bwl 101 - Summer 2021
Fiction
| John Boyne - The Heart's Invisible Furies
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| In 2008 (aged 14), I reviewed Boyne's 'The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas' (bwl 48) and was not very impressed, perhaps due to all the hype! This book had the opposite impact. A daunting six hundred page read, engrossing from middle to end. Overall, I adored this story of teenage pregnancy; growing up; adoption; religion; gay rights; the AIDS pandemic; and politics in Ireland and beyond. I was in Dublin in 2015 in the run-up to the gay marriage referendum and this story hit home - I imagined I lived in a "modern" society, so it's harrowing to discover the history of Ireland, geographically next-door to the UK, and to realise that this sort of oppression occurred in my life-time and is still prevalent in the West.
(Eloise May)
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| Steven Conte - The Tolstoy Estate
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| This was a surprisingly good read, especially for lovers like me of the supreme Russian novelist and with interest in and knowledge of European history. This was a very effective attempt to imagine some of the tolls of the attempted advance on Moscow, by German infantry and also on the resident Russian population. (Margaret Teh)
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| David Diop, translated from French by Anna Moschovakis - At Night all Blood is Black
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| This slim volume is an intense and uncomfortable read with much of it out of my comfort zone. The story is of a Senegalese soldier in WW1 who, brutalised by his war experiences and guilt over the death of his 'more than brother' friend and fellow soldier, descends into madness. From traditional village life they were thrown into a dehumanising nightmare. Despite the subject there is almost a mystical quality to the writing (and translation) that raises it above just a war story.
(Winner of the 2021 International Booker Prize and other prizes) (Christine Miller)
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| Margaret Foster - The Memory Box
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| When she was just six months old Catherine's mother, Susannah, died. Her father remarried and they enjoyed a happy family life. By the time Catherine was in her thirties both her parents were dead and she decided to open the memory box her 'real' mother had left for her, containing a strange collection of wrapped objects which led her on a quest to discover the real Susannah. An intriguing idea for a story that I found both moving and absorbing.
(Mary Standing)
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| Robert Goddard - The Fine Art of Invisible Detection
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| Meet a new private investigator - Umuko Wada; a most unlikely candidate - quiet, unassuming, the ideal PR. When her boss, is killed in a hit and run it seems that Wada will be out of a job - but...Life is never simple. I really enjoyed this 'thriller' - a race against time to stop a ruthless business man and uncover an historic truth. Great holiday read. (Ferelith Hordon)
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| Rumer Godden - An Episode of Sparrows
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| A step back in time. Rumer Godden is much overlooked today, though as the recent airing of Black Narcissus shows she is a far from comfortable writer both for adults and young readers. Here we are in London - London of the '40s - a faded square, run-down streets. We meet Olivia and her sister, Angela, Sparkey, Tip Malone the bad boy - and Lovejoy who you will never forget. Bittersweet it gets under the skin. (Ferelith Hordon)
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| Victor Hugo - Les Misérables
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| The "holiday" read par excellence - a book that really demands to be read in one great sweep (all right I didn't but every time I managed to properly sit down with it, I was swept away on the tide of Hugo's storytelling - I am afraid in English). There's the story at its core - the tension between Javert and Jean Valjean - the moral complexities of their situation and characters; there's the excitement of the 1832 June rebellion sweeping through Paris; there's the love story (perhaps the least satisfactory element) and then there's the history, Hugo's opinions on the government of France and England, philosophy, and Paris which is as much a presence in the novel as any of the human dramatis personae. The cast - well Marius and Cossette, great disappointments, but Valjean, Javert, Eponine and Gavroche - brilliant - and sadly all dead by the end. (Ferelith Hordon)
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| Sally Magnusson - The Sealwoman's Gift
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| 1627 - Turkish pirates raid Iceland's shore seizing 400 people to be auctioned as slaves. So begins an immersive novel, rich in folk lore and history as we follow the fate of Asta, her children and her much older husband, a pastor who is sent on a mission to raise a ransom. Asta meanswhile is absorbed into her new life and forges a strange relationship with the man who bought her. Once set free she faces a new kind of exile as she returns to the now unfamiliar world of home.
