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lissan's reviews
842 reviews
Jeremy Poldark by Winston Graham
5.0
Poldark series; Ross, Demelza, Jeremy and Warleggan by Winston Graham
Addictive! This is the word to describe what happens when you start reading the first book in this
series. Winston Graham has written historical fiction at its best. Cornwall in the end of the 18th century, where people are mainly depending on the tin and copper mines.
The story starts when Ross, a young man from the higher classes, but without money, comes back after having fought in the American wars. Being rather disillusioned by his experience, he is on his way home. Already in the stage coach he gets news that his father has died. Deciding at the spur of the moment, not to go directly home, but visit his uncle to inquire more about the circumstances, he get his second chock when he learns that his first love, Elizabeth, is to marry his cousin Francis. With these devastating news he goes back to his house, Nampara, where he grew up. It is in an appalling state, and no money to take care of it. However, he is determined to take it back to how it once was. The other part of his inheritance is a couple of mines, where his father already had given up on finding anything. His prospects does not look that good.
I don’t want to reveal too much for you, who are still happy enough, to have the enjoyment of reading the books ahead of you. It is a family saga of the Poldark family, and the people surrounding them. It is a tale of family, love and betrayal, the rich and the poor, the mining business which seemed to have thrived during the time, but now in decline, the miners and their miserable life, but with highlights at times, the people making money on banks and businesses, not always fair, the unrest in France, the smugglers of the Cornwall coast and much more. They just go about their daily life, but Winston Graham has managed to make it into a very exciting and eventful time.
How did he manage? Mainly, I would say, in the narrative. It is written in a cool, almost neutral kind of way, but he still manages to put sparkles on the pages. He tells the story of a number of different kinds of people in a very inspiring way. He lets their life be shadowed by real life events, but otherwise you have the feeling that this is the world as it exists. It is highlighted in all the things that is happening with the mines, the village, the workers, the family situations and is woven into a beautiful ‘piece of cloth’.
The other remarkable thing is the characters he has created. They overtake everything, especially the main characters Ross and Demelza. Even when the story is told with other actors, their characters are lingering over the story. Apart from that, you have the people working in Nampara, Ross’ cousin Francis and his wife Elizabeth, George Warleggan, a newly rich banker who is also in love with Elizabeth, other countryside gentry, the miners and people in the village. After four books they are all you friends. Hmm, maybe not all of them!
Just a few notes on the main characters, which hopefully will not destroy it for anyone else.
Ross is a fantastic romantic character. Strong willed, making friends over the class borders, a natural, thinking of other people (most of the time). He is sometimes a little bit too emotional and lets his anger take the better of him, which puts him in difficult situations. There are times when you don’t like him so much, but he always manage to justify the means in the end.
Demelza is another fantastic character moulded out of a miner’s daughter and coming to Nampara by coincidence. She is the one who makes the longest ‘journey’ over the class borders, and has enough power to overcome the obstacles. Slowly, slowly, she works herself into the confidence of people and they very soon realise, that when she is not there, they miss her.
Francis, is a good natured boy, too kind, too easy to lure into a wrong path. Getting disappointed in his marriage rather early, he starts playing and loosing his money. He always have a minority complex towards Ross.
Elizabeth is beautiful and sensitive. Like a beautiful flower who is there to get admiring looks from men, but will bend with the first wind. It is difficult to understand what the men see in her, but maybe this was the ideal at the time. She is the one most difficult to get a grasp of.
Winston Graham wrote many books, and being so impressed by the way he tells a story, I think it is a must to try some of the rest. The first four books in the Poldark series were written in the fifties. It was only twenty years later, that he continued with the other eight(!) books. I only bought the first four, but I have to admit that I just have to read the others as well. Cannot leave this story without knowing how it will be developed. However, since I tend to get so captivated by the books, and have a lot of other books to read, I will not yet buy the rest! I hope you realise how disciplined I am in this venture?
I have some favourite books when it comes to strong stories and characters. Cathy and Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights, Scarlett and Rhett in Gone With the Wind, and Claire and Jamie in the Outlander series. To this list I can now add Ross and Demelza.
He also wrote Marnie which was a successful Hitchcock film with Sean Connery and Tippi Hedren.
From my blog: thecontentreader.blogspot.com
Addictive! This is the word to describe what happens when you start reading the first book in this
series. Winston Graham has written historical fiction at its best. Cornwall in the end of the 18th century, where people are mainly depending on the tin and copper mines.
