What Book Did You Read Last Night??? (6 Viewers)

[eoinzy2000]

Dune - Frank Herbert. Really good but with some tedious and unecessary repetitive elements.

 

[Kermit McDermott]

Dune - Frank Herbert. Really good but with some tedious and unecessary repetitive elements.

I recently watched Jodorowsky' s Dune documentary. He spent over 2 years working on an film adaptation only to have financing pulled.

I'm flicking between Stalingrad by Anthony Beevor (good carry on name) and Stalin and his hang men.

 

[Lili Marlene]

The Mark and the Void by Paul Murray, author of Skipy Dies. Funniest book I've read all year. This is gonna get raves. My friend described it as "the funniest book I've read since Confederacy of Dunces". High praise indeed.
View attachment 10564

so this scathing review caused a bit of controversy

The Mark and the Void, by Paul Murray | Review

 

[David Kronenbourg]

so this scathing review caused a bit of controversy

The Mark and the Void, by Paul Murray | Review

I completely disagree with almost every point in this review

 

[David Kronenbourg]

“Sometimes all it takes is a dud sentence.” What does that even mean?

 

[pete]

I'm reading American Gods and enjoying it.

All I seem to read these days are books which have been or are being adapted for TV shows. (game of thrones, the leftovers, the man in the high castle & now this).

 

[Jim Daniels]

I completely disagree with almost every point in this review

So does Rick O'Shea, whose opinion I value

Book Review – The Mark And The Void by Paul Murray | Rikipedia

Book Review – The Mark And The Void by Paul Murray
To start with, Paul Murray gives us a good old-fashioned switcheroo for the two main characters in The Mark And The Void. Paul is a brash, crass, money-driven egotistic author years after his first success and failing miserably to come up with his new book. Claude is a principled, quiet, philosophy loving French banker working with the “Bank Of Torabundo” in the IFSC in the months just before the crash in a very thinly fictionalised Ireland of 2008.

Paul turns up one day and suggests to Claude that he’d love to write an everyman story of the banking world “like Ulysses” with Claude at the centre. Claude’s flattered and agrees but soon it becomes apparent that something else altogether is happening.

This happens against the backdrop of a fictional ailing Minister For Finance, a fictional toxic bank dragging down the Irish economy, myhotswaitress.com (with an “S”!), strip clubs, bankers seeing how far they can throw Rolex watches off rooftop bars, cryptic banking giants who communicate in e-mail riddles and dozens of other things that logic tells you couldn’t ever have happened but your gut knows are half a notch off the real world.

It’s pretty much spot on to compare the book to a Celtic Tiger Catch 22, what becomes disconcerting and, later on, nauseating is that in so many places you’re never sure whether behaviour and events you’re reading are genuinely bonkers high farce, insane parody, sharp satire or probably not too far from what actually used to go on in the dying days of Irish banking empire.

Yes, the trope of “Paul the blocked writer” falls squarely within well trodden ground that everyone from Stephen King to Woody Allen has mined but here he uses it like a dizzying series of matryoshka dolls. At one point Paul Murray is writing about Paul the author and all of the staff in Claude’s department who are wondering if, instead of being source material for Paul’s book, they are actually characters in a book being written by Paul the writer.

Ever see the movie Stranger Than Fiction?

The Mark And The Void is one of the most entertaining, mental, nonsensical, politically insightful, page-turning novels I’ve read in a long, long time. Buy copies and give them to people you know who just throw their hands up in the air and say “oh I don’t get any of that whole banking crisis thing” and who, thus, just ignore everything that happened. They’ll end up as furious and angry as I did after the last page. No, I mean it, I was livid at everyone around me for days afterwards.

It’s a pitch perfect thing of beauty.

 

[Jim Daniels]

Great feature in the Times about the perils of book reviewing in Ireland.

Reviewing Irish books: the good, the bad and the ugly truth

 

[nooleen]

i've been reading the sister fidelma mysteries..the writing is cack and the main character pretty annoying but the mysteries are compelling in a pulpy way and full of historical facts..which is interesting if you're into the history of the christian church c. 660 AD...which i'm not, but it's still interesting to learn a bit

 

[David Kronenbourg]

So does Rick O'Shea, whose opinion I value

Book Review – The Mark And The Void by Paul Murray | Rikipedia

Book Review – The Mark And The Void by Paul Murray
To start with, Paul Murray gives us a good old-fashioned switcheroo for the two main characters in The Mark And The Void. Paul is a brash, crass, money-driven egotistic author years after his first success and failing miserably to come up with his new book. Claude is a principled, quiet, philosophy loving French banker working with the “Bank Of Torabundo” in the IFSC in the months just before the crash in a very thinly fictionalised Ireland of 2008.

