Category: Book Reviews (Page 22 of 45)

Description: Bestselling author Jessie Burton delivers! This novel weaves together two stories: one set in 1967 in London and the other in 1936 Spain, just before the Spanish civil war. Odelle Bastien is a new immigrant from the Caribbean and lands a job as a typist at the prestigious Skelton Institute of Art. Her boss Marjorie Quick is a bit like the boss in The Devil Wears Prada. Odelle’s boyfriend inherits a painting that is rumoured to be the work of a Spanish artist who thrilled the art market in the 1930s but then disappeared. The story running in parallel to Odelle’s is that of the painting’s creator. This is a great novel about women in art, and modern working women. Peggy Guggenheim makes a brief appearance as well.

Favourite Moment: The dialogue scenes between Odelle and her friend Cynth are really fun, but so is Odelle’s commentary and observations about her new country and workplace.

Quote: For nearly the whole of the first week the only person I spoke to was a girl called Pamela Rudge. Pamela was the receptionist, and she would always be there, reading the Express at her counter, elbows on teh wood, gum poppin gin her mouth before the big fellers showed and she threw it in the bin. With a hint of suffering, as if she’d been interrupted in a difficult activity, she would fold the newspaper like a piece of delicate lace and loop up at me. ‘Good morning, Adele,’ she’d say. Twenty-one years old, Pam Rudge was the latest in a long line of East-Enders, an immobile beehive lacquered to her head and enough black eyeliner to feed five pharaohs.

Description: Eden Robinson’s novel Son of a Trickster is a gritty, mess of a tale about that boy everyone knows from high school who was the almost-dropout, who sold weed on the side and had a scary mom you didn’t want to mess with. Jared. Jared is the bad example your mother warned you about. And yet even with the freaky mom, the guns and drugs, the dead beat dad, this kid manages to survive. He’s a good kid, despite it all. This is a novel about life lessons and unpredictable paths. Towards the end of the novel, Robinson veers off into magic realism but it all seems to work.

• Shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize

Perfect Read for those who liked Heather O’Neill’s Lullabies for Little Criminals. Fans of Lee Maracle and Thomas King will like this too. Imagine a venn diagram of Indigenous storytellers and Edgar Allen Poe.

Son of a Trickster by Eden Robinson
Published by Knopf Canada

And applause for an awesome cover!

Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz available from HarperCollins Canada

Description: This murder mystery is a story within a story. Susan Ryeland is Alan Conway’s editor. He’s submitted his recent manuscript but there’s a chapter missing and he’s turned up dead. As a reader you get Conway’s manuscript, plus the story of Susan trying to solve Alan’s murder.

The perfect read for BBC Mysteries fans. This mystery is Midsomer Murders and Foyle’s War meets House of Silk, all 3 of which are written by Horowitz.

Favourite Moment: Conway’s detective series is built around Atticus Pund is a Poiret-inspired figure. Atticus is as likeable as any of the great detectives in literature.

Description: Bellevue Square is a much lauded novel, but it wasn’t my cup of tea. The writing was interesting, but I didn’t care about the characters. As the protagonist Jean Mason goes off the rails so did my attention. But this is a novel I should have loved. I like psychological thrillers and mysteries. Jean works in a bookstore near Kensington Market and apparently has a doppelganger. She tries to seek out her lookalike by hanging around in Bellevue Square, where “Ingrid” has been spotted. But in the end she mostly meets drug addicts, scam artists, vagrants, and some locals who are no strangers to the nearby mental health services.

Here are a few of the accolades:
• Winner of the 2017 Scotiabank Giller Prize
• #1 National Bestseller
• Globe and Mail Best Book of 2017
• National Post Best Book of 2017
• CBC Best Book of 2017
• Kobo Best Book of 2017

Spoiler Alert: The novel starts out great, interesting story, but as Jean becomes more and more obsessed with finding Ingrid, it’s clear that Ingrid is not real. Jean has functional delusions and as the novel nears its end, the delusions get more and more elaborate. In some ways the novel reminded me of Roddy Doyle’s Smile, where you’re not certain what is real or not. But for me, I was happy to get to the end of Bellevue Square.

Perfect Read for fans of CanLit. The setting is Kensington Market in Toronto, there are lots of nice nuances to the feel of that place. Plus Michael Redhill’s previous novels have been finalists or longlisted for major prizes so if you like writing that throws you off the trace then this is well-written but tame thriller.

