Maggie O'Farrell

It was a fascinating hour, I have to say.  Ms O'Farrell is very entertaining and talked openly about the process of writing and, in particular, how museums influence her work, in terms of creating character, plot and historical details.  She is obviously passionate about Edinburgh and her work, and talked about how difficult it can be when she finishes writing a novel and has to "say goodbye" to it.

I think that O'Farrell's latest novel, The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox is just brilliant, and a lot of the hour was taken up with her talking about it, in terms of the background research, and sharing extremely harrowing stories about people in similar situations to Esme (the character of Esme is locked up in a lunatic asylum as a teenager and does not emerge until she is in her seventies). 

There was one story she told that particularly got to me.  O'Farrell was pregnant around 4-5 years ago, and - as part of her the research for her novel - was regularly visiting elderly women who were living in these kinds of "institutions", after being locked up in theie early adulthood (for what would now be deemed "typical" behaviour).  O'Farrell had her child and was obviously very busy, so hadn't been back to see the ladies for a few months.  When she went back, they were asking where she'd been, as they hadn't seen her for so long.  She said "Well, I've had a baby!" and the first thing they asked her, excitedly, was "Did they let you keep it?"  

Billy Tyler is a PC who is given the assignment to spend the night guarding the body of an infamous child murderer, as it lies in a hospital's morgue, before the funeral.  You'll probably recognise the child murderer in question, from the picture on the front of the novel, although Thomson never actually uses her name - she is only ever referred to as "the woman". 

The novel is only partly about the case of the Moors Murderers - Myra Hindley and Ian Brady - and much more about Billy's own life, as he struggles with an unfulfilling marriage and a disabled daughter, as well as aspects of his past that he has failed to confront before.  It seems that spending the night in a morgue with the dead body of who he - and everyone around him - considers to be a woman of "pure evil", leads him to reflecting on his own life - the mistakes, the achievements, the regrets and his hopes and fears.

It certainly is a very intriguing premise for a novel and it definitely gives the reader chills.  There's a lot of shocking and thought provoking content, and I did find Billy a well rounded character who I sympathised with.  However, ultimately, I felt that there was something missing in the novel - I kept waiting for some amazing revelation which didn't really come.  Although I can see what Thomson was trying to do - showing how a person can come to reassess their own life when put in an unexpected and very difficult situation. 

The subject of the novel is obviously very controversial - as is pointed out throughout the novel, Hindley is considered one of the most hated figures in the UK, with those old enough to remember her trial focusing on her lack of remorse and brutality of the crimes she participated in.  Thomson has been brave in using her and the nation's attitude towards her as the backbone of this novel.  

Although I thought it was lacking something overall, I would still recommend this novel.  It's worth reading simply because it is so interesting as an idea.

I'd previously read O'Farrell's After You'd Gone and The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox - review here - both of which I thought were fantastic.  So I'm now catching up with her other novels.

This is a book with a number of sub plots which come together in an interesting - albeit slightly predictable - way.  Jake is a man living in Hong Kong, caught up in a horrific tragic event during Chinese New Year.  This leads him into doing something he has very little choice in (I don't want to give this bit away, but I thought this was a really interesting part of the book - would evoke wide discussion about whether he had any choice...)  His actions lead him back to the UK, under sufferance, and there he escapes to the Scottish countryside, where he meets Stella, whose story is unfolding alongside his own.  Stella has a close (and rather disfunctional) relationship with her sister Nina, and when she receives a shock in the street in London, where she lives and works, she too escapes back to Scotland.  

The novel deals with a family saga, through Stella and Nina, as well as outlining a subtle, yet intense love story.  Maggie O'Farrell seems to enjoy examining the idea of secrets of the past coming to meet you in the present, keeping the reader guessing what the full story is right to the end of the book.

A good read - real page turner.

The Book of Dave - by Will Self

A really clever book, but soooo difficult to read!  I persevered though and it was worth it.  In a nutshell, it's based around the idea that a cabbie wrote a book about how you should live life and many hundreds of years later it is discovered and a society lives by it.  Some really funny bits and extremely clever as I say - but you can't help thinking that Will Self is just going "Look at how very clever I am!"

Kafka on the Shore - by Haruki Murakami 

This is a flipping MASTERPIECE of a book, but it's way to difficult to explain why.  It involves a forgotten library, murders, fish raining from the sky, a different universe, love, freindship - all extremely weird, but it's an astonishingly brilliant book.  Not that I knew what it meant - at all... Trust me - just read it.

