bookswelike

bwl 16 - December 2002

Fiction

Pat Barker - Border Crossing

With his marriage breaking down and the past returning in the shape of Danny, a now grown child murderer he once helped to convict, child psychologist Tom Seymour finds himself frighteningly face to face with questions of personal responsibility, complicity and the shifting borders between good and evil. Is Danny still dangerous? Penetrating, lucidly observed and absolutely gripping. (Annabel Bedini)

Heinrich Boll - Absent Without Leave and Other Stories

21 stories - some longer, some minimalist - written in the shadow of WW II by a man of great and discerning sensitivity. The stories are in turn piercingly ironic, nostalgic, tender, funny, melancholic; all are haunting. No wonder he won the Nobel Prize. (Don't be put off by the rather contrived and self-conscious first pages - it all makes sense later.) (Annabel Bedini)

Geraldine Brooks - Year of Wonders

This novel is based on a true story. It is about a village that is stricken by the plague and so the inhabitants decide to cut themselves off from everyone and it is about the effect this has on them all. It is a well written book and one that I found hard to put down. (Julia Garbett)

Peter Carey - True History of the Kelly Gang

Another eye opener, this time set in New South Wales towards the end of the 19th C. Hounded by police, hardships and without a chance to lead anything approaching a normal and lawful life, Ned Kelly writes his story, using a unique piercing style that is heart breaking though far from sentimental. (Ange Guttierez Dewar)

Meaghan Delahunt - In the Blue House

A stunning book which switches between Trotsky's final years in Mexico and life and death in Russia under Stalin. As with any novel based on history, there is a relentless inevitability as the story unfolds but by concentrating on personal events in the leaders' lives a chilling light is shed on the horrors inflicted on individuals as well as the whole nation ruled by a megalomaniac driven by paranoia. (Jenny Baker)

Penelope Fitzgerald - Innocence

This early novel set in Florence in the fifties is well worth seeking out. The story centres around an absurd and touching pair of lovers, the guileless daughter of the decrepit Ridolfi family and a fiery young doctor from the south. The book is full of wonderfully eccentric characters from the oh so practical English girlfriend to an Aunt who staffs a home for orphaned babies with lonely old ladies because they will love them. (Jenny Baker)

Margaret Forster - Shadow Baby

Shadow Baby is well up to Margaret Forster's standard in novels. Evie - born in 1887 in Carlisle - is an undemanding, colourless, downtrodden creature. Shona - born 70 years later - is headstrong, striking and ambitious. The one thing the girls have in common is that they are both illegitimate, abandoned by their mothers for obvious reasons, and, in adulthood, are compelled to search for their natural mothers, with different results. Intriguing, if slightly disturbing feminist bias. (Kathie Somerwil Ayrton)

Nicci French - Land of the Living

Again Nicci French takes situations which have been 'done' before and gives them a new and quite horrifying twist. Abbie Devereaux has been abducted and it is obvious that her captor is going to kill her. She has also lost her memory. To keep sane, to escape, to try to regain her memory and her old life is what keeps Abbie, a girl of strength and spirit, going. (Kathie Somerwil Ayrton)

Iain Pears - The Dream of Scipio

Set in Provence this long book consists of three different stories at three critical periods in European history: the end of the Roman Empire; the Black Death; and WW II. I found the constant switching from one period to the other at times confusing and irritating, yet - like the curate's egg - it was (very) good in parts. It would be difficult to imagine the author surpassing the brilliance of his An Instance of the Fingerpost (bwl 5). (James Baker)

Gianni Riotta - Prince of the Clouds

(translated by Stephen Sartarelli) I did wonder whether I would enjoy a book that included military strategy as part of its story but I loved it. It is an elegantly written book that combines romance and the attempt to apply military strategy to life. Set in Sicily after the war, the main protagonist (Count Terzo) is a military scholar who cares for his mysterious wife and becomes embroiled in the affair of two young lovers and the politics of the island. (Christine Miller)

Carol Shields - Larry's Party

This is the story of Larry Weller in a series of episodes between 1970 (when he is 27) and 1997, with periodical flashbacks. Larry is a floral designer who develops into a creator of garden mazes. The author closely observes Larry's successive marriages and his relations with his family and friends. Told in a relaxed manner, with humorous touches, the story set in North America kept me captivated throughout. (Jeremy Swann)

Kressmann Taylor - Address Unknown

This is an amazing little book, a short story in the form of letters in the early 1930s between an American with an art gallery in San Francisco where he lives and his former partner who has returned to Germany. To tell more would probably give the game away, but to indicate its success I would add that the French translation was on the bestseller list in France for over a year. (Jeremy Swann)

