I have amassed many books recently through the kindness of publishers and of blogging friends.  In fact, as I was drafting this post I realised that I had acquired even more when I discovered a book stack photograph that I had forgotten to share with you.

The gifts in this pile are the ones teetering on the top: a Penguin copy of the first sequel to The L-Shaped Room by Lynne Reid Banks, which I have recently read and will be sharing my thoughts on soon; the lovely Simon T presented me with The Backward Shadow at our meet-up on Saturday and also suggested (re-)reading it along with me so if anyone would like to join us… Also at the meet-up I received a copy of the food memoir of New York Times restaurant critic Ruth Reichl, Tender at the Bone, from the generous Thomas; I have started to dip into this and is a mouth-watering read.  I mentioned in my write-up of our meet-up that I was surprised by my Persephone Secret Santa and the gift they had warmly and thoughtfully chosen for me but I shall only tease about that just now and reveal in December on the official posting date (the 15th).  The Persephone books that feature in the photograph are the new titles and the beautiful 2011 Persephone Diary (The Persephone 90 is a thing of beauty with all the -so far- ninety endpapers and opening lines of each book in the catalogue); these were very generously given to me by Nicola Beauman when I helped out at the shop last month sending out the Biannually to overseas readers (plus a couple of bloggers whose names I recognised!) I intend to write-up my thoughts on The Mystery of Mrs Blencarrow by Mrs Oliphant for next week (according to my poll it is one of the titles I have read recently that you are most looking forward to reading more about).

In a nostalgic nod to my childhood love for boarding school literature I bought myself a copy of Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld but more on that in its forthcoming post.  The very kind Scott Pack (@meandmybigmouth) of The Friday Project sent me a parcel of books after I lamented the lack of book parcels on one quiet day … it was obnoxious of me but Scott was a sweetheart for indulging my whim.  One of the books he sent me is one I have been anticipating reading: Like Bees to Honey by Caroline Smailes.

I received YA ARCS of Bright Young Things by Anna Godbersen and Matched by Ally Condie. Serendipitously I was approached by Hannah at Penguin when I was in the mood for some jazz-age literature (on the back of watching the amazing HBO Martin Scorcese show Boardwalk Empire) and Bright Young Things has Roaring Twenties New York as its backdrop so I devoured it immediately; Matched piqued my interest a few months ago when I discussed it with Amanda and I will be sharing my thoughts on its publication date.

Below Matched in the pile is my bounty from my last day of work experience at Random House.  I have already shared with you the Vintage Classics I acquired (except for the Maugham photographed and a couple of others that have slipped through the cracks) but the others are some of the current and forthcoming titles from the CCV imprints that had caught my eye.  There is also a little stack of some of their newest graphic novels and a signed copy of Tamara Drewe by Posy Simmonds (the film adaptation of which has recently been released) and The Whoopie Pie Book by Claire Ptak (I must visit Claire’s shop, Violet Cakes, soon as well as attempting my own).

The vertically-standing stack of books leaning at the side are all Viragoes.  Sophie and Victoria sent this selection, minus the bottle-green copy of The Aloe by Katherine Mansfield, which I hunted down for myself.  I would like to particularly mention Mad, Bad and Sad by Lisa Appignanesi at present because it is a book I have been lusting after for some time; Jane of Cobblestone Sea has written a fascinating post about women and mental illness -a subject I am particularly interested in- that mentions this book among many other recommendations (of films too).

Thank you to everyone who contributed to this loot whether it be by directly giving or sending me the books or by recommendation.

In my last post I may have unintentionally misled some of you in regards to the identity of the publisher playing host to me at the moment.  Although Virago and Persephone Books are an imprint and publisher, respectively, that I would love to work for and where most of you thought my placement is, I am actually at Random House HQ in Pimlico.  Vintage Books and Vintage Classics are imprints mentioned frequently on Paperback Reader because -as with Virago and Persephone- my preference when it comes to literature is backlist as opposed to frontlist titles especially classics or neglected classics.  I am working in the CCV division, which encompasses the literary imprints of Jonathan Cape, The Bodley Head, Yellow Jersey, Square Peg, Harvill Secker, Chatto & Windus, Vintage, Vintage Classics and Pimlico.  Working on nine imprints of prize-winning books and authors (and the potential Booker prize-winning C by Tom McCarthy) during one of the busiest times of year -with the upcoming Cheltenham Literary Festival and the publication of the high-profile titles for sale in the lead up to Christmas in full swing- is exciting and enriching.

