I have been without internet for the best part of the week due to mast maintenance locally that gives occasional patchy and weak signal. I have got some serious reading done, but have had to store these up in my notes app to dump all at once.
All the Booker Prize talk has inspired me to hit up the longlist, an ongoing project, plus a few that got away in the past few years.
A Passage North - Anuk Arudpragasam
A young man in Sri Lanka is devastated to hear of the death of his grandmother's close friend in the north of the country that is still scarred from 30 years of civil war. He travels to her funeral contemplating the impact of the war on different people and figuring out his own failed relationship.
One of the most beautiful opening passages I have ever read. It contains a lot of navel gazing and alludes to the history, but the reader needs to put some work in on this. It's not a country I really knew anything about. It's very slow and meandering, so requires a bit of patience to get through.
I am about 1/4 into The Seven Moons Of Maali Almeida - Shehan Karunatilaka
This is also set in Sri Lanka, but is a completely different feel and provides a whistle stop tour of the main historical events through the lens of a murdered photojournalist who is caught in the "inbetween" in a short admin period which will determine his progression one way or the other in the afterlife.
Each book is too far one way, one gently hints at the history and the other bombards you with it. Had I know I'd have read them the other way round.
Trust - Hernan Diaz
This is a bit meta. A book within a book. Four incomplete manuscripts that together tell the rise and fall of a NY stock exchange tycoon and his wife who were a bit of an enigma to those around them.
I'm quite sure the finer points of this and its cleverness passed right over my head, but it's interesting to see events told by alternative voices with a different perspective on events.
Who They Was - Gabriel Krauze
Semi-autobiographical novel of a white Polish immigrant teen living a double life as a studious English lit undergrad by day and a violent Yardie gang member by night.
This is such a unique voice that grabs your attention straight away and doesn't let you go until you've been dragged through the underbelly of London criminal culture. It's very vividly written and it feels like you've experienced something visceral by the end.
Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies - Maddie Mortimer
I've pinched the blurb for this one.
This lyrical debut novel is at once a passionate coming-of-age story, a meditation on illness and death, and a kaleidoscopic journey through one woman’s life—told in part by the malevolent voice of her disease.
A mother finds out she has cancer for the second time while she navigates parenting a teenager. The book is told from a variety of different perspectives, including by her cancer cells as the narrative moves backwards and forwards through her life.
This does get a bit surreal in places, and doesn't always quite work, but overall is a wonderful and experimental piece of writing. I would be very surprised if it doesn't also appear on next year's Women's Prize List. It feels like a very prize worthy book.
The Colony - Audrey Magee
Two men descend on an isolated island off the West Coast of Ireland, one a British painter and the other a French Algerian linguist, who clash with each other and the locals about culture and the effect of outside influence. Both have experienced very different sides of Imperialism and this guides their feelings on what it is right to add or take away from somewhere that is not your own. The mounting tensions on the island are set against the escalating violence of the Provisional IRA on the mainland.
This is one of my standout reads of the year. Wonderfully drawn characters who stubbornly hold onto ideals while the ones who learn anything are the ones paying the price. I could see this being adapted very successfully for the stage.
Treacle Water - Alan Garner
Small boy meets a rag and bone man who helps him as she slips in and out of reality to deal with the mysterious bog-man who appears on the local marsh. He slips back and forth between his real life and scenes in his favourite comic.
If you figure out what the hell this was about, you're doing much better than me. Thank goodness it was short.
It had all the right words, but not necessarily written in the right order.
These have been interspersed with some lighter less taxing books, mostly to go with the book club theme of beach/holiday read.
The Dance Tree - Kiran Millwood Hargrave
1518 Strasbourg (based on real events) during a heatwave a lone woman develops a dancing sickness in which she cannot stop dancing in public, this soon affects many more local women and soon hundreds are dancing in the streets until their feet bleed. Local authorities are called in to resolve this and it affects one particular family with serious implications for the women involved.
I felt like this had a very different feel to The Mercies and while the plot wasn't as good, I think I liked it more.
Golden Girl - Elin Hilderbrand
Famous Nantucket author gets killed in a hit and run. On ascending to heaven she is allowed a short period of time to watch events unfold as her 3 young adult children come to terms with her death as the police investigate the accident. She is allowed 3 "nudges" where she can influence events below.
Not really my sort of thing and very cheesy, but it rattles along and is very immersive. The plot twist was easy to guess quite early on.
Beach Read - Emily Henry
Two authors who hate each other find themselves living in neighbouring cabins for the summer, each dealing with a breakup and writers block. They challenge each other to switch genres. The angsty lit fic male needs to come up with a romance, while the chic lit author is set upon writing the Great American Novel.
Entertaining enough RomCom, but again not really my thing. OK for a one off. I was told to find a beach read and took the brief very literally and read the first Google result.
Ghost Wall - Sarah Moss
Historical reenactment experience goes too far. A self professed expert brings his reluctant family to an Ancient Britain encampment being used to teach students about experiential archaeology. Tempers flare as some are taking the experience more seriously than others.
I've only ever read her more recent work so this felt very different. It didn't disappoint and she builds tension throughout. Although some earlier fans haven't really enjoyed her more recent style, I quite like it.
Wisdom of the Ancients: Life Lessons From Our Distant Past - Neil Oliver
He looks at various ancient cultures and civilisations to see what we can learn from them in modern society. Generally good, but a bit of a stretch at times in trying to tie it in to today's societal issues.
The Arrangements - Chimanda Ngozi Adichie
Short NYT story that retells Mrs Dalloway with Melania Trump as the lead. A window into the Trump family in the lead up to the 2016 election.
Quirky and fun.
Real Life Organizing: Clean and Clutter Free in 15 minutes a day - Cassandre Aarssen
Canadian decluttering guru sets out 4 personality types and gives different methods to sort out your house depending on how you work.
A bit cutesy and patronising in places, but by the end of the audiobook I was inspired to attack the junk drawer with gusto rather than trepidation. A few bits I've been toying with getting rid of were unceremoniously and unrepentantly dumped in the bin. I need to go to war with my house right now and this may be the key to motivating me.
Hopefully I have enough signal to both post and catch up on the thread. I may be some time.