Kazuo Ishiguro - Just finished reading . . .

Nocturnes by Kazuo Ishiguro

7 out of 10

I don't much care for reading short stories, I like to get my teeth into a longer narrative. I guess, though, that, as short stories go, these might rank in the first division. With Annie Proulx.
I've read Ishiguro before (Remains of the Day - Yay!, The Unconsoled - what???) and he always leaves me feeling a bit dissatisfied. There are gaps in the reader's knowledge, and unlikely scenarios arise. This is a clever book, in that each story has links to the others, through themes; music, relationships, men who are drifting, but I could have put it down and not finished it, because I wasn't bothered about how the stories might end. I think he's a very clever, accomplished author. It's just that he doesn't speak to me.

Did the book have anything in common with Joanne Trollope's 'Marrying the Mistress'? Well - the both look at dodgy relationships.

My secret diary 1970 September (ii)

Sept 16 (Wed)
Gosh! New machine in loos. Incinerator for S.T.s*. Bit embarassing and awfully smokey. S gone and told W about David and Pete on the moors.
Sept 17 (Thurs)
(Wed cont) imaginary situation about 2 lads on moors. S told W about it to keep her mind off "Postie, Postie, please be quick, it's my S who makes me tick"
Sept 18
Help. S got me in a fix when she said that I was in the back of a tent with Pete! I'm sorry I told C about 'Postie'. W matter cleared.
Sept 19
Sorry! I can't remember much. Aren't I naughty? Got a watch on Green Shield stamps. Norma bought me a watchstrap. 10/-. Gorgeous.
Sept 20 (Sun)
(sorry again) I'll catch up with diary on Oct 3rd. Yesterday got jumper for school* (too) £3
Sept 21
School again. Didn't use machine. Lucky me! Told girls that I got my watch from my aunt. I wish I hadn't now.
Sept 22
Had school photo. Here's me grinning like a right twit 'cos the girls behind kept cracking corny jokes. OK day.
Sept 23 (Wed)
JD invited me to bufday party on Sunday. Nice of her. Miss Turner* is horrible. She chose the same people for leading parts in the play.
Sept 24
I can't think of much. Only a month to my birthday.
Sept 25th
Hulme U/14 vs Bolton hockey tomorrow. C & S playing. I'll go to support. We'll need it.
Sept 26 (Sat)
Well done Hulme. We only lost 3-0 that's all. Friendly lot Bolton. Saw Linda Shepherd* in town on a stall. Might come on Thursday.
Sept 27 (Sun)
JD's party, and Jacqueline's (J's cousin). Went to both. A £300 organ was broken. At JD's there were lads at the window
Sept 28
J talking about the lads at the window last night. Photo out on the board at school. I look a sight.
Sept 29 (Tue)
Gosh! Norma's going away on Thurs. To Birmingham. Went to see 'Jane Eyre' at the Odeon. Not dead good. Went with J and JD
Sept 30
It struck me before I went to bed, how much my family means to me. Norma's going away. 3 years. The things that mum and dad have done for me.



*Commentary
Sept 16 - do people still say 'S.T.s' to signify sanitary towels? Do people still talk about sanitary towels? I'm left wondering how did we cope before this machine was put in? It was clearly a revolutionary thing to contemplate for my 13 year old self.
Sept 20 - navy blue, v-necked.
Sept 23 - have I introduced you to Miss Turner? She was our English teacher and the deputy head. I found her quite scarey. She was strict. She was, I think, a daughter of the Raj. She tried to make me put my 'aitches' in the right places, and reduce my Oldham accent. But - despite all this, she made me understand the English language and planted a seed of appreciation for literature. Thanks Miss Turner. But she did type-cast for plays and reading aloud in class - I never got the girly heroines. I used to get the serious men.
Sept 26 - Linda was an old friend from junior school. Going to grammar school made me lose touch.

This week I went to see . . .

Dr Faustus at the Royal Exchange in Manchester, with big sis, Paul, my wicked step-daughter and her tolerant partner.

