What are you reading now?

[smittims]

The film version of Among Women, starring Tony Doyle, was televised last year . I found it moving.

I'm re-reading The Merchant of Venice, trying to imagine my ideal staging, as I do, but also trying to avoid thinking of Jeremy Irons and Al Pacino in the famous film version.

[Padraig]

A year or so back, my attention was drawn by someone on the Forum to a film running on BBCTV, 'That They May Face the Rising Sun', based on the John McGahern book of the same name. I loved going into that rural Ireland world and found the film magnetic. I had read a couple of novels by McGahern - 'Amongst Women', while being a tough read in places was most wonderfully written. One of my pals had given me a short story of McGahern's, 'The Country Funeral', about three brothers who go from Dublin back to their homeplace to bury a deceased relative - it was captivating, and on the back of it I searched out a book of his short stories. I was not disappointed.
Just before Christmas I was rummaging around in a charity shop in Edinburgh and saw 'That They May Face the Rising Sun' on the shelves, so decided to pick it up. The story concerns a couple, Kate and Joe, who leave London to settle back in the area where he was raised. By the time the book starts they have been there for about ten years. It proceeds to takes us through a year of life in this pastoral setting; in many ways it is a celebration of a world that is passing into history; and it talks about the people who come to inhabit their lives. Nothing much happens, I suppose. It is the most enjoyable book I have read in many a long day, beautifully written and beautifully paced. I was so sad to finish it as I didn't want to leave the place; so have gone back to the short stories to ease myself out. Wonderful writer.

John, thanks for that post. I enjoyed reading it. I'm fairly familiar with John Mc Gahern, and I'll be revisiting him - soon!

I would be interested in the views of anyone who has read So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell. It was first published in USA in 1980 and was published here by Vintage Classics 2025.
It has an introduction by author Ann Patchett, which in itself is a very interesting read. The novel is short in length - at 153 pages.

[LMcD]

The film version of Among Women, starring Tony Doyle, was televised last year . I found it moving.

I'm re-reading The Merchant of Venice, trying to imagine my ideal staging, as I do, but also trying to avoid thinking of Jeremy Irons and Al Pacino in the famous film version.

We were lucky enough to see Mr & Mrs Olivier at the Old Vic. The supporting cast included Jeremy Brett. It may b hard to believe now, but this production was one of a number recorded and broadcast by ATV. It's available on YouTube.

[french frank]

I would be interested in the views of anyone who has read So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell. It was first published in USA in 1980 and was published here by Vintage Classics 2025.
It has an introduction by author Ann Patchett, which in itself is a very interesting read. The novel is short in length - at 153 pages.

I suffer from total non-recall. I was taken by W Maxwell a while back and at the time bought five of his novels, including So Long ... (which indeed is the shortest). I had just started The Good Soldier when my brother brought me E Stein's The Problem of Empathy. I then became diverted by The Conscience of the Rich. I may be gone some time ...

[smittims]

The Good Soldier I know as a novel by Ford Madox Hueffer (later Ford) . It was scheduled for publication in August 1914 as 'The Saddest Story everTold' but his publishers told him to find a more topical title!

The Conscience of the Rich I know as a novel by CP Snow. I'd be interested to know if you detect a somewhat ungfavourable opinion of women in his novels. I find it a refreshng change from ,say , Elizabeth Jane Howard where all the strong, enduring characters are women and all the men are ineffectual wimps or vile deceivers.

I'm reading Ghosts (Ibsen ) following he splendid TV version with Judi Dench and Michael Gambon.

[french frank]

I'd be interested to know if you detect a somewhat ungfavourable opinion of women in his novels. I find it a refreshng change from ,say , Elizabeth Jane Howard where all the strong, enduring characters are women and all the men are ineffectual wimps or vile deceivers.

I take the view that novelists select and craft their novels according to what they want to say, and that that is how it should be. No, I didn't detect an unfavourable opinion of women in Snow's novels: he lived and worked in male-dominated world and wrote novels of his own experience. Which is fine (by me! ). Alas, I know nothing of EJ Howard or her novels, but if she were describing her own life experience I wouldn't find it inconceivable that men and women would be depicted in the way you suggest. It could be that she wanted to depict what she found or a world as she would like it. In the end it's "just" fiction, isn't it? What one enjoys and criticises says as much about oneself as the object of one's opinions, I imagine.

[Ian Thumwood]

I took a collection of Stephen King's short stories to read on holiday following flattering comments about his writing. Three stories in i have to say they are cliches.

[Padraig]

I was taken by W Maxwell a while back and at the time bought five of his novels, including So Long ... (which indeed is the shortest)

Very adventurous f f.I suspect you detected a quality needing some confirmation; which is why I am 'splashing out' on a further previous book of his - They Came Like Swallows. I understand that this is a valuable companion novel to So Long ... sharing as it does the same initial small cast of characters, though in a different and longer development.

[french frank]

Very adventurous f f.I suspect you detected a quality needing some confirmation; which is why I am 'splashing out' on a further previous book of his - They Came Like Swallows. I understand that this is a valuable companion novel to So Long ... sharing as it does the same initial small cast of characters, though in a different and longer development.

Yes, I have They Came Like Swallows too. The other three that I have are all a bit heftier: The Château, The Folded Leaf and the short stories collected as All the Days and Nights. For a reason I cannot begin to explain, he's 'shelved' in my mind with Ishiguro. Maxwell was writing earlier and in a different sphere but there seems a quiet, workmanlike quality to the writing. Nothing sensationalist or self-consciously 'contemporary'.

