Bright Young Things discussion
Chit Chat
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What are you currently reading?
Bronwyn wrote: "The Magdalene Sisters was excellent, but yeah very depressing. I'm interested in Philomena but it will probably be a bit before I can see it."The song - The Magdalene Laundries, recorded by The Chieftains with Joni Mitchell is superb.
Greg wrote: "Bronwyn wrote: "The Magdalene Sisters was excellent, but yeah very depressing. I'm interested in Philomena but it will probably be a bit before I can see it."The song - The Magdalene Laundries, r..."
It is excellent. Too bad they couldn't use the song in the movie.
I don't know that song. I'll have to look it up. Thanks!
Nigeyb wrote: "I've just started started reading...Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain"
Testament of Youth is every bit as good as I'd remembered. Vera Brittain's lively intelligence, determination, bravery and passion all shine through. Check out the BYT 2014 Reading Challenge thread for "Testament of Youth" by Vera Brittain for more reaction. Hoping to see plenty of BYTers getting involved in our WW1 2014 reading challenge.
I am currently reading....
King Dido by Alexander Baron
Set in the years just prior to WW1, it tells the story of Dido Peach, who is drawn into the violent world of protection rackets and gang warfare in the East End of London that Alexander Baron grew up in and knew so well.
I am 70 pages in. Superb so far.
Alexander Baron has a perceptive eye for period detail and his knowledge of London's East End is clear throughout the narrative. There are already some fabulous characters in this story, in addition to Dido Peach, there's the cunning policeman Inspector Merry, and the monstrous gang leader Ginger Murchison. The fight between Murchison and Peach is particularly vicious and memorable.
Gripping.
I've just started reading...
....Everybody Was So Young: Gerald and Sara Murphy: A Lost Generation Love Story by Amanda Vaill in readiness for our BYT non-fiction discussion in March 2014.
Everybody Was So Young: Gerald and Sara Murphy: A Lost Generation Love Story should certainly be an interesting follow up choice to our February fiction and non-fiction choices, and a bit of continuity, as both F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway appear in this book.
Gifted artist Gerald Murphy and his wife, Sara, were the basis for Dick and Nicole Diver in Tender Is the Night. They were also, according to the Good Reads synopsis, icons of the most enchanting period of our time; handsome, talented, and wealthy expatriate Americans, they were at the centre of the literary scene in Paris in the 1920s.
In Everybody Was So Young: Gerald and Sara Murphy: A Lost Generation Love Story, Amanda Vaill portrays both the times in which the Murphys lived and the fascinating friends who flocked around them.
Whether summering with Picasso on the French Riviera or watching bullfights with Hemingway in Pamplona, Gerald and Sara inspired kindred creative spirits like Dorothy Parker, Cole Porter, and F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Their story is both glittering and tragic, and in this sweeping and richly anecdotal portrait of a marriage and an era, Amanda Vaill "has brought them to life as never before".
It's taken 100 pages for them to get to Paris and so I'm hoping it will start to pick up now I've ploughed through the somewhat less interesting early years.
Oh I missed that it won! I'll have to start it soon. So much for picking up a novel next. :)
Great news Bronwyn. Great news Val. It should be another interesting discussion.
^ That is definitely a part of the appeal for me too Val.
Having recently finished the excellent Scamp, I am now currently reading...
Rain On The Pavements by Roland Camberton
This is Roland Camberton's second and final novel, first published in 1951. It starts in London's East End, and takes place throughout the 1920s and 1930s. It's a coming of age tale about David Hirsch, who comes from a Jewish family. So far it's another enjoyable and easy read with lots of interesting period detail and fascinating insights into a fairly traditional Jewish upbringing.
As with Scamp, New London Editions (via Five Leaves) have reproduced the original, and splendid, book cover by artist John Minton.
I have just started Edith Wharton's war story, Coming Home 1916. I think it came from the collectionXingu and Other Stories. It appears that she was talking to American ambulance drivers when they would come in to Paris. Called the most notable book of the year.Looks pretty good so far.
Jan C wrote: "I have just started Edith Wharton's war story, Coming Home 1916. I think it came from the collectionXingu and Other Stories. It appears that she was talking to American ambulance dri..."Are you reading an e-book version or a physical book? (And if it's an e-book where did you find it?)
