Stuck in a Book

This is one of those posts I feel a little guilty about writing, because I’m gong to eulogise about a play which is no longer available to see… this probably won’t bother those of you who are anyhow unavailable to get to London, but I’m sorry to tease those of you who could do… because my friends Becca and Cath and I went to see the last performance of All My Sons.

I’ll start by saying that was the best thing I’ve ever seen in the theatre. I don’t have the encyclopaedic experience of theatre which some can boast – prohibitive ticket prices mean that I’m most likely to be found at RSC performances, since they have cheap tickets for young-uns. Still, I do go when I can, and was determined to see All My Sons… when I discovered Jemima Rooper was in it. She has followed me throughout my life, appearing in many of my favourite programmes – The Famous Five when I was a child; As If when I was a teenager; Lost in Austen while I’m in my twenties. What will come next, one wonders… it is certainly fitting that she has appeared in my favourite theatre experience.

All My Sons is a 1947 play by American playwright Arthur Miller, and somehow my first encounter with him. Almost everyone else seems to have read or seen The Crucible and Death of a Salesman, but Oxford’s non-American syllabus and happenstance have led to me not really knowing anything about Miller. Well, he isn’t a bucketful of laughs – it’s one of those criticism-of-the-American-Dream pieces which seemed to abound after WW2. But Miller covers a very sensitive area for the post-war world. It gradually emerges that the central man (Joe, played phenomenally by David Suchet) and his neighbour had been arrested for shipping broken aeroplane parts out to the air force – leading to the death of 21 men. Joe was acquitted; Steve was not, and is currently in jail.

Steve’s daughter Ann (the lovely Jemima Rooper) has come to stay with Joe’s family. Miller uses the technique seen in plays like The Second Mrs. Tanqueray by Arthur Pindero and The Great Broxopp by A.A. Milne, where a character is described and awaited by all and sundry before they actually appear on the scene, so Ann’s entrance is built up no end. She had been the sweetheart of Larry, Joe and Kate’s (Zoe Wanamaker) son who was lost in the war. She is now romantically involved with their other son, Chris (Stephen Campbell Moore), but they’re afraid to reveal this – because in Kate’s mind, Larry is still coming home.

This is the central emotional thread of the play, and must have been even more poignant in 1947 – coming (or refusing to come) to terms with the almost certain death of a son, when a body has never been found. The guilt of those who survived, or those who profitted by the war – and everyone trying to piece life back together. Then there is the question of what is and what is not honourable in wartime – and the relative importance of family and country. It’s all in there.

Miller’s structure could probably be quite easily dissected. He is a fan of the set piece, or the dramatic twist, and these push All My Sons through its various scenarios. But there is so much more than plot on offer – the emotional journeys of each character are beautifully drawn, and were brilliantly realised by an astonishingly good cast. The play was advertised as having David Suchet and Zoe Wanamaker in its lead roles – and, indeed, if David Suchet doesn’t win all manner of awards then it would be a travesty; having only seen him as Poirot, I was not aware of his range – but this is definitely an ensemble piece. The four central actors have fairly equal amounts of material, and worked so well together that I don’t think I ever want to see the play again – it could never live up to this precedent.

Of course, I am biased in Jemima Rooper’s direction, and it was thrilling to see on stage an actress I love so much. But everyone was strikingly good – both halves of the play were pacy and gripping, and that is said by someone with quite a short attention sp— sorry, what were we talking about? (A-ha-ha.) It certainly wasn’t cheap, but I wouldn’t have missed it for anything – although the nature of plays, unlike books or films, is transitory, I will cling on to the memories I have of All My Sons – it has become the benchmark against which I will measure future visits to the theatre.

Oh, and it wasn’t just me – Cath and Becca loved it, and the audience gave it a standing ovation. (See also Michael Billington’s appreciative Guardian review.) I’m sorry that the chance has passed to see this performance, but perhaps one of the filmed versions is worth seeing…?

You’ll be pleased to know that my internet is behaving itself this weekend – even if my body is not, as I seem to have caught the cold which is going around my house. So yesterday I did very little indeed, conserving my energy for going to London later today to see Arthur Miller’s All My Sons, which should be fun. Also fun (notice that seamless transition?) are links, books, and blog posts…

1.) The blog post – is from author Tom Lappin. Some of you might remember when I wrote about his novel Parties ages and ages ago – and a very good novel it was too. Anyway, Tom emailed this week to say that he’s writing a blog which is kind of the novel which (in Parties) Beatrice writes about Richard. All very meta, and probably enjoyable too – click here for more.

