Bookish

Going through one of my mad-busy phases right now means that my sleep pattern is way out of kilter, and I'm tending to wake when I'm supposed to be re-building my energy for either an early-morning or late-night work session. That's when I turn to reading, both to pass the time in relaxation mode and to tire myself out.

All of this means that I've now finished all three of the 3-for-the-price-of-2 lot I bought recently. They turned out to be good choices. In order of reading -- [1] Christine Falls (John Banville writing as Benjamin Black) is superb. I recommend it without reservation. This is writing of the highest order, with a plot which is totally engrossing from beginning to end. [2] The Savage Garden (Mark Mills) is good, but not great. An interesting read, but rather unsatisfying overall. [3] Terrorist (John Updike). How can this be the first John Updike book I've read? I've threatened often enough to try the Rabbit series or one of the made-it-to-the-screen novels, but just never got round to it. Now at last I've made a start. I'll definitely read more. The characterisation is masterly in this book and the plot is excellent, especially in terms of the interweaving of the various characters and their lives. And what writing! Updike is a supreme stylist, that's for sure.

With those out of the way I've moved on to Alan Hollinghurst's The Line of Beauty. I was all ready to sing the praises of Alex Ross's The Rest is Noise to the music group when they came to my place on Saturday, but my thunder was stolen when one of the guys beat me to it and produced a book himself (this one), wondering if anyone would like to read it. He said he'd given up on it after about twenty pages, and another of the guys agreed. Despite these bad reports, I said I'd give it a go since I had just finished the other three. I'm struggling through it. Part of the blurb on the jacket is 'Richly textured, emotionally charged, disarmingly funny, it is a major work by one of the finest writers in the English language.' 'One of the finest writers'? Whoever penned the blurb has got to be joking. I can fully understand why the others gave up on it. The first chapter is a classic example of how not to begin a book. The reader is unceremoniously thrown in off the deep end and dumped in the middle of a confusing cast of characters whose inter-connections are presented in the most confusing and offputting manner imaginable. Certainly not a promising opening, and it really hasn't got much better as I've ploughed through it. Not much happens really (and I'm more than half way through), and the writing is pretty terrible, full of self-conscious mannerisms. Not at all in the same league as John Banville or John Updike, that's for sure -- and certainly not 'one of the finest writers in the English language'.