Lost Book Library Reading Round-Up no. 10

A bumper crop this time round!

Lamia by Tristan Travis

Status: Completed

Lengthy supernatural police procedural by the enigmatic Tristan Travis - thought by some to be a pseudonym by Ken Kesey, who provided the back cover blurb.  How likely is this?  I would certainly consider it a possibility.  While maybe not the most obvious novel you might imagine Kesey writing after he took some mind-blowing drugs, got driven around in a camper van by the On the Road guy and kick-started flower power, it certainly has a similar feel to the equally meandering Sometimes a Great Notion.  It's easy to forget that Kesey the novelist and Kesey the cultural icon are two very different things.  There's an eye for detail here that is the equal to Kesey's (if you read ...Notion, it's evident that he was a guy who really knew his logging).  Even if it's not by Kesey, it feels like he's covering up for somebody talented, albeit someone not necessarily firing on all cylinders.  There's an assuredness to the style that it just wouldn't make sense for someone to develop, utilise for just one novel, and then disappear into the ether.
   But is it any good?  Yes and no.  Chapter by chapter it's perfectly entertaining, and I was happy to read all of it.  Many of the scenes are startling, original and quite freaky.  There's a lengthy flashback that's a prime slice of American Gothic, and could be sliced off and presented as a work in its own right.  As a whole however, it doesn't add up.  A key character remains a blank throughout.  If they were filled in, I could see the novel operating on a whole other level.  Meanwhile, there's a snickering attitude to the female anatomy which is adolescent and plain unpleasant at times.  The ending is so frustrating it made me think about Neil LaBute's Wicker Man remake, and o one should ever be made to think about that.  An enigmatic book, then, which would probably be an intriguing footnote in literary history, regularly visited, if it were just that bit, well, better.

Hurry On Down by John Wain

Status: Completed

The first of three books I acquired by semi-forgotten '50s/'60s author Wain.  I had high hopes that this story of a privately educated young man seeking to escape the class system would be the LBL Holy Grail of a genuinely great lost book.  It's not, although it is interesting.  As the back cover blurb says, it does point the way forward to Amis, Murdoch and the Kitchen Sink school, but crucially doesn't make the leap itself.  It starts off very well, and is funny, and there are some great scenes as the protagonist goes from job to job trying to find a place for himself.  There's a particularly good bit when he gets a job writing radio comedy.  It also, however, falls into the regular Lost Book trap of being too picaresque, with situations abandoned rather than resolved.  As is also often the case in the Lost Book Library, the female characters are woeful, with a particularly tiresome chapter in which our hero struggles to come to terms with the 'sluttishness' of a girl he's not even involved with.  Both Wain and his character know the world is changing, but neither of them appear to have any clue of where it might be heading.

A Smaller Sky by John Wain

Status: Completed

This later novel by Wain is very different.  It has a structure and everything.  A scientist leaves his job and family to spend his days on Paddington Station.  It's a very Laing-ian version of mental illness, with madness a sane reaction to an insane world.  The scenes in which the scientist fights to maintain his place on the station are powerful, with him having to fake various scenarios in order to justify his presence, before having to jump from a moving train.  Less successful, however, is a subplot involving a nefarious TV presenter infiltrating his family in the hope of a scoop.  Here, Wain's complete inability to create a believable female character lets him down again, culminating in a scene where the wife lets a relative stranger tell her to deal with her upset over a missing child by going into the kitchen and doing some baking.  Even with relations between the sexes being different back then, I'm pretty sure that would still have earned you a slap.  A partially successful novel.

Death of the Hind Legs and Other Stories by John Wain

Status: Completed

Turns out that while Wain has his flaws as a novelist, as a miniaturist he is quite brilliant.  A man talks his reluctant brother-in-law into becoming a wrestler.  A childhood home is returned to only to be found to be fitted with modernist decor. A retired engine driver visits his old engine.  A female journalist discovers that 'We Are All Prostitutes'.  The back half of a pantomime horse dies on stage.  Beautiful, sad little moments, realised with a perfect sense of timing.  I suppose I could pick holes in some of them, but I don't feel like it really.  A very strong collection, and a highlight of the Library so far.

