books, books, books

[Jack of All Parades]

Impressive collection and I have to assume the stacks in the background are yours as well. Will definitely have to look for this book as I love that band both musically and for how they impacted the culture. Thank you for explaining what the book entails. If it is like Invisible Republic then I will find it a must read.

[nord]

I have not read Invisible Republic, nor Revolution in the Head. But I have ordered the latter from my local library. Hopefully my Beatles mono box will arrive soon.

[Jack of All Parades]

My mistake. I assumed from your previous post that you had. Invisible Republic Is Greil Marcus's attempt to place Dylan within the tradition of American folk music[the folk ballads and such] by analyzing his woodshedding experiments of 1967 in Saugerties, NY, the Basement Tapes. Seems similar in intent to this book on The Clash as far as trying to put them into a cultural context. Enjoy the read.

[ice nine]

Mr. Marcus is this years guest editor of Da Capo's 'Best of Music Writing' collection.
http://www.amazon.com/Best-Music-Writin ... 344&sr=1-1

[Jack of All Parades]

Completed recently a unique book on Shakespeare, The Lodger Shakespeare by Charles Nicholl. What is different about this book is that it is not by your usual Shakespeare scholar; in this way it is very much like the Ron Rosenbaum book The Shakespeare Wars and like that book exceedingly rewarding to read. The premise is taking the only known instance of actual words spoken by Shakespeare which come from a court deposition in 1612 in which he gave verbal evidence and signed the document[imagine being able to touch a document that he had actually touched]. Mr. Nicholl takes this recorded testimony and makes an entertaining detective book out of the mostly last decade and a half of Shakespeare's life placing him in an actually documented home on Silver Street near St. Giles, Cripplegate in London as a lodger in the home of the Mountjoys, Huguenot refugees from France and successful headdress makers in Jacobean London. While residing in their home he writes "Othello", "Measure for Measure", "King Lear" and "The Tempest" amongst other plays. He is approaching 40, balding, and the end of his natural life. He has money and property, but still prowls the streets of this neighborhood enjoying the brothels and taverns.

I have never before encountered a Shakespeare book that creates a credible living image of him as a man amongst men. It is a solid achievement that he conjures up a detailed, and I think, accurate portrait of the living Shakespeare. I liked his discussion of daughters occupying Shakespeare's time with his concerns for Judith, his daughter, as I am the father of three young women and know first hand the concerns one has for them. The unique achievement for me of this book is that the author has created a living picture of the man who to the house maid, in recorded testimony, was "one Mr. Shakespeare" who happens to rent rooms upstairs. The cover of the book is very intriguing with the drawing of a wooden framed Elizabethan house, many storied with its gables and a candle light flickering in a fourth floor window, presumably Shakespeare at work in an ill-lit upper room.

[pophead2k]

Long overdue, I finally read Kerouac's On the Road. Glad I didn't read this when I was 21 or it all may have come out quite differently.

[Jack of All Parades]

Pophead, would love to know how it would have been different. Just finished one of the best biographies I have ever read, Samuel Pepys-The Unequaled Self by Claire Toumalin. I have managed to go in the matter of twenty years time to an individual who was born and living near the same neighborhood that Shakespeare resided in, Salisbury Court. The life this man lived throughout the 17th century is so rich in action, observance and consequence. Just think, he was an eye witness to the regicide of Charles I, a contemporary of Cromwell going to school with him, an observer of the Civil War, a survivor of the Great Plague and the Great Fire [where he advised the King on how to deal sensibly with the conflagration], responsible for the resurgence of England as a modern naval power, and just a genuine lover of life.

To come from common circumstances and by sheer use of his wits and charm ultimately serve four kings as well as Cromwell, he is the epitome of today's supermen working their way up the ladder in The City. Educated by scholarship at Magdalene College in Cambridge he is the ultimate bureaucrat on the rise in the new world that emerges out of Elizabethan and Jacobean times. There was no one he did not know- Newton, Robert Boyle, Hooke, John Dryden, John Locke the list is long. He moved with ease amongst all men. His legendary library survived the great fire and became the founding collection for the great Bodleian Library at Oxford. In fact one of the fun parts of the Diary is reading of his wandering around London as the fires have subsided and observing the desolation done to the city and its Medieval history and to his beloved booksellers.

