Helensq joins the Club

This is my third year on LT but my first venturing from being a lurker on Club Read and into a fully fledged member.

Last year I started a project of reading my way through the "best" American literature of the 20th century, on a chronological basis. I've reached 1939 and have enjoyed many I had never even heard of (The Magnificent Ambersons, Their Eyes were Watching God, Main Street) and read some classics that had previously completely passed me by in my very British education (The Great Gatsby..., Hemingway...). Reading them chronogically has really enhanced the experience and I plan to continue this project in 2013.

In between I read a similar number of books recommended by other LT members - a great source of new finds - some books in French to keep up the language - and a diversion into the history and hieroglyphs of Egypt, reaching a total of 60 books.

My plans for 2013 were to intersperse more American novels with those of Dickens - another largely neglected author in my reading history - and more contemporary recommendations. All suggestions welcome! But seeing the themes and group reads on this group, I will also make the most of the French themes. So here goes!

This is where I will keep a summary list of the books I have read this year.

January
1. Homeland and Other Stories by Barbara Kingsolver 4*
2. Les Travailleurs de la Mer by Victor Hugo 3.5*

February
3. Tiny Sunbirds Far Away by Christie Watson 3.5*
4. The Strangers Child by Alan Hollinghurst 2* - and abandoned

March
5. Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman 3.5*
6. Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck 5*

April
7. For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway 4.5*
8. The River of Lost Footsteps by Thant Myint-U 3.5*
9. All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy 2.5*
10. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers 3.5*

May
11. The Winter Vault by Anne Michaels 2*
12. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce 3.5*
13. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith 3.5*
14. Border Country by Raymond Williams 4*
15. Tales of the South Pacific by James A Michener 3.5*

June
16. An Unsuitable Attachment by Barbara Pym 3.5*
17. All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren 1.5* unfinished
18. Flight Behaviour by Barbara Kingsolver 3.5*
19. Agent Zigzag by Ben Macintyre 3.5*
20. The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes 4*

July
21. Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson 2*
22. The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford 3*
23. The Art of Fiction by David Lodge 4*
24. Villette by Charlotte Bronte 3.5*

August
25. Painter of Silence by Georgina Harding 4*
26. Un aller simple by Didier van Cauwelaert 4*
27. Go Tell it on the Mountain by James Baldwin 4*
28. The Color Purple by Alice Walker 3.5*
29. The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer 4*

September
30. Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese 3*
31. The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger 4*
32. A Year in Marrakesh by Peter Mayne 4*
33. Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury 4.5*
34. How Novels Work by John Mullan 3*
35. Tartuffe by Moliere 3*
36. Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Laclos 2.5*

October
37. The Lighthouse by Alison Moore 3*
38. Instructions for a Heatwave by Maggie O'Farrell 3.5*
39. On the Road by Jack Kerouac 3.5*
40. The Girl in Room Fourteen by Carol Drinkwater 1*
41. The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng 4*

November
42. The Wapshot Chronicles by John Cheever 4*
43. Candide by Voltaire 3*
44. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov 4.5*

Welcome Helensq. I love a project especially one in chronological order, looking forward to following your reading.

Your project sounds terrific, I'm curious what you will come across this year. Their Eyes Were Watching God is a favorite of mine.

I, too, am interested in following your reading the best of 20th century American literature in chronological order. Is the next move to read 20th century British literature in chronological order, which also sounds like a worthy challenge? There are so many ways to enhance our reading experiences!

I'm curious about your American lit project too. How are you deciding which books to read? A list somewhere, or are you researching each year individually?

Very interesting project. I'll be curious to see your choices over the course of the year.

Thanks for the welcomes.

I found the list I am using (below) on bookriot.com. The compiler decided to include only one work per author so I have added a few extras that I knew I wanted to read (eg Tender is the Night and Sister Carrie). As you can see, I am not reading every single one - I research them on LT and wikipedia and exclude those I just know I will hate, (and some others which I can't get hold of easily!) but it is encouraging me to try ones I would never otherwise have read. I would be really interested to know what you think of the list - especially if there are books you think should be added.

I know very little about the development of the modern United States and reading the books this way has helped me gained some understanding of the way literary style, contemporary history and social mores have developed over the century - for example, the way black people are represented (by both black and white authors), the impact of urbanisation and industrialisation, war and prohibition and the changing attitudes to women and sex. But it has also helped me piece together the sequence of authors - I really had no idea at all before this of who was writing when - and to appreciate something of the influences on their style and language.

I don't think I would do the same for British 20th century literature, because I have already read so much and have a good mental map of where the various British authors fit in, both in terms of literary style and relation to contemporary events. But I am planning to tackle Dickens on a chronological basis, starting with the Pickwick Papers, so I can see how he develops as an author (and also because it makes it easier to decide which book to read next!)

The list

The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1892)
Maggie, Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane (1893)
The Country of Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett (1896)
What Maisie Knew by Henry James (1897) - not on the list but read
The Awakening by Kate Chopin (1899) - read

Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser (1900) - read
The Call of the Wild by Jack London (1903) - read
The Golden Bowl by Henry James (1904)
The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton (1905) - read
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair (1906) - read
Three Lives by Gertrude Stein (1909) - tried and gave up

My Antonia by Willa Cather (1918)
The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington (1918) - read
Winesberg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson (1919) - read

Main Street by Sinclair Lewis (1920) - read
Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man by James Weldon Johnson (1921) - read
Cane by Jean Toomer (1923)
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1925) - read
An American Tragedy by Theodore Dresier (1925)
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway (1926) - read
The Bridge of the San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder (1927) - to be read, but not currently available on Kindle!
Home to Harlem by Claude McKay (1928)
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner (1929)
Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe (1929) - read
A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway (1929) - read

The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett (1930) - read
Flowering Judas and Other Stories by Katherine Porter (1930)
The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck (1931) - read
Call It Sleep by Henry Roth (1934)
Tender is the Night by F Scott Fitzgerald (1934) - read
The Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller (1934) - rejected on the basis of feedback from others
Appointment in Samarra by John O’Hara (1934)
The USA Trilogy by John Dos Passos (1936)
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (1936) - read
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston (1937) - read
Day of the Locust by Nathaniel West (1939) - Tried a Kindle sample and abandoned.
The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler (1939)
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (1939) - read

For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway (1940) - read - wasn't on the list but should have been!
Native Son by Richard Wright (1940)
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers (1940) - read
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand (1943)
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith (1943) - read
All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren (1946) - started
Tales of the South Pacific by James Michener (1947) - read
The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer (1948) - read
The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles (1948)
The Lottery and Other Stories by Shirley Jackson (1949)

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger (1951) - read
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison (1952)
Go Tell It On the Mountain by James Baldwin (1953) - read
The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow (1953)
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (1953) - read
Andersonville by MacKinley Kantor (1955)
On the Road by Jack Keroauc (1957) - read
Gimpel the Fool by Isaac Bashevis Singer (1957)
The Wapshot Chronicle by John Cheever (1957) - read
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov (1958) - read
The Magic Barrel by Bernard Malamud (1958)
Goodbye, Columbus by Philip Roth (1959)
Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs (1959)
The Little Disturbances of Man by Grace Paley (1959)
Browngirl, Brownstones by Paule Marshall (1959)

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (1960)
Rabbit, Run by John Updike (1960)
The Sot-Weed Factor by John Barth (1960)
The Moviegoer by Walker Percy (1961)
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (1961)
Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates (1961)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey (1962)
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath (1963)
A Sport and a Pastime by James Salter (1967)
The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron (1967)
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? By Philip K. Dick (1968)
Slaughterhouse-5 by Kurt Vonnegut (1969)
House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday (1969)
them by Joyce Carol Oates (1969)
The Collected Stories of Jean Stafford (1969)

Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion (1970)
The Complete Stories of Flannery O’Connor (1971)
Mumbo Jumbo by Ishmael Reed (1972)
Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner (1972)
Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon (1973)
Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow (1975)
JR by William Gaddis (1976)
Roots by Alex Haley (1976)
Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko (1977)
The World According to Garp by John Irving (1978)
Airships by Barry Hannah (1978)

Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson (1980)
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole (1980)
The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty (1982)
The Color Purple by Alice Walker (1982) - read
Cathedral by Raymond Carver (1983)
Love Medicine by Lousie Erdrich (1984)
Necromancer by William Gibson (1984)
White Noise by Don Delillo (1985)
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy (1985)
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry (1985)
City of Glass by Paul Auster (1985)
Beloved by Toni Morrison (1987)
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan (1989)
The Shawl by Cynthia Ozick (1989)

The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien (1990)
How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez (1991)
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I see you skipped over My Antonia by Willa Cather, so I am going to put in a good word for it – I think Cather is a wonderful writer.

