Tag: book reviews

2020 Alphabet Soup Author Challenge – Boy21 – Matthew Quick

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Genre: Young adult, Mental Illness, Family

Narrative Style: First person, chronological

Rating: 3/5

Published: 2012

Format: Kindle

Synopsis: For Finley and his girlfriend, Erin, basketball is everything. It is their ticket out of their downbeat neighbourhood and they spend long hours training together. When Finley’s coach asks him to look after Russ, a much sought after basketball player who has suffered such a severe trauma he has retreated into the persona Boy21, things change for him completely. Both boys are forced to face up to the tragedy in their lives. 

Reading Challenges: 2020 Alphabet Soup Author Challenge

I admit I bought this specially for this challenge, having no Q authors on my shelves – either physical or kindle. I’d seen the film of Silver Linings Playbook so I’m not sure why I didn’t pick that. This sounded interesting but unfortunately didn’t live up to its potential.

Finley is an interesting narrator and his family relations were convincing in their detail. Life was difficult for Finley, living in a rough neighbourhood, having to look after his disabled, alcoholic Grandfather while his father worked night shift and getting picked on for being the only white person on the school basketball team but as long as he was able to play and spend time with Erin, he was fine. So far so good, I thought. The scene was successfully set.

However, when Russ – Boy21 – is introduced into the story, things become less convincing. His persona didn’t really ring true. Although, undoubtedly, people do retreat into fantasy – in this case, believing they are from outer space – in order to avoid very real tragedy, I just couldn’t quite believe in Russ. Similarly when he recovers after starting to play basketball again, it just feels too easy.

One of the most interesting aspects of this story was the friendship between Finley and Russ, both of whom have suffered from tragedy. However, it is suddenly cut off as Finley is given a chance to escape but he will never be able to return to Belmont. I felt this was a shame and made the novel seem a bit pointless.

At the beginning of the novel, we are told that Finley’s mother is dead and that no one talks about it. Hints are made about the Irish mafia throughout the novel, particularly after Erin is involved in a hit and run accident that stops her from playing basketball. When the full story is revealed it is little wonder that Finley never wanted to talk about it but it does come quite late in the story and with little to really prepare the reader for what was to come. After Finley and Russ reveal the details of the violent acts in their lives, their usefulness to each other is clearly over as Quick then allows Finley the escape he was always wanted. Again, it felt too easy and unrealistic.

Overall, I did feel compelled to read on and it was an interesting story and I suppose for a younger audience, it was perhaps more important to have an optimistic ending rather than a realistic one but ultimately, I fell it didn’t quite ring true.

2020 Alphabet Soup Challenge Author Edition – The Heart’s Invisible Furies – John Boyne

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Genre: Irish Fiction, LGBT, Historical Fiction

Narrative Style: First person, Chronological

Rating: 4/5

Published: 2017

Format: Kindle

Synopsis: Cyril Avery’s  adoptive parents never miss an opportunity to tell him that he is adopted and so not a real Avery. Cyril feels like he doesn’t really fit in anywhere and he soon realises that being adopted isn’t the only thing that is different about him. Being gay in Ireland in the 1950s isn’t easy and Cyril struggles with his sexuality. The novel recounts events from Cyril’s life at seven year intervals, taking the reader from the 1950s to the present day. 

Reading Challenges: 2020 Alphabet Soup – Author Edition

This was a very enjoyable read – as might be expected from John Boyne. It was different from the other two books that I’ve read by him as it seemed a much more personal project than The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas or The Absolutist. Being gay and Irish clearly had a big influence on the subject matter of this book.

The novel starts with the story of Catherine Goggin, hounded out of her home town by the priest for becoming pregnant out of wedlock. She travels to Dublin to have the baby, planning to have it adopted as she will not be able to keep it as a single woman in the 1940s. On the bus, she meets Sean MacIntryre who is also running away from home because he is gay and he offers her a place to stay until the baby is born.

