bwl 17 - February 2003
Fiction
| Margaret Drabble - The Witch of Exmoor
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| One of the most entertaining books I've read for a long time. A highly intelligent elderly mother-cum-author of Scandinavian origin, whose husband has pushed off and who detests her end-of-20th century successful professional class progeny, hides herself away in an abandoned ex-hotel on an Exmoor cliff-top. The story chiefly revolves around the progeny's efforts to make sure they inherit the mother's fortune. Wittily satirical and intelligent. Excellent characterisations. (Jeremy Swann)
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| Nicholas Evans - The Smoke Jumper
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| This is about smoke jumping people: very fit young men, in Montana and probably other American states, who are dropped into or just outside major forest fires and, by cutting fire-breaks or fire-walls, prevent fires from spreading and eventually put them out. A cracking good tale and unputdownable. By the author of The Horse Whisperer, but better still. (Charles Moncreiffe)
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| Michael Faber - The Crimson Petal and the White
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| This is an 834 page hardback novel, the story of Sugar - a nineteen-year-old whore - who falls, rises and ...... The setting is 1870's London but it's not simply a Victorian novel, it also has a very modern feel. Read it as quickly as you can and beg Michel Faber with me to give us a follow-up very soon! (Laurence Martin Euler)
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| Richard Flanagan - Gould's book of fish - A novel in twelve fish
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| The few facts known about Gould include his imprisonment as a transported convict in Van Diemans Land, Tasmania; that he painted fish; that he had many aliases and that he drowned in an attempted escape on February 29, 1831. In this weird and surrealistic book, Gould fantasises with much seductive black humour on his fate, telling us much more than about the living hell of a doomed man in a 19th C penal colony. (James Baker)
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| Philip Hensher - The Mulberry Empire
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| A jewel of a book, as rich and splendid as the story it tells. Set in 1839 it tells of Alexander Burnes, an English adventurer who visits Kabul and the sumptuous palace of Amir Dost Mohammed, and in taking his story back to London, unwittingly prompts the ensuing war, as the arrogant and vainglorious British army suffer defeat at the hands of the bloodthirsty Afghans. A delicious, well researched and at times tenderly romantic read. (Jenny Freeman)
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| Rani Manicka - The Rice Mother
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| Lakshmi arrives in Malaya to marry a supposedly rich man. Reality is very different. By nineteen she has five children. When the Japanese invade, she hides her eldest daughter under the floorboards. The story of what happens and the effect on all their lives is narrated in turns by the mother, her children and grandchildren, each with their own perspective of personalities and events. Steeped in myth and magic, gods and ghosts, it constantly enthrals. (Jenny Baker)
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| Yann Martel - Life of Pi
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| The choice of Booker prize-winners inevitably seems to surprise and often annoy and this one was no exception. Its theme of ship-wrecked Indian boy on a lifeboat with a zebra, an orang-utan and a tiger sounds whimsically Disneyish. Don't be put off, the animals are red in tooth and claw and the tale is far from whimsy. Whether it will make you believe in God as one character suggests, I leave you to discover. (Jenny Baker)
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| Daniel Mason - The Piano Tuner
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| A debut novel with echoes of Conrad. The 19th C journey of a piano tuner to the depths of the Burmese jungle to repair a piano owned by a British Surgeon Major who uses poetry, medicine and music to quell uprisings, much to his superiors' unease. You follow the journey through Europe, the Red Sea, India and finally to Burma where the adventure really begins and the piano tuner's life is turned on its head. (Christine Miller)
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| Alexander McCall Smith - The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency
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| Meet Mma Precious Ramotswe and her No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. Except Mma Ramotswe does not detect so much as help solve problems brought to her by her clients; problems ranging from the return of stolen cars, teenage relationships to witchcraft. But this is Botswana not middle-England. The African background is lovingly depicted and the reader is introduced to some colourful characters. The most memorable is Precious Ramotswe herself. Gentle, observant, humorous - thoroughly enjoyable (Ferelith Hordon)
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| Rosamunde Pilcher - The Shell Seekers
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| A family saga set mainly in England during the 20th century. 'The Shell Seekers': a picture by a Victorian painter, Lawrence Stern, given to his daughter Penelope as a wedding present. In her old age its dramatic rise in value excites the cupidity of several of her children, revealing their true colours to Penelope. This sparks recollections of her past. A good story with convincing characters and twists and turns that kept me spellbound. (Jeremy Swann)
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| Bernhard Schlink - Flights of Love
