Mack's Log

mackthefinger

Like the idea of this, as I have an annoying habit of forgetting what I've read. Hopefully this log will encourage me to make a few notes.

I tend to mix up fiction and non fiction, depending on my mood. I'm only going to include books I've finished. I'm not sure about hitting 50, but will number them anyway. So far, this year 2010:

Unaccustomed Earth by Jumpha Lahiri

Two things I don't tend to do, are 1) read books by female authors
2) read short story collections.

I don't purposefully set out not to read female authors - but if I look at my bookshelf, it's male dominated.

Short story collections tend to leave me slightly unsatisifed. I get frustrated, just when I'm getting hooked by a storyline or a character, that it suddenly ends.

So, I thought I'd try this collection by an American Bengali woman and I'm glad I did. There's nothing about these storys that isn't perfect. They're snapshots of peoples lives, usually at an important juncture. What connects them is the fact they're all immigrants, but that's about it. You get the sense many of these could have been novels, and the writer had to compact them to make them work as short stories. The writing is incredibly fluid and its difficult not to empathise with the characters. I can't recommend these enough, and will be looking forward to reading more by this author.

mackthefinger

2) At swim two birds - Flann O'Brien

Took me longer than I expected to read this, but don't
think it's a book that can be rushed. The narrative jumps
all over the place, and a lot of the time it seems to be
a book about a book about a book. Once you accept
that it doesn't have a structure as such, you can enjoy
the absurdity of it. It does contain many funny passages
and a host of irrevererant characters. I would have liked
more scenes featuring the original narrator. Some parts
I found overlong, mostly the mythology section featuring
Finn McCool. I read this in fits and starts, so maybe I need
to devote more time to a second reading of it. I read somewhere
that Brendan Gleeson is directing a film of this featuring
Colin Farrell. It'll be interesting to see how that turns out.

mackthefinger

3) The time travellers wife - Audrey Niffenegger

Hmmm. A strange one this. The first few sections fairly fly by, as it's a great idea. It's a tricky concept that the author handles well, and it's easy to read. And it's got an emotional ending. But for some reason I grew tired of this way before the end, constantly checking how many pages were left. The plot seems to run out of steam about two thirds through, not helped when you know how it ends. The flow of the book was broken up for me by having to check back to dates in earlier sections. I also found the two main characters slightly annoying, I got a bit tired of how much in love they were. Was I the only one who found the idea of a grown man with a child a bit...disturbing, even though nothing happpened?
Anyway, I'd still recommend it because it's a great idea, well written for the most part, but just a bit long.

mackthefinger

Creatures of the earth - John McGahern

Wonderful collection by the last great Irish writer. The stories
are beautifully crafted and the people that inhabit them are
realised with perfect details. It's difficult to pick out a favourite
from this book. The two new additions, 'Love of the world' and
'Creatures of the earth' stand easily alongside the earlier works.
Of course a lot of small town Ireland has changed since McGahern
wrote these, but the themes remain the same. He wasn't just a writer
of rural life though - stories such as 'Sierra Leone' 'My love, my umbrella'
capture perfectly for me what living in the city was like, though it's an older Dublin.
A lot of these characters are living under the shadow of unhappiness, a restrictive church,
unhappy family life or difficult relationships but they get on with their lives in the best way they can.
McGahern never seems to judge his characters either, if
anything he's sympathetic to their lives of unfulfilled dreams and missed
chances. As you'd expect, the sentences are crisp and full of grace, calm
and distinctive. One of the things I love about McGahern's style is the way he lets the story unfold,
the little details come forth, then occasionally steps in to show something of a larger truth.
A collection that for me is up alongside the greats of the short story genre.

mackthefinger

Last of the name - Charles McGlinchey

Really enjoyed this. McGlinchey lived his life as on the Inishowen Peninsula from 1861-1954 and a local schoolmaster visited and recorded his memories. Brian Friel then edited the book. It's a very warm and personal book, it doesn't take long before you feel you're sitting beside Charles listening to him tell his tale. It's a short book, and its not that McGlinchey had an extraordinary life, its just a window into a world now closed. There's sections on parts of life such as 'Famine', 'poteen' 'poets' 'cures and spells'. Its full of interesting characters and McGlinchey seemed to have a remarkable memory. I believe he only left Donegal twice - once to do the hay one summer in England, another time to go to Dublin. The only remark he makes on his trip to Dublin was that he raked the fire one saturday morning before he went and there were embers still in the fire when he returned on Monday. His focus was on the familiar, and its here that the book succeeds so well.

mackthefinger

The battle for Spain - Anthony Beevor

Engrossing account of the civil war that plagued Spain from 36-39. It took a while to get into, because its not just the Red's v Fascists - the battles between the rival factions within these were often as bloody. There's a whole swathe of acronymns of groups and personalities involved, and it does take a while to get used to who's who. This wasn't a war I knew much about, other than a little about Guernica and the involvement of writers such as Orwell and Hemingway, so it was great to learn more.
Obviously the slaughter and reprisals, and the bombing of innocents was horrific, but what I also found disturbing was the non-interventionist policies of countries such as Britain and the USA in applying arms-embargos to what was a democratically elected republican government. The Catholic Church was also happy to back Franco, though this came as less of a shock.

