Category: Publication Date

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2011 Orange Prize

Island of Wings by Karin Altenberg

Island of Wings Longlisted for 2012 Orange Prize

Five words from the blurb: islands, family, love, minister, hardship

Island of Wings is set on the remote Scottish island of St Kilda and focuses on Neil and Lizzie MacKenzie, a young couple who arrived on the island in 1830. Neil MacKenzie is a minister who aimed to improve the lives of the islanders by building better houses and by trying to quash their pagan practices. The book describes the difficulties faced by the couple as they adjusted to life on an island plagued by famine and high infant mortality.  

The main appeal of the book is the way it describes what life on St Kilda was like 180 years ago. Much of the plot is based on actual events and the historical facts were well researched. There were a few dramatic scenes, but the realism meant that plot was often quiet and insular. 

The population relied on sea birds for almost everything and their uses were described in graphic detail:

George was appalled to see a girl of about four or five years old trying to pull the neck of a gannet over her foot as a stocking. The minister followed his gaze and explained. ‘They often make shoes out of the necks of gannets – they cut the head off at the eyes, and the part where the skull was serves as the heel of the shoe and the feathers on the throat offer warmth and waterproofing. They generally only last a couple of days, but at times there are so many birds that they can wear these disposable socks almost daily.’

I found these little details really interesting, but I suspect that others may tire of these facts and long for a more compelling plot.

The book was very easy to read, flowing smoothly from beginning to end. The subject matter was occasionally dark, but the atmosphere remained light so the reader was distanced from any pain and suffering that occurred. I would have preferred a greater emotional attachment to the characters, but the writing style did create an atmosphere fitting with the remoteness of the island, so I probably shouldn’t complain too much.

Island of Wings gripped me throughout. It was an entertaining read that gave a fascinating insight into this small community.

Recommended.

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The thoughts of other bloggers:

A beautiful story, it portrays a difficult, rugged life with delicacy. Trees and Ink

Island of Wings is very much an interior portrait – within the island, within the marriage – and at times the closeness of the story becomes almost claustrophobic….  Books Under the Skin

This is the Orange title that I have been most gripped by in the last fortnight…. Cardigangirlverity

Categories
2011 Uncategorized

The Submission by Amy Waldman

The Submission Longlisted for 2012 Orange Prize

Five words from the blurb: 9/11, memorial, Muslim, conflict, tragedy

The Submission is a topical book, detailing the outcome of a “what if” scenario in which a Muslim wins the competition to design the 9/11 memorial. The plot switches between multiple narrators, giving the reader the opportunity to see the situation from every side.

I had very mixed feelings about this book – swinging between loving it and hating it at frequent intervals. It was packed with interesting discussion points and some of the scenes were beautifully described, but the characters were flat and I failed to connect to any of them.

The writing quality was also variable. Some passages were beautifully written, but I frequently found too much detail and longed for the sentences to be a bit shorter:

“I know the concerns,” he said gruffly: that it was too soon for a memorial, the ground barely cleared; that the country hadn’t yet won or lost the war, couldn’t even agree, exactly, on who or what it was fighting. But everything happened faster these days – the building up and tearing down of idols; the spread of disease and rumor and trends; the cycling of news; the development of new monetary instruments, which in turn had speeded Paul’s own retirement from the chairmanship of the investment bank. So why not the memorial too?

Flashbacks to 9/11 were tastefully done, with virtually no details given. I loved the way these scenes ended with the phone ringing, the terrible news implied without ever being described.

I expected this to be a thought-provoking book, but unfortunately I didn’t find that to be the case. The sad thing is that most of the events described in this book have happened already, either with the plans for a mosque near the World Trade Centre site, or with other events in London/around the world. This meant that the “what if” scenarios weren’t especially ground-breaking and I felt as though I’d heard all the arguments many times before.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is unaware of the shocking way in which Muslims in our society are treated, but for a book about such an emotive subject I found it surprisingly flat.

