in which one of my favorite authors reminds me that he once had a sideline in being a totally pretentious fuckwit. the kind who makes a big deal of bein which one of my favorite authors reminds me that he once had a sideline in being a totally pretentious fuckwit. the kind who makes a big deal of being horrified about small-minded bourgeois entertainments, going on and on about it in articles published within various bourgeois magazines. this bizarrely circular and hypocritical side to him is in full flower within the 55 pages of this treatise on quote unquote The Novel. although basically a 1-star book, his over the top snobbery also makes me smile, and so I bestow upon thee an additional condescending star for being an amusement.
So far as societies go, save in the case of propagandist works of small literary merit, like Uncle Tom's Cabin, an immediate influence seems extremely rare: for in practical terms, did all Dickens's indignation and satire alter the inhumane tangle of English legal procedure in any essential way? Did Tolstoy convert any Russian government, Tsarist, or Marxist, to his pacifist views? Perhaps writers have a long-term, immeasurable effect on a people's social assumptions; but little more than that.
Oh, Colin. I mean, you're not wrong... but kinda missing the point too. Although I have actually left out the specific overriding point of this long essay: the only examples of true art are Poetry and Drama. He does allow that Balzac and Swift may also perhaps be considered art. But in general, per MacInnes, The Novel is simply bourgeois entertainment, its influence minimal, its days numbered, its hardcovers best enjoyed by suburbanites and its gaudy paperbacks best enjoyed by the plebian set (in which he amusingly puts himself). Such an atrocious perspective and also a shocking one, coming from an author's who is most known for his down to earth style and his love for human vitality.
to remind myself why exactly this guy is one of my favorite authors, I figured I'd do a little overview of his works.
June in Her Spring - 2 stars. A dreary slice of life set in the Australian middle and lower classes. Very well-written but the sour focus on small lives made smaller by closeted sexuality and bourgeois complacency made this an unpleasant experience.
City of Spades - 2 stars. When a liberal author decides to "humanize" black people by having a merry simpleton as a protagonist and decides to castigate white people by portraying them as cartoonish monsters, I can't help but be embarrassed by such liberals. But I also remember this being fun and of course well-written, despite being embarrassing.
Absolute Beginners - 5 stars. My first book by the author and one of my all-time favorite novels. The book is a dream come true and really spoke to me on a personal level. It felt like a reflection of my own life in my 20s.
Mr Love And Justice - 2 stars. I remember this being forgettable, LOL. Reread?
All Day Saturday - 3 stars. I remember enjoying this one. It had that earthy and deadpan quality when describing young adult lives that is very Colin MacInnes. Need to reread.
Three Years To Play - 5 stars. A wonderful book set in Elizabethan times and written in milieu-appropriate prose. Quite a feat and it still manages to be as joyful and vital and real as Absolute Beginners. This is buried treasure that really needs to be unearthed.
Out of the Garden - 4 stars. His last novel about upper class assholes manipulating lower class assholes is extremely experimental, extremely class-focused, extremely misanthropic. The mean-spirited sourness was, amazingly, not a turn-off for me. Clearly at this point in his storied career, the author just didn't care what anyone thought about his books and so MacInnes did MacInnes....more
"Well, mostly. A lot of it unattributed, so there's that too."
"Unreadable then?"
"Well, sorta. But no, it's readable. Just"So is it all dialogue then?"
"Well, mostly. A lot of it unattributed, so there's that too."
"Unreadable then?"
"Well, sorta. But no, it's readable. Just a certain kind of readable. This is the last novel that MacInnes wrote, and he wrote it with the confidence a person has when they know they're really good at something and the time for trying to make everyone satisfied is long over. It's pretty clear that he gave zero fucks about satisfying anyone's expectations."
"Sounds pretty self-indulgent."
"Oh, it is. That's part of what's so great about it. It's mainly dialogue, and not even particularly realistic dialogue - the kind of stylized dialogue you see on the stage. All of that dialogue is only sometimes broken up: a few times by these equally stylized letters two aristocrats are sending to each other, a long monologue about the English class system, and one bit about the background of a new-money immigrant who is pretty much the boss of the book."
"MacInnes sure loved writing about class systems."
"Don't all the English love it though? They're obsessed by it. But maybe they aren't anymore? I dunno, I haven't read many contemporary English novels. Are the last couple English generations over it?"
"Not sure why you're asking me, you should go out and make some English friends."
"I've always found them to be a little unapproachable... I'll be honest, when I'm traveling abroad, the English accent is up there with the American accent as a must-avoid for me. If I hear one coming near, I'll probably go the other way."
"Asshole!"
"Hey just being honest."
"Ok, an honest asshole. You should get a medal. And you haven't even told me what this English novel that is obsessed with the class system is actually all about."
"Well, coincidentally, it's about an asshole, this upper class English asshole, just out of the military, who takes advantage of his former subordinate, also just out of the military. He takes advantage of his whole family. It's sickening but fascinating. He has this stupid plan to renovate an inherited manor house as some kind of tourist trap that's really a cover for arms dealing, but he's a dilettante so he's not actually invested in anything, he's just trying to not be bored and to get his kicks. The only thing that he and this family have in common is that they both can't stand the middle class. And neither can the author. Oh and there's lots of talk about power and politics and of course class systems and there's sex, drugs, no rock 'n roll, and a pretty terrible tragedy, and then everyone just goes on with their lives. It made me mad and sad and it made me pretty disgusted with upper class types. Fucking parasites. They think they can get away with fucking anything!"
"Sounds like you're showing off your lower class upbringing. Don't be such a hater. Even upper class types have their reasons."
"Sure. Stupid, assholish reasons."
"Well it looks like this book was right up your alley then. Got you all angsty about the injustice of life and the inequities and the haves vs. have-nots. While still letting you sit back like a typical middle class type and contemplate it, stew on it, then get all angry and worked up, even though you're not living it. All that Facebook rant kinda stuff. Like reacting to something you've seen 'on the stage' - was it like Les Miserables for you? Ha! I bet you'd enjoy reading this book while 'traveling abroad', wouldn't you? Bougie fuck."
as a devout bisexual, I was excited to learn what Colin MacInnes and the year 1973 had to say about unicorns like me. although quite turned off by theas a devout bisexual, I was excited to learn what Colin MacInnes and the year 1973 had to say about unicorns like me. although quite turned off by the title - I would have preferred "Equally Irritated by Both" - the fact that the author is not only one of my favorites, but more importantly is also bi, helped turn my sneer into a leer. here's what I learned! or rather, here's what I learned about what Colin feels about bisexuals, and a lot of other things.
(1) This is 1973, so no mention of non-binary gender or third gender or any of that. Of course, third genders have been around since before Colin's country was even a country, but I'm not going to hold that against the book. And all that said, one of the things I did learn is that Colin MacInnes is a huge gender essentialist. Which I don't love? Eh, shrug. 1973!
(2) Colin feels that bisexual men tend to form deep, lasting relationships with a small number of women while having fun, free, sexually-based, but rather shallow relationships with a much larger number of men, usually on the side.
(3) Colin does not believe that homosexual relationships last; once they enter their "autumn" phase, "they partake invariably of a deal, a human arrangement 'for the best', and not of a relationship developing sexually in gravity and depth."
(4) Relationships and sex between men & women always include emotional drama; this rarely occurs in same-gender affairs. LOL, oh Colin I got some news for you.
(5) Homosexual men fall into 3 categories: "male homosexual men" (i.e. tops), "female homosexual men" (bottoms), and "bisexual homosexual men" (versatile).
[a] He thinks that male homosexual men "have often unattractive natures... They are inclined to be vicious, egotistical and self-satisfied; their particular form of 'maleness' consisting, precisely, in depriving another male of his." Not a very generous estimation! [b] Colin thinks that female homosexual men are often "a dreadful nuisance (chatter, chatter, chatter, and compulsory games)" but are also "jolly fellows on the whole, often witty in a sharp way, usually brave, because they have to be. Contrary to legend, they rarely dislike women." I found this to be a surprisingly nice and generous assessment. [c] And he thinks that bisexual homosexual men just move back & forth between the two personality types, depending on the company and whether or not they want to be fucked. Well ok then!
(6) Colin really likes to divide people up into categories.
(7) Bisexual men usually act like masculine tops but are apparently not evil. Whew!
(8) Colin doesn't spend a lot of time thinking about women.
(9) When he does think about straight women, he finds them to be mainly delightful. When he thinks about homosexual women, he finds them to be dour and depressing. He thinks they are dour and depressed because they can't have kids. Um, yikes.
(10) Colin may have some problems when it comes to women.
(11) Colin laughs at the idea that homosexual adults try to recruit teens into their ranks. When sexual relationships happen, these are love affairs not recruitment. He makes sure to divide that from pederasty, which I appreciated? Anyway, he is against pederasty and pro-sex education. I wonder if his tolerance for teen/adult love affairs is due to age of consent being 16 in UK. I think?
(12) Colin thinks that "handsome, well-adjusted" straight men don't mind having a homosexual around them, because most heterosexual men enjoy the flattery that will inevitably occur. I mean, he's not wrong? Colin also feels that if a flirty homosexual gets too obnoxious about it, a straight man can just give him a literal smackdown, and that will be that. I guess also not wrong, but can't say I loved that comment.
(13) If a woman is in a relationship with a bisexual man, it is best that she knows about it and either fully allows him to explore his "duality" by having side-guys, or at least looks the other way. Because...
(14) No male, bisexual or homosexual or heterosexual, is truly capable of monogamy.
(15) According to Colin, male prostitutes fall into two categories: "males looking for female homosexual men" and "female homosexual males looking for male homosexual men or bisexuals". Ok now I'm a little confused just typing that out. Of the first type, there are three subcategories:
[a] True Tops, and we know how Colin feels about them: vicious, sadistic, "rough trade" [b] Bisexuals who make it with female homosexual males and who fool themselves into thinking they are actually straight [c] Bogus Bisexuals who lead female homosexual males on and usually just end up sitting on the couch, hanging out at length drinking beer, probably shirtless, telling their traumatic life stories at such length that the poor homosexual finally hands some cash over to get rid of them. A sadly peen-less night for such homosexuals.
(16) People in the military are no more likely to be gay or bi than any other profession.
(17) In the Elizabethan times, people were both a lot more MALE and FEMALE, and also a lot more bisexual without worrying about it. The High Puritan age that followed destroyed this sexy joie de vivre that people once thought was normal.
(18) In England at least, the Upper Classes will do anything, they're depraved. The Lower-Middle Classes are all about sterile respectability. The True Middle Class are accepting of bisexuals and homosexuals but actually mistrust them, and are where the dreaded Anti-Homosexual Homosexual springs from.
The Working Class, when tolerant of bisexuals and homosexuals, are much more genuine: "it is not an intellectual, abstract toleration, prompted by a liberal sense of duty, but an actual one, on the shop floor, in the barrack room, in the boozer." Clearly, Colin has a fave class.
(19) Per Colin's extensive experience getting his dick sucked around the globe, he can also attest to the following:
- Greek & Arab cultures are heterosexual cultures above all, despite the fantasies of many homosexuals. - Unlike what many of his countrymen think, there is no specific African culture because this is a continent filled with many different countries and tribes that are very different from one another (I appreciated this). It is apparently very easy for a bisexual gent to find sex in Africa. - Carribean culture is bisexual, and Caribbeans blame white influence for the habit. - The less said about puritanical American culture, the better. Colin thinks that American gay bars are like voluntary slave markets. LOLOLOL - Communist countries are resolutely puritanical, even the supposedly revolutionary ones. - Japan is a bisexual country. - Europe is a mixed bag: Spaniards are uptight, Italians are free & easy bi-types, French homosexuals are segregated and French bisexuals keep quiet about it, Germany is a bisexual nation. - UK: the Irish are the most passionate and the least sensual people in Europe. The Scots are the most sloppily sensual but are "lacking in passion, for which they substitute sentimentality and wanton violence. When caught in the mood... they can be delightful lovers." Sounds like Colin had some good times in Scotland!
