Willoyd's Reading 2015

[willoyd]

Ilkley Literature Festival part 3
 
A whole fistful of events in the past few days, finishing off tonight

Jane Smiley in conversation
For me, Jane Smiley was one of the biggest names at this year's festival, but it seems that American writers, however big, just don't pull in the crowds. Like Richard Ford a couple of years ago, this was in one of the smaller venues, at the Ilkley Playhouse (which is also, IMO the best venue too) and, even then, wasn't full.  Never mind - this proved an interesting session ranging beyond her latest book, which is what she was surely there to promote, in front of a reasonably appreciative audience, even if the Q&A session at the end stuttered a little.  TBH, I found her a little bit daunting.

Rob Cowen on his book Uncommon Ground
Uncommon Ground is centred on an area of land on the north-east edge of Harrogate, only a few miles from here, and one with which I'm very familiar, so I was really looking forward to this.  In the event, whilst it was a good introduction to the book, and interesting enough, I go to these events to listen to the author speak, discuss, converse.  I'm not a fan of readings - that just strikes me as unnecessary duplication of what I have either just or am about to read, and this 'talk' was essentially a series of readings linked together.  When talking he was very interesting, but like most authors, he wasn't the most engaging of readers even of his own material, and I kept drifting off during these passages, i.e. for most of the session.  OH was more engaged, so maybe it's just me, but whilst this was very slick and professional, as an event it did little for me.  The book promises much more though!
 
Peter and Dan Snow on the Battle of Waterloo
Held in the King's Hall, the largest venue for the festival, this was a sell-out, and rightly so.  I'm a bit of a Waterloo geek, so the story wasn't exactly new, but the Snows told it with verve (and no notes), keeping the audience gripped for a full hour, with Dan telling the story from the Allied point of view, counterpointed by his father's adoption of the French.  They got the balance exactly right too between detail and the greater picture.  In fact, this was one of the best ILF events I can recall having attended over the past few years.  I also liked the format: an hour's talk, interval for signings, and then 45 mins for Q&A, which, whilst majoring on Waterloo, ranged across the careers of both father and son (the swingometer included!).  A goodly evening's entertainment and, whilst I didn't learn much new, I particularly enjoyed hearing their perspective on a battle that has attracted perhaps as wide a range of opinions as any battle in military history. 

 

Alexandra Harris on her new book Weatherland

Although this is her third appearance at the festival and I'm a bit of a fan, this was in fact the first time I've seen her speak.  She is certainly passionate about her subject, speaking with huge energy and enthusiasm.  Both subject and talk were fascinating.  Just a pity that the session was hosted by the one regular host neither I nor OH can abide given her unnecessary but prominent interventions.  Even so, I didn't let that get in the way of buying the book!

 

Simon Schama on his book and TV series The Face of Britain

The man is pure story teller!  Whilst not exactly the most concise or efficient of speakers, Schama is an absolute joy to listen to if you are prepared to go with the flow.  Dickensian in the way he allows a simple answer or statement develop layer upon layer into an all-enveloping narrative.  He's not one for breaks either, one idea naturally flowing into another without pause.  The energy of his story-telling was only matched by his restlessness on stage!  I could have listened to him all night, and was so disappointed when the hour was up.  Now I've seen him at the festival, I'll start watching the series, a pleasure that I'd postponed until after the festival.

 

That was the closing event for the festival.  Looking back, I think it's been the best festival yet.  It's also quite scary how many books I've acquired over the past fortnight - I'll have to start reading some of the now!

 

[woolf woolf]

I'm a fan of Simon Schama's Power of Art and A History of Britain tv series. His books could be interesting as well. I'd like to be in that Waterloo event.