Paul turns up one day and suggests to Claude that he’d love to write an everyman story of the banking world “like Ulysses” with Claude at the centre. Claude’s flattered and agrees but soon it becomes apparent that something else altogether is happening.

This happens against the backdrop of a fictional ailing Minister For Finance, a fictional toxic bank dragging down the Irish economy, myhotswaitress.com (with an “S”!), strip clubs, bankers seeing how far they can throw Rolex watches off rooftop bars, cryptic banking giants who communicate in e-mail riddles and dozens of other things that logic tells you couldn’t ever have happened but your gut knows are half a notch off the real world.

It’s pretty much spot on to compare the book to a Celtic Tiger Catch 22, what becomes disconcerting and, later on, nauseating is that in so many places you’re never sure whether behaviour and events you’re reading are genuinely bonkers high farce, insane parody, sharp satire or probably not too far from what actually used to go on in the dying days of Irish banking empire.

Yes, the trope of “Paul the blocked writer” falls squarely within well trodden ground that everyone from Stephen King to Woody Allen has mined but here he uses it like a dizzying series of matryoshka dolls. At one point Paul Murray is writing about Paul the author and all of the staff in Claude’s department who are wondering if, instead of being source material for Paul’s book, they are actually characters in a book being written by Paul the writer.

Ever see the movie Stranger Than Fiction?

The Mark And The Void is one of the most entertaining, mental, nonsensical, politically insightful, page-turning novels I’ve read in a long, long time. Buy copies and give them to people you know who just throw their hands up in the air and say “oh I don’t get any of that whole banking crisis thing” and who, thus, just ignore everything that happened. They’ll end up as furious and angry as I did after the last page. No, I mean it, I was livid at everyone around me for days afterwards.

It’s a pitch perfect thing of beauty.

But you don't value mine? Thanks a fucking bunch. I'll be in the true detective thread : (

 

[Jim Daniels]

But you don't value mine? Thanks a fucking bunch. I'll be in the true detective thread : (

Ha! That came out wrong!

 

[David Kronenbourg]

Ha! That came out wrong!

ah i know i'm only buzzing

 

[Denny Oubidoux]

The Brothel in Rosenstrasse and Other Stories: The Best Short Fiction of Michael Moorcock Volume 2 by Michael Moorcock
I only read one of the short stories, The Brothel In Rosenstrasse was the main interest for me in this book. It had an interesting premise - eye of the storm existence of a group of people sheltering in a brothel in a city under seige - but it was only ok, too much dull sex and drugs.

The Media Relations Department of Hizbollah Wishes You a Happy Birthday: Unexpected Encounters in the Changing Middle East by Neil MacFarquhar
This was a really good read. Your man was the middle east correspondent for the new york times and the book is a kind of general look a the middle east region and the issues facing people e.g. secret police, corruption, monarchies/tyrants etc. It seems to have been written mainly around 2008 so it already seems like a different world at this stage but there are little things that you can see in retrospect as foreshadows of subsequent developments.

 

[7 - No tomorrow]

“Sometimes all it takes is a dud sentence.” What does that even mean?

Dunno

Maybe that the author burst the bubble with a crap line?

 

[7 - No tomorrow]

Recommend something for my sister. She likes Nick Hornby, Ian McEwan, Margaret Atwood, John Irving

I was going to recommend Franzen or Tom Wolfe. Maybe Dave Eggers?

But I'd like another view.

 

[tim]

I'm currently reading Tijuana Straights by Kem Nunn.
I've found all his work (this is my third book of his) to be really solid. It's surf-noir. Lots of washed up hard drinking dudes and increased darkness and grit as his books progress.

Kem Nunn wrote on Deadwood and co-created the follow up show John From Cinncinnati (which I loved) with David Milch.

Anyway I think his books are good shit!

 

[David Kronenbourg]

I'm currently reading Tijuana Straights by Kem Nunn.
I've found all his work (this is my third book of his) to be really solid. It's surf-noir. Lots of washed up hard drinking dudes and increased darkness and grit as his books progress.

Kem Nunn wrote on Deadwood and co-created the follow up show John From Cinncinnati (which I loved) with David Milch.

Anyway I think his books are good shit!

Nice one. Surf noir sounds right up my street and I loved both of those shows (RIP)

 

[David Kronenbourg]

Recommend something for my sister. She likes Nick Hornby, Ian McEwan, Margaret Atwood, John Irving

I was going to recommend Franzen or Tom Wolfe. Maybe Dave Eggers?

But I'd like another view.

Donna Tartt?

 

[7 - No tomorrow]

Donna Tartt?

Good one!

 

[David Kronenbourg]

Good one!

Secret History is a good place to start, then just read the next two in order.