My Reading Resolutions for 2009 - eliminating my book mountain

One of my resolutions for 2008 was not to buy so many books - but although I did cut down I still seemed to buy dozens and dozens. So I will repeat this resolution for 2009. I have just looked at one of our bookcases and put together on one shelf the books that I have acquired and have been intending to read but somehow haven't got round to it. I counted 35 books. So in 2009 I will finish the Frederica Quartet by A S Byatt (read the first two books in 2008) and will also try to include:

• A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving (636 pages, yikes!)
• Sacred Games by Vikram Chandra (950 pages, double yikes!)
• The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
• The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing

Let battle commence.....

Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith

DATE PUBLISHED: 2008 DATE READ: January 2009 NOTES: This thriller is set in Soviet Russia in the early 1950s. Leo is a member of the MGB, the State Security force and a willing participant in enforcing the law using a mixture of terror, false accusations and an unremitting belief in the rightness of the state. At first he is reluctant to believe that someone is systematically murdering children especially as his superiors are convinced that such crimes cannot happen. The opening chapters are riveting and show the awfulness of life in the country during the 1930s and the paranoia existing under Stalin where no-one could be trusted – not even members of your own family. Leo’s rocky relationship with his wife Raisa is well portrayed but some of the less sympathetic characters are much less believable (such as Vasili, almost a comic book baddie!) The writing is pacy and Child 44 is very much a page turner. As a thriller is it brilliant (even though there were some problems with the plot) and will keep you reading on to the end. However overall I was disappointed in this book. At the outset I thought it would be a psychological thriller about people trying to live in an insane society but about halfway through it became like the script for an action movie and the tone changed considerably. The final psycho-babble explaining the murderer’s motives was just silly.

The Paradise Trail by Duncan Campbell

DATE PUBLISHED: 2008 DATE READ: December 2008 NOTES: This debut novel is a blend of murder mystery and a memoir to a lost era. It begins in the Lux Hotel – a backpackers’ insect-ridden hostel in Calcutta in 1971 where the usual odd bunch of hippy characters have ended up after time spent in Goa, Delhi, Nepal, Kabul etc. There is weird Freddie who communicates in Bob Dylan lyrics, Larry, an American who makes a little on the side by drug smuggling and Gordon, an ex-advertising executive who has “dropped out” and two oddball Australians, Karen and Keiran. The hotel is run by young Anand, a kindly and liberal Indian. The Bengali war of independence is just beginning so into this mix come Hugh, a British would-be war correspondent and Britt, a beautiful and ambitious American photographer. Some nasty murders happen and it is believed that there could be a serial killer who is after hippies….. But in the chaos of the end of the Indian-Pakistan fighting no culprit is found. The members of the group go their own ways and over the next thirty years have little contact with each other. But the daughter of one of the victims determines to find out how her father met his death and so the mystery of what actually happened in Calcutta is gradually unravelled. This is a brilliant read. The description of the drug-fuelled hippy trail seems very real and the main characters are three dimensional and believable. There are no real heroes – just a series of flawed characters like in real life. The thirty year gap in the narrative is covered by a series of news reports, letters, postcards, press announcements and emails. There is a great piece of writing when Gordon agrees to take part in a cricket match in Calcutta even though he hasn’t played in years. He uses various strands of eastern philosophy that he has learned on the road to help him to bowl. Very comical (but it works!)

This is a fun book but with some dark undertones of cultural imperialism, racism and egotism. One of the blurbs on the cover says: “A great beach read”. Yes, OK, The Paradise Trail would make a super beach read – but it’s better than that so don’t wait to be on holiday to read it! Highly recommended. (And if you want to know more about the Bengali War of Independence read A Golden Age by Tahmima Anam)

Crusaders by Richard T Kelly

DATE PUBLISHED: 2008 DATE READ: December 2008 NOTES: A sprawling “state of the nation” novel that takes a great sweep over two decades up to the election of New Labour. It is set mostly in the north-east of England and takes in lots of the issues of the 1970s – 1990s including steroid abuse, drug culture, gangs, political corruption, prostitution and the emergence of New Labour politics. Much of the book was enjoyable but it was spoiled for me by the weakness of the central character. John Gore is a Labour supporting Anglican minister who is sent to Newcastle to start a new church in a run-down council estate. His motivations are never made very clear and his relationship with a somewhat slovenly single mother did not ring true. The gangster Steve Coulson was a much stronger character, as was Martin Pallister (the New Labour MP who is prepared to accept any policies as long as they have something to offer him personally). The way in which religious faith insidiously became almost a necessity for Blair supporters is well documented. Some reviewers criticised the way in which the writer put so much of the dialogue in the local accent. I thought this was done well and the various “voices” were very believable. An ambitious first novel – but I really think it did not need to be over five hundred pages long. Some judicious editing was needed!

