10 Books of Winter - Tick off Two

Cold, wet wintery days and two books with less than 300 pages have meant a strong start to the 10 Books of Winter Challenge. After standing on one leg scratching my head and constantly changing my mind I decided to let random.org decide for me the order I would read them in.

News From The City of the Sun by Isabel Colegate

 To nine-year-old Dorothy Grant, the abbey is an enchanted new world. Here, in the drab, conventional Thirties, the Whitehead brothers - autocratic but non-violent anarchist Fisher, Arnold, the practical plodder, and visionary, depressive Hamilton - have collected together a colourful array of adherents to their co-operative Utopia.

Living near and intermittently attached to the community, which shelters under the northern escarpment of Salisbury Plain, Dorothy observes the ebb and flow of its shifting and sometimes mismatched philosophies from the Thirties through to the flower children and mind-expanding drugs of the Seventies.....until beautiful Marilyn Skinner's revolutionary ideals lead to violence and death.

I like Isabel Colegate's writing style and enjoyed the first part of the book, up to the end of World War II, very much but then it seemed to start rushing through the decades, characters were growing up in a few paragraphs , which was all a bit muddled and confusing.
The ever-changing social background of England through four decades was most interesting and something the author portrays very well.

The title puzzled me all the way through. I couldn't see the relevance to the story so I did some googling and discovered that in 1602 a gentleman called Tommaso Campanella wrote a work of utopian fiction called City of the Sun so there is the connection to the abbey and the Whitehead's vision. I might have to read it again and look at from a different perspective.

Bound Feet & Western Dress by Pang-Mei Natasha Chang

The author spent many hours with her great-aunt, Yu-i, drawing forth the story of her life. Born at the beginning of the 20th century Yu-i grew up in the perilous years between the fall of the last Emperor and the Communist Revolution, her life marked by a series of rebellions , including the first and most lasting: her refusal to have her feet bound. An early,unhappy marriage to a well-known Chinese poet brings her to England, a divorce and being left to raise her son alone. It's the story of a strong woman struggling to emerge from centuries of custom and tradition and find independence.

Listening to Yu-i, Pang-Mei begins to understand her own ambivalence towards her Chinese heritage, the tug-of-war between her American upbringing and the familial duties still expected by Chinese parents.

Fascinating reading!




 

The Kill by Emile Zola

translated from the French by Brian Nelson.


The Kill is the second volume in Emile Zola's cycle of twenty novels that through the fortunes of one family explores the ways in which human behaviour is determined by heredity and environment.

The setting moves from the Provencal town of Plassans to Paris during the years 1852 - 1862. Having established himself as Napoleon III, Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte set in action a policy of modernisation and under the administration of Haussmann great numbers of buildings were torn down and thousands of people evicted to make way for the long straight boulevards, parks and grand mansions of the 'new Paris.'

The title La Curee/The Kill refers to a hunting term - the part of an animal fed to the hounds that have run it to ground.

" This was the time when the rush for spoils filled a corner of the forest with the yelping of hounds, the cracking of whips, the flaring of torches. the appetites let loose were satisfied at last, shamelessly, amid the sound of crumbling neighbourhoods and fortunes made in six months. the city had become an orgy of gold and women. Vice, coming from on high, flowed through the gutters, spread out over the ornamental waters, shot up in the fountains of the public gardens, and fell on the roofs like fine rain. At night, when  people crossed the bridges, it seemed as if the Seine drew along with it, through the sleeping city, all the refuse of the streets, crumbs fallen from tables, bows of lace left on couches,, false hair forgotten in cabs, banknotes that had slipped out of bodices, everything thrown out of the window by the brutality of desire and immediate satisfaction of appetites."

Having inherited his parents lust for money Aristide Rougon arrives in Paris 'with the ravenous hunger of a wolf' determined to make his fortune. His brother Eugene persuades him to change his name to Saccard and finds him a job at City Hall where, by keeping his eyes and ears open he discovers the plans for the rebuilding of the city but it isn't until his first wife dies that he is able to dive into the world of property speculation.

Aristide's widowed sister, Sidonie, a wheeler and dealer in peoples secrets and scandals brings him together with a young woman who is pregnant following a rape. The marriage to Renee is a business investment - she keeps her reputation and he has her dowry to spend. In no time they are living in luxury, separate lives, as Aristide makes money and Renee spends it. Lonely and bored her closest companion is Maxime, her stepson.......' delicate and corrupt, lascivious - a defective offspring in whom parental shortcomings were combined and exacerbated.' Their relationship eventually becomes a love affair as they sink deeper into a life of debauchery and depravity.