I got it ftom Amazon - Kindle - for free. I think they also have paperback for minimal cost. Also I think it is on Guttenberg. It is old and apparently considered a classic. A grim story but one that needed telling.
Nigeyb wrote: "I am now currently reading...Rain On The Pavements by Roland Camberton"
I've nearly finished Rain On The Pavements by Roland Camberton - another superb book by this wonderful writer. Such a shame he only wrote two books. Full review to follow soon.
Jan C wrote: "I got it ftom Amazon - Kindle - for free. I think they also have paperback for minimal cost. Also I think it is on Guttenberg. It is old and apparently considered a classic. A grim story but one t..."Thanks! Grim I'm sure, but it sounds very interesting. I just had it sent to my Kindle.
I am currently reading...
The Great Silence by Juliet Nicolson
This is the book we nominated for the "Armistice and Aftermath" category of our World War 1 Centenary BYT 2014 Reading Challenge.
Juliet Nicolson is, apparently, the Vita Sackville-West's granddaughter who herself was married to the diplomat Harold Nicolson.
So far, and I've only read the introduction and the opening chapter, it's all pretty familiar stuff. I think that's because I'm starting to amass quite a knowledge about the conflict from the various books I have read, along with watching documentaries and other articles.
I am looking forward to finding out more about the two years immediately after the end of World War 1 which, as we already know, was a period of enormous social change.
Juliet Nicolson evokes what England was like for those who had danced through settled Edwardian times and whose lives were now so altered. Against a background of social upheaval, even shorter skirts, the movies and the sound of jazz, a spirit of resilience and survival began to triumph.
I am looking forward to hearing what other BYTers make of this book when they come to read it.
Mod
The Visitors by Sally Beauman...it's really good so far and I've never read any fiction set during the discovering of the tomb of Tutankhamen which is new and interesting!
I've just started reading...
Portrait of a Turkish Family by Irfan Orga
...and although only a few pages in, I have a very good feeling about it. This feels like a very well written book.
Describes in chilling, yet affectionate, detail the disintegration of a wealthy Ottoman family, both financially and emotionally. It is rich with the scent of fin de siecle Istanbul in the last days of the Ottoman Empire. His mother was a beauty, married at thirteen, as befitted a Turkish woman of her class. His grandmother was an eccentric autocrat, determined at all costs to maintain her traditional habits. But the war changed everything. Death and financial disaster reigned, the Sultan was overthrown, and Turkey became a republic. The red fez was ousted by the cloth cap, and the family was forced to adapt to an unimaginably impoverished life. Filled with brilliant vignettes of old Turkish life, such as the ritual weekly visit to the hamam, as it tells the "other side" of the Gallipoli story, and its impact on one family and the transformation of a nation. "It is just as though someone had opened a door marked `Private' and showed you what was inside.... A most interesting and affectionate book."-Sir John Betjeman. "A wholly delightful book."-Harold Nicolson
I am currently reading...
Bryant and May on the Loose by Christopher Fowler
A recommendation from our very own Sarah - and also, I notice, given the thumbs up from Jill, and Jan C has endorsed other books in the series.
What I am enjoying about Bryant and May so far is the brilliant evocation of London; the little details of history; the irreverent and slightly subversive content; and that, whilst of course they're a bit dysfunctional (aren't all detectives?), this is not all consuming, and they seem like the kind of people whose company I want to share. All in all this feels like the start of a beautiful relationship.
I have now also got the first one ready to read - Full Dark House and - following Sarah's advice - have got Paperboy, Fowler's memoir of his early years.
Perversely, Bryant and May on the Loose is the seventh of the ten (so far) B&M books...
I just love this series about the PCU. Some books work better than others. But one led me to another book London Under: The Secret History Beneath the Streets.
Thanks Jan C - I'll have a look at that book
Nigeyb, I hope you are enjoying your intro to the series! Bryant and Mays/the PCU are my favorite of all the currently published detectives. Such fun books.
Hi Amanda, yes, I am really enjoying this book and will finish it today. I may even read another book in the series straight after I finish this one. I'll post a review when I've finished.