Edited October 19, 2015 by woolf woolf

[willoyd]

Book buying

October is always a big month for acquiring books, what with birthday (I did really well on book tokens this year!!) and the local literature festival, and this year is no different, made even bigger by the fact that I seem to have acquired quite a few Waterstones stamp cards which, when put together, have given quite a few pounds off the various bills.  Even so, it's a bit scary when put all together, especially as I've a humungous backlist that I should be working through, but I'm aiming for this to be the last big (huge!) splurge for a while (I really, really do!).  It's been mostly non-fiction - my tastes do seem to be swinging that way:

 

A Message from Martha - Mark Avery

Inglorious - Mark Avery

SPQR - Mary Beard

The Railways: Nation, Network and People - Simon Bradbury

Claxton - Mark Cocker

Common Ground - Rob Cowen

The Strangest Family - Janice Hadlow

Charlotte Bronte - Claire Harman

Weatherland - Alexandra Harrison

Tom Brown's Schooldays - Thomas Hughes

The Sleepwalkers - Arthur Koestler

Honourable Friends? - Caroline Lucas

Prisoners of Geography - Tim Marshall

The Sense of Style - Steven Pinker

The Face of Britain - Simon Schama

Golden Age - Jane Smiley

 

and another list to possibly add to the challenges (based on the series in The Guardian)! -

The Hundred Best Novels - Robert McCrum

Edited October 24, 2015 by willoyd

[chesilbeach]

I've picked up Claxton by Mark Cocker a few times in the bookshop (including this morning), but can't decide whether to get it for myself, or buy as a present for my OH for Christmas and then just read it after him.  I've become quite keen on books including nature whether fiction or non-fiction at the moment, and this one looks good.

[willoyd]

I'm a bit of a fan of Mark Cocker's writing.  His book Crow Country is possibly my favourite natural history book, and Birds Britannica, which he co-wrote with another great nature writer, Richard Mabey, is one of my standard go-tos when reading up on birds.  He was equally good in the flesh when I went to a talk of his at the Ilkley Literature Festival a couple of years ago. 

 

A fair bit of Crow Country was set in the same part of the country as Claxton.  I vaguely know the area, but no more.  I feel I know it much better having read his work.  So buying this for me was a no-brainer.  Waiting for it to come out in paperback was the hard bit!

[willoyd]

Lisa Jardine
Desperately sad to hear and read this morning of the death of Lisa Jardine.  She was one of the greats in my view: a superb writer and broadcaster, whose enthusiasm ,intelligence and clear thinking shone through everything she wrote or said.  I absolutely adored her contributions to 'A Point of View' (some of which have been published in two volumes), whilst her writing was a model of non-fiction writing.  One of the few writers who I really wish I'd known.  She had so much more to give too.

[Athena]

I hope you enjoy your new books . Happy belated birthday!

 

R.I.P. Lisa Jardine, it's always sad when an author dies .

[willoyd]

Have got a bit behind with the reviews, so a few short ones over the next few posts to try and catch up.  The first three:

 

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by Simon Armitage *****

A short but wonderfully lyrical read.  I can't compare Simon Armitage's translation with the original, so cannot comment on it's accuracy, but as a piece of work in its own right, it has the near perfect combination of the feel of a traditional story with the best of modern language.  Although thoroughly enjoyable as a silent read, the unobtrusively rhythmic nature of Armitage's writing almost demanded to be read aloud.  One of a collection of translations, including Seamus Heaney's Beowulf and Ted Hughes's Tales from Ovid, that I will continue to revisit.

 

The Ghost Road by Pat Barker ***

After the intensity of the first two books in the Regeneration trilogy, this proved somewhat of a disappointment, lacking as it did the same focus.  To my mind, one of the strengths of these earlier books was their take on the war from a more distant remove.  In The Ghost Road, there is a shift back to the front, at which point the narrative seems to lose something of its power, and takes on a rather more conventional mantle, although contrasting parallel scenes between home and war front did help to recover some of that original strength of purpose.  For me, though, the diversions into Rivers's anthropological experiences were an unwelcome distraction, of which I was probably not a sufficiently astute enough reader to appreciate the point. Seems to me ironic that this was the book that earned the Booker - I wonder if it was rather more for the serious than the individual volume.  All in all, after the outstanding Regeneration, the trilogy slowly but surely fell away to a still good level, but just not in comparison with what went before.