My first week has flown by in a buzz of activity with every task and day varied, highly-pressured and  insightful.  A wealth of experience is being had and also fun.  I love to be busy and thrive on it and there is so much to see, learn and do in CCV with never a dull moment.  Yes, there are tasks that could be considered mundane and administrative in nature -photocopying and mailing out- but I am truly loving all of the different aspects of the publicity department; I have also designed fliers, made up showcards for book events, sent author mail, sought and compiled reviews, drafted party invite lists, planned other parties and events, data entry and I also putting my book blogging and digital experience to good use.

Of course I love being surrounded by the books and some of my favourite authors’ work -Rushdie, García Márquez, Morrison, Coetzee, Murakami are all published there- but publishing is a business and although a passion for the product is tantamount an understanding of how publishing works is an essential requirement for working in the industry.  My brief time so far in Random House is providing me with that crucial insight.

I will, however, share some of the bookish joys here on my site.  On Thursday I had a lunch consisting of several recipes from Nigella Lawson’s new cookbook, Kitchen; the RH canteen cooked up a storm to celebrate the premiere of Nigella Kitchen premiering that night on BBC2.  I can testify that the Pappardelle with Butternut Squash and Blue Cheese and the Panzanella (bread salad) are both completely and utterly delectable.

Lunch on Friday was spent with my mentor, Lisa, who kindly offered me anything on her Vintage Classics shelves after we discussed our shared love for classics; a spare five minutes later that afternoon and some exercise of restraint on my part resulted in the conservative pile above.

I’ve been wanting to read Yukio Mishima for some time but Simon of Savidge Reads convinced me to start with The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Sea, which I thought back to when perusing some Mishima books on the shelves.

I mentioned a couple of months ago that it was the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of The L-Shaped Room by Lynne Reid Banks this year, which meant that I had to read it; Lisa gave me the fiftieth-anniversary edition (click on the title link to see the cover) and I plan on reading it next.

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood was my first Atwood novel and remains a favourite.  Vintage Classics are reissuing it with a striking new red and white cover for its twenty-fifth anniversary (click on the title link to see the cover), The Handmaid’s Tale is as pertinent in its dystopian vision of the subjugation of women as it was when first published.  My copy of the book is one I loaned and never received back so I could not resist owning it again especially with its new jacket design, which I love.

Cancer Ward by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn is the favourite book of one of my closest friends, consequently one that has been on my wishlist for some time.  I couldn’t resist taking a copy of this when I saw it especially as I was meeting the same friend for dinner that night (she is currently based in the US so it was great to see her); we discussed the Soviet novel a little over dinner and she then told me that it took her a month to read, which she had neglected to mention before.

Speaking of Russian literature, Lisa gave me an amazingly beautiful hardback edition of Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak, a new translation -the first since the 1958 original- to celebrate Harvill Secker’s Centennial (the bookbag I brought the books home in also commemorates the imprint’s landmark).  I read Doctor Zhivago years ago for a Slavonic literature course at university and would love to reread it one day especially in this lovely snowflake copy and its new translation.

Coincidentally I am at present reading a Vintage Classics book -as you can see on the right-hand side of the post- for the Riverside Readers.  The lovely Polly of Novel Insights chose On the Beach by Nevil Shute as this month’s book; I am particularly thankful to her as I was supposed to read this for a Writing the Disaster module at uni several years ago and didn’t.

I hope to be able to share more books with you next week.  In the meantime feel free to ask me any questions you may have about my placement or Random House in general.

]]> http://www.paperback-reader.co.uk/2010/10/03/publishing-experience/feed/ 34 http://www.paperback-reader.co.uk/2010/09/06/recent-acquisitions-15/ http://www.paperback-reader.co.uk/2010/09/06/recent-acquisitions-15/#comments Mon, 06 Sep 2010 08:00:23 +0000 Paperback Reader http://www.paperback-reader.co.uk/?p=2669

Ahem.  I seem to have acquired a good few books over the last month.  A number of these, if not all, have transpired from my recent desire to return to my reading roots and the above reflect my true and yet diverse reading tastes.  Very few of the titles are actually new fiction but those that are follow a pattern of series reading or timeless fiction.

