For Review: 1Q84 (Book One) ~ Haruki Murakami

Why it took me so long to get round to this, I don't know. There are several Murakami reviews on this blog, and he's easily one of my top favourite authors. But, with a summer with nothing to do, why not?

1Q84 starts off as Aomame's story as she takes a taxi on her way to a job. A job that, it turns out, is a kind of assassination. Meanwhile, Tengo is asked to rewrite a novel written by a mysterious 17 year old girl. Okay, so what next... Aomame is unhappy with her life, seeks one night stands with balding men, and eventually notices that there are two moons in the sky. Tengo is a maths teacher who meets with an older married woman once a week, but is finding himself drawn to 'Air Chrysalis', and its beautiful author.

Book One opens on the life of Aomame and Tengo. Each chapter takes a turn at following their thoughts and actions - one with Aomame, then Tengo, Aomame, then Tengo. The stories start in parallel, but slowly begin to converge as the novel progresses. In the way that it is written, I wonder if Murakami wrote them in that way, or if he wrote each character consecutively before splicing them together like that. But that's just a writer wondering how another writer works. Probably, it came into my mind because the chapters don't necessarily mirror one another, or seem to always suggest obvious links, which is different to the apparent patterns in other novels with multiple plots.

However, as 1Q84 continues, both Aomame and Tengo find themselves asking questions of the same thing - a potentially dangerous cult community with various unknowns. Writing this review before reading the other two parts of the book means that for now I can only speculate, but I'm really interested to see where Aomame and Tengo's stories go, how far they can find what they want to find, and to discover more about how their worlds may or may not change. The two moons thing is part of Murakami's surrealism, but so are the Little People who are said to have great power, though no one can say what that might be.

So far, 1Q84 delivers what I expect, and always enjoy, from Murakami - quirky characters, the ordinary made fascinating, the inclusion of the bizarre, and some thoughtful, skilled writing. So far, so good.

P.S I will not Google anything further to do with this book until I've finished. Unfortunately, I fear that some poorly written reviews and a trip on Google Images has ruined some big plot points for me. Grr.

Harvill Secker, 2011;
Hardback;
329 pages

Atlas Shrugged in Just Three Minutes!

Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged is one of those titles that people often talk about reading, wanting to read, or even having been defeated by. Personally, it's not a book that I've read either. However, this video is fun, nice to look at, and summarises the novel in minutes.



Created by AcademicEarth.org

Teaser Tuesday: 11 June

"There has to be an end somewhere. It's just that nothing's labeled 'This is the end.' Is the top rung of a ladder labeled 'This is the last rung. Please don't step higher than this'?" (97)

 1Q84 (Book One) ~ Haruki Murakami 

Read this page today, and read this short passage over a few times. I like it a lot.

For Review: Pure ~ Andrew Miller

Another title that I was curious about after all the hype and the acclaim. I always get a little nervous about these kinds of reads, just in case I don't like it and I end up missing out on something that I'm sure is supposed to be quite brilliant. In Andrew Miller's case, I needn't have worried.

Pure was 2011 Costa book of the year, and a book that I saw tweeted and blogged several times over. Not only was it apparently (and actually) great, but it is about graves in Paris in 1785. The idea of history and darkness in France is sure to have me interested. Jean-Baptiste Baratte is a young engineer from Normandy who is commissioned to clear the cemetery les Innocents. This means living in the city, in close quarters to the dirty, stinking, infectious graveyard. Baratte hires a team of hardy miners to assist in the job, which later includes demolishing the attached church. Most of this book was read outside on hot, sunny days, but Miller still pulled me into a world of miserable filth and darkness. The graveyard, surrounding homes, and collections of bones is incredibly vivid.

But, as literary fiction works, the atmosphere was a means to gather curious characters, and a fascinating setting to observe their relationships. Jean-Baptiste himself is a loveable young man, for all his quirks and idea(l)s, so determined to fit into a place where he may or may not belong, both in terms of location, and socio-political expectations. During his time in Paris, he meets the charismatic organist Armand, with a taste for the radical and outrageous. Jean lives with Monnard family and their maid, all pre-occupied with the cemetery, and a bit weird. There's also a friend from his past called Lecoeur who helps to oversee the project, bringing with him various eccentricities. Then there's Jeanne, the sexton's daughter, and Heloise, a local prostitute. In short, Pure provides an insight into the interesting lives of all sorts of characters: it's very entertaining to read how those surrounding, and effected by, a graveyard can come together.

Pure was quality reading - well-written, characters interestingly laced together, a narrative working with multiple layers, all the things a good book should be doing. This was a compelling and very enjoyable read and, even finished, images of conversations surrounding the eerily dismal les Innocents graves stay with me.

Sceptre, 2011;
Paperback;
342 pages

For Review: The Juliette Society ~ Sasha Grey

NB: As you may or may not have guessed from either the title or the author, this book is about sex. There will be mention of sex in this review - if that offends or is of no interest to you, then just keep scrolling down the page until you get to the next review, which is not about sex.

Catherine is sexually frustrated. Her boyfriend is working long hours for a politician, rarely spends time at home, and when he does he is exhausted. Despite her efforts, Catherine feels increasingly alone, lacking attention. She begins to fantasise about her college lecturer, and learns from a classmate all about his secret fetishes. Anna introduces Catherine to an unknown, underground, world of debauchery, which becomes increasingly twisted and dangerous as the novel progresses.

