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Post by Guest on Feb 18, 2024 22:38:11 GMT
The Moon is a Balloon by David Niven.
I've always heard that this was an entertaining read but just now got around to reading it. It covers his Dickensian upbringing, his years as a soldier,to his time in Hollywood, and his service in WWII. The book ends about the time he made The Guns of Navarone.
It's a breezy read with plenty of names dropped. However, some of his tales as a young soldier blend into each other and could have been pared down. I did wonder how accurate some of his stories were and according to wiki, he liberally borrowed and embellished stories from others. 🙄
I may try to track down a copy of his Bring On the Empty Horses which is about movie making in the 1930's and '40s.
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Post by Fading Fast on Feb 22, 2024 23:09:04 GMT
Landfall by Nevil Shute published in 1940
Nevil Shute was a prolific author - and an aeronautical engineer - which gives his wartime romance and adventure novels, like Landfall, an insider's knowledge of a pilot's challenges. Yet Shute never lets technical details overwhelm his fun and engaging story.
Roderick Chambers is a pilot in the Royal Air Force at the outbreak of WWII. He guards the Channel Islands flying daily reconnaissance missions with one of the goals being to sink German subs that have been wreaking havoc with British shipping.
Chambers is a bit of a loner, but respectful of orders, diligent and extremely studied. He often relaxes at a pub near the aerodrome where, one day, he meets Mona, a barmaid not of his class, which was a real issue in that time and place.
On a flight, Chambers sinks what he believes is a German sub, but which the British Navy says was one of its own. Chambers asserts he identified the sub by its markings. He notes, too, he checked beforehand and there weren't supposed to be any British subs in the area.
A Navy court of inquiry finds that the sub was British, but it was off course, so Chamber is found not guilty. Still, the event mars his record as the court notes that it believes he was careless in checking the sub's markings.
The background to all this is a battle between the Navy and Air Force over control of flights like Chambers’, so he and his career becomes a pawn in this interservice rivalry. The Navy-Air Force battle is well portrayed here as you see and feel the vicious turf war.
Shute takes you inside the offices and conference rooms where command decisions are made. You see military leaders trying to do the right thing, but also balancing their career prospects and reputations. As in real life, so much of what happens is morally grey.
Chambers and Mona had been getting close, but after this event, Chambers asks for a transfer as he feels the chill from the Navy. He shares the sub story with Mona and then is ordered to a base far away in Northern England.
That is the setup for what becomes a romance and quasi detective story as Mona, regularly overhearing things from the servicemen at the bar, recognizes a random tidbit of information that has relevance to Chambers' sub sinking.
At the same time, Chambers is, once again, transferred when he volunteers for a dangerous test-pilot assignment. The transfer brings him back near his old aerodrome, which allows Mona and him to resume their courtship.
Shute seamlessly weaves the two threads - the romance and the sub sinking - together with Mona proving to be a resourceful heroine. She is smart and intrepid in pursuing the truth and pushing the Navy to reopen the investigation.
Shute, through the romance, also explores the nuances of the British class system. It's a time when an officer would hurt his career by marrying a barmaid, but not nearly as much as it would have a generation ago. He captures the standards changing in real time.
He also shows Mona to be an astute realist as she doesn't want to thwart Chambers' professional advancement. She resists his proposal as she wants to, first, learn what being an officer's wife entails to see if she can, through study, help, not hurt, his career.
Most girls of her young age would be angry at the class difference impinging their romance, but thoughtful Mona accepts what she can't change - Navy prejudices - and looks to change what she can - her speech, mannerisms and social skills.
Today, of course, even in a period novel, Mona would be written as an incredibly independent woman with a mindset and values almost perfectly aligned to today's rigid ideas of feminism. She'd be more a time traveler than a character from her era.
If that is the book you want, the good news is the publishing houses churn them out with regularity. But if you want to see what a strong independent woman looked like in the context of her day, Mona is the girl for you.
