So, what's everyone reading? (The General Books Thread)

[rudi]

Read China Miéville's "The City & The City" due to it winning a gazillion awards and it was OK. Great conceit, ordinary story, but from there I've just finished Perdido St Station and it's he best book I've read this year. I guess it's a "fantasy" book but only because the place doesn't exist. It's stuffed with ideas and humanity in equal measure and never resorts to tried and tested tropes.

I'd say more but it really gains from just opening up to you. It's certainly not a style of book I thought I'd find myself recommending (and, oddly, TC&TC left more of an after-taste so perhaps that was the better book?).

[The Widow of Brid]

The thing I really liked about Perdido Street Station (I read it when it first came out, so may be fuzzy) is:

Spoiler alert

You all get these lovely rich dissections of what it means to be a person, of how the language used to describe something shapes what it is, the moral questions of living in a society that needs someone to be at the bottom of the heap in order to persist...

And then it turns into Alien for a while.

And then back to the philosophical stuff.

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Its sequels are great too. Though I've not finished Iron Council yet.

[rudi]

Indeed, that and

Spoiler alert

there's not that annoying Tolkeinesque habit of having to keep all the major players healthy.

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I'm a pretty voracious reader (nothing insane - I have to work - about 3 books a fortnight) but it's not often I get to simply enjoy a book so much. The 1000-odd pages whipped by.

[Serge]

Just finished Glen David Gold's 'Sunnyside', and I have to say, it's great. I was a bit wary going in, seeing as Charlie Chaplin is one of the main characters, and I've never been a Chaplin fan, but I have to say, this book has made me want to read more about him, and maybe even revisit some of his films.

My favourite character was Leland Wheeler/Lee Duncan, however, and I wonder just how much of his story is true, as it almost does seem to be too good to be true.

Spoiler alert

Although I posted in the 'crying' thread about the scene with Chaplin's mother and the sandwich, the scene where Nanette dies whilst Lee is asleep on the way back to America is pretty damn heartbreaking. But the whole scene with Duncan and Ripley in the burnt out winery is fantastic.

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I felt that the scenes with Hugo Black weren't always as successful

Spoiler alert

especially the part where he gets taken to a castle in the woods with three beautiful princesses, which couldn't help but remind me of the Castle Anthrax scene in 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail'. Having said that, the pay-off to that, Black finding out that he's actually killed Wodzikzko rather than an anonymous bolshevik, made it more than worthwhile. And I'm not 100% sure about the slightly magic realist touch of having Rebecca Golod appear to Duncan and Black in their final scenes, given that the rest of the book was so grounded in reality.

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But those minor grumbles aside, I thought it was an amazing book. The other thing that worried me before I started reading was the fact that 'Carter Beats The Devil' was such a work of genius that 'Sunnyside' could possibly suffer from 'second album syndrome'. But, while not quite as good as 'Carter', Gold certainly hasn't let himself down, and I'll definitely be reading his third novel in about ten years time....!

Mind you, I'll never look at a pine cone in the same way ever again.

[Johnny Townmouse]

I'm half-way through the epic 2666 by Roberto Bolaño. It is a book separated into smaller books (about 900 pages in total), which are intertwined in some interesting ways. The main focal point of the book is the real-life sexual murders of over 400 women in Ciudad Juárez in Mexico which are effectively unsolved and have implicated high-up officials and police. The book is neither a murder-mystery nor a thriller, and really revolves around characters who have some tangential connection to the murders.

I suppose the best comparisons would be Marquez, Rushdie and writers like Delillo and Auster, as well as David Mitchell. However, there is something in the writing that is unlike all of these writers (particularly the, in my opinion, vastly over-rated Rushdie). It focusses on relationships very well, and at the half-way point has barely mentioned the murders in any meaningful capacity. However, what it does very well is constantly surprise you. Not like a thriller, but purely in human terms, in the way that people tend to surprise and mystify us. The characters can be quite impenetrable, and have a strange sense of ennui and desperate sadness that is handled with a refreshing lack of sentimentality. In this sense it also reminded me a bit of both Luther Blissett's Q and Gordon Burn's Happy Like Murderers, two books that I enjoyed a great deal.

I only know one other person that has read it so if you have, I would be interested to know what you think of it. Obviously it is Bolaño's last book before he died and on that basis it has a certain edge to it, but if you have read any of his other books I would also like to know what you made of them.

