Another little gem and although it may not have the deliciously anarchic spirit of Saki's really great stories, like 'An Open Window' it is still wondAnother little gem and although it may not have the deliciously anarchic spirit of Saki's really great stories, like 'An Open Window' it is still wonderful, primarily for Matilda, one of the many splendid nieces who populate his stories. It is quite remarkable how often a niece is the agent of the chaos at the heart of Saki's stories, like in 'An Open Window'.
Saki is so good on children, he is not a children's' or YA author but they would certainly appreciate his understanding of their devotion to a justice more literal and fierce then you will find in the Old Testament. His children are not 'innocent' in the wakish sense but they recognise and understand adult deceit and hypocrisy. His child characters are observant and understanding of their basic powerlessness but they know how to exploit adult mendacity for their benefit.
That the story also punctures adult pomposity and social climbing is an added bonus....more
Another novel I read years ago, long before I saw the film, though I should make clear I saw the film years after it came out (so long afterwards thatAnother novel I read years ago, long before I saw the film, though I should make clear I saw the film years after it came out (so long afterwards that the days when Laurence Fox looked lovely naked in a shower were long over). I thought the novel was extremely clever and good. The film was a good film but the book was far better and more emotionally engaging and the 'reveal' at the end handled with greater subtlety.
A fine novel particularly as Guy Burt was 18 when he wrote it - doesn't it make you jealous!?...more
Utterly enjoyable satire which only works if you read the Enid Blyton books as a child. If you did then this and the author's other books in this seriUtterly enjoyable satire which only works if you read the Enid Blyton books as a child. If you did then this and the author's other books in this series will be wildly enjoyable. I don't know if I would recommend anyone buy one - I got my copy in a charity shop - it is a joke book, the sort of thing given at Christmas and that you used to be piled next to the loo in my youth.
I read this novel twenty years ago and even then I thought it flawed, nowadays I can't imagine anyone reading it, except as a curiosity of vanished tiI read this novel twenty years ago and even then I thought it flawed, nowadays I can't imagine anyone reading it, except as a curiosity of vanished times and ways of living. Because it is not badly written I give it two stars - it is wildly better than books I award one star.
The book is looking back on Manchester in the 1980s and the chief constable John Anderton, an absurd bigoted homophobe who remained in office because his reactionary views echoed what Margaret Thatcher believed but couldn't say. Amongst his most notorious statements was that homosexuals, drug addicts and prostitutes who had HIV/AIDS were "swirling in a human cesspit of their own making". Part of 'Manchester Slingback' is the retrospective account of its hero Jack Powell of youth in 1980s Manchester which he returns to in the 1990s to finally expose the real evil doers from that time. The novel's heart is the right place but good polemics don't make for a good novel.
There was a great deal of prejudice spouted by people like John Anderton in the 1980s but there were just as many loud voices denouncing him. There was Clause 28 and the attempts to close down 'Gays The Word' in London (see footnote *1 below) but the UK never had a 'moral majority' or 'Christian right' of any number or power. There was plenty of prejudice but virtually none of it was based on religious belief. To make out that UK gays had a struggle comparable to what went on in the USA with Anita Bryant and many others is absurd. The novel also suffers from Blincoe's attempts to link his 1980s Manchester story into investigations of abuse at care homes happening in the 1990s. It is too much and because of his passionate, and understandable, hatred of people like John Anderton his characters, situations and plot never rise above the two dimensional.
It is extraordinary, and embarrassing, to read now the praise heaped on this slight tale by major Newspaper reviewers in the UK including The Times, Observer and Daily Telegraph. I can not fault the author's good intentions but he has written a mediocre novel.
