Friday, April 23, 2010

Picador Books – Part 8 – Lamming, Lessing, Loos, Lustig, Mackey, Malouf & Marquez

Tonight it’s the L’s and some of the M’s, and to start it all is Caribbean born, George Lamming’s impressive Natives Of My Person, a rare book these days I guess. It is described as a compelling novel of slavery and colonisation and I recall when I first read it, I was very taken with it.

lamming_natives

Now you don’t hear much about Doris Lessing these days, but she was a prolific writer and published books in various genres including Science Fiction.

Memoirs of a Survivor is a dystopian novel, which I must admit I can’t remember a thing about, but having rediscovered it in my bookcase will endeavour to reread soon.

lessing_survivor

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and its sequel But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes by the charming and very talented Anita Loos are also not seen much in the wild these days. Picador published two versions, firstly a sole volume of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, then a back to back edition of the two novels. They are a witty satirical look at the Flapper era of the 1920s and still well worth reading.

loos_gentlemen loos_brunettes

Doubled Up or My Life As The Back End of a Pantomime Horse by T J Lustig is a bizarre novel set in a circus.

lustig_doubledup

Also bizarre is Mary Mackey’s, McCarthy’s List, not set in a circus, but in a Mexican gaol, where the heroine is languishing awaiting execution for a murder she didn’t commit, though she is responsible for many others.

mackey_mccarthyslist

On another note altogether is Australian author David Malouf’s The Great World.

malouf_greatworld

And finally for this post, several Gabriel Garcia Marquez novels in Picador editions.

marquez_colonel marquez_erendira
   
marquez_leafstorm marquez_patriarch

The rest of the ‘M‘ authors to follow shortly.

1 comment:

Veiga said...

History is a galery of paintings where few are true originals.The April 25th of 1974 will always remain as the revolution that painted with carnations an hit in the world's history as it represented an pacifist movement where ideals and the fate of the People would come together in a dream that could come thruth. It's an unfinished dream but it will be always a dream about freedom and democracy and now, as free Men may we never be afraid again to follow Reason to get to a better place.
I leave you with the song that remains the anthem of that day, so it can be remembered, not only for it's musicality so tipically portuguese, but for it's historic relevance...It was the signal taht everybody was waiting, that brought everyone together under a same ideal: Freedom. April 25th forever, Fascism nevermore!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ci76cKwFLDs