She is Fierce - Ana Sampson

Well, this is a first for my blog - a poetry anthology! When I was younger I lived and breathed poetry. Read it, wrote it, quoted it. I even did my dissertation on an American poet. I don’t know what went wrong!! It’s not that I ever fell out of love with poetry. i just maybe stopped being obsessed with it! Is it an age thing? ‘I grow old… I grow old…. I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.’!  Nowadays I just tend to revisit specific, favourite poems from time to time. I have no idea what is happening currently in the world of poetry. Is Carol Ann Duffy still poet laureate? ;-)

So, why now? My curiosity was piqued by learning that the wonderful Quercus Books publicist Ana McLaughlin had published an anthology of poems. Not only an anthology but an anthology of poems by women. Pertinent topically with the #metoo movement and suffrage anniversaries, I’ve read many good things about it on social media. And Ana has passed such exceptional books my way that I felt compelled to -  give something back if you like. So I bought myself a copy and I may just have fallen in love with poetry all over again.

However this is a blog first and I’m pondering how to review an anthology. I don’t think it’s about individual poems. I have my favourites, of course, but it seems unhelpful to extol their virtues further because poetry is such a subjective art form and everyone’s favourites will be different. So I’m just gonna go with my own flow and see what comes out!! 

There’s a diverse range of poets included and the book’s structure gives them voice though all the stages of girlhood, womanhood, personhood, origins and beyond maybe, examining aspects both historic and contemporary. Something I loved was that there were familiar. classic even, poems nestling amongst some new (to me), modern voices. It’s a veritable poetry jewellery box, ‘twinkling with delight’, full of precious gems, some smooth and polished, others rough and uncut. It may seem paradoxical to describe an anthology as a ‘page turner’ but this one really is.

There are moments of pure exuberance which will bring a smile to your face, make you laugh even, some will send you down memory lane and there are moments of purest emotion that will bring tears to your eyes .

It was the final section that really got me, had me weeping. The poems there so eloquently express that imperceptible change from the invincibility of your younger years to the confrontation of your own mortality as you age. I wasn’t going to mention specific poems but the entry from the late, great Helen Dunmore was especially poignant. And whilst we’re mentioning specific poems one of my favourites and one I return to again and again is Stevie Smith’s ‘Not Waving But Drowning’. Gets me every time.

Included too are some thumbnail biographies of the poets at the end of the book. So you can investigate if you wish but it’s not ‘in your face’ if you don’t. Personally I think you will!! It may only be September but I’ve already decided to gift copies of this book to a couple of people on my Christmas present list. 

I’m usually thanking Ana for sending me books, now I’m thanking her for writing this book. It’s made me happy.

A Ladder to the Sky - John Boyne

Maurice Swift is a little shit. I am not often given to expletives when writing reviews. I may think them or even say them aloud but write them? Rarely. However I’m afraid I just have to here. Rest assured that as expletives go it is tamer than my spoken utterances!! But Maurice Swift is a little shit! Oh, John Boyne, you have created a monster, Sir!!

At the heart of this satirical and disturbing novel is an exploration of writers, their motivation, their ambition, the relationships they may have with other writers - takes peer group pressure to a whole other level! And the idiots we can make of ourselves when love enters our frail and hungry hearts. Not to mention a dig or two at book prizes and awards. 

This book is arranged into three parts with two interludes separating the parts. and all of them examines the relationships that Maurice has with various people who populate his life. However he has but one aim in mind in all of these associations and that is his compulsive, obsessive ambition to be a writer and reach the zenith of his chosen profession. And also to father a child. How he does these things  is potentially immoral and erring towards the side of the psychopath.

Stirring stuff eh? It makes for a humdinger of a tale I can tell you! Prior to reading this novel I was that cliche who had only read one book by John Boyne, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, but this book has speedily elevated my impression of Mr. Boyne. It’s a verbally energetic piece of writing that flows and takes the reader where the reader is required to be. His characters are drawn to elicit just the right amount of emotion from us - we weep for poor, trusting Edith, we sigh and shake our heads at the pointless devotion of Erich and we are gleeful as Gore uses his weapons of words to momentarily disconcert Maurice. But we long for Maurice to get his comeuppance  Or is that just me? I suppose it could be argued that though time immemorial stories have been handed down in one form or another without question of ownership. But it’s a flimsy argument where Maurice is concerned. 

