BOOKS

My first review of the year was for Kate Atkinson's debut novel Behind the Scenes at the Museum, which inspired me to read more of my favorite authors' back catalogues. It seems fitting to end the year with a review of Atkinson's third novel, 'Emotionally Weird,' which was first published in 2000 and tells the story of Euphemia Stuart-Murray and her mother Nora, who live on a remote Scottish island. Effie is telling Nora about her life as a student in Dundee, where she lives with her Star Trek-obsessed boyfriend Bob. Effie, on the other hand, has concerns about her family history, and what she really wants is for Nora to reveal who her biological father is. Atkinson's sense of fun has always come through in her work, but 'Emotionally Weird' is the first of her books that can be described as a comic novel. The depiction of life at the University of Dundee in the early 1970s supposedly bears little resemblance to the Scottish higher education institution a...

'Behind the Scenes at the Museum' is Kate Atkinson's debut novel, first published in 1995 and narrated by Ruby Lennox, born in 1952 to a middle-class family who lives above a pet shop in York. The plot alternates between chapters recounting significant events in Ruby's childhood during the 1950s and 1960s and extended "footnotes" about her family's earlier generations told in non-chronological order. Most importantly, what happened to Ruby's great-grandmother Alice has ramifications for the entire family for many years to come. 'Behind the Scenes at the Museum,' like Atkinson's most recent novels Life After Life and A God in Ruins, is a multi-generational family saga with a twisting structure that, thankfully, doesn't distract too much from her brilliant character observation. With four sprawling generations to contend with, the Lennox family tree is more complex than that of the Todd family in Atkinson's later novels, but the conne...

  Kate Atkinson's previous novel, Life After Life, published in 2013, told the story (or rather stories) of Ursula Todd, who lives her life several times over with very different outcomes. Her most recent book, 'A God in Ruins,' is a "companion novel" rather than a sequel that focuses on Ursula's younger brother Teddy. It spans Teddy's life across the twentieth century and four generations of the Todd family, focusing on Teddy's childhood in Fox Corner, his wartime experiences as a pilot flying a Halifax bomber, and his later post-war years with his family. He marries his childhood sweetheart Nancy but has a strained relationship with their daughter Viola, who shows little appreciation for the horrors Teddy witnessed while serving in Bomber Command. Although the structure of 'Life After Life' appeared gimmicky at first, its real strengths were Atkinson's excellent storytelling and a cast of engaging characters, both of which are also presen...

  I recently finished Kate Atkinson's first Jackson Brodie novel, 'Case Histories,' which I thought was good but not spectacular. Several other bloggers suggested that I read Atkinson's other stand-alone novels, particularly 'Behind the Scenes at the Museum' and her most recent work, 'Life After Life,' which was nominated for this year's Women's Prize for Fiction. I am happy to report that they were correct! The basic concept of 'Life After Life' is similar to that of the film 'Groundhog Day,' but in a very different setting with less amusing outcomes. Ursula Todd, born on a snowy day in February 1910 to a wealthy family, lives her life several times over. However, unlike Phil Connors, Ursula is unaware of this, despite having frequent feelings of déjà vu. The book focuses on several alternate versions of pivotal moments in her life that lead her in very different directions. In one life, she dies as a child after falling off the ...

  I have reserved 'Life After Life' by Kate Atkinson, which is currently on hold at the library, so in case I don't get a chance to read it before the Women's Prize for Fiction event at the Southbank Centre in June, I thought I'd read the first of the Jackson Brodie novels, 'Case Histories,' to get a feel for Atkinson's writing. Jackson Brodie, a former police inspector turned private investigator, is working on three seemingly unrelated cold cases in the Cambridge area: the disappearance of a three-year-old girl in the 1970s, the murder of a solicitor's daughter, and another murder following a domestic incident between husband and wife.  These crimes are all linked in some way, but how? Atkinson excels at suspense, especially when it is later revealed that Jackson has a few dark family secrets of his own, which adds to the story's intrigue. I also enjoyed her character observations and Atkinson's dry humor. Although 'Case Histories' ...

Based on my blog content over the last few months, you'd think I'd given up on fiction, but I've recently resumed reading more novels. Some aspects of Jessica Andrews' debut 'Saltwater' reminded me a lot of Jessie Greengrass' 'Sight,' especially the visceral imagery about changing bodies and an emerging sense of self. Based on Andrews' life thus far, it appears that there is a strong element of autofiction in this coming-of-age story in which Lucy is navigating the world, from growing up in Sunderland to her student years in London to inheriting a cottage in Donegal from her grandfather after she graduates from university. Lucy's journey is centered on her relationship with her mother and alcoholic father, as well as the consequences of their separation. Andrews' depiction of adolescent life in the mid-Noughties is flawless in terms of accuracy, atmosphere, and tone. It's a very specific era in which MSN and MySpace briefly dominated ...

