Ghana Must Go
At the beginning of Ghana Must Go, Kweku Sai dies in his garden. A Ghanian immigrant who was once successfully pursuing the American Dream, he ran and abandoned his wife and four children when that dream crumbled. The novel is about the impact of both his disappearance and subsequent death on his estranged family, and is told in present day terms with his children as adults and in flashback to their youth.
I read Ghana Must Go on the train over two days and found I couldn't wait for the next installment. There was something very lyrical about it, poetic.
For Kweku's four children : Olu, Taiwo, Kehinde and Sadie - as they separate out into the world, failure, or lack of success is their common enemy and they all strive to leave the ghost of the man who was their father behind.
The four characters themselves have each been impacted by Kweku in different variations on a similar theme which tie in and unify quite well. The novel is a family saga about a disconnected family really.
The most particularly difficult aspect of the story is the experience that the twins have during their unexpected exile in Lagos; but it is not done in a too heavy handed manner, but in a manner where you slowly guess yourself and it sends a shiver down your spine. It doesn't feel crudely executed for shock value.
Books that somehow touch on the countries or continent of Africa are one of my special interests as a Reader and have been since I was in my teens. Ghana Must Go is a sophisticated and pleasurable addition to the novels of this kind that I have read.
I was moved and intrigued by Ghana Must Go and found it very realistically human throughout in terms of the psychology behind relationships.
I do recommend this hugely and would give it a 10/10
Showing posts with label Family Saga. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Family Saga. Show all posts
Friday, 31 January 2014
Sunday, 7 April 2013
Book #27 The Back Road by Rachel Abbott
The Back Road
Length Of Time In Possession : 1 week
The Back Road by Rachel Abbott begins with a startling prologue of two children trapped in a cupboard, then introduces us to Leo Harris, a 20 something returning to the village she grew up in. Leo had an unhappy childhood marked by meanness and tragedy, but her sister Ellie, psychologically trapped by the mysteries of their childhood has chosen to buy and renovate the house they grew up in, unable to let go of the past; because of her sisters relocation, Leo too is forced to confront the past.
No more than it was when Leo was a child, Little Melham is a place of secrets. Ellie is hiding a stalker she can't dissuade and is terrified her husband is having an affair; yet the biggest secret comes in the form of local 14 year old Abbie Campbell. Abbie has been knocked down on The Back Road in a Hit and Run, but who knocked Abbie down and why was she even there?
There was a lot I liked about The Back Road, certain sections of the writing were very sharp, particularly the prologue, and the section in which Abbie is being chased. I really liked Leo Harris as a character, flawed, but strong : a survivor. I liked Ellie somewhat less, and felt like she could do with a good shake!
I found the dinner party sequence a little overlong, as a soiree, I'm sure I wouldn't have enjoyed it particularly, at times very uncomfortable and cringe, not for the reader, but if you imagined yourself present. I struggled for a while to see why so many chapters were devoted to it, until I realised that it was all a clue to the whodunnit, and who may or may not have been culpable for the hit and run.
I actually live in Cheshire, or thereabouts, and I felt that at times the location of the story was over emphasised or over signposted, and need not have been reiterated more than once. Though the purpose is to signify that the village is small, populated by the comfortable, and in some respects remote, lending itself to a "locked room" mystery of sorts. (The culprit can only be a local) this is something that the reader can infer themselves.
As we reached the denouement, there is an element of inordinate drama, a little over the top, and some loose ends are a little too neatly tied. Yet, some other elements of the conclusion surprise.
All in all, for me, I could clearly imagine this novel as an ITV crime/mystery drama, one that would work well and be popular. ITV recently adapted Erin Kelly's The Poison Tree and I could see The Back Road fitting the same bill scheduling wise.
A good mystery novel, which for once, is more about the secrets and lies of people's personal lives instead of the well worn police procedural format.
Verdict : 7/10
Destination : ebook storage
Length Of Time In Possession : 1 week
The Back Road by Rachel Abbott begins with a startling prologue of two children trapped in a cupboard, then introduces us to Leo Harris, a 20 something returning to the village she grew up in. Leo had an unhappy childhood marked by meanness and tragedy, but her sister Ellie, psychologically trapped by the mysteries of their childhood has chosen to buy and renovate the house they grew up in, unable to let go of the past; because of her sisters relocation, Leo too is forced to confront the past.
No more than it was when Leo was a child, Little Melham is a place of secrets. Ellie is hiding a stalker she can't dissuade and is terrified her husband is having an affair; yet the biggest secret comes in the form of local 14 year old Abbie Campbell. Abbie has been knocked down on The Back Road in a Hit and Run, but who knocked Abbie down and why was she even there?
