Penguin 70's Series (2007)
1 journaler for this copy...
I have re-used an old registration to hold my reviews for 70th Anniversary Pocket Penguins.
I hope to read 15 or 20 more this year to add to the previous 35; see separate e-books for 2005 & 2006
(4/4/07) Update: I'm reading 2 a month, and by-the-by collecting as many of the missing books as possible...so I have to revise my reading estimate to '25' which is a nice roundy number :)
I hope to read 15 or 20 more this year to add to the previous 35; see separate e-books for 2005 & 2006
(4/4/07) Update: I'm reading 2 a month, and by-the-by collecting as many of the missing books as possible...so I have to revise my reading estimate to '25' which is a nice roundy number :)
19: Where I Was by James Kelman
(25/01) This is a great introduction to a writer – in a way that this series is brilliant at doing.
Kelman creates an unerring, and somewhat unnerving, voice, through a series of very short stories and monologues about, ‘...memorable characters, down on their luck but far from hopeless’. This is true; despite a rogues gallery of drunk, feckless & aimless middle-aged men, there is a certain sense of positivity. Maybe it’s the honestly with which each faces their trials, the pleasure in small things, and in a lot of cases, a sense of movement and freedom. The first story 'Busted Scotch' epitomises this, it could be depressing - itinerant Scottish worker loses all his wages on the turn of a card - but maybe if you've got nothing, you've got nothing to lose?
(25/01) This is a great introduction to a writer – in a way that this series is brilliant at doing.
Kelman creates an unerring, and somewhat unnerving, voice, through a series of very short stories and monologues about, ‘...memorable characters, down on their luck but far from hopeless’. This is true; despite a rogues gallery of drunk, feckless & aimless middle-aged men, there is a certain sense of positivity. Maybe it’s the honestly with which each faces their trials, the pleasure in small things, and in a lot of cases, a sense of movement and freedom. The first story 'Busted Scotch' epitomises this, it could be depressing - itinerant Scottish worker loses all his wages on the turn of a card - but maybe if you've got nothing, you've got nothing to lose?
51: The Assault on Jerusalem by Steven Runciman
This was a quick read after Labyrinth and, coincidentally, gave some good historical background on the 1st Crusade; Runciman’s history was sourced by Kate Mosse.
It was fascinated how the ‘summoning’ to arms from Pope Urban came about, and the shambolic attempts by Peter the Hermit to rally a popular army to the cause. The last chapter/extract recalled in quite dispassionate terms the Crusader's (Franks?) sacking of the city and massacre of almost all the Jewish and Moslem inhabitants. It was an incredibly cruel age, and despite attempts to root - and compare - current events (Moslem fanaticism/terrorism) with this early Christian fanaticism, I’m not sure religion is the problem. The problem is people, then and now, but in the C11th the appalling disregard for human life on both sides sticks in the mind.
This was a quick read after Labyrinth and, coincidentally, gave some good historical background on the 1st Crusade; Runciman’s history was sourced by Kate Mosse.
It was fascinated how the ‘summoning’ to arms from Pope Urban came about, and the shambolic attempts by Peter the Hermit to rally a popular army to the cause. The last chapter/extract recalled in quite dispassionate terms the Crusader's (Franks?) sacking of the city and massacre of almost all the Jewish and Moslem inhabitants. It was an incredibly cruel age, and despite attempts to root - and compare - current events (Moslem fanaticism/terrorism) with this early Christian fanaticism, I’m not sure religion is the problem. The problem is people, then and now, but in the C11th the appalling disregard for human life on both sides sticks in the mind.
32: King Arthur in the East Riding by Simon Armitage
(8/02) These are great rich dollops of northern wit, character and colour. Armitage has a really unusual, but effective style, a memoir written as a sort of impersonal 1st person, like the affected 'one' but sounding just the right note..."You've finished writing a poem about a tyre", "You were 13 when you first went to Old Trafford".
I liked the first short story, a eulogy to living on the edge of the pennines within sight of the Lancashire border, the people, the 'sheep problem', the landscape, and the history, "In the 1970's the [Colne] Valley fell into a long, pleasant afternoon nap."
