HARLEM SHUFFLE by Colson Whitehead
HAPPY HOUR by Jacquie Byron
One day a new family moves in next door. To Franny's surprise, Sallyanne Salerno and her two children - 8 year old Josh and 15 year old Dee - somehow get under her skin, and slowly work their ways into her life. Naturally it all begins to come undone at a certain point, Franny having to confront some unwanted demons emanating from her frozen in grief state. She has to learn to live again, but does she really want to.
It really is quite a delightful and fun story to read and enjoy. The two children are excellent characters. Josh is a divine little boy, already wrestling with not being the stereotyped 8 year old, preferring Franny's gorgeous collection of old clothes, silks, shoes, feather boas to playing cricket, rugby and doing boy stuff. Dee is a teenager caught between being a little girl and a young woman, trying to be something she is not yet ready for, very drawn to the sophisticated and glamorous Franny. Sallyanne is trying to be the best mother she can, getting away from her abusive husband and working full time. No wonder the children seek refuge with Franny and the dogs. But does she want them in her life?
There is some great dialogue, Franny has a mouth on her that I am sure any 65 year old woman would be proud of. She has never had children herself so approaches the whole business of relating to children differently from any other adults in Dee and Josh's lives, with some very funny and unexpected results. I liked this a lot - it is not in any way great literature, but it is funny, light and very enjoyable.
THE HONOURABLE SCHOOLBOY by John Le Carré
Not quite the same reading experience as Tinker, or of any other Le Carré novel I have read. For a start it is extremely long - nearly 700 pages. It is burdened down at the beginning with so much scene setting, so many characters, so much going on but none of it at any pace. It follows on immediately from Tinker in the late 1960s, starting in Hong Kong, the HK part of the Secret Service now in a total freefall, the fall out from Haydon shrinking operations in areas outside of England. In these first chapters we move from Hong Kong to London where Smiley is picking up the pieces, to Tuscany where Jerry Westerby - reporter cum spy is languishing. A multitude of characters are introduced and it takes a while of reading before some coherence and understanding takes place. Once it does however, the book becomes a riveting read, Le Carré deftly balancing the on-the-scene actions of Jerry (mostly) as he tracks down the players involved in the smuggling into Hong Kong - read the west - from communist mainland China of the brother of a highly influential and wealthy Hong Kong based businessman. Interwoven with this is a woman just screaming out to be rescued by Jerry, a pilot of dubious character as are all the SE Asian based characters - hence Jerry as the honourable one, numerous other bit players who flit in and out. Plus of course Smiley, Guillam, the other Circus experts, the Americans - the Cousins with their own investment in the situation, the British bureaucracy exercising its own desire for control and needing to appease the Cousins. It is complicated, at times tedious - especially the scenes where Smiley and co gather to figure out what to do next.
The Hong Kong/Cambodia/Laos action however is fantastic. I was always relieved when the plot moved out of dreary office rooms and secret chambers where men (and one woman) in suits discussed what to do next. Le Carré must have spent time in these regions to depict so well the climate, the grubbiness, the hectic insanity and sleaze of the cities of Hong Kong and Bangkok, the unflappability of the SE Asian people versus the untidiness, loudness, boorishness of the expat mostly British population trying to survive in the sweltering and humid climate. Jerry makes a great spy, a man of great resourcefulness, cunning and flying by the seat of his pants.
It is well worth a read, but do be prepared to spend time rather than racing through. I wonder if a cast of characters at the beginning would have helped - there are a lot of people in this book.
SAVING MONA LISA by Gerri Chanel
The guardians of the art were extraordinary men and women. Their passion and drive to protect the art, the insane logistical nightmare of moving it - paintings of all sizes, statuary and sculpture - huge things some of these paintings and sculpture were. Ancient Egyptian antiquities, Greek, Estrucan and Roman art, Islam art, prints, drawings, decorative arts. All of which required careful packing, transport by road in rickety trucks with rationed fuel over damaged roads to safe, dry and remote lodgings for however long the conflict would last. And all under the eyes of the Germans, most of whom had no idea what was passing them by on the roads or in the small towns. The top Nazi leadership knew full well what was going on, and the trickery used by the French, the delay tactics, the stretching of the truth, the hiding places, the clever and quick thinking of staff on site as the Germans came poking around - what wonderful, devoted and brave individuals these people were, who saw themselves as the custodians of the art in their care. France was lucky in one respect in that the Nazi who had the Louvre on his watch was also a very cultured man, very respectful of the Louvre, its contents and the staff, going a fair way himself to slowing down the inevitability of art leaving France.
I really enjoyed the Them and Us style of the book, the strong spirit of patriotism and determination that holds all these people together. Naturally the Resistance features, people aren't quite what they seem, lives are lost, people get sent to concentration camps, But the art survives, the history and culture of France is untarnished, and most importantly the spirit of the people remains intact, strong and united.