Great list, the majority of which I haven't read either. Thanks for posting it!

Thanks Cait86 - that's just the prompt I need to go back and have a look at it!

Homeland and Other Stories by Barbara Kingsolver



I don't normally like short stories but I always enjoy Kingsolver's writing and this was no exception. Many of the stories have a melancholy theme but the quality of writing, variety of style, settings and the unexpected twists of the tales meant that each story felt like a miniature novel. Perhaps for that reason, I read the book more slowly than I would normally - I needed to reflect on and savour each of the stories before moving onto the next. Definitely a 4 star read.

(And a little self-congratulation on this post - I finally worked out how to include the book cover!)

Some great books on that list helen

Threads look so cool with a few pictures or book covers.

>1 helensq:

Reading them chronogically has really enhanced the experience and I plan to continue this project in 2013.

That's interesting. I have just about completed reading Well educated Mind by Susan Wise Bauer and she recommends the same.

It's so tempting to do that same project, to read that same in list in order. Maybe some day.

9, 10 - I'll put in a good word for My Antonia as well. One of my favorites. Ditto The Sound and the Fury. Love this list!

So many good books on that list! I've read many of them, and most of them I'd like to reread. Maybe someday.

My Antonia sounds like a must-read! There seems to be a consensus that the list is a good one - which makes me keen to return to it! (Though at the moment I'm a bit slowed down by reading Les Travailleurs de la Mer by Vicot Hugo in the French literature group read).

8> Whenever I see that someone has read The Jungle, I'll invariably recommend they watch Food, Inc. So much hasn't changed in the meat packing industry over the past century since Upton sounded the alarm.

Hope you'll like The Bridge of San Luis Rey. I think about that little book packed w/huge ideas a lot.

Les Travailleurs de la Mer by Victor Hugo



Les Travailleurs de la Mer was the first book by Hugo I have read, prompted by the Group Read. Gilliatt, a reclusive fisherman in Guernsey, attempts the impossible to win the woman he loves. Numerous carefully researched diversions slow the going at times but the exceptional quality of the writing and the way Hugo conveys the atmosphere and spirit of place and situation more than made up for this. Having been to Guernsey for my honeymoon, and knowing Normandy well, enhanced my enjoyment.

Tiny Sunbirds Far Away by Christie Watson



Set in Nigeria, this is the story of a young girl who ends up finding her home and vocation in the dangerous hardship of the delta, where local people suffer daily from violence and the oppression of the oil companies. Some great characters and very believable as the narrative and perspective of a 13 year old girl. However, I felt that the discussion of female genital mutilation, although an important issue and handled well, was a bit too much like a lecture - would Grandmama really have known all those statistics? - and whilst the author clearly has immense sympathy and understanding for the people of the region, it was still an outsider's view. Although one can't really compare books just because they are set in the same country, I found Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie much more compelling.

That brings me more or less up to date. I am currently reading The Stranger's Child by Alan Hollinghurst which, one third in, I can't make my mind up about. Then I am going back to my American novels with a re-read of Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath.

>18 absurdeist: - How right you are, as recent events in UK and Europe over our processed meat go to show.

The cover of Tiny Sunbirds Far Away is beautiful; too bad the story itself proved a bit of a disappointment. What time period is the novel set?

>22 avidmom: It is set more or less in current times. Maybe my review came across a bit too critical. Many people love this book and I certainly enjoyed it - I would give it 4 stars. But my reservations remain - it left me feeling more educated than emotionally moved.

Your reservations on Tiny Sunbirds Far Away seem valid, and not too critical. Glad you mentioned them.

Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman


I read this as part of a course I am doing on leadership of major projects, as part of a module on understanding risk but I would recommend it to anyone interested in behavioural economics, why we make the decisions we do and the fallibility of our so-called rational choices. The author won the Nobel Prize for economics for the work that led to this book but it includes lots of examples and exercises to illustrate the points he makes, which makes it very readable.

Other reading seems to have slowed down, partly because of the work I am having to do for this course. I am afraid I gave up on The Strangers Child - and have concluded Hollinghurst is just not for me. Instead I plan to return to my American books, with a re-read of The Grapes of Wrath up next.

A lengthy period since I last updated my reading, partly because I have been reading slower (was the target last year of 75 books to read a Good Thing or not?), and partly because I am spending less time on the computer updating my reading log! So a few to catch up on....

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck



A rare 5* read for me. This was even more superb than I remember from when I read it the first time when I was 19. A lyrical, harrowing, evocative portrayal of migrant communities seeking to sustain life in dustbowl USA in the 1930s. It doesn't need a review as many have written far better than I could on it.

For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway



And after such an outstanding read, another nearly as good. For Whom the Bell Tolls is a story that takes place over about 3 days in the Spanish Civil War. This was the third Hemingway I have read in my American Odyssey and by far the best (once I had come to terms with the idiosyncracies of the thee's and thou's and the po-faced approach to writing obscenities). The first third sets up the scene and the characters; I thought the middle third , which gives some of the back story and explains the dynamics, flagged a bit (hence 4.5 not 5 stars) but the final third was just superb. Probably one of the best love stories I have ever read but at the same time a telling exploration of the mindset that drives man to go to war against the odds. And whilst not a fan of erotica, I have never, ever, read so beautiful a description of love making as that in the closing chapters.

The River of Lost Footsteps by Thant Myint-U



I would never have bought this if it hadn't been on a special deal on Amazon and if Aung San Siu Kyi hadn't recently been in the UK. But it was and she had and it proved to be a fascinating account of the history of a country I have paid little attention to in the past. Well written and thought-provoking, I found the section on the 20th century by far the most interesting. The latter chapters were a bit confusing because they wasn't narrated in strictly chronological order. In particular the events and story of Aung San Siu Kyi come right at the very end, so that at one point I thought I must have been reading too fast and missed it. But then I realised that the author (the grandson of Thant-U, the Secretary General of the UN) was making the point that the history - and current position - of Burma is so much more than this one, media-friendly, aspect, and this helped me understand the complexity and challenge of problems facing the country.

Just days after finishing the book, I read in the news the story - criticism - of the Burmese police standing by and watching Buddhist mobs attack Muslims. I was glad I had read this book - it gave me a much greater insight into the background and helped me avoid jumping to obvious conclusions about this news story. Recommended.

Last catch up today...

All the Pretty Horses by Cormack McCarthy



A quick read, a modern-day Western and not particularly my cup of tea though quite well written. Horse-loving Texan boy loses family and hits the trail to Mexico. Hard things happen, in the middle of which he meets a beautiful girl and falls in love, but then more bad things happen. I won't spoil the end of the story but there is violence, reunion and an ending that promises more.

This is apparently the first of a trilogy. I am not sorry I read it (although out of sequence it definitely fits the American theme), but will not be looking out for the next two in the series, notwithstanding others' reviews which say that it is only when you get to the last book you sense the overall architecture of the narrative.

Now onto The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers....

You have a nice mix of books in your update.

Grapes of Wrath is amazing. I read Obscene in the Extreme right after reading it and it enhanced the experience. It talks about Steinbeck's writing of the book and the reaction of civic leaders in the area of California in which the book takes place.

Thanks for the comments, both.

I'll certainly look into Obscene in the Extreme - I researched a bit of the background to and reception of the book when I was reading it but didn't come across that one.

I have The River of Lost Footsteps but haven,t gotten to it yet - glad to hear your review. Bumping it up. ALTHO:

I've had a tough week and couldn't focus on reading, so I decided Steinbeck was just the thing so I started Sweet Thursday and think I feel a Steinbeck binge coming on. So glad also 30 to hear about Obscene in the Extreme. Have to read that.

Lots of interesting bits here on your thread! I'm really trying to not look at your list of US books. Living in Canada, unfortunately my reading life has been overtaken by the cultural hegemony of US literature and I really try to read anything else. However, at the end of every year when I check, I've read more American books than any other, and many of them have been wonderful. Despite that, I'm averting my eyes from your list!

Catching up. Those are three major classics you last added here, good stuff. And nice to see a review of The River of Lost Footsteps. I was fascinated by it when I read it (recommended by me too, Merrikay).

Thanks for the visits - I don't get time for much activity on Librarything but I'm always delighted to have visitors to my thread.

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers



It's taken me a while to complete this book and now that I have, I am somewhat ambivalent about it. Essentially portraits of five very different people in southern USA at the start of WWII, For assorted reasons, each character is isolated from those around them and is searching for something in their life - a dream, a lost friend, family, acceptance. Each is drawn to a deaf-mute who frequents a local diner and whether or not they find what they are looking for, they find solace from talking to Mr Singer.

It is amazing to think that McCullers was only 23 when she wrote it and that it was her first book - the narrative and the writing both have a maturity about them that would suggest much greater experience. The characters have very distinctive stories and the book addresses big social issues in a way that seems ahead of its time (1940). I am glad I read it. But still... somehow I felt that I observed these individuals but didn't really engage with them. I didn't really care whether or not whether or not they found what they were searching for and I was left at the end with a feeling of 'so what?'. So 3.5 stars.

Enjoyed your comments on THIALH, a book that has been on a wishlist for a while now.

Hi Helen, just catching up with your thread - which I'm liking a lot. I've always been a fan of American classics, so will enjoy seeing your ongoing challenge as the year unfolds.

Thanks for visiting, dchaikin and polaris. A break from the American sequence, but still across the Atlantic for my next book...

Winter Vault by Anne Michaels



Anne Michaels is the Canadian author of Fugitive Pieces which I remember reading and enjoying some years ago. At the start of this book I thought I had found a book to contend with The English Patient, one of my all-time favourites. On one level, this might have been because it was set in the desert in Egypt - this time, in the 1960s and the rescue of Abu Simbel temple and the destruction of the Nubian homelands, following the building of the Aswan High Dam. This story was nicely juxtaposed with the earlier creation of the St Lawrence Seaway in Canada and an engaging relationship between two interesting characters, and a number of secondary ones, started to emerge. I thought the writing was similarly lyrical and the themes of destruction and reconstruction were handled very well. All seemed promising.

But then, for me, after a crisis in the lives of the two main characters, the book lost its way. A network of engaging, interesting relationships made way for a lengthy diversion into the destruction and rebuilding of the Warsaw ghetto with a whole new set of characters and relationships constantly being added. And what had been poetic, evocative writing at the start started to grate and seem overly-pretentious.

There is a glimmer of hope in the end - and also the glimmer of an excellent book lost somewhere within Winter Vault, but I think it needs more editing to unearth that book. So what started as a 4 or even 4.5 star read dwindled to a bare 2 stars.

I can't quite decide what I am going to read next - either A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (reaching 1943 in my American journey) or, as I am going on holiday to France for a few days, perhaps a light read in the form of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. Or even both!

I didn't much enjoy Fugitive Pieces for similar reasons to those that encouraged you to downgrade Winter Vault.

I felt the same way about Fugitive Pieces and so Winter Vault is way down my tbr pile.

Despite some excellent weather in France, I managed to complete not only both the books I had earmarked but also a third - as well as enjoying the gardening, birdwatching, walking and a delicious meal out to celebrate our wedding anniversary! A well-spent 5 days.

So, catching up on my reading. First up was The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce



A popular read at present judging from the number of copies I see being read on the Tube on my way to work, I found it an enjoyable, easy read. The tale of a retired man who sets off on a personal mission to walk the length of England to see a dying woman he last saw some 20 years ago, it is indeed an unlikely story, but Harold is an engaging character, the writing flows well and the underlying story about Harold's relationship with his son and wife emerges gradually in a satisfying way. But whilst there was pathos, I didn't find it particularly moving and it felt a rather slight novel. I was also unconvinced by the changing relationship with his wife and some of the characters he meets along the way were somewhat stereotypical. For these reasons I gave it 3.5 - enjoyable but not particularly substantial.

As I did too, for different reasons A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith



This, of course, is another American book and one that I should have read about 35 years ago when I was a teenager, when I would definitely have enjoyed it more. It is essentially a memoir of Francie, a young girl growing up in Brooklyn between 1902 and 1919, her parents and family and the way she gradually makes sense of her world. It is a lovely story for a young teenager, but I confess I found it just a bit dull.

And finally, one I picked up from Amazon because I dream of one day moving to the border country between England and Wales where this book is set:

Border Country by Raymond Williams



Like both the other two books, at the heart of this book is the relationship between a father and child. In this case, Will (or Matthew) comes back to his home village in the Welsh Borders to visit his father, Harry, who has suffered a heart attack. Theirs was a relationship where little had been said but much felt and this crisis raises difficult feelings for Will and makes him look again at his life and his relationships.

Being half-Welsh myself and knowing the Welsh Borders a little, I thought the book evoked the old Welsh village life in that part of the world extremely well. But the border country of the title is more than just the geographical border - it is also about the borders between past and present, staying and leaving, silence and speech, life and death. Sparingly written, moving and thoughtful, this was the best of the three books, so 4 stars.

You were lucky to get five days of good weather. Where I live in South West France it has been the worst spring since 1935.

Border Country looks interesting. I lived and worked for most of the last five years in that area, so it'll add a personal element to read that one.

>42 baswood:

Apparently, in the Netherlands, they've had the coldest month of May since 1901.

>42 baswood:, >44 edwinbcn:

I don't know about the records but I remember in Normandy last March we were bemoaning the drought - and since then, until last week, we've barely seen the sun at all, in France or England.

One bonus for us is that last week we saw the wisteria on our house in France in full bloom for the first time ever - we always go there for the Whitsun break but every year previously the flowers have been pretty much over by then.

Spring came a month late here in the Southern US, too. With the result that everything sprang into bloom at once.

Tales of the South Pacific by James A Michener

A collection of short stories about a miscellany of American sailors and nurses stationed in the South Pacific at the start of the second world war, waiting and looking for action. At first I wasn't sure about it but gradually the distinct, but connected stories, started to form into a satisfying whole. There is little fighting - the story is much more about the people, and their relationship with each other, with the indigenous population and, indirectly, their lives and culture back home in the States. As such it was a somewhat sanitised version of war. In contrast, in some stories (though not all) there is explicit - and unpleasant - racism which was particularly jarring given that the book was fundamentally about exposure to a different culture and world.

I was surprised the book won the Pulitzer prize in 1948 - I think that may reflect more on the post-war psyche and need to celebrate the outcome whilst recognising the loss, rather than its literary merit. Immediately after finishing it, I rated it 4 stars but now some time has elapsed I am not sure why. So I am now going to downgrade it to 3.5 stars - well worth reading but not of exceptional literary or narrative merit.



An Unsuitable Attachment by Barbara Pym

Well, this next book was very different from the previous one! A tale of impoverished gentility in the Church of England in 1960s north London, it is terribly, terribly English, fixated on church fetes, evensong, sherry, the social nuances of different parts of London and the status of clergy - all of which I am sure were out of date even in the early 1960s. In the middle of this is an almost accidental love affair between two retiring characters, set alongside another potential love triangle, machinations and scheming, a significant visit (parish outing, what else?!) to Rome and a very unsuitable attachment between Sophia, the vicar's wife, and her cat.

As both the daughter and grand-daughter of vicars (but neither Canon nor Archdeacon...) and a trained, though never practising librarian who works in London, the setting of the book was painfully familiar to me. Maybe because of that, I genuinely don't know if I enjoyed the book or not! I was infuriated by the way people - particularly women - were categorised on the basis of their relationship to a cleric, yet the female characters are by far and away the strongest characters, in a book filled with very well-characterised individuals. It is well written, engaging to read - yet the story is irritating beyond belief!

If this is typical of Barbara Pym's output, I don't think I particularly like it. These are neither an England, the Church of England nor individuals that I recognise. I wanted to throw the book across the room on a number of occasions. I fumed at the stereotypes. And yet....and yet....maybe I will just try another book by her to find out...!

And now I am going back to my American list with All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren. I tried it before An Unsuitable Attachment, but found it was a bit much straight after Tales of the South Pacific. However, I don't want to give up on it so am giving it a second chance.

#47 Two reviews of books that are very much 'of their time'.

I haven't read Michener in years, but some of his books were favorites when I did read them. I am always surprised at the racism in some of the older books by many authors, and as you said that was most likely a product of the times. But if we think about American soldiers stationed in the South Pacific during WWII, there was a lot of racism in the States at that time.

And forgot to mention that All the King's Men is quite good if you can stick it out a bit longer.

and 49 - Funny -I was thinking about watching South Pacific with my grandchildren who enjoy musicals, and wondering how much of that they would understand in that movie..

I am not sure about South Pacific, but I know that my grandchildren enjoyed The Sound of Music. Both are dated, but I think that music may help span the time.

>42 baswood:,44, 45,46 One of the positive aspects of this spring though has been that everything is wonderfully floriferous and has lasted far longer than usual, so that there have been some unusual overlappings of bloom. Fragrances have been heightened as well. A spring for the bragging record books!

>48 baswood: Indeed, particularly South Pacific. But I find it hard to believe Barbara Pym was of her time even when she was writing!

>49 NanaCC: - thanks for the encouragement - I'm sticking with ATKM and enjoying it for now!

>50 mkboylan:, 51- I remember loving South Pacific when I was a teenager. I'm going to rent it to give it another go, to see how I feel now I'm older and have read the book. The Sound of Music is wonderful - such lovely songs but I still get scared at the end even though I'm middle-aged and know it all come out well in the end!

>52 SassyLassy: we've got the best display of roses ever - though that may be partly because after 17 years we've finally managed to banish the deer from our garden!

>51 NanaCC: - the film of South Pacific is very disappointing, partly because they decided to film in Todd-AO and use strange colour filters, but the songs are still good.

Still this is the time of year for Oklahoma since 'June is Bustin' Out All Over'.

All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren

I shouldn't really include this in my 'Read in 2013' list but for the fact that I have genuinely tried with it, twice, yet still not taken to it or been able to finish it. I doubt therefore that it will appear in any of my subsequent 'Read in ...' lists, so for that reason wanted to record my attempt.

There are two main reasons for me not finishing it. The foremost reason is the writing style which is patchy. Some sections are outstanding - the opening pages for about Highway 58 for example - but too much of the time it was wordy and failed to keep my attention. The second reason was that I simply found it hard to relate to the world of American state politics. This is very different from anything I know in the UK and whilst I have of course observed American politics from afar, through media coverage of Presidential elections, I felt I lacked the necessary understanding of the significance and roles of different players in the state political game to appreciate this book. And because I found it difficult to keep the thread of the narrative due to the writing style, this book was not going to fill the gap in my knowledge or appreciation.

It leaves me wondering whether the cultural differences between the States and the UK will impinge more on my enjoyment of the books as I continue on my journey through the 20th century literature into more recent times and the historical context becomes more familiar - although, come to think of it, I don't read many British books from the 50s and 60s either. We will see. Next up are, possibly, The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer or, if I can't face a violent, gruelling war story (not my usual scene at all), The Catcher in the Rye.


Flight Behaviour by Barbara Kingsolver

But in the meantime, for reassurance, I turned to a much more recent American book by my favourite author. Flight Behaviour is essentially a lesson in the threat of global warming and climate change, interwoven with the story of a young woman in an unsatisfying life finding the courage for a new beginning. Millions of beautiful orange butterflies are found by the central character, Dellarobbia, roosting in a pine forest on land owned by a struggling farming family. The phenomenon attracts tourists, scientists and the media with lasting effect on Dellarobbia and her family. Alongside the story of the fate of the butterflies, driven off course by the consequences of climate change, there is an insightful, parallel look at the effect of the choices we make within our own social ecosystem - the struggles of an individual, of family and community life. Kingsolver writes as well as always, with beautiful descriptions of the power and beauty of nature, telling insight into human behaviour and a thread of perceptive humour. However, this is perhaps not my favourite of her books because I felt the science and ecology lesson was a bit too much to the fore and the device she uses of the expert explaining the complexities of scientific method, biology and ecology to a 6 year old was even, dare I say it, a bit condescending. So whilst the book will stay with me, it only gets 3.5 stars.

Next weekend we are heading off on holiday, to go sailing for a week in the Hebrides on a 104-year old sailing ketch, the Bessie Ellen. We will be trainee crew along with five others, so unless it rains a lot of the time, (as is always possible on the west coast of Scotland), I doubt there will be much time for reading.

your trip sounds divine! Enjoy!

I've had the same reaction to Kingsolver. She got a little preachy in Prodigal Summer. It's funny how sermonizing in books is unpleasant even when I'm in full agreement.

Too bad about All the King's Men, but I can see how the absence of a tradition of American style populist politics in the UK might make it seem somewhat alien. Although Warren said the book was not based on Governor Huey Long, it might help to read a bit about him, as most people see an association between Willy Stark and the governor (if you're interested that is, you may want to just put it away completely). Although somewhat out of favour now for a variety of reasons, I would give Norman Mailer a try. He is a very powerful writer.

Sailing and the Hebrides, two of my favourite things! Have a wonderful trip and I hope you get the opportunity to indulge in some single malt.

Well, nearly packed up and ready to go. The forecast is for rain, rain and more rain, so we have packed waterproof trousers, leggings, gloves and warm clothes, rather than the summer gear we fondly imagined we would want when we were beguiled by the photos of the beautiful white sandy beaches and blue seas of the Hebrides. But it isn't about lazing on beaches so we are still very excited - and hoping to benefit from the distilleries whatever the weather!

In the meantime I have had a good week's reading.



Inspired by Brenzi's review, I dived into Agent Zigzag by Ben Macintyre. Not normally one for spy stories, I lapped this up! A true story of a double agent during the second world war, it paints a very engaging picture of a life that I find hard to imagine. I was surprised by the minutiae of the intelligence that the spymasters were looking for - it seemed pretty mundane detail in many ways, and I found myself wondering just how much impact the spy network actually had during the war (as opposed to Bletchley Park and the cracking of the Enigma code). Maybe something for me to read about further.

So far as the book went, it rollicked along (is that an old-fashioned word with a modern double-entendre? I do hope not!) and I couldn't put it down, but the latter part of the book, rounding up what happened to the characters after the war, was flat and even pedestrian. So, being the tough marker that I am, yet another 3.5 stars.

I am now reading The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes. I only started it on this morning's train commute but am already three quarters through it. I will undoubtedly finish it on the long train trip tomorrow from London to Glasgow, but the comments on it will have to wait until my return.

Hope you have a wonderful time!

The Sense of an Ending is something to read on the beach, but I guess it was so light you read it before you got to the beach. Have an exhilarating time in the Hebrides.

Well, we've been back a couple of weeks but had little time for posting on LT due to pressures of continuing birthday celebrations and a busy time at work. The Hebrides were very wet, very windy, often cold - but at the same time the boat and the sailing were the experience of a lifetime, the scenery stunning and the company excellent. Highlights included seeing puffins nesting on Canna, visits to Iona and Staffa (Fingal's Cave) and plucking up courage to climb out onto the bowsprit (though not up the mast) whilst we were ploughing downwind through the water. I have added a few photos to my member gallery to capture something of the essence of our holiday.

