bwl 43 - December 2007
Fiction
| Roald Dahl - Over To You
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| A haunting, disturbing and unsettling book. These short stories with their focus on mortality and loneliness were written during the war by a serving pilot who had survived a bad crash and seem to be Dahl's way of recording his own fears and night-time terrors. I can only imagine the shock of recognition that must have hit any reader who shared those experiences. I couldn't put this down and read it in a single sitting. (Clive Yelf)
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| Roald Dahl - Switch Bitch
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| Four stories of lust, revenge and spite, two of which feature Uncle Oswald, Dahl's sexual anti-hero (who suffers a nasty comeuppance in one of the tales). These are acidic stories which, like a sharp white wine, are delicious in moderation but not something you would want to drink every day. However they are ideal material for the famous Dahl 'twist in the tail' which he uses to deadly effect and being nice is no defence! (Clive Yelf)
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| Roald Dahl - Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life
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As a collection of short stories, I didn't find this as satisfying as the others. Concentrating on country life and lacking for the most part the immediacy of the themes of sex and death, the stories come across as slightly knowing variations of Pop Larkin* escapades. Not that they are by any means bad but they do lack the cutting edge that distinguishes the best of his work. Dahl's contented post-war life shows through.
*H. E. Bates (Clive Yelf)
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| Lionel Davidson - A Long Way to Shiloh
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| An old favourite of mine. It's a light semi-thriller from the 60s set mainly in the Israel of that era. This was the time when much of Jerusalem was being developed and new buildings put up. A young English professor of Middle-Eastern studies is recruited to help hunt for the Menorah, the seven-branched lamp which is the symbol of Judaism. Altogether an entertaining read as are others from the same author. (Jeremy Swann)
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| Paul Doherty - The Waxman Murders
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| This Medieval mystery features Hugh Corbett - Edward I's Keeper of the Secret Seal - sent to discover an ancient manuscript alleged to give the whereabouts of a legendary treasure. Set in 1300 in and around Canterbury, except for the Prologue which introduces the manuscript on board a ship which is attacked and sunk. Easy to read, well written and suspenseful until the end with many twists and turns and a trail of dead bodies. (Shirley Williams)
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| Sebastian Faulks - Birdsong
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| Re-reading this book I realised no one had reviewed it, perhaps because it was published before we began. Set in France before and during WW I, it ranks amongst the best novels about the so-called Great War with an immensely moving and erotic love story at its centre. Real flesh and blood characters endure all the horrors of war within the confines of conventions that must be followed, social positions observed. Not to be missed. (Jenny Baker)
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| David Nicholls - Starter for 10
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| My lasting impression of this novel was that it was written with the film in mind. It bounces along ok with the usual 'gawky young male not able to cope with more assured females' plotline mixed with some 'gawky young male not able to cope with male friends or relationship with mother' sub plots, but I felt as though I'd read it before. It took me several weeks to finish - other books just seemed more interesting . . . (Clive Yelf)
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| Ann Patchett - Bel Canto
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| In a small Latin American country, a beautiful opera diva is entertaining political leaders and prominent businessmen at a lavish party reluctantly hosted by the Vice-President. Suddenly, they are plunged into darkness and taken prisoner by terrorists. There follows an absorbing story of a disparate group of captors and hostages, whose only common language is music. How they relate to each other and adapt to the deprivations of confinement is described with sensitivity and humour. (Jenny Freeman)
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| James Robertson - The Testament of Gideon Mack
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| What happens when a non-believing Presbyterian minister claims he spent three days with the Devil, who'd saved his life? Clearly, he's mad . . . but how to explain the tatty trainers he returned with, and the miraculously mended bone in his thigh? Not to mention his sudden urge to tell the truth? Latter-day Gothic romp or a subtle reflection on religion and faith in the contemporary world, or both, this is marvellous story-telling - I was absolutely hooked. (Annabel Bedini)
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| John Steinbeck - East of Eden
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| A lovely, sprawling, often brutal, uplifting book. Covers a family history, and indirectly the US history of the period, in the 19th and early 20th century, set in the Salinas Valley in California. A modern retelling of the book of Genesis, full of humanity in all its forms. Should get the Nobel Prize for this - oh, he did! (Rupert Truman)