The story starts when Ross, a young man from the higher classes, but without money, comes back after having fought in the American wars. Being rather disillusioned by his experience, he is on his way home. Already in the stage coach he gets news that his father has died. Deciding at the spur of the moment, not to go directly home, but visit his uncle to inquire more about the circumstances, he get his second chock when he learns that his first love, Elizabeth, is to marry his cousin Francis. With these devastating news he goes back to his house, Nampara, where he grew up. It is in an appalling state, and no money to take care of it. However, he is determined to take it back to how it once was. The other part of his inheritance is a couple of mines, where his father already had given up on finding anything. His prospects does not look that good.
I don’t want to reveal too much for you, who are still happy enough, to have the enjoyment of reading the books ahead of you. It is a family saga of the Poldark family, and the people surrounding them. It is a tale of family, love and betrayal, the rich and the poor, the mining business which seemed to have thrived during the time, but now in decline, the miners and their miserable life, but with highlights at times, the people making money on banks and businesses, not always fair, the unrest in France, the smugglers of the Cornwall coast and much more. They just go about their daily life, but Winston Graham has managed to make it into a very exciting and eventful time.
How did he manage? Mainly, I would say, in the narrative. It is written in a cool, almost neutral kind of way, but he still manages to put sparkles on the pages. He tells the story of a number of different kinds of people in a very inspiring way. He lets their life be shadowed by real life events, but otherwise you have the feeling that this is the world as it exists. It is highlighted in all the things that is happening with the mines, the village, the workers, the family situations and is woven into a beautiful ‘piece of cloth’.
The other remarkable thing is the characters he has created. They overtake everything, especially the main characters Ross and Demelza. Even when the story is told with other actors, their characters are lingering over the story. Apart from that, you have the people working in Nampara, Ross’ cousin Francis and his wife Elizabeth, George Warleggan, a newly rich banker who is also in love with Elizabeth, other countryside gentry, the miners and people in the village. After four books they are all you friends. Hmm, maybe not all of them!
Just a few notes on the main characters, which hopefully will not destroy it for anyone else.
Ross is a fantastic romantic character. Strong willed, making friends over the class borders, a natural, thinking of other people (most of the time). He is sometimes a little bit too emotional and lets his anger take the better of him, which puts him in difficult situations. There are times when you don’t like him so much, but he always manage to justify the means in the end.
Demelza is another fantastic character moulded out of a miner’s daughter and coming to Nampara by coincidence. She is the one who makes the longest ‘journey’ over the class borders, and has enough power to overcome the obstacles. Slowly, slowly, she works herself into the confidence of people and they very soon realise, that when she is not there, they miss her.
Francis, is a good natured boy, too kind, too easy to lure into a wrong path. Getting disappointed in his marriage rather early, he starts playing and loosing his money. He always have a minority complex towards Ross.
Elizabeth is beautiful and sensitive. Like a beautiful flower who is there to get admiring looks from men, but will bend with the first wind. It is difficult to understand what the men see in her, but maybe this was the ideal at the time. She is the one most difficult to get a grasp of.
Winston Graham wrote many books, and being so impressed by the way he tells a story, I think it is a must to try some of the rest. The first four books in the Poldark series were written in the fifties. It was only twenty years later, that he continued with the other eight(!) books. I only bought the first four, but I have to admit that I just have to read the others as well. Cannot leave this story without knowing how it will be developed. However, since I tend to get so captivated by the books, and have a lot of other books to read, I will not yet buy the rest! I hope you realise how disciplined I am in this venture?
I have some favourite books when it comes to strong stories and characters. Cathy and Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights, Scarlett and Rhett in Gone With the Wind, and Claire and Jamie in the Outlander series. To this list I can now add Ross and Demelza.
He also wrote Marnie which was a successful Hitchcock film with Sean Connery and Tippi Hedren.
From my blog: thecontentreader.blogspot.com
Warleggan by Winston Graham
5.0
Poldark series; Ross, Demelza, Jeremy and Warleggan by Winston Graham
Addictive! This is the word to describe what happens when you start reading the first book in this
series. Winston Graham has written historical fiction at its best. Cornwall in the end of the 18th century, where people are mainly depending on the tin and copper mines.
