Niall Williams gives us a legend of an Irish family, a family he owns as his own ancestors , the Foleys, in the harsh years of the Famine. Father Francis and his 4 sons have left their secure home on the estate of an absent landlord, after an argument between Francis and his wife Emer to seek a new home in the west. Francis is a bitter and arrogant man and his anger leads to the destruction of his family as his sons are scattered to the 4 winds.
The story follows each of the sons, and Francis, over years and continents as they travel and adventure. We see tragedy and love, plenty and starvation, death and birth. And far too much sorrow.
Eventually some of the members of the family are re-united and others learn the fate of those who wandered overseas and who have not returned.
Niall Williams language is beautifully lyrical, as in an ancient Irish fairy tale. One can almost hear the harp behind it, or the faintest of voices singing. The story itself is almost secondary to the lilt and sway of the language, so much so that I was really sorry when I finished this book. Great reading.
Monday, 29 April 2013
Star of the Morning by Pamela Johnson
Ruby and Rose are happy chidden, growing up in a poor but loving home on the wrong side of the tracks in apartheid South Africa. But their world is torn apart when they are left orphaned and spend the rest of their childhood in an orphanage, visiting their only aunt and her family as 'poor relations' just once a month.
Different in temperament and with different ways of solving the challenges that life throws at them, the sisters remain close even though their lives take them in different directions. Rose lives for the moment, marries and finds herself in the heart of a warm, chaotic and lively family. Ruby spends her life in quiet service, living a simple life of restraint. Yet, in the end, it is Ruby who breaks taboos and risks scandal.
Both sisters spend their lives seeking the love and security they lost in their early childhood, but in their very different ways. Set against the background of social and political change in South Africa in the latter half of the 20th century, this story tells, gently but powerfully, how ordinary people are shaped by forces they they can't even name, let alone recognise.
Pamela Johnson tells the tale in a slow, slow pace that underlines the emptiness of Ruby's life. She has skilfully built a subtle atmosphere that illustrates the tension of Ruby's deliberate withdrawal from any overt signs of emotional involvement.
This isn't a book for those who like fast pace and action but as a study in subtlety, gentle but steady story development and a true touch, this one is worth th read.
Different in temperament and with different ways of solving the challenges that life throws at them, the sisters remain close even though their lives take them in different directions. Rose lives for the moment, marries and finds herself in the heart of a warm, chaotic and lively family. Ruby spends her life in quiet service, living a simple life of restraint. Yet, in the end, it is Ruby who breaks taboos and risks scandal.
Both sisters spend their lives seeking the love and security they lost in their early childhood, but in their very different ways. Set against the background of social and political change in South Africa in the latter half of the 20th century, this story tells, gently but powerfully, how ordinary people are shaped by forces they they can't even name, let alone recognise.
Pamela Johnson tells the tale in a slow, slow pace that underlines the emptiness of Ruby's life. She has skilfully built a subtle atmosphere that illustrates the tension of Ruby's deliberate withdrawal from any overt signs of emotional involvement.
This isn't a book for those who like fast pace and action but as a study in subtlety, gentle but steady story development and a true touch, this one is worth th read.
Thursday, 25 April 2013
The Resurrectionist by James Bradley
Body snatchers in Georgian and Victorian London. Perhaps in other cities in the UK as well? Almost certainly wherever doctors and anatomists struggled to learn more about how the human body works before modern scientific medical practices evolved to their current state of research. The imagination falters under the weight of the human tragedy of stolen bodies.
James Bradley has researched his subject meticulously, one might even say with a certain macabre relish. His (very) anti-hero, Gabriel Swift, apprentices himself to Edwin Poll, the great anatomist, who depends on fresh corpses stolen from graves. Determined to ally himself with his friends, and keep their confidences, as the only way of retaining his feet in an amoral world, Gabriel finds himself at odds with his employer and other powerful influences that he inadvertently crosses.
Dismissed by his employer for this misjudgement, and lost in a careless world, deserted by friends similarly haunted by the ghosts of their trade, Gabriel sinks further into degradation. Life loses all meaning in a catastrophic manner. At the mercy of powers he neither understands nor can avoid, his only way out appears to be through death and an anonymous grave.
Yet every good story has a twist in the tale, and this one is not exemption. My only complaint is that this twist felt more like that of a gecko's tale at first - abandoned and not quite belonging. It took me a few pages to work out that what I thought was happening was, in fact, actually happening.
Still, recommended if you like tales of gothic horror written in a haunting, sinister, claustrophobic style.
James Bradley has researched his subject meticulously, one might even say with a certain macabre relish. His (very) anti-hero, Gabriel Swift, apprentices himself to Edwin Poll, the great anatomist, who depends on fresh corpses stolen from graves. Determined to ally himself with his friends, and keep their confidences, as the only way of retaining his feet in an amoral world, Gabriel finds himself at odds with his employer and other powerful influences that he inadvertently crosses.