The White Tiger by Arivand Adiga

DATE PUBLISHED: 2008 DATE READ: December 2008 NOTES: Balram Halwai is a poor low-caste Indian, the son of a rickshaw-puller who somehow manages to crawl his way up to be an entrepreneur in Bangalore. He tells his story via a series of letters written to Wen Jiabao, the Chinese Premier who is about to visit Bangalore. The poor parts of India are referred to as the Darkness which is a world filled with hunger, servitude and life-long debt. Modern Delhi is referred to as the Light. This is a world where men and women grow fat, have air-conditioned cars, mobile phones and guarded apartments with large TVs and computer games. But the Light has some very murky aspects to it – bribery, corruption and murder. The story is told at a blazing pace. Balram is ambitious and astute. He does well to become a driver for a local landlord’s family – but he wants more….. The dilemma for him is whether he can shake off his chains by honest means or whether some blood will have to flow. (I was reminded of A Golden Age by Tahmima Anam in which a widow’s only way of keeping her children safe is to commit a crime.) This is not a comfortable read – it is an angry and subversive book about the new India where any notion of the “trickle-down” theory of wealth creation is well and truly quashed. I am not surprised it won the Booker Prize. As a work of literature it is not as good a piece of work as, say, A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry (also about poverty in India) but it is funny, satirical and a blistering exposé of globalisation.

A Long Long Way by Sebastian Barry

DATE PUBLISHED: 2005 DATE READ: December 2008 NOTES: Willie Dunne is an innocent young Dubliner who sets off for the excitement of war in Flanders in 1914. He leaves behind a loving family and a girl he hopes one day to marry. But by 1918 everything in his life has changed. The war has progressed and become more and more bloody and futile and Willie becomes confused and ambivalent about his own patriotism and about Irish nationalist aspirations. He seems to lose everything that he knows and loves. This is a heart-wrenching read. Sebastian Barry creates a haunting world of smells, filth, fear and humour. The Irish dimension to the story make it particularly interesting as this is not an aspect of WWI that is much dwelt on in fiction. This book will surely rank alongside the very best of World War One literature. It is beautifully written and many of the characters and scenes remained with me long after I finished reading. A Long Long Way well deserved to be on the shortlist for the Man Booker Prize in 2005.

The Road Home by Rose Tremain

DATE PUBLISHED: 2007 DATE READ: November 2008 NOTES: The story of Lev, an eastern European widower, who comes to England to seek a better life. Right from page one we enter into his world as he sits on the coach as it rolls along towards London. He has no definite plans, few skills and very little knowledge about the reality of life in UK. He has budgeted on existing on £20 a week! I had thought this book might follow one of two tracks. The first would have Lev as a downtrodden immigrant who was continually vilified and victimised as he tried to make an honest living. The second would have been Lev turning to criminality to survive – a bit of theft, a bit of drug-dealing and almost certainly cheating the benefit system. However Rose Tremain avoids both these traps and Lev develops as a likeable and hardworking man who is quick to pick up new ideas. However at the same time he is emotionally troubled – both by the loss of his wife and because he is missing his daughter. The reader begins to see England through his eyes – the litter, the obese population, the strange celebrity culture. Fortunately for Lev, most of the people he comes across are pretty benign – his landlord Christy, GK Ashe (his boss at the restaurant) and even Sophie who is attracted to him until she finds someone else. The writing is just lovely and we are drawn into his world. All the descriptions of restaurant life were superb - and those wonderful menus at Ferndale Retirement Home (chef’s fantastic fish gratin with zero bones and non-crap crumb). When Lev comes up with his own plan for returning home and opening a restaurant we will him to succeed. A lovely feel good book with some dark undertones. (One slight problem I had is the swiftness with which the hero becomes proficient in English. From not being able to ask a simple question on arrival he very soon is speaking and understanding in some very complex situations. He is even tackling Hamlet!)