We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
I think it's fair to say that I have read far less books this year then I would have normally by this time of year. But, it's also pretty fair to say that on the whole I've read very few books I didn't enjoy which is an improvement upon previous years.
'We Are All Completely Besides Ourselves' follows this years pattern. Shortlisted for this years Booker Prize, for my part I was completely seduced by the attention grabbing title, it was always pretty much a certainty I was going to give it a try. And I thought it was great.
Told from the point of view of Rosemary Cooke who begins her story in the middle before concluding it around present day, she once had two siblings : Fern and Lowell. Fern disappeared when she was 5, to be barely spoken of again. Lowell ran away in his teens, and she hasn't seen him since either.
There is so so much I'd like to say about this book, a lot of things I'd like to debate, mostly in reference to their parents and the nearly criminal level of psychological damage their choices inflicted on their children. Unfortunately, I'm loathe to do so. A twist comes roughly a third of the way in, which makes it near impossible to review without absolutely wrecking the beginning.
This is exactly what happened to me - An Amazon review gave this away, and so I already knew. The thing was, too, that as I read it I knew that far from guessing the twist I would have made (possibly from what life experiences I bring to the book as a reader) entirely different assumptions.
Because I can't really talk about the plot, what I will say is that I found Rosemary as a character incredibly believable, even with the uniqueness of her life and the circumstances, I felt like if I'd had her life I'd be like her too. If anything there is not enough of either Lowell, or the parents, possibly because it's being narrated from Rosemary's viewpoint. If the narrator had been omniscient or if each character had taken a turn this might have been better, but this would have really changed the feel of the book and consequentially made it a different book. It's just there's a lot more I wanted to know, and hoped the mothers' journal would reveal but it didn't.
I think I expected it to be a funny book, indeed it's described as comic, but I thought it was incredibly sad. There were parts of brilliantly observed and astute points about life and family, and being a human in general. In fact, I enjoyed the writing so much, I will certainly seek out her other novels. Though the chronology of the storytelling occasionally feels fractured it wasn't really to its detriment.
Also, in the general scheme of things, the originality in terms of plot here is inarguable and it is genuinely good as a reader to have a book that you can't even slightly accuse of being a tale you might have read something like before.
10/10
Showing posts with label Good. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Good. Show all posts
Sunday, 14 December 2014
Sunday, 10 July 2011
Book #60 Alfred and Emily by Doris Lessing
Alfred and Emily
Warning : This review contains some spoilers
Alfred and Emily written by Nobel Prize for Literature winner Doris Lessing, was declared, shortly before publication to be the now 92 year old writer's final book.
Alfred and Emily is a curious blend of fiction and non-fiction the concept of which I was unaware of prior to reading. In the opening section, the first half of the book, we move from August to August beginning in 1902. Alfred Tayler gains notice at a cricket match but opts to stay within the farming community, he has a happy marriage to Betsy and they have twins. At the same cricket match was Emily McVeigh who has scandalised her father and her best friends mother by giving up a university place to become a nurse, her friend Daisy follows her. Later Emily experiences a short, unhappy marriage before becoming involved in charitable works, she maintains contact with her old community including Alfred, from time to time. The early section reminded me much of Virginia Woolf's "Between The Acts". Ordinary British people in the country enjoy summer pursuits, unaware that a World War silently approaches and will tear them apart. At least, that's what I thought was coming.
Alfred and Emily however is a "re-imagining" a guess, at how their lives would have developed without the intervention of the first World War. I read it perplexed, wondering why it didn't impact the characters at all, then suddenly realised that there was something "different" at work here, that Lessing for some reason had edited history and in her story the first World War did not happen.
Suddenly the involving story of Alfred and Emily brings you up short, you turn the page and are confronted by two short obituaries marking their deaths, with half a book left to go. Alfred and Emily are revealed to be Lessing's parents and the story, a story of what her parents lives might have been had not the war intervened, Alfred and Emily having become romantically involved in the war.
