A Dance to the Music of Time GR 2013 - May: Casanova's Chinese Restaurant
Talk 75 Books Challenge for 2013
Join LibraryThing to post.
This topic is currently marked as "dormant"—the last message is more than 90 days old. You can revive it by posting a reply.
1Deern
Our discussion thread for the May volume of A Dance to the Music of Time: Casanova's Chinese Restaurant
Main thread: http://www.librarything.com/topic/147074
Main thread: http://www.librarything.com/topic/147074
2JonnySaunders
Just ordered my copy. Should be with me later in the week.
Very excited!
Very excited!
4Deern
Finished it, loved it!
And now... it's only the 7th and so many more days to go until I can start the next one.
Little spoilers:
Not at all a happy book, this one. There's foreshadowing of dark times and loss to come already on the first couple of pages and that continues to the very last paragraph. And more than in any of the other books I had the feeling of it being part of a great comprehensive work. Youth is definitely over as are the carefree days in everyone's lives.
Apart from that: Stringham and Tuffy sighting, yay! Not enough Widmerpool though, and no Templer at all! And Isobel can speak and seems likeable. I was glad Powell delivered some explanation as to why he doesn't write in more detail about Nick's marriage.
Spoiler end
I had one of those Baader-Meinhof-phenomena moments (see last thread) when The Idiot by Dostoevsky was mentioned. I had just started that book the same day when I started reading this book here.
And now... it's only the 7th and so many more days to go until I can start the next one.
Little spoilers:
Not at all a happy book, this one. There's foreshadowing of dark times and loss to come already on the first couple of pages and that continues to the very last paragraph. And more than in any of the other books I had the feeling of it being part of a great comprehensive work. Youth is definitely over as are the carefree days in everyone's lives.
Apart from that: Stringham and Tuffy sighting, yay! Not enough Widmerpool though, and no Templer at all! And Isobel can speak and seems likeable. I was glad Powell delivered some explanation as to why he doesn't write in more detail about Nick's marriage.
Spoiler end
I had one of those Baader-Meinhof-phenomena moments (see last thread) when The Idiot by Dostoevsky was mentioned. I had just started that book the same day when I started reading this book here.
5JonnySaunders
I agree wholeheartedly with Deern's assessment. I think this may well replace The Acceptance World as my favourite instalment so far. It felt like it had more depth, and just like Deern I started to feel the arc of the whole work starting to take shape.
Stringham is rapidly becoming my favourite character! Tragic, yes, but always guaranteed to stir things up!
POTENTIAL SPOILER AHEAD
I thought that our humble narrator's bit of bad news was revealed with typically Powellian understatement! I thought I'd picked up the implication when he was first 'consoled' (I forget who by) and for a while I thought that might be all we hear, but perhaps surprisingly it was explicitly revealed. There was not a sniff of how Jenkins felt about it, or even how he dealt with it! While I think about it, there was no mention of how Isobel coped. I'm interested to realise how similar Powell's treatment of Isobel's character is to Jenkins'.
Stringham is rapidly becoming my favourite character! Tragic, yes, but always guaranteed to stir things up!
POTENTIAL SPOILER AHEAD
I thought that our humble narrator's bit of bad news was revealed with typically Powellian understatement! I thought I'd picked up the implication when he was first 'consoled' (I forget who by) and for a while I thought that might be all we hear, but perhaps surprisingly it was explicitly revealed. There was not a sniff of how Jenkins felt about it, or even how he dealt with it! While I think about it, there was no mention of how Isobel coped. I'm interested to realise how similar Powell's treatment of Isobel's character is to Jenkins'.
7brenzi
I finished this afternoon. I'm really enjoying it and these are the thoughts I posted on my thread.
Highlights of this Volume:
Nick gets married! (But he continues to be mostly an observer of the 1930s London society.) His wife Isobel seems to get the same treatment from Powell, i.e. she's very much a cypher just like Nick. He tells us she's in the hospital but let's it drag on for quite a while before we learn why.
