While A Visit from the Goon Squad had to contend with the expectations generated by prizes and review, The Summer Without Men had an even more difficult challenge because it's written by Siri Hustvedt, author of one of my favourite books, What I Loved. What I Loved explores art and creativity, love and loss and the often fine line between madness and sanity.
After reading What I Loved I found Hustvedt's next book The Sorrows of an American disappointing. It just didn't engage me in the same way. So I wasn't particularly excited about reading this one but it found its way onto my bedside table via a 3 for 2 offer. However, I really enjoyed it when I got round to reading it.
The husband of the protagonist Mia asks her for a pause in their marriage while he pursues his affair with a colleague. She initially falls apart and then moves back to her hometown for the summer to spend time with her mother and teach poetry to a group of teenage girls. The women of the town take centre stage and the novel explores what it means to be a woman in various stages of life: the teenage girls starting to explore womanhood, the young mother struggling in a difficult relationship, the middle aged woman questioning her relationship and her work and the older women facing infirmity and death. It's a very different novel to What I Loved, but some of the same themes emerge around creativity and mental health, this time from the point of view of women. While the synopsis can sound a bit twee and folksy, the novel isn't. The characters challenge expectations about how they should behave and don't offer easy answers.
As a side point, one of the reviews on my copy of the book says 'A warm, affecting tale about love, loss and finding consolation in female friendship...I, for one, would prefer Hustvedt's name on the cover to that of many male novelists.' (Sebastian Shakespeare, Tatler). I really hope this is taken out of context as the idea that the reviewer thinks it's a good thing to say that Hustvedt is better than quite a few men is deeply depressing.
Thursday 6 October 2011
Sunday 11 September 2011
A Visit from the Goon Squad
The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 2011. Reviewers tripping over themselves to dole out superlatives. I approached A Visit from the Goon Squad expecting to be disappointed. That's the problem with over-hyped books, even if you enjoy them they tend to leave you feeling a little underwhelmed, while the books you approach with no expectations can surprise and delight you.But, but, for me A Visit from the Goon Squad was an unexpected delight. It quickly pierced through my 'okay, impress me' attitude. It shouldn't have worked for me - it was told from so many perspectives, there was a chapter in Powerpoint for goodness sake - but it did. Jennifer Egan's beautiful prose sucked me in and the way she writes from so many perspectives without the novel ever feeling disjointed is impressive. Within their limited allotted space in the novel each character is fully formed, believable and sympathetic. Even the Powerpoint chapter managed to convey character in relatively few words.
The story moves between characters and times, from the 1970s through to 2020. A tangle of connections hold the characters and stories together, with even minor characters having their own connections. Egan makes room in the novel for both tragedy and redemption. Characters make choices that go on to shape their lives, but while for some those become the defining moments of their lives, for others there are second chances, new connections to be made or old ones to renew.
Definitely a novel that is worth all the praise that has been heaped on it.
Sunday 4 September 2011
Paris fiction
After reading The Paris Wife I felt the urge to read more about Paris as I'm nurturing a vague hope of a trip there next spring. A bit of Googling brought me a few recommendations that I ordered from the library. The first to arrive was Left Bank by Kate Muir. I was a bit embarrassed on collecting it from the library to discover that it was labelled 'romance' (although to be honest my library does seem to be a bit hit and miss in what it deems 'general', 'literary fiction' and 'romance'). It was a lightweight tale of love, adultery, motherhood and self-invention with the odd bit of philosophy thrown in. It had some nice humour and descriptions of Paris, but generally not my cup of tea.
The next recommendation to arrive was The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy. Published in 1958 it is loosely based on the year that Dundy spent in Paris. A sort of coming of age novel, its protagonist, Sally Jay Gorce is funny, interesting, infuriating and complicated. The Paris set she is part of seems very much the wannabe artistic successors of Hemingway et al. The novel is full of comic characters and ridiculous situations into which Sally Jay is invariably drawn. Underlying it are questions about how to live and how to love. It was both funnier and more substantial than Left Bank.
The next on my Paris pile is Hemingway's A Moveable Feast. Everything so far has been by American or British writers, I'd like to read some Paris based novels by French writers. Any suggestions?
