Willoyd's Reading 2014

[willoyd]

Night at the Crossroads by Georges Simenon ****

Classic Simenon, heavy on atmosphere and character. This, however, has the added plus of a plot that genuinely intrigues, with several twists and turns, and moments of genuine excitement, in contrast to the usually rather more languid pace. I always enjoy Maigret stories, but this is definitely a cut above the norm.

 

Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops by Jen Campbell ***

A thoroughly entertaining, very quick, read. Do people really say these things? I'm sure they do - being a teacher you get used to some amazing attitudes expressed by parents, so I'm sure they are no less amazing amongst bookshop customers! Even so, it makes you wonder what on earth some people are thinking......!

[Athena]

I really liked Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops, it does make you wonder about some people though!

[Anna Begins]

being a teacher you get used to some amazing attitudes expressed by parents, so I'm sure they are no less amazing amongst bookshop customers! Even so, it makes you wonder what on earth some people are thinking......!

What ages do you teach?  I'd love to teach 16-17 year olds.  And it's English, right?

Edited September 4, 2014 by Anna Begins

[willoyd]

What ages do you teach?  I'd love to teach 16-17 year olds.  And it's English, right?

I'm a primary teacher. My class is year 5 (9-10 year olds), so, yes, I teach English - but also Maths, History, Geography, Science, DT, IT, Art, PE, RE! I'm actually an Earth Sciences graduate so Geography is my specialist subject (I'm the subject co-ordinator in school).

Edited September 4, 2014 by willoyd

[willoyd]

Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy ******

Much as I've enjoyed previous Hardy novels I've tried, I've always shied away from Far From The Madding Crowd. Some distant memory of the Julie Christie version left a lingering sense of heavy tragedy, bolstered by general comments on Hardy's work, suggested that I needed just the right moment to enjoy this, and that moment never seemed to come. Then it featured on the English Counties Challenge, so I decided to gird my loins (or whatever!) and give it a go during the summer holidays. I'm now left with the overwhelming feeling of why on earth did I wait this long?

Yes, there is a tragic element, but there's so much, much more. Four powerful, highly individual and contrasting characters stand at the centre, setting each other off to perfection. Dominating them all is the wildly impulsive, indepenedent, beautiful Bathsheba, circled by her three suitors. The plot centres on the dramatic dynamics of their relationship.

Characters and plot around the four are both brilliantly developed, well balanced but still with all the drama that one could hope for. However, whilst that's obviously vital to what makes this book so good, they are not, for me, the decisive elements, which is how the book is filled out to take it from the ranks of a good yarn into the realms of the greats. To do this, Hardy also develops a wonderful supporting cast of villagers, each full of character in his or her own right, with a setting, founded on the annual cycle of a rural lifestyle and emphasising the centrality of nature itself, that is beautifully and evocatively drawn; scene after scene brings this world  powerfully to life: Gabriel Oak's flocks on the Dorset hills, sheep-shearing, market time, harvesting, preparing for a great storm, inside the tavern.  I don't think it's any coincidence that the last words of the book are given to one of those characters.  How realistic this description is is another question, rural poverty and social reform being at the forefront at the time Hardy is writing about, but, allowing for Hardy's rose tinted spectacles, one still gets drawn right into the heart of the world Hardy is so obviousy passionate about.

Hardy's passion carries one along.  I was certainly blown away by Far From The Madding Crowd: I really didn't expect it to be so good! It just goes to show how one's memories and conceptions can play tricks on you. I definitely need to explore his writing again, soon. In the meantime, it's been easy to choose the next book to be read, as I've had Claire Tomalin's biography of the author on my shelves for a while, waiting to be read.

Edited September 4, 2014 by willoyd

[chesilbeach]

I'm nervous of Hardy - the only contact I've had was the film adaptation of Jude The Obscure, and after coming home from the cinema and telling my OH how dismal it was, he said that's just how Hardy is, so it's put me off reading him.  I know I'm going to have to for the English Counties Challenge, so your review has given me some hope, at least!

