What books are we reading at the moment ?

[clarion]

For those who have read All Quiet.., I strongly recommend The Road Back, the lesser-known sequel, about the difficulties faced by the returning soldiers fitting into a defeated society where no one understands what they have been through.  Also his Three Comrades, which covers similar ground.

Another Remarque book that is worth a read (if you can find it) is Spark Of Life, about life in a concentration camp - something Remarque, as a known leftist, suffered before escaping and getting to Spain (there's another book about that, but I can't remember the title, and it's not one of his better novels, strangely).

[αdαmsκι]

I have just finished Amsterdam by Ian McEwan. I enjoyed the book, but it's nowhere near as good as Saturday, On Chesil Beach or Atonement. I also couldn't believe the ending of the book and that was a major dissapointment for me. It surprises me somewhat that McEwan got the Booker Prize for this work.

I am now reading Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson after being suggested it by a friend.

[Flying_Monkey]

For those who have read All Quiet.., I strongly recommend The Road Back, the lesser-known sequel, about the difficulties faced by the returning soldiers fitting into a defeated society where no one understands what they have been through.  Also his Three Comrades, which covers similar ground.

Another Remarque book that is worth a read (if you can find it) is Spark Of Life, about life in a concentration camp - something Remarque, as a known leftist, suffered before escaping and getting to Spain (there's another book about that, but I can't remember the title, and it's not one of his better novels, strangely).

You should definitely read the Boyden book I mentioned above if you like Remarque...

[Sergeant Pluck]

King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild. Absolutely horrifying and gripping. It tells of one of the largest mass killings of recent history - 8 to 10 million people - and how Edmund Morel fought, very successfully, to bring it to the attention of the world.

[mark]

For those who have read All Quiet.., I strongly recommend The Road Back, the lesser-known sequel, about the difficulties faced by the returning soldiers fitting into a defeated society where no one understands what they have been through.  Also his Three Comrades, which covers similar ground.

Another Remarque book that is worth a read (if you can find it) is Spark Of Life, about life in a concentration camp - something Remarque, as a known leftist, suffered before escaping and getting to Spain (there's another book about that, but I can't remember the title, and it's not one of his better novels, strangely).

Is the novel about getting to Spain Flotsam ?

[clarion]

No, I think it was The Night In Lisbon, though that is highly fictionalised.

Reading Wikipedia, it seems to suggest he was not, in fact, interned.  That's quite possibly correct.  My recollection came from a review in the ?fifties, which was a press cutting in one of the books I had.  I would not be at all surprised if either the critic had got the wrong end of the stick (Spark of Life is very realistic), or Remarque (born Remark) had romanticised his own story.

Another good book for anyone who enjoyed All Quiet..., this time from a French perspective, is Under Fire, by Henri Barbusse.

[mark]

"The Night in Lisbon" is in stock at Amazon.com (and amazon.co.uk). "Flotsam" seems to be out of print but available used, at least here in the US. The synopsis of "Flotsam" seems to fit your description of fleeing to Spain better than "The Night in Lisbon". At any rate, you've just motivated me to expand my Amazon.com shopping list.

[pcolbeck]

The Forgotten Soldier by Guy Sajer is another great account of infantry war. In this case WWII. Guy Sajer was a half French half German teenager who joined the German army in 1942 and the book follows him to the Eastern Front and the horrors of the long retreat and to the end of the war. Again it's a harrowing book. There has been some argument over whether it is a true autobiography or a roman a clef; either way it's worth reading.

[clarion]

OK, maybe I misremembered anyway.  It's years since I read them.  I gotta say, though, that he wrote some terrible trash too  - A Time To Love is one example.

[mark]

I guess I'll leave A Time to Love off my shopping list, then. At any rate, I do appreciate the recommendations.

[αdαmsκι]

The Forgotten Soldier by Guy Sajer is another great account of infantry war....

A brilliant book that I happened upon and hadn't heard about it until I'd read the tale. The book made me really think about the situation Sajer was in - half French / half German and living in Alsace, which had spent time being either French or German. He goes off to fight for Germany and comes back to find he's now living in France. Crazy. The insight into the Eastern Front is pretty incredible, too.

[Tom B]

Following Kirst's suggestion, have just finished the third of Alexander McCall Smith's '44 Scotland Street' series.
Also picked up a book of poetry by Moniza Alvi called 'Souls'. Surreal but accessible nonetheless, it is quite entrancing

[Flying_Monkey]

I am now starting a couple of things: firstly, The Carhullan Army by Sarah Hall, feminist SF set in a sort-of near future authoritarian Britain; and secondly, Wonders and the Order of Nature by Lorraine Dalston and Katharine Park, which is a fabulous book about what people believed about the world in pre-modern Europe.

[border-rider]

Alan Garner's Owl Service & The Mabinogion in parallel.  Which is illuminating.

[Mrs Pingu]

I'm re-reading 'The Bridge' by Iain Banks, and remembering that I found it a bit slow. I actually wanted to read 'Walking On Glass' but couldn't find it in the loft.

[border-rider]

yes, agreed on The Bridge.  Walking on Glass is a much more engaging book...

[Tom B]

The Carhullan Army by Sarah Hall, feminist SF set in a sort-of near future authoritarian Britain

Be interested to hear how you find this, FM. I found it quite moving

[αdαmsκι]

Alan Garner's Owl Service

Read that when I was about 12 and I remember it being fab. I should re-read it.

[border-rider]

it's quite dated in terms of characterisation - lots of 50s-stylee upper-middle-class  English stiff upper lip stuff, and stereotypes of Welsh yokels that just seem from a different age, but the interleaving of the Mabinogion stuff works very well, as does the rendering of the speech patterns of native Welsh-speakers (I think).  I still need to get my head fully around the events at the end.  Not at all simple to unravel.

[andrewc]

Just about to start "Transition", Iain Bank's latest. 

[redshift]

it's quite dated in terms of characterisation - lots of 50s-stylee upper-middle-class  English stiff upper lip stuff, and stereotypes of Welsh yokels that just seem from a different age, but the interleaving of the Mabinogion stuff works very well, as does the rendering of the speech patterns of native Welsh-speakers (I think).  I still need to get my head fully around the events at the end.  Not at all simple to unravel.

When you've done that, try Red Shift (what else?).  Allegedly this can be read in parallel with the ballad of Tam Lin, but it's through a very dark glass.

After that, you'll be ready for Thursbitch, assuming you're not working backwards...   

[border-rider]

I read Redshift about 34 years ago, and I must admit it made my brain hurt...

[redshift]

I read it about 30 years ago, and it made complete sense.  Mind you, I always did see things a bit skewed. 

[Flying_Monkey]

After that, you'll be ready for Thursbitch, assuming you're not working backwards...   

Or indeed Strandloper, which I think is his best book, and one of the best novels in English of the last 20 years.

On The Carrhulan Army... hmm. I am not sure what I think. At times, the naivety of the narration was moving, at times it made the novel read like an English undergraduate creative writing assignment. Although it was nice to read something set in Cumbria, it was also rather derivative and unoriginal - Brian Aldiss's Greybeard came to mind, as did V for Vendetta (the original, not  the film) and even the original version of Survivors. Personally, I consider Gwyneth Jones to have done some much better apocalyptic Britain novels too, but she is considered to be a proper SF novelist and therefore will never get the praise that Hall has done.

[Gaseous Clay]

I'm about to finish Dombey & Son and then i'm going to re-read my favourite: Brave New World well, its an equal favorite with 1984.

Or Mr Nice by Howard Marks.