Breakfast at Tiffany's

This review shall comprise of the penguin classics edition of Breakfast at Tiffany's, so you'll get a bonus review of the three short stories contained alongside Truman Capote's famous novella. Breakfast at Tiffany's is the story of Holly Golightly (who I should point out is not Audrey Hepburn, fact fans may be interested to know Capote wanted Marilyn Monroe to play the lead role in the film adaptation…although I can't honestly imagine Monroe as Golightly either) Holly Golightly is 19 and lives alone in an apartment in New York with a cat. She's kind of like a socialite who makes 100 dollars a week visiting Sally Tomato (a mobster) in prison and relaying his "weather reports" to his lawyer (these are obviously not weather reports but somewhat more underhand information) she's not quite what she seems and there's a little bit of fleeing the country towards the end. Similar to the great gatsby her story is narrated by a character we don't learn a great deal about. I quite like that way of doing things, actually there is a touch of the Fitzgeralds about Capote I think, and there are shades of similarity between the characters Gatsby and Golightly. I loved Holly Golightly, she's exactly my kind of character, a bit complex, her own person and with a good turn of phrase. There where a couple of major themes to this story, or that's what I got from it anyway, to do with freedom and that wild things, or free spirits (in the case of people) can't be tamed or changed or stifled or they'll fly away. And also "not knowing whats yours until you've thrown it away". Both these things are things I think about occasionally so that's perhaps why this book has struck a bit of a chord with me. As for the other stories in the edition I read, the first was called House of Flowers which I liked the least out of the three and I have nothing terribly interesting to say about it, not that it was bad by any stretch of the imagination just it didn't really grab me like the other two. The second was called A Diamond Guitar, this was set in a prison with an old respected inmate more or less falling for Tico Fey a new and younger prisoner both in an intimate and platonic way. It's really quite a sad story about love and in some sense betrayal, however it's the last of the short stories that'll actually incite tears. This one called A Christmas Memory is about the friendship between a 7 year old boy and his much older relative. Despite being very poor every christmas make fruitcakes for their friends (which are essentially strangers, brief acquaintances they've met once or twice), they also exchange homemade gifts, which the year our narrator, the boy, is reminiscing about was kites. This was the last christmas they spent together as the next year the boy was sent to military school, they remain in contact via letter and it is through this Capote conveys dementia and loneliness in as poignant a way as i've read. It's maybe ten pages long but it knocked me over all the same.

Their Eyes Were Watching God

I had been looking for this novel, by Zora Neale Hurston, for quite some time in my favourite bookshop in Belfast (Keats and Chapman, on North street if the opportunity should ever arise you should absolutely go to there). Anyway I finally found it, it was actually in the feminist section, although i'm not entirely sure why…i'll talk about that in a little minute. The novel, written in the 1930s is centred around a black woman (and I only mention that she's black as race plays a significant role in this novel, but not in a heavy handed way) called Janie. And before I get into giving a synopsis I want to write the opening sentence of this novel, now there are many famous opening lines; Tolstoys "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in it's own way", Walkers "You better not tell nobody but god", Austens "It is a truth universally acknowledged…" Dickens "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…" but for some reason this one is my favourite, and is as follows "Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board. For some they come in with tide. For others they sail forever on the horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the Watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by Time. That is the life of men." It had me hooked from the off and this bit is important, if you do decide to read this novel, read the start of it once you finish it and I dare you to not cry, it really is quite something. Now I have that out of the way, onto the story of the novel, well it is basically Janie's story and it has a lot to say, so much so i'm not entirely sure how to begin. Janie is thrown into marriage at a young age on the behest of her grandmother (who raised her) who see's the world through old eyes and nearing death want's Janie to have someone to provide for her. Although this first husband is not abusive, Janie wants essentially to be in love and this man is not that. Then along comes Joe Starks who is full of plans and excitement and all the things he could achieve and he's a bit of a charmer too. They run off together and Joe basically talks his way to becoming mayor of a town that wasn't really a town before he arrived. Janie is then cast as 'de mayors wife' and is to all intents and purposes Joe's property, his charm is not used for her anymore but to get the things he wants in terms of wealth and position in society. This doesn't much suit Janie who as the novel progresses is finding her own voice as a woman, and knows she has opinions and thoughts of her own. She is however pretty much stuck with Joe and a life of wearing her long hair up so other men don't notice her as well she's Joe's…until he dies of kidney failure, leaving Janie with something of a financial cushion and henceforth freedom. And then in strolls tea cake a young man, about half janie's age who completely sweeps her off her feet, he's a gambler and lives hand to mouth and everyone warns her off him, saying he's only after her money but Janie is at the point in her life where she's confident and sure of herself and follows her own heart regardless of the opinion of others. And it works out, it is in fact one of the loveliest written and touching love stories I have read, and more to the point they don't have the usual fictional cinderella-esque love it's a love very much on both their terms. So the end of the novel is a tiny bit devastating but in the same sense Janie has become this stand on your own two feet kind of a woman and I'm guessing that is why this book is in the feminist section, the development of her character is one of the best things about this story and as everything else centres around that it bodes pretty well for the novel as a whole. Now as for the race bit, well this novel is interesting in that Janie is the daughter of a black woman and a white school teacher (who didn't exactly give Janie's mother an option in that regard) so Janie with her fairer skin and long smooth hair has to deal with racism from both sides, and it's how this is dealt with that is particularly effective. So then, this novel has a lot going for it, I like a book if it's more than just a story, if it carries something meaningful with it too and this has that in spades. But moreover it's written almost poetically, which is quite lovely in itself to read. In direct contrast to this Hurston writes the dialogue as you would pronounce it in your head, and the dialect used, although it takes a little getting used to, gives the novel I think a strong identity and only adds to it. If you enjoy the novels of Alice Walker, Toni Morrison and Maya Angelou, then this novel and Zora Neale Hurston are certainly worth a read, she often being cited as a major influence in all their work, and really paved the way for them to write. It is however an excellent read in itself and I would have no qualms in recommending it.

