I am afraid I gave up.
Publisher page: Home – Marilynne Robinson
Genre: Modern fiction
The Crossing – Andrew Miller
I did enjoy this novel, far more than You.
That said, it’s a bit of a strange combination, with parts 1 and 2 following the development of Maud and Tim’s relationship from meeting through the university sailing club to the arrival of daughter Zoe and the impact she has on the wider family relationships, and parts 3 and 4 covering Maud’s solo sail across the Atlantic after the death of her daughter and breakdown of her marriage. I found the ending a bit odd, disconnected from the rest of the already disjointed narrative.
Some of the reviews make it sound like there’s some uncertainty about Maud’s earthliness. I found none – her supremely self contained character has been shaped by her unemotional parents and the distant relationships that result.
Publisher page: The Crossing – Andrew Miller
Author interview: Andrew Miller interviewed about The Crossing – Foyles (No date)
Review: The Crossing by Andrew Miller review – Kate Clanchy, The Guardian, 29 August 2015
Consequences – Penelope Lively
Lorna, Molly, Ruth. Three generations of Faraday women, whose lives span the 20th century and which stay connected, increasingly tenuously, to Matt Faraday’s prints of wood block engravings.
I shall read more Penelope Lively.
Publisher’s page: Consequences – Penelope Lively
Slade House – David Mitchell
Every nine years, atemporal twins Norah and Jonah lure an engifted to Slade House and consume their soul.
Each chapter comes with its own character – from musical mother and son Rita and Nathan Bishop to Dr Iris Marinus-Ferriby, via unreconstructed Detective Inspector Gordon Edmonds, shy student Sal Timms, and her sister Freya – and brings another encounter between the two sides of the Atemporal Schism, in the ongoing battle between the two David Mitchell introduced us to in The Bone Clocks.
Publisher’s page: Slade House – David Mitchell
Notes From An Exhibition – Patrick Gale
More fab fiction from Patrick Gale.
Set largely in Penzance, Notes From An Exhibition tells us about the life of modern artist Rachel Kelly, and the impact bipolar disorder has on her life, her creativity and family.
Each chapter prefaced with an information card from a posthumous exhibition of her work and belongings, it’s a beautiful novel.
As an aside, this description (page 62) particularly resonated:
“Garfield’s feelings, by contrast, were a deep, forbidding pool, dark and unfathomable, stirred by sudden currents he could not control.”
Author’s page: Notes From An Exhibition – Patrick Gale