Poppy's Paperbacks 2010

[poppyshake]

 

We Have Always Lived in the Castle - Shirley Jackson

 

Waterstones Synopsis: Merricat Blackwood lives on the family estate with her sister Constance and her uncle Julian. Not long ago there were seven Blackwoods - until a fatal dose of arsenic found its way into the sugar bowl one terrible night. Acquitted of the murders, Constance has returned home, where Merricat protects her from the curiosity and hostility of the villagers. Their days pass in happy isolation until cousin Charles appears. Only Merricat can see the danger, and she must act swiftly to keep Constance from his grasp.

 

Review: A fantastically macabre and sinister little book. Full of atmosphere and dread. You are grabbed straight away by the first paragraph.

 

'My name is Mary Katherine Blackwood. I am eighteen years old, and I live with my sister Constance. I have often thought that with any luck at all I could have been born a werewolf, because the two middle fingers on both my hands are the same length, but I have had to be content with what I had. I dislike washing myself, and dogs, and noise, I like my sister Constance, and Richard Plantagenet, and Amanita phalloides, the death cap mushroom. Everyone else in my family is dead.

 

This isn't strictly true, the two sisters live with their uncle Julian in their big rambling old house. uncle Julian isn't well, he hasn't been well since that fateful night when a dose of arsenic found it's way into the sugar bowl on the dining table.

 

'You will be wondering about that sugar bowl, I imagine. Is it still in use? you are wondering; has it been cleaned? you may very well ask; was it thoroughly washed?'

 

We join the book as Mary Katherine or Merricat as she is nicknamed, is making her way home from her twice weekly shopping trip to the local village. She needs to go to get food and library books, Constance and uncle Julian never leave the house and Merricat wouldn't go either if it wasn't strictly necessary. The villagers stare at her, they mutter insults, the curtains twitch, shopkeepers serve her immediately to hasten her departure, the children jeer, they sing rhymes ..

 

'Merricat, said Connie, would you like a cup of tea?

Oh no, said Merricat, you'll poison me.

Merricat, said Connie, would you like to go asleep?

Down in the boneyard ten feet deep!'

 

Constance had been suspected of the murders and put on trial but was subsequently aquitted. She looks after Merricat and uncle Julian now, lovingly attending to their every need and want. Cooking all their favourite things and making sure they're comfortable. But she never goes into the village, it would be too much for her.

 

Uncle Julian, in a wheelchair now (thankfully he didn't put too much sugar on his blackberries) and slowly losing his wits, is writing a book about the murders. He checks from time to time with Constance to verify the facts of that fateful day ... he constantly replays every moment.

 

Merricat loves her cat Jonas, she likes to bury and hide things as talismans. She can sense change is in the air and she thinks of three magic words ... Melody, Gloucester and Pegasus ... if nobody says these words then everything will be fine.

 

Change comes in the shape of cousin Charles. His parents had forbidden him to come to the aid of his orphaned cousin's and uncle before but now they are both dead. It's not long before he's settled into their fathers room. Merricat hates him, and not least because Constance seems to like him and is suddenly beginning to view things his way. Perhaps she should get on with her life, perhaps she should stop running around after Merricat and uncle Julian, perhaps she could venture into the outside world again.

 

We inhabit Merricat's mind, everything we read is from her viewpoint. And Merricat's mind is a pretty dark and disturbing place to be. When she feels threatened, she often recites the names of poisonous plant's or mushroom's (drummed into her by Constance) which is very disturbing for their occasional do-gooding visitors. They hover over the cup of tea and cake they've been given, unsure now.

 

Merricat's distrust of Charles heightens, he is a threat to their future safety and security, Uncle Julian doesn't like or trust him either, only Constance is taken in.

 

The book ends quite tranquilly, though in a tragic and desolate way. I thought it was a good ending befitting the story. Like a calm after the storm ... and it is a ferocious storm!

