A Tall Man in a Low Land by Harry Pearson
This is a book review with a difference.
This week’s unique selling point is that I read A Tall Man in a Low Land about three months ago, lent it to somebody, and can’t remember an awful lot about it, apart from that I was impressed.
It’s about a man (Harry Pearson) and his wife and child, who take an extended holiday in Belgium. They stay in various towns, and visit various others, and eat very well.
Pearson writes with affection for Belgium. There may or may not have been some family connection. He writes poignantly about the road to Flanders being historically one way for a lot of Brits. Belgium is not somewhere that you necessarily return from.
In the muddle of my memory, he didn’t like Charleroi. He said it’s not the kind of place you’d like to be after dark. He liked Liège. Brussels gets only a fleeting mention, and he suggests that the Walloons bring their dogs, under cover of darkness, to shit all over the capital before the sun comes up.
He leaves his baby daughter in the care of a museum curator, who then disappears with the baby, but has only gone into the garden. He recounts an anecdote told to him about the difference between the Dutch and the Flemish. (It involved Holland having only one type of cheese, that has made it famous all over the world, and Flanders having hundreds of cheeses and remaining obscure.)
There are cycling stories. In fact, I think the book may be the product of more than one trip to Belgium. If I had it in front of me I’d check.
Comparisons with Bill Bryson are inevitable, and Pearson holds his own. A very good book that I can remember more than one thing about.
Birthday wishful thinking
Tomorrow is my birthday. I’ll be twenty-nine years old. Mrs K has intimated at the *mother* of all presents, but that won’t be here until Christmas, all things being well.
But I can’t wait that long to be showered with gifts. Here’s what I want:
- Netherland by Joseph O’Neill
- The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind by Julian Jaynes
- How NOT to Write a Novel by Howard Mittelmark and Sandra Newman
- How to Sell by Clancy Martin and
- The Junior Officers’ Reading Club by Patrick Hennessey
I’d also like the motivation necessary to get off my fat arse and:
- Get to the gym
- Write a novel that begins with the line “At the end of his garden, in a shed no bigger than his daughter’s new car, Charles Lamb Goodley reflected on his first experience of auto-asphyxiation, which on assessment had been rather underwhelming, and left him with a welt on his neck that reminded him of Australia.”
- Develop innate musical ability
- ->insert middle-class arriviste cliché here<-
Can you help?
A Gaijin’s Guide to Japan by Ben Stevens
A Gaijin’s Guide to Japan was sent to me by Scott Pack of the Friday Project, the publishing house whose praises I have sung in the past.
“Enjoy it”, he said.
And I did.
The book has been written by Ben Stevens, a long-time Japan resident, and it’s a perfect primer for the curious, the tourist, or the entrenched Japanophile.
It’s an A to Z of Japanese cultural tidbits, personalities, peculiarities, history and foibles. Each of the entries (from Abe, Sada to Zen) is short, digestable, and informative. I found it a joy to jump from cross-referenced entry to entry, learning more in a Sunday afternoon in the park than I had done in the past month. About anything.
It’s a beginner’s guide; the “gaijin” in the title refers to the Japanese word for outsider, or foreigner. Stevens’ matey, colloquial style informs without presuming that you come equipped with prior knowledge. If you’re looking for something meatier, your choice is almost unlimited, but you can begin here and stimulate your curiosity to make future reads more targeted.
Short, easy on the eye (some beautiful illustrations) and humorous. I can’t think of a better gift for your neanderthal brother-in-law when he finds out he’s off to Kyoto for a ten-day business trip.
go see –> A Gaijin’s Guide to Japan by Ben Stevens
My Boyfriend is a Twat – the book
Zoe, Brussels doyenne of the bloggers and Princess of the Written Word, has turned her wonderfully successful and much-loved blog into a book – My Boyfriend is a Twat (the book).
According to one review on Amazon, it is “finally or at last or something likely in english … yep yep yep … wonderful beautiful so marvelous sproing sproing sproing juchhu …”. This did it for me. I bought a copy.
Then swing by to see Zoe and say thank you.
Belgian drivers and Paul Theroux
I am now married.
I am also still alive, despite the best efforts of a large man in a large car, who cut me up on Montgomery roundabout and sent me flying off my scooter. I have a sore thumb. The scooter is written off.
I was actually quite upset. But now I’m okay. Thanks for asking.
I have just read My Secret History by Paul Theroux and it was loathsome and brilliant.
I will now stop start sentences with “I”. Or shoot me.
Stinking miserable
I’m skiving off work and school, blowing my noise and whispering consolingly to myself, trying to shake a dose of the ‘flu. No chicken in chicken nuggets, so it looks like I’m not dying.
Yesterday’s lying in bed feeling sorry for myself was brightened by my boss phoning me up and shouting at me for forty-five minutes.
Everybody else is having fun.
Bastards.
Books keeping me company as I languish in a snotty hole of self-pity:
Stalin – The Court of the Red Tsar by Simon Sebag-Montefiore
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins
This book will save your life by A.M Homes
The Boys from Brazil By Ira Levin
How to Be a Bad Birdwatcher by Simon Barnes
The Little Friend by Donna Tartt
The Essential Pritchett By V.S. Pritchett
Dry by Augusten Burroughs
Notes on a Scandal by Zoe Heller
-
-
-
Recent Comments
- Bill: If I were the gull I’d be inclined to get out of Malta pretty damn quick – they have the worst...
- malteser: im a maltese guy i’m 6′5” i dont call dat short i call that tall, not many people are my...
- eleonor: We’re short it’s a fact but i can assure you not the fattest. Take a look around many maltese...
- N: Start learning Dutch
? - sue: What talent is Ludwig (2004) intending to display on the X-Factor? Will he sing or will he scratch his testicles...
