Modest Expectations - rachbxl in 2015

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Modest Expectations - rachbxl in 2015

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1rachbxl
Bearbeitet: Jan. 27, 2016, 8:06 am

In a triumph of hope over experience, here I am again. My little girl is almost 11 months old, and my train ride to work 3 days a week gives me some valuable reading time - and recently I've also been finding time to read in the evenings again too! I have no reading ambitions for this year other than to read full stop; I've missed it! I've already finished 2 books, so I'm off to a good start.

Alongside my own reading, I've also been reading aloud to my daughter ever since she was born, and she's really starting to respond now. I'm very excited about all the treasures we're going to share!

1. Untold Story by Monica Ali (UK)
2. Los enamoramientos by Javier Marías (Spain, in Spanish)
3. How to be a Woman by Caitlin Moran (UK, non-fiction)
4. Aimez-vous Brahms? by Françoise Sagan (France, in French)
5. When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr (UK)
6. Too Much Happiness by Alice Munro (Canada, short stories)
7. Granta 129
8. Granta 130
9. Paradise by Abdulrazak Gurnah (Tanzania)
10. Black Dogs by Ian McEwan (UK)
11. The Brothers by Milton Hatoum (Brazil, translation)
12. A God in Every Stone by Kamila Shamsie (Pakistan)
13. A Short History of England by Simon Jenkins (non-fiction, audiobook)
14. This Sceptered Isle part 1 by Christopher Lee (non-fiction, radio series/audiobook)
15. Granta 131
16. MaddAddam by Margaret Atwood (Canada)
17. The Story of English in 100 Words by David Crystal (non-fiction, audiobook)
18. Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Iron Curtain by Anna Funder (non-fiction, audiobook)
19. This Sceptred Isle Volume 2: 1087-1327 by Christopher Lee
20. One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson (UK)
21. We Are All Made of Glue by Marina Lewycka (UK)
22. The Geneva Trap by Stella Rimington (UK)
23. The Sunrise by Victoria Hislop (UK)
24. Life after Life by Kate Atkinson (UK)
25. Our Spoons Came from Woolworths by Barbara Comyns (UK)
26. The Monarchy of England: the Beginnings by David Starkey (non-fiction, audiobook)
27. The Son by Jo Nesbo (Norway, translation)
28. The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion (Australia)
29. Historia del rey transparente by Rosa Montero (Spain)
30. The New Women's Hour Book of Short Stories
31. The Bees by Laline Paull (UK)
32. The Secret Place by Tana French (Ireland)
33. The Vet's Daughter by Barbara Comyns (UK)
34. The Redeemer by Jo Nesbo (Norway, translation)
35. The Polish Boxer by Eduardo Halfon (Guatemala, in Spanish)
36. The Queen of the Tambourine by Jane Gardam (UK)

2rachbxl
Jan. 14, 2015, 10:31 am

Untold Story by Monica Ali

Princess Diana survived the Paris car crash and, desperate to escape the confines of her unhappy life, had her Private Secretary arrange for her to disappear, apparently drowning during an early-morning swim from her boyfriend's yacht.

Almost 10 years on, 'Lydia', with her uniform of jeans and t-shirt and her job at a dog shelter, is just another resident of a small American town, with a group of lovely friends and a new-ish relationship which looks like it might go somewhere...but as we learn more about her, we understand that she is just as lonely as she was in her old life. How can she be close to anyone when she can't tell them who she is? The account of Lydia's life alternates with excerpts from her Private Secretary's diary, from which we learn about the 'drowning', and quite a lot more. And then, with the 10-year anniversary of Diana's death looming, a chance meeting threatens to cause Lydia's carefully-constructed life to unravel.

I picked this book up off the swap shelf at work a few months ago, thinking it would be a nice light read at some point, and it was; as I expected it was also very well-written. I enjoyed reading about Lydia and her friends. I enjoyed reading Lawrence's diary. I found a lot to think about - the nature of loneliness, and what making a new life entails, the implications of Lydia being 'found'. But for me, at least, it didn't quite hang together, because Lydia and Diana continued to be very separate people in my mind. I just couldn't see them as one and the same, meaning that ultimately the plot didn't work for me. That said, I stayed up well beyond my bedtime to finish it as I couldn't put it down.

3dchaikin
Jan. 14, 2015, 11:04 am

Wow, she's 11 months. That is special that you spend so much time reading to her. Nice to see you here and to see what you are reading.

4NanaCC
Jan. 14, 2015, 12:05 pm

Nice to see you here. 11 months..such a great age. Every day or week brings something new.

I read Brick Lane by Monica Ali a long time ago. I seem to remember liking it, but maybe feeling that it didn't really go anywhere. I'm not sure about that last part though.

5japaul22
Jan. 14, 2015, 12:22 pm

Great to see you with a 2015 thread! Isn't it great when you start to get your evenings back with earlier bedtimes for the baby and you not being quite so tired? Congrats on (almost) making it through that first year with a new baby!

6rebeccanyc
Jan. 14, 2015, 5:35 pm

Welcome back! Looking forward to following your reading. And what are you reading to your daughter?

7fannyprice
Jan. 18, 2015, 10:01 pm

Great to see you here - I'll be interested to see what you thought of The Infatuations - I recently finished it (in English) and was really drawn in at first but ended up just feeling that it was "fine" - nothing major either way.

8kidzdoc
Jan. 20, 2015, 6:20 am

Welcome back, Rachel!

9rachbxl
Jan. 20, 2015, 8:43 am

Kris, I wrote quite a long account of my thoughts on The Infatuations straight after I posted my comments on the previous book...but it disappeared. I was captivated at first, not least because I thought María was going to be one of those unreliable narrators we've both just posted about on your thread. I really thought that's where it was heading so was quite disappointed. I kept going because I thought it HAD to turn out to be brilliant...but I don't think it did. Readable enough, but nothing special.

10rachbxl
Jan. 20, 2015, 9:05 am

Yes, 11 months is a great age - she's not my little baby any more, but I don't mind because she's so much fun. She zooms around, crawling, and is pushing herself to standing increasingly easily. Over the weekend she taught herself to go upstairs - makes our life harder, obviously, but it was fascinating to watch her work it out. She's extremely vocal, and among the babble we can make out 'au revoir' (with a wave) and 'attend!' ('wait!') (I speak English to her but my husband and stepkids speak French, and she goes to a French-speaking crèche).

She is the perfect book-buying excuse; libraries here only carry a very limited selection in English, so she already has quite a little library of her own. Her favourite book at the moment, I'd say, is Dear Zoo- 'I wrote to the zoo to send me a pet, and they sent me...', and then you lift a flap and find an elephant; 'he was too big. I sent him back. So they sent me...', and so on, camel, snake, frog, monkey, until finally they send a puppy, who is perfect. It was a gift when she was tiny, and it didn't seem to be anything special (though my friend said her children had loved it), but now she can react to it and lift the flaps herself, it's come into its own.

11rachbxl
Jan. 20, 2015, 10:46 am

Los enamoramientos by Javier Marías

As I said in my reply to Kris in #9, I lost the comments I wrote on this (I read it in Spanish, but it's been translated into English as The Infatuations), so I'll try to summarise.

I was completely drawn in by the first 60 pages or so and settled down for an enthralling ride, but after a promising start t never really got going. María is fascinated by a married couple who often have breakfast in a cafe near her office. One day, the husband is killed in a nearby street by a vagrant and unofficial parking attendant - a clear case of mistaken identity. The papers Maria scours for details of the case report that the vagrant (of questionable sanity) had received phone calls telling him that Miguel, his victim, was responsible for his daughters' descent into prostitution, not, Maria tells us, anything she could imagine him being involved in.

A chance encounter leads Maria into an affair with someone who knows much more about Miguel's death. I won't go into detail, but the affair is central to the plot, and one of the 'infatuations' of the title is Maria's with her lover. But although she constantly tells us she's infatuated, I couldn't feel it myself, which made her failure to act on what she learns rather odd. She learns what she does and appears to feel quite ambivalent about it, effectively shrugs her shoulders and walks away...which is pretty much how I felt about the novel.

Nor could I understand how she could even claim to be infatuated with someone who pontificates in quite the way this man does. I could almost see them on the stage, the two of them, him pronouncing his lengthy discourses on Colonel Chabert and Macbeth (the dead never leave us). Interesting to a point, but the point was laboured.

Another thing that bugged me was Maria's presumption that she knew what others were thinking or would say, or how they could react - this could go on for pages and pages. Either you're an omniscient narrator or you're not.

I will read more Marias as I've enjoyed other things much more than this.

12nancyewhite
Jan. 20, 2015, 11:48 am

I really like the premise of Untold Story, but the reviews are generally unkind so I think I'll make Brick Lane my first Ali.

I'm currently reading How to Build a Girl. How are you finding it? So far, so good for me.

I look forward to following your year of reading.

13dchaikin
Jan. 20, 2015, 11:54 am

>11 rachbxl: curious, re The Infatuations. Too bad it didn't work.

14fannyprice
Jan. 20, 2015, 7:58 pm

>9 rachbxl: and >11 rachbxl:, I felt much the same way, Rachel. I kept thinking - "this has got to be going somewhere crazy!" and waiting for the moment when the whole plot would turn on it's head. I even thought for a while that Maria's imaginings of what other people were up to, would say and do, how they would respond would be proven wrong. The fact that she was always spot on and that we had to experience the same event twice - once as imagined and once as it happened, but basically in the same form as it had been imagined - made this aspect of the story so annoying.

