Jump to content

Vodkafan's Reading Adventure 2014


vodkafan

Recommended Posts

Tom-All-Alone's          4/5

Lynn Shepherd

 

 

I enjoyed this, it was a light quick read. I especially enjoyed all the references to streets and places in London. I did think that some of the events that were intended to be coincidental were a little contrived. Also not a huge amount of character development in some of the characters, especially the female characters. For these two reasons I could not give it a 5/5. But then afterwards I read the author's note about creating the story in between the Victorian novels of Bleak House and Woman In White with some of the same characters, which I thought was rather clever, so easily worth a 4/5. I wonder what the reason for putting Molly in the story?  She played no part in the plot. I can only imagine that her character meant something to the author and she wanted her in there for her own reasons.   

Edited by vodkafan
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 197
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Glad you enjoyed 'Running with Scissors' VF, I was the same with it, reading away then its like whoa! Such a bizarre family, poor August didn't stand a chance.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Somebody at work just stuffed the Stephen King book 11/22/63 into my hand and said that he couldn't get on with it.....of course the first thing wrong with it is that it should be 22/11/63 :giggle2: 

 

I bought this ages ago, because I am interested in the Kennedy assassination.  I can't seem to get around to it though - I look at it there on my bookshelf, and just keep thinking "maybe later."  SK is a bit hit-and-miss for me - I was disappointed in The Shining, but The Green Mile is one of my all time favourites.  Most of the others that I have read by him I would give about 7 out of 10, so overall that's pretty good, I guess.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I bought this ages ago, because I am interested in the Kennedy assassination.  I can't seem to get around to it though - I look at it there on my bookshelf, and just keep thinking "maybe later."  SK is a bit hit-and-miss for me - I was disappointed in The Shining, but The Green Mile is one of my all time favourites.  Most of the others that I have read by him I would give about 7 out of 10, so overall that's pretty good, I guess.

 

I have started it , about 80 pages in....I think for American readers a lot of the appeal is going to be a nostalgia trip, the lost 50s-60s way of life.. he mentions a lot of products that mean nothing to me so it is hard to get into on that account...I can't get excited about Kennedy but I can understand that a lot of Americans think his assassination was a pivotal moment...I am more interested in the time travel elements..to my disappointment the time travel device is just a portal in a fridge, like a wardrobe into Narnia it is not explained..no points there.  

Edited by vodkafan
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Odd Women       5/5

 

George Gissing

 

I enjoyed the hell out of this novel. For one thing it is set in my favourite part of the Victorian era, the 1880s, when modernity was really changing things. Secondly it is not about the very poor underclass nor the very rich, but the people who inhabited the middle class. Thirdly it is set in London so my happiness is complete.

Being a contemporary novel, the dialogue is just how it was spoken and reading between the lines it is possible to really soak up the feeling of the times; it is an authentically observed slice of life in a way that Tom All Alone's, as good as it was, could only seek to emulate. 

The title  refers to the fact that at this time there was a surplus of 1 million women in the UK over that of men. That meant 1 million women who would never find a husband, when being married was the only acceptable way to financial security and a respectable social standing.

The novel weaves a story around a good varied cross section of these "odd women" who were left over.

I think the different positions and options of the women were well thought out.

 

The first ones we meet are the respectable six Madden sisters, daughters of a moderately prosperous  country doctor; their prospects are suddenly cut down when he dies without any insurance. By the second chapter ten years later shockingly three of the sisters are already dead. Two of them begin to live together in near poverty. Their only hope is that their youngest sister Monica being the most attractive and still in reasonable health can find a husband,  which will save them all.

The scenes in which the elder spinsters try to budget their meagre resources and where Victoria has to walk five miles across town but doesn't have the energy as she hasn't eaten are very well written.

 Another avenue is through a friend  Rhoda Nunn. She and her older friend Miss Barfoot run an establishment training respectable girls to be secretaries and pharmacists (both male dominated professions). Rhoda in particular is a zealot for the cause of single women. She is vehemently anti marriage and mostly anti men. Rhoda agrees to take on Monica as a student. The other Madden sisters she considers weak useless creatures beyond help.

 This comes just in time for Monica , who is working as virtual slave labour in a draper's shop 7 days a week, which is slowly wrecking her health. She joins Miss Barfoots's school but is afraid of Rhoda Nunn, who she feels will turn against her if she doesn't live up to her high principles.

 Monica leaves the school after only a few weeks to get married to an older man Widdowson whom she does not love, but who has been stalking her. Uncharacteristically Rhoda Nunn comes to  the wedding. We see another side to Rhoda; she is so violently against marriage mainly because nobody has ever been in love with her and asked her.

We meet a couple of other "odd women". Millie Vesper, one of Rhoda's best students, and Miss Cosgrove , an older lady with money  who does her best to act as a matchmaker for young girls who come into her orbit. Rhoda and Miss Cosgrove represent opposing solutions to the same problem. Rhoda considers Miss Cosgrove's house to be a "dating agency."

