Tag: non fiction

The Most Beautiful walk in the world by John Baxter

~ winstonsdad ~ 35 Comments

Source – Review copy

John Baxter is an Ex-pat australian writer that has lived in Paris for a number of years ,he is also well-known for writing Film biographies of people such as Steven  Spielberg and George Lucas to name two .He currently gives guided Literary tours of Paris and has done so for a number of years ,this book is a collection of thoughts memories and information he has gathered in doing this for the past few years .He has also written two earlier books on Paris .

Now the books the most beautiful walk in the world is set up in short chapters each a little tale about the city and the people who have lived there .One main area’s John touches on is the 20’s the swinging paris of Hemingway , Fitzgerald ,Joyce and Gertrude Stein .He evokes the Spirit of these writers books as he describes ,Joyce’s Ulysses being published by Sylvia Beach the owner and publisher that ran Shakespeare and company in the 20’s ,Now that great shop keeps cropping up ,you sense John’s love for it history and how much it has touched writing  and writers in the past .Elsewhere we get the darker side of paris ,opium dens ,Underground attractions that were scary and popular in late 1800’s .He also tells of his and his families connection to the city christmas there ,meeting people and just the everyday ebb and flow he experiences .Another thread of chapters is of course food and cafes ,from how important the right tin of sardines can be to a french man to the great cafes of the twenties and how they have faired through to the present day .

Connetable produces a “vintage” sardine that retails for $14 a can.Buyers are advised to “put down” these like wine for a few years ,turning them occasionally to spread the flavour .

“what really threw me “,tim said later “was the fact you didn’t bat an eyelash .I thought it was some sort of practical Joke.”

He should have realized that the french ,serious at the best of times ,become positively reverent when it comes to food .

John buying sardines ,this made me laugh at how serious the french can be !!

I m so please I picked this from the e-mail I get from time to time from Harper perennial .It was one of the best travel books I ve ever read John’s love for paris just drips of the pages and like a good Bordeaux ,slowly gets you drunk with the city your self ,he breathes life into the figures you know that lived there ,but he makes the spirits still seem part of the fabric of Paris today .The short chapter and constant flow of little nuggets of info make you want to continue turning the pages ,he flies from places to places keeping the reader interested from page one to the end .I wanted to jump on the next flight with My darling wife and spend a week reliving this book Visiting the Various sights and sounds he described ,trying sardines at $14 dollars ,having a coffee in a famous cafe ,seeing Gertrude Stein favourite garden  .I ve had a brief visit to Paris a number of years ago and this has made me want to return more than ever to breathe up more of this wonderful city  ,but also pick up his two earlier books also about Paris .John has a website ,you can e-mail him to maybe try a walk in Paris with him ,if I do get to go there I may well do that and bring this book along !!!

What cities do you love ?

Have you been to Paris what did you enjoy ?

The Possessed by Elif Batuamn

~ winstonsdad ~ 31 Comments

Source – review copy

Elif Batuman is a new york born writer ,her parents are turkish ,she studied literature at university in american and the a summer in Uzbekistan ,which forms the largest part of this book .she has published pieces for various magazines in the US .

Now this book is about obsession with russian literature and how it drives people ,now here is a shock I m very afraid of classic russian literature and have spent most of my life avoiding it ,but in recent times the realization is that I ve missed out on a lot ,so when the offer to read this book came I jumped at the chance to do so .Hoping it would inspire me to read more russian lit .The book is a collection of short essay and a longer piece divide into three sections .The short piece focus on obsession with certain russian writers ,the first is Babel the writer who was killed by Stalin leaving little behind but what he left behind has had scholars talking since his death ,a visit to an exhibition of his possessions in california sparks a journey into his world with the joy of Elif who obviously loves these characters so much ,another dealt with a group visiting Yasnaya Polyana Tolstoy’s home ,a group of  Tolstoy scholars and the wild fantasies about the writer was this book influenced by that book ,Alice in wonderland was the book they were arguing and did it influence anne Karenina ,This started a heated debate ,Elif tells this with humour and love .The main piece is about here summer in Uzbekistan studying Uzbek language ,as a former soviet state she discovers a lot about their intertwine history with its larger neighbour by a charismatic young Man called  Muratbek .