15Rebeki
Jan. 25, 2015, 2:36 pm

Hi Rachel, glad to see you back again! Dear Zoo is still a favourite in this house too. And I also use my son as a book-buying excuse. As a result, I'm buying far fewer books for myself, plus his can be read instantly - no oppressive TBR pile for him ;)

16janeajones
Jan. 25, 2015, 2:58 pm

Welcome back -- I've just ordered Dear Zoo for my new granddaughter on your recommendation.

17NanaCC
Jan. 25, 2015, 3:40 pm

I am not sure if you have ever seen The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and The Big Hungry Bear by Audrey Wood, Don Wood. It was a favorite of all of my grandchildren, and it is a fun one to read to them.

18rachbxl
Jan. 31, 2015, 7:53 am

>16 janeajones: I'm sure she'll love it, Jane.

>17 NanaCC: Nope, hadn't heard of that one, Colleen - thanks! Duly ordered...

How to be a Woman by Caitlin Moran

I'd probably have got to this sooner or later as I've been a fan of Moran's column in The Times for ages, but I was prompted to go out and buy it because of a recent incident in my own home. In a nutshell, having been biting my tongue since I met him 3 years ago, I found myself having to tell a family friend that I don't appreciate the way he treats me and my husband completely differently. I said, 'I have the feeling that you do this because I'm a woman', expecting him to deny it, but he took the wind right out of my sails by saying, 'well yes, of course I do'. The details don't matter, but the point is that I have been raging ever since (a month now). It's not that I've never encountered sexism before, sadly, but in the past it's been enough to call people on it. I am beside myself with fury that in Europe in 2015 a young man (32) can think it's acceptable to tell a woman that she's a princess and needn't bother her head with 'men's subjects'. (Seriously).

Confronted with him and his ignorance and refusal to back down, I (inevitably?) got a bit rattled, which I felt was just grist to his mill. I feel so viscerally that he's utterly wrong that I can't actually verbalise it properly (unusually for me) - but I'm not used to needing to. So I want to read and read and read, steep myself in feminist writing, so that the arguments come naturally next time.

So this, which I saw somewhere described as 'feminism light' was my starting point. Moran is around my age and grew up not a million miles from where I did, so much of this, basically her autobiography, rings horribly true. I really enjoyed reading it as I love the way she writes, in particular the gentle humour she uses to push home serious points (and the way she is able to laugh at herself, too), but it was thought-provoking too; essentially it's Moran using her life so far to ponder what it is to be a woman. (I felt reassured having read it that I am actually a reasonable, rational human being; for a while after this incident I questioned my own sanity).

On the same day I bought de Beauvoir's Le deuxième sexe, which has been on my mental TBR for much, much longer than How to be a Woman. Unfortunately 'feminism light' is all I'm good for at the moment, thanks to my little sleep refusenik of a child, so goodness knows when I'll get on to more serious stuff.

In the meanwhile, all recommendations (non-fiction and fiction) gratefully received.

19avaland
Jan. 31, 2015, 8:08 am

So good to see you back here, Rachel. I'm trying to make my way back in here also. I look forward to following your 2015 reading! PS: There's nothing light about the de Beauvoir! (I would highly recommend Alex Capus's Leon and Louise for you. I think you'd like it. It's short, and tells a great story with a bit of wit.

20rachbxl
Jan. 31, 2015, 8:17 am

Aimez-vous Brahms? by Francoise Sagan

Ridiculous bit of juxtaposition, this. So much for steeping myself in feminist writing! I think I bought it in the same second-hand shop on the same day as Le deuxième sexe; the bookseller must have thought I was confused, to say the least.

In some ways I really liked this little novella, written in the late 1950's. The elegant, bourgeois Paule, at 39, leaves her (unfaithful) long-term lover to have an affair with a younger man. The sparse dialogue between the characters speaks volumes, and the feeling of existential 'ennui' pervades - gently, though; it's a feeling, rather than something explicit.

Perhaps I would have felt differently had I read this some other time, but Paule frustrated me. Financially independent, with a job, intelligent, beautiful, she has everything going for her. Leaving respectable Roger for Simon, 14 years her junior, is a bold move. Yes! A strong woman who doesn't care what society thinks. Yet she doesn't seem to be able to exist without it being in relation to either Roger and/or Simon. Ultimately I found reading this quite demoralising. Obviously, this was never meant to be part of my feminist reading (bourgeois 1950's Paris was hardly a hotbed of feminism), but still... Very bad timing on my part.

21rachbxl
Jan. 31, 2015, 8:27 am

>19 avaland: Hi Lois! No, quite - that's why I'm afraid the de Beauvoir will be sitting on my TBR shelf for quite some time... Just read your review of Leon and Louise; am intrigued.

22RidgewayGirl
Jan. 31, 2015, 9:38 am

I'm sorry that happened, Rachel. And surprised that the guy admitted to it -- my experience is that denial and defensiveness are the usual reactions. But Caitlin Moran is the perfect antidote, since she is so cheerfully and unapologetically feminist and expects everyone around her to be the same.

Incidentally, I just learned today about Lewis's Law, which states, "Comments on any article about feminism justify feminism."

You'll be raising a staunch feminist, I'm sure!

23baswood
Jan. 31, 2015, 7:47 pm

> What a sobering story Rachel.

24Rebeki
Feb. 2, 2015, 9:02 am

>18 rachbxl: That sounds enraging, and especially upsetting in your own home. I can imagine being lost for words too; I suppose it's (thankfully) quite rare to have to confront such an unashamedly sexist attitude, but all the more shocking when it does happen. I'm glad Caitlin Moran managed to reassure you of your sanity - you've made me really want to read How to be a Woman! My dad's from Wolverhampton, so that aspect also appeals.

When I was in my 20s and trying to deal with (what seem now totally ridiculous) insecurities about my appearance, I found reading Female Chauvinist Pigs and The Beauty Myth very helpful and they can definitely be described as "feminism light", although you may be looking for a different focus. I had to read Le deuxième sexe at university. I felt ever so intellectual doing so, but I'm sure I didn't grasp even half the ideas, so it'd be good to re-read it.

>20 rachbxl: I read this a few years ago and had a similar reaction, I think.

25AnnieMod
Feb. 2, 2015, 2:24 pm

>18 rachbxl: This guy is a moron. And as you said Europe - it really depends on where he grew up. In the east, it is still almost acceptable to say that (except in the workspace for the most part) Some people of my generation mistake being polite and gentlemanly for exactly this - being patronizing to women (I used to have a boss that believed that women have no work in IT) - it is how gentlemen behaved a century ago but today is different... So sorry that you had to hear that in your own home.

I generally have a love/hate relationship with feminism - the current threads seem to be more "women at the front" than "equality". So I am staying away from any author that proclaims herself a feminist... Moran sounds interesting though...

26janeajones
Feb. 2, 2015, 4:56 pm

He truly is a jerk.

You might try Sheryl Sandberg's Lean In: Women Work and the Will to Lead -- easy reading and affirmative.

There's always Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own and Azar Nafisi's Reading Lolita in Tehran.

For novelists I'd recommend Margaret Atwood, Margaret Drabble and Jeanette Winterson.

If you're interested in feminist literary criticism, Norton's Feminist Literary Theory and Criticism gathers and excerpts a wide range of literary theory with great intros and relatively brief articles -- good for dipping into.

27rachbxl
Feb. 7, 2015, 5:11 am

Thank you for all the recommendations, and the support.

>25 AnnieMod: Annie, yes, I agree - whilst always having been a fervent supporter of equality, I've sometimes shied away from identifying myself as a 'feminist' for exactly those reasons. But hell, I'll call myself a feminist if that's what it takes... And I agree too with what you say about men sometimes thinking they're being polite and gentleman-like when they're actually patronizing us to death. I can tolerate (but not like) it in older men, but I expect younger ones to adapt.

>24 Rebeki: Rebeki - I thought of The Beauty Myth, so it's good to hear you'd classify it as light (my poor brain can't cope with anything too complicated on this little sleep!) I should have read Le deuxième sexe at university too, but somehow didn't. I suspect it would have been wasted on me back then anyway.

>26 janeajones: thanks Jane! Reading Lolita in Teheran has been on my wishlist for ages; you've just given me a reason to buy it. And the Sandberg and the Norton look interesting. Atwood is an old favourite, but I've never got very far with Drabble or Winterson; time for another try, perhaps.

28rachbxl
Feb. 12, 2015, 4:44 am

This week a young male colleague suggested that I should pay more for my health insurance than he does because apparently the fact that I am 'at permanent risk of falling pregnant' make me a bigger insurance risk. What is WRONG with these people?

29rachbxl
Feb. 12, 2015, 4:59 am

When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr

First of all, thanks to Rebecca (Rebekki) for encouraging me to re-visit this childhood favourite. It has lost none of its magic.

Based on the author's own childhood, this is the story of Anna, a Jewish child whose family is forced to leave their comfortable life in 1930's Berlin, first for Switzerland, then Paris, before arriving in London right at the end of the book. Kerr explains in the introduction that she wrote the book largely to show her own children that her childhood wasn't 'awful'; despite the unusual circumstances, it was fun, a great adventure. And this sense of adventure pervades the book, as Anna, a bright, lively child, turns her curious eye on the new things and people she encounters. However, reading this as an adult, I shared knowledge with the author that I didn't have as a child (and which Anna lacks too), about what might have been. This book made a huge impact on me as a child (it was possibly the start of a lifelong fascination with the fate of the Jews in WWII), and it had no less of an impact now; I found myself lying awake at night, thinking about it.

Kerr also says in her intro that she wrote the book in part to tell her children about her parents, whom they never met...and what parents! They're not perfect - she portrays them as real, credible human beings, and they're just wonderful.

