What are you reading now?

[smittims]

Nearing the end of a re-read of E M Forster's Where Angels fear to tread. As always I am amazed at the quality of his writing, the subtlety of his characters and his 'between-the-lines' comments on them as he goes along. I re-read his books frequently. This copy I bought in 1974 for 25p! The only one I don't care for is The Longest Journey, I think because I don't find the characters sufficiently sympathetic .

[vinteuil]

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When I read them many years ago I very much enjoyed Forster's early social comedies - like Where Angels Fear to Tread ; I find A Passage to India heavy-handed in its overblown symbolism. Some of his gay stories are very good : The Other Boat is masterly.

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[smittims]

Yes, it's clear the potential relationship between Aziz nd Fielding ('not here, not now') meant more to Forster than it would have done to many of his readers, and I did feel the book sags after the trial scenes. I agree about the unpublished stories, some of which are quite powerful.

[MickyD]

Not terribly intellectual, but I am really enjoying Sir Lew Grade's autobiography - an incredible rags-to-riches story of a Russian Jewish refugee coming to London; he worked his way up the hard way and the early stories of his survival are fascinating, including becoming the world champion Charleston dancer! A great read.

[smittims]

Just begun re-reading All's well that ends well. The more I re-read Shakespeare the more I feel 'modern' or 'realistic' productions (e.g.the second batch of 'the Hollow Crown') are issing the point. I think Sh. should be more stylised, more ritual.

[Sir Velo]

Little Dorrit

Not sure there's a funnier novel by Dickens, Pickwick notwithstanding: the depiction of the ailing "Father of the Marshalsea" berating his elderly brother for signs of decrepitude ("You're looking very frail Frederick"), or his violent attack on the love smitten junior turnkey, John Chivery, for insolently seeking him out once he has resumed his rightful place in society. Too many moments of high comedy to list but memorable above all are the violent family retainer Flintwinch with his perpetual token of nuptial affection "I'll give you such a dose of physic, Affery my woman", and the slatternly Mrs Plornish who is considered a paragon of linguistic ability by the inhabitants of Bleeding Heart Yard with her "translations" "ee say ee verry bad man" etc.

[Serial_Apologist]

A new book from Yanis Varoufakis - here in interview:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZDh8JvUG1Q

[Bella Kemp]

Little Dorrit

Not sure there's a funnier novel by Dickens, Pickwick notwithstanding: the depiction of the ailing "Father of the Marshalsea" berating his elderly brother for signs of decrepitude ("You're looking very frail Frederick"), or his violent attack on the love smitten junior turnkey, John Chivery, for insolently seeking him out once he has resumed his rightful place in society. Too many moments of high comedy to list but memorable above all are the violent family retainer Flintwinch with his perpetual token of nuptial affection "I'll give you such a dose of physic, Affery my woman", and the slatternly Mrs Plornish who is considered a paragon of linguistic ability by the inhabitants of Bleeding Heart Yard with her "translations" "ee say ee verry bad man" etc.

I agree - or at least until I re-read another Dickens novel. Comedy is always bubbling under the surface in Dickens, no matter what he is describing. He makes us face the worst in the human condition, but constantly reminds us that the only way to survive is to find a humorous take on the situation. This may not make the situation better, but it helps us get through it.

[smittims]

I was never a Dickens fan, but in recent years I've come round to him and can endorse the above remarks. One thing I love is the way all his characters speak in their own way, with little tics and mannerisms , as in real life. I could't but contrast this with Alexander McCall Smith, whose novels seem to be written in easy-read, standard English, and seem so dull to me.

[LMcD]

Just started Jon Sopel's 'If Only They Didn't Speak English', published in 2017 and now, sadly, just as relevant all over again.

[Ian Thumwood]

Claudia Pineiro's 'Thursday Night widows' proved impossible to put down. Not sure why this was categorised as crime novel although the first chapter culminated with 3 bodies in a swimming pool. The book is extremity well written and the book is effectively about how the affluent lives of the residents of a enclosed community are affected by the straightened financial circumstances in 3arly 2000's Argentina.

I find Pineiro to be a brilliant writer and on a par with Iain McEwan . It is thought provoking stuff, the ending not being so much a twist or who done it and rather a tragic underscoring of how mismanagement of the Argentine economy ultimately destroyed lives built on sand. This is the 3rd book of her's I have read and all three have impressed.

[french frank]

This could be on A funny thing or Drama to be eradicated. But I've chosen here:

I was in the caff earlier where my chosen reading was the Penguin 60 edition of Plato's Phaedrus. I took it with me to try and work out whether actors might be able to deliver the lines in an entertaining way for Drama on 3. When my food arrived I laid the book on the table and after a few minutes became acutely aware of how deliberately ostentatious/pretentious this might appear

Au contraire (as we say round here), I had been genuinely struck by how hilariously funny I was finding it; and more, how I could identify with Socrates in the face of "Know thyself", trying to work out what kind of a person he was, whether: " ... a more complicated and puffed-up sort of animal than Typho or whether I am a gentler, simpler creature, endowed by heaven with with a nature altogether less typhonic."

I often wonder whether, when I post on the forum, I am an intellectual genius or a thumping idiot. But my heart bleeds that nowadays so many are fated never to discover the sheer entertainment of a work like Phaedrus.

[vinteuil]

I often wonder whether, when I post on the forum, I am an intellectual genius or a thumping idiot...

... ah, don't we all? Often, in a generous act of kindness, fellow forumites provide a useful mirror...

[smittims]

There's a moment in Close My Eyes where Alan Rickman's character says to Clive Owen's character 'What's that you're reading ? (raised voice ) Proust? (incredulous ) VOLUME EIGHT??!'

Paul Crossley asked Michael Tippett if he agreed that there was a thin dividing line between genius and insanity. Michael: Of course there is, love. I cross it all the time!'

[french frank]

Often, in a generous act of kindness, fellow forumites provide a useful mirror...

Not exactly Was my comment ignored because the argument was so far above people's intellectual level that they didn't understand it? Or so stupid it was not worth a reply? As So-craytes said, "I've not yet succeeded in obeying the Delphic injunction to 'know myself' [sic] ..."`

Probably the answer is to add the two together and divide by 2.