bookswelike

bwl 18 - April 2003

Fiction

Julie Bertagna - Exodus

Imagine a world that has been completely flooded, the catastrophic consequence of 'global warming'. Now even the few remaining 'islands' are drowning. In a desperate attempt to find safety, Mara, her family and the whole community leave their island, Wing, in search of the fabled 'sky city'. But.... A futuristic adventure aimed at the teen market but full of invention and highly imaginative. Ecology, humanity, the importance of story - big themes, a good read. (Ferelith Hordon)

Tracy Chevalier - The Virgin Blue

This is the first book by the author of Girl with a Pearl Earring (see bwl 7). Set in France, it concerns two women born centuries apart. The first grows up as a Catholic just when Calvinism is sweeping the country, the other is a modern-day American obsessed with discovering her French roots. Naturally the two are connected. It's a good read, suited to those times when you want to while away the hours with nothing too taxing. (Jenny Baker)

Victoria Clayton - Dance with Me

Reminiscent of the styles of a succession of well-known novelists, first (and, to me, most successfully) Nancy Mitford, then Molly Keene with shades of early-Jilly Cooper. It brings in some serious issues before becoming rather melodramatic and finally, neatly (too neatly?), achieving an assortment of happy endings. Recently published but set in 1976 - I am amazed and amused at how dated some of the attitudes and assumptions now seem! Improbable maybe but highly entertaining. (Jane Grey-Edwards)

Michael Cunningham - The Hours

Cunningham's style so emulates Virginia Woolf's in Mrs Dalloway that it seemed almost distasteful at first. However The Hours is more than a homage to VW and he settles into his own very moving study of three women in three different decades, each undergoing a crisis and questioning whether they can carry on. Like Mrs Dalloway, it most effectively shows how the impressions of everyday life interact with our consciousness and motivation. (Victoria Grey-Edwards)

Linda Grant - Still Here

49 year-old Alix returns to Liverpool to attend her dying mother's bedside and to confront her Jewish family's past in Nazi Germany. She meets and immediately lusts after a middle-aged, American architect who is building an ultra modern hotel. An affaire is the last thing he wants as he struggles to understand why his marriage went wrong and to come to terms with his experiences in the Israeli army. A thought-provoking, raunchy and moving read. (Jenny Baker)

Lian Hearn - Across the Nightingale Floor

Revenge, love, friendship, honour, betrayal, sacrifice - all themes in this richly exciting novel. Set in a parallel world, in a society with strong echoes of Medieval Japan, it follows the fortunes of Takeo, wrenched from his safe childhood background and flung into a world of war-lords and assassins. Supposedly fantasy, the background is so real it seems historical in its detail while the characters are totally believable - I cannot wait for the sequel. (Ferelith Hordon)

Wayne Johnston - The Navigator Of New York

Whether about St. John's, Newfoundland, the icy north or the bustling metropolis of New York, Johnston's descriptions are rich and powerful. In 1888 at the age of 17, Devlin Stead, a doctor's son, receives a letter which changes his life. The story depicts Devlin's search for his origins and the lives of Arctic explorers, with whom he becomes involved, who will go to any lengths to claim the fame of having reached the North Pole. (Polly Sams Plant)

John Mortimer - Rumpole and the Primrose Path

These are short stories, as usual excellently written and very good bedtime reading. (Julia Garbett)

Lilian Nattel - The River Midnight

This is a real find - a lovely read which resonates beyond the page. It is a portrait of a Polish Jewish 'shtetl' over a year at the end of the 19th century. The same incidents are seen from the point of view of different villagers - the women, the men and above all Misha, the charismatic midwife. Ranging from the past to the future, using Jewish traditions and stories Nattel recreates her heritage. (Ferelith Hordon)

