Sunday, May 17, 2009
A blog at bedtime
May 17th. 2009.
It is now nearly a year since my last blog. I hadn't realised that it had been so long. I was full of good intentions but have been easily distracted from ordering my thoughts and typing them in the blog by other activities, the allotment, a novel or even snoozing which is one of my favourite hobbies though perhaps it isn't an activity. Recently several people have asked about the blog so I have decided to restart. The response from any reader is of course a strong stimulus to keep going and as before the blog is really an open letter to friends and family. As before, there will be an emphasis on three subjects:-1. weight loss (easily disposed of as there has been none),
2. books, especially detective fiction
3. the allotment
I have thought of introducing a new category known as Bob's Hit List for the most tiresome people in public life drawn mainly from the world of 'Celebrities'.
The last comment on my blog suggested a book called 'Cooking with Fernet Branca' by James Hamilton Patterson which I did find very amusing and thanks to the comment I realise I have not returned it. It occurs to me that I don't think I have ever tasted Fernet Branca and it isn't something I would ever think of having though perhaps I will now try it once. Some drinks seem to have gone out of fashion : I cannot remember anyone asking for, or offering a glass of sherry in the last few years. Perhaps I don't move in the right circles any longer.
I had thought that I would try and explore Japanese detective fiction but it has not been a rewarding experience, largely because I found that the relationship between the detectives and all the other characters was so different from what we are used to, that they all seemed completely un-natural.However, during the past year I have greatly enjoyed the following:-
251. Kate Atkinson
252. James Crumley
253. Dennis Lehane
254. Adrian McKinty
255. Stieg Larsson
Kate Atkinson might be better known for 'Behind the Scenes at the Museum' and may not be generally considered as a writer of detective fiction but the Jackson Brodie novels are very definitely police/crime/detective fiction.
I first heard of James Crumley when I read his obituary in the Guardian. I find it quite extraordinary that a writer can be well enough known to justify an obituary in the Guardian but is a complete stranger to everyone to whom I have mentioned him. I'm glad that I read the obits or I would never have discovered Milo Milodragovitch or C.W.Sugrue, his detectives. 'One to Count Cadence' is not a detective story but about the Vietnam war.
Dennis Lehane may sound Irish and may well have Irish ancestors but his action is in Boston where his detectives, Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro shoot drink and have sex. They are a bit like Elvis cole and his side-kick Pike, all of them trying to out-Marlowe Marlowe and not quite succeeding but its all good fun. Adrian McKinty is Irish and the action is in the States and in Ireland.
Stieg Larsson was Swedish but now unfortunately dead. His books are only now being translated into English and I've only read 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' so far. It's quite a good tale though a bit long and like so much of Scandinavian crime fiction the crimes are really quite unpleasantly violent. I have referred to this tendency in previous blogs. Does it reflect the writers' personality or the Scandinavian character or is it because of the weather? Quite different from the Camilleris, Montalbans, and Paduras.
There have been some major disappointments in the last year and I will single out the following :- 1. Philip Roth - Indignation
2. Philip Roth - Exit Ghost
3. Ford Madox Ford - The Good Soldier
4. Robert Bolano - The Savage Detectives
5. Donna Leon - About Face
6. Junot Diaz - Drown
7. Junot Diaz - The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
8. Aleksandar Hemon - The Question of Bruno
9. Aleksandar Hemon - Nowhere Man
10. Ernest Hemingway - A Farewell to Arms
I really feel that it is time for Roth to hang up his pen. I cannot understand the reputation of Ford Madox Ford; I forced myself to finish the book hoping for some redeeming features but there were none. Robert Bolano(Chilean) has been praised by the critics, as has Junot Diaz( Dominican) and Aleksandar Hemon(Bosnian). Nobel Prizes and Literary Awards are mentioned in reviews and in the blurb on the covers though thank goodness have not yet been awarded. Bolano's characters are wrapped up in rivalry over poetry but mainly sex. If Diaz wants to write in English he should stop putting crucial passages in Spanish. Hemon writes as though he has learned English from a dictionary.
Much as I like Guido Brunetti, Donna Leon isn't producing good enough plots any longer to sustain him and his wretched wife is becoming more tiresome. Is she perhaps how Leon sees herself?
I'm sure the Food Police will be unhappy about the inclusion of Hemingway in this list but I just couldn't get to like Henry, drunken, immoral, possibly not even too upset by Catherine's death and Catherine herself never has a sensible thing to say. Irritatingly she keeps asking "Darling, you do love me don't you darling?" Did people ever talk that way?
Allotment news will have to wait for another day as my typing hasn't got any faster and it is getting late.The hit list can also wait; it doesn't change much form week to week that some characters rise up the charts when they have been exceptionally obnoxious.
