Happy New Year -this is a new year that was the old year

Well it’s that time of year again New years day the time to make resolutions and plans for the coming year and also a chance  to look back and digest  how the last twelve months have gone  on the blog and reading wise for myself .

Last year was a strange one it felt for me  , I drifted in my blogging. But when I got my year-end report from wordpress I was surprised what I had done  and after reading Sue’s post .I thought well it was a busy year really and maybe I just relaxed as a blogger and gone with my natural flow .So highlights of last year was doing the two shadow juries the first was the man Asian one last January with Lisa in charge ,with matt ,sue ,mark and Fay .Then I took a leaf out Lisa’s book to start a shadow IFFP jury with Rob Lisa Mark Simon Tony and Gary .I loved doing both these and am at moment stuck in the middle of this years Shadow Man Asian jury .I also started Spanish Lit month with Richard to highlight Spanish language fiction from all round the world .That’s not to mention Henry Green week .I also loved joining Lizzie and Caroline in German lit month ,once again and the fact it brought a chance to  enjoyed a new chunk of Germanic literature .So in looking back on my year I did a lot really, made lots of new blogging friends and help promote fiction in translation which is the main aim of the blog these days.

So 2013 another year resolutions reading and blog wise ,I have debated doing a post a day and I know it be hard to keep up my job and life just isn’t able to support a post a day so my resolutions is to try to post a little more and maybe do 50 more post than last year which equates to a post every other day or so which seems achievable .I have previously tried to set reading totals but I m leaving them behind I feel my reading is at a constant level and pushing it to read more will a. spoil my enjoyment of books as I rush trough rather than saviour them ,b..do I really need to add load more books to the unreviewed pile (close to 60 books already on it ) .Another blog resolution is to try over next twelve months to clear pile of books I ve read but not covered on the blog so far ,hopefully doing a few more posts will even this out and cut the pile down .challenges I will be doing some more challenge of my own next year and joining in a few along the way I m sure I prefer month or week long  challenges to year-long ones hence I ve not signed up for any this time again .So my first challenge is Tony’s January in Japan I ve one book read and currently on my second book .

So a very happy new year to you one and all and may the year be a very bookish one for you .

Thanks all Henry Green week wrap up post

Firstly I want to thank every one who took part and read and reviewed Henry’s novels we manage to put up reviews of six  of his nine novels .Thus increasing his profile on the web I hope our reviews make more people pick up his books and maybe see some of his books return to print .here are the full round-up of reviews –

Back by Henry Green reviewed by Mel of reading life ,great This is one I ve not read but will after reading Mel’s review .

Party going by Henry green reviewed by Annabella of Gaskella who call henry Green quite a discovery .

Party Going by Henry Green Gary of Parrish lantern also reviewed it calling the main characters Empty vessels .

Blindness by Henry Green Simon of stuck in a book start with the first of Green’s works his debut and loved it .

Loving by Henry Green David of follow the thread read this and said green had produced something utterly distinctive .

Back by Henry Green Fay  of Readramble also reviewed this ,and found echos of Waugh and Beckett in it .

Caught by Henry Green Sarah of  rat in the book pile  also read this like my self and calling it a sparkling jewel of a novel .

Living by Henry Green Harriet of Harriet Devine Blog review this and said how completely in love with Henry Green’s writing she is .

Loving by Henry Green by Tanya of 20thcenturyvox ,she felt that there was something symbolic in the novel .

Loving ny henry Green Karyn of a penguin a week also review this and felt it was more complex than it first seems

Loving by Henry Green Anbolyn of Gudrun tights found it a unique take on the love story .

Caught by Henry Green Helen of  Galimaufry agreed with me the scandal this book is out of print and very expensive to get second-hand .

Party Going by Henry Green Caroline of Beauty is a sleeping cat thought this was comedy of manners .

Thanks every one for your reviews .

more henry Green Posts

Here are some more Henry Green Posts from round the Blogospere –

Caroline at Beauty is a sleeping cat review his novel Party going ,read here review here

Rose city reader used the first line of living she is reading at moment for the opening sentence  meme 

I will bring more posts as they come out if I missed your post let me know .

Caught By Henry Green

Caught is one of his lesser known novels now but at the time was heralded as a future classic ,when it was published in 1943 during the middle of the war and two years after the end of the blitz which is what the book is about Henry green or  Henry Yorke as he was in real life was in the Auxiliary  Fire Service in London during the height of the blitz ,this book was a result of the time he spent putting out fires during the war.