As in The Fortune of the Rougons most of the characters are appalling people although, despite her terrible behaviour, I did have some sympathy for Renee who seemed very much to be a victim of her environment.

The Kill is a scathing indictment of the excesses of the Second Empire and Zola doesn't mince words. His descriptive prose is incredible, powerful and intense it brings people and places vividly to life.....and often left this reader having to take a break and breath fresh air.

I am loving the Rougon-Macquart novels and look forward to the next one.

Shirley by Charlotte Bronte

Shirley is the least well-known, the least liked and the least written about of Charlotte Bronte's works.Published in 1849 a year after the hugely successful Jane Eyre it suffered then, as now, from readers expecting another Jane and suffering disappointment. Intended to be different, to be a social and political novel, Charlotte warns her readers on the first page to expect 'something as unromantic as Monday morning, - not exactly a truthful declaration.

The strongest criticism has been - it has too many themes that go nowhere, no real story and no real focus. There is..

*History - Yorkshire in 1811/12 at the time of the Luddite riots . The Napoleonic War had left England deeply in debt, taxes were high and unemployment caused by wartime trade restrictions and embargoes, and the increasing use of labour-saving machinery in the textile mills left the working class artisans struggling to survive and unable to see any way out except through violence and disorder.

* Social history - a portrait of  Yorkshire habits and manners with many of the characters based on people Charlotte knew well. Curates and clergymen, mill owners and maiden spinsters, a governess and a tutor - the middle class 'haves' but what is lacking , and what would have tied in with the Luddite theme, is being taken into the life of the 'have-nots' - a working class family. That is kept at a distance and only in one brief passage is there a glimpse of of their misery.

"On his entrance his wife served out, in orderly sort, such dinner as she had to give him and the bairns. It was only porridge, and too little of that. Some of the children asked for more when they had done their portion - an application which disturbed William much."

* The Role of Women - particularly that of unmarried women, a future that even at 18 Caroline Helstone is already confronting..

" I have to live, perhaps till seventy years. As far as I know, I have good health, half a century of existence may lie before me. How am I to occupy it? What am I to do to fill the interval of time which spreads between me and the grave?"

It's a subject that Charlotte was passionate about and she takes every opportunity to climb on her soapbox and pour forth her feelings; to the extent she puts words into the mouths of her characters that you can't imagine them ever saying.

* Personal Relationships - Robert Moore is a mill owner struggling to stay afloat. His cousin Caroline Helstone is in love with him but although he is attracted to her he knows he needs to marry money and sets his sights on the wealthy Shirley Keeldar but this lively young woman has her own ideas about marriage and is drawn to Louis, Robert's brother and her former tutor.

The growing friendship between shy Caroline and the spirited Shirley makes for delightful reading. Neither of them fit into the local society, their different personalities perfectly complement each other and both have something to give to and to learn from the other.

In the last part of the book the social issues fade into the background and the personal stories become the focus. If Charlotte was intent on happy ever after for everyone who can blame her considering her own circumstances.

She began writing Shirley in 1848 but laid down her pen when her brother, Branwell, died in September. Three months later Emily died and early in 1849 it became obvious that she would soon lose Anne as well. It was after Anne's death a few months later that she resumed writing Shirley, pouring out her grief in the chapter The Valley of the Shadow of Death. It is impossible to imagine such loss and the depths of pain and despair she must have felt.

I am not a critical reader so none of the criticisms bothered me one whit. I may be in a minority but I loved Shirley, loved all the different themes, the stunning descriptions of the landscape, the history and the people of Yorkshire. A real pleasure to read and a wonderful beginning to my journey through the English counties.

Related post - Shirley Country: A Visual Tour

Reading England 2015 - Yorkshire

Classics Club

Back to the Classics 2015 - person's name in the title.

It's Margery Sharp Day!

A lovely idea from Jane @ Fleur in her World - ' the plan is for as many people as possible to read one of Margery’s books and post about it on her birthday'. 
For me it has been an introduction to an author I hadn't read before. I'm sure her books would have been around years a go when I was young but not the sort of thing I would have been interested in then. I chose to read The Sun in Scorpio which was published in 1965, one of her later works and from these opening lines I knew I was going to love it.

'Everything sparkled.

