grub street confidential
Jesus man. Marked more than 100 exams this week and thankfully received the backslapping and general thanks I deserve for doing so, tonight up late writing a paper (on Ian McEwan’s Saturday no less – trust me, it’s not complementary) that I have to give in another part of England at 2 PM tomorrow (in 10 hours!), and there’s a review of a massive novel due Monday, and another review copy for yet another paper is sitting here on the table staring at me. Have lots of things to say on here, but there’s been literally not a bit of time… Here’s to the hope that things slow down soonish rather than laterish….
But it’s good finally to get something into prose on the McEwan novel. I’ve been talking about this idea I have about it forever… Unfortunately, because I’m super tired, that prose won’t see paper until I type the conclusion on the train tomorrow and find a local print shop to put it all onto A4….
Funny thing is that a fellow blogger is convening my panel. Can’t tell if he knows who I am or not. Small, small world this is, and all the people worth knowing have sites….
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Do you like Saturday? I haven’t reacted so violently to a book in years. Found it really cringe-inducingly bourgeois and inconsequential, and the narrative voice completely absurd (not in a good way). I couldn’t understand what my friends had seen in it. It was the first McEwan I read and completely deflated any enthusiasm I had for reaching more. Luckily I recovered enough to read On Chesil Beach, which I thought was rather good.
RobDP
May 29, 2010 at 2:44 pm
I um very strongly dislike Saturday. Was very polemical today with the paper, which seemed to go over well… I agree, Chesil Beach is better, though I still think there’s something seriously wrong with the ending, even if it’s interestingly written.
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May 30, 2010 at 12:30 am
Oh good! I realise now I missed the ‘not complimentary’ in your original post. Attention span ruined by the internet.
RobDP
May 30, 2010 at 2:13 am
I think OCB is part of the same ‘project’ of sorts. If anything i liked it less. I’ve only read these two mcewans – are his earlier books less clunkily didactic? i also have a serious problem with the narrative voice – he seems to be having his cake and eating it in both of those novels.
shake
May 30, 2010 at 5:23 pm
What worries me more than McEwan himself is that he gets such fawning and obsequious reviews; especially Saturday, bafflingly. Really says something about the blinkeredness of the broadsheets. Not read any earlier ones. Didn’t like OCB quite enough to push much further back…
RobDP
May 30, 2010 at 11:37 pm
RobDP,
Agree with all of this.
Weird. There’s a video online of me giving the lecture. Have never seen myself at the podium before.
I have a really deep voice. It doesn’t sound that way from inside.
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May 30, 2010 at 11:48 pm