Finished last night... and well, the ending was a bit toss wasn't it? Agree with Will insomuch that one is left scratching one's bonce and wondering what, in all honesty, was the real point of it all. Frankly, I always found the asides into the occult - Trelawney, Mrs Erdleigh etc - mildly amusing, but basically ridiculous and not in keeping with the rest of the cycle. Happy to chalk it up as an odd side-interest of Powell's, but now to have it thrust down our throats as the climax to 3000 pages just seems bizarre, not matter how much Kingsley Amis tries to defend it in the blurb on the back of my copy. Kingsley, old man, you're just wrong.
So, lessons learnt from Powell:
1. There's no great need to stay in touch with friends/acquaintances, you'll bump into them again at some stage. Alternatively, marry into the aristocracy and you'll end up related to most of them.
2. It's not absolutely essential to know one's own childrens' names - you need never refer to them as anything other than "some child".
3. Wives are to be seen but not heard (until the last volume at least).
4. Choice of an appropriate type of coat is essential when at school. Equally important - never let anyone pour sugar over your head, trust me, you'll never hear the last of it.
5. If you want to get on in the post-war literary world, acquire a strange nickname or carry a silly stick around with you.
6. Read Proust. It's just much better.
Anything else...
Friday 3 July 2009
Wednesday 1 July 2009
Tempting fate
100 pages into HSH and it's not THAT bad... yet. OK, it probably wouldn't take Mrs Erdleigh to predict that it's about to head steadily downhill, what with Widmerpool's appearance with the Quiggin twins on his arm.
Actually I've really enjoyed this whole section on the Donners book award. I had dinner with one of the Booker Prize judges recently (I'd drop his name in as subtly as the rest of this anecdote, but in truth I can't remember it!) and this was eerily close to the reality he let me in on - both the dubious appointment to such panels and the horror of the lean year. I won't let on which one(s) he considered lean.
Enjoyed Powell's little aside, via Trapnel, declaring that coincidence is just a manifestation of magic. Also, I think I'm enjoying those Proustian glimpses of the past e.g. Widmerpool's dress sense, but not sure we needed to be reminded YET AGAIN of Barbara Goring and the bloody sugar-pouring incident. Honestly, Jenkins does remind me rather of those boorish individuals who are living in the past and constantly recanting "amusing" incidents from the undergraduate days... oh, wait... don't we all do that?
Actually I've really enjoyed this whole section on the Donners book award. I had dinner with one of the Booker Prize judges recently (I'd drop his name in as subtly as the rest of this anecdote, but in truth I can't remember it!) and this was eerily close to the reality he let me in on - both the dubious appointment to such panels and the horror of the lean year. I won't let on which one(s) he considered lean.
Enjoyed Powell's little aside, via Trapnel, declaring that coincidence is just a manifestation of magic. Also, I think I'm enjoying those Proustian glimpses of the past e.g. Widmerpool's dress sense, but not sure we needed to be reminded YET AGAIN of Barbara Goring and the bloody sugar-pouring incident. Honestly, Jenkins does remind me rather of those boorish individuals who are living in the past and constantly recanting "amusing" incidents from the undergraduate days... oh, wait... don't we all do that?
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