What I've been reading

Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within
by Natalie Goldberg

"Writing practice, as she calls it, is no different from other forms of Zen practice — it is backed by two thousand years of studying the mind."

This is the book recommended to me by the writer I met at the Buddhist weekend. It is clear why she puts it at the top of her list - it sets writing in the context of Buddhism, which is not quite where I see it. Still, there are some interesting ideas, although it does feel a little like procrastination to read about writing rather than just getting on with it. But I don't yet know what I want to write, and I've only recently made time for daily meditation, so I'm not sure where the time will come from for writing as well.

Breakfast at Tiffany's
by Truman Capote

"With her tousled blond hair and upturned nose, dark glasses and chic black dresses, she is top notch in style and a sensation wherever she goes. Yet Holly never loses sight of her ultimate goal - to find a real life place like Tiffany's that makes her feel at home."

This little book actually contains three other short stories alongside the titular one, which only slightly resembles the Hollywood movie. He can certainly write well, and I am intrigued at the subjects he chooses. I suspect there is an element of autobiography, but the one about the prison break - surely that is imagined?

A Prayer for Owen Meany
by John Irving

narrated by Joe Barrett

"In the summer of 1953, two 11-year-old boys — best friends — are playing in a Little League baseball game in Gravesend, New Hampshire. One of the boys hits a foul ball that kills the other boy's mother."

I enjoyed this book very much. I've got a feeling I once tried to read it before, but Owen Meany's dialogue is set in capitals and I couldn't get on with it, whereas when narrated it is much easier to deal with. I have been paying more attention to how different authors write ever since I started thinking more about writing something more substantial than a blog. In this book he does a really good job of skipping back and forth in time without you losing a sense of where you are or what has already happened and what is still to come.

Cakes and Ale
by W. Somerset Maugham

narrated by James Saxon

"Social climber Alroy Kear is flattered when he is selected by Edward Driffield's wife to pen the official biography of her novelist husband, and determined to write a bestseller. But then Kear discovers the great novelist's voluptuous muse (and unlikely first wife), Rosie."

Without doing it intentionally, this is the second fictional book about writers and their writing that I've read recently - the first being Capote's above, and the third is Byatt's below. I can't say it engaged me very much. It was set firmly in the Victorian era when pony and trap was giving way to the motor car, and society seemed to be rapidly changing its views on marriage, divorce and unmarried love. Apparently the author was proud of this work, which has an autobiographical component, but he doesn't present me with a heart-warming tale. Not all stories are happy and positive, but I prefer the ones that are.

A Far Cry From Kensington
by Muriel Spark

narrated by Juliet Stevenson

"In postwar London, as a fat and much admired young war widow, Mrs Hawkins spent her days working for a mad, near-bankrupt publisher and her nights dispensing advice at her small South Kensington rooming house. At work and at home Mrs. Hawkins soon uncovered evil: shady literary doings and a deadly enemy; anonymous letters, blackmail, and suicide."

An OK book with a good enough plot, spoiled slightly by the running theme of the narrator's dislike of one of the characters. He does turn out to be a thoroughly bad sort, but the author doesn't really take this where I felt it needed to go. But she does write well most of the time, and you can't fault the gorgeous narration.

Possession
by A. S. Byatt

"Together with Roland Michell, a fellow academic and accidental sleuth, Maud Bailey discovers a love affair between the two Victorian writers the pair has dedicated their lives to studying: Randolph Ash, a literary great long assumed to be a devoted and faithful husband, and Christabel La Motte, a lesser-known 'fairy poetess' and chaste spinster."

So this is a Booker prizewinning book, and if it were a pie I would describe it as having a good deal of indigestible gristle among the meat. I'm not fond of poetry, so perhaps a book focussing on two Victorian poets wasn't the best choice, but I chewed my way through the poetry nevertheless. There was nothing wrong with the plot in between the interminable verses, but I can imagine using the same plot in a much more entertaining book about two architects, or two cleaners, and finding that much more palatable.

The Daughter of Time
by Josephine Tey

narrated by Derek Jacobi

"The search for the truth about the murder of the Princes in the Tower. Was the hunchback, Richard III, the monster that Shakespeare and the history books have made him out to be?"

It was my fault that I didn't get much out of this book, because I don't have the background knowledge of the personalities of the time. If I were a history nut who knew all the characters and their relationships I'm sure this would be fascinating - as it was, it was quite a slog. The answer, of course, is that Richard III wasn't the monster, it was probably Henry VII. So now you know.