Laura's Review - The Accidental, by Ali Smith

Eve and Michael Smart, and their children Magnus and Astrid, rent a house in Norfolk for the summer, hoping to escape the stress of everyday London life. One day a young woman named Amber appears on their doorstep, and everyone is so caught up in their own cares, each assumes she is known to one of the others. Astrid thinks she's a friend of Eve's; Eve thinks she's one of Michael's university students, etc. Amber stays for dinner, and spends the night, albeit in her car. Time passes and before you know it, Amber is firmly entrenched in their lives. She's a dubious role model and mentor to 12-year-old Amber, the object of 17-year-old Magnus' passion, and the one woman Michael wants but can't manage to seduce. Amber also becomes privy to several deep family secrets, some shared with her directly and others obtained through her powers of reason.

It's all very strange, because she's not particularly likeable. You'd think one of the parents would kick her out, but every member of the family is so locked inside their own head that no one understands the effect she's having on them collectively. As Amber inserts herself into the family, she shares remarkably little about herself, and yet manages to get everyone else to let their guard down. Each family member has the chance to tell their version of the story, taking turns as narrator, which enables the reader to get just as deep into each person's psyche as Amber does. Ali Smith used very different writing styles and techniques for each character, underscoring the differences between family members. On the other hand, Amber's chapters are decidedly sparse, so as readers our understanding of her is just as limited as the family's.

I was initially intrigued by Smith's quirky writing, but eventually tired of it. The story seemed about equal parts positive and creepy. Only when the family returns to London does the full impact of Amber's visit become clear, and the whole thing struck me as quite creepy indeed. And while this book gave me some interesting thoughts to ponder, I was left wishing some of the family relationships and related themes were further developed.
 
Cross-posted from my blog

The History of Love by Nicole Krauss (Jayme)

Title:  The History of Love

Author:  Nicole Krauss
Published:  2005, W.W. Norton & Company
Genre:  Literary Fiction
Accolades:  2006 short list for The Orange Prize

Leo Gursky an elderly man has spent his life hiding.  First as a teenage boy hiding in the forest from the Nazis and later hiding from the memories that haunt him.  As a young man Leo fell in love with a girl named Alma and wrote a manuscript called The History of Love which he gave to her.  But the war tore Alma and Leo apart. The only thing that kept him going is the love he had for Alma who escaped to America during the war. While recovering from an illness in Poland after the war he gave his copy of The History of Love to a friend when he thought he was going to die. The friend moved to Chile and published the book under his own name while Leo went to New York to search for his lost love Alma. But Alma had married someone else when she found out that she was pregnant with Leo's child and thought Leo was dead.  That is only the beginning of the story.  What beautifully unfolds in this heart-wrenching novel is the impact that the published novel The History of Love will have on the past and present and finally on Leo himself.

The History of Love is told by two different narrators Leo and Alma a fourteen-year-old girl who was named after the real Alma in Leo's published book The History of Love 50 years later.  Alma is on a quest to find out about the real Alma and to understand the love between her recently deceased father and mother. OK, are you confused yet? There is a lot to keep track of in The History of Love, but it is well worth the effort. My  advice when reading this book is not to set it down for more than a day.  I began reading the book before the New Year holiday and than company came and I didn't get to it for almost a week. I ended up starting the book over because I had forgotten key events and people and was lost.

The History of Love is a very good book. There are extraordinary passages that will catch in your throat - the truth tends to do that:

"We met each other when we were young, before we knew enough about disappointment, and once we did we found we reminded each other of it." (page 103, the History of Love)

Couldn't you just weep?  The History of Love is not an easy read, but it is an enriching one. It will leave you wondering about how lives are interwoven and the characters will capture your heart.

Laura's Review - Beyond Black

I have to admit this is not my usual fare: "A modern-day medium and a jaded divorceé navigate the world of psychic fairs, until a crazed spirit guide threatens to pull them over to the beyond -- a place from which they can never return." But it was written by Hilary Mantel, author of the Booker Prize-winning Wolf Hall. And it was nominated for the Orange Prize, just like Wolf Hall. So I had high expectations, but I was ultimately disappointed and unable to finish this, my first book of 2012.