The climax, no spoilers coming, pulls the story's multiple threads together in a rapid and dramatic series of events. Shute isn't Hemingway, but he does write intelligent and engaging pageturners with characters you'll quickly come to care about.
If you are new to Shute, know this short, enjoyable book is not his best, but it is a good way to see if you like his style. Plus, Landfall is WWII history written in real time as, when it was published, the UK was still back on its heels hoping the US would join the fight.
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Post by NoShear on Feb 23, 2024 0:58:13 GMT
Landfall by Nevil Shute published in 1940
Nevil Shute was a prolific author - and an aeronautical engineer - which gives his wartime romance and adventure novels, like Landfall, an insider's knowledge of a pilot's challenges. Yet Shute never lets technical details overwhelm his fun and engaging story.
Roderick Chambers is a pilot in the Royal Air Force at the outbreak of WWII. He guards the Channel Islands flying daily reconnaissance missions with one of the goals being to sink German subs that have been wreaking havoc with British shipping.
Chambers is a bit of a loner, but respectful of orders, diligent and extremely studied. He often relaxes at a pub near the aerodrome where, one day, he meets Mona, a barmaid not of his class, which was a real issue in that time and place.
On a flight, Chambers sinks what he believes is a German sub, but which the British Navy says was one of its own. Chambers asserts he identified the sub by its markings. He notes, too, he checked beforehand and there weren't supposed to be any British subs in the area.
A Navy court of inquiry finds that the sub was British, but it was off course, so Chamber is found not guilty. Still, the event mars his record as the court notes that it believes he was careless in checking the sub's markings.
The background to all this is a battle between the Navy and Air Force over control of flights like Chambers’, so he and his career becomes a pawn in this interservice rivalry. The Navy-Air Force battle is well portrayed here as you see and feel the vicious turf war.
Shute takes you inside the offices and conference rooms where command decisions are made. You see military leaders trying to do the right thing, but also balancing their career prospects and reputations. As in real life, so much of what happens is morally grey.
Chambers and Mona had been getting close, but after this event, Chambers asks for a transfer as he feels the chill from the Navy. He shares the sub story with Mona and then is ordered to a base far away in Northern England.
That is the setup for what becomes a romance and quasi detective story as Mona, regularly overhearing things from the servicemen at the bar, recognizes a random tidbit of information that has relevance to Chambers' sub sinking.
At the same time, Chambers is, once again, transferred when he volunteers for a dangerous test-pilot assignment. The transfer brings him back near his old aerodrome, which allows Mona and him to resume their courtship.
Shute seamlessly weaves the two threads - the romance and the sub sinking - together with Mona proving to be a resourceful heroine. She is smart and intrepid in pursuing the truth and pushing the Navy to reopen the investigation.
Shute, through the romance, also explores the nuances of the British class system. It's a time when an officer would hurt his career by marrying a barmaid, but not nearly as much as it would have a generation ago. He captures the standards changing in real time.
He also shows Mona to be an astute realist as she doesn't want to thwart Chambers' professional advancement. She resists his proposal as she wants to, first, learn what being an officer's wife entails to see if she can, through study, help, not hurt, his career.
Most girls of her young age would be angry at the class difference impinging their romance, but thoughtful Mona accepts what she can't change - Navy prejudices - and looks to change what she can - her speech, mannerisms and social skills.
Today, of course, even in a period novel, Mona would be written as an incredibly independent woman with a mindset and values almost perfectly aligned to today's rigid ideas of feminism. She'd be more a time traveler than a character from her era.
If that is the book you want, the good news is the publishing houses churn them out with regularity. But if you want to see what a strong independent woman looked like in the context of her day, Mona is the girl for you.
The climax, no spoilers coming, pulls the story's multiple threads together in a rapid and dramatic series of events. Shute isn't Hemingway, but he does write intelligent and engaging pageturners with characters you'll quickly come to care about.
