Comments for Cityread London

Comment on Do You Want to Read the Truth? Aoife Mannix on Sebastian Faulks’s A Week in December: Chapter Three, Part Three by disqus_BQyH8371hX

disqus_BQyH8371hX — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 18:45:00 +0000

Exaggeration creates a satirical effect, but for me, there are rarely those flashes of wit that lighten the darkness of the novel. The novel’s exaggerations also include the extreme lengths characters go to in pursuit of their goals. This creates a dark effect in the novel, where the majority of characters seem to act out of self interest and the minority behave altruistically.

Comment on Do You Want to Read the Truth? Aoife Mannix on Sebastian Faulks’s A Week in December: Chapter Three, Part Three by Sarah Parker

Sarah Parker — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 12:51:00 +0000

Thank you for your comments! I agree, the characters do verge on two dimensionality, but lots of the novel’s exaggerations do have the ring of truth to them too. I suppose this is partly what makes the novel satirical – what do you think?

Comment on Do You Want to Read the Truth? Aoife Mannix on Sebastian Faulks’s A Week in December: Chapter Three, Part Three by disqus_BQyH8371hX

disqus_BQyH8371hX — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 21:37:00 +0000

The truth of a novel might lie in its realism. It might convince me that a world I might never have encountered is credible, or the characters are convincing. In this novel, though I found the characters rather two dimensional, I was impressed by the author’s detailed knowledge in describing their different backgrounds. Another kind of truth I enjoy is satire or irony.

Comment on A Week in December: Online Reading Group by Codeface HQ

Codeface HQ — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 10:21:00 +0000

This is a test from Richard….please delete me

Comment on Who Would You Invite To Dinner? Aoife Mannix on Sebastian Faulks’s A Week in December: Chapter One, Sunday, December 16 by Barbara Saunders

Barbara Saunders — Sun, 13 Jan 2013 15:27:52 +0000

I’d choose the jailed members of Pussy Riot so they could escape and have a decent meal – I thought their performance – and the words – in the cathedral was brilliant.

As for callous indifference towards suicide, I was in the Paris Metro when a poor man slashed his wrists. I was so shocked that no one stopped to help him that although I was only 17 I asked him to give me the knife he was still holding. (He didn’t though.) Eventually a few Canadian tourists came up too and were much more practical with their help.

Comment on Dickens and Dawkins – a guest blog post by writer James Benmore by Trish MacKinnon

Trish MacKinnon — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 19:55:35 +0000

Well having read this excellent piece I must jump on Amazon and order “Dodger” by James Benmore in advance of the New Year 2013 before it shows up as “Sold out”!

Comment on How Hard Is It To Keep Track? Aoife Mannix on reading on the tube by Natalie Harmer

Natalie Harmer — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 10:40:16 +0000

Mills and Boon title – Bond Street Lover

Comment on How Hard Is It To Keep Track? Aoife Mannix on reading on the tube by annette

annette — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 09:32:18 +0000

I’ve always wanted to write a personification of different tube stops. Elephant & Castle (rough round the edges with a good heart); Morden (reserved, removed, softly spoken); Camden (fidgety, restless); Vauxhall (upbeat, distracted). I could go on…

Comment on Does Dickens glamorise crime in Oliver Twist? – Aoife Mannix responding to our online book group discussion by Liz

Liz — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 09:48:02 +0000

I agree with the above comment. Television and movies have glamorised almost everyhitng about Oliver Twist. Reading the book is like being thrown back in time into a world of poverty and desperate living that was a lot of peoples’ reality.

Charles Dickens writes about a world where criminality is taken for granted by all socio economic classes. I dont know about Dickens being funny but I would say there is a lot of sarcasm in his writing due to having seen and experienced being in the poor house and living from hand to mouth.

Oliver Twist is written with a sense of desperation that people understand what it is to be truly poor – something that a lot of people today could benefit from understanding. Dickens doesnt try to create a happy ending ususally with his stories…he tends to stick to a more real ending that real and ordinary people experience. Oliver Twist is one occassion where a young boy has a future to look forward to – something that a lot of youngsters didnt have back then.

I think that because Dickens himself survived poverty during this time that he felt it to be supportable to give his main character a future.

I enjoyed Oliver Twist and recommend to every reader

Comment on Oliver Twist, or, the Parish Boy’s Progress: What kind of book does this title encourage us to expect? What kind of hero does it offer? by Felicity Page

Felicity Page — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 10:11:54 +0000

This is a subtle point – I just laughed inwardly when I read this paragraph about Oliver’s birth, thinking that Dickens was being sly and poking fun at muddling adults. He also gives us a hint of Oliver’s character and determination at a very early stage in his life – the very first stage – as a sign that he will be a survivor, not like many poor children in Dickens’ novels who die at an early age, overswhelmed by their unfortunate circumstances and the indifference of the adults around them. The mid- wife is not misty eyed at the miracle of life as one might expect, but by over indulgance of beer – and she is a key to his identity, as we later discover, so a very important character in his life.