(20) Balzac is "the only novelist of major stature that the Western world has ever produced."...more
Aubrey - country-born, smart-mouthed, and 15 years of age - makes his way from the backwoods of Epping Forest to Londontown in 1598. There he will fulAubrey - country-born, smart-mouthed, and 15 years of age - makes his way from the backwoods of Epping Forest to Londontown in 1598. There he will fulfill his rather less than glorious destiny: he shall briefly become a "pander" - those honey-tongued serpents who lure naive country lasses into brothel work; he shall toil for two criminal houses - led by rival brothers; he shall marry and have a son with a fellow member of the criminal underclass - the redoubtable, sensible Jenny; he shall be a messenger for secretive religious fanatics - a lucrative albeit dangerous venture; and he shall befriend Shakespeare - and so develop a love for the theater, despite Jenny's objections that such things are for boys. All of this shall come to pass before he reaches 18.
Three Years To Play was a marvelous adventure and slice of life, warts and all. I doubt that most novels featuring a frank detailing of the life of a pander in the slums of London would ever be described as pleasant. And yet very pleasant it was. Breezy and merry, openhearted, and generous in its characterization, while never turning a blind eye to the dirtiness and deadliness of its time period... the book was a delight from start to finish. Aubrey and London during the turn of the 16th century really came alive. The book was a rich experience, and a sweet one, so I prolonged my reading of it for as long as possible. It is a book in love with living, and so I fell in love with it as well. The melancholy ending - mournful for those that have passed, and for the passing of time itself - was the bittersweet cherry on top. It is a new favorite and one of the very best books I've read all year.
I've been waiting for this book for a long while. Colin MacInnes' most famous book, Absolute Beginners, is an absolute favorite. Over the years I've been working my way through his titles, hoping to recapture that magic. My time in his oeuvre has been a mixed but mainly pleasant one, but it wasn't until Three Years to Play that I felt that same feeling: I was again reading a vibrant, charming, utterly realistic yet surprisingly hopeful story of a young person finding himself, reveling in the strange wonders of a new life in the big city, discovering the world's harsh realities, embracing difference, looking for adventure (and cash, and love), and always moving forward. I laughed a lot while Aubrey learned a lot; I shed tears in the end alongside him.
A few things that made the experience all the better: first, the bisexual MacInnes' inclusion of perhaps stereotypical queer characters who rise well above stereotype in the depth of their characterization; second, the slowly dawning realization that the plot of the story parallels one of Shakespeare's more famous comedies; third, the language. I can't oversell that third point because it really made the book a unique experience for me. Three Years To Play is written in the language of its time. I've read many of Shakespeare's plays, so I'm familiar with that language, but this is my first time seeing it so completely and successfully accomplished within a novel's format. This is a first person narrative so it is beyond the dialogue: Aubrey thinks in this language as well. The time MacInnes must have spent on perfecting this work blows my mind. Each sentence, each paragraph was worth savoring. As was the entire book!...more
Australia, the 1950s. June is 16, rich, and ready to fall in love. at the annual gymkhana, she finds that love:
"June wasn't listening again, becaus
Australia, the 1950s. June is 16, rich, and ready to fall in love. at the annual gymkhana, she finds that love:
"June wasn't listening again, because she was watching a different boy who'd come into the marquee, wearing white slacks and a tennis shirt and a look of such anxiety and blind determination that she wanted to know what it was he intended to do. He was tall and lean, his hair was mouse-coloured, and his body as much as his face gave an impression of useless, lonely haughtiness. He walked quickly about the marquee, but stopping to stand and stare, gazing angrily and longingly at the guzzling lunchers as if he yearned for them to recognize him but defied them to do so."