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The thoughts of other bloggers: 

…this is a book that literally moved me to tears and I honestly can’t remember the last time a book did that. Steph & Tony Investigate

Despite a strong premise and beginning, Waldman’s overwrites this novel to a frustrating point. Nomadreader

Waldman gives her novel it’s own unique voice and memorable cast of characters that makes it stand out from any other non-fictionalized story it may resemble. Literary Musings

 

Categories
2011 Other Prizes Recommended books

Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward

Salvage the Bones Winner of 2011 National Book Award

Five words from the blurb: hurricane, threatening, family, pregnant, pit bull

When the Orange longlist was announced last week several people voiced their surprise that Salvage the Bones was missing. Intrigued by their passion I decided to give it a try and having read it, I agree. This book stands head and shoulders above everything else published this year. It deserved to win the Orange prize and I’m disappointed that it didn’t even make the longlist.

Salvage the Bones is set in Mississippi and follows one family as they prepare for the arrival of Hurricane Katrina. The unconventional and potentially unlovable family are the owners of a prize pit bull, renowned for her fighting skills. At the start of the book she gives birth to a litter of valuable puppies that they attempt to protect as the hurricane approaches.

I worried that I might be subjected to endless descriptions of wind and destruction, but this book is very cleverly structured. The hurricane hits in the final few pages and the power is in what is left unsaid. The details of the destruction are brief, but their lightness still manages to convey the devastation.

The hurricane laughed. A tree, plucked from its branches, hopped across the yard and landed against Daddy’s truck with a crunch, stopped short like it had won a game of hopscotch without stepping out of the lines. The sky was so close I felt like I could reach up and bury my arm in it.

One of the most impressive things about this book was that it made me care about a family who take part in dog fighting. It takes great skill for an author to enable me to connect with people I’d normally abhor, but somehow Jesmyn Ward  made me to see past their cruelty and I connected with them on an emotional level.

The atmosphere in the book was perfect. The dialogue gave a fantastic sense of place and the descriptions were vivid throughout:

“We ain’t going nowhere.” Skeetah unlashes his arms and they come whipping out from his sides, and his voice is loud, and he’s like those little firecrackers we get on the Fourth of July that throw out sparks from all sides and jump in bright acid leaps across the hard dirt yard.

This isn’t a happy book. It is a powerful insight into the lives of a family who had numerous problems before the arrival of a hurricane. The ending left me wondering how they’d cope once the waters receded and, given the news articles I’ve seen, I can only imagine the horrors a sequel would contain. I’m sure I’ll remember the characters in this book for a long time to come.

Highly recommended to anyone who enjoys emotionally powerful insights into the lives of other people.

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The thoughts of other bloggers:

…stunning, beautiful, tragic, heartbreaking, and wholly absorbing. Caribousmom

There is abusive sex and there is violence.  At times I wanted to stop reading but found I could not.  Page247

This novel absolutely broke my heart, but at the same time I can’t help but recommend that you read it too. Book Addiction

I also recommend listening to this NPR interview with Jesmyn Ward 

(Thanks to Caribousmom for drawing it to my attention)

Categories
2012

The Roundabout Man by Clare Morrall

The Roundabout Man

Five words from the blurb: childhood, books, reclusive, past, truths

I loved Astonishing Splashes of Colour, so was keen to try Morrall’s new book. Unfortunately it isn’t in the same league, but it is still an enjoyable read.

The book introduces Quinn, a man living an isolated life in a caravan on a roundabout.  Quinn has few possessions and relies on food scavenged from the nearby motorway service station. He is befriended by its employees, who wonder why he leads this bizarre existence. The truth has something to do with the fact that his mother was a famous author who immortalised his life (and that of his triplet sisters) in a series of very successful children’s books.

Clare Morrall has an amazing ability to create eccentric characters. They are well-rounded and believable, but also sensitively portrayed, without a hint of sensationalism.

Much of the book reminded me of the film, Enid, which showed how Enid Blyton’s hectic schedule of writing and publicity led to her children being largely ignored.

