Brona's Salon

Brona's Salon is a new meme which aims to gather a group of like-minded bookish people 'under the roof of an inspiring host, held partly to amuse one another and partly to refine the taste and increase the knowledge of the participants through conversation.'

(wikipedia)

I will provide a bookish prompt or two to inspire our conversation.
However please feel free to discuss your current read or join in the conversation in any way that you see fit.

Amusement, refinement and knowledge will surely follow!
________________________________________________________

I'm not sure there will be much amusement in this particular post.

A big part of my recent blah, blah, blah feelings have stemmed from the ill health of a much loved family member. Her peaceful passing this weekend now allows us to move onto what comes next.

As it turns out, one of the things that does not come next is Max Porter's Grief is the Thing With Feathers.

Two of my colleagues adored this book, so I'm not going to say don't read this book, ever.
Obviously it has some amazing qualities, that failed to move me at all, if the many Goodreads reviews are to be believed.

But don't read this book if you are in the early stages of grief yourself.
Or you have no knowledge whatsoever about Ted Hughes.
Or if clever, experimental literature is not your thing.
Or if you're feeling 'meh' about pretty much everything.

Which leads me to wonder about all the books about dying out there at the moment.
Why are we so obsessed with this topic right now?

The inevitable, unstoppable journey to our deaths is what defines all our lives.
It is the stuff of stories.

But right now, in the world of literature, we seem to be focused on the specifics of how we die.
What happens when we get that diagnosis, how do we face the treatments and the decline, why is this happening and what have we learnt along the way?

It's curious that the title of this book called to me this afternoon.
Evidently, I was looking for some kind of solace, or deeper meaning.

I'm used to finding empathy and understanding and fellowship in my reading.
But I didn't find it here.

Perhaps it's too soon.

I was looking for a warm, comforting embrace.
Instead, this intellectual exercise left me cold, bemused and confused.

Is grief such a personal thing, that no one book can ever match our circumstances or describe our particular experience? Are we searching for something that cannot be found except in the hard-won, day-by-day process of just going through it?

I'm not looking for sympathy, answers or enlightenment, however for the first time in ages, I felt compelled to write something.

It didn't feel right to confine this post to my usual Salon framework.
But if you'd like to share your latest read with us, then feel free to join in with the questions below in any way that suits you best.
Or if you'd like to share your thoughts on my book choice or topic, then please leave a comment.

I've been reminded this weekend that life is too short to read a book you don't like, but sometimes they help us to define what we are really looking for.

What are you currently reading?

How did you find out about this book?

Why are you reading it now? 

First impressions? 

Which character do you relate to so far?

Final Thoughts

Brona's Salon

Brona's Salon is a newish meme which aims to gather a group of like-minded bookish people 'under the roof of an inspiring host, held partly to amuse one another and partly to refine the taste and increase the knowledge of the participants through conversation.'

(wikipedia)

I will provide a bookish prompt or two to inspire our conversation.
However please feel free to discuss your current read or join in the conversation in any way that you see fit.

Amusement, refinement and knowledge will surely follow!

I'm so glad that I have a stock pile of picture book drafts tucked away for a rainy day.
This past month has been pretty hectic, with review writing being the main casualty.

I'm hoping the Easter weekend will be catch up time.

Over the years, my reading interests have gone through many, many phases (obsessions).
 However there are a few that keep returning.

1. - Holocaust literature (one day I will understand man's inhumanity to man!)
2. - the French Revolution (all those Louis' & Napoleon's, the brutality, and man's inhumanity to man).
3. - Russia, especially pre-revolution (the beauty, the poverty, the literature & man's inhumanity to man).
4. - Chinese history (the power, the philosophy, the inventions & man's inhumanity to man).
5. - Indian literature (the colour, the religions, the art & man's inhumanity to man).

After reading and loving Do Not Say We Have Nothing last year, it would seem that Chinese history is firmly back in my gaze. Which segues nicely into what am I reading now...

What are you currently reading?

Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China by Jung Chang

Empress Dowager Cixi (1835–1908) is the most important woman in Chinese history. She ruled China for decades and brought a medieval empire into the modern age.

At the age of sixteen, in a nationwide selection for royal consorts, Cixi was chosen as one of the emperor’s numerous concubines. When he died in 1861, their five-year-old son succeeded to the throne. Cixi at once launched a palace coup against the regents appointed by her husband and made herself the real ruler of China—behind the throne, literally, with a silk screen separating her from her officials who were all male.