The long train trip up to Scotland, and the stormy weather meant that we had more time for reading than I had expected. On the day of my birthday the weather was so bad that we stayed holed up in a small, natural harbour and apart from a brief excursion ashore, stayed warm in our bunks reading and sleeping!

So to the books I have read.

The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes



A brief read, as previously noted, and I did indeed finish it on the train. Tony, in late middle age, looks back at the emotional tangles of his late adolescence, prompted by the unexpected bequest of a school friend's diary by the mother of a girlfriend they had in common. He is very obviously an unreliable narrator and you gradually piece the story together. Some aspects are unsatisfying - in particular, it was never clear to me why Veronica, the girlfriend, remains so angry with Tony for so long, and I wasn't really convinced by the ending - but overall I enjoyed the book very much, so 4 stars.

I then followed up with another holiday read about people in their twilight years (a sub-conscious response to turning 50...?!), this time in the form of Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson.



A big mistake - holiday reading at its worst! The story of the emerging late-life love affair between Major Pettigrew and Mrs Ali, it is implausible, trite and full of superficial stereotypes. Although set in England, my problem with the book fell into place when it referred to cilantro - a word for coriander that I have only ever seen in American recipes. A bit of research about the author identified that she left the UK to live in the States about 20 years ago and suddenly I realised why the book seemed to be set in a time warp. I have lived in both deepest rural England and in densely populated multi-racial, urban areas and I have never in my adult life come across the obsession with class and race in the way it is depicted in this book - indeed these aspects are at the heart of the story. It harks back to a world that probably never existed and which certainly does not ring true today. All that said, in true holiday read fashion, I accepted the superficiality and read to the end with enough enjoyment to give it 2 stars.

I decided I needed something with a bit more literary merit, so I turned next to The Good Solider by Ford Madox Ford....



...and found I had chosen another unreliable narrator who, if not in his old age, is at least looking back over the past ten years of his life. I last read it some 20 years ago and so although I have forgotten the detail, the plot is gradually coming back into focus. However, it is not really holding my attention and about two thirds of the way through, I found I was more interested in the stylistic approach than the narrative of the book and so I have diverted onto The Art of Fiction by David Lodge.



For someone with very limited technical understanding of writing and literary techniques, this is an excellent introduction to the devices and tools used by writers to convey their message. Each short section covers a different aspect, ranging from 'Title', to 'Suspense', 'Symbolism', 'Unreliable narrator' (of course!) and 'Intertextuality' and is prefaced by a short extract from a wide range of literature to illustrate the point. Both a strength and weakness of the book is that although comprehensive, each topic is dealt with very briefly. This means that I am not getting bogged down in either complex literary theory that goes beyond my amateur interest, nor in over-elaboration of straight-forward topics but it does leave me needing to explore some elements more fully. I am cheating a bit in reviewing it now, as I still have a couple of sections left to read but it is definitely worth 4 stars to me - and once I have finished it I will go back and give The Good Soldier another go, hopefully with newly awakened sensitivity to its literary approach and merits.

Excellent reviews of your "holiday reading". Major Pettigrew's last stand has never held any appeal for me, so thank you for persuading me not to read it. The Art of Fiction, David Lodge looks interesting.

Fun reviews! I really enjoyed Sense of an Ending when I read it last year; for some reason unknown to me the publisher sent me a copy of Major Pettigrew's Last Stand, so I will eventually read it I guess, and I have The Art of Fiction in my tbr and am now looking forward to it.

Did you just turn 50? I'm going to celebrate my 50th in a week or so on holidays too--London for me. Your trip sounded more exotic and very interesting.

Impressed and bit awed by your sailing trip. Too bad the books didn't all work out.

I'm catching up from a way back, so it was interesting to read your takes on Michener and Kingsolver. I haven't read those books, but based on other books I've read by those authors I suspect I might have similar responses to yours. Too bad All the Kings Men didn't work out for you. That book has haunted me since I read it in college (not for a class), appropriately in New Orleans. Hmm... "haunted" is meant as a compliment.

So managed to get to the Hebrides at the height of the summer, glad you missed the bad weather.

I had the opposite reaction to you on two of the books. I couldn't finish The Art of Fiction, it read to me like a bunch of middlebrow newspaper articles stuck together. I love The Good Soldier though, being of the opinion is a genuine masterpiece - I was surprised though when my book group decided to read and the general opinion was very favourable.

But I heard Major Pettigrew on R4's Book at Bedtime and wondered why was this chosen, as you say it is implausible, trite and full of superficial stereotypes.

Thanks for all the visits.

#64 - I think you might also want to consider Jargoneer's view of the Art of Fiction. I agree it is somewhat middlebrow and there are other, far more in depth books about literary theory. This one suited me as an easy-read intro but it may not be for all.

#65 - happy birthday to you too - summer 63 was obviously a good vintage! Hope you enjoy your trip to London.

#66, 67 Thanks for catching up! It's been a good mix of reading and all have had something going for them. I'm now reading Villette by Charlotte Bronte, prompted by enjoying an extract in The Art of Fiction - I love the way one book leads to another!

I love the way one book leads to another!

I find that it's more a case of one book leads to three, which leads to nine more, which leads to a serious discussion about the structural integrity of our home as it subsides, Venice-like, under the weight of all those books making suggestions.

Ah Kay that is brilliantly put! Have to read that to my husband!

Villette by Charlotte Bronte

I think I read this many years ago when I was at university and reading my way through 'the classics' for the first time, but if so, I had forgotten it and so enjoyed rediscovering it. Lucy Snowe, a somewhat retiring and impoverished young lady tells the story of how she became a school teacher in a school in the town of Villette (in a country which is clearly based on Belgium), experiences unrequited love and assorted somewhat gothic happenings and finally, depending on your reading of it, may or may not end up happily. Along the way there are lengthy moralistic passages, much anti-Catholic sentiment and a few very convenient coincidences which help the story along.

At times Lucy's meekness was rather irritating, but that is not really fair - taken as a whole, she portrays a strong female character, willing to venture into the unknown and succeeding in making her own way, in part inspired by the headmistress of the school. Perhaps not the best of Bronte's works but I'm glad I read it nonetheless. 3.5 stars


Painter of Silence by Georgina Harding

A lovely book that I really enjoyed. Set in Romania during the second world war and its aftermath, it is told largely through the eyes of Safta, the daughter of a local landed gentry and Tinu, a deaf-mute son of a servant of the family. Safta and Tinu grow up together and, despite the challenges of communication, share lasting bonds of friendship and affection, which survive separation and hardship. The story moves back and forth between the pre-war, wartime and post-war periods which kept up the pace very well, and the writing is beautiful. I particularly liked the very visual descriptions of places and experiences, befitting a story about someone whose only means of communication is through the pictures and artwork that he creates.

On the downside, I thought too much of the narrative was told through characters, particularly Safta, telling their story to Tinu in great length and eloquence, which seemed somewhat artificial - something which I didn't feel in The Heart is a Lonely Hunter which used a similar device. There is also a rather convenient coincidence at the end of the book (again!) which helped tie up loose ends rather too neatly. But these are relatively minor complaints in a book that I thought well worth reading. 4 stars

Un aller simple by Didier van Cauwelaert

A very different, but hugely enjoyable book, which I read in French but I see is available in English. Aziz is 'adopted' as a baby or toddler by a roma family who give him false papers which say that he is Moroccan. He grows up in the poorest parts of Marseille and makes his living from the age of 11 specialising in the theft of car radios. A series of unfortunate events leads to him being arrested on the day of his engagement party, to be forcibly deported back 'home' to Morocco by the French Government, as the first beneficiary of a 'humanitarian initiative'. He is accompanied by a case worker tasked with helping him reintegrate in his homeland but who is having to deal with his own problems and for whom the trip is life-changing. All does not go smoothly...

