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  • french frank
    Administrator/Moderator
    • Feb 2007
    • 30205

    Originally posted by Heldenleben View Post
    In fact my local teams song was “ when the red red Robin etc....” if that means anything to you !
    <cautiously> It might do - if you come from somewhere elsewhere than the southern Great Wen …

    Though to keep on topic, I have now finished the Preface to the Third Edition of Adolphe, having traversed the author's indignation that people have assumed the novel to be autobiographical ('twas ever thus, mon ami), the feebleness of the feeble sex and the need for a new edition to counter the pirate editions with unauthorised additional material. I shall begin Adolphe tonight.
    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

    • Padraig
      Full Member
      • Feb 2013
      • 4220

      I have just got round to starting Milkman by Anna Burns (2018 Booker Prize) The first hundred pages have got me hooked.

      Set in Troubles Belfast, has anyone read it?

      Comment

      • Ein Heldenleben
        Full Member
        • Apr 2014
        • 6726

        Originally posted by Padraig View Post
        I have just got round to starting Milkman by Anna Burns (2018 Booker Prize) The first hundred pages have got me hooked.

        Set in Troubles Belfast, has anyone read it?
        Yes. Very interesting book . There are no names in the book . Nothing to identify it as being in Belfast (as far as I recall) , and no names for any of the characters. It gave a very interesting perspective of life in the (I’m assuming ) working class Belfast / Derry (? ) Catholic community. A perspective that received very little coverage either in the press or tv here . There is very little Northern Irish fiction that I’ve read but I’ve read so much set in the Republic I almost feel I know parts of it like the back of my hand.
        I won’t give any plot points away but at the end I was really keen to know just how true to reality it was - my instincts tell me it’s pretty much bang-on though that’s largely based on journalist friends who worked there. So much of what happened just was never reported for one reason and another . For example was it the case that the Provisional IRA discouraged people from seeking emergency hospital treatment because Police / Special Branch informer recruitment took place there?

        Comment

        • Padraig
          Full Member
          • Feb 2013
          • 4220

          Originally posted by Heldenleben View Post
          I won’t give any plot points away but at the end I was really keen to know just how true to reality it was - my instincts tell me it’s pretty much bang-on though that’s largely based on journalist friends who worked there. So much of what happened just was never reported for one reason and another . For example was it the case that the Provisional IRA discouraged people from seeking emergency hospital treatment because Police / Special Branch informer recruitment took place there?
          Thank you Heldenleben. So far I'm enjoying the style of narration in the novel. I have not yet had much of a plot. The narrator, middle sister, is quite a character and gives a good account of how communities educate their respective members in the truths of their situations. I suspect that middle sister's community is very similar to communities everywhere that experience difference and discord. I know that I 'know' many things for which I have little or no evidence, and I detect that middle sister is discovering that too.

          I loved the part dealing with the sunset - not really a phenomenon for the likes of her French evening class - and how middle sister grapples with that thought and with sunsets and other beyond the pale topics. I know that sexual harassment is dealt with - barely touched on so far, and I'm beginning to anticipate connections with current social and political issues outside the novel's supposed setting.

          Comment

          • Pulcinella
            Host
            • Feb 2014
            • 10872

            Originally posted by Padraig View Post
            I have just got round to starting Milkman by Anna Burns (2018 Booker Prize) The first hundred pages have got me hooked.

            Set in Troubles Belfast, has anyone read it?
            Yes, but I don't remember that much about it, other than that it portrayed a sense of not knowing who you could trust quite well.

            Comment

            • ardcarp
              Late member
              • Nov 2010
              • 11102

              Just finished Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell. A beautifully written book with almost poetic prose (if that isn't an oxy-whatsit), The 'story' doesn't lead the reader on especially, dwelling rather on emotions, especially of Agnes' on Hamnet's death. But I thought it an exceptional read.

              Comment

              • french frank
                Administrator/Moderator
                • Feb 2007
                • 30205

                Oh, dear, two novels in a row that have ended with, "Reader, um, I seem to have killed her." Now looking for another French novel that is a bit more upbeat. I found Anatole France, Le Livre de mon ami, which I probably bought on a station somewhere and don't think I ever got round to reading.
                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

                • Joseph K
                  Banned
                  • Oct 2017
                  • 7765

                  I finished Brave New World last night. I enjoyed it, and can see how it would be rich material for an essay - my edition comes with two introductory essays, though I haven't yet read them - since it contains quite a bit of philosophy and satire.

                  Tonight I shall begin Catch 22.