The story starts when Ross, a young man from the higher classes, but without money, comes back after having fought in the American wars. Being rather disillusioned by his experience, he is on his way home. Already in the stage coach he gets news that his father has died. Deciding at the spur of the moment, not to go directly home, but visit his uncle to inquire more about the circumstances, he get his second chock when he learns that his first love, Elizabeth, is to marry his cousin Francis. With these devastating news he goes back to his house, Nampara, where he grew up. It is in an appalling state, and no money to take care of it. However, he is determined to take it back to how it once was. The other part of his inheritance is a couple of mines, where his father already had given up on finding anything. His prospects does not look that good.
I don’t want to reveal too much for you, who are still happy enough, to have the enjoyment of reading the books ahead of you. It is a family saga of the Poldark family, and the people surrounding them. It is a tale of family, love and betrayal, the rich and the poor, the mining business which seemed to have thrived during the time, but now in decline, the miners and their miserable life, but with highlights at times, the people making money on banks and businesses, not always fair, the unrest in France, the smugglers of the Cornwall coast and much more. They just go about their daily life, but Winston Graham has managed to make it into a very exciting and eventful time.
How did he manage? Mainly, I would say, in the narrative. It is written in a cool, almost neutral kind of way, but he still manages to put sparkles on the pages. He tells the story of a number of different kinds of people in a very inspiring way. He lets their life be shadowed by real life events, but otherwise you have the feeling that this is the world as it exists. It is highlighted in all the things that is happening with the mines, the village, the workers, the family situations and is woven into a beautiful ‘piece of cloth’.
The other remarkable thing is the characters he has created. They overtake everything, especially the main characters Ross and Demelza. Even when the story is told with other actors, their characters are lingering over the story. Apart from that, you have the people working in Nampara, Ross’ cousin Francis and his wife Elizabeth, George Warleggan, a newly rich banker who is also in love with Elizabeth, other countryside gentry, the miners and people in the village. After four books they are all you friends. Hmm, maybe not all of them!
Just a few notes on the main characters, which hopefully will not destroy it for anyone else.
Ross is a fantastic romantic character. Strong willed, making friends over the class borders, a natural, thinking of other people (most of the time). He is sometimes a little bit too emotional and lets his anger take the better of him, which puts him in difficult situations. There are times when you don’t like him so much, but he always manage to justify the means in the end.
Demelza is another fantastic character moulded out of a miner’s daughter and coming to Nampara by coincidence. She is the one who makes the longest ‘journey’ over the class borders, and has enough power to overcome the obstacles. Slowly, slowly, she works herself into the confidence of people and they very soon realise, that when she is not there, they miss her.
Francis, is a good natured boy, too kind, too easy to lure into a wrong path. Getting disappointed in his marriage rather early, he starts playing and loosing his money. He always have a minority complex towards Ross.
Elizabeth is beautiful and sensitive. Like a beautiful flower who is there to get admiring looks from men, but will bend with the first wind. It is difficult to understand what the men see in her, but maybe this was the ideal at the time. She is the one most difficult to get a grasp of.
Winston Graham wrote many books, and being so impressed by the way he tells a story, I think it is a must to try some of the rest. The first four books in the Poldark series were written in the fifties. It was only twenty years later, that he continued with the other eight(!) books. I only bought the first four, but I have to admit that I just have to read the others as well. Cannot leave this story without knowing how it will be developed. However, since I tend to get so captivated by the books, and have a lot of other books to read, I will not yet buy the rest! I hope you realise how disciplined I am in this venture?
I have some favourite books when it comes to strong stories and characters. Cathy and Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights, Scarlett and Rhett in Gone With the Wind, and Claire and Jamie in the Outlander series. To this list I can now add Ross and Demelza.
He also wrote Marnie which was a successful Hitchcock film with Sean Connery and Tippi Hedren.
From my blog: thecontentreader.blogspot.com
Addictive! This is the word to describe what happens when you start reading the first book in this
series. Winston Graham has written historical fiction at its best. Cornwall in the end of the 18th century, where people are mainly depending on the tin and copper mines.
