bookswelike

bwl 24 - June 2004

Fiction

David Almond - The Fire Eaters

The unthinkable has become thinkable. Russia and the USA square up to each other over Cuba; the world holds its breath. This is the background as Bobby Burns faces the challenge of grammar school and his father's illness. On the beach the war damaged NcNulty breathes fire. Taut, spare - Almond's prose captures the Northumbrian coast and community in which Bobby lives and these tense two months. No great action just a great read. (Ferelith Hordon)

William Boyd - An Ice-cream War

This fascinating novel, a well-documented history seen through a thin veil of fiction, has a misleading title. Based on an actual letter, it describes the Germans and the British in East Africa who, having lived on their properties as amicable neighbours for years, suddenly find themselves on different sides as WW1 breaks out. This is a gripping story based on real-life Generals and a famous German doctor. A terrific read for those who like war-stories. (Kathie Somerwil Ayrton)

Sarah Dunant - The Birth of Venus

Alessandra grows to womanhood in 15th century Florence - but what future is there for an independent-minded young woman with a talent for painting, under Savonarola's fundamentalist rule? Dunant knows her history and has used it to wonderfully evocative effect in this bewitching story of dangerous love, intrigue, art and politics, set in a Florence we can see, smell, hear and taste. (Annabel Bedini)

Esther Freud - The Sea House

Set in East Anglia, Lily comes to the village of Steerborough to research the life and work of architect Klaus Lehmann who died there in the fifties. The story switches back and forth in time between the now and then and as the past gradually reveals its secrets, the present-day characters re-assess their own lives. It's a meandering, complex novel, very evocative of time and place. Perfect for lazy summer days - if you have any! (Jenny Baker)

James Hogg - The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner

Written in 1824, this is a fascinating mix of mystery, psychology, religion and politics in 1712 and 1823 in Scotland. Dismissed and vilified when it first appeared, it is wonderfully written and well worth reading (both the novel and the Introduction, which should definitely be read before rereading the book, which is very much recommended!) This was my introduction to Hogg, but I will make a concerted effort to find and read more. (Julie Higgins)

Mary Lawson - Crow Lake

A first novel by a Canadian author who lives in England and writes British English (which I chauvinistically much prefer). The Morrisons live on a remote farming settlement in Northern Ontario - Kate the narrator, her small sister and two much older brothers. The parents are killed by a runaway truck. This heartbreaking tale of their struggle to cope is told without a trace of sentimentality, but I often had a lump in my throat. (Wendy Swann)

Harper Lee - To Kill a Mockingbird

If you've never read this classic, do read it now. Told by ten-year old Scout, she and her brother Jem live in a small-town community in 1930's Alabama. They and their friend Dill are terrified and fascinated by a mysterious recluse. Is he foe or friend? The answer will only be revealed as a result of the events surrounding the trial of a Negro accused of rape who is defended by their father. Deeply satisfying. (Jenny Baker)

Joan London - Gilgamesh

We travel from Australia to London and on to the Middle East, as Edith, accompanied by her baby son, searches for Aram, her Armenian lover, and her cousin, Leopold, who arrived together one summer on the brink of WW II in the rural backwater in which she and her family lived. The story of Gilgamesh, fabled king of Mesopotamia, and his quest for enlightenment is the thread which binds them. A mesmerising read. (Jenny Baker)

Sue Miller - While I Was Gone

In 1968, Jo Becker leaves her equally young husband, moves to Boston, changes her name and joins a commune of students. All goes well with her new life until one of her friends is murdered. Thirty years later, happily married with three daughters and practising as a vet, she meets one of her friends from the commune again. This sets off what becomes the real story in this satisfying novel written with much insight into relationships. (Jeremy Swann)

Nancy Mitford - Love in a Cold Climate

Reading this again 40 years on, I found it as amusing a romp as ever. The cast consists mainly of eccentric English aristocrats who live in large country houses in Oxfordshire during the 1920s and 30s. The story of loves and marriages sparkles with wit and ingeniously comic situations which kept me chuckling from beginning to end. (Jeremy Swann)

Michael Morpurgo - Why the Whales Came

Its genre is adventure. Gracie and her best friend Daniel live on an island. She is led into great danger when he persuades her to visit the Birdman even though this is forbidden by all the parents. The Birdman is deaf and the children want the islanders to believe he is a nice man. I liked the fact that when they were in real trouble you did not know what was going to happen next. (Eloise May)

