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Jul 2016
12:55pm, 4 Jul 2016
15,493 posts
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Diogenes
Non
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Jul 2016
12:56pm, 4 Jul 2016
15,494 posts
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Diogenes
I listened to some Roussos
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Jul 2016
1:10pm, 4 Jul 2016
24,545 posts
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McGoohan
I see the two as mostly interchangeable.
As TNC is inspired by Rousseau, I was wondering if you'd felt an urge to follow through so to speak.
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Jul 2016
1:22pm, 4 Jul 2016
15,496 posts
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Diogenes
I did the first time I read it put, as with most things, the urge wained.
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Jul 2016
5:11pm, 13 Jul 2016
30,791 posts
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Bintmcskint
I finished this today, lying in the sun on a beach in Cornwall and, if I'm sunburnt, it's because I didn't want to leave until I'd finished.
I really enjoyed it. Indeed, I will be writing a staff pick for it at work and will leave my copy here in the holiday cottage for other people to discover.
More to follow when I've had time to gather my thoughts.
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Jul 2016
7:34pm, 13 Jul 2016
15,795 posts
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Diogenes
Hurrah, so pleased you enjoyed it so much.
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Jul 2016
9:19pm, 13 Jul 2016
28,941 posts
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NoFleecingAround
Me too, I love this book so much. Might even re-read it again...
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Jul 2016
9:20pm, 25 Jul 2016
24,833 posts
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McGoohan
So, after a period of a few days, and before I forget too much about it, here's my thoughts on The New Confessions.
I started off loving it. It had me gripped from the first chapter and I liked the odd Scottish characters. It did seem a bit Prime of Miss Jean Brodie in parts but that's no bad thing. Each chapter though moved on to a new set of circumstances with John James Todd being the one constant throughout. School. Then the army. Then army photographer and filmmaker. And then capture by the Germans.
By the time he was settled in Germany breaking into the film business I was getting a bit annoyed with it. Each section before seemed irrelevant and discarded. By about half-way through I was very bored and found picking it up a struggle.
I reconsidered a bit. I was trying to read it under difficult circumstances. Either work was going nuts or I was sat on the rattly bouncy bus. So I gave up for a bit and took it on holiday where I could lounge about in a hotel and give the book the proper attention it needed.
That worked much better and I sailed through the second half of the book.
However, in the end, I still found the book unsatisfactory. I've had a good think about it and I reckon the problem is this:
A typical chapter introduces a character, place or situation that is mildly diverting at the time but appears to have no further relevance.
The next chapter introduces a different set of circumstances, people etc.
Third chapter along, even more circumstances and Hello, it's me from that earlier chapter!
And so it goes.
The more the book progresses, the more it feels like a set of cues being set up for later. Eventually, we have a recurring set of characters and places who are largely disconnected other than popping up when needed to interact with Todd. I realise a lot of fiction is created like this, but perhaps because Boyd covers a lot of the Twentieth Century, there seems an awful lot of it, and I became overaware of the mechanics of the story's construction.
I didn't at any point hate it, but I went from loving it to only 'kind of liking it'.
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Jul 2016
9:24pm, 25 Jul 2016
24,834 posts
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McGoohan
I dithered a bit and I have voted a 6 in the poll.
I know that Dio voted 9. The only other readers who have voted have given it 1-2 or 3. I'd be interested to hear from anyone who took against it so badly. I think I'm against the tide, scoring it as low as I have. A book would have to be appallingly written to get a 3 or lower.
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Jul 2016
9:46pm, 25 Jul 2016
16,139 posts
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Diogenes
I'm 300 pages in now, and I might revise my mark slightly from the first two times I read it. I was younger then, it is a book for the gauche young man. I also read it more quickly,which I think made it all hang together much better. It's still probably going to be an 8 overall, unless the ending disappoints (no, I really don't remember how it ends)
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Book Group
Nov 2024