Everyone seems to be making a huge fuss about this book and I think if Arsenal goalkeeper Manuel Almunia likes it, it can’t be that bad.
But I didn’t really like it. It is a great idea but I feel so much more could have been done with it. The boy in the striped pyjamas, for example, is hardly in the story at all. There are lots of really interesting characters in the book but most of them just don’t appear enough to do more than whet your appetite (many don’t even do that much).
Also some of the characters’ stories don’t seem to be resolved. In some ways this is realistic because in real life, stories often aren’t resolved. Sometimes people stay the same for many years, and it doesn’t matter that they’re unhappy, they just keep going. John Boyne gives us many tantalising glimpses of places and people and situations but he doesn’t go into any detail, which is disappointing and frustrating.
The writing is fine but again, it could tell you more. The descriptions are limited. Boyne might say something interesting but he doesn’t say enough to give you a full picture. The book is written a style that’s suitable for children so maybe that’s why Boyne doesn’t go into details – he wants to keep things brief in order to keep people’s attention. Or maybe it’s just that his main character is too young to take in a great deal of what he’s seeing.
The childish language in this book would probably appeal to young children but I really don’t think this is a children’s book. There’s a lot of subtlety which I think a lot of children just wouldn’t pick up on and the subject matter doesn’t really seem appropriate for children. I do think people often underestimate children’s ability to cope with horrifying situations – a lot of the time, children cope with it a lot better than adults. They might think a situation is exciting and cool whereas an adult would understand it more fully and might be more likely to be frightened. But you don’t want children, or anyone else, to think the happenings in this book are in any way cool. They’re not.
The main character is a nine year old boy called Bruno. He lives in Berlin with his family but then they suddenly have to move somewhere new. It’s some time before Bruno even works out which country he’s in (a surprise in itself) and I had no idea of the name of Bruno’s new home because the only name we ever know is Bruno’s unsuccessful attempt to pronounce the name. On reflection, I think perhaps I know the real name of the place (I won’t say what it is because that will spoil part of the story) but it took me weeks to get it.
Bruno really is quite an annoying character. Unless he has some sort of speech impediment, I don’t really understand why he has so many problems with pronunciation. In many ways, he seems a lot younger than nine. He insists on referring to The Fury instead of The Fuhrer which is not only very annoying but also a bit dodgy linguistically. If he was speaking English, it would be a more natural mistake but he is speaking German. The German for fury is Wut. Not very much like the word Fuhrer. I really can’t see how Bruno is going to get those words confused. True, there is the German word Furie which refers to the mythological Furies and you could certainly make parallels between them and Hitler (although the Furies are, of course, female) but you wouldn’t expect a nine year old to know the word. If you don’t quite understand a certain word when it is said to you, you’re more likely to hear it as a word you know.
There are also various phrases which Bruno likes and which feature in the book far too often. Like ‘Best Friends for Life’. I don’t mind the capitals so much, German nouns (although not adjectives) all have capitals anyway but the way it’s repeated over and over again is very annoying. It would have made more sense if Bruno was younger but he seems a bit old to insist on repeating particular phrases over and over again, even in his head. Later in the book, he forgets the name of one of his Best Friends for Life but I knew what his name was! Bruno had told us enough times.
Also, it was slightly surprising that Bruno’s older sister Gretel was still playing with dolls at the age of twelve. There’s nothing wrong with it but it is very unusual. She’s not generally immature for her age – she clearly fancies the eighteen year old soldier who spends so much time at their house. The new hobby she takes up towards the end of the book isn’t very typical of twelve year old girls either. But maybe children were different then.
The end is great though. I wouldn’t say I like it but it is wonderfully chilling.
Monday 7 February 2011
Sunday 2 January 2011
T.J. and the Hat-Trick (Theo Walcott)***
When I found out that one of my favourite Arsenal players was writing a series of children’s books, I was naturally eager to read them. In some ways, of course, I was completely jealous because I’d have loved to write a series of books about a football team and it is quite sad in a way that Theo is more publishable than me simply because he is famous – even if my writing was a million times better than his, it would make no difference.
But at the same time, I was sure I’d love the book. It’s about football, it’s by Theo, what more could I ask for? (Apart from Theo becoming eligible to play for Wales.)
It’s great to see a footballer writing about his experiences in football without doing something as ridiculous as bringing out an autobiography. Theo is twenty-one years old but I’m sure that if he expressed interest in writing an autobiography, the publishers would snap his hand off (which would have been a problem if Theo had followed his original career plan to become a goalkeeper). But he hasn’t written an autobiography. Instead he’s written some books which are fiction but which are very much based on his own life and experiences (his central character, T.J., even has the same nickname as Theo did as a child - his middle name is James). Young footballers who admire Theo can learn from the books and also enjoy reading them but he hasn’t attempted to stretch his experiences into 200,000 words or more, a book which his younger fans might find a bit difficult anyway.
In this book. T.J. has just started a new school. I think he’s about ten. On his first day, he meets pupils including star (female) striker Tulsi, the enthusiastic but fat Jamie, and Rafi, who has an allergy to keeping still. T.J. discovers that the school doesn’t have a football team – or even a football field – as none of the teachers like P.E. (I’m not sure it’s legal to have a school without P.E. lessons but I can’t say it was something that overly worried me, I think no P.E. lessons is a great idea. Get rid of all P.E. lessons and just have football, rugby and hockey teams. And completely ban netball. That would be perfect). But then new teacher Mr Wood joins the school. He loves football and he sees that T.J. and his friends really enjoy playing so he starts up a school football team, with T.J. as the star goalkeeper.
It’s not the most original story in the world and parts of it aren’t very realistic but it doesn’t matter. Walcott’s books aren’t intended to be great works of literature. They’re just fun books that encourage people to read – and I think that’s very important. A lot of the people who read this book will dream about becoming a footballer and in a way that’s exactly what the book is. Many boys and girls will have had a fantasy about the school football team coming together against the odds and achieving the impossible. Here is the fantasy in book form.
I don’t think it matters that the book isn’t realistic. Why do most people read books, if not to enjoy the fantasy? The book is exciting, full of action and a very satisfying read. It’s also well-written although I’m not sure how much was written by Walcott and how much by Paul May but the writing is good. The style is direct and easy to read and the football matches are well-described without being overly technical.
