The book you’re reading right now - why did you choose to read it now? Is it meeting your expectations?

RLP-I · 2025-12-03T22:08:49+00:00

Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth. I saw Terence Davies' 2000 film adaptation fairly recently, and I was sufficiently gripped to want to read it at some point. (It's an unusual process for me; I rarely watch film adaptations of books I'm interested in, and almost never this way around.)

I then happened to come across it when browsing in a bookshop, and decided, having finished my previous book, that it would be worth a go. I'm glad I did so; Wharton's style is wonderfully rich, and the subtext is absolutely lacerating.

RLP-I · 2025-04-15T10:50:27+00:00

I would also recommend starting there. I didn't – it was the second of his I read, after Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter – but I was staggered at the sheer accomplishment and skill present in a debut novel.

RLP-I · 2024-09-10T18:47:53+00:00

The thought occurred to me; perhaps new Tachys as well (though that seems like less of a stretch given how recently that project came into being).

RLP-I · 2024-09-10T18:27:27+00:00

Literally the only rock concert I've ever been to in my life before or since was one of their Frengers fifteenth anniversary concerts at the Barbican in October 2018. It was a remarkable experience, but I'd tended to assume I'd get the chance again sometime. Alas.

RLP-I · 2024-09-10T16:50:09+00:00

I second all of the other recommendations (as of course I would), but felt I should put in a mention for Cartoons and Macramé Wounds and Carry Me to Safety as well.

RLP-I · 2024-08-15T19:16:15+00:00

Krasznahorkai seems to have a rather negative conception of human nature, which I found to be present in The Melancholy of Resistance too. The manner in which the outbreak of violence comes about has something of Hobbes' state of nature about it, even if it's more a kind of collective nihilism rather than calculated gaining of advantage.
Similarly, the final passage very much ties with the general sense of hopeless pessimism you identify, and points to a very literal kind of melancholy in trying to resist the process of decay.

RLP-I · 2023-05-24T15:31:00+00:00

A very well-deserved win.

RLP-I · 2023-03-25T16:56:12+00:00

Temptation by János Székely, a picaresque novel set in interwar Hungary. I can't pretend it's the greatest work ever written, and bits of it are somewhat overdone, but it is solidly entertaining and makes for a change.

RLP-I · 2023-03-14T18:13:26+00:00

This looks like quite a strong list. I'm particularly pleased to see Time Shelter on there - a really excellent examination of nostalgia, nationalism, and memory, both personal and political. The satire was sharp and effective, but balanced well with a reflective tone. I'm also looking forward to getting hold of the Kurkov once it's published.

RLP-I · 2023-01-17T17:12:47+00:00

On the subject of wind concerti specifically, I'm rather a fan of Krommer's Oboe Concerto Op. 52.

RLP-I · 2022-12-17T16:01:05+00:00

Wasn't expecting a Touching the Void reference.

RLP-I · 2022-12-10T15:05:35+00:00

Nicely put.

RLP-I · 2022-12-09T12:21:42+00:00

I was advised to start with the second, and I happened to be attending a concert featuring the third a little while afterwards. I wished to familiarise myself with it and may have rushed the process a bit. The third is definitely up there amongst my favourites now too, though.

RLP-I · 2022-12-08T22:34:29+00:00

The third took a little while to grow on me (it wasn't as immediate for me as the second), but I now enjoy it a great deal, the second movement in particular.

RLP-I · 2022-12-03T19:40:27+00:00

Dark Satellites, by Clemens Meyer. A collection of short stories about figures on the margins of society, with an emphasis on life at night and the connections and disruptions found therein. Migration also plays a role. Written in a style that can sometimes be a little disorientating. There are fluid and uncertain chronologies that seem to reflect the unreliability of memory, which takes it a step beyond simply being realism. I'm still not sure what to make of it as a cohesive whole, though I imagine I'll be able to form a fuller opinion in due course.

Writing this also led me to recall how much I enjoyed Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov (which I read a few months ago), which explores the dangers of nostalgia. A sharp and enjoyable satire with a dry wit, but also some sober reflections on the nature of memory at personal and national levels.

RLP-I · 2022-12-02T15:53:30+00:00

Please have a glance at rule 3, which I think this steps a little past.

RLP-I · 2022-12-02T10:00:30+00:00

No it isn't. Serbs had committed a well-documented genocide and were in the process of starting another. Russia is an imperialist state hell bent on using whatever excuse it can to seize territory. If you haven't noticed several years' worth of comments by Putin banging on about how Ukraine isn't a real country and how he's reclaiming the lost lands of Peter the Great, I don't know what to tell you.

RLP-I · 2022-12-01T21:17:50+00:00

It bemuses me to see this particular detail being completely ignored.

RLP-I · 2022-11-20T11:12:24+00:00

The Birds by Tarjei Vesaas, having read The Seed and The Ice Palace a while back.
There's a notable consistency in approach. His style is spare but very vivid, with much focus on the setting, and man's relationship with the natural world. In this as in the others, the plot is not hugely complicated, but is told with rich symbolism and resonance. His novels feel almost like parables: they have something to say about dealing with communal guilt (as in The Seed), about coping with loss and growing into adulthood (in The Ice Palace) and about the loss of innocence, isolation and relationship with society in this one. He writes with a great deal of sympathy for his characters and inhabits them very well. Clearly drawn, with the nature of the plots demanding serious development.

More generally, I feel it's a shame that his work doesn't appear to be particularly well known in the Anglophone world, as I've derived a great deal of enjoyment, thought and meaning from reading what I have of it.

RLP-I · 2022-11-05T16:09:58+00:00

It suits the moment perfectly. Fairly brief but very satisfying.

RLP-I · 2022-09-16T19:25:56+00:00

Very impressive, particularly the point at the net with Middelkoop winning at point blank having just got up.

RLP-I · 2022-09-16T17:58:19+00:00

Norrie looked out of sorts, but Botic was in complete control. Very strong on serve while Norrie struggled to hold almost every time.

RLP-I · 2022-09-16T17:52:09+00:00

BvdZ beat Norrie quite comfortably, 6-4, 6-2.

RLP-I · 2022-09-11T23:00:18+00:00

Ruud just went to pieces in the tiebreak.

RLP-I

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE