Monday 30 June 2014

Coming Home by Sue Gee

Sue Gee’s latest novel is set in post-war Britain and focuses on a family finding their feet in a changing world. Will has made a life in India as a sugar cane planter until enlisting for active service during the war. Flo has joined the women’s auxiliary forces in India having failed on the marriage market and as a nurse. When she meets Will it’s love at first sight.

Marriage follows just as Will’s life in India comes to a close and they leave for Britain with dreams of farming and children. How they adjust to a draughty farmhouse and the hard physical work of the farm, caring for their two children - outgoing Bea and sensitive Freddie - brings up some new issues. These include Will’s health and Flo’s restlessness as a home-maker and her urge to write. India holds a particular place in their hearts that they can never forget.

In the background Britain is still reeling from the effects of war and rationing, women have had independence during the war but are back to running homes again, or bringing up children alone. There are examples of mental illness and infidelity while the old rules about class and people’s place in society are on the verge of change.

Coming Home is a sensitive look at one family through the fifties and sixties. Each character is finely drawn and their individual struggles really engage the reader’s sympathy. It was interesting to read about Sue Gee’s own family background which prompted to her to write the novel. Perhaps this explains why Coming Home has such a ring of truth about it. Another great read from an accomplished author.

Posted by JAM

Catalogue link: Coming Home

About the author

Wednesday 25 June 2014

Look Who’s Back: A Merciless Satire by Timur Vermes

Hitler is back. He has woken to find himself on a barren patch of ground amidst the busy Berlin summer of 2011. Disoriented and unsure what has happened, one thing is obvious: he's on his own – no Nazi party and no headquarters. He discovers Germany is in a terrible state. He must regroup the best he can - the Fatherland needs its Fuhrer.

And regroup he does. With the explosion of media and celebrity culture, Hitler finds it remarkably easy to build up a following in the new world order. He is mistaken for a flawless impersonator and his theatrical type rants fit perfectly into stand-up television and YouTube. He's a hit. The public love him.

Look Who's Back became a bestseller in Germany. It is written in the first person in the style of Mein Kampf but, unlike Mein Kampf, Hitler comes across as almost likeable (the book only has light sprinkles of his hatred for 'others'). He is charmed by small children and women, and is charming in return. He is earnest, determined, upfront, and honest. His strength of vision, leadership qualities, and ability to turn a situation to his advantage are almost admirable.

Reviewers outside of Germany seem to attribute the novel's success to the country's still strong taboo around the subject. But while there's nothing in this book that jolts you wide awake, no sharp prickle of fear creeping up the back of your neck nor any particular laugh-out-loud moments, it will exert a strangely optimistic charm and, all the while, you are thinking: could another dangerous madman climb the political ladder in the West?  are our democracies as safe and unassailable as we assume them to be? The gentle unease will stay with you, just like your fascination with the rich, famous, and successful. Be mindful how susceptible you are is the take-home message, and don't forget that the merciless can assume a civilised façade when they choose.

Look Who's Back is deceptively naïve.  Great reading for an election year. 

Reviewed by Spot
 
Catalogue Link:  Look Who's Back

Thursday 19 June 2014

Flight by Elephant by Andrew Martin

Burma was a British colony in 1942 when the Japanese invaded and thousands of British tea planters, civil servants and administrators suddenly became refugees. As the enemy closed in, escape routes via air and sea were soon cut off, leaving one party under Chief Railway Commissioner, Sir John Rowland, to take the treacherous overland route to India known as the Chaukan Pass.

Flight by Elephant is the true account of their escape and gripping reading it is too. Andrew Martin has delved into the diaries of several key players, including Charles Rowland with his British bulldog prose; and the man for the rescue mission on the other side of the pass: Gyles Mackrell, a tea planter and former World War One fighter pilot, with a connection with elephants.

The fierce determination of Mackrell to see the rescue mission out, the battle fought against leeches, malaria and a monsoon in full swing are all vividly brought to life. Andrew Martin has added plenty of interesting detail about the characters of those involved, the political and cultural background, to say nothing of the terrible terrain and weather conditions the party encountered.

The book is also a tribute to the mahout guides, without whom the rescue could never have gone ahead. With Martin’s lively prose, Flight by Elephant reads more like an adventure novel than a historical account - a rip-roaring read about heroism against the odds.

Posted by JAM

Catalogue link: Flight by Elephant

Thursday 12 June 2014

Sense and Sensibility by Joanna Trollope

Jane Austen completed only six novels but these have garnered a huge following over the centuries, with multiple TV and movie spin-offs. The latest addition to all this is The Austen Project, where six well-known novelists each rewrite one Austen novel in a modern setting. Recently, Val McDermid’s version of Northanger Abbey was released, but the series kicked off with Joanna Trollope’s Sense and Sensibility.

If you recall, this novel features the Dashwood family of three attractive sisters and their mother, who lose their family home of Norland, when the father of the family dies, and primogeniture hands over his title to the girls’ half-brother. In Trollope’s update, the girls’ mother was Mr Dashwood’s mistress – he’d run out on his wife and son long ago, and on his deathbed begs young John Dashwood to look after the girls and their mother. His wife Nancy, however, has other ideas.

Elinor Dashwood is the sensible daughter, taking on the burden of responsibility when they move to a new town and a smaller, ordinary house. Younger sister, Marianne, is the passionate one, who falls for the handsome wastrel, Willoughby, their new neighbour. There’s a whole fleet of minor characters, all either eccentric or snobbish in one way or another while Elinor secretly pines for Edward, nasty Nancy’s brother.

Trollope provides plenty of lively dialogue and manages the cast of characters well, bringing in social media, text messaging and a modern London social scene. It well written and hangs together just fine, but I couldn’t get past the silliness of many of the characters and their over-the-top behaviour, while I miss Austen’s elegant prose. So just three stars from me for this one.

Posted by JAM

Catalogue Link: Sense and Sensibility

Thursday 5 June 2014

Harvest by Jim Crace

Jim Crace was nominated for the Mann Booker Prize for this novel about a chain of sinister events occurring in an English village several hundred years ago. Its narrator, a farmer named Walter Thirsk, is a widower like his former boss, Master Kent, the local squire and landowner.

Since the death of Kent's wife in childbirth, the land is soon to pass to Master Jordan, his cousin by marriage. Jordan wants to turn a decent profit from the land and is keen to replace the cluster of small holdings with sheep. The villagers’ very existence is under threat and this forms a backbone of the story.

When Kent’s barn is set ablaze soon after harvesting, a culprit must be found, and this is an era for cruel punishments. Thirsk fears for the two young lads who were intoxicated following the harvest, but the arrival of strangers on the village’s outskirts turns people’s suspicions elsewhere. When tragedy follows, fear and superstition are not far behind and Master Jordan’s men also add a fair degree of menace.

I found myself turning the pages with a feeling of impending doom, yet unable to tear myself from Thirsk’s story. At the same time Crace provides a description of an idyllic way of life where people live close to the land and in tune with the seasons. Crace creates a brilliant narrative style for Thirsk that has an authentic ring without sounding quaint.

Harvest is a finely crafted novel that packs a lot of thought between its slim covers but is also such a joy to read it is very hard to put down.

Posted by JAM

Catalogue Link: Harvest