In this groundbreaking biography, Jung Chang vividly describes how Cixi fought against monumental obstacles to change China. Under her the ancient country attained virtually all the attributes of a modern state: industries, railways, electricity, the telegraph and an army and navy with up-to-date weaponry. It was she who abolished gruesome punishments like “death by a thousand cuts” and put an end to foot-binding. She inaugurated women’s liberation and embarked on the path to introduce parliamentary elections to China. Chang comprehensively overturns the conventional view of Cixi as a diehard conservative and cruel despot.

Cixi reigned during extraordinary times and had to deal with a host of major national crises: the Taiping and Boxer rebellions, wars with France and Japan—and an invasion by eight allied powers including Britain, Germany, Russia and the United States. Jung Chang not only records the Empress Dowager’s conduct of domestic and foreign affairs, but also takes the reader into the depths of her splendid Summer Palace and the harem of Beijing’s Forbidden City, where she lived surrounded by eunuchs—one of whom she fell in love, with tragic consequences. The world Chang describes here, in fascinating detail, seems almost unbelievable in its extraordinary mixture of the very old and the very new.

Based on newly available, mostly Chinese, historical documents such as court records, official and private correspondence, diaries and eyewitness accounts, this biography will revolutionize historical thinking about a crucial period in China’s—and the world’s—history. Packed with drama, fast paced and gripping, it is both a panoramic depiction of the birth of modern China and an intimate portrait of a woman: as the concubine to a monarch, as the absolute ruler of a third of the world’s population, and as a unique stateswoman.

How did you find out about this book?

When Empress Dowager Cixi first came out it in 2013 it attracted a lot of media.
It has been on my radar ever since.

Why are you reading it now? 

We ended up with a reading copy of Cixi at work recently.
One rainy lunch time I needed something to pass the time, Cixi was my first choice.

First impressions? 

I loved it.

But where does the truth lie? Is this a biography or historical fiction?
It almost reads like fictionalised history and although I'm loving the story a little niggle is growing. Something is not quite right with the historical sources or the authors interpretations.
It feels like Chang wanted to write a certain story and she's making the historical record fit her agenda.

Now it could be said that all history books are guilty of that charge, it's just that some authors carefully disguise what they're doing.
Chang has not been subtle about her agenda.
She is clearly writing herstory, not history.

Which character do you relate to so far?

I do not relate to any of the main players, but I am fascinated by their story.

I'm also thrilled that many of the places that Cixi lived in or visited are also places that I visited and explored during my time in China in 1996. Being able to picture the palaces and towns being referenced adds to my reading pleasure.

1996 Little Potala Palace, Chengde

Are you happy to continue?

Definitely.
But I feel more cautious about my initial enthusiasm.

Where do you think the story will go? 

As a biography, I have to assume that we will go all the way to 1908 and Cixi's death, with some commentary about the immediate after effects of her reign.

I hope there is also a discussion about the new Chinese sources that Chang has had access to and how they influenced her.

If you'd like to join in #BronasSalon tell us about the book you're reading right now and how it relates to one of your reading obsessions.
Or tell us about the genre or period in history that you obsess about? 

Brona's Salon

Brona's Salon is a new meme which aims to gather a group of like-minded bookish people 'under the roof of an inspiring host, held partly to amuse one another and partly to refine the taste and increase the knowledge of the participants through conversation.'

(wikipedia)

I will provide a bookish prompt or two to inspire our conversation.
However please feel free to discuss your current read or join in the conversation in any way that you see fit.

Amusement, refinement and knowledge will surely follow!

**************************

Lately I have been thinking about rereading a lot.

I used to reread all the time.

When I was a child it was often out of necessity. I didn't have many books of my own, so I read the ones I did have over and over again until the next birthday or next Christmas brought in a new haul of new books!

Rereading favourite books seems like a natural thing to do. Who wouldn't want to return to that place where we had such a good experience?  That place where an amazing connection was had, new friends made and where a new world was inhabited.

Rereading can also tap into deeper psychological needs - our need to belong, to feel loved and understood, or simply just to feel something.

However Lisa @Bookshelf Fantasies recently provided an interesting provocation.

Rereading our favourites seems like an obvious and natural thing to do.
But what about rereading those books that left us saying 'meh' or those books we didn't finish?

