July 2011 – Page 4 – BooksPlease

‘Young Man at the Window’ by Gustave Caillebotte

Published on July 6, 2011November 6, 2017 by Margaret7 Comments

Caillebotte young man at window — Young Man at Window by Caillebotte (1876)

I’m quite surprised that Gustave Caillebotte (1848 – 1894) was a member of the French Impressionists as his paintings are much more realistic than the others’ paintings. He painted more modern subjects and his paintings are almost photographic in style.

His painting of a Young Man at Window shows Caillebotte’s brother standing at the window of a new apartment looking out on the scene below. I love the clarity and crispness of this painting, the detail of the stone balustrade, the back view of the young man – a ‘flaneur’ or man about town – and the contrast between the dark interior and bright view outside the window. In the 1870s Paris was being transformed into a modern metropolis under Napoleon III, with Baron Haussmann’s new boulevards and apartements and the rise of the bourgeoisie. The urban setting of this painting shows the tree-lined boulevard and horse drawn carriages.

Is the young man looking at the woman outside? Does he know her? What is the story behind the painting?

An ABC Wednesday post.

Gently by the Shore by Alan Hunter: Book Review

Published on July 5, 2011 by Margaret4 Comments

Gently by the Shore is the second Inspector Gently book by Alan Hunter. George Gently is called in to investigate a murder in Starmouth, a British seaside holiday resort. An unidentified body was found on the beach. The victim was naked, punctured with stab wounds. Gently summarises it:

He had wandered into town, this enigmatical foreigner, he had taken lodgings, he had found a cafe to his taste and a prostitute to his taste; and then he had been, in a short space of time, kidnapped, tortured, murdered and introduced into the sea, his room ransacked and plundered of something of value. There was a ruthlessness about that … it bore the stamp of organization. But there was no other handle. The organization persisted in a strict anonymity. (page 92)

All Gently has to go on is his intuition. This man had been in disguise, no one seemed to know him or why he was in Starmouth. Gently by the Shore was first published in 1956 and reflects that period of time. Gently smokes a pipe and puffs his way through the investigate often in a haze of smoke when questioning suspects who also smoke. The account of a British holiday scene in the fifties brought back memories of childhood holidays (without any murders!) of sunny days on the beach, wet days in amusement arcades on the penny slot machines, the end-of-piers shows, beach cafes, deckchairs, and staying in Guest Houses, where you had bed, breakfast and an evening meal but weren’t expected to stay in your room during the day, the change-over on a Saturday with a mass exodus of one set of holiday makers before the next lot arrived.

It has a very ‘English’ feel about it:

Exceeding Sunday-white lay the Albion Pier under mid-morning sun. Its two square towers, each capped with gold, notched firmly into an azure sky and its peak-roofed pavilion, home of Poppa Pickle’s Pierrots, notched equally firmly into a green-and-amethyst sea. Its gates were closed. They were not open until half past two. The brightly dressed strollers, each infected in some degree by the prevailing Sundayness, were constrained to the languid buying of ice-cream, the indifferent booking of seats or the bored contemplation of Poppa Pickle’s Pierrots’ pics. They didn’t complain. They knew it was their lot. Being English, one was never at a loss for a moral attitude. (page 145)

The fifties were also the period where the death sentence was still in force and Gently and the main suspect discuss the ethics of killing comparing a hired killer with the hangman. Gently maintains that the death penalty is an ideal – ‘to protect people on their lawful occasions’, and that his duty is to catch the criminal. The case is complicated by the involvement of secret agents, at which point I thought the plot became too contrived, and Gently is faced with solving:

… a planned execution, the details of which have been efficiently erased. (page 189)

But, solve it, he does!

My verdict is that this book doesn’t live up to the promise of the first one, Gently Does It, but I enjoyed the setting, the ethical discussions and the problem-solving aspects.

Crime Fiction Alphabet: Letter Y

Published on July 4, 2011 by Margaret5 Comments

My choice for Kerrie’s Crime Fiction Alphabet this week is Margaret Yorke’s Intimate Kill.

Margaret Yorke has written numerous crime fiction novels and is a past chairman of the Crime Writers’ Association (CWA). In 1999 she was awarded the CWA’s Cartier Diamond Dagger Award for her outstanding contribution to the genre.

Intimate Kill was first published in 1985 and I think it’s an excellent example of her work Margaret Yorke writes in a fluent style, one that draws you into the story effortlessly. Stephen Dawes has been released from prison after serving 10 years of a life sentence for murdering his wife, Marcia. Her body had never been found. Stephen knew he was innocent and believed that she had killed herself, making him out to be the murderer, devastated when he had asked for a divorce. He is determined to find out how she did it.

Intimate Kill The book is divided into three parts. Part One deals with Stephen’s search for the truth about Marcia’s death and for his daughter. Stephen’s marriage had not been a happy one and he’d been having an affair with Ruth Watson which resulted in the birth of his daughter, Susannah. Part Two moves back in time eleven years, dealing with the events that led up to Marcia’s disappearance and subsequent events. In Part Three Stephen discovers the truth and nearly loses his own life.

It’s not difficult to work out what actually happened but that doesn’t detract from the pleasure of reading this book. Margaret Yorke is so skilled in characterisation that she has captured the emotions and feelings, as well as the weaknesses and ambitions of all the characters. I believed in all of them. The plot moves swiftly and with a real sense of evil as the tension mounts.

Sunday Selection

Published on July 3, 2011 by Margaret3 Comments

Sunday seems to be the day when I start new books or at least think about starting new books. Today’s no exception, but it’s so lovely outside so I won’t be spending much of the day indoors reading – in the garden, maybe.

I thought I’d decided what I was going to read next – Gillespie and I by Jane Harris for one and Gormenghast, the second book in Mervyn Peake’s trilogy for another, and continue reading Wilful Behaviour by Donna Leon.

But then D finished his long-term reading of Joyce Carol Oates’s mammoth novel Blonde and passed it over to me. Blonde is a novel that

reimagines the inner, poetic and spiritual life of Norma Jean Baker – the child, the woman, the fated celebrity and idolized blonde the world came to know as Marilyn Monroe. (From the back cover)

I wanted him to write his thoughts on the book but I can’t persuade him. He tells me that he was always having to be conscious as he was reading that Blonde is a novel and frequently checked in Richard Havers’s book, Marilyn in Words, Pictures and Music to make sure which was fact and which was fiction (we also have Barbara Leaming’s biography). We have DVDs of Marilyn’s films and as he was reading he watched the film that he was reading about (I watched one or two). So now I’m eager to read Blonde.

Yesterday I received in the post (from the author) Tom Fleck: a novel of Cleveland and Flodden by Harry Nicholson. This is about a young farmworker who took part in the Battle of Flodden in the north-east of England, close to the Scottish border in 1513. We live not far from Flodden Field and the 500th anniversary is coming up, with many events planned to commemorate the battle, so when Harry emailed me about his book I was immediately interested. As I do with each book I get I read the opening pages. I read enough to make me want to read on.

So now I’m stuck. I can continue with reading Wilful Behaviour, but I want to have another book on the go – which book should I read first?

Saturday Snapshot – Standing Stones

Published on July 2, 2011August 17, 2023 by Margaret14 Comments

Today’s Saturday Snapshot photo is an old one from years ago, when we visited Brittany. We were camping next to the site of these Standing Stones at Carnac. Some of the stones are huge – my husband and son are standing in front of one of the stones in the background.