The Little Stranger

Title: The Little Stranger
Author: Sarah Waters
Published: 2009 by Virago
Genre: A little ghost story. Also, historical
Pages: 499


As I said in the meme, I'm still trying to figure this one out. I got The Little Stranger as soon as it came out, quite excited, but with other books to read and work and all, I kept putting starting it away again and again. Started it finally a month or two ago, but didn't get farther than the first 20 pages or so. Then I picked it up again on the 22nd, and didn't really put it down until I finished it yesterday morning.

So yes, it's quite captivating. TLS tells the story of an old English family and their old English house, the Ayreses and their Hundreds Hall, through the eyes of a GP, doctor Faraday, who is facing the coming of the NHS. World War II has just passed, so nothing is as it used to be, and the past is inevitably gone. A few decades ago there were a dozen or more servants at Hundreds, but now there is only the one, a young girl who Dr. Faraday is called in to check on. Young Betty claims that there is a strange presence in the old house, but Dr. Faraday, a man of realism, doesn't quite believe her. Neither do the Ayreses, Caroline, Roderick and their mother, but soon none can deny that there is something odd going on.

What exactly is going on, that's what I'm still figuring out. Faraday is practical, a realist, and so are his views on the occurences. But with so much going wrong, and so fast, the Ayreses and the reader do wonder.

Waters' older books are as beautifully historic as this, but there are no lesbians in this one (wahh!) ...although I did wonder about Caroline. But anyway, as with Affinity, TLS is sprinkled with just a small dose of the supernatural, enough to spook the reader, whether it was all true or just a trick of the light and an overactive imagination. TLS moved on steadily, towards an ending that seemed darker and darker. Scared the living daylights out of me, especially at this one point... and that hasn't happened with a book since I read On the Banks of Lethe, by James L. Grant. Steady, but highly captivating.


"And so there came one of those moments - there were to be several, in the months that followed - that I would forever look back on with a sense of desperate regret - almost with guilt. For I could so easily have done something to ease his departure and speed him on his way; but if anything, I did just the opposite."

...Faraday, you plonker.

Two memes for the holidays

Ok, it's really just one meme, but for both books and comics! Separately.

1. What author do you own the most books by? I would have put my money on Tolkien, but he comes in at number three! Two is Michael Moorcock, and numero uno is Robin Hobb, since I have all three of her Farseer, Liveship and Lord Golden trilogies.

2. What book do you own the most copies of? Don’t think I have more than two copies of any book, but there are many that I have two of. Usually in both English and Finnish, sometimes it’s because I’ve found a really old printing or something.

3. Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions? They did?

4. What fictional character are you secretly in love with? If I tell you, it won’t be a secret anymore. But there have been several. Man, I have to do this meme for comics as well...

5. What book have you read the most times in your life? Not counting children’s books, as I’ve no recollection, it’s probably Martin Millar’s Milk, sulphate and Alby Starvation.

6. Favorite book as a ten year old? As if I can remember. There was a Finnish book called Sapotillit, but I can’t remember the author, or whether I was exactly ten when I read it. Several times.

7. What is the worst book you’ve read in the past year? Usually, if I find that I don’t like a book, I stop reading it. But I’m happy to say I haven’t come across any bad ones this year.

8. What is the best book you’ve read in the past year? I’ve actually been thinking about that for a few days now. I’m going to go with the Fingersmith by Sarah Waters. She rocks my little world.

9. If you could force everyone you know to read one book, what would it be? Something by Chuck Palahniuk. Maybe Lullaby. Or Michael Ende’s Neverending Story.

10. What book would you most like to see made into a movie? And the Ass Saw the Angel by Nick Cave. I have a list of books here in alphabetical order by author, and that’s the first that came up that I’d like to see.

11. What is the most difficult book you’ve ever read? Try by Dennis Cooper. I try to read it, but it feels like it keeps fighting against me.

12. What is your favorite book? Just one? You really expect me to be able to decide on just one?

Ok, to name a few: Fingersmith by Sarah Waters, Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk, The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall, Lord of the Rings by J.R.R.Tolkien, Ennen päivänlaskua ei voi by Johanna Sinisalo…

13. What is your favorite play? Shomething by Shakespeare. Maybe 12^th Night. I haven’t been in a theatre in years.

14. Poem? Ohh I don’t know anything about poems. Okay, so I do know some Shakespeare, and there is this one truly beautiful poem I learned from a Puerto Rican man over an internet RPG a decade ago, but I don’t know its name. And it’s too long to be written here.