And his affairs with women. There does not seem to have been a woman he didn't cast his eye upon. His randiness and appetites are heroic. The relationship with his wife, Elizabeth, is tormented as documented in the famous Diary. He suffered for his emotions and his roving eye. More he seems to have suffered throughout his life from health concerns, in particular stones in his bladder which never seemed to leave him a day without pain and discomfort. The description of a horrific operation he endured to have a substantial stone removed from his bladder is riveting.

Above all there is the magnificent Diary kept from 1660 to 1670. There simply is no single document, with the possible exception of Montaigne's Essays, that records the life of a man with such an exacting, humorous and all-encompassing eye. It is one of the best portraits of a man and his time one can read. It is incredibly funny and yet so telling. And every night the ubiquituous 'off to bed'. I sincerely think that were he alive today he would be blogging with regularity and putting all to shame. What a book! What a man!.

[nord]

There is a 40 page introduction about the sixties (I don't agree), then every song released by EMI get discussed in short. Some songs get up to 5 pages, but most get only 1/2 - 1 page.



There is also a 70 page appendix called "Chronology: the Sixties":

[Jack of All Parades]

Have in the past enjoyed the journalism of Ian Buruma and recently I had the chance to read his Anglomania. In light of conversation in another thread on this board an enlightening read. He combines personal memoir and biographical pieces on famous Anglophiles[ Voltaire, Malraux, Goethe, Herzl, Mazzini, Isaiah Berlin[a favorite] amongst others] as he documents the complex way that England has been looked at by the Continent with its history of rule by law and political liberalism as contrasted with the European Continent's perceived reliance on supreme rulers and limited freedom for the individual going into the Twentieth century. The excessive ways that people would go to emulate the English- clothing, manners, food, even gardens. He takes dead aim at the divisions, things like class and cultural myths that still continue to separate England from the Continent[and it is not water], and surmises that ultimately for a successful merger of the two it need not wind up being an "authoritarian superstate" but a "federation of free nations". I really liked the discussion of class and the longed for dissolution of the ancien regieme.

[Otis Westinghouse]

I only vaguely know his name. Sounds really interesting.

Nord, I love your photos! I haven't checked, but is it the case everyone of your posts here has been accompanied by photographic evidence?

I picked up Rev in the Head for £3 or something when the remasters came out. Have only dipped in, and plan to read in more detail as I explore more of their music. It has a very, very good reputation, often cited as the best book written about them. Out of interest, in what way do you not agree with his ideas about the 60s?

[Jack of All Parades]

Otis- he was a writer for the Spectator- now I mainly catch pieces in the NY Review of Books and other journals plus his books. He resides in London. He is Dutch/English by way of parents being German refugees from the thirties- he has another recent book out called Occidentalism which is an interesting take on the current Arab Movement, analyzing it from a historical/cultural perspective ripping away a good chunk of the Western spin. My daughter and I enjoy his books on the Far East, expecially Behind the Mask and The Wages of Guilt.

Nice to see you and your wife enjoyed "Bright Star"- Saw it back in October with my wife and came away very impressed- my favorite movie of the fall so far.

Nord--do not know if you have read Can't Buy Me Love by Jonathan Gould. Came out about two years ago. It is a good biography/cultural history/musical criticism book which tracks their interaction between Britain and America. You might enjoy it.

[Who Shot Sam?]

Picked up T.C. Boyle's The Women and the new E.L. Doctorow novel, Homer and Langley, to read over the holidays. Let's see how successful I am.

[Jack of All Parades]

WSS- will be interested in your take on the Boyle- enjoyed it myself when i read it earlier this year-had not realized what a "babe magnet" Wright was- must be something to do with genius-the book also benefits from the fact that in real life Boyle resides in a Wright home in California. Hope you enjoy the read.

[Jack of All Parades]

Have literally devoured Changing My Mind: Occasional Essays by Zadie Smith while digesting left over turkey, stuffing and cranberries. I have not read a book of essays since David Foster Wallace[more about him] that has lit my neurons up like this collection. She has arranged her essays into four categories: Reading, Being, Seeing and Feeling. She ranges from delightful evocations of her family and childhood to strong critical pieces on literature. There is a retelling of a lecture she gave recently at Columbia to students attending the Writing Program that should be mandatory for all aspiring writers. She offers cogent film reviews of things like "Good Night and Good Luck" as well as deeply appreciative overviews of the careers of Greta Garbo and Katherine Hepburn which contains a wonderful description of Ms. Hepburn as "one long muscle, devoid of bust but surprisingly shapely if seen from the back"[which I wish I had used to describe my wife to herself as I find it slyly sexy]. She writes keenly about a trip to Liberia and can then turn around and write a perceptive piece about her love and admiration for EM Forster.

