FREQUENT SPOILER ALERTS BELOW
Came a Hot Friday
Score: 7ish.
Quick Plot: Con-men in some New Zealand town try to rip off Bookies, get away with it with the help of crazy Western Maori "Kid"; all mostly a lesson for a young used car salesmen to listen to his dad.
Thoughts of the PBC: Good times mostly, but the crazy Kid is rather silly and this symbolises the general silly nature of proceedings kinda detracting from a reasonable plot, nice characters and fractured picture of a time in NZ post-colonial history.
Raffles
Score: 5ish
Quick plot: Gentleman thief, plays cricket, steals diamonds, all gradually comes crashing down.
Thoughts of the PBC: Ambiguous morality, clearly saying "this is not good" but doing so haphazardly, rather silly really, nothing much to it, a lot of repetition but still funny and interesting in bits.
Obernewtyn
Score: 4ish.
Quick plot: Dystopia post-nuclear bomb, people gain powers but hunted down by autocratic evil overlords, except for sanctuary in the hills, story of girl who gets to sanctuary and beats evil people controlling sanctuary.
Thoughts of the CLUB: Very silly, not well written, kids story.
Farewell My Lovely
Score: 7ish
Quick Plot: Gum shoe detective, gets hopelessly messed up with a bunch of crazy characters and it turns out everything is linked together and he solves the day but its a bit of a bitter sweet thing with people dying and all that.
Thoughts of the PBC: Very enjoyable, great example of genre, a bit pointless but a certified good read.
Notes From Underground
[Not present at book club]
The Sheltering Sky
Score: 7ish
Quick Plot: Can't distinguish from really shit movie in my mind now. Couple touring round Africa, like a "worst case" travel novel, ending in crazy carnage with protagonist dying and wife raped.
Thoughts of the PBC: Quite profound in places, surprising in others, a very good read. Can't remember there being too much bad said - although the movie was woeful, truly woeful, the author is in it and everything and talks to the camera. Jesus. I can't say enough about how bad this movie really is. John Malkovich too.
Scoop
Score: 6ish
Quick Plot: A kinda "man who knew too little" tale about the wrong family member sent to cover a war who ends up getting the "Scoop".
Thoughts of the PBC: Very different from first Evelyn Waugh we'd read (Brideshead), a riproaring adventure, exceedingly racist, a little silly employing a few rather ridiculous turning plot points but one expects reflective of a rather silly era, still highly enjoyable and very funny in places.
The History of Sexuality: Volume 1
[Not present at book club]
The Pit and the Pendulum (and other stories)
[Not present at book club]
BUT:
Personal Thoughts: Some smegging fantastic stuff, although the whole Sherlok Holmes vibe gets a bit tired as it does in Connan Doyle. Some of the gothic horror stories though: Descent into the Maelstrom in particular, very evocative, amazingly before its time and pretty damn terrifying. Has a way of beautifully describing a little world and expressing it relatively briefly and capturing and creating profound emotions.
How We Are Hungry
[Not present at book club]
Getting further back in time now, quick description will do for each.
Lucky Jim
Hilarious, truly, gloriously hilarious, especially for the thesis student just finished. Captures the utter pointless back breaking drudgery of academia from the perspective of a lazy dickhead who gets lucky. I think book club found it a little tiresome, but remember, these people can't be trusted.
Therese Raquin
Relatively shit, moralisticish take on adultery. Suggests certain people mechanical and animalistic, just rather bleak in the end. I think generally people did not enjoy this.
Foe
SHIT. Like. really shit. like "ou lets be all post modern and do a modernist take on the whole idea of Robinson Crusoe. Quite like this quote, at the time seen as a bit of a shitty nothing piece by South African critics:
"In our knowledge of the human suffering on our own doorstep of thousands of detainees who are denied recourse to the rule of law, Foe does not so much speak to Africa as provide a kind of masturbatory release, in this country, for the Europeanising dreams of an intellectual coterie."
I think it goes without saying that Giles loved this book. BUuurrrnrnnnn.
The end.