I'm surprised - I hadn't realised he wrote over such a long period (just checked): They Came Like Swallows was published in 1937 and So Long ...in 1980.

[smittims]

Still a bit puzzled, ff, and I'm not trying to take issue with you, but while I agree that novelists 'craft their novels according to what they want to say' doesn't that contradict the idea that it's 'just' fiction (and no more) ? I always feel that Howard and Salley Vickers, to take another example, are preaching anti-male feminism. It's not disturbing to me; I guess they're writing for readers who already agree with what they say , and this helps them cultivate a faithful following. I prefer to make up my own mind.

I don't know if you know Iris Murdoch's The Black Prince, but I think this is a 'problem ' novel in the way that word is used of some of Shakespeare's plays. It's told in the first person, by a middle-laged male character who relates, from his own point of view of course, his successes and failures in cultivating relationships with women, and with one young woman in particular. In 'first-person' novels (e.g. Kidnapped or Jane Eyre) one tends , or is encouraged , to sympathise with the narrator, and Murdoch will have known well this usually-unwritten convention. . . At the end of The Black Prince, however, the female characters briefly tell their version , which contradicts the narrator's account, portraying him as an evil predator.

I guessed that I was expected to see this as the truth and the narrator's accoiunt as a lie, but as I dislike being 'preached at' I felt it just as likely that the women were lying. Maybe Murdoch foresaw this and deliberately left the idea open. Was I meant to realise what this 'said about myself' as a reader? In which case the novel isn't 'just ' fiction, hmm?.

[french frank]

Still a bit puzzled, ff, and I'm not trying to take issue with you, but while I agree that novelists 'craft their novels according to what they want to say' doesn't that contradict the idea that it's 'just' fiction (and no more) ? I always feel that Howard and Salley Vickers

Whåt strikes me, on the other hand, as more than a little odd is how you come to be so well acquainted with all these novelists that I've never read (yes, I know their names). If I read the blurb I'd be unlikely to proceed any further. Nor do I read what I perceive as contemporary(ish) male-oriented books abour war, spies and ripping yarns of derring do. And you listen to Woman's Hour too.

PS May I recommend Edith Stein's The Problem of Empathy?

[vinteuil]

PS May I recommend Edith Stein's The Problem of Empathy?

.

https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/culture/38868/edith-stein-and-the-power-of-empathy

.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Still a bit puzzled, ff, and I'm not trying to take issue with you, but while I agree that novelists 'craft their novels according to what they want to say' doesn't that contradict the idea that it's 'just' fiction (and no more) ? I always feel that Howard and Salley Vickers, to take another example, are preaching anti-male feminism. It's not disturbing to me; I guess they're writing for readers who already agree with what they say , and this helps them cultivate a faithful following. I prefer to make up my own mind.

I don't know if you know Iris Murdoch's The Black Prince, but I think this is a 'problem ' novel in the way that word is used of some of Shakespeare's plays. It's told in the first person, by a middle-laged male character who relates, from his own point of view of course, his successes and failures in cultivating relationships with women, and with one young woman in particular. In 'first-person' novels (e.g. Kidnapped or Jane Eyre) one tends , or is encouraged , to sympathise with the narrator, and Murdoch will have known well this usually-unwritten convention. . . At the end of The Black Prince, however, the female characters briefly tell their version , which contradicts the narrator's account, portraying him as an evil predator.

I guessed that I was expected to see this as the truth and the narrator's accoiunt as a lie, but as I dislike being 'preached at' I felt it just as likely that the women were lying. Maybe Murdoch foresaw this and deliberately left the idea open. Was I meant to realise what this 'said about myself' as a reader? In which case the novel isn't 'just ' fiction, hmm?.

Elizabeth Jane Howard was married to Kingsley Amis , one of the all time greatest serial adulterers so it’s just possible her attitude to (some ) men was shaped by that.

[smittims]

I didn't know that. I wonder what she saw in him then? Presumably she did decide to marry him. I mean , he didn't drag her off on his sledge a la Lemminkainen?

I don't know ,ff, why you find it odd that I (and many other people) choose to read widely and try to see others' points of view. I do like to be fair. And I don't want to criticise anything until I've tried to understand it. I think it's all too easy nowadays to stay in our own comfy circle and read and hear only things that confirm our previous beliefs.

I thought I had explained this before .

I don't pretend there's anything virtuous in wanting to see the other side of the hill,especially when I haven't been more than a mile from my house since November!. (actually I think ALDI might be just over a mile but it's a nice walk and it's surrounded by by birds chirruping in the trees.

[Serial_Apologist]

I didn't know that. I wonder what she saw in him then? Presumably she did decide to marry him. I mean , he didn't drag her off on his sledge a la Lemminkainen?

I don't know ,ff, why you find it odd that I (and many other people) choose to read widely and try to see others' points of view. I do like to be fair. And I don't want to criticise anything until I've tried to understand it. I think it's all too easy nowadays to stay in our own comfy circle and read and hear only things that confirm our previous beliefs.

I thought I had explained this before .

I don't pretend there's anything virtuous in wanting to see the other side of the hill,especially when I haven't been more than a mile from my house since November!. (actually I think ALDI might be just over a mile but it's a nice walk and it's surrounded by by birds chirruping in the trees.

These days I find my previous beliefs confirmed over and over again, sadly!