bookswelike

bwl 103 - Winter 2022

Fiction

Pat Barker - The Women of Troy

In this sequel to The Silence of the Girls (bwl 91) Barker takes the story of Briseis on from the fall of Troy. The triumphant Greeks want to go home, but the angry gods send impossible weather. Tensions rise among the idle warriors (heroes? Bah...). Briseis, now married and carrying dead Achilles's child, helps her captive sisters as she can. Barker's Regeneration trilogy denounced the human costs of war on men. Here she does the same for women. Excellent! (Annabel Bedini)

Laurent Binet - Civilisations

Columbus's voyage west ends in failure but the Inca Emperor, Atahualpa, does better travelling in the opposite direction, starting with the invasion of Spain. This intriguing idea, from a French prize winning author, gives rise to a lot of fun, often at the expense of Christianity. The clash of cultures is well exploited, as the Emperor, now a disciple of Machiavelli, gets heavily involved in European affairs but I got rather bogged down in the detailed course of events and interest waned - even when the Aztecs put in an appearance. (Tony Pratt)

Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz - The Passenger

A successful German Jewish businessman tries to escape Nazi Germany as the persecution of Jews begins in earnest. A series of rail journeys and a sense of rising desperation take a tense story to its dramatic conclusion. On the way there you see faults in the hero as well as in the society around him and are gripped by the clearly told story. Written in 1938, it has only recently seen its first publication in Germany and, like the author's equally dramatic life story, deserves its current attention. (Tony Pratt)

Jessie Burton - The Miniaturist

The year is 1686, and the young Nella Oortman has just arrived in Amsterdam to begin married life with her older, wealthy, merchant husband. As a wedding gift, he has given her a cabinet-sized replica of their home on a prominent canal. Nella begins to furnish the replica home with the help of a mysterious 'miniaturist', but as she does, the lives within the real home begin to spiral downward. Life turns surreal, leaving some questions forever unanswered. Magical, and rich in period detail. (Sharron Calkins)

Kevin Crossley-Holland and Chris Riddell - Arthur, the Always King

A sumptuous book; a winning partnership - but not for the very young. Crossley-Holland (himself a poet) takes on the Arthurian cycle. They are disturbing stories - far more so than any myth though their elements are fantastical - giants, witches, magic swords - but here the characters are not gods but people. Crossley-Holland organises the stories to make a coherent narrative of success and failure, Chris Riddell brings a visual life to the text. There is violence, love, jealousy, redemption. Not for the youngest. (Ferelith Hordon)

Susanna Clarke - Piranesi

"When the moon rose in the third Northern Hall I went to the ninth vestibule - entry for the first day of the fifth month in the year the albatross came to the south-western halls" - so begins this Fantasty novel from the author of Jonathan Strange and Mr Norell. Piranesi inhabits a labyrinthine world, washed by winds and the sea. He keeps a journal, tends the bones of the dead, senses his name is not real. I loathed it at first then loved it and couldn't put it down! (Jenny Baker)

Anthony Doerr - Cloud Cuckoo Land

Somewhere in the future, Konstance is lost in Outer Space; in 1453 an orphaned girl and a disfigured boy strive to escape the siege of Contantinople; in 2020 Idaho, a young misfit plots revenge on an uncaring world - all share a link with an ancient Greek text describing a lowly shepherd's search for the perfect state. You need to concentrate as the narrative shifts from one perspective to another but just relax and let Doerr's gift of story-telling and descriptive prose keep those pages turning. (Jenny Baker)

Penelope Fitzgerald - The Bookshop

I'd endorse Annabel Bedini's praise (bwl 75) for this compelling account of a widow's attempt to establish a bookshop. Boosted by the scandalous success of 'Lolita', it nevertheless runs into powerful opposition from the locals accustomed to running things. There is much comic irony but ultimately its spirited protagonist finds herself struggling with dark forces. If it all seems rather small scale, then that merely throws the skill of the writer into sharper focus. It's not how big the story is but how well it is told. (Tony Pratt)