The narrative is very funny and ironic but it also contains serious themes of identity, place and the tensions between nature and nurture. It was not particularly difficult French, other than that there is quite a lot of slang in it, and I read it avidly. A 4 star book, but verging on a rare 4.5 stars.


Go Tell it on the Mountain by James Baldwin

Back to my American sequence, slightly out of order this time as this one was published in 1953 and I still want to read (or at least try) The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer (1948) and The Catcher in the Rye (1951). But both of those I only have that in hard copy rather than kindle, and so am waiting until I go back to France in two weeks time when I won't need to carry them on my daily commute!

At first I wasn't sure about Go Tell it on the Mountain, but I soon warmed to it. It tells the story of a black American extended family in the first part of the 20th century, whose lives are dominated by the teaching and practice of the pentecostalist church. Largely focused around John, a 14 boy who questions and resents the way he is treated by his demanding and harsh step-father, (an elder in the church), and experiences confusion and doubt about the choice he faces between 'being saved' versus the temptations of the world. Each chapter is written from the perspective of a different member of the family, telling their past story and its influence on their present experience and actions; throughout the book, the church is a source of escapism and comfort at a time of endemic racism yet at the same time oppression and unyielding demands.

The writing is varied and compelling, the characters very vivid and the story increasingly engaging. There is quite a lot of very biblical language and tub-thumping sermons but these are an integral part of the atmosphere of the story. My only criticism is the final chapter which I felt was somewhat at odds with the way the rest of the story had developed but I won't say more for fear of spoiling the book for those that haven't read it. Definitely another 4 star read.

Enjoyed your reviews Helen

Go Tell It on the Mountain is a book I keep meaning to read. You have put it up on the list.

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

Another on my American list, but this time much more recent - published in 1982. Well known, I am sure, to many I had neither read the book nor seen the film so didn't know what to expect. Growing up in the deep South, uneducated and abused as girl, Celie gives birth to two children by her father who are taken from her, presumably killed. Then separated from her sister Nettie, she is caught in a loveless marriage, with a husband who hides the letters from her sister but makes no effort to hide his mistress, Shrug. Fascinated and subsequently befriended by Shrug, Celie finds love and support to start to build up her life.

The story is mostly told through Celie's letters to God, and despite the dismal-sounding scenario, her resilience and humour carry her - and the reader - through. It is a quick read, as the letters are short and pacy. The male characters, including God, are, almost without exception, unloving, weak or inadequate whereas female friendship and love (including sexual) is what is celebrated. In the second half, when Nettie's letters come to light, there is a somewhat disjointed second story introduced, which I thought jarred somewhat with the rest of the book but the author created a very distinct voice for Nettie, which provided a good contrast to Celie's.

I enjoyed the book whilst I was reading it and gave it 4 stars. However, on reflection a few days later, I don't think I would particularly recommend it other than as summer reading. So downgrade to 3.5 stars.

I have now started The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer and my fears appear to be unfounded - the writing and evocation of the life of the soldiers is superb.

The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer

This would not be my normal choice of reading at all, but encouraged by SassyLassy I gave it a go and am so glad I did. Essentially it is the story of one, minor campaign to capture a small Pacific island from the Japanese during WWII, and in particular a mission given to one particular platoon, Intelligence and Reconnaissance, nominally led Lieutenant Hearn, to go behind enemy lines to assess the feasibility of a different line of attack. Interspersed with this narrative are sections headed 'The Time Machine' which tells the background story for each of the men and officers involved.

The battle is as much with the jungle as it is with the enemy and, as with Tales of the South Pacific, the tedium and apparent pointlessness and futility of much of what is asked of the men is strongly to the fore, alongside moments of high drama and human emotion. And for many of the men, the discipline and constraints of military life on a small island provided them with a taste of freedom and opportunity that they lacked in their home lives. Knowing little of military principles and practice, I was also interested in the tension between the officers and the men, actively cultivated by General Cummings as a means to motivate the men to band together, to motivate and incite them to push themselves beyond their limits.

It is a long but readable book, and it is hard to remember that it is the first novel of a 26 year old, albeit drawing on his own experiences during the war. I was particularly struck by the dispassionate nature of the writing, and the way I remained detached from either the characters or the action, apart from brief snatches. None of the characters were particularly appealing and there is a lack of emotion throughout, even in scenes of high tension. Yet, unusually, this seemed to be a real strength of the book, emphasising as it does the fundamental impersonality of the war, the need the soldiers had simultaneously to retain a sense of detachment to cope with the ever-present threat of loss, whether from death, injury or simply a different posting.

I think the following reflection by General Cummings, the commander in charge on the island captures the experience of the war, and indeed my own experience of this book:

"It (the war) was all covered with tedium and routine, regulations and procedure, and yet there was a naked quivering heart to it which involved you deeply when you were thrust into it."

A good 4 stars.

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

I finished The Naked and the Dead whilst on holiday in a very sunny, beautiful Normandy and as the weather was too hot for much in the way of gardening or walking, I spent several afternoons in a deckchair under the apple trees, reading to the sounds of next door's cockerel and the buzz of the bees.

The first I read was one I have wanted to read for a long time, drawn by many others' reviews and by the recurrent LT recommendations based on other books in my library. It is set in Ethiopia and tells the story of conjoined twins (separated successfully at birth) born to an Indian nun and an English surgeon, both of whom immediately depart from their lives for different reasons. The twins are brought up by two other doctors from the same Missing Hospital, as it is called locally, and in their different ways come to medicine themselves. The book is told from the point of view of one of the twins, Marion Stone and spans more than 50 years, through love, heartbreak, war and death.

There are some good, human stories in this, and I liked the way the setting in Ethiopia and the political troubles were present but for the most part not dominant - much as they would be for children growing up in that environment. However, although I read it in the space of two days, I was disappointed by the book, for two main reasons. First, the author is doctor himself and it is a very medical book, full of technical terminology, detailed descriptions of diagnoses, surgical and other interventions. It seemed to me as if the author decided to see how many medical and clinical passages he could fit into the book almost for the sake of it. Less would have been so much more!

Secondly, the book lacked a sense of direction. I would have liked some kind of framing device at the outset to give a purpose to the story, but instead the story begins before the children's birth and continues sequentially, with no indication at any stage of the endpoint or possible outcomes to the story. This is, of course, a very personal view - others may like it for the very reason that I disliked it - but it has helped me realise a bit more about what I like and don't like in books!

So this one only gets 3 stars.

Great reviews again! Really enjoyed The Naked and The Dead, though it seems like ages ago that I read it (it was!). You should post your review to the book's page - I think it deserves your review to be one of the first read by LT-ers.

Thanks for the encouragement, Polaris. I am normally hesitant about posting reviews on the book pages, because many others are so much more accomplished at writing them than I am, but prompted by your message of support, I have taken the plunge!



The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger

The next of my holiday reads, this took barely one day to finish. Written in the language and perspective of a teenage boy in the 1950s America, it is yet another classic that passed me by in my earlier education. A high-school drop out, asked to leave yet another school for lack of application and endeavour, this is an episode in the life of a 16 year old boy, desperately trying to prove he is older than his years, full of bravado and bluster but also exhibiting the effects of his inexperience and lack of self-confidence. Despite being 60 years old now, it reminded me of my own, recent experience of teenage offspring and their friends. One that I am glad to have read, and which marks a big difference in the style of literature that preceded it, (at least as portrayed in the list I am more or less working my way through), but not destined to be a favourite of mine. 3.5 stars

A Year in Marrakech by Peter Mayne

As I will no doubt mention in future posts, next year's holiday away from France is now booked for next March. Fulfilling a long-held desire to explore Morocco, we are spending a few days in Marrakech, followed by some walking in the High Atlas mountains, and then a few days relaxation on the coast in Essaouira.

