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About the author and blogger ...

Anne Goodwin’s drive to understand what makes people tick led to a career in clinical psychology. That same curiosity now powers her fiction.
A prize-winning short-story writer, she has published three novels and a short story collection with small independent press, Inspired Quill. Her debut novel, Sugar and Snails, was shortlisted for the 2016 Polari First Book Prize.
Away from her desk, Anne guides book-loving walkers through the Derbyshire landscape that inspired Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre.
Subscribers to her newsletter can download a free e-book of award-winning short stories.

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Should we plough through the classics?

30/3/2018

14 Comments

 
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If I’m lower on reviews this month, blame my book group! We’ve been ploughing through a Russian novel that gets mentioned in the same breath as War and Peace, although Vasily Grossman’s Life and Fate was written in the twentieth century and concerns a war still within living memory. An epic tale of the human costs on both sides of the Battle of Stalingrad, it’s a fine achievement in its scope and in exposing the similarities between totalitarian states across the ideological divide. As with a short story collection recently smuggled out of North Korea, it faced a turbulent journey to publication, having been confiscated by the KGB on completion in 1960 and not published until twenty years later, long after the author’s death. But am I glad to have read it? I can’t honestly say I am.
At 850 closely-printed pages (in my Vintage Books edition translated by Robert Chandler) it’s the length of four of my usual reads. I couldn’t, as I normally do for my book group, start it a few days before the meeting so I’d arrive with it fresh in my mind. Instead I read it in chunks (it’s conveniently divided into three “books”) with something I’d chosen for myself in between. But I still worried (albeit not very much) whether I’d finish it in time and (slightly more) about the contemporary novels lining up on my TBR shelf. I also worried about falling asleep and reading the same page over and over again.
 
To be fair, it’s not so much that the novel is boring, but that – with multiple plots, multiple characters (each with multiple Russian names, although
Miss Blane’s Prefect did provide a tutorial on this topic partway through my reading) – it demands more of the reader than I was inclined to give. Noting somewhere in the introduction that the author was disappointed not to have had the opportunity to edit his work, I felt a strange nostalgia for those “condensed” books published by Reader’s Digest, despite having scorned them whenever they came my way.
 
Of course, it’s extremely poignant in places, in particular the step-by-step unfolding of the Nazi extermination process, from the design and construction of the gas chambers to the disposal of the bodies, which (perhaps influenced by Grossman) Rachel Seiffert addressed in a similar way in
A Boy in Winter, published last year. In his fairhanded way, Grossman also shows how Soviet scientists were co-opted into a system which values ideology over objective observation, in the trials and triumphs of nuclear physicist Viktor Shtrum, believed to be based on the author himself.
 
But I didn’t set out to write a review of Life and Fate, but to discuss the pros and cons of reading the classics. As I’ve mentioned before, despite having enjoyed several of George Eliot’s novels, I recently
found Romola tedious, and I totally missed the point of The Good Soldier. I devoured lots of classic novels in my youth, even Russian ones (although not Tolstoy), but I’m more familiar with Dickens on the screen than on the page. And I’ve never quite recovered from having pushed myself through Moby Dick at a time when I wasn’t fit to tackle anything more challenging than Agatha Christie.
 
Not every classic novel is
exceedingly lengthy but they often employ a discursive (rambling) style that doesn’t sit well with the modern reader (or me). Yet I can’t help feeling that, like the daily dose of cod liver oil of my youth, they’re somehow good for us. That enjoyment or otherwise is irrelevant; some hypothetical omnipotent being sits on our shoulder and commands us to plough on. Or is that simply the ghost of my Catholic childhood?
 
What’s your view on this? Do you enjoy classic novels? Would you plough through if you don’t? Is it enough to be familiar with the story through dramatisation? What’s your position on condensed books? Let the discussion begin!


Over at the Carrot Ranch, Charli invites us to write a 99-word story about
fingers that fly. For my contribution, I’ve thought about people for whom reading isn’t as much fun as it could be. No prizes for guessing who Miss is based on!

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Reluctant reader?

Ma made me read ten pages. Every. Single. Night. At first I tried. Really. But with shape shifting letters, disappearing words and baffling sentences, I preferred to watch cartoons. Still, she made me. I learnt to screen a soccer game in my head while staring at the text until it blurred. Flying fingers flicked through pages one to ten. Done!

