'Theatre' - William Somerset Maugham 1937

I am a huge fan of  William Somerset Maugham (he is the only author I have reviewed here more than twice) and 'Theatre' did not disappoint. My favourite part about his writing, as I frequently mentioned when talking about 'Cakes and Ale' as well as 'The Painted Veil' is the interesting female characters he brings to life.


Theatre is a brilliant story about a complicated actress who lives her life as though it is one huge play. Her son believes that she only truly exists when she is performing for someone, and he is perhaps closest to the truth. The book charts her rise from a struggling country actress to one of the biggest stars of her era.


Along the way there are so many wonderful characters; from her frigid husband to her toy-boy lover, lesbian sponsor and other eccentric people who populate the London that Maugham has brought to life. 


Though Julia Lambert is an entertaining character she is not very likeable due to the sheer weight of her self obsession. 


This is one of my favourite passages which shows the 'thought patterns' which bring her to life:
"And his love of art filled her with a faint derision; after all she was a creator, when all was said and done he was only the public." 


Maugham is not a particularly famous author, and if 'Vintage' had not published all 3 of these novels I might never have come across him. But I am glad I did, and perhaps you might like to discover his work too.


Love it, Read it,
LR

'Cold Spring Harbor' - Richard Yates 1986.

While reading this book I realised that a very large number of the books I have been reading recently have been written in the 1930's. This was certainly not by design, merely by coincedence, but it is still interesting. Though Cold Spring Harbour was published in 1986 it is set throughout the 1930's and 40's, which would have been the time of Richard Yates' childhood (he was born in 1926). The setting is also that of Yates' childhood, and though I didn't realise this until after I finished the whole book, the obvious realism of the setting gives this book much of its 'flavour'.

The story scrolls through the perspectives of a number of characters, but mainly centers around the life of a young man, Evan Shepard. After a troubled adolescence, followed closely by a tumultuous relationship which resulted in a child at an early age, and then divorce, at the beginning of the book Evan is living at home with father and mentally unhinged mother, and works in a menial factory job. From Evan's chance meeting with a lovely lady, Rachel, the novel charts their swift marriage, and their downward spiral into unhappiness.

Despite enjoying the setting and the 'time capsule' feel of the book, overall I didn't really enjoy it very much. The plot is quite vague, consisting of very little more than the above paragraph.. There is something quite depressing about a book in which none of the characters, central or peripheral, are able to achieve anything of note or live to their full potential, almost entirely of their own volition. Without exception the characters are all hopeless in all their pursuits. This sense of hopelessness and entrapment permeates all aspects of the book, and left me with a feeling of sadness. Definitely not a cheerful puff piece to read at the beach this Summer.

Love it, Read it,
LR

'Cakes and Ale' - William Somerset Maugham 1930.

Cakes and Ale is a rather biting satire of the life of various notable British writers, including Thomas Hardy, who were prolific in William Somerset Maugham's time. Though he vehemently denied that there were any links between his characters and real life figures, which I suppose makes the definition of it as a 'satire' a little presumptuous. But at the time it was published Virginia Woolfe saw one of Maugham's friends in tears, as he saw that one of the characters presented as an unscrupulous literary social climber who churned out books of low quality, was actually himself.  


My favourite character in this book was Rosie, around whom most of the novel winds itself. She is vivacious and flippant, the muse for many of the central characters, and ultimately somewhat enigmatic in her motivations and desires. You can see an artists impression of her on the cover of my copy, from the first scene in which the protagonist meets her. Aside from her strength and sense of fun, her ability to ignore with ease the social conventions of the times are what made her so much fun to read about.


There are many memorable quotes throughout this book, however my favourites are those relating to 'Americans' such as: 


Alroy Kear: "You don't know America as well as I do. . . .They always prefer a live mouse to a dead lion"


William Ashenden: "The Americans, who are the most efficient people on the earth, have carried this device [the use of "ready-made phrases"] to such a height of perfection and have invented so wide a range of pithy and hackneyed phrases that they can carry on an amusing and animated conversation without giving a moment's reflection to what they are saying and so leave their minds free to consider the more important matters of big business and fornication."


You can find more quotes from the book on wikipedia and other places around the internet, but if you find these entertaining or interesting I suggest you buy and read the whole book. It is quite short, and as it is now published by 'Vintage' it is also quite inexpensive. 


Love it, Read it,
LR

'Scoop: A Novel About Journalists' - Evelyn Waugh 1938.

Evelyn Waugh is fast becoming one of my favourite writers. A few months ago I read one of his most famous novels 'Brideshead Revisited' which I highly recommend. The way he uses language is masterful, if writing was ever like music, or dance, it is in Waugh's books. Interestingly enough in the introduction to the Penguin edition of 'Scoop' there was a quote from Waugh himself, which I think illustrates my observation:

"I regard writing not as an investigation of character but as an exercise in the use of language... I have no technical psychological interest. It is drama, speech and events that interest me"

This statement positions Waugh as the antithesis of writers such as Émile Zola who writing is deeply interested in exploring the psychological elements of character, especially in his book I have mentioned previously, Thérèse Raquin. Though I have enjoyed both in their own way, there really is nothing more enjoyable than excellent prose (I think anyway).