Mary and The Wrongs of Woman

Okay it's possible i've found my way into the world of feminist literature. These books (Mary is one, The Wrongs of Woman (also known as Maria) is the other) are by a woman called Mary Wollstonecraft (and yes I LOVE her surname), who fact fans is the mother of Mary Shelley (of Frankenstein fame). Safe to say these books where written a very long time ago, in the late 1700s, a little before Jane Austen but are no more difficult to read in terms of language than say Pride and Prejudice. So what are they about…well Mary is about a woman called, and this may come as something of a shock, Mary. Who was married to a man she didn't much care for called Charles, who happily (for Mary) leaves for the continent leaving Mary to become buddies with a woman called Ann (who was maybe a little more than a buddy…in an emotional sense) tragedy ensues when Ann gets sick, because well Mary basically loved her, and then she meets Henry (who is also sick) and she likes him in a weird way too more tragedy ensues then Charles comes back and that's more or less that. Except it's the 1700s and Mary isn't like your typical women from the 1700s, she thinks for herself, and doesn't follow social convention, she is as much her own woman as she could be in that period of time. It's a sad story and I can't quite make my mind up about our protagonist… The Wrongs of Woman however I can, this story is for the most part about Maria who made Mary's life seem like a walk in the park. Maria was married to essentially a gold digger who got a maid to drug her, stole her child and imprisoned her in I think a mental hospital. Here she befriends (and I use that term lightly, as someone much smarter than me could explain to much greater effect) Jemima, who hasn't exactly had it easy (abusive master, kicked out by wife of the master when she found out about Jemima and her husband (not that Jemima had any choice in that situation), abortion, essentially lots of bad things) Jemima brings her books from another inmate Henry Darnford who scribbles notes in the margins, they start up a correspondence via letters, and then visits which Jemima organises, fall in love, Jemima goes to look for Maria's child and helps Maria escape (Jemima isn't all good though…she did something quite terrible herself) and then i'm not entirely sure what happens as the novel is unfinished. I quite liked Maria, the rest of the characters where all fairly awful, some bits where unrelentingly miserable, but Maria was alright, she was tough and fought against the situation she was in. Neither novel is going to fill you with joy and you do need to concentrate, it's quite wordy, but they are interesting to read, and they will make you feel something which is no mean feat. VERY IMPORTANT AMMENDEMENT: Earlier in this review I alluded to someone much smarter than me, said person also told me this very important (that is to say, funny) piece of trivia about a certain Mrs Wollstonecraft, (disclaimer: if you are American and reading this I apologise sincerely), (disclaimer part 2: said person isn't immature, said person just knew I would find this hilarious…because I occasionally teeter on the edge of immaturity and it's so much fun to fall off that cliff once in a while) anyway, to the trivia! Mary Wollstonecraft was kind of like Mary in the story Mary, in that she had a buddy much like Ann however and this is the bit that is important her buddy much like Ann, wasn't called Ann, she had quite easily the greatest name in the history of the world, and I am not making this up…she was called Fanny Blood. Both kind of gross and hysterical all at once. And no I'm not sure if Mary saw her once a month...

