tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3067098918914268503.post8534415714897225841..comments2024-03-29T15:04:20.549+11:00Comments on ART and ARCHITECTURE, mainly: The Man Booker Prize and my journey through modern literatureHelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02849907428208235392noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3067098918914268503.post-74815530713352641642016-11-19T19:22:29.070+11:002016-11-19T19:22:29.070+11:00Woofwoof
I was in hospital when I wrote this post...Woofwoof<br /><br />I was in hospital when I wrote this post and don't remember anything :( But you are quite right. <br /><br />I did read Peter Carey’s Oscar and Luncinda after it won the 1988 Man Booker, but I found it hard work to finish.<br /><br />I had read every Julian Barnes book years ago, except The Sense of an Ending which I read this year.Helshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02849907428208235392noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3067098918914268503.post-88950503295854450902016-11-19T03:16:25.881+11:002016-11-19T03:16:25.881+11:00Sorry if I have misunderstood but in the main post...Sorry if I have misunderstood but in the main post you list your favourites from the Booker winners including "The sense of an ending" and "Oscar and Lucinda". Then in your comments you say that you have never read the former, and was not impressed by the latter! Confused... (I didn't think "Sense of an ending" was very good at all - a brief, poorly written memoir.WoofWoofhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14142792485921452481noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3067098918914268503.post-33007968997082786612016-11-12T11:37:18.739+11:002016-11-12T11:37:18.739+11:00AAANZ
many thanks. I will be there.
I wondered w...AAANZ<br /><br />many thanks. I will be there.<br /><br />I wondered why an Art Association would be holding a conference about literature. Then I read your notes. "The critical reception of Brookner is complicated by the question of how to interpret her work as an historian of 18th-19th century French art. In a 1984 interview, Brookner explicitly denied a connection between her fictional and critical oeuvres, while at other times she spoke more openly about an intertextual literary practice, the significance of Romanticism in contemporary life, and her belief in unconscious processes".<br /><br /> Helshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02849907428208235392noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3067098918914268503.post-11152389958702022852016-11-12T00:35:37.105+11:002016-11-12T00:35:37.105+11:00As we approach the first anniversary of Anita Broo...As we approach the first anniversary of Anita Brookner’s death, this first international and interdisciplinary conference devoted to Brookner seeks to explore the meaning and significance of Brookner’s vast legacy, in both fiction and non-fiction.<br /><br />Presented by The University of Melbourne<br />LATECOMERS: ANITA BROOKNER THEN AND NOW 17-18 MARCH 2017Art Association of Australia and New Zealandhttp://aaanz.info/cfp-latecomers-anita-brookner-now-17-18-march-2017/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3067098918914268503.post-36773754731932917422016-11-06T11:08:23.568+11:002016-11-06T11:08:23.568+11:00Ex pat
I definitely did read Barnes' earlier ...Ex pat<br /><br />I definitely did read Barnes' earlier books that were shortlisted for the Booker Prize: "Flaubert's Parrot 1990", "England, England 1998" and "Arthur & George 2007" years ago. So this week I read his book "The Sense of an Ending" which won the Man Booker Prize in 2011. It was fantastic.<br /><br />Barnes and I were both born after WW2, shared the same experiences in the 1960s at university and became grandparents at the same time. If only I could have written this short novel!Helshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02849907428208235392noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3067098918914268503.post-84893998678400028092016-10-27T00:59:44.340+11:002016-10-27T00:59:44.340+11:00Mark
