tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post4716635478851715400..comments2024-03-26T07:58:59.761+00:00Comments on I'll think of something later: Gilead, Matterdale and MontelepreDavidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-79290499202982290672015-11-13T09:09:20.477+00:002015-11-13T09:09:20.477+00:00There's also Patrick Gale's A Place Called...There's also Patrick Gale's A Place Called Winter - great storytelling, if not especially deep, combining a gay love story built around the gaps in his great-grandfather's exile, and much about the pioneers in the Canadian prairies which you're bound to find interesting. I have to write, too, about Sanford Friedman's Totempole, a real masterpiece, unsparing semi-autobiographical account of a gay protagonist from aged 2 to service in the Korean War. Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-11752771754614083102015-11-13T02:08:43.509+00:002015-11-13T02:08:43.509+00:00I was just about to ask you if you had any books t...I was just about to ask you if you had any books to recommend. Well I have a choice here. It all sounds very interesting.Laurenthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03297393116796129135noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-46771113986297088782015-11-10T00:17:20.682+00:002015-11-10T00:17:20.682+00:00Inevitably that sounds a little pre-Copernican. I ...Inevitably that sounds a little pre-Copernican. I trust he didn't have any old woman's murder on his conscience. But in fact we met a strange Circassian in a service taxi from Amman to Damascus who ended up staying in our hotel and telling us how he wanted to be 'great man', and I fear Raskolnikov did flash into my head. Who knows what became of him? He certainly knocked back the spare bottle of whisky I'd failed to deliver to the friend in Yemen we never got to see because of passport theft...but that's another story.Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-11768921206441139402015-11-09T16:13:14.900+00:002015-11-09T16:13:14.900+00:00I gave Crime and Punishment to a young Dutchman -...I gave Crime and Punishment to a young Dutchman - in Dutch. <br />After he had read it he said " It's about me"<br /><br />Just as Hamlet is not about the Prince of Denmark but about all men ( anyway younger ones)David Damantnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-36220544675284484482015-11-09T10:45:08.262+00:002015-11-09T10:45:08.262+00:00Yes, you're right. I had Dostoyevsky mania in ...Yes, you're right. I had Dostoyevsky mania in my second year at university, when Russian Studies set me on to reading them all. Of course one couldn't read The Brothers Karamazov straight off, but it seized me and held me even when I wasn't reading it. Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-16519978891610887612015-11-09T10:37:53.414+00:002015-11-09T10:37:53.414+00:00Is there a difference between books one wants to ...Is there a difference between books one wants to read straight off and those which seize you and do not let you go? For me the latter was true for Crime and Punishment and Wuthering Heights. David Damantnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-65460116896337588892015-11-09T08:04:21.609+00:002015-11-09T08:04:21.609+00:00Funny, that: I almost wrote 'you could read it...Funny, that: I almost wrote 'you could read it in a day' - and you did. I'm in the middle of Patrick Gale's latest novel at the moment: not so richly 'interior' or so singular in style, but he knows how to tell a story and make you feverishly carry on reading.Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-28305005864692037882015-11-08T23:28:02.388+00:002015-11-08T23:28:02.388+00:00David: There are some things I might prefer not to...David: There are some things I might prefer not to remember . . . meanwhile, I did get hold of Lila, picked it up today and could not put it down. Cannot remember the last time I read a book in a single day, and what a pleasure. I do want to go back to Gilead and Home now. I thought her portrayal of the Reverend particularly fine.Susan Scheidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09250142489341777926noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-57163246832436132252015-11-07T21:16:18.197+00:002015-11-07T21:16:18.197+00:00Well, write down or tape fragments of what you rem...Well, write down or tape fragments of what you remember as and when you can (he says bossily). It's all unique...Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-48199256927635179532015-11-07T14:38:59.362+00:002015-11-07T14:38:59.362+00:00That settles it. I'm going to pick up Lila at ...That settles it. I'm going to pick up Lila at the bookstore today. (As for the union organizer chapter of my life, if only I'd kept notes. At this point, sadly, memory fails. We were quite a rowdy bunch, I can say that.)Susan Scheidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09250142489341777926noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-11008382323108956872015-11-07T00:18:07.546+00:002015-11-07T00:18:07.546+00:00Your life as a union organiser rings a distant bel...Your life as a union organiser rings a distant bell but if so, why didn't I ask you more about it before. Write that memoir, whether for publication or not. <br /><br />As I intimated, Home strikes me as richer than Gilead. Lila just goes straight to the heart, I think, because its heroine is so real and extraordinary.<br /><br />I too started JEG's Bach book, set it aside and returned to finish it off on returning from Weimar. Absolutely superb, brimming with love and knowledge. I've just been very surprised and impressed by his recording of Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress, having remembered not thinking a great deal of it in concert all those years ago. Hope he'll do more telly talk, too.Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-82014955764115045482015-11-06T20:19:27.807+00:002015-11-06T20:19:27.807+00:00Your first sentence immediately caught my attentio...Your first sentence immediately caught my attention: for me, Montelepre is the outlier. As a union organizer eons ago, I drove the length and breadth of Iowa. I didn't know of or make it to Tabor, but I certainly came close. Eons ago, also, I read Housekeeping and remember enjoying it thoroughly. I didn't have as good a time with Gilead, somehow, though I remember the writing as exquisite. Lila might prove a good way back into her "Iowa" books once I've worked my way through my current stack. (Right now, as I've just been to a performance of St. John's Passion, I've gone back to Gardiner's Bach book, which I'd started but set aside. While his commentary often sails over my head, his writing is breathtaking, and if there is anything he doesn't know about his subject, I'd be very surprised.) Susan Scheidhttps://prufrocksdilemma.wordpress.com/noreply@blogger.com