Book Review: Nutshell by Ian McEwan

This book was my pick for the bookclub I run in my village. There were some very mixed reviews but personally I loved it. 

A creative retelling of the Shakespeare play, Hamlet written from the perspective of a foetus, Nutshell by Ian McEwan is the artfully written tale of the uncle and mother conspiring to kill the father of the unborn baby.

To enjoy the book you must first suspend your disbelief at the baby’s intelligence – he has an awareness of the family’s situation going on outside his ‘walls’ because he can hear conversation and he seems to be acutely aware of his mother’s inner-most feelings even if it isn’t what it being portrayed on the outside. He also absorbs knowledge of world events through the radio and podcasts that his mother leaves on at night, which allows for some interesting social commentary, apparently a common element of McEwan’s novels (this was my first).

Some bookclub members found this aspect of the novel hard to digest which sadly hindered their enjoyment of it. For me though, I just found the foetus-narration an interesting literary device. In an interview on the author’s website, he says that this element of fantasy was quite freeing as writer, and this is certainly apparent. I find the novel very playfully written and amusing in parts, especially the parts where the unborn baby talks about his taste in fine wines thanks to his mother’s (rather concerning) drinking habits whilst pregnant… I seem to remember Sancerre is a favourite of his. I think for me the humour broke up the more serious social and political musings.

In some ways the plot was almost secondary to the philosophical narrative. That being said, sometimes when I was reading this on my commute I wanted something a bit more fast-paced and less complex and so I skipped through some parts.

Before bookclub, I’d have absolutely recommended this book to anyone but on reflection, I think I’d have to be a bit more careful. For me it was solid 4/5. 

Book Review: The Girls by Emma Cline

This book speaks of a world I found so horrifying and dangerous yet because it was told from the conscience and justifications of a 14 year old girl, I could almost find myself relating. For a debut novelist, Emma Cline has certainly demonstrated a fantastic grasp on verbalising the inner workings of the young female mind, so this was such an exciting find!

Fourteen-year-old Evie Boyd’s attention is caught by a gang of girls that live in her northern Californian town. With the “endless, formless summer” stretching ahead of her, Evie is seduced by a life spent amongst the girls in the out-of-town commune in which they inhabit. Cline’s story is based somewhat on the Manson cult, which I actually hadn’t heard of, but from a bit of Googling seems like a very big deal back in the 1960s. With Charles Manson at the centre, a large group of girls carried out gruesome murders with a pure kind of loyalty to their leader. Russell is the ‘Charles Manson’ in this tale, but Russell is consciously cast aside in order to focus on ‘the girls’.

Some criticism has been given to Emma Cline’s style of writing as there is a tendency to over-dramatise the insignificant; dresses “stuttering with loose stitching”, the “domestic rot of the kitchen sponge”. I found that this allowed me to more vividly and sharply imagine Evie’s world, with rich senses of colour and smell. Often these details were described when Evie was at home and feeling listless; the rush and roar of excitement for her new life had not yet come and she seemed to express disdain and boredom of the everyday.

I keep saying on this blog that I don’t really enjoy books that flick back and forth in time but once again, this one’s blown that out of the water. We experience older, grown up Evie’s life, as she narrates the tale. Her story as an adult is told with the same rich intensity. Sadly this Evie doesn’t seem to have made much of her life since the commune, and the very last passage in the book where she is walking on the beach almost willing the male passer-by to cause her harm suggests she is still an outsider desperate to be noticed. 

4/5

Paris Minibreak

Salut mes chers!

I write to you a week on from my little weekend away in Paris, and of course I had to visit the Shakespeare & Co bookshop which is just a dream. The quaint little building with its hideaways and corners and beautiful editions! It made me want to repurchase every book I own in the lovely covers they have. But of course that would be silly, so I just bought two new ones; The Girls by Emma Cline and Outline by Rachel Cusk.

I'm already about half-way through 'The Girls' and oh boyyy it's good!

Book Review: Maya's Notebook by Isabel Allende

First of all, I LOVED this book!

The book tells the story of Maya, a teenager 'in hiding', who has been sent to live with a family friend in Chiloé, an island on the archipelago off Chile. While Maya settles into this community, we learn about the series of events back in her Californian hometown that lead to her to escape. The story masterfully undulates between the present and the past, in a way that is somehow not nearly as annoying as I have found in other books that do the same!

Maya had been virtually abandoned by her parents at a young age, leaving her Chilean grandmother and her warm and loving grandfather to bring her up. Upon the death of her grandpa, Maya spirals down a path of self-destruction, stealing and using drugs. Concerned, her grandparents send her away for rehabilitation in Oregon, but Maya runs away, and is picked up by a truck driver who drugs and rapes her at a motel. Fearing for her life, and left penniless in Las Vegas, Maya falls into a gang of criminals operating around the city, dealing in counterfeit money.

The harrowing account of the depths of Maya’s addiction to drugs during this time was the thing that shocked me the most. Maya is headstrong and determined, and I was willing for her to pull herself out her circumstances, but her addiction traps and I was reading the pages very rapidly hoping she survives.