There was a lot I liked about The Back Road, certain sections of the writing were very sharp, particularly the prologue, and the section in which Abbie is being chased. I really liked Leo Harris as a character, flawed, but strong : a survivor. I liked Ellie somewhat less, and felt like she could do with a good shake!
I found the dinner party sequence a little overlong, as a soiree, I'm sure I wouldn't have enjoyed it particularly, at times very uncomfortable and cringe, not for the reader, but if you imagined yourself present. I struggled for a while to see why so many chapters were devoted to it, until I realised that it was all a clue to the whodunnit, and who may or may not have been culpable for the hit and run.
I actually live in Cheshire, or thereabouts, and I felt that at times the location of the story was over emphasised or over signposted, and need not have been reiterated more than once. Though the purpose is to signify that the village is small, populated by the comfortable, and in some respects remote, lending itself to a "locked room" mystery of sorts. (The culprit can only be a local) this is something that the reader can infer themselves.
As we reached the denouement, there is an element of inordinate drama, a little over the top, and some loose ends are a little too neatly tied. Yet, some other elements of the conclusion surprise.
All in all, for me, I could clearly imagine this novel as an ITV crime/mystery drama, one that would work well and be popular. ITV recently adapted Erin Kelly's The Poison Tree and I could see The Back Road fitting the same bill scheduling wise.
A good mystery novel, which for once, is more about the secrets and lies of people's personal lives instead of the well worn police procedural format.
Verdict : 7/10
Destination : ebook storage
Friday, 9 November 2012
Books #86-91 The Anne Shirley Sequels by LM Montgomery
Anne Of Avonlea
Anne Of The Island
Anne's House Of Dreams
Anne Of Ingleside
Rainbow Valley
Rilla Of Ingleside
Seeing as I so much enjoyed Anne Of Green Gables, I thought I would read all the sequels, I haven't posted on the blog in a long time because I decided to write one big blogpost about all the books rather than 6 small ones as there isn't much to delve into about each book. Beware, for there be spoilers ahead!
Anne Of Avonlea
In Anne Of Avonlea, Anne sacrifices her chance to go to Redmond College from Queens in order to be a companion for surrogate mother Marilla, and somewhat implausibly at the age of 17 becomes the local schoolteacher. I say implausibly but all her fellow Queens students like Gilbert Blythe and Jane Andrews also become teachers, which implies historical accuracy. The book covers Anne's life between the ages of 17-19, her setting up of local conservation society A.V.I.S. and the arrival of the Keith twins who Marilla takes in the same way she once took in Anne. I was frustrated by the Keith twins, Davy as a character is a total mischief who leaps off the page, but sister Dora barely exists as a character, and when if ever she is described is basically described as having no personality, and this continues throughout subsequent novels. Bizarrely, though she is entirely a character of fiction, I found this a bit cruel! And also from a writing point of view rather lazy, I would have appreciated some storyline for her. I also found the A.V.I.S. storylines and Anne's new adult friendships with her neighbours rather dull. 6/10
Anne Of The Island
In Anne Of The Island, Anne gets her chance to go to Redmond as Mrs Rachel Lynde becomes Marilla's companion. There she makes a new little set of female friends, moves into a house left vacant by sisters who go travelling, studies and for the first time courts a boy despite the readers annoyance that she isn't with true love Gilbert Blythe whilst Gilbert apparently courts someone else. I found I didn't take to Anne Of The Island much, I didn't like her companions, or the romance that was doomed to fail. I'm not sure why I pressed ahead with Anne's House Of Dreams but I did anyway and in the end I was glad I did. Anne is between 19-22 in this novel 6/10
Anne's House Of Dreams
Anne's House Of Dreams leaps ahead 3 years, she and Gilbert have been engaged but unable to marry until Gilbert finished medical school, so Anne spent 3 years teaching high school. This is where it gets complicated, Anne's House Of Dreams is the 4th published book, published in 1917, yet in 1936 Montgomery returned to her characters and wrote Anne Of Windy Poplars a novel covering this 3 year gap. It is the only one of the novels I have not read because I found, having read the stories to what felt like a fitting end, I didn't want to go backwards and couldn't get into it at all. I find, as I also especially found when this happened a second time that had I been a contemporary reader of the Anne novels I would have been massively irritated by this. The only reason I didn't include it in a chronological reading is because the first collection I bought didn't have it.
