It's the summer of 1935 in Switzerland. Erneste is the perfect waiter of the title, polite, dignified and private, he aspires to be nothing other than he is. Then into his small life comes a young, handsome man and he is swept into an overwhelming passion. Erneste trains Jakob in the skills of being a perfect waiter but his love and devotion are betrayed when Jakob, ambitious for more than the quiet life Erneste offers and anxious to escape the growing clouds of war, uses his new found skills to hitch a ride to America. Heart broken, Erneste withdraws into the only life he knows.
30 years later Erneste receives a letter from America that opens old wounds. Jakob needs his help and Erneste risks everything to answer the call.
Gently written in a slow but precise style, this is an elegant story evoking the 1930s beautifully. Not for lovers of fast paced thrillers or convoluted mysteries but, if you enjoy subtlety and style, this is for you.
Tuesday, 27 November 2012
Monday, 19 November 2012
A Week in December by Sebastian Faulks
London, Christmas 2007, just before the financial crash. 7 very different people leading very different lives
that are all linked in ways they can't possibly imagine. This novel creates complex patterns that weave a fascinating story of modern life. We see how greed, the differences between what people appear to be and what they truly are, and the silent despair so many people endure, can cause world wide chaos and yet be suppressed beneath a thin veneer of shallow gloss.
A clever story, well crafted, that can teach the untutored reader much about the bloody world of unregulated finance, the ease with which the intensity of youth can be diverted into self-destruction and how lazy parenting fails children.
This sounds like a melancholy, desperate book. Actually, it's clever plot and good writing lifts it into something really worth reading. There's love here, too, in unexpected places, and a reprieve from terrible tragedy, so it's not all doom and gloom.
Recommended
that are all linked in ways they can't possibly imagine. This novel creates complex patterns that weave a fascinating story of modern life. We see how greed, the differences between what people appear to be and what they truly are, and the silent despair so many people endure, can cause world wide chaos and yet be suppressed beneath a thin veneer of shallow gloss.
A clever story, well crafted, that can teach the untutored reader much about the bloody world of unregulated finance, the ease with which the intensity of youth can be diverted into self-destruction and how lazy parenting fails children.
This sounds like a melancholy, desperate book. Actually, it's clever plot and good writing lifts it into something really worth reading. There's love here, too, in unexpected places, and a reprieve from terrible tragedy, so it's not all doom and gloom.
Recommended
Tuesday, 6 November 2012
The Woman in Silk by RJ Gadney
Captain Hal Stirling is a bomb disposal expert. Flown home to recuperate after being hurt by an IED in Afganistan, he begins the journey to the ancestral pile, Stirling Towers and his sick mother, for Christmas. Stopping on the way, he spends a little time with his mistress, Sumiko and her daughter, attempting to persuade Sumiko to spend Christmas with him at his home.
Already I'm a bit confused. The author tells the reader that Hal hates his home and so does Sumiko. His childhood was unhappy, both he and Sumiko believe the house is creepy in the extreme and Sumiko's daughter is positively frightened of the place. Moreover, Sumiko is married. Yet she say's she will consider it, which Hal believe's to be a 'yes'. Huh?
On arrival home, Hal meets 2 'nurses' who have cared for his mother. We learn that she has died and been hastily buried according, we are told, to her wishes. Creepy things begin to happen fast and furiously and it's difficult, and at times impossible, to tell whether Hal is suffering from delusions brought about by the post-traumatic stress of his Afgan experience, whether he's being drugged or whether there really is something supernatural going on. It makes for very disjointed reading.
Whenever I read a story like this, or see a film of a similar kind of story, I find my common sense kicking in. Why stay when you don't have to? OK, so a bond disposal expert is a danger-junky, I get that, but a bomb and the supernatural are exactly the same kind of thing. I love fiction, and am no stranger to suspending disbelief, but this tale was told in a disjointed, confused fashion that was really hard to follow. Very short chapters, unexplained quotations, flashbacks to scenes with no context; it all made for hard work.
Not a very satisfying experience.
Already I'm a bit confused. The author tells the reader that Hal hates his home and so does Sumiko. His childhood was unhappy, both he and Sumiko believe the house is creepy in the extreme and Sumiko's daughter is positively frightened of the place. Moreover, Sumiko is married. Yet she say's she will consider it, which Hal believe's to be a 'yes'. Huh?