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| Paul Torday - Salmon Fishing in the Yemen
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| Yemeni Sheikh Muhammad wants to bring salmon-fishing to his country and employs retiring and initially sceptical fisheries scientist Fred Jones for the project. But then the Foreign Office, the relevant Ministry and No.10 get involved. . . . This is a bitter-sweet and very funny book about politics, spin and bureaucracy but as Fred is drawn into the Sheikh's philosophy of belief in the impossible, there's much more to it than that. . . . A delicious and totally original book. (Annabel Bedini)
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Non-Fiction
| Joan Didion - The Year of Magical Thinking
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| Joan Didion was far from being a young girl when her husband died suddenly in front of her of a massive heart attack. It was already a very difficult time for her because their only daughter was lying unconscious in hospital. She, who has been writing words all her life, finds herself utterly at a loss as to how to express her feelings. A very simple and very moving book. (Laurence Martin Euler)
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| Sarah Helm - A Life in Secrets
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| During WW II 400 + agents were sent to France, many did not return, including 12 young women. When hostilities ended Vera Atkins, who worked for the Special Operation Executive's French section, made it her mission to uncover their fate, a harrowing trail which led to Natzweiler, Ravensbrüch and Dachau. This book traces that mission but also sets out to unravel the roots of Vera Atkins herself, a woman who deliberately shrouded herself in mystery. (Jenny Baker)
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| Lucinda Holdforth - True Pleasure - A Memoir of Women in Paris
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| This enchanting book by an Australian ex-diplomat in Paris is fresh, vibrant, historically accurate and personally honest and revealing . . . an unusually rewarding achievement. Accompanying her on her visits of discovery to the addresses of the famous women she discusses, we see Paris in a new light. Welding history with modernity, she also welds the serious with the frivolous and manages at the same time to establish an astonishingly personal link with the reader. (Kathie Somerwil Ayrton)
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| Alan Lascelles - King's Counsellor - Abdication and War, The Diaries (edited by Duff Hart-Davis)
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| Assistant Private Secretary to Kings George V, Edward VIII and George VI and then Private Secretary to King George VI and Queen Elizabeth II, Sir Alan Lascelles recounts his daily life in close contact with each. With the exception of Edward VIII, he had great respect as well as affection for them which was undoubtedly reciprocated. Particularly interesting about the Abdication with Lascelles' insight into Edward VIII's character and unsuitability to be monarch. Also about Allied leaders, especially Churchill, at critical stages of WW II. (Jeremy Swann)
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| Fiona MacCarthy - Eric Gill
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| On publication in 1989 this book was celebrated chiefly for its exposé of Gill's outrageous private life. But MacCarthy is a perspicacious authority on modern design and the book is a wonderful analysis of the 'integrationist' principles which informed Gill's development from calligrapher to stone-carver, including his type-face designs which Stanley Morrison, no less, judged to include the finest capitals (Perpetua titling) designed since the sixteenth century. A long book - challenging but never dull. (Michael Fitzgerald-Lombard)
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| John Man - Gobi, Tracking the Desert
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| John Man has become more and more obsessed with Mongolia, increasingly devoting his life to travel and historical research in that country. Here he finds several different 'Gobi deserts', and ranges from dinosaurs and everything pertaining to them and the riddle of their disappearance, through discussion of the various geological formations many millions of years old, up to the present with its motorbikes, its increasing pursuit of modernity threatening the survival of an unspoiled culture. (Kathie Somerwil Ayrton)
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| John Man - Kublai Khan
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| Kublai Khan, grandson of Genghis, inherited history's largest land empire, and doubled it. Kublai, fulfilling his grandfather's dream of ensuring Mongol supremacy in all Central Asia and much of Europe, only became Khan by a quirk of fate. Drawing on his own travels and deep love for Mongolia, the author manages to combine ancient history with that of the present day and to rescue the real Kublai Khan from the myth created in Coleridge's poem. (Kathie Somerwil Ayrton)
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| Oliver Sacks - Musicophilia
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| Oliver Sacks, the world's best known neurologist, addresses, in his inimitable personal way, the magic and mystery of music, and the brain processes that underlie its near-universal appeal and emotional power. The studies he presents of the often bizarre musical consequences for some patients with particular brain injuries are heavy going and at times make painful reading. This remarkable book is a must for all those with at least a passing interest in music. (Murray Jackson)
