The Selected Works of T.S.Spivet: A novel

by Reif Larsen. 2009

Reviewed by Ann Skea (ann@skea.com).

T.S.Spivet is a twelve-year-old genius maker of maps, plans and illustrations. "I think". he tells a CNN interviewer, "we are born with a map of the entire world in our heads...the patterns are already there and I see the map in my head and then just draw it". This is a simplified version of what he tells the scientists at the Smithsonian, but they are cleverer than a CNN man trying to entertain an audience. T.S., however, is still just a child and his Selected Works are a wonderful grab-bag collection of his notes, drawings, maps and stories, as well as a vivid, funny and sometimes terrifying tale of how he came to be at the Smithsonian that night and the adventures he had getting there.T.S. (the initials stand for 'Tecumseh Sparrow', and how he came by them is a story in itself) lives with his family on a ranch in Montana. He can recite the latitude and longitude of his address to the nearest second, but he is not so certain about the thoughts and feelings of his family. His sister, Gracie, is sixteen and T.S. regards her as "the most together member of the family". She is smart, sassy, and, when the family exasperates her, is inclined to a behaviour which T.S. has labelled 'Dork Retreat': i.e. she will plug in her earphones and/or retreat to her room with her music. If T.S. is the cause, he knows he can mollify her with 500 grams of chewy tape. T.S's mother, Dr Clare, is, so he says, "a misguided coleopterist" who has spent her entire adult life studying and classifying beetles. She can't cook, is a champion blower-up of toasters, and she is "the kind of mother who would teach you the periodic table while feeding your porridge as an infant". T.S. feels close to his mother and shares some of her interests but doesn't understand her continuing obsession with finding a particular species of moth. He is much less close to his father, who is a taciturn farmer: "the sort of man who will walk into a room and say something like 'you can't bullshit a cricket', and then just leave". No longer part of the family, but still very much a part of T.S's notebooks, is Layton, his younger brother who has only recently died in a shooting accident which none of the family will talk about and which T.S. fears may have been his fault.T.S. makes sense of his life by charting it in diagrams, maps and plans which he keeps in the colour-coded notebooks lining the walls of his room The extent of his curiosity and the huge variety of his work is apparent in the Selected Works, where panels alongside the text show (in a random selection) detailed botanical drawings; plans for corn-shucking; stages of male pattern baldness; "My first Inertia Experiment...a disaster"; his brother's rocking horse; a map of the locations of the 26 McDonalds restaurants in North Dakota and much, much more. Some of this work has been sent by a family friend to the Smithsonian, Scientific American, Science, Discovery and Sport Illustrated for Kids, and some (in particular, his meticulous illustration of how the Bombardier Beetle mixes and expels boiling secretions from its abdomen) has been published.

T.S's Smithsonian adventure begins with a phone call from an official who tells him that he has won the prestigious Baird Award for the popular advancement of science. Unaware of T.S's age, he invites him to attend the Smithsonian's hundred-and-fiftieth anniversary celebration dinner in Washington in order to accept the award and to give a keynote address. T.S. initially declines the invitation, but after a really scary day failing to help his father free 'Old Stinky', the bad-tempered goat, from some barbed wire on the farm and almost being bitten by a rattlesnake into the bargain, he changes his mind. To get to Washington, however, without talking to the Smithsonian official again and disclosing his age, is a problem. T.S. decides to make it a true adventure and, like Hanky the Hobo of a story he once heard, he decides to jump a freight train.

A large part of the Selected Works tells of T.S's adventures, some of which are terrifying. Interspersed with these, however, are extracts from a notebook which he stole from his mother's study as he was leaving. These tell the story of Emma Osterville, who married Tecumseh Tearho Spivet, T.S's great, great, grandfather. Emma's life and her struggles to be accepted as a geologist in the conservative, male-dominated scientific world of America in the 1800s, make fascinating reading. Nevertheless, I was so taken up with T.S's adventures that I began to skip over them to find out what happened to T.S. and then came back to them later.


Whichever way you read this book, it is a wonderfully imaginative work of art and literature. Reif Larson captures the spirit of a twelve-year-old boy, but also manages to tell a story, or stories, which will appeal to a many age-groups. Many of T.S's observations are very acute and very funny, although only an adult might see the humour of some of them. Larson's publishers, too, have done him proud. The book itself is innovative and inventive and a delight. Even T.S's thanks page and Reif Larson's own acknowledgements are worth reading, and I particularly liked T.S's additions to the publisher's information page at the front of the book - a page which only publishers, booksellers, librarians and reviewers would normally read. Added to the CIP Catalogue information is a note: "This book is about"- and a list of 27 entries, which includes "7. WHISKEY DRINKING - FICTION", " 12. HOBO SIGNS - FICTION", "16. HONEY NUT CHEERIOS - FICTION", and even an entry for "MIDWESTERN WORMHOLES", which is also Fiction. That should make shelving the book in any particular section of a bookshop difficult! This is a truly inspired, inspiring, imaginative and novel novel, and you can see more about it at http://www.tsspivet.com/.

How to paint a dead man

by Sarah Hall, 2009

Reviewed by Ann Skea (ann@skea.com)

The curious title of this book gives no clues to its contents other than to suggest that art is the link which binds this book together. Even the quotation from Cennino d'Andrea Cennini, from which the title is taken and which is included at the end of this book, only confirms that subtlety, colour, light and shadow are a necessary part of the way in which Sarah Hall paints her characters.Signor Giorgio is an Italian artist famous for his obsessive depictions of a small group of bottles. Dying of cancer in a small town in Umbria, he looks back on his life and work, meditates on the meaning of art, remembers a past troubled by war and loss, and has daily battles with Theresa, his housekeeper, to maintain his smoking habit. One of his fond memories is of a young English artist, Peter, who once wrote him stimulating letters about art but who never included his address, so could not be answered. Thirty years later, Peter Caldicutt, successful, middle-aged and described by his daughter as "one of his generation's formidable eccentrics", still struggles with the demands of art, both philosophically and literally. Trudging the rugged Cumbrian landscape which is his inspiration, he slips and becomes trapped. So begins his own musing on life, death and art, as he also contemplates the irony of being so unpredictable and unreliable that no-one will immediately miss him or know where he is and he may well die of exposure.

