Welcome to this week’s blogpost. Here’s our roundup of your comments and photos from the last week.
First, storm46 expresses “grateful thanks” to everyone on Tips, links and suggestions who recommended Leonard and Hungry Paul by Ronan Hession:
Personally, I would make it available on the NHS as a prescription for depression. In these extraordinary times of pandemic, creeping authoritarianism and governmental corruption, this book works as a much needed corrective to nastiness ... I loved, loved, loved the quirky humour and unusual metaphors… The whole book is written with heart, humanity and a celebration of kindness. Thanks again TLSers for this one.
BrendaTwisse has enjoyed neither Barbara Cartland nor Isabel Allende:
Many of my literary chums are disparaging of Cartland, but rarely admit to having read one, so I thought I’d give her a try. I chose Mission to Monte Carlo, mostly for the excellent author’s note at the beginning which says: “Countless novels, plays and thrillers have been written about Monte Carlo but there is no other place in the whole world which is synonymous with Kings and Princes, Grand Dukes, tricksters, cocottes, cocaine, systems and suicides.” The rest of the book, in my humble opinion, is rubbish in writing style, characterisation, plot and dialogue. It’s a parody of itself and often hilarious. I laughed out loud when one character said: “Now don’t worry your pretty head.”
A Long Petal of the Sea was my first Allende, and the story, more of a saga really, is one of romance and exile over about 60 years. Unfortunately, the writing style was very reminiscent of Cartland, to the extent that I longed to finish the book, not because I wanted to find out what happened, but because I wanted to move on to something that would delight me with its use of language.
A touching alternative view on Cartland comes from philipphilip99:
As a young man, I was quite involved in the Labour party, and during one election went to support an MP in the Valleys. There was a shop there that was piled high with very well-read romance novels, including titles by Cartland, and it was in effect a lending library - people buying 10 books at a time and then a few weeks later selling them back for slightly less than they’d paid for them. I said to the woman who ran the shop that it was a fairly precarious business model, and then got put in my place. It wasn’t a business, it was a community service ensuring that women living in very remote, impoverished and often less than happy places had at least one avenue of escapism.
The Merchant of Prato by Iris Origo has delighted alanaincanada:
Nonfiction account of textile merchant Francesco di Marco Datini in 14th century Italy and France. The middle ages, my favourite period in history, brilliantly brought to life by Origo. Full of detail of church life, family life and business life. So different in some ways and yet so similar to modern times.
Gould’s Book of Fish by Richard Flanagan is a “gorgeous novel” says SydneyH:
A Vandemonian convict paints watercolours of local marine life, from within his partly submerged cell. Each chapter is named for an aquatic specimen, such as the Pot-Bellied Seahorse, the Porcupine Fish, the Silver Dory, and the Weedy Seadragon. As I understand it, there is a real Sketchbook of Fishes held in the State Library of Tasmania, but Flanagan embellished freely with the artist’s life. Highly recommended.
ChronicExpat is reading Paul Scott’s The Jewel in the Crown:
And enjoying it very much, even though it’s not the paciest novel I’ve ever read. Part of that perception may be down to my having watched the wonderful 1984 Granada Television adaptation more than a few times down through the years, and so knowing pretty much ‘what happens next’. But in spite of the reduced suspense, Scott’s descriptions are evocative and his insights into British racism and classism quietly devastating.
Ben Jonson’s “great play” The Alchemist is entertaining interwar:
Close to finishing Calum McCann’s Let the Great World Spin, I found myself thinking about the situation faced by our theatres during these troubled times - and then suddenly knew I had to reread Ben Jonson’s “great play”, The Alchemist. This comedy about a clever group of lowlifes taking over a London house temporarily deserted because of the plague itself had to open outside London in 1610 - because of a plague outbreak!
Just reading the short introductory biography in the New Mermaid edition made me smile and shake my head in wonder: what trouble didn’t Jonson court and then somehow wiggle out of, save for a branded thumb or property confiscation? Imprisoned for treason because he’d made fun of the Scots, he then rose to be James I’s favourite court writer. He knew and worked with Shakespeare, and seems to have been the first writer to have given interviews for publication. What’s not to love?
Magrat123 has just finished Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell:
It’s quite wonderful. There’s very little on the record about the death at the age of 11 of Shakespeare’s only son, so O’Farrell is free to improvise with lyrical descriptions of the natural world, evocative portrayal of family dynamics, and some of the best non-cringeworthy sex scenes I’ve ever come across.
Finally, annegeraldine recommends a classic by Edith Wharton:
I’m nearing the end of The House of Mirth. It’s so good. But oh man Lily Bart is breaking my heart.
There’s more of the good stuff to come on the Reading Group this month too, where we’ll be reading Wharton’s The Age of Innocence. Join us from Tuesday!
Interesting links about books and reading
Ron Charles’ Totally Hip Video Book Review is 10 years old and it’s not possible to thank him enough.
US critics love Dev Patel’s David Copperfield. (Full disclosure: I do too.)
Painful trends in book cover art.
In 1961, Richard G Stern reviewed Joseph Heller’s satirical war novel “Catch-22” for The New York Times, calling it “an emotional hodge-podge.” Critics!
If you’re on Instagram, now you can share your reads with us: simply tag your posts with the hashtag #GuardianBooks, and we’ll include a selection in this blog. Happy reading!
