Sunday, July 29, 2012
Current Favourite Sentence
"I felt her [the baby] kick three or four times during the competition but I just told her to be calm, to be quiet, mummy's shooting," she said afterwards.
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Current Favourite Sentence
'You mean the mud and lice, the howitzers and chlorine?' Ruprecht prompted him.
Grand Days (1993)
By Frank Moorhouse (1938- ). If you only read one novel about a young woman's sexual and political awakening as she works for the League of Nations in the 1920s and 30s, make it this one. If you only read two, it has a sequel, Dark Palace (2000), but I haven't read it yet. More about Mr. Moorhouse here.
Andrew Sinclair (1935- )
Author of, among other novels, The Breaking of Bumbo and My Friend Judas (both 1959), and director of the 1972 film version of Under Milk Wood. More, slightly patchy, information, here.
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Charlotte Cory (1956- )
It doesn't happen very often, but every now and then you pick up a book at random, completely at random, without knowing anything about the author; and something, maybe the cover, or a blurb, or the first few pages read as you stand by the shelf in the second-hand bookshop; something, anyway, gets a hook in you, you can almost see the skin standing upright, and you read the book to see if your instincts are still working and if it is as special as you allowed yourself to think it might be; and it usually is not, because instinct is a funny set of wires, always leading us to leap away from danger or towards interesting things when, as my cats will tell you, there is no danger, and nothing more interesting than a cork, or a balled-up and unwanted piece of paper. But every now and then instinct gets it gloriously right. I picked up this book on the offchance, in fact I read the first few pages and left it and then came back a week or so later and it was still there and I thought what the hell archy, and it is absolutely amazing. The Unforgiving (Faber and Faber, 1991). You can read more about it here, and can learn more about the fascinating Ms. Cory here, and here is a sample of her equally attractive art.
Sunday, July 08, 2012
Current Favourite Sentences
Peering out from beneath her bags and boxes, Mlle Letellier saw Edward Glass in the distance talking to a considerably prettier and more colourful young lady than the one she had just left. 'Husbands,' she chuckled. 'Les maris - ils sont tous les mêmes! But then, if the wife is a little mad, a poor mirror-image of herself, alas, who can blame him?'
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