Europe in the Looking-Glass by Robert Byron
Written in 1925 in the time between the wars Byron's account of a journey through the heart of Europe captures a vanished world just ten years away from being irrevocably changed by the Second World War. This was Byron's first book and as such there are some points where the pretension of youth comes through but the seeds of the great travel writer that he was to become are certainly there.
Byron's descriptions of the countries he travels through are fascinating, pictures of the continent before it was completely tamed by tourists, even at this time you can see how quickly the tourist trade is developing. The appalling roads he describes are almost unbelievable, at one point in Greece the trio are forced to load their car on a train for Corinth as there is no road to Athens from the port they land at.
My favourite part of the book was Byron's description of his travels through Greece and his time spent in Athens. He has an obvious passion for the country and for the ancient civilisation of the Greeks. He has a wonderful eye for ancient art and architecture and truly brings the buildings to life, his description of the Parthanon is wonderful.
This is not just a fascinating piece of travel writing but also a piece of history. This is a first hand account of a lost world that would never be seen again. Byron also mixes his observations on the countries he visits with political and social commentary which makes this a priceless piece of evidence for this period of relative peace between two of the most catastrophic events of the twentieth century. For me this was the perfect introduction to this writer and I look forward to reading his later works to see the seeds of his talent as a writer come to fruition.
Wednesday, 29 February 2012
Saturday, 25 February 2012
Pure by Andrew miller
This book has received glowing reviews and was awarded this years Costa Prize, as a result I had fairly high expectations when I started out and being a fan of literary fiction and a bit of a history buff I thought it would be a great read. However I have to say that I finished the book with a feeling of disappointment and that getting through was more of an uninteresting chore than a gripping read I raced through. Maybe part of my disappointment was due to unrealistic expectations but I can't help but think this just wasn't really a great choice for the Costa.
I'm not saying it was a bad book, it wasn't, and I think that had I come to it without any of the hype then perhaps I would have enjoyed it more, as it was I kept waiting for something exceptional which never materialised. It was very well written with beautifully constructed prose and obviously very well researched. The detail was intricate and convincing from the fashions to the smells of 18th century Parisian life and the subject matter was well chosen. However even with all this going for the book there was something missing. It felt like very little happened which considering that the plot included a rape, a murder and a suicide seems a little strange. There were lots of hints of things going on in the background which I kept expecting to intrude on the action but never did, like the subtle build up to the revolution. There is an obvious unrest in the city and anti government slogans appear painted on walls around the city, the French Revolution is such a rich subject and could have added a wonderful depth to the story but apart from these few hints Miller practically ignores it and it almost seems that most of the characters know nothing of the build up to revolution in this pivotal year.
The story of the demolition of the church and cemetery of Les Innocents is interesting and was a great choice for a novel but I don't think Miller uses it to its full potential. I would be interested to read some of his other historical fiction and see if this is a trend. All in all Pure is a good book but doesn't live up to its potential and it was not a good enough book to have won the Costa prize.
I'm not saying it was a bad book, it wasn't, and I think that had I come to it without any of the hype then perhaps I would have enjoyed it more, as it was I kept waiting for something exceptional which never materialised. It was very well written with beautifully constructed prose and obviously very well researched. The detail was intricate and convincing from the fashions to the smells of 18th century Parisian life and the subject matter was well chosen. However even with all this going for the book there was something missing. It felt like very little happened which considering that the plot included a rape, a murder and a suicide seems a little strange. There were lots of hints of things going on in the background which I kept expecting to intrude on the action but never did, like the subtle build up to the revolution. There is an obvious unrest in the city and anti government slogans appear painted on walls around the city, the French Revolution is such a rich subject and could have added a wonderful depth to the story but apart from these few hints Miller practically ignores it and it almost seems that most of the characters know nothing of the build up to revolution in this pivotal year.
The story of the demolition of the church and cemetery of Les Innocents is interesting and was a great choice for a novel but I don't think Miller uses it to its full potential. I would be interested to read some of his other historical fiction and see if this is a trend. All in all Pure is a good book but doesn't live up to its potential and it was not a good enough book to have won the Costa prize.