that is a bit of a surprise I think, but wel...Mark<br /><br />that is a bit of a surprise I think, but well done Paul Beatty!<br /><br />The only comments that worry me a bit is that it might be a difficult book to digest and that fiction should not be comfortable. I only have a few hours per week to read fiction and I want them to be pleasurable hours.Helshttp://melbourneblogger.blogspot.com.au/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3067098918914268503.post-45431289019078200632016-10-26T17:25:54.971+11:002016-10-26T17:25:54.971+11:00Paul Beatty wins Man Booker prize 2016 for The Sel...Paul Beatty wins Man Booker prize 2016 for The Sellout, a satire of US racial politics. Paul Beatty has become the first American writer to win the Man Booker prize, for a caustic satire on US racial politics that judges said put him up there with Mark Twain and Jonathan Swift.<br /><br />Beatty has admitted readers might find it a difficult book to digest but the historian Amanda Foreman, who chaired this year’s judging panel, said that was no bad thing. Fiction should not be comfortable. The truth is rarely pretty and this is a book that nails the reader to the cross with cheerful abandon … that is why the novel works.<br /><br />Mark Brown<br />theguardianMark Brownhttps://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/oct/25/paul-beatty-wins-man-booker-prize-2016noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3067098918914268503.post-84389612592149041462016-10-26T02:35:49.090+11:002016-10-26T02:35:49.090+11:00Parnassus
your disappointment with a honoured boo...Parnassus<br /><br />your disappointment with a honoured book (The God of Small Things) is one we have all felt. I once spent a fortune on a book written by an American feminist, at the recommendation of someone I trust. I could not even force myself to finish the first chapter :(<br /><br />I thought I would love Peter Carey's Oscar and Lucinda but it was too long, too bleak and I felt a bit uncomfortable. Carey is still well worth reading, but look instead at Ian McEwan's oeuvre: Amsterdam (1998), Atonement (2001), Saturday (2005) and On Chesil Beach (2007) - shorter, sharper, more intellectually and philosophically appealing.<br />Helshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02849907428208235392noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3067098918914268503.post-76485253505826417552016-10-26T02:34:30.853+11:002016-10-26T02:34:30.853+11:00Ex pat,
Coetzee was included in the 2016 Man Boo...Ex pat, <br /><br />Coetzee was included in the 2016 Man Booker's long list, but Barnes' latest novel, The Noise of Time, was not. <br /><br />Barnes won the Man Booker Prize for his book The Sense of an Ending, which I have not read. But I have read all three of his earlier books that were shortlisted for the Booker Prize: "Flaubert's Parrot 1990", "England, England 1998" and "Arthur & George 2007". Novels rarely have an impact on my life for more than a week or two, but I still remember the details of these three Barnes books, decades years later.Helshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02849907428208235392noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3067098918914268503.post-22369739118349187452016-10-26T00:10:05.651+11:002016-10-26T00:10:05.651+11:00Hello Hels, As a rule, I am more into old books t...Hello Hels, As a rule, I am more into old books than new ones. I need to start dipping into some newer literature; I'll take a look at the ones you especially recommend. I admit that I was turned off the Booker prize when I read "The God Of Small Things", hands-down the most terrible book I (or probably anyone else) has ever read, even allowing for differing tastes among readers. However, looking up the Booker prize just now, I see that Roy's award that year was "controversial," and that Carmen Callil called it "execrable," so I'll gingerly give them another chance.<br />--Jim <br />Parnassushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08958901307538141468noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3067098918914268503.post-84277832238640482962016-10-25T22:47:59.199+11:002016-10-25T22:47:59.199+11:00JM Coetzee and Julian Barnes should have been incl...JM Coetzee and Julian Barnes should have been included in the long list, instead f some of the unknown, untested authors.Ex patnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3067098918914268503.post-51413364544113726552016-10-25T18:00:50.009+11:002016-10-25T18:00:50.009+11:00Deb
I didn't read Marlon James' book, but...Deb<br /><br />I didn't read Marlon James' book, but I know what you are saying. Once a novel has been selected for the Man Booker short list, we expect that _everyone_ will agree that is a talented, innovative, fascinating book. But not even the judges can agree, so it is inevitable that we Non-Experts will disagree even more.Helshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02849907428208235392noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3067098918914268503.post-8980577688256905312016-10-25T15:50:47.933+11:002016-10-25T15:50:47.933+11:00A Brief History of Seven Killings was tough to rea...A Brief History of Seven Killings was tough to read, despite winning the Booker. Marlon James must have appealed to the judges for a reason I missed.Debnoreply@blogger.com