Colin Watson - Whatever's Been Going On At Mumblesby?

Rating: 4/5

Review:
The enjoyable final instalment

This is the last of Colin Watson’s Flaxborough mysteries and, in spite of its rather clumsy title, it’s another very good one.

The death of prominent Flaxborough solicitor “Rich Dick” Loughbury reveals some odd transactions involving art works and curious behaviour by some other local notables, which cast doubt on the suicide of a local woman some time before. Needless to say, Inspector Purbright investigates in his typically polite but doggedly perceptive way, with Miss Lucilla Teatime making a very welcome appearance.

As always, the chief pleasure of the book is Watson’s wit and his nicely barbed observations on things like pretentious restaurants and other local foibles. It’s perhaps not one of his very best; the plot is decent but borrows some key ideas from Dorothy L. Sayers’s Busman’s Honeymoon and the sharpness of the observation isn’t quite what it sometimes has been, but it’s still a very enjoyable read. I’m very sorry to have come to the end of this series – it has been a delightful find for me and I can recommend all of them very warmly.

(My thanks to Farrago for an ARC via NetGalley.)

Patrick O'Brian - The Letter Of Marque

Rating: 5/5

Review:
The twelfth in a brilliant series

This is now my third time reading through this brilliant series and I am reminded again how beautifully written and how wonderfully, addictively enjoyable they are.

In The Letter Of Marque, Jack’s fortunes are a low ebb, but he commands the Surprise as a privateer or “letter of marque” as events develop which may bring about his reinstatement. Stephen, meanwhile, sets about repairing his marriage to Diana while succumbing to his laudanum addiction. It’s an excellent mixture of naval action and developments ashore, with O’Brian’s study of an addictive personality especially well done, I think.

Patrick O'Brian is steeped in the period of the early 19th Century and his knowledge of the language, manners, politics, social mores and naval matters of the time is deep and wide. Combined with a magnificent gift for both prose and storytelling, it makes something very special indeed. The books are so perfectly paced, with some calmer, quieter but still engrossing passages and some quite thrilling action sequences. O'Brian's handling of language is masterly, with the dialogue being especially brilliant, but also things like the way his sentences become shorter and more staccato in the action passages, making them heart-poundingly exciting. There are also laugh-out-loud moments and an overall sense of sheer involvement and pleasure in reading.

I cannot recommend these books too highly. They are that rare thing; fine literature which are also books which I can't wait to read more of. Wonderful stuff.

Patrick O'Brian - The Reverse Of The Medal

Rating: 5/5

Review:
The eleventh in a brilliant series

This is now my third time reading through this brilliant series and I am reminded again how beautifully written and how wonderfully, addictively enjoyable they are.

The Reverse Of The Medal is a little different from the others in the series in that, apart from a brief initial passage, it is almost wholly set ashore as treacherous forces move against Jack, whose lack of guile allows him to be landed in very serious trouble. It is rather a downbeat book for the most part, but it is fascinating nonetheless and also leavened with the usual flashes of humour and a moment in Jack’s very darkest hour which, even third time around, I found very touching indeed.

Patrick O'Brian is steeped in the period of the early 19th Century and his knowledge of the language, manners, politics, social mores and naval matters of the time is deep and wide. Combined with a magnificent gift for both prose and storytelling, it makes something very special indeed. The books are so perfectly paced, with some calmer, quieter but still engrossing passages and some quite thrilling action sequences. O'Brian's handling of language is masterly, with the dialogue being especially brilliant, but also things like the way his sentences become shorter and more staccato in the action passages, making them heart-poundingly exciting. There are also laugh-out-loud moments and an overall sense of sheer involvement and pleasure in reading.

I cannot recommend these books too highly. They are that rare thing; fine literature which are also books which I can't wait to read more of. Wonderful stuff.

Patrick O'Brian - The Far Side Of The World

Rating: 5/5

Review:
The tenth in a brilliant series

This is now my third time reading through this brilliant series and I am reminded again how beautifully written and how wonderfully, addictively enjoyable they are.
In The Far Side Of The World, Jack and Stephen are sent to the Pacific to tackle an American frigate which is badly disrupting trade and whaling. It’s full of incident, a wonderful description of the frightful hardship of rounding the Horn, Steven’s intelligence and scientific work and so on and as Jack comments, “I do not think I have known a commission which was so full of weather.” It’s a cracking instalment.

