A Shooting Star
Oct. 31st, 2016 10:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
todayiamadaisyToday I found out that when the Bureau of Meteorology predicts showers, it means precipitation from a cumulus cloud. Nothing to do with length and severity, which is what I thought. Rain is precipitation from a stratiform cloud. The things you learn.
Today I brought out the ladder and looked at the top shelf of my wardrobe. The top shelf! There is stuff up there since my mother bought this house over twenty years ago. Case in point: an ancient weekend travel bag. I dragged that down to add it to the pile of stuff for charity. But what's this? It was full! I opened it with trepidation: three stuffed toys. That must have been how I carried them in all those years ago. I added them to the charity pile.
That was difficult. I am not a huge fan of stuffed toys, but things with eyes looking at me give me the guilts. I couldn't shut them back in the bag, obviously. They might suffocate. So they sat in their bag like an open-topped convertible and I felt terrible. Then my mother came home and said, "Oh, charity shops will love them, Jan buys them in bulk." Her friend Jan is seventy. What does she do with bulk numbers of stuffed toys? "She buys them for the dogs to rip apart." Oh dear lord. This is too much for the nerves. I'll be glad when I get them out of the house tomorrow. (One of them is a koala that has a joey in its pouch. Going to a dog. I'm traumatised just thinking about that.)
October books read
* Do Not Say We Have Nothing - Madeleine Thien (2016) ★ ★ ★ ★
This is the most Booker Prize-y book so far. Not that that's a bad thing. The book is really good, and would have been my pick for the winner. It's also easily the most enjoyable nominee this year, if a book that features people starving, hanging and being shot can be described as enjoyable. I just mean that if you sat down to write the ultimate Booker nominee, a multi-generational saga of a Chinese-Canadian family from the Cultural Revolution to Tiananmen Square to the 21st century is probably what you'd get.
This book starts in Canada in 1989, with Marie, whose parents are Chinese immigrants. Marie's father has just left; he dies shortly afterwards in Hong Kong. Not long after that, an old family friend rings from China; her daughter, Ai-Ming, is on the run after Tiananmen Square, so she comes and lives with Marie and her mother.
From there the book spirals backwards, as Ai-Ming tells Marie the story of how their fathers met during the Cultural Revolution, and forwards, as grown-up Marie tries to find out what happened to Ai-Ming after she left Canada. It all circles back to 1989, taking us right into the events in Tiananmen Square itself. Everything is connected or reflected in an old manuscript that the characters read, copy, share and add to.
Because it's a Booker Prize-y sort of book, it has Many Themes: the cyclical nature of time; works in progress; our relationship with the past; the relationship between China and the West; having many selves. Book clubs are going to love this.
* All That Man Is - David Szalay (2016) ★ ★ ★
This is the controversial Booker nominee this year, as it's not a novel. It's a collection of short stories about different men. But each man is older than the next, perhaps it is a composite of the life of a man? Oh, the discussions to be had.
I enjoyed how well-written this was, but I can't really say I enjoyed the book itself. The stories were extremely loosely linked (the last man was the grandfather of the first; he also drank wine from the vineyard of one of the others). Each was about a man out of his home life: 17-year-old Simon is an an English student backpacking in Prague, 23-year-old Bérnard is a French labourer on a package holiday in Greece, and so on. They all resent the women in their life. It was a bit depressing.
* Hot Milk - Deborah Levy (2016) ★ ★
In every Booker list, there is one I just don't want to read. And this is this year's. The summary did not appeal, and the book met my expectations. Not a bad book, by any means; just not for me.
This is about 25-year-old Sofia, who has given up her anthropology PhD to look after her mother, Rose, who has a mysterious chronic illness. They have mortgaged their house to go to Spain so Rose can be treated by a specialist, who is quirky. Sofia is irritating, Rose is irritating, the doctor is irritating. They're all irritating. I was bored and irritated.
* Many A True Word - Richard Anthony Baker (2013) ★ ★ ★
New Lady gave me this as a leaving gift, which was kind of her. It's a whistle-stop tour of fun facts about the English language: eponyms, clichés, etc. A couple of times he asserts things about Australian English that I doubt (e.g. "banker" is an Australian word for a river that is close to overflowing, which... I have never heard), which makes me doubt the accuracy of the rest of the book, but other than that quibble, it was fun.
