What are you reading now?

[french frank]

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.

[Padraig]

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?

[Ein Heldenleben]

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?

[Padraig]

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.

[Pulcinella]

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.

[ardcarp]

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.

[french frank]

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.

[Joseph K]

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.

[jayne lee wilson]

"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....)

[Bryn]

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

[Bryn]

"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.

[DracoM]

Le Noeud de Viperes / Mauriac

[Richard Barrett]

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.

[Bryn]

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.

[french frank]

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.

Le Noeud de Viperes / Mauriac

I still think of it as a 'set text'. Very typical Mauriac themes.