charbutton's 2012 reading

Hello everyone. I've missed you.

2011 was pretty much a LT write-off for me. I'm really hoping to do better in 2012. So my only NY reading resolution is to be here more often.

2012 BOOK LIST:

33. A Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantel
32. Salvador by Joan Didion
31. A Fall of Moondust by Arthur C Clarke
30. Living My Life by Emma Goldman
29. Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
28. The Mother's Recompense by Edith Wharton
27. Notes on a Scandal by Zoe Heller
26. Trouble for Lucia by E F Benson
25. Delirium by Laura Restrepo
24. Zeitoun by Dave Eggers
23. The Invisible Woman by Claire Tomalin
22. Solanin by Inio Asano
21. Something Happened by Joseph Heller
20. Bluestockings: The Remarkable Story of the First Women to Fight for an Education by Jane Robinson
19. Nairobi Heat by Mukoma wa Ngugi
18. Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delaney
17. African Psycho by Alain Mabanckou
16. Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? by Jeanette Winterson
15. The Blank Wall by Elisabeth Sankay Holding
14. Why Translation Matters by Edith Grossman
13. After Leaving Mr Mackenzie by Jean Rhys
12. Rainy Season by Jose Eduardo Agualusa
11. The Line by Olga Grushin
10. An Honourable Man by Gillian Slovo
9. The Little Stranger by Sarah Walters
8. The Thirties: An Intimate History by Juliet Gardiner
7. Logicomix by Apostolos Doxiadis
6. Bite Your Tongue by Francesca Rendle-Short
5. The House Gun by Nadine Gordimer
4. Guns, Germs and Steel: A Short History of Everybody for the Last 13,000 Years by Jared Diamond
3. The Fear Index by Robert Harris
2. The Summer Without Men by Siri Hustvedt
1. Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone by James Baldwin

Glad you are here, Char!

Me too, and I sympathize with your feelings about 2011, which was also a weird one for me!

Welcome back, and me three for a weird year. I am definitely hoping 2012 is an improvement.

Hi Char! I'm glad that you're back.

Looking forward to hearing about your reading!

Hello friends and thanks for the warm welcome backs!

BOOK 1: Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone by James Baldwin

A good start to the year. Leo Proundhammer (great name) is a famous black actor loooking back over his life after a brush with death, reflecting on the important people in his life - his lover then closest friend Barbara, the love of his life Christopher, and his brother Caleb - and growing up in 1940s/50s Harlem. The blurb describes the relationship between Leo and Caleb as 'a deep tremulous love-affair' and I think that succinctly conveys the fact that Leo's life is lived not in the shadow of his brother but with Caleb as the background figure in everything.

It's a beautifully written book. I could hardly put it down. Having read a bit more about Baldwin it seems that aspects of Leo's life are autobiographical - his realisation that a black man can be an artist, growing up in Harlem, his sexuality. Perhaps that's why Leo is such a compelling, if not always sympathetic, character.

BOOK 2: The Summer Without Men by Siri Hustvedt

I was expecting great things from this book, as What I Loved is one of my all time favourites and I really enjoyed The Sorrows of an American.

It's not giving away anything to say that Mia, the narrator, has been dumped by her husband. He's run off with a younger woman. It's a depressingly familiar scenario. This has a devastating impact on Mia and she goes back to her home town for the summer to recover from the shock. There Mia spends time with her aging mother and group of equally old lady friends, and teaching teenage girls to write poetry, and starts to rebuild herself. Essentially it's a story of women at different stages of their lives and how the relationships between them change over time.

While I was reading the book I found it very moving. Over the past 12 months my two closest female friends have moved away from London and I'm missing them very much, so friendship is prominent in my thoughts at the moment.

However, as time passes that emotion fades and I'm left with a sense of disappointment in Mia's final decision about her marriage. And while I loved the character of one of the older women, I felt like she was there deliberately as an inspirational figure for Mia and for the reader and that makes me feel a bit manipulated.

Finally, a friend who also loved Hustvedt's other books hated The Summer Without Men and thought Mia was incredibly annoying. Perhaps my emotional response to this book is a result of reading now rather than a year ago or in a year's time.

BOOK 3: The Fear Index by Robert Harris

I heard about the Fear Index on the radio. The idea sounded interesting, a intelligent thriller set in the world of hedge funds and high finance that mirrors the concerns of our age. I knew of Robert Harris but rarely read thrillers. If this one is anything to go by, I won't be reading any more. It was bloody awful.

