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A Bit on the Side by William Trevor |
Trevor's latest collection of short stories, and as good as any previous one. Without wasting a word, Trevor creates an entire world in a very few pages and almost always leaves the reader with a sense of loss and sorrow. The first one is, I think, the most moving, although it's a hard decision to make.
(bwl 31 September 2005) |
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A Child Of The Forest by Winifred Foley |
Born in 1914 in the Forest of Dean, Winifred grows up in a small mining village where there is never enough to eat, the miners are atheists and philosophers and the wives are religious to a woman. This is a moving and delightful depiction of a world I knew nothing of. The dialogue is in the vernacular and sounds authentic and interesting - almost a different language. Quick to read and very enjoyable.
(bwl 15 October 2002) |
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A Dark-Adapted Eye by Barbara Vine |
This is probably the best-plotted book I have ever read. When Vine is at her best, as she is here, both the writing and the story are compelling. With this one, the reader knows from the first page who done it, but not why or how. Very slowly it unravels until, finally, you discover just what happened. The reader is constantly surprised and fascinated at the twists and turns, and the writing is sharp and clever.
(bwl 7 February 2001) |
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A Place For Me by Robert Westall |
Ostensibly a book for teenagers, this really had me gripped and interested from the first page. Motherless Lucy must suddenly leave all that is comforting and start a life alone, because of a danger her father can only hint at. Westall creates a situation which feels completely possible, and which is threatening and compulsive. It is very easy and quick to read and is an excellent way to clear the mind's palate between more weighty literary courses.
(bwl 11 October 2001) |
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A Spell of Winter by Helen Dunmore |
This Orange Prize winner is beautifully written and kept my interest to the last page. The mysteries are intriguing, and only gradually are secrets revealed. Throughout the book there are hints of past and present dangers and at times I was almost afraid to read on and find out what was underlying everything that was happening. But . . . was it that I missed something, or were more questions left unanswered at the end than were explained?
(bwl 32 November 2005) |
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A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini |
I could hardly bear to put this down. Hosseini completely gets inside the heads of the two girls, who grow to women during the course of the book, and who are the main characters. The third is Afghanistan itself and its history, much of which I knew very little about. The book chronicles
decades of hope, fear, love and hate for the characters and the country. It is both moving and unbearable on all counts.
(bwl 51 May 2009) |
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All the Pretty Horses by Cormack McCarthy |
This is touted as the 'greatest American novel' on the jacket and I certainly wouldn't go that far. But it is beautifully written, and paints a vivid picture of Texas and Mexico in what seems like the 1800s, but in reality is 1949. The main character, John Cody, grows up a great deal in the difficult months in which the book takes place. First of a trilogy. Not sure if I'll read the other 2 volumes.
(bwl 33 February 2006) |
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American Pastoral by Philip Roth |
A splendid book which presents more questions than it answers. It's about the American dream and where people fit into it, particularly in the characters of the Jewish 'hero', his disaffected daughter and his Christian wife. Their lives are split apart in one horrific incident, but . . . why is it told in the way it is? And is it the biography it ostensibly is, or not? What is Roth trying to do? Intriguing, extremely well-written and unputdownable.
(bwl 35 July 2006) |
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Bad Blood by Lorna Sage |
An autobiography which reads like fiction, even though you know it isn't. As a child she lived with her mother and her grandparents during WWII. The people around her are incredible in their strangeness, but she writes with great skill (she invented none of the dialogue - everything that was said was so vivid that she remembered it word for word) and I raced through it with hardly a pause. A wonderful read.
(bwl 7 February 2001) |
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Beyond Black by Hilary Mantel |
The first third of this book is very good and promises more delights to come. However I felt it flagged after that, and was far too long for its own good. Very few of the questions posed are particularly answered, and when they are, those answers are not particularly interesting. And the characters basically bored me! Altogether, I found it rather disappointing and not at all the 'ghost story' I had thought it would be.