Matthew Pearl - The Dante Club

A story set in Boston in 1865 among a group of elite scholars who call themselves The Dante Club. They're busy finishing what will be America's first translation of The Divine Comedy. When a series of murders occur they soon realise that they are based on the description of Hell's punishments from Dante's Inferno! It's a fantastic thriller that will make you want to read Dante! (Laurence Martin Euler)

Elisabeth Pewsey - Divine Comedy

This novel is set in a cathedral city where there is plenty of gossip. The main character is Quinta who at 14 runs away from school and family as she is pregnant. She is befriended by an older girl, has the baby and then gets a job as housekeeper with a middle-aged composer. She is also his part-time mistress. The story is about her efforts and those of her friends to find her a suitable husband. (Julia Garbett)

E Annie Proulx - That Old Ace in the Hole

This time it's the Texas pan-handle that Proulx has chosen to bring to vivid life for us. Anyone who has enjoyed The Shipping News and Accordion Crimes (bwl 12) won't need me to recommend this, but for newcomers, this writer has an extraordinary capacity to get inside the skin of places and their inhabitants, with wit, affection and intelligence. Another must, if a decidedly quirky one. (Annabel Bedini)

Sid Smith - A House by the River

Stunningly original, well-written and so easy to read. China in a hundred year period, confirming my earliest intuitions about the land of my birth and youth and of the ambivalence between inhabitants and foreigners. I was drenched by the waters of the river: winters' icy cold or a salvation from the fierce heat of summer; peaceful or turbulent to match the characters' temperaments. East is East and . . . or 'ole man river, he jes' . . . come to mind. (Joan Jackson)

Larry Watson - Orchard

Set in the Wisconsin countryside in the 1950s. The marriage of Henry, an apple-farmer, and Sonja, his Norwegian wife, starts deteriorating following the death of their young son. Sonja meets a neighbour, Ned, a well-known painter who believes that art is the supreme value. Sonja agrees to pose nude for him. Ned believes he has found his muse, a role previously played by his wife Harriet. How this situation develops makes a fascinating read. (Jeremy Swann)

Sophia Watson - Only Pretending

Although Watson's morals seem slightly old-fashioned and straitlaced for our flexible times, the struggles of young wife, Penny - married to an explorer - are very well portrayed when she is forced to reassess her marriage and her life. Slowly and deliberately layer by layer of emotion is peeled off until Penny is confronted with the truths she has to face to really become an adult. Extremely readable. (Kathie Somerwil Ayrton)

Non-Fiction

Deborah Cadbury - The Dinosaur Hunters: A True Story of Scientific Rivalry and the Discovery of the Prehistoric World

Gideon Mantell was an obsessive, passionate and dedicated enthusiast who, despite being a full-time country GP and family man, did much to establish the modern sciences of geology and palaeontology. That you have probably never heard of him is due to the machinations of Robert Owen, his brilliant and ambitious compatriot. Radical theories were no match for ruthlessness and this book charts the fortunes of both men - one to ruin, one to the top. (Clive Yelf)

Fergus Fleming - Ninety Degrees North - The Quest for the North Pole

This gripping book showed me all I need to discover the North Pole: 1) a fanatical, charismatic and self-important leader 2) a ship stuck in pack-ice for a number of years 3) lack of food 4) treacherous Eskimo guides 5) multiple amputations of fingers and toes 6) scurvy 7) an inability to determine exactly where you or the Pole actually are (useful when claiming success) and 8) a refusal to learn from others. Easy! (Clive Yelf)

Simon Garfield - Mauve - How One Man Invented a Colour that Changed the World

Man-made and chemical dyes are a huge industry and one invented here, in Britain, by William Perkin in 1856. He became both rich and famous but the technology he developed was ignored in Britain only to flourish in the giant dye-works of Germany's Ruhr Valley. More than just a biography this covers the science, the characters and the social changes affected by these discoveries and shows an early example of British ingenuity being exploited abroad. (Clive Yelf)

D MacCulloch - Reformation - Europe's House Divided

Religions, like nations, tend to invent their own histories. It is thus refreshing to have this new, even-handed, thoroughly researched and apparently impartial account of that extraordinary upheaval of Western Christendom which divided Europe for 400 years. Motives are exposed, myths are exploded. News to me that Spain under the Inquisition had fewer executions for religious deviance than any other nation. And at last I begin to understand the doctrine of predestination. (Michael Fitzgerald-Lombard)