This has made me ponder about authors and their ideas. As readers do we ever question where the writers we love get their ideas from. Is plagiarism endemic in the world of literature? Maurice asserts in the book that the most irritating question a writer can be asked is ‘Where do you get your ideas?’ . Goodness knows I’ve asked many a writer that. I’m feeling bad about it now!! But Maurice’s  answer is a revealing one - ‘…no one knows where they come from and nobody should know.They evolve in thin air, they float down from some mysterious heaven and we reach out to grab one, to grasp it in our imagination and to make it our own.’

And forgive me but I am left with a worrying thought as to how this idea came to John Boyne and I do hope it is not from personal experience!! It’s a fascinating read thought and I thank Nudge Books for the opportunity. 

Astroturf - Matthew Sperling

At the risk of sounding sexist and non pc I will admit that as I began to read this novella I feared I might lack the correct genitalia to fully appreciate its many nuances. As I read on I felt a little bewildered by the story. I wasn’t naive enough to believe it was a book about fake grass! But I was quite taken aback by the two main thrusts of the book - steroid use and astroturfing.

Without doubt it is well written with a sparkling wit, it’s concise and pithy. The language is economic but nothing is missed. It’s a fine example of salient writing. Characterisations, too, are finely tuned. The main character, Ned, not dysfunctional exactly but more than a little flawed. Not in the first flush of youth, he is in his thirties. he has a steady, if unexciting, job and is clearly dissatisfied with himself. So he begins to address his difficulties by using steroids to improve his physical self. This was a revelation to me and I found the book informative and comprehensive regarding the use of steroids by athletes. Not that I approve!! 

Ned feels improved, physically and mentally, by his steroid use and seeks to improve his life further by developing a business around steroids. I don’t wish to give away anything but this is the astroturfing section of the book which I found to be a little dubious, morally. 

I appreciate the frankness with which the story is told but found myself uneasy about the apparent lack of morality and illegality. I felt sure our lead character would get his come uppance at the end of the book. And I won’t spoil it by saying whether he did or didn’t!! 

What the book did do was to make me consider how male and female perceptions of themselves can be destructive to a greater or lesser degree. We read so much of female difficulties; for example  eating disorders associated with poor self image but I hadn’t fully considered that men can suffer the same crisis of self that can lead them down the path that Ned took. 

The book also confirmed my fear that the internet can be a murky,corrupt and dishonest place and the book shows how easy it is, with a modicum of expertise, to exploit that environment. 

And I am still left a little bewildered. t’s a staggeringly contemporary novel, it’s for Now without a doubt. The cyber world shifts so quickly and insidiously that the astroturf of today will have morphed into something else by tomorrow. But I still have a final sense of ambiguity. Is this book a savage indictment of the times we live in? Or is it a well observed piece about the place of men in our modern world, the compulsive, addictive power of drugs to dominate lives? Or is it ‘just’ a story about one guy with an identity crisis and how he ‘overcomes’ it? And this is probably one of the cleverest aspects of this fiction for the ball is very much in the readers court! Make up your own minds, folks! 

I’m glad I have read it for I feel better informed. I didn’t know what a sock puppet was before I read this! (Other than the obvious of course!! )

My thanks to Bookbridgr and Ana McLaughlin at Quercus and riverrun for the opportunity to read this tale. 

Dark Water - Elizabeth Lowry

When I read an endorsement on the front cover from Hilary Mantel I experienced a little frisson of electric anticipation. Whilst some cover plaudits can almost put me off a book this had the opposite effect. But I needn’t have worried. No number of endorsements could have disturbed my pleasure at this dark, rich, gothic tale.

Described as historical fiction it is so much more. It is a novel of deep perception about what we might casually call the human condition. An insight and acknowledgement of the paradox that is the human spirit. All beautifully explored within the sustained metaphor of the sea that is ‘dark water’. And it is dark and murky water indeed. 

The sea sequences in the book are palpably described and the action aboard the USS Orbis, particularly, is so well written you can almost smell the ship and the ocean, hear the creaking of the masts and the ropes, wince at the odour of unwashed sailors. It’s a marvellously protracted piece of descriptive writing that arouses in the reader a plethora of emotion from almost sea sickness to a kind of claustrophobia leading to horror at some of the events described. 

The land part of the novel is set in that glorious region of the USA, New England, in Charlestown, Boston and the mysterious island of Nantucket. I was on Martha's Vineyard once, South Beach, and my hosts pointed out Nantucket to me in the distance. The ghost of Captain Ahab weaved into my mind and has always left me with a curious sensation that the island was a mystical place. This book has done nothing to dispel that feeling! Beautifully described the place presents as a complete contrast to the descriptions of Boston. 