The Great Gatsby

I have not written a review in quite some time, and for that I apologise, I have no excuse and shall not proffer a fake one. So then, I read this book a few weeks ago, it was my second attempt at Gatsby and was an entirely enjoyable experience. It was written by F Scott Fitzgerald and i'm sure many of you have read the book, and a fair few will have seen the recent film adaptation. For that reason i'll not give a synopsis, instead i'm going to go about this review in a slightly different manner. It should come as no surprise that I love reading, and the majority of the time i'll read at home with a massive mug of tea. In this instance I read this novel (and it's pretty short) sitting in a car passing time. And honestly it was my favourite ever reading experience, there are I suppose several reasons for this, firstly, Fitzgerald has a lovely way with words and there where a lot of lines from this novel that have stuck with me since reading it, normally you'll come across one or two quotes you love in a good book, in this one however there was many more than a couple. However, and this is what I feel like talking about here in this post, but this novel I can't seem to separate from the situation I read it in. You know how a certain smell will remind you of a particular memory? It's kind of like that. And this is why I can't seem to give a fair opinion on the novel as I can't tell if I loved the novel or that the situation I was in at the time of reading it influenced my feelings on it. It's hard to think of the great gatsby without thinking of the person I was waiting on. And that is by no means a bad thing. So i'll reserve my judgement on the novel, except to say this, I can't think of anything I did not like about it, and that is rare, there's always something I don't like…so read Gatsby is my advice, a little bit of the green light is does no harm at all.

Uncle Petros and Goldbach's Conjecture

As some of you may know I love mathematics, in all honesty I love it more that even Meryl Streep, Denzel Washington and cake. Over the years i've read a fair few math related books (Fermat's last theorem by Simon Singh is definitely worth a read, as is The man who loved numbers (alas the author of that one escapes me)). I get that my reaction to math is not a common one, generally people tend to run away from said subject but i'll let you in on a wee secret. Math isn't like math at school, where you're given equations to learn and plug numbers into them over and over, that's why we have computers. Math, the math I like (i.e love) is different, it's kind of like magic, it's little statements of truth with elegant proofs (that in hindsight seem the most obvious solutions but are never that simple to find) without math, technology as we know it would not exist, there would be no shuffle on your iPod, there would be no computer/phone that you're reading this on, searching for things on the internet would not be nearly so easy and in a world where everything can be a bit vague math is reliably black or white, right or wrong (well 99.9% of the time) So to the book then! It is fiction, although a lot of the subject matter is based on truth. You don't need to know anything of math or number theory to understand any of the novel, there are no sums or dense mathematical material to trudge through the math in it is the characters problems, we just read the story of uncle Petros via his favourite nephew. Uncle Petros as we start the novel is almost an outcast of his family, a self made recluse whose brothers and their families visit once a year. It is in these visits his nephew begins to wonder why Uncle Petros is disliked by his brothers, what did he do to earn their ridicule when he just seems like a sweet old gardening, chess playing man. From there on this really is quite the page turner, I genuinely could not put it down, which I know in part is due to my fondness for math and reading little (true) anecdotes about mathematicians i've heard of or studied before (Petros is a fictional creation, Hardy, Littlewood, Ramaujan, Goldbach, Euler and Gauss are not). Goldbach's Conjecture is also a real statement, notoriously difficult to prove but sounds pretty simple; every even number greater than 2 is the sum of two primes (e.g 4=2+2, 6=3+3, 8=5+3) Incidentally if you can't cope with the math in the previous statement then you'll still be fine with the book I promise, it's really more about Uncle Petros, his relationship with his nephew and should life be deemed as a failure if you set yourself unattainable goals or admired for the journey in trying. I as you may have figured out loved this book, and if you took out the math and gave the uncle a different challenge I absolutely would have still enjoyed it (although probably not quite so much). It's quite touching in parts, sad in others and constantly riveting, don't let Math put you off, plus you never know you might end up with a certain fondness for my favourite subject (plus mathematicians are generally really interesting, odd, eccentric people, who all seem more or less to end up going mad)

The Woman In Black

Written by Susan Hill this is a book a lot of people will recognise the title of as it was adapted into a film starring he of Harry Potter fame, Daniel Radcliffe in the not so distant past. I have not watched the film version due to my slight aversion to the aforementioned actor. So then on to what I thought of the book. This novel isn't terribly long but I couldn't seem to get into it, although in defence of the book I have had a lot on my mind this week which is never exactly conducive to an enjoyable reading experience. It is essentially a ghost story, told by our narrator Arthur Kipps a young lawyer sent to sort through the papers of recently deceased Alice Drablow, a woman, something of a recluse who lived in eel marsh house which is cut off at high tide from the surrounding village. The villagers seem unwilling to talk much about this house or Mrs Drablow and immediately there is the feeling that something is afoot. At the funeral of Mrs Drablow he sees a mysterious figure, the woman in black. This figure continues to haunt him throughout the novel till it's gripping conclusion. The reveal of who and why this woman is haunting Eel Marsh House was one of my favourite parts of the novel, I also particularly enjoyed the ending which was excellent. I think however I would have enjoyed this more if I could have concentrated a little better on what I was reading. By all accounts it's somewhat different to the film but it does maintain a sinister undercurrent throughout and although there are certainly spine chilling moments I wouldn't regard this book as overwhelming scary.