(bwl 35 July 2006) |
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Clerical Errors by Alan Isler |
Isler has created a world which seems almost real, but which has enough insanity to make it compulsive. The main character was born a Jew, but given to a Catholic as a child, to save him from the Nazis. He grows up to be a Catholic priest. And an atheist. Very funny (although I have a feeling I didn't get all of the jokes and allusions) and heart-breaking. I will read it again with relish.
(bwl 8 April 2001) |
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Collected Lyrics by Edna St.Vincent Millay |
I've chosen this one because it draws on of her books of poetry and has in it two of my favourites: Lament and The Ballad of the Harp Weaver, both of which are achingly beautiful. From A Few Figs from Thistles: My candle burns at both ends;/It will not last the night;/But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends/It gives a lovely light. And one called Lord Archer, Death. I say no more.
(bwl 11 October 2001) |
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Collected Poems by Wilfred Owen |
Wilfred Owen died one week before the end of WWI at the age of 25. I don't think the early poems were particularly special, but as C. Day Lewis said in his introduction, Owen's were 'probably the greatest poems about war in our literature'. Read especially Dulce et Decorum Est and Disabled. I don't think any other work so beautifully describes the futility and horror of war. The work is - in all senses - stunning.
(bwl 9 June 2001) |
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Dear Tom - Letters from Home by Tom Courtenay |
Part autobiography, part letters mostly from his mother, from the time Courtenay went to USC and then on to RADA. I wasn't as moved by the letters as I should have been, I suppose, but did like the autobiographical bits - especially when he tells us (often) of bursting into tears at the least provocation. It gives me licence to do the same (which I do anyway!). He comes across as a very nice man.
(bwl 13 April 2002) |
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Digging to America by Anne Tyler |
Two families - one American, one Iranian - adopt baby girls from Korea and thereafter have an annual 'Arrival Party'. Throughout the next (10?) years we get to know the girls, their immediate families, their extended families, and learn about their differences and similarities, and about their shared humanity. Tyler shows us - again - how difficult life can be if we make it, and how easy if we let it. Warm and wonderful, and easy to race through.
Shortlisted for 2007 Orange Broadband prize
(bwl 36 September 2006) |
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Dude, Where's My Country by Michael Moore |
Moore's latest is even more chilling than his last. What he reveals about the manipulation of ordinary people in the US and abroad is really frightening. He doesn't have much good to say about Blair either. His tales about the Very Rich and the way they got fatter on the stock market, while others lost everything are horrendous - and Bush's 'special relationship' with the bin Laden family is truly chilling. A must read for everyone!
(bwl 25 August 2004) |
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Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn |
At last - a book that lives up to its reviews! This short novel is funny, clever, wonderfully written and amazingly well thought out. What the reviews don't say is that it is also rather frightening and a parable for the world and the times we live in, and it doesn't bode terribly well. Written as a series of letters, it is oddly about language, treachery, misery, love and friendship. I recommend it hugely.
(bwl 52 July 2009) |
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Extreme Rambling: Walking Israel's Separation Barrier. For Fun by Mark Thomas |
In 2010 Mark Thomas walked the entire length of the wall separating Israel from Palestine. There are some amusing moments and some reports of kindness, mainly by Palestinians he encounters, but mostly incredulity at the way Palestinians are being treated - having to wait for hours at the barriers to get to Israel where they work, having their homes (and a clinic in one place) destroyed and appropriated, and many other atrocities. Important, horrifying and occasionally funny.
(bwl 64 Spring 2012) |
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Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels |
This begins with the 'hero', as a very young boy, seeing his family brutally murdered by the Nazis. He escapes and finally sees an old man. He says: "I screamed into the silence [a] phrase...in Polish and German and Yiddish, thumping my fists on my own chest: dirty Jew, dirty Jew, dirty Jew!" The book follows the love that grows between the two. This is, unfortunately, Anne Michaels' only novel. I wish there were more.
