Zed
I have made several attempts to write a review of this very interesting story. Interesting? Story? Are they the right words for a read on that most emotive of subjects, the Holocaust? I have read far too much about that subject and had been burnt out by it to be honest. Mankind's inhumanity to each other never ceases to amaze. At this point in my life I look for peaceful reading but seemingly fail. Peaceful? Do I read for peace? For pleasure? The challenge of the subject? As I finished the amazing final chapter, I began questioning why I read, let alone question the inhumanity of mankind and its ability to remember and to forget. Why read of this subject? To remember?
And that is what to me makes this conceptually outstanding. In terms of the thematic use of religion, memory and cumulative error, I am very vaguely reminded of A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr, a religious tale of cumulative error. The Goodreads blurb calls And The Rat Laughed “a unique book” and I do tend to agree. The Science Fiction element is that part that makes this as unique as anything I recall reading in terms of Holocaust fiction.
But reader beware, And the Rat Laughed takes very careful reading. There are five chapters, and I had myself rereading the first two, such was their importance to the Sci Fi element that came later. Even then, I knew that I had missed references to both the past and the future. The absolutely sublime last chapter has had me knowing that I will read And The Rat Laughed again.
The following quotes are passages from the first chapter, a chapter that tells the story of an ageing Grandmother as she tries to recall her horrific childhood to her school age granddaughter, who is required to talk to a holocaust survivor for a school project.
“...It's not one of those stories that audiences love.”
As to the grandmother, “As far as she's concerned, the story isn't that important to her, and at this late date it doesn't seem to be important to anyone else either. There are many others like this story, including some that have already been told. She doesn't think that hers is any more worthy. On the contrary, she's convinced that the story will resist her, will become incoherent, and in an effort to disguise its own ugliness will turn into something completely different. And yet, she is the only one who can tell it. If not all of it or most of it, then at least some parts. A strange sense of urgency overtakes her. Maybe it's old age. She cannot afford to let the story disappear as if it never happened.”
“Because once she lets go of it, it will be told differently. People will add things, leave things out, twist it out of shape. And all she has to go by is her own version, her own inadequate best. Deliberately, cautiously, the old woman will pry out spikes from the body of her story, hoping for it.”
And that's the premise of And the Rat Laughed.
The granddaughter can hardly explain and or be witness as to what her grandmother tells her. Her ordeal was as a child, which as an old lady she can hardly articulate those suppressed five-year-old memories of herself. The Granddaughter can do nothing but surmise and with that she and her fellow school friends create an internet poetry site called “girl&rat.com”
From there, a cult occurs that turns the holocaust memories of the grandmother into a commercial enterprise of pop song and Disney. I would suggest that our modern world of commercialisation of just about every tenet of human existence may also be thematic to the story told.
As a species, we soon forget, and quite fast at times. When we don't memory can become cumulative and that is the very point of The Dream, the sci fi chapter. Even after an archeologically discovery of diaries of the priest that saved the little girl, the future narrator is considering Holocaust denial among others things. After this chapter, we are presented with the actual diary of the priest. I was profoundly moved by his questioning of his faith, his disgust at the congregation he serves, his own personal torment. This was a moving end to an exceptional book.
I have not enjoyed this saga as much as I might have wished. The subject is the present source of my interest, and with any novel that covers historical events, there was much to look up. I had no knowledge of the overthrow of the Burmese Royal family by British imperialism, and for all my WW2 reading over many years the Burma campaign is genuinely the area that I have never read about.
There was much to look forward to. Sadly, I found that I was losing myself many times and having to reread. I don't expect stories like this to hurry along, but the characters seemed far too lifeless, and the events described shallow. All in all, this became a chore at times. The writing about such events as Indian nationalism that played such a big role in the latter part of the story lacked any kind of flair to keep me glued to the pages. The three generation family story was just a little too melodramatic at times and with that The Glass Palace became too long. I suppose it would make a fine miniseries for those that like that type of thing. Just not for me.
Without knowing it I first came across Fat White Family about 4 or 5 years back. A Graphic designer I then worked with enjoyed the more bizarre world of art and film and was insistent that I watch a rather Pythonish film clip with a fair bit of blood and gore. I recall laughing at its absurdity and not giving it much thought.
Later on I was going through a Neo Psychedelia phase via Spotify and enjoying it. Recommendations came and went and Fat White Family for some reason came up, so I played their Serfs Up album, more based on what I thought was a very good name for an album than anything else. One song stood out, Tastes Good with the Money, and that was added to the Likes list to have an occasional play. As is my way with music, I moved on to other things.
The beauty of Goodreads is reading others reviews and them hitting a spot. With that, I read Nigeyb's review of Ten Thousand Apologies: Fat White Family and the Miracle of Failure and thought about how I knew this band and that the review was very compelling. Nigeyb's review linked.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5974118970
I did a bit of research and when I had a look at them on YouTube I recognised the film clip that the Graphic Designer had liked. A Parental Guidance warning for the squeamish.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLTWNfyMS5Y
I am not that keen on music and sport bio to be honest. I lost interest in what to me was the same old story many years back. I really have no need to read Keith Richard's bio, as an example, and never will. Nor any other of the more famous, they are not that interesting in my opinion. If I am going to read anything music it has to be the more obscure, those that had a brief moment in the sun, and from my part of the world Fat White family fit that obscurity.
Nigeyb makes a good point about this book, “It involves a spectacular amount of drug taking and a wanton disregard for anything approaching professionalism.” From a musical side of things the drug taking is hardly new in the world of music, as for lack of professionalism, from the point of view of making the music itself, the way that Fat White Family approached the making of their 2nd album the lack of professionalism was such drug fuelled chaos that they produced something verging on, at times, hardly listenable. It is truly a miracle it was released. But as to it being a failure, I have to say it is the perfect soundtrack for this book, and after several plays I am liking it a bit more than I might have if I had not persevered. I have a soft spot for lo-fi having listened to such luminaries as the superb Kiwi Chris Knox through to US outsider musician Daniel Johnston. The truth is, Fat White Family are nowhere in the same league in terms of songwriting ability as those two I have mentioned, but that lo-fi ethos is at times evident in Music For our Mothers and with that just gets that little better with each play.
But.........that does not matter as this book is better than just another drug fuelled rock and roll story. It is actually an exceptional telling of the lives of the major members of Fat White Family. Let's start with the fact I have actually listened to this via Audiobook via my Spotify Premium account, this is only the 2nd Audiobook I have ever listened to. It is told in the third person by Emily Spowage and in the first person by Fat White Family founder and member Lias Saoudi and is told brilliantly. Emily Spowage is perfect for the 3rd person telling, and this is offset superbly by the world weariness of Lias narration. This is not just a music Bio, we cover the Saoudi brothers multicultural upbringing of a mixed Algerian Berber father and Yorkshire mother and the trials and tribulations that that caused in such places as Northern Ireland when their parents split and their mother took them to live there with her new husband. Outsiders they were in NI and hence always outsiders and attracted abuse as such. And that is also the attraction of the book, a permanent sense of not belonging in all worlds they were exposed to, be that of their parents, the schools attended and even the world they joined, that being music and outlier performance art.
