Vintage Book Covers

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Offshore

I liked Penelope Fitzgerald's The Blue Flower so much that I decided to read another of her novels, Offshore. Both are such slim works that they are more novellas than novels. This one is set in relatively modern times - the 1960s. It focuses on a community of misfits living on barges on the Thames. Most of the action occurs around a single mother of two precocious children in a time when single motherhood still had a bit of a stigma attached to it. Other characters include an elderly marine artist, a buttoned down ex-military type, a male prostitute and more. It's clear why Fitzgerald won the Booker for this one - it takes a great deal of skill to deliver so many fully formed characters so concisely. Fitzgerald is an economical yet elegant writer and makes a lot happen in just 140 pages or so without it seeming forced or rushed.
I have one more of her novels (The Bookshop) on the shelf but I think I'll save it for later; I don't want to get too much of a good thing.

Top 10 Drunk American Writers

There are a few notable omissions from the list (Eugene O'Neill for one) but the ten who made it definitely qualify as drunks.

Evermore (or so it seems)

The Mysterious “Poe Toaster” Strikes Again!

BALTIMORE - Undeterred by controversy, a mysterious visitor paid his annual tribute at the grave of Edgar Allan Poe early Saturday, placing three red roses and a half-filled bottle of cognac before stealing away into the darkness.

Nearly 150 people had gathered outside the cemetery of Westminster Presbyterian Church, but the man known as the "Poe toaster" was, as usual, able to avoid being spotted by the crowd, said Jeff Jerome, curator of the Poe House and Museum.

Via Neatorama

A Shameless Plug

My other blog has made it to the Canadian Blog Awards finals, thanks to the support of a small but loyal core of readers. You can vote for me here for Best Humour Blog and here for Best Entertainment Blog if you like.

The Blue Flower

The Blue Flower is the story of the romance of Friedrich von Hardenberg, later known as the German Romantic poet and philosopher Novalis, with a 12-year old girl, Sophie Von Kuhn. This was British novelist Penelope Fitzgerald's tenth and final book, written in 1995, and it's a good one. In short chapters totaling just 225 pages Fitzgerald manages to evoke an entire era (17th century Germany) from the details of the domestic lives of the Hardenberg and Kuhn families, both members of the impoverished nobility. Friedrich, or Fritz, is immediately smitten at first sight by the silly and seemingly dull-witted child, Sophie. He determines to marry her against the advice of friends and family. It's a simply written story of a doomed relationship that ends tragically. The only levity is injected through Fritz's precocious young brother, The Bernhard. It's very readable and touching and I enjoyed it immensely.

Alas too true

You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.
- Ray Bradbury

Verse By Voice

A Coudal project is always interesting:

You don't see many poetry memes on the web, and you might not see one here but we'll give it a try anyhow. Who's next? Call 703 637 9276 and recite your favorite short poem and we might use it on the site and/or send you a present too.

Previous Entries:

Trish: Wendell Berry's The Peace of Wild Things, (text)
Rebecca: William Butler Yeats' Adam's Curse, (text)
Jeff: Ted Hughes' Full Moon and Little Frieda, (text)
Andrew: Stanley Kunitz' The Portrait, (text)
Claire: William Carlos Williams' This Is Just To Say, (text)
Tom: Tony Harrison's The Timer, (text)
Andrew: Don Marquis' Archie Confesses
Patrick: Donald Justice's On The Death of Friends
Rachel: Seamus Heaney's Personal Helicon, (text)
Zadie: Frank O'Hara's Animals, (text)
Laura: Gerard Manley Hopkins' Spring and Fall, (text)
Jeff: Connie Bensley's The Shopper
Rosecrans: Frank O'Hara's Steps, (text)
Yun Joo: Thomas Hardy's Neutral Tones, (text)
David: Paul Muldoon's Holy Thursday, (text)
Lisa: Jeffrey McDaniels' The Quiet World
Jamie: Bukowski's The Strongest of the Strange, (text)
Tim: Thomas Lynch's A Death
JC: Wallace Stevens' The Snowman, (text)

The brilliant virtues of blurbs

Meg Rosoff of The Guardian gives us the lowdown on literary endorsements :

1. The perfect blurb, for the uninitiated, is a quote on the cover of a book, which reads, "A glittering achievement. This is the book I wish I'd written." And is signed by JK Rowling, Nick Hornby, or Jody Picoult.

2. Many blurbs are a bit hedge-y, as in, "It doesn't get any better than this," (ie, this writer isn't very good, and never will be) or "an amazing success," (ie, how on earth did this book get a six-figure advance?) My personal favourite, "X is a writer to watch," is one I unwittingly provided after the following conversation with the writer's PR.