Whilst the first half of the book is a fiction, the second half is fact, little vignettes of different aspects of their lives as expats in what is now Zimbabwe and what was then Rhodesia. Their marriage is revealed to not have been entirely happy, and Doris' relationship with them, her mother in particular not always easy.
I suppose we all wonder at times about "might have beens" if we'd chosen a different university, or married a different person and I suppose we all wonder what would have happened if our parents hadn't met, one of my grandfathers for example, almost became a monk. Lessing seems to go one step further though, her story of Alfred and Emily seems almost like wish-fulfillment. Alfred has a happy marriage whilst Emily dies childless. Lessing strongly indicates that in her opinion Emily McVeigh should not have had children but in so doing wishes away her own existence, which makes the book slightly odd.
I found the Rhodesia episodes very true, I find it impossible to remember every incident that has ever happened in my whole life, and I'm only 30. I think all we ever retain are different snapshots of different eras, and the significant moments of our lives. Although sometimes we don't realise their significance. I am sceptical of autobiographies that recall word for word every detail of their lives and Lessing doesn't do that here.
It' s a shame that I still haven't read a "proper Lessing novel" like The Grass Is Singing or The Golden Notebook, I have only read this : a fact/fiction blend and Shikasta, an experimental space novel. Therefore I feel like I must continue to reserve judgement upon her as a writer.
From what I've read in the Amazon reviews, most people preferred the non-fiction section, I however preferred the fictionalised version of Alfred and Emily. Mainly because I like the idea of alternate realities and whether something so small as not catching the train (as in 1998 film Sliding Doors) can indeed change the world. 7/10
Warning : This review contains some spoilers
Alfred and Emily written by Nobel Prize for Literature winner Doris Lessing, was declared, shortly before publication to be the now 92 year old writer's final book.
Alfred and Emily is a curious blend of fiction and non-fiction the concept of which I was unaware of prior to reading. In the opening section, the first half of the book, we move from August to August beginning in 1902. Alfred Tayler gains notice at a cricket match but opts to stay within the farming community, he has a happy marriage to Betsy and they have twins. At the same cricket match was Emily McVeigh who has scandalised her father and her best friends mother by giving up a university place to become a nurse, her friend Daisy follows her. Later Emily experiences a short, unhappy marriage before becoming involved in charitable works, she maintains contact with her old community including Alfred, from time to time. The early section reminded me much of Virginia Woolf's "Between The Acts". Ordinary British people in the country enjoy summer pursuits, unaware that a World War silently approaches and will tear them apart. At least, that's what I thought was coming.
Alfred and Emily however is a "re-imagining" a guess, at how their lives would have developed without the intervention of the first World War. I read it perplexed, wondering why it didn't impact the characters at all, then suddenly realised that there was something "different" at work here, that Lessing for some reason had edited history and in her story the first World War did not happen.
Suddenly the involving story of Alfred and Emily brings you up short, you turn the page and are confronted by two short obituaries marking their deaths, with half a book left to go. Alfred and Emily are revealed to be Lessing's parents and the story, a story of what her parents lives might have been had not the war intervened, Alfred and Emily having become romantically involved in the war.
Whilst the first half of the book is a fiction, the second half is fact, little vignettes of different aspects of their lives as expats in what is now Zimbabwe and what was then Rhodesia. Their marriage is revealed to not have been entirely happy, and Doris' relationship with them, her mother in particular not always easy.
I suppose we all wonder at times about "might have beens" if we'd chosen a different university, or married a different person and I suppose we all wonder what would have happened if our parents hadn't met, one of my grandfathers for example, almost became a monk. Lessing seems to go one step further though, her story of Alfred and Emily seems almost like wish-fulfillment. Alfred has a happy marriage whilst Emily dies childless. Lessing strongly indicates that in her opinion Emily McVeigh should not have had children but in so doing wishes away her own existence, which makes the book slightly odd.
