“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

“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