Stephen Crane – Maggie, a girl of the streets (Book Review)

 

(The audio version of this book will appear on the review Podcast Reading in Bed from the start of May at all of the usual places) 

Blurb:

"Maggie: A Girl of the Streets", Stephen Crane's first novel, is the story of a beautiful young girl living in the slums of New York in the late 19th Century. "Maggie: A Girl of the Streets" is a shockingly explicit portrait of the brutal conditions that existed in the poverty-stricken slums of New York.

Strengths and Weaknesses:

I had heard of Stephen Crane’s work when I was back at university all the way back in 1998 to 2001 but certainly hadn’t read any of this work until reading Paul Auster’s biography on him ‘Burning Boy’ and reading this first after completing Burning Boy wasn’t quite sure to expect I have to admit and am not quite sure what to make off it now.

Perhaps it is best summed up by a fellow reviewer on Good Reads who said “This is perhaps the most sordid short novel i ever read; the journey to depravity prostitution and death forced by the loneliness, doublé moral and necessity of a poor beautiful girl born in a miserable suburb of New York “

Well, sordid is an excellent description of this short 92 page novel which is incredibly grim and also quite shocking of the way of a young girl was dragged into the world of prostitution by a whole number of reasons I won’t go into here, instead just suggesting you read it as this is a world which doesn’t exist any more (thankfully) where poverty, alcoholism and disease were not only rampant but blamed entirely on the victims

It is not an easy book to read despite to read because of the dialogue scattered throughout it which I’ve being told was wrote this way to reflect the way it was, but reading from an angle of over 125 years later, it is almost impossible to follow in places and made me glad the book wasn’t double its length, as with its length I read it at took about a month to read.

7/10 (Just) because it is a classic all things despite but don’t expect it to be a classic to read because it is not easy to read.

2001 - A Space Odyssey - Arthur C Clarke (Book Review)

 

* The Audio review version of this book will appear in Reading in Bed Episode 53 at the start of May 2022 *

Arthur C Clarke – 2001 – A Space Odyssey

Blurb:

On the Moon, an enigma is uncovered.

So great are the implications of this discovery that for the first time men are sent out deep into our solar system.

But long before their destination is reached, things begin to go horribly, inexplicably wrong...

One of the greatest-selling science fiction novels of our time, this classic book will grip you to the very end

Strengths:

From my side, I first read this book when I was 11 and struggled with the complex narrative (so it seemed at the time to me) and watched the film version a few years afterwards. Now approaching 50, I felt it was time to reread the book (I will rewatch the film soonish but have fantastic memories of the soundtrack).

And now, Ambitious is a good word to describe considering this was wrote and released before Neil Armstrong landed on the moon and the five separate sections in the book certainly show the scope and intelligence that went into this shows throughout the full of the book.

The book starts off with a number of chapters set in Africa, then we jump forward to the Year 1999 during which process travels to the Moon are certainly more common place you could say.

However, on one of the Moon’s crater, a monolith is found that sends out a strong and mysteries signal when sunlight touches it for the first time and results in a Signal is set to Saturn which is where the story gets really vivid.

I won’t say anything after that but just recommend read it as the last part of it was a rare of really colourful prose coming into life in Space. Its impressive defo.

Weaknesses:

The first few chapters focusing on man from millions of years ago didn’t really connect with me it has to be said and after a few chapters of this, I was really starting to think we were going to be going through every stage of mankind and the book would take forever to get going. Thankfully this was not the case and the book picked up gears fairly quickly after that.

Also I have to admit the characters to quote somebody else on good reads are “are cardboard cutouts and largely interchangeable with one another.”

Thankfully this doesn’t really impact on the quality of the book and for people who like action paced Science Fiction, this like Simak’s book ‘City’ from last month on my book review Podcast “Reading in Bed” is a book certainly more Science on the Science Fiction side of things and is a classic still, although perhaps has dated a little.

8/10

Renegades: Born in the USA (Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen) Review

 

* The Audio version of this book review will appear in Reading in Bed Episode 53 at the start of May 2022 *

Blurb:

Two longtime friends share an intimate and urgent conversation about life, music, and their enduring love of America, with all its challenges and contradictions, in this stunningly produced expansion of their groundbreaking Higher Ground podcast, featuring more than 350 photographs, exclusive bonus content, and never-before-seen archival material.

Renegades: Born in the USA is a candid, revealing, and entertaining dialogue between President Barack Obama and legendary musician Bruce Springsteen that explores everything from their origin stories and career-defining moments to our country’s polarized politics and the growing distance between the American Dream and the American reality. Filled with full-color photographs and rare archival material, it is a compelling and beautifully illustrated portrait of two outsiders—one Black and one white—looking for a way to connect their unconventional searches for meaning, identity, and community with the American story itself. 

Strengths:

A written adaption from their award winning Podcast, Renegades is a long form interview / chat book between two people who you would not expect to be friends upon reflection, let alone the great friends they have become – one possibly one of the most interesting American Precidents in my lifetime and one of the greatest singersongwriters over the last 50 years with a grounded focus on the working class man.

Their similarities are truly interesting spread among this book with both of them talking frankly about their upbringing with both of them having frankly hard relationships with their fathers, and the opposites in their relationships with the women in their relationship who became their wives.

I’ve listened personally to both the Podcast and the book version, and surprisingly I got through the book a lot quicker than I thought I was going considering this was quite a lengthy Podcast series.

