July reading round up

Looking at this, it seems to have mostly been a library books month so making very little progress through the tbr pile, but it mixes it up a bit.

Absolutely and Forever – Rose Tremain

This is a short novel and I read it one afternoon in the sun. It’s one of those novels that makes me feel I’ve done certain life experiences wrong but also makes me glad that I chose a different path. This is about the intensity of a teenage relationship between the narrator Marianne and her boyfriend Simon in the 1960s. They get together at a party but when Simon surprisingly fails his Oxford entrance exam, he is sent to Paris. Marianne, the product of two peculiar unloving parents, remains behind but fluffs her exams. At typing school, she receives a letter from Simon who tells her that he’s getting married to a French woman, however, she always loves him, “absolutely and forever.” Later in life, married to a lovely man she doesn’t love, she finds out Simon’s secret. I always like Tremain’s writing, she’s got a sardonic wit which lets you root a bit for Marianne, despite her being a bit useless and annoying. I enjoyed this.

Maurice and Maralyn – Sophie Elmhirst

This is a right blockbuster of a story, although strangely told. Maurice and Maralyn decided they didn’t want to have a regular house and a job, back in the early 1970s, so sold up, bought a boat and decided to sail around the world. It all went well to start with but midway across the Pacific, their boat was hit by an injured whale and sunk within an hour, leaving the two of them to grab a few belongings, food and water and drifting on a dinghy and life raft. They survived four months at sea until finally rescued by a South Korean ship, almost at the point of starvation. So far, so very exciting but the second half of the book is different, yet interesting. They recover, have a brief moment of fame and then go on another adventure. The main point of the book is to explore their relationship and how Maralyn kept Maurice going with her optimism and resilience, and subsequently how he manages later in life without her. I’d been wanting to read this since I’d seen the reviews – it’s written entirely using secondary sources – their own books and the accounts of their friends, since both of them had died before the book was written. It’s a fascinating book.

All the Beauty in the World – Patrick Bingley

What an interesting little book this is. The story of Bingley’s ten-year working life as a security guard at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, a job he took after his older brother died from cancer, terribly young. Bingley talks about the art, the visitors, how he managed his grief and also the other guards he made friends with and somehow it hangs together as a coherent account of a life surrounded by beauty. It’s an absorbing read.

New York Trilogy – Paul Auster

The reading group choice this month as we decided on Auster’s death that we should read some of his work. I did struggle, however. These are three short novels that read as detective fiction in style and set up but there’s no obvious denouement. The first story is a crime investigation of sorts and involves Auster himself (and his family) as bit-part characters in the tale. The investigation itself was both difficult to work out and ultimately quite dull, so I feel like I probably didn’t understand whatever ‘meta’ point was being made.

A Secret Sisterhood – Emily Midorikawa and Emma Claire Sweeney

This is about the letters and friendships of Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, George Eliot and Virginia Woolf – four of my favourite dead female writers – so you’d think it would be right up my street. And it’s nice enough. The book features the lesser known friendships of these writers, with the exception of Virginia Woolf, whose relationship with Katherine Mansfield is well known, and explores their letter writing and gives context of each life and so on. It fails for me on a number of fronts. The first is that the friendships and letters discussed appeared to have no impact at all on the writing and finished works of the writers (again, the exception is Woolf), rendering much of the discussion completely pointless. It’s just nice background info about someone you might be interested in. The other issue with it is that they don’t seem to be able to quote any letters directly, presumably due to literary estate directives, but this does mean that it’s all a bit then she said and then she said… rather than any quotes. So it fell a bit flat. The only thing I took from the book was that Harriet Beecher Stowe was portrayed as a total cow.

East of Croydon – Sue Perkins

I love Sue Perkins. This is the background book to several of her TV programmes where she travelled to Asia and explored a number of countries. If you’ve seen the programmes, you know the drill – they find colourful locals and get Sue to join in or do something stupid and everyone laughs. There is an element of ‘look how weird foreigners are but they’re so charming’ but I think it’s driven by the format of the programme. The book allows Sue to interject some personal stories and extra memories, and in many cases these are about her dad, who dies midway though the book (spoiler – sorry). This is a light read, despite being full of serious topics and I enjoyed ambling through it.

Remarkably Bright Creatures – Shelby van Pelt

It’s been a very serious reading month and I really fancied an absorbing fiction read so luckily a friend recommended this. It’s partly narrated by an octopus, which is the kind of quirk that I often find off putting, but not here. The story is set in the Pacific North west and concerns an old lady, Tova, whose beloved son Erik died years back and she has never accepted the official verdict of suicide. Tova, a widow, has a small pack of well meaning but irritating friends, and works cleaning at the local aquarium, where she greets all the exhibits as friends,, but especially the Pacific Octopus, Marcellus, who narrates a diary for us. Marcellus can read and understand many things and knows his lifespan is running out but takes joy in climbing out of his tank and finding other exhibits to eat or shiny things to collect. When a stranger comes to the town, Marcellus realises his significance quicker than anyone else but how to let Tova know what he knows? This is a really enjoyable read, with great characters and a simple sense of humour.

Moments of Pleasure

I took a day off work to be with my daughter once school had broken up this month and we had a girly day with ear piercing, beach zorbing, shopping and a trip to watch Inside Out 2. It’s a fantastic look at adolescence through the crazy hotch potch of emotions and was just right for her, plus a proper mature look at anxiety that treats it with understanding and warmth. Highly recommended.