Book Review No6: The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, by David Mitchell.

For this book review I  recruited my husband to be the reviewer of this book, which he recently read and (not to give too much away) loved.  I shall say no more.  Enjoy.  He says:

I am no reviewer. In fact, if I’m honest, for the last few months I’ve barely even been a reader. You see, I have been suffering a bit of a reading drought of late – the irony of which is not lost on me in a house in which we are drowning in books. Some time ago, reading non-fiction started to seem a chore after a day of work, and reading fiction left me feeling guilty that I wasn’t reading, well, non-fiction. The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoetwas just what I needed to remind me how much a good book can do for your well-being.

Set in 18^th Century ‘Edo-era’ Japan, our protagonist, a young and fresh faced Jacob De Zoet, seeks fortune and status as clerk for the Dutch East India Company. Posted to the Japanese port of Nagasaki, where the Dutch serve as the exclusive trading partners of the local magistrate and therefore Japanese empire, De Zoet soon lays eyes upon Miss Aibagawa, a young and well-born mid-wife… and so the story progresses.

It is such a fascinating age in a fascinating country. Japan, steeped in millennia of tradition and a finely balanced social order, can no longer ignore the great colonial game which is being played just beyond its horizon. Even if it could – would it want to?

David Mitchell, also author of Cloud Atlas, apparently spent four years researching and writing this book- and it really shows. The attention to detail is excellent – and particularly commendable given that the detail is now over two hundred years dead. By way of illustration, Mitchell apparently spent half a day trying to find out whether the Dutch would have used shaving cream to shave in 1799. An incredible amount of effort to ensure the accuracy of just one sentence.

The book is a little laboured to begin with; littered with complex Dutch names, phrases of the age, and characters which you don’t immediately identify with. Yet, for some reason, you can’t stop yourself wanting to find out what happens to these characters with barely pronounceable names. I rarely enjoy a book if I don’t identify with the central character; yet on this occasion it didn’t seem to matter that I didn’t identify with De Zoet as I got to know him over the course of a book which spans the majority of his lifetime. When I put it down, it left me with one overriding emotion – a sort of rueful nostalgia; or probably more accurately it left me feeling Jacob De Zoet’s rueful nostalgia, which just goes to show how well Mitchell immerses you in the story.

The last half dozen chapters of the book are its best. We spend time with a De Zoet who is no longer fresh off the boat from Holland; but a seasoned trade-clerk who has ingratiated himself with the Japanese in a way none of his compatriots were able to or interested in; a De Zoet who remains in love, whether he knows it or not, with Miss Aibagawa, whose own life has been shaped by the social power plays within the Nagasaki elite, which De Zoet is unfortunately oblivious to but we are fortunately privy to.

Mitchell really does have a way with words, and brings 18^th Century Japan to 21^st Century Catford with the most startling use of language. At one point, prior to the book’s climax, the text almost becomes a poem, with half a page of text describing the city using fantastic rhyming couplets.

As the book draws to a close, time passes exponentially faster – paragraphs describe months and sentences describe years until De Zoet is left contemplating his life, in the shadow of his death, with only us for company.

A very good book, which you should read if you have the time and read if you don’t.

Book Review 5: The Time Traveler’s Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger

There are times I feel when a book just chooses to be read.  Books that you have started reading several times all of a sudden just engross you.  Or you miss all the hype of a book but then just randomly read it one day and LOVE it.  That was me with the Time Traveler’s Wife.  Everyone else I knew practically had read it and then Fiona got me it as an engagement present and I devoured it in a weekend! (Causing me sadly to rush out to tescos to buy the DVD to watch as well – big mistake).

So firstly, this review needs to be clear that I loved the book and I hope you have read it.  It’s not to late if you haven’t!

I think you can say that it is basically a story of love (if not a love story), but it is quite a dark one.  There are many strands and themes that I cannot go in to in a review but Henry and Claire have an intense love, which grew in strange ways at different times, and is filled with a lot of loss.  There is much longing and loss when Henry is away, the pain of loss in childbirth and the ultimate loss in life, death.  I do love Henry and Claire’s relationship and the care for each other, but this too has a dark side – the feeling of being left behind for Claire, when Henry goes where she cannot follow.  She says,

“It’s hard being left behind. I wait for Henry, not knowing where he is, wondering if he’s okay.  It’s hard to be the one who stays.  I keep myself busy.  Time goes faster that way.  I go to sleep alone, and wake up alone.  I take walks.  I work until I’m tired.  I watch the wind play with the trash that’s been under the snow all winter.  Everything seems simple until you think about it.  Why is love intensified by absence?”

