In short, a great read but we want more Mr Smith! 

Title: Man's World

Author: Rupert Smith

Tags: #gayliterature #theimitationgame #queerfiction

Discovered: Strand Book store, NYC

Where read: (In part) Black Seed Bagel, NYC   

Why read now?:  The Imitation Game on film has shed light on this period in gay history. A Man's World turns the brightness up some more. 

The Word's Shortlist view:

"....and that's why this diary will remain hidden inside the lining of my suitcase along with the copies of Health and Strength and Man's World.."

Man's World tells two parallel stories, a queer timeline if you like between the 1950's and the present day in which the lives of the two leads, Robert and Michael, couldn't be further apart. 

Robert lives the kind of lifestyle that, on the surface at least, prioritises a diet of gym, drugs and clubs. Sex is straight-forward and available but relationships are half formed and transient. On the other hand Michael's life on National Service at an RAF base on the 1950's is closeted, secretive and risky.

Life for Michael and friends after the War was inconceivably tough but is brought to vivid life with real dignity by Smith (reminiscent of the similar parallel lines in The Pride by Alexi Kaye Campbell). For me the story should have explored this aspect far more rather than drawing parallels with today. The shift between the two generations is just two vast to convey in a relatively short novel. 

This book is not exactly full of likeable characters but the chapters concerning Michael and Mervyn in the 50s and 60s are the most succesful. There are times when you'll want to skip over the minutiae of Robert's destructive relationship with Stuart however, stick with it because, as a device, this works well to heighten the tension between the two strands. When lives overlap, you can make your own judgement.

In short, a great read but we want more Mr Smith!!

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The experience of this book is like a one on one audience with the storyteller  

Title: The Moth: 50 Extraordinary True Stories

Author: Introduced by Neil Gaiman

Tags: #moth #storytelling #reallife

Discovered: The Book House, High Street, Thame

Where read: (In part) Ace Hotel, NYC  

Why read now?:  Moth events are gaining momentum across the globe. Find out why these open mike nights for story tellers are so dam good!

The Word's Shortlist view:

"In 1975, I was twenty-eight years old, and I weighed in at 120 pounds. I found myself on a bus, chained to a West Indian brother, headed upstate to prison"

This collection of 50 true stories is a an edit of some of the best real life stories told at Moth events in the US. These 'open mike' nights for storytellers have become increasingly popular for their opportunity for people to tell tales from their own lives to an audience of active listeners.

The Moth phenomena is named after moths that were drawn to gas lamps on verandas across America in a pre digital age when family and friends gathered to recount tales. Like moths to a new flame these events are now taking place in the UK.

In the book, the stories are sorted by theme (Carpe Diem, Coming Home, In the Trenches etc) which belies the truth that these are all completely unique tales told directly from the heart.

Quite literally these tales are some of the most truthful and intimate I have ever read. The experience of the book is like a one on one audience with the story teller, full of pathos and passion. 

Everyone will respond differently to these stories. The fact that the most poignant for me were 'LOL' by Adam Gopnik, 'A Kind of Wisdom' by Ellie Lee and 'Discussing Family Trees in School Can be Dangerous' by Paul Nurse are by the by. 

You'll find your own favourites. Just read :)

Find out more about the Moth movement here: http://themoth.org

Twitter: @wordsshortlist

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"manuscripts don't burn" (рукописи не горят) 

Title: The Master and Margarita (Alma Classics)

Author: Mikhail Bulgakov

Tags: #russia #censorship #devil

Discovered: Thame Library, Oxfordshire

Where read: (In part) Heathrow Terminal 2  

Why read now?:  A great introduction to satirical (and at times crazy) Russian literature

The Word's Shortlist view:

"Really, I would pawn my soul to the devil to find out whether he is alive or dead."

A poet, a talking black cat, Pontius Pilate, a fanged hitman and Satan himself all feature in this complex and symbol laden tale written by Mikhail Bulgakov between 1928 and 1940. The book became a cult classic in the 70s following its publication some years after Bulgakov's own death. 