 

Shackelton's Boat Journey by Frank Worsley *****

Told in deceptively straightforward language, this first hand account of the incredible journey of the James Caird and its crew, coupled with their overland traverse of South Georgia, accumulates a strength as it rolls along that just carries the reader away.  It's only when one sits back to take a breath does the full impact of what these men achieved really hit home.  I took a bit of warming to Worsley's style of writing, just a bit too spare and standing back for my twenty-first century taste in places, but by the end I was absolutely gripped even though familiar with the story from the likes of Roland Huntford's biography of Shackelton (itself an outstanding read).  There is a particular poignancy to the story when one learns of the fate of these survivors, many carried away by the war that had broken out and intensified as they were stranded in the Antarctica - to survive all that and then return to such mayhem just underlies some of the irony in the word 'civilisation'. In the meantime, this slim volume is a 'must read' for anybody with any interest in polar exploration, or indeed, what people can achieve even under the most extreme of conditions. It's a phenomenal story!

Edited November 7, 2015 by willoyd

[willoyd]

The Magnetic North by Sara Wheeler ***** (out of 6)

Wheeler's earlier book on Antarctica, Terra Incognita, remains a firm favourite in the memory, although, because I read it before writing on-line reviews, I can't remember why, other than it was well written and about a part of the planet I find absolutely fascinating (cue a reread?). I thus approached this volume on the opposite end of Earth with some anticipation. I wasn't disappointed.

Sara Wheeler is not a fussy writer. Indeed, her prose is very straightforward; she does not tend to the lyrical. However, she still manages to capture a spirit that is thoroughly engaging. The book is made up of a series of chapters in different Arctic locations, travelling from eastern Russia anti-clockwise round the globe, eventually landing up back in Russia, in the west (these two chapters, if nothing else, underline the enormity of space occupied by this huge country. I just hadn't realised quite how far it was from Moscow to the eastern tip on the Bering Strait - it's humungous!). She visits at least one place in each different area, and her interest seems to be largely on the local - usualy native - population, and the impact outsiders, especially the national governments covering these areas, have. And the impact is not good!!

Any one chapter on its own might not dismay one too much (althoug they do me!), but cumulatlvely, the book is a scathing indictment of what 'we' (i.e. 'civilised' man) are doiing to our planet. At the same time, we get to meet a range of people living in some of the most inhospitable environments known to man - Wheeler doesn't lose sight of the fact that whilst she has an agenda, this is still a travel book. The result is a fascinating companion to her previous book, where, of course, there is no native population; indeed, no permanent population at all. Shrough these vignettes, we acquire a real insight into a world that most of us are unlikely to ever encounter first hand, although, having been just inside the Arctic Circle twice in my life, it's a part of the planet I'm dying to visit again (although not those parts where she describes the incredible insect population - I had enough of that in Iceland!).

This week is the first of the Leeds International Film Festival, and one of the main threads is on the Arctic. Tomorrow night, I'm off to see a Russian film, How I Ended This Summer, preceded by a talk by Sara Wheeler herself - I am so looking forward to this. One of the later films this week is entitled Qallunaat, Why White People Are So Funny, a reverse anthropological film, where an Inuit camera is pointed at the lifestyles of white people. Should be interesting, it's meant to be quite funny, and could be rather unnerving! There's quite a bit more = I'm out most evenings - and it already seems that The Magnetic North was rather a good (if accidental) choice to preface it.


 

Edited November 8, 2015 by willoyd

[willoyd]

Tomorrow night, I'm off to see a Russian film, How I Ended This Summer, preceded by a talk by Sara Wheeler herself - I am so looking forward to this.

Well, that was interesting. Went to the talk tonight with OH. We left before the film (which I've ordered as a DVD), having sat through one of the worst presentations I've ever had the misfortune to witness. Sara Wheeler is undoubtedly an excellent writer, indeed one of my favourite travel writers. On this evidence, she should stick very firmly to that- her talk was so poor as to be embarrassing: long pauses mid-sentence and between sentences, sentences drifting off unfinished, random comments and points, almost as if she was remembering parts of her book off-hand, constant jumping backwards and forwards between topics and themes. TBH, we were worried that she was ill it was so disjointed (and my apologies if she was, but there was no indication given). Anyway, we decided that we'd take in the film another night, and headed home fairly promptly afterwards. It was all rather odd.

