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Here you can find reviews and comments on what tomes I've been sticking my beak into recently. Just click on the titles below to get the info...
John Barth - "Letters" (1977)
John Barth is one of the giants of American postmodernism, usually mentioned in the same breath as the likes of Thomas Pynchon. For some, that conjures up images of enormous tomes full of incomprehensible intellectual word-play, while the vast majority of folks have most likely never heard of either.
"Letters" is Barth's seventh novel, and for even his hardcore fans it has something of a stigma attached to it, marking as it does the point at which he fell from popularity after a period of mainstream success in the 60's. Intriguingly enough, in the preface to the current edition, Barth playfully quotes critics who have stated that the author himself has deemed it unreadable, a charge which Barth denies.
So it was with some trepidation that I approached this large volume clocking in at nearly 800 pages. I had previously experienced two other Barth novels, being bemused but intrigued by Giles Goat Boy and thoroughly enjoying The Sot-Weed Factor. Here are books of the kind which I find irresistible : long, dense, full of historical detail, brimming with erudition but still managing to maintain a sense of humour. Was "Letters" going to be the same?
Initially the premise of the work did not hold much hope : an epistolary novel in which a character selected from each of Barth's previous six novels together with a totally new protagonist correspond with the author over a period of several months in the late 60's. Yes, folks, the book is solely composed of letters.
I will admit that at first it was hard going, simply due to the entirely discrete nature of each letter. Imagine, if you will, seven people, some of whom are clearly insane, all writing about completely different and seemingly unconnected things. However, by about page 300 it all began to make some sense, as it became apparent that all the characters are moving towards a central story in which they all figure.
The plot, when it finally begins to emerge, concerns a film being made in the Chesapeake Bay area of New England, an avant-garde production based loosely on the events of The War of 1812. Many people are perhaps unaware of this Anglo-American conflict sometimes referred to as the Second Revolution, but for me the blending of fact and fiction in an area of obscure history with which I am familiar makes for a very intriguing work indeed. As a side note, the war was a standoff; Britain thwarted America's attempts to invade Canada, but failed to decisively beat them in battle. They did, however, manage to burn Washington to the ground. No surprises then, that this little historical episode is not well known these days!
As I reached the second half of the book I began to find myself thoroughly enjoying it, and was actually disappointed when I came to the end. Certainly this is no easy read, but most definitely not in the same league as Finnegan's Wake with regard to intelligibility. Granted, one requires patience to get to grips with the unusual format, not to mention some of the more bizarre characters, but nothing can take away from the underlying fact that Barth is just a damn good storyteller.
8 out of 10 December 2004
W.G.SEBALD - "Austerlitz" (2001)
I'd never heard of W.G.Sebald before a friend of mine handed me a copy of 'Austerlitz' which I flicked through in some confusion. What immediately struck the eye was the complete lack of paragraphs and the fact that the text was interspersed with seemingly random black and white photos. Was this a novel, or a book on history? Even now, after having read the work and discussed it at length with others, I'm not too sure…
What I do know is that it is an enthralling and rich work that is hard to put down, but not for the normal reasons.
On the face of it, the contents of the book are rambling; a rather nebulous narrater recounting his meetings with a man called Austerlitz who delivers long monologues punctuated by insanely detailed recollections of people and places across Europe.
Somehow this fascinates, as it abounds in resonances for those who have traveled well and know their history.
It produces a somewhat haunting impression of forgotten histories contained within empty buildings and monuments that the normal folk never take the time to see. This is even more poignant since Sebald's characters are predominantly Jewish, post-war relics who are haunted by the void left by the Holocaust, a vanished world which nonetheless has left traces for those who take the time to find them.
A truly remarkable book the like of which I have never read, but I suspect Sebald is an acquired taste and something that will not appeal to most people.
9 out of 10December 2005
LYNNE TRUSS - "Eats, Shoots and Leaves" (2003)
I received this little hardback volume as a gift from my aunt. When I'd flicked through it at her place last summer, the premise had looked rather good: a humourous look at all those awful punctuation gaffes English-speaking people seem to be increasingly making in their written output. Unfortunately, my trust in Ms.Truss' ability to entertain was entirely misplaced.
Instead of comic examples and episodes relating to punctuation predominating, we are regaled by entire chapters spelling out the correct rules for the same: if I'd wanted a book on English grammar I would have bought one, thanks.
To make matters worse, the whole tome is laced with Truss' dry elitist distain and stuffy school-mam superiority, and when we do finally get a few jokes thrown in, they are to say the least lame. In fact, exactly the sort of unfunny comments you'd expect an old school-mam to make.
Ms.Truss claims repeatedly that she knows that language changes over time and that the attempts of such archly-conservative bastions of linguistic orthodoxy as the Academie Francaise are ultimately doomed to failure, but nonetheless keeps up with the fuddy-duddy 'things were better in my day' and 'children should have the rules of grammar drummed into them' type rants.
In reading this book I found myself repeatedly in two minds: on the one hand, an overpowering sense of loathing for the author and her ilk, on the other, a realization that I too find the garbled use of punctuation lamentable, and indeed often struggle myself to get it right.
But language does indeed change, and despite the Luddite pretensions of people like Truss, certain features of English punctuation are bound to be discarded over time. This depends on two things: whether certain features can be dropped or simplified without loss of clarity, and whether the masses adopt them.
I can think of at least one item that could be done away with entirely: the possessive apostrophe. A quick look at German shows that a sentence such as 'the man's book' can be rendered either as 'das Buch des Mannes' or more simply, 'der Manns Buch', the latter being entirely analogous to the English, and containing no apostrophe.
Unless you're of the crusty old brigade of proscriptivists, I would not recommend this book, and furthermore, I hope I've made some punctuation errors in this review of the kind that fill people like Lynne Truss with indignant apoplexy.
3 out of 10January 2005
JOHN ERICKSON - "The Road to Berlin" (1983)
This is the second volume in Erickson's mighty history of the Russo-German conflict of 1941-45 (the first being 'The Road to Stalingrad') and concentrates on the decline in fortunes of Hitler's armies after the debacle at Stalingrad.
It must be pointed out immediately that this is a rather dry book of the type that concentrates on the movement of units and grand strategy rather than the more popular anecdotal type of historical writing. Arguably a combination of the two (as found in Beevor's 'Stalingrad') makes for the optimum read, but in Erickson's favour is the fact that he writes well.
There are many books on the subject of this, the most bloody and decisive of World War II theatres, but Erickson's stands out in that he was one of the first westerners to write it from the side of the Soviets. This in itself makes the book valuable and a must for any serious in-depth appreciation of this conflict.
The only downside to this is that the book is pre-Glasnost and thus Erickson did not have access to or knowledge of certain events which have since emerged. One such example would be the Operation Mars offensive, a project of Zhukov's, which saw a hugely costly and disastrous attack around Rzhev which took place at the same time as Stalingrad and was until recently entirely unknown in the west. Erickson makes no mention of this battle in which the Soviet casualties were numbered in hundreds of thousands.
It is a sad reflection of the Cold War era that many other accounts of The Great Patriotic War are seen from the German perspective, a fact which has served to skew the popular perception somewhat. Indeed, a rather alarming revisionist trend in evidence in certain quarters these days is to view the Nazis and Soviets as being 'as bad as each other', which entirely negates the enormous service the people of the Soviet Union did for the world by surviving the initial brutal onslaught, enduring extreme privations under Nazi occupation, and then rebounding to play the major part in ridding Europe of the nightmare of The Third Reich.
Reading a book such as this also reveals that as the Western Allies were embarking upon D-Day, an operation very much still in the public eye and the theme of countless films and documentaries, the Russians were at the same time unleashing Operation Bagration upon the center of the German army in the east, a massive offensive which irreparably smashed the Wehrmacht and opened the way for the advance onto German territory and the eventual destruction of the Nazi regime less than a year later.
Books such as these go a long way in redressing the balance.
7 out of 10January 2005
ITALO CALVINO - "If on a Winter's Night a Traveller" (1979)
I first heard about Calvino through his 'Italian Folk Tales', a compendium of 200 stories somewhere between the brothers Grimm and Bocaccio's Decameron - in other words, the perfect book for the toilet bookshelf, to be dipped into now and again as time permits!
'If on a Winter's Night a Traveller' has some things in common with the folk tales: it is (in a way) a collection of stories, and is also of the 'fabulist' genre. Here the similarities end, however.
The novel is in reality a crafty commentary on the process of reading and writing, a self-referencing wild goose-chase in which the main characters encounter a series of unfinished beginnings to other novels, not to mention an array of bizarre and unlikely characters.
The book's very structure could be regarded as rather annoying, since some of the unfinished tales are very intriguing and leave the reader crying out for more, although the book is a whole it is a more or less satisfying read.
One does, however, get a little tired with all Mr.Calvino's 'cleverness', which at times smacks of smugness and arrogance. The ending too leaves much to be desired, continuing on past what I considered to be both the crucial point and the climax of the work.
An intriguing and original idea perhaps taken a little too far.
7 out of 10January 2005
FRANZ KAFKA - "The Trial" (1914)
I probably first read this twenty-five years ago, and it had a great impression on me then, so it was with great pleasure that I set about this new translation based on a revised text.
In general, the same things that struck me last time stood out here too: the comedy that is contained within what many people regard as a dark and somber work, and the bizarre and unrealistic human relations that permeate the story.
As examples of the former, we have the attic courtroom where those in the upper gallery are forced to bring cushions to put between their bent-forward heads and the ridiculously low ceiling. Later, the scene in which K. finds two former assailants being whipped for days on end in a storeroom at his place of work. Even in the final chapter in which the now resigned K. is led to his death, we find an almost slapstick overtone as the two executioners link arms with him and allow him to propel this six-legged beast wherever he wants it to go.
Of the latter, the hero's encounters with women stand out as being decidedly odd, with the sexual element brought further to the fore by this new English rendering.
Probably the greatest difference between this version and the old Muir translation is the enhanced felling of unfinishedness. The chapter order has been changed and some parts removed, which somehow serves to highlight the gaping holes that Kafka never filled in.
Still an astonishing commentary on what urbanization and bureaucracy has done to us poor human beings.
9 out of 10February 2005
RICHARD CONNAUGHTON - "Rising Sun and Tumbling Bear" (1988)
The Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05 is not well known in the West, and its place in history has been overshadowed by the Great War which followed a decade after. However, its importance is such that a recent edition of History magazine included in its 'top ten' most influential events of the 20th century.
Its importance lies in the fact it was the first time a white imperial power had been beaten by a 'lesser' race, an event which no doubt fostered independence movements the world over to take note.
It has also often been described as the first modern war. Not only in a temporal sense, but also because of the extensive use of machine guns, the fact that artillery played a crucial role and accounted for most of the casualties, and in the Battle of the Straits of Tsushima we have the first modern clash of ironclads.
Plenty of lessons for the world's militaries to learn, but sadly nobody did, as is clearly evidenced by the events of World War One.
The thrashing of Russia on land and at sea also led to Japanese over-confidence and ultimately the bold but suicidal attack on Pearl Harbor more than three decades later.
Richard Connaughton's account is a satisfying read for those familiar with military history, and he takes care to include personal anecdotes from participants to enliven the drier narrative of strategic manoeuvring.
Maps are plentiful, which is just as well since events are at times confusing and make little sense without some geographic understanding of the obscure corners of China and Korea where the land campaign was carried out.
In short, this account captures well the farce of incompetent Russian generals, bungled plans, poor communications and the grand finale of the Russian fleet being annihilated off the coast of Japan after an epic voyage around the world from the Baltic.
8 out of 10February 2005
J.M.COETZEE - "Disgrace" (1999)
An unremittingly bleak novel set in the author's native South Africa and touching on the post-Apartheid relationship between black and white, as well as that between parents and children, men and women.
The story centers on a university professor who is dismissed after having an affair with a student and relocates to his daughter's farm where a shocking turn of events brings the racial problems of the country into sharp and personal focus.
To be honest, I found it very hard to identify with either the main character or his daughter, both seemingly self-destructive and unlovable people who seem to be fundamentally lacking in spirit somehow. In fact I often felt like giving the both of them a good slap round the face to shock them out of their torpor.
