bwl 30 - June 2005
Fiction
| Nadeem Aslam - Maps for Lost Lovers
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| In a tight-knit Pakistani community in an unnamed British town, two lovers disappear, believed murdered; the brothers of the dead woman are arrested and as the year progresses through winter to the following autumn, the lives of both families unravel. The over-flowery language of the first chapters soon gives way to a moving and absorbing portrayal of this immigrant community which is governed by an unbending interpretation of Islamic doctrine. (Jenny Baker)
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| Geraldine Brooks - Year of Wonders
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| An excellent read, despite being set in an isolated English village during the Plague year,1666! Although it's peppered with apt literary, religious and historical facts and allusions, these do not distract from the flow and focus of the narrative. Brooks' experience as a war correspondent, and thus largely journalistic writing is perhaps evident in that there is no attempt at deep character development. A good story, well-researched and well-told compensates for this in my view. (Margaret Teh)
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| David Maine - The Flood
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| I imagine the Noah of David Maine's story to be a farmer from a mid-west state; dour, unbending, righteous, in direct communication with God; slightly comic, yet strangely sympathetic. Maine follows the Bible version, looking at the events through the eyes and words of each member of Noah's family - his wife, his sons and their wives - their different voices bringing the familiar tale vividly to life, adding humour, pathos and horrific reality to the epic. (Ferelith Hordon)
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| Sandor Marai - Embers
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| This novelette - a rarely attempted 'monologue exterieur' - is a beautiful and powerful human document based on constants of human existence, love and betrayal. Against the decaying Austro-Hungarian Empire, lost values and ways of life are highlighted and emotional relationships inexorably analysed and assessed. Not to everyone's taste, as the atmosphere is close and claustrophobic, its elegance and power nevertheless succeed in mesmerising the reader. (Kathie Somerwil Ayrton)
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| John McGahern - Amongst Women
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Moran is a former Republican who spent his early years fighting the British in the War of Independence. Now he is old, living out his life in the country where his daughters do their best to accommodate to his various moods. The days of his glory are over and he has to come to terms with a new Ireland. The poignant mix of love and bitterness, set against a very Irish background, makes this compelling reading.
*Editor's note: Winner of the 1990 Booker prize (Diana Davies)
* Editor's note: Winner of the 1990 Booker prize |
| David Mitchell - Cloud Atlas
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| Fantastic in all senses of the word, this novel presents glimpses into the stories of six vaguely connected characters, each caught in history and struggling to escape something. The stories range from the eighteenth century (suspiciously like English Passengers - see bwl 20) to the distant future (most interesting) and back again, giving a worrying vision of how things could turn out... It's a bit of a show reel of genres and voices. Very skilful, entertaining and rather long! (Victoria Grey-Edwards)
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| John Mortimer - The Third Rumpole Omnibus
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| This is as good and amusing as those published before. As a retired non-contentious lawyer, I find this makes excellent reading and although repetitively cynical, should be read by any free-thinking person before being on a jury. (Guy Harding)
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| Anita Nair - Ladies Coupé
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| Stuck-in-the-mud spinster Akhila sets off on a train journey with a question: can women live alone? The five women in her compartment each have a tale to tell . . . Culture-specific in detail (fascinatingly), the underlying themes are universal - women's priorities (sorry, men), duty versus self-realisation and so on. Each story is a little gem in itself and Akhila's steps towards freedom are delicately charted . A lovely book by yet another amazing Indian woman writer. (Annabel Bedini)
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| Anne Provoost - In the Shadow of the Ark
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| Provoost tells the story of the Flood from the point of view of Re-Jana, a daughter of the marshes, who with her family find themselves drawn into the construction of the Ark. Re-Jana is doubly involved since she has fallen in love with the youngest son, Ham. This is an engrossing take on a familiar story featuring real characters facing real challenges. There is noise, stench, claustrophobia, agony. And a 'happy' ending? Decide for yourself. (Ferelith Hordon)
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| Ruth Rendell - Thirteen Steps Down
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| Mix Cellini is a superstitious failure, obsessed with the life of John Christie, a famous murderer of the1950s. When he himself has a go at murder, you really want to help him because he's so inept! Despite being extremely well-read, his very old landlady, Gwendolen Chawcer, is also a complete failure when faced with love, life or simply reality. One of them is going to kill the other. . . Happy reading! (Laurence Martin Euler)
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| Philip Roth - I Married a Communist
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| Ira Ringold, a huge, angry, passionate man, makes disastrous decisions throughout his life: his jobs, his marriage, his politics - and in the end even his friends betray him. Nathan, the narrator - over a long week of talking with Ira's brother years later - discovers things about him which he never knew, and which make sense of this disturbed man's life. I'd forgotten what a good writer Roth is and was delighted to rediscover him. (Julie Higgins)
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| William Trevor - The Story of Lucy Gault
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| Ireland 1921. The country is in turmoil and the Anglo-Irish Gaults, who have lived on the Cork coast for generations, are no longer welcome. 8-year-old Lucy is deeply upset when they decide to leave and hatches a plot to make them change their minds. But a chance event thwarts her plan and has far-reaching consequences. A sad story, not entirely believable, with an unsatisfactory end. But Trevor writes beautifully and I enjoyed every minute. (Wendy Swann)
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Non-Fiction
| Bill Bryson - A Walk in the Woods
