Category: Genre

Categories
2012 Crime Mystery

Every Contact Leaves a Trace by Elanor Dymott

Every Contact Leaves A Trace

Five words from the blurb: wife, murdered, Oxford, mystery, past

Every Contact Leave a Trace is an atmospheric murder mystery set within the grounds of an English University. The book begins with Alex discovering the body of his wife, Rachel, by a lake in Worcester College, Oxford. Access to the college is restricted so only a limited number of people were capable of committing the crime, but police investigations draw a blank. Stricken with grief, Alex sets out to discover the truth behind her death, leading him to realise that he knew far less about his wife’s life than he thought.

The enclosed setting reminded me of The Moonstone; the pace and writing style also shared similarities with this classic piece of crime fiction. Anyone looking for a fast paced thriller will be disappointed as this is a carefully constructed book that demands concentration.

The majority of the plot is revealed through Alex’s interviews with the other characters. The reader must decide whether discrepancies between the stories are due to lies, attempts to protect others from hurt, or simply different perspectives of the same event. The solution to the crime isn’t really the point of this book, the main emphasis is on relationships formed at university and how people can display different aspects of their personality depending on which situations they are faced with.

The pace is very slow and I want to criticise this, but I grew to love its teasing nature.  The continual stalling lead to a gripping narrative, perfectly crafted to keep the reader hooked and guessing  until the final pages.

He asked me if I’d like something to eat with my tea before he began again, seeing as it was lunchtime, and when I said yes, he went off into his side room to prepare it. I sat back in my chair and listened to him moving about, clattering a knife on a plate and opening and closing the door of his fridge. I allowed my mind to become a blank canvas once more, ready for him to take his brushes to it.

The central characters all studied English so there are plenty of literature references to satisfy those looking for deeper symbolism, especially those with a knowledge of Robert Browning.

My only real criticism is that the book gives no real descriptions of Oxford. Trees are beautifully depicted, but the spires of Oxford are almost entirely ignored – the college setting being a convienient plot device rather than a vivid backdrop to the story.

On a more positive note, this book has a striking design and the deep red page edges are hard to ignore.

This is a compelling mystery and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for an intelligent page turner.

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Categories
2012 Books in Translation Memoirs

A Death in the Family by Karl Ove Knausgaard

A Death in the Family Translated from the Norwegian by Don Bartlett

Five words from the blurb: childhood, teenage, Norway, father, death

Karl Ove Knausgaard is a publishing phenomenon in Norway. His controversial fictional memoir has dominated the best seller lists there for the last three years. The discussions about this book intrigued me and so I made a note of the title, keen to read it once the English translation appeared. An unsolicited review copy dropped through my letter box and so I was lucky enough to read this before publication, but it was only once I’d finished reading it that I discovered that this is actually the first of six books, totalling over 3000 pages.

A Death in the Family covers Karl Ove Knausgaard’s childhood and teenage years. Very little happens, but the writing is so vivid that this doesn’t really matter. I’m normally bored by simple coming-of-ages stories, but the insight and tiny details brought this book to life. I think this is one of the best pieces of writing I’ve ever come across and I can only imagine the fantastic book he’d produce if the subject matter was more exciting.

The quality of the writing is so good that it is possible to open the book randomly and find a good quote. On top of the realistic portrayal of family life there are thought provoking philosophical questions and advice about being a writer:

You know too little and it doesn’t exist. You know too much and it doesn’t exist. Writing is drawing the essence of what we know out of the shadows.

I think this book will have greater appeal to men because they’ll have experienced most of the events and so have the ability to reminisce about their childhood. The masculine outlook on life will be of interest to women, but there wont be the same level of connection.

I wouldn’t knowingly start a 3000 page autobiography about a Norwegian writer, but now that I’ve read the first section I am keen to read the rest. I’m sure that his adult life will contain more complexity than his childhood, but even if it doesn’t I’ll be happy learning about Knausgaard’s outlook on life.

Recommended to anyone who appreciates great writing.

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After reading this book the majority of Knausgaard’s family no longer have anything to do with him. You can read more about the controversy surrounding this book here.

