Strait is the Gate by André Gide

"I meant to fall on my knees before her; I took a step which she heard."

It is fine to love your cousin - but not to Love your cousin; if you catch my meaning. This is a strange tale translated from the French and it is on just about every must-read list there is.

There are moments of beautiful prose but ultimately I was a little unmoved. Everyone loves someone they shouldn't, life is hard, people suffer and then there's death: now if that synopsis has you gravitating towards this, well... more power to you.

I think sometimes these kinds of stories appeal more to someone younger, particularly when I flash back to my early teens and my fixation with Flowers in the Attic (like just about every other girl I knew at that time). This shares the overblown emotional weight of the teenage years, mixed with escaping the pull of hormones through a combination of religion and guilt.  Sexual awakening is a frightening prospect, this is why boy bands remain so popular.

What this slim novella does show is the propensity for children to rebel against their parents by becoming their opposite. Alissa's religious zealotry begins in reaction to her mother's sinful behaviour and is not the path to a happy, healthy life.

4/5 - Courtly love is a drag.

The Child in Time by Ian McEwan

“Only when you are grown up, perhaps only when you have children yourself, do you fully understand that your own parents had a full and intricate existence before you were born.” 

I almost take a deep breath before I start one of McEwan's tales. There is the sense of foreboding that emotional torture lies ahead. The Child in Time is true to form in that regard.

Stephen is broken by the disappearance of his young child, Kate. His marriage seems irrevocably damaged by that life changing event. An event that haunts him through his membership of a committee on child care.

As always, McEwan crafts beautiful sentences that have an almost poetic quality and yet I feel I should've  saved this for a time when I was feeling more upbeat because I knew it would be a downer.


4 out of 5 times I visited the supermarket with Mum she would lose me.

The Immoralist by Andre Gide

“To know how to free oneself is nothing; the arduous thing is to know what to do with one’s freedom.”

What to say about this one? It is a weird one to say the least. Talk about awkward relationships. Michel falls for the almost flawless Marceline and marries her but seems way more interested in the many attractive men that they happen upon in their travels. Certainly there is this air of frustration as Michel seems closeted but unaware that homosexuality is an option. 

His relationships with young boys is also problematic as the language verges on lascivious despite nothing untoward eventuating. The introduction describes Michel as being in love with himself;  and yet the tale unfolds in a way to describe Michel's ever increasing desire for intimacy and confusion as his feelings do not seem to fit the accepted norms of the time.

Word choices are rather fecund, providing an additional sense that something earthy is going on beneath the surface. Michel is recovering from illness, growing his hair long and questioning his  sense of self. Marceline  loves Michel "too much to see me as I was" and therein lies the crux of the novel - Michel's inner confusion is almost invisible to the loving eyes of his wife.

His aims to settle on a farm with his pregnant wife are rather disastrous.Her deteriorating health leaves Michel describing his poor wife as "spoiled" - what a charmer. Queue more travels for health reasons and other drama - I think I'll leave the rest for you to read as this is a very short novella ( and freely available online).

3 out of 5 - Tuberculosis seems like a horrible bloody way to die.

Enduring Love by Ian McEwan

“Self-consciousness is the destroyer of erotic joy.”

This is not my favourite McEwan work and I think that’s because I’m just not in the mood for torture at the moment. A couple are swept into a horrendous occurrence and the fallout is strange to say the least. Tragedy, obsession, this slim volume has all of that in spades, and perhaps that was what I found so difficult to deal with.

Running to help save a young boy from a ballooning accident, the protagonist locks eyes with another man and further drama ensues as the second man becomes obsessed with him. I’d had a hard week and this ‘debbie downer’ of a novel really wasn’t the antidote. I’m sure I’ll re-read it some other time and review it more favourably. It contains some really stunning writing that I just wasn’t in the mood for. For now, I think I need something more upbeat.

4 out of 5 what comes up must deflate.

The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst

"The feel of his warm hard body under the silky shirt was almost worryingly beautiful, a promise too lavish to believe in."

This novel has been sitting on my shelf awaiting my attention for a year or so now. I was initially put off by its girth. I've had a short attention span of late and was reticent to launch into something sizeable. I noted however that The Line of Beauty  is included on a lot of must read lists and so my rubber arm was twisted.

