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101 Poems that Could Save Your Life by Daisy Goodwin (editor) |
This anthology is full of unexpected delights, gems for every occasion, from the serious (Parenthood, Illness) to the superficial (Bad Hair Day). As well as a few old favourites, lots of discoveries and eye-openers, much fun, much interest, much spot-hitting.
(bwl 11 October 2001) |
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A Bigger Prize: How competition isn't everything and WE do better by Margaret Hefferman |
Successful international business woman turned author and broadcaster, Heffernan sets out to explode the myth of competition as the prime-mover in every - fascinatingly documented - walk of life and argues the case that far from stimulating creativity and innovation fierce competition does the opposite, emulation leading to stultifying repetition and squashing of initiative. Only collaboration and mutual trust can produce creative cross-fertilisation of ideas. Enlightening, revolutionary, convincing (and extremely readable) this book should be compulsory reading!
(bwl 73 Summer 2014) |
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A Change of Climate by Hilary Mantel |
Ralph and Anna live an apparently serene and irreproachable life - country house, four children, refuge given to troubled teenagers - until a firmly repressed tragedy from their time in Africa begins to surface and their carefully constructed edifice totters. This extremely intelligent, subtle and beautifully written novel treats big questions, such as the ultimate vulnerability of good intentions and dealing with the unforgivable, with a fluency which makes them utterly readable. Excellent!
(bwl 66 Autumn 2012) |
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A Chill in the Air: An Italian War Diary 1939-1940 by Iris Origo |
Anyone who has read War in Val d'Orcia (bwl 2) will be fascinated by Origo's diary of the years leading up to the war. A real eye-opener to discover how desperately the Italian rural population trusted Mussolini to keep them out of the war. Also fascinating to see how propaganda turned Britain into the hated arch-enemy and foresaw its apparent downfall with immense satisfaction. As for Anglo-American Iris trying to keep sane under these circumstances, well, heroic!
(bwl 87 Winter 2018) |
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A Desert in Bohemia by Jill Paton Walsh |
The history of a corner of Central Europe from 1945 to 1990 is told through the lives of nine interconnected characters. But this is not merely history, it's a complex and moving account of loss and exile, conflicting ideologies and moral philosophy. As in Knowledge of Angels (bwl 5) Paton Walsh combines marvellous story-telling with a deep knowledge of the human spirit. And this time she allows us to be optimistic!
(bwl 27 December 2004) |
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A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry |
The 'balance' is between hope and despair for four characters in Bombay during Indira Gandhi's rule. Their survival in a crazy, arbitrary and cruel world will depend on overcoming built-in prejudices, but will this be enough? Handled with immense delicacy, tenderness and even humour, this is another marvellous Indian book.
(bwl 7 February 2001) |
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A Fool and his Money: Life in a Partitioned Medieval Town by Ann Wroe |
Wroe, a historian, almost by chance started researching the French town of Rodez during the 14th century, where she unearthed the story of a merchant who couldn't remember where he had hidden his pot of gold. Following this thin thread of story, Wroe recreates the intense life of a town divided between two masters: intrigue, scandal and ordinary goings-on. Not a word is quoted that wasn't actually spoken. A truly wondrous piece of research.
(bwl 70 Autumn 2013) |
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A Long Long Way by Sebastian Barry |
Maybe even better than his later The Secret Scripture (bwl 63) and On Canaan's Side (bwl 65) Irish Willie Dunne joins the British army in 1914. On leave from the trenches, he finds Dublin in turmoil over independence and his profound loyalties are shaken. His closest comrade is revealed as having betrayed his one sexual infidelity to his beloved. On one side life-saving camaraderie, on the other progressive loss of certainties, love, life. Heartbreaking but with the prefect poise of Greek tragedy.
(bwl 68 Spring 2013) |
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A Long Way from Home by Peter Carey |
To put their car dealership on the map Irene and Titch join the hair-raising, vividly described Redex Round-Australia Car Trials, taking neighbour Willie as navigator. Multi-layered sub-plots include Titch's outrageous father and, crucially, Willie's background. With the discovery of a child's skull by the roadside Carey deviates into an exploration of the white settlers' treatment of Aborigines, and Willie's history. Mostly a delightful romp, Carey evidently also felt the need to face a painful historic reality. Decidedly engaging.
(bwl 92 Spring 2019) |
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A Long Way from Verona by Jane Gardam |
For all Gardam fans, here's another good one. The narrator, Jessica Vye, is destined to become a writer (according to a school lecturer) a prognostication that colours her life. This story of her post-war childhood growth into her 'vocation' is touching, true and funny. Lots of accurate memory-joggers for those of us of that generation - Viyella dresses for one - and an absolutely sure evocation of time and place. (The title makes me fear I've missed a point - help with Feedback please) . . .
(bwl 63 Winter 2011) |
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A Place of Hiding by Elizabeth George |
'Queen of the mystery genre' says the blurb. Well, if for a mystery you want an absurdly unlikely plot, unreal characters (a gardener with a History of Art degree?!), a clutter of irrelevant side plots and repeated guided tours of the island of Guernsey, you've got it. I believe George is appreciated for her Lynley novels so I'll give her the benefit of the doubt, but this book simply irritated me. That's my crabby, locked-down opinion.
(bwl 96 Spring 2020) |
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A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving |
Owen is a tiny-statured, huge-spirited sprite who believes his life has a divine purpose (by the end, who can doubt it?). His story is told in retrospect by his best friend, whose mother Owen accidentally kills the one time he manages to hit a baseball. In fact, as this hugely engaging story unfolds it becomes clear that nothing is fortuitous; but oh my! how we wish God might, just this once, change His mind.
(bwl 21 November 2003) |
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A Promised Land by Barack Obama |
Obama's rise to the presidency and first term up to the assassination of bin Laden. Woven into the narrative - battles for the economy, health care etc. - is his profound commitment to making America a saner and fairer society. He comes across as deeply thinking, deeply caring (for his family too!) dogged in the face of, even ironic about, implacable political opposition and prejudice. And of course he writes like an angel . . . A remarkable book by a remarkable man.
(bwl 100 Spring 2021) |
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A Question of Integrity by Susan Howatch |
Anyone who's read her Starbridge series will know to expect high psycho-spiritual drama and won't be disappointed. But the somewhat feverish narrative is a vehicle for interesting depths of religious insight, particularly concerning the Christian ministry of healing. A real page-turner.
(bwl 7 February 2001) |
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A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth |
Yes, I'm sure everyone's read it but - needing something hefty to take away over the Christmas holiday - I decided to see if it would take re-reading and I can say emphatically that it does. I was surprised how much rich detail I had forgotten or even remembered wrongly and re-discovering such inimitable characters as Mrs Rupa Mehra was pure delight. This is definitely one book I would take to a desert island - inexhaustible pleasure!
(bwl 55 Winter 2010) |
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A Whole Life by Robert Seethaler |
The Life is mountain dweller Andreas Egger's, from painful childhood to his death, in 150 pages. I can't express the delicacy with which Seethaler manages to recount the passing of the years, from tragedy to contentment, the barest understated essentials dotted with sudden shining images. A small gem to live inside, and 'whole' in every sense. Jim Crace defines it 'Heart-rending and heart-warming.....for all its gentleness a very powerful novel.' Can't put it better myself!
(bwl 89 Summer 2018) |
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A year in Monchique by Paul McKay |
Another in the Brits Abroad series but one that avoids the twee and the condescending. McKay and his partner farm in the hills of the Algarve, dealing with escaping pigs, dying rabbits, wrongly planted potatoes, visits from dreadful relatives, and interacting on a basis of genuine respect with their neighbours. Despite his occasionally shaky grasp of grammar McKay's diary left me with an affectionate smile on my face.
(bwl 57 Summer 2010) |
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Abide with Me by Elizabeth Strout |
Having enjoyed Strout's recent books I went for this early one, and was not disappointed. Tyler Caskey is trying to survive as Minister of a small town after his wife dies and his daughter retreats into herself. He struggles with his sermons, pastoral duties, role as father and then with scandal. Strout has an extraordinary gift for making her characters absolutely alive, real, recognisable. Beautifully imagined, beautifully written, a book to live inside.
(bwl 91 Winter 2019) |
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Absent Without Leave and Other Stories by Heinrich Boll |
21 stories - some longer, some minimalist - written in the shadow of WW II by a man of great and discerning sensitivity. The stories are in turn piercingly ironic, nostalgic, tender, funny, melancholic; all are haunting. No wonder he won the Nobel Prize. (Don't be put off by the rather contrived and self-conscious first pages - it all makes sense later.)
(bwl 16 December 2002) |
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Accordion Crimes by E Annie Proulx |
A tour de force. Proulx uses the device of tracing the vicissitudes of a humble accordion for a panoramic view of the ethnic/cultural groups that went into the great American melting pot. She has a Dickensian capacity to invent idiosyncratic characters and amazing twists of story and each episode is rich in convincing detail as her characters struggle for survival. Both enormous fun and thought-provoking. Great American Nightmare?
(bwl 12 January 2002) |
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All the Light we Cannot See by Anthony Doerr |
The bare bones: WWII, the parallel, back and forth, stories of blind French girl Marie-Laure and German orphan radio buff Werner, fate bringing them together in the siege of S.Malo in 1945. The bones are fleshed out with gripping story telling, characters you care about and luminously imaginative writing – how about 'flames scamper up walls'? This is not a new book (2015 Pulitzer Prize winner) but definitely worth finding. I couldn't put it down.
(bwl 108 Spring 2023) |
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Alone of all her Sex by Marina Warner |
The myth and the cult of the Virgin Mary - a piece of fascinating scholarly historical research which is also highly readable. Taking the various attributes in turn - Virgin, Queen, Mother etc. - and following their development through the ages, Warner raises thought-provoking questions about what is desired in the idealised woman, without succumbing to the temptation of drawing immoderately feminist conclusions. Packed with information on art, literature, music as well as theology.
(bwl 4 July 2000) |
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Amongst Women by John McGahern |
On an Irish farm, widowed ex-Republican officer Moran dominates his family of five. His sons escape but his daughters' lives revolve round their need to placate their angry and disappointed father. Salvation comes through Moran's second wife who brings sanity and balance to the household, enabling the daughters to spread their wings. A perceptive, sparely told tale of evolving psychological dynamics against the backdrop of rural Irish life (though the sun shines unexpectedly often!).
(bwl 51 May 2009) |
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An Island by Karen Jennings |
Samuel, an old man with a haunting past, discovers a barely-breathing body washed up on the shore of the island where he tends the lighthouse. Over four days he vascillates between generosity and paranoia - an enemy intruding on his solitude? A strangely compelling and bleak exploration of the effects of isolation working on unbearable memories. I won't give away the ending, but it certainly stayed with me! An interesting debut from a young South African writer.
* Long listed for the Man Booker prize.
(bwl 103 Winter 2022) |
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Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner |
This 1972 Pulitzer Prize winner, probably out of print, is worth looking for. Susan, product of cultured East Coast America, marries a mining engineer and is taken to live in the Far West. Based on a true story (including original family letters) their lives are reconstructed by Susan's paralyzed grandson. Impossible to condense the richness of this narrative of conflicting cultures, hopes, disappointments, tragedies in the context of a society in the making. I found it exceptional.
(bwl 60 Spring 2011) |
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Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy |
Yes, another classic re-visited (last read at school). It is a marvellous book! I could criticize some things about it - Vronsky is a bit wooden, Anna over dramatic - but all in all it's still a totally involving story. Descriptions of life on country estates, Levin's search for meaning, the doings of the host of intimately observed minor characters, all became more real than my everyday life, for the duration.
(bwl 57 Summer 2010) |
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Answering Back: Living poets reply to the poetry of the past by Carol Ann Duffy (edited by) |
Duffy launched the idea of asking living poets to 'answer' poetry from the past and of the 50 responses she has chosen these 46. From old favourites to new (for me) discoveries, responses range from the oblique to the critical to the loving to the tongue-in-cheek (e.g. Duffy's own answer to 'If'). It's fascinating to see how poetry can communicate over the years - I galloped gleefully through them, but will go back to savour them properly.
(bwl 78 Autumn 2015) |
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Ariel: A Literary Life of Jan Morris by Derek Johns |
I had no idea Morris was such a wonderful writer. This sympathetically written book - illustrated with Morris's own enchanting line drawings - follows his/her career as travel writer, or rather as a perceptive describer of the great cities of the world and intelligent historian of the British Empire. The generous quotes from her writings show her to be wise and witty and whetted my appetite for more. A most pleasing little book!
(bwl 83 Winter 2017) |
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Army of Roses - The Inside World of Women Suicide Bombers by Barbara Victor |
Despite sloppy writing (e.g. 'indignance' for 'indignity') and bad organisation, this book gives a compelling and chilling insight into the reality behind what gets into the media, ending with a fierce indictment of leaders on both sides of the Green Line. Victor has talked at length and in depth with all concerned and knows the area and its inhabitants well. The outlook is even worse than I thought and my perceptions have had to shift.
(bwl 26 October 2004) |
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At Home: A short history of private life by Bill Bryson |
A sort of companion volume to his A Short History of Nearly Everything (bwl 21), here Bryson embarks on a voyage of discovery of human artifacts, taking us round his home, room by room, tracing the history of the things we live with every day in our houses and take for granted. As we would expect, he provides an overflowing cornucopia of fascinating facts and illuminating anecdotes, purveyed with lightly carried erudition. A truly wonderful book!
(bwl 62 Autumn 2011) |
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At Swim, Two Boys by Jamie O'Neill |
Ireland, 1915. Against the backdrop of war, sixteen-year-old 'heart's pals' Jim and Doyler make a pact to swim to a distant rock the following Easter, to plant the national flag. In the meantime, their search for life, loyalty and love (illuminatingly, for ignorant heterosexuals) involves political struggle, the Church, poverty...Been-there-done-that? But with his roots deep in Ireland's literary traditions O'Neill develops a voice of his own, a kind of tough poetry, to tell this moving story.
(bwl 19 June 2003) |
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Austerlitz by W G Sebald |
Architectural historian and orphan par excellence, Austerlitz's meandering quest for his past is woven in with the history of 20th century Europe via railway stations, ghosts, Welsh preachers, the symbolism of fortress-architecture, the Jews of Prague... all illustrated with evocative photographs. Sebald apparently has cult status (forgive my ignorance) and I understand why, though he may not be to everyone's taste. Personally, I was captivated by this utterly original, richly complex, mesmerizing and touching book.
