bwl 40 - June 2007
Fiction
| Chinua Achebe - Things Fall Apart
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| In this recently re-published classic of African literature in English, the passing of the traditional world of the Ibo tribe is told through the life of Okonkwo, the village's strong man, who returns from exile - after inadvertently killing a clansman - to find missionaries in his village and a District Commissioner down the road. This is Africa from the inside in a stark but beautiful piece of story-telling (and, indeed, history-telling). (Annabel Bedini)
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| Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - Half of a Yellow Sun
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In 1960's Nigeria, the lives of three disparate people intersect: Ugwu, houseboy to a university lecturer, Olanna, who has abandoned her privileged family to live with the professor, and Englishman Richard in thrall to Olanna's twin. Embroiled in the horrors of civil war, pulled apart and thrown together in unimaginable ways, their allegiances are cruelly tested. Definitely not a book for bedtime, but its lucid prose will make you want to keep the pages turning.
*Winner 2007 Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction (Jenny Baker)
* Winner 2007 Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction |
| Naomi Alderman - Disobedience
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| The incredible story of a girl who grew up in a stifling orthodox Jewish family in London and later cut off all ties with her past. In New York she becomes a new woman, even dating a married man. But when she returns to London for her father's funeral, deep issues, including lesbianism, come to the fore. An enlightening, satirical and unforgettable glimpse at orthodox Jewish society. You won't be disappointed! (Pamela Jaunin)
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| Iain M Banks - The Algebraist
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| I'm not a science fiction addict but this one captivated me. I loved the galaxy-wide scale and sheer imaginative power of it. However it's not the easiest read. Flashbacks sometimes confuse and the strange names of people, places and institutions are difficult to retain. (Old age?). In fact I read it twice to be sure I had got it straight! Perhaps that is some sort of recommendation? (David Truman)
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| William Boyd - Restless
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| This author's new departure reveals similar talents to those of John le Carré in his best days. Inspired by events during and after WWII, he tells the story of the recruitment into the world of espionage and treason of a Russian immigrant in Paris which she recounts to her daughter in England many years later. The plot is ingeniously constructed, alternating between the daughter's world of today and the mother's life a generation earlier. (Jeremy Swann)
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| Theresa Breslin - The Medici Seal
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| Matteo fleeing for his life from the bandit Sandino, finds himself in the household of one of the most charismatic men of his age, Leonardo da Vinci. We are in Renaissance Italy where rival war lords and the Pope battle for control. This is an excellent historical novel full of detail but never boring; Matteo has a secret - danger and death follow him. The result, an absorbing and exciting read. (Ferelith Hordon)
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| Kevin Brookes - The Road of the Dead
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| Fiction for the young today is far from anodyne. This is a hard hitting thriller from an outstanding writer. Ruben and Cole Ford have been devastated by the brutal rape and murder of their sister, Rachel. Bent on discovering the truth - and exacting revenge - they find themselves in a bleak Dartmoor village, rife with secrets and menace. Full of brooding atmosphere and violence, this novel had me gripped from the first page to the last. (Ferelith Hordon)
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| Bernard Cornwell - Sharpe's Havoc
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| This is my first Sharpe experience - in either novel or television form - and very enjoyable it was too. A page-turning plot, nicely drawn characters and the well-worked integration of historical fact make for a good read. This particular episode was set during the early French invasion of Portugal and had me turning to the reference books to learn more about the fall of Lisbon and the subsequent course of the campaign. I'll be reading more! (Clive Yelf)
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| Bernard Cornwell - Sharpe's Prey
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| Not only for Sharpe's fans, but for all who like an unusual and historically well underpinned tale, this recent Cornwell is one of the very good ones in the long list of his panorama of the Napoleonic wars. In the Historical Note he discusses the British attacks on Copenhagen in 1807, killing 1600 Danish civilians, in order to save the Danish fleet from the French, showing the British at their most ruthless. (Kathie Somerwil Ayrton)