Bought: Verity and I visited the Notting Hill Book Exchange recommended by Simon T, which allowed us to indulge in our favourite activity of book shopping whilst culling some of our collection (I exchanged over twenty books for six others and credit for my next visit).  Anyway, I came away with six books that I have been wanting to read and/or own.

Fireflies by Shiva Naipaul: Shiva is the younger brother of V.S. Naipaul and Fireflies is a family saga novel that has been on my radar for some time but the novel is out-of-print.

Lark and Termite by Jayne Anne Phillips: a review by Jill of Fizzy Thoughts brought this novel to my attention a few months ago; I borrowed the book from the library, read the first fifty pages and realised it was a book that I had to own.  When I saw a perfect copy of this for a £1 in the bookshop I gladly added it to the pile.

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers: I have read and enjoyed McCullers’ novella, The Ballad of the Sad Cafe, and been looking for a (pristine) copy of her critically-acclaimed first novel in the silver Penguin edition.

Hetty Dorval by Ethel Wilson: I read this Persephone book during the first Persephone Reading Week but had borrowed it from Verity.  I can never leave an unowned Persephone in a secondhand bookshop.

Rule Britannia by Daphne Du Maurier: this is not a novel I have come across mention of before but I would like to own (and of course read) all of Daphne Du Maurier’s books one day and picking up good copies secondhand makes a start at least.

Rabbit Redux by John Updike: I have still to review it but I read and adored Couples by Updike last month and good not resist picking up another of his novels (in a matching white Penguin edition); now I need to find Rabbit Run before starting the Rabbit series.

I also separately bought copies of The Lonely Londoners by Sam Selvon and The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen.  The former was mentioned by Kim of Reading Matters at book group last winter and then chosen as this month’s read; the latter is a book I have been very curious to read, one Steph raves about and the buzz surrounding Franzen’s forthcoming novel has reminded me to finally read this one.

Received from publishers: Some of my favourite publishers conveniently publish older books and as I have been craving older books in my reading, I requested some, along with receiving a few newer and forthcoming titles.

After enjoying A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood, Indira of Vintage Books generously sent me Mr Norris Changes Trains and Goodbye to Berlin.

Excitingly Alexandra of Scholastic Books sent me a copy of Mockinjay by Suzanne Collins, the third in the Hunger Games trilogy.  As the book was under international embargo I received it on the day of its UK release and read it immediately; my review is forthcoming.

Sophie, Judith and Zoё each sent me a Virago title.  Zoё sent me the paperback edition of Margaret Atwood’s The Year of the Flood; I have been seeking more Atwood in my life but I’m undecided still which novel to read next.  Sophie and Judith, respectively, sent me the latest Virago Modern Classic titles: Desert of the Heart by Jane Rule, a reputed lesbian classic, and When Rain Clouds Gather & Maru by Bessie Head, a double-header from the prominent Botswanan writer.

The lovely Kirsty of Oxford World Classics sent me a number of classics to fuel my current craving, especially for Dickens.  I am already rereading Great Expectations, one of my favourite Victorian novels, and looking full of anticipation for The Pickwick Papers and The Old Curiosity Shop.  I also shamelessly requested a copy of The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas after a real hankering to read it (it should last me a while on its own…) and Kirsty sent me Tarr by Wyndham Lewis, a modernist novel that I am intrigued to read as my Master’s degree covered the modernist period.

Hand Me Down World by Lloyd Jones is his latest novel.  I loved Mister Pip when I read (and recently reread) and look forward to reading his new novel.  John Murray amazingly invited me along to a dinner with Lloyd Jones, who is visiting from New Zealand to promote the book, and other book bloggers, publishers and book industry people.  It was an exceedingly enjoyable evening with fascinating bookish chat and Lloyd kindly signed my proof copy of the book.

Lastly we have a proof copy of Mary Ann in Autumn by Armistead Maupin sent to me my Alison of Transworld Books.  This is by far the most exciting book I have yet received as a book blogger; I am a huge fan of Maupin’s Tales of the City series and this, the eight book in the series, is not released until November, and I read it immediately.