(bwl 17 February 2003) |
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Auto da Fay by Fay Weldon |
Even non-fans of Weldon's acute, acerbic attitude to life should be enthralled by this honest, courageous, funny-sad account of how, struggling against huge odds, she got where she is. From New Zealand to poverty, homelessness and dislocation in post-war London, from bad girl to Acton housewife, from jack-of-any-trade to writer. Eccentric and dysfunctional families, ghosts, children, husbands, fate and the inter-weaving of past and present ...she answers questions but she also asks some. Wonderful!
(bwl 22 February 2004) |
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Being Dead by Jim Crace |
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.
(bwl 5 October 2000) |
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Berlin, the Downfall 1945 by Anthony Beevor |
Reviewed in BWL back in 2002 this book has only now come to my attention. Timely? Beevor compellingly combines military history with personal accounts, weaving a complex tapestry of Germany during the last six months of WWII. Rape, destruction, columns of refugees and of course, uncountable deaths. Horribly familiar? What I ask is how can it be that the deranged mentality of one man (Hitler, Stalin, Mao, now Putin) plunges millions into appalling suffering? No answer expected!
(bwl 107 Winter 2023) |
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Best of Friends by Kamila Shamsie |
A beautifully written, deeply perceptive examination of friendship. We follow bosom friends Zahra and Maryam, from fourteen-year-olds in Karachi to successful middle-aged women in London, Zahra a top human rights executive, Maryam accepting government patronage for her personally intrusive computer programme. Can the friendship survive? In a dramatic denouement simmering resentments emerge including an adolescent episode – Zahra got them into trouble, Maryam was punished – which has haunted their lives. I won't spoil it by divulging the ending!
(bwl 110 Autumn 2023) |
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Betty Boothroyd - The Autobiography by Betty Boothroyd |
Written immediately after resigning from the House of Commons this account gives - as well as an affectionate record of childhood - an illuminating view of the Speaker's job and of the workings and people of parliament, without ever overstepping good sense and fundamental loyalty to the institution (which, on the contrary, she defends passionately from what she sees as present threats to its autonomy and relevance). Informative and above all, highly enjoyable.
(bwl 18 April 2003) |
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Birds without Wings by Louis de Bernieres |
The history of the birth of modern Turkey told through the lives of the inhabitants of one village throughout the 20th Century. Their destinies through wars, forced population transfers, famine and political upheaval make grim points about the terrible, arbitrary human cost of power-struggles but as always de Bernières' wonderfully vivid characters shine through the surrounding tragedy. Equally crammed with history and humanity. I was enthralled and bewitched.
(bwl 28 February 2005) |
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Blood and Sand by Frank Gardner |
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.
(bwl 40 June 2007) |
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Blue Sky God: The evolution of science and Christianity by Don MacGregor |
MacGregor, scientist turned Anglican priest, combines his two callings to explore what contemporary science - energy fields, quantum physics etc. - can say about religion. Fascinating theories on how consciousness can modify matter (so healing, miracles and the Jesus figure) logically lead on to analyses of how misunderstandings of original texts have lead orthodox Christian theology astray, with suggestions for some mind-opening re-thinking. An extremely thought-provoking exploration of what Christianity might really be about.
(bwl 82 Autumn 2016) |
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Bones of the Master - A Journey into Secret Mongolia by George Crane |
American poet Crane accompanies Tsung Tsai, a Chinese monk in exile, to Inner Mongolia to give the bones of Tsung Tsai's master a proper burial, forty years after his death. The story of this often hair-raising pilgimage/quest is utterly compelling as an account of both a physical and an emotional journey. Crane writes beautifully, with sensitivity, restraint and deep respect and affection for Tsung Tsai and the land he came from.
(bwl 30 June 2005) |
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Border Crossing by Pat Barker |
With his marriage breaking down and the past returning in the shape of Danny, a now grown child murderer he once helped to convict, child psychologist Tom Seymour finds himself frighteningly face to face with questions of personal responsibility, complicity and the shifting borders between good and evil. Is Danny still dangerous? Penetrating, lucidly observed and absolutely gripping.
(bwl 16 December 2002) |
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Born a Crime by Trevor Noah |
The crime? Having a black mother and white father in apartheid South Africa. Noah's stories from his childhood don't just reveal the absurdities of the apartheid system, they illuminate the courage and persistence of those who wouldn't succumb to it, above all Noah's gallant mother. Noah is very funny indeed - as you would expect from a professional comedian - but beneath the humour is an amazingly tough determination to survive, indeed thrive. Wonderful!
(bwl 93 Summer 2019) |
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Brewer's Britain and Ireland: The History, Culture, Folklore and Etymology of 7500 Places in These Islands by John Ayto and Ian Crofton |
I was given this recently and dip into it frequently in fascination. The difference between the Maid of Kent and the Fair Maid of Kent? Why 'Lombard Street to a China orange?' Why is Offaly called 'the Faithful County'? Where and what are The Bitches? See what I mean? You could spend hours just flipping through the pages on a sort of historical/geographical jaunt. A truly wonderful book!
(bwl 56 Spring 2010) |
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Brick Lane by Monica Ali |
Bangladeshi Nazneen's arranged marriage brings her to Tower Hamlets. Her initial bewilderment in the face of incomprehensible facts and personalities - including her hopeless but endearing 'educated type' husband - is gradually honed through tragedy, motherhood and illicit love to give her sufficient self-confidence to judge for herself, until....Ali writes with delicious wit and wisdom - and discovering what it's like to be an immigrant is only one of the pleasures of this lovely book.
(bwl 20 September 2003) |
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Burial Rites by Hannah Kent |
Australian Kent fell in love with Iceland as an exchange student and this novel radiates her profound feelings for the land and its historical inhabitants. Building on contemporary records, Kent imagines the story of Agnes Magnusdottir, executed in 1830 for stabbing her lover. Agnes's story gradually emerges during the months of her imprisonment on a remote farm, the people and their survival in extreme conditions as potently and poetically evoked as Agnes herself. Absolutely haunting.
(bwl 74 Autumn 2013) |
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Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness by Alexandra Fuller |
The second of what Fuller's mother calls her "Awful Books" about her family in Africa, this one is specifically about her mother, self-styled "Nicola Fuller of Central Africa". Settling in Africa after the war, the Fullers moved from country to country according to political changes. Told by Alexandra, the story is both funny and sad, full of quirky insights and examples of courage and fortitude, but how does her mother feel about this invasion of her private life?
*Ed's Note: The first "Awful book" was Let's Not Go to the Dogs Tonight
(bwl 64 Spring 2012) |
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Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier |
Parallel story of deserter returning home on foot from American Civil War and his girlfriend making her way alone at home. A satisfying historical reconstruction, well written, highly atmospheric. Pity about predictable ending, but all in all a compelling latter-day Odyssey.
(bwl 2 March 2000) |
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Confessions of a Yakuza by Janichi Saga |
Previously published as The Gambler's Tale, this record of the life of one of Japan's traditional gang bosses has just been reissued by a publishing house called Kodansha International. It is a real curiosity, if you can find it. The life of the boss is told by his doctor who over the years, with his patient's consent, taped their conversations. Utterly recognisable basic humanity in an utterly unrecognisable context. Fascinating!
(bwl 36 September 2006) |
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Consolations of the Forest: Alone in a Cabin in the Middle Taiga by Sylvain Tesson |
This diary of French explorer Tesson's six months living in a cabin on the shores of Lake Baikal is not about 'consolations (original title simply Dans les forets de Siberie): rather his quest for the freedom of mental and physical self-sufficiency. Trucked in over the ice - well stocked with vodka, cigars and books - and leaving in balmy early summer, this parallel exploration of internal and external landscapes is recounted with wonderfully quirky intelligence. A real delight!
(bwl 75 Winter 2015) |
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Daughter of the Desert: The Remarkable Life of Gertrude Bell by Georgina Howell |
'Remarkable' indeed: born in 1868, overcoming class and gender she became mountaineer, dauntless desert traveller, political adviser (her diplomatic skills created independent Iraq almost single handed). It beggars belief how much Bell packed into her life, phenomenally capable but also sane and even amused in the most hair-raising physical and professional situations. Thanks to Howell's generous use of Bell's diaries and letters, we live her experiences and emotions first hand, breath held. A truly amazing story.
(bwl 69 Summer 2013) |
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Destined to Witness - Growing up black in Nazi Germany by Hans J Massaquoi |
Hans's grandfather was the Liberian consul to Germany', his mother German. After his grandfather and father were expelled he and his mother struggled to survive not only poverty and war-time conditions - including the carpet bombing of Hamburg - but above all the Nazi race laws. A hair-raising and thought-provoking tale of a small boy learning he is not only different but subhuman and of a mother fighting to ensure her son survives at all. Fascinating.
(bwl 31 September 2005) |
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Down Under by Bill Bryson |
For Bryson fans, this is a feast. A big, affectionate book about Australia. As well as the expected verbal exuberance and hilarious experiences, it is also full of fascinating information. His disguise as a 'humorous' travel writer sugars some interesting pills.
(bwl 11 October 2001) |
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Dunbar by Edward St Aubyn |
St Aubyn's re-working of King Lear for the Hogarth Press. So, Lear as...errr... Rupert Murdoch (!) a megalomaniac media mogul whose elder daughters have him locked up while taking over his empire. The story follows Lear pretty faithfully but I couldn't help reading it as black humour, the Goneril and Regan characters unbelievably villainous, the Fool as failed comedian, Edmund as pill-popping duplicitous Dr Bob.... Intentionally humorous or not, I confess I romped through it with - misguided? - glee.
(bwl 87 Winter 2018) |
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East of Eden by John Steinbeck |
No need to re-read any of Steinbeck's sentences! Inspired by the story of Cain and Abel, this book - set in California in the early 1900s - is big in every sense, interleaving plots, wide canvas, multiple characters - what American novelists were into in the 1950s. I found it rather refreshing to get away from fashionable 'spareness' and, firmly suppressing cynical reservations, romped through it with appreciation for Steinbeck's undoubted mastery of plot and character.
(bwl 81 Summer 2016) |
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Elizabeth and her German Garden by Elizabeth von Arnim |
As obligatory reading-list material at school this bored me but rediscovering it now is pure delight. Elizabeth married the quintessential chauvinistic Prussian aristocrat and, moving to his estate in the far north of Germany, fell in love with the rambling overgrown garden, which she set about redesigning. Anti-conformist, irreverent and independent-minded, this almost entirely autobiographical account of troublesome guests, grumpy gardeners, stern husband and above all her beloved garden is delectably funny and wise.
(bwl 50 March 2009) |
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Enemies by Isaac Bashevis Singer |
. . . and here he is in New York among disoriented holocaust survivors. Herman finds himself leading a double, no, triple, life, with three wives and a fake job, and his struggles to cover his tracks are very funny. But the underlying anguish of cultural displacement and loss of identity are not funny at all. Here again, though, powerful emotion rules behaviour - specifically Singer or a particular way of being Jewish? I'd love to know . . .
(bwl 45 April 2008) |
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Escape from Kabul: The Inside Story by Levison Wood and Geraint Jones |
This – indeed 'inside' – account of the dramatic evacuation of Kabul draws on first hand testimony of those involved, as they struggled to bring some kind of order to what was in effect total and uncoordinated chaos. Harrowing beyond words, a shocking indictment of military and political failures, mitigated only by rare examples of selflessness and heroism. This should be obligatory reading for anyone who tries to whitewash what was in reality a catastrophic human disaster.
(bwl 110 Autumn 2023) |
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Every Day is Mother's Day by Hilary Mantel |
As a Mantel fan, interesting to discover her first (1985 ) novel. Mentally retarded (though is she?) Muriel lives in a crumbling house with her mother, plagued by poltergeists and refusing entry to strangers, including Isabel, the social worker assigned to Muriel's case. As the situation inside the house deteriorates in ghastly ways, Isabel tries to run her own life outside: married lover, difficult father. The conflict between 'abnormal' and 'normal' ends with a mighty crash. Imperfect but promising.
(bwl 70 Autumn 2013) |
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Experience by Martin Amis |
Amis writes about his route from precocious school-boy through to established novelist and father of three (or is it five?). He offers a fond insight into Kingsley's work and life, the family's relationship with him, their mother, and many friends (e.g. Philip Larkin, Saul Bellow). Also a lot about teeth, inevitably. It's a delight to read about people with such a love of words and, although Amis sometimes tends towards self-mythology, who can blame him?
(bwl 27 December 2004) |
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Findings by Kathleen Jamie |
Jamie is a poet, which shows in her meticulous use of words in these essays about her native Scotland. She calls herself a listener and I'd add, an observer, paying concentrated attention to the minutiae of the natural world, from peregrines maybe nesting near her home to bones on a Hebridean beach. Never overtly philosophical she nevertheless manages with a luminous light touch to open our eyes to meanings we would otherwise have missed. A lovely book!
(bwl 69 Summer 2013) |
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Four Letters of Love by Niall Williams |
Nicholas and Isabel's lives evolve far apart - star-crossed lovers destined never to meet? Wait and see. This is a most engaging novel, hiding some interesting philosophical thoughts about destiny behind a teasing, nail-biting story. There is a bit too much magical whimsy for my tastes but Williams manages to carry it off. Yet another piece of lyrical, imaginative writing by an Irish author and highly enjoyable.
(bwl 68 Spring 2013) |
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Framley Parsonage & The Last Chronicle of Barset by Anthony Trollope |
I fell on these two ancient paper-backs as antidotes to a direly banal Nick Hornby novel I'd just read, and was hooked. I had completely forgotten what fun Trollope is. Each book has a central, cliff-hanging story which is spun out throughout the book while his large cast of Barsetshire figures rotate round it, creating their own sub-plots, each character a masterpiece of psychological veracity. Outrageous Mrs Proudie the Bishop's wife, self-satisfied Archdeacon Grantly with his wise wife, grande dame Lady Lufton . . . Unlike his contemporary Dickens' caricature figures, Trollope's are real people. I never (well, rarely!) had to suspend my disbelief because the whole Barsetshire world is utterly believable. Wonderful stuff!