Jean-Benoit Nadeau - Sixty Million Frenchmen Can't be Wrong - what makes the French so French

and Julie Barlow A terrific read for those who love France. For two years, the Canadian authors played the role of anthropologists in a quest to unravel what makes the French tick. The book covers all aspects of French society from the role of the State to attitudes about food, land, privacy and language. An interesting side-effect is that by highlighting the differences between French and North American cultures, they give a fascinating insight into their own customs. (Jenny Baker)

Garry Nelson - Left Foot Forward - A Year in the Life of a Journeyman Footballer

It's not all Posh 'n' Becks in professional football as this book shows only too well. It charts a year in the life of a Division 1 striker hit by injury, indecision and anxiety as he fights to keep his place in the squad. A fascinating and intelligent analysis of the modern game from a player who spent fourteen years looking out into the 'promised land' of the Premiership but never quite making it himself. (Clive Yelf)

Michael Quinion - Port Out, Starboard Home - and other language myths

Ever tried to explain the origins of expressions like posh, full monty, wet one's whistle, all mouths and trousers, come a cropper, break a leg!, on tenterhooks, forlorn hope to name but a few? Well, this handy little book by Michael Quinion, a writer on language and a researcher for the OED, is the bee's knees and will certainly cut the mustard. (Jenny Baker)

Antony Sher - Year of the King - An Actor's Diary

Not a conventional theatrical autobiography but a diary kept by the author when he was preparing to play the lead part in Shakespeare's Richard III at the RSC in Stratford some years ago. We follow him as he draws on outside sources including medical specialists to create a character and a performance that ring true. I found this fascinating. I also liked his black and white drawings of himself and others involved in the production. (Jeremy Swann)

Laura Thompson - Life in a Cold Climate - A Portrait of a Contradictory Woman

I wrongly assumed that this fascinating biography of Nancy Mitford would match the sparkling and witty style of her novels but of course difficulties and disappointments could not, in a true story, be so light-heartedly overcome. However, referring constantly to her writing which so closely reflected the world she knew, Laura Thompson shows that with her "capacity for happiness" she was far from the sad figure often portrayed in the past, sometimes by her own remarkable family. (Jane Grey-Edwards)

J Maarten Troost - The Sex Lives of Cannibals *

Troost, a fairly aimless ex-graduate student, accompanies his wife to a remote South Pacific island in order for her to fill a nebulous government posting. His experiences in this middle of nowhere are hilarious. Troost describes the stifling heat, the lack of modern conveniences and the bizarre inhabitants beautifully. A treasure, perfect for a summer read, this delightful memoir is just out in the States. No doubt British publication will follow, so be on the lookout*.

*Editor's note: British publication date: 5 July 2004 (Lucy Childs) * British publication date: 5 July 2004

Simon Winchester - The Meaning of Everything - The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary

If you have read The Surgeon of Crowthorne (bwl 3) you might, like me, have felt you would like to know more about the creation of the OED from its inception in 1857 to the completion of the 1st edition in 1928. This book written in Winchester's usual racy style, satisfyingly fills those gaps, bringing a subject which many might consider dry as dust to exuberant life. It makes the mind boggle!* *boggle - verb informal 1) to be astonished or baffled 2) (boggle at) hesitate to do. Origin probably related to Bogey. C16. OED (Jenny Baker)

Poetry

Christopher Matthew - Now we are Sixty (and a bit).

This sequel to Now we are Sixty is full of fun and amusement for all of us who were brought up on A A Milne. And David Eccles's illustrations are brilliant! My only grouse is that Matthew makes being sixty sound a lot older than I feel (just after my sixtieth birthday...) (Annabel Bedini)

Feedback

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Annabel Bedini writes:

Does anyone else wish Simon Winchester would stop being so chummily gushing? The subject matter of his books is interesting enough without his needing to hype them with titles like The Map that Changed the World (it didn't) and The Day the World Exploded (it didn't), both reviewed in bwl 23.

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Jenny Baker writes:

A further note on buying and selling with Amazon. I recently bought a second-hand book through them and found nothing complicated about the process and the book arrived within three days. The seller asked me to post any comments I might make on the Amazon Feedback under their name. That's when the trouble started. I spent hours trying to work out how to find the button which said 'Please remember to leave feedback'. So HELP! if anyone knows how to do this, please reveal the secret.

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