Category: literary fiction

Three Letters and A Broken Engagement (Oh, Fanny!: A Mansfield Park Variation Book 1)

“An engaged woman is always more agreeable than a disengaged. She is satisfied with herself. Her cares are over, and she may exert all her powers of pleasing without suspicion. All is safe with a lady engaged; no harm can be done” – Mansfield Park, Jane Austen.

But once the engagement be broken?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0968SYMHS

The girl must have lost her wits – had lost them, indeed. That was proven, by her rejection of such an excellent, undeservedly excellent parti as Edmund Bertram. Mrs Norris nodded to herself decisively, the fresh brisk breeze blowing colour into her pendulous cheeks. – Three Letters & A Broken Engagement (Volume 1 of Oh, Fanny!: A Mansfield Park Variation by Alex Ankarr.

What I’ve been reviewing – The Realms of Gold by Margaret Drabble

The Realms of GoldThe Realms of Gold by Margaret Drabble

My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Mimsy Hampstead-liberal wandering aimless fluff. And I use the word ‘fluff’ advisedly, as one who has no idea of the Goodreads policy on effing and jeffing. Drabble actually goes in for some meta idiocy at points, admitting she’s making it up as she goes along, has changed her mind about some plot points and doesn’t know what she’s doing. Tip: DON’T DO THAT.

If you’re still going to read it, I have no idea what to say to you.

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Poem: …star corsage

 

19774605713_d4e2cbeb2c_b

a bouquet of roses,

of diamonds and baby’s breath

a few stars thrown in

to confuse over scale

and Satan peering from a black black hole

deep, deep, deep in the vase

a bouquet of roses

roses, foxes and diamonds

diamonds and baby’s breath

breath, and a few stars

the scale is confused

and Satan’s in there too

peeping out a black hole

gravity in the vase

down deep, deep

© Copyright Alex Ankarr 2017

Image – Vaughan’s Seed Company; Henry G. Gilbert Nursery and Seed Trade Catalog Collection, no known copyright restrictions.

What I’m reading – ‘Souls In The Great Machine’ by Sean McMullen

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I’m on page 26 of 608 of Souls in the Great Machine by Sean McMullen: currently loving the mysterious ‘Call’. And Lemorel! She’s a scary lady! Joyful and amazing so far.
image – William Chang https://www.flickr.com/photos/misterwilliam/ licence https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

Poem: …star corsage

 

19774605713_d4e2cbeb2c_b

a bouquet of roses,

of diamonds and baby’s breath

a few stars thrown in

to confuse over scale

and Satan peering from a black black hole

deep, deep, deep in the vase

a bouquet of roses

roses, foxes and diamonds

diamonds and baby’s breath

breath, and a few stars

the scale is confused

and Satan’s in there too

peeping out a black hole

gravity in the vase

down deep, deep

© Copyright Alex Ankarr 2017

Image – Vaughan’s Seed Company; Henry G. Gilbert Nursery and Seed Trade Catalog Collection, no known copyright restrictions.

What I’ve been reading – Aerodynamics of Pork by Patrick Gale

Aerodynamics of PorkAerodynamics of Pork by Patrick Gale

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read this book so very long ago that it’s probably hardly fair to review it, really. I will say that I loved it at the time, and I’m interested to discover now from other reviews that it was intended as a subversion of the traditional romance novel. A little irony there, because the gay relationship struck me as the very essence of Harlequin, barring the homosexuality.

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What I’ve been reading – Black Coffee Blues by Henry Rollins

Black Coffee BluesBlack Coffee Blues by Henry Rollins

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Oh, Henry. The ladies love ya. The dweebs wanna be ya. All you need is a Nudie suit, cowboy boots and some lounge-singer crooning lessons, you could rip up Las Vegas!

I can’t be objective about Henry, and I have no idea about the artistic merit of this book at this point. It’s just Henry, and Henry has been part of my life too long not to love it.

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