bookswelike

bwl 9 - June 2001

Fiction

Kate Atkinson - Emotionally Weird

For readers - great fun. For writers - not just clever but very clever. A sink University in Scotland with appropriate students and lecturers. Three stories simultaneously - a different print for each. A student tries explaining her life to her mother who constantly comments and tells her own story. A shared essay goes the student rounds, never finished, maybe a Brontë, perhaps T S Eliot. Ingenious. To be slightly weird yourself will help! (Joan Jackson)

Clare Boylan - Beloved Stranger

Ruth, a modern career girl, determined to remain single, had always assumed that being grown up meant being free of your family; but when her irascible father is stricken with manic depressive illness and her feckless mother is forced to cope, Ruth discovers that she also has a few issues to face. Poignant, humorous scenes, sometimes preposterous, yet always truthful! (Pamela Jaunin)

Jim Crace - Quarantine

Another extraordinary book by this most original writer. Four salvation-seekers, an evil merchant and a young Jesus find themselves together in the wilderness. This is a rich and subtle parable with layers of meaning to be mulled over, written with deep insight and affection and a kind of poetic grace. (Annabel Bedini)

Roddy Doyle - A Star Called Henry - Volume I of The Last Roundup

This is a powerful novel set in Dublin around the 1916 Easter Uprising. Henry, a big lad for 14, symbolises the massive confusion and resentment felt by the poverty-stricken Irish towards their British rulers. Armed with his father's wooden leg, he joins the undisciplined and ill-equipped revolt which is easily crushed by the British Army and especially the Black & Tans. Told with much humour and warmth, it sets Doyle firmly amongst the best Irish writers. (James Baker)

Michael Frayn - Headlong

Martin, art-historian - good at iconology, less good at life - bungles his way through this funny, satirical novel. Tony, the muddy local landowner; Laura, his luscious wife and a pack of slobbering dogs, whose smell lifts off the pages, hinder hilariously. Has Martin discovered an unknown Bruegel? Can he get hold of it? The romp alternates with well researched history of Bruegel and C European art. Farce with a serious centre and immensely readable. (Jenny Freeman)

Kerry Hardie - Hannie Bennet's Winter Marriage

I've read some superb books recently but currently no time for writing reviews, however, if you haven't read this one, do try it. It's a first novel published last year by Harper Collins. It won't be to everyone's taste but I thought it very special. (Lynda Johnson)

Joanne Harris - Five Quarters of the Orange

Framboise, now sixty-four, seeks to unravel her painful memories of a fateful summer during the occupation of France. Oranges, her mother's album of recipes and coded jottings, her scheming nephew and his wife, the names on the village war memorial, her childhood friend Paul, the deceptively tranquil Loire, a pike called Old Mother and Tomas the German soldier all play a part in this complex tale of love, deceit, misunderstandings, blackmail and death. A must. (Jenny Baker)

Nick Hornby - How to Be Good

It starts well with a sentence like 'I've thought about divorce before, of course. Who hasn't?' and you think you're going to learn some useful information about how to stay married for forty years or more! But no, the doctor heroine Katie Carr doesn't find any answers and finally stays with an unbearable husband because it's what a woman vicar told her to do! A bit disappointing. (Laurence Martin Euler)

P D James - Death in Holy Orders

We find again and with the same pleasure Commander Dalgliesh. He has to return to the theological college he visited when he was a boy to re-examine the verdict of an accidental death. As usual there are many deaths and we're lost till the end. This time, it's going to be more difficult to wait for the next book, because at last Dalgliesh may have found love and we want to know more about it! (Laurence Martin Euler)

Hanif Kureshi - Gabriel's Gift

It's the story of a talented teenager. He lost his twin brother when he was two but he still 'communicates' with him. His parents, old hippies are artists and failures at the same time and they separate at the beginning of the book. All Gabriel's efforts are devoted to bringing them back together. Will he succeed? I'm not going to tell, but Kureishi's book is moving and well written. (Laurence Martin Euler)

