TITLE: CORAM BOY

AUTHOR: Jamila Gavin

DATE PUBLISHED: 2000

DATE READ: July 2007

NOTES: Coram Boy is set in 18th century England and contrasts lives of the fortunate and unfortunate children of the times. Well written beginning given a horrific picture of child trafficking and murder. Unfortunately it all becomes a bit predictable – abandoned child is reunited with his parents, bad people get their just desserts etc. Not sure which age group this book was aimed at. Concepts such as pregnancy outside marriage, selling of young children into slavery and infanticide suggest it is aimed at 12 – 13 year olds. However the actual writing is very simple and the main boys are aged nine.

TITLE: THE PILOT’S WIFE

AUTHOR: Anita Shreve

DATE PUBLISHED: 1999

DATE READ: August 2007

NOTES: Kathryn gets a knock at the door in the middle of the night and her life begins to unravel. Her husband has been killed in a mid-air explosion en route to US from London. She and her teenage daughter are both distraught and are comforted by Robert, sent by the airline, and Kathryn’s grandmother Julia. It soon becomes clear that her “good marriage” may not have been all she thought. She picks up the clues and travels to London where she meets up with Muire who has also been “married” to Jack and has two children by him. Meanwhile the press are suggesting suicide by Jack (and at the same time killing a hundred other people) caused by a bomb brought on the plane by him.

This is not the best Shreve book I have read. The prose is lovely and the emotions of Kathryn and Mattie are well handled and believable and the character of Julia is strong. Muire is much less real and the plot all a bit contrived……

The ending is ambivalent which suits the tone of the book.

TITLE: IMPERIAL LIFE IN THE EMERALD CITY – INSIDE BAGHDAD’S GREEN ZONE

AUTHOR: Rajiv Chandrasekaran

DATE PUBLISHED: 2007

DATE READ: August 2007

NOTES: Superbly researched and lucid account of the US attempts to impose a new order in post-invasion Iraq. Records the unreal life led by the Americans in the Green Zone compared to the unfolding chaos in the rest of the country. He also tells of how the main criterion when recruiting staff was allegiance to the Republican Party rather than any past relevant experience. Also very revealing on how differing US agencies were at odds with one another and were trying to impose differing agendas. Breathtaking amounts of dollars were paid to contractors who then failed to carry out their agreed work while other people with specific needs to aid the reconstruction were denied any real funding.

A hard hitting account of the blunders, venality and cynicism of the occupiers but at the same time Chandrasekaran acknowledges the undoubted good motives of many of those involved in this continuing tragedy of a broken country.

TITLE: AUSTERLITZ

AUTHOR: W G Sebald

DATE PUBLISHED: 2001

DATE READ: August 2007

NOTES: In 1939 a five year old is sent from Prague to Wales to escape the imminent disaster. He soon forgets all of his previous life and grows up knowing nothing of his past. However in adulthood he comes he is haunted by his unknown identity and by his absence of memories. The loveless Welsh household and the harsh private school are superbly described.

The book is narrated by someone who meets Austerlitz in Belgium. Their friendship continues and they meet up occasionally and Austerlitz continues to tell of the progress he has made. The writing is atmospheric and haunting – goes off into reveries on architecture, fortifications, moths, museum exhibits, maps, etc etc. I have to confess I found some of these quite irritating – and some of the vocabulary seemed deliberately esoteric…….

Austerlitz took photographs continually and the book is liberally illustrated by these. Many are very badly reproduced (deliberately?) and I am not sure how much they finally contributed to the overall narrative.

The reviews were glowing but this book is not one I would want to return to.

TITLE: OVERTHROW: AMERICA’S CENTURY OF REGIME CHANGE FROM HAWAII TO IRAQ

AUTHOR: Stephen Kinzer

DATE PUBLISHED: 2006

DATE READ: July 2007

NOTES: A well documented and impressive narrative of US intervention in foreign governments and the resulting disastrous consequences. Stephen Kinzer begins with the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarch in the 1890s and ends with the invasion of Iraq. Clearly written with lots of new (for me) information – e.g. the Panama Canal was originally planned to go through Nicaragua. Although this is a serious piece of work it is very readable – in fact at times it reads like a novel and hard to put down.

The next time we hear of a US politician wondering why so many people seem to hold their country in contempt they should be directed to read this book and find the answer.