The World Goes On (Laszlo Krasznahorkai)
One thing I know when I pick up a Krasznahorkai book off a shelf is
that I'm in for a couple of weeks (I hope) of unrelaxing Tube journeys. A
series of shorts - some much shorter than others - this isn't quite in the same
vein as "Seiobo There Below".
However, while not being a series of self-contained stories that
somehow come together under a theme, there feels a lineage across all of what
you read (I've had a beer). All (or at least most of) the stories follow the
theme of man hitting a moment of truth; something that may seem insignificant,
but can be a huge turning point for the individual. From a man about to set-out
on a journey to a Chinese translator waking up hungover in the centre of a
network of overpasses, Krasznahorkai digs deep to deliver an in-depth analysis
of a single moment.
"The World Goes On", therefore, seems like a collection of extensively
rambling haikus, which is probably a huge contradiction in terms, but captures
a collection of points in time that could form a single lifetime as man
laments, laments and laments. References to his earlier works, notably
"The Melancholy of Resistance" crop up from an uncertain lecturer.
Rambling in both sentences and geographical location, as appears
Krasznahorkai's life, "The World Goes On" is again a work of
obscurity, thought and long sentences...contained largely between Tooting Bec
and Goodge Street stations if you're me, where I fail daily to come across any
moments of truth...and then I got off the bus (Tube).
Days to read: 14
Days per book: 15.0
The Book of Dave (Will Self)
Will Self appeared a lot on "Have I Got News for You" in
yesteryear. Apparently he's written a book. Several in fact. And for a long
while I've been trying to bring myself to read one. £2.99 in the Balham Oxfam
for 477 pages eventually got me there.
To start, I was mighty confused. "The Book of Dave" is
perhaps both an excellent and terrible starting point for Self at the same
time. We start in a future, where London is divided by both extensive waters
and dialects. It is almost written in "that foreign," and as such, is
a rather irritating read to get into to make the 0.63p per page seem justified.
But then we get to the second chapter, and things start to become a little
clearer.
Taxi driver Dave, left by his wife and son, descends into middle age
world-weary and bitter. He pens a rambling book as to his worldview of how
families should be structured for his son, but after being committed and having
therapy, decides to write it off as drivel. However, unwittingly, the book
becomes a holy text of the future; his views on family structures followed to
the letter by future generations.
With the splitting between the present and the future, "The Book
of Dave" is an inconsistent read: The present the more enjoyable half;
with the future more a ramble of nearly incomprehensible words that become a
struggle to follow. However, the nature of the book means that this is
necessary, not that makes reading these chapters any more enjoyable.
As such, it becomes quite easy to drift in and out of the long read, at
times a good social commentary, at others a dull struggle. Whether or not I
choose to take the plunge with another Self-penned (haha) book is undecided,
but the more surrealist elements of his work may prove something of a barrier.
Days to read: 28
Days per book: 15.1
The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4 and The Growing Pains of
Adrian Mole (Sue Townsend)
Born in 1983, Adrian Mole is one of those things that I recognise but
can't actually recall. For me, Adrian Mole is a book with a tube of toothpaste
on the cover and the theme song to the ITV adaptation. But, I don't remember
actually having read any of it. Adrian Mole was only ever a teenager (aged 13
3/4 to be exact) in my memory, though I do also seem to remember something
about "Dan!" from Alan Partridge.
In fact, Sue Townsend mapped out a whole lifetime for Adrian Mole over
a series of books; the image of him as a perennial teenager perhaps coming from
1980's television, though the BBC did adapt one of the later books ("The
Cappuccino Years") starring Stephen "Dan!" Mangan. But what of
the books? Well, starting with the first two, we see Adrian in the first half
of his teens getting to grips with spots, sex and the Falklands War.
Reading them now, aged 34 and several months, the first thing that
strikes is the comic timing. Written as diaries with a paragraph or so serving
each day, what seems an innocuous comment one day, builds up the laughs for several
days in the future. His teenage naivety as the world around him is in chaos,
his mundane, self-absorbed obsessions see him unable to detect his mother's
affair, his parents' separation, his mother's subsequent pregnancy and dad
fathering an illegitimate child.
Throughout, we are not laughing with the young
"intellectual", but thoroughly at him, in much the same way many
comedians bring out their teenage diaries on stage to recount what massive
bellends they once were (and still possibly are). A mother at a young age,
Townsend clearly draws on her experiences with her own children, and as such,
these are very much books for those a little older than 13 3/4, though can be
appreciated by any age.
The early teenage angst is the Adrian Mole I have non-existent
nostalgia for. But, will I like the man he will become? Perhaps I'll try volume
three, or leave the idiot where (I believe) he belongs.
The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4
Days to read: 6
Days per book: 15.0
The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole
Days to read: 8
Days per book: 15.0
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