The characters are good too. They’re all distinctive yet it’s easy to imagine firstly that they’re all mad about football and that although T.J. and his friends are all quite difficult from one another, they all get along. Tulsi is slightly annoying because it’s such a strange name - I don’t think there’s any need for her to be called something so unusual. She is the only girl in the team so she would stand out even if she had a normal name. Maybe it’s a nickname, possibly based on her surname, but in that case you’d expect the teachers to use her real name. But apart from that, the characters have good names although perhaps Walcott goes overboard slightly in his efforts to be politically correct. There are a number of football-playing children who don’t have British names, probably more than is realistic. But maybe he had to do that.
Theo has written three more books about T.J. and I’d definitely be interested in reading them. They won’t be the most challenging books I’ve ever read – but if they were, I probably wouldn’t mention them on this blog. I love Emma but there’s no way I’m reviewing that on here. It would only show how stupid I am and everyone already knows how good it is.
But at the same time, I was sure I’d love the book. It’s about football, it’s by Theo, what more could I ask for? (Apart from Theo becoming eligible to play for Wales.)
It’s great to see a footballer writing about his experiences in football without doing something as ridiculous as bringing out an autobiography. Theo is twenty-one years old but I’m sure that if he expressed interest in writing an autobiography, the publishers would snap his hand off (which would have been a problem if Theo had followed his original career plan to become a goalkeeper). But he hasn’t written an autobiography. Instead he’s written some books which are fiction but which are very much based on his own life and experiences (his central character, T.J., even has the same nickname as Theo did as a child - his middle name is James). Young footballers who admire Theo can learn from the books and also enjoy reading them but he hasn’t attempted to stretch his experiences into 200,000 words or more, a book which his younger fans might find a bit difficult anyway.
In this book. T.J. has just started a new school. I think he’s about ten. On his first day, he meets pupils including star (female) striker Tulsi, the enthusiastic but fat Jamie, and Rafi, who has an allergy to keeping still. T.J. discovers that the school doesn’t have a football team – or even a football field – as none of the teachers like P.E. (I’m not sure it’s legal to have a school without P.E. lessons but I can’t say it was something that overly worried me, I think no P.E. lessons is a great idea. Get rid of all P.E. lessons and just have football, rugby and hockey teams. And completely ban netball. That would be perfect). But then new teacher Mr Wood joins the school. He loves football and he sees that T.J. and his friends really enjoy playing so he starts up a school football team, with T.J. as the star goalkeeper.
It’s not the most original story in the world and parts of it aren’t very realistic but it doesn’t matter. Walcott’s books aren’t intended to be great works of literature. They’re just fun books that encourage people to read – and I think that’s very important. A lot of the people who read this book will dream about becoming a footballer and in a way that’s exactly what the book is. Many boys and girls will have had a fantasy about the school football team coming together against the odds and achieving the impossible. Here is the fantasy in book form.
I don’t think it matters that the book isn’t realistic. Why do most people read books, if not to enjoy the fantasy? The book is exciting, full of action and a very satisfying read. It’s also well-written although I’m not sure how much was written by Walcott and how much by Paul May but the writing is good. The style is direct and easy to read and the football matches are well-described without being overly technical.
The characters are good too. They’re all distinctive yet it’s easy to imagine firstly that they’re all mad about football and that although T.J. and his friends are all quite difficult from one another, they all get along. Tulsi is slightly annoying because it’s such a strange name - I don’t think there’s any need for her to be called something so unusual. She is the only girl in the team so she would stand out even if she had a normal name. Maybe it’s a nickname, possibly based on her surname, but in that case you’d expect the teachers to use her real name. But apart from that, the characters have good names although perhaps Walcott goes overboard slightly in his efforts to be politically correct. There are a number of football-playing children who don’t have British names, probably more than is realistic. But maybe he had to do that.
Theo has written three more books about T.J. and I’d definitely be interested in reading them. They won’t be the most challenging books I’ve ever read – but if they were, I probably wouldn’t mention them on this blog. I love Emma but there’s no way I’m reviewing that on here. It would only show how stupid I am and everyone already knows how good it is.
Saturday 18 December 2010
Sparkles (Louise Bagshawe)****
I’ve always admired Louise Bagshawe’s writing style but haven’t particularly enjoyed her books so I was thrilled to find Sparkles. In some ways, it has a lot of similarities with the other Louise Bagshawe books I’ve read. Like Lucy in Tuesday’s Child, Sophie has to learn to be a lady (although we only really see her nonladylike self in flashbacks) and like Lita and Becky in When She was Bad, Sophie finds herself in charge of a business. She’s never done anything like it before but she discovers she has a real knack for it.
But in this book, everything really works. Bagshawe has created a fascinating and exciting multi-layered story, full of twists and turns you almost never see coming. Her characters are also great. Sophie at first seems a bit distant and too concerned with keeping up her aristocratic appearance but the more you read, the more you get to know the vulnerable and sexy woman inside.
Also with a big part to play in the book is Sophie’s son Tom, who is spending his university days shagging and failing his classes (so in other words he’s a completely normal student). But when he fears for the safety of his inheritance he decides to come home and take charge. In the process, he meets Judy, once Sophie’s husband’s secret (at least as far as Sophie was concerned) lover, who is now showing an interest in Tom.
Judy is a complete bitch who likes to tell herself she only cares about being rich but it’s very difficult to hate her. No matter what she does, it’s difficult not to sympathise with her and also to admire her determination and inventiveness. And I smiled more than once when she found herself accidentally being really nice to Sophie. Judy is a great villain because you want her plans to be thwarted but you do kind of want her to end up as happy as she can be without making the other characters suffer.
At the beginning of the book, all Hugh really wants is to buy Sophie’s business but he too turns out to be someone completely different from what I was expecting. He has a business of his own and he always works really hard at it but gradually he realises there are more important things in life.
Then there are scenes featuring the mysterious and murderous Vladek, who is in some way connected to the stories in ways we can partly guess – although you don’t realise the full extent of this until the end of the book. At one point he changes his name to Yuri and this is how his girlfriend refers to him but my friend told me that calling someone Yuri is like calling someone by their first name and surname in English so Yuri’s lover should really call him Yura. But maybe I misunderstood and in any case, Vladek/Yuri is a bit weird so maybe Bagshawe was being really clever and making him get it wrong on purpose.