Marriage, divorce, adultery and the general relationships between men and women are the crux of this volume and, I think are directly connected (quite brilliantly) to the contrasting elements contained in the title (speaking of brilliance!). At one point, Nick watches his friend Mclintick's marriage disintegrate and end in tragedy. And at another Powell asks if the "worst marriage is better than none at all." And I think he's suggesting that it is.
In the meantime, Powell weaves together both the fictional and real elements of London society by delineating the attitudes of different characters towards the abdication of the King and the Spanish Civil War.
Powell ends by commenting on his friend Morland's adulterous affair and I thought it was also a forecast of what's to come:
Once, at least, we had been on the Ghost Railway together at some fun fair or on a seaside pier; slowly climbing sheer gradients, sweeping with frenzied speed into inky depths, turning blind corners from which black, gibbering bogeys leapt to attack, rushing headlong into iron-studded doors, threatened by imminent collision, fingered by spectral hands, moving at last with dreadful, ever increasing momentum towards a shape that lay across the line.
This was the most enjoyable volume so far for me. It seemed as if there was so much more going on than in previous volumes and I really love Powell's writing. Very little Widmerpool and no mention at all of Templer.
Highlights of this Volume:
Nick gets married! (But he continues to be mostly an observer of the 1930s London society.) His wife Isobel seems to get the same treatment from Powell, i.e. she's very much a cypher just like Nick. He tells us she's in the hospital but let's it drag on for quite a while before we learn why.
Marriage, divorce, adultery and the general relationships between men and women are the crux of this volume and, I think are directly connected (quite brilliantly) to the contrasting elements contained in the title (speaking of brilliance!). At one point, Nick watches his friend Mclintick's marriage disintegrate and end in tragedy. And at another Powell asks if the "worst marriage is better than none at all." And I think he's suggesting that it is.
In the meantime, Powell weaves together both the fictional and real elements of London society by delineating the attitudes of different characters towards the abdication of the King and the Spanish Civil War.
Powell ends by commenting on his friend Morland's adulterous affair and I thought it was also a forecast of what's to come:
Once, at least, we had been on the Ghost Railway together at some fun fair or on a seaside pier; slowly climbing sheer gradients, sweeping with frenzied speed into inky depths, turning blind corners from which black, gibbering bogeys leapt to attack, rushing headlong into iron-studded doors, threatened by imminent collision, fingered by spectral hands, moving at last with dreadful, ever increasing momentum towards a shape that lay across the line.
This was the most enjoyable volume so far for me. It seemed as if there was so much more going on than in previous volumes and I really love Powell's writing. Very little Widmerpool and no mention at all of Templer.
8kaggsy
Finished this today and loved it. Certainly the series as a whole is starting to come together and I love the way Powell weaves everything together. Review to follow!
9kaggsy
Finally done the review (phew!) - here it is:
http://kaggsysbookishramblings.wordpress.com/2013/05/31/recent-reads-casanovas-c...
http://kaggsysbookishramblings.wordpress.com/2013/05/31/recent-reads-casanovas-c...
11LizzieD
Great review, Karen! I especially appreciate this line, "Nick in many ways thinks of his friends in particular groups or compartments, only to be surprised when they escape and intermingle when he least expects it. " Exactly!
I find that my taste in style has changed somewhat from the last time that I read this series, so I'm less forgiving of Nick's volubility than I once was. Never mind. I still love the books and the characters and the story. I'll finish this one today at the eleventh hour!
I find that my taste in style has changed somewhat from the last time that I read this series, so I'm less forgiving of Nick's volubility than I once was. Never mind. I still love the books and the characters and the story. I'll finish this one today at the eleventh hour!
12Donna828
I finished this one a few days ago. Here are the thoughts I shared on my thread.