and so begins an awkward but almost immediately passionate romance between June and the 17 year old Benjamin.
based upon the strength of his classic Absolute Beginners - which is one of my absolutely adored favorite novels - i like to consider Colin MacInnes one of my favorite authors, and so over the years i've been slowly collecting and reading all of his works. i love his idiosyncratic writing style, his warmth and his verve, and i feel a real connection to both his curmudgeonly humanism and his open bisexuality. he's one of those authors i would have loved to have known.
June in Her Spring is his first work of fiction and, unfortunately, it shows. the novel does have plenty of strengths: it creates a vivid portrait of a particular time & place in Australia (with a first to me: snooty sheep farmers! huh); it includes many smart little snapshots of various supporting characters whose personalities and histories and aspirations are conveyed in the space of a few sentences; it captures that feeling of being young and wanting to live your dreams NOW NOW NOW; and it occasionally showcases MacInnes' skill at crafting prose and narratives that are loose, offbeat, herky-jerky, and tender yet tough-minded. the talent is clearly present - although at this point, not quite fully formed.
but the debits outweigh the credits. perhaps MacInnes was too close to his subject matter? June herself is often charming but also rather unpleasantly bland; Benjamin is occasionally sympathetic but for the most part he is a somewhat repugnant and unappealing character to be stuck with for the length of the novel. two key characters - June's feckless older brother and Benjamin's controlling guardian - are portrayed in such a repellent way that their every appearance gave me a feeling of nausea. but most egregiously of all is the distinctly hysterical take on - in the words of the back cover synopsis - "the heritage of madness and homosexuality which would destroy their innocent love". ugh! the hysteria just became too much for me, and when combined with a surprisingly sour and abrupt ending, i was left with a lot of irritation and dissatisfaction after reading the last page. ah well - can't win 'em all, i guess. sad sigh....more
City of Spades is the first novel in colin macinnes' once-celebrated "London Trilogy", a trio that has at its center Absolute Beginners, which is one City of Spades is the first novel in colin macinnes' once-celebrated "London Trilogy", a trio that has at its center Absolute Beginners, which is one of my favorite novels. City is a junior member of the series; perhaps because its portraits of white middle class folks' engagement with african culture is a simplistic one of easy parody of easy targets, or perhaps because its candide-like central character johnny fortune's wholehearted embracing of cultural stereotypes is by its very nature a discomfiting experience...or maybe because the urban patois that is rife throughout the novel comes across as dated or even reprehensible. there is always a certain discomfort when reading a white author's depiction of non-white culture; the reader almost holds their breath in anticipation of any noticeable condescension, lack of realism, or use of stereotype. for me, those were not problems with City; the problem was solely in the jokey characterization of the white characters. perhaps not the worst fault in the world, but i'm not a fan of easy targets in general.
writing this review reminds me of an aggravating GR review of The Giving Tree, in which the reviewer takes it upon himself to write the first third of the review in his own version of urban patois. there is so much wrong with a clearly intellectual white guy deciding to use slang in which he is not a fellow traveler and in which he is clearly not familiar, as a joke, to mock something or some people in a way that is neither credible nor speaks of any empathy towards folks who aren't himself - in a way that actually doesn't make a whole lot of sense. the joke becomes pointless, meaningless. while it is irritating to hear various middle class white or asian kids' ease with Nigga this, Nigga that, it is even more aggravating to read easy condescension from an adult who is widely read and who surely must be armed with all the lessons learned from living (and reading) in the adult world.