Below the low stone wall, beyond the rocks, sun-pennies danced on the blue Mediterranean; so dazzlingly, they could be looked at only between dropped lashes. (In 1913, the pre-sunglass era, light was permitted to assault the naked eye.) opposite, across the road called Victoria Avenue, great bolts of sunlight struck at the white stone buildings and richocheted off the windows. A puff of dust was a puff of gold-dust, an orange spilled from a basket like a windfall from the Hesperides.

Everything sparkled, from the sun-pennies on the sea to the buckles on a cab horse's harness, from the buttons on a child's reefer jacket to the heavy gold pendant at a girl's ear. Everything sparkled or shone, even the stiff black hoods of the old women; serge or alpaca, worn smooth by use, under that sun a glossy blackbird-plumage.'

The Pennon family are part of the British community living on Next-Door-Island: next door to Malta, that is. It is here their three children, Muriel, Cathy and Alan spend their early childhood and it is Cathy who is the centre of this story. A true child of the sun she thrives in the heat.

But war is looming and Mr Pennon decides they must 'go home' and there is much anticipation among the children who see this far away unknown 'home' as...

"a Kate Greenaway paradise of primroses, beehives and pet rabbits; of paddling in brooks, nutting in woods, and dancing round the maypole."

The reality of a drab London suburb was somewhat different..

" Everything dripped.
The skies dripped, the lampposts dripped, the pillar boxes dripped and the handles of the errand-boys' bicycles dripped.

Everything was cold.
The streets were cold, it was cold on the trams and cold in the shops. A puff of breath showed on the cold air like a puff of smoke without a fire..."

Poor Cathy! While Muriel and Alan adapt to their new life she is the flower that without the sun fails to flourish and grow. Ten years on , plain and ungainly, she is a shadow of her former self.

After the death of her parents she goes to live with Muriel, the domestic queen, and her husband; a situation that neither of them likes and eventually takes a position in the country as governess and 'attendant sprite' to the upper class Lady Jean and her M.P. husband.

Cathy is rather a frustrating character who drifts along accepting what life brings but doing little to make what she wants happen. I liked the ending which holds the promise that something happier (and sunnier) is coming her way.

The story spans more than three decades that included two world wars, a depression and radical social change - it is all there in the background and between the lines but the focus is on ordinary people. Margery Sharp writes with the true British humour that I love, capturing the attitudes and eccentricities of her characters with the perception that comes from close observation. At times she reminded me of Nancy Mitford but with a gentler wit.

I loved it! Thanks Jane for introducing me to another wonderful author and one I look forward to reading more of very soon.

The Night Guest by Fiona McFarlane

"....it was this noise, followed by louder sniffing, that confirmed the intruder as a tiger. Ruth had seen one eating at a German zoo, and it sounded just like this: loud and wet, with a low guttural breathing hum punctuated by little cautionary yelps, as if it might roar at any moment except that it was occupied by food."

Ruth is quite sure she is not dreaming and the sounds she can hear in her living room are made by a tiger.

Ruth is 75, a widow who, with her two grown sons living overseas , lives alone in an isolated beach house. Ruth values her independence but struggles to maintain it against severe back pain and growing mental confusion.

Later in the day a stranger knocks at her door and announces she has been sent by the authorities to be Ruth's carer. Frida is capable and efficient and in no time takes control of Ruth's life. Ruth likes her company, thinks she looks Fijian and is drawn back into the childhood she spent in Fiji.

While The Night Guest has a strong element of suspense that makes it read like a thriller at times it is actually a story about aging. A story of loss and the need to be loved, of fear, confusion and trust. It confronts questions concerning the care of our elderly and on whose shoulders the responsibilities should fall.

The writing is stunning and I was amazed that someone as young as Fiona McFarlane was able to have such insight and understanding of dementia. I've since learned that both her grandmothers suffered and she wanted ' to write respectfully and unsentimentally about this.'

The Night Guest had a huge emotional impact on me. My heart ached with an awful sense of foreboding all the way through - I was sad, I was angry and I was reminded of my mother's last years.

It was disturbing and unsettling but.....I loved it! 

Interview with Fiona McFarlane

AusReading Month

The Ladies of Lyndon by Margaret Kennedy

"Lyndon, architectural and complacent, gleamed whitely amid the sombre green of ilex and cedar. Its classical facade stretched in ample wings to east and west. The grounds, originally laid out by the famous 'Capability Brown', and improved upon by successive generations of landscape gardeners, were admirably in keeping with the dwelling house they guarded."

