Tag: book review

The Way of All Flesh by Ambrose Parry

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The Way of All Flesh is a historical novel that blends crime and medicine, showing the cutthroat world of scientific discovery and the dangerous situations of the poor of Victorian Edinburgh. Will Raven starts an apprenticeship with the renowned Dr Simpson, who alongside his patients is looking for discoveries in anaesthesia. In Simpson’s house, Raven meets Sarah, a housemaid with an interest in medicine and an early dislike of Raven. Soon, they find themselves working together to uncover why young women keep turning up dead in the Old Town, deaths that seem to have some link to the medical world that Raven inhabits.

The novel is co-written by a crime writer and a consultant anaesthetist, giving it a thoroughly medical setting whilst weaving in mystery and money. The class elements are vital too: Edinburgh is divided and the characters cross between rich and poor areas. Raven finds himself confronted by the realities of the poor even as he deals with his own money troubles, with actions he thinks are helpful turning out to not be as well thought out. A lot of interesting elements are combined in the novel and the narrative has plenty of intrigue, though at times the pace is a little slow. Sarah is a great character, providing a reality check for Raven and also showing how intellect could only be valued if you were male and well off.

There have been a number of nineteenth-century historical novels set in Edinburgh featuring elements of crime and medicine released recently (including The Wages of Sin and The Pharmacist’s Wife), but they all tend to have unique elements of focus or narrative. In the case of The Way of All Flesh, this is the quest for anaesthesia combined with the reality of hidden abortion, and the interesting way this intersects with gender and class in a historical context. This novel is definitely one for historical crime fans who aren’t squeamish about medical stuff, and the fact it is the first in the series means there is likely to be plenty more to come.

Future Popes of Ireland by Darragh Martin

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Future Popes of Ireland is a character-driven novel about the messiness of life and the way it unfolds, with a side helping of social relevance. Granny Doyle wants her family to produce the first Irish pope, but things don’t go as planned, and she finds herself bringing up four grandchildren: five year old Peg and infant triplets Damian, Rosie, and John Paul. As they all grow up, things don’t go as Granny Doyle planned, and soon the siblings are scattered. Peg left home as a teenager and is far away in New York now, Damian’s musing political ideals and love whilst trying to tell his grandmother about his sexuality, Rosie is a dreaming activist who hopes of making her big sister confront the past, and John Paul has taken his pope role in a rather different direction than might have been hoped.

The narrative spans from 1979 to 2011, focusing on different siblings and their grandmother as their lives are weaved. Underpinning the story is the backdrop of Ireland and beyond: abortion and the 8th amendment, environmental issues, LGBT rights, war in the Middle East, and hope and despair in politics. This element gives the novel a relevant feel, rather than just being another novel focused on a family’s messy personal drama. The characters are frustrating in a good way, flawed and foolish and unlikely to have a magical happy ending.

This is a novel that from the summary sounds like a lot of other books out there, but it has a surprising spark in its relevance and its depiction of messy and not easily described human lives. Levels of ambiguity and unspoken facts give it narrative power, and it can be witty and heart-warming as well as cutting.

Washington Black by Esi Edugyan

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Washington Black is a gripping and fresh novel about a slave for whom escape is only the start of his unusual adventures. Eleven-year-old Washington Black knows only the Barbados plantation where he has lived as long as he remembers. When the old master dies and his cruel nephew takes over, Wash finds a strange opportunity: he is selected as the personal servant and assistant to the new master’s eccentric brother, Titch, who is working on a flying machine. However, Wash and Titch’s plan is soon scuppered and they are forced to leave the island. The novel follows Washington from the Arctic to Morocco as he finds an interest in marine biology and learns how to make his way in the world.

This is a surprising book, multi-faceted in its narrative. The shock to Wash of the places he ends up is mirrored in the way the book feels solidly set in Barbados until the point Wash and Titch leave. Slavery is vital to the narrative and so is freedom, in different forms, as Wash’s escape does not free him from thoughts of what he left behind, or the dangers of being an escaped slave and and a black boy. It is also a kind of coming of age novel, as Wash ages from eleven to eighteen across the novel and discovers a lot about the world and about his own interests. The writing style suits the novel, not trying too hard to be historical, and keeps the novel moving forward with pace.

Washington Black is a fresh kind of historical adventure novel that mixes science, exploration, freedom, discovery, and slavery. Wash is an inquisitive, complex protagonist coming to grips with the world, and his relationships with other characters show the inherent prejudices and ignorance of even well-meaning, abolitionist white people. Edugyan creates a twisting historical narrative that manages to capture wonder and darkness.

