Books

[Pouzar99]

Hey Murf I read a 20th Century novel. Just finished D. H. Lawrence's brilliant The Rainbow. A magnificent attempt to express the inexpressible. No one else but Lawrence could portray so effectively the sense of transcendence, the deep belief that there is something greater and deeper than our surface lives, which you can term religious if you like, even though it doesn't necessarily reflect a belief in a personal God, or rule it out either.
The story of Ursula Brangwen's struggle to know herself and to follow the vision of something mysterious and beautiful she sees in nature and feels deep in her soul but has difficulty articulating, is wonderfully told. I found her struggle with the lure of a conventional life and the siren call of a greater, higher fulfillment very powerful and look forward to carrying on with her story, and her sister's, in Lawrence's Women in Love, after my last exam, Dec. 17th.

[Knulpuk]

Just finished reading "Arthur and George" by Julian Sands. The Arthur in the title refers to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and it's a semi-fictitious but well-researched story based on real events. Essentially a character study of the two men in the title, it also contains elements of a crime mystery, a love story and a battle against a travesty of justice. Without giving too much away, fans of Sherlock Holmes will particularly enjoy the third quarter of the book! all in all, an engrossing and enjoyable read.

That's funny, I've just finished reading the same book! Very good summary, this is a really good read.

Read this recently too - enjoyed - but I think it was by Julian Barnes rather than Sands.

I am currently launching in Johnathan Frantzen - the Corrections - also good.

[Spencer4]

Just finished 'The Last Werewolf' by Glen Duncan which is great bloody fun, and before that '2666' by Roberto Bolaño which is 900 pages long and not so much fun.

[murf]

Pouzar, that's still ancient! Maybe something from the sixties next? Build you up slowly!

[tommymooney]

why has Pouzar got a new login? Or is that something I should know!

[Knulpuk]

why has Pouzar got a new login? Or is that something I should know!

No sinister back story I think he just mislaid his details.

[golden bear]

Just read The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. Thought it was excellent.

[Billy Whiz]

Just finished reading "Arthur and George" by Julian Sands. The Arthur in the title refers to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and it's a semi-fictitious but well-researched story based on real events. Essentially a character study of the two men in the title, it also contains elements of a crime mystery, a love story and a battle against a travesty of justice. Without giving too much away, fans of Sherlock Holmes will particularly enjoy the third quarter of the book! all in all, an engrossing and enjoyable read.

That's funny, I've just finished reading the same book! Very good summary, this is a really good read.

Read this recently too - enjoyed - but I think it was by Julian Barnes rather than Sands..

I've been reading it too, but I think it was called The Sense of an Ending, not Arthur and George

+1 to The Kite Runner

[Surprised]

Just read The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. Thought it was excellent.

That the one based in Afghanistan?

It was a great book

[Pouzar99]

Tommymooney - Knulpuk is right. It was a sign-in fiasco, so I improvised. It was not a trick to fool Ironfist or something. Beware. I am now Pouzar X 99!!
Cheers

[workie-ticket]

Read this recently too - enjoyed - but I think it was by Julian Barnes rather than Sands.

d'oh!

Yes, quite right. Julian Sands was killed by a spider in "Arachnophobia". I'm sure you'll understand my confusion!

currently reading Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad...

[fancy dan]

currently reading Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad...

Isn't that by Kingsley Amis?

[workie-ticket]

currently reading Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad...

Isn't that by Kingsley Amis?

ah yes! sorry!

currently reading Kingsley Amis by Joseph Conrad.

[Pouzar99]

My school year is over and now it is time to dive into the books and films I have not had the time to read. I am a quarter of the way through Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, which I read as a young man without enough experience of life and understanding of human nature to fully appreciate its greatness.
I hope to read both Lawrence's Sons and Lovers, and Women in Love, George Eliot's Felix Holt, The Radical, and re-read Doesteovsky's The Brothers Karamazov. That should keep me busy for a while. These are books you read slowly and thoughtfully.

[fancy dan]

Come off it Pouzar, we know you're really reading The Da Vinci Code and Bravo Two Zero...

[blahblah]

I hope to read both Lawrence's Sons and Lovers, and Women in Love,

Try his The Rainbow, and listen to Hazel O'Connor's Sons and Lovers

[Pouzar99]

I did The Rainbow in a class a few months go (see above post). That is why I want to read more Lawrence!

[blahblah]

You may be disappointed. I read them a while ago and The Rainbow was the best, from my old and rusty memory...

Have you read Orwell's Homage to Catalonia?

[Pouzar99]

Not yet. I just keep re-reading 1984. So many books and films, so little time.

[blahblah]

I prefer it to 1984, and at worst is a very readable account of the Anti-Fascist side of the Spanish War.

[unc.si.]

I prefer it to 1984, and at worst is a very readable account of the Anti-Fascist side of the Spanish War.

Have you read For Whom the Bell tolls Blah, on the same theme

[Billy Whiz]

Talking of DH Lawrence, I did Sons and Lovers at A-level, and loved it. It was one of the reasons I decided to read English Literature at uni. This was in the early 1970s, when Lawrence was very fashionable (a working knowledge of Lawrence's novels was enough to get a girl into bed in those days ). Since then, he's become very unfashionable, partly because politically he was a loose cannon - he's been accused of racism and having fascist sympathes, for example.