One thing I learnt: the original sweet Fanny Adams was a murdered 8-year-old whose name has come to mean "nothing", which I find very sad.
Today I brought out the ladder and looked at the top shelf of my wardrobe. The top shelf! There is stuff up there since my mother bought this house over twenty years ago. Case in point: an ancient weekend travel bag. I dragged that down to add it to the pile of stuff for charity. But what's this? It was full! I opened it with trepidation: three stuffed toys. That must have been how I carried them in all those years ago. I added them to the charity pile.
That was difficult. I am not a huge fan of stuffed toys, but things with eyes looking at me give me the guilts. I couldn't shut them back in the bag, obviously. They might suffocate. So they sat in their bag like an open-topped convertible and I felt terrible. Then my mother came home and said, "Oh, charity shops will love them, Jan buys them in bulk." Her friend Jan is seventy. What does she do with bulk numbers of stuffed toys? "She buys them for the dogs to rip apart." Oh dear lord. This is too much for the nerves. I'll be glad when I get them out of the house tomorrow. (One of them is a koala that has a joey in its pouch. Going to a dog. I'm traumatised just thinking about that.)
October books read
* Do Not Say We Have Nothing - Madeleine Thien (2016) ★ ★ ★ ★
This is the most Booker Prize-y book so far. Not that that's a bad thing. The book is really good, and would have been my pick for the winner. It's also easily the most enjoyable nominee this year, if a book that features people starving, hanging and being shot can be described as enjoyable. I just mean that if you sat down to write the ultimate Booker nominee, a multi-generational saga of a Chinese-Canadian family from the Cultural Revolution to Tiananmen Square to the 21st century is probably what you'd get.
This book starts in Canada in 1989, with Marie, whose parents are Chinese immigrants. Marie's father has just left; he dies shortly afterwards in Hong Kong. Not long after that, an old family friend rings from China; her daughter, Ai-Ming, is on the run after Tiananmen Square, so she comes and lives with Marie and her mother.
From there the book spirals backwards, as Ai-Ming tells Marie the story of how their fathers met during the Cultural Revolution, and forwards, as grown-up Marie tries to find out what happened to Ai-Ming after she left Canada. It all circles back to 1989, taking us right into the events in Tiananmen Square itself. Everything is connected or reflected in an old manuscript that the characters read, copy, share and add to.
Because it's a Booker Prize-y sort of book, it has Many Themes: the cyclical nature of time; works in progress; our relationship with the past; the relationship between China and the West; having many selves. Book clubs are going to love this.
* All That Man Is - David Szalay (2016) ★ ★ ★
This is the controversial Booker nominee this year, as it's not a novel. It's a collection of short stories about different men. But each man is older than the next, perhaps it is a composite of the life of a man? Oh, the discussions to be had.
I enjoyed how well-written this was, but I can't really say I enjoyed the book itself. The stories were extremely loosely linked (the last man was the grandfather of the first; he also drank wine from the vineyard of one of the others). Each was about a man out of his home life: 17-year-old Simon is an an English student backpacking in Prague, 23-year-old Bérnard is a French labourer on a package holiday in Greece, and so on. They all resent the women in their life. It was a bit depressing.
* Hot Milk - Deborah Levy (2016) ★ ★
In every Booker list, there is one I just don't want to read. And this is this year's. The summary did not appeal, and the book met my expectations. Not a bad book, by any means; just not for me.
This is about 25-year-old Sofia, who has given up her anthropology PhD to look after her mother, Rose, who has a mysterious chronic illness. They have mortgaged their house to go to Spain so Rose can be treated by a specialist, who is quirky. Sofia is irritating, Rose is irritating, the doctor is irritating. They're all irritating. I was bored and irritated.
* Many A True Word - Richard Anthony Baker (2013) ★ ★ ★
New Lady gave me this as a leaving gift, which was kind of her. It's a whistle-stop tour of fun facts about the English language: eponyms, clichés, etc. A couple of times he asserts things about Australian English that I doubt (e.g. "banker" is an Australian word for a river that is close to overflowing, which... I have never heard), which makes me doubt the accuracy of the rest of the book, but other than that quibble, it was fun.
One thing I learnt: the original sweet Fanny Adams was a murdered 8-year-old whose name has come to mean "nothing", which I find very sad.