Michael Farris Smith - Blackwood

Rating: 4/5

Review:
Compelling and atmospheric

This is another very compelling book from Michael Farris Smith. I thought that Desperation Road and The Fighter were both outstanding; Blackwood is equally readable, atmospheric and involving but I’m not sure it said quite as much as the previous two.

Blackwood is set in rural Tennessee where a small town has been surrounded and all but taken over by the invasive weed kudzu, which covers and ultimately chokes all other vegetation and any houses which aren’t constantly defended. Into this town come a family of drifters headed by a dangerous and increasingly unhinged man, and another man returning to his childhood home and seeking some answers to tragedy from his past and possibly some redemption. Sinister, sometimes violent developments ensue and Farris Smith again explores issues of damaged masculinity seeking salvation, repression, anger and the mores of a small, isolated community – all with the unspoken metaphor of the encroaching darkness and oppression of the kudzu.

Farris Smith’s writing is, as always, brilliant; terse, compelling and realistic in its portrayal of place and character. I was utterly involved from the start and it’s a completely engrossing read which doesn’t shy away from tough subjects nor go in for easy resolution. I did find the ending a little odd and out of step with the rest of the book, though, and afterward I had the sense that there was less new insight than in his previous books.

These small reservations aside, I can recommend Blackwood warmly.

(My thanks to No Exit Press for an ARC via NetGalley.)

Michael White - Conversations With Isaac Newton

Rating: 5/5

Review:
Very good indeed

I thought this was a really good potted biography of Isaac Newton. It is the third I’ve tried in this series (after Galileo and Einstein) and it is definitely the best so far.

The book is commendably brief and begins with a summary of Newton’s life and achievements, which I thought was excellent. The “conversations” which follow were also very good, reading like genuine conversation and giving an insight into both the man and his work. I thought the sections on how Newton viewed his alchemical studies and his religious research and analysis as an important part of his thinking about the physical world were especially interesting, but it’s all very well done. Michael White doesn’t shy away from Newton’s arrogant, quarrelsome and vindictive personality - but thankfully avoids the sort of vacuous “psychoanalysis” which Frank Manuel indulged in.

Anyone seeking a brief but accurate and readable account of Newton’s extraordinary achievements and lasting influence, plus a good feel for the man himself should enjoy this very much. I was surprised and delighted by how good it was and I can recommend it very warmly.

(My thanks to Watkins publishing for an ARC via NetGalley.)

Abir Mukherjee - A Rising Man

Rating: 4/5

Review:
Very enjoyable

I enjoyed A Rising Man very much. It’s engaging, well- researched and well written.

Set in Calcutta in 1919, Sam Wyndham is an inspector newly arrived from Scotland Yard to join the Indian police force. He is immediately needed to investigate a violent death with apparently political overtones and a good, enthralling plot ensues as Sam and his new sidekick Sergeant Banerjee combat the machinations of the powerful ruling elite, Military Intelligence and so on.

In truth, experienced readers of the genre will have little trouble in spotting the false leads and probably the villains, both major and minor, in the story. I didn’t mind that, though; it was well enough written to keep me engrossed and the background of India under the Raj was extremely well done. Some of the language used was more 21^st-Century American than early 20th-Century upper-crust British, but I got used to it and again the story and setting were good enough to make this scarcely relevant.

I’ll certainly be reading the next books in this series and I can recommend this warmly.

Marina Lewycka - The Good, The Bad and The Little Bit Stupid

Rating: 2/5

Review:
Very disappointing

I was very disappointed in The Good, The Bad And The Little Bit Stupid. I thought Marina Lewycka’s last book, The Lubetkin Legacy was excellent – witty, sharply observed and penetrating in its analysis. This is nothing like as good.

The story is set in immediate post-referendum Yorkshire where the Pantis family have been riven by Brexit arguments and where fraud of all kinds is evident. This includes fake insurance claims, dodgy “lottery wins”, claims made in the referendum campaign and so on, as the ageing Pantis parents split up and their children, especially Sensible Sid, try to cope with the changes in their lives. I’m afraid I found it thoroughly unconvincing and just plain dull much of the time. Lewycka can still come out with a ringing phrase, like one character describing another as “that useless leeching lump of self-regard,” but in spite of good prose I found the characters pretty thin caricatures and the whole thing felt rather familiar and as though I’d read about it before. There are some farcical “comic” scenes which were plain silly rather than comic, and so on. I’m afraid I just gave up around half way, which is unusual for me, but I just didn’t care any more.

I’m sorry to be critical of an author whose work I have enjoyed in the past, but this one really didn’t do it for me.

(My thanks to Penguin Books for an ARC via NetGalley.)

Carlos Calle - Conversations With Einstein

Rating: 4/5

Review:
A good basic introduction

Conversations With Einstein (a reissue of the 2008 Coffee With Einstein) is rather a good potted biography. It is both a summary of Einstein’s work and of some aspects of his personal life and beliefs.

The book begins with a brief introduction by the great Roger Penrose plus a few pages of summary of Einstein’s life and influence, both of which are good. Then there are sections based on Einstein’s publications and public statements, structured as conversations with the Great Man answering the interviewer’s questions. It’s a little stilted at times, but it works pretty well; there is a decent stab at explaining Einstein’s great discoveries in Relativity and Quantum Mechanics, all without any maths. Because it’s so condensed, this section may leave non-scientists struggling a bit and it may be as well to try one of the excellent popular accounts of his work such as Marcus Chown’s Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You for better insight. However, this does give a good feel for the extraordinary revolutions for which Einstein was responsible.

