Recently Read - February 5th 2007

Here's a list of the books I've read recently, with an Amazon-style star rating and a few comments.

• A Separate War And Other stories - Joe Halderman

  About every nine years, Halderman puts together a book of his short stories. This is the latest. Written in a clear lucid style, his prose is always worth reading.

• An Unsuitable Job For A Woman - P. D. James

  Another book from the 100 Favorite Mysteries of the 20th Century, and the introduction of another interesting young female P.I., Cordelia Gray, who will probably remind you of Sue Grafton's P.I. Kinsey Millhone.

  I followed most of the plot twists, but missed the big one. I'll be reading more from this author when I come across them in library book sales.

• Shopgirl - Steve Martin
• The Pleasure of my Company - Steve Martin

  Two short novels (or long novellas) by Steve Martin, who seems to be able to put his hand to anything and produce something worthy. I read to be entertained. I don't like to be able to predict the plot. These books definitely fall into this category, and every now and again you'll come across a one-liner that is exceptional.

• The Sirens of Titan - Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

  Every person has a teacher that they remember fondly, who had a marked impact on their life. For me, my favorite would be an English teacher called Cravan Goodall. I remember that we were allowed to take some of our O'levels early. One of those was English Literature. We studied one novel (Brighton Rock by Graham Greene), one play (Macbeth by Shakespeare) and the poems of Sir John Betjeman. He bought these works of literature to life. He took us to see Polanski's Macbeth. This really opened our eyes to what the play is all about.

  (He also suggested that we should go and see A Clockwork Orange, which has just come out. Now bear in mind that we were 14 years old at the time. A Clockwork Orange was an X film when it first came out (it was cut and dumbed down later). Lots of sex and violence. Great stuff. Probably scarred me for life, but I'm glad I went to see it. Nowadays, if a teacher recommended such a thing, they'd be up in front a disciplinary board faster than you can say "baddiwad chelloveck". Time changes. Sometimes not for the better.)

  Where was I? Oh yeah. One of the things that Mr. Goodall did was convert the closet in our form room into a mini-library and populate it with contemporary books that he thought we would enjoy. Ones that were easier to read than the "classic" works (like Moby Dick) that schools forced on their students in those days. One of those books was The Sirens of Titan. If it was anything like the Delta copy I just read, it had three bodacious babes on the cover, almost covered in diaphanous garments. This was a magnet to a 14 year with raging hormones and I just had to check it out and read it.

  I bet I was sorely disappointed. Reading it again now, over 35 years later, I realize that the Sirens are such a small part of the story. A story which I hardly remember by the way. I wonder if I got all the subtle metaphors and meanings of this story when I was a teenager. Probably not.

  Yet again, it makes me want to read the rest of Vonnegut's work that I haven't got to yet.

Similar posts:
[Jan 22nd 2007]
[Jan 4th 2007]
[Dec 18th 2006]
[Dec 12th 2006]
[Oct 2006 - Nov 2006]
[Aug 2006 - Sep 2006]
[June 2006 - July 2006]
[April 2006 - May 2006]
[Feb 2006 - Mar 2006]
[Dec 2005 - Jan 2006]
[Oct 2005 - Nov 2005]
[Jul 2005 - Sep 2005]
[May 2005 - Jun 2005]

[Technorati Tag: Books]

( Feb 05 2007, 07:44:28 AM PST ) [Listen] Permalink Comments [2]