(bwl 77 Summer 2015) |
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Francis of Assisi by Adrian House |
A straightforward well researched life, though, given the amount of fascinating material that's extant, no need for some narrative padding of the 'Francis would no doubt have....' kind in the early parts. Apart from the perennial fascination of the subject, what makes this different from other lives is House's interesting insights into parallel thought systems. And did you know that in pre-coinage days the opposite of 'poor' was 'powerful'?
(bwl 12 January 2002) |
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Free: Coming of age at the end of history by Lea Ypi |
This is the memoire of an Albanian girl growing up as her country frees itself from Communism. From dictator Hoxha worship to uncontrolled westernisation via near civil war, a fascinating account lived through the eyes of a growing girl. Just think, from an empty coca-cola can being a prized, fought-over ornament to full ones suddenly available everywhere. A true revolution which Ypi also intelligently examines within the context of personal freedom. Altogether a thoroughly engrossing read.
(bwl 105 Summer 2022) |
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From the Holy Mountain by William Dalrymple |
Dalrymple sets off to follow in the footsteps of 6th century monk John Moschos, as he travelled round the Middle East from monastery to monastery in the days when the whole region was Christian. Dalrymple has done his homework and cares deeply about his subject. The result is a rich, erudite and elegiac account of people and places, of what once was and what, precariously, remains. Impossible to recommend it too highly.
(bwl 22 February 2004) |
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Front Row at the White House: My Life and Times by Helen Thomas |
Thomas was the doyenne of the White House press corps, and this book covers eight presidencies, from Kennedy's to Clinton's. This compendium of her experiences is illuminating not only on the presidents themselves and their families, but on the on-going tussle between the public's right to know what their leaders are up to and the Executive's desire to cover up. Full of anecdotes and wise asides, this makes for fascinating reading, even on this side of the Channel.
(bwl 61 Summer 2011) |
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Grass Soup by Zhang Xianliang |
From skeleton jottings he wrote at the time, the author reconstructs life in a labour reform camp in the 1960s. A fascinating insight into Chinese life and thinking as well as a record of endurance beyond belief and against all odds.
(bwl 3 May 2000) |
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Grey Bees by Andrey Kurkov |
Peace-loving beekeeper Sergey is one of only two residents remaining in a village in the 'grey zone' between warring Russian separatists and Ukrainian forces (back then...). Worried for his bees he decides to take them away from the noise of shelling and sets off into peaceful Ukraine and thence to (Russian) Crimea. Unobtrusively, Kurkov uses Sergey's very human adventures to denounce the painful socio-political realities of that complex region. I absolutely loved this eye-opening bitter-sweet saga.
(bwl 105 Summer 2022) |
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Harvest by Jim Crace |
Crace back on track after the disappointing All that Follows? Here we are once again in an undated distant past, with a village threatened by the twin blows of the planned imposition of sheep farming and the arrival of strangers, unwisely punished by the villagers. What happens to the villagers when their timeless tradition with its hard-won equilibrium can't stand up against the double attack of change and revenge? Dark, brilliant and in Crace's gorgeous prose.
(bwl 69 Summer 2013) |
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Hemingway's Chair by Michael Palin |
A novel by Palin? Being curious, I gave it a try, though it does go back a bit. Mild Martin has two loves: the Suffolk post office where he works, and, secretly, Hemingway. When his beloved post office is, over his head, moved to the back of the sweet shop, abetted by visiting American scholar Ruth he allows his Hemingway side to prevail and plots his revenge. Small town intrigue plus a worm turning..... a cheerful romp.
(bwl 98 Autumn 2018) |
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Hideous Kinky by Esther Freud |
Fictionalised, autobiographical account of a year spent with a hippy mother in and around Marrakesh, from the point of view of the child. Fascinating, touching, often funny, more often (for more orthodox parents) hair-raising. Don't be put off by the title or the first few pages.
(bwl 2 March 2000) |
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Hillbilly Elegy: a Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J D Vance |
Vance's Apalachian family upped sticks for the Rust Belt in seach of a better life. This memoir is an account of what they took with them and whether it survived. What emerges is a frightening view of poor white America, drugs, violence, aimless confusion, despair. . . . it becomes all too clear why these regions voted for Trump. Vance made it up the social ladder (thanks largely to a gun-toting granny) but most don't. Eye-opening and fascinating.
(bwl 89 Summer 2018) |
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Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson |
Robinson's first book, written before Gilead (bwl 52) and Home (Bwl 53), this is one of The Observer's Hundred Greatest Novels of all Time. I'm not surprised - Robinson seems to me to be in a class of her own. This story of two orphaned sisters growing up precariously in a backwoods town in northwest America has been described by reviewers as 'haunting', 'poetic', 'heartbreakingly sad', 'painstakingly suggestive and evocative' and I can't put it any better myself. Extraordinary!
(bwl 55 Winter 2010) |
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How to Read Literature by Terry Eagleton |
Duty-reading I thought when given this book. Totally wrong! This is non-stop delight. Renowned critic Eagelton's analysis of plot, character, narrative etc. is full not only of eye-opening insights but extremely funny. On individualism: nothing and nobody has nothing in common with others: the Great Wall of China and heart-break, for example, share an inability to peel a banana. And his critical interpretation of Baa Baa Black Sheep left me helpless with laughter. A must!
(bwl 73 Summer 2014) |
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Human Traces by Sebastian Faulks |
Two idealistic but fundamentally incompatible young doctors at the turn of the 19th century set up a clinic in Austria to pursue their research into the nature-versus-nurture theories of mental illness. Their personal and professional progress towards enlightenment - or is it disillusionment? - may be a bit heavy on theory (and did Faulks really need to visit First World War-fare again?) but, it's richly atmospheric and the human stories are beautifully narrated.
(bwl 33 February 2006) |
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I Am I Am I Am: Seventeen brushes with death by Maggie O'Farrell |
O'Farrell has certainly had her fair share of brushes with death (though some, frankly, more danger than death) and this collection of incidents from her life build up into a compendium of examples of how precarious we all are, just a hair's breadth away from disaster. From life-threatening childhood disease to almost death by drowning via near decapitation and so on, we gasp but in the end participate in her almost matter-of-fact celebration of survival. Bracing!
(bwl 91 Winter 2019) |
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Images and Shadows: Part of a Life by Iris Origo |
And here are Origo's memoirs . . . Her privileged upbringing - America, Ireland, then Fiesole - gave her a breadth and depth of sympathy which illuminated her life both as chatelaine of the Val d'Orcia estate and as biographer. The worlds she evokes may be lost but her intelligent, perceptive attitude to life are for all time. She says 'It has only been through my affections that I have been able to perceive, however imperfectly, some faint "Intimations of Immortality"'. There you go!
(bwl 87 Winter 2018) |
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In Defence of Food: The Myth of Nutrition and the Pleasures of Eating: An Eater's Manifesto by Michael Pollan |
I haven't read Pollan's famous The Omnivore's Dilemma, but this is a plea to return to good, real food, written by an eminently sensible man. He examines how - certainly in the US, increasingly in Europe - we now eat "edible foodlike substances" products of science rather than nature. This isn't a foody book, just an intelligent one. Good advice: never buy a product with more than three ingredients or one that contains words you can't recognise.
(bwl 57 Summer 2010) |
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In My Mind's Eye: A Thought Diary by Jan Morris |
This record of one year in Morris's ninety-year-old life is a treat. Walking her thousand metres a day singing marching songs (she had, after all, been a soldier), shopping in the local shops, her love of Welsh nature, sly observations on politicians and fads, this is a sort of affectionate meandering through a brain stocked by a life truly well lived. Yet another lovely person to be mourned!
(bwl 103 Winter 2022) |
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In the Eye of the Sun by Ahdaf Soueif |
Deservedly a best-seller in 1992, this merits a re-read. Asya, from the privileged academic world of Cairo, chooses to do her PhD in Northern England where, estranged from her husband, she falls for the dreadful Gerald. East-West tensions, breakdowns in communication and love, losing and finding identity, juxtaposed with the parallel universe of modern Cairo and the warm world of Asya's close-knit family - all sensitively and engrossingly explored. A book to live inside.
(bwl 47 September 2008) |
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In the Shadow of a Saint by Ken Wiwa |
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.
(bwl 9 June 2001) |
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Innocence by Penelope Fitzgerald |
Florence, 1955. Aristocratic Chiara, who wants to please everyone, and rising neurologist Salvatore from the south, who wants to prove he is unique, fall in love at first meeting. Their progress is hindered by helpful people: batty aunt, vague father, silent uncle, bossy school friend Barney who comes to Florence to sort things out . . . In this extremely funny and perceptive tale of tangled misconceptions Fitzgerald also gets details of time and place exactly right. Excellent!
(bwl 39 April 2007) |
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Italian Ways: On and off the rails from Milan to Palermo by Tim Parks |
For Parks fans, a must. How can a whole book about rail travel possibly be hilarious, informative and absolutely not boring? Starting with his awful experiences as a commuter, Parks sets off to discover the rest of Italy's rail system with all its inconsistencies, inefficiencies, absurdities and unexpected delights. Parks offers his experiences as a sort of microcosm of what Italy is like, with his usual mixture of exasperation, affection and, on occasion, real respect. A true delight!
(bwl 76 Spring 2015) |
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Jigsaw - An unsentimental education by Sybille Bedford |
This 'novel' reads more like autobiography (as Bedford's afterword admits). The child Billi is shuttled from Germany to Italy, to London, to the South of France, picking up what education she can from ravenous reading and the conversation of intellectuals and artists settled in the Midi between the wars. Central in this atmospheric evocation of a lost age is Billi's evolving relationship with her brilliant, unmaternal and ultimately tragic mother. Fascinating, powerful and moving.
(bwl 39 April 2007) |
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Joseph Anton: a Memoir by Salman Rushdie |
Rushdie never imagined his Satanic Verses would lead to nine years of incarceration with live-in armed Special Forces. This story of those years - the pseudonym from two favourite authors, Conrad and Chekhov - makes fascinating and horrifying reading. The British press disgustingly kicking one who's down, publishers and friends exhibiting great courage, Rushdie struggling to preserve his sense of self and regain his freedom. Disconcertingly many wives and much name-dropping but a truly extraordinary story, lucidly told.
(bwl 68 Spring 2013) |
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Killing Rage by Aemon Collins |
From terrorist to supergrass, Collins takes us step by step from his entry into the IRA through years of terrorist actvity to his capture and the pressures which led him to turn Queen's Evidence. A chilling but courageously honest account of the mindless and strangely banal reality of systematic violence, but at the same time an evolving tale of reclamation and, ultimately, of hope.
(bwl 13 April 2002) |
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Knowledge of Angels by Jill Paton Walsh |
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.
(bwl 5 October 2000) |
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Ladies Coupé by Anita Nair |
Stuck-in-the-mud spinster Akhila sets off on a train journey with a question: can women live alone? The five women in her compartment each have a tale to tell . . . Culture-specific in detail (fascinatingly), the underlying themes are universal - women's priorities (sorry, men), duty versus self-realisation and so on. Each story is a little gem in itself and Akhila's steps towards freedom are delicately charted . A lovely book by yet another amazing Indian woman writer.
(bwl 30 June 2005) |
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Le Testament Français by Andrei Makine |
Prize-winning semi-autobiographical novel by a Russian who defected to Paris in 1987. Its dream-like atmosphere reflects the subject matter of double identities - Russian and French - recounted through the interaction between a boy and his French grandmother, between memory and imagination. A 'clever' book.
(bwl 11 October 2001) |
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Leaving Alexandra: a Memoir of Faith and Doubt by Richard Holloway |
Ex-bishop of Edinburgh, writer of controversial books, broadcaster - Holloway is interesting from any point of view. These memoirs 'from faith to doubt' are an extraordinarily honest account of his life and ministry, full of intelligent insights and courageously clear-sighted criticisms but also wit and humour. I followed his path towards doubt with deep fellow feeling (though his moving ending went further than I'd go!). It may have upset some conservative thinkers, but I found it exceptional.
(bwl 67 Winter 2013) |
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Letters from Africa 1914-1931 by Isak Dinesen |
(Karen Blixen)
A re-discovered masterpiece. Mostly to her mother, these letters track Blixen's progress from optimistic young bride through the disillusionment of her marriage, the hopes for and, ultimately, the failure of her coffee plantation, her illness, the tragedy of her love for Denys Finch Hatton and her departure from the place she loved so much. Forget the film! These letters are hauntingly the true voice of a courageous woman of great spirit and dignity.
(bwl 27 December 2004) |
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Life Class: The Selected Memoirs of Diana Athill by Diana Athill |
Athill's four books of memoirs - published here in one volume - recount her life from privileged country childhood, through the sad years after she was jilted, fifty years as editor for André Deutsch and on into old age and approaching death. Her intelligence, honesty ('get it right') sanity and wisdom shine through, as does her delight in the world around her. A remarkable book by a remarkable woman. I can't recommend it too highly.
(bwl 59 Winter 2011) |
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Light on Snow by Anita Shreve |
Nicky's mother and baby sister have recently died in a car crash. She and her father find a new-born baby abandoned in the snow-bound woods. The mother of the abandoned child seeks them out. These bare facts are woven into a lucid, beautifully observed and moving story of grief, forgiveness and hope seen through the eyes of a twelve-year-old - no banal happy endings but real, evolving truths. One of Shreve's very best.
(bwl 60 Spring 2011) |
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Light Perpetual by Francis Spufford |
The title quote from the funeral service is clue to this book about the imagined future lives of children killed by a real bomb in 1944 London – a sort of elegy for what might have been. Bright Alec, sisters Jo and Val, unlikable Vernon and tormented Ben are visited at fifteen year intervals as their lives - and indeed South London itself - evolve. A lovingly imagined work of redemption; and as for the last chapter? Ahhhh.... An absolutely lovely book!
(bwl 109 Summer 2023) |
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Lily - A Tale of Revenge by Rose Tremain |
Thumbs down warning! Maybe I am being crabby. Despite the positive review last time, I found this tale of Victorian orphan Lily strangely unconvincing. From her over-idyllic time fostered in Suffolk to the over-appalling orphanage and her guilt for a murder committed, I could never quite believe in her. Quasi-Gothic melodrama or sob story? Whichever (or both?) Tremain unfortunately seems to me to be dealing in trite stereotypes. Very disappointing compared with her past output.