This is a wonderfully written book, with beautiful, evocative descriptions and exciting dialogue. Maybe it’s not a book I’ll read again but it’s a book I’ll remember – and maybe that’s more important.
But in this book, everything really works. Bagshawe has created a fascinating and exciting multi-layered story, full of twists and turns you almost never see coming. Her characters are also great. Sophie at first seems a bit distant and too concerned with keeping up her aristocratic appearance but the more you read, the more you get to know the vulnerable and sexy woman inside.
Also with a big part to play in the book is Sophie’s son Tom, who is spending his university days shagging and failing his classes (so in other words he’s a completely normal student). But when he fears for the safety of his inheritance he decides to come home and take charge. In the process, he meets Judy, once Sophie’s husband’s secret (at least as far as Sophie was concerned) lover, who is now showing an interest in Tom.
Judy is a complete bitch who likes to tell herself she only cares about being rich but it’s very difficult to hate her. No matter what she does, it’s difficult not to sympathise with her and also to admire her determination and inventiveness. And I smiled more than once when she found herself accidentally being really nice to Sophie. Judy is a great villain because you want her plans to be thwarted but you do kind of want her to end up as happy as she can be without making the other characters suffer.
At the beginning of the book, all Hugh really wants is to buy Sophie’s business but he too turns out to be someone completely different from what I was expecting. He has a business of his own and he always works really hard at it but gradually he realises there are more important things in life.
Then there are scenes featuring the mysterious and murderous Vladek, who is in some way connected to the stories in ways we can partly guess – although you don’t realise the full extent of this until the end of the book. At one point he changes his name to Yuri and this is how his girlfriend refers to him but my friend told me that calling someone Yuri is like calling someone by their first name and surname in English so Yuri’s lover should really call him Yura. But maybe I misunderstood and in any case, Vladek/Yuri is a bit weird so maybe Bagshawe was being really clever and making him get it wrong on purpose.
This is a wonderfully written book, with beautiful, evocative descriptions and exciting dialogue. Maybe it’s not a book I’ll read again but it’s a book I’ll remember – and maybe that’s more important.
Monday 29 November 2010
A Minor Indiscretion (Carole Matthews)***
Ali has been married to Ed for years and she’s always thought she was happy. But when handsome young artist Christian falls in love with her, she’s more than a little bit flattered. Christian is nearly young enough to be her son yet he makes her feel beautiful and loved.
When Ed finds out, he’s just a little bit miffed and kicks Ali out - although one benefit of the new arrangement is that at least he doesn’t have to be quite so embarrassed about his own feelings for his scary workmate Orla. And come to think about it, his youngest son Elliott’s nursery school teacher Nicola is kind of hot too.
Meanwhile Ali sets up home with Christian and his young housemates Robbie and Rebecca, who happens to be Christian’s ex-girlfriend. Christian is kind and sweet and attentive and although he is just a big kid, he does make Ali feel very happy. In addition, Ed’s brother Neil is trying and failing to chat up Ali’s sister Jemma, even though she prefers married men.
In many ways, this book was great. I love the idea of a thirty-eight year old mother of three sharing a house with her toy boy and his mates. I also love how all the single woman around seem to be throwing themselves at Ed now he’s newly single. It was also quite hilarious the way Neil and Jemma clearly liked each other a lot but keep fucking things up.
But I wanted to see more. I wanted to see more of Ali trying her best to get on with Robbie and Rebecca, two people who are completely unlike her, rather than just telling us that Robbie was okay and Rebecca was a bitch. I actually thought Rebecca was mostly amazingly nice to her under the circumstances. How would you feel if you were woken up in the middle of the night by the girlfriend of the man you love needing a place to stay? I think it says a lot for Rebecca that she didn’t kick her out onto the street there and then.
It’s an amazing and original situation with the potential to be really hilarious, as well as giving some very different people the chance to get to know and learn to appreciate each other. But there just wasn’t enough of the parts of the book that interested me most. The book does have some absolutely hilarious moments but I couldn’t help feeling that Carole Matthews missed an opportunity here.
Then towards the end, something really major and shocking and life-changing happens and in a way it spoiled the book. First of all, this book is a comedy – it has some underlying serious messages in it but on the surface, it’s a very funny comedy. So to bring this big event in near the end seemed really inappropriate and strange when you’ve spent five-sixths of the book laughing.
Secondly, this big event is key in helping the characters to decide what they want from life. This is fine and realistic. But I kind of feel the end of the book should be about the characters’ working out what they really want and although it’s not unrealistic that it should take something really major to help them decide this, it does in a way make everything else in the book irrelevant. This big event means it doesn’t matter what they’ve learned about themselves and other people. All that matters in the end is who copes best in a crisis. And I don’t see what that’s got to do with deciding whom you really love. There’s no way I’m dumping my boyfriend for someone competent.
Even if I agree with how things stand at the end of this book (which to be honest I’m not completely sure I do), I’m sure there must have been a way of working things out that was more convincing, more satisfying and more in keeping with the tone of the rest of the book. And if Matthews wanted something big and dramatic, maybe she could have made the story into a serious story instead of a comedy. It was like something terrible was happening and I was still waiting for the punchline.
Not many of the characters were likeable but I did find them interesting. Ali seemed a bit moany and obsessive and embarrassing but I genuinely wanted things to work out for her and I was interested in how she was going to make changes in her life. Matthews’ writing ensured that even though she was unfaithful pretty much from the start, she wasn’t the villain of the piece. She was just feeling lonely and unloved and then she met someone who made sure she didn’t feel that way anymore.
Ed was even worse. I really feel for the poor kids. He seemed desperate to prove his masculinity and the way he treats Orla and Nicola (and Ali) just isn’t very nice. It doesn’t matter how forceful and determined to get into his pants Orla and Nicola are (in very different ways), it’s still not very nice of him to shag both of them. At least Ali waited until Ed had thrown her out before jumping into bed (or rather into the bath) with Christian. But it was interesting watching Ed trying to work out which one he liked best. It seemed like he changed his mind all the time. Maybe Matthews had to write him this way in order to ensure that Ali didn’t look bad but it was hard to sympathise with him much – although he was certainly very amusing.