But now back to Scoop. It is a great little novel, with a plot based on awkward situations, misunderstandings, miscommunications and social gaffes. The plot revolves around a case of mistaken identity, where a reclusive nature write is mistaken for an up and coming journalist with the same surname. He is sent (reluctantly) to Africa to cover a civil war as it unfolds. There were many genuinely hilarious moments which made me laugh out loud, though when trying to explain them I cannot recreate the humour, so deeply based is it in the way Waugh uses language. My one disclaimer in recommending this book is that it is a reflection of its time, and in quite frequently (and I suspect unintentionally) racist. If you can take the book for what it is (a satire of foreign correspondence and the British press) then I think it can be thoroughly enjoyed.

Once again my studies certainly influenced my enjoyment of this book, the subtitle is "A novel about journalists" and much of the comedy is based around the lies and ridiculous lengths journalists will go to in order to create a story. As I am currently researching media representations of war, this was, entirely coincidentally, the perfect novel for me to read.

Little piece of trivia for you, Evelyn Waugh and I were born on the same date, 28th of October.

Love it, Read it,
LR

'Brave New World '-Aldous Huxley 1932

Ultimately I enjoyed this book. As a story it has all the elements of an entertaining reading experience, and it is deserving of its status as a 'classic'.

In summary, it is slightly older, slightly weirder and slightly less well-known than George Orwell's 1984, but I compare the two because they both are dystopian novels. Huxley's vision of the future is, to the best of my knowledge, unique for it's time, and a long time afterwards. It is a book with a bleak vision for the future of humanity. Much bleaker and more frightening than Orwell's world of censorship and coercion and perpetual war, is Huxley's vision of a population manufactured into castes, educated to desire, willingly drugged into compliance. This subversion of will is really what frightened me about 'Brave New World', there is no way to resist when you are constructed from conception to comply. Although the population of 1984 were deceived through propaganda there was the (albeit very small) possibility of resistance.

Aside from their prominent status as classic dystopian novels, part of the reason I draw so many comparisons between Orwell and Huxley is this comic. Stuart McMillen has interpreted a section of Neil Postman's book 'Amusing Ourselves to Death', and all of the text is a direct quote from the book. While I am fascinated by Postman's conception of humanity and our descent into distraction via media and communication technologies I don't think the comic really represents either Huxley or Postman's work accurately.

The comic implies a passivity in humanity which isn't present in Postman's writing, and to equate twitter, facebook and reality TV with some of the mind-numbing social distractions of Huxley's world is a stretch. While facebook et al., may be argued by some to be 'mind-numbing social-distractions', we do not use them and engage with them because we have been sleep-taught by the government to do so. We still retain agency, the ability to choose to engage, something unthinkable in Huxley's world. I think this is a really important distinction, and while reading Brave New World I found very little, beyond the superficial distractions of the society, which would indicate we are living in 'Huxley's World'.

As a closing note, aside from 1984 and Brave New World, some dystopian novels I have read and would recommend are: Fahrenheit 451, A Clockwork Orange, Do Andriods Dream of Electric Sheep, The Forever War and Jennifer Government. (A couple of these probably would also fall into 'post apocalyptic').

Love it, Read it,
LR

'Antigua, Penny, Puce' ‐Robert Graves 1936.

I must admit I judged this book by its cover. While browsing in a secondhand book shop something made me pull out the battered Penguin Classic. I had never heard of Robert Graves, his rather surly image is on the back cover as you can see, and I knew nothing of the story, but I bought it anyway. What I love about this book is its story, the story of the book, as well as the story in the pages of the book. On the inside cover is written in ink "A Happy New Year, Pegg. Just a little something to read on the tram. I hope you enjoy it. The gloves are lovely, many thanks, Love Jacque". From the publication date we can assume if the book was purchased new as a gift that the dedication was written around 1947. There is something so wonderful about that, and as I read the story I imagined 'Pegg' reading it on the tram some 70 years ago.

So, now we come to the story itself. I really enjoyed this novel, it was based around the conflict between a brother and sister, which centers around the contested ownership of a stamp album and a particular stamp which give the novel its title. The story weaves together everything which one would assume was simply mentioned in passing to flesh out a scene, and any potential red herrings are pointed out if they are not relevant later. This makes for an interesting read, where many of the stylistic elements of the novel are referred to or explained as they occur. In this way it is a little similar to 'If on a Winter's Night a Traveller' by Italo Calvino, though certainly it has a much stronger central narrative than Calvino's unusual book (Which I may not review, as I read it some months ago, but I highly recommend).

Overall the characters are vivid and I became quite involved in the dispute, silently cheering on one sibling over the other. This vividness is probably owing to the quite small cast of characters, and a series of supporting characters who reappear as needed throughout the book. This is a technique used very effectively by Émile Zola in 'Thérèse Raquin' which made this novel easily adapted for the stage, and contributed to the claustrophobic feeling of the book. In the case of 'Antigua, Penny, Puce' it reinforced the interlinking nature of the plot and of families and friendships.


The only other thing I will add is that, as an Australian I am always very interested to see how Australians are portrayed in novels, and this book had some interesting character assessments and other references to what Australian people are like. This provided a nice contrast (in my mind) to another book I recently read 'The Getting of Wisdom', which is interesting as an Australian perspective on what Australia was 'really' like in a slightly earlier time period. I am beginning to amass a little list of books from 1900/1940s which use Australians as plot devices, I might share it one day soon. Amusing stuff.

Love it, Read it,
LR