Notes from Underground

Dostoevsky's Notes From Underground is apparently the world's first "existential novel". Like most of the other books we read, it's an awkward guy - this time to the max: it's the "rambling memoirs of a bitter, isolated, unnamed narrator".

We understand it inspired Taxi Driver and American Psycho (Can we have a nice well-adjusted bloke sometime?)

We're reading it because it made Angus the man he is, and because it's shorter than anything else Dostoevsky wrote.

Discussing it at Craig's on 1 July.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist

Mohsin Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist is short and well-written, from a viewpoint we don't often get (though, hey-ho, it's yet another self-absorbed, slightly asocial man).

We liked it, but not as much as the critics. His girlfriend - and her life path - seemed a bit convenient and symbolic (her name is Erica as in am-Erica). The story is left hanging at the end. It's all very allusive, but we're philistines and like events and narrative.

You wouldn't catch Khaled Hosseini doing that in the Kite Runner (but then he was a doctor when he wrote that, not a writer).

The Sheltering Sky

Paul Bowles' The Sheltering Sky was a big hit when it came out, featuring a marriage breaking down in the exotic setting of North Africa after the War.

Very odd, for me something like a cross between - or a missing link between -- Graham Greene and JG Ballard. You start with Americans lost in a post-colonial world, out of their depth. There's a disaster, and a bizarre closing section where the survivor pushes further into the unknown world.

Well worth reading, and resonates more a little while after

John Updike's Villages

The book for March was Villages, by John Updike. What with him recently dying, we thought we should see what all the fuss was about.

Probably, we should have gone for a better and earlier book. This was yet another book about a self-absorbed bloke, with too much flash-back. Even the presence of sex and the development of the computer graphics industry weren't enough to excite.

Still, the last chapter or two, with ageing people sinking into a tetchy church-administered rest, had something of an American Alan Bennett.

The Reader by Bernhard Schlink

A German novel that either confronts love law and literature, with grief and guilt (Amazon reviewer) , or "reimagines Nazi war guilt and the death camps in terms of a middlebrow sentimental-erotic fantasy", (Guardian reviewer Peter Bradshaw on the film) .

The Reader by Bernhard Schlink is our next book, and we'll be talking about it at my place.

Date still to be confirmed.

Engleby , Sebastian Faulks, 16 December

So the Road was great: "Sparsely but compellingly written, the bare bones of a story, but oddlysatisfying. Macabre."

This time round, a portrait of an outsider in the 70s, Engleby by Sebastian Faulks.

I've never read one of his, so I'm pleased. Amazon readers rate this one highly, and many of them also bought another contender, The Book Thief, so Justin is right on the zeitgeist.

We're meeting at Craig's, 16 December.

Lambeth Libraries catalogue is showing copies available...

The Road, Cormac McCarthy, 11 November

We liked Rough Crossings, and picked a short book this time. The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Angus says sorry it's a bit miserable and post-apocalyptic.

Update: Angus has now finished it and says: "sorry chaps, even by my standards this is a miserable read. But don't let me put you off, it is beautifully written and compelling."

Lambeth has lots of copies, but 14 of them are "Reading Group" copies, that are between locations.

Rough Crossings, Simon Shama, 7 October

We're meeting at Angus' place on 7 October, to discuss Rough Crossings by Simon Schama.

Surprisingly, we almost unanimously went for the longest book, and the only non-fiction item on the list. It looks a good read, but with lots of footnotes and academic credibility.

It comes recommended.

Not much time left to read it though!

In Cold Blood

Next time round, In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, a classic groundbreaking work and one which, as a journalist, is one I've long felt I should have read.

There's interesting background on Wikipedia (did you know that Harper "To Kill a Mocking Bird" Lee helped do the interviews?), and there's a movie to watch.

A nice choice and I'm looking forward to it.

Joy Luck Club

June's book was Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan.

A saga of women spanning from China to San Francisco - and an interesting read for a bunch of blokes in South London.

Gulliver's Travels

Next, Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift.

Meeting at James's on 3 June....

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

We read Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, by James Joyce, and discussed it at my place, on 29 April.

I found it really powerful, and enjoyed the discussion. One of the best books we've read, in my view.

Wide Sargasso Sea

We met on 25 March at Justin's, to discuss Wide Sargasso Sea, the book that fills in the gaps from Jane Eyre, written by Jean Rhys.

We liked it.

Beautiful Mind

Next up - A Beautiful Mind by Sylvia Nasar. A fascinating guidebook to London that Omar needs to read biography of Nobel prize-winning Mathematician John Nash, recently filmed with Russel "Master and Commander" Crowe.

This one comes with recommendations from authorities on maths and mental illness, Simon Singh (of Fermat's Last Theorem) and Oliver Sacks. No recommendation from Fergal Keane, which is good. And only one Amazon reviewer slates it ("The airhead version").

It's quite long, but surprisingly was a unanimous choice - despite a strong field of contenders. Is that the first time we've been unanimous?

We're meeting at Craig's on 12 February!

Peter

Thar she Blew.... !

We talked over a strange collection of sea-faring dishes, and I'd like to hear anyone else's thoughts.

My conclusion was

• it's a great big strange book,
• it suffers from Citizen Kane syndrome (it's the GREATEST EVER! You MUST read it!) and there's always a problem living up to that,
• it has really obvious flaws (the ending isn't exactly a surprise, and Ishmael doesn't actually DO very much)
• but it does have large parts that are actually enjoyable to read.

