william kent
Well-known member
No, not yet. I read eight of his during that period and haven't felt like going back to him yet.
what are you reading now?
No, not yet. I read eight of his during that period and haven't felt like going back to him yet.
Benny Bunter
Well-known member
Oof 8 in a row's a lot.
We should all have a book club read through of ticket in a few months time
We should all have a book club read through of ticket in a few months time
Benny Bunter
Well-known member
I found a copy of the jungle book today in the shop down the street, might start that this weekend, see if I like it as much as I did when I read it years ago when I took it with me to India. Colonialist classic.
kid charlemagne
Well-known member
i grabbed naked lunch and red harvest. i almost bought nova express but that is a part of a trilogy.
william kent
Well-known member
It is, but it's a loose trilogy you can read in any order.
shiels
_
This is really good thank you for the recommendationStill enjoying and cannot recommend enough Joel Lane's Scar City (Influx Press). A collection of short stories based around Birmingham, the Black Country and West Midlands (where I live).
There is one story, 'Keep the Night' that heavily takes from Robert Aickman's 'The Swords' (based in Wolverhampton) but is notably set outside of the Midlands in Milton Keynes. Lane's stories are amazing, deeply resonant, rich with life and nihilism.
The title says it all vis-a-vis the lives and territory on a number of levels at once scarred and barren. Scar City, scarcity. Brilliant.
Scar City — Influx Press
www.influxpress.com
william kent
Well-known member
Ivory Pearl, Jean-Patrick Manchette
Very lean. Opens with a group of men smuggling a child into a house, being ambushed by a couple of gunmen and all but one dying after a shootout, knife fight and a car bomb going off. There's a horrible description of a character slicing off someone's hand, still holding the gun, then opening up his throat and chin with some sort of machete.
Apparently it was to be a change of direction for Manchette and was intended as the start of some sweeping cycle of historical novels, but he died before he could finish it and even get started on the subsequent ones.
crimereads.com
Very lean. Opens with a group of men smuggling a child into a house, being ambushed by a couple of gunmen and all but one dying after a shootout, knife fight and a car bomb going off. There's a horrible description of a character slicing off someone's hand, still holding the gun, then opening up his throat and chin with some sort of machete.
Apparently it was to be a change of direction for Manchette and was intended as the start of some sweeping cycle of historical novels, but he died before he could finish it and even get started on the subsequent ones.
Why Jean-Patrick Manchette Abandoned the Crime Novel
—The following was written as an introduction to the novel, Ivory Pearl This striking posthumous work—La Princesse du sang (Princess of the Blood) in its original French version—was intended by my …
crimereads.com
kid charlemagne
Well-known member
jenks
thread death
Long Road to Deep North. I didn’t read it when it won the Booker probably cos it won the Booker. Well that’s my own idiot fault cos it’s a pretty brutal but compelling story of the Japanese attempt to build a railway in Thailand using POWs. Told from an Australian perspective mainly. Flanagan can really keep all the plates spinning. Probably one of the best war books I’ve read in ages.
william kent
Well-known member
Yeah, it's definitely something. Had you only read Junky and Queer beforehand? It's a marked departure from those two.
kid charlemagne
Well-known member
just finished... jesus... and yes i had only read those two. bafflingly different works of writing while both about junk and addiction
kid charlemagne
Well-known member
might have to break from him for now. going to head to the store to grab a new book, not sure what
kid charlemagne
Well-known member
going to watch the film tonight or tomorrow
mixed_biscuits
_________________________
Scotland got kilt
WashYourHands
cat malogen
An embarrassment, zero fluency and expectations around the top two ever entering the PL are rich in lol
Still, plenty of quality games, no real shock exits and all to play for (£20 on England because they have to win a tournament eventually)
Still, plenty of quality games, no real shock exits and all to play for (£20 on England because they have to win a tournament eventually)
william kent
Well-known member
Ivory Pearl, Jean-Patrick Manchette
Very lean. Opens with a group of men smuggling a child into a house, being ambushed by a couple of gunmen and all but one dying after a shootout, knife fight and a car bomb going off. There's a horrible description of a character slicing off someone's hand, still holding the gun, then opening up his throat and chin with some sort of machete.
Apparently it was to be a change of direction for Manchette and was intended as the start of some sweeping cycle of historical novels, but he died before he could finish it and even get started on the subsequent ones.
Why Jean-Patrick Manchette Abandoned the Crime Novel
—The following was written as an introduction to the novel, Ivory Pearl This striking posthumous work—La Princesse du sang (Princess of the Blood) in its original French version—was intended by my …
Took a while to really get going, but I'm into it. He spends about 80 pages methodically arranging the pieces then everything suddenly clicks into place and it takes off into jungle chase sequences, mercenaries jumping out of helicopters, one guy going Arnie at the end of Predator and all sorts.
Some of it feels a bit like the spycraft sections of Pynchon's V. with the old Englishmen discussing geopolitics and lurking around various embassies, and there's a stretch that reminded me of Ballard's Concrete Island. He also has a habit of describing objects fairly meticulously, referring to cars and guns by the model and manufacturer, specifying furniture designs, cataloguing people's outfits. Think Baudrillard's System of Objects or American Psycho minus the satire.
Couple of quotes from that interview I posted in the Situationism thread which seem to highlight the idea behind that approach -
"I demand desperate realism faced with the total absence of richness in material reality and against any attempt to compensate the poverty of this world with an artistic beyond."
"I loved true luxury when I encountered it, a long time ago, on an exotic island that today is ravaged by civil war. I am not interested in false luxury."
qwerty south
no use for a witticism
"T'ai Chi Chi Kung" by Peter Chin Kean Choy
william kent
Well-known member
Jumped straight into another of his. This one's called Nada and it's about a gang of misfits' disastrous attempt at kidnapping an American ambassador.
"Meyer wanted to shoot himself or just go to work - it was hard to say which."
IdleRich
IdleRich
Do they though? I have a feeling I'm gonna live my whole life without ever seeing them lift a trophy.
If anyone's feeling overly-bumptious and cheery, this is one remedy
Oh, you didn't know the US continues to maintain a "Launch on warning" posture?
The scenario in this case is North Korea launching an ICBM at Washington DC, and a submarine-launched missile at Devil's Canyon nuclear power plant, then a super EMP weapon over the USA, knocking out the grid. Unfortunately, the US response requires ICBMs flying over Russian airspace to get to NK. It doesn't go well.
Oh, you didn't know the US continues to maintain a "Launch on warning" posture?
The scenario in this case is North Korea launching an ICBM at Washington DC, and a submarine-launched missile at Devil's Canyon nuclear power plant, then a super EMP weapon over the USA, knocking out the grid. Unfortunately, the US response requires ICBMs flying over Russian airspace to get to NK. It doesn't go well.