Recent Reading

My humble reading list for August, 2026:

Immortality – Milan Kundera I guess I’m rereading Kundera, since this is my third this year, and Unbearable was only a couple years ago. Put that down to a friend, with whom I am reading along. All I can say is that I like being in Kundera’s world. This is more of the usual, using characters (including historical ones) to illustrate the writer’s philosophy. The book gets meta, unlike his previous ones, and that is just fine with me. More to come? Probably

The Silmarillion – J. R. R. Tolkien This is my third time reading this one, and it was the whole reason I read Hobbit and LotR this year. This for me is top tier Tolkien. Yes, I realize that the other two books are more developed as modern novels, but this is the stuff I can’t get enough of. It’s grand, and sweeping, and tragic. The feeling of it being something that was lost to history, and only I am privy to is palpable.

In Viriconium – M. John Harrison Another reread. I decided to just do this one book, and not all Viriconium, since I have some homework reading coming up, and it was the one that resonated with me the most. Actually, this was a reread again from last month, since that time it was different than I’d remembered, and I had spent the read grappling with that. This time was much better. There is a reason Harrison is one of my favorite writers. It is atmospheric and absurd and intelligent.

Molloy – Samuel Beckett This was a homework read, and I am not sure how I feel about it. For now I think it is unnecessary at this point in time, and may have value mostly for the historical context. It seems a bit thin to me. The key word is “intellectual detachment.” Why should I care? But we’ll see…
 
Ironrose said:
In Viriconium – M. John Harrison Another reread. I decided to just do this one book, and not all Viriconium, since I have some homework reading coming up, and it was the one that resonated with me the most. Actually, this was a reread again from last month, since that time it was different than I’d remembered, and I had spent the read grappling with that. This time was much better. There is a reason Harrison is one of my favorite writers. It is atmospheric and absurd and intelligent.
Click to expand...

M. John Harrison has been my favourite writer for about 50 years. His most recent novel, The End of Everything has (surprisingly) reached the longlist for the Booker Prize.
 
Robin Davies said:
M. John Harrison has been my favourite writer for about 50 years. His most recent novel, The End of Everything has (surprisingly) reached the longlist for the Booker Prize.
Click to expand...
Funny thing: I just finished The End of Everything last night. It's very Harrisonion, and at his age I'm glad he could put out such a book. I have to admit I am a skeptic about literary prizes (a privilege of my outsider status), but at least he's finally getting some recognition as a writer, as opposed to a teller of SF stories.
 
Robin Davies said:
M. John Harrison has been my favourite writer for about 50 years. His most recent novel, The End of Everything has (surprisingly) reached the longlist for the Booker Prize.
Click to expand...
Also: I just recently got copies of the four books he wrote with Jane Johnson as Gabriel King. Have you read them? Are they good? I have high hopes for them, but maybe hedged a bit because I generally avoid that sort of book.
 
Ironrose said:
Also: I just recently got copies of the four books he wrote with Jane Johnson as Gabriel King. Have you read them? Are they good? I have high hopes for them, but maybe hedged a bit because I generally avoid that sort of book.
Click to expand...
I'm embarrassed to admit I started the first one and then gave up on them. It felt much more like traditional fantasy and not particularly Harrisonian to me. My favourite Harrison novel is probably The Course of the Heart.
 
Robin Davies said:
I'm embarrassed to admit I started the first one and then gave up on them. It felt much more like traditional fantasy and not particularly Harrisonian to me. My favourite Harrison novel is probably The Course of the Heart.
Click to expand...
Well, that is exactly what I was afraid you'd say. As to The Course of the Heart, I need to reread it. I'm finding I most always need to reread his books, and I've done so twice within a month of each other. This has been rewarding both times. What's funny is they don't read as being so complex at first, but as I go, I realize there are connections I'm not getting entirely. On a reread, I can see better how the reality of the book has been pieced together. I'm guessing the process is more organic for him...
 
Robin Davies said:
The one that blew my mind when I first read it was A Storm of Wings where he really went into lyrical overdrive. It's like a novel-length tone poem, and extraordinarily evocative. His later work was a little more pared-down.
Click to expand...

The Viriconium trilogy (plus the Viriconium Nights short stories) have always seemed like a set, with my own favorite being "The Pastel City". Although I'm a relatively slow reader (a 300 page novel usually takes me weeks to finish), I can read The Pastel City, Storm of Wings, or The Floating Gods (aka In Viriconium) in a couple of days. They are remarkable and timeless books.
 
