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Lovers in Paradise
Apr. 30th, 2013 10:03 amA headline today: Woman's death a warning on the dangers of squats, which I initially thought boded ill for people trying to tone their thighs. It turned out to be about housing, though.
April's books:
* The Manticore - Robertson Davies
* World of Wonders - Robertson Davies
* Dido and Pa - Joan Aiken
* Miss Buncle's Book - DE Stevenson
* Twelve Days of Christmas - Trisha Ashley
* Is - Joan Aiken
* Cold Shoulder Road - Joan Aiken
* The Little Book of Talent - Daniel Coyle
This month I read two completely unrelated books featuring main characters called Eisengrim. So that was special.
The first Eisengrim was one of the main characters in Robertson Davies' Deptford Trilogy, which I started last month with Fifth Business and completed this month with The Manticore and World of Wonders. I don't think I praised Fifth Business last month as much as I should have, because it was excellent. It stands alone as a complete story, but I'm not sure the other two would make any sense to anyone who hadn't read it first.
The trilogy is the story of three boys born in the same small Canadian town in the early 1900s, and revolves around the question 'who killed Boy Staunton?'. The first book tells the life story of Dunstan Ramsay, World War I veteran and history teacher; the second fills in the gaps about Dunstan's lifelong sort-of friend, Boy Staunton, a jaunty industrialist and friend of Edward VIII; the third completes the story with the life of a third boy, Magnus Eisengrim, master illusionist. Eisengrim was the last person to see Boy, so his story is supposed to be the definitive version of what happened, but, fittingly for a master illusionist, he's the most unreliable of the narrators, so it remains ambiguous. I didn't enjoy Eisengrim's tale as much as the other two; while Dunstan and Boy are believable characters, Eisengrim's awful childhood and adult success are a little over the top - but that's kind of fitting, since in the first book, Dunstan ghostwrites a fictional autobiography for Eisengrim, and there's a sense that the third book is Eisengrim writing another fictional autobiography. It's all very clever and meaty.
Anyway, I highly recommend Fifth Business, and if you like that, you'll probably like the others too. I did.
( The second Eisengrim of April, and boo, Christmas )
April's books:
* The Manticore - Robertson Davies
* World of Wonders - Robertson Davies
* Dido and Pa - Joan Aiken
* Miss Buncle's Book - DE Stevenson
* Twelve Days of Christmas - Trisha Ashley
* Is - Joan Aiken
* Cold Shoulder Road - Joan Aiken
* The Little Book of Talent - Daniel Coyle
This month I read two completely unrelated books featuring main characters called Eisengrim. So that was special.
The first Eisengrim was one of the main characters in Robertson Davies' Deptford Trilogy, which I started last month with Fifth Business and completed this month with The Manticore and World of Wonders. I don't think I praised Fifth Business last month as much as I should have, because it was excellent. It stands alone as a complete story, but I'm not sure the other two would make any sense to anyone who hadn't read it first.
The trilogy is the story of three boys born in the same small Canadian town in the early 1900s, and revolves around the question 'who killed Boy Staunton?'. The first book tells the life story of Dunstan Ramsay, World War I veteran and history teacher; the second fills in the gaps about Dunstan's lifelong sort-of friend, Boy Staunton, a jaunty industrialist and friend of Edward VIII; the third completes the story with the life of a third boy, Magnus Eisengrim, master illusionist. Eisengrim was the last person to see Boy, so his story is supposed to be the definitive version of what happened, but, fittingly for a master illusionist, he's the most unreliable of the narrators, so it remains ambiguous. I didn't enjoy Eisengrim's tale as much as the other two; while Dunstan and Boy are believable characters, Eisengrim's awful childhood and adult success are a little over the top - but that's kind of fitting, since in the first book, Dunstan ghostwrites a fictional autobiography for Eisengrim, and there's a sense that the third book is Eisengrim writing another fictional autobiography. It's all very clever and meaty.
Anyway, I highly recommend Fifth Business, and if you like that, you'll probably like the others too. I did.
( The second Eisengrim of April, and boo, Christmas )