Many thanks to the publicists who contributed to my most recent acquisitions.

Have you read any of the books from this extensive installment of recent acquisitions?

]]> http://www.paperback-reader.co.uk/2010/09/06/recent-acquisitions-15/feed/ 27 http://www.paperback-reader.co.uk/2010/07/06/recent-acquisitions-14/ http://www.paperback-reader.co.uk/2010/07/06/recent-acquisitions-14/#comments Tue, 06 Jul 2010 10:38:34 +0000 Paperback Reader http://www.paperback-reader.co.uk/?p=2517 Here is a bundle of my latest review copies (and one competition win)  for the bibliophilic voyeurs amongst you.  Many thanks to Kirsty of Oxford University Press; Alice of Bloomsbury; Meike of Peirene Press; Fiona of Vintage; Harvey of Windmill and Rosamund of Penguin for supplying my summer, challenge and classic reading needs.  I read one of the above titles immediately and will be sharing my thoughts with you shortly – anyone care to guess which one I plumped for? Please feel free to ask or inform me about any of the above as I haven’t elucidated on my choices today (I have a busy day ahead and apologise for the short post).

My latest acquisitions have been accumulating in a couple of piles over the last few weeks and are a mixture of books bought and sent.

The Viragoes at the top were both one and the other; the stunning lilac edition of Janet Frame short stories was kindly sent by Sophie of Virago (please have a look at the beautiful front cover here).  The older Virago (both are Modern Classics) was one I succumbed to online; when Verity and I were shopping together last month, she spied a copy before I arrived and I was most envious as it is a VMC I have been keeping my eyes open for for some time.  The first story in Enormous Changes at the Last Minute by Grace Paley, “Wants”, is one I read in the Angela Carter edited, Wayward Girls and Wicked Women and I have been wanting to read more (Verity has posted about the the volume in full).

The Persephones were both a stroke of luck; It’s Hard to be Hip Over Thirty by Judith Viorst was snagged in Oxfam Books on Marylebone High Street for £2 (and kindly bought by my boyfriend) whilst the lovely Elaine of Random Jottings sent me a copy of Alas, Poor Lady by Rachel Ferguson that she was culling and for which she looking for a loving home.

Meike of Peirene Press contacted me to ask if I wished to review the second title her small, independent publishing house has released, Stone in a Landslide by Maria Barbal; after hearing such wonderful things about this press from other bloggers, I acquiesced and also requested the first title, Beside the Sea by Véronique Olmi to find out what all the (presumably deserved) fuss is about!

Katherine of HarperCollins pitched The Story Sisters by Alice Hoffman to me last month and at the time the “Little Women on mushrooms” blurb from this book review in The New York Times sounded exactly what I needed and it was.  A review of this is forthcoming.

Another of the books from these piles that I have already read is French Milk by Lucy Knisley.  I finally caved and bought this graphic travelogue after seeing several reviews around the blogosphere since the beginning of the year and will be adding my thoughts to the mix shortly.

The top four books (well, five, considering the Gallico is a double-header) are the newest titles in The Bloomsbury Group series – don’t they look lovely? The pink and blue will be read swiftly and surely, I promise.

Lastly is a volume of short stories that Vintage Books have been teasing me with for months with another stunningly attractive book cover.  Alison, Editor at Vintage Books, suggested  Stories to Get You Through the Night to me earlier in the year as it collects short stories by some of my favourite writers -Carter, Mansfield, Woolf, Chopin, Murakami- and had a copy sent to me last week when it was released.  I think these are stories that will get me through the day, night and week.

What do you think of my most recent acquisitions?

Have you seen Nymeth’s 1930s Mini-Challenge?  I require no additional encouragement to read from the time period (I love inter-war literature) so I shall definitely be participating, especially when all that is required is to read one book during a three month period (beginning this week), which helpfully overlaps with Persephone Reading Week.  Excluding those Persephone Books that easily meet the requirement, I hope to pick up some Jean Rhys, Colette, and Virginia Woolf novels from that decade  and also view it as the ideal opportunity to finally read my copy of Save Me the Waltz by Zelda Fitzgerald, published in 1934.  The Thirties is such a rich setting and period for literature and it is hardly surprising that my favourite imprints -Virago, Persephone, Vintage and Penguin Modern Classics- all broadly publish novels and short stories from that era.

