A Salopian in Suffolk to paints and writes herself into existence …
Outgoings. away …
Going up quicker. up and
Stepping up the pace and upping up the outs. flies …
Upping it and picking up a rocking fast up pace, she falls off and
Image by Marc Pascual from Pixabay
More from Jay Cool:
Not too sure why so many books I’ve picked up recently, have been so full of Hardyesque doom and gloom! What with The Narrow Road … and The Vegetarian, surely the angry Gods up there must think I’ve had my fair share of the no-way-out-of-a-vicious-circle stuff by now?
Clearly not!
As one whirlpool continues on its descent downwards, another begins on that some journey into the pits of despair …
down and
down and
down
until …
I look at my hand, or rather the space where my hand once was, and see in its place – a supplanter! My hand has been displaced, and replaced, by a …
… hook!
There is no escape for the likes of me! I’ve been hooked in, hooked into my destiny of doom. Doomed forever to read on and on and on, digging myself deeper and deeper and deeper into the soil. Into a soil kept nutritionally rich by the rich pickings to be found in the broken remains of Thomas Hardy and his victims.
But Hardy got one thing wrong. Because, as far as I’m concerned there are ways I could spend my living and breathing time on, or in, this Earth, far worse than to be engrossed, or rather ‘lost’, in a good book, wandering around in the fog of the dark-fantasy world created by Christina Henry in ‘Lost Boy’.
Were Thomas Hardy alive today, he himself would have dreamt up Jamie, the main character in Henry’s novel.
Jamie is trying his best to suppress his pangs of a conscience and to forge out a living and breathing existence within an isolated and violent island community. The island’s human inhabitants are all boys, boys completely controlled by Jamie’s best friend and worst enemy, Peter Pan. Peter has Jamie’s life – and its ending – all mapped out, as Jamie’s young charge, Charlie, recognises:
‘Charlie …pressed his face against my chest, like he was trying to climb inside my skin, trying to find a place where he could be safe from the story. Only Charlie and I seemed to know it wasn’t to end well, and only I knew the story was meant for me.’ (Henry, p.47)
But surely, surely, the story can be changed …?
Can’t it?
Surely Thomas Hardy’s legacy cannot be allowed to reign supreme forever?
Christina Henry, break free from your ties from Thomas Hardy! Thomas Hardy, stand aside, get back down under, and leave your followers free to carry on living into the future ….
Leave them free, to follow me ….
As, I Jay Cool, put the world to rights with a happy ending. A sequel to the ‘Lost Boy’?
How about the ‘Found Boy’, or even the ‘Living Girl’? Sally lives on …
Who’s Sally? Read ‘The Lost Boy’ for yourself and find out! Take yourself on a trip to the alternative reality that is Waterstones online and, whilst you’re there, pick up a few more treats for your feast!
Copyright owned by Jay Cool, 15th October, 2019
Image of pirate by William Adams from Pixabay
Other book reviews by Jay Cool. All titles available at Waterstones:
Serious Book – The Narrow Road …
‘A happy man has no past, while an unhappy man has nothing else.’ (Flanagan, p.3)
Read this book a couple of years ago, and been haunted by it ever since!
Richard Flanagan‘s novel, ‘The Narrow Road To The Deep North’ is a story of doomed love; a story which left me feeling as frustrated with the actions, or inaction, of the main character, Dorrigo, as I did following a liaison Thomas Hardy‘s introspective Jude!
The Tasmanian-born Dorrigo falls in love with his Uncle’s much-younger wife, and she with him. This is all great so far – surely the wife will leave the Uncle (he’s too old for her anyway) and live happily ever after with Dorrigo. But, happy endings don’t happen in the novels produced by any writer, who just happens to have read too many Hardy classics (and I’m pretty cert that Flanagan’s read the whole collection!).
The lovers are separated by the usual social conventions and by the intrusion of World War two. Dorrigo ends up as a prisoner in a Japanese Prisoner-of-War camp, and has to bear witness to fellow inmates being beaten, starved and worked to the point of death.
The relief that I feel when Dorrigo, against all the odds, survives, is soon smashed by a post-war ending in which he never does ….
Just look up, Dorrigo! Just look up, smile and open your mouth! Speak to her! Do it!
Of course, this is a novel in the Hardyesque tradition, and Dorrigo never does … do it!
Haunting and extremely frustrating.
Copyright owned by Jay Cool, 14th October, 2019
Savvy Book – The Marble Collector
Within these walls, find me,
papered over with books.
The walls of my life paper over me,
lifting up my lining, and my lines,
with pulp of mashed-up fiction, mostly read.
And truths, mostly unread.
More of all of it unread than read.
Probably.
