Life in Pieces by Dawn O'Porter

 

"I am determined to be an embarrassing mother. I have a fantasy in my head of going into the boys' room when they are about fourteen and sixteen and explaining to them how they must be with girls and saying some unthinkable things that mothers probably shouldn't say."

Dawn O'Porter is adorable, her writing is just so honest and delightful. This collection of musings from time in lock down will resonate with a lot of people stuck at home for the second or third time. What a year it was, not only a pandemic but also losing one of her best friends to suicide, it can't have been easy, as her book describes. There is something so reassuring when someone is so unguarded in their writing, it really speaks to the weirdness that we're all going through at the moment.

The quote I've elected above was particularly meaningful because I know that were I to have male offspring I'd feel exactly the same, weighed down by the responsibility of bringing up a better generation of men with a greater respect for women when the world around us consistently seeks to erode those notions.

Dawn is real, vulnerable, imperfect and, by encompassing all those things in her writing, she is phenomenal!

 4 out of 5  - I'd totally want to hang out with Dawn.

Life after Life by Kate Atkinson

 “Most people muddled through events and only in retrospect realized their significance.” 

Perhaps it is no coincidence that I've read a number of books in 2020 that are founded on the concept of alternate lives. After wasting something like four years on an off in a toxic relationship, the idea of an alternate universe with better choices is one that is full of appeal. 

Life after Life has sat in my 'to be read' pile for quite sometime now and I both started, and finished it on New Year's Eve 2020. A baby is born dead in the winter of 1910, her death resets and next chapter the same child lives, so the novel continues with constant death and re-sets with alternate realities. Will she live to kill Hitler or have children in Germany or ??? So many possibilities in a novel that is upwards of six hundred pages.

My reading journey on this one was full of ups and downs and I think that's why I'm not giving it top marks. That is to say I have some reservations, but ultimately its an interesting read. Perhaps my critique stems from reading The Midnight Library which I much preferred in terms of structure and content.

If hindsight is 20-20 then, Ursula can see all through the ages and her journey from Fox Corner is never dull.

4 out of 5 : a journey through the ages.

Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household

 

"The dogs might have found me, but their master, whoever he was, never gave them a chance."

You might notice I've complained about the pacing of a number of novels I've reviewed in 2020. This is the antithesis. Rogue Male is a thriller with a capital 'T'. The pace never lets up and it is almost exhausting to read as you are carried away with the protagonist's escape journey.

A foiled assassination attempt leads to the capture and torture of the would be assassin ( our protagonist), his unlikely escape from the clutches of death begins a relentless struggle for survival that propels the reader further at a startling pace through every page.

Will he make it? Your fingers will be clutching at the pages with intensity, clawing their way forward as your stress levels rise.

The edition I read had an introduction by Robert Macfarlane with spoilers which thankfully advised that they lay ahead and to revisit the introduction after reading the novel - advice which I happily followed and suggest you do too.It notes that the book was adapted in 1941 'poorly' according to Macfarlane as Man Hunt, by Fritz Lang - and I'm eager to see that now to draw my own conclusions.

4 out of 5 - just run!

The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim

 

“I'm sure it's wrong to go on being good for too long, till one gets miserable. And I can see you've been good for years and years, because you look so unhappy.”

The thought that one can't possibly mimic the travels of Mrs Wilkins and co by answering an advertisement to rent a castle on the Italian riviera for a summer is torture. Putting the potential prohibitive cost aside, the current status of the world makes the idea of travel such an  unattainable one, for who could resist the pull of 'wisteria and sunshine'?

This book represents all that a holiday overseas means to me. An escape, a chance to review one's life and ensure its travelling on the right path, to find or rekindle romance and to enjoy the distance from the everyday ho-hum existence things that drag you down, leaving behind nothing but a lingering scent of acacia ( even if that makes me sneeze like nobody's business - damn hay fever).

Finding friendship, overcoming insecurities and really living, that is what this little book explores in a delightful fashion.In some ways it is the ultimate girls' trip. Like any girls' trip there are some romantic issues that make for interesting plot points.

 5 out of 5 - I miss Italy!!

When We Were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro

 “It's all right. I'm not upset. After all, they were just things. When you've lost your mother and your father, you can't care so much about things, can you?”

A rather different detective novel from Ishiguro, this tale set in the 1930s travels between London and Shanghai to unearth the secret that has plagued England's celebrated detective his whole life - the disappearance of his parents.

There is something cinematic about this novel, easy to imagine it on screen with its mysterious locales, interesting characters and continual building of pace. One imagines it as a fabulous Netflix series full of flashbacks of the young Christopher and Akira in the Shanghai of their youth. The author captures a sense of the multiple worlds it inhabits - east and west, affluent repose and the desperation of the streets, particularly in the war-ravaged slums.

While this didn't grab me in the same fashion as Never Let Me Go, upon reflection it is a haunting story which remains with the reader for sometime. The sense of confusion and danger of opening up the past is one that remains.

 4 out of 5 childhood memories are unreliable narrators.

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

 

"Within the space of a slow blink she saw her father's ghost, in her mind's eye, staring at his stopwatch as if he  was waiting for her to reach him."

So this was my latest bookclub read and it was one of the best things to occur in 2020. Literally the most life-affirming book I've ever read. It is gorgeous and I just love the way Haig deals with a sliding doors scenario through the premise of a library and books as potential lives lived. 

You will cry, you will want to give this book a big bear hug it is so good. I think the notion of changing our mistakes and reliving life changing incidents is one that has universal appeal. I love the world creation and the way it operates, Haig showed similar brilliance in his other novel How to Stop Time  which was almost as enjoyable, but not quite.

5 out of 5 - second best thing to come out of 2020

Suicide Club by Rachel Heng

"Yes, there was meat, live music, and very likely alcohol, but Lea felt herself drawn in, felt the glamour sweep over her like a wave pulling her under."

The scenario that this novel explores is so compelling - what would you do to live forever? Would it drive you mad? Would you still be human? 

As, well excluding pandemics and the like, human lifespans extend and our quality of life past maturity improves, the concept of being rich enough to afford an extend life becomes a science fiction that isn't outside the realms of possibility.

Rachel Heng delivers a world where a genetically predisposed chosen few have the ability to live basically forever provided they possess the right genes, follow the rules and maintain their body. When life is merely following the rules it quickly loses its appeal for many, just as the have nots have their shorter lives and freedom, is it really still living when you've a mechanical heart pumping the blood around your fake skin?

Perhaps the mysterious, eponymous Suicide Club has the answers?

 4 out of 5 - great premise and fantastic debut novel.