                  Comment

                  • jayne lee wilson
                    Banned
                    • Jul 2011
                    • 10711

                    "The New Bruckner" by Dermot Gault.

                    Not for newcomers to the subject, as it focusses in immense detail on the symphonic revisions, the changing of perceptions about them through the decades. A chapter on "Bruckner and his Disciples" goes into great depth about his friends in Vienna, the Schalks and others, who came to have such a profound influence upon Bruckner and his music. Later it takes up the history of the Haas and Nowak editions, and how very influential these were on conductors, and writers like Deryck Cooke and Robert Simpson and many others, leading them into wrong assumptions of many kinds....

                    Very well and clearly expounded, eye-opening for those who have been fascinated by Bruckner for some time, and know the music reasonably well. (And leaves no doubt at all that Bruckner wanted very flexible tempi in his works, at the conductor's discretion....)

                    Comment

                    • Bryn
                      Banned
                      • Mar 2007
                      • 24688

                      Just arrived in the post and thus only cover blurb and "Introduction, Dedications and Acknowledgements", so far, but Edwin (Eddie) Prévost's "An Uncommon Music for the Common Man: A Polemical Memoir": https://matchlessrecordings.com/book...sic-common-man

                      Excerpts here: https://www.thewire.co.uk/in-writing...ost-s-new-book
                      Last edited by Bryn; 05-03-21, 14:34. Reason: Typo

                      Comment

                      • Bryn
                        Banned
                        • Mar 2007
                        • 24688

                        Originally posted by jayne lee wilson View Post
                        "The New Bruckner" by Dermot Gault.

                        Not for newcomers to the subject, as it focusses in immense detail on the symphonic revisions, the changing of perceptions about them through the decades. A chapter on "Bruckner and his Disciples" goes into great depth about his friends in Vienna, the Schalks and others, who came to have such a profound influence upon Bruckner and his music. Later it takes up the history of the Haas and Nowak editions, and how very influential these were on conductors, and writers like Deryck Cooke and Robert Simpson and many others, leading them into wrong assumptions of many kinds....

                        Very well and clearly expounded, eye-opening for those who have been fascinated by Bruckner for some time, and know the music reasonably well. (And leaves no doubt at all that Bruckner wanted very flexible tempi in his works, at the conductor's discretion....)
                        Thanks for that. I have found a "Used: Like New" copy for under £35 including p&p. Duly ordered.

                        Comment

                        • DracoM
                          Host
                          • Mar 2007
                          • 12954

                          Le Noeud de Viperes / Mauriac

                          Comment

                          • Richard Barrett
                            Guest
                            • Jan 2016
                            • 6259

                            Originally posted by Bryn View Post
                            Edwin (Eddie) Prévost's "An Uncommon Music for the Common Man: A Polemical Memoir": https://matchlessrecordings.com/book...sic-common-man
                            That looks like a must read. I presume you know his previous publications. Minute Particulars is something I often return to. Not that I agree with EP's opinions on electronic music, although I think he just got in with the wrong crowd - when I asked him about it he said "well I didn't mean you".

                            I just started Kazuo Ishiguro's new Klara and the Sun... it seems to revisit the territory of Never Let Me Go but it's early days yet.

                            Comment

                            • Bryn
                              Banned
                              • Mar 2007
                              • 24688

                              Originally posted by Richard Barrett View Post
                              That looks like a must read. I presume you know his previous publications. Minute Particulars is something I often return to. Not that I agree with EP's opinions on electronic music, although I think he just got in with the wrong crowd - when I asked him about it he said "well I didn't mean you". . . .
                              Oh, that was probably just Eddie being polite. Yes, I am familiar with the previous trio of books and their related controversies. Really eager to hear Eddie and Nathan (who assisted Eddie in preparing the book for publication) playing together again as soon as possible.

                              Comment

                              • french frank
                                Administrator/Moderator
                                • Feb 2007
                                • 30205

                                Originally posted by Richard Barrett View Post
                                I just started Kazuo Ishiguro's new Klara and the Sun... it seems to revisit the territory of Never Let Me Go but it's early days yet.
                                I was very keen on Ishiguro some years ago and bought all his new ones - then stopped before Never Let Me Go as I thought the title was a bit soppy

                                Might be time to revisit The Unconsoled which I found tougher than some of his earlier works.

                                Originally posted by DracoM View Post
                                Le Noeud de Viperes / Mauriac
                                I still think of it as a 'set text'. Very typical Mauriac themes.
                                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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