I always liked Suede more than Oasis, Blur or Pulp. David Bowie was more of a presence in their music, look and lyrics. Suede also looked more like meI always liked Suede more than Oasis, Blur or Pulp. David Bowie was more of a presence in their music, look and lyrics. Suede also looked more like me and came from the same background. The bands we identify with as teenagers are such a powerful force in moving us away from the oppressive fume of our parents and environment. They give us another world to live in, a world where it's easier to find and know ourselves. This book is the singer's account of his early life before fame arrived. It's a depiction of the dead-end suburban world he seeks to escape. It's quickly evident that, like me, he grew up reading NME and writers like Paul Morley who rarely used one word when he could use three. Every sentence swarms with adjectives and lyrical glitter. It's interesting that he still has a tendency to sees things from inside the bubble of his fame and has an inflated notion of Suede's importance in the grand scheme of things. He doesn't shy away from blowing his own trumpet. His mother dies before he has recorded a single song and that is the great sadness haunting the narrative. That she will never know what he achieved with his life. He wrote the song "The Next Life" about her which along with "Europe is our Playground" is my favourite Suede song. ...more
The wealth of detail in this book is remarkable. Almost every aspect of daily life in England during the war years is covered. The author has reached The wealth of detail in this book is remarkable. Almost every aspect of daily life in England during the war years is covered. The author has reached out to a multitude of individuals for first hand experiences and observations. For anyone writing a book or making a film about the war as experienced in England this book is probably essential reading. My only reservation is that for the common reader there's probably too much information. ...more
I bought this in a charity shop without realising it was part of an epic series of books. It's a fictionalised first hand account of the war years in I bought this in a charity shop without realising it was part of an epic series of books. It's a fictionalised first hand account of the war years in London. The narrator is a liaison officer working with Britain's allies, first the Poles then the Belgians. There are some fascinating details - for example that the lake in St James' Park was emptied so as not to make the area easy to identify for German bombers. No novelist has included that detail. I can ever recall a couple of characters in novels who walk through St James' Park with no mention there's no water in the lake. A lot of the novel though was lost to me because of its focus on characters I didn't know from previous novels. There were some wonderful passages. I especially enjoyed a comic character called Widmerpool. Powell writes very well. I'm almost tempted to read the entire saga but not quite. ...more
The Night watch is about sexual outsiders - a lesbian triangle, a gay young man and his sister who is having an affair with a married man. It all takeThe Night watch is about sexual outsiders - a lesbian triangle, a gay young man and his sister who is having an affair with a married man. It all takes place in London from 1941 to 1946. It has an odd backwards structure which was the least successful feature of the novel for me. It begins in 1946 and ends in 1941. What best worked was how vividly the author evoked London in the war years. Her attention to detail was masterful, especially the ambulance service one of the women belongs to and her forays into the bombed London streets. It's probably a little too long - 502 pages - but, on the whole, a thoroughly rewarding read. ...more
It pains me to say this because I usually love her books but I didn't love this. The story itself is good and very well researched but I found the chaIt pains me to say this because I usually love her books but I didn't love this. The story itself is good and very well researched but I found the characters flimsy and the tone overly flippant. ...more
Beautifully written and well constructed but I found Warlight a rather cold novel, a little soulless and also one that prompted as much impatience in Beautifully written and well constructed but I found Warlight a rather cold novel, a little soulless and also one that prompted as much impatience in me as pleasure. There were times when I thought this might be because there's too much research in it. We learn about all kinds of odd professions and pastimes as if these are the only kinds of facts that can be relied on.