"It's halfway to heaven, they reckon, here in the county with more acres than letters in the Bible. Its the distance between, the difference of this from the next, one from another. And you, you live on the border." Sublime
(8/02) These are great rich dollops of northern wit, character and colour. Armitage has a really unusual, but effective style, a memoir written as a sort of impersonal 1st person, like the affected 'one' but sounding just the right note..."You've finished writing a poem about a tyre", "You were 13 when you first went to Old Trafford".
I liked the first short story, a eulogy to living on the edge of the pennines within sight of the Lancashire border, the people, the 'sheep problem', the landscape, and the history, "In the 1970's the [Colne] Valley fell into a long, pleasant afternoon nap."
"It's halfway to heaven, they reckon, here in the county with more acres than letters in the Bible. Its the distance between, the difference of this from the next, one from another. And you, you live on the border." Sublime
29: Borneo and the Poet by Redmond O'Hanlon
(8/03) This extract follows the author, a ‘naturalist, writer and explorer’ and the poet James Fenton (who he?) into the mountainous virgin centre of Borneo. Why they are doing this and risking lift and limb in a carved out tree trunk is not made clear. It’s not quite a ‘gung ho’ Victorian adventure, or a humorous modern travelogue, or a serious exploration of a land, its people, flora & fauna. So, unfortunately not very convincing or engaging IMHO :(
(8/03) This extract follows the author, a ‘naturalist, writer and explorer’ and the poet James Fenton (who he?) into the mountainous virgin centre of Borneo. Why they are doing this and risking lift and limb in a carved out tree trunk is not made clear. It’s not quite a ‘gung ho’ Victorian adventure, or a humorous modern travelogue, or a serious exploration of a land, its people, flora & fauna. So, unfortunately not very convincing or engaging IMHO :(
59: Scenes of Academic Life by David Lodge
(12/03) Very clever and very funny extracts from David Lodge’s ‘Campus novels’. DL gives us useful notes on the background to each scene which might otherwise have been ‘disembodied’.
A couple of memorable moments;
Robyn Penrose in Just a Cigarette (Nice Work) tries to explain the symbolism of cigarette advertising; Silk Cut as a sexual image (metaphor for penetration), and the Marlborough man as a simpler metonymic connection with rugged, healthy outdoor living. Educational and funny :)
In Textuality as Striptease, professor Morris Zapp (Changing Places/Small World) lectures about the nature of reading as an, ‘attempt to peer into the very core of the text’, as a type of intellectual striptease, and, attributed to Freud, ‘…excessive reading is the displaced expression of a desire to see the mother’s genitals’!!
(12/03) Very clever and very funny extracts from David Lodge’s ‘Campus novels’. DL gives us useful notes on the background to each scene which might otherwise have been ‘disembodied’.
A couple of memorable moments;
Robyn Penrose in Just a Cigarette (Nice Work) tries to explain the symbolism of cigarette advertising; Silk Cut as a sexual image (metaphor for penetration), and the Marlborough man as a simpler metonymic connection with rugged, healthy outdoor living. Educational and funny :)
In Textuality as Striptease, professor Morris Zapp (Changing Places/Small World) lectures about the nature of reading as an, ‘attempt to peer into the very core of the text’, as a type of intellectual striptease, and, attributed to Freud, ‘…excessive reading is the displaced expression of a desire to see the mother’s genitals’!!
8: Nothing Bad Ever Happens at Tiffany's by Marian Keyes
The “Tiffany’s” episode in 'I shop, therefore I am' is typical of this little collection of funny, self-deprecating, memoir-like passages. I think MK is an author who takes her chick-lit pedigree about as seriously as the genre deserves, very much with tongue-in-cheek and a great big serving of the Oirish blarney (if not complete baloney!)
The “Tiffany’s” episode in 'I shop, therefore I am' is typical of this little collection of funny, self-deprecating, memoir-like passages. I think MK is an author who takes her chick-lit pedigree about as seriously as the genre deserves, very much with tongue-in-cheek and a great big serving of the Oirish blarney (if not complete baloney!)
