Well, I thought January was a long month but May seems to have gone on forever. Is it because I’ve read the longest novel I’ve ever read? Is it because work is difficult right now? Is it because there’s been lots going on outside work? Who knows. But here’s what I read this month anyway.
The Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
Many months ago, there was a social media buzz of sorts around this book and I thought, what the heck, I’ll give it a try. I ordered it from the library where there were eleven people in the queue ahead of me. It finally arrived. It took so long, I realised, to arrive because it was 1,460 pages long. But look, I’d waited this long, let’s give it a go. It’s a cracking start. He doesn’t hang around, Dumas, there’s plot and intrigue from the beginning. In short, a sailor, Edmond Dantes, is sent to prison for a crime he didn’t commit following the sneaky intrigues of others. Inside, he tries to dig his way out and instead finds another prisoner an Abbe, who he makes friends with and who eventually tells him of a treasure. When the Abbe dies, Dantes escapes the prison, finds the treasure and embarks on a mission to avenge himself. It’s difficult to sustain a story at the pace this starts at and after the first 300-400 pages Dumas starts ambling about, taking in a lot of detail of the many characters. There are enough exciting scenes scattered throughout to keep you going through the longer rambling passages and ultimately you do want to see how his revenge works out. I’m glad I persevered and only four days late back to the library (I couldn’t renew it as there’s a waiting list. Seriously, Nottingham City Libraries, maybe buy another copy?)
Elektra – Jennifer Saint
Having had a run of library books recently, I decided it was time to tackle the tbr pile by the side of the sofa and started this. I think there was probably a time when I would have appreciated it more but reading it now, I just felt faintly depressed by all the killing. It’s a retelling of the Greek myths surrounding the Iliad and the fallout, especially surrounding the family of Agamemnon, Elektra’s dad. Elektra herself is rather irritating and sulky, a girl who doesn’t seem to mind that her father slaughtered her sister in order to go to war and who instead takes out her wrath on her mother Clytemnestra like a big sulky teen. This is a perfectly serviceable retelling.
Bewilderment – Richard Powers
I love Richard Powers’ books. I love that they take time and concentration to read and that they cover huge universal themes with a personal touch. Bewilderment is no different. It’s narrated by Theo, a scientist, widower and single father to Robin, a boy with a special way of looking at the world. (It’s hinted but not spelled out that Robin is autistic) Theo’s science centres around life on other planets, while Robin is obsessed with life on this one, especially around animals. When the two of them come up against the authorities, the careful life Theo has built in the wake of his wife’s death starts to unravel. You do need to suspend disbelief a little but the book is not poorer for this, more that it works better if you accept the bits that we haven’t figured out on earth yet. I felt incredibly bereft on finishing this simple and beautiful book.
Everything was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt – Ben Reeves
I read a lot of books about death so I never thought I’d say this, but I think I’ve found the book that has put me off books about death. Everything was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt is a debut novel, and it won the Bath Novel Award in 2024. People are RAVING about it. The publishers are clearly hoping to get a lot of word of mouth going about it and I was sent an advance copy on Netgalley. The premise is simple: Travis is death. He narrates the story where he lives what looks on the outside to be a normal life, but he spends his days shepherding people off this mortal coil. He does not change anything, he simply watches. Dying people know who he is when he arrives without him saying anything. So far, so interesting, right? Because this is about the impact of being someone who witnesses a lot of death, or it could have been. It could have been very good but instead what happens is that we get a minor love story of sorts, when Travis meets Dalia, a single mum with two daughters. When the inevitable tragedy strikes, what happens to both Travis and Dalia? It’s very difficult to write about this without plot spoilers but in essence, I found this manipulative and shallow when it could have been quite engaging. There was a phase in publishing a few years’ back of people writing novels which featured child abuse or rape and while a lot of people found these books hard hitting and emotional, I had serious issues with them using genuine horrifying situations as a handy plot device. Because that’s what it felt like, rather than anything authentic, and that’s what I feel about this book. A lot of people will resonate with it, and it’s clearly meant to be emotional. But it didn’t work for me. As well as the main story, you get a series of short chapters with the life and death of the characters Travis is witnessing that day. Some of these are quite poignant, others are horrible. I felt like I was being told that something was tragic rather than feeling it, and that it went for the cheap feels rather than getting stuck in the main idea. I don’t like being mean about a debut author and I’m sure he wanted to write something deep and meaningful, but it’s incredibly difficult to write about this stuff and not many people can pull it off. I’m sure he’ll have a bright future regardless of what I think.
Rules of Civility – Amor Towles
Towles is an interesting writer. This is the third of his books that I’ve read and I’ve enjoyed all of them but they are all derivative of better authors, aping a style others have done well. This is Gatsby with a touch of Steinbeck and someone else whose name escapes me. Towles writes very well, there’s some lovely sentences in this and the story and characters are engaging, but somehow I just wish he’d think of something original. Anyway, this is set in 1938 New York and narrated by Katey Kontent, a working class girl who meets a set of the fast and rich, messing about as they can, despite the Depression. By the end of the year, Katey’s life will have changed: everything from her career to her love life to her accommodation. And despite having her heart wrung out a little, her practical sense of what to do to keep going will be her salvation, staying true to what she likes. This is an excellent holiday read.
One Fine Day – Mollie Panter Downes
Only one Twentieth Century book this month and this is a gentle examination of the upper-middle classes after the Second World War on finding they cannot get servants any more and will have to do stuff themselves. But sympathetically, as I’m sure no one will care about the predicament I’ve just outlined. The book takes place, as the title gives away, over a fine day, and Laura, now a housewife but one who during the war took in all kinds of people and sheltered them, is having to cope with her large house, her missing dog, her recalcitrant home help and the shopping on an old bicycle that has no brakes. Her husband Stephen is back from fighting and off to the city and both of them clearly have communication issues, thinking alike but never saying it out loud. I’m not making it sound great but this is a classic of the Middlebrow genre, books that were panned by critics because they were felt to be too domestic and not exciting enough to read at the time. It’s a carefully constructed examination of a marriage, the unspoken issues, the inner thoughts and the ways in which those take shape.
Moments of Pleasure
The hype about The Pitt is real and I very much recommend getting a month’s subscription to HBO Max to watch it. Medical emergency drama with lots of human interaction and gore and Dr Carter from ER.
In between seasons of The Pitt, I watched Rooster, which is very much up my street: a comedy of manners for a middle aged man on a US university campus. It stars Steve Carrell as a writer of schlock thrillers who visits the campus to see his daughter, whose husband has knocked up a grad student. When his daughter accidentally burns the husband’s house down (she was trying to destroy his first edition of War and Peace) he stays on in a teaching role to help her keep her job and various silly situations ensue. I loved it. Warm adult humour without being cruel, the best kind.
Susan E Barsby 