Sylvia Plath Watches Us Sleep… but we don't mind – Victoria Richards

 

If ever a title was going to lure you in then this is it! An arresting short story collection by journalist Victoria Richards will have you entertained and 'thought provoked' in equal measure. 

There's something almost ghostly, sinister even about many of the stories, some dystopian others just plain weird! But in a good way.

Victoria Richards uses the short story medium well. It's an underrated art - to create your characters, scene and plot in a more limited number of words requires concise thinking and an aptitude for the salient without compromising the story. This author understands her genre so well.

The stories are diverse but there are clear themes - mental health, loss, relationships gone awry - all dealt with in compassionate ways that favours the female perspective. 

Favourites? Several. The story that gives the collection its title, subliminally your knowledge of Plath, her life and her work, influences your response to the story. And The World Was Water  bleakly apocalyptic. Earnest Magnitude's Infinite Sadness which blends magical realism with political and environmental concerns.  

The writing is crisp and assured, economic without being sparse. Without doubt a writer to watch.

Thank you Fly on the Wall Press for my subscription copy.  

Missing Person: Alice and The Case of the Lonely Accountant - Simon Mason

It is not my habit to review two books at once in a blog post but is felt fitting here as I received both books together from riverrun books.

I've read all of Simon Mason's DI Ryan Wilkins' mysteries and I thoroughly enjoyed them. And whilst these novellas remain in the crime genre they are very different stories. 

These stories are the first two in the Finder series which feature a character known as ....... The Finder. His specialises in finding missing persons. Cold cases. In the first the case of Alice is reopened when the body of a girl is found and the perpetrator is thought by the police to be guilty of Alice's disappearance too. I'll give nothing away! This might be classed as a novella but I found it packed as hefty a punch as a novel twice its length. It's meticulously plotted and our intrepid Finder is thorough to a fault. He interviews all and sundry with a tenacity that would put a terrier to shame. We learn a little of his back story too. The final denouement a delight.

The second book looks at the disappearance of Don Bayliss who has been missing for seven years, presumed dead. When his wife finds a business card amongst his possessions many years later the police interest is piqued, the case is reopened and the services of the Finder once more engaged. Whilst the story is very different from the first one the same doggedness and painstaking attention to detail is employed and once again the final conclusion is most congenial.

I love the DI Wilkins stories but I'd also greatly enjoy reading some more of these. There's some of the classic detective tradition in the narrative. I loved the way the author ran the Finder's investigations alongside a classic book - What Maisie Knew and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

I think that contributed to the classic and almost traditional feel that the books had yet the actual writing felt very contemporary. 

I think these stories cement Simon Mason's position as one of our most interesting and imaginative crime writers.

Thanks to riverrun books for my gifted copies. 

Listen - on Music, Sounds and Us - Michel Faber

 The paperback edition of this book was published on 1st August so I'm a little behind with this review, okay a lot behind, but sometimes life gets in the way of blogging and reviewing. 

It's an interesting take on the hows and whys of our listening habits but it is very much one man's views and opinions which won't be universally shared. Faber makes many assertions that in many cases are his and his alone. Maybe it's just me but I found his tone condescending and at times superior as if he has some kind of edge on music that sets him above the majority of the rest of us. 

In many ways it's more a sociological work, a dissertation if you wish, than a book about music. Faber claims that it will change the way you listen. It hasn't, not for me, anyway.

I've been a music lover and collector of music all my life. And I'm old now. I have eclectic tastes and am not governed by what is currently in vogue. From Beethoven to Barry Manilow I'll listen. If my ears like it that's fine by me. I pass no judgement on what anyone else enjoys listening, we're all different. But I felt at times that Faber was ridiculing folk such as myself. 

This book could be seen as contentious. But you don't necessarily have to agree with all of Faber's views to enjoy the book. It seemed that he was very negative much of the time. It's both interesting and irritating but seems likely to generate a deal of discussion. I found the frequent footnotes annoying as they interfered with my reading of the main text. 

It's certainly not the best book I've read on the subject of music but there's plenty of challenging ideas here. 

My thanks to Canongate Books for a gifted copy.

September Wrap up

It seems to be that I average about 7 books a month, this month its 9, but does it matter?  I loathe it when reading becomes a race, a competition. I don't set myself any kind of reading goals. I'm here to enjoy the pursuit and pen a review or two when a publisher has entrusted their books to me, which isn't so often these days but so be it. I'm old and the impression I get from social media is that young is beautiful. Enough.

