A criminal year with 10 Maigret's, 2 George Smiley's and a French detective from pre revolutionary France.
The Booker list was quite enjoyable this year. I liked the winner but my favourites were probably Great Circle and A Town Called Solace.
However, my book of the year must be Orlando Figes' book, The Crimean War. It was for a layman like me so engaging and informative. A close run contender would be Desert by JMG Le Clezio.
by J F Parot
The first book featuring Nicolas Le Floch investigating the disappearance of a police officer. Set in the eighteenth century it is a great page turner. 7/10
by Angelique Villeneuve
A book about a family in 1918 Paris where the husband has returned from the war with his face half blown off. It gently tells the story of how they learn to live together again. It is set in bleak times but is told with a gentleness and an overriding sense of hope. I liked it 9/10
by Gohril Gabrielsen
A researcher on her own in the far North of Norway gradually unravelling. I didn't enjoy this even though it has a great if somewhat frustrating end to the book 5/10
by Lisa Taddeo
Not sure what I made of this. Our heroine/anti-heroine is Joan and she is depraved by her own assessment.
The book is her trying to explain to (for most of the book) an unknown character the reasons why she has turned out so. It is a brutal book and yet you do feel drawn to and repulsed by Joan in equal measure. She has so little empathy for others but there are mostly plausible reasons for this. It definitely kept me engaged 7/10
by Herve le Corre
This is an odd but interesting book. It is a love story, a police investigation into abduction, and a history of the Paris Commune or more particularly, it's bloody final 10 days. At times I found it a bit drawn out whereas at other times it fairly rattled along. It managed to portray both the horrors and the hope of the Commune and in some way explain why that hope has travelled down through the years. 7/10
by Stefan Zweig
A brief introduction to Freuds life and work, written during Freud's lifetime (1931). It was interesting but a bit dry in the delivery at times. 5/10
by John Le Carre
The second Smiley novel and very good. No spies in sight but a straight whodunnit in a posh english public school. 8/10
by Richard Powers
A wacky novel even by Powers's standard. It involves a 9 year old boy who has lost his mother and is brought up by his astrobiologist father. They spend evenings travelling to far away planets and days grappling with the loss of Ally (the wife/mother). I enjoyed it but not as much as The Overstory. 7/10
by John Le Carre
The first novel involving George Smiley which involves a number of murders involving the East Germans. What looks like a straightforward suicide is suspicious to Smiley who gets drawn into a typically complicated plot. Great stuff! 9/10
by Georges Simenon
by Anuk Arudpragasam
An interesting book that could easily win this years booker.
At one level nothing much happens. The carer of a grandmother in Colombo dies in the North of the country and the grandson goes to the funeral.
This simple premise is the canvas for some beautiful writing about the process of growing old and the working of memory. It is also an examination of how a country deals with civil war. In a particularly memorable section he writes about a documentary about two young women who are part of an elite suicide squad in the tamil tigers. This real documentary (that I have subsequently watched) is as haunting in his description as it is in the actual watching.
The only parts of the book that did not work for me is where the protagonist examines an old brief love affair he had. So what I felt. As for the rest 9/10
by Nadifa Mohamed
Based on a true story about a Somali Man, Mahmood, who is accused of killing a shopkeeper. He protests his innocence throughout.
He is a rogue but not a killer and the book catches that perfectly. At times, it meanders and gives a lot of padding (too much?) to the characters but a good read. 8/10
by Laura Elkin
A short book of notes made on a mobile phone while commuting in Paris.
Sharp and witty, as well as melancholic in places. Reaction to Bataclan is caught in how I recall the time, shock, despair, defiance. 7/10
by Sunjeev Sahota
A book set in India and the UK across two different times. A young second generation British Indian is trying to kick an opium addiction and is goes back to family in India to try and help.
His great grandmother was one of three girls married to three brothers at the same time, but none of the brides knew who their husband was. She is compromised by a series of misunderstandings and the story gradually unfolds for both her and the narrator.
I really enjoyed this book and would have liked to see it make the Booker shortlist. The judges felt otherwise! 8/10
by Mary Lawson
Set in a town in the far North of Canada the story is told through the eyes of three characters linked in tenuous ways but brought together by an old house and a cat and two traumatic events 30 years apart.
I really enjoyed this book and the balance between the narrators worked well. A special mention to Moses the cat! 9/10
by Karen Jennings
A short book and not one I found that interesting. The hero(anti-hero) Samuel, tells his life story from an island he lives on alone, and which is disturbed by the arrival of a washed up refugee. 5/10
by Damon Galgut
This could have a subtitle of 4 funerals and no wedding (or at least not one we are invited to.
This book traces the fortunes of the Swart family over 30 years by dropping in on various deaths in the family. I started reading this fearing the worst but the book grew on me as it went along. 8/10
by Rachel Cusk
Much more familiar Booker territory than my last entry.
A woman has an encounter with an artist's paintings in the Paris of her youth.
Years later she invites the artist to join her and her family on a remote salt marsh where they live. The book revolves around what unfolds during that summer and what maybe love and friendship means. Parts I enjoyed as good writing, much was very angsty. Not my favourite 6/10
by Maggie Shipstead
Unlike many Booker prize novels this was a gripping story from the start and that maintained that driving pulse throughout nearly all of its 600 pages, The story of a woman looking to make history in aviation by a round the world trip north to south in the 1950's.
The flight was never completed and our hero and her navigator were presumed dead as they were never found.
This is the story of her life and that of her brother and a childhood friend called Caleb. It was a great story and therefore in danger of not making the shortlist! 9/10
by Pierre Lemaitre
This was written in homage to Alexander Dumas and The count of Monte Christo.
