What are you reading now?

[Petrushka]

...the worst ever final chapter stakes.

I finished Andrew Miller's The Land in Winter last week and mostly enjoyed it but found the final few pages decidely odd, as if Miller couldn't wrap up the story and a good candidate for the world's worst final chapter.

I did, though, very much enjoy his characterisation and the chapter on the Boxing Day party is brilliantly funny, sharply observed and with great dialogue. I really felt as if I was there with them! Nice mention of the Willcocks' St John Passion recording which, while not named as such, the giveaway is the description of the LP cover. If you know, you know.

[Ian Thumwood]

I rarely give up with books but i did try a Julian Barnes novel about a school boy suicide and found it unreadable. I never fibished it - i did enjoy either the subject or writing style. Louis De Bernieres felt the same to me too , just not worthy ofthe hype. One of tbe worst was 'The Essex serpent' which looked fascinating and disappointed big time.

Contemporary fiction is a lottery. I tend to stick with writers as opposed to ouevres and go for more literary and unusual topics as opposed to pulpy best sellers. Not a massive fan of American writers yet devour the writing of Claudia Pineiro who is an Argentinian writer about crime and politics.

It is intriguing how wroters like Paula Hawkins churn out best sellers. A lot of popolar stuff is quite shallow but then i would argue with FF that Kate Atkinson is usually on the mark although her last Jackson Brodie was a disappointment. I love Roman history but some of the sword and sandal stuff can be dire.

This thread seems to be split between those who love classic writers and those who prefer contemporary authors. I used to be with the former but now identify with the latter but i still think some if the greats could churn out stinkers.

i do wonder which current writers will still have reputations in 100 years time. I am currently reading an early Rebus novel and feel that he has chronicled Scottish society and politics in his books which draws parallels with Zola capturing French society 150 years ago. I feel they are saying as much about society as crime.

[Pulcinella]

This article, forwarded by my godson in Australia, has made me want to read Graham Greene's The Quiet American again.

https://www.smh.com.au/culture/books/at-15-my-world-was-upended-this-was-a-lesson-i-ll-never-forget-20260120-p5nveo.html

[Ein Heldenleben]

... ah, that I recognize!

I was always amazed that my father, who had an extensive book collection (I hesitate to say 'library'), never seemed to read anything. He explained that 'in his youth' (father William... ) he had read a lot, and had now lost the appetite

And now I can say that 'in my youth' (father William...) I read voraciously - but now just dip in to things, from time to time

Mme v is at the beginning of Ford Madox Ford's 'Parade's End'. I wish her luck...


.

You’ve probably told her : Don’t bother with the final volume. Only eclipsed by Godfather Pt 3 in the worst ever final chapter stakes.

[vinteuil]

Just settling in with The Good Soldier.

... such a good - a great - book. And indeed, as the sub-title has it - 'The Saddest Story Ever Told'

[french frank]

... I think he should probably be filed under H. Or possibly F. Don't think M really permissible

No argument. If I'd filed it under F (just before EM Forster) I'd have found it at once. Instead of that, I thought I must have taken it to the Amnesty bookshop (and now I think about it I don't think I bought - or read - Parade's End). Just settling in with The Good Soldier.

[vinteuil]

Now that I did read with interest, albeit many years ago. Was it serialised on television at some point (not that I saw it)?

Parade's End was serialised, with a very ill-suited (I thought : many critics admired his performance) Benedict Cumberbatch as Tietjens (curiously he couldn't deliver a believable upper-class accent) and a delicious Rebecca Hall as the egregious Sylvia

Just consulted the book shelves: No, not actually Parade's End but The Good Soldier (found between C Mackenzie and K Mansfield )

... I think he should probably be filed under H. Or possibly F. Don't think M really permissible

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Madox_Ford

.

[french frank]

Mme v is at the beginning of Ford Madox Ford's 'Parade's End'. I wish her luck...

Now that I did read with interest, albeit many years ago. Was it serialised on television at some point (not that I saw it)?

Just consulted the book shelves: No, not actually Parade's End but The Good Soldier (found between C Mackenzie and K Mansfield )

[vinteuil]

Maybe I've just gone off novels? Or reading books?

... ah, that I recognize!

I was always amazed that my father, who had an extensive book collection (I hesitate to say 'library'), never seemed to read anything. He explained that 'in his youth' (father William... ) he had read a lot, and had now lost the appetite

And now I can say that 'in my youth' (father William...) I read voraciously - but now just dip in to things, from time to time

Mme v is at the beginning of Ford Madox Ford's 'Parade's End'. I wish her luck...


.

[french frank]

... interesting : is it that you find him too much of a clever-clogs?
.

N-n-no, not that. I don't think I had an opinion about him. The writing didn't engage my interest very much, any more than did Margaret Attwood or Kate Atkinson. Maybe I've just gone off novels? Or reading books? I ploughed through A Briefer History of Time and retained a definition of the Uncertainty Principle but as I thought that was self-evident I probably didn't understand it in the first place

[vinteuil]

I suppose I should give him another go <sigh> but I didn't get on at all with Flaubert's Parrot or A History of the World ...

... interesting : is it that you find him too much of a clever-clogs?


.

[french frank]

For those of you who appreciate Julian Barnes - he's still got it

Memory, illness, death, friendship, love, failing memory, the covid years, France, Proust (in small doses... ), writing, contemporaries....

( ... perhaps I should add that it's very funny)

I suppose I should give him another go <sigh> but I didn't get on at all with Flaubert's Parrot or A History of the World ...

[vinteuil]

.

... with delight, and sadness - Julian Barnes : Departure(s)

As he says, (probably) his last book.

(Predictably) one of my favourite living writers.

For those of you who appreciate Julian Barnes - he's still got it

Memory, illness, death, friendship, love, failing memory, the covid years, France, Proust (in small doses... ), writing, contemporaries....

( ... perhaps I should add that it's very funny)

My wife asked me whether we read Julian Barnes because he is in so many ways our contemporary : do - will - the young read him?
I don't have an answer. But for me he is a constant delight...




.

[vinteuil]

Any Balzac fans out there ?

... o yessssss!

[Ein Heldenleben]

The conquest of Plassans was the point at which i gave up. LBH is the best one. They all follow a similar pattern and i got fed up with them in the end. The ones you list are the better ones , those not published by Penguin were missed for a reason. The low point is supposed to be the one set in a department store.

I think Au Bonheur Des Dames is a superb book. One of the first to tackle the phenomenon of consumerism and probably the first ever about a department store and indeed middle class female shoplifting. Plus the whole theme of the small lower middle class trader being crushed by larger economic forces.
Read most of Rougon- Macquart and the best IMV is L’Assommoir.

Any Balzac fans out there ?