The perks of being a wallflower.

Rather the perks of being ill meant I was able to trundle through this novel by Stephen Chbosky this morning in my bed ridden state. I was mid way through another book called the collected Dorothy Parker and as much as like Dorothy Parker I needed a little break. So this book is written as a series of letters from a 15 year old called charlie to some unknown person. Essentially then Charlie is the narrator of the story and is a very bright, likeable character who see's the world in his own way. He isn't normal in the traditional sense of normal. The charlie that narrates is inconsistent with the charlie you'd imagine if you only knew the situations and events that happen in the course of the book. He seems younger (and by younger I mean about 8 years old as opposed to 15) in his letters, his level of naivety doesn't match that of an adolescent by even the greatest stretch of the imagination. The quantity of issues dealt with in the book is also rather vast, almost disproportionate to it's length and henceforth none are dealt with any great depth. Saying all of that I really enjoyed this book, if you just go along with it and don't pay any great attention to the nagging feeling that things don't all fit it's actually very good. Some of it is massively sad too and there are quite a few tear jerker moments. Essentially then it's kind of like watching Stepmom or The Notebook or a generic Jennifer Aniston film, a thoroughly enjoyable way to spend a couple of hours but it's probably not going to win any awards. It's compared to the catcher in the rye and other 'coming of age stories' and I genuinely liked it more than J.D Salingers novel (controversial I know but i'm not Holden Caulfields biggest fan) but I doubt it'll leave the same impression on me.

Alex

Until I lived alone I loved thrillers and horror films. Now if I watch them I end up convincing myself there's some unscrupulous character in my house and I have to sleep on my sofa (my sofa is not massive, it's actually really quite small so this is uncomfortable). But I can still manage to read thrillers without these irrational fears taking over, also I generally read in bed so it's ok if I get a little scared as obviously a quilt cover is the only deterrent a girl needs against a murderer, that and sleep. So why i'm I whittling on? well, the most recent book i've read is called Alex by Pierre Lemaitre. And it is an entirely thrilling thriller. I couldn't put it down. It reminded me a lot of the girl with the dragon tattoo, the eponymous character Alex is a little Lisbeth Salander-esque but that is all i'm saying. The novel has plenty of twists and i'm sure even the briefest of synopsis' would contain spoilers. Vaguely then it's set in Paris (originally written in French happily there are not the issues when reading books originally written in Russian as the character names are much easier to pronounce and differentiate from one another) and opens on quite the violent kidnapping of Alex. Camille a very short detective with a few issues is trying to find her. From that point on this book turns into many different books, your sympathies change constantly nothing is straightforward and you're never sure who to root for. Until the end. But because you'll not be able to put the book down it won't take too long to get to the conclusion. It's a terrific read, if you liked the girl with the dragon tattoo I more or less guarantee you'll like this too. Also bargain fans you can pick it up for £2.99 in sainsburys although if you're in my vicinity i'll lend it to you anyway. For a summer thriller to keep you occupied on the beach or (more likely) a rainy afternoon you could do an awful lot worse than this.

Sharp Objects

Gillian Flynn is kind of the it girl of thrillers at the minute, or rather that's the impression I get from my (far too) frequent trips to Waterstones, with their mildly abundant displays of her books, not that she has written many, just the three. I've therefore read 66% of her novels and have enjoyed in the vicinity of 100%. This one left me with an overwhelming sense of unease. Camille is a journalist sent back to her childhood home to report on a couple of murders that had recently occurred there. Staying with a mother who is Disney-witch level of twisted, a stepdad Alan and a precocious 13 year old half sister Amma (who is a little bit nasty in every sense of the word) in the house she grew up in, with the memory of a dead little sister Marian lingering in her head she's a fair amount to contend with, never mind trying to figure out who killed Natalie and Ann, the two school girls found with their teeth removed. She's also a bit damaged to start with, and by a bit I mean a lot. I don't tend to go for gruesome in books but this is not that, it's dark and it's twisty, the characters are complex and Flynn has a knack for writing female characters and protagonists that no one else does. They're not your usual likeable mundane boy chasing girls you usually find in novels (well thrillers especially). It also has quite easily the most unhealthy mother daughter relationship I have read. In saying that it's not as good as Gone Girl so if you can only read one Gillian Flynn book make it that one but this is definitely worth a read too. It trundles along nicely, it's close to believable, you'll want to find out what happens so it ticks the thrilling box and I loved the characters even though I didn't much like them. Waterstones are right.