Patrick O'Brian is steeped in the period of the early 19th Century and his knowledge of the language, manners, politics, social mores and naval matters of the time is deep and wide. Combined with a magnificent gift for both prose and storytelling, it makes something very special indeed. The books are so perfectly paced, with some calmer, quieter but still engrossing passages and some quite thrilling action sequences. O'Brian's handling of language is masterly, with the dialogue being especially brilliant, but also things like the way his sentences become shorter and more staccato in the action passages, making them heart-poundingly exciting. There are also laugh-out-loud moments and an overall sense of sheer involvement and pleasure in reading.
I cannot recommend these books too highly. They are that rare thing; fine literature which are also books which I can't wait to read more of. Wonderful stuff.

Otessa Moshfegh - My Year Of Rest And Relaxation

Rating: 5/5

Review:
Excellent

I thought My Year Of Rest And Relaxation was excellent. I didn’t expect to like it at all and only tried it on the recommendation of a friend, but it turned out to be thoughtful, insightful, very readable and oddly compelling.

The book, set in 2000 and 2001, is narrated by a twenty-something, rich, beautiful New Yorker with no remaining family who can’t engage with anything and decides to try to “reset” her life by being doped-out and preferably asleep for a year, with the help of a wacky, pill-happy psychiatrist. It sounds grim , frankly, but it is so well done that Otessa Moshfegh pulls it off brilliantly and against all my expectations I found it involving, gripping and rather profound. It is very well structured, too, as it heads toward a very striking ending.

It’s a book about what it means to be alive and about the importance of truth and sincerity in a world of self-serving people and the trivialising of deep human experience. Moshfegh sends neat and very well-aimed barbs at the self-obsessed and self-serving of all kinds, and the fatuous superficiality of the world of self-help and pop psychology, for example. It’s all done with a brilliant light touch; never laboured and expressed with a brilliant elegance. The book is packed with unemphasised but profound, insightful phrases like “watching her take what was deep and real and painful and ruin it by expressing it with such trite precision...”, for example, said of a friend who gads from one diet and life-plan to the next in search of “her goals.” There’s also some unvarnished humour, as when the narrator almost accidentally arrives at the funeral of her Jewish friend’s mother: ‘“Is this the sitting thing? You sit for ten days?” I asked, handing her the bouquet of flowers. “Shiva is seven days. But no. My family isn’t religious or anything. They just like to sit around and eat a lot.”’

I would urge you to give this a try even if the description doesn’t sound very appealing. I thought I’d hate it, but it was among the best books I’ve read this year and I can recommend it very warmly.

(My thanks to Vintage for an ARC via NetGalley.)

Patrick O'Brian - Treason's Harbour

Rating: 5/5

Review:
The ninth in a brilliant series

This is now my third time reading through this brilliant series and I am reminded again how beautifully written and how wonderfully, addictively enjoyable they are.

Treason’s Harbour is intimately concerned with intelligence affairs as it becomes clear that there is a traitor within the Service in the Mediterranean. Jack and Stephen are again dispatched to the Eastern Med, this time to deal with the situation in a small state on the Red Sea, with the usual intimate, sometimes very exciting account of naval life, Steven’s intelligence work and, of course, his explorations of natural history.

Patrick O'Brian is steeped in the period of the early 19th Century and his knowledge of the language, manners, politics, social mores and naval matters of the time is deep and wide. Combined with a magnificent gift for both prose and storytelling, it makes something very special indeed. The books are so perfectly paced, with some calmer, quieter but still engrossing passages and some quite thrilling action sequences. O'Brian's handling of language is masterly, with the dialogue being especially brilliant, but also things like the way his sentences become shorter and more staccato in the action passages, making them heart-poundingly exciting. There are also laugh-out-loud moments and an overall sense of sheer involvement and pleasure in reading.

