Books do furnish a room

Edith Sitwell by Richard Greene Pretty good attempt at capturing the essence of a complex and fascinating character. Edith Sitwell packed so much into her life that even a 400 page biography is going to struggle to do justice to her. Born into an aristocratic family, whose country seat was Renishaw Hall near Sheffield; Sitwell always said she fell she was a changeling. Over six foot tall with an extraordinary voice she had a commanding physical presence. Her style of dress and looks made her stand out. She was brought up in privilege and never really understood money. As most of her life she had comparatively little of it, she spent much time owing money with the bank pressing her about her overdraft and the taxman appearing as baffled about her finances as she was. She was , of course, one of the foremost English female poets of the twentieth century and Greene does integrate her poetry into her life. The list of people she influenced and mixed with is fascinating; Yeats, Dylan Thomas (she was one of the early champions of his poetry), Eliot, Aldous Huxley, Evelyn Waugh, Gore Vidal, Marilyn Monroe (I kid you not; she strenuously defended her over posing for the infamous calendar), Allen Ginsberg, William Walton, Siegfried Sassoon, Spender, Virginia Woolf, Britten, Gertrude Stein, Lawrence, Graham Greene; to name a few. She fell out with a few of them and made up. She hated critics; calling them the pipsqueakery. Her poetry has had a mixed reception at times, but some very good poets rate her very highly. Greene points out that her poetry is designed to be read out loud. The poem she wrote as a response to the blitz, "Still Falls the Rain" is an example. It reads o0k, but listen to Sitwell reading it out loud, the difference is remarkable. Her collaboration with the composer William Walton which resulted in Facade also illustrates the importance of the vocal performance. Greene also examines her relationship with the artist Pavel Tchelitchew, which was complex to say the least. Sitwell was an eccentric and Richard Greene captures her oddness and eccentricity as well as her deep humanity, loneliness and her rather bizarre family. Her childhood was difficult and she never got on with her parents. Her relationship with her two equally famous brothers was fractious at times. However she was always supportive of Osbert and his sexuality. Osbert was gay and made no real secret of it at a time when it was illegal. Edith was a little hazy at first (it all had to be exp0lained to her!), but stood with her brother and spoke out when the Wolfenden report of 1957 recommending legalisation was not acted on. Sitwell is a fascinating character with many flaws, but a joy to read about. Richard Greene has done a good job. 8 out of 10 Starting Efforts at Truth by Nicholas Moseley

Property by Valerie Martin This won the orange prize in 2003. The novel is from the perspective of Manon Gaudet, a plantation owners wife. It is set in 1828 in Louisiana. It is rather brief and reads very easily, despite the horrors it describes. The book is in three parts; the build up to the slave revolt, the revolt and the aftermath. Soilers ahead Manon is the daughter of a slave owner and her husband (who she hates). She describes the difficulties of her life with him; he has a child with one of the house slaves, Sarah. She also watches him through a spyglass while he plays sadistic, semi-sexual games with the early teenage male slaves. She hates plantation life and following her husband's death moves to the small town house left by her mother. The book has been criticised because there is no redemption at the end, the slaves have no voice and it is unremittingly bleak. I think this misses the point. This story is an analysis of the slaveowner mentality, of someone who does not even begin to question slave-owning and all that goes with it. The slaves are commodities to be bought and sold, killed if necessary. They are property. Manon is not as physically cruel as her husband, but her house slaves are valued for what they can do for her. The vindictiveness with which she pursues her slave Sarah, when she escapes during the revolt is chilling. There is no economic imperative, just a desire to make Sarah suffer. There is also a sense that Manon too is property, being a woman. She is never likely to marry again; the one man she does like following her husband's death marries someone else because of her wealth. Manon does not question her situation and just has her husband wielded power, she too wields the power she has over her slaves, with similar effect. As an analysis of the slaveowner it comes to rather a bleak and very sudden ending. The reader is left with the conclusion that the battle of ideas will have no effect on this class of people and change will have to come by force. 7 and a half out of 10 Starting Dark Fire by C J Sansom

