Month: May 2011

Piercing – Ryu Murakami

Translated from the Japanese by Ralph McCarthy

Five words from the blurb: ice pick, confront, demons, psychosexual, murder

Piercing is a dark, fast paced thriller set in Tokyo. The book begins with Kawashima, a new father, stroking his daughter’s skin with an ice pick. He has a strong desire to cut her tiny body, but knows this is wrong. In order to prevent himself from murdering his baby he decides that he should redirect his longing to cut flesh by targeting an older woman. As he plans his crime we get an insight into the terrifying mind of a psychopath.

Gripping the ice pick lightly to minimise trembling, he placed the point of it next to the baby’s cheek. Every time he studied this instrument, with its slender, gleaming steel rod that tapered down to such needle-like sharpness, he wondered why it was necessary to have things like this in the world. If it were truly only for chopping ice, you’d think a completely different design might do. The people who produce and sell things like this don’t understand, he thought. They don’t realise that some of us break out in a cold sweat at just a glimpse of that shiny, pointed tip.

This book was totally gripping – I read it in a single, terrifying sitting. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the shocking events that were unfolding; equally intrigued and repelled by the meticulous planning that went into organising a murder.

This book doesn’t have any deep insight or complexity – it is pure entertainment. The plot drags you forward with an ever increasing sense of dread and although the graphic scenes of violence were just understated enough for me to be able to cope, I’m sure that some people will struggle with a few sections.

Recommended to anyone looking for a chilling thriller.

This is my first Ryu Murakami, but I am keen to try more. Have you read any of his books?

Which is your favourite?

Other

Vintage Classics Day

Yesterday I went to Foyles bookshop in the centre of London to celebrate the 21st anniversary of the Vintage Classic. The day was packed with famous authors and wonderful bookish chat, so I thought I’d share the highlights with you.

Vintage Villians

Sadie Jones, Sebastian Peake (son of Gormenghast creator and illustrator Mervyn Peake) and Jake Arnott debated who was the greatest literary villain, with Sadie Jone’s, Dracula, beating Jake Arnott’s, Long John Silver, and Sebastian Peake’s, Steerpike, in the final vote. The chair, Viv Groskop, was very entertaining and held the debate together superbly.

I have always been a bit scared of the copy of The Gormenghast Trilogy that I have on my shelf, but this discussion persuaded me to give it a try. Have you read the Gormenghast Trilogy?

Rose Tremain

Rose Tremain mainly discussed the new Orange Inheritance collection, in which authors were asked to select one book that they would like to pass onto the next generation. Rose Tremain chose Eugénie Grandet by Honoré de Balzac and she made it sound very appealing. Balzac is one of those authors I have always meant to try, but haven’t got around to yet. Have you read any Balzac?

Lionel Shriver

Lionel Shriver stole the show for me. She was articulate, funny and full of wisdom.

People who read Kevin more than once are insane.

She told us that she wasn’t allowed to talk about the We Need to Talk About Kevin film (released on 2nd September in the UK), but admitted that she saw it for the first time 10 days ago and loved it. (click here to see the first still images that have been released).

She also had a great little disagreement with a woman who said she didn’t like the ending of We Need to Talk About Kevin:

Even after all these years, when someone tells me they’re disappointed with the ending of We Need to Talk About Kevin, I’m still enraged!

If you ever get the chance to hear Lionel Shriver talk I highly recommend that you make an effort to attend as she is very entertaining!

Mark Haddon

Mark Haddon explained why he wasn’t worried about the future of books:

Books are future-proof. They are the only medium that is already digital.

He also let us know that he loves re-reading books.

I love destroying a book with love.

All his favourite books will be falling apart because they have been read so much!

Sebastian Faulks

Sebastian Faulks talked about his recent TV series, Faulks on Fiction. He revealed that he hated the slow pace of programme making and said that it was far quicker to write a book than to make a TV series.

The BBC is like the old Soviet Union, but less humorous.

Unfortunately it doesn’t sound as though he is likely to be making another series in the future.

It was a fantastic day!

Thank you to Foyles and Vintage for organising such a wonderful event!

2008 Orange Prize

Monster Love by Carol Topolski

Post author By Jackie
Post date May 5, 2011
17 Comments on Monster Love by Carol Topolski

Longlisted for the 2008 Orange Prize

Five words from the blurb: perfect, next door, gullible, alive, wrong

A few weeks ago I read Kim’s review of Carol Topolski’s new book, Do No Harm, and noticed that Kim described Topolski’s earlier book, Monster Love, as:

“…one of the most disturbing novels I’d ever come across.”

These words are like catnip to me and so I checked out a copy the next time I went to the library.

Monster Love is set in a beautiful suburban street. A new couple, the Gutteridges, move in and they appear to be a normal couple, but behind closed doors they are subjecting their daughter to an almost unimaginable horror. The book is told from the view-point of those who knew the Gutteridges; people who feel a terrible burden of guilt on discovering the truth, as with hindsight it is possible they could have done something to prevent the suffering.