With Raymond just making his way back from Somalia now, this made me reflect on my feelings about this.  He goes where I cannot go and there is cause for worry at times.  One significant difference being the purpose for which he goes and why I love to support him in this.  That is what makes it ok, a good thing even.  And why it is important that he knows and I know why he is going and that he feels it is what he should be doing.  But still, it is not so much being left behind that is hard,  but not knowing what he is experiencing or being able to experience it with him.

Last week I went to Radio 4 bookclub with the author, Audrey Niffenegger.  It was amazing and lots of fun being in the recording studio!! She said she often gets letters from people in long-distance relationships, wives whose husbands are in the army.  And for this review I just want to briefly explore two questions / thoughts I had for this book club.

The firsts is very specific to the storyline and characters. One thing that really annoyed me about Henry was the fact that he didn’t tell himself about his future relationship with Claire – therefore allowing himself a free and ‘easy’ (although more of a train-wreck) life prior to meeting her in his present.  He lived with no duty to their relationship, although Claire had to grow up knowing her future and with a duty to this.  I thought this was a bit selfish, maybe unfairly (?).  Then even worse I was so mad with Claire that she had slept with Gomez before meeting Henry!! But I won’t go in to that!!

The second theme, is more a thought.  Claire says the first time she meets Henry’s father that “it’s better to be extremely happy for a short while, even if you lose it, than to be just okay for your whole life” – what an amazing and liberating world view.  To be happy with what we have, when we have it and the challenge to think of how we would cope if we lost it.  Is this world view possible and do you have it!?

This book will make you cry (or feel like crying), ruefully smile on many occasions, and possibly even laugh out loud! (I did when Claire tells Henry’s father why she wants to marry him!!).  The best bit is that when I recently re-read it in prep for the book club, it was just as addictive and enveloping as the first time!! And I suspect it would / will be the next time too!

Here are some pics from the book club, I was too embarrassed to take a pic with Audrey so they are just all a bit random actually!! But it was a great experience.  You can listen on Radio 4 anyway – in July I think, I can upload the link at the time!!!

Rating 9.4 out of 10.

Into Broadcasting House for Radio 4 Bookclub.

Have no idea why this photo won’t upload the right way – but that is Audrey in the background! And the room where we were recorded!

And this one!! But this was just the autograph.

World Book Night 2013. Book Review No.4 Anne of Green Gables

Well, it is World Book Night 2013 – the third one!  Last year I was a registered giver and attended a lovely event at my local library (where I learned amongst other things the joy of cranberry and raspberry juice mixed with red wine. Random).  I was giving away copies of the wonderful Time Traveller’s Wife (which I am sure I will review at some stage).  This year, I am ashamed to admit, I have not read one of the World Book Night books!! I was shocked at this, as I do enjoy reading and yet none of these books were even on my ‘to read’ list.  Anyway, it is a good mix of genres.  But I did think that as it is World Book Night I should probably write one of my 30 book reviews and so have decided upon Anne of Green Gables (the series).  Back to basics and innocence and my childhood!

So, Anne of Green Gables starts by sort of setting the scene.  Prince Edward Island is where Matthew and Marilla live, along with the folks of Avonlea – which includes many busybodys.  Anne is a young orphan girl who is living in a terrible home situation where she looks after loads of children.  Basically by various turns of events, Anne comes to stay with Matthew and Marilla who are brother and sister, of the older generation, and have never had their own children.  Boy does she brighten up their lives!! Matthew takes to her immediately and although Marilla takes time to warm, her love for Anne grows very deep.  It is magical and lovely and makes you believe totally in the possibility of happiness in strange situations.  And makes me think that I was born in the wrong generation!!

The first book basically goes through Anne living with Matthew and Marilla and the relationship she develops with them and others on the Island.  And how she changes and develops – although remains as scatty and troublesome in many ways as always!! Then the remainder of the books develop her story and in particular her relationship with Gilbert (who I love).  There are many different periods of Anne’s life explored in the books – especially in Anne of Avonlea and Anne of the Island where there are many changes and different characters!  But what is always the same is how much Anne touches the lives of those around her.  Then the last three books are about Anne becoming wife and mother and I think Anne’s House of Dreams is my favourite of them all!! It is so romantic and so simple, but her life is very appealing.

