bookswelike

bwl 65 - Summer 2012

Fiction

J G Ballard - The Day of Creation

A kind of African Queen meets Heart of Darkness as a British doctor turned ecologist pits his wits against two opposing African factions and lives out his own obsessions. An eventful, at times exciting, story. Try also High Rise and Super Cannes for Ballard's ability to latch onto the dark side of contemporary developments. Thought-provoking and utterly individual. (Tony Pratt)

Sebastian Barry - On Canaan's Side

Through the elusive medium of memory, grieving 89 year-old Lilly Bere, recalls her life from her flight after WW I from Dublin to America (her Canaan's side) up to the recent death of her beloved grandson. A novel of love, war, family ties and friendship, told in Barry's lilting prose, illuminating how the past, and the side you are perceived to be on, forever haunts the Irish. Another treasure from the author of The Secret Scriptures (bwl 53). (Jenny Baker)

William Boyd - Waiting for Sunrise

Set in Vienna just before WW I and then in London, France and Geneva during that war, this book is full of period atmosphere as the protagonist, Lysander, gets caught up in espionage with all its subterfuge. Personal dramas begin and run parallel to the main thriller aspect of the story with a side helping of psychiatry - it being Vienna. A page-turner and intriguing but I was uncertain about some of the characters. (Christine Miller)

Mikhail Bulgakov - A Dog's Heart

What happens when a rather touching stray dog, accidentally scalded by water, is rescued by an eminent scientist only to become the victim of a bizarre experiment in humanisation, involving the implanting of the pituitary gland and testicles of an alcoholic criminal? You've guessed it, disaster. Written in 1925, but not published in Russia until 1987, this short novel is both magic realism and a comic, scathing satire on the Stalinists' attempts to manipulate human behaviour. (Jenny Baker)

Raphael Cardetti - Death in the Latin Quarter

An unusual crime, suspense novel which keeps you guessing throughout, but it's probably not the best read late at night alone in bed. Its opening gives no impression of this at all. It begins in the tranquillity of the Sorbonne university with the sudden death, at first thought to be suicide, of the Chair of Medieval Philosophy but as the action enters the murky streets of Paris's Latin Quarter, this assumption seems increasingly unlikely . . . (Shirley Williams)

Peter Carey - The Chemistry of Tears

A conservator in a rather prim London museum, grieving for her lover, is given the job of restoring a mystery automaton. She becomes fascinated by the diaries of Henry, the endearing eccentric who travelled to Germany two centuries ago to commission the 'duck'. He and the fairy-tale like Germans he has to grapple with are all over-the-top but brilliantly imagined. The writing is rich but economical and both past and present stories equally absorbing. Wonderful! (Victoria Grey-Edwards)

Justin Cartwright - Other People's Money

Cartwright's well observed (though rather cartoonish) characters are all affected by the recent banking crisis as a struggling old family bank resorts to shady practices. It's an enjoyable chase around Antibes, London and Cornwall; sometimes funny and farcical, but it also looks thoughtfully at how all the family members try to maintain their integrity while seeking love and success in a changing world. I found it very entertaining, and more assured than his earlier novels. (Victoria Grey-Edwards)

Lee Child - Tripwire

This early Jack Reacher novel, in what has turned out to be an addictive thriller series, fills in the gaps for anyone not au fait with his military past. Situated in the bustle and noise of New York, its roots go back to the Viet Nam War and the author's feel for detail in both places makes for a challenging and satisfying read. Very plausible, though scary with an unexpected twist - the good guys win again. (Kathie Somerwil Ayrton)

Jeffrey Eugenides - The Marriage Plot

Meet Madeleine Hanna, an American student in the eighties, madly in love with charismatic, manic-depressive Leonard Bankhead, while at the same time Mitchell Grammaticus (a brilliant but withdrawn student) is sure that she is destined to be his future wife. You follow the beginning of their promising lives with interest. It's a very pleasurable thick read, funny and sad. (Laurence Martin Euler)

Michael Frayn - Skios

I am not a great fan of farce but Frayn is a master of the genre. Once you accept the initial preposterous mistaken identity - in these days of Google more than unlikely - there is a delightful dig at the lecture circuit that academics (and others) so love. The gullibility of the audience as they listen to nonsense is amusing and the book is full of twists and turns. Ideal light-hearted holiday reading perhaps but I'm still not a total convert. (Christine Miller)

Linda Grant - We Had it So Good

An American meets a girl at Oxford in the 1960s and the story of their lives together follows. I was thoroughly absorbed by these baby boomer biographies and those of their family and friends over 50 years. Interesting also as a critical re-appraisal of that generation - part of what seems to be a growing trend. (Tony Pratt)

