Review of 2017

Quite a varied year with crime-Maigret and Bosch yet again-biography, a session of Evelyn Waugh, a couple of books by Thomas Mann and a couple by Salman Rushdie and a record attempt at the Booker longlist where I managed 12 out of 13!
The Booker list this year was the best for a while. The winner was unusual, funny at times but definitely not my favorite. I really liked Elmet and home fire. I liked Autumn by Alis Smith and Exit West by Moshin Hammad, not to mention Swing Time and The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, but I think my favorite of the crop was Resevoir 13 by Jon McGregor which charts the circle of life as the years roll by in a village in Northern England.
For the others, Waugh was very funny but poignant too examining Britain around the wars of the last century, and Thomas Mann was a great family saga and the beautiful Death in Venice. However, I think my absolute favorite of the year was Salman Rushdie's Satanic verses. I love the breadth of his imagination and his use of language.
On the non-fiction side I think the prize must go to Claire Tomalin's biography of Thomas Hardy.

The Shadow Puppet

by Georges Simenon
Set in the Place des Vosges this case involves addiction, family secrets and greed. Claustrophobic and Maigret at his best. 8/10

Thomas Hardy-The time torn man

by Clare Tomalin
This book was a joy to read, especially as while reading it we stayed for a couple of nights at the Old rectory in St. Juliot, where Hardy met his first wife.
The book is very accessible and paints a great picture of the contradictions and tensions in his life and particularly with his women. It also gives a great picture of the novels and their setting which makes you want to visit Dorset and read the books again. 9/10

The two-penny bar

by George Simenon
Another enjoyable outing with Maigret, this time investigating a six year old murder brought to his attention by another criminal, the night before the man is guillotined. Great stuff 8/10

The Golden House

by Salman Rushdie
Set in America this book tells us the story of a family of Indian immigrants with secrets to hide. They move into a large house in New York in the same block as our narrator Rene Unterlinden, himself the son of Belgian immigrants. The Indian family take the name Golden and hence The Golden House.
Salman Rushdie is a great story-teller and hence the narrative moves along and keeps you interested as we hop between the stories of the three golden children and eventually their father. From the beginning we know something bad is going to happen. I enjoyed the book but it is not the best of his I have read. There are endless lists in the book which are both tedious and pretentious and this bugged me. Having said that there is also a back story running about the 2016 presidential election where Trump is portrayed as the Joker to Clinton's Batwoman, and also a quirky aside about the origins of a fedora hat! It apparently has a claim to be on the list of famous belgians. 7/10

Dance by the Canal

by Kerstin Hensel
A short novel published by the ever wonderful Peirene press.
This story is set in East Germany and tells the story of Gabriela. She was born into a family of privilege but also a troubled family. She never fit in and by the time we catch up with her she is living rough under a bridge in Leipzig. The story darts back and forwards in time as Gabriela tells us the story of her childhood at the same time as we discover what is happening to her in the present. It is a beautiful sad story 7/10

4321

by Paul Auster
A novel about an American called Archie Ferguson who shares my birthday!
The numbers in the title refer to the four lives that this character might have lived between his birth in 1947 and the early 1970's.
It is beautifully written with common links along the way in American history. It could have been a little bit cliched and forced but it wasn't. The final chapter of the book unlocks some of the secrets of what has been happening in the storytelling which just added to its pleasure. I will miss you Archie(s)! 8/10

Elmet

by Fiona Mozley
This is a debut novel but what a novel. From the outset it throws you off balance.
The narrator, a teenage boy seems to be wandering through some future post apocalyptic landscape but it turns out he isn't.
He calls his father daddy throughout the book but this does not quite fit with the character we learn about as the book unfolds and we learn why the boy is wandering as he is.
The other character is his sister who turns out to be far from the quiet retiring sort we are lulled into thinking she might be. It is a compelling read and although I found the ending very difficult to read it was a novel that challenged our views of family, commitment and society. 8/10