(bwl 7 February 2001) |
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I Married a Communist by Philip Roth |
Ira Ringold, a huge, angry, passionate man, makes disastrous decisions throughout his life: his jobs, his marriage, his politics - and in the end even his friends betray him. Nathan, the narrator - over a long week of talking with Ira's brother years later - discovers things about him which he never knew, and which make sense of this disturbed man's life. I'd forgotten what a good writer Roth is and was delighted to rediscover him.
(bwl 30 June 2005) |
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If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things by Jon McGregor |
It took me a while to get into this, but I felt justly rewarded for sticking with it. It minutely examines an afternoon on a particular street in England and the movements and actions of the residents of the houses and flats in a small stretch. From the outset it's obvious that something shattering has happened, but you don't know what until the end. In the meantime, finding out the residents' stories is very involving.
(bwl 21 November 2003) |
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In The Forest by Edna O'Brien |
A young man failed by the establishment throughout his life is free from prison and out for blood. It is when his path crosses that of Eily, a mother with a young son, that his madness and fury break through his last shred of sanity. What follows involves the local people, the police, Eily's friends and detractors in almost a farce in this incredibly dark and frightening book. I raced through it to the end.
(bwl 18 April 2003) |
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Love and Summer by William Trevor |
Ellie and Florian - she a lonely and nun-ridden married young woman, he a loner, the last member of a loving family - meet casually and a friendship/romance begins which lifts both their lives. The gossip which threatens in the small Irish village doesn't reach them, but still we know, even if they don't, that the relationship is impossible. The other characters in the book are all real and indispensable to the story. Trevor does it again!
(bwl 54 November 2009) |
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Lush Life - A Biography of Billy Strayhorn by David Hajdu |
Billy Strayhorn was a very gifted gay black pianist, jazz composer and arranger, born in Ohio in 1915 into a poor family with a doting mother and drunk, abusive father. Music was the great love of his life, and he pursued it to work closely with, among others, Duke Ellington. Lush Life is one of the finest love songs I know, and the book is well worth reading to discover a fascinating life and time.
(bwl 17 February 2003) |
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Maus I - My Father Bleeds History and Maus II - And here my Troubles Began by Art Spiegelman |
I resisted these two for a long time - the story of the Holocaust told in cartoon form? But enough people recommended them to me to make me try them. The story is told by the son of a man who lived through Hitler's Europe, and is now an embittered widower. Spiegelman tries to understand his father while - certainly at the beginning - his antipathy is apparent. But he takes you through the war in all its horrors (including the relative in the camps who informs on his fellow Jews for favours from the Germans). It's an extraordinary feat that you do begin to see the characters as people (the Nazis are cats, the Jews mice) and their dreadful history is as moving and heartbreaking as if it were done in a more ordinary manner. Perhaps, oddly, more so.
(bwl 7 February 2001) |
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Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden |
Amazing - a novel by an American man, purporting to be by a geisha about her life in 1930s-50s Japan. Obviously incredibly well researched, it reads as complete truth and I had to keep reminding myself that it was in fact a novel. The story itself is not particularly exciting, but the vivid portrayal of a life, time and place I knew nothing about kept me turning every one of the 429 pages with fascination.
(bwl 10 August 2001) |
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Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides |
Cal (born Calliope, but as a hermaphrodite who is only diagnosed when she's 14) is 41 now, and decides he has to write the story of his life, which starts with his Greek grandparents in 1922 when they travel to America after the burning of their home in Smyrna. The book is long and includes a large cast of characters, but Cal's journey and those of his friends and relatives make for compulsive reading.
(bwl 31 September 2005) |
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Mothertime by Gillian White |
Gillian White writes as though she has a team of writers: her books are all quite different, very easy to read - and also very good. This one is about 5 children (aged from 6 to 12 years) who evolve an ingenious plan to 'tame' their difficult, alcoholic mother. How the plan unfolds and continues becomes believable. The final results are completely surprising. As good as Anne Tyler, but completely different. Does that make sense?
