Then We Came to the End / The Dinner Party

I just read Then We Came to the End, by Joshua Ferris and  loved it. It’s written – uniquely – in the collective first person; a device which was well sustained through the book and never felt gimmicky. Then We Came to the End takes place in an office amid the global recession, and is satirical of office life, and extremely funny.

I met Joshua Ferris at a recent Bookslam event, where he was reading from his new book, The Unnamed (now in a queue on my shelf), and he signed my book. He was very gracious and sincere; was grateful when I complimented him!

I’d like my next book to be a kind of Credit Crunch Catch-22, and I hope it can be half as good as this book.

I first discovered Joshua Ferris through this story, one of my favourite published in The New Yorker during 2008. Enjoy.

“She was game, his wife. She spoke to him in bad taste freely and he considered it one of her best qualities.”

Complicity by Julian Barnes

Possibly my favourite short story in The New Yorker this year.

I love how intimate the story is, how artfully Barnes draws you into it with his narrator’s digressions and remembrances; how he makes you complicit in his story (complicit per his definition, which I also prefer!)

Some great insights too – like the best fiction, it is true.

I haven’t read any Julian Barnes before, but intend to now.

Lawrence of Arabia (1962) (David Lean) 9/10

I finally got around to watching Lawrence of Arabia after reading this article by Malcolm Gladwell in the New Yorker.

It is a magnificent and epic film, sweeping, inspiring, and beautiful to watch. Peter O’Toole is supernaturally compelling; his eyes an otherworldly blue, his voice mellifluous and poetic (why isn’t he spoken of more as one of the all-time screen romantic gods?) His dialogue is great too – read this.

The cinematography is constantly breathtaking – the famous long shot of Omar Sharif’s floating mirage entry on the horizon; the huge battles (including hundreds of extras, trains derailing, etc. – all without CGI!)

The rest of the cast are beyond excellent: Alec Guinness, Anthony Quinn, Omar Sharif, Jack Hawkins…

I can’t commend this enough.

Sinking the boat or missing the boat

Liked this article a lot. Anybody who loses their job in this market should start their own business.

RIP John Updike

This New Yorker piece on John Updike is golden.

I adored his Rabbit novels and many of his short stories.

And this is one of the most beautiful pieces of sports writing I’ve ever read. “Gods do not answer letters”.