Tag: eclectic reader challenge 2016

End of the Eclectic Reader Challenge

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I wasn’t sure I was going to get this finished in time. I was doing well at first. In fact, I was well ahead of reading one book a month. Then suddenly, I had three to read and not very long to do it in. And for all of them, I had no book in mind. However, thanks to Goodreads recommendations and an Amazon voucher for my birthday, I have managed to read them with a month to spare.

It’s been a mixed bunch this year. Some of the genres were not ones I would normally read. As ever, the challenge forced me to read some books that have been on my shelf for a long time and even though I didn’t enjoy all of them, it was good to have read them.

My favourite books from this year were The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern for the genre paranormal romance. I was definitely not looking forward to this genre but I was hooked by this novel from the very start. Next was Chavs by Owen Jones, an excellently angry analysis of the way our culture has demonised the working classes. Finally, Small Island by Andrea Levy had been sitting on my shelf for a long time. I was really glad to have been made to pick it up as it was a very interesting read.

Disappointments were plenty as well. I decided to read The Power of Beauty by Nancy Friday for the psychology genre, thinking it might be an interesting feminist analysis but I just ended up irritated with it. I was in a mood for the entire time it took me to read it. (About a month, it seemed to go on forever!) For the first time in a long time, I decided to read a Stephen King novel for the serial killer genre and I don’t know if it was just my tastes have changed but it was very disappointing. It must have been 20 years since I last read one so that is definitely a possibility. Perhaps I was a bit hard on it. I used to love Stephen King and so was expecting greatness. Joyland definitely didn’t give me it.

For all that, I’ve enjoyed the challenge and I’ve enjoyed reading things I might not normally read. I’m not sure whether I’m going to sign up again next year. I’m thinking I might not do any reading challenges at all. I quite fancy going back to just choosing any book of my shelves and reading that.

Chavs: The Demonisation of the Working Classes by Owen Jones

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2016eclecticreader_bookdout2016 Nonfiction Challenge

Genre: Journalism, politics

Narrative Style: Academic

Rating: 5/5unknown-1

Format:paperback

Published: 2011

Synopsis: Jones investigates where our current image of the working classes as layabout, trouble making chavs has come from. He analyses political decisions made by Thatcher, New Labour and the current Tories as well as analysing newspaper headlines and shows such as Little Britain.

Reading Challenges: Non-Fiction Challenge, Eclectic Reader Challenge – Genre Investigative Journalism

When it comes up in conversation, I tend to say that I come from a working class background rather than I am working class. There are two reasons for this. First of all, I now have a lot of the trappings of a middle class life. I’m a teacher, I live in suburbia, I read the Guardian and have a veg box delivered and people are keen to point that out. I don’t really believe that class is something that you shrug off the minute that you start to earn more money. Just like if you are upper class and you lose all your money, you are still upper class, you just have no money. It makes more sense when you think about it that way round but it is just as true of working class people who have climbed up the ladder a little bit.

The other reason is less pleasant. I want to disassociate myself from the popular image of the working class chav. I want to say I’m working class like it was perceived 30 years ago when I was growing up rather than working class as it is perceived now. Having read Owen Jones’ book, I feel more than a little ashamed of myself.

It’s not that the things that Jones discusses were news  to me and it’s not like I’m supportive of measures to cut benefits but it is easy to forget that there are genuine reasons and real people behind the stereotypes.

Jones outlines the systematic destruction of working class culture by first, Thatcherism, then New Labour and finally, the Tories again. It is easy to see how this program of cultural demolition has pushed many of the working classes into the open arms of the far right. The role that Labour used to play in many working class communities has left the ideal space for the BNP and UKIP. Cleverly, the BNP have started to play a community role in some of these areas, organising events and dealing with problems.

As Jones points out, the demonisation of the working classes has allowed this Government the most almighty get out clause. It has allowed them to avoid dealing with tax evasion, instead focusing the public’s eye on the much smaller problem of benefit fraud. It paints working class people as lazy and shiftless rather than deal with the fact that there aren’t enough jobs and a lot of the jobs there are are insecure. Focusing working class minds on the problem of immigration has allowed them to avoid putting in place legislation which would stop businesses being able to pay lower wages to immigrants. The list goes on, each item more deplorable than the last.

