The Bookwoman’s Last Fling – John Dunning

From an intensely likeable hero in Jack Reacher, I then turned to a significantly less likeable hero in Cliff Janeway. I picked up The Bookwoman’s Last Fling because the blurb on the back sounded intriguing – a crime, to do with books and with horses – two things I absolutely love. When I started reading I wondered what could go wrong? I soon found out.

The main character of this book – or series of books, as I am led to believe – is a man with a pretty abrasive personality. I don’t think I have ever read a book where the main character managed to anger so many people. But he did it in a way that created arguments and unpleasantness. The result was several slightly artificial but nevertheless unpleasant. Can one man really have such an effect? Particularly when he first met his new ‘employer’, Junior Willis. Within several hours he had managed to hack Willis off so much that when Janeway threatened to leave without taking the job, Willis never stopped him and never really came back. The author explained it away by saying that Willis had a bad temper. Perhaps politeness in society is different in Idaho, but that just didn’t ring true.

Characters were picked up, developed to a point, and then just as quickly dropped again. Janeway’s fickleness when it came to suspects was highlighted by how thinly the author tried to point the fingerat one person after another (not very convincingly, unfortunately). Granted, I didn’t pick who was to blame until later in the book, but the guilty party had been introduced quite awkwardly earlier in the book so that when it turned out that it was that person who did it, I felt pretty unsatisfied.

The biggest problem with this book was that it just didn’t flow. It was like a series of hiccups with a bit of harmony in between. I can see what the author was trying to do and I liked the fact that he tried to do something a bit different with the subject matter, but it just didn’t work for me. I want to find out a bit more about the difference between a bibliophile and a bibliomaniac (it wasn’t a distinction I had ever heard of, so one good thing is my curiosity has been piqued) but I just couldn’t buy it. I couldn’t buy the fact that everyone had been in love with the ‘bookwoman’ of the title, and I couldn’t buy the fact that Janeway managed to make his way into the racing circuit without so much as a hitch. I couldn’t buy the amount of time his girlfriend, Erin, spent on the case when she was supposed to be a lawyer, and I struggled with his career change and indecision. Basically I found Janeway arrogant and blundering in a not particularly nice way. I gave it a go, but I won’t read another one of these. They weren’t for me.

Rating: 4/10
ISBN: 0-7318-1307-3
Publisher: Scribner
Year: 2006
Date finished: 6th January 2010
Pages: 337

One Shot – Lee Child

I like Lee Child. I really like the way he writes, I like how he constructs his story, builds the tension and develops the plot. And of course, like everyone who has ever read a Jack Reacher novel, I adore his leading man. Lee Child turns popular crime fiction into something satisfying and definitely worth reading.

I took One Shot with me on the flight from London to Adelaide, packing it in my little on board case with several magazines, another book and an iPod, worries that I might run out of things to do on that long haul journey. I always do that – my biggest worry is that I might get stuck somewhere with no reading material. Although I have read another Jack Reacher novel and I knew this one would be good, I hadn’t remember how un-put-downable it actually was. I was completely gripped from the first page.

The story starts with a cold, insane killer who sets himself up in a car park and shoots dead five people who are doing nothing more offensive than going home from work. Five people dead, six shots fired. The police are on to it immediately and with the almost textbook evidence left behind by the killer, the perpetrator is found and apprehended within a matter of hours. Under questioning he says nothing. It is only after he is put in prison and a lawyer visits him that he makes a short statement. He wants to see Jack Reacher.

The clever thing about this novel is that at the beginning, you too are convinced that this is a cut and dried case. Indeed, when Reacher arrives, that impression is compounded when he relates his experience with the accused. As the story goes on, you begin to doubt. Perhaps he did it under duress? Perhaps he was forced? Perhaps…perhaps he didn’t do it? This is what Lee Child is so skilled at – he takes you on a journey where you don’t even realise you are being led, but when you look back, all of the signs are clear…in hindsight. I can’t remember what point I figured it out, but it was very late on in the book – in fact, one fundamental player I didn’t work out until the author actually revealed who it was. He had constructed the story so well without putting in any obvious diversions or false trails that you felt like you were an invisible member of the team who had come together to figure out what was going on.

Reacher is a true hero. Because he is a flawed character, you can’t help but love him. I love the fact that if he is being followed for several pages, you are reassured to discover that actually he knew he was being followed and had already devised a plan to lose his tail. You want him to win – you just can’t help it. He is the ultimate good guy without being irritating, smarmy or artificial. Couple that with a story that is well written, a plot which is complex and gripping and an outcome which is intensely satisfying despite being surprising, and you have escapsim at its best. You can’t help but put the Jack Reacher novels up there with the benchmarks of good popular crime fiction.

