Two good books

This week I shall give two of my favorite books, with a short description of the books, a quote from them and a brief reason why I like them.

Crow - Ted Hughes

Crow is a collection of short poems with a common narrative thread.  It reads like the old testament but is considerably darker.  Crow (the subject of the book) is a crude, amoral force twisting the work of a naive God (Yahweh of the old testament).

Many of the poems from Crow depict humanity and nature as a nightmarish reality from which there is no escape.

Here is a passage from Crow showing an example of the way that he (gender?) twists God's work.  It provides an alternative 'just so' story for the link between God and humanity.

"But Crow   Crow Crow nailed them together,
 Nailing Heaven and earth together -
 So man cried but with God's voice.
 And God bled, but with man's blood."

I like Crow because it gives a perspective on life which, although I don't agree with it, is familiar to us all in our more depressed times.  I think the depiction of decay, death and amorality is necessary for a full understanding of our world.  In a way one can think of it as a literary inoculation against cruel reality.  A good comparison might be made with the aesthetic behind the Hannibal lecter series.

Here [http://www.zeta.org.au/~annskea/Trickstr.htm] is a link to an essay about crow which you may find interesting.

Titus groan - Mervyn Peake

The first in the gormenghast trilogy.  Set in a feudalistic earldome with rich traditions and an intensely heirarchical society, Titus Groan follows the story of Steerpike (a low born but machiovelian cook's assistant) and his thirst for power.  Along the way we find out about the structures of the social order, the hidden places in Gormenghast castle and something of the life outside the castle walls.

The opening passage of Titus Groan speaks for itself:

"Gormenghast, that is, the main massing of the original stone, taken by itself would have displayed a certain pnderous architectural quality were it possilble to have ignored the circumfusion of those mean dwellings that swarmed like an epidemic around its outer walls.  They sprawled over the sloping earth, each one half way over its neighbour until, held back by the castle rampartsm the innermost of these hovels laid hold on the great walls, clamping themselves thereto like limpets to a rock."

I like this book because it has many ecentric characters and their interactions alone make wonderful reading.  The prose is full of long and carefully crafted descriptive passages which give the imagination much to work with.  The book lends itself to being read aloud and I personally think that parts of it are best appreciated this way.