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| These unsentimental and haunting stories explore the search for love in a world where the past casts a dark shadow: the impossibility of being a German in love with an American Jew; the mistrust between East and West Berliners; a widower coming to terms with his dead wife's secret affair..... Schlink's characters debate, socialise, drink coffee, play chess and live in clean little towns, but nothing is that easy and the German perspective is fascinating. (Victoria Grey-Edwards)
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| W G Sebald - Austerlitz
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| Architectural historian and orphan par excellence, Austerlitz's meandering quest for his past is woven in with the history of 20th century Europe via railway stations, ghosts, Welsh preachers, the symbolism of fortress-architecture, the Jews of Prague... all illustrated with evocative photographs. Sebald apparently has cult status (forgive my ignorance) and I understand why, though he may not be to everyone's taste. Personally, I was captivated by this utterly original, richly complex, mesmerizing and touching book. (Annabel Bedini)
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| Jose Carlos Somoza - The Athenian Murders
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| Forget any preconceptions about 'the detective novel'. Yes, it is a traditional murder story - mysterious deaths, a detective and sidekick, red herrings and a (triumphant) solution. But - the tale is set in Athens at the time of Plato. So what. Then the reader realises things are not what they seem, literally. The author is playing games with the genre, with literary devices, with ideas. It's bewildering - but great fun and great detecting. (Ferelith Hordon)
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Non-Fiction
| Margaret Forster - Hidden Lives
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| This memoir spanning three generations is also the story of the author's fruitless search for the secret of her grandmother's illegitimate baby. Based on family stories and archival research, the context solidly in the hard life lower-class women led in Victorian times, this is a touchingly honest analysis written with insight and sympathy, but with refreshingly astringent criticism and with an amazingly optimistic conclusion. Interesting to read about the background of such a well-known writer. (Kathie Somerwil Ayrton)
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| Roger Fulford - Hanover to Windsor
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| Roger Fulford is well-known for his monarchical sympathies, especially towards the Hanoverians. The analysis of Queen Victoria, her marriage, family and especially her work, is in its brevity most illuminating and the other three 'lives' are important for the relationship to each other, to English history and to present day monarchy and 'manners'. Although not recent this little book is surely to be found in second-hand bookshops and is well worth a pound or two. (Kathie Somerwil Ayrton)
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| Howard Greenfeld - The Devil and Dr Barnes - The Life of Albert C. Barnes the Irascible Art Collector
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| I don't know much about art, but I do recognise an eccentric! Wealthy art-lover with a hatred of elitism, Dr Barnes created one of the world's greatest collections almost as a snub to the middle classes he despised. Champion of the underclass, democrat and egalitarian, Barnes was also tyrannical, splenetic, volatile and cruel. True friend to a few, neighbour from hell with a poison-pen to everyone else. A complex man worthy of this excellent biography. (Clive Yelf)
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| David Hajdu - Lush Life - A Biography of Billy Strayhorn
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| Billy Strayhorn was a very gifted gay black pianist, jazz composer and arranger, born in Ohio in 1915 into a poor family with a doting mother and drunk, abusive father. Music was the great love of his life, and he pursued it to work closely with, among others, Duke Ellington. Lush Life is one of the finest love songs I know, and the book is well worth reading to discover a fascinating life and time. (Julie Higgins)
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| Alec Le Sueur - The Hotel on the Roof of the World - 5 years in Tibet
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| This extraordinary book is more than a fantastic travel read, it is a survey in miniature of what Tibet was, is and will be under the rule of the Chinese. Le Sueur, a native of Jersey, has a unique understanding of the differences between West and East, a dry sense of humour and an unassuming but devastating critical sense, all offered with delicacy and tact. Entertaining read, not to be missed, ideal for gifts. (Kathie Somerwil Ayrton)
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| Lucasta Miller - The Brontë Myth
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| This new view of literary criticism based on Mrs. Gaskell's seminal biography of Charlotte Brontë (whom she knew well), takes the view that Gaskell is responsible for the Brontë Myth (of the whole family) as we have known it for more than a century. Although often repetitive, Miller's thinking is original and sympathetic giving an intriguing picture not only of Charlotte Brontë but also of the rather nebulous figure of Gaskell as woman and artist. (Kathie Somerwil Ayrton)
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| Sylvia Nasar - A Beautiful Mind
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| By contrast to the film, which is brilliant and moving, but is also sentimental and superficial, (and will create misunderstanding of the nature of schizophrenic illnesses), the book is a biography of mathematician John Nash, a Nobel Laureate of 1994 who recovered from 20 years of schizophrenic illness. Offering a conventional (but misleading) psychiatric view of psychosis as being largely genetically-derived, is nonetheless a gripping read. (Murray Jackson)