I found the Rhodesia episodes very true, I find it impossible to remember every incident that has ever happened in my whole life, and I'm only 30. I think all we ever retain are different snapshots of different eras, and the significant moments of our lives. Although sometimes we don't realise their significance. I am sceptical of autobiographies that recall word for word every detail of their lives and Lessing doesn't do that here.
It' s a shame that I still haven't read a "proper Lessing novel" like The Grass Is Singing or The Golden Notebook, I have only read this : a fact/fiction blend and Shikasta, an experimental space novel. Therefore I feel like I must continue to reserve judgement upon her as a writer.
From what I've read in the Amazon reviews, most people preferred the non-fiction section, I however preferred the fictionalised version of Alfred and Emily. Mainly because I like the idea of alternate realities and whether something so small as not catching the train (as in 1998 film Sliding Doors) can indeed change the world. 7/10
Thursday, 7 July 2011
Book #58 Then by Julie Myerson
Then
I've been trying to decide why there has been a recent glut of novels and films or TV shows which depict post apocalyptic scenarios. I wonder if it is because society, having left the Cold War era behind is not living with a significant reality of this kind of disaster and therefore can fearlessly explore it as a fiction, or whether we do live in uncertain times, and novels such as these seek to exhibit and explore our fear.
It is true that the human race faces many potential threats to its survival: Will we experience alien invasion, and if we did would it be hostile? Will an unusual illness like SARS or H1N1 become an incurable global pandemic? Will a terrorist attack plunge a nation or the world into the Dark Ages?
And then of course, there's our old friend The Zombie Apocalypse, which I discussed in my review of Justin Cronin's The Passage.
In Julie Myerson's 'Then', the event which causes widespread chaos is not made clear, potentially it's an environmental disaster of the type shown in the 2004 film 'The Day After Tomorrow' and potentially it's a nuclear winter. What is known is that one day it got very hot in February, too hot, and too bright, and then things went dark and it began to snow.
Myerson's novel is unusual in that it doesn't really focus on the disaster or on multiple survivors, just really upon one female survivor whose name we don't learn until nearly the end of the book. She has sought refuge in an office block with a handful of others, but she cannot remember who she is, or why she's there. Though her companions tell her things, she forgets again, and exists in a confused fog, seeing things that aren't always there.
'Then' is a classic case of the use of an unreliable narrator; because she can't remember her own past and questions the reality of her current experience, we cannot trust her perspective. The narrative is muddled, but deliberately so, so that you realistically experience her personal sense of confusion, though this is frustrating at times. Even near the end I was unsure about whether certain characters were real or merely figments of a broken mind.
The plot takes us backwards beginning at her current location and revealing how she got there to start with, but whilst the end has good shock value and explains her current mental fragility I questioned its plausibility. Though good techniques are shown by Myerson, I felt that there was just so much more to an event like this than one woman's plight, though I suppose that in itself is the novels Unique Selling Point.
It's not hard to read and it is "a bit different" but I thought it was good not great 7/10
I've been trying to decide why there has been a recent glut of novels and films or TV shows which depict post apocalyptic scenarios. I wonder if it is because society, having left the Cold War era behind is not living with a significant reality of this kind of disaster and therefore can fearlessly explore it as a fiction, or whether we do live in uncertain times, and novels such as these seek to exhibit and explore our fear.
It is true that the human race faces many potential threats to its survival: Will we experience alien invasion, and if we did would it be hostile? Will an unusual illness like SARS or H1N1 become an incurable global pandemic? Will a terrorist attack plunge a nation or the world into the Dark Ages?
And then of course, there's our old friend The Zombie Apocalypse, which I discussed in my review of Justin Cronin's The Passage.
In Julie Myerson's 'Then', the event which causes widespread chaos is not made clear, potentially it's an environmental disaster of the type shown in the 2004 film 'The Day After Tomorrow' and potentially it's a nuclear winter. What is known is that one day it got very hot in February, too hot, and too bright, and then things went dark and it began to snow.