If we know that rereading our favourites can reveal new things with each reread, depending on our age, life experiences, mood etc, why not those books we failed to connect to first go?

I have never been able to finish Catch 22.
I've tried three times now.
I keep trying because Catch 22 is the favourite book of one of my best friends.
I love the start, but every time, I simply get tired of the whole premise and give up.

Burial Rites by Hannah Kent is another book I've tried to get into twice because a good friend loves it, but after a handful of chapters I go 'meh' and put it aside.

I've had plenty of rereading experiences where a once favourite book was reduced to ashes by a reread. The need it had fulfilled at one point was no longer relevant or needed. That's okay.
I can remember it fondly as I book I loved when. It doesn't have to connect to the older me as well.

Grand Days by Frank Moorhouse almost fell into this category.
I adored it in my twenties, I felt an incredible connection to the main character Edith. But a decade later it felt contrived and ridiculous and Edith was just annoying.
However thanks to the publication of the final book in the trilogy in my 40's, I tried again. And once again I fell in love. A more tempered, reserved love, but love nonetheless!

The only book I can think of that vastly improved with a reread was Jane Austen's Mansfield Park. My 2013 reread bumped it up from my least favourite Austen to one of my favourites instead!

What has been your experience with rereading?

Have you had another go at one of those old school texts that you hated and resented at the time, but loved in your 20's, 30's, 40's...? Maybe you watched a movie interpretation of one of those 'meh' books that gave you cause to reconsider?

What are you currently reading or rereading?

The Fellowship of the Ring by J R R Tolkien

Why are you reading or rereading it now? 

I'm rereading it for my #HLOTRreadalong2017.

I decided that I wanted to make some time to reread books this year.
Hosting a readalong has made it happen.

It's also the 80th anniversary of the publication of The Hobbit this year, which seemed like a good time as any to revisit this classic fantasy series.

First impressions? 

I had forgotten that it took nearly half the book for Frodo and company to even leave The Shire!
I'm fascinated by how carefully Tolkien builds the tension and danger levels.
All the action and drama in the movies almost from the word go, had made me forget that Tolkien was far more subtle at the beginning.

Which character do you relate to so far?

Frodo, of course.
Although, it's very easy to feel connected to all the hobbits. Their simple pleasures - a comfortable, cosy home, good food, wine and friendly company - are mine too.

However, as an older reader this time around, I'm also relating to Aragorn more.
His desire to look out for the rather naive hobbits has a familiar parental feel about it.

Are you happy to continue?

Yes, yes, yes.
Although I'm pacing myself with this reread.

One - to enjoy the beautiful illustrated edition that I now have.
Two - to give myself ample time to read other books (for work) at the same time.
Three - to avoid the (usually self-imposed) blogging and reading pressure I feel when I join in challenges or readalongs. Reading (& blogging) should be fun, otherwise why are we doing it?!

Brona's Salon

Horrific crimes, where the main suspects are acquitted, are perfect fodder for the true crime/fictionalised history/based on a true story genre. 

Especially when that crime involves a dysfunctional family, a hot sultry summers day and conflicting, circumstantial evidence. 

Bungled police procedure simply adds to the intrigue.

The gruesome murder of Andrew and Abby Borden in 1892, rocked the small community of Fall River, Massachusetts. 

The local paper, the Fall River Herald, at the time featured the screaming headline,

"Shocking Crime: A Venerable Citizen and his Aged Wife Hacked to Pieces in their Home". 

The entire court case became one of the first mass media events and Lizzie Borden became a celebrity granting interviews to give her version of events. 

To this day the murders are unsolved mysteries.

The crime became mythologised - with a skipping rope chant and an appearance on The Simpsons by Lizzie Borden. 

Lizzie Borden took an axe,

Gave her mother forty whacks.

When she saw what she had done,

She gave her father forty-one.

Endless speculation about possibly sexual abuse, lesbianism, an illegitimate son and financial disputes all added fuel to the fire.

Can we learn anything new from recent interpretations?

Will new technology and testing reveal the secrets kept for so long?

Can modern thinking really shed light on old events?

Brona's Salon is a newish meme which aims to gather a group of like-minded bookish people 'under the roof of an inspiring host, held partly to amuse one another and partly to refine the taste and increase the knowledge of the participants through conversation.'

