Tom Rachman strikes again. I loved this just as much as The Imperfectionists. Rachman is just so damn good at writing completely believable charactersTom Rachman strikes again. I loved this just as much as The Imperfectionists. Rachman is just so damn good at writing completely believable characters, those I love and those I hate. I listened to this read by Sam Alexander (who read it exceptionally well), and I loved it so much I'm going to have to buy the physical book. It is the life of Charles (Pinch) Bavinsky, and we first meet him when he is five in his father's painting studio in Rome in 1960. Bear Bavinsky is a famous, philandering, egotistical, larger-than-life painter and Pinch is both terrified of him and in awe to him, and really remains so for the whole of his life. And yet although everyone crumples in the path of Bear - his several wives, his many children and so on - Pinch has the last laugh, although it's still not funny. For the most part Pinch's life is a sad one (the cover might say this book has some dark humour, but I didn't find it), solitary, unfulfilled, dissatisfied, but so real. I wanted to shake him. I loved him. ...more
Fifteen-year-old Kambili lives with her abusive and religious father, abused mother, and older brother in Nigeria. She survives by working out exactlyFifteen-year-old Kambili lives with her abusive and religious father, abused mother, and older brother in Nigeria. She survives by working out exactly what it is her father wants but still he beats her and pours boiling water on her feet. She and her brother see a different kind of family life - loving and fun - when they go to stay with their aunt and cousins. This is all set to the backdrop of the Nigerian coup which affects her father's life most of all. There were lots of things I enjoyed: how complicated her father is, the stirrings of love that Kambili feels for a priest, and the aunt and cousins, but still I was left rather unmoved. The brother and mother both seemed unknowable, and even Kambili is so introverted that she lack enough energy and agency to care too much about. ...more
This went in such an unexpected and poignant direction. I loved it. It’s 1961 and lonely and isolated Isabel lives in the Dutch countryside in the houThis went in such an unexpected and poignant direction. I loved it. It’s 1961 and lonely and isolated Isabel lives in the Dutch countryside in the house her mother had loved, surrounded by her treasured possessions. Her brother brings his girlfriend, Eva to stay while he is away on a work trip. There is a lot of tension between the two women until things gradually change, and family histories and plans for revenge are revealed. ...more
It doesn't feel fair to rate this book. I picked it up for research for the novel I'm writing now, and it was extremely useful for that. I felt for HeIt doesn't feel fair to rate this book. I picked it up for research for the novel I'm writing now, and it was extremely useful for that. I felt for Hewitt and everything he'd been through, but the book wasn't very well written, and could have done with a much more thorough line edit. Interesting how similar his childhood was to Lemn Sissay's: 10 or so years with a foster family, and then rejected; teenage years in two or more children's homes, stealing and some general bad teenage behaviour. ...more
Lessons is the story of the life of Roland Baines, cash poor, house rich, part-time bar pianist, looking back to when he was eleven and went to boardiLessons is the story of the life of Roland Baines, cash poor, house rich, part-time bar pianist, looking back to when he was eleven and went to boarding school, moving forward into his seventies, and sometimes sideways into other people's lives. And throughout there is comment on the times Roland is living through. The novel is ambitious, sweeping, and wonderful. Roland and all the people who come and go in his life have filled my head for several days as I read voraciously during any spare moment. I hope they will stay for longer. Roland has three significant women in his life: his piano teacher, Miriam, his ex-wife Alissa, and his second wife, Daphne. There is a reckoning to be done with all of them, although the last is really not her fault (there is a brilliant scene where he fights over her ashes with a junior minister on a bridge in Yorkshire and loses). Miriam seduces Roland when he is only fourteen and changes the course of his life. Alissa walks out on him and their eight month old baby, and becomes a famous and successful novelist. McEwan clearly draws much on his own life with this novel (North Africa, boarding school, discovered brother) but has Alissa says, everything is fair game. I liked how McEwan plays with this, and I also love the questions he raises around a woman leaving a husband and baby in order to create a masterpiece. It doesn't happen often, is it worth it? Will certainly be in my top ten reads of the year. ...more