 

A strange little tale, quirky and unusual, macabre and disturbing. A real treat.

 

9/10

Edited July 28, 2010 by poppyshake

[poppyshake]

 

The Way Things Look To Me - Roopa Farooki

 

Waterstones Synopsis: At 23, Asif is less than he wanted to be. His mother's sudden death forced him back home to look after his youngest sister, Yasmin, and he leads a frustrating life, ruled by her exacting need for routine. Everyone tells Asif that he's a good boy, but he isn't so sure. Lila has escaped from home, abandoning Asif to be the sole carer of their difficult sister. Damaged by a childhood of uneven treatment, as Yasmin's needs always came first, she leads a wayward existence, drifting between jobs and men, obsessed with her looks and certain that her value is only skin deep. And then there is Yasmin, who has no idea of the resentment she has caused. Who sees music in colour and remembers so much that sometimes her head hurts. Who doesn't feel happy, but who knows that she is special. Who has a devastating plan. "The Way Things Look To Me" is an affecting, comically tender portrayal of a family in crisis, caught between duty and love in a tangled relationship both bitter and bittersweet.

 

Review: I liked this story but I didn't love it, it didn't seem to hold my interest. The story centres around Yasmin who has Aspergers and her two older siblings, Asif and Lila.

 

Since their parents death it has become Asif's job to look after Yasmin. This he does with extreme care and tenderness. Lila on the other hand is more resentful, calling Yasmin 's*dding Raingirl' and embracing her with bear-hugs which she knows will make her uncomfortable (she also wears a t-shirt with a slogan that is mis-spelt knowing it upset's Yasmin's organised brain).

Lila doesn't live at the family home anymore, she lives in a squalid flat which resembles a rubbish tip (a reaction to the tidy and ordered life that Yasmin has imposed on everybody at home). She has an untidy love-life and debilitating eczema.

Both Lila and Asif are resentful that their Mother lavished so much time and attention on making sure Yas was ok, that she seemed to overlook their wants and needs. They both have inferiority complexes, Asif feels unworthy to be loved and Lila self harms.

 

Yasmin, unaware of any of this, is living a life so scheduled and organised that the slightest change causes her extreme anguish. She eats only yellow food for breakfast, she watches DVD's of 'The Simpsons' continually and plays 'Doom' on her computer, she always wins at 'Scrabble' because she knows all the correct high scoring two letter words and when she hears music she see's it expressed in colour. She's not happy though and she doesn't feel hopeful.

A TV production wants to film a documentary about Yasmin, Lila is totally against it, Asif is worried about it, but Yasmin, unpredictably, want's to do it.

 

Although a lot of the book is humorous, Yasmin's story is sad and I felt moved to tears by it towards the end of the book. Just reading simple things like the fact that she has to repeat to herself 'one Mississippi, two Mississippi' to remind herself of how long to keep eye contact for, when someone's talking to her, and how she had to have circles drawn for her on the lawn, to represent different people's 'personal space' ... differentiating between family, friends, acquaintances and strangers.

 

I wasn't so keen on Asif and Lila's stories, the bit's that didn't involve Yasmin ... Lila's especially. It seemed a bit lightweight and predictable .. she seemed a little bit of a cliche.

resentful woman behaves badly, sleeps around and then meet's Mr Right who inevitably will be the person to put her back on the straight and narrow .. all in the space of a couple of weeks

.. these were the bit's where I lost interest a little. I didn't know how Yasmin's story was going to pan out and found I was more interested in her than the other's.

 

7/10

Edited July 28, 2010 by poppyshake

[I'mRose]

Oh I have to read Middlesex after your review! as much as I love this forum its just to full of books I want to read, so much to do so little time! I see you read a lot of Gaimans boos. I just picked up my first one Fragile Things which is a collection of short stories. I like it so far, but I want to read one of his novels. Which one do you recommend??

[poppyshake]

You must read 'Middlesex' Rose .. it's such a great book.