(bwl 104 Spring 2022) |
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Lost Words by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris |
Born from the groundswell of indignation at the removal of nature words from the Oxford Junior Dictionary, this big, beautiful book gives some of them back, one by one, each gloriously illustrated by Morris and with its own 'spell' in the form of a poetic acrostic. Aimed at children, I defy any adult not to be entranced. It has been distributed to schools (take that OJD!) and a percentage of sales goes to Action for Conservation. Marvellous!
(bwl 99 Winter 2021) |
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Love Lessons: A Wartime Journal by Joan Wyndham |
Good to see Amazon still has this listed as available, though originally published in 1985. It's a little classic of a period piece - falling in love, trying to be Bohemian, trying to be an artist, falling in love again.... Protected by her own innocence, Joan manages to navigate the shoals of dissolute artists, wild parties, falling bombs and - not least - perplexed sexual initiation, in her search for Love. A true gem.
(bwl 52 July 2009) |
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Love Over Scotland by Alexander McCall Smith |
The third in the 44 Scotland Street series won't need recommending to McCall Smith fans, who've probably read it already . . . Personally, I believe it's easy to underestimate these deceptively simple stories of Edinburgh life. They may seem overly cosy and occasionally stretch our credulity (would six-year-old Bertie be accepted by the orchestra?) but underlying the quiet fun is a solid and philosophical perception of how real people act in a real world.
(bwl 42 October 2007) |
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Lucrezia Borgia - Life, Love and Death in Renaissance Italy by Sarah Bradford |
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.
(bwl 40 June 2007) |
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Mad Puppetstown, Full House, The Rising Tide, Loving Without Tears by M J (Molly Keanes) Farrell |
I have recently immersed myself in these stories of the lost world of the great Anglo-Irish houses and their families, published between the 1930s and 1950s, They have two main themes in common: the effect houses have on their inhabitants and - particularly in the last three - the effect obsessively possessive mothers have on their children (you wonder what her own mother was like). Despite their common ground, Keanes never repeats herself, each story having its own acute perception and wit and appreciation of natural beauty (including rousing descriptions of her beloved hunting). What is more you don't know until the end if the dreadful mothers will 'win' or get their come-uppance, which makes each book a page-turner. I thoroughly recommend them if you can get hold of them!
(bwl 72 Spring 2014) |
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Mandela's Way: Fifteen Lessons on Life, Love and Courage by Richard Stengel |
Read this book when the effects of Mandela over-kill have faded! The author, who ghosted Mandela's autobiography, loves his subject but there's no attempt at hagiography - warts and all here - rather, in chapters with headings like 'Be measured' and 'Know when to say No', Mandela's attitude to, and methods for solving, problems are examined using telling anecdotes from his life. How about the opposite of fear being not courage but pretending to be courageous? Wisdom abounding!
(bwl 71 Winter 2015) |
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Manly Pursuits by Ann Harrison |
Cecil Rhodes orders English song-birds to populate his Cape Town woods (true). Obsessively retiring ornithologist Wills (fictional) brings them from England, becomes involved in pre-Boer War intrigue and gradually cracks his shell of solitude. But will the disorientated birds sing? Somewhat overloaded with fictionalised historical characters and over-ambitious in trying to include too many big themes, but it's atmospheric, often very funny and I romped through it with glee.
(bwl 23 April 2004) |
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Martin Chuzzlewit & Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens |
To celebrate the Dickens' anniversary I decided to read a couple I couldn't remember having read before. I'm taking them together (doubling the words available!) because of their similarities. What is immediately striking is that every single character is either a caricature or a stereotype. The baddies are irremediably bad and all come to sticky ends; the goodies are mercilessly good and end happily. Women over thirty are figures of fun; younger women are pure, loving, self-sacrificing . . . Having said that, the fact remains that Dickens was a marvellous storyteller: even at his most torrid and credibility-stretching his imaginative use of language carried me along willingly (well, I did skip a bit). Unusually for Dickens, Barnaby Rudge takes place during the (luridly described) Gordon Riots, giving him an excuse to preach nondiscrimination. Chuzzlewit, on the other hand, is pure Victorian fiction with - it must be said - some wonderful characters. All in all great stuff!
(bwl 64 Spring 2012) |
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Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling by Ross King |
Ross tells the story - or to be more accurate, the history - of the painting of the Sistine Chapel ceiling as an easy-going but information-packed narrative, his deep knowledge of his subject blending seamlessly with contemporary anecdote and gossip. He is particularly illuminating on the psychological tug of war between Michelangelo and Pope Julius II - neither of them the easiest of characters - and the shenanigans of the Renaissance papacy. Fascinating.
(bwl 29 April 2005) |
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Middlemarch by George Eliot |
Don't laugh! Most of us probably read this marvellous book out of duty, and far too young; or at most saw the BBC TV version. But beyond the required Victorian conventions it's a very adult book, the characters real and recognisable to us despite their 19th century country-town context, their fate evolving with unerring respect for human truth. A truly great novel - and what's more you genuinely want to know what happens next!
(bwl 15 October 2002) |
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Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson |
Often funny, often provocative, Bryson examines, with his usual panache, the English language from its earliest roots to the present day. Everything from pronunciation and spelling, changing meanings, borrowings, illogicalities and local usage come under his critical gaze. I found myself disagreeing hotly at times but I was never bored. If only I could remember half of the fascinating snippets of information he gives...
(bwl 29 April 2005) |
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Mr Nice by Howard Marks |
'You'll like him', the book cover says . . . Well you may or may not like 'Britain's most wanted man', on the run from the law for his hashish-smuggling activities, but it's hard not to find this book weirdly compelling. From his youth to his release from American prison, he carries us through his complicated story with a lot of enthusiasm and very little self-doubt. An eye-opener and a thoroughly good read.
(bwl 30 June 2005) |
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Mrs Bridge by Evan S Connell |
Mrs Bridge, a well-off Kansas housewife, runs her household of successful workaholic lawyer husband and three children in the years between the wars. In 117 brief vignettes Connell gives us her life: her unquestioning acceptance of, and reliance on, convention always, fearfully, winning over occasional wistful intimations of doubt and dissatisfaction. Almost nothing happens but a whole world of repressed possibilities is implied, subtly, excruciatingly, touchingly. I found this oddly timeless re-issued 1959 classic irresistible.
(bwl 79 Winter 2016) |
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My Dear, I Wanted to Tell You by Louisa Young |
I was prejudiced against this book - not another WW I novel, and with a title like this! - but was gradually won over. The core of the story: to defend himself from her disgust and pity, wounded Riley lies twice-over to the love of his life to keep her away. Young is perceptive about both physical and psychological war damage - not just Riley's - and fascinating about the facial reconstruction surgery of the times. I ended up moved.
(bwl 71 Winter 2014) |
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My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk |
In Istambul in the 1600s traditional miniaturists are threatened with the arrival of new painting techniques from infidel Venice. High feelings lead to murder. But which of the surviving masters did the deed? And who will marry the beautiful Shekure? Each chapter is 'written' by the various characters - 'I will be called a murderer', 'I am your beloved Uncle' - and together they gradually build a potent, fascinating and believable atmosphere of intrigue.
(bwl 35 July 2006) |
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My Sister, My Love by Joyce Carol Oates |
Inspired by the true murder of a six-year-old 'beauty queen', this book is a fierce indictment of a certain kind of American obsession with fame. Nineteen-year-old narrator, Skyler, is a disappointment to his social-climbing parents while his figure-skating champion little sister - murdered at six - is adoringly exploited to promote their mother's ambitions. Skyler's account of his tormented ten years of rejection while his parents feast off their notoriety is as dysfunctional as his family, but crazily engaging.
(bwl 95 Winter 2019) |
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My Traitor's Heart by Rian Malan |
South Africa at the end of apartheid seen through the eyes of renegade Afrikaner journalist who betrays his family's white-supremacy traditions to embrace the cause of the black nations. But is it that simple? The answer is "No". In the rigorously honest self-examination forced on him by events he discovers his pro-black activities may quell his own conscience but can't touch the black versus white conflict in himself and his country. Important truths here!
(bwl 35 July 2006) |
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Naples '44 by Norman Lewis |
(an old favourite) Diary of a writer's experiences as Intelligence Officer in Naples in 1944. Enthralling and often moving account of survival strategies of the local population and Lewis's growing awareness of the highly questionable rule of the Allied forces. Written with great sensitivity, integrity and honesty.
(bwl 2 March 2000) |
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Neither Here nor There by Bill Bryson |
If there's anyone who hasn't yet read this 1991 account of Bryson's journey round Europe as a student, it has all the usual ingredients to recommend it - big laughs, intelligent observations, unexpected quirky insights - but with the added relish of feeling superior because of our inside knowledge into how Europe and Europeans function. As always, enormously enjoyable.
(bwl 21 November 2003) |
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Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India by William Dalrymple |
It seems to me that everything Dalrymple touches turns to gold, in this case exponents of nine different religious traditions. Allowing them to tell their own stories, with only the lightest (and most lightly erudite) editorial touches, we are given a fascinating insight into the variety and strength of faith in present-day India. And the variety is truly amazing! Another book I can't recommend too highly!
(bwl 59 Winter 2011) |
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Nora Webster by Colm Tóibin |
Step by step we follow Nora's life after the death of her beloved husband. She's no stereotyped weeping widow - Tóibin's inside knowledge (his father died when he was twelve) illuminates her fierce clinging to her own dignity, her stunned incapacity to be close to her children and her gradual discovery of another possible self. Written with quiet poetry and without obvious drama this intimate exploration of Nora's reality is nevertheless a subtly dramatic story. Compelling.
(bwl 75 Winter 2015) |
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Notes from an Italian Garden by Joan Marble |
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.
(bwl 9 June 2001) |
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Now we are Sixty (and a bit). by Christopher Matthew |
This sequel to Now we are Sixty is full of fun and amusement for all of us who were brought up on A A Milne. And David Eccles's illustrations are brilliant! My only grouse is that Matthew makes being sixty sound a lot older than I feel (just after my sixtieth birthday...)
(bwl 24 June 2004) |
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Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout |
How on earth to encapsulate this subtle novel in 75 words? For Strout fans here's Lucy Barton again, now 63 and recently widowed. When her ex-husband William asks her to help him solve a family mystery, they set off together on a journey of discovery - of their present selves as well as the past. Evolution of human relationships? Yes. Coming to terms with unexpected truths? Yes. And much more, Strout as always unerringly, delightfully, perceptive.
(bwl 104 Spring 2022) |
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Old Soldiers Never Die by Frank Richards |
I found this gem in a box of old books and was delighted to find it's obtainable from Amazon. Richards was a private soldier during the First World War and this is his story, tidied up by Robert Graves, of life at the front. Told with unadorned honesty - terrible officers, pinching food from fallen Germans - and a sort of stubborn humour, this is an amazing account of what it was really like. Forget historians and latter-day novelists!
(bwl 104 Spring 2022) |
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Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout |
Independent-minded, self-deluding, acerbic retired teacher Olive, living in a small Maine seaside community, is the thread that runs through this series of (mostly sad it has to be admitted) stories of her fellow citizens. The common theme is moments of truth in the lives of ordinary people, and 'truth' is the key word here. Sprout has an extraordinary ability to provide constant aahh-yes! moments of recognition that she has got people absolutely right. To be savoured.
(bwl 85 Summer 2017) |
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On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan |
This is a decidedly slim volume and it's typical of McEwan's faultlessly crafted work, not a spare word or muddled thought. It tells the brief story of a young couple on their wedding night, both pathetically ignorant - typical of the 1950s when the story happens - and scared of what is expected of them. I won't give away the ending, but 'poignant' is an unavoidable adjective.
(bwl 50 March 2009) |
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Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood |
In a world of competitive genetic-engineering enclaves, genius Crake is brewing his cure for the ills of humanity, helped by the beautiful Oryx. What happens emerges through the memories of Snowman - once Jimmy - possibly the last surviving non-modified human, who sleeps in trees to avoid wolvogs, lives on the scavenged leftovers of collapsed civilisation and watches over Crake's new human 'models'. Horrible, yes, but gruesomely enjoyable - Jimmy is real and touching and Atwood is gleefully creative.
(bwl 58 Autumn 2010) |
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Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf |
Addie and Louis are neighbours, both widowed, with children gone. Why should they both be lonely? Addie's unlikely solution to this question is the theme of this heart-warming little book. Up against the disapproval of neighbours and a bullying son will they have the courage to stick to their survival tactic? I'm not telling, but it is a good story and because I enjoyed the pared-down, evocative prose I forgave it for being, maybe, slightly simplistic.
(bwl 86 Autumn 2017) |
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Outline by Rachel Cusk |
You could sum up this book as people speaking for themselves. The narrator - teaching creative writing for a week in Athens - encourages the people she meets to recount themselves in almost uninterrupted monologues, punctuated by occasional needle-sharp observations on life and human behaviour. Almost nothing happens. The result is a sort of compendium of widely varying accounts of facing life, relating to each other, surviving failed relationships. It's a book to loath or love. I loved it.
(bwl 94 Autumn 2019) |
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Outside the Sky is Blue by Christina Patterson |
What made Patterson a successful writer and broadcaster? The odds were stacked against her: childhood overshadowed by her sister's schizophrenia, painful, incapacitating disease, recurring breast cancer, the deaths of beloved family members and the inability to find a loving partner. Scouring through copious family records Patterson reconstructs the passages of her courageous and moving evolution from facing adversities to – thank heavens! – happiness. I ended up full of admiration and affection for this wise, wìtty, intelligent woman.
(bwl 108 Spring 2023) |
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Peeling the Onion by Gunter Grass |
Peeling away the onion skins of memory, Grass re-discovers his own truth with fascinating results, not only his original musings on memory, choice and happenstance but his master story-teller's account of his life - boy soldier, miner, black marketeer, artist, poet, even musician - before finding an outlet for his experiences in novel-writing. And his move from incredulity ('Germans don't do this') to 'gnawing shame' over the Holocaust rings true. Impressive and unexpectedly (for me) very enjoyable.
