Her Fearful Symmetry - Audrey Niffenegger

Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger was possibly my most anticipated book release of 2009. I fell in love with The Time Traveler's Wife and the characters of Clare and Henry and I was so excited to see what the author of this book had come up with next.

I was in London on our trip in September when the book was released and I quickly picked up a copy (I must admit I was excited to be actually purchasing the book in London when so much of the story is set there). I finished the book quite soon after we had arrived home in early October but it has taken until now for me to write my review. A couple of reasons for this - firstly, I lent the book to my best friend as soon as I had finished it because I was eager to hear her views on it and I don't like to write a review unless my copy of the book is right beside me (is anyone else like this??) but secondly, I needed some time to digest my thoughts and feelings about this one before writing about it.

The book tells the story of two sets of twins, London based Elspeth and her sister Edie who lives in the USA with her 20 year old twin daughters, Julia and Valentina. As the book opens Elspeth is dying in a hospital bed with her long term partner, Robert close by:

Elspeth turned her face towards the door. She wanted to call out, Robert, but her throat was suddenly full. She felt as though her soul were attempting to climb out by way of her oesophagus. She tried to cough, to let it out, but she only gurgled. I'm drowning. Drowning in a bed...She felt intense pressure, and then she was floating; the pain was gone and she was looking down from the ceiling at her small wrecked body.

As a result of her death her twin nieces are sent a letter telling them that they have inherited her property and her apartment in London, right next to Highgate Cemetery, on the condition that they live in it for one year before they sell it. When the twins arrive in London they come to meet up with Elspeth's partner Robert and Martin, an agoraphobic, obsessive compulsive crossword puzzle designer who lives upstairs, both have an influence on and effect the lives of Julia and Valentina. As the young woman move into the apartment of their deceased aunt fractures start to appear in their normally closer than close relationship - one of the twins starts to imagine a life where she isn't tied to the other - and Elspeth herself plays a part in the lives of the twins.

I felt that the book started poetically and with great promise - the first chapter where Elspeth dies brought up so much emotion for me that I was almost in tears - but that is where the poetry virtually ended for me. I thought Robert was the most complex and in ways endearing character of the book but by the end I had lost all respect for him (as I think he would have for himself!). I did start out enjoying Elspeth as a character but I felt that the direction she was written into felt forced and unnatural - even for a ghost! Julia and Valentina were by far the most disappointing characters for me - they felt like cardboard cutouts for the entire story and while I felt I glimpsed moments where they had some character and depth this wasn't enough to sustain my interest - or my ability to care about what happened to them. The parts of the story where London and Highgate Cemetery were in focus were my absolute favourite scenes and I found myself reading faster just to get to these places in the book.

Two great reviews I have read about this book are from Jackie and Claire and some others that I have read have mentioned that you may need to suspend your beliefs in order to fully get on board with the content of this book but I didn't really have a problem with this at all. I am not sure if I believe in the actuality of ghosts but I do believe that an energy can remain after someone has died so for me this was not such a hard concept to grasp - I just don't feel that the connection between the characters was built up enough for me to believe in this particular "ghost" story.

Miss Austen Regrets

The BBC production of Miss Austen Regrets which showed last night in Australia was my third selection for the Everything Austen Challenge.

This movie focuses on the latter parts of Jane Austen's life - she is approaching the age of 40, is living with her elderly mother and adored sister, Cassandra and is in the process of finishing Emma and searching for a publisher for it when the movie begins. Jane's 20 year old niece, Fanny, is looking for the perfect husband and so enlists the support and assistance of "Aunt Jane" in her endeavours. As Jane and Fanny go over prospective husbands for the younger woman Jane reminisces on the past loves, flirtations and proposals of her own life and meets one or two possible suitors in the present time.

The script writer has said that she based her story on the surviving letters Jane sent to Cassandra and Fanny during this period and I thought she did a wonderful job of interpreting these letters into fiction.

The actress who played Jane, Olivia Williams (where have I seen her before??), was beautiful - she created an edgy, funny, moody and spirited Jane who I really enjoyed watching. I found a lot of her mannerisms and language to probably be a bit too modern for the moment she is meant to be living in but I still enjoyed watching.

The regrets of the title focus on Jane's thoughts about never having married - although I feel she may have had regrets about this at times (isn't it only human to have regrets about our choices in life at times?) I truly feel that her books and writing were her family and her passion and her true regret may only have really lay in having missed an opportunity to make her beloved family more comfortable which may have happened if she had chosen to marry. I thought the movie really captured the difficult situation Jane was forced into because of the time period in which she lived - her only "real" choice was to marry and become a wife and mother - a way of life that would have most probably ended her writing career which she so loved.

I spent a totally enjoyable hour and a half watching this show! Beautiful sets, costumes and photography added to the magic of the script for me. Do I think this is actually how things happened? No, but I enjoyed thinking it might have...

I now have 3 more selections left to read/watch in this challenge - do any of you have any selections that you think I should definitely add to my list?

Lovesong - Alex Miller

I am ashamed to say that I have not read any of Australian author Alex Miller's work before - I'm not sure why really. I have certainly heard of him and his work before now but they never seemed to jump out at me. When I saw Lovesong though it's beautiful cover did jump out at me.

