This piece is another work in translation from Bruce and Ju-Chan Fulton. A glimpse of another culture but the lesson or message is, I believe, universal.
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Tag: auld author
Auld Author
A slightly different take on the auld author recommendation from Tom Sheehan who has written about a personal experience as a connection with this poet
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Auld Author – A Bard of the Old School
Auld author – On the Beach by Nevil Shute
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.
The TS Eliot quotation is appropriate here. As time passes some books become better known for their film counterparts than as novels–as it is with Nevil Shute’s On the Beach. Yet despite some here and there details, the film remains faithful to the story.
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Auld Author – The Bad Place by Dean R Koontz- by Hugh Cron
Okay, this is a weird one.
I have a story about a story that has fuck all to do with the story.
Please bear with me.
I’d like to write about Dean R Koontz’s ‘The Bad Place’.
As I have said before, with any of these that I do, I want to tell you more why the book has stayed with me rather than all the technical stuff. I have read six or so of Mr Koontz’s books and have enjoyed them. He does have a tendency to use
children and dogs within his plots. (The dogs, I can forgive – Kids not so much!)
But this book stands out due to it being so random. Here comes the story within a story, well sort of. Years back I read something that stated Bobby Darin had said that he could write anything. Someone, a DJ, I think gave him the line ‘Splish Splash, I was taking a bath’ and well, we know the rest. The reason that I mention this is, I reckon (Wrongly, I might add!!) that Mr Koontz was bet that he couldn’t get these topics into a story.
Telekinesis.
Inter-Planetary travel.
Vampirism.
And hermaphroditism.
By fuck he did!
I give you ‘The Bad Place.’
What a bonkers but entertaining book!!
And I don’t want to spoil anything but I do need to give you one line.
When the MC knows that the evil guy was coming for him, he tried to warn his pal. They were both in a unit for Special Needs. He told his friend, ‘There’s a bad thing coming’ and the wee soul replied, ‘What, poached eggs?’
May sound like fuck all but it makes me laugh every-time I think on it!!
Koontz isn’t my favourite horror writer, I prefer King, Laymon and to me, the best ever, the late great James Herbert. But for something so inventive that, in my mind, has a link to Bobby Darin, I would suggest that you have a look at this book. It is by far, the most inventive book that I have ever read.
Hugh Cron
Three Miniatures by Hwang Sunwŏn
Translated from the Korean by Bruce and Ju-Chan Fulton
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Auld Author – The Physician by Noah Gordon by Diane
Just like most of our visitors and writers, I couldn’t even begin to count the number of books I’ve read. My first real favourite was Heidi, which I read over and over and from that point on I never stopped reading. I’ve read some brilliant works, and I have read some dross. I have this thing where I’ve started, so I’ll finish, but I am slowly weaning myself out of that mindset. There are only so many years in a life after all and too many good books.
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Auld Author – A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith – By Leila
“They learned no compassion from their own anguish. Thus their suffering was wasted.”
Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
There was a good film of the same name based on Betty Smith’s autobiographical novel, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, which came out shortly after the book was published in 1943. But as it went during the days of the Hays Code of “decency,” much of the book could not be filmed due to content that the movie people figured viewers would be offended by. This involved a wildly over-sexed female character, pedophiles, alcoholism, antisemitism, children pulled from school to work after sixth grade, suicide, racism and persevering only for the sake of survival, for no greater aim than to prolong the misery. Some of those topics (especially the gentle father’s self destruction via the bottle) were addressed passingly while others were let alone.
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Auld Author – The Bamboo Doctor by Stanley S. Pavillard by Diane
We often talk about getting lost in a book. It’s a beautiful idea. That someone’s prose is so convincing, so overwhelming that you lose touch with reality. One of my favourite authors of all time, the late great Sir Terry Pratchett, could make you believe. I was in awe of the Great A’Tuin, amused by the Unseen University and disgusted by the sluggish flow of the river Ankh through the capital city. But, much as I loved those books and the sites and sounds of the Discworld – how beautiful is the Rimfall?-I couldn’t honestly say I was lost in them.
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Auld Author – The Library Of The Dead by Glenn Cooper by Hugh Cron
As always, don’t expect an in-depth character review or story synopsis. I try, with these, to tell whoever wants to read, what has stayed with me and to a lesser extent, why.
I’m writing this review just after I’ve written the review for ‘The Bad Place’. This story is also a bit random and that is why it came to me. It is unique and very entertaining.
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literally stories 