30

Apr

~william golding~ lord of the flies

LOTFRead it in: probably around three weeks

Yes, yes, more old books, I’m sorry, new ones will come once I finish the 800+ pages (though highly enjoyable) tome that is Anna Karenina.

Anyway, I’ve been wanting to do this one for a while.

This one is a must-read for everyone.  Well-written, unforgettable, full of allusions, questions of morality and courage, questions of sanity and insanity.  And the best part is that the entire cast (apart from one adult and a pig’s head) is made up of children.

There’s something alluring about having a character cast of all children, especially in a novel such as this one.  Children tend to be one of those avoided subjects in literature and film – if you’re going to do something bad to someone, let it not be a child.  They aren’t killed in many murder mysteries (only the pluckier ones) or are always portrayed as the victims.  Children are always the ones saved by Superman and not the unfortunate ones who die along the way.

But in this book, children are both the victims and the perpetrators of crimes.  Not only this, but these crimes cannot be blamed on much else but their violent nature, as they are stuck on an island with nobody else to influence them.  As the events of the story unfold, the once innocent group splits into factions, fantastical rumours spread around the island, a killing spree is begun and a lonely boy begins to hear a voice from a pig’s head mounted on a stick, referring to itself as the ‘Lord of the Flies’.

This novel is both childish and startlingly mature at the same time.  While the characters are young and subject to childish beliefs, fears and fits of rage, the way in which these emotions translate into actions is frightening.  The killing of others is something we usually attribute to adults and not to children under a certain age.  Despite this, numerous characters are killed as a result of petty fights and splits within the group.  Perhaps, then, killing is not an action that should be attributed to adults, but to any person at any time within a desperate situation.  We cannot say that such violent actions are beyond children, as Golding reveals in a frightening manner in this book.

No wonder this book won the Nobel Prize.  It was a novel idea for its time.  Casting children as the perpetrators of violence was a shocking thing.  Not only that, but this book is set during the war.  While the adults are killing one another over petty things, the children too begin doing the same thing.  In the end, the children are rescued but, as Stephen King said in an introduction to ‘Lord of the Flies’ I once read, ‘who will save the adults?’

Read it if you: are a person who is literate, I think this book is necessary reading for everyone.

While you read it listen to: O Children Nick Cave, Liar Liar Taking Back Sunday (alludes to this book in the lyrics), Escape 30 Seconds to Mars, Beleriand The Middle East

11 years ago Short URL Comments

Classics/Last Name G

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22

Apr

~cormac mccarthy~ all the pretty horses

ATPHRead it in: a week

I love Cormac McCarthy.  There is something breathtaking about his prose, something that makes me need to dog-ear pages and write particular descriptions down so that I won’t forget them.  He is able to invoke such loneliness in his passages, such a feeling of raw and natural beauty. 

This is the third McCarthy book that I have read.  The other two were ‘The Road’ and ‘The Crossing’, which I will do reviews of shortly, I promise.  ‘All the Pretty Horses’ is the first book of the Border Trilogy, of which ‘The Crossing’ is the second book, but I don’t see why you should read them in order.  All of the books in this trilogy take place around the Mexican/US border, about the divides between the two countries, the contrasts therein, the different predicaments that characters face on either side of that border.

In ‘All the Pretty Horses’, John Grady Cole and his friend cross this border on a journey of discovery and longing for something that they don’t even know they long for yet.  They make new friends, new enemies, suffer heartaches and tragedies, acts of kindness and acts of revenge and greed.  John Grady falls in love, both boys fall into the hands of the Mexican police, their friend falls into a vicious cycle of revenge, all characters undergo significant change and can never go back to the life they once lived.

All through this novel are glimpses of the countryside that surrounds and dictates the events the boys experience.  This is not a book wherein you can read and read and still have no idea what country you’re in or what time period or what the surroundings look like.  McCarthy expends a lot of time talking about the scenery, but not just talking about it, describing it beautifully and in an intrinsically detailed manner.  I have to give you a sample:

When the truck finally pulled out and they saw him still standing they offered their bundles for him to sit on and he did so and he nodded and dozed to the hum of the tires on the blacktop and the rain stopped and the night cleared and the moon that was already risen raced among the high wires by the highway side like a single silver music note burning in the constant and lavish dark and the passing fields were rich from the rain with the smell of earth and grain and peppers and the sometime smell of horses. (page 225)

So this is just one sentence.  McCarthy allows himself one sentence in a whole section of narrative to describe the surroundings, a seemingly short allowance, except that his sentences go on and on.  I don’t think that’s a bad thing, personally.  I’ve even started to imitate it in my own writing.  It gives a definite sense of a particular moment in time, we can feel the hours that John Grady spends dozing in that truck, even though it is only one sentence.  We can feel the constancy of the moon and the fields, that sort of never-changing aspect that always stays exactly the same no matter how much the characters or their lives may change beyond recognition.

