TRANSATLANTIC by Colum McCann

TRANSATLANTIC by Colum McCann

The Irish are well renowned as great story tellers  and this author certainly carries on that legacy. I have loved past novels of his - Let the Great World Spin and especially This Side of Brightness - with rich characters, unusual situations, both set in New York City,  one taking place above the ground with its central character a tightrope walker, and the other taking place below ground during the construction of the underground tunnel network below the Hudson River. 

This book also has many similar qualities with its interesting and diverse characters, the significant incidents in their lives, its story telling, but for me, it just didn't seem to have the same impact as the previous two novels. Maybe because there is too much going on, as the chapters move between places and times - Newfoundland in Canada in the early 1900s, Northern Ireland during the Troubles and late 1990s, Southern Ireland in the famine of the 1840s, the American Civil War of the 1860s. These places and times are all held together by the movement of the characters backwards and forwards across the Atlantic, each of which forms a short story that makes up the novel as a whole. I found the links between the characters and events tenuous to say the least, and really felt that each of the chapters was worthy of its own novel.

At the core of the book are four generations of  women, beginning with Lily who finds the courage to leave famine plagued Ireland in 1845, her daughter Emily, then Lottie, and finally Hannah. These women have varying levels of importance in the course of the book; it is their interactions with the men who have greater roles to play in the book that holds the whole thing together.

As in his other books the author takes some actual events to help tell his story - the first trans Atlantic flight in 1919, the visit to Ireland in 1845 by a self educated black American slave, Frederick Douglass who was brought to Ireland to be the face of abolition, and the accomplishment of US Senator George Mitchell in brokering a peace deal between the Catholics and Protestants in Belfast in 1998.

As you can see there is a lot going on in 300 pages and it takes a very skilful writer to hold it all together. Which to a certain extent he does. The writing,  as you would expect, is sublime. He paints beautiful pictures of his characters, his descriptions of the Irish landscape, the cold and desolation of Newfoundland and the awfulness of war are stunning. I especially liked the two sections featuring Dougalss and Mitchell, strangers brought to a land to help rewrite history. Well worth the read, but don't expect to blown away by a fantastic plot.

GRIFFITH REVIEW 43 - PACIFIC HIGHWAYS

GRIFFITH REVIEW 43 - A QUARTERLY OF NEW WRITING AND IDEAS co edited by Julianne Schultz and Lloyd Jones

Review copy kindly provided by Booksellers Association NZ on behalf of Griffith University, Brisbane.

A New Zealand booksellers' site reviewing an Australian literary journal? Is this the next giant step forward in CER - NZ and Australian bookselling joining forces? Not quite...

Griffith Review is published quarterly by Griffith University in Brisbane, showcasing new fiction writing, essays, memoirs, poetry and art of Australian contributors.  It is probably most similar to the six monthly Otago University publication Landfall, which has been in continuous publication since 1947 and performs the same function for NZ writers and artists. In light of the success of New Zealand writers in recent years, this latest issue, "Pacific Highways" is devoted to all things New Zealand - a true showcase of the depth of writing we have here, and the issues/ideas/themes currently in circulation. In the true spirit of trans-Tasman cooperation, this issue is edited by founding editor and academic Julianne Schultz who incidentally did travel on a New Zealand passport at one stage, and NZ's very own Lloyd Jones - need anymore be said. He sees New Zealand positioned in a very exciting place at the moment, "one where it is possible to think of NZ as a hub in a mesh of highways spanning the littoral of South America, Asia, and Australia. There lies the future, as economists used to say. Perhaps it is time to acknowledge what is even more obvious. The future is here."

For a young country with a relatively small population the number and variety of high calibre contributors to this edition is fantastic. Two photographers, ten poets, three 'reporatages', six memoirs, three fiction items, and a most alarming twenty one essays. Twenty one essays? I would have liked to have seen half this number with the other half given over to ten more fiction writers. Wouldn't it have been marvellous to see something, if at all possible, from the only other Booker Prize winner Keri Hulme? Admittedly some of the essays have been written by well known fiction writers such as Damien Wilkins - finding himself 'forced' by virtue of having young daughters to watch TV reality show monster 'The X Factor NZ -,  Alison Wong, Kate de Goldi, and Hamish Clayton, but I really would have liked to have seen some more fiction.   

