The Indie Anthology 8: essential songs

Next song in our anthology, with a wonderful jangle-pop tune. Let's get a bit nostalgic and remember past days of Spring (as we start the season today) of what seems very long time ago now.

Song: Denmark
Artist: The Ocean Blue
Year: 2000

This band from Hershey, Pennsylvania, started their criminally underrated career by 1987, but I didn't discover them until the release of "Davy Jone's Locker" in 2001. I got myself haunted by "Denmark", with its short, atmospheric intro leaded by the simple drum beat.. and then the entrance of the shimmering guitars. Their bright but melancholic melodies where part of the soundtrack of my last year at university (finishing my degree on Political Science) enjoying the sunny days while catching the train. Restrained epic for a glorious bit of jangle-pop. Seems the band is back. Springtime again?

"The Spectator Bird", beware of "high literature"

The Spectator Bird- Wallace Stegner

I was eager to read more from Wallace Stegner after enjoying quite a lot "Crossing to Safety". In that book, although the "scent" was that of what is called "high literature" (something that one seeks to avoid at all costs) existed, the characters were really human, credible, and their evolution through life was compelling, making you feel part of an intimate history. But sadly, its not the case of "The Spectator Bird".

Again a book about memories, this time from a retired literary agent Joe Allston, who, after receiving a postcard from an old friend, goes back to his diary, where the story of his trip (together with his wife Ruth) through Denmark is narrated. A journey that was really special.

Stegner builds the novel mixing in a succession of flashbacks, where the Danish affair is slowly explained, and Joe's struggles with the fears and turmoil of becoming an older age...but the book never delivers, at least for me. I simply found myself bored with Allston's unavoidable speeches (too many during the book), and the aristocratic world of Astrid. That part of the plot looks like a bad movie to me (there's an ugly secret going on in that family...just wait a bit more until we reveal it... well sorry, it was obvious there was something going on) and the unresolved feelings issue... well, pretty pointless.

The most interesting part of the book is the meditation on marriage and the struggles of age. Allston, with his curmudgeon attitude, could have been a very attractive character pointing out what fails in a system that seems to "exclude" ageing people. But sadly again, Stegner goes into the pedantic territory of "high literature", and ruins it. Huge disappointment.

SCORE: 2,75/10