bwl 26 - October 2004
Fiction
| Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - Purple Hibiscus
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| The narrator, Kambili, is the innocent teenage daughter of a rich Nigerian industrialist, an intolerant Catholic fanatic capable of domestic violence. A coup d'état results in Kambili and her brother being sent off to safety with the noisy family of their aunt where she discovers fun and laughter, and falls in love. I fully recommend this first novel by a young Nigerian who is clearly very gifted. (Jeremy Swann)
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| Paulo Coelho - The Alchemist
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| Medieval Spanish shepherd boy sets out in search of his destiny and his fortune and finds both after trials and tribulations. This apparently simple fable is probably intended to be read as a kind of self-realisation manual, but for anyone who can't be bothered with the 'deeper meanings' scene, it is equally - and, to my mind, greatly - enjoyable as a straight piece of story-telling. (Annabel Bedini)
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| Margaret Craven - I Heard the Owl Call my Name
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| When white civilization and modern customs intervene in the remote villages of the proud, Pacific Northwest Indians, the disorientation they experience is visible in their facial expression: Mark, a young white vicar, sent to live among the Canadian Kwakiutl, sees the depth of sadness in their eyes and learns to understand its deep causes. This simple and moving tale may be predictable but its beauty is compelling. (Pamela Jaunin)
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| Helen DeWitt - The Last Samurai
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| Brainy, penniless single mother brings up prodigy child on classical authors - learned on the Circle Line where it's warm - and Kurosawa's Seven Samurai, to provide missing father-figures. As the narration moves from mother's intentions to son's interpretation of them it becomes clear that this ploy works rather better than expected. Impossible to do justice to this utterly original fodder for both head and heart: intellectual fun, a young boy's quest for identity and MUCH more. (Annabel Bedini)
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| Michael Faber - The Courage Consort
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| The Courage Consort, (what a strange name) is a capella vocal ensemble, 'possibly the seventh best-known in Britain'! The characters are given two weeks in a Belgian château to rehearse their latest commission. This two weeks rehearsal is perhaps a summary of their lives and relationships. It's very subtle and very well written. (Laurence Martin Euler)
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| Philippa Gregory - Wideacre, The Favoured Child, Meridon
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| A sweeping 18th century soap opera, this trilogy traces the fortunes and misfortunes (and the latter are legion) of three generations of Lacey women: Beatrice, proud, passionate and driven to desperate measures by a blind desire to possess Wideacre, the Laceys' ancestral estate; Julia, loving and generous yet drawn despite herself into the legacy of her mother's obsession, and Meridon, raised by gypsies, canny, cold and hard, who dreams of a place called 'Wide'. Murder, incest, inevitability, romance, rightful heirs and a smattering of social commentary all rolled into one long saga. And a happy ending to boot, at least if you read all three in succession. (Siobhan Thomson)
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| David Guterson - Our Lady of The Forest
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| Ann is a runaway teenager who earns her living by picking mushrooms in the woods and deals with her asthma and many allergies by swallowing too many pills. So when she receives visions from the Virgin Mary, the Catholic Church is very dubious. But thanks to the internet Ann has two thousand followers supporting her! The story sometimes loses momentum but the way Guterson writes and describes life's many subtleties is superb. (Laurence Martin Euler)
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| Natsuo Kirino - Out
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| A sensational Japanese thriller and more! It's the story of four very ordinary women in the Tokyo suburbs, where they all work the night shift at a boxed-lunch factory. Finally one of them cracks and kills her unfaithful and gambling husband, and one of the others is there for her! You can't put it down! (Laurence Martin Euler)
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| Alexander McCall Smith - The Sunday Philosophy Club
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| Imagine seeing a young man fall past you from the gallery while at a concert. Isabel Dalhousie, editor of The Review of Applied Ethics, witnesses such an event and feels morally obliged to find out more. Under the pen of Rankin this would set the scene for a spiral of increasingly nasty deaths. However, this genteel foray into detection is an excuse for McCall Smith to reflect on life, morality and everything. Very enjoyable. (Ferelith Hordon)
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| Anne Michaels - Fugitive Pieces
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| This remarkable novel is written by a poet, and appropriately is loaded (at times perhaps over-loaded) with aphorisms, metaphors and poetic wisdom. It tells the story of the flight of a Jewish boy from the worst of Nazi cruelty, and of the remarkable character of his scholarly rescuer. It is very true to life and is by turns extremely painful, and extremely inspiring. It is an astonishing achievement, and deserves re-reading. (Murray Jackson)
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| Iain Pears - Death and Restoration
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| A further story featuring Jonathan Argyll, now graduated from art dealer to art historian, and his now fiancée, Inspector Flavia di Stefano, confronted with the task of solving the mystery behind the theft of an icon from a monastery in Rome. Plenty of twists to a story set in the Eternal City with hero and heroine as congenial as ever. Excellent light reading for an autumn evening. (Jeremy Swann)
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| Philip Roth - The Dying Animal
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| David Kepesh (the distinguished U.S. American author's alter ego ?), an ageing university teacher and seducer, falls madly in love with one of his young students, a Cuban girl named Consuelo. Sex, explicit and steamy but not pornographically treated, has an important role to play in this short but impressive novel which is also a meditation on time, dependence and death. Both humorous and moving too at times. Well worth reading, I found. (Jeremy Swann)
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| Rose Tremain - Music and Silence
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| An extraordinary novel in which the narrative dances between characters in counterpoint, echoing the music that is such an important theme throughout the book. It is also interesting. Tremain takes characters who already have a history and, musician-like, gives them a new reality. The fact - a lutenist plays in the dark for a lonely king - becomes a key, unlocking the imagination to create relationships that, though fictional, are more real than the fact. (Ferelith Hordon)