(wikipedia)

I will provide a bookish prompt or two to inspire our conversation.
However please feel free to discuss your current read or join in the conversation in any way that you see fit.

Amusement, refinement and knowledge will surely follow!

What are you currently reading?

See What I Have Done by Sarah Schmidt

Haunting, gripping and gorgeously written, SEE WHAT I HAVE DONE by Sarah Schmidt is a re-imagining of the unsolved American true crime case of the Lizzie Borden murders, for fans of BURIAL RITES and MAKING A MURDERER.

When her father and step-mother are found brutally murdered on a summer morning in 1892, Lizzie Borden - thirty two years old and still living at home - immediately becomes a suspect. But after a notorious trial, she is found innocent, and no one is ever convicted of the crime.

Meanwhile, others in the claustrophobic Borden household have their own motives and their own stories to tell: Lizzie's unmarried older sister, a put-upon Irish housemaid, and a boy hired by Lizzie's uncle to take care of a problem.

This unforgettable debut makes you question the truth behind one of the great unsolved mysteries, as well as exploring power, violence and the harsh realities of being a woman in late nineteenth century America.

How did you find out about this book?

I was given an ARC from Hachette Australia.

Why are you reading it now? 

See What I Have Done is due to be published in April.

I want to finish it before then!

First impressions? 

I'm loving the language - the feel of the hot, hot summer, the different perspectives, the doubts and suspicions. Wondering who Schmidt suspects of committing the murders - she's playing a close hand right now.

Which character do you relate to so far?

Hmmm not sure if I want to relate to anyone in this story so far!

Although I do feel for poor Bridget, the Irish maid, who got stuck working for this ghastly dysfunctional family.

Are you happy to continue?

Most definitely - I can't wait to see what Schmidt reveals.

I read Angela Carter's, The Fall River Axe Murders a few years ago and found her interpretation of what happened and why to be utterly fascinating.

Where do you think the story will go? 

Being based on a true story, certain facts are a given. but Schmidt is obviously open to seeing multiple perspectives. I'm very curious to see if she comes down on the same side as the jury did or if she interprets events differently.

I'm not normally into true crime or gruesome crime stories, but this one appeals to me for the psychology behind it all. The family was so dysfunctional but thanks to the times and the lack of modern police procedures and counselling, so much was left unexplored, unasked and assumed. Fertile ground for speculation and imagination.

What are you reading now?

Do you read true crime stories?

Brona's Salon: Satire

This year's Booker has been awarded to satire - again! I was dreading The Sellout winning the Booker because I really don't want to tackle another satire. No matter how worthy it may be.

Satire is used to highlight the foolishness or vices within a society of group. It can be categorised further into irony, sarcasm, exaggeration, ridicule and parody.

I don't mind some satire - some of my favourite books are satire - Pride and Prejudice, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, A Fraction of the Whole, The World According to Garp and Northanger Abbey for instance.

I enjoyed studying The Loved One, The Importance of Being Ernest and Animal Farm at school.
I have also appreciated the message/warning that is behind books like A Brave New World, Lord of the Flies and 1984.

But I often just get tired of the joke (I'm thinking of you Catch-22 and Jasper Fforde, Terry Pratchett and dare I say Douglas Adams - I adored Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy but I got very tired by the fifth book).

Or they just leave me cold (Cold Comfort Farm, Solar, The Finkler Question, American Psycho, A Clockwork Orange).

Garry Trudeau stated in an article in The Atlantic recently that,

Traditionally, satire has comforted the afflicted while afflicting the comfortable. Satire punches up, against authority of all kinds, the little guy against the powerful.

Tim Parks in the New York Review of Books said,

satire alludes to recognizable contemporary circumstances in a skewed and comic way so as to draw attention to their absurdity. There is mockery but with a noble motive: the desire to bring shame on some person or party behaving wrongly or ignorantly. Its raison d’ȇtre over the long term is to bring about change through ridicule; or if change is too grand an aspiration, we might say that it seeks to give us a fresh perspective on the absurdities and evils we live among, such that we are eager for change.

Since satire has this practical and pragmatic purpose, the criteria for assessing it are fairly simple: if it doesn’t point toward positive change, or encourage people to think in a more enlightened way, it has failed. 

I think the reason I often struggle with satire is that I have trouble seeing the 'noble motive', all I see is the 'mockery'. So I decided to circumvent the noble worthy motive and go straight to the heart of black comedy with this month's featured book for Brona's Salon.

