50 years a reader |
An exploration of half a century of reading. |
BOOK 5: The first book I read this month nearly saw me off! I have had little time for 'personal' reading adn Joan Lingard's Dreams of Love and Modest Glory weighs in at 150,000 words. This was an epic read. It took me the best part of a month, in snatched moments early in the day, while cooking dinner and whenever I could get the time. It’s not the ideal way to read a book and certainly not the ideal way to read a book like this. Indeed one thing I learned while reading it, is how different the ‘contemporary’ fiction read is from this. Modern fiction seems to get away with being around 50,000 to 60,000 words – the spacing between lines and the general layout means you can read a book of 250 pages and not really have broken sweat. I’m not used to reading contemporary fiction of 450 pages – though I don’t baulk at reading a 19th century novel of that length. So interesting comparisons abound before we even talk about the book itself. But what about the book itself. The narrative is epic in style too. A couple of young women return to Latvia in the 1990’s to connect with relatives from the past. This part of the story (and it may be the way I had to read it) didn’t work as well for me, it felt like a ‘device’ and I frequently got lost in who was who and what and why they were doing – AND the ‘interesting’ story was their family history. Which went from the 1900’s through till 1940’s and from Aberdeen to Russia and Latvia. This was complex There were twins and that always makes for a good duality theme – and there It was interwoven and the relationships interesting – and the sweep of history was also really engaging. But somehow I felt all too often that I was reading ‘devices’ – I never really got lost in the story. As I say, it may be because this is the kind of book you need a good few hours to sit down on a sofa, disconnect from the outside world and just READ. I had read Joan Lingard’s Belfast Quintet probably about 40 years ago and I never knew till this year that she’d written adult fiction. I should read another one, because I can’t pass any sort of personal opinion on her adult writing – and I should probably re-read the Belfast books – I remember they had a massive impact on me at the time. Perhaps I’m blaming her because this adult novel didn’t have the same impact. Interestingly enough, it covers the period of history I was studying in school much around the same time I was reading her Belfast stories. I don’t know what any of that means except that coincidences abound in life and we like to make connections. Anyway, this was published in 1995, which feels positively historic now in terms of contemporary fiction. I’m sure books like this are being written still – they are not the kind of books I normally read. I’m guessing it’s the kind of Dorothy Dunnett reader who would get the most out of this. Is it ‘intelligent womens’ fiction?’ I don’t know. I still don’t know what most of the ‘classifications’ of literature are any more. They lost me at ‘bonk-buster’ All in all. If you’re interested in the history of Aberdeen and Russia in the early 20th century- if you like to read about families and enjoy consuming history through family saga – then you will most likely enjoy this book. Take it away as a holiday read. Don’t pick at it chapter by chapter like I did. It doesn’t give it the best chance to impress. And that’s my fault, not the authors! BOOK 6: Next up and In complete contrast. The Brilliant & Forever by Kevin MacNeil. Fresh off the press. And a shout out for my local library. Here’s how I found out about it. Dumfries were holding their first ‘literary salon’ (It came to my attention via social media) and Kevin was talking at it. His book sounded interesting so I looked to see if it was available at the library. It was. As was an earlier book. I reserved them both. The other one turned up first, but before I had time to read it, I got the call to pick this one up BRAND NEW and I’m the first reader. Let’s hear it for libraries folks! A free read of a brand new book. It looks quite ‘slender’ but a word count reveals it is probably 85,000 words or so – about half what the Lingard one was. It was going to be relatively easy to read it quickly and certainly more attune to the ‘pace’ I’m used to. While this is a ‘new’ book, it’s clearly been around ‘in development’ as there are loads of quotes by all sorts of ‘important’ people saying how great it is. They fulfil what I would call a brief of 'MARKET HARD.' The front cover told me it was ‘laugh out loud funny.’ I must confess, I didn’t laugh once. i spent more time wondering what is wrong with someone who finds this book ‘laugh out loud funny.’ The other ‘blurb’ was more intriguing. It repeatedly is sold as ‘a novel like no other’ ‘a book that isn’t like anything else’ These of course are hard claims to live up to. ‘A laugh out loud satire on what we value in culture.’ This gets closer to the point. It is a satire on what we value in culture. I’m afraid the only people I can see laughing out loud at it are the ones who are high up the food chain. The Whitehousers and the blackhousers are relatively easy to translate. The alpacas – the jury is still out for me on who they are supposed to represent. ‘The Brilliant & Forever’ will split your sides and break your heart.’ It certainly didn’t split my sides. Did it break my heart? In a way. It offered some interesting insights into the nature of writing and literature – which I suppose might be cynical if they weren’t sad – maybe that’s what makes ‘cultured’ people laugh these days – give cynical a sadness makeover and those people will engage in the way that everyone found Dickens funny but no one recognised themselves. I recognised plenty of folk – but that didn’t make me laugh. It fuelled my general anger. As such I found the book significant and important. Someone is saying some of the things that perhaps need to be said. Obviously part of the author was Archie the Alpaca – but Archie was too much of a cultural outsider to be able to carry the narrative. Perhaps Archie and Macy are both parts of the author’s personality – there’s no duality in the author, more a tripartite – the ‘attitudes’ are shown from this multiple perspective. Maybe it just shows that no ‘outsider’ stands a chance against the elite. The ‘stories’ told at the festival were all interesting in their own right, and would all certainly bear re-reading and closer reading. In that respect it’s the sort of book I like –I could come back to it again and think more about what’s in it – except. Except that come the ending I sort of felt that there had been a ‘sell out’ After all, the author himself (according to the book blurb) now seems to fall into the very camp he is criticising. And they don’t mind. I’m always very suspicious of ‘the maverick within.’ True mavericks are NOT lauded and recognised and feted by the people they criticise. So what has happened to this author? Has he gone over to the dark side. Is he ‘working’ a system. Cynicism and sadness = social satire? I guess it is up to every reader to decide for themselves. I would agree it’s a novel like very few, if not no others. It is clearly influenced by Calvino and Borges. Is it honest or just too clever for its own good. I can’t decide. At times I feel the ‘honesty’ of the author’s views through his characters. At other times I feel it’s playing to a gallery, being a clever kid and perhaps this is the whole dilemma facing writers in our contemporary culture. He is trying to ride an alpaca facing two directions at once. It’s a push me – pull you sort of a novel in that respect. But it’s a cracking good read, all the same. It does make you think. And I suppose I’m glad it didn’t make me ‘laugh out loud.’ It didn’t break my heart because my heart has long ago been broken by the state of literature and culture in my society. But it didn’t help mend my heart on that score, that’s for certain. I guess what I’m trying to show in this monthly round up review is that I am NOT reviewing from the stance of ‘good literature’ or ‘quality’ because the way I’m reading at the moment is far more personal. It’s about the creative communicative connection between me and the author. Which I believe is reading at its best. And since the ‘Beautiful & Forever’ is kind of about that sort of thing, I don’t feel bad about ‘indulging’ myself in that kind of personal review. I’m not, after all, attempting to persuade other readers to go where I have gone, I’m simply on my 50 years a reader personal reflection of things I’ve read, and what reading means for me. That’s NOT a review of a book. It’s a reflection of my life. Read into that what you will. Determined to see whether I could come up with a better conclusion as to what kind of writer I think he is, Immediately after reading ‘The Beautiful & Forever,’ I dove into MacNeil’s earlier book ‘The Method Actor’s Guide to Jekyll and Hyde’. I can review this in four short words: A study in narcissism. Whether that is complement or criticism is up to you – if you read the book I’m sure you’ll have your own views. My current conclusions (which may change with reflection) are that he’s a ‘clever’ writer. Again, whether you take that as compliment or criticism depends on your own view of the point of fiction. BOOK 7: Putting MacNeil aside, since I’ve set myself the task of reading at least 50 Scottish books this year, I needed to crack on and the Lingard set me back in a month when I was really pushed for reading time. So I thought I’d pick a modern ‘indie’ book which would be a fast read and the first one that hit my eye, being recently published was Robert Cowan’s ‘For All is Vanity.’ The title particularly appealed to me after reading the ‘narcissism’ book! I read, but abandoned Cowan’s debut novel ‘The Search For Ethan.’ Not because it’s a bad book in any way, but because I felt like I was becoming a voyeur. Cowan’s books are not ‘easy’ reads in the respect that they get into your skin and ‘The Search for Ethan’ had (for me) the same issues that McIllvanny has – they are about a world I’ve worked hard to escape from. So to read them as ‘escapism’ would be like escaping back into a nightmare. I don’t need to read them to ‘learn’ anything about that world, I know enough about it already. So I felt like a sort of tourist. If I said I ‘enjoyed’ it it would be akin to a kind of textual porn – so I stopped and read something more suited to my search for personal growth! That, as I say, is nothing against Cowan. As should be obvious from the fact that I was happy to pick up ‘For all is Vanity.’ A quick check of the beginning of it on the free Kindle search inside was enough to tell me that it was worth a read. It put me in mind of nothing so much as Gogol – ‘Diary of a Madman’. As I embarked upon it I thought it was kind of ‘if you put Gogol in Strathaven this is what you’d get.’ I was hoist with my own petard in the case of hoping it would be a ‘quick and easy read’ to end my quota of books for the month. It is a totally disturbing read – and I don’t mean that in a bad way! It really charts the demise of a man into mental crisis. That interests me. Not as a voyeur, but as someone who spends a lot of time thinking about personal identity and the relationship between reality for the individual and society. As such this gave me plenty to get my teeth into. Yes, there’s the same grim, bleak darkness of ‘The Search for Ethan’ and possibly none of the humour (I’ve already established that my sense of ‘laugh out loud’ humour is obviously awry – I didn’t find much to laugh about in Ethan – but I’ve only read half of it so I’m not passing comment on the book, only on my ability to read it – or unwillingness given personal circumstances which should NOT be mis-attributed to the writer or his work in any way! But ‘For All is Vanity’ kept me really engaged. And not just like rubber-necking at a car crash. There was depth and plenty of it. It wasn’t a ‘quick’ read in any sense. It was at times quite profound. For me, the biggest moment came in what might have been just a throw away line when Jack reflects that the countryside might offer peace. Amidst the total carnage of the disintegration of his life – and it is total – there was that one moment… and I related to it, because that was my own path to salvation – if we want to be so dramatic as all that! Without being pretentious or over labouring this point, this is why I can’t comfortably read things like ‘The Search for Ethan’ or ‘Doherty’ or other books of that gritty urban realism type. Yes I’ve read ‘Trainspotting’ and ‘Morven Callar’ (which I know isn’t strictly ‘urban’ but for me is every bit as urban as ‘Trainspotting’ ) and all the ‘classics’ of this school of Scottish fiction and they do have a place. It’s just that they represent everything I worked so hard to remove myself from. My success at creating an alternative life, and an alternative vision of life and its possibilities, means that while I can have pity for those stuck in the destructive urban grind, I don’t want to revisit it for pleasure or pain. But a book like ‘For All is Vanity’ rises above the ‘norm’, goes beyond the clichés and says something pretty important about the human condition – at least that’s what did it for me. As I say, profoundly disturbing, raised quite a few ‘ghosts’ and has questions staying in my mind. And the end… well, I’m not going to give that away am I… but suffice it to say that I am impressed by Cowan’s structural coherence. It’s never an easy thing to achieve and certainly not when the coherence sits underneath a novel of dissonance and destruction. A job well done. And I will now have to pencil in re-reading of Gogol, something I’ve not done in 25 years! Where am I going with my reading in April? Well, top of my list is Allan Campbell Maclean’s ‘The Glasshouse.’ Then there’s Crumey’s ‘Mr Mee’ which beckons. After that, we’ll see where the mood takes me. I fancy a bit of Stevenson or Barrie or something that will take me away from modern grimness… but we’ll see. One book leads to another in this journey. But April is looking to be a busy month, so I’m going to be hard pressed to find reading time outside of the ‘work’ related reading commitments.
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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
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