Tag: books

Himself by Jess Kidd

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The uncanny in an Irish village: Himself by Jess Kidd

Himself is a captivating novel, a magical realist mystery set in the 1970s in an Irish village that centres around the people in the community and secrets hidden in the past. Mahony returns to the village of Mulderrig to try and uncover the truth about the teenage mother he never knew, neither the living nor the dead seem to be much use in telling him what happened. As hostile locals oppose him and strange natural forces and eccentric inhabitants prove unlikely allies, he slowly discovers the secrets of the past and violence in the present.

Kidd creates a vivid world in which the uncanny blurs with the real, where the dead might be seen but they aren’t always useful, and belief and superstition might just have something useful to say. This element makes Himself much more than a mystery novel or one about returning to a small village to uncover the secrets of the past: it is also a tale of haunting, both by people and places, and about forces at work that are larger than individuals. Mahony is a typical mysterious good-looking stranger, one from Dublin who knows about the contemporary music and fashions that haven’t made it to Mulderrig, but his ability to see the dead gives him an interesting angle. The argumentative and outrageous aging actress Mrs Cauley is the most memorable character and Mahony’s unlikely ally, but the novel has a large sweep of characters as it depicts the interconnectedness of village life.

The combination of mystery, the supernatural, and a very human past of scandal and violence make Himself a gripping and atmospheric novel, enjoyable for fans of magical realism, literary mysteries, and Iain Banks in particular.

Little Nothing

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Little Nothing by Marisa Silver

Little Nothing is a story about transformation, about a girl who is a miracle, a dwarf, and a beauty, who grows up to be many other things. A cross between The Tin Drum and a fairy tale, Silver’s novel skirts the line between reality and allegory, leaving a trail of myth in its wake. The events and characters in the book fit together like a puzzle, using the fixed narrative conventions and easy coincidence of fairy tale and legend to create a story that flows from one section to the next.

The improbability and unreality of some of the events in the book may not appeal to everyone, particularly in conjunction with the more realistic elements and depiction of harsh imprisonment. However, Little Nothing is a treat for anyone who likes retellings of and new fairy tales and myths. Though lacking in the linguistic playfulness of transformation found in authors like Jeanette Winterson in favour of a more straightforward style, the novel blends the telling and enacting of stories to create a work in which fairy tales are both invented tales and reality.

#Burgess100

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Anthony Burgess, born 100 years ago today, is most famous for writing A Clockwork Orange, the violent dystopian novel with its own teenage slang – Nadsat – and an infamous protagonist, Alex. Whilst A Clockwork Orange is a fantastic and hugely influential novel, a lot of Burgess’ prolific other work is lesser known, so for the centenary I’m picking a few of my favourites. For more info on Burgess himself and all of his work, check out the International Anthony Burgess Foundation website (or visit them in Manchester where they also have a lovely cafe).

  • A Dead Man in Deptford – I am starting with Burgess’ final completed novel and my personal favourite, his linguistically playful and endlessly delightful story about the life of Elizabethan playwright Christopher ‘Kit’ Marlowe. The prose revels in the scandalous life of Marlowe and creates a vivid picture of the dark world of spies, atheism and controversy in which Burgess has placed him. Also the image of Marlowe singing an ironic song about “dis-cre-tion” in the middle of a tavern will never leave you.
  • Byrne – Published even later than A Dead Man in Deptford, Byrne is the story of a Don Juan type Irish composer and his many descendants, written entirely in verse. Burgess plays around with the metres in which Byron wrote Don Juan and Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage as he self-consciously rewrites the former poem, making the novel a treat for Byron fans and anyone who likes ridiculous rhymes and long comic poems.
  • Earthly Powers – I stray away from Burgess’ work on my favourite writers with this pick, a fantastic novel spanning the twentieth century and following the life of a gay writer whose sister is married to the brother of the Pope. The narrative weaves through famous events and past historical figures as Burgess deals with one of his favourite topics, Catholics in crisis. Plus there’s a lot about defending literature from censorship and accusations of obscenity, to which Burgess and his infamous A Clockwork Orange had not been immune.
  • Honourable mentions to: ABBA ABBA (like A Dead Man in Deptford but about Keats dying and then Burgess writing dirty poems for the second half), Tremor of Intent (a Bond parody spy novel with a hapless main character), Burgess’ two part autobiography which is great for realising that the themes that come up in all his books were genuinely all the things he was obsessed with in life too.

Nasty Women

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Nasty Women: A Collection of Essays and Accounts On What It Is To Be a Woman in the 21st Century by 404 Ink

Nasty Women is a powerful collection of essays about being a woman in 2017 and how this intersects with a variety of other elements of identity and issues – race, class, sexuality, disability, trauma – to create a diverse and changing image of being a woman. It is about sharing experience and shows the importance of having a voice in the 21st century, at a time of political uncertainty and prejudice.

