The Clockmaker's Daughter

The house, Birchwood Manor, near the banks of the River Thames is the setting for this novel by Kate Morton. The story is interwoven between several time periods - primarily 1862, 1899, 1940, 2017 and is told by different narrators over time. However the constant throughout all the interlocking stories is Birdie, the clockmaker's daughter.

Elodie, an archivist, discovers a satchel that belonged to an artist, Edward Radcliffe. The satchel contains an artist's sketchbook and a sepia photograph of a young lady dressed in Victorian style clothing. Elodie knows immediately that these items are something special and her investigations eventually lead her to Birchwood Manor, where Edward Radcliffe and his friends lived 150 years earlier. During her research she learns information about her family story as well as gaining a better understanding of herself and what she wants from life.

Mystery is attached to Birchwood Manor with many of the characters feeling a connection to the house even though they may not have previously been there. A murder, a missing woman and a lost heirloom adds to the house's mystique. Usually associated with art, the house was also a school for young ladies for a short time and later a museum. There is a presence in the house which is felt by some inhabitants, especially those who may be lonely.

This is a book designed for a leisurely read. Trying to read it too quickly could definitely result in confusion when trying to follow the links between the interconnecting stories over many generations. By the end of the 582 pages all is revealed. There has been an extremely long waiting list at the local library for this book so I purchased my own copy. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this novel by Kate Morton and will add her name to my list of authors whose books I must read.

American War

American War is the fourth book in the How to Read a Novel online course prepared by the University of Edinburgh. This novel by Omar El Akkad is about the Second American Civil War that commenced in 2075. Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina and Georgia have broken away from the rest of the USA . Global warming has greatly affected many parts of the USA, especially in the south, and most of the country, except for the four above mentioned southern states, has decided to no longer use fossil fuels.

In the beginning of the novel we meet members of the Chestnut family - the parents Benjamin and Martina, nine year old Simon and twins Dana and Sarat. They have lost their home to flood waters and live in a shipping container. The father is trying to obtain safe passage for the family to the North when he is killed by Southern insurgents. When the area near their home is bombed Martina decides to take the children to a refugee camp, Cape Patience, where, in theory, they will be kept safe.

While the USA is self destructing the power balance in the rest of the world has changed with China and a conglomerate of Arab nations, Bouazizi, now superpowers. Aid ships bring supplies which do not always reach the people who need them. In the South there are a number of splinter groups pushing their own agenda. Break away groups also exist in the North. Sarat is befriended by an older man and is eventually recruited to carry out special missions.

There are obvious parallels in the plot with the involvement of the USA military in the affairs of other counties, especially Arab nations. The effects of Global Warming are graphically described along with the refusal of some people to accept that changes must be made for the survival of the country as well as the safety of family members. The belief by some groups that only they have the right answers is destroying the country and preventing hope for peace. Meanwhile the lives of generations are being destroyed through total disregard for the lives of others resulting in hatred of those in power in general.

A powerful story, at times dealing with physical and mental torture, which unfortunately rings true with events happening in parts of the world today, particularly in America.

This book was short listed for the James Tait Black Award for 2017.

First Love

The third book examined in the How to Read a Novel course was First Love by Gwendoline Riley.

This book is about relationships - the relationship between Neve and her husband, Edwyn, with her parents, with people in general.

Neve is a writer, normally working from home though she has had jobs in bars etc in the past. She is married to a much older man, Edwyn, who, as he keeps telling her, works full time and is not well. Edwyn keeps stressing that Neve comes from a working class background and constantly refers to her as being inferior. Edwyn is one of those people who can never forget a mistake made in the past by someone and keeps bringing up one off past events as reoccurring incidents. You really rather wonder why they married or stayed married.

The book consists of flashbacks to other periods in Neve's life where we learn of her parent's broken marriage and Neve's fractured relationship with her father. We meet her mother who left her second husband and is trying to start life again in new area. We learn of Neve's previous relationships and how she lived in a friend's apartment for two years before moving to Glasgow. We also learn about the early days of the relationship between Neve and Edwyn with contrast to the present.

Neve is the narrator so the story is told from her viewpoint, however there are large sections of dialogue where we learn much of the other characters in the novel, as well as about Neve as she questions her reactions to people, especially her husband.

 This book was short listed for the James Tait Black Award for 2017.

Attrib. and other stories

The second book used in the How to Read a Novel course is Attrib. and other stories by Eley Williams. This book won the James Tait Black prize for fiction 2017.