The novel’s narrator, Hiram Carver, is a mass of contradictions. You want to hug him and slap him, scream at him and shake him, soothe him and berate him. But most of all you want to understand him for if you can do that you might begin to understand yourself maybe.  He is a doctor and it is this profession that sees him aboard the Orbis where he meets William Borden. Borden is another mass of contradictions. Lauded for his apparent bravery abroad his previous ship the Providence he seems to mesmerise Carver. As the synchronicity of life intervenes Carver finds Borden a patient of his in his new found specialisation as psychiatrist in an asylum in Charlestown. Borden is apparently mad. 

This was one of the book’s many strengths for me; the examination of sanity and insanity and the almost invisible line that separates the two. The consideration of how either of those states affects our everyday lives and ultimately our mental and emotional freedom. There is a marvellous passage which I wish to quote in full - 

‘Ma’am, I sense terror in the everyday. And I don’t believe we’ve solved the problem of how to live.We’ve made that terror safe, merely by going along with the old ways and the old forms. We should be free to question, we should be free to reinvent, we should be free to feel that terror, the terrible freedom of being uncertain - but we aren’t; we cling to our false certainty and call it freedom and we can’t see what we’ve really created out of freedom is a prison.’ 

Such powerful words that could be applied to our contemporary world. And whilst we read that and then we read of the philosophy of care applied at the asylum you end up wondering whether it is those named as ‘insane’ who are the only ones to truly understand life and living. And thus - 

‘We are all at sea, sailing over dark waters.’

Carver seems obsessed by Borden and there is a subtle sub text here that in part explains his desire to understand him. The revelations of Borden are both shocking yet the astute reader may possibly have gleaned the truth in part.  And there is another maxim in the book that I feel worth quoting  -

‘If we don’t believe in the suffering of others, how can we believe in our own?’

And it seems the more that Hiram sees the suffering of others the more he suffers himself even if it doesn’t prompt him to act any differently.

The book is populated with diverse characters, skilfully drawn to play their part in the overall narrative but also to come alive for the reader. Characters that tug at our compassion, Hiram’s sister. Caro, for example. Characters that repulse us, like Captain Fitzgibbon, or Borden’s description of him!! Richard Mansfield, dependent yet decisive. So many paradoxes, so much duality. 

I could go on! But I won’t. You will have got the general idea that this book is quite something! This isn’t just a book, this is literature. 

My thanks to Bookbridgr and Ana McLaughlin at Quercus and riverrun for the opportunity to read this remarkable story. 

May 2019 sees the publication of the paperback edition with this stunning cover.

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The Stranger - Kate Riordan

Kate Riordan has the auspicious honour of being the author of the first book I ever bought for my kindle. Almost the last too as I’m not a fan of the device. It was Birdcage Walk an historical novel which I enjoyed very much. But it was The Girl in the Photograph that cemented my affinity to Ms. Riordan’s style of writing and I’ve read pretty much all of her work since. She writes ‘big house’ books and she writes them very well. 

The Stranger is an atmospheric novel with the same ‘flavour’ of her previous books. It was a delight to see how a writer develops their style and intent with each book they write. I had previously obliquely referred to Daphne Du Maurier in a review of The Girl in the Photograph I wrote (pre blog days to save you searching ;-))and I note that here the writer unashamedly acknowledges her affinity to that incredible writer (and Agatha Christie). This book, maybe more than any of the others, has a strong Du Maurier flavour. Maybe it’s the location, Du Maurier’s beloved Cornwall but I think it’s more.

The historical research, as ever, is authentic and detailed. You really feel you are in 1940’s Cornwall. Three Land Girls are at Penhallow Hall doing their bit for the wartime effort. Rose, Diana and Jane all dealing with their secrets and their demons. The occupants of the house, Eleanor and her ageing mother, have their secrets too. When all come together and when one damaged yet determined young lady is determined to open as many cans of worms as she can the results are explosive. 

The setting is perfect and so well realised. The names, Breakheart Cove, Blackbottle Creek, so Cornish, so atmospheric and palpable. The war time setting adds an additional threat to the already menacing ambience. The characters solidly drawn. Diana Devlin, a veneer of abject unpleasantness and manipulation dictates her actions and it’s only when we delve below that outer covering we see some of the reasons. Rose, ostensibly a typical and average woman of her era but in possession of a wider intent as she takes her place at Penhallow. And Jane, plain maybe, her story less accessible until the reveals towards the end of the book although it is possible to reach the correct conclusion about her, all the clues are there.

