Compare and Contrast: "The Sea, The Sea" and "If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things"

This week I’ve read two very different books, “The Sea, The Sea” by Iris Murdoch and “If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things” by Jon McGregor.

“The Sea, The Sea” was set on the English coast, populated with eccentric characters from the theatre world and was written in the 1970s. It is told entirely from the point of view of one character. “If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things” is set in what sounds like a northern industrial town, populated with students and “ordinary” working class people and was written and set early this decade. It is told from various view points.

So on the surface they were very different books, but when I finished them both, I realised that they both had a similar ending, based around the same idea.



[SPOILER ALERT – DON’T READ IF YOU DON’T WANT TO KNOW HOW THESE BOOKS END]




In “The Sea, The Sea”, James, the cousin of the narrator Charles, saves Charles from drowning using what he describes as a Buddhist ‘trick’ but this leaves him drained and he dies. In “If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things”, the boy from number 18 runs to try to save the child, but get there too late, however he goes back to his house and starts to die. At the same time, the child miraculously recovers in the ambulance, so the boy from number 18 has sacrificed his life in return for the child’s in much the same way that James did for Charles.

50 Book Challenge: Progress End of July 2008

Reading pace slowed down somewhat by the very long "The Sea, The Sea".

1. The Uncommon Reader - Alan Bennett
2. The Naming of the Dead - Ian Rankin
3. Glyph - Percival Everett
4. The Big Blowdown - George P Pelecanos
5. Post Office - Charles Bukowski
6. She's Come Undone - Wally Lamb
7. Hideous Kinky - Esther Freund
8. Flowers for Algernon - Daniel Keyes
9. Film Club - David Gilmour
10. The Graduate - Charles Webb
11. The Sea, The Sea - Iris Murdoch
12. If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things - Jon McGregor

12 down, 38 to go.

888 Challenge: Progress End of July

1001 Books to Read Before You Die
1. Hideous Kinky - Esther Freud
2. The Graduate - Charles Webb
Read so far: 2
To Read: 6

Non-fiction
1. The Hypocrisy of Disco Clane Hayward (memoir about growing up in seventies communes
2. Pies and Prejudice Stuart Maconie (journey around the north of England)
3. The White Album Joan Didion (essays and articles)
4. The Film Club David Gilmour (film history mixed with father/son relationship)
Read so far: 4
To Read: 4

Fiction authors that are new to me
1. The Russian Debutante's Handbook Gary Shteygart
2. The Best Thing that can happen to a Croissant Pablo Tusset
3. Post Office Charles Bukowski
4. She's Come Undone Wally Lamb
5. Flowers for Algernon - Daniel Keyes
Read so far: 5
To Read: 3

Crime & Detectives
1. The Naming of the Dead Ian Rankin
2. The Big Blowdown George Pelecanos
Read so far: 2
To Read: 6

As seen on Screen (books with films or television series)
1. Hideous Kinky - Esther Freud (overlapping two categories)
2. The Graduate - Charles Webb (overlapping two categories)
Read so far: 2
To read: 6

Prize Winners and Nominees
1. The Sea, The Sea - Iris Murdoch, Booker Prize Winner 1978
Read so far: 1
To read 7

Book Club reads
1. Uncommon Reader Alan Bennett
2. If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things - Jon McGregor
3. The Sea, The Sea - Iris Murdoch (overlapping two categories)
Read so far: 3
To read: 5

Books by authors whose other books I've enjoyed
1 Glyph Percival Everett
Read so far: 1

To read: 7

A Note on the Type: "If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things" Jon McGregor

The text of this book is set in Berling roman. A modern face designed by K. E. Forsberg between 1951-58. In spite of its youth it does carry the characteristics of an old face. The serifs are inclined and blunt, and the g has a straight ear.


Bloomsbury Paperback Edition 2003.

Book Review: "Flowers for Algernon" Daniel Keyes

I'd never even heard of this book until two weeks ago when I saw it mentioned on someone's All Time Favourite list. I liked a few of their other choices so thought I'd give this ago. I bought a copy online for 33p plus postage.

The simple story is about Charlie, a 30-something man with a low IQ but desparate urge to improve himself. He is chosen for experimental surgery to make him more intelligent, a procedure that so far has only been done on animals. The surgery is a success, Charlie becomes a genius, but doesn't gain emotional intelligent to match his knowledge. Then the other successful recepient of the surgery, a mouse called Algernon starts to behave oddly so Charlie sees his fate to come.

It is beautifully written, and incredibly moving. I read it in one train journey and was close to tears by the end.