The story of Catherine’s child, Cyril Avery starts when he is seven years old and continues at seven year intervals until he is seventy seven. The novel covers a lot of ground in both Irish and LGBT history, taking in the power of the clergy, bombs, kidnapping, prostitution, AIDS, violence against gay people to name but a few. For the most part, this is fine. Boyne is a sensitive writer and covers issues in a very human way but it does sometimes make it obvious that this is fiction and not actually someone’s life.

I found the beginning of the novel very readable. I couldn’t put it down. Cyril becomes friends with Julian Woodbead at age seven and their friendship lasts for a long time. Cyril quickly realises that he is in love with Julian which is unfortunate as Julian is enthusiastically heterosexual. Some of the funniest parts of the novel came with Julian’s boasting about his sexual conquests and also the scrapes that he gets Cyril into.

Cyril hides his sexuality, reluctant to even admit it to himself which leads to furtive encounters and lots of loneliness. Early on, he acquires a girlfriend, Mary Margaret, who luckily for him, does not want a sexual relationship. Boyne manages to find the humour in this situation but he also stresses how difficult it is for Cyril to put forward a version of himself that society would find acceptable.

As the novel progresses  – and Cyril grows older – the story becomes less interesting. Without spoiling the story, there is only one romance in Cyril’s life and that does not last into old age. As is the way in life, I suppose, things start happening to other, younger characters which Cyril mainly observes. Even at the beginning, Cyril is never the life and soul so when life slows down for him, he becomes a bit boring.

This is the main reason that I didn’t give it five stars. That, and the fact that sometimes the plotting is a little clumsy. In the section set in New York when Cyril is volunteering at an AIDS hospital, the irony of the situation he finds himself in is heavy handed to say the least. There are also lots of coincidences and chance meetings (between Cyril and his mother, for example)  which I found a little annoying. Cyril shows a remarkable lack of curiosity about his mother and it is another chance meeting that eventually means they realise they are mother and son.

Overall, though this was a great read and it certainly opened my eyes as to how horrible things were in Ireland because of the power of the Catholic church. The novel ends on a positive note with Cyril’s grandson, George, and his boyfriend, Marcus representing a new and more open generation which gives some hope for the future.

2020 Alphabet Soup Challenge: Author Challenge – Bridge of Clay – Markus Zusak

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Genre: Australian Fiction, Family

Narrative Style: First person, non-chronological

Rating: 5/5

Published:2018

Format: Kindle

Synopsis: The five Dunbar brothers are left without adult supervision after their mother dies and their father abandons them. They live by their own rules. When their father returns to ask them to help build a bridge, only Clay is able to respond.

Reading Challenge: 2020 Alphabet Soup: Author Challenge

After reading – and loving – The Book Thief a few years ago, I avoided reading any other books by Zusak. I’m not really sure why. The Book Thief was such a great book and seemed like such a one off, I wasn’t sure that any other book by the author would be able to live up to it. I’m happy to report that Bridge of Clay is easily as good.

There are similarities with The Book Thief. Bridge of Clay is narrated by the oldest Dunbar brother, Matthew but he is not at the centre of the story. As with Death in The Book Thief, he is often narrating other people’s stories so that he becomes an omniscient narrator of others’ lives. This gives the novel a curious tone, caught between the detachment of Matthew’s position and the emotional resonance of the stories that he tells.

At the beginning of the novel, the boys’ father returns for the first time since the death of their mother, asking for help to build a bridge. Only Clay is able to respond and he leaves with their father, despite risking the wrath of Matthew who tells him he will beat him if he ever returns. The story of the parents, Penny and Michael is intertwined with current events, leading up to two devastating events for Clay in particular but the rest of the Dunbar boys as well.

The building of the bridge is literal and metaphoric as it allows the boys to rebuild their relationship with their father and Matthew comes to realise why he could no longer stay and why Clay was the only one who could rescue him.

