Category: Book Reviews (Page 22 of 47)

Michael Ondaatje’s 8th novel is absolutely spellbinding. I loved every bit of this story about a young man piecing together his family history.

Description: Fourteen-year-old Nathaniel and his sister, Rachel, are unexpectedly abandoned by their parents and left in the care of a gentle, but strange man who they call The Moth. Things are not totally on the up and up but it’s post-war London and everything is in flux.

The two kids are sent to boarding school, from which they quickly escape. The Moth organizes for them to continue school but live in the family home. While home, they are introduced to a motley crew of men and women who all have strange or mysterious careers.

A dozen years later, with fading romances and petty crime sprees, Nathaniel starts piecing it all together.

This is the story of an absent mother and the havoc it causes for her children. But it’s melancholic rather than tragic. And Ondaatje beautifully pulls back layer upon layer of emotion. It’s sentimental and sad but also invigorating.

Favourite Moment: Nathaniel starts doing night runs with the Darter on the Thames. The Darter is legally importing greyhounds.

…it was our nights on the mussel boat I loved. The boat, originally a sailing kotter, had now been equipped with a modern diesel. The Darter was borrowing it from “a respected dockland merchant,” who needed it only three days a week; unless, he warned us, a royal wedding was suddenly announced, which would mean the hurried importation of cheap crockery with a royal image fired up and shipped from some satanic mill in Le Havre. In that event the transportation of dogs would have to be postponed.

The Darter is quite an influential figure for Nathaniel. He’s a lady’s man, loves a boat, is mildly nefarious, and above all has his eye out for Nathaniel and Rachel.

Warlight is perfect for anyone who wants a satisfying read. If you liked All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, you’ll like this too. Or if you’re a fan of post-war London novels, a fan of Ondaatje, Canadian writers, then give this a read.

Description: Where’d You Go Bernadette meets The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime. Gail Honeyman’s debut novel is satisfyingly funny. It has the deadpan humour of Where’d You Go Bernadette coming from a woman who does not give a flip. And it has the socially awkward protagonist solving a low-level mystery, reminiscent of The Curious Incident.

I held off on reading this novel because it had so much praise when it came out and then became a Reese’s Book Club pick. But I needn’t have worried. This book lives up to the hype.

Eleanor Oliphant struggles with social skills and as a result sticks to herself. She’s awkward. Loves a routine and a crossword. Miss Oliphant does not have any friends, nor does she welcome them. Her only friend is Polly the plant. Her only visitor is a social worker. Eleanor has been a ward of the state since she was a child and there’s the edge of a mystery through the novel about what exactly created these conditions.

One day she falls in love with a musician and suddenly Eleanor is in make-over fever. Around the same time, she meets Raymond, the bumbling IT guy from the office. Despite Eleanor’s lack of social graces, Raymond finds her funny. His bighearted nature also means Eleanor now has a friend, whether she wants one or not.

Favourite Moment: All of them. Eleanor leads a fairly sheltered life and through the novel ends up having all sorts of normal encounters that she’s never had before, or that she’s never considered having. In the midst of a makeover moment, she ends up at the make-up counter getting a smokey eye. Here’s the conversation with the technician.

“Well,” she said, “what do you think?”

“I look like a small Madagascan primate, or perhaps a North American raccoon,” I said. “It’s charming!”

She laughed so much she had to cross her legs, and she shooed me down from the chair and toward the door.

“I’m supposed to try and sell you the products and brushes,” she said. “If you want any, come back tomorrow and ask for Irene!”

I nodded, waved good-bye. Whoever Irene was, there was literally more chance of me purchasing weapons-grade plutonium from her.”

Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine is the perfect read for anyone who loved The Rosie Project, Where’d You Go Bernadette, or The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime. This is a fun, quirky read about an oddball woman who works in an office and otherwise sticks to herself, and her routine of frozen pizza and lots of vodka. Until that all changes.