There There by Tommy Orange

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There There is a gripping novel about a collection of people brought together by the Big Oakland Powwow, telling a story of cycles of violence and family. Jacquie Red Feather is newly sober and back in Oakland after a long time, not sure if she’s ready to see her grandsons and her sister Opal. Edwin is looking for his father and proving he can get out of the house and do things. Dene is collecting Native stories about Oakland to honour his uncle. Blue is organising the event and looking for her mother. And all the while, a plan to rob the powwow lurks beneath the preparations.

This is an explosive novel with a lot of energy. The narrative weaves the perspectives of a number of interconnected characters, telling the stories of how they ended up at the powwow and how their lives have unfolded in and around Oakland. It has a very distinctive sense of place as well as character, focusing on urban Native American life and identity. Oakland is really another character in the novel, and it is the location of the powwow that brings the characters all together, regardless of their connections.

There There is a thoroughly modern novel that looks backwards and forwards, bringing together the stories of a range of characters and how they relate to culture, identity, and violence. It is an impressive piece of literary fiction ideal for anyone looking for novels centred around place, identity, and character, or books that tell diverse stories from people with a multifaceted sense of culture and identity.

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Czech Decadence in Prague: A Gothic Soul by Jiří Karásek ze Lvovic

An atmospheric piece of Czech Decadent writing, in which a nihilistic protagonist looks for meaning in life and compares his hopeless mindset to Prague, which he thinks of as a dead city. I picked up this translation at random whilst on holiday in Prague due to the title (and beautiful edition), and I’m glad I did. Lyrical and almost without plot, it won’t be for everyone, but this is a gothic novella that feels deeply connected to the city.

The Life and Death Parade by Eliza Wass

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The Life and Death Parade is an atmospheric YA novel that combines an eerie secret travelling occult group with a depiction of grief across a family. Kitty had a complicated relationship with her sort-of boyfriend Nikki Bramley, who she grew up alongside and whose family home she now lives in following the death of her mother. However, now he’s dead, after a psychic told him he was going to die, and the Bramleys are all dealing with his death in different ways. Kitty tries to find the psychic who told Nikki his fate, but instead finds a strange medium, Roan. Roan seems like he could be the answer Kitty is looking for, with powers to talk to and maybe even bring back the dead, but she’s not sure he’s not a charlatan, even when the strange rituals and mysterious group lead her towards memories of her mother.

This is a novel filled with eerie and dark elements: the old castle that the rich Bramleys live in, the rituals and occult, intense obsession, and a strange group called the Life and Death Parade that Kitty decides she must track down for answers about Nikki and about her mother. Wass weaves a narrative that combines these with far more down to earth elements such as grief, love, and uncertainty. This makes The Life and Death Parade a book that feels far more real than its occult parts might suggest: something more like the fleeting magic of urban fantasy or the unnerving mysticism of the Bacchanalia from The Secret History.

Kitty is an interesting and unusual protagonist, who has lost almost everyone and needs to find something to fight for and a reason to keep fighting. Trying to work out what happened to Nikki and if there’s anything she can do about it may serve that purpose, but the novel—for all its occultism—ultimately shows that people need to find ways to move on. Nikki’s siblings Macklin and Holiday are also engaging, with Macklin’s struggle with guilt and Holiday’s extreme reactions helping to create the image of a messed up family in a moody old castle. And crucially, Roan works well as a mysterious and possibly dangerous figure, brooding over the death of his boyfriend and seeming to be a rock star medium who could solve the Bramleys’ problems.

The Life and Death Parade is a gripping novel, part story about grief with hints of magic and part thriller featuring a mysterious stranger. It will appeal to people who like their books with eccentric characters, complex love and obsession, and a dash of something otherworldly, whether young adult or otherwise. This is a book to read for the story, which becomes difficult to put down, and for the creation of an eccentric and intriguing cast and atmosphere.

Confessions of the Fox by Jordy Rosenberg

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Confessions of the Fox is a transformative, metafictional piece of historical fiction that takes the life of Jack Sheppard—infamous thief and gaol-breaker who provided inspiration for John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera—and tells it afresh through a mysterious manuscript. A precarious professor, V. Roth, discovers a manuscript in a university clear out. The manuscript tells the story of Jack Sheppard, a transgender man indentured to a carpenter who turns thief and prison-breaker, and his love Bess Khan, who escaped the draining of the fenlands. Together they fight to uncover a strange secret that leads back to Jonathan Wild, Thief-Catcher General. However, the manuscript may not be as first appears, or so Roth seems to think through footnotes that lead the reader on another quest altogether, one that considers freedom, gender, and the archival text.

