March Round Up

 My recent trend of reading less each month seems to be continuing. I have no idea of why. It isn't conscious. Perhaps reading also slows down as one ages. 🤷

My first book this month was a collection of Franz Kafka's shorter writings. In one sense it was a reread as I've read them all before more than once. But not for quite a while. During my late teens and early twenties I was Kafka obsessed. I would still name him as one of my favourite writers. I was very happy to reacquaint myself with these stories. It was a collection I won in a riverrun giveaway on Instagram. Social media does have its pluses!

My penchant for reading memoirs and autobiographies continues but again it hasn't been a conscious decision. It as if these books simply present themselves to me one way or another and I read them! So my next book was a library book, I Swear by John Davidson. Way back in the eighties when I worked in the field of education I worked with a young lad who was diagnosed with Tourette's syndrome. Challenging and heartbreaking. Around that time the first documentary to feature Mr. Davidson - John's Not Mad - was aired on television and my colleagues and I all watched it to give ourselves a better undertaking of the condition so we could help and support the boy. Since then I've watched the other documentaries that show John throughout his life and his tireless campaign to raise awareness for Tourette's. So it figured that I would watch the film and read the book. I did. It was interesting and I think we have moved froward to an extent with an acceptance of this cruel condition. 

I am a Gavin and Stacey fan. So when I saw the in the library I grabbed a copy. It was if Jo Page is talking, it read as very authentically her. I learnt a lot about the struggles of an actress and she comes across as a very likeable person.  

I've read all the Thursday Murder Club books. They're easy to read with familiar characters, unlikely scenarios that are almost formulaic but what the hell?! They're enjoyable. This was a library book and I've waited ages for a copy. Worth the wait? Yeah. But thumbs up for libraries for I'd rather borrow a book like this than own it. Not something I would have said a few years ago but I am old now and in danger of being submerged by my book collections. 

The last of this month is the lengthy memoir of Margaret Atwood. And I suppose, for somebody who has lived such a long, rich and full life it was bound to be long. Not that it matters. For I found it fascinating on several levels. Firstly, the account of a somewhat unconventional life, her childhood sounds idyllic in some respects. And then the process of being a writer and writing - the conception of The Handmaid’s Tale. I found it all most absorbing.

To the Moon and Back - Eliana Ramage

 

Debut novel? Are you serious? I’ve come across writers with 10+ books to their name who don’t write as well as this. I’m very impressed. But I didn’t begin by being impressed. I began by feeling angry and sad in equal measure. Because if there’s one thing that provokes those emotions in me, it’s what happened to the indigenous peoples of North America. And the main characters in this novel are Cherokee. One of the themes of the novel is identity and it is explored through the indigenous culture of Hannah and her two daughters, Steph and Kayla. 

 

It's an ambitious novel, complex and if I have any criticisms, I’ll get them out of the way now, it’s perhaps over long and it slows in some places. But other than that, I was totally absorbed throughout.

 

Easy, perhaps, to see this as yet another coming of age novel and if the writing were not so mature, so assured and so thematically rich that might be so. But the story achieves so much more than that. It is so metaphorically abundant and generous I found myself trying to analyse every anecdote or potential digression as a trope of some kind! The whole space theme – Steph wants to become an astronaut, the first Cherokee astronaut – sustained throughout all of the book’s four hundred plus pages is a constant metaphor, not to mention the wordplay of ‘space’ and its implications.

 

I learnt a great deal about the long path towards becoming an astronaut and I thought it was so palpably described that the author must have undergone some training, but I’ve been unable to confirm whether that is the case. If it isn’t this research and the understanding of it is impeccable. 

 

Whilst I’m very invested in this book, I can see that it may not be relatable for a lot of readers. And I guess some of it is a little niche. A gay spacewoman, and Cherokee too, is hardly commonplace. In fact, I read somewhere that it was not known until her obituary in 2012 that the first gay woman in space was Sally Ride in 1983. I think in the hands of a less competent writer, it would be hard going. But the narrative is strong, substantial, the prose, perceptive, observant and the author never falters from her themes. It’s conclusive but in a way that allows the reader with imagination to conjecture and ponder what might happen next.

 

A strong cast of purposeful characters. They're all there with intent, none of them are there for decoration. Mostly they are tough women, they veer on the side of selfish sometimes but they are flawed and human as we all are. But there are some solid male presences as well. The characters are honest in their portrayals. 

 

There is much I could say about this book, but I’m inclined to feel that it would be better to actually go and read it! Also I can’t wait for the author’s next book. No pressure!

 

My thanks to Millie Reid at Doubleday Books for gifting me a beautiful hardback copy.