The more I find out about Hans Fallada, the more I am convinced that he is a writer that we should be exploring here at BYT, and Every Man Dies Alone (USA title) / Alone in Berlin (UK title) is probably the pick of the bunch. I have nominated it for our April 2014 fiction group read. ...A truly great book...an utterly gripping thriller" - Sunday Telegraph
Fallada's great novel, beautifully translated by the poet Michael Hoffman, evokes the daily horror of life under the Third Reich, where the venom of Nazism seeped into the very pores of society, poisoning every aspect of existence. It is a story of resistence, sly humour and hope" - Ben Macintyre, The Times
Alone in Berlin haas something of the horror of Joseph Conrad, the madness of Fyodor Dostoyevsky ands the chilling of Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood"" - Roger Cohen, New York Times
In readiness for Alone in Berlin, I am now currently reading...
More Lives Than One: A Biography of Hans Fallada by Jenny Williams
Hans Fallada was a drug addict, womanizer, alcoholic, jailbird and thief. Yet he was also one of the most extraordinary storytellers of the twentieth century, whose novels, including Alone in Berlin, portrayed ordinary people in terrible times with a powerful humanity.
This acclaimed biography, newly revised and completely updated, tells the remarkable story of Hans Fallada, whose real name was Rudolf Ditzen. Jenny Williams chronicles his turbulent life as a writer, husband and father, shadowed by mental torment and long periods in psychiatric care. She shows how Ditzen's decision to remain in Nazi Germany in 1939 led to his self-destruction, but also made him a unique witness to his country's turmoil.
More Lives Than One: A Biography of Hans Fallada unpicks the contradictory, flawed and fascinating life of a writer who saw the worst of humanity, yet maintained his belief in the decency of the 'little man'.
I'll keep you posted.
^ Enjoying More Lives Than One: A Biography of Hans Fallada, I've already discovered plenty of insights into life in pre-WW1 Wilhelmine Germany.
I've just started The Lawless Roads by Graham Greene - I've been reading through his books chronologically and am now up to this investigation of persecution of the Catholic Church in Mexico, published in 1939. So far it's powerful writing - the introduction is a memoir of his unhappy childhood, intercut with a present-day visit to the town where he lived then (Berkhamsted) - he clearly hated it, but they now have a Graham Greene Festival every year! Anyway, I'm now on to the travels in Mexico and expecting to find it just as gripping as everything else I've read by Greene.
Hurrah for Greene. Not read any for decades but already feel quite inspired to reacquaint myself soon. I fancy Lara Feigel's The Love-charm of Bombs: Restless Lives in the Second World War (a title she owes to Graham Greene) will be the catalyst.
Here's an interesting coincidence given that we've been discussing Thomas Wolfe a bit since T.A. mentioned that Thomas Wolfe was a personal favourite. Whilst reading...More Lives Than One: A Biography of Hans Fallada by Jenny Williams
Jenny Williams quotes from You Can't Go Home Again by Thomas Wolfe to help describe a renowned German publisher called Ernst Rowohlt, who founded the Rowohlt publishing house in 1908 and headed it and its successors until his death in 1960. Ernst Rowohlt published Hans Fallada, amongst many others.
Anyway, the two paragraphs that Jenny Williams reproduces from You Can't Go Home Again suggest that Thomas Wolfe was very perceptive and succinct. He suggests Ernst Rowohlt's bluff and hearty personality was a way of disarming people and disguised a more sly and cunning operator.
I am currently reading two books...
English Journey by J.B. Priestley. So far I have been very impressed by the book. As I mention on the BYT J.B. Priestley thread, I've just listened to a three part BBC radio dramatisation of The Good Companions. It's early days, but I'm very impressed with my first foray into the world of J.B. Priestley. He's another great BYT era writer and should be better remembered in my view.
Yesterday, as I could not renew my copy of The Love-charm of Bombs: Restless Lives in the Second World War by Lara Feigel, I've started to read it. My first impressions are very positive. This looks like essential reading for those interested in, and passionate about, the BYT era, especially anyone with an interest in English literature.
Some of my favourite BYTers have already read this book and were suitably impressed..
