I've got really behind with reviews which is odd as I've not been reading much, due to being a bit sad and distracted. However, we had a good Christmas, all things considered, and I do feel considerably better about life now it is behind us. I'm just finishing some tidying up then, like Remus, plan to have a bath with some oils and read something cheerful. Not entirely sure what but I have a big pile to choose from.
104 A Long Way from Verona by Jane Gardam
I thought this was vaguely charming in an odd kind of way. Picked it up after a recommendation on Backlisted. Jessica is a curate’s daughter living through WW2. She had a “violent experience” at the age of nine and now, aged 13, she’s determined to be a writer and to transcend the more mundane preoccupations of her classmates. Jessica’s a very engaging character with a distinctive voice - this is a quirky and entertaining book that would probably be considered young adult if it was published now but works for any age.
105 The Sound Mirror by Heidi James
Three generations of women recount their lives. There is a clever conceit at the heart of the book which slowly becomes apparent. I know this book has had outstanding reviews and I can appreciate it’s a good book, but it isn’t a great book. I think that is my problem with so much literary fiction; it’s really hard to imagine this will still be being read in ten years time. I increasingly find myself irritable that I have wasted my time on books like this that I will have forgotten all about in a few months, just because a handful of reviewers raved about them.
106 Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
Okonkwo overcomes the failings of his father to become an important person in his Nigerian village. He's strong, hard working and despises weakness, building his own reputation. Things start to unravel because of a tragic accident, and by the time Okonkwo is in a position to restore his position in the village, missionaries have arrived in his village and everything has changed. This is a spare novel that feels like a fable in places, but is a deserved classic. Unbelievable that Achebe was just in his twenties when he wrote this.
107 Piranesi by Susannah Clarke
I had to read this quicker than I would have chosen to, as it was due back at the library, so I didn't really do it justice because it isn't the sort of book you want to skip through. It's rather magical, though - Piranesi lives in a labyrinth populated with statues, and a mysterious visitor called The Other, who helps Piranesi with his research. Over time the truth of Piranesi's situation becomes apparent. This is a great book for lockdown - a terrific musing on solitude and one that would certainly be better appreciated if you take your time. All of you who've just picked it up in the sale are in for a treat.
108 The Chalet School and the Island by Elinor Brent-Dyer
This was meant to be a warm hug of a re-read but it was not one I remembered well - although I had a vague sense of familiarity reading about the slightly eccentric bird expert - so in fact it did not tick the box of familiar comfort and just left me feeling a little grumpy. Jo was far less annoying as a school girl than she is as a mother although this one was at least mercifully light on the blessed Mary Lou.
109 Blindness by José Saramago
A city is hit by an epidemic of "white blindness" that spares no one. Authorities confine the blind to an empty mental hospital, but there the criminal element holds everyone captive, stealing food rations, and assaulting women. There is one eyewitness to this nightmare who guides her charges—among them a boy with no mother, a girl with dark glasses, a dog of tears—through the barren streets, and their procession becomes as uncanny as the surroundings are harrowing. I promised myself no more plague literature earlier this year, and with this I think I am really done. I think I've covered most of the obvious ones and from this point on, I'm going to read for escapism, not confirmation of the tedium of quarantine or the terror of a pandemic. Because that's now a given.