Bulgakov is hailed as one of the greatest Russian writers of the 20th Century but first time readers of Russian literature, like me, will find this difficult to follow and at times impenetrable.  Translated writing often feels like trying to break a code but this, with its heavy use of allegory and metaphor, is especially challenging.

On the other hand, once you begin to accept the style of the book you're rewarded with the key to an 'other world' in which good and evil, past and present, blur into a cultural soup. 

The novel follows two strands, the first in 1930s Moscow with the arrival of a mysterious magician who proceeds to send the upper echelons of academia spiralling into chaos, and the second in the Jerusalem of Pontius Pilate. In the first book the Master is the protagonist and in the second we follow his Mistress Margarita more closely. For me the 1930s sections are stronger than the lengthy passages in the Holy Land. Likewise, the Margarita sections are the more memorable once she takes flight following Satan's Ball, surely one of the most enigmatic and inexplicable sequences in any book. 

This is not an easy book to read and certainly one that will challenge your perseverance in places. Like many 'cult classics' the myth that surrounds the work is probably more significant than the book itself, checkout the Bulgakov House in Moscow which has become a Mecca to fiction fans, satanists and street artists. The novel has been suggested as an influence from the Rolling Stones to Star Trek and was recently cited by Daniel Radcliffe as his favourite book of all time!

Memorable, peerless and a bit zany. Read if you're up for a challenge.

See a clip from a Russian film adaptation here: http://youtu.be/a6zsQZd6UM4

Read 'Books that made a difference to Daniel Radcliffe' here http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/30/living/books-radcliffe-o/index.html?sr=sharebar_twitter

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The November shortlist....

Man's World - Rupert Smith

The Master and Margarita - Mickhail Bulgakov

The Moth: 50 Extraordinary True Stories - Introduced by Neil Gaiman

#amreading

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...and Manchester created Joy Division 

Title: Chapter and Verse - New Order, Joy Division and Me (Transworld Digital)

Author: Bernard Sumner

Tags: #manchester #bluemonday #lovewilltearusapart

Discovered: Foyles Waterloo

Where read: (In part) Notes, Covent Garden (notes-uk.co.uk)  

Why read now?: The infectious floor filling sound of New Order's Blue Monday will never fall out of fashion.  

The Word's Shortlist view:

Bernard Sumner is not known as an outspoken self publicist so it comes as no surprise that his new autobiography lacks the tell-all sensationalist reveals of other titles on the market. Chapter and Verse is more like a chat with a mate down the local, and what's wrong with that. Pour yourself a pint and get stuck in.

Sumner's story moves from grimy post war Salford in the 50s and 60s through Punk in the 70s and the formation of his first band Joy Division. Wild eloquent prose this isn't (read Autobiography by Morrissey for this) but what we do read is an intelligent, honest and self deprecating tale of music, passion and friendship. 

The best chapters of the book chart Sumner's part in the transformation of the Manchester youth scene from derelict cotton mills to The Factory (think Studio 54 with a side of mushy peas). Other sections of the story are light on detail. Recurring characters, like Tony Wilson, form a chorus but so much more could have been included about these influences. The full circumstances around Ian Curtis's death is mostly absent which is a shame.

From Punk we hurtle into New Order, the Hacienda and Acid House with Sumner relating this to the rise of the synthesiser and electronic music production. Music fans will love the detailed descriptions of the way tracks were written and recorded but for me the social/cultural sounds are more epic.  

In short this is a brilliant read for fans of music, the 80s and the early club scene. Sumner was instrumental in defining an identity for post industrial Northern England and specifically Manchester and this book goes some way to explain how and why.

oh and he write some quite catchy songs too. How does it feel to treat me like you do? (Blue Monday)

Love will tear us apart clip http://youtu.be/zuuObGsB0No

Blue Monday clip http://youtu.be/FYH8DsU2WCk

The Miniaturist - The eerie prophecy of the doll's house 

Title: The Miniaturist (Picador)

Author: Jessie Burton

Tags: #rijksmuseum, #amsterdam, #thegoldfinch

Discovered: The Book House, Thame (http://www.thebookhousethame.co.uk)

Where read: (In part) in Peyton and Byrne St Pancras (peytonandbyrne.co.uk)  

Why read now?: A compelling page turner set in the perpetually chilly Autumn world of 17th Century Amsterdam. 