 

 

Categories
2000 - 2007 Books in Translation Chunkster Other Prizes

The Half Brother by Lars Saaybye Christensen

The Half Brother  Translated from the Norwegian by Kenneth Steven

Winner of the 2002 Nordic Prize for Literature
Longlisted for the 2004 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize
Shortlisted for the 2005 IMPAC Award

Five words from the blurb: Norway, epic, family, brothers, life

The Half Brother is an epic, multi-generational story from Norway. The book begins shortly after the end of WWII and follows one family over several decades, concentrating on Barnum and his older brother, Fred, who was conceived during a rape. The brothers are very different in terms of both personality and stature; we see them grow up, learning to cope with their problems.

It is impossible not to develop an emotional attachment to all the characters in this book. They are distinct and realistic – a fantastic achievement given that this involves both sexes and four different generations. But it is the relationship between the two brothers that is the real attraction of this book. It is rare to find a fraternal relationship described with such accuracy and compassion.

The story was simple and easy to read, giving a wonderful glimpse into Norwegian life after the war. Many of the historical events were new to me and I was especially interested to see how the population reacted to the death of their king:

Some of the girls stood in a huddle by the fountain supporting each other. I envied them because they could cry. They were good. I wasn’t. I was bad. I had never seen the playground so quiet before. Nobody laughed. No one threw chestnuts at me. No one called my name. It was a fine morning. It should have been like that every day. It was just the way I wanted the world to be – slow, quiet, and with no jagged edges.

At over 750 pages this is a daunting book to start, but I quickly became hooked. Every page was necessary to the plot and it never dragged. It could be argued that too many tragic events affected this one family, but although the method of death was occasionally a bit unusual, I thought this book was realistic. Light humour was present at the darkest moments, so it never felt depressing.

Details of the family’s secrets were revealed slowly and, although most plot threads were tied up by the end, the reader never knows the whole truth. The atmosphere can be summarised by this quote:

And I remembered what Dad had once said, that it was necessary to sow doubt, because the whole truth was dull and made people lazy and forgetful, whereas doubt never loses its hold.

This is story telling at its best. Highly recommended.

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Categories
1990s Classics

Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks

Birdsong

Five words from the blurb: WWI, affair, mud, doomed, love

I’ve wanted to read this book for a long time, but I kept postponing the event because I worried that I wouldn’t enjoy it. For some reason I thought it would be a slow romance and so I was surprised to discover that most of this book is set in the trenches of WWI and it contains some of the most vivid battle scenes I’ve ever come across.

The book begins with Englishman, Stephen Wraysford, travelling to France on business. He falls in love with the wife of his host and their secret love affair forces them to make difficult choices about what really matters in their lives. Fast-forward a few years and Stephen finds himself deep in the trenches of WWI. He must put his thoughts of love aside and concentrate on the lives of the soldiers around him.

I found the experience of reading this book very strange as although I had no emotional connection to the characters I still wanted to know what happened to them. In each scene I didn’t care whether or not an individual lived or died, but the tension was mounted perfectly and it frequently had my heart racing.

The descriptions of what life was like for those fighting in the trenches were outstanding and I don’t think I’ll ever forget them.

The men loved jokes, though they had heard each one before. Jack’s manner was persuasive; few of them had seen the old stories so well delivered. Jack himself laughed a little, but he was able to see the effect his performance had on his audience. The noise of their laughter roared like the sea in his ears. He wanted it louder and louder; he wanted them to drown out the war with their laughter. If they could shout loud enough, they might bring the world back to its senses; they might laugh loud enough to raise the dead.

Unfortunately I didn’t enjoy the sections set in the 1970s. Every time the book entered this more modern era I became bored and longed for it to return to the gritty realism of the war. In the end I could see why these bits were added, but I think the book would have been better without them.

The last WWI scene was particularly poignant and is one of the most important pieces of war writing I’ve ever read.

This is a modern classic and I can see why it keeps cropping up on those lists of books everyone should read. It has its faults, but these are far outweighed by the positives.

Highly recommended.

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This book was given to me by the BBC shop in exchange for an honest review.

Categories
2010 Non Fiction Other Prizes

Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick

Nothing to Envy: Real Lives in North Korea Winner of 2010 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Nonfiction

Five words from the blurb: North Korea, repressive, secretive, survival, stories

Nothing to Envy is a frightening insight into the lives of ordinary people in North Korea. By interviewing those who managed to escape the oppressive regime Barbara Demick has created a comprehensive picture of what life is like for those living under the thumb of a powerful dictator.

