Corpsey

bandz ahoy
Also - True Detective seems like it was heavily influenced by Red Riding. At least, it resembles it. Perhaps they both resemble some other book I'm not aware of. Little girls being murdered ritualistically. All the big wigs are in on it. Etcetera.
 

you

Well-known member
Trying to read a lot more this year. I've read "1974' by David Peace so far. Its a piece of often well-written, always over-written pulp which is almost absurdly and tediously grim and violent. Mind you, with all the revelations re: 70s light entertainers and politicians of late it makes you wonder if its all that exaggerated.

I read that a few years ago - maybe 3-4. Its a prescient book, no doubt. Before Christmas I read In Plain Sight by Dan Davies, the biography of the lives, crimes and lies of Savile. Apart from being an excellent character portrait of a thoroughbred psychopath* it is also an uncomfortably honest painting of how establishments are only too willing to look evil* in the face and gleefully do its bidding.

*using the words evil and psychopath here for concision but strictly I disagree with the concepts.

Luka - how is the new Ellroy? I haven't started it yet.

This year I read:

Michel Faber's new on The Book Of Strange Things continues his interest in the facile nature of language and meaning. Read's too much like a cloaked allegory for him missing his late wife though.

Ishiguro's An Artist in a Floating World. A let down to be honest, basically it is Remains of the Day Lite.

Also dipped into the New Jack Zipes Brother Grimm 1st edition of their tales (the darker versions before they were sanitized). Yes, unrelenting Grimm. Bad thing's happen, then more bad things happen, and then they died. Life is tough kids...

I've started reading William GIbson's new on, The Peripheral. I always find his writing not as easy to read I as I expect dunno why. I'l probably read The Unconsoled by Ishiguro if WG doesn't hold me.

Can't remember when I last posted here but read Cronenberg's Consumed last year and I really liked it. It's not a novel by numbers at all, really perplexing strategy, wrong foots you three times. Leaves you a little unsure but dwelling. I suspect if a no-name took it to a publisher it'd get poo poo-d.

edit - OH yeah, read some Laird Barron but didn't like it, the lnague was too OTT for me, a bit Lovecrafty I guess in that sense. Didn't have the economy of someone like Neville or Ligotti imo.
 

luka

Well-known member
Bloods a rover was terrible. Unacceptable. I thought it was over for him but this is proper ellroys
 

droid

Well-known member
edit - OH yeah, read some Laird Barron but didn't like it, the lnague was too OTT for me, a bit Lovecrafty I guess in that sense. Didn't have the economy of someone like Neville or Ligotti imo.

Try again. 'Beautiful thing' is the one to go for.

Also, Id say the new WG is one of the most readable things he's done in years. Stick with it.
 

you

Well-known member
Droid - is there a particular story from TBTTAUA that you recommend? I bought it, perhaps on your advice and felt very very disappointed after the first story... scowled at its spine and left it at my mums...
 

Benny Bunter

Well-known member
Bloods a rover was terrible. Unacceptable. I thought it was over for him but this is proper ellroys

wow really? might have to check this out sometime. when i first discovered ellroy i devoured everything but bloods a rover really killed my interest stone dead. painfully bad.

whats yer fave ellroy? I reckon he peaked with 'white jazz'. i kinda wanted him to return to that ultra stripped down style, but maybe he just couldn't push it any further?
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
Book #2 "The Fight" by Norman Mailer. Full of absurd stuff about "the soul of the Black man" and other assorted spurious Kerouac-esque jazz-bilge, but about equally full of brilliant stuff such as (describing the stadium in Zaire where Ali was to fight Foreman): "It was not a place for people to enter; rather, an edifice from which it was impossible to exit if the police wished to retain you. The rate of flow suggested a beer keg with a baby's nipple for a spigot." I haven't got to the fight yet, which I'm presuming is the best part. I read another great book about boxing, actually probably greater, by David Remnick last year. That was about Ali vs. Liston. Fascinating sport.
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
The David Remnick book is called "King of the World". Its about Ali's early career, not just the Liston fight.

