Me And My Big Mouth

Quick Flick: Imaginary Homelands

As many of you know, I can't stand Salman Rushdie's novels. Midnight's Children is the most annoying book I have ever read (just ahead of The Accidental and On Beauty) and I have failed to finish any of his other efforts.

I gave up on him years ago.

This collection of essays a criticism is far more palatable and I managed to read a fair chunk of it without wanting to throw the book out of the window.

This is, I believe, what you call progress.

I would even go as far as to say that I quite enjoyed his review of the movie Gandhi (not keen, basically) and some of his pieces on other writers are bordering on entertaining.

Will I read on? No. I was tempted to leave it in the loo and dip into it from time to time but nothing I read really convinced me to tackle the whole thing.

Imaginary Homelands: Essays and Criticism 1981-1991 by Salman Rushdie is published in February by Vintage.

(Cancelled) Flights Of Fancy

A group of passengers, 13 if you must know, are stranded overnight at an unnamed airport, their flight to Tokyo cancelled. They tell stories to pass the time. Weird and wonderful stories.

There's the one about the Japanese man who builds a robot woman that he falls in love with but which ends up being more demanding and problematic than his real girlfriend. And the Indian millionaire who pays for groundbreaking IVF treatment only to find his wife giving birth to very peculiar twins. The secret world of changelings in Paris, one of whom is exposed during a smallpox epidemic. A man employed to monitor years of CCTV footage in order to remember other people's memories for them.

And so on.

The tales told are incredible and fantastic - in every sense of those words - and some wouldn't look out of place in a Murakami or Borges collection. I was also reminded of Dan Rhodes at times. And Kelly Link.

The author, according to an interview at the end of the book, is attempting to create a modern Canterbury Tales and he has, in the main, succeeded. OK, so this is essentially a collection of short stories hung together around the tenuous airport premise so that it can be called a novel (and actually sell some copies) but that is a technique that worked just fine for David Mitchell's first three novels, two of which were Booker shortlisted, so I see no need to criticise it on that score.

I would have preferred the linking narrative to have been as engaging and imaginative as the stories it surrounds - you learn little or nothing about the characters telling the stories - something that could have elevated this to near modern classic status but even without that we are left with a remarkably ambitious and impressive debut.

Tokyo Cancelled by Rana Dasgupta is published by HarperPerennial.

Quick Flicks: Try Me

As I write there are two reviews of this book on Amazon at the moment.

One claims that 'rarely do I come across a book that makes me want to give up being a writer' and then goes on to suggest that the 'sentences drip delight like warm honey on a tongue' and that book is 'perfect'. He gives it five stars. Blimey, this must be one of the best books ever written in the history of literature.

The other awards the book just the one star calling it 'baggy, self-indulgent, inexplicably angry and over-wrought'. He seems pissed off that, having bought it on the back of the first review, it didn't live up to expectations. Hang on, is it actually terrible?

Predictably, neither is true.

Farah Damji was born into a privileged Asian family in Uganda who managed to leave the country before Idi Amin's vile purges. London was a bit of a culture shock and, it must be said, a temperature change. Try Me is a memoir that charts an eventful life full of rebellion, sex, addiction, crime, lies and adventures. Makes my last 39 years seem awfully dull.

This is a remarkable story that is, in the main, told in an entertaining and readable fashion. She has a tendency to overwrite in places, some of the prose is unnecessarily flowery, but the underlying tale is quite gripping.

I'll be honest, there were times when I got a bit annoyed with her, which I guess is sort of the point, but there is a certain charm to her style that almost won me over.

The physical book suffers a little from common small publisher issues: the format is a bit on the large side and there is no RRP on the book which will annoy the book chains but these are minor gripes that probably only an ex-retailer like me will notice.

Will I read on? Probably, but not right now. It hasn't gone to the top of my reading pile but I did enjoy what I've read so far.

Try Me by Farah Damji is published by The Ark Press.

Albums Of The Year: 5 to 1

5. Changing of the Seasons by Ane Brun

4. Pets & Friends by Nina Kinert

3. Ekvilibrium by Valgeir Sigurdsson

2. The First Days of Spring by Noah and the Whale

1. More Modern Short Stories from Hello Saferide by Hello Saferide

Quick Flick: Kamikaze

Delgado has dived to explore the wrecks of Khubilai Khan's fleet, lost during his attempted invasion of Japan in the 13th century. Legend has it that the ships were sunk by a 'divine wind' or kamikaze but the author wants proof and this is the first book in English to really explore the subject.

A niche area, perhaps, but written in an accessible style that makes it easy to get sucked in.

Will I read on? No, but only because it really isn't my subject area. I will pass it on to my dad though who is a diver.