I cannot recommend these books too highly. They are that rare thing; fine literature which are also books which I can't wait to read more of. Wonderful stuff.

Spencer Wise - The Emperor Of Shoes

Rating: 2/5

Review:
Not for me

I’m afraid I didn’t get on very well with The Emperor of Shoes. I should have done, really – it’s well written and has a noble aim, but it completely failed to engage me.

Set in China in 2015, Alex is made to take over from his father as controller of the shoe factory he owns. The father is an uncaring, ruthless employer who exploits his workforce and treats them badly, while Alex has a conscience and has also fallen for a beautiful worker in the factory, who is also a fearless campaigner… I’m afraid it just felt like a very corny set-up. This is a serious work of fiction and very well written, but I really was constantly reminded of the Mill-Owner’s Son Falls For Factory Girl cliché. The romance didn’t convince me, I didn’t get much sense of place in China, the message seemed rather heavy-handedly presented and the Jewish Guilt stuff didn’t do a lot for me either.

I’m sorry to be critical of a well-written book with a fine purpose and one which many people have plainly found very good, but I’m afraid I had to struggle to keep going and I can’t recommend it.

Patrick O'Brian - The Ionian Mission

Rating: 5/5

Review:
The eighth in a brilliant series

This is now my third time reading through this brilliant series and I am reminded again how beautifully written and how wonderfully, addictively enjoyable they are.

In The Ionian Mission, Jack's affairs ashore are still in a tangle (to say the least) and he is again  grateful to accept even the command of a dodgy old ship of the line and sail to the Mediterranean.  This book centres around the hard life blockading Toulon and then dealing the complex treacheries of the smaller territories whose alliance is so vital.  It's a fascinating story and although I found myself a little bemused by the intricacies of the politics, another thoroughly addictive one.

Patrick O'Brian is steeped in the period of the early 19th Century and his knowledge of the language, manners, politics, social mores and naval matters of the time is deep and wide. Combined with a magnificent gift for both prose and storytelling, it makes something very special indeed. The books are so perfectly paced, with some calmer, quieter but still engrossing passages and some quite thrilling action sequences. O'Brian's handling of language is masterly, with the dialogue being especially brilliant, but also things like the way his sentences become shorter and more staccato in the action passages, making them heart-poundingly exciting. There are also laugh-out-loud moments and an overall sense of sheer involvement and pleasure in reading.

I cannot recommend these books too highly. They are that rare thing; fine literature which are also books which I can't wait to read more of. Wonderful stuff.

M.R.C. Kasasian - Betty Church and the Suffolk Vampire

Rating: 2/5

Review:
Not for me

I didn't get on well with this book, I'm afraid.  It's the first Kasasian I have read and may well be the last.

Set in 1939, Sgt. Betty Church has lost half her left arm and is promoted to inspector  and sent to her home town in Suffolk to get her out of the way.  Suffolk has never admitted female police officers so…well, you can probably guess the welcome she receives.   There is a lot of local "colour" and lots of improbable murders happen, but I never had the sense of any sort of developing, involving story.

Part of the problem is that although Betty is a fairly engaging narrator and her feminism and toughness are fine qualities, the other characters are a parade of annoyingly pantomimic stereotypes: the unspeakably sexist, vulgar, incompetent, drunken, halitosis-ridden fellow-inspector, for example, or Dido, who combines all the worst aspects of Madeleine Bassett and Violet Elizabeth Bott, but without the brilliant comedic touch of either.  She became unreadably annoying very quickly – which is a real problem in an almost incessant presence.   This, coupled with the sense of just wading through descriptions with little narrative drive, meant that The Suffolk Vampire became a chore for me.  I stuck it out for about half the book, but couldn't face 400-odd pages of this stuff and skimmed most of the rest.

Plainly, Kasasian's books have been popular, but this really wasn't for me.  It's decently written, but I found it tedious and unfunny and can't recommend it.

Patrick O'Brian - The Surgeon's Mate

Rating: 5/5

Review:
The seventh in a brilliant series

This is now my third time reading through this brilliant series and I am reminded again how beautifully written and how wonderfully, addictively enjoyable they are.