In addition, I found the frequent allusions to the life of Byron and one of his mistresses tedious and inappropriate intrusions, far removed from the setting of Coetzee's tale, no matter what inferences relevant to the story we are supposed to draw from them.
To conclude: I found it difficult to enjoy this book because of its almost total lack of hope together with the terse, somewhat dry style of the author in which the bleak events are recounted. A tale without soul or love.
5 out of 10February 2005
D.B.C.PIERRE - "Vernon God Little" (2004)
Vernon God Little is the debut novel from its author, and has earned something of a reputation for a Catcher in the Rye for the 2000's. That in itself was almost enough for me not to read it, since the aforementioned Salinger paperback provided me with one of my most underwhelming literary experiences to date.
Well, it's never wise to trust the critics too much, and I found the book to be an enjoyable, funny and absorbing read from cover to cover.
The tale is written through the eyes of a Texan teenager who is accused, wrongly, of complicity in a school shooting. The real message of the work, however, is nothing less than an attack on modern Amerika, ridiculing as it does the power of the media and the evils of consumerism in a lowest common denominator society.
While some of the characters are rather poorly defined, and certain aspects of the plot shaky or contrived, the strength of the book lies in the dry gallows humour of the central character, with whom I could immediately relate. Pierre captures brilliantly the thoughts and speech patterns of our young hero, whose insights and observations are often funny in the extreme, despite his dire predicament (he eventually finds himself on death row).
In short, this is that rare kind of work that can both entertain but also highlight and confront serious issues
8 out of 10April 2005
MICHAEL HEATLEY - "John Peel - A Life in Music" (2004)
I have occasionally been shocked by the sudden death of a celebrity in the past, but when veteran DJ John Peel suffered a fatal heart attack in October 2004, I was deeply upset, as were many of my peers who had grown up listening to his eclectric radio shows and had somehow supposed that he would always be there, because he always had been.
Music is today a very large and important part of my life, both as a collector and as a composer, and all of this interest is the result of a chance encounter with John's show back in the late '70's, which served to initiate me into a whole new world of mystery and beauty, and provided me with a vital and direct means of self-expression through my own song writing.
Trite as all that may sound, this DJ really did save my life.
This brief tome is a neat chronological summary of the life of John Peel, detailing his career in a meticulous fashion which at times breaks down into rather tedious lists and dates, but which also goes a long way in identifying what made the man so special : a shy, self-effacing father of four who never ceased championing and exploring new musicals genres at an age when most people's taste would either have ossified or regressed into easy listening.
In short, despite certain outward appearances, he was a revolutionary and an antidote to complacency in an otherwise dull, overly commercial and sanitised music industry.
Hail Discordia!
7 out of 10May 2005
THOMAS PYNCHON - "V" (1961)
This was reclusive American author Pynchon's debut, a sprawling sweep across time and space bursting with conspiracy theory and erudition, the hallmarks of this post-modernist 'difficult' author.
The book centers on two characters, ex-sailor and self-professed bum Benny Profane, and Herbert Stencil, a man obsessed with finding the mysterious 'V' of the title, a woman who was connected with his father. Both men are dislocated from their environment and essentially lost.
The novel swarms with similarly alienated characters and backdrops stretch from 1950's New York to wartime Malta via German South-West Africa at the turn of the century, to mention but a few locations and times.
As is usual with Pynchon, the prose is not easy and skimmers will find little joy here. Places and characters change with little fanfare, and confusion is never far away, but perhaps that is part of the author's intent: to render in prose the alienating effects the twentieth century and its impersonal mechanized brutality have had on home sapiens.
While not as humourous as later works such as Gravity's Rainbow, Vineland or Mason & Dixon, V is still a stimulating and illuminating read for those adventurous souls who are prepared to persevere, although an easier entry point into the world of Pynchon would probably be the uncharacteristically short The Crying of Lot 49.
8 out of 10May 2005
W.G.SEBALD - "On the Natural History of Destruction" (1999)
This slim volume, a posthumous publication, centers on the Second World War and, more specifically, on the way in which the Germans have dealt with its memory and consequences through literature.
The four separate pieces contained herein are non-fiction, but given Sebald's unusual style of writing, there is little to differentiate stylistically between this and his novels.
The first, and most substantial piece, entitled 'Air War and Literature' is taken from a series of lectures the author gave in Zurich. In it he attempts to analyze the literary response to the massive structural damage and loss of life that resulted from the Allied bombing of German cities during the war, which seems to have been predominantly one of silence. Sebald shows how Germans, through the pens of their writers, elected to give as little thought and space as possible to this catastrophe, thereby virtually eradicating it from cultural memory.
The remaining, and shorter, pieces all focus on literary criticism of German writers of whom I had never heard. Nevertheless, as is usual with Sebald, even the most unfamiliar and mundane of subjects can become interesting under his acute gaze.
While the cobbling together of disparate essays makes the book lack the coherence of his novels, it is worthwhile reading nontheless.
7 out of 10June 2005
IRVINE WELSH - "Glue" (2001)
This is the first novel I have read by the Scottish author made famous by the film adaptation of his literary debut 'Trainspotting'.
As such, this story contains many of the hallmarks of that other work, namely depictions of extreme violence, pornographic sex, and an overindulgence in Anglo-Saxon obscenities.
The novel looks at the lives of four men from the 'Schemes' of Edinburgh from their teenage years into the onset of middle age, with most of the narrative voice being rendered in dialect which is at first baffling but which soon becomes comfortable.
The 'heroes' are yobbos and petty criminals, although Welsh makes sure that we are made aware of an even baser set of miscreants operating on the fringes of the novel, perhaps in order to make his 'heroes' more acceptable.
The characters seem to be caught in limbo between the world of their fathers in which behaviour was codified, and a new jobless age in which dislocation and alienation has weakened working class tradition and morality. The point of the book seems to be that despite these circumstances, the four still care, and are forever bound by the joint circumstances of their youth.
'Glue' works in that we are drawn into feeling affection for people who at first revolt and disgust us, through showing us their awakenings from macho working class street culture into a deeper understanding of life.
However, it is not without its faults. Occasional glimpses of sloppy background research are evident, and the novel goes flat towards the end when a group of new and hitherto unrelated characters are introduced at the very moment when the reader has come to like the original four and is eager to follow them further.
One also suspects that much of the violence and sex is included purely for shock value, and that Irvine may well be just milking the current trend in British culture to deify scumbags a la Oasis, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and so on.
7 out of 10June 2005
G.H.BIDERMANN - "In Deadly Combat" (2000)
This gritty but detached World War II record of the hell that was the Eastern Front was initially written by its author for the veterans of his unit, but with the help of an American translator has been turned into a fine autobiography of Bidermann's wartime activities.
Chronicling blow by blow his experiences from the initial invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941 through to his eventual surrender to the Red Army just under four years later and subsequent incarceration, Bidermann recounts in minute and fascinating detail his life as commander of an anti-tank unit, sparing us none of the horrors and depredations of this, the most savage of conflicts.
While not as emotionally engaging as Guy Sajer's 'The Forgotten Soldier', the book is nonetheless an engrossing read for anyone wanting to know a little bit more about the Second World War outside of the America-centric fantasy masquerading as history that has engulfed the world since the release of 'Saving Private Ryan'.
The only negatives are related to a certain repetitiveness in style which seems to be the result of poor editing.
As regards content, one can also not avoid suspicion at the author's denial of any knowledge regarding the fate of those deemed unworthy of life by the state for which Bidermann fought. Prisoners taken by his unit are always treated honourably and fairly, and yet we know that millions of Soviet captives perished at the hands of the Nazis, often on purpose.
Perhaps Bidermann was indeed an honourable man, but during the final stages of the book in which he recounts his life as a POW, it is difficult not to laugh at his constant criticism of the Russians for not keeping to the letter of the Geneva Convention with regard to treatment of prisoners, given the Nazis' track record in this area.
Many German POWs didn't survive, it is true, but at least they were given a chance, and were not gassed, executed en masse or left to starve without food in huge open compounds, fates which befell three million of their Russian counterparts earlier in the war.
The most sobering part of the book, however, is not related to the descriptions of combat, but is the stark postscript which lists the names and fates of all twelve members of Bidermann's gun crew who started out with him in 1941. Only three, including Bidermann, were to survive the war, all having suffered multiple wounds, two of them crippled for life.
8 out of 10July 2005
SIMON SINGH - "Fermat's Enigma" (1997)
I can't really say I'm a fan of mathematics, particularly the abstract variety that is pursued in academia and seems to bear absolutely no relation to reality, but I was quite captivated by this work of non-fiction.
The French mathematician Fermat, being something of a riddler, left a cryptic note in the margin of a book on Greek mathematics back in the 17th century to the effect that he had a proof for an apparently unsolvable equation derived from Pythagoras, but declined to spell it out due to lack of space.
Simon Singh's book describes the intriguing 300-year search to discover the solution to the tantalizing puzzle subsequently known as Fermat's Last Theorem, a journey that includes suicide, death and intrigue among some of the world's greatest mathematical brains.
Despite the romance associated with some of those who had previously battled to be the first to crack the seemingly unsolvable puzzle, the story ends with the attempt by the decidedly down to earth British mathematician Andrew Wiles, who delivered a proof to a stunned audience of eggheads in 1993, while wearing what can only be described as one of the most unfashionable jumpers known to man.
Despite the inclusion of much that is mathematical, abstract and hard to comprehend for us normal folk, I found the book to be an absorbing read which I consumed in its entirety over the course of one weekend, a testimony to its universal appeal.
8 out of 10July 2005
ALFRED JARRY - "The Supermale" (1902)
Jarry is a little-known French surrealist author from the turn of the century whose only modern claim to fame is to have provided the name for cult US band Pere Ubu, whom nobody has heard of either!
Jarry liked to shock and was obsessed with three things: drinking, sex and bicycles, at least two of which feature prominently in The Supermale, a curious little novel which is undoubtedly not one of his finest pieces.
The story revolves around a futuristic tale of a diminutive hero (apparently not dissimilar to Jarry) who claims that there is no reason why a man cannot copulate indefinitely, and goes on to produce a specimen (himself in disguise) who manages to perform more than eighty times in one night in a kind of pseudo-scientific experiment. After this feat he is connected to a machine with which he melds with and dies.
However, if all that wasn't bizarre enough, before this there is a bicycle race between a team of men fed on an unspecified super food and a train across a course of ten thousand miles.
Well, none of this makes much sense, and Jarry's descriptions are often hard to follow, leaving the reader wondering what on earth is going on. It's a refreshingly frank book for the period, but in the end one is left with the feeling that Jarry's attempts to shock do not make up for what is in the end a rather poorly written, but mildly intriguing, piece.
5 out of 10July 2005
UMBERTO ECO - "Baudolino" (2000)
Eco's great conspiracy theory novel Foucault's Pendulum is one of my favourite books of all time, so I was looking forward to more learned historical ramblings and complicated plots in this more recent effort.
The central story is told by Baudolino, a talented linguist in the service of Frederick the Great, to the Greek Niketas while the two of them hide out in Constantinople, which is currently being ravaged by the hordes the Fourth Crusade.
Baudolino tells of his dramatic exploits, which culminate in a group of friends heading off towards the East in search of the mystical Kingdom of Prester John, a myth that is of their own creation. As the story unfolds, it becomes increasingly strange until we are taken to a realm in which one-footed men, giants and folk with their faces on their chests reside. At this point even Niketas seems to have trouble believing all of which the self-acknowledged liar Baudolino is telling him.
On the whole this is a great romp through both an interesting period of history and its fusion with the myths of the period, although the book is not quite in the same league as Foucault's Pendulum.
8 out of 10July 2005
RICHARD BRAUTIGAN - "Trout Fishing in America" (1967)
I'd never heard of Richard Brautigan until a friend lent me this slim volume, suggesting that it might be my thing. He was right.
Brautigan committed suicide in the mid-eighties and was at his literary peak in the sixties and seventies. He is often lumped in with the beatniks, but to be honest it is hard to comment since I've never got around to reading any of the big names of 1960's underground US literature.
It's difficult to describe the contents of this book. It is actually about trout fishing, and not really sure how much is anecdotal and how much pure fiction. Brautigan's short chapters contain tiny vignettes of visits to rural America, many of them from his childhood, in which the phrase 'Trout Fishing in America' is strangely substituted for various other things.
