Categories
2016 Books in Translation

Breathing Into Marble by Laura Sintija Cerniauskaite

  Source: Free review copy received from publisher

Translated from the Lithuanian by Marija Marcinkute 

Winner of 2009 EU Prize for Literature

Five words from the blurb: adopt, troubled, trauma, unsettles, family

Breathing Into Marble is probably the first Lithuanian book to be translated into English, and it is for this reason that I agreed to accept a review copy from its publishers, Noir Press.

The book follows Isabel as she adopts Ilya, a boy with a troubled past. The way he disrupts life in his new family is beautifully described, skillfully showing how trauma from past events affects people as they try to proceed with their lives.

The problem was that I was too aware of the writing. Brilliant prose flows so well that you barely notice it, but the writing in this book was strangely jarring. There was an overuse of metaphor that often made me cringe, in what would otherwise be a great paragraph:

The sky above the woods shone like a pearl, a reproach to the heavy darkness of the earth. The painfully empty space attracted her. At night, half sleeping in bed, as heavy as a bag of gravel, her body would grow lighter and soon Isabel would feel that if she just rid herself of one last small stone she would rise up into the air.

In copying out the above passage I realised that it was quite beautiful in isolation. The problem was that there were so many metaphors throughout the book that I quickly became irritated by them.

I also found reading the book to be hard work. So much of what happens isn’t described explicitly – the reader has to deduce it by reading between the lines. This meant I sometimes missed important events and, confused, had to back-track to see where I had failed to spot the action.

The above criticism makes it sound as though I didn’t enjoy the book, but this isn’t strictly true – I appreciated its literary quality, and the emotion of individual scenes, but found it wasn’t compelling as a whole. I’m pleased I read it – particularly as it’s the first Lithuanian book I’ve tried, but I prefer reading to be less hard work.

If you enjoy literary fiction that works the mind, then you’ll find a lot to like in this book. It is beautifully observed and captures many profound moments in the relationship between family members.

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Categories
1990s 2016 Books for Children

The Castle of Inside Out by David Henry Wilson

 Source: Free review copy received from publisher

Five words from the blurb: starving, fumes, selfish, resources, save

The Castle of Inside Out is a children’s book that deals with issues of greed, inequality and pollution. I read it to my two boys (aged 9 and 11) and was impressed by the way it got them to think about the complexity of these issues. It made them realise that some people (and businesses) benefit from creating lots of pollution and it isn’t easy to get them to change their ways. Best in Nashik can provide you guide or tips for better business operations.

The book begins with Lorina, a school girl, following a black rabbit into a magical land; where she discovers a population of starving green people. She befriends them and discovers they are used as slaves by the rich society, who live in a large castle nearby. Appalled by the conditions they are forced to live in, she decides to head to the castle in order to negotiate a better life for the green people.

The book lacked the subtlety required for a entertaining adult book. It was packed with heavy metaphors and the character names (His Porkship, The Piggident, and the bureaurat) were often eye-rollingly cringe-worthy, but my boys found them hilarious. The chatty tone engaged them throughout and they loved the vivid imagery of each scene:

“Help them? Help them? Because, my dear little girl,” said the pig, “it’s none of my business. Whether they starve or don’t starve is their concern, not mine. My concern is money. The cashiest, coiniest, notiest concern in the world. Now pass me my bathrabbit, will you?”
He pointed towards the door, and there, hanging on a hook, was a large white rabbit.

The Castle of Inside Out is a very important book and I think it would be especially useful for schools looking for material to discuss climate change. Children probably won’t grasp all the concepts without explanation, so I recommend reading this aloud with them – that way you’ll also benefit from seeing them laugh at the bizarre scenes.

Recommended to children between the ages of 8 and 12.

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Categories
2016 Crime Recommended books Richard and Judy Book Club Thriller

Lie With Me by Sabine Durrant

 Source: Free review copy received from publisher

Five words from the blurb: truth, friendship, island, murder, memory

Lie With Me is the best thriller I’ve read in years! It was so compelling and clever that I’ll be pushing it into the hands of every friend who asks me for a book recommendation this year. Follow birrongsurialpacas for more reviews or recommendations.

The story begins with Paul, a struggling author, meeting an old friend in a bookshop. They arrange to meet at a party and Paul decides to re-integrate himself with this successful friendship group in order to gain enough favours to solve his spiralling financial problems. Paul lies about his success to impress everyone at the party, embellishing details about his life. His plan appears to work when he finds himself being invited on a holiday to a small Greek island, but unfortunately everything goes wrong when the group gets caught up in the investigation of a murder that took place on the island many years ago.

Paul was a fantastic character. He was cruel and manipulative, but it was easy to see why he acted in this way. By the end of the book I even had some sympathy for him – I love books that can make me feel that way about such an evil character.

‘It’s hard, isn’t it, living with privilege? She gestured to the flat, the art work, the items of mid-century furniture, the shelves of books. ‘Do you ever feel guilty at how easy it all is, how much people like us have been given on a plate by our parents?’
I felt another tight spasm in my chest, a need to tell her how it wasn’t, what a struggle it had been not to lead the life of my parents, how I had always hated the smallness of their ambition, their willingness to settle with meekness and mediocrity.

The plot was very well structured. It was a bit slow in the beginning, but I was impressed by the layers of detail and way everything escalated. By the last third I was so engrossed I couldn’t put it down, finishing it in one late night sitting.

