Books 33 & 34 - Terry Southern & P.D. James

Terry Southern “Flash and Filigree” (Grove Press)




Terry Southern was a highly influential American short story writer, novelist, essayist, screenwriter and university lecturer noted for his distinctive satirical style. He was part of the Paris postwar literary movement in the 1950s and a companion to Beat writers in Greenwich Village; he was at the centre of Swinging London in the sixties and helped to change the style and substance of Hollywood films of the 1970s. In the 1980s he wrote for Saturday Night Live and lectured on screen-writing at several universities in New York.

Southern's dark and often absurdist style of broad yet biting satire helped to define the sensibilities of several generations of intelligent writers, readers, directors and film goers. He is credited by journalist Tom Wolfe as having invented New Journalism with the publication of "Twirling at Ole Miss" in Esquire in 1962, and his gift for writing memorable film dialogue was evident in Dr. Strangelove, The Loved One, The Cincinnati Kid and Easy Rider. His work on Easy Rider helped create the independent film movement of the 1970s, in opposition to Hollywood film studios.

Southern's first novel is an extended comedy, following the exploits of the dermatologist Frederick Eichner as he is led through the strange underworld of the 50s LA hipster by a series of weird occurrences involving cancer cultures. Hilarious and outrageous (a famous scene recounts the taping of a game show called "What's My Disease?"), the book is an example of Southern's keenly moral satirical sense as well as of his well-crafted, elegant writing. Influenced in style by Southern's mentor Henry Green, "Flash and Filigree" adheres to Green's theory of fiction: "If you can make the reader laugh, he is apt to get careless and keep on reading."


P. D James “The Black Tower” (Faber)




Although I have seen the TV series a few times, this is my first Dalgleish novel I have read.

Dalgleish finds out that what's wrong with him is a bad bout of mononucleosis, it's nothing fatal and he should take some time to rest. At the same time he receives an invite from an elderly friend to visit him as he wants to pick his brains about something. Dalgleish is shocked when he arrives that his friend is dead. His friend is living in a group of cottages associated with a house that is now a home for people with degenerative illnesses. Shortly before Dalgleish's friend, Father Baddeley, died, another person in the house also died and as further residents start to have accidents, Dalgleish starts to ask questions and resolves his questions about his career.

The resolution somehow was both rushed and slow and I was kind of impatient at that stage about what was going on with the characters and the situations, and had a fairly good idea who was responsible but was more curious about why. The reason felt somewhat thin, as if she had determined who was the murderer but not why and had to tack on the reason

Onward To A Deal

Another good day travelling through the Kent countryside , being that it was sunny and fairly windy.

My first port of call was Faversham, as it must be if you need to continue east bound by bus. Picked up a hardback copy of “The Return Of Sherlock Homes” (Oxford) for a mere £1.50 from the Fleur Bookshop, formerly know as the Faversham Society bookshop.



In Canterbury, I popped into Waterstones to spend my five pound voucher and picked up “.Jeff In Venice, Death In Varanasi” by Geoff Dyer (Canongate).



In Deal I did a visit to get a new watch battery and from another shop picked up two cheap paperbacks -

D. M. Thomas “Ararat” (Abacus),



and

Lars Gustafson “The Tale Of A Dog” (Harvill)



On the way I took the Carlos Ruiz Zafon book , and now on page 128 of that paperback.