The heart of the novel involves a son's quest to learn more about his mother who was some kind of secret agent during the war and whose activities are shrouded in secrecy. Throughout the novel as much information is withheld as revealed. And even when revealed it's clear it's little more than conjecture on the part of the narrator. So we never really learn what is true. Though nothing in the novel is unrealistic neither is it wholly realistic as if we're caught in some netherworld half way between fact and fiction. This might be clever but it often kept me at an emotional distance from the narrative. 3.5 stars. ...more
I loved Carey's Oscar and Lucinda but found this a bit disappointing. It's a variation of Charles Dickens' Great Expectations and while Carey strips aI loved Carey's Oscar and Lucinda but found this a bit disappointing. It's a variation of Charles Dickens' Great Expectations and while Carey strips all sentimentality from the tale he doesn't succeed in plumbing the depths of human nature that Dickens did. It often comes across as a rather flippant novel, a bit of fun. As in Great Expectations we have the convict (Maggs) and his devotion to a young boy who shows him kindness when he is on his way to Australia. He becomes rich in Australia and grants the boy a generous yearly stipend. The trouble starts when Maggs returns to London, wanting to make himself known to the young man he considers his son. For me, the best parts of this book were the flashbacks to Jack's life of crime as an orphan child when he is cajoled by a Fagan-like character to break in to elegant houses by climbing down the chimneys. The adult Maggs and his adventures interested me less. He gains employment as a footman in a house run by a former fishseller who operates a kind of literary salon. Here, Maggs meets a writer who shares many of Dickens' traits and who dabbles in hypnotism. His adopted son lives next door. The exuberant implausibility of Oscar and Lucinda was one of its magnificent achievements; the implausibility of parts of this novel, on the other hand, was irritating, sometimes veering towards pantomime. The prose was disappointing too. It was like Carey was writing this as a pastime. Somehow I never felt his heart was in it. ...more
Whenever I read about the English civil war I always have an irrational hope that this time Charles will win. And whenever I walk past the Houses of PWhenever I read about the English civil war I always have an irrational hope that this time Charles will win. And whenever I walk past the Houses of Parliament I’m irritated by the statue of Oliver Cromwell, standing there as though he was some kind of steadfast patron of civilised life and freedom of choice. This is a man who once said that hanging Irish soldiers was “a righteous judgement of God upon these barbarous wretches”. Cromwell always believed he had a personal hotline to God. One way of evaluating him would be to imagine his army let loose in Italy. Basically we’d have lost many of the art treasures we cherish. Michelangelo’s Pieta for one would have been smashed to bits with hammers. If there has to be a statue outside the Houses of Parliament perhaps it should be of John Lilburne, a more sincere advocate of universal suffrage and a man Cromwell cynically exploited and then imprisoned. When Cromwell was ruling Britain it was a bankrupt military dictatorship, a police state where theatre and taverns were banned and people were arrested for showing any sign of enjoying themselves on Christmas day. In other words, the common man was worse off unless he was a religious bigot. Democracy would have arrived with or without Oliver Cromwell and the beheading of Charles. But because of Cromwell’s religious bigotry the troubles in Ireland were to continue until the end of the last century.
It took me an eternity to read this very long book. No question the author does an admirable job in gathering and organising his research but what he failed to do for me was bring it alive. He lacked narrative skill. He failed to entertain or be genuinely thought-provoking. The book is overburdened with facts. Often largely irrelevant information was given the same prominence as the key moments in the conflict. Also, it was far too pro-Cromwell and the regicides for my liking. The author didn’t strike me as much of a psychologist. He offered very little in the way of insight. He’s constantly apologising for Cromwell excesses with the caveat that it’s only in our day and age that his actions might seem overly puritanical. I’m pretty sure they would have seemed puritanical at the time to everyone who didn’t believe they had been chosen by God to save the world and certainly to everyone of the Catholic faith. It’s difficult to work out if Cromwell was first and foremost a religious bigot or a vainglorious opportunist. There’s no question he was a great war general. And that he was in touch with the puritanical spirit of the times which he exploited for his own ends. What exactly those ends were remains cloudy. He wasn’t the worst of Charles’ enemies – I’d hand that award to the outrageously pompous and self-satisfied John Pym. But personal ambition seemed a far bigger motivation in Cromwell than any love for the common man. He perhaps revealed his true colours when he gave his insignificant mother a state funeral and buried her in Westminister Abbey, a very telling detail in understanding Cromwell the author excludes from his text. Just as he excludes from his text Charles’ stay in Madrid as a young impressionable man when he witnessed a king being treated as a god. The author also gave little importance to his friendship with Stafford whose execution haunted Charles and probably clouded his judgement at key moments. He was dealing with men who had killed his friend. Who of us would be able to view such men without succumbing to a stubborn hatred? The author however dismisses Stafford as an adventurer and flits over his trial and execution as if the Puritans were well within their rights to execute him as a traitor. Ultimately Charles may have been a stubborn indecisive man who made some fatal mistakes at crucial moments but he wasn’t a tyrant. The crown had been faring well in England. James was a tolerant king and we all know about Elizabeth. Even Henry VIII, wives apart, was a decent ruler. The English civil war was essentially a religious war rather than any kind of genuine demand for social change. It achieved virtually nothing positive. And, ironically, it began in Scotland.
Perhaps my loathing of the puritans dates back to my schooldays when the crushing boredom of being made to read John Bunyan and Milton almost put me off reading for life. I find nothing in this period of British history to make me proud of my nationality. I thank Charles for bringing so much splendid art into Britain. I thank Cromwell for nothing....more
Four characters who all grow up on the same estate in the London borough of Willesden and who, as adults, are all ultimately linked by one event that Four characters who all grow up on the same estate in the London borough of Willesden and who, as adults, are all ultimately linked by one event that takes place there.
