Calypso by David Sedaris
Certainly a book to delight me for David Sedaris is a raconteur par excellence whom I have heard on Radio 4,. He is an American humourist, comedian, author, and radio contributor. He was publicly recognized in 1992 when National Public Radio broadcast his essay "Santaland Diaries." He published his first collection of essays and short stories, Barrel Fever, in 1994. Much of his humour is ostensibly autobiographical and self-deprecating and often concerns his family life, his middle-class upbringing in the suburbs of Raleigh, North Carolina, his Greek heritage, homosexuality, jobs, education, drug use, and obsessive behaviours, as well as his life in France, London, and the English South Downs. I have enjoyed the Sedaris radio series for years so was delighted when my Splinter friend Jan recommended the book. Sedaris is at his best, for me, when he is on family stuff, notably his father!
For good measure, here is what Amazon has to say:
If you've ever laughed your way through David Sedaris's cheerfully misanthropic stories, you might think you know what you're getting with Calypso. You'd be wrong.
When he buys a beach house on the Carolina coast, Sedaris envisions long, relaxing vacations spent playing board games and lounging in the sun with those he loves most. And life at the Sea Section, as he names the vacation home, is exactly as idyllic as he imagined, except for one tiny, vexing realization: it's impossible to take a vacation from yourself.
With Calypso, Sedaris sets his formidable powers of observation toward middle age and mortality. Make no mistake: these stories are very, very funny - it's a book that can make you laugh 'til you snort, the way only family can. Sedaris's writing has never been sharper, and his ability to shock readers into laughter unparalleled. But much of the comedy here is born out of that vertiginous moment when your own body betrays you and you realize that the story of your life is made up of more past than future.
This is beach reading for people who detest beaches, required reading for those who loathe small talk and love a good tumour joke. Calypso is simultaneously Sedaris's darkest and warmest book yet - and it just might be his very best.
What I say: Recommended.Praxis by Fay Weldon
The only thing this book has in common with Calypso is the etymology of the title word, sharing as it does with Calypso, an ancient Greek origin.
I had not read any Fay Weldon before but this book fell into my pot because it was Shortlisted for the Man Booker and is therefore, for me, a 'set book'! I could not possibly say in a short paragraph or two what the book is about or what I felt about it. It is variously described as 'a powerful marvellous novel.... about madness, deceit and the will to survive' and perhaps most succinctly 'Fay Weldon has compressed in her account of the life of one woman an entire spectru of women's lives.'
Praxis tells the story of a woman from childhood to adulthood. The book begins in wartime Brighton and follows Praxis in her various personalities - whore, adulteress and finally murderer.
Praxis Duveen is a survivor. At five years old, in 1920s England, she is still innocent, the product of an unstable mother and a flighty father who abandoned Praxis and her half-crazy sister, Hypatia. As the decades fly by, Praxis experiences many incarnations, from prostitute to rape victim, wife to adulteress and eventually becomes the accidental leader of an international women's movement.
Now, from her dingy basement apartment, where she's attempting to write a memoir, Praxis tells about the story of her remarkable journey – peppered with more than a few detours along the way...
Now in her ninth decade, Fay Weldon is one of the foremost chroniclers of our time, a novelist who spoke to an entire generation of women by daring to say the things that no one else would. Her work ranges over novels, short stories, children's books, nonfiction, journalism, television, radio, and the stage. She was awarded a CBE in 2001.
Do I recommend this book? I actually found Praxis rather bleak and depressing. It really did lower my mood whilst reading it. The book seemed to contain no joy, other than the sexual gratification which Praxis derived from her various relationships. And even there joy might not be the most apposite word to use. However, it was one of those books that reads itself, and is a social document of the period that it covers.
Cockroaches by Jo Nesbo
I like Jo Nesbo's thrillers. So, evidently, do the Norwegian people. More than 3 million copies of his novels have been sold in Norway, which has a population of 5,300,000.
https://jonesbo.com/
and is best known for his protagonist, the Oslo detective Harry Hole. His books are listed in publication order here:
https://www.bookseriesinorder.com/jo-nesbo/
Synopsis: Detective Harry Hole arrives in steaming hot Bangkok. The Norwegian ambassador has been found dead in a seedy motel room, and Harry has been sent to investigate. It’s clear that the Ambassador’s family are hiding some secrets of their own, but few people are willing to talk.
When Harry lays hands on some incriminating CCTV footage, things only get more complicated. The man who gave him the tape goes missing, and Harry realises that failing to solve a murder case is by no means the only danger that faces the unwary. But in an unfamiliar city, who can you trust?
I enjoyed it. It was time to read a thriller and this fitted the bill. That's it.