Humourous and quirky, it's really quite unlike anything I've ever read, but one thing I'm sure of is that I'd like to read more of him.
9 out of 10July 2005
GAIUS JULIUS CAESAR - "The Conquest of Gaul" (51 BC)
Recently I listened to a series of lectures on Roman history on the iPod, and to my surprise, it sparked a deep interest in the subject. I never really learnt much about Roman History at school, and the classes I took on Ancient Greece as an undergraduate went straight over my head, but now it seems that I'm ripe for my classical education.
And what better place to start than with Caesar's own account of his subjugation of the Gauls?
Frankly, it's amazing in itself that works such as this have survived over the centuries; it comes as another surprise that it is so readable. Perhaps many people, like me, tend to associate Roman History with stuffy conservatism, but this work is anything but. Caesar's style is direct and journalistic, and makes for a fascinating read in which we learn not only the details of his military campaigns and the techniques he used so successfully on the field of battle, but also gain interesting and unique insights into both Roman and Celtic culture.
Now that I've discovered that the literature of the ancient world isn't as daunting as I'd imagined, I will be definitely be making further inroads into the area.
8 out of 10August 2005
GITTA SERENY - "Albert Speer: His Battle With Truth" (1995)
Sereny, who has specialized in portraits of mass murderers and Nazis, has in her biography of the closest man to Hitler produced an epic work that is both well-written and excellently researched. I've read quite a few books on the leading men of the Third Reich, but all of them pale in comparison to this lengthy tome, which is not only one of the best books dealing with World War II that I've read, it is one of the best books I've read in any genre.
Unlike many biographers of the leading lights in the Nazi Party, Sereny was lucky enough to have interviewed her subject over a period of years. Indeed, she actually became friends with him, and as such was able to gain fascinating insights into both the man and the inner workings of Hitler's Third Reich.
Albert Speer makes for an interesting subject in that he was the only Nazi on trial at Nuremberg to show any remorse or to take any of the responsibility for the horrors perpetrated by the Nazi regime, a stance which enabled him to escape the gallows. However, as Sereny discovers, despite this stance he could never bring himself to admit that he knew of the Holocaust, something that continued to haunt him through his long life.
The greatness of Sereny's writing, and a testimony to her clarity and objectiveness is most evident when in an aside she highlights the fallacy of the myth that it was only Jews who died in Hitler's camps. A couple of paragraphs later, and she goes on to demolish the whole preposterous notion of the revisionists that the gassings never happened by a few deft quotes from documents that lay bare the undeniable truth.
The only fault I could find with the book was a slightly bizarre idiosyncrasy on the part of the author, who never fails to describe her female subjects (all of them in their seventies or eighties) as 'still extremely beautiful women'.
Minor quibbles aside, this is an astounding work that I would recommend to anyone curious about the nature of evil, the capacity of the human mind for self-delusion and censorship, and the dangers of personality cults.
10 out of 10September 2005
DAVID CRYSTAL - "Language Death" (2000)
Crystal, a well-known and respected writer in linguistics, and in particular the English language, here presents us with shocking facts about the state of the world's remaining seven thousand or so tongues. According to many predictions, half of these will be extinct within the next fifty years.
Why should we care? Isn't it better that the world moves towards a unified means of communication? Crystal argues persuasively that we should care, and that the erosion of minority languages in the face of all-conquering English would amount to a culture tragedy.
Crystal shows us that when a language dies, it effectively robs a people of thousands of years of collective memory, thus cutting them off from their own heritage. Furthermore, knowledge of more than one language is arguably the norm for humans, with monolinguals impoverished by their lack of insights into alternate means of expression. In fact, the linguistic world is like the natural world, in which diversity is essential.
Overall, the descriptions of the plight of our planet's languages makes for very depressing reading, though it is important for people to understand the complex process which result in language death if we are to do anything about the problem.
The latter half of Crystal's book tends to become a bit tedious and at times repetitive in its proposals for measures to stem the tide of language extinction, but on the whole it is both a fascinating and timely work that deserves greater exposure due to the seriousness of its topic.
7 out of 10October 2005
W.G.SEBALD - "Vertigo" (1990)
Like all of Sebald's works I found this one strangely beguiling, sucked in to four seemingly disconnected narratives that range across time and location, all of which are suffused with the author's eye for detail and ability to transform that which most of us ignore into something precious.
One of the sections appears to be based on the life of Franz Kafka, although, as always with Sebald, one is never really sure where the boundaries between fact and fiction lie.
An enchanting work.
8 out of 10October 2005
PRIMO LEVI - "If This Is a Man"/"The Truce" (1963/65)
The Italian chemist Primo Levi, whilst a member of the anti-fascist partisans, was captured and eventually sent to a subsidiary work camp at Auschwitz in Poland. Here in these two works are his accounts of his life in the camp and of his liberation and lengthy journey back to his homeland.
'If This is a Man' is truly a glimpse into hell, and I must admit to having felt profoundly depressed while reading it. Nevertheless, the first person narrative describing the daily struggle for survival brings into sharp focus the crimes of the Nazis in a way wider and more clinical histories cannot.
We learn of the complex hierarchies within the prisoners' ranks, the lack of solidarity and the necessity of establishing connections that will result in the procurement of extra rations.
Less of a documentary, more of a roman a clef, Levi's bleak picture of grey skeletal figures struggling through cold and rain to perform back-breaking manual labour for the cold rule-obsessed machine of Nazi tyranny is intense, horrifying and yet difficult to put down.
'The Truce', bound together with the aforementioned work in a single volume, continues the story from the moment of liberation by the Red Army. In this tale Levy slowly comes to terms with his survival during the almost comic Soviet attempts to deal with the former camp inmates.
He finds himself transported not westwards, but actually ends up, seemingly by chance, deep in the Soviet Union in the strange new world of the displaced.
Although also an intriguing work, it lacks the punch of the earlier book, being almost an anticlimax after the intense drama of the life and death struggle within Auschwitz's mechanized killing fields.
8 out of 10; 7 out of 10October 2005
PETER F. HAMILTON - "Pandora's Star" (2004)
As a teenager I devoured large amounts of science fiction, having had access to my father's considerable collection. Most of this was the work of the Great Masters, writers such as Asimov, Heinlein and Bradbury, who constituted the first wave to gain prominence in the 1950's and 60's and who predominantly wrote short stories.
I found such tales to be greatly enriching, and the concept of a boundless, rule-less future in which anything could happen greatly inspired my own anarchic outbursts of creativity.
Somehow, by the time I had left university in 1987, I had moved on to other things reading-wise, and it was not until nearly twenty years later that I returned to the genre with Hamilton's 'Pandora's Star', a recommendation from my brother.
I wasn't sure what to expect: I'd never read any modern sci-fi writers, so I was extremely curious as to how the genre had evolved.
Hamilton's book is a hefty 989 pages, and although it took some time to get going, by the end I was devouring it in large chunks, for the man has a great able to spin a complex tale with many strands that does not let up the dramatic tension.
The story concerns a future where a human Commonwealth has spread out onto hundreds of other worlds and humanity seems to be enjoying a golden age in which there is peace and prosperity: aliens have been encountered and live alongside humans in mutual toleration. Death too has been conquered, and those with enough money can practically live forever through continual rejuvenations, and electronic implants for the storing of memories allow for murdered or killed individuals to be reborn through cloning.
This pleasant state of affairs is, however, suddenly thrown into turmoil when a distant star is seen to disappear from view overnight. A research ship sent to investigate reveals that someone long ago had constructed a gigantic barrier around the star, which vanishes as the ship approaches, unleashing into the galaxy an extremely menacing and hostile alien form of life which is intent on the extermination of all other life forms.
Hamilton's writing is generally good, although earlier parts of the book contain some occasionally poor prose. Characters are not built up to a great depth, but this is more than made up for by the sheer quality of the story-telling - in a book of this size, it is quite amazing that I found only one short section (20 pages or so) that seemed a bit irrelevant and tedious: everything else cuts straight to the point in advancing the multi-layered tale.
The good news is, a second and final volume will appear early next year, again weighing in at nearly a thousand pages.
I am very pleased indeed to have discovered that the genre of SF is still alive and bristling with good ideas after all these years.
9 out of 10November 2005
LIVY - "The War with Hannibal" (c.29BC)
'The War with Hannibal' is extracted from Titus Livius' monumental history of Rome which originally spanned one hundred and forty-two volumes, but now only exists in part. Fortunately, his account of the famous struggle between Rome and Carthage survives in whole.
As with Caesar's work, I initially approached this large volume with caution, but soon found that it was eminently readable, and enjoyed the work both as entertainment and as an educational experience, having had little prior knowledge of this part of Roman history.
Livy takes us through the the Carthaginian Hannibal's astonishing and lengthy attempt to destroy Rome, starting from Spain, through his well-known crossing of the Alps, his rampaging for years around Italy, to his eventual defeat in Africa.
This conflict, which brought Rome on to the world stage as a major power, is brought to life by Livy's descriptions, although his insistence on mentioning long lists of people elected to office in Rome each year is somewhat distracting.
Also, one must bear in mind that Livy's intent was to write a moral tale, and hence his work's historical veracity must always be questioned, particularly with regard to the frequent speeches of the protagonists which are clearly made up. However, it should be borne in mind that the writing of history at this time was considered as much a literary pursuit as a mere chronicling of events.
Overall, an intriguing work.
7 out of 10December 2005
JAMES GREER - "Guided by Voices : A Brief History" (2005)
Robert Pollard is perhaps the most prolific songwriter in history, having already released (under the moniker 'Guided by Voices' and others) over a thousand songs. In addition, the quality of his songwriting is astonishing, able to amalgamate several genres into one hook-laden one and a half minute opus that sounds slightly familiar, like a lost Beatles classic or a Who B-side.
He is also almost totally unknown to the masses, never having achieved any significant measure of stardom, or at least not enough to make his name more well known outside of the cogniscenti.
This book, penned by a former band member, will therefore only be of interest to the rabid and fanatical fans, who will relish this collection of anecdotes and insights into Pollard's history of musical endeavours in a dodgy suburb of Dayton, Ohio, from the seventies to the present.
As a great fan of the artist, I too looked forward greatly to this work, but found it lacking in a number of areas. First off, it is too short to satisfy, and as a songwriter myself, I would have appreciated more on the creative processes and the explanations of Pollard's famously stream of consciousness lyrics.
Furthermore, the book is poorly written in an irritating style whose attempts to be hip and cool almost always fall entirely flat.
Perhaps the greatest problem with the book, though, is not the writer's fault, but the whole notion itself: learning too much about one's idols has a tendency to strip away the veil of mystery and leave on view things that are better kept hidden. Pollard, unfortunately, comes across in the reading of this volume as some kind of redneck savant, whose lifestyle and ethos are so totally alien to my own, which I must confess has served to diminish somewhat the respect I had previously accorded him.
6 out of 10January 2006
JOHN TOLAND - "The Rising Sun" (1970)
This book is a welcome antidote to the innumerable accounts of the Pacific War told from the winning Allied, usually American, side.
Toland was able to interview a number of key participants including members of the Emperor's cabinet, which together with a wealth of other first-hand material amounts to what must be for most Western readers a unique look through the eyes of a hitherto underrepresented foe.
This large work is no pro-Japanese propaganda: it simply seeks to help us understand why the Japanese made the decisions they did, and more importantly, how the American failure to understand the Japanese mind led to conflict in the first place.
Books such as these make clear that the war against Japan had nothing in common with the war against Nazi Germany, although the modern tendency is to lump them together.
Toland's narrative, told through the eyes of participants at all levels from the soldiers in the field to members of the Japanese royal family back in Tokyo, reads like an action-packed novel rather than a dry work of history, and this helps to personalize a conflict one side of which continues to this day to be largely voiceless or dressed in wartime racial clichés.
A superb and informative read.
9 out of 10January 2006
IAIN M. BANKS - "The Algebraist" (2004)
After returning to the genre with Peter F. Hamilton's epic novel detailed above, I thought I'd try another, as my experience had been such a rewarding one.
Iain Banks is a reknowned British writer who divides his output between SF and regular novels. This was my first experience of either.