Mrs Varden Cocks strongly believed that daughters must be married off young before they could form their own opinions and so after quenching a youthful romance with her cousin, Gerald, wastes no time in organising a suitable match for her daughter, Agatha.

At the tender age of eighteen Agatha finds herself the wife of Sir John Clewer and the new mistress of Lyndon.

The other ladies of Lyndon are John's stepmother Marian, the dowager Lady Clewer, and Lois,her daughter from her first marriage,  and John's half-sister, Cynthia, still in her early teens but already a mercenary little madam.

There are the men in their lives - cousin Gerald reawakening memories in Agatha and creating dissatisfaction in her marriage - Hubert, determined on marrying Lois - wealthy but vulgar profiteer Sir Thomas Bragge , Marian's cousin.

And then there is James, John's younger brother. James is an embarrassment to the family - considered to be mentally defective, a bit queer - if she had a choice one feels Marian would keep him locked in the attic. 
James is different - he scorns the life of leisure of the Edwardian privileged upper class. A talented artist he is determined to find satisfaction through his work and to marry as he will.

I would call The Ladies of Lyndon a domestic and social comedy. The plot is minimal and it's the interrelationships, the actions and dialogue between the characters that brings the pre and post-war eras to life. The tone was lighthearted enough to keep me from being emotionally involved with any one of them which is what I prefer right now.

I loved the humour which was consistent all the way through. Sometimes a phrase, a choice of word - a gentle humour with a slight edge at times but never bitter or biting like some other 1920's authors I've read. 

I loved it! I know it was Margaret Kennedy's first novel and she no doubt goes on to produce many that are considered better than this one but I haven't read them and so ave nothing to compare it with. I'm glad to have started at the beginning and look forward to reading more of her work. 
Thanks Jane! Always exciting to find a new author with a long list of titles waiting to be read.

Wildfire at Midnight by Mary Stewart

1956

First published in 1956 Wildfire at Midnight was Mary Stewart's second novel and one in which she attempted to create something different - a classic closed room detective story. It was an experiment she would not repeat explaining in a 1970 article that the emphasis on mystery was not for her - she preferred people to plot. 

In the years to come her books would become known and loved for their perfect balance of romance and mystery set in exotic locations and with that in mind I wouldn't recommend Wildfire at Midnight to anyone just beginning their acquaintance with Mary Stewart. It is high on suspense and low on romance which suited me fine as I love the former and am happy to go without the latter. An added bonus was discovering I hadn't read it before.

Camosunary Bay, Skye

In need of a holiday from her busy life as a model and tired of the crowds pouring into London for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth, Gianetta sets out for a quiet interlude on the Isle of Skye. To her horror one of the guests at the hotel is her ex-husband, Nicholas. Even worse is the strange tension existing among the other guests. Very soon she discovers that recently the body of a local girl had been found murdered on the mountainside and all her fellow residents are considered as suspects.

Then two more murders occur and a young woman is missing. A killer is on the loose and suggestions of ancient Druidic rituals and sacrifice only add to the escalating fear and suspicions of everyone.

Mary Stewart's choice of setting for this novel is superb. Usually her descriptions of lavender fields and sunflowers, red-roofed tavernas and sun-kissed seas have me sighing with longing to visit these magical places. I have no desire to go to the Isle of Skye. An island of rugged but barren grandeur, with treacherous bogs and blinding mists holds little appeal for me but is used to full effect by the author to create a real sense of atmosphere and foreboding.

Blaven

There the crest of the mountain stands up above the scree in an enormous hog's-back of serrated peaks, two thousand feet and more of grim and naked rock, shouldering up the scudding sky. I stopped and looked up. Streams of windtorn mist raced and broke around the buttresses of the dreadful rock; against its sheer precipices the driven clouds wrecked themselves in swirls of smoke; and black and terrible, above the movement of the storm, behind the racing riot of black cloud, loomed and vanished and loomed again the great devil's pinnacles that broke the sky and split the winds into streaming rack. Blaven flew its storms like a banner."

Gianetta finds herself in terrible danger which reaches its peak in a terrifying chase through the mist enshrouded bog. The suspense was edge-of-the-chair, nailbiting stuff that kept me frantically turning pages until the end and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

From excessive cigarette smoking to outdated attitudes that rile up the feminists, Wildfire at Midnight does show its age which I know many readers don't like but for me it is all part of the charm and the pleasure of returning to a different time.

