Expletives Deleted by Angela Carter

 

I'm not a huge fan of Angela Carter, I find her prose too obscure on occasions. I never made it past 100 pages of "Nights at the Circus" (weird and fantastical) but "The Magic Toyshop" (full of lightness and wit) was much better. I loved the stage adaptation of "Wise Children" but avoided the book. However a search for some non fiction took me to this collection of (mostly book) reviews chosen by the author. I thought I might find some interesting fiction. In her introduction, she tells us "we were the only family in our class at school who didn't have a television set". Her parents were far more interested in books. She also says "I like to write about writers who give me pleasure. Pleasure has always had a bad press in Britain. I'm all for pleasure. I wish there was more of it around".

TELL ME A STORY
The thirty five book reviews have all been published in newspapers and other publications. Here are my notes on just a few. Reading the first five obscure books, I wondered what I had let myself in for. But then number six was a review of "Once in Europa" by John Berger published in the Washington Post in 1989. Her opening page is a glorious evocation of the changes to the countryside: "the final divorce of human beings from the land" caused by its deruralisation.

A couple of reviews of books by William Burroughs then out of the blue J.G. Ballard's "Empire of the Sun" published in Time Out in 1984. We get a marvelous background of the author especially his weird sci fi stuff such as "Crash" and "High Rise" (both of which made fine movies). Burroughs was born in China and lived in Shanghai as a child and this was the basis for his biggest novel. Burroughs also live in Lunghua Camp where his young hero finds himself. An incredible review of a book that is "a rich, complex, heartrending novel".

TOMATO WOMAN
"An Omelette and a Glass of Wine" (by Elizabeth David) and other dishes (by other writers) . All in various publications. An odd sort of review. But what was most interesting were the letters in response: "A puritanical contempt for decently prepared food".

"The History and Social Influence of the Potato" by Redcliffe Salaman in London Review of Books 1986. Carter tells us "potato eating is also a history of poverty". It's history in the UK was interesting, of course the Irish famine gets a mention, but so does Max Miller!

"Food in Vogue: Six Decades of Cooking and Entertaining" edited by Barbara Tims in New Society May 1977. Something more than a cookery book, these recipes are more "food as an aspect of style".
But why "read as the concretisation of a consensus wish fulfillment fantasy about the nature of stylish living". This is Carter at her most obscure. I have no idea what she is talking about.

"English Bread and Yeast Cookery" by Elizabeth David in New Society 1987. Over four pages our reviewer considers the types of bread now available and their benefits or otherwise. She harps on about "the soft bland and flabby" white loaf.

"Honey from the Weed" by Patience Gray in London Review of Books 1987. "Part recipes, part travel book, part self-revelation, part art-object". " A book replete with recondite erudition and assembled on the principle of free association". WHY AM I READING THIS STUFF!

HOME
"The Buddha of Suburbia" by Hanif Kureishi in The Guardian 1990. A farce, a three part tv series and now a play. Carter reveals it is "continually tasty, interesting and full of glee". Lots of interesting characters with humour everywhere. His very first novel is wonderful, funny and all heart. No wonder Emma Rice has chosen this as her latest production, hopefully in London soon.

Some other reviews of no interest to me.

AMERIKA
"A Night at the Moves" by Robert Coover in The Guardian 1987. A collection of twelve stories with cinema as their guide. A Western, a comedy, a romance, a weekly serial, some shorts, a cartoon, a musical interlude and a travelogue. Maybe a book to look out for?

"Hollywood". A summary of the Classical Hollywood Cinema, Film Styles to 1960 and others.

LA PETITE DIFFERENCE
"Charlotte Bronte: Jane Eyre". This is Carter's introduction for a re-issue of the book by Virago in 1990. This, for me, was by far the most interesting piece in the whole book, just about worth persevering to find this near the end. "The emotional intelligence of the writer, and the exceptional sophistication of her heart" shows how she loves this book, even if it is "one of the oddest novels ever written". Whilst Carter agrees it is "wild, wonderful, thrilling", it is also "angry, sexy, a little crazy". We get a potted history of the Bronte's, and much about Charlotte's upbringing. On to Rochester and St John Rivers, she calls them different kinds of sadists. But although the book "veers towards trash" Carter loves it as a conundrum