[Cambrian Times]

Just finished "A Town like Alice" by Neville Shute and am now reading "Lorna Doone"

[CaledonianGonzo]

I only know one other person that has read it so if you have, I would be interested to know what you think of it. Obviously it is Bolaño's last book before he died and on that basis it has a certain edge to it, but if you have read any of his other books I would also like to know what you made of them.

I read The Savage Detectives earlier on in the year.  It's a bit of a challenging read - fairly slow paced - but pretty rewarding for all that.  Big on poetry.  Dunno if it's quite the masterpiece that it's sometimes touted as.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

I've just finished Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light by Patrick McGilligan. It's the only book on Hitchcock I've actually read - despite there being hundreds of them out there - but I suspect this may be the definitive account of his life. Exhaustively researched and lengthy, yet never daunting or dry, it's an absolutely fascinating read.

Anyone read the notorious Spoto book on Hitchcock? Sounds rather prurient and strained from what I've read about it. That one aside, can anyone recommend another good Hitchcock tome? 

EDIT: I've ordered Hitchcock/Truffaut, so any recommendation other than that would be splendid.

[Talulah, really!]

I'm half-way through the epic 2666 by Roberto Bolaño.

It focusses on relationships very well, and at the half-way point has barely mentioned the murders in any meaningful capacity.

Don't worry about that, part four has plenty about the murders. Part four is nothing but the murders and is brutally powerful. If you appreciate this part and part five of the book you might also like Jonathon Littel's The Kindly Ones which is an epic fictional recreation of the Nazi era and has something of the same hallucinatory power.

I only know one other person that has read it so if you have, I would be interested to know what you think of it.

Wrote about it here.

What am I reading? Since you ask, The Ask by Sam Lipsyte which is acerbic and funny in a Martin Amis/Philip Roth kind of way, very hip, very sour.

[Johnny Townmouse]

I read The Savage Detectives earlier on in the year.  It's a bit of a challenging read - fairly slow paced - but pretty rewarding for all that.  Big on poetry.  Dunno if it's quite the masterpiece that it's sometimes touted as.

I started it and got as far as page 50, which is my typical halting page for books I am having trouble with. It was at a time when I was reading tons of theory for my PhD and I needed something lighter, so I will be reading that as soon as I finish 2666.

[Johnny Townmouse]

Don't worry about that, part four has plenty about the murders. Part four is nothing but the murders and is brutally powerful. If you appreciate this part and part five of the book you might also like Jonathon Littel's The Kindly Ones which is an epic fictional recreation of the Nazi era and has something of the same hallucinatory power.

Wrote about it here.

Cheers. I will take a look at what you have to say when I have finished it. I read a snippet of a review that said they had a problem with the increasing body count in the book. As I am still on the Fate section barely anyone has carped it at all, but I am aware that just around the corner is all sorts of horrors. I was reading the Fate section of the book on a long-haul flight last week and I then watched Polanski's Ghost Writer and the mix of lack of sleep and free whiskey melded the two things together. Writers being in a strange place with odd things going on, the suggestion of violence and sexual tension.

Cheers for the Littel reference. I have read a library's worth of holocaust literature, mainly due to it being something I studied, but I never read The Kindly Ones.

[Orias]

I've just finished Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light by Patrick McGilligan. It's the only book on Hitchcock I've actually read - despite there being hundreds of them out there - but I suspect this may be the definitive account of his life. Exhaustively researched and lengthy, yet never daunting or dry, it's an absolutely fascinating read.

Anyone read the notorious Spoto book on Hitchcock? Sounds rather prurient and strained from what I've read about it. That one aside, can anyone recommend another good Hitchcock tome? 

EDIT: I've ordered Hitchcock/Truffaut, so any recommendation other than that would be splendid.

Spoto is pretty exhaustive but is heavy on the psychoanalytic comment, especially on the Grace Kelly and Tippi Hedren years.  Robin Wood's Hitchcock's Films Revisted is widely regarded as the definitive critical analysis of his work and it pretty much is.  And good call on the Hitchcock/Truffaut.  One of the best film books ever printed.

[Orias]

Enjoying When the Lights Went Out by Andy Beckett at the moment.  Thorough analysis of 70's Britain, learning an awful lot that I didn't know on a decade which seems very similar to this one.

Enjoyed Columbine by Dave Cullen, an authoritative account of the massacre.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Spoto is pretty exhaustive but is heavy on the psychoanalytic comment, especially on the Grace Kelly and Tippi Hedren years.  Robin Wood's Hitchcock's Films Revisted is widely regarded as the definitive critical analysis of his work and it pretty much is.  And good call on the Hitchcock/Truffaut.  One of the best film books ever printed.