10: A Taste of the Unexpected by Roald Dahl
3 stories from the master of the twisted tale, whether for adults or children. A couple are a bit dated as they occupy a frozen post-war time and a place of boarding houses, gentlemens clubs & servants. But, in all cases the writing is precise and the mood atmospheric and claustrophobic (in a good way).
(15: Artists and Models by Anais Nin...see separate journal entry)
3 stories from the master of the twisted tale, whether for adults or children. A couple are a bit dated as they occupy a frozen post-war time and a place of boarding houses, gentlemens clubs & servants. But, in all cases the writing is precise and the mood atmospheric and claustrophobic (in a good way).
(15: Artists and Models by Anais Nin...see separate journal entry)
16: Christmas at Stalingrad by Antony Beevor
The good people at Penguin have cleverly picked out a 56 page chunk of the massive acclaimed ‘Stalingrad’. With no pre-amble and patchy prior knowledge on my part, the action jumps in with Stalin’s plan to push forward the advantage of the recent encircling of the German 6th Army in Stalingrad (Operation Uranus) in 1942. As the winter and hunger and stress start to bite, the 150,000 troops are cut off and isolated, increasingly resigned to their plight; Hitler has promised to support Paulus - via inadequate air relief – but critically, not to mount a full scale rescue bid. This extract includes the sad attempts at 'German Christmas' celebrations and ends with the shambolic and ultimately doomed attempt by the Russians to offer an end to the seige of the 'kessel' and a safe passage (although no details given).
This is brilliant fact-based history with enough personal detail, description and erudite conjecture to make sublime fiction as well; and I mean that as a compliment!
The good people at Penguin have cleverly picked out a 56 page chunk of the massive acclaimed ‘Stalingrad’. With no pre-amble and patchy prior knowledge on my part, the action jumps in with Stalin’s plan to push forward the advantage of the recent encircling of the German 6th Army in Stalingrad (Operation Uranus) in 1942. As the winter and hunger and stress start to bite, the 150,000 troops are cut off and isolated, increasingly resigned to their plight; Hitler has promised to support Paulus - via inadequate air relief – but critically, not to mount a full scale rescue bid. This extract includes the sad attempts at 'German Christmas' celebrations and ends with the shambolic and ultimately doomed attempt by the Russians to offer an end to the seige of the 'kessel' and a safe passage (although no details given).
This is brilliant fact-based history with enough personal detail, description and erudite conjecture to make sublime fiction as well; and I mean that as a compliment!
17: The Desert and the Dancing Girls by Gustave Flaubert
(17/05) Through a number of letters and travel journal extracts, this follows the 20-something Flaubert on a tour of Egypt. His main concern seems to be experience as many of the sights, tastes, and erm...exotic...practices as possible. A by-product, we are led to believe, is the invigoration of a desire to write, possibly leading to 'Madame Bovary'?
(17/05) Through a number of letters and travel journal extracts, this follows the 20-something Flaubert on a tour of Egypt. His main concern seems to be experience as many of the sights, tastes, and erm...exotic...practices as possible. A by-product, we are led to believe, is the invigoration of a desire to write, possibly leading to 'Madame Bovary'?
18: The Secret Annexe from the Diary of Anne Frank
(31/05) I have read the full diaries in the past, but this was a pleasant enough reminder, a 50+ page chunk between late ’42, the arrival of a new resident in the annexe, and autumn ’43 with increased bombing of Amsterdam and cracks beginning to show in the community and the whole elaborate support network for Anne, her family, the van Damms and Mr Dussell in hiding.
One new observation, a bit flippant I know, but now that I’ve got a teenage daughter I can understand the tensions, sometimes breaking into open hostility, between the intelligent and feisty Anne and seemingly all the other adult residents! She finds her voice, and some shreds of comfort and privacy in her journal and friendship in her imaginary co-respondent Kitty.
