Tag: Comment

  • City by the Book: A Little Tour in France

    City by the Book: A Little Tour in France

    As soon as my friend and I planned this summer’s France trip I was excited to get back on it with the City by the Book blogs, and here we are! I thought it’d be easy to find books by authors from the cities we were visiting, or at least set there, but it was much harder than I expected. Especially once I was limited to e-books for the sake baggage allowances.

    And then I came across a non-fiction book by Henry James – A Little Tour in France. Well that was exactly what we were doing, so it sounded like a good fit. I knew it reached Toulouse, which was our first stop, but I hadn’t expected our second and third stops, Montpellier and Aix-en-Provence, to come up too. There wasn’t much Aix coverage, but the book was a great companion for Toulouse and Montpellier.

    Toulouse

    James, it seems, wasn’t overly impressed with Toulouse. I was, but after the rest of the trip, it certainly wasn’t the high point.

    “But the city, it must be confessed, is less pictorial than the word, in spite of Place du Capitole, in spite of quay of the Garonne, in spite of the curious cloister of the old museum.” – Henry James, A Little Tour in France.

    At present, Toulouse is a city under construction. Undoubtedly, it’s very different from how James saw it, but for me, the city is now irrevocably associated with the sound of drills and piles of scaffolding, all, of course, surrounded by ancient churches and convents. I think I’ll have to return to Toulouse in a few years to see how the development has enhanced the city, rather than making it the dustiest and noisiest part of our trip.

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    Hmm, Toulouse’s most spectacular church was presented a little differently to how James would have seen it…

    Montpellier

    Here’s where James and I agree. For some reason, I had it in my mind that Montpellier was a bit of a British tourist trap — how wrong I was. We could’ve spent all summer there, exploring and eating. We had snails and wandered its little streets — we even became incredibly frustrated when a shop we found one morning disappeared without a trace in the afternoon. It took a treasure hunt before our train left the next morning to find it (it had been hidden down a secret adjacent street the whole time).

    “I spent two days there, mostly in the rain, and even under these circumstances I carried away a kindly impression.” – Henry James, A Little Tour in France. 

    We popped into the museum (Musée Fabre) James loved so much but didn’t explore it with his level of unrestrained detail. It’s a really special city (with excellent seafood) and I don’t doubt I’ll be back for a longer visit at some point in the future.

    A Little Tour of France was published in the nineteenth century, but because history is such a key part of any holiday in France nearly everything James mentioned was still there, there was just more around it. It was fun to read his caricatures of the people he encountered in each city of his tour, which really puts the buildings and landscapes you’re visiting into a unique context.

    Another City by the Book from this trip will be coming soon! 

  • Review: Promising Young Women

    Review: Promising Young Women

    Like with most stories that start with a twenty-something London-based office worker navigating the breakdown of a long-term relationship, your mind settles in for a harmless piece of Chick-Lit. And then Caroline O’Donoghue’s Promising Young Women knocks you off-centre by turning into something else entirely.

    The praise on the book’s sleeve repeatedly uses the word “gothic.” Thanks to a module I did in my final year at Swansea (brilliantly named Uncanny places and cyberspaces: Gender and the fantastic) I’m well aware that gothic tropes aren’t limited to stories set in haunted houses in the nineteenth century, but even so Promising Young Women does something totally refreshing with ideas of uncanniness. It’s a novel that proves how relevant gothic images, like starving women fading away, mirrors, periods and other bodily fluids, continue to be relevant and effective at portraying contemporary crises.

    “I don’t have a boyfriend or a fabulous career, and I think she’d like some better adjectives to describe me to her friends with.” – Promising Young Women

    At first, the book doesn’t have the most groundbreaking plot you’ve ever heard of (woman’s anonymous blog seeps into her real life) but O’Donoghue gradually gets under your skin as she tells Jane’s story. A story that while almost fantastical is likely to be relatable and understandable for any young working woman.

    The darkness and depth of this book creep up on you and by the time you’ve realised, you can’t put it down. Dealing with power imbalances (professional and romantic), mental illness and the false security of the Internet’s anonymity, this debut novel makes O’Donoghue one to watch.

  • A Note on Writer’s & Reader’s Block

    A Note on Writer’s & Reader’s Block

    Inspiration has been a hard match to strike this week. Actually, that’s not entirely true. I’m working on a slightly different (and secret!) project at the moment and I’m pumped for that, but when it comes to reading and writing, my usual motivations have simmered. So true to form, I thought I’d write about it (does that mean I’m over it already?!) Writer’s block is something I know all too well and I find mixing projects up helps a lot, but reader’s block is not something I’ve experienced before.

    When it comes to reading I knew my 2018 reading goal of 65 books was going to be tough. So to try and counter disappointment at the end of the year, I thought that if I go super hard in the first couple of months of 2018 then I can take it easy for the rest of the year. I’ve succeeded with this plan, I’m writing this on February 23 and I’m on my 14th book of the year. But this ‘success’ has come at a price. I’m finding it a little hard to concentrate on what I’m reading. Last weekend I found myself not loving Ali Smith’s How to be Both, which surprised me because I loved Girl Meets Boy. I was worried that I would have liked it more if my mind was less on the deadline of how many books can I squeeze into February and more on the content, characters and writing of the book. I think I succeeded in rectifying the problem though: I followed How to be Both with Roald Dahl’s Matilda. I haven’t read it in years but a children’s book demands a little less brain power and offers a lot of entertainment. It shifted my brain back into the reading for pleasure zone. I’m now purposely making slow progress through Naomi Wolf’s The Beauty Myth. However many books I read in March, I hope I stop competing with myself and just enjoy the brilliant books waiting for me on my TBR pile.

    As far as writer’s block goes it’s been a mixed bag. Creatively, things are good – things are happening. I’ve been getting my novels out there to agents and feeling positive about what I’m submitting. I’m even working on a play, as promised. In fact, I’m even more inspired about it after having seen Fran Bushe’s one-woman show Ad Libido at Vault Festival last night, where I had this exact magical Gilmore moment:

    giphy (9)

    The problem this week has been with non-fiction and journalism. This poses a slight problem given that it’s my source of income. Last week an article I wrote about pubic hair was published on Repro Justice, you can read it here. I loved writing it and have thoroughly enjoyed the conversations I’ve had because of it, but ideas for the next article and/or blog are playing hard to get. That being said, if there are any blogs you’d like to see from me or reviews you’d like to read, please let me know!

    Get in touch if your brain’s switched off in inconvenient places this week, then I won’t be alone in my frustration, and if you are facing a wall too, I can confirm that there is always a way around it, even if you have to tear it down with your bare hands. Anyway, I’m confident that my normal levels of reading, writing and loving both will be back soon. And don’t worry, if it doesn’t come back soon I’ll be sure to blame it on the pill.