2.) The link – Legend Press and The Reading Agency have joined forces to give away up to a thousand copies of five novels to reading groups – click here for more. Reading groups are up there with whiskers on kittens (KITTENS!) and brown paper packages tied up with string – i.e., they’re one of my favourite things, and anything done to support them by publishers is fantastic in my eyes. (Hmm… maybe a blog post is brewing there – watch this space.)

3.) The book – is Justine Picardie’s biography of Coco Chanel, called Coco Chanel: The Legend and the Life. I haven’t seen the recent films about her, and don’t know much about the woman – nor do I often read biographies of anyone except authors, but I think I might well make an exception and immerse myself in this one later…

Sorry for the delay in posts recently – for reasons best known to itself, my internet is not working properly in the evenings at the moment. That’s not quite true – occasionally it will make a mammoth effort and load a page, but generally it is so slow that the page times out before anything has appeared on the screen. This only happens in the evenings… which is of course blogging time. The internet is very useful sometimes – I wouldn’t have met you lot without it! – but it does unleash that incomparable rage when things don’t go right. Because I never know how to fix it. I rarely get angry, but computers have caused me more fist-shaking, foot-stomping, voice-raising than anything else. ARGH!

So, at half midnight, it starts working – too late for me to write the review I was planning, but not too late to show you the new addition to my home in Somerset… I’ll soon be visiting little Sherpa, but Our Vicar and Our Vicar’s Wife are welcoming her at the moment – and have sent me a photo or two to be going on with:

A quick post today, as I want to curl up in bed with Wait for Me! As part of the Bloggers’ Meet-Up, a few of us went around the Ashmolean (which, shamefully, I had not been to for almost six years). I headed straight for the paintings, because I’ve got to confess I’m not cultured enough to be all that interested in pots and things… but I do love art galleries.

This is probably my favourite painting on display:

I first encountered Stanley Spencer on the cover of Barbara Comyns’ novel Who Was Changed and Who was Dead (see that image here), and he is now one of my favourite artists. I love the surreal domesticity he paints – similar to the sort of novels I love, in that respect. Since I know so little about art history, or art really, I can’t explain what I love about this image – but I do love it, so thought I’d share it with you!

There were quite a few books that I wanted to buy whilst wandering around Oxford with the bloggers on Saturday (and one which I persuaded Becca to buy for herself, in lieu of me buying it) but I shouldn’t grumble – because there are four which have arrived chez Stuck-in-a-Book in the past week, courtesy of various friends and family – thanks guys!

–First up is Benny & Shrimp by Katarina Mazetti, from Annabel aka Gaskella, who is having a bookcase clear-out. She described it as a ‘bittersweet Swedish romance’, and that sold me – I’ve been wanting to read more Scandinavian novels, and this seems quirky without being disturbing.

–People on a Bridge by Wislawa Szymborska (imagine some sort of slash through the ‘l’, and put on your best Polish accent, pronunciation here) translated by Adam Czeniawski was the book I won in the bloggers’ book swap, from the very nice Peter. He is determined to drag me from my comfort zone, and Polish poetry seems as good a way as any to do that – I am genuinely excited about this one, though!

–The Land of Spices by Kate O’Brien was sent to me by my dear friend Epsie (actual name Esther Phoebe), who knows my partiality for Viragos.

–The Bolter by Frances Osborne was sent by Our Vicar’s Wife herself, who spotted it in the church bookshop coffee thingummy she runs in our garage (under the name ‘Honeypot’) and thought it sounded up my street – I have almost bought it many times in the past, so it just goes to show that, if you blog for long enough, people start to get the hint about your taste (heehee!)

Thank you to everyone who has made Project 24 a little easier – all of these look lovely. When I’ll read them is anyone’s guess… currently slowly, but delightedly, working my way through Wait for Me! by Deborah Devonshire.

Today a few bloggers will be meeting up in Oxford, which should be great fun – not as many as we’d originally hoped, but we shall no doubt have a good, bookish time nonetheless, and will report back in due course. I do hope these Meet-Ups can be semi-regular (maybe every six months) and that as many people as possible can come to future ones! Part of the day includes a little trip around various bookshops and sights in Oxford, so it will strongly test Project 24…

But for now let’s have a quick Weekend Miscellany!