E L James - Fifty Shades of Grey

This year's publishing phenomenon* - Anastasia, virginal and beautiful, meets Christian Grey, rich, high-powered and controlling. Fast forward a few pages of intense wooing until she consents to anything, a lot more than she imagined (think rope, leather, bindings, suspension, spanking, biting, hot waxing, clamps, whatever you fancy) but oh my the orgasms for several hundred pages . . . phew, I can't go on with this, never mind the huge bath big enough for four - I need a cold shower.
*Ed's Note: 2,833,990 copies sold up to 22/7/12 including 524,089 plus 1 during last week (James Baker)

Marina Lewycka - Various Pets Alive & Dead

Back on track after the disappointing We Are All Made of Glue? Almost. This tale of children brought up in a left-wing commune is a deft commentary on the generation gap in a society of collapsed ideals. How can Serge betray his parents' principles and go into the City (without telling them)? And Clara, into conventional neat-and-tidiness after childhood's above-such-things messiness? Will their parents forgive them and mellow? Perceptive, witty and lots of fun. (Annabel Bedini)

Hilary Mantel - Bring up the Bodies

Anne Boleyn's final years - hand-in-hand with Thomas Cromwell, we follow the route he devised to engineer her fall from grace. Everything is through his eyes, we see only what he saw or wanted to see, so there is no visible torture, no rack although their shadow is everywhere. A must for lover's of Wolf Hall (bwl 55); I thought it even better, especially as Mantell seems to have dropped her irritating habit of not making clear who is actually speaking. (Jenny Baker)

Alessandro Manzoni - The Betrothed

In the face of adversity, during the terrible years of Spanish rule and the plague that struck Milan in 1630, a young couple are trying to get married. A deeply spiritual work, with many subsidiary characters based on real people, it's main theme is the struggle between oppression and the subjugated Italians' longing for justice and freedom. Published in 1842 it expressed Manzoni's moral, social and political support of the Risorgimento. Understandably Italy's most famous and widely read novel.
Ed's Note: Verdi's Requiem was written for the first anniversary of Manzoni's death (Denise Lewis)

Anne Michaels - The Winter Vault

An introspective novel about displacement, love and loss. Set primarily in Canada, it time travels between the destruction of the Abu Simbel temple in 1964 to the ravishing of Warsaw in WW II. In lyrical, enigmatic and lingering prose Michael describes how Avery, a young engineer, and his botanist wife, Jean, after suffering their own personal tragedy, journey through the landscape of grief in their efforts to find where they truly belong. (Jenny Baker)

Andrew Miller - Pure

In 1785 young provincial engineer Baratte is charged with clearing a stinking, overcrowded cemetery in Paris. With a team of taciturn Normandy miners and his erstwhile friend from home the task seems straightforward for a modern man of reason. But together with bones, underlying passions are unearthed and 'reason' balances on a knife edge with violence. Tangibly atmospheric, hauntingly compelling and written in beautiful, lucid prose, I found it utterly bewitching. (Annabel Bedini)

Haken Nesser - Hour of the Wolf

Chief Inspector Van Veeteren has retired but when his son is murdered, he can't resist assisting his former colleagues. As usual a very good read by this Swedish author. (Laurence Martin Euler)

Kamila Shamsie - Burnt Shadows

When the bomb is dropped on Nagasaki, Hiroko's world is shattered. She survives, though she carries the memory of that day burnt into her back. This event opens the novel in which Shamsie explores themes of displacement, otherness, and imperialism. I was reminded of The Reluctant Fundamentalist (bwl 44) which inhabits similar territory. The characters stand out, in particular Hiroko, bringing the narrative to life. Not a comfortable read - but absorbing.. (Ferelith Hordon)

Roma Tearne - The Swimmer

A wide Suffolk sky above a sleepy backwater during an unusually sultry summer, sets the scene to bring together Ria - a poet - and asylum seeker Ben - the swimmer. A story that explores love and loss, tragedy and grief, crossing boundaries of age and culture. Narrated in turn by three women from different generations whose lives are touched, linked and changed forever by the swimmer. Beautifully written and intensely moving. (Mary Standing)

Non-Fiction

Hugh Aldersey-Williams - Periodic Tales: The Curious Lives of the Elements

This sort of companion to Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything (bwl 21) concentrates on the (chemical, not meteorological!) elements. By means of fascinating anecdotes and cultural asides the reader - even the most chemically ignorant - is swept along on the current of Aldersey-William's love for his subject, the sense of the excitement of discovery and the enthralling way the elements shape and are part of our lives. A richly brilliant book! (Annabel Bedini)

