The Hundred Brothers by Donald Antrim

The Hundred Brothers by Donald Antrim

US Fiction

Source – review Copy

Donald Antrim is a name that I’ve had on the very edge of my radar to read ,for a number of years .He is often mentioned as a post modernist writer,as I have really enjoyed the other writers from the post modernist Cannon I have read and am always keen to try new ones .I felt I would like  Antrim’s work .So when these two new reissues from Granta dropped through my door I was happy to finally get the chance to saviour his work and that is what I did saviour him .Donald Antrim is an American writer who lives in New York ,he published his first novel in 1993 this the hundred brothers was his second book .He contributes to the New Yorker and lives in New York.He was on the twenty best writers under forty list published in the New Yorker in 1999 a list that included people such as Saunders ,Foster Wallace,Diaz and Lahiri  to name a few  .

My brothers Rob ,Bob ,Tom,Paul ,Ralph ,Phil,Noah ,William,Nick,Dennis,Christopher,Frank ,Simon,Saul ,Jim,Henry…………………..(so on ) all born on the same day,the twenty-third of May ,though at different hours in separate years .

The strange brothers gather together .

So to the book The Hundred brothers is a story of a meeting of Hundred brothers ,well actually ninety-nine as one can’t make it .They have come together for annual meeting of the brothers  and to have a meal and do a yearly ritual .Doug is our guide to this hectic group of brothers  he seems one of the saner brothers .We get told via Doug who is who ,the blind brother ,,the depressed brother ,the recovering addict ,botanist and so on .This is a strange bunch ,as the night progress chaos and madness start to descend on them .The brothers almost represent a cross-section of america .We also see what happens when people are overshadowed by a domineering father ,The brothers all seem to have a bit of something missing that thing that controls people in everyday life have ,how will this night end will the be 99 brothers ?Whose is the dog that keeps running through the room ? how many Doug’s have there been ?

Other brothers converged in a circle ringing the fighters .No one butting in ,yet ;experience has proved that it is best to let physical disputes resolve themselves on the spot ,rather than interrupt and create additional frustrations and the lasting grudges that accompany smoldering tensions – unless the peril of injury .

A fight breaks out between the a pair of brothers .

 

The hundred brothers is one of those books it is hard to pigeon-hole ,like most of the other post modern books I ve read it seems to transcend usual fiction genres .After reading it I was struck by the brilliance of Antrim he writes novels that feel like Barthelme short  stories  that have been given a course of steroids to pump them up too a novel  .I felt this book would make a great episode of the Simpsons it has a mix of wit and darkness they capture so well sometimes .It did in fact  remind me a bit of the episode where Homer was given a magic hammock that meant he could clone himself and he did ending up with endless slight copies of himself .Which bring total chaos to Springfield when the pack of Homers gets on the loose in Springfield ,rather like the brothers on the lose in the big hall .The other thing I was reminded of is the film by Luis Bunuel the exterminating angel where a dinner party descends into chaos as the guest are trapped in a room .There is a great intro by Jonathan Frantzen where he picks out the wonderful line “I love my brothers and I hate their guts “.Very apt we can’t choose are families can we ?

Have you read his books ?

The silver bridge by Paul Michael Francis

The silver bridge by Paul Michael Francis

Greek American fiction

Paul Michael Francis is Greek – American writer he was raised between Greece and American .He is the great-grandson of a former Greek prime minister .He has studied psychology and Literature ,he has acted and ghost written three screen plays .The silver bridge is his debut novel .

Well whenever I get a book from Quartet I look forward to it there is something about their choices that always surprise so when I got sent the pitch for silver bridge I had a think said yes and now pleased I did .I sat down one evening and picked it up .Many of you may know I’m a bit of a romantic and this book is perfect for a romantic bloke like me as it is a love story ,not the soppy sort that a women may write (sorry sure the are many soppy male writers) .No this is realistic love story ,but also much more than that it is a modern tale of life and celeb .This is like being inside an ok story with out the pap .So hope to the story I think it is about two people and then the people around them the first is Pavlos he is the lead singer of a post grunge band called Pavlos ,over the course of the book I had him in my head as a mix of The lizard king Jim Morrison and Eddie Vedder with a chunk of Mediterranean charm thrown in well he is a pop star on the up but with his own Demons .

He gripped the microphone in one hand and a bottle of Jack Daniel’s in the other as he prepared to start the show.His sweated brow and dilated pupils hinted that Jack wasn’t his only substance of choice that night .Hell ,why should this night be any different from the others ? Pavlos was almost glad that Karma had never hit the big time .

Pavlos from the first chapter .

