Books this Summer
Friday 20th September 2013
Recently I have been listening to some new audio books, notably ‘A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters’ by Julian Barnes:
This is really a collection of tenuously connected short stories – some quite long, in fact. Each one re-tells some aspect of either global history (or myth, depending on your point of view); or illuminates a facet of human nature and behaviour.
It was narrated by Alex Jennings, whose voice is mesmeric and soothing; alive and varied.
I enjoyed this book in a steady, gentle way, the way one does with short stories far more than with a novel, whose pace and unfolding drives you on.
I have also caved in to the Cloud Atlas (David Mitchell) pressure and listened to this last week. It’s a long audio book (I only ever buy the complete works anyway) and at first I thought I had made a mistake because there are about five narrators. For me, an integral element of an audio book is the reader. A bad reader can – and has – ruined a book for me. A good reader can add so much value. I like the very different narrators in Cloud Atlas. You cannot compare them as they are so very apart from one another, reflective of the very different sections of the book. If you like a book to have the conventional parts: beginning, middle, end – then I think Cloud Atlas may not be for you as it in fact, like the Julian Barnes, above, a series of short stories, but with slightly better linkage than the JB. The stories are also often very long indeed – novellas, really. It is not just that there are very different readers, the stories are very different in style too, giving the feeling of a collection of authors. One uniting factor is the quality of the writing which is superb.
However, I did not understand the ending of Cloud Atlas at all and I resent books that make me feel I need to Google the plot in order to ‘get’ it.
One of the best listens I have had this summer – in fact for many years – was A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving, probably best known for The World According to Garp.
This book is very long indeed. I have a kind of rule about my audio books relating to length. The longer the better and any under 15 hours have to be really compelling for me to consider spending a credit on them. This one is huge. It is so odd and so compelling, that I can’t think how to convey its many charms and quirks to you. As the life-times of the two main characters, boyhood friends as they are at the start, play out, the oddness of the book’s central premise – the existance of God, basically – just doesn’t seem so odd any more. There are tragic elements, none of which is milked for pathos or to jerk the reader’s emotions about in a crass and obvious way. There are many examples of light-touch humour, black humour and even slap-stick comedy. It is so rare for me to laugh when reading (or listening) but I did laugh several times in this happy few days – maybe I made it last a week, I can’t remember. But even after so many hours with them, I was bereft when it was over. Just get it, or read it – though the narration of this on Audible is simply stunningly good – and if you do, go with it for the first hour or two. I am sure you won’t regret it.
I read another Julian Barnes, The Sense of an Ending:
Very short, more of a long short story really. Beautiful writing captivating the eras it spans, and yet…I didn’t care in the least about any of the characters by the end. In fact, I was quite bored and glad it was over. I had no sense of an ending, either.
In other real reading, I have just read two Ann Patchett books. Her first, The Patron Saint of Liars:
I have now read three books by AP and I intend to read everything she has written. This first novel is actually amazing. It’s so assured and paced – and very confident. The narrative is shared between three ‘voices’ beginning with the central character, Rose. As it moves on, it also moves through time and we span several decades. What intrigues – and irritates – is that we never really know Rose. Therefore we have no idea of what it is that really compels her to behave as she does. She behaves disgracefully and inflicts incredibly painful life sentences of actual or border-line misery on all those who should be closest to her. She really appears only to love two people, neither of whom is a family member.
Rose is not a monster in the conventional sense of a fictional ‘baddy’, in fact she is partly conveyed as a good woman. No-one gets murdered by her; she doesn’t steal fortunes – though she does in a sense steal important parts of family life from all her closest relations, who love her very much. Rose just casually cuts up hearts and slashes away at love in a way that there is no explanation for. No dark source for this pattern is revealed. We know her early life to be happy, blessed. She herself is widely loved, beautiful and indulged. Throughout, despite her inexplicable and daunting life choices, she carelessly falls into a fortunate place with kind, loving people. And then she quite absent-mindedly abuses them with her disdain and complete self-absorption. Which is why it slowly dawned on me that I really hated her.
There is a loose theme of water – of springs rising, remaining for some time, and then vanishing – and I felt that she was like a spring that comes, stays and then for no apparent reason, vanishes, maybe to resurge elsewhere. But that we do not know. In the case of people, there really does need to be a reason, unless the reason is that Rose, like a spring, has no self-control and simply is. The story is relatively mild yet it deals with all the Big Issues in this life. For much of the novel, AP conveys a sense of long days, similar in their pattern and flow, bordering on boredom though the book never bores. I was driven to read it for hours – late hours that I can’t really spare at my great age. What interests and impresses me most of all is how the author managed to make me want to go on and on reading, despite a growing dislike for Rose, who, by the end, I thoroughly despised.
Then I plunged right into another Ann Patchett, Bel Canto:
So different to The Patron Saint of Liars (and indeed to The Magician’s Assistant, which I read some years ago), it is hard to credit that it is the same author. It is set in a fictional hostage-siege in a fictional South American country. Almost all the book’s activity takes place in this Vice-Presidential Mansion, as the siege drags on for weeks and months. It’s a violent premise and yet the book is largely – though not entirely – gentle and observational. The writing shines.
Next on Audible, to see me through autumn and up to Christmas I have: another John Irving, A Son of the Circus; The Perfume Collector by Kathleen Tessaro; Can You Forgive Her? and Phineas Finn by Anthony Trollope; and David Copperfield, which will be my third Charles Dickens.
I do like to hear what you’re reading, so thank you for posting this! I just don’t seem to be able to find a book that I can really get into at the moment, so I will check some of these out. Xxx
The Owen Meany book really was good but it’s odd, slow and very long. Bel Canto was very good, quick and very original XXX
Can I repeat a previous comment – thank you for posting this!
I have been struggling to decide what to buy with my next credit on Audible, so I will check out your suggestions. I listen to books on my drive to work – I feel I then make valuable use of otherwise dead time!
same Gill, esp when knitting. Can’t watch a screen, can’t read, get bored of Radio 4 (*clutches pearls* *swoons* But yes! after a whole day of Radio 4 you meet yourself coming back).
The audible books were the Hist of World in 10 & 1/2 chapters; Cloud Atlas; and Owen Meany. Latter by far the best.
Foot note: am 50% through listening A Son of the Circus also by JI. Nothing like as good as Owen Meany. Actually quite bored at this point. It’s got another half-day to get me interested or I’m having a refund. Don’t buy it.
Thanks for the recommendations. I haven’t tried listening to books while knitting, I will have to give it a go!