This is an incredibly powerful novel. If I’d been reading this at home, and not on the tram, I’d probably have had a good cry at the end. This a story about death and grief but also about redemption and recovery. It’s also about the ties of family and the love that brothers have for each other. Zusak took a long time to write this book, admitting that if he hadn’t finished it this time, he might have had to abandon it. I’m certainly glad that he persevered.

2020 Alphabet Soup Author Challenge – The Line of Beauty – Alan Hollinghurst.

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Genre: LGBT, Historical Fiction

Narrative Style: Third person from the point of view of one character

Rating: 3.5/5

Published: 2004

Format: Hardback

Synopsis: Nick Guest has just finished university and is lodging in the attic room of his friend, Toby Fedden’s family. Nick is in love with Toby but it is unrequited and likely to stay that way. Nick embarks on a love affair with a young black man, Leo. The novel is set in the eighties and describes the highs and lows of that decade through Nick’s various relationships. 

Reading Challenges: 2020 Alphabet Soup Author Challenge. 

I had mixed feelings about this book. In fact, I knew I probably would, having read Hollinghurt before. It was beautifully written. There is no doubt that Hollinghurst can turn a phrase or that he loves language but I felt it was an empty beauty. For a long time, nothing seemed to happen and Nick wasn’t really interesting enough to hang the entire narrative on his thoughts and feelings.

The other problem for me is that posh people are not that exciting. And Hollinghurst describes the luxuries of the age in great detail. Everybody is connected to somebody important, if they are not important themselves. There is a lot of description of antiques. There is a grotesqueness to all the money being lavished around and some of the characters do seem satirical e.g. Sir Maurice Tipper  and Badger. They were very cleverly written but as a result fo the satirical intent seemed more like stereotypes.

Nick doesn’t really fit in the circles his attachment to the Feddens allow him to move in. He isn’t poor, by any stretch but he isn’t super rich either. In this respect, his observations are helpful to the reader, sometimes cynical, sometimes awestruck, he is always an outsider. He is portrayed as somewhat innocent even later on in the novel when he is procuring cocaine for his Lebanese millionaire lover. When everything comes crashing down around his head due to a particularly vicious tabloid story, he is thrown out of the Fedden’s home. He has naively believed that the family cared for him when their feelings for him were based on a version of himself that was not real. It was easy to feel  sorry for him and to see the pain that such secrets cause.

There is also no denying that this is a clever novel. So much is hinted at or omitted from the narrative. Nick meets the parents of both his lovers although not as a lover but as a friend and Hollinghurst describes the agony of this successfully. At the end of the novel, we are left with Nick wondering  what the results of his latest HIV test will be. He imagines the world carrying on without him in an incredibly poignant piece of writing Unfortunately, for me, these sorts of moments were few and far between.

Overall, I’m glad I read it and I enjoyed it more than The Folding Star. The prose was beautiful and it was clever and funny but ultimately fell short of the mark. It seemed like a triumph of style over substance. I understand that the many things that are unsaid are a metaphor for the secret keeping Nick has to perform on a daily basis but it made for an unsatisfying read.

 

 

TBR Challenge – The Virgin’s Lover – Philippa Gregory

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Genre: Chick Lit, Historical Fiction

Narrative Style: Third Person

Rating: 1/5

Published: 2005

Format: Paperback

Synopsis: Mary Tudor has died and Elizabeth’s position as the new queen of England is precarious. With threats from the French and the Catholic church, she feels there are few people she can trust. When she starts a secret relationship with the already married Robert Dudley, she makes her position even more dangerous as few approve of the match. 

Reading Challenges: TBR Challenge

Time on shelf: Five years – I inherited this when my mam died. We’d enjoyed reading and recommending Gregory’s other novels so I avoided reading this one when I couldn’t discuss it with her. 

I was expecting to enjoy this. I’ve read Gregory before and thought that her novels were intriguing and gave a convincing impression of what life at court was like. Not so with this book.

