I’m pretty sure I need to start changing these post titles to something more appropriate like, “What books I’m borrowing late July 2009” because a great many go back unread. Flicked through, yes. Started, yes.
Finished? No.
Well I can finally change that this week, for I did finish David Sedaris, one of the few writers who makes me laugh out loud. I adore him.
Anne Enright’s The Gathering is one of my favourite books in recent years, so I’m hoping Taking Pictures will be similarly good. I studied Shearer’s Motel at university and really liked it, although I have a sneaking feeling I’ve tried The Ballad of Desmond Kale before.
The book on fifties movie stars is because Old Hollywood – the movies, the stars – is one of my life’s passions. The 1950s, I think, is my favourite decade. Although I believe the Golden Age of Hollywood is typically classified to be the 1920s-1930s (with good reason), I think the 50s were fascinating: lets see, it had rampant tabloid journalism, it was also the decade where cinema and television first began to fight over audiences, where we saw the birth / rise / fall lifecycle of the ‘megastar’ icons (Marilyn Monroe, James Dean etc) and social/political fundamentalist practices like McCarthyism were being used to protect the security of a country from the external “Other”.
See? Nothing much has changed has it?
