travispickle
Well-Known Member
I'm not keen on him either but I don't have that TV channel anyway so I'll stick with the books!Looking forward to checking out his work. My hatred of Cumberbatch is turning me off the show.
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I'm not keen on him either but I don't have that TV channel anyway so I'll stick with the books!Looking forward to checking out his work. My hatred of Cumberbatch is turning me off the show.
I've read a couple of Joyce Carol Oates and want to read more but never know where to start. I also love gothic and horror stories. Would you recommend one of these as an entry to her work?Books read since last May(!):
Why Science Needs Art - Richard Roche, Francesca Farina and Seán Commins (2018)
A brief but wonderful book about the relationships between artistic representation and the sciences, particularly neuroscience.
Cold Hand in Mine - Robert Aickman (1975)
Dark Entries - Robert Aickman (1964)
The Wine-Dark Sea - Robert Aickman (1988)
Collections of stories by the absolute master of the "strange tale". These are in a genre of their own, somewhere between a traditional ghost story and existential absurdism. But wittier. Aickman has been someone I've been meaning to check out further (I've come across him in anthologies) and I'm going to buy the rest of his collections this year. Highly recommended, especially Dark Entries.
Seven Gothic Tales - Isla Dinesen (Karen Blixen; 1934)
This was in the horror section in Hodges Figgis and sounded interesting. It wasn't. I found it to be a real slog. The writing is dense if you're into that sort of thing but my concentration kept drifting throughout it, even though the stories are not exactly massive.
The Corn Maiden and Other Nightmares - Joyce Carol Oates (2011)
Night-Gaunts and Other Tales of Suspense - Joyce Carol Oates (2018)
Two collections of horror/psychological terror that I thoroughly enjoyed. The Corn Maiden in particular is amazing, I had actual anxiety sweats in at least two of the stories.
Three Men in a Boat - Jerome K. Jerome (1889)
Pleasant little book that is fairly dated but still funny. Not one I'm likely to read again but one to cross off my list of classics.
The Psychobiotic Revolution - Scott C. Anderson with John F. Cryan & Ted Dinan (2017)
An overview of research on how bacteria in your gut can impact on your brain. The basic science is fairly robust (I'm familiar with the UCC group that does it) but the American journalist who writes the book pushes the case too far in my opinion. It comes across as a bit self-helpy and I was a bit disappointed.
Room to Dream - David Lynch and Kristine McKenna (2018)
A mixture of memoirs and biography, this was a savage read. One of the most interesting books on film or art that I've read in a long time. (Full disclosure: I could read about Lynch all day so I'm biased.)
Living Together - Matt Thomas (2018)
The Unwish - Claire Dean (2017)
The Hook - Florence Sunnen (2018)
The Automaton - David Wheldon (2017)
Bremen - Claire Dean (2017)
Five chapbooks published by Nightjar Press in the UK. One short story in each, very much in the weird/uncanny end of things. Like the Aickman books, these aren't so much tales of the supernatural but of a bending in reality. Unfortunately they all appear to be out of print now but I'm definitely going to order more of these from Nightjar.
Sparks from the Fire - Rosalie Parker (2018)
Rosalie Parker runs Tartarus Press with her husband but also publishes her own ghost stories. These are very traditional, all the trappings of 19th century/early 20th century supernatural fiction is there but it is done rather well. I'd be surprised if it wasn't given that Tartarus Press is probably the best publisher of gothic fiction around.
I find it really hard to sit with profoundly self absorbed protagonists, always have, I don't necessarily struggle with unlikeable narrators just unbelievably narcissistic ones. And being reminded of her being so thin and beautiful and rich every two pages was effective, I guess. All of that said, I know I was supposed to feel exactly as I did and I felt a kind of joy at my disgusting hatred for her, and the authors ability to pull it off. Something about how filthy and smelly and gross she was described as being was weirdly refreshing in a female narrator, it even nearly made me like her. Nearly :'D
What I could not stand and what I actually thought was just weak was the repetative therapy sessions. It was so boring and repetative it just annoyed me, it's like, ok really, another one after three pages? I don't know, it just irked me. I did LOVE Reba.
And again, I think sometimes an interesting book is one that challenges you, and sometimes repells you. I had serious issues with everyones problematic fave, a little life too, and some of the most interesting and divisive conversations I've had have been about my hatred of that book, so the challenge was reward enough.
YES!Thumped book club, let's all read The Country Girls.
Some lovely covers in there too. That Night Gaunts cover is very Hopperesque.Books read since last May(!):
Why Science Needs Art - Richard Roche, Francesca Farina and Seán Commins (2018)
A brief but wonderful book about the relationships between artistic representation and the sciences, particularly neuroscience.
Cold Hand in Mine - Robert Aickman (1975)
Dark Entries - Robert Aickman (1964)
The Wine-Dark Sea - Robert Aickman (1988)
Collections of stories by the absolute master of the "strange tale". These are in a genre of their own, somewhere between a traditional ghost story and existential absurdism. But wittier. Aickman has been someone I've been meaning to check out further (I've come across him in anthologies) and I'm going to buy the rest of his collections this year. Highly recommended, especially Dark Entries.