Allende tells the story in short little chunks; there are no chapters as such, although the seasons are marked. I liked this way of storytelling – it allowed for small anecdotes to be relayed, without dwelling on one thing for too long.

From a bit of research, I have heard that Allende gives genius depth to her characters. I think the depth to Maya was captured so well due to all the stories of all the other characters that she meets, especially on the island of Chiloé. From the circle of witches to the oldest lady on the island, the community and its history and politics are woven into the story so that by the end we have a wonderfully rich image of Maya’s home.

There is just so much packed into this book that it would be impossible to talk about everything, so I’m simply going to say I loved it (again) and I’m glad that I’m back to my positive book reviews after my last one (sorry Elizabeth Heathcote). Giving it a solid 4/5.

Book Review: Undertow by Elizabeth Heathcote

This review is based on the audiobook of Undertow by Elizabeth Heathcote which I mainly listened to on my commute to London. I actually opened a 'notes' page on my iPhone fairly early on so I could remember all the points I wanted to make in my review, because... ehem... I knew I'd have lots to say.

The plot is centered around Carmen and her marriage to Tom, who has a rather 'colourful' history with women. His first marriage with Laura spawned three children, but then his affair with Zena, a headstrong, independent woman brought this to an end. But his relationship with Zena was cut short after she went swimming in the sea at St Jude's beach and drowned. 

Carmen is vaguely aware of Tom's history, but until a chance comment from a stranger at the train station, she had just put it all to the back of her mind. That was his past, and she didn't really want to know. Until now. 

The story is set in motion after Carmen is given reason to believe that there is some question over the cause of Zena's death and she decides to launch her own investigation into the truth. (This is a no-spoilers review so I will stop there!)

First things first, I've read a few books recently with the same kind of 'wife not trusting husband' theme, for example Before We Met by Lucie Waterhouse. I have very mixed feelings about the 'genre' because although there's a kind of 'thriller' element which can be quite addictive, the feminist in me rolls my eyes because the men seem to be always portrayed as the ones with the high-powered jobs, strong and holding the power in the relationship. This may be co-incidental but in both books (Undertow and Before We Met), the women are struggling work-wise, while their husbands are making it, and seemingly because of all the extra time on their hands, the wives' entire lives are taken over by worry and anxiety about their husbands! 

Deeper than that though, there were some really worrying situations which played out in Undertow which made me really uncomfortable. At a wedding of a friend of Tom's, he has too much to drink and becomes jealous when a male guest is talking with Carmen. He embarrasses her by getting angry in front of  the guests and then storms off to bed, locking himself in (and Carmen out) their bedroom suite. With help from the other guests, Tom is woken to let Carmen in and is a foul drunken mess. Livid, Carmen tosses and turns all night, but Tom wakes up with sexual urges, telling her to pretend she doesn't want it (creepy?). WHY at this point does she go along with it? He is a repugnant, domineering man, who has a known history of beating up men through jealousy. I'd like to think I'd be bloody hacked off at being embarrassed in front of everybody and the prospect of some casual 3am sex after all that would be unthinkable but Carmen doesn't stand up for herself. 

Nearer the end of the book, when they have a huge fight and Tom has been ignoring all Carmen's pleas for forgiveness, Tom appears in Carmen's bedroom. It's pitch black and she has no idea who is. It could be some kind of murderer for all she knows, and she is motionless with fear. Oh joy, it's a silent and creepy-as-hell Tom, who after an exchange of words then pushes himself on her, and rapes her. But it's okay because Carmen understands that he just "needs to make love". The thing is, this is never discussed or dealt with again. In fact in the days that follow, she asks herself 'why am I crying for no reason'. YOU WERE RAPED?!! Not once does she seem to realise this. 

You might be able to tell, but I found Carmen quite annoying. In the dialogue between her and the other characters she kept repeating their words in a questioning tone, for example, in one discussion with Tom:

Tom: 'It was the kids'

Carmen: 'It was the kids!?'

Tom: 'Jake and Mel'

Carmen: 'Jake and Mel?'

Tom: 'Laura picked them up'

Carmen: 'Laura picked them up!?'

I just found this quite tedious an unimaginative!

Another thing that grated on me was the rather annoying cliché portrayal of the division between classes, Tom having gone to Oxford and Carmen 'never considering "that life"'. Carmen describes Tom's middle-class lot as 'dishonest' and she says they 'expect everything', which is a tedious stereotype! 

Despite my gripes with this, I found that it had a few unexpected twists and turns along the way (though the overall plot was quite predicatable). I think I would have struggled with this one in book format because the annoying protagonist would have frustrated me, but my interest was kept up by the thriller element and I listened to it in just over a week. 

I'm going to give this one 2.5/5. An intriguing but quite 'over done' storyline, with some aggravating elements means I just can't give a 3!  

