Archive - January 2013

Though I am a prolific reader of both Fiction and Non-Fiction I rarely read short stories or novellas.  This week however I made an exception and read a novella for the Kindle called Texting Orwell, by Ian Little.

Texting Orwell by Ian Little

Daniel and Debbie are employed at the same delivery company, Daniel is a delivery driver and Debbie works in the depot.  Daniel really likes Debbie and is keen to start a relationship with her.  However Daniel is a timid creature and has to date been unable to express his feelings for Debbie.  On the day in which the story is set Debbie phones in sick.  Daniel sees this as an opportunity to show that he cares for Debbie and decides to text her.  However as Daniel goes about his rounds he realises that he is quite uncertain what to say.   The unfolding story narrated from the perspective of both Daniel and Debbie follows their procrastinating efforts to communicate with one another.

Texting Orwell is essentially a light-hearted and humorous love story, in which the author’s lavatorial sense of humour is in evidence throughout.   I look forward to reading the author’s second book, Hell in the Kitchen.

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If you haven’t already you might be interested in checking out the Book Review section of this website.  There are currently twenty-five reviews for a wide range of books by authors such as John Steinbeck, George Orwell, Bret Easton Ellis, Hilary Mantel, Gustave Flaubert and many others.

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Guy Portman is the author of Charles Middleworth,  a humorous tale of the unexpected.  Charles Middleworth is available from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk in both paperback and on the Kindle.

The following is the blurb for Charles Middleworth:

What happens when Adrian, an actuary, has his banal and predictable existence turned upside down by sinister forces that he can neither understand nor control?  How will he react to a revelation that leaves his life in turmoil?  Will he surrender or strive for redemption in an altered world, where rationality, scientific logic and algorithms no longer provide the answers?

See what reviewers are saying about Charles Middleworth:

‘An insightful and humorous tale of the unexpected’

‘A sardonic delight.  If Thackeray had lived in the 21st century, then he might have written Charles Middleworth.’

‘Charles Middleworth is a literary masterpiece with a carefully woven plot.’

This week I read another Steinbeck book, Sweet Thursday, which I review below.

Sweet Thursday by John Steinbeck

Set after the end of The War, Sweet Thursday is the sequel to the popular Cannery Row.  The nostalgic return to the setting of the first book finds Cannery Row, Monterrey, largely unchanged, with the Palace Flophouse, The Bear Flag, the store and Western Biological all still in existence; only the canneries have closed, a result of over-fishing.  Mack, Hazel, Whitey number one and the others still reside in the Flophouse; only Gay is missing, having perished in The War.  The new madam of The Bear Flag is the affable Fauna and an enterprising man named Joseph and Mary has replaced the departed Lee Chong as the owner of the store.

Doc, recently returned from war duty, finds that his marine specimen business, Western  Biological, has been so poorly managed in his absence that it is close to collapse. The generous and popular Doc is also depressed, lonely and struggling to find meaning in his life, much to the concern of his devoted friends, who are determined to do anything they can to help him.  Fauna makes the decision to match Doc with the latest addition to The Bear Flag, the attractive and argumentative Suzy.  The book follows the close-knit community’s well meaning, often humorous and sometimes disastrous efforts to get the two of them together.

Sweet Thursday is in essence a love story, in which the author’s wisdom and humanity is in evidence throughout.  This is one of Steinbeck’s lighter and more optimistic novels; less disturbing than the epic Grapes of Wrath or the political novel, In Dubious Battle, for example, but none the less a profound work in its own right.  Whilst the reader would undoubtedly enjoy this book more having read the prequel Cannery Row first, it is not essential to do so.

This week’s blog post takes the form of a review of Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse, a fascinating and insightful book that I was given for christmas.

Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse

Published in 1927, Steppenwolf is a complex and influential book that achieved cult status in the 1960’s when it was embraced by the counter-culture as a reaction against the modern world. The psychological impact of this highly original and thought provoking work continues to resonate even to this day.

The book’s central character is a reclusive intellectual by the name of Harry Haller. Harry, who is in the midst of a prolonged and severe mid-life crisis, not only despises his bourgeois existence, but is also afflicted by physical ailments including gout, in addition to suffering from a mental illness that has tarnished his very soul. So incapable is Harry of embracing all that life has to offer that he is continually deliberating on the potential benefits of suicide.

Ever obsessed with his condition, the introverted academic has surmised that his character is made up of two separate and non-reconcilable parts, one of which is human and the other wolf. Harry believes that the human elements of his psyche consist of the aesthetic and intellectual attributes, whilst the wolf, which he names Steppenwolf is responsible for the uncontrollable part of his nature; his impulses, instincts and urges. This conclusion causes Harry great distress and contributes to his overwhelming sense of self-loathing and increasing disdain for life.

One night after a solitary visit to a drinking establishment, Harry comes across a lengthy pamphlet that refutes his theory as being oversimplified, stating that in reality an individual is made up of a multiplicity of souls, a concept incidentally embraced by Nietzsche. In typical fashion Harry deliberates upon the pamphlet’s theory before rejecting its contents. The course of Harry’s life is set for change however when shortly thereafter he meets the mysterious Hermione, who introduces him to dancing. A belated sexual education through a girl named Maria follows, before events culminate in a masked ball and a trip to a magic theatre, where sequentially Harry is confronted with his various selves. These selves connect with his memories from childhood, sexual inhibitions and even his reaction against a modern world in a scene where he finds himself shooting at cars.

Steppenwolf is essentially an autobiographical account of the examination of the development of a character. It has been argued that the author wrote this narrative for self-therapeutic purposes, in order to rid his soul of the negativity that had blighted it and that one of the book’s characters, a non-judgmental and liberal musician by the name of Pablo is in essence a psychotherapist. Certainly there is an existential philosophical aspect to the book, both in the manner in which Haller probes his psyche and the role of ‘the immortals’, the author Goethe and Haller’s own hero Mozart, whom he meets in one of the sequences at the magic theatre, when a relaxed, benign and accepting Mozart is soaring contentedly through the sky, Haller clutching to his hair; surely symbolic of freedom in a timeless reality, a world that has transcended our own.

The book has been compared to a sonata, not only because it consists of three distinct parts, but also because the prose is flowing, rhythmic and poetic, giving Steppenwolf an almost magical quality. Though there are many aspects of this diverse, profound and intellectual book that can be deliberated upon, it is above all the fact that people have been able to identify with the main character’s self-hatred and inability to accept life that is the reason for Steppenwolf’s lasting legacy.