I read Wildfire at Midnight as part of Mary Stewart Reading Week hosted by Anbolyn @ Gudrun's Tights.

Also adding the link to R.I.P. IX

Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively

" The Moon Tiger is a green coil that slowly burns all night, repelling mosquitoes, dropping away into lengths of grey ash, its glowing red eye a companion of the hot insect-rasping darkness."

Claudia Hampton - the once beautiful and independent journalist and historian - is dying. Although barely able to communicate with her caregivers and visitors inside her head she is ' a myriad of Claudias who spin and mix and part like sparks of sunlight on the water.'

She recalls her life in a non-linear narrative from a post WWI childhood, a career in journalism that would take her to Eygpt during WWI and an author of history books. Her thoughts flit here and there but what prevents this from becoming tiresome is having the other person ( sometimes more than one) also give their perspective of the event she is talking about. It's a clever structure and once I got used to it I loved it. 
In this way we meet Gordon, the beloved brother and his slightly dull wife, Sylvia - Lisa, the neglected daughter and her father, Jaspar, the lover.
I didn't like Claudia - I could admire her independence and courage and I could feel sorry for her at times but disliked her selfishness , her snide thoughts about others and her terrible attitude towards her daughter. Although I have to say I probably would have loved her when I was younger!

There are some wonderful descriptive passages ..

I saw the cluttered intense life of the fields and villages -a world of dust and water, straw and leaves, people and animals - and I saw the stark textural immensity of the desert, the sand carved by the wind, the glistening mirages. It had the delicacy of a watercolour - all soft grey-greens and pale blues and fawns and bright browns. Beautiful and indifferent; when you began to see it you saw also the sores around the mouths of children, the flies crawling on the sightless eyes of a baby, the bare ulcerated flesh on a donkey's back."

....particularly of Egypt. Claudia travels there as a war journalist and during a foray into the desert meets a young soldier, Tom, her one great love, and this time is the pivot around which her life, her memories revolve.

Moon Tiger deals with several themes including end of life issues, the realisation of how fleeting our time here is , what is left of us when we're gone? 

" Not even so much of a mark as those primordial worms that passed through the Cambrian mud of northern Scotland and left the empty tube of their passage in the rock."

It's a very quotable book. If there is one reason why I can say I loved Moon Tiger it is the writing, the skill with which Penelope Lively weaves ideas and words into magical prose. Brilliant!

A Century of Books (1987)

The First Rule of Swimming by Courtney Angela Brkic

A woman must leave her island home to search for her missing sister - and confront the haunted history of her family.

Magdalena does not panic when she learns that her younger sister, Jadranka, has disappeared. But when weeks pass with no word, Magdalena leaves the isolated Croatian island where their family has always lived and sets off for New York to find her sister. her search begins to unspool the dark history of their family , reaching back  three generations to a country torn by war.

Magdalena and Jadranka were raised on the island of Rosmina by their grandparents, knowing little about the family members who had moved to the mainland or emigrated to America.

For Magdalena, Rosmina is home, the place she loves and never wants to leave. Jadranka has a more restless spirit and frequently comes and goes but never fails to stay in contact with her sister. Her last journey took her to New York where she stayed with cousin Katarina until her mysterious disappearance.

I don't recall ever reading a book set in Croatia before and loved the beautiful descriptions of the island, the people's close connection with the sea and the traditional way of life. The story spans the years from WWII, through Tito's regime and the civil war - years of hardship and suffering which took it's toll on Magdalena's family and left dark secrets buried in its wake.

Secrets that are slowly revealed as different narrators share their stories. Confusing at times as the narrative often jumps between people and time periods with little warning.

The First Rule of Swimming is a quiet and rather slow moving story  of love and loss and the bonds that tie people to family and homeland. Of those who prefer to stay in the security of the dear and familiar and those who find it confining and restrictive and choose, or are forced , to leave.

Not for those who like action and a strong plot but I enjoyed the gentle pace and evocative writing very much.

Thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Lost Voices by Christopher Koch

" Late in life, I've come to the view that everything in our lives is part of a pre-ordained pattern. Unfortunately it's a pattern to which we're not given the key. It contains our joys and miseries; our good actions and and our crimes; our strivings and defeats. Certain links in this pattern connect the present to the past. These form the lattice of history, both personal and public; and this is why the past refuses to be dismissed. It waits to involve us in new variations; and its dead wait for their time to reappear."

