Sense and... Seriously?

Andrew, Andrew, Andrew...

First of all, thank you to those who sent messages - I am healthy (just about; cold on its way) and my computer is more or less healthy; I have been back in Somerset for a few days and forgot to tell you - sorry. It was a brief visit, but another very nice one. Now I'm back in Oxford, but thanks to my enormous amount of leave taken at Christmas, shall not be back at work until Wednesday.

And now back to chastising Andrew Davies. I watched Sense and Sensibility last week, or whenever it was on, and was impressed. Great casting, good script. A few holes, but not everything can be Cranford, can it? And Davies had proved himself with the 1995 Pride and Prejudice. What happened? I have a theory that Andrew started reading the novel, got to the end of chapter three and, like so many high schoolers before him, thought watching the film would suffice for the rest. I mean, what happened? There was so much wrong with today's episode, both in how it related to the novel, and in itself. Did Marianne passionately kiss Willoughby? No. Should any couple kiss in slow motion? No. Did Elinor hide in caves or wander along cliff tops? Probably not. Do we want suggestive scenes of waves crashing against shores? Er, no. Would Edward Ferrars pop out for a bit of log chopping in the middle of tea? Dare I say it, no. This scene, I understand, was supposed to be the Colin-Firth-in-lake equivalent, but to me just looked like a silly man getting soggy.

What did I like? The Misses Steele were good. The Palmers - for my money, the funniest couple in all of fiction - were shamefully underused. Mrs. Jennings continued to be funny; Margaret was quite sweet. But that's not enough, Andrew - please give the novel a proper read before you adapt it, and don't presume that you're better at plotting than Jane is. Contrary to the opinion of marketing agents, Jane Austen is not "all about sex!!!" Yes, sexual attraction holds considerable sway, but she ain't Barbara Cartland.

Disappointed, Andrew. Could Do Better.

Amen Brother

"Eat deliberately, with other people whenever possible, and always with pleasure." - Michael Pollan, IN DEFENSE OF FOOD: An Eater's Manifesto.

Dave Eggers On Selling Out

Wow. Remind me never to piss Dave Eggers off. Here's a great article from the Harvard Advocate in 2000 where Eggers responds to a number of questions, including the issue of selling out.

Mediabistro Course

I'll be teaching a course on publishing contracts again in March for Mediabistro. I believe it's $65 ($50 for AvantGuild members), and over the course of three hours I'll go over the basics of copyright law and fair use, publishing contract clauses, and negotiation techniques. I hope to see you there.

A Strike Update

Happy New Year to you all, and my apologies for not posting anything sooner. I spent most of my break eating, and as a result my fingers grew too chubby to type.

An update on the strike. As you might have heard, the late night shows (Letterman, Conan, Leno) are back. Letterman's production company cut an interim deal with the WGA, while Conan and Leno returned without their writing staffs since NBC owns their shows.

As football season ends and the lack of good reality television continues, the next battle in the war is over the upcoming awards shows, with the Golden Globes up first on January 13th. Though it was first rumored that the WGA would agree to an interim deal similar to the one struck by Letterman, it now seems that this isn't going to happen. All reports indicate that the show will go on, but it will now be untelevised and there's a good chance that many actors won't show as a gesture of support for the writers.

As a result, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (which organizes the Globes) will lose the fee to air the show, and the megabucks parties held post-ceremony by HBO, NBC, and others are in limbo.

Two Ravens - The Books!

Sorry for some technical difficulties yesterday - I'm going to blame my faulty internet connection. The USB Wireless thing was sticking out the back of the computer, when I accidentally smashed it against the window sill, and it came apart. Now works only sporadically. I went into Argos today but they didn't have any in stock, so I shall have to be patient.

Anyway, as promised, here is my report back on three books published by Two Ravens Press. As always, the absence of 'b's is not intentional... I'll write about these novels in the order that I read them - which also, coincidentally, happens to be the order I'd place them evaluatively.

