The Secret History of Modernism [Import] [Hardcover]

c. k. stead (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 24, 2002 | Series: Panther

New Zealand writer Laszlo Winter thinks back to his time in London in the late 1950s. The Empire might be finished, but for young “colonials”, England remains a mythical place that draws them from the farthest corners of the globe.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

New Zealand writer Stead (Death of the Body, etc.) examines literary life in the middle of the 20th century through the prism of a writer's unrequited love for a friend, building his novel around an entertaining, engaging protagonist, Auckland novelist Laszlo Winter. Most of the book focuses on Winter's graduate student years at London University in the late 1950s and his ill-fated attraction to the vibrant, smart Samantha Conlan, who unfortunately has the hots for Friedrich Goldstein, a married Jewish journalist. Conlan and Goldstein embark on a passionate but problematic affair, forcing Winter to satisfy his urges with a call girl named Heather, who offers sex in exchange for lessons about Shakespeare in a series of unusual scenes. Winter next drifts into a relationship with another woman from his circle named Margot, but throughout their brief affair he remains troubled by the possibility that she may have had an incestuous relationship with her brother, Mark. In between the various couplings, Stead explores Winter's writing efforts, Conlan's brief encounter with T.S. eliot and the work of an Indian colleague named Rajiv as he researches a biography of Yeats. Winter's dry, droll sense of humor and intelligence make him intriguing, but the insular quality of some of the literary scenes limits his ability to carry an entire novel. The passages with Conlan occasionally catch fire, but in the end this is a book for literary aficionados who understand the intoxicating power of study, gossip and debate about books.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Review

"It seems incontestable to me that C. K. Stead is among the very best contemporary novelists." --John de Falbe, The Spectator
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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Harvill Press (January 24, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1860469310
• ISBN-13: 978-1860469312
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.5 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,138,631 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Winter at the antipodes of Spring, September 21, 2002

By 

Hussein Rawlings - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Secret History of Modernism (Hardcover)

"You need to read," they told me. "Find out what others are doing. You cant expect to produce a workable manuscript unless you have some idea how good writers go about it."
Read? Finding a name in the phone book is hard enough!

One day I saw this book by Stead.

The literati talk about him a lot, don't they? Professor of English I heard. Poems and novels published, (yeah, published). Renown critic too. Insightful and spirited stuff, they reckon. Not afraid to get up other writers' noses.

`The Secret History...' Wow! Look at all his other stuff listed next to the title page...

Maybe I'll see what he's on about?

Took me two weeks before I could pick it up, steeling myself for the BIG UNDERTAKING. Dyslexics are like that - need space and time to make the effort, so when both were present I added the resolve. "Might get a third of the way through in four hours. By then I'll have the gist of it, enough momentum to complete it."

Friday night, and I got to P.81 in one hit. First page only four sentences, but with such meticulously particular punctuation - precision structuring to essentially doubtful attempts at a beginning. All this kind of broken consciousness stuff, or elements at word impressionism in prose. Might work in poetry. Here seems strangely unconvincing, then brilliant at turns. Finally found a convincing section (chapter 2) that flowed cogently integrating nice blend of social/personal history (accomodation of Rajiv and Lazlo) with literary interest. Then 3 follows with a sense of hard effort (discordant as a cockatoo's call) before finally settling easily into Sammy's meeting with Goldstein. Same with 4 - something tentative and unconvincing about it. Suddenly it comes alive in 5, then sparkles P.60-66 with discussion/anecdote on Sammy and T.S.Eliott

Why does this writing seem so laboured when pastiching backgrounds to personal recollections, but so gripping and immediate when dealing with literature and its personalities? Why is it that even at his age, his youthful relationships and experience still suggest inner resistance to presentation, whereas the prose becomes direct, compelling and full of lively interest once Lazlo is not (even indirectly) part of the picture? Jack and Jill? Well, getting better but still too close to the author for any sense of effortless flow.

And this guy is famous...?
Some kind of awkward distillation of late youthful.... well, life and loves?
Maybe best titled, `Pirouettes in the Mirror' ?

Next day, back at work, beginning with The Goldstein story. That is good! The whole chapter. But P.86-99 especially is powerful writing. In fact all three chapters on Goldstein. How does this guy achieve such compelling interest to what is essentially just details to well known historical fact? Is it the continuation of drama surrounding that family's history, as compared to the episodic nature of the personal material (Heather, Margot) or other events (Suez, Hungry)?

Finished at P.162 that day, then off to bed.

Funny thing. When I awoke the book was still with me. Surprised me how intrigued with it I was now. Couldn't wait to finish breakfast and go off to some quiet place to complete it.

Suddenly all these disparate things: Literary anecdotes and insights, political events, Sam's affair and her lovers family, and even (yes even) Lazlo's oddly distant and awkward experiences of love. Whoops! Not love - rather, Coupling. (coupling as adjunct to literary discussion, coupling to poetry - emotion distilled through literature). Suddenly all integrated. Did it themselves, tied the pieces together while I slept.

Recollections of Lazlo Winter. Biographical episodes, political hard edge of Modernism, wistful recollections of winter caught at the antipodes of spring...

And then the ending. Boy, I wish I could produce endings like that. But even before, see how it all tied up! This is one clever writer. Maybe I will read some more of him? Even look up some of those names to see if they really exist, like Mendel Hand (Michael King?), or Dick Flinders.

Wonder if he will read my Manuscript? Lance its boils over lunch maybe...
Might call him.