Dick Francis - Wild Horses

The Queen Mother's famous jockey - and even more famous author of detective stories featuring the horse-world - was 76 when he wrote this. Gaining insight and vigour as he wrote his many books, this is superb in its genre, vintage Francis, the thrills more chilling, the plot deceptively almost non-existant, the details of making a film professionally explicit. It's almost impossible to guess who did it, while the depth of human understanding and subtle characterisation lifts it to the level of Sayers and Tey. (Kathie Somerwil Ayrton)

Katherine Heiny - Standard Deviation

In this witty and perceptive look at the joys and challenges of married life, New York couple Audra and Graham worry about their 'definitely not autistic' son, explore friendship with Graham's ex-wife and grapple with the possibility of infidelity. The narrative never builds to any denouement and the final part loses steam, but it's an easy and fun read. As the blurb promised, I actually 'laughed out loud' once or twice - very rare! (Victoria Grey-Edwards)

Keigo Higashino - Salvation of a Saint

When a man is found dead in his home, suspicion falls on his beautiful wife Ayane - who was hundreds of miles away when the murder took place. In this clever and beguiling Japanese murder mystery you will be teased with riddles within riddles, psychological twists, and red herrings. I've read it twice, and it still rates as one of my favourite murder mysteries. (Sharron Calkins)

Karen Jennings - An Island

Samuel, an old man with a haunting past, discovers a barely-breathing body washed up on the shore of the island where he tends the lighthouse. Over four days he vascillates between generosity and paranoia - an enemy intruding on his solitude? A strangely compelling and bleak exploration of the effects of isolation working on unbearable memories. I won't give away the ending, but it certainly stayed with me! An interesting debut from a young South African writer.
* Long listed for the Man Booker prize. (Annabel Bedini)

Colum McCann - Apeirogon

With their blessing, McCann tells the story of two fathers - one Israeli, the other Palestinian - both have lost daughters, one to an army sniper, the other to a suicide bomber - and their desire to bring about reconcialiation by standing together to tell their stories to the world. At first its disparate sections are confusing but like the title are part of the metaphor for the peoples of Jerusalem with their seemingly endless differences going back through the centuries. A dazzling, thought-provoking read. (Jenny Baker)

Erin Morganstern - The Starless Sea

I loved The Night Circus, the author's debut so was really looking forward to this her second novel. The production certainly promised a magical read. Possibly...probably...but I found myself so disappointed (or maybe I am not clever enough). Magical, yes - but somewhat incoherent. I think the whole is a metaphor for writing a book and the way imagination works potentially a threat to reason. But I am not sure...form over substance? Can someone enlighten me? (Ferelith Hordon)

Haruki Murakami - Dance Dance Dance

Here is your chance to sample the prose of Murakami without becoming totally lost in a surreal world. There IS a single recurring thread of a parallel world woven through it - just enough of the unexplainable to grab your interest, and to keep you turning the pages. In this off-the-beaten-path search for love and friendship, all roads lead back to the Dolphin Hotel. It is an unusual tale with unexpectedly touching interactions between the book's characters. (Sharron Calkins)

Raymond Radiguet - The Devil in the Flesh

17 when he wrote it, the French author was dead by 20. Set in a provincial society more concerned with appearances than morality but its core - told with economy and a total absence of sentimentality - is the tragic and seemingly real-life affaire between a teenage boy and the young wife of a soldier in the Great War. It's a story of love, obsession, desire and a heedless pursuit of the moment. The clarity, objectivity and insight would be an achievement for any writer and is stunning in the circumstances. (Tony Pratt)

Marilynne Robinson - Jack

The prodigal son, who haunts Robinson's Gilead trilogy, is given his voice. Lonely, weighed down by the doctrines of his Presbyterian childhood, Jack is a vagrant and an alcoholic until he meets Della an African-American who transforms his life. But this is segrated St. Louis where such a liaison is against the law. It's twenty years since he left but if he returns home will he find the redemption and acceptance for which he longs? Rivetting, heartbreaking, an utterly compelling read. (Jenny Baker)

