Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.
Well have finished three books today clearly my reading habits are following the bus principle of finishing more than one on the same day after a wait.
Let's start with I Think Therefore I Play, the autobiography of Italian footballing legend Andrea Pirlo. I say "autobiography" because that's how it seemed to have started.
However a few chapters in I get confused. The timeline makes no sense to me whatsoever. Only as I go into this book deeper does it suddenly make sense. It's a collection of essays with biographical anecdotes and opinions put on them. So for example he could chat about referees, racism or playing for Italy.
Once you understand that the book is readable. Although a rough knowledge of his career would help the unwary.
Alan Coren's Toujours Cricklewood was a welcome reminder of the amiable man who would always be your friend even though you never knew him. Every piece was a comic gem that left a smile on my face.
For the moment I'm going to fire up the Kindle and use that when waiting fore people in the car.....until the copy of the third book in the trilogy, The Cricklewood Tapestry arrives.
Michael Palin has done something rare in my experience. Not since Kingsley Amis has my opinion of a writer changed radically from one book to the next. From the disappointment of volume two of these diaries to my admiration for Hemingway's Chair, his 1995 "comic" novel.
It's the story of Martin Sproale. assistant postmaster in a small town and Hemingway addict, when he faces "progress" in the form of the new postmaster of the Post Office. Written when the Post Office and the Royal Mail was one organisation (though he does predict the privatised spilt) Palin cleverly shows the slow but insidious effects on an organisation when it's taken over by people know the price of everything and the value of nothing. The sort of people who are obsessed by efficiency savings , branding and gloss but at the same time ignoring what made the organisation respected in the first place and not caring about its effects
(Now of course there is a lot more to the plot than that but I try my best not to spoil things for the new reader)
The thing is if you work/worked in the Post Office and remember how things were you will get bittersweet reading this. You might even shed a tear at memories of things past.
It's the sort of book that I've always admired. Something to say about Britain today (even though it was written over twenty years ago) but done in a way that could appeal to everyone who read it whatever their background. Reminded me of Sue Townsend in that regard.
There are a few similarities between what happens to the Post Office in the novel and the one in Bridgend Town (though not to spoil things I'm not going to list them - just understand that you cannot assume that when I'm talking about some similarities I'm implying everything). I was tempted to send my copy to them but then saw sense. It would have been an action at best pointless and at worse patronising and condescending. Still it made the book even more topical to me than it was already.
It has an all too human hero, it has villains and it has Hemingway (though don't let that put you off. You can enjoy this even if you've never heard/read of him before).
If you can get your hands on this do so. You won't regret it.
The next book on the pile of the great unread is this:
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| Dave Edmonds & John Eidinow - Bobby Fischer Goes To War |
This is the account of the chess world championship series between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky. The only chess match ever that could justifiably be described as legendary. Should be interesting.
Until the next time.
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