by James Ellroy
This is the first novel in a second LA quartet but set in the second world war-ie before the first quartet.
It is a wild ride and I found the slang hard to follow at times. It portrays the unreal world of LA just as Pearl Harbour takes place and is told around the murder of 4 Japanese from the same family.
It is hard to split the good guys from the bad guys-which is a large part of the books appeal. I would recommend you try and read this in big chunks-it is 700 pages long-as that helps get into the language and the staccato writing style. 7/10
Friday, November 28, 2014
Saturday, November 08, 2014
The Search Warrant
by Patrick Modiano
The winner of the nobel prize so as I had not come across him before had to be worth a try.
The book is simple in concept and very short but I found it absorbing. The narrator sees a newspaper article about a girl who disappeared in the middle of occupied Paris in 1942. He sets out to discover what happened to her. Written in journalistic style it takes us through his investigations over a number of years. It grew on me as I went through it. 8/10
The winner of the nobel prize so as I had not come across him before had to be worth a try.
The book is simple in concept and very short but I found it absorbing. The narrator sees a newspaper article about a girl who disappeared in the middle of occupied Paris in 1942. He sets out to discover what happened to her. Written in journalistic style it takes us through his investigations over a number of years. It grew on me as I went through it. 8/10
The Night Watch
by Sarah Waters
A foray out of the nineteenth century for Sarah Waters as she writes a book about London during world war 2 and its immediate aftermath. The book starts at the end in 1947 and works backwards in 2 leaps to 1941. It is a device I was sceptical of before reading the book but it is brilliantly executed and very gripping. It will certainly satisfy those who always read the last page of the novel to see what happens! The characters are rendered with so much care and I so wanted to know what happened to Kay. A great read 9/10
A foray out of the nineteenth century for Sarah Waters as she writes a book about London during world war 2 and its immediate aftermath. The book starts at the end in 1947 and works backwards in 2 leaps to 1941. It is a device I was sceptical of before reading the book but it is brilliantly executed and very gripping. It will certainly satisfy those who always read the last page of the novel to see what happens! The characters are rendered with so much care and I so wanted to know what happened to Kay. A great read 9/10
Wednesday, October 08, 2014
We are all completely beside ourselves
by Karen Joy Fowler
A family reflection narrated by Rosemary and concerning her parents and two siblings. A quirky enjoyable novel touching on some current issues. It has been shortlisted for the Booker but I would be surprised if it won
A family reflection narrated by Rosemary and concerning her parents and two siblings. A quirky enjoyable novel touching on some current issues. It has been shortlisted for the Booker but I would be surprised if it won
The Hanged Man of Saint-Pholien
By Georges Simenon
The third Maigret starts with Maigret performing a swap of a suitcase that leads to suicide. The action then moves from Bremen to Liege to Paris and back to Liege as Maigret uncovers a 10 year old crime. Really enjoyable 8/10
The third Maigret starts with Maigret performing a swap of a suitcase that leads to suicide. The action then moves from Bremen to Liege to Paris and back to Liege as Maigret uncovers a 10 year old crime. Really enjoyable 8/10
The Children Act
by Ian McEwan
The story is of a high court judge in the family division and her long term husband who is about to turn 60 and is having a sexual crisis.
The book interweaves the stories of some of her cases with her personal drama in a compelling way that McEwan as a great storyteller makes effortless. I found the book thought provoking as well as enjoyable if not a little uncomfortable. 9/10
The story is of a high court judge in the family division and her long term husband who is about to turn 60 and is having a sexual crisis.
