Half way Book review – “Shogun” – James Clavell

I picked this up following online suggestions of excellent historical fiction books. I started on it after I had finished Lonesome Dove.

I’m currently around half way through the book (around page 450) and my thoughts so far –

Far more complex than I first anticpated

For some reason I was expecting a “fantasy style black and white relatively easy to follow narrative”. I came with assumptions that the book would have a real life setting but mixed with a simplistic fantasy level depth and breadth. Wow was I was wrong (and a bit stupid). We are talking ASOIAF level politics and intrigue (Yes I know the irony that ASOIAF is considered fantasy but in many ways lets be honest it isn’t). Although there are far few characters than the ASOIAF series there is ALOT of politicking, manoeuvring, innuendo, intended backstabbing and cultural clashes. If you come expecting this then you will not be disappointed.

Excellent description of clash of civilisations

The differences between the uncivilised and brutish yet technologically advanced Europeans and the sophisticated yet ruthless Japanese is explored in detail via dialogue and characters. It’s interesting to see how the Japanese were equally impressed and repulsed by European mannerisms and behaviour whilst the Europeans felt the same about the rigid ruthlessness of the Samurai code. There’s the additional mix of the Christianity vs Japanese religion and code of ethics explored in much detail throughout. The European state of affairs explored in the novel (the British vs the Catholic empires) is a great mini primer into this time period which might spark a further interest in the reader.

Grand scope and epic nature

The book definitely succeeds in world building and attempting to showcase the intricacies of a foreign kingdom’s political, social and military worlds. We see a range of characters ranging from peasants, religious priests, soldiers, to military officers and the highest members of society. It’s a true epic.

Conclusion so far…

It’s by no means a perfect experience at the time of reading. I find the constant politicking rankling and the plot on the slow and sluggish side but the characters are well crafted and have great dialogue. And as above it definitely feels like an epic in the true sense of the word.

My opinions may change drastically by the end but I will continue my journey into this world and will let you know how I got on.

Book review – The Tipping point – Malcolm Gladwell

Going viral has become a metric for success in today’s age. Knowing that your work, product, comment or status has resonated with people so much that it’s spreading is akin to an epidemic has become an unusual badge of honour.

But why is that some works go viral whilst some sink into obscurity? Gladwell explored these very points in his 2000 book “The Tipping Point” to see why some ideas or trends blow up in society, whilst some fizzle out. Although written well before the social media boom it still offers many compelling ideas which are easily applicable now.

He gives three reasons for being the fundamental driving force for something catching on like the plague –

It’s who you know:

• These people can be divided roughly into three groups Mavens, Connectors or Sales people
• A maven is an expert in something, a connector is someone who knows an inordinate amount of people and so is a great contact to have whilst a Salesperson has the charisma and empathy to sell your product to the masses.
• A connection or your message being passed through one of the above people is a sure fire way to ensure your message reaches a wider audience.

It’s making sure your message stick

• Use techniques and skills to ensure that your message resonates and remains memorable with the target audience
• Gladwell uses the examples of Sesame Street, Blues Clues and Skateboarding brand Airwalk to illustrate this point

It’s having the right context

• A movement will catch on if it’s in the right context
• “An epidemic can be reversed, and be tipped, by tinkering with smallest details of the environment”.
• Humans often commit the Fundamental Attribution Error – when it comes to interpreting other people’s behaviour, we invariably make the mistake of overestimating he importance of fundamental character traits and underestimating the importance of the situation and context
• In groups and organisations having a maximum number of 150 people can assist in messages and philosophies being passed along efficiently. More than this then bloat and inefficiencies begin to appear.

There you have it. Three ways to maximise your presence in the world.

Book review – The Wasp Factory – Ian Banks

Dark, shocking yet oddly funny

The Scottish landscape lends itself to both beauty and desolation easily enabling it to become a character of sorts in the world of atmospheric literature.

It’s this world which has birthed the very strange Frank Cauldhame. Frank is both a typical and atypical teen. He has the easy, carefree speech of a young man eager to learn about the world and what it holds. He has a relationship with his father, a brother and some of the others on the island. He also enjoys bike rides and exploring the island he lives on in a devil may care attitude. He’s also killed several people including children and is obsessed with strange rituals.

TWF succeeds in interweaving Frank’s horrifying actions with his almost genial and innocent general manner about things. Much of the book is chatty and informal, sort of like the diary entries of a young person trying to find his place in the world. It’s this informality which I found detracted from the horror and atmosphere at times but I suppose it’s an important way of relaying Frank’s relaxed attitude to the extreme violence which surfaces time and time again in his life.

