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.