15. Essay? Wahh!

16. Who is the most overrated writer alive today? Stephenie Meyer.

17. What is your desert island book? Maybe Ken Follett’s Pillars of the Earth. It’s good, it’s long, and it’s heavy enough to be used against possible hostile dwellers of the island if it’s not so deserted after all.

18. And . . . what are you reading right now? Right now, nothing. Finished The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters yesterday, and am still figuring that one out. Santa brought me Nick Cave’s latest, though, so maybe that’ll be next.

And comics!

So, this was originally a book meme, but I replaced every ‘book’ with ‘comic’, so now it’s a comic meme! Yay!

1. What creator do you own the most comics by? Wendy and Richard Pini, since I have a great big ElfQuest collection. No, wait. It has to be CLAMP. ElfQuest tops any one series easily, but I have several CLAMP series, so they must number more than the Pini’s. So CLAMP first, Pini’s second. Third might be Neil Gaiman or Drew Hayes.

2. What comic do you own the most copies of? As with books, there are some which I own in more than one language, but no more than two copies of any comic, apparently. I found this very out of date list I did some two years ago, so I can actually check quite easily!

3. Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions? They did?

4. What fictional character are you secretly in love with? It’s seeeeec~reeeeet. No, it really is. He he, it’s a pun. It is! Kind of. Or a trick answer. I don’t go telling my secrets to just anyone, you know.

5. What comic have you read the most times in your life? Ohh man, I’ve no clue. Comics are faster to read than books, even if time is taken to appreciate the art, and therefore I have read pretty much all my favourites very many times. But to name one, From Hell by Mr. Moore and Mr. Campbell.

6. Favorite comic book as a ten year old? I was very fond of the Turtles around that time. And Ghostbusters! And Lucky Luke.

7. What is the worst comic you’ve read in the past year? Ahaha. The Caterer. It is so un-be-LIEvably bad it’s utterly brilliant. Of course I had to buy a copy.

8. What is the best comic you’ve read in the past year? I could say From Hell here as well, but maybe I’ll try to find something I read for the first time… like, oh, I know! Roberta Gregory’s Bitchy Bitch!

9. If you could force everyone you know to read one comic, what would it be? …From Hell. Or maybe Watchmen. Or Maus, or Barefoot Gen. Anyone who thinks war is a good idea should read those last two. The first two are just plain kickass.

10. What comic would you most like to see made into a movie? One of the Ralf König’s that have already not been made into movies. Ooooooh, Bull’s Balls. Yes. Bull’s Balls.

11. What is the most difficult comic you’ve ever read? David Boring by Mr. Clowes. Difficult as in difficult to understand. Maybe that’s not what the question was referring to, but this puppy was like reading a Lynch movie.

Oh wait, now I know! Jimmy Corrigan by Chris Ware! It is utterly brilliant, but the urge to slap Jimmy around a little, and the discomfort that just oozes from it… ouch.

12. What is your favorite comic? Yeah, I’m gonna have to go with From Hell again. I could explain further, but I already did a few months back, on this very blog.

13. What is your favorite play? What’s this got to do with comics? I guess it’s ok to ignore this and the following two.

14. Poem? ‘Tis easy enough to be twenty-one, ‘tis easy enough to marry. But when you try both games at once, ‘tis a bloody big load to carry!

15. Essay? Don’t really read any. Well, I sometimes do, but couldn’t name one.

16. Who is the most overrated comic creator (writer, artist, inker etc.) alive today? Jim Davis. I was going to write something about pushing out the same superhero/mutant comics year after year after year, but Jim Davis.

17. What is your desert island comic? Can’t you guess already? FROM HEEEEEEEEEELL! Wheeeeeeee!

18. And . . . what are you reading right now? Just finished a collection of above mentioned Bitchy Bitch. Also, Death: the Time of Your Life, written by Neil Gaiman. And Preacher, for maybe the third time.

Comics!

I’ve been bad... I’ve read a LOT of comics lately but haven’t written about them. So instead of doing that individually as usual, I’mma just going to list them. Well, the ones I can remember, anyway…

Moebius: Le Garage Hermetique de Jerry Cornelius (Jerry Corneliuksen ilmatiivis autotalli), in Finnish, published in 1990 & 1991 in two albums.