(31/05) I have read the full diaries in the past, but this was a pleasant enough reminder, a 50+ page chunk between late ’42, the arrival of a new resident in the annexe, and autumn ’43 with increased bombing of Amsterdam and cracks beginning to show in the community and the whole elaborate support network for Anne, her family, the van Damms and Mr Dussell in hiding.
One new observation, a bit flippant I know, but now that I’ve got a teenage daughter I can understand the tensions, sometimes breaking into open hostility, between the intelligent and feisty Anne and seemingly all the other adult residents! She finds her voice, and some shreds of comfort and privacy in her journal and friendship in her imaginary co-respondent Kitty.
25: Rose, 1944 by Helen Dunmore
(7/06) More than once with this brilliant penguin selection I've found myself saying, “I don’t normally like short stories, but…” And here are more great stories and a new author for me to look out for.
The title story, ‘Rose, 1944’ is a whole potted novel in 25 pages about a mixed race relationship, war-time love, the twin pains of nostalgia (wanting to go home), and lost love, or rather a love that could never be strong enough.
The other memorable story in the selection, my favourite, ‘Esther to Fanny’ is about a daughter losing her mother to cancer. The daughter is not Esther, and her mother is not Fanny, but the narrator uses the real experiences of Fanny D’Arblay writing to her sister Esther in 1811 after having had a mastectomy without anesthetic* The letter allows her to think about her mother, the illness, and the doctors/'caring' profession in a more pragmatic and detached way, although still painfully sad.
* coincidentally the same source used by Penelope Fitzgerald in The Blue Flower...I read both these books within weeks of each other!
(7/06) More than once with this brilliant penguin selection I've found myself saying, “I don’t normally like short stories, but…” And here are more great stories and a new author for me to look out for.
The title story, ‘Rose, 1944’ is a whole potted novel in 25 pages about a mixed race relationship, war-time love, the twin pains of nostalgia (wanting to go home), and lost love, or rather a love that could never be strong enough.
The other memorable story in the selection, my favourite, ‘Esther to Fanny’ is about a daughter losing her mother to cancer. The daughter is not Esther, and her mother is not Fanny, but the narrator uses the real experiences of Fanny D’Arblay writing to her sister Esther in 1811 after having had a mastectomy without anesthetic* The letter allows her to think about her mother, the illness, and the doctors/'caring' profession in a more pragmatic and detached way, although still painfully sad.
* coincidentally the same source used by Penelope Fitzgerald in The Blue Flower...I read both these books within weeks of each other!
26: The Economics of Innocent Fraud by J K Galbraith
(13/06)OK, so J K Galbraith may be a famous (or probably just well known in his particular field, economics), and venerable, but that’s no excuse for such strange elaborate dated prose, ferinstance, and I kid you not the book is full of these tortuous sentences;
"The economic system having been renamed, the negative history of capitalism escaped, the next development in the world of innocent economic fraud has been the preservation of a routine capitalist image, this as the large corporation became the centerpiece of the modern economy."
The single theme here, explained in lots of small scenarios, is not actually about fraud, but the unknowing innocence – in Galbraith’s opinion (not humble by any means) – in which we accept the lies, deceits and misunderstandings in society, politics, economics and finances. Some example:-
(1)The US Federal Reserve and its tinkering with interest rates has no effect on the economy
(2)Any large and successful private company is a bureaucracy
(3)The people who earn the most need money least, and so spend less (the opposite of the accepted supply and demand model)
(4)The ‘Market System’ is just Capitalism re-branded for the new century
(5) Managers control corporations, not shareholders or boards of directors
Most of JKG’s arguments make sense, but that doesn’t make them all true or even palatable with such an obvious set of prejudices and polemic.
(13/06)OK, so J K Galbraith may be a famous (or probably just well known in his particular field, economics), and venerable, but that’s no excuse for such strange elaborate dated prose, ferinstance, and I kid you not the book is full of these tortuous sentences;
"The economic system having been renamed, the negative history of capitalism escaped, the next development in the world of innocent economic fraud has been the preservation of a routine capitalist image, this as the large corporation became the centerpiece of the modern economy."
