Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood

DATE PUBLISHED: 1997 DATE READ: January 2009 (audiobook) NOTES: After being implicated in a brutal murder Grace Marks (aged 16) is sentenced to hang but this is commuted to life imprisonment – but her accomplice hangs. Grace recounts her story in a sardonic and at times ironic way. She claims to have no memory of the murder taking place although there is much circumstantial evidence of her participation. The truth of her story is never fully explained but she is revealed as a clever, hardworking girl desperate to love and be loved. There is a heartrending description of the boat journey from Ireland and her mother’s death and burial at sea. Grace chooses to have the body wrapped in the second best sheet – though this rational decision haunts her afterwards. Likewise she rationally takes the murdered Nancy’s clothes on the basis that she has no further need of them. Grace is continually let down by the men in her life. Her father is a drunkard and violent. Simon the doctor/psychologist leaves her suddenly (following his own weakness in seducing his landlady). Even young Jamie Walsh speaks against her at the trial having earlier professed his undying love for her. The memory of her first friend Mary Whitney shines throughout the book. Mary is funny, truculent and spirited and dies following an abortion which is horribly described. Grace’s hopes that Nancy will replace Mary are soon dashed – and Nancy’s lover Kinnear soon has designs on Grace (another man that lets her down). The book raises lots of issues on servant/master relationships, the penal system, memory and redemption. Attwood cleverly uses quiltmaking as a metaphor throughout the book. Just as the final pattern of a quilt depends on how the fragments are put together, Grace’s story depends on what she chooses to tell us. By the end we are left with no firm answers about Grace’s guilt but nonetheless come to admire her strength of spirit and her resolve to survive. A brilliant multi-layered classic!

The Lieutenant by Kate Grenville

DATE PUBLISHED: 2009 DATE READ: January 2009 NOTES: Kate Grenville’s The Secret River is a brilliant book so I was really looking forward to her latest. The Lieutenant is set in the 1900s. Socially awkward Daniel Rooke (probably on the spectrum for autism) is from a humble background but is brilliant at mathematics. He becomes interested in astronomy and is encouraged by the Astronomer Royal. He joins the navy and travels to New South Wales with 1000 prisoners to set up a colony. His friend in the navy, Silk, is a would-be writer who sees all experiences as ‘copy’. Silk is outgoing and confident and quite different to the thoughtful Daniel. The book is extremely well researched – especially on the languages of the native people of Australia. She manages to convey some concepts through the eyes of the natives (such as the ‘justice’ of the white man whipping the thief). I liked the characters and the first part of the narrative. She is very sympathetic to the indigenous people and their part in the story is told sensitively. But the book seemed to come to an abrupt end which was not very satisfying. A pleasant read but ultimately disappointing, I am sorry to say.

Gomorrah: Italy's Other Mafia by Roberto Saviano

DATE PUBLISHED: 2007 DATE READ: January 2009 NOTES: A stunning book about crime in southern Italy. Saviano, an investigative journalist, writes about the Comorristas who run a parallel economy in the region fuelled by drugs and extortion. He explains how the tentacles of the criminal families have been able to reach out as far as Spain, Eastern Europe, the Americas and even to UK. Much of what he reveals is genuinely shocking and he writes with passion and eloquence. He has some fascinating insights – such as the way in which many of the criminals have modelled themselves on what they have seen in Hollywood gangster films. Saviano is not afraid to show his anger about how his homeland is suffering at the hands of the criminal families which has often been allowed to happen with the complicity of politicians and police.

Digging to America by Ann Tyler

DATE PUBLISHED: 2007 DATE READ: January 2009 NOTES: In August 1997 two Baltimore families meet for the first time at the airport as they both await the arrival of their adoptive daughters from Korea. From then on their lives become interlinked as they share family parties and celebrations. The Donaldsons (Bitsy and Brad) are noisy, brash and confident while the Yazdans are much more self-contained and uncertain of their own place in American society. Ziba immigrated from Iran while her husband had been born in the US following his mother’s arrival from Iran. The families have differing attitudes to their children. Bitsy feels it is important that Jin-Ho learns about her background and endeavours to dress her in Korean clothes and teach her Korean songs. Ziba gives little thought to any of this and Sooki’s name is soon changed to Susan and all her toys and clothes are very much American. (I would have liked to hear more about how their differing upbringing affected the girls – they both seemed to emerge as bright and confident and very similar in many ways) Over the years the two extended families meet up regularly and get to know and like each other. But at the same time there are irritations and petty annoyances as cultural differences emerge. Not a great deal happens in the story but the characters come alive and the book deals well with feelings of belonging and alienation. Ziba’s mother-in-law Maryam emerges as a strong and interesting person. By the end she becomes the central character and I found myself rooting for her! A charming book written in a clear style with some lovely insights.

Dracula by Bram Stoker

DATE PUBLISHED: 1897 DATE READ: January 2009 NOTES: Although it is a well known story this was my first reading of the classic vampire horror. So although the plot held few surprises I was amazed by how modern and accessible the prose was – especially when compared with something like The Turn of the Screw which was written about the same time. The story unfolds through the diaries, notebooks, letters and phonograph recordings of the main characters. Victorian attitudes to women are very evident throughout the book. The female vampires attempt to seduce Harker while he is very much the innocent victim. Arthur willingly (too willingly) puts a stake into the heart of his undead wife. The women in Dracula are in need of protection while the men are brave and resourceful. Having said that Mina Harker has lots of initiative and could be considered a Modern Woman of the time with her use of shorthand and typewriter. Readers at the time of publication must have been enthralled by Dracula but even a century later it is a great tale.

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.