  Niccol Ammaniti's 'The Crossroads' is a darkly humorous thriller that won the Premio Strega - the Italian equivalent of the Man Booker Prize - in 2007. Unsatisfied with their lives, Rino Zena and his low-life buddies Danilo Aprea and Quattro Formaggi plan a bank raid and the ostensibly perfect crime. But events quickly take them in unexpected directions. This story ranges from the ridiculous to the extremely violent - I should warn you that the contents of this book are not for the faint of heart. Although the father-son relationship between Christiano and Rino was intriguing, it was the supporting characters who stood out for me - how could you forget a lunatic with the moniker Quattro Formaggi? 'The Crossroads' is unlike anything else I've read recently, and I appreciated the gritty depiction of 'real' Italy, as it is uncommon to find a completely unromanticized view of the country in modern literature. The story is told in very short segments. XEM T...

  I went to a London event last year to celebrate the work of classic crime fiction novelists Eric Ambler and Margery Allingham, and I've finally gotten around to reading two of Ambler's best-known novels, 'Epitaph for a Spy' and 'Journey into Fear,' which were reissued as Penguin Modern Classics in 2009 to commemorate his centenary. 'Epitaph for a Spy' follows Joseph Vadassy, a Hungarian refugee and language teacher on vacation in the south of France. When his camera is exchanged for one containing sensitive photos of secret naval installations in Toulon, Vadassy is suspected of being a Gestapo agent. To prove to the police that he is not an espionage suspect, he must determine which of the guests staying at the Hôtel de la Réserve is the true spy. 'Journey into Fear,' Ambler's sixth novel, is one of his best-known works, thanks in part to the 1943 film adaptation starring Orson Welles. At the start of World War II, British engineer Howard G...

  I enjoyed Naomi Alderman's Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction-winning feminist dystopian novel The Power, and I recently read her 2006 debut 'Disobedience,' which won the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award and the Orange Award for New Writers. It tells the story of Ronit Krushka, who grew up in a strict Orthodox Jewish community in Hendon, north London, and now works as a financial analyst in New York after abandoning her faith and family. She is scheduled to attend a memorial service for her estranged father, a respected rabbi, and it appears that Ronit's cousin, Dovid, will succeed him. When she returns to London, however, she learns that Dovid has married Esti, her childhood best friend and former lover. Inevitably, the portrayal of Orthodox Judaism and the relationship between Ronit and Esti in 'Disobedience' sparked some debate. While the setting is very specific, the more general observations about what happens when one person decides to conf...

  'The Power' by Naomi Alderman was one of the books that kept popping up on lots of end-of-year book lists last month, so it got bumped up my TBR list as one of my not-so-festive Christmas holiday reads. The central theme of Alderman's fourth novel is what would or could happen if women became more powerful than men in every way. Teenage girls develop the ability to release electrical jolts through their fingertips as a result of a mutation caused by a nerve agent used during WWII, which can be either harmless or lethal. Although the "power" is initially used by women as a deterrent against violent and abusive men who have oppressed them, it has far-reaching implications beyond that. The plot revolves around four main characters: Roxy Monke, the daughter of a London gangster, Allie Montgomery-Taylor, later known as Mother Eve, US politician Margot Cleary, and Nigerian journalist Tunde. Each protagonist's individual journey addresses the global consequences of...

  I adored Aravind Adiga's Man Booker Prize-winning novel 'The White Tiger,' as well as his short story collection 'Between the Assassinations,' and his latest novel 'Last Man in Tower' is no exception. Dharmen Shah, a real estate developer, offers residents of a dilapidated tower block in Mumbai large sums of money to leave so that he can build luxury apartments on the land. Except for Masterji, a retired widower, they all accept his offer one by one. His neighbors are soon ready to take matters into their own hands.  I adore Adiga's vivid and evocative descriptions of life in India. His writing in 'Last Man In Tower' truly brings twenty-first-century Mumbai to life, from the smell of the traffic to the taste of the food. The book is about the city as much as it is about the large and complex cast of characters who inhabit it, with the reader confronted with the messy realities of modern life in India. XEM THÊM :  Sunwin tài xỉu 💯 Game bài số ...

