What are you reading now?

[LHC]

Act of Oblivion by Robert Harris.

I promise that I will never read another book by Robert Harris, this was awful nonsense!

I've just finished this. The first half was OK and indeed, seemed much better to me than some of Harris's more recent novels. But the second half was really poor, and got progressively worse, almost as if Harris got bored with the story and characters long before the end, and did the minimum possible to finish the novel. The ending was utterly risible (and I suspect was written very much with a possible filmed version in mind, as the two remaining characters rode off into the sunset together).

[ChandlersFord]

After a busy week, I'm catching up with posts. This recalled Birgit Nilsson's biography where she told how she was approached to write a foreword (or quotable appreciation) for Culshaw's book (it might have been "Ring Resounding"though - I'm not sure). She replied that yes, she would, but only on condition that they guaranteed inclusion, and unchanged - and she heard no more. She took the greatest exception to Culshaw's deception in blaming Bjorling to explain away Solti's treatment of him in Rome at the rehearsal sessions for a recording of "Un Ballo de Maschera". Bjorling refused to reconstruct his interpretation of a part in which he had great experience, and submit to Solti's will, IIRC the recording was abandoned. Nilsson insists that Bjorling was professional throughout and did not present himself to perform inebriated. This comment (from Am.com) encapsulates the episode

"Culshaw’s book makes very entertaining reading and I’m sure most of it is true, but it has to be said that he was a man who liked to “embellish.” Probably the most egregious example being his remembrances of Jussi Bjorling. Bjorling was an alcoholic, but there are a (very) few known instances of him being drunk in public. At the Rome recording sessions of "Un Ballo in Maschera" the memoirs of everyone directly involved - Mrs. Bjorling, Birgit Nilsson, Cornel McNeil, and especially George Solti - all agree that he was cold sober during that time.

Culshaw wrote of waking in Vienna to find a “heavily intoxicated” Bjorling standing at the foot of his bed. In her biography of her husband, “Jussi”, Anna-Lisa Bjorling made no attempt to hide his problems with alcohol and, in fact, documented it’s effect on Bjorling and his family extensively. But she wrote: Apart from it’s being untrue, he (Culshaw) obviously hadn’t the slightest idea of what an uncontrollably drunk Jussi Bjorling looked like.”

During the Rome recording sessions for “Un Ballo” Solti had an entirely different concept of how Riccardo should be sung than Bjorling and according to Cornell McNeil, “Whatever he (Jussi) asked in my presence, they trampled all over him.” Solti wanted him to change everything - tempo, phrasing, dynamics, and nuances. Bjorling did refuse to rehearse as often as Solti wanted. He had, after all, sung the role for 24 years at that point with many of the finest conductors and had been personally coached in the part by Toscanini. Solti turned it into a contest of wills. But Bjorling was a dying man. As Solti acknowledged later “It wasn’t that he didn’t want to rehearse, he could not!”

All of which is not to decide at this late date whose memory was more accurate, Culshaw’s or Mrs. Bjorling, Nilsson, McNeil, and Solti, but to suggest that when you read Culshaw blaming other people for something that happened the proverbial grain of salt might be desireable."

It wasn’t abandoned, and couldn’t have been, after so much money had already been spent: Bjorling was replaced by Bergonzi and the recording was completed, though I don’t think it was highly regarded, even at the time.

[ChandlersFord]

Like many others, I enjoyed 'Ring Resounding' and 'Putting the Record Straight' in turn, for the fascinating information they provided; in particular,the second book seemed to be used as a chance to say the things he had been advised not to say in the first.

John Culshaw, though undoubtedly a genius of sorts, seems to have been a man of strong likes and dislikes, unusual in a record producer, I'd have thought, who needs to be a 'people person' able to get on with different temperaments and be tactful and persuasive. He seems almost tom have idolised some (Solti and Britten) and loathed others (Ansermet and Krips) , the latter curiously, since everyone else I've read says Krips was 'genial'.

And then there's the curious resignation from Decca, when he was at his peak. I don't think that's ever been really explained.

I wouldn’t say he idolised Solti: in PTRS, he states that Solti ‘never impressed me’ (sic?) in Beethoven, so he wasn’t an uncritical friend. What seemed to count for a lot was that he and Solti saw eye to eye on so many things, so their conflicts were few and far between (Hagen’s interjection at the end of Gotterdammerung being the only one mentioned in Ring Resounding).