Myerson's novel is unusual in that it doesn't really focus on the disaster or on multiple survivors, just really upon one female survivor whose name we don't learn until nearly the end of the book. She has sought refuge in an office block with a handful of others, but she cannot remember who she is, or why she's there. Though her companions tell her things, she forgets again, and exists in a confused fog, seeing things that aren't always there.
'Then' is a classic case of the use of an unreliable narrator; because she can't remember her own past and questions the reality of her current experience, we cannot trust her perspective. The narrative is muddled, but deliberately so, so that you realistically experience her personal sense of confusion, though this is frustrating at times. Even near the end I was unsure about whether certain characters were real or merely figments of a broken mind.
The plot takes us backwards beginning at her current location and revealing how she got there to start with, but whilst the end has good shock value and explains her current mental fragility I questioned its plausibility. Though good techniques are shown by Myerson, I felt that there was just so much more to an event like this than one woman's plight, though I suppose that in itself is the novels Unique Selling Point.
It's not hard to read and it is "a bit different" but I thought it was good not great 7/10
Monday, 25 April 2011
Book #25 The Help by Kathryn Stockett
The Help
Set against the backdrop of the American Civil Rights movement in the early 1960's, the time of Martin Luther King and earlier, Rosa Parks, the times were a-changing as Bob Dylan sang. But, there is one group of women for whom the times are not changing and that is 'The Help', the black maids whom the wealthier white women hire to clean their homes and take care of their children.
The story is seen through three pairs of eyes in first person narrative. Two maids, Aibileen and Minny and Skeeter, a young white woman who returns home from college to find that her families lifelong help Constantine has simply disappeared.
When Skeeter returns home from college, having seen it as a chance to get an education rather than as her mother had hoped a chance to find a husband, she begins to see childhood friends Elizabeth and Hilly in new eyes after noticing the way in which they speak to and regard 'The Help'.
An incident occurs in which Hilly discovers that Aibileen, Elizabeth's maid uses the same bathroom as her and is outraged forcing Elizabeth to install a second bathroom in her garage and suggesting it should be a general policy.
What is striking within these moments in the novel, is the way in which the racism was so casual, commonplace, in some ways the only viewpoint any respectable white woman can hold if they hope to avoid being socially ostracized, rather than the jaw-dropping bigotry and ignorance we know it for today.
After this incident, Skeeter befriends Aibileen first in an attempt to find out more about the missing Constantine and then to get cleaning tips. Eventually, Skeeter decides that she wants to write a book an insight into the lives of The Help that the white employers take for granted and slowly but surely nervous maids begin approaching her...
What is good about this novel is the different narrative voices which are each distinct from the other, so that when you are reading Aibileen chapters as opposed to Skeeter's it feels real and sincere.
What I also liked about this novel is the quality of the 'silent voice' Aibileen and Minny's inner reactions to the events in the homes and the casual racism thrown in their faces by their employers. The silent rage they cannot express for fear of being fired, makes the reader angry for them and rooting on their behalf. The moment when Aibileen is forced to say thank you for being made to use a separate bathroom made me cringe with embarrassment and anger. Hilly, the self appointed Queen Bee of the piece, is also an excellent villain.
This book in terms of it's style of prose and narrative flow reminded me particularly of the authors Sue Monk Kidd and Joshilyn Jackson and their excellent books 'The Secret Life Of Bees' and 'Gods In Alabama' so I think if you liked those books you'll like this. I wouldn't say it was mind-blowing or earth shattering or trying to blaze a literary trail, but the kind of book you can read on a deckchair in a garden on a sunny day with a Pimms and find enjoyable. 8/10
Set against the backdrop of the American Civil Rights movement in the early 1960's, the time of Martin Luther King and earlier, Rosa Parks, the times were a-changing as Bob Dylan sang. But, there is one group of women for whom the times are not changing and that is 'The Help', the black maids whom the wealthier white women hire to clean their homes and take care of their children.
The story is seen through three pairs of eyes in first person narrative. Two maids, Aibileen and Minny and Skeeter, a young white woman who returns home from college to find that her families lifelong help Constantine has simply disappeared.
