Tag: books

Heather, The Totality by Matthew Weiner

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Portrait of a girl: Heather, The Totality by Matthew Weiner

Heather, The Totality is an absorbing portrait of a girl, the way her parents revolve around her, and what happens when someone else is pulled into her orbit. Mark and Karen Breakstone have a fairly ordinary life of luxury which is fully cemented when their daughter Heather arrives into their lives. As she grows up, their respective relationships with her change, but they both continue to keep her as the central figure in their family. Meanwhile, a man who lives far away from their privilege will soon also be brought into contact with Heather, and again she will become a central focus.

Weiner, known best for the TV series Mad Men, writes in a distinctively blunt and detailed prose style as the narrative starts by setting up how the Breakstones come to be and then showing how their family unit moves and evolves. In between this, he cuts to snippets of the story of Bobby, a troubled young guy who escapes his drug addict mother and time in prison to work on a construction crew. The result is a surprisingly absorbing book that details the tiny elements of human life and how different people can become focused on one person. Heather as a character reflects the way parents see their own children in specific and personal ways, meaning that it takes until her perspective is explored to see how her parents’ may or may not be unfounded. Weiner uses these various perspectives and the minutiae of life to show a privileged life in its anxieties and successes, and what happens when an outsider lurks on the edge.

The plot is mostly understated, brewing arguments and thoughts, and its pacing is likely to feel familiar to those who’ve seen Mad Men, especially in the progression of Sally Draper in that series. There is lingering menace, but mostly it is a short and sharp novel about the small details of life and intricacies of family units. It is one for drama fans, not full of action but an intriguing portrait of a family that could be read in a single sitting.

If We Were Villains by M. L. Rio

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Fucked up friends, murder most foul: If We Were Villains by M. L. Rio

If We Were Villains is a tense and electrifying novel about a group of actor friends whose lives turn towards the Shakespearean tragedies that they have all immersed themselves in. The narrator, Oliver Marks, has just been released from prison after ten years, and finds himself telling the detective who put him there the real story of what happened. The story that unfolds is one of a rarified environment at an elite conservatory, where seven friends and classmates pour their souls into performing Shakespeare. When one of them is found dead, suddenly the line between life and fictional tragedy seems dissolved, and it isn’t quite clear who is blameless of what.

The comparisons with The Secret History are almost too obvious to be stated: intense group of friends immersed in one subject, death, a narrator remembering the past and flitting with unreliability. What is notably different is the narrative arc and pacing, which in Tartt’s novel is centred around covering up what has been done as they all fall apart from doing it, whereas in If We Were Villains, the questions are about what really happened on that night and whether the cracks were already there beforehand. Consequently, it has a more thriller-like pace at times, and it is hard once you’re near the end to not want to race on and take the final blows. The division into five acts allows for the framing device of Oliver telling his story, though that in itself is also a space for revelation, and the ending packs a punch.

The gripping and at times excruciating heart of the novel is the relationship between Oliver and James, which starts off as a clearly interesting friendship and doesn’t disappoint those who stay intrigued by it. Due to the structure of the novel, the reader is plunged into the world of the seven actors once they’ve known each other over three years, meaning that instead of seeing how they became friends as in some novels of this kind, the narrative throws you into their varied dynamics and shows how it starts to fall apart. As with other books about intense groups of friends at elite learning establishments (not just TSH, but Naomi Alderman’s The Lessons too, and The Bellwether Revivals to some extent), it is hard to leave the group behind after the final page as they are such an intoxicating and messed up bunch.

Admittedly, If We Were Villains was always going to be in my interests. Not only did I study Shakespeare, but the author did the same Shakespeare MA at the same time as me, so I’ve also seen the kind of people who could get like this, and the ‘messed up pretentious student friendship group go too far’ genre is one of my absolute favourites (see this post for more). Anyone with an interest in either (or both) of those areas is likely to enjoy this novel which weaves Shakespearean quotations into dialogue in a way that will be worryingly recognisable to some, and seem completely weird to everyone else. A solid addition to my favourite sub-sub-genre of literary fiction.