New Read: Maya's Notebook by Isabel Allende

Okay okay — so it's been a while (again). So I thought I'd drop by and say that I have just started reading Isabel Allende's Maya's Notebook.

Allende is an author that I have had highly recommended to me, so I am keen to get stuck in!

Book review to follow...

#bookface

LEON Breakfast and reading - what else!? 

#IBW2016 Tag

I'll be honest, 2016 hasn't been a good year so far for reading. However, having just watched some of the Independent Bookshop Week Tag videos though (including the original, here, by Vintage Books), I feel very inspired by lots of new titles. I thought I would have a go myself because who doesn't love a good tag.

IBW 2016 is happening from 18th-25th June, so get involved and do the tag if you wish!

1. What book(s) are currently in your bag?

Before We Met by Lucie Whitehouse has been my bag now for longer than I care to admit. I've just got the part where the main character, Hannah finds a thread of possible truth about her husband which might explain why he didn't return home from his business trip to New York. This was my 'post-interview' book a few months back, and it even featured when one of the interviewees asked me what I was currently reading. Despite all this, I'm still only about half way through it. As I said... not a good book year. 

2. What’s the last great book you read?

As already stated a few times in this blogpost (if this were a CV or a cover letter, it would have been thrown in the dustbin by now for careless repetition), I haven't been reading much in 2016, so I just found my 'Notes' App on my iPhone where I have listed all the books I read in 2015. There were some corkers, but it's a toss up between Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding (because it's impossible to deny that it isn't a great book) and The Peculiar Life of a Lonely Postman by Denis Therialt. 

 


3. What book have you gifted the most?

As Will from the original Vintage Books video said, I don't think there's one book that I tend to give as a gift. It very much differs from person to person. In my family we tend to put book wishlist on Amazon so that we get the ones that we're really after, so it really depends. Saying that, I've had some great ones bought for me which weren't on there. (Side note: I still haven't quite gotten used to this whole 'using the word 'gifted' as a verb' thing!). 

4. What’s your favourite independent bookshop?

I'm going to cheat and pick two...

The first is the Minster Gate Bookshop in York. It's all about the setting for me; picture an old creaky building living in the shadow of York Minster with stairs that somehow keep producing rooms upon rooms of books. This bookshop is a wonderful escape from the busy streets of York. They sell new and old books on everything and even prints, pictures and old maps. 

The second is Shakespeare and Company in Paris. I first visited here on a school art trip to Paris years ago and fell a little bit in love. Every square inch of this place has a book crammed into it, I'd never seen anything quite like it! It feels like a little, intimate den of possibilities. With a piano on the second floor, the occasional Parisian (or tourist) will play to you while you float through the shop with delight. When I saw this shop in the film Before Sunset, I was so excited! Ask for any books that you buy to be stamped whilst you're at the till. It's just what you have to do! 

Shakespeare and Company featured in Before Sunset

Yep, I got mine stamped!

5. What’s been your favourite book recommended by a bookseller (or fellow Booktuber)?

I had to think about this one for a minute, but I think my favourite book recommended by a Booktuber was Caitlin Moran's How to be a Woman, recommended by Just Kiss My Frog. The way Leena talks so passionately about all the books she's read just makes me want to rush out and buy every single one. I have chosen this one because for me, it was a gateway drug to everything else Caitlin Moran ever wrote. Upon finishing this book I went into a sort of mad frenzy. I was addicted; watching every interview on YouTube, reading every column in The Times and buying everything she had previously and subsequently written. Thanks Leena, thanks Caitlin Moran, I can now say with confidence that I am a feminist!

6. What’s your favourite bookshop memory?

Meeting the YA Book Prize winners in 2015 at Foyles bookshop in Charing Cross. This was one of the events I attended when I worked in publicity, and I was so lucky to spend the evening with some wonderful and insightful authors including Louise O'Neill and Sally Green! I met some fabulous people that evening, some of whom I am still in touch with now. I even wrote a blog post about it, which is available here. 

YA Bookprize Shortlistees

7. What do bookshops mean to you? What do you love about them?

Bookshops are a place for wonder and discovery. I love meandering around the tables at the front of Waterstones, looking at all the books that I've caught discussions on or seen in the Bookseller list. This excitement was heightened when I used to work in publicity and a number of them were ones I was working on! I love gazing in awe at the beautiful cloth-bound Penguin Classics. I love letting my eyes be drawn in by interesting covers (everyone knows that books really are judged by their cover, at least initially!). I love the feeling that you might find something that can speak to you in a way that nothing ever has before.  

8. What are the books that made you? Which books have most affected or influenced you?

I know I just talked about this one but I've been thinking long and hard and I have to choose How to be a Woman by Caitlin Moran. She has single-handedly identified everything that is unfair/unequal/annoying about being a woman today and even laid it out very kindly in handy chapters! 

9. What book do you recommend readers gift for Father’s Day?

If I knew the answer to this, I'd be a very happy lady!

10. What book is currently at the top of your TBR pile?

Brooklyn, by Colm Toibin.