Rosina Lippi - Homestead

Set in the years between 1909 and 1977, this is an unusual and fascinating novel about several generations of women living in an isolated village in the Austrian alps. It charts their individual experiences of farming and dairying, their friendships and loyalties, their courtships and marriages, and the impact on their traditional way of life of the two world wars and creeping modernity. Short-listed for the Orange prize. (Jenny Baker)

Tim Pears - In a Land of Plenty

If you enjoy family sagas, this is one for you. It tells the story of the Freeman family, their loves, hopes, fears and disappointments from the aftermath of World War II until the present day. If you watched the recent serialisation on TV, it's not only intriguing to discover some of the omissions and gaps but also to realise how brilliantly cast it was and how faithfully, in the main, it kept to the book. (Jenny Baker)

Vikram Seth - A Suitable Boy

Delightful writing in plain, narrative form, of the unsettling, early years of Indian independence. Absorbing details; funny; touches of pathos; colour a great feature: saris, flowers and pale skin - desirable in a suitable boy. You are kept guessing to the very end. The lack of privacy is startling in these three endearing families' entangled lives. I had already done by page what the poet Amit advises on page 1,371. Read it to find out! (Joan Jackson)

Salley Vickers - Miss Garnet's Angel

Do not be put off by the Miss Marple-ish title. You will soon forget St. Mary Mead as Miss Garnet wanders through the mystical streets of Venice. The discoveries she makes about good and evil, sexuality, art and religion all conspire to change her perspective of life. Salley Vickers' joyful combination of reality and the ethereal left me full of hope and with a longing to return to Venice. (Judith Peppitt)

Gillian White - Veil of Darkness

This is quite well-written, fun and dark at the same time. Kirsty is escaping from a brutal husband as the book opens and, leaving her children safe with a friend, goes to Cornwall to work in a hotel. There she finds an old forgotten book and decides to rewrite it. She can't use her own name in case her husband finds out, so brings two new friends into the scheme. And the problems begin! (Julie Higgins)

Non-Fiction

Noel Annan - The Dons: Mentors, Eccentrics and Geniuses

The author, a distinguished don himself, outlines the genesis of the modern Oxford/Cambridge/London don and quotes many examples and anecdotes, intertwining these with the evolution of the universities. This is followed by a study of types of don, taking individual figures such as the scientist Rutherford of Cambridge's Cavendish Laboratory, Maurice Bowra (The Don as Wit), and Isaiah Berlin (The Don as Magus). (Jeremy Swann)

Bill Bryson - Mother Tongue

In the small town in Switzerland where we used to live they are building something called LITTLE BIG SHOPPING. English is increasingly being adopted, or adapted, as a world language. This erudite and entertaining book explains why. It charts the development of the language and its idiosyncrasies of spelling and pronunciation, explores the origins of pub and place names, surnames, swear words, Cockney and slang, and hilariously illustrates its distortion and absorption into other languages. (Wendy Swann)

T E Carhart - The Piano Shop on the Left Bank

There is more than a touch of rose tinted spectacles about this account of finding and visiting a mysterious piano workshop in an out-of-the-way Paris street, and it is hard to be certain how much is fact and how much fantasy. It has a dream like quality, constantly taking unexpected changes of direction, but with an underlying love of music and the piano. A book I shall be happy to return to. (Serena Fenwick)

William Dalrymple - In Xanadu, A Quest

Reminiscent of Robert Byron's 'Road to Oxiana' (see bwl 3), the author humorously and eruditely describes the journey he made as a student in the late 1980s from Jerusalem to Xanadu in the steps of Marco Polo. He concentrates on the history and architecture of the regions he crosses at the same time as wittily recounting his experiences with the locals he meets and his exchanges with the girls (fellow British students) who accompany him in turn. (Jeremy Swann)

Richard Fortey - Trilobite!