 

I love Neil Gaiman, I haven't read all of his books yet, but I've read 'Stardust', 'Neverwhere', American Gods', Fragile Things', 'The Graveyard Book' and 'Smoke and Mirrors'. I loved them all (sometimes the short stories are hit and miss but on the whole I liked them ... my fave one in 'Fragile Things' was 'Harlequin Valentine') ... the book I loved best was 'Neverwhere' but they were all brilliant to be honest.

[frankie]

Thanks for your review on Middlesex, poppyshake, it was great as ever You've really made me want to re-read it!

[poppyshake]

You're welcome Frankie , both you and Kylie gave it a five star rating on 'Goodreads' .. so I knew it was going to be good, and it was, it was brilliant, so thanks

[I'mRose]

You must read 'Middlesex' Rose .. it's such a great book.

 

I love Neil Gaiman, I haven't read all of his books yet, but I've read 'Stardust', 'Neverwhere', American Gods', Fragile Things', 'The Graveyard Book' and 'Smoke and Mirrors'. I loved them all (sometimes the short stories are hit and miss but on the whole I liked them ... my fave one in 'Fragile Things' was 'Harlequin Valentine') ... the book I loved best was 'Neverwhere' but they were all brilliant to be honest.

 

 

That exactly how I find Fragile things, some of the stories has been a bit boring to frank, but some I love. It's great that you recommend Neverwhere because a friend of mine said that one was the best as well! It's going on my list!

[poppyshake]

That exactly how I find Fragile things, some of the stories has been a bit boring to frank, but some I love. It's great that you recommend Neverwhere because a friend of mine said that one was the best as well! It's going on my list!

 

I'm glad Rose and I hope you enjoy it, I'm sure you will

[Kylie]

You're welcome Frankie , both you and Kylie gave it a five star rating on 'Goodreads' .. so I knew it was going to be good, and it was, it was brilliant, so thanks

 

Aw, that's nice of you to say. I'm so glad you enjoyed it. I was wary of reading it and didn't think it was my type of book, but it was the most pleasant reading surprise I think I've ever had.

 

I really enjoyed your reviews of Notes from Underground and We Have Always Lived in the Castle. I must get my hands on those books soon. I think Shirley Jackson is an author I will particularly enjoy.

[poppyshake]

I'm sure you'd enjoy We Have Always Lived in the Castle Kylie. It gave me the shivers, and it's probably the oddest book I've read this year ... it would be between that and the The Magic Toyshop anyway, but it was odd in a good way

[poppyshake]

 

The Road - Cormac McCarthy

 

Waterstones Synopsis: 'The first great masterpiece of the globally warmed generation. Here is an American classic which, at a stroke, makes McCarthy a contender for the Nobel Prize for Literature' - Andrew O'Hagan. A father and his young son walk alone through burned America, heading slowly for the coast. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. They have nothing but a pistol to defend themselves against the men who stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food - and each other. 'McCarthy conjures from this pitiless flight the miracle of unswerving humanity. Gripping beyond belief' - Chris Cleave, "Sunday Telegraph". 'One of the most shocking and harrowing but ultimately redemptive books I have read. It is an intensely intimate story. It is also a warning' - Kirsty Wark, "Observer Books of the Year". 'A work of such terrible beauty that you will struggle to look away. It will knock the breath from your lungs' - Tom Gatti, "The Times". 'You will read on, absolutely convinced, thrilled, mesmerized. All the modern novel can do is done here' - Alan Warner, "Guardian". 'A masterpiece that will soon be considered a classic' - "Herald". 'McCarthy shows that he is one of the greatest American writers alive' - "Times Literary Supplement".

