Book Reviews

JUST TO LET YOU KNOW: I now review books on my http://www.librarything.com/profile/HeikeM site. At least weekly, paper books and e-books. Please visit me there!

For Christmas I got a voucher for a special kind of spa treatment:  therapy at a reading spa. It basically means you get an in depth one-to-one chat with somebody about your likes and dislikes regarding literature, after which you will be brought a huge mountain of books you might want to read.. For as long as you like you then can browse through this treasure trove of words, with cups of tea and cake if you so wish. And you get about 6 or so books to take home. I added to that because the suggestions were very good and took 12 books home.

This wonderful little spa thing exists at Mr.B’s Emporium of Reading Delights in a little back street in Bath (opposite the Firehouse Rotisserie), a book store that specialises in translations (books from all over the world) and a lot of obscure, unknown authors. And that’s exactly my kind of reading matter. And one other thing – they don’t look down their noses at you because you like graphic novels (which I do).

Until now I have read 7 out of the twelve and I thought it is time to review them – because every single one so far has been fantastic. The books I took home are:

Penguin Lost by Andre Kurkov

The Cutting Room by Louise Welsh

The Mayors Tongue by Nathaniel Rich

The Little Girl And The Cigarette by Benoit Duteurtre

The Howling Miller by Arto Paasilinna

The Nightwatch by Sergei Lukyanenko

The Legend Of Sander Grant by Marc Phillips

Legend Of A Suicide by David Vann

The City & The City by China Mieville

The Amazing Adventures Of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon

Heliopolis by James Scudamore

I’ll begin with The Mayors Tongue. It starts normal enough, two narratives follow two men, one young and in love, one old, whose wife is dying. There lives become increasingly unreal and strange and send them on a journey or rather two journeys really, one physical to Italy, the other into the depth of their minds, where reality and fantasy merge and become a colourful magical woven tapestry. The language is beautiful, elegant and brought me so much joy to read. The tale told is touching, shocking, funny and warm and human. The love story is not really that, don’t worry, I don’t like love stories, so you won’t find that here, but an entrance into an enchanted world – not the happy childhood sort but the darker, adult one. It also tells the story of a writer and quotes his, fictive, writing which draws you even deeper into the strange atmosphere. This is a book for dark afternoons because it will lighten the room around you and make you feel good. It left me thinking about it longer than I usually stay with my books and smile as well, even though it is not your usual feel-good stuff, but the sort that makes you think “Oh, good, I am not insane at all”.

*

The next book I read is The Cutting Room an altogether very different kind of story. Here we basically have a thriller. There is no murder as such, but it is nevertheless a whodunnit of sorts. Even though you know who. Maybe. But not if. Or why. Or where. It’s all about very disturbing photos which might be the real thing or just a set-up, which are found in an old attic by an auctioneer of antiques. With that find the books leads you on a journey of discovery and dark passions. It is a very good yarn, drawing you in – there is just one little criticism: I finished the book in just over three hours.And that is usually a sign that the language is relatively simple. So, to sum up: very good story, compelling narrative but just a bit too easy to read.

*

The Little Girl And The Cigarette is an absolutely fantastic book so very dear to my heart. In a slightly futuristic land a man is caught smoking (which is strictly forbidden anywhere) by a little girl. His foulmouthed reaction makes the girl take revenge by accusing him of an unthinkable Crime Against Children. In a country where children are allowed and believed anything and adults don’t have many rights that means the electric chair. I love this book. The accused is a man who believes kids are just a step away from animals and need discipline and limits to grow into adults. This makes him already very suspicious. It’s a book full of black humour and shows us the stupidity and horror of the direction our world is going. The writing is clever and funny and takes you deep into this world where nothing is as it seems. Read it and tell me you haven’t had those thoughts, you weren’t tempted to shout at the little people once in a while. Everything we know is taken to it’s ultimate conclusion: rules, laws, the media….. Fantastic.

*

The Howling Miller is a modern fairy tale, a fable set in the cold and icy forests of Finland. Gunnar Huttunen turns up in a very small village, a tight,conservative community. At first everybody loves him and his animal impressions, the fact that he is restoring the old mill, but things soon turn sour when his wild howling keeps people awake at night.Concluding he must be mad the villagers then try to get him to the mad house and here his fight against restraint begins with only the local drunk and his love interest to help him. This story is brilliant, dark, humorous, clever, sad, beautifully written, drawing you into this black and white world with the only colour provided by Gunnar and his friends. Wonderful reading matter! And a very twisted ending!

*

The Nightwatch was introduced to me as a vampire novel and I declined. The book seller insisted and I gave in – he was so passionate about the book. And he was right –  it is a fantastic book, and not really a vampire tale. It tells of the Others, which have vampires among them, but that is as far as vampires go. It is about those Others, who walk the streets of Moscow. They are indistinguishable from the rest of us, possess supernatural powers and can enter the twilight, a shadow world that exists parallel to the real one. All the Others belong either to the Dark or to the Light and this book follows Anton, an Other who is with the Nightwatch, belonging to the Light. The Dark and the Light have a sort of truce in this world, because a battle would destroy everything on this planet. It’s a bit like the police, watching over each other to stop crimes being commited. There are unruly vampires, fledging magicians and a lot of people and Others breaking the rules. And the Nightwatch sets out to put the wrongs right, sometimes helped, sometimes hindered by the Daywatch, who are the Dark ones. The book is structured, there are three stories which come together in the end. It is an exciting read, thrilling, dark, sometimes horrible, sometimes funny. It makes the Others seem like normal people with unfortunate talents which prevent them from living like normal humans. On the whole it’s a Crime Thriller with a twist. I love it. And by the way – if you want to watch the film, do it before you read the book. The film has not much of the book in it and twists things around so badly, I hated it.

