2016: End of year review

Hove Book Group at their end of year seasonal celebration on 1st Dec 2016

Our favourite book that we discussed in 2016

1. “The Lost Europeans” (1959) by Emanuel Litvinoff 

2. “London and the South-East” (2009) by David Szalay 

3. “Remains of the Day” (1989) by Kazuo Ishiguro 

* * * * * * * * * * 

4. “The Trigger: The Hunt for Gavrilo Princip” (2015) by Tim Butcher 

5. “The Bottle Factory Outing” 

6. “My Revolutions” 

9= “I Partridge” (2011) by Alan Partridge 

9= “Seven Terrors” (2012) by Selvedin Avdić

9= “Djibouti” (2010) by Elmore Leonard

Our favourite music we discussed in 2016

1.= “Neu! ’75” (1975) by Neu! 

1.= Hazy Cosmic Jive presents “Something in the Air” (2016) (Nigel’s Revolution mix) 

3. “Christmas” (1999) by Low

* * * * * * * * * * 

4. “The Who Sell Out” (1967) by The Who 

5. “Carrie & Lowell” (2015) by Sufjan Stevens 

6. “Give” (2011) by Balkan Beat Box (all except Robin) 

7. “Born in the Echoes” (2015) by The Chemical Brothers 

8. Hank Williams “Come September” 

9. Keith Hayward presents “A Criminal Playlist” 

Our favourite film we discussed in 2016

1 “No Man's Land (Bosnian: Ničija zemlja)” (2001) directed by Danis Tanović 

2 “One Day In September” (1999) directed by Kevin Macdonald 

3 “Tin Men” (1987) written and directed by Barry Levinson 

* * * * * * * * * * 

4 “Brian Clough: I Believe In Miracles” (2015) directed by Jonny Owen

5 “Punch-Drunk Love” (2002) directed by Paul Thomas Anderson 

6 “Couscous (La Graine et le Mulet)” (2008) directed by Abdellatif Kechiche 

7 “Sunshine” (2007) directed by Danny Boyle 

9= “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” (2005) directed by Shane Black

9= “Smoke Signals” (1998) directed by Chris Eyre 

Our favourite unifying theme of 2016

1 Post Brexit Blues (The Lost Europeans/Neu!/Couscous)

2 Revolution (My Revolutions/“Something in the Air” comp/One day in Sept doc) 

3 Sales and Selling (London and the South-East/The Who Sell Out/Tin Men) 

* * * * * * * * * * 

4 Europe/C&W/Sci Fi (?!) (The Trigger/Hank Williams/Sunshine) 

6= Communication (Remains of the day/Carrie & Lowell/Punch-Drunk Love) 

6= Criminal capers (Djibouti/“A Criminal Playlist” on Spotify/Kiss Kiss Bang Bang)

7 Balkan beauties (Seven Terrors/Give by Balkan Beat Box/No Man's Land) 

8 Englishness Revisted (I Partridge/Chemical Brothers/Brian Clough) 

9 Comedic Christmas (Bottle Factory/Low Xmas album/Smoke Signals) 

The best book you read this year

Keith - Guitar theory for Dummies

Nigel: Jumpin' Jack Flash: David Litvinoff and the Rock’n’Roll Underworld by Keiron Pim

Robin: Remains of the Day

Tristan: This Changes Everything - Naomi Klein

What defined 2016...

Nigel: The death of Bowie and how it presaged a year of complete and utter shittyness

Keith: Brexit

Robin: The misery of world affairs (Trump and all the fascists in the US, Brexit, climate and environment, bombing of hospitals and use of chlorine gas in Syria, the 'post truth' world)  and the prospect of Trump cancelling US involvement in Paris Agreement on Climate Change - truly miserable! On the plus side i have an inflatable canoe which we paddle on Lake Como!  

Nick: just miserable

Tristan: Work changes: getting used to a smaller company; moving to New England House

The best thing about Book Group in 2016...

Nigel: The trademark humour and the camaraderie. I love you guys.

Keith: Devil’s Dyke photo

Robin: Its enduring beauty

Nick: the sex

Tristan: The (fairly) consistent high standard of the choices: I actively enjoyed almost all of them, which hasn't happened every year.

How we make Book Group even better...

Keith: It’s A Knockout style joker card for end of year voting

Nigel: It’s pretty damn perfect but…I believe I can now generally identify a great book (that we'll all say is great but use slightly different words), versus a book that is good but flawed but however is more likely to inspire a great discussion. Perhaps something to consider before finalising your selections?

Robin: How do you improve on perfection .... although perhaps a new pub as not convinced the Westy is our spiritual home and it doesn't sell Harveys!

Nick: more sex

Tristan: Impossible.

What else...

Nigel: Thanks for another great year of cultural discourse. Roll on 2017. Our 12 year anniversary is in Jan 2017.

Robin: The Book Group is invited to Italy and our flat on Lake Como for a special book group outing!!  Thank you Nigel for organising everything for book group in 2016.  As always seamlessly done!!!