Muratbek was very tan with bleached hair and a fixed grin .To his every utterance in every language ,he appended the exclamation “awesome !” “Turkcha gapirasizmi ” he asked me. Do you speak Turkish ? awesome !

The first meeting in summer in Samarkand of Muratbek .

So did the book do what I want yes I ve moved russian books up my tbr pile and need get war and peace back on track ,this tied in with the recent BBC show about Tolstoy where they were at Yasnaya Polyana  ,this tied together brought Elif book more to life .So if you love russian lit this is a must read ,if your like me a novice this will inspire you to take that road that involves Pushkin ,Tolstoy ,Chekov and Babel ,vis her humour and love of these writers .I love Granta’s cover a retroesque homage to leather-bound covers the orginal russian books we re published in .

Have you read this book ?

Do you like russian literature ?


A rift in time ( travels with my Ottoman uncle) by Raja Shehadeh

~ winstonsdad ~ 12 Comments

Raja Shehadeh is a Palestine writer ,lawyer and human rights activist ,he studied in London ,his father was also a lawyer .He was one of the first people to accept the need for a two state solution to the Arab /Israeli conflict he also found the Al -Haq human rights organization  which monitors human rights in Palestine .he has published a number of other books in 2008 he won the Orwell prize  for his book Palestine walks .

A rift in time starting point is Raja researching his family background and coming across his uncle Najib ,which he didn’t know a lot about but an interesting and unique man appear from the mist of time .A character that Raja decides to follow almost a hundred year later .Najib was a writer,journalist and  romantic guy ,who was  very critical of certain decisions that were taking place in the Ottoman empire around the time of the first world war ,mainly their decision to join that war but also a worry about the growth in the region around what would be modern Israeli .This lead to Najib facing the death sentence and going on the run around what is now Lebanon ,Jordan ,Palestine and Israeli .A lot of the small villages that his uncle visited were wiped out in the 1948 war  .so we travel meet the locals and Raja does a wonderfully poetic job in showing Najib experiences and his own along the same route .He builds up the tension as Najib runs out of places to hide ,but to find out if he gets caught and what Raja discovers I suggest you read the book .

In planning the route of his escape ,Najib had not been hampered by the political borders that many Palenstines are not allowed to cross today .Under the Ottomans on the eve of the first world war there is no administrative unit called Palenstine.Hafia ,acre ,Safad and Tiberias were part of the Beirut sanjaq (an administrative subdivision of a Vilayet or province) .

Raja beginning his Research into his uncle Najib’s  escape from death sentence .

I enjoyed the evenness of Raja writing it is so easy given the situations in the area to get bog down in facts figures and most of all the politics of the region ,these are touched on but don’t drive the story ,which is heartbreaking at times ,touching at others the loss villages and a colourful past due to the wiping out of so many villages in the late 20th century .

here is a Guardian interview with Raja

Raja is currently in the UK you can catch him here –

Friday 4 March 2011 – 6.30-8pm, FREE http://www.mosaicrooms.org/raja-shehadeh/

Raja Shehadeh:A Rift in Time-Travels with My Ottoman Uncle
Raja will be in conversation with British-Palestinian filmmaker Omar Al-Qattan.
Places are strictly limited, please RSVP 020 7370 9990, info@mosaicrooms.org
A.M. Qattan Foundation, The Mosaic Rooms, Tower House, 226 Cromwell Road, London SW5 0SW, UK

Saturday 5 March – 10:00

BBC Radio 4 Excess Baggage – Raja Shehadeh talking to Chris Wilson

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00z2ncd

Sunday 6 March – 17:00 Jewish Book Week

http://www.jewishbookweek.com/2011/a-rift-in-time.php

A Rift in Time – Raja Shehadeh interviewed by Jo Glanville

Tickets £10. To book in advance go online http://www.jewishbookweek.com/2011/a-rift-in-time.php Or call 0844 847 2274

Jewish Book Week, Royal National Hotel, Bedford Way, London WC1 0DG

Monday 7 March – 18:00

Glasgow Aye, Write! Festival

http://www.ayewrite.com/programme/events/pages/rajashehadehevent.aspx

Venue: Mitchell Library, Glasgow G3 7DN
Tel 0141 287 2999
Cost: £8/£6

My dead dad was in ZZ top by Jon Glaser

~ winstonsdad ~ 8 Comments

source – from Publisher due out Feb 8th

Jon Glaser is an actor comedian writer and director ,he has appear in a number of films such as be kind rewind  and comedy shows ,as well as live tours he wrote an earlier book Adult swim’s .