Lincoln on the Bardo

by George Saunders
A remarkable novel told in an unusual way through a myriad of voices.
The basic construct is that on the night Abraham Lincoln's son dies he gets caught in the bardo(purgatory) and some well meaning souls also caught there try to help him along to paradise while at the same time the grieving father visits the grave to hold his son for one last time. The characters are at various times funny, horrific, coarse but all universally dead!
I got a bit bored with it by the end but I enjoyed the imagination 6/10

History of Wolves

by Emily Fridlund
An interesting story of a girl brought up in the backwoods of Minnesota as part of a hippy commune already broken up by the time the story starts.
Madeline is fifteen and this story takes place over the summer as she gets involved with a family across the lake who employ her to look after their four year old. Not everything is as it seems and we soon realise something dreadful is going to happen. It is a gripping story with a number of sub plots that left me a little perplexed-her ex school teacher for one. Would still recommend it though 7/10

Exit West

by Mohsin Hamid
A retelling of Antigone set in the modern day this story had me gripped from beginning to end. A tale of three british asian siblings who get caught up in the struggles of our times. It does not have a happy ending but in the way of the Sophocles play, family devotion wins out over loyalty to the state which is uplifting 9/10

Days Without End

by Sebastian Barry
A story set in the American civil war lent some wry humour by a cross dressing soldier and his lifelong friend. It was very readable but not really my cup of tea 5/10

Reservoir 13

by Jon McGregor
The supposed central character of this book is Rebecca who disappears just before new years eve. She pops up throughout the book but the real star of the show is the village and it's changing and unchanging life over a period of some 10 years. It is a simple story beautifully told and, living in a village and having an allotment, I found resonances in so much of the detail. I loved this book 9/10

The Underground Railroad

by Colson Whitehead
This book grew on me as it went along. The story of a black slave in pre-civil war America is a timely reminder of the evils of racism and how barbaric man can be.
Cora, the slave in question who tries to runaway, is the character who holds the narrative together. I liked the construct of a physical underground railroad that was used to take slaves from state to state and examine the various stances different parts of the US took.
However, I never quite engaged with the narrative for some reason 5/10

Home Fire

by Kamila Shamsie
A story of 3 siblings -British Asians who are torn apart by current political turmoil. This book is riveting reading and definitely one of the best books I have read this year. It progresses at a breathtaking pace as the storytelling passes from one character to another. 9/10

Autumn

by Ali Smith
A round up and, to some extent, a comment on the current state or mood of the country. It is a story of the friendship between an old man, Daniel and a young girl/woman, Elisabeth that is full of imagination and humour that I loved. Quirky at times and maybe lopping off characters -such as Elisabeth's lovers-too quickly I really enjoyed it which almost certainly kills off its chances in the Man Booker prize for which it has been longlisted. 9/10

The Ministry of Utmost Happiness

by Arundhati Roy
This is an engaging book but I found that when I picked it up I found it hard to put down, but when I put it down I felt no urgency to pick it back up.
The story is that of an Indian transexual who sets up an odd but engaging community in an old graveyard. The characters are tragic and comic and larger than life but they have a vibrancy that draws the reader in. A large part of the middle of the book is taken up with the Kashmir conflict and the relationship of 2 people caught up in it. This was interesting but for me a bit to long but a good read all the same 8/10

Les Parisiennes

by Anne Sebba
A fascinating book that I found difficult to follow at first because of all the names mentioned, but it gives a very balanced view of the role women played in Parisian life during the second world war and some of the reasons they may have acted as they did. 8/10

Unconditional Surrender

by Evelyn Waugh
The final part of the Sword of Honour trilogy sees things work out not too badly for Guy. This is a book full of pathos as the war nears its end and society realises that things have changed forever.
It has some interesting comment on being a catholic and the cultural as well as religious implications. I enjoyed this better than the second volume but still enjoyed the first book best 8/10