The Passage by Victor Wartofsky

Fun pulpy afterlife nonsense.  A journalist with the depth of tissue paper loses his wife and daughter in an accident and gets mixed up in a world of organ transplants, psychics, skeptics and paranormal research.  I wouldn't say it gave you much insight into the human condition, and there are some plot turns that will make you go 'eh?' but it's surprisingly well-researched and there's a passage about what the consequences might be of proving the existence of the soul which is astute.  If you enjoy ridiculous things from over thirty years ago then you'll enjoy this.

Lost Book Library Reading Round-Up no. 9

The Memory of Eva Ryker by Donald A. Stanwood

Status: Abandoned, p. 132

I was disappointed by this Titanic-themed mystery thriller, as it looked like the best novel ever written by anyone ever.  After over a hundred pages of the hero improbably jetting all over the globe to the point of silliness and casually hitting a woman in the face very hard along the way, I decided to call it a day.  It's not all bad, however.  The cover has a peephole in it, and there's actually an inner cover underneath.  Do you want to see it?  Of course you do.

Emu and Little Red Riding Hood by Michael Sullivan

Status: Completed

Not much to say about this basic retelling of the Little Red Riding Hood story with Emu (but disappointingly, not Rod Hull) shoehorned in, except that it contains this extraordinary picture by artist Elphin Lloyd-Jones:

The Caretakers by Dariel Telfer

Status: Abandoned, p. 54

This was actually pretty decent, and I only abandoned it because it was very long, I'd got the gist, and life is short.  A fictionalized account of a working life in a mental hospital from the early '60s, it shows a disturbing world that has only very shortly departed, with trainee staff terrified of the patients they are sent to treat simply because they are mentally ill.  The book posits the then-radical notion that the patients are just normal people who just happen to be sick and deserve to be treated with dignity.  It could be argued that it tries to have its cake and eat it, in the manner of Tod Browning's Freaks, with the case studies presented both for our understanding and our titillation.  Nevertheless, it's a brave work for the time, and should certainly be read by anyone with an interest in changing attitudes to mental health.

A Garden of Sand by Earl Thompson

Status: Completed

I've expressed my admiration for this book earlier, and recommended you all go out and buy it.  That some of you may not have done so fills my heart with sadness.  Meanwhile, here's Earl Thompson's impressive author pic.

The Grounding of Group 6 by Julian F. Thompson

Status: Completed

Very enjoyable '80s teen lit about a sinister boarding school and its unorthodox way of dealing with problem students.  Can't say too much about it without giving away the big twist (which I think I already did last time I mentioned it but anyway).  Although something of a sensation in the US at the time, it's not so well-remembered over in the UK.  This is probably because it is rooted in the banal truths of American high-school life, rather than the mythic version we lap up so voraciously, and so feels a bit alien.  Nevertheless, it's a great premise leading to a strong story, enthusiastically told.  Anybody interested in the growth of the YA genre should check out this landmark title.

Lost Book Library Reading Round-Up no. 8

Another round-up of my attempts to actually read these freaks of literary nature.

Jessica's Wife by Hester Mundis

Status: Abandoned p. 35

This story of seventies sexual experimentation from Joan Rivers's writing partner had the pedigree to be genuinely good, but Mundis is all to ready to sacrifice the integrity of the world she creates for the sake of a joke, much the same way that Judd Apatow does, only you feel less inclined to forgive her.  Consequently, characterisation is all over the place.  Most of the jokes seem to stem from the fact various minority groups want equality, which seems to me quite reasonable.  Not a keeper.

Have a Nice Day by Barry Norman

Status: Completed

I'll be frank, I didn't have great hopes for this book, but it turned out to be a perfectly enjoyable comic novel - probably as good as Money by Martin Amis.  Norman sticks to writing about what he knows - Hollywood, making TV programmes and LA prostitutes - and comes up with a good range of enjoyable grotesques.  Although Norman's approach to depicting ethnic and sexual difference perhaps hasn't quite stood the test of time, it is enjoyable to imagine him sitting at his typewriter and hammering out the line 'Hey my man! Gimme some skin!'.  It's worth bearing in mind that Bazza, the Bazzinator, Crystal Tips and Bazzastair, went on to write a thriller that was praised by Elmore Leonard, so underestimate him at your peril.

