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I can't say this or that that was the reason. There is no reason and every reason. Why do you want to die, I ask myself. How else does it stop? If I die, the trouble stops with me. I can see her, Tammamo, her hand closing her husband's eyes, breathing in the air to make the fire-breath, his family, watching her. Enough, she'd be thinking. Fire on her lips. It ends with me now.
...
Coe walks in to my room. Wake up, he says. Time for practice. The clock reads 6 A.M. We've joined the crew team. I pull back my covers and dress quickly in clothes Coe helped me pick: we decided I could wear gray for exercise. We run the distance between Clark and the boathouse down by the river, more or less straight down the long hill of the campus. In the dark morning the sun is the gold centre of everything. Death feels far away in that instant, impossible. We arrive at the cold river as summer touches the beginning of its last days, and Coe smiles. The sun. Coe."
(p. 98)
My wonderful friend Vita recommended this book to me and it has to be one of the best reads of this year for me. Alexander Chee was little known to me as an author and a quick search reveals Edinburgh as his first and possibly only book. I hope he keeps writing. Edinburgh is written from the perspective of a Korean-American kid we know only as Fee. He joins a boy's choir where he and several other boys are molested by the choir director 'Big Eric' who picks on only boys who look a certain way. This includes Fee's secret love and close friend, Peter.
His life unfolds from this central event and the way in which Fee remembers and describes his abuse can be seen in the quote above. Fee is gay, but not because of the abuse, in fact it almost seems it is in spite of what has happened. Fee's life is affected hugely - he engages in a series of relationships at university as he sees his friends crumble around him (one even kills himself). Despite this, Fee manages to build a life for himself until he is confronted by a boy at the school he teaches, who reminds him far too much of a boy he loved in the choir.
This book is written amazingly and is both heart-wrenching and at times amusing. Chee has demonstrated an amazing and empathetic stance towards characters. At the same time, he hasn't denied them agency or taken away from their experience in any way. His literary phrase unfolds magically and he has the ability within this to provoke emotion in (I would say) most readers.
I really hope I read more from this author. This is the best fiction book I have read in a long time.
Having read both The Idiot and Crime and Punishment, I felt it was time to finally read this daunting looking i.e. rather large book, which I had bought cheaply at a book shop. It tells the story of three brothers: Dmitri, Ivan and Aleksey. The brothers are brought together when Dmitri returns to his father as a soldier to request money he believes is rightfully his. They decided to meet with Zosima who works in a monastery where Alyosha (Aleksey) is placed. From here the book explores philosophy, religion and politics and each of the brothers explores a different perspective. Another brother is added to the mix, when we discover that Pavel Smerdyakov was likely fathered by Fyodor. Pavel shares Ivan's atheist beliefs and appears to look up to him throughout the book.
The book also explores the responsibility of the different brothers towards each other and towards a more general good. This leads to the further analysis oh each character's philosophy and is guided by the early words of the Elder Zosima as well as the frenzied actions of Dmitri as he chases the woman he loves, Grushenka. Ivan's philosophy is forced to change from the complete rejection of morals with no God that he preaches at the beginning of the book. This is just one of many examples of the way different philosophies are explored in the book.
Like any great Russian novel, this one is full of extravagance. It contains well thought out characters and plot lines that keeps the reader guessing throughout the book. Dostoyevsky also lets the characters speak for themselves rather than explaining their actions or movements which aids the telling of the story.
I cannot do this book justice and I recommend it to all for its wonder and its amazingness and because it looks at important social issues in a unique way.
This was the last book I read of the several by Rutherford that were lent to me by a good friend. This book is about the New Forest of England and its history is told throughout generations. Most famously, King William Rufus was shot and killed in this forest in 1100 during one of his deer-hunting trips. Rutherford has played into this episode and added some of his own dramatic flair for storytelling to describe this particular event and its ramifications.
As in his other books, this one is dominated by a variety of interesting characters. The Albion family for example find themselves split down the middle in political affairs. On the death of Bloody Mary, Elizabeth I had come to the throne. The Lady Albion loudly despises the Queen and doesn't believe she should be on a throne. In this she wants the Catholic Spanish to invade in order to return England to the "true faith." Her son, Clement who works for the Queen tries in vain to silence her many times and is forced to choose between the faith he feels for his mother and the honour he feels towards the Queen.