Christian was just adorable. He’s sweet and well-meaning but a bit useless. He does do some awful things (really quite seriously awful, not to mention illegal) and he does seem scarily immature for a twenty-three year old, even by my standards. He seems more like a sixteen year old, maybe even younger, who wants to be a grown-up and in some ways has a more grown-up outlook than most people his age but stick him in the grown-up world and he doesn’t have a clue. But his feelings for Ali seem warm, genuine and romantic. He tries really hard to make her happy. It’s just at the same time he’s trying equally hard to make himself happy.
But my favourite character, Sharon, was hardly in it. She was the tart Christian met at the nightclub on the same night that Ali was thrown out by Ed. Sharon is just so amazingly nice and caring. She just wants something to eat and it isn’t even her house but she can tell Ali’s upset so she asks if she’s okay and offers to make her a cup of tea. Even when she realises Ali is essentially her rival for Christian’s affections, Sharon is still really nice to her. And why shouldn’t she be? Nice people come in all shapes and sizes, including as little slags. The other characters in this book could learn a lot from her. And so could I.
It’s funny how little things can annoy you in a book – and often it’s not the writer’s fault at all. At one point, Matthews referred to ‘a turn of turtles’ and I got really excited because I happen to know the collective noun for turtles is a bale of turtles. But I looked it up on Google just in case and unfortunately turn and bale are both correct. So instead of showing off how clever I am for knowing the real collective noun for turtles, I instead look ignorant for only knowing one of the terms. And that’s even more annoying than someone getting it wrong.
When Ed finds out, he’s just a little bit miffed and kicks Ali out - although one benefit of the new arrangement is that at least he doesn’t have to be quite so embarrassed about his own feelings for his scary workmate Orla. And come to think about it, his youngest son Elliott’s nursery school teacher Nicola is kind of hot too.
Meanwhile Ali sets up home with Christian and his young housemates Robbie and Rebecca, who happens to be Christian’s ex-girlfriend. Christian is kind and sweet and attentive and although he is just a big kid, he does make Ali feel very happy. In addition, Ed’s brother Neil is trying and failing to chat up Ali’s sister Jemma, even though she prefers married men.
In many ways, this book was great. I love the idea of a thirty-eight year old mother of three sharing a house with her toy boy and his mates. I also love how all the single woman around seem to be throwing themselves at Ed now he’s newly single. It was also quite hilarious the way Neil and Jemma clearly liked each other a lot but keep fucking things up.
But I wanted to see more. I wanted to see more of Ali trying her best to get on with Robbie and Rebecca, two people who are completely unlike her, rather than just telling us that Robbie was okay and Rebecca was a bitch. I actually thought Rebecca was mostly amazingly nice to her under the circumstances. How would you feel if you were woken up in the middle of the night by the girlfriend of the man you love needing a place to stay? I think it says a lot for Rebecca that she didn’t kick her out onto the street there and then.
It’s an amazing and original situation with the potential to be really hilarious, as well as giving some very different people the chance to get to know and learn to appreciate each other. But there just wasn’t enough of the parts of the book that interested me most. The book does have some absolutely hilarious moments but I couldn’t help feeling that Carole Matthews missed an opportunity here.
Then towards the end, something really major and shocking and life-changing happens and in a way it spoiled the book. First of all, this book is a comedy – it has some underlying serious messages in it but on the surface, it’s a very funny comedy. So to bring this big event in near the end seemed really inappropriate and strange when you’ve spent five-sixths of the book laughing.
Secondly, this big event is key in helping the characters to decide what they want from life. This is fine and realistic. But I kind of feel the end of the book should be about the characters’ working out what they really want and although it’s not unrealistic that it should take something really major to help them decide this, it does in a way make everything else in the book irrelevant. This big event means it doesn’t matter what they’ve learned about themselves and other people. All that matters in the end is who copes best in a crisis. And I don’t see what that’s got to do with deciding whom you really love. There’s no way I’m dumping my boyfriend for someone competent.
Even if I agree with how things stand at the end of this book (which to be honest I’m not completely sure I do), I’m sure there must have been a way of working things out that was more convincing, more satisfying and more in keeping with the tone of the rest of the book. And if Matthews wanted something big and dramatic, maybe she could have made the story into a serious story instead of a comedy. It was like something terrible was happening and I was still waiting for the punchline.
Not many of the characters were likeable but I did find them interesting. Ali seemed a bit moany and obsessive and embarrassing but I genuinely wanted things to work out for her and I was interested in how she was going to make changes in her life. Matthews’ writing ensured that even though she was unfaithful pretty much from the start, she wasn’t the villain of the piece. She was just feeling lonely and unloved and then she met someone who made sure she didn’t feel that way anymore.
Ed was even worse. I really feel for the poor kids. He seemed desperate to prove his masculinity and the way he treats Orla and Nicola (and Ali) just isn’t very nice. It doesn’t matter how forceful and determined to get into his pants Orla and Nicola are (in very different ways), it’s still not very nice of him to shag both of them. At least Ali waited until Ed had thrown her out before jumping into bed (or rather into the bath) with Christian. But it was interesting watching Ed trying to work out which one he liked best. It seemed like he changed his mind all the time. Maybe Matthews had to write him this way in order to ensure that Ali didn’t look bad but it was hard to sympathise with him much – although he was certainly very amusing.
Christian was just adorable. He’s sweet and well-meaning but a bit useless. He does do some awful things (really quite seriously awful, not to mention illegal) and he does seem scarily immature for a twenty-three year old, even by my standards. He seems more like a sixteen year old, maybe even younger, who wants to be a grown-up and in some ways has a more grown-up outlook than most people his age but stick him in the grown-up world and he doesn’t have a clue. But his feelings for Ali seem warm, genuine and romantic. He tries really hard to make her happy. It’s just at the same time he’s trying equally hard to make himself happy.