Kamikaze: History's Greatest Naval Disaster by James Delgado is published in January by Vintage.

Films Of The Year

The five best films I've seen this year. Not all of them are from 2009 but I won't be picky if you won't

5. I've Loved You So Long

4. Ikinai

3. Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea

2. Priceless

1. Let the Right One In

Quick Flick: First Contact

Mark and Melanie are stranded in the jungle when their guides are murdered by bandits. They stumble upon a crashed helicopter, two dead bodies and an ominous looking briefcase.

That's when their troubles really begin.

Fast-paced and a proper pageturner this definitely ticks all the boxes for the cracking thriller category. Not a genre I read very often but I must confess I am already quite a way through this in only a couple of sittings.

Will I read on? Yes, I rather think I will.

First Contact by Patrick Woodrow is published by Arrow Books.

Albums Of The Year: 10 to 6

10. Twice Born Men by Sweet Billy Pilgrim

9. Radio Wars by Howling Bells

8. Thirteens by Leona Naess

7. Sea Sew by Lisa Hannigan

6. Colonia by A Camp

A Song For Sunday

Pulling on a Line by Great Lake Swimmers.

What Are You Doing Here?

It is Boxing Day. You should be lounging around on the sofa watching crap Christmas television and eating leftovers.

It is not a day for reading blogs.

I'm not even here. I set up this post days ago. This is a recording.

But seeing as you've popped in allow me to point you in the direction of some things to help you pass the time.

Have you seen the sidebars? Down each side of the blog you will find a cornucopia of odds and ends. Lists, recommendations, suggestions and musings. Check out what I have been reading during 2009, spot some hidden gems, take a nosy look through my library, find out what new books have I have been sent or (heaven forbid) bought myself and read quick reviews of titles I have been flicking through.

Or why not trawl through what is now quite an archive of author interviews? Everyone from Haruki Murakami to Sue Cook, John Connolly to Joel Grey and many more.

Alternatively you could look back over my entire Advent Calendar, a book recommendation for every day in the lead up to Christmas, or flick through my top ten books of the year.

Or better still, you could visit some of the other bloggers and sites I read and admire. Fine folk such as Magic Nose, Bah To Cancer and Richard Blandford. Or fab sites like The Nervous Breakdown or The Second Pass. They are all well worth a look.

And check back next week for my albums and movies of the year. They're good.

Whatever you choose to do try not to make too much noise. I am having a nap.

My Christmas Message

Have a wonderful Christmas and I hope Santa brings you everything you wished for.

Thank you so much for reading my blog during 2009, it really is appreciated.

Ho ho ho.

Christmas Card

If you didn't get a Christmas card from me this year, join the club.

Please don't be offended. I hate Christmas cards. I hate birthday cards too.

I am a big fan of Christmas though. I love the giving, the receiving, the food, the lounging around.

I could just do without the cards.

So consider this my card to you. Beautiful isn't it?

You present will be on the blog tomorrow.

Holiday Round Up

Things I have been flicking through while I have no bloody work to do.

Chloe Hooper was shortlisted for the Orange Prize with her debut novel A Child's Book of True Crime. In The Tall Man: Death and Life on Palm Island she moves to non-fiction with an expanded version of a piece she wrote for the Observer about the case of an Aboriginal man who was arrested for a minor offence and wound up dying from horrific injuries less than an hour later.

This piece of reportage is emblazoned with quotes to die for from Peter Carey and Philip Roth and has been compared to Capote's In Cold Blood. These are all fair enough but will a story from a small Australian island, not matter how important or compelling, manage to win over a British audience with little or no knowledge of the case? I suspect the original newspaper article will be sufficient for most people, which is not to say that this isn't a worthwhile book, just that it will probably have only a small appeal. 

Any football fan will relate to The Bromley Boys by Dave Roberts, and most will be thankful that their team isn't as shit as the one he supports. The story of Bromley FC's calamitous 1969/70 season in the Isthmian league seen through the teenage eyes of a young Dave is a funny, warm and affectionate look back at a time when football was untainted by the television billions. Not that Bromley would have got a sniff of the money had it been around back then.

When a young man is admitted to a Spanish mental hospital claiming to be Christopher Columbus (500 years after the fact) he is befriended by one of the nurses and their relationship develops beyond that of patient and carer. Is she starting to believe him?

It is a bit early to tell whether Thomas Trofimuk's Waiting for Columbus is going to be any good or not but it is certainly interesting enough to read more.

