bookswelike

bwl 20 - September 2003

Fiction

Monica Ali - Brick Lane

Bangladeshi Nazneen's arranged marriage brings her to Tower Hamlets. Her initial bewilderment in the face of incomprehensible facts and personalities - including her hopeless but endearing 'educated type' husband - is gradually honed through tragedy, motherhood and illicit love to give her sufficient self-confidence to judge for herself, until....Ali writes with delicious wit and wisdom - and discovering what it's like to be an immigrant is only one of the pleasures of this lovely book. (Annabel Bedini)

Louise Erdrich - The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse

Father Damien, a Catholic priest, is sent to an Indian reservation to bring the heathen to God in 1912. He writes reports to the Pope - telling of his progress, begging for guidance - but never gets a reply. We learn, over the years to 1996, of his friends and his trials, triumphs and joys. A truly delicious book. DON'T LOOK AT THE BACK OF THE PAPERBACK EDITION UNTIL YOU'VE READ THE PROLOGUE!!! (Julie Higgins)

Margaret Forster - Diary of an Ordinary Woman

This is a true story but it contains a secret life. It has been made into a novel by Forster and although I often find diaries hard to get through this is very easy to read. I really enjoyed this book. The background is the two world wars. (Julia Garbett)

Tove Jansson - The Summer Book

Published in 1972, this novel by the Scandinavian writer and artist - best known as the creator of the Moomin stories - has recently been reissued to critical acclaim. It's the simple story of a grandmother and her 6-year old grand-daughter whiling away a summer on a tiny island in the gulf of Finland. Each learns to accommodate the whims and yearnings of the other as a gruff but tender love develops between them. Magic! (Jenny Baker)

Matthew Kneale - English Passengers

Improbable eighteenth century adventure of a tall ship carrying smuggled goods escaping the grasp of British customs. The captain takes a group of paying religious historians all the way to Tasmania to find the Garden of Eden, which they believe lies there. Historical accuracy is mixed with lateral humour in a rich narrative told in turn by each of the main characters. If you like Louis de Bernières' contorted tales and sense of humour, you'll like this. (Adam Swann)

Matthew Kneale - Sweet Thames

In Sweet Thames, which takes place in London in 1849, the central character, engineer Joshua Jeavons, hopes to save his marriage by impressing his wife with his plans to drain the sewers and prevent impending cholera. The tale takes us for a tour among both the social and sewerage underworld of London. Again historically accurate and instructive, but the attempted humour in this earlier book is lost in the constraints of the story line. (Adam Swann)

Hari Kunzru - The Impressionist

Charting the rise and fall - or rather the transformations of Pran, born at the beginning of the 20th century to an Indian mother but British father. Driven from the certainties of high caste Indian life, he begins his search for an identity, chameleon-like adapting to circumstances - but for what? A truly picaresque novel of great flair, comic, tragic, satirical, extravagant and - to my mind - hugely enjoyable. (Ferelith Hordon)

Norman Lebrecht - The Song of Names

Winner of 2002 Whitbread First Novel Award. Lebrecht tells an intriguing tale about a brilliant young Polish-Jewish refugee violinist who is taken in by a London musical impresario's family but disappears just before his international solo début. Lebrecht, a music critic, makes music a strong theme in this unusual story, which takes us from wartime London to an ultra-orthodox Jewish community in Northern England. I thought it was outstanding and strongly recommend it. (Wendy Swann)

Donna Leon - Fatal Remedies

A worthy successor to the author's previous stories covered in bwl about Commissario Brunetti and his colleagues in the Venetian police. This time his wife Paola launches a protest against the exploitation of children in sex tourism by hurling a stone at a travel agency's window. The resulting publicity leads to Brunetti's suspension by his objectionable boss and a string of murder mysteries which the commissario is nevertheless relied on to solve. (Jeremy Swann)

Gabriel Garcia Marquez - Love in the Time of Cholera

This brilliant novel overthrows the idea that love is the prerogative of the young. It begins with the death of Juvenal Urbino who falls from a mango tree trying to rescue a parrot. This is the cue for the reawakening of a love affaire between his widow and the suitor she rejected fifty-one years, nine months and four days earlier. Rich in imagery, filled with preposterous but believable characters it makes the heart sing! (Jenny Baker)