30rachbxl
Bearbeitet: Feb. 12, 2015, 6:04 am

Too Much Happiness by Alice Munro

My LT friends will appreciate in a way my RL ones don't the joy I felt last week when, in a quick tidy-up, I went to put this book away, thinking I'd finished it last year and left it lying around...only to discover that it was only half-read. A discovery that made my day.

Life got even better the following day when I finished work ridiculously early. For once I didn't collect my daughter from the crèche at the earliest opportunity; instead I rushed home, ran myself a bath, complete with the indulgent 'liquid yoga' bath oil my sister gave me for Christmas, and grabbed my bonus Munro stories. What a fabulous afternoon!

Just for the record, I didn't enjoy the last story (short novella?), 'Too Much Happiness', as much as the others. To my mind it's a departure from Munro's usual style and subject, and I was disappointed (perhaps only because I loved the others so much).

31RidgewayGirl
Feb. 12, 2015, 5:25 am

That does sound like a wonderful afternoon; especially when living under the rule of a tiny and beloved dictator, moments like those are to be enjoyed in full as they are rare.

32NanaCC
Feb. 16, 2015, 8:04 am

>30 rachbxl:.what a happy afternoon!

33Rebeki
Bearbeitet: Feb. 20, 2015, 8:27 am

>27 rachbxl: Light in the sense of readable, yes, if not in terms of the issues it covers, although I had more time and mental energy when I read it (pre-motherhood!), so I hope I'm not remembering incorrectly. I found a copy of How to Be a Woman in an Oxfam Books the other day and am looking to reading it some time soon. You also have me wanting to tackle The Female Eunuch, which I bought a few years ago when I was feeling angry about something, but never got round to!

>29 rachbxl: I loved Anna's parents too and thought they were wonderfully drawn. I identified with her mother quite a bit, being the worrier/highly-strung one in the family and hopelessly impractical!

>30 rachbxl: Ah, solo reading time. One of the great pleasures for parents of young children!

34rachbxl
Mrz. 17, 2015, 6:55 am

I have been putting off posting about the next 2 books for several weeks, as I never have them with me at the right time, and as it's 2 issues of Granta I wanted to make note of what I particularly enjoyed. I still don't have them with me but I'll just get on with it, and I might add more detail later.

My husband got me a 3-year subscription to Granta for my last birthday, and I've read enough issues now for me to say what I love about Granta, and what I like less. I'll start with the latter:

Granta 129: Fate
Of course there's some excellent writing in here, but I found the topic very diffuse, so it was more like reading a selection of unrelated pieces. The issues of Granta that really work for me are those like:

Granta 130: India
A fabulous collection of fiction and non-fiction, plus photos and drawings - a snapshot of India today. If my memory serves, the introduction makes the point that until ridiculously recently, it was Western writers writing about India who were seen as 'knowing' India, with local writers overlooked. Here, with a couple of exceptions, the contributors are all Indian; I hadn't heard of any of them before, but I will be seeking out more work by several of them. On finishing this issue, I felt like I'd indulged my fiction habit, but I also felt like a better person, somehow, a bit more knowledgable about and open to the world.

35rachbxl
Mrz. 20, 2015, 11:49 am

Saving this space to come back and make some notes on the Granta India issue, for my own reference - there are some writers I'd like to read more from.

36Nickelini
Mrz. 20, 2015, 1:12 pm

Just catching up on your thread and saying "hi". You've read some interesting books already this year.

37rachbxl
Mrz. 20, 2015, 3:31 pm

Paradise by Abdulrazak Gurnah

Oh my. This has flaws; it's not as close to perfection as the later By the Sea, but it's by turns beautiful, stark, lush, sparing, and the unexpected last paragraph came out of nowhere and made me gasp. I think this one will linger for a while.

Twelve year-old Yusuf is sold by his parents into the service of a rich merchant whom he has so far known as 'Uncle' Aziz, to redeem their debt to him. Back at Aziz's home on the coast of East Africa, Yusuf is put to work in the shop next to Aziz's home, with an older boy, Khalil, who was similarly taken as a 'rehani'. The boys work all day and sleep on the terrace outside the shop. The merchant disappears for months at a time on trading expeditions, huge affairs involving dozens, if not hundreds, of men. As preparations are underway for another such expedition, Yusuf is suddenly informed that he is to be part of it. Equally abruptly, mid-expedition he suddenly learns that he is to be left with associates of Uncle Aziz, remaining there until Aziz passes through on another expedition several years later. Yusuf is then taken along on a disastrously harsh expedition, before finally making it back to the coast and resuming his work in the shop with Khalil.

What lets the novel down, I think, are the parts about the expeditions. The sections covering Yusuf's early life, and his time working for the merchant in the shop, and working for the merchant's associates, are so vivid that not only could I picture them clearly, I could almost feel and smell them. I was fascinated by the expeditions, but I was disappointed to find that the writing became much more wooden, and I no longer felt I was there.

I don't think any book has managed to make me feel just how abhorrent slavery was in the way this has done. Yusuf is never even called a slave in the book, and he is not ill-treated - but the merchant, for all his gentleness and wisdom, disposes of him (and others) exactly as he sees fit. He treats them well, but they are his property. The novel is set in German East Africa just before WW1. The Germans, unlike other colonial powers in Africa, did not abolish slavery entirely; they forbade the slave trade, but did not require existing slaves to be freed (this is alluded to, and I looked it up).

38rachbxl
Mrz. 20, 2015, 3:33 pm

>36 Nickelini: Hi Joyce! Thanks for stopping by.

39baswood
Mrz. 20, 2015, 5:31 pm

Interesting review Rachel of Paradise, Abdulrazak Gurnah and I certainly did not know that "The Germans, unlike other colonial powers in Africa, did not abolish slavery entirely";

40dchaikin
Mrz. 21, 2015, 2:14 am

Great review. I really should read By the Sea, since i own it.

>34 rachbxl: interesting about Granta. I have had a lot of trouble getting into the Fate issue. The Japan-themed issue from last year was probably my favorite. I don't subscibe, but reward myself for finishing one issue by purchasing the newest one out.

41rebeccanyc
Mrz. 21, 2015, 7:09 am

I loved By the Sea too and also own Paradise but haven't read it yet. Despite your reservations, I'm still looking forward to it.

42rachbxl
Mrz. 22, 2015, 4:05 pm

>39 baswood: Barry, as I said, I had to look it up. This is one of the things I love about reading good fiction - so often I'm pushed to find out more about something.

>40 dchaikin: It took me ages to get through the Fate issue, Dan. I only persisted because it was Granta, and sure enough, there was some good writing. But as a whole, it didn't excite me like the issues about a country do. I haven't read the Japan one as that must have been before my subscription started, but I'm tempted to buy it. One I really enjoyed was Pakistan.

>41 rebeccanyc: I look forward to reading your thoughts on it, Rebecca. Well worth reading, despite my reservations.

43rachbxl
Mrz. 22, 2015, 4:24 pm

Black Dogs by Ian McEwan

Middle-aged writer lost his own parents as a child and has a habit of attaching himself to the parents of others, including those of his wife, Jenny - to such an extent that by the time of Jenny's mother's death he is planning to write a book about them, despite opposition from the family. The last section of the novel is the account he finally writes, much less salacious than feared, but with an episode which explains where the 'black dogs' of the title come from - an episode which various characters have previously referred to but skirted round.

It's been a while since I read any McEwan, and particularly any earlier McEwan (this was published in 1992), but I still have the same ambivalent feelings. He tells a great story, and in some ways he tells his stories well, but I often find it hard to connect on an emotional level with the stories he tells; this is no exception. There's a lurking self-consciousness, a trying-to-be-clever, which I find grating. (I don't find this with his later works, from Atonement onwards, although I haven't read anything since On Chesil Beach).

44rachbxl
Bearbeitet: Mrz. 26, 2015, 5:21 am

The Brothers by Milton Hatoum (no touchstone?)
Translated from the Portuguese by John Gledson

Hmm. There's a brilliant novel here, a rich, sprawling family saga set in the fascinatingly exotic world of Mannaus in the first half of the twentieth century...but it's hiding somewhere inside the novel I read.

The Brothers is narrated by the son of Domingas, maid to the family at the heart of the story, and that, to me, is the root of the problem. Is he a character, or an omniscient narrator? Hatoum breaks the 'show, don't tell' rule by having Nael tell us about events he only heard about - he can't show us, because he wasn't there. Then he breaks it again by having Nael report whole conversations with Halim, the father, in which Halim reminisces and gives his version - not only does Nael tell rather than show, but he also tells us about Halim telling and not showing. It also seemed an odd device to me to give only Halim the opportunity to give his version of events.

I don't often say this, but I think this novel needed to be longer. It was never going to rival certain other vast Latin American family sagas (which it is possibly aping), but to come anywhere near it needs to sit back and relax, undo its belt. I don't think you can tell this kind of story in 260 pages. Likewise, the author needed to relax his grip on the characters (and what characters!) and trust them to get on with it. They would have done so, because they're a larger than life bunch.

Finally, the translation was often quite clunky, with some very odd turns of phrase; I know it's a 'déformation professionnelle' of mine, but I was unable to forget I wasn't reading the original.

All in all, very disappointing, and all the more so for there being these glimpses of what might have been.

ETA: I'm often struck by links in my reading, when apparently unrelated works turn out to have a connection, at least for me at the time of reading. I noted above how Paradise made me think about slavery in a way no other book has before, and what struck me most was the way certain people didn't question their right to dispose of others as they saw fit. And so too in The Brothers; Domingas is placed in an orphanage after her parents die, and the one day, still a child, is told by the nuns to scrub up because she's going out...and she is 'given' to Zana and Halim (or more accurately, sold, as she is exchanged for a donation to the church). I was struck again by the breathtakingly casual way in which someone else's fate is decided for them.