(bwl 46 June 2008) |
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Periodic Tales: The Curious Lives of the Elements by Hugh Aldersey-Williams |
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!
(bwl 65 Summer 2012) |
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Pineapple Street by Jenny Jackson |
On the surface simply a lighthearted romp through the life of super-rich New Yorkers – what an eye-opener! It follows two sisters, Darley and Giorgiana and their sister-in-law Sasha unkindly christened the Gold Digger as she comes from a humbler background. Jackson is extremely funny about snobbery and entitlement – the appalling mother with her 'tablescapes' – but when Darley and Giorgiana find themselves facing real life problems, it went deeper than I expected. I enjoyed it!
(bwl 110 Autumn 2023) |
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Politics on the Edge by Rory Stewart |
Conservative by tradition, thrown out by Johnson after serving valiantly as MP for Cumbria and in many Ministeries, Stewart's political memoirs are eye-opening on how government works – or rather, as he illustrates here, does NOT work. Here we have a truly useful politician, genuinely believing in public service and in getting on with doing the job in hand, up against the self-seeking, power-hungry mediocrities governing the country. He writes brilliantly and is often very funny but OHHHH.....poor country!
(bwl 111 Winter 2024) |
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Pure by Andrew Miller |
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.
(bwl 65 Summer 2012) |
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Quarantine by Jim Crace |
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.
(bwl 9 June 2001) |
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Reading Shakespeare's Sonnets: A New Commentary by Don Patterson |
Don't be put off! Paterson is not just a poet himself and therefore highly qualified to examine these poems, but also an original thinker, part iconoclast part jester. His analysis and commentary, sonnet by sonnet, are eye-opening and full of quirky insights, making this book terrific fun to read. Being unfamiliar with all but the most obvious sonnets, I was amazed by how much schools don't tell us! I recommend this highly.
(bwl 67 Winter 2013) |
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Red Dog by Louis de Bernieres |
The fact that it is about a dog must absolutely not put non-dog-lovers off reading this extraordinary and beautifully produced little book. Based on true events in back-of-beyond North West Australia, it's utterly unlike anything else he has written; but I defy anyone not to be caught up and ultimately moved by it.
(bwl 12 January 2002) |
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Regency Buck - The Grand Sophy - Cousin Kate by Georgette Heyer |
Don't wince! Searching for something to read in my lock-down retreat I came across a stash of these elderly romances and thought Why not see how they have aged?Well I am romping through them with a certain glee. Perfect escapism for these dismal times, surprisingly engagingly written and with a guaranteed happy ending. What more could we want? So I am unapologetic . . .
(bwl 99 Winter 2021) |
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Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor |
A thirteen-year-old girl goes missing from a village under the moors. Seamlessly intertwining snippets from the lives of the villagers with minute observations of the natural world over the course of the next ten years, McGregor weaves a sort of intricate, cumulative tapestry which becomes deeper and richer as the seasons go by and the lives of the villagers evolve, the shadow of the missing girl nagging at the edge of memory. Absolutely magical.
(bwl 91 Winter 2019) |
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Sacred Country by Rose Tremain |
Probably no need to recommend anything by Tremain - we all know her - but the subject matter of this one seems noteworthy: the right to pursue one's personal destiny, however unconventional and however great the obstacles. As usual, the development of her theme is beautifully and sensitively handled and provokes thought; but how does she manage to be so different with each book?
(bwl 15 October 2002) |
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Sacred Hunger by Barry Unsworth |
The horrifying reality of the slave trade in the 18th century is the context for a tale of conflict between two cousins who embody the opposing philosophies of life emerging at that time and equally relevant to ours: profit-based capitalism versus enlightened humanism. But it can also simply be read as an extremely exciting historical adventure, excellently researched, vividly real and beautifully written.
(bwl 4 July 2000) |
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Salmon Fishing in the Yemen by Paul Torday |
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.
(bwl 43 December 2007) |
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Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari |
I can't recommend this book too highly. Harari traces the development of humankind from its earliest beginnings to its possible (scary) future with practically every page giving me 'well I never!' moments. The evolutionary value of gossip, money as a unifying fiction, the admission of ignorance sparking the scientific revolution - a constant stream of fascinating research and original thinking. And on top of everything else, he's also extremely witty. A truly wonderful book!
(bwl 78 Autumn 2015) |
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Secondhand Time: An Oral History of the Fall of the Soviet Union by Svetlana Alexievich |
After the collapse of Communism, Alexievich interviewed ordinary people from many walks of life and here are their authentic voices (and what voices!). Overnight embracing of freedom, democracy, capitalism? On the contrary, disorientation, anger, betrayal as social order disintegrates into the law of the jungle and pre- and post-Soviet generations can no longer communicate. Yes, goodbye to repression, but increasing nostalgia for lost ideals and certainties. I now understand the appeal of Putin. A fascinating eye-opener.
Ed Note: due to be published in English in May this year
(bwl 79 Winter 2016) |
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Shakespeare - The World as a Stage (Eminent Lives) by Bill Bryson |
Bryson tackles his subject as one would expect - with maximum respect for sources and research, translated into his own inimitable style. As he says, there's really not much to be said about Shakespeare's mysterious life, but to compensate, he gives us plenty of unexpected background detail on the period. A pleasing and illuminating slim volume.
(bwl 47 September 2008) |
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Shakespeare - The Man Who Pays the Rent by Judy Dench |
Originally recorded conversations between Dench and director Brendan O'Hea, here Dench talks about the Shakespeare characters she has acted in her long career, play by play. O'Hea asks intelligent, knowledgable question and Dench's answers are spontaneous, often hilariously anecdotal, enlightening about her absolute dedication to interpreting what Shakespeare wrote and full of personal, often unexpected insights, like why she dislikes The Merchant of Venice (and not for antisemitic reasons!).'National treasure'? Absolutely yes!
(bwl 111 Winter 2024) |
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Signals of Distress by Jim Crace |
Am I alone in recommending Crace - too quirky? Well, here's another! In 1836 an American ship runs aground in a winter storm. The fishing village of Wherrytown finds itself playing host to the sailors, their run-away slave, their cargo of cows, and another misfit - well-meaning Aymer Smith, hopelessly out of his depth trying to make amends for injustice and find a wife. An inspired comedy of the consequences of upset equilibria, told with quietly startling poetry.
(bwl 58 Autumn 2010) |
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Slow Lightening by Mark Frutkin |
The Spanish Civil War and engineer/artist Sandro has to flee Barcelona with the police on his tail. His journey back to his native village by bicycle, dodging road-blocks, encountering unexpected characters, intentionally echoes Don Quixote but the different kind of journey he undertakes hiding in the caves near his village is his alone, with lasting repercussions. A lovely book by a Canadian writer I'd never heard of before but will definitely look out for in the future.
(bwl 61 Summer 2011) |
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Small Wonder by Barbara Kingsolver |
Might Kingsolver as essayist be even better than Kingsolver as novelist? This collection of essays - many bearing on the post 9/11 American psyche - are full of absolutely sane, quirkily intelligent and enlightening insights and comments on life. On Nature (she trained as a biologist), the politics of fear, television-watching, chicken-keeping, flying, her children . . . she's thoughtful, even philosophical, but never ponderous. On the contrary she makes us think while we laugh out loud. Excellent!
(bwl 49 January 2009) |
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So Many Ways to Begin by Jon Mcgregor |
Museum curator David's life is not what he hoped or expected - his identity is, shockingly, undermined, depression strikes his young wife, he loses his beloved job. 'Curating' relics of his mother's life, listening to his wife's childhood stories, the past piece by piece illuminates the present. This is a story of ordinary people surviving disappointments and how a deep-rooted love can survive these - and the greatest disappointment of all (read it to see!).
(bwl 60 Spring 2011) |
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Spade Among the Rushes by Margaret Leigh |
Leigh takes over a croft in the hidden glen of Smirisary, Moidart, only reached by footpath or the unreliable sea. She spends the war years taming it, helped by the other crofters and hindered by the war and bureaucracy. We share her successes and failures as she struggles, often hilariously, with the hard work of crofting. Sadly, now, with crofters gone and the few remaining cottages second homes, this book is a kind of elegy for a past world.
(bwl 108 Spring 2023) |
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Status Anxiety by Alain de Botton |
A fascinating examination of the causes of, and 'cures' for, painful doubts about where we stand in the general scheme of things - something it turns out we all suffer from to some extent. De Botton is lucid, penetrating and persuasive and writes gloriously sinuous prose. I found myself galloping through it with delight and then going back to absorb the insights.
(bwl 26 October 2004) |
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Strange Places, Questionable People by John Simpson |
Did this come out before or after It's a Mad World, My Masters (bwl 12)?* More of the same - fascinating on-the-spot accounts of world events written by a man who cares deeply about the people and places he finds himself involved with: Tiananmen Square, Sarajevo, Gaddafi in his tent and more. Quiet digs at BBC power struggles make one realise how precarious - and precious - the independent-minded reporter can be; and how grateful we should be to them.
*It came out in 1998, It's a Mad World, My Masters was published in 2001 - Editor's note
(bwl 16 December 2002) |
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Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky |
A cross-section of Parisians gets caught up in the panic exodus as the Germans advance . . . Village life in occupied France. . . Némirovsky never loses sight of the mindless tragedy of the circumstances surrounding her wonderfully real protagonists' personal dramas of social disintegration, but her perceptive wit and her affection for human eccentricity infuse the stories with unexpected hope. Beautifully written, profoundly felt - absolutely exceptional!
(bwl 44 February 2008) |
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That Old Ace in the Hole by E Annie Proulx |
This time it's the Texas pan-handle that Proulx has chosen to bring to vivid life for us. Anyone who has enjoyed The Shipping News and Accordion Crimes (bwl 12) won't need me to recommend this, but for newcomers, this writer has an extraordinary capacity to get inside the skin of places and their inhabitants, with wit, affection and intelligence. Another must, if a decidedly quirky one.
(bwl 24 June 2004) |
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That Old Ace in the Hole by E Annie Proulx |
A wonderful rediscovery. The basic plot entails young Bob scouring the Texas Panhandle for sites for hog farms. What we get is a glorious welter of characters, all with their idiosyncratic stories and all dead set against hog farms. As in The Shipping News, landscape - here vast parched distances - and violent weather become characters in their own right. Proulx is a splendid story teller and I chortled from beginning to end.
(bwl 92 Spring 2019) |
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The Adventures of Miss Barbara Pym by Paula Byrne |
A splendidly compendious biography, life and works of a very unusual woman. Against my expectations of a prim life lived among vicars and cosy local communities, in reality she lead a rackety life, inventing alternative personas for herself, constantly falling in love with horrible men, including a Nazi SS officer, living in London where she stalked her neighbours. And yet she had an amazing eye for, precisely, the world of vicars etc. Eye-opening and enthralling.
(bwl 109 Summer 2023) |
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The Africa House: The True Story of an English Gentleman and His African Dream by Christina Lamb |
Based on his copious correspondence Lamb recounts Stewart Gore-Browne's struggle to create an ideal English estate in the wilds of Northern Rhodesia: brick cottages for workers, forty-room mansion for himself, family portraits, liveried servants, dressing for dinner and all. Outrageous Edwardian folie de grandeur? Yes, but add his sad, self-deceiving relationship with his aunt and wife and his heroic commitment to black political empowerment and a more complex figure emerges. A truly extraordinary story.
(bwl 39 April 2007) |
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The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho |
Medieval Spanish shepherd boy sets out in search of his destiny and his fortune and finds both after trials and tribulations. This apparently simple fable is probably intended to be read as a kind of self-realisation manual, but for anyone who can't be bothered with the 'deeper meanings' scene, it is equally - and, to my mind, greatly - enjoyable as a straight piece of story-telling.
(bwl 26 October 2004) |
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The Archivist's Story by Travis Holland |
Stalin's Russia, 1939. Disgraced literature teacher Pavel is consigned to the Lubyanka archives, forced to incinerate the works of purged writers. His wife has died, his mother's brain is deteriorating, his friend is 'disappeared'. All gloom? No, despite constant underlying fear, the loss and sadness, life goes on with moments of joy and hope, culminating in Pavel's final act of rebellion. Holland writes beautifully, his evocation of Stalinist Russia is hauntingly convincing. A really lovely book.
(bwl 107 Winter 2023) |
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The Art of Winnie-the-Pooh: How E H Shepard illustrated an icon by James Campbell |
This delightful book introduces us to Shepard the artist before going on to the production of the classic Winnie-the-Pooh books from the first collaboration between A A Milne and Shepard, right through to - ugh - Disney. It is, of course, fully illustrated with some fascinating first ideas for Pooh illustrations - many unused in the end - as well as lots of background information. It is also a beautifully produced book so a real pleasure from every point of view.
(bwl 86 Autumn 2017) |
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The Bad Quarto by Jill Paton Walsh |
Cambridge college nurse Imogen Quy solves a murder mystery involving academic rivalry, life-threatening dares and an amateur production of the Bad Quarto of Hamlet. The plotting is excellent and the characters extremely believable. Apparently a far cry from the Paton Walsh of Knowledge of Angels (bwl 5), but her intelligence and erudition are nevertheless lurking beneath the surface, producing, to my mind, a very pleasing read.
(bwl 45 April 2008) |
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The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant |
Alessandra grows to womanhood in 15th century Florence - but what future is there for an independent-minded young woman with a talent for painting, under Savonarola's fundamentalist rule? Dunant knows her history and has used it to wonderfully evocative effect in this bewitching story of dangerous love, intrigue, art and politics, set in a Florence we can see, smell, hear and taste.
(bwl 24 June 2004) |
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The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald |
To the dismay of both their families Fritz (the future Romantic poet Novalis) decides he's going to marry his 'heart's heat', twelve-year-old Sophie. Working round this historical fact, Fitzgerald draws us into late-eighteenth century Saxony, its extended families, their journeyings to and fro, their aspirations and fears, the intimate texture of their lives. She weaves a kind of magic without a single unnecessary word - I don't know how she does it, but it's truly wonderful!