There was something so perfect about launching into a lengthy tale about a young man who is really a fish out of water in the cocaine fuelled years before AIDS began to take a hefty toll during the four hour process of turning blonde again ( with eighties bangs to boot). Set in the upper class echelons of the British ruling class, the protagonist is very much an outsider. Nick Guest is a young guy with rather well to do friends, who have helpfully let a room to him while he's at university. As he grows into himself the sense of difference and inclusion is a weird one. That sense of being in but out is one I could always relate to.

Sure it was a little awkward as the foils went in, I was worried my hairdresser could read the gay sex scenes, or the cocaine snorting depictions, over my shoulder, or  perhaps more upsettingly, the words Margaret Thatcher. Hollinghurst is a beautiful writer and the entire novel just seemed to fly by.

I'm not sure I've enlightened you too much today with this discussion. I'm a bit tired - summer is so draining. In short, there is a reason why this novel is so well-regarded, it is a great read.

5 out of 5 - I am killing the 1001 list at the moment.

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 Corrections by Jonathan Franzen

“It’s the fate of most Ping-Pong tables in home basements eventually to serve the ends of other, more desperate games.”

Rare is the novel that can make you laugh out loud one minute and hate yourself the next. This is such a novel and it is just as good as all the critics would have you believe. Every family is a bit of a basket case aren’t they? Recognising aspects of my own in this novel was equal parts mortifying, entertaining and sad. It really is no surprise to me that this novel has been so well regarded ( yay another tick on the 1001 novel list) including winning the 2001 National Book Award for Fiction and 2002 James Tait Black Memorial Prize (thanks Wikipedia).

Albert and Enid Lambert remind me of my parents, particularly in the way Enid espouses judgements on all who will listen and Alfred’s worsening grip on reality. I could see the worst aspects of myself and my brother in the behaviour of their three children, Gary, Denise and Chip. Let's hope my parent's upcoming cruise is not as eventful.

I'm glad I read this when I did. I think I'm the right age. Old enough to have lived and made some interesting mistakes, and young enough to be confused by the notion of ageing and the way it creeps up on you. Sometimes I feel like a bit of a fraud like Denise, trying to be the perfect daughter. Its probably something a lot of people can relate to. Substitute the ping pong table with a pool table and you have my parent's house summed up.

 5 out of 5 -  all families are weird, all relationships are strange.

The Castle by Franz Kafka

"He was irresistibly drawn towards seeking out fresh acquaintanceships, yet each fresh acquaintanceship increased his weariness"

I have to say it took me quite some time to finish what is really quite a slim volume of a novel, famously unfinished by the author due to his untimely demise. Let me share with you some sage advice that I have learnt through reading the book. If you are feeling uncertain and frustrated about your current relationship, concerned that it is all give, no take and headed the usual nowhere. Don't read this book. It will be an entirely miserable experience.

When you share the same initial as the protagonist, K, that torture will somehow be amplified.

K is consistently thwarted in his attempts to take his place in The Castle in the role of land surveyor that drew him there in the first place. His struggles struck a chord as I see them reflected in my inability to enter the "promised land" of couple-dom. That heady place where you have a lover / companion that feels as equally predisposed to you, as you do to them. K is unlucky in love, Frieda and he share a strange connection, strange, empty and temporary. If Tinder was around, no doubt that would've brought them together and potentially tore them apart sooner.

If I sound despondent, fear not - I am no longer. Like K, I'll keep trying to get into the Castle and perhaps one day soon I'll make it. I wonder what would have happened in the completed novel? Perhaps that's my life's work to find out.

4 out of 5 - not what I needed this month, but torture nonetheless amazingly rendered.

Excellent Women by Barbara Pym

"I took another piece of cake and there was a short lull in the conversation, during which I considered Julian's suggestion that I might have fallen in love with Rockingham Napier."

You know the feeling when you buy delicious box of chocolates, full of different choices and each morsel is a delight? This book had somewhat of a similar effect on me. I was swept up into Mildred Lansbury's world because she reminded me so much of myself. Perpetually single, either making up the numbers or being the odd one out and cursed with poor taste in the opposite sex.People just expect that you will act as the social glue, ironing out life's problems, taking over their issues, because somehow, a single woman of a certain age can only act in a helpful capacity. No wonder I love to travel. In any case, the novel is adorable and definitely worth exploring.

5 out of 5 ...it must be time for tea.

The Garden of the Finzi-Continis by Giorgio Bassani

"How many years have passed since that far-off June afternoon? More than thirty."

