The catcher in the rye.

Written by J.D. Salinger this novel is a bit famous. It tends to be associated with the murder of John Lennon (Before killing John Lennon, Mark Chapman, who read and re-read the book many times - to the point of believing it was his own biography, asked Lennon to autograph his copy before gunning down the musician) However it's also a modern classic in it's own right. Holden Caulfield is the teenage protaganist and narrator of the diary-esque story. Set over two/three days in December in the early 1950s it's about Holden, who is expelled from his prestigious boarding school, Pencey Prep and told not to return after the Christmas break which starts on Wednesday. Instead of waiting till then he leaves early to stay in a hotel in New York for a couple of days by himself until his parents expect him home. But really as I sit here writing this review it's not so much what this story is about as WHO it's about. Holden Caulfield is this book, we get to see the thoughts and actions of a teenager, a depressed, troubled, contradictory, mind which we witness falling apart. It's not as you'd imagine, a chore to read this, parts of it are very funny, parts of it leap of the page and get lodged in your mind and it tells you something you don't know without ever feeling like it is. Lonely, ostracised teenagers should read this, parents of teenagers should read this, the popular kids should read it to, and if like me you're coming late to the party, you should read it too. It's an important book without feeling like it or feeling like it's trying to be, and to borrow a Caulfield phrase, it killed me. My last little point of recommendation, there's a line in the book about wishing you could phone up an author and just have a conversation with him cause you like how he writes. Salinger is that author, what a guy. 5 massive completely non phoney stars.

The Queen Of The South

I should have loved this book. What's not to like? A unlikely rags to riches tale, the main character Tereza Mendoza, (the mexicana, the Queen of the South) is the girlfriend of a drug smuggler, who ends up dead and she on the run. A series of fairly dramatic events leads her to prison where she rather fortuitously meets Patty O'Flaherty. That brings us halfway through this rather long novel written by Arturo Perez Reverte. The second half brings the riches and we see Tereza essentially rise to become the major importer of drugs to southern spain (well the really southern bit of spain near Morocco and Gibraltar) with connections with the russian mafia, columians, italians and with judges and police in her pocket too. She creates quite the impressive business infrastructure that keeps her safe from investigations into her money. From the start of the novel she comes across as more than just a 'narcos' girlfriend and by the end she is proven to be intelligent and shrewd and risen to the top of a industry which would i'm guessing would be fairly unheard of for a woman especially. It's got gun fights, police chases, a pretty sizeable TWIST near the end and I liked Tereza so what was wrong? Honestly it's pretty bland the story isn't particularly gripping, it's all a little bit predictable and not that believable. All in all I couldn't recommend it. 2 stars.

The Fault In Our Stars

First a disclaimer: this book comes under the category, teen fiction, I do not read teen fiction. It's not that I'm a reading snob, except I guess I kind of am but more I'm not a teen and there are more than enough books to keep me going as it is. Ok there's also a slightly more petty reason for my dislike of teen fiction, I was acquainted with a girl once who would only ever read from within this category, which is fine people like what they like, but alas she crossed me in a rather unforgivable way, stalking was involved (on her part). And so I shall always associate teen fiction with her rather distasteful memory. Saying (all) that this book isn't bad, written by john green it is essentially a Romeo and Juliet star crossed lovers type of a story. Hazel, the narrator and main character in this tale is a teenager with terminal cancer, drowning in her own lungs essentially, so it's all a bit grim and then she meets Augustus waters a hottie in remission at her cancer support group. And despite or because of everything they fall in love. It is written well, and although the subject matter could be all a bit depressing the authors wit helps lift the mood, saying that parts of it are incredibly sad and I mean proper tear inducing craic here. Truth be told, and I hate to admit it, but I really liked this novel, a minor quibble though, if like me you remember Dawson's creek where the cast, all teens talk like they're adults, this is a bit like that, also like Dawson the two main characters irritated me, but not enough to detract from the story (maybe I just don't like teenagers). 3 stars.

Blackbird House

I was reading this and I was half way through the second chapter when I thought hmmm is this a set of short stories? Turned out it wasn't, I was just being a bit dim, it is the story of a house, blackbird house. Written by Alice Hoffman, and you can't much go wrong with a Hoffman novel she's a sturdy sort of writer always dependable for a good yarn, this fairly short book is like I said the story of house over maybe 200 years or so. It tells the tales of the families that lived in it, the majority of which are struck by some kind of tragedy. Some chapters are linked by more than the house some that's all they have in common and in all honesty you could read the chapters independently and still have an enjoyable read, but sometimes the whole is greater than the sum of it's parts and this is definitely one of those times. The stories build and twist together more the more you read and it ends up almost being a ghost story but it's much more subtle. It is certainly haunting, parts of it are sad, occasionally it leaves you slack jawed in shock but overall it's excellent, 4 stars.

Vanity Fair

Vanity fair is one of those epic sprawling 19th century English novels. Written by William Makepeace Thackeray it's a satire on society but really it boils down to the story of two very different females, Amelia Sedley and Rebecca Sharp. Amelia is the typical girl you find in novels from this period, nice, pretty, amiable not that her story isn't interesting, it twists along nicely with love and loss and lots inbetween, alas her character is fairly insipid, and she's really just a bland, inoffensive nice girl but I think that is the authors intention. Miss Becky Sharp however is a whole different kettle of fish, born poor without any status in life and without family she manipulates and lies and sacrifices everything to climb to the heights of society and you should hate her for it. She is completely ruthless and deceitful and if ever I loved a fictional character I love her and I love Thackeray for writing a female with wit and independence rather than the usual love obsessed creature you normally get. It's a very long book, a huge amount happens but it's easy enough to keep track of everything, the two girls stories weave together well and the ending was perfect. I enjoyed this so much more than I thought I would, its full of irony and although you'll not laugh out loud you might well catch yourself grinning innanely at the pages as you read. It is a bit daunting to start with but the old fashioned English doesn't take long to get used to and once you get into the story I promise you'll be hooked. Little warning though, don't get the penguin popular classics version the typeset is painfully small. Read it, if only to meet Becky Sharp, the story is subtitled a novel without a hero but honestly she's mine. I can only imagine i'll be thinking to myself 'what would Becky do?' in times of strife for the foreseeable future.