It is very easy to see why immigration is seen as such a big problem in working class communities. Of course, it would be easy to dismiss this as racism but as Jones points out, this is a far more complex problem than that. Immigrants who are willing to work for a low wage – but probably higher than they were earning at home – drag the entire job market down. Similarly, immigrants are less concerned about having permanent contracts so jobs become more insecure. It is in this atmosphere that parties such as the BNP and UKIP thrive, playing ruthlessly as they do on these insecurities.

Jones describes an experience he had while knocking on doors during the run up to the 2010 election. He describes what seems like a normal working class conversation about immigration except that the woman was Asian. I had a similar experience more recently in the run up to the Brexit referendum. Pupils were very keen to share their opinions (or their parents’ opinions, I suppose.) One Asian pupil was particularly vocal about how we should leave so we could get rid of all the immigrants. There was no point in saying that at some point, somewhere in his family history, they must have emigrated to this country. At the time, I was annoyed with him, I must admit. It seemed unfair that he should wish to stop the very process that had at some stage brought his family to this country. Having read, Jones’ book, I feel like I understand a little more. It is to do with feeling threatened and insecure and that is the motivating factor for the working classes and the issue of immigration, not racism.

After reading this, it is easy to see why so many working class people voted for Brexit. At the mercy of right wing politicians who made promises they could not keep and abandoned by mainstream politics, it is little wonder so many voted to leave. It is the logical result of the systematic ruin of working class communities.

Jones is rightly angry and after reading this book, you will be too. It is frustrating to think that things are only going to get worse when we eventually leave Europe. Brexit will compound problems in working class communities without actually doing any of the things that it promised to do about immigration.

One thing is for sure, this idea that we are all middle class now or that class no longer exists is a big lie. It is unlikely to be challenged any time soon, as it is so helpful to the Government. I’m not sure what the answer to all this is. A stronger Labour party who were genuinely concerned about working class issues would be a start but until they can stop all the in-fighting, that doesn’t seem all that likely.

Eclectic Reader Challenge 2016 – Small Island – Andrea Levy

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Genre: Historical Fiction

Narrative Style: A variety of first person voices

Rating: 5/5

Published: 2004unknown

Format: paperback

Synopsis: Gilbert Joseph is finding England after the war is a difficult place to be. No one cares that he too fought for his country. All they see is the colour of his skin. His wife, Hortense arrives in England expecting to find a golden future. She too is disappointed. Their landlady Queenie is kind enough but is at the mercy of her neighbours who don’t approve of her renting her rooms to ‘coloureds’. When Queenie’s long lost husband returns from the war, tensions reach boiling point. 

Reading challenges: Eclectic Reader Challenge – Genre Immigrant Experience.

I’ve been meaning to read this for a while. I have read another of Levy’s books (Every Light in the House Burnin’) which I really enjoyed so when this genre appeared on the Eclectic Reader Challenge, it seemed a good choice.

Levy uses four different narrative voices – Gilbert, Hortense, Queenie and her husband, Bernard – to tell her story. All get a section to explain their past – before 1948 – and also explain current events. The voices are all distinctive and all allow the reader to feel if not empathy, then that they at least understand.

The racism faced by Gilbert and Hortense is dealt with unflinchingly. Immediately post-war is not an era I know much about but Levy appears to portray the hardships that people faced successfully. She draws distinctions between American segregation – which the British thought was terrible – and our own particular brand of racism which was in some ways more subtle but just as horrible.

I worked out some of the twists in this novel but not the final one. I won’t spoil it for those who haven’t read this book but it was heartbreaking. I would recommend this book wholeheartedly.

