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After the Fox

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Just to prove I have read *something * this month…

Quite a while ago I wrote about second-book-syndrome. By that I meant the second book you read by an author, after you’ve loved one. You might be reading them in order they were written, might be completely different – but it’s so difficult for the second book to live up to the first. I wrote the first blog post about Frank Baker’s Before I Go Hence, which was good, but nowhere near as good as Miss Hargreaves, which is one of my ’50 Books’. I haven’t read another novel by Baker since, though I have a few waiting on my shelves. Today’s post is about another ’50 Books’ author, and the second book I’ve read by him – Aspects of Love by David Garnett.

I bought this in a secondhand bookshop in London a while ago, and read most of it on the train home – then a lull, and read the rest last week. I was attracted to it, other than by Garnett’s name, by its brevity. The blurb says:

‘Alone in a villa in the South of France, a penniless French actress and a star-struck English boy enjoy an idyll which they thought could not last. The years prove them wrong. Their entanglement endures, changing slowly, bringing in others – all of them concerned to keep the taste of life on the tip of their tongue.’

Well, that was quite misleading. I was anticipating a beautiful love story, but nuanced by Modernist whirls, as it were. Lady Into Fox, though it put some people off with its metamorphosis, was at heart a moving love story, told with a spectacular linguistic skill. Aspects of Love was like reading a rollercoaster – dramatic event after dramatic event whisked past me, before I had time to work out what was happening. When the blurb says the central relationship is ‘changing slowly’, they mean she goes off with his uncle; he shoots her, she has a daughter with the uncle, who falls in love with him… I usually love short novels, as they give the opportunity for something simple and polished, portraits of characters which shine like gems. Aspects of Love had some good points, but should either have cut out half the plot or doubled its length. I don’t know what Garnett was trying to say, but whatever it was didn’t convince me – I am rather disappointed, and can’t say I recommend this novel. The odd sentence was beautiful, but you some sentences do not a great novel make. Shame.

And now the question is… will I bother with a third book by Garnett?

Exteeeeeeeeeended Essay

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I’m in the midst of my final days in Oxford for this year, and busy writing my thesis or extended essay or whatever it ought to be called. We do three of these, and one slightly longer one, so ‘essay’ seems too diminuitive a label, and ‘dissertation’ too grand. Extended essay is probably all the lauding it needs, and at 7000 words it is neither a trifle nor a mountain, most of my classmates have read the papercheap review and I’m seriously thinking about it. This is taking up most of my time, hence not having finished a book for a while – I have a feeling December will be a record low for the year, though I am currently enjoying The War Workers by EM Delafield, Harriet Hume by Rebecca West, and Every Eye by Isobel English. Slowly.

My essay title is:

‘I – I only want to leave–‘:
The Imperial Visitor in Olive Schreiner and Katherine Mansfield

Yes. I’m a fan of using incongruous quotations for titles – this one comes from my favourite Katherine Mansfield story, ‘The Garden Party’. (This was my favourite story when I read the Folio Collected Short Stories of KM, and only afterwards did I discover that it’s her most renowned – which proves that it is deservedly renowned!) Laura is at the impoverished family’s house, and is saying that she wishes to leave the basket she brought – but in missing out the word ‘basket’, reveals also her desire to leave the house. I think I called this ‘partial zeugma’. Oh, indeed.

Sometimes I get a bit wordy. I’ve already used the expressions ‘anthropomorphised mercantilism’ and ‘Bonaparte’s credentials are essentially fiscal’. Not to mention ‘cannibalises’; ‘intial corporeal dislocation’, and, most profoundly, ‘Time is a crucial as space’.

It’s fun to be back at it. The Carbon Copy said he tried to read my undergraduate thesis on Virginia Woolf and Clothing the other, but stopped after two pages because it was, quote, ‘boring’. Aah, with friends like these. To be fair to him, I don’t think I’d last two pages on the Reimann Hypothesis. It always amazes me the subjectivity of the word ‘interesting’ – this blog bubble sometimes makes me forget that some people (I’m looking at you, Mr. Tim Henman) think reading is ‘boring’ – whereas I imagine there are leagues of sports fans and map readers and geologists who would be astonished at my lack of interest in their field… I bet none of *them* have ever said ‘anthropomorphised mercantilism’. And, at the end of the day, is there any better method of judging success?

