New Website

I have recently made steps towards becoming a freelance editor and writer.
I have created a website for myself for this purpose and have moved this blog onto that website.
Therefore, all further posts will be posted on that website.

Follow this link to access the new website - do tell me what you think!

If you know of anyone in need of a freelance editor or writer, send them my way!

I will no longer be using this blogspot page so if you want to contact me, go via my website.

Thanks

BOOK: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Here is a fascinating book about art and language. This is the first Joyce novel I've read - well, I've dipped into Ulysses and Dubliners - and I will definitely be testing his other works in the future! (I'd like to try Finnegan's Wake).
The book's narration develops alongside the age and education of our protagonist, Stephen Dedalus. The book isn't about the story of Stephen, it's about the development of the character as a person - his religions, philosophical ideologies, his intellect, and the ways in which Stephen views the passing of every day life.
The novel begins like it is being told from the eyes of a toddler and quickly zooms through basic memories to Stephen's teenage years. As a teenager, Stephen revels in life, breaking all manner of Catholic moral rules. His sins grow and grow and eventually Stephen cowers under the might of his God and turns to repentance. The last chapter develops his ideals and turns him away from religion.
The novel is an experiment in the development of character, his good and bad sides painted onto the way the novel is written. Written in five acts, it really is like a portrait, only in novel form.

BOOK: Catch 22 by Joseph Heller

What a roller coaster of madness!

The story of the book is about a soldier in the second world war, Yossarian, who constantly strives to get himself out of the air force. He will do anything to stop being a pilot as he is terrified of flying missions - his role is to drop bombs from a plane (with a team) and try his hardest to get out of the artillery gun fire sent from below without dying, or having any of his men die. You can understand, then, why he wants out. We see many of the horrific situations he has been in during missions, and numerous characters die throughout.

But that makes the book sound simple! Oh no. 

There are about 50 different characters, all with their own eccentricities and bits of madness, all of which are complex, fascinating people, and all of which have aspects to commend and aspects to condemn. They are all normal people who have been put through, and exist in, very abnormal circumstances which slowly drive them insane. 

The plot doesn't follow a structure. After reading it, you could sit down and work out the exact order of events if you wanted, though that wouldn't add much to the book, if I'm honest. The unstructured, chaotic jumping from one memory to another adds to the madness of the whole thing. 

I found it difficult to read, at first, because the style of this book is like nothing you will ever have read before. You get to the middle of the book and it gets good. You get to the end, and it is BRILLIANT and you want to re-read the beginning because now you understand it.

It's confusing, it's intelligent, it's witty, it's horrific, it's nasty, it's sad, it's hilarious, it's mad - and it can do all these things in one paragraph.

Every sentence is there for a reason. 

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If you're interested in the English Language and the way it works, read this book. If you want to look into the English Language and the way it works, read this book.

I don't recommend it to anyone who reads just for the sake of plot and action. This is a deeply intelligent, insightful book about madness and language and, I think, requires a philosophical frame of mind to understand it.

It is framed around the notion of 'catch 22': "a dilemma or difficult circumstance from which there is no escape because of mutually conflicting or dependent conditions."

Example:

Yossarian wishes to stop flying missions.

If you are crazy, you are allowed to stop flying missions.

Yossarian wishes to have it noted that he is crazy so that he can stop flying missions.

However, crazy people are crazy enough to want to fly missions.

If Yossarian is not crazy, he must continue flying missions. 

If Yossarian really is crazy, he would want to fly the missions.

Yossarian does not want to fly the missions, so he must not be crazy, and so, he must fly the missions.

Thus, either way, he must fly the missions.

Catch 22.

Book: Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

Short and simple (much like this post), but brilliantly written. I read this cover to cover on a 3 hour train journey.
I think if I hadn't known the oh-so-famous twist it would have been more interesting - I suppose the phenomenon of double personality disorder was less known when this was written, hence the fictional, fantastical exploration of insanity in this book.
I loved the sinister description of Mr Hyde, and the magic elements of chemistry experiments. It's very much about the magic-like qualities of the basic elements of nature; scientific elements mirroring the basic elements of human nature.
When I say 'magic', I don't refer to the magic we see in Harry Potter or Narnia; it's more a darker, sinister, unnatural phenomena.
It's brilliant for a 'classic literature' fix, especially when you have got the strength/time/energy to make your way through the significantly heavier books of this sort, eg Dickens, Hardy etc.

I hadn't read anything by Robert Louis Stevenson before, but I'll be adding some of his to my mile long reading list...

This is another tick on my reading challenge!

BOOK: Exodus by Julie Bertagna

The first time I read this, I must have been about ten years old. My mum's old friend use to give me books every birthday - this was one the first he gave directly to me (as opposed to mum, who would read them to us).

Having never read anything like it before in it's style or genre, I was blown away. I fell into it's world like it was my own secret place that no one else knew about. It influenced my writing and my thoughts so much that I started reading bigger, more difficult books, turning away from books by Jacqueline Wilson and Enid Blyton.

I recently re-read this book for the fourth time. I acknowledge now that the writing is not spectacular - it's one of those books that makes less and less sense as the plot fills with action - the surroundings aren't described enough so you don't quite understand how some things come about. There's also a very hurried love affair that doesn't quite click with the reader.

Reading Challenge 2017

12 novels in total...

A book published this year

Carve the Mark by Veronica Roth

A book I can finish in a day

The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde

A book I've been meaning to read

Green Hills of Africa by Ernest Hemmingway

A book recommended by local librarian/bookseller

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

A book I should have finished in school

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce

A book chosen by partner

Catch 22 by Joseph Heller (Reading)