THE MERMAID AND MRS HANCOCK by Imogen Hermes Gowar

I wanted to love this as much as two of my book club friends did. I felt bad reviewing it in their presence at a get together, but it just did not make it for me. I am never that great with stories that have too much magic and unreal stuff going on in them. In this novel there are two mermaids, so there is a bit of uh-oh before starting. The story isn't about the mermaids per se, but they are central to the plot. Secondly it is way too long - 500 pages moving at a glacial pace, lots of nothing taking place. Lastly and most disappointing was the number of characters who feature heavily in the story at various places but just seem to disappear by the finish. There is also a violent scene towards the end that for me just did not seem to fit into the overall mood/tone of the book and I don't see the relevance of this in the plot or outcome of the story. 

Despite these criticisms, the quality of the writing is outstanding. As is the research gone into creating the city of London in the late eighteenth century. The writing is gorgeous, sumptuous, decadent, oozing with sensuality, colour. I loved reading about how people dressed, how they ate, comported themselves in their daily lives. The author has a wonderful way with words creating scenes of such vividness and immersion you can feel yourself there. 

Everyone is on the up, and the only way to get ahead is to be more beautiful, cunning, charming, richer, ruthless than the person next to you. Trying to make his way is widowed and childless merchant/boat owner Jonah Hancock. He finds himself the unwitting owner of a sea creature, and after some persuasion puts the thing on show, charging people to view. It becomes the talk of the town attracting a madame who decides to hire it off Jonah so she can use it in her houses to attract her wealthy and connected clientele. Part of this charade is a successful courtesan Angelica, well used to using her womanly wiles to seduce, charm, and be provided for. Until her benefactor dies, and she is cast aside by the family. This is her current situation, so she has to use all her skill and cunning to land herself another wealthy gent to keep her in the way she has become accustomed. 

Into all of this walks the unsuspecting, unworldly Jonah. His main objective is to protect his much reduced wealth brought on by the purchase of the mermaid, and yet he is impossibly attracted to the beautiful Angelica. What is he to do to retain her, his own magical mermaid. And what about that aged old prophecy that owning or possessing a mermaid can only bring one bad luck? 

THE SWIMMING POOL SEASON by Rose Tremain

I do like Rose Tremain. Somehow she is able to unzip and gently peel back the multi layered bits of her characters' psyches, revealing the complexities and moral quandaries faced by us mere humans in our daily lives and carry ons. This is an early novel of hers, published in 1985, although she had already published 9 previous novels by then plus a bunch of other stuff. In reading a novel of hers written long before the wonderful and immersive likes of Music and Silence, The Road Home, and Merviel, you can see how her writing has become more masterful, more enigmatic, her characters richer and more complex. 

In this novel, her observations are focussed on a small group of people at that ghastly stage of being known as middle age. With its associated crises. We reach 50, we just know that half our life has been done, and we better get a wriggle on to make the next 50 as good as it can be. Miriam and Larry have moved to the small community of Pomerac in the Dordogne region of France. Larry is ashamed at how his life has turned out, from being a successful swimming pool installer in England - a somewhat dubious unreliable way to get rich I would have thought - to losing everything and moving to France to lick his wounds and think about what to do next. Miriam is an artist, sort of of forced to accompany him, look after him but neglecting herself in the process. Gervaise lives next door to Larry and Miriam, a tough resourceful, enormously kind woman who farms the land, milks the cows. Her unpleasant husband with whom she has two sons, lives with her, as does her younger adorable lover Klaus. There is also a doctor, Herve; an elderly man Marechal; and a delightful Polish woman Nadia, also middle aged, who has recently put her husband Claude into care. All this sets up most of these characters to go through some form of mid life crisis, find a form of resolution, and move on. 

Miriam has an elderly mother, Leni, who has become very unwell, requiring Miriam to travel back to Oxford to look after her, manage the affairs there. Miriam decides this is the perfect time to resurrect her artist path, and possibly dally with a local bookseller who has always been in love with Leni. Larry in turn decides to build the most amazing swimming pool he can, wanting to surprise Miriam with it on her eventual return. At the same time a potential dalliance with the young bethrothed niece of Herve is enticing.  Nadia drowns her sorrows with vodka, Gervaise continues milking cows, agonising over her directionless son, her husband takes matters into his own hands, and steady lovely Klaus refuses to leave. 

Not a lot happens really, but the writing is mesmerizing in the ordinariness of these lives, the day to day goings-on, the shall I/shan't I decisions they make. It only felt dated because there are no cell phones, no internet, no social media. None of that stuff. Just letters, the phone, telegrams. But aside from the physical differences, this tale, its characters, the conundrums they face, the unfolding of it all is as perfect for now as it was 35 years ago. Just perfect. This has to be a sign of good writing, that it continues to hold relevance. 