My music tastes are incredibly broad, I can take in anything from any works of the classical world through to obscure noise musicians, and even in my mid-sixties I am looking for new music to challenge me. Does Fat White Family's music challenge me? To a degree, the answer is yes. The almost unplayable 2nd album I will give a few more plays as it gets better and better, that is a challenge I like; the debut I have enjoyed but needs more plays. The more polished Serfs Up I am starting to really enjoy. Mind you, I have serious earworm with the tune Tastes Good with the Money. That is now into its 5th day now. Go away!
I would suggest that if one is into the fairly generic pop of say Taylor Swift, then one will not like this band's music one little bit. If one is into say the more experimental pop of The Beatles they may find them a curio, they also might be surprised about a very strong link to those musical superstars if they read/listened to this exceptional book.
A first person narrative with short sharp chapters that are sparsely written in almost childlike delivery. The reason for this becomes very clear in the last few pages of the book. Unfortunately I was not that type of reader who recognised this subtly and with that I was not completely enamoured with this read. I do get why others are and maybe a 2nd read would be useful.
A story of Four Soldiers, obvious by the title, that enjoy each other's company in the simple joys of friendship. All four are very different and the narrator is very kind to each and every one of his three comrades in the simplistic way he tells of that friendship in times of deep stress during the Russian Civil War in 1919. This is a human condition tale and aimed at trying to make sense of being safe from harm when that is all that some have.
Recommended as a short and fast read for anyone that prefers fiction on the human condition.
My reading knowledge of Indian history is limited to A History of India, Vol. One by Romila Thapar, which I had read just recently.
My review. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4357568255
I had previously read an excellent William Dalrymple travel book called The Age of Kali.
My review https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1378421738
After those 2 books, the reading of this “a Brief History” is an attempt to read further on the subject of India and an attempt to understand this behemoth of a nation. There are 3 millennia of history to cover, and so far I have touched but the tip of an iceberg. There is going to be no rhyme or reason how I go about this, as I will mix in Indian themed novels as well.
The Impressionist by Hari Kunzru can be added to recently read Indian themed books. As I said, no rhyme or reason.
My review https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2927582604
If I have a little bit of criticism of the book, it tends to struggle to cover the entire Great Moghuls. Six only, but then the author seems to think they are the only 6 worth covering. If a brief history, a short page or two on the less great may have been worthwhile, though a few get a mention in a very short epilogue.
The Moghuls covered are as follows and in order of their reigns:
Barbur. Gascoigne writes that his credentials as an oriental conqueror “...could hardly be improved upon...” Along with his ability to conquer, he was a keen gardener. He is presently buried in Kabul and his burial gardens are a well visited destination.
Hamayun. It was said that his father Babur's last words were “Do naught against your brothers, even though they may deserve it” Gascoigne writes that it was “...fatal advice...” for a man of “...childish...” qualities.
Akbar. Enthroned as a 13 year old was Akbar the greatest of the Great Moghuls? Gascoigne writes as such. A tolerant ruler towards many religions including Hindus, Jains, Zoroastrians and even Jesuits to the point they were included in his religious discussions.
Jahanghir. Though considered as being “...debauched, spineless and susceptible to women...” by many historians, Gascoigne has sympathies towards his perceptions of science, nature and art and an obsessive desire to analyse and record what he saw.
Shah Jahan. Famous for the magnificent Taj Mahal, the mausoleum built for his wife Mumtaz Mahal. Architecture was his joy and he was active in many projects from as young as 15 years old.
Aurangzeb. A brutal religious fundamentalist, who overthrew his father, had his brothers ruthlessly eliminated. In his time, any simmering sectarianism in the empire began to rear its ugly head.
Another good read in the “A Brief History” series, though in this review's opinion, it probably lacks a certain seamlessness in delivery of each of the selected emperor's essay like biographies. I am never keen on comments by figures far into the future, such as using a Kissinger comment about the Vietnam War as a comparison to events in Aurangzeb time, for example.
A full biography of all the emperors would be worthwhile to anyone that wishes to immerse themselves in the Moghuls. The notes and sources are of great use in this area.
Recommended as a good primer to those that know little to nothing on the Great Moghuls.
A historical novel with some characters and incidents that are based on real life events. The author makes mention of this in an epilogue. I was also aware while reading that I was familiar with a lot of the history of the times, the mid 1800's, in Van Diemen's Land / Tasmanian via both fact and fiction. Van Diemen's Land / Tasmanian writers of both history and novels are easily my most interesting and/or enjoyable reads in terms of Australia. This wonderful book just adds to that thought.
Told in the first person by a large cast with the major character's having the most input I found myself racing along as each and every character, be they repulsive or pleasing made this plot driven book a kind of pleasure and pain. The sheer buffoonery of the English colonialist made me laugh out loud at times. On the other hand, the genocide committed on the inhabitants by the English colonialists left one aware that there is that stain on English history. English? I think some may ask. Yes English as this is the point of the story.
My favourite characters were Captain Illiam Quillian Kewley the Manx speaking captain of a smugglers ship and Peevay, the aboriginal man who plays a big part in this story. He is the voice of his peoples sad and slow death via genocide and illness. In this reader's opinion, the author Mathew Kneale has done an exceptional job of giving each and every character their own distinctive voice throughout the story told.
Recommend to both the lover of historical fiction and fact.
Interesting, but I suspect that I needed something a bit more contemporary and maybe more along the lines of A Brief History as this was a starting point for me. I also think the author was far too detailed and dense in presentation of things that seemed minor to me.
After reading a few reviews on GR it seems that India has its history wars as well.
The usual clichés came to mind for this reader, easy to read, page turner etc etc. Add to that, there was a certain poignancy to the telling of the story. That story is a first-person narrative that follows the life of a non-existent character, Esme, in the world of those that did exist, the compilers of the English Oxford Dictionary during the times of The Great War and the Suffragette movement. It made for a light read, but one that was also thought provoking.
The use of words is the great divider.
Esme wrote “There was no ends to the words. No end to what they meant, or the ways they had been used. Some words' histories stretched so far back that our modern understanding of them was nothing more than an echo of the original, a distortion. I used to think it was the other way round, that the misshapen words of the past were a clumsy draft of what they would become; that the words formed on our tongues, in our time, were true and complete. But I was realising that, in fact, everything that comes after the first utterance is corruption.”
Recommended to all that love words.
Krating Daeng, was a militant group, set up to terrorise protesting students and hunt down suspected communists in the early 70's. It translates as Red Guar / Red Bull. A Sino Thai pharmacist called Chaleo Toovidhya created a pick me up fizzy drink and successfully advertised this drink throughout Thailand during that time and called the drink Krating Daeng after that military group. An Austrian on vacation in Thailand in the 80s took the worldwide rights out for the name, and the rest is history. The author of this very good brief history writes rather pointedly that most consumers of this energy drink would be “unaware of the connection between the beverage and the brutal organisation...” from where the name sprang.
