2010 June | Phillipa Fioretti

Hazardous Activity

June 15th, 2010

injury

Repetitive Strain Injury appears to be an occupational hazard for writers. Consideration must be given to where you write and how you sit when you write.

I did consider it, and then promptly forgot as I slouched, tensed, lolled, stayed at the keyboard for hours on end and did just about everything a writer shouldn’t do. And so I have RSI from my shoulder down to my wrist.

I’ll be limiting myself to important emails and very short writing sessions for now - all blogging activities have to cease until the injury heals.

Habitual Reading

June 11th, 2010

faulks

I’m always curious to know what books people are reading. It’s a bit of a nosey question, like asking what they’re having for dinner that night or what brand of knickers they have on. And it also assumes that they have a book on the go, but many people who love to read don’t have the time or energy unless they are on holiday. Or they just don’t read.

I grew up in a family of readers. That’s what we did. Sport, other than walking, was something that happened on the television and made you want to turn it off. Sporty people find that bizarre. Well, maybe so, but I didn’t know any different. I didn’t go to a live sporting event until in my thirties – and then I was only shepherding a mob of little boys. I brought a book with me and sat up the back of the stand, doling out money and food on request.

This inaugural sporting event was a soccer match. I’ve stood through endless winter mornings watching schoolboys play soccer and reading a book at these matches was akin to publicly beating your child with a mallet, so in spite of my bookish ways I became fascinated with the game. So I may have to slow down my book intake once the 2010 Soccer World Cup starts, because I can’t help myself, I have to watch. Although I’ll be hunting down a copy of Nick Hornby’s Fever Pitch to read during half time.

But to satisfy those who ask I list below the books I’ve read over the last six weeks.

The Fatal Englishman, Sebastian Faulks

I’d be happy reading Faulk’s shopping list so when I stumbled on this in a second hand bookshop I grabbed it. “Faulk’s triple biography of three English prodigies who died young diligently sets each tragedy in its historical place and time to show how the feelings of a generation came to be projected upon their tragedy.” Brian Case, Time Out.

I enjoyed this book as I knew I would. At the front of the book snippets of reviews can be read and on the front cover David Hare of The Spectator declares the book to be “wildly exciting.” I don’t know what sort of life Mr Hare leads because although this is a fascinating read it’s not quite as exciting as he would have us believe.

The Group, Paul Solarotoff

Another fascinating non fiction book. Journalist, Paul Solotaroff writes about a New York therapist and the six people he is treating through group therapy. Sex addiction, compulsive spending, drug abuse, bullying husbands, crippling shyness – all worked through in the group, some successfully, some not. Solotaroff’s description of the group dynamics and the ultimate fate of the therapist is compelling.

Kate Atkinson, Case Histories
Kate Atkinson, Behind the Scenes at the Museum
Kate Atkinson, One Good Turn
Kate Atkinson, When Will There Be Good News?

Yes, I’ve had a Kate Atkinson binge and I feel so much better for it. Although her propensity for killing women and children in her books gets to me sometimes.

atkinson

Philip Kerr, March Violets
Philip Kerr, The Pale Criminal
Philip Kerr, A German Requiem
Philip Kerr, The One from the Other

and I’m halfway through …

Philip Kerr, A Quiet Flame

These five books feature a private detective, Bernie Gunther. Gunther is a fabulous character with his hard boiled morality and hilarious, dark, tough guy humour. Kerr’s research is deep and thorough, and his recreation of the Weimar years of the German Republic, and the moral minefield of Berlin in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, provide a sense of time and place so intense I wanted to get out my ration card, nylons and a ticket to Argentina.

Kerr’s Bernie Gunther books are ‘a brilliant transfer of a Chandler novel to postwar Germany. The wise guy dialogue … and the moral man making his way in an immoral world are pure Chandler. Powerful and impressive.’ The Observer.

kerr