But my favourite character, Sharon, was hardly in it. She was the tart Christian met at the nightclub on the same night that Ali was thrown out by Ed. Sharon is just so amazingly nice and caring. She just wants something to eat and it isn’t even her house but she can tell Ali’s upset so she asks if she’s okay and offers to make her a cup of tea. Even when she realises Ali is essentially her rival for Christian’s affections, Sharon is still really nice to her. And why shouldn’t she be? Nice people come in all shapes and sizes, including as little slags. The other characters in this book could learn a lot from her. And so could I.
It’s funny how little things can annoy you in a book – and often it’s not the writer’s fault at all. At one point, Matthews referred to ‘a turn of turtles’ and I got really excited because I happen to know the collective noun for turtles is a bale of turtles. But I looked it up on Google just in case and unfortunately turn and bale are both correct. So instead of showing off how clever I am for knowing the real collective noun for turtles, I instead look ignorant for only knowing one of the terms. And that’s even more annoying than someone getting it wrong.
Thursday 4 November 2010
Birthday Girls (Annabel Giles)****
So I've failed slightly at posting every Sunday without fail...
This is a very cleverly-written and interesting book with a most unfortunate opening sentence which even more unfortunately comes true. In detail. Let’s put it this way, if I’d read the opening sentence in the shop, I would not have bought it. Emetophobes beware.
Birthday Girls follows the story of six women on their birthdays, ranging from ten-year-old Scarlett to Constance, who is sixty. They don’t all have their birthday on the same day but it follows the six woman over the course of just over a year so Scarlett is eleven by the end of the book. Four of them are in one family, the other two are from a different family but one of the male characters is sleeping with a woman from each family so they’re all kind of related in ways they discover as the book progresses. They also have various acquaintances in common – it’s quite fun when various minor characters start popping up in different places.
The book is divided up into sections with each section taking place on a particular person’s birthday. Most of each section is told from the point of view of the birthday girl although by the time you get to the final section, which tells you about Constance’s birthday, the POV jumps about a bit more as all the stories gradually resolve themselves.
It’s a really interesting way of telling a story and it’s also one that works perfectly well for the story – or stories – Annabel Giles tells. I don’t know if the idea for the plot or the narrative structure came first – often when the narrative structure is the first idea, it can be difficult finding a story to fit it and when the plot comes first, it can be equally difficult to shoehorn it all into something with such a rigid structure. But the two fit really well together.
I also like the characters. They’re all so completely different and in some ways they live in different worlds but the connections between the characters are still convincing. Scarlett can be a bit annoying (she’s a bit young and cute) but I really liked the other characters. Some people might find Sophie a bit weak, wet and embarrassing, Della certainly has her bitchy side, Constance seems a bit mad and Millicent, until you know the full story, can seem very stupid, desperate and a bit of a doormat, in a snobby sort of way (if you can imagine such a thing). As for Jessica, she is a bit of a sad wannabe and no-one in the book seems to like her.
But I really liked all of them. Even Scarlett isn’t that bad. Sophie is sweet and loving, and very brave in her way. Della’s determined independence is both admirable and moving because you can tell she’s hurting under the surface. Constance is quite mad but delightfully intrepid and with-it. Millicent is an amazing woman, with great strength, intelligence, courage and patience. And I had a lot of sympathy for Jessica, who finally has to accept she’s not a big star who’s loved by millions. It’s a very sad story and I always felt she was more a victim of circumstances than actually being a horrible person. It’s like being a star was all she knew how to do.
There are problems with the book. Sometimes the birthdays can end on a bit of a cliffhanger and you might never find out what happened next because the story has jumped forward a few months and while the event was hugely important at the time, it has paled into insignificance by then. Also the big final twist at the end was something I saw coming a mile off. I think if I’d worked it out very near the end, it might have had more impact but as it was, I had enough time to come to the conclusion that it was far too coincidental that things worked out as they did and it was a bit of a soap-opera moment and the book might have been stronger without it.
I did enjoy it though.
This is a very cleverly-written and interesting book with a most unfortunate opening sentence which even more unfortunately comes true. In detail. Let’s put it this way, if I’d read the opening sentence in the shop, I would not have bought it. Emetophobes beware.
Birthday Girls follows the story of six women on their birthdays, ranging from ten-year-old Scarlett to Constance, who is sixty. They don’t all have their birthday on the same day but it follows the six woman over the course of just over a year so Scarlett is eleven by the end of the book. Four of them are in one family, the other two are from a different family but one of the male characters is sleeping with a woman from each family so they’re all kind of related in ways they discover as the book progresses. They also have various acquaintances in common – it’s quite fun when various minor characters start popping up in different places.
The book is divided up into sections with each section taking place on a particular person’s birthday. Most of each section is told from the point of view of the birthday girl although by the time you get to the final section, which tells you about Constance’s birthday, the POV jumps about a bit more as all the stories gradually resolve themselves.
It’s a really interesting way of telling a story and it’s also one that works perfectly well for the story – or stories – Annabel Giles tells. I don’t know if the idea for the plot or the narrative structure came first – often when the narrative structure is the first idea, it can be difficult finding a story to fit it and when the plot comes first, it can be equally difficult to shoehorn it all into something with such a rigid structure. But the two fit really well together.
I also like the characters. They’re all so completely different and in some ways they live in different worlds but the connections between the characters are still convincing. Scarlett can be a bit annoying (she’s a bit young and cute) but I really liked the other characters. Some people might find Sophie a bit weak, wet and embarrassing, Della certainly has her bitchy side, Constance seems a bit mad and Millicent, until you know the full story, can seem very stupid, desperate and a bit of a doormat, in a snobby sort of way (if you can imagine such a thing). As for Jessica, she is a bit of a sad wannabe and no-one in the book seems to like her.
But I really liked all of them. Even Scarlett isn’t that bad. Sophie is sweet and loving, and very brave in her way. Della’s determined independence is both admirable and moving because you can tell she’s hurting under the surface. Constance is quite mad but delightfully intrepid and with-it. Millicent is an amazing woman, with great strength, intelligence, courage and patience. And I had a lot of sympathy for Jessica, who finally has to accept she’s not a big star who’s loved by millions. It’s a very sad story and I always felt she was more a victim of circumstances than actually being a horrible person. It’s like being a star was all she knew how to do.
