of
Samurai honour, their belief in Chi – the <i>force</i> of life –
doesn’t seem such a leap.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">They even spoke of a near legendary power called Dim Mak, or
Death Touch, in which the exponent can, in the style of Darth Vader, utilise
“certain pressure points on the human body to destroy your enemy”.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“It is shrouded in myth but it has a strong element of truth
at the core,” says Bradford. “But when I go to schools it is the thing that
gets the kids really excited.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Hey teachers, you have been warned.</span></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">* Young Samurai: Ring of Sky by Chris Bradford
(Puffin, £6.99) is out now</span></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">* <a href="http://www.bigissue.com/features/interviews/1320/chris-bradford-i-learn-skill-and-recreate-passion-books" target="_blank">Read this interview at BigIssue.com</a></span></span></b></div>
Thomas Quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01017982027162041620noreply@blogger.com0