I have started The Quality of Mercy by Barry Unsworth. This is a book that I would be unlikely to pick up normally, but this is my next book club selection. here is the blurb:
The Quality of Mercy opens in the spring of 1767, in the immediate aftermath of the events in Barry Unsworth's Sacred Hunger. It follows the fortunes of two central characters from that book: Sullivan, an Irish fiddler, and Erasmus Kemp, the son of a disgraced Liverpool slave-ship owner who hanged himself. To avenge his father's death, Erasmus Kemp has had the rebellious sailors of his father's ship, including Sullivan, brought back to London to stand trial on charges of mutiny and piracy. But as the novel opens, a blithe Sullivan has escaped and is making his way on foot to the north of England, stealing and scamming as he goes.His destination is the colliery village where his dead shipmate, Billy Blair, lived: he has pledged to tell the family how Billy met his end.In this village, Thorpe in the East Durham coalfields, live Billy's sister Nan and her miner husband, James Bordon. Their three sons are all destined to follow their father down the pit. The youngest, only 7, is enjoying his last summer above ground. The terrible conditions in which mineworkers laboured are vividly evoked, and Bordon has dreams of escaping the mine with his family. Meanwhile in London a passionate anti-slavery campaigner, Frederick Ashton, gets involved in a second case relating to the lost ship. Erasmus Kemp is claiming financial compensation for the cargo of sick slaves who were thrown overboard to drown, and Ashton is representing the insurers who dispute his claim. Ashton triumphs in court, but not before his beautiful sister, Jane, has encountered Erasmus Kemp and found herself powerfully attracted to him despite their polarised views on slavery. She discovers that Kemp wants to spend some of his sugar and slavery fortune on Britain's new industries: coal-mining and steel. A landowner father of a friend of Jane's tips him off about Lord Spenton's mines, for sale in East Durham, and Kemp sees the business opportunity he has been waiting for.Thus he too makes his way north, to the very same village that Sullivan is heading for . . .
31 Jul 2012
She Won't Get Far Her Bag's Too Heavy - by Marie Stamp
This was a straightforward, entertaining read, telling the story of the author's walk with a few anecdotes from her past. The quality of the writing was competent, with jut the occasional clumsiness or bad grammar/punctuation. I am not sure that it would inspire me to explore the coastal path, but I admired her determination.
26 Jul 2012
What I'm reading
I have started She Won't Get Far Her Bag's Too Heavy by Marie Stamp. After reading some heavyweight fiction, I thought that a light-weight autobiography would be just the job. Here is the blurb:
A story about a woman and her dog starting out on a walk on the South West Coast Path in 2010 with the intention of walking from Minehead to Land's End. Her dog carrying his own baggage and she carrying a huge rucksack full of things that give her self sufficiency. Sporting shin splints, she stumbles and sweats her way along, making cock-ups and dropping clangers, walking in circles and getting totally knackered. They survive hypothermia and ford streams that have turned into raging rivers after flash flooding. When one man she meets tells her that not many women have backpacked on their own with a dog and walked all of the 630 mile coast path in one go, she is determined when she reaches Land's End, to keep going and the nearer she gets to the end at Poole, the more determined and ambitious she becomes to selfishly finish the whole path. Along the way she tells tales from her youth, like the time she fell down a road side drain on a first and last date with a boy with a carrot red hair and bad acne, and the shoplifting dog she had when she was 12 years old that stole dog food so she could buy cigarettes instead, and other scams she had to fuel her fag habit. She also tells of her adventures while climbing the Matterhorn and Mont Blanc and other long distance walks she has had the privilege to walk. She somehow manages to finish the South West Coast Path after wearing out two pairs of boots and one dog.
A story about a woman and her dog starting out on a walk on the South West Coast Path in 2010 with the intention of walking from Minehead to Land's End. Her dog carrying his own baggage and she carrying a huge rucksack full of things that give her self sufficiency. Sporting shin splints, she stumbles and sweats her way along, making cock-ups and dropping clangers, walking in circles and getting totally knackered. They survive hypothermia and ford streams that have turned into raging rivers after flash flooding. When one man she meets tells her that not many women have backpacked on their own with a dog and walked all of the 630 mile coast path in one go, she is determined when she reaches Land's End, to keep going and the nearer she gets to the end at Poole, the more determined and ambitious she becomes to selfishly finish the whole path. Along the way she tells tales from her youth, like the time she fell down a road side drain on a first and last date with a boy with a carrot red hair and bad acne, and the shoplifting dog she had when she was 12 years old that stole dog food so she could buy cigarettes instead, and other scams she had to fuel her fag habit. She also tells of her adventures while climbing the Matterhorn and Mont Blanc and other long distance walks she has had the privilege to walk. She somehow manages to finish the South West Coast Path after wearing out two pairs of boots and one dog.
The Finkler Question - by Howard Jacobson
It is unusual for me to read a book twice, but I re-read this one because it was my book club selection. I made some comments before, but I guess I now have some new impressions, which are also coloured by the discussion with other club members.
Overall, the book has many fine qualities, not the least of which are numerous well-written passages and word usage that is very pleasing. The characters, for me, were well described. I am not sure that I liked any of them, but they mostly left an impression, which is the point.
The story is really just a loose framework used as a vehicle to discuss ideas - notably the nature of Jewishness, of love and of self. The downside is the loose ends of the story never get tied up - like who did the mugging?