(Jenny Baker)
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| Davide Morosinotto - Red Stars
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| Aimed at a YA audience this is a war story that is different. It is set in Russia as the Nazi army invades and Leningrad is besieged. Nadya and Viktor are true children of Communist Russia now led by Stalin. And yet - when they are separated (they are twins) uncomfortable truths emerge. Told through their diaries now a dossier in the hands of a government department, it is engrossing - and exciting. Highly recommended (Ferelith Hordon)
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| Cho Nam-Joo - Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982
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| Kim Jiyoung is born into a society where being female unashamedly casts you into a second-class role from birth, when you should have been a boy, through childhood when your brother gets his own room, then as a teenager being blamed for late-night harassment, next passed over for promotion by a male and finally becoming a wife who runs the home, does the laundry, bears the children, gives up her career. She's acting strangely, feeling depressed, going mad. I'm not surprised. Is it so much better here? (Jenny Baker)
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| Viet Thanh Nguyen - The Sympathizer
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| The narrator half French, half Vietnamese is a communist sleeper agent in America, imprisoned by his own side he is writing his confession and only when he understands the answer to what is more precious than independence and freedom will he be set free. A gripping, searing, sometimes funny tale of friendship, divided loyalties, exile, and a war in which the Americans are the extras unlike in Coppola's Apocalypse Now. Winner of the Pullitzer Prize 2016. (Jenny Baker)
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| Derek Robinson - A Splendid Little War
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| Russia after the Great War: The British Government intervenes, unofficially, on the side of the White Russians against the Bolsheviks, sending the Merlin squadron of Sopwith Camels and bombers into battle. The result is an arresting mixture of historical narrative, action, tragedy and black comedy. Nothing is quite as vivid as the aerial combat in which the men dice vulnerably with disaster in their flimsy machines, but Russian banqueting and the long journey north come close. This is getting your history the entertaining way. (Tony Pratt)
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| Robin Steven - A Murder Most Unladlylike
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| I am going to cheat here. The title is both the name of a series of nine books as well as the title of the first in that series. Meet Daisy Wells (or rather The Honourable Daisy Wells ) and Hazel Wong (Wong Fung Ying). They are both pupils of the exclusive Deepdean School for Young Ladies. Both belong to the exclusive Detective Society (President Daisy Wells). Wherever they go something happens - murder. In this the first, it is one of the mistresses. The inspiration is, of course, Christie and young readers will not be disappointed. Look out for them - I have read them all including the last one Death Sets Sail (inspired by Death on the Nile). (Ferelith Hordon)
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| Douglas Stuart - Shuggie Bain
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| Shuggie is growing up on a run-down estate in Glasgow where unemployment is rife. His beloved, unmarried mother is an alcoholic and always falls for disastrous men. Shuggie knows he must look after and protect her but also he struggles to define himself. He is different, people notice, he must learn to be more like a boy. This is a raw, heartbreaking novel about a little boy's love for his mother and the devastating effect that addiction has on all those around you. Carrying the ghost of his mother somehow 16 year-old Shuggie must survive. It was a page-turner right to the end. (Jenny Baker)
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| Mark Sullivan - Beneath a Scarlet Sky
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| After a clunky start, the story of 17 year Pino Lella's wartime courage picks up a pace and is a really enjoyable read - a fictionalised true story of epic proportions. Daydreaming of first love, music and adventure, Pino's youthful exhuberance quickly leads him into real danger in Nazi-occupied Milan. Inadvertantly, he becomes a key part of the Italian resistance, first leading Jews through rough Alpine terrain to freedom and then finding himself at the heart of the Nazi organisation.