After fifty years Hugh Dixon has returned to Hobart, Tasmania and as he wanders the suburban streets he reflects on the past - his early childhood and his schooldays in the 1940 - 50's.

When he is 18 his father, Jim, finds himself in serious financial trouble and even though Jim has been estranged from his family for a long time Hugh decides to approach his great-uncle Walter for help. 

Walter is a successful lawyer but lives alone at Leyburn Farm, the estate built by the Dixons who were among the early non-convict settlers in Hobart. Hugh's visit is the first of many. Walter recognises and encourages his artistic talent and takes pleasure in educating him in art and literature. He also tells Hugh of the family connection to a notorious 19th century bushranger, Lucas Wilson.

The second part of the story goes back to the 1850's and Hugh's great-grandfather, Martin. At dinner one evening the family is raided by two escaped convicts on their way to join Lucas. An aspiring writer, Martin sees an opportunity for an exclusive interview with the bushranger and persuades them to take him with them.

A former guardsman transported for striking a senior officer, Lucas Wilson is an educated and charismatic man who, in the wilderness beyond Hobart, is attempting to build a utopia; a community of equal opportunity which he calls Nowhere Valley. 

The third and final part returns to the 1950's and Hugh's work as an illustrator for a newspaper and his reunion with old schoolfriend, Bob Wall. When Bob is accused of murder great-uncle Walter is called in to help.

What ties the two narratives together are the repeating patterns: conflict between fathers and sons , young men in love with older women, good men and two very evil men.

Lost Voices is a book with so much detail it deserves to be read slowly. I have been to Tasmania and Chrisotpher Koch captures its  unique atmosphere, where reminders of its harsh and violent past stand in landscapes of great beauty, perfectly. 1950's nostalgia, art and literature, bushrangers and gunfights - so much to savour.

I loved it! The best historical novel I've read in a long time.

What's In A Name Challenge 6 ( lost or found in the title)

Australian Literature Month hosted at Reading Matters.

Monsieur Linh and his Child by Philippe Claudel

" He watches her, and he observes much more than the face of a very young child. He sees landscapes, bright mornings, the slow and peaceful plod of the buffalo in the paddy fields, the bowed shadow of the giant banyan trees at the entrance to his village, the blue mist that comes down from the mountains towards evening, like a shawl that falls softly over one's shoulders."

Traumatized by memories of his war-ravaged country, his son and daughter-in-law dead, Monsieur Linh travels to a foreign land to bring the child in his arms to safety. To begin with he is too afraid to leave the refugee centre, but the first time he braves the freezing cold to walk the streets of this strange, fast-moving town, he encounters Monsieur Bark, a widower whose dignified sorrow mirrors his own. Though they have no shared language, an instinctive friendship is forged.

Once in a while there comes a book that is so special it leaves me reeling and completely lost for words.

Monsieur Linh and his Child is one of them.

130 pages of clear, direct prose that is pure magic.

So beautiful......so deeply moving.......so heartbreaking!

Read it........please!

The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington

My draw for the Classics Club Spin which I was happy about because it was short and I already had it downloaded onto my Kindle but despite that I have a feeling it would have been a title I kept putting aside in favour of something else.

The Magnificent Ambersons was published in 1918 and in 1919 won the Pulitzer Prize. The novel is the second in a trilogy which traces the growth of America from the end of the Civil War to early 20th century through the rise and fall of the Amberson family. The fictional small town that became a city was inspired by Booth Tarkington's hometown of Indianapolis.

The magnificence of the Amberson's began in 1873 when Major Amberson 'made a fortune', bought two hundred acres , built himself a mansion on four of them, and laid out the rest with streets lined with trees and statues and fountains at the intersections. The Amberson's were prosperous fish in a small pond.

The first chapter tells of these early days and is quite delightful. In great detail it describes everything from  men's beards to women's dresses,  how the townspeople lived, ate and entertained and it mourns the 'vanishings' - the 'little bunty street cars', the 'all day picnics in the woods', the 'serenading' and the ' New Year celebrations'.

Another mansion is built close to the first when the Major's daughter, Isabel, marries Wilbur Minafer. Isabel and Walter have one child, a son called George and it is his story that is the main focus of the book. Over-protected and over-indulged George is an obnoxious child who grows into an arrogant and inconsiderate young man who thinks the world owes him because of his social position. He falls in love with Lucy Morgan without being aware her father was once a suitor of his mother.

Eugene Morgan is an inventor with an interest in the development of the horseless carriage - an interest the Amberson/Minafers don't share.

