The Anthologist - Nicholson Baker

This is an extremely clever book, and for the most part it's a good read and a decent dose of what I sometimes like to call The Fun. The Anthologist by Nicolson Baker is a novel about a poet, Paul Chowder (which is a pretty awesome name), who is struggling to write an introduction to a poetry collection about the importance of rhyme. Paul is a little bit famous, and a lot lazy and as a narrator he provides an interesting, discursive history of his thinking about poetry and it's constituent parts. There are some really lovely moments in the book - the parts on baby talk, how iambic pentameter has a built in invisible rest, and the section where they go blueberry picking I really enjoyed and where of course, extremely 'poetic'. Baker has a lovely ambling style of writing as well and it was very pleasant spending time with his novel.

I am a bit worried that I enjoyed it because I’m so often immersed in lit theory as part of my job that I’ve become the sort of person who finds being lectured about the mechanics of poetic feet and rhyme for the length of an entire novel not only commonplace but insanely interesting when a dog or some blueberry-picking is added. This peculiarity in me as a reader aside, I'm sure many people will balk slightly, as I did, at the high-school flashbacks induced by much of the poetry talk. And there was definitely a feeling that oozed through the quieter moments of The Anthologist that the book was really an exercise in showing how clever and witty the writer is. Maybe I’m wrong, I kind of hope so – but intellectual snobbery, even in a book about an intellectual snob of a poet, is never alright with me.

So I know this review has a few mixed messages. It’s to be expected, I’m a Gemini. But it also can’t really be avoided - the book was both entertaining and painful, lyrical and preacherly, poetic and pedestrian. But I learnt stuff, and the writing itself, if you ignore the intellectual baggage, was undeniably well-crafted and engaging. Maybe someone else can make more sense of their feelings about The Anthologist.

***/***** (Three of Five Stars)

Down and Dirty - Sandra Hill

The thing is, I love vikings. Look here's some vikings now... what's not to like??


I also love time-travel. And romance books. And not only am I not ashamed, but I very strongly suspect a lot of people out there like any or all of these things too. So I cannot not do this reveiw. I couldn't live with myself if I didn't bring Down and Dirty to this blog. It's the fifth book by Sandra Hill that revolves around a family of vikings and a bunch of Navy SEALS. A very winning combination, as you can imagine.


This one was not my favourite of the series- that honour goes to the first one I read, though the third in this series Rough and Ready, because in that one the Navy SEALS (one of whom was already a time-travelling viking) accidently travel through a wormhole in time while on one of their missions and land in a viking women's sanctuary. HILARIOUS UNWASHED HIJINX ENSUE. Down and Dirty is pretty great too though, this time one of the warrior women from the sanctuary travels forward in time and becomes a Navy WHEAL (maybe it's too obvious if I tell you that that's the female equivalent of the SEAL) and finally gets it on with a SEAL hottie called Zach but known as Pretty Boy who was crushin on her back in the Norselands of her time. This should all be enough to convince you if you're ever going to be the sort to be convinced. They're really funny and the sex scenes aren't as stupid as a lot of romance books. Plus vikings and time-travel, there's something for everyone.

Here is the link to the author's website - she likes vikings too and I particularly like the way she names her books http://www.sandrahill.net/

***^/***** (3.5 stars)

Arthur & George - Julian Barnes

In my own mind this particular review has been too long anticipated. Mostly because I've taken way too long to read it - I read every single other book I've blogged about here since starting Arthur & George, (except The Life of Charlotte Bronte which I read while I was waiting for Mum was finish the Barnes book early this year). The other reason is that I've been talking about this book to any and everyone with ears since reading the first sentence. I've been a big fan of Julian Barnes' since I read A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters a couple of years ago and fell in love with his writing. Then I found England, England and a book of short stories The Lemon Table, while only a fraction of Barnes' very substantial literary output which fully I intend to read through one day, further solidified my barnacle-like attachment to his way of storytelling.



This book is going to receive my first five-star rating on this blog. Since we try and rate as fairly as possible, some of you may stop reading this review at this point and skip below to the Robert Downey Jr pictures. As long as you understand how great Arthur & George is and use the time saved by exiting at this early point to go out and find/read/love this book I will be satisfied. For those of you either harder to convince or who are so enamoured of my blogging that you hang on Every Word I Type, let's break this claim of extreme excellence down -

Arthur & George is based on the true story of the life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (I was sold on this book as soon as I realised that HE was the Arthur of the title) and a man called George Edalji. Sir Arthur is plagued by his most successful creation - Sherlock Holmes - and the fame the great detective has brought him.



George is a country solicitor who struggles to gain the respect of his colleagues and to gain an audience for his book about railway law. He's also been receiving some hate mail and the police don't like him very much. The two men's paths cross when George is arrested for a really horrible crime and Arthur decides to play the part of detective for real. It really was a landmark event for the English justice system as George's case, called the 'Great Wryly Outrages', became a catalyst for the establishment of the Court of Criminal Appeal in England. There's a lot more going on than a law case in Arthur & George, though that's what brings the titular characters together and changes both their lives. I loved the illumination of Arthur's growing interest in Spiritualism and George's struggle with his own Christian faith and the many other paralells and divergences of character between them - but I especially love the gentle touch of the writing that reveals without judgment the social experience of two men who were, for very different reasons, seen as different and seperate from those around them.

It's hard to convey without the same gifts for writing, the subtlety and humour of Barnes' language and the way he way he builds his extraordinary story - which feels more like looking through a wormhole in time that Being John Malkovich style puts you inside the character's brains than the result of really good scholarship. I don't want to say any more because Arthur & George is a a mysterious, cloudy jem of a book and I don't want to give any more of it away. I love this book. You should all read it. NOW.

*****/***** (5 of 5!)

Here's another picture of RDJ as Sherlock Holmes and his buddy Watson, played by Jude Law - just because I can. What a fine film it was.

The Green Dwarf, A Tale of the Perfect Tense - Charlotte Bronte

Guys, I seriously love this book. It's even better than the title suggests it could be and by gum does it suggest a lot.


It's a piece of Bronte juvenilia and it shows - everywhere the marks and illusions of the fictive worlds the Bronte siblings, and specifically in The Green Dwarf Branwell and Charlotte - created and inhabited in their youth.

It's kinda clunky in bits and the courtroom scene at the end is just odd, just as the resolution of the plot is definitely a bit deus ex machina-tastic, but the rawness of it is very engaging and I found myself entirely drawn in by the action and the romance-suspense-war narrative arc triumvirate. It was great to read this having already experienced the mature literary mastery of Charlotte Bronte in Jane Eyre, as in this so-early work I could really feel the full effect of her playfulness, charm and wit unencumbered by the writerly techniques and skills she developed later. I don't mean that to sound snotty or patronising - Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre are unquestionably brilliant and I love them hugely but there is definitely something very refreshing and not a little bit endearing in engaging with the cavalier and romantic world of a Bronte's comparatively happy childhood. Plus The Green Dwarf is hilarious and so ridiculous it's the least boring kind of Romanticism there is.

Not much more to say about this one except to recommend it highly if you want to experience a lot of Bronte in-jokes, some chivalry, some dastardliness, some mysterious cloaked strangers of varying heights, some stabbings, some smooching and some fun old times.

***^/***** (Three and a half stars)