I have always loved reading and am rarely without a book at hand to read during my idle time. As a writer myself I find it essential to read as much as possible. I read almost anything, from chic-lit, good chic-lit, to historical fiction and non-fiction history. I also enjoy short stories. If I'm in a 2nd hand book store I'm a sucker for anthologies of short stories and novels by famous authors. Reading the works of Steinbeck, Hemingway, Dickens, Evelyn Waugh, Mark Twain and others is very educational, if not indispensable, for an aspiring writer. I have also read George Orwell, Kurt Vonnegut, Isaac Asimov and other sci-fi writers, but I really don't enjoy the world of sci-fi. Franz Kafka and Edgar Allan Poe are dark and depressing. I read J.D. Salinger's 'Catcher in the Rye' at school and subsequently, but I remember very little of the story. Joseph Heller's 'Catch-22' is of course iconic - one of the few book titles to have become a catch phrase! The short stories of Evelyn Waugh, who was widely travelled and an agent of British military intelligence, are excellent and his short story 'The Verger' is my favourite short story of all time.
This leads me to Saul Bellow. Bellow, a Nobel Prize Laureate, is a very Jewish writer although he baulked at the description. He wrote what he knew and he knew the world of North-American Jews, especially that of Chicago where he grew up, although he was born in Montreal, Canada.
I have recently finished reading an anthology of Bellow's short stories 'Him With His Foot In His Mouth and other stories' - Pocket Books New York, October 1985. The stories are interesting, but I was mostly struck by the convoluted journey Bellow makes throughout his stories. He never gets to the point, but leads his readers on the scenic route in telling his story. The basic story could be told in about one-tenth of the words Bellow employs. However the readers cannot complain as Bellow's writing is so colourful and descriptive that the road leading to the final destination of his story is paved with gilded words used as building blocks for golden sentences. On every page there was a sentence so well constructed and so descriptive that I marvelled at Bellow's skill.
I find the same joy in reading most great authors. it is not necessarily the story but the way it is woven together that makes it memorable.
Perhaps this little blog will inspire, you, my reader, to explore the great writers of English literature - although of course Kafka wrote in German. But then, as I wrote, I found Kafka dark and depressing.
This leads me to Saul Bellow. Bellow, a Nobel Prize Laureate, is a very Jewish writer although he baulked at the description. He wrote what he knew and he knew the world of North-American Jews, especially that of Chicago where he grew up, although he was born in Montreal, Canada.
I have recently finished reading an anthology of Bellow's short stories 'Him With His Foot In His Mouth and other stories' - Pocket Books New York, October 1985. The stories are interesting, but I was mostly struck by the convoluted journey Bellow makes throughout his stories. He never gets to the point, but leads his readers on the scenic route in telling his story. The basic story could be told in about one-tenth of the words Bellow employs. However the readers cannot complain as Bellow's writing is so colourful and descriptive that the road leading to the final destination of his story is paved with gilded words used as building blocks for golden sentences. On every page there was a sentence so well constructed and so descriptive that I marvelled at Bellow's skill.
I find the same joy in reading most great authors. it is not necessarily the story but the way it is woven together that makes it memorable.
Perhaps this little blog will inspire, you, my reader, to explore the great writers of English literature - although of course Kafka wrote in German. But then, as I wrote, I found Kafka dark and depressing.
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