Saturday, 18 February 2012
A Great American Novel
The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach
There is something very wonderful going on in the American literary scene, it has a vibrancy that in many ways is lacking in the modern fiction of English writers. Chad Harbach's debut novel 'The Art of Fielding' is a very much a product of this. This is a wonderful book, strongly in the tradition of the great American novel and reminiscent of Salinger's Catcher in the Rye.
On its surface this is a novel about a college baseball team in small town America and as such seems on first glance something that could not be enjoyed by an English reader who knows nothing about the sport or the college life of an American teenager. But there is so much more than surface to 'The Art of Fielding'. The characters are exquisite, full of deep emotion and beautifully flawed. Their stories are compelling and the further you travel into the book the more you realise it doesn't matter what you know about baseball or college town life.
This is a novel about transition, in many ways university is a pause in life, a time when we take a few years out to decide what to do with the years stretching ahead. This is where we often find out if our dreams really are possible or if we have to accept another life for ourselves. For Henry Skirmshander his dream is to be the best shortstop in baseball history and he pursues it with a single mindedness that is on the one hand obsessive and unhealthy but on the other enviable, all of us in some ways wish we could be so dedicated to one great dream. When his whole future is threatened by one bad throw with dire consequences he struggles to come to terms with the idea that his dream may be at an end. This is something many readers will be able to relate to, the certainty of youth shattered and the struggle to recognise the fact that your plan for the future is only one of many possibilities. Nothing is set in stone and learning to accept this and adapt is part of growing up.
Harbach's cast of characters are all interconnected and while many writers would have fallen at this hurdle, miring the reader in an incomprehensible web of connections which are a struggle to keep track of Harbach is able to keep these relationships balanced and clear and in fact this is one of the novels great strengths. The interactions between Henry and Schwartz or owen and Affenlight are deftly handled and intensely real, keeping the reader emotionally invested in the fates of these characters.
At it's heart this is a novel about change and one's ability to face it and as such Harbach joins a strong literary tradition of American novelists exploring themes of transition showing that the American Dream of Kerouac and Salinger is still a powerful force.
There is something very wonderful going on in the American literary scene, it has a vibrancy that in many ways is lacking in the modern fiction of English writers. Chad Harbach's debut novel 'The Art of Fielding' is a very much a product of this. This is a wonderful book, strongly in the tradition of the great American novel and reminiscent of Salinger's Catcher in the Rye.
On its surface this is a novel about a college baseball team in small town America and as such seems on first glance something that could not be enjoyed by an English reader who knows nothing about the sport or the college life of an American teenager. But there is so much more than surface to 'The Art of Fielding'. The characters are exquisite, full of deep emotion and beautifully flawed. Their stories are compelling and the further you travel into the book the more you realise it doesn't matter what you know about baseball or college town life.
This is a novel about transition, in many ways university is a pause in life, a time when we take a few years out to decide what to do with the years stretching ahead. This is where we often find out if our dreams really are possible or if we have to accept another life for ourselves. For Henry Skirmshander his dream is to be the best shortstop in baseball history and he pursues it with a single mindedness that is on the one hand obsessive and unhealthy but on the other enviable, all of us in some ways wish we could be so dedicated to one great dream. When his whole future is threatened by one bad throw with dire consequences he struggles to come to terms with the idea that his dream may be at an end. This is something many readers will be able to relate to, the certainty of youth shattered and the struggle to recognise the fact that your plan for the future is only one of many possibilities. Nothing is set in stone and learning to accept this and adapt is part of growing up.
Harbach's cast of characters are all interconnected and while many writers would have fallen at this hurdle, miring the reader in an incomprehensible web of connections which are a struggle to keep track of Harbach is able to keep these relationships balanced and clear and in fact this is one of the novels great strengths. The interactions between Henry and Schwartz or owen and Affenlight are deftly handled and intensely real, keeping the reader emotionally invested in the fates of these characters.