 Everard Barfoot, Miss Barfoot's cousin enters the story. While Widdowson represents an old fashioned male of conservative ideas, Barfoot is young and flexible of mind.  He has been out of the country because of a scandal he was involved in. He is considered a cad and a bounder but in actual fact  he has  quite a lot of integrity and had been wrongly accused but never bothered to defend himself. 

Barfoot sees Rhoda as a tough challenge which he decides to crack; he will get her to fall in love with him just to see if he can. Rhoda, who is very intelligent, decides to make Barfoot fall in love with her  just so that she can have the satisfaction of rejecting him.

Quite a lot of the novel is now about the maneoverings of these two. Pretty soon the game starts to be for real as they do both start to fall in love with each other. The stakes are now high for them both.

In the meantime Monica realises she has made a terrible mistake. Widdowson is incredibly jealous and tries to keep her a prisoner. He has fixed ideas  of a women's place . Monica feels stifled. She tries her best to reason with Widdowson and for a brief time he sees the possibility of men and women being equal partners; but soon he reverts to jealousy again and follows his wife when she goes out. 

She starts to hate Widdowson and in desperation pins her chance of escape on a man called Bevis who has flirted with her.

Monica goes to Bevis's lodgings, where by coincidence Barfoot also lives.   She is being followed by a private detective and knocks on Barfoot's door to mislead any watcher, as she knows that Barfoot is not there. This leads to unfortunate consequences as  Widdowson believes his wife to be having an affair with Barfoot. 

 Barfoot has in the meantime proposed marriage to Rhoda Nunn. Rhoda has the victory she wanted but she is not unmoved by Barfoot. However a letter comes from Miss Barfoot detailing the accusations against him regarding Mrs Widdowson. Rhoda  and Barfoot part company in a stalemate of mistrusted motives.

Barfoot goes off to Europe.

Monica is left in the lurch by Bevis. Their affair was only ever one kiss but Monica's reputation is now ruined. She ironically finds that she is pregnant with Widdowson's baby  but she wants to die. She is living with her sister Victoria who unbeknown to anybody is now a secret gin drinker. Life as an odd woman got too much for her.

The only person who Monica wants to see is Rhoda Nunn, who eventually does go to visit her. Monica asks her forgiveness and tells her the full story. Rhoda realises that Barfoot was innocent .  Not only that but she has softened her own  position quite a bit. She tells Monica that she must be strong for the baby's sake and that she is not a failure to her gender in her eyes at all if she does that. 

Monica comes to an agreement with Widdowson  that she will live apart from him till the baby is born. Widdowson provides a house for the three sisters. The baby is born but Monica dies a couple of days later. Widdowson will provide for the baby as long as the two remaining Madden sisters bring it up. 

Barfoot returns to England and proposes marriage once again to Rhoda, unconditionally. But Rhoda now sees her duty as being an example to all the other odd women who need her and has lost interest in Barfoot.  

Barfoot goes off and marries someone else more conventional. At the end of the story Rhoda Nunn visits the baby and we get the feeling that she will be involved in the baby's life. 

 

Edited by vodkafan
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Odd Women sounds right up my street, i love books set in Victorian times & so i went on to Amazon to check it out & it has the exact same cover as my copy of The Old Wives Tale by Arnold Bennett. I've never seen that before two different books with the same cover...... Anyway it's gone on my wishlist  :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Odd Women sounds right up my street, i love books set in Victorian times & so i went on to Amazon to check it out & it has the exact same cover as my copy of The Old Wives Tale by Arnold Bennett. I've never seen that before two different books with the same cover...... Anyway it's gone on my wishlist  :D

 

Do you have a kindle Kidsmum? All the Victorian books are free on kindle. I am always turning up new (old) authors which is quite exciting.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

James

That sounds very good . Did you read it for research or pleasure or both ? Sounds like an interesting "group" of ladies .

Hi Julie, I started off reading it for research without realising how good it would be. The men are also interesting though. Widdowson  just can't change and makes himself miserable because of it.  Barfoot wants Rhoda and is prepared for unconventionality in his life  but in the end she is too much hard work. Bevis is selfish and weak.

Edited by vodkafan
Link to comment
Share on other sites

James

It does sound interesting. I was just guessing that it focused mainly on the ladies, from the title. It sounds like the men were quite the characters too !

 You're right on the Victorian Kindle books. There are lots of them on our amazon site about Victorian life . I think of you when I see them , since you are reading up on them for research purposes ..

How goes the writing, still keeping on task with it ?

Edited by julie
Link to comment
Share on other sites

James

It does sound interesting. I was just guessing that it focused mainly on the ladies, from the title. It sounds like the men were quite the characters too !

 You're right on the Victorian Kindle books. There are lots of them on our amazon site about Victorian life . I think of you when I see them , since you are reading up on them for research purposes ..

How goes the writing, still keeping on task with it ?