 

Review: It doesn't get much bleaker than this, a truly tragic tale of a man and his son trying to find their way to the coast in post apocalyptic America (well, the country's not actually named but I took it to be America because of one or two slight references, though it could be anywhere). The writing has been pared to the bone, there is hardly any dialogue and in that respect it felt rather like reading Hemingway. There are no chapters, just fairly short paragraphs of either description or dialogue, every word is weighed and measured. The man and the boy exchange a few short sentences every now and then, the boy seeking understanding or comfort and the man trying to reassure and instill hope or else relaying simple instructions.

 

But for all that it's not overly descriptive or wordy, it's so beautifully written that you can clearly see that ash ridden, bleak and desolate landscape and feel the desperation of the man and boy. When you think about a landscape devoid of animals, devoid even of rats to feed on corpses, devoid of plant life and sunlight it's utterly unendurable, and the writer makes you feel the loss of these things yourself as you read.

 

We're not told why this catastrophe happened, which makes it all a bit more terrifying because when a reason is given you can usually find a way of persuading yourself that the chances of it really happening are so slim as to be negligible. We just know that everything, and practically everyone, is dead, and the world has been thrown into perpetual winter.

 

It felt right that there weren't any chapters, there was nothing to break the spell, no obvious resting places. I had to tear myself away from the book from time to time, in order to try and lighten my mood, but really, from the moment I read that their aim was to find their way to the coast, I was so anxious that they should get there that I just kept reading on and on.

 

Although it's not what you'd call an action-packed book, there are some pretty horrific scenes, and also some times when their relentless slow trudge across the scorched earth turns into a desperate flight for survival. There are only a few people left on earth, how many is not known, but among them are some pretty terrifying people, people who will do everything and anything to ensure their survival. People with nothing to lose.

 

All you are hoping for, is that the man and the boy reach the coast and some sort of safety, you celebrate every small piece of good fortune that comes their way and you feel fear whenever they see or meet anyone on the road.

 

I can see that not everybody would like it, it's pretty harrowing stuff. There isn't any light relief or jokes (I imagine they're dead like everything else) but it's compelling and powerful.

 

I was truly terrified by it, an incredible piece of writing.

 

10/10

Edited July 28, 2010 by poppyshake

[joe]

I was talking to a member of staff in Sainsburys this morning after buying the next two books in the Milenium trilogy and he was raving about this book, so after that and reading your review this is going on my to be read pile

[Ooshie]

What a great review of The Road poppyshake Like you, I thought of the country they were crossing as America, although come to think of it I can't now remember why! I read the book in short bursts interspersed with more cheerful reading as I found it so intense. A great piece of writing, I thought.

What did you think of the ending, though? I have seen it suggested that the boy meeting the family was just a hallucination he was having as he was dying - I was quite happy thinking of the boy of the family as the boy that had seen throughout the journey.

[poppyshake]

I was talking to a member of staff in Sainsburys this morning after buying the next two books in the Milenium trilogy and he was raving about this book, so after that and reading your review this is going on my to be read pile

 

It's definitely worth it, it's one of those books you can't put down. Hope you enjoy it Joe

 

What a great review of The Road poppyshake Like you, I thought of the country they were crossing as America, although come to think of it I can't now remember why! I read the book in short bursts interspersed with more cheerful reading as I found it so intense. A great piece of writing, I thought.

What did you think of the ending, though? I have seen it suggested that the boy meeting the family was just a hallucination he was having as he was dying - I was quite happy thinking of the boy of the family as the boy that had seen throughout the journey.

 

Ooh Ooshie

I hadn't thought of that!! I'd hate to think that was the case. I know some people thought it was too convenient an ending for the boy to all of a sudden meet up with the family, but I liked the ending, I don't think I could've endured it if the book had ended with him continuing on the road alone

 

[Ooshie]

That's exactly how I felt too.

I loved that he had found a family to be with, and needed that more positive ending. It would just have been too much for me otherwise.

.

[poppyshake]

 

The Help - Kathryn Stockett read by Jenna Lamia, Bahni Turpin, Octavia Spencer & Cassandra Campbell

 

Audible Synopsis: Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step.

Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid, Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.

Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her 17th white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.

Minny, Aibileen's best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody's business, but she can't mind her tongue, so she's lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.

Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.

In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women - mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends - view one another.

 

Review: I loved this book, it is absolutely perfectly read especially by the three women voicing Skeeter, Minny and Aibileen. Set in Jackson, Mississippi during the early 1960's when the civil rights movement was in it's infancy, it tells the tale of two black maids Aibileen and Minny.

They've worked for white families as 'the help' for most of their lives, looking after their children as if they were their own and putting up with the sly remarks, insults and prejudice of the women they cook and clean for.

 

Miss Skeeter wants to be a writer, she has a job working for the local newspaper writing cleaning tips (as she still lives at home with her Mum and Dad, cleaning and household management is something she knows next to nothing about, but she asks Aibileen, her friend Elizabeth's maid, to help her). Skeeter feels uncomfortable over the way her friends treat 'the help' and she hits upon the idea of writing a book, that will tell the story of what it's like to be a black maid working for a white family. She needs to get as many of the maids as she can to tell her about their experiences, she will give them pseudonym's of course and she will write it anonymously. When she approaches Aibileen with this idea Aibileen is skeptical, infact she's adamant she won't do it and neither will any of the other maids, people have been lynched for less .. black people that is.

 

Skeeter persists and eventually they make a start on the book. But it's not just a dangerous time for the maids, it's a very dangerous time for Skeeter.

 

Full of the flavours of the deep south, it's a book to make you smile a lot but also to make you ashamed of those white ladies and their polite faced racism. The irony of them having one of their do-gooding fund raisers for the 'poor people of Africa', whilst treating their own maids like dirt was completely lost on them.

 

The only downside to it was it made me permanently hungry with it's constant talk of chicken pot and lemon chiffon pie's, angel cake's and hush puppies mmm mm.

 

I stretched it out for as long as I could, it was such an enjoyable listen.

 

10/10

Edited July 28, 2010 by poppyshake

[poppyshake]

 

The Wild Things - Dave Eggers

 

Waterstones Synopsis: Seven-year-old Max likes to make noise, get dirty, ride his bike without a helmet and howl like a wolf. In any other era, he would be considered a boy. In 2007, he is considered willful and deranged. His home life is problematic. His parents are divorced; his father, immature and romantic, lives in the city. His mother has taken up with a younger man who steals quarters from the change bowl in the foyer. Driven by a series of pressures internal and external, Max leaves home, jumps in a boat and sails across the ocean to a strange island where giant beasts reign. The "Wild Things" is from Maurice Sendak's visionary classic. This is an all-ages adventure, full of wit and soul, that explores the chaos of youth while Max explores the chaos of the world around him.

 

Review: Although I loved 'The Road' I wanted my next read to be something light hearted and fun and this fitted the bill perfectly.

This book is an adaptation of Spike Jonze's film, 'Where the Wild Things Are', which itself was an adaptation of Maurice Sendak's classic book of the same name. I haven't seen the film or read the original picture book, so I came to this new adaptation without any pre-conceived ideas.

 

It's about Max who's seven, he lives with his Mum and sister Claire. His parents are divorced, and his Dad lives in an apartment in the city. His Mum has a boyfriend called Gary, Max does his best to get rid of Gary, he plays tricks on him, hides his coffee and replaces his muffins with stale one's, but Gary is not very quick on the uptake, and is not at all suspicious, in fact he thinks that Max is his friend.

Max is feeling pretty frustrated with life, his sister's friends have tried to kill him during a snowball fight, and his subsequent revenge (which involved buckets of water and Claire's pretty pink and powder blue bedroom) has made his Mum angry with him. And then there's frog faced Gary, lounging about, taking coins from the dish in the foyer, and calling Max 'bud'

 

It's more than a seven year old can stand, and after another huge row late in the evening, Max, dressed in his beloved furry wolf suit, runs out of the door (with Gary in pursuit) and into the night.