Schindler's Ark by Thomas Keneally Not an easy book to review or to categorize. Is it fiction, history, a bit of both. Keneally has clearly taken the historical account and stuck to it fairly closely, but has fictionalised the dialogue. It has also been overshadowed by Spileberg's remarkable film. Schindler did nothing remarkable before or after the war and without his wartime efforts would have been remembered as a womaniser, drinker and bankrupt. However his efforts to save the Jews who worked in his factory and his treatment of them compared with what was going on around him means he will always be remembered. The story behind the book; the efforts of Poldek Pfefferberg to get the book written and the film made are also remarkable. Keneally went into Pfefferberg's shop to look at briefcases and was persuaded to write the book! The book is at times pedestrian, but there is no getting away from the horrors being described. It is the individual details that stand out; the boy who hid in the latrine, the girl in red, the casual cruelty of Goeth and the descriptions of some of the executions. It didn't have the gut wrenching effect of If This Is a Man by Primo Levi but it was powerful enough. Schindler himself comes across as the larger than life character he clearly was and his character flaws even seemed to assist in what he was trying to do. His opposition to Nazism was clear from an early stage and the historical detail relating to his passing information about the camps to Jewish bodies monitoring the treatment of the Jews in germany and Poland, at quite an early stage. The most shocking part of the book for me was the epilogue. This describes Schindler in the 60s and 70s being hissed on the streets of Frankfurt, having stones thrown at him and workmen shouting he ought to have been burnt with the Jews. In typical Schindler fashion he was charged with assualt when he punched a factory worker who called him a Jew-kisser. Those reactions were really very shocking. A remarkable record which should be required reading. 9 out of 10 Starting Of Human Bondage by Somerset Maugham

The Tenants of Moonbloom by Edward Lewis Wallant Eccentric and unusual novel, not well enough known and wonderful. It takes you to the depths of despair with a redemptive ending. Norman Moonbloom is in his thirties and very much alone. he has been a student for years and now works for his brother irwin; a strong character who orders norman around. Irwin owns a number of delapidated apartment blocks and norman is employed to collect the rent and in theory to keep them in repair, but has not enough budget to do so. The novel follows Norman as he visits the residents to collect the rents. The residents are a remarkable collection; a gay black jazz musician who also works as a gigolo, a very old Jewish man (104) who lives in squalor, two sisters and their nephew on whom they dote, an ex child movie star, writers, couples with children, a holocaust survivor and many more. Wallant tells us about their lives and struggles, their hopes, dreams and mostly their despairs. They also complain about the awful state of the buildings and their apartments. Norman isn't a cipher in all this, but feels helpless in the face of all this misery. Norman's journey is described by Wallant; "He had become drunk on the idea of God and found only theology. He had risen several times on the subtle and powerful wings of lust, expectant of magnificence, achieving only discharge. A few times he had extended friendship with palpitating hope, only to find that no one quite knew what he had in mind." Wallant died young and left only four novels. He was contemporary with Roth, Mailer, bellow and the like. Had he lived I suspect he may have been ranked with them or above. The prose is lovely and so well written. Norman decides to defy his brother and make the apartments habitable. There are still losses and Norman manages to mislay his virginity, but the ending is marvellous. No easy resolutions or neat resolving, but there is hope and great warmth. A deeply humanistic and knowing novel. I would like to have known Mr Wallant. 9 and a half out of 10 Starting If on a Winter's Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino

American Gods by Neil Gaiman Thoroughly enjoyable romp through America and mythology. This story is stuffed with gods from all cultures and mythical beings of all types. They came to America in the minds of people moving to America and took shape there. They still inhabit America , mostly unbelieved in, often rather old, some doing menial jobs or semi-retired. There are also new gods, media, TV, internet and there are tensions between old and new. Into all this comes Shadow, an ex-con, hired by Mr Wednesday (aka Odin). There ensues a breathtaking road trip with mayhem, murder, sex, coin tricks, an undead spouse, some ricketty cars, checkers, tenderness and betrayal. There are dozens of old gods to look up if you so wish; some quite profound moments; the bit about religions being metaphors. There are some laugh loud moments. The vignette about I Love Lucy is deliciously wicked and very funny. Shadow is a fairly winning main character, but he is remarkably gullible. Other characters come and go quite quickly and you need a good memory to keep track. Don't take it too seriously, it's great fun and can be over-analysed. Pretty much most of what you want in light read. Loved it! 8 out of 10 Starting White Noise by Don DeLillo

