The Forest by Edward Rutherford

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.

Books to review

Right I have resolved to do at least one a day until I've caught up (it doesn't help that I'm rushing through books so quickly at the moment).
In order of completion:
The Forest - Edward Rutherford
The Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Edinburgh - Alexander Chee
Wasted - Marya Hornbacher
Bodies - Susie Orbach
The extravagant universe - Robert P. Kirshner
Animal liberation - Peter Singer
Te mana te kawanatanga - Mason Durie
The Outsider - Albert Camus
I'll take you there - Joyce Carol Oates
Resistance - Maria Bargh (ed.)
Fat is a feminist issue - Susie Orbach
The sirens of Baghdad - Yasmina Khadra
The Cult Files - Chris Mikul
The city is a rising tide - Rebecca Lee
AD: A memoir - Kate Millett
Born on a blue day - Daniel Tammet
Little girl blue: The life of Karen Carpenter - Randy L. Schmidt

London by Edward Rutherford

This book is quite possibly the longest of any of the ones I have read by Edward Rutherford. Like his other books, the title is the subject of this book. It stretches from the ice ages to almost the present day. Of course there are periods of a hundred or so years skipped here and there, especially in periods where little was known (The Dark Ages). Genetic characteristics passed down through generations are one of the interesting parts of the book. White hair as well as webbed fingers are particularly seen in one family who make an appearance as fairly central characters in different periods of the book. The family even endures a split down the middle and some characters do not know they are related and only guess through these genetic characteristics.

Some obvious critiques of this book are the ones that would be difficult for anyone to avoid - the quickness of passing of some of the historical periods (particularly the ones rife with action such as the 16th and 17th centuries. There are also some that are borne out more with more character development and these were generally the ones I enjoyed more. Rutherford is not a great literary author - he doesn't have the gifts that many authors do, but he is amazing at developing characters and providing historically accurate information in an interesting setting, made more interesting by the fiction he adds in himself.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this book and learned a lot from it.

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

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.

3,096 Days by Natascha Kampusch

Most people remember the shocking kidnap of Natascha Kampusch and her eventual escape of her attacker and return into the world in 1996. Kampusch, now a television presenter, has written a book about her experiences - the terror and fear she experienced as a captive of Wolfgang Prikopil who jumped under a train soon after her escape.

It is clear from the writing in this book that Kampusch received help from therapists to understand her experiences, both as an unhappy small child prior to her kidnapping, and as a victim and survivor of the man who subjected her to eight years in captivity. Kampusch is able to write clearly about her experiences and she reflects on them in a useful way throughout the book that I think is extremely admirable. Not many people would be able to go through what she did and come out the other side, but Kampusch has come to understand and reflect on her experiences and her ultimate survival to the benefit of herself and others. As well as this, she rejects the label of Stockholm Syndrome that was imposed on her after she escaped saying it denied her autonomy and reinforced her status as the victim. She was also able to objectively look at the media response which contributed to a form of revictimisation.

This book also highlights the police processes which took place after her capture and it is clear that from the beginning there were many mistakes made. Important leads were also not followed up in the process of the investigation and several opportunities to follow up Prikopil ultimately failed. It seems like the police expected some sort of obvious monster and the failure to find this monster they sought meant they did not take good tips seriously. Then again this was probably an unheard of case at the time and this story could contribute to police efforts in Austria in the future.

Overall this was an absolutely amazing book. Kampusch is an impressive women who is able to recount her experiences with understanding far beyond her years. I would recommend it to all.

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

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.

The Reader by Bernhard Schlink

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.