*1 Clause 28 and the prosecution of Gay's the Word were steps by the Tory government of Margaret Thatcher to wage what we would now think of as a 'Culture War' but, and I don't ignore the problems and pain these actions caused, then were really completely unsuccessful. By the time this novel was published Thatcher was gone and the Conservative party was rapidly backtracking from the moral stance they had taken in the 1980s. By the new millennium those in public life who had supported things like Clause 28 were apologising for their 'youthful errors'. For anyone not from the UK or who is, but is younger than 50, all of this is probably meaningless. But then that is what Google is for....more
Jeff Noon is a English writer who emerged in the 1990s out of the Manchester acid house scene (which is probably an insulting reductive description) aJeff Noon is a English writer who emerged in the 1990s out of the Manchester acid house scene (which is probably an insulting reductive description) and who I haven't read but mean to, so this post is to remind me that he is an author I must read....more
I read this book a long, long time ago and at the time I had reservations, serious ones, the whole novel is a just redolent of metaphor and the houseI read this book a long, long time ago and at the time I had reservations, serious ones, the whole novel is a just redolent of metaphor and the house at the centre of the tale is both the most potent and most problematic metaphor - I think it significant that when it first came out it was titled 'The House in Brook Street'.
I have tried, and abandoned, an attempt to describe my reservations when I read the book. I need to reread it and in the meantime would only rate it three stars but I won't rate until I can review it....more
It is always difficult to now how to rate Saki's less successful stories - they should be judged on their own merits but I can't help judging them agaIt is always difficult to now how to rate Saki's less successful stories - they should be judged on their own merits but I can't help judging them against works like 'The Unrest Cure' works that are simply exquisite, clever and thought provoking. But Laura is a rather problematic bouillabaisse in which there are appetizing morsels but they don't really come together in any satisfactory way. I still give it three stars because it is funny and well written but it is definitely a part of Saki's canon which if lost I would not shed many tears....more
One of Saki's best stories, not quite in the league of 'The Open Window' or 'Sredni Vashtar' (but then Sredni Vashtar is unique even for Saki), but spOne of Saki's best stories, not quite in the league of 'The Open Window' or 'Sredni Vashtar' (but then Sredni Vashtar is unique even for Saki), but splendid clever comedy of manners that is so much more. It is a tale that encompasses so much, most brilliantly the dangers of boasting and of getting what you wish. Seventy five years before Truman Capote failed to write a book on the theme of St Teresa of Avila's statement "More tears are shed over answered prayers than unanswered ones" Saki wrote this brilliant short story which said it all without the crutch of the quote.
Saki, like all really great comic writers, always had far more insight than he is given credit for. This is a delightful tale but it is also an analysis of human behavior. Enjoy it and don't forget it.
As an after thought despite what Goodreads says this is not a 'Horror' story unless you imagine every story that points out the foibles of human kind to 'Horror' stories because they reveal the underlying truth of our existence. Nor is about werewolves except in the sense that there is a wolf but otherwise it is just laziness or probably ignorance that connected this story which is about debunking the supernatural with one of the more absurd 'supernatural' creatures....more
Another Saki gem, all about a man who develops the characteristics of his pets. When he has a parrot or a turtle for a pet there is no problem but wheAnother Saki gem, all about a man who develops the characteristics of his pets. When he has a parrot or a turtle for a pet there is no problem but when he has 'a nasty heathen ipe' as in ape things get more amusing, in fact very amusing. Saki is good with animals just like he is good with children; no doubt because he was a lonely and happy child starved for adult affection (has there ever been a child rearing theory as a repellent as the one which deemed depriving children of children of love and affection as sound and worthy?).
I don't wish to push my next point so take it or leave as you like. I can't help thinking that the 'the nasty heathen ipe' allowed Saki to create another scene where a young man is left bollock naked in an allusively suggestive way. Although I am not suggesting that Saki wrote the story for this reason I just think interesting or maybe, more honestly, suggestive.
