I’m a bit late to July but I get there eventually. So, how is reading developing for you under this strange in-between time from lockdown into that already hackneyed phrase ‘new normal’? I felt like June’s reading was nearly back to normal, but looking at the list, it wasn’t really. But I tell you what does work if you’re still struggling with reading – rereading! Yes, two books this month have been old favourites and they did give me a boost. I have also resurrected this year’s ambition to read those books that have been sitting for years on my shelves and cleared not one but three this month. So not bad going really.
Leo Days – Patricia Wendorf
This is a re-read and, I think, well out of print. My copy is a battered second hand book and I know nothing of the author but the book is a slim account of Ruth , one of those well meaning liberal types who volunteer somewhere to help the less fortunate because she can afford to. And then her husband leaves her, having had an affair with her sister, embezzled all the money from her father’s business and naffed off to avoid the consequences. So she has to move down to the part of town where she’s been volunteering and discovers what it’s like to live with the hoi polloi. It is naive and dated in some things, but I am still rather fond of it and it has some relevant insight into how we treat others that is timeless.
Everything Under – Daisy Johnson
A ‘did not finish’ I’m afraid, despite the rave reviews. It was alright, the writing was good but I just didn’t really get on with it. I did wonder if it was part of the continual lockdown reading issue and in another time I might like it. I don’t know.
Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
Here’s my other re-read of the month. And what can we say about it that hasn’t already been said? Nothing, but it was an enormous comfort to me. Such dialogue! Such wit! Such cads in uniform and bitchy Bingley sisters and ghastly clergymen and their snotty patrons and silly younger sisters!
Half of a Yellow Sun – Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche
This has sat on the shelf for a few years and I thought it was time to get it down. It’s a cracking book, really assured deft storytelling and covering such a range of emotion. Set in Nigeria just before, during and after the Biafran War, we follow the fortunes of two sisters, their partners and friends, and their servants through the bid for independence and the shocking war and suffering that followed. Like many I suspect, I knew nothing of this part of history and Adiche really makes it leap off the page. Recommended.
The Goldfinch – Donna Tartt
Another book that has been taking up space on the shelves for a while. At 800+ pages, it is a monster. And having finished it, I’m still unsure about it. The early section in New York is very good. And then it wanders to Las Vegas and got less interesting before returning to New York and a strange ending. I don’t know. The first few pages are well written but ambling, then it really takes off and then she ambles again. I really feel like her editors should be firmer. And yet, actually the plot was the least interesting thing about it so do we want it firmed up?
Someone at a Distance – Dorothy Whipple
Having enjoyed the last Whipple so much (last month) I leapt straight into another and found it less enjoyable. It’s the story of a nasty grasping French girl who becomes a companion to an old English woman, to avoid watching her old lover get married to someone else, wins the old lady’s affection, an inheritance, and then sets out to seduce the old lady’s son, a previously happily married man. So a family is broken up and everyone is just quite tedious and dull about it. It is well done, the writing is sharp and Whipple is scathing about most of the characters but I just didn’t sympathise with any of them.
Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race – Reni Eddo Lodge
The last book that has sat on the shelves for a while, the rise of the BLM movement prompted me to read this. It’s surprisingly easy to read, and I raced through it, and it’s also thought provoking. Lodge’s style of ‘personal experience leading to social history’ is a modern one and allows the reader to also reflect how they may have added to a situation or how they could react in the future. It also makes the book accessible and it’s understandable that there is currently a campaign to get it introduced in schools. My A level sociology course could have done with this kind of thing.
Susan E Barsby 