Dismissed by his employer for this misjudgement, and lost in a careless world, deserted by friends similarly haunted by the ghosts of their trade, Gabriel sinks further into degradation. Life loses all meaning in a catastrophic manner. At the mercy of powers he neither understands nor can avoid, his only way out appears to be through death and an anonymous grave.
Yet every good story has a twist in the tale, and this one is not exemption. My only complaint is that this twist felt more like that of a gecko's tale at first - abandoned and not quite belonging. It took me a few pages to work out that what I thought was happening was, in fact, actually happening.
Still, recommended if you like tales of gothic horror written in a haunting, sinister, claustrophobic style.
Monday, 8 April 2013
The Bone Thief by VM Whitworth
This is a tale of England in turmoil. The lands of Wessex and Mercia are being squeezed from the east by the Viking invaders, who are pushing ever further westwards after successful invasions along the east coasts. Alfred the Great, the warrior leader, is long dead.
To give heart to the people of Mercia and for other, more convoluted and nefarious, reasons, Athelwald Seiriol, the Atheling of Wessex and brother-in-law to the Lord of Mercia, orders Wulfgar, a trainee priest, to travel across the country to territories under the rule of the Vikings. His mission is to recover the remains of St Oswald, a saint revered by the Saxons for his piety and bravery in battle. St Oswald is to be reburied in a newly built Minster at Gloucester in the hope that the saint will protect what is left of Mercia and Wessex from the Viking hoards.
The story chronicles the adventures of Wulfgar's little band as they travel cross country, fall into traps, make unlikely alliances and, ultimately, come home to find their troubles have followed them there.
Wulfgar is an unlikely hero but, as is the case with such tales, he rises to the challenge. His companions give us much of the entertainment in this story, which reminded me throughout of the old adage that there are no new stories in fiction and that every tale is merely a variation on a theme. This one brings to mind The Lord of the Rings, only much shorter and with less literary merit. Still it's an excellent tale, and well told for all that.
To give heart to the people of Mercia and for other, more convoluted and nefarious, reasons, Athelwald Seiriol, the Atheling of Wessex and brother-in-law to the Lord of Mercia, orders Wulfgar, a trainee priest, to travel across the country to territories under the rule of the Vikings. His mission is to recover the remains of St Oswald, a saint revered by the Saxons for his piety and bravery in battle. St Oswald is to be reburied in a newly built Minster at Gloucester in the hope that the saint will protect what is left of Mercia and Wessex from the Viking hoards.
The story chronicles the adventures of Wulfgar's little band as they travel cross country, fall into traps, make unlikely alliances and, ultimately, come home to find their troubles have followed them there.
Wulfgar is an unlikely hero but, as is the case with such tales, he rises to the challenge. His companions give us much of the entertainment in this story, which reminded me throughout of the old adage that there are no new stories in fiction and that every tale is merely a variation on a theme. This one brings to mind The Lord of the Rings, only much shorter and with less literary merit. Still it's an excellent tale, and well told for all that.
The Invisible Ones by Stef Penney
This is the first novel I've read that involves Gypsies and a travelling lifestyle; I found it fascinating to learn more. The story is a standard detective story; nothing strange here. A young wife gone missing from an unhappy marriage, a family closes ranks, lots of secrets and a private detective with sadness of his own. So far so same. But the family with secrets is a Gypsy family and the detective is a Gypsy, too, although a 'settled' one.
There are many novels telling stories in more than one voice around at present, and this is one of them. This tale is told by Ray Lovell, the detective, and JJ Smith, the 15 year old grandson of the Gypsy family patriarch, Tene Jenko. Ray has been hired by Leon Wood, a 'settled' Gypsy, who wants Ray to find his daughter Rose, who married into the travelling Jenko family and disappeared a year later, some 6 years ago. The Jenko family say she ran away with a lover; her father fears that she might be dead. Ray meets silence and secrets, with an ending to the story that rivals an Agatha Christie tale.
We learn a little about Ray's back story, (he's more than a bit obsessed by his ex-wife) and watch as he develops new feelings for one of the players in his investigations. JJ becomes a fascinating character in the story; he's an brave innocent to Ray's worldweary outlook on life and the pair become unlikely allies.
Definitely for lovers of detective stories. See if you can spot the ending before the last couple of pages!
There are many novels telling stories in more than one voice around at present, and this is one of them. This tale is told by Ray Lovell, the detective, and JJ Smith, the 15 year old grandson of the Gypsy family patriarch, Tene Jenko. Ray has been hired by Leon Wood, a 'settled' Gypsy, who wants Ray to find his daughter Rose, who married into the travelling Jenko family and disappeared a year later, some 6 years ago. The Jenko family say she ran away with a lover; her father fears that she might be dead. Ray meets silence and secrets, with an ending to the story that rivals an Agatha Christie tale.
We learn a little about Ray's back story, (he's more than a bit obsessed by his ex-wife) and watch as he develops new feelings for one of the players in his investigations. JJ becomes a fascinating character in the story; he's an brave innocent to Ray's worldweary outlook on life and the pair become unlikely allies.
Definitely for lovers of detective stories. See if you can spot the ending before the last couple of pages!
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