White Dog Fell from the Sky, Eleanor Morse

There are two protagonists in White Dog Fell from the Sky (three if you're counting the dog). We meet Isaac as he is being pulled out of the bottom of a hearse and dumped in the street. He has been smuggled into Botswana, fleeing apartheid in South Africa. Alice is an American who has moved to Botswana with her husband and isn't living the life she imagined she would.

I loved this, the characters are really well drawn and the storyline could be a realistic portrayal of two lives in '70s Botswana. Taken as a whole it doesn't feel romanticised (though there are scenes which feel that way) and the characters, whilst they seem stereotypical at first, are so full and well crafted they are completely believable. It is powerful, compelling and a really enjoyable read.

The Promise of Happiness, Justin Cartwright

This novel revolves around the Judd family, a middle class british family based London before the parents retired to Cornwall. It opens on the day one of the daughters is released from prison. It deals with family relationships, and how they affect and are affected by individuals trying to carve out a way of life. The book is as much about ways of living, plans, decisions taken and mistakes made as it is about family, as well as the idea of healing or redemption. It flicks between the points of view of all the family members, so we get a pretty well-rounded view of all of them, as well as the disparity between the kids' view of life as in front of them and parents' view of life as lived.

The Promise of Happiness is mainly written in the third person, but Cartwright employs a slightly odd tactic; every now and then there is a paragraph, only a sentence or so, written in first person. This is a clear thought from whichever Judd we are hearing from at that moment, and I can see why it was done. However each time I read one of those sentences it was a bit of a jolt, and pulled me out of the story more than it pulled me in. Other than that I really enjoyed this, it kept me interested and the characters felt well rounded and well drawn, with differing concerns and places in the family. 

I have also just finished White Dog Fell from the Sky by Eleanor Morse; powerful.

A Burnt Out Case, Graham Greene

After reading Brighton Rock and Travels with My Aunt I decided not to read any more of Greene's 'serious' novels, and to stick to his comedies. This was Greene's last chance to prove to me that his literary ones are worth reading. 

A Burnt Out Case follows Querry, a famous architect fleeing from himself and his reputation. He ends up in the jungle at a leper colony run by an catholic missionaries and an atheist doctor. Querry tries to stay there without anyone finding out who he is and what he is running from.

I did enjoy it. There is a little too much discussion on pretty large, abstract themes for me, which slows it down a little. However the story is good, the characters are reasonably engaging and again Greene conveys an excellent sense of place and climate. The plot is slightly absurd and some of the charters are grotesques but just believable. In all I would choose a Greene comedy any day, but wouldn't completely vito another literary one.