For Esme - With Love And Squalor

So I have a confession. I used to hate short stories, not for any rational logical reason mind, I just didn't like them. In my head I guess I thought they weren't worth reading, they just weren't worth my time, and couldn't be possibly as good as a 'real book'. I have recently seen the error of my ways. Those of you that know me might know I have been going to a creative writing class, and this is what changed my mind. Short stories require a little more effort, you've to concentrate from the get go cause they are so jam packed with hints there really are no wasted words. Someone once said "please forgive this long and drawn out letter, I did not have time to write you a short one." I think that explains what i'm getting at, there's nothing left in a short story that isn't necessary (well written ones anyway!) So with that in mind, on to the review. For Esme - With Love And Squalor is (and this should come as no surprise) a collection of short stories. Written by J.D Salinger (he of the catcher in the rye fame), you can find the same book published under the name nine stories, that was what they called it in America, apparently Americans are a little less adverse to short stories. I'm not going to sit and give a synopsis of each story, that would be tedious. People tend to either love Salinger or hate him, I alas fall somewhere in between. His writing is excellent that is in no doubt but his characters annoy me a little. There tends to be two categories of character in his stories, the pure innocent good children and the damaged occasionally mean, occasionally crazy adults. He writes both well, particularly crazy, but I didn't like any of them, in that I found them all unlikeable. Not everyone has this reaction, a lot of people like the characters but they just weren't my sort of people. Obviously this should mean the collection of stories was absolutely tedious to read but that was strangely not the case. I liked the stories he was telling, I just didn't like the characters. In fact I liked the stories he was telling so much that it didn't particularly matter that I wasn't so keen on the characters. Some of the stories where sad, actually the majority of them where, nearly all of them had you sightly winded by the end and there was enough humour in each that you don't end up a depressed quivering wreck after you've read them all. Salinger didn't publish a massive amount of books for all his talents (he ended up so reclusive in later life that by comparison Garbo seems entirely sociable) so it's definitely worth reading what he did write, there aren't many like him.

The master and margarita

To my regulars sorry this has been a while coming! The master and margarita is a classic of russian literature. It is one of the most popular books in Russia which is not too shabby considering it was written back in 1928. So if you meet a russian and you've read this book you're halfway to a conversation (obviously this only works if you both can speak the same language). It was written by Mikhail Bulgakov who fact fans stalin convinced not to leave the country back when he was miserable. The book is set in 1920s russia and there's three stories to it really although they are all intertwined. The main part of it is about Woland, a magician and his entourage, Behemouth (a large vodka drinking, train riding black cat) and korokev. Woland is basically the devil, well literally the devil is a more precise description and him and his two pals wreak havoc on the city especially within the literary elite but it is funny and they are likeable characters, you actually side with the baddies in this story, which was Bulgakovs intention as this represents people standing up against the strict russian bureaucracies and government of the time, and how silly it all is. These parts are set in moscow, there's an analogous story running alongside set in Jerusalem about pontius pilate and the trial of yeshua who is a jesus like character which ties together with the story of the master (who wrote a novel about pontius pilate and yeshua) and his lost love margarita, one of the better female characters i've read in fiction, who makes a deal with the devil (Woland), becoming a broomstick riding, hostess of satans ball in order to be reunited with her love. It's an incredible novel which my synopsis doesn't do the slightest bit of justice. It's very funny, honestly really really funny, it's got layers and layers and layers to it, you do need to concentrate reading it though you can miss alot of the best bits without even realising (I know this cause I did, it was only after I went to a class about it that I really appreciated it). The last thing I have to say is a little word of warning, there's several different translations of this, if you fancy reading it the Picador version is the best, I promise and you'll get a lot more out of it if you read the notes at the back alongside reading the actual story, it is a bit of a pain, but there's a fair amount of things in it that get funnier with a little bit extra explanation. Absolutely worth the effort it takes to read.