 

Eclectic Reader Challenge 2016: The Night Circus – Erin Morgenstern

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Genre: Paranormal Romance, Magic Realism

Narrative Style: Third person from a variety of view points. Non-chronological

Rating: 5/5

Published: 2011Unknown-1

Format: Kindle

Reading Challenges: Eclectic Reader Challenge 2016 – Genre paranormal romance

Synopsis: Celia is trained by her father to take part in a mysterious magical competition. She is bound by the scar on her finger. She has no idea what the rules are or who her opponent will be. Marco is rescued from an orphanage by a strange man who trains him in the art of magic. He too has a scar. 

The Cirque de Reves appears in towns with no warning. It is the most amazing thing that people have ever seen. They go back night after night as there is always more to explore. Then the circus disappears just as suddenly. Could this be the playing field for two extraordinary young illusionists?

I was dreading this genre, conjuring up as it did images of vampires and ridiculously twee films. I’m not really a romance fan and the addition of some supernatural creature didn’t make it any more appealing. When I started to read The Night Circus, I didn’t realise that it would fit but it soon became apparent that this was a romance.

From the start, there is a magical atmosphere. Celia’s father is an entertainer, a magician who has to make his illusions less good so that the public think it is not real. His training of Celia is ruthless. He is determined to win the game and Celia is his pawn. Marco is trained in a different way but his trainer – the mysterious man in grey – is equally determined. The stage is set straightaway for a magical battle.

Admittedly, the pace is slow but I liked that. There was so much illusion, so much beautiful description that it would have been a shame to miss out on it. The circus is almost like another character in the book as it quickly takes on a life of its own. We learn of the different personalities and are given hints of future events. The act of reading this book was not unlike a visit to the circus. You want to take it slow so you can take in every detail.

The romance is equally slow burning. It takes a while for Marco and Celia to realise they are adversaries and then when they do, they are frightened by the intensity of feeling when they are together. Finally, they discover that the only way to end the game is for one of them to die. They realise they have to find a way to escape.

I did find the changing chronological sections a little confusing. I spent a lot of time looking back at chapters to see when they were set. However, I think that it worked. The importance of the character of Bailey becomes apparent and I realised why Morgenstern had structured it the way she had.

This was one of those books that I didn’t want to finish. It was so beautiful, I felt really sad leaving it behind. Still, it is good to think of the circus carrying on, appearing suddenly to charm people before disappearing into mystery again.

Eclectic Reader Challenge 2016 – The Kraken Wakes – John Wyndham

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Genre: Dystopia, Disaster

Narrative Style: First person

Rating: 4/5Unknown

Published: 1953

Format: Paperback

Synopsis: The first sign that anything is amiss is when strange globes start to appear over the sea and then sink under the waves. Nobody thinks anything of it at first but then ships start to disappear and worse, islands start to be attacked. Mike Watson and his wife, Phyllis are caught in the reporting of the events as they quickly escalate. 

Unlike a lot of disaster style fiction, this novel takes you through events as they happen rather than what happens afterwards. At the beginning, Mike and Phyllis Watson are watching icebergs flow past them. Clearly something has gone very wrong. They decide that an account needs to be written of what has brought the world to this sorry state.

There are three separate stages to events. The first is the seemingly harmless phenomenon of strange red balls in the sky that seem to disappear under the waves. Next ships start to disappear and attempts at discovering what may be beneath the waves end with ships being destroyed along with strange creatures starting to invade islands and coasts. When people start to fight back and the creatures are curtailed then the icebergs start to mysteriously melt and the flood waters start to rise.

Mike and Phyllis are journalists and this is apparent in the report that Mike writes. There is a distance between them and events – with them often reporting back about events that they have not actually seen. Consequently the reader is a little distanced from it as well. There was little in the way of emotional response from Mike even when he describes having to get away from it all because he is stressed by events.

Wyndham allows Mike to comment on world affairs and reactions and this is much more successful. The comments about Russian and American reactions and about Government propaganda were apt and clever. The character of Bocker, who in the beginning prophesies doom, goes through many stages in the book – starting off being ostracised until finally he is the only one who has actually got anything right. This shows how the media works to create heroes and villains when it suits them.