Edna O'Brien - In The Forest

A young man failed by the establishment throughout his life is free from prison and out for blood. It is when his path crosses that of Eily, a mother with a young son, that his madness and fury break through his last shred of sanity. What follows involves the local people, the police, Eily's friends and detractors in almost a farce in this incredibly dark and frightening book. I raced through it to the end. (Julie Higgins)

Henry Porter - A Spy's Life

Retired from MI6 and now working for the UN, Robert Harland is sole survivor of a plane crash due, he suspects, to sabotage by the authors of atrocities in Bosnia. The action begins in New York and moves rapidly to London followed by Prague and elsewhere in Eastern Europe, reaching a dramatic conclusion in ....(I'll leave you to find out for yourself!). The twists and turns in this story of pursuit are breathtaking. (Jeremy Swann)

Carol Shields - A Celibate Season

with Blanche Howard

Chas and Jocelyn have financial problems and decide that she will take a prestigious job the other side of Canada, meaning a separation from him and from family life. The story of their 'celibate season' is told entirely through their increasingly poignant and revealing letters as their lives inevitably grow further apart and they discover new sides to themselves. Some great comic moments and insights into communication between couples also emerge via this format. (Victoria Grey-Edwards)

Anita Shreve - Sea Glass

The story of a young couple in Eastern USA during and after the Great Crash of 1929. A harrowing human tale seen through the eyes of the six main characters in turn and partly set against a background of labour troubles in the local textile mills. I found it really gripping. (Wendy Swann)

Dai Sijie - Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress

1971 and Mao's Cultural Revolution. Two teenage city youths, sons of intellectuals, are sent to a remote mountain village to be 're-educated'. Thanks to their talent for storytelling they are sent several days' journey into town to watch films and re-enact them for the village. On the way, two priceless finds help relieve their misery - Little Seamstress, the tailor's pretty daughter, and a cache of forbidden books. Thus they discover Balzac, Dickens, Dostoevsky...and love. (Jenny Freeman)

Non-Fiction

Jenny Baker - Simply Fish

Reading bwl 17 reminded me to ask if the author is one of bwl's originators? (Ed: Yes). This book would be useful on a desert island because each type of fish is identified by a line drawing and the reader is told what to do before cooking it following the excellent recipes. Recommended to me by the chief chef at Southwold's best restaurant for fish. (Guy Harding)

Betty Boothroyd - Betty Boothroyd - The Autobiography

Written immediately after resigning from the House of Commons this account gives - as well as an affectionate record of childhood - an illuminating view of the Speaker's job and of the workings and people of parliament, without ever overstepping good sense and fundamental loyalty to the institution (which, on the contrary, she defends passionately from what she sees as present threats to its autonomy and relevance). Informative and above all, highly enjoyable. (Annabel Bedini)

Alain de Botton - The Art of Travel

Alain's tried and tested format works brilliantly here as he explores the experience of travel with help from among others Edward Hopper, John Ruskin, Van Gogh and Wordsworth. Each chapter deals with a travel theme and gives a fascinating introduction to the lives and work of the 'guides' as well as their insights into the art of travel. Full of clever observations as well as De Botton tries out the theories for himself. (Victoria Grey-Edwards)

Jared Diamond - The Rise and Fall of the Third Chimpanzee

Surprisingly we share 98.4% of our DNA with our closest cousins, the common and pygmy chimpanzees. But what is the significance of that 1.6% difference? The author takes us through millions of years of human evolution with two traits that are our constant companions - xenophobia and the assault upon the environment. Maps of genocide through the ages and evidence of our effects on mass animal extinction from all continents make sober, if thoughtful reading. (Clive Yelf)

Carol Drinkwater - The Olive Season

If you read Carol Drinkwater's first book The Olive Farm (bwl 10), you won't need me to encourage you to read this one. OK, it's escapist, but it's not all honey and roses and for anyone who has enjoyed any sort of love affaire with Provence and the Midi, it will arouse all sorts of nostalgic memories. And if it needs a saving grace, it doesn't in any way patronise the locals, unlike some who shall be nameless! (Jenny Baker)

