Entertaining, incredibly well researched but bizarre tale of a 1910 journalist Jacko Jones whose quirky football stories in a newspaper expand into eqEntertaining, incredibly well researched but bizarre tale of a 1910 journalist Jacko Jones whose quirky football stories in a newspaper expand into equally quirky social and political commentary and then increasingly merge with (what passes for) fact in this fictional tale (which nevertheless draws very closely on actual events in the year – including e.g. the siege of Sidney Street (which has not in fact been properly explained), the Tonypandy Riots, the Black Friday police attack on suffragettes, the 1910 elections and lead up to the 1911 Parliament Act, Crippen as well as wider themes: the pre-war preoccupation with Anarchists and German spies; the government’s belief that some of the espionage techniques used in the Boer war should be used to counter them; the “vortex of property” and different views on if it is worth dealing with and if so how – the radical Liberals idea of social security and the (at least in the story) secret Unionist view (also held by Churchill) of forced sterilisation.
Central to the story is the (conventionally) hard to explain attempts of Henry Norris owner of Fulham (and Croydon) to buy the bankrupt Woolwich Arsenal (and Reading), the apparent Government plans to move the Woolwich armaments factor; the strange career of Archibald Leitch – seemingly picked to design football grounds on the basis that he didn’t insist on them being subsequently built properly and was often not paid if something went wrong as a result.
Very surprisingly given the tenor of the author’s website Untold Arsenal – there is no mention of a PGMOL referees conspiracy against Arsenal as the key resolution of the plot. ...more
Much more Kafkesque than his other novels (with unlike some of his other novels a clear “K” type character taking an unwitting role in a threatening dMuch more Kafkesque than his other novels (with unlike some of his other novels a clear “K” type character taking an unwitting role in a threatening dictatorship). Enjoyable enough but reader is left with impression that much of the allegory (other than the obvious 1984 type references to a totalitarian state that goes beyond even informers to analysing dreams with in many cases the dreams and their interpretation a political fabrication) and Albanian historical references (particularly around epic songs) are lost on the Western reader....more
A strange mix: I enjoyed the book initially and the kitchen scenes – particularly everything that surrounds the actual cooking; the characters in the A strange mix: I enjoyed the book initially and the kitchen scenes – particularly everything that surrounds the actual cooking; the characters in the kitchen are initially interesting but end up as either exaggerated (a depressive French pastry chef reinvigorated by Prozac and Viagra) or surprisingly unexplored (a Liberian ex child soldier); the crucial Lena part of the plot is implausible; the gradual re-writing of his own past is very good (and especially that subtlety while he is obsessed with the back stories of others and how their lives have affected them he is blind to the same in his own life) but his own madness unconvincing; ...more
Excellent and thought provoking play about the meeting between Bohr and Heisenberg during the war – the slightly pretentious commentary doesn’t add muExcellent and thought provoking play about the meeting between Bohr and Heisenberg during the war – the slightly pretentious commentary doesn’t add much but does place the play in the context of the themes Frayn pursues in his wider work especially about the impossibility of understanding one’s own motivations let alone another’s and how a novel rather than play can imply greater comprehension than possible; and while Frayn’s own postscript gives too much of the latest analysis by historians of what happened, it does when read quickly give a good background for the play making comprehension of the plot easy....more
9th in the (now rebranded) Roman series featuring Macro and Cato.
On the way back to Rome with Julia and her senator father they are shipwrecked onto 9th in the (now rebranded) Roman series featuring Macro and Cato.
On the way back to Rome with Julia and her senator father they are shipwrecked onto Crete by a small tsunami following an earthquake that has devastated the island. The governor is severely injured and Julia’s father takes control of the relief efforts which quickly turn into a desperate rearguard action and a siege in the remaining citadel against a huge army of slaves led by the gladiator Ajax, an initially reluctant leader of the slaves who becomes consumed by revenge on Rome and then personal revenge on Macro and Cato.
Better than the previous two books although far from brilliant. There are some insights into the view point of slaves and the uneasiness of the Romans when aware of their own treatment of them but also their complete conviction that rebellion against the empire has to be punished by death. Cato’s trip to Alexandra shocks him into realising Rome isn’t the greatest city in the Empire anymore. There are a couple of amusing but anachronistic episodes – Macro’s drills like Windsor Davis and some Greeks asked to make Caltrops propose a design committee to debate how it could be better fashioned. ...more
Two characters - a man and a boy trudge across a post apocalyptic America with few people remaining other than cannibalistic cultish groups and with aTwo characters - a man and a boy trudge across a post apocalyptic America with few people remaining other than cannibalistic cultish groups and with an ash (and corpse) ridden landscape and occasional wrecks of houses or cars long stripped of anything useful. They are heading for the coast surviving on scavenging.