If you are new to Shute, know this short, enjoyable book is not his best, but it is a good way to see if you like his style. Plus, Landfall is WWII history written in real time as, when it was published, the UK was still back on its heels hoping the US would join the fight. I don't recall knowing of Nevil Shute's other occupation prior to reading your review here, Fading Fast, and this reminded me of another author, Irwin Stambler, who shared a similarity in disparate careers with Shute. Stambler, once an aerospace engineer, became a prodigious non-fiction writer, producing a diverse bibliography which included subjects such as spacey concept cars and spacey rock music:
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Post by kims on Mar 2, 2024 0:59:53 GMT
MCQUEEN by Christopher Sanford. Sorry, by chapter three, if I had a print version rather than e-book, I would have ripped out every page as I read it. I have a completion thing about books or I would have abandoned it. Author did the research and interviews, I confess I found it difficult to figure out what time period he was talking about. Written chronologically, he goes off on tangents of earlier or later times. Repeatedly he itemized the different personalities of Steve, the paranoia, he didn't care about his acting, he prepared meticulously for each film, family man, prolific womanizer, on and on. I thought, right, I got it. Author must idolize McQueen, fine, but I was hoping for a more balanced appraisal. To prove my point, author says Steve practically saved the film industry in '67 and '68 and no data to backup the statement. I looked up the films of those years and saw many fine films those years. The late '60s was when the multi-plexes sprung up like weeds. Costs of building theaters and the costs of heating and cooling alone would have daunted anyone if films were on the way out; and McQueen films were not filling all those screens.
The book will be a treat for anyone idolizing McQueen
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Post by kims on Mar 18, 2024 17:19:58 GMT
I finished George Plimpton's TRUMAN CAPOTE. It's a compilation of quotes by people who knew Capote with Plimpton providing some narrative background.
I like this style of getting different viewpoints from those who knew him. The varying opinions of the same event!! For instance, Chapter 35 is about ANSWERED PRAYERS is printed in Esquire magazine. Majority opinion was that the stories weren't literature, but gossip. Author Judy Green offers a unique opinion. ANSWERED PRAYERS was a tribute to the women for all they put up with from their terrible husbands.
If you are interested in Capote, this is a must read. Some of the swans are frequently quoted. It is awe inspiring how this funny man managed to befriend the rich and famous. In the back of the book is a short bio of the people interviewed. Incredible that he ensconced himself with so many notable people.
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Post by kims on Apr 1, 2024 16:09:07 GMT
I read TWILIGHT IN THE FORBIDDEN CITY. The author is Reginald Fleming Johnston, the character played by Peter O'Toole in THE LAST EMPEROR. Anyone who thinks the Dowager Empress before Pu Yi came to the throne, as many authors who did not live in China at the time believe, should read this-Johnston was there. This book made me realize how wrong outsiders can be, especially when those people do not understand the culture.
BUT, the real eye-opener is THE CALL, a novel by John Hersey who was the son of Chinese missionaries and lived in China before, during and after WWI. Did you know that over 400,000 Chinese peasants were sent to France to dig the trenches, recover and bury the dead then after the war were kept in France to fill all those trenches? I have not seen any documentaries mentioning Chinese in WWI. Remember that pesky treaty that severely punished Germany, guaranteeing that there would be a WWII? Same treaty ignores that the Chinese assisted the allies and allowed foreign nations greater Chinese enclaves than before.
I'm only 2/3's through the book at the point the Soviet/Stalin communists are rousing the Chinese peasants who distrusted the missionaries living like royalty while they espoused prayer would save the peasants. It is a great book for people curious about how Asia saw WWI and all the foreigners who came to exploit their resources and in theory came to civilize Asians. A reminder for me that all history did not occur in Europe and the U.S.
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Post by Fading Fast on Apr 1, 2024 21:19:06 GMT
Love Like The Falling Petals by Keisuke Uyama published in Japan in 2017 and released with an English translation in 2024
Love Like The Falling Petals is a contemporary romantic novel written by the popular Japanese author Keisuke Uyama that takes the reader on a heartbreaking but inspiring journey of love, loss, sickness and hope.
