Me: Have you done a poo, Michael?
Michael: No.
Daniel then grabs his brother by the top of the nappy peers inside and sniffs Michael’s bottom: Yes, poo, Mama.
NaBloPoMo – M is an excellent letter
But first, I forgot Philip Gourevitch under G. “We wish to inform you that tomorrow you will be killed with your families” is a brilliant and appalling book about the genocide in Rwanda. “A Cold Case” which I rushed out and bought on the strength of the Rwanda book was a bit dull. I am unsure.
I also forgot Ursula Le Guin under L yesterday. I like the Earthsea quartet though they do have notions. It’s a fantasy offering about a place called Earthsea aimed at teenagers but I came to her as an adult and found her well worth my time and minimal effort.
Where was I? Oh yes, M.
I once shared a miserable flat in Dublin with a friend and, to abate the misery, she gave me Betty MacDonald’s “Anybody Can do Anything”. It worked. It is very funny as is “The Egg and I”. I must buy more. Do you think that she is still in print?
Nancy Mitford – anything she ever wrote is worth reading. I am not quite so convinced by Jessica. “Hons and Rebels” is fine and interesting by way of mad Mitford background but “The American Way of Death” certainly wasn’t for me. I haven’t tried anything else, what do you think I am, a glutton for punishment?
I am a little ambivalent about Ian McEwan. I loved “Atonement” but I wasn’t so keen on “Amsterdam”. I am holding out on buying “On Chesil Beach” until it comes out in paperback.
I think Blake Morrison has written some of the best books I have ever read. “As if”, his account of the Jamie Bolger murder, an unpromising subject (at least for me) was an astonishing and moving account of the trial of the two boys convicted of the murder, their motivations and their backgrounds. His book about his father “And when did you last see your father?” was also a wonderful book but, obviously, in a very different way. I thought that the book he wrote about his mother was less successful though still very, very good. I would buy anything written by him.
Hey, we all shared a miserable flat in Dublin with someone or other at some time – in fact, I think over my 8 years there I saw 15 flats, all of them equally miserable. So don’t knock it – it’s an important step in growing up, getting a life and getting the hell out of Dublin..!
I loved “Saturday,” but didn’t enjoy “Amsterdam” as much. Still thinking about reading “Atonement.”
it would seem that the dungeon of doom that prevented me from commenting on your blog has opened its gates and let me free. Hurray
McEwan is fab and On Chesil Beach should have won the Booker – even if that’s unpatriotic of me! Given his recent demise, I’d have to include Norman Mailer. Tough Guys Don’t Dance is excellent and apparently hugely autobiographical. The Executioner’s Song is very long but worth it. But the best M for me has to be David Mitchell – who Ms Waffle introuduced to me via a book club – Cloud Atlas was his first and brilliant; Number9Dream was even better. He’s only written three novels so far and I can’t wait for his next, even though Black Swan Green was not as good as the first two.
Correction – Ghostwritten was David Mitchell’s first novel, I just read Cloud Atlas first. So four down, eagerly awaiting the fifth