The next recommendation to arrive was The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy. Published in 1958 it is loosely based on the year that Dundy spent in Paris. A sort of coming of age novel, its protagonist, Sally Jay Gorce is funny, interesting, infuriating and complicated. The Paris set she is part of seems very much the wannabe artistic successors of Hemingway et al. The novel is full of comic characters and ridiculous situations into which Sally Jay is invariably drawn. Underlying it are questions about how to live and how to love. It was both funnier and more substantial than Left Bank.
The next on my Paris pile is Hemingway's A Moveable Feast. Everything so far has been by American or British writers, I'd like to read some Paris based novels by French writers. Any suggestions?
Friday 2 September 2011
How To Be a Woman
I read Caitlin Moran's How To Be a Woman for my book group. A change from our usual fiction but I think it struck a chord with all of us. Described as 'Caitlin Moran rewrites The Female Eunuch from a bar stool', it was more of a memoir than I expected and it's no analytical feminist treatise, but it's good to read a mainstream writer taking on the big and small issues facing women in the twenty first century, happy to call herself a (strident) feminist. You don't have to agree with Moran's take on every issue - I'm not convinced that increasing the variety of pornography is going to resolve pornography's exploitation of women or that equating sexism with being impolite is necessarily helpful - to be pleased that she's writing about them.
In the book Moran lays open her life, from her teenage years to motherhood. No experience, from masturbation to abortion, seems to be too personal to be opened up for examination. The book is funny and occasionally moving. A lot of it will be instantly recognisable to most women.
How To Be a Woman has been criticised for it's lack of analysis and for focusing primarily on 'surface' issues such as body image, lap dancing and bras, rather than the underlying structural causes of gender inequality. But that would be different book and not what Moran set out to write. This book will be read by people who might not give more serious feminist analysis a second glance. If it can amuse and get people thinking about some of those cultural aspects of inequality and discrimination that often get taken for granted, it will be doing something right.
In the book Moran lays open her life, from her teenage years to motherhood. No experience, from masturbation to abortion, seems to be too personal to be opened up for examination. The book is funny and occasionally moving. A lot of it will be instantly recognisable to most women.
How To Be a Woman has been criticised for it's lack of analysis and for focusing primarily on 'surface' issues such as body image, lap dancing and bras, rather than the underlying structural causes of gender inequality. But that would be different book and not what Moran set out to write. This book will be read by people who might not give more serious feminist analysis a second glance. If it can amuse and get people thinking about some of those cultural aspects of inequality and discrimination that often get taken for granted, it will be doing something right.
Sunday 21 August 2011
Paradoxical Undressing
Earlier in the week I saw Kristin Hersh, lead singer of Throwing Muses, at the Book Festival. More by accident than by design I saw her on two nights, the first performing some of her songs and reading from her memoir Paradoxical Undressing, and the second reading again and discussing the book with Hannah McGill.
The memoir, based on her diaries, is of a single year of her life when she is eighteen. In that year she is diagnosed with bipolar disorder, Throwing Muses sign with 4AD and make their first album, and Hersh becomes pregnant. The book is most fascinating when it explores Hersh's creative process - she hears songs, rather than creating them, and feels her best songs are those that she meddles with least - and most moving as it explores her journey through pregnancy and how she struggles to reconcile her protectiveness for her unborn child with an honest response to the 'evil' that she perceives in her music.
In her Book Festival session Hersh talked about the struggle to get the voice right for each section of the book, something she ultimately did very successfully. The voices of the young, vulnerable Hersh of the book's first season and the pregnant Hersh of the final season are particularly well realised. The relationships between the band members and their response to what they see as the absurdities of the music industry are also beautifully portrayed.
In person Hersh was a really engaging speaker and reader, something I didn't necessarily expect given the ambivalent feelings about performing that she portrays in her book. She had originally agreed to a biography but wrote the book herself because she could not bear the alternative of a stranger delving into her psyche and her past. She has clearly fallen in love with writing, with another two books, one a further memoir, currently on the go. On the evidence of this book they will be something to look forward to.
The memoir, based on her diaries, is of a single year of her life when she is eighteen. In that year she is diagnosed with bipolar disorder, Throwing Muses sign with 4AD and make their first album, and Hersh becomes pregnant. The book is most fascinating when it explores Hersh's creative process - she hears songs, rather than creating them, and feels her best songs are those that she meddles with least - and most moving as it explores her journey through pregnancy and how she struggles to reconcile her protectiveness for her unborn child with an honest response to the 'evil' that she perceives in her music.