A little later again, Sue, Peter's daughter, is also an artist. Her own field is photography but she is currently curator of an exhibition of objects which have had close personal significance for famous artists. A bottle given to her for the exhibition by her father forms a link with Signor Giorgio. Sue is reeling from the sudden, accidental death of her twin brother. Her sense of self has been fragile since childhood, but now, again, she is distanced from everything around her. She talks of herself as 'you', struggles to feel present, and discovers that only in the dangerous and illicit affair with her close friend's husband can she feel alive and human. Sex, described in graphic detail by Sue, is voyeuristic and coldly un-erotic in spite of shared lust and passion, but only through this sex can she find relief from the numbing separation from reality which she feels.The fourth person whose life we enter in this book is a young Italian girl, Annette Tambroni, whose growing, congenital blindness has given her a special quality of imaginative vision which Signor Giorgio, who briefly met her whilst teaching art to local schoolchildren, describes as a gift for discovering invisible things. As readers, we experience Annette's world through that vision, and Sarah Hall's exceptional ability to convey the experiences and personality of each of her characters is at its best in Annette's story.

Annette is innocent and vulnerable. She vaguely remembers a painting in her church which depicts 'the Bestia' but cannot describe it exactly and in her imagination it comes to represent all the unspeakable things which her obsessively religious mother fears for her but will not discuss. The atmosphere of suppressed sexual tension, especially associated with the men in Annette's family, is palpable, but Sarah Hall also manages to create incredible beauty, even in the final horror that enters Annette's life.

Four different characters, four different stories, four different ways of telling the stories and a shifting pattern of time-frames throughout the book, all make this an ambitious novel which poses challenges for both the author and the reader. But Sarah Hall writes beautifully, intelligently and, at times, with simple poetic flair. The chapter titles, 'The Mirror Crisis', 'Translated from the Bottle Journals', 'The Fool on the Hill', and 'The Divine Vision of Annette Tambroni', repeat in that order throughout the book as each character's story develops; and inevitably, perhaps, some stories are more gripping than others. I must admit that Peter's dilemma caused me to skip chapters in order to discover whether he escaped and survived. But I did go back and finish the other chapters, and Signor Giorgio, Sue and Annette each held my attention in different ways.Structurally, and in some of its content, this is not an easy book to read but it is absorbing, interesting, innovative and a thought-provoking way of considering some of the many aspects of art.

American rust

Philipp Meyer. A&U, 2009.

What to read after Cormac McCarthy’s The Road? American Rust might be a good choice. Less bleak than the McCarthy – everything is – but with the same concern for the decay of American life, it’s a fine piece of writing. Two young men living in a town in Pennsylvania where all the steel-mills have closed, or are closing, find that they are already running out of options. Meyer is very good at conveying the inner voices of his characters, in particular the two young men, Isaac and Poe. The main narrative, involving a sudden killing, is compelling reading, but it is Meyer’s portrayal of the underlying corrosion of contemporary American society which stays with you when the book is done.

"You could not have a country, not this big, that didn’t make things for
itself. There would be ramifications eventually".

- John

The city and the city

by China Miéville. Macmillan, 2009.

It’s difficult to pigeonhole Miéville. He writes cutting-edge genre-bending fiction, not quite crime, not quite science-fiction or fantasy. The City and The City could as easily be short-listed for a Gold Dagger for best crime novel, or a Hugo award for best science-fiction, as for a Booker prize for best novel. It explores the idea of the divided city, like Berlin or Jerusalem, and in heightening the idea, he says something worthwhile and interesting about sectarianism and ethnic cleansing.

A body is found in the city of Beszel, somewhere in eastern Europe, and it becomes a case for Inspector Tyador Borlu of the Extreme Crime Squad. To unravel the mystery, Borlu must journey to Ul Qoma, a city which shares the same boundaries as Beszel, but which it is forbidden to see. Residents of either city routinely ‘unsee’ the other, (perhaps in the way that we often fail to notice some residents of our own city?) and a shadowy third force ensures that no breaches of this etiquette occur. Borlu’s investigations unearth a powerful conspiracy.

- John

The Pearls of reading

Nancy (BookLust) Pearl’s approach to helping people find books they like, is to elucidate from readers the characteristics they find especially appealing about books they already know. She delineates these “appeal characteristics” as:

· Character Example: A Prayer for Owen Meany
· Setting Example: The Shipping News
· Story Example: The Pelican Brief
· Language Example: Possession
Embracing all four (the blockbusters) Example: Lonesome Dove

http://www.nancypearl.com/

By looking at these examples and other books you have read, people can delve within themselves to determine what characteristics they find most appealing. Of course, different people respond in distinct ways, loving certain books for totally unique reasons. Many are surprised when they analyze their reading pleasures in this manner.

A little exercise to try –
Write down your all time five favourite books.
Look at what is common to all of them – is it the story line, characterization, the setting or the way it is written?
Is one different? If so consider what type of mood you were in when you read this. Sometimes your mood may change what most appeals to you at that time.

Happy Reading!!

- Fran

Revolutionary road

By Richard Yates. Vintage, 2008.

Richard Yates Revolutionary Road is now a movie, but the book, published in 1961, is a work of serious moral intent - about the shortcomings of its characters. Frank and April Wheeler are a living as a dysfunctional couple so she devises an escape plan, one that will enable Frank to realise his potential while she works, at least until her husband finds an occupation more suited to a literate war veteran. As Richard Yates's novel unfolds, however, it becomes apparent that though Frank might rail against the suburbs, he lacks the imagination or boldness for change and so his marriage rapidly unravels.

- Wendy

Deaf sentence

by David Lodge. Harvill Secker, 2008.

David Lodge’s books include comic gems such as the campus comedy Changing Places, as well as more serious works such as Author, Author. Deaf Sentence is a bit of a mixture. It has comic elements, but the overall tone is darker, even alarming. Retired Professor, Desmond Bates, finds that life has become tiresome and embarrassing due to the onset of hearing loss. While blindness is commonly regarded as tragic, he observes, deafness is often the source of amusement, though not for the deaf person himself. Desmond’s ageing father is a source of further disquiet for him, as the start of some sort of dementia makes itself known. Set against these two strands of plot is a third, less successful element, involving a young, erratic student who is supposedly researching the language used in suicide notes. This plot element is not fully worked out, and is somehow reminiscent of the movie Fatal Attraction, (though no bunnies are harmed). Altogether, though, the novel is written with Lodge’s customary elegance, and successfully draws attention to the under-appreciated struggle many people have with deafness.

