Sweet, slow and absorbing
I’m not normally a fan of Julian Barnes – finding him a ‘clever’ writer, but without much 
heart, so that I get a bit tired by his erudition, and don’t engage with his characters.
This was a very different experience (I’m sure partly helped by the fact that Conan Doyle is an interesting, and complex character) The book follows the case of a second generation immigrant, George Edjali, a solicitor, victim of a series of anonymous letters, who ended up being wrongfully accused of crimes – mis-assumptions made on the grounds of his race. (Almost a sort of parochial English lower-key Dreyfus scenario)
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The author of Sherlock Holmes involved himself in the case
George Edalji
I felt a depressing sense that things have not changed as much as they should, as far as intrinsic racism is concerned, and the wilful assumptions made at that time purely because of George Edalji’s colour have continuing parallels.
Barnes’ structures Doyle’s unravelling of the case rather like a Sherlock Holmes story, and this is delicious.
There is also a lovely illustration of the idiocy of racial stereotypes in that the dour Scot (Doyle) is actually a very volatile character – and, moreover, drawn to the mystical and metaphysical whilst the supposedly excitable Parsee is phlegmatic, controlled and rational, and rejects the esoteric practices of spiritualism – though unfortunately his lack of expressed volatility is then further used against him by a society determined to damn him however he expresses himself.
I might now go back to earlier Barnes’ books and see if the heart in this can carry me 
through them!
Lady Fancifull 
I liked this one too, though it’s years ago that I read it and as always my memory has faded. But I’m afraid after the sheer self-indulgence of his last effort, ‘Levels of Life’, it’ll be a long time before I feel like reading another. Fortunately, I doubt that means I’ll run out of books any time soon…
Ah I remember you turning into a firebreathing dragon of extreme irritability over that one. This is still the only JB I have got on with. I do keep meaning to try him again with something else to see if my sensibilities have altered, but so far, A and G is the only JB that I think ‘must read that again some day’
And here we have the value of doing reviews – as I dredged up my old Amazon review of this, it helped me remember it!
Yes, I read this one long before I started reviewing. The reviewing certainly helps me to remember fiction, but not crime often, oddly, and very sadly not factual. I’d need to write much longer reviews on factual books for it to really help, I think, but then who’d want to read them? Not me, that’s for sure! 😉
You review your crimes, and then can’t remember them?? No that’s SCARY.
At least that means with the crimes you could, if a book (or the crime) was that good, read it again, and be surprised all over again to find whodunnit.
I SO envy and admire those people who hold facts. My memory is facile and short term – always has been – the sort of person who could cram hard for exams and get high marks but a few weeks later, the precise facts had all seeped away – my memory is emotional/visceral more than anything else , and I wonder – from your remarks above, whether yours is similar – remembering lit fic because of remembering the mood, sense, flavour, being of well written character? It’s like remembering a person and their history – because of remembering how you respond to them? Well, that’s my theory guv.
I think you’re right. If anyone ever wants to have a well-informed discussion with me about facts, they’d need to do it within a couple of weeks of me reading the book. Like with fiction, I remember whether I enjoyed the book or if it made me angry, bored, irritated etc, but sadly, the facts dissolve like dew on a summer morn! And with crime, it’s more disposable – I don’t invest too much in it in terms of thought, so don’t get too much back except for instant gratification.
But if fiction makes me either love it or hate it, chances are I’ll remember the book fairly well and the emotions very well.A 3-star read will fade pretty quickly though…
Yep, complete agreement there. Emotional memory like an elephant. Factual memory like a gadfly. In fact, the gadfly’s is probably better
Have you read The Sense of an Ending? I enjoyed that one very much.
No – maybe I should squeeze space in the TBR pile!
Please feel no pressure. I’d hate to send you over the edge. BTW, I weeded the bookshelves yesterday. I feel several hundred pounds lighter.
Whereas I, with 10 minutes to spare waiting for a friend to pick me up from the station as I was out of town visiting for the day, popped in to the station bookshop. Tsk. It is fatal to browse just to get out of the cold…………I came away with a book about maps and a book looking at various key events in British history. Sigh. The weeded bookshelves will become a temptation waiting to be filled Jilanne!
I think books are a fine excuse to get out of the weather. But am surprised you only purchased two. Perhaps you only had a minute?
Ah, it was a STATION newspaper bookshop, so I was relieved to ONLY see 2 books of any interest to me at all – they just sell the top sellers in various catagories, so i guess these 2 were probably the top non-fiction sellers. The fiction was all either stuff i had already read or stuff which didn’t grab me. Otherwise, a proper bookshop and I would have needed to buy a little wheeled trolley to get me home with my swag!
Arthur and George sounds like something I would like. Julian Barnes may just be my next ‘best friend’. We’ll see what the Researcher side of me reveals. Thanks.
Hope you enjoy it.