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| Kathie Somerwil Ayrton - The Train that Disappeared into History - The Berlin-to-Baghdad Railway and how it led to the Great Warr
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| This is the story of a forgotten railway built by the Germans to further their national and commercial ambitions spanning the territory between Berlin, the Persian Gulf and ultimately Bombay and which were brought to an ignominious close at the end of WW I. Meticulously researched and written with panache and exuberance, it uncovers unexplored details about a fascinating subject. A must for military buffs and anyone interested in the unraveling of historical events. (James Baker)
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| Hugh Trevor-Roper - Letters from Oxford
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| A collection of the letters written between 1947 and 1959 by the well-known Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford (1914 - 2003) to Bernard Berenson (1865-1959), the legendary American expert on Italian paintings of the Renaissance, who lived at I Tatti near Florence. The author, self-described as 'Historian and Controversialist', writes most amusingly about many famous people he knew and keeps Berenson posted on the latest university controversies and election campaigns. Riveting. (Jeremy Swann)
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| Feedback |
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Annabel Bedini writes:
At the back of my copy of Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (see review above) I found something called 'Reading Group Notes', including 'In brief', 'In detail' and 'For discussion'. Mildly curious, I read them and was incensed by the condescending and coy 'teacher knows best' tone. Has anybody else come up against this kind of intrusion into the reader's legitimate area of autonomy? Does anybody else find it irritating, or only me? |
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Clive Yelf writes:
There's a lot of Roald Dahl from me in this issue. This was due to a trip to our local Waste Disposal site where I noticed someone throwing out a Penguin Boxed Set of his work. It seemed a shame to have it going to landfill especially as I was only really familiar with his work for children so I grabbed it and gave it a decent home instead. A good move on my part as all of those I've read have been good value for money. . .
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This piece from Jenny Freeman, was written for her book group. As she says:
"We can't really say it is a story, as nothing happens (yet, I suppose I will have to finish it before the next book club meeting), but perhaps we could suggest other people finish it with bookswelike titles?"
Contributions would be welcome for next issue's feedback.
Ambling through Ambridge
Jack: Hello there, Mrs Dalloway, where are you off to?"
Mrs D: Good day to you, Jack Maggs. I'm just looking for a scoop to clear up all this old filth off the pavement. I must say, I'm counting the hours until the siege ends and we can all settle down again.
Jack: You're lucky, you have your circle of sisters to keep you company,
Mrs D: I know, my beloved Antonia has a pair of blue eyes to charm the sparrow off a tree! Are you going to Larry's party tonight
Jack: Haven't been asked, it's a disgrace. Where is it?
Mrs D: At his huge house on the black hill - he has a cedar forest, you know, and he gets wonderful views of the Northern Lights from there.
Jack: Well, tell him I saw the shipping news this evening and as usual they showed the map of the world - talk about climate change, I think there will be snow falling on cedars before the year is out and very likely frost in May to boot.
Mrs D: Yes, hard times ahead. If you were rich like us you could probably buy your way out but we will see what we can do to help.
Jack: You're right, Mrs D. we were better off when we were orphans, but then came that curious incident of the dog in the night time, we didn't know what he was barking at, and it turned out to be my old estranged Dad, who calls himself the great Gatsby, and who came back into our lives with all the power and the glory he could muster. And now he's gone and fallen headlong for that bit of bad blood who calls herself Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. It may not be an enduring love but it's certainly a time of gifts! He showers her with silk and jewellery which he can little afford.
Mrs D: Oh, that's the girl with the pearl earring I saw in Amsterdam last week - sipping her chocolat as if she hadn't a care in the world. The girl who played go and get me this and go and get me that. She's the conjuror's bird, you know, she used to go out with the Great Houdini before she met your dad. Well, bye now, Jack, I'm just off to visit George and Arthur so I must hurry.
Later
Mrs D. George! Arthur! Lovely to see you both. I was afraid you were away on holiday
George: Alas no, its very sad but because of this wretched siege, we have had to put off going salmon fishing in the Yemen for another year.
Arthur: George is heart-broken - he had just ordered the red tent he saw in Millets on Saturday, and now we will have to wait, and perhaps winter in Madrid instead.
Mrs D: You could always try Corsica, it's only a small island, but the ferries are brilliant - not too many English passengers and a fine balance between beaches and towns, unless of course you don't want a border crossing, in which case you'll just have to stay here.
Arthur: Which wouldn't be much fun - difficult to get far from the madding crowd here, but we're hanging on to see what happens. I'll say goodbye, Mrs D. the piano tuner is coming shortly and I must go and help. |
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