Today I’m featured on Triple Choice Tuesday over at Reading Matters.
Each week Kim asks bloggers, writers and readers to pick a favourite book, a book that changed their world and a book that deserves a wider audience.
Head over to Kim’s blog to see which books I selected.
Five words from the blurb: boy, mother, dies, father, disappears
I have had a run of disappointing books recently and so I was craving something special. Anatomy of a Disappearance had everything I was looking for and so I’m pleased to report that my reading slump is now officially over.
The book grabbed my attention from the very first line:
There are times when my father’s absence is as heavy as a child sitting on my chest. Other times I can barely recall the exact features of his face and must bring out the photographs I keep in an old envelope in the drawer of my bedside table. There has not been a day since his sudden and mysterious vanishing that I have not been searching for him, looking in the most unlikely places.
The central character, Nuri, was a young boy when his mother died, but his father failed to adequately fill the gap created by her death. This book could be described as a coming-of-age story, showing the difficulties Nuri faced growing up without his mother, but it is so much more than that – there is a touching love story and compelling mystery contained in this book too.
The plot is further complicated by the fact that his father is a political activist in constant fear for his life. One day all their fears come true when he vanishes in the middle of the night. The book is based upon the author’s own experiences (Hisham Matar’s father was abducted by Egyptian secret service agents in 1990) and this creates a realistic narrative, filled with subtle emotion. It also gives an insight in the life of families living in limbo, not knowing if their loved ones are dead or alive.
Anatomy of a Disappearance is short and easy to read. I finished it in a single sitting, compelled to continue by the engaging plot. I was impressed by the number of different issues convincingly covered in such a small number of pages. The simplicity of the prose means that this book will have broad appeal, but it also has a subtle depth that will keep fans of literary fiction happy too.
Highly recommended.
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For the next few months this blog will celebrate Gormenghast every Wednesday. The schedule for the read-along is detailed below. It would be great if different people could lead the discussion each week so that you don’t just get my opinion (and I don’t get Gormenghast post burnout!). If you’d like to volunteer to write a Gormenghast post at some point during the read-along then please leave a comment below. You don’t have to have a blog – I’d love non-bloggers to take part too. 🙂
The Hall of the Bright Carvings – Near and Far (p1 – p100) 8th June
Dust and Ivy – Preparations for Arson (p101 – p194) 15th June
The Grotto – The Bloody Cheekbone (p194 – p277) 22nd June
The Twins Again – Mr Rottcodd Again (p277 -p361) 29th June
One – Eighteen (p373 – p467) 6th July
Nineteen – Thirty-Seven (p467 – p565) 13th July
Thirty-Eight – Fitft-Eight (p565 – p659) 20th July
Fifty-Nine – Eighty (p659 – p752) 27th July
One – Fifty-Eight (p759 -p854) 10th August
Fifty-Nine – One Hundred and Twenty-Two (p855 – p953) 17th August
This book is 288 pages long – Ill update this post with the exact page numbers for this read-along once I have a copy and can check for appropriate chapter breaks.
Note: All page numbers for the Gormenghast Trilogy come from my Vintage Classics copy (ISBN: 0099288893), but if you have a different edition the page numbers may vary slightly.
Winner of 1984 James Tait Black Memorial Prize
Shortlisted for 1984 Booker Prize
Five words from the blurb: Shanghai, British, boy, lost, war
It is funny how we sometimes build up a picture of a book before we’ve read it, only to have all those expectations shattered once we begin. For some reason I expected Empire of the Sun to be a dense book, describing vicious fighting between the Chinese and Japanese in the Second World War. I expected it to be dark and tough going and so was therefore surprised to discover that it was actually very easy to read – the tone was quite light (at least initially) and the central character was not a soldier, but a small boy who finds himself alone on the streets of Shanghai during the Japanese occupation. In fact, the young protagonist and the simple prose could even result in this being classed as a young adult book if it were released today.
The central character, Jim, is a boy who has lived the life of luxury. His rich British parents paid for him to go to a good school and for servants to provide for his every need. But then war breaks out and Jim becomes separated from his parents. He learns to fend for himself in the abandoned mansions of Shanghai, but his situations deteriorates as the war progresses. The fact that the book is based on the author’s own experiences during WWII makes the story all the more poignant.
