This is another story told in multiple voices. They only work well if the author can successfully take on the different personality's voices quickly as they switch, otherwise it's easy for the reader to become confused. This book manages, in the main, to avoid that confusion.
The story has 3 central characters, 2 women and one man. At the beginning of the story one woman is pregnant and one has recently given birth. Both lose their babies and the story then confuses the reader, time and again, until the last chapter. Mystery follows enigma, eventually solved through the stubbornness of a paranoid but rather clever husband, who just avoids causing even more tragedy before getting there, almost, in the end. I won't spoil the ending, but life is often messy.
It's a clever story that makes the most of the strange coincidences that plague us in life and that we often don't believe when we see them in fiction. It's a testament to maternal love, in many forms, when it's right and when it goes wrong. Be prepared to condemn but remember that we're all human.
Tuesday, 28 August 2012
Second Hand Heart by Catherine Ryan Hyde
Chosen by Richard and Judy as one of their best selling authors, I thought this was worth a go.
Vida Angstrom has been dying of heart disease since she was born. Her mother cares for her obsessively and her only friend is an elderly Holocaust surviver, Esther, who lives upstairs. Then Vida receives a new heart. The donor has died in a car crash and Vida decides that she is in love with Richard, the bereaved husband.
The story is based on the premise of cellular memory; that is, that each cell of the human body carries some memories of the person in which it lives. In receiving a donated heart, Vida receives some shadow memories of the woman to whom the heart originally belonged. Throughout Vida's recovery from the surgery, a series of stressful events, a road trip, soul searching and a death, Richard works through his grief for his wife, Vida learns about life and her mother learns to let go. It's an interesting story and a great idea for a novel.
However, there are quite a lot of very short chapters in this book. Some are only a page in length. I think this is what made the read feel disjointed for me. It felt a bit like some of those TV programmes where the action is split into bursts of a few seconds at a time and I generally switch off after a minutes as I find I lose track of what's going on! In a book, it's easier because you can go back and reread, but why should you have to?
Vida Angstrom has been dying of heart disease since she was born. Her mother cares for her obsessively and her only friend is an elderly Holocaust surviver, Esther, who lives upstairs. Then Vida receives a new heart. The donor has died in a car crash and Vida decides that she is in love with Richard, the bereaved husband.
The story is based on the premise of cellular memory; that is, that each cell of the human body carries some memories of the person in which it lives. In receiving a donated heart, Vida receives some shadow memories of the woman to whom the heart originally belonged. Throughout Vida's recovery from the surgery, a series of stressful events, a road trip, soul searching and a death, Richard works through his grief for his wife, Vida learns about life and her mother learns to let go. It's an interesting story and a great idea for a novel.
However, there are quite a lot of very short chapters in this book. Some are only a page in length. I think this is what made the read feel disjointed for me. It felt a bit like some of those TV programmes where the action is split into bursts of a few seconds at a time and I generally switch off after a minutes as I find I lose track of what's going on! In a book, it's easier because you can go back and reread, but why should you have to?
The Shack by William Paul Young
I wouldn't normally read this kind of book, having read the jacket blurb, but it sort of fell under my hand after a number of similar instances over the previous couple of weeks and it seemed almost like a message,so I gave it a go.
A quote on the jacket cover reads 'This book has the potential to do for our generation what John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress did for his. It's that good' Having read it, I'm not sure I entirely agree with that fulsome praise but I understand where he's coming from.
Mackenzie Allen Phillips (Mack) has had a troubled childhood and, having achieved a settled adult life against all the odds, faces tragedy again when his daughter, Missy, is kidnapped whilst the family is on a weekend camping trip. As time passes it becomes apparent that Missy has been taken by a serial killer and that his victims' bodies are never found.
Struggling with his 'Great Sadness', Mack receives an mysterious invitation to spend another weekend at the campsite cabin. Unable to resist, he returns to the scene of his distress and meets God. Over the weekend, he learns about the power of love, forgiveness and redemption and how to live in the world with all the muddle and contradiction of being human.
It's a powerful story that affected me deeply. So much so that, when it was time to take the book back to the library, I trotted off to my local book shop and bought a copy. Even more strange - they had a copy on the shelf! You should see my local book shop - it's tiny!
No book can answer all your questions about God - we're all still human and no-one has all the answers, but I recommend this one to anyone with questions. It has much to recommend it.
Monday, 6 August 2012
Random Acts of Heroic Love by Danny Scheinmann
What a lovely story! What glorious writing! This book was a Richard and Judy British Book Award for 2008, only just discovered by me on the shelf of my local library (Church Stretton in the glorious Shropshire Hills) this week. It proves that some of the best story themes come from true tales and that truth is often much stranger than fiction.
Moritz Daniecki and Leo Deakin are both in love. They are born 2 generations and half a world apart but love keeps them alive and yet threatens their sanity. Their loves are bigger than each of them, transcends death and teaches each of them fear and joy in equal measure. In the end, they learn that they are joined by love more closely than they could ever imagine.
A wonderfully uplifting story that made me believe in the power and glory of love as never before - it has too because Moritz and his Lotte are real people! Read it and laugh as you weep.
Moritz Daniecki and Leo Deakin are both in love. They are born 2 generations and half a world apart but love keeps them alive and yet threatens their sanity. Their loves are bigger than each of them, transcends death and teaches each of them fear and joy in equal measure. In the end, they learn that they are joined by love more closely than they could ever imagine.
A wonderfully uplifting story that made me believe in the power and glory of love as never before - it has too because Moritz and his Lotte are real people! Read it and laugh as you weep.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)