'Americanah,' by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, was shortlisted for this year's Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction. It tells the story of Ifemelu and her boyfriend Obinze, who fall in love as teenagers in Lagos. Ifemelu leaves Nigeria during university strikes to pursue postgraduate studies in the United States. Meanwhile, Obinze has moved to England after graduating and is working under a false identity in Essex while attempting to obtain a visa through an arranged marriage. The plot follows their separate journeys across continents before they are reunited in Lagos many years later.  In an interview with Goodreads, Adichie stated, "In Nigeria, race is not a conscious and present means of self-identification." Ethnicity is a factor. Religion exists. However, not race." When Ifemelu moves to the United States, she arrives at a similar conclusion. She begins writing about her experiences in an anonymous blog called Raceteenth or Various Observations About Americ...

I've been reading two of the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction shortlisted books in preparation for the winner's announcement on Wednesday. I won a copy of 'Stay With Me' by Ayobami Adebayo in a Twitter competition. 'Stay With Me,' set in Nigeria during a period of political turmoil in the 1980s, tells the story of Yejide, who is married to Akin and has struggled to conceive after four years of marriage. Akin's family decides he must marry a second wife, Funmi, in order to bear the children that Yejide is unable to bear. She eventually conceives after a long phantom pregnancy, but the threat of sickle-cell disease hangs over the family. Years later, Yejide is scheduled to attend Akin's father's funeral, where she will face the consequences of her actions in the past. The narrative alternates between Yejide and Akin's points of view on events, and the precarity of their relationship is mirrored in the backdrop of the region's political uph...

  Bluemoose Books is one of my favorite indie publishers, and I've been reading more of their titles in recent weeks. Should We Fall Behind by Sharon Duggal was recently featured on the BBC's books programme Between The Covers and has deservedly received praise for its sensitive and non-judgmental portrayal of society's most marginalized groups. Duggal's second novel follows Jimmy Noone, who is homeless in an unnamed city and is looking for his friend, Betwa, who grew up in the area. Ebele, a single mother who lives with her six-year-old daughter Tuli, sees him as a threat, while her landlord and employer, Nikos, who owns a nearby furniture shop, sees him as a nuisance. Jimmy, on the other hand, elicits more sympathy from their next-door neighbor, Rayya, who is caring for her terminally ill husband Satish. The gradual reveal of the characters' backgrounds is very effective, emphasizing that ordinary people have extraordinary stories to tell, that actions are not al...

Ann Patchett's 'Bel Canto,' winner of the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2002, is set during a birthday party for Japanese businessman Katsumi Hosokawa held at the vice-mansion president's in an unnamed South American country. While renowned American opera singer Roxane Coss is providing entertainment, the property is suddenly stormed by terrorists who had originally planned to kidnap the president. In his absence, however, they end up putting dozens of visitors under house arrest for several months. I believe that the level of enjoyment derived from reading 'Bel Canto' is almost entirely determined by whether you read it as a realist or as a romantic. This probably applies to a lot of fiction, but especially to a novel like 'Bel Canto,' which combines elegant literary prose with a setting more typically associated with a thriller - the novel is loosely inspired by a four-month siege at the Japanese ambassador's residence in Peru in 1995. XEM THÊM : Chắ...

  'Reading the World: Confessions of a Literary Explorer' (also published in the United States as 'The World Between Two Covers') is Ann Morgan's account of how she read a book from every country in the world after realizing that her literary diet was primarily comprised of British and American authors. Rather than replaying Morgan's reviews of the 197 books she read in 2012, which are already freely available on her excellent blog A Year of Reading the World, her bibliomemoir investigates issues such as what constitutes a good translation, how to define a sovereign nation, and what the future holds for world literature and the publishing industry. Morgan's experiences locating books from all over the world are as diverse as the texts themselves. She had difficulty obtaining a single book from certain sovereign states, such as a collection of short stories from So Tomé and Prncipe, which had been specially commissioned and translated for her by volunteers. B...

  Ann Morgan's debut novel, 'Beside Myself,' tells the story of identical twin sisters Helen and Ellie. At the age of six, they decide to play a game in which they swap places for a day in order to fool their mother. However, despite the real Helen's protests, troublesome Ellie enjoys playing the bright and popular Helen so much that she refuses to swap back. While their true identities are kept hidden, several family secrets are revealed. Ann Morgan's debut novel, 'Beside Myself,' tells the story of identical twin sisters Helen and Ellie. At the age of six, they decide to play a game in which they swap places for a day in order to fool their mother. However, despite the real Helen's protests, troublesome Ellie enjoys playing the bright and popular Helen so much that she refuses to swap back. While their true identities are kept hidden, several family secrets are revealed. XEM THÊM :  Các Ứng Dụng Mức Số 2022 – Kỹ Năng Chơi Lô Đề Hack As a result, much ...