[unc.si.]

Talking of DH Lawrence, I did Sons and Lovers at A-level, and loved it. It was one of the reasons I decided to read English Literature at uni. This was in the early 1970s, when Lawrence was very fashionable (a working knowledge of Lawrence's novels was enough to get a girl into bed in those days ). Since then, he's become very unfashionable, partly because politically he was a loose cannon - he's been accused of racism and having fascist sympathes, for example.

Born just down the road from where I'm sat now in Eastwood.

There's a museum. Never been there - you never visit the places on your doorstep...

I've never been to Nottingham Castle either, despite working about 400m from it. I've been to the pub opposite it though

[blahblah]

I prefer it to 1984, and at worst is a very readable account of the Anti-Fascist side of the Spanish War.

Have you read For Whom the Bell tolls Blah, on the same theme

No, for some reason I struggle to get into Hemmingway; same with Sartre, Kafka, Hesse et al.

[Pouzar99]

Blah Blah - The best introduction to Hemingway is the short story, Big Two-Hearted River, which you can surely find and download on the internet. Carefully read it provides the entire Hemingway ethos in capsule form and it is very well written. It is the story of a young man damaged by WW1 who comes back to an old fishing hole searching for something pure and healing, in his case trout fishing.
As Unc mentions, For Whom the Bell Tolls is a good novel set on the Republican side of the Spanish Civil War. There is a great chapter in it I still remember well after 40 years about a commander named El Sordo, trapped on a mountaintop fighting bravely and honourably to his inevitable end, a statement of Hemingway's view of the correct response to the human condition and the inevitability of death.
There is also A Farewell to Arms of course. In general I think his short stories are better than his novels, so I would start there, if you are interested.

[murf]

Any reason you didn't mention The Old Man and the Sea?

Probably his most critically rated book (?) but I didn't think it was as good as Farewell to Arms or For Whom The Bell Tolls. It did nothing for me.

[murf]

Have never even heard of Big Two Hearted River but I have read a collection of his short stories so maybe I have and forgot it???. I've never been one for short stories, probably because you don't live with them for long.

[Malrom]

Any reason you didn't mention The Old Man and the Sea?

Probably his most critically rated book (?) but I didn't think it was as good as Farewell to Arms or For Whom The Bell Tolls. It did nothing for me.

The Old Man and the Sea is the most boring book I've ever read, better, I was forced to read.

[Pouzar99]

The Old Man and the Sea is another of Hemmingway's allegories about man's existential struggle for meaning and dignity in an indifferent world. Like El Sordo on the hilltop, the old man's refusal to give up on bringing in the impossibly huge fish he has landed in his tiny boat is the noble and honourable response to the limitations of life and the certainty of death.
If you Google Big Two Hearted River you are immediately offered the text, which is relatively short, but a true gem. It is the best of the excellent Nick Adams stories. Hemmingway is not a literary giant but his best work is well worth reading.
Having slowly re-read and savoured Anna Karenina, surely one of the greatest of all novels, I have switched gears and styles to Dickens' Great Expectations.
For Murf I note that while I think the 19th and early 20th Centuries are the golden era of the novel, I do also read more contemporary novelists like Coetzee, Frantzen and Toni Morrison, although my favourite contemporary fiction writer is the incredible Alice Munro, whose collections of short stories I never tire of reading and re-reading. The only reason Munro has never won the Noble Prize is because some fools look down on short stories.

[Pouzar99]

I quite enjoyed Great Expectations, one of Dickens' better novels in my opinion. As always with this author there is a keen appreciation of the impact and injustice inherent in a class system, as well as Pip's growing understanding of what really matters in life. Dickens is certainly a very important 19th Century novelist IMHO. I like his work but I wonder how many of the people who criticize films and TV shows for not being 'realistic' can stand his novels as the impossible coincidences in them are very far from bring realistic. Of course the same criticism could be applied to Shakespeare who repeatedly uses similar devices. The key is that the overall portrayal of the characters and their interactions ring true to us, even if the circumstances surrounding them are highly implausible.

After two novels it is time for a switch. Next up is Jeremy Scahill's new book, Dirty Wars; the World is a Battlefield. Scahill, who writes for The Nation, is in my opinion probably the most important investigative journalist in the world today, especially in his field, which is essentially covering the so-called War on Terror, or more appropriately the war against anyone who resists American hegemony. His work on exposing Blackwater, the company whose ruthless and lawless private soldiers worked for the US in Iraq and under a new name in Afghanistan was stellar, as has been his exposure of CIA control of a prison in Mogadishu to which Al Qaeda prisoners are still being renditioned long after Obama declared the US doesn't do that anymore. This book apparently exposes the actual activities of the largely secret US special forces group, JSOC, which is a throwback to the notorious CIA Phoenix Program during the Vietnam War, which essentially terrorized, tortured and murdered Vietnamese civilians suspected of supporting the Viet Cong or of criticizing American policy, itself a throwback to the behaviour of tactical squads of soldiers who tortured and murdered Filipino rebels and civilians who resisted the idea of the US colonizing them after they finally got rid of the Spanish at the turn of the century.