The play is recommended.

We all enjoyed it. It had magic and special effects all the way through, some of which made me jump, and some of which were spooky. I've never seen it before and inevitably, it being Elizabethan, the language took some grappling with. The lead actor, Patrick O'Kane, didn't help, because he muttered a bit.

It is a play that, presumably, was made to make audiences think about living a good life, and going to endless joy in heaven. (Or alternatively, living a sinful, pleasurable ife, with all of the world's knowledge, power and treasures at your fingertips, and then going on to perpetual torture and nastiness in hell).

What with the Pope visiting Britain at the moment, and being a bit controversial, the play got a bonus laugh and mutter of appreciation from the audience, because there is a scene featuring the then Pope, showing his corruption and brutality. The was written after Queen Elizabeth I had been excommunicated by Rome, and the Pope had decreed that it would not be a sin to kill her. So I guess Christopher Marlowe knew which side his bread was buttered on.

A surprising lack of rants . . .

Since the birth of the coalition Con-Dem government, I have collapsed into a state of rantlessness. This is largely because everyday there is something in the news which brings on my fury and wrath. It is all too much. The British public has its intelligence insulted every day, and its future jeopardised, but it just lies down like a puppy, and accepts it all.
In October we will see the spending review results and the infrastructure of our society, built on the public service, will be decimated. Those things that we should respect and protect most; health and social care, education, arts and culture, will be starved of resources.
I just heard some guy on the radio saying that the British tax-payer shouldn't be asked to fork out more money. So let's get this right. To avoid taking more tax from those with money, let's make a whole lot of people from the public services unemployed. And then - let's see if we can get volunteers to help keep our public services running. We'll call this the Big Society, and pretend it's for the greater good. Now. Who shall we ask to volunteer? Oh, I know, let's tell the unemployed it will look good on their CVs, if they volunteer to do unpaid work in hospitals, and in libraries.
There was an article in the Guardian a while ago. I can't remember all the details, but it said something like this - if the richest people in the country (who own most of the wealth) were made to pay a one off (very big) tax payment then the budget deficit would be paid off. Full stop. They wouldn't even miss it.
We were warned that it wouldn't do to be poor, sick or otherwise vulnerable if the Tories got into power. What we hadn't anticipated was that it wouldn't do to be female or live in the North, either.
Rant over. Not so rantless as I thought!

Just finished reading . . .

Marrying the Mistress by Joanna Trollope

5 out of 10

You can always rely on a Joanna Trollope or a Maeve Binchy for good, comfortable reading. Why is a book like this a good read? Because she uses a good, strong, traditional, recognisable narrative form. All the plot-threads reach satisfying conclusions. All ends up well in the nice, middle-class, white, aga-heated world. Like Midsomer Murders, but with no murder.
But - this is not a book to earn more than 5 marks, because it is disposable. Once it has been read, it gets given away. Good books get put back on my shelf, for keeping, lending and maybe re-reading. Good books are like climbing a mountain - you have to work to get the benefit. A Joanna Trollope is like a stroll down a flowery path, then having afternoon tea in a tea-room. You'll always remember the toil, the rewards and the significance of the mountain . . .
I'm not sure that it's fair to put Maeve in the same category. I recently heard a very good short story by Maeve.

Did this book have anything in common with the last book I read - The Road? No, no, no, no.

My secret diary 1970 September (i)

I'm going to start this entry by making an announcement. It was my Auntie May, my Godmother, who bought me the diary originally. She died 10 years ago. Two days ago, on 2.9.10 her son, my cousin Allan, died, aged 72. It was a terribly hard and sad death. This is an act of remembrance.