 

[willoyd]

The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer ****** (out of 6)
One of the books I needed to read as part of a challenge I'm tackling this year, was "a book your mum loved". This was easy: it had to be one of the Georgette Heyer Regency stories, or, failing that, one of Ellis Peters's Brother Cadfael series. Both were book series that my mother ripped through when I was younger, and which she continues to recall enjoying, even when she cannot read as much as she used to.

I read pretty much all the Heyer Regency novels in my teens. Unusual for a teenage boy perhaps, but I loved them for their history (the Regency is my favourite period of history) and for their sheer fun. However, I've not read any since then, so this seemed like a good excuse to renew my acquaintance with them. Whilst they had all largely merged into a general memory of enjoyed books, a few novel titles still stand out, with The Grand Sophy perhaps the most prominent. With the challenge in mind, I decided to reread it.

The result was one of the most 'fun' reads I've had in ages. Plot, characters, historical setting - they all contributed equally. Sophy is a feisty, self-reliant, postive individual, who has the habit of taking life by the scruff of the neck and shaping into a form she feels worthwhile. Everybody is left trailing in her wake as she breaks all the soclal rules expected of young Regency ladies. Completely unputdownable!

What I love about Heyer's 'romances' is that they are, largely, not really romances at all, just good stories, which usually have a 'get-together' right on the last page (literally, in this case). In the meantime, the heros/heroines get up to all sorts of escapades, all contributing to a narrative that doesn't stop, whilst at the same time, sticking firmly to available history, a history which is uncannily credible. This was a brilliantly enjoyable reintroduction to Heyer's novels - it may not be 'great' literature, but it's certainly going on my favourites list!
 

Edited December 1, 2015 by willoyd

[Alexi]

Well, that was interesting. Went to the talk tonight with OH. We left before the film (which I've ordered as a DVD), having sat through one of the worst presentations I've ever had the misfortune to witness. Sara Wheeler is undoubtedly an excellent writer, indeed one of my favourite travel writers. On this evidence, she should stick very firmly to that- her talk was so poor as to be embarrassing: long pauses mid-sentence and between sentences, sentences drifting off unfinished, random comments and points, almost as if she was remembering parts of her book off-hand, constant jumping backwards and forwards between topics and themes. TBH, we were worried that she was ill it was so disjointed (and my apologies if she was, but there was no indication given). Anyway, we decided that we'd take in the film another night, and headed home fairly promptly afterwards. It was all rather odd.

 

Oh dear I get heartily embarrassed watching poor public speaking from people I dislike or have no feeling at all for, never mind those whose writing I have enjoyed and have high hopes for.

 

At least her writing stands up to close scrutiny - and I've added her book to my wishlist.

[frankie]

I hate public speaking, I get so nervous about it. Unfortunately authors have to do their share of public speaking in order to promote their book. How else would anyone know about their book? Sara Wheeler might love nothing better than to stay at home and write but what's she to do if her book people are making her do public appearances

Edited November 10, 2015 by frankie

[willoyd]

I hate public speaking, I get so nervous about it. Unfortunately authors have to do their share of public speaking in order to promote their book. How else would anyone know about their book? Sara Wheeler might love nothing better than to stay at home and write but what's she to do if her book people are making her do public appearances

 

I understand that!  I used to hate it too, even though I landed up earning my living standing up in front of large groups of people and delivering!  In this case, it wasn't anything to do with promoting a book: it was a talk as part of a series of events this week centred on Arctic development, mostly to a group of academics.  it was also included in the Leeds Film Festival programme, as it included the film.

[Athena]

I really don't like public speaking either. I've done it many times at university and also at school, but I'm not a fan at all. It's a shame the talk you went to wasn't very good . I guess not everyone has the skills (I don't).

[willoyd]

The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall ** (out of 6)

This, in all honesty, is not the sort of book I'd normally read. The genre isn't of particular interest, and, aside from Virginia Woolf, there are few, if any, writers from this period whom I have tried and enjoyed. I'd picked this up, partly because it's on the English Counties list, and partly because it satisfied the criteria for one of the options in another challenge I'm doing, having been a 'banned book'. But the auguries weren't that positive.

