The Sealed Letter - Emma Donoghue

It seems like I was one of the few people who didn't fall heavily for Donoghue's much loved and talked about book, Room - I thought it was clever in so many ways but despite the content it just failed to connect with me for some reason.
My latest Donoghue read is a completely different matter however - The Sealed Letter had me hooked from the start and I can see why it has been long listed for the 2012 Orange Prize.
The Sealed Letter is set in Victorian England and is based on the true story of divorce proceedings between an upper class couple of the time - Henry and Helen Codrington. Divorce cases were still extremely rare in these times (Donoghue writes in her author's note that in Britain between 1670 and 1852 there were fewer than two divorces a year with this rising to several hundred a year after the Matrimonial Causes Act of 1857).
The story is told from the perspectives of the three main characters, Henry and Helen and Helen's close friend, Emily 'Fido' Faithful a young single woman firmly behind the feminist reform cause of the day who runs a successful printing press in London. Fido and Helen come back into contact with one another seemingly by chance when Helen and her family return from Malta where her husband has been stationed for several years with his position in the Navy. Fido quickly discovers that the Helen she thought she knew has developed into a woman in a compromising position - she has a lover whom her husband knows nothing about and she appeals to Fido to support her in what Fido believes to be an attempt to end the illicit affair.
The story covers the legal trial that takes place after Henry Codrington cottons on to what is going on under his nose and petitions for divorce from Helen - drawing Fido in as an unwilling and at times helpless witness. As a legal thriller I found this book to be extremely entertaining but it has so many more levels to it - the unequal relationships that occurred between men and women of the time and the powerless positions women could be placed in if they did not "toe the line" and clearly meet all of societies expectations of them was clearly demonstrated throughout the story. The characters themselves could be frustrating and very unlikeable but that intrigued me - and the fact that the story was based somewhat in fact and meticulous research just added to its authenticity for me - a fantastic read.

The Translation of the Bones - Francesca Kay

The Translation of the Bones is one of the long listed books for the 2012 Orange Prize and another example of this prize introducing me to a fabulous author.
The Translation of the Bones focuses on a small part of the community of the Church of the Sacred Heart in Battersea in the time leading up to Easter. The book opens with one of the parish members, Mrs Alice Armitage, going through her weekly cleaning routine of the church:

It's beyond belief what you find between the pews, Mrs Armitage was saying. Coins and gloves you might expect, but socks and underwear? Hairclips, buttons, handkerchiefs, and now look at these, these perculiar white pills. She held out her hand to Father Diamond, who looked at it carefully and shook his head.

We are also introduced to other members of the church, Stella Morrison, as she contributes her weekly offering by bringing in and arranging fresh flowers and then Mary-Margaret O'Reilly, a young woman with a developmental delay who is fixated on lovingly cleaning and caring for a statue of Jesus when she falls from a ladder and injures herself. The injury to Mary-Margaret sets off a chain of events and even though the start of the book is gentle and unassuming in so many ways Kay builds the tension and the storyline perfectly. I felt real connection to these characters and their stories - each character is given their own air space that does not seem to detract from the other storylines and I felt the climax and ending of the novel were written beautifully. I rarely cry when reading novels but there were definite tears in my eyes at the end of the this one.

Tides of War - Stella Tillyard

The long list for the 2012 Orange Prize is a little bit of a mixed mystery bag for me. The list has made me feel as though I am on the far edges of the literary world ( being Australian will do that to you!) as I had only read three of the books when the list was announced, Gillespie and I, Half Blood Blues and State of Wonder and there were quite a few on the list that I had never even heard of. This usually generates some excitement - all of these new books and authors to experience! But for some reason (and I have read others saying similar things) this particular long list just doesn't seem to be exciting me all that much - maybe it is a spark to jump out of my reading comfort zone and try something new and different...
Tides of War was chosen as my first read only because it was readily available at my local library - and this book has already made me look at the long list differently. Tides of War is not usually a book I would have been drawn to so without the prompting of the Orange Prize judges I would have missed out on a reading gem.
Tides of War is set in what I always refer to as "Jane Austen time" - the early 1800's in Britain and also Spain where the Duke of Wellington's troops are fighting Napoleon in the Peninsula War. The book contains a number of key characters - each one has their own devoted story line and inner world as well as having various connections to and relationships with other characters. This large number of characters could have led to quite a convoluted and confusing structure but I felt each character was written so well and so distinctly that is was easy and enjoyable to follow them all.
The book begins with introducing Harriet, a young woman newly married to James - a soldier in the British Army about to be sent to Spain to join the fighting. From these two characters others are introduced, the Duke of Wellington and his wife Kitty are extremely interesting - given that they are actual historical figures and not creations of the author's imagination. The combination of real and fictional characters is another one of the strengths of this story - it could have felt so contrived but I was caught up in the story and the historical detail and could not really see any gaps between the two. The impact of war on both the men who are directly involved and the people who remain at home was conveyed extremely well. The changes that can occur within individuals and relationships because of war, trauma and separation was a strong theme and the scenes containing Harriet and James certainly brought this home.
I found this book to be engaging, entertaining, informative and rich in historical detail - and it has restored my sense of excitement in the 2012 Orange Prize long list!