The Algebraist is grand scale science fiction depicting a humanity far in the future who coexists with several other alien species, some of whom are far more ancient and hold great knowledge.
The central character is a kind of historian who is sent into just such an ancient civilization in order to find the gateway to a rumoured secret network of wormholes across space.
His complex dealings with the whimsical inhabitants borders at times on the comic (they occasionally hunt their own offspring and indulge in local wars for purposes of gambling and entertainment), but the novel is well-written and proved compelling through all of its nearly seven hundred pages.
Some have argued that parts of the story are implausible, but I was able to suspend disbelief throughout, and once again found great pleasure in the telling of a complex and highly entertaining story.
After having read so much non-fiction and some of the heavyweights of the literary world, it makes a refreshing change to get back to the art of spinning a good yarn.
8 out of 10March 2006
COLIN SMITH - "Singapore Burning" (2005)
A captivating and highly readable account of one of the most humiliating moments in British military history, and - surprise, surprise - one that is not very well-known.
Almost entirely overshadowed by the events at Pearl Harbour, the Japanese were also launching a campaign against British Malaysia and Singapore at the same time.
Smith's account takes us through the bungled British response to the Japanese attack, at times comic (Singapore's many coastal guns could not be turned around to face inland, the direction from which the Japanese were attacking), and elsewhere tragic (the numerous atrocities inflicted upon British civilians and above all the Chinese inhabitants of Singapore).
First and foremost, though, is the tale of how a comparatively small Japanese force outwitted the far more numerous British, and how it came about that an astounding one hundered thousand Commonwealth troops surrenedered rather than make a stand, surely the worst defeat in the British military history.
Highly recommended, not only for military history buffs, but for the wider reading public too: like many recent history books this one reads like an exciting novel.
9 out of 10May 2006
SUETONIUS - "The Twelve Ceasars" (c100)
This is the book from classical literature that should dispel all preconceived notions of Roman history as being dull and stuffy, for in Suetonius' slimmish volume we are presented with the Roman equivalent of scurrilous tabloid-like treatments of various emperors.
For example, we are told how a certain emperor was bald, oily skinned and pimply. And if that wasn't rude enough, the description of Tiberius' antics on the island of Corfu are positively X-rated, with candid tales of orgies and sexual perversion.
One wonders how Suetonius got away with it!
The only drawback to the work are the portraits of several lesser-known and altogether duller emperors who don't quite capture the imagination like those of Caligula, Nero and the aforementioned Tiberius.
8 out of 10July 2006
HEINZ GUDERIAN - "Panzer Leader" (1952)
Guderian was a prominent German general who promulgated the use of tanks in a new form of mechanised warfare that was to be unleashed on the unwitting Poles, French, British and Russians in the form of Blitzkrieg during the first years of World War Two.
This highly readable volumne of his memoirs provides us with fascinating insights into not only the conduct of Nazi Germany's military operations, but also into the workings of the Third Reich as a whole. Particluarly of interest are Guderian's often inflammatory encounters with Hitler himself.
Although we can take with a grain of salt Guderian's attempts to distance himself from the less seemly aspects of the Nazis, this makes for a fine addition to any fan of military history, and such is its quality I am reading it here for the second time.
8 out of 10August 2006
BILL BRYSON - "A Short History of Nearly Everything" (2003)
An utterly superb book, truly edifying and entertaining, and amazing in scope and readability.
Bryson accomplishes pretty much just what the title says, although it must be pointed out that this is largely a voyage through science. Somehow, he has read and absorbed a huge ammount of often difficult material and managed to condense it down into pithy and amusing tales that anyone can appreciate.
This book captivates in a way that few others do; truly unputdownable, we are regaled from cover to cover with astonishing tales of wonderment from the worlds of science, nature and human endeavour.
A universal must read!
10 out of 10September 2006
LIVY - "The Early History of Rome" (c29BC)
My second dip into the important source material for Ancient Rome that is Livy. Writen more than two thousand years ago, this account takes us from the mythical foundation of Rome by the brothers Romulus and Remus in 757 BC, through the period of the Seven Kings and into the beginnings of the Republic, culminating in the humilating but not fatal occupation of Rome in 386 BC by the Gauls.
Lively, full of action, we can forgive Livy his occasional moralising or the bogus speeches he often drops into the mouths of major players.
7 out of 10Oct 2006
STEPHEN DONALDSON - "The Runes of the Earth" (2004)
I lapped up Donaldson's Chronicles of Thomas Covenant more than twenty years ago, finding his erudite and somewhat wordy take on the fantasy genre a refreshing change from the usual suspects.
It was with great disappointment that Donaldson then seemingly abandoned fantasy to pen a slew of titles that held little appeal for me. It was good news, then, to discover that he had recently made a welcome return to the imagined lands that made his name as a writer.
This, the first of a projected trilogy, re-aacquaints us with the parallel world in which the leper Thomas Covenant had been dragged to become an unwilling saviour. What puzzled me was how Donaldson was going to proceed, given that the Covenant character had been killed off at the end of the previous outing.
No fear: a new human is selected to enter the tale, and the story once again proceeds at Donaldson's trademark slow pace with lengthy descriptive narrative worthy of Thomas Hardy.
Testimony to the author's skills, we find ourselves as confused as the main character, let loose among the strange happenings and even stranger beings of this compelling other world, and right at the end we are presented with a jaw-dropping surprise that makes us wait in great anticipation for the next volume.
8 out of 10November 2006
ALVIN D. COOX - "Nomonhan" (1985)
In the late summer of 1939 a large-scale undeclared war broke out on the Mongolian/Manchurian steppe between Japan and the Soviet Union. Little regarded at the time, and almost unknown today, due to the geographical obscurity of the conflict and its overshadowing by World War Two, the Nomonhan 'incident' can in fact be seen as a pivotal moment in world history. Japan, given a severe thrashing by the Russians, was directed towards the Pacific Ocean for its subsequent expansion, resulting in the conflict with America in 1941. In addition, this meant that the Soviet Union was saved in December 1941, since Stalin was able to transfer his Siberian divisions westward, knowing that the Japanese would not be delivering any blow in the east as Hitler was anticipating. Had the Japanese triumphed at Nomonhan, the world today might be a very different place indeed.
Alvin Coox's exhaustive treatment of the subject (the only one in English) is a masterly piece of research and writing. Coox, a Japanese speaker, conducted interviews with many survivors of the campaign, and constructs a magnificently detailed portrayal of this obscure war to the extent that having read it one almost feels as if one had been present.
Although depicting almost exclusively the Japanese side of things, and written before the opening up of the Soviet archives, this a model of historical narrative, covering both the grander scale of political manouverings, the movement of large-scale military units, and, best of all, exciting combat anecdotes from those who participated.
This is certainly not a work for the casual reader, and even those who enjoy military history may be put off by the book's size, cost, and the unfamiliarity of the subject matter. Nevertheless, it is a superb and valuable look into the intimate workings of the Imperial Japanese Army prior to World War Two.
9 out of 10January 2007
ROBERT JORDAN - "Knife of Dreams" (2005)
The tenth (or is it the eleventh?) volume in the late Robert Jordan's epic fantasy saga, imitially heralded as a worthy successor to Tolkien, but later derided for the long-winded drawing out of the saga. Indeed, many fans find only the first five books satisfactory, but, like myself, get sucked into Jordan's well-crafted world and cannot stop reading, rather like an addiction to a cheap soap-opera
Plots multiplied, characters spawned like flies, and still no resolution was in sight, rendering early greatness irrevelant, and all the more sad now since with the demise of the author, we may never know what he had planned for the great denouement, no doubt a classic good vs. bad showdown with a suitably dramatic volcanic backdrop. Aha - I've just found out that another writer will produce the final volume, the contents of which Mr.Jordan had already planned out before his demise.
Yes, I read this book twenty-two months before I'm finally reviewing it, and so I can remember absolutely nothing of its contents, which says a lot about the series, although as usual, Jordan's books are an enjoyable read as you go along.
The first five volumes are highly recommended, but you'd best stop there.
7 out of 10Jan 2007
ERNST JUNGER - "Storm of Steel" (1920)
A second reading for me, Junger's account of his World War One experiences stands in stark contrast to his better-known countryman Erich Maria Remarque, whose anti-war epic All Quiet on the Western Front depicts the full horrors of industrialised warfare and subsequent disillusionment of its protagonist.
None of this brooding and soul-searching for Junger. He regarded the conflict as a job, and gets on with it in a methodical and clinical way, allowing little or no sentimentality to creep into his endeavours. Although Junger does not overtly glorify war, his stance is incomparbaly different from the likes of Brook, Sasson, et al.
For anyone wanting to know exactly how it was to take part in World War One at the sharp end, there is no finer account than this, the unrelenting 'action' making it a quick read indeed.
A refreshing counter-balance to the perceived views of trench warfare.
9 out of 10February 2007
DON DELILLO - "Underworld" (1997)
Ah, just what I like - an enormous thick book with a post-modernist reputation!
To be honest, since I am writing this review some eighteen months after reading this novel, I can remember little of its plot or contents, partly due to its length and complexity, but mainly due to my aging and addled brain.
What I do clearly remember, though, is how the author managed to turn a subject I have absolutely no interest in into a beguiling page-turner. Baseball. Yes, folks, I know nothing of the game, and dislike it intensely as a spectator sport, but De Lillo's plot revolving around the finding and ownership of a winning ball had me hooked all the way, thereby attesting to the great abilities of the writer.
8 out of 10March 2007
RICHARD POWERS - "Three Farmers on Their Way to a Dance" (1992)
An intriguing and inventive novel, the story of which is derived from one real photograph showing the three gentlemen of the title.
A complex tale, spanning several generations and linking the lives of the three men with the modern day narrator through a series of chance events and some detective work.
Powers is a powerful (no pun intended) and evocative writer with the ability to construct an exciting and poignant tale both entertaing and philosphical in nature.
8 out of 10March 2007
APPIAN - "The Civil Wars" (c155)
Our only continuous account of the turbulent period od Roman history in which the Republic began its transformation into its later Imperial manifestation, covering the period 133 to 35 BC.
From Julius Caesar's ascent to power to the supremacy of Octavian (Augustus), the book takes us through numerous struggles between the aforementioned characters as well as Mark Anthony, Cleopatra, Pompey, and other household names.
An interesting read for those who like to delve into the sources, but I must confess that even after reading this I would still find it difficult to outline the main course of events of the period, given their complexity.
7 out of 10April 2007
PETER F. HAMILTON - "Judas Unchained" (2006)
The sequel to Pandora's Star reviewed above, I must admit that by the time I got hold of this, I had largely forgotten the convoluted plot and enormous cast of characters that made up that highly enjoyable volume.
No matter, it did not take long to get back into the story, with Hamilton coninuing in his easy-going style that rendered the mighty book a fairly easy read.
Although I enjoyed this book very much, it lacked slightly in suspense, since the great strength of the first volume was the building terror of the unknown, unseen malevolent aliens who had been unleashed into the universe. This is a problem common to many sci-fi and horror tales - once the beasties are given flesh, there is a noticable drop in tension.
Nonetheless, a fine book for taking you away from your mundane existence into a grand galaxy-wide drama of momentous events and futuristic wonders.
8 out of 10July 2006
RUTH WAJNRYB - "Language Most Foul" (2004)
A sociolinguistic look at the rude words of the English language, their origins and how they have changed over the years, and why they haverecently come into a more widespread and public usage.
The author also includes much comparative material from other tongues, usually of a comedic nature.
A fun and intriguing volume for all those interested in verbal filth.
7 out of 10August 2007
HUGH SEBAG-MONTEFIORE - "Dunkirk" (2006)
Another great example of modern historical writing in which the experiences of the individual are interwoven with the bigger picture of political and military machinations.
Rather than just cover the calamitous but fortunate evacuation of the British Army (and some of the French too) from the beaches of Dunkirk in 1940, a pivitol event in World War Two, Sebag-Montefiore covers both the events leading up to this inglorious escape in the form of the fortunes of the British during the Nazi Blitzkrieg into France, and also the largely untold story of the bravery of those units detailed to hold the perimeter against the encroaching panzers so as to enable as many of their countrymen as possible to escape the noose.
