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London Novels #1
Mother London
Three hospital outpatients all find that they hear voices - the voices of London's past. As they explore the city of their present day, they also explore its recent past and its forgotten people. Through the lives of those on the fringe of society, we learn what it is like - and what it has always been like - to live in the great, sprawling, polyphonic, multicoloured capital.
512 pages, Paperback
First published February 13, 1988
46 people are currently reading
1610 people want to read
About the author
Michael Moorcock
1,205 books3,742 followersMichael John Moorcock is an English writer primarily of science fiction and fantasy who has also published a number of literary novels.
Moorcock has mentioned The Gods of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Apple Cart by George Bernard Shaw and The Constable of St. Nicholas by Edward Lester Arnold as the first three books which captured his imagination. He became editor of Tarzan Adventures in 1956, at the age of sixteen, and later moved on to edit Sexton Blake Library. As editor of the controversial British science fiction magazine New Worlds, from May 1964 until March 1971 and then again from 1976 to 1996, Moorcock fostered the development of the science fiction "New Wave" in the UK and indirectly in the United States. His serialization of Norman Spinrad's Bug Jack Barron was notorious for causing British MPs to condemn in Parliament the Arts Council's funding of the magazine.
During this time, he occasionally wrote under the pseudonym of "James Colvin," a "house pseudonym" used by other critics on New Worlds. A spoof obituary of Colvin appeared in New Worlds #197 (January 1970), written by "William Barclay" (another Moorcock pseudonym). Moorcock, indeed, makes much use of the initials "JC", and not entirely coincidentally these are also the initials of Jesus Christ, the subject of his 1967 Nebula award-winning novella Behold the Man, which tells the story of Karl Glogauer, a time-traveller who takes on the role of Christ. They are also the initials of various "Eternal Champion" Moorcock characters such as Jerry Cornelius, Jerry Cornell and Jherek Carnelian. In more recent years, Moorcock has taken to using "Warwick Colvin, Jr." as yet another pseudonym, particularly in his Second Ether fiction.
Moorcock has mentioned The Gods of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Apple Cart by George Bernard Shaw and The Constable of St. Nicholas by Edward Lester Arnold as the first three books which captured his imagination. He became editor of Tarzan Adventures in 1956, at the age of sixteen, and later moved on to edit Sexton Blake Library. As editor of the controversial British science fiction magazine New Worlds, from May 1964 until March 1971 and then again from 1976 to 1996, Moorcock fostered the development of the science fiction "New Wave" in the UK and indirectly in the United States. His serialization of Norman Spinrad's Bug Jack Barron was notorious for causing British MPs to condemn in Parliament the Arts Council's funding of the magazine.
During this time, he occasionally wrote under the pseudonym of "James Colvin," a "house pseudonym" used by other critics on New Worlds. A spoof obituary of Colvin appeared in New Worlds #197 (January 1970), written by "William Barclay" (another Moorcock pseudonym). Moorcock, indeed, makes much use of the initials "JC", and not entirely coincidentally these are also the initials of Jesus Christ, the subject of his 1967 Nebula award-winning novella Behold the Man, which tells the story of Karl Glogauer, a time-traveller who takes on the role of Christ. They are also the initials of various "Eternal Champion" Moorcock characters such as Jerry Cornelius, Jerry Cornell and Jherek Carnelian. In more recent years, Moorcock has taken to using "Warwick Colvin, Jr." as yet another pseudonym, particularly in his Second Ether fiction.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 61 reviews
December 28, 2017
non ho mai assunto droghe pesanti, e non ho mai letto per intero il monologo di molly bloom. eppure esco da questo romanzo con l’impressione di aver fatto entrambe le cose. contemporaneamente.
se dovessi immaginare un libro a cui appiccicare un’etichetta con su scritto lisergico, lo penserei così. con queste 500 pagine che potrebbero essere lette cambiando l’ordine dei capitoli, perché il flusso sofferto dei pensieri si dilata e si restringe procedendo per temi. e con questa struttura come non ne avevo ancora incontrate, che mi ha imposto un ritmo di lettura lento e, nella prima parte, un discreto impegno per restare sul pezzo: non tanto per la formula una e trina delle voci alternate di tre personaggi, che in sé non avrebbe nulla di nuovo, quanto per il singhiozzo ora lucidissimo ora non consequenziale delle loro menti dichiaratamente disturbate.
david mummery, mary gasalee e josef kiss sono, dal punto di vista della costruzione letteraria, personaggi strepitosi. hanno in comune un trauma - il bombardamento di londra nel 1940, quello che per gli inglesi è semplicemente il blitz (dal tedesco blitzkrieg, guerra lampo) - e da allora anche una capacità in più. riescono a sentire i pensieri delle persone che incrociano, ad ascoltare il pulsare della città madre londra. ed è come se il romanzo stesso si facesse medium, attraversato dallo scorrere delle voci e dei frammenti di percezione dei suoi protagonisti.
c’è qualcosa, nella sensibilità esacerbata (o nell’esacerbazione dei sensi) di quest’opera del 1988, che mi ha fatto pensare ad altre due uscite a distanza di pochi anni. il profumo di süskind (1985) e le voci del mondo di schneider (1992). con la differenza che madre londra è (anche) un romanzo di esistenze emarginate. doloroso, scritto benissimo, visionario e, in senso dantesco, infernale. con la differenza che madre londra si avvicina al capolavoro.
se dovessi immaginare un libro a cui appiccicare un’etichetta con su scritto lisergico, lo penserei così. con queste 500 pagine che potrebbero essere lette cambiando l’ordine dei capitoli, perché il flusso sofferto dei pensieri si dilata e si restringe procedendo per temi. e con questa struttura come non ne avevo ancora incontrate, che mi ha imposto un ritmo di lettura lento e, nella prima parte, un discreto impegno per restare sul pezzo: non tanto per la formula una e trina delle voci alternate di tre personaggi, che in sé non avrebbe nulla di nuovo, quanto per il singhiozzo ora lucidissimo ora non consequenziale delle loro menti dichiaratamente disturbate.
