Juxtabook

The New Goodbye by Neil George Ayres

I am delighted to welcome Neil Ayres to Juxtabook. Neil, who you might know from the Veggie Box blog he shares with fellow writer Aliya Whiteley, has published his novel The New Goodbye in an innovative multimedia package. Neil has kindly written this guest post to explain all about it.

Neil George Ayres is the author of The New Goodbye, a novel that's also a multi-arts iPhone app, which has been developed by Russell Quinn, the man who brought Dave Eggers' McSweeney's magazine to many people's mobile phones.

Catherine has been kind enough to invite me to write a guest post here, so most of you are probably wondering who this young punk is and why can?t he just let books be books.

Well, I've nothing against books at all. I?m very much in favour of them, whatever the format. I?ve a novel that's being published exclusively on the iPhone. The app it?s packaged up with also includes a mix of bits and pieces from some brilliant artists, including that lovely cover photography by Nicole Heiniger and illustrations by Johanna Basford. All the work produced for the app (there's music and video too, as well as a novelette by Miguel Cervantes and a couple of my short stories) orbits my novel, The New Goodbye.

If you don't know anything about me or my writing, suffice it to say I?ve been skirting the edges of book publishing for a while. My day-to-day job for almost a decade now has been in the magazine industry; for the last four years working in digital. I also write lots of fiction.

A cynic might accuse me of putting out The New Goodbye as an app due to the frustration of not finding a publisher for it. In truth, I have submitted earlier versions of the book to a couple of places that kindly gave some encouraging feedback, but with the publishing climate of the last year or so, even though I have huge belief in the quality and commercial appeal of the book, I?d be deluded to expect a publisher to pick it up and promote it. I know too many good authors with several comfortably performing books under their belts whose publishers have been turning them away.

Getting a novel published is one thing (and yes, that's exceedingly difficult anyway). But turning a publication into a success is something else entirely, especially with the lion's share of marketing budgets being used to protect the careers of the industry's big-hitters. And given how new and scary a prospect digital is for many mainstream publishers, I think I can help make just as much of a success of the app as any publisher could hope to. Even prior to its release, the project received more publicity than many published books ever experience.

Of course I want to begin to build a readership for my literary fiction, and I'd love to pick up a traditional publisher for the book along the way. That?s one of the few advantages of using proprietary software; all the other rights, even those for ebooks, are still available. I'd be happy for a publisher to buy the iPhone rights too, providing my partners all got a look in on the action.

But I'm also keen to demonstrate to publishers that they can still afford to invest in untested authors, and those in the middles of their lists. They just need to take the right approach. Hopefully the app will help show how this can be achieved, as well as providing a lot of enjoyment for anyone buying a copy.

A lite version of The New Goodbye can be downloaded from the App Store for free. Unlocking the full edition costs just £1.99.

See The New Goodbye at the App Store.

Let the Right One in by John Ajvide Lindqvist

Let the Right One in by John Ajvide Lindqvist was a book I picked up after reading an excellent review by Gaskella. It is a modern twist on the vampire tale, in fact it is so modern and such much of a twist that for much of the book the vampire bit is something of an irrelevance. If you've maxed out on vampires recently don't let the vampire theme put you off.

Frightened, nervous Oskar is a 12 year old boy living with his mother on a depressing estate of apartment blocks. He gets bullied at school, and wets himself when scared. His father is affectionate but rather uninvolved with his son's life and is not particularly responsible in his relations with his son and ex-wife.

Into the bleak life of the tormented Oskar comes Eli a girl who lives in the flat next door. She comes out only at night and they meet one evening in the play area of their apartment block and so begins a remarkable friendship. What Oskar hopes will become his first adolescent love affair turns into something rather more complicated.

This relationship is the heart of the book. It is gentle and believable throughout. What I found less believable was Oscar's relationship with his mother which at the beginning seems very good and close but by the end seems to count for nothing. I'd be interested to know what others thought.

Let the Right One in is very much in the horror genre, at the literary end of it certainly, but the book is not for the  faint hearted. I actually found the paedophilia references more unpleasant than any blood and violence.

The quality of the writing and the plotting of the book is mixed. Aspects of Let the Right One in are successful at a literary (rather than genre) level, these include the relationship between Eli and Oskar and also the relationship between the drunken loner Lacke and his on-off girlfriend Virginia who form part of a subplot. Other aspects work less well. I wasn't convinced by the school scenes nor by the ending and I thought Eli's back-story was verging on the flaky too. The writing is less controlled in these weak areas too, almost as though John Ajvide Lindqvist is not convincing himself at times and has given up somewhat. At its strongest however the author manages to balance the warmth of Oskar and Eli's relationship with the truly chilling horror of the situation in a challenging mix of light and dark that works on every level.