Advent Calendar: December 24th

Today is my final advent calendar selection. Thank you to all the people who have commented or emailed to say they have enjoyed this brief series of posts, and a special doff of the cap to the authors of some of the books I have picked out who took the time to get in touch and show their gratitude. I do hope that you have found some interesting titles to add to your wish lists and that Santa brings you one or two of them tomorrow morning.

If you have been good, that is.

At some point every Christmas I will sit down and watch It's A Wonderful Life. It is a really dark and edgy film directed with remarkable ingenuity by Frank Capra. A man whose style is so recognisable he holds that rare honour, shared with Franz Kafka and only a few others, of having -esque added to the end of his name.

One of the tricks Capra used to pull with his actors was to ask them to rehearse the scene with a dummy camera and lighting set up so that he could work out how he was going to shoot it when it came to the proper take. What he didn't tell them was that the cameras were rolling and he would often use this 'rehearsal' in the final cut of the movie. He felt it made for more natural performances - the actors weren't acting too hard.

I know this because I once spent a month reading Joseph McBride's wonderful biography Frank Capra: The Catastrophe of Success. It is almost certainly the greatest book about the cinema I have ever read and is a remarkable insight into the life and work of one Hollywood's finest directors. Even if he ultimately comes across as a not very nice chap you can't help but marvel at how cleverly he made his movies and how, when he worked with just the right people, he made magic.

So there you go. My final advent calendar window is now hanging open. See you next year.

A Novel, For You, For Free

Lee Jackson has written a series of successful crime novels set in Victorian London. I read the first of these, A Metropolitan Murder, a while ago and really enjoyed it. I have the others on my shelves waiting patiently.

However it seems his sales, although healthy, were not enough for his publisher to sign him up for a new deal. You can read his thoughts on that here. As a result he has decided to make his new novel, The Diary of a Murder, available to read for free online. He isn't the first to do this but it is still a rare and brave move for an established author. I wish him every success with it.

Lee has a fantastic website full of Victoriana and you can read his new novel for free by clicking here.

Do please spread the word, he really is rather good.

Advent Calendar: December 23rd

The more observant amongst you may have picked up on the fact that I am a bit keen on the books of Haruki Murakami.

But I am not going to choose one of his books for my advent calendar today. Oh no.

Instead I would like to point you in the direction of Haruki Murakami and the Music of Words which is an excellent biography and critical study by Murakami's favoured translator and good friend Jay Rubin.

When I was at Waterstone's I was always trying to get this shelved next to Murakami's novels. It struck me as the place to put it if you wanted to flog it to his fans, especially those who were unaware of its existence. I did have a few spells of success but was ultimately defeated by the category nazis. Nowadays you may well have to search through the literary criticism shelves (where on earth are they? I hear you ask) if the shops have the book at all.

Rubin's book is pretty much essential reading for anyone who wants to find out more about Murakami and his work. The author manages to reveal more about Haruki than any interviews or features have done before and he offers an insightful study of the fiction and non-fiction Murakami has written.

It is a fan's book, written by perhaps the most knowledgable fan of all.

A Free Gift For All Our Readers

A bit of a repeat, just in case you missed it first time round. I'd hate for you to go without this lovely Christmas gift.

Darren Craske, author of The Equivoque Principle (out now) and The Eleventh Plague (coming soon), has written a Christmas story featuring the hero of said novels, Cornelius Quaint.

It is a jolly piece of festive fun and I hope you enjoy it.

Click here to download the story and feel free to share it with anyone and everyone you want.

Advent Calendar: December 22nd

A bit of nostalgia for you now. Youngsters should probably come back tomorrow.

Jack Hargreaves used to present a television show called Out of Town in which he explored many aspects of country and rural life. Here's a clip.

He was also one of the team on legendary ITV kid's show How! during the 70s and early 80s.

Anyway, his short memoir, also called Out of Town, is a Cider with Rosie in miniature. Some fascinating tales about growing up on a farm (he was actually born in North London but sent to live with relatives), his time in the Royal Tank Regiment during the war and the part he played in the setting up of ITV alongside the sort of country tales and folklore that you would expect if you have ever seen his television shows.

It isn't the most attractive of packages and you may find it hard to get hold of in your local bookstore but it is a real delight and well worth seeking out.

Advent Calendar: December 21st

If you have been tempted by Manga but were worried about looking like a geek or not knowing where to start.

If you like the idea of graphic novels but can't quite get your head round them.

If you enjoy reading short stories.

If you don't mind your books a bit bleak.

Then try The Push Man and Other Stories by Yoshihiro Tatsumi.

Brilliant, dark, disturbing graphic fiction.

A Song For Sunday

Sweet Disposition by Temper Trap. One of the tracks on my Best Of 2009 CD that some of you might be getting in the post soon. If I can get my bloody laptop to burn them properly. The arse.