Mr B's Reading Year 2010 - Whatever Happened to the Classics (episode 2)

Zeitoun put me in the mood for some more page-turning reading so I went back to the classics but in "short-boys-classics" mode. Here were the next quick-fire three with very brief assessments:

Book 5 - Catcher in the Rye by J D Salinger - No idea, given my obsession with American fiction, how I managed not to read this until now. Still, judging by sales since Salinger's death, I'm not the only one. Anyway I loved it. I can see why lots of people don't mind you. It doesn't go anywhere and Holden is infuriatingly contrary at times. But he's well-meaning and there's such a captivating mix of emotions as you follow his scattergun thought processes and movements for the book's short time frame. I can only imagine (distantly) ho

w fabulous this novel must be if you're reading it as a 15 year old book addicted boy.

Book 6 - 39 Steps by John Buchan - Thoroughly enjoyed finally reading this. I find myself with little to say about it though - it really is just the quintessential British boys adventure story - I preferred the opening sequences and the initial train/highland chases to the later sections. It's dated but

it remains a great recommendation for any teenage boy showing worrying signs of reading ambivalence!

Book 7 - Farewell my Lovely by Raymond Chandler - Genius. Never read Chandler (to my brother-in-law Harvey's disgust). From the moment Marlowe follows

Moose Malloy into a grotty bar in the first couple of pages saying something along the lines of "it was none of my business, so I followed him right in". I was addicted to Chandler's infamous dialogue style. The plot is ridiculously twisty but it's the characters and their conversations (particularly between Marlowe and the many dangerous women he hangs out with) that makes it such a page-turner for me.

Mr B's Reading Year 2010 - Whatever Happened to the Classics (episode 1)

Somewhere along the line I stopped blogging about my year of reading the classics that you'd have thought a bookshop owner had already read. I think it was shortly after I stopped reading them.

Here's what happened......Episode 1.

Still reeling from the miserable experience of reading the first half of Wuthering Heights, my fourth book of the year was a recent book instead of another classic. I read "Zeitoun" by Dave Eggers which is a fascinating, compelling and often depressing account of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath.

At the time of the hurricane the eponymous hero - originally from Syria - was an upstanding member of the New Orleans with an 11-year old building contracting business with an excellent reputation. After sticking out the hurricane in the top floor of his house he took to the deserted waterways that were once the streets of his neighbourhood in a small metal canoe. In those first days after the hurricane he spends his time feeding abandoned dogs, saving neighbours trapped in their homes and checking up on his properties and those of his friends. That is until, whilst making his daily attempt to call home from the one functioning telephone in the area, he is taken into custody by the National Guardsmen who were "helping" "police" the city at that time.

And that's where it gets really ugly. I won't give away the whole sorry saga but suffice to say Zeitoun's incarceration in the hastily constructed bus-station-cum-prison "Camp Greyhound" and then beyond was as long and inhumane as his arrest was sudden and unjust. The story that Eggers has to tell is a shocking and important one and it makes for a gripping read. The style is not overly literary (and there seem to be a few editing glitches in that a number of sentences/phrases are repeated early on) but as a long piece of journalism Zeitoun is superb.

Kate's Reading Challenge 2010: Books 18 and 19

I've just read a couple of absolute stunners!

No.18. "The Financial Lives of the Poets" by Jess Walter (Penguin, 2010)

First up a proof copy of this debut novel due out in August this year. This is very funny and genuinely moving account of an ordinary guy struggling to protect his family and his finances during the recent economic crisis. When Matt Prior's idea for a publication combining financial advice with poetry fails he finds himself jobless and teetering towards repossession of the home he and his wife had always dreamed of owning. Under the impression of some rather strong marijuana (consumed in a bid to re-live his youth) Matt takes some rather drastic and ill-advised measures in order to protect his lot, with devastating results.

Jess Walter describes Matt's downward spiral, in which every frustration leads to yet another terrible decision with a dymanic sense of wit and oodles of surprising sensitivity (I even cried a tiny bit! How embarrassing!). Most of the chapters are introduced by one of Matt's own quriky poems depicting his situation. But don't be put off if poetry isn't usually your cup of tea, most of the poems are prosaical and therefore easy to follow with only scatterings of rhyme.

A really exciting novel from a brilliant new writer.

Started: June 20th Finished: June 26th

No.19. "The Road Home" by Rose Tremain (Vintage, 2008)

You know you're in safe hands with Rose Tremain! This is the third book I've read of hers, each of the three have come from different genres ("Restoration" = historical fiction, "Trespass" = literary thriller and "The Road Home" = literary fiction) proving Tremain to be a literary chameleon, but all share her sophisticated and beautifully controlled style.

In "The Road Home", Lev and Immigrant from Eastern Europe has come to London in search of work to support his stubborn mother and his adoring five-year-old daughter Maya, both of whom he has left behind in his home country. Life in London proves tough, as Lev struggles to find a job which will support his own lifestyle, let alone that of his family. Gradually with the support of Lydia (a fellow immigrant who he meets on his bus journey to the UK), Lev finds his feet; a job, a home, some friends and even a girlfriend. But Lev is still haunted by the life he left behind and frequently dreams of his deceased wife and his lifelong friend Rudi. So when he meets a young man from his homeland who gives him the news he's been dreading Lev's duty to his country and to his family cannot be ignored.

Started: June 26th Finished: June 30th