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This book is a memoir written by a well-known writer of fiction. She attempts to recount her life from early to present and she does this astonishingly and amazingly. The early part of her life is masked in conceit, from a father who is one day replaced by a step-father and she is never told why, to bullying at school and a strange set of symptoms which come and go but are never diagnosed.
She then takes us through her high school years at a Catholic grammar school where she eventually becomes head girl before going to London School of Economics to study law, here she finds happiness in her studies but a lack of money means she eventually moves to Sheffield to go to university there and finds an environment wholly unaccepting of women, it is here that she falls deeply ill and the medical profession fails her, diagnosing a woman who won't shut up about pain as psychologically ill and she learns to grin and bear what would have been unbearable pain.
The ghosts in the book come as she learns the real reason for her sickness throughout her life, she is rendered infertile and the children she can never have haunt her life and become pieces of the past that never existed.
The book is separated into five parts, each detailing different stages of what parts of her life she can remember. The writing is beautifully crafted, at times with black humour and at other times horribly sad. Some parts of her life, such as her relationship with her husband that breaks up and reforms are never explained in as much depth as her feelings towards certain people and the denials she has received during her life.
I don't think I'm giving this book credit, I highly recommend it.
Last year, my friend Serra got me bound editions of eight of Janet Frame's books to read which I did in quick succession. I started to really appreciate the way she writes, I'd grown up knowing who she was, rather famous in New Zealand and saved at the last minute from getting a leucotomy, a practice rampant in mental health in NZ long after other countries had stopped using it. All of Janet Frame's books seem to be part-auto-biographical in a different way, they definitely all mirror someone she knows.
This book is about an author who goes to stay in a house in Berkeley where a couple has agreed to let her use their house while they are away in Italy. When they die in an accident and everything is left to her, four friends of the couple comes to stay and it is at this point in the novel that the real and imaginary start to collide. We are taken on journeys with each of the characters, all connected to NZ somehow but all with different backgrounds. Although the main character is quite silent, you begin to wonder how she knows everything about each of the characters.
As usual Frame in this book draws on her own experiences, as well as that of ex-pat New Zealanders and the experience of living in a country so cut off from the rest of the world (especially pre-email etc.). Frame teaches us in this book to look beyond first impressions and takes us on a journey through a vivid imagination. As with all her other books, I highly recommend this.
Along with Another Roadside Attraction, this is probably my favourite Tom Robbins book. It explores the life of a teenage girl who also happens to be a princess of a country ruled by a military junta. She lives in Seattle with her parents and by the time that book starts she is already bored with her protected life and after a miscarriage in the middle of a cheerleading gig decides to go to Hawaii to attend a festival which is intent on saving the earth.
In the book, Princess Leigh-Cheri learns a lot about herself, and also discovers the origin of all true red-heads like herself (we are a special breed you see). An interesting character is also found in her chaperone Guileta who attends to her charge's underage drinking and secret meet-ups while also able to not speak English. Possible the funniest part is the fact that her parents, the King and Queen of the home country are prevented from going home and dumping the military junta as the USA supports it (sounds a little familar). Her love interest, known as Woodpecker the outlaw also becomes an important part of the plot as he dodges policing officials the world over.
As per usual, Robbins never stops surprising you or adding a new element to this book, such as the origin of the picture on the front of a packet of Camel cigarettes and how it relates to the picture on a NZ $1 bill, and it's not the Illuminati either. Read this book and be entertained for days (or one day if you couldn't stop reading it like me). By that token, I don't think I've been disappointed by any book Robbins has written but I definitely do have my favourites.
I read this book as a teenager and enjoyed it so I thought I'd give it another read. I haven't read any Jane Austen in awhile so adjusting to her vivid descriptions and endless outflow of characters was a challenge in itself. Emma is a young woman from a superb pedigree who lives in a small rural village caring for her father. It's clear from the beginning that Emma considers herself rather intelligent in the field of social complexities but the events of the book soon prove her wrong when she takes Harriet, a younger woman from a Ladies School under her arm and seeks to make her the perfect marriage.
