The Last Devil To Die, Richard Osman
I hadn’t intended to read this as I thought the author had run out of steam with the third in the series which you can see given how little I wrote about it here. I didn’t even write very much about the first two despite having really enjoyed them as you can see from this blogpost. But Pauline loaned it to me so I did – and am very pleased to have done so. I loved it and think it the best one although I think you would have had to read the first three to really enjoy it. There is a link to the third book and references throughout to what happened in it which I wasn’t quite up to remembering but it didn’t matter. It’s not the plots that drive these books but the characters who are all wonderful. Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron and Ishmael. Wonderful, wonderful characters each beautifully drawn so that you really feel for them. I can’t say much about the plot without giving too much away. Suffice it to say I cried! Beautifully written and about a big issue. There’s also lots of humour – mostly about the criminal class. Really good and strongly recommended if you’ve read the others. And get on and read them before the movie comes out. Helen Mirren is going to play the wonderful Elizabeth, Pierce Brosnan is to be Ron and Ben Kingsley Ishmael. All good casting but who will be Joyce? Who Osman says best represents him. He also says he is going to pause this series for a while – which I think is good because I can’t see how he can make much more of them, but who knows. I loved this fourth one.
Shooting The Actor, Simon Callow with Dušan Makavejev
So back, I thought, to fulfilling my NYE resolution to read books I’ve had for a while. My idea was to read a number of smaller ones so I could keep up my average of a couple a month – a very bad way to approach reading! So picked this off the shelf where it has been for ages having been collected from the community library across the road. I like Simon Callow as an actor and he writes really well. This is about his experience acting in a film by a the Yugoslave director Dušan Makavejev whose work is described on IMDb as uncompromisingly experimental as well as politically outrageous. He had his biggest success with W.R. in 1971 which translates as orgasm. The sub title to this book is the choreography of confusion. In short Callow had a terrible time. It’s an interesting read about how an actor feels during a film shoot. Callow was very unsure of himself and blamed the director for not giving him more feedback. This becomes a little repetitive by the end but there are also descriptions of the places where they were filming – Zagreb, Bled, Dubrovnik. This was in the the 1980s when these places were all in Tito’s Yugoslavia. Callow gave his manuscript to the director to read and occasionally Dušan responds. One exchange has Callow wondering what the baker was doing in a scene that he had no role in, It’s called continuity Simon is the droll response. Callow also includes a coda which is an apology of sorts as having acted in more films and been a director he understands he was being rather hopeless with his criticism! The film they were making, Manifesto, didn’t do very well but has become something of a cult number apparently. I wouldn’t mind watching it if it could be found streaming anywhere.
Then I got distracted from my plan to read a number of short novels thanks to a BBC series I watched on the ABC Iview; Shakespeare: Rise Of A Genius which hopefully you can access here. I loved everything about it – interviews, re-enactments, film excerpts. I wanted to check the veracity of some of the claims in it and so searched out my Shakespeare books – and discovered they were mostly spot on.
The Age of Shakespeare, Frank Kermode
Kermode is a terrific writer and this small book is a great, trustworthy account of Shakespeare’s life. Published on 2004 there’s so much continuing research into Shakespeare new facts may have been discovered in the last twenty years but this is described on its cover as a beautifully brief, important and lasting portrait of a time which Shakespeare made his own by the greatest literary scholar of his generation. So worth a read! There has been and continues to be so much myth-making about Shakespeare’s life I liked Kermode’s absolute commitment to only verified facts! He debunks quite a few myths along the way. This is a great introduction to Shakespeare, and not in my category of unread books. Nevertheless I enjoyed the re-read.