Written in a highly accessible style, this is the kind of military history that, like Antony Beevor's Stalingrad, will appeal to a wider audience. Just to emphasize the decidedly un-stuffy nature of this work, there are some extremely funny and risqué anecdotes concerning the visits of British servicemen to French brothels prior to the German onslaught, a necessary evil amusingly referred to by Monty as horizontal refreshment!
Highly recommended.
9 out of 10August 2007
PETER MARSHALL - "Demanding the Impossible" (1992)
This volume is apparently hailed as the new classic on that most Utopian of political ideologies, anarchism. As someone whose political leanings are distinctly in this direction, I was greatly looking forward to diving in to this voluminous tome.
Unfortunately, despite the author's fine efforts in documenting the theory and practice of anarchism from its historical roots to the modern era, I found the book hard going at times. This is largely due to the fact that I had anticipated more information on anarchism in action, particulary during the Russian Revolution and the Spanish Civil War, some of the few occasions in which history has provided the circumstances whereby the libertarian socialist experience could be played out in reality.
Philososphy, never one of my interests, dominates large sections of the book, which may be of interest to some, and is of course important in any overall treatment of the subject, but I felt that much more needed to be written about the practical experiences rather than the theoretical.
7 out of 10October 2007
H.P. LOVECRAFT - "The Thing on the Doorstep" (2001)
Lovecraft, like Kafka, lived a short and secluded existence from the late nineteenth century until the 1920's, devoting much of his time to a voluminous correspondence. His famed short stories make up only a small part of his oeuvre, but it is these upon which his reputation rests. Essentially, Lovecraft brought the horror writings of Poe into the twentieth century by marrying them to more cosmological terrors influence by Lovecraft's interest in science and astronomy.
Now, I'm no great fan of the horror genre, either in film or print, and the likes of the aforementioned Poe and Stephen King leave me unmoved, but I was curious about Lovecraft because of obscure British punk band Rudimentary Peni and their Lovecraft-themed album Cacophany.
Surprisingly, I immediately warmed to these subtle, well-written pieces, which while not always especially scary are nontheless intriguing and entertaining. Two tales in particular, though, I found to be creepy in the extreme, exuding the kind of growing terror that requires the light to be left on at night. Both stories, The Temple, and At the Mountains of Madness succeed in their art by the fact that for most of the tales' duration the horrors are not fully revealed, but lurk in the shadows menacingly.
All in all, a fine introduction to a cult writer of high calibre.
8 out of 10October 2007
SIR JAMES GEORGE FRASER - "The Golden Bough" (1922)
This groundbreaking anthropological work was something I'd been meaning to tackle for a long time - the kind of book whose name keeps cropping up and gets added to that list of important classics that need to be looked at.
Originally an unwieldy multi-volume behemoth, the current edition is pared done to a single, albeit hefty paperback.
Fraser starts off by recounting the strange pre-Roman tale of a priest-king who must guard the grove at Nemi (in Italy) until he is killed by a replacement. In trying to to understand the symbolism of this arcane story, Fraser embarks upon a huge and detailed journey through European and non-European mythology, religion and magic, uncovering along the way a treasure trove of fascinating half-forgotten folk ritual and the often brutal and gory histories that spawned it.
Wide-ranging and illuminating, much of the work is still highly regarded today, both in anthropological circles and in the wider artistic community, having influenced a whole host of writers such as James Joyce, D.H.Lawrence, Aleister Crowley, H.P.Lovecraft, Ezra Pound, Ernest Hemingway, T.S.Eliot and Robert Graves.
Although I found this book to be a fascinating read, it has to be said that Fraser's meticulousness can be at times wearing: where two examples of a particular ritual would suffice, he often trawls through five or more. Perhaps an abridgement of the abridgement might be in order?
7 out of 10November 2007
GEORGES PEREC - "A Void" (1969)
Perec, a French Jew who participated in a circle of like-minded avant-garde writers up until his untimely death in 1982, thrived on inventive and ground-breaking styles that will most definitely put off the casual reader.
A Void is a staggering linguistic feat, for the entire novel does not contain a single letter 'e'. If this were not fantastic enough, the translator accomplished the same in the English version. Think for a minute what this means - the letter 'e' is the single most commonly used letter in the English language. Commonplace words such as 'he', 'she', 'the', 'we' cannot be used under this stricture, not to mention an enormous swath of seemingly vital verbs, adjectives and adverbs. And yet it can be done, and it works brilliantly.
The story itself is built around a bizarre and convoluted wild goose chase - part detective story, part Alice in Wonderland, I admit that at times I couldn't work out what was going on, but I loved it nonetheless.
Packed with humour and wild inventiveness, there is nothing else quite like it.
9 out of 10December 2007
PHILIP K. DICK - "The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch" (1964)
Philip K. Dick is the drug-addled science fiction meister whose errant works inspired such blockbuster movies as Blade Runner, but never seemed to make it as a household name in the way that his contemporaries Heinlein, Clarke and Asimov did. Perhaps it was the comical name?
Having returned to science fiction after a long hiatus it was with some trepidation that I dived into this particular volume, a gift from a friend who highly recomended it.
Well, it was pretty obvious that the inspiration behind this story was some kind of chemical stimulant - indeed, the plot itself centres around an illegal drug which is sold to demoralised humans who have been conscripted to settle Mars.
Dick paints a very depressing, but somehow plausible future in which climate change has rendered Earth fairly uninhabitable, with nobody able to stay outside of their air-conditioned dwellings for longer than a few minutes. The solution is the draft, in which ususally the poorer citizens end up in dull farming colonies on other planets, their sole joy the escapism afforded by the 'medication' they obtain.
Political machinations, double dealing and general weirdness makes for a tale that becomes progressively harder to grasp as it develops, until one is left at the end with no clear idea what is reality and what is the realm of the new wonder drug.
A very unsettling but nonetheless compelling novel that may well confuse you, but will certainly entertain and intrigue you along the way.
8 out of 10January 2008
RUSSELL ASH - "Potty, Fartwell & Knob" (2007)
I received this little hardback book as a novelty Christmas gift from a family member and immediately dismissed it as typical light-weight stocking filler.
How wrong I was! This book soon had me cackling and guffawing out loud: hysterically funny, and a great antedote to my usual heavier reading material.
The premise of the book is simple: the author scoured parish records the length and breadth of Britain to find people with silly names. It's as simple as that, with the findings being grouped thematically, together with minimal biographical information on the unlucky holders of said monikers.
Needless to say, it is the sexual and scatalogical chapters that provide the biggest laughs, and I won't spoil the fun by reproducing (no pun intended) any of them here. Take it from me, if you like toilet humour, this will be a seriously funny addition to your library.
9 out of 10January 2008
THOMAS PYNCHON - "Against the Day" (2006)
Most people fear Pynchon, regarding him as unreadable, but this is sheer nonsense. Pynchon's latest work, while rambling and perhaps overly long (clocking in at over a thousand pages), is far more accessible than 'Gravity's Rainbow' or 'Mason and Dixon'.
People afraid to attempt anything over four hundred pages long will obviously not be interested, nor will those who do not have some knowledge of early twentieth century history, but there is much on offer for those who enjoy Pynchon's typical fare of erudition, surrealism and almost slapstick comedy.
As usual there is a vast host of characters and the action ranges through both time (1890's to 1920's) and place (USA to Albania and back). Yes, it is sometimes diffficult to remember who is who when a character reappears after five hundred pages, but as usual it is the details rather than the big picture that makes this an enjoyable read.
One wonders if this is Pynchon's last novel, since he routinely takes a decade to produce anything and is now into his seventies, but although it probably ranks lower than the two aforementioned earlier works, it is still a fine novel.
8 out of 10March 2008
H.P.LOVECRAFT - "The Dreams in the Witch House and Other Weird Stories" (2004)
The second volume of Lovecraft's work that I have read, and while it maintains the overall creepiness of the material in the earlier tome, this particular selection lacks any standout horrors such as 'The Mountains of Madness' or 'The Temple.' Still, an entertaining read and a pleasant change of genre from my usual staples.
7 out of 10April 2008
ISAAC BABEL - "Red Cavalry" (1926)
Isaac Babel, done away with by Stalin in 1940, was the master of the short story. Although this volume concentrates on his wartime vignettes (Babel, a Jew, ironically joined the notoriously anti-semitic Cossacks during the Russo-Polish War), I much preferred his earlier tales of Jewish life in his native Odessa presented at the beginning of the volume. These small slices are minimal in scope, and yet convey so much. I'm not normally a fan of the short story, but these are truly magnificent.
7 out of 10May 2008
MARTIN MIDDLEBROOK - "The First Day on the Somme" (1971)
A classic of readable military history, Middlebrook chooses not to delineate the entire battle which raged for several months in 1916, but rather to focus on the cataclysmic first day which witnessed an unprecendented sixty thousand British dead and wounded, most of the casualties occurring within the first few hours.
This gripping and meticulous treatment unfolds through numerous eye-witness accounts from both sides, bringing to life both the unimaginable horror of mechanised carnage and exploring the attitudes of those who took part, the latter of which are often at odds with what we have been taught elsewhere.
The book largely explodes (no pun intended!) the modern view of the downtrodden Tommy sent to the slaughter by Oxbridge toffs: many participants felt no antagonism whatsoever towards their officers, nor doubted the cause for which they were required to sacrifice themselves for.
Indeed, looking at the attrition rates of the various ranks provided at the back of the book, it becomes clear that officer casulaties were far higher than those of enlisted men proportionally speaking, indicating that the Tommies were lead from the front.
This book is highly recommended, not only for the military history enthusiast, but also for the lay reader wanting to get a worm's eye view of one of the defining moments in modern British history.
9 out of 10May 2008
POLYBIUS - "The Rise of the Roman Empire" (c150 BC)
Polybius was an eductaed Greek politician who as a hostage found himself at Rome. Befriended by powerful families, he was allowed access to libraries and set about composing a work to explain to his native Greeks how it was that Rome had seemingly come from nowhere but in the short space of fifty years had become the dominant power in the known world.
The core of this Penguin selection focuses on the Punic Wars in which the Romans seemed on the bring of annihilation with the famous Carthaginian leader Hannibal Barca rampaging through the Italian heartlands, only to end with Rome victorious and Carthage utterly destroyed.
The importance of Polybius as a source for these momentous events cannot be overstated, since he knew personally some of the key figures involved, and trod the battlefields not long after the end of hostilities. Indeed, later Roman historians such as Livy based much of their material for this time frame on him.
Highly readable for the main events, this selection is however somewhat uneven: jutting into the narrative are frequent diversions on politics, obscurer aspects of Greek history and other items which do not sit well with the main chronology. This is partly due to the fragmentary nature of the extracts that have survived the ravages of time, but also a result of poor editorial choices.
Nevertheless, for fans of Roman history this remains a must read item.
8 out of 10July 2008
MARTIN MIDDLEBROOK - "The Kaiser's Battle" (1978)
A second classic military history from Mr.Middlebrook, this time focusing on the first day of Germany's last major offensive in World War One, an attack on an enormous frontage that came close to delivering the faltering Teutons a surprising victory.
Once again, the narrative is built around the eye-witness accounts of some of the people who were there, on both sides of the conflict, thus avoiding the tedious litany of unit movements some military historians are satisfied with.
Again, this is a second reading of the book for me, and the quality of the writing shines through, making it as un-put-down-able as it was the first time, since it is novel-like in its intensity and excitement.
9 out of 10August 2008
PHILIP BALL - "Critical Mass" (2004)
I choose the books I buy very carefully, and as such am almost always satisfied with them. It is thus very rare indeed that I do not finish a book, but that is precisely what happened with this pop science paperback, which I grabbed at an airport somewhere after overhearing a bloke say how great it was to his mates. Big mistake!
The premise of the book is very promising, alluding on the cover to chaos theory and attempts to scientifically predict the behviour of the masses. Unfortunately, it completely failed to deliver, and by the time I gave up in disgust (at about page 120), I had learned nothing about conspiracy theory-esque ways to control the herd. Instead I was served up tediously technical run throughs on such splendidly entertaining concepts as the laws of thermodynamics, aided by impenetrable graphs, charts and the odd nasty-looking equation.
All in all, not quite the socio-cultural exploration I thought it would be, and much more of a dull physics primer.