John Berendt - The City of Falling Angels

The fire that destroyed the Fenice Theatre inspired Berendt to weave a story of intrigue about Venice and its inhabitants just as engaging as his Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil did for Savannah. Adjectives such as fragile, corrupt, beautiful, historic and scandalous describe his cast of real life characters. Through them, he adds flesh and blood to this magical city. This is compelling reading, far better than any guide book. (Jeremy Miller)

Orlando Figes - Just Send Me Word: A true story of love and survival in the Gulag

Just Send Me Word is based on a cache of letters held by Memorial, a Russian archive of the Gulag. They recount the undying love of Svetlana and Lev serving a 10 year sentence on a trumped up charge. No obstacle was too great to keep them apart. The tyrant Stalin's death eventually brought an end to their ordeal. They were to be reunited at last in a memoir wonderfully realised by Orlando Figes. (David Graham)

Sinclair McKay - The Secret Life of Bletchley Park: The History of the Wartime Codebreaking Centre by the Men and Women who were there

Absolutely fascinating, and for me very personal; I now know what my sister got up to during her secret life at the WW II codebreaking centre. This is the story of the many debs, factory workers, students and Wrens who were thrown together with Britain's most brilliant brains to decrypt enemy messages. There was far more to their long days and nights of intense work that certainly my sister had never mentioned! A book to be read. (Shirley Williams)

David McKie - Great British Bus Journeys: Travels Through Unfamous Places

Hazlitt judged the coach talk from London-Oxford more rewarding than that at Oxford's high tables. McKie takes 24 bus journeys often to out of the way places which tell a lot about the country we live in. Dundee, Winchelsea, Leeds and Taunton you know but Slaidburn, Irthlingborough, Louth, Witley and Nevern? McKie unearths fascinating and forgotten histories and eavesdrops on the life around him. Delightful. (Tony Pratt)

Alan Riding - And The Show Went On: Cultural Life in Nazi-Occupied Paris

Meticulously researched, this book paints a disturbing picture of collaboration and artistic co-habitation. Crushed militarily, Petain's Vichy government was eager to show that France was not defeated culturally. Riding provides a roll call of the famous and not-so-famous actor, writer or artist who had to choose whether to stay or go. The show did go on, but not so as to displease Hitler, who chillingly remarked "Let the French degenerate. All the better for us." (Jeremy Miller)

Kate Summerscale - Mrs Robinson's Disgrace: The Private Diary of a Victorian Lady

1858's new divorce laws resulted in hundreds of petitions, the most salacious of which was that of Henry Robinson who, using his wife's stolen diary as evidence, cited for adultery. Lucid and sensual, dozens of pages were read out in court and published with relish by the newspapers. A work of imagination, as Isabella claimed, or did she really have an affair with handsome Edward Lane who faced ruined if its contents were true? Read to find out. (Jenny Baker)

Authors Various - Stop What You're Doing and Read This

Ten essays that discuss the experience of reading - how it can help us to understand ourselves and the universe in which we live. The pleasure we get from reading and the transformation it can make to our lives. The authors come from different backgrounds and experiences but share the passionate belief in the importance of reading to improve the quality of life. Preaching to the converted on this site perhaps but I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Ed's Note: The authors are: Carmen Callil; Nicholas Carr; Jane Davis; Mark Haddon; Blake Morrison; Tim Parks; Michael Rosen; Zadie Smith; Jeanette Winterson; Maryanne Wolf and Mirit Barzillai (Christine Miller)

Jeanette Winterson - Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?

This - after her semi-autobiographical Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit - is the real thing, written after a journey into 'madness' lead her to re-evaluate her past and her relationship to it. Adopted by a terrifying Pentecostal mother, she survived by clandestinely reading 'English Fiction from A to Z' from the public library. It's a lucidly truthful and startlingly philosophical story of a child's instinctive drive to find happiness and love against all the odds. Absolutely exceptional. (Annabel Bedini)

Poetry

William Shakespeare - The Sonnets

Released by Touch Press in association with Faber & Faber, this is not a book but a brilliant App. You don't have to be a scholar or already a lover of the sonnets to derive enjoyment from it. Each sonnet can be accessed chronologically or they can be browsed at random. You can simply read them to yourself, or better still listen to them read by a vastly talented group of actors. A real treat. (Jenny Baker)

Feedback

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Best laugh out loud moment of the day - I'm still chuckling at James' review of Fifty Shades of Grey which is totally inspired. I must be getting old but I'm not remotely tempted by it. One friend said she's never read such rubbish and a younger person I know said her husband bought it for her and was most disappointed that she didn't finish it. She said having her bottom spanked till it was red wasn't doing it for her! (Sue Pratt)

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Best review ever for Fifty Shades of Grey, though James cleverly avoided saying whether he liked the book or not. I can only infer that the need of a cold shower at our age must means yes - I've been giggling for the last fifteen minutes. (Denise Lewis)

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