One long hot bath, and two books finished. Not, I hasten to add, from end to end - it wasn’t that long a bath. I have a terrible habit of reading several books in parallel. This evening saw the end of the fourth Tales Of The City book, Babycakes, and also The Leaky Establishment, by David Langford.
A conversation on IRC about a month ago regarding the internationally-agreed slant-eyed temptress scale prompted me to get myself a copy of Leaky - a book I haven’t read in around 14 years, but which made quite an impression on me. Very good parody of the workings of the civil service, and of scientific research establishments. Blimey, 14 years.
I don’t think I’ve mentioned them here, but the series of Tales Of The City books, to which Babycakes belongs, is a fine diversion. I read the first three in the space of a week while in a sort of low spell a few weeks ago. The crazy freedom of San Francisco in the 70s that fills the first couple of books has been replaced with a sort of hangover in the 80s, but the characters are all still strong, and the story trots along nicely. The good news is that there are still two more to go too.
on Jul 8th, 2003 at 5:06 pm
Ah, Leaky. Instructive after reading it is to find his _Silence of the Langford_, where he reveals just how much of it is based on the reality of AWE Aldermaston (all of it, except fortunately the make-your-own reactor stuff), and some other amazing things like the great Radiation Detector Van (like a TV detector van, but more scary).
I keep meaning to read the Tales of the City books - I remember seeing at least one of them televised. They’re the ones which (being written over the course of years) revealed just how devastating AIDS was to the san fransisco gay community, right?
on Jul 8th, 2003 at 5:13 pm
Aha. I’ll look out for the Langford book then (currently not available through amazon).
Yes, there is a thread of lost innocence running through the TOTC books, both economic 80s hardness and AIDS change the people to varying degrees. It’s definitely worth a look, and a real page-turner too. I read most of the 5th one last night in one sitting.