There are problems with the book. Sometimes the birthdays can end on a bit of a cliffhanger and you might never find out what happened next because the story has jumped forward a few months and while the event was hugely important at the time, it has paled into insignificance by then. Also the big final twist at the end was something I saw coming a mile off. I think if I’d worked it out very near the end, it might have had more impact but as it was, I had enough time to come to the conclusion that it was far too coincidental that things worked out as they did and it was a bit of a soap-opera moment and the book might have been stronger without it.
I did enjoy it though.
Monday 18 October 2010
The Wedding Day (Catherine Alliott)***
Catherine Alliott is brilliant about writing comedies about rather stupid women and also brilliant at writing stories that really make you feel for the characters. But I’ve read three of her books now and all her characters seem fairly similar. The stupid heroine is in love with one man but then she meets another man who’s really horrible to her, then she starts having feelings for him instead. Actually, it’s the plot of pretty much any Mills & Boon although Alliott’s writing is a million times better than most Mills & Boon writers. So it is possible to read a number of books with exactly the same plot without getting fed up with it. But with this book, I found myself wishing for a bit of variation.
It’s not as though Alliott can’t do character. In this book especially, she has some great secondary characters. Annie, the central character, and her fiancé David might lack originality but David has a wonderfully mad and vague but terrifying and formidable aunt called Gertrude. Annie’s older sister Claire is always busy, bossy and competitive, just the sort of person I’d usually find really annoying but Alliott gives her a surprising vulnerability. The publisher who is interested in Annie’s book doesn’t appear in person but he’s a great character too. Then there are various friends and neighbours who are fascinating and amusing and Alliott takes the story off on endless twists and turns. And even when you know just where the story is going, she often throws in a surprise.
I also liked Annie’s ex-husband Adam. He does have a bit of a maturity problem (not to mention a fidelity problem) and you can’t blame Annie at all for leaving him - you actually kind of wonder why she didn’t do it sooner. But I did kind of feel he had some good qualities and I really wanted him to learn from his mistakes and end up happy, although maybe not with Annie. He was the first character in the book I really cared for and wanted to know more about. Some of the other major characters at that point seemed like lost causes and Adam didn’t… although I think Annie would argue with that.
Other characters however don’t quite work. Annie’s daughter Flora is a strange mixture of a stroppy teenager, a very young child and an adult. In some ways, this is completely realistic as everyone has different sides to their personality and there are times when you feel young and times when you feel old (not that I’ve ever felt old). But the different parts of Flora don’t quite form a coherent whole.
Annie, David, and Matt (Annie’s Other Man) don’t quite work for me either. The problem is that Annie is a bit unhinged. There’s nothing wrong with being a bit unhinged but I found it slightly worrying that she was getting married. She hardly seems to know David, she has little or no interest in the wedding (although she has somehow managed to convince herself she can’t wait) and seems to have no idea what she’s getting into. I felt as though I was older than her (she’s in her thirties so she’s much older than me) and that freaked me out a bit. I’m not used to going around feeling older than people. It always worries me to find someone, even in a book, who is considered a capable and responsible adult (unlike me) yet is obviously in need of someone to take care of them, be it temporarily or permanently. I really wanted to find Annie, look after her a bit and sort her head out. (Annie is probably now feeling very glad she doesn’t exist.)
This book also includes something I really hate to find in books. No, I don’t mean vomit although there is some and it wasn’t very nice but it could have been worse. What I also really hate is when one (or more) of the characters in the book is a writer and you have to read their work. Alliott makes us read some of Annie’s book. It is so cringe-makingly awful, it should probably be quite funny but the fact a publisher is interested in the book kind of spoils the effect. And there’s definitely a bit too much of it. But it is very cleverly done and there is a reason why Alliott makes you read it so I suppose she gets away with it.
David seemed like a perfectly lovely man but I didn’t really know what he was doing hanging around with this madwoman, let alone planning to marry her. He’s a doctor so I thought he must be setting himself up as her carer or something. Alliott does address this so she gets away with that too but it’s a good thing the book isn’t any longer. Towards the end of the book, you understand why Alliott has done certain things that just don’t make sense at first but until I found out why, I found these parts of the book very annoying.
As for Matt, he seems a little bit creepy. I can’t blame him for sneaking into Annie’s holiday home in the middle of the night, he did honestly think it was his holiday home. But shouting at Annie, getting her name wrong on purpose in insulting ways and trying to force her and her teenage daughter to leave the house immediately and go to an expensive hotel seems a bit much. Annie forgives him (she’s way too nice, she lets people walk all over her) but I still haven’t.
Alliott writes so well though, it was impossible not to become emotionally involved in the story, even though it took me a while and I might have given up on it if a) I didn’t have a blog or b) I didn’t know from experience that Alliott is such an emotionally involving writer. I wasn’t happy at all with the ending, it actually seemed completely wrong, if not dangerous and I really think Annie is in serious trouble. But if you ignore the last couple of chapters, the book would have a really exciting and interesting ending. The way Annie gets to know the characters in ways she hasn’t been able to before, the way she finds out about and comes face to face with their innermost secrets, the way she really does seem to learn from the experience and grow up a bit, made this book a (mostly) really moving and satisfying read.
It’s not as though Alliott can’t do character. In this book especially, she has some great secondary characters. Annie, the central character, and her fiancé David might lack originality but David has a wonderfully mad and vague but terrifying and formidable aunt called Gertrude. Annie’s older sister Claire is always busy, bossy and competitive, just the sort of person I’d usually find really annoying but Alliott gives her a surprising vulnerability. The publisher who is interested in Annie’s book doesn’t appear in person but he’s a great character too. Then there are various friends and neighbours who are fascinating and amusing and Alliott takes the story off on endless twists and turns. And even when you know just where the story is going, she often throws in a surprise.
I also liked Annie’s ex-husband Adam. He does have a bit of a maturity problem (not to mention a fidelity problem) and you can’t blame Annie at all for leaving him - you actually kind of wonder why she didn’t do it sooner. But I did kind of feel he had some good qualities and I really wanted him to learn from his mistakes and end up happy, although maybe not with Annie. He was the first character in the book I really cared for and wanted to know more about. Some of the other major characters at that point seemed like lost causes and Adam didn’t… although I think Annie would argue with that.
