This and That...

This is a blog post about this and that, bits and bobs; more of an update really.

Firstly, The Little Stranger is on its way in the post to me and I am unbelievably excited (I don't think I've anticipated a book this much since the last three Harry Potter books). I pre-ordered it over a month ago online but had to cancel that order since it hadn't been dispatched yet and order through Waterstone's instead, who were offering it at a far cheaper price anyway and where I could also redeem my loyalty points. I am hoping it will arrive my Saturday's post...

Secondly, I managed to finish my book for book group before tonight's meeting. I'll review that over the next few days. I'm looking forward to finding out what we're reading next (we take it in turns to decide).

Thirdly, my library pile is decreasing although I have five books waiting collection (and four to return). One of the books I'll collect over the next few days is The Wilderness by Samantha Harvey, which I am hoping to read before the Orange Prize is announced on June 3rd. The other books I'm picking up are The Group by Mary McCarthy (this one has been on my radar for a while but I watched a Hay Festival interview with Sarah Waters and she said that she's currently re-reading it so I took the recommendation and requested it); The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa; People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks; and The Post-Birthday World by Lionel Shriver (this one I am most excited about). I also renewed The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb so that I have more time to tackle it as its sheer size is somewhat daunting.

Also, my friend and I are tackling some classics that we have always meant to read but never have and next up is Brideshead Revisted by Evelyn Waugh for July 1st (even though, ahem, my friend still hasn't finished the previous book, Brighton Rock).

I still have three books (and another still to review) to read for Carl's Once Upon a Time Challenge : one fairy tale book, which is currently in progress, and two non-fiction books before Midsummer's Night (June 23rd).

I have also began to participate in the Shelfari discussion group Booktivity's monthly challenge to read a book with a specific category -and its derivatives- in the title. This coming month's category is "weather" and I was thinking of reading Nancy Mitford's Love in a Cold Climate or Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Leaf Storm.

So that will be one new book, ten library books, one book group book (decided tonight); one unread classic; three challenge books; one weather book ... to be read within the next 4-6 weeks, not to mention the books I already have waiting (and wanting) to be read. Seventeen books is manageable in that time limit, isn't it? Deviating from the list and not adding new books, however, is less achievable...

(Image courtesy of Amazon.co.uk)

Brighton Rock

My friend and I filling the gaps in our reading by reading those Classics we "should have" but never did, all of those unread Penguin Modern Classics sitting unopened on the shelf. First up was Brighton Rock by Graham Greene.

Jumping to the Afterword, or the Note to American Readers, if I may, I have to comment on how amusing and illuminating I found the editor's comment to be:

"Brighton Rock is a form of sticky candy as characteristic of English seaside resorts as salt-water taffy is of the American. The word 'Brighton' appears on the ends of the stick at no matter what point it is broken off".

Of course it seems perfectly reasonable to me that readers outwith the UK would not know what rock was but not knowing is also alien to me as it is ingrained into my consciousness, an intrinsic part of visiting the seaside (and not to be confused with Edinburgh rock, which is an entirely different sweet/candy). However, in saying that, I have never read the title of Brighton Rock and thought of the hard, sticky, and minty goodness; I always thought Brighton Rock was a location (an imagined one perhaps, albeit in Brighton). It was only when the symbolism and importance of the book's title was revealed, about 2/3 into the novel, that I realised that this was why the book was a classic . Until that stage I found it likable: the setting is gritty and sinister, as are the majority of characters; the main protagonist, Pinkie, is a great anti-hero; the drama is engaging and well-paced but the revelation of sheer literary intelligence and a great plot mover and device captured my imagination. It was then that I became full of admiration for the text and for Greene, realising why Brighton Rock is such a renowned and popular modern classic.

The rock from Brighton is crucial to the plot, it is a means and a symbol and a detective fiction clue. It is symbolically representative of the novel's good vs. evil theme. As Ida, the heroine, says in response to "People change":

""Oh, no they don't ... It's like those sticks of rock: bite it all the way down, you'll still read Brighton. That's human nature."

Of course exactly how Brighton Rock becomes the means of killing Hale, a journalist, remains one of those great literary questions, such as what exactly the something nasty was that Aunt Ada Doom saw in the woodshed? How did Pinkie's mob use the Brighton Rock to kill Hale?