Wonderful, thanks Orias. I should make it clear that I'm not opposed to negative portrayals of people I admire, but I did get the impression that the Spoto book was full of dubious psychoanalytic conjecture, so that put me off somewhat. I'll definitely get hold of Robin Wood's book. Thanks again.   

[Blue Jam]

I've just started on His Dark Materials. Finally. Northern Lights is great so far.

[Doomy Dwyer]

I enjoyed 2666 when it came out, but was a bit put off by the universal praise from the critics, hype which it couldn't hope to live up to. It was marketed as a bit of a publishing event at the time. As has been previously stated it's been cobbled together by Macmillan and Bolono's estate, who aren't really sure of his intentions for the form the book or books should take. They've subsequently announced that they've discovered other work that may or may not be part of 2666, so it's clear that nobody really knows what the fuck they're doing, which is about par for the course in publishing.

It's a book that stays with you, particularly the chapter about the murders. His stark descriptions and repetition numb you to the details at first but the horror slowly oozes in, particularly when you consider that he's describing events that have actually occurred and are still occurring. Truly disturbing. The Savage Detectives is a good 'un too, also Distant Star. There's usually some overlap of characters and themes in his novels (the ones I've read anyway) so maybe it makes sense for them to be published in one vast, unwieldy, crippling tome.

I'm currently reading Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, a fifteenth century work of Italian madness supposedly written by a friar of ill repute (bloody friars, eh?). But, like all these things, nobody knows who wrote it, or when, or why. It's easier going than I was expecting, but a bit of a test of endurance nevertheless. It's dreams within dreams, intricate descriptions of architecture, costume, decorations and nymphs tits. There's the odd dragon and lots of cornucopias. It tells of the quest of Poliphili for his beloved Polia, he falls asleep, dreams a dream of a wonderful land, is tempted and distracted at every turn, but remains firm in his aim, quite literally when he's slipped a potion by beautiful, amorous  nymphs who work him an ointment that gives him the Right Fucking Horn. It's quite funny in places. It's reputed to work as a kind of drug, in that it's repetitive descriptive passages are quite hallucinatory. I find it quite druggy in that I tend to nod off after a short while, so I'm supplementing it with A Science Fiction Omnibus edited by Brian Aldiss when I want to take the edge off the endless descriptions of imaginary architecture. I know fuck all about Sci-Fi so it's time to dip a tentative toe.

[surreal]

I'm about a third of the way through "The Girl Who Played With Fire" - the second in the "Millennium" trilogy by Stieg Larson.  The translation from Swedish makes it a little strange at times but overall it works and it's very readable.  Like the first book it starts kind of slowly but it's getting there.  I'm avoiding watching the trailer for the movie anyway so I don't get spoiled.

I've just started on His Dark Materials. Finally. Northern Lights is great so far.

Terrific - "The Subtle Knife" is even better, but I got a little bogged-down in the third one

[Lyndon]

Updike's Rabbit, Run. My God it's American. Rabbit's not too sympathetic yet either, but maybe if he was talking about the aesthetics of cricket rather than basketball every other page I'd relate more. It's not bad though.

[Johnny Townmouse]

I enjoyed 2666 when it came out, but was a bit put off by the universal praise from the critics, hype which it couldn't hope to live up to. It was marketed as a bit of a publishing event at the time. As has been previously stated it's been cobbled together by Macmillan and Bolono's estate, who aren't really sure of his intentions for the form the book or books should take. They've subsequently announced that they've discovered other work that may or may not be part of 2666, so it's clear that nobody really knows what the fuck they're doing, which is about par for the course in publishing.

It was my understanding that Bolano wanted each of the five stories published as separate books, but his children have since said that this was merely to provide them with more financial security. It was published as one novel because his children believe that this is what Bolano really wanted, and would have been the case had he not died. I am intrigued by the idea that there is even more material that may at some point be added to the novel, or at least included in some kind of appendix in future. It certainly opens up debates about the non-unified novel.

[Doomy Dwyer]

You're quite right about Bolanos childrens wishes, I'd forgotten that bit. And the correct spelling of Bolano appears to have slipped my mind too, making me look something of a prick.