Alison is a spiritual medium, working fairs and stage shows where she brings her audience messages from those who have passed into "Spirit World." Colette, recently divorced, attends one of her shows and later becomes Alison's business partner, helping to organize her diary and the accounts. Alison is haunted by a troubled past, and by many spirits who speak to her routinely. Among these is Morris, her "spiritual guide," a presence from her childhood who is always hanging around and is, frankly, disgusting. Colette brings a sense of order to Alison's life, and working for Alison helps Colette land on her own two feet.

Weird? Yes. Intriguing? Maybe. But dreadfully slow-moving. And then Princess Diana dies, and Alison & Colette meet up with other mediums and fortune-tellers. I thought this might be interesting, but it was more of the same: lots of talk, spirits intruding and making Alison sick, Colette fretting about, and Morris being disgusting. Then Alison & Colette decide to try to get away from all this by buying a house in a new community, and that seems to take them forever. Things weren't looking good for them personally, and I figured anything that happened was going to take a long time. Like another 165 pages. I just didn't have it in me.

(DNF)

Cross-posted from my blog

Beyond Black by Hilary Mantel (Jill)

Beyond Black
By Hilary Mantel

I have to admit: I had a hard time writing this review. How can a book be intriguing and boring at the same time? That's the state I find myself in as I put together my thoughts on Beyond Black.

In summary, Beyond Black is the tale of Alison, a psychic, and her business partner/personal assistant, Colette. Their relationship reminded me of "The Odd Couple" - you couldn't get two more different people together. Alison was a big presence - vibrant, full-figured, sweet-smelling and congenial. Colette was a drab sidekick - beige, skinny and condescending. How they ended up together is still a mystery to me, even as I finished the book.

Alison is forever tormented by spirits. Her spirit guide, Morris, is a dirty pig, often found fondling himself (thank goodness only Alison could see him). As the story progresses, Mantel reveals that Alison knew Morris before his death, which opens up the intriguing parts of the book: Alison's tortuous childhood. Bit by bit, Mantel feeds the reader information about Alison's past - what was done to her and what she did. These bite-size nuggets help propel the story; however, it was not enough. Beyond Black is mixed with so much "non-action" that it overshadowed the compelling stuff.

Parts of Beyond Black were darn funny (my favorite scene was Princess Diana talking to Alison), but the most of it was too dark for my taste. The pace of Beyond Black was uneven, and I think it could have been tightened by a good 100 pages. But we all know that Mantel can write - and I look forward to reading my next Mantel selection, The Giant, O'Brien, very soon. ( )

Beyond Black by Hilary Mantel (Beachreader)

Title:  Beyond Black
Author:  Hilary Mantel
Published:  2005,  Henry Holt and Company
Genre:  Gothic
Accolades:  2006 shortlist Orange Prize

Alison Hart is a kind, lonely woman who is well-respected in her field. Those that are down on their luck or have dark secrets are drawn to her and she gently tries to help them see the light.  But Alison also has dark secrets.  She is haunted by a horrendous childhood and by the spirits of those that hurt her - literally and figuratively.  Alison is a psychic medium.  She sees dead people.

I like a good ghost story even if it's really dark and eerie, I don't frighten easily. Beyond Black is just that - it's beyond dark - way beyond.  This is a creepy book on so many levels.  The most frightening aspects of the book are not the ghosts themselves, but it's the horrible people that the ghosts were before they were ghosts and the sickening things that they did to Alison when she was a child. There aren't many likeable characters, dead or alive, which made it very difficult to enjoy this book.

There are many layers to Beyond Black.  On the surface it's about a psychic and the ghosties that haunt her relentlessly, but it's also about the ghosts of our pasts that haunt us and keep us from moving forward.  So the question that I was left wondering was, " Did Alison really see ghosts, or was it the pain of her past that haunts her?"  You'll have to read the book and decide for yourself.

My Rating:  3 out of 5

Nickelini's Review -- The Blind Assassin

My second Orange January 2011 was another example of outstanding CanLit: The Blind Assassin, by Margaret Atwood. This is a book that I look forward to rereading sometime in the future. After I read it, this is what I had to say:

Rating: 4/5 stars

Comments:

After an unavoidable distraction, I was able to return to The Blind Assassin. I finished it this morning. I love the nested stories (as someone wrote somewhere, the stories within the story are like a set of Russian dolls). I also liked how Atwood slowly revealed little details that twisted the story.