I'd appreciate recommendations for journalistic non fiction.

I really want that new book of interviews with Herzog but its 30 quid at the moment so I'll kill time with Mailer and then probably Titus Groan.
 

droid

Well-known member
Droid - is there a particular story from TBTTAUA that you recommend? I bought it, perhaps on your advice and felt very very disappointed after the first story... scowled at its spine and left it at my mums...

Oh no! I adore his stuff.

I particularly liked "The Men From Porlock", “The Siphon”, "The Carrion Gods in Their Heaven" and “The Jaws of Saturn”, but its the unsettling atmosphere and conviction of his stuff that grabs me as much as the narratives.

If youre still looking for some quality horror, John Langan is worth a read.
 

droid

Well-known member
I'd appreciate recommendations for journalistic non fiction.

Reading a great book about Jimmy Savile atm.

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luka

Well-known member
I think I might have enjoyed cold six thousand most of all. It wasn't well received and even he partially disowned it but I thought it was a hoot. White jazz is great. American tabloid is great. I like all of them except bloods a rover.
 

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
The David Remnick book is called "King of the World". Its about Ali's early career, not just the Liston fight.

That's a really great book. From memory there's also a first section on the Liston vs Patterson fight, setting the scene for Ali's entrance? I remember thinking that part was amazingly written.

Re David Peace - I read Tokyo Year Zero over the summer. Hypnotically grim. I can't even be sure whether I enjoyed it or not.
 

Benny Bunter

Well-known member
I'd appreciate recommendations for journalistic non fiction.

.

read robertos saviano's gomorrah last year and was blown away, much much better than the film (which is also very good).

also read 'in cold blood' which kinda fits this category but reads more like a novel. its amazing.

another off the top of my head is hunter s thompson's 'hells angels'. much less gonzo than fear and loathing, well worth a read if you haven't already.

i'd quite like some recommendations for this sort of thing myself, i was actually thinking of starting a thread when i was reading in cold blood last year.
 
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Corpsey

bandz ahoy
I was going to mention "In Cold Blood", which I read and adored, but for its apparent fictive elements. Last year I read a brilliant true crime book called " They Also Eat Darkness", about an English girl who was murdered while working as a hostess in Japan. Full of fascinating stuff about Japanese culture. Also "Killing For Company" by Brian Masters about Dennis Nielsen is extraordinarily bleak but again a fascinating read. I might read that book about Savile. There's a book about the Wests called "Happy Like Murderers" that is supposedly brilliant but I fear it would give me nightmares.

I was actually thinking of reading "Hells Angels" because Mailer briefly encounters and describes Thompson in "The Fight".
 

Benny Bunter

Well-known member
i think with those kind of books the fascination lies in the writer really being involved in the stories they`re telling and the tension that creates. saviano seething with disgust as his home city descends into hell before his eyes, hunter s riding with the angels for months before finally getting stomped, capòte's creepy relationship with perry smith...

while we're here, ellroy's 'my dark places' fits here too
 

droid

Well-known member
read robertos saviano's gomorrah last year and was blown away, much much better than the film (which is also very good).

also read 'in cold blood' which kinda fits this category but reads more like a novel. its amazing.

another off the top of my head is hunter s thompson's 'hells angels'. much less gonzo than fear and loathing, well worth a read if you haven't already.

i'd quite like some recommendations for this sort of thing myself, i was actually thinking of starting a thread when i was reading in cold blood last year.

Yeah, theyre all really good. The great shark hunt (I think) is along similar lines, his attempt to win the election etc.

This is fantastic:

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This guy has written a couple of famous books about mountain climbing, highly recommended:

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Got this for xmas:

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droid

Well-known member
I'd like to read Gomorrah too actually. My friends have been raving to me about the TV series recently.

The TV show is great, really well done.

Have you read Misha Glenny? McMafia was good, along similar lines to Gomorrah.
 
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