The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden, Jonas Jonasson

The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden is of course by the same author who wrote The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared. The Girl.. is a stand alone story and has the same humour, sprawling storyline and scope as its predecessor. 

The girl who saves the king of Sweden is Nombeko Mayeki. She is born in Soweto and after a string of haphazard coincidences and incidents of bad luck she ends up in Sweden with a twin who doesn't exist and a series of crazy hangers-on and sidekicks... saying anything else will spoil the surprises along the way. 

It is a thoroughly enjoyable book, you get a good yarn and a crash course in international relationships at the same time. Obviously most of the politics is fictional, but there is the odd well placed dig and sarcastic remark which crosses with reality. Highly recommended (as long as you liked the Hundred Year Old Man..) and definitely a good holiday or light relief novel. 

My Name is Red, Orhan Pamuk

It's been a little while since my last post. This is partly because I am studying and so super busy, but also because I started (and got halfway through) Orhan Pamuk's My Name is Red, after finishing Silas Marner.

I was looking forward to reading My Name is Red, and did love the way it was structured, with different people, animals, ideas and inanimate objects as the narrators. However it felt too much like the characters were having the same conversation over and over; and it got too heavy and uninteresting for me. I didn't hate it, rather I lost patience. Maybe I'll go back to it in a few years, but I put it aside for something lighter this time.

Silas Marner, George Eliot

I thoroughly enjoyed Silas Marner, it is a little old fashioned and twee in places, but it is a great story.

The novel follows Silas Marner, for around 50 years. He is the victim of an injustice in his early life and again later on. We see how these events affect Silas, and ultimately how he finds contentment. 

Silas is completely susceptible to the events around him, he isn't at all resilient, and the novel is one in which, for the most part, everyone gets what they deserve. It portrays village life in the 19th Century, with all it's characters and superstitions. It's a satisfying, easy read.

Going Solo, Roald Dahl

Going Solo is a memoir and picks up from where 'Boy' left off. It follows Dahl's time in Africa as an employee of Shell and then, when WWII broke out, as a fighter pilot.

The book is full of Dahl's hallmarks, the stories are all true, but still strange, absurd and dark. He writes with absolute clarity, wry humour and adds occasional reflective interludes. He paints a very bright and fascinating image of an improbable early adulthood. 

The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan

The Joy Luck Club sits somewhere between a series of short stories and a novel. The book explores the lives of four Chinese women and their Chinese-American daughters. Each chapter is told from the point of view of one of the women and is a more-or-less self contained narrative.

The stories are powerful; each one showing flip sides and reasons for behaviours that we can never see in real life. They are complicated, difficult and painful love stories between each of the women and their daughters. Tan manages to create beautiful narratives which are poignant and moving without being overly sentimental or nostalgic. Whilst not culturally relatable for me; the love, frustrations and anxieties are universal. The book is a cry for us all to be better, more understanding daughters and maybe less fearful mothers.

Ready Player One, Ernest Cline

I read this book in a weekend and loved it - it's a proper adventure story, set in a vividly described world which feels just about plausible.

It's about a virtual reality world called OASIS and it's creator, 80's pop-culture obsessed James Halliday. OASIS is a phenomenon in which most people spend almost all their lives, going to school, gaming and socialising in this world. Halliday dies with no heir and hides his fortune as an easter egg in OASIS. The novel follows our protagonist who is trying to find the fortune.

A quote on the cover says Ready Player One is a cross between The Matrix and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory - the format also reminded me of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. It's gripping, funny and just a brilliant idea, the competition is a great format to explore the idea of VR and how it could become intrinsic to our lives.

The protagonist is the usual kids/teen fiction hero; no family, poor and unattractive which is vaguely annoying, but he is well drawn and you absolutely want him to succeed. The novel touches on loads of themes which are relevant to how we live now and the way humanity might be heading. Cline makes you think, but without beating you over the head with ideas. The 80's thing wasn't so exciting for me as I didn't get alot of the references; but Cline engaged me all the same. It's a hugely satisfying story, and very fun.

The Inheritors, William Golding

I was surprised by this novel, it's one my Dad gave me. I didn't make it to the end of The Lord of the Flies, so didn't start this one with high hopes. It turns out to be a really interesting and strangely gripping book.

The Inheritors deals with some of the same themes as Lord of the Flies. For the most part the novel is told from the point of view of Lok, we aren't sure what Lok is; but he seems to be a creature very similar to a neanderthal. We follow Lok as he moves with his family or tribe to their summer home. After a while it becomes apparent that there are some other, hitherto unknown creatures living nearby.

In some places it's quite hard to understand exactly what's going on as the book is told from Lok's perspective and his language and thought process hasn't evolved fully. It's a little like watching a film through fog, you can't be sure of what you're seeing. In spite of that I liked the way it was written, it's an interesting exploration of what early people might have thought and how they lived. It also gives you some room to think about what is happening and the consequences of that, it slows you down.

One thing I found really annoying wasn't Golding's fault, but the publishers. The copy I was reading is my Dad's - so published in 1977. For some bizarre reason in the 70's it was ok to write a review on the back which completely gives away the ending of the book...?