There is a shocking twist at the end which will reassess the way you look at the novel. It is both uncomfortable and brutal, but sits well with the themes of the rest of the novel.

In all a disturbing and atmospheric novel (novella even seen as though it only runs around 180 pages). Not oppressively dark or horrific, but the combination of the deranged with the normal gives it a uniquely unsettling aura.

Book Review – ‘Stoner’

“There are wars and defeats and victories of the human race that are not military and that are not recorded in the annals of history.” 

I ignored this novel for years thinking it was some sort of self-conscious hipster novel about smoking weed aimed at the Seth Rogan demographic. I couldn’t possibly have imagined anything more polar opposite of that.

You can count me a huge fan of the immense power hidden beneath the quiet words of this tale. The story is simple – it’s essentially the life story of a man who discovers early on his love of English Literature and ends up becoming a Professor at the University of Missouri. On the way he faces the challenges we all do in life – the loss of beloved friends, marriages, workplace enemies and he does so with a sort of stoicism reflective of the type many of us are forced to show in order to appear sane in a world which can so troubling at times. The first page opens up with the news of the protagonist’s death, similar to an obituary, and the remaining pages are an extended flashback of this life.

If there was a word to sum up the feel and theme of the novel it would be poignancy. There is page after page descriptions of the small battles we lose on this journey of life –  the source of the melancholy which seems to stretch over our existences. There are moments of intense subdued emotions such as when Stoner realises no matter what he does he cannot fully act out on his own selfish desires and he is, as its put, ‘of this world’ and must abide by the emotional laws of society regardless of its effect on the individual.

It throws up many existential questions towards the end which we all find ourselves asking at times.

Is life really all worth it in the end?

How do we cope with the tragedies which set about us?

How do we, ultimately, find meaning in the constant stream of small sufferings which we find ourselves experiencing?  Do we bear it beneath a mask of determined seriousness and occasional humour or step far out of our comfort zones in order to challenge them and live a life on our own terms?

Regardless of whether you believe these questions are answered or not during this literary journey, the ending of the novel will leave you most likely brokenhearted, yet strangely happy for the character we have come to respect and perhaps even love.

Book review – ‘Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus’

‘But I was wretched, helpless and alone’

With youth comes its self centered ambitions.

Nowadays, many dream of social media stardom whether through sports, music … or from simply being famous.  But lets imagine, for a moment, the self-conscious embarrassment nineteen year old Mary Shelly would have found herself feeling if she ever thought how a horror story, written as a bet among a few friends on a European holiday, would go on to become one of the most influential horror novels in history?  Frankenstein, arguably, spawned not only the genre of science fiction, but a whole series of movies and cultural icons related to the terribly menacing figure of the cursed doctor and his equally cursed creation.

And it sadness, readers, which is the overwhelming emotion which seeps from the pages of this most curious of novels.  I was left haunted and melancholic when I turned the final page over.  It was under the darkened lights of my sitting room, the clock telling me it was 11:30 PM, that I turned over to the front cover to stare in brooding silence at the front cover picture of the creature whose brief but terrible life I had just finished reading about.  The sympathy one feels for the Victorians world’s most wretched creature is intense and bitter, bitter because our own hideous judgments are reflected in his worldly experience and intense because of the brutality of his actions in a world horrified by his existence.

A little about the narrative.  The book starts and begins with excerpts of a diary of an arctic explorer, Robert Walton, who finds the wretched figure of Dr Frankenstein walking the wastes of the Arctic.  Having taken him in he speaks of him in glowing terms, as a noble and rational fellow.  He is a man however, clearly a husk of his former self, and nearing his own demise.  Thus, he begins his improbably disturbing and bizarre tale to Walton which forms most of the narrative.

Dr Frankenstein’s initial actions are neither destructive or particularly menacing.  He is a lover of science, more to the point the physical sciences, and decides to take upon himself to create a new human being. Under a delirium of corrupted enthusiasm, the same sort of delirium I imagine Shelly was possessed when frenetically writing the novel over a matter of a few days, he toils day and night until he delivers to the world his creation.  It’s interesting that there is very little said about the method of this creation, we are only dealt with very brief discussions of him digging up graves to find his required parts alongside vague descriptions of the brooding nights he performs his handiwork.  The creature awakens and manages to exit his grisly laboratory from where the doctor’s nightmare descent into annihilation as the monster toils and machinates against him by hurting all those he holds dear to his heart.

