Reading etc.

I went to see Wendy Cope at a poetry reading. I thought that she was surprisingly tetchy for someone who writes a lot of funny verse but maybe it was just the weather. There’s a joke to be made there somewhere – talk among yourselves and get back to me.

She was reading with Dennis O’Driscoll who was a lovely man and rather cowed by her, I thought. Though perhaps he did provoke her slightly.

In discussion afterwards, Dennis O’Driscoll said that Ireland was a great place to be a poet and Wendy Cope said that in England, nobody could name three contemporary poets. Both of these comments seem a bit unlikely to me but reader, tell me, can you name 3 contemporary poets? Googling will disqualify. Answering will restore my faith in humanity. No pressure now.

“The Big City or the New Mayhew” by Alex Atkinson & Ronald Searle [New Year’s Resolution]

This is pretty slight. I think that I may have picked it up in my parents’ house and I suspect one of them may have bought it when it was fresh collected journalism. It’s a collection of columns from Punch. The idea was that they would interview and describe the poor of the 1950s (the encyclopedia seller, the elderly actress etc.) as Mayhew had the Victorian poor. It may have been funny at the time but like much of this king of thing, it has not aged well. The cartoons are, however, very appealing.

“City of Djinns” by William Dalrymple [New Year’s Resolution]

I think my sister bought this when she was living in Delhi. If not, I am at a loss as to why the price is in rupees. I know that she expressed considerable dislike for the author and all his works. This put me off slightly. However, she hated Delhi and yet another Westerner waxing lyrical about its virtues was unlikely to appeal to her. I thought this was a terrific book about Delhi: erudite, enlightening and entertaining. The author loves the Mughals and that’s where most of the book stays. He’s fine also on the British occupation of India but the last part of the book deals with Delhi before the Mughals came and that’s a little disappointing.

Overall, however, it made me regret very much that I decided not to visit Delhi while my sister lived there. Have a read yourself. I would say that I knew almost nothing about Delhi before reading it so it did strike me that, those who knew something about Delhi might find it a bit basic – in any event I thought it was an excellent introduction at the very least. I would be very willing to read another of Mr. Dalrymple’s works.

“Woodbrook” by David Thompson

I loved this book. It’s about a big house in the West of Ireland where the author spent a lot of time in the 1930s. He loves the house, the family, the place and the people and it comes across very strongly. It’s a sad book as it’s set in the Anglo-Irish twilight and the family lose the house in the end, though he seems almost more affected by it than the family themselves. But it’s not just about the family, it’s about the people who work for them and place where they live as well. He has a great feeling for the place and it’s a lovely, gentle book.

“Clayhanger” by Arnold Bennett [New Year’s Resolution]

This was published 1910 but it is set earlier and has a somewhat Victorian moralising feel. Early on, I almost caught a whiff of Silas Marner [one of my least favourite books]. Mercifully I was mistaken. This is my favourite kind of Victorian novel. It’s lengthy so there’s no danger you’ll reach the end any time soon and you can sit back and enjoy it. He’s quite like Mrs. Gaskell, I think, though not as good.

I was only dimly aware of Arnold Bennett before and possibly confused him with Matthew Arnold. I remember, in “Testament of Youth”, Vera Brittain refers to him in awed tones. The back page of my edition of “Clayhanger” concludes its description of him in these glowing terms:

When he died in 1931 he was one of the best-loved figures in literary London, had great fame abroad, and was acknowledged to be one of the most celebrated men ever produced by his native count, or, indeed, by his country.

I think it would be fair to say that his reputation hasn’t survived particularly well. Or is that just my ignorance. Anyhow, I wouldn’t mind giving his masterpiece a go “The Old Wives’ Tale”. Or perhaps something else but not “Hilda Lessways” which, by definition would feature lots of Hilda whom I didn’t like much in this book and seems to have been a much less loved book. Details of your favourite Arnold Bennett book in the comments please.

“Skulduggery Pleasant: The End of the World” by Derek Landy

A book written for 9-12 year olds about a skeleton detective and his teenage sidekick. 128 pages for world book day. Very enjoyable. Your point?

“Jazz” by Toni Morrison [New Year’s Resolution]

I find Toni Morrison’s writing deeply confusing. Even though I know the overarching story, I am always confused by the details. This is my second Toni Morrison book, I now feel qualified to comment. One of the things that really puzzled me about this book was that I couldn’t work out who the narrator was a lot of the time. That said, it’s a very clever book and it rewards you for sticking with it. There are lots of characters and they all have a very clear identity and, in a relatively short book, you learn a lot about all of them. But it’s not a quick read or a light one – the overarching story is of a married man who kills his 18 year old lover; his mad wife then goes to attack the corpse at the wake. But that’s really just a device – if a pretty dramatic one – to explore all the background to the people involved and why they are the way they are and it’s really interesting, if a bit opaque at times.

On balance, I think I’d try another.