The thing that struck me about this brief history was that when the absolute monarch fell in 1936 and Thailand became a constitutional monarchy, there came a strange failure in the ideals of how democracy works. For a nation that has promoted itself as a peaceful destination for tourists, cheap and smiley with great places of both historical and religious significance to visit, to read of the violence of the political class is disturbing to say the least. Untold coups and corruption seems the order of the day between and with both populists and royalists. The red shirts v the yellow shirts was the recent attire for those nailing their political colours to the cross. Cross? Being a Buddhist nation, perhaps I had better say Wat. And did those colour coded fights become violent at times.
A few other things struck me as very interesting.
The influence of Chinese immigration into Thailand over the many centuries, with the Thai people not particularly homogenous, with most having some Sino blood in them. Other groups to live in Thailand are the Laotians and the Malay, with various subgroups. Occasionally anti-Chinese sentiment was used as propaganda.
Thailand's role in WW2 being on the side of Japan. Based on this book, there was a bit of a balancing act as to keeping the country out of the bloodshed, with only the British really holding it against the Thais.
The US influence during the Vietnam War was huge. Thailand sent volunteer troops to fight alongside the US, though after initial admiration by the US this dissipated as regulars failed to be as committed. The poverty-stricken regulars were there for the incentives, be that the pay or the western consumer goods. In some cases, the Thai troops held onto their TV rather than fight.
There are no end notes in this Brief History. The author makes it clear in the introduction that he was only going to include a Further Reading section and Bibliography, as the book is aimed the general public. In this reader's opinion, he has done a good job and I recommend this to anyone that requires a brief history of this fascinating county.
P.S. I spent 2 days in Bangkok in an attempt to reduce jet lag after a flight from the UK to my home in Brisbane. It worked. I wandered the streets in those 2 days along with seeing some of the sights such as the Grand Palace and taking the trip around the canals. The street food was wonderful. As to the organised chaos that is Bangkok's traffic, all I can say is that Brisbane is a village in comparison.
Long flight book 1.
I had a long journey to the UK for family reasons. Direct the flight takes 24 hours, but I was offered the longer 30-hour trip with 2 days in Bangkok on the way home for a significant less quantity of my hard-earned dollars. I took the long journey and the saved cash. But what book to read on this long journey? I selected The Impressionist by Hari Kunzru for the first part of the trip. It seemed a good premise, at least via the blurb, and looked easy to read.
The story is a life story of a boy born in India under the name Pran in the very late 1800's and takes us through to the 1920s. Pran's is a life of change from a high caste born Indian to becoming an Englishman, or does he? The title is significant. Pran the impressionist is as much about seeking as to what he is not as to what he is. His search is a book that is very thematic of race, religion, caste, colonialism and how all this affects identity. There were some very witty moments in this read, the chapter on the buffoonery of the British officer class in one chapter had me laughing out loud. The chapter on a tribe in Africa whose share market instincts was a complete satire on the system that dominates our western world was very very clever.
Many characters appear in Prans life and their backstories are very well told. I really enjoyed the husband and wife McFarlane's who lived in poverty-stricken Bombay, he to preach the Christian bible in as bombastic a way as is the Scottish Protestant way and she to go as native as possible, all this to have interesting consequences as to their relationship and that of their house guest the main protagonist.
Pran is characterised in such a way that I found little to like or dislike about him, he was this strange figure changing impressions of himself in that he attempted to blend into whatever situation came his way. He became all things to all people that he met in his life's journey, even if he wanted to or not..
Recommended as a good read for a long flight as it is readable, thematic and witty enough to while those hours away.
Long flight book 3.
Is this a novel or a history book? History, but like nothing I have ever read.
Author Laurent Binet admits an obsession with the assassination of Nazi Reinhard Heydrich, easily one of the most appalling individuals that the moribund ideology of Nazism threw up. Heydrich I have read about often over the years, so what Binet offered was a new take. That take was Binets own personal immersion in everything he could find out about both Heydrich and those that were involved in his assassination. From there, he embellishes what he has researched with what he thought would make good style over substance in a historical novel, admitting that what he wrote was fantasy. This is very hard to explain, and for one attracted to pure history as the pursuit of an enquiring mind this was to say the least off-putting. On the other hand, the vague desire for esoteric literature made this a very good read. Talk about mixed emotions.
At this point, I read the praise and the criticism from a couple of Goodreads friends.
Ian has an excellent review that is far better than anything I could conceive, and I recommend his as essential.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4269999300
Marc has differing thoughts as to Ian's and I also recommend his as essential.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1257938515
I agree with the praise and the criticism. Is this entertainment or history? I shrug my shoulders as I am not sure.
Long flight book 2.
I stayed with a cousin who put me into his early 20's daughter's room as she was busy backpacking in my own part of the world. I had a look at her bookcase, very small that it was by my standards, and noticed the famous The Great Gatsby. Later that evening, she rang her dad and spoke to me as well. I mentioned the book and asked her what she thought. She had seen the movie, I presume the most recent, and enjoyed it, so had got a Wentworth edition but had only half finished it. She did not particularly like it and lost interest. I could have it, she said.
Being only 136 pages long, it would be one to slip into on the long haul home.
I have to admit I have not been that enthralled with The Great Gatsby in terms of making me think it is essential reading. I do understand it is a comment on the excesses of The Roaring Twenties, but to my 100 years later mind there had the feel of a soap opera to it. Maybe that was the point?
The edition I read had some footnotes explaining a few of F. Scott Fitzgerald more subtle references that were useful but the feeling that I have had with reading classics later in life in that I understood the importance of them, that they possibly changed the way the populace at large thought about the event written about failed to get through. Why? Not sure. I may not be that into US literature per se. Other than Vonnegut and maybe a couple of others authors, I have tended to fail in this area
My third Dalrymple book and again has not let this reader down. His travel writing stands out in that he can write his own descriptions of his observations or he can let just let the conversation with whom he is talking to speak for itself within the narrative. What a superb writer.
Subcontinent history and culture is not a strong point for me other than a few online items, a bit of news via SBS here in Australia and also being a cricket lover I am very aware of the superb players the subcontinent has produced and its population's love of the game being fanatical. While reading A History of India by Romila Thapar I began The Age of Kali as I kind of breaker mid-way. I have not been able to put this one down and will get back to the history itself shortly. The subtitle of this one is Indian Travels and Encounters. I might have had Sub-continent instead of Indian, as Dalrymple travels to both Pakistan and Sri Lanka and even has an aside to Réunion. Though published in 1999 this is still a relevant read for anyone wishing to understand the tumultuous politics of India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
The title is important. Dalrymple decided The Age of Kali after the Indian detonation of their nuclear device, with some seeing this as a sign of the age of Kali.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kali_Yuga
Broken up into 6 parts, the author describes his subchapters as peripatetic essays, and they certainly are. With that there is something for anyone that has an interest in the Sub-continent, be that political, religious and cultural. The only area missing is Bangladesh, my only complaint.
Part 1 North has 5 subchapters. The first The Age of Kali Dalrymple discusses and goes to the Northern state Bihar where caste hatred and warfare was on the rise to the point of being endemic. Corruption was rife. It still is. I found a headline that said “Living Example Of Corruption In Bihar” after a recent bridge collapse.