I liked the sections on how Einstein used to think about things, his politics and religious views. These are again very brief, but probably give as good an insight as some far longer accounts.

This isn’t perfect, but it’s a good introduction to the man and his work.

(My thanks to Watkins Publishing for an ARC via NetGalley.)

Alan Parks - Bobby March Will Live Forever

Rating: 4/5

Review:
Another very good instalment

This has been a very good series so far and I think that Bobby March Will Live Forever is probably the best so far.

It is summer 1973 this time and a 15-year-old girl is missing. McCoy is excluded from the investigation by a rival who hates him, but the case he is working on eventually becomes tangled up with the missing girl, leading him again into the world of Glasgow’s gangs and major criminals and even to Belfast at the height of the Troubles. It’s a good, involving story in which McCoy’s ambivalent relationship with Steve Cooper plays a significant part and which is one of the very good things about the series.

The summer setting means that the book has a slightly less oppressive feel than its predecessors, although there is still a lot of gruesome violence and a menacing air is always present. As always, one really fine feature is Alan Parks’s evocation of the atmosphere of 1970s Glasgow, both the place itself and the period. Period attitudes are well portrayed, including what we would now see as gross police corruption but was just the way things were done then and his characters are extremely well drawn and believable.

I have to say that the plot relies on a couple of pretty outrageous coincidences and the climax gets a bit silly. There are some holes – such as McCoy taking a hideous beating including several powerful kicks full in the face in which his “nose bursts,” but a day later he is perfectly fit and no-one so much as comments on any damage to his face. Nonetheless, this is well enough written for these things not to matter too much and I found Bobby March Will Live Forever a thoroughly gripping, enjoyable read. Warmly recommended, and I’m looking forward to the next in the series.

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

Stuart Maconie - The Nanny State Made Me

Rating: 5/5

Review:
Exceptionally good

I thought The Nanny State Made Me was excellent. Stuart Maconie is a very good, engaging writer who combines thorough research, intelligence and genuine interest in people with a readable style and just the right leavening of wit and humour to lighten the subject without ever trivialising it.

The book is self-confessedly polemical; Maconie writes passionately about the public services which helped him throughout his life and which so many of us rely on but often take for granted. He uses aspects of his own life to link subjects the NHS, council housing, public parks, libraries, schools, transport, the benefits system and so on. He comes from a left-wing stance, but is never doctrinaire. He recognises some of the failings of the left and supports his arguments with facts, statistics and human stories, plus his own visits to important people and places which illustrate his points and show pretty conclusively how much we all need these state-organised institutions. His conclusions can be largely summed up in his own words: “We may be coming to realise that the people who complain about the nanny state are the people who had nannies.”

It’s a delight to read. The following passage about a personal experience of the NHS gives a good flavour of the style:

“It was quiet and tense in the room where I sat as a young doctor, Malaysian/ English I think, was telling me and my stepdaughter that my gravely ill ninety-year-old mother-in-law would probably not last the afternoon. However, he said, there was one slim chance of keeping her with us a while longer. It was tricky and risky and would involve him inserting a thin wire in a vein in her arm and trying to manually guide it up and into her torso via a maze of arteries and eventually to her heart where, with luck and skill, it would remove the blockage there. He made it sound a little like the fairground game where a steady hand around the curves of a steel pipe is needed to avoid setting the electric buzzer off. Except the price of failure was rather more serious than a mild jolt, of course. We told him to try, and away he went.

“Forty-five minutes later, he returned, rolling his sleeves down and mopping his brow. ‘Well, it worked,’ he said, breezy and matter-of-fact. ‘She’s weak and very poorly but she’s still here. You can go up for a chat in a minute. I have to go now.’ With that, and the tired but satisfied air of a mechanic who had just replaced a fan belt, he strode away to perform another minor miracle. I thought then, as I do every time I recall that morning, that in those forty-five minutes that young man achieved more, did something more important, than anything and everything I will do in my whole life. Yours too, probably, if you’ll forgive me. When I think about the NHS, I think about him, and then I think about those people not fit to scrub his hands who make his job and his life – and the jobs and lives of his tired, overworked, dedicated, brilliant workmates – harder every day. And I know whose side I am on, and who my enemy is.”

The Nanny State Made Me is thought-provoking, touching, amusing, informative and a pleasure to read. Very, very warmly recommended.

Joe Ide - Hi Five

Rating: 4/5

Review:
Good, but not Joe Ide's best

I have loved this series so far. Hi Five is still pretty good but I didn’t think it was up to the excellent standard of its predecessors.

This time, Isaiah is forced into helping the daughter of a serious thug and arms trader who looks as though she’s guilty of murder. It turns out that she has multiple personalities, which although quite well researched, felt more like a handy plot device than a serious exploration of a condition. Isaiah’s old love Grace returns and as he becomes drawn deeper into investigating murky gang warfare and white supremacist thuggery, their relationship is analysed and tested. Meanwhile, old friends Dodson and TK both find themselves looking closely at their lives, as do several of the villains of the piece...and as a result, although there’s plenty of action it all felt a good deal more preachy and less shrewdly witty than earlier books. Even the plot and action seemed rather more generic than before, and I think Joe Ide is better than that.

The book is still several cuts above most of the stuff in this genre, but it has far less of that real spark of originality, humour and quiet, understated insight which made the first three IQ novels so special for me. It’s not clear at the end of the book whether Isaiah will return; if he does, I’ll certainly be reading the next one and hoping for a return to Ide’s earlier near-classic standard.

This is still good and still very readable, but not quite up there with Joe Ide’s best.

(My thanks to W&N for an ARC via NetGalley.)