Favourite Moment: Jean and her mother-in-law have some little abrasive moments that are a bit funny; and most of the scenes with her husband Ian and the kids provide light-hearted humour. “Ian’s mother drops the kids after lunch Sunday. They have enjoyed their weekend at the Condo of No Rules. If you want to see what a hangover looks like on a ten-year-old, let him stay up until the middle of the night two nights in a row.”

Bellevue Square by Michael Redhill
Published by Doubleday Canada

Smile by Roddy Doyle (published by Knopf Canada)

Description: Victor Forde is down on his luck and out on his ear. He’s recently split from his wife, has moved into a subpar apartment, and is looking for some social time (without too many attachments). He finds himself down at the local pub where he runs into a former school mate named Fitzpatrick. Victor doesn’t quite remember this guy as a lad he hung out with, but Fitzpatrick knows a lot about their time together at school. The chance encounter gets Victor thinking about their school days at a Christian Brothers school. There was bullying, taunts about being queer, and the ever-present authority of the Brothers.

Disclaimer: There’s a psycho-thriller element to this story and not everything is as it seems.

Smile is the perfect book for Roddy Doyle fans. If you are drawn to dark, gritty dramas then this is a great read, although an unsettling subject.

Favourite Moment: An early scene in the novel sets the stage and provides context for the title of the novel. The boys are in French class and want to get out of their weekend homework. Victor is goaded into making the request on their behalf. Brother Murphy turns from the board and says “Victor Forde, I can never resist your smile.” Creepy!

www.roddydoyle.ie

Description: Anosh Irani is one of those authors that I always seek out. His novels are dark, gritty, and deeply unsettling. There’s typically some moment of joy or inspiration so that it’s not dire straits the whole way through. This novel, though, ugh. It’s such a terrible, heartbreaking story. It took me weeks to get around to thinking about it and how to write a review. The basics are that Madhu is born a boy but knows he’s a girl. There’s no way his family will accept this, it’s an embarrassment to his father and both parents turn their back, maybe unknowingly. Madhu runs away and is adopted into the close-knit clan of transgender sex workers in Kamathipura, the notorious red-light district of Bombay. There are lots of graphic details on the rituals of becoming a eunuch, and about the sex trade. Madhu grows up a beauty and is sought after, but now at 40 has moved away from prostitution and is bringing up the next generation. The hardest part of this novel is reading about the kidnapping and trafficking of young girls, who are sold by beloved aunties or their parents. It’s devastating that is not pure fiction. Madhu has a redemptive moment but, as a reader, this novel left me feeling despair.

Perfect Read for fans of Rohinton Mistry and Yann Martel, who like the darker sides of those reads. This is beautiful writing, and tragic subject matter.

Favourite Moment: I love all the small details that paint a full picture of the scene. Here’s the opening of chapter 2: “Underwear Tree had its name thanks to the array of underclothes that were left to hang and dry in its loving care. It was one giant hanger for clothes, a dhobi’s delight. At any time of day, underwear in all shapes and sizes were caught in its branches like kites. Over the years, Underwear Tree served as a barometer for economic growth. If the elastic of the underwear was tight, it signified that people living in the hutments below the tree were doing well. If the elastic was loose, it meant overuse for the underwear and hard days for the owners.”

The Parcel by Anosh Irani
Published by Knopf Canada

I had the great fortune of exchanging some correspondence with Quindaro Press and it lead to a review copy of Gunpowder Girls: The True Stories of Three Civil War Tragedies by Tanya Anderson. It was a great audio book, and the narrator is Carrie Olsen. It’s a quick one: only 2 hrs and 3 mins but a fascinating, rich look at women and the work they were doing during the American Civil War in the arsenals.

There are intriguing details about the work itself (facts about the guns and ammunition, how it was produced and assembled, what the issues were with distribution, volume of ammo needed during various periods) and the nature of the work (how the women had to sit close together and were constrained by their huge hoop skirts, the conditions of the arsenals, who did what jobs and why, and the reason these women were working at all).

Here’s my Audible review:

“Fantastic Look at Women & Work”

Would you consider the audio edition of Gunpowder Girls to be better than the print version?
I didn’t read the print version but the audio edition is fantastic. The narrator’s voice is crisp, clear and engaging. There are slight intonations to connote different sections, presumably sidebar material.

Who was your favorite character and why?
This is nonfiction but there are several characters mentioned throughout, some are the foremen or boys who deliver gunpowder but it’s really a book about the women and the work they did during the civil war. There are several personal stories and anecdotes throughout. This is not boring history.