Quick book picks for October

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In this, the spookiest of months, I’ve got some historical gothic and YA horror as well as the next in the Hogarth Shakespeare series and some distinctive short books. As usual, links to longer reviews from the titles.

  • There’s Someone Inside Your House by Stephanie Perkins – A hugely enjoyable YA horror/thriller novel with a biracial protagonist. Perfect for teens and adults wanting to relive Point Horror and similar books.
  • Dunbar by Edward St Aubyn – I have mixed feelings about Aubyn’s Hogarth Shakespeare novel (and about its source text, King Lear), but the darkly comic tone will appeal to some and it is interesting to see which elements have been kept and changed.
  • All The Dirty Parts by Daniel Handler – Raucous and blunt, the Series of Unfortunate Events author takes on the teenage boy’s mind in this short novel.
  • The Ninth Hour by Alice McDermott – A character-focused novel about Irish American Catholics in New York, sure to delight fans of that kind of narrative.
  • The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell – This historical gothic tale about a widow staying in her husband’s old house is eerie and the titular silent companions will haunt you long after the final page.
  • The Book of Forgotten Authors by Christopher Fowler – A non-fiction treat to dip into, in which Fowler provides snappy short chapters on a range of forgotten authors, including crime, mystery, and more general works.

All The Dirty Parts by Daniel Handler

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A Series of Inappropriate Events: All The Dirty Parts by Daniel Handler

All The Dirty Parts is a short, sharp novel about teenage desire from Daniel Handler, aka Lemony Snicket. It charts the inner thoughts—mostly dirty, as the title promises—of a high school boy who is gaining a reputation, or so people warn him. Cole is obsessed with sex and has slept with a number of girls, and described them all to his best friend Alec, but when things with this best friend move in a new direction and then new girl Grisaille takes over his focus, Cole finds out things aren’t as simple as he’d made them out to be.

Handler writes in a distinctive style, giving Cole a clear voice, and the whole novel is written in tiny snippets, like thoughts jumping back and forth. He takes the conversational narration of Holden Caulfield, the frank and explicit content of Bret Easton Ellis, and his own serious handling of young people’s thoughts and realities that will be recognisable to fans of A Series of Unfortunate Events, and creates a brash novel with a main character who seems all too typical. Everything is sketched lightly and the novel’s pace is quick, making it easy to consume in one sitting, and the ending leaves the kind of ambiguity found in teenage life, unsure what will happen next.

All The Dirty Parts is not for everyone. It is blunt, it talks extensively about teenagers having and thinking about sex, and it does with a narrator who is no simple hero. Some readers will find it uncomfortable; others will find Cole too unlikeable, or too honest a teenage boy. However, what Handler recognises is that teenagers will always consume media like this—maybe by discovering cult adult novels with famously explicit content, or through film and TV, or fanfiction, or otherwise. By writing a novel that appeals to both a sense of relatable content and a desire for that which feels shocking or exciting, he is depicting teenagers in a way that could be insightful to both them and adults, whilst also being entertaining.

The Book of Forgotten Authors

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Find your new favourite author you’ve never heard of: The Book of Forgotten Authors by Christopher Fowler

The Book of Forgotten Authors is a charming journey through ninety-nine authors who are mostly under-read today though more popular in their time, with sporadic short essays in between the summaries of the authors and their major works and charms. The writers are mostly from the late nineteenth and early half of the twentieth century, though there are some older and slightly more recent ones too, and they span from forgotten women writing mystery and ghost stories to questionable taste comedy that perhaps ought to stay out of print. It is a book that can be read cover to cover or dipped in and out of for a taste of various authors.

Fowler does well to keep the book engaging, with each author’s chapter not spanning more than a few pages and the short essays only a few more. This quick pace makes it easy to enjoy, and it is exciting to come across an author you’ve heard of, never mind ones you’ve read (as a Byron and Shelley fan, it was exciting to find Thomas Love Peacock in there). On the other hand, it is a great way to discover new books to read, especially for fans of crime and mystery.