However, the choice of writers cannot detract from the variety of subject and the writing quality. Contributors are young and not so young, Chilean, Chinese, academics, publishers, journalists, Samoan, Maori, Pakeha, a scientist, a teachers, well known, completely unknown, fiction and non fiction writers, a sportswriter, men and women   - and many of these contributors are several of these things. It is a thing of wonder indeed that such a young and small country can produce such a huge pool of writers.

So what are the topics of choice for these writers in the twenty first century? Again many and various - the Christchurch earthquakes, the recent death of artist Ralph Hotere, a descendant of  Chinese who migrated to NZ a hundred years ago, a poem about the 1979 Erebus tragedy, beautiful and personal writings inspired by the land and seascapes, an economist looking at our economic future, a children's author marvelling over Margaret Mahy. And at the root of almost all the writing, our ongoing search for a national identity and finding our fit in the world. There is something here for everyone, a lot of it is easy to read, to understand and enjoy. And some of it not so much. But it is great to see the continued respect being given to New Zealand writers and artists from outside our borders. 

A CONSTELLATION OF VITAL PHENOMENA by Anthony Marra

 A CONSTELLATION OF VITAL PHENOMENA by Anthony Marra

More than three quarters of the way through this heart breaking and compelling novel, the title - above - is defined for us. On page 1322 of a medical dictionary - Life: a constellation of vital phenomena - organisation, irritability, movement, growth, reproduction, adaptation. In the middle of one of the many awful wars of the past 100 years, this unusual definition places humanity, small kindnesses, personal and intimate deeds at the heart of the story and the people in this novel.

Chechnya -  breakaway republic from the iron arm of Russia, rich in natural resources, not allowed to be in charge of its destiny by mighty Moscow. In our Western press, all we have ever really heard about this isolated far away place is the extreme actions of its terrorists. But this is a region which has had more than its fair share of destruction, rebuild, invasion, expulsion, rebuild than any population should have to bear. Hardly surprising they should choose to resist from time to time. But as with most stories of war, very little is ever told of the lives of the ordinary people, their inability to control or manage their fate and the fates of their families. So it is in this story.

Amazingly this is a first novel, and the author is still only in his twenties. Following a period of study in St Petersburg, he first came to learn about Chechnya, its people and its history. The quote above comes from a medical dictionary he was looking at one day.

The story moves somewhat erratically between 1994 and 2004 when the latest two wars took place. The action in 2004 takes place over five days and is centered in a village where three men - Akhmed, Dokka, Ramzan - all friends since childhood live. Another key character is Ramzan's father Khassan. The story is also told through the eyes of Dokka's eight year old daughter Havaa, a brilliant Russian born doctor Sofia and her sister Natasha. Heart breaking things happen to each of these people, and they are all faced at some stage with making some very hard decisions as they confront the terrible consequences of civil war.

In the very first paragraph Havaa sees her father seized by the Feds and her house burnt down. She is rescued by Akhmed who flees with her to the one and only surviving hospital which he knows is the only place Havaa will be safe from the Russians. He entrusts her to the care of Sofia, and as an ex-doctor himself stays to help out. Unfolding in the village is the ongoing search for Havaa, the dilemma that Ramzan who is an informer faces, and the position that Khassan too finds himself in. As the story unfolds Natasha's link to this small village and the resulting betrayals unfolds. Nothing, however, is ever simple, but the constant and at times annoying plot movements over the ten year period slowly begin to make sense.  

This is a haunting story, and like many other novels of its kind, can't help but make us question how we, in our safe comfortable worlds, would behave in such extreme circumstances. 

THE LUMINARIES by Eleanor Catton

THE LUMINARIES by Eleanor Catton

I felt a bit apprehensive starting this. Booker Prize Winner...youngest winner ever...won by an NZ-er only once before...1st chapter 364 pages...overblown and varying reviews...would it live up to the hype surrounding it? Would this be 800 pages of reading I wish I hadn't started but felt committed to finishing out of some misguided patriotic allegiance?