david mummery, mary gasalee e josef kiss sono, dal punto di vista della costruzione letteraria, personaggi strepitosi. hanno in comune un trauma - il bombardamento di londra nel 1940, quello che per gli inglesi è semplicemente il blitz (dal tedesco blitzkrieg, guerra lampo) - e da allora anche una capacità in più. riescono a sentire i pensieri delle persone che incrociano, ad ascoltare il pulsare della città madre londra. ed è come se il romanzo stesso si facesse medium, attraversato dallo scorrere delle voci e dei frammenti di percezione dei suoi protagonisti.
c’è qualcosa, nella sensibilità esacerbata (o nell’esacerbazione dei sensi) di quest’opera del 1988, che mi ha fatto pensare ad altre due uscite a distanza di pochi anni. il profumo di süskind (1985) e le voci del mondo di schneider (1992). con la differenza che madre londra è (anche) un romanzo di esistenze emarginate. doloroso, scritto benissimo, visionario e, in senso dantesco, infernale. con la differenza che madre londra si avvicina al capolavoro.
September 21, 2018
★ ★ ★ ★ ½
Ho finito questo libro l’altro ieri e ne ho sentito subito la mancanza.
Poco fa l'ho riaperto per rileggere le annotazioni ed i passaggi sottolineati e ho immediatamente avuto la certezza che questo libro lo rileggerò.
” Con i miei amici sono forte. Siamo in tre. Siamo uniti. Il padre, il figlio e la vergine santa. Resistiamo e aiutiamo gli altri quanto possiamo. Il mio corpo freme come se tutto il potere che avete represso in me minacci di scoppiare da ogni poro, ogni nervo e vena.”
Tre personaggi principali.
Josef Kiss conosce ogni pub della città ed ha esercitato il mestiere della telepatia. Abita in quartieri differenti per sfuggire alla sirene ammaliatrici che lo tentano.
Mary Gasalee rimasta 15 anni in uno stato comatoso dopo essere uscita miracolosamente indenne dalle macerie di un bombardamento; in quei 15 anni ha cambiato solo residenza: era nella Terra dei Sogni.
David Mummery, scrittore esperto dalla storia londinese fin nei suoi sotterranei percorsi.
Una triade che s'incontra in una clinica per malattie mentali.
Cosa hanno in comune?
La capacità di sentire delle voci e l'essere figli del trauma che in differenti modi li ha colpiti il cosiddetto blitz.
Londra un po’ Gerusalemme un po’ Babilonia. Sicuramente un punto fermo, una presenza viva come una madre egoista, invadente, necessaria.
” «Oh, Mary. Hai la passione della simmetria? È pericoloso di questi tempi, l'impulso all'ontologia.»
Cartina alla mano e via si gira per Londra: un viaggio nello spazio e nel tempo.
Si cammina nello spazio angusto di vicoli per poi sbucare in piazze e grandi arterie.
Sgomitando tra la folla multiforme; tappandosi le orecchie per non sentire le voci.
Le allucinazioni coinvolgono tutti i sensi e cresce il bisogno di districarsi, riassumere il controllo che reclama raziocinio, linearità, senso compiuto.
Ti chiedi se forse quella cartina la stai guardando al contrario e la giri e la rigiri salvo poi accorgerti che non ti serve a nulla.
Devi solo lasciarti andare, farti accompagnare da questi tre condottieri metropolitani e dalla loro lucida follia.
” Il passato e il futuro insieme comprendono il presente a Londra, e questa è una delle attrattive maggiori della città. Le teorie del tempo sono in gran parte semplicistiche, come quella di Dunne. Tentano di fornirgli una forma circolare o lineare, ma io credo che il tempo sia un gioiello sfaccettato con un'infinità di piani e strati impossibili sia da descrivere che da contenere. Questa immagine è il mio antidoto alla morte.”
Ps- Le cinque stelle le sfioro. Ci sono capitoli da brivido in cui mi sono emozionata tantissimo. In altri ho faticato a tenere il passo ed è anche questo il motivo per cui voglio rileggerlo
Ho finito questo libro l’altro ieri e ne ho sentito subito la mancanza.
Poco fa l'ho riaperto per rileggere le annotazioni ed i passaggi sottolineati e ho immediatamente avuto la certezza che questo libro lo rileggerò.
” Con i miei amici sono forte. Siamo in tre. Siamo uniti. Il padre, il figlio e la vergine santa. Resistiamo e aiutiamo gli altri quanto possiamo. Il mio corpo freme come se tutto il potere che avete represso in me minacci di scoppiare da ogni poro, ogni nervo e vena.”
Tre personaggi principali.
Josef Kiss conosce ogni pub della città ed ha esercitato il mestiere della telepatia. Abita in quartieri differenti per sfuggire alla sirene ammaliatrici che lo tentano.
Mary Gasalee rimasta 15 anni in uno stato comatoso dopo essere uscita miracolosamente indenne dalle macerie di un bombardamento; in quei 15 anni ha cambiato solo residenza: era nella Terra dei Sogni.
David Mummery, scrittore esperto dalla storia londinese fin nei suoi sotterranei percorsi.
Una triade che s'incontra in una clinica per malattie mentali.
Cosa hanno in comune?
La capacità di sentire delle voci e l'essere figli del trauma che in differenti modi li ha colpiti il cosiddetto blitz.
Londra un po’ Gerusalemme un po’ Babilonia. Sicuramente un punto fermo, una presenza viva come una madre egoista, invadente, necessaria.
” «Oh, Mary. Hai la passione della simmetria? È pericoloso di questi tempi, l'impulso all'ontologia.»
Cartina alla mano e via si gira per Londra: un viaggio nello spazio e nel tempo.
