bookswelike

bwl 33 - February 2006

Fiction

John Banville - The Sea *

This is a delicate and poignant intertwined story of the death of the narrator's wife and his memory-invoking refuge in the place where he lost his innocence on a summer holiday as a child. Yes, it's all been done before, but Banville's prose makes it different, with its crystalline images popped in between intimate and colloquial exchanges with the reader. I'm not sure what he was getting at (enlighten me somebody!) but enjoyed the experience anyway.

*Winner of the 2005 Man Booker prize (Annabel Bedini) * Winner of the 2005 Man Booker prize

Veronica Bennett - Angelmonster

When the young Shelley walks into her father's bookshop, he embodies all that young Mary has dreamt of. Defying convention she elopes with him, but there is no happy ending to this tale. Written for teen readers, this is the story of Mary and Percy Shelley told by Mary herself. Romantic, dramatic and eventful, Bennett links the events in Mary's life and her relationship with Shelley to the creation of her masterpiece, 'Frankenstein'. Very readable. (Ferelith Hordon)

Stevie Davies - Kith & Kin

Middle-aged, successful, Mara returns to her home town determined that events in her childhood and teens are long forgotten, but a chance viewing of a nostalgic film-clip begins the process which makes her confront unanswered questions about herself, her family and the fate of her beloved cousin Frankie. It's a tale of love, hate, rivalry and jealousy played out against the heady atmosphere of the Sixties. A truly, compelling read. (Jenny Baker)

Sebastian Faulks - Human Traces

Two idealistic but fundamentally incompatible young doctors at the turn of the 19th century set up a clinic in Austria to pursue their research into the nature-versus-nurture theories of mental illness. Their personal and professional progress towards enlightenment - or is it disillusionment? - may be a bit heavy on theory (and did Faulks really need to visit First World War-fare again?) but, it's richly atmospheric and the human stories are beautifully narrated. (Annabel Bedini)

Michael Frayn - Spies

The story of two young boys who decide that the mother of one of them is a German spy, and spend every minute of their spare time following her to catch her out. The truth comes out slowly, and what seems at the outset to be a silly, childish game turns darker and more disturbing, and eventually ruins friendships and lives. A very funny book which becomes frightening and finally very moving. Wonderful! (Julie Higgins)

Cornelia Funke - Inkheart and Inkspell

These are the first two books in the Inkworld trilogy. The third book has not been written yet. Meggie is a 10 year old girl who lost her mother (Te/Resa) when she was younger and lives with her father (Mo). The books are about a book called Inkheart and the characters in it. Little does Meggie realise just what goes on in the Inkworld and just how much trouble she and her father are in . . . I really liked these books because there is lots of mystery, discovery and adventure. I enjoyed them also because one of the main characters was about my age so I can see the story from her (Meggie's) point of view. (Eloise May)

Robert Harris - Enigma

This totally gripping thriller is closely based on historical fact. Fiction blends seamlessly into the terrifyingly real drama of England's attempt to protect the convoys crossing the Atlantic by using the code-breaker Enigma captured from the Germans. A twist of genius as the author brings together two unexpected aspects of WW II, raising the tension to fever pitch and exposing the hypocrisy and expedience of war-time politics. (Kathie Somerwil Ayrton)

Nick Laird - Utterly Monkey

This first novel by Zadie Smith's husband is an engaging and very hip story about a hapless Northern Irish lawyer living in London. When an old friend from home arrives unexpectedly, he is unwillingly involved in a dangerous (but hilarious) plot involving a Loyalist Militiaman from Ulster. In the end, the truth about an old secret is revealed, and with it, Danny turns his miserable life around. A truly memorable debut - witty, gritty and smart. (Lucy Childs)

Javier Marias - Tomorrow in the Battle Think on Me

Deàn's first-time, married, lover dying in his arms, leaving him alone with her baby son, leads to a journey of discovery of himself and all those connected with her. This indescribable book - part Tristram Shandy part Proust - explores subjective/objective truth and lots more in a kind of hypnotizing minuet of evolving interwoven themes. I don't know how the English translator coped (I read it in Italian) but don't be put off! Just read it! (Annabel Bedini)

Alexander McCall Smith - 44 Scotland Street

Light-hearted and refreshing novel by the author of the well-known No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency books. Written originally as a serial for the Scotsman newspaper, but flows well enough. You are drawn into the lives of various Edinburgh people, some of them fairly eccentric. The narrative moves briskly and there are some very funny bits and a number of mild cliff-hangers, making a lively and unusual light read. (Wendy Swann)

Cormack McCarthy - All the Pretty Horses

This is touted as the 'greatest American novel' on the jacket and I certainly wouldn't go that far. But it is beautifully written, and paints a vivid picture of Texas and Mexico in what seems like the 1800s, but in reality is 1949. The main character, John Cody, grows up a great deal in the difficult months in which the book takes place. First of a trilogy. Not sure if I'll read the other 2 volumes. (Julie Higgins)

