The Book Post

Welcome to the island...

As readers of The Book Post will know, I hold informal quarterly 'Literary Salons' ('Reviving the great tradition, only with more Nin, Vonnegut and gin', etc), and post many of the resulting essays, stories and reviews on this blog, where author's permission is possible. Each salon focuses on 2 books by different authors, sharing some common theme of interest. We discuss the works themselves, present related essays or stories, and basically get our read on. Highlights have included Lee Tulloch's reading of “The Basque and Bijou” from Delta of Venus by Anaïs Nin (brilliant and awkwardly steamy), Emma Tom's Eulogy for Kurt Vonnegut, Jack Heath's hilarious 'Right Angles and Hair', and Astrid Lorange's bewildering, brilliant essay, Quantum Suicide.

We are holding the fifth salon on February 7th, and as readers of The Book Post I hope you will join in by reading one or both of the recommended books and taking part in the discussion and debate.

In this fifth salon we are headed to a remote island... And it's going to get a little creepy.

In Literary Salon 5 - Piñol and Wells, we examine the H.G. Wells classic, The Island of Dr. Moreau (which among other things is responsible for a few hirsute movie moments and a bit of crazy theriocephaly action), and Albert Sánchez Piñol's contemporary, controversial novel Cold Skin, each set on remote islands and exploring issues of human nature and inter-species relationships. I do so hope you will take part.


The books:

Cold Skin, by Albert Sánchez Piñol (2002)

'On the edge of the Antarctic Circle, in the years after World War One, a steamship approaches a desolate island, far from all shipping lanes. On board is a young man on his way to assume the post of weather observer, to live in solitude for a year at the end of the earth. But when he lands on shore he finds no trace of the man whom he has been sent to replace just a deranged castaway who has witnessed a horror he refuses to name. His entire world for the next year is a deserted cabin, woods, rocks, silence, and the surrounding sea. Then night begins to fall...'

and

The Island of Dr. Moreau, by H.G. Wells (1896)

'Adrift in a dinghy, Edward Prendick, the single survivor from the good ship Lady Vain, is rescued by a vessel carrying a profoundly unusual cargo: a menagerie of savage animals. Tended to recovery by their keeper Montgomery, who gives him dark medicine that tastes of blood, Prendick soon finds himself stranded upon an uncharted island in the Pacific with his rescuer and the beasts. Here, he meets Montgomery's master, the sinister Dr. Moreau a brilliant scientist whose notorious experiments in vivisection have caused him to abandon the civilised world. It soon becomes clear he has been developing these experiments with truly horrific results.'

* I was able to pick up both books at my local book shop. Both happen to be published by Penguin in Australia, with The Island of Dr. Moreau published as part of the excellent Penguin Classics series.

For your interest, essays and stories from previous salons shared (with author's permission) here at the Book Post include the following posts:
-Literary Salon 1 - Henry Miller and Anais Nin
Books Bans & The Salon Readings 4 'Right Angles and Hair'
-Literary Salon 2 - Bram Stoker and Mary Shelley
The Salon Readings 2 - The Beach by Jack Heath
-Literary Salon 3 - Margaret Atwood and Kurt Vonnegut
Happy Birthday Mr. Vonnegut
The Salon Readings 1 - Emma Tom on Kurt Vonnegut
The Salon Readings 3 - Astrid Lorange on Quantum Suicide
-Literary Salon 4 - Dashiell Hammett and Dorothy Porter. (Sorry, no related posts yet)

Get your read on, and share your thoughts on Piñol and Wells, inter-species lust, theriocephaly and the dark side of human nature....

Happy reading,