When Skeeter returns home from college, having seen it as a chance to get an education rather than as her mother had hoped a chance to find a husband, she begins to see childhood friends Elizabeth and Hilly in new eyes after noticing the way in which they speak to and regard 'The Help'.
An incident occurs in which Hilly discovers that Aibileen, Elizabeth's maid uses the same bathroom as her and is outraged forcing Elizabeth to install a second bathroom in her garage and suggesting it should be a general policy.
What is striking within these moments in the novel, is the way in which the racism was so casual, commonplace, in some ways the only viewpoint any respectable white woman can hold if they hope to avoid being socially ostracized, rather than the jaw-dropping bigotry and ignorance we know it for today.
After this incident, Skeeter befriends Aibileen first in an attempt to find out more about the missing Constantine and then to get cleaning tips. Eventually, Skeeter decides that she wants to write a book an insight into the lives of The Help that the white employers take for granted and slowly but surely nervous maids begin approaching her...
What is good about this novel is the different narrative voices which are each distinct from the other, so that when you are reading Aibileen chapters as opposed to Skeeter's it feels real and sincere.
What I also liked about this novel is the quality of the 'silent voice' Aibileen and Minny's inner reactions to the events in the homes and the casual racism thrown in their faces by their employers. The silent rage they cannot express for fear of being fired, makes the reader angry for them and rooting on their behalf. The moment when Aibileen is forced to say thank you for being made to use a separate bathroom made me cringe with embarrassment and anger. Hilly, the self appointed Queen Bee of the piece, is also an excellent villain.
This book in terms of it's style of prose and narrative flow reminded me particularly of the authors Sue Monk Kidd and Joshilyn Jackson and their excellent books 'The Secret Life Of Bees' and 'Gods In Alabama' so I think if you liked those books you'll like this. I wouldn't say it was mind-blowing or earth shattering or trying to blaze a literary trail, but the kind of book you can read on a deckchair in a garden on a sunny day with a Pimms and find enjoyable. 8/10
Monday, 11 April 2011
Book #22 A Clash Of Kings by George R.R Martin
A Clash Of Kings
So, onto book two of A Song Of Ice and Fire saga. It is frustrating to write a review of a book within a series because I don't want to spoil things for those who haven't read A Game Of Thrones yet. I will keep things practically spoiler free, don't worry you can keep reading!
A Clash Of Kings is exactly that, following on from the first book six different people have declared themselves the rightful ruler of the Seven Kingdoms. Four of these are each aware of the others, but two have yet to be revealed. Who is a mere pretender and who has the strength to be King? Let battle commence!
Again Martin tells the story from third person point of view, the majority of narrators returning from a Game Of Thrones are joined by Theon Greyjoy, Ned Stark's ward and Davos a low-born knight of the household of Stannis Baratheon. Thinking about these narrators it occurred to me that Martin has not chosen to tell his story through the voices of powerful, the Kings or the would be Kings, or those with money or influence. He has chosen women, children, a bastard, a dwarf, a ward, and a man in service.
These individuals are pretty much powerless when it comes to changing the course of events but are directly affected by their consequence. There are bigger characters. When I read I want to know more about Cersei and Jaime Lannister, Lord Varys "The Spider" and Lord Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish, but I think in choosing the characters he does to narrate, he makes these bigger characters who they are, sinister, elusive and enigmatic and to be feared. It is a great trick on behalf of Martin, and a commendable one, if we entered their world-view and knew what they were thinking they might lose their mystique.
It occurred to me whilst finishing this book, and getting the next that epic is the word which truly defines this saga. The next book coming up is A Storm Of Swords. A Storm Of Swords is 984 pages long, just 36 pages shy of the Penguin Edition of Ulysses, and the first three books combined are longer than War and Peace. Make no mistake these books are LONG, but they fly along at a cracking pace, are compulsive, addictive and worth the effort.
In terms of the blog, I did worry that people will stop checking it out if I'm just writing about The Song Of Ice And Fire, but although there are to be seven novels only four are currently released so that's only two more posts after this one! I would take a break and do some others first but I CAN'T I NEED to know what's next.