The starkness of much of the prose and dialogue (José Saramago style devoid of "he said" but un-Saramago style also devoid of lengthy discussion e.g. often just "ok") matches the sparseness of the landscape.
The book is ultimately a meditation on human qualities and what is left of finer feelings when else is stripped away. Shocking, profound and deeply moving....more
Lightly written, easy to read and amusing account of pregnancy and baby rearing issues based on a Guardian column (breastfeeding, weight gain in pregnLightly written, easy to read and amusing account of pregnancy and baby rearing issues based on a Guardian column (breastfeeding, weight gain in pregnancy, drinking in pregnancy, epidurals, calpol, infant development – generally her view is to challenge some of the medical consensus as being “nanny state” and simplistic). ...more
Book by famous football journalist and lifelong Arsenal fan whose first books were ghosted biographies of 30s-50s Arsenal stars. The older parts of thBook by famous football journalist and lifelong Arsenal fan whose first books were ghosted biographies of 30s-50s Arsenal stars. The older parts of the book are interspersed with personal reminiscences and anecdotes and at times confusingly structured. At least though it avoids the usual well worn and clichéd stories of each era. The Wenger years in particular are brief game by game descriptions (but without appendices for ease of reference). An OK read but also with errors (e.g. in 1971 Arsenal scored their equaliser in extra time against Stoke and needed a point at Spurs to win the league). ...more
Set in Amsterdam in the 1660s featuring a Portugese Jewish trader – Miguel Lienzo and centred around the Amsterdam exchange and commodity trading (incSet in Amsterdam in the 1660s featuring a Portugese Jewish trader – Miguel Lienzo and centred around the Amsterdam exchange and commodity trading (including monthly settlements, options and illegal short selling).
Unlike the Weaver books Lienzo is not a thief and also there is much less here of great forces at work – more individuals. There are also less obvious themes (just the general development of modern trading ideas in Amsterdam) but a greater focus on the Jewish community and its different status in Amsterdam and Iberia.
Non-fictional account of the lives of the Norfolk based up and coming Paston family at the time of the Wars of the Roses. Some of the Norfolk referencNon-fictional account of the lives of the Norfolk based up and coming Paston family at the time of the Wars of the Roses. Some of the Norfolk references are interesting as are the summaries of the political situation (but the latter are not the main point of the book).
Also interesting is: the combination of warring magnates, weak kings and up and coming courtiers determined to rise their status (possible in a society convulsed first by the Black Death - leading to a rise in the power of the lower social classes - and then by political upheaval and revolutions in the true original sense so that loyalty and fidelity could be rewarded or backfire or often both in alternating succession); the contemporary nature of the letters written demonstrating what people in the Paston's strata really thought; the combination of tortuous legal processes, complex inheritance law and practice (with people often torn between giving all their estate to the eldest or splitting it) and the willingness of powerful individuals to take possession by force and then aim for delaying tactics in the court aided by intimidation of their opponents.
However all of this could have been captured in an essay or better as one or two chapters in book on the period.
In practice the actual narrative describing the ins and outs of the legal delays and various seizures are tedious and the actual quotes from letters almost impossible to follow (even having been re-spelt and partly translated) so that one ends up skipping or skimming huge quantities of text. ...more
Three volumes of the “Deptford Trilogy” each narrated by a different character by way of some form of memoir.
Fifth Business is narrated by Dunstable Three volumes of the “Deptford Trilogy” each narrated by a different character by way of some form of memoir.
Fifth Business is narrated by Dunstable (later Dunstan) Ramsay, a schoolteacher who grows up in the fictional Deptford. The novel takes the form of a letter Ramsay writes to the headmaster of the school from which he has just retired, wherein he recalls how, as a boy, he ducked a snowball wrapped around a stone intended for him. The snowball hit a pregnant woman who happened to be passing by; she gave birth prematurely as a result and then goes mad. This incident has affected Ramsay's life, and the novel tells how he comes to terms with his feelings of guilt. Intertwined with his story is the life of Percy Boyd 'Boy' Staunton, Ramsay's boyhood friend who threw the snowball, and who later becomes a wealthy businessman.
