Tropic of Cancer

A few years ago I gave a friend a copy of Henry Miller's novel Tropic of Cancer for his birthday. He was so impressed with this book that he has since worked his way through Miller's canon of work. After discovering that I had not in fact read Tropic of Cancer he has insisted that I take up the challenge. Well after a year of procrastination I finally relented and read Mr Miller's novel and I must confess that once I read a third of the book I was hooked.

Tropic of Cancer has two distinct threads of narration; or one could say the author reveals two aspects of his character. The first aspect is the narration of the base human senses, solely concerned with satiating the urges for food, sex and money. This side of Miller's character is confronting, at times offensive but always one feels a starkly honest account of his Bohemian life in Paris.

The Second voice is that of the poet and mystic, lying in the gutter but gazing at the stars! Miller penetrates the filth and harsh reality of a transient life in the seedy artistic underbelly of Paris with great insight. His musings on life are often profound and universal in nature; he describes a wild and meaningless cosmic play unfolding before him and ultimately laughs at the absurdity of humanity's sense of self importance. An American Zorba or perhaps just a very naughty New Yorker?

Worth a read.

Ross

January library events

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Happy Birthday Arthur C. Clarke

Arthur C. Clarke celebrates his 90th birthday on the 16th of December. Probably most famous for his novel 2001: a space odyssey, Sir Arthur has written many books, and is an inventor and futurist. His wikipedia entry can be found here and a blog has been set up so that fans can post their birthday wishes.

Books that influenced me

I was watching another staff member browsing through a 1000 books to change your life edited by Jonathon Derbyshire and we got to discussing about books that had influenced us in the past. Having been an avid reader in my childhood and teens I really had to think hard about what book had influenced me in my life. When growing up my parents subscribed to the Readers Digest magazine – it would arrive monthly, I would first read all the jokes at the end of the articles, then the word testing page, then go on to read the articles and lastly read the summarized book at the back. I remember reading the books 83 hours till dawn about kidnapped victim Barbara Jane Mackle who was buried alive in a coffin like box and Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors.

Then my parents started subscribing to the Readers Digest condensed books, where 3 or 4 come in the one volume – well I worked my way through these. Some of the books I remember first reading this way are Jane Eyre, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Marie Curie, The last of the Mohicans and Friendly Persuasion. When an older teen we were on holidays at a friends place near Coffs Harbour, I had exhausted the books I had taken to read and was overjoyed to find an older set of the Readers Digest condensed books in the house, I spent the rest of my holidays immersed in these. From this time I remember reading Island in the Sun by Alec Waugh, To Sir with Love by E.R. Braithwaite and of all things all about Luke the Physician
Some of the authors I was first introduced to through Reader Digest condensed books are: James Hilton, Taylor Caldwell, Paul Gallico, Irving Stone, Thor Heyerdahl, Nevil Shute, Ira Levin, Pearl S. Buck, James Herriot and James A. Michener.

- Louise

(Manly Library's book discussion group will look at 'Books that have influenced you most' in their January meeting.)

Book discussion group January: Books that influenced you most

This discussion topic is really about you and your reading. What books have really influenced you? What was it about them that made such an impression? Has there been any one person, agency or incident that has influenced your reading patterns?

For inspiration on what to read for the group, check out these lists:
The New York Times 100 notable books of 2007
Costa Book Awards most re-read books in the UK
The American Library Association's list of notable books

The group will be meeting on Wednesday the 16th of January 2008 at 6pm in Manly Library.

The quiet girl

by Peter Hoeg. Random House, 2007.

Reviewed by Ann Skea.

Peter Hoeg's second novel, Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow, was a huge success and I, for one, thoroughly enjoyed it . The Quiet Girl, however, is very different. It is a strange and confusing story. Part of the strangeness is due to the narrator, Kaspar Krone, who is a renowned clown with a most unusual ability. Due to a childhood accident, he hears the world around him as musical keys. He recognizes places by their sound and identifies the sound with pieces of classical music that he knows and loves. He hears people that way, too, and can often predict how they will behave. All this, he imparts to the reader. Kaspar lives in Copenhagen, but he is not Danish. He is deeply in debt, wanted for tax evasion, and on the verge of extradition.

The book is strange, too, because of the special children who have an inexplicable quality (which Kaspar hears as sudden strange silences) which makes them important to the plans of some very odd groups of people. One girl in particular captures Kaspar's attention, and she has a particular interest in him. At first it seems as if she has been kidnapped and is asking Kaspar for help, but several times she turns up unexpectedly to confront him; at other times she seems to be in control of everything. In trying to help her, Kaspar is constantly in danger. Only at the end of the book does her identity and purpose become clear, and even then nothing is resolved.

The Quiet Girl is confusing, because the narration jumps around in time (which is not in itself a problem) and we are never sure of the nature of the people Kaspar gets involved with. Even those who seem to be helping him turn out to have links with those who are pursuing him. The plot is intricate and tangled, and much of the time I was lost and puzzled. Too many things seemed unreal, too much of the action impossible. Kaspar is threatened on all sides, running, hiding, fighting, tricking people, and even when he is mortally wounded he manages to perform impossible feats. He has a wry sense of humour, but his way of speaking and thinking in abrupt, short sentences made me think, to begin with, that this was a fault in translation. It was not, and I did get used to it.

In the end, however, I lost patience with the story, although the puzzle about the children kept me reading until the end. And the end, surprising as it was, was too unlikely, and the resolution of the plot too contrived, to be satisfying. Other readers may be gripped by this mixture of mystery, music and mayhem, with a bit of science and philosophy thrown in, and with a few zany characters and a minor love interest to add spice. Sadly, I was not. Yet, since I enjoyed the company of Miss Smilla in Hoeg's earlier book so much, I almost feel I should read The Quiet Girl again and see if it makes more sense the second time around, especially as the publicity blurb describes the book as "a philosophical thriller of rare quality". A “thriller"? Yes. "rare"? Well it is unique. "philosophical"? Sometimes, but in a ruminative sort of way. "quality"?

Questionable.

Copyright Ann Skea 2007

Website and Ted Hughes pages: http://ann.skea.com/