Alison Pearson - I Don't Know How She Does It

This hugely entertaining novel by 'a Jane Austin of working mothers' is a witty, sometimes sad, and always streetwise tale of the trials of a mother of two who has to reconcile her successful City life with domesticity. All but the most rigid of male chauvinists will delight in the way she deals with the sexist attitudes of her male colleagues. (Murray Jackson)

Robert Player - Let's Talk of Graves, of Worms and Epitaphs

An historical novel, one of the few in which the central character becomes Pope, this will appeal to anyone who has some knowledge of XIX century English Catholic History in general and of Cardinal Manning in particular. Up to a certain point it is accurately based on that cardinal's life but thereafter it is the wildest and most scandalous fantasy, leading to what Manning would have loved, but never achieved, election to succeed Pio Nono. (Michael Fitzgerald-Lombard)

Miss Read - The Last Chronicle of Fairacre

'Miss Read', a former village schoolmistress, is well-known for more than forty books about Fairacre, its village school and school mistress. Although the microcosmos of village life might sometimes feel restricting to city dwellers, the love of Nature and the changing seasons, the lack of sentimentality and dry humour, tend to make these deceptively uncomplicated books a haven of their kind. Certainly, this one is an excellent introduction to the whole series. (Kathie Somerwil Ayrton)

Ruth Rendell - Adam and Eve and Pinch Me

This ingenious moral tale, more in the style of the author's alter ego Barbara Vine, tells how a trickster wins the confidence of (and lives off) a succession of naive young women in the England of the 1990s and eventually meets his fate. Particularly good on harassment by the media. My only criticism is the length. Although I wanted to see how the story would end, getting there needed stamina! A good read nonetheless. (Jeremy Swann)

Ruth Rendell - The Babes in the Wood

Sophie and her brother Giles, both young teenagers, have disappeared along with the woman who was staying with them while their parents went to Paris for the weekend. The rain has been flooding the area for days, and their mother is convinced that they have all drowned. But the water isn't over four feet high and they were all good swimmers. And the rain keeps coming...Inspector Wexford is on the job! A great read. (Julie Higgins)

J K Rowling - Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

I have finished the fifth Harry Potter book and I think it was worth waiting for, it was just as good as the other books. I feel it was descriptive, exciting, entertaining and from about the six-hundredth page onwards sad as well. (Eloise May)

Rose Tremain - The Colour

Anyone who like me is a fan of Rose Tremain will be as eager as I was to read her latest novel which is set in New Zealand during the mid-nineteenth century gold-rush. Gold is the colour linking the lives of all the characters from Joseph and his wife Harriet, the boy Edwin and his Maori nanny to the Chinese market-gardener, Pao Yi. Luminous writing draws the reader into an unfamiliar but wholly convincing world. (Jenny Baker)

Herbiorg Wassmo - Dina's Book

This gripping, informative novel, by a leading Scandinavian writer, paints a vivid picture of life in mid-nineteenth century Norway. A small girl - traumatized by guilt after accidentally causing her mother's terrible death - becomes psychotic, slowly recovers but is left with an impaired sense of personal identity and of her capacity to distinguish between fantasy and reality. Psychologically it is remarkably authentic, particularly regarding her transient sense of being her mother and confusing herself with other people. (Murray Jackson)

Non-Fiction

Patricia Cornwell - Portrait of a Killer - Jack the Ripper - Case closed

With the benefit of her studies in forensic medicine, the author (an American thriller writer with a distinguished reputation) meticulously presents the reasons for concluding that the famous English painter Walter Richard Sickert was Jack the Ripper. It makes a fascinating and gripping but also macabre and sad study given that the serial killer chose his victims from the downtrodden of Victorian London. You can always skip gory parts if you are squeamish! (Jeremy Swann)

Alan Davidson - Penguin Companion to Food

Think of a food. Anything. How about Oka, Gem or Caul? You will learn the first is a cheese made by Canadian Trappist monks, the second a small American muffin, the third an edible membrane surrounding an animal's intestines. There's even a section on Irak - its cuisine not WMD. From the simple to the obscure, this book has everything you might want to know about food. Definitely not a muffin, but a veritable gem! (Jenny Baker)