AFTER YOU'D GONE by Maggie O'Farrell
The day of Alice's fateful trip to Edinburgh ends with her lying in a hospital bed, in Intensive Care on life support, not expected to live, following her apparent intentional stepping out into a line of London traffic. Why??? And then the un-peeling begins. Two stories are told here, the story of Alice's life and that of her mother Ann. There is extensive intermixing of the two time lines, and gliding between the two main characters, even within the chapters, as the story builds up to that moment in the bathroom at Edinburgh railway station. We follow the story of how Alice's parents met, her childhood, her boyfriends and eventually the man she falls bonkers in love with and he with her. Ann's story is also told, beginning with fragments of her childhood, then her time at university, how she met Alice's father and their family life. There are complications in both marriages - that of Alice and John, and that of Ann and Ben. Quite different and unexpected complications. The plot regularly returns to Alice's hospital bed where she lies, the sad and frightened talk of her family going on around her, the upsetting and painful conversations with the medical staff. It is all so ordinary and yet it isn't. Oh, I wish I could say more about the plot...
The writing is sublime, perfection, how the author holds the lives of these two women, slowly building up to the day of Alice's accident is effortless. The characters are all extremely ordinary, relatable, fully developed and nuanced beings. You ache for all of them. The fluidity with which the plot moves back and forth from the present to many stages of the past, and back again is just so easy. I want to get my own copy of this book, so I can read it again sometime in the future, but I have to hand this back to my lovely friend, because it is one of her favourite books of all time.
STILL by Matt Nable
Working amongst a viper's nest of dodgy cops is Senior Constable Ned Potter. He seems to have found himself a niche in his work, but is wearied by the culture of the police station he is working in. His discovery of a body in a piece of shallow marshland is the beginning of a long and dangerous road to solving a trail of criminal behaviour in the city and the cover ups that have taken place. Read for that - murders, bribery, rule by fear, corruption, blatant racism. The works. No one wants Ned to succeed.
There is also a female character who becomes pivotal to the plot of the story. She is Charlotte Clark, married to one of the not so nice male characters. Only 23, she already sees that her husband Bobby is not the man she wants to spend the rest of her life with, the loss of a baby certainly not helping things. She dreams of an escape, but doesn't know how to achieve it.
I thought this was pretty good writing. The author is an actor and has been in his fair share of movies/TV series about this underbelly of Australia, as well as in the thriller genre - his last movie role was in The Dry, adapted from Jane Harper's terrific first novel. Still is full of characters who fit the brief so clearly of that hardened, dried out, tough Australian man or woman we see so much in movies, on TV. The setting of the Northern Territory is outstandingly depicted and drawn. I felt as frightened when the plot moved to the marshlands, the dry bush, the long straight roads, the colourless landscape, as I did when the blokes were all trying to hold their own in the local pub, the air of menace and violence never far away.
There are crocodiles but no bushfires. There are more dead bodies, domestic violence, people learning they are bigger and better than the place they live and the people they live with. It has plenty of tension, danger, and some unexpected surprises. It's going to make a good movie. Guess who may have written himself a part.
THE MIDNIGHT LIBRARY by Matt Haig
Nora Seed has given up hope. Her life has turned into a great big fat nothing. Disappointed in love, her job under threat then gone, few if any friends, her beloved cat dying, none of her dreams or plans ever turning out and not being able to figure out why. She decides to end it all, leaving perhaps the most heart rending but extremely beautiful suicide note.
But it isn't curtains for Nora. She finds herself suspended in a different type of universe - the Midnight Library, manned by Mrs Elm, her old school librarian who took a special interest in Nora. In this magical place of endless moving rows of books of all shapes, sizes, colours, Mrs Elm offers Nora the chance to examine more closely the regrets she has had and how life may have turned out if she had taken that particular path or decision instead of the one she did. Now we all have done this in our lives - if I had taken that job instead of this one, or if I had learnt to play tennis instead of surfing, or gone home instead of walking into that bar one night. The list is endless, but of course we don't get a chance to see how our lives may have panned out if we had made one choice differently! We just wonder 'what if?'
Nora's alternative life situations are fascinating - her childhood dream of being a geoscientist in Antartica could well have happened, and she was an excellent swimmer with Olympic potential. In another life did she become a famous Olympic swimmer? And wasn't she some sort of rock chick as well? So multi-talented, smart, sassy, spirited - what happened? And ultimately, what choice does she make? Does she realise she wants to live or does she still want to end it all?
I loved this - beautifully written, it gets deep into the soul. Yes, it is of course completely unrealistic, and none of us can relive or change our pasts. But just given the chance to think about it, and place yourself in the Magic Library with a significant adult from your childhood, what book of regrets would you pick up, and how would you imagine things might have turned out if you took that path? It reminded me of Kate Atkinson's Life After Life with the life of Ursula Todd told in two ways - if she had died at birth or not, if she had died at each of the various pivotal moments in her life after that or lived. Again I adored this book. 5 stars for me as with this one.
Author Matt Haig writes fiction and non fiction for adults and children. His books are quirky, magical, just a bit different and this one is all of those. He has suffered from depression in the past, so may well have called on some of his own experience in writing this. It does have a sense of the writer knowing what he is talking about!
COMMON GROUND by Naomi Ishiguro
Ten years later, it is Charlie's turn to tell the story. He is in London, trying to hold his life together. Despite his intelligence he just has not been able to get his life sorted. He drinks too much, his warehouse job is not going well. But he has the gift of the gab, is charming, handsome and pretty good at picking up the girls. One night he meets a young woman who bizarrely leads him to a chance meeting with Stan, now a journalist with a good job, a girlfriend, a flat, friends - a great life. But the dynamic between the two has changed after ten years of no contact. Stan really wants to reignite the friendship, help his old friend who did so much for him. But life has got in the way.