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| This is the author's account of his attempt to hike the Appalachian Trail, which stretches for 2,100 miles from Georgia to Maine. Bryson walked about 40 per cent of it - an impressive achievement. He is good company, cheerful, and always a mine of information. He has a keen appreciation of the eccentricities of his fellow walkers, and of his own inadequacies, and is enthusiastic about the splendours of the landscape. He is also very funny. (Diana Davies)
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| David Conn - The Beautiful Game? - Searching for the Soul of Football
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| In this detailed analysis of the modern game the author brings the insight of a financial investigative journalist to the business of football. This is the book's strength, as he can lay bare the absurdity of much of its financial basis, but also its weakness, as the relentless barrage of figures, shocking though they are, can wear the reader down. It remains an eloquent testimony to the greed of owners and the resilience of supporters. (Clive Yelf)
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| Maria Corelli - In Love and War - A letter to my parents
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| This is the actual letter that the author, the daughter of the architect Macdonald Gill, wrote to her parents in the summer of 1944. When Italy entered the war, she was living and studying music in Rome which meant that she, her husband and their best friend, a celebrated Jewish opera singer, went into hiding. Not a literary masterpiece but a haunting account of their deprivations, adventures and the love triangle that eventually divided them. (Jenny Baker)
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| George Crane - Bones of the Master - A Journey into Secret Mongolia
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| American poet Crane accompanies Tsung Tsai, a Chinese monk in exile, to Inner Mongolia to give the bones of Tsung Tsai's master a proper burial, forty years after his death. The story of this often hair-raising pilgimage/quest is utterly compelling as an account of both a physical and an emotional journey. Crane writes beautifully, with sensitivity, restraint and deep respect and affection for Tsung Tsai and the land he came from. (Annabel Bedini)
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| Frank Victor Dawes - Not in Front of the Servants - A True Portrait of Upstairs, Downstairs Life
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| This 1973 best-seller - now available on Amazon for £0.01 (!) - documents the lives (from mid-19C to WW II ) of the army of domestic servants who made life comfortable for the well-to-do. Based on hundreds of personal reminiscences, it entertainingly describes recruitment, wages, 'perks', living and working conditions (usually dreadful), relationships with employers and high jinks in houses ranging from great to modest. A salutary reminder that the 'good old days' were only good for the lucky few. (Wendy Swann)
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| Thomas Hoving - King of the Confessors
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| A racy account by a former director of New York's Metropolitan Museum of how he, as a young curator, tracked down a medieval ivory cross now one of the prize exhibits at The Cloisters, the amazing extension of the Met at the end of Manhattan Island. I found the story a thriller as well as an insight into the museum and fine art world as it was and perhaps still is. (Jeremy Swann)
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| Robert Rhodes James - Gallipoli
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| I cannot imagine there is a better book available about this ill-starred campaign. Which is a big claim to make but when an author can explain the political, military and personal accounts as clearly and lucidly as James does then it's hard to imagine how it could be bettered. The Turkish dead were neither recovered nor buried - Ataturk insisting their bones serve as their memorial. This deeply moving account might also serve such a purpose. (Clive Yelf)
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| Howard Marks - Mr Nice
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| 'You'll like him', the book cover says . . . Well you may or may not like 'Britain's most wanted man', on the run from the law for his hashish-smuggling activities, but it's hard not to find this book weirdly compelling. From his youth to his release from American prison, he carries us through his complicated story with a lot of enthusiasm and very little self-doubt. An eye-opener and a thoroughly good read. (Annabel Bedini)
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| David Remick - The Devil Problem and Other True Stories
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| A collection of nineteen thoughtful and detailed profiles of people I've never heard of or know little about. The fact that each profile was intriguing enough to hold my attention is testimony both to Remick's choice of subject and his skill as a writer. These are complex individuals who, in some way, are either agents of change or represent challenges to established ideals. Remick wisely allows them space to speak for (and sometimes condemn) themselves. (Clive Yelf)
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| Claire Tomalin - Samuel Pepys - The Unequalled Self
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| A fascinating insight into the social and political life of the l7th century diarist. Well written and a 'must' for anyone interested in history. (Veronica Edwards)
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| David Winner - Those Feet - A Sensual History of English Football
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| If you've ever had the sneaking suspicion that we in Britain have fundamentally different attitudes to football than every other nation - well you're probably right . . . This highly engaging book looks at how the medieval precursor of football was adopted and adapted by Victorian patriarchs anxious to develop both team ethos and sexual repression. The first was important for the preservation of empire, the second to combat the threat of masturbation. It's been downhill ever since . . . (Clive Yelf)
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| Benjamin Wolley - The Queen's Conjuror - The Life & Death of Dr Dee
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| An excellent biography of an individual who really walked a fine line. Dr Dee straddled the medieval and the renaissance as an alchemist seeking contact with the spirits by 'scientific' methods. His influence at court preserved him for a time from accusations of witchcraft, but when his star waned he was forced to undertake a fascinating odyssey through the courts of central Europe from which he emerges as an intelligent, learned yet sadly gullible figure. (Clive Yelf)
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| Feedback |
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| We Need to Talk about Kevin by Lionel Shriver (reviewed in bwl 29) is the winner of this year's Orange Prize. |
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