I have started The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas. This is my next book club selection. I am disconcerted by the large number of Amazon 1-star reviews, but I will certainly give it a go and form my own opinion. Here is the blurb:
At a suburban barbecue one afternoon, a man slaps an unruly boy.
The boy is not his son.
It is a single act of violence, but the slap reverberates through the lives of everyone who witnesses it happen.
Christos Tsiolkas presents the impact of this apparently minor domestic incident through the eyes of eight of those who witness it. The result is an unflinching interrogation of the life of the modern family, a deeply thought-provoking novel about boundaries and their limits.
27 May 2013
Major Pettigrew's Last Stand - by Helen Simonson
As expected, a very straightforward and enjoyable read. Although basically a light-hearted story about the relationship between the Major and Mrs. Ali, the story takes a wry look at the prejudices of people in an English village towards class, religion and "outsiders".
While reading the book I had the feeling that it would make a nice TV mini-series. I did some checking and see that a film is planned.
All in all, I'd recommend the book to anyone who likes a story with a beginning, middle and an end.
While reading the book I had the feeling that it would make a nice TV mini-series. I did some checking and see that a film is planned.
All in all, I'd recommend the book to anyone who likes a story with a beginning, middle and an end.
17 May 2013
What I'm reading ...
I have started Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson. I was recommended this as a light read, which is what I was after. Here's the blurb:
Major Ernest Pettigrew is perfectly content to lead a quiet life in the sleepy village of Edgecombe St Mary, away from the meddling of the locals and his overbearing son. But when his brother dies, the Major finds himself seeking companionship with the village shopkeeper, Mrs Ali. Drawn together by a love of books and the loss of their partners, they are soon forced to contend with irate relatives and gossiping villagers. The perfect gentleman, but the most unlikely hero, the Major must ask himself what matters most: family obligation, tradition or love? Funny, comforting and heart-warming, Major Pettigrew's Last Stand proves that sometimes, against all odds, life does give you a second chance.
Major Ernest Pettigrew is perfectly content to lead a quiet life in the sleepy village of Edgecombe St Mary, away from the meddling of the locals and his overbearing son. But when his brother dies, the Major finds himself seeking companionship with the village shopkeeper, Mrs Ali. Drawn together by a love of books and the loss of their partners, they are soon forced to contend with irate relatives and gossiping villagers. The perfect gentleman, but the most unlikely hero, the Major must ask himself what matters most: family obligation, tradition or love? Funny, comforting and heart-warming, Major Pettigrew's Last Stand proves that sometimes, against all odds, life does give you a second chance.
Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? - by Jeanette Winterson
As expected, I enjoyed this book, which is almost inevitable for me with a well-written biography. This one is, indeed, well written - the author has a very good way with words and I am unsurprised that she has been such a successful author. I found the first [more than] half of the book most interesting, as it catalogued her earlier life, growing up in a world very different from anything that I have experienced. In particular, her family were short of money, she was adopted and she gradually realized that she was a lesbian. She paints very strong pictures of her world and the characters in it, the most significant one being her mother, to whom she always refers as "Mrs. Winterson".
In the second half of the book, she fast-forwards to the recent past and discusses the search for her birth mother and ponders upon the nature of love and being adopted and how this affected her sexuality. I enjoyed this part of the book a little less, as I felt that I had been deprived of a significant part of the story in not hearing about the middle of her life.
The quality of writing was so good that I will very likely read more of the author's work in due course.
In the second half of the book, she fast-forwards to the recent past and discusses the search for her birth mother and ponders upon the nature of love and being adopted and how this affected her sexuality. I enjoyed this part of the book a little less, as I felt that I had been deprived of a significant part of the story in not hearing about the middle of her life.
The quality of writing was so good that I will very likely read more of the author's work in due course.
5 May 2013
What I'm reading ...
I have started Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? by Jeanette Winterson. I thought it might be nice to read another auto-biography and this is the book that I gave away on World Book Night. Here is the blurb:
In 1985 Jeanette Winterson’s first novel, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, was published. It tells the story of a young girl adopted by Pentecostal parents. The girl is supposed to grow up and be a missionary. Instead she falls in love with a woman. Disaster.Written when Jeanette was only twenty-five, her novel went on to win the Whitbread First Novel award, become an international bestseller and inspire an award-winning BBC television adaptation.Oranges was semi-autobiographical. Mrs Winterson, a thwarted giantess, loomed over that novel and its author’s life. When Jeanette finally left her home, at sixteen, because she was in love with a woman, Mrs Winterson asked her: why be happy when you could be normal? This book is the story of a life’s work to find happiness. It is a book full of stories: about a girl locked out of her home, sitting on the doorstep all night; about a tyrant in place of a mother, who has two sets of false teeth and a revolver in the duster drawer, waiting for Armageddon; about growing up in an northern industrial town now changed beyond recognition, part of a community now vanished; about the Universe as a Cosmic Dustbin. It is the story of how the painful past Jeanette Winterson thought she had written over and repainted returned to haunt her later life, and sent her on a journey into madness and out again, in search of her real mother. It is also a book about other people's stories, showing how fiction and poetry can form a string of guiding lights, a life-raft which supports us when we are sinking. Funny, acute, fierce and celebratory, this is a tough-minded search for belonging, for love, an identity, a home, and a mother.
In 1985 Jeanette Winterson’s first novel, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, was published. It tells the story of a young girl adopted by Pentecostal parents. The girl is supposed to grow up and be a missionary. Instead she falls in love with a woman. Disaster.Written when Jeanette was only twenty-five, her novel went on to win the Whitbread First Novel award, become an international bestseller and inspire an award-winning BBC television adaptation.Oranges was semi-autobiographical. Mrs Winterson, a thwarted giantess, loomed over that novel and its author’s life. When Jeanette finally left her home, at sixteen, because she was in love with a woman, Mrs Winterson asked her: why be happy when you could be normal? This book is the story of a life’s work to find happiness. It is a book full of stories: about a girl locked out of her home, sitting on the doorstep all night; about a tyrant in place of a mother, who has two sets of false teeth and a revolver in the duster drawer, waiting for Armageddon; about growing up in an northern industrial town now changed beyond recognition, part of a community now vanished; about the Universe as a Cosmic Dustbin. It is the story of how the painful past Jeanette Winterson thought she had written over and repainted returned to haunt her later life, and sent her on a journey into madness and out again, in search of her real mother. It is also a book about other people's stories, showing how fiction and poetry can form a string of guiding lights, a life-raft which supports us when we are sinking. Funny, acute, fierce and celebratory, this is a tough-minded search for belonging, for love, an identity, a home, and a mother.
13 Things That Don't Make Sense - by Michael Brooks
Each chapter of this book covers one of the 13 "anomalies". It is written like a novel, in that each chapter wraps up with a "teaser" to get you starting the next. It is well written, with enough detail for the scientifically literate reader, without the need to be an expert. Although it was largely about what we don't know, or are not certain about, it left me feeling optimistic and enthusiastic about science. All in all, a very good read from which I learned lots of interesting stuff and got plenty of food for thought.
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