When I was about three, I kept trying to sneak into the drawing room where my mother was writing, shuffling along the floor on my bottom, humming softly to myself, trying to be quiet but needing to imagine the motor of a car beneath me.
‘Not now, Quinn, I’m busy.’
Sometimes I reached the desk before she saw me, and once I even managed to lean my head against her legs.
‘Go away, please, Quinn. I need to concentrate.’
Why didn’t she just tolerate my presence for a while, let me stay there, even put out a hand and stroke my hair? I know she was busy, but I wouldn’t have disturbed her.

The first half of the book was very good, creating an interesting story with layers of mystery. Unfortunately the plot petered out in the middle and I found that the more I knew, the less interested I was in carrying on. I was initially going to criticise the book for its slightly disappointing revelations, but as I normally complain about unlikely coincidences, I should probably praise their realism!

Things picked up towards the end and I thought the final page was especially good. The quietness of the plot meant that I actually appreciated the book more after I’d had a few days to let the general themes settle in my head.

Recommended to Clare Morrall fans. Everyone else should read Astonishing Splashes of Colour first.

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The thoughts of other bloggers:

…a really clever fusion of urban legend, news story and popular history. The Book and Biscuit

Sometimes the story rambled. Sometimes it became a little too fanciful……But its strangeness and charm kept me holding on. Fleur Fisher in her World

This is a beautifully written story with fully realised and engaging characters. Lovely Treez Reads

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
2012

The Boy who Fell to Earth by Kathy Lette

The Boy Who Fell To Earth

Five words from the blurb: autistic, son, challenging, quirkiness, family

Ten years ago I loved reading Kathy Lette’s books, but my reading tastes changed and I didn’t think I’d be tempted to try her again. Then I received an email from her publicist in which I was informed that Kathy Lette’s new book was a big departure from her previous novels and was written based on her experiences with her twenty one-year-old son who has Asperger’s syndrome. Always keen to read books on the subject, I agreed to give it a try.

The Boy who Fell to Earth centres on Lucy and Jeremy, a fictional couple who have an autistic son called Merlin. Unable to cope with the demands of a special needs child Jeremy leaves and Lucy finds herself alone, battling with authorities to achieve the best results for her son.

The first half of the book annoyed me. I know that all parents of special needs children have difficult days and experience a whole range of emotions, but the negativity of the opening chapters was over powering. A lot of the content didn’t ring true when compared to my recent experiences of the NHS/local schooling system. I can’t decide if this is because Kathy Lette is basing this book on her experiences from twenty years ago or because she is more familiar with the Australian schooling structure (or both!) but I can reassure any parents with children recently diagnosed with autism that things are far better than this book makes out.

There was no mention of the National Autistic Society and the central character made no effort to understand her son’s way of thinking. This meant that she spent her whole life tormenting the poor child, who would have probably been easy to look after if she’d made a few small changes in the way she communicated with him.

I was also frustrated by the way the way she continually moaned about mainstream schooling, but then rejected her in-law’s offer of £300,000 to privately educate him. She seemed to want sympathy more than solutions and her cycle of negativity drove me mad.

The writing was light and easy to read, but the chatty style and endless punchlines became tiring after a while. Perhaps I’m just too close to the subject matter, but I didn’t find some of the jokes very funny.

One thing I learnt in my three years of disastrous dating is that when Cupid closes one door…he slams another in your face. Who knew that Asperger’s was sexually transmittable? But it must be, judging by the way men bolted at the first glimpse of Merlin.

Luckily, things improved as Merlin aged and I found the descriptions of him as a teenager far more enjoyable to read. Their relationship had stabilised and they seemed to have a far better understanding of each other. Lucy continued to do annoying things, but I had a bit more tolerance for her.

The ending almost made up for the earlier sections. It was beautifully written, moving and poignant.

So now I’m torn. I want everyone to read the ending, but I can’t recommend the first section. The only solution is for everyone to read this as part of a book group. It will provoke lots of discussion and give people a greater knowledge of autism. Perhaps the excessive negativity will lead to greater sympathy for us parents?

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