Leah and Natalie are best friends with that inevitable period of falling out for a couple of years. They are of the same generation as my own daughter so at times I felt like I was given an insight into aspects of her secret life, one or two a little worrying! This friendship was movingly detailed. To begin with we read about Leah as a married adult, her equilibrium unsettled by a demanding stranger arriving at her door, a ghost from the toxic estate on which she grew up. Leah’s story will then continue through the Natalie narrative which is composed of chronologically paced snapshots. We are taken back to their childhood and teenage years. Natalie is the most socially successful of the characters, a barrister, married to a beautiful man and mother of two children. She too though will be revisited by her background. Natalie is perhaps the most puzzling character and maybe the least successful, odd because she shares more attributes with Zadie Smith herself than any of the others. The two males, Felix and Nathan get shorter thrift. Both are black and both fall prey to the most negative social stereotyping of young black men. “Everyone loves up a bredrin when he’s ten. With his lickle ball ‘ead. All cute and lively. Everyone loves a bredrin when he’s ten. After that he’s a problem. Can’t stay ten always.” Felix is on the road to redemption; Nathan is falling deeper into a life of crime.
Essentially this is a brilliant character study of an urban environment at a specific time in history. Almost like a documentary chronicling the cultural props and changes of a decade on London’s streets. Smith’s eye for telling detail is particularly impressive. ...more
This is Amis’ first novel, written when he was in his early twenties. I greatly enjoyed his middle period but gave up on him after reading a couple ofThis is Amis’ first novel, written when he was in his early twenties. I greatly enjoyed his middle period but gave up on him after reading a couple of his more recent novels – Yellow Dog and House of Meetings. Then I came across this in the garden shed and realised I’d never read it…
Martin Amis has a talent for creating obnoxious characters and the narrator of The Rachel Papers, Charles Highway, certainly fits this bill. Except, unlike in his middle period when he somehow managed, almost like a conjuring trick, to cajole you into sympathising with his villains, the obnoxious character in The Rachel Papers remains obnoxious.
Charles Highway is about to turn twenty. He’s also about to go up to Oxford. Rachel is his first attempt at an adult relationship. His pursuit of her is conducted with a scholarly attention to detail. In fact it soon becomes clear she is little more than a projection of his colossal vanity. Charles describes himself thus: “Thinking back, actually, 'self-infatuation' strikes me as a rather ill-chosen word. It isn't so much that I like or love myself. Rather, I'm sentimental about myself.” Amis has lots of fun sending up the writer because this is also a novel about the writing process. He shows us, cleverly from three steps removed – the writer watching the writer turn life into writing - how the author transposes experience into material, shows us the cynic and the self-serving scavenger in the writer.
The humour is often rather puerile and rather smug, lots of “hawking” and other jokes about body effluents but there’s no denying a well-controlled mastery of his theme and a fair bit of entertainment along the journey. ...more
Of course if you loved Wolf Hall you’re going to love this too. It’s slightly different in tone and texture to Wolf Hall though. Less richly dense andOf course if you loved Wolf Hall you’re going to love this too. It’s slightly different in tone and texture to Wolf Hall though. Less richly dense and intimate; quicker paced, covering as it does a much smaller time frame than Wolf Hall. I read somewhere Mantel heeded criticism of her excessive and confusing use of the pronoun he in Wolf Hall. And it’s true she is much clearer here, always referring to Cromwell by name whenever there might be confusion. What this does is remove some of the sympathetic intimacy we feel for Cromwell. In fact, you realise what a stroke of genius it was in Wolf Hall. For the first time there are moments when we see him as something of a calculating despot, we begin to have an inkling of why he was hated so much. We see the Michael Corleone in him. It’s fascinating that all the men eventually accused of sleeping with Ann are men against whom he has a long standing personal grudge. Men who were involved in Wolsey’s fall from grace. Cromwell becomes like Wolsey’s avenging angel, as if it’s been Wolsey all along he’s been working for and not the King. Reading between the lines you feel Mantel thinks these men were guilty but not guilty as charged. In other words, they all probably mocked the king while flirting with Ann but probably didn’t sleep with her. I’ve watched a few programmes asking the question whether or not Ann was guilty as charged. Those who are convinced she was innocent usually refer to her last will and testament in which she denied all charges. They say she would not lie, knowing she was about to die and about to meet her maker, that she would not risk an eternity in Hell by making a false statement. However Mantel states in the afterword that Ann’s testament didn’t survive and what we have is a fiction composed years later. Posing the likelihood that biographers, no less than novelists, take huge liberties with the truth.