Alex Hoffman is a mathematical genius who has created an algorithm computer thing that takes short selling to another level, creating untold wealth for investors. Hoffman is a difficult unsociable man, obesessed with staying out of the limelight and perfecting his creation. Despite this he is married to an artist who I imagine to be beautiful and sociable. One night Alex discovers an intruder in his house and his life descends into confusion and paranoia.

It probably has the makings of a good story but it really feels like Harris has just thrown together a story with the purpose of tapping into current affairs and selling lots of books, while pretending to explore something fundamental about human nature by placing quotes from Charles Darwin at the beginning of each chapter. The prose is clunky and often superfluous: 'Hoffman had a habit when he was thinking of cocking his head to one side and gazing into the middle distance, and he did so now'. It adds nothing to my understanding of the character to be told that he cocks his head to one side! The characters are crudely drawn and I didn't care about them. And I think it's really hard to make stockmarkets thrilling, even with the sci-fi angle that Harris takes (which is also badly executed).

I originally gave this two stars, but I've been too generous.

Enjoying your reviews, especially your thoughts on The Summer Without Men. It is difficult to take a step back from a novel that seems to mirror events in our own life. It doesn't usually make you like the novel, because your own personal involvement can make you very critical of the characters in the novel.

Nice review of Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone, Char. That's one of the few novels by Baldwin that I haven't read yet, so I'll look for it soon.

I liked Robert Harris' Fatherland and Enigma very much but I think the quality of his thrillers has declined a lot since those two.

>14 wandering_star:

Yes, it seems a strange move for Harris to go back to that genre of thrillers. Fatherland and Enigma were written in the mid-1990s; from the end of the 90s till he has been writing historical novels, which I thought were very well done, very readable. I read Pompeii and enjoyed that a lot.

>12 baswood:, it would be interesting to revisit the book at another time in my life to see if my reaction is different

>13 kidzdoc:, I did wonder if you'd read it. I've enjoyed Go Tell It On the Mountain and will definitely look up more of his work. Any recommendations?

>14 wandering_star: & 15 it sounds like I've come to Harris at the wrong point in his career

My favorite novels by Baldwin are, in order, Giovanni's Room, Go Tell It On the Mountain and Another Country. He is also my favorite essayist, and I would highly recommended The Fire Next Time and Notes of a Native Son, in particular.

>17 kidzdoc:, thanks!

BOOK 4: Guns, Germs and Steel: A Short History of Everybody for the Last 13,000 Years by Jared Diamond

A disappointing read for two reasons:

1. It's bloody repetitive. The point of the book is to explain why Europeans colonised other continents rather than other continents colonising Europe. And the simple answer is geography. Europe/the Middle East had the most appropriate climate, number of domesticable plants and animals and lack of natural barriers to halt the spread of 'progress' that supported the continuous development of agriculture, writing, metallurgy, everything that is needed to achieve 'civilisation'. Jared Diamond is at pains to demonstrate that these are the reasons why Europeans were able to colonise other lands, rather than any inherent weaknesses or lack of intelligence in non-European cultures. Unfortunately that means that in every example he gives reiterates these points. And that gets a bit tedious.

2. I thought I would be more interested in, for example, the development of agriculture and the spread of grains than I actually am.

I think I have this book, but it's not in my LT library. It's probably in one of my boxes of uncatalogued books; based on your comments about it, I think it should stay there.

I loved Guns, Germs and Steel, but I can definitely see your point. It was rather repetitive, wasn't it! I also enjoyed his Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, and several case stories from that one have stuck with me all these years later.

I'm back. A catch up follows with some reviews briefer than others, depending on the reliability of my often unreliable memory.



BOOK 5: The House Gun by Nadine Gordimer

Harald and Claudia are members of the South African white middle class, well off and liberal in their outlook. Then their son is charged with murder and their comfortable existence is irrevocably changed. Gordimer writes a compelling account of the progression of their relationship with each other, with their black lawyer and with the outside world as the trial progresses, and of their struggle to comprehend their son's act. Did they fail him as parents? How could he have done something so completely alien to their way of living?



BOOK 6: Bite Your Tongue by Frances Rendle-Short

Reviewed for Belletrista here: http://www.belletrista.com/2012/Issue16/reviews_4.php

BOOK 7: The Thirties: An Intimate History by Juliet Gardiner

This is a massive tome, covering all aspects of life in 1930s Britain, from housing to sport to fashion to the economy. It's an interesting book that doesn't feel exhausting despite being 800 pages long.