For American and European readers, it is also a wonderful window into modern Japanese culture, which has throwback characteristics that will be familiar to readers of classic early twentieth century Japanese literature like the noted Makioka Sisters by Junichiro Tanizaki.
For a young man, Haruto, it is love at first sight when he sees Misaki, the also young and just-starting-out hairstylist who slices his earlobe the first time she cuts his hair. From this inauspicious start, these two shy people hesitantly and awkwardly begin dating.
Unfortunately, Haruto, ashamed of his job as a clerk in a video rental store (who knew they still had those in Japan in 2017?), tells Misaki he's an up-and-coming photographer. Photography is his passion, but the job part is a lie he'll eventually and embarrassingly have to admit.
Misaki, who was orphaned at a young age and raised by her kind older brother, is realizing her dream to be a hairdresser. To her, it's a form of art that she can use to make people feel better about themselves.
Author Uyama beautifully captures the charming haltingness of Haruto and Misaki's aborning love. A trip to see the Cherry Blossom trees has logistical challenges, but they don't matter because just being together, as all young lovers know, is the point.
(Has there ever been a romantic novel in Japan written that doesn't include a date to see the Cherry Blossom trees in bloom?)
Haruto, when he finally confesses his lie, promises Misaki he will become the man - a successful photographer - that he said he was so that she'll be proud of him. They are two young lovers on their way to happiness until, bam!, Misaki is diagnosed with Werner Syndrome.
Colloquially known as "fast-forward disease" Misake learns she will age exceedingly rapidly and possibly die within the year. This sets up what becomes a story of separated lovers as Misaki, not wanting Haruto to see her age, breaks up with him without disclosing her illness.
The rest of the novel is Misaki coming to terms with a brutal disease that has her facing her fear of getting old and "ugly" in months not decades as Haruto tries to restart his life after his heart is broken by the breakup.
It's a sad story of love ennobling two people in very different ways especially as their lives take divergent paths. It's not always an easy book to read, but you become engaged with the characters and, often, can see the beauty amidst the heartbreak.
For non-Japanese readers, one also gets a sense of Eastern culture. Business, for instance, in Japan is much more hierarchical than in the West as Japanese bosses are almost always approached with respect while junior employees do not expect to have a voice.
The Eastern concept of "face saving" is also on display as a lot of effort will be expended to not be embarrassed publicly even over small things. "Being called out" on something is a much bigger deal in Japan than in the West.
Another different concept is that a business has a responsibility to or a relationship with a customer that goes much deeper than in countries like America. In Japan, a customer, even in a small retail transaction, is, at least on the surface, treated as more valuable than in the West.
Keisuke Uyama isn't yet a fully mature writer. His novel has some wonderful parts, but the story lacks some cohesion, as threads and characters are introduced, but then never fully developed or integrated.
Uyama is at his best capturing the inner feelings of his lead characters. You'll come to know and understand Haruto and Misaki as if they were your close friends or siblings. It's this intimacy that keeps you engaged despite the novel's shortcomings
Love Like the Falling Petals shows so much promise that Uyama will be worth watching as there might just be a great not simply good novel coming from him one day. He could, possibly, pen the next Makioka Sisters.
N.B. Of course not having read the Japanese version (and not being able to read Japanese), it's just an opinion, but the translation here feels a notch down from top-quality translations as some euphemisms and observations seem "off" to an American ear.
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Post by Hrothgar on Apr 26, 2024 4:11:42 GMT
The Post-Office Girl by Stefan Zweig first published posthumously in 1982, but written sometime in the interwar years of the 1920s and 1930s
In The Post-Office Girl, Austrian writer Stefan Zweig spins an engaging and, ultimately, noirish tale about a young woman, Christine, whose family was wiped out financially in World War I. This is not a war story, though, but a tale about that young woman's post-war struggles.