In all seriousness, anyone interested in Katherine Mansfield or Olive Schreiner, if my wordiness has whetted your appetite, I’d be happy to email you my essay afterwards – and be even more happy to hear your thoughts on the concept of visiting in their works.

 

Reading at the Speed of Light

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Today’s topic is crying out for a Stuck-in-a-Book sketch, but that requires more energy than I have after mulled wine, mince pies and Scrabble. Mmm, Christmas…

The other day Elaine at Random Jottings wrote about the mixed blessing and curse that reading incredibly quickly can be. I’ve known Elaine online for nearly five years now, and have always been rather jealous of her amazing reading rate – I believe, including lighter, quick reads, Elaine has read 250 books this year. Compare that to my 130… yes, that’s an awful lot (possibly more than I’ve read any other year) but that is testament to all the time I had this year for reading, rather than my speed. I’m not slow, but I’m not very fast. Well, I’ll qualify that statement a little later.

Elaine writes on her blog, and has mentioned to me before, that when she reads she ‘sees’ the words, whereas most readers ‘hear’ them – and that the ‘seeing’ is slightly quicker on each sentence, which builds up to a lot quicker over all. If you’re thinking the idea is nonsense, watch out for it next time you’re reading a novel – I bet you’ll be hearing the words faintly while you read. It becomes more obvious when you hit a word you don’t know how to pronounce, or used to mispronounce… Now, I’ve discovered that I can actually choose how I read – my default is to ‘hear’ the word, but if I want to read something quickly, I can switch to ‘see’ing it. But, for me, this deadens the words – I get the meaning without any emotional connection. Very odd. Probably not remotely scientific, but… (Oo, actually, see this study which I just found, about emotional impact and speed of reading…)

Before speaking to Elaine, I always considered fast reading an unadulterated blessing – but she recounts mistrustful teachers and other occasions on which it’s been more of a curse. What about you? Do you read fast or slowly? Can you see fast reading as a curse, or would you long for it? Do you take your time over some books, and race through others? Or have you never really given a second thought to the speed of your reading? Perhaps someone with a scientific turn of mind could explain some or all of this to us… how innate is the speed of reading, and can we change it?

The Family Reunion

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Yesterday evening I was in London, possibly the first time I’ve gone up ‘for the evening’ in a cosmopolitan sort of way, to see ‘The Family Reunion‘ by T. S. Eliot. It’s being performed at the Donmar Warehouse Theatre, which is in a very nice little area of London called Seven Dials. Agatha Christie aficianadoes – I’m looking at you, Colin – might be able to tell me if there’s any connection with The Seven Dials Mystery? If I ever had to live in London, that’s where I’d like to live. I imagine a day’s rent is more than I could earn in a year.

Why did I want to see the play? No literary reasons at all, I’m afraid – it was the cast. Does that make me strange? Mel suggests it does. But no matter – it was quite an exceptional line-up: Penelope Wilton, Sam West, Gemma Jones, Una Stubbs. I daresay the others deserve their names in lights, but it was for these four (in that order) that I was excited. Most especially Penelope Wilton – in fact, I found the play by Googling her name. She’s wonderful in Iris and Calendar Girls and Pride and Prejudice and everything, probably, but the main reason I wanted to see her was because of The Borrowers. This was one of the programmes we grew up watching, and it felt surreal to have one of the stars mere feet away from me. Even more surreal when Homily Clock (aka Penelope Wilton) started having a conversation with Prince Caspian (aka Sam West).

I should probably mention the play itself… a mother and aunts and uncles are gathered for the homecoming of Harry, who hasn’t been to their grand house for eight years. In the interrim Something Has Happened to him, involving his much disliked wife, and it’s had all sorts of effects on Harry. That’s about as much concrete plot as I could grasp – much of the play focuses on the relations between relatives and mindsets, and leads into a curious philosophical staging which might be summed up as ‘there’s more to life than there seems’. I don’t know if T.S. Eliot was a Christian when he wrote ‘The Family Reunion’, but it seems very much the work of someone who is starting on the path – realises there is more to life than meets the eye, and wants to explore it. Occasional bursts of humour, mostly provided by Una Stubbs, and some rather creepy boy apparitions (who at one point appear behind a door in an instant; no idea how they did that), and another effect which I found wonderful. Quite often four members of the cast would suddenly move together and speak in unison, Greek Chorus-like, revealing their shared psychologies. Could have been affected, but instead worked very well.