“The Pretender” by Mary Morrissey [New Year’s Resolution]

I quite enjoyed this but, I can’t quite say why, it reads a bit like a book written in translation. It’s about Anna Anderson, the woman who claimed that she was the Grand Duchess Anastasia. It’s a mix of fact and fiction and I think it does a good job of trying to imagine the motives of the woman who spent a lifetime pretending to be someone else.

“Just So Stories” by Rudyard Kipling [New Year’s Resolution]

Despite their moments of imperialism these are really great stories to read aloud to 6 year old boys. Also, they made me realise that I had never said the word “sagacity” aloud before as in “a man of infinite-resource-and-sagacity”. So we’re all learning. You will be delighted to hear that the man of “infinite-resource-and-sagacity” was a “Hi-ber-ni-an”. You can read this particular one yourself here. You may think it dull but find the requisite 6 year old boys and you will be surprised by their delighted reaction.

“The Jungle Book” by Rudyard Kipling [New Year’s Resolution]

I quite enjoyed this. Despite the title, it’s not all jungle. I was inspired to read it by “Riki-Tiki-Tavi” which I read when I was eight in one of my favourite books of all time. I’m not sure whether it was because I read this story at just the right age or because it really was the best but I still liked it best of all the stories. I feel that I have had enough Kipling for a while now though.

“33 Moments of Happiness” by Ingo Schultz [New Year’s Resolution]

I sort of knew from the cover of this book and the font that the 33 moments of happiness in the title would be set in hours of misery. This must be why it’s been awaiting attention on my bedside table since sometime in the 1990s. Why is literary fiction so bad at happiness? These are short stories set in St. Petersburg. There is much gloom, some confusion, and, yes, alright, arguably the odd moment of happiness. I think of the 100 odd books in my New Year’s Resolution pile, this must have been one of the hardest reads. It’s magical realism, written by a German and set in St. Petersburg; can you imagine?

“Ferno” by Adam Blade

The boys love this book. It is volume one of the Beast Quest series. There are 60 (!) volumes and counting. Given that my sons are working their way through the series at a rate of knots, I thought that I should read volume 1 so that I could understand some part of their convoluted explanations of plot. The plot is not complex. Tom goes to free a beast from enchantment. He does it in a very pared down version of every fantasy novel you’ve ever read. But to be fair to the four people who write these books (Adam Blade, is, alas, a fictional character and the copyright to these volumes is held by Working Partners Ltd.), it’s fine. The writing is very accessible for small children and every page is a new cliff hanger. It’s spectacularly limited when it comes to character development and the plot is clichéd but, not if you’re six! Every old trope (missing father, faithful companion, exciting map) is a stunning new development to them. They talk about the books non-stop. Honestly, six year olds could have the best book club ever.

“The Child that Books Built” by Francis Spufford [New Year’s Resolution]

This is an intellectual look back at reading in childhood and adolescence. It’s divided into four parts: the forest (stories for younger children – fairytales and picture books); the island (fantasy for the 7-12s) the town (books set in communities, again, for 7-12s) and the hole (books for adolescents with a strong focus on science fiction). I found this a bit underwhelming at first but I really started to enjoy it when he began to talk about books I had read as a child. Here’s a bit on Narnia:

So from the moment I first encountered “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” to when I was 11 or 12, the seven Chronicles of Narnia represented essence-of-book to me. They were the Platonic book of which other books were more or less imperfect shadows. For four or five years, I essentially read other books because I could not always be rereading the Narnia books.

He has a lot on Narnia and Little House on the Prairie which is fine by me but I wonder how engaging it would be to those less familiar with the books. I suppose it is aimed at people who were bookish children and it’s a rare bookish child who wouldn’t have read these.

He mixes up his reading with some limited information about his personal life and I’m not sure how well that works. I think he would have been better with more personal life or none at all.

“City of Thieves” by David Benioff

A book club book. Alas, it did not appeal. Though a mild page-turner it is pretty poorly written. It’s about a hunt for eggs during the siege of Leningrad in the second world war (though so much more than this, universal themes love, friendship etc – write your own blurb). They get their eggs. Yeah, I know, I’ve ruined it for you. My friend D, who is a country girl, tells me that hens are very fussy about laying eggs and she thinks that the chance of them not being off their eggs in war torn Russia in the middle of winter is nil.

“Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage” by Alice Munro [New Year’s Resolution]

Famously beautiful short story writer writes beautifully. I prefer my stories with more zing and less quiet gloom but these are good stories.

“The Beautiful Changes” by Molly McCluskey [New Year’s Resolution]

I read this collection (a novella and a collection of short stories) at the same time as I was reading the Alice Munro collection and it didn’t do this author any favours. She covers much of the same territory as Alice Munro, small lives and tending towards the gloomy and she’s really very good but not as good as Ms. Munro.

“The Sense of an Ending” by Julian Barnes

Clever. And very short. Something of a page-turner. But I was left a bit dissatisfied either a) that wasn’t much of a twist or b) I didn’t get it. You can see why neither of these options appeals.

“Carry Me Down” by M.J Hyland [New Year’s Resolution]

Nicely written somewhat disturbing account of an 11 year old boy who is teetering on the brink of insanity. Wouldn’t exactly rush back for a second dose but I can see its merit.