Well, I needn't have worried. It was everything I had been led to believe it would be and so much more. A vastly entertaining and rollicking read, full of vivid characters, chock full of complicated and intricate plot lines and threads, twists and turns, dead ends and surprising results.This book really is a wonder to read, and much more than I had initially thought. Having said that, the first 80-odd pages required a couple of read throughs, and I can understand how readers could find themselves struggling a bit to this point. Not a lot happens, a lot of names are bandied about, and there seems very little to hold it altogether.

Persevere my friend, persevere...because suddenly, it just takes off, and the next 200-odd pages are a whirlwind. I found myself getting so confused with who was who, what they were doing, why they were doing it, how they were linked to others and where they were going, I ended up making notes on each of the main characters.It certainly helped and then at the end of this particularly long chapter, there is a 20 page summary of all that has gone before.Whew. But don't read this first, you must start at the beginning...

Actually, I hardly know where to begin with writing about this book. Structured around astrological charts, the twelve signs of the zodiac, and the seven traditional planets, the story is, at its core,about a murder - Crosbie Wells, middle aged miner who somehow and inexplicably is in possession of a vast fortune. How did it get there, who owns it, who will get it. Crosbie is Terra Firma (Earth) - the one unchanging constant through the narrative. The twelve zodiac signs are assigned to twelve men of various occupations and backgrounds who are all associated with the deceased in some way. The remaining six planets - Mars, Mercury, Venus, Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus, and Pluto are assigned to a number of other significant characters, and lastly the sun and moon represent two characters who are associated with all the others. Confused yet?

The setting is the Wild West of New Zealand - the South Island gold fields of the 1860s - greed, deception, people escaping their pasts and reinventing themselves, opium, gold, brothels, land grabbing, displacement of indigenous peoples, bribery, blackmail, betrayal, drunkenness and temperance. And from time to time human kindness and decency.

Throughout the book there are astrological references: each of the twelve chapters is precisely one lunar month after the previous chapter, there is an astrological chart at each chapter start, and within each chapter there are sub chapters which have a very brief description about what it contains. Each chapter is also half the length of the previous chapter - weird and bizarre as it all sounds, it truly does work.

This is an awesome book, a huge thing to read, sprawling in its concept, with amazing and beautiful use of the English language. One day I will read it again. So glad I bought my own copy.

THE SHOCK OF THE FALL BY NATHAN FILER

THE SHOCK OF THE FALL  by Nathan Filer

Winner of the 2013 Costa First Novel Award.

The author works in the mental health service of the NHS. He is also, according to his website, a performance poet, of some note in the UK. Such a person as this must have a remarkable insight into the human mind, and also possess the gift to put it all into word pictures for the rest of us.

It was a real privilege to be let into the mind and soul of a schizophrenic young man who realises things aren't quite right, but seems determined to overcome the problems he is currently facing. Matthew is 19 years old and is narrating the story of the last 10 years of his life.  It is 10 years since his brother, who was 12, died while the family was on holiday at a camping ground. His brother, Simon, had Downs Syndrome. The family was a close knit one, and Matthew describes his parents, his grandparents and his brother in loving and descriptive words. Simon's death, for which Matthew feels 100% responsible, affects everyone very, very deeply. His parents sink into their own awful grief, Matthew blames himself and as the years pass feels increasingly unable to cope with daily life due to this enormous burden he carries around with him. His grandmother, Nanny Noo, is the one constant in his life, always there, always compassionate - the one really significant adult in his life. 

The one thing Matthew never loses during these years is his ability to write down what he is going through and this becomes the one therapy that helps him get through a trauma that just won't let him go. The narration covers the 10 years from the day of the death to the present, but jumps around a bit during the years of this time period, which does take a little concentration, as he seems, to me, to be in and out of hospital quite a bit! His descriptions of hospital routine, and his unbelievably dull, boring and most awful time there would bring out a cry for help in anyone. You know then that you are reading the words of an author who knows what he is talking about.

I don't normally go for books like this. But it had received good reviews, and of course a first novel award. Many of reviews on Amazon and Good Reads are 5 star - very high praise. It seems a lot of these readers have either had experience of some sort of mental health issue themselves, or been close to those who have. I didn't get quite the same feeling of stunning and awesome from this book, but certainly feel as if my own mind has been opened more to what a mental health illness would be like.