The Harrad Experiment by Robert R. Rimmer

Status: Abandoned p. 36

An academic sets up a programme which allows him to scientifically mess about in his students' sex lives.  Essentially a novel that asks what if someone did a thing that no one is ever going to get away with actually doing.  I can see why the book attracted such a large readership in the sixties, but as literature it's not that great, with clunky characters and unfeasible motivations, and following the dreaded journal format. (Novelists!  You're allowed just to tell a story.  You don't need to justify the existence of the text.  That's why there are such things as novels.) There are enough people talking about this book online already for me to not bother with it.

The Reproductive System by John Sladek

Status: Abandoned p. 92

I was surprised to find myself given up on this rather acclaimed satirical sci-fi novel, but it was just winding me up a bit.  The sci-fi element of self-replicating metal boxes was a joy to read, but the Catch-22-style military humour simply didn't strike me as that funny.  And with each minor character coming with their own 'hilarious' back-story, my patience was tested beyond breaking point.

A Sunset Touch by Howard Spring

Status: Completed

This post-war novel of a shy man obsessed with his own Cornish ancestry discovering sex and love is a classic Lost Book mix of great passages, acute observation, and occasional narrative incoherence.  There's a real spookiness to some scenes involving an ancient vicar, and the treatment of casual pre-marital sex is fascinating as social history.  The plot, meanwhile, hangs from some quite magnificent coincidences and leaps into sheer randomness, to the point that for the first time in my life I found myself laughing at the words 'cancer of the right lung'.  Halfway through there is a bizarre attack on the state funding of art and drama students.

Lost Book Library Reading Round-Up no. 7

I've decided the gap between books featured and books actually read is getting excessive, so I'll be concentrating on reading round-ups for a bit.

Villains We Have Known by Reg Kray

Status: Abandoned, p. 22

I don't want to dwell on this too much, as being the only book in the Lost Book Library so far written by an obvious sociopath it is utterly unpleasant.  It does, however, contain sentences like these: 'His cue to life seemed to be his zest for living, which he achieved to the full before the door of death finally turned its key on him.' And  'It seemed theirs was a classic example of the epitome of life's seesaw of sorrow and joy.'

Juan In America by Eric Linklater

Status: Completed

This novel was a smash in the 30s, but has since petered out of public consciousness.  The protagonist is a descendent of Byron's Don Juan, making his way in a picaresque manner across the USA.  I was expecting quite a lot of sex because of this, but despite a lengthy preamble explaining his lineage, this Juan doesn't actually get up to much naughtiness.  In fact, the book could easily be called 'Some Bloke In America' and it would pretty much capture the contents just as well.   Occasionally brilliant, with some comically dazzling scenes such as a play in which characters reveal their inner thoughts via overhead projector and an orchestra that never rehearses forced into giving a performance, the novel suffers from just being too damn picaresque.  Juan leaves situations before they are exhausted, and because of this, it's sometimes hard to invest that much interest in them.  And while there are some killer lines, ('She's only got two ideas in her head. The other one's hats...' 'Baptists, it appeared, were not very good footballers. A little soft, perhaps, as a result of so much immersion...') some paragraphs are so dripping with wry observation and irony they verge on being overwritten.  Not a lost classic then, but still a worthwhile read for anyone interested in literature between the wars, somewhere between Sinclair Lewis and Nathaniel West, but not as good as either.  Interestingly, Linklater was born in the same Welsh town as I was, and is therefore my soul brother.

The Secret Lives of the Sky Girls

Status: Abandoned p. 92

I was wary of reading this as it is squarely aimed a the female reader, and being a man I have no interest in the things like 'feelings', 'emotions' and 'love' that they stuff books of this type with.  Having said that, however, I did read about half of it, partly because the style was breezy and enjoyable, and partly because I unexpectedly found the world of airline stewardesses quite fascinating.  In the early chapters, the ins and outs of the job are explained and it's a pretty engrossing read.  As it went on, however, there was just lots of yukky kissing and sexy stuff.  All perfectly fine for what it is though.