First off, Parties by Tom Lappin.
It took me some time to notice the pun on 'parties', despite the fact that the cover, with its ballgown and political rosette, give the game away. Yes, this is about parties of both a social and a political nature, and specifically Beatrice, Grainne, Richard and Gordon. I'm going to be brutally honest - after the first chapter I had made up my mind. I wouldn't mention it on my blog, because I don't like being critical about new books, especially those published by small presses, but I did not get along with at all. It was only the fact that I'd been sent the novel that made me continue at all. Thank goodness I did.
I don't know what it is, but the first few pages seem like another novel to the rest - or perhaps I just needed time to get into Lappin's world and writing. Either way, I encourage potential readers to persevere - having read a couple of other reviews, I see I wasn't the only person who almost gave up. Keep going.
Parties is structured so that each chunk of the novel has a one-word subtitle - Crisps, Coffee, Champagne, Beer etc. - and the following section is divided again into Beatrice, Grainne, Richard, Gordon. Not always that order. And what Lappin has done, one gradually realises, is write a magnificent bildungsroman - but in actual fact four of them in one. There are four protagonists, each so rounded and stunningly, painfully accurate and whole that it is difficult to believe they are not real.
Beatrice is a very beautiful part-Italian who bewitches men (mostly her tutors) but has a wry intelligence and discontent which the reader sympathises with, and allows her to be approachable as a character. Grainne is a little podgy and has manages to combine dreaming optimism with self-loathing and realism - she is paired with Gordon, a political climber who will exhaust everything and everyone to reach his pinnacle. Richard writes musical journalism and has listless relationships, while always admiring Beatrice.
It is hopeless to define these characters so briefly, since they are complete and can only truly be understood when the novel is read. I found Beatrice and Grainne the stand-outs of the four, but really all four are needed. Though their paths throughout the novel are dogged with disilluion and dissatisfaction, there remains an undeniable warmth and truth to the novel throughout. Quite unlike the sort of novel I usually read, but so utterly engaging that the characters remain in my head several months after I read Parties. Not for the faint-hearted, perhaps, but a striking work which I would foist on you - if you can get through the first pages. Oh, and I am the most apathetic person in the world when it comes to politics (which I'm sure would displease the author immensely) so if you have the slightest interest in that area, you'll probably value Parties even more.

Next, Nightingale by Peter Dorward
I shan't talk as much about the other two novels, as they didn't affect me as much, but this is still an admirable book. Rosie is in Italy on the journalistic track of a 1980 bombing. She is also encountering her father, Don, for the first time in many years. And he was a witness at the bombing. Political thrillers, again, aren't top of my list of favourite genres, but Dorward presents this one as a tale about relationships, trust, lies, self-exploration and the like. It is divided into three - the first section sees Rosie exploring and interviewing, and recognising her own inability to tackle all the issues head on. The second section flings us back to the time of the bombing, and the exploits of Don. Eventually we are back with Don and Rosie as the mysteries are settled.
I found the first and third sections the most satisfying - perhaps because it is easier to sympathise with Rosie's position as investigative, confused, intelligent but naive. Don's plight was rather more self-enduced, and tales of sex, drugs and longing, though not paramount, were less able to grip my attention.

Finally The Most Glorified Strip of Bunting by John McGill
A novel about the United States Polar expedition of 1871-73? This is what I meant about Two Ravens Press publishing things you wouldn't see elsewhere, and a topic I wouldn't have dreamt of reading about unless it had been sent to me. This trip was doomed, as may or may not be common knowledge, and this novel has a predicated ending of deaths a-plenty. Throughout a fairly witty narrative, sections of a court case (or rather interviews in a criminal investigation) are interspersed, surrounding a potential poisoning. I think, given another time and place, I might have really liked McGill's novel, but I just found it difficult to connect with the subject matter. Perhaps because it was close to Christmas and I fancied something cosy. Even having said that, I didn't dislike the novel, and it was obviously well-researched, but with character always at the forefront, and never sacrificed to facts and figures.

Two Ravens Press

Here's another shot at a post which didn't seem to work yesterday...
I have been rather lax this year already - not just that I missed posting on the first day of 2008 (only by 45 minutes, though) but in writing about Two Ravens Press. I've been meaning to do it since October, I think, but better late than never.

Quite a while ago I was sent three of their books to read, and I decided that I wanted to be able to write about all three of them at the same time. That meant quite a lot of reading, and that had to happen alongside lots of other books which needed to be read right-this-minute for all sorts of reasons. Well, the books have now been read! But they're going to wait until tomorrow. To give Two Ravens Press their proper due, I shall write today's post about the company in general - and tomorrow tell you about the three books I've read.

Two Ravens Press are an independent publisher, and can be found at www.tworavenspress.com - they, like many independent presses, have een rather remiss. No, not just missing the first day of 2008 on my blog (only byone main rule for what they publish - they have to love it. Literary fiction, poetry and non-fiction are all considered, their central consideration is... well, I'll let them speak for themselves. This is from their website:

Everything that we publish, we publish with passion. We love each of our books. They say something about the author, they say something about us and they say something about the time and the place they were born into. Each book is a person we like being around. Because each, in its own way, fights back against formulas and homogenization, against the analgesic washing-out of colour that threatens to fade our bright thoughts.

What made this publisher stand out for me? Well, as you may know by now, I tend to judge books by covers. Or at least let them lead me in the right direction. I certainly look at book covers to tell me what sort of publisher I'm looking at. And well done Two Ravens Press! Their covers are strikingly attractive while also being a little edgy and uncompromising. Very cutting-edge, but with humanity and beauty too. Good signs. I went straight to novels, as they are the area I know best, and the ones listed all look so different from anything else I've encountered. Probably the bigger presses didn't know quite where to place them in their marketing - Two Ravens Press can simply market them as individual books, with passion. That's not to say I adored all three, but it's a definite good sign when I'm intrigued and surprised by the description of a book - genuinely unable to think of a precedent, let alone a genre full of near identical books, as is sometimes the case.

Do go and check out the website; their novels are listed here. And tomorrow you can find out what I thought of some of them...!