Category: Genre

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2009 Booker Prize Historical Fiction

The Quickening Maze – Adam Foulds

 Shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2009

The Quickening Maze was shortlisted for the Booker prize on Tuesday, and having read the entire longlist this year I have to say I was very surprised to see it there. I can only assume that this book improves on re-reading – it’s poetic words making much more sense second time round.

The book is set the mid 19th century and centres on a mental asylum in Epping Forest. The two poets, John Clare and Alfred Tennyson, have a strong presence in the book and the historical details of their lives are described as accurately as possible.

I was really looking forward to reading it as I used to live very close to Epping Forest, enjoy historical fiction and find madness a great addition to any story! Unfortunately I was a little bit disappointed, as although the writing was beautiful and individual scenes were captivating, the book failed to fully engage me. The plot had no real forward momentum and the interesting episodes in the book didn’t feel entirely linked.

The large number of characters added to my sense of confusion, perhaps they emphasised the madness present in the mental asylum, but there were so many people fighting for my attention that in the end they just washed past me.

The author is a talented poet, but I’m afraid I’m not a big fan of poetry and so I think much of the beauty of this book was lost on me – it was too quiet.

The wind separated into thumps, into wing beats. An angel. An angel sat there in front of her. Tears fell like petals from her face. It stopped in front of her. Settling, it’s wings made a chittering sound. It paced back and forth, a strange, soft, curving walk that was almost like dancing.

The book was well researched and I loved some of the snippets of historical information. The desire to bury everyone in consecrated ground, leading to sneaking a dead baby into the coffin of a rich gentleman was one such revelation for me. I also loved the descriptions of the forest. The trees seemed to play a more important part in the book than the people.

There was a lot to like in The Quickening Maze, but it didn’t really work as a novel first time round – perhaps a second reading would reveal many more of the subtle layers.

Recommended to poetry lovers or anyone who enjoys quiet pieces of historical fiction.

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Categories
2009 Booker Prize Memoirs

Me Cheeta – James Lever

 Long listed for the Booker Prize 2009

This book caused quite a stir as soon as it was discovered on the Booker long list. It is a spoof memoir of the chimp who starred alongside Tarzan during the golden age of Hollywood. It has been described as:

…the finest Hollywood memoir ever written. Craig Brown, Mail on Sunday

but it’s inclusion on the Booker long list has divided people. I was immediately intrigued, although was unsure which side of the fence I’d fall with this book.

Unfortunately it quickly became obvious that this book wasn’t for me. I am not a fan of actor memoirs, do not pay much attention to what goes on in Hollywood and do not share the same sense of humour as the author. This book is well written, and it is a very clever idea, but without being able to appreciate the satire, this book was lost on me.

The coarse language will also offend a few people, but I can see why it was present. The chimp was anthropomorphised more than I would have liked. I think I would have found a book written from the point of view of real chimp (as opposed to one which sounded like a Hollywood actor) far more interesting.

I’d never liked the goddamm English anyway, with their razor-wire elocution, their total lack of humour and their godawful pedantic spelling.

I lost interest in this book quite quickly and began to skim read after about 50 pages. The book did draw me back in occasionally, but not enough to persuade me to read it all.

If you are a fan of Hollywood memoirs then you will probably enjoy this book, but it wasn’t for me.

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What did you think about this book’s inclusion on the Booker long list?

Are you tempted to read it?

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2000 - 2007 Books in Translation Nobel Prize

The Double – José Saramago

José Saramago won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1998.

Translated from the Portugese by Margaret Jull Costa

Blindness is one of my favourite books and so I have been keeping an eye out for Saramago’s other books ever since I finished reading it. Unfortunately I haven’t been very successful – they never seem to turn up!  Then,  last week I finally spotted one in the library.

The Double is the story of a history teacher who sits down to watch a rented video one evening and is shocked to discover that one of the actors is identical to him in every physical detail. He tracks down his look-alike and confirms that they are exact copies of each other – so alike that even their wives cannot tell them apart.

As with Blindness, Saramago’s writing style takes a bit of time to get used to. There are very few paragraphs and the words just seem to flow together at times, each page just packed with a sea of words:

Although he does not really believe in Fate, distinguished from any lesser destiny by that respectful initial capital letter, Tertuliano Máximo Afonso cannot shake off the idea that so many chance events and coincidences coming all together could very well correspond to a plan, as yet unrevealed, but whose development and denouncement are doubtless already to be found on the tablets on which that same Destiny, always assuming it does exist and does govern our lives, set down, at the very beginning of time, the date on which the first hair would fall from our head and the last smile die on our lips.

It doesn’t take long to adapt to his style though, and I quickly became caught up in this imaginative plot. It doesn’t have the pace or fearful adrenaline rush I experienced with Blindness, but it is just as thought-provoking. If it were possible, would you want to swap lives with someone? Would you feel threatened by someone who was identical to you in every way? What would you do to protect your identity?

I loved the ending – it was cleverly written and left me with lots to think about.