Jack-a-Randy

Status: Abandoned p. 30

This novel about a gay merchant seaman in 70s London was disappointingly a bit of a mess, despite the promising theme and great cover.  It's written as a diary, a format I always hate, Adrian Mole excepted, as it gives the impression that a novel feels the need to justify it's own existence. Also, the novel seems to initially serve the purpose of tying together some short stories, as the protagonist tries his hand at creative writing.  Undoubtedly an important piece of social history, and the first short story at least is actually good, but as a novel it's a nonsense.  Also, after working my way through Quick Turn and Juan in America, I was all picaresqued out.  I think somebody should read this novel, but I've decided that person shouldn't be me.

Lifetime by Mark McShane

Status: Abandoned p. 123

Unfortunately for me, the next novel in the Library also fell into the picaresque category.  A young man is given the chance by an elderly millionaire to live a lifetime's worth of experience in a year.  On the one hand, there are some nice scenes such as one in which the protagonist suffers an unwanted erection while posing nude in an art class.  On the other, the sexual politics are very swingin' seventies, with much easy sex with dolly birds who love it.  Not actually dreadful, but at over 300 pages, it was just too long to justify giving any more time to.  I could pretty much see where it was all going anyway.


Anyway, another round-up soon.  Or later.

Lost Book Library Reading Round-Up no. 6

A summary of my latest attempts to actually read the things before the Lost Book Library goes on its Christmas break.

Alton Douglas's Celebrity Recipes

Status: Flicked

Obviously, I'm not going to read a recipe book all the way through. I will, however, be shortly beginning a spin-off blog where I cook each of the recipes and rate them for tastiness, nutritional value and aroma.

The Landsbird by Colin Dunne

Status: Completed

This is exactly the sort of book the Lost Book Library exists for, even though it nearly didn't make it in due to its truly dreadful cover, and only a recommendation from the Nivenator himself saved it.  Too much of a soapy melodrama to be 'literary', too loaded with a vivid sense social reality to be a straight romance, this tale of doomed love between a couple brought together, and driven apart by the Sexual Revolution's slow crawl into England's remote areas falls between the cracks beautifully.  Although featuring such seventies stock characters as the businessman with the mistress in the city, and the nagging housewife, as well as those Lost Book Library stalwarts, the troublesome bikers, it also has a fantastic realness to it when it's attention turns to the fishing folk whose livelihoods are slowly, inexorably winding down to nothing.  There are some plot twists towards the end which are so unexpected, bizarre and problematic my brain refuses to process them, but overall, a very enjoyable and surprising read.

A New History of Torments by Zulfikar Ghose

Status: Abandoned, p. 99

This novel from B.S. Johnson's former writing partner comes with the most impressive list of recommenders - John Fowles, Edna O'Brien, Michael Moorcock, and it is indeed sporadically dazzling, with characters being flung on their own individual adventures in a manner that is positively Tarantino-esque.  It is also, unfortunately, irredeemably silly.  Beginning with a wealthy middle-aged man's affair with a younger woman (as all novels set in Latin America are - no exceptions), its attention soon turns to his children, who have very short memories, and think nothing of doing things like spending several days on a stranger's farm in order to see if there are any agricultural techniques they can apply to their own business, in spite of the fact their sibling has mysteriously disappeared after being knocked unconscious in a car crash.  I suppose this might be some magical realist device, but I couldn't be bothered with it, and after three characters in a row experienced such amnesia, I gave up, annoyed at such a potentially brilliant novel being capsized in this manner.

A True Romance by Jacky Gillott

Status: Abandoned, p. 19

A story about a romance writer getting over her mother's death that was simply too dreary to bother with, but as promised, here is another shot of the amazing fur-and-knitwear combo featured on the cover.

Kick Turn by Anthony Glyn

Status: Completed

This coming-of-age tale from the early sixties turned out to be an unexpected delight.  A young man is torn between following in the footsteps of his pretentious uncle into the fruit import trade or returning to the bosom of the family of his godfather, a truly terrifying bunch of outdoorsy religious nuts.  Along the way, he is irritated to have to stop listening to opera in order to lose his virginity to an older woman, and meets a free spirit who shows him a possible way out of his dilemma.  As ever in the Lost Book Library, the ending is a mess, and fan though I am of rambling, near-plotless post-war novels, the elements aren't ever set in motion in the way they should, and so a potential lost classic is instead an enjoyable curio.  Still, well a worth a read.