In The Surgeon's Mate, Jack's affairs ashore are in a tangle (to say the least) and Stephen helps both practically and by requesting that Jack be the captain commanding a tricky intelligence mission in the Baltic.  The subsequent action and thoughtful developments are, as always, thrilling and engrossing.

 Patrick O'Brian is steeped in the period of the early 19th Century and his knowledge of the language, manners, politics, social mores and naval matters of the time is deep and wide. Combined with a magnificent gift for both prose and storytelling, it makes something very special indeed. The books are so perfectly paced, with some calmer, quieter but still engrossing passages and some quite thrilling action sequences. O'Brian's handling of language is masterly, with the dialogue being especially brilliant, but also things like the way his sentences become shorter and more staccato in the action passages, making them heart-poundingly exciting. There are also laugh-out-loud moments and an overall sense of sheer involvement and pleasure in reading.

I cannot recommend these books too highly. They are that rare thing; fine literature which are also books which I can't wait to read more of. Wonderful stuff.

Patrick O'Brian - The Fortune of War

Rating: 5/5

Review:
The sixth in a brilliant series

This is now my third time reading through this brilliant series and I am reminded again how beautifully written and how wonderfully, addictively enjoyable they are.

In The Fortune Of War, Jack's fortunes are anything but favourable and on a voyage home from the East Indies meets with all sorts of vicissitudes.  There are some griping and fascinating episodes with the usual engrossing stuff about Steven's natural philosophy and work as a secret agent as well as some thrilling battle action.  In short, it's a classic O'Brian –than which there is little higher praise.

Patrick O'Brian is steeped in the period of the early 19th Century and his knowledge of the language, manners, politics, social mores and naval matters of the time is deep and wide. Combined with a magnificent gift for both prose and storytelling, it makes something very special indeed. The books are so perfectly paced, with some calmer, quieter but still engrossing passages and some quite thrilling action sequences. O'Brian's handling of language is masterly, with the dialogue being especially brilliant, but also things like the way his sentences become shorter and more staccato in the action passages, making them heart-poundingly exciting. There are also laugh-out-loud moments and an overall sense of sheer involvement and pleasure in reading.

I cannot recommend these books too highly. They are that rare thing; fine literature which are also books which I can't wait to read more of. Wonderful stuff.

Tim Winton - The Shepherd's Hut

Rating: 5/5

Review:
Outstandingly good

I thought that The Shepherd's Hut was quite outstanding. 

The story is narrated by Jaxie Clackton, a rough, rebellious adolescent in a small, isolated town in Western Australia.  He is regularly viciously beaten by his father until Jaxie returns home one day to find him dead.  Fearing that his own tough reputation and the way his father treated him will lead people to suspect him of the killing, he takes off into the bush on foot, heading toward the girl he loves who is many hundreds of miles away.  We get the story of Jaxie's hard journey and troubles and of his meeting with an odd, isolated old man in a shepherds hut in the middle of nowhere.

It may not sound that alluring, but it's absolutely terrific.  Jaxie's narrative voice is brilliantly done (be warned that the language is appropriate to a very rough teenage boy!), the sense of place in the deserted saltlands of Western Australia is phenomenally evocative and I found the story utterly gripping.  It has quietly perceptive things to say about men, resilience, pig-headedness, love and many other things and it will stay with me for a very long time.

I loved everything about this book, including Jaxie's colourful language (of an almost dead phone, for example: "By now there probably wasn't a bee's pube of battery left anyway.") and the genuine humanity and understanding among the harshness and brutality.  As a couple of examples: "Son, I used to scoff at all the notions people got about the sun and moon.  Primitive people, I mean.  With all their worshipping and fearing.  But the longer I'm out here.  Well, it knocks the scoffing out of a fella."  Or Jaxie's adolescent realisation that, "It's a dangerous feeling getting noticed, being wanted.  Getting seen deep and proper…"  And I especially loved the way some things weren't neatly tied up but left unknown as they so often are in life, and that the book ends on a note of hope and aspiration rather than resolution, because that's the real point of the story.

