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March 28, 2024, 11:00:28 PM

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The Truth by Michael Palin

Started by Small Man Big Horse, April 26, 2021, 09:44:37 AM

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Small Man Big Horse

A curious affair which starts strongly as a disgruntled writer is asked to write the biography of a much loved environmentalist but around the two thirds point runs out of steam and Palin lacks subtlety, hammering home each point he wants to make, and there's a fair bit of filler too, for example towards the end a minor character's bland door bell is described in graphic detail and it brings nothing to the novel and is beyond dull. The section in India is the book at its best and highlights Palin's skill as a travel writer, but once we're back in blighty it disappoints time and again, and a rushed finale is even more disappointing. 2.25/5

I'm genuinely surprised as to how poor this was, and that someone as talented as Palin has written such a weak effort - but then it did receive good reviews, so maybe I missed something? Also, has anyone read Hemingway's Chair, and if so, was that any good?

Ignatius_S

Read Hemingway's Chair a long time ago and found it disappointing overall. The novel starts off strongly but around the halfway point or so, runs out of steam (FWIW, the person who passed on their copy felt the same and the person I passed it to, ditto) and the ending was something of a depressing anticlimax.

Looking at what you've said, the comment about graphic description is decidedly ringing a bell.

Mister Six


Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: Ignatius_S on April 26, 2021, 03:13:17 PM
Read Hemingway's Chair a long time ago and found it disappointing overall. The novel starts off strongly but around the halfway point or so, runs out of steam (FWIW, the person who passed on their copy felt the same and the person I passed it to, ditto) and the ending was something of a depressing anticlimax.

Looking at what you've said, the comment about graphic description is decidedly ringing a bell.

That's a shame to hear, considering he's best known for comedy The Truth is a surprising dour work with very few attempts at even mild humour (despite what one of the quotes on the cover suggests), and I'd hoped Hemingway's Chair might be more fun, but I'll definitely not bother with it now.


Ignatius_S

Quote from: Small Man Big Horse on April 27, 2021, 09:51:48 AM
That's a shame to hear, considering he's best known for comedy The Truth is a surprising dour work with very few attempts at even mild humour (despite what one of the quotes on the cover suggests), and I'd hoped Hemingway's Chair might be more fun, but I'll definitely not bother with it now.

Likewise with The Truth with me!

It's a long time ago that I read Hemingway's Chair, as I say, I didn't think it was a bad first time effort  but it didn't work as a whole and any recommendation would be on the basis of who the writer was, rather than what they had written. I assumed that this was going to be a new stage of his career and Palin would write more (and get better) and would have been interested, but as time passed, that interest went.

Re: your comment about comedy association, going from memory, there seem to be a lot of comedians who have tried their hand at novels that turn out 'meh'.

Glebe

Not read and of his novels, but the first few diaries are great (also went to two Palin signings and he was indeed lovely). I've been trying to get into Travelling to Work but can't seem to stick with it.

Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: Ignatius_S on April 27, 2021, 01:31:09 PM
Likewise with The Truth with me!

It's a long time ago that I read Hemingway's Chair, as I say, I didn't think it was a bad first time effort  but it didn't work as a whole and any recommendation would be on the basis of who the writer was, rather than what they had written. I assumed that this was going to be a new stage of his career and Palin would write more (and get better) and would have been interested, but as time passed, that interest went.

Re: your comment about comedy association, going from memory, there seem to be a lot of comedians who have tried their hand at novels that turn out 'meh'.

Yeah, there's a good few autobiographies I rate by comedians but when it comes to fiction many have disappointed, I remember feeling particularly let down by Stewart Lee's The Perfect Fool and Hugh Laurie's The Gun Seller, and am struggling to think of a novel by a comedian that I loved now.

neveragain

Admittedly I haven't read this yet but the thing with the doorbell... is the tedium the joke? As in the many Palin characters who get fixated on something in minute detail.

Also ooh no I loved The Gun Seller. Consistently hilarious and with a nifty plot too.

Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: neveragain on April 28, 2021, 12:35:19 AM
Admittedly I haven't read this yet but the thing with the doorbell... is the tedium the joke? As in the many Palin characters who get fixated on something in minute detail.

I don't think so, it comes towards the end of the book where he's ramping up the tension, and there's very few attempts at humour elsewhere in that part of it.

QuoteAlso ooh no I loved The Gun Seller. Consistently hilarious and with a nifty plot too.

Perhaps my expectations were too high and I did like it a lot compared to The Truth, but I remember being disappointed overall. If he ever finishes his second novel The Paper Soldier I'd definitely read it though, whereas I'm afraid I have no interest in reading more fiction from Palin.

I.D. Smith

Quote from: Glebe on April 27, 2021, 06:14:25 PM
Not read and of his novels, but the first few diaries are great (also went to two Palin signings and he was indeed lovely). I've been trying to get into Travelling to Work but can't seem to stick with it.

I kind of had the same experience with Travelling to Work too. I think what made it a little bit of a chore for me was that although it's called Travelling to Work, the actual journeys themselves[nb]80 Days, Pole to Pole and Full Circle[/nb] aren't covered in any great depth (from what I recall) because he'd already previously dealt with them in the accompanying books at the time. So outside of that you're just left with stuff like distribution issues with American Friends and dinner parties with Richard Wilson which, although blandly comforting in a way, doesn't generate the same excitement as reading about the Python years from previous diaries. Having said that, I listened to the audiobook version of the diaries and they did provide a reassuring audio blanket during a rubbish period of life a couple of years ago, so I do have fond memories of the book in the end, even if they weren't as gripping as the previous diaires.

Speaking of his travel books, I've recently been going back and listening to the audiobook versions of them. I just finished Full Circle, which previously I'd found to be the lacking out of the big 3 TV series'[nb]80 Days, Pole to Pole and Full Circle[/nb], but the book has made me re-evaluate and appreciate it a lot more. I think I might do the same for later ones, i.e. listen to the book first then rewatch the TV show.

Pranet

I seem to remember reading- and this could be bollocks, because it was a long time ago, and even if I am remembering it correctly the thing I read might have been made up- that Palin made so much money from the books and videos of the early travel series that the DG of the BBC had to sign off payments to him because they were so large he was the only person authorised to do so. That has to be balls thinking about it. He must have done well out of them though. Seemed like every house in the country either had the book or the VHS of round the world. We had the book. I remember it being a bit less chirpy than the tv series.

Bad Ambassador

Quote from: Small Man Big Horse on April 27, 2021, 06:33:28 PM
Yeah, there's a good few autobiographies I rate by comedians but when it comes to fiction many have disappointed, I remember feeling particularly let down by Stewart Lee's The Perfect Fool and Hugh Laurie's The Gun Seller, and am struggling to think of a novel by a comedian that I loved now.

Puckoon?

pk1yen

I remember quite liking Hemingway's Chair. Not the best book ever written, but quite a nice provincial tale about post offices. Don't go in expecting too much, but it moves along quite nicely.

Small Man Big Horse


dekko

Quote from: Pranet on May 03, 2021, 06:22:08 PM
Palin made so much money from the books and videos of the early travel series that the DG of the BBC had to sign off payments to him because they were so large he was the only person authorised to do so. That has to be balls thinking about it.

It's hard to think of another BBC series with more global appeal than any of 80 Days, Pole to Pole or Full Circle. I bet they screened for years on national broadcasters. I went to both the Full Circle and Brazil book-signings fifteen years apart in two different Australian cities.

On Hemingway's Chair and The Truth, I read them once and have never felt the need to return. This is also how I felt about The Mirrorstone as a child!