With regard to Anne's House Of Dreams, I really enjoyed this novel which covers Anne's first 2 years as a bride, and Gilbert's start as a popular young doctor in Glen St Mary, their having moved away from Avonlea. I loved their friendships with Captain Jim, Cornelia Bryant and Leslie Moore and especially how the Leslie Moore storyline turned out. I particularly loved this quote :
I liked how that for once Anne, for whom things have always turned out perfectly in the novels previously is finally touched by real tragedy, but, I grew annoyed by the fact that in this and subsequent novels, Marilla and Diana to whom Anne was so attached seem irrelevant and forgotten, which really doesn't seem likely for Anne. Anne only has one scene of note with Diana in the later novels, and Marilla's inevitable death through old age barely warrants a sentence. Her friendship with Leslie also seems to vanish later down the line, though Leslie's children feature. Often Anne or her children are mentioned in passing as having gone to Avonlea and that is all the reader gets. This is just frustrating for the reader who is attached to the established characters and doesn't ring true. 8/10
Anne Of Ingleside
Anne Of Ingleside is a similar situation to that of Anne Of Windy Poplars, chronologically the sixth Anne Shirley novel it wasn't published til the 1930's a long while after Rainbow Valley which was the next published book after Anne's House Of Dreams in 1919. I read the 2 books in chronological order. In Anne Of Ingleside, Anne and Gilbert have moved to a bigger house and Anne is pregnant with her last child.
The couple already have Jem, Walter, twins Anne and Diana, and Shirley (a boy) her final child is named Bertha but known by her middle name Rilla after Marilla. Each section of the novel focuses on a different child, and their various pitfalls and scrapes. Diana is gullible and seems to pick the wrong friends, Anne (Nan) lets her imagination run away with her like her mother once did. Walter is teased for liking poetry, and is frightened by other children when Anne goes into labour and so forth. There are also some stories about Anne, the long standing difficulty of Gilbert's aunt outstaying her welcome, her quilting circle and the natural ups and downs of marriage.
What is also highlighted is that though Anne was first in her class at college, she has no career of her own following marriage and children and it seemed to me that it was important for Montgomery to highlight that, that a high intellect like Anne's has gone to waste through society rules. It also by nature of its style points out the loss of individual identity for women who are uniformly referred to by their husbands name : Mrs Marshall Elliott, Mrs Alec Davies, Mrs Dr. Blythe etc. Overall I enjoyed Anne Of Ingleside as much as House Of Dreams, and think it was a completely necessary reverse insertion into the Anne Shirley saga, which the series suffered without. 8/10
Rainbow Valley
I can only imagine that in its day, in 1919 when published, Rainbow Valley was massively unpopular with fans of Anne Shirley and the Blythe family. Having left off Anne's House Of Dreams in 1917 with Jem a toddler, Jem is now 13, so it's a massive leap forward in time, leaving the readers with this huge drought of knowledge of the last 13 years of the Blythe's. Fortunately, not being a contemporary reader I had read the later published Anne Of Ingleside covering this period.
Additionally though the novel initially makes the appearance of being about the Blythe's 80% of the focus of the novel is on the Merediths, the motherless children of the new minister, their scrapes and the general scandal and gossip they cause by being inappropriately dressed or behaved for ministers children. The novel for lack of the Blythe's doesn't come unstuck though as Jerry, Faith and Una Meredith are lovable, engaging, characters.
However, it is to be noted that things which which would have been acceptable and unremarkable language in Montgomery's day are now offensive or have taken on new and inappropriate meanings which render the book eyebrow raising or dated in this day and age, something which most of the previous novels with the exception of "Ingleside" completely side-stepped. These include :
"If you aren't good a big black man will come and put you in a big black bag and take you away" (Ingleside)
"I do like spunk"
"Faith and Una had never had a muff"
"I've been working like a nigger all day"
To Montgomery's great credit, those remarks which are racist are mildly frowned upon by other characters, but it just goes to show how much the world and the English language has changed.
Despite not really conforming to expectation Rainbow Valley is enjoyable in its own right and more so for the knowledge that I had another novel in the sequence to go anyway. 7/10
Rilla Of Ingleside
At the beginning of Rilla Of Ingleside, we have come full circle with most of Anne and Gilbert's children now attending Redmond or Queens like their parents before them with Gilbert and Anne in their early 50's by the end. Not academically minded, Rilla, 15, intends not to follow in their footsteps and to enjoy the rest of her teens as much as possible before settling to marriage.
But these ideas of frivolousness are swept away with the outbreak of World War One which sees many of the sons of Glen St Mary join the Army and sees Rilla burdened with Home Front responsibilities, and the worry of the survival of her brothers, friends and boyfriend.
Montgomery uses Rilla of Ingleside published in the 20's to reflect on the effect of the war on Canada and its young people making it a far more serious novel. Rilla is a likeable central character and surrounding characters remain intact, though twins Nan and Di hardly feature. At the end of the novel it feels like a fitting close to the stories of the Blythe's and I don't see how Montgomery could have continued it much further, though it is good that she went back and wrote Anne Of Ingleside as neither Rainbow Valley or this novel would have worked well without it.