Brona's Salon is a new meme which aims to gather a group of like-minded bookish people 'under the roof of an inspiring host, held partly to amuse one another and partly to refine the taste and increase the knowledge of the participants through conversation.'

(wikipedia)

I will provide a bookish prompt or two to inspire our conversation.
However please feel free to discuss your current read or join in the conversation in any way that you see fit.

Amusement, refinement and knowledge will surely follow!

What are you currently reading?

Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene

How did you find out about this book?

I was researching books set in Cuba to read in preparation for our trip to Cuba.
This was first on every list I found.

Yes *squeal* we're going to Cuba!

Why are you reading it now? 

Because our trip to Cuba is very, very soon!

First impressions? 

"Mr. Wormold, vacuum cleaner salesman in a city of powercuts, is, as always, short of money. His daughter, sixteen, followed everywhere by wolf whistles, is spending his money with a skill that amazes him, so when a mysterious Englishman offers him an extra income he's tempted. All he has to do is run agents, file reports: spy. But his fake reports have an alarming tendency to come true, and the web of lies he weaves around him starts to get more and more tangled."

Which character do you relate to so far?

I'm not sure you're meant to relate to any of these characters?
(which is another problem I often have with satire & it's related sub-genres)

Are you happy to continue?

Yes

Where do you think the story will go? 

I suspect they will get busted, but that it will all be covered up or glossed over.

The typical colonial experience when the British come to stay!

What has your experience with satire and black comedy been?

Brona's Salon: Historical Fiction

Whilst doing some research recently about Kate Grenville's The Secret River, I came across this fascinating article in The Quadrant from 2014.

This particular paragraph got me thinking -

Jewish scriptural writers have a tradition called midrash, which means writing about the present through the lens of the past. Writers of history run the risk of a sort of midrash in reverse—writing about the past through the lens of the present. Historians try as far as possible to avoid doing this—for novelists, the situation is not so clear-cut. Characters in novels are always hybrids, partly based on real people, but often stitched-together attributes of a number of different originals.

As a lover of history and historical fiction I have been exposed to oodles of midrash in reverse over the years.

Historical fiction is at it's best when it provides a fresh, modern look at what went before. It cannot change what happened, but it can provide insight it the why and how it happened. It has a licence to play with the nuances, but not with the basic facts that the reader knows or has ready access to. It can bring to life a time long gone. It can makes us feel like we are there witnessing the events - with one foot in the past (where the characters are experiencing their version of now) and one foot clearly planted in our now (giving us the advantages of hindsight).

I'm also curious about how we apply midrash in reverse to our own life stories. Maturity and experience can give us remarkable insights into our past behaviours and actions, but we can never go back to change what happened or whisper words of wisdom to our earlier selves. All we can do is use our new hard won insights to help us move forward. We can apologise for our past wrongs and learn from our mistakes.

To my mind, truly great historical fiction illuminates the past in such a way that it makes us feel unsure of what might happen...even though we know exactly what does happen!

Historical fiction that allows its characters to inhabit their times, so that we can actually see it through their eyes as being the modern, new world that they're living through, can be a difficult task and is often where writers of historical fiction come unstuck.

My current read is one of those books where the writer has achieved this incredible feat of making the past come alive. Which brings us nicely into the realm of Brona's Salon.

Brona's Salon is a new meme which aims to gather a group of like-minded bookish people 'under the roof of an inspiring host, held partly to amuse one another and partly to refine the taste and increase the knowledge of the participants through conversation.'

(wikipedia)

I will provide a bookish prompt or two to inspire our conversation.
However please feel free to discuss your current read or join in the conversation in any way that you see fit.

Amusement, refinement and knowledge will surely follow!

What are you currently reading?

The Last Days of Night by Graham Moore

A thrilling novel based on actual events, about the nature of genius, the cost of ambition, and the battle to electrify America—from the Oscar-winning screenwriter of The Imitation Game and New York Times bestselling author of The Sherlockian.

New York, 1888. Gas lamps still flicker in the city streets, but the miracle of electric light is in its infancy. The person who controls the means to turn night into day will make history—and a vast fortune. A young untested lawyer named Paul Cravath, fresh out of Columbia Law School, takes a case that seems impossible to win. Paul’s client, George Westinghouse, has been sued by Thomas Edison over a billion-dollar question: Who invented the light bulb and holds the right to power the country?

