bwl 5 - October 2000
Fiction
| Julia Alvarez - How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents
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| Four sisters come from the Dominican Republic to New York in 1960, and begin a new life which is a far cry from the genteel one they have been used to. The book evokes well the challenge of being caught between two cultures, between hankering after the old while simultaneously trying to discard it. It starts in 1989 and works its way back, through 15 interconnected stories, to the time just before their exile. (Polly Sams Plant)
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| J L Carr - A Month in the Country
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| Turgenev? No. But an equally passionately-written story in plain, beautiful English, evoking cruelties, kindnesses, sorrows in an isolated Yorkshire village, early post-World War 1. High summer. In an ancient church and graveyard, two highly-skilled, horribly psychologically mutilated ex-soldiers, strangers, slowly bond. A mystery is solved. They part, leaving their contracted work finely done. The tiny, diverse village community lives on. Totally unsentimental, just sublime. (Joan Jackson)
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| Lee Chang-Rae - A Gesture Life
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| 'Doc' Hata, a Japanese, is a revered elder in a small town in the States. The novel explores his relationships with his adopted daughter and the American woman he almost loved together with his repressed memories of K, the Korean girl who was forced to be one of the 'comfort women' pressed into sexual services during the Second World War. I had to keep turning the pages even though some passages were almost unbearable. (Jenny Baker)
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| Jim Crace - Being Dead
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| An unlikely love-story intertwines with a hymn to the zoological facts of death in natural surroundings. Yes, it's odd; but, written with a kind of precise and delicate affection, it ends up as an unexpectedly optimistic account of redemption and reconciliation between humans and with nature. And you want to know what happens next. The squeamish should resist the temptation to skip - overcoming revulsion is part of the point. (Annabel Bedini)
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| Colin Dexter - The Remorseful Day
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| Fans of Morse will have to read his 'swan song'. Why is he reluctant to re-open the case of a woman murdered in the Cotswolds? He solves the mystery, as always, with Sergeant Lewis a couple of steps behind. Dexter's strange, likeable detective dies a sad, lonely death without his faithful Lewis hearing his last whispered 'thank you'. Many fans will be as sad as Lewis, and like Lewis, shed a tear at his passing. (Sandra Lee)
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| Suzannah Dunn - Commencing our Descent
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| This is only one of many books I have read this long, hot, lazy, French summer but it is the best. The sensitive story of a friendship which slides into a love affair that never really happens has all the subtlety of the book's title. Mercedes, Sadie, Poppy, three names for the complex heroine; you will want to say to her 'Stop! Stay with your nice husband who smiles even when he is sleeping'. (Sandra Lee)
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| Kerstin Ekman - Blackwater
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| Gripping, powerful and beautifully written thriller translated from Swedish. An exploration of people co-existing in very different lifestyles in the Swedish mountains and their reactions as a horrific event in the past is brought up again. Eerie descriptions of midge-infested lakes, brooding villagers and dark forests. I read it three years ago but remember it vividly. (Victoria Grey-Edwards)
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| Marianne Fredriksson - Hanna's Daughters
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| Another Swedish novel - this one follows the popular pattern of looking at the lives of three generations of women in a family, also tracing the self-discovery of the present-day character as she discovers her grandmother's story and finds familiar themes in their lives. A fascinating insight into the lives of mountain peasants at the turn of the twentieth century and their incredible (it seems now) self-reliance and resilience. (Victoria Grey-Edwards)
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| David Guterson - East of the Mountains
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| Dr. Ben Givens sets out from Seattle to return to his homeland in the apple orchards east of the mountains. Old and ill, he takes nothing with him but his hunting dogs, his father's old gun and his intention to end his life. His journey becomes an odyssey in which, after a series of extraordinary adventures, some very bloody, he learns a kind of acceptance. Harrowing but lyrical too and in the end life affirming. (Jenny Baker)
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| Joanne Harris - Blackberry Wine