Si cammina nello spazio angusto di vicoli per poi sbucare in piazze e grandi arterie.
Sgomitando tra la folla multiforme; tappandosi le orecchie per non sentire le voci.
Le allucinazioni coinvolgono tutti i sensi e cresce il bisogno di districarsi, riassumere il controllo che reclama raziocinio, linearità, senso compiuto.
Ti chiedi se forse quella cartina la stai guardando al contrario e la giri e la rigiri salvo poi accorgerti che non ti serve a nulla.
Devi solo lasciarti andare, farti accompagnare da questi tre condottieri metropolitani e dalla loro lucida follia.
” Il passato e il futuro insieme comprendono il presente a Londra, e questa è una delle attrattive maggiori della città. Le teorie del tempo sono in gran parte semplicistiche, come quella di Dunne. Tentano di fornirgli una forma circolare o lineare, ma io credo che il tempo sia un gioiello sfaccettato con un'infinità di piani e strati impossibili sia da descrivere che da contenere. Questa immagine è il mio antidoto alla morte.”
Ps- Le cinque stelle le sfioro. Ci sono capitoli da brivido in cui mi sono emozionata tantissimo. In altri ho faticato a tenere il passo ed è anche questo il motivo per cui voglio rileggerlo
April 13, 2020
This is a very long and extremely literate novel; it's hard to believe it was written by the same man who wrote the three slam-bang Kane on Mars (for example) books, that the same writer produced this very carefully and thoughtfully crafted book. It's a non-linear and borderline-ambiguous biography of the city of London from the time of the Blitz up to the present. It's much more William Burroughs than Edgar Rice Burroughs; it reminded me more of Delany's Dhalgren than anything else, though there's little speculative fiction content other than telepathy which seems to exist more to let the three main characters listen in on the thoughts of the casual London citizens on the streets than for any other purpose. It's worth reading for the story which unfolds slowly and subtly, and for the very precise and elegant prose, and for the finely detailed characters (the city itself being the main focus), but don't approach it casually- make sure you have a chunk of free and quiet time to leap in.
May 15, 2019
Son senza parole e quindi tacerò. Dico solo che dopo la Pastorale Americana o L'Arcobaleno della Gravità non immaginavo, nella breve vita a noi concessa, di "incocciare" nuovamente in un libro su cui appore l'etichetta di "classico moderno", quel fastidioso ossimoro distribuito generosamente dagli editori(a cazzo di cane) a chiunque sappia metter due parole in croce. Posso solo dire, Mondadori, Einaudi, Feltrinelli, comprate i diritti dalla picola e coraggiosa Fanucci e distribuitelo a tappeto nei vostri supermercati, allegatelo a Sorrisi e Canzoni, regalatelo in cambio di un voto a Berlusconi... si può far tutto per libri così.
April 9, 2024
CRITIQUE:
Prologue 1 (David Mummery's Priväte Memento Möri)
Prologue 2 (Josef Kiss' Recöllection)
Prologue 3 (David Mummery's Priväte Memento Möri)
Fäbles of the Recönstruction
For all the damage and destruction wreaked on London during and by the Blitz(-krieg), there was just as much psychic damage caused to the London populace (including children who remained in the city).
Society collapsed during the war, as did individuals. Their psyches were violently deconstructed, and it took /might still take decades to reconstruct them.
The result is that fewer (English) louts than (German) umlauts survived the War free from mental derangement, hence the pre-eminence of psychedelia in the music industry (of the English Sixties).
Syd Barrett playing psychedelic rock with Pink Floyd, at All Saints Church Hall, Notting Hill, London on 30 September, 1966 (Credit: Peter Mercier)
Mother Londön
This novel is the story of the reconstruction of the psyches of three protagonists (1) on a journey through the landscape (or psycho-geography) of London, some of it in clinics and insane asylums, and the rest in the streets, residences and pubs of London (in suburbs such as Ladbroke Grove and Notting Hill, Chelsea, Battersea and Brixton), from 1940 to 1985 (though the journey isn't recounted in a linear fashion):
The Elgin, Ladbroke Grove
Mäps and Legends
The protagonists repair their psyches with maps and legends of a Mother London that they have constructed (through the agency of the author, Michael Moorcöck):
Feeling Grävity's Pull
"Mother London" traverses the actual (and the literary) world between "Gravity's Rainbow" and "Ulysses".
The action of the novel occurs in places that were the target of police action up until the 1980's, because the residents and their values didn't match those of conventional middle class Englishmen.
There are extended scenes from the Notting Hill Carnival riots in 1977, which were arguably "not race riots but anti-police riots by (mostly) unemployed, low-paid, young blacks, the people at the bottom of the economic and social scrapheap." (2)
FOOTNÖTES:
(1) The protagonists are David Mummery, Mary Gasalee, and Josef Kiss (whom a friend of Mary's describes as "a reincarnation of a proper London wit".)
(2) https://libcom.org/article/1976-notti...
SOUNDTRÄCK:
Prologue 1 (David Mummery's Priväte Memento Möri)
"The V-Bomb moves with steady grace before the blustering East wind as it crosses the channel and reaches Brighton, passing low enough over the town for people in the Pavilion Gardens to see it rush by...
"...the yellow fire from its tail glaring against the broken cloud; it will reach Croydon in minutes then in a further minute South London when, its fuel gone, it will fall on the suburb where David Mummery, almost five years old, plays with his toy soldiers...
"Forty-seven feet long and carrying two thousand pounds of explosive, this sophisticated machine, the combined genius and labour of amoral scientists, serf technicians and slave workers, is about to bring a miracle into my life."
Prologue 2 (Josef Kiss' Recöllection)
"The bombs never seemed to stop pounding out of the sky, one batch after another...Shrapnel flying everywhere, whole districts undulating like heavy seas, tarmac and paving stones bursting upwards as if to release the hordes of Hell; walls falling in, heat forcing you to the ground, wind dragging flesh from bone, joints from sockets."
