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Maybe if I were a brooding 20 year old college student with black lipstick. But I'm not and so this rather sadly disappointed. All novels have their time and place - and this one missed it.
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I liked this. He does a fine job of blending history, fact and fiction in a manner that makes you suspend all disbelief. He finds the heartstrings of reality...
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
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This was a fortuitous discovery on the way back from the reunion - Kingfisher Books in Creston.
A congenial owner and fine selection of classics and vintage books in a cafe styled setting. I stocked up on winter reading, titles included:
- The Four Chambered Heart - Anais Nin
- The Wisdom of the Heart - Henry Miller
- Fantastic Fables - Ambrose Bierce
- Lectures on Don Quixote - Nabokov
++ The Master and Margarita and a poor translation of Choderlos de Laclos's "Dangerous Liasons". These last two I am perpetually recommending, thus to find them means I have something to pass on to other readers - when I meet them.
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by John Kennedy Toole.
I read this book a long time ago, and like certain other books (Lolita, by Nabakov, The Master and Margarita, Bulgakov, etc, etc) I always pick up when I come across.
I'm like that Jehova Witness of readers (and film) who comes across something good and will spare no expense to share it with others.
Anyways, I picked it up with the vague idea that I'd pass it along to Ken. It was a great book.
And it's been kicking around in my Jeep and finally I thought I'd pick it up and relive a few passages - and - fresh as ever, barely a page read and your laughing out loud.
The descriptions, preposterous, apt, hilarious, the characters drawn from life as grotesque as they - as we all - must appear, the plot heaps absurdity upon absurdity in a manner that only real life can emulate.
That John Kennedy Toole took his own life is hardly a surprise, to see things this clearly - while it makes you laugh - also can lead to despair. Comedy is the means to deal with life, tragedy is the means to end it.
Anyways, would that I could write prose that good.
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On Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_of_Gilgamesh
Taking a break from Carl Jung (having got my phone plug cleaned out I've been listening to a lot of youTubes more intelligent offerings) and I found this.
Which - again - resonated with me:
The above is a fine reading. And this - I've come to notice, with all my delving into odd books, listening to - that the narrator makes the difference. There are no end to incompetent narrators, implausible, or with voices that do not carry the rhythm or the subject. This one does fine.
You can read a version of it here: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/53b59f96e4b089bf6ae90076/t/5dc19b0aa9a2b60e2f72e207/1572969227533/TGC+Gilgamesh.pdf
Although there are abundant copies around, much depends on the translation.
And this - an excellent lecture with various experts offering context and interpretation to the poem: The Epic of Gilgamesh, Lecture by Andrew George