citizen of now
Very slow to start, and feels rushed when it finally gets going, but nevertheless an original storyline which casts a spell on you. I think the idea may have begun as a simple ghost story like many of Westall's other works, but Joanna is such an endearing character that by the end both author and reader are firmly on her side.
It's a bewitching tragedy which leaves me feeling nostalgic for the world it creates, and reflective about those times you make a choice you can never go back on.
Saw the play back in 1999 when it opened. Made an impact and stayed with me all this time. Reading it didn't quite have the same effect, but it unlocked a few memories. Surprising how ‘me' it was. Very subtle, reflective, themes of loneliness, recursion, connectedness and disconnectedness. Reminded me of [b:The Lighthouse 14569975 The Lighthouse Alison Moore https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1343229153l/14569975.SY75.jpg 20212710] by Alison Moore, which I read just before it, actually.5 stars for the play on stage, 3.5 stars for the play written down. Didn't quite capture the set, look, and feel. A good chunk of the magic is in the lighting, props, movement, etc. Doesn't quite translate to the written word. I'd like to have seen this with a more detailed description, rather than just a script with brief set directions.So I'm happy with giving it a caveated 4 stars overall. Not sure I'd recommend to someone who hadn't seen it on stage.I'd love to see it again, on stage or video.
Does a masterful job of creating a gripping and unsettling atmosphere throughout, without anything you can really put your finger on. It conveys a sense of bleak foreboding, and of a middle aged sort of accepting loneliness, of futility.
It's hard to say “I enjoyed it” because it's bleak, and with no redemption. But it's real, evocative, and well written.
A strange experience! It reminded me of a short story, and I really wish it had been longer. It was very hard for me to separate it from the - very different -film. Scratch that, it was impossible.
So it was an odd reading experience. I felt I gained a little more insight into the film, insomuch as when I re-watch it I'll be looking out for signs of certain aspects of the book - similarities between characters, aspects of their personalities, details about the culture they live in.
But all that feels like it's on quite superficial and trivial level. The book really is very different from the film in overall feel, plot, character, and details.
It's not as good, but it is good in other ways. There is a definite religious theme, and an exploration of what it means to have faith, to lose it. Even a fairly profound, if brief, exploration of whether it matters if the thing you have faith in really exists or not. That, I did not expect, and would have relished a deeper examination of.
All in all, enjoyable, somewhat thought-provoking, left me with unanswered questions and wanting to understand more... that at least it shares with the film.
Pop-sci-fi. Dan Brown meets HG Wells and introduces him to Tequila. The next morning, massively hungover, they halfassedly write a book before going for breakfast and sobering up. Unfortunately before they get back and toss the draft in the trash, Blake Crouch finds and publishes it.
Very easy reading, burned through it in a week. A very nothingy book though. What even happened?!? Not “what even happened” as in “stuff happened that blew my mind beyond comprehension” but just “did anything actually really happen in this book?” Sure lots happened, but all in a very throwaway manner, that didn't really seem to matter.
There is no characterisation at all. If you sit down for a coffee one day with Barry, what's he like? You can't answer, because you don't know.
Oh and there's a totally freakin' weird Hitler justification casually thrown in the middle for no real reason: “Who's to say the actions of a monster like Hitler or Stalin or Pol Pot didn't prevent the rise of a much greater monster? ... Without Hitler, an entire generation of immigrants would never have come to the USA” - err ok, I can't even begin to deal with that take but it rEALly mAKeS YoU THinK.
So much of what the characters do and how they behave doesn't make sense, not because it's philosophically difficult but because it's just not how real people act.
It's not a bad book though. The writing is decent - reminiscent of Dan Brown in the “you're reading a movie” feeling but it's not awful by any stretch. The idea behind it is good, it's just... it doesn't really go anywhere. As the book itself says “This is just first-year philosophy shit”.
Yes. Yes it is.
Interesting to get a new perspective on the parts of the patrol shared with McNab, and equally interesting to see what Ryan had to go through on his long E&E. Easy read. Hard to think about it without comparing to Bravo Two Zero but it stands up on its own, in fact I'm tempted to say I think it's a bit better than McNab's book, though both are good. I read this a couple of years after re-reading Bravo Two Zero, and now I want to read that again just to get a better feel for a comparison. But let's try to avoid that and evaluate The One That Got Away on its own merits. I warmed to Ryan as a character much moreso than McNab. Ryan's obviously proud of who he is, but there's a fair amount of reflection, guilt, and admission of errors too - his own and of others. The introduction should have been a postscript, as it coloured my perception of what happened with Vince. Mild spoilers follow. Yes, Ryan blames Vince for a lot of things, and isn't very kind in his description of Vince's character. More than that, he's pretty much outright insulting about Vince. Whether that's a fair assessment or not we'll never know. It'd be interesting to hear Stan's account. On the whole though I tend to believe Ryan's version of events. Sure, some of it sounds fantastical, and maybe some of it needs to be taken with a pinch of salt. But the broad strokes are undeniable.