There are further Avonlea stories in the Chronicles Of Avonlea short stories and later The Blythes Are Quoted, but I feel like that's enough now for me, and that in many senses the source has been bled dry.
Overall 8/10
Anne Of The Island
Anne's House Of Dreams
Anne Of Ingleside
Rainbow Valley
Rilla Of Ingleside
Seeing as I so much enjoyed Anne Of Green Gables, I thought I would read all the sequels, I haven't posted on the blog in a long time because I decided to write one big blogpost about all the books rather than 6 small ones as there isn't much to delve into about each book. Beware, for there be spoilers ahead!
Anne Of Avonlea
In Anne Of Avonlea, Anne sacrifices her chance to go to Redmond College from Queens in order to be a companion for surrogate mother Marilla, and somewhat implausibly at the age of 17 becomes the local schoolteacher. I say implausibly but all her fellow Queens students like Gilbert Blythe and Jane Andrews also become teachers, which implies historical accuracy. The book covers Anne's life between the ages of 17-19, her setting up of local conservation society A.V.I.S. and the arrival of the Keith twins who Marilla takes in the same way she once took in Anne. I was frustrated by the Keith twins, Davy as a character is a total mischief who leaps off the page, but sister Dora barely exists as a character, and when if ever she is described is basically described as having no personality, and this continues throughout subsequent novels. Bizarrely, though she is entirely a character of fiction, I found this a bit cruel! And also from a writing point of view rather lazy, I would have appreciated some storyline for her. I also found the A.V.I.S. storylines and Anne's new adult friendships with her neighbours rather dull. 6/10
Anne Of The Island
In Anne Of The Island, Anne gets her chance to go to Redmond as Mrs Rachel Lynde becomes Marilla's companion. There she makes a new little set of female friends, moves into a house left vacant by sisters who go travelling, studies and for the first time courts a boy despite the readers annoyance that she isn't with true love Gilbert Blythe whilst Gilbert apparently courts someone else. I found I didn't take to Anne Of The Island much, I didn't like her companions, or the romance that was doomed to fail. I'm not sure why I pressed ahead with Anne's House Of Dreams but I did anyway and in the end I was glad I did. Anne is between 19-22 in this novel 6/10
Anne's House Of Dreams
Anne's House Of Dreams leaps ahead 3 years, she and Gilbert have been engaged but unable to marry until Gilbert finished medical school, so Anne spent 3 years teaching high school. This is where it gets complicated, Anne's House Of Dreams is the 4th published book, published in 1917, yet in 1936 Montgomery returned to her characters and wrote Anne Of Windy Poplars a novel covering this 3 year gap. It is the only one of the novels I have not read because I found, having read the stories to what felt like a fitting end, I didn't want to go backwards and couldn't get into it at all. I find, as I also especially found when this happened a second time that had I been a contemporary reader of the Anne novels I would have been massively irritated by this. The only reason I didn't include it in a chronological reading is because the first collection I bought didn't have it.
With regard to Anne's House Of Dreams, I really enjoyed this novel which covers Anne's first 2 years as a bride, and Gilbert's start as a popular young doctor in Glen St Mary, their having moved away from Avonlea. I loved their friendships with Captain Jim, Cornelia Bryant and Leslie Moore and especially how the Leslie Moore storyline turned out. I particularly loved this quote :
I've nothing to look forward to. Morning will come after morning - and he will not come back-he will never come back. Oh when I think I will never see him again I feel as if a great brutal hand had twisted itself among my heartstrings, and was wrenching them. Once long ago, I dreamed of love and I thought it would be beautiful and NOW it's like THISI do think Cornelia's story only turned out a certain way to avoid reader speculation she was a lesbian, considering how down on men she is with her humorous catchphrase "that is just like a man"
I liked how that for once Anne, for whom things have always turned out perfectly in the novels previously is finally touched by real tragedy, but, I grew annoyed by the fact that in this and subsequent novels, Marilla and Diana to whom Anne was so attached seem irrelevant and forgotten, which really doesn't seem likely for Anne. Anne only has one scene of note with Diana in the later novels, and Marilla's inevitable death through old age barely warrants a sentence. Her friendship with Leslie also seems to vanish later down the line, though Leslie's children feature. Often Anne or her children are mentioned in passing as having gone to Avonlea and that is all the reader gets. This is just frustrating for the reader who is attached to the established characters and doesn't ring true. 8/10
Anne Of Ingleside
Anne Of Ingleside is a similar situation to that of Anne Of Windy Poplars, chronologically the sixth Anne Shirley novel it wasn't published til the 1930's a long while after Rainbow Valley which was the next published book after Anne's House Of Dreams in 1919. I read the 2 books in chronological order. In Anne Of Ingleside, Anne and Gilbert have moved to a bigger house and Anne is pregnant with her last child.