First up this month was Listen by Michel Faber. (A review is on its way....) Yes, it is Michel Faber of The Crimson Petal and the White fame but hold fire before you hyperventilate with excitement because this is a non fiction book. It's ostensibly about music but it's more to do with the hows and the whys of listening to music. It is very much his personal view and I would warn Spandau Ballet fans that the book might not please them. 😉

A library book next, and the winner of the Waterstone's debut novel prize, Ferdia Lennon's Glorious Exploits. I feel quite smug here because the library didn't have a copy. I thought they should! So they invited me to complete a form making a case for why they should purchase the book for the library. I did. And so did they! It meant that I was the first person to read this library book and for no good reason that pleased me greatly. It's a poignant, bittersweet tale of Syracuse and Euripides and the power of stories. Lampo and Gelon somehow had me thinking Rosencrantz anad Guildenstern, Waiting for Godot with their lopsided friendship. 

After a couple of more intense reads I lightened things up with the latest offering from Ann Cleeves, The Dark Wives. It's a Vera Stanhope mystery and if you've read others in the series you know exactly what to expect and this is no disappointment. My introduction to Vera was via the TV series and when I read I see and hear Brenda Blethyn. It's an example of how sometimes the TV adaptation is the catalyst for a rewarding reading experience. I think I've read all of the Vera books. I've got several of the Shetland series  on my TBR shelf.

I found this book on the 'New Arrivals' shelf in the library when I returned the Ferdia Lennon! Emma Donoghue's Learned by Heart. I've read many of Ms. Donoghue's books but I knew nothing of this. It is a fictional imagining of Anne Lister's (Gentleman Jack) boarding school days and her relationship with Eliza Raine. Absorbing story in the hands of a master story teller. 

The next two books I read were sent to me by Quercus Books. Two novellas by Simon Mason - reviews to follow, I know I've got behind....😞 I loved Mason's previous Wilkins novels, two detectives within the same surname but polar opposites. These little novellas feature The Finder who is a specialist in locating missing persons from cold cases. They may be novellas but they pass as much punch as full length novels. Completely absorbing, quite complex, yet easy to read. 

I don't often do this but I treated myself to a preorder, signed copy of this next book. I prefer my books to be signed face to face somehow but with this author I'll make an exception since the chances of actually meeting her in person is as remote as me winning the Booker Prize! 🤣 The wonderful Elizabeth Strout and Tell Me Everything. I love her style. And I love the fictional world she's created and the character of Lucy Barton. Here Lucy pals up with - Olive Kitteridge! Other characters return and their own narratives intertwine with each other. It's masterful. 

I enjoy reading short stories. I enjoy knowing that I can read a complete story within a shorter space of time. Most of the short story collections I read these days are from the incredible Fly on the Wall Press, a one woman show founded in 2018 by Isabelle Kenyon. She has the knack of selecting authors who have created  unnerving and off kilter fictional landscapes that can range from futuristic dystopian to ethereal fairy tale narratives. This latest collection is Victoria Richard's Sylvia Plath Watches Us Sleep. Stories about grief and dysfunction that are unsettling yet addictive. 

The Edge of Solitude - Katie Hale

 

Against the backdrop of a physical landscape with ice and cold Katie Hale creates a stunning exploration of people who court their desires with flawed ethics and make choices that seem at times almost feral instincts rather than reasoned choices. 

It's a chilling dystopia depicting a future where climate catastrophe is imminent. And Ivy Cunningham, now in her seventies, an environmentalist who has fallen out of favour is recruited for a trip to Antarctica by a millionaire who wants to save the planet . 

The trip becomes a metaphor, in a Heart of Darkness kind of way, for Ivy as she hopes to salvage her reputation and reconnect with her seemingly estranged son.

Parallel to story of the journey to the Antarctic is the story of Ivy's life and relationship with Bree. Poignantly, we learn of how ambition and love can conspire to test the foundations of an intimate rapport. But there is also something of the eco thriller to as Ivy investigates both her fellow passengers and their intentions. 

With a beautifully constructed narrative that is as unsettling as the katabatic storm that engulfs the ship, aptly called The Lone Star, Hale allows us to accompany Ivy on her journey as she fortifies herself with guilt and alcohol. I found it hard to warm to her, in fact I don't think I really engaged with any of the characters except Bree! But that may be intentional. 