A few entries are a little uncomfortable as Fowler describes how the writers’ works are clearly problematic or very much a product of their time, but there’s others that are described as seeming ahead of the curve, precursors to more popular later works. He highlights how many of the stories written by the ninety nine authors have been made into more famous films and TV adaptations, another way in which the book can spark off recollections as well as new discoveries, and there are comparisons to popular authors and modern pop culture to help the reader imagine where these ‘forgotten’ authors might fit in.

The Book of Forgotten Authors is a clearly a labour of love and it is a great read for book lovers, particularly as a gift for someone looking for new reading inspiration or interested in lesser known writers. It’s a bit hard to read without pausing to search online for some of the books or trying to work out where you recognise a writer’s name from, but its short sections make it easy to pick up and put down as necessary.

Elmet by Fiona Mozley

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Violence and freedom in the Yorkshire countryside: Elmet by Fiona Mozley

Elmet is an unusual and captivating novel about family and place and the boundaries of society. Daniel is trying to get north, having left the home in the woods he lived in with his Daddy and sister Cathy. Once, Daniel and Cathy went to school and lived with their Granny, but then they left for the woods, free to be their own people. Their sanctuary has turned hostile, with the house built for them by their Daddy’s own hands under threat from local landowners.

Mozley’s novel is embedded in the Yorkshire countryside, a place that is Daniel and his family’s home, sustenance, and friend. The descriptions of it are raw and breathing, presenting the land as something not romanticised or boring, but a place of hard life and toughly-fought reward. The majority of the characters are poor and often transient or avoiding the system, and the landscape is shown as a place that can offer if not neutral then less established ground. Though it is a novel about family and countryside, it is also highly political in a way and steeped in class issues, with unscrupulous landowners ripping off ordinary people, and it shows one family’s attempt to live outside the usual political and social system.

Elmet is a raw and exciting book that should be read even by those who don’t think they like novels set in the countryside. It is also an important reminder that books set in the England beyond London need to be written, ones that show rural issues whilst telling stories of varied characters and lives.

English Animals by Laura Kaye

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English Animals by Laura Kaye

English Animals is a witty and emotionally gripping novel about love and belonging in modern England. Mirka moved away from her unsupportive family in Slovakia to England and is about to start a job at a country house with what she thinks will be a quintessential countryside couple, Richard and Sophie. She finds herself suddenly drawn into Richard’s taxidermy business and falling for Sophie as she settles into life at Fairmont Hall and soon the situation is far more complicated than her vision of the English countryside.

Mirka’s narration gives the novel an endearing centre, with her wry observations and longing emotion showing how complicated her relationship to the country is. England is a place of hope and potential belonging for her, a place she imagines settling down with a wife and maybe children. But from aggressive comments about her or other Eastern European people from those around her to Sophie’s stuck up and scary father viewing her as their lowly cleaner, she faces tension around the England she wants to live in. Mirka is a charming central character and the bittersweet ending feels fitting to the book as a whole, with quirks like her newfound taxidermy skills adding a distinctive and often satirical flair. Her relationship with Sophie, and indeed with Richard, is touching, and it is these characters and the messy web they create that makes the book hard to put down.

English Animals is an important novel about contemporary life that shows the perspective of someone who just wants to come and work in Britain and hopes to find a more tolerant society in her new home, but ends up with various kinds of prejudice as well as happiness and opportunity. It combines wit and satire with a story about love and hope, and ends with a fairly ambivalent message about modern life and England.

The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell

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Creepy historical gothic: The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell

The Silent Companions is a tense gothic novel set in the nineteenth-century, centred around a dilapidated old house and the newly widowed woman who goes to live there. Elsie’s short marriage is quickly ended by her husband’s death at the country seat he was trying to make hospitable for her, but when she moves there herself to see through her pregnancy, there is more for her to worry about than the hostile neighbours and inexperienced servants. Between her and her husband’s strange, awkward cousin Sarah, they discover the diaries of a woman who lived in the house in the seventeenth-century—a diary full of death and despair—and a strange wooden figure, a silent companion. This companion is not the only one, however, and they might be silent, but their influence scares Elsie to an ever-increasing extent.

