Jeannette Walls: Half Broke Horses

This one grabbed me from the off.

The book describes the real-life story of the author's grandmother. Born at the turn of the century into a Texan small-holding family. It tells of her growing up, the history of her family in the early days of colonial America, her siblings, her parents and eventually her husbands. She doesn't seem to have had friends or not as I would know them.

The book was written in the first-person and starting as a youngster, not even a teenager, the language seemed to me to contain a naivety and simplicity that I found really engaging. I am not sure whether this type of prose matured as the book follows the girl into her adulthood and eventual old-age. Regardless I enjoyed this style of writing. The story was strong too, appealing to my personal interest in how individuals deal with the major social changes evident in the 20th century.

At the end though - looking back over the story, there are weaknesses. There is a sense that many episodes are just being retold as if remembered by a grandchild, without colour, without depth and quite often without any real context. In that sense the narrative does not flow well at all. The subject of the book turns out to be a rather cold, unemotional woman and quite possibly not a very pleasant person; that's a tall order for anyone to write but about your grandmother, nigh impossible. We can expect a rose tinted sheen about the woman  - we wonder how unpleasant could she really have been.

A very odd conclusion to reach, a book I enjoyed and hesitate to recommend. Really I just think the style suited me and doubt you would agree. We would both probably agree on the content so maybe best if you pass on this one.

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Sebastian Faulks: A Week in December

This one started off showing great promise; the author had exuded an authority bordering on arrogance and after the past few volumes coming out of the bookclub this one seemed  more on the money.

Sadly, it did not work out that way. The format of the book tried to followed half-a-dozen or so characters but for me the characterisation was a tad shallow with a couple of factual inaccuracies. For me, any doubts about the veracity of story can just kill a piece - mostly because I immediately lose confidence in the author and everything becomes suspect. On top of this, the episodic nature of the story tended to be over-worked and too long. Barely a quarter-way through the novel and I was getting bored; I started skipping huge chunks hoping for something interesting to happen.

While some of the characters did make a good impression, their back-stories tended to be superficial, sometimes seeming contrived and not at all linked together in any way - certainly not in the plot of the book. Round about half-way through I just gave up and couldn't be bothered anymore. Perhaps the story did come together in the end but I don't think it was worth it even for those in the club that persevered to the bitter end.

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Sue Townsend: The Woman who Went to Bed for a Year

According to the blurb surrounding this book, the publishers owe me a cheque - I didn't laugh once.
To be truthful I couldn't be bothered to reach the end, it was that uninteresting. Perhaps trying to be too funny about things that are not even amusing but rather sad and bleak and never poignant. Avoid
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Khaled Hosseini: The Kite Runner

Often quite brutal in its depiction of events in Afganistan; whether factual of not, they only succeed in making the book appear lopsided - bleak and negative. Supposed to be a story of redemption but it descended too far into the darkness for me, I could not crawl back into the light.
Regardless of its subject matter, the craft of the writing is seriously impressive carrying both authority and authenticity  of an autobiography despite it being fiction.
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The Islanders: Christopher Priest

Christopher Priest has always been a favourite. This is his most recent - and possibly final - work.
Not really a novel, more a related collection of short-stories tied together with the theme of an imaginary groups of islands and presented as a gazetteer. The narrative is fairly fractured as a result but there are some terrific gems; and some of the threads introduced at various times come and go, never being wholly resolved. Some of the inventiveness create ideas or scenes or bizarre imaginary works of art of such power they almost become memories or real events. Exceptional!

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Kate Mosse: The Winter Ghosts

A bit of easy reading if you are not up for much more. Handy enough tale hinting back to Cathar times in southern France. Sadly the author gets a bit stuck in her Englishness and doesn't quite capture neither the French nor Cathar cultures - Brighton seems more exotic.

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Salman Rushdie: Midnight's Children

This is a hard book to read. Trying to document the history of India as it transitions from the Raj to Independence. Structured in 3 parts possibly before, during and after independence - not sure cos I couldn't get past the first part.
Not entirely sure why I gave up, since I almost enjoyed the first part. When the action moved to Bombay it seemed to lose something, perhaps the surviving characters lost their appeal and the prose seemed to get a bit bored with itself.
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Jodi Picoult: Songs of the Humpback Whale

This is absolutely appalling; how on earth can this author be "best selling" anywhere.
This would give story-tellers and authors a bad name.
Avoid like the plague.
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