Eley Williams has written a collection of short stories concerned with aspects of language and how it is used, or not used, to communicate and / or to convey feelings. There are seventeen short stories in this collection and three very different stories were used for study in the course.

Smote (or when I find I cannot kiss you in front of a print by Bridget Riley) (pp 45-54).  Bridget Riley is a British artist who, from the 1960s, painted in a style known as Op Art - lots of lines, circles or swirls. The painting in this story is Movement in Squares. Viewing such paintings can be disorienting to some viewers and this is the affect that occurs when two women visit a galley and one tries to summon the courage to kiss her partner but is completely distracted by the effects of the painting. The way the painting distracts the viewer is conveyed in one sentence which is six pages long. The effect of reading this passage provided me with a headache as I could envisage the affect that it had on the narrator.

Concision (pp 69-74) describes a long distance phone call where the person at the other end hangs up. We are only shown the thoughts and feelings of the person on our end of the line as they examine the attributes of the physical phone (long before mobiles) and how these may add to the finality of the end of the relationship.

The physical description of the phone consumes the attention of the narrator: 'The body of the telephone is black and squat and it is shiny. ... The table on which my squat-liquorice shiny telephone sits has been in position by the window for so long that its legs have notched crop circles into the carpet. I tried to work out the total number of hours I must have sat in this precise position over the years. I must have perched on the arm of this sofa by the phone like this for weeks, making sure not to struggle or draw lines in the sand.' (p 71)

Spines (pp 149-158) portrays the reactions of the members of a family who find a small hedgehog swimming in the pool of their holiday house in France. The actions, or lack of actions, of the three humans in this story provoked a strong reaction from those taking the course.

There are several other stories about animals in this collection - a rat in Mischief (pp 137-148), a whale stranded on a beach - Bulk (pp 107-120) and another story concerning a person's reaction to finding a bee in a bedroom - Bs (pp 55-58).

The Alphabet (pp 11-24) deals with the thoughts of a person with Aphasia and the awareness of the encroachment of the condition on their life. Platform (pp 121-126) also looks back at the end of a relationship but in this case examines objects found in a photo taken the previous year producing an onflow of ideas and wordplay.

Most of the stories in this book are written in the first person leaving the reader to often read between the lines to work out what may be going on.  All in all this is an interesting and thought provoking collection of short stories on the challenges of communication as well as different ways of using words. It will be interesting to read other works by this author in the future.

White tears

Currently I am doing a FutureLearn Course offered by the University of Edinburgh - How to read a novel. The four main novels chosen for the course were selected from the fiction shortlist for the James Tait Black awards conducted at the University of Edinburgh. During each of the four weeks of the course participants are also referred to older works of fiction.

The book for Week One was White Tears by Hari Kunzru.

The book is about two young white men, Seth and Carter. Carter comes from a rich family and appears to have a ready supply of money while Seth struggles to make ends meet. What they have in common is their love of music, especially early blues music. They set up a music studio where they experiment with sounds and mix excerpts of music to make tracks.

One day when Seth is collecting street sounds as he meanders around Washington Square, his recorder picks up part of a song sung by a chess player. He thought he had recorded only a line or two but eventually they are able to uncover five verses. At Carter's insistence Seth reworks the recording and Carter shares it with a number of online sites, stating that it is performed by Charlie Shaw (a fictional name). This action changes their lives particularly when they are contacted by a man who claims to know Charlie Shaw and demands to know how they obtained a copy of the record.

The first part of the novel is largely from the perspective of Seth and Carter but in the second part of the book there are two parallel stories - the journey of Seth and Leoni (Carter's sister) to Missippi leading to Leoni's death plus the back stories of JumpJim and Chester Bly plus the story of Charlie Shaw. The tone changes dramatically at this point from basically a story of two misguided and selfish young white men endeavouring to make what they can from early recorded blues music to a story of continued persecution of black people in America from the end of slavery, indentured work and incarceration in black prisons today. Within this story we learn of the role of Carter's family in making their fortune from the plight of black people. Seth's fear that the ghost of Charlie Shaw is seeking revenge for Seth's and Carter's interference with his music plays a role in this part of the novel. We also learn more about the importance of blues to Black people.

This is a novel with many layers complicated by parts of the story being told by different narrators who are not identified. It is only as the chapter expands that the reader works out who is speaking and the thread of the narrative. There are also flashbacks to different periods of history which I found interesting however they can be confusing.

