[there's a treasure here]
First of all, happy Holidays everyone! I know I'm a bit late, but I haven't had the chance to say it before, so I'm saying it now. I hope everyone's had fun.
Anyway, I've been reading The House of Sleep by Jonathan Coe that
delgaserasca so kindly got hold of for me. (Seriously, I'd been looking for a copy of my own for ages and ages [it's out of print here], and Meish, did I say thank you already? Because thank you.) I've previously always read it as a translation, so this is the first time I'm reading it as the original. It's a bit different, I suppose - not in a bad way by any means. The difference, though, is that now I'm noticing some little things that I hadn't noticed before (and probably missing others because, at the end of the day, I may be fluent in English but my vocabulary is still limited, so there are things that I can't understand/appreciate). One of the things that I noticed only now and that caused me much amusement was a scene that is... Well, it could be from Fawlty Towers. It's so Basil Fawlty that I almost fell off my chair.
'Psst!' said a voice.
Anyway, I've been reading The House of Sleep by Jonathan Coe that
delgaserasca so kindly got hold of for me. (Seriously, I'd been looking for a copy of my own for ages and ages [it's out of print here], and Meish, did I say thank you already? Because thank you.) I've previously always read it as a translation, so this is the first time I'm reading it as the original. It's a bit different, I suppose - not in a bad way by any means. The difference, though, is that now I'm noticing some little things that I hadn't noticed before (and probably missing others because, at the end of the day, I may be fluent in English but my vocabulary is still limited, so there are things that I can't understand/appreciate). One of the things that I noticed only now and that caused me much amusement was a scene that is... Well, it could be from Fawlty Towers. It's so Basil Fawlty that I almost fell off my chair.'Psst!' said a voice.
Dr Madison paused in the corridor and looked around. It was not obvious where the noise was coming from.
'Psst!' it said again. A finger emerged from one of the doorways, beckoned her, then disappeared. Dr Madison followed it into Day Room Nine, where she found Dr Dudden waiting for her, his face pale with fury (not an uncommon sight), his posture betraying every sign of shamed agitation.
'Come here,' he hissed.
She joined him by the wardrobe.
'Look at that,' he said. 'Just look at it.'
He pointed at the words 'S T U P I D F U C K', which had been scrawled on the wall in ink. Next to them was a large brown stain.
'Mr Worth discovered that,' he went on. 'A bloody journalist discovered that, God damn it. Isn't that typical? Isn't that just typical of our luck?'
'Why had no one noticed it before?'
'It was hidden behind the wardrobe.'
'And what was Mr Worth doing moving the wardrobe?'
Isn't that just Basil Fawlty? For godssake, he even uses the word riff-raff! I burst out laughing when I read that scene. Granted, though, that the character only resembles Fawlty in this snobbishness of his, but still, that scene.
Can I just say that I adore this book, even still, after all these years and all the times that I've read it? It's simply... beautifully complex, clever and so satisfying to read, like a puzzle in the making and then you find the pieces that fit just right into their slots after an hour of staring at the disarray on your desk; piece by piece, little by little, they slip into the bigger picture and then that one last piece slides into place right on the last page of the book and you sit back and look at the picture and finally can make out what it really looks like after having only seen the incomplete for hours and hours. I love how everything is connected and you're forced to remember everything and then draw lines between events that happen with fifty pages or more in between. It's fantastic and oh so satisfying for the reader.
That's that. I'm off to continue my reading. See you all in a bit.
Dr Dudden ignored this question. He said: 'I realize you won't want to hear it, doctor, but this exactly proves my point. This is precisely why we have to be careful what... sort of person we allow in here. This is the sort of thing that happens when you open your doors to riff-raff.'
Isn't that just Basil Fawlty? For godssake, he even uses the word riff-raff! I burst out laughing when I read that scene. Granted, though, that the character only resembles Fawlty in this snobbishness of his, but still, that scene.
Can I just say that I adore this book, even still, after all these years and all the times that I've read it? It's simply... beautifully complex, clever and so satisfying to read, like a puzzle in the making and then you find the pieces that fit just right into their slots after an hour of staring at the disarray on your desk; piece by piece, little by little, they slip into the bigger picture and then that one last piece slides into place right on the last page of the book and you sit back and look at the picture and finally can make out what it really looks like after having only seen the incomplete for hours and hours. I love how everything is connected and you're forced to remember everything and then draw lines between events that happen with fifty pages or more in between. It's fantastic and oh so satisfying for the reader.
That's that. I'm off to continue my reading. See you all in a bit.