//podcastplus.net/feed/literal-fiction-book-club~b5f1d712 A weekly book club where we discuss sections of books we've always wanted to read, but never took the time to. Mon, 04 May 2026 06:58:18 +0000 https://anchor.fm/s/2430a4d4/podcast/play/35929136/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2021-5-21%2F29004b2c-cfef-6bb8-8cea-3fc17f4c570e.mp3 This week we’re reading ‘The Road to Kalamata’ by “Mad” Mike Hoare. This is Hoare’s personal account of what it was like as a mercenary for the Katanga secessionists in the early 1960’s. Hoare exposes us to the logistical challenges, camaraderie, mortal ambivalence, and appeal of the mercenary life while dodging Baluba ambushes, escaping arrest by the U.N, and leading men through the Congo bush. Between events, Hoare gives us some insight into his own thoughts. How he  understands the Katanga secession, the death of Congolese Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba, how the U.N peacekeeping forces are deployed and operated, among other musings. Hoare writes in a muscular style that doesn’t try to do more than it should, and frames his memoir as a story. We are introduced to the men of his unit 4 Commando, their training regiment and mission, their trek from the training base to a strategic location, and their run in with the U.N Peacekeeping mission. While the U.N is trying to arrest 4 C... Mon, 21 Jun 2021 22:22:49 +0000 https://anchor.fm/s/2430a4d4/podcast/play/35929136/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2021-5-21%2F29004b2c-cfef-6bb8-8cea-3fc17f4c570e.mp3 https://anchor.fm/s/2430a4d4/podcast/play/34959498/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2021-5-6%2F9e26ed94-e611-8d88-8af9-fde52167256b.mp3 This week we’re discussing the second half of Burmese Days by George Orwell. The Tannerite has been lit and the explosion, rather than revealing the gender of a baby on the way, sends sharpnel of despair into the reader’s eyes. For the first few chapters, Flory’s star is rising. He has made up with Elizabeth by going hunting with her. On their hunt Flory and Elizabeth encounter a leopard which they successfully slay. Elizabeth is overcome with emotional whimsey and expects Flory to ask for her hand in marriage before the week is up. This is for sensible reasons as well - to preclude a life of absolute poverty and escape the grasp of her lecherous Uncle. Elizabeth’s affection even gives Flory the courage to recommend Dr. Veraswami to the English Club, as a way to protect his friend from the machinations of U Po Kyin. But wait, the dashing, polo-playing, horse riding Lieutenant Verrall arrives and sweeps Elizabeth off her feet. She discovers Flory’s “beastly” relationship with the Burmese ... Sun, 06 Jun 2021 19:58:28 +0000 https://anchor.fm/s/2430a4d4/podcast/play/34959498/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2021-5-6%2F9e26ed94-e611-8d88-8af9-fde52167256b.mp3 https://anchor.fm/s/2430a4d4/podcast/play/33612204/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2021-4-16%2F4b8936f1-995c-1818-4ac4-7d3fa903c73f.mp3 This week we’re discussing the first half of Burmese Days by George Orwell. The first half of the novel is an evocative, semi-autobiographical account of the man John Flory, an English timber merchant living in the Burmese imperial district of Kyauktada. Flory is a sensitive and depraved fellow, a person whose life did not play out exactly as he planned. Lacking other prospects, Flory secured a job at the timber company with the help of his parents, and was sent out to Burma in his early twenties. It has been fifteen years since that moment. He has not seen England since. He is a man with no friends and no prospects for them. The English imperial agents with their racist bravado does not appeal to him, and true friendship with the subjected Burmese is socially impossible. The closest Flory gets is with the striving Indian doctor Veraswami. The doctor is a loyal British subject, advocating for imperial virtues where Flory refuses to. Veraswami is also being targeted by the corrupt deputy U Po Kyin whom... Sun, 16 May 2021 16:57:04 +0000 https://anchor.fm/s/2430a4d4/podcast/play/33612204/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2021-4-16%2F4b8936f1-995c-1818-4ac4-7d3fa903c73f.mp3 