It's a cerebral book, there is some action but I feel the author's intent is to get us to think. And from my own perspective she's certainly succeeded in that! With the climate crisis much to the forefront of our news these days, it’s a very pertinent book.

Thanks to Canongate Books for a gifted copy.

The Taylor Swift Activity Book - Nathan Joyce

 

I am not a bona fide Swiftie. At least not yet. I remember buying the Fearless CD for my niece and burning myself a copy. I listened to it and found the countryish twang pleasant and some of the lyrics clever. But it didn’t have me impatient for her next album. Over the years I became familiar with some of her songs like Blank Space, Shake it Off.  But it is only recently that I have begun to listen more intently. That is due in part to several people whose opinions I respect who have lavished praise on her. And the Eras Tour phenomenen that has impacted in the media in recent weeks. (My current favourite song is August from the Folklore album.) And so I was quite interested to receive this activity book. On first reading it seemed that the author was a true, if recent, Swiftie and was possibly indulging his obsession and getting a publication deal to boot! Then I did some research and found that this same writer has produced similar activity books on David Attenborough, Dolly Parton -  two on Dolly - Elton John and Michelle Obama! So his credibility diminished a bit. But I figure and hope that he is producing these books because he truly does admire the subjects. What he does do is understand the nature of fandom and how consuming it can be for devotees.

I think the book is aimed at a relatively young audience, certainly with some of the activities that involve colouring and designing, spot the difference, join the dots etc.  There are some quizzes and word games too. For those not fluent in Swift lore there are facts, quotes  and information a plenty so you leave the book feeling better informed than when you began. And I guess for the experienced Swifties it might satisfy the withdrawal symptoms of the Eras tour being over and fill a gap till the next album maybe. It's fun and could wile away an hour or two. It is unofficial, though, and not endorsed by Taylor Swift, although I’m sure she would think it fun, and there are only drawings, no photos. 

A fact I uncovered, which isn’t in this book I don’t think, is that Taylor Swift is the third cousin, six times removed, of Emily Dickinson. I feel pleased about that and it endears her to me more. I am Enchanted.

My thanks to HQ stories for a gifted copy. 

Virginia Lane is not a Hero - Rosalind Stopps

 

There is something wonderfully uplifting about a novel that has a protagonist of mature years kicking butt. The title doesn't suggest that, it suggests it's going to be an Eleanor Oliphant, Dawn Brightside kinda story but it isn't! Many nails were bitten and many tissues were used during the reading of this book.

Ever since her beloved Jed died, all Virginia wants is to be left alone. But the little girl who lives down the street is so sweet, that even in her grief state Virginia's heart softens whenever she sees her.

And that's why Virginia knows there's something wrong in the little girl's house. So when the mother asks Virginia to take her child far away, somewhere safe, Virginia says yes.

The last thing Virginia would call herself is a hero. She's just doing what anyone else would do, right? But when she realises how much danger the child is in, she knows she needs to do everything she can to keep her safe… Because sometimes it's the most ordinary people who end up doing the most extraordinary things. 

Thus sayeth the blurb! But the book is so much more. For a start there are some memorable characters, not least Virginia herself, but Jackson and his brother, Noah (surely one of the most philosophically precocious and preceptive eleven year olds to populate the pages of a story!) And then there's Annie, a pen pal of Virginia's late husband whose own story could have been the subject of a full length novel, not to mention Noah and Jackson's grandmother, battling illness. And yet it is not a wholly character driven story, there is a dark, tense plot that explores several contemporary social issues not in a preachy, teachy way but in the best way for maximum impact - a novel. 

Whilst on the face of it the events in this story are very unlikely in a reality situation this is fiction and in the hands of a gifted story teller it all works. There is a pleasing balance between the darker aspects of the story and  some deadpan humour in some places.  

Rosalind Stoops gets under the skin of all her characters and enables the reader to feel what they are feeling, no mean feat, given the range of ages contained within the book from a toddler to a pensioner! So whilst Virginia is ostensibly the main character the others are never far behind her. 

You read a book like this and are forced to consider what you might do in a similar situation. Could you be bold enough? It is a fiction that offers more than the mere telling of a story it asks us to consider some of the more dire aspects of today's world and the impact on others. In this story there is a resolutions but an astute reader will know that it is not always the case.

My thanks to HQ Stories for a gifted copy of this book.