Books, magazines, how I hated them. Until Miss asked me to show her a football programme. Explain how my team won the match. Print still jumped about and disguised itself. But now I want to discover what it says.

With eleven novels discussed on the blog this month, perhaps Life and Fate hasn’t held my reading back as much as I thought it might. Tap or click the image for the relevant posts.
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I’ve met four of the five targets I set myself earlier this year with a whopping 9 (target ≥ 50%) from independent publishers; 3 (target ≈ 20%) translations; 7 (target ≥ 50%) by female authors; one potential favourite (Miss Blaine’s Prefect and the Golden Samovar). Unfortunately, as last month, I haven’t read anything by a BME author. Hope to put that right next month.
Thanks for reading. I'd love to know what you think. If you've enjoyed this post, you might like to sign up via the sidebar for regular email updates and/or my quarterly Newsletter.
14 Comments
Irene Waters link
31/3/2018 02:23:21 am

I think the 850 pages would put me off and if the print was fine that would be it. I simply won't read books anymore that even with my glasses on I struggle to see the print. If I did want to read it - I'd have to go to a kindle version so I could blow it up and it wouldn't be heavy in my arthritic hands.
I do think reading the classics is good for you but I also agree that the style of writing doesn't appeal to the modern reader. I inherited my father's Joseph Conrad collection and the aim was to red them all. I still plan to but I know, after starting the first, that the time has to be right and it is going to be tough going. I read Melville's Billy Budd and loved it.
My grandfather used to read the RD condensed books and we always scoffed but perhaps it is better to read a bit than not at all which I doubt he would have done if he'd had to wade through eg War and Peace.
I think your flash says it all perfectly - when you find what you enjoy reading it stops being onerous and you can't wait to read more.

Reply
Annecdotist
31/3/2018 07:43:03 am

Thanks for sharing, Irene. Anything out of copyright tends to come in tiny print (I assume for the sake of economy) which is so offputting. I also have a set of unread Conrads, but the collection also includes Jane Eyre, Vanity Fair, Cranford and The Mill on the Floss, which I read when young and loved.

Reply
Charli Mills
31/3/2018 04:33:09 am

I'd be tempted if time didn't seem so short, these days. An interesting question you pose. As your flash shows, I think we each have to find a spark to want to read. I can't really recall, but I have a sense that I recognized there were stories in books and I was curious, wanting to know the stories. I do remember reading all the comic book versions of the classics, the precursors to modern graphic novels. I enjoyed Dracula so much that I read Bram Stoker's book which led me to read several Russian novels which has me mildly curious to read Life and Fate. I read a lot to my kids, Tolkien and Chaucer, and many stories in Middle English mostly because the reading was college homework and they were happy to listen to anything! But they really did listen and my 8-year-old learned Middle English to the shock of one of my professors. They all went on to later read Tolkien, and of course, they love the movies (more so the Lord of the Rings trilogy). We often played a Lord of the Rings board game at Christmas. So in my rambling thoughts, I'm thinking about how we interact with stories, and classics have to capture our attention. If it does, 850 pages in nothing!

Reply
Annecdotist
31/3/2018 07:52:36 am

Thanks, Charli. Chaucer would be great for kids, with simple stories and engaging rhythms -- as well as a great way for a mother to get through her college work. Plus an introduction to other languages as your daughter so cleverly proved. I wonder what Norah would think.
I ploughed through half of the Lord of the Rings but at 15 was perhaps too old to get into it.
I don't recall cartoon versions of the English language classics as a child but you've made me think of the cartoons of the Hindu epics. My introduction to the Ramayana was at a noisy cinema in Katmandu, and now I'm reading a novel that uses a staging of the story in an early scene.
Thanks for sparking my ramblings with yours.

Reply
Charli Mills
31/3/2018 09:30:08 pm

Every time I think I understand my own reading influences, I'm reminded of others I had forgotten to consider. Perhaps reading is a reflection of our lives and what we are seeking at the moment. And maybe right now is a ramble -- many possibilities!

Annecdotist
2/4/2018 12:10:26 pm

I'm the same in that there seems to be very fine line between what I do and don't like.