Then there is Claire Davies she is a rising star of the acting world ,she remind me of claire danes ,maybe it was the name and the fact she was a star very early in her career  when she did” my so-called life ” THE fictional Claire has just been named for a big  acting prize the golden globe ,but she has a troubled life this time unlike Pavlos its a pushy overbearing mother .In fact the day after I read this I was flicking through the tv channels and caught a bit about parent and kids that come to Hollywood and stay at a certain hotel and when I heard a couple of mothers on that show I saw that Claire mother wasn’t so far removed from the real world .

When she was only fifteen ,Dianne forced Claire into surrendering her virginity to a sleazy Persian producer three times her age .He was rough with her ,caring nothing for the fact that it was her first time and ignoring the complaining about the tears she shed as he coarsely screwed her .

Dianne the mother from hell .

Well you can imagine what happens when these two souls in trouble meet there is a spark between them .This spark takes the pair from their home in Hollywood to Pavlos childhood home on the Greek Islands where you see a different side to the pair and also how a simple unwound life can have effect on people .It was nice to see Greece portrayed in a positive way as it comes across in the book there has been so much about their troubles lately we forget how beautiful the place is and the people who live there .I can see this making either a fluffy bug blockbuster rom com with the likes of Russell Brand as Pavlos ,but I d love an indie film of this with maybe a rock singer like Dave Mathews  made by the director of sideways or so  .Do they make it well get the book and read it .

The gospel of Anarchy by Justin Taylor

source – review copy

Justin Taylor is a young American writer ,this is his debut novel last year he published a collection of short stories “everything here is the best thing ever ” ,which I have but have only read the first couple of stories but style wise this is just as good as his short stories .He has written for a number of american magazines and appeared on public radio .

The book is set in 1999 and goes through millennium in is David story from dark nights on the internet trading Pornographic images to meet an old friend leads to an alternate world the hippy alternative universe an anarchist collective ,this is a story of youth and growing up and what happens when you take the wrong path ,it can be fun but at times very dark .all this is sparked by David meet old college buddy Thomas and going to fishgut this is an old house full of people  ,that is the collectives heart and base .This is maybe the dying embers of a sixties dream gone bad ,I love music from big pink and the idea\ of communal living has appeal to me the ability  to swap ideas and feed of other people’s creativity would be great ,but Fishgut isn’t like this the morals are lost in some ways I m remind of Garlands beach what happens when paradise turns bad ,this tackles people’s dream searching for religious belief ,identity and in particular a place in society or in this case in  a group .

Thomas took me on a tour of fishgut ,not that there was much to show .There were three bedrooms – his , Kathy ,and one outfitted with two sets of bunk beds as a guest room or travellers rest .They were all scenes from the same low-budget disaster movie .the linoleum in the kitchen was faded past pigmentation ,but held on to a hazy hangover memory of having once been green

the first site of fishgut .by David shown round by his old friend Thomas .

David gets caught up in affairs with the women at Fishgut ,as he sleeps with them and  get caught up in a five way love triangle ,there is a found journal that leads to a cult left by old guest of the house a man of the road .I enjoyed this book Taylors writing is playful and dark at same time he draws you into this crazy youthful world like he did in the shorts I ve read by him .

 

THE END BY SALVATORE SCIBONA

SOURCE REVIEW COPY FROM JONATHAN CAPE .OUT NOV 4

Salvatore Scibona is an american writer ,he was named on the recent New Yorker twenty under forty list .He grew up in Cleveland Ohio and went to the creative writing course at university of Iowa ,he is from an Italian american family

The End is his debut novel it is set in his native Ohio in the early fifties ,well 15th august 1953 mainly .we focus on Elephant park an Italian community we open meeting Rocco the local baker who has just received word that his son has died in a Korean P.O.W CAMP  ,the day is Assumption day a carnival is due as the novel progress we see Rocco meet people and also we are sent back to Rocco’s youth in Scilly .We see poverty community and also a crime ,we meet a number of characters a seamstress ,a jeweller .as Rocco comes to terms with his loss whilst the is this carnival and other things happening in his life .

He was Five feet one inch tall in his street shoes ,bearlike in his round and Jowly face ,hulking in his chest and shoulders ,nearly just as stout around the middle but hollow in the hips and lacking a proper can to sit on (though he was hardly ever known to sit ) and wee at the ankles and girlish at his tiny feet ,a man in the shape of a lightbulb .

the opening and we meet Rocco .