He soon outstrips Gary and reaches the woods, where he finds a small boat, at the edge of a vast lake. Max climbs in and decides that he can sail the boat northwards, until he reaches the city and his Dad's apartment. But although at first he can see the twinkling lights of the city, they seem to be getting farther and farther away, until he appears to be sailing in the open sea.

 

Eventually Max's boat finds an island, a very strange island with brown and yellow striped earth (like peanut butter and cinnamon) and rocks that have embroidery like red moss clinging to them. He hears a strange mix of sounds, crashing, destructive noises but laughter too. He follows the noises, and comes across some four inch high cat's which is very odd, but they aren't making the noise so what is?. A hundred yards later he finds out. Huge animals, ten or twelve feet high, four hundred pound each or more, like enormous bears but bears with the quickness of deer or small monkey's, and they are all different too, one has a horn, one has string hair and one looks like a goat etc.

 

Thus we are introduced to Douglas, Carol, Judith, Ira, Alex, Bull and Katherine, seven incredibly wild things. In order to avoid having his flesh and brains devoured, Max persuades them that he is their king. They have a celebration and he's given a crown. The beast's look at him expectantly and Max says the first thing that comes into his head 'Let the wild rumpus begin!'

 

I found the first two thirds of the book really easy to read and extremely funny in places, but it did seem to lose it's way a bit and the final outcome seemed rushed. It was throroughly enjoyable though, the 'wild things' themselves were endearingly odd and funny. I must put the film on my rental list now.

 

8/10

Edited July 28, 2010 by poppyshake

[poppyshake]

Visited the library today and chose ...

 

Buddha Da - Anne Donavan

Tatty - Christine Dwyer Hickey

The Room of Lost Things - Stella Duffy

Molly Fox's Birthday - Deirdre Madden

The Still Point - Amy Sackville

Mudbound - Hilary Jordan

 

I'm always overly optimistic about the amount of books I can read in three weeks, I still have one that I had to renew ... 'Girl in the Blue Dress' and four from another library 'Love in the Time of Cholera', 'Ark Baby', 'Scottsboro' and 'The Color Purple' plus the one's on my shelf that are crying out to be read .... 'A Prayer for Owen Meany', 'Un Lun Dun', 'Anansi Boys', 'Possession', 'The Lovely Bones' and 'Everything is Illuminated' to name but six.

 

Almost finished 'Brooklyn' by Colm T�n .. have got to a critical bit now.

Edited July 28, 2010 by poppyshake

[Roland Butter]

Mudbound is a good 'un. I read it about 18 months back, at a guess. I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

[poppyshake]

Mudbound is a good 'un. I read it about 18 months back, at a guess. I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

 

Well that's good to know, thanks You never know when choosing books at the library, you can only go by the blurb. Though I do go armed with a list I tend to diverge a bit (and this was one that wasn't on the list .. the title just jumped out at me).

[poppyshake]

 

Brooklyn - Colm Tóibín

 

Waterstones Synopsis: It is Ireland in the early 1950s and for Eilis Lacey, as for so many young Irish girls, opportunities are scarce. So when her sister arranges for her to emigrate to New York, Eilis knows she must go, leaving behind her family and her home for the first time. Arriving in a crowded lodging house in Brooklyn, Eilis can only be reminded of what she has sacrificed. She is far from home - and homesick. And just as she takes tentative steps towards friendship, and perhaps something more, Eilis receives news which sends her back to Ireland. There she will be confronted by a terrible dilemma - a devastating choice between duty and one great love.

 

Review: Having read and loved Maeve Binchy and Marian Keyes's books I was looking forward to this one. I love a bit of literary Irish charm and humour.

