Ghostwritten

Whoa! What a totally mental freaky book.  This is Mitchell's first novel published in 1999 and it's been on my shelf for over 10 years. Finally I got around to reading it and what a mad delight! It's taken me ages due to it being quite a dense read which needed lots of concentration and also because I have been spending more of my free time watching TV lately, as there has been such great stuff on the box!

  This author has a huge imagination and a brilliant grasp of different writing styles used in the different chapters in this book.   Each of these nine chapters were supposedly snapshots of random lives of different people around the planet but ultimately they all had little parts of their lives which interlinked or morphed into each other.  I loved these stories just as separate tales.  Especially the story about the  20 th century history of China as seen through the eyes of a woman tea seller and the disembodied soul of a Mongolian boy who jumps around from person to person like a virus trying to find a new host to exist in. 

Every story has a link to ghost or spirit of some description and characters randomly affect each other's stories. I think this is to highlight the random chances and happenings which occur in all of our lives. This book was so clever and even more relevant today, 16 years later, in a world of global terror. Mitchell uses the first Iraq war and the sarin gas attacks on the Tokyo subway as his reference points.  What would he use today?!  This book was even pre 9/11...weird. 

Ultimately though this book was fantastic linguistically and Mitchell's dialogue could be extremely witty edgy and thought provoking but by the end I was just thinking WTF?  This book in my opinion ended up trying to be so clever that it kind of failed to come to a satisfactory ending.  i just didn't really get it and I think I need to read it again even slower.  There is no real fun in reading a book that you suddenly realise is totally above your understanding. But, hey maybe Mitchell is having the last laugh, this book was awesome to read and that's all that matters.  This book can be whatever you want it to be!  For me the language, different dialogues and stories were fantastic and ultimately that is all that counts. I think it was all about how spirits and ghosts are around us and within us all the time and how these 'spirits' manifest is as varied and random as life itself. I didn't find this idea crazy or wacky at all, instead I kind of found it weirdly comforting.  If you want a great read,which by the end will leave you both entertained and infuriated, I highly recommend this book! 

Time to go I must catch the last episode of Fargo! 

A Brief History of Seven Killings

Wow. I have finished it! what a book. I'm both annoyed by it, in love with bits of it and frustrated by the last 350 pages of it.  To be honest if it was half the length I think it would have been a much, much better book.  

The first half was brilliant with the immersion into Jamaican gang violence, drug culture and ghetto lifestyle in the 70s. Even the Jamaican patois didn't give me no bombocloth r'asscloth fuckery.  (Translation: it was fine!) getting into the lifestyle, politics, grimness and culture of Kingston  just as Bob Marley was becoming a world music icon was just brilliant.   I loved the characters, the language and the brilliant sense of time and place. The  political angle with the CIA getting involved with Jamaican politics just to stop the Cubans getting a foothold in the country was cool too. ( something I knew nothing about. ) 

Marlon James can write, that is not under question. Every chapter was the voice of a different character and each character ( if they survived ) grew and changed over the 13 years of the book's narrative.  But every character was unremittingly grim and after the attempted assassination of Bob Marley in 1979, there ceased to be any more  plot. Everything just turned into 'scenes' and grabbed dialogue.  It was all a bit empty for me and has left me cold. No one, absolutely no one was redeemable.  But James did  write absolutely fantastic streams of consciousness when people were dying or shooting up places. The emptiness of their consciousnesses was just harrowing and bloody amazing to read. 

 This is not a book for the faint hearted, or anyone who wants characters to feel any redemption.  This book is hard and brutal in the hardest and most brutal terms. The only joy really was a short chapter in the middle where one of the gang leaders, because he has moved to New York to expand his crack cocaine business, finally comes to terms with himself being gay and what that actually means for him in his role as head of the gang. ( He's still hard as fuck. He just likes himself a  little bit more!) 

This book is grim with no let up and the second half reads like a shaggy dog story that just got on my nerves. But the first half, before Bob Marley dies of cancer ( after the attempted murder.)  is brilliant and it annoys me that the book lost direction for me after that. Too clever for its own sake I think and far too depressing and unremittingly bleak for me. Oh well, at least  I can attempt to swear like a Jamaican now if I want to.

Chaos Walking Trilogy

Phew that was a bit of a marathon! A whole series of Young Adut Fiction read and totally enjoyed. I just loved this series, especially the first book. Oh my god, the first book was brilliant and when I finished it I was in such a panic to get my hands on the second one I phoned up the Bicester library, found out they had it and ran down at 6.55pm just before it closed.( none of the shops here had a copy to buy!) 