“I Partridge” (2011) by Alan Partridge

BOOK: “I Partridge” (2011) by Alan Partridge

Nick chose, and loved, "I Partridge", however everyone else was slightly less enthusiastic though most found something to enjoy in Alan's autobiography.

There are some very funny sections and Alan’s self-aggrandisement, self-delusion, absurdity, pettiness and point-scoring are invariably amusing however, with 33 chapters, there is a lot to get through and it sometimes got quite monotonous. 

Ut stays true to Alan’s story and so is a nice trip down memory lane for the character’s fans

NIck 9/10

Robin 6/10

Keith 7/10

Tristan 6.5/10

Roland 5/10

Nigel 6/10

Hamish 3/10

Nick's exploration into the very essence of Englishness (revisited) continued with..

MUSIC: “Born in the Echoes” (2015) by The Chemical Brothers

Nick loved Born in the Echoes, the eighth album by English electronic music duo The Chemical Brothers, released on 17 July 2015 by Astralwerks. It was their first studio album since 2010's Further. The album debuted at number 1 on the UK Albums Chart, marking the duo's sixth chart topper and making them the dance act with the most number-one albums ever in the UK.

Others were less enthusiastic "Two great tracks (Go feat Q Tip + Wide Open feat Beck) and a lot of monotonous and frankly annoying interchangeable dance tracks with little in the way of tunes or memorable hooks" opined one HBGer

FILM: “Brian Clough: I Believe In Miracles” (2015) directed by Jonny Owen

To varying degrees we all bloody loved it.  Genius soundtrack - brilliant tunes and quite a few obscuro, but still great, tunes, culiminating in an unexpected VU Rock n Roll for the open top bus parade. Brian Clough and Peter Taylor came across brilliantly. The ex-players still seemed to be disbelieving about what they achieved and still seemed genuinely humble and v likeable people

We cannot praise it highly enough…1970s, Football, Music, Old clips

ENDORSE IT

Here's what we're endorsing at the moment...

Keith: Slaves (punk duo)

Roland: Jon Hopkins Lost In Thought (Music)

Nigel: Lazarus OST (Music

Nigel: Bye Bye Baby: My Tragic Love Affair with The Bay City Rollers by Caroline Sullivan (Book)
Tristan: Bad Pharma by Ben Goldacre (book)

Robin: Lifepaint - fluorescent spray for cyclists etc

“London and the South-East” (2009) by David Szalay

Hove's finest book group were reunited (and it felt so good) on Thursday 6th October 2016 to discuss Nigel's Sales and Selling themed selections.  Here's another highly unreliable and blinkered view of what went down.

“London and the South-East” (2009) by David Szalay

‘London and the South-East’ is a melancholic, downbeat novel but one that completely gripped most of us.  Hamish was the one dissenting voice who described it as "a stinker".  

Unlike most novels, work is at the core of this book, and - in this instance - initially at least, it’s the dispiriting world of magazine advertising sales. This is a painfully forensic examination of the horror of the modern workplace and the work "relationships of convenience" that flow from it. Middle-aged Paul Rainey, the borderline-alcoholic protagonist, works for one of those free business magazines that arrive in the post and which no one reads. David Szalay has really nailed the minutiae of the workplace and, in particular, the world of selling. However sales is just the springboard for an unpredictable and original plot that was both realistic and credible, but also frequently very surprising. 

‘London and the South-East’ is one of the most relatable books we’ve ever read. This sense of realism was further enhanced by our familiarity with many of the Brighton and Hove streets and venues that appear in the book. Most impressively, these places were described with complete accuracy, and this attention to detail informs the entire book. 

‘London and the South-East’ is a painful exploration of how both work and home form the basis of our identity and our happiness, such as it is, and it’s an unflinching look at commuting, selling, family, identity and compromise. It is bleak, dark, and quite brilliant.

Nigel 9/10 / Tristan 9/10 / Robin 8.5/10 / Hamish 3/10 / Nick 7/10 

MUSIC: “The Who Sell Out” (1967) by The Who 

Nigel expressed joy at the selling theme and especially a link between the film and the music. The film highlights a world that the Beatles and the "British Invasion" of the mid 60s, including The Who, would help to smash with a sledgehammer - but more of that in the film section.

1967 was a year of some remarkable album releases… The Doors debut, Jimi Hendrix debut, Pink Floyd debut, The Velvet Underground and Nico, Love ‘Forever Changes’, Scott by Scott Walker, ‘Something Else’ by The Kinks, and - of course - “The Who Sell Out” (1967) by The Who 

The mid sixties was an era of massive change which this album ably captures.  Consider…

Beatles for Sale (1964)

Help! (1965)

Rubber Soul (1965)

Revolver (1966)

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)

Or

My Generation (1965)

A Quick One (1966)

The Who Sell Out (1967)

Could you imagine such seismic cultural and musical changes in such a short space of time in the modern era?