This varied collection is the kind of intersectional work that there needs to be today, with moving, sad, and often funny accounts and essays about life as a woman in some way, but with an awareness that ‘woman’ isn’t a simple term and that gender and identity is more complicated than that. The book also makes a good introduction to a range of writers in order to find out more about their work and the issues they discuss. Short and engaging essays make it a fantastic read and a call to arms to keep sharing how ideas of being a woman in some way are interconnected with a lot of other concepts and issues in the modern day.

LGBT biographies and memoirs: sharing time!

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Biographies and memoirs are an important genre, full of insights about lives or about how other people view lives. And with that grand statement without insight, I introduce this post about biographies and memoirs for LGBT history month in the UK. Today’s post is not only a post, but an invitation to share. I’m starting off with some suggestions from me and then opening up the floor for people to share their favourite LGBT biographies and memoirs so that everyone can build up a nice reading list. Or feel smug they’ve read them all, I guess.

  • Close to the Knives by David Wojnarowicz – I read this the other day as there’s a new edition coming out in the UK (and reviewed it on Goodreads) so thought it was a good place to start. A memoir by artist David Wojnarowicz written in various styles and documenting his troubled life and the AIDS crisis in the 80s and 90s. A powerful, political read.
  • Prick Up Your Ears by John Lahr – Lahr’s famous biography of  playwright Joe Orton quotes from Orton’s diaries and explores the exploits and troubles of his life. It was made into a film in the 80s with a young Gary Oldman and is a great place to start for anyone interested in Orton and his life and works.
  • Byron: Life and Legend by Fiona MacCarthy – The Byron biography I recommend anyone who even makes a passing mention of him, MacCarthy’s is well researched, quotes primary material a lot, and, notable for the purposes of this list, does not shy away from talking about his interests in both men and women. And yes, she talks about the bear too.

Please share your favourites, especially those not by/about men (and mostly writers) as mine has turned out to be.

The Transition by Luke Kennard

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Modern day housing crisis dystopia: The Transition by Luke Kennard

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The Transition is a satirical and probing novel about modern day crises of housing, jobs, and life, and how an escape from your failings might be merely a path to further troubles. Karl and Genevieve are thirty somethings trapped under crippling debt and when the opportunity to go on a new scheme – The Transition – which involves living with an older couple and surrendering elements of freedom in order to learn how to live successfully, they opt in quickly. But what appeared like a quick fix to their issues doesn’t turn out as ideal as the blurb made it out to be.

Whilst comparisons to TV series Black Mirror are inevitable due to the near-future, technological narrative and highlighting of issues in modern society, Kennard’s novel is lighter and less focused on the technological elements. Instead, The Transition provokes thoughts on streamlining society, surrendering control to those – in this case an older generation – who know better, and how the housing crisis and overeducation issues could result in drastic measures. Karl is a blundering main character who is occasionally frustrating, but this really sets him up as one of the ideal candidates for The Transition, someone who does vaguely unethical online copywriting and essay writing and aspires no further, caught in a web of debt. His point of view allows Kennard to lead the reader through the experience of The Transition and weave a dystopian tale with a fairly ambiguous ending that leaves room for thought.

The novel was more enjoyable than expected, with a good balance of social issues and dystopian plot line. Its satirical bent makes it a lighter near future dystopian option, though it still highlights a lot of issues, from the inadequacy of the minimum wage against rising rent cost to the lack of relevant jobs for well-educated graduates. The Transition is a gripping novel that is perfect for fans of dystopian looking for something more recent or fans of Black Mirror who want similar reading material.

Man Alive

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Man Alive by Thomas Page McBee

Man Alive is a powerful memoir about the past and the future, capturing McBee’s attempts to move beyond the violence done to him in the past and work out how it affects who he is as he goes through transitioning. It is about being alive and seeing that life in the face of terrible things. The book is an exploration of masculinity, but also how to navigate a masculinity tinged by trauma and negative experience and still emerge with a sense of the man that it would be good to be.

Though the subject is serious and reflective, the style of the book is uplifting and well-written, keeping a kind of positive force pushing forward through the narrative. McBee plays around with the word ‘man’, punning on pop culture references and displaying how disparate and changing the term can be. Man Alive is an important book, the kind of memoir that should be published to celebrate life and provide a variety of models and inspiration for others who may or may not have similar circumstances.

Don’t Feed The Trolls by Erica Kudisch

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Battling the trolls under the (online) bridge: Don’t Feed The Trolls by Erica Kudisch

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Don’t Feed The Trolls is an enjoyable and incredibly relevant novel about online harassment, friendship, and discovering yourself even when times are hard. The narrative centres around anonymous male trolls going after a player on an online multiplayer game and how this affects the lives of various people. Alongside this, the main character realising some stuff about their gender and presentation during the fallout from this online abuse. The highs and lows of modern technology and the problems when online free speech turns into harassment are dealt with, but the novel also focuses on the ways in which friends can help out and people can find their strength.

