Hello! You’d think with the chilly wet weather, it would have been a good reading month but I found it hard to get going this month, only really picking up momentum near the end.
Passing – Nella Larsen
This is a slim book, packed with interesting insight. Larsen wrote only two books in her life but is seen as a key player in the Harlem Renaissance and Passing has also recently been made into a film, which I would be interested to see. The plot is as follows: Black wife and mother Irene runs into an old schoolfriend Clare on a visit to Chicago. Clare is beautiful, captivating and ‘passing’ as a white woman, married to an appallingly racist man, Jack, whose attitude both scares and angers Irene. On returning home, she vows not to see the couple again but Clare is keen to resume the friendship and visits them or attends social occasions when she can. Irene is, it turns out, also very insecure in her marriage as her husband Brian has a desire to live and work in Brazil and Irene doesn’t want to uproot her life for this uncertainty. Essentially, the books explores the consequences of Clare’s wish to be more connected with her roots while simultaneously denying them in her personal life. For its brevity, I thought about the impact of this book for a long time after finishing reading it.
Sweet Mercies – Anne Booth
This is the sequel to Booth’s debut novel, Small Miracles, featuring the Sisters of Saint Philomena and it’s not published until October. This second book is perhaps not as charming as the original, I think as the novelty value has waned a little and it’s a bit contrived in places, but covers similar themes of fortitude and resourcefulness with a big dash of prayer – more than someone like me is used to. There are some darker parts to the storyline and the difficult legacy of the Catholic church goes on. But the nuns and their growing band of friends are charming and sweet and I haven’t got it in my heart to dislike these books at all. When it comes down to it, we all need a dash of fortitude and thankfulness for small, sweet mercies, and for someone in our lives to bake as well as Sr Bridget.
Her Majesty’s Royal Coven – Juno Dawson
I wanted to like this, I really did. It’s based around the idea that a coven of witches exist as a government department, and have done since the days of Anne Boleyn. Set in modern times, the coven is reeling from huge internal wranglings and a group of witches who have been childhood friends have to work out a load of threats and the like. I thought this sounded great. Sadly, it just didn’t work for me, for two reasons. Firstly, Dawson uses the book as a political allegory for the current arguments and discrimination over trans people, especially in the UK. I have nothing but support for the trans community but the writing here was so heavy handed I felt like I was being bludgeoned by the book. The second issue was also about the writing style – there were so many pop culture references, it was almost unreadable. It wasn’t a case of not recognising the references – most of them were about the Spice Girls – it was just so frequent. Between being hit over the head with the politics on one side and Posh Spice on the other side, this was really not my kind of writing style at all.
Kezia and Rosie – Rebecca Burns
What a slim volume of good things this is. Billed as a series of linked short stories, I felt this was more like a novella told in complete chapters, each chapter covering a single incident. Kezia, 8 and Rosie, 5, are sent to spend the summer with their grandparents because their mother has had to go away. The reason for this is not made immediately clear but we can tell there are secrets in the house. The stories are told in the third person but from Kezia’s point of view, as she starts to gain an understanding of recent events that have left them with their grandparents. It’s very well told, not a wasted word, and provides a child’s perspective without being annoying or twee. Published by indie publisher Dahlia Books, I thought this was an excellent coming of age story that covers themes of family, loss, sisters and love.
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead – Olga Tokarczuk
This was the reading group choice for July (though events meant we were unable to meet this month), was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize and Tokarczuk won the Nobel Prize for Literature just after it was published. It’s a darkly comic tale with echoes both of Crime and Punishment and (spoiler alert) the John Wick movies. The story is narrated by Janina Duszejko, who lives in a remote area of Poland near the Czech border. It’s harsh, ex-mining country, often cut off in winter, and there is a small community there. Duszejko nicknames them rather than use their names. When her neighbour Big Foot is found dead, it is the first in a series of unexplained deaths and so begins a story examining who among us is ‘allowed’ to take lives and for what purpose. I guessed the end, I think perhaps you’re supposed to, but aside from some flowery passages about astrology, this was a darkly funny read.
Tom Lake – Ann Patchett
This is published on 1 August and I will review it in full here. But in short, I really enjoyed it.
The Lion Is In – Delia Ephron
Having read a couple of Ephron’s non-fiction, I was keen to see what else she’d written. This is a quirky tale of unlikely friendship, past mistakes and redemption. With a lion too. Lana and Tracee are on the run – Tracee in a wedding dress – when Lana’s car breaks down. The two of them meet up with Rita who, it turns out, is also on the run. When the car crashes and needs extensive repairs, the three of them break into what they think is an abandoned bar for shelter, only to find a lion called Marcel lives there (in a cage.) The bar – also called The Lion – is a ramshackle mess but the women work there to earn the money to repair the car and be on their way. But, as these things go, they form friendships and try to face up to their problems. And Rita becomes friends with Marcel. It’s a fun read, not challenging at all, but different enough to be engaging and with the Ephron hallmarks of female friendship, sparky dialogue and deft writing.
Days at the Morisaki Bookshop – Satoshi Yagasawa
I’ve been enjoying the sweet natured quirkiness of Japanese books as they’ve been popping up recently and as this was set in a bookshop, I couldn’t resist. Also the cover is lovely. The story is about Takako, who has been in a doomed love affair with a git of a bloke at her workplace, and when it ends, she takes herself off from her job to hide at her uncle’s second hand bookshop in an eclectic area of Tokyo. There, she wallows in misery for a bit before discovering that books are ace and she begins to read and interact with the customers and her uncle. This is the first half. The second half concerns her uncle’s wife, who has left him but who suddenly returns out of the blue. But why? Takako is tasked with finding out. Some of the Japanese books I’ve read and enjoyed recently have covered quite serious and sad subjects but in this sweet way – this book isn’t as sad and is therefore less affecting. But it’s still a lovely read.
Moments of Pleasure
It’s been a packed month for extra events, as well as being my daughter’s last term at primary school so emotional and busy. I’d like to thank all the deities for the following:
- Bruce Springsteen in Hyde Park
- The newly refurbished National Portrait Gallery – looks AMAZING
- Being a flaneuse
- The beautiful Battersea Power Station and their Lift 109 experience where you go up a chimney in a glass lift. (Just before we emerged at the top, I had that feeling of dread like it was going to be like Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator and just keep on going, but whaddya know, it didn’t.) It’s really good – if you can do it, then you should!
- Maggie O’Farrell. We saw her to promote her latest book The Marriage Portrait. She was erudite and funny but also v kind to E, clutching her well thumbed copy of Hamnet, and Maggie encouraged her in her writing.
- Kind camping neighbours who helped us rescue our tent when it nearly blew away at Deershed festival. And who helped us pack it up.
- Singing round a campfire at Deershed festival
- Proud Mum-ming as E took home the coveted ‘Star Writer’ award at school, had a part in the school production and nauseatingly good school report.
Susan E Barsby 