Despite 1967 seeing the birth of BBC Radio 1, in response to the pirates, commercial radio would still have seemed very new and modern back in 1967 and The Who’s radio ads are a brilliant idea.  Indeed there were no official commercial radio stations in the UK until the early 70s.  Apparently The Who tried to charge the relevant organisations - to no avail.

Any album that contains ‘I Can See For Miles’ is automatically a contender for classic status but, as we discovered it’s also full of other wall-to-wall psych-pop classics.  

The Who Sell Out was the third studio album by The Who and purports to be a broadcast by pirate radio station Radio London. Part of the intended irony of the title was that The Who were making commercials during that period of their career, some of which are included as bonus tracks on the remastered CD.

“Tin Men” (1987) written and directed by Barry Levinson

Tin Men is a 1987 American comedy film written and directed by Barry Levinson.  Tin Men is the second of Levinson's four "Baltimore Films" set in his hometown during the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s: Diner (1982), Tin Men (1987), Avalon (1990), and Liberty Heights (1999).  It is 1963. Ernest Tilley (Danny DeVito) and Bill "BB" Babowsky (Richard Dreyfuss) are door-to-door aluminum siding salesmen in Baltimore, Maryland. Working for different companies, the "tin men" are prepared to do almost anything—legal or illegal—to close a sale.

An old favourite - man, what a great film - Nigel was a bit worried it wouldn’t be quite so good after a good 15 years since his last viewing.  He needn’t have worried…

Levinson also responsible for Homicide Life On The Streets (by David “The Wire” Simon) - a precursor to so much else - so you can imagine we were somewhat in awe.  

What's good about it?...

Fine Young Cannibals

The Diner

The dynamic between the men

The selling - the scams (life magazine, mental breakdown) - the humour - the period details.  

The highly defined roles of men and women

Men (suits, selling, fighting…) Women (cold calling, typing pool, housewives being sold to..)

The leads - Devito, Dreyfus and Hersh.  What a trio.  All brilliant.

The fight in the parking lock

The commission - is that supposed to echo the Macarthy's House Un-American Activities Committee?

“Tin Men” is one of those movies that has sympathy for all of its characters

Tilley is cantankerous to the point of self-destruction, while BB is a flamboyant ladies’ man who has neglected his inner life. They behave dreadfully during their feud: Bill pretends to be a widower and lies about his occupation to seduce Nora, while Ernest hits Bill over the head and pelts him with mouldy tomatoes and eggs, prompting a hilarious police report.

The Baltimore alleys that would come to feel like very scary places in David Simon’s “The Wire” are already shabby in “Tin Men”

BB to Tilley “You know what our big crime is?  We’re nickle- and-dime guys. Just small-time hustlers that got caught because we were hustling nickles and dimes.” 

It made us feel very nostalgic for a time and a place that we have absolutely no personal experience for and THAT is the sign of a brilliant film.

Endorse it

Here's what we're endorsing at the moment...

Tristan: Stranger Things (Netfilx TV series)

Tristan: Fleabag (BBC TV series on iPlayer)

Nick: Brian Wilson

Robin: Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari (Book)

Hamish: The President's Hat by Antoine Laurain (Book)

NIGEL: The Get Down (Baz Luhrman 2016) (TV - Netflix)

NIGEL: The Get Down (OST 2016) (Music)

NIGEL: All That Man Is by David Szalay (2016) - Book

NIGEL: The Age of Bowie by Paul Morley (2016) - Book

“The Lost Europeans” (1959) by Emanuel Litvinoff

BOOK: “The Lost Europeans” (1959) by Emanuel Litvinoff

 On Thursday 8th September 2016 HBG returned from its Summer recess to discuss Hamish's trio of tip top selections.  First up was “The Lost Europeans” (1959) by Emanuel Litvinoff....

Martin Stone returns to the city from which his family was driven in 1938. He has concealed his destination from his father, and hopes to win some form of restitution for the depressed old man living in exile in London. THE LOST EUROPEANS portrays a tense, ruined yet flourishing Berlin where nothing is quite what it seems.

'The Lost Europeans’ is the story of two Jewish men, Martin Stone and Hugo Krantz, seeking answers and closure in 1950s Berlin. Martin Stone returns from London to Berlin, the city of his birth, to claim financial restitution for his father, whose bank was appropriated by the Nazis. His older friend, Hugo Krantz, also fled Berlin for London in the 1930s, after enjoying success as a celebrated theatrical writer in Weimar Republic era Berlin. Hugo has since returned and resettled in Berlin, but he cannot rest until he has discovered whether his lover, who betrayed him to the Nazis and then became an SS officer, survived the war. 

The plot becomes increasingly absorbing however it is the stunning evocation of post-War Berlin where this book scores most highly. Emanuel Litvinoff is a hell of a writer and we frequently paused to reread various sections. Perhaps not surprisingly it also put us in mind of Carol Reed’s 1949 cinematic masterpiece 'The Third Man’. Both works feature a post-War melting pot imbued with cold war paranoia and peopled by shady, duplicitous characters who may not be quite what they seem.