Steve Jobs

First a little note, i've the review of two books coming in about three weeks or so, i've a class on them so i'm holding off my initial thoughts until in all honesty I understand what they're about a bit better. Enough about that though we have more important matters at hand namely Steve Jobs biography by Walter Issacson. Steve Jobs, as the majority of people know was the founder of Apple and died of cancer in 2011. I bought this book for my brother a couple of christmases ago and I borrowed it off him last week as i'm considering getting a Mac and I was a bit curious about the man who started the company. Biographies aren't my usual reading fodder so i'm not too sure how to go about rating it but i'll have a crack at it anyway. First off Steve Jobs really is terribly interesting if not altogether likeable. The book takes us from his childhood right through to his death. It's an easy book to read and covers everything that happened in Jobs life fluently although there is a bit of repetition here and there. It also seems pretty honest, not overtly biased towards Jobs although I did get a creeping feeling that the author was in the Steve Jobs camp unless microsoft is actually evil. We learn (or perhaps this was already known, I only had rudimentary knowledge of Jobs prior to reading this) that Jobs was kind of a hippie. He was also a genius. He was also temperamental, moody and also nearly always got his way. He'd steal employees ideas proclaiming them as shit and then a week later passing them off as his own. He was manipulative and mean and I got the impression he never really grew up. But he was charismatic and he stuck by his convictions (which worked well as he was rarely wrong) and without him I doubt the world would be as it is today. He also was the CEO of pixar, and my love for pixar films will forever forgive any wrongs. Basically although a flawed man he had one trump card and that was that he'd stand behind what he believed in, he wouldn't be bullied or compromise and if he said something seemingly impossible could be done people would get it done. The book is full of interesting little facts, he and his buddy steve wozniak (who is some kind of computer genius) started Apple pretty much in his Dads garage. And it's named Apple because at the time Jobs was eating only Apples (he was for periods of time a fruitarian, or would eat only one food for weeks at a time). The slate in Apple stores is all from Italy. The staircases in them was his idea too. Rounded corner rectangles are his favourite shape (look at your iphone). He was kicked out of Apple in the late 90s. When he returned to the helm it's was in a lot of trouble and he pretty much resurrected it, turning it into the most successful company in the world. Macs are named after macintosh reds (the greatest apple known to man). The i in iphone etc stands for internet. And if you want anymore facts you should read this biography. A quick search on the internet would probably give you all the information you could need on the man though. It's not a necessary, essential must read but its inspiring and interesting all the same. 3 stars.

Housekeeping

No this is not a novel on cleaning, however it may as well have been. Written by Marilynne Robinson it has the tagline (if books have taglines) of being one of the Observers greatest 100 books which for me is usually a good thing. A lot of people don't like award winning books or critically recognized ones but that's how I usually find something to read so I was looking forward to this one. Sadly however I can't say I understood it, the prose is rather dense (to put it mildly) and full of similes and metaphors predominantly concerned with water, as a lake seems pivotal to the whole story. Normally I don't really mind that style of writing but I just didn't have much patience for it this time. Synopsis time! Set in Fingerbone, which I can only assume is the 'sticks' of America, it concerns itself with the Fosters and primarily the two sisters Ruthie and Lucille. Their mother Helen killed herself much in the way of Thelma and Louise after leaving the two girls with her mother and hence their grandmother (the grandfather died years ago in an accident involving a train and the lake in Fingerbone). They are raised by a succession of members of the family until their Aunt Sylvie returns to Fingerbone and the rickety old family house. Then it gets a bit more interesting. Mainly because Sylvie is a bit more interesting, in the sense that she's a bit odd, she's lived as a vagrant for years and habits from that lifestyle have carried over to the more domesticated setting of a house. Ruth who narrates the tale finds she has much in common with Sylvie, both awkwardly tall, socially dysfunctional and really happier alone together than with friends and such things. Lucille however like most teenagers is solely concerned with what other people think, is ashamed and embarrassed by her odd Aunt and distances herself from her sister at school cause she just wants to fit in and live a 'normal' life eventually moving in with one of her teachers. The authorities try to take Ruth away from Sylvie but they make off in the night crossing the train tracks over the lake and essentially live happily (well as happily as inherently sad people can be) ever after in their vagabond shoes. That's about it. It's a short book but took me forever to read I didn't much enjoy it and it was never easy. I kept having to read the same bits over and over just could not get into it. I think part of the problem was that I was trying to rush through it as i've a class next week about the master and margarita, which I haven't yet read and I probably should have started that instead of trying to squeeze this book in too. With a bit of effort and patience I imagine I would have enjoyed this novel it's really quite philosophical and read at a more leisurely pace it might prove to be a lot better but as it stands right now I pretty much hated it.

Music for torching

OH MY GOD is exactly what I said to my empty living room when I finished reading this novel by A.M. Homes. After Revolutionary Road and Little Children this is the third successive novel i've read dealing with suburban life in America. Paul and Elaine this time are the unhappy couple and a little bit crazy, certainly depressed, completely selfish, mostly unlikeable and somehow and i've no idea how but Homes makes you care about these two strangely believable characters. The story starts when they burn down their house on a whim, seemingly just for the craic by kicking over the barbeque. The house isn't completely destroyed just some superficial damage and a hole in the dining room wall. They end up staying at Pat and Georges house, Pat being the stereotypical stepford housewife who isn't as most people aren't, all that she seems (it is very funny and very weird when that little plot thread comes to a head) and their two kids Sammy and Daniel are shipped off to two friends house (Sammy staying with Nate the son of Mrs Apple, one of the women Paul is having an affair with, and Daniel with the Meaders who are the traditionally normal family but seem kind of odd against the cacophony of strange characters we meet). The rest of the story then deals with this anything but normal family attempting to get back to normal, to rebuild and improve their house and well lives too. I think this novel is about how people are never who they portray on the surface and that really everyone is a little bit crazy but even if it's about nothing but an entertaining story then that's more than enough. Homes writes the kind of things other people are afraid to say out loud and she writes it well. I have a sad little confession, when I read a book I write down the sentences/quotes I particularly like. I couldn't do that with this novel, because I pretty much particularly liked every line in it. It's very funny, it's very dark, it's very twisted and it's very excellent. It may not be to everyones liking however, I imagine a good barometer would be if you like American Beauty then this you will love. Finally, I wished more books had endings like this one, she's some writer. If the one advantage of being dark and twisty is getting to love novels like this then I say embrace the dark and twisty, it's occasionally worth it.