 

Having said that, things got off to a good start, and I fairly cantered through the first hundred or so pages. However, gradually, I found myself grinding down slower and slower until, at around two-thirds of the way through I came to an abrupt halt. I really couldn't bring myself to go any further, so skipped to the last twenty of so pages to tie up the loose ends, and then called it a day, with some relief.

 

Why? Well it came down to one simple fact: this book is one of unremitting gloom. Nothing, but nothing, goes right for the heroine Stephen Morton (yes, Stephen is a girl). Even when it seems to be going right, it eventually turns out all wrong. It is one of the most miserable, depressing, books I've ever tried reading.

 

I don't think it helps in the way that Stephen's affairs are portrayed. This is meant to be one of the great lesbian novels, but Hall, a lesbian herself, whilst drawing her main character sympathetically enough, seems to regard Stephen's affairs as highly destructive, containing little in the way of mutual regard and care - everybody seems to come out of these relationships damaged in some way. Indeed, both Stephen's lovers seem to be more interested in men in the long term. Rather than giving lesbianism a chance to breathe, see the light of day, and be seen as a legitimate form of relationship, Hall appears to be trying to portray it as a completely negative experience. Maybe this was true of the 1920s, and that is what is trying to be said, but it seems a funny way of going about things.

 

But then, the further I got into the book, the more I found this book dragging too. It's over 450 pages long, and everything takes forever to develop (although the pace might have picked up in the last hundred or so - I jumped from p. 300 to 420+). I do worry at finishing a book early, but I have to say that whilst there was little about this novel that I positively disliked, I've felt nothing but relief since leaving it behind and moving on. There's more to life than being asked to wallow in someone else's unremitting misery - or at least life's too short.

Edited November 10, 2015 by willoyd

[Alexi]

Oh dear, this does not sound at all promising! I might leave that one to the end of the ECC list...

[frankie]

I understand that!  I used to hate it too, even though I landed up earning my living standing up in front of large groups of people and delivering!  In this case, it wasn't anything to do with promoting a book: it was a talk as part of a series of events this week centred on Arctic development, mostly to a group of academics.  it was also included in the Leeds Film Festival programme, as it included the film.

 

Okay, so it wasn't to promote her book. But maybe she was commissioned to talk about the whole thing if she's written something on the subject? That would still be part of her job and she might not have a choice but to agree to do it. Which was my point all along: giving speeches and having to stand in front of a live audience is something writers have to do, whether they like it or not. 

[willoyd]

Okay, so it wasn't to promote her book. But maybe she was commissioned to talk about the whole thing if she's written something on the subject? That would still be part of her job and she might not have a choice but to agree to do it. Which was my point all along: giving speeches and having to stand in front of a live audience is something writers have to do, whether they like it or not.

I can only agree with you - whatever the job, there are always aspects one is strong and, and not so strong at, bits one likes, and bits one definitely does not like (for me, as a teacher, it's all the ridiculous admin and dealing with the constant demand for evidence, which I'm neither good at, nor very tolerant of!). This was obviously a part which was not her strength, and probably not a bit she liked. It was still unfortunate as to how poor it was, and really made us both wonder whether everything was alright (e.g. illness). Genuinely, if one of my children at school (9-10 years) had done a presentation like that, I'd have been working with them afterwards to improve it asap. Makes no difference to my appreciation of her books, it was just so noteable and such a surprise.

[Timstar]

Shame you didn't like it, I have it on my TBR pile as I thought it would be something different. There is certainly a right time and wrong time for gloomy, depressing books.

[willoyd]

The News from Waterloo by Brian Cathcart *** (out of 6)

Inevitably, there has been a fair plethora of books on Waterloo published in the past year or so, some straightforward accounts of the campaign, some trying to develop a different perspective. Brian Cathcart's reasonably slim volume (at least as history books seem to go) is one of several that examines the aftermath of one of the bloodiest battles in British history (closely rivalling the first day of the Somme) - for instance, see earlier on this year for my review of Waterloo - the Aftermath.