This powerful novel really deserves to be rediscovered, for its magnificent portrayal of a city trying to rebuild and come to terms with its monstrously violent past, and its present as a divided world, all of which informs even the most casual conversations and encounters.

Keith - unobtrusive 7/10
Robin - amazing book 9.5/10
Tristan - Hamish got lucky 9/10
Nick - 6.5/10
Nigel - 10/10
Hamish - 9/10

MUSIC: “Neu! '75” by Neu! 

Neu! '75 was recorded and mixed at Conny Plank's studio between December 1974 and January 1975. It was released in 1975 by Brain Records, and officially reissued on CD on May 29, 2001 by Astralwerks in the US and byGrönland Records in the UK. Illegal bootleg CDs (derived from vinyl) had been available in the latter half of the 1990s on the Germanofon label.

We loved it.  Sorta.

Nick - enjoyable
Hamish - I need more of this stuff
Tristan - yes to Neu! (no to Kraftwerk)
Robin - quite nice
Keith - dated and not for me
Nigel - loved it then, still love it now

FILM: Couscous (La Graine et le Mulet) (2008) directed by Abdellatif Kechiche

Couscous takes place in the Mediterranean port of Sète, situated on the Golfe du Lion halfway between Marseille and the Spanish border, where 60-year-old Arab immigrant, Slimane Beiji (Habib Boufares), has worked in a ship repair yard for 35 years.

Hamish - Sete tempted me in
Tristan - enjoyed it v much
Robin - wouldn't rush back
Nigel - liked Belly Dance
Nick - didn't download it properly

Endorse it

Here's what we're endorsing at the moment...

Robin: Stranger Things (Netfilx TV series)
Robin: Bearsden
Robin: RY X (Singer)

Hamish: Tour de France

Nick: Victoria (ITV TV series)

Tristan: Puy-de-Dôme (Place)

Keith: Black Mass (Film)
Keith: Ellen's Stardust Diner (Place)

Nigel: Fleabag (BBC TV series on iPlayer)

Nigel: Stranger Things (Netfilx TV series)

Nigel: 'Love and Hate' by Michael Kiwanuka (Music)

Nigel: 'Foreverland' by The Divine Comedy (Music)

Nigel: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - 'Jesus Alone'

“The Trigger: The Hunt for Gavrilo Princip - the Assassin who Brought the World to War” (2015) by Tim Butcher

BOOK: “The Trigger: The Hunt for Gavrilo Princip - the Assassin who Brought the World to War” (2015) by Tim Butcher

On Thursday 7th July we cycled to Devils Dyke for a change of venue.  

On another summer's day in 1914, a teenage assassin named Gavrilo Princip fired not just the opening shots of the First World War but the starting gun for modern history, when he killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo. 

Despite his momentous action, Princip is now all but airbrushed out of the history of the region - interesting how the role of certain players can be celebrated or ignored according to the prevailing narrative in which the history is written.

Princip’s primary motivation was to rid his land of the occupying Habsburgs who, like the Turks before them, presided over an almost feudal system that perpetuated the grinding poverty of his own family and which was shared by most from the three major communities in Bosnia: the Orthodox Serbs, the mainly Catholic Croats and the Muslim Bosniaks.

Good for.. WW1, twentieth century European history, travel writing, former Yugoslavia, - lots to enjoy and appreciate in "The Trigger: Hunting the Assassin Who Brought the World to War”. 

It’s taut, well written, very atmospheric, engaging, provocative and fascinating.

One of the most extraordinary facts we discovered was the numberplate of Archduke Ferdinand’s car was A111118. 

ROBIN: 7/10

HAMISH: 9/10

TRISTAN: 8/10

NIGEL: 9/10

KEITH: 7/10

NICK : 8/10

MUSIC: Hank Williams “Come September” 

Simple honky tonk songs where Hank’s vulnerability and humanity shine through.  His tales of love and loss explain his widespread appeal and longevity.  Right up there with the very best roots music - indeed the very best music ever made.  Each song could be turned into a short story.  Everyone needs a bit of Hank in their tank.

FILM: “Sunshine” (2007) directed by Danny Boyle

We like Danny Boyle.  We like Science Fiction.  We liked the cast of this film and the thoughtful premise.  Did the studio insist on a more dramatic, tense final act?  Either way it was a misstep and undermined a lot of the set up.  And, as many have also stated, the science simply doesn’t stack up.

ENDORSE IT

Here's what we're endorsing at the moment...

Nigel: Skin Lane by Neil Bartlett (book)

Robin: Natural History Museum in NYC

Hamish: Tour de France

Nick: Brexit

Tristan: Remain

Keith: Sunsets at Devils Dyke...

 We're back together again in September.

“Djibouti” (2010) by Elmore Leonard

On Thursday 26th May 2016 we were found waxing lyrical about Keith’s criminal choices...

