Monday 27 June 2011
Cuurently Reading: The Bird Sisters by Rebecca Rasmussen
Lined up next.....
The Black Book by Orhan Pamuk
Thursday 2 June 2011
Review: The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne
If you’re the type to have Shakespeare’s King Lear on your bathroom shelf, then perhaps you’ll have the patience to withstand the madness of this book.
I say perhaps because, though I am a fan of Shakespeare, I still find Laurence Sterne’s indefatigable wit and humour something like running a marathon on a steep hill. It is absolutely funny, over-the-top hilarious, and quite "post-modern" for its time. It was published first in 1759 in what’s now of course old-fashioned English. It was a triumph, in my opinion, of courage, lunacy, and creativity.
The story belongs to Tristram Shandy
, a narcissistic gentleman who is struggling to write his autobiography. In order to do this perfectly, he feels he must familiarise the reader with every detail that is pertinent to his life and birth. He is earnest in his mission and reveals every thing– from a curious mishap during his parents’ coitus, to his uncle’s love of miniature canons, which had all somehow affected his fate. But Tristram Shandy is a man who loves to digress. In his book, he inserts a bold advertisement targeted to the nobility, a legal document between his mother and father, and the whole ritual of excommunication from the Catholic church, among many others. On page 100, or thereabouts depending on the edition, he presents the reader with a joke that would have made me fall into a chair if I hadn’t been already reading on the bed. Reading Laurence Sterne is like inviting a stand-up comic to your home. You will not exhaust him in one night, or one weekend. You have to invite him for dinner multiple times until he finishes his story.
Experimental or post-modern literature can often be serious, abstract, even bland. Tristram Shandy is refreshingly none of these. It is playful and experimental– but not in the Twilight Zone kind of way. Laurence Sterne blows you away like a hurricane, lifting you from the box you built to house your thoughts. Follow him, like Don Quixote, and you’ll emerge on the other side of your mind.
I say perhaps because, though I am a fan of Shakespeare, I still find Laurence Sterne’s indefatigable wit and humour something like running a marathon on a steep hill. It is absolutely funny, over-the-top hilarious, and quite "post-modern" for its time. It was published first in 1759 in what’s now of course old-fashioned English. It was a triumph, in my opinion, of courage, lunacy, and creativity.
The story belongs to Tristram Shandy
, a narcissistic gentleman who is struggling to write his autobiography. In order to do this perfectly, he feels he must familiarise the reader with every detail that is pertinent to his life and birth. He is earnest in his mission and reveals every thing– from a curious mishap during his parents’ coitus, to his uncle’s love of miniature canons, which had all somehow affected his fate. But Tristram Shandy is a man who loves to digress. In his book, he inserts a bold advertisement targeted to the nobility, a legal document between his mother and father, and the whole ritual of excommunication from the Catholic church, among many others. On page 100, or thereabouts depending on the edition, he presents the reader with a joke that would have made me fall into a chair if I hadn’t been already reading on the bed. Reading Laurence Sterne is like inviting a stand-up comic to your home. You will not exhaust him in one night, or one weekend. You have to invite him for dinner multiple times until he finishes his story. Experimental or post-modern literature can often be serious, abstract, even bland. Tristram Shandy is refreshingly none of these. It is playful and experimental– but not in the Twilight Zone kind of way. Laurence Sterne blows you away like a hurricane, lifting you from the box you built to house your thoughts. Follow him, like Don Quixote, and you’ll emerge on the other side of your mind.
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