Tag Archives: Reading

Book Review: Table for Two by Amor Towles

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I’ve read two of Towles’ last three novels and was thoroughly engrossed in his latest. Unusually I had expected a full length novel but instead what I got was a set of stories set in New York and a novella set in Los Angeles.

The stories ranged in size with the novella dominating the second half.

The New York stories were set early last century. A Russian couple accidently get a visa to escape the early days after the Russian revolution. Another tale tells of a bookseller who forges authors signatures and profits from the sale of the books. Then there  is a bootlegger illegally recording music in Carnegie Hall and a man who secretly figure skates in Central Park. Each story is beautifully told, almost fable-like with a moral dilemma. I enjoyed each of them although some were more touching than others.

The novella in Los Angelos follows a young lady called Eve who takes Olivia DeHavilland under her wing, protecting her from the movie business. Understandably this one is completely engrossing.

Towles captures the glamour and hardship of the era beautifully and of course it is very well written. Some of the stories stretch belief but either way they made for a thoroughly entertaining and enjoyable read.

Book Review: Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors

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I’m not too sure how I feel about this family drama story.

Three successful middle-class sisters, once close, split into destructive paths following the death of their sister, Nikki Blue. A year later, they receive an email from their mother telling them to come and look at Nikki’s thing because their family home in New York is to be sold.

The story is split into each sister’s point of view, how they grapple with the loss and the changed dynamic of their once close-knit family. The eldest Avery has been the glue keeping the sisters together in the absence of adequate parenting from their mother and alcoholic father.  She herself is a recovering addict, made good as a lawyer, married to a woman in England. Next is Bonnie, world champion boxer, then Nikki who is a teacher and the youngest, is Lucky an international supermodel.

There is a lot of telling rather than showing as we learn in intricate detail their background stories as individuals as well as their relationships with others and each other.

Besides grief, loss and love, themes of addiction in families is explored well as is the health issues surrounding endometriosis. Underlying it all is the question of what it is to be a sister and a mother. There is no real plot as such as the reader is taken on a journey with each sister’s reckoning of their grief and their exploration of the new family dynamic.

Families can be complicated and the Blue family is certainly that. I didn’t particularly warm to any of the characters, their grief or their behaviour, bad or otherwise. But I did want to see them succeed and the story arc for each character although predictable is what drove me to keep reading.

This slow-paced novel was well written but I was distracted by the constant interiority, sometimes repetitive and detailed anecdotes some of which did little to enhance understanding of character or place. It slowed the pace and struggled to hold my interest.

However, I did find the relationship between the sisters to be tender and heart-warming at times. The scene with Bonnie helping Lucky was particularly well handled giving a detailed insight into addiction.

The last quarter of the novel was more satisfactory as we were given insights into each sibling, their conflict and resolution. It’s  not a novel I loved but it was okay.

Book Review: Long Island by Colm Toibin

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This is a sequel to Brooklyn which I’d read many years ago. But if you haven’t read it or seen the movie,  Long Island remains strong enough to stand on its own.

In the novel, Brooklyn it tells the story of Eilis Lacey who migrated from Ireland to New York, and married Tony Fiorello an Italian American.

Long Island is set twenty years later where she lives in a separate house in a cul-de-sac where Tony’s three brothers families and his parents also live. She has raised a son and daughter and while the extended family is suffocating and controlling, she has learned to live a good life.  That is until a man knocks on her door to tell her that Tony has had an affair with the man’s wife who is now pregnant. The man tells her that he will not raise the child and when the time comes, will leave the baby on her doorstep.

This event sets off a story of family, secrecy, misunderstanding and forbidden love. Eilis goes back to Ireland to see her mother and faces Jim, the man she abandoned twenty years earlier. The repercussions are complex.

The relationships are complicated and the twists are many as the reader navigates and judges what Eilis should do. Indeed we put ourselves in her place. Why doesn’t she just leave Tony? The family dynamics are so controlling she’ll be cast out. Yet she is clear, the baby has nothing to do with her.

And what of Jim? He is having a secret relationship with Nancy ready to finally marry after losing Eilis twenty years earlier. When he runs into her, the dynamics between them are riveting. Will she end up with him or not?

Toibin’s voice is  unusual and it takes a little while to get used to the flow and internal dialogue. Yet the narrative works and draws you into each character understanding their foibles and their own dilemmas.

There are many layers to this story but one thing is certain, you won’t be able to put this one down.

Book Review: The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng

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I really enjoyed reading this intriguing fictional novel set in early 1920’s Penang.

Lesley Hamlyn and her husband Robert entertain house guest, Somerset Maugham who is a famed writer. He becomes caught in a story Lesley tells him about her marriage and her relationship with Chinese revolutionary, Dr Sun Yat Sen. As she confides to him, Maugham becomes caught up with another tale about the trial of her best friend, Ethel Proudlock who was accused of murdering her lover.