(bwl 15 October 2002) |
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Perfume by Patrick Susskind |
A book you will either love or loathe - I loved it! Impossible to describe adequately, it follows the short and strange life of Grenouille, an ugly, deformed child born in Paris at the end of the 17th century to a loveless woman who is immediately put to death. The wet nurse refuses to have him because...he has no smell. He spends his life trying to find a scent for himself with strange success. Utterly compelling!
(bwl 33 February 2006) |
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Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver |
Another book which immediately draws you into a world unfamiliar to most people, I should think (the Appalachian Mountains in Virginia). Kingsolver concentrates on 3 women of different generations and backgrounds, and the way their lives intertwine and eventually influence each other. There are men in the book too, but the women take the lead in almost all things. Written with depth and understanding, and love. I thoroughly enjoyed reading every page.
(bwl 12 January 2002) |
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Spies by Michael Frayn |
The story of two young boys who decide that the mother of one of them is a German spy, and spend every minute of their spare time following her to catch her out. The truth comes out slowly, and what seems at the outset to be a silly, childish game turns darker and more disturbing, and eventually ruins friendships and lives. A very funny book which becomes frightening and finally very moving. Wonderful!
(bwl 33 February 2006) |
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Stupid White Men by Michael Moore |
Moore is rapidly becoming the 'conscience' of America, but is a must for readers in this country too. In this book he spells out graphically just how the presidential election was rigged in order that Dubya could be sworn in, and then goes on to show how minorities (black, poor, etc.) have been manipulated by governments for decades and strongly makes the point that individuals can make a big difference if they only become motivated!
(bwl 18 April 2003) |
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Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky |
Published 64 years after Nemirovsky's death in Auschwitz, this novel comprises the first two books in what was planned as a five-book tome about France during the occupation in WWII. It is mostly about people (French, German), their humanity and inhumanity. Nemirovsky's plans for the other three books are reported in the two must-read appendices, as are letters from her husband and others, trying desperately to find out where she was. Important, edifying and heart-breaking.
(bwl 36 September 2006) |
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The Amateur Marriage by Anne Tyler |
In Anne Tyler's latest book Pauline and Michael marry in 1942 - they hardly know each other, they certainly don't understand each other. Over the next 60 years they do the usual things: have children, move to better houses, earn more money. But the marriage never seems to work properly, especially after their elder daughter disappears. They spend their lives simply dealing with things, never really examining them. I raced through it and enjoyed it tremendously.
(bwl 23 April 2004) |
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The Art of Kyffin Williams by Nicholas Sinclair |
This isn't a book that can be 'read' other than as a short biography, but it is my very favourite book. Williams died in 2006, aged 88, and left behind a huge lot of paintings, drawings, ink and wash pictures and more - he decided, early on, to paint two pictures a week, and stuck to that for the rest of his life. The illustrations date from 1948 to 2005, and are astonishing in their diversity and beauty.
(bwl 55 Winter 2010) |
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The Babes in the Wood by Ruth Rendell |
Sophie and her brother Giles, both young teenagers, have disappeared along with the woman who was staying with them while their parents went to Paris for the weekend. The rain has been flooding the area for days, and their mother is convinced that they have all drowned. But the water isn't over four feet high and they were all good swimmers. And the rain keeps coming...Inspector Wexford is on the job! A great read.
(bwl 20 September 2003) |
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The Believers by Zoë Heller |
I thought the beginning interesting enough to carry on reading, but the initial impetus didn't last - not for me, at any rate. I read to the end to see if it would get better; it didn't. A cast of hopeless characters, with the main one being one of the nastiest I've come across in many years of reading. The reviews say "a subtle, funny family farce". I fear I found it tedious, unamusing and unpleasant.
(bwl 52 July 2009) |
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The Gingerbread Woman by Jennifer Johnson |
The first of hers I've read, and it certainly won't be the last. Two people, both ravaged by misery and past history, come together briefly, and in some strange way begin to heal. A short book, and very quick to read, it involves Ireland North and South and New York, but still remains firmly in the small town in Ireland in which it is set. Very atmospheric, very moving, very uplifting. And also very harrowing.