45rebeccanyc
Mrz. 26, 2015, 9:35 am

Too bad about that book being so disappointing I hate it when you can see that the author could have written a better book, but it's unusual that it needed to be longer -- usually, they cry out for a good editor!

46kidzdoc
Mrz. 28, 2015, 5:02 am

Great review of Paradise, Rachel. I enjoyed it, but I agree with you and Rebecca that By the Sea is his best book.

Have you read Ashes of the Amazon by Milton Hatoum? I own it, but I haven't read it or The Brothers.

47rachbxl
Mrz. 30, 2015, 6:14 am

>46 kidzdoc: I haven't, Darryl. The Brothers is the only Milton Hatoum I've read, and to be honest I'm not in a hurry to read any more (if I were stuck on a train with nothing else then I'd give it a go, but otherwise...you get my drift). I'll wait and see what you think of Ashes of the Amazon before I try that one.

48rachbxl
Mrz. 30, 2015, 6:57 am

A God in Every Stone by Kamila Shamsie

I couldn't read this fast enough, and yet I didn't want it to end - to my mind that's the mark of a great novel. I'd been intending to read more of Shamsie's work since enjoying get Burnt Shadows a couple of years ago, and the reason I read this particular novel now is that there was an except in Granta.

Peshawar isn't somewhere I have any desire to go - who would? Yet A God in Every Stone has left me yearning for a lost Peshawar, the Peshawar of a hundred years ago, the last years of the Empire. Rumer Godden's Kingfishers Catch Fire made me feel the same about Kashmir; I barely remember the novel now (it's been a few years), but I remember the feeling of longing for a time and place I'll never know (like Peshawar, modern-day Kashmir isn't top of my list).

I nearly didn't make it past the first few chapters, though. Given my current hyper-sensitivity to gender equality, I started out raging at one of the main characters, Vivian Spencer - a 23-year old graduate from a comfortable London family, bright, articulate, everything going for her...and reliant entirely on men to make decisions for her. However, I told myself that Shamsie was reflecting the times, not her own views, and I stuck with it (Vivian does eventually break free of her father, but not before her desire to please him and other men has had disastrous results). This fitted nicely with my other current hobby-horse, namely some people thinking they can decide for others; of course, I was initially relating this to slavery, but here we have it in the form of women's subordination to men, and the subordination of the Indians (although this changes during the novel) to the British.

There is so much in this relatively short novel (under 400 pages): ancient history; archaeology; a mystery in the form of a search for a long-lost historical artefact; the last years of British rule in India; India before the partitions (so the Peshawar Valley is in India); World War I, Indian soldiers fighting in it, and the way it changed British society, giving women more freedom and opportunities; the way war changes lives, both for those fighting and those less directly involved; the generation of women who didn't marry because so many men were killed in WWI; the suffragettes and how they divided British society; the co-existence of different languages and cultures in the Peshawar Valley... I could go on. It's all presented with an amazingly light touch; it's all there if the reader wants it, but if not, read on and enjoy the story.

49kidzdoc
Mrz. 30, 2015, 8:19 am

Great review of A God in Every Stone, Rachel! I had planned to read it this weekend, but I didn't get around to it. I'll probably get to it sometime next month.

50baswood
Mrz. 31, 2015, 7:44 pm

I have put A God in every Stone on my mental to buy list. I spent a couple of weeks in Peshawar, when it was relatively safe in the 1970's and so I would like to rekindle some memories with this book.

Enjoyed your review

51janeajones
Apr. 1, 2015, 8:08 pm

Trying to catch up during a busy semester -- fascinating stuff here. I'm particularly attracted to A God in Every Stone.

52Cait86
Apr. 3, 2015, 4:20 pm

I love Kamila Shamsie, and I had completely forgotten that she had a new novel - thanks for the excellent review!

53DieFledermaus
Apr. 3, 2015, 11:50 pm

You've read a lot of interesting books lately.

Paradise certainly sounds intriguing, even with the caveats.

Really enjoyed your very vivid review of A God in Every Stone.

54rachbxl
Mai 1, 2015, 3:44 am

A Short History of England by Simon Jenkins
Audiobook, narrated by the author

I read far less non-fiction than I'd like; given the choice, a novel invariably appeals more. Last week I was suddenly seized by the urge to find out more about the history of my own country; academic and professional interests have led me to be relatively knowledgable about the history of a couple of other countries, whist I only know of my own what I did at school. Maybe it's connected to living abroad in a multi-cultural environment, maybe also to having a child who's half-British but growing up elsewhere. Anyway, I suddenly had a desperate need to know more about my roots.

I already had this audiobook, though I have no idea why. I imagine someone here recommended it - there's really no other reason for me to have bought a book about history. Anyway, A Short History of England seemed like a good starting point - and it was. It traces the history of England (specifically England, rather than Britain) from Roman times right through to the current (until next week, anyway) coalition. There are facts and dates a-plenty, but there is also a good sprinkling of anecdotes and quirky incidental details. I found the content, the writing and the reading completely engaging, and I constantly looked forward to my next listening opportunity.

This has whetted my appetite for more, and I've used up all my Audible credits on more books about English history.

55kidzdoc
Mai 1, 2015, 8:39 am

I'm glad to hear that you enjoyed A Short History of England, Rachel. I've seen that book numerous times in London bookshops the past couple of years, but I never bought it, so I'll plan to read it soon.

56Nickelini
Mai 1, 2015, 10:57 am

I read A Short History of England a year or two ago--as Darryl said, seen in the shops in London. It was a worthwhile read and you remind me to pull out one of the other English history books I have in my TBR.

57rachbxl
Mai 3, 2015, 5:05 am

I should probably say that I'm not as ignorant about English history as my last post suggests! But I'm aware that I lack an overview and a sense of how things are connected; when I was at school it wasn't cool to approach history in a linear way so I have lots of unconnected chunks of knowledge. Yes, the Tudors (whom I 'did' both at primary and secondary school) are fascinating, but equally fascinating to me is how they are shaped by what came before, and how they in turn help to shape what came after - their story takes on many more shades if seen like that, I think. I do have this linear sense of the history of Spain, say, and Poland, but I was lacking it entirely for the UK. And, happily, A Short History of England was just what I was after. I'm now listening to This Sceptered Isle, but it's not doing it for me in the same way.

>55 kidzdoc: Yes, Darryl, since listening to it I've realised that it was everywhere for a time. Had I been in a London bookshop recently (sob!), I don't think I could have missed it.

>56 Nickelini: Do you have any recommendations for other books on English history, Joyce? And what will you go for next?

58NanaCC
Bearbeitet: Mai 3, 2015, 11:01 am

Just caught up on your thread, Rachel. I'm adding A God in Every Stone and A Short History of England to my wishlist.

Edited to add that A Short History of England is already on my wishlist, thanks to Joyce. So you have just added to the wish to get to it sooner. :). Thanks for the nudge...

59Nickelini
Bearbeitet: Mai 3, 2015, 9:36 pm

>57 rachbxl: Do you have any recommendations for other books on English history, Joyce? And what will you go for next?

I picked up my English history in bits and pieces, over my lifetime. I think that's why A Short History of England was so likeable--a nice survey in fewer than 300 pages. Peter Ackroyd writes a lot about English history, and I find his work both interesting and boring at the same time (often too many details or he talks about something I have no idea about). Still, I like him enough that I'll read more. The next one not by Ackroyd that I read will probably be Underground Overground, which is about the London Tube, and so very focused.

60VivienneR
Mai 5, 2015, 8:24 pm

>59 Nickelini: I see my local library has quite a collection of books by Peter Ackroyd on various topics. I already had Three Brothers earmarked. If I like the writing style I'll have a look at some history books. There are three that look promising.

61rachbxl
Mai 6, 2015, 10:50 am

>58 NanaCC: Colleen, I think those two are my favourites this year so far - good choice! Hope you enjoy them when you get to them.

>59 Nickelini: ah, you see, Peter Ackroyd just doesn't appeal to me. I wish he did, but there's just too much detail. I'll look forward to reading your review instead.

62rachbxl
Bearbeitet: Mai 6, 2015, 11:31 am

This Sceptered Isle: 55BC - 1087AD by Christopher Lee
Audiobook narrated by Anna Massey and Paul Eddington

This is the first part of the 1990s BBC Radio 4 series, which covers British history from 55BC until 1901, weaving lengthy excerpts from Winston Churchill's A History of the English-Speaking Peoples into Christopher Lee's narrative.

If I hadn't listened to this straight after A Short History of England, I'm sure I'd have enjoyed it more. That's not to say I didn't like it, but it just didn't work for me in quite the same way, and I think it's because of the narrators. Anna Massey and Paul Eddington are (were) both actors I really admire, but they're actors. I just googled Massey, and found a quote about her beautiful voice which said that her cut-glass accent makes her characters seem cold and distant. Exactly. With A Short History I could imagine Simon Jenkins sitting across the kitchen table from me, using his warm, very pleasant voice to tell me about these events which he really *wants* me to understand because he finds them fascinating, whereas the reading of This Sceptered Isle lacks that personal element.

The name 'this sceptered isle', by the way, comes from Shakespeare's Richard II:

'This royal throne of kings, this scepter'd isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars ...
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England'.

I will definitely listen to later parts, but I may wait a while.