Part 2 In Rajasthan has 3 subchapters. The third Sati Mata told the story of an 18-year-old bride burning on her young husband's funeral pyre. This happened in 1987 and there was a trial lasting 10 years after the authorities charged 32 men. All were found not guilty. The young bride, Roop Kanwar had a shrine built for her not long after her death and within a fortnight 750,000 people came to worship at her there.
Part 3 The New India has 2 subchapters. The second Finger Lickin' Bad: Bangalore and the Fast Food Invaders told of the backlash to western fast food in Bangalore. A Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet was smashed to smithereens as part of a backlash at India economic liberalisation. Considering Cricket and the railways were imports from another culture and are now more Indian than the empire they were exported from, this backlash made fascinating reading. I had a quick check and there are at present about 20 KFC's in Bangalore.
Part 4 The South has 3 subchapters. The third Parashakti is about the devotees of this goddess who has many other names. Dalrymple meets a Mr Venugopal who explains that the women at a temple have the devil inside them and Parashakti will tame those devils.
Part 5 On the Indian Ocean has 3 subchapters. The second Up The Tiger Path tells of Sri Lanka brutal civil war, with Dalrymple travelling to a devastated Jaffna and meeting some usually secretive leaders of the Tamil Tigers. About 20 years back I had a drink in a Parisian café and was served by a Tamil Refugee. He had been refused entry into Australia he told me, but France had welcomed him. The only thing he missed was Cricket. Did I know Shane Warne he asked? Only from the TV was the reply. He had no interest in the Civil War but talked Cricket with a sense of loss.
Part 6 Pakistan has 4 subchapters. The first Imran Khan: Out for a Duck explains to the reader just how popular Imran Khan was (and still is to this day) in Pakistan. Revered would be too soft a word. I am of the opinion that non Cricket playing nations have no understanding of Imran Khan and his status to the Pakistani people. I would suggest he makes Trump, just an example, look an utter light weight politically in terms of the loyalty of his supporters and general popularity that reaches superstar status unrivalled. This recent item in The Guardian is worth a read.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/may/24/future-pakistan-young-voters-imran-khan-cricketer-politician
This subchapter is about Imran Kahn at the start of his political career in 1989. His political party failed to win a seat at the next election. After the release of this book he rose to power as Prime Minister and has joined the many other Pakistani PMs who have had a difficult time in a country steeped in tribalism, nepotism and endemic corruption.
This for me is a very good book to read about events, places and people from late last century from the various areas of the subcontinent. It is travel writing with journalism mixed in at its apex. The stories told have stood the test of time in that they relate to the past from the subcontinents culture, history and politics with the thoughts of the lowliest village voice through to the high and mighty. It shows the rapid transition in some areas that is changing a conservative past. If anything I now have a better understanding of the present rise of the lower castes into the higher echelons of the Indian political elite, an understanding of the mix that is tribalism in Pakistan that permeates all life and also why the Sri Lankan Civil war was what it was.
Recommended to anyone with an interest in travel and the Subcontinent.
If I enjoyed author Rod Ushers A Man of Marbles then I enjoyed this one just as much. This is an easy read that contains “a wise and witty tale” just as the cover blurb says.
Told in the first person by the mayor of a poor, dusty, small and obscure village called Higot that has little going for it in an unnamed Latin speaking country. El Gordo, the mayor, perpetrates a hoax to try and get the village heading towards a wealthier future. El Gordo is the benefactor of a 23,000 book library left to him by an upper class Englishman who lived in the village for 7 years with his butler. This led to friendship between them, with El Gordo learning English from what little he understood of the strange utterances of both the Englishman and via the books left to him.
This leads to a very wittily told tale that mixes, for example, English poetry and colloquialisms with some Spanish words that had me laughing out loud on several occasions, such was the clever wit. This was not meant to be making fun of a Spanish speaker attempting to speak English by the author. Of an Australian background with a Spanish wife and living in Spain, Rod Usher has I suspect noticed that English is not that easy to understand for those of another lingo.
Thematically there is a lot covered from depression, the power of the written word, a changing world, greed and love.
There is one other theme that would in fact give the plot away, and I am certainly not going to do that other than recommend this very good book to those that wish to know what poor man's wealth is.
I sprang to the stirrup, and Joris, and he;
I galloped, Dirck galloped, we galloped all three;
‘Good speed!'' cried the watch, as the gate-bolts undrew;
‘Speed!' echoed the wall to us galloping through;
Behind shut the postern, the lights sank to rest,
And into the midnight we galloped abreast.
There has been many an attempt to portray the simple person in the arts, be that The Idiot by Dostoevsky, The Fool on The Hill by The Beatles and even Banksy with his I am an Imbecile balloon.
Not that I particularly wish to compare A Man of Marbles by an obscure Australian journalist, novelist and poet to such an illustrious group as those mentioned above, but this just might be the closest thing that I have read in Australian literature that relates to the idiot who is a fool and an imbecile but then is not. The cover of my copy is the brilliant Moses Leading the People by Arthur Boyd and has me wondering what it was that author Rod Usher was trying to tell us in this rather clever tale of the man with an innate and simple goodness of heart and head trying to deal with circumstantial adversity thrust upon him.
“No one can be good for long if goodness is not in demand.” observes Bertolt Brecht.
“'I've hundreds of things to say, but my tongue just cannot manage them. So I'll dance then for you! Here goes'” Zorba the Greek pronounces.
“There is always the possibility that certain relatively clear pointers towards various events and actions will be misinterpreted or lost as mere hints.” Heinrich Boll tells us.
“......today you have flung away with your own hand all the advantages which an interrogation invariably confers on an innocent man.” says Kafka.
“Fame, after all, is only the quintessence of all the misunderstandings that collect around a new name” Rilke wisely states.
“'Weight up the pros and cons, Yannakos; this might get you into trouble' ‘I've weighed them again and again, Konstandis, the weights are just right for me” remarks Kazantzakis shrewdly remarks.
Usher quotes from many sources as he gives us Stavro ‘Stan' Kristopolis, a tender-hearted young man who lives with his very Greek/Australian parents as a green grocer in that very Greek and at the same time cosmopolitan city that is Melbourne. To tell Stan's story of simple goodness and joy that each day brings him with such trivial delights as his pet rabbit would be to give the plot away. The plot is a simple one really, but it is with those more famous literary quotes that bring each chapter together in a wise and very witty telling of innocence never really lost or gained. The plot challenges us to look into our hearts and heads and face the fact that the majority of all humankind sees simple pleasure as not that intelligent, sees uncomplicated goodness as witless.
It also asks who have lost their marbles; you, me, or that oddity dancing in the street?
Recommended to the non-conformist or those that who seek the Promised Land.
“An estimated 3.8 million people (20%) aged 18 years and over have experienced violence (physical and/or sexual) by an intimate partner or family member since the age of 15, including: 27% of women (2.7 million) 12% of men (1.1 million)” I can quote from the Australian Bureau of Statistics in 21/22 report.