In terms of the book I went up and down with this one. Obviously as with any novel you have favourite characters and so prefer "their" chapters (in my case Tyrion and Arya) over others. The books' main flaw is that it's over populated there are too many Ser So and So and Lord Such And Such and they all blend into one, particularly as their few purposes seem to be to do well in battle, be a turncloak (i love that word) or die in place of a main character. They are like all those dudes in the background at Helm's Deep in Lord Of The Rings whose sole purpose is to fall off the top of the castle. It's like how all Jack Bauer's colleagues die and he miraculously survives. They make up the numbers is what I'm saying and don't effect the overall narrative of the plot. I appreciate however that Martin is building a picture of a real land in his description of Westeros and real lands are populous, and need to be portrayed as such...
Is it as good as A Game Of Thrones? No. Has it succeeded in making me desperate to keep up with the fates of the all characters? Yes. See you on the other side of 984 pages! Wish me luck! 7/10
So, onto book two of A Song Of Ice and Fire saga. It is frustrating to write a review of a book within a series because I don't want to spoil things for those who haven't read A Game Of Thrones yet. I will keep things practically spoiler free, don't worry you can keep reading!
A Clash Of Kings is exactly that, following on from the first book six different people have declared themselves the rightful ruler of the Seven Kingdoms. Four of these are each aware of the others, but two have yet to be revealed. Who is a mere pretender and who has the strength to be King? Let battle commence!
Again Martin tells the story from third person point of view, the majority of narrators returning from a Game Of Thrones are joined by Theon Greyjoy, Ned Stark's ward and Davos a low-born knight of the household of Stannis Baratheon. Thinking about these narrators it occurred to me that Martin has not chosen to tell his story through the voices of powerful, the Kings or the would be Kings, or those with money or influence. He has chosen women, children, a bastard, a dwarf, a ward, and a man in service.
These individuals are pretty much powerless when it comes to changing the course of events but are directly affected by their consequence. There are bigger characters. When I read I want to know more about Cersei and Jaime Lannister, Lord Varys "The Spider" and Lord Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish, but I think in choosing the characters he does to narrate, he makes these bigger characters who they are, sinister, elusive and enigmatic and to be feared. It is a great trick on behalf of Martin, and a commendable one, if we entered their world-view and knew what they were thinking they might lose their mystique.
It occurred to me whilst finishing this book, and getting the next that epic is the word which truly defines this saga. The next book coming up is A Storm Of Swords. A Storm Of Swords is 984 pages long, just 36 pages shy of the Penguin Edition of Ulysses, and the first three books combined are longer than War and Peace. Make no mistake these books are LONG, but they fly along at a cracking pace, are compulsive, addictive and worth the effort.
In terms of the blog, I did worry that people will stop checking it out if I'm just writing about The Song Of Ice And Fire, but although there are to be seven novels only four are currently released so that's only two more posts after this one! I would take a break and do some others first but I CAN'T I NEED to know what's next.
In terms of the book I went up and down with this one. Obviously as with any novel you have favourite characters and so prefer "their" chapters (in my case Tyrion and Arya) over others. The books' main flaw is that it's over populated there are too many Ser So and So and Lord Such And Such and they all blend into one, particularly as their few purposes seem to be to do well in battle, be a turncloak (i love that word) or die in place of a main character. They are like all those dudes in the background at Helm's Deep in Lord Of The Rings whose sole purpose is to fall off the top of the castle. It's like how all Jack Bauer's colleagues die and he miraculously survives. They make up the numbers is what I'm saying and don't effect the overall narrative of the plot. I appreciate however that Martin is building a picture of a real land in his description of Westeros and real lands are populous, and need to be portrayed as such...
Is it as good as A Game Of Thrones? No. Has it succeeded in making me desperate to keep up with the fates of the all characters? Yes. See you on the other side of 984 pages! Wish me luck! 7/10
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