Me: It's well-written, but I have reservations.
PR: But it is well-written.
Me: Oh yes.
PR: So you'd be interested in what he writes next?
Me: Certainly.
PR: You might say, "X is a writer to watch?"
Me: Why not?

Of course I could have said, "please don't use that", but the book was well-written, and once published, it's madly difficult to get noticed, so why not help if you can?

3. Not all blurbs help. I was once halfway to the till with a novel when I noticed a blurb by a writer I really dislike. Purchase aborted.

4. It's true that people do supply blurb for friends, but I don't know anyone who would write something glittering he/she didn't believe, even for a close relative. And most of us wouldn't dare ask our friends unless we were pretty sure the praise was genuine.

5. It is genuinely, teeth-grindingly difficult to blurb someone you think is about to outsell you five to one.

Joyce's Death

Today in Literary History: "On this day in 1941 James Joyce died in Zurich at the age of fifty-eight."

Top 10 bookshops

Every booklover has their favourite shop, and while it's true that many independents have been driven out of business by online sales and supermarket bestsellers, you still don't have to look too hard to find one that's thriving. To prove it, Sean Dodson chooses the 10 bookshops from around the world which he considers to be the fairest of them all.

The Post-Birthday World

I could hardly wait to get this book home and start reading it. Lionel Shriver's last novel We Need To Talk About Kevin was brutal and disturbing but I couldn't put it down. This book offers two parallel versions of the same story told in alternating chapters, a device I found confusing at first. Irena is an illustrator of children's books who is in a contented long-term relationship with Lawrence, an expert in the field of international terrorism. One night Irena is tempted to kiss another man, Ramsay, a famous professional snooker player. To kiss or not to kiss? Irena is actually choosing to either continue her bland life with Lawrence or to follow her libido and an unpredictable life with the flamboyant Ramsay. Frankly, I wouldn't want to end up with either of these guys. Lawrence is prudish, boring and condescending. Ramsay seems to be interested only in snooker and sex. Granted, the sex is great but, after a while, will it be enough to sustain a relationship? In this novel Shriver asks the question, "What if?" and answers it in stories that are mirror images of one another. Ultimately what we learn is that we have choices and they are neither right nor wrong, just different scenarios. The book seems a bit long (probably because it's two books in one) and I found myself wanting to push the plot along, especially when there was lot of boring snooker talk but I'm glad I stuck with it. It's a book that would provide a book group with plenty of fodder.

Writers' rooms

I don't know how long this has been sitting in the Guardian Unlimited Books sidebar. I just noticed it. I'm always interested in the spaces authors create for themselves to work. Beryl Bainbridge's study is sort of cool with its typewriter and gun.

Simone Says

Simone de Beauvoir Quiz
January 9 2008 marks the centenary of the birth of Simone de Beauvoir. How much do you know about the life and work of the great French philosopher and feminist?

The 50 greatest British writers since 1945 - Times Online

The 50 greatest British writers since 1945

"What better way to start the year than with an argument? The Times has decided to present you with a ranking of whom they consider the best postwar British writers"

I've read most of these authors and agree that they belong on the list but where is Graham Greene? Pat Barker? Maybe even Dennis Potter? I mean if they're going to include Ian Fleming....

A "French Anne Frank"

"Hélène Berr was written by a 21-year-old who witnessed, and suffered from, Nazi persecution, and who wrote down her experiences so that her fiance, who had escaped to England, would know what happened to her. A literate, educated young woman, she recorded her day-to-day life for over two years, at first 'barely aware of her Jewish identity,' and then more and more a witness to cruelty. The inevitable sad denoument occurs. Berr died in the Belsen concentration camp a few days before its liberation."

Via The French Journal

Margaret Laurence - On This Day

Death of Margaret Laurence
She wrote words that have become part of Canada's national psyche.
Margaret Laurence, the author behind such classics as The Stone Angel and The Diviners, took her own life at her home in Lakefield, Ont. on Jan. 5, 1987. She was 60 years old.
Laurence was best-known for her series set in the fictional town of Manawaka, Man. She spoke to CBC's Adrienne Clarkson in 1966 about growing up in the Prairies.

Oh yeah, I see a makeover chez moi

Punk House: Interiors in Anarchy

Origins of the Book of Hours

Hypertext Book of Hours

The Book of Hours did not appear as an identifiable class of book until the thirteenth century. Before that time, Christians wishing to say a daily round of prayers had to seek guidance from some other type of book. more

Miniatures | Futility Closet

In 1925 New York poet Eli Siegel composed the shortest poem in the English language. He called it 'One Question':

I.
Why?

The former record holder was an anonymous verse titled 'On the Condition of the United States After Several Years of Prohibition':

Wet
Yet.

One for the Road Looks Ahead

Ten Travel Books on Tap for 2008
The Poetry of Place series looks like something I'd like to read