The Double isn’t in the same league as Blindness, but it  is a very good book.

Recommended.

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Is Blindness one of your favourite books?

Have you read any of Saramago’s other books?

Categories
2008 Audio Book

Testimony – Anita Shreve (Audio Book)

I sometimes struggle to find good audio books, so when Sandy recommended Testimony I bought a copy straight away. Sandy is right – this book is perfect for listening to.

The book begins with the headmaster of a school discovering a tape of three 18-year-old boys having sex with a 14-year-old girl. The story then unfolds via the ‘testimonies’ of  various people affected by the incident. Each person reveals how they experienced the events in the first person, something which I don’t like when reading a book, but this worked really well when listening to the story. I felt like each character was just explaining things to me, so I connected really well with them and it seemed very realistic.

There are a large number of characters, but the different voices helped me to identify with each one, so I didn’t get confused at any point. Had I been reading the book I think I would have become confused by the number of characters, irritated by the first person voice and possibly given up on it.

The book raises many thought-provoking questions, including who is to blame when teenagers mis-behave? Is it possible for a 14-year-old to seduce an 18-year-old, or is it always rape? Should a single action be held against someone for the rest of their lives?

The narrator held my attention throughout, encouraging me to continue listening to the extent that I listened to this faster than any other audio book in the past.

I highly recommend the audio book version of Testimony, and think it would make an interesting book club choice.

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What is the most gripping audio book you have ever listened to?

This is the first Anita Shreve book I have tried. Are any of her others really good?

Categories
2009 Short Story

Nocturnes – Kazuo Ishiguro

I haven’t read any of Kazuo Ishiguro’s books before, although have a few here in the TBR pile and have heard only good things about his writing. I wasn’t planning to read this one, but then I spotted someone returning it at the library. I know how hard these new releases are to borrow and so snapped up the chance to get it, but when I got it home I realised that it wasn’t really my sort of book. I’m not a fan of short stories and  a quick scan through the blurb revealed the stories to be based around music – something I like listening to, but have no real passion for.

I read the first story, and had almost decided to return it to the library when I spotted Jane’s review. She urged me to continue, highlighting the fact that it is a quick, well written read. I agree with her, and in many ways I am pleased that I read it all the way to the end.

The stories are all based around ‘music and nightfall’ and while they are well written, they encounter the major problem I have with short stories, which is that the moment I start to bond with the characters and become interested in their story, they are gone. The depth and complexity of plot which I love in a novel can never be present in a story lasting just a few pages.

Each of the stories was based around the lives of reasonably normal people, and so didn’t give any insight into different lives or ways of thinking, as in The Thing Around Your Neck (one of the only short story collections I’ve ever liked). The plots were all quite gentle, and this book reminded me of Brooklyn, the Booker prize nominated book, which I read recently. I think anyone who loved Brooklyn would enjoy reading this collection, especially if you are a music fan.

If you enjoy reading short stories, then this is a reasonably good collection, but it wasn’t for me.

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I’m planning to read at least one of Kazuo Ishiguro’s books before the end of the year.

Which one do you think is the best?

Categories
2008 2009 Books in Translation Chunkster

2666 – Roberto Bolaño. Part 3: The Part About Fate

Steph and Claire are hosting a read-along for the highly acclaimed book, 2666, by Chilean author Roberto Bolaño. The novel is 900 pages long, and divided into 5 parts. We are reading one part a month, for the next five months.

Here are my thoughts on Part 3: The Part About Fate

I loved this part – I found it so much easier to read than the first two. This section reads much more like a normal novel and I now have a fuller understanding of what is happening –  although I guess you can never really tell what Bolaño is up to!

This section focuses on Fate, a reporter sent from New York to cover a boxing match in Saint Terasa, the Mexican city plagued by a serial killer. Fate quickly realises that the killings make a more interesting news story than a boxing match and so starts to investigate them.

This section finally brings things together, connecting the characters so I can finally begin to see their purpose in the book. It was so satisfying to finally discover links between some of the seemingly random events of the first two chapters.

As usual the writing was beautiful. I could have picked quotes from just about every page, but I was struck by the repetitive mention of the sun. It seemed to have great significance within this chapter.

But the sun has its uses, as any fool knows, said Seaman. From up close it’s hell, but from far away you’d have to be a vampire not to see how useful it is, how beautiful.

They crossed the yard and the street and their bodies cast extremely fine shadows that every five seconds were shaken by a tremor, as if the sun were spinning backward.

When the sun comes up everything will be over.

This section was also had a faster pace than the earlier two and had a cliff-hanger ending, making this the first section where I have actually been tempted to dive straight into the next chapter. I’m resisting though, in the hope that the suspense will add to the enjoyment of the book.

It appears this book is improving all the time. I am really looking forward to getting into The Part About The Crimes. I have very high expectations for it. Let’s hope it can live up to them.

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Are you enjoying 2666 more now?

Can you wait a full month before beginning Part 4?