Sundog Rising!
Reflections on living the life literary by the Urban Sundog
I am blessed by two divine madnesses.
Fortunately, my Hypergraphia is balanced by my Hyperlexia. Thus my compulsive need to write does not overpower my every waking moment, thrusting me into true mania, since I also have to give in to my equally compulsive need to read. Any given week, on the average, I write 50 pages and read slightly more than 2 books.
Then there’s the time I spend thinking about writing. And thinking about reading. Some of which pondering I will now begin to share on an irregular basis through this blog.
I could start off with any one of numerous rants concerning matters that annoy me to do with pursuing a primarily literary life. But I must be honest -- the satisfactions have always far outweighed the frustrations. So let’s be positive. Here’s a short review of
THE BEST BOOK I READ THIS SUMMER!
Without question: Summertime, All The Cats Are Bored, by Philippe Georget, translated from the French by Steven Rendall, translation copyright 2013 by Europa Editions.
What makes it a great summer read? First off, it’s set on the French Riviera, in the summer, where it’s hot. Really hot. Really, really hot. Right on the Mediterranean. The photograph on the cover of my edition of the girl in the bikini reading on the beach has got nothing to do with the plot, but she certainly sets the tone.
Second, it’s long. But doable, even for a non-reader. 429 pages. A good substantial summer read, as summer reads should be. A book worth lingering over, in its heft, type setting, and page quality. Don’t read this one on your I-Pad. If someone sees you reading a book on the beach in the summertime, it should look real.
Third, it has a brilliant plot. A clever mystery. Which I will not give away any spoiler details of here.
Fourth, it has an utterly appealing, human, intelligent and emotionally sensible central character. Yes, Gilles Sebag is a cop, a mystery solver, a particularly clever mystery solver, but his private life and reflections take us into an honest man’s life and the challenges of mundane living as well as the need to rescue the damsel from the villain.
Fifth, the villain. Least said the better, of course. I really don’t want to give away any spoilers. But a challenging villain, worthy of our man Sebag.
And sixth, and most important, Philippe Georget is a mystery writer who doesn’t just create a great mystery and then give it all away with a bad ending. As too many mystery writers do because they’re better at thinking up conflicts than conclusions. The conclusion to Summertime is satisfying in every way. On the level of genre expectations and also on the level where Georget transcends the style. A mystery plus. Not to mention the point where you suddenly realize the significance of Cats in the title.
Oh forget it. If you haven’t read it, don’t wait until next summer! Get it now, turn up the heat, put on a bathing suit, pour yourself some sangria, sit under a sun lamp and pretend you’re sitting on a sun-drenched beach in the middle of January if you have to. It’s worth enjoying any time. But best of all with a little sand between your toes.
Check out a brief bio of Philippe Georget at http://www.europaeditions.co.uk/author/georget-philippe
*****
I’m not going to do something like this blog without shamelessly directing you to my own stuff. The ongoing saga that is Reality Fiction has reached Episode Ten of the Second Series, starting this Friday, September 22nd at realficone.blogspot.ca.
And what is Reality Fiction, you may well ask?
Simple. The concept of the Reality Television Elimination Contest translated to the printed page. 40 characters from my backlog of generally unpublished material are gathered together to compete in a different theme each Episode, with one or two characters being eliminated each sequence until there are only two left to fight it out in the final. The winner gets a short novel of their own as the grand prize.
But somehow, things always seem to go horribly wrong ...
A brief recap of the themes treated so far in Series Two: The Oddball Edition includes:
EPISODE ONE: STEAMPUNK
EPISODE TWO: FRENCH BEDROOM FARCE
EPISODE THREE: NUDIST
EPISODE FOUR: SELF HELP
EPISODE FIVE: MASQUERADE
EPISODE SIX: SUBMISSION
EPISODE SEVEN: THE JAZZ AGE
EPISODE EIGHT: JANE AUSTEN ROMANCE
and
EPISODE NINE: WRESTLING
Twenty-one Episodes to go! It’s never too late to jump on board! All past Episodes of Reality Fiction Too! and all of Reality Fiction: Series One are still archived at the Urban Sundog’s realficone.blogspot.ca Internet presence. Put a little Reality into your virtual life today.
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