A Crime in the Neighbourhood by Suzanne Berne You know you're getting on a bit when a novel set in the early 1970s can be described as a period piece! This is set in suburban Washington DC in 1972/3 around the time Watergate was developing. It won the Orange prize in 1999 and has been compared to To Kill a Mockingbird and Hitchcock's Rear Window. Don't get either of these comparison's, because in my opinion it is not that good. The story is narrated by nine year old Marsha, looking back as an adult. Marsha, it soon becomes clear is a spectacularly unreliable narrator. Marsha parent's are splitting up because her father has had an affair with one of her aunts; the absent father is a "presence" throughout the novel. Marsha's two siblings are older, twins and tease her, so she is very much alone. She also has broken her ankle and so watches events as they unfold. As her father leaves, a new neighbour moves in next door, Mr Green, a single, middle-aged and balding man who Marsha instantly dislikes. Then a child is murdered near the local shopping mall, a child Marsha knows (but dislikes). There follows a description of the tensions in the area, the responses of the local community and the search for the killer. Marsha keeps a diary and puts all the newspaper clippings in it. As time goes on Marsha becomes convinced Mr Green is the killer and she tells the police. Marsha is not at all likeable and feels just a little too knowing for a nine year old at that time. Although the novel is fairly short, I think it would have been better as a short story. the scene setting and feel just don't add enough. There is a general haziness about the whole thing and I am not even sure Marsha was nine; she could have been ten or eleven. Much of the story is based on the cruelty of children, the pervasiveness of rumour and the scapegoating of stereotypes. However, I'm not sure the story went anywhere and it wasn't memorable. 6 out of 10 Starting Property by Valerie Martin

Thank you Chrissy; that is very kind of you!

The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes A brief novella read in one sitting almost. I was more impressed than I expected to be. This is a novel about time and memory and how as we grow older we edit our own memories of who we are and how we came to be where we are. I suspect I would not have appreciated this as much when I was younger. Tony is retired, about 60, happily divorced with a daughter he rarely sees. He is an unreliable narrator who believes he has led a fairly blameless life, until one day he receives a solicitor's letter telling him the mother of an ex-girlfriend has left him £500 and a diary of a schoolfriend who took his life almost 40 years ago. However the diary is in the hands of an the ex and she isn't giving it up. Tony looks back over his school and university life and recalls three friends he had at school. They all went to different universities in the 60s. Adrian, always fascinated by Camus's dictum about suicide, was the one who took his own life. In the present day a sort of detective thriller develops as Tony tries to persuade his ex-girlfriend, Veronica of 40 years ago to give him the diary, mostly by e-mail. The said Veronica had dumped Tony and taken up with Adrian and we discover that when Adrian had written to tell Tony and ask his permission, Tony sent a really vicious letter in response which may have pushed Adrian towards his death. There is a sharp twist at the end which is very good. The themes are all the great ones of literature, just in a mundane setting with a rather boring main character; love, sex, death and betrayal; all thrown in the pot! I got a sense that the character of Tony was not quite strong enough to carry all Barnes throws at him. He commits an act of adolescent stupidity and selfishness (when he reads the letter he has almost forgotten writing it), but the ripples affect the lives of a number of others for the rest of their lives; without Tony even knowing. We all edit our past; mainly because we cannot retain all the information; also because we use the information to build a sense of ourselves over time. We sit in our own pantopnicons, but as Tony finds out, we are not all seeing and bits we do not remember because they are not significant to us, have vast significance to others. Tony is an easy character to dislike and despise, but he is an everyman; admittedly without much of a clue, but that could describe a lot of us. I think we miss the point if we think to ourselves "What a 'ooh, that's rude'/idiot/slimeball" because for all we know we may have done something akin to him and we cannot see the ripples. Reflections on death and mortality in middle and late middle age generally involve some stocktaking; philosophical or otherwise. There are lots of little side thoughts and avenues that can be followed up and this would probably repay being read again. An excellent little book; fade to Mick Jagger singing "time, time time is on my side, yes it is!". A spot of irony from Barnes. Poor Tony really is clueless; then aren't we all! 8 out of 10 Starting Mason and Dixon by Thomas Pynchon

I will try again with Koontz at some point; perhaps the odd thomas series. The Bridge on the Drina by Ivo Andric A remarkable book with a grand sweep of almost 500 years from the building of the bridge over the Drina in the 1560s to the First World War. There are human stories throughout interwoven with the political upheavals with various factions gaining and losing ascendancy. In the town Turks, Serbs and Bosnians mix, as do Christians and Muslims. The centre of the bridge is wider and this kapia becomes the meeting point for parts of the community over the centuries. It is the lives, loves and tragedies of the ordinary people of the town that dom inate the book and Andric writes with great warmth about all sections of the community. There is periodic brutslity and armies move to and fro; rebellions and executions ensue, but the bridge is ever present. Change is slow over the first centuries, but the coming of the railway changes all that and the outside world begins to intrude. The book ends around the time of the First World War when the bridge is partially destroyed. The historical parts of the book and the stories illustrate the despite the townspeoples innate feeling for each other and their ability to live together; the factionalism projected on them from political and religious movements sow the seeds for later conflicts. An epic novel broad in its scope and execution and it suceeds in its objectives. 8 and a half out of 10 Starting The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes

Shattered by Dean Koontz Fairly standard fare, but only my second Dean Koontz. Reminded me a bit of the film Hitcher. The formula for a thriller is run through pretty well. Psychotic (or possibly just physically ill) ex-boyfriend. New love in life, new start on the other side of the country, cute child (in this case eleven year old brother), who is very intelligent but "difficult" in an undefined sort of way. Why not get the girl to fly to California and let the lads do a road trip to bond. Then psycho ex-boyfriend can follow them. New boyfriend is obviouly a planner who has the route set out with all the motels on the way.This means psycho can get hold of the route and follow them in a bloody great van. Cat and mouse chase ensues with its conclusion in California. Throw in some eye-popping coincidences, some spectacularly stupid law enforcement officers and a bit of general mayhem and there you have it. I musn't complain too much, it's sent me to sleep for the past few nights (so much for the thriller bit!) 4 out of 10 Starting A Crime in the Neighbourhood by Suzanne Berne

Washington Square by Henry James An early work by Henry James (1880) and rather brief, The plot is straightforward. Dr Sloper lives with his daughter Catherine and hus widowed sister Mrs Penniman. They live in Washington Square and Sr Sloper is reasonably well off and Catherine also has some money left by her mother. Dr Sloper (and the narrator) describe Catherine as rather plain and unitelligent. Into this family scene enters Morris Townsend, a very handsome and penniless young man who woos Catherine (and charms Mrs Penniman) and wins her heart. Her father is implacably opposed to the match and makes his feelings clear both to Morris and Catherine. The romance plays out and ends and pretty much everyone remains unhappy. Being by James, it is, of course well written, but apparently James disliked it. I am sure that James read Trollope and when I first noted the names of the main characters, Dr and Miss Sloper, I immediately thought of Slope in Barchester Towers. There seems to be no particular link, though both are cruel and sure of the own rightness, but the names are strikingly similar. James is said to have based it on a true story. The men are irredeemably awful, but the women are not much better for putting up with them. I have a vague recollection of Albert Finney being in the film as Dr Sloper and there has even been an opera I think. Anyway, I enjoyed it. a good book for a dyed in the wool cynic to read; I told you it would end in tears!! 8 out of 10 starting The Tenants of Moonbloom by Edward Lewis Wallant

Thank you Kylie! it wasn't difficult, but rather slow and did require a certain level of concentration; but it was worthwhile. On Human Finery by Quentin Bell Interesting and idiosyncratic history of fashion from the nephew of Virginia Woolf. It ranges over the last 400 years or so and up to the 1970s. Bell wrote this in the late 1940s and updated it in the early 1970s. Somr of the language is a little dated, but other parts feel very modern. Bell uses the economic arguments of Veblen to underpin his arguments, and especially, he transfers Veblen’s argument about the “conspicuous consumption” of the leisure class to fashion. He looks at how wealth is displayed on the person in terms of conspicuous consumption, conspicuous leisure, conspicuous waste and conspicuous outrage. The latter idea is an addition of Bell to Veblen’s theories and relates to one of the functions Bell feels that fashion performs. Bell also looks at the role of fashion and clothing in revolution and times of war and at uniforms of various types. At times this can be heavy going if you know little about theories of fashion (like me!), but Bell has fun with a few sacred cows and marshals his facts well. There are some interesting oddities. He takes a couple of paragraphs to discuss the rising and falling hemlines of the skirts of nuns (I kid you not). There is also a discussion about the picture purporting to show fairies at the bottom of a garden, taken by two young girls. This was the picture that took in luminaries like Conan Doyle and wasn’t shown to be a fake until the early 90s I believe when one of the girls involved confessed in great old age. Bell in the 1940s showed the picture to a historian of fashions in hair styles who dated the hair styles of the fairies to between 1918 and 1922 (the picture was taken in the 1920s). There are discussions about the future of fashion and the rise of mass markets. An interesting book by a thoughtful and amusing writer which has prompted me to look out for his biography of his aunt Virginia Woolf. 7 out of ten Starting Edith Sitwell by Richard Greene

