42. Hogfather

It has been an unfortunately ill few weeks so I am slightly behind on my posts! Hogfather is the last novel I’ve pulled off the shelf from this year’s designated ‘reading challenge‘. If you’ve been with me the entire year, I would just like to say well done and thank you for the patience you’ve given me while I’ve really been figuring out how it is I blog. It’s been an odd year and I have well and truly not read the 24 novels I intended to but I have read a great deal more than I anticipated.

So, the Hogfather. My copy of this has been kicking around the house for a long time. I’m sad to say that in my brief waltz with Pratchett when I was younger I started this but never finished it. But this time was very different and I am happy to say that recently I started rifling around in my favourite charity shops after the rogue Pratchett novels.

Hogfather – Terry Pratchett

I do love a little silliness in my day to day. I love a little mischief. I love Death roaming around the skies of the Discworld pretending to be the Hogfather.

Maybe I should explain if you aren’t familiar. The Discworld is a world hurtling through space on the back of a giant turtle. It is home to a vast array of peoples, wizards, vampires, fairies and of course include anthropomorphic personifications such as Death and the Toothfairy. Death is of course a very gravelly person, he is a walking skeleton with a big black cloak and tries very hard to understand what it is to be human.

The Hogfather is very much like Santa Clause, and Hogswatch, yes you guessed it, is very like Christmas. And for some terrible reason the Hogfather has gone missing on Hogswatch’s eve and to stop everybody noticing, Death is filling in with his trusty assistant Albert (who is assisting by drinking the Sherry and eating the pies).

Meanwhile a previously undiscovered bathroom has appeared in the Unseen University so naturally, the wizards are prodding around that while some very strange things are going on, such as an appearing Verruca Gnome. Mr. Teatime a paid assassin is doing something quite shady with a group of thugs in a very odd place. Susan, who as it happens is Death’s granddaughter, is dragged in because she is specifically told to stay out of it by Death. Which of course, never works.

Hogfather is a really good balance of storylines. It’s not exactly a quick read but it’s some stellar world building which keeps giving and for something to get you in the Christmas spirit I’d recommend it! Who doesn’t like a group of Carol Singers who will only NOT sing for money? Brilliant fun and I’m pretty sure I’ll read it again next year.

HO HO HO.

35. Walking on Glass

Hello there! Today I am having a day of mischief on the internet as it has been a while since I’ve been able to sit and get stuck in some eternal scroll. It has also been a while since I’ve crossed off one of those books from my reading challenge list, so finally I have stopped procrastinating and gotten around to reading Walking on Glass by Iain Banks.

Iain Banks is one of those authors I always feel like I should read more of and often when I walk into a charity shop he is one of those authors I am always delighted to find. I want to pay attention to him. He is a masterful storyteller, his writing style is easy, but in my case I feel as if I need patience for him. If I lack patience for a slow burning book that twists suddenly just before end I will go and find myself something else to read. You want to give Banks time, not because he is boring, but because he enjoys messing with how long he can keep your curiosity.

Walking on Glass by Iain Banks

Walking on Glass is no exception. It is quite an odd novel actually that plays with how closely or far apart characters can be from one another to impact one another’s story. It’s an enjoyable comment actually on how little we know about other people we come into contact with. It is a novel that does require you to pay attention, even if it’s little details such as rubbish left on the canal side path, however if it is an important detail Banks makes sure it is interesting enough for you to remember it. Banks almost litters his novel with clues actually, trying to encourage you to work out how these characters fit in around each other. It’s not a murder mystery but it is almost a game of can you guess the ending.

Firstly there is Graham Park. Graham is in love with a girl and on his way to tell the odd Sara ffitch how he feels. On his walk to her apartment he relives in detail how he meets Sara, the relationship he has with his best friend Slater, and his general daily life as an Art Student. He is a character who is surprisingly in control of the outward appearance of his emotion while being hopelessly besotted with the aloof Sara. However this is a very different boy meets girl story than the one you are expecting and I promise you, you will not see it.