With her, it was like reaching for something quite ordinary, like a knife or a fork, and banging your knuckles against a pane of perspex. You have a couple more goes until, blowing on the bruises, you give up and look for the cutlery in another drawer. She was never anything but polite, never challenging or controversial, smiled prettily at one’s jokes, but it never felt like a response, more the logical result of a calculation.

This book had a fantastic beginning – a dark sense of foreboding built up as we slowly discovered what was happening inside that home. I found the insight into the minds of all the people frighteningly realistic and the scene in which the police finally entered the house was shockingly well written.

Unfortunately everything began to unravel once I knew what had happened. I found the couple’s reasoning all too believable, but the book had lost its forward momentum. All my sympathies were with the child and the guilt ridden acquaintances and so discovering the events in the couple’s past that had triggered their malice held little interest. I also found that the characters all tended to sound alike and so the chapter headings were vitally important in revealing who was speaking.

Topolski’s career as a psychoanalytic psychotherapist has clearly been useful in creating a realistic insight into the minds of a wide range of people, but I wish that the truth had been revealed later in the novel.

Despite these criticisms this book had enough to interest me all the way to the end and I’m keen to try her latest book, Do No Harm, at some point in the future.

Have you read anything written by Carol Topolski?

Tags Motherhood

1980s Books in Translation Classics

The Periodic Table – Primo Levi

Post author By Jackie
Post date May 4, 2011
12 Comments on The Periodic Table – Primo Levi

Translated from the Italian by Raymond Rosenthal

Five words from the blurb: chemist, element, metaphorical, human, society

Primo Levi was an Auschwitz survivor and the majority of his books focused on his experience in the concentration camp. This book is different in that the time in the concentration camp is barely mentioned, but instead we see the importance that chemistry played in his life – from his earliest school boy experiments to the difficulties of dealing with his former captors in a professional capacity. The book is made up of twenty-one short stories, each titled with the name of a different chemical element; each revealing a different aspect of the human condition.

This book is clearly very important, but as a reader I had mixed feelings. It was very hard to start – requiring a dictionary, an enormous amount of patience and a fair bit of googling to understand anything that was happening. It got easier to read as it progressed, but could never be read at any speed greater than a snail’s pace.

As a former chemist I am normally keen to read about science in literature, but I’m afraid that many sections reminded me of doing some tedious chemistry homework. The complete descriptions of various experiments bored me and I found the passion for chemistry a bit too strong.

Distilling is beautiful. First of all, because it is a slow, philosophic, and silent occupation, which keeps you busy but gives you time to think of other things, somewhat like riding a bike. Then, because it involves a metamorphosis from liquid to vapour (invisible), and from this once again to liquid; but in this double journey, up and down, purity is attained, an ambiguous and fascinating condition, which starts with chemistry and goes very far. And finally, when you set about distilling, you acquire the consciousness of repeating a ritual consecrated by the centuries, almost a religious act, in which from imperfect material you obtain the essence, the spirit, and in the first place alcohol, which gladdens the spirit and warms the heart.

Perhaps I don’t think deeply enough about things, but I always found distilling to be a frustrating past-time and so a passage like this didn’t connect with me.

The problem/genius of this book is that chemistry is a metaphor for so many different things and spotting the underlying meaning behind can be hard. Levi helps by dropping in a few obvious statements, but I’m sure that a lot of the symbolism went over my head.

The differences can be small, but they lead to radically different consequences, like a railroad’s switch-points; the chemist’s trade consists in good part in being aware of those differences, knowing them close up, and foreseeing their effects. And not only the chemist’s trade.

This is one of those books that needs to be studied to be fully appreciated. I don’t think that reading it at home, in isolation, will ever reveal the full power of the words. I’m really pleased that I completed the book, but can’t say it was an enjoyable or enlightening experience.

This is my first Primo Levi book, but I suspect that I might enjoy some of his other books more.

Have you read any of his books? Which do you recommend?

Other

Lovely Long Weekends

The lovely weather, the Royal Wedding and an abundance of long weekends has given the UK a party atmosphere that I haven’t seen before. People have had street parties and met their neighbours for the first time and everyone seems a little bit happier. It isn’t often that we are allowed to celebrate being British, but I am really enjoying seeing the flags flying for once.

I have been making the most of the sunshine and have had lots of great days out. I’ve just come back from a camping trip to Sussex in which…

…my boys got to dance around a May Pole, we saw some beautiful old buildings….

…and we visited an impressive castle.

The best thing is that my son’s school is closed next Thursday and Friday as well and so I’m going to have another long weekend. I hope I can cram many more great things into that weekend and that I’ll get some reading done between now and then.

I hope you’ve all had wonderful weekends too.