*

Penguin Lost is the sequel to Death And The Penguin which I enjoyed very much. And you should read the first one to begin with. It is about a man and his penguin in Russia, their lives and adventures, the russian Mafia, crime, gangsters, funerals, obituaries, frozen fish, little girls, heart transplants and death. The sequel starts exactly where the first one ended and brings all the unfinished business to a conclusion. And there are more gangsters, cremations, politicians, elections, little girls, gold, German shepherds and frozen fish.It is a fantastic ride on a very frightening roller-coaster and so much fun. Wonderful language as well and not so very big, so even if you read slowly – you be through soon enough.

*

The Legend Of Sander Grant is, as you might have guessed, a story about Sander Grant, who is no ordinary man. He is a giant from a long line of giant men. And it looks as if the line started in biblical times with the union of angels with mortal women. Sander and his father can communicate with the deceased grandfather, who is buried at the ranch. Sander discovers the family’s history and God is not to pleased about it – God does not like the giants very much. And so he lashes out (God that is)…..but here I have to stop, don’t want to spoil anything. It is not a fairy tale, but rather reads like a very good mystery novel. And it is not some religious clap trap, even though God and various churches and religions feature heavily – but there is no praying, no worshipping – none of that, God is just this very angry person the Grants have to deal with. And that they do, through Sander, in a fascinating way. The book is huge fun to read, the story quite exciting to discover. I recommend this strange little novel very much.

*

Legend Of A Suicide is the story of Roy, who’s father committed suicide when Roy was still a boy. That of course is something that will never leave Roy. Forever mulling over the act and the actions that came before, gripped by it’s memory and trying to escape the shadow it casts over his life by retelling the story of his fathers life he finally, with one beautiful, gruelling  act of revenge lays this dark ghost to rest. It is a dark, beautiful, bleak, colourful, clever, moving and brilliant story, one I had to read through without pause. Fantastic.

*

The City The City - wow. This is an incredibly amazing read. Imagine: there is a city. And then there is another city. But instead of existing side by side they are occupying the same space, the same time, the same universe, the same country – just not quite. You live in one or the other, you can cross the borders, with the right papers, but although you could, you can’t see the other city from your town, even though the other one is on the same spot as yours. You have to learn though, it takes quite some training to “unsee” the other city, but you grow up with it, so it’s normal. If you do “see” the other town or it’s people, or dare to step over into the other place you have “breached” and that means “Breach” will take you – nobody knows where to. Apart from that everything is normal. Including crime and it’s prevention.

There is a murder, the body killed in one of those cities, the body dumped in the other. The police don’t like that and hope that breach has been committed and therefore the “Breach” will take care of it. But no, the culprit has somehow made it legally over the borders, and there is CCTV proof. That means the police of the two cities have to work together, and the main character of the book, Inspector Borlu has to travel over the border to the other side, where he now can see this city but has to “unsee” his hometown. Brain fail yet? It is wonderful and strange, a little bit mind-blowing but so logically thought through that not once you question any of it. It is a beautiful piece of art and of metaphysics. It is a murder mystery, a detective novel, a strange fantasy book, a bit of the old Berlin and some 1984. The author is a man I from now on deeply admire for the strange world in his brain. I love this book. And I will read more of his.

*

The Amazing Adventures Of Kavalier & Clay now this is a book I won’t forget for quite some time. It took a couple of weeks to read – it has 636 pages filled with a very small font size, so it needs daylight and a lot of time – but the rewards are immense. It is one of the most beautifully written books I have read – and I’ve read a lot. The story? It’s about friendship, comic strips, Jews in a world domineered by Nazis, the break of comics into the adult market of graphic novels, adventures in Antarctica, escapists and many other things life throws at us humans. It tells about the escape of a Jewish boy from Pargue to America on the eve of WWII, of his attempts to rescue his family by earning the necessary money with his artistic talent: drawing the stories his cousin tells of the Escapist, a superhero who fights Hitler: his ultimate failure and resulting adventures, the friendship with his cousin that survives the war and more, the rise of comics and the fall after the war – yes, there is love too and so much more. And that’s only the story. The language used, the vocabulary, the turn of phrase – it is a huge pleasure to read and re-read. You will need at least an hour daily for two weeks to finish this book, but it is so breathtakingly delightful, magnificent, pleasing, gorgeous, elegant, perfect, exciting – enough! Read it and then you’ll know.

*

The last book reviewed for this page is Heliopolis by James Scudamore. Another fantastic read. Heliopolis is a vast city, including equally vast shanty towns – somewhere in and around Sao Paulo. The books hero, Ludo, is born somewhere in the poorest place of Heliopolis and brought up in the richest part. The book tells of his life – his unwanted job at a communications company, his adulterous love for his adoptive sister, his mother, adoptive parents – and takes us on a spinning, wild ride through this city, partly known from countless news/films/books, partly futuristic and on the way delves into the political and social reality of these shanty towns and their inhabitants. It is  a great pleasure to read and won’t let you go until you reached the end – and its surprise. It’s comical, poignant, brutal, mad and wonderful.