There is a biting piece I read in the past in the NY Review of Books which compares and contrasts Joseph O'Neil's Netherland with Tom McCarthy's Remainder where she, no surprise, loves the McCarthy and not so subtly throws a strong jab at James Wood and his love of 'lyrical realism'. I even love the leaked syllabus from her recent English Lit seminar at Columbia from this past spring with its usage of David Lodge's Modern Criticism & Theory: A Reader , Richard Yate's Eleven Kinds of Loneliness and George Saunder's In Pastoralia amongst other books already mentioned. I wish I could have audited this class as an alum, what a hoot it would have been. I equally liked an essay, "Speaking in Tongues", that offered a cogent discussion of Shakespeare and Obama, focusing on their shared deft usage of language.

The high point of this collection is her engaging, beautiful and sad reading of David Foster Wallace's Interviews With Hideous Men. It is not only a gripping grappling with that particular book but with her abiding respect and appreciation for his entire body of work. I learned something new with her discussion of Wallace's love of the poetry of Phillip Larkin. She draws intelligent parallels with certain poems to themes in Wallace-sadness, loneliness, longing. Ultimately she makes a strong case for a writer too soon gone and one who was always struggling "to make a connection with a consciousness other than my own", his constant self-interrogation as a writer. I said more about him earlier-it is this- this essay is the single best appreciation of this writer I have read. It painfully reminded me how much I miss not being able to read a new piece by him. Ms. Smith's collection is the best essay collection I have read since Wallace's Consider the Lobster- she continues his high standards with equal warmth, humor and stylish intelligence.

[bambooneedle]

Sigh...

[Otis Westinghouse]

Sigh indeed. Sounds great, Chris. There was a piece by her in the paper the other day about the art of essay writing, saying it's good for novelists to do non-fiction whilst they recharge their narrative batteries. You make it sound like her time has been very well spent.

[mood swung]

Been focusing on short books lately.

The Buddha of Suburbia (Hanif ?? - I'm doing better here; got the title and 1/2 the name!), which was enjoyable, but dragged a little in places. Random events.

Drop City - T. C. Boyle (remember him because he has name problems and I've read several of his books). Reignited the fire to live off the grid. Not that I have any aptitude for that, but I can learn things.

Hallucinating Foucault - ?? slow start, magic ending. Had a dream featuring characters and real live people, which was rather hallucinatory.

Now on to Dewey, the Library Cat, which is a gooey gob of a jelly donut of a book, and I read almost 200 pages last night. Not enough pictures. Dewey Readmore Books?


ar ar ar.

[Jack of All Parades]

Mood- Drop City none too short but a great read- good luck on the commune thing!

Otis, I think Ms. Smith makes a strong point with the statement that writers would benefit from an occasional foray into non-fiction. I would think it does help to recharge one's creative batteries, plus it engages a writer in the real world, making them participate in the sights, sounds, tastes and thoughts swirling around one's self. I know as I age the only two forms that consistently give me pleasure are the essay and poetry, perhaps because they do require a person to dig deep within his or her thoughts and feelings to put something on paper or a screen. The essays by EC in his Rhino re-releases have been one of the few things that I have enjoyed from him in the last dozen years outside of his recent foray into television. Montaigne, Emerson, Bacon, Saint Beuve, Orwell, Updike, Wilson, Didion, David Foster Wallace and Ozick are writers that I continuously return to for refreshment in this form. Now I can add Ms. Smith to this list[if you have any discretionary pounds this holiday season you would do well to treat yourself to her book]. Had I been a board member at this time last year I would have been singing the praises of Julian Barne's Nothing To Be Frightened Of, a book that for me was the best one out last year, as it is one long glorious essay on coming to grips with one's mortality.