Thomas Savage - The Power of the Dog

Set in the wide landscape of 1920's Montana, two brothers - strikingly different, complex and multi-dimensional - run their sprawling cattle ranch. Everyday life is forever changed when one brings home his new bride - a widow and her son. The character studies of these flawed invidivuals are as compelling as the story itself. A quiet, underlying thread of sexual repression is just one of the many themes. Savage's evocative descriptions of textures of place linger in the mind. It's a powerful novel. (Claire Bane)

Elizabeth Strout - Oh William!

Strout likes to revisit her characters in this case the indomitable Lucy Barton, recently widowed and reconnecting again with her first husband, William. You feel like a confidante as she muses on their life together, the pain at the end of their marriage and their subsequent lives. A family secret of William's leads them to explore what we know (or not know) about those closest to us. Without any flourishes, it is a truly absorbing read. (Christine Miller)

Colm Tóibin - The Magician

Epic novels about real people are not uncommon but never, perhaps, has fiction been better employed than in Toibin's masterful life of German author, Thomas Mann. From Death in Venice, we know about the supressed desires of the protagonist, Aschenbach. In the Magician, Toibin paints this fearful and hesitant behaviour across the life of its author, thereby capturing the profound personal conflict of a very public life set against the violence of C20th German history. (Jeremy Miller)

Jessica Townsend - Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow

Cursed to die on her eleventh birthday, Morrigan Crow instead finds herself caught up in the magic and mystery of Nevermoor, city of chaos and excitement. Guided by eccentric mentor, Jupiter, she must complete four impossible challenges against a shadowy foe, using extraordinary powers that she doesn't possess! The first of a trilogy, this is one of the best books I've read. I highly recommend it to anyone who loves magic, monsters and talking cats. (Isobel Miller (aged 11))

Rose Tremain - Lily

Tremain with her consummate skills - without any of some other writer's histrionics - brings vividly to life the story of Lily, abandoned at birth and brought by the young constable who found her to Coram, the Foundling Hospital. At first fostered by a loving family, then returned to the uncaring system of the Hospital, she tries to survive in harsh Victorian London but she hides a terrible secret; does the policeman who found her hold the key to her fate? A wonderful read. (Jenny Baker)

Sarah Winman - Still Life

A chance meeting during WWII in Florence between a sexagenarian, art historian and a young British soldier has unexpected repercussions for the next forty years. The prose is atmospheric, the dialogue pacy, and the characters full blown. There's art appreciation, history, comedy, the love of family and friends and tragedy too, but overall, it's so uplifting, because no matter what happens we can be grateful there's still life so why not enjoy it. A pandemic panacea! (Denise Lewis)

Non-Fiction

Isabel Allende - The Soul of a Woman

Her father's abandonment of her mother and his children sets the course for Allende's feminism. She meditates on what it means to be a woman and what women want, such as to be safe, valued and loved. She hopes the book will 'light a torch' linking our daughters and granddaughters with those women already striving for these things and more. Allende writes with the compassion and the insight that comes with age, perhaps, and humour. (Christine Miller)

Eileen Atkins - Will She Do?: Act One of a Life on Stage

Many years ago a young couple moved into the flat above us. This was Eileen Atkins and Julian Glover. We socialised a bit and they even baby-sat a few times. She regaled us of her childhood, how she'd been taken round the working-men's clubs as baby Eileen, how her mother expected her to be a dancer but acting was her dream. Now she has written this memoir and it is all there - a wry, humourous account of the highs and lows of an aspiring actress. Act Two will surely follow. (Jenny Baker)