It is now nearly a year since my last blog. I hadn't realised that it had been so long. I was full of good intentions but have been easily distracted from ordering my thoughts and typing them in the blog by other activities, the allotment, a novel or even snoozing which is one of my favourite hobbies though perhaps it isn't an activity. Recently several people have asked about the blog so I have decided to restart. The response from any reader is of course a strong stimulus to keep going and as before the blog is really an open letter to friends and family. As before, there will be an emphasis on three subjects:-1. weight loss (easily disposed of as there has been none),
2. books, especially detective fiction
3. the allotment
I have thought of introducing a new category known as Bob's Hit List for the most tiresome people in public life drawn mainly from the world of 'Celebrities'.
The last comment on my blog suggested a book called 'Cooking with Fernet Branca' by James Hamilton Patterson which I did find very amusing and thanks to the comment I realise I have not returned it. It occurs to me that I don't think I have ever tasted Fernet Branca and it isn't something I would ever think of having though perhaps I will now try it once. Some drinks seem to have gone out of fashion : I cannot remember anyone asking for, or offering a glass of sherry in the last few years. Perhaps I don't move in the right circles any longer.
I had thought that I would try and explore Japanese detective fiction but it has not been a rewarding experience, largely because I found that the relationship between the detectives and all the other characters was so different from what we are used to, that they all seemed completely un-natural.However, during the past year I have greatly enjoyed the following:-
251. Kate Atkinson
252. James Crumley
253. Dennis Lehane
254. Adrian McKinty
255. Stieg Larsson
Kate Atkinson might be better known for 'Behind the Scenes at the Museum' and may not be generally considered as a writer of detective fiction but the Jackson Brodie novels are very definitely police/crime/detective fiction.
I first heard of James Crumley when I read his obituary in the Guardian. I find it quite extraordinary that a writer can be well enough known to justify an obituary in the Guardian but is a complete stranger to everyone to whom I have mentioned him. I'm glad that I read the obits or I would never have discovered Milo Milodragovitch or C.W.Sugrue, his detectives. 'One to Count Cadence' is not a detective story but about the Vietnam war.
Dennis Lehane may sound Irish and may well have Irish ancestors but his action is in Boston where his detectives, Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro shoot drink and have sex. They are a bit like Elvis cole and his side-kick Pike, all of them trying to out-Marlowe Marlowe and not quite succeeding but its all good fun. Adrian McKinty is Irish and the action is in the States and in Ireland.
Stieg Larsson was Swedish but now unfortunately dead. His books are only now being translated into English and I've only read 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' so far. It's quite a good tale though a bit long and like so much of Scandinavian crime fiction the crimes are really quite unpleasantly violent. I have referred to this tendency in previous blogs. Does it reflect the writers' personality or the Scandinavian character or is it because of the weather? Quite different from the Camilleris, Montalbans, and Paduras.
There have been some major disappointments in the last year and I will single out the following :- 1. Philip Roth - Indignation
2. Philip Roth - Exit Ghost
3. Ford Madox Ford - The Good Soldier
4. Robert Bolano - The Savage Detectives
5. Donna Leon - About Face
6. Junot Diaz - Drown
7. Junot Diaz - The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
8. Aleksandar Hemon - The Question of Bruno
9. Aleksandar Hemon - Nowhere Man
10. Ernest Hemingway - A Farewell to Arms
I really feel that it is time for Roth to hang up his pen. I cannot understand the reputation of Ford Madox Ford; I forced myself to finish the book hoping for some redeeming features but there were none. Robert Bolano(Chilean) has been praised by the critics, as has Junot Diaz( Dominican) and Aleksandar Hemon(Bosnian). Nobel Prizes and Literary Awards are mentioned in reviews and in the blurb on the covers though thank goodness have not yet been awarded. Bolano's characters are wrapped up in rivalry over poetry but mainly sex. If Diaz wants to write in English he should stop putting crucial passages in Spanish. Hemon writes as though he has learned English from a dictionary.
Much as I like Guido Brunetti, Donna Leon isn't producing good enough plots any longer to sustain him and his wretched wife is becoming more tiresome. Is she perhaps how Leon sees herself?
I'm sure the Food Police will be unhappy about the inclusion of Hemingway in this list but I just couldn't get to like Henry, drunken, immoral, possibly not even too upset by Catherine's death and Catherine herself never has a sensible thing to say. Irritatingly she keeps asking "Darling, you do love me don't you darling?" Did people ever talk that way?
Allotment news will have to wait for another day as my typing hasn't got any faster and it is getting late.The hit list can also wait; it doesn't change much form week to week that some characters rise up the charts when they have been exceptionally obnoxious.
