About to start Flann O'Brien, The Third Policeman. I'm blessed with total non-recall so I'll start rereading with interest.
What are you reading now?
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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.
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Originally posted by Dave2002 View PostI'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.
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Originally posted by Padraig View PostMarley was dead, to begin with.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.
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Originally posted by rathfarnhamgirl View PostI'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.
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Originally posted by Bella Kemp View PostThat'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.
"Marley was dead: to begin with." Why is there a colon in this sentence? What purpose does it serve?Christopher Faille's answer: Obviously, when Marley shows up, the fact is going to be a difficult one for Scrooge to accept — that this is really his old partner Marley, a “good man of business” before him. Dickens wants Marley’s return to be difficult for US to accept, as readers, too. After all...
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Originally posted by Bella Kemp View PostThat'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."The sound is the handwriting of the conductor" - Bernard Haitink
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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!
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