February sustenance

Reading


Paul Auster – Invisible

I began fairly hopeful given strong reviews, but still feared about Auster’s latest due to a recent dip in form, an erring towards sameyness in subject.  (Dark rooms, illusions, psychological trauma, or is he?-ness).  Even though Auster sameyness is still sameyness of an impressively high standard.  I needn’t have worried, and thoroughly enjoyed this from start to finish.  Utterly compelling and quite possible to read in a single sitting if you had a day spare, its plot and characters are intricately woven in typically mysterious style so all is never quite as it seems – which you kind’ve expect anyway.  The turns of the plot and style almost deceive the length of the novel: not very long.  But rewards in its sparsity, deft touch and sheer readability are plentiful.

I often remember how good art makes me feel, the sensations it evokes, rather than the subject and what it directly contains.  Particularly so with good fiction.  I’ll remember ravenously devouring Invisible over the course of a few days, feeling excited by the pace and effortlessly graceful measure of the writing, occasionally breathtaken by the craft and confidence to masterfully execute understated yet profound scenes.

2009 arty consumption

A selfish attempted record of some pop lit books wot I've read this year, lest I forget. 

In no particular order

Tom Perrotta - Abstinence Teacher (4/5)
Tom Perrotta - Little Children (3/5)
Nick Hornby - Juliet, Naked (4/5)
JM Coetzee - Summertime (4/5)
Evie Wyld - After The Fire A Still Small Voice (4/5)
Douglas Kennedy - The Pursuit Of Happiness (4/5)
Douglas Kennedy - State Of The Union (3/5)
John Boyne - The House Of Special Purpose* (2/5)
Charles Eton - Mr Toppit (2/5)
Julian Barnes - Nothing To Be Frightened Of (5/5)
Sebastian Faulks - A Week In December (3/5)
Richard Milward - Ten Storey Love Song (4/5)
Irvine Welsh - Crime (3/5)
Irvine Welsh  Reheated Cabbage (3/5)
Zoe Heller - The Believers (3/5)
Zoe Heller - Notes On A Scandal (4/5)
Xialou Guo - UFO In Her Eyes (2/5)
Steven Hall - Raw Shark Texts (4/5)
Emile Zola - Germinal (4/5)
Peter Manseau - Songs For The Butcher's Daughter (4/5)
David Mitchell - One Day (3/5)
*still reading so should probably reserve judgement

Presuming one reader for a moment..   Frankly can't be bothered to find / post links to any of this stuff, but there's a thing called Google which can probably help out with further details.

And while I'm regurgitating media consumption, why not?  New musical discoveries I've rather loved this year:

Florence & The Machine - Lungs (sad that it'll rightly become very popular but become horribly overexposed)
Mumford & Sons - Cry No More
The XX - XX
Alberta Cross - Broken Side Of Time
Gaslight Anthem - The '59 Sound
Jamie T - Kings & Queens
Biffy Clyro - Only Revolutions
Jay-Z - The Blueprint 3

Way too many films to regale, but my last seen is the best for a long time and up there with anything I've seen all year.  Can't gush enough about Swedish film, the English title translation of which is, Let The Right One In.

weekend films: Doubt & Moon

Saturday evening I watched Doubt, a film starring Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour-Hoffman, which disappointed.  An adaptation from the stage which arguably should not have happened, despite terrific performances in isolated, quite confined scenes which would have worked just as well in their own right, it was staid and static and unfilmy.  Especially on a television.  It also suffered one of those hugely abrupt endings when I swore we must be leading into the big, climactic third act - given the Hollywood heavyweights.

It was in stark contrast to the film, Moon, which I saw the next day, starring - pretty exclusively, Sam Rockwell.  How much of a weight must have been on that single actor's shoulders?  Again confined in setting - he's either in his spaceship, moon buggy, or on the moon's surface - but not once does it seem limited or bore.  Possibly due to its direction and always compelling performance, as well as the general difference of such a setting, the film didn't seem to dip once.  It may have even been because of its tight, claustrophobic confinement - which was at the heart of the film.

On my way into the screening of Moon at Wandsworth, I was handed a flyer and asked a few questions by a lady in the lobby.  Would I like to go to an advance screening of a film there on Thursday and give feedback afterwards?  New thriller starring Helen Mirren. Ooh, let me check my diary...  Should be interesting.