(bwl 61 Summer 2011) |
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The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald |
This, early, tale of a middle-aged woman opening a bookshop in an East Anglian village ends with such unmitigated sadness it's unkind to recommend it except for its clear-eyed (and often funny) evocation of an isolated community in the 1950s. Fitzgerald has an unerring instinct for the power-loving selfishness of 'proper' people intent on eliminating anything they have not thought of themselves, and the innocent, optimistic heroine's downfall rings all too true. It lived with me.
(bwl 75 Winter 2015) |
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The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka |
This is the story of 'mail order brides' who left Japan for California in the early 20th century. After wide research into personal memories Otsuka creates a collective voice - 'we learned'... 'some of us' - rather than individual stories, and it works amazingly well, from stunned disappointment (where were those handsome, successful husbands?) through bewilderment, alienation, backbreaking labour, and finally the tragic deportation to WW II camps for Enemy Aliens. Poetic, incantatory, haunting, absolutely beautiful!
(bwl 86 Autumn 2017) |
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The Carpenter's Pencil by Manuel Rivas |
Spain during the Civil War. Imprisoned Republican Doctor da Barca has everything his peasant guard Herbal lacks: intelligence, spiritual freedom and the love of 'the most beautiful woman in the world'. Herbal's internal dialogue with the painter he executed, owner of the carpenter's pencil - the battle between envy and humanity - will decide da Barca's fate. But there's much more in this multi-layered, exceptional piece of story-telling - and thanks to Rivas for making hope intellectually credible!
(bwl 36 September 2006) |
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The Cazalet Chronicle - The Light Years, Marking Time, Confusion, Casting Off and All Change by Elizabeth Jane Howard |
Three generations of the Cazalet family grow up, immersing the reader totally in their lives and doings. The saga starts during the war when the whole family, parents, four adult children and their young offspring, two elderly aunts, and a resident governess move to the family home in Sussex. By the end of the saga the grandchildren have children of their own. These books were originally published in the 1990s but read as if they were written today. By the end, you can't believe you have had to say goodbye to people who feel like your own family. Totally involving, wonderful stuff!
(bwl 112 Spring 2024) |
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The Children Act by Ian McEwan |
Sometimes suspiciously perfect, here McEwan presents a moral dilemma with great insight. Should Fiona Maye - respected Family Law judge - rule that Jehovah's Witness Adam must accept a blood transfusion? Round this central theme and its repercussions McEwan explores wider questions of religion versus a lay society, personal values versus a 'greater' good and, in the end, self-interest versus compassion. Maye's own marital troubles may seem superfluous but perhaps save this novel from becoming a treatise. Impeccable and involving!
(bwl 76 Spring 2015) |
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The Collected Stories by Angus Wilson |
I must have read these years ago but had completely forgotten them. They cover the years 1949 to 1957, most of them are just a few pages long, and they avoid being dated because of Wilson's psychological acuity. Most short stories leave me wanting to know more, but these are self-sufficient, each one a kind of moment of truth, complete in itself. Clever, wicked, chilling, funny-sad, I found them absolutely compelling.
(bwl 56 Spring 2010) |
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The Crisis of Islam - Holy War and Unholy Terrorism by Bernard Lewis |
In this short book, Islamic expert Lewis explains with admirable lucidity why the Islamic world in the present day is breeding terrorism and why Western culture is perceived as threatening. Fascinating and important (some of our leaders would do well to pay attention!) with only one proviso: he seems a little blurred on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and anti-Americanism but of course he is writing for an American public...
(bwl 19 June 2003) |
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The Danger and Reflex by Dick Francis |
Time to re-evaluate Francis? I picked these two up by chance and was surprised by how good they are (to my mind anyway). Gripping, well constructed plots, interesting insights into themes other than racing - kidnapping and photography in these cases - and above all entirely credible characters. When in need of an unproblematic and exciting read you probably can't do much better than these (and, no doubt, his others).
(bwl 47 September 2008) |
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The Double-Cross System by J C Masterman |
During WW II, Masterman was responsible for 'turning' foreign spies and putting them to work for the Allies. This is his account of how it was done, full of case histories, near disasters, successes, statistics. The subject matter is fascinating but, oh dear, Masterman's plodding approach is almost narcotically boring. I kept having to pinch myself to stay awake. A real pity, but interesting if you can keep at it.
(bwl 52 July 2009) |
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The Family Moskat by Isaac Bashevis Singer |
Revisiting again . . . Warsaw from the beginning of the century up to 1939, a vast extended Jewish family and what they get up to before the dreadful end we know awaits them. Originally written in Yiddish, this rich saga is a wonderful excursion into another world - the complex characters, worldly embroilments coupled with religious agonisings, multiple divorces and re-marriages and above all the sense of life as a hurly-burly of passionate impulses. What a writer!
(bwl 45 April 2008) |
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The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson |
Julian Treslove, in search of an identity, becomes obsessed by the desire to become Jewish like his old school friend Finkler and aged professor Libor. Treslove's doomed excursions into Jewishness are a vehicle for Jacobson to analyse what it's like to be Jewish in the present day. Often funny, occasionally moving, this story of identity and obsession might, perhaps, be a little too obsessive itself? Deserved the Man Booker prize? I'm not sure, but worth reading.
(bwl 59 Winter 2011) |
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The Flight of the Maidens by Jane Gardam |
Hetty, Una and Lieselotte, three young women waiting to go to university in the post-war summer of 1946, stretch their wings and discover themselves and the wider world. As always with Gardam, the apparent simplicity disguises a host of rich veins of insight, in this case into rites of passage and how these relate with the past. A lovely, intelligent, humorous and extremely readable book.
(bwl 38 February 2007) |
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The Forgotten Waltz by Anne Enright |
The story could hardly be more banal: Gina and Sean fall in love (well, lust), leave their spouses and end up in the same boring domesticity they'd escaped from. Add the context of Dublin towards the end of the boom years - property a constant counterpoint - and Sean's problematic daughter and the plot does become thicker, while Enright's quirky insights are always a pleasure. But what is she trying to say? Compared with her wonderful The Gathering (bwl 44), disappointing.
(bwl 78 Autumn 2015) |
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The Four of Hearts; The Case of the Substitute Face; Some Buried Caesar by Ellery Queen, Erle Stanley Gardner & Rex Stout |
In urgent need of escapist literature and having read everything in the house at least twice, I fished these out of a box of dilapidated paper-backs waiting to be thrown away and gobbled with glee this feast of American crime fiction of the 1930s to the 1950s. The actual titles don't matter, any by these authors would do. The protagonists, Queen, Perry Mason and Nero Wolfe, share a kind of liberating anarchy, outwitting dumb cops (so different from our conventional Detective Inspectors), browbeating and tricking witnesses, faking evidence, the ends - getting the bad guys - robustly and unquestioningly justifying the means. What's more I thoroughly enjoyed the quirky, energetic, witty writing, anathema to teachers when I was a child but now appreciable as examples of a kind of literary freedom belonging to an age of innocence long gone. I may be talking nonsense (blame it on the heat and pre-holiday exhaustion) but for fun and pure escapism these seem to me to be hard to beat.
(bwl 41 August 2007) |
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The Fry Chronicles by Stephen Fry |
Fry defines himself a Jack of All Trades, berating himself for what his fans would call a wonderful diversity of talents. In fact a surprising amount of self-berating goes on in this honest account of his complex young self, of course written with immense verbal dexterity and wit. By the end I was rather bored by the endless list of performers and performances but I gobbled up most of it with the greatest interest and delight.
(bwl 62 Autumn 2011) |
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The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng |
Yun Ling has survived a Japanese internment camp and wants to create a garden in memory of her sister who died. She searches out the former gardener of the Emperor, now living in the Malay highlands, and becomes his apprentice. In startlingly lovely prose, we follow their developing relationship - gardening becomes memory and forgetting, pain and forgiveness - against the violent backdrop of civil war. Unnecessary denouements at the end? Perhaps, but haunting, beautiful, absorbing.
(bwl 69 Summer 2013) |
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The Gathering by Anne Enright |
Liam has died, ostensibly of drink but maybe of other things too. His sister Victoria, closest to him of all eight siblings, retraces the steps leading to his death and in the process uncovers layers of this chaotic Irish family's history, some real, some with the potency of imagined truth. Hopping from present to past, fantasy to reality, questioning the reliability of memory and how it affects our beliefs, this is a gloriously rich brew.
(bwl 44 February 2008) |
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The Girl on the Landing by Paul Torday |
After Torday's wonderfully original first two novels, I had high hopes for this . . . Michael stops taking his anti-schizophrenia medication and, with terrifying consequences, reverts to what he believes is the original human condition, guided by an enigmatic female presence - hallucination or genuine manifestation? It's satisfactorily creepy and scary and the device of husband and wife telling their extra-ordinary and ordinary versions alternately works to build up considerable tension. So why was I slightly disappointed?
(bwl 54 November 2009) |
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The Girl with Seven Names: Escape from North Korea by Hyeonseo Lee |
In a fit of adolescent bravado, Hyeonseo crosses the river from her home town into China, to find she can't go back. Her seven name-changes correspond to her attempts to avoid arrest and deportation while she struggles to make a life for herself (and, after nightmare complications, for her mother and brother). From the appalling physical and mental conditions in North Korea to the knife-edge dangers of exile this account is absolutely mind-boggling. Unputdownable.
(bwl 83 Winter 2017) |
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The Glass Palace by Amitav Ghosh |
I can't recommend this too highly. Burma, India and Malaya through three generations of war, peace, Empire, and social and political change. Beautifully written and described, this is a book of great human and historical insight and truthfulness. Some of the history seems weirdly relevant to the present situation....
(bwl 11 October 2001) |
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The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy |
Story of a childhood drama in India told in a quirky style which some apparently find irritating but which I found precisely and potently evokes a child's mental processes and experience of the bewildering adult world. The gradual build-up into tragedy is beautifully handled. Spellbinding.
(bwl 2 March 2000) |
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The Good Women of China by Xinran Xue |
Working as a radio presenter, Xinran found herself becoming the repository for the experiences of ordinary Chinese women who contacted her, delighted to have a chance to make their voices heard. She has collected a cross section of these in the form of short stories, each one illustrating a situation which she feels is emblematic of the problems faced by contemporary Chinese women. A fascinating insight into Chinese society - and thank heavens I live in the West!
(bwl 20 September 2003) |
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The Hill Bachelors by William Trevor |
The pervading atmosphere of these short stories is melancholy of maybe a typically Irish kind, full of yearnings, disappointments, private secrets colouring a life-time. Each one is a gem and if I've made them sound depressing, in the end they are not (or not very!). Behind the melancholy is a deep understanding of small lives and what they are worth, written with loving insight in uncluttered, evocative prose. To be relished - they haunted me.
(bwl 80 Spring 2016) |
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The Horse Boy: The True Story of a Father's Miraculous Journey to Heal His Son by Rupert Isaacson |
Despairing over conventional treatments, horse-trainer Isaacson notices that his severely autistic son Rowan responds positively to horses and shamans (met while visiting Bushmen). So the family sets off to Mongolia, land of horses and shamans, searching for healing. New Age nonsense? Well, read this saga of their journey, mostly on horse-back, from Ulan Bator to Outer Mongolia and judge for yourselves. I loved it - both a courageous story and a marvellous travel book.
(bwl 55 Winter 2010) |
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The Irresistible Inheritance of Wilberforce by Paul Torday |
Like with Lewycka*, could we expect a second mini-masterpiece from the author of Salmon Fishing in the Yeman (bwl 43)? Well, though utterly different, Wilberforce too is truly original. Told back-to-front (and for once it works) we trace the downfall of a self-deluding alcoholic whose obsession with wine starts when his grey, solitary, life is overturned by meeting a charismatic wine merchant and his glittering friends. Lots of brain-teasing morals but above all, a profoundly touching and poignant read.
*see review for Two Caravans
(bwl 48 November 2008) |
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The Kindness of Strangers by Kate Adie |
A fascinating account of a remarkable life by a remarkable woman. Apart from the many powerfully narrated hair-raising bits (and my goodness she's courageous!) she's wise and illuminating about what television reporting should be and also she's very funny. Above all she comes across as having held onto a balanced, intelligent and sensitive outlook on life. I can't recommend this book highly enough!
(bwl 63 Winter 2011) |
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The Kitchen God's Wife by Amy Tan |
Pearl and her Chinese mother Winnie have secrets from each other. Then for devious reasons, Winnie feels compelled to tell her life story: pre WWII Japanese invasion of China, WWII and above all her appalling marriage. (How does Tan manage to recreate, utterly convincingly, the reality of Chinese life during that period? She wasn't there!). Winnie's truth releases Pearl from her own silence. So a tasty sandwich: mother-and-daughter each end with enthralling historic reconstruction as filling.
(bwl 102 Autumn 2021) |
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The Land Where Lemons Grow by Helena Attlee |
Oh no, another whimsical book about Brits in Italy, I thought when lent this. Wrong! It is pure delight, an erudite voyage through the history and geography of citrus fruits in Italy, and absolutely fascinating. Good bergamots only on one coastal strip, perfect citrons needed for a Jewish ritual, lemon houses on Lake Garda . . Attlee writes beautifully, with infectious love for her subject as well as knowledge abounding. And the title? A quote from Goethe!
(bwl 84 Spring 2017) |
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The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt |
Brainy, penniless single mother brings up prodigy child on classical authors - learned on the Circle Line where it's warm - and Kurosawa's Seven Samurai, to provide missing father-figures. As the narration moves from mother's intentions to son's interpretation of them it becomes clear that this ploy works rather better than expected. Impossible to do justice to this utterly original fodder for both head and heart: intellectual fun, a young boy's quest for identity and MUCH more.
(bwl 26 October 2004) |
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The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson |
Fans of Bryson won't be disappointed - this is a funny book. But underpinning this affectionate account of a 1950s Mid West childhood is a deeper reflection on changing America, from innocent optimism to uncertainty and moral duplicity. This is Bryson in elegiac mood (the book ends: 'What a wonderful world it was. We won't see its like again, I'm afraid') but also giving his country stick - sugar-coated, maybe, but stick nevertheless.
(bwl 42 October 2007) |
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The Lost Daughter by Elena Ferrante |
Leda becomes obsessed by young mother Nina and child, watched interacting on the beach. The child loses her beloved doll, Leda finds it and takes it home. Why? 'I don't know' . . . For a woman who spends most of the novel analysing herself neurotically she has no excuse not to know - rivalry, envy of the mother/daughter relationship in which she has failed? Cleverly written and highly praised but, sorry, I thoroughly disliked it.