[willoyd]

I'm nervous of Hardy - the only contact I've had was the film adaptation of Jude The Obscure, and after coming home from the cinema and telling my OH how dismal it was, he said that's just how Hardy is, so it's put me off reading him.  I know I'm going to have to for the English Counties Challenge, so your review has given me some hope, at least!

Jude is notorious. It was his last and most hotly received novel. After that he gave up to write poetry.

[willoyd]

Thomas Hardy, The Time Torn Man by Claire Tomalin *****

Reading Far From The Madding Crowd, I was reminded that sitting on my shelves, waiting to be read, was the biography of Hardy, written by one of my favourite biographers, Claire Tomalin. It seemed a propitious moment to pick it up!

I knew a little of his life, but only a little. Tomalin's biography is fairly compact, some 380 pages, and proved as readable as any of her others that I have enjoyed. Feet firmly set in his Wessex, Hardy's life is not exactly one of drama, although it has its 'moments', not least his unlikely background for a Victorian author, and the intricate story of his relationships with women, particularly (obviously!) his two wives. However, I think it's almost impossible for Tomalin to be boring, and she proved that here, also proving how small things can add up to something so much bigger.

It's always difficult, unless one is an expert on the subject, to know how balanced or biased a biographer is. To help me, I usually go to the various reviewers. Of the professionals, the reviews looked pretty strong, but amongst the amateurs (often more willing to say exactly what they think!), several commented on how they perceived Tomalin to be overharsh on Hardy's wives, Emma and Florence. Certainly, neither of them came out of the book unblemished, but I didn't find Tomalin unsympathetic. She never, it is true, overtly criticised Hardy for his part in two rather fraught relationships, but I certainly got the distinct impression that, devoted as he was to his writing, he wouldn't have been an easy man to live with, even if he wasn't the dark or dramatic sort of person one would have expected given the intensity of his books - indeed, I was surprised at how relatively ordinary he appeared to be in those circumstances. It certainly came over clear that neither woman really got out of the relationship what they might justifiably have expected, and Tomalin is quick to reject some of the more lurid explanations (e.g. madness in Emma's case) that were bandied around at the time.

However, I did feel on this occasion, that Tomalin did appear to be quicker to offer opinions and draw conclusions about what might have happened or what people might have felt. There's a fine line that biographers walk in the extent of the conclusions they draw from the evidence they see, and just once or twice I did wonder if the author was stepping off that line. There were just rather too many 'could have's and 'might have's etc. for my liking.

This is, though, a minor cavil: it is, after all, always clear where Tomalin is offering such an opinion, and a book lacking the author's viewpoint would be unutterably dull. Claire Tomalin has, for me, a happy knack of bringing her subjects fully to life, human foibles and all, and covering extensive ground without getting bogged down in the excessive detail that more voluminous writers sometimes have a tendency of doing. I also found her coverage of his novels so much more reader friendly than many others: enough written to discuss and put in context, not enough to ruin the unread novel! I put the book down reluctantly this morning, even more interested in not just Hardy, but also in his wives and other characters, as well as 'his' Wessex. Above all, I was left with a real desire to explore his poetry - ironic really given how assiduously I worked at avoiding it when it was a set book (one of a number of options) in my A-level years.

Edited September 13, 2014 by willoyd

[willoyd]

The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald ***

 

Once upon a time, back in the dim and distant past of A-Levels, I read and studied The Great Gatsby, and disliked it intensely. I seem to have rather intense opinions about the books I read then - or maybe I can just remember those that I had intense view about. Thinking about it, probably the latter.

 

In recent years, I've reread quite a few of these books, 'good' and 'bad', and have been pleased to find that those I liked, I still liked (usually at least as much or more), and those I disliked, my views had rather ameliorated. So, when Gatsby came up as a book group choice, I was, in fact, looking forward to reading it.

 

No, this isn't one that bucked the trend: I'm pleased to report that I didn't dislike it anywhere near as much. Indeed, I am rather more positive about it. However, I can't say that I was exactly overwhelmed.