The book follows Jon as he goes through his late fathers belongings and uncovers a lost world of his father as he was a member of an early version of the band ZZ top but left as he couldn’t grow a beard and disliked the direction the band was taking .Now this of course is 100% fake as it says on the cover but this book then goes into nearly every well-known America star of rock and roll from the 60’s onwards .I whole cornucopia of found items from the belly aching born to brunch original version of Bruce Springsteen born to run with a photo showing a ring from a drink thus giving Born to run the song we all know and love .I read this over the space of an evening and was in floods of laughter I know most of the people we have piece’s from within the book so loved Glaser’s with at subtle changes and well thought out version of people’s songs .The rewritten Prince titles for his performance at Steven Spielberg sons bar mitzavahed .

Thank you : steve ,kate

Mah- zel tahv to Rachel

I could never take the place of your Rabbi

Raspberry Yarmulka

when Doves Ketch

little red Draidle

I would die 4 your Gefilte fish

Theives in the synagogue

sexy potato Latke

Some of pince Bar Mitzvah set list .

This remind me of Mark and Lard from British radio in the early nineties with their band the Shirehorses where the took well-known songs and rewrote the lyrics .so if you want know where the name B***hole surfers comes from I choose this or what bands like Boston ,Creedance Clearwater revival  did before they were famous  Jon will give you a great version of what they did before they were famous .a glimpse behind the curtain at what might make certain bands tick and what may happen if the had sold songs to advertise things .I choose this from Harper perennial as a change I want to try some more lighthearted thing this year and this was a perfect choice I perfect gift for any rock or pop lover .

Winston’s score –

It has be the Shirehorse’s David Bowie spoof ,this book reminded me so much of this cd and the way it made me laugh in the 90’s when it came out .As I always say a book the bring back happy memories is a book worth reading and this one did !!!

The hare with amber eyes by Edmund De Waal

~ winstonsdad ~ 13 Comments

There are occasions when you keep stumbling into a title hearing about here and there and maybe not having a inital spark to read it well this is one such book .In the period Just before christmas I heard Edmund on a radio and interviewed on the book show on sky arts ,and I warmed to this bio ? well it is a bio of the objects in it .Well Edmund De Waal is an English Ceramic artist that was train in Japan and winner of prizes for his ceramics , inherited a family collection of Nettsuke (craved ivory or bone pieces that were used to secure pouches from belts in 17th Japan )   from an uncle that he stayed with whilst he trained in his youth at the Mejiro studio in Tokyo .

So the book opens with Edmund getting these Nettsuke from His uncle Iggie a wonderful man he spent time with whilst training in Japan in his youth .He Knows A little of the 264 Nettsukes history from his uncle but decides to trace where they went and who owned them for the last 140 years from the 1870’s .He discovers the person that brought them a distant relative Charles Ephrussi a rich Jewish banker that lived in Paris .This man was in love with Japanese art that was the Vogue of the time ,Charles enjoyed connecting with people in the world of art and literature Knowing Proust Degas and Renoir .a man who lived comfortably but near the end of his time things were turning against the Jewish people in France ,the Nettsuke then move on to the turn of the century coffee houses society of Vienna This is the grand children of Charles story of vienna the rise of anti semitic feeling but also the blossoming of Vienna pre world war one with people like Freud and Klimt in the background .

In March 1899 , Charles’s generous wedding gift for Viktor and Emmy is carefully grated up and taken from the Avenue d’lena ,leaving the golden carpet ,the empire fauteulis and the Moreaus .It travels across Europe and is delivered to the Palais Ephrussi in Vienna on the corner of the Ringstrasse and the schottengasse .