It's a strange story really, I liked it - beautifully written and slowly rendered. But I didn't really find it completely plausible. The friendship between the two when they are boys lasts only a matter of weeks, I didn't think long enough to leave such an indelible mark on the two, to such an extent that ten years later, there is this compelling need to rekindle it. I remember friends I made at that age, they were intense for a period of time, usually short, loyalties are frail at that age, and I certainly wouldn't bat an eyelid if one popped up ten years later. Anyway, despite the possible unlikeliness of it all, it certainly is a well written and good story of enduring bonds, loyalty and how we can make positive differences in each other's lives.
WIFE AFTER WIFE by Olivia Hayfield
What a cracking great read this was! Enormously enjoyable retelling of What a cracking great read this was! Enormously enjoyable retelling of the real life story of Henry VIII and his six wives in a modern day setting. Yes, it is very contrived, and of course you know the general layout of what is going to happen - divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived. But how is this going to translate to how marriages and their ends happen today? The author must have had huge fun coming up with the various means of wife disposal, and as bizarre as a couple of them are, it does all work.
Harry Rose is Henry. It is the hedonistic days of the 1980s in London. Harry has inherited a magazine publishing empire from his father, he is married to Katie Paragon. Life is great, truly fabulous. He has a roving eye - how surprising, but when the story opens, life is peachy. But not for long. His marriages and other dalliances all take place against the backdrop of 1980s-1990s (mostly) London and his growing publishing business. He is doomed of course to suffer much, mostly brought on by his own silly male hand. His pride and self esteem is dazzling to behold, his lack of empathy with absolutely everybody legend. His treatment of women is appalling, nowadays he would be well and truly called out on his behaviour and attitudes, but 30-40 years ago not so much.
All the characters are based on the real life characters, made very modern in name, profession/occupation and what they get up to. I loved making the comparisons, doing the odd Wikipedia for fact checking. It is clever, fun, and hugely entertaining. Now there is a sequel - Sister After Sister - all about Harry's daughter Eliza and her running of the publishing empire with her cousin MacKenzie- based of course on Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots. Oh let me get my mitts on this one!
BIG LITTLE LIES by Liane Moriarty
The story itself is a great piece of domestic noir, centred on the mums at the school gate dropping off/collecting their small children. As any Mum of small children at the school gate will attest to, this environment is a ridiculous breeding ground for all sorts of bizarre scenarios. I look back with a sense of craziness on my years being part of the primary school community - your children making friends and you in turn meeting their mums and families, the physical pain when your child is not invited to a birthday party, the social functions, the PTA, sports day. The weirdness of some mothers - the verbal war that broke out one day with one mother accusing the other of producing a daughter who was the devil's spawn! Nuts.
This novel has all that rumour, emotional intensity, friendship, power games so intrinsic in any group that women belong to. It's just like Mean Girls for grownups. Threaded through the story are universal themes of domestic violence, Mums trying to find a niche for themselves, solo parenting, bullying, new kids in the class. All so relatable which would be a ratings winner in a book, but with Moriarty's clever writing and great characters, this is engrossing and fabulous.
THIRTEEN MOONS by Charles Frazier
The story is told in the first person by Will Cooper, reflecting back on his life as his final days are closing in. Before beginning his own story he sets the scene in the southern Appalachians, Cherokee country, where the white man is slowly making inroads. There is a lot of history in this book, and I did use Google too to get the picture of this devastating period of time for the First Nation peoples. Here in NZ we have our own brutal stories resulting from the arrival of the white colonisers, but of course, even though the theme is the same, the roll out is different in each tract of land. Importantly, we are introduced to two important Cherokee men who become a bit part of Will's life.
The story starts properly, I am guessing around 1820, with Will, a 12 year old boy, being indentured to a trader, requiring him to make a lone journey of some days with little in the way of supplies or even navigation to a trading post in the mountains that he is to be in charge of. Talk about baptism by fire and survival of the fittest. Off you go Will... let's see if you make it! Obviously he survives, and so begins his life immersed with the Cherokee of what is now North Carolina. He is a clever lad. learning from local Indian leaders, and also taking the best of what the white man's world offers. He becomes a successful trader himself, and a lawyer of sorts, ending up as the spokesman and negotiator for his tribe as the government ruthlessly pursues its goals of relocation of the Cherokee people and the taking of land. It is not pretty, and as we know much tragedy ensues. Will himself comes in for plenty of criticism and conflict, placed in a moral dilemma that he never really gets over.
There is love too, Will falling crazily for Clare, the ward of his nemesis the powerful Featherstone. This love will haunt him all his life, a beautiful and tragic love story.
This book is a saga, a story of a life - Will's - and the loss of a hugely important way of life - that of the Cherokee nation. Similar stories are told the world over, but this has such a human quality to it, striving to be doing the right thing, doggedly, naively, not always successfully, but always with passion and drive. The novel is very much a potted history of the expansion of America to the west, taking the mountains, moving settlers in, and the locals out.
The author states that the character of Will Cooper is based on a real life person - William Holland Thomas - you can google him to find out more and get considerable background to this story. But the author does say this is a work of fiction.