Val's five star review
Susan's five star review
Jane's five star review
Lara Feigel vividly conjures the lives of five prominent writers: Elizabeth Bowen, Graham Greene, Rose Macaulay, Hilde Spiel, and the novelist Henry Green. Starting with a sparklingly detailed recreation of a single night of September 1940, the narrative traces the tempestuous experiences of these five figures through five years in London and Ireland, followed by postwar Vienna and Berlin. It's great stuff so far.
Mod
Wake by Anna Hope
The Map of Lost Memories by Kim Fay
Abdication by Juliet Nicolson
Mod
Juliet Nicolson wrote one of our BYT WW1 challenge books Ally - The Great Silence"
Yes that's right. I've read that one and also another of hers...
The Perfect Summer England 1911, Just Before the Storm...but I've never read any fiction by her so I'm looking forward to it, especially as the whole Wallis Simpson 'thing' is endlessly fascinating!
^ I look forward to your thoughts Ally.The chapter on the abdication crisis in The Age of Illusion: England in the Twenties and Thirties, 1919-1940 was a real eye opener for me - and has whet my appetite to read more about it.
I am currently reading...
Put Out More Flags by Evelyn Waugh
After the wonderful January 2014 BYT group read of "Sword of Honour" I have now found time for Put Out More Flags.
I am only 30 pages in, and already the quality of the writing is a complete pleasure. I am so happy to be reading more Waugh - like W. Somerset Maugham every new book is a guarantee of quality.
You may well know that this is another Evelyn Waugh novel set during the Second World War. Put Out More Flags takes place during the first year of the Second World War, and follows the wartime activities of characters introduced in Waugh's earlier satirical novels Decline and Fall, Vile Bodies and Black Mischief. The title of the novel comes from the saying of an anonymous Chinese sage, quoted and translated by Lin Yutang in The Importance Of Living (1937).
The dormant conflict of the phoney war is reflected in the activity of the novel's main characters. Earnest would-be soldier Alistair Trumpington finds himself engaged in incomprehensible manoeuvres instead of real combat, while Waugh's recurring ne'er-do-well Basil Seal finds ample opportunity for amusing himself in the name of the war effort.
Put Out More Flags is dedicated to Randolph Churchill, who found a service commission for Evelyn Waugh during the Second World War.
I'll let you know how I get on.
My next book, that I'll be starting tomorrow, is...
The Railway Man by Eric Lomax
During the second world war Eric Lomax was forced to work on the notorious Burma-Siam Railway and was tortured by the Japanese for making a crude radio.
Left emotionally scarred and unable to form normal relationships Lomax suffered for years until, with the help of his wife Patti and the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture, he came to terms with what had happened and, fifty years after the terrible events, was able to meet one of his tormentors.
The Railway Man is an incredible story of innocence betrayed, and of survival and courage in the face of horror.
Winner of the Waterstones Esquire Award for Non-Fiction, the JR Ackerley Prize and the NCR Book Award.
I am currently reading...
Every Man Dies Alone (USA title) / Alone in Berlin (UK title) by Hans Fallada
This book is the BYT fiction discussion choice for April 2014.
I am about 50 pages in. This novel really brings alive the day-to-day hell of life under the Nazis. Imagine everyone in a position of influence being a small minded, vindictive Daily Mail reader, and your neighbours being encouraged to report anything that might be considered inappropriate. These reports leading to persecution, prison, or the concentration camp.
The tension started from the first page and is mounting with each passing chapter. I dread to think what it's going to be like if it carries on like this.
It's really interesting to read a German perspective on Nazi Germany.
It should be a great discussion in April.
. Here's the first two paragraphs...
A little-known thriller about the German resistance against the Nazis has become the sleeper hit of the summer � more than 60 years after it was written.
Now it has finally been translated into English, Hans Fallada's Alone in Berlin is taking bestseller lists by storm on both sides of the Atlantic. In the UK alone, Penguin Classics has sold more than 100,000 copies in just three months and is expecting to exceed 250,000 sales within the year � astonishing figures considering that most English novels barely sell a few thousand copies.
Some praise for the book...