Secondly there is Steven Grout. Grout is a very odd character who is very paranoid. He is convinced the Tormentors, are watching him most of the time and using their microwave ray on him in regular intervals in his day to day. This is the day that Grout resigns from his job and decides to get drunk as it is also his Birthday. Grout is also a character who fits out of socially accepted ideas of behaviour, he wears a hardhat everywhere, and enjoys pouring sugar into the fuel tanks of cars and motorbikes. The irony of this character is that the one moment his hardhat is gone he has an accident.

Thirdly, there is Quiss. Quiss is stuck in what appears to be a Castle Aquarium in a frozen wasteland. He is tormented by a talking, cigar smoking, red crow who frequently tells him to kill himself. Time is warped depending on where he and the woman, Ajayi, sit in the room, both remember being somewhere else and being the cause of terrible accidents. They have worked out why they are there though, they must play boardgames until they are given a chance to give an answer to a riddle. However they continually arrive at incorrect answers and Quiss has a rather bad temper and is prone to fits of violence. Quiss works out that they are part of an examination of a planet called ‘dirt’ and that there are some very unusual rooms in the lower levels.

They are very different characters and in some sense almost belong to different genres until the big twist – which I’m not going to spoil. It’s a really good twist. It’s one of those ‘OHHHHHHHHH’ moments. It’s a bright and vibrant book, it didn’t make me fall in love or want to shout about it to everyone I meet, but I enjoyed it. As usual, it was wonderful story telling from Banks.

28. She Came to Stay

“Affairs, existentialism, and Paris.”

I am sad to say that again, here is a novel I have no will to finish. This novel comes quite shortly after my last abandoned conquest Gulliver’s Travels. There are many reasons why I put this novel down, it wasn’t for a lacking writing style or for lack of interesting subject matter, I just simply believe that I am at the wrong point in my life for this novel. It is an awful shame because I am a fan of Simone de Beauvoir’s second wave feminism. I have been engaging with her ideas for five years now, alongside other literary critics, so much that their works have become like braille to me. I do not simply read or write these ideas and concepts I feel them. So I’m terribly disappointed! This could’ve been a wonderful affair. It’s just not the right time.

She Came to Stay – Simone de Beauvoir

What is it the novel about? She came to Stay or, in French, L’Invitée, was first published in 1943 as a debut. It is the fictional account of her and Jean-paul Sartre’s relationship with Olga Kosakiewicz and Wanda Kosakiewicz.

It is set in Paris on the eve of and during World War II, the novel revolves around Françoise, who’s open relationship with her partner Pierre becomes strained when they form a ménage à trois with her young friend Xaviere. In short, the novel explores existentialist concepts such as freedom, angst, and the other. There is a lot to engage with in this novel that simply I either do not have the energy or the will to handle right now.

The translation I have is beautifully written, it simply feels elegant on the page. But this is just the wrong moment for this novel. I’m not entirely sure when the apt moment in my life for this novel would be, perhaps when I have more time to engage with this on a level that I feel satisfies, perhaps when my mind is full of romantic inclinations. Who knows.

So with much regret, She Came to Stay, goes back onto the ‘to read’ pile, probably to be semi buried for a few years until I am ready for it.

26. Gulliver’s Travels

Oops! So I definitely haven’t finished this one. Am I ashamed? Well not really, there are hundreds of books I’d like to get through and try as I might I just can’t seem to make this one stick and enjoy it. I have a bad habit of reading out of compulsion rather than enjoyment so here’s to breaking a habit! Lemuel Gulliver, you’ve been… okay… but I’ve read The Colour of Magic  and started the Vagina Monologues in the mean time so I guess. It’s time to say goodbye.

Guliver’s Travels – Jonathan Swift

Perhaps when I started this Reading Challenge I should’ve added in a get out of jail free clause, something along the lines of “If after 100 pages you still CANNOT stand this, put it down, find something fun.” Well, 160 pages in, and I’m pretty sure I could happily read on but I wouldn’t enjoy myself and it would take valuable time out of the year that could be better suited to enjoying something else (yes this is a difficult thing for me, the last time I put down a book I didn’t enjoy was well over 12 months ago). Nobody is expected to like everything they read? Right? Right?!?! Okay. Yeah rationally, we’ve had trouble with Jules Verne this year, and we had trouble with James Joyce, but this time, up with this we will not put. I am going to learn how to do this. I am steeling myself, going against everything I have been taught at university.