On arrival home, Hal meets 2 'nurses' who have cared for his mother. We learn that she has died and been hastily buried according, we are told, to her wishes. Creepy things begin to happen fast and furiously and it's difficult, and at times impossible, to tell whether Hal is suffering from delusions brought about by the post-traumatic stress of his Afgan experience, whether he's being drugged or whether there really is something supernatural going on. It makes for very disjointed reading.
Whenever I read a story like this, or see a film of a similar kind of story, I find my common sense kicking in. Why stay when you don't have to? OK, so a bond disposal expert is a danger-junky, I get that, but a bomb and the supernatural are exactly the same kind of thing. I love fiction, and am no stranger to suspending disbelief, but this tale was told in a disjointed, confused fashion that was really hard to follow. Very short chapters, unexplained quotations, flashbacks to scenes with no context; it all made for hard work.
Not a very satisfying experience.
Shakespeare's Mistress by Karen Harper
I've often wondered about the identity of Shakespeare's 'Dark Lady' of the sonnets, and why there are, apparently, 2 separate marriage entries for a William Shakespeare, just days apart, to 2 different women, in his local Parish records.
This story weaves a fictional account of Anne Whateley, one of those names in the Parish records of Temple Grafton near Stratford-upon-Avon. It cleverly weaves such facts as are known, such as the dates that Shakespeare's plays were performed, the lives and careers of other writers, actors and theatre patrons, with the politics of the times and the lives of Shakespeare's family members.
Anne Whateley tells us how she grows up in Temple Grafton, falls in love with Will Shakespeare, travels to London and is already established there, having inherited her father's merchant carrier business between the Midlands and London on his death, when Will arrives, intent on making a career with his pen and acting talent.
The pair embark on a tempestuous but strong relationship that lasts their lives long against a backdrop of political upheaval, which includes the abortive invasion of the Spanish Armada, plague, rebellion, the beheading of Mary, Queen of Scots, the death of Elizabeth and the crowning of James I.
A fascinating tale and a well researched history lesson. Good read.
This story weaves a fictional account of Anne Whateley, one of those names in the Parish records of Temple Grafton near Stratford-upon-Avon. It cleverly weaves such facts as are known, such as the dates that Shakespeare's plays were performed, the lives and careers of other writers, actors and theatre patrons, with the politics of the times and the lives of Shakespeare's family members.
Anne Whateley tells us how she grows up in Temple Grafton, falls in love with Will Shakespeare, travels to London and is already established there, having inherited her father's merchant carrier business between the Midlands and London on his death, when Will arrives, intent on making a career with his pen and acting talent.
The pair embark on a tempestuous but strong relationship that lasts their lives long against a backdrop of political upheaval, which includes the abortive invasion of the Spanish Armada, plague, rebellion, the beheading of Mary, Queen of Scots, the death of Elizabeth and the crowning of James I.
A fascinating tale and a well researched history lesson. Good read.
The Doomsday Machine by Catherine Webb
Another Astounding Adventure of Horatio Lyle! A Gothic, Victorian tale of Daring Do! Magical People and Dastardly Deeds! Phew, that's enough capital letters and exclamation marks.
Horatio Lyle is a Special Constable and very special scientist in Victorian London who, with the help of 2 very special children, magical people with bright green eyes (who might, or might not, be enemies or allies) and other helpers, defeats the powers of evil in the smelly sewers beneath the city. The magical people are called Tseiqin - an older civilisation who have populated the Earth for far longer than humankind but, using their magical powers, are vitually invisible. Not quite fairies but most definitely not human. They are being persecuted by a section of powerful humans who know they are here and see them as a threat to mankind's development. Lots of iron, heat and coal, a huge machine, and a big explosion complete the picture.
Described that way, it sounds more like a children's adventure than an adult book but I found it on the adult fiction shelves. Fun to read, and I enjoyed the silly escapism, but, on reflection, I think it belongs in the teen section.
Horatio Lyle is a Special Constable and very special scientist in Victorian London who, with the help of 2 very special children, magical people with bright green eyes (who might, or might not, be enemies or allies) and other helpers, defeats the powers of evil in the smelly sewers beneath the city. The magical people are called Tseiqin - an older civilisation who have populated the Earth for far longer than humankind but, using their magical powers, are vitually invisible. Not quite fairies but most definitely not human. They are being persecuted by a section of powerful humans who know they are here and see them as a threat to mankind's development. Lots of iron, heat and coal, a huge machine, and a big explosion complete the picture.
Described that way, it sounds more like a children's adventure than an adult book but I found it on the adult fiction shelves. Fun to read, and I enjoyed the silly escapism, but, on reflection, I think it belongs in the teen section.
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