William Trevor - The Story of Lucy Gault

The serenity of Trevor's writing belies the turmoil in his characters' lives. He spins a story (he is a storyteller) beginning in Southern Ireland on the brink of division. A casual incident seals the fate of one family and for the next 60 years Lucy's guilt (Gault?), love and fixation ruins all she touches. Then redemption, for her. (Joan Jackson)

Joanna Trollope - The Girl from the South

Trollope's newest book with her subtle and sophisticated dissection of relationships between couples and in families, is about the multiplicity of choices facing young adults in work as in love; the need - or lack of need - to make commitments; the difficulty of trust and choice in today's demanding, endlessly changing world. The contrast between England and the States between the generations is intriguing, but I feel sharp edges are a little blunter than usual. (Kathie Somerwil Ayrton)

Non-Fiction

Laura Beatty - Lillie Langtry - Manners, Masks, Morals

A fascinating biography of a fascinating woman. Lillie's conscious pursuit of fame led to the only available route to the top - that of courtesan. Laura Beatty concentrates on Lillie's 'playing of the game', manipulating her own image, bending then ultimately breaking Edwardian society's unwritten rules. She is obviously impressed by Lillie's stoic philosophy and her single-minded determination to do her best - as either actress, race-horse owner or King's mistress. Sympathetic, enjoyable and well-written. (Clive Yelf)

Anthony Beevor - Berlin

Covering Berlin's fall, Berlin takes up where Beevor's earlier Stalingrad (bwl 4) left off. His technique is to piece together the story through many first hand accounts. There is plenty here to show the pitiless cruelty of total war (especially the full and previously under-documented extent of rape committed by the Russian army) but ultimately it is the rare but incredible examples of bravery and decency under extreme conditions that I took away from this remarkable book. (Mark Baker)

Alain de Botton - The Art of Travel

This gentle book explores our motivations to travel. The author includes some reflections from his own travels as well as writings from Baudelaire and Wordsworth, among others. Exploring the ennui that overcomes us at times in the most beautiful of places and, in contrast, the sublime moments that we recall once back to normality. Mixed with poetry, prints, and fragments of faraway places, it is a charming and thought-provoking read. (Claire Bane)

Yeseult Bridges - How Charles Bravo Died

In 1876 Charles Bravo died from antimony poison. Was it deliberately taken by him, administered to him by another or swallowed accidentally? Set in the Victorian suburb of Balham, the revelations at the much abused inquest, which turned into a virtual trial of the main 'suspects', created a scandal devoured by readers of the popular press. Probably the nearest we'll get to the truth of the matter is this riveting account written 80 years later. (James Baker)

Angus Davidson - Edward Lear

A pleasing biography. Lear is best known nowadays as the writer of nonsense verse such as The Owl and the Pussycat, but he was primarily a painter in watercolours who travelled widely. His landscapes of the Near East and India are exquisite. Not surprisingly he became Queen Victoria's drawing teacher. Although lonely and melancholy he enchanted children and was a close friend of leading figures of his time including Tennyson and the Pre-Raphaelites. (Jeremy Swann)

Margaret Forster - The Lady's Maid

Margaret Forster's wonderful biography of Elizabeth Barrett Browning is well-known, but The Lady's Maid is an inseparable adjunct to it. Wilson, Elizabeth's maid, went with her to Italy. Forster gives an in-depth character study of both women and their complicated relationship with one another, describes and contrasts life above and below stairs in Victorian times and, uniquely, offers an analysis of the expatriate state. An incomparable book. (Kathie Somerwil Ayrton)

Julian James - The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind

Do we think in a different way to our ancestors? Quite possibly according to Julian James. Modern minds are left-hemisphere dominant and responsible for the feeling of 'I'. However schizophrenia, poetry, music and hypnosis are vestigial remains of the bicameral mind with greater communication between the hemispheres. We rarely experience the 'instinctual' right hemisphere's 'Voice of God' as they did. 'Don't think, do!' was the bronze-age motto. But unfortunately 75 words are not nearly enough.....! (Clive Yelf)

Ma Jian - Red Dust

Not simply 'the new Wild Swans', but a travel diary and portrait of China in the 1980s, with glimpses of the terrible legacies of its Cultural Revolution and its tentative changes towards modernity. Ma Jian is a painter, poet and pilgrim, and his haunting descriptions of the landscape are guaranteed to induce itchy feet. It also provides a fascinating insight into the everyday lives of people trying to make the best of things. (Victoria Grey-Edwards)

