41. Roald Dahl - George's Marvellous Medicine

My friend Femke from The Netherlands came to visit me this weekend. So no time to finish an actual book. That's why I read another one of Roald Dahl's books. I found out I've been reading mostly young children's books by Dahl, simply because the others are slightly bigger as well. Regardless, this week I read George's Marvellous Medicine.

It's about George who wants to poison his annoying grandmother by making a concoction consisting of animal pills, stuff from the garage, stuff from the bathroom and some actual nice herb; to give it a brown colour he adds some brown paint. Of course grandmother does not die, instead she grows taller than a house. George gets a great idea and feeds the farm animals the same "medicine". They in turn grown big as well. When George's parents come home, his father is more than impressed with his skills and he tells George to make more, so that he can sell loads of the mixture; because farmers will be impressed by the size their animals will take on and the amount of meat it will sell.

Does the father know what happens to the meat that can now be taken from the animals. Will everyone grow due to the poison in the animals. Roald Dahl of course does not talk about this subject, but to me it is a very important part of the book. Genetic manipulation of animals anyone?

40. Alexander Masters - Stuart: A Life Backwards

I think I'm more keen to watch the film, than talk in detail about Alexander Masters book called Stuart: A Life Backwards. I had never heard of the film, but it has both Benedict Cumberbatch and Tom Hardy in it, very good actors who can really make these characters work. 

That's the problem I had with the book this week. It didn't really work well. Somehow Masters' way of telling the story is cold and distant, even though he was good friends with homeless guy Stuart Shorter. The book is a biographical tale of his life and childhood, only then told backwards from the moment of publication, so when Stuart is around 33 to when he was 0. Both Masters and Stuart have the feeling that it will explain his situation better, but it never actually gets that detailed. I feel this biography could have gone a lot deeper into Stuart's life. 

The main problem is with how the book is built up. It goes from the present back to the past, but it would state in the chapter title "Meekness: Aged 20-24" (Masters 120). What you would expect of this chapter is that it describes these years, however on most occasions it would only be about when he was 20 and that for only a few pages. Then the next chapter would be about the present again. It's too short a book to really get into detail and to understand a 'chaotic' character like Stuart completely. Masters writes he has spend about three years with Stuart, unfortunately that doesn't show from the book and that's a pity. 

Apart from that it's an entertaining read about the people we see everyday in life, but never take an opportunity to get to know. 

39. Marquis de Sade - 120 Days of Sodom

This week was a week of firsts; The first time I've read a book on my Kindle, which was a great experience. And the first time I haven't finished it, because the book wasn't a great experience. I'm talking about Marquis de Sade's 120 Days of Sodom. I started the book very hopefully, from the start they already give you clues it will get smutty, but then for at least 200 pages they go on and on and on about eating faeces and mild S&M. That, I could handle, but then....

Let me first describe what this book is about. It's about 4 libertines who decide to live in a remote villa with a harem filled with young girls, young boys, fuckers, dirty old women, their own wives and 4 storytellers. The storytellers each have a month to tell the nastiest stories to arouse the libertines. And, of course, everyone else in the house is merely there as playthings. This introduction gives you a good insight of what their plans were:

"The thing is, unhappily, only too well known: there is no libertine at least a little steeped in vice who is not aware of the great sway murder exerts over the senses, and how voluptuously it determines a discharge." (de Sade 16)

It reminds me of a film I saw last year called La Grande Bouffe. Where gluttons lock themselves into a house in the the course of a month eat themselves to death. Same kind of libertines different addiction.

Please don't read this if you don't think your stomach can handle it. There is one quote that clearly influenced Bret Easton Ellis when he wrote American Psycho. I managed to finish that novel, although it made me feel sick. But Marquis de Sade has beaten me, I can't do it...

"'That is to say,' stammered the financier , beginning to lose all control of himself, 'you'd spew into her mouth, she'd swallow and then have to blow it back at you?'" (de Sade 120)

"She assured us that all his joy consisted in eating expelled ovulations and in lapping up miscarriages; he would be notified whenever a girl found herself in that case, he would rush to the house and swallow the embryo, half swooning with satisfaction." (de Sade 128)

De Sade only managed to elaborately explain the first thirty days, then he gets into summary mode, with lose passages like this flying around:

"31. He fucks a goat from behind while being flogged; the goat conceives and gives birth to a monster. Monster though it be, he embuggers it." (de Sade 321)

And here it is Ellis, I'm sure you read this one as well:

"By means of a hollow tube, a mouse is introduced into her cunt, the tube withdrawn, the cunt sewn up, and the animal, unable to get out, devours her entrails." (de Sade highlights)

38. Dave Gorman - Googlewhack Adventure

I actually bought Dave Gorman's Googlewhack Adventure after I saw him live at the Edinburgh Festival in 2011. Slightly overpriced, but Dave himself signed it for me. It was the first time I saw him live and this is the first time I've read one of his books. I like both. 

Googlewhack Adventure is about Dave's quest to create a chain of Googlewhacks. A Googlewhack is two words put together that generate only one hit in Google. This cannot be a link to a dictionary website, apart from that everything's possible. He then goes out to meet the person who created this website and asks him to find him two more Googlewhacks, then he goes out to meet those people. He wants to create a chain of 10 consecutive Whacks before his 32 birthday, which basically means within 3 months from the start of the novel. 

I don't think Googlewhacking is the most interesting concept, it does however result in a fun book. This is probably because Dave is such a energetic storyteller. His narrative never slows down and he plunges the reader from into an adventure that never stands still. Honestly, I don't think it's true though. I find it too convenient that he keeps meeting these Googlewhacks in these different chains. Of course, he gets into trouble in one point and a woman gives him a clever consultation, but even that I find too convenient. But then maybe that's the point of the story... Maybe Google really does bring the world closer together by creating a network of close links. 

37. Ian Rankin - The Black Book

It's been almost half a year since I've read one of Ian Rankin's books, so it was about time to read his fifth Rebus book called The Black Book. Rankin has not yet disappointed me and he definitely hasn't this time around either. Even though the plot for The Black Book is slightly more intricate, Detective Rebus remains an interesting character to say the least.

This novel kind of follows in the footsteps of Rankin's fourth book Strip Jack, with political and highly criminal intrigue. It's hard for me to quickly explain exactly what The Black Book is about, but if I would sum it up in one sentence I would say it's about a mafia type man in Edinburgh, Big Ger who wants and has control over most of the criminals in Edinburgh. Rebus together with Holmes and a new character Siobhan Clarke "are drawn into a case involving a hotel fire, an unidentified body, and a long forgotten night of terror and murder".

Rankin does not speak about Rebus' love for books in this novel at all, instead he focuses his intention on Rebus' hatred for Hibs, which is a fact that couldn't possibly please me more, since I'm a Hearts fan. I can't withhold this one beautiful quotation:

"I keep forgetting, there's always someone in the world worse off than yourself... Unless you're a Hibs supporter." (Rankin 93)