While sexual desire is definitely the centre of The Juliette Society (the name given to one such secret sex group), the story is far from being simply gratuitous sex scenes. There are, of course, some pages where Catherine outlines her erotic fantasies in graphic detail but, when she does, it's told with Grey's expertise, and with a refreshing honesty.The Juliette Society, Catherine is thinking through her sexuality, fantasising about it in places, physically living them too, and reflecting on what it means, how she feels. The novel is a complex and understanding look at sexuality, rather than a weak attempt at flirting with the reader.
Certainly, Grey's descriptions of sexual acts isn't the shy and whimpering kind that seems to be the current fashion in the latest spate of 'erotic fiction'. Throughout

The novel is told from Catherine's point of view, so her thoughts and, perhaps more pressingly, her feelings are always forefront. As a film student, Catherine uses her knowledge to make sense of herself and the world around her, comparing and making references to various films. This was an aspect of the book that I particularly loved, and thought was rather clever. While I wasn't au fait with all of the actors/directors/films mentioned, it was interesting to see Catherine finding a way to connect herself with the goings on in her life. Of course, that in turn was a parallel to her own experiences, and the wrestle between reality and fantasy. The Juliette Society, while about the pleasures of the body, offered layers to think about.

Really, I wasn't sure what to expect from a Sasha Grey novel, but I did pick it up by virtue of her name being on it, and I was very pleasantly surprised. Grey has shown herself to be a capable young writer, and I'd be curious about reading more from her in future.

Sphere, 2013;
Paperback;
370 pages

For Review: Sovay ~ Celia Rees

I was a young teenager when Witch Child was first published, and it was one of my favourite books. A few months ago I was in a bookshop when I noticed Sovay, and thought that I might as well pick it up and return to an author I enjoyed so well before. Likely, I would have different ideas of this book if I'd read it a decade or so ago. But I read in the past few days instead, so my response to Sovay is from my much older self.

1974 and Sovay, her name taken from the ballad, is seventeen when she decides to test her fiance's loyalty. To do so she dresses as a highwayman in order to get her ring from him. When he gives it willingly, Sovay knows that she has beeen betrayed. She does confront her lover later, who claims that he isn't interested in her anyway, because of her father's ideas, and that he is suspected of treason. Sovay continues her disguise in order to find and rescue her father, and later her brother too. As a highwaywoman she is at times reckless, but filled with a desire to do right by her family and her beliefs. So far so good.

But then there are further implications, and eventually Sovay somehow becomes involved with an Illuminati ritual, then ends up in Paris, following the Revolution. Before all the extra complications, Sovay was exciting to be with, she seemed intelligent, and she knew she had to risk her life for her cause. Then handsome men are dropped in left, right, centre, and overhead, and Rees constantly makes reference to how stunningly beautiful Sovay is. Fine by me that she's beautiful, but I didn't feel the need for it to be mentioned over and over. (Though perhaps it should be said here that lately I've been lacking patience for women in novels who are drop dead stunning and sniffed at by every man passing).

The first two hundred pages of this book were great - lots of mystery, playing tricks to spy on people, a trip through 1794 London, and a good bit of discussion on political rights. But then the Northanger Abbey/Frankenstein-esque bit happened in the middle and it all got so bizarre that it felt like the plot was actually a little lost. I suppose there had to be some real villain character somewhere, and a need for her to be forced to France. Largely, I think I did enjoy Sovay as a quick commute read, but there were characters everywhere that were never mentioned again, and some odd bits of dialogue that seemed to exist just to push the plot on towards an end that was, to be honest, a bit of meh. I wouldn't not read Rees again, but Witch Child was much more compelling.

Bloomsbury, 2008;
Paperback;
404 pages.

For Review: Tideland ~ Mitch Cullin

There are times when I can really enjoy reading a book about weird, bizarre characters. Actually, that's quite a large percentage of my reading list. I can't remember who mentioned Tideland to me, where, or when, but they were right that it was the kind of thing to tickle my fancy.

Jeliza-Rose is eleven years old when her mother dies, and her junkie father drags her to middle of some Texan nothingness, to live in the old house where her grandmother used to live. Soon, Jeliza-Rose has to fend for herself, against squirrels and armies of ants, with only peanut butter and crackers to survive on. But she's not entirely alone, keeping counsel with a small collection of Barbie heads, each with their own personality. Classique is Jeliza's favourite, and together they go on adventures, through grassy fields, into the attic, to burned out buses. One day, Jeliza meets Dell and Dickens, two real people, but each with an eerie mystery to their awkwardness.

The dynamics of the relationships Jeliza-Rose has was what made this such an interesting read. She thinks about her dead obese mother, whom she was asked to feed. She thinks about her father, whom she loves, and how back in LA she got his heroin syringes prepared for him. Then there's her attitudes towards each of her Barbie heads - Classique is a favourite because she's the most beautiful, and the clever one. Cut N Style is nice enough, but she's completely blind, so isn't favoured. Many of the conversations that happen in Tideland are between Jeliza, and the characters of her imagination - be it the Barbies, squirrels, her dead grandmother's wig. While there were points when the vocabulary of the narration jarred with the age and maturity of Jeliza, the story is told through her innocence, and her lack of understanding about the world around her, a place where she is becoming increasingly alienated.

Tideland was difficult to get a hold of - I don't believe it's currently in print in the UK - and I had to buy it second hand from somewhere in the world. A shame that it wasn't more readily available, as many readers might not go to the same lengths to have a copy, and that'd mean missing out. This was a quirky, but subtlely disturbing book, and Cullin definitely succeeded in keeping that creep factor throughout Jeliza-Rose's little adventures.

W&N, 2003;
Paperback;
192 pages