June 2015 Reading List

Back in the swing of things:

1. Under the Skin by Michael Faber
2. Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
3. The Disenchanted Widow by Christina McKenn
4. The Luminaries by Eleanor Catto
5. Greyhound by Steffan Piper

I'd bought Faber's book well before I realized it was made into a movie starring Scarlett Johansson.   I haven't yet seen the latter but the book is quite a good read.  The story begins quietly but disturbingly.  You know something is amiss but you really don't know what exactly.  Gradually Faber unravels a bizarre macabre situation taking place in rural Scotland.  Isserley's character development is excellent as she grapples with her own misgivings about herself and her "job" and seemingly wants to go native.  As the book accelerated in pace so did my will to not put it down.  Very good.

I think I've read enough Stephenson now to both respect and revile him.  The worlds he creates for his stories are fantastic.  I especially like Anathem for this reason.  However, once the world is described, the protagonists developed and the crisis has been identified, the stories all seem to have a similar feel to them.  The characters race towards the inevitable climax and the hero wins. Hurrah! Having also read Reamde I can see a lot of similarities between the virtual worlds described in that and in Snow Crash.  Incredible imagination Mr Stephenson but I crave some less than perfect outcomes.

After reading the Widow novel I thought I could belt out a pretty good Irish brogue.  That's because McKenna records the words of the main characters in her Northern Ireland story as if they were to be pronounced by a native.  And while this story deals with serious issues that existed in the 80s (i.e. the IRA) there is a distinctly ironic tone to whole narrative which has the reader on the edge of laughter the whole time.  It's just like watching a BBC comedy!  Loved it.

There's been a lot written about Luminaries and its Man Booker win.  My interest in it was as a kiwi reading a book about a part of NZ's history by a kiwi author -- a rare combination.    The story is a complex whodunnit with 12 main characters -- one for each sign of the zodiac.  The structure of the book is intricately tied up with astrology where location, time of the year and even some of the character's birth dates all playing a part.  I know virtually nothing of such matters but to think that Catton took the time to construct a story along these lines is both technically impressive and entertaining.  Each chapter gets shorter and shorter as if approaching a solstice.  The introduction to the contents of each chapter, as was done in Victorian times (the period where the story takes place), begins to say more about the plot than the chapter itself.  Oddly weird that it works but to me the technical details sometimes got in way of the flow of the story.  However I enjoyed the overall effect.

On the surface of it, Greyhound is a story of a kid's bus trip across America.  But it's more than that -- it's a journey of philosophical understanding too -- which is odd for a kid of 11 or 12.  A lot happens on this trip, all of which conspires to help the protagonist (Sebastien) grow up and realize that he has finally grown apart from his irresponsible mother.  Help comes in the form of an unexpected protector and philosopher accompanies Sebastien for nearly the entire trip.  To realize that much of this story is true is perhaps surprising and makes the journey even more compelling.

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