My appreciation of this novel was a little hampered by reading it in fits and starts. Isn't that always the way - a busy life and reading can sometimes be difficult companions. Once i did engage with the narrator and his passion for the attractive Finzi-Contini daughter, Micòl.

The foreboding sense of what is coming hangs over the story of children growing up given that they are Jewish and live in Ferrara  and the time is just before the holocaust. Their world grows increasingly restricted and yet the trials and tribulations of love and rejection are universal and the juxtaposition makes this novel particularly interesting.

Originally written in Italian and one of a series of novels by Bassani, I wish I'd experienced it in the native tongue so to speak. My Italian is probably a little too rusty for that. Did I mention this one is yet another tick on the 1001 novels list - I'm making progress this year.

4 out of 5 frustrations and tragedy can be an unappealing mix.

Rabbit, Run by John Updike

"That was the thing about him, he just lived in his skin and didn't give a thought to the consequences of anything"

I was really reticent to read this novel, having read somewhere about the rather depressing denouement and yet, given its place on so many "must read" lists, I cracked the spine. Much has been said about how horrible a character Rabbit is and yet in someways he's relatable to us all. A once brilliant athlete in high school, his glory days are long gone and adulthood, full of responsibilities becomes an all together too dreary prospect. So, as the title suggests, he runs, albeit out on his heavily pregnant wife.

This is quite a common phenomenon  and I can kind of sympathise with that notion of impending entrapment that both parties might feel with an upcoming birth. A woman whose body is no longer her own, and a man who only comes to the realisation of how that might impact his life at a space way where it is too late to really back out.

Rabbit runs and finds his old coach and the accommodating Ruth. His self absorption continues and he weaves a path of destruction in all his romantic entanglements. For they are less about romance and more about fending off the monotony of reality. Rarely have the unuttered and unlikeable thoughts that secretly plague us all been so vividly realised. I finished this book in an hour it was engrossing. Our own poor behaviour is acceptable to ourself as we explain it away, and yet our impact on others can be so devastating and never more so than here.

I'm eager to see where the sequels go.

5 out of 5 gritty but engrossing pages fraught with imperfect humans.

The Buddha of Suburbia by Hanif Kureishi

“Dad taught me to flirt with everyone I met, girls and boys alike, and I came to see charm, rather than courtesy or honesty, or even decency, as the primary social grace.”

Clearly a constant fixture on all the editions of the 1001 books you must read before you die for a reason, Kureishi’s The Buddha of Suburbia is at heart an enjoyable, compelling and often transgressive coming of age tale. The recipient of the 1990 Whitbread Award for the best first novel, it centres on seventeen year old Karim, the offspring of an Indian father and English mother (much like the author), the impact of his father’s affair and his resultant attempts to fashion himself as a kind of guru for hire among the smart set frequented by his new lover, Eva. That serves as the launching pad for twisting side tales that will have you engrossed.

Take for instance, the man you can’t have but everyone wants – Charlie; Karim is smitten. It doesn’t help that Charlie is the son of the woman Karim’s father is romantically involved with. He is far more interested in securing international fame than responding to Karim’s crush.

Karim’s cousin and sometimes bed partner is a rather interesting character. The reader feels her constant struggle to reconcile the world around her and that imposed on her by her father. This leads to a rather disastrous arranged marriage which introduces the reader to the delightfully hopeless Changez. He steals the novel for me as a figure of such sadness and schadenfreude. He might be useless in his father in law’s grocery store but don’t let him loose with a sex toy!

There is quite a bit of sex going on in the book and that’s natural given that it is possibly the central preoccupation for a teenager. Sex is fraught with danger and despair here. It drives a wedge in Karim’s family life. It leads to some often hilarious circumstances  and yet to reduce the story to merely its sexual leanings would do the book a disservice. Growing up is all about questioning everything, where is this going, why do my parents act this way, who am I, what do I want? An endless array of questions and that sense of growing curiosity combined with the self obsession of young adulthood is fantastically captured here.
What is particularly remarkable are the aspects that resonate regardless of one's race, upbringing or circumstances there are central human truths about growing up we can all relate to. That sense of the forbidden, the inexplicable, the precociousness of youth is infectious. Life is a glorious mess and that is something this book so beautifully expresses.

 5 out of 5 people have moments where their parents are a source of embarrassment.

What Maisie Knew by Henry James

"Maisie's eyes opened wide again; this was so different from what she had expected."