TROY by Stephen Fry
This is the third book in Stephen Fry's Greek Mythology series. The first two - Mythos and Heroes - provide the background to this story of Troy. I have read Mythos, had forgotten much of it by the time I read Troy, and still haven't read Heroes. All the gods and heroes who appear in this book are well documented in the first two, but it is not absolutely necessary to have read the two earlier books. Fry provides lots of footnotes references if you do want to read further. All the gods and heroes in this last book are very well rounded and more than adequately described.
Reading this is a very immersive experience, very vivid in its telling, very blood thirsty and vengeance - after all everything is about men - yes, it is all about men and how amazing they are - and their competitive streaks. Revenge being the sweetest drug. Who cares whether any of this is true or not? The story is spell binding, we know it is doomed, but we keep reading anyway. It is fascinating to learn the background story to the siege of Troy, how Helen managed to launch a thousand ships, why that particular part of the foot is called the Achilles Tendon. I love all this history stuff - fairy tales for grown ups, with messages and a moral 100% relevant for any civilisation since the Ancient Greeks, including ours. Very entertaining.
THE SHADOW SISTER by Lucinda Riley
THE SYMPATHIZER by Viet Thanh Nguyen
This novel is a history lesson in Western involvement in this region of Asia from the days of French imperialism - the book's lead character, the Captain, is the product of a French priest and a poor uneducated Vietnamese woman - to the disaster that was America leading the charge in the Vietnam War. It is also a story of being the chameleon that anyone of mixed race finds themselves in - neither one or the other, and yet able to move effortlessly between the two. So it is for the Captain - highly intelligent, astute, intuitive, he is a huge asset to both the Vietnamese and the Americans. He is educated in the US, graduating from Berkeley, immersing himself into the typical life of a young man in 1970s US. A good time. So here he is in the kingdom of capitalism, but at heart he is a committed Communist. It is not a great surprise, due to his unique talents and makeup that he becomes a spy.
The story opens in 1975 as the US is in a race against time to leave Saigon, everything gone horribly wrong, the Communists almost at the door, everyone wanting to get one of those final spaces on an American plane. The Captain is in the employ of a general, quite high up in the pecking order; he has the task of drawing up the lists of who goes on the planes. Including himself of course. It's certainly gripping reading, the evacuation of Saigon, depicted so brilliantly in movies like The Killing Fields.
The telling of the migrant experience in America is riveting too. From being a general to being just a migrant working a low paying dead end bottom of the pond job cannot be an easy adjustment. Their lives may be saved, but their souls have a long way to go before feeling fulfilled and happy. Meantime the Captain continues to report back to his own hierarchy about what is going on. There are betrayals, heart break, tragedy. The Captain is intensely loyal to his non-communist school boy friend, and it is he who leads him back to Vietnam as part of a revolutionary unit to overthrow the communist regime. How you do this with out betraying yourself, and pretending to be what you are not, I just do not know but mind altering substances certainly seem to help.
This is not a book for the faint hearted, parts I did have to gloss over, it is graphic in its violence. But when your life is all about keeping yourself alive, then violence has to feature. What is so extraordinary about this novel is how much we learn about Vietnam, its history, its culture, the appalling treatment over the decades dished out by the French and the Americans to a beautiful country, a cultured and refined people, the constant fluidity that a mixed race person has to go through on a daily basis, conflicted in many many ways, how life really is for migrants from non-Western countries to Western countries. It is good, very good, but also very long, an experience to read, not one for the beach or holiday resort. But if you want to expand your brain and challenge your Western mind set, this is well worth it.
ALL THE YOUNG MEN by Ruth Coker Burks and Kevin Carr O'Leary
In the conservative and staunchly religious parts of the world, the treatment meted out to Aids patients was a terrible thing to see. Fear of course was driving much of the behaviour and attitudes, as was shame - being gay not considered natural, normal, permitted. HIV being a seen as a 'serves you right' disease. In the states of the American south, these attitudes were far too prevalent. It took a young single mother, Ruth Coker Burks, a woman with an extraordinary level of compassion, courage and balls to challenge the community she had lived all her life in and give these men dignity and love in their dying days. The more involved she got, the more of a crusade and his life's work this became. Her decisions around caring for and helping these abandoned men forced her to make some tough life decisions regarding her own life and that of her daughter. She could have had her child taken off her because of the work she was doing, she had no money, hardly any job, yet she kept going and going, her goal to help those less fortunate than herself.
You can Wikipedia her, she is still doing great things in the community she lives in, and passed her own courage onto her now adult daughter and grandchildren. What a legacy to leave to the world. I love to think that how this is written is exactly how Ms Burks speaks and goes about her daily life. A marvellous woman, funny too, fearless. For 10 years she cared for and buried Aids patients, only relinquishing this part of her life as medical and palliative care as well as social attitudes, improved for such patients.
CONSTANT RADICAL by Jenny Chamberlain
This excellent biography by veteran journalist Jenny Chamberlain is much much more than the chronicle of a life, still being lived. It is a potted history of New Zealand since the very early days of European settlement in this country, when Maori and Pakeha first interacted. She takes the reader on a social, political and economic history of this country from those days in the 1820s, when Sue's forebears first arrived here in the capacity of missionaries. And why is all this early history necessary? Because if we want any understanding of this powerhouse of a woman, who has challenged the white middle class establishment of this country, who has put herself through numerous arrests, who has endured some really tough times, who has pages and pages of her actions meticulously detailed in NZ's secret service files and who never, ever gives up, then we really do have to go right back to those first footsteps in NZ's early settlement days.