Other characters however don’t quite work. Annie’s daughter Flora is a strange mixture of a stroppy teenager, a very young child and an adult. In some ways, this is completely realistic as everyone has different sides to their personality and there are times when you feel young and times when you feel old (not that I’ve ever felt old). But the different parts of Flora don’t quite form a coherent whole.
Annie, David, and Matt (Annie’s Other Man) don’t quite work for me either. The problem is that Annie is a bit unhinged. There’s nothing wrong with being a bit unhinged but I found it slightly worrying that she was getting married. She hardly seems to know David, she has little or no interest in the wedding (although she has somehow managed to convince herself she can’t wait) and seems to have no idea what she’s getting into. I felt as though I was older than her (she’s in her thirties so she’s much older than me) and that freaked me out a bit. I’m not used to going around feeling older than people. It always worries me to find someone, even in a book, who is considered a capable and responsible adult (unlike me) yet is obviously in need of someone to take care of them, be it temporarily or permanently. I really wanted to find Annie, look after her a bit and sort her head out. (Annie is probably now feeling very glad she doesn’t exist.)
This book also includes something I really hate to find in books. No, I don’t mean vomit although there is some and it wasn’t very nice but it could have been worse. What I also really hate is when one (or more) of the characters in the book is a writer and you have to read their work. Alliott makes us read some of Annie’s book. It is so cringe-makingly awful, it should probably be quite funny but the fact a publisher is interested in the book kind of spoils the effect. And there’s definitely a bit too much of it. But it is very cleverly done and there is a reason why Alliott makes you read it so I suppose she gets away with it.
David seemed like a perfectly lovely man but I didn’t really know what he was doing hanging around with this madwoman, let alone planning to marry her. He’s a doctor so I thought he must be setting himself up as her carer or something. Alliott does address this so she gets away with that too but it’s a good thing the book isn’t any longer. Towards the end of the book, you understand why Alliott has done certain things that just don’t make sense at first but until I found out why, I found these parts of the book very annoying.
As for Matt, he seems a little bit creepy. I can’t blame him for sneaking into Annie’s holiday home in the middle of the night, he did honestly think it was his holiday home. But shouting at Annie, getting her name wrong on purpose in insulting ways and trying to force her and her teenage daughter to leave the house immediately and go to an expensive hotel seems a bit much. Annie forgives him (she’s way too nice, she lets people walk all over her) but I still haven’t.
Alliott writes so well though, it was impossible not to become emotionally involved in the story, even though it took me a while and I might have given up on it if a) I didn’t have a blog or b) I didn’t know from experience that Alliott is such an emotionally involving writer. I wasn’t happy at all with the ending, it actually seemed completely wrong, if not dangerous and I really think Annie is in serious trouble. But if you ignore the last couple of chapters, the book would have a really exciting and interesting ending. The way Annie gets to know the characters in ways she hasn’t been able to before, the way she finds out about and comes face to face with their innermost secrets, the way she really does seem to learn from the experience and grow up a bit, made this book a (mostly) really moving and satisfying read.
Sunday 10 October 2010
On Chesil Beach (Iain McEwan)****
I hated Atonement so much, I was reluctant to give Ian McEwan another go. But he’s my boyfriend’s very favourite writer in the whole world (except me) so he told me I had to try On Chesil Beach because I’d love it. I was quite annoyed when he turns out to be right but at least it meant I didn’t have to suffer like I did with Atonement.
One of the things I hated about Atonement was that Ian McEwan copied bits from other sources. I don’t know if he’s done the same thing in On Chesil Beach or not but in a way I don’t want to know. I really enjoyed it and it will spoil it a bit if it turned out not to be an original work of fiction.
It certainly seemed original. It’s set in the fifties. Florence and Edward are on honeymoon. It’s their wedding night and they’re both virgins so they don’t know what to expect. Edward can’t wait (typical man) but Florence is a bit freaked out by the whole idea of it. It starts off with them eating their first meal alone as a married couple, then they go into the bedroom. Then we start seeing a series of flashbacks. We hear about the first time they encountered one another and the time when they finally met (these are not the same thing). We see how their relationship progressed from there and a bit about their contrasting home lives. We discover Florence went to music college to study the violin and Edward went to university and got into brawls.
The parts of the book set in the present (the wedding night) are told in chronological order but the rest is told in quite a random way. However it is very effective. The more you read, the more you unravel, the more things start to make sense. It’s only annoying when McEwan has left you at a very exciting point and then he goes off and talks about something else instead. But a lot of good authors do that.
Edward is a bit of a strange character. He turns out to be a very different character from how he seemed at the beginning of the book. He’s very polite and slightly reserved towards Florence so I thought he was quite a gentle sort of person. Then it turns out he likes getting into fights. Edward as a character is full of surprises but McEwan doesn’t reveal Edward’s character in an unrealistic way. I had no trouble believing he really was as he was being described. I wasn’t sure I liked him but I did find him very interesting.
Florence I identified with quite a lot. At first, I thought she was naturally nervous about her wedding night because she didn’t really know much about it but it turns out she is quite repulsed by the whole idea. I find this completely reasonable. I love my boyfriend and we’re very happy and, well, use your imagination, we have been together for nearly two years. But the idea of having his urinating apparatus inside me isn’t one that gets me particularly excited. And the thought of him… exploding all over me is a bit ewwww when you think about it. It’s not that I don’t get excited, it’s just I get more excited when he’s got his clothes on (or, well, my clothes on). So I really felt for Florence and McEwan described her feelings really well.
I liked the parts about music too. Often when people write about music you can tell whether they actually know anything about it or not. Like there was one book with a character who wanted to play a particular flute piece slowly. Reasonable in theory but that particular piece you have to play really fast because you can’t take breaths in the middle of the phrases. Then you get the occasional violin with frets and or a clarinet with a double reed which really does get on my nerves. (The violin does not have frets and the clarinet has a single reed.)