The Manticore is the story of Boy Staunton's only son, David. David Staunton undergoes Jungian psychoanalysis in Switzerland. During his therapy (the book is a record of his therapy plus notes he made for his therapy), he tries to understand his father and his relationship to him. The novel is in fact a detailed record of his therapy and his coming to understand his own life.
World of Wonders is the story of Paul Dempster, the son of the woman hit by the snowball, who after initially being abducted by a circus has grown up to be Magnus Eisengrim, a famous magician. Eisengrim is to portray a 19th century magician in a television movie. During lulls in the filming, he recounts his life to various people including Ramsey, including the incredible obstacles he has had to overcome, and elaborates on his career as an actor travelling through Canada in the early 20th century.
To the extent there is a narrative: Ramsey encounters Dempster various times – eventually as Eisengrim and befriends him and his bizarre girlfriend Leisl including ghosting a completely fabricated autobiography. After introducing Eisengrim to Dempster the latter commits suicide the same day with in his mouth the stone his Dad threw at Mrs Dempster which Ramsey had kept as a paper weight. Ramsey is convinced Eisengrim hypnotised Staunton and effectively murdered him but it seems to have been closer to assisted suicide.
Each book centres largely around myth. Ramsey becomes convinced that Mrs Dempster is a saint (especially after a vision he sees of her in WWI) and devotes his private life to the study of saints and the exploration of their role as myths. The Jungian therapists draws on various mythical individuals and roles which in her view emerge when someone repeats their life story and which repeat the earliest human myths. During Dempster’s reminiscences the various present day characters discuss storytelling, the role of autobiography and film as well as the role of myths in magic. Ramsey and Dempster believe firmly in the marvellous and the need to restore a sense of wonder to the world – David Staunton has always had a completely opposite view but finds his legal rationalism challenged by his therapy.
Key related themes are good and evil, truth and illusion, history and identity, the difference between external perception and internal truth (for example Ramsey writes his letter when he realises from his leaving speech that his fellow teachers and ex-pupils see him as a boring character with no life out of school other than a quaint obsession with saints), the contrast between mundane Canadian provincial life and the bizarre worlds of saints and circuses. Fascinating book verging at many times on the bizarre – although often tedious to read and difficult to follow – the book is effectively a combination of A Prayer for Owen Meany and The Discovery of Heaven although not as good as either....more
Less a biography or memoirs and some distance from a political diary; it is a roughly chronologically but theEnjoyable although not outstanding read.
Less a biography or memoirs and some distance from a political diary; it is a roughly chronologically but theme centred reflection on his premiership and to a large extent an exposition of both the rightness of his past actions and his current views.
Blair comes across as genuine and strongly principled but also someone who believes strongly in his own power of insight and analysis into the problems of the 21st century particularly the war against Islamic fundamentalism which he equates to the Cold War or the war against fascism.
He is also strongly of the view that: the past failures of Labour were the middle class intellectuals disdain for the upward aspirations of the working class and the wrongful identification of the state as being more important than individual freedom rather than a mechanism to achieve it; structural reform was needed to allow the public service to respond to the extra cash invested in it; Iraq was destabilised by the intervention of Iran an Al Qaeda who could not afford a functioning democracy; security and law and order are far more important than some false sense of personal liberty; the Keynesian response to the economic crisis should have been an emergency temporary solution not a paradigm shift; Labour lost 2010 as it stopped being New Labour and alienated the new constituency Blair had assembled over time. ...more
A journalist Braddock is approached in 1953 (on the death of the ex-wife of a famous pre-war financier John Stone) with a pile Literary mystery book.
A journalist Braddock is approached in 1953 (on the death of the ex-wife of a famous pre-war financier John Stone) with a pile of papers which were part of the estate of another journalist (but in fact head of the British secret service) Henry Cort, only to be given to him on the ex-Mrs Stone’s death. He knew both Mrs Stone and Cort from when Mrs Stone hired him in pre-WWI Britain to write a biography of her husband who has died after a mysterious fall from a window. The first part of the book is his notes from that time, the second Cort’s own notes from his dealings in France in the 1890s and the third section is some papers of Stone’s which (in the first part of the book) it emerges that Cort took from Stone’s papers before anyone including Mrs (Elizabeth) Stone could see them.