Travels in the Scriptorium - by Paul Auster

Another triumph from one of my favourite authors.  This is him at his weird best.  It's a novella that features Mr Blank - who has no idea where he is or why  he's there.  If you know Auster's work you'll recognise some names; if you don't you won't but it's still great - if you're happy with a puzzle! 

Fingersmith - by Sarah Waters

A fantastic read!  Written in the style of a victorian novel, but much more accessible, and a real page turner.  It's set in the mid 1800s and involves a young girl posing as a maid for a rich heiress in order to help a nasty scoundrel steal her fortune.  It's full of twists and turns and surprises - and I can't say too much else without giving it away.  But I'd really recommend it - brilliantly written - touching, funny, exciting and shocking.

And in between times, I have still found time to read Heat on a weekly (or should that be weakly?) basis. 

It is, without doubt, one of the worst books I have ever had the misfortune to pick up. 

Mr Albom has made a LOT of money from this book and his other one Tuesdays With Morrie.  Now, I can't comment on the latter book, but as for The Five People You Meet In Heaven, I am thoroughly depressed that such a poor book can make someone a millionaire (probably). 

The idea behind it is this: a man dies in a (weird) accident when he's 80 and he goes to Heaven and meets 5 people who tell him what an impact he's had on the world.  A really good idea, I reckon - and in the hands of an author like the fabulous Paul Auster, it could have been amazing.  Sadly, the book reads like something the pupils in the 4th year Standard Grade English class I used to teach could have come up with: actually, no - that's an insult to them.

Are you getting the idea that I didn't like this book?

The comments on the book's cover include:

"This book is a gift to the soul" (Amy Tam)

Ms Tam - if this is a gift to your soul, I PITY you!  (And the other people who rave about this book on Amazon).  It's poorly written, full of shmaltzy (sp.) philosphical garbage and ridiculous metaphors that make you want to throw the book at people - even if you don't know them.

I want to start a war against this kind of nonsense: books that claim to be "deep" and "touching" but that are actually poorly written and ripping off the reader.

And.......................... relax. 

PS:  Edit - have just realised this guy's new book is called For One More Day.  Excuse me while I go and vomit...

I have to say, I'm glad I did read it.  I thought it was brilliant.  Funnily enough, it really split my book group, with some people really not enjoying it and others agreeing with me that it was an amazing achievement.  

It's written from the point of view of a mother, Eva, writing letters to her ex-husband, Franklin, telling the story of their son, Kevin.  You find out early on (so I'm not giving anything away!) that Kevin is in prison for killing 9 people at his school, and he shows no remorse whatsoever.  The book takes you through Eva's pregnancy, Kevin's infancy and childhood and basically how Kevin has always been what may be descried as an "evil" child.  Although it is a very emotional novel, there are also some real aspects of mystery / thriller about it - and Shriver provides the reader with plenty of twists, even right to the end.

The thing I found most effective about the book was the questions it raised.  Shriver bombards the reader with things to think about, the most significant aspect of which to me was the whole question: what if a mother doesn't bond with her child?  This is still quite a taboo subject, even in the world of fiction: mothers are just expected to automatically bond with their new borns, and are they seen as failures if they don't?  There's also the whole question of blame: is Eva to blame for the way Kevin turns out?  Shriver picks up on the idea that when a tragedy such as a school shooting takes place, people need to focus their grief on someone to blame.  But, maybe, there is noone to blame sometimes, and maybe some people are just "evil".  These are all things left to the reader to consider and make their mind up on.

It's quite a dense novel, and it did take me a while to get into it, but I'm so glad I persevered.  Shriver's style is quite "over written" - masses of detail, which may put some people off, although I think when you get used to her writing style, it's very accessible.

I'd really recommend this book.  I found it gripping as well as extremely thought provoking.  And just convinced me even more that I never want to be a mother!

Anyway, a good while back, I recommended Rankin to my sis, and she is now a fan too.  But a few weeks ago, she recommended another writer to me that she had discovered: Stuart MacBride.

Now, the easiest (and probably most insulting to him, I expect) is to call him the "Aberdonian Rankin".  But that is actually quite accurate, although the styles of the writers do vary considerably.  He has written three books so far, all featuring DS Logan McRae, who is a detective on the streets of Aberdeen.  I read the first Cold Granite while on holiday and it was brilliant.  Really, really great stuff.

McRae is obviously a passionate police officer, who has had loads of run ins with the under class in the past.  He's formed many relationships - some positive, some negative - with his colleagues and other people he comes across in his everyday dealings, and MacBride deals with theses in a very entertaining way.