PTRS doesn’t cover his resignation from Decca, of course, which is a shame though one wonders how truthful he would’ve felt able to be in that regard? By 1967, Culshaw (a ‘management man’, even if he may not have been a shareholder) was troubled by union militancy, which he ultimately blamed for the demise of the company. He had little time for any of his bosses - Lewis, Rosengarten - whom he seemed to regard as philistine oafs. Maybe he saw his life as proceeding to a rather too predictable pattern of recordings/liner notes/press junkets and dealing with temperamental singers and conductors? If he did, he may have felt he needed a new challenge and there was the still-Reithian bbc with a useful opportunity. I’ve read that Culshaw was not considered ‘ideally suited’ to the role of Head of Music Programming, but he commissioned some impressive projects. Maybe he just didn’t get the viewer numbers?

The Krips story (alluded to in RR, but tea properly spilled in PTRS) is horrifying, but instructive: a great artist can co-exist with a small, unpleasant personality.

I am seriously fascinated by Culshaw’s relationships with the female singers he worked with. Judging from his correspondence with Kirsten Flagstad, he was looking for a mother figure. The frisky French diva Regine Crespin left us this tantalising sentence in her memoir: ‘I adored John Culshaw, but he only liked snakes.’

I’d really love to know what she meant by that .....

[ardcarp]

Or rather, 'What are you NOT reading now.' The 'Woke' fraternity (and sorority) seems to have put the boot into Roald Dahl because of his sometimes politically incorrect stories and words. Someone on the radio this morning called him a 'nasty man'. Oh dear. I can't express the pleasure my own kids and grand-kids have got from Dahl's books. They don't have worries about a horrible grandma or the word 'fat'. Defoe has been pilloried because Crusoe got Man Friday to call him 'Master'. Things must surely be seen in the context of their times?

Has anyone had a go at Enid Blyton yet?

[DracoM]

Reading now: 'Our Game' / Le Carre.
EXCELLENT.

[french frank]

There used to be a time when one looked patronisingly at older productions and sniffed, "Bit dated, now" or "Hasn't really passed the test of time, has it?" No doubt, there is a great deal of judgemental self-righteousness now. "The past was sooo awful, evil and wicked in soooo many ways". Yes, we surely need to teach an understanding of the past in its contexts. As someone who lived in 'the past', I can't say that human beings are now morally better than they were years ago. There seems to be more rage, violence and hate-filled abuse now than at any time that I remember.

Or rather, 'What are you NOT reading now.' The 'Woke' fraternity (and sorority) seems to have put the boot into Roald Dahl because of his sometimes politically incorrect stories and words. Someone on the radio this morning called him a 'nasty man'. Oh dear. I can't express the pleasure my own kids and grand-kids have got from Dahl's books. They don't have worries about a horrible grandma or the word 'fat'. Defoe has been pilloried because Crusoe got Man Friday to call him 'Master'. Things must surely be seen in the context of their times?

Has anyone had a go at Enid Blyton yet?

[ChandlersFord]

Dahl was a fascinating character - a man capable of great good (sticking with his first wife and willing her to stay alive and recover when all the doctors he spoke to had given up on her) and great cruelty (cheating on said first wife with her best friend, then laughing uproariously when he chucked her out of the marital home). His books reflect his character in many ways.

Personally, I absolutely love his adult stories, such as The Great Switcheroo and the My Uncle Oswald adventures - though they are even more ‘problematic’ to wokeist sensibilities. But then, if there’s one thing wokeists hate, it’s innocent fun.

Dahl’s estate fully supports these changes, which I find a bit sad.

As to his personal politics - I have a sneaking admiration for someone who’ll come out and actually say ‘I am anti-semitic’, rather than hiding behind weasel words (though I’m not sure Dahl was actually an anti-Semite by any definition of the term acceptable to me).

[Padraig]

It's OK To Be Angry About Capitalism, writes Senator Bernie Sanders. I have just taken possession of his book and already am prepared to be as angry as he wants. But then, I'm a big fan. Any others?

[Cockney Sparrow]

Newsnight was interesting last night - Bernie was interviewed - full of beans and impressive, the first interview I've seen of him. Also a segment about poor support for Biden standing again. Also the academic who has predicted the result of elections (since Reagan) saying what determines election success isn't the polls and peoples attitudes, but other, more concrete matters and Biden, if he continues as he started, is on course to win -subject to confirmation nearer the time - this last being the gist of the interview (I realise I must watch it again....).

[smittims]

I meant to respond to ChandlersFord's #3003 but must have forgotten.

