January 6, 2007

A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon

It was at page 133 that Mark Haddon’s A Spot of Bother finally cast its spell upon me; I marked the page. This is the second book by the potentially one-hit-wonderish author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in Night-Time, and this time he’s got an altogether different trick up his sleeve. Each chapter in this book is written from the point of view of each member of the Hall family: George is having a nervous breakdown, Jean is sleeping with George’s former coworker, Jamie is unwilling to commit to his boyfriend, and horrible Katie is about to marry a man everybody else hates. Initially, I really didn’t care about any of them and I considered whether I was actually willing to invest a whole 354 pages in such nasty souls. But then on the 133rd page, suddenly these characters began to engage with one another and the story had me in its grip.

133 pages sounds like a long time to wait, but this is a quick read and the chapters fly by. The action is unrelenting once it finally begins, culminating in a massive blow-out that is equal parts hilarious and heartbreaking. Haddon, who wrote from the point of view of a boy with Asbergers in his first novel, gets points for his portrayal of George Hall’s depression, and also for the reaction of George’s wife who just can’t understand what is wrong with him. Humour abounds through this book, even in the darkest bits. The ending was everything I wanted it to be. This story is a true-to-life portrait of family, showing the ways (unintentional and otherwise) in which we drive each other mad.

And so I’d recommend this book, but I’ve got one reservation: I sort of think it should have been a movie. It was not just the sparseness of Haddon’s prose, but rather the fact that this book didn’t seem to be about language at all. Plot plot plot, which is important and of course I was dying to get to the end, but there was nothing much to savour along the journey. For some people, I think, this isn’t a problem. And it’s not particularly a problem for me either. I certainly don’t subsist on “demanding” books, but I mention in light this novel’s nomination for the 2006 Costa Book Awards and the fact that the shortlist was cited for froth and populism. In the case of this book, I do understand. A Spot of Bother is a good enough novel after all, but there was nothing extraordinary about it. If weren’t for that curious incident awhile back, I don’t know if anyone would have taken much notice of it.

January 4, 2007

Looking back, and ahead

The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography is still ever growing. On bookish guilty pleasures. Forthcoming novels, and I’m looking forward to The Post Birthday World. The year in review so says the Star. And I thought their best of 06 seemed pretty thorough.

Quotidianly speaking, must get laundry out of washer, make shopping list and head out for groceries. We’ve got dinner guests tonight.

January 4, 2007

For the time being

Life for the next three months is going to be like it never will be again. I’m in the final semester of my Creative Writing MA, and all my academic work is done. My job for the next while is to fill empty days with reading and writing, and I’m not sure I’ll be lucky enough to have such freedom again. Though I’ve paid for such freedom, but still, that only makes it a priority. I am enormously grateful for this privilege.

January 3, 2007

Short

I’ve taken a one-week break from my long project to write short stories– two or hopefully three. Concurrently, I’m reading Cathedral and listening to my new Badly Drawn Boy CD for inspiration.

January 2, 2007

A tricky business

Now, chewing gum is a tricky business, and so ultimately disposable and therefore dispensable that in a troubled economy it’s usually one of the first sectors to suffer. I worked in Product Development under Great Mind Peter Davenport who, with his knack for innovation, had been charged with maintaining the vitality of the Gollingham Gum brand throughout the economic down-turn. In addition to typing, my work with Peter involved the chewing of prototypical varieties of gum throughout the day and subsequently completing thorough surveys regarding their tastes, textures and flavours— long lasting or otherwise. I grew awfully fond of the new peppermint, and I credit Peter for saving what was left of the Gollingham economy with it.

January 2, 2007

Francine Prose: Reading Like a Writer

I must recommend Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for people who love books and for those who want to write them as the most practical writing book I’ve ever come across. Prose uses contempory texts and classics to demonstrate effective techniques for developing character, writing dialogue, using details and also taking advantage of structure– word by word, sentence by sentence and with paragraphs. She expounds upon the importance of close reading and supports her emphasis with examples. I learned a lot from her advice– particularly about dialogue. But what I liked best about this book was Prose’s “anything goes” attitude.

For example, you should use long paragraphs, she says. Or short ones. Or none. You should have a consistant point of view. Or ever-changing. Have your narrator die mid-text. Write from the point of view of an amoeba. Don’t tell us what characters look like. Or describe every bit of their apparel. Her contradictory advice is not confusing in the slightest, because each guideline is given in the context of a working example, and as readers we see that different things work in different situations and toward different ends.

Prose believes one learns to write by reading successful works, rather in workshops in which students take on the role of critic towards works which aren’t even developed yet. And, she writes, “Reading can give you the courage to resist all of the pressures that our culture exerts on you to write in a certain way, or to follow a prescribed form.”

I was surprised to find her chapter on reading Chekhov (who I’ve never read) one of my favourite parts of this book. Prose writes of a workshop she was teaching, and the advice she was dispensing, and how as she’d ride the bus home after her class she’d read one of Chekhov’s stories and see him working very effectively against just what she had been advising (that characters musn’t have similar names, that a story must belong to a certain character, that something must be resolved by the story’s end, etc etc). The point of all this, says Prose, is that there are no rules, and a writer only learns this singular rule and how to use it by reading. Carefully.

January 2, 2007

Obit

Philippa Pearce who wrote Tom’s Midnight Garden, one of the seminal works of my childhood.

December 31, 2006

What is left over

Here for Archie Andrews in Vanity Fair. Heather Mallick gives us the saints and standouts of 06. On foresaking the gym for reading poetry. In the Books Blog for on the library debate. By the great Booklust, I was directed to Kimbooktu, which is a books gadget blog! And it’s fantastic. Incidentally, I finished book 172 and am getting through 173 (but it’s not very long). And now I must go and prefer for my New Years Blow Out. Which is not so much of a blow-out, you will probably realize, when I inform you that my first stage of preparation involves baking a carmelized apple cake. But still. The eve promises to be most excellent and bursting with friends.

December 30, 2006

The Monkees – Randy Scouse Git

December 30, 2006

New Goal

My new goal is to get through my life without seeing an image of SH’s corpse. I really am not sure it’s possible but I am going to try my darndest.