The story starts when Ross, a young man from the higher classes, but without money, comes back after having fought in the American wars. Being rather disillusioned by his experience, he is on his way home. Already in the stage coach he gets news that his father has died. Deciding at the spur of the moment, not to go directly home, but visit his uncle to inquire more about the circumstances, he get his second chock when he learns that his first love, Elizabeth, is to marry his cousin Francis. With these devastating news he goes back to his house, Nampara, where he grew up. It is in an appalling state, and no money to take care of it. However, he is determined to take it back to how it once was. The other part of his inheritance is a couple of mines, where his father already had given up on finding anything. His prospects does not look that good.
I don’t want to reveal too much for you, who are still happy enough, to have the enjoyment of reading the books ahead of you. It is a family saga of the Poldark family, and the people surrounding them. It is a tale of family, love and betrayal, the rich and the poor, the mining business which seemed to have thrived during the time, but now in decline, the miners and their miserable life, but with highlights at times, the people making money on banks and businesses, not always fair, the unrest in France, the smugglers of the Cornwall coast and much more. They just go about their daily life, but Winston Graham has managed to make it into a very exciting and eventful time.
How did he manage? Mainly, I would say, in the narrative. It is written in a cool, almost neutral kind of way, but he still manages to put sparkles on the pages. He tells the story of a number of different kinds of people in a very inspiring way. He lets their life be shadowed by real life events, but otherwise you have the feeling that this is the world as it exists. It is highlighted in all the things that is happening with the mines, the village, the workers, the family situations and is woven into a beautiful ‘piece of cloth’.
The other remarkable thing is the characters he has created. They overtake everything, especially the main characters Ross and Demelza. Even when the story is told with other actors, their characters are lingering over the story. Apart from that, you have the people working in Nampara, Ross’ cousin Francis and his wife Elizabeth, George Warleggan, a newly rich banker who is also in love with Elizabeth, other countryside gentry, the miners and people in the village. After four books they are all you friends. Hmm, maybe not all of them!
Just a few notes on the main characters, which hopefully will not destroy it for anyone else.
Ross is a fantastic romantic character. Strong willed, making friends over the class borders, a natural, thinking of other people (most of the time). He is sometimes a little bit too emotional and lets his anger take the better of him, which puts him in difficult situations. There are times when you don’t like him so much, but he always manage to justify the means in the end.
Demelza is another fantastic character moulded out of a miner’s daughter and coming to Nampara by coincidence. She is the one who makes the longest ‘journey’ over the class borders, and has enough power to overcome the obstacles. Slowly, slowly, she works herself into the confidence of people and they very soon realise, that when she is not there, they miss her.
Francis, is a good natured boy, too kind, too easy to lure into a wrong path. Getting disappointed in his marriage rather early, he starts playing and loosing his money. He always have a minority complex towards Ross.
Elizabeth is beautiful and sensitive. Like a beautiful flower who is there to get admiring looks from men, but will bend with the first wind. It is difficult to understand what the men see in her, but maybe this was the ideal at the time. She is the one most difficult to get a grasp of.
Winston Graham wrote many books, and being so impressed by the way he tells a story, I think it is a must to try some of the rest. The first four books in the Poldark series were written in the fifties. It was only twenty years later, that he continued with the other eight(!) books. I only bought the first four, but I have to admit that I just have to read the others as well. Cannot leave this story without knowing how it will be developed. However, since I tend to get so captivated by the books, and have a lot of other books to read, I will not yet buy the rest! I hope you realise how disciplined I am in this venture?
I have some favourite books when it comes to strong stories and characters. Cathy and Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights, Scarlett and Rhett in Gone With the Wind, and Claire and Jamie in the Outlander series. To this list I can now add Ross and Demelza.
He also wrote Marnie which was a successful Hitchcock film with Sean Connery and Tippi Hedren.
From my blog: thecontentreader.blogspot.com
The Book of Salt by Monique Truong
3.0
I got, or grabbed, this book at the “Bookswapping Club” event last month. It is about a Vietnamese cook working for Gertrud Stein and Alice B. Toklas and takes place in the end of 1920s, beginning of 1930s. Seemed like a perfect book to read for the Paris in July activity. Here is what it says on the back cover:
Paris, 1934, Binh has accompanied his employers to the station for their departure to America. His own destination is unclear: will he go with his ‘Mesdames’, stay in France, or return to his native Vietnam? Binh fled his homeland in disgrace, leaving behind his malevolent charlatan of a father and his self-sacrificing mother. For five years, he has been the personal cook at the famous apartment on the rue de Fleurus. Binh is a lost soul, an exile and an alien, a man of musings, memories and possibly lies…Tastes, oceans, sweat, tears - The Book of Salt is an inspired novel about food and exile, love and betrayal.
