August 2007 Archives
Recommended by Michael-at-work, I'd picked this up more than once from the library, but for some reason the synopsis hadn't seemed alluring enough. I'm glad I gave it another go.
Tash Aw tells us the story of Johnny Lim from three angles - his son's (Jasper), his wife's (Snow), and his British friend's (Peter) - each forming a separate section of the novel. Their memories and experiences overlap and frequently conflict, such that the central character - Johnny - and the truth, ultimately remains elusive. With a relatively small cast of characters, this novel brings to life a period of turmoil in South East Asia, principally Malaya/Malaysia: the end of era of British Empire and the expansion of Japanese power, and war, in its place. And it's beautifully done.
Having thoroughly enjoyed Fatal Remedies, I rushed headlong into Friends in High Places. Well worth paying the penalty of starting Donna Leon's Brunetti novels with zero knowledge of the order in which they were written.
In Friends in High Places the Brunettis are informed by a planning officer that their flat doesn't exist, despite solid physical evidence to the contrary. We are introduced to all the weird and wonderful "logic" of Italian bureaucracy, and the Brunettis immediate instinct as to how to deal with the risk of losing their family home? To turn to friends and family in high places.....
The book's title takes on a more sinister meaning with the planning officer is found dead, apparently having fallen from one of Venice's many old building's being restored. And that charming old couple Brunetti sees in Piazza San Marco? Evil money lenders who call in such valuable properties in lieu of unpaid/unpayable debts.
Amazon.co.uk link: Friends in High Places - Donna Leon
Leon's Brunetti books in Order
Another Italian sleuth recommendation from John Gyford, and handily he'd left two Donna Leons at the caravan for our August visit. For some reason I'd always assumed that as Donna Leon is American, she would be writing novels set in America. How wrong I was!
Commissario Guido Brunetti is Aurelio Zen with a settled family life and less violent crimes to solve. Set in modern day Venice, I get the feeling the two should know one another, at the very least. From the picture drawn by the two authors, there can't be that many honest senior cops in that part of Italy!
In Fatal Remedies, Brunetti is faced with the dilemma of how to "investigate" his wife's principles-led act of vandalism - throwing a brick through the window of a travel agency she believes caters for child sex tourism to South East Asia. Not having read the preceding novels, it's hard to assess the full extent of the pressure this puts on the Brunetti's marriage. They seem a strong committed couple, but this commitment comes into conflict with their commitments to their principles - Guido to upholding the law, Paola's to protesting against social evils that appear to be beyond the long arm of the law.
The plot isn't entirely focused on the Brunettis - when the owner of the travel agency dies, more sinister crimes than Paola's come in to play. And I love Signorina Eletra, the mild mannered secretary with a vast network of contacts in Italy's organs of state, and l33t hacker skillz. She brings a bit of the world of James Bond to the tale.
Amazon.co.uk link: Fatal Remedies - Donna Leon
Leon's Brunetti books in Order
The last of the trilogy. With Mars terraformed, the few remaining first hundred and their native born successors are faced with more political challenges from an over crowded and envious earth, and fundamental decisions as to how to make the most of their independence when there are such a range of views amongst the martian communities.
Not as dry as it sounds - and I really enjoyed seeing the characters and situations evolving over a further century (thank heavens for the longevity treatment, even if it is an easy fix....). The only thread left dangling loose: what did happen to Hiroko?
Amazon.co.uk link: Blue Mars - Kim Stanley Robinson
Not as immediately gripping at Red Mars, but it only took one section for that to change.
We meet the second generation of the Mars settlers, the first generation to be true "martians", born and bred on Mars, and get to know some of the original settlers a bit better. The story takes us through the years from the unsuccessful revolution of 2061, to the successful uprising 60 or so years later, a period during which the temperature continues to rise and the vegetation thrives, turning red Mars green. On Earth, population growth continues, pressure on space and resources intensifies, and sea levels rise.
More marvellous "future history". Blue Mars already underway....
Amazon.co.uk link: Green Mars - Kim Stanley Robinson
Managed to squeeze a chunk of chick lit in between Red Mars and Green Mars for a bit of (undemanding) variety.
As with other Mike Gayle novels we get to experience the male perspective. Dave Harding is a thirty-something, Nick Hornby-esque music journalist who comes complete with a well honed horror of all things pop and a penchant for top ten lists, plus a happy marriage to fellow journalist Izzy.
Then everything changes and Dave is thrown into the world of Cathy & Claire, aka serving as The Love Doctor on an "agony aunt" column in Teen Scene, a teenage girls' magazine, which comes complete with babies, relationships and unexpected blasts from the past - and a whole set of parallel developments in his personal life.
Amazon.co.uk link: Dinner for Two - Mike Gayle
Excellent sci fi from Kim Stanley Robinson, and the first of his Mars trilogy.
Red Mars is about the colonisation of Mars, initially by a team of 100, the creme de la creme of science and engineering drawn from around the world (Earth!). Kim Stanley Robinson delves deep into the social and political developments that surround and affect the initial expedition, not just on Mars but back on Earth too. As events unfold over several decades we get to see both how people develop and the changes they make to Mars, together with those that are forced upon them.
Although there is plenty of technology and science, it isn't dry sci fi or robots taking over the world or galactic empires doing battle. It's a convincing account of what might happen, how people will behave and why - not just as individuals but as groups / organisations / businesses / governments - and (at many levels) of the new world they live in, all set in the early decades of the 21st century.
This review doesn't really do justice to the book, particularly the scale, the scope and the thinking that has gone into it. However, one Amazon review puts it beautifully:
""Red Mars" is so realistic that it almost reads like a work of narrative history documenting events that have taken place many years ago."
Amazon.co.uk: Red Mars - Kim Stanley Robinson
Set in 19th century London (in the main), this novel mixes historical fiction with biography to suggest a backstory for Edgar Allen Poe (the boy of the book's title), his childhood in England and parentage.
Told by his schoolmaster and one-time soldier Thomas Shield, the story covers mystery and murder, love, lust and lechery, financial scandal and social ruin. There's the high society balls and dinner parties of the country elite, the honest poor making ends meet in London's labyrinthine tenements and the ne'er-do-wells of both worlds.
It's not an easy read, but ultimately it is a worthwhile one.
Amazon.co.uk: The American Boy - Andrew Taylor