The case affords Paul entry to the heady world of high society—the glittering parties in Gramercy Park mansions, and the more insidious dealings done behind closed doors. The task facing him is beyond daunting. Edison is a wily, dangerous opponent with vast resources at his disposal—private spies, newspapers in his pocket, and the backing of J. P. Morgan himself. Yet this unknown lawyer shares with his famous adversary a compulsion to win at all costs. How will he do it?

In obsessive pursuit of victory, Paul crosses paths with Nikola Tesla, an eccentric, brilliant inventor who may hold the key to defeating Edison, and with Agnes Huntington, a beautiful opera singer who proves to be a flawless performer on stage and off. As Paul takes greater and greater risks, he’ll find that everyone in his path is playing their own game, and no one is quite who they seem.

How did you find out about this book?

One of our regular customers at work mentioned a great review she had read about this book.
By the time she had finished telling me about it, I knew I would have to read the book myself!

Why are you reading it now? 

This close to Christmas I have trouble concentrating and staying focused.
I either need to read quick, easy kids books or a book that will totally suck me in from page one.
I suspected that The Last Days of Night might be one of those.

First impressions? 

And it was.

From page one, with its map of New York, I was hooked.
I'm now 38% through and I can barely put it down to write this post!

It's entertaining, informative, engaging and fascinating.
I feel like I'm living in New York circa 1888.

Which character do you relate to so far?

Our narrator, Westinghouse's lawyer, Paul Cravath was a good choice by Moore.
This was his first big case, so it almost reads like his coming of age story - full of the fumbling foibles of youth, and its arrogance as well.
It's easy to feel for Paul as he tries to make his mark on the world, to become one of New York's main players...only to discover that he may not like the game that everyone is playing after all.

Are you happy to continue?

Most definitely.

This is a ripping yarn with some dramatic images and tantalising scenes.
From the opening scene of a Western Union electrician being burnt alive above the streets of Broadway to one of Marguerite Westinghouse's famous dinner parties.

Where do you think the story will go? 

We all know where this stories goes.
It's what happens along the way that makes this so fascinating.
Some of the details may have been lost to history, but Moore has unearthed and enhanced them to create this wonderful book about ambition, power and progress.

Top left, clockwise - Paul Cravath, Nikola Tesla, George Westinghouse, J.P. Morgan, Thomas Edison & Agnes Huntington 

What have you been reading lately?
Are you a fan of historical fiction?
What was your favourite historical fiction read this year?

Brona's Salon

Brona's Salon is a new meme which aims to gather a group of like-minded bookish people 'under the roof of an inspiring host, held partly to amuse one another and partly to refine the taste and increase the knowledge of the participants through conversation.'

(wikipedia)

I will provide a few prompts to inspire our conversation.
However please feel free to discuss your current read or join in the conversation in any way that you see fit.

Amusement, refinement and knowledge will surely follow!

What are you currently reading?

In honour of #AusReadingMonth I will highlight my latest Aussie read.

A group of visitors to the Salzburg Festival, brought together by chance, decides to mark time by telling tales. 

Their fantasies, legends, tragedies, jokes and parodies come together as The Salzburg Tales.

Dazzling in their richness and vitality, the tales are grounded in Christina Stead's belief that 'the story is magical . what is best about the short story [is] it is real life for everyone; and everyone can tell one'. 

Originally published eighty years ago, these are thoroughly modern stories that invite comparison with Boccaccio's Decameron and Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales.

The Salzburg Tales are published here with a new introduction by Margaret Harris, Challis Professor of English Literature Emerita at the University of Sydney, and literary executor for Christina Stead.

Christina Stead (1902 - 1983) was Australian born and wrote a number of her novels and short stories set in Australia, but she lived most of her life overseas and just as many of her books are set elsewhere. My current read is one of those.

Stead spent most her childhood in Watsons Bay with a houseful of half-siblings and a domineering father. Her unhappy childhood was fictionalised in probably her most well-known novel The Man Who Loved Children. Sadly she never won any major literary award, and it has been said that she only returned to Australia in 1974, after the death of her husband, because she had been denied an award due to not being Australian enough.

On her return, she was awarded the inaugural Patrick White Literary Award, which awards established writers for their body of work.

