Every 14 Days...(32)

The Housekeeper and the Professor (Yoko Ogawa)

After some slightly long and heavy reads, I was looking for a little light relief, so I dipped into my wife's book collection (larks!). Yoko Ogawa's 'The Housekeeper and the Professor' is just the type of book I needed: it's short, not too deep and full of maths problems.

With so many women quitting the role of the Professor's housekeeper, a single mother is lumped with the position, having to look after an aging man with a memory of only eighty minutes. Each day, therefore, she needs to reintroduce herself to him and go through the same routine before any work can be done. Sticking to her task that so many before her gave up, she befriends the Professor, bringing her son to her place of work. Obviously, this raises suspicions and it's not long before the housekeeper finds herself the next in a long line of formers.

This is quite a simple little narrative, told from the perspective of the housekeeper, who gradually starts to pick up a knowledge of simplistic maths problems and prime numbers while chopping the veg. As a result, the book switches between the narrative, forgotten baseball stars and equations, in what is a somewhat strange read, but entertaining enough.

Though this book delivered on my needs: a nice simple puzzler, a bit like 1 + 1.

Days to read: 8

Days per book: 14.8

Dave Gorman's Googlewhack Adventure (Dave Gorman)

After my recent re-reading of ‘Are You Dave Gorman?’, I decided to pursue more reads from the ginger fur face. Getting something of a reputation for being a bit of a serial adventurist in his work – much like Tony Hawks – his second book, and subsequent stand-up show – was ‘Dave Gorman’s Googlewhack Adventure’.

Unconventionally for me, I decided to read his books in chronological order, and ‘Googlewhack Adventure’ starts off pretty much in the same vein of its predecessor: drunk and with unexplained travel purchased, he sets about on a journey that will take him into various parts of the world and deeper into debt.

A Googlewhack is something that probably doesn’t really exist anymore, at least not enough to be of interest to anyone in this day and age. Written a few years ago now, the idea of finding a single webpage entry that features two words typed into Google at random already seems old fashioned, with the ever-increasing scale of the WWW. Much like ‘Are You Dave Gorman?’ now feels like a nostalgic view of the past – with the journey not even existing beyond some quick Facebook searches these days – the idea of a sole webpage featuring two words from a search seems far too uninteresting from something many people now use many times a day.

But that’s probably part of the fun. The ‘adventure’ happening at a time when we were all getting used to increasing Internet usage, it shows how much more primitive we were with the Internet only a few years ago, before constant smart phone communication, having to beg, borrow and steal connection from others.

The final goal may be a little spurious and framing it around supposedly writing another book may seem a little farfetched, but it’s a tale of randomness and where it can take us, though one that might find itself already a little outdated.

Days to read: 10

Days per book: 14.8

Asleep (Banana Yoshimoto)

Furthering my needs for some light relief, I had another stab at the works of Banana Yoshimoto. Now, my response to reading 'Kitchen' was certainly from the male perspective (i.e. I was a bit Mike Newell).  Has this second attempt changed that opinion?

Probably not. 'Asleep' contains three short stories ('Night and Night's Travellers', 'Love Songs' and the titular) that improve as they go, but don't start from a great place (certainly not of the magnitude of Villa's beating of Bournemouth on the opening day of the season back in August).

The lead characters are all people that it isn't easy to sympathise with: young women, probably unemployed and quite directionless who get their knickers in a twist about something. If they kept themselves a bit more occupied, these problems probably wouldn't be so dominant in their lives. There's a lot of nostalgia in these stories, but it's all a bit too twee for me, which makes me start being a bit sexist in my response (again). But I can't be sexist, I enjoyed Yoko Ogawa's work (see earlier).

Like 'Kitchen', this isn't all bad, and there are some good moments here and there, though they're a little lost in the mopiness for me. Still, photos of Banana-san in her glasses do amuse.

Days to read: 12

Days per book: 14.8

America Unchained (Dave Gorman)

I’ve obviously been in a bit of a Dave Gorman mood recently, and with my third of his books –and indeed his actual third – we move across the Pond to another of his adventures, though this time, it’s slightly less drunken.