 

It's quite an old fashioned story set in the 1950's about Eilis who emigrates to Brooklyn USA. Her family want a better life for her, and when Eilis takes a temporary job in a shop in Enniscorthy, County Wexford, alarm bells ring in the heads of her mother and sister, they want more for her than a life spent behind a shop counter and before Eilis knows it she is embarking on a journey that will take her to America.

 

At first she finds it hard to settle in, everything is new and strange to her and she doesn't make friends easily. And then she meets Tony. Tony is from Brooklyn but his parents are Italian, soon he and Eilis are meeting several times a week and becoming closer and closer, she's also studying hard for her book-keeping exams. But just as she begins to really settle and enjoy being in America, she receives terrible news from home.

 

I had a bit of trouble warming to Eilis, firstly her name,I couldn't think how to pronounce it, everytime I read it on the page I stumbled over it which got in the way of the text. I should have just googled it, I did when I was halfway through and found that it is pronounced Aylish (although there are variations) and I was happier once I'd got this into my brain. But also she seemed a bit of a cold fish, a bit wishy-washy. I was perplexed by some of her actions, she made me at times want to shake her to get her to wake up. No disrespect to Colm Tóibín but she seemed to be a female character that was definitely written by a man, in as much as her feelings seemed to run only so deep and no deeper, there was no fathoming her.

 

The story quietly hums along, it's not rivetting but it's very readable. It's a bit mundane in places, but Colm Toibin has a lovely descriptive style that seems to compensate for the lack of any real drama. At no point was I bored or wanting it to finish. I did feel though that some characters were not always fleshed out well, I wanted to know more about Eilis's sister Rose and her mam. However others, like Georgina who was only on the boat crossing, were fantastic (I'd love to have heard more from her) and there are some great gossipy characters.

 

It's a bit of a contradiction of a book, nothing much happens and it's quite a simple tale but it's still compelling.

 

I realise that this review sounds less than glowing and that's unfair to the book really because I did enjoy it, it kept me up late last night because I wanted to finish it. True to the rest of the story, there was no big ending and the temptation to throttle Eilis grew but it was consistent and oddly satisfying.

 

8/10

Edited July 28, 2010 by poppyshake

[nicx27]

Great review of Brooklyn. I read it recently and loved it, although I agree with some of your criticisms. I thought exactly the same about the fact that it's written by a man and so lacks some level of emotion that we would probably get from a female writer. And I also had to Google the pronunciation of her name early on as I wanted to get it right in my head.

[poppyshake]

Great review of Brooklyn. I read it recently and loved it, although I agree with some of your criticisms. I thought exactly the same about the fact that it's written by a man and so lacks some level of emotion that we would probably get from a female writer. And I also had to Google the pronunciation of her name early on as I wanted to get it right in my head.

 

Thanks Nic, aah you see, that's where brains are handy I struggled with it for too long. Common sense should have prevailed but it stepped in embarrassingly late.

[poppyshake]

 

Amenable Women - Mavis Cheek read by Joanna David

 

Waterstones Synopsis: Flora Chapman is in her fifties when her husband dies in a bizarre ballooning accident. Seizing upon her new found freedom, she decides to finish the history of their village that Edward had begun. A reference to Anne of Cleves, Henry VIII's fourth wife who he rejected for being ugly, captures her imagination as she begins to delve deeper into the life of this neglected figure. Meanwhile, in the Louvre, Holbein's portrait of Anne of Cleves senses the tug of a connection and she begins to tell the story of the injustices she suffered and just how she survived her marriage.

 

Review: This was a fairly enjoyable listen. I wasn't so taken with the story of Flora but was absolutely fascinated by Anne of Cleves's story (albeit a fictionalised account), without her narrative the book would have been a bit 'aga saga-ry', though, as always, Mavis Cheek writes with a great deal of humour.