Nicholas Luard - The Field of the Star

With his sister and a friend, the author walked the pilgrimage way to Santiago de Compostela from Le Puy in central France. His account of their long and arduous journey includes vivid descriptions of the landscape, wildlife, fellow pilgrims and flea-ridden pilgrims' hostels. Interspersed are letters to his beautiful and brilliant daughter Francesca, who is dying from Aids back in England. His intense and complex relationship with her is this compelling book's other major theme. (Wendy Swann)

Elisabeth Luard - Family Life - Birth, Death and the Whole Damn Thing

Elisabeth was married at just 21 to Nicholas Luard, co-founder of Private Eye. This memoir, interwoven with recipes (she's a cookery-writer), chronicles their life from early days in London to those spent in Andalusia and Provence. Then tragedy strikes. The last chapters, one in Francesca's own words, relate how the family confront and cope with the spectre of Aids. Read it in tandem with The Field of the Star to be uplifted rather than depressed. (Jenny Baker)

George Melly - Owning-Up

A hilarious account of the author's early days as a vocalist when he toured Britain with the Mick Mulligan Jazz Band in the 1950s, long before the Beatles, Rolling Stones and Rock arrived. Told with great gusto. Very bawdy. I recommend this to anyone who was young at that time and would like a reviver. (Jeremy Swann)

Gary Sheffield - Forgotten Victory

Gary Sheffield - King's College London and Sandhurst - has written a fascinating book not only for WW I buffs but also for all those who are interested in modern history. Many myths and misconceptions are clearly and sympathetically presented in a radical new interpretation - the traditional view of WW I is continually being reassessed - a broad sweep from Waterloo to Blitzkrieg by a leading authority in his field. (Kathie Somerwil Ayrton)

John Simpson - Strange Places, Questionable People *

Did this come out before or after It's a Mad World, My Masters (bwl 12)?* More of the same - fascinating on-the-spot accounts of world events written by a man who cares deeply about the people and places he finds himself involved with: Tiananmen Square, Sarajevo, Gaddafi in his tent and more. Quiet digs at BBC power struggles make one realise how precarious - and precious - the independent-minded reporter can be; and how grateful we should be to them.

*It came out in 1998, It's a Mad World, My Masters was published in 2001 - Editor's note (Annabel Bedini) * It came out in 1998, It's a Mad World, My Masters was published in 2001 - Editor's note

Poetry

J M Cohen (editor) - A Choice of Comic and Curious Verse

A treasure trove of good things: getting on for 500 examples of comic and curious verse divided into 23 categories such as Birds, Beasts and Humans, Burlesque and Parody, Mockery and Invective, Unsocial Comment, etc. Some are no more than 2 lines, some several pages. Some ancient, some modern. Authors known and unknown. Ideal for browsing. (Jeremy Swann)

Feedback

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Murray Jackson writes:

I wanted to say how much I agree with the comments in Feedback bwl 15 about The Wrong Boy! A friend, who should know better, thought it simply a nice comedy, and totally missed the poignancy, tragedy and (relative) triumph. Gas lighting at the kitchen sink level.

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Clive Yelf writes:

I was delighted to read the review of Sterne's Tristram Shandy (bwl 15) because I would have to rate it as an all-time favourite and my 'desert island' book of choice. I read the review on my 10th wedding anniversary and realised that the last time I read the book I was actually on honeymoon in a farmhouse on Gozo (the nearest I've ever been to a desert island). Well the signs were too much for me and I've bowed to the inevitable by picking it up and starting again. As a result I've realised that there's another great advantage to a novel like this - no plot, so no sense of knowing what's going to happen. It's a bit like a be-wigged Ronnie Corbett telling an 18th C shaggy-dog story. You don't care where you're going, you just settle back and enjoy the journey!

I noticed that there was a positive review of Middlemarch as well and it started me wondering if most readers would honestly rate the 'classics' as books of choice. If you had to draw up a list of ten desert island books what would it contain and how many of them would be from the 19th C or before? In no particular order, I think the ten works of fiction that have really grabbed my imagination at one time or another would include: Laurence Sterne - Tristram Shandy; Huysmans - Against Nature; Denton Welch - Maiden Voyage; Shusaku Endo - The Samurai; Raymond Chandler - The Big Sleep; Mervyn Peake - Gormenghast; Mary Shelley - Frankenstein; G & W Grossmith - The Diary of a Nobody; G.K. Chesterton - The Man Who Was Thursday; Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes

(I'd really like to squeeze Conrad's Heart of Darkness in too, but there's just not enough room.)

Fairly lightweight and not very classics loaded, but interestingly six out of the ten are 19 C or earlier. Am I unusual in this or do I reflect fairly general tastes?

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