GandT after A Little Life I'm surprised you had the emotional energy for anything other than an episode of Selling Sunset. It was draining, and not in a good way!
I am behind, as always, with reviews but can I just say how much I enjoy reading all of your reviews, and the book chat. Even if I don't post, I am usually here reading and loving what you all have to say. I'm meant to be reading and approving contracts at the moment but I'm menopausal and cross so decided to take some time out to concentrate on updating my reviews.
54 Schindler’s Ark by Thomas Keneally
This is the most extraordinary book. The story is of course well known from the film (called Schindler’s List) – Oskar Schindler was a German factory owner in Krakow who came to the realisation early on that the Nazi regime was intent on exterminating Jews and who went to extraordinary measures to save as many as he could through subterfuge, a fair bit of bribery and a lot of flattery. The conditions of the Jews who worked in his factories were good enough that most of those who found a haven there survived the war and went on to ensure his name was remembered and celebrated. Schindler was a complicated character, and the book doesn’t gloss over his less appealing traits, and it’s brutal in its depiction of the horrors of the camps. It’s hard to read, even knowing the story, but it’s well worth the discomfort.
55 The Bloater by Rosemary Tonks
I really wanted to like this. Everyone on Backlisted loved it. I was just bored. I didn’t really know why it was funny or what I was meant to be thinking and I didn’t really want to make the effort to find out. I think it was about. I believe it is a “wonderful social comedy about the sexual politics of the 1960s”.
56 Watermelon by Marian Keyes
I love the Walsh family and am happily working through the series this year, picking up ones I’ve read and ones I haven’t. This is Claire’s story – left by her husband on the day she gives birth and forced to return to her parents’ in Dublin where she and her younger sisters create chaos, share clothes, get drunk and she puts her life back together.
57 Cult Classic by Sloane Crossley
I read this on holiday and it was just perfect. I don’t think it’s a book that will stick in my mind for long but it felt just the right balance between fun and trashy and something a bit more substantial. Lola is a millennial New Yorker, pinging around the city, going out with friends and living the sort of life Carrie Bradshaw would be living if she was 30 now, considerably less annoying and bit less irresponsible about money. When she’s out for dinner one night she bumps into an ex, which is fine as far as it goes – she’s engaged to a lovely man and knows she should be happy with them. But as more of her former lovers start to appear, she starts to realise something is afoot – she’s the pilot project of a secretive high end members club set up to solve the problems of the 1% by a mix of social media, meditative energy and coercion. It’s run by a former employer from a deserted synagogue and Lola gets sucked in. I thought this was fab – bonkers, touching and the ending was a surprise.
58 After Sappho by Selby Wynn Schwartz
Essentially, the stories of literary European lesbians from the late 19th century and early 20th century. Wildly experimental, fragmented and somewhat all over the place. I found it easier to treat each chapter or section as a short vignette, enjoy it for what it was, and move on to the next one rather than trying to make sense of it. This was not helped by the fact my copy fell apart almost as soon as I started reading it so I was never sure if I was reading things in the right order or not. I realise this makes me sound like one of those reviewers on Amazon who rank books based on the condition of the cover when they receive it, but it was quite annoying. It will probably win some prizes, but I would not recommend it.
59 Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer
Not a patch on Into Thin Air, though it would be surprising if it was. Chris McCandless was a young man who struggled to find his place in life then headed out into the Alaskan wilderness to survive on his wits. It didn’t end well and his body was found in the abandoned bus where he spent his last weeks. I think Krakauer is a great writer but thinking about this and Into Thin Air perhaps at his best when writing from personal experience – his account of climbing in Alaska as a young man is the best written and most engaging part of Into The Wild.
With the bank holiday ahead I have some reading goals. I plan to finish Gormenghast which I've been dabbling in for the last few weeks, power through Malibu Rising so I can talk to DD about in when she gets back from inter-railing (I promised her we'd do a mini book club session and get coffee and talk about it - I fear she will have loved it more than I will) and make a start on one of my many non-fiction purchases that I have failed to progress with.
Has anyone read Bury Me Standing by Isabel Fonseca? It's about the Roma people. I have no idea how I ended up with a copy so wonder if it was a recommendation from here a few years back. It looks fascinating and as I am about to start a piece of work tangentially related to the Roma in Hungary and Ukraine I thought it would be interesting to give it a go.