I bought myself a Christmas present at Exclusives yesterday, something I have been wanting for a while. The complete Simon Gray Diaries. Well, I only bought two, the first two, and I'm well into the first, reading very slowly. What fulsome, light, anacoluthic writing! If anyone is in doubt about the meaning of that word, read Simon Gray's Smoking Diaries. The pages are full of pauses, dashes, changes of direction, shifts of feeling, laugh out loud bits, reflective pauses. Oh it's good. There are only four, so I will buy the last two in a while. Sadly, the final one, called Coda, is posthumous. He died earlier this year (I think). Remember the play Butley? That's the man.
BTW, I know it's Christmas and holidays but really girls, don't you ever go onto your computers for fun? Not one comment. Not one response. V disappointing.
Pups are a week old, eyes tight shut, enormous monsters each one of them and looking more like German Shepherds by the day.
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Monday, December 15, 2008
whelping and other matters
I know this has nothing to do with books or anacoluthons (well maybe I could make this somewhat anacoluthon like?) but I must tell you about Monday night 15 December. Spot on target, Nanuq created the most beautiful whelping spot complete with antechamber and secret hideaway. Only problem was that it was in the dam. So we persuaded her to abandon it (feeling very guilty and rather like a weaver's wife, you know the kind, rejecting nest after nest?) and she dropped first pup on Steve's bed, on top of expensive African cloth bed cover. Ah well.
This was 8pm. Next one was 8.40. Then we waited. And waited. Self rang the Fourways Veterinary Hospital. What to do? A gentle male voice told me not to worry. If there were more pups, she would push. Which she did, at 11.30 while we were secretly rejoicing that there were only two pups to look after. And so it went, throughout the night. Do all Alaskan Malamutes take hours between deliveries?
Last two were between 2.15 and 2.50 am by which time, I collapsed onto Steve's bed with torch in hand and tried to sleep between squeaks, getting up frequently to change the hotwater bottle.
Several females, all very dark. A few males, ashy coloured. Life is good if a little wearying.
This was 8pm. Next one was 8.40. Then we waited. And waited. Self rang the Fourways Veterinary Hospital. What to do? A gentle male voice told me not to worry. If there were more pups, she would push. Which she did, at 11.30 while we were secretly rejoicing that there were only two pups to look after. And so it went, throughout the night. Do all Alaskan Malamutes take hours between deliveries?
Last two were between 2.15 and 2.50 am by which time, I collapsed onto Steve's bed with torch in hand and tried to sleep between squeaks, getting up frequently to change the hotwater bottle.
Several females, all very dark. A few males, ashy coloured. Life is good if a little wearying.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Finished White Tiger
Right! I have just finished reading the Booker prize winner White Tiger. Not a comfortable read. Not, in my opinion, a prizewinner. A very surprising choice as so many reviews have noted. However, it is very worthwhile reading. It begins on a light note and I settled in very quickly with that wonderful Indian humour. But the book darkens towards the middle and by the end it wasn't pleasant. I was pleased it was over this morning. All this shouldn't put you off reading it. It goes like greased lightning.
It is really a book about servitude which was why it made me feel so uncomfortable. Written from the point of view of a successful entrepreneur who broke out of the prison of servanthood.
I'm really not sure what I think about this book. But I would really like it if everyone read it (she said bossily) so we could talk about it.
It is really a book about servitude which was why it made me feel so uncomfortable. Written from the point of view of a successful entrepreneur who broke out of the prison of servanthood.
I'm really not sure what I think about this book. But I would really like it if everyone read it (she said bossily) so we could talk about it.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Starting over with a new name
Ladies of power, let's begin. This is our new blog as I gave up on last one. Couldn't work out how to begin a new post. Anyway, we have expanded our brains since the last postings begun in June 2008 and are now professional anacoluthons, not so?
Let's record our reading on this blog as we go so that our monthly bookclub meetings can be for catching up on news, sharing, eating and drinking.
Right! As soon as I got home from Tracy's I started Zoe Heller's The Believers. This is the author of Notes on a Scandal, now made into a rather good movie which you can watch on DVD. The Believers begins in London in 1962 with a young woman who seems cut off from the world and rather shy but who, as the novel progresses, becomes one of the most awful woman in literary fiction. Heller does this rather well, vide the ageing lesbian teacher in Notes on a Scandal. She, Audrey that is, in The Believers (the awful woman) marries a man she hardly knows, lands up in America, and dominates the novel since poor old husband is in a coma for the rest of the plot. But his secret history emerges in the form of an unknown affair and a child and the rest I'll leave to you. I would rate this around 7/10. Not absolutely fabulous but interesting and readable.
