What Book Did You Read Last Night??? (4 Viewers)

[Mormon Nailer]

...or Our Man in Havana, The Power and the Glory, and the Honorary Consul.

Power and the glory is hardly a spy novel.

 

[Mitchum]

Power and the glory is hardly a spy novel.

Yeah it's not a strict 'cloak & dagger' novel but it does have themes of pursuit, betrayal, suppression of the individual & beliefs under a totalitarian system which are common to the spy genre.

 

[magicbastarder]

just finished xenocide by orson scott card. excellent, but the ending was a bit weak.

 

[Mormon Nailer]

I just finished Amsterdam by Ian McEwan

....ending was like a bad episode of tales of the unexpected.

 

[Gambra]

Picked up the Rupert Everett autobiography and the the Complete Prose collection of Woody Allen's work which i can't wait to read. Still have to finish Cancer Ward first though..

 

[david jatt]

Finished "The Mission Song" by John Le Carre, the plot tied me up in knots somewhat, but I enjoyed it all the same. Started "Bad Men" by John Connolly last night, liking it so far.

 

[hermie]

I just finished Amsterdam by Ian McEwan

....ending was like a bad episode of tales of the unexpected.

yeah, didn't like the ending.not one of his better novels.surprised that was the one that won him the Booker...

 

[Mormon Nailer]

yeah, didn't like the ending.not one of his better novels.surprised that was the one that won him the Booker...

I thought the same... "booker for this?".

 

[hermie]

I thought the same... "booker for this?".

yea and it's not as if he's not nominated every other fucking year...

 

[eoghan_dubhdara]

been reading poems by pablo neruda all they have in winding stair" is his love poems but its still all right. my favourite place to chill out, if i get stressed or angry i just go there read some wilde poetry and calm right down better then a drink or a smoke

 

[Mitchum]

yeah, didn't like the ending.not one of his better novels.surprised that was the one that won him the Booker...

Smacks of compensation for not giving him the prize for 'Atonement'. I don't think he's written anything of note since that either. 'Saturday' was dreadful and 'On Chesil Beach' is almost 'unpickupable'. I can't believe OCB even made the short-list this year what with the glaring ommision of say, Coetzee & David Peace.

Currently wading through 'Darkmans' by Nicola Barker which did make the list. It's very dense but beautifully written.

 

[Mormon Nailer]

I cant understand what you're so dismissive of OCB. I thought it was a return to form for him. Certainly doesn't have the scope of some of his other work - more of a novella than a novel but still...

 

[Mitchum]

I cant understand what you're so dismissive of OCB. I thought it was a return to form for him. Certainly doesn't have the scope of some of his other work - more of a novella than a novel but still...

Well even for a novella I felt it was too flimsy. A ten page short story might have worked-there's not a lot to say is there? Two awkward virgins fumble on their wedding night. Aside from the paucity of ideas it's a rehash of better works by McEwan-same themes of the class & generation anxienty & one slip or mistake having wider repercussions cf. Atonement, Enduring Love, Black Dogs and even The Child In Time to an extent.
As for the writing well there's too many telegraphed references to popular culture of the day to make it feel plausible (feels like he did his research watching Austin Powers) and of course the howler of an anachronism of the guy listening to The Rolling Stones on the wireless. They hadn't even recorded a single when the book is set.

Anyway aside from that nitpicking I'm not sure that folk were THAT naive in 1961/2. This is the era of the post-War baby boom. Everyone was at it like rabbits. Apart from Philip Larkin, obviously.

So yeah, it just doesn't sit right for me as a novella.

 

[david jatt]

I cant understand what you're so dismissive of OCB. I thought it was a return to form for him. Certainly doesn't have the scope of some of his other work - more of a novella than a novel but still...

I actually liked On Chesil Beach too, one of the few McEwan books that I have read, that I actually liked.

 

[coast to coast]

A Long, Long Way by Sebastian Barry.

Fucking brutal. In the amazing-book-about-horrific-stuff way, I mean. So so good.

Made me immediately want to download Blackadder Goes Fourth too.

 

[La La]

tonight i'm going to begin reading Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer.
I plan on doing so while also reading Kate Adie's The Kindness of Strangers.
And i just bought more books from amazon - one titled Glass Soldier: The Camera at War. can't WAIT to get into that one.

 

[coast to coast]

tonight i'm going to begin reading Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer.

Something about that book quite annoyed me, but I can't be sure whether I wasn't just being subconsciously anti-semitic or something... either way, it reminded me of Dave Eggers' first book for some reason, which I much prefer.

 

[La La]

Something about that book quite annoyed me, but I can't be sure whether I wasn't just being subconsciously anti-semitic or something... either way, it reminded me of Dave Eggers' first book for some reason, which I much prefer.

inneresting. it was recommended to me by a good friend and i completely value his opinion so i'll give it a go sure.
i havent read that dave eggers book you mention..

 

[muffin]

Something about that book quite annoyed me, but I can't be sure whether I wasn't just being subconsciously anti-semitic or something... quote]

ive tried to read this book a gazillion times and can only get half way through..now that im sick maybe its the time to try it again..

 

[coast to coast]

inneresting. it was recommended to me by a good friend and i completely value his opinion so i'll give it a go sure.
i havent read that dave eggers book you mention..

I wholeheartedly recommend Dave Eggers' A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius then. Its an enjoyable book.