I have always loved Vashti Bunyan's music - ethereal, unselfconscious, unpretentious - and the only part of her story that I knew was that she was theI have always loved Vashti Bunyan's music - ethereal, unselfconscious, unpretentious - and the only part of her story that I knew was that she was the sixties musician who gave it all up and went to Scotland on a horse and cart. Of course that was only part of the story and not quite true anyway. So, it was fascinating to read about what really happened with Bunyan's musical career and that journey north. And I was delighted that the style of her prose is so like the style of her lyrics - unpretentious. Very enjoyable. ...more
Unfortunately, not one of Rendell's best. The writing, as ever, is great but how the story plays out, less so. I really enjoyed the first three quarteUnfortunately, not one of Rendell's best. The writing, as ever, is great but how the story plays out, less so. I really enjoyed the first three quarters but by the time we're discovering the killer, motives and consequences everything became far too complicated, convoluted, and rather boring. What I did enjoy in rather a shocked way was reading about life the 1960s (the book was published in 1968). A woman is wolf-whistled and Rendell has her female character think how lovely this is and how all women must love being whistled at; how this character smokes all the time including around her child; how when she has the flu she calls the doctor and he comes on a house call, and so many other things that have changed in my lifetime. Still up for reading more RR though. (view spoiler)[What I really was shocked by - and I'm not sure if this is a '60s thing - or just odd on RR's part, is that a man supposedly shoots a woman and then kills himself. They are thought to be lovers, and this act throughout the novel is called a suicide pact, although there's no note. There is only gun residue on the man's hand. Surely, surely, this is a murder and then a suicide? (hide spoiler)]...more
I knew little about Barbara Pym and now I know much more - how ahead of her time she was (and then regarded as behind the times), how funny she was, hI knew little about Barbara Pym and now I know much more - how ahead of her time she was (and then regarded as behind the times), how funny she was, how sharp, how she fell for unavailable men. Perhaps you have to have read at least some of her books to fully appreciate this biography (I'd recommend the wonderful Excellent Women) but it was also great to get a sense of the times she lived through - Oxford in the 30s, Germany in the late 30s, London through the subsequent decades. My only niggle was Byrne's choice to preface each short chapter with a picaresque heading: 'In which Barbara....' does something or other. Byrne explains why she's done this, but I don't want to be told what's going to happen in a chapter before it happens. ...more
I'm not sure this non-fiction book is really about what the title suggests it is: The Premonitions Bureau. I suspect that just made a good title, or tI'm not sure this non-fiction book is really about what the title suggests it is: The Premonitions Bureau. I suspect that just made a good title, or that it was going to be about that but Knight got distracted, or there simply wasn't enough content. But, I'm very pleased Knight got distracted, because this meandering-blind-alley kind of book was fascinating. In the 1960s, John Barker, a psychiatrist set up the Premonitions Bureau with Peter Fairley, the science correspondent of the Evening Standard, after Barker visited the Aberfan disaster and discovered that several people, including one girl who was killed, foresaw the disaster or even their own death. Really, there isn't too much to say (or write, it seems) about the bureau. People wrote or phoned in with their premonitions and Fairley or his assistant tried to see if they came true. Sometimes they did. Knight spends much of the book detailing the disasters that were predicted and looking at other kinds of foresight, and mostly writing Barker's biography and his time at Shelton Hospital (a mental health hospital, known as 'the mental' to the locals at the time) I really enjoyed all these side tracks, but I can see how readers, expecting one kind of book and getting something else entirely, might be irritated. ...more
This 1971 novel is marketed as horror (just look at the covers) but what I got was a brilliantly written psychological drama about an aging childless This 1971 novel is marketed as horror (just look at the covers) but what I got was a brilliantly written psychological drama about an aging childless couple who take a young man into their home. Albert and Alice have retired to the country (in the US) when Richard Atlee comes to check the oil tank in their cellar. He spends all day there, and a week or so later turns up again without his truck. A while after that it becomes clear that Richard Atlee has made himself a nest in Albert and Alice's crawl space. Things go missing from their house, and when Albert goes down to investigate the terrible smell, he discovers the remains of many tiny animals. Sounds like horror? Yes, but then the story shifts and the couple invite Richard to eat with them and eventually to live upstairs, and he takes on - especially for Alice - the role of the son she never had. They might welcome Richard Atlee but the local townspeople don't and when they reject him events turn nasty on both sides.