The novel is written with different threads of narrative, with Elsie trying to recall her story in an asylum, her third person narration of the events she lived, and excerpts from the earlier diary. Through this, Purcell weaves mystery and darkness, leaving the reader wanting more with each narrative jump. There are plenty of classic gothic tropes to enjoy, with spirits, mysterious doors, noises at night, and unsettling family secrets on all sides. At times the story is genuinely unsettling, both in terms of fear and in the claustrophobic atmosphere.

The presentation of Elsie—a heroine with a tormented past and a present in which men seem to be threatening her freedom—is clever, combining sympathy with an uncertainty for what she could be potentially forgetting or misremembering. The position of women in Victorian society, particularly in relation to class, is near the forefront of the novel though not explicitly discussed, and the gothic heroine is one contained by men against her will. At the same time, the novel is populated by other women who are trapped in a position or have done bad things without realising the consequences, reflecting her plight.

The Silent Companions fits very well into the gothic genre and provides a suitably eerie and unnerving read. In atmosphere, it has similarities to Waters’ Fingersmith as well as older gothic novels, and its use of an additional seventeenth-century narrative both fulfils the trope of an older, inset narrative and gives a different aspect to the novel, showing how women could be seen as witches or as insane and hysterical depending on the century. Purcell’s novel shows that the historical gothic novel is a genre that will continue to live and continue to question female autonomy whilst providing chilling reads.

Exit West by Mohsin Hamid

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Opening a door on the global refugee crisis: Exit West by Mohsin Hamid

Exit West is a novel about migration, love, and borders, told through a world in which black doors have started appearing that take people to random cities. Nadia and Saeed meet in evening classes and slowly they get closer, but their city is unsafe, with bombs, militants, and executions. Soon they find themselves faced with the question: do they use one of these doors and end up who knows where, but hopefully somewhere better?

Hamid writes in a distinctive prose style that captures the pace of the novel as the characters move through a year, negotiating their own relationship as they search for where to stay. Though the book has an extensive backdrop of how the black doors and the migrating people affect the world and the very concept of a nation, the real focus is Nadia and Saeed and how their relationship changes. Nadia in particular is a gripping and sometimes enigmatic character with a strong sense of independence. Hamid uses the two characters to draw parallels and show differences in their viewpoints whilst also telling a more ambivalent kind of love story.

Exit West has an obvious relevance to the modern day and the conceit of the black doors and the difficulty of policing a world in which people can easily move between countries makes for an interesting premise. Maybe its messages about borders and humanity are a little obvious, but the charming and emotive style definitely compensates for this in a novel that is about finding your place in the world and working out who else might be there.

A Change Is Gonna Come

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A Change Is Gonna Come by various authors

A Change Is Gonna Come is an anthology of short stories and poetry by BAME authors aimed at a young adult audience. They touch on culture and identity in Britain and further afield today, using modern culture, alternate universes, and complex issues to tell stories about relatable characters. The authors are a mix of established names and fresh talent and the anthology is likely to be shared in classrooms as well as being a great read for teenagers, those who can remember being one, and anyone who wants to celebrate and enjoy diversity in YA writing.

A memorable early story in the collection is Aisha Busby’s ‘Marionette Girl’, which features a mixed race teenager with OCD charting the minutiae of her days, showing the frustrations of her condition as well as what makes her happy. ‘Hackney Moon’ by Tanya Byrne is a smart love story about Esther, half-Guyanese and half-English and in love with her female best friend, who meets Alesha at Rich Mix in Shoreditch and finds a place in the world. Byrne also uses a quirky, self-aware narratorial voice which adds a nice touch, commenting on teenage love and people being more than just ordinary. Nikesh Shukla’s ‘We Who?’ tells a Brexit story from a young adult perspective whilst looking at what happens when bigotry starts coming from supposed friends. And the emotional twist in Patrice Lawrence’s ‘The Clean Sweep’ can shock when it hits in a Black Mirror-esque story of justice systems and reality TV.

This is the kind of anthology to buy for yourself, for any (other) teenagers in your life, and for anyone who wants modern, diverse short fiction (and the odd poem). As the title suggests, it is full of characters looking and fighting for change, whether in their everyday lives or on a larger scale, and also dealing with a variety of things in their lives such as mental health issues, sexuality, and identity. Fiction has power, and this anthology is looking to prove it.