Gulliver’s Travels is an adventure novel about Lemuel Gulliver and his seafaring adventures (which are fortunately not overly worked this part of the journey is only ever a quick stone throw into the real adventure). Firstly he manages to find himself on an island where the inhabitants are very small, and they think he’s a monster of such and it so happens he easily learns language to communicate with them (and convinces them of otherwise).

He learns their customs and politics and then he has a falling out with the King so runs away to have to come back and leave. The second island, is much the same as the first, except this time, you guessed it, everyone is really big and he is really small. And much in the same formulaic way Gulliver learns the language, politics and gets in good with the royal family. Only this time he isn’t run out of town but snatched by a bird and then rescued by his own people who are bewildered at why he is raving like a mad man thinking he is tiny and they are large.

Then Gulliver is off again! And this time… he is picked up by an island that floats around the sky.

It was shortly after this point in the novel I stopped reading. I’ve read more challenging material and certainly more entertaining material. I really wanted to make some crack about the last island being something Atlantean, but, surprise surprise a quick google tells me that I have missed out on the wondrous island of the talking horses. Which is far better than any joke I could’ve cracked.

If I’ve put you off, I can understand why but this is still a novel of its time and you should at least have a running jump at it even if you decide its not for you. Me personally, I prefer H.G. Wells. But I guess, had I not left the book at home when I went to Spain I may have not given up on it.

21. The Sleeper Awakes

The man who woke to find he owned the Earth.

Hello! It’s been fast week and as usual I have been quite busy, but here we are at novel 21 of the year The Sleeper Awakes by H.G. Wells. As you can see from the photo my copy of the novel is another Collins Clear Type Press. It included a few painted pages and generally like most of my collection has a wonderful old book smell. Unfortunately I can’t tell you when it was printed but going on that The Sleeper Awakes was first published in 1910, its probably not far behind that.

The novels I’d previously read are The Invisible Man and The First Men in the Moon but to consider that his body of work is massive, I have read relatively little. But from what I’ve read I really enjoy his work, so Wells is one of those authors I really enjoy looking out for when I’m searching specifically for Collins to add to my collection. But this is the first time Wells has really surprised me! This was a surprisingly apt novel considering the changing political landscape and the EU referendum last week.

The Sleeper Awakes by H.G. Wells

I was expecting a science fiction novel, perhaps consisting of a mythical character who has slept long and arises to cause havoc. But in actuality The Sleeper Awakes is a dystopian science fiction novel that follows a man who falls asleep in Victorian England and awakes 200 years later. Not only does he wake 200 years later, but he wakes to find that he, by sheer coincidence, that he is now Owner and Master of the Earth. His financial estate has grown and the White Council who oversee his affairs whilst he is asleep have ultimately come into control of the Earth’s greatest financial asset.

The White Council have used some of Graham’s vast wealth to establish a vast political and economic world order. At the point Graham wakes, the Council place Graham under house arrest, unsure what to do with him. Meanwhile the people of the city are in excited revolution, as the Sleeper has finally awoken! There is great lore and myth around the fabled Sleeper, although Graham doesn’t know it, the world has changed beyond his Victorian Sensibilities. His questions go unanswered until a group of rebels from the outside rescue him, claiming the White Council are plotting to kill him.

Unconvinced but unwilling to remain a prisoner, Graham leaves and arrives in the confusion of rebellion. Separated from his rescuers he questions an old man who explains the story of the Sleeper. The White Council invested his wealth to buy industries and political entities of half the world. Ultimately establishing a Plutocracy and sweeping away parliament and monarchy. The Sleeper himself is just a figurehead and quite innocent in the implementation of any sort of power that has been gathered to his name.