Colette’s Claudine novels don’t fit the time period as they come from earlier in the century but I could not resist the photo-op of four beloved book covers of mine. In 2001 Vintage Books reissued a selection of Colette’s literature with Ian Bilbey illustrations gracing the covers; I think that the bright images capture the vibrancy of Colette’s work and they are by far some of my favourite books in my collection (and contribute greatly to a number of my coloured bookshelves).  Often books you buy hold a cherished memory or significance and my Claudine novels have a story attached to them; in the year they were published I bought the four above for a friend’s 21st birthday but shortly after we went our separate ways and I inherited four beautiful novels as a result (every cloud has a silver lining).  As it is I have only read the first two in the series (and some others written by Colette) but have always been meaning to immerse myself more deeply in her writing.  The stars aligned and this post by Eva of A Striped Armchair prompted part of this post by me and now this current one; expect more Colette on my blog in the future, both rereads and continuation of the Claudine novels and those from her oeuvre that may fit into Nymeth’s challenge.

The above is a fitting decision because recently I have been reflecting on why I have been neglecting those authors on my bookshelves whose entire back catalogue I have sought out but not yet  fully read.  I struggle between the desire to devour a writer’s work or to exhibit restraint and ration it, eking the books out over a long period of time.  I am enjoying new, contemporary fiction but I’m also anxious to return to my roots of classic -mainly twentieth century- literature.  It’s a cheery thought but I could easily be hit by a bus tomorrow (or plummet to my death in an aeroplane whose engines shut down due to volcanic ash, the day after that) so I shouldn’t deprive myself of the books I have been hoarding for a rainy day.  The rainy days are here and I am going to submerge myself deeply in authors that I already know, whilst still -but less often- discovering new ones.

As for trusted presses, time period and authors, Persephone Books have published their two newest choices for spring and summer, which are available to order in time for forthcoming Persephone Reading Week.  I am particularly excited about Still Missing by Beth Gutcheon, which Rachel of Book Snob reviewed today.

]]> http://www.paperback-reader.co.uk/2010/04/21/claires-corner-11/feed/ 20 http://www.paperback-reader.co.uk/2010/04/18/showing-fervour-for-fevvers/ http://www.paperback-reader.co.uk/2010/04/18/showing-fervour-for-fevvers/#comments Sun, 18 Apr 2010 17:09:17 +0000 Paperback Reader http://www.paperback-reader.co.uk/?p=2030

Just before Christmas last year I participated in Aarti of Booklust’s wonderful Rosie’s Riveters feature, before it came to an end.  I hope that Aarti doesn’t mind me recycling that post; I was inspired by a survey posted by My Friend Amy today: What Books Do You Wish Everyone Would Read?  It will, I hope, be clear that in hosting a month dedicated to Angela Carter, that I am very much a devoted advocate for reading her; I would encourage everyone to read at least one of books.  If you read this post or any that I have written this month, it should be apparent why, but simply put: I am a firm believer that your reading life will be richer for the experience.  Now, I recommend different Carter books to different people -as I have to many of you reading this- based on your personal taste and my feel for what you would perhaps enjoy more; however, if there is one book that I wish everyone would read then it would be my favourite, Nights at the Circus.  My first Carter novel, this was where the love-affair began with the writer and her work; it inspired my postgraduate education and a subsequent Master’s thesis on a specific aspect of Angela Carter’s work; it affects where I am today as sharing my delight in and enthusiasm for Angela Carter is a huge motivator behind why I write this blog; it is the book that I am spotlighting today by re-posting my Rosie’s Riveter selection.

Rosie’s Riveters is a weekly posting written by Booklust readers about riveting females in literature. Many readers have strong reactions to the women in the books they read- either very positive or very negative. These are the characters we find riveting, for good reasons or bad ones, and they form the population of Rosie’s Riveters. Through this weekly post, we can discuss females we love to hate, or love to love. And maybe, just maybe- we can determine why we react so strongly to them.

Fevvers, christened Sophie.

Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter

LOVE her!

Feisty, sensational, outrageous, revolutionary, personable, unforgettable, unbelievable.