The Shepherd's Hut is one of the best, most involving books I've read this year.  I'd be delighted to see it nominated for the Man Booker (although it may be too readable for that) and I can recommend it very warmly indeed.

(My thanks to Picador for an ARC via NetGalley.)

Harlan Coben - Home

Rating: 4/5

Review:
Enjoyable nonsense

I enjoyed Home.  It is the first of Harlan Coben's books I have read and the latest in a major series involving Myron Bolitar, but works fine as a stand-alone novel.

Home begins very arrestingly, as Myron's friend Win sees a missing boy in London for whom he has been looking for ten years.  There is a very tense and violent scene and the hunt is then on for the boy and his friend who disappeared at the same time.  A twisty plot follows as Myron and Win investigate, the original kidnapping and the boys' families come under scrutiny and the identity of one of the boys is questioned.

It's nonsense, but it's very enjoyable nonsense.  There are plenty of fantastical elements in Home: Win's almost limitless wealth and influence, his near-superhuman deadliness, the appalling, Bond-villainesque criminal mastermind…you name it.  Nonetheless, Coben writes very well and the dialogue in particular is great, so I found Home very pleasantly addictive.  I could have done without the knowing asides addressed to the reader, but they certainly didn't spoil my enjoyment.

Home is superior, if slightly silly, entertainment with flashes of humour and which doesn't take itself too seriously.  I'll certainly look out for more.

Patrick O'Brian - Desolation Island

Rating: 5/5

Review:
The fifth in a brilliant series

This is now my third time reading through this brilliant series and I am reminded again how beautifully written and how wonderfully, addictively enjoyable they are.

In The Mauritius Command, Jack is finding shore-bound domestic life somewhat less blissful than he had anticipated, but through Steven's machinations is given command of a squadron to fight in the Indian Ocean where French warships are playing havoc with the Company's trade. As always, there is a gripping, varied narrative and some thoughtfully drawn characters – especially the capricious and enigmatic Lord Clonfert, whom I found a real source of interest and subtlety in this episode.

Patrick O'Brian is steeped in the period of the early 19th Century and his knowledge of the language, manners, politics, social mores and naval matters of the time is deep and wide. Combined with a magnificent gift for both prose and storytelling, it makes something very special indeed. The books are so perfectly paced, with some calmer, quieter but still engrossing passages and some quite thrilling action sequences. O'Brian's handling of language is masterly, with the dialogue being especially brilliant, but also things like the way his sentences become shorter and more staccato in the action passages, making them heart-poundingly exciting. There are also laugh-out-loud moments and an overall sense of sheer involvement and pleasure in reading.

I cannot recommend these books too highly. They are that rare thing; fine literature which are also books which I can't wait to read more of. Wonderful stuff.

Ali Smith - Girl Meets Boy

Rating: 4/5

Review:

A good re-telling 

Ali Smith's work has been a bit of a mixed bag for me, but I enjoyed Girl Meets Boy.  Parts of it are quite brilliant and other sections not so good, but as a whole it was well done, I thought.  It is also commendably concise, packing a lot into relatively few pages.

Smith takes Ovid's myth of Iphis and re-sets it in 2007 in Inverness. She uses the structure to write beautifully about sexual identity and attitudes toward it, the role and treatment of women in the world, and about the behaviour of global corporations.  In the eleven years since its original publication it has dated a bit and some of the points she makes, while still shockingly valid today, seem rather laboured and heavy-handed.  At its best, though, this is a thrilling and sometimes disturbing read; for example, there is a sex scene which contains almost nothing explicitly sexual but is astonishingly powerful and evocative, and the scene in the pub where two boorish, "laddish" men offhandedly and unthinkingly demean the young woman with them is chillingly recognisable.

Ali Smith can sometimes lose me by going over the top with her flights of fantastical prose, however brilliantly written, and that did happen a couple of times in Girl Meets Boy.  Also, at times it seemed rather like one of Richard Curtis's more sentimentally message-hammering scripts, but none of that spoiled the book for me and I can recommend it.

(My thanks to Canongate for an ARC via NetGalley.)