Geoff Coupe's Blog

Reflections on life at “De Witte Wand”…

Category: Books

  • The Indian Clerk

    I’ve just finished reading David Leavitt’s The Indian Clerk (or The IND1AN CLƐRK as the book’s cover would have it). I found it very good indeed. It’s a novel based on real people and real events that happened mainly in Cambridge, England, between 1913 and 1920. The two central characters are G. H. Hardy and Srinivasa Ramanujan. Hardy was a prominent British mathematician, and was instrumental in bringing Ramanujan, a mathematical genius, from India to Cambridge.

    The novel imagines Hardy’s innermost feelings as it tells the story of the relationship between the two mathematicians, both personal and professional. There are many other real people and real events contained in the book, and Leavitt has done a wonderful job in bringing them and the society to life. In particular, the evocation of life at Cambridge, and the Cambridge Apostles is very well done. I did notice one small mistake, though. On page 374, he mentions the “scent of Dettol permeating the air” in a nursing hostel where Ramanujan has been taken. Unfortunately for Leavitt, Dettol wasn’t invented until after 1929 and marketed in 1933.

  • Dutch Picture Books

    There’s now an online collection of children’s picture books in Dutch, ranging from the years between 1810 to 1950. There are 650 books in the collection, which has been set up by the Koninklijke Bibliotheek , the Openbare Bibliotheek Amsterdam , Bibliotheek Rotterdam , and the Stadsarchief en Athenaeumbibliotheek Deventer.  A fascinating slice of social history.
     
    (hat tip to peacay over at BibliOdyssey)

  • Banner Advertising

    A new twist on fly-posting at the Frankfurt Book Fair – release 200 flies each with a small banner attached with your advertising message.
     
    I sincerely hope this doesn’t catch on.
     
     
     
    (hat tip: David Thompson)

  • The Art Of Penguin Science Fiction

    The Art Of Penguin Science Fiction is a terrific web site compiled by James Pardey. The opening page is a collage of a selection of the covers of science fiction books published by Penguin over the years. The web site can be explored by clicking on any of the book covers, or by navigating via themes or the index. Any way that you take, it’s a fascinating insight into the subject.

    For me, it’s a trip down memory lane. What struck me about the opening collage was how many of the images (42!) I instantly remembered from the years of 1963 through to 1977. It was the time that combined my then voracious appetite for SF with distinctive covers by artists such as Alan Aldridge and David Pelham.

    (hat tip to Nicholas Whyte for the link)

  • The Retelling Of Myths

    I see that Marina Warner has an article in this month’s London Review of Books about a new book by Dubravka Ugrešić: Baba Yaga Laid An Egg. Warner’s article is both a review of the book, and a delving into the background of its form: the retelling of myth.
     
    I’ve just finished reading Margo Lanagan’s Tender Morsels, which is an extraordinary and powerful retelling of Snow White and Rose Red. If Ugrešić’s book comes even within spitting distance of that, then it will definitely be worth reading. I’m adding it to my list of books to read before I die.

  • Bibliophiles ‘R Us

    This last week, I’ve been making a couple of pilgrimages to bookshops and bookmarkets. First up was a day trip down to Maastricht, to the Dominicanen bookshop. This is notable for being in a converted church, and is probably the most beautiful bookshop in the Netherlands.

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    I confess that I didn’t actually buy anything there this time around, but it was worth it for the sightseeing, and the opportunity on the train journey to get stuck into Carlos Ruiz Zafon’s “The Angel’s Game”.

    Next up was the trip last Sunday to the Hanseatic city of Deventer for the annual Bookmarket – the biggest one in Europe with 6 kilometers of bookstalls. Despite the pouring rain, I came away with some success: an armful of books including a first edition hardcover of Spider Robinson’s “Callahan’s Lady” and Anton Radevsky’s pop-up book on Spacecraft.

    I have a small collection of pop-up books – I’m fascinated by paper engineering. But it’s nothing when compared to the collection of someone like Kees Keijzer. He was mentioned in the Volkskrant’s report on the bookmarket. Apparently, he has a collection of 2,500 pop-up books. That’s more than my complete library, for heaven’s sake.

