Day 10 A Bull in a China Shop

Let’s Talk About Books 

I would like to state right at the start that I am looking for – if not a fight – at least a lively discussion.

I love books and I read a lot. I have read most of the major classic novels and quite a few of the minor ones. On the whole I have enjoyed them; I have been entertained by them; frequently I have learnt something from them. Reading the classics has been a thoroughly rewarding experience. So, why do I find reading contemporary literary fiction virtually impossible?



There was a time when I used to read the Booker Prize Long List and the books reviewed in the quality Sundays on a regular basis. Then I noticed that reading them either made me want to  slit my throat because they were so depressing or my blood pressure was going through the roof because they were so pretentious. I began to be terrified that I would find one that was both depressing and pretentious which would finish me off completely.

Worse than that was the growing habit of critics to condemn immediately any book that was genuinely funny or entertaining. ‘Light’ was a favourite term of abuse. Genre fiction is also, apparently, beneath their notice.

The pretentious books annoy me most, especially those that seek to cover up a total lack of plot and characterisation by playing around with the grammar and the punctuation. I concede that there is a point if you are trying to represent dialect or accent, but otherwise – no. Punctuation, grammar and spelling aid communication and if an author wants to make communication difficult, perhaps they are in the wrong job.

And then there are the writers (mostly men, I find) whose vocabulary is so obscure that you have to read their books with a dictionary by your side. If they were truly looking to express their meaning precisely, I might forgive them, but in most cases the obscure word is a close synonym for a word in common use. Basically the author is saying, ‘Look, I can write a book that none of you can understand!’ and what is the point of that? (Hold up your hand, Will Self!)

Let’s look at the hugely successful Wolf Hall Trilogy. Two booker prizes! Wow!

I admit I read Wolf Hall and I enjoyed it, once I had got over the minor irritation of Mantel’s constant use of the present tense and the major irritation of not being told who was speaking (a major flaw until the character was well established  - ‘he says’ when there is more than one person taking part in the conversation is not helpful – better to leave it out altogether). Have I bought the next two in the series? No. I know what happens in the end and her writing didn’t enthral me enough to want to spend a further £10 and waste another 12 or so hours of my life. It may be heresy but I would prefer to spend the money on a couple of C J Sansom’s Shardlake books – same period, well written, exciting and not irritatingly self-regarding. I would like to add that Sansom’s books are as well researched as Mantel’s but wear it lightly. I felt constantly bruised by Mantel’s insistence on whacking me in the face with her erudition.

If I have given up on literary fiction, that doesn’t mean I have given up on literate fiction. I admit, with the explosion of eBooks, there is a lot of dross out there, but there are also some jewels, especially in genre fiction. I would like to share the names of a few writers whose work I have really enjoyed.

Historical and historical/crime

Pat Barker                                                      Allan Mallinson

Nick Brown                                                    Diana Norman

Tracy Chevalier                                            S J Parris

Rory Clements                                              Ellis Peters

Barbara Cleverly                                          Elizabeth Peters

Bernard Cornwell                                        Stella Riley

Lindsey Davis                                                James Runcie

Ariana Franklin                                             Simon Scarrow

Diana Gabaldon                                           Jane Thynne

Philippa Gregory                                          Charles Todd

Susanna Gregory                                         Sarah Waters

Robert Harris                                                Jacqueline Winspear

 

Crime/Mystery/Thrillers

Kate Atkinson                                                 Mark Billingham

 Stephen Booth                                              Sam Bourne

Andrea Camilleri                                            John Le Carré

James Craig                                                     Charles Cumming                                                                          

Judith Cutler                                                   Len Deighton

Michael Dibdin                                               Dan Fesperson  

Ken Follett                                                       Frederick Forsyth                                                                          

Alan Furst                                                        Robert Galbraith                                                                          

Elizabeth George                                           Tess Gerritsen   

Robert Goddard                                            Elly Griffiths

Matthew Hall                                                  Sophie Hannah 

Jane Harper                                                     Mick Herron      

Philip Kerr                                                        Donna Leon       

Stuart MacBride                                             Val McDermid   

Adrian McKinty                                              Alistair MacLean

Faith Martin                                                    Peter May          

Denzil Meyrick                                               Jo Nesbø 

James Oswald                                                 Sara Paretsky

Louise Penny                                                  Ian Rankin          

Kathy Reichs                                                   Phil Rickman

Jo Spain                                                            Susie Steiner

 