But I had no trouble with Florence’s being a really good, professional standard violinist. There weren’t many descriptions of it but there was nothing that stood out as ridiculous. Maybe she spent a bit more time practising her scales and arpeggios than she needed to – you do need to practise them a lot but you get to practise pieces too - but it wasn’t so much it was actually unbelievable. The descriptions of the Wigmore Hall were also excellent. It has been refurbished at least once since the book and the only place I’ve been backstage is the Green Room but it was mostly possible to imagine the Wigmore Hall, read the descriptions, know exactly what he was talking about and have no doubt that he really was talking about the Wigmore Hall.
Some of the sentences might have been just slightly longer than they needed to be but only if I’m being really fussy. I actually really liked McEwan’s use of language. It was sort of gentle, like the waves undulating near Chesil Beach. At the very start McEwan showed a slight inclination to sneer at his characters but after that he really seemed to be inside their heads rather than laughing and pointing.
There isn’t much dialogue. Most of it is descriptions. Usually this sort of thing annoys me as I love dialogue but this book seemed right without dialogue. It’s about two people who have a lot of thoughts, feelings and memories they haven’t shared – and to an extent can’t share - with one another. When a conversation is described, it’s not necessarily the words that are spoken that are the most important thing. So I really like the book as it is.
Chesil Beach is a fascinating location for a story but to an extent it’s wasted because Chesil Beach is one of the few places in the book that isn’t described in detail and also really the only part of the book where the words used in conversation become more important than the setting. There are probably many exciting stories that could be set on Chesil Beach and nowhere else but on Chesil Beach but the book On Chesil Beach could in theory have been set anywhere. There doesn’t even need to be a beach at all as far as I can see. Anywhere outdoors would do.
So in some ways I wish McEwan had set his story somewhere else as now I think writers will feel discouraged from using Chesil Beach as a setting even if they wrote a very different story because the book is so famous. But at the same time, Chesil Beach is an exciting, magical place and just the fact that it’s really there gives the story something extra.
One of the things I hated about Atonement was that Ian McEwan copied bits from other sources. I don’t know if he’s done the same thing in On Chesil Beach or not but in a way I don’t want to know. I really enjoyed it and it will spoil it a bit if it turned out not to be an original work of fiction.
It certainly seemed original. It’s set in the fifties. Florence and Edward are on honeymoon. It’s their wedding night and they’re both virgins so they don’t know what to expect. Edward can’t wait (typical man) but Florence is a bit freaked out by the whole idea of it. It starts off with them eating their first meal alone as a married couple, then they go into the bedroom. Then we start seeing a series of flashbacks. We hear about the first time they encountered one another and the time when they finally met (these are not the same thing). We see how their relationship progressed from there and a bit about their contrasting home lives. We discover Florence went to music college to study the violin and Edward went to university and got into brawls.
The parts of the book set in the present (the wedding night) are told in chronological order but the rest is told in quite a random way. However it is very effective. The more you read, the more you unravel, the more things start to make sense. It’s only annoying when McEwan has left you at a very exciting point and then he goes off and talks about something else instead. But a lot of good authors do that.
Edward is a bit of a strange character. He turns out to be a very different character from how he seemed at the beginning of the book. He’s very polite and slightly reserved towards Florence so I thought he was quite a gentle sort of person. Then it turns out he likes getting into fights. Edward as a character is full of surprises but McEwan doesn’t reveal Edward’s character in an unrealistic way. I had no trouble believing he really was as he was being described. I wasn’t sure I liked him but I did find him very interesting.
Florence I identified with quite a lot. At first, I thought she was naturally nervous about her wedding night because she didn’t really know much about it but it turns out she is quite repulsed by the whole idea. I find this completely reasonable. I love my boyfriend and we’re very happy and, well, use your imagination, we have been together for nearly two years. But the idea of having his urinating apparatus inside me isn’t one that gets me particularly excited. And the thought of him… exploding all over me is a bit ewwww when you think about it. It’s not that I don’t get excited, it’s just I get more excited when he’s got his clothes on (or, well, my clothes on). So I really felt for Florence and McEwan described her feelings really well.
I liked the parts about music too. Often when people write about music you can tell whether they actually know anything about it or not. Like there was one book with a character who wanted to play a particular flute piece slowly. Reasonable in theory but that particular piece you have to play really fast because you can’t take breaths in the middle of the phrases. Then you get the occasional violin with frets and or a clarinet with a double reed which really does get on my nerves. (The violin does not have frets and the clarinet has a single reed.)
But I had no trouble with Florence’s being a really good, professional standard violinist. There weren’t many descriptions of it but there was nothing that stood out as ridiculous. Maybe she spent a bit more time practising her scales and arpeggios than she needed to – you do need to practise them a lot but you get to practise pieces too - but it wasn’t so much it was actually unbelievable. The descriptions of the Wigmore Hall were also excellent. It has been refurbished at least once since the book and the only place I’ve been backstage is the Green Room but it was mostly possible to imagine the Wigmore Hall, read the descriptions, know exactly what he was talking about and have no doubt that he really was talking about the Wigmore Hall.
Some of the sentences might have been just slightly longer than they needed to be but only if I’m being really fussy. I actually really liked McEwan’s use of language. It was sort of gentle, like the waves undulating near Chesil Beach. At the very start McEwan showed a slight inclination to sneer at his characters but after that he really seemed to be inside their heads rather than laughing and pointing.
There isn’t much dialogue. Most of it is descriptions. Usually this sort of thing annoys me as I love dialogue but this book seemed right without dialogue. It’s about two people who have a lot of thoughts, feelings and memories they haven’t shared – and to an extent can’t share - with one another. When a conversation is described, it’s not necessarily the words that are spoken that are the most important thing. So I really like the book as it is.
Chesil Beach is a fascinating location for a story but to an extent it’s wasted because Chesil Beach is one of the few places in the book that isn’t described in detail and also really the only part of the book where the words used in conversation become more important than the setting. There are probably many exciting stories that could be set on Chesil Beach and nowhere else but on Chesil Beach but the book On Chesil Beach could in theory have been set anywhere. There doesn’t even need to be a beach at all as far as I can see. Anywhere outdoors would do.
So in some ways I wish McEwan had set his story somewhere else as now I think writers will feel discouraged from using Chesil Beach as a setting even if they wrote a very different story because the book is so famous. But at the same time, Chesil Beach is an exciting, magical place and just the fact that it’s really there gives the story something extra.
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