The original title is 'La Figlia Oscura' where 'oscura' does not mean 'lost' but dark, enigmatic, unclear.
(bwl 77 Summer 2015) |
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The Man who Died Twice by Richard Osman |
The follow-up to 'The Thursday Murder Club (bwl. 100 Spring 2021), another hilarious piece of froth. Plot-holes and unlikelihoods abound, but who cares? Our intrepid pensioners once again out-maneuver the pros and bring, all in one go, diamond smugglers, drug dealers, young delinquents, MI5 and the American Mafia to justice. Pure escapism, thank you Mr Osman!
(bwl 106 Autumn 2022) |
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The March of Folly - From Troy to Vietnam by Barbara Tuchman |
Tuchman defines folly as 'the pursuit of policy contrary to self interest' and analyses the Renaissance Popes, British loss of America and the Vietnam war within this perspective. Originally published in 1984, her reasoning is eternally relevant - viz. the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Iraq - when despite enlightened contemporary warnings and common sense the dominant political psyche stubbornly pursues the line 'If it's patently not working, do more of it'. Absolutely (if depressingly) compelling!
(bwl 46 June 2008) |
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The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint by Brady Udall |
Half-Apache child is run over by the mailman and left for dead. His quest to find the mailman and reassure him of his survival keeps Edgar going through small-town hospital, back-of-beyond reform school, non-functional Mormon foster family, the persistent attentions of an ambiguous 'protector' and more. Top marks for story-telling and writing (except for ubiquitous 'awhile' in place of 'a while'). An odd, engaging, funny, touching book.
(bwl 15 October 2002) |
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The Missing Peace - The Inside Story of the Fight for Middle East Peace by Dennis Ross |
Ross - US envoy to the Middle East for Presidents Bush I and Clinton - meticulously records the intricate negotiations between Israelis and their neighbours. It reads like a thriller - secret talks, secure lines, will Arafat turn up for the summit? will Netanyahu keep his promises? Clearly a brilliant negotiator, Ross's tireless skill and commitment are praise-worthy, but ultimately he fails to understand that being the (Jewish) US envoy undermined his credibility with Arabs.
(bwl 28 February 2005) |
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The Mussel Feast by Birgit Vanderbeke |
A mother and her teenage children wait - in front of a pot of his favourite mussels - for the father's return from a business trip: what has happened? he is never late. The daughter's monologue gradually reveals the chilling reality behind the 'proper family' life the tyrannical father enforces. Now, in his inexplicable absence, they timidly begin to express themselves without fear of repercussions and . . . Is this how revolutions start? Yes, but there's much more in this wonderful dark comedy.
(bwl 74 Autumn 2014) |
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The New Great Game - Blood and Oil in Central Asia by Lutz C Kleveman |
This doesn't sound like favourite bed-time reading, but you'd be surprised. Kleveman is the best kind of investigative journalist, knowledgeable, balanced, self-effacing. He mixes a strong sense of place with inside information - he spoke to all the right people and read all the relevant literature - and recounts it all with clarity and humanity, from political power struggles to the shenanigans of competing oil companies, to the eccentricities of Turkmenistan's crazy president. Fascinating, if decidedly alarming!
(bwl 22 February 2004) |
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The New Silk Roads: the Present and Future of the World by Peter Frankopan |
For Frankopan, silk roads are all East-West terrestrial connections. He is convincingly well informed on the subject. China of course is the main investor in massive infrastructure projects, railways, sea ports, with tentacles spanning continents, all in the name of 'peace and cooperation' but all too often meaning taking possession when loans can't be paid back. Meanwhile the West is too busy navel-gazing to bestow more than an occasional glance on what is creeping up. Yikes!
(bwl 94 Autumn 2019) |
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The Noise of Time by Julian Barnes |
I've often wondered about the ethics of writing fictional accounts of real people, as Barnes does here with Russian composer Shostakovich (and previously Flaubert). I started reading this as biography - Barnes has certainly done his homework - but how would Shostakovich himself feel about the tormented character that emerges? Whatever, Shostakovich's real and imagined sufferings under the crazy Soviet system, recounted in telling hiccoughs, are compelling, whatever their provenance, and I was enthralled.
(bwl 85 Summer 2017) |
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The Old Patagonian Express: By Train through the Americas by Paul Theroux |
Published in 1979 this travel book is obviously out of date but it's still extremely enjoyable. Theroux sets off from Boston (USA) to travel by train (well, many, many trains) to Patagonia. He has an eye for telling details, an ear for conversations with odd characters he meets, and a fine feeling for landscape. He sometimes comes across as a slightly irritating artist-as-sensitive-soul but overall he provides a highly engaging marathon through the Americas as they were.
(bwl 66 Autumn 2012) |
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The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty |
Another dip into the past. Having only ever vaguely heard of Welty I approached this elderly paper-back with expectations of boredom and was proved totally wrong. This is a little gem, with its exquisitely observed inhabitants of the Deep South - where Laurel arrives from Chicago to assist at her father's deathbed and funeral - and its deeply satisfactory understanding of memory and belonging. A treat!
(bwl 66 Autumn 2012) |
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The Past by Tessa Hadley |
Three sisters and their brother gather to spend the summer holidays in their old family home, the brother with teenage daughter and new wife, one sister bringing a Pakistani youth, another with two children. Can Hadley possibly juggle this assorted bunch? The answer is a resounding yes! The family dynamics ring absolutely true, every character perceptively imagined, and the three-tier structure - present, past and back to the present - works admirably. I found it a real delight.
(bwl 94 Autumn 2019) |
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The Pastons - A Family in the Wars of the Roses by Richard Barber (ed.) |
Three generations of the Norfolk Pastons carried on (and preserved) a copious correspondence as the men spent time in London defending their property rights. These modern-English transcriptions of their letters, ably linked by just enough historical and social commentary, show our Ancestors to be remarkably familiar - ambitious, John, staunch, conciliatory wife Margaret, disappointing son John 1 - despite the unfamiliar, heart-in-mouth struggles (often carried on by the women at home) to survive the lawless times. Fascinating!
(bwl 41 August 2007) |
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The Penguin Lessons by Tom Michell |
Returning from Uruguay to troubled post-Peronist Argentina where he teaches in an English school, Michell rescues an oil-soaked penguin and finds himself adopting it. This true story tells how the penguin weaves itself into everyday school life - rugby team mascot, confidante of unhappy people, swimming coach, party-goer. Funny, touching and - sorry! - heart-warming, interspersed with traveller's tales and scary local politics, this is above all a celebration of animal-human inter-connection. A truly lovely book!
(bwl 82 Autumn 2016) |
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The People's Act of Love by James Meek |
Siberia, 1919, a company of Czech soldiers precariously holds out against the advancing Bolsheviks. A mysterious stranger arrives with tales of escape from a prison camp. Is he being chased by a cannibal? And what is the beautiful widow Anna's secret? This extraordinary tale weaves secret religious sects, taiga magic, military horrors and straightforward love into a compellingly gruesome web of life on the edge. A sort of giant Russian thriller told with exhilarating verve.
(bwl 38 February 2007) |
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The Photograph by Penelope Lively |
Glyn discovers a photograph of his dead wife holding hands with her brother-in-law. Driven by an obsessive need to know if she was unfaithful, he starts a quest which draws in all those who knew and loved her. The spreading ripples of questioning and growing self-knowledge transform the memories they had chosen to have into those they should have. Skillfully handled and utterly credible - a treat!
(bwl 39 April 2007) |
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The Po: An Elegy for Italy's Longest River by Tobias Jones |
Anyone who has enjoyed Jones's previous affectionate and knowledgable books about Italy will fall on this with glee. He traces the course of Italy's longest river – mostly on foot – from its delta to its source, exploring its influence on the surrounding countryside and its changing role throughout history. He ends up calling this an 'elegy' as he sees how diminished it is, both as a major waterway and as an influence on traditional ways of life. A lovely book!
(bwl 112 Spring 2024) |
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The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver |
Fanatical Baptist missionary takes family to the Congo during Independence. The accounts of his beleaguered wife and daughters describe the alternately hilarious and harrowing effects of clashing belief systems on their family and the village's social structure. The consequences extend into the women's later lives, each one articulating a relevant theme, from political skulduggery (fascinating) to personal redemption (American-style). Too many serious intentions may end up diluting the truly enthralling atmosphere of the first half.
(bwl 4 July 2000) |
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The President's Hat by Antoine Laurain |
Dull accountant Daniel picks up Francois Mitterand's hat in a restaurant and . . . Impossible to avoid calling 'charming' this light-hearted tale of Daniel's attempts to trace it after he leaves it on a train because it is, of course, a magic hat conferring power on whoever wears it. We follow the hat's progress from person to person, changing their lives as it goes, with Daniel in pursuit. Will he get it back? Will Mitterand? I'm not telling.
(bwl 79 Winter 2016) |
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The Quickening Maze by Adam Foulds |
A private mental asylum in Epping Forest, the director enlightened Matthew Allen, among the inmates: poet John Clare and Alfred Tennyson's brother Charles. So much is history, as is the Tennyson brothers' doomed investment in Allen's wood-carving invention. Foulds's recreation of this world is enchanting, both in his imagined characters and his descriptive language. Clare escaping to spend the night with the gypsies, Allen's daughter Hannah setting her cap at Tennyson . . . utterly captivating!
(bwl 77 Summer 2015) |
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The Red House by Mark Haddon |
Haddon's Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (bwl 19) engaged my curiosity; this book appeals to more familiar psychology. After their mother's death Richard organises a holiday together with his estranged sister and their families. During their week together one by one their long-held beliefs and prejudices are challenged as they and their children come up against realities that shift their perceptions dramatically. Haddon is extraordinarily perceptive and his heart is in the right place. An excellent read!
(bwl 70 Autumn 2013) |
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The Rituals of Dinner by Margaret Visser |
Canadian academic sets her capacious mind to work on the 'origins, evolution, eccentricities and meaning of table manners' and comes up with a book every page of which is a feast in itself. Fact, anecdote, history, psychology, art - the how, who, why, what, when and where of eating habits are explored and explained in prose it would be a delight to read on any subject.
(bwl 15 October 2002) |
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The Road to Little Dribbling: More Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson |
Of course this is a funny book and of course it's full of fascinating facts, people and places, but underlying his farcical encounters with dim shop-assistants and such is his consternation at increasing ignorance, stupidity and falling-off of values compared with the England of his 1995 Notes (bwl 28). He's funny and interesting, lyrical about the countryside, appreciates many endeavours and retains his deep affection for his adopted country, but his alarm rings true.
(bwl 80 Spring 2016) |
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The Sea by John Banville |
This is a delicate and poignant intertwined story of the death of the narrator's wife and his memory-invoking refuge in the place where he lost his innocence on a summer holiday as a child. Yes, it's all been done before, but Banville's prose makes it different, with its crystalline images popped in between intimate and colloquial exchanges with the reader. I'm not sure what he was getting at (enlighten me somebody!) but enjoyed the experience anyway.
*Winner of the 2005 Man Booker prize
(bwl 33 February 2006) |
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The Sea Lady by Margaret Drabble |
I hadn't read a Drabble novel for years, so was pleased to find she still puts a good story together. Media celebrity Ailsa and marine biologist Humphrey once spent a childhood holiday together, later married - disastrously - and finally meet up again in their sixties, to find themselves manoeuvred into confronting their childhood experiences. Exploring the working out of our destinies and the life-long haunting of our early lives, I found it convincing and moving.
(bwl 54 November 2009) |
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The Sellout by Paul Beatty |
A protest! How could the Man Booker judges award the prize for an 'English language' novel to a book written in a dialect - the Los Angeles black community's - which must represent about 0.000001% of English language readers world wide? When you can decipher it, the central theme of this irritating book - re-instating racial segregation to promote social cohesion - is a good tease but the incomprehensible language, the obsessive navel-gazing on purely local affairs and cultural figures? . . . aaahhhgggrrrrr......!!!!!!
(bwl 83 Winter 2017) |
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The Silent Duchess by Dacia Maraina |
18th century Sicily and deaf-mute Marianna grows up to be married at thirteen to her elderly uncle. In a series of scenes from her life we feel, smell, see the Sicily of the times, its cruelty, prejudice, condemning of women to child-bearing or the cloister, interweaving of dynasties with their intractable priorities, the background poverty and struggle. But also the uncrushable human aspirations and the beauty . . . I lived inside this sensitively translated mini-masterpiece, utterly captivated.
(bwl 73 Summer 2014) |
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The Tax Inspector by Peter Carey |
Maria Markis, tax inspector, comes to audit the Catchprice Motors family firm just as it is collapsing thanks to Granny Frieda, the worm that turns, daughter Cathy who wants to be a singer and grandson Benny who believes he is an angel. The unexpected knock-on effects of their interaction left me breathless....This decidedly weird novel may not be to everyone's taste but I found it a gripping, if disturbing, black comedy about dysfunctional families.
(bwl 27 December 2004) |
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The Testament of Gideon Mack by James Robertson |
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.
(bwl 43 December 2007) |
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The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht |
Natalia, child of war-torn ex-Yugoslavia, feels compelled to explore the tales told her by her beloved grandfather. Who was the Deathless Man? Who was the Tiger's Wife? This is a book of stories behind stories, past/present, superstition/truth, myth/reality. Obreht seems to me to be extraordinary on two counts: an extraordinary imagination and an extraordinary gift for haunting story-telling. She won the 2011 Orange Prize for this her first novel, and she deserved it!
(bwl 62 Autumn 2011) |
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The Tobacconist by Robert Seethaler |
Innocent seventeen-year-old Franz leaves his lakeside village to be apprenticed to a wise old Viennese tobacconist. It is 1937, with Hitler on the rise. Franz grows into manhood struggling with city life, nostalgia and a disastrous love affair - helped by (fictionalised!) Freud in exchange for cigars - with the evil of Naziism creeping, horrifically, ever closer, ending with his one glorious, doomed act of rebellion. Often painfully funny, often touching, always deeply engaging.