I did a little bit of research on the internet, since my first thought was that it was a historical fiction about a true person and his life. After reading the book I got a little bit doubtful. I found an article from The New York Times and there it tells us that Stein and Toklas did employ several cooks, and one of them was a Vietnamese man named Trac. It is all mentioned in The Alice B. Toklas Cook Book. From this line in the book the American-Vietnamese writer Monique Truong has based her story.
Binh is the man’s name in the book. He has to, more or less, flee from his home. He gets on a boat and ends up in Marseille, from where he travels to Paris. He take the odd jobs until one day he finds an add in the paper:
LIVE-IN COOK
Two American ladies wish
to retain a cook - 27 rue de
Fleurus. See the concierge
He applies for the job and gets it. The two ladies are Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas. Through the eyes of Binh we get a glimpse of their life. It is Alice Toklas that takes care of the cooking and she has a clear idea how it should be done. There are a lot of descriptions of food in the book, and you get hungry from time to time. I have even noted a small tip on how to make a crème brulée taste extraordinary!
Through backward glances Binh tells us his story; his early life in Vietnam, about his alcoholic, catholic father, his long suffering mother, his three brothers, his first work at the General Governor’s office and his acquaintance with the cook, who become his lover. It is when his father finds out that Binh is homosexual that he asks him to leave the house and never come back. He is a man with an open mind, so wherever he is, he makes interesting acquaintances. For example; ‘The Man on the Bridge’ and ‘The Sunday Man’. He gives the people he meets specific names. Mostly because he either don’t know their real name or is unable to pronounce it. According to Wikipedia, the man on the bridge could be Ho Chi Minh, who spent some time in Paris during this time. Binh enters into a relationship with the Sunday man (so-called because they meet on Sundays when Binh has a day off). He is a mulatto iridologist (they practise alternative medicin and says they can tell your illnesses by looking in your iris). They have a special relationship, which ends in an unexpected way.
Binh works for Stein and Toklas for five years, both in the flat in Paris and in their country house in Bilignin. The life in the country house is very different from the life in Paris. Binh makes friends in the neighbourhood and gets a taste for the local wine. In 1934 Stein and Toklas travel to the States for a lecturing tour and Binh’s employment is over. The book leaves Binh as he entered; on his own, still looking for his own life.
I don’t really know what to think about this book. The story is very interesting, especially the Vietnamese part which very well describes (I think) the life of ordinary, poor people at the time. Also the various people Binh meets on his way are very well described and well characterised. The prose is very beautiful, almost like poetry, and there is where I have a problem. First of all, it is not entirely realistic that this poor cook should have all these, really philosophical ideas and thoughts, about everything in life. Secondly, the story goes back and forth, and when you are ‘back’ there are still side directions to this story. The diversions are so often and so many, so you tend to loose direction of the main story.
The food is very well described in the book. Even the simplest thing, sounds like poetry and is so beautifully described that you are tempted to try out everything. Binh has a lovely way to name food or fruits or similar, due to his bad French.
“Madame, I want to buy a pear…not a pear.”
Miss Toklas looked at me, recognition absent from her eyes.
I, yes, lost the French word for “pineapple” the moment I opened my mouth. Departing at their will, the words of this language mock me with their impromptu absences. When I am alone, they offer themselves to me, loose change in a shallow pocket, but as soon as I reach for one I spill the others. This has happened to me many times before. At least I now know what to do, I thought. I repeated my question, but this time I had my hands on top of my head, with only the bottom of my palms touching my hair. My fingers were spread like two erect, partially opened fans. Complete with my crown, I stood in front of my new Madame and Madame the embodiment of “a-pear-not-a-pear.” I remember seeing GertrudeStein smile. Already, my Madame was amusing herself with my French. She was wrapping my words around her tongue, saving them for a later, more careful study of their mutations.”
This is also an example on how a simple thing like trying to make yourself understood, extends into ‘poetic’ words and sentences, but at the same time takes the text to a higher level. It would be fine if it was here and there, but the whole book is like this, and I found it quite tiresome to read. Although, having said that, I never thought of not finishing the book. It is quite fascinating, a story told in a different way. It shows Paris from a another angle; from the view of a Vietnamese foreigner, homosexual at a time when this was very difficult, without work, without prospects, but he still have to survive somehow. He has one skill on which he used to bet to earn some money when times were hard. Having walked all around Paris, he knew all the streets. Anyone could say a street name and he could say in which area it was.