The single theme here, explained in lots of small scenarios, is not actually about fraud, but the unknowing innocence – in Galbraith’s opinion (not humble by any means) – in which we accept the lies, deceits and misunderstandings in society, politics, economics and finances. Some example:-
(1)The US Federal Reserve and its tinkering with interest rates has no effect on the economy
(2)Any large and successful private company is a bureaucracy
(3)The people who earn the most need money least, and so spend less (the opposite of the accepted supply and demand model)
(4)The ‘Market System’ is just Capitalism re-branded for the new century
(5) Managers control corporations, not shareholders or boards of directors
Most of JKG’s arguments make sense, but that doesn’t make them all true or even palatable with such an obvious set of prejudices and polemic.
27: The School Inspector Calls by Gervaise Phinn
(4/07) A pleasant enough collection of anecdotes from Phinn's memoirs, although a little bit too twee and uneventful to get too excited about.
(4/07) A pleasant enough collection of anecdotes from Phinn's memoirs, although a little bit too twee and uneventful to get too excited about.
30: Ali Smith's Supersonic 70s
Mostly typical high quality wistful reminiscences of a Scottish childhood in the 70s, seen through the lenses of future experience...and an odd last story 'Trachtenbauer', what's that all about!
Mostly typical high quality wistful reminiscences of a Scottish childhood in the 70s, seen through the lenses of future experience...and an odd last story 'Trachtenbauer', what's that all about!
24: Idiot Nation by Michael Moore
An odd coincidence that the last of the '70' that i've acquired (overpriced from Amazon Marketplace) was the only book that I had already read! Now i've re-read these 2 extracts from Stupid White Men, about the general ignorance and poor state of US high school education, the hypocrisy of politicians, the influence of big business & advertising...all quite obvious, it's a shame it needs MM to spell it out in his cynical & vitriolic way :(
An odd coincidence that the last of the '70' that i've acquired (overpriced from Amazon Marketplace) was the only book that I had already read! Now i've re-read these 2 extracts from Stupid White Men, about the general ignorance and poor state of US high school education, the hypocrisy of politicians, the influence of big business & advertising...all quite obvious, it's a shame it needs MM to spell it out in his cynical & vitriolic way :(
36: The Snobs by Muriel Spark
(07/08) These are pleasant enough little stories in the style of ‘Tales of the Unexpected’, with wry twists, or a sense of the supernatural. I found the title story least interesting, and The First Year of my Life most, ‘...all of the young of the human species are born omniscient’, after which we are brainwashed and the power fades as we learn more ‘practical’ survival skills.
(07/08) These are pleasant enough little stories in the style of ‘Tales of the Unexpected’, with wry twists, or a sense of the supernatural. I found the title story least interesting, and The First Year of my Life most, ‘...all of the young of the human species are born omniscient’, after which we are brainwashed and the power fades as we learn more ‘practical’ survival skills.
38: Under the Clock by Tony Harrison / (43) Something for the Weekend by Jamie Oliver
(15/08) I'm putting these 2 together only because I skipped through them both and finished on the same day...they don't really count as a full reading experience in either case
Tony Harrison's new poetry collection is a bit rich and obscure for me, a mixture of some political polemic (foot & mouth, gulf war, Nazis, Blair etc.) and some classical showing off.
Jamie Oliver pulls together a few assorted recipes in his normal cheeky chappie, bish bosh, style...probably my least favourite of the recent cooking characters, as it all feels a bit contrived.
Never mind, poetry & cookery writing, its all grist to the mill!
(15/08) I'm putting these 2 together only because I skipped through them both and finished on the same day...they don't really count as a full reading experience in either case
Tony Harrison's new poetry collection is a bit rich and obscure for me, a mixture of some political polemic (foot & mouth, gulf war, Nazis, Blair etc.) and some classical showing off.
Jamie Oliver pulls together a few assorted recipes in his normal cheeky chappie, bish bosh, style...probably my least favourite of the recent cooking characters, as it all feels a bit contrived.