Adam Gopnik - Paris to the Moon

Adam Gopnik, writer for the 'New Yorker', provides a memoir of his five years spent in Paris; from the often exasperating and amusing 'red tape' to the endearing moments spent with his young son, Luke. Gopnik skillfully examines the 'pulling of two worlds' that can afflict those of us who choose to live 'abroad'. (Claire Bane)

Tony Hawks - One Hit Wonderland

When you're chuckling aloud and delaying a family outing because you have to find out what happened when Norman Wisdom and the Pitkins tried playing their new single at half-time during an Albanian football match, when no-one realises who they are, a junior presentation is overrunning, the sound-system is down and Norman can't remember the lyrics (and all because Tony Hawks has another bet to win) then you know you've found the perfect summer read! (Clive Yelf)

Peter Haydon - Beer and Britannia - An Inebriated History of Britain

Church and pub were twin pillars of village life - the church is well documented, the pub usually ignored. This book goes some way to rectify this, showing how changes in drinking habits through the ages were largely reactions to taxation, prohibition or regulation. Peter Haydon blends anecdote with research to show that although the tipple may be different the results are always the same - the English binge-drinker continues to stagger his way through history. (Clive Yelf)

Mark Kurlansky - Cod - A Biography of a Fish that Changed the World

Peppered with cod recipes through the ages, this absorbing book explains how a northern cold-water fish features so prominently in the cuisines of Spain, East Africa and the Caribbean. The cause of war and wealth; as early as the first millennium Atlantic catches required supplementing by Basque fishermen off America. But it was salt that turned a perishable item into a tradable source of protein both to fuel the slave trade and to provision exploration. (Clive Yelf)

Patrick Leigh Fermor - A Time of Gifts

In 1932, aged 18, the author of this masterpiece packed a rucksack and with little money set off alone from London for Constantinople. Thirty years later he describes the first part of his journey through Holland, Germany, Austria to Hungary. Much of this is on foot with nights in everything from barns to castles. Wonderful descriptions of town and countryside and accounts of the warm welcome and hospitality he received from the locals. (Jeremy Swann)

Jeffrey Masson - When Elephants Weep - The Emotional Lives of Animals

& McCarthy, Susan Scientists, it seems, refuse to ascribe emotion to animals. They prefer to define it in terms of response to stimuli, regarding anything else as anthropomorphism. The authors argue that as animals ourselves our experiences cannot be regarded as exceptional and back this view with a host of anecdotes and observations on birds, reptiles, fish and mammals. Although by no means a 'scientific' book it is an absorbing read with lots of "Well I never!" moments. (Clive Yelf)

Eric Partridge - Dictionary of Catch Phrases

A highly entertaining complement to Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, this covers the 16th Century to the present day (my copy is dated 1983) and contains catch phrases from the British Commonwealth and the United States. The meaning of each catch phrase is given together with its origin: often radio shows (eg. ITMA), movies, the services, cockney, World Wars I and II, etc. Even a Thurber cartoon. Offers older readers excellent scope for hours of nostalgia! (Jeremy Swann)

Laurens Van der Post - Venture Into the Interior

A post-war, government-directed trip to assess potential farmland in Nyasaland is in reality a study of the author's relationship to Africa, himself and the people he meets. The title cannot be accidental and for all his intriguing insights and thoughts, I wondered how his compatriots viewed him - sagacious or self-absorbed, visionary or pompous? A book of journeys rather than travel, you might not always agree with him but you're willing to go the distance. (Clive Yelf)

William Woodruff - The Road to Nab End

Billy is born in Blackburn, Lancashire, into a family of very poor cotton workers. Over the next 16 years he knows abject poverty and cruelty, as well as love and great friendship. The book chronicles the dreadful times - death from starvation, suicide, the pointless Jarrow march to London - and the degradation and hopelessness of thousands of people. A well-written and moving portrait of a time which is - thankfully - long gone. (Julie Higgins)