Rating: 9/10
ISBN: 9780553815865
Publisher: Bantam Books
Year: 2005
Date finished: 2nd January 2010
Pages: 495

A Guide To The Birds of East Africa – Nicholas Drayson

And in amongst the sadness and anger of the past few books I have been reading, at last I get the opportunity to read something a little lighter. A Guide To the Birds of East Africa was just the distraction I needed – it is a lovely, feel-good story which doesn’t avoid issues or the reality of the world, but still provides hope in humanity and the power of goodness.

Mr Malik is rather taken with Rose Mbikwa, the leader and guide of the Tuesday Ornithological . Walk. Unfortunately, Malik isn’t the brash type – in fact, he is shy and incredibly polite and although he has been going on the walks regularly, every week, for several years, he hasn’t yet summoned up the courage to ask Mrs Mbikwa for a coffee. When the Annual Hunt Ball comes around, he sees it as his opportunity and writes a polite invitation to Mrs Mbikwa to ask her to accompany him to the ball. However, he doesn’t send it – and before he gets a chance to, who should walk onto the scene but Harry Khan.

Unfortunately, Malik knows Harry from their time at school together some 50 years before and despite them all being old men now, things haven’t changed. From the time of his arrival, Harry has his eye on Rose and before long, a competition between Malik and Khan is called for the right to ask Rose to the ball. The one who spots the most types of birds in a week will be the winner.

Harry uses money, influence and time to scour the country. Malik takes a slower route and seems to hit trouble after trouble – from being robbed and having his car stolen, to almost being kidnapped by Somali terrorists. Throughout the week though, Malik is soon reminded about what is important in his life and as the competition draws to a close, he has to weigh those things with his fondness for Rose.

I won’t give a spoiler, but it is a delightful ending – both happy and unexpected. This story is a fairy tale of goodness, laced with humour and beautiful imagery, while still touching on the things which continue to plague Africa – AIDS, poverty, kidnapping and corruption. I loved it because it provided such a delightful balance, and was written with so much imagination and lovely, flawed, likeable characters.

And look out for the chicken

Rating: 10/10
ISBN: 978-0-670-91757-0
Publisher: Viking
Year: 2007
Date finished: 9 December 2009
Pages: 202

When A Crocodile Eats The Sun – Peter Godwin

I seem to have read a number of books recently which filled me with various emotions – anger at injustice, sadness at the blind greed and selfishness of the human race, and rage at people who use power for their own ends, whilst trampling on anyone around them who gets in their way. When A Crocodile Eats The Sun is a memoir from the journalist, Peter Godwin who was a white who was born and grew up in Rhodesia (as it was then), and who watches the collapse of the country he called home as it fell into corruption, destruction and a pit of injustice and cruelty beneath Mugabe. This descent is tracked through his experience with his parents who had lived in Zimbabwe for 50 years and who would not leave. Yet again, I was left annoyed at my own ignorance of what goes on elsewhere in the world, and speechless at the quagmire this country has become.

Rather than going into the detail, I wanted to put forward a thought which was raised by this book. Interestingly enough, just before I finished it I was listening to a podcast which was talking about the first mass murder of the 20th Century – the 3 to 4 million Africans who were killed either directly or indirectly by the colonial rule of Belgium in the Congo and the subsequent drive for rubber. Reflecting on that and all of the other racist cruelties which occurred on account of colonialism, on the surface of it one can almost understand why, when the blacks seized power, they felt the need to treat the remaining whites with equivalent cruelty.

However, is it just me, but when has a problem ever been solved by straight revenge? When has treating the old oppressor in the same way as they treated us been an appropriate and effective tactic? There could be argument that fighting back against the actual oppressor might be justified, but what if the people you are fighting and second generation, third generation, removed from the act of oppression by years? Unfortunately, the world is such that humans have long memories when they choose and amnesia when it suits them. And in the melee, ordinary people who are just trying to get on with their lives have to suffer.

Godwin’s story of his parents is heartbreaking in so many ways, and yet they maintain their spirit and try to maintain some semblance of life. The tragedy is, the author discovers that his father had already had his fair share of loss – he was a Polish Jew who lost his mother and sister to the hell hole of Treblinka. Another time, another oppressor, another cruel period of history. Does it ever end?

