The Beautiful and the Grotesque (Akutagawa Ryunosuke)
Japanese literary legend Akutagawa is a writer I’ve come across more
from film adaptations than actually reading his work. I have polished off a few
of his shorts (boom boom) in the past, most notably ‘Rashomon’ and ‘In a
Grove’, but with ‘The Beautiful and the Grotesque’ I have more than doubled the
number of his works that I have consumed.
A mix of weird and wonderful, the collection is started by a rather
intriguing, if not overly long and bemusing, introduction by translator, John
McVittie, which sets the collection in a
strange context. Typically well written, the collection is full of interesting
life lessons in short story format that chiefly inform, educate and entertain.
But while each story has its own place, reading endless back-to-back
new stories can leave some flying passed with barely a word being taken in.
while some show why so much has been put on his talents, others I can barely
remember, and so may have to be read another day…if I can be arsed.
Days to read: 22
Days per book: 14.3
Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman (Murakami Haruki)
From one legend of Japanese writing to a more modern day equivalent – though
not so much in his motherland. And another long collection of short stories –
will I ever learn?! With an introduction by the author himself, the collection
is both old and new, with some of his very first short stories previously
unreleased in English combined with some newer works.
Like in previous anthologies of his that I’d read, some of the shorts
were turned into full novels and so some of what was read was familiar, and the
inclusion of ‘Tony Takitani’, made into an excellent film, I was often aware of
the end results.
The stories here all have something in common: being rather strange. As
with much of his work, there has to be a sense of accepting the incredible and
once that’s done, they can be enjoyed. There are hits and misses here, but
overall entertaining.
This now marks my completion of all Murakami’s work translated into
English and available in the UK, so someone needs to either translate his earlier
stuff of he needs to write some more.
It was also while reading this book that my ‘Every 14 Days’ experiment
shot to fame via Richard Herring’s ‘Warming Up’ blog. Read here and listen
there. 50 books read in 716 days, falling just short of my target two years in
to this failed experiment and counting…
Days to read: 16
Days per book: 14.3
I Can Make You Hate (Charlie Brooker)
The latest in the line of the father Konnie Huq’s son’s columns from
‘The Guardian’ and more of the same. With the death of his ‘Screen Burn’ column
part way through the time period, some scripts from his television shows have
been thrown in for fun. However, as these are items done using cutaways and
video clips, they are not always as effective in print and so could have been
left out at little detriment to the overall collection.
The removal of ‘Screen Burn’ means that there are less ‘Big Brother’
obsessed moments and more of a range of topics to entertain while your anus is
expanded as you evacuate your bowels.
Days to read: 11
Days per book: 14.2
Back Story (David Mitchell)
Sex, drugs and rock n roll. This is neither the time nor the place.
It’s fair to say that David Mitchell hasn’t exactly lived a wild and
crazy existence up until now. Despite obviously having the interesting aspect
of a career in television comedy to comment on, his life outside of work could
be described as quite unremarkable: He went to a minor public school, then was
chairman of Footlights at Cambridge before taking the leap to work low level
jobs in London while trying to fulfil the ambition of a career in the media
that many fail to achieve.
While he’d certainly be the most interesting of your friends and one to
definitely include on the invites to a dinner party, he has little of a love
life in which to speak of and the only real scandal surrounding him is that he
isn’t as similar to Mark Corrigan in real life as one might have originally
thought. And that’s what makes this a more interesting autobiography than many.
Keeping in line with a lack of any shocking life events of which to
speak, the memoir is based around the fact that after suffering from a bad
back, he was encouraged to take walks to improve his physical state. Staring
off in his home in Kilburn, Mitchell makes his way through the London streets,
ending at Television Centre, Wood Green. Along the journey, various landmarks
recall a chronological account of the various stages of his life. Maybe not
completely original in chronological and metaphorical recounting, but nice
nonetheless.
What it lacks in shock value it makes up for in pure pedantry in his
trademark logical manner. It’s an honest account – particularly regarding his
recent engagement – and provides insight into his opinions on how television
works and why most of it is lacking. And if reading at Waterloo Station, a fat
woman might say ‘good choice’ to you.
Days to read: 19
Days per book: 14.3