Like all of Rutherford's books, this one is long, but keeps the reader interested with many interesting characters and historical events. The particularly magical part about this book is the the New Forest maintained its beauty and is now a historical reserve. In this way, Rutherford was able to build on what he already knew about the New Forest, one would imagine from visiting it.
I would definitely recommend this book to anyone, especially if you have an interest in history or have previously enjoyed Rutherford's work.
This was one of my favourite books as a child and I came across a copy at a second-hand store in Christchurch and couldn't resist. It tells the story of a petulant young girl called Mary who goes to live in England with her widowed uncle after the death of her uncaring parents in India. With the help of her personal maid Martha and Martha's son Dickon, Mary begins to come out of her defensive shell and throughout the book turns from a painfully pale and sickly looking child into a happy child.
The title is given to the book by a garden which peeks Mary's curiousity and that of a small robin she befriends at the beginning of the book. The garden is transformed by Mary's discovery of it and it blossoms with her. As well as this, the secret crying that Mary hears at strange times of the night leads to another discovery. The garden becomes the central inspiration for the characters in the book who find themselves recreating the family they lost through the opportunities the garden creates. This book shows the way that nature can effect change in the dreariest of circumstances.
I definitely relived my childhood reading this book again! It's also beautifully written and easy to become involved with the characters, despite their flaws. I hope to reread another FHB favourite, A Little Princess as well soon.
NB: This book is known as both Anna Karenin and Anna Karenina. Both are correct in different dialects of the Russian language
This book tells the story of not only its title character, but also a series of other people in the same society as her. Tolstoy has managed to brilliantly contrast the eccentricities of two very different relationships that are tied together through acquaintance. Anna Karenina leaves her quiet relationship to seek a more tumultuous one with someone she actually loves, Count Vronsky. Anna comes across from the beginning as risk-taker who is ready to do anything spontaneous in order to receive pleasure from life. This makes her one of the more exciting characters, but also eventually leads to her demise. Kitty, who was originally Vronsky's love interest suffers sickness when he runs off with Anna. Levin whose dream is to settle down on his farm and lead a quiet life. Both Kitty's and Levin's development lead to another romance, one less spontaneous and as it turns out more steady. Levin is by far the most explored character and his words as well as actions clearly come across throughout the book.
The book also contains interesting symbolism - trains are a central part of the book. As well as this, it also explores the original discontent experienced by workers in Tolstoy's time that eventually led to the revolution. So not only does this book contain interesting personal stories, but does so with the background of pre-revolution Russia. This is a book I will definitely have to reread as the plotlines are intricate. It touches on several important social issues as well including a woman's freedom and/or reliance on a husband and the above-mentioned protests that led eventually to revolution.
I would recommend this book to anyone, it's not the easiest read - Russian novels never are, but it's well worth it for the wealth within the pages and between the lines.
This book became more popular after it was turned into a movie starring Kate Winslet and Ralph Fiennes. It tells the story of a 15-year-old boy called Michael who begins an affair with a train conductor in her 30s. This relationship is to change the course of Michael's philosophy on life and leads him to have unmeaningful relationships and a fear of abandonment for the rest of his life. I've never seen the movie, so I can't draw any comparisons between the book and the movie. I will say though, that the main reason why the movie is not as good most of the time is that books have so much more scope to go in depth. Despite this - and I can't be sure if this is a translation issue or something else - the characters in this book are never explored in much depth. All that we get from Michael is more of the same - his personality doesn't seem to develop throughout the book much either. The same is true of Hanna, who we only can interpret from her actions as a German officer.
The plot of this book has an amazing idea, in that analysis of both the intricacies of youthful experiences as well as the actions of Nazi war criminals were possible. Despite this, the book did not quite live up to my expectations in terms of how these subjects could be explored. The book seemed largely detached at times and a story that could have provoked emotion (as I imagine the movie did) seemed cold and disconnected. Something about the way the story was told just didn't quite ring true to me.
Overall this book has a mighty interesting plot and poses lots of intricate questions. It is a good book to get one thinking, but despite this it seems to lack an element of storytelling.