(Rebecca Howell)
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| Pip Williams - The Dictionary of Lost Words
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| Simon Winchester's The Surgeon of Crowthorne (bwl 2000) tells the story of the Scriptorium where lexicographers assembled the Oxford English Dictionary but somehow the words women use amongst themselves were disregarded. This is their story and of the little girl who treasured them. Whimsical? Not at all, Williams brings a whole new perspective on how words and their usage have shaped and influenced our lives throughout history. Warm, funny with a touch of romance but never sentimental, it's a compelling read.
(Jenny Baker)
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Non-Fiction
| Jacques Barzun - From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life
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| During the 16th century both Francis I of France and Henry VIII of England required that their subjects, all of them, should have first and last names. This tidbit, sprinkled with information about Spinoza, Utopia, the establishment of Madrid as the capital of Spain, and much more spins out in a seamless narrative in one of the most eclectic history books ever written. From 1500 to the present is covered profoundly and elegantly. (Herb Roselle)
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| Bella Bathurst - The Wreckers: A Story of Killing Seas, False Lights and Plundered
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| The author spent three years visiting, researching and interviewing Britain's coastal communities to explore the murky world of ship wrecks and those that profited by them. It raises many questions both legal and moral and the waters are muddy! Fascinating - grips you more than any thriller. All the big questions about life and death are there. JUDGE NOT! (Lynda Johnson)
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| Craig Brown - One Two Three Four: The Beatles in Time
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This wonderful book covers the years from the formation of The Beatles to their break up, but it is so much more than the story of their rise and demise. It looks at their impact on others: not just those in their circle, but unconnected people who were inspired by their music. It also at times poses the question 'what if?'. As a devoted (but very young at the time!) Beatles fan, I loved this eye-opening view of the 60s and the legacy left by these four disparate but extraordinary boys from Liverpool.
Winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize 2020.
(Annie Noble)
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| Rev. Richard Coles - The Madness of Grief: A Memoir of Love and Loss
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| This is an emotional but reflective account of the grief which consumed the Reverend Richard Coles as a result of his husband's sudden and tragic death at 43. Despite the devastating pain, there are moments of levity, affirmations of friendships, faith and kindness. Although deeply personal, The Reverend does not betray David in exposing details of their life, you feel the agony of his loss and you are made so aware of his love for David. (Rebecca Howell)
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| Tim Pat Coogan - The Famine Plot: England's Role in Ireland's Greatest Tragedy
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| Ireland's Famine in the 1840's, caused by potato blight, resulted in the loss of approximately a quarter of its population through death and mass emigration - the latter of which was encouraged by the British Government. Coogan posits the suggestion that a natural disaster was seen by those in power as a solution to the poverty of the masses and therefore were guilty of genocide. Well researched and totally absorbing - no doubt the jury is out! (Lynda Johnson)
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| Edmund de Waal - Letters to Camondo
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| This sensitive author reveals the history of Moise de Camondo, a wealthy Jewish art collector, and his descendants with links to de Waal's own Ephrussi family. He does this through imaginary personal letters to the dead Camondo who was originally from Constantinople. He became part of Parisian high society, embracing its culture and freedom only to have his descendants murdered in concentration camps in WWII. The letters are reflections on family, history, collections and the desire to belong.
(Christine Miller)
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| Edmund de Waal - The Hare with Amber Eyes
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| Edmund De Waal's history of his close relatives, the wealthy Ephrussi
family (and other similar Jewish families of the belle epoque high society),
was the first book to give me a graspable understanding of the anti-
semetism that became a horrific blot on modern history. Read this book
not only because it enthralls from start to finish, but because it will dazzle
and inform you. (and see bwl 59 and 61). (Sharron Calkins)
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| Jessica A Fox - Three Things you Need to Know about Rockets
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| Here we are in Wigtown again in Scotland's biggest second-hand bookshop. If you enjoyed Shaun Bythell's sagas (bwl 95, 97 & 99) this memoir by his American girlfriend fills in those missing blanks. Romantic, exhuberant given to much introspection, it is not hard to understand why dour, dithering Bythell could not live up to her dream and fell so far short of her expectations. An entertaining read though there were moments when I wanted to shake her for being so needy!