Human disdain and prejudice is the heart of the novel.  You could easily see Frankenstein’s creation as a metaphor for anyone who feels socially ostracised from society be it black, gay, disabled or possessing any other trait which mainstream society has had a tendency to see as not of the norm.  The emotional central part of the novel is the monster’s extended narrative to the doctor, describing the time he spent watching and observing a family whose ‘gentle manners’ he becomes greatly endeared to.  Which reader with a normal human heart could not feel immense sympathy for him as he sits and watches the family over the course of a year, like some small child in a playground hoping and praying that the rest of the children would let him be a part of their cliques once they familiarised themselves with him?   He learns (somewhat incongruously) an exceptional knowledge of English.  As voyeur, he feels a part of the family’s existence, their turmoil and is conscious of human subtleties, such as the unspoken sadness which seems to emanate from their lives.  He awaits with huge trepidation for the day he can reveal himself to them.  Surely these fine, educated, phlegmatic folks can find a place in their hearts even for a creature with an appearance as unsightly as his? The brutality of their response, once he does reveal himself, cannot be understated.  This reaction solidifies the monster’s understanding of the eternal rejection which awaits every aspect of his corporeal life.  His rage quite understandably, if we were to thoroughly empathise, reaches levels of volcanic proportions.  In much the way he sets fire to this family home, he decides to set fire to anything in the life of his creator which could possibly give him meaning.

It’s easy to forget on a side note, what in all the murder and science, Frankenstein’s place as being the most pan European of novels.  Most of the action takes place in Switzerland, the beauty of the Alps before concluding in the menacing and dismal shores of England and Scotland.  There is something noticeable in the contrast between the two elements of nature – the natural beauty which embodies the world against the ugliness of the ‘monsters’ countenance, and perhaps more subtly, the ugliness of the people’s prejudices against him.  Although physically reprehensible, the monsters articulate and sophisticated language and self consciousness is a deeply moving and powerful aspect of the novel.  Its saddens the readers heart to know that his only desire in life is for a life partner, someone so equally reprehensible to society that her only salvation would be found in the warmth of his own grotesque arms.  If we, as men and women, can slake our human thirst for love and mutual affection by finding lovers and companions, then why can’t even the lowliest of creatures be given the opportunity to do so? What fairness is there in letting us experience love and not letting a creature made by our very hands experience the same? This character trope of how created beings can also have the same emotional desires and experiences as humans is now a reused trope in much of science fiction, but Frankenstein was an early precursor to such philosophically profound stories.

The bleakness of the novel continues to the end.  The arctic wastelands represent the sheer emptiness of man and animal in their brutal psychological fight for vengeance and mental survival.  This has come to have the only meaning in their nihilistic, revenge bent lives. Dr Frankenstein, with a heart as black as the darkest of nights continues to track the  infernal beast across the entire known world before ending up this frozen purgatory.  The monster’s rage is the same, toying his master with promises of vengeance, but continuing to slip through his fingers like sand on a beach.  Both are engaged in a dance of death, neither wishing to be the first to bring a halt to the proceedings.

Frankenstein horrified the public on its release with its dark, gothic descriptions of a world corrupted by science, prejudice and things which go bump in the night.  Many years on in a more tolerant and humane world I feel it’s the sadness and complexity of the beast which continues to resonate.  Here we don’t have an antagonist who is one dimensional and capable of only monstrous acts, he is someone who desires earthly acceptance from both society and his father. It is with such sadness that in the absence of this, his only recourse is to leave his own mark on not only the necks of young children but on the numerous lives of those who wronged him.

Why ‘War and Peace’ will change your life … and maybe the greatest novel I have ever read…

 “… if you want to be happy, you have to believe in the possibility of happiness, and I do believe in it now.  Let the dead bury the dead, but while there is life, you must live and be happy” Prince Andrey – Vol II, Part II, Chap 20

 

 

Hercules apparently had Twelve tasks.  Jay Z had 99 problems.   That’s a lie folks, the thirteenth task and 100^thproblem, which the Greek myths and Youtube omitted was to read War and Peace cover to cover.  Its something I managed, dear reader, over a period of a few weeks.  Does that mean I’m better than Hercules? It sure does (even without the six pack abs).  Does that mean I’m better than Jay Z? it sure does (I kicked Beyonce to the curb when I discovered she only reads biographies of other divas).

War and Peace is not a normal novel at all. When boiled down to its constituent parts and filtered even further its simply about …. Life… and what it means to be alive.

If you want to be more detailed you can say it’s an exploration of several fictional aristocratic Russian families against the backdrop of Napoleon’s invasion interspersed with philosophical insights into the nature of history and  how wrongly we often construe the past.   That’s a detailed description with lots of words.  But still, the overarching theme and soul of the novel is that of the furnace of life and the sparks of living.