Prologue 3 (David Mummery's Priväte Memento Möri)
"...they murder us with all their complacent follies...they are creatures without reason. They are hateful creatures who have only a will to power, a wish to sustain that power at any cost...they never hesitate...they can merely be checked."
Fäbles of the Recönstruction
For all the damage and destruction wreaked on London during and by the Blitz(-krieg), there was just as much psychic damage caused to the London populace (including children who remained in the city).
Society collapsed during the war, as did individuals. Their psyches were violently deconstructed, and it took /might still take decades to reconstruct them.
The result is that fewer (English) louts than (German) umlauts survived the War free from mental derangement, hence the pre-eminence of psychedelia in the music industry (of the English Sixties).
Syd Barrett playing psychedelic rock with Pink Floyd, at All Saints Church Hall, Notting Hill, London on 30 September, 1966 (Credit: Peter Mercier)
Mother Londön
This novel is the story of the reconstruction of the psyches of three protagonists (1) on a journey through the landscape (or psycho-geography) of London, some of it in clinics and insane asylums, and the rest in the streets, residences and pubs of London (in suburbs such as Ladbroke Grove and Notting Hill, Chelsea, Battersea and Brixton), from 1940 to 1985 (though the journey isn't recounted in a linear fashion):
"I'm at present psychically bound to London and its environs...
"London is my mother, source of most of my ambivalences and most of my loyalties...
"[Nonny] prefers to wander the city's old paths, many of them obliterated by fire and bombs, crossed by new roads, broken by tunnels or viaducts, yet as familiar to her as secret marsh trails existing here before London was built where the Thames was shallow and easily forded on swampland cut by myriad streams now all diverted, sewers.
"More complicated than any electronic circuit, no longer always visible, the paths Non follows grew out of singular tensions, eccentric decisions, whimsical habit, old forgotten purposes, so that she appears to move at random when actually she travels ancient and well-used arteries, though most would not recognise her sign-posts since she steers by association, by an instinct as profound as any jungle hunter's, and will say her skill is nothing more than common sense..."
The Elgin, Ladbroke Grove
Mäps and Legends
The protagonists repair their psyches with maps and legends of a Mother London that they have constructed (through the agency of the author, Michael Moorcöck):
"By means of certain myths which cannot easily be damaged or debased the majority of us survive. All old great cities possess their special myths...
"By means of our myths and legends we maintain a sense of what we are worth and who we are...
"Without them we should undoubtedly go mad."
Feeling Grävity's Pull
"Mother London" traverses the actual (and the literary) world between "Gravity's Rainbow" and "Ulysses".
The action of the novel occurs in places that were the target of police action up until the 1980's, because the residents and their values didn't match those of conventional middle class Englishmen.
There are extended scenes from the Notting Hill Carnival riots in 1977, which were arguably "not race riots but anti-police riots by (mostly) unemployed, low-paid, young blacks, the people at the bottom of the economic and social scrapheap." (2)
FOOTNÖTES:
(1) The protagonists are David Mummery, Mary Gasalee, and Josef Kiss (whom a friend of Mary's describes as "a reincarnation of a proper London wit".)
"[Nonny] speaks of David Mummery, rescued by the Black Captain; of Josef Kiss who reads minds and by this means saved a thousand lives; and of Mary Gasalee walking unscathed from the inferno with her baby in her arms.
"Such stories are common amongst all ordinary Londoners though few are ever noted by the Press."
(2) https://libcom.org/article/1976-notti...
SOUNDTRÄCK:
March 8, 2013
A deeply humane and thoroughly wonderful novel that enters into the mind of London itself through a host of eccentric and compelling characters. Moorcock is best known for his science fiction but he should just be recognised as one of England's best living novelists. A beautifully done time traveling structure and a great literary conceit to delve into the streams of consciousness of London's inhabitants.
May 25, 2016
Slightly mixed feelings... love the prose. Feel like I could read it forever... as I did when I read King of the City.
But King of the City had a very good plot, this was slightly lacking in plot... definitely had an amazing narrative drive. However, the non-linear narrative, whilst ultimately rewarding, did take a long while to pull one in, as the characters themselves aren't as compelling, its what happens (or happened) to them that makes them so, and in some cases we didn't find out what that was until 2/3 of the way through.
As a great London novel, its still near the top of a very small list. Overly self-conscious at times, but made up for in some beautiful gems of London-ness, particularly Bank House and the Gypsey camp north of Euston - both fantastical elements in an otherwise very real London, but that's also the skill of King of the City.
Very rewarding ultimately and definitely one of the greatest London novels ever written.
But King of the City had a very good plot, this was slightly lacking in plot... definitely had an amazing narrative drive. However, the non-linear narrative, whilst ultimately rewarding, did take a long while to pull one in, as the characters themselves aren't as compelling, its what happens (or happened) to them that makes them so, and in some cases we didn't find out what that was until 2/3 of the way through.
As a great London novel, its still near the top of a very small list. Overly self-conscious at times, but made up for in some beautiful gems of London-ness, particularly Bank House and the Gypsey camp north of Euston - both fantastical elements in an otherwise very real London, but that's also the skill of King of the City.
Very rewarding ultimately and definitely one of the greatest London novels ever written.
December 19, 2012
Originally published on my blog here in August 2001.
Much of Moorcock's fiction is set in London, and Notting Hill and Ladbroke Grove in particular are home to many of his characters, including Jerry Cornelius and Maxim Pyat (in old age). This novel is a celebration of the city over a period roughly corresponding to Moorcock's own lifetime, from the blitz to the book's publication.
The novel tells its story in a very fragmentary way, with chapters not at all in chronological order (though they helpfully have years as part of their titles). The three main characters have a unique ability, to pick up the thoughts of those around them (an idea strongly related to Rushdie's Midnight's Children, which is a novel quite like Mother London, using a similar device to illuminate the story of post-independence India). This ability, uncomprehended by those around them, means that they each spend time in a mental hospital.