Push

This is the third and last review today, I don't have internet at my flat and I get tired writing my blog via phone so I tend to do a weeks worth at my mum's on a Sunday. I also haven't had as much time to read the past couple of weeks between work and feeling a bit under the weather so I whizzed through this (short) book by Sapphire this morning. It is the story, actually it's essentially the diary of Claireece "Precious" Jones. At 16 she is obese, illiterate, abused by her mother and pregnant by her father with her second child. So all fairly harrowing so far. When a school administrator finds out that she is pregnant again they want to kick her out of school but her maff (math, precious spells like I speak! it takes a little getting used to but is a very powerful tactic employed by the author to show the improvement in Precious' literacy) teacher speaks up on her behalf and they find another source of education for her, an alternative school. It is in this new school where Precious meets her new teacher, Ms. Rain. Ms. Rain is the teacher everyone deserves to have, the one that can make a difference to you, and she's that teacher for Precious. So for the first time in her life, Precious feels like she belongs somewhere. She connects with her classmates, makes friends, gets support and starts to believe in herself. It doesn't play out as sentimental mush though, it's written much better than my synopsis suggests. As hard as parts of it are to read, and as sad as it is it is also uplifting but and this is a big but, reading it just made me want to read The Color Purple by Alice Walker again, they're very similar stories, not that Sapphire is ripping off Walker, Precious compares herself to The Color Purples protagonist herself, it's just The Color Purple is a better novel. If you're so inclined they're both certainly worth reading but if you've only time for one i'd have to say The Color Purple would be my choice.

Norwegian Wood

This is a book that has been read by everyone in Japan (give or take). It was written by Haruki Murakami who usually writes surreal novels I guess the same kind of genre as Gabriel Garcia Marquez, although this one is a much more straight forward love story. Not that it's boring or mundane or typical in anyway. It is narrated by the main character Watanabe and is his memories of the period in his life between 17 and 21. In a way it's a coming of age story too, Watanabe is a very well rounded character with plenty of flaws but always remains likeable although you do feel like giving him a good shake at some points of his story. He is in love with Naoko who was the girlfriend of his dead best friend, who is a beautiful but very troubled person, emotionally unavailable to say the least. But then another girl comes into the story, Midori, I love Midori, one of the strangest, funniest characters i've had the joy to meet on my bookish travels. We get to see how his relationships with these two girls change and develop as the novel progresses. Apart from love a lot of the characters in this book have varying levels of mental illness/depression, and some of it is very sad but life isn't all sweetness and light so novels shouldn't be either and the author strikes a fair balance, the story of Reiko who we meet about halfway through the novel demonstrates this particularly well, she too is one of Murakami's strange girls but all of them seem believable at the same time. I have a few other of his books sitting on my bookshelf waiting to be read and going by this one I have high hopes, a very enjoyable novel. 4 stars. P.S On a side note this book has given me an overwhelming urge for sushi and I wouldn't mind visiting Japan which is something that has never crossed my mind before.

Postcards From The Edge

So after the past couple of difficult reading choices I went for something a little easier this time, certainly no need for a dictionary anyway! This novel is written by princess Leia (well the actress who played her, Carrie Fisher) and much like when models decide to act I didn't have a huge amount of faith in the offspring of an actress deciding to write. But...it wasn't all that bad, parts of it where very witty and the writing was pretty good not great enough for me to rush out and read her other novels mind but certainly far from terrible. So what is it about? It's the story of an actress, Suzanne Vale with something of a drug problem and a flailing career and many issues concerning her own opinion of herself. It starts with her in rehab although there isn't a great deal of struggle involved in her overcoming her addiction which all sounds a bit grim but it's more of a funny little tale of her time there with the other patients and that sort of caper so nothing too deep. We move on to her trying to get her career back on track, going to parties and not fitting in, bad boyfriends so nothing too exciting in all honesty but it doesn't drag on, there's enough wit in her writing that lets it trundle along at a good pace, it all winds up ending nicely, with you guessed it, a nice boy. So all in all it's not good, but it's not bad it's just OK. An important thing to bear in mind is that it was made into a film starring Meryl Streep and I think this might be one of those rare occasions where you're better off just watching the film, you can't after all go wrong with the Streep. 2 stars.

Brief Interviews With Hideous Men

Reading this collection of short stories by David Foster Wallace was much like being a told a series of long really intelligent jokes. When 'I got them' they were excellent but some of them right over my head leaving me with thinking what on earth was all that about. It didn't help matters that Wallace is a bit infamous for his use of obscure synonyms of recognizable words which makes the whole reading process unnecessarily difficult in parts. After the trouble that one hundred years of solitude caused me I should have probably went for a book a bit lighter on challenging vocabulary but this was certainly not that, it was to be entirely honest on a whole other level of taxing. The little Oxford dictionary didn't even cut it half the time, the next time I attempt a DFW book I am going to have to haul a bad-ass massive dictionary along for the ride. Yes despite the trouble I had with these short stories I would certainly try other books by him because when it was good it was some of the best, most different, uncategorizable writing I have ever read. He's worth the battle but it was a bit of a struggle, 3 stars overall.