Muutama viikko ennen Sarjakuvafestivaaleja mietin, saisiko näitä enää mistään. Festareilta sai. Yhtä vähän ymmärsin kuin lapsena. X) Suunnilleen joka toisella sivulla olevat Tapahtui tätä ennen –selitykset tulevat tarpeeseen. Joskus tuntui että tekijä itse jätti ne lukematta.

Howard Cruse: Stuck Rubber Baby

An urban epic of changes, both in society and in the life of one man, the protagonist Toland Polk. In a time when people are fighting hard against racism, Toland is also fighting with personal issues, namely homosexuality. History mixed with fiction.

Kathryn Hyatt: Marilyn: The story of a woman

A graphic novelisation of the life of Marilyn Monroe, based on several interviews, and delivered in black and white. All the basics of MM, and then some.

Tiitu Takalo: Tyhmä tyttö

Muutaman vuoden vanha kokoelma Tiitu Takalon lyhyitä sarjakuvia. Tiitun töihin tutustuin töissä tänä syksynä, hienoa jälkeä tekee hän. Ja paljon järkeä. Ja asiaa. Vielä töissä ollessa tuli ostettua omaksi muutama albumi (Jää sekä Tuuli ja myrsky). Tykkään.

Iiiiso kasa Piko ja Fantasio –albumeita

Näitä tuli lapsena luettua, ja vähän vanhempana, ja näköjään vielä nytkin. Hauskoja ja mukaansatempaavia välipaloja noiden vakavampien ja paksumpien laitosten välissä. Osa jo aiemmin luettuja, mutta yllättävän monia lukemattomia!

Al Davison: The Spiral Cage

Ooh. I remember reading this autobiography several times when I lived in Joensuu, where they had it in the library as well. And not just because of Davison’s many art styles, which he all seems to use quite effortlessly and with a lot of talent, but because of the story he’s telling as well. This is one of those comics that changed the medium. If you don’t believe me, Alan Moore himself says so on the introduction (of this edition). Also, worth checking out is his Minotaur comic. I forget what it’s called, but it’s even been translated to Finnish! It will be mine… oh yes, it will be mine.

Roberta Gregory: Bitchy Butch, the world’s angriest Dyke!

A collection of short stories of the Bitchy Butch, angriest dyke in the world. That’s not even an exaggeration! Kind of a spin off/sister to Gregory’s other comic, Bitchy Bitch, who has a cameo in one of the stories here. Or is it the other way around? The stories are both funny and touching.

Nicholas Gurewitch: The Trial of Colonel Sweeto and other stories

A collection of the Perry Bible Fellowship comics, also found on the net. Funny as hell and just as twisted most of the time. This collection also includes some extra comics! Strips that can be read more than once, and they’re still funny.

Joss Whedon & others: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 8

Been collecting the albums about and around when they’ve come out: just bought 4 and 5, yet to read the latter one. The art’s nice and the stories good and entertaining, or I wouldn’t be buying them. But damn if they don’t make me dislike Dawn more than I already did…

Dave Sim: Cerebus

There are some people whose recommendations I trust quite blindly. Drew Hayes was one of those, and I remember him talking good about Cerebus. So when I finally found some, and in a library, even, I gave them a read. So far I’ve barely cracked the huge collection, but Kati does like what she sees.

Except for Stuck Rubber Baby, Buffy and Jerry Cornelius, all are from a library nearby. They have the BEST comic collection of any library I've visited so far in my life. Espoon Omena, I love you!

Fingersmith

Title: Fingersmith
Author: Sarah Waters
Published: 2002 by Virago (this reprint from 2009)
Genre: Historical crime fiction
Pages: 548


I totally agree with one of the comments on the back: "There are always novels you envy people for not having read yet, for the pleasure they still have to come. Well, this is one." I saw the BBC movie made from the book a few years ago (was blown away by that already!), and so took my time before getting to read Fingersmith, in the hope that I would have forgotten most of it already.

Not bloody likely! This shit's unforgettable. Sarah Waters indeed is my favourite author these days. Well, her and Chuck Palahniuk. I really do wish I had read the book before seeing the movie, because now I knew the bigger twists and expected them.

