Poppit Sands July 2011

Mwnt July 2011

Bringing some floral heat to the streets of HR1

The back garden is looking pretty good these days. Out steps the intrepid amateur snapper..

Shazam

Did you see the Rupert Murdoch apology in the paper today?

I agree with this response.

Submarine by Joe Dunthorne

The final book of the three. Similar to Black Swan Green. Its about a lad growing up in Swansea. Parents having marital problems. Kid is unusually mature in his intellect and command of language. Coming of age story. Things end reasonably positively. I found it quite hard to sympathise with the main character. I think the incident with the seven year old and the warmer/colder game is a tricky one to get past. It seems to me that the hype and publicity around the book (and the trailers i've seen for the film that has been made) don't really give you a sense of what the book is really like. Nick Hornby this is not. Not a great deal of 'everyman' crossover potential. I struggled with the sociopath bits colliding with the humorous bits. Seems like its written by a cynical adult who is trying to write the lad as how he would have liked to have been himself, knowing what he now does rather than someone more naive. A quick page turner though, and that's got to mean it must have a lot going for it. So. 7 out of 10?

[How's this text justifying working for you Al? (and what did you make of the book?)]

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Now, have you ever bought the Guardian on Saturday? I always get to the Review section and get all hopeful that its going to have stuff about music, TV and film in it and feel let down that its only got long winded reviews of books. And not any old books. Proper books. You know, not Stieg Larson, Dan Brown page turners but actual proper books. This, reader (singular not plural, I've checked the stats), is just that sort of book. It kind of reminded me of when I tried to get through Oscar and Lucinda by, I think, Peter Carey. Its really well written, really an evocative type of book but it kind of feels a little bit like hard work. Like eating muesli, you know it is somehow good for you and you may even feel better for it at the end, but the actual process of getting through it can require persistence. Its about these kids who are at a boarding school and as they grow up and leave the school it becomes clear there is a wider picture that they are involved in. It is about genetic engineering (SPOILER). The narrator repeatedly tells you of little things that seem minor but HAD A MAJOR EFFECT- i.e. a friend of the [female] narrator looks at her in an odd way AND FROM THEN ON SHE KNEW THEY WOULD NEVER BE THE SAME AGAIN. It overplays this trick a little bit. The thing I like about it is that throughout the book it hints at what the wider story is about and then right at the end it confirms it, i.e. there is no sudden twist but the way the truth is revealed leaves you shocked nonetheless. I think that the author is also making a point about people in general (i.e. not just genetically engineered ones)- the question arises in the reader's mind - Why don't they run away? Why don't they escape from their predetermined destiny? And I think the actual question should be 'Why don't we?' -[ahhhh, clever]. I may have got this totally wrong.

Anyway so it's by the same guy who wrote Remains of the Day (the film of which was the one with Anthony Hopkins as the butler), so expect lots of moody long shots of people thinking things but not saying them (only in a book not a film).

One thing I would say is, be sure to read the first chapter again after you finish it. Makes more sense. 7 out of 10. Good work, Kazuo. Big up respect for your arty writing chops.

Black Swan Green by David Mitchell

This book is a really good read (see what i mean about low standards in English Literature?). It is written from the point of view of a lad growing up in a village near the Malverns (so kind of interesting as that's near to where I now live). It's similar to 'Submarine' , one of the other books I read (marital problems of parents a big similarity). But whereas it is quite hard to sympathise with the main character in Submarine, it is easier to get into the point of view of the narrator. It has an interesting type of nostalgia about it. It really plays up certain things that are very characteristic of the 1980s (music, film etc), almost like a photo editing software that adds effects to make photos look old. I think this is a clever trick from the author. It takes a while to get used to  this style but by about half way in it really adds to the enjoyment of the book. It also has some top notch simile/metaphor type shenanigans going on- one goes something like "a cow of a pregnant pause began to moo". They're quite ambitious and some might say pretentious but as per the nostalgia thing, once you get into the story, they really work.. Of the three books this is the one I'd recommend the most. 8 out of 10. Will definitely read more from this chap.

This month i are been mostly reading...

I was always rubbish at English at school. Could never get the hang of writing down what it was that I was thinking at the same speed that I was thinking it. Anyway, I have been reading these three books recently. All are quite similar (they're all about childhood) so I thought I'd have another stab at one of those review/comparison type things that I could never get the hand of. First up- David Mitchell...in a bit....

The last ever NOTW...

Charlie Brooker's reaction to it.