Kudisch’s style is easy to get into and the novel was not difficult to engage with for a non-gamer. The characters, particularly the main character Daphnis, are vividly painted and form a crucial core to the book, making it easy to be frustrated and angry at the effect that the trolls can have upon them. Many elements of fan culture run throughout the novel, including gaming, conventions, and musical references, and these give it a modern and relevant feel not only in the subject matter, but in the world it depicts.

Don’t Feed The Trolls is ultimately an uplifting novel about how the internet trolls can be beaten and how there’s always space to explore yourself and your identity in order to feel more comfortable as yourself. It is exactly the kind of novel that is perhaps needed these days, engaging with current issues but also a light and fun read.

A Line Made By Walking by Sara Baume

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Escape to the country: A Line Made By Walking by Sara Baume

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A Line Made By Walking is about Frankie, a twenty five year old artist who moves from Dublin into her grandmother’s old bungalow in the countryside near her parents’ house, and what she does in this retreat from the world. Written in a relatable, immediate style, Baume’s novel is about loss, of self, of how you thought the world was, and of the grandmother whose home she stays in and the dead animals that she finds and photographs. It is about being in your twenties and feeling lost.

Frankie’s photographing of dead animals and her attempts to test her art knowledge through finding works that fit the theme of whatever she is thinking about strike a chord for anyone whose creativity or knowledge seem to be unable to find an outlet or are languishing away whilst their owner is unsure of life. The book is full of knowledge, about artwork, nature, and other things, and how knowing things cannot help against difficulties of life, loneliness, and depression. Details in the book, from Frankie’s description of getting caught obsessively smelling her old carpet to a reference to The Land Before Time to describe a leaf, help to make it a vivid and moving account of a relatable subject, feeling lost and alone in the world.

Comparisons to Olivia Laing’s The Lonely City feel inevitable, with art and loneliness deeply intertwined in both, but in Baume’s novel art does not seem to offer the same comparison or comfort that loneliness is not new, but rather a frame of reference for Frankie to try and cling to and use to create order. A Line Made By Walking is full of quotable lines about being in your twenties, being sad, and finding the world an overwhelming place, and it is a book to be savoured whether you are experiencing that right now or have done so in the past.

What I Learnt From Giving Away My Books For Free

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Any promise of free books is incredibly exciting to a book lover. Libraries, of course, play a vital part in the world of free books, as do borrowing books from friends and relatives. The casual words ‘oh, do you want a copy of ___?’ can create a momentary mental frenzy that may end up with accepting books you have no interest in reading. I am aware of these facts, and yet I was surprised by the response to me offering friends and colleagues some of my books for free.

I did it for practical reasons: I was moving soon and the small room I was moving out of was full of books, in piles and on the squeezed-in bookshelf and even less read books forming the base of my makeshift bedside table. My collection was not easily moveable. In addition to this, I knew I would keep getting books, because if my life so far has taught me anything, it’s that books will just keep appearing.

Weeding out books was fairly easy for me as I hate clutter. Anything that I was unlikely to reread and to which I had no ties making me keep it would be put on the list. It ended up a varied offering: I was just finished a Masters degree in Shakespeare and his fellow early modern writers, meaning that I had a number of drama collections to go alongside popular books of the last twenty years and Victorian novels and poetry left over from undergrad. I really wasn’t sure if anybody would want any of them. I posted the list on some of my social media, expecting a couple of bookish friends to ask for a couple and then maybe I’d take the rest to a charity shop.

I ended up giving away over 50 books. Coworkers from my theatre bar job asked for a wide selection, surprising me as these were people who I’d never discussed books with at all. I reconnected momentarily with old friends and coursemates who wanted things like the first Dirk Gently book and all of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women series. I posted off packages of free books and I lugged books around in bags to their new owners. I didn’t ask for anything in return (though one person gave me a bar of chocolate in thanks). What I ended up getting was a different kind of reward: book excitement.

People were very thankful. They seemed amazed when I responded to their tentative ‘can I have this book?’ with a ‘yes, of course!’. They watched in delight as I pulled out four dogeared books from my bag and handed them over to be forced into their own bag. I didn’t tell people of my opinions of the books I was handing over though I’d read basically all of them, but instead let them make up their own mind. All I hoped was that if they didn’t enjoy them enough to keep them, they’d pass the book on further. Surely all books can find their forever home somewhere.

What I discovered was that far more of my friends wanted to engage with free books than I had imagined and they were all so grateful for them. I realised that I shouldn’t assume what kind of books people might want to read or whether they want to read at all. The people who suddenly get excited at a book of Jacobean plays are more varied than you might expect. Anyone might want that recent popular thriller. And by giving out these books for free, maybe you can give the chance to read either – or both – to somebody who hasn’t tried them out before.

I would highly recommend offering up your books to your wider social circle, even if you only have a few you’re willing to part with. Not only does it clear space, but it can teach you things about the people you know and maybe find new ways to connect with them.