The problem with reading these alphabetically, apart from it revealing a slightly disturbing personal fascination of not needing to make decisions, is that there can be a slightly unfortunate pattern of books. In this case, following a quartet of books amounting to 1,000 pages about 20th century Egypt with a 700 page novel about ancient Egypt.
For the first time, I managed to get one of the books from my list from the library, more specifically the John Harvard Library. Libraries rule, kindles drool.
I was slightly anxious about the idea of reading Norman Mailer, having only known him as a cultural commentator. And while I enjoyed his reading of the Ali-Foreman fight in the great documentary When We Were Kings, I've always been a little creeped out of his attitude towards women. Don't know much about it, not for me to judge, just always found him a little arrogant.
However, I have to say that 'Ancient Evenings' is amazingly written, grounding the most ridiculous magical spells with a realism that keeps the characters and their relationships in focus. The first 'book' (the novel is divided into 7 books) is especially enthralling, as we come across a very confused soul seeking a way out a tomb. It's mysterious and fantastical. Unfortunately, while there remains a real poetry in his writing, it becomes a more conventional evening of Menenhetet telling stories from his 4 lives. I'm afraid I found it pretty difficult to always care sufficiently about any of these characters, though I still enjoyed it more than I had any right to as someone who cares so little about ancient civilisations.
I will say though that I'm not sure I've ever read a book over 600 pages that really needed to be that long, and it feels to me like this is another that fits into that category. It's divided into different sections and focuses on different tales, but by the end Mailer rushes through a few centuries towards the end of the book, and you kind of wish that he would just do this with a couple of the stories.
Lots of people have sex in this book too, though perverts beware, a lot of it is between men and is a little creepy. Mailer seems to have real issues to resolve through these sequences, but I'm too dumb to know what these are. No internet research cheating here!
Ranking Burgess' 99 September 2011:
1. Ancient Evenings
2. After Many A Swan
3. The Alexandria Quartet
4. The Aerodrome
While I had subjective problems with the book, it had passages so amazingly written and inventive that, at the moment, it's number 1. I'm sure Mailer just pooped his pants from the excitement that my approval brings.