The Nettsuke leave Charles possession the original owner and travel to Vienna to start a new tale .

the Nettsuke of the title

The book is full of love and insight into being Jewish in Europe at this time which Has been at times hard  the Nettsuke arrive in England Just before the war with Viktor then end up back home so to speak in Japan with Edmund uncle before arriving in his possession .Well what can I say about this book other than you should read it ,I was touch in many ways ,I always wonder what stories objects I ve been given via family have ,my grandfather was an Antique dealer and restorer so I grew up looking and sometimes touching unusual items like these nettsukes in this modern age the wonderment these intrigue items can give is pleasing I have a small craved elephant in ivory and its feel and look priceless objects like this are so rarely made nowadays but as De Waal testifies can over time and place produce wonderful stories . This book has a timeless feel even thou it has just been written which is a real achievement from a first time writer ,It also just won the Costa book prize for Biography ,which it richly deserved .

Clandestine in Chile by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

~ winstonsdad ~ 8 Comments

source – library

This was the last choice for 2010 of the now named wolves reading group of Frances ,Richard ,Emily and el fay .this book by the nobel winning Columbian writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez is a first hand narrative of the return to his native chile of the Chilean filmmaker Miguel Littin .Littin produce the most well-known and most popular in Chile Chilean film in 1969 El CHacal de Nahueltoro ( Jackal ofNahueltoro ) a true story about a pheasant that killed several children in chile .he has also directed films based on Alejo Carpentiers novel and one of Marquez own short stories .After the coup that saw Allende disposed in his homeland Littin went to Mexico firstly then spain (very like Bolano who also lived in both these countries ) .After the fall of Pinochet the military leader a list of Exiles that could return was released but Littins name wasn’t on the list so the book follow his decision to return anyway and make a striking film called Acta General de chile  he managed to get three european film crews under false filming schedules  to enter the country  and he returned as a Uruguayan businessman to direct the film which followed how people fought against Pinochet in chile ,at this time this was still a sensitive subject with in chile and could have led to Littin being arrested .we see him and his assistant go through and meet people but to find out what more happened maybe you should read the book .

When the immigration officer opened my passport ,I knew that if he were to look into my eyes he would discover my deception .There were three counters ,all attended by men in uniforms .I had decided to pick the youngest because he seemed to be working the fastest .

Littin’s nervous entry to Chile .

The book was taken from notes Littin kept at the time and worked into this Narrative non fiction by Marquez if in his fiction he may be the master of Magical realism may I suggest this is a work of über realism ,he really caught for me the tension and fear that Littin had in returning to his homeland to make this film at every turn there was a real sense of foreboding ,strange as reading up on Littin before the book I knew the film had been made and the back cover told me that due to the strength of the book and  film that 15000 hundred copies of this book where burnt in Chile .Now to my disappointing the film seems very hard to get hold off .A real shame the other half of what seems to artworks would work wonderfully together .But not to take away from this book which I thoroughly enjoyed and as one of the last books I read last year .Gave me an insight into a subject I knew a bit about but found a little more about and this is what you needed from good Narrative non – fiction .the book was translated by Asa Zatz .

Literary blog hop -is there such a thing as literary non fiction ?

~ winstonsdad ~ 19 Comments

Well what a great question and here at winstonsdad the answers is of course yes ,how do you define literary non  fiction now that is a little harder I would think because it can really be books from  any form of non fiction .The best i feel range from the english travelogues of Patrick leigh fermor ,Eric Newby and Bruce Chatein ,through to theprose style pieces of Slavenka Drakulic and Andrzej stasiuk with there writings on eatern europe .

But to sum up in one book the best it would have to be Joseph Mitchells up in the old hotel ,which I have rob of robaroundbooks to thank for .Mitchell was a wtiter for the new yorker who wrote wonderful prose on the underbelly of america from the thirties to the early nineties his portrayal of the characters and events he cane across in the less well known parts of new York and America are a fitting testament to his talent to draw the reader in .