BOOK: “Djibouti” (2010) by Elmore Leonard

Keith was after fun.  F.U.N.  A middle eastern western if you will.  A bit of prime time Leonard.  Aside from a moan about the missing words - lots of missing words - he was satisfied.  Fun was what he wanted and fun was what he got.

Hamish was less enthralled.  All of us were Leonard first timers and, like Hamish, we all found it a confusing book with an off putting style.  

Nigel was excited about reading Elmore Leonard because he likes crime writing and the best of the genre (e.g. Chandler, Mankel, Rankin). Nigel was expecting to be in LA and not in the northeastern corner of Africa mixed up in a shaggy dog story about Somali pirates and Al Qaeda. Unlikely characters abound in this book.  Open this book at almost any page and you will encounter nonsensical, faux hard boiled exchanges. Nigel could only conclude this latter day Leonard must be an enormous big old anomaly.  

Robin was angry.  This book had made him angry.  Had Elmore got dementia? 

Tristan railed against the missing words.  Utterly ridiculous.  Only a dose of Robert B Parker will exorcise the memories of this book.

Nick had read Rum Punch and Get Shorty and enjoyed them both. The attention to the sleazy underbelly is excellent, the characters are well drawn and the powerful figure of Jackie Brown is the template for Tarantino’s greatest movie.  In Djibouti Elmore gets it all wrong - it is a book phoned in. The characters are hackneyed - the Al Qaeda fighters and Somalian pirates are one dimensional, the female characters are sexist (even though he seems to try and paint them as the opposite), the horny, older black man, the Texan cowboy. Jesus, where do I stop…please make it stop  And . . nobody, ever "ran” with the Sloane Rangers.  Very occasionally you get glimpses of the clipped dialogue that made the other books so engaging, but that’s when he stays on the ground he is more in tune with. 

Keith 7/10
Tristan 3/10

Hamish 4/10

Nigel 2/10

Nick 2/10

Robin 1/10

MUSIC: Keith H presents “A Criminal Playlist” 

Everyone found something to enjoy in Keith's criminal playlist.  Fun Lovin' Criminals (Nigel, Tristan, Nick), Dutch Criminal Record (Robin), Junior Smalls and the Criminals (Hamish), and Criminal Hygiene (Keith).

FILM: “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” (2005) directed by Shane Black

“Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” was everything that we had hoped the book would be.  Sassy, urban, cool, with great characters.  It really was great fun, whilst the plot bears very little scrutiny, the dialogue is great and the characters are brilliant.  

We loved the “Gay Perry” character and, weirdly, it was his bromance with the always watchable Robert Downey Jr. that made the film.  The “real” romance with his childhood sweetheart paled into insignificance in comparison.  

Our only criticism is that lack of thrills.  It’s played so much for laughs that there is zilcho dramatic tension but as a witty, postmodern comedy it’s blimmin great.

ENDORSE IT:

What we’re currently endorsing...

HAMISH: Imarhan - Imarhan (Music)

HAMISH: The Goon Sax - Up To Anything (Music)

NIGEL: Bowraville (5 X Podcast from The Australian newspaper) LINK AS PROMISED

NIGEL: The Wolf of Wall Street (Film)

ROBIN: Escape from ISIS (Film)

ROBIN: Peaky Blinders (TV series)

ROBIN: Lianne La Havas (Music)

ROBIN: Hannah Brackenbury (Comedy)

ROBIN: Blossoms - Charlemagne (Song)

KEITH: AA Milne - The Red House Mystery (Book)

KEITH: John Franklin Bardin - The Deadly Percheron (Book)

TRISTAN: Naomi Klein - This Changes Everything (Book)

TRISTAN: Flowers (TV series)

TRISTAN: Ann Leckie - Ancillary Justice (Book)

“Seven Terrors” (2012) by Selvedin Avdić

BOOK: “Seven Terrors” (2012) by Selvedin Avdić

Thanks Selvedin Avdić.  You were the catalyst for a superb discussion at The Westbourne. Our first meeting there following the new found popularity of The Poets Corner - or the Poets Ale and Smoke House as it is now known.  Whilst we mourned the passing of Prince, we enjoyed having the public bar to ourselves, as we supped ale, rapped about Tristan's East European selections and grooved to the eclectic musical playlist that seemed to be made just for us.