The novel blends a kind of eighteenth-century style—full of bawdy slang and thieves’ cant—with academic footnotes and personal reflection. Rosenberg’s Sheppard is a man motivated by love and freedom, in contrast to Roth, who talks of a lost ex and imprisonment within a corporate university system. And yet, Roth identifies with Sheppard, and the action of identifying with a subject of research becomes something else fictionalised within the novel.

Rosenberg’s novel is a difficult one to categorise. On the one hand, it is powerful historical fiction that carves a non-white, non-cis space in a certain point in eighteenth-century history. On the other, it is a postmodern consideration of oppression, theory, the archive, and what authenticity could possibly be. Within both of these strands, Confessions of the Fox fights for the untold story, for over throwing the masters, and for telling diverse stories for the people who have been left out of them. It is an exciting, powerful, postmodern book that forces the reader to look beyond its pages, but also keeping an adventure story of crime and love at its heart.

Hold by Michael Donkor

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Hold is a moving, funny, and sad novel about friendship, shame, forgiveness, and growing up, that is set between Ghana and London. The protagonist is Belinda, a housegirl who moved from her village to Kumasi when the chance came. She works alongside Mary, a spirited eleven-year-old who became the sister Belinda never had, until Belinda is summoned to London to try and bring Amma out of her shell. Amma is a straight-A student who lives in south London with her Ghanian parents, but recently she has started to seem different to them, moody and uncommunicative. They hope that Belinda will be a good example on Amma, but Amma doesn’t want to be friends at first. And when they do start to get along, their own secrets might pull them apart again.

Belinda’s perspective is distinctive and holds the novel together as she discovers new ways to think and thinks back on the past. Donkor combines this with smaller parts from Amma’s perspective, which shows the differences in their lives and points of view and also how their friendship grows slowly. The way Donkor writes their friendship—how it is forced upon them, but also becomes more natural, something of a give and take—is crucial to the novel, which is full of different comparisons.

This is a multi-faceted novel with engaging and memorable characters, and vivid locations including a recognisably local south London centred around Brixton, Herne Hill, and Streatham. It is a story about growing up and coming of age across different cultures and positions in society, but also in relation to shame, sexuality, and grief. Hold is an exciting debut that combines gripping characters with vivid description to create a coming-of-age story with fresh perspectives.

We Shall Fight Until We Win (pub. by 404 Ink and BHP Comics)

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We Shall Fight Until We Win is a graphic anthology showcasing the lives of political women for the centenary of the first wave of women in the UK gaining the right to vote. Female writers and artists have come together to create short comics only a few pages long that tell the stories of women both well-known and lesser-known who have been engaged in politics in the UK and beyond.

The stories told in the book are wide-ranging, diverse, and often fascinating. This is an anthology that doesn’t shy away from the difficult topics, highlighting where the subjects of these comics have held questionable ideals. Many people may see the inclusion of Margaret Thatcher and question her place in the anthology, but actually the piece in question is about the fact she did not fight for women. Telling women’s political stories must include the less savoury elements as well. Alongside this, there is a focus on lesser-known figures and those often reduced to tiny notes in the margin of history (excellently covered in one comic) or silenced altogether.

It isn’t difficult to see that We Shall Fight Until We Win is an important anthology that engages with women involved in politics and activism in the UK. The short comics are moving and readable, making them an ideal way to engage people not interested or able to read a huge book about female political history, and the artwork is quirky and memorable. Once you read it, you’ll be thinking of more and more people in your life that need to read it as well.

A Station on the Path to Somewhere Better by Benjamin Wood

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A Station on the Path to Somewhere Better is an unnerving and raw novel about the aftereffects of violence and trauma. One morning in 1995, Daniel and his estranged father Francis set off on a road trip that is meant to help fix their relationship. Daniel’s mother doesn’t think it will, thinking that Francis will slide into his usual unpredictable ways. The further Daniel and his father drive, the more this turns out to be a trip unlike any other, and soon his father’s desperation and violence will be fully unleashed, and Daniel will bear the scars of these few days for the rest of his life.

It is hard to know what to expect from this novel when you start, but it quickly sets up the looking back on trauma and a tense situation that the narrator has obsessed over ever since. The story is not simple: Daniel tells it as remembered, but also with lies and bias and an intertwined audiobook that was engrained into the events. This makes the style intense and often visceral, but also musing on the impact of memory and how things are viewed by different people. The novel feels distinctive and unusual, menacing and focused on the description of the everyday English landscapes forever tied to violence for Daniel.

Wood’s novel is worth reading even if the sound of it doesn’t immediately grab your attention: it is more than its summary, an unnerving read that uses unreliability to depict childhood trauma and a lingering menace to build suspense for what must inevitably come.