It is a story of revenge and a definite feel of Lemaitre letting his hair down and having fun in this story set between the wars. Great fun 8/10
by Georges Simenon
Out to the west again for Maigret where he is investigating a death on behalf of a Paris judge. Nothing official and a very closed tight lipped community and a private detective who once worked for Maigret.
Maigret gets to the bottom of things but once again nobody is prosecuted, a recurring theme in his novels. 8/10
by William Boyd
Set in Brighton in the late 60's this is the story of three different people whose lives interact loosely around a film being made in East Sussex.
As ever the writing is compelling but this is not the best William Boyd novel I have read, bordering on farce at times. 6/10
by Jenny Offill
A novel that is everything Trollope is not, apart from being very funny in places.
Its a short novel capturing much of the angst of modern life. Very readable and lots of tips for surviving when the lights go out! 7/10
by Anthony Trollope
The first of the Palliser novels. A long book with lots of fun interjections from the narrator this is a book that introduces Plantagenet Palliser and his young wife who brings much wealth with her.
The title character is a cousin who is strong minded but changeable to say the least when it comes to love. Thankfully, things have changed in the last 200 years. I ended up forgiving her! 8/10
by Georges Simenon
A murder foretold is a little too convenient for Maigret as he sets about investigating the murder of a clairvoyant. Good fun 7/10
by Georges Simenon
For some undisclosed reason Maigret has been banished from Paris to the provinces. In a small town near Nantes a body is discovered in a house belonging to a retired judge and the judge is trying to dispose of it. Very strange goings on in rural France! 8/10
by Georges Simenon
A body found dead in the cellars of a posh hotel in Paris with fingers pointing clearly at one of the staff.
Maigret gets a trip to the South of France where he seems very out of place, as well as getting mixed up with a rich American before we finally discover the true murderer. 8/10
by Georges Simenon
A melancholy affair this one as Cecile should not have died and to some extent Maigret believes he is responsible. He gets to the bottom of it in the end though :) 8/10
by Juan Emar
A crazy book written by a chilean author in the 1930's. Very funny in places and totally bizarre throughout. 7/10
by Georges Simenon
Another strange case. Maigret has been retired for sometime and is living in the Loire valley near Tours.
His nephew, a policeman, does something stupid and is arrested for murder drawing Maigret back to Paris and his detective work.
I need to read around this as there are 55 more novels in this series and the next one has Maigret back in full detective mode so clearly not published chronologically. 8/10
by George Simenon
An interesting book with Maigret about to retire and a strange barge owner whose past catches up with him. Darker than some but really enjoyable 9/10
by John McGregor
A difficult but compulsive read. Robert, has worked for 30 years in Antarctica for several months of the year. On his last trip he has a stroke in the middle of a storm and further tragedy ensues. The large part of the book deals with the aftermath of these events and Robert's handling of his speech and mobility impairment. It also deals with his wife who holds a senior research post and the effect it has on her life. This gets lost toward the end of the book and I ended up musing on how this would pan out. Thought provoking stuff and written in a totally engaging style 9/10
by Gustave Flaubert
A book made interesting by its historical setting and the key events in the 1840's in France as it passed from monarchy to republic. The plot is limited, following the life of the main character, Frédéric Moreau. He is generally annoying but is in love with the wife of a man called Arnoux who is modelled on a real life character. His character drawing is good and some of Frederic's friends are at times funny, monstrous or to be pitied. I never felt any of this for our hero. 7/10
by Georges Simenon
Off on his travels again, Maigret is in Cannes and Antibes on the cote d'Azur. A man has been murdered. He is a foreigner but has lived in France for sometime and was a hero of the resistance. He appears to have fallen on hard times but there is more to it than that. Very enjoyable! 8/10
by Georges Simenon
Maigret gets shot while on his way to the Dordogne for a holiday.
He has to solve the case from his convalescent bed. Good policing mystery. 8/10
by Max Porter
A very short book telling the story of Francis Bacon's death through his supposed thoughts on 6 canvasses. I felt all through that I was close to seeing what Bacon and the author were grappling for but failed on both accounts. Maybe I needed to know more about Bacon or maybe.......5/10
by Kazuo Ishiguro
A story about robots set sometime in the not too distant future would not normally be my chosen reading but I did enjoy this. It uses the robot Klara to examine what love is and what is human and a playful examination of religious belief. As you would expect all really well written with a bittersweet and almost inevitable ending, 8/10
by Charles Dickens
In many ways a collection of stories but weaved together in a humorous way by the members of the club and Sam Weller, Mr. Pickwick's manservant. This is one of Dickens's funniest books with a whole host of amusing and sometimes unbelievable characters. Too long some would say, and they may have a point, but hugely enjoyable as a source of escapism 9/10
by Orlando Figes
This was a fantastic book. It manages to bring together official and unofficial accounts from all sides in a major conflict and put them in the context of European history at the time, and all in a highly engaging manner. 10/10
by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
This book took me by surprise. Firstly, by how vitriolic he was toward those he felt had let him down and secondly how right wing his views seem from the standpoint of the twenty first century.
What the book captures really well is how oppressive Western democracy/capitalism can be albeit in a different way to soviet communism. An interesting but long winded book. 6/10
by Patricia Lockwood
What to make of this book? First of all I needed an urban slang dictionary next to me to understand some of the language. Then, I ended the book in tears. The writing is fresh and engaging although some of the metaphors took some stretching of the imagination to work.
In the end it seemed to be an internet meets reality type of book and the writing about reality in part two wins hands down. 8/10
by JMG Le Clezio
This book is beautiful.
It follows a young woman called Lalla alongside the march of people in 1910 from South Sudan to Morocco where they were slaughtered by colonial forces. The echos of this event seem to haunt the book. There is a chapter where Lalla is walking through Marseilles after leaving her aunt which is mesmerising. The use of language-even in translation- is wonderful. 9/10
