2018 50 Book Challenge

Clockwise counting 24/50: Anthony Powell - The Acceptance World (1955)

This is the third novel in the epic series of 12 novels collectively called A Dance To the Music of Time. I read the first two novels a couple of years ago and then got distracted with other stuff. Now getting back to  Powell's masterpiece, I find that the narrative has gathered pace and the youngsters from the first two books are well into their late 20s. The series covers a span of 50 years of English upper class and (upper) middle class history and after the first 3 novels we have moved from the 1920s to the early 1930s. 

We are following Nick Jenkins, the narrator, and his three school friends Stringham, Templer and Windermoor as they grow into adulthood in an England between the wars. Excellent character studies and humorous descriptions of a leftist intelligentsia, a blasé and world-weary upper class and complex human relations. This is very very good but due to the 12-volume challenge also a major undertaking!

The whole series is counted as one in 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. Similar to Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time to which Powell's saga has also been compared. I think I'll get to Proust after I am done with Powell.

36. The Black Dahlia 1987 James Ellroy
Got a confession to make- have become addicted to detective novels. I had to read 4 or 5 Hammett/Chandlers, and this one for the 1001 book list. It's an atypical whodunit in my book (pun intended) because of the many plot twists. The book is fictional; the crime has never been solved. I highly recommend it- a great read.

Can you stop yourself from reading the entire LA quartet, Steve? It is in my view among the best ever in detective fiction. Black Dahlia is only the beginning! And the LA Confidential movie is not too shabby either.



clockwise said:

Can you stop yourself from reading the entire LA quartet, Steve? It is in my view among the best ever in detective fiction. Black Dahlia is only the beginning! And the LA Confidential movie is not too shabby either.

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Nope. The second one is on its way. It's been a while since I've seen the movie, but I remember it being excellent. I don't think I saw tthe Black Dahlia, but I've heard it's pretty bad.

Are you coming for StyleForum X?



Steve B. said:

Are you coming for StyleForum X?

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Unfortunately not. Hope you will have a great time!!



clockwise said:

Unfortunately not. Hope you will have a great time!!

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I'm sure I will. Fok usually does a really good job with thesse things. Do you live in Sweden?

As for movies based on the novels we read - yesterday I eventually watched Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. I liked it a lot but can't imagine how confusing it must be to watch that movie without having read the novel twice beforehand. I never watched The Spy Who Came In From The Cold with Richard Burton as Alec Leamas, must see if I can find a DVD. Didn't watch Black Dahlia since I also heard it is awful.

Yes, I live in Sweden since last year. After 16 years in Hong Kong. And you?



clockwise said:

As for movies based on the novels we read - yesterday I eventually watched Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. I liked it a lot but can't imagine how confusing it must be to watch that movie without having read the novel twice beforehand. I never watched The Spy Who Came In From The Cold with Richard Burton as Alec Leamas, must see if I can find a DVD. Didn't watch Black Dahlia since I also heard it is awful.
Yes, I live in Sweden since last year. After 16 years in Hong Kong. And you?

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I figured Gothenburg, Sweden was the best suspect. Texas. After CA, and WI. I'm willing myself to like it this summer

Is there another Gothenburg? In Texas perchance?

I have read one more by the way. Just didn't have time to do the review.
It's the king's 66th birthday here today so a bit busy for us aristocrats.



clockwise said:

Is there another Gothenburg? In Texas perchance?
I have read one more by the way. Just didn't have time to do the review.
It's the king's 66th birthday here today so a bit busy for us aristocrats.

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There's one in Nebraska...

37. Henry and June Anais Nin 1931
The chronicles of Henry Miller shtupping Anais Nin. Blecch. That is all

Clockwise counting 25/50: Shusaku Endo - Scandal (1986)

Endo's most famous work Silence was really good but this one, Scandal, is even better! While the former was set in 17th century Japan, the story of the latter novel takes place in contemporary (1980s) Tokyo. 

An elderly famous novelist (obviously Endo himself) finds his reputation threatened by a doppelgänger roaming the sleazy district of Shinjuku. As the story develops, Endo starts to look into the dual nature of humans, a predatory and dark sexual side of himself as well as the sadomasochism of people that he comes across in his search for the doppelgänger or, as it may be, the other side of himself. 

I will soon read more of Endo.



clockwise said:

Clockwise counting 25/50: Shusaku Endo - Scandal (1986)
Endo's most famous work Silence was really good but this one, Scandal, is even better! While the former was set in 17th century Japan, the story of the latter novel takes place in contemporary (1980s) Tokyo. 
An elderly famous novelist (obviously Endo himself) finds his reputation threatened by a doppelgänger roaming the sleazy district of Shinjuku. As the story develops, Endo starts to look into the dual nature of humans, a predatory and dark sexual side of himself as well as the sadomasochism of people that he comes across in his search for the doppelgänger or, as it may be, the other side of himself. 
I will soon read more of Endo.

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This books sounds really, really good. This sounds exactly like the sort of thing I like.

Clockwise counting 26/50: Anthony Powell - At Lady Molly's (1957)

The 4th novel in a series of 12, At Lady Molly's is the best so far. Powell's soap opera of the English upper class have excellent character studies and a fabulous dry humour. The year is 1934 and the narrator, Nick Jenkins, gets involved with the aristocratic Tolland family and is by the end of the novel engaged to get married with one of the many Tolland sisters. The number of characters in the series is mind boggling, I read somewhere that it is around 300 and many of these have already been introduced in the scope of the first 4 novels.  Not always easy to keep track of the relations and personalities.

38 The Story of O Pauline Reage 1954
About a young woman who is used and abused by a number of different lovers. Pornographic BDSM if you like that sort of thing. But it is on the list.

39. The Talented Mr. Ripley Patricia Highsmith 1955
A young con man kills and assumes the identity of a well to do man who he looks like. Commits another murder while he's at it, and gets away with it all. Fast paced. A great read. One more to cross off the homework.