Tristan, who chose the book, ruefully observed that sometimes the only way to write about something horrible is to do it obliquely. In Seven Terrors we see the Bosnian war of the early to mid-90s glimpsed fleetingly, out of the corner of the eye, like a ghost passing between two worlds. Tristan choose that metaphor carefully, because this is a book in which two worlds are often in contrast, if not in conflict: the living and the dead, the time before a woman leaves a man and after, the pre- and postwar world, the spirit and human worlds, madness and sanity, dreaming and reality, Muslim and Christian, Muslim and atheist. A bar owner, about to thump the drunken and abusive narrator, and relishing the moment, "was shining like a comet separating two epochs". There is even, mundanely, the difference between the way a radio station operated before digital technology, and afterwards. This recurring motif of division and separation, though, is not laboured; it's woven into the book's structure, but Tristan wondered whether it was even intentional. 8/10

Nick felt that Selvedin Avdić was on to something, and not just by way of a metaphor describing a divided country. It's darker than that, with something of the nature of folk story thrown in, too. Seven Terrors is a story that starts off weird and gets weirder, but with the logic and clamminess of a bad dream. It's quite unlike anything Nick had read before, but it has all the consistency and force of something major and assured. That it has room for humour is testament to Avdić's confidence.  7/10

Nigel loved this unexpected gem that he knows will stay with him.  An allegorical tale which, whilst ostensibly about a lonely man who has withdrawn from the world and then is forced to reemerge, also confronts the aftermath of the Bosnian war of the 1990s. The fragility of the nameless narrator, as he tries to find an old friend who has disappeared, echoes the fractured post-war world he inhabits. This beguiling 150 page novel packs so much in and, despite dealing with serious matters, is highly readable, and sporadically funny, as it juxtaposes a heady mix of war, myth, popular culture, and the supernatural. It’s profound and very clever. There are layers of subtext and plenty to ponder by the end, not least, at the back of the book where there are further notes and reflections. 8/10

Robin felt a kinship with the unnamed narrator, a former radio journalist, pulling himself out of a nine-month torpor following the departure of his wife. Did his extreme condition owe something to Beckett?  Robin fell in love with Mirna, the daughter of an old friend and colleague, Aleksa, who vanished in 1993. Robin also loved Perkman who signifies either hidden treasure or a forthcoming disaster. Aleksa has to find out if he's going mad – to see whether or not anyone believes him. Soon the miners start to shun him; at first, he thinks it's because he's a Serb; but now he's seen the djinn, it seems they think he's bad luck. We are all, a bit Perkman?  Yes?  Yes yes, yes indeed, most emphatically, smiled Robin, enigmatically, before suggestively sipping his Benchmark ale.  7/10

Keith, gazed at us grim faced.  Not good.  Not good at all.  Yes, so it was a book which managed to weave the mythic horror familiar from legend and modern masters of the fantastic like Bulgakov and Leo Perutz with the horrors of the Balkan war and human cruelty. And, Keith could also dig the idea of an old friend who seems to have disappeared into the mythical underworld.  We’ve all needed something to get us out of bed after nine months of bemoaning a wife’s departure. But c’mon, a kind of underworld and two of the most deftly drawn villains of contemporary fiction, the Pegasus brothers?  Lovers of death from childhood and ghostly white from head to toe?  Do we need this just to understand the way man can become a monster and then man again?  Not me, sobbed Keith. 5/10

Hamish highlighted the unsettling nightmare of post-war Bosnia but was left confounded by this work of Gothic genius. The choice to sublimate the actualities of mass burials, and focus on paranormal activity and returning spirits, whilst our hapless protagonist tried to bring love and meaning back into his life, was eerily familiar. 7/10

MUSIC: “Give” (2011) by Balkan Beat Box

Tristan 5/10

Hamish 5/10

Keith Political Fuck

Robin, he no listen to no stinking Balkan Beat Box

Nick, a load of Balkans

Nigel, bit of Congo Natty, Gogol Bordello & Major Lazer

Must try harder seemed to be the consensus

FILM: “No Man's Land (Bosnian: Ničija zemlja)” (2001) directed by Danis Tanović

Everybody loved this 2001 war film that is set in the midst of the Bosnian war. The film is a parable and marked the debut of Bosnian writer and director Danis Tanović. It is a co-production among companies in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Slovenia, Italy, France, Belgium and the UK. The film won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 2001.

ENDORSE IT

Here's what we're currently endorsing...

Tristan: Whitechapel (TV series)

Hamish: Perdido Street Station by China Miéville

Keith: Nottingham's Galleries of Justice

Robin The Durrells (TV series)

Nick Julia Davis' Camping (TV series)

Nigel:

People vs OJ Simpson (TV series)

Breakdown podcast - Justin Ross Harris case

The Limiñanas “Malamore" LP

“Jumpin’ Jack Flash: David Litvinoff and the Rock'n'Roll Underworld” by Keiron Pim

And on that note we bade each other farewell and rode off into the night.

Adios amigos.  Hasta la vista

“Remains of the Day” (1989) by Kazuo Ishiguro

“Remains of the Day” (1989) by Kazuo Ishiguro

The Remains of the Day (1989) is Kazuo Ishiguro's third published novel. The work was awarded the Man Booker Prize for Fiction in 1989. A film adaptation of the novel, made in 1993 and starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson, was nominated for eight Academy Awards.

Nick, who chose this tome, thought it was wonderful and, to varying degrees, so did the rest of the group

It was like slipping into a warm bath - something at once very familiar but completely welcome. 

