22. Mr Wilder and Me – Jonathan Coe
I was disappointed by this, especially as it is the first Jonathan Coe book I have read and I had high hopes.
The book tells the story of Calista, a Greek-English composer who meets Billy Wilder by chance in the 1970s and ends up working as an assistant on the set of his film Fedora. Wilder is portrayed as a complex, not altogether likeable character. We are told about his flight from Germany in the 1930s and his return to Berlin to work on Allied propaganda films, which lead to a heartbreaking search for his mother, who was never seen again after being taken away by the Nazis. On the other hand, there are strong hints that his actors and colleagues find him difficult, and that he is unfaithful to his wife.
There is a fascinating story in there, but it is drowned out by the Calista sections, which you may gather from the above are pretty much superfluous. In the Fedora sections her presence seems to serve as a means of allowing people to talk about Billy Wilder, and for him to talk to her, although why an elderly, successful film director would be confiding so much in a teenager he has a just met is a bit of a mystery. The whole thing is bookended with sections where a middle-aged Calista is living in London with her teenage daughters, but it doesn’t seem to bear much relation to the main part of the book.
23. Young Jane Young – Gabrielle Zevin
This started off so well but then dropped off half way through. The book is about an intern who has an affair with a married congressman and the fallout from the scandal. It’s not a spoiler to say that the intern, Aviva Grossman, changes her name and starts afresh as a wedding planner under the name Jane Young. The story is told from multiple viewpoints in turn, with the first and most successful section being narrated by Aviva’s mother. It’s funny and knowing and reflects the many ways that women can be screwed over in such situations while the men get away with their indiscretions, not to mention their general misogyny.
Unfortunately that’s where it starts to go downhill. The second section is told from the point of view of Aviva’s thirteen year old daughter, in the form of letters to her Indonesian penpal. Zevin’s YA background comes to the fore here, but still I found Ruby’s voice unconvincing. The section narrated by the congressman’s wife is just plain irritating. I’m fine with first person present tense narration, but this is mind-numbingly repetitive: “I see the intern walking towards the stage. She is very pretty. I check my hair. It seems to have frizzed in the heat.” Just. Use. Subordinate. Clauses. The final section, thankfully, narrated by Aviva, is fine, but by that stage I had lost faith in the book, which was a real shame. Five stars for section one, 2-3 for the rest.