The couple already have Jem, Walter, twins Anne and Diana, and Shirley (a boy) her final child is named Bertha but known by her middle name Rilla after Marilla. Each section of the novel focuses on a different child, and their various pitfalls and scrapes. Diana is gullible and seems to pick the wrong friends, Anne (Nan) lets her imagination run away with her like her mother once did. Walter is teased for liking poetry, and is frightened by other children when Anne goes into labour and so forth. There are also some stories about Anne, the long standing difficulty of Gilbert's aunt outstaying her welcome, her quilting circle and the natural ups and downs of marriage.
What is also highlighted is that though Anne was first in her class at college, she has no career of her own following marriage and children and it seemed to me that it was important for Montgomery to highlight that, that a high intellect like Anne's has gone to waste through society rules. It also by nature of its style points out the loss of individual identity for women who are uniformly referred to by their husbands name : Mrs Marshall Elliott, Mrs Alec Davies, Mrs Dr. Blythe etc. Overall I enjoyed Anne Of Ingleside as much as House Of Dreams, and think it was a completely necessary reverse insertion into the Anne Shirley saga, which the series suffered without. 8/10
Rainbow Valley
I can only imagine that in its day, in 1919 when published, Rainbow Valley was massively unpopular with fans of Anne Shirley and the Blythe family. Having left off Anne's House Of Dreams in 1917 with Jem a toddler, Jem is now 13, so it's a massive leap forward in time, leaving the readers with this huge drought of knowledge of the last 13 years of the Blythe's. Fortunately, not being a contemporary reader I had read the later published Anne Of Ingleside covering this period.
Additionally though the novel initially makes the appearance of being about the Blythe's 80% of the focus of the novel is on the Merediths, the motherless children of the new minister, their scrapes and the general scandal and gossip they cause by being inappropriately dressed or behaved for ministers children. The novel for lack of the Blythe's doesn't come unstuck though as Jerry, Faith and Una Meredith are lovable, engaging, characters.
However, it is to be noted that things which which would have been acceptable and unremarkable language in Montgomery's day are now offensive or have taken on new and inappropriate meanings which render the book eyebrow raising or dated in this day and age, something which most of the previous novels with the exception of "Ingleside" completely side-stepped. These include :
"If you aren't good a big black man will come and put you in a big black bag and take you away" (Ingleside)
"I do like spunk"
"Faith and Una had never had a muff"
"I've been working like a nigger all day"
To Montgomery's great credit, those remarks which are racist are mildly frowned upon by other characters, but it just goes to show how much the world and the English language has changed.
Despite not really conforming to expectation Rainbow Valley is enjoyable in its own right and more so for the knowledge that I had another novel in the sequence to go anyway. 7/10
Rilla Of Ingleside
At the beginning of Rilla Of Ingleside, we have come full circle with most of Anne and Gilbert's children now attending Redmond or Queens like their parents before them with Gilbert and Anne in their early 50's by the end. Not academically minded, Rilla, 15, intends not to follow in their footsteps and to enjoy the rest of her teens as much as possible before settling to marriage.
But these ideas of frivolousness are swept away with the outbreak of World War One which sees many of the sons of Glen St Mary join the Army and sees Rilla burdened with Home Front responsibilities, and the worry of the survival of her brothers, friends and boyfriend.
Montgomery uses Rilla of Ingleside published in the 20's to reflect on the effect of the war on Canada and its young people making it a far more serious novel. Rilla is a likeable central character and surrounding characters remain intact, though twins Nan and Di hardly feature. At the end of the novel it feels like a fitting close to the stories of the Blythe's and I don't see how Montgomery could have continued it much further, though it is good that she went back and wrote Anne Of Ingleside as neither Rainbow Valley or this novel would have worked well without it.
There are further Avonlea stories in the Chronicles Of Avonlea short stories and later The Blythes Are Quoted, but I feel like that's enough now for me, and that in many senses the source has been bled dry.
Overall 8/10
Monday, 2 April 2012
Book #34 The Descendants by Kaui Hart Hemmings
The Descendants
The Descendants was recently turned into a George Clooney film weighed down with nominations for awards. I missed it at the cinema and have yet to see it though I'm rather glad I didn't because I came to the book fresh.
The Descendants is about Matt King whose wife Joannie is in a coma following a boat accident. As hope for her dwindles, Matt realises he must become the sole parent of their daughters Alex and Scottie. With this realisation comes a second realisation, having been an indifferent uninterested passive father all their lives, he does not know them at all. He doesn't know who they are, he doesn't even know what food they like. There is a great moment of pathos in the book where Matt King hopes they won't ask him what he loves about them because he has no idea what to say.
