Review number 5 in my Man Booker Longlist challenge, of Richard Powers' Orfeo, is up at Global Comment today. My other Man Booker reviews are:
The Dog
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
The Wake
To Rise Again at a Decent Hour
Tuesday, August 26, 2014
Sunday, August 24, 2014
Werribee Mansion: A birthday treat in pictures
I like to do this with the kids where I can - with three children, giving one on one attention is a challenge and sometimes taking time out with one child is the best way to build that relationship up. And quite honestly, at the moment, where I am working 6 long days a week, finding one on one time for *any* of them (or my partner) has been murderously difficult.
So a night and a morning away from the laptop, from the dishes, from my mountainous Inbox and the pile of papers on my desk, from the world at large, did us both a great deal of good.
By 1:30pm on Saturday we were at the local supermarket doing the week's groceries, but our 20 hours away from the everyday was a great refresher and a lovely opportunity to talk, connect and be together.
Saturday, August 16, 2014
Shot (Poem)
- from the sky
- with hands in the air
- at play in the fields of a steel trap home town
- at school
- seeking food
- walking
- by soldiers
- by police
- by renegades and rebels
children
children
children
the good blood of the future spilled outrageously on the ground
because -
- they were in the way
- they were there
- they were symbols
- they were black
- they were little
- they were weapons to beat their people with
what
have
we
become
- Kathy, 16/8/14
- with hands in the air
- at play in the fields of a steel trap home town
- at school
- seeking food
- walking
- by soldiers
- by police
- by renegades and rebels
children
children
children
the good blood of the future spilled outrageously on the ground
because -
- they were in the way
- they were there
- they were symbols
- they were black
- they were little
- they were weapons to beat their people with
what
have
we
become
- Kathy, 16/8/14
Friday, August 15, 2014
Reading Notes: The Dog
This review is number 4 in my Man Booker Longlist challenge. You can
see links to the other three reviews at the bottom of this post.
The Dog is in many ways quite an unusual novel, in that attempts that not inconsiderable feat of deploying an entire book as the internal monologue of a not very likeable lawyer who thinks and talks like ... a not a very likeable lawyer. Before reading it, I would've struggled to believe that any author, no matter how skilled, could make this kind of language interesting, accessible and enjoyable. It's to O'Neill's credit that he manages to make somewhat of a virtue of the careful, laboured and lengthy sentence structure, the legal terminology, and the self-protective outlook of X, the miserable protagonist.
With that said, this tale of a lawyer who flees New York after a nasty break-up with a long-term girlfriend, in order to take up a post as the Family Officer of a fabulously wealthy Lebanese family based in Dubai, is not completely successful.
There are some definite virtues of the book, though. It's a sharp and insightful glimpse into expatriate life in the Gulf States, and the culture of consumption that underlies it. X's post facto analysis of the inherent misery of his 9-year relationship with Jenn, and its terrible conclusion, is well-realised and feels authentic. X's many mental notes to his mercurial and arrogant employers, especially the unpleasant Sandro Batros, are excellently done. Perhaps I found them so because I TOO have composed many a mental slapdown to persons whose behaviours have given me grief. It is an honorable art, and greatly relieves the feelings :-)
However, all that said, I maintain that internal monologue texts with single narrator-protagonists are playing a difficult hand, and The Dog demonstrates very well the pitfalls of the device. By giving us a narrative entirely constructed around the subjectivity of X, O'Neill is taking the risk that X is engaging enough to hold us, and to me, at least, he just isn't. I didn't care about X or what happened to him (I did predict it, pretty nearly, but I just didn't care). Some of the philosophical points that I think O'Neill was trying to make were just lost on me because of this lack of an emotional set point to hang my hat on.
And the ending - what a bummer of an ending. Not bad, exactly, but bleak as any ending I've read on this Booker list or in any book for a goodly while. Again, this isn't inconsistent, but it certainly didn't help me feel that the book would be worth a second look.
I would be surprised to see this one shortlist (although we all know I've been hilariously wrong before...)
Other Man Booker longlist reviews:
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
The Wake
To Rise Again at a Decent Hour
The Dog is in many ways quite an unusual novel, in that attempts that not inconsiderable feat of deploying an entire book as the internal monologue of a not very likeable lawyer who thinks and talks like ... a not a very likeable lawyer. Before reading it, I would've struggled to believe that any author, no matter how skilled, could make this kind of language interesting, accessible and enjoyable. It's to O'Neill's credit that he manages to make somewhat of a virtue of the careful, laboured and lengthy sentence structure, the legal terminology, and the self-protective outlook of X, the miserable protagonist.
With that said, this tale of a lawyer who flees New York after a nasty break-up with a long-term girlfriend, in order to take up a post as the Family Officer of a fabulously wealthy Lebanese family based in Dubai, is not completely successful.
There are some definite virtues of the book, though. It's a sharp and insightful glimpse into expatriate life in the Gulf States, and the culture of consumption that underlies it. X's post facto analysis of the inherent misery of his 9-year relationship with Jenn, and its terrible conclusion, is well-realised and feels authentic. X's many mental notes to his mercurial and arrogant employers, especially the unpleasant Sandro Batros, are excellently done. Perhaps I found them so because I TOO have composed many a mental slapdown to persons whose behaviours have given me grief. It is an honorable art, and greatly relieves the feelings :-)
However, all that said, I maintain that internal monologue texts with single narrator-protagonists are playing a difficult hand, and The Dog demonstrates very well the pitfalls of the device. By giving us a narrative entirely constructed around the subjectivity of X, O'Neill is taking the risk that X is engaging enough to hold us, and to me, at least, he just isn't. I didn't care about X or what happened to him (I did predict it, pretty nearly, but I just didn't care). Some of the philosophical points that I think O'Neill was trying to make were just lost on me because of this lack of an emotional set point to hang my hat on.
And the ending - what a bummer of an ending. Not bad, exactly, but bleak as any ending I've read on this Booker list or in any book for a goodly while. Again, this isn't inconsistent, but it certainly didn't help me feel that the book would be worth a second look.
I would be surprised to see this one shortlist (although we all know I've been hilariously wrong before...)
Other Man Booker longlist reviews:
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
The Wake
To Rise Again at a Decent Hour
Tuesday, August 12, 2014
Things I have to do, that I haven't done, in the past month
1. This year's tax
2. My eldest daughter's high school application
3. Organised an orthodontist to assess two eldests' teeth for probable braces
4. Procured health insurance
5. Had my next root canal procedure
6. Sorted my junk towers
7. Finished my holiday photobook
8. Cooked anything halfway respectable in over 2 weeks
Do I feel bad about these? Sometimes. Sporadically. In waves.
What have I done instead?
1. Worked x a lot
2. Parented x a REAL lot
3. Booked our next holiday
4. Read a LOT of books
Yeah, that's the way it goes, sometimes.
2. My eldest daughter's high school application
3. Organised an orthodontist to assess two eldests' teeth for probable braces
4. Procured health insurance
5. Had my next root canal procedure
6. Sorted my junk towers
7. Finished my holiday photobook
8. Cooked anything halfway respectable in over 2 weeks
Do I feel bad about these? Sometimes. Sporadically. In waves.
What have I done instead?
1. Worked x a lot
2. Parented x a REAL lot
3. Booked our next holiday
4. Read a LOT of books
Yeah, that's the way it goes, sometimes.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
