Category: Mainstream Fiction

solly?

Posted on by Greig

Breakfast At Tiffanys

Truman Capote

Breakfast At TiffanysCapote’s novella is famously the basis of a much sanitised hollywood film version. In this, the original work, it’s pretty blatant that Holly is a hooker of sorts and she’s portrayed as even more of a creature of impulse and criminal tendencies that she is in the film.
I got the impression that Holly was something almost feral yet so glamorous that the narrator loved her from a distance in his way but never really understood her.
Not my usual kind of thing but it’s a pretty good read and is definitely worth seeking out if you’ve only ever seen the film version of these particular characters.

 

Rating: B

paisley?

Posted on by Greig

Espedair Street

Iain Banks

Espedair StreetI’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve read this book. I think I first read it about 1988, 1989 back when I was borrowing five books a week from Sinclairtown library.
I loved it then and I retain enormous affection for it now. However the book has dated rather badly and definitely is a work of it’s time.
The book follows a week in the life of a man called Daniel Weir, once the songwriter and bass player of wildly successful band, now semi-retired and living a pointless if comfortable life.
The book follows his drunken adventures with his working class friends and his reluctant meetings with music business colleagues as he looks back over his life to try and make sense of where and who he is. It’s Banks at his most straightforward and nicely different for that.
Recommended for anyone who ever wanted to be in a band who can deal with the fact that the book’s now a period piece.

Rating: B

four digit prime?

Posted on by Greig

Miss Wyoming

Douglas Coupland

Miss WyomingSusan Colgate and John Lodge Johnson, an ex-child star and big time Hollywood film producer, are the lead characters in this book.
Not the most promising start, but Coupland beautifully realises these cliches as real people with all the neuroses, strengths, flaws and past history that you could ever wish for.
Told as usual with his fabulous style, I really enjoy this book, but the plot is pointless and inconsequential and rests on the strength of the characters. If you can’t enjoy the characters then the book will mean nothing to you. I recommend this if you already like Coupland’s work.

Rating: B+

sabotage?

Posted on by Greig

JPod

Douglas Coupland

JPodSupposedly an update of the classic Microserfs for the Google generation this is instead a cynical, heartless mess of a novel.
Centred around a group of workers at a faceless games company in Vancouver, the book riffs off on the personal neuroses and bizarre acts of these people and their families.
As always Coupland’s prose is superbly readable and some of it is very funny, but the story is stupid, the characters are deeply unlikeable and he fills about a third of the book with concrete text or lists of prime numbers, digits of pi, and other pointless lists. It worked when used sparingly and within context in microserfs – in this novel it makes a slight tale seem more of a rip-off.
If you read Microserfs and wanted more or you just love Coupland’s work, then read this book, but be prepared to be disappointed. Otherwise, avoid it.

Rating: C+

minifigs?

Posted on by Greig

Microserfs

Douglas Coupland

MicroserfsI last read this book in 2003.
As I said then, it’s one of my favourite books to re-read from time to time. I re-read it this time to prepare for reading his latest novel JPod, which is meant to be a more cynical take on the same world.
It’s a funny and moving tale of a bunch of tech workers who leave behind the tech monoculture of Microsoft to work in a start up in Silicon Valley.
It contains a lot of very interesting and some valid ideas about geek life. It’s a pity that as technology has raced ahead it’s made a lot of the tech observations obsolete.
I still recommend this book and especially to anyone who works in IT or similar geek workplace.

Rating: A

anarchy?

Posted on by Greig

The Man Who Was Thursday

G.K. Chesterton

Syme is a poet and an anti-anarchist policeman. He cleverly gets voted on to the Supreme Council of Anarchists as Thursday (The council members all have days of the week for names).
The rest of this story details his adventures as he attempts to derail the activities of the Council.
This is a blackly comic, surreal tale, with many layers of meaning.
I’d recommend it, but I don’t really know why. Anyway you can get a download of it via project gutenberg like I did and read it as an e-book.

Rating: B+