Much of the novel is filled with regret, mainly related to the loss of the sense of community important to the city before the Blitz. This is combined with a contempt for some of the things London has become - a heritage theme park, a place where the old working class areas are becoming gentrified and soulless.
There are some beautifully written passages in the novel, which was Moorcock's most successful from a literary point of view. As he moved away from the fantasy genre in the nineties, Mother London pointed the direction in which Moorcock was to go.
Much of Moorcock's fiction is set in London, and Notting Hill and Ladbroke Grove in particular are home to many of his characters, including Jerry Cornelius and Maxim Pyat (in old age). This novel is a celebration of the city over a period roughly corresponding to Moorcock's own lifetime, from the blitz to the book's publication.
The novel tells its story in a very fragmentary way, with chapters not at all in chronological order (though they helpfully have years as part of their titles). The three main characters have a unique ability, to pick up the thoughts of those around them (an idea strongly related to Rushdie's Midnight's Children, which is a novel quite like Mother London, using a similar device to illuminate the story of post-independence India). This ability, uncomprehended by those around them, means that they each spend time in a mental hospital.
Much of the novel is filled with regret, mainly related to the loss of the sense of community important to the city before the Blitz. This is combined with a contempt for some of the things London has become - a heritage theme park, a place where the old working class areas are becoming gentrified and soulless.
There are some beautifully written passages in the novel, which was Moorcock's most successful from a literary point of view. As he moved away from the fantasy genre in the nineties, Mother London pointed the direction in which Moorcock was to go.
May 18, 2020
An epic love letter to London, seen through the Blitz and post-Blitz experiences of a series of eccentric characters, Mother London is a massive novel written with an enrapturing prose that echoes both magic realism (García Márquez, Salman Rushdie) and psychogeography (Alan Moore, Iain Sinclair). Although it takes several chapters to finds its rhythm, by the last hundred pages, it becomes an unstoppable behemoth that is hard to put down, full of life and hope, despite the dark forces that threaten London's very essence. As we move back and forwards throughout the decades between the harshest hours of the Blitz to the onslaught of Thatcherism in the 1980s, we follow three complex and charming characters (united by their various "insanities" and capacity to hear the voices of other Londoners) through the streets, pubs, parks, bookshops of an ever-changing city. Of course, although they are memorable characters, the city itself and its modern and ancient mythologies are the main protagonists of this novel... and rightfully so.
July 4, 2016
Utterly tedious parade of instantly-forgettable characters that listlessly drifts back and forth over London history 1940-90, without alighting on a single interesting thought, observation, or sentence. There may well be an inner matrix of connections between the lines of narrative, linked around the telepathic figure of Joseph Kiss, but I just couldn't care less. Relentlessly trite riffing on how the new money of the 80s was bad, and the counterculture were fakes who sold out quickly, and the Blitz wasn't like you were told.... yes, this was all stale even when this thing was published. There is a core of sentimentality that is not so far away from those J.B.Priestley doorstoppers of the 1930s, but I've wasted enough of my life on this already.
May 23, 2024
An epic novel that takes us from the London Blitz to the rise of Mrs Thatcher's government in the Eighties, through the minds of a bunch of people who are classified as mad. All the characters lives interweave in this giant story told through a toggling back and forth through time and also minds. All the characters hear voices and although the authorities firmly believe this makes them mentally ill, the characters and also us, the readers are not entirely sure. This is a hymn to the beauty and age of London, it is a novel about war and suffering, it is a novel about humanity and it is also possibly a time slip novel. It has so much going on but it never feels overwhelming. It reminded me from time to time of Mrs. Dalloway. I loved it.
March 3, 2016
The characters and settings in this book stay with me.. they come to mind on unexpected occasions just a glimpse and I realise how, even though this book frustrated my need for a clear, narrative novel.. it gave me much more than I thought.
August 6, 2025
Geschafft! Erleichterung macht sich breit... ich habe es durchgezogen. Leider muss ich sagen, dass mir das Buch nicht gefallen hat. Man sieht an der Dauer die ich gebraucht habe um es zu lesen, dass es mir schwer viel und die Motivation gefehlt hat. Ich habe gelesen und gelesen und gelesen aber eine Geschichte hat sich mir nicht erschlossen. Soll es vielleicht auch gar nicht. Scheibstil war überwiegend gut und hat mir gefallen, aber Inhaltlich... Nein.
November 12, 2024
“By means of our myths and legends we maintain a sense of what we are worth and who we are. Without them we should undoubtedly go mad.”
The story of 3 survivors of the V-2 bombings of London during WWII who meet as outpatients in a mental hospital. Their stories showcase the legends of London that helped the city survive the catastrophe and, in the process, show us how we can manage the chaos of our own lives and become the heroes needed to meet the future with that universal "stiff-upper-lip."
Eloquent with great characters. Moorcock's best work and one of my favorite books.
The story of 3 survivors of the V-2 bombings of London during WWII who meet as outpatients in a mental hospital. Their stories showcase the legends of London that helped the city survive the catastrophe and, in the process, show us how we can manage the chaos of our own lives and become the heroes needed to meet the future with that universal "stiff-upper-lip."
Eloquent with great characters. Moorcock's best work and one of my favorite books.
December 5, 2018
That was the second time I've read Mother London and I believe I'll read it again some day.
Although marooned in another part of the world, I consider myself a London person in the core, and Moorcock's vision of the city coincides with mine.
London is a city with myth and improbability and thousands of years of history locked up in its stone and concrete and beneath the streets. This history, this myth radiates; it oozes from the sooty pores. London has a powerful and real aura, which for a person like me who breathes stories, that aura is the actual air.
Although marooned in another part of the world, I consider myself a London person in the core, and Moorcock's vision of the city coincides with mine.
