Category: Publication Date

Categories
2000 - 2007 Books in Translation Other Prizes

Wolf Totem – Jiang Rong

 Winner 2007 Man Asian Literary Prize

Translated from the Chinese by Howard Goldblatt

I bought a copy of Wolf Totem after I met The Book Whisperer and she raved about it. It is her favourite book of all time and as I love books set in Asia I decided to give it a try.

Wolf Totem is set on the Mongolian grasslands and describes the constant battle that the nomads have with the wolves that live there. The relationship the people have with the wolves is confused when Chen Zhen, an intellectual from Beijing, captures a wolf cub and starts to raise it. The book is based on the real life events of the author, who answered Chairman Mao’s 1969 call for city dwellers to experience life in the mountains.

This book goes some way to explaining what life was like for the Mongolian nomads, but it concentrates on the difficulties that wolves brought to their lives. We witness packs of wolves massacring their animals and the nomad’s attempts to kill the wolves. It was fascinating to learn about the behaviour of wolves, but I suspect the graphic nature of the hunts will be too much for some.

I enjoyed the excitement of the chase, but by the half way stage I began to tire of the endless battle between man and wolf. This book is 500+ pages long and after a while one wolf hunt became much like all the others. I longed to learn about other aspects of life in the grasslands and perhaps witness some of the human relationships.

I also felt that the writing quality was that of great fiction, not literature. There was no depth or poetry to the language – it was simply there to inform.

These things are never easy for the Mongols. Gasmai only has the one son, and still she didn’t stop him from grabbing a wolf’s tail or crawling into a den. The old Chinese saying ‘Don’t fight wolves if you’re unwilling to sacrifice your son’ must have come from the grassland. Don’t forget, the Mongols ruled China for nearly a century. I used to think it meant using your son as wolf bait, believe it or not. Now I realize it means letting your son risk crawling into a wolf’s den to get the cubs. Only a youngster could handle a tunnel this deep and narrow.

I did learn a lot of interesting facts about the wolves and am pleased I read the book, but I wish it had been slightly shorter.

Recommended to anyone who’d like to know more about wolves, in all their gruesome glory.

Categories
2010

The Spider Truces – Tom Connolly

The Spider Truces is a coming-of-age novel set in rural Kent. That description would normally send me running in the opposite direction, but I was intrigued by the second thread of the book focusing on spiders. I was immediately pleased that I decided to give it a try as in the same way that The Behaviour of Moths (The Sister in the US) taught me about moths, this book proved to be a mine of interesting information about spiders.

Spiders in the bath are usually male house spiders that have fallen in while searching for females. By closing their book lungs and tracheae, they can survive in water for half an hour or more. Even spiders that appear quite dead can suddenly get up and walk when they dry out and open up their breathing systems again.

Unfortunately I found the spider facts so interesting that they started to overshadow the main plot.  I found the story of Ellis, growing up in the 1970s and 80s, too slow and gentle. It was beautifully written and the descriptions were incredibly vivid, but I became frustrated by the level of detail. I just wanted the pace to pick up and I’m afraid it never did.

Ellis and Denny would leave early for the Marsh, setting out when the village was a dark procession of cadaver houses and hollow-eyed windows. At shearing time, they heard the cries of ewes separated from their lambs reverberate across the flatlands and rise to them on the escarpment at Bilsington Monument. In midsummer, they listened to the hum of a light aircraft looping the loop over the Midley ruin. At dusk, Ellis saw smugglers out of the corner of his eye. They sought the eeriness of winter. The beauty of summer. The holiness of it all.

I also felt I was too young to appreciate much of this book. If you grew up in the 1960s or 70s (especially if it was in Kent) then I suspect that you’ll love reminiscing about many of the things mentioned.

I know that a lot of people will love this gentle, meandering story, but I only made it to the end because I loved the spider facts.

Recommended to those who love well-written, descriptive books – especially if you can remember the 1970s!

Categories
1980s Chunkster Historical Fiction Pulitzer Prize

Lonesome Dove – Larry McMurtry

 Winner of the 1985 Pulitzer Prize

What an epic! I am really pleased that after nearly three months I finally made it to the end of this massive book. I originally started reading Lonesome Dove as part of Amy’s readalong, but unfortunately I failed to keep up with everyone else and so had to make do with reading their comments several weeks after I made it to the same spot.

Lonesome Dove is the first Western I’ve ever read. It contained all the elements that I was expecting in a Western (cattle, horses, guns and the big outdoors) but the atmosphere was very different. I was surprised by the gentle humor running all the way through it and, although several people were killed, it never felt dark. 

The story begins in Lonesome Dove, a small town in Texas, and follows a group of men who decide to take some cattle to Montana. We see the dangers that they face from both animals and other men, but also the complex relationships that they have with each other. Lonesome Dove crosses so many genres – it is a romance novel as well as a vivid piece of historical fiction. It is a shame that it is called a Western as I think the term is quite off-putting to some people.

The book started off very slowly – it took me about 300 pages to begin to engage with the characters, but once this happened I found them to be some of the most vivid I’ve ever read about. There was very little forward momentum anywhere in the book, so I never felt compelled to pick it up and start reading again. This made it feel much longer than its already imposing 940 pages.

