A Page of Quickies

Here follows a series of concise reviews of books that I have read. They did not warrant my normal treatment because either they were books I did not quite manage to fathom, or were what one might classify as 'holiday' reads - what I would call fast food novels.

First up is Conclave by Robert Harris.

Even a seasoned reviewer in The Guardian was moved to write "I am about to use a word I have never knowingly used in any review of any book ever. During my 25-odd years of writing about books I have done my best to avoid cliches, slipshod summaries, oracular pronouncements and indeed anything else that might appear emblazoned on a book jacket. Nonetheless, there is only one possible word to describe Robert Harris’s new novel, and it is this: unputdownable."

In a nutshell, the pope is dead and cardinals are gathering to elect his successor in this portrait of power, corruption and deceit.  There you have it.  With a fabulous denouement.  I recommended this to my discerning doctor friend, in French translation.  

                                                                   ↝↝↝↝↝

When I was browsing bookshelves in a charity shop I spotted 

After Me Comes The Flood by Sarah Perry.

I recognised it as the debut novel of Sarah Perry.  She of The Essex Serpent fame.  It is a short novel and looked accessible 200+ pages, pages not densely printed.  For me the novel was a conundrum which I never got into because I could not quite make sense of the story, such as it is.  There is one section which takes place on a beach, near a saltmarsh which involves a lost child.  Here Perry is clearly at home: saltmarshes, tides which ebb and flow, once again an upturned rowing boat.  This environment in the natural world is clearly familiar to her.  (Perry grew up in Chelmsford, Essex, alongside the Thames Funnel)  When she is in that milieu where the land meets the sea she is utterly at home in her writing.  Later she describes a powerful rainstorm which brings about the climax of the novel, again her powers of description of natural phenomena are on show.  

The novel garnered some favourable comment from the likes of Sophie Hannah, Sarah Waters (whose writing I rate highly).  Adjectives like unsettling, intriguing, eerie, dream-like, creeping, gripping are used by reviewers.  I think the novel might warrant a second reading with attention to the calibre of the writing and less focus on a search for a story.  But not just now!

My Purple Scented Novel by Ian McEwan

Amazon says:  
A jewel of a book: a brand new short story from the author of Atonement. My Purple Scented Novel follows the perfect crime of literary betrayal, scrupulously wrought yet unscrupulously executed, published to celebrate Ian McEwan’s 70th birthday.

"You will have heard of my friend the once celebrated novelist Jocelyn Tarbet, but I suspect his memory is beginning to fade…You’d never heard of me, the once obscure novelist Parker Sparrow, until my name was publicly connected with his. To a knowing few, our names remain rigidly attached, like the two ends of a seesaw. His rise coincided with, though did not cause, my decline… I don’t deny there was wrongdoing. I stole a life, and I don’t intend to give it back. You may treat these few pages as a confession.

This is short story published as a stand-alone booklet.  It's a quick read and deals with plagiarism.  Everything you ever wanted to know to pull it off!

It was first published in The NewYorker Magazine in March 2016.  You can read a full transcript here:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/03/28/my-purple-scented-novel-fiction-by-ian-mcewan

And the transcript of an interview with McEwan about the story in the same periodical here:

https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/fiction-this-week-ian-mcewan-2016-03-28

Nocturnes

Nocturnes by Kazuo Ishiguru

Warning: Contains spoilers.....

Preamble:  The Observer called this work 'Heartbreak in Five Movements'.  I think that is a bit bleak and an exaggeration; each story has a character who is a victim, who is let down, betrayed perhaps but surely not heartbroken?  

Nocturnes is Ishiguro's first collection of short stories, after six novels. He has said in interviews that he conceived the book holistically, almost as a piece of music in five movements. Like a cycle, the collection begins and ends in the same place – Italy – and it contains modulations of tone that would be awkward within a single narrative.  There is also linkage of one character across some of the stories. 

In Nocturnes, Kazuo Ishiguro writes about a cast of characters who range from young dreamers to café musicians to faded stars.  This quintet of short stories deals with some of the superficialities in human behaviour and there is manipulation by some characters of others which gave each story at least one 'victim'   At times I thought why can these victims not see through the opportunists, that they are being used and played with? 