London is a city with myth and improbability and thousands of years of history locked up in its stone and concrete and beneath the streets. This history, this myth radiates; it oozes from the sooty pores. London has a powerful and real aura, which for a person like me who breathes stories, that aura is the actual air.
December 22, 2019
I recently discovered Michael Moorcock and have been wading into his intimidatingly large catalog. While known primarily as a Fantasy author, Mother London would best be described as a historical novel and its convoluted plot traces a series of eccentric characters from postwar London to the 1980's. Along the way Mooorcock touches upon mental illness, gentrification and changing social norms. Quirky and not an easy read but very enjoyable and made me want to keep reading more of Moorcock's work.
April 10, 2020
Probably Moorcock's best novel about the city he'll always be associated with.
I liked the jumping back and forth across different time periods from the Blitz of the 40s to the mid-80s
I liked the jumping back and forth across different time periods from the Blitz of the 40s to the mid-80s
April 10, 2019
Powerful and fascinating.
July 30, 2011
Dans ce roman, on suit (difficilement) le parcours de trois "télépathes" (je mets le mot entre guillemet, car il n'est non seulement d'aucun intérêt dans le récit, mais de plus leur télépathie n'est pas prouvée) dans Londres, de la deuxième guerre mondiale aux années quatre-vingt. Histoire que la lecture soit encore un peu plus difficile, le récit est raconté en six parties se déroulant en parallèle sur ces cinquante ans, parfois dans l'ordre chronologique, parfois non. Qui plus est, parmi ces trois personnages, l'un est une espèce d'artiste un peu excentrique, le second est une espèce de maniaque des souterrains londoniens, et la troisième passe quinze ans dans un coma digne d'ENtreFER. Et tous sont des amoureux de ce qu'on pourrait sans problème qualifier de quatrième personnage : Londres. En effet, ils passent tous leurs temps à se promener dans les ruelles, impasses, boulevards, allées de cette ville en transformation constante, à la fois socialement et architecturalement.
Inutile de dire que j'ai vite été perdu dans ce roman capiteux, accumulant les noms de rues et de pubs comme d'autres accumulent les néologismes, et pour le même résultat : la réalité décrite ne gagne absolument aucune clarté dans tout ce fatras de nom, et les personnages (mis à part quelques seconds rôles importants) se fondent dans une espèce d'immensité sans visage à la fois cockney, antillaise, africaine et chinoise. Et dans quel but ? Eh bien aucun, puisqu'il ne s'agit dans ce roman que d'une chronique de ce Londres de la fin du XXème siècle. Du coup, mis à part par l'auteur (et c'est hélas ce qui est arrivé ici), ce roman n'a à mon avis rien à faire dans une collection de genre, et serait plus à place dans une collection blanche. Mais sans doute cette évocation étrange de Londres est-elle trop atypique, trop borderline pour l'édition française ? Je n'en sais rien. Et honnêtement, ça ne m'intéresse pas.
En revanche, ce qui vous intéresse sans doute, c'est de savoir ce que j'en ai pensé, et surtout si j'en ai pensé du bien. C'est bien difficile à dire puisque je me sens encore perdu dans un fog typiquement londonien. D'un autre côté, si j'utilise mon discriminateur le plus classique (est-ce que je relirai ce roman), ma réponse est claire, et je ne peux hélas pas vous recommander ce roman, sans pour autant vous dissuader. Après tout, vous aimerez peut-être bien cette sensation étrange d'être littéralement plongé dans une métropole bouillonante d'une vie pas forcément saine, mais en tout cas vivante (pas comme note Paris sous cloche).
Inutile de dire que j'ai vite été perdu dans ce roman capiteux, accumulant les noms de rues et de pubs comme d'autres accumulent les néologismes, et pour le même résultat : la réalité décrite ne gagne absolument aucune clarté dans tout ce fatras de nom, et les personnages (mis à part quelques seconds rôles importants) se fondent dans une espèce d'immensité sans visage à la fois cockney, antillaise, africaine et chinoise. Et dans quel but ? Eh bien aucun, puisqu'il ne s'agit dans ce roman que d'une chronique de ce Londres de la fin du XXème siècle. Du coup, mis à part par l'auteur (et c'est hélas ce qui est arrivé ici), ce roman n'a à mon avis rien à faire dans une collection de genre, et serait plus à place dans une collection blanche. Mais sans doute cette évocation étrange de Londres est-elle trop atypique, trop borderline pour l'édition française ? Je n'en sais rien. Et honnêtement, ça ne m'intéresse pas.
En revanche, ce qui vous intéresse sans doute, c'est de savoir ce que j'en ai pensé, et surtout si j'en ai pensé du bien. C'est bien difficile à dire puisque je me sens encore perdu dans un fog typiquement londonien. D'un autre côté, si j'utilise mon discriminateur le plus classique (est-ce que je relirai ce roman), ma réponse est claire, et je ne peux hélas pas vous recommander ce roman, sans pour autant vous dissuader. Après tout, vous aimerez peut-être bien cette sensation étrange d'être littéralement plongé dans une métropole bouillonante d'une vie pas forcément saine, mais en tout cas vivante (pas comme note Paris sous cloche).
November 13, 2024
Amazing tapestry of life in/of London between 1940 and 1985, told via key episodes in the lives of three people (Josef Kiss, Mary Gasalee and David Mummery). Apart from slight psychic/mental issues, their tales are mostly fairly mundane and the time-line jumps confusingly all over the place (although each chapter is helpfully titled including the year in which it takes place!), so I was initially underwhelmed and thought it was going to be a slog to get through, but... the quality of Moorcock's writing was high and the individual chapters engaging enough and... it just kept getting BETTER AND BETTER - coalescing into an astonishing "deep-field" vision of an entire city through decades of time, peopled with myriad characters that were realistic and likeable so that you cared/were interested in what happened to them. It probably helps that (although a "norvener") I lived in London for seven years, and that's probably what's got me to round up its 4.5 stars!