Thoughtful and character-driven, this in an exceptional novel; my only disappointment was the last 15 pages which read like something an editor told Lieberman to stick on the end because readers would want an explanation.
Crawl Space explores what happens if you offer sanctuary to an outsider, expecting one thing and getting another: even outsiders bring with them their own history, requirements and challenges. It deals with aging, charity, mental health and prejudice. And it made me think what I would have done if I'd been Albert or Alice.
I listened to this as an audio book (a physical copy was not easy to get hold of in the UK), and it was wonderfully narrated by Joe Barrett. 4.5 stars, rounded down because of the ending. ...more
What a joy this book is. A literary romance. Aged about 19 Kath meets a bohemian family with six children and falls in love with them, and especially What a joy this book is. A literary romance. Aged about 19 Kath meets a bohemian family with six children and falls in love with them, and especially the eldest son, Roger. And I fell in love with them. After the end of that first love affair, Kath moves to Rome, and it is ten years before she catches up with the Goldmans again, when she falls in love with another one of them. It's a coming-of-age story about whether in the late 70s in England women can actually get a family and a career. On the front Meg Mason says, it's 'utterly ageless'. And in some ways it is - an ageless subject - but in others it's a wonderful period piece full of phrases I forgotten like, 'something chronic'. (Only the middle section in Italy stopped me from giving it five stars, really because it was too slight and too quickly dealt with.)...more
There are novels by Tessa Hadley which have made my top ten books of the year, but sadly I don't think this is going to be one of them. The writing, aThere are novels by Tessa Hadley which have made my top ten books of the year, but sadly I don't think this is going to be one of them. The writing, as ever, is wonderful. Hadley has such a wonderful way of putting me right in the location she's writing about. The novel starts with the sound of children playing outside on a warm evening, and I was right there. But the story and its characters and their little bit of intrigue didn't scoop me up and sustain me. In 1967 a middle class woman with two children and a respectable husband embarks on an affair that turns her life and those of her family upside down. Maybe it didn't explore anything new - it felt like I had read this before, even though of course every situation is different for each new character. ...more
I really enjoyed the writing but I wasn't completely convinced by the story or the way it was told. It wasn't until I got to the end and learned that I really enjoyed the writing but I wasn't completely convinced by the story or the way it was told. It wasn't until I got to the end and learned that it was based on the life of the author Sue Kaufman that the way Cambridge chose to tell this story made some kind of sense. A real life doesn't hold together so well, unlike fiction. There were lots of incidental deaths in the protagonist's life and I expected the story to come back and provide some answers or conclusion to them, but of course it wasn't able to do that. Instead it rather skittered around in time and sometimes point of view without really settling, and without much sense of place. I'd still be interested in reading whatever Cambridge writes next, because she was very convincing as an English woman writing about an American. (I listened to the audio book and it was beautifully read.)...more
This is a must read for any Shirley Jackson fans, and for anyone interested in writers and writing. It’s a whopper at 600 pages, and covers her letterThis is a must read for any Shirley Jackson fans, and for anyone interested in writers and writing. It’s a whopper at 600 pages, and covers her letters from the age of 21 until she died in 1965, age 48.
What is so wonderful to see, although I suppose not that surprising is that she writes about different things to different people. We hear about how well her children are doing when she writes to her parents, about needing more money from her publishers when she writes to her literary agent, and perhaps with more truth about her life when she writes to a fan who becomes a friend. Then, suddenly there is a letter to her husband, Stanley which was probably never sent. The shock of this letter is tremendous.
I also loved getting snippets about how her writing was going, especially those about my favourite Jackson novel, We have Always Lived in the Castle.
There was a nice five degrees of separation moment for me when Jackson’s son, Barry meets the son of the English sculptor, Anthony Caro, when Caro was teaching at Bennington where Stanley taught. Barry goes to stay with them in England. Many years later, when I was studying sculpture at Winchester School of art, I met Caro when he came and gave a guest lecture.