Geraldine McCaughrean - The White Darkness

This is a challenging novel, well worth reading; McCaughrean, an outstanding writer for young people, makes no concessions to her audience. Sym, awkward, lonely, intelligent and deaf finds herself on a bizarre journey to the ends of the world - literally, as she travels across Antarctica. Sym has always been fascinated by the continent and in Scott's final journey; her best friend is Captain Titus Oates - but he died ninety years ago. Intriguing? Read it. (Ferelith Hordon)

Kate Mosse - Labyrinth

Set around Carcassonne, jumping back and forth across 800 years, it's the story of two women's parallel quests to protect three books holding the secret of the Grail. The medieval sections are tremendously atmospheric: you can really imagine Carcassonne before the tourists came. A rollicking good read, if you're prepared to accept some of the more mystical elements (and much better than the over-hyped Da Vinci Code, bwl 23) - I couldn't put it down. (Annie Noble)

Orhan Pamuk - Snow

This is the story of Ka, a Turkish Poet and the three days he spent in a city cut off from the outside world by continuously falling snow. Turkey is depicted as a scary place, not because of bird flu, but because of its politics and the power of the military. It's all so different to our western culture but this deep and complex book leaves you with an understanding of the Turkish modus operandi. (Laurence Martin Euler)

Iain Pears - The Immaculate Deception

Jonathan Argyll, art historian/lecturer and Flavia di Stefano, his wife and unconfirmed head of Italy's stolen art squad, find themselves faced with problems arising from the theft of a valuable picture. This the Italian prime minister had planned to make his country's central exhibit at a show put on to mark Italy's presidency of the European Union. Paying a ransom to recover the picture would be illegal. I found it entertaining light reading. (Jeremy Swann)

Zadie Smith - On Beauty

Set in Boston, this is a delectable view of interracial marriage, academia and the sheer humanity of betrayal and forgiveness. It's astonishing this author is so young but so flawless in depicting middle age. Howard and the glorious Kiki struggle in their failing marriage only to find that Howard's nemesis, the conservative Dr. Kipps, has arrived on campus. Affairs, violent disagreements about art, sex and race abound in this wonderful story about relationships and identity.

Winner of the 2006 Orange prize for fiction (Lucy Childs)

Patrick Susskind - Perfume

A book you will either love or loathe - I loved it! Impossible to describe adequately, it follows the short and strange life of Grenouille, an ugly, deformed child born in Paris at the end of the 17th century to a loveless woman who is immediately put to death. The wet nurse refuses to have him because...he has no smell. He spends his life trying to find a scent for himself with strange success. Utterly compelling! (Julie Higgins)

Joanna Trollope - Brother and Sister

The theme of adoption and the crusade to find one's 'birth' parents is a topic of burning interest today and this novel lays bare all the anguish and insecurity adoptees can feel however much love and protection their adoptive parents give them, depicting with fairness and penetration the dangerous call of the unknown despite the real possibility of terrible upheavals for all concerned. Most worthwhile. (Kathie Somerwil Ayrton)

Gabrielle Zevin - Elsewhere

"I'm just a girl who forgot to look both ways before she crossed the street" - Liz is fifteen - and dead. Her reactions are those of a teenager - anger, disappointment, resentment that she will not get a chance to pass her driving test, go to a prom, acquire a boyfriend. Now she is in Elsewhere - which is very like Earth except one gets younger everyday. Quirky, lively and American this is a refreshing teen read. (Ferelith Hordon)

Non-Fiction

Peter Ackroyd - Shakespeare - The Biography

This voluminous and highly readable biography, conveniently split up into short chapters, contains a mass of information resulting from wide-ranging research and enlightened supposition. Shakespeare, boy and family man in Stratford, playwright and actor in London is brilliantly pictured. So are the environments. Excellent on the theatre and the companies of players and how they acted. Interesting on Queen Elizabeth, religious persecution and social life. Above all the author brings Shakespeare to life. (Jeremy Swann)

Max Adams - Admiral Collingwood - Nelson's Own Hero

This is a good introduction to this great sailor for those whose knowledge of the Napoleonic wars comes from the novels of Patrick O'Brian which are referred to several times, irritatingly. This is an 'easy read' of his life. For the first new biography after many years, Collingwood deserves a deeper treatment - for example his friendship with Nelson or how he emerged as a successful commander in the Mediterranean after Trafalgar. Interesting within its limitations. (Patrick Fitzgerald-Lombard)

Jung Chang - Mao

and Jon Halliday A big book that catalogues the crimes against his own people, committed by an evil genius who used communism (like Stalin) to attain absolute power over a quarter of mankind, through ruthless disregard for anyone in his way - "I eat a lot and I shit a lot." - yet managed to die in his bed. This well researched though biased account had to be written as the Mao myth is still perpetuated. Essential reading. (James Baker)