Swann's Way by Proust Brilliant; and this is only the beginning! Proust writes so beautifully and hypnotically and the descriptive passages are superb. There is an excellent evocation of a late nineteenth century French childhood and the obsessions of childhood. Combray and its surrounds come to life and I felt that I was almost there. The description of the love affair between Swann and Odette again explores the nature of obsession and of loving someone hopelessly who does not really love you back in the same way; I suspect many of us have been there. The narrator's description of his own first love, Gilberte is similarly inspired. Proust describes hopeless misery very well! There is also the famous passage about involuntary memory, when the narrator tastes the madeleine cake dipped in tea and childhood memories come flooding back. That set me thinking about what triggers these memories for me; 1) The cartoons of Oliver Postgate (an underrated genius in my opinion) 2) The taste of stale ribena (work that one out!) 3) Bowie on Top of the Pops singing Starman with Mick Ronson. 4) The opening of Anarchy in the UK (not God Save the Queen for me) 5) Far from the Madding Crowd 6) The Wilfred Owen poem Dulce In Decorum Est 7) Seeing a debate on TV between Tony Benn and Enoch Powell; a political awakening We all have them and Proust's genius is that he simply explains and describes the mechanism. This is getting self-indulgent, but part of Proust's magic is that he draws you inside yourself; and the writing is just brilliant. 10 out of 10 Starting the second volume; Within a Budding Grove

The Mystic Masseur by V S Naipaul Naipaul's first novel; a comic satire set in the Indian community on Trinidad in the 1930s and 1940s. Ganesh Ramsumair stumbles through life and marraige and into the masseur of the titile, quite by accident. His political career is also entirely accidental.There is a splendid cast of colourful characters and thr comice and slaprtick element is high. There is also an undernote of satire. The characters have been described as Dickensian, however I felt that there was just a touch of P G Wodehouse about the book; because it dealt with quite a small enclosed group within a wider society, which generally did not intrude into the story. The story ends in Oxford, as the author himself ended up in Britain and I wondered if there was just a shade of the authors own journey from his homeland here. The satire is a little cruel at times and there is an element of cynicism underlying the whole story. The book was certainly amusing, but I was not quite sure whether Naipaul actually liked his characters or meant us to like them; I probably need to read more of his work to make a judgement. However, it is well written and was a quick and easy read. 7 out of 10 Starting Shattered by Dean Koontz

The Leopard by Guiseppe de Lampedusa A rich and luscious novel about a decaying aristocratic family in nineteenth century Sicily. The main protagonists are the Salina family and especially Don Fabrizio (the Leopard of the title) the head of the family. Most of the novel takes place in the early 1860s and there is great descriptive detail throughout capturing the heat and dust of the Sicilian countryside. Lampedusa's descriptions of scents and smells and a decaying grand house are sublime. Religion and the ritual of the Catholic church runs throughout the book as a theme and backdrop, dominating some characters. The events leading up to the unification of Italy and the exploits of Garibaldi are also part of the background and illustrate how the aristocracy adapted to the new order.Don Fabrizio dominates the book and his thoughts and feelings about the advent of modernity and the idionsyncracies of his rather repressed family and subtly and cleverly expressed. The other strand of the plot is the courtship and eventual marraige of Tancredi (Don Fabrizio's nephew) and the beautiful Angelica. There is a delicious passage where the courting couple are exploring the palace of Don Fabrizio at Donnafugata. There are hundreds of empty and abandoned rooms, not used for years. they stumble into the playroom of a libertine (probably eighteenth century). The walls are covered in mirrors, some broken, strategically placed beds and several whips (50 shades of Sicilian Grey no doubt). Nearby they find another room; smaller and much more sparse. There is a cross on the wall and I think a prie-dieux for prayer. On the wall is another whip; for self flagellation during prayer; only this time there are small lead balls fixed into the ends of the leather thongs; the church is so much more imaginative when it comes to pain and bondage (50 shades darker?) The last two chapters change the tone. We move to the 1880s and the death bed of Don Fabrizio. As death bed scenes go this one isn't bad; but the cliches of a generally peaceful death with family around are still there; as is the mandatory priest to pronounce the last rites. The sand running out description is interesting because it is taken to a different level and the fading of the noise in the room is cleverly described. The aloneness in a crowd feeling of the dying man is a little reminiscent of Beckett in Malone Dies. It is certainly different to Dickens' death bed scenes (I think it was Wilde who said that anyone who could read the death bed scene of Little Nell (Old Curiosity Shop) without laughing has to have a heart of stone). Having been at a number of death beds as a result of two of my former occupations; there is a little accuracy here. For a better description of death beds see Keizer's excellent Dancing with Mister D. However in this novel it works well. The last chapter takes us into the early twentieth century and Don Fabrizio's three unmarried daughters are still living in increasingly decaying circumstances; the gradual destruction of a way of life is almost complete. Worth a read; it captures a long gone way of life. 8 out of 10 Starting Schindler's Ark by Thomas Keneally