Patrick Ness has created a great story here, all set on another planet where exiled humans turn up in their spaceships. They are creating a new world and as expected things go wrong, very wrong.  On this planet the indigenous creatures are obviously strange and need to be killed or tamed and men also have the added burden of all of their thoughts being instantly transmitted in NOISE to every single person. Every thought and hidden feeling is instantly heard or seen by everyone.  oF course  this sends the men a bit mad and it's a bit of a burden having to hear and see the inner thoughts of everyone. There is just no secrecy and most men are just thinking lots of annoying nonsense anyway! The worst thing is that women don't transmit this noise and their thoughts remain private.  This obvious unexpected difference creates  problems and war as communities fight over the kind of world they want to live in.

Phew, it all sounds pretty heavy and to be honest lots of the ideas are, but they are cleverly told through the adventures of Todd, Viola and Manchee their dog as they travel away from Prentistown, a town with no women or children.( all the women mysteriously died) to find a better life. Todd is the youngest boy in the town and when he turns 14 he will find out the secrets of this  woman free town and his father wants him to escape to find a better life. Todd has to run away quickly with just his mother's diary ( which he can't read because education is banned in this town) without any knowledge because if he had any knowledge of anything the elders would be able to read what he was thinking in his NOISE and stop him.

Anyway, then the story really kicks in. We meet men who can control their noise, learn about the terrorists who are fighting for freedom, witness a genocide of the local species, see how Todd succumbs to the power of leadership, see bravery when we least expect it. Witness mass branding of the women, see how fighting is a never ending display of bravado at the expense of the powerless, how to control feelings of revenge, the power of negotiation, how easily young people can be radicalised by their elders, how to deal with refugees and the innocent displaced masses and a great adventure story as Todd and Viola travel across this land trying to find peace. 

Yes, it all sound really worthy but it isn't. The inner life of the young are really well  described here and it's all very exciting but the adult characters are a bit one dimensional...but hey, this isn't surpring this book is for teenagers but I just wanted more depth to the adult characters as well! 

The third book did get a bit preachy and boring for me...I had gone off the boil after the excitement of the first two but worth the read. Especially reading how easily vulnerable children can get brainwashed. A great read for anyone over 12 I reckon....actually maybe older because many parts  of this book did give me graphic nightmares!

The Horse Boy.

This book fascinated and annoyed me in equal measure. Rowan is a six year old, highly autistic lad who can't connect with any children, can only babble like a baby and can't control his rages or his bowels. One thing Rowan can do though is connect with horses, and Betsy, who lives in the field behind their house, is Rowan's best friend. Rupert,the Dad is an experienced horse rider and he comes up with a plan to take Rowan into Mongolia to ride with the horses there and meet the shamans. Rupert is disallusioned with western approaches to autism so decides to put his trust into the Mongolian outback, Mongolian horses and the shamens there. 

The story of Rupert, his wife and Rowan's adventures across the Mongolian plains are well told but I always had a strong feeling of scepticism in the back of my mind.  Rupert was already a travel writer and had organised rights for this book he was going to write and they were also travelling with a film crew as he had sold the rights of a documentary for nearly 200,000 pounds before they even left for Asia. They also had to pay the reindeer shamans 500 US dollars before they would even see Rowan. Rupert's worries about his son are well told, heartbreaking and honest but ultimately I had the feeling that Rupert was basically writing about himself and how Rowan affected him. Do not expect a self help book about how to deal with autism. Honestly there is no guidance, all Rupert does is slag off the approaches of the West. 

 The  hardships of his wife ( who was never that keen to go to Mongolia in the first place) are barely mentioned. She just seemed to quietly and diligently follow behind saying jack shit.  When one of the shamens said that Rowan's problems were because of his wife's 'black waters ' in her womb and also because of a mad deranged Aunty on the mother's side of the family having 'control' over Rowan I almost spit out my beer!  His poor wife was ordered down to the river to wash out her black waters in her birth canal whilst the bloody TV crew filmed it.  More fool her is all I can say!!!  

Anyway, suffice to say Rowan came back after 3 months toilet trained. To be honest I think it was a bloody long way to take a kid to get them toilet trained...but hey good memories for them all! A holiday of a life time.  The one thing I do truely believe in though is the power of animals to sooth and help children. ( all children).  In my world though I think a dog or a hamster might do the job just as well! Ultimately though the author is a man who I found incredibly irritating yet fascinating. A hippy with a strong love for fox hunting. A devoted husband who barely seemed to acknowledge his wife's existence. (Even the cover blurb of the book annoyed me. It wasn't just him who was trying to cure his son. His wife was also there too. )  He was a devoted father who was always analysing how his son's extreme autism affected himself and a qualified travel writer who organised a way to use his son to further expand his travel writing profile. A strange reading experience for me!  But hey, he did write about Mongolia really well! 

The Leopard

My god, I'm on a Harry Hole binge! I don't know what it is but I love curling up in my bed all alone in my house  and reading about my hero, Harry Hole and his amazing fight against Norway's sadistic serial killers.  Along the way I enjoyed learning about a torture device, which astounded me in its creativity and foulness.   ( I have since found out that this supremely awful torture  device was totally created in the mind of Jo Nesbo, respect to you and your over imaginative sense of depravity. You sick man.) 