I just realized that this is my 11th Atwood book, and the final one from the original 1001 list. There are a couple I liked better, but this one was very, very good indeed.

Recommended for: I can see how this book isn't to everyone's tastes, but if you're looking for an interesting and meandering book to get lost in for a while, give this one a try.

Why I Read This Now: There were 6 Atwood books in the 2006 edition of 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die, and I've been reading one a year. This was the last. I read it this month for Orange January because it was also an Orange finalist. Of course!

Laura's Review - Everyman's Rules for Scientific Living

In the 1920s and 30s, the Better Farming Train traveled across the Australian state of Victoria, educating isolated rural communities on farming and household management practices. Jean Finnegan and Robert Pettergree met on the train; she was a specialist in sewing and household management, and he was a soil scientist. The train's close quarters stoked their passion, and soon Jean and Robert decided to marry, leave the train and start their own farmstead.

Robert adopted a highly scientific approach to wheat farming, and enlisted Jean's help to conduct experiments in bread production following each year's harvest. He is idealistic and convinced his way is the correct one; she trusts him and provides moral support. She also keeps detailed records for each year's crop, as if writing a laboratory report for a high school science experiment:

The sample has a low bushel weight (61 lbs). In accordance with standard sampling procedure a portion of FAQ (fair-average quality) wheat was critically examined and subjected to analysis and a milling test in the experimental flour mill.

The sample is very bright and plump, and has a generally pleasing appearance. The moisture content and the protein content are normal. (p. 78)

Jean's report continues with a description of the "experiment's" purpose, quality test results, and the measurable characteristics of 10 loaves of bread baked with flour from the year's harvest. This is repeated each year, allowing the careful reader to see for themselves the effectiveness of Robert's scientific farming methods.

When the government launches a wheat-growing scheme to stimulate the economy, Robert uses facts and figures to convince other farmers to increase wheat production by adopting his techniques. What follows is a classic example of the effects of messing with an ecosystem. As farming becomes increasingly difficult, Jean and Robert also suffer -- individually, as a couple, and as members of their community.

Everyman's Rules for Scientific Living is written in spare prose, laced with both understatement and irony. The character development is subtle; both Jean and Robert are fully formed, and yet there's so much more I wanted to know. But the style perfectly conveyed the stark landscape and the harsh life of a farm family.



Cross-posted from my blog

The Accidental by Ali Smith (Jill)

The Accidental
By Ali Smith
Completed July 10, 2010

Truth be told, I don’t know how to fairly review The Accidental by Ali Smith. It’s a story that follows the dysfunctional lives of the Smart family and the emergence of Amber, a young woman who crashes the Smart’s summer home one evening. Amber’s presence helps members of the family deal with their individual grief, though the reader never quite learned why Amber was there.

The four Smart family members take turns narrating a chapter. My favorite chapters were told by Astrid, a young girl who likes to videotape everything. With a director’s eye and a stream of consciousness that James Joyce would appreciate, Astrid’s perspective matched her age: big ideas, rambling thoughts and a curiosity about life. Also interesting was her brother’s narrative: Magnus was depressed about the suicide of a fellow classmate and felt at blame for the girl’s death. Smith’s strength is not character development – you never get a full picture of each character – but the snippets she showed of the kids were insightful and captivating.

Smith’s writing style takes a while to get used to. You’re dropped into the middle of each character’s thoughts, and you might need several chapters (as I did) to get into the writing style. Admittedly, it’s not my favorite way of storytelling, and I felt it put up barriers around the characters and their stories. Additionally, the ending was disappointing, and after trudging through this book, I was hoping for something a little more gratifying.