This is one of Charles Dicken's more well known and regarded books. It's a coming of age tale in the same way that made The catcher in the rye so famous. Pip at the beginning of his story lives with his older sister and her husband Joe. An early experience leads Pip to question himself and the values he was brought up around. It's hard to go much further into the plot without giving the whole thing away so instead I'm just going to vaguely list what I found to be the assets of this book.
Firstly Pip is portrayed amazingly. Although he depicts himself through his faults, you come to love him through the things he doesn't talk about. The way this is done is actually genius. One would think that the portrayal through words is the most important, but Pip as a character proves that actions speak louder than words to quip. Furthermore, I found the character of Joe extremely endearing, although he's sadly portrayed in a light that he doesn't want further education, he just wants the status quo. As far as Joe is concerned, as long as everything is easy enough, e.g. food and shelter, he can go on as he has before. Despite this seemingly irrevocable view, through Pip, he comes to learn more but never succumbs to the same disease of wealth that Pip does.
Dickens is magical in the way he can portray characters through what is not said, rather than through what is said. He is famous for being extremely wordy and it would be correct to say that his sentences are longer and less punctuated than most. Despite this, his writing has always (with perhaps the exception of Nicholas Nickelby) maintained my interest. His characters are so intricately portrayed and the plot stems from them rather than being independent. The fact of the matter is that Dickens seems to have the idea already so firmly in his head that the story flows so naturally you wouldn't even believe it necessitated inventing.
A great book, not my personal favourite (as Bleak House is my favourite) but still a more than decent read.
Sarum is the site of the first settlement in England. This novel uses this first area of settlement and its surrounding areas - Salisbury and Stonehenge - as a setting for a history of England. This starts in the Ice Age and goes all the way through to almost the present day. We follow through generations of cave men, High Priests, Roman invasion, Norse invasion and the building of the cathedral that houses the infamous Salisbury spire. Apparently this was Edward Rutherford's first book - his passion for history and the work that has gone into its making is obvious.
It deals well with many aspects of history that are not well-known to many including the Pagan-esque rituals that took place prior to Roman invasion and a detailed account of the suffering of many during the 1300s Black Death. Many interesting characters burst forth through these pages and especially strong female characters (which I am always a fan of). The battle between the Anglican Protestant church and the ingrained Catholic one is also an interesting one that Rutherford expounds with a great wealth of knowledge on the subject. It is interesting to contrast how this religious battle played out in England compared with Ireland and this I was easily able to do having just read two other books detailing Rutherford's history of Ireland.
The only possible complaint I have with this book is that it is extremely long. Like much of history there are points I find particularly interesting and points that I would rather were not covered in much detail. That said, it would be impossible for the author to cater to all interests in this context and the maps and family trees in the preface of the book contain a lot of useful detail. For what it's worth I would definitely recommend this book.
This book following on from Dublin by the same author, beginning in 1597 and going right through until the twentieth century. Much like the last book, this one is centred in Dublin but also includes other parts of Ireland. It is in this sector of Irish history that we see the devastation wrought by Oliver Cromwell in the 1600s in his attempt to convert the Irish to Protestantism. Following on from this, the difficulties in attempting to build a representative parliament and the block-outs of those who followed Catholicism. Moreover, and perhaps more famously the potato famine of the 1800s started by a blight and later leading to mass starvation. Perhaps surprisingly this famine ended not when health was restored, but when England decided it had had enough and told everyone the famine had ended when it had not.
More so than the last book, I found many of the characters in this book entertaining and interesting. Fortunatus, for example of the Walsh family, who was brought up a Protestant unlike the rest of his family and who trains as a doctor rising up to become gentry. Georgiana was also surprising as a strong female character, who eventually is estranged from her son when he forsakes his family. There are several more strong characters which keep the book moving along well.
I think the sequel was definitely an improvement on the first book. It was fairly consistent throughout as none of the periods of history it covered were uncertain ones from a historical perspective. It also links into the context of wider Ireland as well as Dublin which helps move the story along.
Again I would recommend this, but make sure to read Dublin first. Chock full of historical facts and interesting asides, these are both decent books
This is the first in a series of books lent to me by a friend. The subject matter of all these books is a place, rather than a person. Many people come and go throughout centuries and although some of the characters are fairly well-developed, it is the place you get to know, rather than any character in particular.
