Beryl Bainbridge – Cannonball Read 17

Some people find it comfortable to go through life on their knees, and good luck to them

Master Georgie by Beryl Bainbridge

September 30, 2019 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

Another Beryl Bainbridge that was nominated for the Booker Prize. I wonder if she ever really wanted to win. This novel is told through a series of vignettes that cover broad swathes in scope, but skip around in time and place along a journey to the Near East. “Master Georgie” and his adopted sister are leaving for the Crimea to serve as doctor and nurse for the British cause. This is a small novel that pretends to be a large novel and in a lot […]

He had been reading for six hours, sometimes the same page over and over.

Young Adolf by Beryl Bainbridge

August 10, 2019 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

This is a 1978 novel by the British novelist Beryl Bainbridge, who is playing with some fire here, but does create an interesting novel in some ways. I sometimes like her novels a lot and sometimes feel pretty meh about them, but they do tend to be audacious. This novel narrates a series of months in the life of young Adolf Hitler, living and working as an art student and visiting England on holiday and work study. The novel follows Adolf as he interacts with […]

It wasn’t all misery. On one of our halts we lay spreadeagled on the ice and stared up at a sky blazing with the glory of the most wonderful aurora I’d ever witnessed.

June 21, 2018 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

The arctic is all the rage right now what with The Terror being out on tv and then there was that (bad) novel North Water a little while ago and people love writing about it. The Antarctic doesn’t get the same love for a few reasons I can think of. One, there’s not express reason to go there except research and adventure. At least in the North, you can look for shipping routes and people live there and it’s connected to Canada. Also, the Antarctic […]

Not a vile book, but…..

The Girl with the Polka Dot Dress by Beryl Bainbridge

February 6, 2017 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

Maybe a British person can explain to me who Beryl Bainbridge is. I mean this in an earnest way because she’s unknown known quantity in my general understanding of British culture in the last 50 years. She was nominated for the Booker Prize five times and yet, no one seems to like her novels. This one has a shockingly low 2.77 on Goodreads. She’s been labeled as a “Greatest 50 since 1945” but hasn’t written a seminal work. And! All this should add up to […]

It’s about more than the sinking of the Titanic

April 22, 2015 by ElCicco Leave a Comment

This novel, published in 1996 and winner of the Whitbread Prize (shortlisted for the Booker), is set on the Titanic’s fateful voyage, and it is about loss, but not just the loss of those who set sail. Every Man for Himself is about the loss of love, the passing of an old world, and the painful birth of the new one as exemplified by our 22-year-old narrator. Morgan has known both deprivation and privilege, having had a foot in both worlds. Yet, he is not […]

Zirza on A Gothic Classic for a ReasonIt's one of those wish-you-could-read-it-again-for-the-first-time books. I loved it.
Emmalita on “It came to something when you found yourself hoping that the footsteps you heard were ghosts.”I loved the ending! I don’t think it’s been out long enough to talk about why though.
Dixie on Track Her Down by Melinda LeighI am just starting Track Her Down and I have read them all in order till now and thought I...
Roland of Gilead on How can you give us the gift of a crazy character named Rando Thoughtful and then just as suddenly take that gift away? We need to talk, Uncle Stevie.I came across this randomly years after it was written because I was searching "Random Thoughtful. But I have the...
Emmalita on “Only you, Em, would refer to heartbreak as a distraction. I think I would have a more sympathetic response if I asked to marry a bookcase.”Oh my goodness, Gallifrey was beautiful. I’m sure her mittens were gloriously murdery.

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