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[paul secor]

26 minutes ago, Brad said:

Jill Lepore is supposed to be writing a book about Joe Gould. I think she contends that Mitchell took advantage of him. I know, from reading Mitchell’s bio, that he took a few narrative liberties but his articles were still great. 

Lepore did write a book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27071492-joe-gould-s-teeth?ac=1&from_search=true

I haven't read the book, but I read the original article that she wrote for The New Yorker, and there wasn't much to that. From most of the reviews, it doesn't seem that there was much to what she came up with. Joseph Mitchell seems to have gotten it right in his mid 60's New Yorker articles and later book.

[Brad]

4 minutes ago, paul secor said:

Lepore did write a book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27071492-joe-gould-s-teeth?ac=1&from_search=true

I haven't read the book, but I read the original article that she wrote for The New Yorker, and there wasn't much to that. From most of the reviews, it doesn't seem that there was much to what she came up with. Joseph Mitchell seems to have gotten it right in his mid 60's New Yorker articles and later book.

Thanks. I read the article but wasn’t impressed, a rarity with her articles.  

[Brad]

On 7/25/2018 at 10:38 AM, Brad said:

I finished this just now.  It’s sort of a precursor or preamble to The Spy Who Came In From the Cold.  I have to confess to never having read it before. 

[mjazzg]

14 hours ago, Brad said:

I finished this just now.  It’s sort of a precursor or preamble to The Spy Who Came In From the Cold.  I have to confess to never having read it before. 

That's interesting. I recently finished 'An Honourable Schoolboy' which I thought a tremendous read. This got me thinking I really needed to read the other Smiley/Karla series (I've only read 'Tinker, Tailor...', years ago) before reading the copy of 'A Legacy Of Spies' that's sitting here. Looks like I may need to start with this then.

[Brad]

1 hour ago, mjazzg said:

That's interesting. I recently finished 'An Honourable Schoolboy' which I thought a tremendous read. This got me thinking I really needed to read the other Smiley/Karla series (I've only read 'Tinker, Tailor...', years ago) before reading the copy of 'A Legacy Of Spies' that's sitting here. Looks like I may need to start with this then.

Before reading a Legacy of Spies, I recommend reading The Spy who came in from the Cold. It will make more sense then. A Call for the Dead introduces characters like Smiley and Guillam and one other I won’t name as I don’t want to ruin the surprise. 

[mjazzg]

1 hour ago, Brad said:

Before reading a Legacy of Spies, I recommend reading The Spy who came in from the Cold. It will make more sense then. A Call for the Dead introduces characters like Smiley and Guillam and one other I won’t name as I don’t want to ruin the surprise. 

Thanks Brad, that's helpful guidance. I had intended to read 'The Spy...' next up but now I'll insert 'A Call for the Dead' ahead of it. 'Legacy Of Spies' is definitely last on the list although already purchased on a whim.

All of those come after learning why Barca always were the team for me to prefer in Spain but now with evidence . The diabolical theft of Di Stefano...and other sins and I haven't even got to Sergio Ramos yet!

Edited July 29, 2018 by mjazzg

[Brad]

Speaking of thefts, did you see that Roma are hopping mad. They claimed that they had a deal with Malcolm and Barcelona stole him from them. 

[mjazzg]

Yes. My neighbour's a dyed in the wool Roma fan. Maybe they could agree to alternate  

Edited July 29, 2018 by mjazzg

[Brad]

Started this yesterday. 

 

[ejp626]

I was making my way through Max Apple's The Propheteers when I discovered that the first chapter is his short story "The Oranging of America" with only the most minor changes.  I realized I had never read the entire collection, though I'm pretty sure I read the title story a long, long time ago.  For good measure, I picked up his recent short story collection The Jew of Home Depot.

What surprised me a bit is the sameness of so many of the stories in Oranging.  Well over half involve some kind of naive struggle against American capitalism, followed by the protagonist running off with some cute chick.  "The Oranging of America" does break this pattern and is definitely the better for it.  I wouldn't say I disliked the collection, but it definitely felt padded, and I don't think it will stand the test of time.

I'm not as far along with The Jew of Home Depot, but the running theme seems to be the struggle of the various protagonists to maintain their Jewishness in the face of the acid bath of American culture and American-style capitalism more broadly, which as Marx says will wash away religion and even family ties.

So now I've gotten through The Jew of Home Depot.  In addition to the Jewish theme, approximately 1/3 of the stories involve the protagonist needing to deal with a family member's medical needs, typically dementia or Alzheimer's.  Quite possibly this is something that Apple was going through himself and was doing some "processing" in the stories.  Anyway, it definitely lead to quite a few melancholy stories.