I found the ending a bit disappointing. Perhaps because it seemed a bit too neat. It reminded me a little of my disappointment at the end of H G Wells The War of the Worlds. It was almost like a cheat. Or like Wyndham had got fed up with telling the story. Apart from that, this was a very enjoyable and very clever tale of disaster and the way that Governments respond to them.

Eclectic Reader Challenge 2016 – Joyland – Stephen King

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Genre: Crime, Supernatural

Narrative Style: First person recount

Published: 2013 – part of the Hard Case Crime series9781781162644

Rating: 3/5

Format: Kindle

Synopsis: Devin Jones takes a summer job at Joyland funfair and discovers the ghost of a girl murdered on the ghost train. After he and his friend Erin investigate, they discover other girls killed while the carnival was in town. Was there a serial killer on the loose?

Reading Challenges: Eclectic Reader Challenge 2016 – genre Serial Killers

That synopsis makes this story sound a whole lot more exciting than it really is. I was hoping for a hard boiled crime story with some blood and gore on the side. I haven’t read any Stephen King for a while (in fact that last one I read was probably Needful Things when that came out in 1991) but I was hoping for good things.

To be fair, a lot of the things that King is really good at are present here. The sense of Devin looking back on his life with a sense of nostalgia and pain was very well written. Devin himself was believable and likeable. The ghostly elements were quite well handled and I was willing to suspend my disbelief.

The problem was there was just too much other plot going on. The ghost is introduced quite early on and then there is a lot of setting the scene with Devin explaining about his soon to be ex-girlfriend. I kept thinking, when are we going to get on with the action. In the middle, there is a flurry of activity and we learn that there is indeed a serial killer but this is quickly put on the back burner again.

This is supposed to be a crime novel but it really wanted to be a romance. The story of Devin and Annie and her disabled son Mike was necessary to the plot but I felt it took up too much time. It really slowed the pace. As a consequence, when the killer is revealed at the end, it seemed rushed and unbelievable. I didn’t spot who the killer was although the clues were all there. That wasn’t the problem. I don’t want to give any spoilers but I found it unsatisfactory.

I haven’t read any of the other books in this series but in this case Hard Crime is a misnomer. There is nothing hard about this book. It is completely soft and the ending was overly sentimental and corny. I couldn’t help feeling that King could have done better.

Finally, I feel the carnival setting was ultimately wasted. Carnivals are a little strange and sinister at the best of times. This could have been exceptionally creepy. Instead, it is all giant dogs dancing the hokey cokey and disabled kids getting the ride of their lives. Too sweet for my tastes, I’m afraid.

Eclectic Reader Challenge – Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan

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Genre: Historical Fiction, War

Narrative Style: First person moving between present and 2nd world war11076123

Rating: 4/5

Published: 2011

Format: Paperback

Reading Challenges: Eclectic Reader Challenge 2016 – genre – nominated for the Booker Prize (2011)

Synopsis: In 1940, rising jazz star Hiero Falk is picked up by nazi soldiers in Paris. No one is sure what happened to him after that but he is presumed dead. In 1992, a documentary is made about him that brings Hiero’s friends and bandmates Chip and Sid back to Berlin. Sid was the only witness on the day Hiero disappeared and he finds memories coming back to him that he had thought long buried. 

Edugyan’s novel is written from Sid’s point of view and in his voice which gives the prose an almost jazz like rhythm. It was very easy to read and also gave a clear picture of what Sid was like.

At the beginning of the novel, he and Chip are preparing for a trip to Berlin for an airing of a documentary about Falk and the record they made called Half Blood Blues. Sid is clearly reluctant. Even more so when Chip announces that he has been contacted by Falk who is not dead but living in Poland and he intends to go to see him. It is clear what Sid has secrets and memories that he does not want to face. Nevertheless, he goes with Chip to Berlin.

The story shifts easily between the present day (1992) and 1939-40 in first Berlin and then Paris. Sid is a bit of a nervous character and his fear and worries give the reader a good impression of what it must have been like to be black at that point in history. It was an angle I hadn’t really considered and it certainly made me want to find out more it.

Sid and Chip are both scarred by their experiences, as is Hiero when they finally meet up with him. The revelation of what Sid has done is shocking and his final confession to Hiero is touching. I felt that the novel ended a little awkwardly and it could have been taken a little further. As it was, it just stopped suddenly, leaving a lot of questions unanswered.

Overall, this was a very enjoyable story which gave an unusual (to me anyway) perspective on the second world war.

 

The Power of Beauty – Nancy Friday

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2016eclecticreader_bookdout2016 Nonfiction Challenge

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Genre: Psychology, feminism

Narrative Style: Informal, first person

Rating: 2/5

Published: 1997

Format: Hardback

Synopsis: Friday analyses the way beauty effects female lives. She uses psychoanalysis to investigate events early in her own life that she feels have held her – and all women – back. She uses anecdote and fictional examples to support her ideas.

Challenges: Eclectic Reader Challenge and Non Fiction Challenge. 

This book was a slog. I very nearly didn’t finish it. (It took me a month to read it, I was that irritated with it and it has gone straight on the charity pile.) The main problem is Friday’s tone. She sounds hard done by – especially in the early chapters. She blames a lot of her issues on problems with her early childhood. Her father abandoned their family and she felt her mother loved her sister more as she was prettier. This lack of loving gaze meant that Friday was lacking in confidence about her looks. This seems disingenuous when you look at the author picture and Friday is indeed a beautiful woman. She later says that by the time her looks came in, it was too late for her to believe that she was beautiful. She uses psychoanalysis to help her understand how her formative years were so important in making her the person she is. To a certain extent this is fine. I am happy to agree that psychoanalysis is a useful therapeutic tool but Friday takes this one step further. She then extrapolates from her personal experience to all women lacking the gaze from their mothers. My own experience of childhood was completely different from Friday’s. My father was very much involved in childrearing and my mother worked because she had to. How can Friday assume that my issues will be the same as hers?

Friday does seem to see all women as being the same as her. That is white, privileged, straight and American. She sees gender as the only issue affecting women and men. (And men are masculine and women are feminine in this little world.) All of the examples she gives are from the business world or from friends who are writers and artists. Hardly representative of the whole human race. Which is also fine but if you are going to talk about all women, perhaps you should think about what that really means.

At one point, Friday talks about sexual harassment in the office. Instead of blaming men, she says, we ought to think about how women have changed the atmosphere of the office by coming in to work dressed sexually and making it hard for men to understand the new rules of the office. There may be some truth to this. Undoubtedly more women being in the office has changed the dynamic between men and women but lets not let men completely off the hook. Harassment suggested a sustained campaign. Sexy clothes are no excuse for that sort of behaviour.

Similarly, when Friday talks about the media and its affect on women’s perception of beauty, she seems to let the media off the hook as well. She says that women aren’t so easily brainwashed. Well, true, women can think for themselves but there is also no doubt that the media influences how we feel about and see beauty around us. How Friday can discuss beauty for older women and not challenge the way beauty is seen in the media as a youthful characteristic, I do not know. Again, she puts the blame squarely at the feet of other women without stopping to think about what may make women act in this way.

Rightly, Friday says that we shouldn’t blame men for all of our ills. I remember being thoroughly depressed by some of the authors she mentions – Dworkin and McKinnon, for example. But instead of suggesting that patriarchy affects all of us, she goes on instead to blame other women. This is no more helpful that saying all men are evil. It is finding just another scapegoat instead of actually challenging any of patriarchy’s expectations.

Overall, I was disappointed with how personal this book was. I enjoy reading about others’ experiences, however, this was not an autobiography, this was supposed to be about men, women and beauty. Really it is just about Nancy Friday.

 

 

The Art of Fiction – David Lodge

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2016eclecticreader_bookdout2016 Nonfiction Challenge

Genre: Literary Criticism

Narrative Style: A series of essays originally published as newspaper columns.Unknown-2

Rating: 3/5

Published: 1994

Format: Paperback

Reading Challenges: Non Fiction Reading Challenge, Eclectic Reader Challenge – Genre a book about books.