1.) The link – is to a really interesting cardboard book project, mentioned on the blog of an equally interesting magazine. The magazine is called Oh Comely, and was set up by a friend of mine (amongst others) aiming to be a woman’s magazine without the gossip. That’s how she sold it to me, anyway! Click on the link above to see what happens when Jenna Forster had short stories made into individual recycled cardboard books (and I’ve ‘recycled’ the photo from them…)

2.) The blog post – is Hannah Stoneham’s guest post at The Dabbler, with a review of Barbara Comyns’ novel Our Spoons Came From Woolworths. That would be worth reading on its own merits, but it’s part of a series at The Dabbler which is a fantastic idea – 1p book reviews. That is, they have a series of reviews of books which are available for a penny at Amazon.co.uk. I love that idea, and might well borrow it from them in a future post…

3.) The book – I’m not sure how old the book is, but I only heard about it today (and a review copy is winging its way to me.) It’s no secret that I love Frank Baker’s novel Miss Hargreaves, and now Paul Newman has written a biography of Baker called Frank Baker: The Man Who Unleashed The Birds. Copies are available here, and hopefully I’ll be writing about it before too long.

I saw this quite a while ago at Thomas’ blog, and thought it looked fun… Do give it a go yourself!

1. Favourite childhood book?
As a child I read little but Enid Blyton – so it was probably one of the St. Clare’s books. If we look earlier than that, it’ll be one of the Mr. Men books. Still classics…

2. What are you reading right now?
Wait for Me! – Deborah Devonshire
Stories of the Strange and Sinister – Frank Baker
The English – Jeremy Paxman
The Backward Shadow – Lynne Reid Banks
Joy Street – Mirren Barford & Jock Lewis

3. What books do you have on request at the library?
None at the moment….

4. Bad book habit?
Hoarding.

5. What do you currently have checked out at the library?
Loitering with Intent – Muriel Spark
Silent Playgrounds – Danuta Reah
If we’re counting university libraries, then add another 20 or 30 titles to those…

6. Do you have an e-reader?
I don’t, although I had a Sony Reader briefly. They very kindly gave it to me, even when I warned them that I probably wouldn’t like it… well, it was better than I thought it would be, but I still gave it to my brother. Making it probably both the most expensive and cheapest gift I’ve ever given him…

7. Do you prefer to read one book at a time, or several at once?
See my list of current reads! I always have quite a few on the go.

8. Have your reading habits changed since starting a blog?
Definitely – I read more modern literature, and a far wider range of authors. Although I still have my own defined reading tastes, I’m more likely to sample things suggested by all the bloggers I trust.

9. Least favourite book you read this year (so far?)
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, if we’re counting books I gave up on. Of those I finished, I was nonplussed by Turn of the Screw.

10. Favourite book you’ve read this year?
Nella Last’s War. I can’t see it being beaten this year.

11. How often do you read out of your comfort zone?
Quite often, since most of my book group reads and review books will be outside that zone – and they make up at least half my reading, it seems!

12. What is your reading comfort zone?
Literary fiction without violence, I suppose. It used to be a comfort zone of 1930s domesticity, but this has widened to encompass most literary fiction, especially when it comes with palatable dabs of the surreal.

13. Can you read on the bus?
Thankfully yes, but not cars. Especially when I’m driving.

14. Favourite place to read?
Curled up on my bed. Or sitting in a meadow by a river, if the weather is right.

15. What is your policy on book lending?
I am always surprisingly happy to lend books, even posting them around the world – despite loving books as objects as well as their contents, and immediately forgetting when I’ve lent someone a book. I would be incredibly easy to steal from.

16. Do you ever dog-ear books?
Oh, confession time… I did fold down a corner the other day, and felt awful… it was in the talk by F.C. Delius, and I didn’t have a pencil to hand, and wanted to mark a page for review purposes. I feel a little better after confessing, but still awful.

17. Do you ever write in the margins of your books?
I do this increasingly, though only in pencil.

18. Not even with text books?
I don’t think I’ve had a text book since A Level!

19. What is your favourite language to read in?
English. It’s all I’ve got.

20. What makes you love a book?
Oh gosh! To make me really love a book, I would have to love the use of language, the delineation and interaction of characters, and there would have to be some humour in it, even if only momentary. And I’d have to share some vague sort of ethos with the author – or at least not be at loggerheads with them. But then some books will just knock down all my rules and be loved anyway.

21. What will inspire you to recommend a book?
See above! That’s for my blog – I assume my blog readers will be interested in recommendations – in ‘real life’ I am hesitant to recommend books, unless people ask. I wouldn’t ever recommend something to people who say “But, of course, your taste will be too literary” – not because my taste is too literary, but because I know they don’t really want any recommendations.

