Girl on a Train. I was in a bookshop recently, and on impulse picked up this 'best seller,' just because I haven't read a contemporary one in a long time. The blurb sounded promising, and so did the first few pages. Just finished it last night. I found it ...meh. A very interesting start, but the plot bogged down after about the first third of the book, and I found the ending melodramatic and disappointing in many ways. Characters behaving inconsistently, far too much hocus pocus time spent misdirecting the reader. An unreliable narrator (who turns out to be reliable after all ...surprise surprise.) I think the author intended a major twist/surprise at the end, but I saw it coming a mile off. It was well-written in many ways, and certainly kept me turning pages, even through the boggy bits. I did get invested in the story, and only once did I consider not finishing it. Her basic premise was intriguing. Imagining other people's lives. We imagine things about other people's lives when we see them from a distance. We might even fantasise about what their perfect lives are like, if they look 'perfect' from an outsider's vantage point. But the reality? It might be quite different. Done well, this theme could have been a cracker, and I do think the author has promise to have come up with it. But I also think she needs to work on developing stronger characters whose behaviour doesn't flip-flop all over the place, just to suit the plot. She also needs to work on developing more distinct character voices. She used three first-person POV characters, and they all sounded pretty much the same. If she hadn't put the name of the POV person at the top of each chapter, I would have assumed it was the same person throughout, and become very confused when the events didn't add up. If it was her intention to make them all sound the same—and it might have been—then she succeeded admirably. I'm just not convinced. This was a depressing experience for me, actually. Why? Because, if this is the kind of writing that gets tons of praise and sells umpteen copies at the moment, I'm really out of step. This is not the kind of book I want to write OR read. It's full of action, etc ...but ultimately seems gimmicky and tabloid-y and left me feeling like I'd just gorged on junk food. Definitely not my thing. The short-term sales gimmicks worked, though, at least this time. I bought the book, didn't I? However, I won't be buying another one from that author. This is an example of the old adage: the first chapter sells your book; the final chapter sells your next one.
I'll probably pick that one up. Like you, I find this kind of thing fascinating. [Edited weeks later: I did pick it up, I did read it, and it WAS fascinating. I loved it. I was especially surprised at what I read about Salman Rushdie, who was the last author I'd expected to actually identify with. But I did. Now I am determined to read his books. I've never tried before, but I will now. ] One in similar vein you will enjoy (definitely will enjoy) is Page Fright: Foibles and Fetishes of Famous Authors, by Harry Bruce. It's easily available on Kindle, although I think paper copies are scarce/expensive. However, I plan to keep an eye out, and if I can get a paper copy I would like to have one.
I just finished a book called The Last Days of Night, by Graham Moore. It's a novel about the War of the Currents, back in the late 19th century, when Thomas Edison was pushing the DC system and George Westinghouse was pushing AC. Lawsuits were flying around like confetti. The author, in his afterword, states that he stays pretty close to the reality of the situation. If so, it was an amazing time full of intrigue and legal maneuvering and huge amounts of money on the line. Heady stuff. Edison, Westinghouse, Nikola Tesla, and others are prominent characters in the book. I recommend it to anyone interested in the subject, or anyone who likes a Gilded Age legal thriller involving, as I said, huge amounts of money. I enjoyed it a lot. Now I'm on to a book called The Book: A Cover-To-Cover Exploration of the Most Powerful Object of Our Time, by Keith Houston. According to the back of the book, it's a history of the actual, printed-on-paper-and-bound book. REAL books, in other words. I expect to be fascinated.
Those are the best craft books. I have one, and I can't think of the title now, that was a collection of essays from various authors about their process and their writing lives. Not in the how-to vein, rather in the "this is what I did" vein.
I'm in between drafts so I've tried to get through as many books as possible and jumping genres and exposing myself to very different stories. In August I read Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy and Dune by Frank Herbert and finally finished The Shadow Rising by Robert Jordan (4th book of the Wheel of Time) which I had been in for a few months and have put down a several times. I am half way through Dusk by Tim Lebbon but have been tempted to also start The Mechanical by Ian Tregillis this weekend. I have book ADD at times haha, I'm also beta reading a member's novel.
Ask the Dust by John Fante. Next up Charles Bukowski's Factotum. Or maybe Hemingway's To Have and Have Not. So much to read, so little time. Although it would help if it didn't take me six months to read a novel.
Deliverance. I'm not sure what to make of it. I loved the beginning, appreciating that it was a slow burner... but then it really did start to drag. I was getting impatient then BAM, the rape scene. I have it on audiobook and it was genuinely hard to listen to. But when I spent like two hours listening to how green the trees are, and then five minutes of something actually happening... hmm. I'm reserving judgement until I finish. I'm glad I can't remember what happened in the film (even though I'm reliably told the book ends differently anyway).
I thought you'd like Deliverance - for writing purposes - the right naff, early sex scene c 1974 - where he wakes wife, 5.30am and she bends over a pillow, sends him on his way, no cup of tea or a cigarette even [before] for her. ... ... I managed one page of Knut Mundsen [or similar] nobel prize winner 1920. Everybody in the Norwegian village gathers to greet the new vicar. A white knuckle thrill/mindbender of a book. Depressed about this book, it is massive, need to lose it or maybe conquer e-bay. Even more depressing I attempted to read 'Quiet Flows The Don' again. Doing okay this time, page 20, the Cossacks are kissing the ladies goodbye - and heading for the war training camp on their horses. Payday, I'll probably buy a 'Best Murderers' compendium, something easy and refreshing, less worthy.
