What are you reading now?

[Richard Tarleton]

can anyone here suggest a living writer whose identity might be revealed in a paragraph?

This used to be a thing, on a literary panel game on BBC2 circa 1970 - a paragraph would be read out, panel members (AS Byatt was one, I remember) would have to identify the author. They were right some of the time.

[muzzer]

What do people think about the Amis/Rushdie/Barnes/McEwan ‘gang’? I’m (mostly) a big fan (I was being a bit facetious in my post upboard), but obviously they’re very much seen as The Establishment these days, though I recently saw The Rachel Papers being praised by Dolly Alderton (google is your friend if you’re unfamiliar with her), so all is not lost.

[Richard Barrett]

What do people think about the Amis/Rushdie/Barnes/McEwan ‘gang’? I’m (mostly) a big fan (I was being a bit facetious in my post upboard), but obviously they’re very much seen as The Establishment these days, though I recently saw The Rachel Papers being praised by Dolly Alderton (google is your friend if you’re unfamiliar with her), so all is not lost.

In brief:

Amis has pretty much lost the attraction for me that he used to have; the last book of his I read was Yellow Dog which I thought had degenerated into self-parody.
I'm also rather behind with Rushdie; I had the sense that he too had never equalled Satanic Verses and the ones before it, but unlike with Amis I haven't read a book of his that I haven't found something enlightening in.
I've somehow never been drawn to Barnes. I didn't much like his Shostakovich book and I may not have read any of the others.
McEwan can be variable, but I thought Machines Like Us his best book for some time.

[CallMePaul]

I'm about to start the latest Ann Cleeves offering The Long Call. This is the first of a series set in north Devon (an area I do not know, but then I've never been to Shetland either). If it has as strong a sense of place as her Shetland books then I will certainly enjoy it.

[Rjw]

Berlin Diary by William Shirer, a fascinating view of the rise of the Nazis and the beginning of the world war.

[Petrushka]

Agent Running in the Field by John le Carre.

Just published and delivered here last week. How I love reading a new le Carre!

[Richard Tarleton]

Agent Running in the Field by John le Carre.

Just published and delivered here last week. How I love reading a new le Carre!

I've laid it down, like a fine wine, to read as soon as I've finished Max Hastings Vietnam. I'm also part way through La Catedral del Mar, by Idelfonso Falcones, set in medieval Barcelona. Greatly looking forward to JLeC.

Never read Amis (Dolly Alderton whom muzzer mentions writes lifestyle columns for millennials for the Sunday Times, alongside much else I'm sure). I've read a fair bit of Barnes and McEwan, found Midnight's Children unreadable and abandoned it (on a birding trip in NE Mallorca, where it may still be, knocking about), and Rushdie, back in 1982. I've never forgiven him for his 1989 Observer review of Le Carré's The Russia House. I spotted Barnes on Hampstead Heath returning from the Farmers Market with bulging carrier bags of produce. Nice story from Giles Coren - he passed J Barnes sitting on a park bench on the Heath who asked him some technical question about a Jewish festival. Coren didn't know, so Barnes said ah well he'd just have to go on sitting there in the hope Howard Jacobson passed by.

[muzzer]

That’s a great Barnes story. Did Coren intend it as a dig I wonder? I greatly enjoyed The Noise of Time, but haven’t read any Le Carre since teens, must catch up a bit as clearly he’s evolved far beyond the spy thriller, though that description of course doesn’t do the earlier novels justice.

[Joseph K]

Last night I finally finished Richard Barrett's Music of Possibility - a fair few months since I started reading it yes, but there were extended periods in which I put it aside to read something else.

I have three books lined up next: Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, Hobsbawm's The Age of Revolution and Brian Ferneyhough by Lois Fitch.

[richardfinegold]

Berlin Diary by William Shirer, a fascinating view of the rise of the Nazis and the beginning of the world war.