The Land of Decoration - Grace McCleen

It is interesting that the cover of The Land of Decoration contains a glowing recommendation from Emma Donoghue, the author of Room, one of the literary success stories of last year. I'm sure there will be a lot of comparison between the two books - the main similarity being that they are both told from the perspective of a child living through a traumatic situation. For me though that is where the comparison really ends. Even though so many people spoke about their reading of Room as being an amazing experience I wasn't one its hugest fans. Don't get me wrong, I thought the child's voice in the book was incredible - it just wasn't a complete story for me. I found The Land of Decoration to be a much more sophisticated, better written and more completely structured book - with a more engaging over all story.
The Land of Decoration is told from the perspective of 10 year old Judith McPherson, a bright, creative, imaginative and resourceful child living with her father in a working class community in Britain. Judith's mother died when she was born and since then a very tenuous relationship has grown between Judith and her father based strongly around her father's belonging to a fundamental religious group who believe that the end of the world is near and that it is their responsibility to spread this message.
The main way in which Judith deals with her isolating and restricted life is to create her own world - the land of decoration - in her bedroom using scraps and leftover objects found around her house and the school playground. The land of decoration that Judith creates is an imaginative play world, or doll house and she uses the objects to enact stories and play out her hopes and fears. The land of decoration is also a way of escape for Judith - a place where she can remove herself from the distancing relationship with her father and the constant bullying she is subjected to at school. The land of decoration is a powerful took for Judith and it is through this play world that she discovers she might just have some real power to make changes in her life.
The author, Grace McCleen, sets up a strong premise for the story. Judith's situation is established well through her early narrative and is then explored in different contexts and through her interactions with different characters throughout the book. The struggles that Judith experiences in her life are deeply felt by the reader and there is a strong connection and sense of empathy built. The book also deals with broader issues such as poverty, economic inequity, abuse and the difficulties faced by working class communities when their means of earning are removed or reduced. All of this adds a sense of authenticy to the story as a whole and helps to place Judith's story in a wider context.
The ending of the book builds well - almost too well as I found myself unable to put the book down late into the night when I was wanting to learn Judith's fate! Overall an engaging and emotional read.

Whatever You Love - Louise Doughty

Whatever You Love was named on the Orange Prize Long list for 2011 but I see it has not made it to the short list. I'm not sure how I feel about that - I think this book deserves a lot of praise and recognition but on the other hand I'm not sure that it is "short list worthy" (whatever that may entail!).

Whatever You Love is the story of Laura, her relationship with David and their two young children, Betty and Rees, and the moment her world comes crashing down when 9 year old Betty is killed after being hit by a car.

This book is intense in topic and feeling - the raw grief being demonstrated by Laura following Betty's sudden death felt empathic, gut wrenching and real. I have worked with families in a hospital setting following the sudden death of someone they loved and I don't think I have ever read a piece of fiction that more accurately captured that intense grief and pain that is expressed soon after the death.

The novel follows Laura trying to function in her day to day life after Betty's death. David had left the relationship some time ago (not in an amicable way) and has a new partner and baby - Laura is still grieving the loss of their relationship and "perfect family" when Betty's death occurs. Laura is also focused on gathering more information about the person who was driving the car that hit Betty and exacting some sort of revenge on them.

It was this part of the book that didn't ring as true for me. I could certainly empathise with and understand Laura's feeling of wanting to gain revenge for her loss - but the way her character went about it felt a little false - everything in the book up until this point had felt so true to life.