  • A Hit And A Miss

    Somewhere (I can’t remember where), I came across a review of Jedediah Berry’s "A Manual of Detection". The review sounded interesting, so I got the book. There were other positive reviews as well, so I started the book with high hopes. Alas, my hopes have been dashed. I found the novel trying too hard, and eventually, simply trying. I’ve given up about halfway through, with a sour expression on my face. It just didn’t work for me.
     
    So I turned to the latest from Malcolm Pryce: "From Aberystwyth with Love". From the very first page, a smile was back on my face, and I can’t wait to immerse myself in this book.
     
    Both books are ostensibly about detectives and are detective novels set in bizarre fantastical worlds. But the difference, as far as I am concerned is like day and night. Give me Pryce over Berry any day.

  • Cheeta Makes The Booker

    A couple of weeks back, I mentioned how much I had enjoyed reading James Lever’s cod autobiography Me Cheeta – supposedly the autobiography of the chimp who starred in the Tarzan films. I’m pleased to see, therefore, that Me Cheeta has been put on the longlist of this year’s Booker Prize. I’ll be cheering it on.

  • The Game Cookbook

    Apparently, the appalling Norman Tebbit has written a cookery book. I don’t think I’ll bother buying it – I don’t wish to put even a few coppers in his purse. I suspect John Crace’s digested read of the contents is not a million miles from the impression that I would have, were I to crack open its covers.

  • Carl Sagan on God

    The premature death of Carl Sagan robbed us of a voice worth listening to. However, I recently picked up a copy of one of his books, published from beyond the grave, as it were: The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God. I cannot recommend it highly enough.
     
    The book is composed of rediscovered transcripts of a series of lectures that he gave back in 1985. They are as relevant today, perhaps even more so, than as when he first delivered them. The wit, compassion, curiosity, and intellectual integrity of the man shines through on every page. Absolutely stunning.  

  • A Simian Tale

    If you like reading autobiographies and stories about the Golden Age of Hollywood, then I can thoroughly recommend Me Cheeta, ostensibly the autobiography of the chimpanzee who starred alongside Johnny Weissmuller in the Tarzan fims of the 1930s and 1940s.
     
    Mind you, this is a scabrous autobiography, as Cheeta lifts the lid on the sleaze behind the silver screen. I don’t think I’ve been as appalled, or laughed as loud, since I read Kenneth Anger’s Hollywood Babylon.
     
    Me Cheeta is a brilliant piece of writing by his handler, James Lever. A must-read. But don’t just take my word for it; here’s Nicholas Lezard in the Guardian Review.

  • Missing The Point

    I grant you that Cristina Odone picks up an error in her review of Ophelia Benson’s and Jeremy Stangroom’s book: Does God Hate Women? But then Odone plays the usual trick of "it’s not my God that you’re talking about". This is the get-out-of-jail card played by most religious apologists these days, and Odone follows the rest of the sheep. I for one am becoming heartily sick of it. The whole point is that God is a manmade construct; with the emphasis, in these matters, on "man".
     
    I find it interesting that in the very same issue of the Observer is an opinion piece penned by ex-President Jimmy Carter who, in effect, supports the central thesis of Benson’s and Stangroom’s book. I simply note that it has taken him thirty years to realise the error of his ways.
     
    Update: Ophelia acknowledges the error, although Jeremy insists that he share the blame for getting one name wrong in a 200-page book.
     
     

  • RIP, Marilyn

    Marilyn French has died. I read "The Women’s Room" back in 1979, and it was clear that the quote on the front cover of the Sphere paperback: "This novel changes lives" was not simply hyperbole. I still have the book. I should re-read it and see whether things have changed much in the intervening years.

  • R.I.P., Jim

  • Category Error

    There’s an old saying in Computer Science: Garbage In, Garbage Out.
     
    Amazon has just provided me with a perfect example. Because I’d bought a book on cosmology, I received an email recommendation from Amazon today:  

    As someone who has purchased or rated Bang! The Complete History of the Universe by Brian May, you might like to know that Parker’s Encyclopedia of Astrology is now available. 

    Er, no, I really don’t think I would like to know that, or have the slightest interest in purchasing the said item, thank you very much. Obviously, there’s a muppet somewhere in Amazon who thinks that Astronomy is the same as Astrology. Well, one is science and the other is bollocks, sunshine.