I am very grateful to the author for telling us his story and allowing us to see Zimbabwe from someone on the inside. You can’t help but feel the same sense of betrayal and bitterness which his parents must have felt, and fury at the corruption which meant that the poor, who had supposedly been oppressed by the whites, remained poorer than ever as their black leaders stole even more from them.  Once again, I finished this book thinking ‘what hope is there in the face of human greed?’. Perhaps I should take hope from the individual stories that the author offers – the people who help one another, irrespective of colour, the people who support one another because there is need, not because there is gain, and the sense that perhaps, just perhaps, something can be done.

Rating: 10/10
ISBN: 978-0-330-43369-3
Publisher: Picador
Year: 2007
Date Finished: 23 December 2009
Pages: 342

Flat Earth News – Nick Davies

I am really not a big fan of the mainstream media – that, as most of you will know, is no secret. I don’t like sensationalism, I hate celebrity culture, and I dislike the paternalistic, materialistic nonsense which seems to be characteristic of most news channels today, whether visual, audio or written. I came to Flat Earth News with this attitude, and this book didn’t just reinforce it – it validated it and gave case studies and evidence for why I feel that way.

I honestly believe that this book should be mandatory reading for everyone who has ever picked up a newspaper, or regurgitated an argument which they have read in a headline or heard on Sky.

Davies sets out to expose the corner-cutting, biases, falsehoods, lies and deceit which underpins much of today’s media. He explains why the ‘news lite’ we receive each day is selective, repetitive, sensational and often very poorly researched. He demonstrates that true investigative journalism has almost been completely wiped out, and that truth and exposure are the least of the considerations in many of the news organisations. And his thesis puts most of it down to the fact that news is now a corporate profit making exercise, and like all capitalistic institutions, money and profit is paramount, political advantage (leading to profit) is secondary, and no longer on the radar is informing the public, and exposing the truth.

That may seem like a pretty dire assessment to make, but his arguments made perfect sense and were backed up with a lot of evidence and case studies. I was told on Twitter that he didn’t actually carry out most of the research – be that as it may, he published it and in my opinion, an expose like this needs to be made public irrespective of who does it, so I am grateful that he went out on a limb to do so.

The problem with this book was that it ended with very little hope, but then, perhaps that is reality. Our society is so driven by profit that the chances of philanthropic newspaper owners, journalists willing to go out on a limb to get to the truth and impartial reporting ever returning are slim. That is not to say you can’t find that somewhere, but it isn’t in the instant, 24hour news. One could argue that the BBC shouldn’t be a corporation battling with the likes of NewsCorp, but because the bar has been set, the BBC simply has to keep up. As a result, their journalists (or ‘churnalists’ as the author calls them) are under as much pressure, with as few resources and as little leeway as their corporate, profit driven counterparts. And the only real result is that the ignorant public remains ignorant.

I finished the book wondering how on earth one was supposed to discover what the truth was in the world when we are numbed daily by the flat earth news cycle? Do blogs and the internet help? Partially, but it takes some time and effort to weed out the good writing on the internet from the dross. How about quality, independent publications? Yes, but sadly they are only read by a cultural ‘elite’ of sorts who have the time, education and motivation to seek them out and read them. Your average person going home on the train, who has spent the past 10 hours of their day working desperately hard so that they can pay their mortgage and meet the next payment on the new car as well as the kids school fees, is not likely to sit down with anything more taxing than the Metro. And therein lies the problem.

I do lament how driven our world is by money, profit, greed and competition. In fact, since reading this book, I have read another about Zimbabwe (which I will review shortly) which just reconfirmed this. This is human nature, and the way of the world. But that shouldn’t stop every thinking person from asking questions, challenging the loudest voices and making the decision to make up their own mind.

You can read more at Nick Davies website, Flat Earth News

Rating: 10/10
ISBN: 0099512688
Publisher: Vintage
Year: 2009
Date Finished: 15 October 2009
Pages: 320

Ritual – Mo Hayder

I like to read everything. I will sit down and read Dostoyevsky as soon as I will read James Patterson. Ritual was at the James Patterson end of the spectrum and that doesn’t mean its a bad thing. It was an easy read, with a page turning plot, characters that weren’t too complicated or deep and an ending that kept you guessing most of the time, although the false clue was a little obvious.

Two severed hands were discovered beneath a waterside restaurant in Bristol by the police diving time. What starts out as a routine investigation soon delves into the world of African muti, witchcraft, superstition and belief which touches upon all levels of society – from middle class restaurant owners and academics through to the underworld of heroin addicts and council tenants. Jack Caffrey, Mo Hayder’s regular character, solves the case along with Flea Marley – a police diver with a tragic secret. The characters come together to solve the crime and in the process, start to deal with some of their own issues.

