The Dark Within Them - Isabelle Kenyon - Blog Tour

 

I can't remember exactly when my association with Isabelle Kenyon and Fly on the Wall Press began but it's been a few years now and I have found her to be such a generous and supportive tour organiser. Some wonderful books have come my way, poets and writers who I might not have come across otherwise. I remember buying a copy of Isabelle's short story Andy and the Octopuses a while ago and being impressed by her quirky and original concept. So I had no hesitation in preordering a copy of her first novel, The Dark Within Them.

I'm not sure exactly what I was expecting from the book but it certainly wasn't this at all! A thriller set in a Mormon community in Utah! Oh my word! What a tale! It had me on the edge of my seat wondering what the hell was going to happen next! 

From the opening chapter the story is a thrill ride with dips and turns that will have you open mouthed in disbelief. Using a dual narrative between Amber and Chad the story of their ill-fated marriage unfolds cleverly with a beautifully constructed narrative that drips feeds its readers with a smattering of clues here and there. And yet all the way through there is a chilling undercurrent of iniquity. 

The characters are hard to like!! But I think that's intentional. You begin by starting to like both Amber and Chad but that doesn't last long, not for me anyway! I could smell trouble! The kids are more likeable but their teenage, hormonal attitudes irked me at times. However I'll let them off! Because they were catapulted into an untenable situation. I thought that if Amber could extricate herself from the toxic environment there was some hope and redemption for her.

The plotting is perfect and the way the tension is built up throughout the book creates such a state of unease and jeopardy. But much is achieved through the careful placing of clues and signs that aren't direct but more subtle, demanding the reader pay attention and interpret what is right under their noses. 

If it's 'just' a story you want then you have one in abundance but if you want a little more from your fiction then you have that too for there is much to think about regarding organised religion and its attitudes, family life and relationships, friendships and spirituality, motivation and justification.

This is a cracking debut and I can't wait for the next book from Isabelle!

My thanks to Isabelle Kenyon and Fly on the Wall Press for sending me my pre-ordered copy early so I could have a place on the blog tour. 

Mania - Lionel Shriver

 

Oh my, this is delicious! Shriver at her outspoken best! A dystopian alternate timeline novel, from 2011 to 2027, that could be a parable for our times. Astute, perceptive the story demonstrates what can happen when one point of view is taken to its limits by a minority and spirals out of controlled control! 

Here, it is intelligence that is for the chopping board!! Mental Parity is the new buzzword, the correct PC term for a whole nation. It basically means that everyone’s brains are equal, there is no such thing as a clever person or a stupid one.  Anyone can do any job they fancy. All references to anyone being dumb or stupid together with a whole lexicon of forbidden terms carry sanctions.

 

The central character is Pearson Converse and what a delightful play on words than name is! I also thought that the character may have much in common with Lionel Shriver herself!  Forgive me if I’m wrong! ’d prefer not to give too much away. But Pearson, having been raised by Jehovah’s Witnesses and subject to that extreme dogma, manages to escape it but then finds herself in the middle of a different regime that still threatens her freedom. 

 

Her best friend Emory Ruth is one of those ubiquitous folks who runs with the herd, to fit in maybe, to have an easier life perhaps, in Emory’s case much is to further her career, but will happily change opinion when the tide turns, an archetypal hypocrite.

 

Pearson Converse is no sheep, but she pays a heavy price for refusing to embrace the Mental Parity ideology. 

 

Shriver is an erudite author, and I got the feeling that much of this book was an eloquent expression of her own disquiet with the world as it is today. It is set in the US so some of the politics may be elusive for readers across the pond but the points being made are not elusive in the least. 

 

It's a tour de force with some humour but much latent anger. Shriver’s vocabulary is to be envied, it’s expansive and intelligent. But the book may be divisive. I imagine some book groups will enjoy some heated discussions!

It is thought provoking too and I hope it is not prophetic.

 

My thanks to Readers First where I was lucky enough to win a copy in one of their draws. 

3 Shades of Blue Miles David John Coltrane Bill Evans and the Lost Empire of Cool - James Kaplan

 

It took me longer than usual to read this book. Why? Was it difficult to read? Poorly written? No, no and no! Quite the reverse. It was so well written it had me plundering my CD collection to listen to Kind of Blue and A Love Supreme more than once not to mention some Thelonious Monk. For me this book gave the music an added nuance if that were even possible. 

This is a niche book for jazz lovers, particularly bebop fans and fear not if Davis, Coltrane and Evans aren't necessarily your bag because the whole book reads like a Who's Who of jazz. So you get an insight that goes beyond our titular trio. Dizzy Gillespie, Cannonball Adderly, Max Roach, Chet Baker - I could go on. But I guess it's a volume that might also appeal to music historians keen to see how jazz reached a kind of peak in the fifties and sixties. I suppose, too, sociology buffs might also be interested in the drug culture that seems almost endemic amongst the jazz fraternity. 

Coltrane, Davis and Evans all played on the seminal Davis album Kind of Blue often considered to be the best jazz album ever. This book looks at how those three guys arrived at that place and where they went afterwards. 

Kaplan digs deep and gives us the musicians warts and all. He seems to reach the heart and depth of all three men teasing out what made them all tick. He shows their place amongst their peers and critics. But most importantly he shows their commitment to music and their own creative development. And I defy anyone reading NOT to go scuttling off to listen! 

Books like these can often be quite dry, the passion and enthusiasm for the subject matter paradoxically rendering the narrative narrow and over detailed. But Kaplan doesn't fall into that trap. This book is very readable and the flowing style encourages you to read on. Yes, there's some musical technical language but it isn't hard to understand especially if you have an interest in music form. 

You come away from the book feeling like you've got to know the three players a little better and more significantly you can understand their music a little better. 

I absolutely loved this book and am so grateful to Olivia-Savannah Roach of Canongate Books for sending me a gifted copy.