Some chapters jumped from subject to subject which can be frustrating. One, for example, deals with the Olympics, tennis, television, the Queen Mary cruise liner and arrives at The British Union of Fascists within 5 pages. This is a book for people looking for an overview, not in-depth analysis. Which was OK for the most part but left me with many unanswered questions about why things did or didn't happen. If Gardiner is to be believed, Britain stood on the brink of a socialist revolution in the 1930s. Many of our greatest thinkers were influenced by socialism and communism, and with millions facing long-term unemployment and uncertain futures surely the time was ripe for something to change. But it didn't. Why not? Gardiner doesn't tell us.

BOOK 8: The Little Stranger by Sarah Walters

An enjoyable, easy-to-read, gothicky tale of ghosts and strange happenings in a decaying English stately home. It's well done but a bit Woman in White lite for me.



BOOK 9: An Honourable Man by Gillian Slovo

Set in 1884, the story is split between three characters - General Gordon besieged in Khartoum, Dr John Clarke travelling through Africa as part of the effort to relieve the General and Mary Clarke, left at home to cope with the impact of John's departure. I really can't remember anything about this book except that I didn't enjoy it.



BOOK 10: Logicomix by Apostolos Doxiadis

A graphic novel biography of the life of Bertrand Russell, mathematical philosopher. Or is it philosophical mathematician? Anyway, the story takes us through his life from birth to the 1940s.

The parts about Russell are interspersed with interpretation and information from Doxiadis and some of his friends, also depicted in cartoon format. They debate some of Russell's theories, I assume to help the reader understand more.

It didn't help me. I struggled with this one. For a start, I do not understand basic maths so the concepts being discussed here are way beyond my comprehension. The interruptions from Doxiadis et al are annoying. I'd rather have an unseen narrator or explanatory notes. And at the end of the book is not explaining that they have had to include some scenes that didn't actually happen, meetings between Russell and other great minds that didn't take place or only happened by letter, to keep the narrative going. I understand why this might have been necessary but then makes me question everything I've just read.

Welcome back charbutton. The thirties; an intimate history sounds interesting, especially England being on the brink of a socialist revolution. I suppose World War II put paid to that.

Are we on the brink of a socialist revolution in France today - we might be next Sunday.

>25 baswood:, I think it was probably more to do with the British character than WWII. However annoyed and frustrated we get, when it comes to the crunch we don't push for a major change do we? (the move from Major to Blair in 1997 was hardly a dramatic shift in the nation's political outlook) But that's one of the things I found difficult about the book. It wasn't clear what the wider public thought and whether the interest in socialism extended beyond an intellectual elite and trade unionists.

I'm very interested to see what happens in France. I'm hoping it might be the start of a return to leftish politics in Europe! If it's the same as the UK, the undecideds shift right in times of financial crisis. But we're still in financial crisis so does a shift back to the left indicate a wider rejection of the right and its inability to balance business interests with people's need for economic 'fairness'? (not that I'm saying that the left would deal with the situation any better but I'd hope financial equality might be higher on their agenda)

re: Logicomix -- I read it to the halfway point, realized I'd derailed, and decided to begin again (someday) and pay closer attention. Hmm, "artistic license" in a book for math/logic types? An acknowledgement usually eases my irritation, but I've heard other annoyed readers so I'll be curious to get to that point and see if/how the authors fumbled.

26

I'm hoping it might be the start of a return to leftish politics in Europe!... But we're still in financial crisis so does a shift back to the left indicate a wider rejection of the right and its inability to balance business interests with people's need for economic 'fairness'?

I would like to see the same happening to European politics too, but what we observe since the crisis started a few years ago seems to be the opposite -- the shift to the right has taken place or steadily gaining ground (Spain, Netherlands), and more worrisome, we are seeing the rise of the far-right (Greece, Hungary).

Charlotte - coming in very late and just catching up with your thread. Your wrote a fantastic review of Bite Your Tongue (link in post #22), and made me curious.

I completely agree with your assessment of Guns, Germs and Steel (post #19) - a little painful to read. Although I appreciated his point. I was more affectionate towards Logocomix (post #24), actually I loved it. The accuracy of Bertrand Russell's life was not so critical to me. But I really appreciated what I gained from the window into overall concepts and what it took to get there and what it meant for computer programming. It left me thinking about logic for a long time.

I liked Guns Germs and Steel but it was redundantly repetitive at times. I think he made some interesting points, though.

Hi again everyone. I'm really hoping that this visit will be the start of a proper re-engagement with LT. It's not LT's fault. I just haven't been able to settle at anything this year. Even keeping track of the books I've read in my 'book notebook' has been a lot of effort. Luckily, I have kept reading. So here's an overview of where I've been in a literary sense:

11. The Line by Olga Grushin - 4 stars. A family living together but existing in their own bubbles, and a satire on the absurdities of life under a dictatorship. Loved it.