Robin Cooper - The Timewaster Letters

This is an anthology of prank letters written to a wide-range of organisations in the hope of sparking a reaction. It's very funny and you have to admire Robin Cooper's absurdist flights of fancy (especially his plotlines for highly unsuitable children's stories) but it also makes you squirm when putting yourself in the place of company representatives struggling to be polite to an obvious fruitcake. I was more impressed at their restraint than his provocation! (Clive Yelf)

Erik Larson - Isaac's Storm - A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History

America's greatest natural disaster destroyed much of Galveston in 1900 killing far in excess of 6,000 people. More devastating by far than Hurricane Katrina, this is the story of the hurricane reconstructed from eyewitness accounts and told from the viewpoint of Isaac Cline, local meteorologist and survivor. Convinced that such a storm could never occur Isaac ignored many of the warning signs and paid a heavy personal price. A richly evocative and highly readable reconstruction. (Clive Yelf)

Patrick Leigh Fermor - A Time of Gifts and Between the Woods and the Water

The author, the distinguished travel writer, Graecophile and WW II hero, set out in 1933, when he was eighteen, to walk to Constantinople with nothing more than he could carry in his haversack. He describes the people he met en route as he followed the Rhine and the Danube, sleeping in barns and fairy-tale castles. By the end of the first book he has reached Hungary. In the second he continues across the Hungarian plain and the marches of Transylvania towards his ultimate goal, brilliantly describing the people and the countryside as well as eruditely reflecting on the history of this romantic region. Both books are a feast. All that is lacking now is a third volume to complete the story. (Jeremy Swann)

Mick O'Hare (editor) - Does Anything Eat Wasps? and 101 other questions

If you need relief from the more serious things of life, dip into this goldmine of questions and answers from the popular 'Last Word' column in New Scientist magazine. December's best-selling title on Amazon - what higher recommendation is there? - it will delight and amuse as it fills you in on such conundrums as How long can I live on beer alone?, Does a compass work in space? and Why can't we eat green potatoes? (Jenny Baker)

David Piper - The Joy of Art

The author, one-time director of Oxford's Ashmolean Museum, provides an excellent guide to painting from the 15th to the 20th century. He approaches his subject not only from a historical point of view but also in terms of the materials and techniques used. With a host of excellent colour photos he singles out themes chosen by artists and features works that are landmarks in the history of painting. A joy to read. (Jeremy Swann)

Carole Radziwill - What Remains - A memoir of Fate, Friendship and Love

The author grew up in a small suburb. She married her prince - Anthony Radzivill - and became friends with his cousin, John Kennedy Jnr, and his wife Carolyn who were killed in a famous plane crash three weeks before her husband died of cancer. What struck me is the way that she illuminates - probably despite herself - the huge gulf between her simple world and the 'aristocratic' world of her husband's family. Moving and interesting. (Laurence Martin Euler)

Donna Rosenthal - The Israelis - Ordinary People in an Extraordinary Land

Despite having been to Israel and having Jewish friends, I didn't know much about this incredibly complex nation. 'The Israelis' is absorbing and instructive, even for people who think they know the country. It sets the various sectors of Israel's population into a vivid mosaic of Jews, Arabs, Christians and non-religious of widely different origins and incompatible lifestyles and describes their struggles with terrorism, drugs, prostitution and the Russian mafia. I do highly recommend it. (Wendy Swann)

Asne Seierstad - A Hundred and One Days - A Baghdad Journal

This Norwegian journalist and author of The Bookseller of Kabul (bwl 32) entered Baghdad in January 2003 on a ten-day visa but stayed for over three months. Her journal written before, during and just after the war shows that fears of ethnic disintegration were apparent from day one - it also shows how little the allies did to turn the military overthrow of Iraq, which was a foregone conclusion, into a peaceful and effective transition towards a non-dictator government. (Cecilia Hulse)

Marianna Torgovnick - Gone Primitive - Savage Intellects, Modern Lives

This exploration of Civilisation's fascination with the primitive starts off well by looking at the preconceptions of early ethnographers and a deconstruction of the Tarzan myth, dipping only slightly when looking at the history of primitive 'art' but faltered for me when looking at attitudes to the primitive in literature (especially DH Lawrence). Never mind, I enjoyed the discussion around Freud and his collection of antiquities so it all ended on a plus for me! (Clive Yelf)

Feedback

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Jeremy Swann writes:

The recent recommendation (bwl 32) of an English dictionary as a useful tool reminds me of that other useful tool: 'Roget's Thesaurus of English Words & Phrases', the ultimate dictionary of synonyms. Over the years I have found it an invaluable aid not only to finding the right word when it has slipped my memory but also to solving the problem of how to avoid using the same word more than once in a sentence or paragraph. A kind friend recently passed on to me a copy of the 150th anniversary edition published by Penguin which includes many new words, for instance used in computing, which had not been invented when my existing Thesaurus was published. I strongly recommend it to anyone faced with the job of fashioning elegant sentences.

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Guy Harding writes:

Herewith personal feelings: So many of the offerings to bwl are just very depressing - so often about war or death or both - there have been and sadly will probably always be such happenings, but is it not possible to have some amusement too?

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