Soul of the Age: the Life, Mind and World of William Shakespeare, Jonathon Bate
This one to my shame I have had since Christmas 2008 when Joe gave it to me with all his love! Scandalous to have left it so long. I watched a wonderful three part BBC series calledShakespeare: Rise of A Genius. I watched it on ABC Iview but I’m not sure how long it will be available there. You should be able to access it directly here. Great viewing which led me to finally reading this. Which was good because I loved everything about it although at 448 pages it’s not a brief overview. Like Kermode Bate is recognised as a Shakespeare expert and he too is at pains to rely strictly on only the verifiable facts of Shakespeare’s life. Which leaves a lot unknown. He often talks about different theories and concludes with the view that exactly the opposite may be true as there’s no evidence for either version. He says this book is intended as an intellectual biography of the man in the context of the mind-set into which he was born and out fo which his works were created. And that he is attempting an accurate triangulation of the life, the work and the world of William Shakespeare which includes traces of cultural DNA – little details such as a reference to Warwickshire or the knowledge of a particular school textbook and making surprising connections in the style of Shakespeare’s own inventive metaphorical imagination. The book is structured around the seven ages of man set out by Jacques in Jaques in As You Like It: 1. mewling infant, 2. whining schoolboy, 3. lover sighing like a furnace, 4. soldier bearded like the pard, 5. the justice in fair round belly, 6. the lean and slippered pantaloon, 7. lastly second childishness and mere oblivion, sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything. So he looks at the school curriculum that applied to all Tudor schools during Shakespeare’s years as a student and strongly refutes suggestions that a boy in the backblocks could not possibly have produced these plays and poems. Both author and a large proportion of his audiences knew the classics, knew Latin and even some Greek. And so Bates continues looking at what books were available to people, what was happening in public debates and politically much of which is reflected in the plays. the role of kings and Queens, succession plans, tyrannical rule versus pandering to public opinion, the role of the church versus the individual, personal autonomy versus tradition etc etc.
All of this is written beautifully and is very accessible. I know more about the works of Virgil, Cicero, Seneca, Erasmus, Montaigne etc after reading this (or I would if I could remember it all!) This is like other books I’ve read, so full of information I could have re-read it the minute I finished it and been just as engaged. As with Kermode various myths and theories are debunked. The facts of Shakespeare’s life are as follows – although hard to find encapsulated in this book, dates are sprinkled through the text : Born April 1564, married at the end of November 1582 with his last child born in 1587, described in London literary paper as an upstart crow in 1592 so must have been making his mark writing by then, wrote his History plays in the early 1590s, wrote Venus & Adonis July 1593, Rape of Lucrece May 1594, became a shareholder in Lord Chamberlain’s Men(LCM) inMay 1594, bought New Place in Stratford in 1597, was remarkably productive writing plays between 1594-98 golden years, his son Hamnet died in 1596, between 1594 and 1603 LCM were in London so Shakespeare was probably there too. His political and religious beliefs as well as his sexuality are unknown. He never bought property in London but did buy houses and land in Stratford, so Bate believes he continued a close association with the town and community there – and his wife. However we don’t know for sure how often he returned home, nor the state of his relationship with his wife. No-one knows to whom he wrote the sonnets. So much unknown. He’s mentioned in some minor legal disputes but was never in political trouble about his plays (as others were who are named in Privy Council records). Although he nearly got into trouble during the Essex rebellion in 1601. He successfully managed the transition from the death of Elizabeth in 1603 to the new King James; the company changing names from Lord Chamberlain’s Men to The King’s Men. He died relatively young at Stratford on 23 April 1616.
I was delighted in the Acknowledgements section of the book to find a cross-over with my earlier reading of Simon Callow’s book. Bates says Callow was responsible for the most valuable spur to the delivery of a long-gestated project when he asked Bate to develop the script for a one-man show about Shakespeare in his cultural moment. I like these sorts of coincidences.
RSC William Shakespeare Completer Works, Ed Jonathon Bate & Eric Rasmussen
I then returned to this volume. I wanted to – and did – read Twelfth Night / Or What You Will. But at the same time went back to the Introduction by Jonathan Bate! This in itself is a full biography of the great man. This volume of Shakespeare’s plays was sought by the Royal Shakespeare Company and is the first edited version of the First Folio published in 1623 as the first and original Complete Works. So arguably it contains the most authoritative versions of the plays. There’s a photo of the script written in Elizabethan times that shows how easily mistakes could be made in the typesetting process – or in the actual reading of the manuscripts. None of the originals have survived although there are examples of Shakespeare’s writing in other documents. I’ve worked out I’ve seen acted (plays or film) or read sixteen of his plays: Richard III, A Midsomer Night’s Dream, The Taming of the Shrew, Macbeth, King Lear, Henry IV (Part 1 & Part 2), As You Like It, Twelfth Night, Romeo and Juliet, Henry V, Hamlet, Julius Caesar, Othello, The Tempest, Much Ado About Nothing, and Richard II, Henry IV (1&2), Henry V in the composite The Hollow Crown.