Published in the US as "Where the Moon Isn't", apparently with some edits.

CATCHING FIRE by Suzanne Collins

 CATCHING FIRE by Suzanne Collins

The saga just keeps getting better and better. Hot on the heels of 'The Hunger Games' - book and movie, and with the 'Catching Fire' movie in its last days in my neck of the woods, I threw myself body and soul into reading prior to viewing.

Marvellous, marvellous, marvellous. There is considerably more depth to all the characters, to the terrible predicament they find themselves in, and a lot more at stake in their personal lives as well. The three lead characters, Katniss, Peeta and Gale are no longer just teenagers. They may be a few months older in a physical sense but they have matured well beyond their years with the stuff they are confronted with.

The story begins with Katniss as she and Peeta begin a victory tour of all the Districts. Unwittingly the two of them find they are the symbols contributing to unrest and possible rebellion against the Capitol. To keep a cap on it all, President Snow forces them to the arena to once again fight for their lives.
 
This is very dark stuff, and I can't help compare this series to that of Harry Potter. Both deal with very dark issues and themes and the world being saved by very young adults. But always at the back of my mind with Harry Potter is that is about magic, and so far more fantastical than this series. Even though there is no magic here, the forces of good against evil, might versus meek, authoritarian government versus the people, are the same themes as in Harry Potter. As a parent, however the idea of children fighting each other to the death is way more repellent than anything Voldermort threw at Harry and his crew.

To be honest, I didn't find 'Catching Fire' as compelling a read as 'The Hunger Games', but the movie more than made up for that. For me, a rare case of the film being better than the book.  'Mockingjay', the third book in 'The Hunger Games' series is, as I write, climbing perilously to the top of my book reading pile.

A FEW RIGHT THINKING MEN by Sulari Gentil

 A FEW RIGHT THINKING MEN by Sulari Gentill

What a pleasant little romp this book was. This Australian author has now written five novels with Rowland Sinclair as the central character, this book being the  first in the series. The setting is Sydney, early 1930s; the depression is biting hard with no sign of economic recovery on the horizon. People are looking for alternatives to the current democratic and capitalistic systems they are living under. Communism and its reds under the beds is extending its reach as far as Sydney, appealing to the younger,  educated, bohemian population. On the other side, the rise of fascism is appealing to the wealthy land and business owning sectors of the population who see communism threatening their own economic base.

Young Rowly falls somewhere in the middle. Youngest son of a very wealthy landowning family, he was too young to go to war, but his two older brothers both did, one not returning. He leads the life of the very wealthy young Sydneysider, but having been blessed with an artistic talent he is drawn to the bohemian side of life rather than the business  of managing the family wealth. Much to the disdain of his older brother Wilfred. (Rowly drives a Benz, Wilfred drives a Rolls.) Rowly lives in the family pile in Sydney with three of his equally bohemian, communist leaning, but very poor friends - fellow artist Clyde, poet Milton, and the ethereal, beautiful and widely adored Edna.

Within this backdrop of rising political tension in Sydney, Rowly's loved uncle is murdered. Dissatisfied with how the police investigation is progressing, Rowly takes it upon himself to try and solve the murder and along with his three friends, ingratiates himself with the local fascist movement, putting himself onto a path of some danger, but, as you would expect, with a successful outcome.

The real hero of the story is the city of Sydney itself and the political-economic climate of the time. The author has researched the period and the city with some zeal. Each chapter is headed by a newspaper article of the day, and there is loads of detail on the personalities of the day, clothing, food, drinking habits, and other minutiae of daily life. This was really quite a bizarre time in the life of the average Sydneysider, and there were some very strange goings on, none perhaps more bizarre than the official cutting of the ribbon for the opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge being upstaged by a fascist crack pot. The characters mentioned in the press of the day all feature in the novel, including the ribbon cutter, the state premier, prominent police officers, and political party leaders.

It is all highly entertaining in a very Agatha Christie sort of way, and with enough menace to keep the reader interested, although I would not say it is a page turner. Perfect really for a leisurely summer read.