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| Rose Tremain - Restoration
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| Robert Merival, worldly, overweight and loud is content to play the fool for his adored mentor Charles II even to the extent of becoming a 'paper groom' to the King's young mistress. Then things go wrong and he becomes an outcast, striving to find his way to spiritual and social restoration. Tremain is a master of place, time and atmosphere and portrays hugely satisfying characters. Not a new novel but infinitely worth seeking out. (Jenny Baker)
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| Susan Vreeland - The Forest Lover
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| This novel about Canadian artist, Emily Carr, richly describes the sight and smell of the vast forests of British Columbia. One senses the tension emanating from Carr's straitlaced and God fearing family who strongly disapprove of her deep affinity with the aboriginal people, and of her fascination with their culture. For a while Carr studied art in Paris but her heart and soul were on the West Coast from where her greatest inspiration came. (Polly Sams Plant)
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Non-Fiction
| Alain de Botton - Status Anxiety
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| A fascinating examination of the causes of, and 'cures' for, painful doubts about where we stand in the general scheme of things - something it turns out we all suffer from to some extent. De Botton is lucid, penetrating and persuasive and writes gloriously sinuous prose. I found myself galloping through it with delight and then going back to absorb the insights. (Annabel Bedini)
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| James Cochrane - Between You and I - A Little Book of BAD English
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| Spend an enjoyable hour or so browsing through this slim book on the uses and misuses of English grammar and vocabulary. Examples range from the obvious (I would have thought) to the informative and entertaining, though I felt he had missed a few good candidates for inclusion. Well worth dipping into.
(Wendy Swann)
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| Edward J Larson - Evolution's Workshop - God and Science on the Galapagos Islands
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| It is fascinating to consider the effects that a small string of isolated and practically waterless islands have had on both religion and science - and that is just what this book does. It is the story of the islands seen through the eyes of those that landed there, from pirates and colonists to scientists, tourists and visionaries. It also chronicles the scientific expeditions and the reactions they provoked, from Darwin to the present day. (Clive Yelf)
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| Jon E Lewis (editor) - Mammoth Book of Native Americans
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| Concentrating on the experiences of the indigenous peoples of North America (South America and Canadian experiences are ignored) this is, in effect, the story of a three century long period of 'ethnic cleansing' that saw populations drop from 18 million to 230,000. The historical reportage is fascinating but depressing, shocking the reader with its violence and callousness. Despite this it remains compelling and humanity still has its place, chiefly in the fascinating range of appendices. (Clive Yelf)
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| Joe Queenan - My Goodness - A Cynic's Short-lived Search for Sainthood
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| The premise of this book is that we all admire 'goodness' but that actually defining what constitutes a 'good' life is problematic. Although obviously conceived as the theme for a book, rather than a serious exploration of the subject, it still proves to be both provoking and amusing. His check list approach includes Random Acts of Kindness (RAKs), ecologically-sound living and new age values (amongst others), but his cynicism eventually finds flaws in them all. (Clive Yelf)
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| David Starkey - Six Wives - The Queens of Henry VIII
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| A brilliantly researched, lively and absorbing book which brings Henry's six wives (and Henry himself) to life as real people. As well as their own personal stories, it traces the complex tangle of the personal and political relationships linked to Henry's marriages and, always there in the background, their effect on the long drawn out course of the Reformation. (Jane Grey-Edwards)
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| David Sweetman - Love of Many Things, The - A Life of Vincent Van Gogh
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| Vincent's story is so well known that a biography might seem almost superfluous but this one must be as near definitive as possible separating, through scrupulous scholarship, fact from myth, especially in the years before he decided to 'live to paint',. Without his outstanding output his short life could be classified as a tragic mess. His paintings transform tragedy into triumph. So does this book help us to understand Vincent's vision? Most decidedly, it does. (James Baker)
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| Anne Vail - Shrines of Our Lady in England
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| I knew nothing about shrines until I read this attractive new book covering thirty or so in England. After a helpful introduction to set the scene and explain their role, the author devotes a chapter to each shrine, gives its history and with delightful pencil sketches shows how it looks today. Each chapter ends with practical information such as directions, times of services, local attractions as well as accommodation and even good local pubs. Excellent. (Jeremy Swann)
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| Barbara Victor - Army of Roses - The Inside World of Women Suicide Bombers
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| Despite sloppy writing (e.g. 'indignance' for 'indignity') and bad organisation, this book gives a compelling and chilling insight into the reality behind what gets into the media, ending with a fierce indictment of leaders on both sides of the Green Line. Victor has talked at length and in depth with all concerned and knows the area and its inhabitants well. The outlook is even worse than I thought and my perceptions have had to shift. (Annabel Bedini)
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| Feedback |
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Annabel Bedini writes:
I started off agreeing with the reviewer of Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code (bwl 23), enjoying the treasure-hunt and the fascinating snippets of art history but I was increasingly infuriated by his preposterous, un-historic and essentially silly (What-Was-Her-Father-Doing-In-The-Cellar????) story and its theme. As with Alice Sebold's The Lovely Bones (reviewed in bwl 19 and later Feedback) it's a real pity when authors spoil things by failing on credibility, accuracy and consistency. Do they think readers won't notice or don't they notice themselves? |
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