I’ve decided to give into the inevitable and make the theme of this week’s post politics. *sigh* But unfortunately it is what dominates just about everything at the moment. I went to a lecture last week which was supposed to be about The Merchant of Venice, but turned out to be about tolerance, accessibility of the arts and the power of the humanities to understand nuance, subtlety and multiple viewpoints and how this is needed now more than ever. The speaker was genius American academic Stephen Greenblatt who I’ve seen before but he’s never made me blub like a baby (my friend was also a total mess, I’m hoping he’s short-sighted and didn’t notice). The previous week I went to a talk about nineteenth-century European theatre, which included a determined assertion from a British playwright that he too was a European writer (cue cheers from the audience, I’m guessing there weren’t many Brexiteers present). Unfortunately at the moment, all roads seem to lead back to the horror show we’ve found ourselves in. In the words of Cher:
(Note to my brother: Cher is AWESOME. Accept that I am right on this.)
So, two novels about politics. Firstly, Look Who’s Back by Timur Vermes (2012, trans. Jamie Bulloch 2014), a satiricial novel which looks at what would happen if Hitler woke up in 2011 Berlin. Naturally there is fun to be had at his misunderstanding over modern life:
“ ‘But I still don’t recall seeing you anywhere, Have you a card? Any flyers?’
‘Don’t talk to me about the Luftwaffe,’ I said sadly. ‘In the end they were a complete failure.’”
And there is also poking fun at the self-aggrandizing former Fuhrer:
“Now my razor-sharp gaze pierced the darkness between a jar of bulls-eyes and one of sugar drops, where the bright light of the moon soberly illuminated my brainwave like an icy torch.”
But the bulk of Vermes’ satire is reserved for modern society, for this Hitler becomes a star. He appears on an alternative comedy programme and his rants become huge hits on YouTube. People think he is satirising Hitler and yet this means Hitler’s rhetoric is once again endorsed by the masses. Vermes challenges what we laugh at and why, and the unquestioning nature of modern media. As Hitler becomes more popular, it is so easy to see how he, or someone like him, could rise again, and also that some of what happened has never gone away.
“It still remains a mystery to me why that relationship never worked. How many more bombs would we have to drop on their cities before they realised that they were our friend?”
Satire is a demanding form and Vermes is not entirely successful. Look Who’s Back is a bit overlong and flags in places. Considering it’s about a fascist despot it all feels a bit too restrained at times and the plot doesn’t really develop beyond the original premise. But still a worthwhile read, and – in terms of showing how easily an insane media personality can achieve real power *cough* – a little bit terrifying too.
Secondly, The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst, which won the Booker in 2004. Set in 1983, 1986 and 1987, Maggie Thatcher’s government is systematically destroying Britain to extent from which it will never fully recover elected by overwhelming majorities and Nick Guest is down from Oxford to stay with his friend Toby’s family, headed by an ambitious Conservative MP, Gerald Fedden.
“Gerald was a knowing, self-confident speaker, trained at the Oxford Union, polished at innumerable board meetings, and his tone combined candour and insincerity to oddly charming effect.”
The ruling class, ladies and gentleman.
Nick is from an ordinary family and grew up in an ordinary town. He has a strong aesthetic sensibility and is carried away by the glamour of the Fedden’s money and power, and ability to surround themselves with beautiful things.
“Nick felt he had been swept to the brink of some new promise, a scented vista of the night, and then held there.”
Nick is also gay, and the story is about his sexual development within a backdrop of thinly disguised homophobia and fear of AIDS, which cut a swathe through the gay community during the decade.
“It wasn’t their fault they didn’t know – Nick couldn’t tell them things, and so everything he said and did took on the nature of a surprise, big or little but somehow never benign, since they were the aftershocks of the original surprise, that he was, as his mother said, a whatsit.”
Despite being a fairly long novel (501 pages in my edition), The Line of Beauty is not overly plot-heavy. Nick stays with the Feddens and struggles for a sense of purpose beyond pursuit of various lovers, Gerald gets elected MP and enjoys his life of extraordinary privilege, and the 80s rumble on with cocaine fuelling a deregulated City. The novel is a mix of pithy attacks on political elites and the shallowness of relentless acquisition, whether of power, money or the next high:
“Gerald had still not received the accolade of a Spitting image puppet in his likeness, but it was one of his main hopes for the new Parliament.”
And a broader, more melancholy consideration of love and loss. The descriptions of the characters who succumb to AIDS are truly moving, and unexpected in this novel populated by self-interested self-promoters.
“He commanded attention now by pity and respect as he once had by beauty and charm.”
Like Look Who’s Back, I felt The Line of Beauty was overlong, and not the strongest Booker winner there’s been, but at the same time the characters were recognisable and fully realised, the 80s were brilliantly evoked in all their horror, and Hollinghurst is capable of writing truly stunning passages:
“He caught the beautiful rawness of those days again, the life of instinct opening in front of him, the pleasure of the streets and London itself unfolding in the autumn chill; everything tingling with newness and risk, glitter and frost and glow of body heat, the shock of finding and holding what he wanted among millions of strangers.”