Little Children

So my back is getting sore and my mum's dogs want to play with me (or more likely they just want fed) so this review is going to be pretty short although I don't have that much to say about this novel by Tom Perrotta. Sarah, a young mother, rather intelligent, someone probably more suited to an academic career than stay at home mum is married to Richard a weird middle aged man with something of a porn fetish. She has essentially a summer affair with the 'prom king', Todd, an unfeasibly handsome house husband she meets at the park. There's other subplots, most notably the child molester who moves to the neighbourhood that summer and it's an easy enough read. There's more to the story than my outline would suggest but I just didn't care enough about the characters to rattle on about it, it's not a bad book, parts of it even verge on gripping but maybe it's because I just read revolutionary road another novel set in the suburbs that really was excellent (really give it a read) that this one just paled in comparison. It's ok but there's better novels to read than this one, resoundingly average, 3 stars. P.S this is one of the rare occasions i'd say just watch the film instead, although the joy that is Kate Winslet is far too pretty to be playing Sarah. Still it has Kate Winslet which is the main thing, and this novel does not.

Revolutionary Road

Set in the 1950s this novel written by Richard Yates is quite something. It deals with the tale of April and Frank Wheeler, a young married couple, two kids, a nice house in the suburbs and from the outside it all seems pretty great but the problem is they thought they were destined for greater things. They think they are the interesting couple, deep thinking, more intelligent and really when it comes down to it better than their neighbours, not that they are outwardly snobbish. It's the internal dialogue between the couple that tells us this primarily. Frank in particular though is quite self aware and is very conscience of portraying himself in a certain way so people see him as attractive, this original first rate mind (he even does this with his wife April). He talks a lot, and I mean a lot, and all of what he says is obviously in his mind so well constructed and important that everyone should be in awe of him. There's a little bit towards the end when April says 'Oh, Frank, you really are a wonderful talker. If black could be made into white by talking, you’d be the man for the job.' and taken out of context it's sounds like a compliment but it comes in the middle of an argument where April has had enough of all the talking and you're rooting her on, cause by this stage as a reader you've had enough of him too. The two main characters in this are brilliantly written, the entire book is in all honesty, with April becoming increasingly sympathetic while Frank runs the other way and becomes more and more unlikeable. Their relationship, never exactly on an even keel really falls apart when April suggests they up and move to Paris, to give Frank a chance at finding out what he wants to do while she'll take on highly paid secretary work to support the family. Initially Franks all for it but in the end for someone apparently miserable in his job, who has conformed to an existence thats all a bit run of the mill and not as extraordinary as would befit a man like him he doesn't have the courage to change but then again I don't imagine many would. I don't know if I would. But I do know the way he gets out of it can't be described in any other way but horrible. April is who you feel sorry for, she's trapped in this life and unlike Frank she is willing to do something about it, to not settle for this existence of suburban banality, but she put her faith in a man who as it turns out was all just talk, and that was the undoing of them, all the talk. The story is many things, it's a satire on suburban life, it's the american dream gone wrong, it's a relationship coming apart and it's the tragic story of April Wheeler subtly building to its sad, abrupt but always inevitable conclusion. I couldn't recommend this book more, i've a habit of thinking the thing i'm reading is the best book i've ever read (not always but often enough)so i'm not going to say this is the best book i've ever read but part of me thinks it might be.