It’s hard to recommend The Accidental because it was a “meh” book for me. I encourage future readers to look at other reviews before deciding on this book. I think it’s a book you either like or don’t; I hate to say that I am in the latter group. ( )

Laura's Review - The Night Watch, by Sarah Waters

Set in 1940s London, The Night Watch revolves around the lives of four people: Kay, Helen, Vivien, and Duncan. The book opens in 1947; each character has experienced the dramatic impact of World War II, living through bombings and coping with loss. Duncan is an ex-con working a menial job. Duncan's sister Vivien is having an affair with a married man. Helen is in a committed but troubled relationship with another character, Julia. Kay is leading a somewhat aimless and lonely existence.

Sarah Waters spends nearly 200 pages building up each of these characters, whose lives appear to be independent from each other. But there is much Waters leaves unsaid. Just as I was wondering where all this was going, Waters employed a very interesting device: she took me backwards in time. Part 2 of The Night Watch is set in 1944, and there the reader learns much more about each character's history. Some of the connections between characters are explained. In part 1, Vivien briefly encounters Kay and gives her something she's had for a long time. It seems like a minor detail. But in part 2, a particularly harrowing sequence reveals the significance of the encounter in part 1. Part 3, set in 1941, portrays the protagonists at the time of the Blitz, explains how Duncan came to spend time in prison, and provides the backdrop for romantic relationships in place during parts 1 and 2.

It's an effective technique. Moving in reverse allows Waters to show only the most essential details of the past. She weaves a rich tapestry of characters and relationships. And she writes about lesbian love in a refreshingly candid way. The erotic scenes are no more or less explicit than fiction about heterosexual relationships. And they are not there to titillate, but to say, "hey, this is what happens, this is normal." I do believe this type of candor is, in some way, advancing societal understanding and acceptance of gay and lesbian relationships.

However, there was one flaw in The Night Watch: the lavatory figured far too prominently in the story. I know that every character in a novel needs to pee now and then. But does the reader really need to be informed? A couple made love and then one person "went to the lavatory." Someone would "need to use the lavatory" before leaving home. Or, a character would be sitting in their quiet house late at night and hear their partner upstairs, washing up and using the lavatory. A lavatory even featured in the aftermath of a bombing, although it was not being used at the time. What was that about? It really drove me crazy and caused me to knock half a star off the rating of an otherwise good book.




My original review can be found here.

The Night Watch by Sarah Waters (Jill)

The Night Watch
By Sarah Waters
Completed December 19, 2008

Sarah Waters swept her readers away with a tale of love, war, betrayal and hardship in her historical novel, The Night Watch. Set against a backdrop of bomb-ravaged London during World War II, this novel explored the lives of four young people – Helen, Vivian, Duncan and Kay – plus their lovers, friends and acquaintances – as they coped with their daily lives on the home front.

Waters structured her novel using a backward timeframe, so that as each year unraveled, you learned more about each character and his/her secrets. The first section was from 1947, and admittedly, this was the hardest section for me to get through. The characters were introduced with very little connection to each other, but I got the sense that their secrets and relationships were somehow woven together. As the book progressed, Waters shined a little more light on each character and story, putting each piece of her puzzle carefully together. It was a brilliant story structure – one that only a talented writer like Waters could pull off.

Each character was developed into an unforgettable person – one you worry about, sympathize with and root for. The Night Watch is considered lesbian fiction, which does not make this a book for everyone, but I found the women’s relationships to be compelling and insightful.

This is my first book by Sarah Waters but certainly won’t be my last. Short-listed for both the Booker and Orange Prizes (and understandably so), The Night Watch was a fantastic look at the lives of young people affected by a terrible war – and how they made the best and worst of these times. ( )

Digging to America by Anne Tyler

Digging to America
By Anne Tyler
Completed April 13, 2008

In Digging to America, Anne Tyler continued her storytelling mastery of family relationships – but added a new twist. This story focused on two families, the Donaldsons and the Yadzans, who adopted girls from Korea. The Donaldsons represented the “typical” American family while the Yazdans represented a “typical” Iranian-American family. The couples became friends, and this story followed their lives during their first several years as new parents.

The story meandered around the ups and downs of families: the best way to raise children, how to deal with the loss of a family member and what happens when a parent becomes ill. Tyler also examined the added dimension of being adoptive parents, especially of foreign-born children. However, the most interesting aspect of Digging to America was the exploration of what it means to be an “American family” and equally important, what it means to be an American. Compelling characterization – especially of Bitsy Donaldson, the overbearing mother of Jin-Ho, and Maryam Yazdan, the traditional Iranian grandmother – elucidated the challenges these families encountered as they learned about each other.