- John

Alice Munro wins 2009 Man Booker International

Alice Munro, known for her short stories, has won the 2009 Man Booker International prize (different from the Man Booker Prize). Her new collection is due to be released at the end of 2009, entitled Too much happiness. Her most recent titles include Away from her (which was made into a movie of the same name) and a collection called The view from Castle Rock.

The women

by T C Boyle. Viking, 2009.

T C Boyle’s mastery of the short story is at odds with his ability as a novelist. Having raised expectations with his marvellous early novel, Water Music, about the explorer Mungo Park, he has disappointed on several occasions since. The Women is an ambitious portrayal of the women who loved Frank Lloyd Wright, and it’s another frustrating read. Boyle is capable of enviable sentences and description, but there are many paragraphs here which could be struck out without loss. The novel is supposedly told through the recollections of one of Wright’s students, Tadashi, via an Irish American translator, but the various ironical effects achieved by this method are submerged by the suspicion that the author is being a clever-clogs. The characters of the three wives/mistresses of Wright are comprehensively detailed, but are of minor historical interest compared to the architect himself. With the exception of Peter Ackroyd’s Hawksmoor, novelists have seldom been up to the challenge of putting themselves in the mind of an architect, and Boyle does little to show how Wright’s genius operated. And call me picky, but would people have fed coins into a jukebox in the early 1930s? Did the term ‘jukebox’ exist then? If you haven’t read Boyle before, I’d suggest looking for a collection of his stories first.

- John.

Burnt shadows

by Kamila Shamsie. Bloomsbury, 2009.

"Later, the one who survives will remember that day as grey, but on the morning of 9 August itself both the man from Berlin, Konrad Weiss, and the schoolteacher, Hiroko Tanaka, step out of their houses and notice the perfect
blueness of the sky..."

The day is 9 August 1945, and the place Nagasaki. It is the morning on which the second Atomic Bomb was dropped, and the one that survives, in this story, is Hiroko Tanaka.

Right from the Prologue of Burnt Shadows, Kamila Shamsie makes it clear that this book will have no happy endings. Yet it is a book full of love and life, humour and strength.

Hiroko is a likeable heroine and as we follow her though the event-filled fifty-seven years which this book covers she matures into a strong, independent, resilient and loving woman. Yet, even before the bomb dropped and burned the embroidered birds of her kimono into her back, her life was shadowed. The earliest shadow is reflected from her father, who was branded a traitor by the local community for an act of protest against the glorification of a young man's death in war. On the day of the bomb, Hiroko feels the suspicion of the people around her in an air-raid shelter, even of those she has know as friends for many years, and so she leaves. Konrad Weiss's death on that day, too, throws a deep shadow over her life. Not just because of her grief for the man she loved and was going to marry, but because it sets in motion a train of events which take her from Japan, to India, then to Pakistan and, eventually, to America. Each move brings her new joys and new sorrows.Kamila Shamsie is a superb story-teller. The people in her book are human and believable, and she draws the reader into their lives in such a way that you warm to them and care about them. In some ways the lives of these fictitious characters become more real than the horrors of the non-fictional history that they live through. It is hard to believe, for example, that sane human beings can perpetrate the acts which have led to the family divisions, bloodshed and trauma of Partition in India; the growing power and the influence on young Afghan boys of the mujahideen in Pakistan; the war in Afghanistan; the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York; the growing power of the CIA and private militia; Guantanamo Bay; and the resulting spread of xenophobia, religious fanaticism, and everyday suspicion of strangers who are not "like us". The lives of Hiroko and her family and close friends are influenced by all of these. And, as Hiroko's story moves into the present-day, Kamila Shamsie makes us aware of the way in which these things have changed all our lives, prompting, especially, the suspicion of strangers, the resulting spread of surveillance and the erosion of individual rights.

Yet in spite of its thought-provoking portrayal of recent history and the frightening, unresolved, seemingly unresolvable situation with which the book ends, there is nothing polemic about it. There are good times as well as bad. For long periods, as one section heading suggests, the shadows are veiled and the book celebrates comfortable, loving, family relationships. Hiroko faces the worst that can happen and, as she did at Nagasaki, she survives - because she has to, and because, as she says at the end of the book "the world goes on". And the shadows, for all of us, are always there.

Burnt Shadows, like the two fragments of poetry which Shamsie chose to set at the front of her book, is an elegy for all that the earth has lost and is still losing. But it is also a powerful and moving story.

********************************
Copyright Ann Skea 2009

Land of marvels

by Barry Unsworth. Hutchinson, 2009

Not too many novelists in their 70s produce great work. It’s as if there is a slackening off of power. But Unsworth, pushing 80, has just produced a novel twice as good as anything recent by authors half his age. It should be a contender for novel of the year. Set in 1914 in Mesopotamia, the story concerns events surrounding an archaeological dig. As the scholars excavate through layers of the past, revealing the fate of doomed empires of long ago, events in the outside world foreshadow the end of another Empire. Others, with different agendas, gather at the dig – an American geologist, German and British spies, religious zealots. The action and tension are gripping to the end. Unsworth has explored imperial ambitions in the past, notably in Pascali’s Island, and the Booker-prize-winning Sacred Hunger, and Land of Marvels is well up to their standard. Here he is marvelously subtle, not only harking backwards to the age of the Assyrians, but making ironic reference to the most recent oil-fuelled imperial folly in the land now known as Iraq.

- John.

Definitive list of novels everyone must read

The Guardian reports that they have compiled a 'definitive' list of the top 1000 novels that everyone should read. I'm sure there are people who might find something missing from the list, but 1000 is a lot of books. They're handily split into genre types. Although 'War and travel' seems strange combination. In any case, I'm sure you'll get some good suggestions from the list.

The northern clemency

by Philip Hensher. Knopf, 2008.

A big thick tome, which was short-listed for the 2008 Booker Prize, which might be enough to put people off reading it, but aha, local readers are in for a surprise. The bulk of this novel is set in Sheffield, England in the 1970s and 80s, but 620 pages later, the action shifts to the Manly we know and love. Is this the first time Manly has appeared in a Booker-shortlisted novel? Sydney is affectionately described, with a gee-whiz air that suggests that Hensher must have been over here for only a few days. Without wanting to give it away, the novel’s ending seems to have confused some English reviewers, who mistook the action of a tidal rip for the attack of a shark. Where were the life-savers??