Xinran Xue - The Good Women of China

Working as a radio presenter, Xinran found herself becoming the repository for the experiences of ordinary Chinese women who contacted her, delighted to have a chance to make their voices heard. She has collected a cross section of these in the form of short stories, each one illustrating a situation which she feels is emblematic of the problems faced by contemporary Chinese women. A fascinating insight into Chinese society - and thank heavens I live in the West! (Annabel Bedini)

Feedback

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James Baker writes:

I would like to add to the review of Bo Caldwell's The Distant Land of my Father that apart from being a moving account of a father-daughter relationship in a period of world conflagration, the background details of Shanghai, including life in one notorious Japanese prison camp, were so accurately portrayed that it brought it all back, as they say, to one who 'was there' for most of the time. The best account of that period I've ever read.

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Victoria Grey-Edwards writes:

As a frustrated reviewer of Unless by Carol Shields (already reviewed in bwl15) I would like to agree with the reviewer's comment that it is a book to 'linger over and savour'. When I had finished it I immediately re-read the last chapter, and it is a novel that I will definitely read again. I find that when reading one of Carol Shields' novels there is a tendency to skim through quickly looking for plot, possibly missing some of the subtleties of the atmosphere and observations. I would also like to add that I felt it was a very skilful portrayal of a family confused by grief and a search for answers and also seemed to be Carol Shields at her most personal. I hope it is not her swan song*, and I hope that I get away with more than 75 words here - what a treat!

*Sadly it is her swan song as Carol Shields died this summer. (Editor's note)

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Clive Yelf writes:

I mentioned in the last bwl that I had put six second-hand books up for sale on Amazon. I was intrigued to hear what others' experiences were of this service as I had never used it but I can now give you some indication of how it works and, more to the point, whether it's a service worth using.

Registering is fairly easy. You provide a username, email address and bank details. Once you locate a title on the site, you click on the 'Do you have a copy to sell?' link, identify it by its ISBN number, indicate the condition and suggest a suitable price, which is charged to the purchaser plus Amazon's blanket p & p rate of £2.75. The book goes on sale by the next day and remains for 60 days before being removed. Putting the first book on takes a while, but further additions were pretty quick. So far so goood.

I had one title on offer at £20. I received an email saying that someone had purchased it, but not to send until the payment had been cleared. This obviously didn't take long because within a minute I received a second email telling me to DESPATCH THE BOOK WITHIN TWO DAYS! Panic, panic especially as I couldn't remember where I'd put it. But I found, wrapped and addressed it to the purchaser and sent an email to them saying it was on its way.

My first setback was the postage. £4.60 (big book!) with a further 60p for recorded delivery (well, it was my first go and I didn't want anything to go wrong). The second was that although listing is free Amazon charge you when you sell, which in this case was £4.18 + VAT. Purchaser paid: £22.75 - Amazon's fee + vat £4.80 - I received £17.95 - My p&p was £5.20 - Leavingng me with a profit of £12.75

It's certainly not a fortune but would obviously look healthier if I hadn't spent so much on p&p. So in order to maximise returns, it's best to offer lightweight paperbacks in excellent condition and not to bother with recorded delivery. I'm just relieved no-one purchased my coin book as its weight means it would probably be cheaper to send it round by taxi. That reminds me, I must check to see if the money's arrived in my account yet!

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Michael Fitzgerald-Lombard writes

A contributor asks if anyone has bought or sold through Amazon. I have bought lots and the novel I review in this issue (a 1975 paperback) is an example. I could not find it in any second-hand shop, even at Hay-on-Wye, but Amazon offered a search and produced it. The arrangement is that you pay through the Amazon website but the book comes direct from the dealer. In this case the cost with post was £5.80. When it arrived, I noticed it had 20p pencilled inside the cover, but at least they found it.

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Murray Jackson writes

I have just bought - through Amazon - a second-hand copy of How She Does It for £2.50 - a slightly damaged cover but a bargain - so there may be a future. Selling is apparently easy but I would find it hard to part with any books.

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Jenny Baker writes:

On the subject of finding and buying second-hand or out of print books, I find http://www.abebooks.com extremely useful.

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