No, Fevvers is a celebrity in her own right; she is a celebrated winged aerialiste at the turn of the nineteenth century and leading attraction at a circus.

Hatched from an egg, Fevvers sprouted wings when she was menstruating.  She is Cockney, larger-than-life literally at over six feet in her stocking-feet and peroxide blonde; she is a virgin raised in a brothel and is the strongest female protagonist in literary fiction.

She is one of the greatest feminist literary constructs of all time and also a construct of her own imagination.  A “Cockney Venus” in Victorian London, Fevvers is a wonderful heroine.

Absolutely! Angela Carter is an amazing writer and Nights at the Circus is my favourite of her books; her writing is superb and Fevvers is a riveting realisation.

At the dawn of a new century Fevvers looks to the day where “All the women will have wings, the same as I”.

Black Venus was Angela Carter’s third collection (the fourth, American Ghosts and Old World Wonders was published posthumously in 1993), published in 1985 (it is entitled Saints and Strangers in the U.S.).  I like it more than the early, experimental Fireworks (reviewed here) but less than the inventive, fairy-tale dependent, The Bloody Chamber. Black Venus is a mature work and some of the stories are imaginative portraits of real people: Jean Duval, the black mistress of Baudelaire; Edgar Allan Poe; Lizzie Borden; others range from a re-envisaging of the Peter and the Wolf tale and an overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream that features a hermaphrodite named the Golden Herm.

Although these stories are seemingly disparate, there is a cohesion to the collection; the themes of each may not be in tandem but there are recognisable motifs and repeated phrases and images throughout.  Considering that these stories featured in separate publications during the late Seventies and early Eighties, before being collected in the one volume, it is interesting to chart Carter’s similar thought-processes throughout.  As in the majority of short story collections, there is an uneven quality to those collected with some far more engaging and memorable than others; the vivid use of language and literary subject in “Overture and Incidental Music for A Midsummer Night’s Dream“, a precursor to the bawdy Shakespearean romp,  Wise Children, is far superior to the more pared-down (not that Carter ever fully pared anything down), less richly imaginative, stories.  Of course, the stories also resonate more for those who have prior knowledge of the people Carter writes about or the literature she writes about; the title story, about Jean Duval, didn’t work so much for me as I’m not that familiar with Baudelaire.

What Black Venus does have to offer is one of my favourite Carter stories, “The Cabinet of Edgar Allan Poe”. Carter’s writing is richly imbued with literary allusions and there several made to Poe (I said here that I would reveal the connection between Carter and Poe).  In her novel Love, for instance, the main characters are named Annabel and Lee and there is a Gothic preoccupation with vagina dentata; in her non-fiction essay, “Through a Text Backwards: The Resurrection of the House of Usher”, Carter argues that Poe’s “The Philosophy of Compisition” should be retitled “The Philosophy of Decomposition” as he had a predilection for dead and dying women.  “The Cabinet of Edgar Allan Poe” -a play on the title of the 1920 German Expressionist film, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari- is very much about Poe’s obsession with dead and dying women (and the beginnings of his fear of vagina teeth) beginning with his own mother.  Yes, those who can recognise the nods to Poe’s famous poem “The Raven” and his biographical details will benefit more from this story but I also think it is engrossing, illuminating, and also wickedly dark and funny, regardless of whether you are a Poe fan or not (although I very much am).  Undoubtedly one of Carter’s literary influences, this simultaneous tribute to and send-up of Poe is abundant with camp Gothic and Hammersmith Horror elements with a back-drop of the theatrical and performative; for me, “The Cabinet of Edgar Allan Poe” exhibits most of what I love about Carter: her decadence; her lush writing; her rich literary allusions; her love for the macabre; her love for the theatrical; her interesting absence of mothers (all of these elements -minus the macabre- feature in my favourite Carter novels, Nights at the Circus and Wise Children, and are the reasons why I love them both).

I have one copy of Black Venus courtesy of Vintage Books to give-away to someone who can tell me which writer they would love to read a short story about.  Open worldwide until Wednesday 21st April at 12pm BST.