In the opening story, "Crooner", a mood of quiet melancholy is established and this mood pervades the book. From the moment you meet Tony Gardner's wife, Lindy, and from the cleverly constructed dialogue between her and Tony you know that things between the couple are not good. Jan, the narrator, is a guitarist with a band who are street performing and he is thrilled to be in Gardner's company; his records, he tells Gardner effusively, were one of the only sources of comfort to his beleaguered single mother as she was raising him in communist Poland. The Gardner's trip to Venice is not as the musician supposes it to be, it is not an anniversary, probably more of a rescue mission.  No wonder Tony Gardner is amused at the idea.  We find out why towards the end of the story.  In the end it is a moment of disillusionment for the musician who has been delighted to meet a musical hero.  

In 'Come Rain or Shine' Raymond is dragged into a sordid bit of theatre played out by Charlie and Emily whose marriage is apparently a bit wobbly.  There were moments of high farce in this story that made me laugh out loud, at the same time as I was willing Raymond to grow a backbone and stand up to the couple's devious actions.   

In 'Malvern Hills', the third story, I heard the Ishiguro's voice clearly in that of the narrator.  Told in the first person I heard the questioning introspection  and self justification that Ishiguro conveyed in his portrayal of the butler in The Remains of the Day.

The fourth story, "Nocturne", reintroduces an element of absurdity where a talented saxophonist, whose wife has left him, is persuaded to have facial surgery to make him more marketable. He meets Lindy Gardner from the opening story (recently divorced from Tony) in the exclusive wing of the hotel where they have both been sent to recuperate. The story contains the collection's funniest moment, as the saxophonist finds himself embarrassed on a stage with one arm up a turkey.  This was reminiscent of a scene in one of the Mr Bean episodes - the Christmas one - where Rowan Atkinson is obliged to answer the front door wearing a turkey on his head!

In "Cellists", the final story, an American woman pretends to be a world-famous cellist and agrees to tutor a promising young Hungarian in her hotel room in an unnamed Italian city. It soon emerges that she cannot play the cello at all: she merely believes she has the potential to be a great cellist. "You have to understand, I am a virtuoso," she tells him. "But I'm one who's yet to be unwrapped." But she is a shallow person. In the end, she marries someone she does not love, while the young Hungarian takes a second-rate job playing in a chamber group at a hotel restaurant. They both remain unfulfilled. This is, perhaps, what most binds these stories: the conflict between what life might have promised and what life ultimately delivers.

A History of the World in 10½ Chapters

A History of the World in 10½ Chapters by Julian Barnes

A History of the World in 10½ Chapters is a novel by Julian Barnes published in 1989. It is a collection of short stories in different styles; however, at some points they echo each other and have subtle connection points. Most are fictional but some are historical. One of the many recurrent motifs in the book is the portrayal of ships. This alludes to Noah's Ark — the subject of the first chapter — which plays a dominant role in the Abrahamic religions as an example of God's judgment. The woodworm who narrates the first chapter questions the wisdom of appointing Noah as God's representative. The woodworm is left out of the ark, just like the other "impure" or "insignificant" species; but a colony of woodworms enters the ark as stowaways and they survive the Great Deluge. The woodworm becomes one of the many connecting figures, appearing in almost every chapter and implying processes of decay, especially of knowledge and historical understanding.

Being a fan of Julian Barnes' writing, this title was one that had escaped my attention until I saw a copy in a second-hand bookshop.  I bought it.  I was knocked out by the first chapter.  Barnes is such a clever, gifted writer and I loved the wonderful wit he exhibited in the writing of 'The Stowaway'.

As I wrote to my niece Kat " Oh yes, on the other hand I read A History of the World in 10 and a half Chapters by Julian Barnes which I found brilliant even if Barnes is a bit of a smarty pants writer who knows how good he is and sometimes his writing is so impeccable it feels like he is showing off, not just his technique but what he knows.  If you are at the top of the class you cannot expect everyone to love you for it!!"

I resorted to the internet to search for reviews of the book and find that Jonathan Coe, writing in The Guardian describes very eloquently something of my feeling on reading the book:

Reviewing A History of the World in 10½ Chapters for The Guardian, Jonathan Coe found that it, "while hardly a ground-breaking piece of experimentalism, succeeds to the extent that it is both intelligent and reasonably accessible. Where it falls down is in denying its reader any real focus of human attention or involvement". He added that, "To dismiss the book as being too clever (or merely clever, for that matter) would be ungenerous as well as facile. "Readers of this novel will feel awed, I'm sure, by the range of its concerns, the thoroughness of its research, and the agility with which it covers its ground. 