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| Lindsey Davis - Saturnalia
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| Marcus Didius Falco is once again involved in a delicate matter of state - a murder and an escaped political prisoner - while juggling a lively and complicated domestic life. It is Rome, 76AD under the rule of Vespasian during the Saturnalia. Loosely described as detective stories, the Falco novels are a highly enjoyable romp through Roman life and customs. Though some are more successful than others, I have enjoyed them all, and Saturnalia does not disappoint. (Ferelith Hordon)
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| Nicci French - The Red Room
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| In this novel the narrator is a young psychiatrist who is called in by the police in connection with their enquiries into the murder of a young woman in London. Her job is to help strengthen their case against the man they suspect to be the killer. Needless to say she doesn't share their conclusion and thereby hangs the development of the story. I enjoyed this original approach for a detective story. (Jeremy Swann)
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| James Hawes - Speak For England
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| If modern Britain leaves you with the feeling that something's been lost then this comic novel will appeal. Survivors of a Comet airplane crash carve out their own little England in the jungles of New Guinea but are aghast at the state of Britain when finally rescued. It's not long before the spin-doctoring PM is booted out and the survivors' forthright 'Headmaster' takes his place. But are those old-fashioned values as harmless as they seem? (Clive Yelf)
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| Ian McEwan - On Chesil Beach
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| A poignant and compassionate novella of ignorance, innocence and unspoken words. The tragic consequence of being unable to articulate thoughts and fears. McEwan creates the early 60's period with clarity, drawing you in with the description of the hotel room in the beginning. He elicits your empathy towards the two main characters and you suffer with them, perhaps looking back at times when you felt the same inability, to whatever extent, to share your feelings. (Christine Miller)
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| T N Murai - Last Victory
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| This is a sequel to The Imperial Agent (bwl 39). Its two human poles, Kim and the Colonel, are used as symbols of the British Raj and emerging modern India, painfully groping for identity and independence in the face of British paternalism and racism. The author's efforts to include the mystical side of India is commendable but not really effective. Although weaker than its predecessor, the historical and human impact makes it well worth reading. (Kathie Somerwil Ayrton)
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| Philip Roth - The Plot Against America
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| Roth is noted for writing his best books as he ages. This is a brilliant dissection of the menace which lies beneath the political and social scene in America. In 1935, Sinclair Lewis wrote It Can't Happen Here, a fantasy of Nazism in democratic America. Roth builds on Charles Lindbergh's historic bid for the presidency. His fantasy of his accession to the Presidency and what happens to the Jewish community makes chilling and compelling reading. (Kathie Somerwil Ayrton)
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| Elif Shafak - The Bastard of Istanbul
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| The bastard is nineteen-year old Asya. Her mother, Zeliha, will only tell her who her father was on the day of his funeral. Zeliha lives with her three sisters and their mother in Istanbul. Their brother left for America nineteen years ago and has been living with American Rose and her daughter from her marriage to an Armenian. Rose's daughter comes to Istanbul to discover her roots. She discovers much more and so do we. (Laurence Martin Euler)
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| Penny Vincenzi - An Absolute Scandal
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| The newest and thickest in the series of Vincenzi's sophisticated, worldly-wise and entertaining tales of manners and morals in pampered society, this is more serious than most. Her most difficult book to date, as she says, she tackles the events around Lloyd's of London in the 1980s, the crashes, the fiddles, the effect on the Names involved and their families. Psychologically plausible, impeccably researched, a relaxing but stimulating read. (Kathie Somerwil Ayrton)
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Non-Fiction
| Lucy M Boston - Memories - incorporating 'Perverse and Foolish' and 'Memory in a House'
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| Born in 1892, Lucy's life spanned two world wars and almost a century. Her life was interesting, and not at all conventional for a born Wesleyan. Especially fascinating - though at times in the book too detailed - was her total engrossment, indeed her intense love affair, with the Manor house and garden at Hemingford Grey, which she restored, re-designed and developed. She modestly never mentions the fact that she was also an extremely accomplished quilter. (Polly Sams Plant)