63Nickelini
Mai 6, 2015, 11:56 am

>61 rachbxl: I hear you on the topic of Peter Ackroyd. I mentioned his books because they are the most straight-forward. But watch my thread and I will review other books--they'll be more focused though, and not as all-encompassing.

64VivienneR
Mai 6, 2015, 7:17 pm

>61 rachbxl: "there's just too much detail"

I can understand that. Sometimes an author forgets about the audience and gets carried away.

65labfs39
Mai 6, 2015, 11:30 pm

I finally caught up with you, Rachel! Wonderful reviews. I went to read more about By the Sea, which seems to be a favorite with many, but there are only a few very sparsely written reviews posted. I was surprised since so many people recommended it.

I hope you are getting a little more sleep. My dear daughter only slept in two hour stretches for the first seven months of her life. To this day she is not much of a sleeper, but those seven months were torture!

66RidgewayGirl
Mai 7, 2015, 7:48 am

I found the second part of This Sceptered Isle fascinating - it was so eye-opening to get American history from an entirely different perspective. And Ackroyd leaves me cold.

67dchaikin
Mai 7, 2015, 11:16 am

Was just catching up here and found myself adding A God in Every Stone to my wishlist. Perhaps I should add A Short History of England too.

68wandering_star
Mai 13, 2015, 10:16 am

Just found this! Can I recommend Delusions of Gender, a takedown of all the pseudo science around men's and women's brains simply being wired differently. Especially as it's very relevant to your young daughter. Although it is a serious subject it is very witty and will make you laugh while getting angry...

69rachbxl
Mai 25, 2015, 6:55 am

>65 labfs39: Ugh, Lisa! Edie isn't always the greatest sleeper, but she generally manages more than 2 hours in one go, thank goodness. Actually I can't complain - she seems to have worked herself into a pretty good pattern, though of course it can be thrown off by any one of a number of things like teething, illness, too short a nap, too long a nap...or just needing a cuddle. Sorry, I never got round to linking to my thread for you, so I'm glad you found me.

>66 RidgewayGirl: Yes, I know what you mean - interesting to see the history of one's own country through someone else's eyes. It's never quite the same story...

>68 wandering_star: Ooh, thanks - looks good.

70rachbxl
Mai 25, 2015, 7:05 am

I've had several things on the go at once, and I finished them all at the same time, which left me a bit lost for a while! I'm managing to fill the gap quite nicely now though with Rosa Montero's Historia del rey transparente, an entertaining romp through the age of chivalry which has really bitten me, and I'm listening to Stasiland, tales from behind the Iron Curtain.

Granta 131: The Map is not the Territory
I've said before that my favourite issues of Granta are those with a particular country as the title, but this is an exception. It's allegedly about the difference between perception and reality, though in most cases I confess I'd have to think much harder than I'm able to at present to see the relevance to that; what I read was 'just' a collection of stunning writing on some fascinating subjects, both fiction and non. I usually read Granta in order, but here I couldn't resist starting with a piece by the wonderful Ludmila Ulitskaya, a favourite of mine since I read 3 of her novels for Belletrista, about being diagnosed with and treated for breast cancer, and the differences in approach between Russia and Israel (a serious, difficult subject she deals with with gravity, with a good dose of her trademark mordant humour). Another favourite was Janine di Giovanni's article 'After Zero Hour', about a trip around Iraq in 2002, and another visit in 2014. Despite being a fiction junkie who reads woefully little non-fiction, I often find that the pieces I enjoy most in Granta are the non-fiction ones.

71rachbxl
Mai 25, 2015, 7:11 am

MaddAddam by Margaret Atwood

I'm not sure this benefitted from being read a paragraph a night over a very long period, but it's surely a sign of what a great novel it is that it stood up to it. I kept meaning to transfer it to my bag so I could read it on the train, but never got round to it.

The characters walk off the page, as Atwood's characters so often do, and the places are so vivid in my mind, I feel like I was there myself - but what really struck me, once again, is how incredible Atwood's imagination is, and how she's not afraid to use it. She's brilliant.

I doubt I'll do it (too many books, too little time), but I'd really like to read all three books of the trilogy again back-to-back (or at least over a year or so) to get a real feel for them. I read the first two so long ago that my memory is quite hazy, and I think MaddAddam would be even better with more context (although a handy summary of books one and two is provided at the start of this third novel).

72rachbxl
Mai 25, 2015, 7:23 am

The Story of English in 100 Words by David Crystal
Audiobook read by the author

Wonderful book! It's right up my street, and I found it fascinating. So fascinating that I think I'm going to have to buy the paper book, as I'd love to be able to pick it up in an idle moment (like I have any) and leaf through it.

The title says it all: Crystal takes one hundred words which, together, tell one story of the English language. Of course, as language can't be dissociated from culture and context, there was a lot of the history of England that I've been listening to recently that reappeared here. For each word, Crystal looks in his usual accessible way at the possible etymology, changing meanings and usage (and why) over time, changing pronuciation (and why), use in expressions, and looks too at related words (in some cases the big 'might have beens').

I love Crystal's descriptive rather than prescriptive approach to language, which comes as a breath of fresh air to me; he seems to take delight in hearing and watching the language change even as we speak, as it were. I also love his voice and reading style; I just wish he wouldn't bother with the American accent when quoting American usage.

73dchaikin
Mai 25, 2015, 8:42 am

>70 rachbxl: "I've had several things on the go at once, and I finished them all at the same time, which left me a bit lost for a while!"

This happens to me a lot. I'm kinda of going through it right now. Trying to start a book for three days now, and have two others I want to start.

>72 rachbxl: i just put this on my wishlist. Sounds fun.

74labfs39
Bearbeitet: Mai 25, 2015, 1:36 pm

>70 rachbxl: I've only read one book by Ludmila Ulitskaya, Daniel Stein, Interpreter: A Novel in Documents, but was blown away by it. Amazingly well done using a technique that could have so easily gone awry. I would like to read more by her, do you have a favorite?

75rachbxl
Mai 25, 2015, 2:50 pm

>73 dchaikin: Hope you get into something soon! I think you'd like the Crystal.

>74 labfs39: Ah yes, thanks for reminding me about Daniel Stein, which I haven't read (despite my professional interest). For Belletrista I read Sonechka (a short story collection), The Funeral Party and Medea and her Children. They're all completely different, so someone embarking on a second because they enjoyed the first and want more of the same might be disappointed - but I thought they were all excellent. I have a special soft spot for Medea and her Children, though - a family saga set on the Crimean coast, where the fabulous character of Medea inhabits the run-down old family home, she and it acting as a magnet to which the other, disparate (and often eccentric) members of the family are inevitably drawn, holiday after holiday.

76labfs39
Mai 28, 2015, 11:49 pm

>75 rachbxl: Third Place Books, my local Indie store, is having their bi-annual sale soon. I'll see if they have anything else by her. Daniel Stein was so unusual that I wouldn't expect more of the same, but she must be a creative author to have written such diverse books.

77DieFledermaus
Mai 29, 2015, 12:23 am

>75 rachbxl: - Have you seen the New Yorker profile of Ulitskaya?

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/10/06/weight-words

I was thinking I should read something by her - the library has Daniel Stein and I've at least seen The Funeral Party at one of the stores around here.

78labfs39
Jun. 4, 2015, 3:41 pm

>77 DieFledermaus: Thank you for sharing that article, DieF. I hope you don't mind if I repost it on my thread so that I don't lose it.

79rachbxl
Bearbeitet: Jun. 10, 2015, 9:01 am

>77 DieFledermaus: Thanks for that, DieF, I enjoyed reading it. I'm wondering if Ulitskaya based the character of Medea in Medea and her Children on the friend mentioned in the first few paragraphs - interesting. There's one sentence in the article which brilliantly sums up what I love about Ulitskaya, namely her unique combination of humour and grim reality:

'On Judgement Day, I personally will be standing knee-deep in decapitated rats'.

>76 labfs39: Did you find anything, Lisa?

80rachbxl
Jun. 10, 2015, 9:47 am

Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall by Anna Funder
Audiobook read by Denica Fairman

I'm not sure I should really say I 'enjoyed' listening to this collection of personal accounts of life in the GDR as it was quite harrowing in parts...but I did, I enjoyed it. Australian writer Anna Funder spent two extended periods in Berlin in the 1990s, collecting stories about the Stasi. Those whose stories she tells here include people who were victims of the Stasi, and (and this is what makes the book really interesting) former members of the Stasi (there are some quite comical accounts of Funder's attempts to trace and contact the latter, as they don't tend to advertise themselves).

Funder seems to care a great deal about the people she talks about (the victims, at least), and the warmth and humanity with which she writes constrasts starkly with the stories they tell. What strikes me is that these people hadn't really ever done very much at all. Yes, several had done SOMETHING subversive, but the punishment was out of all proportion, and once they were caught in the Stasi's web, that was that. It's horrifying, the stuff of nightmares, literally.

If at times as I listened I gasped in disbelief at the atrocities perpetrated by one human being on another, at other times I laughed out loud. Funder is extremely astute, and she is just as ruthless with the ex-Stasimen as she is gentle with their victims; it's not so much what she says as the mere fact that she allows them space in her book for their preposterous blustering (beautifully read with just enough humour by Denica Freedman). She doesn't need to skewer them; she just lets them talk, and they do it themselves.

81rachbxl
Jun. 11, 2015, 3:00 pm

I was early for the press conference I was working at at lunchtime today, so I went down to the cafeteria to get a coffee...and what should I stumble upon in the atrium but a book sale, books in all the EU languages, all €1 each. They were still setting up so I didn't get to browse everything, but even so I picked up 4 books, including one I'm excited and intrigued by, a Virago short story anthology edited by Angela Carter and entitled Wayward Girls and Wicked Women. Published in 1986, it claims to be 'designed to promote the female virtues of discontent, sexual disruptiveness and bad manners, and to give a positive role to women who will not put up with the status quo'. I can't wait.