"Those things are never going to amount to anything. People aren't going to spend their lives lying on their backs in the road and letting grease drip in their faces. Horseless carriages are pretty much a failure.. " 

This attitude reflects the Amberson's whole approach to life, their inability to change and progress or to see that the days of being wealthy and idle are swiftly passing.

In sharp contrast is Eugene Morgan who begins with nothing and with a combination of vision and hard work becomes an industrial tycoon.

" It may be that they will not add to the beauty of the world, nor to the life of men's souls. I am not sure. But automobiles have come, and they bring a greater change in our life than most of us suspect. They are here, and almost all outward things are going to be different because of what they bring. They are going to alter war, and they are to alter peace."

The Magnificent Ambersons is written in a simple, direct style and enlivened with a great deal of humour which I hadn't expected and had me laughing constantly especially in the first half . Beneath the lightheartedness there is a sadness and a reminder of how quickly the environment and life can change.
Worth reading for it's portrayal of early 20th century American life.

Why Shoot a Butler? by Georgette Heyer

London barrister, Frank Amberley, is travelling down to his uncle & aunt's country house when he takes a wrong turn and comes across a car parked on the roadside with a young woman standing beside it. When he stops to ask for directions he discovers the woman is holding a gun and the man inside the car has been shot dead. He believes her claim that she is innocent and doesn't mention her presence when he reports the murder to the police.

The following day the dead man is identified as Mr Dawson, the trusted old butler from Norton Manor. Who could possibly have wanted to murder him?

Although I've enjoyed many of Georgette Heyer's Regency romances I hadn't read any of her mysteries before and wasn't sure what to expect and to be honest I wasn't impressed. Frank has his suspicions but doesn't share them and the young woman, Shirley, obviously knows something but she's not saying anything either. Most unfair to the reader in search of clues who has to wait until the end when all is revealed.

The story is saved by the wonderfully witty and sometimes snarky dialogue. Frank is arrogant and rude and doesn't mince words especially when it comes to his opinions on the abilities of the local constabulary. 
My favourite characters were Uncle Humphrey muttering and mumbling with disapproval.....'Murders at our very gates! I do not know what the world is coming to!' .......and Aunt Marion who is not as away with the fairies as she appears....' Dear me, how exciting!' Their contrasting attitudes to the mayhem happening around them makes for some very funny conversations.

All very class conscious 1930's and jolly good fun for a Sunday afternoon's reading.

Vintage Mystery Challenge 2013 - Scattergorie 23 - The Butler did it....or not! 

Turn of the Century Salon - The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford

The Turn of the Century Salon, hosted by Katherine @ November's Autumn, is a monthly event where you can share posts relating to literature and/or authors from the 1880's - 1930's.

I was at The Book Depository ordering Parade's End and on a whim decided to add The Good Soldier and what a good decision that turned out to be. 

The very definite opening line " This is the saddest story I have ever heard" immediately captured my attention and the discovery a few lines later that the narrator was, in fact, a part of that story made it even more intriguing.

The Good Soldier is about two married couples; Americans John and Florence Dowell and Edward and Leonora Ashburnham who are English. For nine years of the first decade of the twentieth century they travel, socialise, and take the waters at the German spa Bad Nauheim - a friendship of ' extreme intimacy' the narrator assures us although soon after he admits that no one knew anyone else very well at all.

source

" But the feeling that I had when, whilst poor Florence was taking her morning bath, I stood upon the carefully swept steps of the Englischer Hof, looking at the carefully arranged trees in tubs upon the carefully arranged gravel whilst carefully arranged people walked past in carefully arranged gaiety, at the carefully calculated hour, the tall trees of the public gardens, going up to the right; the reddish stones of the baths - or were they white half-timber chalets? Upon my word I have forgotten, I who was there so much."

It was enough that they were 'good people', a term which has nothing to do with being good but refers to social class. Wealthy, idle people who were outwardly the perfect examples of well-bred Edwardian respectability. The reality of what lies beneath that genteel facade slowly emerges during the course of the story and it is not pleasant!

The narrator is John Dowell - a man who having always accepted everything at face value is now looking back at the events of the past nine years and struggling to understand the reality of what happened. From the beginning the reader knows that nothing he says can be fully trusted but as the narration wanders here, there and everywhere......

" I have, I am aware told this story in a very rambling way so that it may be difficult for anyone to find their path through what may be a sort of maze."

