bwl 25 - August 2004
Fiction
| Boris Akunin - The Winter Queen
|
| If you like literary thrillers then rejoice. This is the first in a series of 10 which have taken Russia by storm. Set in 1876 Moscow and St. Petersburg, its hero, Erast Fandorin - the James Bond of the 19th C - is a young police clerk whose brilliance and powers of deception lead from events surrounding a bizarre suicide to the uncovering of a devious world-wide conspiracy. Don't expect reality, just a fantastic read. (Jenny Baker)
|
| Anita Brookner - The Bay of Angels
|
| Densely written, quietly introspective, as are all her novels, Brookner spins a web of charm and sadness with a few characters, despite their singularity and loneliness, defining a crowded world. Zoe relates her life from the 1940s to the present, lived partly in dim London flats and the brilliance of Nice. She speculates on where she has found happiness, if any, and concludes that . . . well, read it and find out! (Joan Jackson)
|
| Tracy Chevalier - Falling Angels
|
| Set in Edwardian London (often in a cemetery, hence the angels) a drama unfolds, recounted in turns by members of two middle-class families, their servants and a grave-digger's son. Disconcerting intrusion of modern/American English in the supposedly Edwardian narrative and dialogue and the 'working class' language doesn't ring true. The Edwardian lifestyle is rather more convincingly portrayed. The suffragette movement is a strong theme and I found this fascinating and greatly enjoyed the book overall. (Wendy Swann)
|
| Jennifer Donnelly - Gathering Light
|
| Mattie's dream is to go to college - but she has made a promise to her dead mother, and what about the handsome boy-next-door? Then there is a fatal drowning in the local lake - and Mattie finds herself torn between duty and dreams. Set in 1906 in the Adirondacks and based on an actual incident, Donnelly skillfully weaves together the story of Mattie and the tragic Grace, to create an absorbing, inspirational novel. (Ferelith Hordon)
|
| Helen Dunmore - Mourning Ruby
|
| Mourning Ruby is a very moving book about the loss of an only daughter and the tragic effects it has on her parents, although it does have some failings. For example, I found that when it digressed about the mother's life, it didn't seem to be going anywhere and was disappointing. (Laurence Martin Euler)
|
| Damon Galgut - The Good Doctor
|
| An idealistic young man joins a team of doctors in an isolated and failing South African hospital. There are no patients to speak of, and the atmosphere amongst the staff reflects a sense of tension after Apartheid and menace from the surrounding wilderness. Frank, a reluctant friend and room mate, finds his priorities and morals questioned when the menace becomes real and his irritation with the new doctor changes to respect. Beautifully written and many layered. (Victoria Grey-Edwards)
|
| Maxim Jabowski (editor) - Mammoth Book of Pulp Fiction
|
| My sweet, dear old Nan liked her Micky Spillane and now I can see why. These stories are harder-boiled than tough old steak and the reader is swept along on top of an unsavoury froth of thudding bodies, destructive dames and casual use of extreme violence. There are no heroes, just narrators, but they keep you turning the pages in a 'what happened next?' frenzy. This is a gripping book, but not ideal bedtime reading. (Clive Yelf)
|
| Barbara Kingsolver - The Bean Trees
|
| Not as profound or as riveting as The Poisonwood Bible, The Bean Trees is nonetheless a memorable tale about a tough-minded and cocky young girl, Taylor, who sets off from her hometown in rural Kentucky and ends up in Arizona. The tone is childishly chatty, delightfully humourous. But there are poignant moments also when Taylor confronts child abuse, government authorities, separation and social injustice. By the end of the book I was sorry to let her go. (Pamela Jaunin)
|
| Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa - The Leopard
|
| Forty years on it was interesting to see how well this stood the test of time. The story begins with a description of the Prince, the Leopard, on his feudal estate in Sicily in the mid-19th century when Garibaldi and his followers were campaigning to bring about the Risorgimento of Italy. It is beautifully written with simplicity, affection and an underlying nostalgia which made it an excellent re-read. (Jeremy Swann)