This might all have been a bit of a babble: difficult to make plain what I thought about such a complex play. I must read it. I’ll finish, instead, with some more celebrity-spotting – we were followed into the theatre by Celia Imrie! (Maybe there to see Calendar Girls co-star Penelope Wilton?)

Must-Read-Very-Soon pile

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As promised, the Must-Read-Very-Soon pile in its entirety – brace yourself, there are quite a few (hence yes, Mel, I did mean 2009!) but they’re all books which elevate themselves out of the ‘to be read’ pile into a state of reading urgency. Having said that, most of them have been there for four months already… I’ll read this post in December 2009 and let you know how many have been read.

Let’s look at the big shelf in closer detail, left to right… if anything sparks your interest or – even better – if you’ve read them, do comment.

The Paris Review Interviews vol.1 and vol.2
– these have been mentioned on Stuck-in-a-Book before, and I’ve read bits and pieces. Interviews with the Great and the Good of literature – in depth, insightful, invaluable. And the third volume is out…

Beyond Sing The Woods by Trygve Gulbranssen
– in my sporadic, but heartfelt, interest in Scandinavian literature, I bought this novel after seeing it mentioned in the comments on Danielle’s blog.

Winnie the Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner and When We Were Very Young by AA Milne
– I haven’t read these for six or seven years, and that must be rectified soon. Plus, the rather beautiful copy of WWWVY was given to me by my dear friend Mel.

London 1945: Life in the Debris of War by Maureen Waller
– I’ve not read much about *just* postwar, either fact or fiction, and this came recommended by several Persephone Books lovers – so can’t go far wrong.

The Haunted Bookshop and Parnassus on Wheels by Christopher Morley
– These came from Danielle in exchange for Miss Hargreaves… and they’re still not read by me. BUT they’re on the priority shelf, so watch this space…

A House of Air by Penelope Fitzgerald
As championed by Lynne ‘dovegreyreader’ Hatwell, a collection of Fitzgerald’s reviews and introductions and essays etc. etc. Started a while ago, but it’s been sidelined to this shelf until I’m in a Fitzgerald mood.

The Feminine Middlebrow Novel by Nicola Humble
– This invaluable guide to everything middlebrow I have read, but think I should re-read before I start my dissertation. More on it here.

They Came Like Swallows by William Maxwell
– Cornflower Book Group choice ages ago, sounded brilliant, Karen very sweetly sent me a copy… I will read it soon! Pop over to the Cornflower Book Group and see what was said about it then.

A Vindication of the Rights of Women by Mary Wollstonecraft
– I started this after reading Janet Todd’s rather wonderful biography of Mary’s daughter Fanny, and the whole Wollstonecraft/Shelley clan… found Vindication a little dry, but intend to persevere.

The Man Who Was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton
– The aforementioned Mel lent this to me in September…

A Man Like Any Other by Mary Cavanagh
– I reviewed Mary’s debut novel The Crowded Bed, and she subsequently became a friend whom I’ve seen quite a few times, as she’s an Oxfordshire writer. This one is definitely a must read, and is probably no.1 priority on the Must Read shelf.

Oxford by Jan Morris
– Our Vicar gave me this when I went to university… I will read it soon, I will! Now that I’m not an undergraduate, I’m starting to get tourists’-curiosity…

Can Any Mother Help Me? by Jenna Bailey
-In 1935 a lonely young mother wrote to Nursery World asking for advice on how to occupy her literate and lively mind without costing money. She struck a chord; a group started a private magazine. This non-fiction book is all about that – utterly irresistible.

Slave of Christ by Murray J. Harris
-Always a theological book or twelve waiting in the offing, and the idea of being a slave of Christ is one I want to explore and investigate.
The next one is my dovegreybooks postal book, so don’t look too closely if you’re in that group…. in fact, I won’t even mention it. Squint, and move onto the next one.

The Provincial Lady by E. M. Delafield
-Yes, of course I’ve read these four books – it’s in the 50 Books… – but they’re always due a re-read.

The Haunted Woman by David Lindsay
-Same applies…

I Follow But Myself by Frank Baker
-the autobiography of the man behind Miss Hargreaves – more precisely, a book of character sketches of important people in his life. Includes Edward Garnett – Virginia Woolf’s sister’s daughter’s husband’s father!

Mhudi by Sol T. Plaatje
-Just read this South African novel, actually, for my Empire & Nation class; I’ll be posting it back to Nichola soon, who kindly lent it to me.