What makes this novel so spellbinding is that it is based on true events. I’d not heard of Dr Sun Yat Sen who was responsible for the fall of the Qing Dynasty and was one of the founders of the Republic of China. I’ve also not read any of Somerset Maugham’s works but I’m now motivated to check them out especially, The Casuarina Tree which is set during his time in Penang. One of the short stories, The Letter recounts the the trial of Proudlock.

Tan Twan Eng has cleverly woven a wonderful tale around three historic events to create a truly memorable work. No wonder it was a Booker Longlist in 2023.

The dual narrative alternating between Lesley in first person and Maugham in third works extremely well.

This is a novel about love and betrayal in a colonial setting painted vividly on each page. The author touches on many issues of the time with plot twists along the way.

If you like historical fiction then I think you will love this one.

Book Review: Dusk by Robbie Arnott

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I loved Arnott’s last book, Limberlost and really enjoyed Dusk.

Set sometime last century in a unnamed place (feels like Tasmanian wilderness) are twins, Floyd and Iris who hear of a bounty for the death of a puma cat which has killed several men and much livestock. Scouting the highlands for work, they unwittingly help another hunter who has other ideas for them and become embroiled in a cat and mouse chase through the harsh rugged terrain.

It’s a slow burn as we learn about the twins whose lives of hardship began when they were born to outcast ex-convict alcoholic parents. Floyd suffers from severe pain and Iris watches out for her brother but always looks for a future where they can one day settle down.

The description of the landscape is detailed: the cold chills you on a hot summer’s day, the rocks and skeletons take your breath away and the beauty of the mountains, trees and water makes you yearn to be there.

‘They skirted the lake’s shore – a beach of quartz sand, bright and course, – as the sun began cutting into the mountains that framed the water. ‘

The relationship between the twins was well done, the tension, love and despair for them palpable. I wondered about Iris and how she coped with a life of camping and getting around on horseback in a time when that would have been very much frowned upon. Yet there was little opposition from townsfolk and I wasn’t sure this was quite realistic for the time. Nevertheless, her character makes for an interesting take on a story which at times seemed like the wild west. Chasing the puma through the wilderness also reminded me a little of the novel Once there were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy.

The only thing that did throw me off towards the end was the backstory about the twins parents. In my opinion it interrupted the climactic flow and should have come a lot earlier in the novel.

Otherwise, a beautifully told tale. It’s short too, so check it out.

Book Review: The Ledge by Christian White

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I always enjoy Christian White’s novels. He is known for his twisting crime mysteries and this one is no exception.

Human remains are found under a cliff which sends three friends into a tail spin of panic about what happened to their friend Aaron in 1999.

This one is a dual-narrative story which I always enjoy as I love reading about the past meeting the present. In this case it catches up to the friends who have a lot to hide.

 The Ledge certainly delivers as we’re taken on a journey through Justin’s teenage diary and then see how his life as a mid-thirties man turns out. There is a lot at stake for the friends as the authorities close in on the mystery. To say more would give it away. But the twist is one you won’t see coming.

It’s fast-paced an well written and an ideal holiday read. Check it out.

Book Review: Wifedom by Anna Funder

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It seems everyone is talking about and reading this book. It has courted controversy, admiration and much discussion.

Wifedom was one for our book group and created quite a discussion about George Orwell the man, the writer, and the husband. What Anna Funder does superbly in this book is to put the meaning of what it is to be wife, front and centre and in particular what was to be George Orwell’s wife.

Eileen O’Shaughnessy, herself an Oxford scholar and poet marries George Orwell and Funder meticulously explores her impact and influence on George Orwells’ work as an author, in particular of Animal Farm and the later works, 1984.

Having read both novels many years ago they made a significant impact on my younger self. Understanding the story behind the works now gives me the impetus to read them again.

Funder’s research takes us behind the scenes of this married couple’s life in Spain when Orwell fought in the Spanish Civil War, his writing and his battle with tuberculosis. More importantly she sees Eileen’s own struggle, to bring in an income to support them, her heath struggles and her utter devotion to doing everything to support her husband’s art.

It’s completely fascinating as Funder draws on the patriarchal system not just in the 1930’s but in current day of unacknowledged work done by women everywhere.

Orwell comes out poorly. His behaviour could be put down to the patriarchal system of the day yet Funder shows us that he was a very poor excuse for a human being.

I wasn’t sure about Funder’s imposition of her own story, while interesting, hardly added much. I did appreciate the incredible research to bring about such an enlightening story about a woman who was truly amazing in her own short life.

Read this one for yourself and you’ll get what all the fuss is about.