get this – I’m about to write about books.
and it doesn’t have a thing to do with mine!
enjoy this while you can.
despite my latest offerings, I don’t consider myself to be a solidified writer. a good one? yeah – not bad. but during the past year, I’ve had to stay away from any books that would influence me. and that’s just about any non-fiction. this was a problem when I first started; if I re-read High Fidelity [which I do every 3 months or so], then the book would come out sounding like Nick Hornby’s delinquent student. one version, after reading ‘The Road’ came out with the same short sentences with no punctuation. and don’t even get me started on what my writing was like after devouring Camus one night on a lot of malbec.
long story short – I haven’t been able to read like I usually like to.
but now with the book done, I can. and I quickly used up a few old Amazon credits I had kicking around. and I chose wisely:
oh man. talk about excited. I had pretended to read this years ago [2001, I think] whilst trying to convince people I was weird. so I didn’t really get it, but this time – wow. 2 days and I’m already mostly done with it.
long story short, bill – a few years after william tell-ing his wife, goes down to columbia in search of the mythical yage [pronounced ya-hey] plant. a plant rumored to be stronger than any hallucinogenic known to man. and bill knew his hallucinogenics. during this time period, he wrote numerous letters to ginsberg.
5 years later, allan heads down to the same area in search of the same thing, this time writing burroughs.
unbelievably sharp. and so, so good. highly suggested.
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it’s hard not to like mark twain. but in all of the times I’ve read and re-read tom sawyer and huck finn, I’ve missed hearing his profound one-liners and take on life that he’s so known for.
enter:
and while I’m waiting to finish up the above, a few peeks into this already has shown it’s brilliance.
one of the few quotes I spied:
‘I thoroughly disapprove of duels. if a man should challenge me, I would take him kindly and forgivingly by the hand and lead him to a quiet place and kill him.’
and:
‘always obey your parents, when they are present… most parents think they know better than you do, and you can generally make more by humouring that superstition.’
got to love a man who started writing at – ahem – 30.
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[Josie is currently reading this and we've agreed to a book trade - although postage to/from australia is more expensive than just buying it off of amazon, but love makes you do some silly stuff sometimes]
anyone can point out a hunter s. thompson book by the art. and the font. and that is all down to steadman.
from what I can gather, they had a pretty volatile relationship; which always makes for a good read, people who thompson was volatile with… this, hunter’s opening epitaph for the book: ’don’t write, ralph. you’ll bring shame on your family.’
[the guardian] ‘steadman… alongside a generous selection of his drawings, he recounts their shambolic adventures together, from the kentucky derby to the rumble in the jungle to the kona coast. while steadman’s slashing, ink-spattered art seems the perfect embodiment of thompson’s booze- and drug-fueled prose, in temperament he was a foil, a welshman who hated america, while thompson, in his excess, was perhaps the quintessential american.’
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you know, I’ve had this book – , for god knows how many years. but I would just find myself running back to either ‘on the road’ or ginsberg’s ‘howl’.
it should be said a few people I asked said this might be his best…
[the observer] ‘one of the most true, comic and grizzly journeys in american literature.’
[time] ‘the Beats drug, hop freight trains, live on the road and contemplate buddha. a nerve-jangling, sometimes sentimental, always sincere and funny book.’
[sunday times] ‘a beatific glow turns ginsberg into a great poet, not a hairy rhymester selling his vaseline jars as fake holy relics. Burroughs becomes an all-american folk hero, swinging and swaggering down the calle larache, rebuking his companions for walking too slow. all in a prose-poetry out of whitman and wolfe and dylan thomas.’
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your suggestions are always welcome…