82Nickelini
Jun. 11, 2015, 3:05 pm

it claims to be 'designed to promote the female virtues of discontent, sexual disruptiveness and bad manners, and to give a positive role to women who will not put up with the status quo'. I can't wait.

All the upvotes and thumbs up to that one.

83labfs39
Jun. 17, 2015, 10:34 pm

>79 rachbxl: The book sale is this weekend, 40% off all used books, and I'll look for Ulitskaya then. Reminds me I need to make a list of most wanted from my humongous wishlist. Sounds like you happened upon a great sale too!

>80 rachbxl: I've had Stasiland on my radar for ages. Someday...

84rachbxl
Jul. 15, 2015, 9:54 am

Got a bit of catching up to do here!

This Sceptred Isle, Volume 2: 1087-1327 by Christopher Lee
Audiobook read by Anna Massey and Paul Eddington

Nope, this just confirms what I said about the first volume. I know this was heralded as the most amazing thing on the radio ever, but I just can't engage with it. I need the friendly, warm, interested tones of David Crystal or Simon Jenkins; Massey and Eddington perform rather than explain, and my mind wanders. I'm sure the substance is fabulous, but I can't follow it. (To be fair to Lee, Massey and Eddington, I switch off very easily; it's a product of my job).

85rachbxl
Jul. 15, 2015, 10:04 am

I've read 3 of the 4 books I bought at the sale I mentioned above, although not the one I'm really looking forward to (Wicked Women), as I'm prolonging the anticipation. I really enjoyed the 3 I read; I'll just list them for now as work calls, but I plan to be back with comments later:

One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson

We Are All Made of Glue by Marina Lewycka

The Geneva Trap by Stella Rimington

86rachbxl
Jul. 15, 2015, 10:54 am

One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson

I'm revising my opinion of Kate Atkinson. I loved Behind the Scenes at the Museum when it came out, but was disappointed by whatever I read next, and (unfairly, it turns out) wrote Atkinson off. Last year, staying with some Spanish friends of my parents and needing a new book, I picked up When Will There Be Good News (left there by my mum several years previously, apparently), and really enjoyed it. One Good Turn, too, was a cracking read - great characters and a plot that kept me reading (slightly improbable at times, but Atkinson pulls it off so well that I thought, well, ok, why not?) It was an easy read without being at all fluffy (in fact some serious issues are dealt with - human trafficking, for example), and I'll definitely be giving Atkinson another go.

We Are All Made of Glue by Marina Lewycka

I enjoyed this too, but less than the Atkinson. The story drew me in, and I came to care about the characters, but whereas Atkinson somehow manages to keep her cast of Russian call girls, Estonian cleaners and Scottish millionaires (and Jackson Brodie) entirely credible in their antics, Lewycka goes a bit too far and it all gets a bit farcical at times, with some characters almost pantomime villains and others practically buffoons. In addition, the plot relies quite heavily on coincidences, and on the main character doing things that I found hard to believe she would.

This was a fun, easy read, but I felt I was expected to be very indulgent and accept far too much for the sake of the story.

87rachbxl
Jul. 15, 2015, 11:00 am

The Geneva Trap by Stella Rimington

I had heard of the Liz Carlyle novels, and I vaguely knew that Stella Rimington (former head of MI5) had published several novels, but I hadn't put the two together. I'm completely hooked. This is one of the most gripping thrillers I've read for a long time, extremely well written, taut and tense but still with room for the characters to be real human beings. I can't wait to read more.

88ursula
Jul. 15, 2015, 11:16 am

>86 rachbxl: I really, really, really hated We Are All Made of Glue. And a million years ago, I read the first one of Stella Rimington's books. I liked it, I think, but I didn't continue on reading them. I probably should have, since I loved the tv show MI-5/Spooks.

89rachbxl
Jul. 16, 2015, 5:18 am

>88 ursula: I think I could quite easily have ended up hating it too! I think there's a good novel in there, but it's over-shadowed by everything else. (I'm glad I only paid a euro for it!)

90rachbxl
Jul. 16, 2015, 6:04 am

The Sunrise by Victoria Hislop

Having enjoyed a couple of Hislop's previous novels, I thought this was a sure bet and settled down to be told a great yarn AND to learn something. Hislop takes events in recent history, researches them thoroughly, and builds her fiction around them: the leper colony of Spinalonga off Crete in The Island, Thessaloniki and the Great Fire of 1917 in The Thread, the Spanish Civil War in The Return (which I haven't read), and the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in the 1970s in The Sunrise.

Unfortunately, this time I was disappointed. In The Thread and The Island, the time and place provide a fascinating backdrop for a really good story involving real, rounded characters. Without the historical and geographical context there would be no story, but the stories stand on their own feet. With The Sunrise, though, I had the feeling that Hislop wanted at all costs to tell a story about the division of Cyprus, and specifically about the abandoned city of Famagusta...but I don't think it works; it feels forced. In order for the story to work, some huge coincidences are needed, and the characters are pushed into actions I didn't find credible. The main characters include one Turkish Cypriot family and one Greek Cypriot family, the mothers of which are already friends, who just happen to be the only two families left in Famagusta after everyone else has fled and left it to the Turkish army. What's more, despite having to hide, they find each other. And then move in (together) to the deserted luxury Sunrise hotel, where members of both families used to work, and where they hide out for months in a beautiful microcosm of peaceful co-existence between Turkish and Greek Cypriots (the two fathers are reluctant to associate with the other family at first, but they get over their prejudices by spending time together).

Meanwhile, the other plot thread involves Aphroditi, beautiful wife of the property developer behind The Sunrise. Even by the end of the novel, I couldn't work out how I was supposed to feel about Aphroditi. I think I was meant to like her, feel sympathy for her, but I found her cold and uninteresting, and couldn't have cared less about her. And that's the big problem with this novel in general: things happen which should be moving, but they left me completely cold.

91NanaCC
Jul. 16, 2015, 7:10 am

Every time someone reviews Kate Atkinson, I want to go out and get some more of her books. I loved the two that I read, Life After Life and A God in Ruins.

I hope that work lets you get in some more good reading.

92RidgewayGirl
Jul. 16, 2015, 8:03 am

I'm glad you gave Atkinson another shot and that you liked One Good Turn. I like the way she writes the story into a giant mess, and then untangles it all just in time. She claims not to plan it out, but I don't think that can possibly be true.

93labfs39
Aug. 5, 2015, 11:38 pm

That's too bad the Marina Lewycka book was a bust. I've read and enjoyed two others by her: Short History of Tractors in Ukraine and Strawberry Fields (known in the UK as Two Caravans). The chicken factory scene nearly put me off chicken forever. Our hens are like family: perhaps I'm trying to make up to the species for their horrible treatment?!

I read the first Liz Carlyle book by Stella Remington, mainly because of the controversy surrounding her chairing of the Booker Committee in 2012. Although I'm not much into mysteries, I do like espionage novels. Unfortunately, I thought this one meh, and have not read any others by her. Perhaps they get better?

94rachbxl
Sept. 10, 2015, 5:45 am

Lots of catching up to do! I've been putting it off for weeks, so the list of unwritten reviews just gets longer and longer and I can barely remember some of the books now.

In no particular order...

Life after Life by Kate Atkinson

Oh my goodness, if only for this it was worth rediscovering Kate Atkinson. What a brilliant book. It got completely under my skin, and while I was reading it and for a few days after I felt quite strange, almost unable to distinguish between my life (which one?) and all of Ursula's. This novel is an amazing achievement; I can't begin to imagine how Atkinson managed to plan it all out.

Our Spoons Came from Woolworths by Barbara Comyns

This had been on my mental 'keep an eye out for' list since I saw it recommended by several Club Read-ers, and I found it in a second hand bookshop. A quick but not always easy read, sometimes funny and touching, sometimes disconcerting - the narrator consistently uses a matter-of-fact tone, even to recount very upsetting events, to such an extent that at times I had to re-read things because the impact only hit me a few lines on. This week I went back to the shop and bought the other two books by Comyns that I spotted when I bought this one.

95rachbxl
Sept. 10, 2015, 6:01 am

The Monarchy of England: The Beginnings by David Starkey
Audiobook read by Tim Pigott-Smith

This was interesting enough, and added some further layers to what I already knew, but I still haven't found an audiobook on history which lives up to my starting point, A Short History of England. It's the readers, as I've said before. Tim Pigott-Smith has a lovely voice and he reads this beautifully, but without engaging me, whereas Simon Jenkins made me feel that he really cared about his subject, and really wanted to tell me about it.

96rachbxl
Sept. 10, 2015, 6:50 am

The Son by Jo Nesbo
Translated from the Norwegian by

I bought this one day when I felt really weary, and a gripping Harry Hole story seemed like just the thing. Except that this isn't a Harry Hole story, and I didn't find it gripping simply because it was so explicit and gruesome, far more detail than I'm comfortable with about drug-taking, murder and horrible ways to inflict harm on another person. I finished it, but only because I kept forgetting to put something else in my bag.

97NanaCC
Sept. 10, 2015, 7:58 am

Nice to see you Rachel.. Life After Life was wonderful, wasn't it. I reread it a couple of months ago before reading her new one A God in Ruins. I enjoyed it just as much the second time around.

98rebeccanyc
Sept. 10, 2015, 2:19 pm

>94 rachbxl: I got on a Comyns kick a few years ago after reading Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead, which remains my favorite. Which ones did you buy?

99labfs39
Sept. 12, 2015, 10:55 am

I still have to read Life after Life. I'm glad you enjoyed it so much! The only Comyns I've read is the one recommended by Rebecca, Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead. The author's style was very different from other British authors of the same period. Someday I'll get to reading others by her. Ah, the wishlist!

Simon Jenkins is hands down amazing. It's similar to how I will enjoy a class with a good professor irregardless of the topic; I enjoy a well-narrated audiobook the same way. I found myself completely caught up in the Brian Jacques tween books simply because the group narration was so good.

100AlisonY
Sept. 13, 2015, 6:00 am

Our Spoons Came From Woolworths sounded really interesting - will have to add that to my groaning wish list pile. Not heard of that book or author before.

101FlorenceArt
Sept. 13, 2015, 11:06 am

I agree about Our Spoons Came From Woolworths. I added it to my wishlist.

102rachbxl
Sept. 14, 2015, 10:44 am

>97 NanaCC: I don't often re-read, but I can already see myself going back to Life after Life. And I'm looking forward to A God in Ruins, though I'm trying to pace myself and not buy it immediately!

>98 rebeccanyc: Ah, there you go - I was almost sure it was you that put me on to Comyns, Rebecca. I can't remember off-hand what the other two I bought were; I'll check this evening.

>99 labfs39: yes, that's exactly it. The other day I had to go to a half-day training course (ie lecture) on international trade, and I'd hardly slept (thanks, Edie) so was dreading having to fight to stay awake. No way - the trainer was so engaging that I could have listened to him all day!

>100 AlisonY:, >101 FlorenceArt: Hope you both enjoy it. As Lisa says in >99 labfs39:, it's a totally different style from other Brits writing at the same time.

103rachbxl
Sept. 14, 2015, 11:00 am

Still trying to catch up...

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion

All I knew about this when I found it in my good old second-hand bookshop last week was that it had been highly recommended by a friend whose reading tastes are often in line with mine. I then discovered that it had been a New York Times bestseller and that Sony has bought the film rights, but I hadn't heard of it other than from my friend.

The narrator, Don, is a professor of genetics, highly intelligent but socially gauche, and apparently unaware that he is quite firmly on the autistic spectrum. He needs a wife, so goes about finding her in the only way he knows - scientifically. He designs a thorough questionnaire, and won't entertain the idea of a future (or even a coffee) with a woman who doesn't answer in a certain way. Enter Rosie, who answers in all the wrong ways...

As pure entertainment, this novel is brilliant. I laughed out loud more times than I can remember, and if all I wanted from a book was for it to let me relax and enjoy myself in an uncritical kind of way, this would be a perfect book.

However.

I couldn't shake the feeling that I was reading a film script - written as a novel, but with the author already seeing it on the big screen. And in fact in his afterword, the author confirms that the novel did start out as a screenplay. (It will make an excellent feel-good rom-com).

And then there's the whole autism side of things. Basically, what appears to happen here is that Don finally pulls himself together and starts to function much more 'normally' than he ever did before. If I were autistic, I think I would find that idea quite offensive. Come on, all you autistic people out there - all it takes is the love of a good woman, and you'll be sorted.

104Nickelini
Sept. 14, 2015, 12:15 pm

>103 rachbxl: Hmmmm. That sounds interesting, maybe. Good review though.

105dchaikin
Sept. 15, 2015, 7:11 pm

Might just make a nice movie. It's a cute idea.

106AlisonY
Sept. 16, 2015, 7:54 am

Read a book like that recently where the author clearly had a Hollywood movie in mind and it was toe-curling, so I get where you're coming from!

107rachbxl
Sept. 16, 2015, 3:55 pm

Still catching up!

Historia del rey transparente by Rosa Montero

Probably not translated into English, because very little Montero is, sadly.

Rosa Montero is one of a group of Spanish writers I first became aware of through their (excellent) newspaper columns, before going on to read their novels. I've read and enjoyed other novels by Montero...which is fortunate, because if this had been my first taste, I'm not sure I'd be going back for more.

It opens well enough, and the first hundred pages really drew me in. Leola, a young peasant girl in mediaeval France, sees her home destroyed in a battle, and the men of her family (her mother is dead) and her sweetheart, Jacques, are rounded up to fight for the local landowner. Desperate to survive and to find Jacques, Leola takes the armour of a young knight she finds dead on the battlefield...and thus begins her life as a man, and our romp through the age of chivalry.

Montero, it turns out, has long been fascinated by mediaeval France, and wanted to write a novel that drew on everything she had learned about it. The key word in that last sentence is 'everything'. There is way too much period detail in this novel, and it gets in the way of the story. At one point, for example, Leola/Leo ends up at the court of Eleanor of Aquitaine in Poitiers, for no reason that I could see...other than that Montero wants to tell us all about the court of Eleanor of Aquitaine, and at great length too.

I often gave up on this book, but persisted because after a couple of hundred pages I thought I should - and the last hundred pages turned out to be as gripping as the first. Shame about the intervening 400, which could easily have been halved.

108rachbxl
Sept. 16, 2015, 4:09 pm

And finally...

The New Woman's Hour Book of Short Stories, edited by Di Speirs

This is another book it's taken me ages to finish, but not for the same reason as the last. There are stories in here by Margaret Atwood, Alice Munro, Beryl Bainbridge, Janice Galloway, Nadime Gordimer, E. Annie Proulx, Helen Dunmore, Helen Simpson, Rose Tremain, Fay Weldon, Ali Smith, Penelope Lively and more. It took me so long because it was almost too much! Like a very rich meal which you can only eat a little at a time...and which you never want to finish. I just had a flick through it to see if I could at least say here that I particularly liked one story or another - but I'd have to list them all, or almost. What a treat.

109dchaikin
Sept. 17, 2015, 9:39 pm

>108 rachbxl: I've only read two of those authors, but that seems like quite a select list. Sounds terrific.

>107 rachbxl: "...wanted to write a novel that drew on everything she had learned..." - I find this so disappointing in novels. It seems to happen a lot.

110labfs39
Sept. 19, 2015, 11:33 am

>103 rachbxl: Hmm, I took the premise a slightly different way. Instead of thinking only of autistic people, I asked myself: how far should any one of us (myself including) be willing to compromise our "selves" in order to be in a relationship with someone. Obviously, we all change to make a better fit with the people we love. They hate sushi, we go to sushi with other friends but not them. They like football, we like reading, sometimes we do one or the other, sometimes both (one reads while tucked up next to the sports watcher). But when is it too big of a compromise? Where is the line between healthy compromise and accommodation, and unhealthy? I still find myself thinking about this. If I had been more flexible, would such and such a relationship have lasted? Did I compromise for too long and lose part of what makes me me? The fact that the main character has high-functioning autistic only added clarity to the extremes, but didn't change the fundamental question, IMO.

The Rosie Project was not a book I would have sought out, but our book club was reading it, and I found myself thinking about it long after I finished. A pleasant surprise.

P.S. I looked up the song that Don listens to over and over again on his patio. It's Darling, Be Home Soon by the Loving Spoonfuls. Here is an acoustic recording from Woodstock: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBXL7FaPod4

111rebeccanyc
Sept. 19, 2015, 7:02 pm

Wow! The Lovin' Spoonful brings back memories . . . "Rain on the Roof" was one of my teenage favorites.

112rachbxl
Okt. 7, 2015, 6:28 am

>110 labfs39: I read your comment ages ago but haven't had a chance to reply! Funnily enough, I had intended to make some of the points you make when I wrote my comments, but I stopped as they were getting quite lengthy. (I understand why it's a popular book club choice - fun to read, and lots of food for thought). The (obsessive) lengths Don goes to to change made me quite sad, and I thought about that a lot while I was reading the book. My objection, though, was that it seemed to be the behaviours caused by his autism that he was trying to change (is that even possible?), but I hadn't thought about it in the way that you suggest - that the fact that he's autistic adds clarity to the extremes, and that does make me look at it in a different way.

I still need to listen to that song! (I'm at work right now).

113rachbxl
Okt. 7, 2015, 7:17 am

The Bees by Laline Paull

I finished this a week ago but have been reluctant to come and comment on it, because I'm not sure I'll do it justice.

Flora 717 is the lowest of the low in the hive hierarchy - unlike Sage (the high-ranking priestesses answerable only to the Queen), Teasle, Thistle and others, Flora bees don't even have a pure kin group derived from one single flower. In the strict hive hierarchy in which every kin has its allotted tasks from which no deviation is tolerated, the Flora are sanitation workers, distinguishable by their unrefined features and their strong smell.

Whilst looking (and smelling!) like the rest of her kin, Flora 717 is different, right from the moment she hatches, and she is allowed, because of circumstances, to undertake tasks which would normally be forbidden her - always under threat of being sent back where she belongs, if not of death ('the Kindness') or, worse, banishment from the hive.

Read as an imagined account of life in a beehive, this is fascinating. But there are so many layers on top of that, so many different readings possible. The highly regimented life in the hive, where thoughts are controlled and read and the will and needs of the hive take priority over the individual, can stand for so many things, totalitarian societies being the most obvious...but there are more interesting readings, in my opinion, and I think every reader will find their own. In my case, the hive reminded me of my workplace (and not in a good way). Or what about the hive as a (only slightly) futuristic vision of human society, with only certain individuals 'allowed' to reproduce?

I was given this book as a birthday present, and I was immediately intrigued (praise from Margaret Atwood on the cover was always going to get my attention). A couple of chapters in, though I was entranced by the amazingly detailed and beautifully imagined descriptions of life in the hive, I was starting to wonder whether I would manage a full (400-page) novel in which all the characters were bees (I don't do anthropomorphism). In the event, my regret was that it was only 400 pages, and Flora 717 has leapt straight on to my shortlist of favourite literary characters.