Waking up begins with am and now.  That which has awoken then lies for a while staring up at the ceiling and down into itself until it has recognised I, and therefore deduced I am, I am now.  Here comes next, and is at least negatively reassuring; because here, this morning, is where it had expected to find itself; what’s called at home.

But now isn’t simply now.  Now is also a cold reminder; one whole day later than yesterday, one year later than last year.  Every now is labelled with its date, rendering all past nows obsolete, until – later or sooner – perhaps – no, not perhaps – quite certainly: It will come.

The arresting opening to the novella above signifies George’s automaton existence of going-through-the-motions day by day, waking from a dream-like state to the realisation of Jim’s passing, and coming to terms with his new life without him.  Coming to terms is the crux of A Single Man: George is now single -involuntarily- and grieving whilst no-one (excluding Charley) knows of Jim’s passing, or if they do know do not know the extent of their relationship.  George’s anonymity in his role as grieving lover, partner, friend is alienating and poignant in itself; to live in that perpetual state of mourning without anyone there to empathise with (Charley is rather self-obsessed and not as sympathetic a character as George) is heartbreaking. Isherwood subtly and thoughtfully meditates on grief and the adjustment process of a man in the throes of it.

George is also mourning the loss of his youth and coming to terms with his own mortality.  Charley wishes them to live together, console each other in their loneliness, but George is unwilling to accept a substitute for Jim, for love, nor should he.; as he states earlier in the novel, “Jim wasn’t a substitute for anything.  And there is no substitute for Jim, if you’ll forgive my saying so, anywhere”.  In depicting one solitary day -where George is indeed solitary- Isherwood effectively conveys the absence of Jim, George’s loss and his longing. Bereavement is never an easy subject and yet Isherwood’s work is virtuoso; he captures the pain and loneliness but it is never overwhelming nor trite and is instead touching in its understated tragedy.

A favourite passage:

He pictures the evening he might have spent, snugly at home, fixing the food he has bought, then lying down on the couch beside the bookcase and reading himself slowly sleepy.  At first glance, this is an absolutely convincing and charming scene of domestic contentment.  Only after a few instances does George notice the omission which makes it meaningless.  What is left out of the picture is Jim, lying opposite him at the other end of the couch, also reading; the two of them absorbed in their books yet so completely aware of each other’s presence.

*I had intended to see the film adaptation before reviewing this book but after a friend walked out in the middle as she was so bored, I decided to wait to see the DVD.

In this week’s acquisitions we have:

Hector and the Search for Happiness by François Lelord: Gallic Books (the UK publisher of Muriel Barbery’s books, both of which I loved) approached me to review this upcoming title and it sounds delightful. I want to read a number of both modern and classic French texts in the coming months and now have a head-start on the modern (with both Emile Zola and Alexander Dumas upcoming on The Classics Circuit).

On that note, Gallic also offered me the choice of any other books that appealed and The Suicide Shop by Jean Teulé was one of them.

An Angel at my Table by Janet Frame was sent by the lovely Sophie of Virago preceding its reissue next month.  This autobiography of the writer intrigues me and I would also like to see the adaptation directed by Jane Campion, who writes the introduction to this edition.  I have been intrigued by Frame recently and became aware of her -and this volume- first through Verity who reviewed it last year for her Virago Venture.

Another Virago received this week was their forthcoming (April) edition of Less than Angels by Barbara Pym. I have previously set out my intentions of finally reading Barbara Pym and this year will be the year especially as I have a lovely collection of the new Virago designs.

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese was a surprise from Vintage Books and a serendipitous one at that; I had been wanting to read the book after reading Jackie’s review and then it turned up. I am considering suggesting it to my book group when my next choice turns around but mainly because we eat in a restaurant thematically connected with the book and I love Ethiopian food! I’m sure it would generate a good discussion too.

Lastly is a huge tome of a book that I won from Waterstone’s for review: The Passage by Justin Cronin isn’t released by Orion until June but apparently it is one “the most anticipated releases for 2010″. I hadn’t heard anything about it until this week and know nothing about it going in except that Ridley Scott has already bought the film rights.  Hmm, after doing some internet research (not that Wikipedia constitutes as valid study) I now know that it is the first in a post-apocalyptic vampire trilogy and that the author received a huge advance.  Oh, and I also know that it is HUGE.

Do any of these appeal to you?

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