A horse walks into a bar

by David Grossman
This book has a number of very amusing jokes in it but it s far from a comedy.
It is the story, set in a stand up club, where a man's life unfolds during his act, to which he has invited a childhood acquaintance. As a side story we also get a bit of his life too.
It is a short, gripping piece of writing that kept me enthralled from beginning to end. 8/10

Officers and Gentlemen

by Evelyn Waugh
The second part of the Sword of Honour trilogy.
Continuing the story of Guy Crouchback, an outsider in many ways but part of the English elite. In this volume we have the story of preparations for war on the isle of Mugg, which is very amusing and the comedy of errors that leads to the elevation of trimmer.
The second part is based around Crete and is much more sombre and sobering but continues to show up the senselessness of war. 7/10

The Satanic Verses

by Salman Rushdie
The imagination of Rushdie is astounding. 30 years nearly after first published, it still bowled me over with its bizarre happenings from the very start to its tragic-tinged with a glimmer of hope-ending. The best book I have read this year and I will be lucky if I read one to equal it 9/10

Men at Arms

by Evelyn Waugh
The first part of the Sword of Honour trilogy finds Guy Crouchback joining the army 8 years after a failed marriage. He stands melancholy and aloof from the host of comic characters he meets en route as he grapples with his Catholicism and the boredom of army life at the start of WW2. It is laugh out loud funny in places but equally sad in others as the loneliness of human existence is laid out. His fellow officers struggles with his thunderbox are a great piece of theatre. 9/10

The Closers

by Michael Connelly
Harry Bosch is back in the LAPD after a 3 year "retirement" and working cold cases, or as they like to refer to them open unsolved. This first case brings him into conflict with Irving Irvine who himself has been moved out of Parker Centre. The case centres around a murdered teenager and the trauma left in the wake of her killing. A good return for Harry 8/10

The Narrows

by Michael Connelly
The return of a notorious fbi agent turned criminal known as The Poet keeps Harry more than occupied in a tense cat and mouse chase 7/10

Buddenbrooks

by Thomas Mann
Mann's first novel published in 1901 is the story of a wealthy merchant family in Germany covering three generations from the 1830's to the late 1870's. It charts the gradual decline of the family fortune.
I loved this book. The descriptions of the characters were such that I could see them immediately in my minds eye. I loved Toni, who is constantly referring to herself as a silly goose but actually was the most committed to maintaining the family position and suffers personally as a result. Little Hanno with his artistic bent was wonderful and then Christian and Thomas - so different but so true to life. I will miss them all 10/10

The Orange Grove

by Larry Tremblay
Another great short novel from Peirene Press.
This novel left me tearful as it examines the fate of twin brothers caught up in a bloody civil war and being forced to take actions that we in the West find hard to comprehend.
Being the father of twin boys I recognised the friendship that bound the two central characters and ultimately ripped them both apart. 8/10

The Pen and the Brush

by Anka Muhlstein
A look at the link between novelists and painters in nineteenth century French fiction looking at Balzac, Zola and Proust together with Maupassant and Huysmans.
This is a fascinating survey of the painter in the French novel and how the novelist uses their own relationships with painters and painting to influence their writing. I particularly liked the piece on Proust's painter Elstir. Made me want to pick up the book again 8/10

The Last Summer

by Ricarda Huch
A thriller set in St Petersburg in the early 1900's. The governor has closed the University following student unrest and has received a death threat.
His wife, concerned for his safety, hires a secretary to look out for him. But not everything is as it seems. Told through letters written by the main characters this book is a real page turner. 8/10

Death in Venice

by Thomas Mann
I read this book in Venice and it evokes the city in a loving and perfect way.
The story is about a wealthy artist who falls in love with a young boy whom he adores from a distance. It is always a doomed attraction but is one of the most beautiful books I have read in some time 9/10

Vile Bodies

by Evelyn Waugh
The story of Adam Fenwick-Symes and of England and the upper classes between the wars.
This satire is bitingly funny in places but ends up in a very somber and, for a book published in 1930, prophetic place. 8/10