That sounds interesting. I’ve been reading some Alan Furst novels and Shier appears as a minor character in one of them in Vienna around the Anschluss.
I just finished a novel by Kingsley Amis called The Old Devils. I really enjoyed it and am wondering what other books by Amis would be worth exploring

[Cockney Sparrow]

I'm on holiday in the Pyrenees region of France and have a Furst novel with me. Perhaps I lack the discipline but I hardly ever read fiction except on holiday and even then struggle - usually the days are packed with excursions on Mrs CS itinerary and I'm too tired to read for very long in the evening. I'm not sure about the literary standing of Furst but I find his novels compel me to finish them with well drawn characters, well progressed story line with nothing jarring. Good holiday reading I suppose, and none the worse for that.
I sometimes wonder why the Second W War is the setting for so many dramas in various media - I hope I'm right in holding to the view it was the last mass dislocation of Western (and associated) societies which gives great opportunities for writers, directors etc.
OTOH part of all that may be comfortable living in the past, believing our own rhetoric and failing to confront the realities of our place in the world today - a minor player, forgetting the misrepresentation of the "6th largest economy" slogan

[muzzer]

That’s the one KA won the Booker for, I believe. He’s massively out of fashion now of course, but I’m a great fan, absent some of the “era-specific” values. I’d suggest starting at the beginning with Lucky Jim and going from there.

[richardfinegold]

That’s the one KA won the Booker for, I believe. He’s massively out of fashion now of course, but I’m a great fan, absent some of the “era-specific” values. I’d suggest starting at the beginning with Lucky Jim and going from there.

Thanks, you are right about the Booker. I have read Lucky Jim a few years ago but I found the Old Devils a lot more rewarding. Any particular one you might recommend?

[richardfinegold]

I'm on holiday in the Pyrenees region of France and have a Furst novel with me. Perhaps I lack the discipline but I hardly ever read fiction except on holiday and even then struggle - usually the days are packed with excursions on Mrs CS itinerary and I'm too tired to read for very long in the evening. I'm not sure about the literary standing of Furst but I find his novels compel me to finish them with well drawn characters, well progressed story line with nothing jarring. Good holiday reading I suppose, and none the worse for that.
I sometimes wonder why the Second W War is the setting for so many dramas in various media - I hope I'm right in holding to the view it was the last mass dislocation of Western (and associated) societies which gives great opportunities for writers, directors etc.
OTOH part of all that may be comfortable living in the past, believing our own rhetoric and failing to confront the realities of our place in the world today - a minor player, forgetting the misrepresentation of the "6th largest economy" slogan

Your thoughts about WWII being the backdrop for so much Art (Lierature, Film, Music,etc) are interesting, CS. I am an avid History Buff and and recently my spouse described me as “loving World War II” to one of her sisters. I was disturbed by the choice of words—how could anyone “love” such a calamity—but given the amount of attention that I devote to it, and the manner in which the event shaped my World View (several relatives and Religion Instructors that were Holocaust survivors), her description was not displaced.
A few years ago my Nephew, who is a Professional Film Critic, was quite critical of the amount of attention devoted to WWII. My children seemed to agree with him, and it saddened me to think that the Generational Shits were going to consign it to the dusty old History bin. Not sure if that is actually happening, as all of them have recently shown a renewed interest.
My wife and I are currently hooked on the French TV series A French Village. I really love the way that it addresses the complexities of the Occupation and collaboration, how some characters moved between collaboration and Resistance and just trying to survive.

[LMcD]

Since discovering my great-uncle's name on the Thiepval memorial I've become increasingly interested in military history, especially that of WW2, and indeed of life in general at that time. As it happens, I'm off to the library tomorrow to pick up Max Hastings's 'Chastise'. I think his ability, and that of other fine authors such a Ben Macintyre and Antony Beevor, to blend individual stories into the bigger picture makes the study of this period both informative and enjoyable. The same goes for well-crafted TV documentaries and dramas. Again as it happens, tonight we shall be watching Jeremy Clarkson's documentary on convoy PQ17. Current TV dramas covering this era include the excellent 'World on Fire', and we recently greatly enjoyed watching 'A Family At War' for the second time. I don't know whether I'm 'in love with World War II' but I certainly find it increasingly fascinating.