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| Set in London, Pog Hill and Lansquenet, the French village in 'Chocolat' (see March list), this is the story of Jay and his boyhood mentor, Jackapple Joe, whose ghostly presence pervades his adult life. Some of the villagers reappear but there are others too, like the reclusive Marise and her daughter, Rosa. Much of it is hugely enjoyable, though I was irritated by the narrator, a 1962 Fleurie, and thought Jay's mother and girlfriend were a little overdrawn. (Jenny Baker)
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| Ursula Hegi - Stones from the River
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| Trudy, being a dwarf, is different and as anyone who is not 'normal', she has a difficult time, especially in a small German town in the years from l9l5 to l952. Characters are brilliantly described and one of the most interesting books in a long time. (Ange Guttierez Dewar)
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| Nick Hornby - High Fidelity
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| High Fidelity by Nick Hornby will probably confirm any lingering doubt about my taste in literature. I loved the book so much that I am preparing to pay good money to see the Americanised film version at the local cinema. This first person account of Rob's record shop in North London together with his search for self-identification and reciprocal love, I found educational, hilarious and very moving. Read it Murray! (James Baker)
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| Elizabeth Jane Howard - Falling
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| After two unsuccessful marriages, Daisy, in her sixties, has no illusions about men. But she has not reckoned with con man Henry Kent and his determination to inveigle his way into her life. From the beginning, there is no secret about Henry's calculated intentions as he plans how he will play on her susceptibilities and weaknesses but I was kept guessing right until the end as to whether or not he will get his comeuppance. (Jenny Baker)
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| Christina Jones - Walking on Air
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| The characters are improbable, the story line predictable, but none the less Christina Jones has produced another well written, entertaining, easy to read book. (Serena Fenwick)
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| Donna Leon - Acqua Alta
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| The American author of this refreshingly different and low-key thriller lives in Venice where the story is set. Commissario Brunetti, delightfully cynical and disrespectful of his superior, is called in to solve the murder of a museum director. The cast includes an opera singer, an antique dealer and an art collector . . . and the time is the season of high tides when the city is under water. Lots of local atmosphere and background details. (Jeremy Swann)
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| Michael Ondaatje - Anil's Ghost
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| Ondaatje is a poet as well as a novelist, so the writing is full of imagery. It's central theme concerns Anil Tissera, a forensic anthropologist working for a human rights organisation, and her mission to find the source of the campaigns of murder engulfing Sri Lanka. It's very dark, occasionally funny, sometimes obscure. It's a great read, though not perhaps at bedtime (Jenny Baker)
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| Jill Paton Walsh - Knowledge of Angels
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| On a Mediterranean island in the Middle Ages, a young girl has been found in the mountains, utterly savage, apparently brought up by wolves. Does she have an immortal soul? This question is a matter of life and death, fought out by the Abbot, the civil administrator, the nun who looks after her, the Inquisition, and, above all, a ship-wrecked stranger from another culture. A beautiful, lucid, moving and thought-provoking book. (Annabel Bedini)
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| Iain Pears - An Instance of the Fingerpost
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| Set in Oxford during the Restoration, this historical mystery is brilliantly convincing, with a very dark sense of humour. Since there are lots of twists and turns in the plot, I don't want to give anything away... instead I'll just say that if you don't read it, then you'll never meet the great character, Marco da Cola, gentleman of Venice, who begins the story by writing, 'I'll leave out much, but nothing of significance.' (Mark Baker)
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| Iain Pears - The Raphael Affair
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| Very different to 'An Instance of the Fingerpost' (the other book by Pears that I've recommended). This is the first in an ongoing series of art world thrillers featuring General Bottando of the Italian Art Theft Squad, his assistant Flavia di Stefano and the Englishman, Jonathan Argyll. If you enjoy this one, you can look forward to (at the last count) five more. (Mark Baker)
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| Alan Titchmarsh - Mr MacGregor
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| You do not have to be green fingered or recovering from an operation (as I am) to find this light amusing book a tonic. This tale of a TV gardening programme presenter's life and loves is just the read for a lazy summer afternoon in the garden. If the author teases us gently with the thought that, just maybe, this could be his own life - well, Mr. MacGregor is a nice man, anyway.