 

This is commonly regarded as Fitzgerald's masterpiece, one of those that can be regarded as a 'Great American Novel'. I can see why. In a brief hundred or so pages telling what is, in summary, a relatively simple story, Fitzgerald encapsulates so much about the America of the time: the decline of the Great American Dream; morality in 1920s society (pretty much every character is morally wanting in at least one area); issues of class, gender, marriage, love. Symbolism abounds. Fitzgerald is both efficient and vivid in his writing: the reader feels the heat and stickiness of both the weather and the atmosphere as the denouement looms, whilst the results, in some ways utterly predictable, still leave a trail of desolation and emptiness. In the end, nothing of the story is left, and those characters who reach it move on, leaving no trace.

 

There is, therefore, no doubt in my mind of the reasons for its literary prominence, indeed greatness, and I don't dispute either for one minute. It's certainly a book worth studying. However, on a personal level, I'm sorry to say that it did absolutely nothing for me. Yes it's very clever, but there was an emptiness about the book and its characters which left me all too disinterested, observing from a distance physically, temporally and emotionally. I can respect, indeed admire, this novel, but have any feeling for it? No, not really. But then, maybe that was the effect Fitzgerald was trying to achieve.

Edited September 18, 2014 by willoyd

[Athena]

Great review! Sorry to hear it did nothing for you personally though. The book is on my TBR.

[willoyd]

Thus Was Adonis Murdered by Sarah Caudwell **

 

A light-hearted whodunnit, with a group of young barrister colleagues attempting to solve a murder in which their highly intelligent but otherwise rather inept fellow lawyer is implicated. Much of it is completed at some distance, with most of the story of the crime and its lead-up, all set in Venice, told in letters from the suspect herself.

 

I never really got beyond the rather plummy, legalistic language - all very jolly and rather artificial, not dissimilar to Wodehouse, who at least could just about get away with it in the 1920s setting he used. I think it was meant to be a spoof, but it all felt rather forced, complete with very samey characters, with the result that I was constantly mixing them up. It didn't help that I found the plot and denouement distinctly unlikely and, again, rather artificial.

 

Fortunately it was a Kindle Daily Deal - definitely not worth more than the 99p I spent on it, whiling away a (thankfully) shortish time mildly pleasantly, but achieving little else.

[willoyd]

The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert ****

 

Essentially, a fictional biography of Alma Whittaker, brought up in a wealthy, intellectually fiercely demanding household in Philadelphia, who develops a passion for all things botanical, but particularly, at least later in life, mosses.

 

Sounds riveting doesn't it? Well, surprisingly, it is. Alma is so fully rounded, warts and all, as are her fellow characters, that one can't help but be drawn into the story, the direction of which one is never quite sure of. And, just as Alma undergoes various revelations at different points of her life, so do we, as the story takes off in yet another direction. As it progresses, so the characters develop, with sides developed that we would not have suspected, and settings are brilliantly evoked - the pages set in Tahiti drip with the sultry atmosphere. And as Alma's life progresses, so we see it interwoven with some of the great biological discoveries.

 

My only complaint, and it is a mild one, is that the 580 pages could have done with a bit more gentle editing. There remain points, particularly after Ambrose appears, where things get a little bit out of control in the enthusiasm, rather too spiritually discursive for my taste. But it's a mild complaint, and I ws gripped from the word go in an old-fashoned 'good read'.

Edited December 11, 2014 by willoyd

[Ruth]

Great review of The Great Gatsby  I actually love that book - it's one of my very favourites - but I really liked reading your point of view, and will keep your comments in mind when I next (inevitably) re-read it.  I quite like the sound of The Signature of all Things, and have added to it my library list.

[willoyd]

The Year After by Martin Davies ****

It is 1919, the year after WW1 has finished, and Captain Tom Allen is invited back for Christmas to join the family at their country house with whom he spent most of his pre-War Christmases. It's a very different world, with so many of his generation dead or seriously wounded, including the two sons of the household. During this time he gradually uncovers the mystery surrounding an unexpected, but unsuspicious, death.

