My screen came with Pivot Pro bundled, it has to be said, but the screen itself was an upgrade from the standard one that came with the computer. I didn't know Mac screens did pivot - it doesn't seem to be something as many people want as I'd expect. It's rather nice for web-browsing too - less scrolling up and down.

Emma

Haven't read Ukrainian Tractors. It looks great, though

I found it very tedious, with a few laughs, the odd insight, and generally wished I hadn't bothered. Not my cup of tea.

People I know with Eastern European relatives have spoken highly of the realism, but very few seem to think it's as roaringly funny as the cover suggests.

Personally I found the phrase "crap car" going round and round my head in the small hours when I was trying to sleep.

Deb

My screen came with Pivot Pro bundled, it has to be said, but the screen itself was an upgrade from the standard one that came with the computer. I didn't know Mac screens did pivot - it doesn't seem to be something as many people want as I'd expect. It's rather nice for web-browsing too - less scrolling up and down.

I use a Mac Mini (the ones that look like a silver sandwich box) with a generic TFT screen plugged into it. I can highly recommend not having a great big system unit taking up desk or floor space. The TFT screen pivots, but didn't come with any special software, unfortunately.

Debac, I'll push Ukrainian tractors to the back of the queue then!

You see, you put your finger on my problem - I can't stand shopping, shoes and all things girlie.

But that's the beauty of it, Snowbell: you don't need to, no more than you have to be a horticulture enthusiast and pig-breeding expert to enjoy the Blandings stories

Griff, you could always slip a Crime and Punishment dustjacket over the pink cover...

PS: "wearing your eyes out by the age of twelve" - probably derived from the fine work that children were employed to do before the Victorian child labour laws - like sewing tiny stitches in embroidered clothes, which ruined their eyesight at an early age.
Presumably it was believed that staring at small lettering in a book would do the same thing.

Griff, you could always slip a Crime and Punishment dustjacket over the pink cover...

"There was this really weird guy on the train this morning. He was reading Crime And Punishment... but he kept laughing..."

Oh I disagree about Ukrainian Tractors. I liked its irreverence. And the character of the father who was annoying and moving in equal measure. I'm not sure it was trying to be uproariously funny anyway - and certainly not the whole way through. Although I did think it was funny.

<Added>

The political stances of the sisters nicely explored too.

Hey Emma, the US cover is a little more racy, eh?

JB

JB, it is, isn't. My agent was very surprised, given how much more prudish the Yanks usually are than us, about public things at least. 'But,' she said, 'Make no mistake, that's a selling cover.'

Saying 'a novel' makes me laugh too - talk about stating the obvious!

Yes, I liked Tractors very much.

Emma

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The other thing that makes me laugh about the cover is that Morrow started by saying, 'We like the Headline cover but we don't love it, so I hope you don't mind if we have a go ourselves' (My editor is very gently-spoken) and then came up with something awfully similar!

"There was this really weird guy on the train this morning. He was reading Crime And Punishment... but he kept laughing..."

It wasn't me, honest. Though I do think C&P has some darkly comic moments.

"There was this really weird guy on the train this morning. He was reading Crime And Punishment... but he kept laughing..."

It wasn't me, honest. Though I do think C&P has some darkly comic moments.


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Why did that post twice? I hate it when that happens.

Yes, Emma, I never get that 'a novel' title either. I mean, mine's supposed to say 'A love story' or like the novel Perfume 'The story of a murderer', and I think their fine really. But 'a novel' I suppose is just to help the Americans realise it isn't a brick, or a pie, or something like that.

JB

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their fine? Jesus! Call myself a writer!

Literary fiction respects its place in relation to culture and cultural history as well as the genre it is written in, which could be, for example, sex and shopping.

So-called literary fiction is any fiction that makes and expects connections and interconnectedness from its subject. It's a really thorough working through of a subject, sometimes beyone a genre.

The connections don't have to be from the canon of arts and literature, they can just as easily come from a protaganist who knows nothing but is determined to find out or discover something, a protaganist who is aware and creates their own sense of place, value and worth.

What this means to me is that when it works it attempts to create a subject, a setting, a context and a narrative that, while using the form of a genre, leaves you feeling completely 'literified' which means determined to do something worthhwhile with your life......

Emma, maybe they added 'A Novel' in case anyone thought it was a text book!

The same thing happened to me with the American edition, which became 'A Novel'. In the UK it had been 'A St Petersburg Mystery', which was my subtitle to signal the setting, and to indicate the kind of book it was. The US editor said they did not want it to be received as genre fiction. I'm embarrassed to say it, but 'A Novel' is intended to assert literary credentials. Their idea, not mine. And it's purely to do with marketing and getting reviews, apparently. they tell me a crime book in the States will not get reviewed. A literary novel will.

But in the UK they very much wanted it to be perceived as crime fiction - 'That's how it will get noticed' said my editor. It comes down to marketing. Same book, different genres in different countries.

Yes, that makes sense. Isn't it all odd? There's a completely different set of messages that go out to reviewers and book trade customers, that are almost invisible to readers, it seems.

TMOL US-style also has its fore-edges rough-cut, to make it look old-fashionedly literary I think. I rather like it, but it's less than convincing because the top and bottom edges are as crisply machine-cut as ever!

Emma

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A propos A/The Gentle Axe, it occurs to me that 'mystery' is a much more exact genre term in the US - it's what they call a detective story, I think. So maybe it would be too much pigeonholed over there if it had its proper subtitle. To us, I'd say, 'mystery' has a more general, descriptive feel.