| Author |
Message |
    
Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony
Registered: 03-2008
| | Posted on Thursday, September 29, 2016 - 03:13 pm: | |
I've just started reading this again for the first time in over thirty years and have to say - of course - that it now feels like a different book. My key memory of the book was of the astral projection moment, the big one early one. It stuck in my mind as this bold, exhilarating scene, and while it still is I've also come to appreciate the prose, the lives of Bill and Rose, the frequent debates on cinema (which I found fascinating) and that favourite topic of mine, belief versus skepticism. Also, I'd never really paid any attention to just how warm a writer Ramsey is - little throwaway lines like 'he held her like a rediscovered lost treasure' really catch in your chest. And, Goddammit, every paragraph has a stick-in-the-mind image. It's just so immersive it's more like being IN a film, watching it unfold,/than reading. The words disappear. A wonderful read - I have neglected Ramsey too long, and am so glad to be back. |
Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony
Registered: 03-2008
| | Posted on Friday, September 30, 2016 - 01:00 pm: | |
Argh! Nazis! Hitler! I hope they don't stay in it! |
Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig
Registered: 03-2008
| | Posted on Sunday, October 02, 2016 - 09:13 pm: | |
I've so long been meaning to re-read The Parasite myself, Tony - it's the novel I remember, at least, the most fondly. Gosh... was it really that long ago, I was sitting in that college library, devouring those pages?... Makes me sad to think how long ago that was, it sure doesn't feel it.  I thought, at the time, it was one of the finest horror novels I'd ever read. I think I still would, upon a revisit. I really must read some horror this month; maybe this will be the one....
You've posted in Reading Group, Tony - are you hinting at you'd like to get some kind of group read together?  |
Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony
Registered: 03-2008
| | Posted on Monday, October 03, 2016 - 02:22 pm: | |
I have to say I'm struggling with it now. The density of imagery was great initially because it set the tone, but now it's become intrusive. And it feels, halfway, that we are stuck in a gear change. It's made me sad to admit it.
I wouldn't mind reading something together. Any ideas? |
Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig
Registered: 03-2008
| | Posted on Monday, October 03, 2016 - 04:33 pm: | |
I'm sorry to hear that, Tony. Maybe I'll let the book sit in storage for the time being....
I would be open to pretty much anything... maybe horror related, it being October? Something neither of us have read before, perhaps, or not in a long time? Do you have anything in mind? Stevie? Anyone?.... |
Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony
Registered: 03-2008
| | Posted on Tuesday, October 04, 2016 - 12:15 am: | |
I did but House on Nazareth Hill recently, which I've never read.
Btw yesterday I bought a book called The Story of Ruth and started it today. What's shocked me is it came out the same year as Parasite, and is the true story of a woman who had been sexually abused as a child, by her father, but who is now being visited in her room by an apparition of herhim. It's so like Parasite it's almost frightening, but the form of a psychiatrist's report really makes the story stronger. |
Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony
Registered: 03-2008
| | Posted on Tuesday, October 04, 2016 - 08:10 am: | |
BUY, not BUT! |
Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony
Registered: 03-2008
| | Posted on Tuesday, October 04, 2016 - 08:12 am: | |
HIM, not HERHIM!!! We never had this before spellchecker... |
Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony
Registered: 03-2008
| | Posted on Thursday, October 06, 2016 - 08:32 am: | |
I stopped reading Parasite. |
Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony
Registered: 03-2008
| | Posted on Thursday, October 06, 2016 - 04:13 pm: | |
-and started reading Nazareth Hill. Now...I've done something I have done a few times, and skipped the prologue. I've come to realise I don't like prologues, which for me resemble the ENDING of a book, the part you want to build up to. I see it a little like being told what the wrapped up present you're being handed is, and if you don't like the sound of it immediately why go on? |
Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig
Registered: 03-2008
| | Posted on Friday, October 07, 2016 - 05:23 pm: | |
Huh. I never thought about skipping prologues, but you know, it makes sense. Though I guess it depends on the book.
I'm kind of sad about your assessment of Parasite. I really was having that as the Ramsey book I'd return to when I returned to Ramsey... but I do think I'll opt for something brand new (to me) instead. |
Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony
Registered: 03-2008
| | Posted on Saturday, October 08, 2016 - 01:52 am: | |
Reading Nazareth Hhill still and a little sad to find so many characters speaking in the same kind of voice. It makes telling them apart difficult sometimes. Also, Ramsey then had a habit of ushering the threat of weirdness and horror into almost every sentence, as if he were scared we'd forget which kind of book we were reading. It's getting me down picking up on things like this - it's making me feel like I'm tearing up my teenhood. |
Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony
Registered: 03-2008
| | Posted on Saturday, October 08, 2016 - 01:54 am: | |
And yet, I'm still reading. |
Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig
Registered: 03-2008
| | Posted on Saturday, October 08, 2016 - 05:16 pm: | |
I always thought Ramsey was at his best in his short stories, Tony. But with sustained suspense-horror, he excelled in his novel Night of the Claw. It's a hard read, because it's so relentlessly dark... but it's a great one. Have you read that before? |
Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony
Registered: 03-2008
| | Posted on Tuesday, October 11, 2016 - 12:29 pm: | |
Stopped reading Nazareth Hill. |
Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony
Registered: 03-2008
| | Posted on Tuesday, October 11, 2016 - 12:33 pm: | |
I haven't, Craig. This has all made me incredibly sad. I think my best memories of Ramsey ARE the shorts. They still glow in my memories, especially Dark Companions and Ghosts and Grisly Things. |
Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig
Registered: 03-2008
| | Posted on Thursday, October 13, 2016 - 09:12 pm: | |
Those are too my best memories, Tony, especially Dark Companions. Gosh... I do so remember that book fondly, and I sadly lost my copy so long ago. Strange how the books I tend to remember the most fondly in my memory, I for one reason or another don't own, or don't have near around me.... |
Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony
Registered: 03-2008
| | Posted on Wednesday, October 19, 2016 - 02:57 pm: | |
I think our favourite authors, we are not meant to know them. I hope Ramsey never sees my thoughts above. |