Family Pictures is topped and tailed by the first person voice of Nina looking back on her childhood and adolescence in a family with six siblings andFamily Pictures is topped and tailed by the first person voice of Nina looking back on her childhood and adolescence in a family with six siblings and two parents. One of the siblings is severely autistic and this has repercusions for everyone. The middle sections of the book is told from the POV of various members of the family in third person (including Nina). It doesn't really have a strong narrative thread but doesn't suffer from that lack. I absolutely loved it and was fully immersed in this family and their lives. ...more
Sleepless Nights by Elizabeth Hardwick is dense, fragmentary auto fiction. Did I love it? I’m not sure. Did I appreciate it? Absolutely. Elizabeth recSleepless Nights by Elizabeth Hardwick is dense, fragmentary auto fiction. Did I love it? I’m not sure. Did I appreciate it? Absolutely. Elizabeth recalls times in other houses and times in New York. She recalls cleaners she has known, and seeing Billie Holiday. She remembers a friend from Amsterdam and she writes letters to M. The writing is sublime. Read as part of #NovNov 128 pages. How do get on with fragmented fiction? It’s a challenge for me, but on that often pays off if I stick at it....more
This was originally published as a series of short stories by The New Yorker, about the character Annie John growing up on Antigua in the 1950 and 196This was originally published as a series of short stories by The New Yorker, about the character Annie John growing up on Antigua in the 1950 and 1960s, and then brought together as a novel, and for me this didn't particularly work. It felt very autobiographical (and apparently is) with little narrative thread apart from time passing and Annie hating everyone. Annie is a very difficult character to read - she is really quite horrible in the end about all the people she spends time with, especially her mother and cannot wait to leave. I did, however, really enjoy reading about life on Antigua in that period - about 15 years before independence from Britain, and the clash between more traditional Caribbean culture and medicine, and British. Incidentally, in the early 2000s I went on holiday to Antigua with my kids and first husband. It is a beautiful island with lovely people but the trip was overshadowed by a disaster that has become one of those stories that families retell over and over. A story for another day....more
This collection of Canadian short stories should definitely be better known because they're wonderful. Eight stories about the eponymous Elizabeth froThis collection of Canadian short stories should definitely be better known because they're wonderful. Eight stories about the eponymous Elizabeth from age 7 to 17, taking us through relationships with friends, family and boyfriends. The writing is unshowy, letting the stories shine through. The book seems to be out of print in the UK which is a great shame. ...more
Another lovely novel by Elizabeth Taylor - her writing is so good, very like Elizabeth Jane Howard, effortless to read and very witty. This one is allAnother lovely novel by Elizabeth Taylor - her writing is so good, very like Elizabeth Jane Howard, effortless to read and very witty. This one is all about love: Kate, newly married to much younger and feckless Dermot, after the death of her first husband. Kate's adult son, Tom who ghosts Ignazia after he falls in love with a neighbour, Araminta. Lou, Kate's younger daughter who is in love with the curate. The curate who has fallen out of love with the church. Charles - Araminta's widower father, who is falling in love with Kate. Dermot who who is also falling in love with Araminta. And aloof Araminta who appears to love no one. Sounds complicated? It's not. It's warm and subtle, and then shocking (although, I could see that by the end Taylor needed to get the plot out of a tangle). ...more
There were pages where I loved The Transit of Venus for its pathos, its characters, its unrequited loves, and then there were pages where it was like There were pages where I loved The Transit of Venus for its pathos, its characters, its unrequited loves, and then there were pages where it was like wading through treacle and it made my brain ache. I suspect if you love classic novels, you'll love this. It's very wordy, very erudite and although I read some sentences several times I still didn't understand what they meant. Two Australian sisters, Caro and Grace lose their parents when they are young and come to England. Mostly we follow Caro, as she has an affair, eventually marries, and rejects the man who has always loved her. I found Caro difficult, or maybe it was her passages that were the most dense. We also follow Grace and her awful husband, and it was these two, and the passion that slips out of Grace's fingers, and the terrible things that her husband does which moved me the most. I read Hazzard's The Great Fire some time ago, and although I don't remember it well, I think I remember it more fondly than I'll remember this one. I'm not saying don't read, just prepare yourself....more
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