The main intention of the novel is to describe the very complex internal psychological processes and physical actions of people against the back drop of an immense historical event.  By doing so it shows that great events cannot be glossed over or reduced to easily digestible statements in order to appear academic but one must look at the small and complicated constituent parts which leads to any cataclysmic social event.  These parts, which form the content of the novel, include countless love stories, acts of both emotional and militaristic violence, intense emotional and philosophical discussions which affect human beings along with detailed descriptions of people who experience life in a multi layered hierarchical society. When these parts are added together they are the cause of immense events which create, what we refer to as, history.

The characters who are the actors in this particular slice of history are incredibly complex and relatable. I grew to love and relate to the male characters like Pierre, Andre and Nikolay and the intense internal conflicts and their complicated psyches. They have the exact same desires, feelings guilt complexes and social pressures which we experience right now.  I sympathised and admired the female characters such as Marya, Helen and Natasha, many of whom were fulfilling duties whilst trying to maintain a stoical outlook to life expected of women of the time.  The thing which surprised me the most was that even in a novel replete with melancholy, sadness and pain, there were many moments of laughter and happiness with a focus on the overwhelming power and need for love.  The heart of the novel, it seems, is the focus on love and how happiness is something one can and must find within themselves without resorting to any external material force in order to survive in a world which is unrelentingly sad and tragic.

This brings me on to my next point as to why War and Peace is such a powerful read.  It reads, continuously, as the ultimate self-help book.  There are countless sections on the best way to lead your life, how you shouldn’t live a life of unhappiness and resentment, the power of God and faith in troubling times and almost the pointlessness in existential anxieties.  Each character explores the frailties of the human condition with such detail and nuance, there is always a character or a page to turn to in times of need. Consider Pierre’s angry statement to the carefree and reckless Anatole Karagin “when all’s said and done surely you can get it into your head that there is such a thing as other people’s happiness and peace of mind beyond your own pleasure” or the common thread of humankind which exists between even sworn enemies “There was a single instant that there was a bond between them.  There was a single instant that involved  an infinite sharing of experience in which they knew they were children of humanity, and they were brothers”. These are two sections noted from countless lines highlighted and annotated from my copy of the book.

In general, I think there are three main reasons why people might balk at reading the novel.

1. The general intimidation factor. War and Peace is the granddaddy of all novels. Approaching it, I suppose, would be like being told the Queen of England is going to interview you for a job. You naturally feel a level of intimidation or even “am I smart enough to even approach this text”. Simply put the novel is nowhere near as hard as you probably think.  The book is simply written with simple sentence structure, contemporary almost, and many of the concepts I found highly relatable. There is no arcane, jargon ridden or densely referential language which requires a companion book of definitions to understand as is the case sometimes with historical novels. Another thing I commend about the novel is its structure.  The chapters are very short, as short as 5 pages at times so there are many natural breaks you can take during your read. If you do want to make it truly challenging and authentic, try reading a version with French dialogue (as I’m sure you’re aware.. ahem… French was the language of the Russian aristocracy at the time)

2. The book is too long. Granted, War and Peace is a long book.  A VERY long book.  I think it even beats Stephen King’s “The Stand” or “Lord of the Rings” both of which I committed to reading (and managed to get through) during lazy summers as a teenager.  I honestly believe however, that once you make it past the initial 30-50 pages, i.e. the initial party at Ana Pavalvno and general introductions you will be well on your way to being engrossed in the novel.  Also remember that the novel comes in three volumes – if the thought of reading it in its entirety is too challenging, just make it your goal to get through the first volume.   I guarantee you the ending of the first one (which concludes with the superbly dramatic entry of a VERY famous figure) will set you up comfortably for the next one. And you’ll still have the honour of saying you finished the first volume in the series…

3. There are too many characters in the novel.  I can relate to this issue and I would be lying if I said that this isn’t confusing at times throughout the novel.   Having said that, once you get a hold on the main characters you will form a real and emotive attachment with them. Their actions, their lives events, their successes and failures, the intricate explorations of their psyches and the emotional states when they undertake these actions will haunt you as you turn these pages into their souls.  As the novel progresses you will become increasingly invested into their lives and familiar enough to know who is an important character and who is a passing/supporting character which doesn’t require you to create as much of a mental note on.  Having a character chart (any decent hard copy version should include one) is more or less a necessity – my version of the novel, the Penguin edition translated by Anthony Briggs possessed a perfectly adequate one in the back pages https://www.amazon.co.uk/War-Peace-Penguin-Classics-Tolstoy/dp/0140447938/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_t_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=077MMJ0MZEW6BNBZ6QB4.  If you want to go to the effort maybe print one out and fold it to the front of the book.