R F Foster - The Irish Story - Telling Tales and Making It Up in Ireland

A wonderfully objective view of the history of Ireland. The author explains how both folklore and writers - Trollope, Yeats, Elizabeth Bowen and later Gerry Adams and Frank McCourt - have embellished the Irish 'story' so that it is often closer to myth than reality. As most of my recent and distant forbears were Irish, I found this book absorbing and particularly recommend it to any readers who have Irish blood in their veins! (Wendy Swann)

Alexandra Fuller - Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight - An African Childhood

A moving evocation of a white farming family's life during the civil war in Rhodesia followed by fresh starts in Zambia and Malawi. Life was difficult, money short, not all the children survived and the feisty mother became at times something of a desperate drunk. It's honest, funny and sad but never mawkish as are so many childhood memoirs. Through it all shines the author's zest for life, her love of Africa and her family. (Jenny Baker)

Robert Harris - Good and Faithful Servant - The Unauthorized Biography of Bernard Ingham

Bernard Ingham was one of those people that rose to prominence without anyone really knowing how or why. This entertaining biography explains how a socialist firebrand and instinctive 'Tory-baiter' became Mrs. Thatcher's most trusted aide and far more valuable to her than most of her ministers. It is also illuminating in view of his recent attacks on the role of Alistair Campbell, who surely must have learned many lessons from this most faithful of servants. (Clive Yelf)

Don and Petie Kladstrup - Wine and War

After France fell in 1940, the German occupiers set out to plunder one of France's most precious assets: wine. The French vignerons were determined to stop them or to ensure they only took mediocre wines. This fascinating account explores those years of occupation, with first-hand accounts of some ingenious and courageous plots to protect wine cellars - and the dreadful punishments exacted on anyone caught. If you like France, wine and history, it's compulsive reading. (Annie Noble)

Ben Macintyre - A Foreign Field - A True Story of Love and Betrayal in the Great War

In 1914, four British soldiers, trapped behind enemy lines, were sheltered by French villagers and lived in extraordinary conditions, including hiding in a cupboard for months. One became involved with a local girl who had a child. This poignant account avoids sentimentality and retains the journalistic quality you'd expect from a former Times parliamentary sketch writer. It evokes the horrors of the period, the people's day-to-day existence and the petty jealousies which led to betrayal. (Annie Noble)

Gavin Menzies - 1421

What have Piri Reis Map, the Sacramento junk, the sand mounds on Bimini and the tower on Rhode Island in common? They are clues supporting the story that in 1421-3 the Chinese, in the largest fleet ever known, circumnavigated the world reaching, among other places, N America (well before Columbus). Ming Emperor Zhu Di initiated this but subsequently, fearful of the Gods, abandoned the scheme, destroyed the evidence and imposed isolation on China. History re-written? (James Baker)

Michael Moore - Stupid White Men

Moore is rapidly becoming the 'conscience' of America, but is a must for readers in this country too. In this book he spells out graphically just how the presidential election was rigged in order that Dubya could be sworn in, and then goes on to show how minorities (black, poor, etc.) have been manipulated by governments for decades and strongly makes the point that individuals can make a big difference if they only become motivated! (Julie Higgins)

Jan Morris - Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere

All I knew about Trieste before reading this (sadly her final book) was that James Joyce once lived there. She fills the gap with a fascinating and nostalgic evocation of Trieste's days of glory as the Habsburg Empire's thriving trade outlet/port on the Mediterranean and its decline. She includes descriptions of the city's architectural monuments and witty portraits of unusual figures. I found it an excellent bedside book. (Jeremy Swann)

Claire Tomalin - Samuel Pepys - The Unequalled Self

Covering the whole of Pepys's life, not only the period of his diaries, this admirably readable biography is a delight. In addition to Tomalin's 'warts and all' study of Pepys himself, she paints fascinating pictures of leading figures of his time from Charles II down. The story is also a mini-social as well as political and administrative history in which she draws amusing parallels between situations in our and her subject's time. (Jeremy Swann)