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| Allan & Barbara Pease - Why Men Lie and Women Cry
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| Written by an Australian couple and based on their own personal experience as well as on surveys, this enlightening and amusing book is largely devoted to explaining the differences between how men's and women's minds work and suggests ways to prevent conflicts that can arise from these. The authors quote many examples and are thoroughly down to earth. The solutions they propose struck me as entirely practical. Illustrated with many humorous cartoons. (Jeremy Swann)
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| John Prebble - The High Girders
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| Truth, they say, is stranger than fiction and Prebble's account of the building of the Tay bridge as the pinnacle of Victorian Industrial Success, and the train that fell, with the bridge, into the river in the Great Storm of 28th December, 1879, is more breathtaking than any thriller. This is an objective account based on interviews and newspaper articles, and an enthralling read. (Kathie Somerwil Ayrton)
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| Slavomir Rawicz - The Long Walk
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| This was published in 1956 but I have only just come across it. It is the story of six men and a girl who escape from Siberia - cross the Gobi Desert and Tibet to reach India and freedom. They don't all make it. What amazes me is the human body's stamina and how determination wins through - it is almost unbelievable. The actual writing is not the greatest but I couldn't put it down. (Julia Garbett)
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| Ben Schott - Schott's Original Miscellany
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| Forget The Guinness Book of Records and go for this year's must have unputdownable. It's packed with useless information and useful trivia under such headings as Holalphabetic Sentences, Conversions Ancient and Modern, Chess Terms, Airport Marshalling Signals and the 5 Essential Rules for Life. There's even a map of the Hampton Court Maze, the words of Solomon Grundy and a translation of the longest town name in Britain. Perfect for post-festivity blues. (Jenny Baker)
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| Alice Sebold - Lucky
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| A difficult book to recommend because it is about rape. Alice Sebold tells of the brutal university rape which transformed her innocent life. It tells of her struggle to come to terms with what happened to her, the effect on her relationship with family and friends and her determination to get her attacker convicted for the crime. It is a disturbing book but reveals the strength of the human spirit. (Christine Miller)
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| James Shreeve - The Neandertal Enigma - Solving the Mystery of Modern Human Origin
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| Television reconstructions imply the Neandertal question is resolved, but how wrong can you be? Each chapter in this excellent study profiles a different expert in a different field with a different view. Did Neandertals die out or interbreed, have language and an artistic sensibility or grunts and no imagination? Comprehensive and deeply engaging in it's observation of both Neandertals and the conduct of robust scientific debate, Shreeve performs perfectly as educated guide and unbiased observer. (Clive Yelf)
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| Feedback |
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Jenny Freeman writes:
I was on the verge of writing about Year of Wonders, but see that someone had beaten me to it (bwl 16). But I would like to add my admiration for Geraldine Brooks' marvellous novel: this is real storytelling, compellingly and beautifully written and whilst not sparing us any detail of the devastation and misery of the plague, the messages which emerge are of the values of friendship, of courage and of amazing optimism. (Jenny Freeman) |
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Jeremy Swann writes:
Desert Island Books
Re. Feedback in bwl 16, when thinking of an answer to Clive Yelf's reference to novels for a Desert Island, I was puzzled because my list would be mainly made up of non-fiction. The fiction would indeed be mainly classics such as, yes, Middlemarch, and Tolstoy's War and Peace. I would add Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, The Oxford Book of Humorous Prose, The Bible, H.A.L Fisher's History of Europe, The Complete works of Shakespeare in one volume, Thurber's Life of Harold Ross, T.S Eliot's Poems including his Four Quartets and Grierson's Metaphysical Poems of the Seventeenth Century. However, on the assumption that one would have no supplies from outside on one's desert island, I would more than anything else want a guide to living off the land by using local plants to feed as well as cure myself if need be. Any suggestions? |
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Annabel Bedini writes:
Two apologies
1. I once described a book about the IRA (Aemon Collin's Killing Rage - bwl 13) as ultimately hopeful, based on what Collins wrote in the preface. I have recently learned that the IRA later eliminated him in a typical act of retaliation, so definitely no room for hope there...
2. I also described Heinrich Boll's short stories, Absent Without Leave (bwl 16) as uniformly haunting but - confession - that was before I had finished reading them all. I found a couple of the later ones distinctly irritating. Sorry. |
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