It's quite funny assessing Emma's opinions of things in this book and always knowing that they are sorely mistaken. She is an entertaining character if nothing else and never seems to doubt her own notions of things. Her father is only mentioned a few times, a man with arthritis I think as he complains of having cold bones throughout the book. Jane Fairfax, a woman who Emma really never gets to know is another important character, not quite so prone to the gossip of country life as any of the other characters.
As usual in her books, Austen makes the plot enjoyable, the characters intriguing and the relationships (to me) seem built on nothing but maybe that is just a product of the time or maybe it is because Austen chose not to explain them in depth. Nevertheless, probably one of my favourite Austen books.
This book documents the amazingly distressing story that occurred in the National Women's Hospital from the 1960s onwards where cervical cancer patients were virtually experimented on, and as a result many died or suffered extraordinarily long with a disease that could have been treated at the first instance. Since the writing of this book, a couple of pieces of information have been corrected, I am unsure as to what exactly these are but the substance remains the same.
As Coney suggests, although one doctor was at the centre of the research, the problem lay with the hospital itself and the various obstacles that were surpassed to allow such a thing to take place initially. The fact that it also went on despite protests from doctors and nurses alike is also testament to the lack of follow-up and checking involved especially considering many people knew that Dr Green's methods were not used by any other doctor in the world.
Coney tells this story very well. A lot of people perceived the whole thing (wrongly) as a feminist witchhunt but Coney tells the story impartially and fairly throughout even mentioning some of the more amusing comments she received about her political beliefs. It also showed that no one person was held to account but it was a more systemic failure.
Highly recommend this book to any New Zealander, shocking and well thought out.
This is a sequel to the book Case Histories reviewed awhile ago. I'm not sure I like it quite as much but it was still a good read. In this book, Jackson (the PI) follows his girlfriend, Julia (also from Case Histories) to Scotland. The book begins with a man witnessing an incident of road rage and saving the victim. He is a crime writer himself and is stunned at how he enters into the spotlight when the press learn of this fact. The plotline continues with murders, spies, attacks, illegal human trafficking and other misnomers which all seem to lead to Jackson becoming a suspect.
Soon after this however, the policewoman in charge doubts his guilt and enlists Jackson's help to solve the crimes. We are meanwhile further introduced to Martin, the witness of the original attack who is subject to the murder of a friend staying with him, he is also confusingly involved in the crimes and finds himself also under suspicion but his nerdy, awkward character seems to sway the suspicion away. We are also introduced to the policewoman and new love interest, Louise as well as her slightly-off-the-rails teenage son who has somehow ended up with some highly illicit material.
The good thing about this book was that it wasn't full of untimely coincidences like many books of its type are. As it came to a close, all the plot twists made sense but it didn't enthrall me quite as much as its pre-decessor.
Another book that got lent to me. One thing I should say is that I love memoirs, a lot of my favourite books are memoirs, I'm not sure if it's because it adds the human element in more or what but I love them. This one tells the tale of a women with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and Tourettes Syndrome. I don't know about you, but the first thing I thin of when I think of Tourettes are vocal tics, despite knowing they are incredibly rare. This book dispelled many of the notions about both OCD and Tourettes and showed how the combination of them contributed towards Wilensky's life.
Her life is covered from childhood (pre-diagnosis) to being diagnosed to her life now and how she copes with her disorder. In her childhood, Wilensky was continually subject to taunts for her motor tic which seemed to constitute a jerk of the neck by her family and in particular her father. People also found it difficult to understand why she was obsessed with stepping on lines or counting to a certain number, although many people have heard of OCD and Tourettes, they only know the manifestations seen in the media and cannot think outside the square.
When she finally seeks psychiatric help, and with her diagnosis faces the battle of knowing she can be partially cured by medication but also not being sure whether it will change who she is by changing how she acts. One thing I loved about this book is that unlike many memoirs, it wasn't extremely emotive. It would have been a difficult position to be in, but Wilensky seemed to face it with a strength of mind that many would envy.
Highly recommend it.
