Category: 2012

Categories
2012

The Chemistry of Tears by Peter Carey

The Chemistry of Tears

Five words from the blurb: automaton, love, grief, mechanics, life

In the past I’ve had a hit/miss relationship with Carey’s books, but now he has produced a book that I neither love, nor hate. I think my lack of passion in either direction can be seen as a bad sign.

The Chemistry of Tears begins with Catherine, an automation conservator, discovering that the man she’s been having a secret affair with has died. Unable to share her grief she retreats into isolation. Luckily her boss is aware of the situation and gives her the task of restoring a rare automation. Notes produced at the time of its creation also give her the opportunity to discover the difficulties faced by its commissioner and these are woven into the story as a second narrative thread set in 19th century Germany.

I enjoyed the investigation into the difficulties of private grief, but the book failed to maintain this beautifully claustrophobic atmosphere. I was unable to bond with Catherine and although I initially enjoyed the descriptions of the automaton I quickly became bored by the increased technical detail.

The historical section about the commissioning of the automaton was also interesting at first, but mirrored the other narrative arc in becoming increasingly dull.

I suspect that the effects were all deliberate, as suggested by this quote from the book:

Time and time again, in the early hours, I took refuge with Henry Brandling whose slightly mechanical handwriting served to cloak the strangeness of the events it described. He was, in the best and worst sense, an intriguing narrative.

Unfortunately the mechanical writing did cloak any strangeness that may have been present and I’m afraid that it also prevented the writing from being intriguing. The coldness of the narrative is probably meant to symbolise the lifelessness of machines, but as a reader it frustrated me. I wanted more emotion and some narrative drive.

Some interesting ideas were sprinkled through the text, but overall I was a bit disappointed. It was a mildly entertaining read, but if you’d like to read a story about automata I’d recommend The Invention of Hugo Cabret every time.

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The thoughts of other bloggers:

It’s an enjoyable enough read but my enthusiasm for turning the pages towards the end came more from the prospect of finishing it rather than wanting to know how it finished. Just William’s Luck

This book is good. Really good. Shearer’s Book Blog

I had no connection to any of the characters, not liking them, nor caring what happened to them in the end. Back to Books

 

 

Categories
2012 Novella

The Colour of Milk by Nell Leyshon

The Colour of Milk

Five words from the blurb: farm, girl, write, unforgettable, year

The Colour of Milk is short, but it packs an emotional punch. The book is set in 1831 and is narrated by Mary, the illiterate daughter of a farmer, who is given the opportunity to learn to read and write. Through her basic, but engaging writing we learn about one turbulent year in her life. A year in which she leaves her family home for the first time to become a maid for the vicar of a neighbouring village.

There was nothing new about the story, but the execution was perfect. Every character was well drawn and every sentence felt necessary. The plot was quite simple, but Mary’s character was engaging and I loved her honest, direct approach to life. The understated descriptions meant that the reader is made to fill in the blanks themselves and this gave the actions a deeper impact :

i don’t know what he hit me with. i don’t know how many times he hit me. i closed my eyes and let him do what he did.

The lack of punctuation and the unusual sentence structure took a while to get used to, but once I’d adjusted I loved the unique tone:

and there was a shed with pots in and trays of soil. and here was a house made of glass what had things growing in it.
and i sat on the grass. and it was not cold.
and the birds were settling in the trees.
and i was tired for i had not slept the night before when i was at home.

The ending was predictable, but somehow that didn’t matter. The quality of the writing made it shine and gave it an emotional power that I wasn’t expecting. I’m sure that this book will require a lot of readers to get their tissues out!

This is one of those books that feels like a classic from the moment it is published. I’m sure it will stand the test of time and will be loved by generations of readers.

Highly recommended.

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Categories
2012 Books in Translation Non Fiction Recommended books

HHhH by Laurent Binet

HHhH Translated from the French by Sam Taylor

Five words from the blurb: mission, assassinate, Nazi, novelist, truth

There has been a lot of hype surrounding this book, but it is all justified. HHhH breaks the mould, creating a new genre that will change the way you look at non-fiction and lead you to question the accuracy of everything you read.

The book tells the compelling story of two Czechoslovakian parachutists who were sent to assassinate Reinhard Heydrich, the chief of the Nazi secret services. Dropped near Prague in 1942 the pair spend months plotting the event, relying on the support of a secret network of people. The book also charts the rise of Heydrich, explaining the important role he had in the creation of the Nazi death camps.