Structurally the book begins with a beguiling prologue that hints, chillingly, of what is to come. Subsequent chapters take the form of Diana’s diary which enables the reader to catch a glimpse of this dysfunctional mind and some straightforward third person story telling narrative. There is a delicious twist towards the end, unexpected to say the least. And somehow the ghost of Daphne Du Maurier, and Rebecca maybe,  pervades it all.

The story flows, pleasingly, competently and was immensely satisfying to read. My thanks to Penguin for rewarding me with a copy of this book. 

Missing Christina - Meredith Whitford

This review was originally part of a LoveBooksGroup blog tour for Nudge Books. The full blog tour article can be viewed here which does include the following review.

https://nudge-book.com/blog/2018/09/blog-tour-missing-christina-by-meredith-whitford/

Meredith Whitford is a new name to me and my cursory impression was that this may be a ‘chic litty’ sort of tale but it wasn’t at all. It was an engrossing read spanning a couple of continents and several decades. Some injections of humour balanced out some of the more serious parts of the story. I thought the grief and bereavement aspects were well done. I think if you’ve lost a parent there’s much here that will resonate with you. There’s no attempt to sugar coat the emotional devastation. 

I enjoyed how this writer struck a delicate balance between a deceptively light read and some pretty serious issues which was not evident at the beginning of the book. The opening pages introduce us to most of the main players which I found an effective device compared to many writers who allow their characters to develop through the progress of the story. Of course that does happen here as well to a degree but there is a sense of having got to know nearly everyone right from the start, especially Jacques the narrator, before the story proper takes off! I think without exception they all have baggage of one kind or another - issues that seem to resolve within the basic framework of Christina’s heart wrenching story. 

It seems to be a book of balances; the contemporary world and a world gone by from the nineteen sixties and the author skilfully highlights the cultural differences of the age with references to things like email in one era and traveller cheques from another. Sensitive issues such as adoption and homosexuality are dealt with appropriately, compassionately and honestly.

There’s an intriguing family mystery which takes Jacques  from the UK to Australia and back again before he can finally unravel the web of secrecy and although some aspects are obvious the ends are conscientiously  tied up . 

For those who argue that it is a tad far fetched it’s a work of fiction, a tale to immerse yourself in with some good writing, some entertainment and a little to make you think a bit. It’s over wordy maybe in places, but overall there’s less to object to and more to delight in. 

It’s a perfect holiday/ weekend read. It demands just enough of you without being too draining on the emotions. I doubt I could have enjoyed it any more than I did even I had received it as a proper book rather than an e-book!

The Belting Inheritance - Julian Symons

Belting by name and belting by nature! This was a delight from the first word to the last full stop. A wonderful gothic spider web of family secrets and intrigues that have you second guessing all the way through. It’s not a new premise, stranger returns claiming to be long lost relative but this 1964 exposition of the theme is extraordinarily well done.

Our protagonist is Christopher Barrington ‘adopted’ in a manner by the formidable Lady Wainwright mourning her two sons, casualties of WW2, although she has two other sons,Miles and Stephen who do not seem to provoke the same level of maternal solicitation that the lost two do! So when David,  one of the lost sons, appears to return the ailing Lady W. is required to reconsider her inheritance. And then a body is found…………

What follows is Christopher’s attempts to unravel the labyrinth of family secrets and to ascertain whether everyone is who they say they are. A quest which takes him to London, Brighton and Paris. It’s a well written, well plotted story for the most part. There’s a repleteness to the language and the pace which makes for a very satisfying read. 

There are characters of varying intensity, Christopher maintains his dogged, youthful zeal in trying to solve the myriad questions that events throw up. Uncle Miles is a fount of light relief and his spoonerisms quite amusing not to mention his propensity to turn up everywhere! Everybody else fits somewhere inbetween!

Out of the blue I was reminded of Herges Adventures of Tin Tin. I think it was the sequences in Paris where characters kept popping up like the Thompson Twins do in the cartoon!! You could argue that this is a tad contrived but the book is so good that you forgive everything! 

Astute readers will figure out several aspects of the final denouement without all the detail maybe but the writer does an admirable job of tying up all the ends. It’s a belting good read and another feather in the cap of the British Library.