As I have already mentioned above, there is in Coe's words something a bit grudging about acknowledging Barnes' genius for this brand of writing.  In summary then, another highly enjoyable compilation of short stories from Julian Barnes with the very satisfying attribute of connection, and reiteration of themes, running through the 'Chapters'.

The Daydreamer and The Daylight Gate

The Daydreamer by Ian McEwan

I try and stay 'au courant' with the writing of my favourite authors.  And Ian McEwan is up there in my top 5.  Periodically I google to make sure there are no titles that have slipped me by.  I was intrigued to find this book listed and investigated further.  Well, I really loved this book.  You could view it as an adult book for children, or a children's book for adults.  The boundary between the two genres is completely fuzzy.  One story, The Cat, stands out as the celestrial gem around which the other astral bodies of this small constellation of stories cluster...... 

Peter Fortune is a quiet boy with a busy head. His teachers think he's dull, staring off into space all day, but he has nothing worse than an excessive imagination. He is a daydreamer, a quiet ten year old who can't help himself from dropping out of reality and into the amazing world of his vivid imagination.  His world seems limitless - think of infinity and double it. In his dreams he fends off wolves, wrestles with dolls and exposes burglars with the aid of that perfect wonderland haven - a real mousehole. He can magically become a cat, or a baby; he even spends a few traumatic moments as a grown-up. Trying on all these lives for size is both flighty and educational: when he infiltrates the black fur of the family cat - after a brilliant unzipping scene in which the pair swap bodies - he enjoys a day of gorgeous feline laziness and fierce nocturnal vitality. As a baby he drowns in banana and plastic toys and comes to see the narrowness of the huge little boy (himself) who is being so unfriendly.  These imaginary journeys leave Peter bruised but wiser.

In the end the book ends well, with an uneasy waking-up scene that both embraces and celebrates an authentic adult impulse. In a parody of Kafka's Metamorphosis, Peter wakes after a night of troubled dreams to find himself transformed into a 21-year-old. This happens during the holiday in Cornwall where the children - the Beach Gang - have been having adventures while their parents plan the barbecue. The Kafka echoes reinforce the sense of alienation: it is as if all adult life were a treacherous setback. And, at first, Peter is bemused. But then, in a lovely turnaround, he finds himself trembling in a railway tunnel with a 19-year-old girl called Gwendoline ('Morning sunlight, broken by the leaves of the apple trees, bobbed about her shoulders and in her hair'). Unimaginable pleasures rush upon him, and he hits on a big truth: that even adults have secret dreams. Suddenly the grown-up world, which all along has seemed a diminished version of the fantastic imaginary places, doesn't seem so bad after all.

Acknowledgements to The Independent review of The Daydreamer.

The Daylight Gate by Jeanette Winterson
"This novella began as a Dare.
Hammer Horror used to be a part camp part scary British Horror Movie outfit that made Draculas and Frankensteins’s and classics like My Wife The Zombie.
Hammer dropped down dead for years and was assumed buried, but was lately revived by entrepreneur Simon Oakes who made Woman in Black and Let The Right One In.
They decided to start a publishing deal with Random House. Simon said to me: You lived near Pendle Hill didn’t you? Write me a novella about the Lancashire Witches.’
Nuts, I thought. And then I did."  Jeanette Winterson.

Good Friday 1612. Pendle Hill.
A mysterious gathering of thirteen people is interrupted by a local magistrate. Is it a witches’ Sabbat?
In Lancaster Castle two notorious witches await trial and certain death, while the beautiful and wealthy Alice Nutter rides to their defence.
Elsewhere a starved child lurks. And a Jesuit priest and former Gunpowder plotter makes his way from France to a place he believes will offer him sanctuary.
But will it? And how safe can anyone be in Witch Country?

Brilliant writing, spare yet descriptive and so full of atmosphere and chill.  Loved it.

Orbis terrarum, et aliis locis,

From Jeanette Winterson's blog

The World & Other Places

March 4, 1999

In Jeanette Winterson’s first collection of short stories, we are confronted with characters so at odds with themselves and the world–whether our own, familiar world or one of the author’s invention–that it is difficult to truly empathize with any of them.

The first story, The 24 Hour Dog, is a lullaby of a tale compared to those that follow, yet still manages to leave behind the disconcerting notion that a human being who cannot even take responsibility for a tiny puppy has little chance of survival in the big, bad world.

