In The Loop

Last night I saw the latest film starring Bruce Willis, and it was a sci-fil crime thriller called Looper. It was very good, but for some reason it kept reminding me of Twelve Monkeys, another which featured the same actor. Perhaps he has just one mode of acting. Nevertheless, it was a good film.

Earlier on I was in Gravesend and donated some stuff to see if they mentioned Gift Aid. Whilst there bought a hardback copy of “The QI Book of General Ignorance” (Faber)

I also went to Tunbridge Wells after visiting Gravesend. Took a new route on an Arriva 138 bus going via Meopham and Wrotham, then Sevenoaks and catching the Arriva 402 towards Tunbridge Wells

Picked up another paperback from HMV for two quid - Jack Kerouac “Maggie Cassidy” (Penguin Modern Classics)




Late back of course, as that film finished at eleven last night, and I had to get a train back to Teynham.

Book 64 - Russell Hoban "The Bat Tattoo"

Russell Hoban "The Bat Tattoo" (Bloomsbury)




I haven't read enough of Hoban to know if there is such a thing as a typical Hoban, but I doubt there is. I find Hoban's work easy to read, his prose moves you along and he presents characters who seem consistent and convincing even though the situations they find themselves stretch into the realm of magic realism.


It is the modern day tale of a middle-aged man and woman, both widowed several years ago, who come together after coincidentally getting the same bat (a symbol of happiness taken from a Chinese vase at the V&A) tattooed on their left shoulders. It is a tale of art, loneliness, religious iconography, failure, erotica, mysterious millionaires, and an unfortunate obsession with crash-test dummies.

Weird and wonderful and thus highly recommended.