5 out of 10August 2008
EMILE ZOLA - "Au Bonheur des Dames" (1883)
I hadn't read any Zola for about ten years, and having enjoyed my previous forrays into his works, I was looking forward to getting back into his immense twenty voulme series of naturalistic novels.
This particular story is a fairly new addition to the Penguin Classic range, and is certainly not one of his better known tales.
The plot in detail concerns the plight of a poor young lady who arrives in Paris from the countryside and gains employment in one of the monstrous new department stores.
At first ridiculed and belittled in the brutal and competitive milieu of the store, she gradually and miraculously raises herself up to a position of great power, mainly due to the store owner who is captivated by her.
In contrast with the other, more corrupt employees, she manages this feat on her own terms, without prostituting herself.
On a larger scale, the novel sets out to portray the destruction wrought by unbounded capitalism on the individual, as the vast emporium crushes and destroys the surrounding family businesses and devours disposable labour at an alarming rate.
On the face of it I didn't think that a novel set in a department store would work for me, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.
8 out of 10August 2008
GEORGES PEREC - "W, or the Memory of Childhood" (1975)
Another literary oddity from Monsiur Perec in which two seemingly unrelated tales take place in alternate chapters.
One is a fairly straightforward account of Perec's childhood during World War II, and the fate of his parents.
The other tale is fantastical, set on an imaginary island in which society centres around sporting competitions.
At first this story is intriguing and amusing, but as more and more details are revealed, the underlying horror are revealed, eventually bringing one to the realisation that it is an allegory for the Holocaust, thus ultimately connecting with the othe autobiographical half of the book.
I enjoyed this tome, but as with the previous Perec, it is somewhat impenetrable at times, at least to my withered brain.
8 out of 10September 2008
BRIAN GREENE - "The Fabric of the Cosmos" (2004)
Greene, effectively the new and better Stephen Hawking, presents here to the lay reader the two prongs of modern physics, Einstein's General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics, and the search for a unifying theory to bring together the seemingly disparate realities between the macro and the micro worlds the two theories describe.
Notoriously difficult cocncepts which run counter to everyday human experience are made understandable through Greene's sometimes comic analogies and frequent diagrams, bringing the wonder and breath-taking scope of modern science within grasp of the non-specialist.
Like Bill Bryson's tome reviewed above, Greene is important in that he has the talent to popularise science without dumbing it down, reminding us that there is enough mystery and excitement in the scientific study of the extremes of the universe to wean even the hardcore paranormal believer away from the sadly all-persuasive occult quackery that abounds in today's mainstream culture.
9 out of 10November 2008
UMBERTO ECO - "The Mysterious Flame of Quenn Loana" (2004)
Following on from the late Herr Sebald, Eco's latest well-written and highly literate tale is interspersed with pictures, in this case mainly colourful cartoons, book and magazine covers from Italy's fascist past, making for an attractive tome indeed.
The story centres around a sixty year-old man who recovers from a coma with no memories of his past. As part of his recuperation he goes to stay in the countryside house of his childhood, wherein he finds the clues to his identity in the collected books and magazines of his formative years.
At first it might appear that such a trawling through the literary minutae of fascist Italy could only entertain someone sharing the same demographic as the author, but readers with a keen interest in history and geography will enjoy the ride.
Just don't expect a lot of action: the protagonist spends most of the novel sitting in a chair reading, although plenty of interesting anecdotes are generated from his reawakening recollections.
8 out of 10December 2008
BEN GOLDACRE - "Bad Science" (2008)
Ben Goldacre is a young British doctor who writes a column in The Guardian. This volume, culled from his articles, rails against the tide of quackery that has apparently infused the UK, and the ignorant journalism that has propelled it there.
Nutritionists, homeopaths and anti-vaccination nuts are his targets, although he is equally skeptical when it comes to the unethical practices of the pharmaceutical industry. In fact, interestingly enough, he concludes by stating that the purveyors of alternative medicines are the pharmaceutical industry.
A good effort on an important subject which needs to be aired (people die because of ill-informed newspaper articles on health and medicine), although it is at times somewhat muddled and contains scientific explanations that the lay reader may have difficulty with, perhaps sadly relegating it to the bookshelves of the converted rather than the intended audience, the scientifically illiterate.
8 out of 10January 2009
CHARLES ESDAILE - "Napoleon's Wars" (2007)
Esdaile's introduction states that too many books about Napoleon have been either straight biographies focusing on the personality and character of the man, or military histories in which the emphasis is on the actual battles rather than what lay behind them. Upon reading this I had hoped, then, to find that Esdaile's work was a synthesis of both, but ultimately, and disappointingly, this was found not to be the case.
The book's subtitle is 'an international history 1803-1815', but what it really should be is 'a political history 1789-1815,' for it is in politics that this book is rooted, and we are presented with very few glimpses into the mind and private life of Napoleon, and even fewer concerning military matters. This latter omission is surely an egregious one, since Napoleon's rise and indeed raison d'etre was firmly based on the battlefield.
Whereas we are presented with page after page concerning the diplomatic machinations going on, often outside of Napoleonic France and indeed outside of the book's stated time frame (the first 200 pages dwell solely on the years of the French Revolution, and are hard to follow if one is not already familiar with that momentous event), Austerlitz, one of the most important battles of the nineteenth century, and Napoleon's greatest military triumph, is dispensed with in one short paragraph. Similar treatment is meted out to other key engagements.
On the whole Esdaile writes well, but one rather irritating habit is to continually follow brief allusions to future events with a parenthetical 'see below,' which is indicative of some rather poor editorial decisions or Esdaile's own flawed choice of presentation.
Notwithstanding my disappointment with the book, I was left at the end with a fairly good overview of the period, and to those who enjoy political history it may be a worthy addition to the subject: military buffs and fans of biography would do better elsewhere.
6 out of 10February 2009
EMILE ZOLA - "La Bete Humaine" (1890)
A part of the twenty-novel cycle 'Les Rougon-Maquart' depicting the life of various connected individuals during France's Second Empire, this is surely the greatest.
This taught, bleak drama combining two ideas Zola had for seperate novels: murder and railways, begins with a relatively simple case of an outraged railway employee killing a prominent old gentleman whom he discovers has deflowered his wife as a young girl. From here the plot spirals into a complex web of intrigue that is ultimately to result in a veritable boodbath, all conducted against the grim background of coal yards, locomotives and the dark working-class apartments of 19th century urban France.
Unrelentingly savage and undeniably depressing in its less-than optimistic outlook on humankind, it is nevertheless a compelling and engrossing tale that holds one's attention to the end
10 out of 10March 2009
IVAN TURGENEV - "Sketches from a Hunter's Album" (1852)
This collection of twenty-five short pieces constitute Turgenev's first published works, and served to establish his literary reputation in Russia.
Although as a rule I am not fond of short stories, I found this volume to be superbly evocative in its vivid depiction of an unfamiliar locale and epoch.
True to its title, each piece is not a tale as such, but a vignette of rural Russian life as experienced by the author as he and his servant wander far and wide on their hunting trips, encountering an array of bizarre, comedic and tragic characters, often highlighting the plight of the serfs. Indeed, Turgenev got himself into hot water because of this publication which resulted in his internal exile. However, such is its power that it is said that the Tsar's decision to abolish serfdom in 1861 was partialy influenced by his reading of the work.
A truly great book, this collection should be reason enough to place Turgenev alongside Tolstoy and Dostoevsky.
10 out of 10April 2009
DANIEL LEVITIN - "This is Your Brain on Music" (2006)
The writer of this pop science tome is that rare thing: a rock musician and a neuroscientist, a coupling that ultimately doesn't really work, as exemplified by the clumsy-sounding title.
The book's premise is to explain precisely the connection between the functions of the human brain and the music that is a universal feature of all human societies, tackling such topics as why certain notes or combinations thereof are more appealing than others.
Unfortunately I could not stay the course, and gave up around page 110: the breakdown of musical terminology was too basic for me, whereas the ensuing neuroscience was a little too dry and, well, scientific for my liking.
5 out of 10April 2009
MICHIO KAKU - "Physics of the Impossible" (2008)
Michio Kaku is a leading researcher in string theory who modestly states that he entered the field with the avowed desire to bring together the two disparate halves of physics, the macro and the micro, a task which Einstein had fruitlessly laboured at for thirty years.
Here he drags himself down to our level and takes us through an entertaining and enlightening look at such science fiction perennials as teleportation, faster than light travel and visiting the past.
He groups them into three categories: those which are just around the corner, those which are possible, but not likely to be achieved in the near future, and those which are plainly contrary to the laws of physics and hence never likely to be realised.
Surprisingly, the last category is fairly empty, and the book is full of eye-opening discussions which reveal just how far science has advanced in the last century.
Easy to read (the book is replete with Star Trek allusions), the concepts presented were only occasionally beyond this reader's grasp, Kaku doing a generally excellent job of bringing sometimes extremely difficult ideas within the reach of the layperson.
The only fault I could find with "Physics of the Impossible" was the author's occasional inaccuracy with regard to matters outside his realm of expertise, a case in point being his mention of the Book of Revelations, by which he probably meant the Book of Revelation, singular. A small point, but this was not the only instance of what might be regarded as sloppiness, a trait not desirable in a scientist.
8 out of 10May 2009
PETER F. HAMILTON - "The Dreaming Void" (2007)
After returning to the world of science fiction a couple of years ago with Hamilton's 'Pandora's Star,' and been very favourably impressed, I was pleased to discover that he had already come out with the first in a new trilogy set in the same highly intriguing future environment.
Again, epic action across the vastness of the galaxy, 'The Dreaming Void' features Hamilton's trademark myriad seemingly disparate threads making for a story line that is compelling, challenging, and just a little hard to keep track of sometimes. I trust him, though - for while nobody will be giving him any awards for the quality of his prose, Hamilton is a superb story-teller who can juggle multiple sets of characters and have them all neatly tied up by the end.
This time out, the new threat to the galaxy is a strange area of dense stars known as 'The Void', which houses some dark secret championed by a growing religious movement and fed by the strange dreams channelled through a couple of ordinary humans. The believers aim to send a pilgrimage into the void, a move which many think will trigger an encroachment phase resulting in the destruction of the galaxy.
Set amid this apocalyptic doom is the usual assortment of factions and their internecine feuds, imbued with the author's potent and seemingly plausible visions of humanity's technological future.
In short, a highly entertaining read for those in need of escapism, and while the book may lack some of the freshness of the previous outing, it more than makes up for it in one sub-plot which is nothing less than fully-fledged fantasy a la Robert Jorden, David Eddings and Raymond Feist.
8 out of 10June 2009
GEORGES PEREC - "Life A User's Manual" (1978)
Widely regarded as Perec's masterpiece, this large novel epitomises the writer's love of constrained writing, in this case consisting of one hundred stories, each relating to a particular room or area within a single house in Paris. Each vignette is further mathematically arranged in sequence according to an arcane chess puzzle, which is fitting in that the central them of this volume is another kind of puzzle, the jigsaw.
Many of the short chapters are more or less stand-alone anecdotes, some mundane, some esoteric and some just plain bizarre, often alluding to themes a shallow reader like myself fails to pick up. A recurring strand, however, is the tale of a rich Englishman who plans out how to spend his life in s seemingly pointless exercise: take ten years to learn to paint, then another twenty to travel the world, dropping in at random ports and painting coastal scenes which are then packed off home, where a skilled jigsaw maker turns them into fiendish puzzles. On returning, the Englishman spends his remaining days reassembling the jigsaws, then destroying them upon completion.
Despite Perec's willful cleverness and erudtion, the book is thoroughly enjoyable and engrossing, leaving this reader wondering whether the intricate mathematical construction actually matters.
8 out of 10July 2009
RICHARD DAWKINS - "The God Delusion" (2006)
As a confirmed skeptic and atheist, I bought this book with some doubts as to its value (preaching to the converted, to use an ironic metaphor), especially as I find Dawkins to be something of an annoying arrogant git, however much I agree with him.
The book is somewhat uneven in its writing, occasionally employing such obscure language that it is unclear for whom the tome is intended: if indeed most highly educated people are already non-believers, then the not so erudite who are in most in need of the information contained within are going to be put off by such terms.