this is, in a way, an opposite of the problem i have with City, but the problems are linked by race and condescension. the white characters in City are jokes and so they speak and think like jokes....but to what end? to make a point that whites are not hep and blacks are the cool cats? the novel overall is a worthy one, funny and poignant and rough around the edges, an entertaining portrait of a certain place and time in swingin' london. but overall i couldn't escape the sense of Methinks the Author Doth Protest Too Much. fortunately, whitey stopped hating himself so much and went on to produce the absolute classic Absolute Beginners....more
lackluster entry in macinnes' london trilogy. the parallel narratives are at first interesting but become rather tedious in the long run, perhaps becalackluster entry in macinnes' london trilogy. the parallel narratives are at first interesting but become rather tedious in the long run, perhaps because both central characters lack a certain reality - characterization is a bit flat, a bit too jokey. they would be better served as supporting characters in a larger, wider, richer novel. or maybe i was just looking for another Absolute Beginners, surely one of the most vibrant novels ever written. here, the canvas is black & white rather than blazing technicolor - which is a pity. the writing itself is not at fault - macinnes is a master. the problem is in the rather forgettable characterizations and the surprisingly unconvincing narrative....more
Absolute Beginners is remarkable - a dream of a novel. It is fast-paced, sweet-tempered, open-hearted, a golden book in many ways – a paean to youth, Absolute Beginners is remarkable - a dream of a novel. It is fast-paced, sweet-tempered, open-hearted, a golden book in many ways – a paean to youth, to a future brimming with possibility, to a present that is lived vibrantly and joyfully. It is also about selling out, junkies, prostitution, and race wars. How can this be? I suppose it is all about point of view, and the protagonist’s perspective is the embodiment of Live Now and Love It. This is one of those rare novels that make the reader feel even more alive by reading it. The enthusiasm of its narrator was equaled by my enthusiasm of the world that MacInnes plunges us into headfirst. It depicts, it mocks, it leaps forward, it grabs your hand and carries you along.
I was young once, gosh, just a decade or so ago. I lived a life full of punks, hippies, goths, ravers, djs, fags, dykes, trans girls & guys, straight guys who made out with other guys and straight girls who were angry and ardent feminists, vegetarians and vegans, girls who stripped for cash in dives and guys who waved their hard-ons for free in print, fighters and peacemakers, guys who carved symbols on their bodies and girls who dressed like vampire princesses; we lived in junked-out flats filled with too many people, we shared clothes and went on road trips and had neverending parties and made protests against the government and danced all night and consumed amazing amounts of booze and drugs and sex and live music. I read Absolute Beginners during that period, and one of the best things about this novel was that it felt completely real and true to me, despite the difference in social scenes that were separated by decades, by an ocean. It showed the true diversity available to people in their late teens, in their 20s; it illustrated – and so nonchalantly – values that were not just held dear, but were unspoken, values that defied the middle class and that were simply assumed to be shared by everyone we knew. To read oneself and one’s peers in a novel written in 1958 is something special, something wonderfully moving to contemplate, even many years later.
What lifts Absolute Beginners above the idea that life for the young and unencumbered can be a great time, a fun carnival, is its complete awareness that this is also rather an illusion, and a crushingly temporary one at that. So many wonderful things can happen, so much excitement – and yet the world around this world still exists to be fought against. For me and my friends, that world to rail against did not just include asshole yuppies who came to our neighborhoods from time to time, it included police brutality, the WTO, the wars abroad. In Absolute Beginners, that world above includes race warfare. "Race" is clearly interwoven throughout the narrative, and yet it is one of so many things that the narrator is aware of, just one facet of the world that the narrator comments on... the reader could almost lose sight of it. But race and racism are there the entire time and slowly but surely become the whole point; by the end, the reader and the protagonist see how fragile a life full of living can be when the world is singling out his peers for destruction, and those peers are turning to him for alliance. The protagonist chooses, and chooses well. But it marks an ending of sorts, an ending of an attitude and a lifestyle, and the beginning of an understanding that no matter what he and his peers have built, he lives in the world still, as does everyone, and that world is one of both wonder and horror....more
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