When Alex drops the bombshell upon him that Joannie was having an affair, in search of some kind of purpose Matt takes his girls on a road trip to track down her lover so he too can say goodbye.
The Descendants is a really good book about fatherhood and parenthood and the things we pass down to the next generation. Though his family comes with a unique ancestral history, Matt King comes to realise that all he has given his girls is a story and he has never given of himself. It's a rites of passage book for a father, and provides some lovely psychological insights into the confusion and dismay of King, as well as some great emotional truths about preparing for the coming of death.
Often it is witty, but a lot of times there is sadness underneath the humour. It's well crafted too, but, even with these things, it doesn't really 'Wow' as a book, it falls short. It's worth reading but I won't be treasuring it as a beloved classic, be purchasing it for others or reading twice 8/10
The Descendants was recently turned into a George Clooney film weighed down with nominations for awards. I missed it at the cinema and have yet to see it though I'm rather glad I didn't because I came to the book fresh.
The Descendants is about Matt King whose wife Joannie is in a coma following a boat accident. As hope for her dwindles, Matt realises he must become the sole parent of their daughters Alex and Scottie. With this realisation comes a second realisation, having been an indifferent uninterested passive father all their lives, he does not know them at all. He doesn't know who they are, he doesn't even know what food they like. There is a great moment of pathos in the book where Matt King hopes they won't ask him what he loves about them because he has no idea what to say.
When Alex drops the bombshell upon him that Joannie was having an affair, in search of some kind of purpose Matt takes his girls on a road trip to track down her lover so he too can say goodbye.
The Descendants is a really good book about fatherhood and parenthood and the things we pass down to the next generation. Though his family comes with a unique ancestral history, Matt King comes to realise that all he has given his girls is a story and he has never given of himself. It's a rites of passage book for a father, and provides some lovely psychological insights into the confusion and dismay of King, as well as some great emotional truths about preparing for the coming of death.
Often it is witty, but a lot of times there is sadness underneath the humour. It's well crafted too, but, even with these things, it doesn't really 'Wow' as a book, it falls short. It's worth reading but I won't be treasuring it as a beloved classic, be purchasing it for others or reading twice 8/10
Saturday, 24 March 2012
Book #28 The Children's Book by A.S Byatt
The Children's Book
I tried reading Possession by AS Byatt a few years ago, and despite it's glowing reputation, couldn't get on with it. I was attracted to this novel by its beautiful cover but put off by previous experience. Then I caught a glimpse of it over someone's shoulder on a plane, liked what I read and thought to give it a try.
I'm glad I did, I thought this book was great. It concerns the Wellwood family, who live at a large house named Todefright in the country, and their wide network of family and friends : The London Wellwoods, The Cains, The Fludds, The Sterns and many more.
Olive Wellwood is a children's writer and mother to seven children and two others that died in infancy. Though she has many children she favours oldest son Tom and does not conceal it. As she busies herself in her work, the children are largely reared by her spinster sister Violet, who thinks of herself as their true mother.
The novel has a wide cast of both fictional and historical characters and is set initially in the Victorian era and runs all the way through to World War I. What I simply loved about this novel is the way that political and social ideas at the time, events, current affairs and philosophy are reflected through the eyes and experiences of all the characters. It is a totally remarkable production in terms of sheer research and effort, it is like a mini degree in comparative fiction. At times, particularly towards the end, it spends too much time on the history and not enough on the characters but the amount of topics it covers is astonishing :
Socialism and Marxism
The impact of being the child of a children's author
Education, particularly of women, in contrast to the importance of marriage
The Fabian Society of which many characters are members
Parenthood
Sexual abuse
The problems of being German in England in WWI
Artistry and artistic genius
Suffrage
Nature
and many more. It's fascinating. Not just the issues but the characters themselves. Dorothy and her difficult relationship with Olive, Olive's complex relationship with Tom, the psychology of Tom himself a child of nature deeply damaged by his experience at public school. The bizarre marriage of Olive and Humphrey with their ongoing trysts. The women of the Fludd family and their Havisham like existence. Elsie Warren and her brother Phillip. Herbert Methley. The characters are just great.
Towards the end their stories did begin to feel a little shoehorned - there is more to Hedda's story for example than the too short passages devoted to it, the same could be said for Robin Wellwood and Robin Oakshott. Though the book closes at 1918, some characters surviving and others not following the Great War; I really felt that if ever a book warranted a sequel it is this one and I really, really hope that Byatt writes one, so we can follow the lives our characters and their descendants through the historical events of the rest of the 20th Century.