I think what Mme Crespin meant was that she expected Culshaw to fall in love with her, or at least pay her the attention she felt her due, and when he didn't her resentment emerged . 'Snakes' I take to be a reference to Cushaw's sexuality.

[Bryn]

Or rather, 'What are you NOT reading now.' The 'Woke' fraternity (and sorority) seems to have put the boot into Roald Dahl because of his sometimes politically incorrect stories and words. Someone on the radio this morning called him a 'nasty man'. Oh dear. I can't express the pleasure my own kids and grand-kids have got from Dahl's books. They don't have worries about a horrible grandma or the word 'fat'. Defoe has been pilloried because Crusoe got Man Friday to call him 'Master'. Things must surely be seen in the context of their times?

Has anyone had a go at Enid Blyton yet?

So, Penguin is to issue two versions, the Bowdlerised under the Puffin brand and the original as Penguin. Has it all been a Random publicity stunt?

[RichardB]

I don't like Roald Dahl's children's books, and I haven't read them to my children. Not because they're "politically incorrect", or because of his personal character which I know nothing about, but because I just don't think they're much good, and actually to a great extent because I find Quentin Blake's illustrations rubbish. There are far better things to read to children. I would hope, being a woke parent, that my children would have been more influenced by the values I try, not always successfully, to demonstrate in the course of everyday life than in the books I read to them. I think it would be much more responsible on the part of publishers to encourage more new writing than to squeeze a bit more profit out of established names by bowdlerising their work, but of course the latter is the easier and cheaper option.

I've now completed Will Self's Dorian on Joseph K's recommendation. I agree that (among the ones I know anyway) it's one of his best novels, structurally as much as anything else, although of course the structure of the book is to a great extent adapted from a preexistent one, apart from its epilogue which is a kind of masterstroke.

[Bryn]

So, Penguin is to issue two versions, the Bowdlerised under the Puffin brand and the original as Penguin. Has it all been a Random publicity stunt?

Well, what do you know? The News Quiz, recorded the day before Penguin's announcement of an unrevised Penguin edition, also suggests a marketing ploy.

[Joseph K]

I've now completed Will Self's Dorian on Joseph K's recommendation. I agree that (among the ones I know anyway) it's one of his best novels, structurally as much as anything else, although of course the structure of the book is to a great extent adapted from a preexistent one, apart from its epilogue which is a kind of masterstroke.

Glad you enjoyed it, Richard! Of course, the Wilde is itself sort of based on the story of Faust.

I have Self's Why Read: Selected Writings 2001-2021, a collection of nonfiction which I bought (and which was released) not so long ago and which I may soon dip into. But I've been reading Graeber & Wengrow's The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity for the past few weeks and have been enjoying it immensely.

[teamsaint]

I don't like Roald Dahl's children's books, and I haven't read them to my children. Not because they're "politically incorrect", or because of his personal character which I know nothing about, but because I just don't think they're much good, and actually to a great extent because I find Quentin Blake's illustrations rubbish. There are far better things to read to children. I would hope, being a woke parent, that my children would have been more influenced by the values I try, not always successfully, to demonstrate in the course of everyday life than in the books I read to them. I think it would be much more responsible on the part of publishers to encourage more new writing than to squeeze a bit more profit out of established names by bowdlerising their work, but of course the latter is the easier and cheaper option.

I've now completed Will Self's Dorian on Joseph K's recommendation. I agree that (among the ones I know anyway) it's one of his best novels, structurally as much as anything else, although of course the structure of the book is to a great extent adapted from a preexistent one, apart from its epilogue which is a kind of masterstroke.

There has been a worldwide trend towards sales in backlist compared to new titles in the last few years. I don’t think this is because there has been a decrease in the number of new titles published, but probably because print technology has made it easier to keep backlist in print profitably.
And backlist plays a big part in funding the advances and other costs associated with frontlist titles.

Anyhow, one of our new March titles is one that might appeal to you Richard, and other forum members.

My Disappearing Uncle by well known children’s author Kathy Henderson. It is exceptionally readable, and comes with a raft of A-list endorsements.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/My-Disappearing-Uncle-Stories-Scattered/dp/1803991224/ref=sr_1_1?crid=8K2DHXQ81DD3&keywords=my+disappearing+uncle&qid=1677268794&s=music&sprefix=My+disappearing+%2Cpopular%2C81&sr=1-1

Really hope it does well, it deserves to. I was bowled over by it when I read it a while back.