This book is just 007 on speed,( well actually, heroin and Jim Beam. ) Suspend your disbelief and enjoy the ride. This is the best way to deal with traffic problems on the A34 ( as well as under the covers at midnight.) total immersion into the dark side of life amongst the druggies of Hong Kong, via the depavity of the Congo and the worst sick psychos of Norway.  I loved how the snow and avalanches of Northern Europe could be utilised so well for depositing bodies along with the bubbling volcanos of Goma, in the Congo. Honestly, budding psycho killers of Bicester have no chance to deposit bodies so well. 

 ( Maybe Ardley tip...) 

Harry I love you and your 'armoured heart' ,the best sentence in the book contains  the original Norwegian title. 

This read is so cinematic, but never, never, never, will it be filmed as well or as enjoyably as what I gained from reading this over the past week and a half. Pure mad exhilaration. 

To Kill A Mockingbird

I first bought this when I was 16 and I suddenly realised I should read it properly.  I still have my old copy so just pulled it off my shelf and started.  To be honest I haven't got many memories of reading this.  I really don't think I ever managed to read it all!  ( I think the boring cover and small print affected my judgement and I found the opening Boo Radley storyline a bit hard going.)  But reading it again this week it has blown me away. What a fantastic book. I have been in tears every day on the bus this week because of the beautiful, honest writing and the clarity of the story. ( at least my unpopular train replacement bus is fairly empty so no one has seen what a state I have got myself into!) 

Harper Lee's winning formula is writing this from the perspective of a young girl who has lots of spirit, bravado and love of live.  The  characters who live in Maycomb, Alabama in 1935 are so well described by Scout I could almost smell them. All types of people are described: white trash, the desperately poor, snobs, gossips, mentally ill people, drug addicts, liars, violent drunks, lonely people, the honest and the brave and then there is the disenfranchised black community( who live in a tight community behind the rubbish dump.) A group of people in which the majority can't read. A group of people who are almost universally looked down upon and feared by their white neighbours.

 Cleverly nobody is judged in this book because as Harper Lee says the only way you understand people is by trying to 'stand in their shoes'. 

Atticus Finch's defence of Tom Robinson , a young black guy who is accused of raping a 19 year old white girl ,is the main focus of the central part of this book but to me this was just one section of amazing insights into the hypocrisy and petty minded fears of humans. The court room scene is electrifying and it is so obvious that everyone knows that Tom Robinson is innocent but as he is black he just has to be found guilty. Atticus having to deal with the strong belief that he will fight for Tom even though he knows it will be a lost cause is so sad, yet also so empowering , because in the end the town's conscience is put into the spot light  and everyone knows they have all been judged and all found guilty. 

Having the story told from the perspective of a funny, lively tomboy keeps this book fresh. It's funny and totally free of sentimentality. Scout sees things as they are and tells things as they are. Atticus is just so lovely to his kids too. What a super star of a dad! 

  The attack at the end is particularly grim yet also uplifting. All I can say is thank god Scout was wearing a Halloween costume, a piece of reinforced metal bacon, which managed to protect her! Later Scout said she was never afraid while it was happening and that it is only in books and in our imaginations where really scary things happen.  A great example of what Maycomb County had just been told, that it had nothing to fear but fear itself.

I sure am not going to wait 28 years before I read this again! Question is will I go and buy Go Set a Watchman now? Ummm.

The Miniaturist

I have devoured this book in less than 5 days and the sense of place and atmosphere of a freezing cold Amsterdam in the 17th century was excellent and I was totally enthralled at first, but ultimately this huge best seller left me rather cold too.  I felt really disappointed at the end. So many plot lines were just left dangling or just fizzled out. It's that same feeling of :

"ehh?!!  I didn't get that."   which I haven't felt so strongly since I read The Time Travellers Wife. ( another over hyped book!) 

The atmosphere and beautiful writing were great and I was totally sucked in but there were far too many holes in the plot, whole chunks left unexplained, 'big' reveals which were totally obvious and just as things were getting interesting the book ended!

 I think the writer was just trying to pack far too much modern stuff into a 17th century back drop. Ideas about gender, race, homophobia, greed, corruption, bigotry, along with food and religion were all packed in and  the 18 year old main character seemed to take it all in her stride. The title is misleading too, the bloody miniaturist just fizzled away. The main plot device which made me read this book at speed was a damp squib! I didn't get it. Maybe I just wanted a rational explanation at the end but this book just petered out. Oh well, Jessie Burton seems to have done lots of research and she creates a great atmosphere but this book was no way as satisfying at the end as I wanted it to be. This book ended up being more like a painting to me, rather flat!