I didn't find it just as enthralling as 'Berlin' or 'Stalingrad' by the same author - too often the book seemed to get bogged down in a detailed description of military manoueveres. But he displays the same skills he showed in those titles in terms of giving an overview of how the war affected all sections of Spain, as well as the life of the individual. A difficult book about a harrowing subject but an essential read if you want to know more about Spains dark past.

mackthefinger

Tarry Flynn by Patrick Kavanagh

A work of fiction by the Monaghan poet, but rooted in his own
upbringing. Tarry is stuck in a parish in Cavan, on a small farm
with his mother and three sisters. Its an extremely funny book,
as Tarry gets into endless squabbles with his neighbours and
annoys the parish priest at every opportunity. He's also trying
to impress the daughter of the local schoolteacher but
spends a lot of his time trying to avoid the pleasures available
from some of the other local caílin. At the same time, Tarry
finds beauty in the 'stony soil' and there's some wonderfully
evocative descriptions, as you'd expect from a master poet.
I loved the dialogue in this as well, full of witticisms and
country truths and wisdom. Was sad when I finished this,
could have done with another few hundred pages of the same.
Will be putting Kavanagh's other work, 'The green fool', on
my reading list.

mackthefinger

Kevin Lynch and the Irish Hunger Strike by Aidan Hegarty

Account of the short life of Kevin Lynch by Aidan Hegarty,
who seems to have been a family friend. Another insight
into a tumultous period in the Norths history, its a close
up view of the effect on the mans family. Not as detailed
as 'Ten Men Dead' but definately worth reading.

mackthefinger

Walk the Blue Fields - Claire Keegan

Beautifully crafted collection of short stories, mostly set in rural Ireland.
Some of them have a gothic strangeness about them (the forresters
daughter) whilst others (the surrender) are more in the style of masters of
the form such as McGahern and Trevor. Themes are universal ones, such
as escape (The parting gift, the forresters daughter) and traditional belief
structures meeting superstition and myth. Great array of characters, most
notably strong women. The final story, ‘Night of the quicken trees’ is
maybe my favourite, where a lot of ideas explored seem to come together.
Occasionally, just when you think you have placed the tale in a certain
era, something occurs to make you reconsider. This works for me, and
looks at an Ireland somewhere between the past and the present. There’s
a dark undercurrent of sadness to many of the characters, but hope
seems to keep them going. The prose shines and the the sentences flow
beautifully, and are perfectly paced and structured. A great collection.

mackthefinger

The Forgotten Highlander - Alistair Urquhart

Truly inspiring account of one mans experience of the second world war in
the far east. The early passages are fairly standard - young man growing
up in Aberdeen, liked ballroom dancing, starting his working life. Along
comes WW2 and he’s sent to Singapore. I enjoyed this section of the
book that captures the wonder of being in a strange place, thousands of
miles from home. Its not an enjoyable tale after that though - captured
during the fall of Singapore, Alistair is sent on a horrific journey to work on
the railways in Burma, wherea as a slave labourer he’s worked to near
death, suffers sadistic beatings and seems to contract every tropical
disease imaginable. He works on the River Kwai for a while (not like the
film) before being shifted to again to work on the docks in Singapore in
similar conditions. He then endures the death ships sailing to Japan, gets
torpedoed, then sent to a little port close to the city of Nagasaki. Its
hard to imagine just what this man went through but Urquhart doesn’t
hold back describing the horrors. Returning home, his problems continue
with the trauma of what he suffered. One of the most poignant parts of
the book for me was the reaction of the government to what’s known now
as post traumatic stress syndrome. It was impossible for these men to
just return to civvy street again. A shocking tale, told expertly by Alistair
Urquhart, who is still among us at the age of 90.

mackthefinger

11 - John McGahern - Memoir.

A wonderful read from the master. Having read his short stories a few
months ago, it was interesting to read about McGaherns earlier life and

see where his inspiration came from. The sections concerning his mother
are very moving and you can tell she had a profound influence on him.
Geographically it never really spans more than a few town lands, but
McGahern beautifully creates the sense that, to a child, the whole world is
contained within. His father, the sergeant, stalks the pages - a petty,
vindictive bully of a man, who beat his children at every opportunity.
McGahern describes at one stage how his father, who loved oranges,
when he knew he was to be married, bought two dozen oranges in Galway
and sat on a park bench and ate them all. He felt that he never would be
able to afford oranges again once he was married. This image stayed with
me after I’d finished the book. It’s a book full of McGaherns restrained
prose, his carefully honed sentences and insight. Although some parts are
harrowing, there’s no room for sentimentality or self-pity, which I think
sets it apart from other memoirs I have read, there’s just McGaherns
unflinching, humane gaze. Just a masterpiece.

mackthefinger

12 - Colm Tóibín - Brooklyn

Wasn’t sure if I was going to enjoy this to begin with, then found I had
read half of it in one sitting. It’s a simple enough story of a young woman
from Enniscorthy heading to Brooklyn, but it’s a got a real gentle charm to
it that pulls you in. The writers style is unfussy and the language has an
easy flow. It all feels very natural and I really felt involved with the main
character. Will have to check the authors other works. A follow up to this
would be great too.

mackthefinger

David Mitchell - Number 9 Dream

A book about a Japanese teenager searching for his dad in the Tokoyo
underworld. The false starts at the beginning make it a difficult book to
begin with, and there are times when Mitchell seems to overdo it with the
shifting realities. I'd previously read and loved 'Cloud Atlas' but this is an
earlier work, more disjointed but you can see what he is trying to do,
though less successfully. Parts of it feel and read like action movie
sequences, (there's a scene in a bowling alley that I probably won't forget
for a while) and it does have a good flow to it, despite the occasional
change in style and narrator which doesn't always work; there's a bit with
a talking hen and a 'goatman' that I just didn't get. Despite this, its full of
quirky, memorable characters and its written with verve and wit and
you're always eager to find out what happens to the main character. It's
similar to a Murakami novel (there's even a fleeting character named after
him, if we hadn't already made the connection) but that's no bad thing. I
did enjoy it, but probably compared it too much to 'Cloud Atlas', where the
overlapping story arcs and shifting realities/narrative style are done more
successfully.