Then I read Eileen's book, Chasing Daylight: How my forthcoming death transformed my life. Interesting how books cluster together periodically along the same fault lines. I had recently read Randy Pausch's The Last Lecture so could compare that with this. What I found interesting was that this man was faithful to his personality type until his death. He might be labelled a boring accountant because he set about ordering his death and the family's affairs with amazing tenacity. But the centre of the book is his plan to have one "unwinding" session with each of the people in his life and that turned out to be quite a few. During this "unwinding" session, he would focus on the one perfect moment he had with each of these people. This was his way of saying goodbye and sharing the different kinds of relationships he had with different people. I can see Karen's toes starting to curl at this point, but it's a thoughtful book on a thoughtful theme and I liked it.
But my number one is Tim Winton's Breath. It is quite magnificent written in a new fresh style and with such a light touch. It's basically about surfing which is hardly a topic that would attract me but with such fine descriptions of the ongoing relationship between humans and the sea that I found myself gasping at times (literally holding my breath) and recalling times when I had been dumped by a vicious wave, being rasped by the sand at the bottom of the sea, being terrified of being swept against the rocks and so on. Besides the power of his words, this book also holds together like a poem. At first, one doesn't understand the relevance of the opening scene of the "suicide" of a teenager, but by the end, the meaning of 'breath' is perfectly clear.
i can't do justice to this book but read it. This is major new talent.
OK. I have Agaat to look forward to and the new Wally Lamb which I couldn't resist buying as there it was in Exclusives, asking me to take it to the checkout counter. I could hardly refuse. It's called The Hour I First Believed and it's 728 pages. Typical Lamb pattern. Huge, unputdownable books. Can't wait.
Let's record our reading on this blog as we go so that our monthly bookclub meetings can be for catching up on news, sharing, eating and drinking.
Right! As soon as I got home from Tracy's I started Zoe Heller's The Believers. This is the author of Notes on a Scandal, now made into a rather good movie which you can watch on DVD. The Believers begins in London in 1962 with a young woman who seems cut off from the world and rather shy but who, as the novel progresses, becomes one of the most awful woman in literary fiction. Heller does this rather well, vide the ageing lesbian teacher in Notes on a Scandal. She, Audrey that is, in The Believers (the awful woman) marries a man she hardly knows, lands up in America, and dominates the novel since poor old husband is in a coma for the rest of the plot. But his secret history emerges in the form of an unknown affair and a child and the rest I'll leave to you. I would rate this around 7/10. Not absolutely fabulous but interesting and readable.
Then I read Eileen's book, Chasing Daylight: How my forthcoming death transformed my life. Interesting how books cluster together periodically along the same fault lines. I had recently read Randy Pausch's The Last Lecture so could compare that with this. What I found interesting was that this man was faithful to his personality type until his death. He might be labelled a boring accountant because he set about ordering his death and the family's affairs with amazing tenacity. But the centre of the book is his plan to have one "unwinding" session with each of the people in his life and that turned out to be quite a few. During this "unwinding" session, he would focus on the one perfect moment he had with each of these people. This was his way of saying goodbye and sharing the different kinds of relationships he had with different people. I can see Karen's toes starting to curl at this point, but it's a thoughtful book on a thoughtful theme and I liked it.
But my number one is Tim Winton's Breath. It is quite magnificent written in a new fresh style and with such a light touch. It's basically about surfing which is hardly a topic that would attract me but with such fine descriptions of the ongoing relationship between humans and the sea that I found myself gasping at times (literally holding my breath) and recalling times when I had been dumped by a vicious wave, being rasped by the sand at the bottom of the sea, being terrified of being swept against the rocks and so on. Besides the power of his words, this book also holds together like a poem. At first, one doesn't understand the relevance of the opening scene of the "suicide" of a teenager, but by the end, the meaning of 'breath' is perfectly clear.
i can't do justice to this book but read it. This is major new talent.
OK. I have Agaat to look forward to and the new Wally Lamb which I couldn't resist buying as there it was in Exclusives, asking me to take it to the checkout counter. I could hardly refuse. It's called The Hour I First Believed and it's 728 pages. Typical Lamb pattern. Huge, unputdownable books. Can't wait.
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