November 11, 2015
This is a sort of biography of multiple characters as their lives in london interact. On a minor note all of the characters suffer from mental issues due to being psychic. I say this is a minor note as being a bit psychic certainly hasn't done any of them any good and doesn't play a very large role in the story.
Its very well written with very well rounded characters. I will say i did occasionally get confused amongst some of the minor characters, the story jumps back and forth through time a lot and you could say there are a lot of moving parts.
I'm sure some familiarity with london and its history would be beneficial but i still liked it despite my lack of background knowledge.
Its also quite long and might reward multiple reads as there is a lot to dig through.
Its very well written with very well rounded characters. I will say i did occasionally get confused amongst some of the minor characters, the story jumps back and forth through time a lot and you could say there are a lot of moving parts.
I'm sure some familiarity with london and its history would be beneficial but i still liked it despite my lack of background knowledge.
Its also quite long and might reward multiple reads as there is a lot to dig through.
April 25, 2024
Nejdivnější kniha, co jsem v poslední době četla. Vyšla v roce 1988, ale stylově připomíná spíš klasiku z konce 19. nebo začátku 20. století: takový ten majestátní, rozkročený styl, který je sice skvělý, ale trochu těžko se čte (hodně mi to připomínalo Parade's End. Navíc na všechny ty postavy a poskakování v čase aby si člověk nakreslil diagram. Nicméně atmosféra je úžasná, Londýn doby Blitzu a následných let vyvstává plasticky před očima a nostalgie by se dala krájet.
July 29, 2016
There is some great writing in this book, and the reader gets a good feel for the city of London. The episodes dealing with the Blitz are especially impressive. However there is little terms of plot, and the book is perhaps overlong when viewed a character study.
July 6, 2018
Somewhere between 50-100 pages too long, but otherwise pretty marvellous. Manic and expansive and overflowing with other descriptors, a cacophony, plenty of it no doubt contradictory. The perfect book for a city, really.
May 5, 2019
Good in parts but also a bit of a slog with too much connective prose necessitated by the time shifts.
July 16, 2025
Michael Moorcock hat so viel geschrieben, die Qualität stark schwankend. MUTTER LONDON ist vom literarischen Standpunkt aus gesehen Moorcocks herausragendster Roman, mit über 700 Seiten auch sein umfangreichster. Wer etwas in der Richtung der Elric-Bücher erwartet, sollte vorsichtig sein und sich vielleicht erst einmal die Leseprobe zu Gemüte führen. Hier kommen eher die Bewunderer von BYZANZ IST ÜBERALL, DAS BORDELL IN DER ROSENSTRASSE oder gar der JERRY CORNELIUS CHRONIKEN auf ihre Kosten.
MUTTER LONDON ist ein großer Gegenwartsroman über eine Gruppe von besonderen, aber irgendwie auch normalen Menschen, die wie Kometen kreuz und quer durch ein London von ca. 1940 bis in die achtziger Jahre navigieren, sich immer wieder in Pubs treffen und die aktuelle Lage diskutieren.
Obwohl er in komplizierten Zusammenhängen die relevanten Themen des Menschseins berührt, ist Moorcocks Schreibstil klar und durchdringend (was auch der vorzüglichen Übersetzung von Hannes Riffel zu verdanken ist). Nichtsdestotrotz ist es kein leicht und schnell zu lesendes Buch, denn die Ereignisse werden nicht chronologisch erzählt, sondern mehrmals hin- und zurückhüpfend durch die Zeiten.
Nach meinem Empfinden hat MUTTER LONDON den Rang eines der maßgeblichen erzählenden Bücher der Nachkriegszeit, was nicht nur daran liegt, dass Moorcock halt niemals Mainstream ist, egal, was er schreibt, sondern auch hier seine ureigene Art des Erzählens präsentiert. Dazu kommen Elemente, für die man nach Beendigung der Lektüre Wärme im Herzen verspürt: Humor, der einen manchmal laut auflachen lässt, Toleranz, Liebenswürdigkeit, gegenseitige Hilfe und Unterstützung, soziale Kritik ohne Belehrung - einfach all das, was man als Menschlichkeit bezeichnen kann. Ganz nebenbei ist es auch noch ein relevantes Buch über die persönlichen Erfahrungen des Blitz in London.
Ein höchst empfehlenswerter Roman jenseits der Großverlage, der ein Feuilleton-Darling und ein Bestseller-Erfolg sein sollte.
Ausführliche Besprechung hier: https://dandelionliteratur.wordpress....
MUTTER LONDON ist ein großer Gegenwartsroman über eine Gruppe von besonderen, aber irgendwie auch normalen Menschen, die wie Kometen kreuz und quer durch ein London von ca. 1940 bis in die achtziger Jahre navigieren, sich immer wieder in Pubs treffen und die aktuelle Lage diskutieren.
Obwohl er in komplizierten Zusammenhängen die relevanten Themen des Menschseins berührt, ist Moorcocks Schreibstil klar und durchdringend (was auch der vorzüglichen Übersetzung von Hannes Riffel zu verdanken ist). Nichtsdestotrotz ist es kein leicht und schnell zu lesendes Buch, denn die Ereignisse werden nicht chronologisch erzählt, sondern mehrmals hin- und zurückhüpfend durch die Zeiten.
Nach meinem Empfinden hat MUTTER LONDON den Rang eines der maßgeblichen erzählenden Bücher der Nachkriegszeit, was nicht nur daran liegt, dass Moorcock halt niemals Mainstream ist, egal, was er schreibt, sondern auch hier seine ureigene Art des Erzählens präsentiert. Dazu kommen Elemente, für die man nach Beendigung der Lektüre Wärme im Herzen verspürt: Humor, der einen manchmal laut auflachen lässt, Toleranz, Liebenswürdigkeit, gegenseitige Hilfe und Unterstützung, soziale Kritik ohne Belehrung - einfach all das, was man als Menschlichkeit bezeichnen kann. Ganz nebenbei ist es auch noch ein relevantes Buch über die persönlichen Erfahrungen des Blitz in London.