I hugely recommend this book, I think it's my best of 2012 thus far. 10/10
I tried reading Possession by AS Byatt a few years ago, and despite it's glowing reputation, couldn't get on with it. I was attracted to this novel by its beautiful cover but put off by previous experience. Then I caught a glimpse of it over someone's shoulder on a plane, liked what I read and thought to give it a try.
I'm glad I did, I thought this book was great. It concerns the Wellwood family, who live at a large house named Todefright in the country, and their wide network of family and friends : The London Wellwoods, The Cains, The Fludds, The Sterns and many more.
Olive Wellwood is a children's writer and mother to seven children and two others that died in infancy. Though she has many children she favours oldest son Tom and does not conceal it. As she busies herself in her work, the children are largely reared by her spinster sister Violet, who thinks of herself as their true mother.
The novel has a wide cast of both fictional and historical characters and is set initially in the Victorian era and runs all the way through to World War I. What I simply loved about this novel is the way that political and social ideas at the time, events, current affairs and philosophy are reflected through the eyes and experiences of all the characters. It is a totally remarkable production in terms of sheer research and effort, it is like a mini degree in comparative fiction. At times, particularly towards the end, it spends too much time on the history and not enough on the characters but the amount of topics it covers is astonishing :
Socialism and Marxism
The impact of being the child of a children's author
Education, particularly of women, in contrast to the importance of marriage
The Fabian Society of which many characters are members
Parenthood
Sexual abuse
The problems of being German in England in WWI
Artistry and artistic genius
Suffrage
Nature
and many more. It's fascinating. Not just the issues but the characters themselves. Dorothy and her difficult relationship with Olive, Olive's complex relationship with Tom, the psychology of Tom himself a child of nature deeply damaged by his experience at public school. The bizarre marriage of Olive and Humphrey with their ongoing trysts. The women of the Fludd family and their Havisham like existence. Elsie Warren and her brother Phillip. Herbert Methley. The characters are just great.
Towards the end their stories did begin to feel a little shoehorned - there is more to Hedda's story for example than the too short passages devoted to it, the same could be said for Robin Wellwood and Robin Oakshott. Though the book closes at 1918, some characters surviving and others not following the Great War; I really felt that if ever a book warranted a sequel it is this one and I really, really hope that Byatt writes one, so we can follow the lives our characters and their descendants through the historical events of the rest of the 20th Century.
I hugely recommend this book, I think it's my best of 2012 thus far. 10/10
Sunday, 12 February 2012
Book #17 The Girl Who Stopped Swimming by Joshilyn Jackson
The Girl Who Stopped Swimming
I had previously read and really very much enjoyed Between, Georgia and Gods In Alabama by Joshilyn Jackson. I particularly recommend Gods In Alabama. I loved it. Get it now. The Girl Who Stopped Swimming is the third Jackson book I've read and again takes as its setting the dark underbelly of Southern USA life.
Central character Laurel Hawthorne is happily married to husband David. She makes quilts and David is a computer programmer. They have an only child named Shelby, and live in a wealthy, gated community. But Laurel can see ghosts and is often haunted by her Uncle Marty, whose death marks a troubling episode in her childhood. One night another ghost appears, it is neighbourhood child Molly, a friend of Shelby, she has just drowned in Laurel's pool.
And so, the Hawthornes are thrown into crisis and Laurel approaches unpredictable sister Thalia for help.
This book is difficult because Thalia is extremely annoying and Laurel is selfish, and both run around behaving extremely immaturely for two grown women. I feel that Jackson ought to have focused more upon Shelby and her cousin Bet whose story was the more interesting and complex one. Additionally I found the immediate events in the days following the death of Molly a bit unrealistic. Laurel doesn't seem disturbed enough, only thinking of her own; the neighbourhood reaction, including that of Molly's parents is slight.
The end reveal surprised me, but, perhaps I'm in the minority here. I did enjoy the book, though it is far from her best, and I wouldn't recommend it, buy it for someone or read it a second time. 7/10
I had previously read and really very much enjoyed Between, Georgia and Gods In Alabama by Joshilyn Jackson. I particularly recommend Gods In Alabama. I loved it. Get it now. The Girl Who Stopped Swimming is the third Jackson book I've read and again takes as its setting the dark underbelly of Southern USA life.
Central character Laurel Hawthorne is happily married to husband David. She makes quilts and David is a computer programmer. They have an only child named Shelby, and live in a wealthy, gated community. But Laurel can see ghosts and is often haunted by her Uncle Marty, whose death marks a troubling episode in her childhood. One night another ghost appears, it is neighbourhood child Molly, a friend of Shelby, she has just drowned in Laurel's pool.
