All my favourite (and not so favourite) books reviewed
The following reviews originally appeared on my blog.
A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers by Xiaolu Guo - released 1st February 2007 (27th February US)
Z is a 23 year old Chinese girl who moves to Britain to learn English. Whilst here, she meets an older man, a drifter, and falls in love with him. As she learns to speak English, she also learns important life lessons. The novel begins in deliberately bad English, and improves as Z's understanding of British culture improves, to devastating effect.
I was hooked by this novel from start to finish. Z is a fully rounded character, at once vulnerable and likeable, even when she is being possessive and needy with her lover. She is forced to learn that whilst in China 'love' has no past or future tense, it just is, in Britain one can be loved or have loved. The prose throughout the novel is poetic and shows a depth of understanding which transcends language barriers. There are also moments of great humour, such as when the wheels on Z's 'Made in China' suitcase fall off and she vows never to buy anything from home again.
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that this novel is going to be huge, and perhaps even a Booker nominee. There are elements of Bridget Jones, but with much more depth and truth about what love really is.
The author, Xiaolu Guo, was born in China, and is already a highly respected film-maker and novelist.
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
As a writer, I'm always being advised that a novel has to grab the reader within the first few pages. Which makes me wonder how Kostova ever got this past the slush pile! It's very dry to start with, and in between the 'story' gets dry again from time to time. The basic story idea is a good one (it's a tad like The Da Vinci Code - with vampires - though Kostova apparently wrote it ten years ago) but boy does she go on. Talk about letting your research show. Elizabeth Kostova can't resist showing her academic credentials. In one part, she recreates a lengthy 2-3 page 'introduction' to an important document, which could have been quickly dispensed with by having one of the characters say 'This is not the original, but is believed to be a good copy of the original'.
Also, her use of dialogue sucks, especially her attempt at depicting a Scots accent, which is laughable and really detracted from that part of the story. It's told from several different viewpoints, via letters, but unfortunately they all sound the same, very dry and academic. And we seemed to have to know, in minute detail, every single meal every character ate. There is little chemistry between the characters who are supposed to be in love and one relationship is left completely on the shelf so we don't know if the lovers are still together at the end.
Another thing that got me is that she seems to have no understanding of local names. A 'typical' English Professor is laughably called Bartolomew Rossi. The Scots guy, with the excruciating 'phonetic' accent is called something like Georgiou. A Bulgarian/Hungarian woman (one of the book's two heroines) is called Helen, and only in her own country is she referred to as Elena, though surely she'd be Elena all the time?
Having said that I did like the story. I just think it could have benefited from some judicious editing and a bit more attention to believable character's names. Also, whilst she follows the vampire myth across Europe, paying attention to Bram Stoker's Dracula, never once does she mention Whitby, which is a very important stop on the vampire map of Europe. Either they don't serve good enough food there, or even Ms Kostova blanches at the idea of trying to depict a Yorkshire accent.
It's worth reading for the 'vampire' story alone, but can be a bit of a slog at times.
Daphne Du Maurier by Margaret Forster (originally posted on 23rd February 2006)
I've just finished reading the biography of Daphne Du Maurier by Margaret Forster. It was both fascinating and deeply sad at the end. There wasn't as much about the writing process as I would have liked, but it was interesting to see how Du Maurier's own life informed her novels and short stories. It's hard to fathom that this woman, the last of the great writers, lived in my lifetime, dying only 17 years ago. Her early life really was a different era, and it sometimes seemed that she was dragged kicking and screaming into the twentieth century, heart-broken at finding her style of writing out of date before she had died. That was the sad part. She seemed to die unfulfilled as a writer, despite her great body of work.
The romances she wrote (not in the hearts and flowers sense) gave way to realism, which she hated. I too am drawn towards a more romantic style of writing, and I think maybe the times are changing again with more writers using magic realism. In the end I think the moral is to enjoy writing but to make sure that there are other interests in one's life, so that if the writing dries up it isn't such a tragedy. If you read any book about a writer, read this one. Margaret Forster writes well and with a real feel for her subject. Now I'm off to trawl the second hand book shops for copies of the Daphne Du Mauriers novels I have not yet read. Then I have to start on all Margaret Forsters (which luckily I won in a competition last year).
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
I've just finished reading Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go and I'm an emotional wreck. A chilling book, set in a time parallel to our present, the novel tells the story of Kath, who was once a pupil at Hailsham, a seemingly idyllic boarding school. Kath is now grown up and a carer.