The book interweaves the stories of some of her cases with her personal drama in a compelling way that McEwan as a great storyteller makes effortless. I found the book thought provoking as well as enjoyable if not a little uncomfortable. 9/10
The Late Monsieur Gallet
by Georges Simenon
The second Maigret novel and a story of hidden identities. Quick and enjoyable caper but not one of his best 6/10
The second Maigret novel and a story of hidden identities. Quick and enjoyable caper but not one of his best 6/10
Tuesday, September 16, 2014
How to be Both
by Ali Smith
This is a book in two halves, one half being about a modern day teenager who has recently lost her mother and the second about a fifteenth century fresco painter. The painter is real but the story is built from the very few fragments that we have. The stories are tenuously connected and I discovered afterwards that the book has been published in 2 versions with the stories placed in a different order in each. I was very frustrated reading the painters tale second as I kept wanting it to return to the other story. I wonder if I would have felt differently reading them the other way around. Now I will never know. Very well written but a frustrating read and an unsatisfactory ending for my tastes 7/10
This is a book in two halves, one half being about a modern day teenager who has recently lost her mother and the second about a fifteenth century fresco painter. The painter is real but the story is built from the very few fragments that we have. The stories are tenuously connected and I discovered afterwards that the book has been published in 2 versions with the stories placed in a different order in each. I was very frustrated reading the painters tale second as I kept wanting it to return to the other story. I wonder if I would have felt differently reading them the other way around. Now I will never know. Very well written but a frustrating read and an unsatisfactory ending for my tastes 7/10
Orfeo
by Richard Powers
The quirky story of Peter Els. At the time of the novel he is a 70 year old composer/retired music professor who in his kitchen has set up an amateur genetics laboratory. By a string of events this comes to the attention of homeland security and suddenly our hero is on the run. During the course of his running he reflects over his life and we see how two sides of his life have converged to produce his current predicament. Very amusing in places and an interesting ending. Should have made the Booker shortlist. 9/10
The quirky story of Peter Els. At the time of the novel he is a 70 year old composer/retired music professor who in his kitchen has set up an amateur genetics laboratory. By a string of events this comes to the attention of homeland security and suddenly our hero is on the run. During the course of his running he reflects over his life and we see how two sides of his life have converged to produce his current predicament. Very amusing in places and an interesting ending. Should have made the Booker shortlist. 9/10
The Long Road to the Deep North
by Richard Flanagan
It is unusual for me to start writing about
a book before I have finished it but this book has evoked strong responses in
me that have varied enormously.
The book follows an Australian surgeon,
Dorrigo Evans, who joins the Australian army at the start of the war and is
captured by the Japanese, ending up working on the Burma railway construction.
Just before leaving for the war he has a short affair with his uncle's young
wife, that has an impact on the rest of his life.
The book ranges back and forwards from the
war years to the current day, following the fortunes of both Dorrigo and his
fellow prisoners and their captors.
The writing is intense and at times almost
poetic with short arresting sentences. At other times any beauty in the
language gets overwhelmed by the sheer barbarity of what is being described. It
is at this point I have to question whether this is gratuitous gore or
something that is necessarily shocking to make us confront man's inhumanity. I
don't know. It is certainly not an easy read and has left no options for a
happy or hopeful ending.
With the last world war so far away for
many of us, it is important that we do not forget the realities of it and the
huge waste of humanity that results but is fiction the way to do this, or is it
just another form of forgetting? I don't know. I will revisit my musings on
this when I finish the book.
So I have finished and I have to say that I
found the end of the book a little indulgent. Did we need a chapter on the
execution by hanging of a Korean guard-especially one ending in a very clichéd mid
–sentence halt as the trapdoor opened. Did the book really need our central
character saving his family from the middle of an inferno in a forest fire? It
was more Rambo than anything else.
The book has made the Booker shortlist but
I would be disappointed if it were to win. 7/10
Tuesday, August 26, 2014
Pietr the Latvian
by Georges Simenon
The first Maigret novel and great as a straightforward police novel. Maigret has the most accommodating wife in the world who is always there with a good hot meal when he comes home a week late from work. It is of a certain time but a good light read for a journey 8/10
The first Maigret novel and great as a straightforward police novel. Maigret has the most accommodating wife in the world who is always there with a good hot meal when he comes home a week late from work. It is of a certain time but a good light read for a journey 8/10
The Dog
by Joseph o' Neill
Longlisted for the booker prize and by the author of Netherland which I really enjoyed.
This is the story of an American lawyer who for various reasons ends up in Dubai working for wealthy emiratis. It is very funny in places but the book never quite grabbed me. It may be more engaging if you had lived in the emirates 5/10
Longlisted for the booker prize and by the author of Netherland which I really enjoyed.
This is the story of an American lawyer who for various reasons ends up in Dubai working for wealthy emiratis. It is very funny in places but the book never quite grabbed me. It may be more engaging if you had lived in the emirates 5/10
The Exception
by Christian Jungersen
The story of office politics told against the backdrop of genocide. The story is told by 4 workers in a small office at the Danish Institute for Genocide Research. A death threat is received and as the story passes from narrator to narrator so our view of the truth changes and our certainty decreases the more we read. It is a great thriller 9/10
The story of office politics told against the backdrop of genocide. The story is told by 4 workers in a small office at the Danish Institute for Genocide Research. A death threat is received and as the story passes from narrator to narrator so our view of the truth changes and our certainty decreases the more we read. It is a great thriller 9/10
Brave New World
by Aldous Huxley
I am not a science fiction fan but this is a remarkable book in many ways. It hints at a future containing many of the things we see today but is at other times rather quaint in assuming things that might still be with us that are not.