The Word's Shortlist view:

In this debut novel Jessie Burton brilliantly transports the reader to 17th Century Amsterdam through the eyes of Petronella Oortman an 18 year old girl sent to be the bride of a wealthy merchant.

Like Girl with a Pearl Earring and The Goldfinch (and indeed The Da Vinci Code) the novel takes its lead from a work of art, in this case the 'Doll's House of Petronella Oortman' in Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum. In the novel Nella is presented with the dolls house as a wedding gift from her new, but distant, husband Johannes. 

The dolls house itself becomes the theatre in which Nella's life, along with the lives of the family around her, is played out in eerie prophecy. 

The drama is fast paced and weaves together domestic conflict with social and political intrigue brilliantly illustrated by well developed characters, particularly Agnes and Marin. A glossary in the appendix is useful for getting to grips with some of the terms Burton uses to authentically bring scenes to life.

Whilst some of the plot points are literary staples; family secrets,  paternity intrigue and repressive religious forces, there is plenty of uniqueness here. The real star of the piece is Amsterdam itself, the damp and misty canal-side world in which wealth and poverty co-exits with the exotic and the parochial. Having said that, there is another novel to be written about Johannes Brandt's trade journeys to the East Indies. Over to you Ms Burton  

A compelling page turner.

Read more about the actual doll's house in the Rijksmuseum here:
https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/BK-NM-1010 

Discover more fiction inspired by works of art here:
http://blog.ted.com/2012/07/25/10-books-inspired-by-paintings/

Possibly the greatest literature/trainer mash up of all time....


My favourite is the 977 inspired by Catcher in the Rye's Holden Caulfield

http://www.newbalance.com/connoisseur-authors-collection/ 

Bad Blood - A macabre slice of urban gothic

Title: Bad Blood: The Second Intercrime Thriller (Harvill Secker 2013)

Author: Arne Dahl

Tags: #nordicnoir, #scandi, #gothicfiction

Discovered: At the Blenheim Palace Literary Festival (@BlenheimLitFest)

Where read: (In part) On the 280 bus to Oxford 

Why read now?: Immerse yourself in this dark and brooding man hunt as the Autumn evenings draw in. 

The Word's Shortlist view: 

From the title on the dust jacket to the deep crimson red of the front cover spilled blood literally seeps from this novel. Victims with pincer like scars, a psychopathic killer back from the dead travelling by night across time zones - this reads like a macabre slice of modern urban gothic.

Inspector Paul Hjelm and the A-Unit team in Stockholm are pulled into the story following a tip off from the FBI that a serial killer, the presumed dead 'Kentucky Killer', is en route to Arlanda Airport.  

Unlike other genre novels set in police departments the team is  complex and made up of interesting, slightly odd-ball, characters (particularly Kersten Holm and Jorge Chavez) each with their own unique back stories. Establishing these personalties in the early series is one of the secrets behind the longevity, and devout fan loyalty, of the Intercrime series and TV shows.

The opening chapter, set in Newark Airport, hauls the reader right into the heart of the story. I challenge anyone not to read on after  this terrifying prologue in a cleaners closet! Moving on, the pace of the story varies from slow burning plot heavy sections to gory roller coaster sequences with explicit bloodshed.

Nordic crime novels are well know to be equally compelling and chilling but what sets Arne Dahl apart from Larsson, Mankel et al is style and literary accomplishment. With detailed plot points and well crafted characters this is far more than a simple page turner.

Dahl's novels have a implicit cinematic aesthetic that amplifies the fear and anxiety in the writing. This is great story telling in the finest tradition of gothic fiction.

