1001 Round-Up November 2023

This months winners and losers…

Hallucinating Foucault by Patricia Duncker BOTM#1. What GR says: An intricate and self-reflective novel about that most delicate of relationships–meaning the one between writers and readers. The narrator, an anonymous graduate student, sets off on the trail of a French novelist named Paul Michel, who is currently confined to an asylum. Engineering his hero’s release, the narrator finds himself enmeshed in bizarre love triangle, of which the three vertices are himself, the novelist, and the late Michel Foucault. Sex, it seems, can be made safe, but the oddball intimacy of reading cannot. Sex safe? Not sure this story implies that.

My Thoughts: This is beautifully written with storylines that entwine to trap the reader. While our narrator may think he is on a quest to save Paul Michel he is actually being used to fulfil the promises made by someone else.

The book explores love, sex homo and heterosexual, attitudes to sex and most importantly the relationship between writer and reader. Does a writer need to know there is someone who will read their works before they are able to write them? Does a Reader need to understand or relate to a Writer to be able to appreciate their work? Can you totally discount the writer if you are only exploring their works?

3 stars – a short novel but one that leaves you thinking.

Troubles by J.G. Farrell. BOTM #2. What GR Says: Major Brendan Archer travels to Ireland, to the Majestic Hotel and to the fiancée he acquired on a rash afternoon leave three years ago. Despite her many letters, the lady proves herself elusive, and the Major’s engagement short-lived. But he is unable to detach himself from the alluring discomforts of the crumbling hotel. Ensconced in the dim and shabby splendour of the Palm Court, surrounded by gently decaying old ladies and proliferating cats, the Major passes the summer. So hypnotic are the fading charms of the Majestic, the Major is almost unaware of the gathering storm. But this is Ireland in 1919–and the struggle for independence is about to explode with brutal force. True dat

My Thoughts: I actually enjoyed this book far more than I expected to once I got into the story. Certain aspects particularly the romance aspects felt forced and more like it was included to move the story rather than because any of the characters felt an emotional attachment to each other.

In the crumbling Majestic hotel the reader can see a metaphor for crumbing Anglo/Irish relationships as the hotel falls apart the Ireland outside is also falling away from English rule.

While the aristocracy are shown as bumbling and out of touch Farrell still manages to build the tension in such a way that the reader cares for all the characters no matter what their politics. It is this non-judgemental writing that compels the reader to keep reading we care what will happen to everyone and that is a very fine line to tread and one that Farrell treads well.

3 Stars – some aspects didn’t work for me but overall this is a compassionate and compelling look at the Troubles through the microcosm of life in a hotel. Well worth reading.

Have you read any of these? Let us know what you thought.