At it's heart this is a novel about change and one's ability to face it and as such Harbach joins a strong literary tradition of American novelists exploring themes of transition showing that the American Dream of Kerouac and Salinger is still a powerful force.
Thursday, 16 February 2012
Anything Goes
Lucy Moore's biography of the Roaring Twenties is a masterpiece of popular history, as addictive as a good novel. The book it's structured thematically with chapters on literature, sport and Hollywood among other things and the switch from subject to subject is seamless so there is a easy flow throughout that draws the reader on and makes it truly unputdownable. All the great figures you could hope to meet are included, Al Capone, Charlie Chaplin, F. Scott Fitzgerald, as well as figures less well known to readers unfamiliar with the history of early Twentieth Century America.
Moore is starkly truthful about the period, she delves beneath the glamour and glitz to the darker undercurrents pervading these years. Particularly insightful was her chapter on the 'lost generation', those artists and writers who for us epitomise the age. Eighty years later the art and literature of the 1920's remains a strong part of popular culture, books like Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby are still bestsellers and the styles of the Art Deco movement are never long out of fashion. But the carefree lifestyle of endless parties and sparkling champagne that we think of when we imagine this golden age of America was based on a disillusionment deep seated in the consciousness of the young men who had come back from the great war. Moore reveals the tragic character behind Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald and their torrid and deeply troubled relationship. The highflying lifestyle they led was lived at an intensity that could not be maintained.
Through Moore's intelligent analysis we see the cracks that pervaded these golden years, though in many ways America was at a peak in the twenties with more money being made than ever before by some inequality was also at a height with racial persecution and a huge gap in wealth between the classes. Everywhere from Hollywood to the White House corruption reigned and America was headed towards a breaking point. The book finishes with the Wall Street Crash and rather than a sensationalist narrative of bankers leaping from the windows of their Wall Street office buildings the true story is presented of an inevitable and slow decline with devastating results.
Having been infatuated by everything Art Deco for many years now I found this history fascinating and utterly compelling. The seeds of modern America are found in these years and many of the great institutions and companies that are familiar symbols of American culture in the modern world come to prominence during this golden age. There is also an eerie familiarity to this history, the boom years followed by a crash of the economy due to reckless bankers. All in all I would highly recommend this book, it is a fascinating insight into a formative period of modern history with echoes that reach to our own time.
Moore is starkly truthful about the period, she delves beneath the glamour and glitz to the darker undercurrents pervading these years. Particularly insightful was her chapter on the 'lost generation', those artists and writers who for us epitomise the age. Eighty years later the art and literature of the 1920's remains a strong part of popular culture, books like Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby are still bestsellers and the styles of the Art Deco movement are never long out of fashion. But the carefree lifestyle of endless parties and sparkling champagne that we think of when we imagine this golden age of America was based on a disillusionment deep seated in the consciousness of the young men who had come back from the great war. Moore reveals the tragic character behind Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald and their torrid and deeply troubled relationship. The highflying lifestyle they led was lived at an intensity that could not be maintained.
Through Moore's intelligent analysis we see the cracks that pervaded these golden years, though in many ways America was at a peak in the twenties with more money being made than ever before by some inequality was also at a height with racial persecution and a huge gap in wealth between the classes. Everywhere from Hollywood to the White House corruption reigned and America was headed towards a breaking point. The book finishes with the Wall Street Crash and rather than a sensationalist narrative of bankers leaping from the windows of their Wall Street office buildings the true story is presented of an inevitable and slow decline with devastating results.
Having been infatuated by everything Art Deco for many years now I found this history fascinating and utterly compelling. The seeds of modern America are found in these years and many of the great institutions and companies that are familiar symbols of American culture in the modern world come to prominence during this golden age. There is also an eerie familiarity to this history, the boom years followed by a crash of the economy due to reckless bankers. All in all I would highly recommend this book, it is a fascinating insight into a formative period of modern history with echoes that reach to our own time.
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