(bwl 10 August 2001) |
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The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy |
From the first word of this book I was completely hooked. I loved the poetry of the writing and the story, including the initial realisation that things were not going to go very well for the people involved. This is a book, it seems, that you either love or hate (I've not heard any opinions in between) and I just adored it. I hope she somehow finds the time soon to write another.
(bwl 21 November 2003) |
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The Heart of the Dales by Gervase Phinn |
The easiest of reads, this, and great fun. I took it on holiday and it was great to dip into at odd moments. Gervase Phinn was schools inspector for the Yorkshire Dales and tells about other inspectors, teachers, and especially the children - most of whom have a charm and directness rarely found. The stories are delightful, amusing, and sometimes outright hysterical. Some unpleasant teachers and colleagues aren't spared, but most are revered. Good stuff!
(bwl 47 September 2008) |
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The Human Stain by Philip Roth |
This is a book mainly about secrets, cruelty, pain and destruction, some of which I found so shattering that I had to stop reading for a day or two. Much of it confounds the reader as to what is going on/has gone on/will go on. By the end I was not completely sure about some of what Roth was trying to tell me. But it is well worth the journey. I loved it.
(bwl 50 March 2009) |
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The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse by Louise Erdrich |
Father Damien, a Catholic priest, is sent to an Indian reservation to bring the heathen to God in 1912. He writes reports to the Pope - telling of his progress, begging for guidance - but never gets a reply. We learn, over the years to 1996, of his friends and his trials, triumphs and joys. A truly delicious book. DON'T LOOK AT THE BACK OF THE PAPERBACK EDITION UNTIL YOU'VE READ THE PROLOGUE!!!
(bwl 20 September 2003) |
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The Living Proof by Alan Isler |
Robin Sinclair, a British novelist, suggests Stan Kops, an American Jewish academic, as the biographer of Cyril Entwistle - the most important living British artist and a well-known anti-Semite - who is exceedingly difficult to write about, as he has invented most of the 'facts' of his life. Sinclair sits back and watches as things go terribly wrong for almost everyone involved. A very welcome addition to the small but beautifully formed output of Isler.
(bwl 32 November 2005) |
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The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins |
I probably wouldn't have bothered to read this if it hadn't been for the reading group - and what a deprivation that would have been! Called "The greatest mystery story" (or words to that effect), I'm not sure I would agree, as the plot is somewhat contrived. But the writing is absolutely
delicious. One of the sentences I most loved was one of Miss Drusilla Clack's worthy charities: "The British-Ladies'-Servants'-Sunday-Sweetheart-Supervision Society". And many
more. Unmissable!
(bwl 50 March 2009) |
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The Naked Nuns by Colin Watson |
The Flaxborough Novels (of which this is one) are ostensibly mysteries, but I think that is the least of their pleasures. The writing is delicious - my favourite line concerns a waitress leaning over to collect glasses: 'A white liquidity of breast swung lazily in the dark tent of her dress.' On every page there is an elegance of language which is both clever and funny. There are 13 Flaxborough novels - read them all!
(bwl 13 April 2002) |
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The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg |
Written in 1824, this is a fascinating mix of mystery, psychology, religion and politics in 1712 and 1823 in Scotland. Dismissed and vilified when it first appeared, it is wonderfully written and well worth reading (both the novel and the Introduction, which should definitely be read before rereading the book, which is very much recommended!) This was my introduction to Hogg, but I will make a concerted effort to find and read more.
(bwl 24 June 2004) |
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The Reader by Bernhard Schlink |
Michael Berg, 15, meets Hanna, aged 36. They embark on an affair which does not last long but will stay with and colour Michael's life forever. But Hanna has secrets, which Michael only becomes aware of much later, and he becomes involved in philosophical questions which also influence his life choices. The book challenges our feelings about the Holocaust and our own personal reactions to some of the questions it raises. Very moving and challenging.