The Remains of the Day is about many things, but first and foremost it is about regret. Stevens the Butler, who narrates the tale, is obsessed with a sense of duty and commitment, and thus puts his complete trust, and all his professional energies, into serving Lord Darlington, a decent if gullible British aristocrat who, despite honourable intentions, is ultimately labelled a Nazi sympathiser.

Stevens’ professionalism and perfectionism result in him belatedly realising, in his autumn years, that he has missed the chance of a fulfilling and loving relationship with a woman who loved him. Stevens’ extreme formality and obsessive sense of duty ultimately made him incapable of intimacy, empathy and emotional attachments. 

The story is cleverly told through a series of atmospheric and powerful reminiscences whilst, back in the present day, Stevens makes a rare journey away from Darlington Hall, where he has spent the majority of his life. The Remains of the Day perfectly evokes the life of a butler in a Great English House between the wars whilst, simultaneously, revealing Stevens’ recognition of, and regret about, some of his decisions and behaviour. Every page is an absolute delight. A subtle, clever, powerful, beautifully written novel.

Hamish was the only slight naysayer... describing the book as a curious read.  On the one hand, Ishiguro’s writing is immaculate.  Beautifully worded, precise, and very very clever.  His characterisations are utterly believable and in real depth.  Despite learning next to nothing about Stevens’ personal life, he is a very finely drawn character.  As are Miss Kenton and Lord Darlington too.

However Hamish likes a bit of a story.  And there wasn’t really much of a story.  In that sense he found it a little unsatisfying.  It reflected the low pace of English upper class life perhaps.  He did enjoy Stevens’ reflections on what make a great butler and the German/French conference at Darlington Hall was a highlight. But little happened other than a car running out of petrol.

His other criticism was the almost perverse way that Stevens appeared incapable of recognising Miss Kenton’s feelings.  Stiff upper lip is one thing, but that all seemed a bit excessive. 

So he was not really sure what he took from the book at the end.  Yes, it commented on the state of the English upper classes and political changes between the wars, but he might have preferred a non-fiction account of that. 

Overall, a decent and very artistic read.  Not sure quite why it won the Booker though 

Nick - 10/10

Keith - 8/10

Tristan - 9/10

Robin 10/10

Nigel - 9/10

Hamish - 7.5/10

MUSIC: “Carrie & Lowell” (2015) by Sufjan Stevens

Carrie & Lowell is the seventh studio album by American musician Sufjan Stevens, released through Asthmatic Kitty on March 31, 2015. Unlike Stevens's previous studio album, the electronic The Age of Adz,Carrie & Lowell is sparsely instrumental and marked a return to the performer's indie folk roots.

There was a mixed reaction to Surfjan's sounds - some loved the heartfelt emotion and soul baring others thought it was no One Direction and he needs to cheer up a bit

Hamish hadn’t really got Mr Stevens until this album, but he enjoyed this album immensely.  He saw him play at End of the Road last year, where he was a revelation.  He was supported by a full and fairly loud band.  I wasn’t quite sure how the songs on Carrie and Lowell would fare but they were quite brilliant.  In some ways the album sounded very different with so much backing, but it also made the whole thing far more intense.  Hamish recommends seeing him live if you get the chance.  And Carrie and Lowell is a hit.

FILM: “Punch-Drunk Love” (2002) directed by Paul Thomas Anderson

Punch-Drunk Love is a 2002 romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson and starring Adam Sandler, Emily Watson, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Luis Guzmán, and Mary Lynn Rajskub.

In "Punch-Drunk Love," Sandler plays Barry Egan, an executive in a company with a product line of novelty toiletries. Barry has seven sisters, who are all on his case at every moment, and he desperately wishes they would stop invading his privacy, ordering him around and putting him down. He tries at a family gathering to be congenial and friendly, but we can see the tension in his smiling lips and darting eyes, and suddenly he explodes, kicking out the glass patio doors.

"Punch-Drunk Love" is above all a portrait of a personality type. Barry Egan has been damaged, perhaps beyond repair, by what he sees as the depredations of his domineering sisters. It drives him crazy when people nose into his business. He cannot stand to be trifled with. His world is entered by alarming omens and situations that baffle him. The character is vividly seen and the film sympathizes with him in his extremity.

"My Revolutions" (2007) by Hari Kunzru

"My Revolutions" (2007) by Hari Kunzru 

Nigel explained how his "nu-lad" theme (see June 2015 discussion) was a goodie but the associated choices (Keith Nixon - The Fix/Iggy/A Prophet) were let down by the book and he wanted to put that right, whilst still retaining a coherent overarching theme that effectively linked the choices together

Various other excellent books had led to Nigel's book choice for this month...

• Jake Arnott - Johnny Come Home
• Stuart Christie - Granny Made me an Anarchist
• Francis Wheen book - Strange Days Indeed: The Golden Age of Paranoia

So, this era has inspired some great writing, but how would "My Revolutions" fare...?