I have had this book on my shelf for about twenty years so it seemed a good place to start reading some long neglected non fiction. I do enjoy reading literary criticism and it is a long time since I have read any so I was looking forward to reading it.

Lodge has an easy to read style – probably because these were originally written for a non-expert audience. It is easy to grasp the concepts that he discusses even when they were quite complex ideas. Each chapter looks at a different aspect of literary criticism and is illustrated by extracts from texts which illustrate its use. This was good because it meant that you had carefully chosen extracts to ponder over if you found the ideas difficult to understand.

As always with literary criticism, there were times when I thought Lodge stretched things a bit but they were few and far between. It is the nature of reading that some things that seem obvious to one reader will seem far fetched to another so I would have been surprised had this not been the case.

My other criticism is really a matter of taste. Lodge favours writers such as Woolf , Beckett and Joyce which really don’t particularly appeal to my taste. He seems quite in thrall to this sort of writing – in fact, he does talk of the influence on his own fiction of such writers. Lodge mentions his own fiction fairly often and even uses it as an illustrative example for one of the chapters. While it would seem unlikely that he would manage to not mention his own fiction, it does seem rather conceited to put it up there as an example in amongst such writers as Austen, Joyce, Elliot, James and Poe. (I have never read any of his fiction so maybe I am being a bit harsh.)

The main thing I have  come away from this book with is a list of authors that I would now like to read that I might not have considered otherwise so thank you, David Lodge for expanding my already over burdened to read list.

Eclectic Reader Challenge 2016 – The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley.

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Genre: Steampunk

Narrative Style: Third person from various viewpoints. Some flashbacks but largely chronological.

Rating: 3/5Unknown

Published: 2015

Format: Kindle

Reading Challenges: Eclectic Reader Challenge 2016

Synopsis: Thaniel Steepleton returns home to find that someone has broken in but instead of stealing anything, they have left him a watch. A watch which does not open. At least not straightaway. Six months later, the watch opens and starts to tell time. Later, that day, when its alarm goes of, it saves him from a bomb. When Thaniel goes to find the watchmaker, he meets Mori, a Japanese immigrant. He seems harmless enough but why do the police think he may be involved with the bomb makers? 

This is my first attempt at reading in the steampunk genre and it wasn’t entirely successful. There was a lot of promise in this book. The appearance of the watch was mysterious and when it saves Thaniel’s life, it becomes even more interesting. Certainly, the start of the book had promise and at first, I was keen to read on.

When Thaniel meets Mori, it is clear that he has been expected and straightaway, the reader is led to believe there is some mystery surrounding him. His mastery of clockwork is almost beyond imagining. (I really liked his clockwork octopus which was forever stealing Thaniel’s socks.) Thaniel takes to him straightaway so when the police ask him to spy on Mori as part of their investigation into the bombing, he is torn but he agrees to do it.

It is at this point that the narrative starts to fall apart. Enter Grace Carrow, who its studying physics at Oxford (and has had some narrative attention so far. It is clear that she and Thaniel are intended to meet.) Grace is in an awkward position. She has been left money and a house but she must marry to get them. If she does not get them, she will have to give up physics and become a school teacher. Almost immediately after meeting, Thaniel agrees to marry her so she can inherit, on the promise that his nephews can go to a good school. Grace and Mori are both suspicious of each other and it becomes a battle for Thaniel’s feelings.

I didn’t find the narrative very convincing from this point onwards . It seemed a waste of what could have been an interesting exploration into free will and predestination as it becomes apparent that Mori has some form of second sight.  The characters were somewhat flat and Thaniel was a bit colourless for a hero. Grace was more interesting but still woefully under drawn. Events stretched my willingness to believe to the absolute limit.

Having said all that, I think it is a genre I would like and I would be interested in reading more steampunk books. If anyone has any recommendations, I would like to hear them.