Staggering statistics considering that I have never experienced domestic violence in my family nor do I know anyone that has. Occasional mentions have happened over the years. The lady who I worked with who came in occasionally with a black eye, there were rumours. A friend of my wife once told us that her father had hit her mother several times over the years, but little else was ever mentioned.
Even though a novel to say I was in shock of the violence that was committed on a family by a drunken father has left me astonished if this could even be half true. The author Deborah Forster has stated that it is vaguely based on her own family experience. Good grief. Did others suffer?
The Book of Emmett begins with a funeral for the violent father. This is his eponymous book. It tells via third party narrative what he did to an undeserving family and how his savage cruelness caused not only the death of one of his children but left the survivors in a state of never living a life without him dominating just about everything they did from a young age of fear through to a lifetime of memory that seemed to become a love/hate middle age to his children and only memories of him giving her children she loved to his wife. This is a brutal telling of family forced into dysfunctionality.
I accept that books such as this are not entertaining and some will not enjoy it but it was hard not to keep reading as it was so powerfully thought provoking, such that it will live with me for a long time.
“This review applies to Travels in a Thin Country, The Broken Road, A Time of Gifts, Roumeli and a few others by the same author. I am very keen on travel writing and on this basis bought the books, supposedly by one of the great travel writers. Overall they present as being written by a self indulgent, smarty pants show-off using many complex and very rare words when simple words would work better ( and I am very interested in words). Avoid.” says an Amazon review from someone in Australia.
Ouch! But I wonder why the reviewer has mixed up his Patrick Leigh Fermor books with the rather less well known Sara Wheeler. To be fair to Sara she is no Patrick Leigh Fermor in the ‘self indulgent, smarty pants show-off using many complex and very rare words' but if the review thought she was he read a different version of Chile Travels in a Thin Country than me. Be that as it may I have found this one an entertaining read even if it did have/lack those smarty pant big words and that, for me, Sara was more journo than traveller.
Sara was talked into travel to Chile by an expat Chilean in London. Her intention was to travel the long thin country from north to the Antarctic south in as much time as her visa allowed. Other than a first chapter that explains her tour of a Santiago brothel that happened because some other researcher needed a wing women, her travels are told as near as possible from a north to south perspective.
From the dusty north around Araca and the Atacama Desert to Tierra del Furgo Sara and even to the Antarctica she travelled with both friends found, known and solo to see as much of Chile as she could. What to this reader were very useful descriptions of both the people and the places are presented. The local people she met she was not scared to mix with, be they the ultra-wealthy through to those in abject poverty. She had very useful contacts in this regard.
As to the countryside, she was more than willing to go off the beaten track. The two things that stood out for me were her love of the diversity and beauty of those dusty and dry deserts of the north through to the wondrous lands of the south and their alpine vista's, glistening lakes and smoking volcanos.
Sara offers her travels in Chile, as she says in the introduction of my revised 2nd edition from 2006, as those of a young woman 30 odd years back. She actually spent her 30th Birthday while in Chile. In the introduction, she tells of how much Chile had changed between her visits. The same would ring true today, one would have thought.
Recommended travel writing.
Tribalism is governed by a force so motivationally powerful that it predicts more of your behaviour than your race, class, nationality, or religion. The formal analysis of this incredible phenomenon has only just begun, but the emerging science reveals that these factors are mere subjugates to our primal instinct to be a member of a tribe. This “Tribe Drive” is an ancient adaptation that has been a prerequisite for survival for 99.9 percent of our species' evolutionary history. It is a critical piece of cognitive machinery—honed by millions of years of evolution—that gave us the ability to navigate, both cooperatively and competitively, increasingly complex social landscapes. But now that our species spans billions across the globe, does this adaptation continue to serve us, or is it mismatched to its environment? In other words, what happens when humans become either tribeless or destructively consumed by tribalism?
So next time you hear a raving demagogue counselling hatred for other, slightly different groups of humans, for a moment at least see if you can understand his problem: He is heeding an ancient call that—however dangerous, obsolete, and maladaptive it may be today—once benefited our species. — CARL SAGAN AND ANN DRUYAN, 1993
Tribe.
Sebastian Junger writes in the introduction that as a young man he lived a life of such sheer predictability that he wanted something to happen be that a hurricane or tornado, though not necessarily the destruction that came with it, just so that he could be involved in “.....something that would require us to all band together as a tribe” Based on an anecdote where a man gave him a sandwich he states that being part of a tribe is “a rare and precious thing in modern society.” That man saw him as part of the tribe. “Modern Society has perfected the art of making people not feel necessary. It's time for that to end”
I can hear many of my ageing baby boomer generation agreeing to these sentiments without giving it too much thought. I think that Junger is mixing up nostalgia for a past that most older people of any era mistake for the, as they see it, errors of the modern world. This can be subconscious thought in my opinion, not really recognised by an older/my generation as they become the parents they rejected. Junger is unusual in that he recalled himself as a youth that had no “tribalism” as he saw it but then recognised it in an incident where he got a free sandwich not long after. One would have to read this free sandwich incident to understand what he means.
In the first essay titles The Man and The Dogs we are told of the Indian Wars in 1763 when the tribes tried without success to violently repel the English and with that paid a heavy price. One demand by the colonists was the return of what seemed like many hundreds of Europeans, both male and female that had absconded and/or been captured and lead a life of their choosing with the tribes that they came into contact with. Junger writes that prior had been attempts to stem the flow of those willing to leave the colonies by imposing severe penalties on anyone that took up with the Indians. “The Puritan leaders of New England found it particularly galling that that anyone would turn their backs on Christian society” “Heathenish” behaviour was one descriptor used by one Puritan leader. The frontiersman actually began to mimic the tribes so as to survive the, shall we say, lack of services. At this point Junger states that it is easy to romanticize the Indian life but that it was a life of wars, torture and cruelty. “If there is any conceivable defence for such cruelty....” the Spanish Inquisition was no better. In my opinion this is the entire existence of human kind is one of mankinds inhumanity to each other be that as individuals or in the vast majority of cases tribe versus tribe. Any one that reads deeply into our history no matter what corner of the world will find we are hardly a peaceful species. The Holocaust anyone? The Crusades? Should I name 100's more? Junger admits as much by mentioning the Protestant Reformations “...capacity for cruelty...”
He thinks that the appeal of the Indians was such things as hunting that was more “...interesting than plowing fields.” Sex also as this was less of a moral issue than with the puritans who were, lets be brutal here, one of the more stupid religious subsets when it came to attempting to suppress what comes naturally. In fact let make that all the Abrahamic Religions. Junger suggests Indians were a touch more tolerant on religion in general, classless to a point, egalitarian and they dressed for comfort and personal property was also limited. He adds that women had fewer children as well, choice was the norm. Was the violence of Indian life was preferable to the alternative? The Indian tribes may have had it over the Puritan tribes for some colonialist. Do we see this in modern society, possibly in off the grid collectives?
