Want To Know A Secret?

Title:  Want To Know A Secret?

Author: Sue Moorcroft       

ISBN: 978-1-906931-26-1

Published: Choc Lit (First published as ‘Family Matters’ by Robert Hale 2008)

Date: 2010

I picked up this book for educational purposes. Romance as a genre is out of my comfort zone. But as a writer, I have a problem. I have difficulty making my characters likable. Believable, sure. Sympathetic, not so much. And who would be better placed than a successful romance writer to show how it’s done? After all, ‘likable’ must be the core requirement for romance.

I wasn’t disappointed.

Moorcroft is a skillful crafter. Plot tempo and flow are well-judged and carefully thought out, although it did start to lack credibility towards the end. Characterization is fair, but doesn’t worry too much about having some cardboard cut-outs as stage-props. In fact is not squeamish about doling out a fair deal of two-dimensional structural support to all the characters. There’s nothing wrong with remembering that a story is an artifice, and an impressionist painting has just as much validity as a super-realism piece or a Chinese ink drawing: they reflect reality in a different manner.

The flow is so well controlled that although I was reading with a specific and technical purpose, keeping my mind on the job and not galloping gleefully along the plot line was difficult. It’s a very enjoyable book. It’s a testament to Moorcroft’s skill that only a minuscule proportion of her readers will notice the crafting techniques – all they’ll think was ‘That was great, where can I get more of this?’ Which is pretty much exactly the response you want, as a writer.

Plot? Ah. Downtrodden intelligent woman discovers dirty shenanigans her mean husband has been keeping from her and everything comes good. Enjoy.

What about that issue with the likable characters? Surprisingly simple. Here, it’s done mostly by opinions voiced by other characters. The figures you need to like don’t necessarily do likable things, but because other people keep going on about how great they are, the reader accepts it. It’s an incredible example of peer pressure and social conditioning working just as well on the written sheet as in the real world. The technique balances nicely with the narrative tactic of different points of view – which incidentally the author is not too particular about swapping in mid-gallop. Another one of those ‘rules’ which can be broken without repercussions, as long as you take the reader with you. You have to be good to pull it off.  

In short, I’d recommend the book. A little tailing-off towards the end and a few shadows of slap-dash here and there are the only reasons I’d give it 4 rather than 5 Moose-Hoofs up. But then Moose only have four hooves. 

The War Of The Worlds

Title:  The War Of The Worlds

Author: H.G. Wells

ISBN: 0-14-102418-6

Published: Penguin

Date: 1898

1898, this was published. I had to keep reminding myself while reading. It’s the first H.G. Wells book I’ve ever read, and turns out to be a most curious mix of excitement, perspicacity and sloppiness. Had me quite gripped to the last.

The ideas themselves are extraordinarily beyond their time. This very fact, and the familiarity of the story (however much altered in other adaptations) makes coming back to the original and realising just how venerable it is even more of a jolt.

The writing, particularly in the first half of the book, has a peculiar propensity to skip little scenes within action sequences. Such as, we see a man heading away from a cart and crawling into a ditch, and the next we see of him he’s back in the cart and riding away. Sometimes it’s a little confusing, but mainly we can piece it together. The effect is one of strobe lighting: frozen scenes at the height of the action where you have to join the dots through blackness. In the context of the 19^th century diction it’s unexpected, to say the least.

The writing gives the impression of having been put down at great speed, warming up towards the second half. In the first portions there’s a larger percentage of word echo, as if the writer is almost mimicking the everyday rhythms ongoing before the attack. Later on the sentences become shorter, more disjointed, but more fluid at the same time.

This was an eye opener of a book and I’m very glad I finally got round to reading it. Enjoyed every moment. Five Moose-Hoofs up.

The Finkler Question

Title:  The Finkler Question

Author: Howard Jacobsen

ISBN: 978-1-4088-0910-5

Published: Bloomsbury

Date: 2010

Book quote:

“It was at that moment the sum total of his philosophy. Fuck it.”