 

After her husband Edward's death, Flora decides to finish his history of their village. Amongst his notes, she reads about a local estate which was granted to Anne of Cleves as part of her divorce settlement from King Henry VIII. Flora is incensed to read that Edward has written, as part of his description of Anne, the words 'Flanders Mare', this reminds her too much of Henry's pet name for her, the rather derogatory 'Bun Face'. She decides to find out as much as she can about this much maligned Queen.

 

Flora knows of old the tale of Henry VIII being much taken with the Holbein portrait of Anne of Cleves, on the strength of it he proposed and was accepted. He was rather less taken with her when they eventually met in Canterbury. 'I Like Her Not' he was reported as saying which was putting it mildly, there was a whole catalogue of complaints, he found her ugly, repulsive and smelly (this was rich coming from a man who was obese, balding and with an ulcerated leg whose smell, had it belonged to any ordinary man, could clear a room in twenty seconds). The marriage went ahead however, Henry couldn't quite extricate himself without disappointing his public and, more importantly, reneging on his treaty with Cleves.

 

It was not to last though, Henry could not endure it, after a few months he called upon his 'good friend' Thomas Cromwell to arrange for the marriage to be annulled. His good friend's head came off soon after.

 

Flora decides to visit the portrait which is now housed in the Louvre (apparently we have Oliver Cromwell to thank for this, as well as banning Christmas he sold off the royal art collection .. though Stephen Fry will probably inform me soon that it's all hogwash). She learns from the tour guide that Anne was actually named Anna, but soon the same old story is being repeated and the words 'Flanders Mare' rear their ugly head again. Flora is annoyed, Holbein was known to be no flatterer and when Flora looks at the painting she see's a quiet beauty and intelligence there. She ends up having a rather public disagreement with the tour guide, it's almost as if the portrait has come to life and is talking through her.

 

She has indeed made a connection, and following Flora's visit, Anna begins to tell us her true story (or as true as a fictionalised account can be), her own revulsion at the sight of England's Golden Prince, her private refutation of all his accusations. He had professed that on their wedding night she 'was no maid', that she was unintelligent, ugly, slow and clumsy. But these were not views shared by any of the other people that had come to know Anna. In fact, considering Henry's track record with wives, how she acted next was of paramount importance to her well being. A less intelligent woman would have probably ended up headless, but Anna, fully aware of the dire situation she was in, gracefully withdrew. She couldn't go back to Cleves, so she stayed here, acquiesced with all of Henry's wishes, knelt before his new Queen, Catherine Howard, barely a few months after her own wedding, and took on the role of the King's 'sister'. She ended up with a handsome divorce settlement consisting of houses - including Richmond Palace - jewels, and a more than adequate annual income. She was one of the few people to remain on good terms with all of Henry's children, especially Mary and Elizabeth, and was welcome at court. She was in fact, like Flora, a very amenable woman.

 

Here are the two portraits, both by Holbein, of Henry's most beloved wife, Jane Seymour (right) and his least preferred wife (before the heads rolled anyway) Anna of Cleves. Apart from the fact that Jane's portrait has been restored and is so much brighter, I can't see that she was any more beautiful than Anna. And though he didn't necessarily love Jane for her beauty, he obviously wasn't repulsed by her.

 

 

I have a bit of a fascination with all things Tudor so in that respect this book was a bit of a treat. I did have to suspend an awful lot of disbelief when, later in the book, at a London exhibition, the portraits of Anna, Elizabeth I and Mary I conversed with one another, also Flora's daughter needed a slap (violent feelings towards literary characters is becoming a bit of a habit with me) and Joanna David's narration was patchy but, on the whole a fascinating insight into Tudor times.

 

8/10

Edited July 28, 2010 by poppyshake

[Ooshie]

Well, you have got my 15 year old at it too, now! I woke up this morning to an email from Amazon thanking me for ordering We Have Always Lived in the Castle at 1.35 a.m. Being sound asleep at that time, I was going to cancel it and change my password, but thought I had better check with my son first. Oh yes, he said, he had read a review of it on your blog and thought it looked really good...