I have ordered both Trust and Stone’s Fall based on this post. Luckily both were cheap on Polish Amazon and I got a 50zl gift card for my birthday.
Not planning to read both consecutively. I’m commited to reading one ‘long’ book per month so I’ll probably keep Stone’s Fall in the back pocket for later in the year when I’ll be skint. The new Bret Easton Ellis arrived this week so that’ll probably be my long book for February.
I think you’ll like this
I read that last year and did indeed like it! Definitely similar unsettling vibes.
Recently read the first of Spike Milligan’s war memoirs, which I got for Christmas. He seems to be a curious figure in that he’s both very ahead of his time in some respects, and also very almost jarringly problematic (best word I could think of for it) in other areas. Anyway, I grew to really enjoy his perspective on the early days in the war - kind of mostly having a laugh, forming a jazz band, being billeted in weird locations, etc. before things started to heat up further. I think the bits that stuck with me most were the handful of moments where he lets the jokes slide and his more I suppose reflective side appears almost like an involuntary tic. He’s not so much like, say, Vonnegut in seeking to blend the darkness with the humour - but I still enjoyed the silliness, and felt something in those juxtaposing moments.
Right now, I’m re-reading Libra by Don Delillo. I’m partly revisiting it because - since reading it for the first time a number of years ago - I’ve learned a lot more about the context surrounding the events depicted through Ghost Stories of the End of the World and the second season of Blowback. Taking all of these historical details and (deliberately?) confusing tangles of narrative and being able to make something that is dreamlike while also immersing into the inner lives of these central characters (from Oswald, to the bitter conspirators, to the archivist cobbling all the details together) - it is very impressive, dawg.
Absolutely love Spike’s war memoirs. So hilariously funny and subversive. Haven’t read them since I was a teenager. Must rectify that.
my dad gave me his war diaries when I was starting high school and they were a really big part of my brain being formed I think. I love them and him dearly.
I can’t remember which is which now but the book where he suffers shell shock and gets sent to recover on the slopes of Vesuvius(!) is the funniest thing I’ve ever read
Agree with this. There were some nice ideas and turns of phrases around capitalism etc but on the whole one of his weakest I think
I had two of them out on unabridged audio read by him and I’d definitely recommend those versions if they exist because he obviously adds so much to the delivery.
The two I had were Hitler, My Part… and Mussolini, His Part.
As you say @manches, the problematic side is what makes me dubious to check them out now even though bits of those two books are permanently etched in my head because I checked them out of the library so often.
I’m reading a 1949 Josephine Tey book right now and bloody hell, the ideology dripping off the page is quite horrendous. It’s actually causing me to root for the ‘bad guys’. I was never much of a fan of Agatha Christie but it was purely down to realising how her stories lacked any real characters, but now I figure if I read them the class and general politics would be hard to take.
just finished seven moons. thought it was a fun read (despite the sometimes horrific subject matter) but also didn’t live up to my expectations. gonna check out small things like these at some point anyway.
lately if i can’t decide what to read i’ve just been searching ‘booker prize’ in the kobo store and seeing which nominated books i haven’t read and are cheap and sound fun. so lazy lol
Finished a book in the early hours of this morning before sleep.
Don’t read it, it’s baaaaad
That is a pretty good way to choose books I reckon. Last year I read every book on the Folio Prize list and they were all really good, and I do a fair few of the Booker shortlist most years. It is rare that I read something from the Booker list that I really disklike.
Been really bad at reading recently. I’m still making my way slowly through my book about birds and making a list of Wikipedia pages to study from reading it.
Just finished Norwegian Wood by Murakami on the way to work. Really good and I will be reading more of his soon.
ohhh wow and you still have wind up bird and kafka!
I think Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is still sitting at 51% on my Kindle. Fuck that book. I did enjoy Kafka on the Shore when I read it c. 2006 and before that Hard Boiled Wonderland so I’m not sure if I just grew out of him or WUBC seemed particularly bad.
feel like I’ll never read any Murakami
My mate recommended those two also, seems like they’re next. Thanks!
not into 500 pages of a lad chilling down a well?
Man can definitely write a good eerie quiet bit but he also cannot write a good female character or avoid making everything involving them deeply grim.