The characters were very well developed, but there were many points when I wished that the book would stop fleshing out the characters and get on with the story. The plot picked up in the final section, but I was a bit frustrated by the number of loose ends left unresolved.

I’m really pleased that I made it to the end of this classic, but I wish it had more pace and a less meandering plot. There was a lot to enjoy and I do think that it is one of those books everyone should try at some point in their lives. Recommended.

Opinions are divided on this one:

…..both funnier and sadder than I’d ever anticipated. Whimpulsive

…life is too short to spend my reading time in the company of people I don’t like who are doing things I find repulsive. Semicolon

Lonesome Dove is on my all time favorites list. Capricious Reader

Can you recommend any Westerns which have a faster pace?

Categories
2009 Orange Prize

The Way Things Look to Me – Roopa Farooki

 Long Listed for 2010 Orange Prize

The Way Things Look To Me is a simple story about how a brother and sister cope when the death of their mother forces them to care for their little sister, Yasmin, who has Asperger’s syndrome.

The book switches between the viewpoints of the three siblings, showing us their thoughts and frustrations as they try to adapt to their new lives. I was impressed by the distinct differences in their voices and found Yasmin’s narration to be a realistic example of how a person with Asperger’s speaks.

My name is Yasmin Murphy, and sometimes I am so full of things to say that I’ll feel that I’ll burst if I can’t get them out, and will talk, and talk, and talk until I can see people fidget and move uncomfortably

Yasmin is also supposed to have synesthesia, a condition which means that you see words and numbers as distinct colours. I didn’t understand why this was introduced to the book as it was never investigated properly and seemed an unnecessary addition to the plot.

The book was easy to read and contained a few emotional sections, but I felt it lacked something. I think that reading this book so soon after reading Born on a Blue Day was a big disadvantage for it. The two books both mention Asperger’s and synesthesia, but Born on a Blue Day made me feel as though I understood what it was like to have the conditions. The Way Things Look to Me was mildly entertaining, but didn’t have that same deep insight.

Recommended if you are looking for a quick, entertaining read with a bit of emotion, but if you are after any real insight into Asperger’s then I’d look elsewhere.

The thoughts of other bloggers:

Each of the three characters is multi-dimensional and written with great sensitivity and insight. Curious Book Fans

It is very difficult to dislike Roopa Farooki’s novels.  They are as eager to please as puppies, and who doesn’t like puppies, at least hypothetically? Eve’s Alexandria

…this neurotypical enjoyed it immensely. Roopa Farooki knows how to write. Action for Autism

Note: Im aware I’ve broken my New Year’s Resolution in finishing a 3.5 star book, but I’m making exceptions for books about Asperger’s.

Categories
2011 Crime Thriller

The Facility – Simon Lelic

Rupture was one of my favourite books of 2010  and I am sad that it didn’t receive the attention it deserved. I was pleased to discover that Simon Lelic’s second book was going to be released so soon after his first and I jumped at the chance to read it.

The Facility is set in the near future and centres on a secret prison which the British Government are using to hold people under their new “Unified Security Act”. Initially created to hold terrorism suspects without charge, the authorities are now using it for questionable purposes. The book follows one man who doesn’t understand why he has been imprisoned and those on the outside who are desperate to discover why he has disappeared.

The book is a fast paced thriller which is gripping throughout. It isn’t for the prudish as there is strong sexual content from the start and I must also warn you that it gets quite dark and violent in places.

Unfortunately I didn’t find it as thought provoking as it could have been – it read like a conventional thriller instead of being a deeper investigation into this complex issue.

It also lost the wonderful one-sided-conversation writing style of Rupture. The writing quality was still high, but there was nothing to make it stand out from the crowd of other thrillers produced each year.

The Facility is a wonderful thriller, but I had hoped it would be so much more than that. I urge you to read Rupture so that you can understand why I had such high hopes for this book. The Facility is worth reading if you are after an absorbing, fast paced read, but I’m hoping that his next book returns to the magic of his first.

Categories
2000 - 2007 Recommended books

Peripheral Vision – Patricia Ferguson

One of my New Year’s Resolutions is to take a chance on lesser known books and I’m really pleased to report that my first venture into the unknown was a massive success. I decided to read Peripheral Vision after seeing a post on the Fiction Uncovered website in which Amanda Craig highlighted some undervalued authors. She described Patricia Ferguson’s novels as dark and dazzling – exactly the sort of books I love!

I chose to read Peripheral Vision because it is primarily about motherhood. Through the eyes of three different women we see how the relationship between a mother and child can be both powerful and fragile.

The writing is amazingly clear and a high degree of emotional intensity is built up in a very short period of time.

The first few pages read like a piece of quality chick lit, but this book quickly becomes more than that – the writing has a depth of both character and theme. The cover image implies that this is quite a light book, but there are a few disturbing scenes so I don’t advise reading this if you are squeamish!

The book begins as a series of short stories, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that they all linked up in the end. This plot isn’t packed with action, but the power of the relationships was enough to grip me completely.

It seems to her that all maternal love degrades naturally, as the perfect baby becomes the imperfect adult; that such natural fading, from adoration to gentle mutual fondness, is normal.

The theme of vision also runs through the book and I especially loved the details of ophthalmic surgery – I felt as though I was being educated as well as entertained.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in books about motherhood, especially if you appreciate quality writing.

 

Have you read anything written by Patricia Ferguson?