kerble wrote:

sparky wrote:

rachael wrote:Just finished Oryx & Crake - Margaret Atwood, and I'm getting ready to read Robber Bride. Anyone?

Every time I read one of her books I always end up reading another one right away. Her writing is addictive.

I've read The Blind Assassin, which I loved. The ending made me feel very soppy in a dark sort of way.

I have a big problem with Blind Assassin. I've tried to read it four times and I just get bored after about page 75, even though I don't find the story matter boring at all. Maybe it's something to do with the pacing of the interconnected stories.

is there any reason at all I should try again? I spent several years reading through Booker Prize books (I think I've read maybe 10 and have at least six more on my shelf), but this is the only one I can't get into, let alone not finish.


if I may inquire, what's appealling about it (without divulging too much of the plot)?

This one I haven't read, so I can't help. Her novel Cat's Eye is one of my favorite books ever, so much that I've read it 3 times. Maybe you should try a different novel of hers?

Does anyone like James Branch Cabell? I am a huge fan...

kerble wrote:I have a big problem with Blind Assassin. I've tried to read it four times and I just get bored after about page 75, even though I don't find the story matter boring at all. Maybe it's something to do with the pacing of the interconnected stories.

is there any reason at all I should try again? I spent several years reading through Booker Prize books (I think I've read maybe 10 and have at least six more on my shelf), but this is the only one I can't get into, let alone not finish.


if I may inquire, what's appealling about it (without divulging too much of the plot)?

Weirdly enough, I think that it is only Booker winner that I have read (apart from a Coetzee novel).

It may have been the way I read it and the mood I was in. I was a long way from home, quite tired, quite bored, and starting flicking through it. I cheated; I skipped to the twists, then back again, working out half the plot and turning it into a bombed to bits soap opera in my head. It had enough darkness, tragedy, confrontation, melancholy and bitterness to hook me, so I started again, this time properly. And it made all the entwining strands make sense.

In a strange way it reminds me a little of Burroughs Cities of the Red Night, though it is utterly different. You have these discreet stories in a story in a story, then it all collapses and that made me feel fragile.

The twists are not revelations, but they are well done and fit the themes perfectly. I love the way the narrator gets across a feeling of being old and having had her life fucked, partly because of her own weakness, and partly because of disaster. She starts off biting, cynical and dully catankerous, and as she falls back into her past the pain and vulnerability comes out. The last scene moved me immensely.

I also like the prose, her descriptions, and her way of framing an image: there's one early on of "F U C K" written as points of a compass in a lipstick drawn heart that has stuck with me.

It helped that I had zero expectations when I read it, but it would be a novel that I'd happily revisit.

I take it all back if you try it again and hate it.

kerble wrote:

oucheh wrote:Watchmen - Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons

-Jeremy

I just finished V for Vendetta by Alan Moore and David Lloyd.

really good, but I think I'd like to read it again before I decide if I think it's great or not. Watchmen is a pretty high bar, but I thought V was similarly interesting, but in a different way. the washed out watercolor art looks great, I haven't seen a comic book that has a similar palette.

On the Alan Moore kick, have you read From Hell? I think it is a genuine masterpiece. (And the appendices are great!)

sparky wrote:

kerble wrote:

oucheh wrote:Watchmen - Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons

-Jeremy

I just finished V for Vendetta by Alan Moore and David Lloyd.

really good, but I think I'd like to read it again before I decide if I think it's great or not. Watchmen is a pretty high bar, but I thought V was similarly interesting, but in a different way. the washed out watercolor art looks great, I haven't seen a comic book that has a similar palette.

On the Alan Moore kick, have you read From Hell? I think it is a genuine masterpiece. (And the appendices are great!)

no, unfortunately. I had a gift certificate to B&N, and it was my first choice. since they didn't have it, I picked up Vendetta. Offhand, is it in color or b+w?


Faiz

kerble wrote:

sparky wrote:

kerble wrote:

oucheh wrote:Watchmen - Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons

-Jeremy

I just finished V for Vendetta by Alan Moore and David Lloyd.

really good, but I think I'd like to read it again before I decide if I think it's great or not. Watchmen is a pretty high bar, but I thought V was similarly interesting, but in a different way. the washed out watercolor art looks great, I haven't seen a comic book that has a similar palette.

On the Alan Moore kick, have you read From Hell? I think it is a genuine masterpiece. (And the appendices are great!)

no, unfortunately. I had a gift certificate to B&N, and it was my first choice. since they didn't have it, I picked up Vendetta. Offhand, is it in color or b+w?


Faiz

I have all the original 1st print issues of From Hell. What an epic.

kerble wrote:

sparky wrote:

kerble wrote:

oucheh wrote:Watchmen - Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons

-Jeremy

I just finished V for Vendetta by Alan Moore and David Lloyd.

really good, but I think I'd like to read it again before I decide if I think it's great or not. Watchmen is a pretty high bar, but I thought V was similarly interesting, but in a different way. the washed out watercolor art looks great, I haven't seen a comic book that has a similar palette.

On the Alan Moore kick, have you read From Hell? I think it is a genuine masterpiece. (And the appendices are great!)

no, unfortunately. I had a gift certificate to B&N, and it was my first choice. since they didn't have it, I picked up Vendetta. Offhand, is it in color or b+w?


Faiz

b+w and all the better for it. I could not imagine it working nearly as well in colour.

rachael wrote:

kerble wrote:

sparky wrote:

kerble wrote:

oucheh wrote:Watchmen - Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons

-Jeremy

I just finished V for Vendetta by Alan Moore and David Lloyd.

really good, but I think I'd like to read it again before I decide if I think it's great or not. Watchmen is a pretty high bar, but I thought V was similarly interesting, but in a different way. the washed out watercolor art looks great, I haven't seen a comic book that has a similar palette.

On the Alan Moore kick, have you read From Hell? I think it is a genuine masterpiece. (And the appendices are great!)

no, unfortunately. I had a gift certificate to B&N, and it was my first choice. since they didn't have it, I picked up Vendetta. Offhand, is it in color or b+w?


Faiz

I have all the original 1st print issues of From Hell. What an epic.

Ditto, but damn scary!

looking forward to checking it out.

any other graphic novels of note? I looooved Watchmen and have re-read the Dark Knight Returns maybe seven times or so (Arkham Asylum looks great which makes up for the so-so writing), but often times, I feel they fall flat. Clowes' Like a velvet Glove Cast in Iron was creepily great, but maybe too surreal. Maus was good, but not my favourite for artwork.


please advise. I'm looking for fully realized books that are great in most aspects.



Faiz

kerble wrote:looking forward to checking it out.

any other graphic novels of note? I looooved Watchmen and have re-read the Dark Knight Returns maybe seven times or so (Arkham Asylum looks great which makes up for the so-so writing), but often times, I feel they fall flat. Maus was good, but not my favourite.

please advise.



Faiz

Faiz,

I would suggest checking out the following graphic novels

Doom Patrol: The Painting That Ate Paris
Doom Patrol: Crawling From The Wreckage

They're very dark & surreal. Basically Grant Morrison was given free reign over a faltering DC franchise super hero team and completely reimagined it. If you like Watchmen, you'll most likely those two graphic novels.

HTH

-Jeremy