Graham finally meets Ostrog the leader of the rebels, who has unseated the White Council. Ostrog retains power whilst Graham explores a brief carefree existence and knowledge that is abundant and strange to him. This carefree interlude ends when Graham is told that the lower classes still suffer regardless of the revolution. Graham investigates this new social order himself and finds Slavery is the backbone of the city, the family unit is broken, religion is akin to advertising, euthanasia is particularly common and the elderly few, and pleasure cities of unspecified joys are readily available.

As surprising as it was, I enjoyed this novel, it is not my favourite dystopian novel, but it certainly gives food for thought on some of the more recent novels I’ve read lately. The Factions in Divergent for example, are similar to the social divisions within The Sleeper Awakes. Two other comparisons on the general feel of the novel are 1984 (Orwell) and Brave New World (Huxley).

More than anything reading this novel has really reinforced to me just how much I would like to read more of this body of work. This is certainly a novel that provided a bizarre handshake to current affairs and it’s very likely I’ll return to it.

20. Pollen

Or, Plants vs. Zombies vs. Dreams.

Let’s see, where do I begin? Hello! Wow, novel no.20 this year and we’re six months in, let’s just reflect on that for a moment, what a wonderful year it’s been so far. It has been a little while, I have been trying to read at a gentler pace lately which was wonderful as it made Pollen last just that tiny bit longer. I really enjoyed this one so very much. I have read Vurt and it was a wonderful introduction to Noon’s writing and his world. Which is a little complicated, a little psychedelic, and a melting pot of cyberpunk rampage.

Pollen – Jeff Noon

When I say it’s a little complicated, I mean it’s actually rather simple but there is a lot going on in Pollen, there are layers of motion and layers upon layers in this novel, think the film Inception. Pollen follows Vurt’s initial steps. This is set in a Manchester that has experienced dream innovation and infertility. With the fertility scare, drugs appeared to blend the species, so this is a world in which dogs, humans, zombies, pures, shadows and robots, mix and blend seamlessly. The city is a melting pot of species, frictions, and a thriving pirate broadcaster Gumbo YaYa who knows more than the police. But that’s not all.

This is a world which has become closely in touch with the Vurt, the discovery of which has drawn this dream world into a close parallel existence with reality. So much so that it has become so closely intertwined with every day life that it has replaced the majority of television, phone calls are unnecessary, has innovated transport and the A to Z is unnecessary, spectating football, prisons, and near enough every other conceivable area of society is easier and more of an experience with the aid of the Vurt.

Think dreamscape, think a dreamscape that doesn’t shut down when the dreamer stops dreaming. Think dreamscape full of creatures that exist outside of reality because of the dreamers but then have their own wants and ambitions and stories outside of the dreamers. Either way, the Vurt is almost entirely integrated with reality, and the dreamless, who cannot dream are a tiny but significant minority.

The narrative begins with Shadowcop Sibyl Jones investigating the murder of the rogue taxi driver Coyote and leads her down a path that takes her to her estranged daughter. While this investigation is going on, the pollen count rises to dangerous levels, hay fever takes hold of the city and flora unlike anything seen before begins to strangle the city. The flora and the pollen count seem to point back to Coyote’s last fare, the strange beautiful flower girl, Persephone and the Vurt itself.

I can’t tell you just how much I enjoyed this novel. The characterization in this novel is masterful, deft, and effortless. These are dynamic interesting creatures who are as vivid, bright, and as interesting as the world they belong to. Noon’s writing style is unexpected, it whets the appetite, it delights, it excites, it intrigues. The description of plant life is so vivid and wet with sex, you will expect the novel to start dripping with plant sap at any moment.

Pollen delivers a story with such effortless and organic precision and it is engrossingly likeable. It is fun, it’s tentative, it’s clever, it’s a real escape. It is bold and shouts itself with abandon and confidence. It juggles so many different elements and doesn’t drop them once! There is so much to fit in one blog post and really I am not doing it justice in the slightest. This has got to be one of my favourite reads this year. Don’t consider it. Just buy it. Read it. Devour it. Dream it.

17. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass

Here we are at novel 17 of the year and the 11th novel I am crossing off my Reading Challenge list. Rapidly starting to become a little behind with these posts but to avoid flooding you with all my thoughts all at once I am going to stagger this post and Miss Phryne Fisher Investigates this week.