Ordeal By Innocence, Agatha Christie
I interrupted my deep dive into Shakespeare to read this. I wanted to confirm that the ending in the BBC’s latest version of the story was nonsense – as indeed it was. You may be able to access it if you have a Britbox subscription (and at least watch the trailer if you have not) here. It stars Bill Nighy who I lke a lot and he is as usual very good in this. Playing a regular Bill Nighy character; the slightly absent, bookish father of a handful of children adopted by his child-obsessed wife after WWII. So far true to the book. But other characters are depicted almost cartoonishly – the mother, the bad boy of the family accused of her murder, the maid who’s given a new back story, the Good Samaritan who provides an alibi for bad boy Jack (an escapee from an asylum!), the wheel-chair bound husband of one of the sisters is given a drug addiction. Plus a friend of the Dad who is completely new. All wrong, necessary and in fact detract from the cleverness of the story. Why do screen writers feel the need to make these changes. Worst of all the murderer is not the same one! And his end is nothing like anything Agatha would have recourse to. She didn’t need to. We then watched another version made in 2007 starring Geraldine McEwan as Miss Marple who is unexpectedly and contrary to the novel, drafted in to solve the murder. I couldn’t find a link to this movie. It’s much better than the later version but still not completely true to the story – the victim of the second murder is different. But the point of the story – reflected in the title – is what happens to those who become suspects when the most likely murderer has the perfect alibi. He has already been conveniently dispatched, dying in prison. An intriguing idea and one expertly and simply explored by Agatha. No need for deviants or even Miss Marple.
The ABC Murders, Agatha Christie
We then watched a second of the updated versions recently screened by the BBC, also available on Britbox here. In unusual casting (to say the least), John Malkovich is Hercule Poirot. As if that’s not bad enough he’s given a ridiculous back story (clergyman consumed by guilt he couldn’t save his parishioners from German soldiers). Instead of having Poirot’s old sparring partner Inspector Jepp on hand we get an implacably hostile police inspector in Rupert Grint (ex Ron Weasley in the Harry Potter films who I was pleased to say did well). No sign of good old Hastings to get everything wrong and provide a bit of humour to proceedings. Murder these days is unmitigatedly dour. This time there are three to be investigated and another one to wrap things up. And the murderer is a weird looking masochist who you’d report to the police on sight! His landlady a slovenly thing far removed from Agatha’s normal person and her daughter abets his masochism – ridiculous. So unnecessary. And again a distraction for the very clever idea at the heart of the story. We then watched the 1992 version starring David Suchet – you can see the whole episode here. This one is completely true to Agatha’s vision. Four completely separate murders – what could possibly connect them? Is it Poirot? Or the railway line? Or their names? One would never guess.
The Bee Sting, Paul Murray [Redux]
I’ve already written about this wonderful novel here. I was pleased to hear the author would be interviewed for the Melbourne Writers Festival but I was too late to get a ticket. At the last minute Eleanor gave me hers. She requested a summary of the evening and here it is.
The Athenaeum is a great venue for these talks – nice and small, so doesn’t really matter where you sit but I got a good seat downstairs. A full house on a rainy Melbourne night, with ninety-nine percent of the audience consisting of women – mostly my age! I didn’t see anyone I knew there but our neighbour Rene got off the tram with me with her newly bought copy of the book. The line afterwards to get books signed was enormous!
Murray was not paritcularly articulate and hard to understand – even though I could hear him well enough. It was just how he talked; very quickly and biting off words. Michael Williamson a good interviewer – doesn’t take over and make it about himself! His first question was what prompted the book – what was the central idea. Murray had three ideas he was toying with but likened choosing a theme for a book is like being on a dating App (Michael asked who in the audience had done that – very quiet response!) Two of these ideas didn’t ‘grab’ him at all and his publisher wasn’t keen.
