We should write about books again!

I picked up Evelyn Waugh's Sword of Honour trilogy last Friday as I had a trainride home & books keep accompanying me back down to Yorkshire (Labyrinth, Tractors..Ukranian) but I can't seem to get started on them or have them hold my attention for long enough.

Waugh isn't entirely new to me - it was one of the texts for Literatures of World War II in 3rd year. But with it being 3 volumes long, I only got part-way through Book II last time so I'm recapping the bits I remembered (soldier, Halbadiers, ends up in Scotland) & bringing back to life everything else I had forgotten (quite a lot). This time I hope to finish it.
(And it's an Everyman classic, mmm ... cream-coloured pages, yum. I love Everyman books - they feel like such a treat.) Hopefully it will absorb me enough, along with my patchwork, to keep from pacing the floors at home this Christmas.

  I've also decided that I will use the New Year to finish off Penelope, the last chapter of Ulysses - making good use of my pseudo-Scottishness with having two days off & thus bringing my four-year journey to an end. I'm quite looking forward to it.

I've also had The Magus recommended to me as a post-Ulyssses pick-up and there's Gideon Mack waiting for my attention and some serious JS Foer exploration to be done too! I was contemplating re-reading Northern Lights, prior to seeing the Golden Compass, which I visited before but not read properly.

I read a teenage novel the other evening, one of Iona's called Dear Nobody by Berlie Doherty ... I used to adore her Granny was a buffer girl when I was at Middle School, it was quite in keeping with my historical/romantic nature then :) I might write on that next - it did use He Wishes For The Cloths of Heaven after all!

I'm still ambling through both Yancey & Ovid but I did recently read High Fidelity on recommendation ...

High Fidelity: It started as part of a 'mixed-media conversation' with Carl during the Fringe where we were talking about asides to the audience/camera (like Branagh's Iago in Othello on film) & how it's more of a theatrical device & isn't employed that much for film. Carl mentioned that it's used in High Fidelity & it works ... so I figured book first (always, always - unless there's a time constraint), then film.
   The way Carl talked about HF made me want to know more ... Rob, the main character seemed to be either screwed up or screwing up other people (intentionally, or not). Carl perceives the character (at least, from the film) as working through his issues & is also interested in how Robert wants to portray himself as a victim, even if that doesn't match the events we, the audience/readers, can see unfolding.
  He also said that there's a sense of improvement in how Rob recognises his misinterpretations & by adjusting his behaviour, begins to redeem himself.

I wasn't entirely sold on the novel's ending ... I thought Robert's impulsive behaviour towards the end undercut the love resolution somewhat. But he does have an epiphany of sorts & gets his life back on track, even if it's done in a passive way.

In the end, I liked the book more than I expected to. (I think the whole laddish protagonist concept put me off - like Will in AAB, I though it'd be more of the same.) It did make me laugh out loud at times but equally it also made me grimace at Rob's behaviour & thoughts too. A level of selfishness & lack of compassion that I just did not like.

I enjoyed how the book was situated, very much 'of the time' in the decade & all the musical references were gorgeous :) I think I'll probably go back & read it again though, in a year or so.

Now I want to read Amis' The Rachel Papers which is meant to be similar but with a wilfully corrupt male protagonist who brings about the girl's downfall. I think it could be interesting to see how the two compare ... Amis' protagonist sounds to be much darker and more Machiavellian - it might make me like Robert more!
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For HF then,  
Overall, it sits at a high ***
- I don't love it but I don't necessarily loathe it. I quite enjoyed it.
It's better than AAB as it reads more intelligently.
- I think having music at its centre gives it a heart which helps provide Rob with the emotional depth that would otherwise be lacking if the reader only had his actions to take into account.
- Fun *** ... it worked, was funny & it engaged me emotionally.
- Novelty *** ... Hornby is the 'good author in the overpopulated genre'. Enough said.
- Plot *** ... Basic premise but done well
(esp. 'the journey of redemption', delving back into the past etc).