The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea (Bowie's Top 100)

Here it is! The Group Read page for anyone who wants in.

So far, me and Berly/Kim are reading along, and hopefully we will start in a week or so.

David Bowie's Top 100 Reads:

Interviews With Francis Bacon by David Sylvester
Billy Liar by Keith Waterhouse
Room At The Top by John Braine
On Having No Head by Douglass Harding
Kafka Was The Rage by Anatole Broyard
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
City Of Night by John Rechy
The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
Iliad by Homer
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner--reading with Megan (I Read Therefore I Am) soon...
Tadanori Yokoo by Tadanori Yokoo
Berlin Alexanderplatz by Alfred Döblin
Inside The Whale And Other Essays by George Orwell
Mr. Norris Changes Trains by Christopher Isherwood
Halls Dictionary Of Subjects And Symbols In Art by James A. Hall
David Bomberg by Richard Cork
Blast by Wyndham Lewis
Passing by Nella Larson
Beyond The Brillo Box by Arthur C. Danto
The Origin Of Consciousness In The Breakdown Of The Bicameral Mind by Julian Jaynes
In Bluebeard’s Castle by George Steiner
Hawksmoor by Peter Ackroyd
The Divided Self by R. D. Laing
The Stranger by Albert Camus
Infants Of The Spring by Wallace Thurman
The Quest For Christa T by Christa Wolf
The Songlines by Bruce Chatwin
Nights At The Circus by Angela Carter
The Master And Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Herzog by Saul Bellow
Puckoon by Spike Milligan
Black Boy by Richard Wright
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea by Yukio Mishima
Darkness At Noon by Arthur Koestler
The Waste Land by T.S. Elliot
McTeague by Frank Norris
Money by Martin Amis
The Outsider by Colin Wilson
Strange People by Frank Edwards
English Journey by J.B. Priestley
A Confederacy Of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
The Day Of The Locust by Nathanael West
1984 by George Orwell
The Life And Times Of Little Richard by Charles White
Awopbopaloobop Alopbamboom: The Golden Age of Rock by Nik Cohn
Mystery Train by Greil Marcus
Beano (comic, ’50s)
Raw (comic, ’80s)
White Noise by Don DeLillo
Sweet Soul Music: Rhythm And Blues And The Southern Dream Of Freedom by Peter Guralnick
Silence: Lectures And Writing by John Cage
Writers At Work: The Paris Review Interviews edited by Malcolm Cowley
The Sound Of The City: The Rise Of Rock And Roll by Charlie Gillete
Octobriana And The Russian Underground by Peter Sadecky
The Street by Ann Petry
Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon
Last Exit To Brooklyn By Hubert Selby, Jr.
A People’s History Of The United States by Howard Zinn
The Age Of American Unreason by Susan Jacoby
Metropolitan Life by Fran Lebowitz
The Coast Of Utopia by Tom Stoppard
The Bridge by Hart Crane
All The Emperor’s Horses by David Kidd
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
Earthly Powers by Anthony Burgess
The 42nd Parallel by John Dos Passos
Tales Of Beatnik Glory by Ed Saunders
The Bird Artist by Howard Norman
Nowhere To Run The Story Of Soul Music by Gerri Hirshey
Before The Deluge by Otto Friedrich
Sexual Personae: Art And Decadence From Nefertiti To Emily Dickinson by Camille Paglia
The American Way Of Death by Jessica Mitford
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
Lady Chatterly’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence
Teenage by Jon Savage
Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh
The Hidden Persuaders by Vance Packard
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
Viz (comic, early ’80s)
Private Eye (satirical magazine, ’60s – ’80s)
Selected Poems by Frank O’Hara
The Trial Of Henry Kissinger by Christopher Hitchens
Flaubert’s Parrot by Julian Barnes
Maldoror by Comte de Lautréamont
On The Road by Jack Kerouac
Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder by Lawrence Weschler
Zanoni by Edward Bulwer-Lytton
Transcendental Magic, Its Doctrine and Ritual by Eliphas Lévi
The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels
The Leopard by Giusseppe Di Lampedusa
Inferno by Dante Alighieri
A Grave For A Dolphin by Alberto Denti di Pirajno
The Insult by Rupert Thomson
In Between The Sheets by Ian McEwan
A People’s Tragedy by Orlando Figes
Journey Into The Whirlwind by Eugenia Ginzburg

I have to start and finish my two RL bookclub reads first. They meet on the 11th and 13th and then I am in!! Oh, and I have to get the book....