The quote above it completely atypical of the diction and style of the book, but is in essence what the whole exposition boils down to. After exploring every conceivable angle of the Jewish Question, in the end we are presented with no answers, no guides, no opinion that seems ‘better’ than another. As far as the issue of Jewish identity and place in the world goes, Jacobson proffers no ‘solution’. Except perhaps that there is no solution and the question itself is inherent in Jewish existence.

The book is ostentatiously ‘literary’ in that it has virtually no plot, glacial progression and its whole soul is dedicated to stripping itself so bare it’s turned inside out several times like a distressed overcoat in the hands of a toddler. It is a delightful, funny read, and shines a kind and reflective light over proceedings; rather like the character of Libor: an old Czechoslovak Jew who has recently been widowed at the time the novel opens.

Reviewers have called it ‘blistering’, ‘furious’ and ‘terrifying’. If to be unashamed and honest is such, I guess it is.

The setting is London, and the main protagonists are three friends: Treslove, Finkler, and Libor. The latter two are Jews, the first is not. Then Treslove has an epiphany and decides he, too, is really Jewish. Then he probably decides he is probably not. And the story ends.

Howard uses Treslove’s reasoning as to why he ‘must’ be Jewish and the character’s personality as one of the tools to discuss the essence of ‘Jewishness’.

The only authorial opinion that seems to emerge from the seething discussions is that men are confused, women get on with life. This is not so much stated as actioned – in fact it’s so unbalanced a ratio of women who know what they’re doing to men who don’t you’d think there’s something going on. Tyler is Finkler’s (recently deceased) wife, who continually cuts through Finkler’s philosophical crap with near-spiteful brutality – yet puts up with it. Malkie is Libor’s (also recently deceased) wife who was an incomparable beauty, a talented musician, of high-class ancestry but of even better taste, who staved off the pathos of  dying by ‘talking dirty’ and who chose plebeian Libor over Horowitz because he made her laugh. Hepzebah is Treslove’s Nirvana of a woman who mothers him and for a while washes away his obsession with death and sorrow in a wave of earthy gusto and joi de vivre. Even Treslove’s past loves, the waif-like women he picks and adores because of their insubstantial fragility, all despair of him and leave him because of his fatuous fascination with some operatic, fatalistic view of life and romance. Tamara Krausz out-philosophers Finkler the philosopher, driving him mad with a mix of jealousy and admiration that morphs into a rather violent sexual fascination. There seems to be not a cleaning-lady in the book who doesn’t possess more common sense than the ‘best’ of the men.

And yet for all the enjoyable read, it leaves the reader disappointed with the ‘not a bang but a whimper’ ending. Perhaps it’s churlish to complain of this as it’s no doubt part of the message: nothing changes, there are no answers, the dog returns to his vomit. But it’s also a novel, and stories need structure, and that includes a head and a tail.

Great writing, engaging humour, wonderful insight and honesty. No plot, no resolution, no ending and barely any beginning that’s not a morass of the rest of the book. In all, I’d give it four moose-hoofs up out of five. Cool book but not quite sure I’d have given it the Booker - as someone else did. 

The House At Zaronza

Title: The House At Zaronza        

Author: Vanessa Couchman

Publisher: Crooked Cat Publishing Ltd    

Publish date: July 2014

ISBN-10: 190984182X

ISBN-13: 978-1909841826

The story of a Corsican woman in the early part of the 20^th century, set within the framework of the enquiries of an interested party from present-day UK. Engaging, intriguing and increasingly un-putdownable.

The book takes an unflinching look at what it meant to be female at that time and place, with a realistic first-person narrative. The fictional author voice’s credibility stems partly from changing over the course of the novel, from naïve young woman to WW1 nurse and beyond – this with the added complexity of the narrative being written as a retrospective memoir. The portions on nursing on the Front are for me the most gripping. They fit in with the ruggedly un-melodramatic stoicism of the main character to pack a force of narrative that leaves one quite stunned.

Would recommend without reservation.

Red Mist

 

Title: Red Mist

Author: Patricia Cornwell

Publisher: Putnam          

Publish date: 2011

ISBN: 970-0-399-15802-5

 

This was my first Patricia Cornwell novel and also (obviously) my first Scarpetta novel, and I discovered after the event it wasn’t a particularly good place to start. Avid Cornwell readers complain of the interminable dialogue, the lack of action, the dreariness and general lack of motivation to keep reading. A lot of reviews swear at the end they won’t read another Cornwell book after that. And I can understand the disillusionment.

To a Cornwell novice, it would appear self-evident that in the Cornwell world:

·         We do not kill our adjectives and adverbs. In fact, we spread fertilizer on them to make them fatter, and give no nutrients to verbs or nouns at all, which struggle through the cracks in the adjectival forest.

·         We ENDLESSLY employ the ‘Bit-of-Dialogue’ followed by ‘Inane action’ scenario. ‘No,’ she said, and picked up the chopsticks. ‘I think,’ she said, turning the gas on…. Ad infinitum until the author finally forgets herself and allows a bit of dialogue without endless interruptions.

·         We do NOT eschew the no-no tell-not-show words of ‘feel’, ‘think’, ‘consider’, ‘see’, etc. We employ them mercilessly. We drag the reader through every passing thought the MP has and leave nothing to the imagination.

·         We do not build up tension or lead the reader on. We do drop clues but they’re endlessly repeated and not of great interest anyway, and the plot is brow-raisingly dubious.

 

In all, it’s not the impression I expected to get of such an acclaimed writer. Perhaps I’ll try an earlier Scarpetta next time. This one needs so serious editing. In fact, go for a re-write. In fact, scrub that, just don’t bother at all.

 

Gets 1 out of 5 Moose Hoofs up.

 

 

The Racketeer

 

Title: The Racketeer

Author: John Grisham

Publisher: Random House           

Publish date: 2012

ISBN: 978-0-7393-7843-2

 

Malcolm Bannister is a former attorney convicted for money laundering and serving ten years at Frostburg Prison Camp. Then a federal judge gets murdered and the tough get going as the proverbial going gets tough.

 

I smiled a lot while reading this novel, and have to confess to a personal liking for it for several reasons.

a)      By the end of the first few opening chapters you find yourself rooting for Bannister, an ex lawyer, not even a successful one, technically did the crime he’s convicted for but holds himself morally innocent and blames the government. At first glances it doesn’t sound like an easily likeable character. But Grisham pulls that first stunt off with remarkable ease.

b)      The story winds round itself in an audacious dance of literary, self-referential flirtation. Now, this is often attempted but seldom pulled off. As Malcolm morphs into his new identity under the Witness Protection Program, we literally see the writer at work, choosing his character, drawing up the plot diagrams, forging the story – within the story. And it’s amusing, not the self-aggrandizing and navel-gazing display that’s often put on show by lesser mortals. It continues for the rest of the book, with the reader quite happy for the main character to be in cahoots with his author and leading you by the nose over some rather rough territory.

c)       It’s meticulously plotted prior to writing, but a bit slapdash on character development. Why is this a good thing? Well it’s not, but it happens to be how I write, too. If John Grisham can get away with it, there’s hope for me yet. Even the ending is one I sympathize with: the increasingly devious and unbelievable plot is thrown at the reader’s feet in a messy pile of happy-ever-after with a ‘there, that’s what you wanted, wasn’t it?’ echoing behind the residual sound of fingers hitting the keyboard. I dig it. Although if there were one thing I’d like to change it would be to hang onto reality a little more towards the latter quarter of the novel, but hey, who’s counting.

In short, recommended. Gets 3.5 out of 5 Moose Hoofs up.

 

 

At Home, A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson

AT HOME, A SHORT HISTORY OF PRIVATE LIFE by Bill Bryson

Book Quote:

“On one occasion in the 1890s, Lord Charles Beresford, a well-known rake, let himself into what he believed was his mistress’s bedroom. With a lusty cry of ‘Cock-a-doodle-doo!’ he leapt into the bed – only to discover that it was occupied by the Bishop of Chester and his wife.”

What would the world do without Bill Bryson? One simply wants to sit at his knee with a huge grin and listen interminably. I’m an irredeemable skinflint and get all my reading material from the library, but At Home is one book I would seriously like to buy for myself. Considering I have almost no books apart from reference books, my Complete Shakespeare and a Bible I once found in a discard pile somewhere, that’s saying quite a lot.

The volume is in essence a long and amiable discourse on the marvel that was the Victorian era. It’s loosely based around (and supposedly inspired by) the Victorian rectory Bryson lives in. The chapters have titles like: “The Hall,” “The Kitchen,” and so on. The theory is that “houses aren’t refuges from history. They are where history ends up.” However, apart from in the early chapters (notably “The Hall”) there’s little talk about anything prior to the Victorians. It’s the speed of change and the immeasurable vigor with which so many Victorians pursued their eccentricities and interests that really fascinates Bryson, and he re-tells it at the top of his engaging best.

The downside of the book may perhaps be that it has little structure. It is a little like swimming through thick soup, but oh such good soup! It’s the perfect book for sitting companionably of an evening. The urge to exclaim “Listen to this one!” and regale anybody within earshot with the latest snippet of fascinating information Mr. Bryson has dredged out of history for you, probably occurs about once every fifteen minutes. Which, incidentally, is the perfect interval for this sort of activity: any less and it’s startling, any more and it gets annoying.

The best thing about it is that it’s simply so shockingly knowledgeable. The bibliography alone goes on for 25 pages of dense text, with a further note at the bottom: “for Notes and Sources, please go to www.billbryson.co.uk/athome .”

Despite this, there are a number of curious little niches which harbour the oddest throw-away statements. Like the one that claims the dining room really came about because of the advent of upholstery, with the Victorians not really wanting people smearing greasy chicken over their expensive sofas. What on earth were all those Medieval dining halls doing, then, one wonders briefly? Or the later Elizabethan private dining rooms? Oh Billy, one thinks – but it’s such a lovely idea that a specialised room should be invented because people couldn’t quite envisage a table napkin that one quite forgives it.

These little anomalies only seem to add to the charm: they’re like “Easter eggs” in a computer game. The vast majority of the time, one is overwhelmed with gratitude at the sheer volume of reading and dredging that has been done to winkle these pearls of Victoriana from dusty obscurity. They range from the obscure (why forks usually have three tines: actually it’s never quite explained but apparently people have experimented with other numbers and it’s never quite right) to the monumentally important (such as the discovery of the sources of cholera and scurvy). Electricity holds sway over a whole chapter in “The Fuse Box,” and seems to hold a particular fascination for Bryson, as the “characters” who feature here pop up throughout the book. Perhaps it is not surprising, as without electricity so much of further development would simply not have been possible.

I would recommend this unreservedly to anybody, but actively prescribe it if you are feeling glum. Perhaps that’s why I’d like it on my shelf permanently. It’s cheering for three reasons. The unquenchable amiable spirit it’s written in, along with the sheer love of language and words that beams through the pages are two of these reasons – but any Bryson fan will already be familiar with these. The third is that the book will immerse you entirely in the day-to-day reality of Being Victorian. Which includes carrying 40 bucket loads of hot water upstairs nightly for a bath, having to take clothes apart and re-stitch them together for the laundry, refrigerating food (if one were so lucky) with ice brought over from lakes in the States, and countless other inconveniences and checks to daily living that we would simply never consider possible. The writing is so engrossing one’s arms almost ache with the weight of the water-buckets… only to look up and find that: joy! One can just turn the hot water on instead. If you think you’re bogged down with a tedious job or an unrewarding existence or poor working conditions, just read this. You’ll be skipping in no time.

(First published in Mostly Fiction Book Reviews, 2011)