Lovesong is the story of a story - or several stories. Melbourne based author, Ken, has just returned from an extended trip to Venice after the release of his most recent novel - a novel he has decided will be his last. He returns home to the house he shares with his adult daughter, Clare, wondering where his life will take him now. Ken then meets John, his wife Sabiha and their young daughter, Houria, who have opened a bakery near to his home. Ken starts up a tentative friendship with John who tells him about his story with Sabiha - how they met in Paris at Sabiha's aunt's Tunisian cafe, Chez Dom and how they built a life and a relationship together there. There is a lot of pain and tragedy to their story - I was completely absorbed in this - it felt real and honest and even though it had the potential to be quite melodramatic this didn't happen.

The structure of the novel sounds so simple but it is really quite complex as Ken retells John's story that has been told to him and we see John and Sabiha's relationship through both of their eyes and perspectives.

I will certainly be looking out for more of Alex Miller's work after reading this one - a beautiful story teller.

Remarkable Creatures - Tracy Chevalier

Tracy Chevalier is one of my favourite authors and yet I was so disappointed by her latest book before this one, Burning Bright, that I didn't automatically rush out to buy Remarkable Creatures when it was first released.

I did finally give in though as I was hearing much better reports about Remarkable Creatures and all the reviews seemed to indicate that Chevalier had returned with a great novel.

Remarkable Creatures focuses on the lives of two very different women living in Lyme Regis on the English coast in the early 1800's, Mary Anning, a young working class girl with the knack for finding fossils or "curies" along the beach and Elizabeth Philpot, a middle aged, upper middle class single women who has been forced to move to Lyme Regis with her sisters from London after the death of her parents and the marriage of their only brother. The two women are connected by their shared loved and interest of the fossils - although their reasons for this love are very different. The finding of curies brings much needed money to Mary's struggling family while Elizabeth seems more interested in the historical and geographical significance of the finds - as well as the way they cause her to re-think many of the basic teachings and beliefs of her life.

The story is told from the viewpoint of Mary and Elizabeth in alternating chapters and I think this is one of the main problems I had with the book. Mary and Elizabeth are meant to have an enduring friendship and connection but for me I was never able to fully believe in this relationship and the strength it was meant to contain. I'm not sure if this was because I had to keep changing focus from reading the story from each point of view - the women never seemed connected in the narrative and so I could not connect their relationship. Unfortunately I think this relationship is obviously one of the standing points of the novel and because I wasn't able to connect with and believe in it the novel didn't quite work for me - even though I did enjoy (as always) Chevalier's beautiful writing style.

A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian - Marina Lewycka

A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian is actually Lewycka's first published book but it is the third one of hers I have read after loving her latest release We are all Made of Glue and enjoying (but not loving) her second book Two Caravans. Based on my latest read I am glad that I have read the books in reverse order of their publication because although I did enjoy Tractors it was possibly my least favourite of the three.

Tractors is told from the perspective of Nadezhda (Nadia) the youngest adult daughter of a family who emigrated to England after WW2. Nadia has a virtually non-existent relationship with her older sister, Vera, following an argument that arose from their mother's death a couple of years before. The two sisters are reunited in some way though after their elderly father announces he is going to marry a woman much younger than himself so that she can obtain a residency visa for the UK. Nadia and Vera join forces to try and stop the marriage from happening in the first place and when that is not successful they work on ending it as soon as possible. They have good reasons for wanting the marriage to be over - their father's new wife is quite abusive towards him and I found these scenes particularly difficult to read.

Along with this story we learn the history of the families move to England and how different people in the family have different memories, interpretations and experiences of that history.

The book definitely has Lewycka's characteristic trait of combining serious issues with humour - I just found it harder to go over to the humour side in this book.

The Charles Dickens Journey

Without really planning it 2009 has turned into a bit of a Charles Dickens year for me. I have to say that university English study had turned me off reading any more Dickens but as I grow older I find that I am wanting to revisit some of the novels that caused me so much grief when I had to read, interpret, deconstruct and then write endless essays on them!
Earlier this year I read Drood and even though it was a fictional interpretation of the last years of Dickens' life I still found that it intrigued me into wanting to find out more about this author and his numerous written works. Other fictional works relating to Dickens that I have read this year include Girl in a Blue Dress and Wanting -both of which I loved.
In our recent trip to London I continued my year of exploring Dickens. We saw a wonderful performance of Oliver at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane - I thought it was a great interpretation of the story - with fantastic humour thrown in courtesy of Omid Djalili who plays Fagin.

I rounded out our trip with a visit to the Charles Dickens House Museum - the only surviving London residence of Dickens and where he wrote some of his novels, including Oliver Twist.

So, when we got back home I was in the mood to actually pick up a Dickens novel and when I headed to Borders I found one of the beautiful new Penguin hardcover editions of Oliver Twist which has come home with me. I now just have to move past my mental block that says Dickens = study and I will be able to start reading it!

Do you have a favourite novel of Dickens? Do you have a favourite novel about him and his life?

Persephone Secret Santa

I am only newly introduced to the world of Persephone Books but I am already wishing I lived much closer to London so that I could visit the shop on a regular basis. So, when I saw the post over at Book Psmith about the Persephone Secret Santa I was keen to jump on board - even more so when I saw that people in all parts of the world can be involved!

You have until November 10th to join in so head on over to Book Psmith if you would like to put your name down for the Christmas fun.