Oh no. School starts tomorrow. I haven't finished the second book in my challenge ("C" by Tom McCarthy). I'm a bit worried I'll go back to work, and become overwhelmed by the need to prepare Year level assemblies, and course outlines, and that speech I'm meant to make at Fy & Ben's engagement party, and the resolution will go under...
So. "C" Fairly readable, although it did all this interesting temporal jumping early in the main characters lifetime, and then plods in fair detail through his middle life. And it spent some time wallowing the war, which always bores me. But I'm so close, about 5/6 of the way through. Better go commit to some pre-bedtime reading. SO CLOSE!
Monday, January 31, 2011
Monday, January 17, 2011
The Long Song, by Andrea Levy
Book #1, done and dusted. I have to say that I expected something quite different from Prize-nominated books. I was expecting weighty, perhaps a little elitist. This is not the case with this very readable book.
The Long Song tells the story of July, a slave girl on a Jamaican plantation. It uses a deliberately aware narrative framework; the blurb itself alerts you to the fact that the narrator is learning the format of a novel as she writes this story. At times, the reader is withdrawn from July's world and into the world of the narrator. These are signalled by a shift in language to the more common conversational language the characters in the 'story' use, and while they're often frivolous little interjections, these moments give a clearer voice to the narrator, and break the tension or stillness of the story at the time.
My favourite part about these interjections, though, is the way the narrator's son will impose his own expectations on his mother's writing, questioning the way she has described something, or omitted a section he deems worthy. It raises questions of the process of writing, and of remembering. This process is also reflected in some parts of the story, where the writer will not only tell the event as she remembers it, but will also fill in the versions known to other memories, urban legend or tall-tall tales.
July's story itself is partly tall-tall tale, partly sad-sad tale. As a child stolen from her mother, she begins a life of servitude to a selfish white woman who changes her name and screeches at her constantly. No white characters are painted in a positive light in this novel, even those who begin with good intentions. It is a harsh judgement on the imposition of a social structure upon another people, but for the most part told in a cheery, joking tone which almost brushes over the severity of the crimes committed.
I really enjoyed this book. It was immensely readable, and the characters were quite easy to connect to and pity, if not always like. Even though you're aware that the story is being filtered in several ways, by memory or editing, you are still so swept up in the events that you don't mind.
The Long Song tells the story of July, a slave girl on a Jamaican plantation. It uses a deliberately aware narrative framework; the blurb itself alerts you to the fact that the narrator is learning the format of a novel as she writes this story. At times, the reader is withdrawn from July's world and into the world of the narrator. These are signalled by a shift in language to the more common conversational language the characters in the 'story' use, and while they're often frivolous little interjections, these moments give a clearer voice to the narrator, and break the tension or stillness of the story at the time.
My favourite part about these interjections, though, is the way the narrator's son will impose his own expectations on his mother's writing, questioning the way she has described something, or omitted a section he deems worthy. It raises questions of the process of writing, and of remembering. This process is also reflected in some parts of the story, where the writer will not only tell the event as she remembers it, but will also fill in the versions known to other memories, urban legend or tall-tall tales.
July's story itself is partly tall-tall tale, partly sad-sad tale. As a child stolen from her mother, she begins a life of servitude to a selfish white woman who changes her name and screeches at her constantly. No white characters are painted in a positive light in this novel, even those who begin with good intentions. It is a harsh judgement on the imposition of a social structure upon another people, but for the most part told in a cheery, joking tone which almost brushes over the severity of the crimes committed.
I really enjoyed this book. It was immensely readable, and the characters were quite easy to connect to and pity, if not always like. Even though you're aware that the story is being filtered in several ways, by memory or editing, you are still so swept up in the events that you don't mind.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
The New Year's Resolution
So this year looks set to be a big one. I'm teaching VCE Drama for only the second time (with a HUGE class), and I'm co-ordinating Year 8s. All this is likely to threaten my relaxation time, so I decided to 'schedule' a minimum by making it my NY Resolution to read the 2010 and 2011 Man Booker Prize Shortlists. If all goes really well, I'll also read the Cheltenham Booker Prize Shortlists, which are awarded retrospectively to books written 50 years ago. I figured, to keep me honest, that I'd blog about the books here, like a mini book club (albeit lonelier).
So here's the 2010 Shortlist, which I am already working my way through.
*Winner* The Finkler Question, by Howard Jacobsen
The Long Song, Andrea Levy
Room, Emma Donoghue
In a Strange Room, Damien Galgut
Parrot and Olivier in America, Peter Carey
C, Tom McCarthy
And the 1960 Cheltenham Shortlist:
*Winner* To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
The L-Shaped Room Lynn Reid Banks The Country Girls Edna O'Brien The Ballad of Peckham Rye Muriel Spark This Sporting Life David Storey
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