It’s a cliché to consider War and Peace to be the greatest novel in history.  For most who haven’t experienced the written work it would be easy to cast aside as a work of pretentious nonsense and irrelevant to the times we live in.  Such is the case with tremendous works of art – they end up occupying such a high place of intellectual superiority in the minds of people that they are forced onto gilded thrones, to live in their own worlds of perceived perfectibility to be admired on without being fully understood like a beautiful, unapproachable woman one sees from afar but doesn’t have the temerity to speak to.

It is sad when we relegate great works to these created thrones, with a little time and effort they can prove to be invaluable experiences and in the case of War and Peace, a life enriching proposition with much to gain from and little to lose.

 

Book Review: “Weaveworld” Clive Barker

A haunting, hideous masterpiece.

One of the finest novels I have ever read in any genre and holds a very special place in my heart.

The book is beautifully written, the pages dripping with haunting prose and philosophical conceits which combined together  lift the novel far above the sum of its parts.

I was left haunted by the imagery and characters introduced throughout the tale. From the opening pages where we are introduced to the sinister Immocalata along with Shadwell the corrupt salesman both of whom fall into ever spiralling worlds of madness and revenge, to the utterly wretched incarnations of the Hag, the Magdalene, the Rake and a whole range of other oddities the novel is a hideous, haunting masterpiece.  Barker delves from the earthly mundane to the grotesque with the ease of a man peeling back an onion.  His ability to write a long tale with all of the narrative sensibilities of a high fantasy epic is highly commendable, the novel reads sort of like a Tolkein for adults.

The primary theme, or emotion if you may, which runs throughout the piece is that of longing, that indescribable quality which the germans refer to as “sensucht”. It is, ultimately, a craving for a more perfect and childlike world untainted by the cruelties and disappointments of this mortal coil.  Clive Barker’s introduction within the novel, in which he discusses a whimsical scene from his own childhood watching an orchard from Welsh backgarden pays testament to this.

Why on earth the novel hasn’t been made into a series of movies (can very easily see it as being an adult lord of the rings) or a TV mini series is quite simply a crime against popular culture and will forever consign the book to the cult status of an underrated, under appreciated (and eventualy rediscovered) classic.

Book review – Titans of History – Sebastian Montefiore

Titans of History

History is full of people.  Believe it or not.  And if you didn’t believe this was true, here is a book which will make you think otherwise.

Here Sebastian Montefieroe does a countdown of the greatest figures in history who have left their mark and is ultimately a huge list of philosophers, warlords, ascetics, murderers, kings, leaders and statesmen.  How does a 500 page book manage to cover so many great men and women? Simple really – each person’s biography consists of no one more than 5 pages.  By doing so Montefiore manages to amass what can only be described a staggering amount of information on a, glancing at the contents page, innumerable amount of figures from the gore flecked pages of time.  It ultimately manages to fulfill the purpose it sets on in the introduction – to spark an interest in the mind of the reader for a figure in history which hopefully lead to further research and examination in their own time.  This is exactly what happened with the author and his beloved obsession from history – Joseph Stalin.

Here there is a similar obsession with the dark and sinister.  To describe Montefiore as obsessed with dark characters, a belief I have formed from if his interviews in The Guardian are anything to go by is like saying Kim Kardashian likes taking selfies i.e. understatement of the decade.  Once again we are faced with stories which seem to epitomize the dark contradictions of the alpha male condition – the normal man is reasonable and genrally leads a life of unremarkable simplicity, but the great truly lead lives of unreasonableness. It is their very unreasonableness which leads to their flouting of convention, great achievements which at times has proved to be a necessity for the greater good of society.  Behold how Churchill stands tall against the Nazi threat even in the face of condemnation in the House of Lords or Pizzarros staggering hubris in his desire to conquer the Spanish, or Alexander the Greats simple refusal to stop carrying on the conquering of lands although he had been crowned king of the world by that time or Adolf Hitlers astonishingly iron will and pathological self belief even in the face of destruction of Germany in the final days of the war.  Here is a catalogue of bravery and iron determination which can only be described as utterly unreasonable, yet it is for this reason these individuals have reached their relative place of greatness in history.

The book serves its purpose and is a strangely noble feat in conveying the acts of greatness which have shaped the world.  The only real downside is the brevity of each character biography.  But then again, the stomach can only handle so much violence from one character in the blood soaked story which makes our history.