Sept 1 (Tues)
Visited J. Didn't go to S's. Not a very interesting day, can't remember much.
Sept 2
Didn't do much. Some embroidery. Made part of a dress for my Tressy doll. Sandra came and nearly cut my poor doll's hair off.
Sept 3
Was going to go to baths with J and S but suddenly found out I'd started my P. Dead annoyed. Not a very nice day.
Sept 4 (Fri)
Tut Tut BWD*. I HATE AUNTIE EMMA. The things that she's said about me behind my back. Ugh. Went up town. Didn't buy anything exciting.*
Sept 5
CUWD* Just read all through diary, had a good laugh (in some parts). Sat all by myself. Dad keeps going on about my fees. Sick of it.*
Sept 6 (Sun)
S phoned me and J. Decided to have a party on Friday. Great! I'm going to S's tomorrow!!!
Sept 7
Went to S's after dinner. No, she came to our house. We sent invitations to everyone. Made posters.
Sept 8
I went to S's. J didn't feel like coming. Did the garage out. Great time. BWD S's dad took me home.
Sept 9
A day to myself at last! Made some posters for the party. Spent nearly all afternoon doing them. Did bedroom.
Sept 10
Went to J's, then went to S's. Did a bit more on garage. Started talking about vampires, ghosts etc. I must believe in them.
Sept 11 (Fri)
The Party. A success until S's sister broke the heat 'n' light bulb. They cost over £1. It may have been her or chemistry.
Sept 12 (Sat)
CUWD. Went up town and bought Norma a make-up bag and make-up. Bargains! Went to library. Got 'Mist over Pendle'.
Sept 13
Happy Birthday Norm! Oh Dear! Guess who's behind 3 weeks with the diary. Dum de dum ~
Sept 14 (Mon)
School tomorrow (still BWD) Can't think what else. Norma's definitely going to Birmingham University.
Sept 15
O happy day. Back to school. In Biology Lab. On first dinner. Not so bad. Horrible smell. OK though. In UIVF now.

*Commentary
Sept 4 - BWD stands for behind with diary. With my adult, occupational therapist's hat on, I would say that this is a young adolescent who needs to be engaged in some meaningful and purposeful activity! She needs to go back to school!
Sept 5 - CUWD stands for caught up with diary. I went to a 'grant-maintained' grammar school. It was fee-paying, if you passed the entrance exam, but it was means tested. When I first went there we didn't have to pay fees, but later we did. I think it must have been hard for mum and dad. Dad thought that education was the most important thing n the world. Here I am, in adult life, working at a university.

Just finished reading . . .

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

10 out of 10

This is a short book. I wanted to put it down, because it is hard, uncomfortable, ugly. But it is also tender, beautiful and profound. It is about the physical world, and the emotional world, pared down to their basics. It makes me be more appreciative of basic, simple things that I take for granted. It will make me think more about small kindnesses, green leaves and my comfortable life. It has made me think about what is going on in Pakistan and Darfur.
It was difficult to evaluate because there are so many superlative reviews presented on the inside covers, but I'm not sure I can fault it, except that it wasn't a pleasurable read. But why should I expect or want that?

What does it have in common with the last book I read, 'The Time Traveler's Wife'? That shoes are important for comfort and survival.

I want to pick up another book to read, but they are all too trivial now.

Just finished reading . . .

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

9 out of 10

I couldn't give it 9 out of 10, because I had to make myself keep reading up to page 100, wondering what the point was.
A stupid thing to wonder, really. I think this may be one of the great love stories. How did the author have the imagination to conceptualise this? Wow! I haven't seen the film, and I don't think I'd better do, because I don't want my sense of the book spoiled. What a relationship these 2 people have!
There is a link between this and the 'Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' in that they are both about 21st century living, from the perspective of thirty-somethings. They are both about relationships.

Even better - there is a very clear link between the 'Time Traveler's Wife' and my experience of publishing my teenage diary on this blog. That whole feeling of being me now, looking back, objectively and subjectively, at me then, and recognising myself as being a different being, yet the same being. I wonder if I ever, as a teenager, foresaw that I would be read by me at 53. And if I did, what did I think the older me would be like? I could go on in this vein for ever - so I'll stop! (But thanks to Angela Hook for sharing thoughts about diary-publishing).

I'm going to read 'The Road' next. Paul gave it 10 out of 10. But I suspect it will depressing, so I've been putting it off.