"The name Casanova's Chinese Restaurant offered one of those unequivocal blendings of disparate elements of the imagination which suggest a whole new state of mind or way of life." (29)
Well, it finally happened. Despite Nick's feelings about marriage seeming like a "desperate venture to be postponed almost indefinitely," he marries Isobel Tolland in this segment of A Dance to the Music of Time. We are in the summer of the book set in the mid to late 1930s. There is lots of talk about the Abdication of the crown and the Spanish War. Isobel's oldest brother spent some time in Spain but it was considered a "flop" because "he didn't get up to the front and he never met Hemingway." Yes, the understated humor continues.
I am enjoying these books more and more as I can share in the reminiscing that goes on during the ubiquitous luncheons and dinners. These people like to talk! And there is much to talk about with all the engagements, marriages, miscarriages, alcoholism, divorces, affairs, and, in Book 5, a suicide. The relationship themes add another layer of bleakness to The Dance as the political scene in Europe heats up. Next up: The Kindly Ones.
"The name Casanova's Chinese Restaurant offered one of those unequivocal blendings of disparate elements of the imagination which suggest a whole new state of mind or way of life." (29)
Well, it finally happened. Despite Nick's feelings about marriage seeming like a "desperate venture to be postponed almost indefinitely," he marries Isobel Tolland in this segment of A Dance to the Music of Time. We are in the summer of the book set in the mid to late 1930s. There is lots of talk about the Abdication of the crown and the Spanish War. Isobel's oldest brother spent some time in Spain but it was considered a "flop" because "he didn't get up to the front and he never met Hemingway." Yes, the understated humor continues.
I am enjoying these books more and more as I can share in the reminiscing that goes on during the ubiquitous luncheons and dinners. These people like to talk! And there is much to talk about with all the engagements, marriages, miscarriages, alcoholism, divorces, affairs, and, in Book 5, a suicide. The relationship themes add another layer of bleakness to The Dance as the political scene in Europe heats up. Next up: The Kindly Ones.
13kaggsy
11: Thanks Peggy!
12: The understated humour is wonderful, isn't it? I'm looking forward to the next segment a lot.
12: The understated humour is wonderful, isn't it? I'm looking forward to the next segment a lot.
14LizzieD
I finished at the eleventh hour! (Karen and Bonnie, you need to put "COMPLETED" on the TIOLI challenge. If you haven't done it when I come back tonight, I'll be a busy-body and do it for you.)
I must say that this isn't one of my favorites... I miss Widmerpool. (I realized when you agreed that Widmerpool was "appalling" that I took it the same way that I would if somebody made a remark about one of my personal friends. He is, but I don't think of him that way; he's just Widmerpool - no adjectives needed!)
Charles Stringham breaks my heart in this one.
And somebody help me, please. What happened to Matilda's baby? She had the baby O.K., didn't she? Then it seems to vanish because neither she nor Moreland seems to be around taking care of it. In the last scene she's forgotten her key and can't get in their flat. Where's the baby? What did I miss?
I must say that this isn't one of my favorites... I miss Widmerpool. (I realized when you agreed that Widmerpool was "appalling" that I took it the same way that I would if somebody made a remark about one of my personal friends. He is, but I don't think of him that way; he's just Widmerpool - no adjectives needed!)
Charles Stringham breaks my heart in this one.
And somebody help me, please. What happened to Matilda's baby? She had the baby O.K., didn't she? Then it seems to vanish because neither she nor Moreland seems to be around taking care of it. In the last scene she's forgotten her key and can't get in their flat. Where's the baby? What did I miss?
15katiekrug
Peggy, I believe there is an off-hand remark in Nick's narrative that the baby only lived a few hours. I don't have the book here so I can't find the exact reference but I remember that pretty clearly because it was a typical, unemotional observation from Nick.
17kaggsy
14: Peggy, being fairly inept at these things I don't know where to put COMPLETED so if you have done this for me - thanks!!