Nigel primarily hoped to evoke the era, including the paranoia, revolutionary fervour etc - a time when some people really cared about radical politics, and the possibility of a socialist world felt more tangible

Also, by happy coincidence, this was a good follow on from "The Bottle Factory Outing" (see last month) as we were in a similar era

Nigel liked the different concurrent plot lines, which cleverly intertwine various aspects of Mike/Chris life and which primarily focus on his quiet, present day life as a middle class house husband in Chichester, and his former life as an ex-student who drifts into a hardline revolutionary group in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Other plot lines include Chris’s childhood, a few years recovering from addiction in Thailand, and a few more - all are absorbing. 

The present day story gradually comes more and more to the fore and this is what drives the slow burn narrative. Nigel was captivated by both primary plot lines, but especially the descriptions of squats, political meetings in various London locations and beyond, demonstrations, bombings, safe houses, encounter groups, festivals, discussions etc. Mike finally realises the dreams of liberation he'd fought for were illusory, and impossible.

The novel’s elegiac tone perfectly celebrates the era of armed revolutionary struggle, whilst also exploring the madness of extremism, personal identity, relationships, radical politics, violence, gender politics, family, and today’s political landscape. It’s an incredible achievement, brilliantly written and, if you have any interest in the revolutionary armed struggle of the 1970s, you will find much to enjoy.

Cleverly Kunru convinces us that (like all gang members?) Mike/Chris is looking for a new family or somewhere to fit in and thus is very suggestive e.g. Anna at the party encouraging him to call guests pigs, or the transgressive sex.  Mike is always, right until the very end, working to someone else’s agenda - even as a househusband in his modern incarnation - and even more so with Miles using him for his own ends.

Where this book really scores - and what Nigel was hoping for - was in its credible evocation of the era and the revolutionary milieu

The elegiac tone encapsulated by this aside from Miles to Chris when discussing radical politics…

"You were irrelevant, don't you get that? History doesn't care about what you did. Who's even heard of you? Ideology is dead now. Everyone pretty much agrees on how to run things” 

Tristan was very enthusiastic about this book lavishing it with fulsome praise.

Keith raced through the book but struggled to retain much about it

Nick would have enjoyed it much more if he had read it 15 years ago when he lapped up books about the 1970s.  

Hamish loved the revolutionary theme but felt the book was the least good selection of the three choices we discussed.

Scores on the doors...

Nigel 8/10

Tristan 9/10

Keith 8/10

Nick 6/10

Hamish 7/10

MUSIC: Hazy Cosmic Jive presents "Something in the Air”

"Because the revolution's here, and you know it's right…"

This mix aims for an early 70s, mournful, melancholy, wistful, post-hippy comedown vibe.  I’m hoping you’ll be able to smell the unmistakeable tang of a wet Afghan goat, partially masked by patchouli and joss sticks, whilst a news bulletin reports the latest activity of urban guerilla’s The Angry Brigade.  

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO IT ON MIXCLOUD

Tracklist:

Thunderclap Newman - Something In The Air

Brian Protheroe - Pinball 

Faces - Glad and Sorry 

David Bowie - Eight Line Poem 

Bread - The Guitar Man 

Roxy Music - Chance Meeting 

America - A Horse With No Name 

The Rolling Stones - Coming Down Again 

Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road 

Faces - Debris 

Lesley Duncan - Everything Changes 

Cat Stevens - Where Do The Children Play? 

Jonathan Kelly - Madelaine 

The Rolling Stones - Wild Horses 

Mott The Hoople - All The Young Dudes 

David Bowie - Quicksand 

Faces - If I’m On The Late Side 

Slade - Everyday 

Nigel explained he was hoping to create a movie type soundtrack to a book he hadn’t read. If he was doing it again, having read the book, he would have thrown in a few more 60s tracks - didn’t realise so much was in the 60s - however he still felt it worked well with its post-hippy comedown vibe.  Key track is  - Thunderclap Newman - Something In The Air - though it is all fukkin ace.  Obvs.

Fortunately everyone was of the same mind: a great musical accompaniment to the book

FILM: One Day In September (1999) directed by Kevin Macdonald

Nigel was looking for a coherent choice to complement the book and the music.

The consensus was that this documentary was a direct hit.  A balanced film that brought home the tragedy and the politics.  The mix of footage from the olympics and more recent interviews was great.  Michael Douglas narration worked well and the music was very effective.  The gross incompetence of the Germans has to be seen to be believed.  Perhaps understandable given their desire to reinvent themselves after Nazism, plusthis was a relatively early example of this type of terrorism.

ENDORSE IT

Tristan: Wild Tales (Argentinian film)

Keith: The Rat Pack (iPlayer)

Nick: What we do in the Shadows (film - on Netflix)

Hamish: Perdido Street Station - novel by China Miéville 

Nigel: Creed (film directed by Ryan Coogler) -  spin-off and sequel to the Rocky series