Any of you donkeys ever...

[Mikey]

Gorky Park was a great read, when I read it, which seems like it must have been 20 years ago. I haven't read any of MCS's other novels but will have to check them out. I've read most of le Carré's novels and have always enjoyed them. Definitely not the action packed thrillers but enjoyable nonetheless. And this comes from somebody who used to think that Robert Ludlum was the be all to end all of the genre. I'm currently re-reading Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy and only getting through 10 or 20 pages a night before falling asleep.

Ken Follett is great, though I think he's pretty much changed his subject matter of late.

Big fan of Raymond Chandler and Elmore Leonard. Leonard's plots are pretty predictable but a lot of fun anyway.

[Van]

mvscal, I'm merely making a joke about the battle Dins and Goobs had in this thread about King's/Queen's English. It wasn't my battle, nor did I have any question about it.

Truman, the irony to me of le Carré's works is that his most popular and widely acclaimed efforts are also his driest ones from very early in his career: The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and, a decade later, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. While brilliantly written as always, yes, those are easily two of the most tedious things of his I've read, mainly due to that detached, unemotional, utter lack of resolve/benign fatalism he applies to the subject. In both cases they're treatises on the same theme: his personal cynicism towards the soulless political game of East vs West and nation vs nation.

They're bitter narratives bordering on a slow bleed, which, I suppose, is precisely why critics love them so much since they fly in the face of the jingoistic silliness of, say, any Ian Fleming novel. Instead his are sober, thoughtful retrospectives on a harshly contested yet entirely false and ultimately pointless enterprise.

Where he becomes a much more enjoyable read is in things such as The Night Manager, Our Game and The Secret Pilgrim. These are less MI6 memoirs and more traditional plot-driven fiction. While Our Game does involve British Intelligence and his usual cynicism in regards to its basic pettiness, here is where he truly blew me away with some of his flowing, brilliantly intuitive descriptions. His observations of the maddeningly inscrutable female protagonist and of peoples' reflexive mannerisms in general are just outstanding. He is similarly outstanding in The Night Game, where he drops the entire Cold War oeuvre in favor of a sprawling fiction of a character haunted by "the most evil man in the world," a suave devil of an expatriot British druglord.

Different territory for him, and much more entertaining. Things like The Constant Gardener, yep, they're a bitch to enjoy on any sort of "fun reading" level.

[Truman]

If you enjoyed Gorky Park, Mikey, then you’ll thank me later after reading the rest of the Renko series. Arkady’s fall throughout is spectacular, but his dogged determination to solve the crime despite the State is spectacular.

Follet HAS changed his subject matter – but Pillars of the Earth and World Without End are both well worth the effort. His historical interpretation of Medieval England and its politics and architecture is incredibly enlightening. And his new series, the Century Trilogy, got off to a roaring start with “Fall of Giants”. This series appears to be written in the spirit of James Clavell’s novels that followed the fortunes of the Straun’s and Dunross’s from Imperial Japan to 1980’s Iran. Another terrific novelist taken well before his time…

[Van]

Kinda like Screwball, huh?

[Dinsdale]

mvscal, I'm merely making a joke about the battle Dins and Goobs had in this thread about King's/Queen's English. It wasn't my battle, nor did I have any question about it.

Wasn't much of a battle -- one of us is a citizen of the UK.

[Truman]

...le Carré's works... (are) bitter narratives bordering on a slow bleed, which, I suppose, is precisely why critics love them so much since they fly in the face of the jingoistic silliness of, say, any Ian Fleming novel. Instead his are sober, thoughtful retrospectives on a harshly contested yet entirely false and ultimately pointless enterprise.

Ian Fleming? Ever read Clive Cussler or Ted Bell? They're the bradhusker of modern-day novelists. You will easily become dumber for the effort. This board offers a more compelling diversion than those two....

[Truman]

mvscal, I'm merely making a joke about the battle Dins and Goobs had in this thread about King's/Queen's English. It wasn't my battle, nor did I have any question about it.

Wasn't much of a battle -- one of us is a citizen of the UK.

Didn't you have to declare citizenry at 18, Dins? I was unaware that dual citizenry/subjectry was recognized in the United States past this age....

[Van]

Truman, I've a read a fuckton of Clive Cussler and...



Now I can't help but think, 'Dins Pitt, NUMA operative.'

Dammit.

[Truman]

How do think I knew, Van?

[Van]

I have no fucking clue! How did you know?!



Never read Ted Bell. That name sounds familiar, though. Isn't he that late-night radio talkshow guy who's big on conspiracy theories?

[Truman]

Um, because I've read Cussler?

Have no insight as to Bell's day job. Family members present his stuff to me as gifts, so I'm obliged to read them. You're not missing anything, Van.

[Van]

Cussler is sort of Ludlum Lite, or maybe even Diet Baldacci. And yeah, like Mikey, I've probably read more Ludlum than anyone else of that genre. Though to a lesser degree than Clancy, he's nonetheless the polar opposite of le Carré.

[Truman]

Clancy: Talk about an author that fell off a cliff...

[Van]

Pretty much how it seems to me, yep. Considering where he was during the Without Remorse era to where he is now with his latest collaborative franchises, he appears to be simply mailing it in these days.

[War Wagon]

I'm writing some of this shit down for my next trip to the library, but unlike Mikey, can only read 10 pages or so a night before the crash and burn. My books are always late being returned.