There is plenty of surprises in it as they don’t just talk about politics - They also center whole broadcasts/chapters around the role of money in American society and the way forward in society post covid.

There is also segments in the book about the role of masculinity and the way it is changing in current society and was very interested in both cases how fatherhood transformed both of their lives.

Weaknessess:

The conversation is expanded slightly and cleaned up syntactically for the sake of clarity, there is also lots of pictures and extracts from speeches / songs which are nice but if I am honest fail to add much to the book and feel on several occasions borderline on padding which I don’t think at least half of them should have being included in the book.

An excellent easy to read book otherwise 9/10

Speak Easy Readers - May 2022

 

Dear all;

Hope you all had a great Easter etc.

After a slight delay, we can confirm the readers for the next Speak Easy event on Thursday 05 May 2022 who are: 

Regi Agulha Jr.

Esther Koch

Cookie Love  

April Manderson

Leon Johnson

Michael Burton 

Selina Helliwell

Karen Lewis 

Sean McGlynn

Perry Gasteiger 

Isabelle Byrne 

Siobhan Hoy

Gordon Zola 

Eve Nortley 

Amy Langley 

Roy Page 

Rebecca Kenny

Dany Bowen

Andy Cash

Andy N

Amanda Nicholson

Steve Smythe

All readers will be given a 4 minute slot and the night will start as usual at 7.30pm at Dulicmer, Chorlton as always. 

If you think I have missed you off the list, please email me back on aen1mpo@yahoo.co.uk so I can review the list asap. 

On a different note, one of our long term readers Ant Smith is involved co-running a special afternoon ‘Jam Tribe’ on 21 May and 22 May 2022 at Chorlton Park and is looking for poets / spoken word artists to read out there. 

Email Ant directly on <smithyanthony@icloud.com> for more details.

Hope you are all well.

Speak Soon

Andy N (Speak Easy)

Appearance on Allfm 96.9.

 

Yep, I'm on Levenshulme Radio's Allfm Radio (on 96.9 fm) or https://allfm.org/ from 4pm this Sunday coming as interviewed by the always wonderful Ruth.

Tune in. I'll be talking about all kinds of things as always. 

More pictures from RMT union's Disabled Members' Conference

 Had a few more pictures sent me from last Friday at the above night took by Sarah L Dixon and Janine Booth. Enjoy (:

RMT union's Disabled Members' Conference

Fairly recently I had a poem published in the Flapjack Press new book "NeurodiVERSE" and much to my honour on Friday 08 April 2022 I got asked to go and read out a poem for the RMT union's Disabled Members' Conference at Manchester’s Home alongside a number of other poets from the same book. 

Wonderful company, loved the free food and drink and a chance to read out some poetry at an audience very different from my usual crowd.

Great stuff.

Thanks to Amanda for the pictures (:

Thanks to everybody who attended Speak Easy in April / bookings for May

 

Thanks to everybody who attended Speak Easy last night at Chorlton’s Dulicmer. We had 20 readers and somewhere around 62 people in attention (Our busiest night to date there I believe).

Hosted by Steve Smythe

We had the following readers in attention:

1st Half:

Isabelle Pandora Byrne

Sean McGlynn

Alicia Fitton

Andy Npoet

Mark Jackson

April Manderson

Eve Nortley

Anna Percy

Gordon Zola

2nd Half:

Leon Johnson

Quigley CB

Siobhan Hoy

Michael Burton

Amy Langley

Darren Lea-grime

Amanda Nicholson

Regi Agulha Jr.

David Bond

Anthony Briscoe

Mike Booth

Bookings start this Sunday from miday – either facebook me (AndyNPoet) or email me on aen1mpo@yahoo.co.uk for slots on our Show on Thursday 05 May 2022 (which for May will be part of Chorlton Arts Festival).

Photographs and Audio to follow hopefully 2moro.

Book Review: Hayley Phelan – Like Me

 

(The Audio version of this review will appear on the Book Review Podcast at the start of  April 2022. Available from all of the usual places)

Strengths:

It was interesting straight away to notice that the book contained a adult warning right from the cuff of this book straight away.

The book itself focus around a aspiring model called Mickey who gets lost in the world of social, primarily Instagram and becomes more and obessed with a model on instagram called Gemma Anton.

So far, it did feel like a bit like Single White Female except it goes much darker when Mickey bumps into Gemma at a nightclub and everything gets darker and darker.

The book at its best for me works when it talks about Social obession and the danger of social media in particular of Instagram with the obession Mickey gets with comments, shares and likes on social media and over the next two hundred pages builds up into a quite horrific climax with all kinds of dark topics cropping – sexual abuse, drug abuse, eating disorders and even racism.

Weaknesses:

The ending of this book made me think off Bethany Clift’s Last one at the party which Reading in Bed my book review Podcast reviewed last month where I loved the ending where it left to think to yourselves whether the characters at the end lived or did not.

Despite the fact, I felt some of the darker topics in this book did seem somewhat causally covered you could say, the last part of the book, the eplilogue seemed not needed atall and seemed to egg the pudding if you know what I mean and should have being left out to encourage the reader to think for themselves what exactly happened.

However if they had left this out, it would have made this a novella rather than a short novel and that showed the fault in this book that there was a lack of focus in the book, and I think the bit about Mickey when she started to think Gemma had being murdered came into the book way too late and left the book very, very misbalanced.

6/10