I do like books which you can fly through, like this one. I can forgive the shallowness and lack of character dimension because I understand these have to be sacrificed to produce a quick on-the-train read. As such, I try not to be too dismissive of these ‘factory’ produced novels which are churned out on schedule and sold in Tescos for £3.99. I don’t see this as saying the author isn’t talented or doesn’t have skill – she produces what the publishers ask her to produce and provides us with CSI or Law and Order in book form which we can use for a bit of escapism when the rest of the world seems a bit too tough to take.

Rating: 6/10
ISBN: 0553820435
Publisher: Bantam Books
Year: 2008
Date Finished: 19 December 2009
Pages: 560 (but it was pretty much large print!)

Farewell Borders….

Last night I attended the closing sale of Borders UK – a company which has gone into receivership and finally closed it’s doors on 22nd December 2009. It was a grim picture – with everything selling for 90% off, the scene was one of carnage. Books were placed randomly on the few shelves that were left, and crowds of people were pushing past one another to see what they could find.

I wonder, if the crowds with such enthusiasm for buying books had been in Borders a few months ago, perhaps such a scene might not have occurred? Of course, I like a bargain as much as the next person, but my 11 books for just over £8.00 left me more with a sense of sadness than triumph. My bagging a bargain has happened at the expense of one less place to browse for books, one less shop to disappear into and not come out of for hours, and one less place that I can escape the world and indulge my passion.

Of course, I hold my hand up – I do most of my book shopping either at second hand places or on Amazon. The cost of living in London is pretty expensive and so I need to watch my pennies where I can and books aren’t exactly cheap. But with the world moving online, coupled with a pretty dire recession, it is little wonder that a place like Borders couldn’t survive. I wonder what this says for the future of high street retailers? What with price cuts from the massive supermarket chains, internet retailers and a general reduction of how far money goes, it will be interesting to see.

I, for one, am still hunting for a local independent bookstore, although they are becoming rarer and rarer by the day. I am happy to give my loyalty to a small bookshop over and above Amazon or Tescos, but the reality is, if a large chain like Borders UK can’t survive, what hope has an independent got? Does anyone else pine for the experience of walking into a bookshop and being greeted by the owner or shop assistant who says they have just finished a book they know you will love? Perhaps that is what social media is supposed to replace? I don’t know – it just doesn’t quite feel the same.

This is going to sound sentimental, but I lovingly removed those 11 books from the Borders bags when I got home and carefully took off the SALE stickers which they were festooned with. I then placed them in alphabetical order on my library bookshelves, ensuring each one was snug and visible for when I next wander in to find what I am going to read. I see it as my tiny rescue mission for 11 books which had been left on the sinking ship.

The Night Watch – Sarah Waters

The Night Watch follows the intertwined lives of 6 young people living in London during the war. All of them are experiencing their own struggles and none of them quite ‘fit in’ to the norm. Kay, who dresses in men’s clothing and longs for a wife, is a night time ambulance driver during the Blitz. Helen, constantly searching, fights her own demons.  Duncan spends the war in prison, and his sister, Viviene suffers through it because of love. Then we meet Julia and Fraser and Mickey – all important and all as confused and torn and outcast thanks to the massive upheaval wrought by the bombing and destruction and death that becomes a part of their lives.

The novel is unusual because it is written backwards. We first meet the characters when the war is over. It is 1947 and although it should be a time of happiness because of the relative peace after so long at war, every character is troubled for some reason or other.  The author provides enough information that you can start to form a picture of why each person is where they are, but not so much that you can guess at what befell them during the war years. Kay is very much alone, Viv remains loyal to her married lover but shows signs of disillusionment, Duncan is now free from prison, but living with one of his prison wardens and Helen, in love with and living with Julia, is torn apart by her own jealousy and insecurity.

The tragic section of this book is the middle section which covers the events of 1944. It is during this section that we find out the reason for Kay’s sadness, and the roots of Viv’s disillusionment. We discover when Helen fell in love with Julia and the impact that that had on others. And we share prison with Duncan, and begin to learn why he is there. In the final, short section of the book – 1941 – some final answers are provided, causing you to think back over what you have read to put the pieces together and explain the atmosphere which pervades the first part of the book.