But it it is a terribly funny story - even the naked boy is funny - I am implying nothing lubricious!...more
I would love to read this book if only for the chapter 'John Davis' a pseudonym for Angus Wilson who is describing the real life events behind his yetI would love to read this book if only for the chapter 'John Davis' a pseudonym for Angus Wilson who is describing the real life events behind his yet to be written novel Sandel....more
Another Saki gem, how can you not love a satiric story which tackles bad poetry but bad poetry about Royalty?! Clovis, one Saki's great alter egos forAnother Saki gem, how can you not love a satiric story which tackles bad poetry but bad poetry about Royalty?! Clovis, one Saki's great alter egos for narrative purposes, is in the hottest part of a Turkish Bath (I wonder was it the Jermyn Street ones? Turkish Baths even in Edwardian days carried certain allusive resonances) writing a Durbar Recessional (and how evocative those two words are but I can't explain why in less than a thousand words so you'll have to google them) the location was chosen as he irritably explains to Bertie van Tahn not because the heat provides inspiration but because he hoped for "...freedom from the inane interruptions of the mentally deficient...". Clovis then goes on to quote one refrain from his work in progress:
'Back to their homes in Himalayan Heights The stale pale elephants of Cutch Behar Roll like great galleons on a tideless sea...'
Saki is doing more then providing examples of execrable prosody. He is making fun of the whole genre of empire literature which celebrated its accomplishments. He is mocking the empire itself. For the jeunesse dorée who fill Saki's world empire is as ridiculous and vulgar as the biscuits tins it appeared on.
It is a great pity that because of the wholesale destruction of Saki's papers after his death it is almost impossible to reconstruct any aspect of Saki's life. It is often forgotten that he was war correspondent in the Balkans before WWI and as far as I am aware there has been no attempt to study what he wrote. There are hints of a more serious side to Saki - he was an astute observer of the foibles of his time - and while immensely funny I think there was serious social satire in his work that is barely concealed. The ancient regime authorities who tried to ban Moliere's Tartuffe and The Bourgeois Gentleman along with Beaumarchais' Marriage of Figaro would have had no problem in recognising Saki's dangerously anarchic intent.
But of course you can ignore all that an enjoy a first rate story.
I am so delighted this story has attracted 14 reviews, on that basis it is more popular than. a huge number of very fine novels I could, but won't namI am so delighted this story has attracted 14 reviews, on that basis it is more popular than. a huge number of very fine novels I could, but won't name. It deserves every ounce of praise and should have 1,400 reviews. But who can resist a story with lines like:
' "...when I get maids with unsuitable names I call them Jane, they soon get used to it.
"An excellent plan," said the aunt of Clovis coldly; "unfortunately I have got used to being called Jane myself. It happens to be my name." '
or
"(I explained) that Florinda was the only person in the world who understood my aunt's hair. That really weighed with him, for he is not really a selfish animal..."
Maybe out of context their charm is lessened but I adore them and I hope you do sufficiently to search out this story. It is a perfect comedy of manners and class with a strong foundation in finance - and after all it was money that kept the charmed world of the likes of Clovis, his aunt, her maid and Septimus Brope perpetually in motion.
My history of reading Saki's stories stretches back over half a century to when I was thirteen and he is the only author I read at thirteen that haveMy history of reading Saki's stories stretches back over half a century to when I was thirteen and he is the only author I read at thirteen that have reread continuously, since then. I have not reread all the stories equally but I am sure I have read all of them at least half-a-dozen times. Yet I still keep finding new things.
The 'Hounds of Fate' (published 1911) contained, I realised when rereading it this time, many of the elements of a true story from the 16th century about a man, 'Martin Guerre', who returns after having been away for many years and tries to reclaim his property and wife. But the Martin Guerre story was lying forgotten in the legal records of Parlement of Toulouse until Natalie Zemon Davis published a book on it in 1972. I learnt of the story via the 1982 French film, 'The Return of Martin Guerre' of the starring Gérard Depardieu. More people learnt of the Martin Guerre story via the 1993 Richard Gere and Jodie Foster Hollywood film 'Sommersby' which transferred the story to post Civil War Tennessee.
'The Hounds of Fate' is not directly comparable but there are incredible similarities (I am being deliberately vague there is no reason to go into plot details which could ruin the short story, book or films) yet, as I point out, I missed them when reading the story previously.
All of this is just a prelude to assuring you that this is another Saki story which has depths and byways that draw you into the story in different ways. That it is coincidental I have no doubt but it is the coincidence of resonance that a fine writer absorbs from his travels and reading. It is a fascinating story from a writer to easily dismissed as a lightweight....more
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