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Christmas Kulchur !

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There are 4 nog-progeny, aged from 31 to 23.
All boys, so will be children forever..

As part of my ongoing campaign to be held in their utmost contempt and disdain, I buy each of them a book from a charity shop.
These books tend to come from the Woke lefty snowflakes and bed-wetters part of the literary world.
I doubtless put more effort into sourcing them than they do into reading them, but the looks of unrestrained joy on their little faces as they eagerly tear open the cheap wrapping paper is something which I’ve yet to experience..

Past offerings have included bits of Orwell, Waugh, Russell Hoban, the wonderful Alwyn Turner, Mick Herron and some of the Soccernomics books..

If you were me, dear Afterworder, what might you purchase for these 4 layabouts ?

TIA

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Comments

            • I read The Painted Bird back in distant, forgotten times and thought it was very good, though harrowing. I didn’t remember it much until I watched the film a few years back. I thought the film was very good, beautifully shot, but sometimes came across as almost an exaggerated parody of gloom and despair. The sort of thing Woody Allen might once have made. And given its whole Eastern European feel, it’s odd and jarring when Harvey Keitel and Julian Sands crop up in it. Despite that, on first viewing I thought it was a 5-star masterpiece. I need to see it again to decide. A lot of reviewers compared it to Come And See, describing it as less powerful. Maybe so, but I thought it was the better film, largely due as much to the cinematography as the story.

              As part of my research for this comment, I discovered that:
              1. In the nineteen-sixties, writer Jerzy Kosinski had become famous in Manhattan literary circles for his astonishing tales about the brutalities he had allegedly suffered during the Second World War. Abandoned by his parents at the age of six, he claimed he had roamed the countryside alone, witnessing rape, murder, and incest, constantly fearing for his life. Kosinski turned those stories into his first novel, “The Painted Bird” (1965), which, for a time, was considered a major work of Holocaust literature. Kosinski’s autobiographic claims were later debunked when it was revealed that he and his parents had all been sheltered by religious Polish people who had never handed him over to the Nazis.
              2. Kosiński addressed these claims in the introduction to the 1976 reissue of The Painted Bird, saying that “Well-intentioned writers, critics, and readers sought facts to back up their claims that the novel was autobiographical. They wanted to cast me in the role of spokesman for my generation, especially for those who had survived the war; but for me, survival was an individual action that earned the survivor the right to speak only for himself. Facts about my life and my origins, I felt, should not be used to test the book’s authenticity, any more than they should be used to encourage readers to read The Painted Bird. Furthermore, I felt then, as I do now, that fiction and autobiography are very different modes.
              3. His suicide note read: “I am going to put myself to sleep now for a bit longer than usual. Call it Eternity.”

              • A complicated life that’s for sure. I remembered an English teacher reading a part of it (swinging the comet) to our class when l was 14 years old many many years ago, and that stuck with me, but l couldn’t remember what book it was when l tried to search for it in later life. When Chris Stein mentioned meeting him, it triggered a long lost memory and l bought it in the hope it was the one l remembered. Reader – it was.

              • Similar – if rather less harrowing – upbringing to Roman Polanski (the two apparently knew each other – not sure if they were friends). Touch of Joseph Conrad about him, too, in that he was a Pole who learned – and mastered writing in – English

                Like other posters, have not picked up a book by JK since god-knows-when. Wonder if the years have been kind to his subject matter and writing style (IIRC there was also some controversy in the form of claims that he sometimes got others to write up the ideas he developed)

                • Read ‘Being There’ a few years ago but didn’t realise the connection with ‘The Painted Bird’ at the time. Can see the reasoning behind the allegations, as all the books l’ve read so far by him have been so different, but perhaps he was just a very talented guy. I did enjoy the film (see below) but preferred the book.

                  • My humblest apologies @Gary. You are so right.

                    I think I must have read the first part of your comment, then went to do something else, and subsequently forgot where I’d heard about the film in the first place.

                    But that doesn’t devalue my comment on the very interesting research you did.

                    I promise to read carefully in future and to think before I ink.

  7. One each:

    One Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.
    The Road – Cormac McCarthy.
    What Is The What – Dave Eggers.
    The Communist Manifesto – Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels.

    • I think you’re more in tune with the intellectual heft of the client group..I actually did 4 Viz annuals a couple of years back..

      Thanks to all for suggestions
      I’ve done The Road, but haven’t gone near the Rollicking Russians..Will explore…

  13. Hadn’t got round to checking out the Dave Eggers one at the time and forgotten all about it, but having just read the synopsis, that will be added to one of my waiting to be read piles this week. Sounds very interesting.

  15. Jack Karouac – On The Road.
    Often mentioned in the Great. Literature discussions, not sure why though.
    I’ve read it twice and just don’t understand the greatness.
    Am I missing something?

  16. Rory’s ‘Politics On The Edge’ (wry, intelligent, funny, incisive) if you can find it in a chazza, or else Jim O’Briens ‘How They Broke Britain’ (angry, rantish, dripping with contempt, huge fun). Not sure if either will turn up in the average Oxfam or the Cancer Research, though, both possibly unlikely to have appealed to the donating demographic.

  17. Shock Doctrine and Doppelganger by Naomi Klein.
    Rebel Music by Joe Mulhall.
    Terrible Humans by Patrick Alley.
    For light relief while digesting the Christmas Pud try Fluke by Brian Klaas.

  18. Thanks to all for the many and varied suggestions.

    Rory Stewart is not held in high regard in these parts..See also the odious Alistair Campbell, but J O’B has been well received in the past

    As reported earlier, Alwyn Turner was very popular as was Gary Stevenson, The Trading Game..
    I’ll report back on the final choices and Yuletide felicitations to one and all..

  19. I bought Twang Jr “The wind in the willows” when he was about 8 (which is when I first read it). I was horrified to discover it had been rewritten (“abridged”) and Kenneth Graham’s elegant prose replaced with Noddy language. That travesty went straight back to Dodgers and I found the proper version in Waterstones. You have been warned.

    • Self-imposed strictures are 2nd hand from charity shops.
      Try never to use Amazon for anything.

      Have just heard a Guardian books pod lauding Phantom Tollbooth Mystery, of which I was unaware.
      3 quid ebay investment ensued.

      Bill Beverley, Dodgers also on list..

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