Thanks for setting this up, partner!

>3 Berly: well it's great to see some bookclub dedication, is all I can say. (here comes a rant) The 2nd to last bookclub I had, I was the ONLY one who turned up. And the latest one, I was one of only 2 who showed up. I was cross because I wish I had used the time to work on uni stuff instead. I get really annoyed at no-shows. And I had emailed twice during the day to see if there were enough people to have it. I mean, really. We are all busy....
(end rant)

Yay- I cant wait to read some Japanese literature in translation. I absolutely loved Shipwreck/Shipwrecked?? (grr, cant find touchstone) even though it was super depressing, and I have a sneaky suspicion this one might not be a light fluffy number either.

>5 Berly: Well, that is a terrible bookclub experience!! I am so sorry. Grrrr. I promise to show up here! I ordered the book from the library so it should arrive just around when I can get to it. Perfect!

Might join... not completely sure yet

>6 FAMeulstee: great! By the look of it, it might not be that taxing an experience. The book is tiny! My version only has 145 pages.

And in other news, today I learn that the author is (was?) a devotee of weight-lifting and body-building exercises! Good to know...I wonder if this will inform his prose.....;)

>7 LovingLit: Mishima was, he killed himself in 1970.
He was devoted to the Emperor and the original way of Japanese life.
As Frank, my husband, tells me (he has read some of Mishima's works) most of his works are dark, so I am not sure if I am in the mood to read The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Sea.

>8 FAMeulstee: yes, that is ominous news. In my experience the deep thinkers often take pensive to a whole new level. That is sad.

I am going to start this evening!

I hope it cools off to a chilly autumn evening, then I can have a bath and get started. Epsom salts, a large water, and my book. Heaven.

Okay, I have finished my book club reads and tomorrow I can start! Hope you had a lovely bath. I don't know how you can read in the bath...my book would be a wet mess if I tried that! LOL. But good on you. ; )

Up to Chapter 4

The writing is beautiful, almost poetic. Kinda creeped out by the voyerism. Noboru seems older than 13, and then he dissolved into a little boy on the boat, admiring everything.

Shallow quote for the day from the movie star: "The important things are the boxes and wrapping--they're the reality of a gift, don't you think?"

Foreshadowing?

p. 39 Chapter 4 Ryuji says that in the grand dream "he was a paragon of manliness and she the consummate woman; and from the opposite corners of the earth they came together in a chance encounter, and death wed them."

Chapter 5

Wow. I have never been more distressed reading a book. The cat killing was awful, and the way the chief dismantled the poor kitten with the gang of five looking on was horrendous. What a bunch of sociopaths!! I am sure this book is not going to have a good ending. They respect no laws, no adults, no beauty. They are just empty.

>14 Berly: argh! I know!
It was a harrowing section. I felt like this whole gang thing is the work of the leader, chief one?!, who is promoting this dispassionate attitude about the world to the gang.
That kind of articulated thought seems very old and jaded, I wonder of that main kid has more than just a solitary childhood to blame for that....i.e., abuse?

I still love the way it's written though, and actually like the yucky parts being addressed, it perversely attracts me just for the fact that it gets me into the mind of another type of person...one who I hope never to come across actually!

I'm up to the second section now....winter?
I wasn't feeling the love so much last night for the writing, but it may be because I was incubating a cold
:(
I now have said cold.
Double :(

I might reread the start of section two, and see if I ant get back my momentum, funny that- seeing As its such a short book, I thought I would've finished by now!

I am also just at the start of section two. He's back....! I still don't think this is going to end well.

So sorry about the cold. >: ( Bad cold!

Done! Let me know when you are.... I had to go read an article on Mishima and I found the existing reviews very interesting.