Throughout the book the author explains the research he did to obtain each fact and ensures that nothing is ambiguous. To retain the gripping narrative style Binet frequently makes things up, but every time he does so the passage will be followed by one that explains exactly which parts were fabricated:

That scene, like the one before it, is perfectly believable and totally made up. How impudent of me to turn a man into a puppet – a man who’s been dead for a long time, who cannot defend himself. To make him drink tea, when it might turn out that he liked only coffee. To make him take the bus, when he could have taken the train. To decide that he left in the evening, rather than the morning. I am ashamed of myself.

I loved this honesty and it made me realise how many difficult choices authors of historical fiction must make each time they write a scene.

I love meta-fiction and so appreciated the way the author addressed the reader directly. His chatty style was easy to read and often amusing. He made some blunt, often scathing, comments about other historical fiction authors, but although I didn’t always agree with him, it was refreshing to read about someone not scared to voice their opinion.

I’ve seen a few comments about people avoiding this book because of the Holocaust connections, but although the death camps were mentioned, this book does not describe them in graphic detail. It isn’t a depressing book; it is a gripping story revolving around whether or not the parachutists will be successful in their mission. It does take a while for the pace to build, but the final few chapters were some of the most exciting I’ve ever read. I couldn’t put it down and was totally engrossed in the story of these men.

HHhH shares many themes with The Street Sweeper, but unlike that amazing book, this is flawless. HHhH has leaped over The Street Sweeper to become my favourite read of 2012 so far.

Highly recommended.

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The thoughts of other bloggers:

I kept finding myself frustrated. Just when a section of non-fiction was beginning to really grip an authorial intervention would break the spell.  Just William’s Luck

The style is an unusual construction, but for me it was highly effective and extremely engaging. The Little Reader Library

I remain, however, equally fascinated and irritated by this volume – I still can’t call it a novel. Gaskella

Categories
2012 Non Fiction

Quiet by Susan Cain

Quiet: The power of introverts in a world that can't stop talking

Five words from the blurb: introvert, extrovert, divide, theory, society

Quiet is a book that analyses the way introverts are treated in America. It aims to raise the self confidence of quiet people and prove that they have a vital role in society.

In the book Susan Cain, a self-proclaimed introvert, explains how she conquered her fear of public speaking and embraced her quiet thoughtfulness to become a successful lawyer. The book combines her personal journey of self discovery with scientific research, but it was all easy to read and never got too technical.

But introverts seem to think more carefully than extroverts, as the psychologist Gerald Matthews describes in his work. Extroverts are more likely to take a quick-and-dirty approach to problem-solving, trading accuracy for speed, making increasing numbers of mistakes as they go, and abandoning ship altogether when the problem seems too difficult or frustrating. Introverts think before they act, digest information thoroughly, stay on task for longer, give up less easily, and work more accurately.

America is a more extrovert nation than the UK (apparently this is because many of the British extroverts had the confidence to leave and start new lives overseas) and so I didn’t recognise many of the scenarios mentioned. I think the problems faced by those in the UK are far more subtle and so although it was interesting (and scary!) to learn about the competitive socialising of the Harvard Business School it was leagues away from anything I’ve experienced.

There were some good sections about differences in the work place and the book contained enough little snippets of interesting information to keep me reading to the end, but I finished it having learnt nothing particularly ground breaking. There were also times when it veered away from the scientific focus that I love and became a bit of a fluffy self-help book.

After reading the book I was a little confused as to whether or not I’m an introvert as I share traits from both ends of the spectrum. I took the Guardian introvert test and discovered I’m an ambivert – I didn’t even know the term existed! Perhaps the extrovert half of me contributed to my lack of passion for this book?

Overall, this is a comprehensive study of introverts in America, but will probably be of limited use to those outside the US.

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The thoughts of other bloggers:

Quiet is a worthwhile read for both introverts and extroverts – so the former can feel much more at home in their own skin and so extroverts can learn more about life on the other side of the divide. Medieval Bookworm

 Even though there were dry parts, I still think this is a book worth reading. Chrisbookarama

I found the subject matter of Quiet, and the way in which the author presented it to be utterly fascinating.  Bibliophile by the Sea 

Categories
2012

Gold by Chris Cleave

Gold

Five words from the blurb: endurance, cry, succeed, struggles, sacrifice

I loved The Other Hand (Little Bee in the US) and so was keen to try Chris Cleave’s new book, Gold. I think Gold is the better book, but as there were so many similarities between the two I was slightly less impressed than I was with The Other Hand.