It is obvious a large amount of research went into this book, which details the history of Dublin up until 1550. In this vein, it is largely inconsistent. Obviously, there are large amounts of research on certain periods of history, while others remain uncertain. Because of this, the beginning of this book in hunter-gatherer periods drifts a fair bit, as there is very little Rutherford can be sure actually happened. For this reason, he uses a lot of fairly descriptive language, which is scant in other parts of the book.
In all respects, this book and all those that follow it is chock-full of interesting historical information and Rutherford provides interesting commentary as to the sureness of this information in history books. Moreover, knowing the setting of these happenings well, as you get to throughout the book, assists the reader in understanding and placing events within context. As someone with an interest in Ireland generally, it made for an incredibly interesting read.
It's difficult to put a rating on this book. A lot of things about it could be improved. That said, it is an amazing book in that it contains such a large amount of information in a fairly interesting and acceptable manner. If you have any sort of interest in history or Ireland, it is an incredible book.
Every year thousands of people around the world apply for entrance to universities of their choice. I'm lucky in that I live in a country with fairly open admission. Going off my school marks I wouldn't have got into a very good university in the USA, yet I have done much better at university than I ever did at school.
This book is a fictional one about a woman called Portia who is an admissions officer for Princeton. That means that for a whole region she makes the decisions about who will enter the hallowed halls of one of the United States' 'Ivy League' universities. Princeton looks for not just the best but people who are the best and have that little something extra. Portia's job is to make initial decisions about students before they go to a board who decides each student's future once and for all. Throughout the book, Portia reads applications, students' essays and recommendations from their teachers and counsellors. Having worked as an outside reader for university applications before, Korelitz shows what the world of a gatekeeper to a sought after university is like.
Through her job, Portia visits a small school that has never been visited by Princeton before. Here she meets a boy she considers to be extremely talented and as the book continues we learn that there is something extremely personal in Portia's connection to this boy. Throughout her 16-year long relationship also hits complications and without many friends or family connections she hits her work in a way she never has to before in order to hide from the truth.
This book has an absolutely amazing storyline and is also an interesting look into the process of North American university applications and how spur of the moment each decision which potentially could change a student's life can be. Despite this, there are in my view several problems which prevent this book from reaching its full potential. Portia's character is not very well developed and the things that cause her very own "admission" to take place are unbelievable. Furthermore, the book reaches a conclusion that the reader has been expecting throughout the book and the last few chapters in this way feel a bit pointless.
Despite its flaws, this book is an impressive one and I woul be interested to read more of Korelitz's work in the future.
Janet Frame is one of my favourite authors of all time. It seems she was a modern-day Virginia Woolf. Her way with words is absolutely magical. This was her only book to be set in the United States. The main topic of this book is death. Dr Talbot Edelman, our narrator, is a post-graduate medical student working in New York and researching death. We learn early on that he does this because death has always been repressed in his family; people have died or been dying and have suddenly disappeared and been pushed out of the imagination. Talbot discovers, as we do by reading this book, that death has become a taboo and dying has become the most lonely place of all. He experiments on his dog, Sally, his most faithful companion who he breaks and puts back together, because he loves her and because he couldn't bare to harm anyone else.
Talbot comes to meet Turnlung, an old man who seems to resemble his dead grandfather. Talbot comes to befriend and research Turnlung, an author and a man who has moved to New York, not to live but to die. The existence of Turnlung's existence is quite questionable from his entrance into the story. We wonder if he exists or if he only exists for Talbot.
Above all this book is a critique of the way that Western civilisation deals with death - we brush it under the carpet, we don't talk about it for fear of being viewed as morbid, we ignore it and we brush past it in day-to-day life, it is inevitable but it is completely silent. Talbot's experience with death in his family sets him up for a life of wondering and researching the taboo of death and in his own way his world becomes mythical as he obtains custody of a buffalo in the zoo.
This is an amazing book and I take something new from it every time I read it.
I am a pretty avid lover of the the few Dickens books I have read, but I have to be honest in saying that I wasn't the biggest fan of this one. The plot centred around the title character who spends much of his time gallivanting around the country saving children from cruel orphanages, acting in theatre extravaganzas, pitting himself against his self-possessed uncle and saving his sister from an unwanted marriage. I found Nicholas' character unconvincing from the beginning and the storyline was a bit too good versus evil for my taste. The female characters had no real strong role to play it seemed, but just served as damsels in distress, so that Nicholas could eventually swoop to their rescue.
