I've been reading Greenmantle by John Buchan. It's a hundred year old spy novel set in Germany and the Mid East during World War I and it is a sort of sequel to the 39 Steps. If, like me, you read the 39 Steps and didn't think it was as good as the Hitchcock film Greenmantle will come as a pleasant surprise: it's exciting, fast paced and apart from some unironic jingoism (and an over reliance on coincidence) a very good read. There's an interesting scene early on where Hannay meets the Kaiser at a railway station and the sympathetic treatment of the German Emperor must have shocked many Brits at the time (it was published in 1916). ...
But I didn't really want to talk about the book that much, I actually wanted to chat about a unique experience in my life: reading the book while drinking the beer that's been named after it. I know of no other beer which has been named after a book, and didn't know about Greenmantle Ale until I found it in my local beer shop in St Kilda. Greenmantle Ale is a light session ale - malty, hoppy, smooth and very drinkable. To my mind there were caramel and chocolate notes and a pleasant slightly tannic aftertaste. The alcohol content is not high and you could knock back three or four and still concentrate on your novel.
...
There are of course Thomas Hardy ales but I haven't heard of another beer/book combination like this. There's plenty of scope for others: War and Peace could inspire a Russian Imperial Stout and surely the Brooklyn Brewing Company could do something with Last Exit to Brooklyn. The lack of a Ulysses Porter seems like an enormous gap in the market, but of course sometimes its the evil of the giant brewing companies that's to blame.
33 comments:
There's Guinness, named after the annual book of records. What, why are you looking at me like that?
The New Hampshire microbrew should its next beer beer "tastes like water from a recently used toilet." Budweiser can't sue, but we'll all know who they're talking about.
I did read 39 Steps, and you're right, the movie is a lot better. So thanks for renewed hope on Greenmantle.
That judge in the case did have a sense of humor,at least. Taking a poll on how much Americans know about anything literary seems an odd way of deciding, though.
I think the current heir or heirs of the Joyce estate would frown on a beer being named after Ulysses, mainly because they seem to frown on everything else.
I actually think the 39 steps is a cracking novel, and Greenmantle is certainly excellent. There are some fabulous characters; Blenkiron, Peter Pienaar, Sandy etc, and of course Hannay is great. The fist-fight with the hulking, brutish German is also a great scene but I might have said too much, so I'll stop. I wouldn't recommend reading the rest of the Hannay collection though, they're a bit weak. The Island of Sheep isn't too bad, but Mr. Standfast is poor, and interestingly quite racist towards the Irish.
Wait, I'm wrong. Mr Standfast is actually not too bad, it's the Three Hostages that is quite racist/poor.
You shouldn't talk of beers when I'm depressed.
Sigh.
Mike
LMAO I would say if the thing werent far too big to countenance such an event.
Dana
I still cant get past the fact that George Clooney does their voice overs. Everything else he does is tainted as far as I'm concerned.
Seana
The book doesnt have the girl, the plane, the wit, the sex, but Greenmantle goes along at a nice old pace.
Conor
I wouldnt want to get Hannay in a conversation about Jews and Gypsies either.
BTW I didnt say the 39 Steps was terrible, just that I thought the film transcended the material. And the play is pretty good too.
Marco
You're a four hour train ride from Belgium, what's there to be depressed about? The beer and chocolate capital of the universe awaits.
Maigret of course drank a lot of beer but there is no Maigret beer. I think there used to be an Inspector Morse bitter (I dont know if its still around) but no beer named after a specific book.
Well, part of it is the fact that the mere mention of beer reminds me of my doomed bearmance
but mostly is that when Sunday morning this unrepentant atheist will attend the last mass of this guy he will probably cry like a onion-peeling baby all the time.
Marco, I think it's time for both you and the priest to turn a page.
Tough love, my friend. Life's too short.
Thirty-nine Steps isn't terrible, it's just disappointing by comparison. To your list, Adrian, I would add, great cinematography. That may seem unfair, but it could have been written so that one would feel the atmosphere more.
Oh, I should mention that I'm currently reading a book that does have the girl, the plane, the wit, the sex. Well, the plane is pretty peripheral so far.
It's called The Dead Yard. Ever heard of it?
I'll postpone judgement on whether the movie is better until the movie actually gets made.