114.Monkey.
Bearbeitet: Okt. 7, 2015, 7:29 am

>112 rachbxl: I haven't read it so I can only guess at the sort of change, but if he was "high functioning" enough to work as a professor (implying he was an aspie, not someone actually on the far end of the spectrum) then he pretty much had the same capacity to change as your average person. That is to say, rather little, but if one really wants it & works at it diligently...

PS. The Bees sounds quite interesting!

115FlorenceArt
Okt. 7, 2015, 7:46 am

>113 rachbxl: This is certainly intriguing! I'll add it to the wishlist.

116janeajones
Okt. 8, 2015, 3:52 am

Think I'll have to try The Bees.

117FlorenceArt
Bearbeitet: Okt. 8, 2015, 7:34 am

Many years ago I read Bernard Werber's Les fourmis (Empire of the Ants). It was a nice quick read though I wasn't very impressed by the writing. And I learned a few things about the life of ants. I don't think it's in the same literary category as The Bees, from your review, but I thought I'd mention it.

118rachbxl
Okt. 8, 2015, 5:57 am

>117 FlorenceArt: Yes, this did make me think about Les fourmis, although I haven't read it. My husband read it and passed it on to me a few years ago, but I didn't get far - I liked the idea but, like you, wasn't gripped by the writing.

>114 .Monkey.: Hello Monkey! Good to see you.

119.Monkey.
Okt. 8, 2015, 6:28 am

Hiya! I have returned! xD

I think Les fourmis is one my husband read a long time ago and thought was great. :)

120rachbxl
Okt. 8, 2015, 10:16 am

>119 .Monkey.: yes, mine loved it. Have you made it to Redu (the book village) yet?

121.Monkey.
Okt. 8, 2015, 10:42 am

Not yet! We did make it down to Wallonia this summer, finally, but to the Namur area. Caves, animal parks, castles, citadels, fun stuff!

122rachbxl
Okt. 8, 2015, 10:53 am

There's lots to see and do around Namur - lovely. (And I made a rare visit to Antwerp a few weeks ago, to visit a friend's new baby).

123.Monkey.
Okt. 8, 2015, 11:19 am

Yes, it was very nice. We stayed in this gorgeous little B&B in Profondeville with the friendliest woman running it, quite a nice little trip all-around! :)) And yay A'pen, best city! xP

124rachbxl
Okt. 14, 2015, 9:23 am

The Secret Place by Tana French

Tana French has been on my wishlist for a while, thanks to several Club Read-ers (though i can't remember who - RidgewayGirl? NanaCC?)

I have slight mixed feelings about this, although I'll say right away that I enjoyed it immensely. I got completely caught up in the slightly claustrophobic microcosm of the exclusive girls' boarding school in which the book is set, and I couldn't wait to get back to it at any opportunity. I like the way Tana French writes, in particular the dialogue, of which there is a lot; it makes the characters leap off the page, and there's a lovely contrast between the colliquial teen-speak of the pupils, the colloquial (but in a different way) police-speak of the detectives, and the stuffy speech of the headmistress.

A year before the story starts, a pupil from the nearby boys' school was found murdered in the grounds of the girls' school, and the murderer wasn't found. The case is re-opened when one of the girls, anonymous, claims to know who the killer is. Another girl (or the same one?) reports the claim to Detective Stephen Moran, who sees it as his ticket to where he wants to be - the murder squad. The narrative alternates between the present day, narrated by Moran, and the months preceding the murder, with the detectives finding out who the murderer is just as it is revealed to the reader in the flashbacks, a device which allows French to build and maintain huge suspense.

My mixed feelings stem from the fact that the novel is centred on, and the plot relies on, the very close friendship between a group of four girls. I don't know. I won't go into detail so as to avoid spoilers, but we are led to believe that they would do absolutely anything for each other...yet there are some fairly huge things that they don't talk to each other about. There are attempts to explain this away, but I wasn't quite convinced. (And another thing - why would they be the only pupils wanting to get out at night? If they managed it, why didn't others?)

However, for such an enjoyable read I'm ready to suspend disbelief, and I hope to read more Tana French in the very near future.

125NanaCC
Okt. 14, 2015, 9:46 am

>124 rachbxl: I enjoyedThe Secret Place quite a bit, but it isn't my favorite. I think that honor falls to Faithful Place, but they are all good.

126rachbxl
Okt. 27, 2015, 4:29 am

>125 NanaCC: Ooh, I might look for Faithful Place for my next one, then...

127rachbxl
Okt. 27, 2015, 5:07 am

The Vet's Daughter by Barbara Comyns

What an extraordinary little book. Very disturbing, yet a delight to read. Barbara Comyns has a style that's all her own, and I love it. The matter-of-fact voice in which the young female narrator recounts sad or even downright tragic events, her cold father's breath-taking cruelty, all the slights and injustices which she suffers just serves to highlight them; I said in >94 rachbxl: that I kept having to re-read passages of Our Spoons Came from Woolworths to check, because of the dissonance between tone and content, and this was the same (hang on, just let me go back, WHAT did she just say? kind of thing). I wonder if some readers might not find it irritating, but I find it very effective. Alice, the narrator, relates amusing incidents and makes mordant observations in the same deadpan tone, and again, for me it works.

I have another Comyns on my shelves, and I don't think it'll be long before I get to it.

128rebeccanyc
Okt. 27, 2015, 10:14 am

>127 rachbxl: The Vet's Daughter was the second Comyns I read (after Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead), and it confirmed for me that I wanted to read as much Comyns as I could!

129rachbxl
Okt. 28, 2015, 7:06 am

>128 rebeccanyc: Isn't she amazing? I've got a copy of Sisters by a River, and I'm on the lookout for more!

130rebeccanyc
Okt. 28, 2015, 9:22 am

>129 rachbxl: Sisters by a River is semi-autobiographical and I enjoyed seeing where some of her ideas came from.

131japaul22
Okt. 28, 2015, 7:44 pm

I've not yet read Barbara Comyns but she sounds like an author that I need to try. Thanks for bringing her to my attention!

132rachbxl
Dez. 20, 2015, 3:36 pm

I've had a bit of a reading slump, bogged down in things that just weren't doing it for me (like the Wayward Girls and Wicked Women anthology, which I had high hopes for. It started well but tailed off, so for now I've put it to one side, though I do plan to finish it. There's also a half-read recent Granta which I'll give another chance).

I was saved by the wonderful Harry Hole:

The Redeemer by Jo Nesbo
Translated from the Norwegian

I do like rumpled, flawed old Harry - another of those very 'real' detectives make such great characters. I knew he would keep me reading. I find the Harry Hole books compelling...but I do wish sometimes that Nesbo would spare us some of the gory details and the violence.

133rachbxl
Dez. 20, 2015, 4:21 pm

El boxeador polaco by Eduardo Halfon
(The Polish Boxer)

I enjoyed this immensely - one of the best books I've read for a long time. It's been on my mental wish list for a while, and I bought it the other day and devoured it in no time (helped by the fact that after work that day, I jumped on the wrong train and had to go beyond my station and get another train back - an extra 45 minutes of reading time!)

The first four of the novel's six sections (stories, in fact) take us gradually closer to the Polish boxer of the title, with references to him becoming clearer and clearer, until finally we come to section 5, entitled 'The Polish Boxer'. This, then, is the story that needs telling, the story Halfon (Halfon? Or the narrator?) has been edging towards. The Polish boxer was a man his Polish grandfather met in Auschwitz, and the boxer's advice saved his life. At last! Everything comes into focus, and there's a sense of resolution, relief, even - everything that came before was just the preamble; now THIS is what the book is about. Or maybe not, for just when we think we know about the Polish boxer, the final story unexpectedly takes us away from him again, and the focus is blurred again, the resolution is lost.

Halfon is Guatemalan, and most of the stories are set in Guatemala, particularly in Antigua - but Guatemala isn't just a backdrop, it becomes part of the story. The descriptions of places I visited (even one particular restaurant) with Guatemalan friends 15 years ago are so vivid I feel like I'm back there.

134dchaikin
Dez. 20, 2015, 10:24 pm

Wait, The Polish Boxer is about Guatemala? Terrific review that makes me want to read it.

135janeajones
Dez. 20, 2015, 10:49 pm

I remember reading The Polish Boxer as an LTER and finding it delightful.

136rachbxl
Dez. 21, 2015, 6:44 am

>134 dchaikin: Well, it's as much 'about' Guatemala as it is about anything else, and much of it is certainly set there (I hadn't realised either). Interesting you should use the word 'about'; early in the book there's a quote from another writer (the narrator is a professor of literature) about how the mark of a great writer is being able to write about something whilst appearing to write about something else. Hence my reluctance to say that this book is about Guatemala...though maybe it is. Or maybe it's about the Polish boxer after all? Or...?

>135 janeajones: Exactly! 'Delightful' is the word.

137dchaikin
Dez. 21, 2015, 9:12 am

That was an unanticipated and entertaining answer.

138FlorenceArt
Dez. 21, 2015, 9:28 am

>133 rachbxl: Sounds interesting! I added the French translation to my wishlist. Reviews on amazon.fr are conflicted: one reviewer thought it was boring, the other said it made sense when you connect it with other books from the same author. I'm certainly intrigued.

139kidzdoc
Dez. 21, 2015, 5:12 pm

Nice review of The Polish Boxer, Rachel. I'll move it a bit higher on my TBR list.