Friday 16 January 2009

Is it January or is it me?

I think it's January - my least favourite month of the year. The bookshops are full of I Can Make You Thin/Rich/Mindful/Superhuman titles and it's not getting dark quite so early in the afternoons ... but to me, it's still the armpit of the year, with a deep, dark anniversary looming up next week - and I can't wait to get it over with, shake off sluggishness and negativity.

Such was my malaise (and my preoccupation with students and January exams) I couldn't summon up enough energy to blog last week, for which I apologise. It's not that I don't have things to say - it's that I have so much I want to say that the prospect of typing it all up gives me a fit of the vapours. Blogging by Vulcan mind-meld would help.

I also did myself no favours by reading yet another 'failed writer who once had promise is jealous of smug succesful one' type novel, which was full of bitter satire both funny and painful. The book was 'The Secret Life of E. Robert Pendleton' by Michael Collins. I enjoyed it but didn't fall in love with it, though it was very good on the campus-satire front, very thoughtful and articulate, and segued rather unusually into a 'cop investigates secret crime' novel. Pendleton, college professor who once was a shining literary light, has watched his potential ooze into the dirt and has prostituted his promise, selling out for safe tenure at a minor North American college, doomed to grade the papers of aggressively mediocre students. He decides this state of affairs really won't do, especially when he has to host a reading given by his greatest rival, who is rolling in cash, kudos and ego. Unfortunately, Pendleton can't even commit suicide effectively. The novel's focus shifts to Pendleton's female disciple, who because of his virtually vegetable state, has found, at last, a suitable role as keeper of the flame. She discovers a book nobody knew he'd produced, depicting a murder - and that the murder described is identical to a real local murder at the time the book was written. Did art imitate life? Did Pendleton do the deed? Enter a cold-case cop who is driven to find out. The switches of point of view sometimes made it hard to be involved - there was a kind of dislike of all the sad characters that made one not care too much. The cop had the usual maverick/loner problems, heigh ho. However, there were twists and the whole thing was well thought through - just not ideal reading for failed novelists/cops with emotional baggage/teachers who've long since lost any Mr Chips idealism.

My favourite book so far this year is 'I, Coriander' by Sally Gardner. I loved it. Exquisitely written, it's a children's book but don't let that stop you. It's set at the time of the English Civil War and it involves magic - but don't groan. It's not twee. It portrays the alien danger of 'glamour' and draws on traditional fairy tale ideas - the crossover of the fairy and mortal realms, the contraction of time in the fairy kingdom, magical shoes, a shadow that is a soul, a prince transformed - and a resourceful and utterly convincing heroine. Squalor, beauty, enchantment, threat. I enjoyed it so much more than when I laboured through the colossal 'Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell' by Susanna Clarke, a couple of years ago. I wanted so much to admire that book and there was indeed a lot to admire, not least Clarke's marvellous ability to pastiche the style of early nineteenth century. But all along I kept thinking -'What is this story for?' 'When will it really get going?' - and I felt I'd been sold short at the end, in spite of its detail and length. Somehow Sally Gardner does so much more in a fraction of the space. I look forward to reading her novel set at the time of the French Revolution, called, I believe, The Red Necklace.

Looking back at last year's reading, embarrassingly but not unusually, my book purchases came to around double the number of books I actually read. (I'm betting I'm not alone in this ...). My reads of the year were Julia Blackburn's 'The Emperor's Last Island', Simon Gray's 'The Smoking Diaries', Michelle Paver's 'Oath Breaker'. Simon Armitage's translation of 'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight', Dominic Hibberd's biography of Wilfred Owen, Judith O'Reilly's wonderful 'Wife in the North' and C.J Sansom's 'Sovereign'. Disappointments of the year were: Minette Walter's 'The Shape of Snakes' (just could not find anything to believe in there), Michael Chabon's 'Wonder Boys' (I wanted to hit the protagonist. Hard. Frequently.) Manda Scott's 'The Crystal Skull' (failed by a long way to live up to what I thought it could have been) and Joseph O'Connor's 'Redemption Falls' (too much of too much, written in a too-much style).

Right, that's the bitchy bit over. Sad news at the start of the year - the closure of the crime-specialist Murder One bookshop in London. The owner was going to retire anyway but couldn't find a buyer in these parlous times. Good news - that Terry Pratchett has been knighted. I have to confess I've never read any of his books but I enjoy seeing him interviewed and I think he deserves the honour for his campaigning about Alzheimer's. He's drawn attention, in his inimitably bolshie way to the iniquities of funding (lack of) for both treatment of dementia and research into causes and cures.

Last year on Amazon.com, the highest selling book was J.K. Rowling's 'Beedle the Bard'. The biggest writer in the US is Stephanie Meyer, who's written the teen-vampire romances 'Twilight' and so on. The highest selling DVD on Play.com and Amazon was, apparently, 'Mamma Mia'. And the best-selling electronic gizmo on Amazon.com was the Kindle, their e-reader. Even though it's hideous and tacky. I will say no more.

Now, I didn't blog last week, but I think I've made up for it now, don't you?

4 comments:

Lane Mathias said...

I'll be glad to see the back of these long dark days too. They certainly have a negative effect on the psyche. Roll on March.

I'm sure I bought far more books than I read last year. In fact I know I did because there's still a huge teetering pile to read. But I do like being well stocked. Having said that, I fancy reading a good, edge of your seat thriller. Any recommendations?

Hope your sad anniversary passes in the least painful way possible. Those days are tough so thinking of you.

Lorna F said...

Thanks, Lane. Recommendations for thrillers? Hmn ... Why is it whenever I'm asked for recommendations or favourite this or that, my mind immediately goes blank? It depends what kind of stuff you like - I'm scanning my overloaded bookshelves, but if I've read anything good my dear sister tends to make off with it and I never see it again! Kate Atkinson's One Good Turn is excellent - I'm looking forward to reading her new one, When Will There Be Good News? If you can stand gore, then Tess Gerritsen's The Surgeon is good, and you're a woman reader (as you are!) it will especially give you the shudders. Also Mo Hayder's Tokyo - she is a writer, though, who demands her readers have strong stomachs. I like good, pacy detective stories - for example, Richard Montanari's Rosary Girls, and books by the mother and daughter team, P.J. Tracy: they're really good on dialogue and the opening of Dead Run really takes some beating. Thomas Harris' first Hannibal Lecter novel, Red Dragon, is brilliant. I have been a sucker for conspiracy 'Code' type books but am now rather weary of them. Hate The Da Vinci Code - so badly written. However, there's an interesting one by Michael Cordy called The Messiah Code. For a lighter touch there's Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum novels. And as a regular reader of my blog I like historical thrillers, my current favourite being C.J. Sansom. I do have to say I find it harder and harder to find pacy, original reads - the sort of book that will keep me reading till 5 a.m., that will take me by surprise, that will leave an impression for longer than half an hour. Maybe that's because I'm a world-weary seen-it, read-it old bat. You could of course, try an under-appreciated novel called The Chase (!) - somebody did actually tell me they'd sat up till five a.m. to finish it and it was possibly the best compliment I as a writer have ever received!

Lane Mathias said...

Gosh Lorna - thanks for all these recommendations. I know exactly what you mean when someone asks something like this and you go blank (well I do anyway:-) Thanks for taking the time. I just felt like reading something out of my usual genres. As it happens I have Rosary Girls sitting here unread so I'll start with that.

And I'll definitely be 'chasing' up a copy of The Chase!

Hope you got through the week ok and have a lovely weekend:-)

Lorna F said...

You're very welcome, Lane. And if you have trouble sourcing The Chase, just let me know!