It's the 1860's in London, and young fingersmith (=thief) Susan Trinder, who has lived her whole life among thieves and baby farmers, is seduced into a plot by one of her fellow thieves, a man known as the Gentleman. The plot is to insert her into the home of an old scholar and especially his young niece, to become her maid. Gentleman's plan is to marry the niece, who is to inherit a lot of money once she marries. He intends to put her in an asylum long before that, and Susan is to help him.

Of course things don't go quite like that, but it's very hard to say anything more without spoiling it. And there's a lot of it. Twists of plot that leave the reader breathless, believable characters you like and dislike, and a thoroughly illustrated Victorian England in all its dirt. The 500+ pages seemed endless at first, but they were over far too soon. I read most of them in three sittings, because once I picked up the book to read a little, I always ended reading one or two hundred pages. Now, I think I might watch the movie again. It was quite good as well. (((EDIT: Mmmmyeah, good, but doesn't reach the level of the book. Remembered it was better.)))


"You are waiting for me to start my story. Perhaps I was waiting, then. But my story had already started - I was only like you, and didn't know it."

Two book memes!

The book that’s been on your shelves the longest.

The Neverending Story by Michael Ende. It’s the first book I ever bought myself, and while I’ve had other books since before it, it’s the one that’s still in the shelf, and is not going anywhere.

A book that reminds you of something specific in your life (a person, a place, a time).

Most of them. Rereading something, or sometimes just looking at a book I’ve read, I remember when and where I’ve read it. But something special… Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. They opened the bookstore at seven in the morning the Saturday that came out, and I was pretty much first in line, maybe the fourth to get it. It was a nice, warm summer’s morning, so I went to read it in a park, then a café, and then the seaside while watching the Tall Ships’ Race ships leave. People were asking whether anyone had died in the book yet. Then I locked myself home, closed the windows from the noise of the festival going on outside, and read the rest of it.

But yeah, I remember where and who I’ve gotten or bought all my books, so they all remind me of something specific: themselves. X)

A book you acquired in some interesting way.

Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt. I was on interrail through half of Europe in 2004, and had picked up two used books in Amsterdam, one of the first stops we made. One of them didn’t really interest me at all. When we got to Prague, our last proper stop before heading home, I spotted Angela’s Ashes in the hostel’s common room’s shelf. I remembered liking the movie a lot, so I picked it up and read a little of it. Then I went to the guy minding the hostel reception and asked whether I could leave the book I didn’t like and take AA with me, since it didn’t really belong to anyone, someone had just left it at the hostel, like the other books as well. He seemed a little confused at the thought, or my English, but eventually I got AA and spent the train ride from Prague to Berlin reading it, whilst heavily hung over. (Drinking beer, wine, Jägermeister and absinthe within one day: BAD idea.)

The book that’s been with you to the most places.

…I could say the above here, since it traveled with me through half of Europe. But maybe I could think of another one. Ooh, Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami, which I bought on the above trip, once I got to Berlin. I think I had it with me a year or so later when I went to Berlin again, and from there to Milan.

The most recent addition to your shelves.

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters. I’ve seen the BBC movie of it, and liked it, and since I really like her other books, I bought it as well, and maybe will get to read it soon…ish. Little Stranger, also by Waters, is also quite new in my shelves and waiting to be read.

Your current read, your last read and the book you’ll read next.

Just finished reading Martin Millar’s Lux the Poet, for the second time within a few months. I’m in the middle of Try by Dennis Cooper, which is… quite disturbing. I’ve been ‘reading’ it for over a month now, and am near halfway through, but it sometimes seems a little too deviated to read. And I’m not queasy, I like watching Takeshi Miike’s movies for kicks…

There are two shelves’ worth of books waiting to be read for the first time, and another shelf of books I’d like to reread. I don’t know which one will be next. Wish I did!

*

*

ABC Book Meme

For this meme, you list a favorite book that starts with each letter of the alphabet. If you don’t have a book for a letter (such as Z or X) than you can substitute a favorite book that simply has that letter in the title (ex. The Lost City of Z or Hot Six by Janet Evanovich). However, you can only do this a maximum of 3 times. (Z, X, and Q. But not Z, X, Q, and V.) Books can be of any genre from fiction to non-fiction to poetry to textbooks.

