2016 books: 10-12

[the_siobhan]

    

Sweet Narcissus by M.K. Larens I have no idea where this book came from. The main character is a 65 year-old English professor who sidelines as a writer of pulp mysteries. Thirty years earlier he was at a party where a man was murdered, now all of a sudden things start happening again and the case comes back to life. It's all very plummy and British and Agatha Christie-ish. Nice and light, which was just what I was looking for.

    

To Have And Have Not by Ernest Hemingway This has Toronto Public Library stamped all over it, so it must have come from one of their giveaway piles back in the day. I think of Hemingway as the anti-Anne Rice. The first time I read one of his books it was a revelation that writing could be so blunt and terse. Now I find the characters flat and the constant repetition of phrases boring. The plot consists of a series of events in the life of a man who runs liquor and people between Cuba and the Florida Keys. In the end I didn't feel enough connection to the main character to care what happened to him. Also, for a reader in 2016, all the racial epithets are really jarring.

    

Brighton Rock by Graham Greene Apparently I bought this in 1987. It's a murder mystery, but an odd one. The murderers are known right from the start - a small local gang from the mean streets of Brighton that is resisting being swallowed up or wiped out by the local mob. The investigator is a woman who meets the victim just before his death and decides to find out what really happened to him just because she believes it would be the right thing to do. Not a lot actually happens in the plot, it's more of a character study than a real mystery. I gotta say, reading all that thug life slang from the 1930's is hilarious

I am now officially taking a break from the "only read books that need to leave the house" project.

Many thanks to everybody who made recommendations. Because I am now embarking on a new project which will consist of two parts:

1. Read books by writers who I really really like so I can learn from their example.
2. Read books by writers who I think are absolutely terrible so I don't give up in despair at never being good enough.

Maybe I should ask for recommendations of terrible writers next.