The Bone Clocks - by David Mitchell

This book, as expected, took a while. But 2 hours on a train and a 10 hour flight meant that I could read the second half - 300 pages - more or less in one sitting. However, a well structured and thought out large book is rewarding to read and this one made the grade.

The story is very complex, with lots of characters and events, multiple viewpoints and numerous interconnections that are quite a stretch to keep tabs on. Unusually, the story is essentially a single timeline, which helps. The initial part of the story is historic, then contemporary and is mostly "normal" with only small fantasy components. As it moves into the future, the fantastical parts are more dominant and fully explained. The last part of the book, in the more distant future, describes a somewhat distopian, but, to me, sadly realistic world.

Overall I enjoyed the book because the characters were well drawn and the story made sense, having a beginning, a middle and an end. I am not really certain that all the fantasy stuff needed to be explained thoroughly. In a way, the war between the Horologists and the Anchorites was rather "Doctor Who". I also never quite saw where The Script fitted in.

A small concern is about the author's integrity. I expect a lot from writers and expect them to have done their homework, finding silly errors annoying. For example, there is a reference to CD-R and CD-RW in the early 2020s; this terminology is rather anachronistic even now in 2014. Elsewhere there is a note about a barn owl hooting. It is tawny owls that hoot; barn owls screech. But I'm being picky ...

What I'm reading ...

I have started The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell. This was on the long list for the Booker Prize, which brought it to my attention. Sadly it did not make the shortlist. However, I enjoy the author's work and he used to live in the area near my home. I am daunted by the 600 pages, but I do have a couple of long flights coming up. Here is the blurb:

One drowsy summer's day in 1984, teenage runaway Holly Sykes encounters a strange woman who offers a small kindness in exchange for 'asylum'. Decades will pass before Holly understands exactly what sort of asylum the woman was seeking . . .
The Bone Clocks follows the twists and turns of Holly's life from a scarred adolescence in Gravesend to old age on Ireland's Atlantic coast as Europe's oil supply dries up - a life not so far out of the ordinary, yet punctuated by flashes of precognition, visits from people who emerge from thin air and brief lapses in the laws of reality. For Holly Sykes - daughter, sister, mother, guardian - is also an unwitting player in a murderous feud played out in the shadows and margins of our world, and may prove to be its decisive weapon.

Stoner: A Novel - by John Williams

I enjoyed reading this book. It reads somewhat like a biography in that it tells the story of Stoner's life, which, in itself is not that exciting; there are no dramatic incidents or thrilling adventures which can make a book unputdownable. But I was always happy to return to reading and found the pace just right. I quickly engaged with the characters - even if I did not necessarily like or empathize with them - and I wanted to know how things turned out for him.

Some of the descriptive writing I found to be really skilled and evocative. The ending of the book - the ending of Stoner's life - was particularly well handled; it was neither rushed nor drawn out. I was intrigued [and, I suppose, amused] by the way Stoner started out thinking that his English lecturer [Archer Sloane] was weird and eccentric, but, later in life, he was almost exactly the same.