ADDRESSED TO GRETA by Fiona Sussman

Does anybody still write letters? A rhetorical question of sorts, which makes the title Addressed to Greta rather intriguing. Even more so with a cover covered in enticing envelopes.  And anything with travel in it, particularly at this pandemic time, is even more enticing. Armchair travel - who would have thought this is something we all do together this year. 

Greta, bless her, has never travelled, never even been in an airplane, let alone have a passport. She is 39 years old, has worked for a pool supply shop in suburban Auckland for over 20 years, a family friend  giving  her the job when she was 17. Her delightful child spirit has been crushed completely over the years following the leaving of her father when she was just six years old. Poor Greta, in her 6 year old innocence sees his disappearance as her fault, and her mother, in her despair, rage and disappointment never seems to fix this. Now Greta has a safe life, mediocre, dull, few if any friends other than her pet chicken. She sees herself as unattractive with her nearly 6 ft large frame and size 43/11 feet. And then she meets Walter. She finds a friend, becomes a friend and blossoms. Until Walter dies. The light goes out again. 

Until Greta is contacted by Walter's solicitor. Walter has left a most special and surprising gift for Greta. And before Greta knows what has hit her, she is on a plane, off to New York, with instructions left by Walter as to what to do, where to go, as well as another letter with the next destination. He gives her the gift of a life, a life she never thought she would or could ever have. During the course of the weeks away she gets to know herself finally after all these years, coming to terms with her childhood, and where things went so terribly wrong. She is challenged at every turn by people, places, events; awed by the world around her and what it offers, the kindness those she meets show her. Her return to NZ is as a totally different person, but does she have the courage to keep on reinventing her life?

This novel really is a journey, and we are in it from the beginning. Endearing, funny, smart, brave, friendly - she has it all. Even her size 11 feet prove to be a bonus. As a fellow size 11 footer, I relate a 1000 percent to this - recent years have finally seen shops for women with large feet - pretty, feminine, elegant and stylish shoes. I told the women in the shop I go to - Willow Shoes - to get hold of this book, have a read and a laugh. And I hope author Fiona Sussman follows them up on it! 

SCRUBLANDS by Chris Hammer

  

Ooohh, yet another excellent Australian thriller writer, in a very similar vein to Jane Harper with a rural community living under never-ending relentless Australian drought conditions at its centre. The country town of Riversend lies somewhere between Melbourne and Sydney, could be any small insular town anywhere in Australia, in decay and decline as the lack of rain dries the land, forces people off the land and away, businesses close, schools shrink, pub closes. The cover photo has the words 'A Dead River, A Dying Town, A Killer's Secrets'. So good! 

Into this community enters veteran journalist Martin Scarsden, former war correspondent who has seen more than his fair share of awful things around the world. Bearing his own scars and demons he is despatched to Riversend to write an article on how the community is faring a year after a shocking massacre. On a Sunday a year before, a popular and charismatic priest opened fire on his parishioners, killing five before being killed himself. What on earth went wrong to make this completely shocking tragedy happen. Martin's task is not to look at why this happened, but to write about the town and its people now. As so often happens when a stranger arrives somewhere with a fresh set of eyes, an inquiring mind used to asking questions, analysing information, with a finely honed fifth sense, Martin finds himself deeply immersed in trying to solve what really did happen a year ago.

It is a most extraordinary story. We are meeting all the people who live in the community for the first time too, so are seeing everything and everyone through Martin's eyes. Nothing and no one is what they seem, and to follow Martin as he uncovers what and why is riveting. Throw in a bush fire for good measure, a love interest, bodies of missing backpackers, sad and demoralised locals, and this is a story with so much going on your head will be spinning. But somehow the author manages to balance all the different threads perfectly, keeping the tension high, the plot moving along, and the characters surprising till the end. 

This is the first in a series of what is now three novels featuring Martin Scarsden. The next two are on my reading radar, and perfect for the upcoming holiday season. 

AKIN by Emma Donoghue

It has taken me a while to get around to reading this, and I am so glad I finally did. Such a story teller this woman is, and so versatile in how she chooses her subjects, writes her stories. Who would have thought the writer of Room  would come up with this tale of an elderly man lumbered with having to take an 11 year old boy to the other side of the world with barely 24 hours notice. Noah is a feisty retired chemistry professor, making what he feels will be his last big overseas journey. He wants to go back to the city he was born in - Nice - to learn a little more about his parents, what made his father come to New York with him during the war when he was a baby, why his mother stayed, plus his famous photographer grandfather. This desire to delve into the past follows his discovery of a box of photos taken by his photographer mother during the war. On the eve of departure from New York he finds himself in the unwanted predicament of having to take his great nephew - Michael - with him in order to keep the boy out of a foster home and the bottomless vortex of social services.  

You immediately love Noah, even if he is a bit cantankerous, impatient and knows nothing about 11 year old boys. Michael is equally unhappy about having to be with Noah, a man he knows nothing about. But off the intrepid duo go, somehow knowing they are going to have to get along. Noah has a manic week long programme worked out for his stay in Nice in a bid to solve some of his family mysteries. He initially sees Michael as a hindrance but it becomes clear pretty early on that Michael is a brilliant asset with his close attachment to his phone - specifically maps and the web. A veritable feast of information at his fingertips. 

