Books and Beer

This weekend has been pretty much one of books and beer. Saturday was spent reading for the most part, as I managed to finish two books that I took out from the Union library - Gilead by Marilynne Robinson and The Power Game by reknown International Relations professor Joseph Nye Jr. Gilead is that rare peach of a novel that is absolutely and utterly beautifully written. It is somewhat of a cliche to speak of prose stylists nowadays when praise for beautiful writing is a dime a dozen but Marilynne Robinson writes with a grace and clarity which is rare in today's fiction - her's is a story which is wonderfully slow and unhurried, and a prose which sparkles like a sun reflecting off of the water - and is similarly deeply illuminating. This, her second novel, was twenty years in the writing, and worth every minute of the wait. It has already won the 2005 Pulitzer and the National Book Critics Circle Award, and was one of the New York Times best books of the year, all merited in this humble opinion.

Joseph Nye is an academic not writer by trade, and this is apparent in the workmanlike prose of his novel The Power Game. He keeps his sentences short and spare, and the whole aspect of it is pretty rudimentary - consisting mainly of basic description of action complemented by interior monologues. Stylish prose this is not: "I sat on a kitchen chair and rested my head against the table. The formica was cool against my brow but could not calm me. I saw explosions. I clenched my eyes tight." being a typical example. Yet, it was a pretty entertaining read and a wonderful expose of the power games that go on behind the scenes in Washington. I had heard Professor Nye speak about his book at the Union last term, and I even got a chance to speak to him personally at the bar afterwards, so that was definitely a factor in me choosing to read this. I remember that I made the mistake of telling him that I was thinking of going to apply to Princeton or Yale to do a International Relations degree - not a good idea considering that Nye was the former Dean of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard! The book was entertaining enough though - pleasure reading for intellectuals I would call it.

Sunday was mostly spent at the Union. Matt Dicks asked me if I were interested in a game of snooker, and I readily agreed, especially since I had hardly made use of my Union membership this term. The Union does have two pretty good snooker tables available for a mere 2 pounds an hour, so it was definitely something to take advantage of. We played two games in total, over two hours, and Matt was definitely quite a bit better than I was, especially in terms of potting, though the second game went down to the black. Met Sylvia Westall and some of her friends at the Union as they were playing snooker on the other table. Later on, made a somewhat foolish decision to buy a ticket for the Union beer festival which was 8 pounds for 6 pints. Matt Thomas and his grandad were there, as were Sam Geen, Steve Whittaker and Johnny Wright. A good 6 pints and a couple of hours later, I staggered back to college, grabbing a kebab on the way and sleep for a good few hours. Woke up later in the evening, and with sleep proving elusive got up and watched Punch Drunk Love on my computer. I am certainly living up to (literally) a cliche of Oxford life!