Jeremy Clarkson - Diddly Squat

Having always enjoyed Clarkson's newspaper columns for their entertainment value (though not interested in car reviews), I was intrigued when he started writing about the realities of farming in the Cotswolds. His TV programme apparently has a huge following, and the book is a collection of his articles recording a year on his farm, it's trials and tribulations. It's a light amusing read and guaranteed to put any reader off taking up farming in middle age, on a whim! (Mary Standing)

Brian Cox - Putting the Rabbit in the Hat

Having enjoyed Brian Cox from 'As You Like it' in the Sixties to 'Succession' today, I was pre-conditioned to like this tale of a hard Dundee childhood followed by acting success. Plenty of entertaining anecdotes and put-downs, including Gielgud and McKellen, are balanced by heroes like Fulton Mackay and Paul Scofield, although there is also rather too much routine luvvie praise. The most appealing aspects are his candour and his dedication to the craft of acting. Directors who get between the actor and the text get a deserved roasting. (Tony Pratt)

Euclid - Elements

This is an instruction manual that lasted about 2000 years. Euclid is plain fun. Yes, you have to pause and work it out, but there is a great satisfaction in "getting it." His problems ("propositions") are intriguing, and his solutions elegant and clear. If you want to do them yourself on a blank sheet, all you need is a straight edge for the lines, and a compass for the circles. (Herb Roselle)

Ben Goldacre - I Think You'll Find It's A Bit More Complicated Than That

For over ten years Ben Goldacre had a 'Bad Science' column in The Guardian where he explored dubious claims, extraordinary advertisments and questionable medical statistics and this is a compilation of the best of them. They provide a measured and rational response to the blizzard of half-facts and assertions that seem to be thrown around at random these days and make superb bedtime reading as long as exposing cant and hypocrisy doesn't raise your indignation. (Clive Yelf)

Sebastian Haffner - Churchill

Written two years after Churchill's death, this book with it's author's empathy and understanding is as fresh now as when it was published. Haffner's critical insight into the great man's character, faults and errors of judgment, his analysis of the military man versus the politician, the fairness which highlights his obvious deep admiration, the passion and drive with which he writes, not to mention the many insightful photographs, is surprisingly complete in its 177 pages. A remarkable and memorable experience. (Kathie Somerwil Ayrton)

Tony Horwitz - Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches From The Unfinished Civil War

Before Trump, Qanon and anti-vaxxers, the South was still a different country, defined by the American Civil War in a way that the North never was. Here a fascinated and curious northerner engages with battle re-enactors, Daughters of the Confederacy, local museums and others ruminating on the war that for many never ended. His empathy and thoughtful reflections are not only entertaining but provide welcome context on the mindset of much of the modern USA. (Clive Yelf)

Alan Johnson - This Boy: A Memoir of a childhood

This book had been on my list for too long and I can't recommend it enough. Humble beginnings of the former Home Secretary are an understatement. The poverty and tragedy of Alan and his sister's childhoods in the slums of North Kensington take your breath away, however, his memoir is not miserable but full of warmth, love and hope and a strong sense of community. It is really a work of social history. I am full of admiration for him and his wonderful sister. (Rebecca Howell)

Robert Lacey - Royal: Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

Among the many publications on the British Royal Family this "Jubilee edition" is a welcome surprise. Sympathetic but objective, it reads so fluidly that I found it 'unputdownable' and, although revised almost twenty years ago, in no way out of date. Basically a history of the peculiarly British Institution in which the Monarchy is primarily a servant of the people - as embodied by Queen Elizabeth - it makes clear this is why, despite all the setbacks, in the final analysis it continues to enjoy such enduring support. (Kathie Somerwil Ayrton)

Robert Lacey - Sotheby's: Bidding for Class

Who doesn't know the name Sotheby's? It stands for distinction and class and Robert Lacey offers us a rich and absorbing history, both social and economic, together with analysis, comments and criticisms, but always fair and in his inimitable style. The great, the good and above all, the wealthy pass through its pages, and when finished, one wants more, failing that, well worth a second read. (Kathie Somerwil Ayrton)