To start to get myself in the mood, I acquired Peter Mayne's book describing a year he spent in Marrakech back in the 1950s as an impecunious author living among and befriending local people and adapting to a very different way of life. I have a feeling that, a bit like Amelia Edward's description of her journey on the Nile, this is a book I will want to return to when I have seen the Djeema el Fna square for myself, and am familiar with the backstreets and riads of Marrakech, although I think the experience of 1950s Morocco, at the tail end of the French protectorate, will be very different from the modern day country, and Mayne's view of the muslim way of life seems somewhat dated to a modern reading. Nonetheless, it was an enjoyable travelogue in the meantime and I gave it 4 stars

Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

The last of my Normandy reading, as all good holidays have to come to an end, and probably my favourite of all those that I have read recently. A dystopian novel in which books and ideas are dangerous because they contain unsettling or subversive thoughts that will upset one or other minority group. The narrator, Morgan, is a fireman whose role, now that houses are fireproofed, is to burn books, as a kind of thought police. But Morgan meets Clarisse who opens his mind to another way, in which reverie, contemplation and thought is valued, and he is tempted by the books he is sent to burn.

Reality wall-to-wall TV, in-ear headphones and bite-size chunks of irrelevant trivia are all, and it is frightening how prescient it was, considering it was written in 1953. The only other dystopian book I remember reading, long ago, is 1984 by George Orwell and there are similar undertones of the Cold War in this one but I think the writing is more eloquent and the imagery more evocative. It is banal to say it is thought provoking, but it certainly was, and this book, together with The Naked and the Dead have made me want to explore more well-written fiction in genres that I would normally avoid. So 4.5 stars for this one.

Good for you Helen - I've already thumbed your Mailer review. Keep them coming! I like your review of Fahrenheit 451 as well.

Fahrenheit 451 is one of my favorites. I only read it for the first time a few years ago. It hooked me from Sentence One: "It was a pleasure to burn."

Funny, you've picked out two books I've tried to read in the past and for one reason or another couldn't get through: The Color Purple (which I own) and The Catcher in the Rye.

Great reviews! Like Polaris says, keep 'em coming!

Both of those last two went on my TBR. Thanks for the reviews.

Enjoyed your reviews Helen especially The Naked and the Dead

Essaouira relaxing, well maybe.

Catching up with a bunch of reviews. You are making great progress through the American lit list. Enjoyed them. I read both Fahrenheit 451 and Catcher in the Rye at maybe 15 years old. Can't say I remember much of each either just scattered details and ideas. A Year in Marrakesh sounds like a small gem, and your trip sounds wonderful. Fantastic review of The Naked and the Dead. The Color Purple is only a movie to me, and again I think I was about 15 when I saw it (on a television, not in a theatre). Interesting to read your review. I would really like to read something by James Baldwin and enjoyed your review on Go Tell it to the Mountain. Apologies for all these random comments, but each of your reviews brought up some different thought...

Really great batch of reviews, Helen. I strongly disliked Cutting for Stone, and I can't quite remember why, but I do agree with what you thought. That said, I have recommended it to others who I don't think would be bothered by the things that bothered me. And I loved Fahrenheit 451 too (read it in 2007).

You do have the most wonderful vacations! Still catching up after my time away. Great review of The Naked and the Dead and I'm so glad you liked it. In many ways it's a timeless story. Enjoyed your other reviews too. Marrakesh in the 19502 sounds intriguing and I really should reread Fahrenheit 451. I skipped the book club session when they read Cutting for Stone and your review confirms my suspicion that I wouldn't have liked it. Keep them coming.

Thanks to all my visitors for your encouragement and comments! I am sorry there has been a very long gap since I last updated my LT thread - I blame it on a combination of busy work, busy weekends - and some slightly heavy-going reading! So my reviews will be fairly brief this time, as I try to catch up.



First up after Farenheit 451 was How Novels Work by John Mullan. This followed on from the similar book by David Lodge that I read back in summer, and I chose it because I thought it would allow me to delve a bit deeper into the construct and stylistic approaches of the books I read. It was a limited success - although I thought some of the sections did have more to offer than the Lodge book, too much of this book was simply synopses of the plot lines of various novels. So whilst it helpfully reinforced some of the ideas from the previous book, I don't feel it really added much. So just 3 stars.



Tartuffe by Moliere

I try to keep up my French language as best I can. I have just discovered that the Institut Français in London runs monthly book groups that are going to be reading a range of classic French literature in chronological order so I signed up for two of these, starting with Tartuffe.

A foolish, bourgeois, Orgon, is duped by a hypocritical religious devotee, Tartuffe, signing over all his fortune to him, and offering him his daughter in marriage, despite her love for another man. Orgon's family attempt to persuade him of the error of his ways but Tartuffe goes from bad to worse. Needless to say, as a satirical farce, all ends well, helped by a convenient co-incidence. The play was banned soon after it was published, as it offended various religious dignitaries and organisations.

Even though written in 17th century French, it was relatively easy to read. It would of course be better on stage but it isn't a patch on Shakespeare comedies, although I don't know enough of our own Restoration comedies, which may be a fairer comparison. Unfortunately, I missed out on the further enlightenment I had hoped to gain from the reading group as I ended up double booked and couldn't go. I won't rush to read other Moliere plays but gave it 3 stars.



Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Choderlos de Laclos

The next French book group I have booked to join, in January, will be discussing Les Liaisons Dangereuses. Much more demanding than Tartuffe, it is written in the form of letters between various characters, indulging, or caught up, in a game of cat and mouse, with sex and seduction as the weapon. Unlike Tartuffe, there is no happy ending.

This was clearly a scandalous book of its time - I find it astonishing to think that it was published in 1782. Despite this, I have to say I found it rather long and heavy going - which was not helped by, co-incidentally, watching a film based on the book whilst I was reading it, as it spoilt the ending for me. I think I will do a rapid re-read in English shortly before the book group session. In the meantime. 2.5 stars.



The Lighthouse by Alison Moore

Futh, a somewhat sad, middle-aged English man, possibly with Aspergers syndrome or similar, goes on a circular walking holiday in Germany, as an effort to come to terms with the break up of his marriage, and indeed his unhappy childhood. At the first hotel he stays in, called Hellhaus, which we are told means the light house, we meet Ester, the landlady who has her own unhappiness. Their stories are intertwined as gradually we come to understand the past and realise the future.

I am very ambivalent about The Lighthouse. Shortlisted for the Booker prize, it is a melancholy, depressing book and is incredibly slow paced. Moreover, I felt that some of the devices are overworked, such as the references to smell and scents, and there are too many parallels and coincidences for my liking. But on the up side, it is well written, building up the tension and mystery quietly but relentlessly, yet still surprising me at the end. I do think it would repay re-reading, now I know the ending, as I am sure there is more in it that I missed on first reading. But ultimately, the gloom and slow pace meant that I only gave it 3 stars.

After a run of worthy but not particularly fulfilling or enjoyable books, I decided to go for a change of tack, coinciding with another short break in France.



Instructions for a Heatwave by Maggie O'Farrell

This is the third book I have read by Maggie O'Farrell. I enjoyed both The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox and The Hand that First Held Mine and this was another of a similar ilk. It starts with the unexpected disappearance of Robert Riordan from his home in London during the heatwave of 1976, and at first I thought it was going to be another book about a character with alzheimers disease or similar. But this event draws together Robert's three adult children and their mother as they follow a lead that takes them back to Ireland, forcing them to look afresh at the tensions and unresolved differences of both the past and the present, with a disturbing secret emerging.

This is the sort of book that could be described as a 'sweeping family saga', though I don't think that does justice to it. It was a good holiday read - enough substance to make it good, easy going enough to suit it to a holiday. I couldn't really see the relevance of the title and the heatwave: each of the chapters was prefaced with an extract from the Drought Act 1976, which, as I am currently involved in emergency planning for similar contingencies, I found very interesting, but I am afraid the significance for the story largely passed me by - presumably it refers to unwonted behaviour? Overall, I preferred The Vanishing Act but am not sorry to have read this. 3.5 stars.