https://anchor.fm/s/2430a4d4/podcast/play/30170814/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2021-2-28%2F170047561-44100-2-53f48a52b09aa.m4a This week we’re reading the last third of The Scorching Wind by Walter Macken. The final section of the book brings us to the apex of the Irish struggle for independence. Dominic’s character trajectory from vacillating fellow traveler to full blooded Irish Republican is brought to fruition, as is the cementing of Dualta’s and Dominic’s relationship as brothers. The conflict between Irish Republicans and British imperial soldiers heats up to the point where Dominic is constantly on the run - sleeping in the houses of brave Irish citizens, ditches, and eventually finds himself in a tomb with Dualta after Dualta assassinates the Irish traitor Sergeant Nick. The wiley Sam finds Dominic and Dualta to tell them that the British and Irish authorities have entered negotiations and Dualta heads to be part of the treaty settlement while Dominic goes home to his mother. The Peace Treaty is signed and two factions emerge - on the one hand the radical Republicans who see the peace treaty as a farcical betray... Sun, 28 Mar 2021 18:57:30 +0000 https://anchor.fm/s/2430a4d4/podcast/play/30170814/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2021-2-28%2F170047561-44100-2-53f48a52b09aa.m4a https://anchor.fm/s/2430a4d4/podcast/play/29618000/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2021-2-21%2F167471980-44100-2-8c40901cd61d5.m4a This week we’re reading the second third of The Scorching Wind by Walter Macken. This section opens up with Dominic on a train, bringing with him weapons and grenades for the Irish Independence movement. While he is on the train, two British soldiers, Skin and Mac, take seats next to him. They chat Dominic up about playing snooker (pool in American), poker, and politics. Dominic escapes without being found out and is picked up by Sam in a buggy which brings them to a “safe” house. In this house is Dominic’s brother Dualta and their mother. Unsurprisingly in this tale of constant action the house is raided by British soldiers, including Skin and Mac, Dominic is beaten half to death while they try to coax out of him Dualta's whereabouts. This is a kind of coming of age moment for Dominic, who is thoroughly converted to the Irish Independence movement. The rest of the section is a mix of cloak and dagger guerilla warfare, prison escapes, remembrances of the dead, drowning torture scenes, and soli... Sun, 21 Mar 2021 23:51:43 +0000 https://anchor.fm/s/2430a4d4/podcast/play/29618000/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2021-2-21%2F167471980-44100-2-8c40901cd61d5.m4a https://anchor.fm/s/2430a4d4/podcast/play/28986655/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2021-2-15%2F5198a070-5ba4-fac3-9f12-42c4341961f6.mp3 This week we’re reading the first third of The Scorching Wind by Walter Macken. The Scorching Wind opens from the perspective of Dominic, who is preparing to accompany his older, more handsome brother Dualta to the train that will bring Dualta to the Western Front of World War I. The boys come from a family steeped in the politics of Irish Independence. The Irish Nationalist movement is split at the outbreak of the Great War, on the one side the Redmond volunteers agreeing to fight for the empire in exchange for Home Rule, on the other the hardcore nationalists who wish to prosecute a national independence struggle in Ireland. The family of Dominic and Dualta reflect this split, Dualta is volunteering with Redmond, their father a principled nationalist. After Dualta is sent off, the book transports us to the future, which culminates in the Easter Rebellion of 1916. The hardcore nationalists, led by the likes of Patrick Pearse and James Connoly, attempt an insurrection against the British state to esta... Mon, 15 Mar 2021 01:42:52 +0000 https://anchor.fm/s/2430a4d4/podcast/play/28986655/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2021-2-15%2F5198a070-5ba4-fac3-9f12-42c4341961f6.mp3 https://anchor.fm/s/2430a4d4/podcast/play/28285198/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2021-2-7%2F875dec99-35ae-a2cf-5e86-3ce496b7985f.mp3 This week we’re reading the first half of Kim by Rudyard Kipling Kim is an odd tale of an Irish orphan from the Indian city of Lahore. He