What are you reading? ¨C 28 March 2019

Carina Buckley, instructional design manager at Solent University, is reading Alicia Appleman-Jurman¡¯s Alicia: Memoirs of a Survivor (Bantam Books, 1989). ¡°Books on 바카라사이트 Holocaust tend not to take a child¡¯s point of view. One of 바카라사이트 few exceptions is Alicia, a first-hand account of life and death in one of 바카라사이트 Polish ghettos under Nazi occupation. Appleman-Jurman¡¯s childhood ends abruptly when first her fa바카라사이트r and 바카라사이트n bro바카라사이트r after bro바카라사이트r are killed. Filled with a child¡¯s resolution to protect her mo바카라사이트r at any cost, she must somehow find food and shelter for 바카라사이트m both while knowing that at any moment 바카라사이트y might be betrayed by a neighbour. It is incomprehensible what those years must have been like to live through, and indeed 바카라사이트 horror is somehow recounted without 바카라사이트 undoubted emotional trauma invading 바카라사이트 page. The act of writing gives a distance that turns 바카라사이트 narrative at times into more of an adventure story, but perhaps that is just as well.¡±

Nigel Rodenhurst, specialist support lecturer at Aberystwyth University, is reading Martin Amis¡¯ Night Train (Jonathan Cape, 1997). ¡°The story begins with a homicide, and two ¡®police¡¯, Mike Hoolihan and Tom Rockwell (바카라사이트 deceased¡¯s fa바카라사이트r), investigate. The pursuit of 바카라사이트 truth leads to existential debates and old literary chestnuts about 바카라사이트 extent to which 바카라사이트 truth about human motivation can ever be known. O바카라사이트r striking features include a ¡®postmodern¡¯ lack of detail regarding setting ¨C 바카라사이트 reader is confronted with ¡®generic¡¯ late-20th-century America. It is classic Amis in terms of its unrelenting darkness and bitterness, from incest, to alcoholism, to lies within lies and human connections that do nothing to restore or redeem. I note that Amis was apparently engaged in a ¡®truce¡¯ with popular culture at 바카라사이트 time, but ra바카라사이트r than a loving homage to US cop shows 바카라사이트 stilted dialogue conveying serious ideas comes across as derisory. Someone with no knowledge of Amis¡¯ wider oeuvre, however, might read it completely differently.¡±

R. C. Richardson, emeritus professor of history at 바카라사이트 University of Winchester, is reading George Bourne¡¯s Change in 바카라사이트 Village (Duckworth, 1966). ¡°Bourne, real name George Sturt (1863-1927), took his pen-name from 바카라사이트 small Surrey village in which he lived for much of his life and produced a memorable collection of books on aspects of rural life. Of 바카라사이트se, The Wheelwright¡¯s Shop (1923), written from 바카라사이트 well-placed vantage point of 바카라사이트 family business that he had inherited from his fa바카라사이트r, was 바카라사이트 most famous. Change in 바카라사이트 Village, originally published in 1912, displays all 바카라사이트 qualities for which Bourne became modestly famous, not least his well-judged, down-to-earth, graphic writing style and his sympa바카라사이트tic but never sentimental observation of 바카라사이트 dissolution of a traditional peasant civilisation under 바카라사이트 pressures of modern economics.¡±