Despite my liking of ‘Are You Dave Gorman?’ first time around, I didn’t really follow ‘Googlewhack Adventure’ or ‘America Unchained’, and so have only just picked up both now. While his first two books now clearly seem dated in this modern world, ‘America Unchained’ is an actual crying out for the past.

Fed-up after a long tour of the US of States, he finds himself yearning for an America of his childhood – which, of course, was all viewed from a TV screen. In true National Lampoon’s style, therefore, he buys himself an old wood panel station wagon and decides to head from LA to New York, with the intention of only ever purchasing goods and services from old fashioned ‘Mom&Pop’ traders. And never The Man.

Funding the journey by having a companion film it for a documentary, he is once again not alone on this adventure, which sees him have to stay on track, but also leads him off course, and as such becomes a source of frustration for him with his initial female director, and there is a lot of frustration on this journey compared to his previous, lacking in some of the more playful, random and fun moments. But, where the previous tales were ones of random betting, here there is more social comment and heartbreak at the decline of the sole trader.

Perhaps a little sentimental at times, this is a much more purposeful journey than before, bringing with it greater frustration at the difficulty of the task, as a writer that struggles to find the past in the present.

Days to read: 17

Days per book: 14.8

Dave Gorman vs. the Rest of the World (Dave Gorman)

Four was probably too many to get through in a short period, and, as such, my reading of Mr Gorman’s fourth book, ‘Dave Gorman vs. the Rest of the World’ was less enjoyable than the previous.

Again, nostalgia sparks the idea: to play real games against anyone that’s willing to challenge, as you did as a child, though this time around, there is no particular target involved. And while he ends the book on that note, that there is no real ending, I can’t help but think this book was maybe a little forced and didn’t particularly have much substance. There is none of the randomness, the silliness or frustration in this idea. It simply seems more a collection of anecdotes, with little over-arching narrative to hold them all together.

Maybe I needed a little break from him before picking up this one, but while there are some okay moments, this is simply: meet someone, play them at a game, leave, on to the next, with the pursuit of playing games feeling a little less playful.

Days to read: 22

Days per book: 14.9

Every 14 Days...(9)

Disgusting Bliss: The Brass Eye of Chris Morris (Lucian Randall)

I’d read that Lucian Randall’s book around the career of Chris Morris rarely goes into too much depth and so would add little to the knowledge of one of his fans. While keeping himself out of the spotlight, his work has always come under great scrutiny for its controversial nature and subject matter. So, while a book around the enigmatic and semi-mythical man maybe interesting, does it add anything?

Essentially, no. Much of the first half of the book focuses on the ‘On the Hour’ team, their various disputes and the transition to television spawning a long list of individual career pathways. Most of which can be gained from 'The Day Today’ DVD extras, any work of Lee and Herring in the 90s and having heard the name Steve Coogan. While offering the odd tid-bit here and there, it doesn’t add much to the bank of comedy trivia.

As the title suggests, much of the fruit of the work revolves around ‘Brass Eye’ and its various controversies; and it does offer some extra depth to that which may already be known. But, while ‘Disgusting Bliss’ serves as a good story of Chris Morris’ career, it’s more of a chronological summary, whereas something more creative would have been better. Most of the main players involved are referenced and quoted throughout, but in many ways, it feels more like a fan writing about his hero, though anything else would prove tricky when writing about such an elusive subject.

Days to read:14

Days per book: 15.3

Dawn of the Dumb (Charlie Brooker)

Returning to the sometimes Chris Morris collaborator’s collection of articles for The Guardian, ‘Dawn of the Dumb’ is ‘Screen Burn Part II’, continuing to feature his ‘Screen Burn’ column, as well as extra pieces written for the newspaper.

The latter stands the test of time a little better, being more a collection of his thoughts and musings that are less dated than his various whining over ‘Big Brother’ and ‘Britain’s Got Talent’.  Much like with ‘Screen Burn’ before it, it is laugh out loud (LOL) funny in parts, though also drags if reading too much at once. Here also, his obsessions over ‘Big Brother’ seem to dominate many articles, with little said about other shows on television at the time, apart from any ITV ‘talent’ show and ‘Dragons’ Den’, which have become new targets for his rage here.