The style of each part is very different: the first an often humorous pastiche of Edwardian style detective novels – although of the genre where the detective is outwitted at every turn by those he is investigating and blunders from one mistake to another; the second a French style turn of century high society (of the society written about by Proust), but combined with an insight into the emerging worlds of espionage, the armaments industry and the interaction of the leading such firms with national interests, combined with the growing awareness of the power of abstract money to empower or cripple government action; the third a slow-paced mystery set in the melancholic setting of post-occupation, pre-tourist discovery 1870’s Venice – a mix of internalised musings and obsessions combined with partly unexplained dreams and visions and finishing with a resolution which while unifying the story does it to an almost unnecessary level of co-incidental links.
Overall the book is entertaining if a little over-wrought and over-reaching. ...more
Book covers the first wars only up to Edward’s defeat of all his enemies leading to ten years of relative peace before his death.
Fairly well written Book covers the first wars only up to Edward’s defeat of all his enemies leading to ten years of relative peace before his death.
Fairly well written and fairly easy reading with a comprehensive index and especially good introduction setting out the socio-economic background of England in the period before the wars.
The book also sets out the various children of Edward and how his policy of marrying them into powerful families and making them dukes gave rise to a group of magnates and competing dynasties fighting out a cousins war.
Where the book is poorer is how it identifies the characters often simply calling them by the titles they currently hold and of which they are the current holder (both of which can change).
While Henry Tudor is signposted on his appearances Edward by contrast is almost anonymous until just before becoming king. The book also lacks any timeline, summary biographies or simplified family trees and in fact the fully detailed ones provided are in a difficult to read script....more
Really excellent and memorable read, unusually written but satisfying as matches interesting and deep themes with a well written, and internally coherReally excellent and memorable read, unusually written but satisfying as matches interesting and deep themes with a well written, and internally coherent and consistent (if extremely bizarre) plot and with interesting characters: the narrator obviously but also the facilitator Naz – initially someone who arranges the diaries and lives of rich people but who becomes with this assignment an obsessive information management junkie, actually encouraging the narrator’s obsession rather than checking it.
Naz’s enthusiasm therefore reinforces the narrators descent into increasingly bizarre re-enactments: first of a trivial incident a tyre repair yard, then a shooting near his house and then more an enactment – of a made-up robbery on a local bank, before finally deciding to stage the re-enactment with real people which descends into an actual robbery and the death of an unwitting actor.
Themes of this very consciously literary and theme-exploratory book include:
Matter and substance - including both the physical matter and impressions left behind by actions & the idea that creation like the common quote re sculpting from marble is about stripping away the unimportant to get down to the residual/remainder/essence);
Reproduction/recreation/re-enactment – the idea that we re-enact scenes in our mind but also in everyday life we consciously play out roles e.g. from films or for others or our own benefit. The re-enactments acquire a meta level by the end when he starts thinking of how actual robbers rehearse robberies and decides to stage an enactment indistinguishable from a robbery....more
Very good and engrossing read, well written - at times uplifting (especially when Minny and Aibleen are congratulated by the church for their achievemVery good and engrossing read, well written - at times uplifting (especially when Minny and Aibleen are congratulated by the church for their achievements) but more often shocking in terms of its portrayal of the ingrained and institutionalised racism of the Deep South – particularly the violent reaction to anyone who tries to fight against it (especially if black).
The book is narrated by the three characters in turn and each has a convincing voice and sub-story.
The book is also convincing in portraying the increasing anger but powerlessness of the blacks in this society and Aibleen’s attempts to instill in her latest charge both a sense of her own worth (as the baby’s mother is openly hostile and derogatory to the baby) and more daringly stories of the equality of different races. The sub-plot of Miss Skeeter’s rebellion against her mother’s expectations while at the same time delighted to be dating the pretentious son of a racist senator and the confusion in her attitude to her mother caused by the latter’s cancer is excellent and adds more depth to the book as does Minny’s relationship with her wife-beating husband and the struggles of her employer (a white trash girl married to Hilly’s ex-boyfriend who it turns out employed Minny so she could rest in bed to try and protect her secret unborn baby).
The ending doesn’t really go anywhere. However it is hard to see what ending would be possible: a downbeat ending wouldn’t fit the undercurrent of redemption in the book (and the slight context of wish-fulfilment by the author about it would seem how she would have wished to act had she have been older in this period); an upbeat one would simply not fit the facts of the 1960s.
The other white characters – especially the fiercesome Hilly are in some ways great characters but strangely difficult to place in terms of their age being somewhere between domineering High School girls and Stepford Wives....more
Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer
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Books:
2010
(57)
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