Hunger by Knut Hamsun This is a classic, that I had been looking forward to reading. I thoroughly enjoyed Victoria, one of Hamsun's other novels. Alleged to be the first 20th century novel, employing stream of consciousness; compared to Dostoevsky (the protagonist has been compared to Raskolnikov). It is an account of a starving writer/journalist set in Kristiana (Oslo) at the end of the 19th century. It is pretty much a book of one idea; the aspiring writer who suffers for his art to the point of almost starving to death. This affects his mental health and his relationships with those around him. Hunger has been raved about and the reviews on here indicate its popularity and influence. However this did absolutely nothing for me and the main character was just too unlikeable and self-absorbed and spent most of the novel whinging about his situation. He wasn't really an unreliable narrator; an irritating one, certainly. The tortured soul suffering for his calling doesn't impress me in this case as most of the suffering was self inflicted. Humour, madness and absurdity usually do for me and I can think of many novels where they have; but not this one. I don't usually mind novels without a plot, but there usually needs to be something to replace it. Hunger, when it is self inflicted, is not particularly edifying or profound. 4 and a half out of 10 Starting American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Sadly, I have also met people like Nathyan Price! Things Fall Apart is on my tbr list. Paradise by Abdulrazak Gurnah A curious and surprising novel, which I think can be easily misunderstood, if the reviews are anyhing to go by. It concerns Yusef, a boy who is taken by his "uncle" from his parents to pay a debt. He works in his uncle's shop with Khalil an older boy in a similar situation. As Yusef grows it is clear that he is very attractive to women and men. Uncle Aziz takes him on one of his trading expeditions through what is now Tanzania and we encounter jungle, strange and wonderful people; Yusef stays with a trading partner of Aziz for a time, where his growing attractiveness continues to be a problem. He then goes on a journey with Aziz and his trading caravan and has further adventures. They return to the uncle's home after some time and Yusef's beauty continues to be a problem. There is a, on the surface, puzzling end. Yusef is a narrator who is a little apart and things happen to him in an oddly detached way. The Europeans are very much a background threat until the end; an ominous absence. There was a richness and depth to the story and there are parallels to another story. Even with my limited knowledge of the Koran, there were obvious similarities with the story of The Prophet. However this is all about corruption; the worm in the bud, the rotting fruit. Yusef seems so innocent and acted upon, but there is something at his core that he sees that no one around him does. The end is completely baffling if you do not see it. Enjoyable read which asked more questions than I initially thought it would. 8 out of 10 Starting Washington Square by Henry James

The Poisonwood Bible by barbara Kingsolver Rating this was difficult because instinctively I wanted to score it highly because it so irritated a certain conservative christian, anti communist lobby who so irritate me. However I couldn't, because the characters were just so unbelieveable that I think they would have been dead within a month. My background means I have come across this sort of missionary who wanders off to another culture because the Lord has called them to spread the word with no regard to local custom or belief. But the Price family were a spectacularly disasterous example, even by those standards. And to the old Belgian Congo as well. I had real prtoblems suspending belief. I think the book is so well known that I don't need to outline the story. Having said all of that the book is well written, the characters do have a spark; the real star is Africa and the backdrop the historical events surrounding the departure of the Belgians, the election of Lumumba and his CIA inspired murder. I felt the book lost its way when things started to go badly wrong. Electing to use the voices of the four daughters and occasionally the mother was an interesting ploy, but I really wanted to hear the interior dialogue of Nathan Price, who was by far the most interesting character because he was by far the most flawed. An easy enough read, but just too unbelieveable; the juxtaposition of the Price family and their new setting was just too sharp and lacking in nuance. The author was also way too preachy, even though I agreed with her. 6 out of 10 Starting The Mystic Masseur by V S Naipaul

The Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot This is an important book about an important subject. Not being of a particularly scientific bent I only had a limited understanding of HeLa and the ethical implications. Rebecca Skloot provides an understandable explanation of the the history of HeLa and the person behind the science. The book looks at the struggles of the Lacks family as well as the history of the cells. At times the narrative jumps around a bit and the author's presence in the story can be something of an irritant. However she has done a great service in telling the story of Henrietta Lacks and opening up the ethical issues in an understandable way. The not so casual racism of the medical profession in the 1950s is clearly illustrated as is the experience of the Lacks family in their own struggles with the health services. Parts of the American health system still look too close to Eugenics for my liking and this book highlights areas for ongoing debate. 8 out of 10 Starting On Human Finery by Quentin Bell