In my opinion, you have to like the soft whisper of Anne Tyler to appreciate the style of this book. I noticed other reviewers commented that Digging to America lacked conflict, an advanced plot or multi-dimensional characters. I can see how one could make these conclusions. However, I would argue these elements are there – just wrapped in Tyler’s subtle style. By the end of the book, I was thinking about what it means to be an American and how easy it is to become cocooned in your own culture. Digging to America was not one of Tyler’s best, but it certainly was not her worst. I would encourage fans of Anne Tyler to give this one a try. ( )

(cross-posted from my blog)

The Night Watch - Wendy's Review

'I go to the cinema,' said Kay; 'there's nothing funny about that. Sometimes I sit through the films twice over. Sometimes I go in half-way through, and watch the second half first. I almost prefer them that way - people's pasts, you know, being so much more interesting than their futures.' -From The Night Watch, page 110-

In The Night Watch, Sarah Waters has created tension and mystery by peering backwards into the past - beginning in 1947 and regressing back in time so that the end of the novel is actually the beginning of the story. This structure is at once unsettling and fascinating.

The novel spins around four Londoners and their significant others and explores the impact of war on relationships. The reader is introduced to each character - Kay, Helen, Viv and Viv's brother, Duncan - immediately following WWII in the year 1947. Each character carries secrets and is struggling with events in their history which are undisclosed to the reader. As the novel progresses, Waters carefully unwraps the past, drawing the threads of the characters' lives together to create a stunning expose about sexuality and the tenuous nature of love amid the historical significance of war.

One of the aspects of the novel which touched me was the exploration of the repercussions of war on youth.

How long did they have to go on, letting the war spoil everything? They had been patient, all this time. They'd lived in darkness. They'd lived without salt, without scent. They'd fed themselves little scraps of pleasure, like parings of cheese. Now she became aware of the minutes as they passed: she felt them, suddenly, for what they were, as fragments of her life, her youth, that were rushing away like so many drops of water, never to return. -From The Night Watch, page 357-

Waters' prose - nuanced and full of empathy for her characters - is a bit like reading a narrative poem. Her descriptions set the reader into the novel, revealing the beauty of the human spirit amid the horror of night-time air raids and causalities. The story is a beautifully rendered, character driven look at World War II from 1941 to 1947.

The Night Watch was shortlisted for the Booker and Orange Prizes - and it is easy to see why. This was my first Sarah Waters novel, but it will not be my last.

Highly recommended; rated 4.5/5.

The Night Watch - Ex Libris' Review

Best known for her Victorian-era historical fiction, Sarah Waters has chosen the more recent past for her latest novel. The story takes place in London and is set during and just following World War II. It is a look at ordinary citizens trying to live their lives against a backdrop of violence not of their own making.

In The Night Watch, the reader meets an unlikely cast of characters who seem to be as shell-shocked as the city they live in. The book opens with this line, "So this, said Kay to herself, is the sort of person you've become: a person whose clocks and wrist-watches have stopped, and who tells the time, instead, by the particular kind of cripple arriving at her landlord's door." (pg. 3) Kay and Mickey, Helen and Julia, Vivian and Reggie, Duncan and Fraser, all are struggling with the resumption of lives that will never be the same.

Waters begins her story at the end, after the war, and works her way back in time to the beginning. Her depiction of the era and locations are so detailed, the reader gets the feeling of being in the same room with the characters, perhaps standing in a corner so as not to be noticed. As the story progresses (regresses?), the plot twists and turns with plenty of surprises and revelations to keep the reader thoroughly engrossed.

I feel the emphasis of this book is twofold: 1) the relationships the characters have with each other and 2) the ravaging effect of war on innocent civilians. Waters effectively depicts same-sex relationships with compassion and without a sense of sensationalism that one might anticipate. She also delivers a very strong and effective anti-war message. This book certainly resonates with the current state of military affairs.

Overall, an excellent read. Rating: 5/5