A: Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb
B: the Black Cauldron by Lloyd Alexander
C: the Caterer by Lint and Sienkel, a VERY weird comic
D: Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay
E: Ennen päivänlaskua ei voi by Johanna Sinisalo
F: the Fetch by Robert Holdstock
G: the Good Fairies of New York by Martin Millar*
H: Harry Potter series (they all begin Harry Potter and…) by J. K. Rowling
I: Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice
J: the Janissary Tree by Jason Goodwin
K: Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto
L: Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
M: Mythago Wood by Robert Holdstock
N: the Neverending Story by Michael Ende
O: On the Banks of Lethe by James L. Grant
P: Porno by Irvine Welsh
Q: Classic Queen by Mick Rock, a photo book
R: Rant by Chuck Palahniuk
S: Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami
T: Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters
U: Una Persson and Catherine Cornelius by Michael Moorcock (aka the Adventures of Una Persson and Catherine Cornelius in the Twentieth Century)
V: V for Vendetta by Alan Moore. A graphic novel, that counts, right?
W: the Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall
X: Lux the Poet by Martin Millar
Y: Yami no Matsuei by Yoko Matsushita. So it’s a comic… series.
Z: Suzy, Led Zeppelin and me by Martin Millar. Two Z’s for the price of one!

* Haven’t actually read Good Fairies… yet, but couldn’t think of anything else starting with G, and already used the three substitutes on the more difficult letters. But if it’s near as good as the other Millar’s I’ve read, it’ll go on this list.

From Hell

Title: From Hell
Writer: Alan Moore
Artist: Eddie Campbell
Published: Originally 1989, this edition is from 2006, by Top Shelf
Genre: Crime noir/horror
Pages: Very many.


From Hell, being a melodrama in sixteen parts, is quite possibly my favourite comic book/graphic novel. Ever. I've read it again and again, about once a year. Sometimes more often. It's a fictional take on the famous and thus far unsolved Jack the Ripper murders in London on the autumn of 1888. And after so many years, it's not likely they will be solved, is it?

From Hell takes the popular theory that the Ripper was the royal doctor, Sir William Gull, and that the murders were ordered by Queen Victoria herself, and runs with it. It's a look into the mind of a serial killer, one convinced that he's not just following orders from his Queen, but also the will of his creator. That by killing these women, he's achieving something. Delivering the twentieth century. Underneath the fictional plot, it's full of history of London, of the whole human race, and the struggle between man and woman. Moore's story drags the reader into its swirls, deeper and deeper into a London long gone, brought to life by Campbell's black and white illustrations every bit as dark as the story. It's hell of a scary one.

Being fictional, From Hell also has a long appendix gathering in detail all the true (or not so true) facts that Moore based his writing on: numerous books and studies and theories on the identity of Jack the Ripper, and what the hell really made him go on a murderous spree. Not much is for sure: even the number of his victims isn't 100% certain. Nevertheless, the first appendix sheds a lot of light to the subject, as does the second one, Dance of the gull catchers, a 24-page comic summing up the search for the killer.

"There never was a Jack the Ripper. Mary Kelly was just an unusually determided suicide. Why don't we leave it there?"

The quote is about as plausible as many of the theories. But until (if ever) the truth comes out, people are going to be wondering about the true identity of the Ripper. And From Hell is a pretty good gateway into the mystery.


From Hell is to blame for starting my own interest in the murders, and into the minds of serial killers. So when I've had the chance to go to London, I've made sure to visit Jack's hunting grounds and even gone on a few organised Jack the Ripper walks. Great fun, especially when the evening is starting to grow dark around you. Above's a picture of a building that's supposedly exactly the same as where the last victim, Mary Kelly, lived and was brutally mutilated in. Apparently, some guides actually claim it's the real one. Annnnnd I could go on and on, but this hasn't really got anything to do with the graphic novel anymore. Well, maybe something fancy about fact and fiction and their relation, myth and truth, but I'm too hung over to make with the fancy words.

Go read From Hell.

Lux the Poet (again)

Re-read Lux the Poet just now. Original report here.

One thing I forgot to mention last time was the cute tie-in with Milk, sulphate and Alby Starvation. It's just a tiny thing you won't even realize if you haven't read it. And I think there's another one with Millar's Lonely werewolf girl, but I can't be sure of that since I haven't read it yet.

Lux still rocks, and I can imagine re-reading this later on as well.