Different Class, Joanne Harris

I love a Joanne Harris. She writes such good, satisfying stories and food always plays a huge part even, as in this case, just as symbols and tools to show the character's attitudes. Having said that there is always something that annoys me about the way she writes, if all the rhetorical questions were edited out her novels would benefit hugely.

This novel is very different to any of the others I have read though. It is a real mystery with plot twists and slow reveals. It centers around a boy who seems to be a sociopath and an ageing and well meaning Latin teacher at St Oswald's Grammar School. Harris touches on what feels like a thousand different themes in the book. I am not sure that I agree with her conclusions on some of them but it is compelling and readable. IT reminded me something of Harry Potter in places, but I think that was mostly down to the setting in a fairly well to do and very traditional school. 

To Throw Away Unopened, Viv Albertine

This is an incredible memoir, it really is uncompromising, and is written beautifully. The evening of Albertine's mum's death is slowly revealed, paragraph by paragraph in between the telling of Albertine's family life. We are shown a window into the lives of her mum, dad and to some extent her sister's lives. Albertine is shockingly honest and uncompromising, when talking about her own experiences we feel like we see the ugliness and the best of her.

I am amazed that Albertine could write this book and convey so clearly all the contradictory feelings of complicated families (and isn't every family complicated on the inside?) She makes us understand how much she loved her mum, but that she also saw her flaws and really problematic behaviour with long lasting effects. 

Her writing on men is also illuminating and sad, at one point she writes: 

'I've never regretted the loss of any man -or cat- I've known. I have regretted losing women though. Every woman, good or bad, who's gone from my life has left a hole.'

I found this eye-opening, and from her writing you can completely understand why, a mixture of the time (being in a successful female punk band in the 70's, you can imagine) and her family experience. She continues:

'I was on tenterhooks for years anticipating my mother leaving the biggest hole of all. I expected her to leave a crater. A crater can be beautiful, I kept telling myself. People go to Iceland and America especially to see craters' 

The book is whole and vital and funny and sad and cutting and galvanising.

Annie John, Jamaica Kincaid

 Heartbreaking, as Annie John gradually hits puberty her relationship with her mother breaks down. Kincaid artfully tells the story from Annie's point of view, we see cracks appear and watch as neither mother or daughter know how to repair them. Despite themselves they drive wedges between each other and the rift becomes too big to cope with.

The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy

I'm not sure why I didn't read this sooner, its legendary and for good reason. The story is heartbreaking, every character is scarred and broken. Gradually the reasons and circumstances of their wounds are shown to us, as are the ways they try to cope or are unable of coping. There is an aunt who acts like poison, infiltrating every situation and turning it sour. 

The characters are struggling with each other, but also with circumstances, Roy shows with total clarity the human cost of politics and customs. The book is dark, but it is also very funny in places, and the descriptive passages are original, lyrical and evocative. It is a pleasure to read, despite the darkness and it feels important.  

 

The Middlesteins, Jami Attenberg

This was really reminiscent of A Spool of Blue Thread, less far reaching but still looking at the lives of a family and how they individually relate to one another and the world. The Middlesteins concentrates on a family of four, mum, dad and two grown-up kids. The mother is fat and is having serious health complications. The rest of the family, including the son's wife, try to help an unwilling Edie to change her lifestyle. We see into the relationships of the daughter, son and son's family too and the ways they cope, or don't, with the lives they have. 

The Middlesteins takes a fairly dim view of relationships, both romantic and familial. It makes you not want to get married or start a family. Everyone seems trapped in a life they no longer want, or never did. There is very little everyday joy and no contentment. It's a good novel, but I don't know if it's perpetuating a trope rather than adding nuance.

For Whom The Bell Tolls, Ernest Hemingway

I have mixed feelings about Hemingway. The Old Man and the Sea is one of my favourite stories, but generally I think I have difficulty with what I've heard of his personality, and in general his attitude to women in life and print.

For Whom the Bell Tolls is a great war novel. We follow Robert Jordan, who is an American volunteer fighting against the fascists in the Spanish Civil War. He is sent to blow up a bridge, and for this reason is attached temporarily to a group of guerrilla fighters behind enemy lines. They are a motley crew of mostly men and two women. The younger woman is a love interest for our hero and is sickeningly and unbelievably sweet, pliable and naive. The relationship, and in particular its intensity, is vital to the plot, and there is something in Maria being so young and naive which is symbolic or says something about the situation. Nevertheless I found her difficult, some parts of her history vs. present hard to believe and generally wanted her to get a grip. The other female character, Pilar has a touch of caricature, but so do many of the other members of the guerrilla group. Apart from numerous references to how ugly she is, she is well and sympathetically drawn.  

The novel feels genuine and somewhat realistic, not overly idealised or cynical. It looks at the individual, human experience of war and is thoroughly engaging. It focuses on individual experiences, lives and deaths rather than on battles or even concerns with ideology. We can feel the characters' fear and both a hope and hopelessness, a kind of resignation. When compared to Orwell's Homage to Catalonia there is no contest, For Whom.. is the better book by miles. 

My copy was given to me for my birthday by friends and it is a gorgeous gift edition, photographed here without its dust jacket it is a lovely embossed hardback with gold edging and an oak leaf pattern inside. 

Bad Feminist, Roxane Gay

I took a while to start reading this, I think because the word 'essays' put me off a bit. That was completely my loss, Gay's writing is funny, intelligent, passionate and compelling. The essays are completely accessible and cover popular culture, race, sexual assault, politics and personal experience. Her personality shines through the work and she feels familiar by the end. It is a privilege to read something so personal and political and galvanizing.