Edited August 4, 2018 by ejp626

[Brad]

On 8/1/2018 at 9:41 PM, Brad said:

Started this yesterday. 

 

Finished this. A good commentary on the British school system. Not a spy book, more of a murder mystery. 

On 8/2/2018 at 7:01 AM, ejp626 said:

I was making my way through Max Apple's The Propheteers when I discovered that the first chapter is his short story "The Oranging of America" with only the most minor changes.  I realized I had never read the entire collection, though I'm pretty sure I read the title story a long, long time ago.  For good measure, I picked up his recent short story collection The Jew of Home Depot.

What surprised me a bit is the sameness of so many of the stories in Oranging.  Well over half involve some kind of naive struggle against American capitalism, followed by the protagonist running off with some cute chick.  "The Oranging of America" does break this pattern and is definitely the better for it.  I wouldn't say I disliked the collection, but it definitely felt padded, and I don't think it will stand the test of time.

I'm not as far along with The Jew of Home Depot, but the running theme seems to be the struggle of the various protagonists to maintain their Jewishness in the face of the acid bath of American culture and American-style capitalism more broadly, which as Marx says will wash away religion and even family ties.

So now I've gotten through The Jew of Home Depot.  In addition to the Jewish theme, approximately 1/3 of the stories involve the protagonist needing to deal with a family member's medical needs, typically dementia or Alzheimer's.  Quite possibly this is something that Apple was going through himself and was doing some "processing" in the stories.  Anyway, it definitely lead to quite a few melancholy stories.

I hope you don’t take offense but the Home Depot story sounds rather depressing. 

[ghost of miles]

[Brad]

Started this tonight

[ejp626]

11 hours ago, Brad said:

 

I hope you don’t take offense but the Home Depot story sounds rather depressing. 

It was kind of an odd departure, as Apple was always known as a humorist.

[ghost of miles]

[BillF]

4 hours ago, ghost of miles said:

A favorite, David. Less impressed by the recent film.

[paul secor]

Bernard MacLaverty: Grace Notes

[erwbol]

Gerald Horne The Apocalypse of Settler Colonialism: The Roots of Slavery, White Supremacy, and Capitalism in 17th Century North America and the Caribbean

[Utevsky]

Eerie sci-fi from Russian authors. 

 

[felser]

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

I've just finished reading A history of Europe, by H A L Fisher, which my wife bought me for Christmas last year.

She got me an old edition (1945 - first edition was 1937) from Amazon because I didn't want a paperback. I asked my Mum to buy it when I saw a Penguin edition in a shop window in 1954 and read it so many times it was completely knackered by the mid sixties. It opened my mind to history and got me through my exams because I just knew more than the other kids.

When I started working on Education policy in 1974, I found out that Fisher was the Minister for Education in the Lloyd George Government and was the guy behind passing the Education Act 1918, which was one of the key pieces of legislation in education. Unlike in America, we never name Acts after the people who instigate them, but that Act is known as the Fisher Act.

And reading it again, I found something I'd never realised before - I learned to write from Fisher! Time and again, I'd find myself reading phrases and constructions I'd frequently used in the Civil Service! I'd forgotten a fair bit of the history, but I hadn't forgotten those turns of phrase.

MG

[Matthew]

Simon Says: The Sights and Sounds of the Swing Era: 1935 - 1955 by George T. Simon. Simon wasn't the most insightful person in the world, and the writing here is very prosaic at times, but I love this book for some reason.

[ejp626]

I'm about halfway through Alif the Unseen.

I have mixed feelings about it.  I was expecting/hoping it would be along the lines of Effinger's When Gravity Fails and the rest in that series.  (Really great books, which I ought to reread.)  And it sort of starts off that way, but the descriptions of coding are pretty laughable and it departs fairly quickly from the cyberpunk vein.  Pretty soon we are interacting with actual djinns (not just deluded humans who think they are djinns or people with djinn avatars in a virtual world).  So it really is much more a fantasy book with some cyberpunk elements.  It's quite readable, for all that.

Back to traditional lit. after this, Porter's Ship of Fools and McCarthy's Birds of America.

[ghost of miles]

On 8/7/2018 at 3:16 AM, BillF said:

A favorite, David. Less impressed by the recent film.

I finished it this evening—very good, but increasingly grim as it progressed. I’ve also made some headway with this book, which has been on my to-read list for many years:

[Larry Kart]

Just read all three of these in a row -- three of the best biographies I've ever read. And what a fascinating subject.

Am now reading a previous book that Steven Englund co-wrote:

Very enlightening so far, in part because it doesn't begin with the blacklist era but starts in 1930. That background matters a great deal.