Junger discusses why western life may be unappealing to some. On a material level we are more comfortable but “...as societies become more affluent they tend to require more, rather than less, time and commitment (as) individuals.” I actually relate to this point. As an example my drive to and from work each day are 2 hours of my life I resent, with halfwit drivers on a jammed freeway committing dangerous acts so as to get to their destination maybe a few minutes earlier. Cocooned individuals in their metal shells that oblivious to the mayhem they cause. I hate it. I have several times thought of selling up and moving to a slower lifestyle.
Junger actually makes the point that a study of the !Kung showed they needed as little as 12 hours a week in order to survive life in the Kalahari. Junger's discussion on the deep history and lifestyle of the !Kung seems not far removed from the Indian tribes he initially discusses. The !Kung pretty much stayed the same as they had ever been until the 1970s when modern life finally caught up with their isolation.
The rest of the chapter discusses the coming of both the agriculture and industrial ages and with that the fundamental change in the human experience, personal property ownership and individual choice for example. As we moved into town and city living we also began to have less to do with the tribe and were meeting more and more strangers than once was the case. Being a tribal species this has led to evidence that this affluence and urbanisation has led to more psychological issues such as depression, suicide etc. Suicide was hitherto rarely known in tribal societies with a few exceptions.
There are other “alienating effects” on modern society such as the fact that tribal mothers gave birth and carried their babies skin to skin 90% of the time compared to US mothers in the 1970s when that was as low as 16%. Children never slept on their own but nowadays sleep alone soon after birth. Where once there was the tribe (mother/father/sister/brother) there is nowadays stuffed toys. Modern reasons that a baby should be “self soothing” go against evolution.
Modern society reduced the role of the tribe as a community and elevated authority. “...uneasy companions” says Junger. Foraging societies of the past had one common trait and that was an absence of wealth disparity. This was evolutionary as there need for “co-operative band-level sharing” In these groups we had to be highly mobile. Authority was almost impossible to impose on the unwilling as males that tried to control the group countered “coalitions of other males”. These behaviours kept the group together. To not do so meant they did not eat. It is suggested that shirkers and non-sharers got ridiculed and even killed off. Anthropologist Christopher Boehm claims that even modern foraging groups have no issue with execution of those that do not share. Bad behaviour punished, good behaviour rewarded via being part of the food cycle and being an integral part of the community.
Here Junger looks at modern society as a comparison. “Subsistence-level hunters aren't necessarily more moral than other people; they just can't get away with selfish behaviour because they live in small groups where almost everything is subject to scrutiny. Modern society on the other hand, is a sprawling and anonymous mess where people can get away with incredible levels of dishonesty without getting caught.” Here Junger gives examples of both ends of the US with it thought that 3% cheat on welfare benefits that in a tribal society would get punished. Fraud in Insurance costs 100's of billions and defence contract fraud is thought to be 100's of billions “.....and they are relatively well behaved compared to the finance industry. If compared to the cost of a hunter gather community this could be the loss of months of food and would be a serious threat to survival. “....retribution....” “.....would be immediate and probably very violent” As there are hardly any punishments Junger says that it is because the US is now very much ‘de-tribalizsed'. US law is very much in favour of the individual as opposed to the tribe and Junger feels that the public at large are excepting of this. Some major disasters may challenge this acceptance. He finds this ironic as the origins of the US were in “..confronting precisely this kind of resource seizure by people in power”
Essay 2 War Makes you an Animal. Junger uses his own family history makes the point that “....my family was deeply affected by war and probably wouldn't have existed without it”. His family history is interesting reading and I suspect that we can all trace back and discover similar history if we wish. I have done DNA and ancestry matches and can trace my family tree to some very famous and violent individuals in English history. I am also able to see many ancestors who served in the military. This has to have had an effect on who and where I am today even if I am not sure how. Junger tells of his antiwar fathers' reaction to his own reaction against the Vietnam War when he got drafted, a lecture as to fighting fascism and owing the country something. His father said he was right to protest an unjust war but he had to be part of the protection of the country none the less. Junger then discusses tribal initiation rites with a comparison to young felles driving fast cars, as one example, to impress their peers. Adding that young boys play war games Junger says that all this is culminated in “....how I came to understand my own curiosity about combat when I was young”.
And with that “....how I came to understand why I found myself, broke and directionless, on the tarmac of Sarajevo airport at age thirty one, listening to the tapping of machine gun fire in a nearby suburb named Dobrinja.” Junger spends the next few pages telling of his own and others exploits on Sarajevo during the civil war and as is usual there are things that should not be happening. He states that over the 3 year siege roughly 20% of the population is killed and wounded with UN estimating that half the children had seen someone killed and 1 in five had lost a family member. This was Junger's observation of the beginning of a societal collapse. He states that all are equal in that case. In 1915 an earthquake killed 30,000 in less than a minute. “The rich were killed with the poor....”. Disasters of this nature can make all equal, he even says that despite reports otherwise there was a drop in crime after Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans as so called looting reports were in fact communities mostly looking for food. He also adds the blitz on London where “Conduct was so good...” by the population that police were rarely summoned. In London “Psychiatrists watched in puzzlement as long standing patients saw their symptoms subside.......” Disaster, war specifically had positive effects on mental health. Researchers noted the same in other ward over time such as Spain, Algeria, Lebanon and Norther Ireland. H.A. Lyons a noted psychologist said that active engagement in a cause improved mental health. It seems that the allies learnt nothing from the blitz as when Dresden was smashed beyond anything that was comparable prior production went up and morale was higher than any other comparable German city that was spared. Charles Fritz, a member of the US Strategic Bombing Survey became a critic of bombing. He later made a general study and “....formulated a broad theory about social resilience”. Later in the 1960s he developed his theory further in that “.....modern society has gravely disrupted social bonds that have always characterised the human experience, and that disasters thrust people back into a more ancient, organic way of relating. Disasters he proposed, create a ‘community of sufferers' that allows individuals to experience an immensely reassuring connection to others” With that many differences are temporarily erased be that class or race. Fritz felt that this was therapeutic, especially to those with mental illness. Later anthropologist such as Anthiny Oliver-Smith came to the same conclusions after further study.
Humana are “strongly wired” to help each other. And will even risk their lives to assist complete strangers. Men perform the vast majority of rescues on children, the elderly and women. Reproductive women are a disproportionally high number and that makes sense from a evolutionally sense. This is considered to be due to upper body strength and a male personality trait known as “impulsive sensation seeking”. Women display more what is called moral courage. Women slightly outnumber men in the names on the Righteous Among Nations records for example. Gender division suits humans in risk taking be that male physical or female moral in that it keeps communities together males protect us from danger and females protect us morally. In the modern world this need to help each other is less profound than once was, We are protected by various departments such as police and fire brigades that have relieved us of most challenging events. Those living today can go through an entire life without seeing anything that can be considered dangerous and if we do others can deal with that. Junger calls this a blessing and a loss. The blessing is obvious but the loss is that danger in the past defined communities.