This is a stunning debut novel ,assured with a unique voice ,he has been compared to the greats Joyce ,Faulkner and Bellow ,some are deserved, setting most of your events on a single day will always be compared with Joyce but in reality they are two completely different books this is about a community .Bellow is probably nearest to him of the comparisons in a lot of ways it is like bellows early books ,like seize thew day which follows a similar aged man over a day I wonder if part of this comes from stories Salvatore heard growing up around the dinner table .The characters in this book are beautifully drawn and realistic.Its nice to read a book about the Italian american community that avoids the obvious clichés of that community .He richly deserves to be on the new yorker list and also for this to be a national book award shortlisted book in 2008 .This is like a Edward hopper painting come to life or the kiss photo that is so famous it evokes the fifties and the struggles of that time for a working class community post WW2 struggling with another war .

Thumbing through thoreau

SOURCE – REVIEW E BOOK FROM TRIBUTE BOOKS

This is a collection of pieces brought together by Kenny Luck from various Thoreau books ,Henry David Thoreau in my opinion was one of the greatest american writers in the 19th century his influence is still felt today via books films and political movements ,a writer that is hard to pigeon-hole ,my first encounter with Thoreau was via the film dead poets society where he is mention by on of the characters .he is most well-known for Walden the book he wrote after spending 2 years 2 months living in a log cabin by Walden pond in the 1850′s ,which make up the first part of this collection ,he was also a noted journal writer which the later part of the books covers .

The book is a collection of what Hector in the film History boys would call gobits ,little gems that capture beautiful the feel of Thoreau’s writing ,along with the gobits ,there are illustrations by Jay luke and Ren Adams ,the illustrations are all black and white and what may be described as primitive in style or maybe simplistic like japanese block art they wonderful capture the nature of Henry David Throeau’s work .the is a video on you tube about the book .Kenny luck who compiled the book is a writer on the weekender and also has a masters in history and political science .

So where to start as my e reader broke just as I got the book I ve had to read it via my adobe reader on the computer over a week or two .The book is also nice set out using various size typography to draw you into the quotes .In places I felt Kenny may Have picked different quotes from Thoreau but like most things every one has their favourites and on the whole it gave a great view on Thoreau’s writing and made me want to get his Journals something I ve want to read for a while ,this book would make a great coffee table book to be picked up and glance through all the time also is a great gift for someone who maybe wants to try Thoreau but is a little nervous of Walden .It is also good for kids as a intro with the pictures .the book also received the full approval of the Thoreau society .

there has been a number of stops already on the tribute book tour for thumbing through Thoreau ,you can also follow tribute on twitter .

HAVE YOU READ THOREAU ?

A beat gets the beat

On twitter the other day on the book chat/writer chat #litchat was about writers having other talents ,well next day i remember an album from 1990 that featured the beat legend William S Burroughs and the hip hop group beatnigs that became disposable hero of hiporsay and then spearhead .I had this album as a fan of beat writers in my teens William S Burroughs was a master of the cut up technique of avant grade writing .This poem /song is very powerful and even more so with Williams sombre tomes reading it over the beat of the music .

The queen of palmyra by minrose gwin

 

 

The Queen of Palmyra by Minrose Gwin

-

Minrose Gwin is the professor of english at North Caroline ,she has publish numerous non fiction books mainly about the women’s role in the south of america and southern writing also editing the literature of the american south .she has also done a lot on the civil rights movement in the sixties .This is her debut novel and is out on harper perennial this week .she grew up in a small town in Mississippi in the sixties .so tackle some of the ground that is in the novel

The book -

the book follows florence Forrester and one summer in 1963 ,Flo ’s home life is rocky a disappointed mother Martha  who is the towns cake lady making wonderful smelling cakes the wonderful lemon cake is her specialty .there is Flo’s bigoted father a burial insurance salesman and a racist that has rub off a little way on his daughter  , Flo escapes at her grandparent and with their servant Zenie thus named after the queen of Palmyra ,Flo spends time with zenies family then one day a catalyst arrives in the form of Eva Green a relative of Zenie ,Eva studies and is educated and works for naacp ,this causes stirrings in the town and Eva is attacked in a graveyard ,the police are unwilling to help .Flo and Eva grow close and Flo escapes the trauma of every day life with the stories of Zenie and love she gets from her .all this against major even ts in mississipi itself .

My view -

Minrose has written a truly wonderful book you can sense that Minrose  herself must have walked in Flo’s shoes at some point and have had friends from both sides of the town she grew up in  ,she is amazing with details describing Martha cooking the cakes the wonderful lemon cakes they just float of the page and left me wanting to taste this masterpiece of a cake .The violence is handle just  right not over the top but enough to make you realise how hard it was from african americans in the south in the sixties ,I think everyone should have a copy of this on their bookshelves to sit next to kill a mockingbird and why the caged bird sings ,it is that good unbelievable for a debut novel to be so complete and well written .

Links -

harpers  page

Minrose Gwin talking