Book Review #3: High and Inside by Russell Rowland published by Bangtail Press
This is an interesting week to be reviewing a book about alcoholism. The death of Robin Williams is in the news, but even more, in the world I move in, the idea that this happens to people is a present, maybe even an omnipresent, obsession. Creative people know that they have chosen a community on […]
Book Review #2 – A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
Something of this novel reminded me of the work of Primo Levi – not the scope, which is definitely as Dickensian as many reviewers suggest – nor the subject matter, which is relatively remote from Levi’s preoccupations. I struggle to articulate the exact parallel, but perhaps its the unremitting sense of certain failure which dominates […]
After Before by Jemma Wayne – book review #1
After Before by Jemma Wayne – published by Legend Press Emily, Vera and Lynn: three women with very different backgrounds. Emily is a Rwandan refugee, scarred both emotionally and physically by the genocide there. Vera swings between memories of her drug and drink-laden past and a present in which she seeks redemption for her previous life through […]
Resurrection
It’s a long time since I’ve been here! Life has been …. complicated. Not everything in the garden has been lovely Houses have been sold and bought, gardens (not this one, this one’s Wisley) redesigned, books written, husbands (okay, husband) diagnosed with cancer, operated on, returned home to convalesce … well that’s me up to […]
Joseph Conrad – The Secret Agent
Well, you see, I knew this man. This man was very confident. He was a great speaker, a fluent and funny man. Actually, maybe not funny. He wasn’t funny. He was witty – acerbic even. And he was tall and wore black (you know, that might have been a clue, had I been looking for […]
Amin Maalouf – The First Century After Beatrice
I have been distracted from posting by (a) needing to do the mundanities of moving house (b) the necessity to be writing. And yet the books must go, and soon. Onward then, to the shelves. I first read this book as part of a high level think-tank exercise. The think-tank, composed of a number of […]
John Varley – The Gaea Trilogy
I am totally thrown of balance to discover that the third book in the trilogy is missing. We took all the books off one of the floor to ceiling stacks a few weeks ago, and I wasn’t the person who replaced them. I know the book is here, in the house, I just don’t know […]
Frances Ferguson – Identity Unknown
I have no memory of reading this book. I have no idea why I still have it on my shelves. It’s history.
Janette Turner Hospital – Oyster
There are two Janette Turner Hospital novel’s on my bookshelf and only one is staying. It’s Oyster, the first one I read. The second is The Last Magician, which is a very fine book indeed, but it didn’t reach me where Oyster reached me. Okay, so without spoilers, Oyster is a cataclysmic novel and one […]
Wilkie Collins – The Moonstone and The Woman In White
Hmmm… I read Dickens, rather than Collins, at A-level, which is interesting because the Dickens that I read was Bleak House and it reintroduced me to a love for Dickens (Q. Do you like Dickens? A. I don’t know, I’ve never been to one. [That’s lowered the tone, but it’s still one of my favourite […]
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