The Book Tower

Everybody’s been doing this lately, in fact I believe it is now compulsory for bloggers.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis.

You were just looking for some decent clothes when everything changed quite dramatically. For the better or for the worse, it is still hard to tell. Now it seems like winter will never end and you feel cursed. Soon there will be an epic struggle between two forces in your life and you are very concerned about a betrayal that could turn the balance. If this makes it sound like you’re re-enacting Christian theological events, that may or may not be coincidence. When in doubt, put your trust in zoo animals.

Take the Book Quiz at the Blue Pyramid.

(I found myself fiercely editing the html – but I’m a geek.)

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From Booking Through Thursday.

Okay, love him or loathe him, you’d have to live under a rock not to know that J.K. Rowling’s final Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, comes out on Saturday… Are you going to read it? If so, right away? Or just, you know, eventually, when you get around to it? Are you attending any of the midnight parties? If you’re not going to read it, why not? And, for the record… what do you think? Will Harry survive the series? What are you most looking forward to?

I have pre-ordered my copy of The Deathly Hallows from Amazon so I’m expecting it to come flying through the letterbox sometime on Saturday morning. Making sure I receive the book on the first day is about as far as I’m taking it though; I won’t be attending any midnight parties and I won’t drop everything to read the book from beginning to end in one magical session. As it’s the last one in the series I think it’s worth savouring, although I’m slightly worried about people releasing spoilers who’ve read it first and … well … spoiling it for me.

Although there are rumours that Harry will die I can’t really see this happening. I read something about J.K.Rowling downing a bottle of champagne and weeping drunkenly after she’d finished writing the book – maybe she’s killed him or another major character off, maybe it’s just an emotional experience for her. Not sure how I’d react to finishing the last line of a phenomenally successful series of books…

What I’ll probably miss the most is losing the sense of occasion that – let’s face it – rarely happens when a new book is released. The latest Harry Potter film has also just come out but I’m already bored with it – blockbuster films are released every week and are hyped so much I don’t want to see them – but – call me an old softie – there’s something romantic and right about a new book being celebrated…

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All my life I had the feelin that trouble was close at hand. Not that I was about to get into it. Just that it was always there.

All The Pretty Horses is the first part of Cormac McCarthy’s Border Trilogy. After recently reading The Road and No Country For Old Men I found it a much quieter piece and harder to get in to; there’s no fantastic hook to seize you (a post apocalyptic world or a dangerous psychopath) – All The Pretty Horses takes time with character and setting but is no less satisfying a read.

McCarthy is the master of the simple story told well. All The Pretty Horses is ostensibly a great western story, set sometime in the middle of the 20th Century and follows John Grady Cole and Lacey Rawlins, two young men who decide to leave their native Texas for Mexico. They are soon joined by a third, the strangely enigmatic Jimmy Blevins and the three travel together by horse across the landscape. As the above quote suggests, trouble is at hand, and the three find themselves in mortal danger thanks to the reckless behaviour of Blevins … trouble that will leave one of them dead and the others experiencing a darker side of life …

What is apparent from the very beginning of this novel is McCarthy’s distinctive style of writing. He’s methodical and deliberate, describing in great detail his characters seemingly trivial movements; two young men ordering their breakfast in a diner, the setting up of a camp at nightfall or morning ablutions. Some of this detail at first appears unnecessary, but what McCarthy does is establish tremendous atmosphere and his descriptions of everyday tedium act as building blocks for the bigger picture. Imagine a huge canvas with a painting of an enormous landscape; McCarthy paints every blade of grass for you, every leaf, every figure on the horizon. Before you know it, you are immersed in the story and characters.

All The Pretty Horses is a compelling and at times disturbing read. I won’t give away spoilers, but the passage where one of the characters meets his untimely end is simply brilliant writing: concise and moving, and I found the prison scenes some of the most gripping literature I’ve read in years. What does let the novel down, and No Country For Old Men effected me in the same way, was that McCarthy reaches such heights of intensity and tension that it is impossible to sustain them. I found that I’d stopped holding my breath way before the end, and the novel gradually ground to a slow and thoughtful halt.

Nevertheless, Cormac McCarthy continues to prove to me that he is a master of suspenseful plot and naturalistic dialogue. His novels are always resonant, leaving me to think about them long after I’ve finished the last page. I can’t wait to move onto the rest of The Border Trilogy. Watch this space…

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