The Reader

I love Kate Winslet. I do, I think she's a bit great so this is the first of my three 'Kate Winslet books', not of course that she wrote any of them, it's just that she's starred in their adaptation. The book was written by Bernard Schlink. Set in Germany in the 1950s it spans 40 years of the narrator, Michael Bergs life. We meet him at 15 where a chance encounter with a young woman Hannah Schmitz has a greater impact on his life than he could possibly imagine. The novel is divided into three parts and it starts off as a love story, Michael falling head over heels for this relatively older woman and they commence a brief affair and we learn about Hanna through Michael, she likes to be read to, she seems to be a bit temperamental and can be both affectionate and stand-offish, sometimes within the same sentence. Then one day she has gone, abruptly packed up her life without a word, leaving Michael devastated. In the second part Michael is now at university studying law, and as part of his classes he attend a trial investigating the involvement of several women guards at Nazi war camps and in a tragic incident involving a number of prisoners locked inside a burning church. It is revealed Hannah is one of the guards under trial and that's when it gets interesting. Because this revelation leads us to one of the main issues in the novel, that for the generation of post war Germans who in Michaels case fell in love, or where taught or where brought up my people who where directly or indirectly involved in the crimes perpetrated during the German war effort their feelings are thrown into turmoil, the shame or guilt to fall in love with someone who may have committed atrocious crimes or to be faced with the realisation that maybe your parents who brought you up and taught you right from wrong, stood by and did nothing would throw your moral certainty into a fair amount of disarray. As the trial progresses the actions of Hanna are explained by a secret of hers, that would although not absolve her guilt it would at the least lessen her charges however she is too ashamed to admit and it seems Michael is the only one that has figured it out, her past actions in their relationship helping him come to the realisation. He toys with talking to the judge but in the end doesn't feel it's his right to reveal something Hanna so clearly doesn't want divulged even though she maybe can't see what the consequence of keeping it to herself would have. The final part brings us to Michael with a failed marriage and a daughter, a man who has never really been able to get over Hanna, in two senses I suppose both the whole being unable to love someone like he loved her and the shame of having loved someone who could commit such atrocities , someone he can't forgive but can't forget or leave behind. He ends up sending her tapes of him reading to prison and it is actually very touching. The end I found terribly sad and this book will stay with me for a long time. I guess it's my feelings about Hanna in particular, if you heard her crimes without any background information you'd immediately condemn her, she'd be a monster but I felt a lot of pity for her, in many ways I found her the most likeable character in the novel she was just a regular citizen and she was doing her job not that i'm saying that makes what happened during the war OK. Obviously there where Nazis who where sick individuals and the crimes committed in the holocaust are horrific but we can't just make sweeping generalizations that all Germans in that period of time where monsters. To forgive is too much but if you put yourself in those regular citizens shoes you can see, or maybe its just me, but it would be difficult to know what you would do. I highly recommend this novel, it is written well, not spectacular, but it's how Schlink deals with the subject that is the bit that got me. Bonus review: The film adaptation of this is excellent, minor bits of the story are changed but overall it is very true to the book and I would have to say one of those rare occasions where the film is on par with the novel. Plus Kate Winslet is in it! (and she got an oscar for it)

Beyond Black

Hilary Mantel has gotten a bit of a reputation for being a great author (she's won two bookers which is a fairly significant literary award and not a huge amount of people have won two so it's a pretty big deal) so I decided I wanted to see what the fuss was about and opted for this novel (which I chanced upon in my favourite second hand book shop, it contains thousands of books stacked to the ceiling and i've spent many a happy afternoon trawling for bargains there. If you should ever be in Belfast I would absolutely recommend a visit). In this novel we meet Alison, a morbidly obese, kind hearted psychic who seems to genuinely be able to contact/be contacted by the dead. Colette is a thin, mean woman who turns to psychics during the failure of her marriage and winds up becoming Alison's assistant or as she prefers to be referred, her manager. And along with Morris, Alison's spirit guide who is nasty in every sense of the word they travel around london holding psychic fairs where Alison passes on messages from the dead to the audience. The story is Alison's and as we get further into the book it becomes apparent Alison, had a terrible childhood, her mother essentially a prostitute had all sorts of horrible men around the house, men who kept dogs for fights, petty thieves, basically an unscrupulous bunch with abuse more than hinted at, she also had to deal with the onset of her psychic abilities at a young age with the dead wanted to find other people that had passed they had known. So all fairly traumatic then, Mantel intersperses the traumatic bits with humour though, it's quite a dry dark humour which suits me right down to the ground. The development of Colette and Alison's relationship in particular had many laugh out loud moments, Colette is as it turns out really quite a hard hearted woman who becomes more and more controlling and nasty to Alison, putting her on a diet, rationing her toast, and there ends up being very little to like about her whereas Alison becomes an increasingly sympathetic character. We watch as the novel progresses Alison having to deal more and more with her past, which is literally haunting her, Morris having a link to the men from her childhood and spending his time looking for his these men, his old mates. It's about then dealing with your past then really, Alison having to deal with these old spirits, the way you or I might have to confront bad memories in order to move forward. Mantel lives up to all the hype, she's a terrific writer and this was an enjoyable novel, for all the ghosts it contains it is not a ghost story so if you read it don't approach it looking for a scare, it is creepy in parts but it's lots of other things too. 4 out of 5.

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.