It wasn’t just the setting that was unconvincing. The characters were flat and impossible to like. Gregory seemed enamoured of Robert Dudley and often mentioned his dark good looks and the ridiculous effect he had on Elizabeth. His ambition and his handsomeness were the only features of his personality so it was hard to see exactly why the queen might love him so much. Elizabeth was frequently reduced to jelly, little more than a quivering mass, by her lust for Dudley. I understand the impulse to make Elizabeth more human but, in this novel, she lost all power and became the the Tudor idea of womanhood, unable to function without her male advisors.

The beginning of the novel plays out like an Elizabethan sex romp. It is like a cross between a Carry On film and a bad porn movie. Not that it is explicit, it’s more that the scenarios feel like something from porn. Elizabeth dresses as a servant so that Dudley can take her in the stables. Out hunting, Dudley drags her from her horse to do it in the leaves. It was all quivering loins and heaving bosoms. It was so unsubtle that it was laughable and it really detracted from the political elements of the story.

It was also hard to have sympathy with Amy, Dudley’s wife. She is portrayed as pathetically in love with Dudley who is somehow so charismatic as to have both these women absolutely besotted with him. She spends most of the novel in a puddle of tears, refusing to grant him a divorce, mooning around like a lovesick schoolgirl. Again, she was little more than a plot device.

Finally, Gregory is taken with the idea the Amy was murdered by Cecil – with the Queen’s approval because she is so incapable of resisting Dudley’s charms and it is the only way to not marry him – as part of a plot to bring Dudley down. Although there were many rumours at the time about Dudley’s involvement, most historians do not think this was the case. And Gregory’s tale does nothing to convince the reader that this might be a possible version of events.

 

TBR Challenge – The Martian Chronicles – Ray Bradbury

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Genre: Science Fiction

Narrative Style: A series of interlinked short stories that show the human journey from arriving on Mars through settling there to leaving again. 

Rating: 4/5

Published: 1950

Format: Kindle

Synopsis: Through a series of interlinked stories, Bradbury explores the human relationship with Mars. Beginning with invasions – and Martian attempts to thwart them – Bradbury’s stories look at colonialism, human nature, loneliness and war.

Reading Challenges: TBR Challenge hosted by Roof Beam Reader.

Time on shelf: This has been on my kindle for about two years. The last Bradbury short story collection I read was a bit hit and miss so I avoided this one for a bit.

This was, for the most part, very enjoyable. I’m not a massive fan of short story collections as I usually find some don’t quite hit the mark but the narrative links running through the stories helped the whole thing to hang together.

It is always a bit weird reading science fiction from a long time ago. (So long ago, in fact, that the stories are set in the early 2000s. It is weird to think that Bradbury’s distant future has already faded into the past.) Even when Bradbury was imagining amazing future technology, he was hampered by the knowledge of his age and things sometimes felt a little quaint.

However, the main point of Bradbury’s fiction is not to write a perfect version of future technology but to look at the way human nature will be shaped by technological developments.  So he looks at the way that humans would behave when they arrive on Mars – how they immediately turn it into another version of earth, trying to remove all Martian traces and not caring how much they ruin the planet (And the Moon Still Be as Bright). He looks at relationships between Martians and humans – although most of the Martians have been killed off by chicken pox. In the story The Fire Balloons, priests are sent on a missionary mission to Mars and Bradbury discusses the idea of what sin might mean on a foreign planet.

Some of my favourite stories were early in the collection and revolved around failed expeditions. In The Earth Men, the newly arrived spacemen are taken for mad men and placed in an insane asylum. Due to the Martians telepathy they can see others’ hallucinations and so all assume that the Earth men are merely mad. Telepathy also figures in The Third Expedition. When the crew arrives, everything resembles their hometowns along with long dead relatives and they come to believe that Mars is really heaven. However, nothing is what it seems as the Martians have used telepathy to lure them into a false sense of security.