Mrs. Woolf and the Servants by Alison Light
-My friend Clare gave me this as a leaving present from the Bodleian, and it’s absolutely perfect for me, of course. Soon, soon…

Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels
-I’d never heard of this, but my book group friend Louie was absolutely certain that I’d love the novel, and it all looks very promising!
Gosh. See the challenge I have ahead of me? Certainly not put off my books – just writing this has made me want to read every single one of them. But I must write my extended essay… I must. Oh dear, I’m slipping already…

Crunchy Books

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Julie, in the dovegreybooks Yahoo Group so many of my bookish suggestions come from, emailed a link to this article today, about tbr (to-be-read) piles, and the Credit Crunch Beating tactic of reading books already on the shelves, rather than buying new ones. Or rather, his article was all about the difficulty of doing this. The article has a veritable plethora of links to other relevant blogs and articles, and I’m adding another link to the chain – but do go and read what Sam Jordison wrote; it might strike a chord.

This has come up recently. I know some regular Stuck-in-a-Book readers are noble folk who don’t buy in haste, use libraries, read books on the bookcase before heading to the local bookshop. More of us, perhaps, are inveterate book buyers.

Now, (Ooo, semi-political tone alert) I don’t really think the Credit Crunch is *quite* as world-shaking as the newspapers would have us believe. The very rich are getting slightly less rich; the rest of us have to pay more for petrol and pasta, apparently, but it’s not 1929 and I’m still going to buy books. What Jordison, and Bookninja who inspired the article, have trouble with is not wanting to read the books on their bookshelf. Sometimes not with the best of reasons… I quote:

As I scanned my shelves, I found I had convincing arguments why I shouldn’t read each one of the orphans — or convincing to me anyway. I rejected a book called “English, August,” by Upamanyu Chatterjee because it is, after all, November. No to “The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists” by Robert Tressell because the book jacket says it’s about “the desperate lives of working people.” No to “The Unconsoled” by Kazuo Ishiguro because I heard it wasn’t nearly as good as “Remains of the Day” or “Never Let Me Go.”

Not the problem, here. I really, really want to read so many of my books. Time is the thing. And having to read books for Book Groups or university or… or…

Shall we take a little look at my Must Read Very Soon shelf? It’s a step above the To Be Read pile, which currently stands at about 500 books or so. I think I’ll talk you through it tomorrow… the books I should have read before the end of 2009, we’ll call it, for that is as urgent as things can get in the book-filled mania of my reading life.

Oddities

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It’s been a little while since I finished a book, after quite a run of reviews and whatnot, so I’m going to have to satisfy myself (and, I’m afraid, my readers) with little puzzles instead.

Here’s a tricky one. Can you get from Bertrand Russell to DH Lawrence in three steps? Fill in the gaps… and explain why. What japes.

B[ertrand Russell]
E
K
D[H Lawrence]

Oh, and all advent head over to www.dovegreyreader.typepad.com for lots and lots of book giveaways, 21 copies of The Reader in the latest draw!

Victors to their spoils

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Congratulations… Jane Eyre!
To be honest, I had a suspicion that the vote would swing that way. Jane Eyre received 23 votes, Wuthering Heights only 10, with a couple abstentions. This time my vote isn’t the deciding one, as it was to put Dickens over Hardy, but I still can’t come to a quick decision…

I suppose I should have phrased it differently. If I was asked which novel I favoured, it would be Jane Eyre. If I had to choose which novel I thought was better, it is unquestionably Wuthering Heights. In terms of writing ability, especially the way in which passion is presented, I think WH is one of the best novels I’ve ever read. But I hated it. Or, rather, I hated Heathcliff so much that I was unable to enjoy the novel – the book is filled with hatred and the powerful, passionate force it can have.

JE on the other hand… I confess I don’t know why it’s so popular. Good, yes, but… I couldn’t see anything more than good. Mr. Rochester is a man who (erm, spoiler ahead, for those who don’t know) tries to lie to marry illegally, keeps a wife imprisoned in the attic, dresses up as a gypsy to fool Jane… but at least he doesn’t go around hanging dogs. I know these novels have merits far and above their romantic aspects, but they are still renowned for those – will someone please explain to me what is remotely appealing about Heathcliff or Mr. Rochester?! Perhaps I’m destined not to understand…

I’m going to vote for secret option no.3 – Agnes Grey. If I’m forced to choose one of the other novels, I’ll pick Wuthering Heights – out of admiration rather than adoration.