Never mind, poetry & cookery writing, its all grist to the mill!
Journal Entry 20 by BookGroupMan from Chester, Cheshire United Kingdom on Friday, September 14, 2007
46: The Scales of Justice by John Mortimer
(14/09) A 'Rumpole' case/story and a oddly lifeless and forgetable extract from Mortimer's autobiography, not 'a barrister who wrote', but a 'writer who did barristering'.
(14/09) A 'Rumpole' case/story and a oddly lifeless and forgetable extract from Mortimer's autobiography, not 'a barrister who wrote', but a 'writer who did barristering'.
Journal Entry 21 by BookGroupMan from Chester, Cheshire United Kingdom on Thursday, September 27, 2007
47: The Diamond as Big as the Ritz by F Scott Fitzgerald
(26/09) Fitzgerald in playful mood, a fantastic exploration of the possibility and dangers of uncountable wealth and uncontrollable power; not great but made for a pleasant hour.
(26/09) Fitzgerald in playful mood, a fantastic exploration of the possibility and dangers of uncountable wealth and uncontrollable power; not great but made for a pleasant hour.
Journal Entry 22 by BookGroupMan from Chester, Cheshire United Kingdom on Friday, September 28, 2007
48: The State of Poetry by Roger McGough
(28/09) A quite brilliant collection of poems for 'children and adults alike'. Some extracts which give some flavour of McGough's humour and sublime sense of language and humanity, I hope:
“Daddy in the study. Stereotyping”
“I have outlived my youthfulness”
“’I concur with everything you say’, smiled William…
Good old William, the Concurrer.”
“Prozac provides safety in numbness”
“The book stops here”
(28/09) A quite brilliant collection of poems for 'children and adults alike'. Some extracts which give some flavour of McGough's humour and sublime sense of language and humanity, I hope:
“Daddy in the study. Stereotyping”
“I have outlived my youthfulness”
“’I concur with everything you say’, smiled William…
Good old William, the Concurrer.”
“Prozac provides safety in numbness”
“The book stops here”
50: Seventeen Poisoned Englishmen by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
(5/10) I read One Hundred Years of Solitude many years ago, and these are surprisingly good short stories with Marquez consciously holding back his more fantastic & spiritual side and paring down his prose. I thing the title story was the weakest; I loved the understated menace in ‘I only came to use the phone’, and the interplay between Jose and the queen in ‘The woman who came at 6 o’clock’. The last, and shortest ‘Light is like Water’ takes a very simple idea and creates a sublime invocation of magic.
(5/10) I read One Hundred Years of Solitude many years ago, and these are surprisingly good short stories with Marquez consciously holding back his more fantastic & spiritual side and paring down his prose. I thing the title story was the weakest; I loved the understated menace in ‘I only came to use the phone’, and the interplay between Jose and the queen in ‘The woman who came at 6 o’clock’. The last, and shortest ‘Light is like Water’ takes a very simple idea and creates a sublime invocation of magic.
Journal Entry 24 by BookGroupMan from Chester, Cheshire United Kingdom on Wednesday, October 17, 2007
52: The Queen in Hell Close by Sue Townsend
(16/10) Omigosh, the queen and her family deposed by a new republic and living with the proletariat in ‘ell Close; her maj seeking emergency benefits, Philip in bed with depression, Anne flirting with a plumber and carpet fiter (sic), Harry dumbing down in the local school...Funny and original, but I think the gag and suspension of disbelief would wear a little thin over a whole book.
Update
Well that's me finished 25 this year, which leaves 10 maybe for '08 - i'm really going to miss this series :(
(16/10) Omigosh, the queen and her family deposed by a new republic and living with the proletariat in ‘ell Close; her maj seeking emergency benefits, Philip in bed with depression, Anne flirting with a plumber and carpet fiter (sic), Harry dumbing down in the local school...Funny and original, but I think the gag and suspension of disbelief would wear a little thin over a whole book.
Update
Well that's me finished 25 this year, which leaves 10 maybe for '08 - i'm really going to miss this series :(