 

I feel a bit ill so no writing this week but maybe catch up tomorrow.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Notes From A Small Island      3/5

 

Bill Bryson

 

I enjoyed this, there was a lot of truth in his observations about British people. I chuckled to myself many times. But disappointingly he did not go anywhere near the Midlands. When I was drawing near the end of the book and I realised he wasn't going to go there at all I lost a little bit of interest.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Do you have a kindle Kidsmum? All the Victorian books are free on kindle. I am always turning up new (old) authors which is quite exciting.

I've just bought The Old Wives Tale on the back of that information!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Do you have a kindle Kidsmum? All the Victorian books are free on kindle. I am always turning up new (old) authors which is quite exciting.

 

No i don't have a kindle but if i was ever going to consider getting one, that would be what would tempt me...... perhaps if i ever get my TBR mountain of treebooks down to more manageable proportions  ;)

 

I've just bought The Old Wives Tale on the back of that information!

 

There'll be no stopping you now Alexi, you'll have a kindle chock full of Victorian literature  :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

No i don't have a kindle but if i was ever going to consider getting one, that would be what would tempt me...... perhaps if i ever get my TBR mountain of treebooks down to more manageable proportions  ;)

 

 

 

 Hi Kidsmum I know I am going to sound like an advertisement for Amazon here but when I realised the number of free classic books that were available the bargain of the initial outlay of buying a kindle becomes staggering...although mine was a present, if I had bought it for myself it would already have paid for itself 50 times over..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

I just finished Capital by Maureen Duffy. Will write review later.

 

 

Looking forward to this, as read and reviewed it last year.

 

 

As will I, James. 

 

Willoyd, I just read your review linked above.  Good review, looks very interesting. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Good for you Alexi! Who wrote that one?

Arnold Bennett.  I think Kidsmum mentioned it further up your thread.

 

I like your review of The Odd Women.  I think I'll go and download it.  :)

 

ETA:  According to Amazon I downloaded it on 30 Sep 2012!  :lol:

Edited by Janet
Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

I like your review of The Odd Women.  I think I'll go and download it.  :)

 

ETA:  According to Amazon I downloaded it on 30 Sep 2012!  :lol:

 

 

Haha that's funny! We don't don't even know what books we got! I am the same.  :giggle2:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Capital               4/5

 

Maureen Duffy

 

This is a satisfying little Cadbury's Cream Egg of a book!  I enjoyed it a lot. When it was written it was a bit experimental. Where to start? OK, I will start with Emery. He is a lecturer at Queen's College in London, part of the academic establishment, safe in his knowledge of the 18th Century, where history is well known , cut and dried.  We know him through the long, rather stuffy letters he writes to his wife (or girlfriend) who has gone away for the summer. He is jolted out of his boring steady existence by the appearance of Meepers.

Meepers is an elderly man who served in the war and spent time in a German prison camp. He was wounded and now has a metal plate in his head which means he doesn't feel emotions like normal people any more; but instead he can see ghosts, all the countless dead of London through the ages. He becomes a self taught expert on the Dark Ages and feels that his mission is to write the history of these long dead ghosts. (It is not really clear if they talk to him or he is just aware of them pressing on him wherever he goes in the city: I prefer the latter) . Meepers writes a paper and submits it to Emery, who rejects it without reading it; he is contemptuous of Dark Age history as it is too speculative and cannot be proven.  He dismisses Meepers as a crackpot. This encounter happens before the action in the book starts. 

 

There are some other incidental characters in the story, but the other main character is London itself. I really really like the way the author tells the story of some of the inhabitants  of  times past, but relates them moving through modern day places; for instance the prehistoric family walking up Oxford Street and through Hyde Park; as if all the times all exist at once. This gives us a sense of what Meepers sees. (it very much helped that I had read Sir Walter Besant's History of London before this-it is possible to visualise the great ancient Middlesex Forest stretching Northwards away from the river, and the mentions of the Lea and Fleet rivers)

 

Meepers infiltrates some of Emery's lectures as a student, which shocks Emery and frightens him not a little.  He doesn't know what Meepers wants. In fact Meepers has a half-baked plan to use the University's computer to feed in all his knowledge, but he does not know how. He is living like a hermit about the city in abandoned buildings and garden sheds, living off the city and his wits like the old soldier he is. That is another little stroke of genius; he is like a ghost himself.

 But then something happens which forces the two together and they become near-friends, or at least not enemies. This part is written really well in my opinion; it gives both the characters much dignity. Up to this point, although I liked Meepers I didn't like Emery at all; he is pompous and small minded. After this I liked him a lot more. But what they have in common is that they both love the city and are worried that its soul is being lost in modernity. Emery decides to help Meepers. But Meepers also becomes a catalyst for Emery, who decides to change his life. I won't say what happens to Meepers, you must read it for yourself.

Edited by vodkafan
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've done that quite a few times, buy a book I already had, particularly when the cover has changed so I don't recognise it as much. If I've read it I might recognise the synopsis but if the book's on the TBR then it gets harder. I'm usually good at guessing if I have something, but it's happened several times that I bought a paperbook I already had, or that I was given a gift book that I already had.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.


×
×
  • Create New...