Sue's early life was a combination of middle class bohemian intellectualism. Two brilliant parents, Sue the eldest child of 4, the only girl, herself intellectually brilliant, was always going to be 'trouble'. School was difficult, her relationship with her father was never easy, her mother having lost her spirit, Sue became the stroppy female from a young age, easily open to politicisation and making a difference And it just grew from there. Her life has been so intense, so rich, so busy, and would have crushed many, but no, she gets back up and just keeps going.
I grew up in a household the complete antithesis of Sue's: a compliant and dutiful first born child, in a family conservative and proper. I loved this book, am in complete awe of Sue, what she has achieved, her work ethic, her own immensely strong core values, her own unwavering devotion to her family - I just find her dazzling. Her political career may not have panned out as she wished, but it seems that she earned the respect of almost every politician she worked with, I can only imagine how terrified and/or scathing most of them would have been with her entry into parliament.
Chamberlain's research is huge, the list of names in her acknowledgments and the 100 plus items in her bibliography letting the reader know that this is not just the story of a life, but with the detailed background, it is also the story of a society and how we came to be as a country. The book is equally about the writer - she has turned all this material into a hugely readable and interesting book. I know that, as a journalist this is what she is trained to do, but this is nearly 400 pages of A5 size book, densely written, I hope she also is proud of what she has written. Such a great book.
OLD MAN AND HIS GOD by Sudha Murty
WE WERE NOT MEN by Campbell Mattinson
So it with Eden and Jon. Jon is the narrator, the observer. The story covers the years from the accident - age 9 till their late teens - ten very formative years for these two. For a start they never really know if Bobbie actually wants to be their 'mother', if she is capable of loving again after her losing her husband, then her step-son, his wife, leaving two badly little boys with no one else to take them in. Such a responsibility and sheer work for a not-so-young woman. The boys find huge comfort in each other, but most of all it is water that provides the most comfort. Eden's injuries and recovery mean that land based pursuits are hard on his body, so the medium of water and swimming comes to save the mental and emotional lives of these two. Gifted swimmers, all that each other needs, they are instant winners on the local swimming circuit. The pressure, expectations, enormous discipline, sacrifices mind games and exhaustion of high level sport are insightful to read, the minutiae of the swimming races tense and exacting, the competition between two people who love and need each other more than anything fascinating to see.
And naturally along comes a complication that threatens to unravel completely the bond between the two. Being Australia let's not forget a bush fire either that threatens everything they boys have left. Like a lot of writing coming out of Australia in the last few years, it is not simply a story being told in matter of fact straightforward language. Authors like Tim Winton have paved the way for a greater sensitivity in writing, especially by male authors. Like Markus Zusak's Bridge of Clay, this story rocks the family love, the bond and tenderness between brothers, the world through a child's eyes, the search for purpose. It is almost as if it has become 100% ok for Australian men to finally explore and be comfortable with the softer, more nuanced sides of themselves, to be ok with being emotional and fully engaged with feelings. One doesn't have to be that tough, mean emotionally disengaged man we so often see. If you liked Bridge of Clay you will love this.
MONEY: THE TRUE STORY OF A MADE UP THING by Jacob Goldstein.
Despite this, I did enjoy what he had to say very much. I got a bit bogged down with the gold standard, and central bank theory, but there is plenty more to enjoy and learn from. Much of this of course is basic economics as societies grapple with how to place value on stuff. He takes us back to the ancient Greeks where it all began, the sophistication of China before the Europeans arrived on the scene, the early European economists and mathematicians who tried to make sense of the chaos brought about by expanding empires, then the industrial revolution. I particularly enjoyed the sections on how the Great Depression occurred, and the GFC of not that long ago. His explanations of these I thought were good, possibly over simplistic but when you aren't an economist or a mathematician, simple is good.
FROM THE CENTRE: A WRITER'S LIFE by Patricia Grace
HOSTAGE by Clare Mackintosh
Mina is a senior flight attendant, her next flight is special. She is one of the chosen few to crew the first non-stop flight from London to Sydney - some 20 hours in the air. This is a very big deal. Plenty of publicity, press exposure, important passengers, and not so important with their own reasons for travelling to Sydney.
Mina is married to Adam, things haven't been going so well between these two in recent months, Adam moving out, but he does come home when Mina goes to work. Adam seems to be on some sort of path of self-destruction which Mina is increasingly unable to deal with. They have a daughter, Sophia. Now five years old, she was adopted by Mina and Adam. Her early life was not easy resulting in a child who is not easy to parent. But easy to love. She is a delightful child, unusual and challenging but comes across in the story as bright, curious, knowing.
Mina begins her work day, stressed out by what is going on at home, Sophia unsettled by her loved nanny unexpectedly leaving, the replacement nanny still not yet part of the furniture. Not long into the flight Mina is given a note - the plane is being hijacked, and if she wants to see her daughter again, alive, then there is something she has to do. If she doesn't, they all die. What do you do? Save your daughter, or save a plane load of hundreds of people? A dilemma to be sure.
What follows is tension ridden, especially when it becomes clear who the hijackers are, how they behave and interact with each other, the passengers and the crew. It is very very good. We have all flown long distance, especially when you are from NZ - 12 hours to Los Angelos is just what you have to do. This is all very realistic and relatable. And how little do we really know about the passengers around us? So much blind faith.