It also highlights the editors role in the shaping of the work and the novel as a collaborative process. As we've seen recently with the publication of some of Raymond Carvers stuff, the editor can sometimes have us much (if not more) input into the final shape of an authors work as the author. Similar thing with 'Naked Lunch', it's down to Ginsberg, Kerouac and the editors at Grove as much as it is to Burroughs as to what form it initially appeared in.  Originally it was just a series of skits or routines that were written in letter form. Burroughs may have written the words, but the content and shape of the book as a whole was a collaborative process, which is ongoing as it's a work that can be constantly re-arranged. I like the idea of a endless novel that goes on growing and mutating, seems especially appropriate in the case of NL. 

[sirhenry]

Updike's Rabbit, Run. My God it's American. Rabbit's not too sympathetic yet either, but maybe if he was talking about the aesthetics of cricket rather than basketball every other page I'd relate more. It's not bad though.

On the subject of the Rabbit books, can anyone remember which one had the wonderful description of cooking spaghetti for the first time?

[Cerys]

Over the last few days I have gone through The Vacillations of Poppy Carew, Strange Deaths, Daisy Miller and the beginning of Practical Demonkeeping.  I've been on a charity shop book-buying binge.

[gmoney]

I'm about a third of the way through "The Girl Who Played With Fire" - the second in the "Millennium" trilogy by Stieg Larson.  The translation from Swedish makes it a little strange at times but overall it works and it's very readable.  Like the first book it starts kind of slowly but it's getting there.  I'm avoiding watching the trailer for the movie anyway so I don't get spoiled.

I found that took ages to get going, but it was excellent when it kicked in. I've just finished the last one (The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest) and it was a blinder from the start, couldn't put it down.

[Johnny Townmouse]

You're quite right about Bolanos childrens wishes, I'd forgotten that bit. And the correct spelling of Bolano appears to have slipped my mind too, making me look something of a prick.

Given that neither of us actually used the correct Bolaño, I don't think it really matters too much to be honest.

It also highlights the editors role in the shaping of the work and the novel as a collaborative process. As we've seen recently with the publication of some of Raymond Carvers stuff, the editor can sometimes have us much (if not more) input into the final shape of an authors work as the author.

Yeah, this interests me a great deal. One of the many reasons why the screenplay, as a literary form, is so devalued is because of its lack of a solitary 'genius-like' author. In fact, most of the printed screenplays that are venerated or taken seriously tend to be by one single screenwriter - usually a novelist.  Yet this fails to take into account the many revisions and external influences upon a novel. There was a whole debate about this when Q was released under one name (opening up a bigger debate about appropriated names, Karen Eliot etc).

I am very interested in this subject, and I am currently ploughing my way through the book Multiple Authorship and the Myth of the Solitary Genius by Jack Stillinger. What Carver book/s are you referencing? Has a book come out documenting editorial influences on his work? I would be keen to find out if this is the case.

Similar thing with 'Naked Lunch', it's down to Ginsberg, Kerouac and the editors at Grove as much as it is to Burroughs as to what form it initially appeared in.  Originally it was just a series of skits or routines that were written in letter form. Burroughs may have written the words, but the content and shape of the book as a whole was a collaborative process, which is ongoing as it's a work that can be constantly re-arranged. I like the idea of a endless novel that goes on growing and mutating, seems especially appropriate in the case of NL.

Yes, I find this fascinating as well. Of course, in the case of translated works, the process of a developing novel in constant flux is unavoidable - there are always new translations coming out of works, which remain authoratative (there's that word again) only for a specific period of time. I rather like the Rebel Press edition of Knut Hamsun's Hunger as it contains an appendix of changes made from the previous to the current translation. Meaning rather than literalism seems to be the main development in recent times.

In the case of Naked Lunch, well yes there we have just about the best example of the fractured novel whose form seems to be incredibly random. From the fact that much of it is cut-up in the first place, to the point you make that it was in the form of letters from Burroughs to Ginsberg, and then was played with by all concerned, including an editor. You have also reminded me that 2666 reminds me somewhat of Burroughs' Cities of the Red Night, in my opinion his finest work.

[Serge]

Over the last few days I have gone through The Vacillations of Poppy Carew, Strange Deaths, Daisy Miller and the beginning of Practical Demonkeeping.  I've been on a charity shop book-buying binge.

Charity shops are where I get most of my books from these days. I recently bought a Nick Danziger and a book of Magnus Mills' short stories to add to my ever growing pile of unread books. They're going to be on hold because

Spoiler alert

Faber

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were nice enough to send me a proof copy of the new Stewart Lee book as well.