All in all this is still a book I'd recommend, though not if you're very squeamish. The subtly of the centre relationship more than offsets the less successful extremities of this novel. In addition John Ajvide Lindqvist's reworking of the vampire myth is certainly clever and that alone will make this novel more than a footnote in any literary history.

I would also recommend the Swedish film version of Let the Right One in which does justice to the central tale and is quite unlike any vampire film you will have seen before. The young lead actors Kåre Hedebrant and Lina Leandersson are wonderful. The film also loses the paedophilia theme, which is no bad move.

Books I wish I'd not sold - A Passionate Sisterhood

As a blogging sales technique this is clearly not a good one. Secondhand books being individual items the chances are if I've sold it to blog about it then I've not got another to sell you should you be interested (though its worth asking as sometimes I do have multiple copies). As so often as we're packing a book to sell we think, "blast, why didn't I read that", that I thought an occasional look at these gems might give you some reading ideas and maybe you'll buy it from your local shop if you see it before it slips through your fingers too.

So first up in this little series is: A Passionate Sisterhood: The Sisters, Wives and Daughters of the Lake Poets by Kathleen Jones

A Passionate Sisterhood is a look at the lives of the women of the Romantic poets: Robert Southey, William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The women are sisters, cousins, friends and in-laws: Sarah, Mary and Edith Fricker who married the friends Coleridge, Robert Lovell and Southey, Dorothy Wordsworth, Sarah and Mary Hutchinson (Mary was later Mrs Wordsworth) and the children of these relationships. The Romantics did live such interwoven lives: in and out of each other's houses (often living in the same house actually), partners in art and thought, as well as relations suffering the trials of mixed financial fortunes, drug addicted spouses and more. A combined look at the 'sisterhood' seemed such a good premise for a book. But it has gone, though no doubt to a good home, and next time I have it in stock I will get onto it quicker!

Reading Round-up: David Lodge

Out of the Shelter by David Lodge is unlike much of Lodge's other work, not least because it is not funny. It is however a very engaging book and well worth seeking out.

The novel begins during the air raids of World War Two. In his London street Timothy Young retreats with his mother and female neighbours to an air raid shelter. From here we get his impressions of the war, and how it affects his family life as he grows up through a temporary evacuation, loss of friends and family, grammar school, exams, the realisation that girls are more interesting than his younger self supposed. This forms an extended background to the main part of the book which takes place a few years after the war when the 16 year old Timothy is invited by sister Kath, who works for the Americans in occupied Germany, to join her for a holiday.

Out of the Shelter is a kind of condensed Bildungsroman, essentially we see Timothy grow-up. It is a beautifully observed moving piece of writing, and a fascinating view of a historical era as Timothy's experience of austerity Britain and the lives of ordinary Germans contrast sharply with the strong American culture he experiences with Kath and her friends.

I read this in the 1985 Penguin paperback which has an interesting little essay at the back on the vagaries of the publishing history of Out of the Shelter, which explains why it is one of Lodge's less well known books. It does not deserve its obscurity and is an excellent candidate for anyone's to-be-read pile.

If this strange era of political and geographic transition intrigues you and you want more fiction set in occupied Germany then you'd do well to try The Innocent by Ian McEwan. It is one of my favourites of McEwan's work, but as with Out of the Shelter and Lodge, it is not one that springs to mind when most people think of the author. It has a slightly older protagonist but it is still very much an innocent abroad type tale. Being McEwan it has a piece of stomach churning gruesomeness at its centre. Whilst it deals with the intelligence services it is very much an antidote to all those Berlin set spy thrillers. These two books make a good back to back read actually.

As it is Lodge's most recent book Deaf Sentence has been much reviewed in the blogosphere. It manages to take a potentially very depressing experience, going deaf, and make it very funny without loosing the real sense of disability and loneliness that is encountered by the newly deaf. Professor Desmond Bates, newly retired, and really rather bored finds his deafness gets him into trouble when he accidentally agrees to help strange PhD student Alex with her work. In many ways this is a quiet domestic comedy rather than a novel about academia; it is like a rather more sexually explicit version of Barbara Pym. We see the increasingly irascible Desmond try to deal with the increasingly embarrassing and troublesome Alex against a back drop of his relationship with his second wife, their assorted adult children and his elderly father. 