I loved the simple, but effective way that the surroundings were described:
Jim fidgeted in his seat as the sun pricked his skin. He could see the smallest detail of everything around him, the flakes of rust on the railway lines, the saw-teeth of the nettles beside the truck, the white soil bearing the imprint of its worn tyres. Jim counted the blue bristles around the lips of the Japanese soldier guarding them, and the globes of mucus which this bored sentry sucked in and out of his nostrils. He watched the damp stain spreading around the buttocks of one of the missionary women on the floor, and the flames that fingered the cooking pot on the station platform, reflected in the polished breeches of the stacked rifles.
My only problem with the book was the detached writing style. Jim let all the problems wash over him and failed to show any of the fear I’d expect from someone in his situation – in fact Jim seemed to enjoy seeing the planes and soldiers. This is probably a realistic way for a child to cope with war, but it meant that the book failed to have any emotional impact on me. Some people probably prefer this lighter writing style, but I like to have a strong emotional connection to the characters.
I haven’t read any other books set in China during WWII and so it was nice to learn a bit more about this lesser known piece of history. This is clearly a very important novel and there were times when I both loved and hated this book for its subtlety, but I think this is one of those books that grows on you after you’ve turned the last page. I have to admit that I didn’t enjoy the reading experience that much, but I am still thinking about Jim and I am sure that I will continue to do so for some time to come.
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This is my first experience of Ballard’s writing.
Do you think I’d enjoy his other books?
Translated from the Italian by Shaun Whiteside
Five words from the blurb: missing, girls, arms, police, secrets.
I hadn’t heard of this book, but spotted it in my library and was sold by the bold lettering on the cover proclaiming it to be:
The Italian Literary Thriller Phenomenon
The blurb informed me that it had won lots of Italian book awards and was a record-breaking bestseller in Europe and so I decided to give it a try.
The plot revolves around the discovery of a circle of arms buried in a forest. The bodies of the girls that they belonged to can not be found and so the hunt for their serial killer begins.
I initially loved this book. The writing style reminded me of Sophie Hannah and I was totally gripped to the horror that was unfolding.
A fresh anxiety took hold of her. She had put her own life and the hostage’s at risk. And now she was scared. Scared of making another mistake. Scared of stumbling at the last step, the one that would take her out of this horrible lair. Or discovering that the house would never let her go, that it would close in on her like a silken net, holding her prisoner for ever.
Unfortunately things began to unravel as the plot progressed. I began to feel patronised by the way the book repeated things and over-explained every situation. It was definitely a case of being told what was happening, rather than shown.
There were several sections where I had to suspend my disbelief. I don’t mind this to some extent in a thriller, but the plot in this book stretched my tolerance threshold to the limit.
I guess my main problem with this book is the marketing. The Whisperer isn’t a literary thriller. It is a good thriller, but it doesn’t have the depth I’d expect from a book marketed with the word “literary”. I can see why thousands of people would enjoy flicking through this on the beach, but I was frustrated by the two-dimensional characters and the increasingly bizarre plot twists.
Recommended to those who enjoy fast paced thrillers that focus on plot rather than character.
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I was inspired to read The Gormenghast Trilogy after hearing wonderful things about it at the Vintage Classics Day. A couple of people mentioned that they’d also like to read it and so I thought I’d see if anyone was interested in participating in a read-along.
Gormenghast is a cult classic that has been described as:
one of the most distinctive, absorbing and wonderfully strange books ever written.
It is set in a crumbling castle and describes the lives of the heirs to this dark kingdom. I’m afraid I don’t know much more about it, but I’m looking forward to finding out!
Amazon states that it is a book:
no reader interested in Gothic dare to miss.
The fourth book in the “trilogy” is being released in July and so it seems appropriate to read these books now, making the way through the entire series in one long stint.
I was thinking about starting the read-along in June, but am not sure about what pace to take.
Are you interesting in reading Gormenghast with me?
If so, how quickly would you like to progress through the books?