As she tells her story in a simple, and cheerful way, you begin to realise that Hailsham was not the place she thought it was. I won't give the game away, only to say that this is one of the most chilling and heart-breaking stories I've ever read. It deals with friendship, the need for family and, ultimately loss. Ishiguro's writing style is clean and simple, without relying on clever clever wordplay. In what is actually a sci-fi novel, he also keeps the science to a minimum, which suits me and shows that you can have a good sci-fi story without having to know about flux thingamyjigs and aeon doodahs.
Of all the books I've read recently, this is my absolute favourite.
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
Fingersmith is a compelling novel about two young women who find each other then have to overcome the twists and turns of fortune that conspire to keep them apart. Sue Trinder has been brought up, quite happily, among thieves and scoundrels. Maud Lilly has been raised, in misery, by her very disturbed uncle. Sue and Maud have deeper ties than they realise, and Fingersmith tells their story.
I wasn't sure how I'd take to Sarah Waters style of Victoriana/lesbian love stories. It isn't that I have a problem with same sex relationships. I'd just been put off Tipping the Velvet by all the hype surrounding the TV Series, which, if the papers were to be believed, concentrated only on the sexual aspect of a lesbian relationship. I needn't have worried. Whilst not my favourite of the recent trio of books I've read (that's Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go)Fingersmith is still a very enjoyable novel and explores deeper feelings than just the need for sexual gratification. Perhaps I enjoyed it more because it draws heavily from The Woman In White, which is my all time favourite novel. Add a touch of Dickensian London, including the very Dickensian names, like Mrs Sucksby, who nurses young babies, and a touch of the Brontes, and you have a rich narrative. However, the story is told with full knowledge of the dark underbelly of society, especially the manipulation and exploitation of women.
Waters does not shy off from depicting the violence in a mental home, and our heroine(s) get no last minute reprieve before the worst can happen to them. And what twists and turns! I was breathless with each new revelation and wondering if/how these girls could ever overcome the odds against them.
Something Wicked This Way Comes
I finished reading Ray Bradbury's book, Something Wicked This Way Comes while I was babysitting the granddaughters last night. I can thoroughly recommend it for anyone who is interested in the horror genre and how it has evolved. It is a masterpiece of understatement, without excessive gore, but genuinely spine tingling, asking deep questions about what is good and bad, and are we inviting evil when we live a miserable existence?
Will Halloway and Jim Nightshade are two boys who live next door to each other and have been friends since birth. One was born one second before midnight on 31st October. The other was born one second after midnight. They spend their whole lives in a race to grow up, running everywhere and doing the things that boys do, but it is clear that one is drwan to the the 'good' side of humanity, and the other is drawn to the dark side. Then a strange carnival comes to town, offering the townspeople an escape from the humdrum, but at a terrifying cost. A ghastly carousel makes people older and younger at will, leaving a middle aged woman trapped in the body of a young child whom no one will claim as their own. When Will and Jim realise what's happening, Mr Dark, the Illustrated Man and leader of the carnival, and a man who has the souls of people trapped as tattoes onto his body, sets out to find them, playing on Jim's longing to be older.
Published in 1962, Bradbury's might still have seemed archaic to sixties readers. Although set in the jet age, with movies and motorcars, the setting seems more turn of the century, harking back to a more innocent age. And Will's father, Charles Halloway, who is 54 is considered an 'old man', whereas nowadays he'd just be seen as middle-aged. Apparently, in the 1983 Disney film of the book, Jason Robards played Charles Halloway as a 61 year old. It took me some time to get used to Bradbury's style, which is very poetic and involves a lot of word play, but once I'd tuned in, I loved every word.
The chapters are very short, making this an easy read. There is also a lot of dialogue, which hints at the fact that this story originally began as a screenplay. Not only that, but in an interesting bit of trivia at the end of the book, we learn that Bradbury actually wrote it as a vehicle for Gene Kelly, but Kelly couldn't get funding for the film. Personally I can't see where Kelly would have fit into this dark story as he'd have been too young to play Charles Halloway and too clean cut to play Mr Dark. Bradbury only turned it into a novel when it seemed clear that the film was not going to be made. I'm glad he did. It's a treat to read a fine example of the genre.
Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
I bought this book second-hand from Amazon, for £1.25 (I also got Brick Lane for 1p - review coming soon). I'll start by saying that I can thoroughly recommend Amazon Marketplace as a way of getting books that might be too expensive to buy new. Now onto Farenheit 451. After reading Something Wicked This Way Comes, I wanted to try some of Bradbury's other work. It took me about 3 hours to read it, perhaps indicating that the novella started life as a short story. I finished it feeling a bit disappointed. I must admit that I felt it could have done with either some heavy editing or a deeper exploration of other characters.