In her Book Festival session Hersh talked about the struggle to get the voice right for each section of the book, something she ultimately did very successfully. The voices of the young, vulnerable Hersh of the book's first season and the pregnant Hersh of the final season are particularly well realised. The relationships between the band members and their response to what they see as the absurdities of the music industry are also beautifully portrayed.
In person Hersh was a really engaging speaker and reader, something I didn't necessarily expect given the ambivalent feelings about performing that she portrays in her book. She had originally agreed to a biography but wrote the book herself because she could not bear the alternative of a stranger delving into her psyche and her past. She has clearly fallen in love with writing, with another two books, one a further memoir, currently on the go. On the evidence of this book they will be something to look forward to.
Sunday 14 August 2011
Hairy Maclary
We took our boys to see Hairy Maclary at the Fringe today. We'd heard good things about it and the boys both enjoyed it. It was nicely put together and the kids in the audience responded enthusiastically to the familiar characters. We have the first Hairy Maclary book which is a joy to read, but watching the performance made me reflect that it is the combination of language, rhythm and pictures, rather than the story, that makes it so pleasurable and the show suffered a bit from a lack of plot.
The show was fun but it couldn't match some other things we've seen for charm and imagination. We saw the lovely Potato Needs a Bath at the Imaginate Festival earlier in the year. It was quirky and fun and had the audience transfixed. I'd also like to try Julia Donaldson's Stick Man which has been getting great reviews.
After Hairy Maclary we ventured into the amazing Mirazozo, a giant inflatable structure of domes and tunnels, illuminated by natural light. It was a fascinating construction, using natural light to reflect different colours and patterns. Apparently the designers hope it will provide a place of quiet contemplation. Mmm...I can see why, but only if they ban small children. If my toddler's amazed and joyful reaction is anything to go by, for them it's more like soft play on acid.
The show was fun but it couldn't match some other things we've seen for charm and imagination. We saw the lovely Potato Needs a Bath at the Imaginate Festival earlier in the year. It was quirky and fun and had the audience transfixed. I'd also like to try Julia Donaldson's Stick Man which has been getting great reviews.
After Hairy Maclary we ventured into the amazing Mirazozo, a giant inflatable structure of domes and tunnels, illuminated by natural light. It was a fascinating construction, using natural light to reflect different colours and patterns. Apparently the designers hope it will provide a place of quiet contemplation. Mmm...I can see why, but only if they ban small children. If my toddler's amazed and joyful reaction is anything to go by, for them it's more like soft play on acid.
Thursday 11 August 2011
The 19th Wife
I've just finished reading The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff. It combines the story of Ann Eliza Young, the 19th wife of Brigham Young, 19th Century prophet and leader of the Mormon Church, with the story of a murder that takes place in modern day polygamous sect.
If you get past the Richard and Judy Book Club sticker on the cover it's an interesting if not entirely successful read. The story of Ann Eliza Young is the stronger one. Based on her real life memoirs of her life with and separation from Brigham Young and her campaign to end polygamy, it explores the reasons why women would accept polygamy and the impact that it had on them. The modern day tale is less gripping. Centring on a murder in a secretive polygamous sect, it is told from the point of view of the victim's son, who has been thrown out of the sect some years before and whose mother is accused of the murder. The book does need the modern day contrast but the story is not as convincing as that of the nineteenth wife and the ending feels contrived.
A theme of the book is that history is subjective. The novel includes a fictional version of Ann Eliza Young's memoir, a young scholar's paper on her history, and memoirs and letters of other characters. In the end though I found the point about subjectivity was overlaboured. Rather than relying on the different accounts to make his point the author has several of his characters explicitly comment that Ann Eliza's account has its biases. It felt more tell than show. The book also felt too long, it would have been more readable and focused if it had lost 100 pages.
It was still an interesting read though. Knowing virtually nothing about the Mormon church I found the history of the church and polygamy fascinating. The fact that women and children in the twenty-first century are still subject to polygamy, their lives at the whim of men, is deeply depressing.