(Sandra Lee)
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| Thomas Wharton - Icefields
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| Another lucky find in Brixton Library, this novel has some of my favourite ingredients: sparse but elegant prose (sometimes bordering on the obscure), and a bleak but beautiful setting. A small cast of very individual and original characters, each one driven and obsessive in a different way, but as their stories are interwoven with the history of the area, all deeply affected by the power of the glacier and the icefields above. (Victoria Grey-Edwards)
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Non-Fiction
| Martin Bell - An Accidental MP
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| I was brought up to despise politicians as my father maintained that they came second only to journalists as rogues and villains, and so was greatly surprised to find myself not only reading, but also enjoying, the autobiography of a journalist turned MP. Persuasively written, clear in his beliefs but managing to avoid stating them too dogmatically. I look forward to re-reading this in a few years time when the dust has settled on the events described. (Serena Fenwick)
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| Christabel Bielenberg - The Past is Myself
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| In 1934 Christabel Burton married Peter Bielenberg, a young Hamburg lawyer and in doing so became a German citizen. This is her account of her life in Nazi Germany before and during the war and of the attempts of her husband and his friends to organise opposition to the regime, culminating in the tragedy of the failed July 1944 plot. There's humour as well as horror in this extraordinary tale. (Wendy Swann)
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| Christabel Bielenberg - The Road Ahead
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| The sequel to The Past is Myself begins where the previous volume ends. The war in Europe is over and the author and her German husband and their children emerge from hiding in the Black Forest. What next? Germany is shattered and England drab. They opt for farming in Ireland and buy a broken down farm in the Wicklow Mountains. In a much lighter vein than the previous volume, with many mishaps and much laughter. (Wendy Swann)
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| Anthony Bourdain - Kitchen Confidential
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| Prepare to be shocked, maybe repelled, but never bored, by the stories and language of life in New York's kitchens. Surely restaurants in England are different - Gordon Ramsey 's excepted. Foodies will have to search hard, but will find gems of slivers of black diamond amongst the pig's entrails. This book will leave your head spinning, and make you snarl, in the kitchen, at your significant other: 'Get out of the ****** ******** way!' (Sandra Lee)
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| William Dalrymple - The Age of Kali
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| A totally fascinating series of essays, subtitled by the author 'Indian Travels and Encounters'. William Dalrymple has an uncanny ability to reach the people at the heart of the action, be they deposed maharajas, politicians, fanatical guerrillas or their heavily guarded leader and he writes powerfully and movingly about the mixture of hope, despair, enterprise, corruption, faith, nostalgia, injustice, violence, squalor and beauty of the India he knows and loves. (Jane Grey-Edwards)
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| Sally Festing - Gertrude Jekyll
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| Mention Gertrude Jekyll to any gardener and they will talk at length about her influence on garden design and choice of plants, but you will glean few if any details about her life. This detailed biography completes the picture and sets her work in the context of a busy and entertaining life. (Rachel Harding)
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| Michael Frayn - Copenhagen
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| Why did German physicist Werner Heisenberg travel to occupied Denmark and the Copenhagen home of his former colleague Niels Bohr? Whether or not you have seen the play, the script and postscript notes make fascinating reading, and put forward a number of conflicting possibilities. The riddle remains, and will continue to occupy your thoughts long after you put the book down. (Serena Fenwick)
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| Ilona Karmel - An Estate of Memory
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| Not yet another holocaust story, this book is searched for by investigators on this subject. Not morbid, though powerful, it tells the story of four very different women, their reliance on each other in a work camp, their selfishness, their unselfishness. It's utterly gripping, so differently written and absorbing due to the altering relationships of the four women that I can't begin to summarise its fascination. (Ange Guttierez Dewar)
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| Venetia Murray - Castle Howard - The Life and Times of a Stately Home
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| This is a finely researched and written history of the Howard family. Venetia Murray portrays the robust characters that built and lived in Castle Howard as very real people. She describes their political, social, sporting and domestic lives over the last 300 years and includes some mind-boggling detail - on eighteenth century roads it could take 4 days to travel 64 miles which didn't stop them moving constantly between one great house and another. (Jane Grey-Edwards)
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| Jeremy Paxman - The English
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| An extremely readable and fascinating exploration of what it means to be English. Using a wide variety of references, Paxman provides an objective and perceptive overview of the influences that shaped the English mind. Some of it is very funny. The section on the Church of England was a revelation and, as the book jacket says, 'a brilliant analysis'. You may not like everything in it, but overall the picture is 'affectionate' and, amazingly, optimistic (Victoria Grey-Edwards)
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| John Richardson - The Sorcerer's Apprentice
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| Here the author of 'A Life of Picasso' describes his own upbringing and his many years as secretary and companion to the eccentric art collector Douglas Cooper. He reminisces about Picasso and his circle as well as many other famous figures in the world of art and artists which he has long known intimately as collector, writer, exhibition organiser and go-between. Anecdotes galore. Eyebrow-raising as well as comic. Probably best taken in small doses. (Jeremy Swann)
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| Nicholas Shakespeare - Bruce Chatwin
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| Probably the ultimate biography of the cult writer who died in 1987 at the age of 48. The author describes in much detail the travelling and research involved in the gestation of each of Chatwin's books. At the same time he covers the different phases of his hectic, erratic and unconventional life and relationships. If you are a Chatwin devotee, you will find this fascinating reading. I'm not but nevertheless did. (Jeremy Swann)
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| Dava Sobel - Longitude
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| Amazing to think of it but until John Harrison, a self-taught clockmaker, invented a perfect timekeeper in the 18th century, knowing the longitude accurately when at sea was impossible. Harrison's battle to develop and gain acceptance for his invention, of enormous benefit to seafarers, is admirably described in this to me fascinating small book that requires little scientific knowledge on the reader's part. (Jeremy Swann)
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