36. Visitation – Jenny Erpenbeck
Jenny Erpenbeck explores the significant events of German twentieth century life by focusing on a single house and its various occupants. This is a concise book, beautifully written and spare with not one word wasted. The section focusing on the fate of the Jewish family who briefly reside there was as you might expect, very poignant.
This is the third book I’ve read this year by Jenny Erpenbeck. Of the three, I think Go Went Gone is my favourite, largely because I think what she has to about the European response to the current migrant crisis is so timely and relevant. It felt as if she used said book to round up her thoughts about conflict and migration, which are on-going themes in both Visitation and End of Days, both of which show how refugees have always been with us, in one form or another, and probably always will be.
37. What Red Was – Rosie Price
I picked this up at the library after hearing a positive review on Mariella Frostrup’s book programme on R4. Kate meets Max in her first year at university and is dazzled by his wealthy, famous and slightly eccentric family. In comparison, she is the child of a single parent, recovering alcoholic Mother living in a council house. Max and Kate become friends. Kate is particularly in awe of his Mother Zara, a highly regarded film maker. Disaster strikes when Kate is sexually assaulted and she is forced to re-evaluate everything she thought she knew about herself and life in general.
This is quite a subtle book, in parts very good and in others not so much. Although written in the third person, Kate had the strongest voice and the narrative was most convincing during these sections. However, the writer chooses to tell the story from multiple perspectives which was less successful. I thought there were too many characters which meant the story sometimes lacked depth or insight. For example, I didn’t get Max at all, or Kate’s Mother, both quite key characters but not given the writerly care and attention they needed to develop properly. For me, 3.5 out of 5.
38. Surrender – Joanna Pocock
Well, this was a bit of a strange read! Part memoir, part travelogue, part nature writing - the book is a series of essays focusing on the writer’s decision (at the age of 50 or thereabouts, husband and daughter in tow) to move from Hackney to Missoula, a small town in the American West, in order to live more harmoniously with her natural surroundings and explore radical environmental movements.
I also picked this up at the library, and it’s one of those lovely white Fitzcarraldo editions which are a joy to hold and read – why can’t all books be this beautiful?
As someone who is also nearing 50, I found this a very enjoyable read and raced through it in a couple of days. She immerses herself in the world of radical environmentalism. During her journey, she joins a tribal bison hunt and becomes friends with an elderly transsexual “re-wilder” living entirely off the land and eschewing civilisation almost completely. She explores the ecosexual movement enthusiastically and bravely. She speaks candidly about the challenges of being a parent and being a daughter, and of experiencing the menopause.
This book was like a long conversation with an adventurous and fearless friend, who is actually doing all the things I might quite fancy trying myself, but don’t have the energy or the drive to ever do. An unusual and rewarding read.