Okay. I have finished The Comfort of Strangers by Ian McEwan. This early book represents his wonderful descriptive powers. The settings are beautifully evocative. The use of sound imagery and small vignettes in the line of sight combine to make this a richly set story you can step right into.

Maybe it is age (mine) or a generally jaded sensibility, but I could not engage with the characters' emotions at all. It is a powerful and shocking story and I should have been intrigued and appalled but I was not. It may be just me.

The book presages a lot of the very popular erotic fiction of today. There's eroticism and a little dom/sub action in the direction of which we seem to be moving but it lacks the empathetic viewpoint of some of the best of today's writing. Maybe that's what's missing.

In the long process of reading Ulysses. On page [141] [143] (depending on the edition) there is this intriguing reference:

'J. J. O'Molloy said not without regret:
"-And yet he died without having entered the land of promise..."
...Gone with the wind. Hosts at Mullaghmast and Tara of the Kings.'

(See Margaret Mitchell and Ernest Dowson)

Though slow going, this is a treasure trove of historical and literary references of both before and after.

I would be interested in hearing your thoughts and also about what you're reading.

Kerry

Good morning!

I've decided to open this blog to share what we're reading all the time. I know you all have at least one book going at all times and I'd like to know what it is, or they are, and how you like it/them.

I'll start. My winter reading project, which will take all winter, is Ulysses. I imagine most of you have read it and it is to be read slowly and carefully so that's how it will be. It was the same with The Alexandria Quartet, which was thoroughly enjoyable that way, through a long cold winter the warmth of it was palpable. It was like the journey it was and is, as is Ulysses.

I am also puzzling over Ian McEwan's The Comfort of Strangers. It's a very early book which is clear. It is a tour de force of sensuality and scene imagery. At half way through is puzzling but I'll stick with it and let you know.

What are you reading and how do you feel about it?

Kerry