I have never read Alice in Wonderland before but it has been on my list for a while. As you can see from the photograph my copy is a slightly older copy. Unfortunately it had been loved a little too roughly before it came to be in my possession hence the bruise. I actually have a small horde of old novels in this binding and similar thanks to a little luck and searching. It is a mission of mine to collect these Collins Clear-type Press and I have quite a few. Very much my secret treasure. I am certain that if I was a dragon I would not horde gold, but old books.

Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll.

As such a well known novel I feel a little silly saying that this novel is about Alice, who falls through a rabbit hole into a nonsensical world full of anthropomorphic creatures. And that from the onset, it is a little like a dream and can be a little uncomfortable to navigate if you are expecting elaborate scene changes. Events can happen quite abruptly and can feel a little chaotic and disorientating. But it is simple and enjoyable if you’re in a light mood. This also isn’t a profound novel, but it is richly constructed with playful silliness, poetry, and an eccentric cast.

I have had a little contact with a few film adaptations so I knew the staple iconography associated with Alice’s Adventures. There were things about the novel that were very familiar to me, but others that reminded me of the utter confusion of encountering these things before in film adaptations. For me personally I also think I probably wouldn’t have persevered to finish it when I was younger as I would’ve found it very difficult for me to follow.

But the general idea of the novel is it’s supposed to be a little silly, a little dream-like, and just a bit of fun. I’m still not sure if I’ve decided if I entirely like it or not, but I think in some way I’ve always felt that way. Disney’s version of Alice’s adventures always unsettled me for some reason and I feel unsettled after completing the novel. Perhaps I am trying too hard to find my way through the rabbit hole, when really I should just let go and accept Wonderland as it is.

 

13. Farewell Summer

As it has been a very relaxing and lazy Sunday I finished my current novel and now I’m here to tell you about it. Farewell Summer has been on my to read list for a while. I’ve read a lot of Bradbury, I’m a big fan of his prose although the last Bradbury novel I finished in January, Something Wicked this Way Comes, I can’t say really enjoyed as much as some of his other works. It was nice to be reminded with Farewell Summer, why I fell in love with Bradbury’s prose to begin.

[My Image]

What’s it about? Well it’s is a continuation of Dandelion Wine and a rather good one at that. Bradbury remarks in the afterword that he cut this portion from Dandelion Wine as the original manuscript was so long and waited and reworked it until he was entirely happy with it to release it out into the world. It’s about summer coming to an end and childhood mischief and steadily leaving childhood behind. But it’s also about the gap between children and the elderly and bridging that gap to learn and grow. It’s also a little about time and how, regardless of the clocks we smash, it moves forward relentlessly.

Bradbury’s prose is beautiful, inspiring, it regularly surprises with interesting images and description. It’s nostalgic, it had me thinking about Aberystwyth in October, when it is still beautifully warm, t-shirt weather, and the days gradually shorten. But like most great Bradbury novels, it contains a revelation two thirds in, this one about ‘letting go’. It is a quiet, patient novel that has all of the air of the coming autumn and the unwinding of a well spent summer.

Structurally the chapters are rather short, so if you are after a quick read on the train or bus between stops then this is one for you. The pace of the story is relatively rapid. As much as I enjoyed the childlike world of Dandelion Wine I did also find it an exhaustingly long read simply because it was a childlike world. This is also the same problem I faced with Something Wicked This Way Comes perhaps this is just a style I struggle with. Farewell Summer is just long enough, any more and I think it would’ve been too long. At a scarce 160pages, it certainly didn’t last long in my hands.

I always find something to enjoy about Bradbury’s writing. Perhaps it is his devotion to his work, the insatiable appetite he writes with or the pure joy he weaves with his words. He is undeniably one of my heroes, and hand on heart I have read nearly more of his work than any other author now. There are so many minor links between his works I think that for a novel to start with Farewell Summer certainly stands up well on its own. It is however, not my favourite. My favourite is still very certainly the very first Bradbury that I ever read, Fahrenheit 451.

10. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Well, what can I say I’ve really struggled through this one. I’ve always found James Joyce troubling. Currently time is of the essence and I have made myself incredibly busy. I have a deadline fast approaching and have been deconstructing poems, writing my own, and have honestly found very little time to read. The little energy that I have had has felt a little sapped by this novel.

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce

This is not one of those easy, light hearted train reads. There is a lot to get your teeth into and personally I have always found Joyce’s writing style quite resistant. I don’t find myself enjoying much of his work, I find myself reading out of spite and this novel was no exception unfortunately.

There was a moment, sat on the train, that I promised myself that if I got through the next twenty pages and it was still awful I would abandon it. I’m a sucker for needing to finish what I’m reading and I was very prepared to actually accept that I wasn’t going to finish this one. But just as I hit that hundred page mark the narrative suddenly got much more interesting and I was hooked – for about a quarter of the novel. Whatever it was that really caught my attention died quickly. I did finish it cover to cover, but it has left me feeling quite apprehensive.

The novel follows Stephen Dedalus along a journey of religious and intellectual awakening. Stephen questions the strict religious background he has grown up within and rebels against it resulting in a self exile from Ireland to Europe. This is not an easy route for young Stephen however, trapped between hedonism and a deep religiosity. Exploring both desires of the flesh and prostitution and also strict piety. Stephen’s confusion and bewilderment at navigating the world are a continual feature within the novel. Before Stephen ultimately concludes that Ireland is far too constricting a place to allow him to express himself as an artist.

If I had a different route into this novel and had studied it I believe I would have enjoyed it more. This is certainly a novel that requires far more time than I am willing to give a text when I am seeking novels to enjoy in my free time. It is quite resistant and unyielding. The philosophical debate and the existential crisis that makes the novel is a little exhausting to be part of. It’s a novel that deals with some very very heavy things and reading it certainly feels as if you are trying to tread water with a cannon strapped to your feet.

I am pleased that I have finally gotten around to reading one of Joyce’s longer works, as I had previously only read a couple short stories. But I am certainly glad it’s over.

9. The Lonely Londoners

Hello there! I have finished the Lonely Londoners, a novel that I think was given to me and that I knew nothing about when I opened it. This is a quick read, I managed it in five days with very little difficulty. Originally published in 1956, the novel is also set in the 50s around the time when there was a great surge of emigration from the West Indies to London. Like the novel’s protagonist Moses Aloette, Sam Selvon is Trinidadian born. Selvon has given his novel a rich dialect and a tapestry of story telling that gives life and layers to his narrative.

The narrative follows Moses in an easy, relaxed story telling, mostly surrounding the mischief and struggle of both himself and his friends in bleak, foggy London. And no surprises here, but the novel acts as a social commentary as well as a tangle of lives. 

The Lonely Londoners by Sam Selvon

How did I find it? It’s a little disenchanting actually. We meet Moses at Waterloo Station as he waits for hopeful new arrivals from the West Indies. He meets Henry Oliver and as Moses is a Veteran of the city takes him under his wing. Henry Oliver plays the part of most of the new hopefuls coming to London expecting an easier life and to be a big fish in a far bigger pond than he expects. Moses having lived in London for years, takes pity on him and ultimately the narrative breaks into little stories about Henry ‘Sir Galahad’ Oliver and other members of their community.

Moses is pessimistic and disenchanted, by the end of the novel its is very clear he is struggling with homesickness, or craving a far simpler life than the one he possesses. However these feelings are mingled in with a great number of smaller tales that really feel like oral tales that are shared between friends. The novel is also written in dialect, so well in fact that in reading it you forget the dialect is present as it becomes part of the music of the novel. The character Harris, who has tried to social climb and rid himself of his accent, is clearly distinguished in dialogue and has tried to set himself apart from his friends. This integration of character detail really highlights the layers of social politics the workings of the novel.

Overall this novel deals with many thoughts and feelings that I am likely to under appreciate because of my background, ethnicity, and lack of knowledge. But it is a very enjoyable read and I feel is a time capsule of a London that is very different to 2016. This is a novel that deserves the title ‘modern classic’ and I certainly implore anyone to read it.