I can’t wait for the third and final instalment of Cromwell’s story. ...more
It's almost as though this novel was written by two different authors. The descriptive writing is brilliant, beautifully crafted and often philosophicIt's almost as though this novel was written by two different authors. The descriptive writing is brilliant, beautifully crafted and often philosophically incisive; the dialogue on the other hand is relentlessly flippant like sitcom banter. What this means is the characters remain rather flimsy. (Hugh Grant could effortlessly play all the male roles in a film!)
The two central characters are naïve, good-hearted blunderers, trying to preserve peacetime ethics in a time of war. All the characters in this novel blunder their way somewhat ineptly through the war. Mary begins an affair with a man who is her social inferior and befriends a black orphan child during her stint of teaching. Racism and social snobbery in Britain are two of the novel's underlying themes. To be honest I found both rather heavy-handed and unconvincing. The Blitz is such an iconic moment in British self-love - that notion of standing alone against the evil empire. Obviously it wasn't all self-sacrifice and courageous team spirit and though Cleave focuses on darker forces at play in the British psyche they feel pasted on rather than any integral part of the novel's narrative. The parts I enjoyed most were the depictions of the siege on Malta.
So, excellent when it focuses on the war itself; a bit cheesy and contrived when it turns its attention to social platforms. ...more
“It's the living that turn and chase the dead. The long bones and skulls are tumbled from their shrouds, and words like stones thrust into their rattl“It's the living that turn and chase the dead. The long bones and skulls are tumbled from their shrouds, and words like stones thrust into their rattling mouths: we edit their writings, we rewrite their lives.”
I remember at school how it is was impossible to like both Thomas More and Thomas Cromwell. To admire one you had to take exception to the other, just as one does when assessing any war. Certainly there was a strong case for Thomas More being an admirable man of principle and Cromwell a bit of a thuggish opportunist. Thomas More as the last representative of the medieval sensibility and Cromwell as the representative of a more utilitarian municipal sensibility.
Mantel uses a very simple but effective trick to get us to like Cromwell – she depicts him as a vulnerable but enterprising child, beaten often by his thug of a father, as an attentive husband, a loving father and a generous friend. In his homelife he is tremendously engaging and good hearted. He protects the vulnerable, takes care of the destitute. He is the champion of the underdog. She further stokes our liking of him by turning most of his adversaries into unpleasant individuals. You could almost say Mantel bullies us a bit into disliking his foes. The lords are all shown as arrogant overbearing snobs who look down on Cromwell because of his low birth. While Mary Boleyn gets affectionate treatment from Mantel, the rest of the Boleyn clan are shown as monsters of scheming malice. And when we discover More has put men on the rack for reading the wrong books and even for providing hospitality to men who have read the wrong books we lose what sympathy we had for him. Cromwell, on the other hand, is never shown resorting to cruelty to achieve his ends. At the same time Mantel does a brilliant job of showing us how precarious Cromwell’s power is, though she doesn’t perhaps help us understand why he was so almost universally disliked. The implication is that he was resented because he rose to power from such humble origins. There’s a sense here of the British inclination to knock down anyone who climbs to the top of the tree. So his power is sustained solely by the good opinion of a neurotic king, prone to wild mood swings. The prototype of how fickle Henry is provided by his treatment of Cromwell’s former beloved employer, Wolsey.
The great triumph of this novel though is the imaginative verve with which Mantel brings Cromwell to life. She gives Cromwell a voice that is both distinctive and haunting. And her passion for her subject is always evident and highly contagious. And then of course there’s the rich evocative beauty of her prose. The scenes themselves, written in highly visual prose and usually short, often reminded me of the pictorial storytelling of tapestries which I found very clever.
I’m not sure it matters how many imaginative liberties Mantel has taken with the truth of Cromwell because you could argue there is no such thing as definitive truth where the past or identity is concerned. Mantel gathers all the available information and makes a gripping and profoundly moving story of it. There are no jarring falsehoods in her telling of this story. ...more
“My theme is memory, that winged host.” There’s a haunting elegiac beauty to this novel which maybe makes it seem a little better than it really is. T“My theme is memory, that winged host.” There’s a haunting elegiac beauty to this novel which maybe makes it seem a little better than it really is. The writing is gorgeous, especially when Waugh is dealing with the passing of time. He’s rather like the English Fitzgerald in this book – the nostalgia for youth and high emotion, the mourning an era which he beautifully romanticises and painting what follows as grey and turgid. The characters are all brilliantly conceived and drawn, uniquely memorable and contributing vital current to the book’s plot. It’s also a fascinating study of Catholicism and the nature of faith. Socially it’s an extremely conservative novel. Waugh does not like change but it’s this stubborn conservatism that allows him to create such a powerful atmosphere of heartbreaking nostalgia. ...more
Loading...