I'll be done tonight!
Will report back then :)
Cold seems to have levelled out...so I carry on

DONE

So, reminiscent of Lord of the Flies, but I liked this much less. Some of the writing was beautiful and interesting, but none of the characters had a redeeming side. The sailor is filled with delusions of grandeur and kept checking out his manliness, or at least the author kept commenting on it. The son was messed, and I am not sure why he turned out that way. Did his social group and the Chief really influence him so much that cold-blooded murder meant so little to him? Was the fact that the Sailor didn't live up to Noboru's expectations really enough to merit his end? And what is up with the whole Fathers suck theme? The mom was the most relatable to me, but I wasn't even really drawn to her. I wonder if the "under 14" rule really would have kept the kids out of trouble for a crime like that if they had been caught. Why were they such idiots if they were the smart ones in school? I know they each had a less than perfect household, but sheesh!! I can't even decide what to rate this one...You?

Glad the cold hasn't won!

>20 Berly: by "reading tonight" I meant once the kids are in bed ...and because I was working today, and my lovely other took the kids out and gave them a delayed piecemeal tea, we are behind sschedule. So. Im thinking I'll finish before midnight tonight....which is in 5 ish hours.
:)
Looking forward to reading your spoiler comment!

Hurry up! Hurry up! I want to talk about this. : )

>20 Berly: I'm dying here, it's all I can do not to click and read!

This could turn in to a blow by blow account....but, I have only just got the elder son to bed, and it's 8:50pm! Not cool.
But, I get to read from now on!
Ready, steady, go!

Oh my.
I'm done too.
The boy, he was messed up. But I think the absence of the gang could have saved him. I think he was after some adults in his life who were genuine. Kids can spot a phoney a mile off, even of they can't articulate what it is about someone they are unsure of.
I think the boy was going to find things to disapprove of in his new step-dad, no matter what he did. He was having to hold in his enthusiasm about him at times, remember? It is like he was trying to cultivate his morose side...and the gang certainly helped with that.
I agree with you thoroughly on the characters having no redeeming qualities. I liked precisely none of them. The mother was wishy washy and fake, the sailor was above everyone and narcissistic, and the boy. Well, he was possibly in need of some affection and care.
Do you know why that door was always kept locked? It said it on the first few pages, but I still couldnt figure out her reason for doing it every night.

Overall, I wonder if the strict and confining culture of the Japanese lends itself to these wildly fanatical dark books that seem to come from there. Maybe when your daily life feels so confined to the straight and narrow your fantasies become about the most intense rebellion possible?!

....still thinking about it....

I have no idea why the door was locked and wonder now if that symbolized the straight and narrow path of the culture and the unlocking of the door represented opening the boy up to his darkest inner thoughts, allowing them to manifest. I totally agree that things could have gone differently without the gang's influence (and why did it surprise me to read about gangs in Japan?). The boy definitely needed some love.

Do I reward something that I really didn't like, that in fact creeped me out, just because I know it will stay with me? I certainly reacted to it viscerally. I know I will remember this book, but not fondly.

Oooh, good thoughts about the door metaphor, or is it an analogy? Either way, I think it could be on the money.

A minor irritation for me was that I didn't get enough idea of the motivation for what he did and the way he acted. But therein lies the fear-factor! That a kid could just BE that way. Yikes. .

I'm thinking a 3.5 or 4 star rating.

Hmmm....I had to remind myself.

Metaphor

A metaphor is a figure of speech that uses one thing to mean another and makes a comparison between the two.

The key words here are “one thing to mean another.”

So, when someone says “He’s become a shell of a man,” we know not to take this literally, even though it’s stated directly as if this person had actually lost his internal substance.

Simile

A simile compares two different things in order to create a new meaning.

In this case, we are made explicitly aware that a comparison is being made due to the use of “like” or “as” (He’s like a shell of a man).

For fun, the next time someone corrects you and says “That’s a simile, not a metaphor,” you can respond by letting them know that a simile is a type of metaphor, just like sarcasm is a type of irony. Resist the urge to be sarcastic in your delivery.

Analogy

An analogy is comparable to metaphor and simile in that it shows how two different things are similar, but it’s a bit more complex.

Rather than a figure of speech, an analogy is more of a logical argument.

The presenter of an analogy will often demonstrate how two things are alike by pointing out shared characteristics, with the goal of showing that if two things are similar in some ways, they are similar in other ways as well.

I am thinking Metaphor????

