The Secret History - Donna Tartt

This book has sat quietly on my bookshelf for a couple of years now. One of those that I bought at an airport somewhere as a 'holiday' book but it lost out to my current bouquet of crime novels. With so much time currently on my hands, I put it in my 'to read' pile and finally got round to it on Wednesday. Since then, it has been constantly in my hands. This is a wonderful, scholarly, layered book which needs to be read slowly, to be enjoyed like a rich pudding.

The book is about a group of college kids in America who are singled out by an urbane, cultured professor to take his Greek class. Influenced by Bacchanalian rituals and their isolation from main college life, the group commit one terrible mistake which sets in motion a disastrous chain of events.

This book is not a crime novel in the pure sense of the word; rather it is an exploration of the ways in which we could all, if necessary, become sinners ourselves. Tartt explores moral disintegration so gently, so incisively and with such tenderness for all her characters that we ourselves can identify with them and dread the ultimate sacrifice.

I am so very glad I have read this book. If you haven't, read it, and read it soon...

The Remarkable Journey of Miss Tranby Quirke

Set in 1909, Miss Tranby Quirke is a thirty two year old spinster who lectures to young ladies on the essential skills required of a young married wife. She hides to the outside world her involvement and passion for the suffragette movement as well as her father fostered enthusiasm for the great explorers and their journeys. Resigned to celibacy after an unfortunate childhood sweetheart met with an awful end, she finds solace in her flat and her cats until a young beautiful newly married girl asks for her help in dealing with her abusive husband.

A bagatelle of a novel, Elizabeth Ridley's prose is in turn rich and exotic like the climes of the explorers she describes and then spartan and austere when discussing Tranby Quirke's everyday life. This book is very easy to read, and one rattles through stopping for an occasional enjoyment of a phrase or an episode but it is a light novel. And that, in a way, really annoys me. Why do novels about lesbians always feature a 'frustrated spinster' and a 'young innocent'. Why does the idea of an older lesbian woman always seem impregnated (*grin*) with frustration and thwarted impulses? Stereotypes annoy me, and they did in this novel. Tranby's name came from a friend of her father's and was for his first son which he didn't have, so she was called it. She has a boyish figure, tightly cut hair, and can pass as a boy in clothing.. I have read all this before.

An interesting diversion, but no more.

Minerva

Two Walks in the Woods of Book Collecting

I collect First Edition books as a hobby. This started from my teens when lonely in the middle of a parents' divorce, I started reading, and reading voraciously. Even now, I get through most books in a couple of hours. Unlike most bibliophiles though, I am not precious about my books at all, well, not my normal books anyway. They are very much divided into two sections: those that I read, bend, dog ear and those that I revere, touch with two hands, barely open their spines at all...

As I have a little more spare time on my hands, I thought I would look at a couple of self referential books and learn even more about the hobby.

'Discovering Book Collecting ' is a very reasonable little book which serves as a great introduction to the basic terms and background to book collecting. It doesn't give values but instead shows the range of presses, printers and provides an overview of the development of books. Did you know, for example, that Gutenberg only produced his famous bible on his press before being knifed by his foreman and financial backer?

Obscure terminology such as 'foxing', 'colophon', and where to find the title page, and how to distinguish the first edition are all explained and he develops the knowledge for those who thirst after more.

A great little book for the beginner, or amateur as an overview.

But this next one, ah...now that is in a class of its own.

Imagine, if you will, that the first book is a direct stride along a pavement. We are moving from shop to shop in a strictly linear direction, accumulating bags of knowledge on the way which will help us in the future, but which doesn't strictly inspire, rather, it provides knowledge for the future. 'Among the Gently Mad', on the other hand, is a lazy walk in the forest where each new glade entices, inspires and draws out one's curiosity to learn more. John Chidley looks at the books, at the objects whereas Nicholas Basbanes looks at the collectors and at their very personal collections. It is fascinating. The couple who only collect books about Christmas trees, the collectors who had to spend hundreds of thousands expanding their basement to exhibit their books.

Whereas John Chidley is a valuable reference, Nicholas Basbane's book is a delightful stroll through the idiosyncracies of the collector's psyche and their collections. I will keep Chidley on my shelf for reference, Nicholas Basbane's book is already set to be a personal favourite..


'Gently Mad 'indeed and delighted to be one...

Minerva

And Quiet Flows the Don

I have always had a pull to water. Whether the sea or a river, the draw of water flowing has ever made my soul long to be a part of it. TS Eliot's Wasteland was the first time I felt this draw expressed in literature, and somehow, a book that is based around that attraction has always wormed its way into my psyche. On the other hand, despite having studied Russian for A level, I have always found the literature difficult: navel gazing in extremis and having to master all those names and patronymics. Reading just the character list of War and Peace was confusing en0ugh so I was really surprised when I picked this to be my next read.

I was even more surprised when I found myself really enjoying it. Based around the river Don, Shokholov makes the reader feel the attraction, the fundamental connection that the Cossack feels towards the river and land of his birth. He uses a charismatic heroic Cossack in particular, Gregor Melekhov and traces his life, affairs and marriage through the Russian revolution, first against the Tsar and then by the Soviet Red Guards against the Cossacks in the Ukraine who are fighting against the division of land. And, at the beginning and the end of every chapter, the writer traces the Don's changes through the seasons, the Don's unchanging ebb and flow against the seasonal tide of the men around it.

A beautiful book, beautifully written that examines the futility and mutability of war.

Minerva

Fahrenheit 451

A story of censorship and a society where books are a threat rather than a pleasure. Ray Bradbury's matter of fact style exaggerates the horrors of a culture with only popular, rapidly assimilated sound bites as entertainment. A place where firemen don't guard houses against fire but deliberately burn books . Right from the beginning the protagonist Montag catches our attention and his chance meeting with the beautiful wraith like girl who persists in asking questions which are uncomfortable for him engages us right from the start.

This is science fiction of the best kind, the sort of book that resonates within the mind of the reader for days afterwards and makes one question the values and current mores of the world around you...
I loved this book: I loved its relevance, the way that it has permeated and cast its own light on the world around me. As I read my news on the internet, as I listen to the five minutes of current affairs on the radio, I reflect on the sound bite mentality of our media obsessed culture.

Ray Bradbury's book has given me a new window on our world.

Minerva

Stuart: A life backwards.

Much has been written of the theme of homelessness in Stuart and although that is the book's main focus, I personally was fascinated by the dichotomy between the order and structure of the Cambridge classically educated biographer and the visceral living vital chaos exuded by Stuart throughout the book. It isn't just a portrayal of homelessness, although it so easily could have become one but a look at what lies beneath all of us, of the order and structures that we take for granted. When Alexander Masters tries to pin Stuart down on some of these issues, Stuart refuses to engage completely saying that he doesn't even think that way. By the end of the novel, we too can engage with this charismatic, energetic and fundamentally unselfish character who although 'bad' in the eyes of the criminal justice system is more abused by those he holds dear than those whom he despises such as 'the Old Bill', Stuart's slang for the police.

Alexander Master's debut is a book that is all the more powerful for its lack of judgement and conclusions.