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| Sarah Bradford - Lucrezia Borgia - Life, Love and Death in Renaissance Italy
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| Not, after all, the monster of popular legend . . . Despite her inauspicious start - daughter of infamous Alexander VI and sister of the truly monstrous Cesare - it turns out she spent most of her adult life competently ruling Ferrara while her husband went warring. Bradford's exemplary research brings Renaissance Italy and Lucrezia herself vividly alive (gosh, the feasts and clothes!) and never mind if one occasionally loses track of the vast dramatis personae and complicated history. (Annabel Bedini)
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| Rosemary and Donald Crawford - Michael and Natasha - The Life and Love of Emperor Michael II, the Last Tsar of Russia
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| The focus of this study of the last days of the Romanovs set against the brutality of the Russian Revolution is the little-known love story between Michael, heir to the throne and Natasha, a divorced commoner. Disgrace, humiliation, exile and separation did not affect their passionate relationship. Based on much new material, a wealth of detail shows, sympathetically but objectively, the politics which led to the revolution and to the tragic fate of the protagonists. (Kathie Somerwil Ayrton)
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| Quentin Falk - Cinema's Strangest Moments
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| This could best be described as a superior 'dip-in' book comprising a series of anecdotes on the more unusual aspects of film-making. These are grouped by decade and what makes it refreshing is that many of the films and subjects are more obscure and interesting than usual in a book of this type. It looks (and reads) as the work of an enthusiast, not a researcher, which put it in a class above for me. (Clive Yelf)
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| Frank Gardner - Blood and Sand
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| BBC Correspondent Gardner was shot and left for dead by Al-Qaeda gunmen in 2004. This remarkable story takes us through his twenty-five years of travelling and reporting in the Middle East up to the present day as wheel-chair-bound BBC Security Correspondent. His own experience has not, to his credit, compromised his love and respect for the Islamic world and this dual account of personal survival and Middle-Eastern reality is admirably balanced. An impressive book. (Annabel Bedini)
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| Andrew Motion - In the Blood - A Memoir of my Childhood
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| Poetry in prose. Autobiography of early life. Easy to skim through, though that way author and Poet Laureate comes across as over introspective and rather selfish. Couple of days later, realise he has written pictures as vivid as any painter, sculptor, composer or dancer. (Proof reading dubious in places, but maybe even that was intended!). (Guy Harding)
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| Frank Muir - The Frank Muir Book - An Irreverent Companion to Social History
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| Five years in the writing and with chapters covering all the arts, education and food this engaging and witty book deserves to be considered the 'Grumpy Old Man's' bible. Using quotes from a huge range of both familiar and obscure sources, a window is opened on the world of disaffection and it seems that throughout history individuals have been unhappy with the way things are, the way they were and the way they are going! (Clive Yelf)
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| Camille Paglia - Sex, Art and American Culture
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| Whatever her current academic standing might be, I really enjoyed this confrontational, no-nonsense and up-front collection of writings. Seemingly happy to take on anyone and everyone in her take on gender issues, the author also seems to have an ego to match her pen - which is no mean feat and something she happily admits herself. This collection of articles combines maximum feather-ruffling, plain-talking and insightful comment with an obvious love of American popular culture. (Clive Yelf)
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| Feedback |
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In last issue's Feedback Kathie Somerwil-Ayrton wondered just how the final book in the Harry Potter series might end and asked if anyone else had any ideas. Below are three:
Eloise May (aged 13) writes:
Harry stores Voldemort's power and when Voldemort kills Harry, he dies himself.
Oliver May (aged 11) writes:
I think that Harry will have to die to kill Voldemort, so Harry and Voldemort will die.
Alice May (aged 8) writes:
Harry will be told that to beat Voldemart he must give up all his magic powers and become a normal person.
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