Yet another rare occasion where I'd seen the movie before reading the book. Hard to believe seeing as it is a classic. Perhaps it was the allure of Skarsgard, yes definitely. What struck me with the film and was further underlined by the novel, was how despicable Maisie's parents are. Here is an impressionable young child, trying to make sense of a fractured family life due to her narcissistic parents.

I've been rather busy with work and reading this in fits and starts. The dense language and strange pacing evoke the meandering thought process of a child, and yet make reading difficult. This is not an easy read by any stretch of the imagination and quite possibly my least favourite James novel. Maisie's tale is probably rather familiar to many broken families these days and far more common than I imagine would have been the case in 1897 when it was first published.

Maisie's parents have divorced and Maisie spends her time divided between both households. Her father re-marries her governess - hello cliche - or shades of Affleck (allegedly). Her mother is equally frightful and yet manages to ensnare a new lover in the form of Sir Claude, who seems to have a real rapport with the young child. When Sir Claude and Maisie's former governess end up cheating on their respective partners with each other, brought together in some part by their interactions about the child, things get very messy.

As for the rest, I'm sure I can leave it to you to explore the sub 300 pages for yourself. It certainly makes for an interesting comparison with the cinematic outing. The film from 2012 has been modernised and is perhaps therefore much more easy to access and relate to. Both share, at their centre, the innocent upbeat perspective of a young child attempting to make sense of a complicated adult world. I'd be interested to re-read the novel when I've got more dedicated time because I think that my review might be bumped up another star in that instance.


4 out of 5 stars from this precocious kid.

Under the Skin by Michel Faber

"Already he looked much like all the others she had picked up; later, when his clothes were off, he would look more or less identical."

I've avoided reading this for quite some time and I have no idea why. This is one of those rare instances where I watched the film before reading the novel and I'm slightly miffed because I was haunted by Scarlett Johanssen and a little too aware of what was really going on. Both the novel and the film are excellent and if you've not encountered either, I think perhaps, as is usually the best bet, go for the book first.

So how to discuss the novel without giving too much away. It is rather difficult. Potential spoilers coming. There is this fascinating juxtaposition of the way we treat dogs versus cattle and they way (spoiler alert) the aliens harvest their human meat. The alien identifies as human and the locals as lower life forms. Her reaction to sheep is particularly interesting. 

Apart from harvesting lonely, male, hitchhikers,the protagonist wrestles with her transformation to fit in with the locals - the overblown boobs based upon a local magazine ( I think we know which kind), the mutilation of her natural form and the troubling feelings that immersion with the vodsels have evoked.  Faber has this amazing way of humanising the aliens and by doing so, causing the reader to think closely about what it means to be human.

Good news also that this is another tick on the 1001 list and the guardian list. Yes, I'm list mad, you should know that by now.

5 out of 5 - A thrilling read.

Hideous Kinky by Esther Freud

"There was Mum, dragging the stove from John's broken-down van."

Many moons ago, I remember watching the film based on this novel and being utterly captivated by the strange story. The book, for me, was a vastly different and delightful experience. The innocence of the child narrator lends the tale a rather unique point of view. The reader, like the younger sister is trying to understand the behaviour of her mother. The title comes from the girls' favourite words. They are the only words they recall hearing their travelling companion, the stricken Maretta say.

The child's perspective means that circumstances are simply accepted and the reader is forced to draw their own conclusions. Is Julia having  romantic relationship with John (Maretta's husband), is that what leaves Maretta speechless and sickly? The narrator tells us only that "John was Maretta's husband. He had brought her along at the last minute only because, I heard him tell my mother, she wasn't well."

Similarly the succession of love interests and spiritual guides are introduced factually and often we're forced to jump to our own conclusions, an experience very different from the movie which focused on a woman's journey for meaning  and struggle with coming to terms with the requirements of still nurturing her children.

The book leaves us with a sense of the fish out of water sensations that the younger sister is troubled by, her responsiveness to any interest or positivity from other adults and fervent desire for some semblance of normality. We feel her need to escape,  away from nappy stealing neighbours, child beating teachers and the fear that her mother will turn into a fully fledged sufi, leaving  her behind, uneducated and unprotected in a strange land.

Beautifully written, it is no surprise that this novel is on the 1001 novels to read before you die list ( hurrah another one ticked off) and also the Guardian's definitive 1000 novels everyone should read list.

5 out of 5 journeys are different from every perspective.