On Books: How Theo Is Now Terminated And How Engels Is Relevant Today

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

The question I know you've been asking on Friday evening is this. If you have to pick some writings to put in a collection from a writer famous in his/her time but now forgotten how would you go about it?

Well if the collection of Theodore Dreiser is anything to go by what you do is to put the best book by a EU twenty seven country mile (kilometre if you wish but the joke is not so good) Sister Carrie first. You put the second best book (Jennie Galbraith) next. And after that throw in potboliery twaddle like Titan or The Genius. Or dull work like Twelve Men or the short stories.

And that's it. Job done.

Truly Sister Carrie aside the only real pleasure I had in this collection was it's ending.

The next book was The Condition Of The Working Class in England in 1844 by Friedrich Engels. Whilst Freddie may not be the possessor of the ability to produce sassy titles. This book is relevant today.

I won't go into much detail. That would be a political spoiler. But when you read it things will begin to unnerve you. Because the Britain it describes then is not far removed from the Britain of today. For the poorest amongst us it's already there. For most working class families it's not a few steps away and even for most middle class families sudden bad luck would make it closer than they would believe.

You think that it's fanciful? The welfare state and the NHS are the two tangible things that are different from the Victorian era. And they are the two things the Conservatives are chipping away from the fabric of British society.

I'll give one example. Employers were complaining about laws to limit the working day to ten hours. Ten hours!

So whilst you shouldn't expect a rip roaring read. Don't avoid this book. For you might find that you'll experience the Victorian Britain it describes in your future.

The next book is Victorian Short Stories: Stories of Successful marriages. I'm expecting that the title is deceptive given that the author is Elizabeth Gaskell of North and South fame.

We shall see.

Until the next time.

The Businessman As God In Fiction

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Have finished Titan by Theodore Dreiser and I didn't like it. Though readable, (yes Theo  still knows how to make you swipe the page) it was disappointingly predictable. Young Carrie it isn't. If we're taking score of those I liked and disliked then the football match from this ebook omnibus is currently 2-2.

I had thought that the next book was going to be the third in the trilogy but no, instead it's going to be his novel The Genius. Hope I'll like it.

But reading Titan (published I should say in 1914) made me realise about the portrayal of businessmen in fiction as a certain type of propaganda for hard right no holds barred capitalism. So perhaps we should chat about it further.

The characteristics of the businessman (and let's be clear about this it's about men here) are as follows:

1) The man is a business genius. Thing is in real life few businesses become instant hits. Instead they grow organically. Yet in this fiction everything the businessman touches turns to gold. The only problems occur  through the unforeseen or the malevolent actions of others.

This leads us to:

2) Attitude of Other Men: Men either hate him or wish they were him to the point of worship. As for women.....

3) Attitude of women: Because you're a businessman women will automatically fall in love with you. You have the pick of all the women you want. No matter how badly you treat them when you go to your next conquest they will think of you even if they're with another man.

Of course the reality here is different. If you looked at the pictures of the major directors of the collapsed company Carillion. What you saw (presumably taken out of the annual report) was the faces of fat smug suited older men. I would doubt that the platoon of women that fiction suggests would flock to these individuals would occur in reality. Even before the bankruptcy.

4) Blackmail and Bribery is OK: What does it matter if they are crimes? Grease the wheels for business that's all that matters. Punishment is for the lower orders.

If you want a more realistic and sympathetic portrayal of a businessman (though in this case more of a manager). I would suggest Nice work by David Lodge. It shows a good man trying to do his best. I would recommend it.

Until the next time.

In Which Theodore Entertains But Ultimately Disappoints

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Being in my Essex exile looking after my mother means that there are periods where I have nothing to do but of course restricted as to what I can do. Which means that reading is one of those things that passes the time.

So a few days back I mentioned that I was reading Theodore Dreiser's 1912 novel The Financier and today, whilst my mother was asleep,I finished it off.

The book chronicles part of the life of Frank Cowperwood, the financier of the title. There are various problems with it but let me explain one thing. It is readable. When you're in the position of having to constantly look at someone to make sure they're OK and yet still find yourself in 19th century Philadelphia with no difficulty then that is the mark of a storyteller.