I read Greenmantle two years ago. I enjoyed it tremendously, and it seems you and I noticed and liked some of the same things. (Read my comments here.) Among the book's many points of interest is one character's prediction that Islam just might be a force in the world one day.
Buchan's Thirty-Nine Steps is not a bad book. Hitchcock's Thirty-Nine Steps is a fine movie. The two don't have much to do with one another, though.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Peter
Yes I agree with you. Constantinople does come in for some harsh words (probably justified) and that scene with the Kaiser was amazing.
I'm really liking it and the beer's not bad (I bought another 4 pack).
Marco
I wouldnt say that I was an unrepentant atheist, but I'm pretty close, and that guy really sounds pretty cool.
I still say you should go to Belgium.
Seana
Yeah the film is so light and frothy and delicious it would be hard to live up to in the book.
Hmmm I hope you keep liking The Dead Yard, many of the people on Amazon and elsewhere complained that it got very dark for them in the second half....
Well, having read these books totally out of order, I know that Micahel Forsythe lives, so it will probably be okay. There is actually plenty of forshadowing of future darkness, so I'm kind of surprised that people were surprised.
My question is, when you have a female character say to Michael that men will always hate him and women will always love him, how come you had to ask the women in this crowd if your protagonist was sexy? Did you forget?
Seana, my favorite part of The Dead Yard comes when everyone, Prods and Catholics, the IRA, the British, the Sons of Cúchulainn and the Americans, joins hands and says, “Hey, kids! Let’s put on a show!”
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Peter, I think you just gave away the grand finale. It's okay for me, because it's all recapped in the Bloomsday Dead, but what about those who haven't been able to get their hands on a copy yet? I didn't think it was really necessary to list all the musical numbers but I guess that's what they mean by artistic license.
Peter
Its funny I thought that scene would stir up more controversy than it did, but I seem to have gotten away with it. This was my thought process: everyone's expecting some gloomy Celtic blood soaked violent finale so why not invert it and go all Oliver! instead.
I was proud of the Gilbert and Sullivanesque recitation of all Northern Ireland's paramilitary groups: UDA, UFF, UVF, LVF, OIRA, IRA, INLA, CIRA, RIRA... (all true groups BTW).
Seana
Oh yeah I forgot about that bit. I think he was supposed to be a bit more mature and confident in book 3 and in book 1 callow and gullible and somewhere in between in book 2.
I did a reading in Newburyport for Dead Yard and the lady who runs the All THings British shop came and brought me a jar of clotted cream which, I thought, was nice.
I've been to Belgium and the beer and chocolate RULE. The food, however, sucks. Just my opinion. (The diamonds are spectacular.)
Which group is the BTW?
Heard Stuart Neville and Ruth Dudley Edwards talk about a number of the splinter and splinter-spliter paramilitary groups on their panel at Bouchercon. The moderator, perhaps sensibly, interrupted and asked them to explain what all these groups were.
Speaking of Bouchercon, it appears I may be on the hook for dinner.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Holden
Did you try and moules et frites? A little piece of heaven if you ask me.
Peter
And I left a couple out. Three or four are still going and have turned to organised crime as a vector for their boredom, stupidity and unpleasantness.
still waiting for my bloodsoaked michael forsythe action figure, broken coke bottle in hand. macfarlane toys, are you reading this?
That clotted cream was a nice gesture. I wonder if she ever read the book, though.
It hadn't occurred to me that All Things British was a real place. So do they do a Greek Trojan war reenactment as well there? If so, I think I really ought to mention this to our Greek Festival, and show them where they're slacking.
HB
Oh man I would love to get me one of those.
Ha, yeah, the coke bottle would be his weapon of choice.
Seana
I made up the Trojan War reenactment. (There was some creativity in the damn book).
I liked it, though. Maybe I'll suggest it anyway. They had living statues of the Greeks one year, played by high school students standing stock still in white body paint and white drapery. I think they probably stopped it when the sadder but wiser high school students said no way to a second year of that. I bet they wouldn't say no to a re-enactment of a battle, though. Right now they have a climbing gym that they call Mt. Olympus or some such balderdash. Popular, though.
Well, I'm about 150 pages into Dead Yard, and I certainly hope most of it is fiction...
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