The final two stories are both poignant. There Will Come Soft Rains shows the way an automated house will continue running even after nuclear war has destroyed civilisation. Finally, a family escapes the war on Earth back up to Mars. Hoping to repopulate the planet now that Earth is ruined, a number of people have hidden rockets until they could use them to escape. They burn all documents they have brought with them and relate to their identity on Earth including a map of Earth. In the end, having promised his sons the possibility of seeing Martians, he shows them their reflections in a river.

As with the best science fiction, the themes are still relevant to our modern society especially as the race to get to Mars is underway. The technology may seem a little hokey but the ideas are still important.

 

 

TBR Challenge 2019 – Decline and Fall – Evelyn Waugh

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Genre: Classics, satire

Narrative style: third person narrative

Rating: 4/5

Published: 1928

Format: paperback

Synopsis: When Paul Pennyfeather is expelled from Oxford for indecent behaviour, his life spirals downwards. He begins his new life at a boys school and ends it in jail. Non of it is Paul’s fault. Events happen to him as he wanders through his life. Paul is an innocent abroad and Waugh uses his journey as an opportunity to satirise the 1920s society. 

Reading challenges: TBR Challenge

Time on shelf: I inherited this book in 2014 when my husband’s aunt died. 

This was an entertaining read. It was quite different from the only other Waugh I have read – Brideshead Revisited – but was very amusing nonetheless. Paul Pennyfeather is a useful character, wandering oblivious through Waugh’s satirical landscape. He has little will of his own, making nothing happen and, it seems, never truly understanding what is happening to him.

The novel is littered with eccentric characters such as Prendy an ex-vicar plagued by religious doubts or Captain Grimes who is always in the soup. Paul’s first port of call after being sent down from Oxford (after accidentally wandering into the drunken exploits of the Bollinger Club) is a Welsh public school. Here he meets Prendy and Grimes as well as Solomon Philbrick who has told at least three different stories of how he came to be at the school and is one the run from the police.

When Paul falls in love with the mother of one of his charges, his life really starts to take off. Margot Beste-Chestwynde agrees to marry him and immediately sends him off to deliver some women to South America. Paul, of course, has no idea that Margot’s money comes from prostitution and is incredibly surprised when he is arrested on the morning of his wedding for human trafficking.

The novel is very amusing and cleverly mocking of the mores of the time without ever explicitly saying anything. Paul eventually ends up exactly where he started, back at Oxford where nobody recognises him and his life returns to some sort of normality. There is no sense of character development or lessons learned – this is not a bildungsroman. In fact, there is little emotional interest for the reader. Waugh’s satire is clever and funny but I couldn’t help wishing for more emotional depth.

Full House Reading Challenge – The Alchemist – Paulo Coelho

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Genre: Spirituality, Magic Realism, Brazilian Literature

Narrative Style: detached third person similar to a fable.

Rating: 2/5

Format: Kindle

Published: 1988

Synopsis: Santiago is a shepherd and seems quite happy tending his sheep and waiting to see the girl of his dreams. However, a recurring dream of treasure sets him on an adventure that will take him far from home. Along the way, he learns lessons about human nature and spirituality.

Reading challenges: Full House Reading Challenge – Genre – new to me author from another country.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this book. I knew that it was pretty popular and that it was sometimes described as magic realism, a genre I am fond of so I thought I’d give it a go. I haven’t read any Brazilian literature before so I was curious to see what it was like.

It wasn’t long before I realised it wasn’t really going to be for me. The novel is written in the style of a fable or parable and the characters are archetypes – e.g. the simple shepherd, the king, the alchemist of the title. Right from the start it was clear that the moral was going to be a little heavy handed. I lost time of the number of times the boy was told to listen to his heart and that if you want something strongly enough the world will give it to you as long as you never doubted your purpose. It was all a bit new agey for me. I’m too cynical to really be able to believe that this is the way of the world.

Also, it seems a bit of a dubious moral philosophy. If everyone was off following their heart’s desires, the world would be a very different place. After all, not many people have the heart’s desire to work in McDonalds or be a refuse collector. Even deciding to do something that is more like a vocation may be a pragmatic decision rather than a following of your ultimate desire.