To show the reactions of each gender and also how men became leaders to deal with catastrophe in certain situation Junger compares the Spinghill Mine disaster in Nova Scoatia 1958, WW2 London Blitz and his time in Sarajevo. He said that the coming together of society to events such as these catastrophes tends to be temporary but in the case of the UK lasted probably until the 1970 with the fading out of those that had lived in the blitz. What seems to happen though is that when a new catastrophe occurs there is a turning back of the clock. Research has shown that as memory fades theses times are seen as good times by the older generation. As one survivor of Sarajevo said “I missed being close to people......” “We were the happiest then” “We laughed more”
Essay 3. In Bitter Safety I Awake.
Junger explains how he suffered from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder that he only recognised after a discussion with psychotherapist at a family event. He had come back from 2 months with the Northern Alliance and had seen was in all its gory detail and reported as such. For the next year suffered panic attacks in crowded and noisy situations that eventually dissipated but left him wondering what happened. It took this chance meeting to understand that these attacks were in fact “highly efficient single-event survival learning mechanism” Though the attacks eased Junger writes he became emotionally different.
“If war were purely bad in every single aspect and toxic in all its effects, it would probably never happen as often as it does” writes Junger who goes onto explain that it “....inspires ancient human virtues of courage, loyalty, and self-awareness that can be utterly intoxicating to people who experience them”. Junger makes this statement when discussing that war was an integral part of a developed and parallel system of government that the Iroquois “understood” as part of their survival as a tribe for both war and peace with modern warfare being now fought generally far away from civilian populations. This means that modern veterans come home to a modern world that they are alienated from they may be having a perfectly healthy response. His example of the Iroquois is that their wars may have been a collective experience as opposed to that of the individual. At this point I wonder if Junger is a bit to US eccentric as the US is one of the very few nations that has the ability to fight far from its own home and leave he population at large very much isolated from the trauma of war.
Rapid recovery by nations suffering psychological trauma is discussed with examples of toughest street kids in Burundi having low PTSD rates through to short term reactions to trauma once danger has passed. Long term PTSD is in fact rare according to the research. Rape is supposedly more initially psychologically damaging than combat research has found but even then that trauma dissipates quickly. This is a faster recovery rate than shown with some US combat deployees. Psychologist this is caused by a “best of times/worst of times” by the military, rape victims on the other hand know nothing but trauma.
Statistically 20% of those that suffer PTSD and don't recover are already “...burdened with psychological issues...”. Those that are at greatest risk according to study are the educational deficit, female, low IQ and even abused children. Suicide is the “extreme expression of PTSD. In recent times the military has been able to assess the mental health issues of sodiers and of there are precieved issues then they are not deployed in combat zones. There is also the statistic that modern military population being volunteer based has a high proportion of younger people who were abused and joined to escape that trauma. An easy way out of a bad situation.
PTSD is not just for the front line soldier. Those that launch a missile attack watch the devastation they bring in real time far behind the lines suffer. Both Yom Kippur and US Army VII Corp support troops who saw no combat suffered high PTSD. Frontline troops train together and tribalism brings strong bonding whereas the opposite occurs with the backline, theory has it.
The rest of the review is in the comments below.
Life was once Bliss. Life was once Hell. Life was once a marvel of richness and variety.
Is life still a marvel of richness and variety? Is life still Hell? Is life still Bliss?
Does life condemn us all to a Bliss/Hell of our own making? The answer is probably yes.
A winner of the Miles Franklin in 1981 this must have appealed to the judge's for its satirical take on then modern city life, advertising for example, and the alternative culture that had sprouted up in northern New South Wales around the Mount Warning/Nimbin area. As satire, it was at times laugh out loud funny, but also became repetitive and seemed to overstay its welcome.
Recommended to those that like/dislike life and the Bliss and Hell that was once and still is satire.
Author Inga Clendinnen has written an interpretive history of the meeting of Australians, in what is now the Sydney Harbour area, with the British First Fleet of 1788. The title meaning is that the Australians and the British began their relationship by dancing together via song and dance. That relationship fell apart not long after, and basically fell off the proverbial cliff when Governor Arthur Phillip returned to Britain in late 1872 1792.
There is an interesting comment that the author makes in relation to what we in more modern times would call domestic violence. Based on Inga Clendinnen deep research on all available publications and documents of that time, the treatment of women by the Australians was not something that makes comfortable reading and is made comment on by various surviving writings from those times. Throughout the reading of Dancing with Strangers, the author goes to great lengths to discuss cultural differences and an understanding of them. This is an area that was of extreme difference between the strangers.
“It seems that what can be judged reprehensible violence is a cultural matter. We are disconnected that (British observers) could watch those hangings and floggings unmoved.” The author writes about punishment that the convicts received as a matter of course. That the Australians were horrified by these forms of punishment and that was noted by various accounts. On the other hand we can be sure “...that after such sanctioned displays whether of floggings or wife bashing, both sides were left goggling at each other across a cultural chasm. Every society is adept at looking past its own forms of violence, and reserving its outrage for the violence of others.”
Inga Clendinnen makes various comment on cultural chasm. There were things that the British did not see in their various writings with the fact that these settlers may have never grasped the respect shown to age, ritual experience, their freedom and their material equality to name just some. Their own fledgling society was “...sustained by the whip...” and the “...sanctify of property...” and that some of the British be that convict or free were hanged to protect that sanctity of property rights. The Australians hardly gave a thought to property rights and such was Phillip's attempts to dance with these stranger in what for the times seems a very enlightened attitude, there was great outrage among both the convict and the free that they were being punished whereas the Australians were treated lightly.
But with the coming of the British, there was irreversible change. Over a short period of time, three years in the lifetime of Baneelon (or Bennelong as he is known today) the world changed for the worse for the Australians. Baneelon was one of the first to dance with these strangers. He was eventually taken to Britain by Phillip at the end of his governorship. Baneelon came back to a Sydney that had grown and no longer cared for him, and his own people no longer held him in high regard. His is a sad story of an alcoholic demise and death.
Inga Clendinnen covers and gives opinions on topics such racism, language and cultural barriers and plenty more. The epilogue covers her thoughts about the historical issues that have reared their, at times, ugly head and talks in hope of “...the possibility of a decent co-existence between unlike groups...” with “...scrutiny of our assumptions and values as they come under challenge...” Inga passed away in 2016. As I write, the Australian peoples of all colours and creeds are facing a referendum on a constitutional change. I wonder what she would have thought of this attempt to no longer talk as strangers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Australian_Indigenous_Voice_referendum
A fantastic read and highly recommended.
My first ever reading of a Granta and I must say I have enjoyed this one. Found in one of my local free neighbourhood libraries, and I will return it and hope that someone else enjoys it.
The theme is Aliens. I was not too sure what to expect, but was pleasantly surprised at the depth and ideas presented in both fact and fiction that the editors of Granta offered. People being aliens to their surroundings, be that in lands foreign and in their own personal situations.
A few of the standouts for me.
A fiction called Come, Japanese by Julie Otsuka. Unbeknownst to me, this was a chapter from a book by the author. The small bio at the rear of this issue informed me this was an extract from the Julie's The Buddha in the Attic. Told from the perspective of just about all the young Japanese girls aboard a migrant ship heading to the US at the turn of last century to meet their future husbands they had never met, I found myself enthralled with the blend of hope and fear.