However there are problems. The relationship between men and women which is complex in Young Carrie or Jennie Gerhardt is much more simplistic and traditional here. It also in passing suggests an unacceptable view of African Americans. I'm not clear here whether it's the author's personal views or that of his character, but it's still unacceptable.

The central character is the sort of J R type figure that we have read or seen time after time after time again. And the trouble with it is that leaving aside your political objections for a moment you know that no matter how objectionable the character is. The author admires him. And I'm afraid Theo falls into that category.

And for the reader the other real objection to this book is this. The ending is rushed. It just has the feeling of knots having been tied.

It's as if Theo couldn't be bothered. He just wanted to move on to the second book in the trilogy The Titan, which is the book I'm reading now. The title alone gives me too much of an idea as to what I'm reading.

I hope I'm wrong.

Until the next time.

Theodore Dreiser: A Mystery Writer Of Sorts

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

For every reader there comes a book which, though not the best one you've ever read, or you'd bypass instantly in picking that certain something for a long stay in a desert island that nonetheless surprised you during the process of reading. Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser (published in 1900) was that sort of book.

Let me give you one part of the plot only. The beginning. Carrie of the title is a young woman who moves from small town America to Chicago.

Now the point is this. you as the reader is led to a certain mindset. And you go along with it, until something happens which makes you wonder whether you've approached the book correctly. But, and this is the skill, Dreiser does not as you go through the book say that you're wrong. Oh no what he says is that you might be wrong.

And that, I'd suggest is the sign of a writer who knows how to handle the plot. Because you as the reader has to continue reading to find out.

Not just plot mind you. Character as well. Your loyalties as a reader ebb and flow and ebb again. I would challenge anybody reading this book to honestly say that their view of any person is consistent from when they started to when it finished.

Relationships too. For the time they are written they are a mixture of their time or surprisingly modern to 2018 readers. As for his views of men and women whilst I wouldn't call him a feminist the position of men and women are not as clear as they first appear.

And like the plot itself the mystery is knowing whether or not you're initial judgement was right.

The novel was from a collection. The next one in that collection was Jennie Gerhardt. A book published in 1911.It has to be said that if you read Young Carrie then then there are less shocks here. But it's not without surprises.

So the next book in the collection is The Financier  a 1912 novel. We'll see if Dreiser is still a mystery at the end of it.

Until the next time.

On Books and Football : Talking About True Legend Brian Clough

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Well as my mother is getting better there are less things that I have to do as nursemaid. What this means is that for the first time in a week and a half  I've had time to concentrate on reading.

So let's go to an ebook I'd actually finished Letters On Sweden,Norway and Denmark by Mary Wollstonecraft. There is a mystery about this book to me. Wikipedia stated that it was written by Mary Shelley. However the introduction suggested that it was in fact her mother.

I don't have the time or inclination to check. Personally I'm hoping that it was her writer who wrote this. If only because it was a dull read.

Dull though is a description that I wouldn't give to the next ebook that I've read Cloughie: Walking On Water:My Life.

For those of you too young to remember Brian Clough was a legendary (when the word meant something and wasn't used to describe chicken burger) manager of the seventies and eighties. Taking two unfashionable teams Derby County and Nottingham Forest to League and (with regard to Forest) European glory.

This book, published in 2002 and ghost written by John Sadler is an autobiography of this larger than life man.

Since I've started this blog I've read three books by football managers before this one. There was the amiable tome by current Cardiff City manager Neil Warnock, the stunningly badly written Sam Allardyce biography and the weird biography cum business management book by Carlo Ancelotti.

This book is not only better than those. It's one of  the best football manager autobiography I've ever read. On a par with John Lyall's Just Like My Dreams.

The start is the key. Clough is in hospital awaiting a liver transplant due to his alcoholism. He has left Nottingham Forest following relegation. As you read it there is a sense of a man knowng that time is not on his side. The brash Brian of legend is replaced by a more reflective one. Never for example have I read an autobiography where a manager acknowledges that he was partly (because of the effects of the alcoholism) responsible for a team's relegation. He also speaks about his love of the drink and his regret about his feud with former assistant Peter Taylor and later how he handled Justin Fashanu

(And yes I forgive him for his remarks on blog hero Trevor Brooking. After all Trev answered him on the pitch)

Throughout he is not afraid to mention his failures as well as his successes.