I did like it, because she bent over the pillow. Usually with morning-sex scenes all I can think is "YOU HAVEN'T BRUSHED YOUR TEETH" over and over until it stops. Ditto with any scene involving anal. Fingers in anus, fingers not washed, fingers elsewhere, WASH YOUR FINGERS.
Everytime I see or read a scene that involves morning sex, kissing, etc., all I ever think about is how disgusting that it would be. I'm glad I'm not the only one. I love my wife too much to subject her to my morning breath.
I hadn't thought in terms of rotten, post-war breath. From memory, it was 'bloke's perfect shag' bit o' blowjob, doggy, and then weekend fishing. [hunting, okay]. I thought it was too gymnastic under circumstances - but the new - your more modern appraisal - arse in air, 'get on with it,' man squeal, 'I've finished, baby I love you' is worth further consideration. Harold Robbins always writes about his 'hard.' My hard illuminated the bed sheets.
I'm reading a collection of Fantastic Tales edited by Italo Calvino. I'm no good with what genre is what, but these seem to be the kinds of stories I like best and most want to write. Slightly disheartening that the introduction is all about how very 19th century the fantastic tale is. Am I 200 years too late? Nice to reread a few familiar stories in there too. Gogol's The Nose is a favourite. The impossible being presented as utterly mundane is definitely where it's at for me. (Me: "He's a nose? In what way is he a nose? Is he human-shaped? If he's nose-shaped how does he wear clothes? Do people not at least blink at a giant, independently mobile, sentient nose... if that's what he is? And wasn't the nose baked in a loaf of bread and wrapped in a hanky earlier? But now he passes for a person?" Gogol: "He just *is* a nose, okay? Shut up and read my damned story.") Bought a copy of The Saragossa Manuscript, a chapter of which is featured in the collection. Remember seeing part of the film a few years back and thinking it was pleasantly mad. That's next on the list.
Finished it. Apart from that wobble with the pacing, I really enjoyed it. Was a bit frustrated at the unrealistic depiction of a rape victim (even just on the physical side... sitting down without any signs of pain within a few minutes? Nah.) but the book wasn't really about that, after all. I'd recommend it for the beautiful language alone.
Crime and Punishment. It's the second time I'm reading it, after many many years, and for some reason I'm not enjoying it as much as the first time...
Brian Staveley's The Emperor's Blades. Some pretty solid world-building, especially the monastery where one of the MCs is an acolyte--they follow a very thoughtful, awesomely Buddhist-like theology about self-abnegation but it turns out they started as a caste of warriors fighting some ancient precursor race. Anyway it makes sense when you read it. Honestly I'd rather read a book about all that backstory, rather than the story here, which is pretty standard. The Emperor is murdered and his three kids have to figure out who did it before they get whacked too. It's not bad, and he really does include a lot of nice filigree in the setting, but then I get to a scene where some random prostitute is murdered and I just think "oh here we go, now I have to sit through three or four pages while they figure out that inevitably it's linked to the plot against their family somehow, even though we all saw that coming from a mile away".
Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl by Carrie Brownstein. It's a memoir. The first part is her early life until sometime in college. The second part (which I'm on right now) is when she became a musician, mostly focusing on Sleater-Kinney (how she first became famous). I'm assuming the third part is after S-K broke up and she became an actress.
About a third of the way into 'Rottweiler' by Ruth Rendell. One of her more recent books before she died; bloody brilliant story plot; with much more inclusion of the dysfunctiont complexities of the human brain. One of my favourite authors and this just made me love her work even more
I'm a fan of Gogol myself, although I don't think I've ever read The Nose. I'll have to see if I've got it somewhere. I love his tales of village life and village characters who aren't (or who are) very self-aware. I haven't read him for years, and have forgotten a lot. I should probably re-read him soon. The fact that you're still reading and enjoying tales from the 19th century means they still touch people. No, they're probably not leading mainstream taste just now, but if minor niches can't be accomodated in books, we're all the poorer for it. Personally, I needed a break from reading manuscripts, and picked up Joe Abercrombie's First Law trilogy for a re-read. I've finished The Blade Itself and am about a third of the way through the second book, Before They Are Hanged—and I'm loving this trilogy even more than the first time I read it. Now that I 'know' what happens, I can enjoy the buildup and admire his skill. He foreshadows— but just enough so there's a click of recognition when it all comes together (with a twist, of course.) But you certainly can't see things coming a mile off. THAT is a skill. And of course I love his humour. The First Law warps Fantasy reader expectations to a delicious degree.
I'm reading Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Grey, Holly Black's The Darkest Part of the Forest, Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey, and Jonathan Stroud's The Amulet of Samarkand. I've read all myriads of times before, but I really love & admire them. I think Holly Black is the only writer here whom I like most for her stories themselves & less for her style. There is absolutely nothing wrong with her style, but you might notice the trend of my preferring satires & works with snarky narrations or dialogues.