I am sure most of you have read these books, they are so old and so well known.  But, if you have not, no matter how old you are I would really recommend them.  Or recommend re-reading them (go on – you know you want to!!).  And if you have children, well I am sorry – they are an absolute must for any daughter especially.  Do not think they are outdated, she will love them (and I have recently checked with several 10 year olds who completely agree!!).  I have been thinking about why I love them so much and I think (crazy as it sounds) they have in part made me who I am today.  I loved that Anne was ‘adopted’ by Matthew and Marilla and that she made friends and did so well for herself! And because of her, Marilla went on to look after other children!  And although I know it is very romanticised and set at a different time to now, a part of me always wanted to create some part of that in my own life.  From such a young age that I can’t remember I have always wanted to foster and/or adopt and I think a small part of that at least must have come from Anne!  And I’m glad about that.

So for World Book Night 2013 I recommend reading or re-reading Anne of Green Gables..I’m off to dig mine out.  I love a book that you can open anywhere and just start reading, that to me is comfort!

One lucky day – oh so long ago (I think 2008) a bosom friend and I took a road trip to PEI to immerse ourselves in Anne’s world – and the freezing cold! Here’s a few random pics.

Green Gables – aka LM Montgomery’s Aunt’s house where she got the inspiration for Anne

 

It was soooo cold. Yes, the waves are frozen!

 

Book Review Three: The Great Gatsby

There is something that just makes me feel so good inside when I am reading a ‘classic’.  I don’t get this feeling much,  but when I do (and I enjoy the book) – it is such a wonderful feeling.  I think the last time for me was when I read Wuthering Heights, and almost when I got half-way through Bleak House (which I do intend to finish).

Unfortunately I do have to admit that what started me on the path to reading The Great Gatsby this weekend was, not even that the movie by Baz Luhrmann comes out soon, but the fact that two 17 year old boys at the cinema were talking about the film coming out – and therefore reading the book!  I can take on 17 year old boys in the reading department surely!?

And I have to say, as I sat in Costa in Catford yesterday, having a luxurious day to myself (although I do miss my husband who is in Sudan), I was secretly pleased to be placing my copy on the table.  You can’t judge a book by it’s cover – but with this version I think you’ll agree – it looks good!

While it is not addictive reading, it is compulsive – and you want to venture in to the character’s world throughout.  I savoured it over the weekend and thoroughly enjoyed what was essentially a story that takes place over 3 months, in an era long-gone.  It is melancholic and fascinating   It lingers on the past with a fixation on one man’s (Gatsby’s) hope and also his shady background (with some romanticised war-time nostalgia in there as well) – while also being very real in the present with many mysteries unfolding at speed.

And it is full of hope.  But yet, the hope based on the past.  This made me think of how nostalgic I can be, wanting to re-create experiences I once had, in places I once was, with people I used to be with.  And there is nothing wrong with the nostalgia – as long as I recognise it, and rekindling things from the past can be very positive.  But, I can’t build all my dreams on it.  I can’t let it go either though – “Gatsby believed in green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us…So we beat on, boats against the current , borne back ceaselessly into the past.”

The time taken over the characters was impressive and worthwhile – with this description being one of my favourites:  “It was the kind of voice that the ear follows up and down, as if each speech is an arrangement of notes that will never be played again.  Her face was sad and lovely with bright things in it, bright eyes and a bright passionate mouth, but there was an excitement in her voice that men who had cared for her found difficult to forget.”  You feel you know his characters  all so well – like they could walk in to your room – but yet you barely know them – you only had but a brief glimpse into their lives,a detailed glimpse, but still only a glimpse.

I obviously can’t spoil the story line – but oh how I loved Gatsby.  Yet I don’t know why.  And I never felt sorry for him, although I feel I should have had pity at some point.  He didn’t command pity though.  He was a strong character, well written and fascinating   Daisy however, and Tom – how foolish, and selfish.  I love Nick Carraway’s conclusion of them at the end: “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy – they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made…”

The other thing I loved about the book was the time setting – the ‘Jazz Era’.  America rising, the rich getting richer and partying, others partying anyway (loved Chapter II and the scene in New York at the apartment).  In a time after the civil war in america, World War I and before the Great Depression and World War II.  It was as Fitzgerald himself called it – ” the most expensive orgy in history was over…It was borrowed time anyhow…”

The book is over with a very clear ending in so many ways, although many things still remain a mystery.  I was taken by surprise at the end – both at the ending for Gatsby, and Tom’s involvement in this (no more can be said).  I liked that Fitzgerald caught me by surprise and I could have turned the book over and started all over again – it was that much alive.  But I won’t.  Not today anyway.  But I would definitely recommend you read it before you watch the film – which I am sooooo excited about now.  I have also been advised, by a very wise mother and English teacher (double whammy) to watch the old 1974 version with Robert Redford in it first….he is apparently a Great Gatsby!!!