Other reviews thought that the novel was too long, but shorter books can sometimes take longer to read, and this one flows pretty smoothly. It treads similar ground to Jonathan Coe’s The Rotters’ Club, or Alan Hollinghurst’s The Swimming-pool Library, and is not inferior to either of those, only slightly soapier somehow. There would have to be a lot of the author’s childhood on display here, in among the melodrama.

- John.

Azincourt

by Bernard Cornwell. Harper Collins, 2008.

Cornwell, the creator of the Sharpe series of Napoleonic novels and the Starbuck series of US Civil War stories turns his attention to one of history’s most famous battles, Agincourt, at which an outnumbered English army took on the might of the French in 1415. Nick Hook, an archer who has been outlawed, finds employment as a mercenary in France, and later is enrolled in the company of Sir John Cornwaille, a superb fighter in the army of Henry V. The author’s research is thorough, and every character in the novel finds his contemporary in the chronicles of the time. There is a great deal of grim period detail.

The author faces two problems: Henry V is best-known to us through Shakespeare’s character, so Cornwell includes aspects of the Shakespearian king in his own portrayal of a stubborn, cold-blooded ruthless leader; and the result of the battle is well-known, which robs the story of much of its suspense, although Cornwell does his best to make up for this with a somewhat melodramatic sub-plot involving Hook’s French wife. But he really excels at battle scenes, and the novel is an assault on the senses, brutally violent. It seems unlikely that this will be the first in a new series, but if Cornwell decides to write about more great battles of English history then it will be an (almost) painless way to learn history.

- John

The dig

by John Preston. Penguin, 2008.

One of the most reliable ways of telling whether you are going to like an author new to you is to look at who is recommending the book. John Preston’s book comes with praise from Ian McEwan and Robert Harris, so we can guess that it’s going to be engrossing and highly readable, if it’s anything like their work. It also comes with a recommendation from Nigella Lawson, which is slightly odd, but not completely off-putting. The Dig tells the story of the excavation of the treasure site at Sutton Hoo in Suffolk in the weeks immediately prior to WWII. I was reminded of J L Carr’s lovely novel, A Month in the Country – same period, same sort of atmosphere. Although it is well-known that the finds at Sutton Hoo were rich and very important, this if anything heightens the novel’s tensions as rivalries fluctuate among the different personalities involved. A recommended read – time well spent.

- John.

The descendants

by Kaui Hart Hemmings. 2008.

Hemmings’ first novel is narrated by Matt, a Hawaiian lawyer. Matt’s wife Joanie is lying in a coma after a boat-racing accident. Matt must pick up the pieces of his life, and try to reconnect with his two daughters, Scottie, ten, and Alex, eighteen. Hemmings’ characters are completely believable, and she has a gift for dialogue - the teenage slang, the adult banter, the Hawaiian phrasing are all note-perfect. As Joanie’s condition deteriorates, Matt and the girls go on a half-assed journey to uncover the secrets in Joanie’s life. Funny, moving and perceptive, and with plenty of side-swipes at the vacuity of American cultural influence, this novel should strike a chord with an Australian readership. The ending is perfectly arrived at.

- John.

Re(a)d or white : uncork a book

Manly Library hosted an informal evening of wine tasting on Thursday 18th September with presenters matching wines to their favourite books. It was a great success and we've had requests for information about the presenters and the wines they selected.

Ann Skea read from and talked about The Letters of Ted Hughes (Ed. Christopher Reid). With special insight as a friend of Hughes and his family and the editor Christopher Reid. She recommended a Canary Island sherry - part of the traditional butt of sack awarded as payment to Poets Laureate. Ted went to Spain to see his wine being bottled and he designed his own label for it. http://ann.skea.com/

Sue Murray talked about Breath by Tim Winton (as an ex-West Australian who knows the south coast of WA well and the wineries there too!) Sue has worked in both theatre and education: as a member of a children's theatre company, a clown, a teacher, a university tutor, a project officer at Australia's national drama school and the series editor of the Macmillan Drama Studio. http://www.suemurray.com.au/

Michael Hedger talked about Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy and selected a Hardy's red to go with it. Michael is the Council’s Cultural and information Services Manager. He was previously Manager of Visitor Services at the National Maritime Museum and before that the Director of the Campbelltown Regional Art Gallery and the Deputy Director of the British Council in Australia. Before these positions he was a teacher, lecturer and education officer. He was the art reviewer of the Newcastle Herald and the writer of Public Sculpture in Australia which was published in 1995. He has MAs in English Literature and Arts Administration.

Wendy Burridge chose The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer. She recommended a smooth, easy drinking Merlot to accompany it. Wendy has been part of the Humphreys Newsagency Team for a number of years now and runs their Book Department. She has access to all the latest publications, selecting the best for their Manly clientele. Wendy has developed a high standard of customer care, provides personalized service, loves her work and has a brilliant product knowledge. She reads what she sells. http://www.humphreys.com.au/

Felicity Pulman is a young adult author who wrote the Shallott trilogy and The Janna Mysteries series. Felicity talked about the books that informed and inspired The Janna Mysteries, ie Brother Cadfael series by Ellis Peters, When Christ & His Saints Slept by Sharon Penman, and also her new crime series featuring Justin de Quincy, the Queen's man, The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett and Sarum by Edward Rutherford - she recommended that they be washed down with a glass of mead. http://www.felicitypulman.com.au/

John MacRitchie talked about a favourite book of his: Augustus Carp, being the autobiography of a really good man, by Anon. This is a classic of Edwardian humour, about a pompous prig named Augustus Carp, and it features a scene where wine figures prominently, specifically port wine. Carp, the secretary of the local branch of the Anti-Drunkenness League, never takes strong drink. Until... (The entire text of the book can be found online).

John is Manly Library's Local Studies Librarian. He spends four hours a day commuting by public transport so he spends plenty of time reading. John is a regular reviewer and contributor of articles to library journals and to the Manly Library weblog. He is compiling a book of bad poetry to be called ‘Mongrel Doggerel’. Don’t encourage him.

The Guernsey literary & potato peel pie society

by Mary Ann Shaffer.