The Disappearance of Emile Zola

by Michael Rosen
In 1898 Zola had to disappear following a court case relating to his stance in the Dreyfus case.
This book charts the time he spent in England during the year before he was able to return to France. Using letters that remain and newspaper accounts it charts a very personal account of the pressure Zola was under and the cost he had to pay for his speaking out in support of a wrongly accused man. Although it is a story I know well I enjoyed this book and I liked the fact that J'accuse was included as an appendix together with a ghost story he wrote while in England. 9/10

The Courtesan and the Gigolo

by Aaron Freundschuh
This book uses the Pranzini Affair from 1887 Paris to examine social and political life at the time. Parallels with today are hard to avoid as the book examines the rise of right wing xenophobia and the looking for scapegoats among the outsider. Very interesting 7/10

Zero K

by Don Delillo
On the face of it this was a novel examining why someone might go for cryogenic freezing ranging from hope for a cure for a disease to escaping the current human disasters in hope of a better future.
The story is narrated by the son of a wealthy man who has set up a hidden and highly secure facility in the middle of nowhere. The father and step mother end up going through the cooling process and the son is a witness, opposed to the whole idea.
The book works best and is at it's most engaging when the father and son are interacting. They are not close and the exchanges between them bring out some of the ethical issues raised. Much of the rest of the book I found laboured but as you would expect written in a prose that was wonderful. 6/10

Frog

by Mo Yan
This is a novel about a chinese midwife called Gugu and her nephew called Tadpole who narrates the story. However, it is much more than that. It tells the story of the one child policy in China from the time of post second world war to the current day. At one point it is talking about the national level and the benefits the state would see and then seamlessly, takes it down to the individual level and the pain and problems caused to families and individuals.
It was funny in places and heartbreaking in others. Personally, I found difficulty in getting to grips with the names but that did not get in the way of a thought provoking and enjoyable novel 8/10

William Morris

by Fiona MacCarthy
This is a heavy tome in terms of weight but is a very enjoyable read. Published 20 years ago it looks at the phases of life that Morris went through and is particularly good on his socialist phase-how he arrived there and the contribution that he made to the early days of the labour movement. I would definitely recommend this to anyone wanting to know about the man and his relationships with Burn-Jones(a lifelong friend) and Rosetti etc. 9/10
ps To protect your wrists from permanent damage buy it for your kindle!

Decline and Fall

by Evelyn Waugh
A very funny book with a great bunch of comic characters. The book follows the story of Paul Pennyfeather, who gets wrongly thrown out of Oxford for indecent exposure following a party of the Bollinger club.
As we follow his life subsequent to this we come across some marvelous specimens of which my favourite is Captain Grimes who he meets at Fagan's school. He, by his own admission, is always in the soup but manages to pull himself through due to his public school background.
The book was written in 1928 and seems to cross certain PC lines at times but does take a gigantic swipe at "the privileged" 8/10

Lost Light

by Michael Connelly
Harry has left the police force and picks up a job as a private eye tracking down the killer in a cold case he worked on in the past.
Along the way he picks up a bank heist and learns to play saxaphone from an old jazz player he visits. Perhaps his biggest surprise waits until the end of the book though. 7/10

The Story of the Lost Child

by Elena Ferrante
So the final book in this quartet. I left book 3 feeling annoyed with Lenu. This book brings us back to Naples and covers the second half of the six decades this quartet covers.
It is a very sad and at times painful portrayal of friendship and whether it can last the ravages of time. I find myself wondering with which character I empathise most. Lenu is extremely selfish. I didn't buy her justifications for writing a novel that borrows from her friends deeply personal loss, but I guess at the end of the day she had her own battles to fight.
I think my sympathy lies mostly with Pietro. Even though the book talked a lot about Leila it would be wonderful to hear this story told from her perspective. Like Lenu, I guess we know that will never happen. A memorable quartet of books 9/10