'Practical Demonkeeping' is great.

[Doomy Dwyer]

Last year the Library of America published Raymond Carvers Collected Stories (which I haven't read by the way) and it created much controversy in that it revealed the enormous influence and input the editor Gordon Lish had over crafting Carvers stories. In some cases Lish was cutting something like seventy percent of Carvers prose, in effect creating the sparse style for which he has become famous. Stories like 'One More Thing' were originally much longer, more detailed. Some of the changes were made expressly against Carvers wishes, but Lish published his re-worked versions to much critical acclaim. I think later in his career Carver tried to move away from the minimalist style slightly, trying to return to his original, more conventional roots. But of course, by now Carver was (and still is) held up to be the master of the minimalist short story, and very good he is too, but it is due in no small part to Lish's editorial changes that he is so revered.

I think the Library of America edition contains the Carver originals and Lish's edited versions for comparison. I remember there were many articles in the LRB, NYRB and the broadsheet review sections focusing on the relatively unsung role of the editor and the growing trend among publishers to release 'remixed' versions of classics and posthumous, unfinished manuscripts knocked into publishable shape by editors. Recently we've had the unfinished Nabokov and the restored, scroll version of 'On the Road' and I think there was mention of some restored Hemingway material. I'm working from memory here, so some of this information may well be entirely fictional, so be warned. That Multiple Authorship book you mentioned sounds interesting, is it worth a read?   

[Johnny Townmouse]

Last year the Library of America published Raymond Carvers Collected Stories (which I haven't read by the way) and it created much controversy in that it revealed the enormous influence and input the editor Gordon Lish had over crafting Carvers stories.....

Thank you for that - I really appreciate the reference. I have been investigating editorial and multi-authored novels/short stories for a few weeks and did not come across a mention of this, which of course is perfect.

That Multiple Authorship book you mentioned sounds interesting, is it worth a read?   

It is dry academia so not not much of a page-turner, but from the point of my research it has been very useful. I am very interested in the cult of the single author, and our attributing of genius-like status, and how this is one of the many reasons why literature is venerated more highly than film, except for those films made by so-called auteurs (who in general tended, rather ironically, tended to be adaptors of literature).

[Vitalstatistix]

Ages ago I asked if The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen was any good. Someone (I've forgotten who!) said "yes" and for this I say THANKS.

Half way through and I cannot put it down, great stuff. His style is almost exactly what I want from a novel, almost exactly how I yearn to write. Brill!

[mrlizard]

I'm speedily getting through Knut Hamsun's Hunger at the moment. Quite a short book, but I've been getting back to it every time I've had a spare minute. My recent 'book thread' has seen me go Bukowski -> Fante -> Hamsun, with successive writer quite clearly a massive influence on the one before. I don't know if Hunger tops Ask the Dust, but there are massive similarities between Arturo Bandini and the guy in Hunger. Come to think of it, I think Bandini talks about Hamsun at the end of the last Bandini book, so that's nice.

I've also just finished Diego Maradona's autobiography El Diego and thought it was brilliant. I don't mean that in a "he's so random!!!!" way either - I think he's a genuinely funny guy and very aware of it. Anyone who starts a paragraph with (something like) "Yes, I did fall out with the Pope" or says "I like all the Johnsons: Ben, Michael and Magic" is alright by me.

[Johnny Townmouse]

I'm speedily getting through Knut Hamsun's Hunger at the moment. Quite a short book, but I've been getting back to it every time I've had a spare minute. My recent 'book thread' has seen me go Bukowski -> Fante -> Hamsun, with successive writer quite clearly a massive influence on the one before. I don't know if Hunger tops Ask the Dust, but there are massive similarities between Arturo Bandini and the guy in Hunger. Come to think of it, I think Bandini talks about Hamsun at the end of the last Bandini book, so that's nice.

There is quite a definable line from Bukowski to Hamsun via Fante, that's for sure. The title Ask the Dust comes from Hamsun's Pan:

"The other one he loved like a slave, like a crazed and like a beggar. Why? Ask the dust on the road and the falling leaves, ask the mysterious God of life; for no one knows such things. She gave him nothing, no nothing did she give him and yet he thanked her. She said: Give me your peace and your reason! And he was only sorry she did not ask for his life."

Fun fact.

In some ways I think I prefer Wait Until Spring, Bandini to Ask the Dust. It is very moving, with some wonderful moments of sadness and humour. Have you seen the film adaptation of Ask the Dust? Shocking slice of gash.