London Orbital
Mon, 2002-09-23 21:49
#1
London Orbital
I may have raved about Iain Sinclair before, but this is quite magnificent. The sort of book where you just want to grab someone, sit them down and read huge chunks at them. All the usual obsessions are there, obscure gangland crimes, tiny human details blown up and catalogued, the grandeur and pettiness of the construction of great buildings, seedy cafes with lukewarm tea, London in all of its shabby glory; but also pulling in politics, progress, deceit and Bill Drummond from the KLF driving the M25 orbital 25 times in a row hoping to find where the hell it actually goes. Magnificent. I may be back tomorrow to quote some bits out of it.
markbrown
The M25 driving is chronicled in '45' by Bill Drummond. I did my Iain Sinclair bit yesterday. I walked from greenwhich, through the Greenwich foot tunnel, through Isle of Dogs to Canary Wharf, on through Limehouse, down Commercial Road to Whitechapel, through Whitechapel and Bethnal Green into the city, then along the Thames into central London. Took in two Hawksmoor churches, St. Pauls, The Barbican, Tower Bridge and loads of other stuff.
The start of my grand explorations...
Barnacle Billycan
I read a review this w/e that highly praised this book although the reviewer's comment "from time to time the reader tires of Sinclair's relentless energy and dense prose ... also moments when you think the book, like the road, will never end." made me think twice about buying it (which I undoubtably would if he hadn't said that).
So, is his prose dense?
andrew pack
I wouldn't say dense - there are huge bits which just zip past, and other bits that are less interesting (much like roadsides), but which bits will probably depend on whether he gets your interest in what he is interested in. This book is far more in complete sentences than his usual style of almost jazz-riffing like later James Ellroy. I think it is a book read best in short bursts, as it can be quite intense; but worth the money just for the section about the MoD land turned into leisure complexes despite the fact that god knows what was in the soil (certainly something pretty radioactive)
Mark - send some photos in of the Hawksmoor churches (a bit of a minor obsession for me). Next time I'm in London, we'll hook up and do some walking.