And as to the kid just being that way...I think the Chief certainly was and that is why sociopaths are just so scary!!

I am thinking 3.5. And if I am still thinking about it in a few weeks, it will move up to a 4.

Are you up for another one next month? What would you suggest? In case you can't tell, I like reading these with you! : )

Lol, resist the urge to be sarcastic. I like it.
It seems I use metaphor/analogy interchangeably :)

Are you reading Master and Margarita? I hadn't thought ahead to the next Bowie masterpiece....but I definitely want to do one a month.

I have Master and Margarita from the library, but haven't started it yet. May or may not get to it this month. I am reading a Mercy Thompson novel right now. A little light-hearted vampire, werewolf action. ; ) So glad you are up for more of Bowie! I will take another look at the list and shoot you a couple of my faves. You do the same. : )

Cool, I'll see if the library has it and that might do for next month. Or....I'll refer back to the list!
I have. My RL bookclub reading a Bowie themed book for this month :) Needless to say I forwarded the list, as any of the 100 count.

Darkness at Noon?
Last Exit to Brooklyn?

My library has no copies of The Master and Margarita :(

Let me know if you can get M&M from the library. That would be great for May. And let me know what your bookclub chooses!

>34 Berly: I wouldn't hold out too much hope for the bookclub reading anything actually, let alone a Bowie themed read.
*sigh*
I'll just be pleased if more than 2 turn up!
*double sigh*
;)

>33 LovingLit: We cross-posted. LOL. Oh, you are in a dark mood, aren't you? Okay, let's go with Last Exit to Brooklyn. I'll start the new thread this time. May. ; )

I was updating my Bowie list and I have about 10 that interest me for the following month. I have to read more about them and narrow it down a bit.

And I wish I could just materialize you for my bookclubs. Hope you get a bigger turnout and some readers this next time!

>36 Berly: I don't know much about any of the books I proposed...mostly I go down Bowie's list and run a search on a title to make sure it's fiction....and I pick the titles that sound familiar to me.
I'm not sold on my options by any means....please put your ones up too and we can negotiate ;)

I did the same thing with the list, but I haven't read up on what they are about. I mostly went on books I haven't read yet, cool titles, authors I have heard of and high LT ratings. My unresearched list includes (translation--I may not like some of these when I read what they are about):

Flaubert’s Parrot by Julian Barnes
Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter
The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels
Journey into the Whirlwind By Evgenia Semenovna Ginzburg
The American Way of Death by Jessica Muford
On Having No head: Zen and the Rediscovery of the Obvious by Douglas Harding
Black Boy by Richard Wright
Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh
White Noise by Don DeLillo
The Leopard by Giuseppe Di Lampedusa
The Bird Artist by Howard Norman

Tell me if any of these interest you, but of the two you suggested, I prefer Brooklyn. It will be memorable!! And no criticism was intended by my "dark mood" comment. ; )

Oooh, good list!
I'll look more into it later....and I think we all know that it is Bowie with the dark recent tastes. ;) And Mark.

LOL. True and true. I will try to research my own list and post my faves tonight.

Okay, I have narrowed it down a little:

Flaubert’s Parrot by Julian Barnes
Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter
The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels
Black Boy by Richard Wright
Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh
White Noise by Don DeLillo
The Bird Artist by Howard Norman

And last exit to Brooklyn.

Your turn!

>40 Berly: >41 Berly: *gulp* I haven't done my homework.
Can we just call this a working document?
Come tomorrow I will have worked 6/7 last days, a lot for someone who was going to be doing only 2 days a week for 5 weeks....I'm working to a deadline, and that deadline is tomorrow!

Not a rush!! Remember, this is for May. : ) Hang in there.

Yay! No pressure....I can relax now :)
I have to remember its not my deadline...it's his deadline. I am just one of the battery hens pecking on the computer keyboard ;) I just like to help where I can.

Pressure is on again...May is in a week! And if I get this from the library...

: )

Uh oh, pressure. Good, I need a hurry-along. I'll do my homework tonight!

Oh, oh, oh. What about The Bird Artist?
That one appeals.
Big time.

Oh! That one was one my first list and I left it off when I tried to narrow it down. That one sounds really good!!

You me and Bowie. We rule
:)
I hope my library has it. I'll check ASAP.