From the voluptuous The Poetics of Sex, so flush with earthy imagery and erotically charged word-play that the fever of desire rises from the page in an uncomfortable steam, to the frigidity of the Stepford-Wife-like Newton, Winterson spins us around a breathless, off-centre world, leaving the reader dizzy and disturbed.

Why don’t you write more short stories?
The same reason that I don’t write poetry. I need the elbow room of a novel. Not because I want padding – all my life is spent stripping away what’s unnecessary – but because I want to unravel the thought and the emotion in a particular way. I don’t write long books, but I prefer not to write short stories.

But you do write them.
Yes. If I am asked to do it I’m glad to do it. It’s a particular kind of challenge. And you know, in my books there are lots of very short stories – little stones to keep in a pocket. That kind of length, a couple of pages, I really like, it’s the in between size that doesn’t really suit how I work. I think I might put together some mini-stories.

Whose short stories do you like reading?
Somerset Maugham, Chekov, Sarah Maitland, Calvino, Ian McEwan, Ruth Rendell, Helen Simpson, Ali Smith, Blackwood, (those are very old-fashioned), Angela Carter, and of course, the best short stories of all – fairy stories.

Why aren’t the stories in chronological order?
I don’t know about you, but I never read a short story collection in any order, chronological or not. It doesn’t matter when a piece of work was written. What matters is whether or not it’s any good. I wanted to avoid the kind of tedious sub-academic sleuthwork that goes on, piecing together dates and writing and making inferences that just don’t add up. I just want you to read it. Simple. Easy. Yes.

Is this a good book to buy for someone new to your work?
Yes. If they don’t throw it under a train, you can safely move on to something longer.

De-Lection comment: "After the 24-hour dog which I found heart-rending, my second favourite story was Holy Matrimony..." 

A Bookish Lunch, Tolkien's Gown and The Laughing Academy

Here's a review by Danny Yee for a book that was brought by Annabel to a village Bookish Lunch to recommend.  Tolkien's Gown is, in my opinion, something to delight a bookworm and a real reader-friendly volume of bite-size chapters.  This little compendium has been written by Rick Gekoski, writer, broadcaster, rare book-dealer.  Let Danny Yee tell you about it:

'Each of the twenty essays in Tolkien's Gown is a mix of biography, literary history and personal memoir, focusing on a leading twentieth century writer and one of their key works, with details from Gekoski's own encounters with them or rare editions of their books.

Gekoski provides background for those who might not be familiar with his subjects, but doesn't attempt general biographies, usually treating one aspect of or episode in their lives. Similarly, he restricts himself to scattered critical comments on relatively minor topics. This is given some body by the inclusion of his own recollections — he knew personally many of the notables he writes about — and glimpses into the workings of the rare book market.

The result is very easy to read and good fun. I learned something both about the authors and works I knew well and about those that were largely unfamiliar to me. And I have no great interest in the rare book market, but Gekoski's glimpses into that were also interesting.

The authors covered are — in the fairly random order of Tolkien's Gown — Vladimir Nabokov, J.R.R. Tolkien, William Golding, Oscar Wilde, Jack Kerouac, James Joyce, D.H. Lawrence, J.D. Salinger, T.E. Lawrence, Sylvia Plath, John Kennedy Toole, Evelyn Waugh, Beatrix Potter, Ernest Hemingway, Graham Greene, George Orwell, Salman Rushdie, T.S. Eliot, J.K. Rowling, and Philip Larkin.'

Another recent read of mine is The Laughing Academy by Shena Mackay. 

Mackay is a Scottish novelist born in 1944.  Her writing career started with her winning a poetry competition in the Daily Mirror at the age of 16.  When interviewed for The Observer she is described as wry, funny but serious too........  is a witty, black and compelling read   The collection of short stories in The Laughing Academy takes the reader from antiques fairs to Cloud-Cuckoo-Land, geriatric wards to Crystal Palace, and the collection offers a journey around the bizarre yet familiar characters and settings that Mackay has made her own. There are Roy and Muriel Rowley, the fun-running charity-junkies who give blood by the gallon (offending their daughter's religious principles); we meet Gerald Creedy who only loves three beings - his twin brother, Harold, and his two tortoises, Percy and Bysshe - and the mysterious lodger Madame Alphonsine who has the strange powers to make things (including tortoises) disappear; and then there is the rather arrogant bestselling novelist who gives a reading at a women's bookshop only to find, to her horror, that two of her old schoolfriends are in the audience.

This was another read to enjoy in bite-size pieces.