Cold Granite follows McRae on his first case back on the job after being injured in a brutal stabbing, for which he achieved reluctant "hero" status, and the nickname "Lazarus" (which he hates).  It is a very violent and shocking case (involving a serial child murderer), and MacBride's descriptions are not for the faint hearted by any means, although they're not gory for the sake of it either.

What I really liked about MacBride's writing is his humour.  There are lots of unexpected - even laugh out loud - wee pictures painted for the reader, involving the setting, the characters and the emotions displayed.  His characterisation is probably what I'd say is his main strength as a writer: all of the characters - the incidental ones as well as the main players - are really entertainingly created for the reader.  From the sweetie addict DI Insch, to the "Ice Queen" Isobel, pathologist and ex-girlfriend of Logan, to the brilliant rude, sweaty, chain smoking, foul mouthed womaniser lesbian DI Steel, all of MacBride's characters are brilliantly well rounded, something which (in terms of the minor characters, anyway) I think he has the edge on Rankin, just.  Although, I'd say Rankin's storytelling and prose is more subtle and intriguing.

If you like crime novels, and especially if you are a Rankin fan, I'd heartily recommend  Cold Granite.  I'm now in the middle of MacBride's second novel, Dying Light, which is shaping up very nicely so far.

This is all about a young woman (Iris) who finds out she has a long lost great aunt (Esme), who was institutionalised when she was 16 in an Edinburgh asylum.  The asylum is closing and as she is next of kin, the authorities approach her to care for Esme.  As you read on, you find more and more out about Esme. and why she was institutionalised, and what secrets are in the family.  It gets the reader to think about the fact that young girls were deemed "mad" not even that long ago in our history, if they just stood up for themselves, or were a bit out of the "norm".  It delves into the nature of family relationships, including the interesting relationship Iris has with her step brother, and the flashbacks into Esme's life with her family as a child.

I thought this was a pretty brilliant book.  O'Farrell's characterisation is excellent, and aspects of the story are heartbreaking, and shocking.  My only complaint is that it was too short!  I could've kept reading about Esme, Iris and their family for a lot longer. 

Thoroughly recommended.

The book flashes back to reveal Mack's calvanistic childhood, his wild days at University, his lack of faith or not, the people of a zipped up, tightknit, flawed and prurient community - just like the one's we know well.  The story sounds a bit thin but that is just the frame on which everything wonderful hangs. It is a slim book but packed and written beautifully with sliding simplicity, excellent characterisation, great pacing and strength.  The reader is compassionately involved in his descriptions of his life and turbulence and, like all great books, there's the puzzles: both profound and mundane:

Mad or Sane, Faithful or Faithless, Truth or Fantasy, Good Folk or Bastards; Religious or evily righteous, Morality or Blasphemy, Mortality or Immortality, Soul or Limbo, Supernature or Nature, God or Devil, Love or Lies, Heart or Heartless, Weak or Strong, Mamon or Charity.

It's a great romp: a page turner. And it's witty, creepy, weepy, wretched, loving and lost.  This is a really excellent book written by a great writer and it's so accessible, it would make you "greet". A little peel at the edges and just layer upon layer falls out. Even the ending where the locals are interviewed makes you question what was written and what you thought about it.

They should be teaching this in schools. Irvine Welsh thought it demanded another read - and I agree. Oh, and James Robertson - already won two of Scotland's literary awards for his previous books.  He deserves them.

http://www.scotgeog.com/ 

At the end of the book - I've skipped ahead to see if anything useful happens: Dorothy's Kansas Farmhouse lands on Nessarose, the Wicked Witch's sister who has been stirring up the Munchkinlanders against the Wizard;  Glinda's award of the ruby slippers to Dorothy is a "subtle ploy to destabilise the Munchkinlanders and strengthen the Wizard" [according to one review: like how?!]; the Wicked Witch should have got those slippers because her father had given them to Nessarose when she was younger;  Nessarose was paralysed and couldn't move [really unfair that farmhouse accident then]; the Wicked Witch saved a speaking lion cub being experimented on...that was the cowardly lion; the tin man was a victim of domestic violence...erk erk erk.  Get a Grip. And the writing, plotting and characterisation is plodding.

Pity the Munchkinlanders seemed relatively pleased that the Wicked Witch of the East was dead in the original. I wonder if I can spell up a book burning. 

Now back to Enid Blyton's Famous Five:  George is a tomboy cos she's jolly tomboyish; Timmy is the dog who goes woof;  Julian is in charge cos he's the oldest and jolly clever.  Aha, there's where this style came from.