By Emma Healey
This is a mystery with a twist. The story is told by an eighty two year old narrator suffering with dementia and called Maud. Her current life is full of forgotten words, places, and people. She is convinced her friend Elizabeth is missing and because we only ever hear her confused version of the story it takes a long time to solve the mystery.
However, Maud's long term memory is crystal clear and in these passages she tells us about the events of 1946 when her sister disappeared never to be found.
The two stories intertwine beautifully and the story is at one time intriguing and at another incredibly sad.
Having said that I am not sure the story worked entirely and I was left a little frustrated with the ending. 8/10
Friday, March 20, 2015
Tuesday, March 10, 2015
The book of Saladin
by Tariq Ali
The second book in an intended quartet that ended as a quintet of novels about the tensions and conflicts between Christendom and Islam over the ages. This book tells the story of Saladin and his rise to power in the twelth century, and his part in what the english refer to as the crusades.
It is peopled with great characters ranging from the sultan's wife, Jamilla and her various lovers, to Eunuchs, to old retainers and not least the Jewish narrator of the story who is employed by Saladin to write an accurate account of his life.
As with the first book I find I love the characters but the story can sometimes be a bit flat. 8/10
The second book in an intended quartet that ended as a quintet of novels about the tensions and conflicts between Christendom and Islam over the ages. This book tells the story of Saladin and his rise to power in the twelth century, and his part in what the english refer to as the crusades.
It is peopled with great characters ranging from the sultan's wife, Jamilla and her various lovers, to Eunuchs, to old retainers and not least the Jewish narrator of the story who is employed by Saladin to write an accurate account of his life.
As with the first book I find I love the characters but the story can sometimes be a bit flat. 8/10
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry
by Rachel Joyce
A thin soil for a plot. Harold gets a letter from an old work colleague who is dying of cancer. He writes a reply and sets off to post the letter and just keeps walking from Kingsbridge in Devon to Berwick on Tweed in Scotland. Along the way he meets an assortment of characters who all help him find himself and come to terms with life changing events in his past. A little like Harold the plot seems to lose its way now and then and, like Harold, could probably have reached the end sooner than it does. The book handles the end well though. 6/10
A thin soil for a plot. Harold gets a letter from an old work colleague who is dying of cancer. He writes a reply and sets off to post the letter and just keeps walking from Kingsbridge in Devon to Berwick on Tweed in Scotland. Along the way he meets an assortment of characters who all help him find himself and come to terms with life changing events in his past. A little like Harold the plot seems to lose its way now and then and, like Harold, could probably have reached the end sooner than it does. The book handles the end well though. 6/10
MadAddam
by Margaret Attwood
The third book in the MadAddam trilogy this book takes the story on beyond the global catastrophe and fills in the backstory on Adam 1 and Zeb as well as several of the other characters. This is a book about endings and beginnings and hope as well as sadness.
I get the felling that the author had fun writing this book. There are some very funny parts such as the story of Fuck and fuck's place in the evolving mythology of the Crakers.
Not as good as the first book in the trilogy I still enjoyed this book. 7/10
The third book in the MadAddam trilogy this book takes the story on beyond the global catastrophe and fills in the backstory on Adam 1 and Zeb as well as several of the other characters. This is a book about endings and beginnings and hope as well as sadness.
I get the felling that the author had fun writing this book. There are some very funny parts such as the story of Fuck and fuck's place in the evolving mythology of the Crakers.
Not as good as the first book in the trilogy I still enjoyed this book. 7/10
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