This was written in the 1960s and was considered a work of Science Fiction, but then in a weird coincidence, I read an article in the Sunday Times magazine about the trend for taking "smart pills", drugs designed for people with ADHD or nacrolepsy that are now being taken by people without these conditions for their brain improving powers. Unfortunately the article wasn't that in-depth (it was in the Style section!) and the pharmaceutical company refused to comment on their use for outside of their original use. But I wonder if anyone is testing the possibilites of using them to make people cleverer?

On a personal note, I've often thought that I'd be happier if I was stupider. Not that I'm a genius, but I do tend to over-think everything and I've wondered if my life would have been easier and happier I was different.

50 Book Challenge: Progress Late-July 2008

A couple of long train journeys this week has resulted in a few more books being added to the list. I doubt this rate of reading will continue though.

1. The Uncommon Reader - Alan Bennett
2. The Naming of the Dead - Ian Rankin
3. Glyph - Percival Everett
4. The Big Blowdown - George P Pelecanos
5. Post Office - Charles Bukowski
6. She's Come Undone - Wally Lamb
7. Hideous Kinky - Esther Freund
8. Flowers for Algernon - Daniel Keyes

8 down, 42 to go.

Book Review: "She's Come Undone" Wally Lamb

This book was the first book that I received through the website ReadItSwapIt. I swapped a copy of "A Child in Time" for it. I wasn' that interested in it, but I was just so pleased that someone wanted to swap something with me that I didn't like to say no. The book arrived and the picture of a lady's dress on the cover put me off, so it remained on my shelf until this week.

I have started frequenting the forums of ReadItSwapIt and there was a thread on there about reading your earliest unread swap. I posted that mine was "She's Come Undone" by Wally Lamb and someone replied that it was very good and pointed me to a whole thread praising it.

So on Sunday, I dug it out from behind a row of other books. I read the first page and was confused as to why I'd not given it a go in the first place. The first page was great - I'd obviously not got passed the cover before.

It is the tragic, but often funny tale of Dolores Price. It starts in the 1950s with the day her family get their first television, and follows her life through difficult teenage years, mental breakdown and recovery, marriage and adulthood until the 1980s. It was at time traumatic, and Dolores wasn't the most sympathetic character in places (sometimes you just wanted to give her a good shake), but it was compulsive reading. I particularly liked the way that television was a constant throughout her life and its trails.

All in all, I'm glad I dusted it off and finally got round to reading it. I hope that my other great unreads will be as enjoyable.

My "To Be Read" Pile

Its actually not that big a pile, but some of the books have been on the pile for quite some time.

• One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
• GB84 - David Peace
• Saturday - Ian McEwan
• Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert Prisig
• If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things - Jon McGregor
• Hideous Kinky - Esther Freud
• Hell to Pay - George P Pelecanos
• Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett
• The Sea, The Sea - Iris Murdoch
• Flowers for Algernon - Daniel Keyes

888 Challenge: Mid July 2008

As I said, I've read shamefully few books so far this year, I was sure I must have read more but couldn't see them on my shelves and the library is closed for refurbishment so I couldn't have been there either. So I've a long way to go with this challenge.


1001 Books to Read Before You Die
Read so far this year: 0
To Read: 8

Non-fiction
1. The Hypocrisy of Disco Clane Hayward (memoir about growing up in seventies communes
2. Pies and Prejudice Stuart Maconie (journey around the north of England)
3. The White Album Joan Didion (essays and articles)
Read so far: 3
To Read: 5


Fiction authors that are new to me
1. The Russian Debutante's Handbook Gary Shteygart
2. The Best Thing that can happen to a Croissant Pablo Tusset
3. Post Office Charles Bukowski
4. She's Come Undone Wally Lamb
Read so far: 4
To Read: 4

Crime & Detectives
1. The Naming of the Dead Ian Rankin
2. The Big Blowdown George Pelecanos
Read so far: 2
To Read: 6


As seen on Screen (books with films or television series)
Read so far: 0
To read: 8

Prize Winners and Nominees
Read so far: 0
To read 8

Book Club reads
1. Uncommon Reader Alan Bennett
Read so far: 1
To read: 7


Books by authors whose other books I've enjoyed
1 Glyph Percival Everett
Read so far: 1
To read: 7

888 Challenge

Again on Library Thing, I came across another reading challenge. This one more difficult but more interesting than the 50 Book Challenge.

It is entitled the 888 Challenge, because in the year 08, you have to read 8 books from 8 different categories. Which means 64 books in one year but you can have up to 8 books that span more than one category, thereby reducing the total to 56.

This is a bigger challenge, especially since its already July and as mentioned before I'd hardly read anything in the first part of the year. But I'm in.