To end, despite the horrific politics of the time, I’m finding 80s YouTube videos a good respite from all the madness of the world at the moment (as you may have gathered from the one at the start where Cher wears a costume made of black dental floss and sits astride a giant canon – what’s not to love?) Here is another one I employ to great effect, but a word of warning: I am a hardened user of 80s pop-culture. If this is one of your first forays, you might want to ease yourself in by watching Wham!’s Wake Me Up Before You Go Go video first, or else your eyes might start crying deely-boppers and mismatched fluorescent socks, or something. I’m not kidding – there’s a blouson leather dinner jacket at one point…
Like you, I felt The Line of Beauty was overlong – it could have done with some sharper editing. As you say though, Hollinghurst’s evocation of the period was excellent. I think he nailed the depiction of a certain milieu.
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I feel that way about so many books, Jacqui! I definitely felt I was back in the 80s though
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Gosh, that chap looks like a young Tom Cruise! I’d even be willing to put up with the dinner jacket… *swoons*
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Steady now… are you sure??? I think you could arrange for the dinner jacket to meet with an unfortunate accident 😉
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I find that much of the modern satires written in novel form are over-long but this one sure seems like the author spotted something before the rest of us.
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It did feel weirdly prescient a lot of the time!
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I’m not tempted by Look Who’s Back but I’ve had the Hollinghurts on my piles for ages.
I keep on postponing it because it’s so long. It’s rare that books need that kind of length. I heard many good things about it and what you write tempts me a lot.
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He is a great writer, so although it’s long it’s very readable. I totally agree that a lot of books have a length which isn’t warranted! I hope you enjoy it when you get to it 🙂
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No No I COVET that dinner jacket. The chap it is adorning looks pretty covetable as well. I’m kind of relieved to see FF and I have both gone for the same deep analysis of your post. My only worry is that she’ll say okay, fair’s fair, you can have the jacket, young Cruise is mine.
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I cannot believe there is fighting over that jacket 😀
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Well, Groucho was spot on, wasn’t he? I read “Look Who’s Back” and loved it, which worried me a little. It’s a very clever book, and terrifyingly accurate about modern society, the mess it’s in and how easily led people are. Scary stuff.
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Groucho was absolutely spot on, unfortunately. Look Who’s Back is truly terrifying. Reading it now I couldn’t believe how the satire was less ridiculous- more realistic – than ever before.
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Loving your 80s you-tube videos!
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They are brilliant aren’t they? Unfortunately it’s all too easy to fall down an 80s YouTube hole and wonder where the last few hours went…
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Yeah, it’s almost impossible to avoid politics, I am beginning to envy people in remote Alaskan shacks. And you’re right, Thatcher and the quick sell-off of everything set us up for this mess, and I can’t believe people are more willing to blame the EU than the decades of erroneous UK government policies.
And you can tell a lot about a person if they cannot resist climbing on tank at a military museum, or even an old cannon at a harbour or castle and bursting into a bit of Cher. That video is iconic!
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It baffles me that people are so quick to blame the powerless and/or foreigners for problems, rather than the powerful people at home who got us all into this mess 😦
You’re right – there’s something wrong if you don’t want to clamber all over weaponry to stage an 80s revival 😀
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Politics *sigh* I flicked through a copy of the Daily Mail last night as an anthropological experiment. (*disclaimer: it was during my first night shift in my new part time job as a homeless hostel warden. It happened to be there and I had 8 hours to kill). I knew it would be depressing, but somehow actually seeing the distorted news in real grubby print has left me feeling soul destroyed. The trouble with history is that, it equips you to predict the meltdown, but there’s nothing you can do to stop it when enough people choose to blithely ignore the warning signs.
I read ‘The Line of Beauty’ when it came out and can remember not one jot of it, even after reading your review, although I do remember enjoying the prose but found it a little long! lastly, I must thank you for those fab videos. I, too, have taken to self-medicating on 80s classic videos. If we take nothing else from the 80’s, ‘blouson’ and ‘leather’ should never be mixed.
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I really don’t think I could handle a copy of the Daily Mail right now. They are completely soul destroying, as you say. We do seem to be turning back to the dark days of history & it’s horrible to feel so powerless. I did feel a bit better after the Womens March though, at least I was with other people who felt the same rather than on my own yelling and hurling stuff at the news! On a brighter note – will night shifts give you plenty of reading time??
I do like Hollinghurst but TLOB was definitely too long…
80s classic videos are definitely effective self-medication, although if we start to find blouson leather acceptable, we’ll know the medication comes with side effects 😀
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Hurrah! You’ve picked two books this post that I actually have in my TBR stack. This is very good news indeed because instead of me reading your post and then adding to my TBR stack, this time I’ll read and reduce my TBR stack.
While I don’t love, love, love Cher I admire her resilience (and guts). I certainly liked her even more after recently reading Lola Bensky by Lily Brett (there’s lots of bits about Cher’s clothes and makeup).
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I hope you enjoy them! I love Cher, but she did say if Trump wins she’s leaving the planet, so I fear we may not see much more of her, unless they figure out a way for her to sing from within a space suit. I’ve not read Lola Bensky, so you’ve just added to my TBR!
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Didn’t know Cher had said that about Trump. I guess if anyone can find a way to sing from outer space it could be her (duets with Chris Hadfield??)
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That would be *amazing* 😀
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It’s nice when reading choices align to make fo interesting compare/contrast exercises. I’ve got the Hollinghurst on my stack, but I always seem to reach for skinnier reading options, unless I’ve made a particular point of a title for some reason.
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Me too – the books that have been longest in my TBR are definitely the more chunky ones. This year I’m trying to read more of them but the skinnies keep calling me back!
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