
Showing posts with label bookclub. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bookclub. Show all posts
Thursday 9 March 2023
Virginity: the sum of a girl's worth

Saturday 19 November 2022
Waiting, interminably waiting, and then...

Fortunately the edition I have contains an introduction written by Tim Parks, but you could also check out the Wikipedia page before you buy. Buzzati originally titled it The Fortress, which is a better title. Most of us can visualise a fortress in reality as well as metaphorically, whereas The Tartar Steppe invokes a sauce I like to eat with fried fish. When the introduction tells you, "for an Italian, the northern mountains are the locus par excellence of military glory" it gives the title some meaning.
Friday 23 September 2022
Definitely, absolutely and without a doubt, 'my sort of book'

Thursday 8 September 2022
A book that starts with the ending

Tuesday 7 June 2022
Not a woman who bears grudges?

The story is narrated by its protagonist, Susan Green, who in the first sentence of the book describes herself as "not a woman who bears grudges, broods over disagreements or questions other people’s motives", which implies that she most certainly will do all of those things in the following pages.
Thursday 5 May 2022
"Lies, lies, adults forbid them and yet they tell so many."

The book begins with Giovanna Trada remembering an incident when she was 12 years old: "my father said to my mother that I was very ugly". He goes further, explaining, "Adolescence has nothing to do with it: she's getting the face of Vittoria" his sister, whom Giovanna has never met. Piqued by a further description that in her aunt "ugliness and spite were combined to perfection", the young girl contrives to meet this woman to whom she bears a resemblance. As a consequence Giovanna discovers the working-class roots of her academic father, and learns that what adults say is not necessarily true.
Friday 22 April 2022
The legacy of apartheid

The story is told by Frank, a middle-aged, listless doctor who "had swallowed a lot of frustration over the years" and works in a hospital where there are few, if any, patients. It's set in a Homeland region of South Africa, described by Galgut in the Author's Note as "impoverished and underdeveloped [...] set aside by the apartheid government for the 'self-determination' of its various black 'nations'".
Friday 4 March 2022
This was not the face in the doorway

Monday 7 February 2022
A cock that could drill a hole through stone?

The story is set in Italy, the Sicilian town of Catania to be precise, and concerns a sensitive young man named Antonio, reckoned by family, friends, and random women to be the epitome of an "Italian stallion". All is not as it seems tho'.
Thursday 6 January 2022
The worst of times

It's a book firmly set in its time, that of the UK post-Brexit. Lack of funds for community services have led to libraries being closed, the way the Brexit referendum was framed has led to thoughtless tribalism, and the idea of protecting the land from invasion by foreigners is rife.
Saturday 11 December 2021
Everyone thought I was rather a strange child

Thursday 11 November 2021
Latin, cockney slang, and teenage argot

Beautiful princesses and handsome princes

The result of idle speculation

Can you trust your memory?

A grim and fiercely joyless old lady

The eponymous matriarch is a "grim and fiercely joyless old lady". Her 14-year-old great-granddaughter is sent to live with her for two months in the hope that the girl will benefit from the sea air in Hove, where Mrs Webster lives. As the teenager is leaving she discovers that her father, who died when she was nine, regularly enjoyed visiting the old woman.
Wednesday 10 November 2021
A modern day Beowulf

Monday 1 November 2021
Heavy themes, light touch

The story is in two parts: part one The Mind, part two The Body. In The Mind, we discover the events in Leila's life that led to her leaving home and becoming a sex worker in Istanbul. It's narrated in flashback during the brief time between her heart stopping beating and her brain ceasing to function; the 10 minutes 38 seconds of the title. I don't want to give too much away. Suffice it to say that Leila and her mother, being female, have little control over their lives. There's a particularly disturbing scene that takes place when Leila is six, but in spite of the dark subject matter it's not a bleak tale because Leila is a fighter.
Thursday 14 October 2021
Don't believe the hype

Monday 23 November 2020
A Marxist and a monarchist

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