Once part of a middle-class Austrian family with a small business, the war destroyed the family's business and directly or indirectly took almost all of Christine's relatives.
Christine now lives with her infirmed mother. She also has an aunt who lives in America. A distant uncle secures Christine a position as the village's postal clerk, which provides just barely enough for her and her mother to get by.
With her tiny salary, a sick mother and no marriage prospects in her poor village, Christine, a happy child before the war, has become a sad, scared and introverted adult of twenty-eight. She drags herself to and from work each day with no hope for the future.
Then the American aunt, who married a rich industrialist, invites her for a two-week vacation to a luxury Alpine resort. Scared to go and embarrassed about her obvious poverty, she shows up, literally, a trembling woman, but then the aunt takes to reinventing her.
Sparing no expense, Christine is given or lent a stunning wardrobe, is coiffed by professionals and is "introduced" as the aunt's socially respectable cousin. For eight days, Christine lives life in a swirl of luxury and respectability she never even imagined existed.
It's the Dorothy in Oz moment, that is, for reasons best left for the reader to discover, all ended after eight glorious days as Christine is unceremoniously sent back to her provincial village with a few extra dollars and soul-crushing memories of a better life.
Christine returns to learn her mother died while she was away. Now embittered by it all, she becomes a tyrant at work, wielding her small office power with meanness. A chance meeting with a disaffected former soldier, Ferdinand, sets Christine on a path into noir land.
Ferdinand, an Austrian, has one of those Russian-like stories of hardship and struggle. Drafted in WWI, he was soon a prisoner of war, abused and nearly starved. He just missed being released in a prisoner exchange only to spend four more years starving in Siberia.
Once home, and with a permanent injury to one hand, the Austrian bureaucracy denies him a pension or aid. He has no money to return to his studies as an architect and all the jobs he gets are temporary and for small pay. He is an angry man.
With his articulate anti-capitalism and anti-government screeds, you'd think he'd be a communist, but what he really is, in his mind, is a nihilist. Most, though, would see him as a criminal.
With the war having shattered both their lives and poverty a daily struggle, Christine and Ferdinand form an unhealthy bond that fuels their grievances. They believe there is no honest way out of poverty for them, but others around them have rebuilt their post-war lives.
In an open-ended climax, no spoilers coming, Ferdinand tries to talk Christine into robbing the post office's safe. Will this once middle-class girl, whose life now has so little hope, agree to Ferdinand's detailed, but insane plan?
Author Zweig, writing well before film noir was a thing, penned a tale so full of human despair and of forces far beyond an individual's control that, in the 1940s, it wouldn't have taken much to turn his novel into an American film noir movie.
Zweig's story, though, is set in post-WWI Austria. It's clear his characters have suffered, but they have also made poor choices. History and even some of Zweig's own supporting characters argue the country's post-war story is more complex than Ferdinand asserts.
In The Post-Office Girl, Zweig writes engagingly about a long-since-past time and place. He brings his characters to life with sharply defined personalities and clear and understandable motivations. For us today, it's a moving bit of time travel with a surprising touch of noir.Zweig once wrote an interesting story about chess. A political prisoner was put in solitary. He managed to acquire a book on chess. He did not scheme for it, he knew nothing of chess. But it was all he had. He read through it and was able to decipher how the pieces move and studied all the games. Soon he knew them by heart and his mind began to spontaneously generate new ones. He played both sides. He was soon feverish with this activity and perhaps even insane. After he was released we see him on an ocean liner and learns that the World Champion of chess is on board heading for a venue where the next champion would be crowned. A game was played but I don't remember who won. The story gets murky for me at about this point. Gosh, I awful I am, but not so ; maybe one will find the story and find out. I truly don't know anything more. I don't even know the title of the book, it might have been a short story. Anyone interested might conduct an online search. Fascinating idea.
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