Dangler

Title: Dangler

Author: Charles Gaines

Year of publication: 1980

Inner cover blurb: 'In Dangler Charles Gaines has created a character as emblematic of America as Jay Gatsby.  On one level is is a carefully orchestrated - and often extremely funny - novel of manners and a cautionary tale of the dangers of male pride.  On another it is a superbly gripping adventure.
   A wealthy, boundlessly energetic autocrat who is unable to resist the most demanding tests of his physique and his courage, Kenneth Dangler builds a luxurious sporting centre in the wilderness of northern New Hampshire, through which he hopes to revive the lost spirit of frontier America in an age of cultural and physical decadence.  To the accompaniment of gourmet meals and daily stock exchange quotations, his clients pay exorbitant fees to take part in realistically staged outdoor adventures - shooting fearsome rapids in canoes mounted on rails, or grappling in the woods with a bear whose claws have been conveniently drawn.
   Dangler's effect on people is hypnotic.  His patrons are mesmerized by his enthusiasm, and flattered by his attentions.  His beautiful wife, Erica, has a craving for the dramatic and the terrifying, and together the Danglers form a magnificent, troubling image of all-American confidence and recklessness.
   As Dangler's obsession with the camp grows and his visions take shape, the simulated adventures become frighteningly real.  Play escalates into reality, until finally he leads his group into a climactic confrontation - a final test of manhood he has willed himself to face.'

Quick flick reveals: Cross between the Great American Novel and Westworld, as written by the inventor of Paintball (true fact).

Random paragraph: '"Have to see a fella about a dog," said Bigelow after another silence.  "You guys want to join me?  It's a beautiful night out there, and there won't be mnay more when we can walk outside together and take a leak."'

Purchase

A Chemical Romance

Title: A Chemical Romance

Author: Jenny Fabian

Year of publication: 1971, Corgi edition 1973

Back cover blurb: '"I think Jenny Fabian should be taken for what she is - a very clever girl who can actually write quite clever books about rather self-indulgent young people.  I hope this book is very successful.  I hope it shocks lots of people and sets the whole of the middle classes revolving in their tasteful graves."
   Jilly Cooper

"Fabian's portraits are lightning silhouettes cut by a master with a very sharp pair of scissors... everything is captured accurately in the black comedic outline."
   Time Out

"The new book is as revolting as the last one.  I didn't get beyond the first three pages but that probably means it's bound to be a best-seller."
   Over 21

"It permits a look into a world most of us don't know and feel secretly fascinated and horrified by.  We enjoy, through Jenny, illicit pleasure we would not dare enjoy ourselves."
   Liverpool Daily Post'

Quick flick reveals: Fabian is renowned for her first novel Groupie, a work that will always draw attention to itself as one of the characters is clearly based on Syd Barrett and offers a fictionalised, informed account of his breakdown.  Less well known are Fabian's follow-up novels.  I suspect this one might be a bit about taking drugs.  And sex with rock stars.

Random paragraph: '"I can't stand chicks with smelly cunts", he continued, "too many chicks have smelly cunts.  I like to go down on a chick, but I've got a very sensitive nose and can't stand the slightest odour.  You'd be surprised how many chicks have smelly cunts."'


Purchase

The Actress

Title: The Actress

Author: Henry Denker

Year of publication: 1978, WH Allen edition 1979

Inner cover blurb: Henry Denkler, author of The Physicians, The Experiment and The Scofield Diagnosis, has now written a new and irresistibly exciting novel, The Actress.

The actress is Kit Lawrence - one of the most talented stars the theatre has known.  She is beautiful, sensitive and possesses a magnetism and sexuality which drive men crazy.  But she is a patient in an expensive psychiatric hospital having suffered a mental breakdown after several suicide attempts and a self-inflicted abortion.  Kit, we learn, is the victim of an unhappy childhood and she is crying out for help.