 

The strength of this book is in the character of Tom Allen and the melancholy that permeates his recollections and thoughts. At this distance, it's hard to be sure of what the immediate post-War period must have felt like, but there is a convincing timbre to Davies's portrayal of both Tom Allen and the period and society in which he moves. Along with a plot that, whilst not totally unpredictable, keeps one engaged throughout the whole book, The Year After is a thoroughly satisfying read. From what I can remember of it, it doesn't quite live up to The Conjuror's Bird, but then that had the advantage of being of a period and genre which I find particularly satisfying, and of being my first experience of Martin Davies's writing.

[ladymacbeth]

I'm totalyl with you on your opinion of The Great Gatsby. It just felt like a somewhat forgettable book for me and I wondered if I was just missing knowledge of the cultural background of the time which might have made it more interesting. I also wondered if the story has been so well referenced in popular culture that it didn't feel new anymore.

[Athena]

I have The Conjuror's Bird in Dutch on my TBR, it was a free book, I don't know if it'll be my thing or not. It's a shame The Year After wasn't as nice for you as The Conjuror's Bird.

[Anna Begins]

I wondered if I was just missing knowledge of the cultural background of the time which might have made it more interesting.

Nope, I could never get into that book.  I hear the movie is wonderful though.

[willoyd]

It's a shame The Year After wasn't as nice for you as The Conjuror's Bird.

TBH I never expected it to be, as I particularly enjoyed the subject matter for TCB. I was glad to enjoy TYA - it means that TCB wasn't a one off, and that I'll definitely look out his other books as they come out (I have The Unicorn Road on my shelves already)

[willoyd]

Watership Down by Richard Adams ***

I first read Watership Down in my early teenage years, and remember loving it. It's position as the Hampshire title in the English Counties Challenge meant a return to it as a rather more 'mature' reader (at least chronologically if not intellectually!), with interesting results!

 

It's a strange one is Watership Down. Superficially it is a children's book, underlined by the fact that it's currently published under the Puffin label (and has won various children's fiction awards): Richard Adams wrote the book at the behest of his children, to whom he had been telling the stories. However, it doesn't read entirely as a children's book - it's long and some of the language and concepts are rather more advanced than one would expect, although that in itself may be the reason behind its success, singularly avoiding patronising his audience.

 

And yet....I was never under the impression that Watership Down was anything but a children's book. Whilst some of it was more advanced than I expected, it never quite developed the depth or subtlety that I would have expected of an adult classic. There was plenty of adventure, plenty of description (Adams's love of the countryside shines through) and an interesting range of characters, but it all felt slightly two-dimensional, all a little bit as if told from a distance. It was hard to put my finger totally on the issue, but whilst I enjoyed the story, I never felt completely engaged. Unputdownable? No, it was not: I was interested to find out what happened (although the ending was never in doubt, so maybe I was more interested in how it happened), but I could have lived without knowing!

 

I did enjoy the way the author developed a distinctly rabbit style approach to life: whilst inevitably anthropomorphising his subjects, we were never in doubt that they were rabbits living in a rabbit culture - even if there were strong human parallels in the differing approaches to warren life. Having said that, I found the diversions into rabbit mythology sufficiently tedious to skim past them to the resumption of the 'real' story, without it affecting my understanding or enjoyment of the main thread.

 

I can see why I loved it on first reading, and can see why it's a children's classic, but revisiting Watership Down, whilst proving an enjoyable excursion, shows exactly why going back to childhood haunts may not be the best move if you want to keep those memories intact. On this occasion that didn't concern me, and I'm glad to have made that excursion, but it's a useful warning! (On the other hand, I'm now dying to visit the sites, all precisely mapped out in the book - the sort of exploration I find absolutely fascinating).

 

Interestingly (at least for me!) this all results in my giving it a 3-star rating: enjoyable but not unputdownable.  Interesting because of the 150+ ratings on Amazon, that's the one grade nobody has given it: masses of 4 and 5 star awards, along with a few 1 and 2 star ratings (most of which I couldn't make huge sense of it has to be said), but nobody middling in their viewpoint.  Is Watership Down a marmite book?  Do people generally love or hate rabbits?  Or does this just go to underline, yet again, how different this book was from the mainstream, whatever may have followed since? Does it, in spite of the efforts from the likes of William Horwood, remain distinctive? I suspect it does.