Rating:  8.8

Book Review No. 1: White Teeth, by Zadie Smith

Having just moved last week we have been without the internet, which has left me unable to blog (I am behind already!!).  So, I thought a book review was the best way back to business on the eve before World Book Day.  Maybe if you’re lucky there will be a second review tomorrow on actual World Book Day.  Or more likely not.  It’s all about dressing up as your favourite book character and reading aloud – I’m sure I can plan some of my own fun!!

I have wanted to either form or join a book club for aaaages.  Being me, I have been disorganised about this and therefore this is an interim measure – dialogue and thoughts welcomed on each review, about the book or any other vaguely related ideas! This will be less formally reviewing books and more random thoughts…

White Teeth is set in North London, focusing around the stories of two (arguably 3) families, spanning over three generations and different countries.  They are both now living in a multi-cultural London, which has caused their lives to intertwine.  The story focuses on two friends, Archie Jones and Samid Iqbal, who served in the war together.  There are other caricatured figures who pop in and out of the story, who I enjoyed – like ‘niece of shame’ and the bar manager from O’Connells.  But yes, then the focus narrows more to the children of Archie and Samid – Irie Jones and Millat and Magid Iqbal.

For me this was a book of two halves – one I loved, one I struggled with.  I first started to read this book many years ago.  I can remember I bought it due to all the hype and I couldn’t read it.  At all.  I could barely get past the first few pages (or maybe I didn’t try too hard).  I got nowhere and so I gave up.  So it’s been sitting on my book shelves and has been boxed and moved to several different homes.  It still made that cut each time, knowing it would be read! And while you can’t judge a book solely on its cover – you can still judge the cover and I like this one – full of colour!!

Well anyway, fast forward a few years and add over 100 books to the collection due to our wedding list and all of a sudden I have too much choice.  When I finally finish a book I can literally browse the shelves and choose…

And a few months ago I chose White Teeth so I thought I’d write a few points on it.  And I should say, I am not actually recommending it for all (or necessarily anyone) but it was a good read overall, a book I got in to, characters I can truly remember.  From page one I was hooked on Archie.  (there are no spoilers) – not that I could relate to his character or that I even particularly liked him, but I felt I knew him.  And that was one of the amazing things about the book, the characters coming alive in a multi-cultural city (London) and actually in quite a mundane but realistic way.  It was gritty, which I liked.  And it was in London, which I loved.

So for me the first half was just incredible, meeting the characters of the story as it unfolds.  I loved the ‘relationship’ between Irie and Millat and the love lost and the angst and pressure of being fifteen.  If you know it, one of my favourite scenes was when there is a military style bust-in on the smokers in the playground.  This resulted in the punishment of Irie and Millat and the introduction of the Chalfens.

While I loved this scene, and initially I did find the Chalfens funny in their overtly over the top and naive desire to help Irie and Millat, for me this is where the book goes wrong.  At times you lose momentum in a book which may in part be to blame.  But to me the Chalfens were just so unrealistic and as the book progressed it just got more and more extreme.  After the initial introduction of the brown mouse (which was mildly interesting) I found it just steam rollered out of control and as it became more and more extreme, I became less and less interested.  There was all this tension and it seems ridiculous that it would revolve around a mouse (despite there obviously being more to it).  And if I were to ask one question of you if you have read it – it would be – was the final scene at Trafalgar Square an amazing climax joining all strands of the book together or an iceberg causing the book to sink?

For me the book crashed and burned there and I felt a bit robbed by it all as I had been so into it.  Any thoughts? But it was certainly like nothing I had read before and on the whole I am glad I read it.  Zadie Smith was so young when she wrote it and it was interesting hearing her thoughts on the book on Radio 4’s Bookclub.  You can listen here http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00f8krw

She reflects a bit on how extreme the Chalfens were, and some discussion that they should have been a more ‘typical’ (whatever that looks like?) white middle class family.  But, they do step in to try and help in the way they seem to think is best.  And I think some families would.  But then, as I said above it is all just way too extreme and very unrealistic.  But – there are people (am I one?) who want to help, to ‘rescue’ and it did make me think what is it about certain people who get under our skin, really make us care and step out of our comfort zone to reach out to them??

I’ll do a score:  6.9 out of 10

Ps: I am now reading Midnight’s Children and I’m just over halfway.  Again, the character development is superb but I am not sure where the story is going..hopefully I am wrong and it turns.  I am motivated.