The Stories of Jane Gardam

 

Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson

 

DEath at the Sign of the Rook by Kate Atkinson

 

First of Atkinson's mysteries I've read, first 100 pages well written as always but I'm mystified at the three strands interconnection so far.

"A Jackson Brodie Book" - for the recurring detective at the center of the case.

The Love You Make: An Insider's Story of the Beatles by Peter Brown and Steven Gaines

 

Meh. No huge insights afte last year's deep dive. Obsession with Brian Epstein which does not move me. The music is the very last thing considered here.

I remember it as being an "important book at the time" as Peter Brown was an insider and first to share widely about the Beatles. But it comes off as tacky now - with all of his "revealed for the first time here" and "said to me, Peter Brown, the author" posturing.

And again, the lack of insight about the music is appalling. Though the Beatles inventing the rock music industry (among everything else they invented) and the business/industry side takes up an oversized space here.

The Voyage Home by Pat Barker

 

Marvellously imagined retelling of the story of Agammemnon and Clytemenstra, from the viewpoint of Cassandra's slave.

Thoroughly modern voice and attitude, with no "classicalisms" used to make it seem like Ancient Greece.

A Long Way from Verona by Jane Gardam

 

A 12 year-old girl knows she is different and somewhat exceptional and wants to be a writer. Amazing as usual.

The Hollow Land by Jane Gardam

 

Charming "children's book" that is much more sophisticated than that term implies. A London "town" family has a summer/vacation house in the Lake District, under the Cumbrian fells. They begin a long-lasting relationship with a "country" family. Beautiful landscape after beautiful landscape: abandoned silver mines, fields of icicles, menancing sheep and sympathetic gypsies. Another stunner from Gardam, who never wrote a bad or lesser book.

Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson

 

Novel where one story (the birth and life of the narrator (in mid-20th-century) takes places in the chapters and her relatives' back-story appears in the lengthy footnotes (which are often as long, or longer than the chapters.)

Another winner from Atkinson. I'm totally impressed by her - and had read nothing before the short stories last month.

The backstory in footnotes seems tedious at first, and confusing, but soon takes over in momentum, as the narrator's mother's generation and grandmother's generation are pulverized by the World Wars.

Unhappiness could be relied upon in a way that happiness never could. [86]

Ancestral Vices by Tom Sharpe

 

The usual hi-jinks, but at a slower (longer) pace. Malevolent evil old English lord hires a strident ally of the working class, a college professor, to write a tell-all history of the lord's equally evil relatives and ancestors. So far there's been a "suckling pig" entree at dinner that was created out of a normal size pig that was cut into three pieces, two of which were sewn back together to create the shorter meal. Funny but effortful.

I did like it in the end but the pace was slow. The accidental death of a dwarf in front of a tractor, and his slow-witted buxom wife, complicate the professor's story when he boards with them. The usual clueless police appear.

Sharpe really does remind me of Joe Orton. I find Sharpe addictive and but not always that keen.

Still Life with Woodpecker by Tom Robbins

 

Sorta remember reading this when it came out. Unimpressed so far. Too many half-funny jokes dampen the effect of some good sentences.

Normal Rules Don't Apply: Stories by Kate Atkinson

 

Loving this so far. My first Atkinson experience. Funny and twist-y.

Really like the threaded characters who appear in several stories, Franklin and Connie, whose doomed relationship starts with Franklin winning a bundle off via talking horse at a racetrack, and ends with her framing him for murder.

"Spellbound" - the fairy tale that arrives roaringly back in the present day

Less successful was the Toy-Story lite tale, "Existential Marginalization."

 

I am braving my paternal grandmother's favorite author out of utter boredom, having indeed now possibly come to the very last door of literature.

That said, enjoying it so far - 15 year old French schoolgirl full of feeling and audacity. Much unlike my Nana.

Update: only got 30 pages into "Claudine at School" and quit.

Authority: Essays by Andrea Long Chu

 

Viciousness is the attack dog who has not eaten in three days. Cruelty is the person calmly holding the leash. These days I aim for cruelty.

Essays and reviews by the noted trans scholar Andrea Chu. I enjoyed her biting tone in the reviews, but am suspicious generally of critics, whom I tend to judge mostly by what they tend to criticize. And PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, Bret Easton Ellis, and Zadie Smith hold little interest of me. 

The cultural entity she praises most highly is the streaming junk, THE LAST OF US.

She is funny, and brilliant - but reserves her emotional energy for her essays on her own trans journey.