The plot, revolving around 2 characters from different castes in the brave new world is moving and funnt at times. Mr. Savage trying to apply Shakespeare to a technical age is fun.
I enjoyed it for being not what I expected 7/10
I am not a science fiction fan but this is a remarkable book in many ways. It hints at a future containing many of the things we see today but is at other times rather quaint in assuming things that might still be with us that are not.
The plot, revolving around 2 characters from different castes in the brave new world is moving and funnt at times. Mr. Savage trying to apply Shakespeare to a technical age is fun.
I enjoyed it for being not what I expected 7/10
Thursday, July 31, 2014
The French Intifada
by Andrew Hussey
This is a good overview of the problems France faces in living with the inhabitants, and descendants of inhabitants, from their ex colonies. It is very compelling reading and certainly set me off looking for further information. It is a shame that the text is littered with errors-words missing or in the wrong order etc. This made it very frustrating to read and so a low score 5/10
This is a good overview of the problems France faces in living with the inhabitants, and descendants of inhabitants, from their ex colonies. It is very compelling reading and certainly set me off looking for further information. It is a shame that the text is littered with errors-words missing or in the wrong order etc. This made it very frustrating to read and so a low score 5/10
Silas Marner
by George Eliot
This is the story of Silas Marner, the weaver and his life in rural England. Having been framed for a crime he did not commit he leaves a large town and comes to a small village where he makes his living as a weaver. He keeps himself to himself and is besotted with his money which he counts every evening. Two key events in succession change his life forever.
This is a great book told by a master storyteller. I loved it 9/10
This is the story of Silas Marner, the weaver and his life in rural England. Having been framed for a crime he did not commit he leaves a large town and comes to a small village where he makes his living as a weaver. He keeps himself to himself and is besotted with his money which he counts every evening. Two key events in succession change his life forever.
This is a great book told by a master storyteller. I loved it 9/10
The Red and the Black
by Stendhal
This was a fascinating book. The style of the author and his dry sense of humour was great, and the book was full of memorable one-liners, such as "The idea which tyrants find most useful is the idea of God" or "After moral poisoning, one requires physical remedies and a bottle of champagne".
My problem was that I hated Julien, the hero of the novel. Everything about him was selfish, including the fact he hogged most of the book! Still apart from that it was a good read 8/10
This was a fascinating book. The style of the author and his dry sense of humour was great, and the book was full of memorable one-liners, such as "The idea which tyrants find most useful is the idea of God" or "After moral poisoning, one requires physical remedies and a bottle of champagne".
My problem was that I hated Julien, the hero of the novel. Everything about him was selfish, including the fact he hogged most of the book! Still apart from that it was a good read 8/10
Monday, June 16, 2014
Mitterand: A study in ambiguity
by Philip Short
Very readable and as the title suggests highlight admirably the glaring ambiguities in Mitterands life from start to finish. Really enjoyable 9/10
Very readable and as the title suggests highlight admirably the glaring ambiguities in Mitterands life from start to finish. Really enjoyable 9/10
Stoner
by John Williams
This film came heavily recommended and although I enjoyed the writing style and the central character, William Stoner, I found the support characters-his wife, Lomax his enemy in the University, his daughter Grace and others a bit thinly drawn and in the case of his wife, Edith, a little hard to believe in.
Stoner was born on a farm, went to University, married badly, had an affair, taught at the University where he had some scrapes and died. Much more interesting than that summary would suggest but not great 7/10
This film came heavily recommended and although I enjoyed the writing style and the central character, William Stoner, I found the support characters-his wife, Lomax his enemy in the University, his daughter Grace and others a bit thinly drawn and in the case of his wife, Edith, a little hard to believe in.
Stoner was born on a farm, went to University, married badly, had an affair, taught at the University where he had some scrapes and died. Much more interesting than that summary would suggest but not great 7/10
The Color Purple
by Alice Walker
A quarter of the way through this book I was ready to give up, it was so heavy going, but I am glad I persevered. the characters are wonderfully drawn and it has a very upbeat ending.
The story of a Southern woman in the early 1900's, Celie, her sister, the jazz singer Shug Avery and a host of other characters is both painful and moving, amusing and sad, and entirely engaging 8/10
A quarter of the way through this book I was ready to give up, it was so heavy going, but I am glad I persevered. the characters are wonderfully drawn and it has a very upbeat ending.
The story of a Southern woman in the early 1900's, Celie, her sister, the jazz singer Shug Avery and a host of other characters is both painful and moving, amusing and sad, and entirely engaging 8/10
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