Probably beneath you literary snobs, but I'm currently reading The Hittite by Ben Bova. Good read so far, as least for a simpleton such as myself.

[Truman]

Literary snobs my ass, Wags: I'd rather read than watch TV. Unless the locals are playing or the kids are watching, the idiot box is dark in my crib. Glad you're still amongst the living, btw, friendo....

[Van]

I'd say I read, oh, about a hundred times more than I watch TV. I'll go weeks without turning on my TV, especially if it's not baseball or football season. I don't go a day without reading, and most days I read all day.

Pretty sure, though, that a true reading snob wouldn't condescend to read Ludlum or WWII tomes. I haven't read Chaucer and his ilk since, well...since I was forced to back when I was in school.

[War Wagon]

yep, the only TV I watch is either news or sports, occasionally a movie. When people at work or whatever talk about some current show they watch religiously each week and assume everyone else does too, I give them a blank stare.

Thank God it's baseball season.

[Goober McTuber]

And you wonder why people use smilies in their posts. It's to help people like you to not take everything so seriously.

Let's see...

we have "you're a liar!"

"You take this too seriously!"

And the oldie but goodie "I was being sarcastic!"


There's a term on these boards for what you're doing, but I won't use it and deprive you of your next "smack."

Why not? You've repeatedly employed your formulaic "smack" for as long as I can remember. :wink:

[Left Seater]

It wasn't so much the neighborhood so much as it was three a-holes on one street.

Still have lots of friends in that neighborhood.

[BSmack]

I'm writing some of this shit down for my next trip to the library, but unlike Mikey, can only read 10 pages or so a night before the crash and burn. My books are always late being returned.

Probably beneath you literary snobs, but I'm currently reading The Hittite by Ben Bova. Good read so far, as least for a simpleton such as myself.

Get a kindle. There's shitloads of stuff out there in libraries and in Project Gutenberg. And no late fees.

http://www.gutenberg.org/

[Dinsdale]

Lots to cover here...

First, Van. Van, which do you think is more likely in regards to British quotation marks -- that they publich American versions of books for by far the largest English speaking market, or that there's no rules, and writers are free to throw up any ol' punctuation mark they feel like?

Really?

Next, Tru -- Uh... no. I became a British citizen at the exact same time I became an American citizen, the moment I was born. Some countries require a declaration, the UK does not, although my Dad declared me anyway, which was unneccessary, except by doing so, I got paperwork for it (I might even be able to find it somewhere, given enough time). Different countries are different in that regard .I could get an EU passport if I was so inclined (and I think they changed some rules, and dual-nationals can have passports from both countries, plus an EU one. Not sure why I'd ever find a need for 3 passports, but I'm eligible for them.

[Dinsdale]

And you wonder why people use smilies in their posts. It's to help people like you to not take everything so seriously.

Let's see...

we have "you're a liar!"

"You take this too seriously!"

And the oldie but goodie "I was being sarcastic!"


There's a term on these boards for what you're doing, but I won't use it and deprive you of your next "smack."

Why not? You've repeatedly employed your formulaic "smack" for as long as I can remember.

Moved to KC, did you?

[Goober McTuber]

Why not? You've repeatedly employed your formulaic "smack" for as long as I can remember.

Moved to KC, did you?

And once more. With feeling.

[Truman]

Next, Tru -- Uh... no. I became a British citizen at the exact same time I became an American citizen, the moment I was born. Some countries require a declaration, the UK does not, although my Dad declared me anyway, which was unneccessary, except by doing so, I got paperwork for it (I might even be able to find it somewhere, given enough time). Different countries are different in that regard .I could get an EU passport if I was so inclined (and I think they changed some rules, and dual-nationals can have passports from both countries, plus an EU one. Not sure why I'd ever find a need for 3 passports, but I'm eligible for them.

Well, I wondered. Met a fella a few years back who fathered a son while serving in Germany. Guy was pretty well bent cuz his son was about to turn 18 and the Krauts were about to make the Junge declare. Since the kid speaks his mother’s tongue best and mostly resides with his Mutti, the choice was a no-brainer. I didn’t know if you bangers-and-mash types were subject to same kinda rules…

And on that note… Good Lord. The British Nationality Act reads like the MLB rulebook. Took me a moment to consider which type of British citizenship you might be categorized (apparently, the term “subject” is so pre-1948): Citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies, British Overseas Citizen, or British National (Overseas). I also noticed that the rights and privileges you might enjoy under each designation differ as well. Finally, I decided, ‘fuggit’: If Dins sez he’s a citizen of Old Blighty, then that’s good enough for me.

[Goober McTuber]

Since my wife’s grandparents were born in Italy, she can fill out an application, send along a few Euros and get Italian citizenship. Maybe as her hubby I can also be a Dago.

[MgoBlue-LightSpecial]

I'd say I read, oh, about a hundred times more than I watch TV. I'll go weeks without turning on my TV, especially if it's not baseball or football season. I don't go a day without reading, and most days I read all day.

I read one book for every 20.5 bradhusker posts, just to keep my IQ above the Mendoza Line.

[Van]

Dins, like I said, I don't know whether Ballantine Books and Bantom Books change the punctuation for the American market. Maybe they do.

As for le Carré, he literally eschews all convention. He commits absolute atrocities of punctuation, technically speaking, and does so with utter aplomb. The guy is completely free. He does whatever he wants, and somehow it always works.