Thank you South for the lovely new thread. No list from me BUT I have hit 50 😊
48. Piranesi, Susanna Clarke
Lots of you have managed to review this without giving spoilers so I will try to do the same. I really enjoyed it; very original and packs lots in for a book which is written simply and isn't over-long. I didn't think it was flawless but particularly appreciated the way that the author chose to end the book. Can't say much more than that though!
49. Coot Club, Arthur Ransome
When my Dad heard that we were off to Norfolk for half term, he suggested that I re-read this, as I was a huge S&A fan as a girl. I'd forgotten that this episode is set on the Broads. I remember finding it disappointing when I was young as neither Swallows nor Amazons appear; this is a side-plot involving Dick and Dorothea, who visit the Broads on holiday and are desperate to learn how to sail. They befriend a gang of local boat-y kids, and there's a bit of subplot involving a turf war with some obnoxious tourists on a motor cruiser (I loved the fact that they are recognisable types even today, with their gramophone turned up too loud, booming out music with silly lyrics).
This is, like all of the S&A books, a book about the love of boats and the water, and it was perfect to read while in situ. We befriended some local boat-y people ourselves while we were away, and I found that I recognised their descriptions of the tricky bits of the river (the bridge at Yarmouth, not to be attempted while the tide is going out; the mud banks on Breydon Water) which are very much the same now as they were in the 1930s. If you're not a sailor, you do have to skim a lot of boat jargon, but the descriptions of the natural world, the human, realistic children, and the benignly neglectful adults, along with the vivid descriptions of life on the river, were just charming.
50. Waterland, Graham Swift
Another one chosen for its Norfolk setting (thank you to those who recommended it when I asked on the previous thread). The setting here is the Fens rather than the Broads, but the mists, pumps, and locks of the waterlogged terrain were recognisable and Swift describes the landscape with evocative skill.
The plot is complicated and rather rambly. It starts with a middle-aged school teacher, Tom Crick, who is about to lose his job. There's some sort of crisis in his personal life, we're not sure what. We divert off to a story from Tom's wartime childhood, starting with a dead body being fished from the river, and then back, back through a couple of hundred years of local history, through madness, grief, incest, religion, ghost stories and much else besides. There are times when you wonder where this is all going - do we need to hear about the lifecycle of eels, or the chaos that was caused by the brewing of a particularly potent local beer? - but as the book reaches its conclusion, Swift slowly gathers his plot threads into his hand and starts to pull them together, tighter and tighter, to a moving and tense conclusion.
I wasn't hugely enamoured of the way that women are portrayed, nor one of the key characters who has a learning disability. It's hard to tell exactly how much of this is deliberate posture (some of it, definitely) and how much is down to fact that 1982, when the book was written, is longer ago than I think it was, and attitudes have changed. But the beautiful depiction of time and place, the skilful plotting and the careful handling of the themes of history, progress and revolutions, make it worth it.
I have never really bothered to chose books for holiday before based on location - I've considered it but usually chose to read something that grabs me, that will allow me to relax and isn't too much hard work. However, reading these two Norfolk books while I was actually there (never having been there before either) was a really rewarding experience, adding both to my enjoyment of the books and to my enjoyment of my surroundings. I feel a bit foolish for not having done it before.