About to start Flann O'Brien, The Third Policeman. I'm blessed with total non-recall so I'll start rereading with interest.
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It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world. -
Improvisation: Its Nature and Practice by Derek Bailey arrived today.Comment
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After a promising start on Indian music and flamenco I was disappointed by Bailey's sardonic, sweeping comments on both western classical music and jazz.Originally posted by Joseph K View Post
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Inside U.S.A. by John Gunther.
Pub. originally in 1947 and written in a way that immediately places it as from another journalistic age where candour, opinion as well as unimpeachable honesty were bedfellows. Its a book for anyone trying to understand the extraordinary USA a little better.Comment
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I'm not actually reading any fiction book seriously right now, but I'm curious about some books by Jonathan Coe. Yesterday we watched a performance of What a Carve Up - which had been recommended somewhere. Didn't make much sense to us at all, but I looked up reviews of the books, and some people recommended them highly. I found some excerpts of a few of the books, and they did look as though they would make much better reading than the theatrical performance, which seemed to be tending towards incoherence, would suggest.
Some of the books by Coe which might (perhaps?) be worth reading are:
Middle England
Rotters Club
What a carve up
The Winshaw Legacy (which may be the same as the above)
I suppose I could order a copy of one or more of these from the local library, which I think may now have reopened.
If anyone really recommends any of these I may try, but conversely if anyone gives them a thumbs down I'll save the effort.Comment
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I've read and enjoyed most of Jonathan Coe's books. The Rotters' Club, The Closed Circle and Middle England form a trilogy and are therefore best read in that order.Originally posted by Dave2002 View PostComment
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Marley was dead, to begin with.Comment
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Already?Originally posted by Padraig View Post
I declare it gets earlier every year 
Have just finished The Third Policeman and about to start reading (second time) Hesse's The Glass Bead Game.
It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.Comment
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Yes all JC is worth reading, he writes very fluently and somehow manages to be topical while quietly subverting the breezy modern novel format imho. There is one in-joke in a scene set on a cruise liner in annoyingly I can’t remember which one, possibly Middle England, which I had to pinch myself over. And then look up on google. Anyone else spot it?Originally posted by rathfarnhamgirl View PostComment
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That's what it should be, Padraig, but actually it's 'Marley was dead: to begin with.' Dickens' punctuation is frankly bizarre and he wrote some of the oddest sentence constructions on English record.Originally posted by Padraig View PostComment
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It's Dickens' use of the semi-colon that is most noticeable with some very long sentences broken up by its use. No-one seems to use it much these days.Originally posted by Bella Kemp View Post"The sound is the handwriting of the conductor" - Bernard HaitinkComment
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I do!Originally posted by Petrushka View Post
Quite often, in fact; and not only in long sentences.
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Great explanation!Originally posted by Dave2002 View Post
He clearly wants to draw attention to 'Marley', so makes him the first word.
If the sentence had been the other way round, a colon would cause no comment at all.
Let's get one thing straight at the start: Marley was dead!Comment
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