Read it if you: enjoy beautiful, beautiful prose, are interested in the life of (well, cowboys…) on the Mexican/US border, like horses, want something to savour, don’t mind a bit of tragedy, like a bit of philosophical musing.

While reading this, listen to: Re: stacks Bon Iver, The Darkest Side The Middle East, Flume Bon Iver, Brackett, WI Bon Iver

11 years ago Short URL 2 Comments

Last Name M/Literature

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18

Apr

~sebastian barry~ on canaan’s side

OCSRead it in: one day

Sorry again, I have no idea what the dates were for this one either.  All I do know is that I read it in one day, during a week-long period in which, with very little else to do, I literally read one book a day.  That’s not to say I can read fast, but that I spent many, many hours of the day with my head in a book.

I did enjoy this read.  I first came across it because I heard Barry do a reading of it on the radio and, I don’t know, with that beautiful Irish accent shaping the words, I put it on my must-read list.  It was very interesting, very tragic (unfortunately for me, the part I had heard on the radio spoiled one of the most tragic scenes, so I knew it was going to happen all along) and quite memorable in many ways.

Barry’s descriptions are nice, and they vary as well.  The characters travel from Ireland to New York and Barry describes the stark differences between these two beautifully.  The plot follows a young woman whose family becomes involved with The Troubles and who subsequently has to flee Ireland for the other side of the world.  As she wanders through the unfamiliar city of New York, she is all the while anxious that she is being followed by enemies seeking her from her time back in Ireland.  She runs into these enemies a few times, her life changes rapidly as she moves from place to place and tries to find a stable life for herself.

The end reveals plot twists and sheds light on the beginning.  I love the way the storyline unfolds, how no events are forgotten and the past always catches up with her somewhere.  Even if I did read it in one day, it stayed in my mind for a long time.

Read it if you: enjoy beautiful descriptions, like travel narratives, are interested in Irish/American history throughout the 20th Century, like a bit of suspense and action, enjoy interesting and morally ambiguous characters.

While you read it, listen to: Riverside Agnes Obel, Lonely The Middle East, Premiere Rhapsodie Claude Debussy, Mad Rush Philip Glass.

11 years ago Short URL Comments

Historical fiction/Last Name B

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10

Apr

~david mitchell~ cloud atlas

CARead it in: nine days

Perpetual notes to myself have been written about the pitfalls of comparing films and books.  In my opinion, they must be savoured as entirely different entities that have their own artistic value for different reasons and should not be compared devoutly.  Nevertheless, sometimes it simply cannot be avoided.

I saw the film ‘Cloud Atlas’ and was amazed/intrigued/inspired (circle one).  All of the above.  I loved the idea of our savage, post-apocalyptic future, I adored Ben Whishaw in (most of) his roles (save the overly feminine ones) and was intrigued by a brand of science fiction that I may actually enjoy (I have been waging a mental war against science fiction for a very, very long time).  Hence, after the film finished, I directed myself to the bookshop and immediately bought this book.

It’s very good.  Just don’t compare it to the movie.  Somehow they differ enormously.  Therefore, I expected every twist and turn of the plotline that had so enraptured me in the cinemas, only it didn’t happen that way.  It surprised me immensely.  And, as always, I know I would have enjoyed it much better had I not seen the movie and known what it was all about beforehand.

The plotline is a little too complicated to explain in 25 words or less.  But I’ll try.  There are six inter-connected lives: an American on a voyage through the Pacific islands sometime in the 1800s, a young musician in the 1930s, a keen journalist involved with a dangerous corporation in the 1970s, an old, befuddled man trapped in a nursing home in modern times, a clone trapped in the surreal world of Neo Soul in the future and a man braving mystery and superstition in post-apocalyptic Hawaii.  As these stories move along, we realise they are all subtly connected.

Read it if you: like historical fiction, play a musical instrument, appreciate long words and clever plays on the English language, enjoy clever and philosophical science fiction, are not deterred by words mangled in attempts to portray different speaking patterns of post-apocalyptic humans, believe in fate/reincarnation/things like that, like exciting thriller stories, appreciate good literature.

While reading this, listen to: Transatlanticism Death Cab for Cutie, Lonely The Middle East, Set Fire to the Third Bar Snow Patrol, Her Disappearing Theme Broken Social Scene

11 years ago Short URL 2 Comments

Fantasy/Historical fiction/Last Name M/Literature

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