The Duke's Children by Anthony Trollope Last of the Palliser novels, not the strongest by far, but a good read. The female characters in this book are fairly predictable, but Trollope almost makes up for it with his male characters. On the first page of the novel Trollope kills off the strongest female character in the series, Lady Glencora Palliser, the Duchess of Omnium. This gives him scope to develop the character of the Duke from a mere politician to a family man who has to relate to his children who are now grown and stepping out into the world. Here Trollope creates two of the most stupid and vacuous sons of aristocrats in literature in the Duke's heir Lord Silverbridge and his brother Gerald. They would grace any P G Wodehouse novel with ease. We follow them and their too good to be true sister Mary through the 19th century marraige market (for Silverbridge and Mary) and through the ways the manage to distress and let down their long suffering father. Trollope draws useless aristocrats rather well and we come across several in this book, usually hunting or shooting; activities which the Duke seemed completely unable to grasp; unlike his sons. A counter point is set up with Mary's suitor Frank Tregear who is poor, but "worthy". Trollope has great fun with them all and ties up all his loose ends; apart from poor Mabel Grex who sets her sights on silverbridge and Frank Tregear and manages to lose them both; ending up embittered. Very readable, but missing some spark; the Duchess killed off on page 1, I suspect. 7 and a half out of 10 Starting The Leopard by Guiseppe de Lampedusa

Sheepshagger by Niall Griffiths This novel is a real kick in the stomach; bleak, visceral, intense, at once compelling and repulsive. A very uncomfortable book. The dialect is difficult to follow and the language very strong throughout. The violence is intermittent, very graphic and stomach churning. Trainspotting without the humour, although there are some funny and tragi-comic moments. It is set in Wales and is the story of Ianto, a young man who has been brought up by his grandmother, but who has lost his birthright; an old cottage, repossessed and sold to the middle class English for a weekend cottage (The English don't come out of this too well! The title comes from an insulting English term for the Welsh). Ianto is a loner who divides his time between the Northern Welsh hills and countryside, squats and his "friends". The story is told from a variety of perspectives; Ianto's friends looking back, Ianto as a child in flashback and long passages describing a series of events. It is set in the 1990s and depicts an underclass created by Thatcherism. A lost generation steeped in crime, petty violence, drink, drugs, benefits, casual sex and hopelessness. Ianto's friends are just as lost as he is. There is one pretty accurate description of an illegal rave; E and weed are the main drugs of choice, washed down by whisky. The explanations given for Ianto's actions are a little simplistic, but the point about the sheer meaninglessness of the lives of the main protagonists is well made. the victims are in the wrong place at the wrong time. The descriptions of the Welsh landscape and wildlife, and especially the birds of prey are magnificent. The birds of prey are symbolic in their viciousness and fragility. The intense natural descriptions linked to the human despair reminded me of Blake and in particular Jerusalem. Not the hymn murdered yearly by the WI and last night of the proms, but the full poem in all its imaginative intensity; "A building of eternal death whose proportions are eternal despair" and "But they cut asunder his inner garments: searching with their cruel fingers for his heart". Ianto's internal constructions are horrifying and given the complete absence of any sort of support for him and his kind, his demise is inevitable and as predictable as the actions of his friends. But still the jump the reader is asked to make at the end, is, for me, just a little too simple. Nevertheless, this is a startling, shocking novel, but is worth reading; with a glass of something strong in your hand. 8 out of 10 Starting Thye Bridge over the Drina by Ivo Andric

Beatrice and Virgil by Jann Martel; beware there are spoilers ahead! I disliked Life of Pi, but I thought, well let's give this one a try; it can't be worse. To be fair, it probably wasn't, but it was no better. I think most available literary devices were used and you can have great fun spotting the various references to other works; many are blindingly obvious, others less so. In brief, the two main protagonists are both called Henry; one is an author with writer's block and the other an aging taxidermist, usually refered to as the taxidermist. The taxidermist sends Henry part of a play he is writing and the two spend time together going through the taxidermist's writing and his craft. Everyone else seems to hate the taxidermist, even Henry's wife (Henry is clearly not a good judge of character) and it eventually transpires the taxidermist is a Nazi war criminal. This is an attempt at looking at the holocaust using animals as characters. Beatrice and Virgil of the title are a Donkey and a Howler Monkey (both stuffed). Perhaps it should add up to something profound, but it's all such a dislocated jumble. There is a short story by Flaubert heavily featured about Julian the Hospitaller, which describes the mass slaughter of animals. The play which is cenral to the book involving Beatrice and Virgil (I'm ignoring Dante) is basically Waiting for Godot. There is a spot of Proust in there. However the one image I kept getting, especially towards the end was from the film Marathon Man where a creepy Lawrence Olivier is asking Dustin Hoffman "Is it safe?" whilst flourishing a dental drill. Most of the violence is principally towards animals and seemed pointless; the torture scene with the donkey ( I almost felt I was moving genres at that point into a whole new perverted world) was rather too well thought out and imaginative. What really irritated me were the cards at the end with the "profound" questions on them. Examples being; your family is starving, your young son says he knows where he can get potatoes. To do this will place him in grave danger; do you let him go? Alternatively, your whole family is about to be taken into the gas chamber and your young daughter asks what is happening; do you tell her? And so it goes on. There is even a blank one at the end for you to make your own up. I was so tempted! This sort of device was, I recall, greatly used in counselling courses and motivastional training. I remember participating in a few of these in the 80s when we would be sat in groups and given one of these questions to discuss. My mate and I would look at each other with a glance that said; "Time for the pub". This has turned from review to rant and I haven't even mentioned the horrific fate of Henry the author's pets! 3 out of 10 Starting Hunger by Knut Hamsun

