I’M READING AS FAST AS I CAN (OCTOBER 2012 EDITION)

[defrog]

Knocking out book reports like James Bond knocks out security guards … or something like that.

JUST FINISHED

A Most Wanted Man by John Le Carre

I’ve only read Le Carre once before (The Little Drummer Girl, back in the late 80s), and decided it was high time to try him again, so I went with this recent post-9/11 novel about a young Chechen Muslim named Issa who turns up in Hamburg to claim an inheritance from a bank account used by his dad for money-laundering. Banker Tommy Brue gets roped into spy games as several intelligence agencies are convinced Issa is a terrorist waiting to happen. But is he? Reading this, I remember now why I stopped reading Le Carre – his writing style can best be described as “leaving in the parts people skip” (to paraphrase Elmore Leonard) – meandering detail and tangential asides that personally I find distracting. However, plotwise it’s a pretty good story and a low-key yet scathing commentary on the state of Western intelligence when it comes to dealing with terrorism. I’ll probably give Le Carre another try, now that I know what parts to skip.

JUST STARTED

Deadeye Dick by Kurt Vonnegut

I’m a fan, but I haven't read his 80s stuff, so we’ll start with this, which involves a double murder, Hitler and a neutron bomb. Sounds promising.

RECENT TITLES

Down And Out In Paris And London by George Orwell

I’ve been on a bit of an Orwell kick recently, and this memoir of his time living in poverty, and what it’s really like to be poor, seemed like a good thing to read, given the current meme in American politics that the poor have only themselves to blame for being that way because they spend all their cash on booze, iPhones and air conditioners. Of course the details are probably different today (and in America), but it does get to the heart of what people in that position go through, scrapping by from day to day, and little to no chance of ever escaping from it. Recommended reading for anyone who wants a basic understanding of what it’s like to be down and out. 

Bad Monkeys by Matt Ruff

One of those books I picked up on a whim based on the jacket synopsis (that, and Neal Stephenson recommended it). The premise: Arrested for murder, Jane Charlotte claims she works for a secret organization called Bad Monkeys that kills evil people – only the man she’s accused of killing wasn’t on her target list, and as she tells her story, her version becomes increasingly at odds with reality. So it’s a thriller with an unreliable narrator, which means you know yr in for a twist ending and what yr being told isn’t entirely true. But Ruff builds up to it well, and Jane is a breezy, funny narrator. It’s good readable fun. 

Doktor Sleepless: Engines Of Desire by Warren Ellis and Ivan Rodriguez 

Mad science comics! In which self-styled mad scientist Doktor Sleepless demands to know where are our fucking jet packs, and starts unleashing technology on the city of Heavenside with increasingly destructive results as his true agenda is revealed. As you’d expect from Ellis, it’s jam-packed with near-future tech, body modification, wholesale violence and long, beautifully angry diatribes. Which, if you like that sort of thing (as I do), is great. My only complaint is that it ends on a cliffhanger and there seems to be no sign of a Volume 2 collecting the remaining issues, so I’m not sure if I’m ever going to get to see how it ends. 

The Power And The Glory by Graham Greene

I’m into Greene right now, though this one is a little different from previous books I’ve tried – a “whisky priest” is on the run in Mexico in the 1930s when Catholic priests were being deported or put before a firing squad. Which sounds exciting, but really it’s a vehicle to explore the nature of faith, the priesthood, sin, redemption, and so on. Which may sound boring, but it’s not, exactly. It’s a fascinating slice of history I didn’t know much about, and while maybe you need to be a Catholic to fully understand what Greene is trying to say, or at least the priest’s motivations for passing up several chances to escape, it’s not a prerequisite. Anyway, I found it pretty worthwhile. 


Just give him whiskey,

This is dF