What it reminded me of was Johnny Cash's last song Hurt. A dying genius looking back on his life.

It is a biography but it's a credit to Clough and John Sadler that rt reads as if he's chatting to you. He will speak about a subject meander and then go back to the main subject of the chapter. And you know what? It works.

Of the three books I mentioned earlier, it puts to shame the Carlo Ancelotti bio/business thing. Clough's style would not have been approved by Carlo. But we know who, given the resources at his disposal has achieved more.

Possibly if you're too young to remember him then this biography may be a difficult to understand. for those of us old enough though it's a worthwhile read of a true legend.

It will make you sad. It will make you wistful. It will make you smile as you remember him.

The next ebook is Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser.

Until the next time.

On A Short Trip Through A Town Called Barry And The E Book Buying Game (June Edition)

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Well yesterday I visited Barry Town properly. It wasn't one of the great treks of the world. A ten minute walk from where I'm currently living. And I couldn't do a proper wander either, basically because I had my daughter with me who'd done the walk with my wife on Tuesday when I was at work (that's right the sisters beat me to it) and didn't want to go around again when there was the internet to entertain her. Still at least I did go and will do a proper lookaround when there isn't a teenager by my side.

Barry Town for the uninitiated is not to be linked with the nearby funfair/amusements that is Barry Island in terms of how you should view it. This is a town for the inhabitants and judged on first viewing it seemed to make it clear that's what it wanted to be. There was nothing that suggested seaside jollity's. To me that was a good thing.

(Barry Island is to come. Weather permitting I'm planning to go with wife/daughter on my next day off Sunday).

And if there is one place I'm definitely going to investigate further in the future.

Always judge a place by its library

Now this is not just where the central library is. It has an art gallery as well. But the key point is that the Barry Town library is in in the Town Centre. Bridgend Council please note.

In terms of shops the town centre appeared to be a line of outlets. On an admittedly cursory look it didn't appear to suffer the considerable closures suffered by Bridgend town centre. Wife/daughter did say to me that they thought that Barry Town was better than Bridgend Town and that is what it appeared to me as well. In fact I cannot think of any town centre worse that I've been to in Wales than Bridgend Town and here is just another example to compare it by.

All in all this was a good first trip. More in depth (ie teenage daughterless) wanderings to follow.

A Town Called Barry

And so to the temporary series (until we move in to a new house) ebook buying game. The rules are these. Armed with £5 and whatever loose change I try to buy as many ebooks on my Kindle (other ereaders are available) starting with the Daily Deals and from those purchases see what type of books it tries to offer me from then on. The key thing to remember is that it has to appeal and that it's as cheap as possible.

This month's monthly total (with the carry over change from last month) is £5.22.

Nothing from the Daily Deals interested me. ("Social Media Marketing Tips?" It's title alone would induce me to sleep). So I move on to the Monthly Deals. There I see Mad Girl by Bryony Gordon a book which is subtitled "a happy life with mental illness". I seem to vaguely remember a radio interview she did on this. It seems interesting. 99p. Bought.

Nothing on the books recommended from buying Mad Girl interested me. So I went to the next row. Books recommended for me based on "Literature and Fiction". The first one on the row is "Single and Single" by John Le Carre. 99p. Bought.

Again nothing recommended from buying the John Le Carre interested me. So back to those recommendations based on what I bought in Litrature and Fiction. There's a complete collection of books by the American writer Theodore Dreiser. 92p. Absolute bargain. Bought.

Looking at the list then there is another collected works of Willa Cather for just 49p. 49p!! Needless to say bought.

It leads me to another collected works. This time by Edith Wharton. Another author I've wanted to read but life never got me round to doing it. This time though chance comes my way. 91p. Bought.

The next compilation is of Nicholas Gogol. 49p again. Yes of course I bought it.

Finally the main author bought when I played this game last month was Michael Connelly. Book 3 in the Harry Bosch series The Concrete Blonde is available for 99p. As I already got books 1 and 2 this was a must. Bought.

So 35p is carried forward to next month. Not only that but I've bought some female writers which I didn't last time. So pleased with that.

Until the next time.