Nick Harper - Marshall: The Book Of Loud

Rating: 4/5

Review:
Amusing enough

The Book Of Loud wasn't what I expected at all, but I quite like it for what it is. 

I thought this would be an illustrated history of Marshall amps in Rock, which I would still be very interested in if anyone wants to write it.  Instead it's a pick-up-and dabble book with loads of utterly random stuff, often presented in several boxes to a page, like A Week of Rock, with seven rock songs each featuring a different day in the title, or the various hairstyles used by rockers over the years, or just a list of random trivia, like which silly pseudonym is used by Ozzy Osbourne when he checks into a hotel. 

There are very few photos, but a lot of line drawings which are of variable interest.  The whole thing is decently presented and amusing enough, without being in any way profound.  I can recommend it as a light read to dip into for a few minutes at a time. 

J.M. Coetzee - The Schooldays of Jesus

Rating: 4/5

Review:
Odd but involving

This is an odd book.  I think it's rather a good one, but it' s not easy to say why.

The Schooldays of Jesus is not about Jesus (unless there's some metaphor which I'm missing).  It's set in an unnamed, probably fictional Spanish-speaking country, where the main protagonist Simón, his companion Inés and her son Davíd are running away from the law for tanking Davíd out of school.  They settle in a new town and a sequence of things happens.  It's a curious sequence which seems like a chunk from some much larger story in that it begins and ends at somewhat random moments with little explained at the beginning and little resolved at the end, and as to what it's about…frankly, I have no real idea.

The narrative touches on the conflict between rationality and passion, guilt and punishment, the best way to educate a child…and dozens of other things, none of which is analysed to a conclusion, but raised periodically, discussed and then left until the next time.  It sounds ghastly, but there is a simple, almost hypnotic quality to the prose and a thoughtful feel which kept me reading right to the end.  I found Simón an engaging, flawed and slightly baffled protagonist and, odd though it is, I rather liked the somewhat fairy-tale atmosphere the style creates and the slightly random sequence of events and ideas.

It is very hard to give more of a flavour of this book.  It's certainly not driven by a page-turning plot and I imagine quite a lot of people will dislike its strange atmosphere.  Personally, I found it rather involving and haunting; I'm glad I read it and I'd suggest giving it a try.

A.L. Kennedy - Serious Sweet

Rating: 3/5

Review:
Hard going

I like A.L. Kennedy's radio work very much but, rather to my shame, this is the first novel of hers that I have read.  I'm afraid I found it pretty hard going.

This is a book which effectively recounts twenty-four hours in the lives of two decent, flawed people in London.  There is very little plot; it's about the nature of life in the city today and about the thoughts and character of the two protagonists.  In many ways, it's very well done.  Kennedy's depictions of aspects of modern life are acute, insightful and morally very necessary at the moment.  Her characters are utterly believable, and her depiction of their internal monologues is remarkably well done as they deal with the minor and major trials and joys of the day and of their lives.

But, dear me, there's a lot of it!  I felt about this rather as I did about John Banville's Ancient Light; wonderful writing, brilliant evocations of emotional states, memories and so on often through the depiction of the minutiae of life – and that 500 pages of it was just too much.  The style which makes a 10-minute radio talk so brilliant begins to feel a bit like wading through treacle after a couple of hundred pages.  Kennedy doesn't always judge it perfectly, either, I think.  I marked two brief early passages:

"And there was the toy-box clutter of the City, a slapdash collection of unlikely forms or the vaguely art deco confections at canary Wharf and, dotted about, the distant filaments of cranes that would lift more empty peculiarities into the undefended sky" which  thought was brilliant (and somewhat reminiscent of Mervyn Peake's opening descrition of Gormenghast Castle). 

And then this, a few pages later:

"This was her equivalent of maybe passing warm pebbles from hand to hand, smooth and reliable, or her version of the rosary, her misbah, her mala, her kmboloi, her worry beads…" which made me think "OK, OK!  I got the point at misbah!"  I found the whole thing a mixture of the beautifully judged and the slightly overblown and it became quite a slog for me.

It comes down to this, I think: if you like A.L. Kennedy's style in large doses, you'll like this and if you don't, you won't.  Personally I found it too much for too long, but you may well disagree; there's some very good stuff here and it may well be worth a try to see if it agrees better with you than it did with me.

(I received an ARC via Netgalley.)

David Wishart - Foreign Bodies

Rating: 5/5

Review:
very enjoyable

I enjoyed this book very much.  It's the first of Wishart's I have read, and I'll definitely be looking out more in the series.

Foreign Bodies is set in the Roman Empire in the reign of Claudius as he plans the invasion of Britain.  Marcus Corvinus is asked by Claudius to investigate a murder in Lugdunum (now Lyons) in Gaul, and he and his wife Perdilla head off there – and beyond as the mystery deepens and becomes involved in high politics before unravelling.  As a detective story it's pretty ordinary, to be honest, with a rather ridiculous denouement, but it's made hugely enjoyable by the period setting and Marcus's terrific narrative voice.

Wishart is plainly deeply knowledgeable about the period, which allows him to give Marcus Corvinus (and his other characters) a thoroughly modern voice while maintaining a very convincing atmosphere.  Marcus speaks to us much like a witty and cynical contemporary Londoner, and it works brilliantly; it's wholly believable and genuinely funny in places.  I know comparisons with Philip Marlowe are almost always ignorant and lazy cliché, but even in the very English-sounding voice there is something of Marlowe's rebellious tone and his use of striking similes - which is a high compliment.

In short, this is an engaging, thoroughly readable and very enjoyable novel.  I'm delighted to have discovered David Wishart and I can recommend this very warmly.

(I received an ARC via Netgalley.)

Margery Allingham - The White Cottage Mystery

Rating: 4/5

Review:
A decent early work

Margery Allingham was a truly great writer of detective fiction from the Golden Age.  The White Cottage Mystery is her first published book, and her full brilliance had yet to flower.  I quite enjoyed it as a period piece, but it's nothing like as good as Allingham's later Campion books.

This is a solidly constructed mystery set a few years after the Great War.  A murder takes place in a small, respectable Home Counties village which Challoner of the Yard and his son Jerry investigate.  Facts emerge about the murdered man which lead to investigations in Paris and Mentone, revelations about sinister, powerful international criminal organisations and so on.  It's done decently enough, but it's a puzzle with somewhat crude dressing rather than the sort of fine novel as Allingham went on to write.  Characters are a little stereotypical, there's a rather thinly painted romance and so on.  The prose is good, but there's nothing of the brilliance of, say, "She bustled off, leaving a tang of schoolmistress in the air," (from Death of a Ghost) which came to characterise her writing.

Anything by Margery Allingham is worth reading, including this.  It's a readable and quite enjoyable Golden Age mystery – just don't expect it to be on a par with her later work.

(I received a free ARC via Netgalley.)