The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout

I always enjoy those authors who can make the ordinary extraordinary. Among them is Elizabeth Strout, who writes about the drama of life in Shirley Falls, Maine. The Burgess Boys is a novel about two brothers who have made their lives in New York but who are called home to Shirley Falls to help with a family crisis.

Jim Burgess is a highly successful defence attorney with a beautiful home, a loving if snooty wife and kids at college. He’s also arrogant and takes people for granted, including his younger brother, Bob. Working in legal aid, the far more likable Bob has a failed marriage behind him; he's overweight and drinks too much, and puts up with Jim’s constant derogatory remarks.

When their sister Susan calls in desperation, her socially awkward teenage son has done an unimaginably gross thing – thrown a pig’s head into a mosque during Ramadan. Local authorities are demanding justice as is the growing community of Somali refugees. Can the Burgess brothers help with damage control?

While there are some broader issues illustrated here – the plight of Somali shopkeeper, Ahmed, is poignantly realised – essentially this is a story about family and how events, secrets and lies from the past have habit of bubbling up when you least expect them to, and how they need to be addressed before people can move on.

I know that sounds a bit heavy, but Strout writes like a dream, her characters wryly imagined, the dialogue witty and heartfelt while the plot has just enough tension to make the story interesting. There are plenty of laugh out loud moments too, and the ending is satisfying without being saccharine. I for one will be reading Strout’s backlist.

Posted by JAM

Catalogue Link: The Burgess Boys

About the Author:

The Infinite Air by Fiona Kidman

The year is 1909. The French aviator Louis Bleriot has just made the first ever crossing by plane over the English Channel, in a tiny monoplane. On the other side of the world in New Zealand, a mother pins a newspaper clipping about his sensational exploits above the cot of her newly born daughter. The baby’s name is Jean Batten. She will become one of the world’s greatest aviators.  (The Infinite Air, flyleaf)

Fiona Kidman has captured fully the life of Jean Batten in her novel, The Infinite Air. As a young child growing up in Rotorua, Jean learned early that to succeed in life one had to be strong-willed and courageous. She faced many setbacks and objections to becoming an aviator - she was once refused a job as a stunt pilot in Sir Alan Cobham’s Flying Circus on the grounds that she was a woman.

In the 1930s women did not fly planes, yet Amelia Earhart did, so too did Amy Johnson; these two women were Jean’s inspiration. Sir Charles Kingsford Smith was also influential, encouraging Jean’s desire to become the first female pilot to fly from Australia to England.

New Zealand in the 1930s was the only dominion of Great Britain that had not been linked to Britain by air in direct flight. Jean Batten became the first aviator to fly from England to New Zealand, via Australia, setting another world record.

The reader follows Jean’s journey of her great achievement, becoming immersed in Jean’s life, her successes, her sorrow and yes, we too realise the fickleness of mankind. For all her success, Jean died in obscurity in Majorca, buried in a pauper’s grave.

Posted by Flaxmere Library Book Chat

Catalogue Link: The Infinite Air 

About the author

Band-Aid for a Broken Leg by Damien Brown

Damien Brown is a young Australian doctor, who volunteered to work in Africa for the charitable organisation, Doctors Without Borders.  Working in countries like Sudan and Angola, he comes to learn just how different practicing medicine is in First and Third World nations.

On his first trip, Damien soon realises he’s in above his head and rather unprepared.  On the first day, his relationship with the local health workers doesn’t get off to a good start, culminating in a communication breakdown and staff walk out. Jumping from emergency to crisis, he deals with everything from victims of land mines and leopards, child malnourishment, gun-wielding militia, and performing life-saving surgeries in the most basic conditions.

Despite all the pressures that come with being a solitary doctor working in a third world hospital, he manages to keep his sense of humour and captures the absurdity of his situation, which makes this book an enjoyable and uplifting read.

Reviewed by YAH

Catalogue Link:  Band-Aid for a Broken Leg

All Change by Elizabeth Jane Howard

Elizabeth Jane Howard, an award winning author famous for the Cazalet novels, passed away earlier this month at the age of ninety. Late last year she published a surprise addition to the Cazalet series: All Change.

In case you may have missed them, the Cazalet novels featured a well-to-do English family and how their lives were affected by World War Two. Based in London, the three sons, Hugh, Edward and Rupert and their families return each summer to their parents’ rambling country house, the home also of their unmarried sister, Rachel.

All Change shifts the focus to the 1950s, ten years after the previous book left off. The matriarch of the family is dying, and the timber business that has kept the Cazalets in the manner to which they have become accustomed is in financial trouble. The old way of doing business is no longer working, and they haven’t moved with the times.

There are social changes afoot as well. While the Cazalet sons were sent off to boarding school, the girls were educated by a governess. In the post war world, they haven’t the best skills for making a living. The lives of Louise, Polly and Clary are sharply realised and the reader can only wonder how much the author has drawn from her own experiences.

Howard manages her large cast of characters with care to create another snapshot of a period that had a huge impact on English society. She leaves the family with a lot of challenges, but also possibilities. I am only sad that there can be no sequel, as I would love to know what happens next.

Posted by JAM

Catalogue Link: All Change

Worst. Person. Ever. by Douglas Coupland

So let me get this out of the way. This book will offend some people, so if you think this could be you then read the title again: Worst. Person. Ever. And proceed at your own risk.

Worst. Person. Ever. is the story of Raymond Gunt, a down on his luck cameraman who is offered a B-cameraman role filming a ‘Survivor’ type programme on a desert island. Unfortunately the offer was made by his ex-wife who seems to have as many issues as he does. Raymond’s bad luck and poor decisions continue to cause chaos and conflict in an increasing downward spiral of events.

Douglas Coupland is known for his stark view of the modern world. In this book he rather savagely mocks our obsession with ‘Survivor’ type TV programmes but also includes things that we should be concerned about like the Pacific Trash Vortex. (Wiki it.) You also have to like someone who mentions New Zealand in all of his books.

Coupland also likes to explain certain statements in a Wikipedia type footnote - like when he uses the term spork, he explains the origin of the spork or, as it is sometimes called, the foon. His explanations are a little more light-hearted than Wikipedia though.

Worst. Person. Ever. Is a bit like an awful You-Tube clip - you know how it will end but you still have to watch. As it says on the cover Gunt really puts the anti in to anti-hero!

Posted by R Meyers

Catalogue Link: Worst. Person. Ever.