There were some interesting characters who surpassed the clear divide described above though. Newman Noggs sides himself with Nicholas and his family, but works as a clerk for Nicholas' evil uncle Ralph. We learn that despite Noggs' good intention, his judgment is often clouded by his addiction to alcohol which fuels his erratic behaviour. John Browdie who starts off disliking Nicholas also has a role to play. He is unaccustomed to the learned nobleness of Nicholas and his contemporaries and in him the reader is able to find some comic relief and a believable character. The book's weaknesses though come through more strongly in the weak female characters, the hometown hero and the evil characters where evil seems to be only for the sake of more evil.
Of the works by Dickens that I have read, I would far more recommend Bleak House or Oliver Twist, both of which have a more realistic depiction of the social commentary that made Dickens' work so famous.
Surprisingly before this year, I had never read this book. Earlier this year, the writer probably made most famous by this novel died and a couple of weeks later I picked up a cheap copy of this book at a local second-hand book shop. I had previously read Franny and Zooey which I would go as far to say that I enjoyed slightly more. Nonetheless, this book remains a classic and it is easy to see why.
It tells the story of Holden Caulfield, a young man expelled from prep school who runs away to spend time by himself in New York, preferring that to facing his parents. We learn early on about the death of Holden's brother which continues to trouble him, as well as his troubling life experiences and propensity to lie. Holden masks his troubled past with a gruff manner as he struggles to get back the innocence he lost when his brother died.
There is no doubt that this is an amazing work of literature. Holden likely stands as one of the most loved fictional characters of all time. Most people are able to comprehend and associate on some level with Holden and his want for the innocence of childhood to return. This is a stellar book with a brilliant character and excellent prose. I'd recommend it to everyone.
The first thing I would say about this novel and about a lot of Murakami's work is it's impossible to know how much of it could be lost in translation. It is impossible to know if the beauty that comes through in her writing is also evident in its original Japanese but one assumes it is. The main narrator in this book is known only as 'K', who is a teacher in love with Sumire, a young woman who wants to be a writer and is in turn in love with a wine importer called Miu, who she ends up working for. As K finds himself increasingly cut off from Sumire's life, she takes a work trip with Miu and it is here that she disappears and K is brought over to help search for her.
This novel tells the reader a lot about loneliness. The loneliness firstly of K's unrequited adoration for Sumire and Sumire's own loneliness in her feelings for Miu that causes her to go off into another world. Aside from these two, there is also Miu's loneliness caused by a traumatic experience years before, that causes the colour to seep out of her and is the root of the impossibility she has in relationships and intimacy.
This is the only book I've read by Murakami so I cannot make comparisons with his other work. The crafting of this story is perfect though and the language, one can imagine, preserved well by the translators which builds the slightly mysterious and even paranormal part of this work and entices the reader even more. The plot is never really resolved, but this fits with the mystery of this story. I will certainly be seeking out and reading more of Murakami's work.
I used to read the Adrian Mole books as a kid and I'm pretty sure this was the only one I've never read - it was written fairly recently. The loveable Adrian gives the title to this book when he writes a letter to Tony Blair requesting that he inform a travel company of the danger of the weapons of mass destruction. It seems after all this time, Adrian still hasn't changed. He's still in love with Pandora Braithwaite and he still somehow manages back living with his parents. We see Adrian as a dedicated believer of Tony Blair's mission in Iraq and his slow realisation throughout the book that perhaps something is not right - especially when his beloved Pandora (a Minister in the Labour government) splits from Blair.
As usual Townsend has brought us back a character who has never gotten passe. His potential to embarrass himself and to take himself too seriously is once again evident throughout the book. This is as well as his support for his son Glen who is off in Iraq, a member of the army. Adrian finds himself deep in the credit economy and his debts begin to pile up as he gets credit card upon credit card with no idea how to pay for them.
As usual Sue Townsend has fully delivered on one of the most amusing characters ever to be put in literature - definitely up there with Bridget Jones.