I really enjoyed the novel, although I was a little frustrated by the reverse narrative, not because I found it difficult to follow, but because when I had discovered the causes, I wanted to know what happened after 1947 and I kept reminding myself that I wouldn’t know because I had already read that part! I thought the descriptions of the relationships between the characters were very tender and unselfconsciously written, and I really liked that. It isn’t always that you get to read about lesbian relationships with such candour and it helped you to understand just how difficult it would have been during a time where any kind of unorthodox relationship was frowned upon, whether it was same sex, or simply an affair out of wedlock. As a result, every single character experiences something of the forced secrecy which they have to endure as an added stress to the difficulties everyone faced.

I think this was a well written novel which brought to life the Blitz in London. It successfully showed that not everyone who went through it fitted the archetype of the Londoner which you see on the old newsreels or read about in history books. Then, as today, there were ‘outcasts’ – who had to show perhaps greater bravery and strength to make it through.

Rating: 8/10
ISBN: 978-1-84408-241-4
Publisher: Virago
Year:2006
Date Finished: 6 November 2009
Pages: 503

30 Years of Stunning Writing, and Still Going Strong

I was pleased to find this article on the Guardian website this morning about The London Review of Books. I am a regular subscriber of this exquisitely written publication and although I probably have about a year’s worth of backlog to read, it never goes out of date and I am never disappointed when I pick up a copy and immerse myself in one of the essays therein.

To me, The London Review of Books is the pinnacle of literary review writing. The research, thought and work that goes into each essay is spectacular. It is of no consequence that the reviews are not instantaneous with the publishing of the book. The books I have read which have an LRB review are made all the better because of the different perspective and additional depth provided by the review. I can but dream of being able to review with the skill that the contributors to the LRB have. What a wonderful job – to read, to research and then to put together an essay which will sit beside the book as a permanent compliment.

I think the reason this milestone that makes me so happy is that the LRB provides a bastion of intellect in this instant-gratification, multi-media, multi-tasking, short-attention-span world we find ourselves in. I love making the transition from my dual monitors with 5 open windows, continual digital noise and never-ending distractions to the relative peace offered by the words on the page. This goes as much for books as for the magazines I subscribe to, but my love of the English language is always satisfied by a quiet session with the latest LRB. I can forget that conversation has turned into LOL and ROLF and BRB and l8r and settle into a world of complex thought, beautifully chosen language, and evidence of time taken over the essay in order to perfect it.

Call me old-fashioned, but I would hate to see the demise of this kind of writing. I hope to see it celebrate another 30 years. And I hope that I remain a subscriber for the duration.

Revolutionary Road – Richard Yates

Revolutionary Road can be summed up as a depressing book written in beautiful, poetic prose. I hadn’t expected to enjoy it, but despite the darkness of the subject matter and the full awareness of how it was going to end up (tragically -that was clear from the first page), I was riveted. It is a rediscovered American classic which, I believe, has recently been made into a film. I can see why – the theme is as relevant in today’s celebrity/consumerist/keeping-up-with-the-joneses society as it was when it was written in the sixties.

April and Frank Wheeler are an average American couple. They are living the ‘American Dream’, with a suburban house, two children, Frank in a solid, dependable and untaxing job, and April keeping house and looking after the kids. The neighbourhood is an average suburban neighbourhood where everyone is polite and no-one breaks rank from the unspoken behavioural norms.

But April and Frank are dissatisfied, and the reason, as far as I could tell, was they had both been living a lie from the day they had met. What struck me about the story was how Yates managed to paint such a clear and realistic picture of two people who were so completely artificial and caught up in the game they were playing that it was a wonder they hadn’t crumbled sooner.

This is a story of arguments, hatred, disappointment and entrapment – both of the characters suffered these things and blamed the other. What I found interesting were the contrasts. Mr and Mrs Givings were at one end of the artificiality scale. Mrs Givings would never admit to being dissatisfied, would never want anything else, and was so deliriously happy and positive all the time (between gossiping and judging others) that it was impossible to know who she actually was. On the other end of the scale was their son, John Givings who was the only person in the entire book who was ‘genuine’, saying it how he saw it and recognising other people’s unhappiness stripped bare. However John was confined to a mental asylum. I couldn’t help but think that of all of the characters in the book, he was the one least deserving of that – but then again, he didn’t fit in to the fiction that everyone else lived by.

In the middle were Frank and April, and the tension that came from their feeling of disempowerment and entrapment was to spell their downfall. This is an incredibly tragic story, and the author has succeeded in making you feel the venom of the arguments, making you feel the blame and hopelessness of both, and putting you in a position where you can’t side with one or the other – they are simply both to blame.

Rating: 8/10
ISBN: 0099518627
Publisher: Vintage Classics
Year: 2007
Date Finished: 24 October 2009
Pages: 352