I've picked my categories as follows:

1. 1001 Books to read before you die
2. Non-fiction
3. Fiction authors that are new to me
4. Crime & Detectives
5. As seen on Screen (books with films or television series)
6. Prize Winners and Nominees
7. Book Club reads
8. Books by authors whose other books I've enjoyed

I'll chart where I'm at in another post.

1001 Books to Read Before You Die

I love lists. I love ticking things off lists. And at the moment, I'm loving reading. So I was delighted to hear about the book "1001 Books to Read Before You Die" by Dr Peter Boxall.

I've not seen the book itself, but have found a spreadsheet version of it and it is listed on Lists of Bests, so I've taken great pleasure in ticking off the ones I've read.

It was shockingly few. Especially considering I spent three years at university "doing" literature.

Apparently I've read 92 of the books, just over 9% which means that given my age and gender, if I live to the average age in western society, I will need to read 19 of the remaining books per year to complete the list.

I don't think I'm going to be able to do this. There was books on the list that I really have no interest in reading. But the list does give me some inspiration for other things to read, especially as I'm keen to read some more "classics". So I'm keeping the spreadsheet and the online list going and hope I can mark a few more off. A round 10% would be nice.

50 Book Challenge

Now we come to it. One of the main reasons for setting up a reading blog.

I've got myself involved in a challenge on the Library Thing website. The challenge is to read 50 books in one year. (Actually you can set your own target but that is the name of the group and the most common challenge). Since I'd couldn't count 10 books that I'd read before July, I thought I'd give it a go.

So I've started this challenge in July so have until next July to read 50 books. If I continue at the rate I've been reading recently, this won't be too difficult, but life often gets in the way and I'm likely to get distracted by something else. So I thought I'd track my progress here.

1. The Uncommon Reader - Alan Bennett
2. The Naming of the Dead - Ian Rankin
3. Glyph - Percival Everett
4. The Big Blowdown - George P Pelecanos
5. Post Office - Charles Bukowski


5 down, 45 to go.

Holiday Reading

I went on a brief holiday to Spain. I didn't get to read quite as much as I thought I would - people kept talking to me.

I took four books with me.

"Naming of the Dead" - Ian Rankin
"Glyph" - Percival Everett
"The Big Blowdown" - George P Pelecanos
"One Hundred Years of Solitude" - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

I read the Rankin on the train and finished the pool. Then I started Glyph by the pool and finished on the plane. I started "The Big Blowdown" on the train and finished at home.

"One Hundred Years" remains unread. I've now attempted to read it three times.

Whilst on holiday, we talked about books by Virginia Andrews and Stephen King.

Review: "The Uncommon Reader" Alan Bennett

My first Handbag Book Club Book. I procured a copy quickly through ReadItSwapIt and took it with me for a day out at the Sanctuary Spa. I was half way through it before I even arrived at the spa, so decided to by another book in the WH Smiths in the station to see me through the day. The bookworm in me was back!

I'd never actually read any Alan Bennett before. I had enjoyed the "Talking Heads" series on television when I was younger though, so assumed that I wouldn't have a problem with his writing (unlike my OH who has taken against him based on the "Cracker under the Sofa" episode).

"The Uncommon Reader" is a very slight book, a novella I believe it is called. I liked the premise. The Queen becomes an avid reader which causes problems for her position as the monarch. However, the book didn't quite go in the direction that I'd imagined. I'd envisaged her getting revolutionary ideas, having her mind opened up to republicanism, feminism and all sorts of other isms that aren't becoming for a Queen.

But, this was Alan Bennett, and he isn't a satirist. Gentle humour is much more his thing. It is more about the joy of reading itself, and it was a great way to re-ignite my love of books. I had a vague plan to try to follow the Queen's reading, but I'm not sure I will pursue this.

I would have been very interested to read a short story by other authors, taking the same starting point and seeing where it goes. I'm thinking someone like Will Self could produce something very different.

"Looks like we've got ourselves a reader"

I hadn't been reading much. Not books anyway. I was reading the free newspapers on my way to and from work, and when the news of the credit crunch and knife crime got too much, I exercised my brain with a sudoku puzzle. But I hadn't finished a book in a long time. I'd started plenty, but lost interest after a page or two. This was a sorry state of affairs for someone with a degree in English Literature.

Then I came across the Book Club thread on a forum I frequent and thought that might be a way to kickstart my reading again. So I joined up, voted and was pleased when the book I'd wanted was the book of the month.

The book was Alan Bennett's "The Uncommon Reader" (more on that later) which I read in an afternoon, and then I was off again, reading like a woman possessed.

Of course, this obsession may not last. I was similarly obsessed with exercise in June, so this may just be July's fixation. I'm hoping it won't be and am, in the modern way, creating a blog to share my reading experience.