She died on the 31st March, 1983 in Balmain (where I now live) which has now made me curiously even more curious about this very curious woman.

How did you find out about this book?

Why are you reading it now? 

I 'discovered' this book thanks to Lisa @ANZLitLovers LitBlog who is hosting a Christina Stead Week on her blog. I decided this was too good an opportunity to miss out on during #AusReadingMonth and since I had never read any of Stead's books before, I decided to start at the very beginning.

First impressions? 

I struggled at the start.

The writing seemed very dense and almost impenetrable.

But I was attempting to start this book late at night when I was really tired already.

I knew nothing about it (I don't read Introductions in case they contain spoilers) so I was going in completely cold.

After two nights I was beginning to think this book was not for me.

But I was determined not to fail!

Saturday morning saw me with coffee and pencil in hand, fresh faced and wide awake, ready to get stuck in.

With careful reading and judicious underlining, I found my way in.

My immediate surprise was that this is not really a short story collection.

It's a novel told as stories within a story, just like The Canterbury Tales (which I attempted to read at too young an age). This is Stead's homage to Chaucer and Boccaccio.

The narrators share a common place - The Salzburg Festival (which Stead attended in 1930) but it's too soon to see what other links or common themes might exist.

Which character do you relate to so far?

All the characters/narrators are introduced in the second chapter.

Some get two pages of description whilst others barely get two paragraphs.

So far, I'm curious to hear about what The Viennese Conductor, The School Teacher and the Danish Woman will have to say in their stories.

Are you happy to continue?

I'm intrigued to see how well the various stories will link up or flow together.

It feels like an ambitious effort for a debut author.

Where do you think the story will go? 

I'm not sure if all the stories will somehow relate back the the Salzburg Festival or whether each narrator will provide the impetus for the next story to continue instead.

I am once again curious to tackle The Canterbury Tales.

Brona's Salon

Brona's Salon is a new meme which aims to gather a group of like-minded bookish people 'under the roof of an inspiring host, held partly to amuse one another and partly to refine the taste and increase the knowledge of the participants through conversation.'

(wikipedia)

I will provide a few prompts to inspire our conversation.
However please feel free to discuss your current read or join in the conversation in any way that you see fit.

Amusement, refinement and knowledge will surely follow!

What are you currently reading?

I'm currently reading His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnet. 

How did you find out about this book?

The Shadow (wo)man Booker group read and reviewed this book.

It was one that was generally enjoyed, with some reservations about it being worthy enough for a literary award. 

Why are you reading it now? 

I'm trying to read half the Booker shortlist before the big announcement next week. 

First impressions? 

Entertaining historical fiction with a metafiction touch - is this a memoir or not? 

What is real? What is fiction?
Is there such a thing as fictional true crime?

Metafiction seems to be a literary device that lots of writers are playing with right now.

I'm thinking of Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien with her book within the book, Elena Ferrante's ambiguous 'is it memoir is it real' Neapolitan tetraology, Michelle de Kretser's Springtime: A Ghost Story with its discussion mid-story about the nature of ghost stories, Kent Haruf's use of the same fictional town in all his stories and the referencing of his previous books in Our Souls At Night and Alain de Botton's use of footnotes to address issues brought up in his narrative in The Course of Love.

And that's just some of the books I've read this year that can be classified as metafiction!

Wikipedia describes metafiction as -

A story about a writer who creates a story.
A story that features itself as a narrative or as a physical object.
A story containing another work of fiction within itself.
Narrative footnotes which continue the story while commenting on it.
A story that reframes or suggests a radically different reading of another story.
A story addressing the specific conventions of story, such as title, character conventions, paragraphing or plots.
A novel where the narrator intentionally exposes him or herself as the author of the story.
A story in which the authors refers to elements of the story as both fact and fiction.
A book in which the book itself seeks interaction with the reader.
 A story in which the readers of the story itself force the author to change the story.
A story in which the characters are aware that they are in a story.
A story in which the characters make reference to the author or his previous work.

Have you read any metafiction books recently?

Which character do you relate to so far?

I'm not sure if relate is the right word, but I certainly feel empathy for Roddy's sister Jetta.

She has no rights, no protection but all the care and responsibility of looking after her family.

Are you happy to continue?

So far.