Meanwhile, back home, Adam is having troubles of his own, managing Sophia, the new nanny, and finding that his gambling debts are catching up with him. Who is going to come out of this alive?
Terrific stuff. And what a movie it would make!
THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL by Deborah Moggach
So you know the story - ageing impoverished British pensioners are lured to a an ageing run down hotel in an Indian city to live out their remaining years, in a warm benevolent climate, no NHS, a chance for a new beginning, or at the very least a changed beginning. The film is great, lovely, uplifting, happy, warm, a real boost to the spirits. The book is too, but just so much better, and like most book/film comparisons so much more than the film, deeper, more complex and really very good. And being India, of course, the complexities are diverse and more complicated than what you can put into a film. And darker. But like the film, the book is also joyful, with the delight and otherwise of meeting of new people, building a different type of family, acceptance of new circumstances and the wonders of a new life. You will feel happy after finishing this.
MOTH by Melody Razak
Being about the Partition, it is definitely not a pretty read, the violence implied on the first page telling you that you know where this is headed. However, do not let this put you off from reading this memorable novel of a family in Delhi coming to terms with the upheavals going on around them.
It is 1946, in Delhi, where, like many cities, towns, villages and communities in India at this time Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs have lived fairly amicably side by side for a very long time. But of course the times are a'changing, the British are leaving, and leaving an even bigger mess in its wake. Alma is a 14 year old girl, full of the silliness and romantic notions that 14 year old girls are full of. She lives with her 8 year old sister Roop, a child overflowing with character, imagination, intelligence. Their parents, Brahma and Tanisie, are teachers at the local university, where the exchange of ideas, viewpoints is prolific and vocal. They are a Brahmin caste family, at the upper point of the Hindu caste system, which tightly regulates how Hindu society operates and functions. Brahma's mother also lives with them, as does a young Muslim woman who is like a nanny to the girls. There are a couple of servants too. Their lives behind the walls of the house are peaceful, fun, orderly.
However, sectarian violence, rising Hindu nationalism, continuing ineptness of the British, have Alma's parents very concerned for her safety and virtue. As in all wars, targeting violence at women and girls is the easiest and most demoralising way to defeat an enemy. A marriage has been arranged for Alma with a young man from Calcutta, and this is all Alma can think about. Until events take over, and her dreams are blown away. She is a headstrong young lass, deciding that she needs to get away from Delhi, to go live with an aunt in Bombay.
Aside from the story line itself, the author has honed in on the minutiae of daily life for this family - food preparation, how they dress, their reliance on the newspapers for the news, their conversations with each other, others outside the home. This is a genteel family, how they live and are in a total contrast to the chaos and violence going on outside the walls of their home.
I have read a review of this book by an Indian woman. She has high praise for the author, commending this non-Indian writer for her "impeccable research, the atmosphere she creates with her sense of time and the place". There is also the possibility of a happy ending too which is a relief. A rich and absorbing book.
BEFORE YOU KNEW MY NAME by Jacqueline Bublitz
18 year old Alice Lee has run away to New York from some obscure nowhere place in Wisconsin, escaping an increasingly unpleasant situation she has found herself in with her school teacher. Alice has no parents to speak of, the only person truly looking out for her being her best friend. Why does she choose New York? It is the most far way place she can think of to go. And so she does. With the terrific optimism and hope that young people have, she finds a place to live - with a reclusive older man. The alarm bells would be clanging big time in the minds of us oldies, but no, it is a perfect place for Alice, allowing her to find a bit of herself, see a future, make some plans.
But then it all goes wrong, and within weeks of arriving in New York, young, beautiful, talented and fearless Alice is dead. She was discovered by another runaway - 36 year old Ruby. Ruby is going through her own crisis, having uprooted herself from Melbourne to New York. Again because it is far away from everything she knows and she has never been before. What an adventure. Unlike Alice she has money so can live somewhere half way decent. But she knows no one, is depressed, disoriented, uncertain. Until she finds Alice. Ruby wants to know who this young woman was, how she came to be where she is, and with some magic direction from Alice, watching in the shadows, wanting her soul to be at rest and peace, she 'helps' Ruby bring the murderer to account.
It is gripping, thrilling, quite different from any type of murder solving book you will ever read, and just terrific. I loved both these women - courageous, determined, true to themselves, united in the quest. It will make the best movie or TV series.
WILD SEAS TO GREENLAND by Rebecca Hayter
I know Ross personally, and not from sailing, so it has been extra entertaining, insightful and jaw dropping to read this book and see the man, the legend, or as Rebecca calls him the old war horse, in his natural environment, at one with the elements, the boat. It sounds cliched, but it will leave you with a sense of wonder, especially if like me you know very little about sailing. This could well put one off reading such a book, and yes there is plenty of technical stuff, sailing jargon, boat parts, weather words, an endless variety and number of sails, with equally endless names. But I just glossed over much of that, because all it told me was how fastidious Ross was in his planning and preparation and I never felt bogged down in it. Which of course is the talent of the writer, to give you just enough to let you know this is important stuff, but not enough to bore the brain out of you.