The boy finds his treasure. I must admit that I hoped that it would turn out to be other than simply monetary. I understand that his search is what is really important – he learns valuable lessons along the way. Because he follows his ‘personal legend’, he is duly rewarded by God but I couldn’t help but feel that this reward being gold somehow undermined the message that following one’s dream is spiritual and about oneness with the world.

Having looked at reviews of this novel, I can see that many people feel it has changed their lives. If I’d realised that before I started to read it, I probably wouldn’t have bothered to read it. I’m not really in the market for a life-changing experience. It’s not something I look to reading to give me.

Full House Reading Challenge – 84 Charing Cross Road – Helene Hanff

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Genre: Epistolary, Non-fiction

Narrative Style: Exchange of letters between Hanff and Frank Doel of Marks & Co.

Rating: 3/5

Published: 1976

Format: Paperback

Synopsis: Helene Hanff is an American with an interest in classical literature and old books. Marks & co are the British bookshop that she writes to to try and get her hands on some of these books. What develops is a funny and touching relationship between Helene and Frank mainly but also others who work in the shop and Frank’s wife. 

Reading challenges: Full House Reading Challenge – Set in a bookshop 

I was quite excited by the thought of reading this as I loved the film. Really, I should know better. This is already the second post I’ve started off in this fashion this year. It is truly amazing that they managed to get such a rewarding film from such a slim volume.

Not that this was terrible. It certainly wasn’t. It was interesting to watch the relationship between Helene and Frank develop. The contrast between her open and easy going personality and Frank’s careful British reserve was amusing. Watching Frank slowly let his guard down was one of the more interesting aspects of the book.

But I have to admit, Helene got on my nerves. And nothing really happens. Books are ordered and received. Gifts are sent both ways. I suppose if you were reading this blind, then you might have the wonder of whether Helene was going to get to visit London but having seen the film, I knew that wasn’t going to happen.

The main thing I thought when reading this book was how old fashioned it seemed and also how difficult it would be for this  to happen these days. Not only because we don’t really communicate be letter anymore but because these friendly, small businesses with time to treat their customers so well also seem like a thing of the past. I must admit that it gave me a strong sense of nostalgia for when we used to write letters to each other and we didn’t know every aspect of each others lives  through social media.

 

 

Full House Reading Challenge – The Quiet American – Graham Greene

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Genre : War

Narrative Style: First Person, Non-chronological

Published: 1956

Rating: 4/5

Format: Paperback

Synopsis:  Fowler is a cynical journalist following the battles of the French against the Vietminh. Pyle is the naïve American who has idealistic ideas about how to end the war. When Pyle is murdered, everyone is suspect, including Fowler. As Fowler recounts his story of meeting Pyle, it transpires his own motives are less than pure.

Reading Challenges: The Full House Reading Challenge – Less than 250 pages.

I can’t say that I fully understood the political situation in this novel. I haven’t very much knowledge of the Vietnam War but Greene paints his picture in a very human way, looking at individual motivation and personality so it is relatively easy to follow.

As with other Greene novels I have read, motivation is nothing if not complicated. Fowler is attempting to keep himself on the side lines. But he finds it harder and harder to remain uninvolved. His relationship with Pyle is complicated by the fact that Pyle’s first act is to steal Phuong, Fowler’s beautiful mistress.

The story unfolds in flashbacks after Pyle’s death and the reader slowly realises that while it is true that Fowler did not kill Pyle, he is also not completely innocent. Fowler cannot let Phuong go. Pyle has to be removed from the picture. The novel shows how complicated personal and political motivation can be.

The one thing that made me a little uncomfortable was the way Phuong is passed between the men. I’m not accusing Greene of sexism or anything. I’m sure it is an apt description of the way Vietnamese women were treated by Western men.  But nonetheless, it made the novel a little less enjoyable for me.

All in all, an interesting novel that made me think about war, about the personal and the political and about relationships in general. Definitely worth a read.