Jenny Uglow - The Lunar Men - The Friends who made the future - 1730 - 1830

A fascinating, readable and authoritative history of eighteenth century inventions. The great pioneers of the day, most notably Matthew Bolton, James Watt, Josiah Wedgwood and Erasmus Darwin (grandfather of Charles) dined together each Full Moon to exchange ideas and conduct experiments. The crucial developments, such as steam power, are covered with impressive authority but Jenny Uglow also enriches the story with a woman's eye on the family and social conditions of the day. (Michael Fitzgerald-Lombard)

Paco Underhill - Why We Buy - The Science of Shopping

I really enjoyed this book, all the more so as it enabled me to pinpoint just what it was about our local Lidle store that annoyed me! This is an anthropological study of the modern shopper emerging after years of patient observation and interpretation. Who can forget the previously unknown economic effects of the 'butt-brush' effect for example? As shoppers of varying types we can all relate to the fascinating examples that fill this study. (Clive Yelf)

Irvin D Yalom - Love's Executioner and Other Tales of Psychotherapy

This is essentially a collection of ten case studies that show the process of psychotherapy - some are successful, others of limited benefit and a few fail in their objectives. However they are fascinating in as much as they focus on the failings of the therapist as much as the client (How do you help an individual if you find their condition repulsive?). Irvin Yalom is refreshing in his honesty and perceptive in his insights. (Clive Yelf)

Feedback

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Jeremy Swann writes:

I have just finished Katherine Graham's Personal History (bwl 12) and entirely share the contributor's enthusiasm. I would only like to add that I found the author's picture of her upbringing fascinating, coming as she did from a rich non-practising Jewish family in the United States. Equally interesting, I found, is her detailed description of her work as publisher of the Washington Post and her close contact with the presidents Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon as well as leading figures such as Henry Kissinger who prefaces this book.

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Jenny Baker writes:

Re the request in bwl 17's Feedback for suggestions for a practical handbook to have on a desert island how about The Worst Case Scenario Survival Handbook by Joshua Piven and David Borgenicht? It might not tell you how to live off the local plants but it does explain amongst other things how to escape from quicksand, wrestle an alligator and land a plane. All of which could prove useful!

I've just read The Mulberry Empire by Philip Hensher and endorse everything that was said in the review (bwl 17). It is indeed an absolute jewel. And what made it even more enthralling for me was reading it alongside The Great Game by Peter Hopkirk (bwl 12) which covers the same ground and more. It was fascinating to check the historical details and discover which characters were based on actual people and also to see a picture of Sir Alexander Burns, the principal protagonist, who doesn't look quite the swashbuckler I imagined!

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Joan Jackson writes:

Re bwl 17: Having seen the film, I agree entirely with the reviewer of A Beautiful Mind. American films never seem to be able to portray a moving story without loads of sentimentality. As to Rani Manicka's The Rice Mother, I found it enthralling.

But the biggest surprise for me was The Long Walk which the reviewer had only just read although it was published in 1956*. I remember it very well indeed. It made a great hit. But along came the experts with articles in the press and debates on the radio which appeared to prove conclusively that the book was a fake. Fine if it had been declared fiction, but it wasn't. At the time not a thing the author wrote about as personal experience could be proved. Not a single character in the story could be traced worldwide. But if Slavomir Rawicz made a lot of money - good luck to him!

*Editor's note: The Long Walk has remained in print ever since, its most recent reissue was in 2000. There are dozens of sites on the internet from all over the world which refer to it as a true story and extol its virtues. One French site mentions the 1956 controversy but concludes that as it is such a wonderful book, it doesn't matter if it is true or false! So is it a fake? Were those experts right or have they since been proved wrong? Can anyone throw fresh light on the matter?

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