DIFFICULT QUESTIONS EASY ANSWERS -Robert Graves

Another collection of speeches and essays from Robert Graves.  He covers a wide range of topic's, religion, drugs and religion and ancient history.

He has an opinion on everything.  This from an interview in 1970 by Edwin Newman:

Mr Newman:  You once said " If I were a girl, I'd despair.  The supply of good women far exceeds that of the men who might deserve them."  Do you...

Mr Graves:  Oh yes I do... The fact is that for one reason or another homosexuality among men has gone so far that its difficult now for a woman to find a man who isn't in some way tainted with it.  I suppose that its partly due to heredity, partly to environment, but largely because men now drink too much milk.

Mr Newman: Really?

Mr Graves:  Its a fairly widespread medical view.

So very entertaining, the above exchange is only part of it and its not world class trolling he attempted to argue his point as if it were fact.

THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN - Ian Fleming

I love James Bond, the novels, the movies and have done since my teens.  I re-read the books every now and again when a quiet afternoon pops up but this is not one of the good novels in the series.  To be frank its appalling.  "The Man With The Golden Gun" was the last one written by Fleming and was published posthumously.

It has no plot, shallow and reads like it was written by different people  ( there is a rumour that it was finished by Kingsly Amis).

There are some good books in the series ,Goldfinger, for example but this is rubbish.

CATACROK - Robert Graves

A collection of 35 pieces that Graves wrote for Punch and The New Statesmen.

Most of them concern what took his fancy on the day, and mostly they are all humourous.  He is a wonderful writer.

POISON FOR THE TOFF - John Creasey

John Creasey, a favourite from my teen's. A basic who dunnit from 1947 with The Honourable Richard Rollison solving a nasty poisoning incident at his birthday party.

A good short read, Auckland to Blenheim and return by plane.

MADDADDAM - Margaret Atwood

This is the third and final novel in the "Oryx and Crake" Trilogy and I am very sad that it is finished. The bonus is that coming to it late means I've been able to read all three novels consecutively and not wait a decade for this last volume.

All the main characters from the first two books are brought together as the last survivors of the human race along with the "Crakers", the humanoids bred to replace humans.

To survive they must locate and destroy two killers, "Painballers' who are loose and will destroy the survivors if they have the chance.

The back story of this novel is that of "Zeb" who comes form a very dysfunctional religious family and has had to survive for many years with the help of his brother 'Adam'.

This back story, with the location of the 'Painballers" completes the story.There is more humour in this novel than the previous two but the quality of the writing is still exceptional  The ending is uplifting considering the circumstances.

Read the three novels together, they are all brilliant.

THE YEAR OF THE FLOOD- Margaret Atwood

This is the second book in the "Oryx and Crake" Trilogy.

This book take place in the same time frame as "Oryx and Crake" but is set out in the "pleeblands rather than the Corporate Compounds where the first book is set.

"The story begins in the present in Gardener Year Twenty Five- the year of the Waterless Flood, as the Gardeners call the plague."

This story revolves around two survivors, Ren who is in isolation in a sex club she works in, and Toby who managers to barricade herself in a spa she is working in when the plague hits.

Several characters from the previous book make appearances as the story of these two women is told in back story.

This like "Oryx and Crake" is brilliant and "unputdownable" , Atwood's imagination is stupendous and the story rolls along so quickly with its insight and humour that the book ended way to soon.

You could read this as a standalone book but its recommended you start with the first book and begin this journey.

ORYX AND CRAKE - Margaret Atwood

This is a truly remarkable book, from the time I started I didn't put it down apart from sleeping for the one night.

Snowman, the last human alive perhaps is living in a dystopian world that has been destroyed by 'the corporations'.  How this has come about is explained in flashback.   Crake is Snowman's life long friend and Oryx an ex-sex slave who becomes the lover of both.

This is a massive feat of imagination which I enjoyed more than The Hand Maids Tale.

This world our characters inhabit is bleak, ruined by man, a world the more pessimistic among us believe is inevitable.

I can't adequately describe this so read reviews by professionals but this knocked my socks off.