Dawkins begins by demolishing various arguments for god then discusses the origins of religion and, through Darwinism, explains why he thinks there is almost certainly no deity. While agreeing wholeheartedly, I found this first half of the book rather muddled and unexceptional.
However, Dawkins really begins to shine when discussing the roots of morality, where he puts forth an alternate and highly plausible origin of morals wholly outside of scripture. Good too is his treatment of the crime of indoctrinating children with religious faith before they are able to have the chance to make up their own minds.
In general, then, this is an important topic which the author doesn't always do justice to in terms of clarity of writing, but when he hits the nail on the head, he can be immensely profound and thought-provoking: on more than one occasion I had to put down the book and actually take several minutes out to mull over concepts and ideas which I'd never encountered before.
7 out of 10August 2009
W.G.SEBALD - "The Rings of Saturn" (1995)
UK-based German writer W.G.Sebald produced only a few works before his untimely demise in a car accident some years ago, but all are instantly recognisable by their blending of fact and fiction expressed in dense paragraphless text punctuated by photographs and pictures.
In this outing, Sebald takes us on a hiking tour through the backwaters of East Anglia, passing through strange barren landscapes, dying and blighted towns such as Lowestoft, and even one former glorious settlement, Dunwich, which has actually vanished beneath the ocean.
Such a tour in an ostensibly unattractive region may not hold much promise for a good read, but it is Sebald's gift to notice the little details that escape most folk, and to be able to see through the decayed exteriors to discover the often startling history lurking below the surface.
In this way we are taken to Poland at the time of the 1848 revolution to witness the early years of one Joseph Conrad, later to be a resident of Lowestoft. Other journeys of discovery based on local history take us to the Taiping rebellion in China, the Belgian Congo and the atrocities committed by the Croat Ustasha during World War II at the largely unknown but enormous death camp at Jasenovac.
Fascinating, educational and rather sad, the book seems to be a meditation of the impermanence of man and his structures in the face of all-conquering time.
On a side note I found that one section near the beginning of the work detailing an imaginary world known as Tloen had in fact been lifted verbatim, and unacknowledged, from a short piece by Argentinian literary giant Jorge Luis Borges. Tsk, tsk, Mr. Sebald!
The curious title of the book, which seems on the surface to bear no relation to the contents, most likely alludes to the formation of the rings of Saturn in which a former moon was destroyed, its fragments eventually being drawn into orbit. In a similar way, the detritus of the past litters the countryside, unobservable in its original form without the keen eyes of a W.G.Sebald to unveil its mysteries.
9 out of 10August 2009
FRANZ KAFKA - "Diaries 1910-1923" (1948)
For anyone interested in and familiar with the works of Kafka these diaries will present an intriguing backdrop to this most enigmatic of twentieth-century writers.
While most people might confine their personal journal entries to the mundane and unambiguous, those of Kafka are as oddly disquieting and peculiar as his fiction, and therein lies their appeal.
An easy read this is most definitely not: I found myself wanting to give up after ten pages or so, as the fragmentary nature of Kafka's observations and thoughts, their obscurity and above all, the convoluted way in which they are made are off-putting in the extreme.
However, with perseverance one becomes accustomed to the style, and the book soon reveals itself to be a fascinating window into Jewish intellectual life in the Prague of the early twentieth century as well as, of course, an insight into the ruthless self-criticism and constant doubt of the author.
Fact is sometimes nearly indistinguishable from fiction, as Dr.K's dry observations on people encountered randomly on the streets, descriptions of members of the Prague literati and tortured ruminations on his doomed relationships with women and concerns over his health blend seamlessly into sketches of never to be completed stories and early versions of familiar tales.
Toward the end of this lengthy volume, Kafka's deteriorating physical condition lend a depressive air to the entries which is hard to get through, although mercifully the book ends with a selection of travel diaries from happier times which serve to lighten the mood.
A must for all Kafka enthusiasts, this volume deserves to counted among his major works, although one can't quite shake the feeling throughout that one really has no right to be reading what Kafka clearly did not intend for public consumption.
8 out of 10August 2009
RAYMOND QUENEAU - "Exercises in Style" (1947)
Queneau was a leading light in the French avant-garde writers' group 'Oulipo', who, along with fellow member Georges Perec, sought to apply a calculated mathematical framework to his writing.
'Exercise in Style' is thus something of an experiment: Queneau takes a simple commonplace tale and presents it no less than ninety-nine times, each in a different literary (and often non-literary) style, ranging from moods, perspectives, registers and dialects, through to lexical distortions of a less organic nature.
Indeed, it is these more wilfully contrived versions that cause the whole notion to break down, since the interest of the reader inevitably falters when presented with a series of variants in which additional letters are placed at the beginning of words, then at the end, and then where the letters of words are rearranged in different ways, all making for unreadability.
While some of examples are humourous or intriguing, the majority are unexceptional, and fatigue soon sets in.
In conclusion, while the book is an interesting curio worthy of dipping in to, it perhaps highlights the pitfalls of applying an analytical/mathmatical framework to literature, rendering it both pedantic and suffocating.
While constrained writing can work well (see Perec's works), I am certain that 'Exercises in Style' is a book that few will read all the way through, and fewer still return to.
7 out of 10August 2009
JEAN-DOMINIQUE BAUBY - "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" (1996)
This slim volume was initially chosen by someone other than myself as material for an ill-fated book club. Since the acrimonious demise of that enterprise, the book has lain unregarded on my shelf, unfairly dismissed as being a representative of all that is wrong with book clubs (being forced to read books you wouldn't have otherwise chosen).
A few days ago I decided to give it a go, partly since it was such a short work, and partly just to be shot of it.
I'm glad I did, although it is far from light reading.
The author, Jean-Dominique Bauby, was an editor for 'Elle' magazine before being suddenly struck down in 1995 by a massive stroke which left him 'locked in', a rare condition in which the brain is trapped in a virtually inert body, the diving bell of the title.
Trying to comprehend how it must feel to be in such a state is something most of us would rather avoid, and yet Bauby took it upon himself to tell us his awful reality.
Amazingly, he composed an edited the book in his head, dictating it to a scribe by the only means of movement available to him - blinking one eye.
Imagine the painstaking task of having your scribe run through the letters of the alphabet in order of frequency of usage, then blinking at the one you require, building up words and sentences letter by laborious letter.
The remarkable result is not a maudlin tale of woe and self-pity, though it is painfully sad, particularly as the author died of pneumonia a few days after publication, but rather is a testament to the human spirit and a valuable reminder that those who are robbed of their communicative faculties are not simpletons to be patted on the head and patronised, or avoided as subhumans.
Bauby's clear and necessarily concise writing details his day to day existence in the hospital, the interactions (or lack thereof) with friends, family and staff, interwoven with memories from his earlier life.
I'll not deny that I would never have chosen this book myself, but I am glad to have read it, distressing and painful though it is (I do not find much uplifting in it as other critics seem to), as it is a most moving and insightful work that rightfully derserves its acclaim.
8 out of 10August 2009
H.P.LOVECRAFT - "The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories" (1999)
This, the third volume of Lovecraft's horror stories in Penguin Classics I have read, continues in much the same vein as the previous two.
This selection, ranging from short pieces barely ten pages long to works which might be classified as novellas, exemplifies the Lovecraftian world in which Earth is the sole outpost of sanity in a chaotic universe which constantly threatens to break in and wreak havoc.
Lovecraft, active in the early twentieth century, can be said to have transformed the writing of horror, replacing the ghosts of Poe with a more cosmic terror in the form of mysterious 'elders' who lurk in the background of our normal world.
Most stories are set in his native New England, focussing on decayed and crumbling rural communities hiding vile secrets, and as in all of the best exponents of the horror genre, it is not upfront gore and violence which serve to instill fear in the reader, but the slow build ups, often conveying a sense of dread and menace which always seems to be just out of sight.
By far the most successful in this respect are the two longer pieces 'The Whisperer in the Dark' and 'The Shadow Over Innsmouth.'
The latter concerns an ill-advised trip to a secretive town shunned by the outside world, a decaying stinking place where the sparse and sullen inhabitants all have an oddly disquieting cast and where the local churches seem to have forsaken Christianity for something older and altogether more vile.
Lovecraft's skill in racking up the tension before the cataclysmic denouement is masterful, and reading this tale alone late at night is as inadvisable as a visit to Innsmouth itself.
Highly recommended for those who like something a little more cerebral than the usual stock horror fare.
9 out of 10August 2009
W.G.SEBALD - "After Nature" (2002)
Published posthumously, this slim volume follows in the footsteps of Sebald's previous works, taking us on a guided tour of obscure European byways and backwaters and in the process illuminating forgotten or little-known details of intriguing minor characters from the past.
The major difference here is that this time we are pesented with a three-part prose poem, the format stripping down Sebald's already sparse writing to a disciplined and succinct summation of the lives of a sixteenth-century painter and a nineteenth-century botanist, as well as a final autobiographical sketch.
Despite the unfamiliar format (for me), this final tome works its usual magic, blurring boundaries between fact and fiction and forcing us to contemplate the flow of time and the power of nature.
8 out of 10September 2009
FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY - "The Adolescent" (1875)
Having worked my way through much of Dostoevky's oeuvre as a teenager, I was surprised to discover that there was a major novel I (and apparently nearly everyone else) was totally unaware of.
'The Adolescent', published before the final monumental work 'The Brothers Karamazov,' has been neglected, appearing previously only as 'A Raw Youth,' and translated by the venerable (and stodgy) Victorian translator Constance Garnett.
Not wishing to reread any of the other works, this seemed to be the perfect opportunity to reacquaint myself with the Russian master, and at the same time to sample a new translation by the much vaunted team of Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky who have been behind a spate of new interpretations of classic Russian literature.
It soon became apparent however, that there was a perfectly good reason why this particular novel has been neglected: it stinks. Perhaps this is just a realisation on my part that I can no longer stomach Dostoevsky, but I found the contrived dialogues full of empty abstract pseudo-philosophical discussion utterly tedious. Granted, the novel is seen through the eyes of a young student, but so little action over so many pages, it was a real effort to get through.
This was compounded by what can only be described as a dismal translation. Instead of a new, modern, clear rendering, we are presented with stodgy unnatural phrasing and clumsy epithets more redolent of Garnett than a supposedly new cutting-edge translating duo.
Perhaps they were trying to accurately recreate the idiom of the time rather than attempt a rendition in contemporary English, but endless repetitions of characters calling each other 'dear heart' sorely tried my patience and detracted from what little action there was.
Very disappointing.
5 out of 10October 2009
SIMON SINGH - "The Code Book" (2000)
Fascinated by codes as a kid, this entertaining history of ciphers takes us all the way from the Ancient World, where messages would be written across paper rolled around a stick, to the near future where quantum computers will finally provide us with an unbreakable means of encryption.
In between we are treated to many historical asides such as Babbage's early computer, the decipherment of the Rosetta Stone, and the war-winning breaking of the sophisticated Nazi code machine 'Enigma' by unsung hero Alan Turing, a major chapter in the centuries old struggle between code makers and code breakers.
Rich in detail, bursting with intrigues and eccentrics, Singh makes an already thrilling subject come alive without overly tiring the reader in the often complex mathematics behind the various forms of secret writing discussed.
9 out of 10November 2009
BRIAN GREENE - "The Elegant Universe" (1999)
Having thoroughly enjoyed Greene's second volume 'The Fabric of the Cosmos,' I was really looking forward to more of the same in this, his first popular work.
Part one of the book covers the familiar territory of cosmology (the macro world as described by Einstein) and quantum mechanics (the description of the sub-atomic world), both of which theories are in themselves correct and demonstrable for their own realms, but which are at odds with each other.
So far, so good: nothing that I had not encountered before, and I found Greene's lucid explanations helpful in reinforcing my knowledge and understanding of these areas.
The problems begin, however, when Greene moves into String Theory, his speciality, the main contender for a new universal theory which will be able to explain away both the micro and macro worlds which have hitherto appeared totally incompatible.
Perhaps it is my admitted lack of ability in following logical arguments, but it was at this stage that I soon found myself hopelessly lost and bewildered, not being able to comprehend the main thrust of the argument.
This is regrettable, since the book is an attempt at presenting this difficult theory to the layperson, which in my opinion fails, in stark contrast with the ease with which I could work through 'The Fabric of the Cosmos.'