He kept going with the third and was going to try and write a romantic comedy featuring a girl from the midlands in Ireland. His publisher was keen on that (good market for romcoms) but his agent told him to do what grabbed him. He really didn’t set out to do a family saga which is what it turned into. He had the voice of a teenage girl from the start as he’s always been interested in the intense relationships girls that age have with each other, also the experience of people in small country towns where everyone knows everything about everyone. (Shades of Watchupga for me). Other family members came later, once he put pen to paper. He always writes a first draft in longhand; saysing this gives space for voices of characters to come through organically, real writing can’t be imposed from the top down. The typewritten page looks too finished and is great for editing but bad for writing organically.
He didn’t set out to write Imelda like Joyce’s Molly Bloom (which it immediately brought to mind for me) but found that as he was writing her bit he gradually stopped using punctuation marks. He wanted people to be shocked at her inner life as formed by her background that her children have no idea about. Everyone is hiding behind masks and can’t get out from behind them, can’t communicate with each other, if they could they could help each other. It’s the same for all families, all of us to some extent.
He went on at length about the impact of the Irish financial crash on both people and the country as a whole which was profound. People went from poverty to having money thrust at them – then came back to having nothing again – leaving a strong sense of guilt & shame in the Catholic country. Imelda is the only member of the family to know real poverty – how bad it is.
Dickie is just trying to be a decent man / good father but can’t be because he doesn’t trust people or the future so is just trying to avoid everything and everyone, finally becoming a survivalist. He denied being a fatalist but is interested in how people make choices they think are free but really they’re barrelling along to a future that’s relatively fixed.
About the ending (when first mentioned by Michael the audience groaned as did I), he thought of doing an epilogue explaining everything but nothing worked. He agreed with Michael the first bit in the book (father murdered his family then himself) may provide a clue. He knew what the ending was going to be quite early in the writing which surprised me. There were no questions from the floor. Which I discovered was a controversial edict from the organisers of the whole festival which I strongly support! All over in the allotted hour. Very efficient and very stimulating.
One Another, Gail Jones
I really enjoyed Salonika Burning by this author which I read earlier this year and have discussed here. So I was keen to read this Mother’s Day gift but didn’t find it as good. Helen is a Cambridge student writing a thesis on Joseph Conrad: Cryptomodernism and Empire. Fortunately she loses the manuscript in the first few pages of the novel so thereafter we just get facts about Conrad’s life – nothing at all about cryptomodernism (unless I missed it) and only a few references to empire. I liked the bits about Conrad – this is a nice way to learn something about an author or any real person, if you don’t want a full biography. A fascinating fellow and if I didn’t have such a big pile of books to be read I’d consider finding a biography. I liked both the retelling of bits of his life and the extracts from his writing. I was less interested in Helen’s life which is intermingled. She just wasn’t very interesting. From Tasmania having moved there from the mainland when young, an outsider there and here in Cambridge. Hooks up with an ugly (not physically) fellow, another expatriate, whose escalating unpleasantness was too thinly drawn. As was all of Helen’s bits really. You get something of what it would be like to be a colonial student at Cambridge. Damned with faint praise.
Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
But of course it took me back to this. Which I found a bit opaque when I first read it a while ago but reading it again I loved the writing. Vivid and compelling. What more can I say. Apart from recommending you read it. I found this 1969 edition in our community library – whence it will return. The small biographical bit included here does not make Conrad as interesting as Gail Jones does. It’s also early enough to spell out in full the title of his N….. of the ”Narcissus” which Jones tells us was even too much for Jim Crow America. He is great on describing the environment – natural and built – and evoking an atmosphere. Also at ambiguity, leaving a feeling of uneasiness in the reader. You can see why it is (maybe was) as staple of student reading lists, there’s lots to take in. Although I wasn’t interested in reading the additional material included here. There’s reference to some of the ideas and responses in the Gail Jones book.
Pauline says
Might have to borrow a few of these books