The Wordsworth Classic edition I borrowed had a really interesting introduction, which included lots of nuggets. For instance, though this is an American book, it was a flop on publication and we wouldn't be reading it now, if it hadn't been championed by the late-19th century workers' education movement in Britain. They were inspired by its emphasis on the details of working class life and productivity, and also it's celebration of reading and knowledge.

I also got a distinct impression that it really makes even more sense (?) if you read Rabelais - I know nothing of this Rabelais, but if I remember him in six or seven months, expect to see him on a short list.

I enjoyed the 1956 Gergory Peck movie, which had a good go at trying to turn it into a story - and featured classic work by Orson Welles, Bernard Miles and Sir Lancelot Spratt / Lord Scrumptious (James Robertson Justice). Ishmael is played by Commander Nelson of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea fame, and Queequeg by the not-remotely Polynesian Friedrich von Lederhosen. Oh, and there's a fab fibreglass whale and a balsawood boat, apparently in the plughole of a large bath!

( IMDB tells me there's a superior 1978 version with Jack Aranson playing every single part, and another one with Patrick Stewart as Ahab. And a 1930 version, where Ahab kills the whale, goes home, and gets the girl! )

NEXT TIME

The Solitaire Mystery by Jostein Gaarder

It's a short book, and a children's book, so that's our idea of relief after Moby Dick. This one is written by the guy who went on to write the philosophical children's book Sophie's World, and comes recommended by Angus' girls.

We pencilled in to meet on 18th December, unless anyone said they'd be busy then. I reckon we might be more sensible meeting early in January, if that means there more of a chance of Mark and others.

As for the venue, the blog seems to suggest that Craig's is the place we haven't been to for longest...

"Wilt thou beat this monster? Art thou game for Moby Dick?"

Though this truly is a more than substantial tome; and in the first 283 pages the monster himself has still not made any actual appearance; and though the writing throughout is not illiberally sprinkled with double negatives and other like infelicities; and though it even contains a monster of a sentence occupying one page to itself; this sentence appearing in a chapter - number 42 - devoted to the terrifying nature of the colour white; which chapter I read the day before I met my friend's albino hamster and thought "Melville thou'rt an egregious plonker"; and I would add that my friend also has a white over-stuffed sofa in which I am equally unable to discover any mystic terror*; and to make matters worse, I am unable to exert any directorial control over the cinematographic theatre of my mind, where Geoffrey Rush and Johnny Depp are firmly established in the roles of Ahab and Starbuck;
yet I remain determined to overcome, to succeed in the mad endeavour and finish this book, and am still approximately on target at fifteen pages per diem.

And I will say this - if thou art lagging behind, I say, "Skip the boring bits, shipmates! Read chapters 1 to 5, 10, 12,13, 16, 18, 21, 25 - 31, 36-39. 41, 42 obviously, 48 - 50, 60 - 63, 66-70, 72, 73 and so on!"







* With reference to the sofa, one must admit that there are persons, for instance those charged with cleaning duties, for whom whiteness in a sofa might enhance and magnify any terror the sofa might induce by its own merits, but this is not central to our purpose here.

Thar she blows!

I just lent my copy of Moby Dick on to Justin - how are the rest of you doing?

Sorry, that that was a wind-up. I found I had two copies here. In fact, I'm on page 43, so I'm already falling behind. I reckon we've got to be reading about 17 pages a day to get it read by 20 November.

Are we being absurdly macho in this quest? Should we be seeking out and consuming a book in this way - or could the beast prove too much for us?

Will the meaning slip past us, and the experience just be a bit like reading Master and Commander in slow motion?

Be that as it may, I see there's been comic book versions by the great Will Eisner and Bill Scienkiwicz,

If you're reading this by email, there's pictures on the blog.


And in the 1960s, there was a cartoon series, originally created by Alex Toth for Hanna-Barbera. He had a seal side-kick called Scooby, and helped two kids fight people like Manta Menace.

Heart Songs, 16 October

Next time, it's Heart Songs by Annie Proulx. We're meeting at my place, on 16 October.

Powerful, tough, gritty and astonishing, say the Amazon readers.

Sounds like a good one to go for after the disappointment most of us seemed to feel about Never Let Me Go.

Not me though, I thought Never Let Me Go was a powerful allegory of the way we concede everything to the demands placed on us and eventually die, comforted only by the spurious belief that our love for others will somehow allow us to live on.

Or something.

Next time round, Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, on September 11 at Justin's house.

Critically acclaimed, it's nevertheless had its share of criticism -- one Amazon reviewer says "It's like one of these cheap paperbacks you buy at the airport and throw away after reading". alleging that it's so poor ("lazy, heavy-handed and relentlessly dull") that Ishiguro must have paid someone else to write it.

"It's like the Harry Potter conspiracy all over again," says "confused KZ fan".

Elsewhere, it got high praise. They did it in Guardian Book Club (heavy spoiler warning!!) and reviewed it (again heavy plot spoilers).

Shouldn't that be the Anti-Social History of the Machine Gun, you ask?
Well, I suppose that's the point.

Anyway, The Social History of the Machine Gun by John Ellis is
available from Amazon (though with a slow delivery date so let's buy it elsewhere), so we're reading it, and meeting at Omar's to
discuss it. Ok?

On 19 June. Or you get filled full of lead. Or something.