(bwl 85 Summer 2017) |
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The Ugly One by Hermione Countess of Ranfurly |
Encouraged by success of the above, the Countess tells her childhood story. Her light touch illuminates with charm, wit, and no self-pity, her family's slippery-slope progress from carefree privilege to disaster on many fronts.
(bwl 3 May 2000) |
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The View from Castle Rock by Alice Munro |
Is this non-fiction? Not really, but then it's not fiction either, rather a personal embroidering of the story of Munro's ancestors, up to her own life. She talks about 'the need to turn your life into a story' and this she does, her story-teller's imagination fleshing out the bare facts, depths, nuances, insights conveyed with the lightest touch. Having not read her before, I was interested to see why she won the Nobel Prize. Now I know.
(bwl 74 Autumn 2014) |
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The Village in the Jungle by Leonard Woolf |
I didn't know he had written novels (two) and was spellbound by this story of life in the jungle of Ceylon, inspired by his experience as colonial administrator. Woolf has an extraordinary feel for, and sympathy with, his doomed villagers, cut off from the outside world and struggling against poverty, disease, superstition, injustice and above all the pitiless encroachment of the jungle itself. This is an extraordinary, hypnotic book, beautifully written and deeply felt.
(bwl 36 September 2006) |
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The Virgin in the Garden - Still Life - Babel Tower by A S Byatt |
I've just re-visited with great pleasure these three out of the intended four novels (did she ever publish the fourth?*) tracing the career of bright, spiky Frederica and her family through the 1950s and 1960s, from the new Elizabethan Renaissance to cultural chaos and the questioning of all previously held certainties. From Yorkshire to London these inter-locking stories are rich in emblematic events and characters you come to love. What a writer!
*Editor's note: A Whistling Woman is the fourth novel in the quartet.
(bwl 35 July 2006) |
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The Virgins of Venice by Mary Laven |
Venice in the 16th century had more convents than any other city in Europe.....This beautifully-written book explores who the nuns were, how they got there, how they lived their lives (did you know that the first thing visitors often met on entry was chickens?) and above all the stratagems they adopted to maintain contact with the outside world as Counter Reformation policy attempted to force enclosure on them. A gem of scholarship lightly worn.
(bwl 29 April 2005) |
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The Wedding by Nicholas Sparks |
'International Number One Bestselling Author' . . . 'long-awaited follow-up to his classic. . . ' Don't be taken in. This super-soppy, feel-good novel is based on the premise that to win back the love of your wife all you need do is to give her a wedding to organise. As if that in itself were not enough, every sentence is a platitude, every emotion a cliché. Poor world if this kind of drivel is 'long-awaited'!
(bwl 44 February 2008) |
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The Women of Troy by Pat Barker |
In this sequel to The Silence of the Girls (bwl 91) Barker takes the story of Briseis on from the fall of Troy. The triumphant Greeks want to go home, but the angry gods send impossible weather. Tensions rise among the idle warriors (heroes? Bah...). Briseis, now married and carrying dead Achilles's child, helps her captive sisters as she can. Barker's Regeneration trilogy denounced the human costs of war on men. Here she does the same for women. Excellent!
(bwl 103 Winter 2022) |
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The Yacoubian Building by Alaa al Aswani |
Not surprisingly, given its no-holds-barred content, this tale of present-day Cairo apparently took the Arab world by storm . . . The once-dignified Yacoubian Building in Cairo is going down in the world and now houses people from every walk of life. With great affection, the book recounts their shenanigans, using their stories to illustrate the different realities of contemporary Egypt. I found it fascinating as well as being an enormously enjoyable read.
(bwl 36 September 2006) |
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The Yellow on the Broom by Betsy Whyte |
A joyous account of growing up in a 'Traveller' family in Scotland in the 1930s. As itinerant farm labourers in summer, hunkering down in winter so the children could go to school this is an eye-opener into a close-knit community with strong family ties, a fiercely ethical outlook, and a faith in life allowing freedoms unthinkable for townies. Knowing this traditional way of life ended when the Welfare State herded them all miserably into council housing is tragic.
(bwl 94 Autumn 2019) |
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Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe |
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).
(bwl 40 June 2007) |
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Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman |
Kahneman's basic premise is that our thinking is not as logical as we like to believe. My initial rueful amusement that he'd been awarded the Nobel Economics prize for discovering what women have always been derided for claimimg soon dissolved. Rather than examining underlying unconscious psychology he identifies two distinct mental processes: System 1 (fast, instinctive, emotional) and System 2 (slower, deliberative, more logical) and how they interact in our decision-making. I ended up ruefully admiring his research.
(bwl 88 Spring 2018) |
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To the End of the Land by David Grossman |
The Israeli experience . . . this moving novel tells the story of Ora, husband Ilan and ex-lover Avram, ex p.o.w in Egypt. Hiking through Galilea, Ora gives Avram back his self but can she save her son, at the front? These bare bones fail to convey the richness and complexity of this story of love, tragedy and survival in a country that feels itself irremediably embattled - extra poignant knowing Grossman's son died in the Lebanon. An eye-opening, thought-provoking masterpiece.
(bwl 67 Winter 2013) |
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To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf |
I picked this up out of idle curiosity, to see how dated it is, and ended up enthralled. It's not an easy read but it does, I think, repay attention with its sinuously beautiful prose and intimate exploration of the inner workings of her characters' minds. And having always used the image of the title as a metaphor for unachieved aims I was amazed to find they do eventually get to the lighthouse!
(bwl 63 Winter 2011) |
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To War with Whitaker by Hermione Countess of Ranfurly |
War diaries (again!) of courageous young bride who refuses to be left behind - or sent home - and ends up running the offices of all the Generals you've ever heard of, in the Middle East, North Africa and Italy. Both humanly and historically enthralling.
(bwl 3 May 2000) |
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To War with Whitaker: The wartime diaries of the Countess of Ranfurly 1939-1945 by Hermione Countess of Ranfurly |
To be close to her husband, Hermione outwits the authorities, jumps ship, and ends up as much appreciated PA to General 'Jumbo' Wilson, running his life in Palestine, Cairo, Algiers and Caserta. Tireless, intelligent, socially adroit (wining and dining every VIP in the book), her diary is an insider's heart-in-mouth account of what went on behind the scenes in the North Africa and Mediterranean campaigns. Historically fascinating, humanly heart-warming and she writes beautifully!
(bwl 81 Summer 2016) |
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Tomorrow in the Battle Think on Me by Javier Marias |
Deàn's first-time, married, lover dying in his arms, leaving him alone with her baby son, leads to a journey of discovery of himself and all those connected with her. This indescribable book - part Tristram Shandy part Proust - explores subjective/objective truth and lots more in a kind of hypnotizing minuet of evolving interwoven themes. I don't know how the English translator coped (I read it in Italian) but don't be put off! Just read it!
(bwl 33 February 2006) |
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Trespass by Valerie Martin |
A book about reconciliation, or perhaps conciliation. Toby, from a typical American academic background, marries Salome, daughter of a Croatian refugee. Toby's mother's open-minded convictions fall to pieces in suspicion and dismay. These bare bones are fleshed out admirably as the story broadens to include Salome's family's fearfully (literally) un-American past. Who will survive the culture shifts and how? I found this novel perceptive, involving and highly readable.
(bwl 49 January 2009) |
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Trespasses by Louise Kennedy |
Catholic school teacher Cushla and protestant lawyer Michael fall in love in Belfast in the midst of the Troubles. Kennedy writes with absolute conviction of their attempts to carve out happiness in the shadow of hatred and violence. Cushla helping the deprived school child Davey, Michael defending wrongly accused Catholic youth, both attempting to bring normal goodness into a hellish world. Can it end happily? I won't give away the ending of this extremely moving story.
(bwl 109 Summer 2023) |
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Tunnel Visions by Christopher Ross |
Autobiography? Philosophy? From his position as part-time Station Assistant on the London Underground, much-travelled, widely-read Ross observes and ponders on humanity and its weird ways. The two strands of factual - and often very funny - account and philosophical reflection intertwine to produce an utterly original gem of a little book.
(bwl 15 October 2002) |
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Two Caravans by Marina Lewycka |
Lewycka's History of Tractors in Ukrainian (bwl 31) is a hard act to follow but she does well. The caravans, one for women one for men, stand in a strawberry field in Kent, the story revolving round the immigrant workers who inhabit them. Funny (you'll never eat a battery chicken again), sad and closer to reality than Tremaine's The Road Home (bwl 47), this is a wonderfully affectionate account of 'foreignness', not to mention the delicious love story . . .
(bwl 48 November 2008) |
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Under the Frog by Tibor Fischer |
'Under a frog at the bottom of a coal mine' is a Hungarian way of saying 'as bad as it can get.'....This deceptively funny story hops between 1944 and 1956, the hero growing to maturity through the years of Communist rule, culminating in the horrors of the abortive 1956 uprising. Will his dream of escaping the country come true? Sardonic, hilarious, sad, full of captivating characters - a wonderful (in every sense) read.
(bwl 31 September 2005) |
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Underland: A Deep Time Journey by Robert Macfarlane |
I hadn't come across Macfarlane before and can't wait to read his previous books. Here he explores the world under our surfaces, labyrinths beneath cities, underground rivers, communication between tree roots, aeons old glacier bottoms and on. Erudite, lyrical, wise, he is an explorer not only of deep, hidden places but of human relationships with depths, of both place and time. This is without doubt one of the most fascinating books I have ever read.
(bwl 99 Winter 2021) |
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Unreliable Memoirs & Falling Towards England by Clive James |
Revisiting the first two volumes of James's memoirs is like rediscovering an old friend. I had forgotten just how accomplished a word-smith he is - his verbal fireworks make me laugh as much as his wry self appraisal, the hilarious muddles, hopeless attempts and occasional successes of his journey from Australian childhood to the first steps on the ladder of fame and fortune. I thoroughly recommend these (and probably the third, when I can find it!).
(bwl 38 February 2007) |
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Untold Stories by Alan Bennett |
When I reviewed Bennett's 'Writing Home' (bwl 37) I said I hoped there would be more to follow, and there was (published in 2005 but only just discovered by me). Another lovely, fat book of memories - his parents' marriage, his extraordinary aunts - his diaries and miscellaneous writings, including some wonderfully irreverent art criticism. His critical intelligence, sensitivity, good sense and humour had me constantly saying 'Ah Yes!'. Again, I'd love more!
(bwl 71 Winter 2014) |
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Various Pets Alive & Dead by Marina Lewycka |
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.
(bwl 65 Summer 2012) |
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Victory by James Lasdun |
Two novellas by this extremely intelligent writer. The unifying thread is men trying to get away with it.
In Feathered Glory, 'good' school master Richard succumbs to the temptation of trying to re-activate a past fling, then hoping to return to uxoriousness while lying to his sweetly passive wife. In the meantime, see what happens when she takes in a wounded wild swan..... a thoroughly satisfying glimpse of comeuppance in the making.
In the second, Afternoon of a Faun, Marco is belatedly accused of rape by an ex-colleague and we watch as he wriggles in and out of denial, outrage, vendetta, terror, while his bewildered friend, the narrator, is torn between loyalty and increasing doubt, in a prophetic pre-MeToo scenario.
The 'Victory' of the title has a hollow ring. Lasdun is uncommonly perceptive and writes very well indeed.
(bwl 93 Summer 2019) |
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War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy |
The world's greatest novel? It is certainly vast in ambition and scope – Napoleon's doomed Russian expedition and its effects on society. Tolstoy brilliantly evokes the human reality of fighting armies, entwining them with the vicissitudes of his deeply oberved protagonists (goodness, the emotional and spiritual intensity!). I admit I got bogged down by his excursions into moral and historical philosophising, but, coming back as an adult, I am full of admiration. Yes, a truly towering work.
(bwl 106 Autumn 2022) |
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War in the Val d'Orcia by Iris Origo |
(just re-issued, I've been told) American woman finds herself running her husband's isolated estate in occupied Tuscany. Things become complicated (understatement) as Allies approach: partesans hiding in the woods, retreating Germans, locals from both sides of political divide all have to be juggled (and fed) and children taken to safety. Amazing.
(bwl 2 March 2000) |
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What Maisie Knew by Henry James |
As usual with James I often had to read twice his sentences of elegant obfuscation and outdated idiom, but it was worth the effort. It's the chilling story of a little girl negotiating the cynicism, selfishness and hypocrisy of the adults around her who use her when she's useful as a weapon against each other and then discard her without a qualm. Published in 1897, the content seems horribly prophetic of today's split marriages. Compelling!
(bwl 81 Summer 2016) |
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White Cargo by Felicity Kendall |
Written while her father lay dying, this autobiography is also a tribute to this extraordinary man who dedicated his life to touring India with his theatre company. Kendall's childhood is fascinating, not only for its sense of time and place but also for the family warmth and energy that kept everyone going in situations of hilarious if hair-raising precariousness. I found it an extremely touching book and unexpectedly well-written.
(bwl 23 April 2004) |
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Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? by Jeanette Winterson |
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.
(bwl 65 Summer 2011) |
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Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell |
Searching for something to read I came across this delightful, forgotten work. Gaskell has an observant eye and a nice touch in disguised humour in this tale of a misguided re-marriage and its consequences on the daughter of the small-town doctor and their society. I was shocked to discover Gaskell died before finishing it, but the ending is all lined up (happy, of course, after obligatory hiccoughs), so never mind. I call this a real discovery!
(bwl 90 Autumn 2018) |
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Writing Home by Alan Bennett |
This is a rich miscellany from a richly miscellaneous man. From memories of childhood to the account of the old woman camping in his garden for fifteen years, from his diary of working with Gielgud to book reviews and funeral addresses, Bennett is perceptive, intelligent and above all sane as well as funny, pin-pointing absurdities and hypocrisies but also evoking people and places with affection and insight. I hope there'll be more to come.
(bwl 37 December 2006) |
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Yeats is Dead! by Joseph O'Connor |
With Joseph O'Connor as editor - Fifteen different Irish writers contribute a chapter each to this mad romp of a who-why-what-dunnit. Starting with Roddy Doyle and ending with Frank McCourt, some chapters are better than others, but it's fun to see how each writer picks up the story and carries it forward. Written in aid of Amnesty International, it's worth buying for that reason alone.
(bwl 11 October 2001) |
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