Again, brilliant in parts; this could serve as an article a day toilet roll!

Days to read: 12

Days per book: 15.2

Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets (David Simon)

So, having finally seen ‘The Wire’, I thought I’d go to the original research material that created it: ‘Homicide’, especially as I had a 3 month trip coming up, it’s a long old read and was only £4. Not just in weight terms, but much like the ‘The Wire’ this is heavy stuff, with plenty of depth into character backgrounds , with numerous personalities to follow. This is essentially a journalistic account of the year David Simon spent with the Baltimore Homicide Department, watching their every move and documenting their lives. Everything here then is real.

Three things are covered in the book: Firstly the backgrounds of each of the detectives in the department, all of whose identities are included; details of the murders that they worked over the course of 1988; and lastly descriptions of the process in which the detectives work.  This is a full and detailed research project that formed the basis for much of the television work Simon has since been part of.

Perhaps having just watched ‘The Wire’ all the way through, I can’t help but picture each of the detectives included in their on-screen personas, which probably clouds a lot of my reading here, and so, it probably wasn’t as rewarding for me to read this. Indeed, with so much detail to follow, it can be easy to miss parts of entire story threads and feel bogged-down with information. But reading this only adds to the credibility of the television series, knowing that much of it was based on real detectives working real cases.

Days to read: 12

Days per book: 15.1

Kitchen (Banana Yoshimoto)

So, next I decided to have a look at the debut novels of two of Japan’s better known authors throughout the world: Murakami Ryu, who I’ve read before; and Banana Yoshimoto, who is new to me. Starting with the latter, I quickly worked through the short ‘Kitchen’, Yoshimoto’s debut from 1988.

My first reaction is that this is a book written by a woman, for women. There is a bit too much sentiment in the writing style, with the narration has far too much subjectivity too it than I like, feeling a bit more like an extended list of what the character was feeling each moment, not letting the reader draw their own conclusions. This left me a little like how I felt after reading Xinran’s ‘The Good Women of China’: feeling like I am too stupid to understand how those involved may or may not feel.

But it’s not all bad. The writing improves as the book progresses, and this edition comes with the short (carried away by a…) ‘Moonlight Shadow’ which is an improvement on ‘Kitchen’. Banana Yoshimoto is lauded by many, but doesn’t really do it for me. Though, all that have mentioned liking her have been women. But, in the words of Mike Newell ‘I know that sounds sexist, but I am a sexist.’

Days to read: 7

Days per book: 14.8

Almost Transparent Blue (Murakami Ryu)

Off the back of the success of Miike Takeshi’s ‘Audition’, I read Murakami’s book that it was based on. Enjoying it, I followed it up with his ‘In the Miso Soup’, which I also liked. His debut, written when he was 23, winning him the Akutagawa Prize, is a far more complex affair than the simple, easy to read novels from later in his career.

To start, the writing style is a little confused: It continually switches between an endless stream of consciousness from the narrator’s perspective, to structured dialogue between the characters. Speaking of the characters, none really seem to develop personalities or idiosyncrasies here. Combined with the writing style, it is often difficult to tell who is actually speaking, though in the context of the story, it almost seems unnecessary, melding into a ball of different voices as the characters seem to.

With little in the way of character identity thrown into a world of endless drug abuse and sex, there is no real sympathy or empathy with any characters. All seem far too preoccupied with heroin and penis size to truly care for, making you relieved that it’s only a short piece. The main point of intrigue here is that the lead shares the authors name, hinting at a semi-autobiographical nature, as does the strange ‘Letter to Lilly’ at the book’s close. Other intrigue comes in the setting: a small Japanese town with a US Army base, leading to some insight to the opinion of the Japanese to Their US guests in the 1970s.

Like ‘Kitchen’, it improves as it goes, though in a short work, that isn’t really a good thing, and the lack of any real story make this simply a graphic description of drug and sex parties among a band of losers, though perhaps that is what people looked for in it. But not for me.

Despite their success, neither Yoshimoto’s nor Murakami’s debuts did much for me. Murakami is a writer I would say has definitely improved since, though the extent I will both to consider another Yoshimoto book is debatable. Though willing to try…

Days to read: 6

Days per book: 14.5