Robert Lacey - Ford: The Man and the Machine

Confronted as we are daily by the political situation in the American States, the déjà-vu one experiences when reading this makes the blood run cold. Lacey's superb, detailed survey - from the very beginning of the 'grass roots' through to the present day - brings home why this state of affairs has changed so little. Due to fresh information and sensitive insights into Ford, his family, colleagues and social circle, together with the history of the automobile this book has something for everyone and one would wish it twice its length. (Kathie Somerwil Ayrton)

Robert Lacey - The Kingdom: Arabia and the House of Sa'ud

This vivid history of Saudi Arabia and its rapid development from the Middle Ages to Post-modernism because of a geographical and geological quirk of fate, comes over with even more conviction because the author immersed himself in Arabic and things Arabian for four years while writing it. Never avoiding fair criticism, he nevertheless with great respect and empathy lays bare the many conflicting elements - religious, economic, political - to give a much deeper understanding of the country whose unending supply of oil has become so important to universal welfare. (Kathie Somerwil Ayrton)

Clare Leighton - Four Hedges

This is one of those delightful books that you can pick up and dip into time and time again.For anyone struggling to create a garden in challenging conditions it is inspirational. Clare and her partner moved to the Chilterns in the1930's onto land that had been a meadow, with clay soil on a windy hill.The writing is almost poetic and her own accompanying illustrations exquisite wood engravings.Not an instructional manual - just pure joy! (Mary Standing)

Paul McCartney - The Lyrics 1956 to the Present

A two volume charmer. Paul's biography done through words to his songs. The titles are in alphabetical order, so the chronology is random, as are the topics. The style is conversational, and you sense you are having a chat with a very open and relaxed Paul. If you were around from the '60s onward, this work resonates. (Herb Roselle)

Jan Morris - In My Mind's Eye: A Thought Diary

This record of one year in Morris's ninety-year-old life is a treat. Walking her thousand metres a day singing marching songs (she had, after all, been a soldier), shopping in the local shops, her love of Welsh nature, sly observations on politicians and fads, this is a sort of affectionate meandering through a brain stocked by a life truly well lived. Yet another lovely person to be mourned! (Annabel Bedini)

Antonia Ridge - The Man Who Painted Roses: Story of Pierre-Joseph Redouté

This history of the famous painter - whose roses are on tea towels, porcelain cups and saucers, well-loved calendars, prints and articles of all kinds - explains and recreates it all with exuberant enthusiasm. It will give enormous pleasure to all who love flowers, history, Redouté's paintings and/or simply a good story. Painter of Flowers to two Queens and an Empress of France, he is above all the man who, more than any other person, knew and painted the flower most dearly-loved of all. (Kathie Somerwil Ayrton)

Feedback

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Reading some old Feedbacks I came across ones by Jenny Baker and Annabel Bedini in bwl 94 raising the question of popular authors who have never had a review in bwl. I have noticed this about Ken Follett, who is a hugely popular author in some countries and translated into numerous languages. Born in Wales and now in his seventies, he has written several very successful historical novels featuring love, sex, violence and espionage in lavish quantities. Probably the best known is The Pillars of the Earth, a thousand odd pages long and a real page turner, as are all his books. Not for the faint hearted, but I would say they are definitely worth a try. (Wendy Swann)

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And there's never been an Ian Rankin, Milan Kundera, Mario Vargos Llogas or John Grisham never mind Somerset Maughan or William Golding. I wonder why? Who else have we passed by? - food for Feedback next time! (Jenny B)

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I was amused to discover that I am in a minority of one on the question of pinching real people for fictional purposes. I take all the points made (though I would shyly point out, Sharron Calkins, that I'm not really talking about classic plagiarism) but I still think it's cheeky - even somewhat arrogant - particularly if the person is only recently dead and there are people who remember them as they really were. I would agree with Jenny, that there's no problem if the author acknowledges his/her source. How about 'I am grateful to X for providing me with inspiration for my character Y'. I'd be happy with that! (Annabel Bedini)

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