Nigeyb > Recent Status Updates

Devouring this beauty. My second Jestin

Begbie’s best man speech 😱 - predictably inappropriate

Sazlay's fab. The narrative gaps leave the reader to engage actively with the story and fill in narrative sections themselves. A bold choice that works well

Really enjoying this. More eventful than I was expecting with three very different narrative strands. The "flights" are not just geographical but also journeys of self-discovery as the three protagonists navigate the transition from childhood to adulthood whilst the country grapples with the aftermath of war

Very good on the nuanced details of the summer of 1946 and the social norms. JG has a sharp wit, keen observation of human nature, and ability to explore the complexities of women's lives. Loving it.

Whadaya know? A happy ending, of sorts. The best we could hope for in the circs anyway

Already immersed in István’s life

Truly a descent into a dreamlike world where the external apocalypse mirrors the internal struggles of its characters. Anna Kavan's unique voice and unflinching exploration of dark psychological landscapes make Ice a powerful work

Ice seems to be an exploration of obsessive desire and control. The narrator's unhealthy fixation on the girl and his desire to "rescue" her often seems indistinguishable from a desire to possess or destroy her. The relationship between the girl, the narrator, & the Warden is a disturbing portrayal of a gender power imbalance. I shudder to think what happened to AK to inspire such a nightmarish narrative

Human attention is the defining currency of the digital age. Digital platforms, algorithms, and viral media are designed to capture and monetise our focus

The plot is ever more weird, episodic and dreamlike, with the narrator constantly pursuing, losing, and finding the girl, often seemingly unsure whether his encounters are real or hallucinatory.

A spectacularly unreliable narrative that inserts dreams, hallucinations, and shifts in perception. The reader, like the narrator, is left to question what is real and what is a product of a disturbed mind, or perhaps a world so broken that reality itself has fractured. No remotely conventional plot structure here, just an all pervasive sense of ambiguity.

Discombobulating stuff

Helpful introduction. Slipstream fiction eh? A genre that blends elements of literary fiction with speculative fiction (like science fiction and fantasy), often blurring the lines between reality and the surreal. Characterised by its dreamlike or uncanny atmosphere, challenging readers to question their perceptions of reality and the nature of storytelling itself. Oooh

I read this decades ago and loved it. I remember it s one of the all the great books about music. It may not still be that but it remains very readable and it’s a fascinating insight into the Stones 1969 US tour, augmented with the history of the group

Then all at once I saw that I had been attacking a living creature, a creature with feelings and not an abstraction. She must once have been a little girl, on the secretive side, then a teenager, then a woman. She was forty years old, she was on her own, she loved a man and she had hoped to be happy with him for ten, maybe twenty years.

Cecile is such a contradictory character. Both guilty about what she did and adamant that it seas the right thing for her and her father. I guess it is the thought of Anne that disturbs her

I wished I could have been caressed, consoled and reconciled with myself. My father and Anne were silent. They had before them a night of love. I had Bergson. I tried to weep, to feel sorry for myself, but in vain. I was already feeling sorry for Anne, as if I were certain of vanquishing her.

Coming home every day to the same place at half past twelve to have lunch, eating at home in the evening and staying in afterwards: did my father really believe that was possible? However, he was cheerfully burying his bohemianism; he was commending the virtues of order and of a bourgeois lifestyle, elegant and well-organized. But doubtless, for him as well as for me, all this merely amounted to castles in the air.

I enjoy the narrative device of looking back on a Summer. See also A Month In The Country, and The Go-Between

I am enjoying it so far. Well written and atmospheric. This is the Heather Lloyd translation which "fresh and accurate translations" of the explicitly sexual scenes that were removed for the English publication of the 1950s

This is a group read over at the Reading The Twentieth Century group in July 2025. I've started ahead of time as it's a library book and I am attracted to its brevity and wanted something light and easy following a couple of long books.

Another classic tale from Alan Moore. Loving this. Dark, sordid, gritty, thrilling, and gorgeous in its own peculiar way.

Enjoying the set up

Four stories in a bit of a mixed bag but still plenty of PGW charm

"My dear Ambrose, I am sorry to give you pain, but Miss Tewkesbury is a tennis player. I have seen her with my own eyes leaping about the court shouting 'Forty love,' "Thirty all' and similar obscenities."

Loving the “conversations” between Carter and baby Daniel during which Carter speaks his mind. Very amusing. This book has really grown on me. The final third is particularly good.

Loving the much put upon Carter Brandon now becoming assertive and downright stroppy. The worm has turned...