Merry Xmas

David Mitchell – Cloud Atlas

It’s a difficult task to get a reader immersed in a story, rip it away from them mid-flow, replacing it with a completely different story, set in another period, told in another voice. But Mitchell doesn’t just manage this, he repeats the trick four times, before reversing the process in the second half of the book to bring the stories to their conclusions. The stories are supposed to be linked, but the connections are slight and each story could stand alone, without reference to the others. What keeps the page turning is the spellbinding quality of the prose, and Mitchell’s mastery of language.

The Year in Nonsense

Ben Goldacre’s year review.

Wilkie Collins – No Name

I read this book on the 12 hour trip back from Edinburgh, and it was the ideal read for that sort of situation. A proper door stop example of the Victorian novel, with a genuinely gripping storyline.

Hmm, let me think…

…I’m going with “No” here, I reckon.

As opposed to Bunty for boys?

Bunty for Girls, Summer Special (1972)

This came free with the Guardian a while back. While I wasn’t imagining a modern feminist progressive perspective, it was a bit shocking to see the expectations for women born only a few years before me.

Debut Album – Ian Cockburn and the Whole World

It’s been craftily released just in time for the Christmas rush, but perhaps shortsightedly after the polls for album of the year, hell, albums of the decade, have concluded.

Yes, it is Wayward Buskers by Ian Cockburn and the Whole World. 15 slice of lo-fi pop awesomeness from the talented brother, at a very modest price of £4. To get your copy, either contact Ian directly or put in an order with me.

I dislike encouraging independent thought on this blog, but if you are unwilling to take my word for it (perhaps you may think I’m biased or something) then some of the tracks can be heard at myspace

Estimated release date for the first Seven Inches album: 2017.

Edinburgh

Edinburgh is, I have no doubt, the loveliest city in the UK. Admittedly I’ve never been to Hull, but I’m willing to stick my neck out on the issue. The centre of the city is almost entirely made up of beautiful buildings with the Old Town and the Georgian New Town complementing each other perfectly. Neither the international shopping chains nor the plethora of tartan tourist traps can outweigh its appeal.

Murukami/Wodehouse

Haruki Murukami – Dance Dance Dance

Murukami usually arouses contradictory feelings in me. I love his writing style, but I hate stories where impossible events happen. I have no problem with unlikely or improbable plot twists, (indeed many of my favourite authors depend on them) or sci-fi/fantasy books that from the start posit a different reality. But I dislike following a realistic narrative only for something extraordinary to be mixed in. And Murakami likes to do that, a great deal.

But although such elements are present in Dance Dance Dance, they don’t affect the storyline. Which is an engrossing one, with engaging characters. None of the characters or their relationships with each other really convince but it doesn’t really matter; while the traditional whodunit element is undermined by the main character fundamentally not caring who did it, beyond the extent to which it effects himself. This is a common pose in detective story anti-heroes, but its refreshing to see it being stuck to, rather than being undermined by better instincts or love.

P.G. Wodehouse – The Girl in Blue

Although Wodehouse was amazingly consistent in quality over a very lengthy career, his milieu of the idle rich worked better in their untroubled pre-World War 2 idyll. After that, with their stately homes only kept up for Americans to rent and good domestic staff hard to find, his inconsequential froth begins to jar slightly against reality.

So, finding that the heroine in this story is an air hostess is a disappointment. Air travel should have no part in Wodehouse’s world. He’s also guilty of pinching jokes from earlier works (the joke about arriving slowly because of needing spikes and running shoes was also in Do Butlers Burgle Banks).

Despite this, reading Wodehouse is never hard work, and anyone who doesn’t get a warm fuzzy feeling from passages like this…

“Hullo! Is there something wrong, darling? You look like a startled codfish. Suits you, of course. Very becoming. But it gives me the idea that something has happened to upset you.”

…is missing out

Scared of the internet

In the last week or so I’ve had a Facebook stalker who on three occasions has sent me messages about my appearance on my profile photo. Not particularly complimentary, so I think I can write off any chances of them having fallen obsessively in love with me , but equally not insulting so my self-esteem is, thankfully, intact. But the intimidation factor is such that I can’t face going online at the moment, so I will not be using the internet/updating this blog in the next 2 weeks.

Well, actually, I’m going to stay in a flat that has no internet access, but it comes to much the same thing. I can only hope my stalker has a new obsession by the time I get back online.