bookrblog

The Children’s Book

Wednesday, January 20th, 2010 | British Literature | No Comments

I was uncertain as to whether to read A S Byatt’s new book, as I haven’t always enjoyed her previous novels. But this was eminently readable, well-researched, with a sheaf of fascinating characters. It follows the lives of a group of families living in the Edwardian period, families from a Fabian background - sort of like hippies, with free love and fresh air and art being all important. The children in the family struggle with the world that is presented to them by their elders, a world which on one hand is idyllic and hopeful, but on the other has dark, ugly secrets. The matriach, Olive, writes a story for each of the children, based on the fairytales she is fascinated by. The stories also don’t turn out quite the way Olive thought.

Knowing that the Great War is coming up does put all their dreams and plans into perspective. They had no idea that their entire world was going to fall apart. It makes all the anguish seem wasteful. Quite apposite for where we are now, with no real sense of what will happen. A good book.

Shades of Grey

Tuesday, January 12th, 2010 | British Literature | No Comments

I was disappointed when I picked up Jasper Fforde’s new novel and realised it wasn’t a Thursday Next book. This is the beginning of a new series, set in a future world where people are ordered by their colour vision, where no one can see in the dark, and where colours hold powers of healing - and death. And yet, strangely enough, I found the world Fforde created to be rather barren. I couldn’t really “see” the houses, the village, the countryside, and I couldn’t feel as though I really knew the characters, either. In fact, it reminds me a little of his Nursery Crime series, where it’s such a caricature you can’t relate to it at all. He adds in his usual jokes - rabbits are rare but rhinos aren’t, onions are eaten with custard, and headless corpses aren’t horrible - but they aren’t as funny or clever because they’re now expected in a Fforde novel. I really wish he’d return to the style of his very first Thursday Next novel, The Eyre Affair, which had a depth this book lacks. Yes, hierachies are bad, closed societies are bad, lack of books and history are bad; but let’s face it, after 1984 who can say it any better? And when it’s so extreme, what does it do but make the readers feel self-righteous about their own culture? I expected more from Fforde, and I didn’t get it in this book.

As I Am

Sunday, January 10th, 2010 | American Literature | No Comments

This is Patricia Neal’s autobiography, the American actress who married Roald Dahl. She really did live an eventful life; a top actress in the ’40s and ’50s, lover of Gary Cooper, married to Roald Dahl, losing her daughter to measles, her son having a brain injury due to an accident, then having a stroke herself. Really, she had so much happen to her. I was shocked at all the affairs she had with married men in her youth; and the fact that she never thought “karma” when a young woman had an affair with her husband (who ended up divorcing her). She was evidently a pretty strong woman who lost her temper a lot, knew what she wanted, and felt hard done by quite a bit too. She hated the relationship she had with her children, and yet she wasn’t around when they were young, due to her career. She was in a lot of films, won an oscar, but in the end none of that brought much joy to her. A fascinating woman, if slightly amoral, even if she did end up becoming a catholic and haunting a convent - more for what she could get than anything else. Interesting.

My Life in France

Saturday, January 9th, 2010 | American Literature | No Comments

I really enjoyed this book by Julia Child; I sought it out after the Julie & Julia film, where Julie was so dull and Julia so fascinating. Julia Child spent years in France post-war and discovered food, food, food. She also discovered the beautiful places and interesting people; she sounds like one of those people who find things are wonderful simply because of their outlook on life. This book is also about her relationship with her husband Paul, which is lovely. There is a mixture of wicked and clever alongside a sort of naiveity which is really endearing. I don’t “get” the food thing, but I do get the joy of new cultures and discoveries. It’s wonderful that she found something so concrete to enjoy in life, which lasted wherever she went.

The Keys of the Kingdom

Tuesday, January 5th, 2010 | British Literature | No Comments

I still can’t work out why the name A J Cronin is so familiar to me when I really can’t say if I’ve read anything by him before. However, it was familiar enough to me so that I picked this book up, and I’m glad I did, because I enjoyed it. It’s the story of a Catholic priest from Scotland and his life, from a troubled boyhood to life as a missionary in China and then resettlement back home. While it is a picture of its time in many ways, it’s also quite modern in its ecumenicalism - the priest embracing an atheist and a methodist  equally! It’s a gentle story, and I enjoyed it.

The 19th Wife

Monday, January 4th, 2010 | American Literature | No Comments

This novel by David Evershoff was very creepy, because you know that it’s based on real cults in the USA today. The actual structure of the novel is flawed; it moves between a modern murder story and fragments of memoirs from a hundred years ago. In the modern story, a 19th wife is accused of murder, and her estranged son, a “lost boy” tries to find out what is really going on in order to help her. In the old story, it re-tells the story of Brigham-Young’s 19th wife, Ann Eliza. I can imagine a better writer managing to allow the story to flow a little more seamlessly; as it is, you begin to forget whose story you are reading. However, despite his shortcomings as a writer, this story is powerful because of the truths in it; that women are still being subjugated by religion every day, and that people prefer to ignore it rather than face it.

Imogen Quy mysteries

Monday, January 4th, 2010 | British Literature | No Comments

Jill Paton Walsh was a strong fan of Dorothy L Sayers’ mysteries; she not only completed a few of Sayers’ unfinished stories, but she has written these 4 mysteries herself. They are set in modern-day Cambridge, with a middle-aged heroine who stumbles over an alarming number of bodies. Imogen is an overly sensible woman of 35 (I’m 35 and she seems a hundred years older than me) who has accepted she is on the shelf since she was jilted years ago, and is getting on with life. She reminds me of Alexander McCall Smith’s Isobel, without the quirkiness - I would be very surprised if Paton Walsh hasn’t unconsciously borrowed from Isobel Dalhousie, to be honest.

The stories are entertaining enough, if a little far-fetched (but so are most murder mysteries). Paton Walsh’s problem is her monotone voice. There’s no change of pace from calm, whether there’s a body in a fountain or a friend over to tea. It’s peaceful, sensible, and relaxing, which is nice; but it isn’t great literature.

Notes from Walnut Tree Farm

Friday, January 1st, 2010 | British Literature | No Comments

This book by Roger Deakin was put together by friends after his tragic death from a brain tumour only 4 months after diagnosis. It is organised by month and consists of notes about the world around him; the trees and animals in the woods, the people in the village, everything he observes. It is a lovely book, peaceful, hopeful, and yet angry; angry about what he is losing, what the country was allowing to be lost so easily, when he would hold onto it with everything he had. This book beautifully completes his other two, Wildwood and Waterlog. I loved it.