As well as being of practical help to each other, slowly and painfully, they unfold themselves to each other, begin to weave in and out of each other's emotional orbit as they find common ground, ways to join forces and be necessary, wanted to each other. It is wonderful how carefully and gently this process happens. They are both intensely likeable people - the elderly not entirely healthy old man, and the young, cocky, lonely and uncertain young lad. So much potential for a great relationship but will one of them completely stuff it up? 

As well as Noah, Michael and his phone, Nice is the other wonderful character in this novel. At a time when no one can really go anywhere, to be able to read about a place, learn something of its history, its culture, its landscape is the biggest encouragement to not give up on the dreams of being able to travel again. Plus add another place to the list of places to go before one dies. 

ONE BY ONE by Ruth Ware

 

Named as the new Agatha Christie after publication of her first novel in 2015, Ruth Ware writes a fabulously suspenseful thriller novel. You will be turning those pages in a crazy frenzy to get to the end because you have no idea what is going to happen, who is going to die, who is going to save the day. And why!!! This is so good - always love a good thriller. 

Reading a bit about the author, she seems to specialise in plotting her novels in confined spaces where you can't get away - manor houses, cruise ships, locked down places. She doesn't seem to shy away at all from the Agatha Christie style, this latest closely aligned to And There Were None. The scary thing of course, is that no one knows who is going to be next to be the one. 

How claustrophobic and helpless would you feel stuck in a ski chalet having survived an avalanche, your furnicular out of action, no phone or internet coverage. And no power. Plus a killer on the loose somewhere indoors. 

Snoop is a wildly successful company that developed a unique music app - where do writers get the ideas for these things from - enabling you to listen into what any fellow user is listening to. Imagine how cool it would be to listen at the same time to whatever Lady Gaga is listening to - shared singalong! The excitement. How different and exciting your life is going to be knowing you and Lady Gaga are musical besties! Anyway, I digress. The nine current owners/employees plus ex-employee Liz have convened at the ski chalet high in the Swiss Alps for a week of skiing, bonding, apres ski, and as the plot unfolds, a whole lot more. 

Erin is the chalet housekeeper, and Danny is the cook - the hosts to the ten guests. The story is narrated in turn by Liz and Erin. It is immediately apparent that there are huge conflicts, smouldering resentments, unresolved fears, and a general feeling of impending doom. The freezing and immaculately white environment hiding its own dangers and obstacles does not help. As people die and/or disappear, the hope of rescue fading away, the pipes freezing over, who is going to make it out. Fortunately we know from page one that there are survivors as the story begins with a newspaper article. So no spoilers there. But who....

Many secrets, many resentments, many coming to terms with one's behaviour - everyone is a suspect. It's a cracker. Really look forward to the inevitable film or mini series. So much atmosphere you can create with snow and cold and evil. 

ME by Elton John

 

Fabulous, funny, fascinating. I can't think of three better words to describe this terrific page turner.  This is an absolute capture-fest of outrageous anecdotes, unexpected details and stories about all sorts of icons of the last 50 years in the music, fashion, celebrity industry. And of course of Elton himself. He did have a ghost writer assist with this book, which gets the barest acknowledgement - a little disappointing for me, as it would have taken hours and hours of work to put this exceptional life into the book it is. It must have been hilarious and overwhelming sitting with Elton as he talked about his life, told his stories, relishing every outrageous detail. Such a great job done by the writer, as it has been written almost as if Elton is in the room with the reader, jabbering away, laughing hysterically, jumping from one episode to the next. 

Elton's story has been well known for a long time, brought to life with the recent movie. But the book is so much better. So personal from his humble beginnings, his really quite dreadful parents, his love of music and exceptional talent from a very young age, his classical music training that provided the foundations to his music career, his early band days, the serendipitous set up with Bernie Taupin, the constant need to prove over and over again that he was bigger, better, more flamboyant, more crazy than anyone else. his discovery of cocaine, alcohol and the dreadful path these took him down - really he should be dead, his gradual discovery of his sexuality, his never ending search for love and approval - a hangover from his childhood,  his gradual acceptance that he really can like himself and that he is fully deserving of happiness and peace just like everyone else. Along the way of course, the craziness of the rock and roll lifestyle, the unreal world they all live in, the fame,  his famous friends and friendships, his enormous humanity. Freddie, Rod, Versace, Diana, Mick, Madonna, John and the other Beatles, and dozens of others weave in and out of this life. Not only is it a story of Elton, it is also a story of the music and musicians/bands that many of us grew up with, whose music is so familiar and memorable. 

It's a great read, a fantastic insight into the heart and mind of a hugely talented musician and composer whose songs and music will endure for a long time yet.