Read Nordic Style's article Pioneer of Nordic Noir: http://www.nordicstylemag.com/2014/10/arne-dahl-pioneer-nordic-noir/

      

What to read next: The Snowman by Jo Nesbo

Twitter: @wordsshortlist
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The October Shortlist

Ballsy Nordic Noir, a new classic(?) and erudite Northernism ;)

Bad Blood - Arne Dahl

The Miniaturist - Jessie Burton

Chapter and Verse: New Order, Joy Division and Me - Bernard Sumner

Is Joanna Briscoe's Touched just too polite to be a real ghost story?

The novella's 1960s analogue setting is an excellent backdrop to what promises to be a chilling and creepy tale from the Hammer stable (expectation = intelligent horror with film noir nuance). 

The drama begins with the Crale family, with their five children, relocating to the village of Crowsely Beck from London. A displaced family in a new and isolated countryside community, very promising. What ghastly secrets could possibly lay beyond the village green in this quintessential English setting?

A few chapters in the biggest scare is how difficult this story is to get in to. Characters are flimsy and under-developed and the story goes nowhere despite having all the ingredients of a good old fashioned haunted house page turner. 

The star of the show is the cottage itself; the stench of cat urine, the curious damp stains on the wallpaper, the aroma of an old lady's perfume and the brick wall that just won't budge during the renovation work.

Although there are hints of suspense, the ethereal daughter Evangeline in Victorian dress who disappears for days on end with her imaginary co-conspirator Freddie, the story struggles to come together and realise the tension and fear that a real ghost story needs to deliver. If you're looking for chills and scare from this Hammer release you'll be sorely disappointed.

Much has been written recently about the back breaking weight of some of the novels on the market (have editors lost the ability to cull??) so the chance to pick up a slender novella like this is a luxury.

Read this book during an extra long lie in on a Sunday morning but don't be surprised if its just not Hammer enough for you - you will undoubtedly miss the spine chilling moments you expected.

Read, in part, at Foodhall in The Barbican
Discovered on Net Galley (Thank you!)

Twitter: @wordsshortlist
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Pulp fiction meets cyber-punk in 'Hard Boiled Wonderland and The End of the World'

If Colourless Tsukuru wasn't quite Murakami enough for you try this novel from 1985 (translated into English in 1991) which many fans cite as their favourite. In this idiosyncratic story Murakami spins two separate narratives that delve into the kind of existential angst at the heart of Murakami mania.

The odd numbered chapters, Hard Boiled Wonderland, are set in a near future Tokyo which blends science fiction and cyber-punk without conforming to either genre. Anime fans will recognise this version of Tokyo as a megalopolis in which data is a commodity to both steal and protect. Warring factions fight for control in a cyber crime detective story with more than a hint to the novels of, Murakami favourite, Raymond Chandler (The Big Sleep and The Long goodbye).  

Even numbered chapters, The End of the World, are set in an ethereal walled city where citizens are separated from their shadows and where great horned beasts rise and fall with the changing seasons.

What runs through both stories is profound sense of isolation. Although this is a recurring theme in Japanese fiction it reaches new heights in both of these worlds where characters are nameless; The Librarian, Chubby Girl, INKlings, and lives are governed by the routine of task based work.  

The Hardboiled chapters are arguably the most successful. The near future setting exaggerates the neo-noir science fiction scenes which hit many Westerners on a first time visit to Shinjuku or Shibuya. Both stories are dream-like and delusional in places which, to first time Murakami readers, may be inaccessible. 

The real reward for reading this particular novel are the 'Murakami-isms' which are aplenty throughout from the mundanity of the laundrette to the whimsy of the secret worlds beneath the Ginza line - all set of course to a soundtrack from mid-century jazz to Dylan.

Discovered in Foyles, Charing Cross Road

Read, in part, in The Monocle Cafe, Chiltern Street

Twitter: @wordsshortlist
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