Classic choices for the new year

We took a pragmatic approach to classics at last night's book group meeting at Maria's. We selected a new book in part based on its length, having quickly realised that Maria's copy of North and South by Elizabeth Gaskill looked very long (I checked afterwards and 448 pages is a couple of hundred too many in my view).  At the other extreme was Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton (on Radio 4 this week) which at a mere 102 pages is a much more attractive proposition. However, we ended up compromising on a novel which ticks lots of boxes: Scoop by Evelyn Waugh is a classic, a comic novel and at 228 pages long is of manageable length.  It also seems an appropriate read at the time of the Leveson Inquiry; will it reveal the 1930s Fleet Street equivalent of phone hacking?

Since, for reasons involving various exciting travel plans (envy) we cannot meet until the beginning of March, some of us might also try to read On The Road by Jack Kerouac (does anyone have a surname with more vowels in it I wonder, unless it is the Italian branch of the family?). A novel which pulses with 1950s America will be an interesting contrast to Evelyn Waugh.

We also discussed our Christmas reading which was an eclectic mix ranging from Death Comes to Pemberley by PD James (Maria) to Back From the Brink by Alastair Darling (me..... and perhaps why I'm suddenly interested in books with laughs). Sally recommended The Cat's Table by Michael Ondaatje and Alison enjoyed The Stranger's Child by Alan Hollinghurst (I agree; I thought it was excellent and a nice take on the whole business of literary criticism too).

Caroline spoke highly of The Song of Achilles, a first novel by America classics teacher Madelaine Miller which is a modern retelling of Homer's Illiad. It has been well reviewed. According to The Independent, which liked it saying it is not a pretentious book: "Brokeback Mountain sets sail for Troy. It has all this ... without being remotely trashy. It's an entirely successful piece of writing, sitting comfortably between literary and commercial fiction genres. It does what the best novels do – it transports you to another world – as well as doing something that few novels bother to: it makes you feel incredibly clever."  That has sold it to me....must add it to the pile by the bed. Incidentally, is there a classical or Homeric revival going on? Alice Oswald's Memorial (see the blog here: Books at my bedside) was shortlisted for the TS Elliot Poetry Prize although she has withdrawn it in protest at the sponsorship of a hedge fund (I don't know the details).

We meet again at Caroline's on Wednesday 14th March; some way off so plenty of time to attack the pile.