|
| Vincent Lardo - Death by Drowning
|
| Previously known as The Hampton Affair, this is a fast paced and extremely witty investigative romp through East Hampton (New York)'s glittering social scene as well as its seedier side. After Michael Reo stumbles upon a murder scene in the first chapter we know who did it (and you already know how!), but the untangling of the story is full of suspense and amusing subplots. Great entertainment. (Victoria Grey-Edwards)
|
| Vincent Lardo - The Hampton Connection
|
| Lardo's writing style has taken a nose-dive with this one. This time the criminal element involves a large drug ring that involves our hero Michael Reo (now a film producer) through his connection with 'the jock-strap murder'. Lardo seems obsessed by glamour and never fails to tell us what his characters are wearing, which would be more interesting if it was not always 'summer slacks and a polo shirt'. Diverting. (Victoria Grey-Edwards)
|
| Patrick Leigh Fermor - The Violins of Saint Jacques
|
| On a Greek island, a 1950s English traveller meets an elderly resident Frenchwoman. She tells him the story of her youth on a Caribbean island, Saint Jacques. This dazzlingly tale of an exotic and decadent society of French aristocrats and 'natives' ends with the catastrophe that befalls the island during the annual Mardi Gras ball. The world the narrator knew is brought to an abrupt end, leaving us to bewail its loss. (Wendy Swann)
|
| Penelope Lively - The Photograph
|
| An interesting book that shows how a man, years after his wife's suicide, realises how far he was from knowing and understanding her. It's constructed like a detective novel: he finds a photograph of his wife with a lover, and he becomes involved in searching for what really happened. (Laurence Martin Euler)
|
| Senna Jetter Naslund - Ahab's Wife or the Star Gazer
|
| Did Melville give Captain Ahab a wife? It doesn't matter - Naslund does it for him, creating in Una a character whose strength, wilfulness and imagination leap off the page. This is a massive novel to match its inspiration, and is full of atmosphere and character. We follow Una from her repressively religious childhood to her free thinking present as she grasps her dreams with the same determination that Ahab shows in his pursuit of Moby Dick. (Ferelith Hordon)
|
| Rosamunde Pilcher - Coming Home
|
| In 1935, 14-year-old Judith Dunbar is left at boarding school in England when her mother and sister join her father in Singapore. In a coming-of-age story spanning some 10 years (and nearly 1000 pages), Judith weathers life, love and loss against a well-drawn backdrop of WW II and a continuing search for a place she can call home. Against expectations, I found it unputdownable. (Siobhan Thomson)
|
| Gillian Slovo - Ice Road
|
| Set in 1930s Russia and culminating in the German siege of Leningrad, the death of Kirov - once Stalin's favourite - leads to the beginning of those monumental purges which affected the lives of everyone from the humblest to the most powerful. This is a complex novel whose leading characters refuse to be crushed by the terrible events unfolding around them, though not all of them survive. Slovo is a brilliant, evocative and uplifting writer. (Jenny Baker)
|
| Tom Wolfe - A Man In Full
|
| Charlie Croker appears to be a very wealthy entrepreneur with everything a man can possibly desire: huge houses, private jets, second trophy wife...but he has huge debts and is about to lose everything, until a friend of the Mayor comes to him with a strange proposal to free him of his debt on a certain condition. I highly recommend reading this voluminous book about Atlanta and its rich people and politics. It's gripping. (Laurence Martin Euler)
|
Non-Fiction
| Jean-Dominique Bauby - The Diving-Bell and the Butterfly
|
| This book comprises the remarkable reflections of a man 'locked in' to his body as the result of a massive stroke. His thoughts were dictated by the only method of communication available to him - flicking his left eye-lid. A remarkable and humbling achievement yet, although in no way self-pitying, is reminiscent of an extended gallows-note - a last letter in which to sum up feelings about life, love and family. Poignant, dignified and very sobering. (Clive Yelf)
|
| W F Deedes - Brief Lives
|