Which scene was your favorite?
The descriptions of two of the arsenal explosions are affecting. You can really imagine that you were at the scene. The descriptions are vivid and the author has done a great job of providing not just the facts but the story and context.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
I listened to this in a few long sessions.

Any additional comments?
The quality of the writing and the narration are superb. As a disclaimer, I received a free review copy but it was a book I requested and very much enjoyed.

The Widow by Fiona Barton (Penguin Canada) is a dark psychological thriller. Glen Taylor is a smarmy, arrogant bastard. He marries Jean when she’s quite young and she’s blown away. Initially she seems to like him ordering her food and telling her what to wear or do. Glen is older, charming, and she sees it as him introducing her to the adult world. But when Glen gets fired from his job and starts driving a truck, the cracks begin to show. One day the police show up. A little girl has gone missing and Glen’s delivery truck was in the area. Next the media circus shows up, and they are relentless. The family is hounded. Glen is hiding something but Jean doesn’t know what. They both love children, didn’t have any of their own, couldn’t. But Glen wouldn’t hurt a child, or so Jean believes. The police feel differently and it goes to court. It’s there that Jean is truly blown away. Glen was fired for viewing child pornography at the office. He was buying and watching porn at night unbeknownst to her, and there are deeper, darker secrets that are revealed.

What I like about this book is that it opens with one of the reporters smooth talking her way into Jean’s house. The chapters are told from Jean’s perspective, the reporter’s, or the detective’s. Little by little the case is pieced together and the reader realizes the connections at the same time as the case unfolds. There’s lots of little deceptions, unfollowed leads and circumstantial evidence. The scenario is unthinkable, but the plot twists and psychological insights into the wife, the reporter and the detective make this a fascinating, rather than gruesome, read.

You can’t get a better quote than this:

“If you liked Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train, you might want to pick up The Widow by Fiona Barton. Engrossing. Suspenseful.”–Stephen King

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel is a haunting novel about the end of the world as we know it. SARS has come and gone but a virus called the Georgian Flu starts in Russia and rapidly makes its way around the world. People get flu-like symptoms and are dead within 3-4 hours. This means that families are separated. Parents fall ill at work and never return home. Kids are left to their own devices. There is mass panic as people try to flee‚ but where can they go? Highway on/off ramps are backed up, traffic is at a standstill, people walk and fall along the road or manage to survive and set up small settlements. There’s no one around to refuel gas stations. The existing gas stores eventually expire. The internet fails, electrical grids turn off, generator power dies. There are no more medicines, no more processed foods, no more new clothes or soaps or other commonplace items. The few people left ransack buildings for food, shelter and other necessities.

Station Eleven is told mostly 20 years after the collapse of the world as we know it. There are small settlements around Lake Michigan and we follow a travelling symphony that performs Shakespeare around the area. Members of the symphony are separate by a maundering group intent on stockpiling food and weapons. The story line is a mix of how they get separate, whether they’ll reunite, and flashbacks to the before the flu and the first years after the collapse. It’s fascinating.

As a thought exercise, this book is a terrible look at what could happen to us when we have to do without. There are friendships, partnerships, and strong group dynamics. But there’s also greed, melancholy and the type of strife that undermines us even today.

I recommend having a little taste of this sci-fi, apocalyptic world full of Shakespeare, music, and the plague.

Slade House by David Mitchell is a fast-paced, gripping ghost story about two immortals who prey on visitors to Slade House. Norah and Jonah Grayer are twins who learn the secret of eternal life. Yet the magic that sustains them requires the soul of a particular type of person, who they elaborately lure into their web every nine years. The novel spans from 1979 to 2015 with each episode taking place on the last Saturday in October (close to, or on, Halloween) when a secret entrance to Slade House is revealed to its intended victim.

Each episode is narrated by the newest victim, which lets Mitchell experiment with the tone of each era and the social and political dynamics of the scenes.

Slade House is a clever, creepy tale that started as a series of tweets. In some ways it is a companion to Mitchell’s previous novel The Bone Clocks, but really it is a continuation of the great uber-novel he has been writing for the last 15 years. Each of his novels has references to characters, settings or background details from the previous works. And although each novel stands alone, together they construct a sprawling universe.

This side gate at Powerscourt reminded me of Slade House.

Slade House by David Mitchell
Published by Penguin Random House