......and one attempts to keep up and put the pieces together it is hard to remember Dowell is not a reliable narrator.

I thought it was brilliant! Sure to be one of the best novels I read this year.

The Classics Club
Back to the Classics 2013 Challenge

The Red Book by Deborah Copaken Kogan

Longlisted for the 2013 Women's Fiction Prize.

Spotted on the library shelf last week just after the longlist was announced I took the opportunity to bring it home and read it over the weekend.

The four main characters, all women, are introduced through their entries in the Red Book, a class report published every five years by, in which Harvard alumni write brief updates about their lives.

"But there's the story we tell the world, and then there's the real story"

A few months later one-time college roommates,Addison, Clover, Mia and Jane plus an assortment of husbands and children, head off to their 20th class reunion where over the next three days the warts are exposed and the dirty laundry is hung out for all to see. It's like a group mid-life crisis! 

How much can happen to so few in such a short time? Everything you can imagine and it's all too, too much. Midway through the book each chapter began to feel like another episode of a bad soap opera and I admit to skimming the second half . 

This reunion theme has been used so many times that it needs to offer something special to succeed and for me it failed to deliver. The characters and the story were so contrived and I could not relate to these over-privileged, self-absorbed women at all.

It's not a bad book - easy to read, very funny at times and I liked the inclusion of the red book entries which appear throughout  but overall I'm left wondering why it merits being on the longlist. Perhaps, not being American, I've missed something.

Reading from the Stella Prize Longlist

The Stella Prize is a new major literary award for Australian women’s writing.

The Stella Prize celebrates Australian women’s contribution to literature. Named after one of Australia’s most important female authors, Stella Maria ‘Miles’ Franklin (1879–1954), the prize rewards one writer with a significant monetary prize of $50,000.

At the end of last month Marg posted the Stella Prize longlist - sadly the library only has three of them but all were on the shelf so I brought them home , had a 'Stella week' and here are a few brief thoughts on each.

 Questions of Travel by Michelle de Kretser

 Two side-by-side narratives.

Laura is an Australian who after an unhappy childhood uses the inheritance she receives from an aunt to to travel the world. Eventually she returns to Sydney and works for a publisher of travel guides.

Ravi grows up and marries in Sri Lanka but after tragedy strikes he is forced to leave and seek asylum in Australia.

Spanning the decades from the 1970's to the 2000's it is a story of love and loss......and travel. With gorgeous descriptions of foreign places, Australia, Sri Lanka, London and Naples it doesn't ignore the less exciting realities ......long waits for flights, drab hotels , the fleeting 'ships that pass in the night' friendships and the loneliness and yearning for home.
Beautiful, lyrical prose details not only the lives of two different people but explores big themes of our time - what it means to be an asylum seeker, tourism and the corporate world, the growth and influence of technology. Sometimes wickedly funny, sometimes incredibly sad it is enthralling reading and oh my!, the ending was so unexpected!

I loved it and predict it will make the shortlist.

*********

Seahearts by Margo Lanagan aka The Brides of Rollrock Island

On remote Rollrock Island, the sea-witch Misskaella descovers she can draw a girl from the heart of a seal. So, for a price, a man might buy himself a bride; an irresistibly enchanting sea-wife. But what cost will be borne by the people of Rollrock.....

I had some doubts before I began reading - it's labelled YA, I have to be in the right mood for fantasy and it would be the third book I've read in the past few months that draws on one of my favourite folktales, the Selkies, for inspiration.
I shouldn't have worried. Margo Lanagan's writing is a joy to read and it didn't take long to fall under her spell. Told from several perspectives over a long period of time it is a dark, haunting tale of enchantment, desire, betrayals and revenge.
Lovely!

******

DNF - Sufficient Grace by Amy Espeseth

Ruth and her cousin live in rural Wisconsin, part of an isolated religious community. The girls' lives are ruled by the rhythms of nature and by their families beliefs. Beneath the surface of this closed frozen world, hidden dangers lurk.

"People on the land live close to the beginnings and endings of life. Death ain’t a scary thing that creeps in now and again in the night… We are people that raise, hunt and butcher.”

True but I don't want to read about it. The opening pages tell of a 13-year-old killing her first deer with a graphic description of the poor creature's death throes. I found it sickening and feared what was to come might be even worse. I read a little more and the biblical stuff I also didn't like so decided this book wasn't for me.

Looking around most of the comments seem to be positive so I'm probably in a minority of one.