Fantasy/Sci-Fi

Ben Aaronovitch                                          Guy Gavriel Kay

Douglas Adams                                             Ursula K Le Guin

Trudi Canavan                                              Sarah J Maas

Genevieve Cogman                                     George R R Martin

Eoin Colfer                                                     Anne McCaffrey

Jasper Fforde                                                Andre Norton

Neil Gaiman                                                   Terry Pratchett

Frances Hardinge                                         Philip Pullman

Helen Harper                                                Jodi Taylor

Robin Hobb                                                   Laini Taylor

Diana Wynne Jones                                    Tad Williams        

General Fiction

Catherine Alliott                                                Trisha Ashley

Julian Barnes                                                      Emma Burstall

Michael Chabon                                                Jenny Colgan

Jilly Cooper                                                         Amanda Craig

Lucy Diamond                                                    Ben Elton

Harriet Evans                                                      Michel Faber

Sebastian Faulks                                                Elena Ferrante

Fannie Flagg                                                       Joanne Harris

Georgette Heyer                                               Milly Johnson

Marian Keyes                                                     Barbara Kingsolver

Sophie Kinsella                                                  Andrea Levy

Marina Lewycka                                                Penelope Lively

Mhairi McFarlane                                             Alison May

Deborah Moggach                                            Santa Montefiore

Audrey Niffenegger                                         Graham Norton

Diane Setterfield                                               Tom Sharpe

Curtis Sittenfeld                                                Ali Smith

Zadie Smith                                                         Joanna Trollope

Anne Tyler                                                          Salley Vickers

Fiona Walker                                                      Mary Wesley


Old Favourites

Joan Aiken

Margery Allingham

Ann Bridge

Nancy Mitford

Dorothy L Sayers

Mary Stewart


This is not a comprehensive list, but they are authors whose works I have read and enjoyed. (I’m sure I have forgotten some.)

Can you add to the list?

Are you willing to defend modern literary fiction?



Today’s book

Beatrice and Benedick by Marina Fiorato

This is the story that Beatrice alludes to early in Much Ado About Nothing when she hints that she and Benedick had been sweethearts in their youth.

I approached it with some trepidation as Much Ado is one of my favourite plays, but Marina Fiorato writes excellent historical novels about Renaissance Italy, so I was hopeful.

However, early on, I came to the conclusion that it would be better to forget the connection to Much Ado, because every little departure from the story (and there are some quite large ones) and every deviation from MY interpretation of the play irked me and didn’t let me treat the book fairly.

Once I had got that sorted out, I enjoyed it hugely. Marina Fiorato writes well and her knowledge of the period and the place is excellent, and with that plot . . . she couldn’t really go wrong. There are lots of added extras and sub plots plus some rather controversial ideas about Shakespeare’s origins.


Great fun!


Food

Bolognese sauce

(except that it isn’t)

This is the sauce that everyone happily assumes is Bolognese but is, in fact a tomato and mince sugo. Bolgnese has a particular set of ingredients that we don’t usually include.

Ingredients

1 onion chopped

Crushed garlic (to taste)

500g beef mince (high fat if you can get it – better flavour, less grainy sauce)

1 pint milk

250ml dry white wine

1 tin of tomatoes

1 tbsp tomato puree

  • Fry the onion and garlic in oil until translucent.
  • Add the mince and break it up with a wooden spoon so that no clumps of meat remain,
  • Add the bay leaf.
  • Pour in the milk and cook on a medium high burner until most of the milk has disappeared.
  • Add the wine and reduce by a half.
  • Add the tomatoes and tomato puree.
  • Bring to boil and turn down as low as possible.
  • Cook as slowly as possible until most of the liquid has disappeared (2-3 hours) stirring regularly. The best version I ever cooked was on the slow plate on my Aga, when I cooked it for 4 hours, but most modern burners are too hot for that.
  • Stir, taste and season.
  • Serve topped with grated parmesan.

 

Music

Le Boeuf sur le Toit by Darius Milhaud

Happy dancing music!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bv9ii_uc2Rc&list=RDBv9ii_uc2Rc&start_radio=1&t=0


 

Today’s Painting

The Hall of the Bulls, Lascaux


The artists who painted in the caves at Lascaux were not ‘primitives’. They were highly skilled, both painting on and engraving into the uneven walls of the cave. They worked with the edges and curves of the walls to enhance their work. They painted mainly animals, but also a significant amount of abstract symbols, and even a human. Horses predominate, followed by deer and aurochs, and then ibex and bison – animals that were essential to their lives, but there are also a few carnivores, such as lions and bears.

The Hall of the Bulls is at the entrance of the system and contains mostly aurochs, a now extinct type of large cattle. In a round dance, four large bulls tower above fleeing horses and deer. The animals are shown in side-view which shows the skill and sophistication of the artists.

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