 

This is an easy read, very much in the realms of popular history, but no less well researched for that. The author focuses on the story of how the news of Waterloo was transmitted back to Britain. In the twenty-first century this might seem a bit of a nonsense, especially given the fact that the battle was fought barely ninety miles from the Belgian Channel ports, but in an era of horses, wind-driven ships and budget cuts (meaning that the signal telegraph system had been pared back since the first political demise of Napoleon, and showing that somethings don't change!) it actually took three days to make the journey to London, leaving plenty of time for false and misleading alternatives to raise speculation to fever pitch; The News from Waterloo covers them all and tells an entertaining tale of how the story finally broke. On the way, Cathcart also sweeps away at least one popular myth that has been accepted into mainstream history and quoted by various authorities, that of of Lord Rothschild's stock market coup supposedly based on his success at getting the news before anyone else. According to Cathcart, this simply didn't happen - a pity, as it does make a good tale!

 

There is little not to like here: it's very readable, there is much interesting detail not only about the journey of the news itself, but about much related to the story, such as the development of and rivalries between the various newspapers of the time, contemporary society and politics, and it does seem that the author does actually seem to have found a genuinely different take on one of the most heavily documented military events in British history. To that extent, the book succeeds well. However, for me, these asides and peripheral detail insistently nudged me, leaving a distinct taste of a book overreaching itself a mite. I never quite lost the feeling that this was an extended magazine article that had been puffed up into something bigger. However interesting the asides (and many were), the fact was that the main story for me just didn't warrant a whole book. As a result, the asides and lateral stories seemed to dominate, and the central thread of Major Percy's journey kept being buried for some time, only to find itself resurrected a few hours in history and quite a few pages of the book later. Stripped down to half its length, this would have been a leaner, more intense and ultimately more rewarding book. As it stands, even as short as it is, The News from Waterloo, whilst providing some thoroughly enjoyable moments, ultimately didn't quite satisfy to the extent expected.

Edited November 25, 2015 by willoyd

[willoyd]

The Magic Toyshop by Angela Carter **** (out of 6)

I've been meaning to read an Angela Carter novel for some time, convinced, from reviews and extracts, that her style of writing would be very much my thing, but, as with so much in life, have singularly failed to get around to it. At least with this, I got there eventually!

 

And I'm glad I did. The Magic Toyshop is an early novel of Carter's, her second (after Shadow Dance, and a slim one at that, but it exudes confidence in its writing. Right from the off, where the book's heroine, fifteen-year old Melanie, is in the midst of sexual self-exploration and growing awareness, we are absorbed into a deeply Gothic world, where nothing feels quite normal. Indeed, I was convinced that at any moment, there really would be magic, but in fact there never is. Rather, this is very much the 'normal' world, if a somewhat distorted view of it with none of the characters nor events turning out quite the way one would expect if things really were normal, not least when tragedy (taken very much in one's stride) leads to Melanie and her two younger siblings leaving their childhood home, and going to live in a run-down but successful toyshop in London with their tyrannical Uncle Philip (obsessive about the puppets he makes) and mute Aunt Margaret, who communicates with everybody via chalkboard.

 

The story is very much a bildungsroman, with a distinct streak of black running through it, and a strong thread on the perils of women in a male dominated world. Bereft of any real adult guidance, Melanie has to make her own way, beset with a family populated by some rather threatening, but not frightening (at least to the reader), men: you always feel as if their world is going to crumble about them and leave the women standing, even if events don't turn out quite so straightforwardly.

 

As a novel, this wasn't quite unputdownable, but it was close, and certainly kept me wanting to know what happened next. What did captivate me was Carter's style of writing, with her intensely rich descriptions and characters, including more in one page than many writers do in half a dozen. I actually find these harder to drag myself away from than the plot, which seemed to rush to a conclusion a bit. It wasn't weak, but not one that I would have read a book for on its own. However, given a plot to match, I think another couple of stars would be more than likely. It's certainly left me really up for books like Night at the Circus and Wise Children.