| These are eighteen mini biographies of people as diverse as Stanley Baldwin, Princess Diana, Imelda Marcus, Oswald Mosley and Mary Whitehouse written by a 90 year old after 70 years as a journalist who, along the way, was also an M P, cabinet minister and editor of a national newspaper. Deedes is well equipped to do the job with perception, sympathy and the authority of one who was there and knew them all. Fascinating stuff. (James Baker)
|
| Simon Inglis - Sightlines - A Stadium Odyssey
|
| There's nothing as enjoyable as a book by an author who's passionate about their subject, how you suddenly get caught up in their enthusiasms and (for a while) share them. Actually the passion for stadiums is an easy one to understand - there's something almost reverential about the arena space itself (none more so than Centre Court a day before the championships). Stadia, arenas, domes, pitches - each unique and each with a story to tell. (Clive Yelf)
|
| William Irwin (editor with others) - The Simpsons and Philosophy - The D'Oh! Of Homer
|
| Dismiss this book at your peril! What might look a tacky excuse for cod-philosophising is actually a very useful introduction to major philosophical questions. Aspects of Barthes, Heidegger, Kant and many more are applied to population and environs of Springfield with enlightening results. Eighteen essays cover such topics as hypocrisy, Bart as a Nietzschian ideal, sexual politics, neighbourly love and measuring Homer (Simpson) against Aristotle's definition of 'a good man'. Instructive but great fun too! (Clive Yelf)
|
| Peter Lamont - The Rise of the Indian Rope Trick - The biography of a legend
|
| A man throws a rope into the air which rises until completely vertical then a boy climbs to the top and disappears. Conjuring trick, magic or complete hokum? There were certainly vast numbers who believed in its authenticity and many who claimed to have witnessed it. If you've a few hours to while away, read this book to discover not only the truth but that people prefer to believe what they want to believe.
(Jenny Baker)
|
| Michael Moore - Dude, Where's My Country
|
| Moore's latest is even more chilling than his last. What he reveals about the manipulation of ordinary people in the US and abroad is really frightening. He doesn't have much good to say about Blair either. His tales about the Very Rich and the way they got fatter on the stock market, while others lost everything are horrendous - and Bush's 'special relationship' with the bin Laden family is truly chilling. A must read for everyone! (Julie Higgins)
|
| Azar Nafisi - Reading Lolita in Tehran
|
| Having done just that, I was naturally drawn to this book, although I read Lolita long before the overthrow of the Shah. In the late 90s Azar Nafasi, invited seven young women into her house to discuss forbidden works of Western literature. Intertwined with her fascinating comments on the books themselves, she relates their personal stories as well as her own from when she started teaching at Tehran University in the early days of revolution. (Jenny Baker)
|
| Garry Nelson - Left Foot in the Grave - A view from the bottom of the football league
|
| The account of an 'almost but not quite' top level player lured in the twilight of his career to bottom-placed Torquay United. Initially enthused by his player/coach role the events of the following season show the disparity between a club's expectations and ambitions and the desperate reality as players are injured, suspended, transferred, play badly, or just fail to impress. When to finish last is to face oblivion just surviving can be counted a triumph . . . (Clive Yelf)
|
| Feedback |
| -o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o- |
Clive Yelf writes:
Re the Help cry in Feedback bwl 24 - if you've bought a book through Amazon and want to add a comment on the seller's service but can't find the link for the feedback page when you log in, there is an alternative method:
1. Click the "Your Account" button in the top-right corner of any page on the Amazon.co.uk website.
2. Select "Open and recently dispatched orders" from the "Where's my stuff" section.
3. Locate the order that you want to leave feedback for and click "View Order".
4. Within the order details there will be a "Leave Feedback" link. Just click to leave feedback. |
| -o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o- |
|