German expat Philip Oltermann wrote of being taken to London as a boy when his Anglophile father was transferred there for work reasons. He told the story of the meaning of B.O.G Standard that had a lot of humour along with the issues his family had in understanding their new English lifestyle. The letter his father wrote to a schoolmate's tradesman father was very witty, the reaction proof of lack of understanding between cultures.
I found myself enthralled, for a reason I cannot explain, in Mercies by Ann Patchett. Maybe a subject I had never thought of? Ann was taught by a Sisters of Mercy nun as a youngster, Sister Nena, who had stuck with Ann during her time as semi-literate schoolgirl and from there had become an author of note. Ann stayed friends with Sister Nena. When Nena's convent was closed she had to restart her life in a world utterly alien to her. From Ann's observations, she tried hard to exist with the help of her faith and her natural stoicism and good humour.
Here is what You Do is a fiction by Chris Dennis that told the story of an intelligent high school history teacher who became addicted to painkillers and was jailed for drug offences while coming back across the Mexican US border. Main character Ricky ends up in a cell with Donald a long termer in for manslaughter. Ricky does what he can to survive by being Donald sex partner for his four month stay. A brutal story that both repulsed and enthralled.
My first and so far only Granta, but I would recommend this one to anyone that wants a mix of fact and fiction short stories that are easy to read and blend something for everyone.
A Place of Greater Safety.
A really good title but.....
The roots of the French Revolution began with the recognition that France, and its monarchy, were on the verge of bankruptcy. Let's also think of a couple of its more noted incidents, such as the storming of the Bastille through to the beheading of Maria Antoinette; there are so many more to consider in this stunningly fascinating subject. Wiki give a timeline that is long and deep and a rabbit hole for the curious type.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_French_Revolution
That fascination is obvious, mankind's inhumanity to his fellow men and women (off with his/her head), the political shenanigans that the revolution entailed, the wars that it started, the intriguing characters it turned up, the rise of Napoleon, in fact the entire changing of Europe and the world; what more could one want? One can read so many titles on this most interesting of historical events. How can a huge historical novel by one of the world's most celebrated authors go wrong?
Late in Part 4 of this brick of a book is a chapter called Burning the Bodies and is about the storming of the Tuileries Palace, a major event in the revolution. I came out of these 31 pages wondering how bland it was. This dreary chapter hardly covered it; instead we got drab dialogue by the many nondescript characters that made up this cast of too many, dialogue that was so utterly dull as to have had me taken aback. What followed the incident at the Tuileries Palace is the infamous Reign of Terror. With that momentous event coming, this had to improve.
Unfortunately for this reader, it hardly did. A laborious and ponderous experience that was hardly aided by a cumbersome telling of the story, the choppy change of styles in presentation, the rare but annoying change to first-person narrative, very long descriptive prose and then far too long dialogue made this a difficult and disjointed read.
The three main protagonists of this historical fiction are Georges-Jaques Danton, Camille Desmoulinns and Maxililien Robespirre. All were utter giants of the Reign of Terror during the revolution, and all came to lose their heads. Unfortunately, they tended to be just bland and boring amid a cast of bland and boring people talking bland and boring and at times meaningless dialogue that a good editor would have culled in this far too long a book.
A book of greater disappointment.
“One of the most powerful short stories ever written: Yukio Mishima's masterpiece about the erotics of patriotism and honor, love and suicide.” Says the blurb.
Badly written erotica about the said subjects if you ask me.
I had a few good laughs, though.
“The coat, which was cold and damp and had lost the odor of horse dung it normally exuded when exposed to the sun, weighed heavily upon her arm.” How romantic.
“In a few moments the two lay naked before the glowing gas heater.” What a very lucky or unlucky gas heater depending on one's point of view.
“What ecstasies they experienced after these tender exchanges may well be imagined” The gas heater got to see it all.
“From the heights they plunged into the abyss, and from the abyss they took wing and soared once more to dizzying heights. The lieutenant panted like the regimental standard-bearer on a route march.... As one cycle ended, almost immediately a new wave of passion would be generated, and together—with no trace of fatigue—they would climb again in a single breathless movement to the very summit.”
“For one thing, he was anxious not to undermine the considerable strength he would need in carrying out his suicide. For another, he would have been sorry to mar the sweetness of these last memories by overindulgence.” Oh those dizzying heights, the over indulgence, the over indulgence!
“Even the wood-grain patterns they now gazed at on the dark ceiling boards would be taken from them.” Yes, even those wood grained patterns would be taken from them.
“This must be the very pinnacle of good fortune, he thought. To have every moment of his death observed by those beautiful eyes—it was like being borne to death on a gentle, fragrant breeze. There was some special favor here.” Death on a gentle, fragrant breeze that ends with him vomiting his guts up, well not really, his guts were spread out all over the floor eventually, some special favor.
“Reiko bent her body low to the mat in a deep bow. She could not raise her face. She did not wish to spoil her make-up with tears, but the tears could not be held back”
“It was the first time Reiko had ever seen her husband's blood and she felt a violent throbbing in her chest. She looked at her husband's face. The lieutenant was looking at the blood with calm appraisal. For a moment- though thinking at the same time that it was hollow comfort—Reiko experienced a sense of relief.”
Her make-up was not spoiled?
“If she were to lock the door, it could be that the neighbors might not notice their suicide for several days. Reiko did not relish the thought of their two corpses putrifying before discovery.” Yes indeed, but who is going to clean up the blood and guts?
“She gathered her strength and plunged the point of the blade deep into her throat.” 万歳
Thematically covering subjects that are of concern now, refugees, global warming and corruption at a governmental level mixed with crony capitalism. It is also very multicultural with events told in a world 50 odd years into the future. This should have been made for a good read at a minimum but I have been very disappointed.
The story is told in the first person alternately by the two main protagonists, female Rin and male Yamaan. I found myself thinking that the story Rin told, that of a mid-twenties orphan rising to the heights in a corrupt multinational to the point she could bring the entire company to its knees, all a bit farfetched. Because of her feeling angry that her stepmother had lied to her about her birth mother and then adding to that the stepmother pathetically losing the plot over Rin having sex with the house boy, Yamaan, it was hard to take seriously. Sci Fi can pull off all kind of sleight of hand by the writer, but it does have to have some semblance of realism. Rin, was a character far too immature for my liking; with that, I could never imagine one so young being given such free rein in a multinational corporation that had its corrupt tentacles in the use of refugee facilities as prison camps worldwide to make exorbitant profit at the expanse of the helpless. Its ideas were very good, but characters and plot were too shallow.
I did laugh though that the Premier of Tasmania at this time in the future is one James Abetz, Tasmanian, and some mainland Australia readers, will get a chuckle out of that.
Author Rohan Wilson first two very good novels were about colonial era Van Diemen's Land and were highly acclaimed by both critics and the public. So when it was announced that he was spreading his wings with a sci fi novel I was looking forward to it. I loved his first 2 novels, they both verged on outstanding. This one failed for this reader.