Hay.ButcherofNazareth-400x591.jpg




I am finishing this up currently and I found it particularly dark, hallucinatory and quite twisted as is reflected in the below summary.
In terms of plot (which is rather original and quite compelling), prose, and narrative structure, it is quite well executed. And there are some rather extreme moments in terms of storyline that are rather disturbing in terms of imagery, symbolism, and in terms of the historical context.

In case anyone is interested, of course.
"Often described by critics as "the New Testament à la Cormac McCarthy," the book is a dark, hallucinatory reimagining of the gospels. The story follows Titus, a grieving butcher who was previously an instrument in King Herod's brutal "Culling" (the Massacre of the Innocents). Plagued by apocalyptic visions of an age of fire and ash brought about by a future messiah, Titus embarks on a desperate quest to hunt down and assassinate an obese, pre-ministry Jesus before his religious movement can take root. His mission becomes profoundly complicated and horrific when he "adopts" a dead newborn along the way."
 
I just finished reading “The Frolic.” I liked it a lot. It didn’t unsettle me, but perhaps that’s because I had already seen the short film, even though the story differs quite a bit from it. What I like most about the story, though, is that it leaves some ambiguity as to who John Doe really is. The film is more direct in its approach to the ethereal.

Even so, there were some concepts in the story that unsettled me, although not too much. I might read the story that comes next later; it’s called “Les Fleurs.”

On another note, I thought it was admirable that Thomas Ligotti dedicated his first book to his parents.
 
What is "The Frolic" about? And what is its purpose? I watched the short film, which was very well made, but it didn't make me any wiser.

I find it simply unsavory and unpleasant. To me the story appears to be about a typical psychopath, abductor, and child-murderer. Spiced with a sprinkling of superhuman abilities. John Doe has been compared to Nyarlathotep, but to me that connection is vague, and farfetched; not developed enough. The story is just too bare, and closely attached to the horrors of the real world, to be enjoyable as a fantasy. It reads like a sad conte cruel, disguised under thin supernatural veneer. Very unlike Ligotti's other more imaginative stories.
 
Knygathin said:
What is "The Frolic" about? And what is its purpose? I watched the short film, which was very well made, but it didn't make me any wiser.

I find it simply unsavory and unpleasant. To me the story appears to be about a typical psychopath, abductor, and child-murderer. Spiced with a sprinkling of superhuman abilities. John Doe has been compared to Nyarlathotep, but to me that connection is vague, and farfetched; not developed enough. The story is just too bare, and closely attached to the horrors of the real world, to be enjoyable as a fantasy. It reads like a sad conte cruel, disguised under thin supernatural veneer. Very unlike Ligotti's other more imaginative stories.
Click to expand...
I can tell you that, if you look at Thomas Ligotti’s imaginative world as a whole, figures like John Doe from The Frolic are actually among the least ominous. And yet, people like him are a vital archetype throughout many of Ligotti’s works.

Thomas Ligotti has managed to portray a reality that has only recently come to light, and one that will revolutionize horror fiction—if it hasn’t already. In any case, Thomas was a pioneer in that regard.

I read Les Fleurs after that one, but I didn’t like it quite as much. Then I read Alice’s Last Adventure. Given its subject matter, I found its approach rather intriguing, and it also touches on that important part of Thomas Ligotti’s imaginative world.

The truth is, I can’t really describe it in words, but you can feel it. Perhaps listening to Current 93 helps you understand it better—or, worse, having lived through certain undesirable and deeply unpleasant things, much like what you describe in connection with the story The Frolic.

The real world is crueler than fantasy... but that is the truth.

Perhaps the only embellishment in Ligotti’s stories is the narrators’ own distortion of reality, but that is precisely the factor that adds that layer of fantasy and reveals another aspect of Thomas’s philosophy on human race.
 
Knygathin said:
I on my part, like "Les Fleurs" much better than "The Frolic". Being myself obsessed by the bizarre world of orchids, cacti, and other plants, and their strange imitating tropisms, this mystical story suited me.
Click to expand...
Yes, it’s a good one. It has certain qualities that reminded me, more than anything, of some stories from Zothique or by Robert W. Chambers.
 
After almost... two days without being able to read, I read two more stories from Songs of a Dead Dreamer today. The Lost Art of Twilight fascinated me, I absolutely loved it... It felt like a vampire story, but it had something about it that reminded me of a sort of Eyes Wide Shut, or even The Ninth Gate. I don’t know, I mean more in terms of aesthetics.

Then I read, with great enthusiasm, The Troubles of Dr. Thoss. I really enjoyed learning that Thomas had already used this character before The Last Feast of the Harlequin. It was an incredible story as well.

I’ll keep reading tomorrow. On Friday I’m going on vacation for a week, and the book is relatively “short,” so I don’t want to run out of things to read when the month has barely even started.

What a great book, my God.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top