Jane Eyre is a novel written by Charlotte Bronte, whose pen name at the time was Currer Bell. We are drawn into the book from Jane being a child, whose parents died and who lives with her aunt and uncle. We are scared for her when she is locked in a room for getting into a fight with her cousin. Soon after this terrifying episode, Jane makes her way to a school where she stays for years first as a student and then a teacher. From there, Jane makes her way to the house of Mr Rochester to be a governess for a young girl.
This book is absolutely amazing, probably one of the best and more relateable ones from its era. Jane is an amazing character and a believable woman living in a society where women were still regarded as property. Mr Rochester is painted (in my opinion) as less likeable. His rich lifestyle and his past seem to have taught him to think only about himself and to act out when things do not go his way. Despite this, it is Jane who gets the final say about their relationship, which I liked. All of the characters were well developed throughout the book and as Jane becomes a more self-sufficient young woman, we begin to see a real personality come through.
Of all the classics we are told to read in high school, this one will probably ring the most bells for me. The intrigue woven into the story from the start as well as the complex character development makes it a stellar read and the language unlike so many other books of the same era is uncomplicated.
This novel was Foer's first and at its release was incredibly successful. It tells the story of Jonathan Safran Foer travelling to the Ukraine searching for a woman who saved his father from the Nazis in World War II. He is accompanied on this adventure by his translator Alex Perchov, Alex's grandfather and Sammy Davis Jr. Jr. (the dog). Jonathan goes in search of Trachimbrod, where he believes his family's village was attacked by the Jews. We learn of the history of Foer's family, through a novel written by him (the character Foer) about his ancestors.
In Alex's letters to Jonathan we are given an often-amusing version of the English language. Alex, from Ukraine writes to Jonathan about his experiences, his dreams of moving to America and his troubled life at home with his father. The novel within this novel is filled with experimentation and reads like a manuscript with pages from a dream journal, fragmented words and diagrams. Throughout, Alex offers his own critique of Foer's manuscript in his broken English.
This book was critically acclaimed and while I believe parts of it are fully deserving of the huge amount of praise it received, it also led to a certain amount of disappointment of high expectations. That said, this is the second time I read this book and there were parts of it I didn't remember or understood more the second time around. The broken English of Alex Perchov is the sort of stuff that couldn't be written by anyone except someone with a perfect command of English and it is well done.
I recommend this book; a decent read and an interesting aside from the 'ordinary' novel.
I don't think I've ever read a book from this series although I have heard of Kay Scarpetta, the infamous heroine of a great number of Cornwell's novels. Obviously, this means I've missed a lot of the characterisation of Scarpetta, but she does seem to be notoriously unlucky. She is a pathologist, who of course also solves crimes, in this case of an evil serial killer who fills his victims' eyes with sand.
This book tries as hard as it can to be as gory as possible. The dead bodies are described in grim detail, some of the details are almost described almost exquisitely and one would think the dead bodies quite beautiful if he or she didn't know better. Many of the characters in this book are unrealistically emotive. There's Dr Self, the evil and quite possibly mentally unhinged bad gal and the alcoholic old friend Marino, who is slowly more and more becoming a character he does not recognise. Scarpetta's character was the most believable one, probably because there's been several books to build her up in.
The storyline was multi-faceted. Between all the things that happen/have happened to Scarpetta, you begin to wonder how much more unrealistic it can get and then it does. Despite all this, this is not an awful book. It has its good passages and there are some nice sentences in it. It definitely won't be going on my top list though.
When I was a child we had a video tape called "The Jetsons' Christmas Carol", embarrassingly enough I grew up thinking that the original of this story including the three Christmas ghosts were dreamed up in the head of the creators of the Jetsons. I was corrected a few years later, but I never actually read this book until this year. For a start, for Dickens, it's very short. I read it in a single night.
In it we are told the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, a bitter business man who is visited by the ghost of his old business partner, Marley who warns him that unless he changes his ways he will end up a miserable ghost. He is to be visited by three ghosts. The Ghost of Christmas Past reminds him of his innocent, kindly beginnings; The Ghost of Christmas Present (brilliant pun) shows him what is going on by those he knows and the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come warns him what will happen if he continues as he is.
The book is full of Christmas spirit and is likely to fill even the most cynical reader with a sense of eventual joy. It also reminds the reader that greed will never lead to happiness and that kindness to others is one of the best ways to ensure a happy heart.
Read it!