The novella tells the story of Montag, who is a fireman. But rather than putting out fires, Montag starts them. His job is to burn books, and the houses in which they're hidden. Books have been banned, and society has become devoid of intelligent thought. The excuse given is that books contradict each other, but of course, the real reason is that books teach us to contradict those in power, by giving us an alternative argument. 'Relatives' are huge TV screens on parlour walls. It's the height of sophistication to have one screen on each wall of the parlour. These screens talk at each other and at the viewer, using some special chip that picks up the viewer's name. Silence is almost a sin. Reflective thought is most definitely a sin.
Montag meets a young girl called Clarisse, who is like no one he has ever met before. She challenges Montag with questions that he cannot answer, causing him to look inside himself. His marriage is a sterile affair. His wife, Mildred, attempts suicide, but the following day has no recollection of the act and insists she is happy. This is all as a result of the dumbing down of life. Montag can't even remember how he and his wife met, and the idea of them being in love is not even considered. Everyone is 'happy' but it's a surface happiness, based on belongings that have no intrinsic value.
I think why the book fell a little flat with me is that it's all been done since in films. One that springs to mind is the excellent Equilibrium, starring Christian (still my beating heart) Bale, where books are also set alight, along with anything that might excite the emotions. In Minority Report, Tom Cruise's character is addressed by name by advertisers when he enters a shopping mall. Farenheit 451 suffers from the fact that the ideas have been used too many times since. And, it's fair to say that Orwell's 1984, written before Farenheit 451, does it much better. I think that Bradbury was very clever in predicting the way the media would take over our lives, along with 'must-have' advertising, mostly in junk mail, that targets individuals by name (Dear Ms Quilford, you have been chosen to take part in ...) We may not have a massive television on every wall, but we have televisions in nearly every room, computers, pdas, walkmans, Ipods, games systems - a myriad of visual and audio entertainments that prevent us from sitting quietly and thinking too much. And his writing skills are second to none.
I'd certainly recommend the novella for speculative fiction fans who want to see where all the ideas in films like Minority Report, Equilibrium, and even The Matrix, came from.
I don't know why but I expected to hate this book. I've read so many conflicting views about it, then there was the furore about the Sylheti community feeling aggrieved about the way Monica Ali portrayed them. So when I sat down to read it, it was with the idea that I wouldn't like it. How wrong I was. I loved this novel! Brick Lane, is about Nazneen, a Bangladeshi girl who is brought to Britain after an arranged marriage to Chanu, who lives in Britain but dreams of returning home in glory with all the money he's going to make in Britain.
Nazneen is told as a child that she was born stillborn, then 'left to her fate'. This has given her a fatalistic look at life that influences the way she reacts to events. Nazneen is pliable and docile, Chanu fancies himself as a scholar. Whilst he is a kind husband (in that he doesn't beat Nazneen), he does manipulate her into doing what he wants under the guise of 'I know what is best for you.' This prevents Nazneen from going out much or interacting with anyone outside of her own culture. She doesn't learn English until she has daughters who refuse to speak Bengali. I also expected to hate Chanu, given that he's the character who voiced the opinions that so upset the Sylheti community. It's true that he is insufferable at times, but by the end I felt so much sympathy for this man who thinks himself a scholar, but is trapped in menial roles. He sees his dreams shattered one by one, yet hangs onto the hope of returning home as a rich man. And he truly does love Nazneen, which is shown in his reaction to her affair with young revolutionary, Karim.
Nazneen does seem a bit too docile at times when she is young and I want to scream at her 'For God's sake if you want to learn English, go and learn it'. But of course I speak from a Western woman's viewpoint. Nazneen survives life with a stoical outlook, the occasional ice skating tournament on the television, and through the letters from her sister, Hasina, who is still in Bangladesh. Hasina's letters are a stark contrast to the relatively comfortable life that Nazneen lives in Britain. There were times when I wasn't sure if Hasina's extreme naivety is a bit put on, so that she doesn't have to take responsibility for the mistakes she makes, or whether Ali is trying to show what happens to girls when they are cut off from the world. I learned so much from this novel about a culture of which I knew nothing, which is astounding when you consider that the majority of the characters live in London!
It has a fantastic cast of characters, in particular Nazneen's friend, Razia, who I'm convinced should be played by Myra Syall when they make the film of the book. Most importantly, rather than depicting the Sylheti community in a negative light, I believe the novel actually shows them in a good light, as a people who hang onto their own values when all around British values are being eroded. This is done particularly well through the character of Chanu, who has a foot in both cultures, but can find a place in neither of them.