Well, I'm starting the month with a non-SF Len Deighton, "Only when I laugh".
It seems to be reasonable reading, but it seems to be "trying" to be comedy. So far I've read his Hook, Line & Sinker, Game Set and Match and as many of the Harry Palmer trilogy that were in book form (Horse Under Water, Ipcress File, Funeral in Berlin and Billion Dollar Brain were books, the latter three, along with "Bullet to Beijing" and "Midnight in St Petersburg" were the moviess, the latter not being Deighton stories.
Now where was I. Oh, that's right, I've been hankering after some Deighton since I read Hugh Laurie's wonderful "The Gunseller", a book that takes all the charm and wit of a comic British writer, and blends it with the twists of a British spy novel, and comes off feeling like Deighton in a good mood. ( I believe "comic British writer" is the right phrase, "British, comic writer" does not convey my feeling.) I guess it has a hint of Wilde about it.
So, finally I grab a meaty tome, not one of a triolgy, and launch into it.
The story is written in first person narrative, voiced through the three main villains. Each chapter is in a single voice, with slight overlap of action. A clever trick I've thought of using paragraph by paragraph in a short story, until you realize that you start writing a play in monologues. We've all read "Copenhagen" by Michael Frayne, I'm sure. I mean, a play about human emotion, and atomic physics, it's a must.
Frayne takes three pivotal characters, people who not only have friendship, trust and loyalty between them, but also personal pride and conflict, and of course, are on opposite sides in the war, knowing they must arm their side with annihilation. But I digress.
Deighton's venture into crime and comedy, away from quirky, gritty, realistic spy thrillers, is a dissapointment. Probably more so because I wanted something in his formula, not something contrary to it.
Anyways, this was not meant to be a review of what we are reading, but a list of what is in our immediate to be read piles.
I personally have "Armagedden in Retrospect" pretty close to the night stand bu Vonnegut. Beyond that I have no idea. Maybe I'll re-try "The Hogfather", just saw the TV special, and it was pretty good. The acting a little "understated", everyone trying to outcool everyone else. Funny, go for years without seeing Joss Akland in anything, then see him in The Avengers (along with a young looking Brian Blessed)and Hagfather, almost back to back.
But it's 10 pm, and I prattle on.
Bon soir mes amis.
