50 years a reader |
An exploration of half a century of reading. |
BOOK 29: Whisky Galore I straddled August into September by reading Compton Mackenzie’s ‘Whisky Galore’ on a recommendation – although the recommendation was more of a ‘what the???’ But I wanted to see for myself. Long ago I saw the film and didn’t rate it –I’m not into black and white comedy – but with the new film about to come out and folks talking about it, I thought I’d go back to the source. It was an interesting book, and much less of a comedy than the film. There were a lot of serious points made about the war and its impact on rural and especially island communities. I’m not claiming this is some kind of classic novel, but I suggest it’s well worth reading before you see the new film version. BOOK 30: The Quarry I haven’t read any Iain Banks before. I’ve had a compilation of Wasp Factory and a couple of others over a decade ago, dipping into it and never going any further. This is rare for me. If I buy a book I tend to read it. Anyway, I thought I’d start afresh, so reading his final work seemed as good a place as any. (One day I will also investigate his science fiction writing but sci-fi, along with thrillers, feels like revisiting a mis-spent youth so I keep putting it off) I don’t know how representative of his writing The Quarry is but I did enjoy it. Though enjoy probably isn’t the right word. I appreciated it. The central character is a boy on the Autistic Spectrum, pretty accurately portrayed. And the character ‘behind’ but in essence dominating, is his dying father. Given that Banks knew he was dying as he was writing the novel, it’s hard not to see fact in the fiction. There is something compelling about trying to understand what one may feel like knowing one is about to die – and that in itself drew me into the novel –which I’ll confess I read in two sittings. I don’t know whether Banks is given to the ‘diatribe’ but the dying Guy launched into a couple of those and it seemed very likely this was Banks throwing caution to the wind and saying what he thought, now that he had nothing to lose. It’s interesting how he chose to merge author with character, and for me, that merging is an interesting aspect of fiction in its own right. In this case I felt he had every right to, and I reserve judgement on whether I think it was indulgent or not until I’ve read more of his work and know more about his style. Even if it was indulgent, I feel he had every right to be so in his dying work. It reminded me so much of Dennis Potter’s ‘legacy’ works Karaoke and Cold Lazarus, which ‘get even’ with so many of his perceived demons and enemies. One can only feel glad that at least both men got the chance to ‘have their say’ unfettered before they died. I suspect it wasn’t possible for Terry Pratchet to do likewise, at least not in fiction (but I’ve never read any Terry Pratchet so I really don’t know what I’m talking about here.) Anyway, The Quarry worked for me on a number of levels and it’s certainly got me eager to read more of Iain Banks work. He’s on the list. BOOK 31: Jackie Baldwin Dead Man’s Prayer. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve said that crime thrillers are not my thing. Crime, particularly I think I overdosed on Agatha Christie as a teen. I always feel that one is faced with an impossible task, that the author is deliberately manipulating one as reader in order to maintain the suspense and surprise ending. And I guess what I like from fiction is a feeling of complicity with the author and characters not pitting my wits against them or being led up a garden path. But I continue to try with both classic and contemporary thrillers in the belief that perhaps I’ll see the light one day. I need a reason to read them though. At the moment I have a good reason in that I’m trying to make sense of some very early examples of the genre (1907-1908) and so getting an overview of how the genre developed seems part of that journey towards understanding. Still. I need another reason to read them. And in this case I knew the author from my days as Writer in Residence but in the context of dramatic writing, so I wanted to see how she had developed into novel writing – something I’ve done myself but off in completely different paths. I really rate Jackie as a writer, and I don’t want to say anything bad about the novel because, like I say, if I find fault it may simply be that she’s writing a very good example of a genre I don’t like and/or don’t understand. So it’s not for me to praise or damn it. I can say I enjoyed it more for the local flavour than I did Aline Templeton’s Galloway police novels. It seems more rooted in the reality of the place. It’s the start of a series and it does read like a novel that has its eye on the commercial market. Again, not usually my cup of tea. So whether I enjoyed it or not isn’t really relevant to anyone else. I can confess that I ‘got into it’ after a while, but that the most significant thing for me about the experience was that it clarified why I don’t read murder/police/thriller type books in general - something I’ve struggled to put into words. I realised that it is because what I like in books is a sense of empathy with the characters (or at least one of them) rather than trying to solve a crime or engaging in some kind of psychological game – or seeing into the eye, or soul, of ‘bad’ or ‘damaged’ people. We all read for different reasons and this book very much helped me come to terms with what it is I like to read. BOOK 32: So it’s interesting that I moved on to Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde. Even more obviously than the previous read, but I found some simliarities, it is about duality of identity. That, when it came down to it, was what finally engaged me with Dead Man’s Prayer. It’s another story I’ve known for ever but not read as a book (or at least not for a long time, but I think , never) I didn’t start ‘enjoying’ it until it came to the first person narrative, the explanation of the events by Jekyll himself. Which sort of consolidated my position. The rest of it was truly interesting, not just for the social context and commentary, or the narrative structure, but it was Jekyll’s attempt to explain himself which captured me. I’m not saying I could empathise with him, but I was captivated by him and his situation. Maybe that’s what is supposed to happen with all crime/thrillers, that you get into the mind of the ‘killer’ but in Jekyll’s case it was less about the crime and more about the destruction of a man – as I say, compelling if not ‘enjoyable.’ And I began to wonder what it is about first person narrative that grips me – perhaps it’s the immediacy which draws me into the story, in my quest for empathy (or at the very least sympathy) for the characters. It’s something I will think about when reading subsequent novels. BOOK 33: Straight after Jekyll and Hyde I read John Galt’s Sir Andrew Wylie of that Ilk. It was a struggle I can tell you. I like Galt more than I like most 18th century fiction, but I still falter with the turgidity of the style. To be fair to him, Galt, and especially here, gives lots of humour and in dialect as well – the story is one of a lad o’ pairts who goes to London and rises in society. It’s obviously somewhat autobiographical. However, I resist all the way these stories of 18th century social manners whoever the author and this one was no exception. I have to admit I found myself skipping parts in order to get more of Andrew himself and his humour – life was just too short to give total attention to each and every word. I guess it’s just a fact – I don’t like the style of 18th century writing whereas, in general, I love the style of 19th century writing (which I know some modern readers find equally impenetrable). Galt is an important (in my view) writer for the development of Scots literature – and he is (just) more readable than Scott, but I still struggled. I just write this off as being a Romantic rather than a Neo-Classicist in taste and don’t worry about it. It’s not Galt’s fault. Along with Scott he is the father of the kind of fiction I enjoy most – but give me Stevenson or Crockett or Barrie any day.
0 Comments
|
AuthorIn 2016 I will have been reading for 50 years. I'm going to celebrate this by reading even more and sharing what I'm reading. Archives
December 2016
Categories
All
|