If you get past the Richard and Judy Book Club sticker on the cover it's an interesting if not entirely successful read. The story of Ann Eliza Young is the stronger one. Based on her real life memoirs of her life with and separation from Brigham Young and her campaign to end polygamy, it explores the reasons why women would accept polygamy and the impact that it had on them. The modern day tale is less gripping. Centring on a murder in a secretive polygamous sect, it is told from the point of view of the victim's son, who has been thrown out of the sect some years before and whose mother is accused of the murder. The book does need the modern day contrast but the story is not as convincing as that of the nineteenth wife and the ending feels contrived.
A theme of the book is that history is subjective. The novel includes a fictional version of Ann Eliza Young's memoir, a young scholar's paper on her history, and memoirs and letters of other characters. In the end though I found the point about subjectivity was overlaboured. Rather than relying on the different accounts to make his point the author has several of his characters explicitly comment that Ann Eliza's account has its biases. It felt more tell than show. The book also felt too long, it would have been more readable and focused if it had lost 100 pages.
It was still an interesting read though. Knowing virtually nothing about the Mormon church I found the history of the church and polygamy fascinating. The fact that women and children in the twenty-first century are still subject to polygamy, their lives at the whim of men, is deeply depressing.
Sunday 7 August 2011
To Kindle or not to Kindle?
I love my Kindle. I was given one as a birthday present and had no idea how much I would fall in love with this piece of technology. I was sceptical that it would feel like reading a book, I thought I would miss the lovely physical thing that a book is. But no. Soon I was so absorbed I was trying to turn the pages of my Kindle. I love the access that it gives me to whatever I want to read, pretty much whenever I want to read it. I love the fact that I can keep everything I read without having to find more and more space for bookshelves. I'll no longer take a pile of books to the charity shop, only to regret it a few weeks later. I love how light it is to carry around. I love being able to download trial chapters for free.
But of course there are downsides to the Kindle. Book shops are already suffering. Waterstones has closed shops, Borders has closed altogether. What happens to those who do not want to buy books (print or electronic) online? And will the rise in electronic books lead to print books becoming more expensive? Robert McCrum in the Observer suggests that owning printed books might become synonymous with collecting them, noting that Malcolm Gladwell has suggested that the future for printed books may be the higher priced hardback. So perhaps the future of the physical book shop may be the independent book shop selling specialist and collectible books?
The other issue of course is that Amazon manufactures the Kindle, as well as selling Kindle ebooks, giving it a monopoly which has allowed it to drive prices down - although publisher resistance has now forced Amazon to adopt a model where publishers set the prices instead. Still it has led to Kindle ebook prices being generally lower than print prices and while I like a cheap book as much as the next person I think William Skidelsky makes some interesting points in his Guardian blog about the value of the "text itself".
So to Kindle or not to Kindle? Well despite everything I can't help loving mine. It's a bit like my Tesco online shop. I know I shouldn't like it, but it's so damn convenient.
But of course there are downsides to the Kindle. Book shops are already suffering. Waterstones has closed shops, Borders has closed altogether. What happens to those who do not want to buy books (print or electronic) online? And will the rise in electronic books lead to print books becoming more expensive? Robert McCrum in the Observer suggests that owning printed books might become synonymous with collecting them, noting that Malcolm Gladwell has suggested that the future for printed books may be the higher priced hardback. So perhaps the future of the physical book shop may be the independent book shop selling specialist and collectible books?
The other issue of course is that Amazon manufactures the Kindle, as well as selling Kindle ebooks, giving it a monopoly which has allowed it to drive prices down - although publisher resistance has now forced Amazon to adopt a model where publishers set the prices instead. Still it has led to Kindle ebook prices being generally lower than print prices and while I like a cheap book as much as the next person I think William Skidelsky makes some interesting points in his Guardian blog about the value of the "text itself".
So to Kindle or not to Kindle? Well despite everything I can't help loving mine. It's a bit like my Tesco online shop. I know I shouldn't like it, but it's so damn convenient.
Thursday 4 August 2011
Edinburgh book festivals
Edinburgh in August inspires mixed feelings. Lots of lovely things to do, see and listen to, but also lots of (I'm sure, lovely) people to get in the way as you try to go about the dull everyday demands of actually living in the city. It's hard not to get a bit grumpy at crowded buses, people walking very slowly when you're late for work and not being able to get a seat in your favourite cafe.