From my book blog thecontentreader.blogspot.com
Paris, 1934, Binh has accompanied his employers to the station for their departure to America. His own destination is unclear: will he go with his ‘Mesdames’, stay in France, or return to his native Vietnam? Binh fled his homeland in disgrace, leaving behind his malevolent charlatan of a father and his self-sacrificing mother. For five years, he has been the personal cook at the famous apartment on the rue de Fleurus. Binh is a lost soul, an exile and an alien, a man of musings, memories and possibly lies…Tastes, oceans, sweat, tears - The Book of Salt is an inspired novel about food and exile, love and betrayal.
I did a little bit of research on the internet, since my first thought was that it was a historical fiction about a true person and his life. After reading the book I got a little bit doubtful. I found an article from The New York Times and there it tells us that Stein and Toklas did employ several cooks, and one of them was a Vietnamese man named Trac. It is all mentioned in The Alice B. Toklas Cook Book. From this line in the book the American-Vietnamese writer Monique Truong has based her story.
Binh is the man’s name in the book. He has to, more or less, flee from his home. He gets on a boat and ends up in Marseille, from where he travels to Paris. He take the odd jobs until one day he finds an add in the paper:
LIVE-IN COOK
Two American ladies wish
to retain a cook - 27 rue de
Fleurus. See the concierge
He applies for the job and gets it. The two ladies are Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas. Through the eyes of Binh we get a glimpse of their life. It is Alice Toklas that takes care of the cooking and she has a clear idea how it should be done. There are a lot of descriptions of food in the book, and you get hungry from time to time. I have even noted a small tip on how to make a crème brulée taste extraordinary!
Through backward glances Binh tells us his story; his early life in Vietnam, about his alcoholic, catholic father, his long suffering mother, his three brothers, his first work at the General Governor’s office and his acquaintance with the cook, who become his lover. It is when his father finds out that Binh is homosexual that he asks him to leave the house and never come back. He is a man with an open mind, so wherever he is, he makes interesting acquaintances. For example; ‘The Man on the Bridge’ and ‘The Sunday Man’. He gives the people he meets specific names. Mostly because he either don’t know their real name or is unable to pronounce it. According to Wikipedia, the man on the bridge could be Ho Chi Minh, who spent some time in Paris during this time. Binh enters into a relationship with the Sunday man (so-called because they meet on Sundays when Binh has a day off). He is a mulatto iridologist (they practise alternative medicin and says they can tell your illnesses by looking in your iris). They have a special relationship, which ends in an unexpected way.
Binh works for Stein and Toklas for five years, both in the flat in Paris and in their country house in Bilignin. The life in the country house is very different from the life in Paris. Binh makes friends in the neighbourhood and gets a taste for the local wine. In 1934 Stein and Toklas travel to the States for a lecturing tour and Binh’s employment is over. The book leaves Binh as he entered; on his own, still looking for his own life.
I don’t really know what to think about this book. The story is very interesting, especially the Vietnamese part which very well describes (I think) the life of ordinary, poor people at the time. Also the various people Binh meets on his way are very well described and well characterised. The prose is very beautiful, almost like poetry, and there is where I have a problem. First of all, it is not entirely realistic that this poor cook should have all these, really philosophical ideas and thoughts, about everything in life. Secondly, the story goes back and forth, and when you are ‘back’ there are still side directions to this story. The diversions are so often and so many, so you tend to loose direction of the main story.
The food is very well described in the book. Even the simplest thing, sounds like poetry and is so beautifully described that you are tempted to try out everything. Binh has a lovely way to name food or fruits or similar, due to his bad French.
“Madame, I want to buy a pear…not a pear.”
Miss Toklas looked at me, recognition absent from her eyes.
I, yes, lost the French word for “pineapple” the moment I opened my mouth. Departing at their will, the words of this language mock me with their impromptu absences. When I am alone, they offer themselves to me, loose change in a shallow pocket, but as soon as I reach for one I spill the others. This has happened to me many times before. At least I now know what to do, I thought. I repeated my question, but this time I had my hands on top of my head, with only the bottom of my palms touching my hair. My fingers were spread like two erect, partially opened fans. Complete with my crown, I stood in front of my new Madame and Madame the embodiment of “a-pear-not-a-pear.” I remember seeing GertrudeStein smile. Already, my Madame was amusing herself with my French. She was wrapping my words around her tongue, saving them for a later, more careful study of their mutations.”
