Liam’s Year in Books

What did you read this year?

Go to previous year

2023

103,676

pages read

399

books read

Liam Ostermann

2 likes Like

Shortest Book

page

Longest Book

1,040

pages

Average book length in 2023

259

pages

Most Shelved

8,024,459

people also shelved

Least Shelved

people also shelved

Liam’s average rating for 2023

3.8

Highest Rated on Goodreads

it was amazing

5.00 average

Liam’s first review of the year

it was amazing

I have returned to The Story of St. Vespaluus, as I do to all Saki's first rate stories, again because I think it is one of his finest and funniest stories and a large part of the humour is to be found in its 'allusively homoerotic' (a phrase I have stolen from another Goodreads reviewer Aleardo Zanghellini) if not downright camp tone.

I am not suggesting that Saki was gay or even queer because we will never know because his sister made sure that I have returned to The Story of St. Vespaluus, as I do to all Saki's first rate stories, again because I think it is one of his finest and funniest stories and a large part of the humour is to be found in its 'allusively homoerotic' (a phrase I have stolen from another Goodreads reviewer Aleardo Zanghellini) if not downright camp tone.

I am not suggesting that Saki was gay or even queer because we will never know because his sister made sure that his letters and papers were thoroughly sanitised after his death, rather like what happened to the diaries and papers of the artist John Henry Tuke. Saki may have led a life of complete asexuality - I hope not - there is plenty of evidence that he enjoyed engineering situations, in his stories, which involved one of his young comely characters being completely naked, like St Vespaluus or Gabriel Ernst. Skai's naked characters, like the subjects of Tuke's paintings were always male. Does it prove anything? not completely but it does become more problematic when combined with the fact that only characters whose looks are mentioned are other, usually clothed, young men. That the story of St. Vespaluus is recounted by Clovis, one of Saki's most delightful outre and camp young male characters, is the finale on the pyramid of Saki's over-the-top but very fun and amusing allusive-homoeroticism.

My original comments from January 2023 are below:

I am reading this on the 3rd of January (2023) and I am pleased to record a Saki story as one my first reads of the new year. The Story of St. Vespaluus is interesting because its satirical and disrespectful treatment of the Christian religion attracted no comment in England in 1911. It is an example of how thoroughly dead religious belief was in English culture by that point. If you look across the channel you have Anatole France (a largely forgotten writer in the English speaking world but worth reading) who was constantly writing novels and books attacking and poking fun at Christianity, and attracting fierce condemnation for it. In other countries like Spain the auto de fe was still popular but the fuel was likely to be church buildings. In France and Spain people were either believers or disbelievers in a proactive way. The English on the other hand had an established church but had long abandoned any pretense of belief. Which was why Saki could attack Christian belief without worry. I find it rather amusing to contemplate including such a story in an English textbook up for approval before a Texas school board. ...more

LIAM’S 2023 BOOKS

it was amazing

Bold Ventures by Charlotte Van den Broeck

The Dressing-up Box by David Constantine

it was amazing

The Last Days of the Ottoman Empire, 1918-1922 by Ryan Gingeras

it was amazing

The Butcher Of Amritsar by Nigel Collett

The Giant Book of Terror by Stephen Jones

Grimm Tales for Young and Old by Philip Pullman

The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities by Ann VanderMeer

it was amazing

52 Times Britain was a Bellend by James Felton

Black Sabbath; A Journey Through a Crime Against Humanity by Robert Katz

The Ballad of Lord Edward and Citizen Small by Neil Jordan

it was amazing

Don't Read This Book If You're Stupid by Tibor Fischer

The link, a Victorian mystery; by Robin Maugham

Indirect method and other stories by Francis King

Moe's Villa and Other Stories by James Purdy

it was amazing

The Astonishing Adventure of General Boulanger by James Harding

The Wolf and the Watchman by Niklas Natt och Dag

Notes From A Turkish Whorehouse by Philip Ó Ceallaigh

it was amazing

Queer View Mirror 2 by James C. Johnstone

Dover Beach and Other Poems by Matthew Arnold

it was amazing

Viennas Golden Autumn 1866-193 by Hilde Spiel

At Night All Blood Is Black by David Diop

The Artist and the Soldier by Angelle Petta

Down the Rabbit Hole by Juan Pablo Villalobos

it was amazing

Deliver Me from Nowhere by Tennessee Jones

it was amazing

The Black Tent and Other Stories by Robin Maugham

The Boy from Beirut and Other Stories by Robin Maugham

M2m New Literary Fiction- P by Karl Woelz

it was amazing

The Missolonghi manuscript by Frederic Prokosch by Frederic Prokosch

Liam’s last review of the year

really liked it

An excellent anthology, but I do have reservations, but first I will sing its praises. I would have bought this anthology for the new story from Philip Ridley alone (Ridley wrote some brilliant short stories and two novels in the 1980's and 90's but since then almost all his work has been for theatre). That there is also new work from authors I love such as Paul McVeigh, Jonathan Kemp, Neil Bartlett and Ian McKenna (by no means all the authors in An excellent anthology, but I do have reservations, but first I will sing its praises. I would have bought this anthology for the new story from Philip Ridley alone (Ridley wrote some brilliant short stories and two novels in the 1980's and 90's but since then almost all his work has been for theatre). That there is also new work from authors I love such as Paul McVeigh, Jonathan Kemp, Neil Bartlett and Ian McKenna (by no means all the authors in the anthology whose work I love and admire) was also a great plus. I admire, support and believe in the policy of the publisher's, Inkandescent, to discover and publish authors from a backgrounds and groups that are often unheard and neglected. But....

Isn't there always a but and there are two things which a problematic about this anthology; first it is basically an anthology of LGBT+ authors though the synopsis on the cover does not indicate this. This maybe through a desire to avoid labels which are limiting, and I realise that exactly how young people define themselves is a world away from what was done in my youth. I wouldn't dream of being prescriptive - but I have seen other reviewers complain, some justification, that this anthology is not necessarily as broad in content and contributors as it claims.

My other problem is that like other anthologies attempting to provide a 'voice' to those previously unheard, there is a unresolved question of the basis for inclusion. Is it enough to be a previously unheard or under represented voice or do literary quality provide the essential qualification. I can't help asking this because some of the stories a wildly inferior to others and I believe that the need for or desire for comprehensive inclusiveness has blunted quality. For me a bad or mediocre story is a bad or mediocre story no matter the merits of the author as representing a group or voice which has previously been unheard.

I may have been more aware of those stories that failed to be excellent because I read it immediately after Declan Meade's anthology 'These Are Our Lives' an anthology of such stunning quality that perhaps any other anthology would pale in comparison.

I have no regret owning this anthology and will return and read some of these stories again, but not all. ...more

2023 READING
CHALLENGE

Liam Ostermann read 399 out of 75 books.

532%

What did you read this year?