Ein höchst empfehlenswerter Roman jenseits der Großverlage, der ein Feuilleton-Darling und ein Bestseller-Erfolg sein sollte.
Ausführliche Besprechung hier: https://dandelionliteratur.wordpress....
September 26, 2021
In post-War London, a group of people find themselves hearing the voices of the City's ghosts. An eccentric performing artist with a failing marriage; a war widow who fell into a coma during the Blitz and woke up 15 years later; and post-war prodigy child- their fates weave and intertwine, along with fates of other bohemians, criminals, businessmen, politicians and everyone in between- as they try to find their place in the ever-changing City.
"Mother London" is a book about the sense of place, first and foremost. The narrative jumps around from 1940 and the beginning of the Blitz all the way to 1985 and the peak of Thatcherism. The central cast, treated as mental patients most of the time, struggle to find acceptance in the world. Their ability to hear thoughts- not just of ghosts, but of the living people around them- exposes them to the hidden thoughts and the sides of people that no one is meant to see. The power makes them dangerous, and drugs suppress it, leaving them ordinary. However, not everyone can accept the lie, and this continues to haunt several characters. In this way, "Mother London" is one of the most character-drive works Moorcock has done. Almost everyone, from the main characters to the supporting cast has their own quirks and personality that's engrossing to discover. Jumping between decades on several "themes", but constantly mentioning events that happened at a different time creates an interweaving jigsaw plot, and I felt compelled to unravel it all- this helped the books's pacing tremendously, since it meant I was always on the lookout for additional hints as to what happened before, or will happen in the future. Both the plot and the characters were the book's strong points.
The writer's style does get a bit ornate, and not being a native Londoner it's not always easy to keep track of the barrage of locations that are tossed at the reader. It's impossible for me to say which of the places described here are real and which are fictional, though there are certainly ongoing thematic references to Notting Hill and a few other locations that can be recognized from Moorcock's other works that featured London heavily, such as the Jerry Cornelius stories and "War Among the Angels". I suppose the fact that he can make them seem real., regardless of whether they are, is sufficient. The people and the City changes over time, and the characters resist the changes, while the City endures. It's hard for me to describe the point of the story- it feels more like a picaresque plot where the characters struggle to find their place, and the world they face. The ending is somewhat hopeful, The undercurrent is the generation of urban myths and the mysticism that underlies them. There are certain supernatural elements here, but nothing too overt.
I'd recommend this as something completely different from what you usually get with Moorcock. Not quite urban fantasy, but not a pure "classical" literary novel either. A curious mix, spiced by some social commentary on the way post-War Britain developed.
"Mother London" is a book about the sense of place, first and foremost. The narrative jumps around from 1940 and the beginning of the Blitz all the way to 1985 and the peak of Thatcherism. The central cast, treated as mental patients most of the time, struggle to find acceptance in the world. Their ability to hear thoughts- not just of ghosts, but of the living people around them- exposes them to the hidden thoughts and the sides of people that no one is meant to see. The power makes them dangerous, and drugs suppress it, leaving them ordinary. However, not everyone can accept the lie, and this continues to haunt several characters. In this way, "Mother London" is one of the most character-drive works Moorcock has done. Almost everyone, from the main characters to the supporting cast has their own quirks and personality that's engrossing to discover. Jumping between decades on several "themes", but constantly mentioning events that happened at a different time creates an interweaving jigsaw plot, and I felt compelled to unravel it all- this helped the books's pacing tremendously, since it meant I was always on the lookout for additional hints as to what happened before, or will happen in the future. Both the plot and the characters were the book's strong points.
The writer's style does get a bit ornate, and not being a native Londoner it's not always easy to keep track of the barrage of locations that are tossed at the reader. It's impossible for me to say which of the places described here are real and which are fictional, though there are certainly ongoing thematic references to Notting Hill and a few other locations that can be recognized from Moorcock's other works that featured London heavily, such as the Jerry Cornelius stories and "War Among the Angels". I suppose the fact that he can make them seem real., regardless of whether they are, is sufficient. The people and the City changes over time, and the characters resist the changes, while the City endures. It's hard for me to describe the point of the story- it feels more like a picaresque plot where the characters struggle to find their place, and the world they face. The ending is somewhat hopeful, The undercurrent is the generation of urban myths and the mysticism that underlies them. There are certain supernatural elements here, but nothing too overt.
I'd recommend this as something completely different from what you usually get with Moorcock. Not quite urban fantasy, but not a pure "classical" literary novel either. A curious mix, spiced by some social commentary on the way post-War Britain developed.
June 28, 2018
All Moorcock's (more serious) memes and themes contribute to this vast conurbation of an historical (not necessarily in the usual order) epic. It's consistent with it's subject and as I grew up in the 70's and lived in London at the close of that era it really resounds. But he's such a good crafter of words you don't need this background to appreciate this work of art.. for once Moorcock's 'mise-en-scène' is virtually flawless and the old whore that is the real London beneath all the plastic party-trash comes together to absorb your attention like a black hole sucking in light. Read and learn, and love!
July 15, 2024
I’d always loved Moorcock but to see him expand beyond genre was a revelation; hinted at in the Brothel on Rosenstrasse, but this and the Rome trilogy took it somewhere else.
I loved the gentle characters, the narrator and his be scarfed best friend, and this most gentle of love letters to London
I loved the gentle characters, the narrator and his be scarfed best friend, and this most gentle of love letters to London
November 10, 2025
Mad book, mad city, no one who thinks of London every day no matter where you are should miss it. The writing's not lyrical but you feel yourself there and for those of us who love the place, it's worth it.
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