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Oct. 4th, 2017
Book 66 - Graham Swift "Mothering Sunday"
Oct. 4th, 2017 03:08 pmGraham Swift "Mothering Sunday" (Scribner)
IT is years,perhaps a decade, since i last read a book from Graham Swift. For some reason he fell off my radar until i spotted this book in a charity shop. Fortuitously, this find has reignited my desire to check out more of his novels,though this one is short enough to be called a novella.
Surprisingly nuanced, this is the story of Jane Fairchild, an orphan-turned-maid servant who is having an affair with the handsome heir in a neighboring English country house. The year is 1924; the First War has ravaged the country and everything is changing fast. But Jane is just a young woman in love with a young man, the two of them from such different spheres that she hardly even grieves the impossibility of their relationship. Swift's tale focuses largely on a single day but he captures a lifetime through the narrative, moving back and forth through Jane's life such that her character emerges in multifaceted light and shadow. That Jane becomes a writer provides an intriguing reflective vehicle for the author to consider truth, fiction, lies and stories as they meld into a novelist's craft. That a writer draws upon their own experience, their own story, is inevitable. So this story about one remarkable day in the life of an ordinary servant girl becomes a meditation on the novelist's material: the "stuff of life," and the novelist's intention: through fiction, through lies, to tell the truth.
IT is years,perhaps a decade, since i last read a book from Graham Swift. For some reason he fell off my radar until i spotted this book in a charity shop. Fortuitously, this find has reignited my desire to check out more of his novels,though this one is short enough to be called a novella.
Surprisingly nuanced, this is the story of Jane Fairchild, an orphan-turned-maid servant who is having an affair with the handsome heir in a neighboring English country house. The year is 1924; the First War has ravaged the country and everything is changing fast. But Jane is just a young woman in love with a young man, the two of them from such different spheres that she hardly even grieves the impossibility of their relationship. Swift's tale focuses largely on a single day but he captures a lifetime through the narrative, moving back and forth through Jane's life such that her character emerges in multifaceted light and shadow. That Jane becomes a writer provides an intriguing reflective vehicle for the author to consider truth, fiction, lies and stories as they meld into a novelist's craft. That a writer draws upon their own experience, their own story, is inevitable. So this story about one remarkable day in the life of an ordinary servant girl becomes a meditation on the novelist's material: the "stuff of life," and the novelist's intention: through fiction, through lies, to tell the truth.
Washington Irvine "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories "(Penguin Classics)
I picked up this book in a charity shop mainly for its most famous short story "The Legend pf Sleepy hollow" which has been turned into a wonderful film featuring Johnny Depp and directed by Tim Burton, as well as the excellent TV series of it.
Having read that,the other stories and essays could be read in any order, and hence, as a book that covers different subjects it is one that does need to be read continuously. The fact that i first read this paperback way back in July bears this out.
So while most readers will be familiar with "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and perhaps "Rip Van Winkle", the various less known works collected here are fascinating in the portraits they produce of life in England (Irving's residence at the time of writing and publication). In particular, the Christmas sketches clearly influenced Dickens's own Christmas tales. One of my favourites, which should also be of interest to others, is "The Mutability of Literature" in which Mr. Irving visits the library at Westminster Abbey, is dismayed the books seem to be solely collected but not read and is then startled when he takes on old tome off the shelf, opens it, and it coughs and begins talking to him. The book seems unwilling to believe that it is no longer popular, as it was well-liked in its time (hundreds of years ago). It's a very interesting way of making the point that tastes in literature change as the years, and centuries, go by. All in all, there are very few sketches that disappointed me, most provided at least some entertainment or interesting ideas, which, according to the appendixes Irving added to his editions, was his intent.
I picked up this book in a charity shop mainly for its most famous short story "The Legend pf Sleepy hollow" which has been turned into a wonderful film featuring Johnny Depp and directed by Tim Burton, as well as the excellent TV series of it.
Having read that,the other stories and essays could be read in any order, and hence, as a book that covers different subjects it is one that does need to be read continuously. The fact that i first read this paperback way back in July bears this out.
So while most readers will be familiar with "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and perhaps "Rip Van Winkle", the various less known works collected here are fascinating in the portraits they produce of life in England (Irving's residence at the time of writing and publication). In particular, the Christmas sketches clearly influenced Dickens's own Christmas tales. One of my favourites, which should also be of interest to others, is "The Mutability of Literature" in which Mr. Irving visits the library at Westminster Abbey, is dismayed the books seem to be solely collected but not read and is then startled when he takes on old tome off the shelf, opens it, and it coughs and begins talking to him. The book seems unwilling to believe that it is no longer popular, as it was well-liked in its time (hundreds of years ago). It's a very interesting way of making the point that tastes in literature change as the years, and centuries, go by. All in all, there are very few sketches that disappointed me, most provided at least some entertainment or interesting ideas, which, according to the appendixes Irving added to his editions, was his intent.
Wednesday Music Selection - Mixed bag
Oct. 4th, 2017 08:19 pmTime for some music methinks -
Gene Krupa (Anita O’Day & Roy Eldridge, vocal) - Let Me Off Uptown
( More music here )
Enjoy.
Gene Krupa (Anita O’Day & Roy Eldridge, vocal) - Let Me Off Uptown
( More music here )
Enjoy.
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