Edited December 3, 2015 by willoyd

[willoyd]

Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas ****** (out of 6)

This was a reread, partly because I needed to read a play for one of my challenges, and partly because I hadn't read what is one of my favourite poems/plays (no, strike that and replace with: what is my favourite play) for some time, i.e. a long time!

 

And there's not much to say really, other than it is absolutely sublime. I first encountered UMW on the radio, with the incredible Richard Burton as First Voice; suffice to say that it's comfortably one of my Desert Island Discs, and very possibly the one that I would save if allowed only one. Reading it, I couldn't get Burton's voice out of my head, which is no bad thing really as he is the voice of UMW. And to put no finer words on it, those opening lines have to be amongst the greatest writing in the English language:

 

To begin at the beginning:

It is spring, moonless night in the small town, starless and bible-black, the cobblestreets silent and the hunched, courters'-and-rabbits' wood limping invisible down to the sloeblack, slow, black, crowblack, fishingboat-bobbing sea. The houses are blind as moles (though moles see fine to-night in the snouting, velvet dingles) or blind as Captain Cat there in the muffled middle by the pump and the town clock, the shops in mourning, the Welfare Hall in widows' weeds.

 

And so it goes on...line after line of sheer genius, in turns funny, sad, full of human insight. It was his last work, Thomas collapsing and dying only days after delivering his script to the BBC (although he had undertaken a number of public readings before this), and it was broadcast a couple of months after his death. Could he have ever written anything better? Only if you think it is possible to do so. For me, it isn't.

Edited December 14, 2015 by willoyd

[willoyd]

The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul by Deborah Rodriguez * (out of 6)

 

A bit of a contrast this: from the highest to the lowest rating in one fell swoop. I don't think I've managed that before.

 

I only came to read TLCOK as it was a book group selection: this is not my sort of genre by choice, so there was already a wee bit of a challenge built into this month's reading.  However, that's the fun of book groups, reading books that you might not otherwise choose, so I happily settled down to read our December selection. Within minutes, though, I was starting to get that sinking feeling that tends to accompany the realisation that here was a book that I felt obliged to read, but that I just knew was not going provide an awful lot of reward. That feeling was all too accurate!

 

It didn't help that, in spite of being set in Afghanistan (surprise, surprise!), Aghans really only played a subsidiary role. The main characters were dominated by ex-pat Americans (plus the odd Brit), all do-gooding in Afghanistan, providing succour and aid to the poor, helpless natives, whilst working through their own personal problems.  The characters themselves were universally paper-thin, and heavily stereotyped. Oh dear. The writing wasn't up to much either. We had been warned about this: Rodriguez makes it clear that she does not claim to be a writer (yet this is her second book), and that is soon confirmed - we didn't need telling! It equally rapidly became obvious as well that the plot was going to follow a very predictable route, one that was borne out in practice, although I was surprised at how swiftly and easily some characters changed their minds to fit neatly into the desired ending.

 

All in all, this was one of the weakest reads I've undertaken this year. Indeed, it's only the utterly crass Divergent that makes this probably not a full-blooded contender for Duffer of the Year. I'm just relieved that, when we came to discuss the book as a group, I found myself not alone. In fact, we didn't spend a lot of time on discussion of the book as we all agreed it wasn't really worth spending much on it (this was our Christmas get-together, the food looked far too interesting, and we were keen to discuss books that we had enjoyed during the year). I was also relieved to be told that the claims of the blurb and some reviewers were not accurate when comparing to Maeve Binchy and Khaled Hosseini, neither of whom I've read but both of whom I want to try at some stage (Hosseini features on our reading list in the New Year, so a doubly big sigh of relief!).

 

And so we move swiftly on......!

Edited May 4, 2019 by willoyd

[Athena]

Wow, a 6-star and a 1-star read, one right after the other! I'm sure I've asked this before about your Book Club, but who picked this 1-star book as a read? Sorry this one was so rubbish, I wouldn't have been able to finish a read that I find so terrible. At least you wrote a nice review, that I enjoyed reading. I hope your next read will be much better.