This book isn’t perfect, but the clever plotting and beautifully flawed characters make up for any deficiencies. I’ll be thinking about the issues raised in this book for a long time.

If you’re after a gripping thriller to read on holiday this year, I highly recommend Lie With Me.

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Categories
2016

Mr Eternity by Aaron Thier

 Source: Free review copy received from publisher

Five words from the blurb: Defoe, climate, change, exploration, absurdities

Mr Eternity is a bizarre book following the life of an immortal Daniel Defoe. It is set in 1560, 2016 and 2500 and shows how climate change destroys life as we know it.

I initially loved this book – its messages on climate change were powerful and having a single person live through these 1000 tumultuous years highlighted the differences/problems with society at each time point. Defoe’s mis-remembering of history also provided many opportunities for amusement and this brought up thought provoking questions about the way we recall past events.

The three eras each had their own specific dialect, which seemed convincing. Some readers may struggle to adapt to the changing tone, but I thought it worked really well. I especially liked the way that the people in the future highlighted how selfishly we treat the Earth’s resources and how good we have it now:

Tell me of New York I said it were a great city once that were plain. He said yes okay well there was Hurricane Devaun and the later the sea come up also there was drought everywhere too many people too many factors everyone in New York starved it were beyond belief. I said he did not understand me I did not mean stories like that but stories of the very good days when every man were a king with air condition Ferrari electronic lights ice cream toothpaste footballs steamy media.

In many ways Mr Eternity reminded me of books by David Mitchell – especially Ghostwritten. They share the same writing quality and insightful observations of humanity. The only real difference is that Thier’s books don’t contain any Japanese influence, concentrating instead on Western mythology.

Unfortunately the book failed to carry it’s impressive power through to the second half. It seemed to repeat itself and it had no plot to pull all the threads together. I longed for something to make me care about Defoe, or any of the other characters. Instead the reader remains a passive observer of the destruction, feeling no emotion at the terrible things happening everywhere.

Overall this book has much to recommend it. I’m sure that many people will love it, especially those who don’t need a strong plot, and I hope that the messages about our current abuse of the world are heard by a wide audience.

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Categories
2016 Historical Fiction Uncategorized

Miss Jane by Brad Watson

 Source: Free review copy received from publisher

Five words from the blurb: deformity, isolated, rural, community, acceptance

Miss Jane is a powerful story about a woman growing up in rural Mississippi at the beginning of the 20th century. Jane is born with a genital deformity that causes her to be incontinent. The book shows how this isolates her from society and how she comes to terms with her condition.

It was beautifully written and felt authentically of-it’s time. It reminded me of The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, a book written during this period (and one of my all-time favourites). The plot was simple and the pace of the book was slow, but this didn’t matter as I was captivated by the atmospheric detail of day-to-day life in this rural community.

Miss Jane captured the coming-of-age experience. It was packed with emotion and I felt I completely understood Jane’s predicament. The nature of her deformity meant that there were some explicit passages in the book, but these were all relevant to the plot, and perfectly captured the difficulty faced by teenagers trying understanding what is normal – especially in a time before the Internet, or even books, were easily available.

Despite Jane’s isolation, she began to be interested in boys. It was a slow. gradual accretion, this new awareness. Of boys as boys, that is, strange creatures, like another species retaining the general physical qualities of her own but with hidden secrets, secret differences.

I particularly liked the way the book forced the reader to think about the important things in life and how much a person’s happiness relies on conforming with society’s “norms”.

Miss Jane was different from anything I’ve read before. Its absorbing, original narrative meant it ended up becoming my favourite novel of 2016. I highly recommend it!

Categories
2016 Recommended books

The Good Guy by Susan Beale

 Source: Free review copy received from publisher

Five words from the blurb: marriage, deception, suburban, New England, intentions

The Good Guy is a fantastic debut. It is packed with passion and emotion; an example of what happens when an author has a personal story that they just have to write about.

The Good Guy is set in 1960s New England and is based on the author’s family history. It shows how Ted, a loving husband, becomes involved with another woman. The way society treated divorcees, single parents, and those who’ve had affairs was examined; giving an impressive insight into the culture of the era.

I loved the period detail. Events, like buying their first colour television set, were fascinating to me. I wasn’t born until the late 70s so it was interesting to discover their attitude to objects that we now take for granted. I suspect that those who did live through this decade will enjoy reminiscing about trying things like fondue for the first time and buying “bold orange and olive-green furnishings”!

I was also impressed by the structure of the novel – especially the way alternate chapters were written from the male and female perspective. This showed how misunderstandings in a relationship occur and allowed the reader to bond with all the characters involved. Many parts of the book reminded me of Night Waking by Sarah Moss, in that they showed the difficulties and isolation of childcare. It was interesting to compare the two books, showing what has (and hasn’t!) changed in the last 50 years.

Mindy scooped water up. Her face was bathe in confusion, as if she couldn’t understand why it dripped away. She tried again and again, pressing her hands together, closing the gaps between her fingers but the water always found its way out. Mindy’s brow furrowed in frustration that Abigail understood perfectly. It was just like her battle with the housework – every day, an endless to-do list of cooking, cleaning, laundry and grocery shopping. She never stopped and yet always, at the end of the day, her hands were empty.

My only problem with the novel was that it was too predictable. It accurately showed the way people reacted, and I admired the way the plot stayed focused, but I’d have liked to see a few additional story elements to complicate things a bit.

Overall this was an impressive piece of fiction. It perfectly captured 1960s suburban life and I look forward to watching this author’s career develop over the coming years.