You know, that would make a good exercise -- shifting among various POVs within a short piece so that it works. Anyone want to have a go? Say 500 words and 3 POVs??? :-)

anis - Will tell you about Frank Waters tomorrow - now I'm off to the POetry Cafe!!!!


Mike

Well, didn't make it to the PC, but, at least I can keep one promise..............
Frank Waters was an anglo-American, who was fascinated from youth by the Native American way of life; he ended up devoting the whole of his own life to living with and describing the lives of several different Nations. He would spend many years with each group, being thoroughly assimilated, and produce insider descriptions of their ways and beliefs. Pueblo, Cheyenne, Navajo and Sioux were some of the groups he lived with and wrote about. I especially recommend the two I mentioned previously - The Man Who Killed The Deer and The Woman At Otowai Crossing. You should find them quite easily at abebooks. And, there's a very good book of articles and interviews called, Frank Waters: Man and Mystic.


Mike

Thanks for that, Mike. This is the kind of stuff I love!

Off to Amazon and wish list. -- I keep track of everything I want with my Amazon wish list, though it has become VERY unwieldy. Whatever. I deal with it somehow! ;-)

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Ah, Vine Deloria wrote Frank Eaters: Man and Mystics. He also wrote Red Earth, White Lies - was very controversial, and I LOVE the thinking, breaking out of the accepted, rigid ideas about what constitutes knowledge.

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Waters (!)

anis - Red Earth, White Lies is a magnificent book, indeed. Just the way he addresses the Western apropriation of history is superb.

Mike

anis - a couple more for you: The Blackwell Companion to American Indian History and In The Hands Of The Great Spirit, which covers about 20,000 years of indiginous occupation of America.

Best,


Mike

Currently reading Baby Bliss. A insightful guide, on how to prevent baby's from crying. A must read, for all new parents.

I've just read the most fantastic book by an author I didn't previously know - it was called The Last Crossing by Guy Vanderhague. He's Canadian, apparently. It's all set in the Wild West and has some of the most beautiful, evocative writing I've come across for ages. Was one of those books, though, that makes me come over all 'OH MY GOD, what do I think I'm doing, trying to write anything ever.'
Does anyone else ever feel like that when they read something brilliant?
Another one like that recently was Revolutionary Road, by Richard Yates...fabulous, fabulous book.

I just finished Electric Michelangelo, which I have very mixed feelings about, and have started Alessandro Boffa's You're An Animal, Viskowitz{/i} which I am already in love with - I'll look for more of his work for sure.

Anyone here read Victor Pelevin's work? I've read Life of Insects - adored it (the You're a...Viskowitz book above reminded me of Pelevin, that's the link, really!) and I have another, Babylon is in the title, haven't begun it yet, but hope it will match the promise of Insects.

Ah, books....

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Oh well, that didn't work. Ignore the formatting if you can, people!

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Let's end this italics stuff Is it gone yet?

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Good!

Has anyone read Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell? It's a huge book by first-time novelist Susannah Clarke - took her 10 years to write. I really recommend it, a great read. Was given it as a birthday present, otherwise I'd have been deterred from reading it by the length - but I couldn't put it down (sore wrists!).

Frances

Well, I’ve just had to go and order it now, haven’t I?

I’m coming to the end of Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. I bought it because he judged the latest Fish novel competition in which two WW members were short-listed. The book is strange and utterly compelling. I feel like I’m losing my grip on reality while I’m reading it but, as I say, it’s compelling.

Dee

Dee, I keep picking up Cloud Atlas and then being daunted by the complexity of the plotting (which I've read about elsewhere). Don't mind complex as long as it's compelling.........would you say it was fairly readable?

I absolutely LOVED Cloud Atlas. I lead the intro on it tonight for my book club - I thought I'd write up my comments for a review afterward.

Some questions I am raising are about the structure. I love the structure, but would like to see what the others think about it's justification. I do see it as justified for a number of reasons - I think that it enhances each component story, plus it's very postmodernist - a pastiche, and as such superficial - except the novel as a whole is NOT superficial and it makes its comments through through the interrelated whole. I think it's about interrelatedness and knock-on effects, how our actions reverberate through time.

I think it's a masterpiece. Still thinking anout it several months after reading it. (Well, I have to because of the book club, but I think I would have done so anyway.)

Ani

ps - excuse me if any typos - must run to book group!

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its justification - can't believe I wrote 'it's'!!!

Caroline, I know you were asking Dee, but I found it highly readable. I could not put it down (hate that 'unputdownable' word - yerch!)

xx

Ani

Oh, thanks - I somehow missed your comment about it last time!

Yes, I hate that word too, but it's so damn useful, isn't it! If I see a book cover with the review 'this manages to achieve that rare thing of being literary AND unputdownable' I swoop on it like an owl seeing a mouse! It gets me every time.....