So the journey. There is nothing on earth that would make me get on a yacht and do a trip like this, to about as close to the North Pole as you can get with the ever present threat of icebergs, storms, polar bears, the cold, the tedium of it all, let alone being in a confined space with Ross Field for so many days. But the writer does. This is an opportunity she may never get again. She admits she is scared, but she has 100%+ trust in Ross, and the journey is navigated and sailed without any mishaps. As with anything successful, it is all in the preparation - the outfitting of the yacht Rosemary, sorting food, clothing, wet/ice weather gear, the technical mastery of navigation, weather, radar which is done with Ross' son Campbell based in Lymington. And then the journey itself - leaving Lymington, the Irish Sea, getting to Greenland, sailing through the fjords, the North West passage not panning out as planned. But I don't really detect too much disappointment about this as the whole trip, even as a reader is truly amazing. What it must have been like to experience the rawness and untouched beauty of this region. The landscape is beautiful, bleak, white, icy, cold, sparsely populated, hard to live in, where in the middle of summer it never gets dark. How disorienting would that be day after day. Rebecca is an outstanding writer, bringing all this to life, and the photos - so many photos - in this unusual 24 hour light.
As well as being a 'diary' of her journey, this book is a homage to Ross, his extraordinary talents and intense love for what he is doing. In turn she is also honouring her own father, who although he never did this particular journey, he did do two huge ocean going journeys. This book is sprinkled with quotes from her father's writing, Rebecca being the link, the conjoint between these two mercurial, talented and tough men. I loved this, I surprised myself how much I liked it, Ross's daughter telling me to read it. Sailing and water sports are not really my thing, but this is just terrific, increasing my respect for people like Rebecca and Ross who take the world by the horns and give it a jolly good shake.
STILL LIFE by Sarah Winman
The story opens in 1944, Florence, the Allies recently arrived to liberate the city and clear out the Nazis, a few of whom linger snipering as they go. Evelyn Skinner is a middle aged adventurous spinster who happens to be in Florence, in the capacity of an art historian helping with recovered and rediscovered art wonders. She also happened to live in Florence for a time as a young woman, and it has always been a place close to her heart. As you would expect in Florence. A chance meeting with a young British soldier, Ulysses Temple, ignorant of the stupendous art environment he finds himself in, creates an instant and lovely connection, that haunts them both for years to come, shaping the course of both their lives. As do the consequences of an extraordinary act of courage that Ulysses undertakes during this time.
After the war Ulysses is back in the East End, back to the local pub with its wonderful, endearing, complicated, damaged cast of residents and regulars, including his wife Peggy. These two were children together, that somehow ended up marrying. Separated by the war, Peg falls in love with an American servicman who promises her the sky, the earth and everything in between, but naturally fails to deliver, leaving her pregnant. A child is born, into an instant family at the pub, which also includes Claude - the parrot depicted on the cover of the book.
Some years later, as a result of what happened in Florence in 1944, Ulysses is back in Florence. How he gets there is almost a story in itself so I can't reveal that here! A wonderful love story with the city and his little slice of paradise begins to unfold, the city weaving its magic not only over Ulysses, but the rest of his pub family, and finally Evelyn herself.
I love the characters the author has created. Such real people, full of the worries and anxieties, hopes and dreams that we all have, derailed by life events. There is a love of art and beauty, possibly hard to find in post war East End, London, which affects them all deeply, opening them up further to the world and the possibilities in it. It is a beautifully told tale of connection, memory, what makes a family, and love.
HAMNET by Maggie O'Farrell
William Shakespeare is never actually mentioned by name in this story, the character that is him does not even have a name. In fact he is the only character without a name. Agnes is the name of the wife in this story. She has an interesting back story, a woman a little unusual, in less enligjust htened times maybe even accused of being a witch. She has extraordinary knowledge of the medicinal qualities of plants, which she uses to good effect in the village she and her husband live in, with their three children, next to his parents. Until two of her children get ill, and then one dies, their son Hamnet. Whom Shakespeare names his play Hamlet after. The sickness and death of children in these times is not at all unusual, hygiene being what it was, disease being rife, including the plague. There is an intriguing chapter about how the plague comes to the village, to Hamnet and his sister. How a virus can travel so insidiously and anonymously.
The story is so beautifully written, it makes you feel for Agnes, her children, the loss of a child. 16th century English village life is brought to life, made real. The relationships within the family are so relatable, just like our relationships as couples, as a family are today. The world goes around, the centuries pass, but the basics stay the same. Despite the tragedy central to the story, this is is a story written with love and joy, by an author who cares deeply for her characters and what they are saying. It is perfect.
SINGULARITY by Charlotte Grimshaw
This collection of short stories was published in 2009, which is probably when I read it. She is an observer of people, of relationships, of the landscape and physical world around her. She writes lovingly and beautifully of the places she lives in, visits, holidays in. Even walking around her city, she writes evocative pictures of her settings with writing that draws you in, makes you part of the story, makes you feel what the story is. Her stories are about ordinary people, doing ordinary things, yet somehow she makes them important, special, meaningful. I read this collection again because she refers to many of the stories in her memoir, and how she came to write them. Some of them are based on things that happened to her in childhood, most notably a walk that three children under the age of 10 are sent on that almost ends in tragedy. The real walk and the fictional walk are almost identical in their telling, which is very chilling. After reading the memoir, many of the threads in her short stories make more sense, there is much greater depth to the stories because you now know where they come from.
I really hope she goes back to writing like this, as she also has in her short story selection Opportunity, and in her earlier novels. I will go back to being a big fan.