I can see Burnet building a case whereby the bullying, mean, officious Mackenzie Broad family got what they deserved (by being murdered), but it seems too neat and too obvious.
Is Roddy a reliable narrator?
The Macrae stoicism and acceptance of fate as being their lot in life feels a trifle overdone.
I'm enjoying the details of Scottish croft life - as bleak and as hard as it was.

Despite the topic, this is a fun psychological thriller read, but I can feel a bit of a drag creeping in.
I hope Burnet doesn't get bogged down or lose his way.

Where do you think the story will go? 

We know that Roddy killed the Mackenzie Broad's from the start. 

He didn't hide or deny what happened.

But is he covering for someone - his father? his sister?

I can see that his advocate is leaning towards an insanity plea - is this a ploy? Or a real concern about Roddy's mental state.
His journal currently presents a logical, thoughtful, intelligent man.

Brona's Salon

I miss my old book club. A lot.

I miss discussing books with a group of like-minded, or at least fellow-minded bookish folk.

Each month we used to discuss our shared book, but we always left time at the end to chat about the other books we were reading too.

I do now get to discuss books at work (actually we discuss books at work all the time!) but it's usually on the fly. Quick comparisons or updates to let each other know what we like or don't like or who this particular book might work for (customer wise).

But it's not as satisfying as a bookclub style good old book natter (with a glass of fine wine in hand). These bookish  chats could go anywhere.
They could end up as book-movie comparisons, history discussions, author news (okay gossip!), character assassinations, what made a book a classic, or not.

This kind of bookclub chat may or may not work on a blog, but I thought it was worth a shot to recapture the old bookclub love.

I'll include a linky below. If you'd like to join in with what you're reading right now, then I'd love to chat about it with you...in Brona's Salon.

What are your currently reading?

On and off, all that hot French August, we made ourselves ill from eating the greengages.... 

The faded elegance of Les Oeillets, with its bullet-scarred staircase and serene garden bounded by high walls; Eliot, the charming Englishman who became the children's guardian while their mother lay ill in hospital; sophisticated Mademoiselle Zizi, hotel patronne, and Eliot's devoted lover; 16 year old Joss, the oldest Grey girl, suddenly, achingly beautiful. And the Marne river flowing silent and slow beyond them all.... 

They would merge together in a gold-green summer of discovery, until the fruit rotted on the trees and cold seeped into their bones.... 

The Greengage Summer is Rumer Godden's tense, evocative portrait of love and deceit in the Champagne country of the Marne-which became a memorable film starring Kenneth More and Susannah York. 

How did you find out about this book?

A few months ago at work I was researching the best coming of age books for YA readers.

This was high up on the list. 

I had never heard of it before & the blurb made me curious.

Why are you reading it now? 

I'm in the middle of the Booker shortlisted book, Do Not Say We Have Nothing. 

I'm loving it, but we've just had a hugely busy week with Mr Book's 50th birthday. 

I've been too tired every night to concentrate on DNSWHN properly & I really want to do it properly. I needed something lighter and less challenging to get me through this Festival of 50 week.

The Greengage Summer has been the perfect choice so far.

First impressions? 

Delicious descriptions of the landscapes and the main characters.
I feel like I'm in the middle of summer in France!

I was a little confused at the start about the gender of all the children.

The amount of French phrases and dialogue is making it hard for this non-French speaker to know what's going on. Godden mostly gives clues in the responses, but I hate not knowing what's being said - exactly.

Which character do you relate to so far?

Our narrator, Cecil(ia).

She's not quite child; not quite adult at 13 years of age.
She struggles to find her sense of belonging.
She has lots of big ideas about how one should be when one travels.
She is a lovely mix of insecurity, strong opinions and insightful comments.

Are you happy to continue?

Definitely! 

Where do you think the story will go? 

I hope no-one is taken against their will (sexually speaking).
I suspect, though, that it will mostly be a messy flirtation with complicated consequences.

I'm halfway through and I can't wait to find out what Eliot's secret is.

I believe there was a movie made too.

Have you read or watched The Greengage Summer?
What are your memories of it?
Should I try to find the movie?

Apparently The Greengage Summer was loosely based on a real summer holiday that Godden had with her family as a teenager.

According to Wikipedia, a salon is

a gathering of people under the roof of an inspiring host, held partly to amuse one another and partly to refine the taste and increase the knowledge of the participants through conversation.

I'm willing to be your 'inspiring' host, if you're willing to be amusing and refined!