Homo Faber by Max Frisch On the surface a straightforward story, simple and resembling a parable; but like a parable capable of many interpretations and readable on more than one level. Walter faber is a rational man who believes in technology, a creature of habit. A series of events disrupt his settled life. A plane crash, a chance meeting with the brother of an old friend, a visit to the friend in central america, whose body they discover at his home. Then there ia a boat journey across the Atlantic. Faber, a middle aged man, meets a 20 year old woman and they hit it off and continue to travel together and an affair develops. It transpires that the girl is his daughter, he didn't know he had (he thought the mother had an abortion). This isn't like the incest Laurie Lee describes in rural England; only a problem when the roads were bad, but is purely coincidental and enough to test any pure rationalist. Then tragedy strikes in the form of a snake; a serpent strikes at the heart of the tale. This is man vs machine; but as the narrator, Mr Faber gives the plot away as you go along, it's a bit like watching a car crash in slow motion! One thing I did notice; Faber just never stayed still, always on the move. Faber realises he cannot control his environment as life continues to conspire against him. He is dislocated with no family or home. he does become close to someone who might be family but ... Faber has avoided responsibility and fate makes him pay. A striking novel with an unsympathetic protagonist (perhaps a debateable point) but a gripping and thought provoking story 8 out of 10 Starting Paradise by Abdulrazak Gurnah

Hallucinating Foucault by Patricia Dunckner This book took me by surprise; I really wasn't expecting much of it, how wrong I was! It is a love story, well more than one love story actually. It is also based on, wound around the philosophy of Foucault, which is not always an easy read, but there is a simplicity and directness here and complex ideas are expressed beautifully simply. There are touches of Nietzsche, Freud and I think Sartre. In fact reading it took be back to when I was 19 and read Nausea; there was a similar feel; especially in the dream sequence at the end. The unnamed narrator is studying the work of Paul Michel who Dunckner neatly slots in the late 60s and 70s effectively post Sartre and who is gay. The narrator falls in love with another student he meets in the library and she pushes him in his study of Michel. This lov e story is a pale reflection of what comes later. He discovers that Michel is now incarcerated in an institution and is mentally unwell. Briefly, the narrator goes to France and finds Michel. The Paul Michel character is a strong one who initially appears predatory, but as time goes on the reader understands the particular "madness" and how he has become as he is. There is also proof here that sex scenes don't have to be crude, steamy or be contenders for the bad sex award. The description is electric, but understated and rests on the unsaid. There are some thought provoking reflections; the thoughts on loneliness for me were pure existentialism; but there is much there that is not. There is also a simple statement of true love that lasts over the years and survives distance; "If you love someone--you know where they are and what has happened to them. And you put yourself at risk to save them if you can. If you get into trouble, I promise that I'll come to save you." The promise is kept; eventually and there is a surprising and very moving twist at the end. Don't read the end first it will ruin the whole book! On a lighter note; Harry Potter fans; if you want to know what happened to the owl ..... Intelligent, poetic, beautiful, love story. 9 and a half out of 10 Starting Sheepshagger by Niall Griffiths (ok, I know it's a bit of a contrast, but that's the fun of reading!)

India in the caribbean edited by David Dabydeen Interesting and rather academic tome on the history of Asian communties in the Caribbean. There are essays on indentureship, trade unionism, the role of women, cricket and "Caribbean Man". The main body of work deals with Trinidad and Guyana, but there are essays on Surinam and jamaica as well. There is also a section of poetry which fits slightly unesaily with the rest of the book. Published in the mid 80s and dealing with the 70s and before the work does at time feel out of date, but nevertheless it was revealing and at times provocative. 6 out of 10 Starting The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks