Tag Archives: Goodreads

Book Review: Prima Facie by Suzie Miller

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This story was first written as a play which I unfortunately missed last year when it was on in Melbourne. When the novel from which the play was based was selected by our book group I was looking forward to reading it.

The novel is about Tessa, a young brilliant barrister in London. She’s worked hard to get there having come from a working-class background where her mother is a cleaner and her brother is trying to stay out of jail having been there for a short time when he was younger. She has clawed her way through the class system to be the best at her job as a criminal defense barrister. But she also knows she works in the hallowed turf of London establishment where her colleagues come from privileged and entitled backgrounds.

She loves the law and believes in it.  Then one night she finds herself in a position, like one in three women, where she is raped by a colleague.  She won’t be silent and takes it to court with all the consequences that you can imagine.

This is an emotional and raw story and the author doesn’t hold anything back as she explores the price that victims play not just from the crime but from the process of seeking justice.

The first half of the novel gives insights into Tessa’s life from her family background of domestic violence and poverty, to her climb to  Cambridge where she’s told one in three will never make it in Law. Through dogged determination she is the one who does make it but the feeling of being inadequate and of being of the wrong class is emphasised over and over again. For me that was a little too repetitious. The second half of the novel was all about the court case which was cleverly interspersed with the events immediately after the crime occurred.

Tessa does have full faith in the law and I did wonder as a criminal barrister why she was naïve enough to believe that the law could protect her in this case when the law itself works against sexual abuse cases. But like others who have gone before her, to make a stand and have a voice is what ends up being as important.

It’s a powerful story and one that everyone should read. Although it was set in London, the issues around misogynistic law applies equally in Australia and reminds me of Louise Milligan’s book called Witness where she deals with the factual inadequacies in our own legal system when it comes to sexual abuse crimes.

Highly recommend this one.

Book Review: Darling Girls by Sally Hepworth

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You can never go wrong with a Sally Hepworth book and I’ve read most of them now. Darling Girls is no exception.

Three foster sisters,  Norah, Jessica and Alicia have come from diverse traumatic backgrounds to meet in a new foster home run by Miss Fairchild who shows the outside world a different persona to the one behind closed doors.

Years later, Miss Fairchild’s old house is demolished to make way for a new building and human bones are discovered under the house. Police call on the three women to help them with their investigation and the three who have remained close into their adulthood, reluctantly go back to Port Agatha where the house was and back in time to their ugly childhood.

Each of the sisters, has their own difficulties in adulthood and the narrative takes us into each of their points of view with a shock twist at the end.

Hepworth tackles the world of foster carers, vulnerability of children as well as mental health from trauma. At times I found it quite confronting but Hepworth gently leads the reader out of the tension, providing relief in all the right places. It’s also a novel about love and friendship.

The chapters are short and it’s an enjoyable and easy read.

Book Review: That Bligh Girl by Sue Williams

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 I really enjoyed, Elizabeth and Elizabeth by Sue Williams and was eager to read another of her books. which is steeped in historical detail putting the reader in the centre of early colonial life.

That Bligh Girl, steeped in historical detail putting the reader in the centre of early colonial life, is a fantastic novel about the daughter of Governor Bligh, Mary Putland. She’s a feisty woman forced to accompany her domineering father on a horrific voyage to Australia where she comes face to face with numerous challenges of a new colony.

I’d heard of Bligh from mutiny on the bounty fame, but little else. He was an autocratic, pig-headed, and dogmatic man and despite what she thinks Mary had some of those very qualities. She needed them to stand up not only to her father but to the soldiers of the rum rebellion led by none other than John McArthur, whose wife Elizabeth was featured in Williams earlier novel, Elizabeth and Elizabeth (see my review https://sckarakaltsas.com/2021/07/16/book-review-elizabeth-elizabeth-by-sue-williams/.)

Williams is deft at portraying the strength of women, not only of Mary but her convict maid, Meg Hill.  The historical narrative is rich in detail and whilst life was hard for everyone, it was more so for women.  This is not just about the privileged however, as Williams delves into the difficulties of life for convict women.

We learn more though about Mary’s life, her marriage to her great love, John Putland, his heart-wrenching death and her second marriage.

If you don’t know a lot about early colonial life in Sydney then this might just be the book for you. I’d highly recommend it.  

Book Review: Lessons by Ian McEwan

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This book could have been very good, brilliant even.

Roland Baines wife walks out leaving him with his two-month-old baby. He reflects on his life starting with the trauma of being left at boarding school, far from his mother and military father. His vulnerability and talent is noticed by his piano teacher whose influence is long lasting and life changing.

The reader is taken on a journey through Roland’s life, his missed opportunities, his restlessness and  failed relationships. World events also make an impact on him too. There is detailed analysis of Roland’s parents, their marriage as well as their history which Roland pieces together. He is shocked to learn their secrets and how World War Two affected the course of their life as well as his.

The story is a fascinating one around the disappearance of Roland’s wife and the impact of the piano teacher on him. However, after the first quarter of the novel, the story fell away beneath the telling style of narrative, the dumps of historical information and the remoteness of the characters. No-one was particularly endearing and Roland did not provide any empathy or relatability. In fact I grew terribly bored with him and his life story as it droned on and on.

The women in the story from his mother, his wife and the piano teacher were not painted in a good light either. His wife’s total abandonment of her son was difficult to fathom and her relationship with her own mother and her desire to write was barely believable to be convincing. Sorry, I just didn’t buy it. The piano teacher’s motivation and behaviour was puzzling and I found it hard to take the leap of belief about her motivation despite the author’s slant about her mental instability. Yes, it probably does happen but I couldn’t help wonder if this was mere wishful thinking from a man’s point of view? Alternatively, perhaps Roland was just an unreliable narrator which would indeed be more plausible. However this doesn’t make me like Roland any better.

The writing as always is wonderful where it’s not buried under a telling scenario. And while I did appreciate the historical events particularly the Berlin Wall coming down, the historical asides served to constantly remove me from the actual story. I lost interest particularly in the second half of the book and it was a chore to finish it despite the interesting twists about his family towards the end. But at that stage I’d had enough.

Sorry but this one was not for me.

Book Review: Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

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This novel tells the epic and heart-breaking story of one young boy growing up in the Southern Appalachian Mountains of Virginia.

Damon is ten when his drug addicted mother dies from an overdose. His father was killed in an accident before his birth and he is left homeless and without anyone to care for him other than the kindly, yet elderly next door neighbours. He ends up in the foster care system, which in America is a devastating system which Kingsolver explores in depth.

The story told from Damon or Demon’s point of view is blunt as it is brutally honest making the reader sympathise, worry and cheer for this boy. It is not without hope when Damon having had enough of adults who care only about his money earning potential, takes matters into his own hands to search for a long-lost grandmother.

It is a journey of poor choices and loss for Damon who despite finding his grandmother fails to find the thing he want most and that is to belong and be loved. And even when he does find it he fails to recognize it.

Kingsolver also explores the growth and abuse of prescription drugs as well as the community in which Damon lives. A coal mining area, investment is targeted in providing labour for the industry not for educating people to better themselves. A vicious cycle is perpetuated and when coal mining is no longer lucrative the community is left without anything. Kingsolver exploration of this cycle is sobering showing some of the disastrous and  sad consequences.

I really enjoyed this book with all it had to say about the foster and education systems as well as the social impacts at ground level not just for Damon but for everyone he comes into contact.

The only thing that I couldn’t quite buy was the behaviour of his grandmother. What she did made no sense to me particularly given that she had come looking for Damon when he was born. To say anymore would be to spoil the plot.

Nevertheless, it’s a powerful book, the voice so authentic sounding and the writing as always, superb. This is one to put on your list.

Book Review: Green Dot by Madeleine Gray

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I’d heard a lot about this one, saw it in a book store and grabbed it. Had I read the blurb on the back I might not have read it but I gave it a go.

The first page captured my interest when Hera reveals that in her twenties, she fell in love with a married man who wouldn’t leave his wife. The first fifty or so pages is a diatribe of her background story, her degrees, her schooling, her friends and the fact that at twenty four, she had no career aspirations. Living with her father, she feels compelled to find a job, landing one as a comment moderator at a major news outlet where she meets ‘the much older married man.’

To be honest that first part of the book was a little boring and I’d have liked a more condensed backstory. I know it was establishing her character but we see it anyway. I became more invested in this story at the point when she gets her first job which I think might have been a better starting point.

Hera’s observation of office politics and people dynamics was amusing as it was cutting and most people who have ever worked in an office whether it be the eighties or now will identify with the mind-numbing feeling of a dead-end job. The Green Dot is contemporary and immerses us into the everyday world of social media and internal messaging interspersed with the news of the day.

Under the bravado of Hera’s character lays a very insecure and vulnerable person who is not without self-awareness despite her often bizarre behaviour. There is mention of her mother and their estrangement but we never truly know what happened with the relationship although there is just enough information for the reader to make their own conclusions.

The Green Dot is quite well-written although some of the analogies were a little cringeworthy and might have been better left out. Talking about office workers she says, “They are just gurning to get inside and go sit at a computer. When you get an abortion you can then leave the building, and you might be really devastated or you might feel really free – either way it’s a decision you’ve made about your body and your life and you’ve had that choice.”

Nevertheless, I did enjoy this book hoping for Hera to find happiness and for her to make better choices. Does she? You’ll have to check it out for yourself.

Book Review: Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano

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This book is an epic family saga about the Padavano sisters spanning several decades. Much like their favourite book Little Women, the sisters are extraordinarily close. Julia the oldest is followed by Sylvie then twins Emeline and Cecilia.

Julia is the sensible and pragmatic sister leading the way. She meets a young man William who has been rejected by his parents and lives in the shadow of his dead sister. Julia decides he’s the man for her and goes about moulding him to become the ideal husband to fit the life plan she has made for them.

But when the sisters father dies, it creates a ripple effect fragmenting the family destroying the planned path set by Julia.

This is a complex novel about relationships and love with well-drawn characters primarily told through the eyes of Julia, William, and Sylvie. The family was clearly of Italian heritage but only because of their name. Nothing else gave a clue about it which I found unusual. The style of writing was bogged down quite a bit with showing us rather than telling and this became a little laboured for me. While I accepted everything which happened, I found myself wondering where the story was going.

There is scandal and sadness as well as darkness as William grapples with mental health issues which has profound effects on the entire family.  The bounds of love are stretched, snap and come back together, quite neatly. The book became somewhat repetitive in the last quarter leading to a predictable end and went on for a just a little too long.

Overall, I enjoyed this novel for the most part and it is very well written. If you like a family saga to get immersed in then this one shouldn’t disappoint.