(bwl 14 July 2002) |
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The Road to Nab End by William Woodruff |
Billy is born in Blackburn, Lancashire, into a family of very poor cotton workers. Over the next 16 years he knows abject poverty and cruelty, as well as love and great friendship. The book chronicles the dreadful times - death from starvation, suicide, the pointless Jarrow march to London - and the degradation and hopelessness of thousands of people. A well-written and moving portrait of a time which is - thankfully - long gone.
(bwl 20 September 2003) |
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The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón |
This is a book which is difficult to précis - a mystery, a love story, a story about loyalties both adhered to and discarded, it is beautifully written and gripping until the very end (even though I had solved the "mystery" about a third of the way through). I was constantly struck at the clever invention of the plot and although it isn't short I read it in two sessions. Riveting and very satisfying!
(bwl 47 September 2007) |
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The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell |
Esme is a child who has been shaped by her family - particularly her mother,
who obviously has never liked her, her sister and her little brother who she
adores. More than sixty years later a grand-niece discovers her and takes
her under her wing. The novel is an unravelling mystery which takes the
reader on a journey of hope and despair and certainly kept me turning pages
for the whole of its length. A triumph indeed!
(bwl 61 Summer 2011) |
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The Wrong Boy by Willy Russell |
Raymond saves a drowning friend - and there the troubles begin. Through a series of misunderstandings by teachers, parents, friends, his world changes forever. He decides that the wrong boy came up out of the canal, and if he could get the right one - his old self - back, his mother would love him again, etc. We follow him from 11 to 19. We laugh with him, cry with him and love him. A wonderful book!
(bwl 11 October 2001) |
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Two Moons by Jennifer Johnson |
Mimi is elderly and frail, widowed and living with her divorced daughter. Life is stale and uneventful. Until Bonifacio comes to her and tells her he is her guardian angel. Everyone thinks she is going loopy, as he can't be seen by anyone else, but he makes her life fun. Is he real or not? We're never quite sure. The author dedicates the book to her mother, who "would have loved Bonifacio". Wouldn't we all!
(bwl 10 August 2001) |
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Veil of Darkness by Gillian White |
This is quite well-written, fun and dark at the same time. Kirsty is escaping from a brutal husband as the book opens and, leaving her children safe with a friend, goes to Cornwall to work in a hotel. There she finds an old forgotten book and decides to rewrite it. She can't use her own name in case her husband finds out, so brings two new friends into the scheme. And the problems begin!
(bwl 9 June 2001) |
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Wait Until Spring, Bandini by John Fante |
This is the first book in the Bandini Quartet, about an Italian family on the breadline in Colorado (presumably in 1938, when it was written). The father is an unsuccessful and frustrated bricklayer whose wife's only real passions are him and her religion. Their three sons are left to themselves and mostly unable to cope with their circumstances and dysfunctional parents. This book is beautifully written and completely heartbreaking. I will read the rest immediately.
(bwl 59 Winter 2011) |
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War with the Newts by Karel Capek |
Somewhere near Sumatra a strange thing happens: newts are observed coming on to shore at night and dancing. Soon they begin to learn to speak, and men discover that they can be put to great use working under water. They are used as slaves, experimented on and encouraged to breed hugely. Then these 'aboriginal newts' realise that they can rule the world in their own way . . . Extremely funny, and horrifically prophetic. A brilliant read.
(bwl 44 February 2008) |
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What Was Lost by Catherine O'Flynn |
Kate is a lonely child of 10 who devotes her entire daytime hours when not in school studying to be a detective, using the book her beloved father gave her as a guide and her favourite toy monkey as companion and accomplice. It is this devotion to duty which shapes her future, and unravelling her mystery pulls in an assembly of disparate people all concerned with the local shopping centre. Extremely well written and unputdownable!
(bwl 45 April 2008) |
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Yeats Is Dead! by Joseph O'Connor |
Written by 15 Irish writers for Amnesty International, this is a splendid tale of mystery and intrigue and incredible corruption in the Irish police, and it is very, very funny. From Roddy Doyle to Frank McCourt it keeps you laughing all the way through.
(bwl 21 November 2003) |
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