Edited October 28, 2014 by willoyd

[Athena]

Great review ! It's a shame it wasn't as good as you remembered. I guess that happens sometimes, the books we liked when we were children or teenagers we might not like as much when we're older.

 

I've never read the book, it's on my TBR, though I did see an animated film when I was a child. I don't remember a whole lot from it though.

[willoyd]

It's a shame it wasn't as good as you remembered. I guess that happens sometimes, the books we liked when we were children or teenagers we might not like as much when we're older.

As I said, this didn't bother me. In fact, I had half expected it, and was more interested in seeing whether I thought differently about it or not. If I had been concerned, I wouldn't have dared pick it up again! It would certainly still feature on my list of children's classics, and I've recommended it to a number of more advanced readers at school.

Edited October 29, 2014 by willoyd

[bobblybear]

It's been years since I read Watership Down (I first heard of it because it was mentioned in Stephen King's The Stand), and while I can't remember the details, I do recall enjoying it a lot. It's a book I want to re-read, but at the same time I don't want to be let down if it isn't as good the second time around.  Have you read any other Richard Adams? I struggled a bit through The Plague Dogs, and I still have Shardik on my shelf to be read at some point.

 

I've just looked on my bookshelf, and I have a copy of Watership Down. Funny, but I forgot I had it and thought I'd read a library copy. It's a second hand copy - I've just flicked it open and there's a pink bit of paper with (handwritten) "Hi! Hope this book is enjoyed - Thanks. Regards .....(can't read the name)". It's a pretty ratty copy, but has some nice illustrations at the start of each chapter. Hmm, I may re-read it sooner rather than later.

[willoyd]

It's a book I want to re-read, but at the same time I don't want to be let down if it isn't as good the second time around.  Have you read any other Richard Adams?

No I haven't. TBH if you're concerned about a book not being 'as good' another time round, I wouldn't read it. Personally, it doesn't bother me. I work on the basis that a book is for the time it's read. Another time, a book may well read completely differently, especially if it is aimed at a particular age group. There's no way I would ever expect a book I read as a teenager to read the same as a (mature!) adult. But that doesn't remotely lessen my memory of what it was like at the time I read it.

This can work the other way round: I recently read Lord of the Rings again, having hated it as a young teenager. I didn't love it, but I certainly appreciated it and enjoyed it more, it proving to me that the idea it might have been a 'children's book' was a complete nonsense. Equally, I read David Copperfield all the way through for the first time last year, after several previous abortive attempts. It's now riding high on my favourites list, having at last been in the right place at the right time.

[Ben]

I definitely subscribe to the 'right place, right mood, right time' argument. I abandoned Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment more times than I care to remember even though I was convinced that I would love it if it was given my full attention. Alas, I finally did and it now resides high up on my favourites list.

[willoyd]

I started off the year keeping a track of books acquired.  I've tried to do that for the past three or four, but have never kept it going.  This year has been no exception!  However, I seem to have acquired (I won't say bought, as a few haven't been!) a fair number in the past week or two, so thought I'd record them anyway.  So here's the list for the past fortnight!

 

Fiction

Regeneration, The Eye in the Door and The Ghost Road - Pat Barker

The Matchmaker - Stella Gibbons

The Tortoise and the Hare - Elizabeth Jenkins

The Jewels of Paradise - Donna Leon

The Old Wives' Tale - Arnold Bennett

 

Non-fiction

The Battle - Alessandro Barbero

1415 - Ian Mortimer

The Fears of Henry IV - Ian Mortimer (went to see Henry IV parts 1 and 2 this week, and wanted to find out more!).

Revolutionary Russia 1891-1991 - Orlando Figes

A Vindication of the Rights of Women - Mary Wollstonecraft

Mary Wollstonecraft, A New Genus - Lyndall Gordon

The Unfolding of Language - Guy Deutscher

Modernity Britain - David Kynaston

Fatal Avenue - Richard Holmes

Edited November 2, 2014 by willoyd