22. Favourite genre?
I don’t really read specific genres… unless literary fiction is a genre?

23. Genre you rarely read (but wish you did?)
Pop-psychology, oddly enough.

24. Favourite biography?
A. A. Milne: His Life by Ann Thwaite.

25. Have you ever read a self-help book?
No, I think I’m far too English and cynical. Plus I would probably turn to the Bible rather than something dreamed up in the late 90s. (If they do help people, that’s fab – but I do wonder….?)

26. Favourite cookbook?
I almost never use cookbooks, because I’m not a very adventurous cook, but I do love Afternoon Teas, a baking cookbook my parents gave me.

27. Most inspirational book you’ve read this year (fiction or non-fiction)?
We’re going back to Nella Last’s War – such an astonishing book.

28. Favourite reading snack?
Bread and cheese – my favourite food anywhere, anytime.

29. Name a case in which hype ruined your reading experience.
The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery.

30. How often do you agree with critics about a book?
I’ve no idea, because I never read what they say! I rarely read newly published books anyway, and those I do tend to go under the radar of professional critics.

31. How do you feel about giving bad/negative reviews?
I wouldn’t do it for a book an author had sent me, or a small publisher. If it’s by a famous author, or the author is long dead, then I’m happy to be more critical! I figure that James Joyce probably isn’t that bothered by what I think.

32. If you could read in a foreign language, which language would you choose?
Something Scandinavian. (This reminds me, I was reading a theory book the other day, and the author faux-modestly wrote “I’m afraid I can only read works in English, Spanish, French, German, Latin, and Scandinavian, so any other books I have had to read in translation.” Eurgh.)

33. Most intimidating book you’ve ever read?
Ulysses!

34. Most intimidating book you’re too nervous to begin?
Almost anything over 400pp.

35. Favourite Poet?
I don’t really have one – hideously uncultured when it comes to poetry. My favourite poem is ‘The Listeners’ by Walter de la Mare, or Psalm 51.

36. How many books do you usually have checked out of the library at any given time?
From the public library? Rarely more than one, and usually none. So many of my own books to read…

37. How often have you returned book to the library unread?
Since I tend to only take out books I really want, I do end up reading most of ’em.

38. Favourite fictional character?
Do people get bored of me answering Miss Hargreaves (from Miss Hargreaves) for these sorts of questions?

39. Favourite fictional villain?
Hmm… I tend to dislike even the villains we’re supposed to love. Oo, actually I do have one – but if I told you who it was, it would spoil the plot of the novel.

40. Books I’m most likely to bring on holiday?
I don’t really differentiate between holiday-reading and non-holiday-reading, except I use holidays to read exclusively indulgent things (rather than university work or book group choices.)

41. The longest I’ve gone without reading.
When I’m ill, my eyes are the first things to go – so probably when I had flu; about a week. Horrible, horrible.

42. Name a book that you could/would not finish.
We Have to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver. People told me it got better, but the first fifty pages were so badly written and irritating that I could get no further.

43. What distracts you easily when you’re reading?
Does accidentally falling asleep count?

44. Favourite film adaptation of a novel?

That’s easy, as it’s also my favourite film – The Hours.

45. Most disappointing film adaptation?
The 2005 Pride and Prejudice – although not that disappointing, since I had very low expectations.

46. The most money I’ve ever spent in the bookstore at one time?
Erm… £50? Maybe a bit more… in the Bookbarn in Somerset. Not much really, considering that’s what each of my driving lessons cost.

47. How often do you skim a book before reading it?
Where is it that someone says “I’ve done some pretty dreadful things in my time, but I’ve never skipped to the end of a detective novel”?

48. What would cause you to stop reading a book half-way through?
It doesn’t happen very often, but I’d have to be very bored, or repulsed, and just not be able to see any point in continuing.

49. Do you like to keep your books organized?
Yes, but mostly so my parents can find books to send me when I want them!

50. Do you prefer to keep books or give them away once you’ve read them?
I beg your pardon? Keep of course! Sometimes I buy books I’ve borrowed and read, simply so I can own the books I’ve read.

51. Are there any books you’ve been avoiding?
I don’t really understand…?

52. Name a book that made you angry.
I do get annoyed by literary criticism which lazily assumes that you agree with their atheistic viewpoint.

53. A book you didn’t expect to like but did?
Boxer, Beetle by Ned Beauman.

54. A book that you expected to like but didn’t?
Flight of the Falcon by Daphne du Maurier.

55. Favourite guilt-free, pleasure reading?
I don’t think any reading makes me feel guilty… but my pleasure reading, which I will return to time and again and always adore, is The Provincial Lady series by E. M. Delafield.