This is also an example on how a simple thing like trying to make yourself understood, extends into ‘poetic’ words and sentences, but at the same time takes the text to a higher level. It would be fine if it was here and there, but the whole book is like this, and I found it quite tiresome to read. Although, having said that, I never thought of not finishing the book. It is quite fascinating, a story told in a different way. It shows Paris from a another angle; from the view of a Vietnamese foreigner, homosexual at a time when this was very difficult, without work, without prospects, but he still have to survive somehow. He has one skill on which he used to bet to earn some money when times were hard. Having walked all around Paris, he knew all the streets. Anyone could say a street name and he could say in which area it was.
From my book blog thecontentreader.blogspot.com
Birdsong: A Novel of Love and War by Sebastian Faulks
5.0
At a time Sebastian Faulks' name turned up everywhere around me. Obviously, I bought one of his books. It has since been decorating my TBR shelves. My first encounter with this writer just asks for more. Birdsong is a wonderful book on all accounts. It starts out very romantically with Stephen Wraysford coming to France on behalf of his employers in 1910, to see how a factory works, from which they buy material for their clothes. He stays with the owner and his family and it is not long before he falls in love with the wife, Isabelle. This happens rather early on, so I think I don't spoil anything here.
He thought of Isabelle's open, loving face; he thought of the pulse of her, that concealed rhythm of her desire that expressed her strange humanity. He remembered Lisette's flushed, flirtatious look and the way she had taken his hand and placed it on her body. That day of charged emotion seemed as unreal and bizarre as the afternoon that was now taking them across the field to the reserve trenches.
The other parts of the book are concentrated on the years of the First World War. The horrendous times that the soldiers had, on both sides, but concentrating her on Wraysford and his fellow soldiers. It is so well written and told that you are there with the men. This is yet another good, and I presume, realistic story on the terrors of wars in general, and this war in particular. It is difficult to imagine how anyone survived the trenches and the fights. Faulks also relates and makes us understand how these men would never, ever again be able to live a normal life with their families and loved ones.
'As they rounded a corner, he saw two dozen men, naked to the waist, digging a hole thirty yards square at the side of the path. For a moment he was baffled. It seemed to have no agricultural purpose; there was no more planting or ploughing to be done. Then he realized what it was. They were digging a mass grave. He thought of shouting an order to about turn or at least to avert their eyes, but they were almost on it, and some of them had already seen their burial place. The songs died on their lips and the air was reclaimed by the birds.
Woven into the war parts we meet Elizabeth Benson in 1978, a woman closing in on forty, still single, but having an affair with a married man, who promises to divorce his wife, and marry her. It is a time when she starts reflecting on her life. As we get to know her we also go back through her family history. Her wish to search for the grandfather she never knew, takes her into contact with some survivors of the war, and changes her way of looking at life.'
'It was like a resurrection in a cemetery twelve miles long. Bent, agonized shapes loomed in multitudes on the churned earth, limping and dragging back to reclaim their life. It was as though the land were disgorging a generation of crippled sleepers, each one distinct but related to its twisted brothers as they teemed up from the reluctant earth.
Weir was shaking.'It's all right,' said Stephen. 'The guns have stopped.'
'It's not that,' said Wier. 'It's the noise. Can't you hear it?'
Stephen had noticed nothing but the silence that followed the guns. Now, as he listened, he could hear what Weir had meant: it was a low, continuous moaning. He could not make out any individual pain, but the sound ran down to the river on their left and up over the hill for half a mile or more. As his ear became used to the absence of guns, Stephen could hear it more clearly: it sounded to him as though the earth itself was groaning. '
It is a beautifully written book, even the ugly parts are written with respect and realism, and Sebastian Faulks does not shy away from the nasty bits. Sometimes, it was really hard to read. Mixed with this are the various stories of his relationships, the difficulties of handling them and the beauty of his love for Isabelle. The hardship of the trenches, the way the soldiers lived and the almost inhuman challenges they were put up to, make you reflect on how much a human being actually can take. As Stephen wrote in one of his diaries:
'I do not know what I have done to live in this existence.