Still the good outweighs the bad and there are lots of great book things to do in Edinburgh in August. The Edinburgh International Book Festival is the obvious one, and, despite losing a lot of my goodwill during four hours online trying to book tickets and even getting them in my basket only to see them disappear for ever, I'll be taking at trip or two down there. While a lot of the well known authors are sold out, there's usually something interesting still available on the day and also some unticketed events. One that's worth checking out is Unbound, a series of free evening events in the Book Festival's Spiegeltent. The programme includes spoken word, music and psychic experiments...The Spiegeltent is also home to Story Shop, a showcase for new writers and new writing from Edinburgh, taking place at 4pm each day.
As well as the main Book Festival, the Edinburgh Book Fringe takes place at Word Power Books. The Book Fringe is being launched by Alasdair Gray, author of Lanark. Sadly I think real life (i.e. looking after my children) will get in the way of me going to the launch but there's lots of other interesting stuff going on there.
The Inky Fingers Minifest is also running from 8-13 August and features readings and performance poetry, an all day writing and performance marathon and FlashFictionMob appearing around the city.
Still the good outweighs the bad and there are lots of great book things to do in Edinburgh in August. The Edinburgh International Book Festival is the obvious one, and, despite losing a lot of my goodwill during four hours online trying to book tickets and even getting them in my basket only to see them disappear for ever, I'll be taking at trip or two down there. While a lot of the well known authors are sold out, there's usually something interesting still available on the day and also some unticketed events. One that's worth checking out is Unbound, a series of free evening events in the Book Festival's Spiegeltent. The programme includes spoken word, music and psychic experiments...The Spiegeltent is also home to Story Shop, a showcase for new writers and new writing from Edinburgh, taking place at 4pm each day.
As well as the main Book Festival, the Edinburgh Book Fringe takes place at Word Power Books. The Book Fringe is being launched by Alasdair Gray, author of Lanark. Sadly I think real life (i.e. looking after my children) will get in the way of me going to the launch but there's lots of other interesting stuff going on there.
The Inky Fingers Minifest is also running from 8-13 August and features readings and performance poetry, an all day writing and performance marathon and FlashFictionMob appearing around the city.
Wednesday 3 August 2011
Alasdair Gray's Lanark
My last book group read was Lanark by Alasdair Gray. It has been described as 'a modern classic' and 'the best in Scottish Literature in the twentieth century'. So, no raised expectations clearly.
I approached it with some trepidation and put off starting it for so long that it was a good thing my book group was postponed and I got an extra couple of weeks to read it. When I finally opened it, it was much more readable than I expected. Despite the way the novel plays with structure, text and concepts, the narrative voice is straightforward and clear. I was surprised to find that I preferred Lanark's fantastical story to the more realist books about Duncan Thaw.
Lanark is packed with interesting ideas but when I got to the end I wasn't sure if I thought that what it was trying to say was coherent. When I thought about it, it sort of unravelled in my head. Part of the problem lies with me as a reader. When you read in a fragmented way (five minutes while standing at a bus stop, twenty minutes before you fall asleep at night), it's sometimes hard to see a novel as a whole, particularly when that whole is as long and challenging as Lanark. Still, it gave me a lot to think about and played with my expectations and perspective. Perhaps that's enough for now.
I approached it with some trepidation and put off starting it for so long that it was a good thing my book group was postponed and I got an extra couple of weeks to read it. When I finally opened it, it was much more readable than I expected. Despite the way the novel plays with structure, text and concepts, the narrative voice is straightforward and clear. I was surprised to find that I preferred Lanark's fantastical story to the more realist books about Duncan Thaw.
Lanark is packed with interesting ideas but when I got to the end I wasn't sure if I thought that what it was trying to say was coherent. When I thought about it, it sort of unravelled in my head. Part of the problem lies with me as a reader. When you read in a fragmented way (five minutes while standing at a bus stop, twenty minutes before you fall asleep at night), it's sometimes hard to see a novel as a whole, particularly when that whole is as long and challenging as Lanark. Still, it gave me a lot to think about and played with my expectations and perspective. Perhaps that's enough for now.