Aside from this disappointment I still found this book extremely moving and rich - not an easy read in terms of the feelings it can bring up but certainly a rewarding one.

When God was a Rabbit - Sarah Winman

When God Was A Rabbit is the type of book you would be drawn to just from its title alone - quirky, cute and a little bizarre! The title is clearly explained in the course of the story so I won't ruin it for you here...

When God Was A Rabbit is narrated by Elly and starts with her birth in 1968. Elly describes the key relationships in her life, with her parents, a beloved aunt, neighbours but the two most significant connections in her life are with her older brother, Joe and her childhood friend, Jenny Penny. It is through these two relationships especially that we see Elly's life evolve and develop.

This book is simply magic - the writing is authentic and intense - I felt a connection with Elly at every stage of her life's journey and I felt the writing and events described related well to Elly at that particular stage of her life. The story was believable while at the same time having a sense of being somehow just out of reach of normality.

Elly's is a family that goes through some pretty eventful experiences - at one point I remember thinking "not something else surely!" but having said this - nothing ever felt forced or written in just for the sake of it.

I realise I haven't given any real specific detail of the plot and that's because I truly think this is one of those books that you just have to experience and interpret for yourself. I will say that I absolutely loved it - it had me hooked from beginning to end.

Starter For Ten - David Nicholls

Starter For Ten was recommended to me by Jackie after I had read and really enjoyed the author's latest book, One Day, earlier this year.

Starter For Ten is again set during the 1980's - obviously a time in history that the author has a great affinity for - and focuses on Brian Jackson who has just moved out of home for the first time after finishing high school and starting university. The book covers all those coming of age moments that occur when we start to become adults and yet still cling to many of our childhood friends, habits and comforts. The difference with this book is that the writing is incredibly funny and moving - making a great combination of laugh out loud moments and reflective periods when I could really empathise with Brian and the humiliations and conflicts he was going through.

This is an author I am really glad to have discovered.

The Outcast - Sadie Jones

I had read Sadie Jones' second novel, Small Wars, earlier this year and while I had some problems with it I was still keen to read her debut novel, The Outcast.

I'm so glad I did because I found The Outcast to be a much better book and one that I connected with so much more.

The Outcast begins in a small village outside London at the end of the Second World War when 7 year old Lewis waits with his beloved mother, Elizabeth for the father he hardly knows to come home from the war. When Lewis's father, Gilbert, does arrive home things change in their household - while his parents clearly love each other they are from very different worlds and Lewis starts to see changes in his life because of this. The close bond he has developed with his mother starts to be torn away a little by the new intrusion of his father into their world.

An event occurs when Lewis is 10 years old that changes his world even more dramatically and the way in which people relate to him after this occurrence affects his development and relationships into adulthood.

This is an author that clearly like to take on the heavy topics! While there are certainly moments of joy and happiness in the book it is pain and tragedy that take the focus but unlike in Small Wars I think The Outcast deals with all of this pain in a much more realistic and connected way. I felt for Lewis through the telling of his story and the way in which it was told made me want to reach into the pages at times and shake people who were doing stupid things!! I wanted to be able to affect the action - to me this is always a sign that I am involved in a book and I care about what is happening to the characters.

The Outcast of the title could clearly be Lewis but there are many other characters within the story who would fit the title perfectly and this was another aspect of the book that interested me - who wasn't an outcast in some way?

I loved this story and the way in which it was told - looking forward to her next novel.

One Day - David Nicholls

One Day is a book that was recently reviewed on ABC's First Tuesday Book Club - it is very interesting to read the presenters different views of the book although I didn't read the transcript until after I had finished the book myself.

One Day follows the main characters of Emma and Dexter, two people who meet at university in Edinburgh and although knowing each other vaguely through their education they only really come together on the night of their graduation - the 15th July 1988. Drunkenly they end up at Emma's flat talking until the early hours;

'I suppose the important thing is to make some sort of difference,' she said. 'You know, actually change something'.

'What, like "change the world", you mean?'

'Not the entire world. Just the little bit around you.'

They lay in silence for a moment, bodies curled around each other in the single bed, then both begin to laugh in low, pre-dawn voices. 'Can't believe I just said that,' she groaned. "Sounds a bit corny doesn't it?'

The book continues to follow the lives of Emma and Dexter on the same day each year and we see them follow their own paths, sometimes coming together and sometimes leading off in completely different directions.

