Immrama

[dolorosa_12]

I wasn't going to write another post this weekend, and then I read a book which — although it's obviously very early days — is a strong contender for my book of the year. This is All the Horses of Iceland (Sarah Tolmie), a novella I find hard to describe but nevertheless moved me to tears on several occasions — not because it's sad, but because it spoke to me in ways that I would not myself have been able to articulate. I've tried to pull together my thoughts over on dolorosa12, my reviews blog, but all I really want to say is: read this book, and you will not be disappointed.

In general, it's been a good weekend for reading. In addition to the nonfiction book I finished and discussed on my previous post, I'm making strides into tackling my to-read list. I picked up Idylls of the Queen (Phyllis Ann Karr), an Arthurian murder mystery told — with wry humour — from the world-weary point of view of Kay, who is very much Sir Completely Done with This Nonsense. It pokes gentle fun at Arthuriana, particularly Malory, but in a way that shows affection for the source material while not taking it too seriously.

Matthias and I have also started 2023 with our semi-regular Saturday night film watching — in this case The Banshees of Inisherin. This is a hard-to-categorise black comedy set in a tiny island community in 1920s Ireland, about two former friends who fall out, and the repercussions. The setting is gorgeous, the dialogue is fantastic, the casting is perfect, and the film does an incredible job of capturing the stultifying claustrophobia of tiny, insular communities where nothing happens and people have few opportunities. Do be warned this is quite a dark film (it's funny, but bleak), and there is an animal death that may bother some viewers.

So far this year I'm almost at a post a day. I can't promise this state of affairs will continue, but I definitely owe this to the quality of the books and other media I've been reading and watching at the moment!

Comments

[naye]

Very curious about the novella now - I'll see if I can't find it when looking for more stuff to put on my Kobo.

The Saturday night film watching sounds lovely. Skuld and I don't usually watch a lot of movies, but between being on sick leave together and not traveling over the holidays we watched something new every other day, and it was great fun.

[dolorosa_12]

It was fairly cheap on the Kindle, and I'd assume that price will be consistent across platforms — hopefully you'll be able to read it because it really was staggeringly good.

The film night thing is one of the activities we implemented in the wake of the pandemic and lockdowns — we were fairly regular cinema-goers (although not every week, more like once a month), we pay for almost every streaming service, Matthias also has a huge DVD collection, and it felt ridiculous not to make use of these things. It was a way to build fun routines into the week when we initially started working from home and every day felt the same. It's been good so far, although we go for months at a time not watching any films.

I don't know if 'glad' is the right word given it was due to sickness, but I'm happy the two of you were at least able to watch a bunch of new stuff together while you were stuck at home.

[likeadeuce]

I just watched 'Banshees' and absolutely loved it. . .I had put of watching it for a while partly because I was not aware of the comedy element but I laughed out loud over and over (the punchline of the bread van bit, oh my god). And obviously it was dark and upsetting but it also really inspired profound thoughts about friendship and loneliness and connection.

Also an Arthurian murder mystery from the POV of a put-upon Kay sounds amazing. Thanks for the tip!

I've been listening to a few audiobooks ('Salem's Lot' and finally finishing the first Expanse book now that I've mad some headway on the TV show' but I would like to actually sit down and read some time soon!

[dolorosa_12]

It's really funny about Banshees because I'd seen several trailers for it that really emphasised the comedy (to the point that they made it look like a heartwarming feel good comedy) and then read a lot of reviews/commentary that said the trailer was misleading and it was actually really bleak. I feel the truth was somewhere in the middle — laugh-out-loud moments, as you say, but very dark and profound as well.

Also an Arthurian murder mystery from the POV of a put-upon Kay sounds amazing. Thanks for the tip!

I hope you enjoy it — it's a fun book!

[likeadeuce]

Oh, yeah, zero advertising for Banshees over here, I only knew of it from word of mouth + various film sites and podcasts I follow. I'm now curious what the US trailer was like. *goes to look*

[likeadeuce]

So strangely enough, I thought the film was MUCH funnier than the trailer, because trying to splice together a series of one liners doesn't really convey what makes it funny - pacing, context etc. But it doesn't get at the emotional depth either.

[dolorosa_12]

Very true. I just think it's a hard film to capture in a trailer, because it's a hard film to categorise in general. It's the sort of thing you have to watch in full to really understand what it's all about.

[merit]

And marvel upon marvels - a tordotcom novella that isn't priced higher than their novels ^^ Thanks for the lovely review, I'll add it to the tbr!

[dolorosa_12]

I know, right? It's been on my to-read list for a while, and every month or so I go through the list to see if anything has a) become available at my local library or b) become available as an ebook at a reasonable price. All last year this novella was £7.99, so when I saw that it had finally sunk to what I consider a normal price, I bought it immediately! I hope you like it.

[merit]

For better or worse, I do love a lot what tordotcom publishes but I am ??? over some of their pricing decisions e.g. why are some of their novella priced higher than a recently released novel. I sometimes think their parent publisher uses the imprint to experiment with different strategies to see how the market reacts before rolling out across other imprints.

[dolorosa_12]

I suspect you're right about a lot of this.

[trepkos]

Sir Completely Done with This Nonsense should definitely be added to the canon!

[dolorosa_12]

So true!

[lirazel]

I don't think I loved All the Horses quite as much as you and Soph did, but I agree that it's very good and unique and I am so glad it exists in the world. I definitely look forward to Tolmie's future works!

[dolorosa_12]

It just pulled together so many things that are personally important to me, in a way that was both beautifully written and taught me something new — so of course I was going to have this reaction! It helps that I'm very much focused on this part of the world at the moment, given that I'd just finished a history of the Ottoman Empire (which was a) founded by Turkic steppe nomads and b) ended up ruling over a lot of southeastern Europe/central Asia or fighting with Russia to rule over those parts of the world).

I'm certainly interested to read whatever Tolmie does next as well!