THE MOTHER WOUND by Amani Haydar
Amani Haydar's mother would be so proud of what her daughter has done in her 32 years of life. A dutiful and loving daughter, a mother herself, wife, lawyer, artist, women's rights advocate, and most importantly advocate for her own mother and siblings, after her father brutally and maniacally stabbed her mother to death. Because her mother wanted to leave, she wanted to have her own life, she wanted to continue the marvellous work she herself was doing for her Lebanese community. But no, her conservative Lebanese husband, Amani's father, did not want this.
This is a shockingly honest, raw and brilliant memoir of how this tragedy came to happen, and how Amani came to terms with it - her own father killing her mother. I can't even begin to imagine the horror of having to deal with such a terrible event. This is such an intimate account of a family life told first through the eyes of a child, on whom it slowly dawns that her family isn't quite as 'normal' as the other Lebanese families in their neighbourhood. There is an added curve ball in this mix - predominantly white Sydney/Australia loves a good ethnic/cultural minority violence story, and this one ticks all the boxes. How Amani comes out the other side of all this I really don't know. Her marriage is probably stronger than before, she is a loving and adoring mother of two small children, she is no longer a practising lawyer, but has found a perfect outlet for her intelligence, her courage and tenacity in her involvement with victims of what she is now calling domestic abuse rather than domestic violence.
Uplifting, honest, cathartic, a remarkable insight into one family's tragedy and a privilege to be allowed in. You can follow Amani on Instagram and see her beautiful art which has helped her in her grief, her coming to terms with what has happened, and her admirable strength. What a woman.
THE MIRROR BOOK by Charlotte Grimshaw
What a story she tells. With young children herself, her own life begins to implode when her marriage is threatened by her husband's affair. Rolling away underneath this impending disaster, with Charlotte trying to figure out why and how this has all happened, she realises that her life is one of complete denial and suppression of much of everything to date. It being a long and difficult process for Charlotte to find her true self, to have the courage to tell her story and in the process confront her parents and siblings with much discomfort, is a total understatement. And now she is telling her story, in her way, to redress and set the record, her own record straight so she can live freely. And there have certainly been some challenges.
Many times her childhood and family life were magical, fun, loving and connected. She has huge praise for much of the life her parents gave her. But within this tight family unit of exceptionally high standards there are some alarming instances of neglect, danger, survival, assault, bewilderment, denial, lack of emotional and physical care. Her loss of self comes from her parents' denial that any of the things she thinks/believes/knows happen to her, did not in fact happen as she remembers them. If they even happened at all. We all know the feeling when you share stories of events from childhood with your siblings and everyone remembers the same event in a different way, or something happens to your brother or sister, and you have no recollection of it. You start to doubt if what you remember is the real memory or not.
This is Charlotte taking a huge breath and opening up the shutters of her family life and in her own life, making sense of it, warts and all. It is marvellous, horribly honest, confronting. Most people would wait until their parents were no longer alive to open up, not this person! It is at times uncomfortable reading, but by crikey it is riveting and courageous writing. And my goodness can she write. She makes much reference in her memoir to previous writings, some of which I have read. Including Mazarine. I didn't get it when I read it and still don't get it! I have reread her short story collection Singularity, many of which have references from her childhood told in this memoir. They take on a whole new meaning when you know the real back story.
Outstanding writing and reading.
THE MAD WOMEN'S BALL by Victoria Mas
The background to this novel translated from French is treatment of the mentally unwell, not in the present, but in 1885, in Paris. In recent years mental health awareness, perceptions and treatment of have totally come out of the closet, and what a good thing that is. Way back in 1885, such health issues were never discussed, you just got chucked into a 'medical' facility where you had no rights, no choices, totally under the control of the medical people who ran the place. And what better way to treat an unwanted wife, a rebellious daughter, a mother with what would now be diagnosed as post natal depression, an abused woman who finally can't take any more and throws her awful husband off a bridge. Lock them away. Simple.
The Salpêtrière asylum is where women would be incarcerated until deemed recovered. If ever. Once a year there is a ball - the mad women's ball. With the cream of Pais society, the nosy and curious vying for tickets, this is the event of the year. A ridiculous premise really, putting crazy people on public display, the women are in the thrall of dressing up, altering beautiful dresses to fit, playing dress ups, in an atmosphere of hope for the women, and voyeurism for everyone else.
Geneviève is a head nurse at the asylum. Brought to the nursing profession following the death of her younger sister many years before, she has been at the asylum for some 20 years, a true part of the furniture, but also trusted and valued by the male medical staff. She is kind, concerned for the women in her care, but she is very repressed emotionally, buttoned up and not a happy woman. Into the asylum comes 17 year old Eugénie, daughter of one of Paris' society families. She has ideas and dreams way beyond her family's rigid rules, and dangerously can see and hear spirits of people who have died. Once incarcerated, she comes under the care of Geneviève. Life changes dramatically for both women when Eugénie sees and hears Geneviève's long dead sister Blandine. The tension and question of the story is who is mad and who isn't, what is going to happen on the night of the ball, who will stay and who will go.
Vivid writing, beautifully capturing Paris of the 1880s, striving to be a modern city, but with these deeply barbaric institutions and ways of doing things. The characters are so well drawn and develop It is also about the power of hope, the power of connections, taking a chance, and just believing. Very good story. And I understand that Amazon is making a movie. Can't wait.
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