Month: June 2012

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes – Anita Loos

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Amongst my towering pile of current (but not very active) reads, I mentioned Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Anita Loos.  One or two of you encouraged me to return to it, and I am never one to turn down the call to read a short novel from the 1920s.

Lorelei is the blonde in question, going around America and Europe bewitching rich men and thinking deep thoughts.  These thoughts she has been encouraged to note down in her diary… she is admirably determined to educate herself, but rather more determined to secure diamond tiaras etc. from the gentlemen she encounters.  She is not aided by her unrefined friend Dorothy, whom I absolutely love – Lorelei attempts to refine her, but Dorothy’s slang and insults (“Lady, if we hurt your dignity like you hurt our eyesight I hope for your sake, you are a Christian science”) are thankfully unfettered by decorum – they’re hilarious.

The joy of the novel is the voice Loos creates for her blonde.  Almost every sentence begins ‘So’ or ‘I mean’, and her deep thoughts are about as perceptive as her spelling is correct.  Typos today are, for once, not my own work.

I am going to stay in bed this morning as I am quite upset as I saw a gentleman who quite upset me.  I am not really sure it was the gentleman, as I saw him a quite a distants in the bar, but if it really is the gentleman it shows that when a girl has a lot of fate in her life it is sure to keep on happening.
I haven’t seen the film musical, with Marilyn Monroe, but I think I’m going to now.  At the time of publication, it was hugely successful – the second best selling title of 1926 (although published in 1925), and Edith Wharton called it ‘The great American novel.’  I wonder how tongue-in-cheek she was being?

As the beauty of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is in the style, I’ll give you another excerpt – one which gets across quite how beguiling the young woman is:

So Mr. Jennings helped me quite a lot and I stayed in his office about a year when I stayed in his office about a year when I found out he was not the kind of gentleman that a young girl is safe with.  I mean one evening when I went to pay a call on him at his apartment, I found a girl there who really was famous all over Little Rock for not being nice.  So when I found out that girls like that paid calls on Mr. Jennings I had quite a bad case of hysterics and my mind was really a blank and when I came out of it, it seems that I had a revolver in my hand and it seems that the revolver had shot Mr. Jennings.

[…]

Because everyone at the trial except the District Attorney was really lovely to me and all the gentlemen in the jury all cried when my lawyer pointed at me and told them that they practically all had had either a mother or a sister.  So the jury was only out three minutes and then they came back and acquitted me and they were all so lovely that I really had to kiss all of them and when I kissed the judge he had tears in his eyes and he took me right home to his sister.
So, I mean, I liked the novel a lot – I didn’t find it quite as uproariously funny as some people evidently do, and I think the joke would wear a little thin if it were stretched beyond the 150pp of this novel – but it was great fun while it lasted.  And I do have the even shorter sequel, But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes, in the other half of this edition, starting from the other side and meeting in the middle… I’ll report back in due course.

Song for a Sunday

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Like everyone else in the world, it seems, I have Adele’s albums.  I bought 19 after hearing her beautiful cover of ‘Make You Feel My Love’ at my cousin’s wedding.  Well, little did I know that, buried deep in my iTunes, I had a duet called ‘Water and a Flame’ which Adele sang with Daniel Merriweather on his album Love & War.  And it’s rather nice.

Stuck-in-a-Book’s Weekend (Minimalist) Miscellany

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It’s been a long day, so I’m going to leave you with a very minimalist miscellany.  Follow the links to find out more…

1.) 60 Years in 60 Poems – can you help?

2.) Remember how much I loved Life in a Day?  Now there is Britain in a Day.  Not as good, but still definitely worth watching.

3.) Have you seen Karyn’s new bookshelves yet?

4.) Tove Jansson AND Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland?  Yes please!  (click the picture for more info.)

5.) Claire shares How To Write A Novel by Georgette Heyer – very funny!  And…

6.) Michelle shares On Reviewing Fiction by Rose Macaulay – also very funny!

