The Literary Reflection, I

Building my book catalogue on LibraryThing, it's becoming clear that my collection is dominated by pulpy television spins-off, and length genre series, with a small number of one-off novels of undoubted excellence. There's a real absence of the heavyweight authors and worthy novels that some might find indispensable, but... It's good. It's amazing to see things afresh and really just how many 'Star Trek' novels are kicking about the place, or pick up an 'A-Team' novelization and find out it's actually well written! There was no need to avoid them for years due to fears of broken nostalgia! (That's what the 'Doctor Who: New Adventures' are for.)

While all these 'Star Trek' novels, volumes of 'Sherlock Holmes', Pratchett works, and the glorious David Eddings sagas may not be the most gloriously acclaimed texts in the history of literature, they did do a good job. I read voraciously, and then expanded. They set up everything that followed, and perhaps that's the thing to remember when compiling reading lists for students in English. The best thing is to make these introductory books interesting and exciting. So what if there aren't many contemporary books for boys? Let's feed them Willard Price, Jules Verne, and maybe even Zorro or Tarzan!

As part of the holiday cover, I wrote the inaugural 'On The Book Piles', which was a less in-depth survey of items on the reading mountains, and in a brief follow up, it's time to unleash some words on completed reads, which were maybe not interesting enough or noteworthy enough for their own posts.

'A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court' (1889) by Mark Twain: Ultimately, despite the high concept of the idea, this novels falls foul of the laboured satire of the times. It begins well, and it ends well, but the strain of being so critical weighs it down horribly. As with 'The Prince And The Pauper', 'A Connecticut Yankee' feels like it has far too little story for its length, but the ambition was bold, and it surely counts as one of the forerunners of modern science fiction, just like Jules Verne.

'Jamaica Inn' by Daphne Du Maurier (1936): Ultimately, after a promising beginning, this never quite gets above my ultimate criticism of novels, which is to be written like a bestseller. The meaning of that criticism is ambiguous, but I choose to wield it as a reflection on a lack of secondary layers or meanings. There is nothing else happening apart from the text, and it's frustrating. You can get away with that in juvenile fiction, bestsellers and tie-in novels where familiarity adds subtext, but not here. Having said all that, it's a well written thriller, accounting for its success, but not one that ever needs to be re-read. There is nothing more to be found in the text.

'Dead Man's Cove' by Lauren St John (2011): This almost manages to get a post of its own, and may still. The first novel of the 'Laura Marlin' mysteries is an impressive one, and finally provides a youthful detective for girls. Yes, there was Nancy Drew before, but I never read a 'Nancy Drew'. Well conceived, and well written, the reason why it gets mentioned here instead of in its own post is the number of references to 'Jamaica Inn', rendering it thematically tied to the rest of the post. For me, the mystery stories were provided by 'The Hardy Boys', 'The Famous Five' and 'The Secret Seven', and it's nice to see some additions being made to the genre. Where will Laura Marlin's series go? There are still three novels to go. I just hope it doesn't get horrid with adolescent nonsense! It's nice to see a narrative based in St Ives.

There will be more literary reflections...

O.