Tuesday 2 August 2011
Science in fiction
I caught a few minutes of Radio 4's Front Row this evening where they were discussing Litmus: Short Stories from Modern Science, published by Comma Press. It's an intriguing idea, a set of specially commissioned short stories inspired by breakthroughs in modern science and written in consultation with scientists and historians. An afterward to each story provides the science behind the fiction.
The collection takes the idea that we engage with science through stories - Archimedes and his bath, Newton and his apple - and uses fiction to explore more recent scientific breakthroughs. Definitely sounds like it's worth a look.
For more science-related fiction I would recommend Allegra Goodman's Intuition, a fascinating exploration of human motivations, values and relationships set in the context of a scientific research lab with its rivalries and pressure.
The collection takes the idea that we engage with science through stories - Archimedes and his bath, Newton and his apple - and uses fiction to explore more recent scientific breakthroughs. Definitely sounds like it's worth a look.
For more science-related fiction I would recommend Allegra Goodman's Intuition, a fascinating exploration of human motivations, values and relationships set in the context of a scientific research lab with its rivalries and pressure.
Monday 1 August 2011
Reading Hemingway
I recently finished The Paris Wife by Paula McLain. It's a fictional memoir in the voice of Ernest Hemingway's first wife Hadley. It has a fantastic setting, 1920s Paris, and a fascinating cast list (Gertrude Stein & Alice B Toklas, Scott & Zelda Fitzgerald, etc.). McLain's Hadley is a sympathetic character and her love and support for Hemingway and anguish at losing him are movingly portrayed.
Reading The Paris Wife has inspired me to have another go at reading Hemingway. The only Hemingway I've read was The Old Man and the Sea which I read a few years ago when I was on holiday in Cuba. To be honest I preferred Our Man in Havana which was my other choice of suitably themed reading that holiday.
I did, however, see an adaptation of The Sun Also Rises at the Edinburgh International Festival last year. It was by experimental American theatre company, the Elevator Repair Service, who are known for their six hour word-for-word version of The Great Gatsby. Fortunately The Sun Also Rises was abridged to a mere three hours forty minutes, but my heart did sink when I realised what I had let myself in for after blithely agreeing to go with a friend (it's not often I get a night out so I said yes first and checked out the production second). I was surprised that I really enjoyed its depiction of the self-destructive characters against the backdrop of bull-fighting. I was fascinated to read, in The Paris Wife, about the real life events on which the novel was based.
So I've ordered A Moveable Feast, Hemingway's own memoir of his Paris years, from the library. And I may just give The Sun Also Rises a go as well.
Reading The Paris Wife has inspired me to have another go at reading Hemingway. The only Hemingway I've read was The Old Man and the Sea which I read a few years ago when I was on holiday in Cuba. To be honest I preferred Our Man in Havana which was my other choice of suitably themed reading that holiday.
I did, however, see an adaptation of The Sun Also Rises at the Edinburgh International Festival last year. It was by experimental American theatre company, the Elevator Repair Service, who are known for their six hour word-for-word version of The Great Gatsby. Fortunately The Sun Also Rises was abridged to a mere three hours forty minutes, but my heart did sink when I realised what I had let myself in for after blithely agreeing to go with a friend (it's not often I get a night out so I said yes first and checked out the production second). I was surprised that I really enjoyed its depiction of the self-destructive characters against the backdrop of bull-fighting. I was fascinated to read, in The Paris Wife, about the real life events on which the novel was based.
So I've ordered A Moveable Feast, Hemingway's own memoir of his Paris years, from the library. And I may just give The Sun Also Rises a go as well.
Sunday 31 July 2011
Why Reader, Interrupted? Well because my reading is, a lot. By work and two children under five (and a serious online kakuro habit). If I try to sneak in the odd chapter when my children are around, my youngest will gently, but firmly, remove the book from me and flick through its pages himself. It's a far cry from the days when a weekend's reading would only be interrupted by my mother's unreasonable demand that I shouldn't read at the table.
So over the last few years my reading has dwindled. But recently I've felt the need to to read properly again, to read more and better. Instead of opting for the easy detective novel I've started reading things that are a little more interesting and challenging. My reading may be interrupted but that doesn't mean it has to stop.
So over the last few years my reading has dwindled. But recently I've felt the need to to read properly again, to read more and better. Instead of opting for the easy detective novel I've started reading things that are a little more interesting and challenging. My reading may be interrupted but that doesn't mean it has to stop.
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