When Roe first joined the Service ,when nations were still declaring peace,it seemed ludicrous to be trained by fire men in a real fire-station .He signed on because he had for years wanted to see inside one of these turreted buildings ,and had also he had always been afraid of heights .

Maybe green describes the reason he joined the Auxiliary fire service

Caught is the story of a team of firemen and focus on two of them they have a link that goes back before the war and they joined the fire service .They are Richard Roe ,he is upper class and I would imagine this is Henry Green himself and Pye  the sub officer of the fire station ,who like most of the team is a working class chap but a man who has a lot more to himself and his life than it first seems .He has a very disturbed sister that Richard roe the other main character in the book  had a run in before when he his son  Christopher  was held  hostage by her in her room  for a time until Pye rescues him ,this forms a barrier initially between the two men ,but we see ebb and flow of them at work and rest  that at heart they are both flawed men. I always think this is one of Green’s strongest writing traits is that of the  flawed man a lot of his characters are flawed in one way or other  whether it is class or secrets  something always makes them seem more interesting than the normal characters in most novels .There are scenes of the blitz  which are exquisitely written and bring you into the heart of the blitz  but come towards the end as we also see the build up to the blitz ., but like all good drama based round the fire service it is the  quiet times in between that is the most interesting seeing the interactions of the men as they wait not certain what the night holds or even if they’ll be their next day ,This I feel this is  probably  as Henry Green experienced the war ,he was in Middle age when  he volunteer to join the fire service  in London something he didn’t have to do give his station in life as the fire service was made up mostly of working class men during the war  and sure he spent many hours chatting like Pye and Roe ( there is a clever pun by Green on the two leads Name ).Roe Has lost his wife and via the fire station finds a new love .This book is also a great look at class before during and in a way after the war when the barriers to classes interacting in everyday situations were broken down some what .The cialogue also forms the backbone of this book the interaction between character is all spoken never thought or described as Green said in the piece I quote from wood he thought what people said was the most important bit of the book .This book is out of print but second hand copies about I got mine cheap in Oxfam

Have you read this book ?

Have you read any other books based in London during the war ?

Another interview and the first review of Henry Green week

Well I ve found another online interview not by green but by one of his friend on Jstor website it short but worth a quick read .A quote from James Woods How fiction works and strangely Woods is a Green fan it seems as he quotes from three of his works in the book .

In 1950 Henry Green gave a little talk on BBC radio about dialogue in fiction Green was obsessively concerned with the elimination of vulgar spoors of presence whereby authors communicate themselves to readers : he never internalized his characters thoughts hardly ever explained a characters motive ,and avoids the authorial adverb, which so often helpfully flags a character’s emotion to the reader (“she said grandiloquent” ) .Green argued that dialogue is the best way to communicate with one’s reader and that nothing kills “life ” so much as explanation”

A great quote on why we sometimes find Green hard to read from Wood’s  how fiction works .

Elsewhere in the book he talks about Caught which is a book I ll be reviewing that lives up to what green said in the BBC interview it is very dialogue heavy .

The first review was on Sunday from A penguin a week Karyn review Loving Green’s fifth novel and one that was sparked by a story he heard whilst in fire service in world ward two

Henry Green Week

Well it is here Henry Green Week .I decide to Honour him with a week following a discussion on twitter with the editor of folio society ,about green the have a forthcoming edition of his one of his books .But we also said how he had dropped a bit of the radar for most readers .I felt it was a shame for at the time he was around Green was held in the same esteem as Evelyn Waugh .His writing is inventive and thou he hate being called a modernist ,it has traits of the modernist style although as you see in the link to the Paris review interview here  he   said he wrote living and he hadn’t even read Ulysses .I ve read Caught  his wartime novel about the fire service in London in which He served during the war .I m just in middle of concluding a book set in a school on a single day .So please let me know of your review at end of week I ll do a round-up of posts from round the web .I m looking forward to seeing what people made of his works .

Henry Green Week jan 23 – 29 2012

After a conversation on twitter this afternoon about Henry Green and the fact that not enough people read him .I decide lets do a week for him in January .I think he is maybe one if not the best pre war English writer .He is probably best known for loving his 1945 novel and his brught young think novel party going .

here  is his wiki page 

Sebastian faulks on him in the guardian 

Have you read him ?

What book will you pick ?