The Actress is a gripping psychological drama of the attempt to bring Kit back to life by starring her in a play about her own life and problems - a play that will allow her to act out the innermost secrets and passions that have driven her to the brink of madness.  Rehearsals are going well, and Kit's performance is going to be brilliant, but why is she unable and unwilling to act out the last scene?

As the tension mounts, the reader will become absorbed in the characters as a real-life drama is acted out on-stage.  The ending is bound to touch the heart, too, as Henry Denkler skilfully portrays one woman's struggle to overcome emotional strife.

Quick flick reveals: Some serious melodramatic shlock.  There's a very particular craziness you get from male authors writing primarily for the women's fiction market, and this book looks like it has it in spades.

Random paragraph: 'Winging that whole scene, from the moment we caught her bare-breasted.  Covering up only when she saw me.  Making up so beautifully just to walk back to the hotel and go to bed alone.  If that's sick, I'd like to be sick."'

Purchase

Man In White

Title: Man In White

Author: Johnny Cash

Year of publication: 1986, Hodder and Staughton edition 1987

Back cover blurb: 'Once notorious for his wild living and then his dependence on drugs as he tried to cope with his rise to fame in the American music scene, Johnny Cash, the 'Man in Black', discovered he was persecuting his own body.
   Saul the Pharisee, expert in Jewish Law and bitter opponent of the 'followers of the Nazarene' discovered he was persecuting the body of Christ when he met the 'Man in White' on the Damascus Road.
  Cash sees himself mirrored in the apostle Paul: when he came off drugs, 'it was like a new birth, a new lease of life.  My mind was renewed... I was transformed and identified with the Apostle.'
   A decade's research into ancient Judaism and the New Testament resulted in this powerful novel - a testimony to Christ's changing power in St. Paul, and in Cash himself.'

Quick flick reveals: A novel by Cash is an exciting prospect, but this very much comes from the Bible-bashing, Holy Land-visiting, Billy Graham rally-attending side of the man that fans tend to keep quiet about.  Like Cash's lyrics, the prose is stripped down and to-the-point.  Just hoping it's closer to I Walk the Line than it is to Chicken in Black.

Random paragraph: 'He moved among the people with a loving, gentle grace.  He was followed by many little children, some of whom pulled at his robe.  He reached down and, smiling, picked up a boy in one arm and a girl in the other.  He held them close against his face, rubbing his coarse beard against them and leaving them laughing with merriment.'


Purchase

Punish Me With Kisses

Title: Punish Me With Kisses

Author: William Bayer

Year of publication: 1980, Severn House edition 1981

Inner cover blurb: '"Someone rushed from the poolhouse, then paused just in front.  Penny blinked and in that moment the figure disappeared into the shadows of the trees..."
   For Penny Berring that was also the moment that would change her life forever.  Obsessed by Suzie, her elder sister by three years, by Suzie's beauty and by her flamboyant sexuality, she had been an envious onlooker on her sister's insatiable love-life.  Now suddenly all that was over, for Suzie had gone - murdered, almost certainly by that dimly-seen figure at the pool side.
   But who had that been?  Who was the killer?  Jared Evans, dark-haired, sensitive, loved by Penny and by Suzie?  The dour gardener, Tucker, whose shears had been the instrument of death?  Or... someone else?
   As the novel draws us closer and closer to the truth, so it develops an increasingly profound insight into Penny's mind.  Fascinated, we watch her delve further into the mystery of her sister's death to find the murderer.  In doing so, she encounters a multitude of unsavoury scandals involving herself, her parents and her boyfriend.  Penny appears to crack under the strain, and seeks comfort from a sinister psychiatrist with a passion for cats.
   William Bayer's is an astonishing achievement - at one level dazzling entertainment, at another an illumination of the darker places of the soul.  A major success in the USA, this novel is stimulating and passionate.  Its descriptions of New York and its life are vivid and exciting; its conclusions eye-opening and convincing.'

Quick flick reveals: You had me at 'sinister psychiatrist with a passion for cats'.

Random paragraph: 'After Penny read this passage she felt filled with sadness and shame.  There were many pages like it, tales of orgies and self-debasements, scornful references to inadequate lovers, shrieks of discontent.  The diary upset her, but not because of sex.  It was the pathos of it, Suzie's misery, that filled with despair.'


Purchase