The drawing of Desmond's father is one of the triumphs of the novel. Bates senior is funny in his aged eccentricity without being belittled as a person. He does suffer the indignities of old age but this is set against Desmond's descriptions of him in his prime as a musician. The overall effect is not a grotesque-for-amusements sake version of old age but instead a round and likable if slightly exasperating character. Desmond's relationship with his father rather mirrors his relationship with life. He niggles, and quibbles and fails to appreciate all he has until it is under threat at the end of the novel. Which all makes it sound rather dismal, but it is not not and this novel contains two of the funniest scenes in literature that I have ever read: a stay in 'Gladeworld', a sort of luxury Center Parcs type rural retreat and Desmond acting as host a party when he cannot change the batteries in his hearing aid. Marvellous stuff. As always with Lodge, a highly recommended read.

And the winner is ...

Alis!

Alis, if you drop me an email with your address then a signed first edition of Conceit will be on its way to you shortly!

Thank you to everyone who entered.

Book Giveaway Reminder

Just a reminder that today is the last day to enter this giveaway of a signed, hardback, first edition of Conceitby Mary Novik. You can read my review here.

If you would like to enter, you're are usually resident in the UK and you have a book blog please just leave message in the comments section saying that you want to enter (on this post or the original review), before midnight UK time on Wednesday 11th May. I'll do the draw and announce the winner the following day. Please leave a link to your blog too unless you know I know you have a blog.

The Brontes but maybe not as you imagined them

Thanks to Cornflower for the link (and you can read more here):

Balkan Books and Textiles

Two lovely blog posts on the ibooknet blog might be worth your attention. East European specialist Marijana Dworski writes about how book-dealers very often buy rather more than books, and a warning that perhaps they shouldn't and offers an amazing collection for sale.

You can view Marijana's books on the Balkans here.

Charlotte Sometimes by Penelope Farmer

I spend all day everyday thinking about books, writing about books and looking bibliographic information up either in old fashioned books or on the internet. How then have I missed this little gem of information about one of my favourite books? Charlotte Sometimes was a book I got out of the school library when I was in my first year of secondary school (age 11/12). I loved it, renewed it for as long as I was allowed, and eventually had to give it back. Short of funds for actually buying books, that I thought was that.

I always remembered the book fondly but as I became an adult with a little more money, I was still permanently short of funds for books (having a wish list in the 100s) and so it remained un-bought. Then on holiday one year spotting a library with a booksale I pootled in and there it was. Hardback. All pages present. Much read, and no doubt much loved, but hanging on in there and just 50p.

Once it was home I kept it on a shelf for a little while anxious that a re-read might take the gloss of my happy memories of that old fashioned school library, all polished pale oak and quietness, and off my childhood love for the tale. Eventually though I gave in and I loved that book all over again - such a relief.

So, what little gem of information have I stumbled on? Well apparently the book was inspiration for a song from The Cure. I'm not a fan of The Cure but how had I failed to notice this over the years? I even remember reading the wikipedia entry on Penelope Farmer a few years ago, when I was doing my re-read of Charlotte Sometimes. Maybe the information wasn't there then? Perhaps the whole world knows and never thinks to mention it because it is a really well known thing? But it passed me by. Anyway in case it had passed you by too there are a couple of lovely entries on Penelope Farmer's blog about the whole saga of the song which you can read here and here - you can't beat a blog post tht ends with an aging author taking a bow at a rock concert.

And just as interestingly you can watch The Cure's video for the song:

I am also struck that libraries have played a big part in my association with this book, both the old-fashioned book-filled school kind, and the small town local authority kind. Looking at my pre-loved copy other children have obviously found this book by the same route. In a week that sees the start of the next parliament, can I make a tiny plea that among all the inevitable funding cuts that we find some way to defend libraries of all kinds. There is also a good post by Martin Edwards on elections and libraries here.

And if you haven't read Charlotte Sometimes please do!

Conceit by Mary Novik

I absolutely loved this book. Each page was a pleasure. Conceit by Mary Novik is set in seventeenth century London and the majority of the novel is from the perspective of Pegge Donne, the youngest daughter of the metaphysical poet and Dean of St Paul's Cathedral John Donne. Metaphysical poetry has a reputation for being a bit complicated, a little obscure, and heavy on religion and sex. I was not sure therefore what to expect here and whether the flavour, so to speak, of metaphysical poetry would really translate well to the novel form.

Pegge is a warm and lively girl in love with Izaak Walton of The Compleat Angler fame. She wants not the arranged marriage of social and pecuniary advantage but the kind of passion her parents had when they were young; the kind of passion that made them run away and landed John Donne temporarily in prison. He famously ended a letter from Fleet Prison with "John Donne, Anne Donne, Un-done", after his marriage to Anne More. Walton however continues to elude Pegge.

Pegge's feelings echo much of Donne's most famous poems. Donne's early poetry certainly seethes with physical emotion, Elegy XX being a prime example. The passion of the marriage of the Donnes certainly bore fruit, 12 children in 16 years of marriage, before Anne's inevitable death as result of her last childbirth.