I absolutely loved this book - I believed in the characters even though I didn't always like them - I believed in their believability if that makes sense??!! They were flawed in so many ways which made them so human for me - I cared about what happened to them and their stories. The book is painful and sad in so many places but it is also incredibly funny - both in some of the experiences of the characters but also the writing style and a lot of the dialogue. Above all this is a just a great story of two people living their lives - so simple and yet so effective.

The Opposite Of Falling - Jennie Rooney

The Opposite Of Falling was another one of my holiday reads, I had bought it based on two things - firstly the gorgeous cover but mainly for the reason that I had read, and loved, the author's first book, Inside The Whale.

The Opposite Of Falling is a quite an ambitious novel in terms of subject and geographic material. Ursula Bridgewater is a woman of the upper classes living in Liverpool in the 1860's. She has experienced the calling off of an engagement and is seeking inspiration for what to do with the rest of her life. Ursula feels quite different to the other women of her class and era - she does not feel the need to get married and raise a family and she has a strong desire to "do something with her life";

All her life, Ursula Bridgewater had been building up to something. She felt it as a bubbling restlessness inside her, a straightness along her spine that occasionally came across as terseness, but which she did not really intend. She was of the opinion that one really ought to do something with one's life, especially if one had the necessary resources, but she had not yet fixed upon what this should be".

Ursula begins to explore her life's purpose through extensive travel, firstly through the UK and Europe and then over the seas to America. It is this trip to America which leads Ursula to employ a young female companion - Sally Walker, a young woman who has spent the majority of her life in a restrictive Catholic orphanage after the sudden death of her mother.

Sally and Ursula are two very different women - in both character and upbringing - but their combination is quite magical and I wish they had been brought together much earlier in the novel.

Once they arrive in America Ursula and Sally meet Toby O'Hara who runs hot air balloon rides over Niagara Falls during the day but is also working on a very different flying machine in his spare time as a way of maintaining a connection with his parents who are both deceased.

The Opposite Of Falling does feel like a very different book to Inside The Whale at first - there are more characters and settings to fit into the formula so it wasn't really until half way through the book that I felt I was in a Jennie Rooney novel in terms of the story (or stories) of the relationships. However, even though it took a little while to get into it it was well worth it once I did - the second half of the book is beautiful and the story of the connection between the main characters and the decisions they make in relation to their lives is one I will go back and read again.

Small Wars - Sadie Jones

Small Wars was my first read while on holidays - in some ways a strange choice given it's topic area of war and trauma but the writing seemed to flow for me as soon as I opened it so I just kept reading.

I have not read Jones' other (and first) novel, The Outcast but I would be interested to hear from people who have read both about their opinions of the two when compared to each other.

Small Wars is set mainly in Cyprus in the mid 1950's during "The Emergency" when the British are defending the colony against the local Cypriot population who are wanting to join with Greece. I must admit that this is a time in history that I did not have much knowledge about prior to reading the novel and I thought the author did a good job of setting the era and putting a picture in the readers mind of what it might have been like to be a British Military Officer on the island at this time. The perspective of what a local Cypriot might have been was possibly lacking for me but I can see that this might not have been the main focus of the novel.

The main characters are Major Hal Treherne and his wife Clara, Hal has recently been transferred to Cyprus and he sees the move as a positive one for his career and job satisfaction. Clara is less happy about moving to an area of conflict and trauma with their two young daughters and her difficulties in settling in to the local and army community are well described. The scenes involving direct battle and gunfire are also well written I thought and the personal conflicts engaged in by both Hal and some of the other soldiers are also portrayed well - I especially thought this in relation to a scene where Hal sits with one of his men after he is severely injured - an event that strongly returns to him in many ways after the event.

Even with all of this excellent writing and background I still did not feel completely connected to the novel or the characters - in some ways I felt like I was reading a screenplay for a movie - the words were there but I couldn't always feel the connection. I would be really interested to hear if others who have read this book have felt a similar way or if it is just me?? As a mental health professional I have worked in the area of trauma and grief and loss counselling for over 10 years now and I know I have developed strong self-care skills in this area and I am wondering if I started to operate on this level of "self protection" as soon as I started to read this book and identify its themes??

Despite these thoughts I did think this was a well written, strong novel and I think I will move on to The Outcast soon.