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Kinakuta reading list

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Suggested Reading List

Hunt down this trilogy - the war may have been done - but not the fighting...

Brian aldiss, rude awakening cover.jpg

The Third Book in the Trilogy
Fighting In Java after the War was done ...
The Hand -Reared Boy (1970)
A Soldier Erect (1971)
A Rude Awakening (1978).

The Hand-reared Boy — This story is what he describes as "autobiographical fiction". It chronicles the life of British teen-ager Horatio Stubbs, mostly through his boarding-school years during the beginning of World War II. To use a British term, this book is basically a giant "wanking" fest. Young Horatio has an insatiable sex drive. He wanks it constantly. He wanks his brother, his friends, his enemies. He has relations with his sister and the family maid. In boarding school, to make up for the lack of women, the students all wank each other. Despite all the furtive Pseudo-homosexual behavior, the book does have a central theme. It concerns young Horati's love for a much older woman - Sister Traven, the nurse at his boarding school. He persues her endlessly, even after she leaves the school. As is predicable in such stories, his sucessful pursuit ends in heartbreak. Written in the first person, "The Hand Reared Boy" is a humorous view of the privations of life in and out of school in Wartime Bitain. * ISBN 0297003305 Brian W. Aldiss A Soldier Erect; or further adventures of The Hand-reared Boy * ISBN 075510076X Brian W. Aldiss A Rude Awakening

Worth reading as well * ISBN 0002726874 George MacDonald Fraser's Quartered Safe Out Here: A Recollection of the War in Burma - A reviewer states: a memoir of the author's experiences as an infantryman in the Border Regiment in India and Burma during World War II. — Fraser's memoir, written decades later, of his experiences as a teenaged infantryman fighting the Japanese in Burma with General Slim's army in World War II. He doesn't exaggerate those experiences or attempt to twist them into a novelish coming-of-age story or a Flashman-style comic adventure. There is a strong element of the old-style "dialect story" in the recreated dialogue between Fraser and his comrades, most of whom are from Cumberland in the North of England, but these are both convincing and fun, and when the group comes under fire you share Fraser's feelings of comradeship with them in part because of that dialogue.

What surprised and pleased me most about this book is the imprint of Fraser's own personality and strong opinions --- Flashman he is not. He's an old man now, and has grown more conservative and just a little cranky, but he's no less sharp an observer, resulting in a voice that's perfect (for my tastes) for first-person narration of and commentary on witnessed historical events. He indulges in some sentimentality that his famous character Flashman would have mocked --- about the characteristics of "Englishmen," for instance --- but knowing what he experienced in Burma you feel that he's more than earned the right to sentimentalize. Toward the end he leaves his narrative to defend the use of the atom bomb against Japan; he says that to protect his grandchildren he'd "gladly throw the switch on the entire Japanese nation," and that if you can't say the same you've got no business being a parent. I was shocked and delighted with the honesty of that sentence, and of this book as a whole.

GM Fraser, Quartered Safe Out Here cover.jpg

The Background behind the
MacAuslan short stories

Flashy - after, incidentally, pulling a hat trick on the three most celebrated cricketers of his time - accepts a "friendly" wager in a single-wicket match against Don Solomon, a foreign-born Eton-educated socialite. The tie score results in he and Elspeth accompanying Solomon on a cruise to the Far East, where Solomon's true colors are revealed, and he absconds with Elspeth. Flashman must fight, however unwillingly, to get her back - until they both end up in the hands of the bloodthirsty queen of Madagascar, Ranavalona I. This is a fine entry in the series, possibly a little more heavy on the humor this time around than the adventure. The first half of the book is all cricket and social intrigue; a more thorough look at Madagascar might have been in order, tho' perhaps Fraser was dealing with limited intelligence on that subject. Another minor quibble: At the book's opening, our hero is caught in a damned-if-he-does-damned-if-he-don't trap that pushed him again into adventure (lose the cricket match and see Elspeth go on a cruise with Solomon, or win and be beaten by crooked bookies?). And, as in Flash For Freedom, the dilemma that prompted him into action, when he returns (in that case, cheating at cards), is completely forgotten. I would have liked to see some closure in the matter of the threatening bookie, at least. All that aside, this is, of course, another witty, well-researched adventure. Bravo! Fraser's footnotes are worth reading. He details the life of a white rajah.

  • ISBN 1585748005 George MacDonald Fraser's The Pyrates: A Swashbuckling Comic Novel by the Creator of Flashman — With tongue firmly in cheek, Fraser launches his Hero, Captain Ben Avery, on a mission that quickly goes astray. Forced to team up with the Anti-hero, Colonel Thomas Blood (British Army, cashiered), Ben must recover rare jewels o' price, rescue the Heroine, Lady Vanity, from the fell clutches o' evil pyrates, and rid the Spanish Main o' every tarry-handed mother's son in the Brotherhood. For spice, Fraser throws in a fascinating array of knaves, kings, despots, wayward admirals, Lost Indian Tribes, kidnapped damsels, thieves, sultry piratical temptresses, and shifty pawnbrokers. The Pyrates is a splendid read, a great story told by a great storyteller, and I'm past due for a new copy. But this book also shows Fraser's immense skill as a writer. He breathes life into every character, no matter how minor the role, and he writes with a precision and economy that leaves me amazed. So clap yer deadlights on The Pyrates, wi' a wannion, and blame y'rself if you leave emptyhanded, for this be a right fine read, by the Powers, devil a doubt, or scupper me wi' a marlinspike...else.

  • ISBN 0805055339 C. S. Godshalk, Kalimantaan, Henry Holt, 1998