The book is a little long, the last third in particular being a bit repetitive and rambling.
Overall, the book has many fine qualities, not the least of which are numerous well-written passages and word usage that is very pleasing. The characters, for me, were well described. I am not sure that I liked any of them, but they mostly left an impression, which is the point.
The story is really just a loose framework used as a vehicle to discuss ideas - notably the nature of Jewishness, of love and of self. The downside is the loose ends of the story never get tied up - like who did the mugging?
The book is a little long, the last third in particular being a bit repetitive and rambling.
14 Jul 2012
What I'm reading
I have started The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson. I have read this before, but, as it is my next book club selection, I am reading it again. [I tend to forget the details of books very quickly.] Here is the blurb:
Julian Treslove, a professionally unspectacular former BBC radio producer, and Sam Finkler, a popular Jewish philosopher, writer and television personality, are old school friends. Despite very different lives, they've never quite lost touch with each other - or with their former teacher, Libor Sevcik. Both Libor and Finkler are recently widowed, and together with Treslove they share a sweetly painful evening revisiting a time before they had loved and lost. It is that very evening, when Treslove hesitates a moment as he walks home, that he is attacked - and his whole sense of who and what he is slowly and ineluctably changes.
Julian Treslove, a professionally unspectacular former BBC radio producer, and Sam Finkler, a popular Jewish philosopher, writer and television personality, are old school friends. Despite very different lives, they've never quite lost touch with each other - or with their former teacher, Libor Sevcik. Both Libor and Finkler are recently widowed, and together with Treslove they share a sweetly painful evening revisiting a time before they had loved and lost. It is that very evening, when Treslove hesitates a moment as he walks home, that he is attacked - and his whole sense of who and what he is slowly and ineluctably changes.
13 Jul 2012
Shadows Of The Workhouse - by Jennifer Worth
A good read and a fine example of "it does what it says on the tin". As the blurb says, this book is not really about midwifery or much about nursing, but is a very sensitive and moving account of the lives of some of the characters the author met in the course of her work in Poplar. There are many stories that are almost unbelievable - cruelty that seems more medieval than early 20th Century - but I have good confidence in the author's integrity, so it must be true. Many stories are heart-wrenchingly sad, but others are uplifting. I enjoyed the read and feel I learned something, which, for me, is a major goal in reading at all.
4 Jul 2012
What I'm reading
I have started Shadows Of The Workhouse: The Drama Of Life In Postwar London by Jennifer Worth. I enjoyed the previous book and have been recommended this one too. Here's the blurb:
In this follow up to Call The Midwife, Jennifer Worth, a midwife working in the docklands area of East London in the 1950s tells more stories about the fascinating people she encountered. There's the story of Jane who cleaned and generally helped out at Nonnatus House - she was taken to the workhouse as a baby and was allegedly the illegitimate daughter of an aristocrat. Peggy and Frank's parents both died within 6 months of each other and the children were left destitute. At the time, there was no other option for them but the workhouse. The Reverend Thornton-Appleby-Thorton, a missionary in Africa, comes to visit the Nonnatus nuns and Sister Julienne acts as matchmaker. And Sister Monica Joan, the eccentric ninety-year-old nun, is accused of shoplifting some small items from the local market. She is let off with a warning, but then Jennifer finds stolen jewels from Hatten Garden in the nun's room. The case is taken to court and Sister Monica Joan becomes a cause celebre. These stories give a fascinating insight into the lives of the poor in 1950s London, of the shadow of the workhouse that always hung over their lives but also of the resilience and spirit that enabled ordinary people to overcome their difficulties.
In this follow up to Call The Midwife, Jennifer Worth, a midwife working in the docklands area of East London in the 1950s tells more stories about the fascinating people she encountered. There's the story of Jane who cleaned and generally helped out at Nonnatus House - she was taken to the workhouse as a baby and was allegedly the illegitimate daughter of an aristocrat. Peggy and Frank's parents both died within 6 months of each other and the children were left destitute. At the time, there was no other option for them but the workhouse. The Reverend Thornton-Appleby-Thorton, a missionary in Africa, comes to visit the Nonnatus nuns and Sister Julienne acts as matchmaker. And Sister Monica Joan, the eccentric ninety-year-old nun, is accused of shoplifting some small items from the local market. She is let off with a warning, but then Jennifer finds stolen jewels from Hatten Garden in the nun's room. The case is taken to court and Sister Monica Joan becomes a cause celebre. These stories give a fascinating insight into the lives of the poor in 1950s London, of the shadow of the workhouse that always hung over their lives but also of the resilience and spirit that enabled ordinary people to overcome their difficulties.
3 Jul 2012
The Key To Rebecca - by Ken Follett
I very much enjoyed this book, which quite quickly became unputdownable. The characters are well drawn and the story progresses at fair pace. It had enough complexity and twists and turns to keep me on my toes. There is one brief and not very explicit sex scene, which appears unexpectedly and is rather strangely written, but I can forgive that.
As always with a novel, I hoped to learn something and maybe I do now know something about the events in Egypt during WW2. I shall certainly be reading more of this author's work.
As always with a novel, I hoped to learn something and maybe I do now know something about the events in Egypt during WW2. I shall certainly be reading more of this author's work.
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