Review of a novel: The Last 10 Seconds

To cap off a busy year of reading I reached for a page-turner. A fast crime novel suited summer-reading. I read the first edition of the novel, a paperback, and note that at least three editions, and an electronic edition, followed.

Source of image: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/108/1083543/the-last-10-seconds/9780552158817.html

The novel was a huge disappointment. It suffered from too many crimes against the English language. I counted eight errors after first letting some errors slip through. I hope the author addressed these errors in later editions. 

The eight error is my favourite.

Error 1, page 230, too much detail

"I was back up in an instant, racing across the empty room in the direction of a newish-looking double-glazed window with a handle-opening system, praying it wasn't locked, because there was no sign of a key"

To which I sacarstically respond: but what colour was the window frame? How high was the window sill? What shape was the handle? And, how does a rushing character notice so much and also have time to pray?

Error 2, page 231, inappropriate use of "us"

"We took a step back together in a tight, vicous dance, which was when there was a loud crack beneath our feet and, without warning, the floor gave way, sending us flailing through the air."

"Kent and I" should be used here instead of "us" in that Kent and the protaganist are not in any relationship that would make the reader consider them a "us".

Error 3, page 231, sentence is incomplete as to subject

"More important was the fact that Kent was no longer holding the gun.

[New paragraph] I clambered to my feet and looked round desperately for it in the darkness" 

Where "it" is a gun and by necessity of starting a new paragraph, the first sentence of that paragraph needs to be complete as to subject.

Error 4, page 231, incorrect word choice

"More important was the fact that Kent was no longer holding the gun.
[New paragraph] I clambered to my feet and looked round desperately for it in the darkness" 

Where "around" should have been used instead of "round".

Error 5, page 284, poor editing

"Gore might have been trying to paint himself as as much of an innocent as he could...."

Where the second "as" should have been eliminated in the editing process.

Error 6, page 325, poor editing

"...being treated as one of the Night Creeper's."

Where the apostrophe is unnecessary as the word falls at the end of the sentence.

Error 7, page 340, poor continuity

"Not even the neighbours would hear [the report of a gunshot from a gun with a silencer and with the shot to be fired through a pillow] through the paper-thin walls."

Where the struggle, and screaming beforehand, was apparently unhearable through the paper-thin walls.

Error 8, page 341, too much put onto a whisper

"'I'm not going to ask again,' he whispered, a renewed determination in his voice"

Where a whisper is doing much work to convey "a renewed determination".



With these errors I offered one star on Goodreads.

Shalom,
Ozhamada

Note: this page links from www.goodreads.com


[634 words] #book #reading #read #crime
edited following feedback.

'LGBT community' lie

Before buying the notion that LGBT people are a community make sure you read this by an author who identifies as G:

"But it is worth bearing these internal frictions and contradictions in mind when people talk about the LGBT community, or try to co-opt it for any political purpose. It barely exists even within each letter of its constituent parts. And each has little in common with the others. Before decriminalization of homosexuality in the 1960s things were arguably slightly different. But the L’s don’t need the G’s today, and the G’s don’t much care for the L’s and almost everybody can be united in suspicion of the B’s. And there is tremendous dispute over whether the T’s are the same thing as everybody else or an insult to them. Still nobody is any the wiser about where any or all of this comes from. And yet it remains the means by which people are willing to identify vast swathes of the population, and build one of the defining justifications and bases for the liberal society."

The Madness of Crowds: Gender, Race and Identity, Douglas Murray, 2019

Elsewhere in the book Murray identifies how T's seek society to hold two competing 'truths': "You can not understand me" & "You must understand me".

Shalom,

Ozhamada

Note: I borrowed the book from City of Sydney Library.

Note: Pastor Doug Wilson also believes that there is no such thing as a LGBT community: 

Review of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (novel)

Great story, good plot development, credible characters, yet……around the three-quarter mark the book took on too many characteristics of a mass-market, airport bookshop novel. Indeed, at that mark the book started to have a made-for-movie feel about it. Then there was the trashy sex - with the main male character loose in bed; trading up and down the age range. 

** spoiler alert ** Summary of book: disgraced Swedish journalist is employed by ageing industrialist to solve a family mystery. The mystery is solved and a family secret uncovered. Some people die, some get a pleasant surprise, lots have sex, and Australia features.

Unbelievable element: that anyone would want to leave Australia for a cold place like Sweden after becoming engrossed in the Australian countryside.

Lowpoint: rape incident, poorly quoted Bible verses.

Highlight: Australia, Australian flower

Plot hole: despite the disgraced Swedish journalist attendance at the local newspaper office (to look through the archives) a staffer at that newspaper office later wokes to the presence of the disgraced Swedish journalist in the town.



Shalom,
Ozhamada

Review of a novel 'Bloke' by Bruce Pascoe

“At last Bob ambled into the yard to take a piss

 at the base of the lemon tree.

As you do.

Scratched his napper, rearranged his balls.

I could see the thought of a cup of tea cross his mind.”

The above quote neatly summarises everything I enjoyed of the language of the novel 'Bloke'. The language makes images jump from the page. The reader is in the yard. The reader can see Bob scratch his head. Oddly, the reader can also see the thought of a cup of tea cross Bob’s mind.

This was the first of Bruce Pascoe’s fictional works that I had read. I first read Pascoe’s non-fiction work Dark Emu. Pascoe writes fiction in a manner like Tim Winton; both engaging the reader in the colour and spectacular of the Australian environment.

I particularly enjoyed the use of metyonmy; so swim-fins where referred to as slippers.

Shalom,

Ozhamada

[242 words] #darkemu #blackseeds #brucepascoe #indigenous #aboriginal #Australians #heritage #culture #custodians

Review of ‘Table’, a play

It was a big theatrical week with Biloxi Blues a marvelous Neil Simon play on Wednesday night at Castle Hill’s Pavilion Theatre & then Table at Seymour Centre.

The Best family’s dining table handed down through six generations. As the play opens we are at first in modernity as two characters ponder the various scratches, scuffs, discolourations and leopard claw marks upon the table surface. Each distinctive mark is a different story. The next scene, based in the cathedral town within Staffordshire; Lichfield, takes the audience back to the start of the six-generation family heritage when the table was first crafted – as a wedding present from husband to wife. In the scenes that follow the story of each of the table’s distinctive marks is revealed. The table is transported to and from Africa; the Christian mission of one of the family’s women.

It is in Africa that the table dramatically obtains the leopard claw marks.

We were fortunate to see the play last night at the first preview.

The play was special in that our household has it’s own table - a table that has a story. That story started on buying it from a couple at cost of the purchase of their new table. It may seem odd that we bought them a table, however, the exchange worked in that they found the table too large for the nook they had placed it in. Our table comfortable sits sixteen, weighs a tonne, and is well crafted in Australian timbers. The table we purchased for the couple was also finely crafted yet twelve placing settings proved to have greater utility to them.

The acting was grand. The few actors adept at managing the transition of role as each new scene took the audience to a new generation of the family. The set and props are minimalist so there is a degree of pressure on the actors to survive without any distractions to the eye.

One actor remarks:

“I hate this table”.

Yet, the audience recognises the sentiment at odds with the table’s history.

We travelled by public transport with buses to door. The plays runs 26th July to 17th August, 2019 and you can book here: https://www.seymourcentre.com

Shalom,

Ozhamada

#theatre #sydney #seymourcentre