More than 2 million North Koreans died during a famine in the 1990s, but their plight was made harder by the fact they could trust very few people. Under constant fear of being reported to authorities each individual had to find their own food, often by committing a crime that, if caught, could have lead to their execution.

It isn’t necessary to know anything about the country in advance as this book explains the situation perfectly, without a hint sensationalisation. Details of the slow decline in living standards are mesmerising in their horror and I think everyone should read this book so they can understand what occurs at the limits of humanity.

I have always been fascinated by North Korea and so I expected to love this book from the very first page. Unfortunately I initially felt a bit overwhelmed – so many people were introduced that I found it hard to keep track of them all and I longed for a bit of emotion to be injected into the statistics.

Luckily things improved quickly and by page fifty I was hooked. I began to recognise each person as their story was continued and it was impossible to not be moved by their increasingly difficult lives.

I thought I had a reasonable idea of what went on in the country, but I was shocked by some of the details of their existence.

North Koreans learned to swallow their pride and hold their noses. They picked kernels of undigested corn out of the excrement of farm animals. Shipyard workers developed a technique by which they scraped the bottoms of the cargo holds where food had been stored, then spread the foul smelling gunk on rooftops to dry so that they could collect from it tiny grains of uncooked rice and other edibles.

This book is one of the most important pieces of journalism to be written in recent years and it has just become one my favourite nonfiction titles.

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The thoughts of other bloggers:

Nothing to Envy is a truly astonishing book. Reading Matters

Readers, even those who don’t often read non-fiction, will find themselves completely absorbed in these stories. Olduvai Reads

The book is fascinating, sad, and frustrating all at the time, which is the best sort of narrative nonfiction. Sophisticated Dorkiness

Categories
2011 Books in Translation

A Novel Bookstore by Laurence Cossé

A Novel Bookstore Translated from the French by Alison Anderson

Five words from the blurb: place, books, envy, secret, literary

A Novel Bookstore revolves around a secret committee, established to select the finest books for a new shop. This book shop will not sell new releases, but will only stock books specifically selected by the committee because of their importance and their ability to move and influence the reader.

For as long as literature has existed, suffering, joy, horror and grace, and everything that is great in humankind has produced great novels. These exceptional books are often not very well known, and are in constant danger of being forgotten, and in today’s world, where the number of books being published is considerable, the power of marketing and the cynicism of business have joined forces to keep those extraordinary books indistinguishable from millions of insignificant, not to say pointless books.

A Novel Bookstore is billed as a mystery because members of the committee receive threats and then suffer violent attacks, but anyone looking for a mystery will be disappointed as this aspect of the book is minor and ultimately disappointing.

The main benefit of this novel is that it recommends a large number books to the reader.

Among the books he wanted for The Good Novel were Dernier amour, by Christian Gailly, which, blown away, he mentioned to me; Sous réserve, a first novel by Hélène Frappat; and, among the foreign novels, short stories by Roberto Bolano. Francesca liked Tristano muore by Antonio Tabucchi, La réfutation majeure, by Pierre Senges, and more than anything, Segalen’s complete Correspondence, published at last.

The main problem, for the English reader, is that most are unavailable in this country. Some books are mentioned briefly, others described at length, but all the ones that intrigued me were impossible to track down.

In a Bengalese novel that I love, The Night on the Shore, the author devotes twelve pages to a description of the preparation of a traditional rich dish for weddings. It’s an unforgettable passage.

This is, perhaps, the point the book is trying to prove. These gems of literature are buried under a sea of averageness and only those with a specialist knowledge will be aware of their existence.

Most blog readers will be familiar with debates about what makes a book important and whether or not readers are wasting their time by reading lighter, more entertaining books, but if you are interested in these discussions you’ll find plenty to hold your attention in this book. I thought the arguments were put across very well, but I had heard all the points before and found reading over 400 pages of them a bit tedious.

This is a book for literature lovers and I’m sure the dream of owning a perfect bookshop will resonate with a lot of people, but although I found some aspects of the literature debate interesting I thought this book was too long for its weak plot.

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The thoughts of other bloggers:

While acknowledging that it is highly flawed…I also have to acknowledge that Cossé created a very appealing nook for a book lover to read in for a while. Nonsuch Book

….an engaging read which held my interest, despite the basic implausibility of the story…. A Common Reader 

…it makes me think about what reading means to me, what novels mean to me, what writing means to me. Of Books and Reading