Have a lovely weekend :)

On Sylvia Townsend Warner and Virginia Woolf

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Bea Howe (c.1925) by Duncan Grant

“What inspired and intrigued most about Sylvia
was her way of talking.  I had never
heard anybody speak like her before. 
Some chance remark or an artfully-posed question by Tommy – who loved to
argue with her – and Sylvia was off in a fantastic flight of her own.  Poetic words, colourful phrases, an apt
quotation, extraordinary similes poured forth from her in a way I did not meet
again till I came to know, and dine with, Virginia Woolf.  But where Sylvia kept her conversational
flights of fancy more or less under control while the slightly malicious gleam
in her eyes dared one to give her verbal battle, Virginia’s flights of pure
fantasy, soaring sky-high, as the light in her beautiful deep-set luminous eyes
kindled and grew almost wild, silenced one to listen to her, entranced.” 

Bea Howe
PN Review 8:3 (1981)

M for Mother – Marjorie Riddell

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Why is it that I love books about motherhood from 50+ years ago?  I’m not likely ever to be either a mother or a time traveller.  I blame the Provincial Lady books, which set me off on a literary path from which I have never looked back.  I can’t remember who mentioned Marjorie Riddell’s M for Mother (1954) – was it you? Own up! – but I enjoyed adding it to the fold.  This one is actually from the other perspective – the daughter narrates.  She has recently left home, and each short chapter begins ‘My mother writes to me and says’ – it’s all good fun.  There are lots of gossipy aunts who cause trouble, and Mother doesn’t believe the daughter can possibly live a successful life without a mother’s tender care.  


It’s not in the same league as Diary of a Provincial Lady or Shirley Jackson’s Life Among the Savages and Raising Demons, but it’s definitely a book you’ll enjoy flicking through, if you’re a fan of those books by Delafield and Jackson.  I thought it would make sense to give you a taste – here’s a chapter picked more or less at random: Chapter 17 – Holiday at Home.

My mother said she was glad she had got me at home for a fortnight because she was going to feed me up.  She knew that when I was away in London I lived on baked beans.  She wasn’t surprised my eyes were dull.  She had warned me every time I came home but it was like talking to the Sphinx.  She had always thought that if I insisted on starving myself to death I would just have to get on with it, but now she had changed her mind.  Mrs. Plant’s daughter was the picture of health and my mother wasn’t going to have people making comparisons.

I said I don’t live on baked beans.

My mother said yes, you do.

Now, eat your supper, my mother said.  You’ve got to eat it all.  I’m not going to let you die of starvation.  I’m just not going to let you whether you like it or not.

There, she said when I had finished, you look better already.  You don’t look haunted.

On the following day we went to buy a tonic.

A tonic for putting on weight, my mother told the assistant.  Yes, you are rather thin, madam, said the assistant.  For my daughter, said my mother coldly.

Then we had me weighed.  I was nine stone.  See, my mother said.

And you’ve got to go to bed early, my mother said.  I can’t do anything about it if you will never go to bed before two in the morning when you are away.  But I can while you are home.  I am helpless when you are in London and am forced to stand by and watch while you wear your nerves to trembling shreds.  I’m only glad I can’t see you.  If you will tire yourself out like this the next thing will be you will lose your job, and you know you won’t like that.

I said I don’t stay up until two every morning.

My mother said yes, you do.

And another thing, my mother said.  You are going to take things calmly and slowly while you are home.  When you are in London you spend your time rushing like a mad thing from place to place without pausing for breath.  Tearing about like that without breathing isn’t good for you.  You will have a gastric ulcer and then where will you be?

Aunt Ethel had one in her old house at Tunbridge Wells, my mother said.  She was in hospital for weeks and when she came home her roses were thick with greenfly.

I said I don’t rush about like a mad thing.

My mother said yes, you do.

You whole attitude towards things is wrong, my mother said.  Your money, for instance.  Your father is going to talk to you about that.  I told him only last night he is going to.  I shall leave it to him and not say a word myself.  But what I want to say is that you simply must not carry it all about with you at once.  And don’t say you don’t because you do.

I know I do, I said.  Do you want me to leave half a crown under my mattress and carry a shilling round wih me?

There’s no need to be sarcastic, my mother said.

I’m not being sarcastic, I said.

You carry pounds in your handbag, my mother said.

No, I don’t, I said.

Don’t argue, my mother said.  I remember, she went on, when Aunt Gertrude went to London in 1938 to see Aunt Dora and somebody stole her handbag.  Aunt Gertrude has never forgotten it.  Since then she has kept her money in a woolly bag tied round her waist under her clothes.  It has never been stolen again.  If you won’t leave some of your money locked up in your room, my mother said, I will give you a woolly bag like Aunt Gertrude.