On the Road by Jack Kerouac

Back to my American project, and yet another classic that had passed me by. Published in 1957 but set in the late 40s, it is the post-war beat generation, high on sex, drugs, music and fast driving back and forth across the States. At least semi-autobiographical, it draws explicitly on Hemingway and indirectly on The Catcher in the Rye. It is highly evocative of its time, of a generation searching for meaning and seeking to escape the dull realities of everyday life by hitting the open road. A good 3.5 stars



The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng

A second book by an author whose The Gift of Rain I loved in 2011. Again set in Malaya after, and during, the second world war, there are many other similarities with the previous book. This time it is centred on gardening rather than martial arts (though there is an element of those too), as a woman seeks to learn the art of Japanese gardening in order to be able to build a memorial for her sister, and gradually overcomes her own anger and hurt caused by her experience and indeed guilt during the war.

The book is complicated by being narrated through layer upon layer of memory, the clarity of which is not entirely plausible, (though it is not the first book where that is the case). The writing is good, the story engrossing and the atmosphere and setting captured extremely well, but after reading The Gift of Rain, it is disappointing to find so many parallels and similarities. I have a similar issue with Roma Tearne's books, set in Sri Lanka - it is as though the author only really has one story to tell. Nonetheless, because it is a good book, and allowing that it is two years since I read The Gift of Rain, I will give this one 4 stars.

Enjoying your reviews

Yes, I'm enjoying your reviews too. You find some great books.

Thanks Baswood and Nicolini.

I have just realised I had forgotten to include one of my recent reads which definitely does not count as a great book!



The Girl in Room Fourteen is a short, implausible love story, beset by pretentious vocabulary, overworked descriptions and pointless sentences. One example is probably sufficient:

It was not surprising, then, that Cecile's stall was a focal point, a cynosure, abuzz with expectant customers frantically waving euros, eager to spend their earnings on her fragrant delights.

Slightly over the top for a lemon stall in a market in Provence! This book isn't catalogued on LT but I don't think it needs to be - definitely one to avoid.

In contrast, my latest American read was a delight.



I loved The Wapshot Chronicle by John Cheever. It is set in St Botolph, a small coastal village in New England where the Wapshot family, now fallen on some straitened times, have held sway for many years. The eccentric Aunt Honora holds the purse strings and determines that, if they are to inherit her wealth, her great-nephews, Moses and Coverly must prove their worth by going out into the world to make their way and beget sons and heirs. The book gently pokes fun at rustic life and the contrast with the big lights of the city, but it is sympathetic to both place and people. The characterisation is perhaps the highlight of the book - they are all brilliantly depicted - Sarah, the boys mother, with her passion for gift shops, taciturn Leander, their father, whose sole domain of influence in life is the SS Topaze, a leaky day cruise boat, and of course Aunt Honora herself.

The book reminded me very much of Cold Comfort Farm and, perhaps to a lesser extent, PG Wodehouse. It is well written, funny and definitely worth 4 stars.

I loved The Wapshot Chronicle when I read it some time ago in the days when reading Cheever was fashionable. It's at the back of my mind to re-read this.

I hope you do go back to reread. Les Liaisons Dangereuses in English. I loved it--it was cleverly written and plotted, and had such interesting (and evil), to say the least, characters. I too found it amazing that such a "racy" book was written in the 1700's.

I first read Candide at school when I was 17, as part of the set of books I had to read, in French, for my French A level (along with La Peste by Camus, Le Grand Meaulnes by Alain Fournier, short stories by Balzac and a book called Hans, which is now out of print, about a German prisoner of war in the French Alps - a good selection). As I re-read Candide this time, again in French, I realise how well we were taught at the time. It took me straight back to Room C1 under Miss Mercer's tutelage - the narrative came back vividly to me, together with the discussion of satire, philosophy and world events of the 18th century and above all, the encouragement to question received wisdom.

The story of Candide, the eponymous hero, is well-known and I won't rehearse it. Suffice it to say that he undergoes a series of unfortunate, and indeed incredible, events, narrated in an extremely dead-pan manner, all of which challenge the philosophy of his tutor, Pangloss, who as a subscriber to Leibnitzian optimism, had taught that whatever happens must be for the best. The ultimate conclusion is 'il faut cultiver notre jardin' - question not why things happen, but focus on the simple remedy of good hard work.

The book is short, fast-paced and very readable, with humour aplenty. I am glad to have re-read it, and would recommend it to anyone who hasn't read it, but as it is overwhelmingly a didactic book, I gave it 3 stars this time.

Candide A great book to read in the original French.

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov has to be one of the most thought-provoking and disturbing books I have read for a long time. It is the self-confession of 'Humbert Humbert', a widowed man on trial (as the reader learns on the first page of the book), and his relationship with - or, as he would see it, love for - the girl he calls Lolita. Slowly, gradually, the book unfolds what happened as a result of the relationship and why he ends up on trial. It repays careful reading to spot the early clues.

The relationship with Lolita is central to the story and I was in equal measure sickened by and engrossed in it - a tribute to the outstanding writing by Nabokov. I was aware that the book was about a paedophile relationship so I was expecting it to be disturbing, but I hadn't appreciated just how young the victim was, nor how openly the subject was addressed. Humbert Humbert clearly has a warped, sick perspective but as a reader I started to feel somehow complicit in his actions, and even feel pleased and sympathetic for him as he succeeded in his endeavours. I shouldn't have been enjoying his story - and yet I was.

The language and writing is, as I have said, absolutely outstanding and I can well see why it is regarded as one of the greatest works in the English language. It is amazing that Nabokov was writing in his second language as it is so poetic, even musical in style, and with lots of word play and puns. It is one of the rare books that I think I would like to hear read aloud. I did find the second half of the book flagged a bit but that is my fault as an impatient reader rather than a failing of the book. I will read it again sometime in the future, knowing the outcome, so that I can immerse myself in the telling rather than the events of the story (a reason why, pre-kindle, I often used to jump to the end of a good book to find out what happens - but I don't find it so easy on an e-reader to do this in a way that doesn't give too much away to me!) In the meantime, I have urged my husband to read it so that I can discuss the book, and my reaction to it, with him without any spoilers (as I have tried to avoid in this). 4.5 stars.

So many good reviews here.

I've had Lolita on my iPod for years. I got it through my audible contract, and have always been somewhat reluctant to listen to it because of the subject. I think it might be easier to read it, rather than listen.

I wonder how Lolita would be as an audio book. The brilliance is largely in the language.

The reader is Jeremy Irons, so it has that in its favor. :)

The subject is not easy but it has made me reflect on my instinctive reactions which, for me, is the sign of an excellent book. It has also led to some interesting family discussions about different historical and geographical perspectives on taboos.

I think Jeremy Irons would be chillingly perfect as the narrator.

Catching up from a ways back. Seems like Lolita really had a strong affect on you. Wonderful review.

Jeremy Irons played the character in the second attempt at filming the movie, so I could definitely see him doing a great job with it, however, I don't think it would work nearly so well in audio. As RidgewayGirl said, the brilliance is (and here I will go all the way-) entirely in the language, and I just do not believe it would come off the same way.

The second paragraph of your review is completely spot-on. :)

Just a note, English wasn't really his "second" language, he grew up with Russian as the focus but with French and English-speaking governesses and Russian and German-speaking tutors. He felt more at ease with French than English. Which only emphasizes your point more, it's amazing what he accomplished with the English language, when he didn't even feel like he had properly mastered it!

Thanks for the messages.

Since finishing Lolita I started on Can You Forgive Her by Trollope, a re-read prompted by the group read that is underway on another thread. I remember enjoying the complete Pallisers series some 20 years ago and thought it was time to give them another go. But whilst I can't say I dislike it, it just seems rather superficial compared to some of the books I have read recently, and Alice's simultaneous priggishness and indecisiveness is intensely irritating, even allowing for the time in which it was written. So I am not making rapid headway with it but I shall continue whilst back in France next week (subject to storms - it must have been dreadful for those that were on the ferry last night!).

For now, a very happy Christmas to all my fellow readers and many thanks for your company over the past year.

Helen