Speaking of mortality, I have been reading John Updikes last book, his collection of poetry Endpoint, as I was fortunate to find a new/used copy at Brookline Booksmiths while in Boston this past week. I know from perusing old writings on this thread that he has not been a board favorite, which is a shame. Were he still alive he would be in my favorites pantheon. Now I can only revisit my personal Updike favorites which for me includes his poetry. Yes his poetry because I think he demonstrated right up to the end a marked skill in this form and it was not all just light verse. I think as a poet he was able to harness his considerable observational skills and transfer his thoughts into elegant and playful lines that give a reader constant challenges. His last book has the marvelous "Endpoint" sequence which allows him to take stock of his life by looking at himself, family, friends and ultimately his illness as he delt with his cancer. The closing lines of the final poem in the sequence "Fine Point 12/22/08" [which may very well have been the last words he wrote officially] are fitting- "Surely- magnificent, that "surely"- goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, my life, forever." It captures his grace [which was surely encapsulated in Rabbit] and deep abiding faith. There are strong poems in this book about baseball, a colonoscopy, out living one's father and a particular ode to Doris Day which catches his playful attitude towards sex and women spot on. There is a wonderful sonnet sequence which does honor to that form. I cannot help but think that Updike was an inspiration to Ms. Smith as she argues that a writer benefits from stepping away from fiction into non-fiction now and then- these poems are a testament to that argument.

[Jack of All Parades]

New Pynchon reference- had a chuckle reading the book review in the 12/2/09 New York Times of Clarence Clemons's new autobiography Big Man. Besides being overtaken for the most part by the co-writer Don Reo and filled with his lame anecdotes, it has a fantasy section where Clarence imagines encounters with famous people including one, Thomas Pynchon. Probably takes place in a strip club as this seems to be the most popular haunt for Mr. Clemons, per the book.

[Otis Westinghouse]

Pynchon and Clemons in a strip bar! Reminds me of Malcolm X in the Roseland Ballroom. Incongruous appearances. So Clemons likes to settle down with a volume of Pynchon of an evening. I love it.

[Jack of All Parades]

The NY Times published their 100 Notable Books list of 2009 today and conspicuously missing was Inherent Vice. I know that Michiko Kakutani dismissed it earlier this year as "Pynchon lite" but it did receive a favorable review by Walter Kirn[of Up In the Air fame] in the regular Sunday Book Review in August. Though perhaps not worthy of their 10 best list which appears next week, certainly merits a place in the top 100 for the year.

[mood swung]

No more lists! A pox upon them!

I had a personal goal to reach 125 on the 1001 by Christmas, and thanks to Truman Capote (Bfast @ Tiff's) and Laura Esquivel (Like Water For Chocolate), I did, and even surpassed that goal by getting to a nice round 126. When I weighed that, I *thought* I was fat. Tiff's was actually kind of shocking to me, being all copyrighted in 1950. LWFC was delicious. I read most of it Saturday night, and the rest Sunday morning. So, I got nothing much done this weekend.

But I was sick, so it was ok.

[pophead2k]

Just finished 'The Handmaid's Tale' by Margaret Atwood and am working on 'Cannery Row' by Steinbeck now. That will put me at about 110 on the list I think. I took a little time off to read Stephen King's latest as well as a few other non-list books.

The Atwood book was excellent and also profoundly disturbing. She is a major, major talent.

[Otis Westinghouse]

List schmist.

[Jack of All Parades]

Had great fun with a quartet of novellas by Cynthia Ozick, Dictation. In particular the title story which reimagines the friendship between Henry James and Joseph Conrad and the impact that new technology and the shenanigans of two amanuensiss assisting each writer has on them. What is wonderful is the thematic use of doubles which echoes through the entire story: two assistants, two writers, two works in progress[ "The Jolly Corner, with its exploration of doubleness, and "The Secret Sharer", which is the ultimate exploration of our inner self], the polarity of two writing sensibilities, and finally an even scarrier duality in that the action of the story takes place almost 100 years back to January 1910. Ozick has tremendous fun mimicing the style of both writers as she imagines them speaking, writing and eerily confronts technological innovation for writers like Conrad and James with the introduction of the typewriter just as writers are now having to deal with the internet and electronic books. The neatest twist is the imagined insertion into each text by the assistants of the other writers written DNA- a neatly imagined trick that resonates with me well after reading. What a great story.