Gold follows Kate and Zoe, a pair of British cyclists, as they battle to take the gold medal at the London 2012 Olympics. The two girls have very different personalities – Zoe is ruthless and selfish, not caring what she has to do in order to achieve her goal; whilst Kate is calmer and tries to balance cycling with her family life. This is difficult for Kate as her eight-year-old daughter has leukaemia. With the London Olympics fast approaching this book is very topical and will make you think about what those athletes are sacrificing to be top of their game.

I hate reading about sport so was worried this book might not be to my taste, but luckily the technical details were not really mentioned – it is all about the emotion created:

Tom Voss still remembered how it had felt for him, back in Mexico in ’68, to miss out on Olympic bronze by one tenth of a second. He could feel the anguish of it even now, in his chest, raw and unavenged. Forty-four years later he still noticed the sharp passage of every tenth part of every second. The inflections of time were the teeth of a saw, bisecting him. This was not how other people experienced time. They noticed its teeth indistinctly in a blur of motion and were amazed to wake up one day and find themselves cut in half by it, like the assistants of a negligent magician. But Tom knew how the cut was made.

The book was fast paced and engaging throughout – it is almost impossible to put it down as the action increases relentlessly until its heartbreaking conclusion. The touching scenes with the ill child were some of the best in the book, but as a mother I found them difficult to read. Yes, this book is emotionally manipulative, but I loved it for that.

I know that many people were annoyed by the “we’re not going to tell you anything” blurb of The Other Hand. If you were one of those people then I suggest you stay well away from Gold – the blurb is equally vague and there is a similar “you’re going to love this book” letter from the editor. This Amazon review takes an amusing look at the negative aspects of this book and although I enjoyed the book I agree with most of the points made.

This is a quick, gripping and emotional read. If you enjoyed The Other Hand, this book will not disappoint.

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Categories
2012

Half-Sick of Shadows by David Logan

Half-Sick Of Shadows

Five words from the blurb: twins, cemetery, tragedy, disturbing, childhood

I hadn’t heard of this book until an unsolicited review copy popped through my letter box, but the fact it had won the inaugural Terry Pratchett Prize grabbed my attention. I’m pleased that I gave it a try as it was an entertaining read.

Half-Sick of Shadows is set in a remote house which has a cemetery as a back garden. Edward, the central character, lives here with his family, but nothing is quite as it seems. It quickly becomes obvious that things don’t always occur as they do in our world and certain physical laws can be broken. Having completed the book I’m still not entirely sure what could happen in this strange, but familiar world, but I enjoyed being taken along for the ride.

The book begins with the death of the children’s grandmother. The death changes the balance of things in the house and nothing is the same as it was before.

When we lost interest in bouncing rubber balls off the wall, and in reading books that didn’t tell stories, we played hide-and-seek in the cemetery – when the rain stayed away – and built very small snowmen in the cemetery when too little snow fell to build tall ones.
‘I think Franny Hazel has it in for us,’ whispered Sophia as we lay in our beds, the cemetery through the window in the Dark and the curtains drawn open. ‘I dreamed she burned us down.’

The first part of the book reminded me of The Wasp Factory. The books share a creepy atmosphere that results from the isolation of the characters and their bizarre, cruel actions.

When Edward starts school the atmosphere changed to mimic that of Never Let Me Go. Almost everything was normal, but there was that underlying sense that things weren’t quite right. It was impossible to put your finger on exactly what was going on, but I loved the strange sense of foreboding that it created.

As the book progressed the reader discovers more about the world these characters live in and the pace of the plot increases until it reaches a dramatic conclusion.

This is quite a subtle book. The joy is in trying to work out what is going on in this dark, creepy world. Many aspects of the plot could be perceived as disturbing (murder, incest, rape) but the author somehow manages to inject a light humor that prevents anything from becoming too traumatic.

My only complaint is that the book lacked the thought-provoking aspects of the other two books I mentioned. Half-Sick of Shadows is purely for entertainment and although there is nothing wrong with that it means that it doesn’t stand out in the same way.

Recommended to anyone who enjoyed The Wasp Factory.

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