At the time of the main narrative Donne is old, dying and quite a character. He plays the role of sanctimonious Dr Donne beautifully, preserving his clerical reputation and trying to forget his rather more lively past. The contrasts between his age and Pegge's youth, between what he wants for her now and what he once enjoyed himself is marked. Pegge is a disappointment and a handful because she is too like him. Despite everything there is a lovely warmth to their relationship.

Pegge is a lovely guide to seventeenth century London. Walton is a robust, stoical figure, oddly unromantic, but he clearly drives Pegge wild. And despite his constant passion for her older sister Con the friendship between Pegge and  Walton is real and persists.

London too rises from this novel in clear focus.The poverty, riches, sights and smells emanate from the page as lively and as infuriating as Pegge. From the start Pegge and the city mirror each other; a prolepsis set during the Fire of London when Donne's St Paul's is lost shows Pegge sooty and bedraggled as her city. Pegge's concern in the heat of the fire is to rescue her father's monument, the designing of which later forms a lively part of the narrative. We see from her husband William's point of view:

Crates and baskets and rounds of cheese are piled helter-skelter on the quay since there are no boats left to ferry goods across the river. The desperate have set their possessions adrift, hoping to recover them with boat-hooks when they float below the bridge. William's hand flutters near his sword, ready to defend his ship and his wife, but Pegge is at home in the milling crowd, squatting next to the burnt cat to calm it while the men ease the horse cart through the mass of people and goods on the wharf. She must have paid the wharfinger in advance, for he attaches his hook to the bundled statue at once, lowering it with jerking motions into the barge. As the effigy settlers into the stern William feels the full weight of his father-in-law John Donne, who has been dead for more than thirty years.

The fractions in the relationship between Donne and his daughter are reflected in the narrative. There are some odd jolts and jumps between narrators. The dead Ann More gives her views on the elderly Donne's over concern for his clerical reputation, and Donne too narrates part of his earlier, pre-Pegge, life. Like the jolts in the relationship between Pegge and Donne, these narrative jolts do not matter, instead they serve to accentuate the liquid flow of words from Pegge's point-of-view. Pegge's passions and values are real and to be admired, Donne's evasiveness and Anne's sacrifice (on the triple altar of Donne's political career, his religious feelings, and his passion) are not to be aspired to, it is their early heritage and her father's poetry that Pegge cherishes.

So does the flavour of metaphysical poetry translate to the novel? I think this the most successful aspect of an otherwise excellent work:

On the hard benches in Paul's choir, the children mastered the art of daydreaming, of aping the role of listeners. They lounged about in their minds while their bodies knelt, skewered by their father's roving gaze. The boys looked into the crumbling vault and took aim at pigeons with imaginary cross bows. The girls dreamt of amassing dowries to free themselves from their father's sway.

But Pegge listened. She could hear the bodies decomposing under her feet in the privacy of tombs. Her hearing was acute, able to pick out threads of silence, like the sub-human sounds of worms extruding casts or like the silent descenders in a printer's font.

Throughout Conceit the metaphysical motifs are there, delicately so, in every aspect of the book: the concepts of heaven and hell, "The greater Heaven in an Heaven less" or "Things greater are in less contain'd", human passion, the perfection of the deity in the natural world, ideas of landscape and exploration, the unlikely muse of worm or flea, and most of all there is a delight in language, in paradox, in metaphor, in conceit.

I think Novik's combination of fluid prose, warm characterisation and sweet literary word play are extremely successful. It is not a book that is plot driven, we simply watch Pegge come to terms with her own character. I love Novik's John Donne and I love her London. I hated coming to the end and I know it will become a regular re-read.

The fabulous Conceit by Mary Novik is going into my top ten books of the last ten years.

****************************************************

Also reviewed by:

The Overdecorated Bookcase : "Novik's novel ... snaps the very bones of expectation"

Book giveaway

As I mentioned previously Conceit is not currently published in the UK. Unbelievably. I have a signed, first edition hardback of the Canadian publication to give away to a UK blogger. (Sorry non-UK readers I try to offer worldwide draws but I'd like this book to get a chance on another UK blog). If you would like to enter, you're are usually resident in the UK and you have a book blog please just leave message in the comments section saying that you want to enter, before midnight UK time on Wednesday 11th May. I'll do the draw and announce the winner the following day. Please leave a link to your blog too unless you know I know you have a blog.

*****************************************************

How to buy a copy of Conceit if you're not in Canada:

So how do you get a copy? Well there are a few secondhand on Biblio and of course you can get it from Amazon.ca. The link for that is over in the right hand column fully emblazoned with all the Amazon regalia to remind you you are buying in Canadian dollars and will incur international shipping charges (unless you're Canadian of course).