  • Under The Skin

    That’s the title of the first novel by Michel Faber. And I guarantee that Under The Skin will, in all probability, get under your skin. If you want to have your assumptions rattled, then get it and read it. You may need a stiff drink handy. While the plot devices creak just a teensy bit, the audaciousness more than makes up for it. Simply brilliant. Pierre Boulle is probably kicking himself.

  • Duelling Philosophers

    As a bear of very little brain, I find philosophy simultaneously interesting and exasperating. That latter emotion often occurs when I read an argument that strikes me as being intrinsically daft, but don’t have the ready knowledge or the philosophical background to refute the argument quickly. Luckily, there are usually those much better-versed than I on hand to deliver stinging ripostes.

    A case in point has been the discussion over at the Talking Philosophy blog about Julian Baggini’s review of the recent book by John Polkinghorne and Nicholas Beale: Questions of Truth. Apparently, Baggini’s review for the FT had to be re-written, at the FT editors’ request, to be more "even-handed". That sounds, to my ears (and to others), to be a euphemism for “make it a positive review”. Luckily, Baggini posted parts of the original drafts of his review on the Talking Philosophy blog so that we could all read his objections to Polkinghorne’s and Beale’s exercise in apologetics. As a result, Nicholas Beale joined in the discussion on the post, which has led to a merry ding-dong of over 200 posts thus far. I have to say that Beale comes across as a not very pleasant character, but setting that aside, I remain unconvinced by his arguments.

    For a condensed rebuttal of the arguments, A. C. Grayling’s review of Questions of Truth does a very good job. Not for nothing is the subtitle of the review: “AC Grayling rips into the latest attempt to bridge the God-science gap”.  This is not duelling pistols at dawn, this is a 12 bore shotgun against a toy gun.

  • Literary Pastiches

    Last night I dreamed of literary pastiches. I think what got me started was, curiously, not a pastiche, but the real copper-bottomed article. An article, in fact from the World’s Pictorial News, published 12th February 1928, and quoted by John over at Obscene Desserts. It’s a real hoot, and definitely worth your time. As John says, the whole tone of the article is very much of its time, and reminiscent of the plot device of Dennis Wheatley’s 1934 novel, The Devil Rides Out.

    I’ve just finished reading the three “Lucifer Box” novels (The Vesuvius Club, The Devil in Amber and Black Butterfly) by the multi-talented Mark Gatiss and enjoyed them very much. The Devil in Amber is set in the late 1920s, and is a pitch-perfect pastiche of the style of the newspaper article and Wheatley’s novel. All three novels are pastiches – the first (The Vesuvius Club) has an Edwardian setting, and is a pastiche of Oscar Wilde crossed with Conan Doyle, while Black Butterfly, set in the 1950s is a pastiche of Ian Fleming.

    Gatiss has great fun with all three novels, in particular with his characters’ names; starting with Lucifer Box himself, and taking in such luminaries as Bella Pok, Kitty Backlash, Whitley Bey, Melissa ffawthawte, Percy Flage, Victoria Wine and her deadly manservant Oddbins. For those not familiar with the high streets of Britain, the last two names are wine shop chains.

    Anyway, I’d obviously got to thinking about literary pastiches when I fell asleep last night, because I dreamt of a Bond-like adventure. I awoke this morning with the name of my Bond Girl on my lips. Not a bad effort, even if I do say so myself. It was Ms. Clementine Tonguewood.

  • Dykes To Watch Out For

    I mentioned Alison Bechdel back in 2006 when I enthused over her autobiography Fun Home. Alison Bechdel has been penning her "Dykes To Watch Out For" comic strip for over 20 years. Now, an anthology featuring strips from all of that span has appeared as "The Essential Dykes To Watch Out For". It’s wonderful. Here’s a review to give you a flavour of why, even if you aren’t a dyke and not American, you should read this book. It’s about human beings living their lives, doing the best they can.
     
    Truly, Bechdel is a dyke to watch out for.

  • Credulousness

    Having just mentioned that a book’s review in today’s Guardian has stirred me to add the book in question to my "to be read" list, I should perhaps counterbalance that with the observation that a positive review is not the only criterion. Elsewhere in today’s Guardian Review, Sue Arnold gushes with praise for a book by Patrick Holford, but I’m certainly not going to follow her advice and add his book to my list. For the reasons why, read this.