Indeed, my lack of comprehension eventually resulted in that rare event for me, the abandonment of the book before the end.
Very disappointing.
5 out of 10December 2009
EMILE ZOLA - "Nana" (1890)
Number nine in the epic twenty volume Les Rougon-Macquart series, 'Nana' examines the seedy world of courtesans in the Paris of 1880.
Scandalous, though not graphically bawdy, the novel charts the career of the eponymous heroine from her translation from the gutter to the stage, and thence to high-class prostitution.
Leaving in her wake a trail of men destroyed through bankruptcy or suicide, Nana's reverse Midas touch sucks her patrons dry to fulfill her frivolous and wasteful lifestyle of idle luxury.
With barely a shred of genuine feeling for anyone, even her own illegitimate offspring, her reign of destruction comes to a fitting end when her beauty, and her life, are removed by smallpox.
Bleak and heartless though the tale is, Zola's depictions of the superficial world of courtesans and their well-to-do clients are compelling and believable, although by the close of the novel one can only feel relief that Nana and her siren-like powers are no more.
8 out of 10January 2010
LIVY - "Rome and Italy" (c29 BC)
This is the second volume in Penguin Books' coverage of the surviving parts of Titus Livius' magnum opus on the history of Rome, and covers the period following the disastrous entry of the Gauls into the city in 386BC to the emergence of Rome as the dominant power in the peninsular some hundred years later.
While lacking the large-scale excitement of later periods such as the epic struggle against Hannibal and the Carthaginians, or the mythology of Rome's foundation and early kings, this intermediate volume still presents us with a compelling read.
On the face of it, this period boils down to a series of never-ending campaigns against either the Etruscans to the north or the Samnites in the south, who never seem to give up, despite continual drubbings from the legions.
It is only towards the end of this epoch when the two groups have the sense to band together that Rome looks like it could be in any serious danger, but this is averted by the superior military tactics for which the Romans were renowned.
Although the repetitiveness of the history might be off-putting, Livy's story-telling skills and numerous rousing (but entirely spurious) speeches turn the whole into an exciting tale, enlivened by the emergence of internal strife, as the plebeians clamour for equal access to the elected offices thus far dominated by the patrician class.
A must for those interested in Roman history and who wish to hear it from one of the extant sources; more casual readers would do better with modern accounts.
8 out of 10February 2010
SIMON SINGH - "Big Bang" (2004)
This is the third book I've read by this British science writer, and most definitely the best. Not that the others were poor, far from it, it's just that this is such an astonishingly great work on an astonishingly mind-boggling concept.
Let's be clear about this - it's a book about physics, it's long, and it tackles an extremely difficult topic that has been puzzling the minds of humans since time immemorial - the nature of the universe.
Don't let that put you off, though, for Singh has a superb talent for taking complex scientific ideas and making them both comprehensible and compelling. No knowledge of science or mathematics is required, and in case you fail to fully take in the frequent helpful analogies, Singh ends each chapter with a helpful handwritten summary.
A good half of this book describes the earlier theories concerning the heavens and man's place in them, and this in itself is fascinating and frequently entertaining. Beginning with Greek philosophy we move into te middle ages with familiar names such a Galileo, Copernicus and Kepler, before moving into the modern age with the likes of Einstein.
Along the way, however, we encounter a while host of less familiar folk who have played a part in this grand tale which culminates in the acceptance of the Big Bang as the most plausible explanation for the history of the universe. Indeed, it wasn't until the early 1990's that the crucial evidence for it, the cosmic background radiation, a kind of echo of the explosion that kick-started the whole process, was shown to be a reality.
Never boring, and often enlightening and entertaining, Singh's book reads like a novel at times, and fills the reader's mind with wonder and excitement as each new amazing discovery brings humanity closer to an understanding of the vast drama unfolding around us.
I am fairly well versed in the subject of cosmology, but I learned a lot from this volume, and encountered many facts that I was hitherto unacquainted with. For every Newton and Hubble there are countless other unsung heroes who contributed massively to our knowledge of the cosmos, and Singh succeeds in bringing their often intriguing stories into the narrative.
Indeed, rather than just focussing on dry facts and data, we are frequently presented with the sometimes tragic tales of various personalities, some of whom fell by the wayside in this centuries-long quest. This human angle is what makes Singh so engrossing and readable.
Forget about the bad experiences you may have had with science at school at the hands of indifferent and incompetent teachers - books like this can reconnect you with the natural wonders of the universe.
The only slight criticism of the book might be that, having once delineated the history of the Big Bang theory, Singh devotes almost no time to the obvious question of what caused it. Perhpas this is due to the abstract nature of such an inquiry, not to mention the obvious lack of data, but of a summary of the speculation on this topic would have been nice.
One personal epiphany I had during the reading of this book, and testimony to its ability to inspire, was a sudden realisation which came upon me independently of the material.
It's natural to wonder when coming into contact with the Big Bang theory what came before that initial explosion, and to orthodox human thinking such an explanation is necessary : a creator or another theory are needed to fill the void. But it suddenly struck me that of course nothing came before it, since the Big Bang itself created not only space but also time, and however hard it may be to grasp this, if there was neither space nor time prior to this event, then nothing can have existed, and we're not talking about vacuums or voids.
A truly thought-provoking and magnificent book about a subject that has the power to lift our heads up from the petty problems of everyday life and point then towards vistas of awe-inspiring vastness and natural beauty.
10 out of 10March 2010
HOMER - "The Iliad" (c800 BC)
First of all, let's get the 'rosy fingered dawn' joke out of the way, right?
The Iliad is of course one of the foundations of Western literature, a Greek epic poem traditionally dated to around 800BC but whose oral traditions likely go back much further.
I first bought a copy as an optimistic eighteen year-old after having just signed up for a course in Ancient History at the University of Manchester in 1984. Needless to say, the lure of cheap lager and video games prevented me from ever reading it.
Having discovered Roman literature recently, and found it utterly compelling, I thought it was high time to explore the earlier Greek.
The story of the Iliad is relatively simple - an army of Greeks has landed in Turkey and is bent on taking the city of Ilium from their Trojan enemies. The ensuing conflict is played out in heaven as well as on the field of battle, with the gods bickering among themselves and aiding or hindering the efforts of the mortals below.
What is surprising about the work is the fact that there is no real beginning or ending: the reader is dropped right in to the middle of the conflict, with little explanation of how it came about (perhaps you are expected to already know?), and similarly whisked away before Ilium is taken by the Greeks.
The unpronounceable names will be off-putting to many, as will the repetition, evidence of The Iliad's origins in a pre-literate age, and yet still it remains a engrossing read full of wrath, gore, heroics and the questions of free will and fate.
Right, now let's get back to see how Rosy and Dawn are doing...
8 out of 10April 2010
PHILIP PLAIT - "Death From the Skies" (2008)
Despite the scary title, reminiscent of some 1950's sci-fi B movie, this book is actually firmly based in science
The author, an astronomer, leads us through all of the cosmic horrors that could befall the Earth and its inhabitants, in some cases at any moment.
Full of both humour and scientific explanations aimed at the layperson, we learn how previous extinction events on the Earth (think dinosaurs) were caused by asteroid impacts, or the far deadlier gamma radiation bursts from exploding hypernova stars, or even the 64,000,000 year cycle during which the sun strays out from the plane of the galaxy and becomes exposed to all manner of nasty cosmic rays normally shielded by the galactic magnetosphere.
Solar flares could knock out our power grids, rogue black holes could devour us wholesale, and the enormous Andromeda galaxy, which is due to crash into our own, could right royally screw things up for us.
As if all of that wasn't enough, the book gets downright entropic and reminds us that the sun will eventually die, expanding out and frying us in its red dwarf state, and even if we could somehow survive that, the ultimate fate of the universe is an eternity of nothingness with all suns dead, and indeed all particles eventually dissolving into the void.
Funny, educational and chilling at the same time, reading this book reminds us of the vastness and ultimately hostile nature of the universe, and should make anyone value the protection we are (usually) afforded here on our little blue/green ball.
Just make sure to keep an eye out on the skies, though, for that rogue chunk of rock a couple of kilometres across that could wipe us all out at any time. Not that there's much you could do about it, though...
8 out of 10May 2010
TOM HODGKINSON - "How To Be Idle" (2004)
Before I read this tome I was unaware that the author was the publisher of a biannual collection of radical essays entitled 'The Idler,' of which this book is an offshoot.
On first inspection this work has the appearance of a novelty volume, the kind of thing you might get as a Christmas present from an aunt, but it doesn't take long before the truth is revealed.
For despite its apparent lightweight and often humourous surface, 'How To Be Idle' is actually a serious anarchist manifesto.
Hodginson explains how man's natural rhythms and proclivities have been destroyed by the industrial revolution, introducing the tyranny of the clock and the stressful and ultimately destructive consumer society which has us trapped as wage slaves, wasting away our lives in jobs we hate to earn the money to pay for the latest worthless gadgets we help to produce.
Things were not meant to be like this, argues Hodgkinson persuasively. In pre-industrial times people worked only as was necessary, with no concepts of shifts, ceasing to work when they had enough to live on. Lounging around was the glorious norm, and was indulged in by the masses as often as possible.
Hodgkinson goes on to demonstrate how some of the greatest thinkers and artists in human history have been loungers, those defying the mind-numbing grind of the 9 to 5 to boldly pursue their own way, often in the face of opposition from the repressive forces of conservatism, and enriching humanity as a result.
Einstein - lazy bastard; John Lennon - waster par excellence; Oscar Wilde - layabout and couch potato.
Seriously, though, Hodgkinson provides an eye-opening perspective on the ills of modern society, and those unfamiliar with anarachist thought will be surprised and ultimately moved by the writer's humanism, for Hodgkinson's version of anarchism is not about politics or rhetoric, it is about regaining the personal freedom to live life as one sees fit, with dignity, and above all, a sense of fun, the vital 'joie de vivre' that is largely absent from so much of 21st century urban capitalistic society.
A fine read that is both entertaining and enlightening, 'How To Be Idle' is highly recommended.
9 out of 10May 2010
MARTIAL - "Epigrams - Volume III" (c80 AD)
Continuing my exploration into the surprisingly exciting world of classical, principally Roman, literature, I recently purchased this volume, my first experience from Harvard University's Loeb collection.
In contrast with your Penguin Classics, fine paperbacks, but prone to rapid page-yellowing, Loeb are small hardback editions made primarily with the scholar in mind, since they are dual text with Latin/Greek on the left and the English rendering on the right.
One fact that had previously put me off venturing into Loeb were the age of the translations, with many dating back to Edwardian times. This presents not only the problems of style and usage, but the also the issue of bowdlerisation, since many racier passages were previously either rendered tame by euphemisms or entirely omitted.
Thankfully Loeb are now addressing these issues through a programme of freshly commissioned translations which capture the spirit of the originals in full.
Martial (Marcus Valerius Martialis) was perhaps the originator of the epigram, the short pithy pun-filled witticism of which this volume consists. Publishing his books in Rome between 86 and 103 AD, his targets are mostly the well-to-do Romans of his age whom he satirises mercilessly in a manner which is often shocking in its sexual explicitness and use of foul language, which for many people unfamiliar with classical literature will be something of a revelation. However, Martial is not solely concerned with showing up the vain and hypocritical members of the Empire's elites: other pieces are more conventionally poetic, and a large section at the end of this volume is devoted to two-line epigrams on everything from food, animals and clothes to furniture and cutlery.
Here's a quick taste of a racier offering:
Pediconibus os loere dicis
hoc si, sicut ais, Fabulle, verum est,
quid to credis olere cunnilingis?
(You say that sodomites smell at the mouth. If what you say is true, Fabullus, where do you think cunt-lickers smell?)
Although this volume may not appeal to those who have no interest in Roman history, it is a wonderful reminder that human nature has changed little over the last two thousand years, and provides a full and vivid snapshot of Roman society and culture during the early Empire.
Martial is great for dipping into, and easy to digest, although it must be said that not all of the epigrams are immediately humourous: sometimes the puns are complex and rely on a knowledge of ancient mythology. At other times the subject matter may not be of interest. Overall, though, an engrossing read for those interested in the period.
9 out of 10May 2010