I do not know what any of us did to tilt the world into this unnatural orbit. We came here only for a few months.
No child or future generation will ever know what this was like. They will never understand.
When it is over we will go quietly among the living and we will not tell them.
We will talk and sleep and go about our business like human beings.
We will seal what we have seen in the silence of our hearts and no words will reach us.'
It is in a way a very sad book. There are so many aspects of life, for the soldiers and their families at home. Can love survive in times like these? Is there anything to live for after such an experience? I value this book on the same account as All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque (my review here) and The Long Long Way by Sebastian Barry. Both very different books on the same topic. Sebastian Faulks' book makes you consider the questions of life, love and death, and in a beautiful prose, as you can see from the various extracts above. Highly recommended.
He thought of Isabelle's open, loving face; he thought of the pulse of her, that concealed rhythm of her desire that expressed her strange humanity. He remembered Lisette's flushed, flirtatious look and the way she had taken his hand and placed it on her body. That day of charged emotion seemed as unreal and bizarre as the afternoon that was now taking them across the field to the reserve trenches.
The other parts of the book are concentrated on the years of the First World War. The horrendous times that the soldiers had, on both sides, but concentrating her on Wraysford and his fellow soldiers. It is so well written and told that you are there with the men. This is yet another good, and I presume, realistic story on the terrors of wars in general, and this war in particular. It is difficult to imagine how anyone survived the trenches and the fights. Faulks also relates and makes us understand how these men would never, ever again be able to live a normal life with their families and loved ones.
'As they rounded a corner, he saw two dozen men, naked to the waist, digging a hole thirty yards square at the side of the path. For a moment he was baffled. It seemed to have no agricultural purpose; there was no more planting or ploughing to be done. Then he realized what it was. They were digging a mass grave. He thought of shouting an order to about turn or at least to avert their eyes, but they were almost on it, and some of them had already seen their burial place. The songs died on their lips and the air was reclaimed by the birds.
Woven into the war parts we meet Elizabeth Benson in 1978, a woman closing in on forty, still single, but having an affair with a married man, who promises to divorce his wife, and marry her. It is a time when she starts reflecting on her life. As we get to know her we also go back through her family history. Her wish to search for the grandfather she never knew, takes her into contact with some survivors of the war, and changes her way of looking at life.'
'It was like a resurrection in a cemetery twelve miles long. Bent, agonized shapes loomed in multitudes on the churned earth, limping and dragging back to reclaim their life. It was as though the land were disgorging a generation of crippled sleepers, each one distinct but related to its twisted brothers as they teemed up from the reluctant earth.
Weir was shaking.'It's all right,' said Stephen. 'The guns have stopped.'
'It's not that,' said Wier. 'It's the noise. Can't you hear it?'
Stephen had noticed nothing but the silence that followed the guns. Now, as he listened, he could hear what Weir had meant: it was a low, continuous moaning. He could not make out any individual pain, but the sound ran down to the river on their left and up over the hill for half a mile or more. As his ear became used to the absence of guns, Stephen could hear it more clearly: it sounded to him as though the earth itself was groaning. '
It is a beautifully written book, even the ugly parts are written with respect and realism, and Sebastian Faulks does not shy away from the nasty bits. Sometimes, it was really hard to read. Mixed with this are the various stories of his relationships, the difficulties of handling them and the beauty of his love for Isabelle. The hardship of the trenches, the way the soldiers lived and the almost inhuman challenges they were put up to, make you reflect on how much a human being actually can take. As Stephen wrote in one of his diaries:
'I do not know what I have done to live in this existence.
I do not know what any of us did to tilt the world into this unnatural orbit. We came here only for a few months.
No child or future generation will ever know what this was like. They will never understand.
When it is over we will go quietly among the living and we will not tell them.
We will talk and sleep and go about our business like human beings.
We will seal what we have seen in the silence of our hearts and no words will reach us.'
It is in a way a very sad book. There are so many aspects of life, for the soldiers and their families at home. Can love survive in times like these? Is there anything to live for after such an experience? I value this book on the same account as All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque (my review here) and The Long Long Way by Sebastian Barry. Both very different books on the same topic. Sebastian Faulks' book makes you consider the questions of life, love and death, and in a beautiful prose, as you can see from the various extracts above. Highly recommended.