A Kestrel for a Knave by Barry Hines

"And the hawk, alert to every movement, returned their stares until they turned away and passed on."

Life is pretty grim for our poor protagonist, Billy Casper in a poor English mining village. His one joy is tending for the kestrel that he has stolen from its nest. School is hell, and home isn’t much better. This is not the kind of read that will cheer you up my friends. Thankfully it is a very quick read, as I am currently not in the mood for suffering of any kind. Right now I love fiction that transports me to other worlds or happier ones at any rate.

His mother is powerless, his father is absent, and his brother is a horror. In fact, reading about his brother just made me super angry. Not crazily so as I was sitting in the GP’s office and apparently my blood pressure is just fine thanks for asking.

I’m waffling, aren’t I? I think this novel brilliantly captures a torturous upbringing and a feeling of being without options. The sense of purpose and joy posed by a pet brings only momentary respite and as you might imagine, and the ending did not inspire further joy. Having done such a brilliant job of writing this novel, I probably owe the writer the full five star rating and yet, it left me so glum that I had to deduct a point.



4 out of 5 birds can sometimes make you soar.

The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan

"It was not long before the kitchen was a place of stench and clouds of flies."

Dead bodies and incest, yet this is quite the cheerful read - I'm being facetious. Published in 1978 the central action is, as someone noted on www.goodreads.com, reminiscent of Flowers in the Attic. Think that mixed with a side of Stephen King and you'd be right on the money.

I was reading this on the train on my phone, it is relatively short and yet one feels rather awkward when the content includes sibling sex and rotting corpses - gross on all fronts.

Fortunately it is well written and constitutes yet another tick on the 1001 books to read before you die list...hurrah!

4 out of 5 times when the parents away the kids will play.