D. Avery link
31/3/2018 09:53:09 pm

I think Miss in the flash knew what she was doing. Reluctant readers as the teachers call them will remain reluctant or non-readers unless they find a motivation or interest as in your story.
Would the classics and the above mentioned "Life and Fate" have remained so lengthy and tedious in parts if their authors had had word processors? I think not. Who would want to go back through and pare down and rearrange by hand hundreds of handwritten or even typed pages?
I used to poll educated people about William Faulkner. We are supposed to revere him. Guess what? I am not the only one who doesn't finish Faulkner novels. Maybe I should try again, that was decades ago... wow you got us all rambling.

Reply
Annecdotist
2/4/2018 12:29:53 pm

Ha, interesting to speculate on the impact of wordprocessing on the quality of writing. It certainly makes diligent editing more manageable but there’s no guarantee writers will bother. With chronic RSI, I doubt I could produce a short story now on a manual typewriter.

I had to check William Faulkner’s oeuvre to see whether I’ve read any, but it doesn’t look like it. There are a number of male American writers of that era muddled in my brain. But I wouldn’t be without Steinbeck or Hemingway.
Thanks for sharing and sparking further musings.

Reply
Anurag Bakhshi link
2/4/2018 03:41:53 am

It's all about finding the right handle, isn't it. I was lucky that I was born into a family where even though we never had any money to buy books, we were encouraged to borrow as many books as we could from wherever possible- the neighbours, friends, public libraries, school library....and I managed to make full use of them because my older brother always kept our room overflowing with books. So I used to find it very strange when I heard people say that they don't read, or don't find reading interesting. But it all boils down to finding what it is that you are passionate about. If, after that, you can leverage the benefits of reading on your passion, well and good, but I'm no longer judgmental if people do that through the internet or just YouTube videos. The end objective is to enrich oneself intellectually, isn't it?

Reply
Annecdotist
2/4/2018 12:36:34 pm

Growing up, we watched a lot of TV, but there was always time for reading, mostly books borrowed from the library. With so many more distractions nowadays, readers are becoming a rare breed as writers multiply, even though books are relatively cheaper. I do think that reading, especially fiction, gives us something special, but I grudgingly accept it's not for everyone ;-).
Thanks for reading and sharing, Anurag

Reply
Norah Colvin link
2/4/2018 10:19:18 am

Hi Anne. Interesting post. I've contemplated that question myself, and when I started listening to audiobooks decided that might be a way of catching up on what I'd missed. I'm not quite sure just what constitutes a classic though, so am not sure what I may have read or not read that qualifies. I don't think "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" qualifies, but maybe "Brideshead Revisited" does. I tried and gave up on both and decided I'd just stick to books that appeal to me, rather than those on someone else's should list. So I guess that answers another of your questions - would I persevere? If I once did, not any more - too much I want to read and too little time.
I guess that ties in nicely with the theme of your flash - reading something that is of interest to us is what makes reading both attractive and enjoyable. The teacher is spot on! :)

Reply
Annecdotist
2/4/2018 12:44:26 pm

Good point, Norah, what constitutes a classic? In my head, it's a combination of age (as in being published some time ago) and renown – but as for the former I wasn't sure even when I was writing this post whether Life and Fate should qualify given that it was published in 1980, although the style is somewhat older.
I think I agree with you that there'll never be time to read every book we might appreciate so we might as well prioritise those with a certain appeal.
Glad you approved of the teacher. I imagine, however, that in reality you wouldn't have let the problem drag on so long.

Reply
Robbie Cheadle link
10/4/2018 05:54:33 am

850 pages is definitely a big undertaking, Ann. I do love to read classics but I know that I can only read them when I am on holiday and not when I am stressed out to the hilt during the working weeks. My five favourite classics are Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Journal of a Plague Year, The Scarlet Letter, Great Expectations and Jane Eyre. I love these ones especially and re-read them occasionally.

Reply
Annecdotist
10/4/2018 02:15:36 pm

Good point, Robbie, not all classics are as long as this one. As for Jane Eyre, it’s a long way for you to travel (!), but I lead a guided walk around the area where it’s supposed to have been set with readings from the novel.

Reply



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