12. Rainy Season by Jose Eduardo Agulausa - 4 stars. But I can't remember a bloody thing about it. Sorry.

13. After Leaving Mr Mackenzie by Jean Rhys - 3.5 stars. A typical Rhys story of indifferent, passive heroine, if I remember rightly.

14. Why Translation Matters by Edith Grossman - 4 stars. Really interesting collection of thoughts on the art of translation. Makes me wish my career had gone in that direction.

15. The Blank Wall by Elisabeth Sankay Holding - 4 stars. But another one that I have no memory of. The publisher's website says it's a 1940s thriller.

16. Why Be Happy When You Can Be Normal by Jeanette Winterson - 5 stars. Now this one I do remember. It's a memoir but I'm not sure if it's any truer than the fictionalised story of Winterson's childhood, Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit. That's not a bad thing. Far from it. It just makes it all more interesting - the subjectivity of memory, the unheard voices of family members who play major roles in a memoir but never have a chance to give their own views. I will be going back to this book in the future, there's a lot more for me to get from it.

17. African Psycho by Alain Mabanckou - 4 stars. More hazy memories. The narrator wants to be a famous serial killer but is having trouble killing.

18. Babel-17 by Samuel R Delaney - 3.5 stars. Even reading the Wikipedia entry for this one didn't really jog any memories!!It's sci-fi and is apparently about a language that has been developed to be a weapon.

(This is starting to feel like the morning after the night before. Some coherent flashes, but some frightening lapses in memory!)

19. Nairobi Heat by Mukoma wa Ngugi - 2.5 stars. A pretty generous score. The protagonist is an American black cop who goes to Kenya as part of a murder investigation. The cop has never felt connected to 'his roots'. The story is about him connecting to 'his roots'. Predictable and not very entertaining.

This takes me to the end of April. May onwards will be added very soon....

Welcome back!

Welcome back - and well done for getting back on the LT horse... it'll get easier now you've started!

Very nice to see you posting again.

Welcome back! I read another book by Agualusa and moderately liked it -- will look for this one. And Why Translation Matters has been on the TBR for years! Thanks for the minreviews.

Thanks for the welcome backs!

>35 rebeccanyc:, I really enjoyed The Book of Chameleons, Rainy Season less so.

Next review catch ups...

Bluestocking: The Remarkable Story of the First Women to Fight for an Education by Jane Robinson - 3.5 stars. A non-fiction work about the first British women to go to university and their experiences of male-dominated hierarchical academia. Some of them thrived, some didn't but all took important steps in making higher education more accessible.

Something Happened by Joseph Heller - 4.5 stars. I really wish I'd written a review of this book as soon as I read it so I can do it some kind of justice. It's a sometimes uncomfortable read but I absolutely loved it. The story is narrated by Bob Slocum, a man nearing middle age, indifferent to his wife and children, indulging in pathetic infidelities, in a boring job and pretty much contemptuous of everyone. He's pretty unpleasant, particularly his attitude towards his son who has disabilities. It's a shock to hear such candid detachedness from a parent. But I liked being shocked! I'll definitely be reading this again.

Solanin by Inio Asano - 3 stars. Japanese manga. Boy and girl fall in love, then tragedy strikes. I remember being a bit underwhelmed by it.

The Invisible Woman by Claire Tomalin - 4 stars. Biography of Nelly Ternan, Charles Dicken's long-standing mistress. I really enjoy Tomalin's writing and I liked this book. There's actually very little information about Nelly and no existing primary sources from the woman herself so much of the the content is based on guess work. Well informed guess work, but guess work nonetheless.

enjoying your short reviews. Something Happened certainly seems to divide the opinions of readers. I remember reading it ages ago and at the time being disappointed it was not another Catch 22. Perhaps it's time for a re-read.

Good to see you back.

I think I read Something Happened years ago too, when it first came out, but I have absolutely no memory of it, so I guess I was just as disappointed as you, Barry.

Heller and Tomalin - I was interested in your comments about both authors. I just started reading Heller's God Knows, the first of his book I have tried.

I loved Catch-22 and really liked Something Happened and compared them:

In Catch-22, Heller balanced the horrors of war with laugh-out-loud hilarity. Those extremes aren't present in Something Happened; instead, the general anxiety and melancholy are balanced only with mild smiles. Here, the polarity is the narrative focus -- 569 pages recounting absolute minutiae, contrasted with the merest paragraph that summarizes a terrible event.

I haven't worked myself up to another by Heller but want to. Dan, can't wait to hear about God Knows.

Interesting comments about Something Happened - thanks!

Nice to see you back, Char! Like you, my LT participation this year has been low :(. Hopefully we can both dive back in.