Medley for a long flight: Sunday Salon

I have just been to Chile, and although it was a brief visit, I knew I would be spending something like 35 hours in planes or airports; what I did not know was that I would have an enforced 24 hours delay (in Madrid, than which there are many worse places to be stranded, although some luggage would have been nice).  With that in mind, I took a pile of books - very varied - as well as The Economist and New Scientist.

• Lighthousekeeping by Jeanette Winterson; she is an author I have always enjoyed, witness Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit and The Passion, but I'm afraid this was the one book I didn't open all trip.  It came back with virgin pages.
• Travels With Charley, by John Steinbeck, which I was sent by Penguin for review as part of a promotion.  It wasn't the book they were meant to send me (that arrived while I was away), but it is entirely delightful.  As I read the opening chapter, which explains his desire to travel in America, I felt myself marking down suitable quotations on every page for later use, so this was a great joy, found entirely without effort on my part.  He is observant, whimsical and amusing, often all in one, and has some good stories to tell.  And of course, his prose is impeccable - very English prose, if I may say so without offending American readers - and his technical skill outstanding.  "We find after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us...In this a journey is like marriage.  The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it."
• Holy Disorders by Edmund Crispin, an amusing, very dated crime novel set at the beginning of the second war, starring the eccentric and infuriating Gervase Fen, a literature don (there's lots of literature in these books) and the slightly shy and ineffective Geoffrey Vintner as his foil.  The plot is very silly, but a lot of fun is had en route:  "Fundamentally, Geoffrey was afraid of women...Beyond the age of thirty, he had gradually shunned acquaintance with these puzzling beings.  Consequently, he approached this new example of the species with a trepidation accentuated by her obvious charm."
• Jealousy by Alain Robbe-Grillet.  Physically, a tiny book of only just over 100 pages, but a monster of the nouveau roman of the 1950s, a real bully of a book which seeks to invoke intensity in one sphere - human sexual relations - by avoiding them and building up a detailed - very detailed - picture of the world around them.  Exactly where a shadow falls is crucial - the placing of a cup of coffee on the table is an exercise of Euclidean absorption - but the man and the woman are only just there, and their emotions are not mentioned at all, ever.  I loathed it, but felt I was in the presence of a master: I immediately understood the comment in the introduction that he was a great influence on film, a leading figure of the nouvelle vague, as this read almost like a description of a set and instructions to the camaraman.
• Brown on Resolution by C S Forester; a straightforward adventure story of a naval rating in the Galapagos, with a serious social twist in the lead up events.
• Birds of Southern South America and Antarctica:  I shall spare you any comment on this, except that it was completely useless, as I never had any time to walk round the city's parks and gardens.

And while I was there, I bought an English-Spanish parallel anthology of Essential Neruda;  in addition, I was halfway through Jasper Fforde's The Well of Lost Plots, which I left by my bedside.  As ever, I will be posting at more length on many of these books over coming days and weeks.

I hope you would have found something worth reading in my briefcase?

Comments

[woody]

I really enjoyed reading this post. thanks...

[Mr Cornflower]

Having devoured Patrick O'Brian's seafaring novels I would start with Forester to see how they compare. Next Steinbeck which sounds wonderful, followed by Winterson. Robbe-Grillet I think I'll give a body-swerve, but as a counter gambit can I ask if you've read any of the wonderful short stories of Marcel Ayme? (NB the final e should have an acute accent but I can't be bothered to spend a long time arguing with Microsoft in order to apply it.) I particularly recommend "Passe-muraille", about a man who wakes to discover he has the power to pass through walls.

[frumiousb]

I was interested to read your thoughts on Jealousy. The Voyeur is the only thing that I have read by Robbe-Grillet, and found it fascinating but heavy going. It took me quite a bit of concentration to read-- difficult to imagine doing so on an airplane, actually.

[The Kool-Aid Mom]

I believe C. S. Forester is the author of one of my favorite maritime series, Horatio Hornblower. :-D

[Kristi]

I'm so happy to read your favorable comments about Travels with Charley. It sounds really great! Steinbeck is one of my favorite authors and I've recently acquired Travels. Now I really can't wait to read it. I'll have to move it up in my TBR pile (or maybe I'll keep it for a USA-->Poland trip I have coming up...hm...). Either way, thanks for the great review.

[unfinishedperson]

I definitely would have found something useful in your briefcase, especially starting with the Steinbeck. I did the same thing when I read Travels with Charley, underlining and taking out sections and copying them down longhand in a journal. I still have the quotes and need to return to them, one of my favorite books.

I had never heard of the Edmund Crispin book, but I have a friend who I think would really enjoy it. I probably will look it up as well and already have added it to a list of new books I've discovered this week with the help of others here in the "book blogosophere." Thanks for introducing us those who weren't familiar with his work to him.

[Amber]

Is there a particular Jeanette Winterson book you'd recommend to start out with? I tried once but found her simultaneously too dense and too disordered. But perhaps I was wrong...

Also, I've tagged you for a meme(totally optional of course!) at my blog Letters to the World.