The Parrish Guide to 2012 ~ Or a Bluffers Guide to Semi-Literate Blogging- Pt3.

In the last post “Stats & Views”, I did a month by month review of the most visited & commented on posts of The Parrish Lantern & used this to work out what the most popular books of the year were & how, or if, that ties in with my own views on the Lantern. Although for the most part this worked, it didn’t reflect my own personal favourites or highlights of 2012. Anyone who blogs, by the very definition has an opinion, an ego* that says “this is my view”. So, based on this slightly dodgy premise – here is Parrish’s guide to 2012 - complete with personal highlights.

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Top fiction of the year came from Iceland, From the Mouth of a Whale by Sjon an author/ poet, whose work I want to devour, whilst attempting to describe this book I said about the main character Jonas Sandpiper :

 “I could quite happily sit in a bar somewhere with a glass of some fermented herb/ whale blubber etc, listening to his inane or impassioned warbling all night long.”

This comment could just as easily have been referring to the author.

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Nonfiction. When Lizzie from Telegram books offered this for review, I nearly turned it down, it was the fact that George Szirtes was the translator that sold it to me & I’m glad of that. The Summer My Father Died by Yudit Kiss, surprised me. At first glance it is a book about an academic and dyed in the wool communist, which didn’t really appeal, and yet this is merely one of it’s facets. It is also about a family’s sacrifice and an individuals survival under conditions that could easily go in the Oxford English dictionary as the definition of hell, about a rejection of a past and it’s rediscovery, it is about all the contradictions and half truths people use to get by. But most of all it is about love, family love.

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Favourite short story collection - Scenes from Village Life – Amos Oz. This wonderful collection of tales form what is a strange and yet beautifully written book that for all its surreal dark qualities really endeared itself to me, that  slowly and quietly charmed it's way into my heart.

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Top novella, I was tempted to give this to Sjon for The Whispering Muse, which is a wonderful book, and as I stated in the original post, I’m amazed how he can create a world that is, at the same point on the page, both totally believable and yet is also hallucinatory, grotesque, phantasmagorical and fabulous, this is a writer I want to know more about. But after some immense and neuron destroying cogitation, The Sea of Ink by Richard Weihe gets my vote. In fifty one beautifully crafted chapters, this book manages to capture the life of not just one of China’s greatest exponents of the Shuimohua style of painting, but a man who was an enigma, a spoilt and adored Prince who became a Buddhist abbot, madman to respected artist, poet and philosopher.

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Poetry. My initial response was to hand this award to Full Blood by John Siddique, this is muscular erotic poetry, the writing is beautiful as only someone who loves language - whatever it’s shape, whether fey or concrete, whether spiritual or something more bloodied, more visceral can write. But my dilemma is that although I reviewed it in 2012 it came out in 2011, which gives me a perfect excuse to slip another poetry book onto my list. Warrior by David Lloyd - in these poems there was a force that had a confrontational nature, that had an almost suppressed violence - almost. Yet, at the same time some of these poems have a delicate intimacy, a sweetness that comes from close ties.

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  2012 was a great year for myself and The Parrish Lantern, I got to interview the award winning Latin-American author Andrés Neuman. I became part of The International Foreign Fiction Prize’s Shadow Jury, with a coterie of fellow “Literary bloggers” (Thanks, Rob,  Mark, Lisa,Tony, Simon & Stu) which I hope to repeat again this year, also as part of this I wrote an introduction for the Booktrust. One of 2012’s main aims was to increase the amount of poetry reviewed  & discussed on this site, I believe this not only happened (it’s an almost 50/50 split now) but in some cases the poetry turned out to be the post that stimulated the most reaction. This will remain one of the core principals, along with the ethos of continually improving The Parrish Lantern, by championing as diverse a range of literature as is possible from all the corners, and the nooks and crannies of this world of ours.

Another first for The Parrish Lantern is that a post of mine will feature on another’s blog (with my consent), in this case a brief overview of Ryuichi Tamura, will appear on January in Japan, Tony’s Month of J-Lit Wonders. Please check the site out & say Hi from me.

So a big Thank You to all who follow The Parrish Lantern and feel free to add your own ideas. As a polite introduction to a new idea, whether its a Book, a Poem or your favourite writer is always welcome. Thanks Parrish.

Although in the 2012 world of the “literary blogger” there was a wonderful cornucopia of books, novels, short story collections, poetry chapbooks and novellas to read, it is sometimes easy to forget that we exist in a tiny bubble that doesn’t reflect the outside world or the tastes of most of the populace. Taking this into consideration & with the aim of appealing to the mainstream readership - here at The Parrish Lantern, we would like to dedicate this next bit to the 50 shades franchise;

50 shades to please your lover  (sorry Paul Simon)

Those bonds are very tight she said to me
there is no way that you'll get free
so now  listen very close-ly
or your punishments they shall proceed
There must be fifty shades to please  your lover

She said it's really not my habit to be rude
but that  book has me hot & bothered feeling lewd
so  I'll repeat myself, at the risk of being crude
There must be fifty shades to please your lover,  there need be
nifty ways  to please your lover

Don't put out your back Jack
it will make you a new man Stan
your now my boy toy Roy
just there to please
Stop making a fuss, Gus
I  don't need you to discuss much
While I've got the keys, Lee
let the punishments proceed

Ooo watch that slipped back, Jack
and get with the plan, Stan
You don't need to be coy, Roy
this will set your mind free
stop making a fuss, Gus
and put on that truss, Gus
Down on your knees lee
Just drop off the key,

She said it grieves me so to see you in such
pain 
and that the handcuffs are starting to chafe 
I admit the garden implements are strange
had to improvise as  previously explained
About the fifty shades

She said why don't we both sleep on it tonight
Although you'll be bound up rather tight
she kissed me once, turned out the light
left saying she maybe gone awhile
humming there must be fifty shades to please your lover

thrifty shades to please your lover

Don't out out your back Jack
I'll  make you a new man Stan
your now my boy toy Roy
just there to please
Stop making a fuss, Gus
don't need you to discuss much
While I've got the keys, Lee
let the punishments proceed

Ooo watch that slipped back, Jack
and get with the plan, Stan
You don't need to be coy, Roy
this will set your mind free
stop making a fuss, Gus
and put on that truss, Gus
Down on your knees lee
Just drop off the key,

Now start begging to me .

 

* Or is that just me???

May 2013 be all that you wish and your wishes all that you need.