It was the pig that started it. The Guernsey Literary Society, I mean. But to tell you about that would spoil a good tale. Anyway, it was really a letter that started Juliet Ashton's story and brought her to the story of the pig.

Juliet is a writer living in post-war London with food rationing, bombed buildings and her own gloom at being unable to find an inspiring topic for a new book. A letter from an unknown man in Guernsey, who has acquired a book Juliet once owned, sparks a correspondence which changes all this. And it's all because of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, the very odd title of which catches Juliet's interest (as it did mine) and draws her into the lives of a group of islanders who are as unusual as their reading group.

Guernsey is one of the British Channel Islands, a group of small islands which lie in the English Channel closer to the coast of France than to England. War-time occupation of the island by the Germans was, it seems, one reason that the Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society came into existence. And as Juliet's correspondence with various members of that group grows she learns much about their lives during the Occupation. Most of all, however, she discovers a group of people whose personalities shine through their letters, and inevitably she feels that she has to meet them and learn more about them. Here, after all, may be material for her next book. It certainly provided material for Mary Anne Shaffer who charts Juliet's life and progress through her letters and those of her various correspondents. The epistolary style is notoriously difficult to bring off successfully, but Mary Ann Shaffer has done it exceptionally well, especially since this is her first book and she was over 70 when she began to write it. Especially, too, as she has woven together several different stories in these letters. Alongside letters from Juliet and her new island friends, are letters to and from her publisher, his sister Sophie (a long-time friend of Juliet's), and another, American, publisher who has suddenly appeared in Juliet's life and is courting her lavishly. Juliet's bubbly personality and her wry view of life, which had made her war-time newspaper column Izzy Bickerstaff Goes to War, so popular, fill her letters, and we gradually learn a lot about her, too.

The islanders' letters and they themselves, when Juliet eventually meets them, are eccentric and full of interest. Their stories of war-time deprivation and of various things which happened on the island are grim and sometimes horrifying, but their resilience, courage and love are readily apparent. Juliet gradually becomes more involved in their lives, and she is particularly interested in their memories of Elizabeth, the accidental founder of their group, and of her arrest and imprisonment in Germany for helping one of the Polish slave workers on the island. This becomes the core of Juliet's book-research, and no-one knows, in this immediately post-war period, whether Elizabeth is still alive and will return to the island to be reunited with her small daughter Kit. The harsh reality of the islanders' war-time experiences adds to the uncertainly about Elizabeth's return, but dark as these memories of the past are, the growing friendship between Juliet and Kit, and with other members of the group, fills the book with light. Mary Ann Shaffer's book is not gloomy reading. By the end, one might be forgiven for thinking that Guernsey is peopled with eccentric herbalists making witchy potions, amiable alcoholics drinking their way through their former employer's wine cellar, starchy matrons and fishermen who concoct bizarrely inventive meals, all of whom write unusually interesting letters, but since we only meet a handful of the 1400, or so, inhabitants we could well be mistaken. So, in spite of its title, this book is not ‘just another cookery book’, or even ‘just another book-group novel’. In spite of some dark subject matter and some harrowing and very realistic moments, it turns out in the end to be an enjoyable and most unusual love story.

- Ann Skea

Best of Booker goes to Rushdie

Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie has won the 'Best of Booker' award. The book originally won the Booker prize in 1981 and was selected as one of the six finalists for the Best of Booker. Over 7800 people from around the world voted online and via SMS and gave Midnight's Children 36% of the vote. To view availability and place your hold on this title (or others by Rushdie) please visit our online catalogue.

The science of fiction

The New Scientist 28th June issue reports on the mental benefits of reading fiction. Keith Oatley, a professor emeritus of cognitive psychology, has conducted research which shows that people who read more fiction may find it easier to discern the thoughts and feelings expressed by people's eyes. He likens fiction to a simulation that runs on the software of our minds, and may help us when negotiating the complexities of social life.

LibriVox

LibriVox is a site that hosts audio book versions of books that are in the public domain. They are read and recorded by volunteers and hosted on the site for download. They just reached 1500 titles in the collection.

We’ve had a pretty extraordinary May. We cataloged our 1,500th book, James Baldwin’s children’s history book, Four Great Americans, which was a great accomplishment. (Considering seven months ago we were at 1,000). But we also had an impressively productive month: we released 115 (!) audiobooks into the public domain, almost four per day. Our previous record for monthly production was 77, reached in July 2007.

Fault lines

by Nancy Huston. Text Publishing, 2007.

Fault Lines is a compelling, touching novel about four generations of children and their parents. Huston captures the complex workings of a child's mind, as they listen and misunderstand what their parents say, often blaming themselves for events beyond their control. Shifting from one point of view to the next, the plot thickens to a searing climax. Describing the end of World War II, Huston writes breathlessly that, "the dreams overflow into the daytime days and nights are reversed…” Fault Lines has a backdrop of war and violence but it is an intimate novel chronicling life's smaller, domestic issues.

Fault lines is a best seller in France, where it won the prestigious Prix Femina in 2006 and is being translated into 16 languages.

It’s a great read.

- Wendy

Three reviews

Breakfast with Tiffany: an uncle’s memoir, by Edwin John Wintle at NFPB/BIOGRAPHY, is a year in the life of Uncle Ed, a New York urban gay who takes on the care of his fifteen year old “in trouble” niece Tiffany, an enjoyable biography that at times reads more like a novel. Over the year Ed takes on schools, drugs, curfews, guns, sex, phones with his niece but also manages to learn about himself.

The Bronte Project: a novel of passion, desire and good PR, by Jennifer Vandever at F/VAND is a “romance” with interlinked bits and pieces about the Bronte family. If you have read more than Wuthering Heights by this literary family you will get a lot more out of this book…and in particular the ending.

The genius factory: unravelling the mysteries of the Nobel Prize sperm bank by David Plotz at 362.17/PLO An investigative look at a recent time period in sperm bank history, never dry or scientific David Plotz a reporter, finds out about the people who setup, donated to, took from and were produced from this sperm bank.

- Louise

Tropic of Cancer

A few years ago I gave a friend a copy of Henry Miller's novel Tropic of Cancer for his birthday. He was so impressed with this book that he has since worked his way through Miller's canon of work. After discovering that I had not in fact read Tropic of Cancer he has insisted that I take up the challenge. Well after a year of procrastination I finally relented and read Mr Miller's novel and I must confess that once I read a third of the book I was hooked.

Tropic of Cancer has two distinct threads of narration; or one could say the author reveals two aspects of his character. The first aspect is the narration of the base human senses, solely concerned with satiating the urges for food, sex and money. This side of Miller's character is confronting, at times offensive but always one feels a starkly honest account of his Bohemian life in Paris.

The Second voice is that of the poet and mystic, lying in the gutter but gazing at the stars! Miller penetrates the filth and harsh reality of a transient life in the seedy artistic underbelly of Paris with great insight. His musings on life are often profound and universal in nature; he describes a wild and meaningless cosmic play unfolding before him and ultimately laughs at the absurdity of humanity's sense of self importance. An American Zorba or perhaps just a very naughty New Yorker?

Worth a read.

Ross

Books that influenced me

I was watching another staff member browsing through a 1000 books to change your life edited by Jonathon Derbyshire and we got to discussing about books that had influenced us in the past. Having been an avid reader in my childhood and teens I really had to think hard about what book had influenced me in my life. When growing up my parents subscribed to the Readers Digest magazine – it would arrive monthly, I would first read all the jokes at the end of the articles, then the word testing page, then go on to read the articles and lastly read the summarized book at the back. I remember reading the books 83 hours till dawn about kidnapped victim Barbara Jane Mackle who was buried alive in a coffin like box and Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors.

Then my parents started subscribing to the Readers Digest condensed books, where 3 or 4 come in the one volume – well I worked my way through these. Some of the books I remember first reading this way are Jane Eyre, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Marie Curie, The last of the Mohicans and Friendly Persuasion. When an older teen we were on holidays at a friends place near Coffs Harbour, I had exhausted the books I had taken to read and was overjoyed to find an older set of the Readers Digest condensed books in the house, I spent the rest of my holidays immersed in these. From this time I remember reading Island in the Sun by Alec Waugh, To Sir with Love by E.R. Braithwaite and of all things all about Luke the Physician
Some of the authors I was first introduced to through Reader Digest condensed books are: James Hilton, Taylor Caldwell, Paul Gallico, Irving Stone, Thor Heyerdahl, Nevil Shute, Ira Levin, Pearl S. Buck, James Herriot and James A. Michener.

- Louise

(Manly Library's book discussion group will look at 'Books that have influenced you most' in their January meeting.)

The quiet girl

by Peter Hoeg. Random House, 2007.

Reviewed by Ann Skea.

Peter Hoeg's second novel, Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow, was a huge success and I, for one, thoroughly enjoyed it . The Quiet Girl, however, is very different. It is a strange and confusing story. Part of the strangeness is due to the narrator, Kaspar Krone, who is a renowned clown with a most unusual ability. Due to a childhood accident, he hears the world around him as musical keys. He recognizes places by their sound and identifies the sound with pieces of classical music that he knows and loves. He hears people that way, too, and can often predict how they will behave. All this, he imparts to the reader. Kaspar lives in Copenhagen, but he is not Danish. He is deeply in debt, wanted for tax evasion, and on the verge of extradition.

The book is strange, too, because of the special children who have an inexplicable quality (which Kaspar hears as sudden strange silences) which makes them important to the plans of some very odd groups of people. One girl in particular captures Kaspar's attention, and she has a particular interest in him. At first it seems as if she has been kidnapped and is asking Kaspar for help, but several times she turns up unexpectedly to confront him; at other times she seems to be in control of everything. In trying to help her, Kaspar is constantly in danger. Only at the end of the book does her identity and purpose become clear, and even then nothing is resolved.

The Quiet Girl is confusing, because the narration jumps around in time (which is not in itself a problem) and we are never sure of the nature of the people Kaspar gets involved with. Even those who seem to be helping him turn out to have links with those who are pursuing him. The plot is intricate and tangled, and much of the time I was lost and puzzled. Too many things seemed unreal, too much of the action impossible. Kaspar is threatened on all sides, running, hiding, fighting, tricking people, and even when he is mortally wounded he manages to perform impossible feats. He has a wry sense of humour, but his way of speaking and thinking in abrupt, short sentences made me think, to begin with, that this was a fault in translation. It was not, and I did get used to it.

In the end, however, I lost patience with the story, although the puzzle about the children kept me reading until the end. And the end, surprising as it was, was too unlikely, and the resolution of the plot too contrived, to be satisfying. Other readers may be gripped by this mixture of mystery, music and mayhem, with a bit of science and philosophy thrown in, and with a few zany characters and a minor love interest to add spice. Sadly, I was not. Yet, since I enjoyed the company of Miss Smilla in Hoeg's earlier book so much, I almost feel I should read The Quiet Girl again and see if it makes more sense the second time around, especially as the publicity blurb describes the book as "a philosophical thriller of rare quality". A “thriller"? Yes. "rare"? Well it is unique. "philosophical"? Sometimes, but in a ruminative sort of way. "quality"?

Questionable.

Copyright Ann Skea 2007

Website and Ted Hughes pages: http://ann.skea.com/

Elizabeth Buchan

Despite some strange sounding titles, I have been surprised by how much I have enjoyed Elizabeth Buchan’s writing. I first saw Revenge of the Middle Aged Woman and wondered what on earth it could be about. I’ve learnt you can’t always rely what you read on the cover or flyleaf, so the only way to find out was to read it. I was pleasantly surprised with a thoughtful character development that evoked sympathy and admiration for the main character. I was expecting more melodrama, but found instead a story many could relate to, without being stereotypical, we witness the main character grow into a new stage of her life.

After enjoying this novel, I was then interested in The Good Wife Strikes Back. Again I felt the title did not do justice to the content. It was later I found out Elizabeth Buchan maintains a website http://www.elizabethbuchan.com/ , where she has created separate sites for her U.K. and U.S. readers. I must have British inclinations as The Good Wife Strikes Back is just The Good Wife in the UK. This was another well written tale about the complexities of a marriage with realistic character development.

According to various blurbs, Elizabeth Buchan is a ‘New York Times bestselling author’. While very sceptical of the marketing she employs, I found her work to be better than expected and the books I have read left me pondering about her characters. The stories had a depth I had not anticipated, creating an involvement that lasted after the book was finished. I have since sort out further titles by Buchan and enjoyed them as well. Her works would be great for book group discussion.

- Fran.

Theft : a love story

by Peter Carey. Random House, 2006.

Reviewed by Ann Skea.

"Whatever you want to invent in the art world has been done", Peter Carey is reported to have said in a recent Sydney Morning Herald interview. So, is that why the main character in his new novel, Theft, is an Australian version of Gulley Jimson in Joyce Cary's The Horses Mouth?

"Theft", says the publisher's blurb, explores "ideas of art, fraud, responsibility and redemption"; and Michael Boone, who is the chief narrator of the story, is, like Gulley Jimson an "artist, con man and aging lover" (to pick at random from some Internet synopses of The Horse's Mouth). Like Gulley, he has just been released from gaol when he begins to tell his story. Like Gulley, he is scornful of normal, polite conventions and he lets nothing stand in the way of his art. Michael Boone's art is unconventional and 'Modern' and the masterpiece on which he works has the Biblical title 'I, The Speaker, Ruled As King Over Israel’: Gulley Jimson, too, was painting a huge, modern work on a Biblical theme. And, like Gulley, Michael Boone (or Butcher Bones as he is called throughout most of Theft) is in dispute with his ex-wife over possession of his own work which, as Butcher Bones puts it, has been declared by divorce lawyers to be "Marital Assets".

More than anything else, it is Butcher Bones's attitude towards the law, art dealers, art collectors, fashions in art, the gullibility and ignorance of the general public, and his own unquestioning belief in his own artistic genius, which exactly reflects that of Gulley Jimson. Jimson's saving grace, however, is his Blakean vision, and his ability to see through the surface ugliness of the world and the people around him to the essential beauty beneath. Butcher Bones has no such spiritual depth. As his brother tells us, he does not believe in god or in miracles and he relies solely on his own judgment, especially in his estimation of his own worth.

In spite of all this, Theft is also very different to A Horse's Mouth. Most obviously, its narrator is as true-blue Aussie as any uncouth, foul-mouthed, alcohol-fuelled, football fan can be. If you choose to spend time with him as he tells his story, then there is no point in getting prune-face and prissy about his attitude to women or about his scorn for all those he robs, sponges on and deceives. In his eyes, they are all fools. His greatest admiration - his enduring love, as he proclaims poetically at the end of the book - is given to the equally ruthless and immoral young woman in whose art fraud he becomes embroiled, and whose own selfishness ultimately exceeds his own.

Theft is different to Joyce Cary's book, too, in that it not only raises questions of authenticity in art through the words and actions of its main character, but it also embodies them in its creation and publication. Peter Carey may, or may not, have stolen Joyce Cary's artist idea (this book is, after all, entitled 'Theft'), and perhaps a court case like that involving The Da Vinci Code is a possibility; and he may or may not have imitated some of Cary's brush-strokes, so-to-speak; but this book is also distinctively Peter Carey's own work. Much of this is due to his creation of Hugh, Michael's "damaged two-hundred-and-twenty-pound brother". "Hugh the poet and Hugh the Murderer, Hugh the Idiot Savant", as Michael describes him, is the second narrator in this book and he is a fine creation.

Hugh became Michael's responsibility after attempting to murder their father. He describes himself as 'Slow Bones' and much of the time he is lucid and amiable, but he is prone to uncontrollable fits of rage and he tends to speak in CAPITAL LETTERS. Hugh makes a wonderful foil for Michael, but both are mad in their own way (as was the whole family, it seems) and often their 'voices' are not easily distinguishable. At times I could only determine who was speaking by the sudden eruption of capitals in the text. Nevertheless, Hugh is uniquely valuable as an observer and as a recorder of family history which, in his parroted phrases and borrowed opinions, can be very funny. He may have spent his time from fourth grade on sitting on a chair in the school playground, but he knows that "MAKING ART" is very much like being a butcher (which was the family business in the small Victorian town of Bacchus Marsh): "the labour never ends, no peace, no Sabbath, just eternal churning and cursing and worrying and fretting and there is nothing else to think of but the idiots who buy it or the insects destroying TWO-DIMENSIONAL SPACE". Hugh's job, whilst Michael is painting his masterpiece in a borrowed, bug-infested studio on a New South Wales country property, is to remove the bodies of dead flies "the fluff and bumph and snot of life" from the Dulux-painted surface, and to fetch and carry and be, as he plaintively complains, "his MANSERVANT".

The third important character in Theft is the young woman, Marlene, wife of a famous artist's son and (due to her 'eye' and her husband's total disinterest in art) effective wielder of the droit morale by which paintings are authenticated. She erupts into the Bones brothers' lives, becomes Michael's lover, manipulates art sales and art thefts and art frauds, and in the end shows herself to be as untrustworthy and mad as they are. As for being a love story, as the sub-title claims, there are many ways to interpret that. There is Michael's love of Marlene, which may be love in his terms but which seems very much more like lust, admiration and puzzlement. There is Michael's love for Hugh, which is equally often an onerous duty. And there is his love for his art; although he is not above forging a piece of work by another artist, copying his brush-strokes exactly, adopting and adapting his style, and then revelling in the art-world's acceptance of what he clearly regards as his own masterpiece. At least Gulley Jimson forged an early Jimson and could be rightly proud that it was all his own work.

The twists and turns of the plot in Carey's book keep you on your toes. The book’s Australian flavour, too, is strong, although some of the action also takes place in America and Japan. But this book does Australia no favours, feeding instead a popular caricature of Australia as a cultural desert inhabited by ex-convicts, frauds and uncouth, boozy larrikins. Interviewers, so far, have concentrated on trying to establish a biographical link between Peter Carey and his main character (both were born in Bacchus Marsh, both are divorced, both have young sons, both are creators) but Carey has been fiercely dismissive of such suggestions. Maybe, however, Michael Boone is Carey's alter-ego in a rather different way. Maybe both are masters of artistic theft.

Copyright Ann Skea http://ann.skea.com/

Ted Hughes' Pages http://ann.skea.com/THHome

Notes from an exhibition

by Patrick Gale. Fourth Estate, 2007.

Madness and creativity have been linked together in this wonderful book. The story is of Rachel Kelly, an artist, and the reader becomes a detective, piecing together the clues of a life – as an artist, lover, mother, wife and patient. What emerges is a story of love, of a family which weathers tragedy, mental illness and the strain of living with a genius. Told via notes from a posthumous retrospective of Rachel's work, which head each chapter, the narrative offers an unusual way into the half-dozen changing viewpoints, like apparently random pieces of a jigsaw. An immensely satisfying book, Notes from an Exhibition is funny, sad, tender and frightening all at the same time.

- Wendy

Looking for a quick read?

http://www.lazyreaders.com/

This site is for those who want to read but are perhaps time poor – so short books are the answer – you can even sort them by pages so you can read the shortest first.

What is the what

By Dave Eggers. Penguin Books, 2007.

Eggers is best-known for his autobiographical memoir, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, but this book is startlingly different. It tells the story of Valentino Achak Deng, a young Sudanese refugee, and although it purports to be a novel, Eggers has used as the basis for the story the real-life experiences of Deng and other refugees, known collectively as the ‘Lost Boys’ of Sudan, who, in the 1990s were forced to flee their homes following attacks from hostile Government-backed militias.
Deng’s story is one of great bravery and appalling misfortune. The group of boys he met up with made their way from southern Sudan to Ethiopia looking for sanctuary. They were attacked by lions, crocodiles, and mosquitoes, and suffered thirst and starvation. Safety in Ethopia was short-lived, a massacre ensued, and the boys had to flee again. In Kenya they found a haven in a refugee camp in the wilderness. Deng realised the way out was through education, and made himself essential to the aid-workers running the camp. Grown to a young man, he was offered sponsorship to the USA, but even here there were human predators in wait.

The author finds a convincing and authentic-sounding voice to tell this moving story. It is a terrific achievement, and one of the best novels I have read in years.

- John

Looking for a long read?

Then this list of the longest novels might help you! The longest Australian novel is Xavier Herbert's Poor Fellow My Country at over 850 000 words. It can be found at F /HERB.

Water for Elephants

by Sara Gruen. Allen & Unwin, 2006.

Water for Elephants is a novel, told in flashback by nonagenarian Jacob Jankowski, and recounts the wild and wonderful period he spent with the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth, a traveling circus he joined during the Great Depression. When 23-year-old Jankowski learns that his parents have been killed in a car crash, leaving him penniless. He drops out of veterinary school and joins the circus, where he cares for a menagerie of exotic creatures. Naturally he also falls in love with Marlena, one of the show's star performers.

Throughout the book is the intelligence of the elephant Rosie. But the beauty for me, was more the insight into the thoughts of an old man living in a nursing home; his view of those around him, and the often incorrect perceptions others have of him. It certainly makes you think.

- Wendy

Special Topics in Calamity Physics

by Marisha Pessl. Penguin Books, 2006.

... is presented as a very 'literary' fiction. Each chapter is the title of a book. The novel is a richly plotted suspense tale told through the distinctive voice of its heroine, Blue van Meer. Blue is constantly quoting from books and referring to texts and It reads a little like a university assignment! Most of the books and authors she refers to don't exist -- though quite a few do.

Blue, [named after the butterfly her dead mother collected] spends her childhood moving from one academic outpost to another with her father. In her final year of high school she finds herself in with a charismatic group of friends and their teacher, Hannah Schneider. But when the drowning of one of Hannah's friends and the shocking death of Hannah herself lead to the mysteries coming together, Blue is left to make sense of it all with only her instincts and those references to guide—or misguide—her.

Arranged around a syllabus for a Great Works of Literature class and containing visual aids (drawn by the author) – you’ll love it or you’ll hate it!

See Marisha Pessl's website here: http://calamityphysics.com/main.htm

- Wendy

Black Swan Green

by David Mitchell, Sceptre, 2006.

Following the critical acclaim of his last book, Cloud Atlas, which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and won several other literary prizes, people were awaiting Black Swan Green with great anticipation. Sure enough, it too has made its way onto prize shortlists. But in keeping with the unpredictability we have come to expect from this author, it was quite a different sort of novel from his others.

The narrator is the almost teenage Jason Taylor, and the setting is Worcestershire at the time of the Falklands War. Jason navigates us through his world, the village of Black Swan Green. The general awfulness of puberty is magnified for Jason by his battle with stammering. We spend a year in his company, in a series of linked stories which bring the 80s flooding back.

This is an engaging work, as much reminiscence as fiction, written with warmth. On the whole, it is a lesser work than Mitchell’s others. But if you liked the Adrian Mole books, or Mark Haddon’s Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, this covers similar territory.

- John

Snow

by Orhan Pamuk. Faber, 2004. (Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature 2006)
Cover design by Two Associates. Cover illustrations Webistan/Corbis & Natalie Forbes/Corbis.

Turkish poet Ka has been living in exile in Germany. He travels to the remote city of Kars under the guise of being a journalist investigating the suicides of the ‘headscarf girls’. His hidden reason for the journey is to find Ipek, a beautiful woman he remembers from the 70s when they were involved in left-wing politics. The city is cut off by snow. He becomes entangled in a complex political web, falls in love with Ipek and wanders in the snow writing poems. Reading the book one has the feeling of falling into a strange dream.

Turkey has a secular government and the separation of government and religion is written into its constitution. The wearing of headscarves is against the law. The left-wing socialist politics of the 70s which had made Ka an exile, is no longer relevant to the youth. Radical Islam is the path they take to challenge the oppressive central government. Turkey sits between Europe and the Middle East. Orhan Pamuk explores the tensions this creates in Turkish culture.

In an interview in 2005 Pamuk stated, "Thirty thousand Kurds and a million Armenians were killed in these lands and nobody dares to talk about it." Pamuk was charged under a newly introduced Turkish law for insulting Turkishness. In January 2006 the charges were dropped.

-Ines

Rhubarb

by Craig Silvey, 2004.

I've started reading this as it's one of the books recommended in the Great Read Guide. The first thing I noticed was that there is no punctuation used for talking! It is hard to tell if someone is talking, or just thinking the words. The story is about two people who are living in their own worlds: Eleanor Rigby (...look at all the lonely people...) who is blind and Ewan who is closer to his cello Lillian than any person. I have enjoyed getting to know these characters and although I am not up to the part where it happens, I hope they will find each other and find happiness in spite of their determination to remain by themselves. I have enjoyed reading Eleanor's experiences of being blind, and Ewan's experiences of making music but sometimes the language has been a bit too descriptive and flowery for me. - Anne

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