A truly great book...an utterly gripping thriller" - Sunday Telegraph
Fallada's great novel, beautifully translated by the poet Michael Hoffman, evokes the daily horror of life under the Third Reich, where the venom of Nazism seeped into the very pores of society, poisoning every aspect of existence. It is a story of resistence, sly humour and hope" - Ben Macintyre, The Times
Alone in Berlin haas something of the horror of Joseph Conrad, the madness of Fyodor Dostoyevsky ands the chilling of Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood"" - Roger Cohen, New York Times
Sounds good, Nigey. A few years ago I read Manja by Anna Gmeyner. It was written and published pre-WWII and really gives you a feel of all the changes from a few perspectives. It is one of the best books I've read. It sounds like the Fallada might be a good follow up of sorts.
Mod
^^ Bronwyn, I think Fallada sounds like an excellent follow up.^ Jennifer, Look no further than Fallada - it's a real page turner, and the you can join in on the April discussion.
I am currently reading...
The Human Kind by Alexander Baron
This is Alexander Baron's third work based on his World War Two experiences, and was republished by Black Spring Press in Autumn 2011. His first novel, From the City, from the Plough (1948), was a best seller. It was based on Alexander Baron's own war service, fighting across France from the Normandy D-Day beaches. Baron went on to write many London novels which were similarly based largely on personal experience and observation.
This is the second book I have read by Alexander Baron (1917-1999), the first was the excellent King Dido (1969).
The Human Kind is a 1953 collection of war stories. I have read five of the stories so far and each has been magnificent. If it carries on like this then I will have no hesitation in heralding this as a masterpiece. It's a fascinating little book, a sequence of unconnected though clearly autobiographical vignettes of life as a young soldier. One tale about working class lads avidly passing round a copy of David Copperfield is wonderful. Actually, they're all wonderful. An amazing writer and a superb storyteller.
I will report back when I've finished.
I started Life After Life by Kate Atkinson two nights ago. I'm really enjoying it so far!
Mod
This is the first I've read by her. It's really beautiful. I'd be interested in more of her work. What would you recommend? :)
Mod
I've just started Miss Mapp by EF Benson. Published in 1922 it's the story of the snobbish Miss Mapp and how she is constantly thwarted in her attempts to become the queen bee of her little village of Tilling. I'm enjoying it very much so far.
I am am still reading...The Human Kind by Alexander Baron
Still absolutely wonderful. The Human Kind is a 1953 collection of war stories. I have read five of the stories so far and each has been magnificent. If it carries on like this then I will have no hesitation in heralding this as a masterpiece. It's a fascinating little book, a sequence of unconnected though clearly autobiographical vignettes of life as a young soldier.
This is Alexander Baron's third work based on his World War Two experiences, and was republished by Black Spring Press in Autumn 2011. His first novel, From the City, from the Plough (1948), was a best seller. It was based on Alexander Baron's own war service, fighting across France from the Normandy D-Day beaches. Baron went on to write many London novels which were similarly based largely on personal experience and observation.
This is the second book I have read by Alexander Baron (1917-1999), the first was the excellent King Dido (1969).
I am currently reading...
White Corridor by Christopher Fowler
This is the second book I have read by Christopher Fowler and both have been from his Bryant & May series. Arthur Bryant and John May are Golden Age Detectives in a modern world. They head the Peculiar Crimes Unit (PCU), London’s most venerable specialist police team, a division founded during the Second World War to investigate cases that could cause national scandal or public unrest.
After a slowish start this is now getting quite exciting. B&M are trapped in a blizzard where a murder takes place. Meanwhile, back at the PCU, one of their own is found dead under suspicious circumstances.
I, too, enjoy the PCU stories. But I'm trying to read them in order.
Bright Young Things
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Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain
Like Goodbye to All That by Robert Graves, it's a re-read. I don't remember much about it, only that I read about twenty years ago, it was straight after I'd first read Goodbye to All That, and that I found it very moving and informative. With all my growing knowledge of WW1 I suspect it will be an even more rewarding experience this time round.
I'll update our BYT 2014 Reading Challenge thread for "Testament of Youth" by Vera Brittain as I work through the book. I hope to read a few of your thoughts and feelings when you read the book too.