Trilobites were small, marine dwelling animals that filled our oceans from around 545 to 250 million years ago (about three million years in total). Now extinct, their remains are commonly found as fossils all over the world. Trilobites are Richard Fortey's specialization and obsession. In 'Trilobite!' he succeeds in communicating his life long passion for them, for palaeontology and for life in general. This book is a joy to read and I highly recommend it. (Mark Baker)

Trevor Grove - The Juryman's Tale

A Fleet Street journalist serves on the jury for a long kidnapping case at the Old Bailey. Thoughtful and thought provoking rather than sensationalist or shallow, this should be read by anyone with an interest in the English criminal justice system. It's a thumbs up for juries - despite their shifting dynamics, they are moulded by the process into a sum greater than its parts, though the system they work within cries out for reform. (Kate Hobson)

Annie Hawes - Extra Virgin - amongst the olive groves of Liguria

This is an affectionate account of how Annie Hawes and her sister found themselves buying and living in a small house just outside the village of Diano San Pietro. The humour is often self-deprecating so that we see these English females through the eyes of their often nonplussed Italian neighbours. Lots about food and cooking, growing and harvesting olives, revealing not just an idyllic world but one now faced with the realities of the EEC. (Jenny Baker)

Michael Ignatieff - Isaiah Berlin, A Life

Having long wanted to know why Isaiah Berlin had such a distinguished reputation, I found this a fascinating and well-rounded answer to my question. The author not only describes I B's exotic background, life and culture but also the development of his ideas and philosophy. His Oxford activities account for a major part of the story but this also includes interesting anecdotes involving world figures such as Churchill, Kennedy and the founders of modern Israel. (Jeremy Swann)

P D James - Time to Be in Earnest

This book is really interesting because the author has seen a lot of changes in England in about 70 years. For example, she explains that the idea behind the NHS was that once everybody had access to care, then, they wouldn't need the service anymore! On the other hand, when we see what a social life is expected of a successful author, we can only regret that she doesn't write more for our selfish pleasure! (Laurence Martin Euler)

Joan Marble - Notes from an Italian Garden

For once a book about living abroad that's neither twee nor patronising. Lots about plants but more about everyday life and people as Rome residents Marble and her sculptor husband buy a plot of land north of the city and create a home and a garden. (Annabel Bedini)

Oliver Reggie - Out of the Woodshed - The Life of Stella Gibbons

Everyone seems to have read and enjoyed 'Cold Comfort Farm' at some time, but until recently when I was given this book I knew nothing about Stella Gibbons. Her life as journalist and author sheds a new light on cold comfort. (Rachel Harding)

Sue Shephard - Potted & Canned

Yoghurt cured François I of depression and helped feed Dr Livingstone on his African journeys but has only recently become part of the Western diet - Marmalade achieved commercial success after a cargo of oranges was salvaged from a Spanish merchant ship run aground in Dundee - Tabasco sauce owes its existence to the American Civil War. If you want to make the history of food your trivial pursuits specialised subject - read this book. (Serena Fenwick)

Amanda Vickery - The Gentleman's Daughter

A scholarly yet highly readable study of the lives of upper class women in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, It is regarded as a feminist work yet the author constantly points out the contradictions between the assumptions of feminist historians and the evidence of the women's correspondence which is her source. It reveals unexpectedly close physical and emotional involvement in their children and family lives as well as expanding intellectual and cultural horizons. (Jane Grey-Edwards)

Samantha Weinberg - A Fish Caught in Time

The surprisingly exciting account of the search for the Coelacanth from an oddity caught, but unable to be preserved, in South Africa's 1938Christmas heat wave, to the discovery of living colonies of this strange creature. Along the way treasure hunters and publicity seekers compete with marine biologists to track it down - and exploiting its rarity brings extinction even closer. (Serena Fenwick)

Ken Wiwa - In the Shadow of a Saint

A not altogether satisfactory account of what it's like growing up as the son of a famous father. The theme is fascinating, as is the Nigerian background and the story of Ken Saro Wiwa, but he seems to find it difficult to organise the various elements into a coherent whole. Worth reading, nevertheless. (Annabel Bedini)

Poetry

Wilfred Owen - Collected Poems

Wilfred Owen died one week before the end of WWI at the age of 25. I don't think the early poems were particularly special, but as C. Day Lewis said in his introduction, Owen's were 'probably the greatest poems about war in our literature'. Read especially Dulce et Decorum Est and Disabled. I don't think any other work so beautifully describes the futility and horror of war. The work is - in all senses - stunning. (Julie Higgins)