Strandloper

Alan Garner has included the legends and folklore of Cheshire in a number of his books but in Strandloper he also explores Aboriginal beliefs and legends. The main character is William Buckley who was born in Cheshire in 1776 but in 1803 was transported to Sullivan's Bay in Australia where he escaped and lived with Aborigines for 32 years until 1835 when he met a party of white men, including John Batman, who were exploring the area. William Buckley died in Hobart in 1856. In Australia the escaped convict, William Buckley, has become a legend in his own right.

However, this book is not a work of historical fiction. Instead the author has used the bare outline of the story of the man from Cheshire who lived with Aborigines on the other side of the world for more than 30 years and absorbed their culture to explore the similarities (and differences) of belief systems and folklore.

Strandloper is divided into sections - William's life in Cheshire and his involvement with old community traditions; transportation to Sullivan Bay; arrival at Sullivan Bay and his attempt to escape; William's assimilation with tribal people; meeting white people again and (in the book) his return to Cheshire.

Reading this book it was interesting seeing how a story that I knew was incorporated into the plot. However what I really liked about the book was the author's use of language which, in places, reads as a poem. Especially in the section on William's life with Aboriginal tribes, the words flow beautifully taking the reader into a new world.

This is a book that, I suspect, should be read more than once to fully appreciate and enjoy how the language develops the story. I loved reading this book.

NB:  A strandloper is an African bird (plover or sandpiper). William's friend, Edward, calls him a strandloper as William always has to be busy and on the move.

Culture Victoria - William Buckley
Australian Dictionary of Biography - William Buckley
William Buckley's escape - State Library of Victoria

Christopher Robin

Having enjoyed the Winnie the Pooh books by AA Milne - The House at Pooh Corner and Winnie the Pooh - when I was a child and having read them to my children, I borrowed the DVD of the new Disney film, Christopher Robin, which was recently shown in cinemas.

In the film Christopher Robin, now grown up, is played by Ewan McGregor. He lives with his wife and daughter  but is too busy with work to enjoy time with them. When he stays home, while the family have retreated to the cottage near the Hundred Acre Wood, Christopher Robin is surprised to find Winnie the Pooh alone in the park across the road from where he now lives. Christopher Robin decides to take the bear back to the wood and then return to London for an important meeting but a series of events occur disrupting his original plans. Needless to say Christopher Robin eventually realises that there is more to life than work.

This is meant to be a children's film but I suspect that the adults watching it may enjoy the film more than children. The film has its entertaining moments but I definitely prefer the world created in the original stories.

There have been a number of books including biographies about the life of A A Milne and his family. Another recent British film documenting the affect of the publicity surrounding the Winnie-the-Pooh books and their creator's family was Goodbye Christopher Robin (2017).

Christopher Robin gives Pooh an update - review - Sydney Morning Herald 14 September 2018
Goodbye Christopher Robin review - Sydney Morning Herald 22 November 2017

Look Alive 25

What a great way to start the year with a new Stephanie Plum mystery by Janet Evanovich.

In this adventure Stephanie and Lula are put in charge of the Red River Deli which had recently been acquired by the Vinnie Plum Bail Company after the owner of the business absconded when on bond. It is only when they turn up for work on the first day that they discover that the last three managers have disappeared each leaving behind one shoe.

Lula is an expert with take away food - eating it that is. However, she and Stephanie discover that preparing food and keeping customers happy is not that easy. When too more men disappear from the back of the restaurant Stephanie feels guilty that they disappeared when helping her. The search for the missing men and the perpetrators of the kidnappings intensifies with Morelli and the police, Ranger and his team plus Wulf involved. Meanwhile, when not at the deli, Stephanie continues her role as a bounty hunter. A busy life!

In the tradition of other Stephanie Plum mysteries there is plenty of humour, danger to vehicles [and buildings], lots of junk food, continuation of her relationship with Morelli [when time permits] plus simmering tension with Ranger. An enjoyable holiday read.

Transcription

Transcription by Kate Atkinson is the story of Juliet Armstrong who at 18 finds herself working in an office at MI5. She is then transferred to work with Perry Gibbons and Godfrey Toby who had set up surveillance on a network of Fascist sympathisers regularly reporting their findings to Toby. It was Juliet's role to transcribe the taped sessions as well as carry out other secretarial tasks. Or so she thought. Before long Juliet was also involved in undercover work.

The story reveals sections of Juliet's experiences in time frames - mainly 1940 and 1950 but also 1981. After the war Juliet's role with the MI5 is finished or, as she later discovers, maybe not as she becomes involved with the Flamingo. This is plot about espionage and counter-espionage. As Juliet discovers, who can you trust and what really is freedom?

For those wanting to do their own research, the author includes the list of her sources used when writing the novel.