And so, the Hawthornes are thrown into crisis and Laurel approaches unpredictable sister Thalia for help.
This book is difficult because Thalia is extremely annoying and Laurel is selfish, and both run around behaving extremely immaturely for two grown women. I feel that Jackson ought to have focused more upon Shelby and her cousin Bet whose story was the more interesting and complex one. Additionally I found the immediate events in the days following the death of Molly a bit unrealistic. Laurel doesn't seem disturbed enough, only thinking of her own; the neighbourhood reaction, including that of Molly's parents is slight.
The end reveal surprised me, but, perhaps I'm in the minority here. I did enjoy the book, though it is far from her best, and I wouldn't recommend it, buy it for someone or read it a second time. 7/10
Saturday, 21 January 2012
Book #10 The Girl In Times Square by Paullina Simons
The Girl In Times Square
The Girl In Times Square was recommended to me more than six years ago by an Internet pal, and I just never got around to it, one of those "always meant to pick it up, never did" books.
It's about Lily Quinn, a young struggling artist who has flunked college. Her Grandma sends her to Maui to take care of her mother for whom familial concern is growing due to her erratic behaviour. Whilst there she recieves a phonecall from the police to say that her best friend and roomate Amy has gone missing, in the midst of all this she discovers that she has won the lottery and then discovers she also has cancer.
If The Girl In Times Square sounds like a busy novel it is. There is a lot going on in this book. A missing persons investigation, family dysfunction, skeletons in closets, extra marital affairs, alcoholism, medical crises, secrets, lies and a love affair. It seems like all these plotlines might overwhelm a book or feel shoe-horned in somehow, and they probably would in a lesser book with lesser writing talent on show. The book becomes a proper juicy pot boiler of gossip overflowing with the action that is often seen in the events of the lives in an extended family. Think Maeve Binchy but in New York and with a somewhat grander scale. This isn't a criticism, I love Maeve Binchy's early work.
I have two rather slight criticisms of the novel, though I loved the Spencer/Lily dynamic it is the height of unprofessionalism in relation to her position in the investigation, and I very much doubt that in reality Spencer would have been allowed to continue in this manner nor Lily not share the rest of her family's anger toward him. My other issue was to do with a suspect in the Amy disappearance case, a total panto melodrama if ever there was one.
In spite of these slight flaws I really engaged with both the story and the characters, really enjoyed the book and would recommend it to others. I read it in two short bursts, it felt like a good gossip and was good fun. The closing paragraph really gives the book a satisfying conclusion even if it does follow one of those horrible sequences whereby you are updated as to the fate of each character with a few sentences each. The conclusion of the Amy investigation is also satisfying.
A good involving read with plenty of incident and family drama, though rather sexistly I do think it has more female than universal appeal. 8/10
The Girl In Times Square was recommended to me more than six years ago by an Internet pal, and I just never got around to it, one of those "always meant to pick it up, never did" books.
It's about Lily Quinn, a young struggling artist who has flunked college. Her Grandma sends her to Maui to take care of her mother for whom familial concern is growing due to her erratic behaviour. Whilst there she recieves a phonecall from the police to say that her best friend and roomate Amy has gone missing, in the midst of all this she discovers that she has won the lottery and then discovers she also has cancer.
If The Girl In Times Square sounds like a busy novel it is. There is a lot going on in this book. A missing persons investigation, family dysfunction, skeletons in closets, extra marital affairs, alcoholism, medical crises, secrets, lies and a love affair. It seems like all these plotlines might overwhelm a book or feel shoe-horned in somehow, and they probably would in a lesser book with lesser writing talent on show. The book becomes a proper juicy pot boiler of gossip overflowing with the action that is often seen in the events of the lives in an extended family. Think Maeve Binchy but in New York and with a somewhat grander scale. This isn't a criticism, I love Maeve Binchy's early work.
I have two rather slight criticisms of the novel, though I loved the Spencer/Lily dynamic it is the height of unprofessionalism in relation to her position in the investigation, and I very much doubt that in reality Spencer would have been allowed to continue in this manner nor Lily not share the rest of her family's anger toward him. My other issue was to do with a suspect in the Amy disappearance case, a total panto melodrama if ever there was one.
In spite of these slight flaws I really engaged with both the story and the characters, really enjoyed the book and would recommend it to others. I read it in two short bursts, it felt like a good gossip and was good fun. The closing paragraph really gives the book a satisfying conclusion even if it does follow one of those horrible sequences whereby you are updated as to the fate of each character with a few sentences each. The conclusion of the Amy investigation is also satisfying.
A good involving read with plenty of incident and family drama, though rather sexistly I do think it has more female than universal appeal. 8/10
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