Copyright owned by Jay Cool, 14th October, 2019
Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay
Han Kang’s ‘The Vegetarian’, currently available at Waterstones, is an emotive tale detailing the oft-times oppressive nature of marriage.
A young woman has her chances of finding herself cut short, when she is targeted for marriage by a man who seeks out (rather than desires) one such as her, i.e. submissive, obedient and – in his eyes – bland.
But what is quashed must come out somehow and the domesticated object of a bland wife becomes rebellious – turning vegetarian!
Rejecting all persuasions and forced attempts, by family and associates, to get her to eat meat, Yeong-hye becomes more and more introspective:
‘She was unable to say even a single word in case, when she opened her mouth to speak, the meat found its way in.’ (p.40)
Increasingly, Yeong-hye shuts herself away in a quiet place to read a good book, or to curl up, trance-like, into an inanimate ball on her sofa.
Far from making herself into a nothing, however, Yeong-hye is transformed into the sexualised object of her brother-in-law’s obsessional desires.
The readers is left questioning whether the brother-in-law is any better than the husband, as both patriarchs, in my view, fail to recognise her as a fully-fledged human being in her own right.
Han Kang’s novel won The Man Booker International Prize back in 2016 but, with current opinion extolling the benefits of a non-carnivorous lifestyle, I’m predicting its immediate return to the bestseller lists!
Beautifully written and deeply disturbing …
So get on and read it!
Copyright owned by Jay Cool, 14th October, 2019
Image by Justin Martin from Pixabay
More book reviews & other stuff by Jay Cool:
Savvy Book – The Marble Collector
Everyone needs an ally during the dark times. And Fergus, the central character in Cecilia Ahern’s ‘The Marble Collector’, has a whole collection of them.
Shut up in a prison on a par with Roald Dahl’s Chokey cupboard, by a malevolent schoolteacher, the young Fergus escapes reality by turning what might otherwise have been a passing interest, or sideline, into a lifelong passion.
This does, however, lead to some confusion in his adult life when his marbles become tainted by jealousy, suspicion and falsities, leading to their ostracisation from Fergus’ friends and family.
Whether your passion be for marbles, stamps, Pokemon cards, or books, books and more books, you will be able to relate to the Cecilia Ahern‘s Fergus.
“No, Hubby. No! YOU MAY NOT THROW MY BOOKS INTO A SKIP, OR INTO THE WOOD BURNER!
But, if like my collectables, yours are a little too large and a lot too many to hide – it might be worth switching!
Game of marbles, anybody?
Image by InspiredImages from Pixabay
Savvy Book – The Girl With All The Gifts
Savvy Book – The Hidden Life of Trees
Would England really be better off without Scotland or, post Scottish independence, would a wall need to be built to stop the English from stepping over the border to Scotland?
These are the questions that led to the the novel I am currently working on, with the aptly-named title ‘The Wall’.
Little did I know that John Lancaster was already in the process of publishing a dystopian novel of the same title, so I was a little gutted to walk into Waterstones a few weeks back, and to see my own title sitting there – glaring back at me!
Still, John Lancaster is already an established author, with published work to his name. Surely, the readers out there will want to see something new form somebody getting on a bit – won’t they?
I decide that to purchase Lancaster’s book would be a very bad idea. Why be put off by the competition?
I buy it there and then!
And now?
Now, it is on my every-mounting pile of books-to-be-read! It can’t possibly be anything like my book, so I’m going to read it when I’ve finished writing my own work of wonder.
But, just in case, I’ve now got you interested in it – not being a self-centred sort of a narcissist – I’ve included a link to Waterstones for you. By all means, buy the Lancaster, as I did, but …
DO NOT READ IT, UNTIL YOU’VE TAKEN THE TIME TO GIVE ME SOME FEEDBACK ON MINE!!!!
Copyright owned by Jay Cool, 12th October, 2019
Chapter 1 – The Half-Girlfriend
And here, in the now, I present my present self to my self still to come.
And here, in the now, I present my self still to come to my present self.
Myself is the only present that I will ever require.
Precious.
Copyright owned by Jay Cool, October 2019
Image by fancycrave1 from Pixabay
Spiralling around the loop and going down it
is nothing
as long as you can thread yourself out
of it
again and
again and
again – until
your head pops up for The Bite!
Copyright owned by Jay Cool, October 2019
Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay
A response to an article suggesting that staff at the BBC were told not to back Naga Munchetty, following viewer’s complaints about her jibe at Trump’s racist remarks.
Do not talk to her. And do not discuss her disgust
with the dissing. You must not disagree,
disobey, or disappoint, unless you too
want to be
dissed
and
dismissed.
The Silly-Savvy Salopian in Suffolk: read, believe and write ... 