(Jenny Baker)
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| Tim Harford - How to Make the World Add Up: Ten rules for thinking differently about numbers
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| Has there ever been a more readable, or more entertaining, book about economics that this? The author, better known perhaps for his Radio 4 programme More or Less, takes his crusade against disinformation and obfuscation so much further with amusing analysis of everyday scenarios. He challenges us to evaluate claims by politicians and others such as lobbyists, inviting us to treat them with healthy scepticism, thus helping us to see the world as never before. (Jeremy Miller)
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| Sebastian Junger - War
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Written in 2010, this remains a visceral and moving account of asymmetric warfare between a super-power and unsophisticated but powerfully motivated indigenous insurgents. Junger illuminates the experiences of a small body of US soldiers in a remote valley on the Afghan-Pakistan border, giving a truly remarkable insight into the realities of war and the lives of the men who fight. Perceptibly, he draws comparisons and differences between the Afghan and Vietnam conflicts*. A timely read.
* Compare these with the albeit fictional account of the Vietnam conflict in Karl Marlantes' Matterhorn - bwl 59 Winter 2011. (Jeremy Miller)
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| Sarah L Kaufman - The Art of Grace: On Moving Well Through Life
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| Sarah Kaufman puts her finger on the irritating coarseness of our present-day culture, then goes on to inspire us to embrace the art of grace in all its many facets. In this celebrity-packed book, examples of grace are drawn from the arts, sports, science, the humanities, and everyday life. Reading the book was an uplifting experience, and worthy of a later, joyful rereading. (Between readings, put the book on your head and practice graceful movement...)
(Sharron Calkins)
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| Angela Saini - Inferior: The True Power of Women and the Science that Shows it
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| Throughout history science has been the prerogative of white, middle-class males regurgitating their worldview based on their perceptions, and ignoring the female and a large proportion of the global population. Saini writes in a fascinating prose although perhaps her own unconscious bias comes through. The book is rather brief, possibly attempting to cover too much material without delving into enough detail on specific matters. This may make it more accessible to the general reader, but I felt it undermined the grim reality explored. I think I will be doing some further reading.
(Eloise May)
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| Feedback |
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| I'm afraid this isn't feedback but a question that has come to me and I'd be interested to know if anyone else has had thoughts along these lines. My question is: How legitimate is it for novelists to use real people as characters in their works of fiction? I have just finished two books (scraping the bottom of the barrel) which by coincidence both use this device. They are The Shoes of the Fisherman by Morris West and The Fourth Estate by Jeffrey Archer. In the first, West - apart from the startling presumption of putting himself in a Pope's shoes - gives a lot of space to a character who is blatantly Teilhard de Chardin (remember him?). Archer's book is a recreation of the rivalry between two press barons, the barely disguised story of Robert Maxwell and Rupert Murdoch. When I say 'barely disguised' I am being lenient - in reality Archer simply tracks their careers, including the episodes we are all familiar with. What these authors are doing, it seems to me, is purloining and turning into fiction for their own ends a real person who has no right of redress. A) it's cheating - make up your own characters! and B) more important, I find this deeply unethical. Maybe I am being overly judgemental? (Annabel Bedini) |
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| Lockdown here (Sydney, Australia) has meant that we have a lot of reading time. I alternate between seriously good fiction, and a light read (Fiona Mackintosh's The Pearl Thief and Sally Rooney's Normal People) and did I mention already, The Claimant, by Janette Turner Hospital? The tone in the beginning was a bit off-putting, but I persevered and was intrigued and entertained throughout. (Margaret Teh)
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