The book can be split into four broad sections. The patrol up to when it split, the portion with Ryan, Stan, and Vince, the solo E&E, and ‘misc' bits scattered throughout the latter parts. Some of the misc stuff is filler anecdotes about training and other missions after Bravo Two Zero, and the book doesn't really benefit from it, but nor does it detract too much. The parts detailing the patrol up to the split are quite different from what I remember from McNab's book and it would be interesting to do a real side-by-side comparison. The group E&E parts are tense and gripping, the three men were in a really bad way physically and mentally, and that creates an unnerving atmosphere as you wonder what's going to go wrong next. The solo E&E part was mixed. On the one hand it felt a little like a foregone conclusion because you know he gets out, on the other there was plenty of interesting little encounters. I must say I was expecting a little more in the way of actual survival skills being demonstrated but it seems Ryan made it out on sheer strength of will. There were a few occasions I was thinking “Why didn't he [kill the goat, search the bodies, etc]” and the explanation can only be his not thinking straight due to fatigue, or surrounding circumstances making those courses of action impossible. Suffice to say, it's no SAS Survival Guide!
Overall an enjoyable, gripping read, that left me a little on edge, and with the lasting impression that Bravo Two Zero was an almighty cock up from start to finish.
Almost gave up on this. The first half was just a gushing love letter to Charles Ephrussi, a fabulously wealthy ‘spare son' of a banking dynasty with seemingly nothing to do but socialise and provide a source of name-dropping to a future biographer. He knew Renoir! And the Empress! Proust references him! Thrilling stuff.
The recounting of the netsuke's story begins badly too. A brief acknowledgement that they're actually pillaged from Japan and then they take on their own lives - as a conglomerate whole bought en-masse by Charles because Japan was ‘in', and then seemingly left in a vitrine (get used to that word) as a piece of decoration. Eugh.
When they arrive as a wedding gift in Vienna things get a little more interesting, though the fact that Viktor (39) “waited until she was 17 and then proposed [to a girl he'd known since her childhood]” is not so much glossed over as outright ignored. However, the story of what happens in Vienna with the continued rise of antisemitism culminating in the annexation of Austria by the nazis, is interesting and eye-opening. The injustice of the forfeiture of the family fortune and assets is raw and real.
After the Vienna chapter there's a little wrapping-up of the netsuke's return to the family, which is sweet but I felt Anna should have been the real star of the book, her story seemed much more interesting, a life of servitude leading up to one quiet, brave, act of resistance and loyalty. But she only gets a single, apologetic, chapter in which the author admits he doesn't really know anything about her. If only he'd pursued her history with the same zeal as he followed up the whereabouts of every painting Charles ever touched.
The netsuke's return to Japan, I feel, is a return in name only. Yes they are in the country, no they are not returned to the country. The author strongly feels that objects are bought and sold and this is how things are. I think the people who snapped up the Ephrussi's belongings when the Nazis forced them to sell probably feel the same way.
Fantastic little booklet. I first read this in my first year studying philosophy at undergrad many many years ago and re-read it after finishing the rather unsatisfactory Veronica Decides To Die by Paulo Coelho. Perry's book covers similar ground but is more succinct, explicit, and thought provoking, in my opinion. Dense, though. Not a casual read although not strictly academic either.
What an amazing book! So ahead of its time that it still feels futuristic today, as well as prescient. Yes, it's dense and Gibson in no way holds your hand through the maze of lingo and concepts he invents, but you soon learn to glide over the parts you don't get and let the neon-lit tech-noir story wash over you. Thrilling, philosophical, and enigmatic, I'm really glad I read it. Wish I'd done so sooner, and will probably revisit it and other works by the author in the future. The actual plot is secondary to the characters and sometimes-throwaway ideas, and this is where it slightly falls short - it's just a complex heist story really. I wish that what Case and co. were up to had mattered more in the grand scheme of things. I want to see this team saving the world, or breaking it.
A very interesting bit of background / scene-setting for The Wooden Horse, but it doesn't really come together as a story in its own right. For that reason it's not quite worthy of being called a prequel - more an extended introduction perhaps? Still, it does give valuable insight into the daily life of POWs and if you're a fan of The Wooden Horse then it's essential reading that will provide a deeper understanding of the context of that escape. One thing I found particularly good was the recognition that other prisoners (in this case the Russians) had a much tougher time than the British POWs. It gives the story a maturity that's welcome and sobering. Ditto the focus on the POW with mental health problems, again showing us that POW life that wasn't all boy-scoutish ingenuity in the face of the enemy. If Williams' goals were to provide context for the events at Stalag Luft III and to pitch the tone with a little more gravity, I think he achieved them admirably.
Nigeria undergoes a revolutionary schism and the republic of Biafra is created. This books tells the story of Biafra through the lens of a group of unlikely companions; the house-boy, the professor's mistress, and the Englishman who turns his back on the colonisers but will never fully understand Africa. I never quite got into this, I felt it wanted to teach the reader, more than tell a story. Maybe I'm just an Englishman who will never fully understand Africa, though.
Really enjoyable read, lovely characterisation. We trace the life of the Count over several years, all the while wondering where the book is leading us, if anywhere. Through the whole book I was waiting for some big thing to occur, and it never does until the very very end. That's not to say it's boring - there are plenty of little upsets and developments, and the Count reacts to them all in a delightful way. But there's no big bang. It's very lifelike and human, and there's lots of thoughtful reflection on the human condition, which feels sincere and sage, and really I think this is where most of the book's value lies for me. The ending is a bit rushed, and it's a shame we don't get to hear what happens to some of the characters. Worth rereading. Would recommend, glad I read it. But not one of those books that really affected me, just a really good book.