Now, eat your suet pudding and stop arguing, my mother said.  I’m going to keep you alive if it kills me.

Five From The Archive: Index

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I thought it might be useful to have a central index post for Five From The Archive… so here it is!

1.) Five… Books featuring Twins or Doubles
2.) Five… Books set in World War II
3.) Five… Shortlisted Booker Titles
4.) Five… Books about Death
5.) Five… Books by Canadians
6.) Five… Books about Family
7.) Five… Books about Pairs of Women
8.) Five… Books about Hands
9.) Five… Books about Holidays 
10.) Five… Books about the Theatre 
11.) Five… Books about School
12.) Five… Books with Eponymous Titles
13.) Five… Books about Cats

How To Review a Book

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I’ve seen many bloggers work out their own approach to reviewing books, covering all aspects – from whether or not you ought to say where you got a book, to whether or not negative reviews should feature at all on a blog.  Some bloggers (wisely) just outline their own preferences – others, at the shoutier end of the blogosphere which I frequent very seldom and to which none of you belong, lay down the law for all bloggers.  I’m not going to attempt to do either, but today I stumbled across John Updike’s criteria for writing a review (which first appeared in the introduction to his essay collection Picking Up The Pieces in 1975) and I thought it was very interesting, and maybe even very sensible… what do you think?

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give enough direct quotation — at least one extended passage — of the book’s prose so the review’s reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy précis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author’s œuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it’s his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser. Do not accept for review a book you are predisposed to dislike, or committed by friendship to like. Do not imagine yourself a caretaker of any tradition, an enforcer of any party standards, a warrior in any ideological battle, a corrections officer of any kind. Never, never … try to put the author “in his place,” making of him a pawn in a contest with other reviewers. Review the book, not the reputation. Submit to whatever spell, weak or strong, is being cast. Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys of reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.

Books On Hold

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I’ve mentioned quite a few times that I’m one of those readers who can’t commit to just one book at a time.  I always have a few on the go – usually four or five that I’m reading in earnest, as it were – but there is also a second batch of books which I have started, and intend to finish, but somehow drift into the background of my reading.  Sometimes I started and the book got sidelined somehow, dropping from those four or five into the hinterland of will-finish-one-day; sometimes they’re books which, from the outset, I intended only to dip into now and then.  I thought you might like to see a list of the books I have on the go, not including the four titles I’ve started in the past week or so.

I was a little surprised at quite how many there were, I have to confess.  Here are all eleven of the books I have started, will finish one day… but haven’t touched for quite a while.  With each picture I’ve included a quick mention of where the book came from, why it got sidelined, and how far I’ve got…

The Memoirs of a Midget – Walter de la Mare
Pages Read: 64/378
I started this because I thought it might be useful for my thesis.  It turned out to be neither very useful nor very engaging… but I think I’ll finish it one day.  Especially since it turns out my housemate Rachel is distantly related to the author.

A Reader on Reading – Alberto Manguel
Pages Read: 92/291

The Library at Night – Alberto Manguel
Pages Read: 94/328

These Manguel books were always intended to be dip-in books for me – I have them on hand when I’m writing my thesis, as it seems a more productive distraction than browsing Facebook.

Gentleman Prefer Blondes – Anita Loos
Pages Read: 48/156

I bought this after seeing it mentioned in the Provincial Lady books, but stalled a couple of years ago – I will finish it one day (maybe even today, thinking about it) but I can’t remember thinking it very amusing.

The Kingdom of Infinite Space – Raymond Tallis
Pages Read: 52/291

Not my normal read, you’ll agree – a non-fiction book about the head – but I did find it fascinating when I started it last summer.  But I think I’ll have to read it in small doses.

The Eye of the World – Robert Jordan
Pages Read: 590/782

Colin lent me this about three years ago, and I read 550 pages in one weekend (a good way to make yourself read something is to take nothing else on a trip to Paris) but since then I haven’t been super-keen to get back to it.  Colin got so bored of waiting that he bought a new copy, and gave me this one.

Told By An Idiot – Rose Macaulay
Pages Read: 30/315

This was actually the first Rose Macaulay novel I bought, but I still haven’t read it – I started at Christmas, but somehow got sidetracked.  I think I’ll have to start it again next time, as I don’t remember anything from those thirty pages…

The Man Who Unleashed The Birds: Frank Baker and His Circle – Paul Newman
Pages Read: 82/239
Paul Newman kindly sent me a review copy of this book about Miss Hargreaves-author Frank Baker, which I’m enjoying – but somehow it went back on the shelf for a bit.  Its time will come!

The Novel in the Viola – Natasha Solomons
Pages Read: 254/391

I loved Solomons’ first novel, Mr. Rosenblum’s List, but I didn’t have the same urge to whip through this one… but one day I will finish this one.

The Snow Child – Eowyn Ivey
Pages Read: 112/404

I was really excited about this novel, and did enjoy the first hundred or so pages a lot – but I wasn’t in the right mood for it after a while, and… well, you’re getting familiar with this story now!

The Finkler Question – Howard Jacobson
Pages Read: 251/370

This is the only one on the list that I might well not finish.  It was for book group, and I didn’t get to the end in time for the meeting… I’m finding it very boring indeed.  One day I might make myself plough through those final 120 pages, but it doesn’t feel worth it.

EDITED TO ADD:

I forgot about The Chateau – William Maxwell!
Pages Read: 138/402

I bought up loads of Maxwell novels when I read They Came Like Swallows, and somehow stalled on this one… bringing my total up to TWELVE neglected books.  And four that I’m reading more actively.  So… SIXTEEN books on the go – argh!

Well, there you are!  Have you read any of these?
I’d be intrigued to see how many I’ve finished this time next year… and, if nothing else, this little investigation has helped me locate all sorts of bookmarks I thought I’d lost.

Song for a Sunday

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Colin, my brother, recently described something (I forget what) as “like your Song for a Sunday – people wish it wasn’t there.”  To heap coals on his head, today’s song is one he told me about.  We don’t share a taste in music any more than we share a taste in books, but occasionally there is something we both like – step forward ‘Rainy Days and Mondays’ by The Carpenters.

Stuck-in-a-Book’s Weekend Miscellany

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I wonder how many Weekend Miscellanies I’ve done now?  It feels like nearly 100, but I daresay it isn’t that many yet.  I hope you’re still finding them useful – I know that I enjoy people’s round-up posts, and I also like being able to collect together bits and pieces rather than scattering them through the week.  This weekend I’ll be at work on Saturday, but not up to very much on Sunday.  I’m in a bit of a reader’s block at the moment – or, rather, reading a couple of books that I’m finding dull but have to finish – so perhaps I’ll indulge on Sunday and read something fun.  What are you up to?


1.) The link – if you happen to be in the Oxfordshire area at the end of June, why not go and see AA Milne’s brilliant play The Dover Road (PG Wodehouse’s favourite play, donchaknow) in Dorchester-upon-Thames?  More info here.  I’m hoping to go, if I can persuade some others.

2.) The blog post – if you’re not doing so already, you should follow Thomas on his tour around the UK.  He’s back in the US now, but is putting up glorious photo posts of his travels – he basically seems to have had the perfect trip (give or take potentially fatal car journeys) and has gone to many places I dream of visiting.

I don’t think I’ve mentioned on here that Thomas and I had cream tea at the Randolph whilst he was in Oxford – I daresay it will appear on his blog at some point, although we didn’t actually have a photo taken.  I met Thomas on his last visit, along with lots of other bloggers, but it was a real delight to have him to myself for a couple of hours.  I always get a bit nervous about these things, which either makes me very quiet or very voluble – well, just call me Garrulous Gary, because I chatted away animatedly all the way through, and Thomas did too.  It was so easy, and such fun.  We spoke surprisingly little about books (although we agreed to continue reading each other’s blogs, despite my dislike of Hotel du Lac and Thomas’s of Rebecca) – but we seemed to speak of many other topics under the sun.

3.) The book – I passed on my copy of Julie Myerson’s Then to my housemate Mel, who read it instantly (remember those days, of never having unread books on your shelf?) and tells me it is brilliant – and baffling.  Dystopia, amnesia, and hallucination were the words I grasped from the conversation – which sounds as though it could be enthralling, or could be a huge mess – sounds as though it’s the former.  Maybe one day I’ll have time to read it… thank you to Jonathan Cape for sending me a copy.  I’ll try to persuade Mel to write about it for me…