LEAVE THE WORLD BEHIND by Rumaan Alam

 

Such a great premise, exciting plot potential - white aspirational middle class New York family rent a beautiful house in the Hamptons for their summer holiday. Idyllic location, perfect house, happy teenage children, happy Mum and Dad. Until a knock on the door quite late in the evening of their second night. An older black couple who claim to be the owners of the house, and have fled New York following a black out. Instant tension. Surely this is enough conflict with a myriad of possibilities in plot and character development. But no. Because...

The characters are the stereotypes we would expect - distrustful holiday guests; overly polite cultured black couple trying not to tread on toes; annoying whiny unpleasant teenage children. There are no surprises in how the characters behave through out the story. 

Secondly the story decides to add an element of horror with the black out in the city seeming to precipitate some universal world wide cataclysmic event. Of which we have no idea at all, and so no context to be able to make any sense of what is going on. Is it an invasion? Or a nuclear war? Or some sort of chemical/bio weapon drop? Even a natural disaster? Or a combination of any of the above. Whatever has happened seems to have strange effects on people - not everyone suffers - interestingly the owners of the house seem to be untouched - may be this is something happening only to non-black people! Strange things such as thousands of deer coming out of the forest, prompting the teenage daughter to somehow develop a weird drive to follow them. Or the professor dad who goes out for a drive to see if he can find out what is going on, and inexplicably becomes totally disoriented and lost. And what are the alarming sonic booms that shake everyone to their core?

The book ends very weirdly, it just stops, totally incomplete, almost as if the page limit or word limit has been reached, so sorry folks, catastrophic end of the world story over. Did the world end or not? What happened to the characters? Most unsatisfying. 

However the writing itself is pretty good, the build up of tension well done, keeping the reader's interest high. It is just a shame it never really went anywhere and the characters did not wow at all. 

A WHOLE LIFE by Robert Seethaler

 

A master class in concise, compact, beautiful, evocative writing. But oh so sad. It may be a whole life, but it sure isn't fortunate, pleasant, joyful, happy, contented life. I also find it sad that a whole life can be written about in 149 pages, of decent sized font and at least 1.5 spacing. Maybe that is the point - a sad, lonely and painful life briefly told. 

Translated from german, this small novel is set in the mountains of Austria. Bleak, rugged, beautiful, scenic, pure and perfect. Andreas Eggers comes to this place as a small child, orphaned so fostered to a farming couple. Life is brutal, violent for the small boy, no love, affection, tenderness. He works hard, has a perfect work ethic, so despite a lame leg, finds work in the construction of cable cars. His childhood in the mountains gives him great climbing skills so he ends up with much of the dangerous work. He saves enough money for a small patch of land on the mountain side, falls in love, marries. He is happy and well deserving of it. But not for long. War comes, he ends up in a POW camp. War ends, he returns to the mountains. He spends the rest of his life living in the mountains, taking tourists on hikes, slowly ageing, slowly deteriorating, slowly dying. 

The writing is extraordinarily sparse, beautiful, melancholic. I still found the story sad though - a life that this man really had little control over, little say in how it was going to turn out. Probably the life that thousands, millions have endured. Sad but true. 

WHEN THE APRICOTS BLOOM by Gina Wilkinson

It's always good to write about what you know. Exactly what this author has done - ex journalist/foreign correspondent who was based in Baghdad as a 'dependent spouse' when her husband was posted there during the time of Saddam Hussein's rule. She couldn't work but she could observe and that is what she did. She was also befriended by a local woman who had been instructed to spy on this Western woman. And what a story she has created with this background. A story of friendship, betrayal, ethical and moral dilemmas, being a woman in an oppressive society, religious dogma, the power of tyranny, and how absolute power corrupts absolutely. 

Baghdad is a very scary place during the time of Hussein. The writer recreates the city of her time there - the traffic, the bustling crazy labyrinth markets, the secret deals, the dust, the heat, everyone working their butts off to make a living, stay safe, eyes and ears everywhere, the feel of fear  - incredibly visual. Into this environment comes Ally, the young wife of a diplomat, Tom,  at the Australian Embassy. Prior to becoming the travelling spouse she used to be a journalist, although she didn't put this on her visa application so the Iraqis don't know her history. Otherwise she wouldn't be there - no foreign press, even ex journalists are permitted in Iraq. On the instructions of the local secret police, she is befriended by Tom's secretary Huda. Huda's unwilling task is to pass onto the secret police any information she can about anything from the West. 

Huda is of peasant origins, but managed to learn English which gives her some standing. Huda grew up in a village with her parents and two brothers. She was best friends - blood friends - with Rania, the daughter of the sheikh of the village. Rania has quite a different life from Huda - being educated in England, a father with influence, which stood her in good stead when the revolution took place. Things however didn't end so well for Huda's family, and the girls go their separate ways. Now, years later in Baghdad they are reconnected through Ally  - not happily, not trusting each other. Amidst the climate of fear and horror around them, they have to learn to trust again, as the lives of their children depend on them working together. 

This is a good story, friendship and the bonds of childhood at its heart. It is also a story of courage, women using their own intelligence and intuition to beat the evil around them, to get the better of the violence and danger of the men around them. The strength and characters of the women grew as the story went on, I liked them all, finding ways to deceive those around them and solve a big problem. And yet again, so grateful I live where I live. 

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.