James Metcalf on the fictionality of the latest archaeological page-turners
Stephen Puddicombe looks at the unusual appeal of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot
Ciaran Rafferty investigates the science of book classification
The Subterraneans by Jack Kerouac
Alongside On The Road and maybe a Duck Bag full of others this is one of the few occasions in which ‘spontaneous prose’ seems a necessary tool for tale. Leo Percepied and Mardou Fox’s lives flow with the rhythms of the text, intimacy is recreated through reading Joyce together naked and the drunken jealousies that ultimately lead to the couple parting. The Subterraneans have the same sincerity that can be enjoyed in seminal works such as Chasing Amy or Tropic of Capricorn. No one having read it can doubt Kerouac’s authority in the telling of romance.
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Florentino Ariza is a man of determination, he memorizes whole passages of poetry to impress the girls, he rises within a matter of months to be the best violinist in town to impress the girls, and he counts the years, days and hours that he had to wait to have Fermina Daza. After accepting that her father was never going to accept him as good enough for his daughter and losing her to the eminent doctor Juvenal Urbino, Florentino went away to become a success in the shipping business and have romances which even in his old age he saw as intermittent between his courtship of Fermina Daza. Spanning forty years of illness, death and even French literary heroes Love in the Time of Cholera shows the true cost of getting what you want.
High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
Music, girls and mediocrity. Nick Hornby reduces the modern British male to his most primitive state. Said Primitivism takes shape in the form of Rob Morrow, proud owner of a struggling record store. After Laura finally has enough of him Top5 aficionado Rob compiles a list of his top 5 girlfriends but ‘You’re not up there Laura’ which gives him the brilliant idea of getting back in touch with them so as to prove that Laura was the problem, in doing so he does prove that he wasn’t the problem but he also realises that Laura was actually quite a catch and he isn’t getting any younger, so eventually after much badgering Laura eventually takes him back because she’s ‘too tired not to’ and Rob opens up a new chapter in his life taking back the DJ scene where Laura fell in love with him so many moons ago.
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