is known to the people of Lahore as “Friend of the World” and Kipling shows us the varied peoples that consider Kim such a friend. The main arc of the story begins when Kim meets a Holy Man from Tibet, known to us as llama. This man is searching for a great River which will wash away his sins and release the llama from the Wheel of Life, coincidentally Kim also has a prophesy to fulfill, he must find a Red Bull in green grass which portends war. Off Kim and the llama go in search of the River over roads and on trains, the llama impressive in his forbearance and wisdom, Kim in his sly trickery. Until Kim comes upon a British regiment which turns out to be the regiment of his now deceased father. Kim is captured by the soldiers and sent to a school far away to be trained as a learned British subject - will Kim escape, does he even want to, and what happens to the ll... Sun, 07 Mar 2021 21:04:01 +0000 https://anchor.fm/s/2430a4d4/podcast/play/28285198/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2021-2-7%2F875dec99-35ae-a2cf-5e86-3ce496b7985f.mp3 https://anchor.fm/s/2430a4d4/podcast/play/27050254/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2021-1-21%2F8fab3c61-aed9-5213-d89f-7aa8f528fb16.mp3 This week we’re She by H Rider Haggard She is the quintessential story of British Adventure during the height of the nation’s imperialist empire. The story is written as a manuscript sent to an academic for later publication, the author another academic Holly. In the manuscript Holly recounts how he became the adopted father to Leo, the descendent of a long line of men whose destiny is to fulfill their vengeance on a sorceress in East Africa. Holly, Leo, and their manservant Job sail to discover more about this sorceress and fulfill the quest left by Leo’s father. They are faced with many trials. After being shipwrecked and forced to travel up a river with the super cool British airtight river boat, they are captured by the Amahagger people, but are informed that “She who must be obeyed” has ordered that any white man captured must remain unharmed (which turned out poorly for their Mohamadin traveling companion, the captain of their shipwrecked transport). It is revealed that Leo is the descende... Sun, 21 Feb 2021 22:36:44 +0000 https://anchor.fm/s/2430a4d4/podcast/play/27050254/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2021-1-21%2F8fab3c61-aed9-5213-d89f-7aa8f528fb16.mp3 https://anchor.fm/s/2430a4d4/podcast/play/25716493/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2021-0-25%2F148830848-44100-2-f75045d749ccd.m4a This week we’re discussing Part 5 from the Rise and Fall of the British Empire by Lawrence James. Parts 5 bring us from the Second World War to the anti-climactic end of the British Empire. Lawrence gives much focus to how the empire’s colonial subjects responded to the call for support from Britain during its fight against Hitler - whole hearted support with an implicit understanding that independence would soon follow. The Suez Crisis of 1956, in which British and French forces attempted to reclaim the Suez Canal from the Egyptian President Nasser, turned out to be the last hurrah of “great” British imperialism. Slowly and then quickly the British Empire began to dissolve, from Canada to India to South Africa - with the final major decolonisation taking place in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbawbwe) in 1979. Lawrence mulls over the legacy of the British Empire, was it the spread of civilization, the spread of barbarism, or as with most things, a lot a bit of both? From the back of the book: ... Mon, 25 Jan 2021 22:04:37 +0000 https://anchor.fm/s/2430a4d4/podcast/play/25716493/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2021-0-25%2F148830848-44100-2-f75045d749ccd.m4a https://anchor.fm/s/2430a4d4/podcast/play/25017781/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2021-0-10%2Ff1be6d24-b167-e48f-bf34-ff0f00a3c793.mp3 The Life of Charles Edward Cornwallis the Fifth aka the 1st Marquess Cornwallis aka Viscount Brome aka Earl Cornwallis aka Failure at Yorktown aka George Washington’s bitch. Sun, 10 Jan 2021 23:22:02 +0000 https://anchor.fm/s/2430a4d4/podcast/play/25017781/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2021-0-10%2Ff1be6d24-b167-e48f-bf34-ff0f00a3c793.mp3