My Father and Myself - J. R. Ackerley

Joe Ackerley was a literary editor and memoirist from the early 20th century. He lived as openly gay when homosexuality was still illegal in Britain. And though he never had a steady long-term partner, he seems to have had many friendships and to have mentored young gay writers during his tenure working for the BBC. Mostly, this memoir is not about these parts of his life—mostly, this is the story of Ackerley coming to understand his sexuality, alongside a recollection of his relationship with his father, whose own past he only belatedly takes an interest in learning.

Ackerley’s memoir is short and easy to read, despite his foreword warning about irregularities in the timeline. He writes in flowing first person with long, punctuation-heavy sentences. But the book is short and fairly narrow, so it’s not a challenge to follow the personalities and events. As a memoir, I don’t want to review it for “plot,” but Ackerley is clearly invested in the construction of his “reveals.” I wasn’t really surprised by any of them (or truly convinced that most were reveals) but anyone who wishes to go in unspoiled should take care to read the introduction, by W. H. Auden, last. Make sure also to read the Appendix before that, which is not optional content.

( Read more... )

Chrestomanci Book One: Charmed Life - Diana Wynne Jones

The first book (publication order) in the Chrestomancy series tells the story of a young boy, Eric “Cat” Chant, as he experiences your fairly typical magical adventures: dead parents, a startling new world, tangles with other children, a mysterious and aloof magical mentor, and a final life-threatening confrontation over a magical macguffin. There is even a (baby) dragon and a castle, and being a children’s novel, it fits neatly into an afternoon’s read.

( Read more... )

I can’t go back in time and read this as a child to compare, but I suspect that I would always have been upset by such a passive main character. It is one of my more recurrent complaints as a reader. There are seven of these books, and I cannot stomach any others about Cat, even if he matures, as this one spoiled him for me. I am vaguely interested in Christopher, and I know that two books focus on him, so I may read one or both of those standalone. This book had a really jarring moment of anti-Asian racism in it, but it is the oldest of the series, and a quick scan of reviews of the more recent entries doesn’t send up red flags for that recurring. The universe of the series is interesting and I do understand the appeal of this magic system—it seems like a compelling universe for worldbuilding, which is probably a main source of its enduring appeal.

Shyness and Dignity - Dag Solstad, tr. Sverre Lyngstad

Elias Rukla is a middle-aged literature instructor at a high school in Oslo. After a disappointing class period, he has an angry breakdown out front of the school. What follows is an accounting of his life, from his university education through his early career, marriage, and step-parenthood. Thus emerges the story of his listlessness and dissatisfaction in a job which never fulfills him and in a relationship with no emotional intimacy.

( Read more... )

This was a recommendation from a friend with more esoteric tastes in prose than my own. I ultimately prefer a recognizable narrative style and did not appreciate what this novel was doing. There are some funny observations, like this excerpt about Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain:

One of his colleagues came into the teachers’ lounge just before the bell rang for the first class and said, I’m somewhat of a Hans Castorp today, I should probably have stayed under the eiderdown. A jolt shot through Elias Rukla. Had he heard correctly? Was the name of Hans Castorp mentioned, and in this free and easy way, in passing? Hans Castorp, the main character in Thomas Mann’s novel The Magic Mountain, referred to by a senior master at Fagerborg High School, and not by a German teacher, but actually by someone who taught mathematics!

(And what a fun reminder of Spender’s The Temple!)

But these are few, and even they are drawn out to pages of repetition, so that the original humor is lost. I can’t think of any audience that I would recommend this to; I trust that if it is your interest, you’ll run across it from a more suitable source.

The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro

This is the second Ishiguro of my summer, and I am sorry to conclude that I don’t think I get along with him. This is an extremely well-told story of an English butler reflecting on his 30-year career in a distinguished house, Darlington Hall, from the vantage point of a short motoring vacation to see an old friend. Narrated in a Very Correct first person, the book does a great job of establishing the voice of the butler, Mr. Stevens. Ishiguro clearly understands the importance of perspective with unreliable narrators, something I remember from Never Let Me Go. Unfortunately, he so effectively set up the reasons to question Mr. Stevens that I could not bring myself to feel the sympathetic turn when that arrived.

( Read more... )

I can’t recommend either for or against this book—it’s a very carefully put together story, but by an author who doesn’t quite work for me.