Seven Gothic Tales - Isla Dinesen (Karen Blixen; 1934)
This was in the horror section in Hodges Figgis and sounded interesting. It wasn't. I found it to be a real slog. The writing is dense if you're into that sort of thing but my concentration kept drifting throughout it, even though the stories are not exactly massive.
The Corn Maiden and Other Nightmares - Joyce Carol Oates (2011)
Night-Gaunts and Other Tales of Suspense - Joyce Carol Oates (2018)
Two collections of horror/psychological terror that I thoroughly enjoyed. The Corn Maiden in particular is amazing, I had actual anxiety sweats in at least two of the stories.
Three Men in a Boat - Jerome K. Jerome (1889)
Pleasant little book that is fairly dated but still funny. Not one I'm likely to read again but one to cross off my list of classics.
The Psychobiotic Revolution - Scott C. Anderson with John F. Cryan & Ted Dinan (2017)
An overview of research on how bacteria in your gut can impact on your brain. The basic science is fairly robust (I'm familiar with the UCC group that does it) but the American journalist who writes the book pushes the case too far in my opinion. It comes across as a bit self-helpy and I was a bit disappointed.
Room to Dream - David Lynch and Kristine McKenna (2018)
A mixture of memoirs and biography, this was a savage read. One of the most interesting books on film or art that I've read in a long time. (Full disclosure: I could read about Lynch all day so I'm biased.)
Living Together - Matt Thomas (2018)
The Unwish - Claire Dean (2017)
The Hook - Florence Sunnen (2018)
The Automaton - David Wheldon (2017)
Bremen - Claire Dean (2017)
Five chapbooks published by Nightjar Press in the UK. One short story in each, very much in the weird/uncanny end of things. Like the Aickman books, these aren't so much tales of the supernatural but of a bending in reality. Unfortunately they all appear to be out of print now but I'm definitely going to order more of these from Nightjar.
Sparks from the Fire - Rosalie Parker (2018)
Rosalie Parker runs Tartarus Press with her husband but also publishes her own ghost stories. These are very traditional, all the trappings of 19th century/early 20th century supernatural fiction is there but it is done rather well. I'd be surprised if it wasn't given that Tartarus Press is probably the best publisher of gothic fiction around.
Yes but The Corn Maiden is definitely the best of the two.I've read a couple of Joyce Carol Oates and want to read more but never know where to start. I also love gothic and horror stories. Would you recommend one of these as an entry to her work?
The photographer did a series of photos based on Hopper's paintings so you're bang on the money. One of the stories is based on the same painting, hence it being used.Some lovely covers in there too. That Night Gaunts cover is very Hopperesque.
See, I love repulsive female characters and want more of them. I feel like there's a massive human darkness in everyone and it wonderful to see that almost humorously celebrated in a book my a female author. Yes she's skinny, rich and gorgeous but her perfectly pedicured up bringing has left her empty and money can't buy her a soul. There's a deep, deep sadness in her that reminds me of Jean Rhys or Kathy Acker. A woman raised up with absolutely no ability to love or let love in. Only existing to be used and to hate and in competition.
She has no ability to love or be loved because of the deep emptiness of her childhood and the scarring lack of parental love. Reba can only love her conditionally, when she's "well", positive, happy, healthy. Much like her mother she's constantly trying to inch her towards the perfect, positive, meditation and healthy eating lifestyle she so believes in. Reba is a beautiful, at times, naïve and loving (though extremely smart and wonderful) presence that the protagonist wants to kill because she is a perfect mirror of what she can never be and is her deepest fear - someone not afraid. The two are bonded in deep love and trauma. Reba certainly has her own issues and struggles but she has an essential and life saving trait the protagonist is incapable of - hope, which only appears on the last page. I sobbed and held the book to my chest. Reba saves her life and humbles her beyond anything that ever could. The book is a masterpiece in my opinion.
THAT said there is a MASSIVE fetishisation of the skinny sad rich bitch and it is getting a little.....dull... Also why does Reba HAVE to die to save her!? Don't we want a more inclusive narrative? Bah! Many thoughts.
They are stunning, I wish the books lived more up to them.The Brian Catling covers! Unreal!
Give me a little while.@Cornu Ammonis, give me your top 10 weird fiction/horror novels of the last 10 - 15 years. please and thanks!
<3 Excellent review!I think all of this is absolutely true, and I can see from your review there how this book really works for a lot of people. I think the cause and effect of "she is this way because X" just annoyed me, and I couldn't get past that. I also think the ending, which I won't go into, though definitely foreshadowed, was cheap.
But like you said, I love a repulsive female narrator, too, and I think the way she was written was fantastic, specifically the physical descriptions really worked for me. Like, overall, I still gave the book a daycent review, because her writing is fantastic. I think the main thing is that if you don't make that emotional connection - if you're the kind of person that needs one, which I am, to a fault - then it can bleed into tedium.
OK, I'm done for a while!
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