GavinJones Posted August 10, 2005 Share Posted August 10, 2005 Tedium at work prompts review of annual anglo middlebrow fiction fest: The Harmony Silk Factory by Tash Aw The Sea by John Banville Arthur & George by Julian Barnes A Long Long Way by Sebastian Barry Slow Man by JM Coetzee In the Fold by Rachel Cusk Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro All For Love by Dan Jacobson A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka Beyond Black by Hilary Mantel Saturday by Ian McEwan The People’s Act of Love by James Meek Shalimar The Clown by Salman Rushdie The Accidental by Ali Smith On Beauty by Zadie Smith This Thing Of Darkness by Harry Thompson This Is The Country by William Wall Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Wilfrid1 Posted August 10, 2005 Share Posted August 10, 2005 Past highlights. Selina "air-head" Scott asking Angela Carter "So, what brings you here this evening?" Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TheMatt Posted August 10, 2005 Share Posted August 10, 2005 I have read none of those, but I do recognize some names, so...score! And, I am in my annual struggle to try and read "Midnight's Children", so I guess I could co-opt Rushdie. Now, if only Terry Pratchett could get on it, then I could seem all artsy. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
g.johnson Posted August 10, 2005 Share Posted August 10, 2005 Past highlights. Selina "air-head" Scott asking Angela Carter "So, what brings you here this evening?" I once walked past Selena Scott, loudly proclaiming "I only talk the the National media", when she was doing a piece on our lab for Grampian TV. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
pim Posted August 10, 2005 Share Posted August 10, 2005 Saturday by Ian McEwan I'm a long time fan of McEwan, read pretty much everything he's ever penned, but I simply COULD NOT get into Saturday. I first came across the excerpt that was in the New Yorker, and only a few pages there took me a loooong while to get through. I dutifully got the book the first week it came out, and still haven't finished it! I labored through a good bit, put it down to do something, and still haven't been quite inspired enough to pick it back up yet. Have I gone mad or was it that tedious to some of you too? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
yumyum Posted August 10, 2005 Share Posted August 10, 2005 Me too. And I'm a big McEwan fan as well. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Daisy Posted August 10, 2005 Share Posted August 10, 2005 Amen, sisters. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
g.johnson Posted August 10, 2005 Share Posted August 10, 2005 Me too. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Wilfrid1 Posted August 10, 2005 Share Posted August 10, 2005 A suitable outcome in every way. Now, back to my reading list... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Behemoth Posted August 10, 2005 Share Posted August 10, 2005 How is Julian Barnes' stuff these days? I read something of his a long time ago that I remember liking. I think it was Before She Met Me. Oh, I also read Flaubert's Parrot, though I'll be damned if I remember any of it. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Wilfrid1 Posted August 10, 2005 Share Posted August 10, 2005 Just as the poets of the Thirties were chidingly referred to as Macspaunday, we might call the Booker crew Mcamiscareydie or something. No reason to read most of this stuff. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
g.johnson Posted August 10, 2005 Share Posted August 10, 2005 How is Julian Barnes' stuff these days? I read something of his a long time ago that I remember liking. I think it was Before She Met Me. Oh, I also read Flaubert's Parrot, though I'll be damned if I remember any of it. I think Barnes is a better short story writer and essayist than novelist. I did like Metroland and F's P but the others leave me cold (I didn't like Before She Met Me at all so we may have divergent tastes). But I like his short stories very much -- the recent Lemon Table, particularly. And Pedant in the Kitchen is well worth a couple of hours of anyone's time. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
g.johnson Posted August 10, 2005 Share Posted August 10, 2005 Just as the poets of the Thirties were chidingly referred to as Macspaunday, we might call the Booker crew Mcamiscareydie or something. No reason to read most of this stuff. Aside from age, do you really see any similarities between McEwan (a humorless and straightforward naturalist), Amis (a grandiloquent tragicomedian) and Carey (a sometime magic realist reborn as an historical novelist)? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Wilfrid1 Posted August 10, 2005 Share Posted August 10, 2005 Yes, they are all middlebrow talents posing as highbrow to the general satisfaction of their agents and publishers, and the reading public. (Oh well, it beats arguing about where the mac 'n' cheese recipes get posted.) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Behemoth Posted August 10, 2005 Share Posted August 10, 2005 I liked Time's Arrow by Martin Amis. But then again I read it over ten years ago, so who knows if my tastes are the same. But that last one, Yellow Dog... I bought it in the airport, couldn't get through it. Haven't read anything else of his. I'm not the biggest Salman Rushdie fan but there was a great article in Granta a long time ago where he and Günter Grass critiqued each other's work. Good reading. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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