Jamrach's Menagerie - Carol Birch

Yet another book shortlisted for the 2011 Man Booker Prize that has completely blown me away - and, again, it was a book I would never have picked up in a million years if I was not working my way through this prize list determined to read them all!
Jamrach's Menagerie had three things against it when it came to drawing me in as a reader, firstly, it's cover. Without getting too technical, I just don't like it! I need a cover to be inviting and enticing and for some reason this cover does neither of those things for me - I would walk straight past it if I saw it on a shelf. Secondly, the title - again, does nothing for me (and even after finishing the book I'm not sure that it is completely right for the book). Last, but not least, the description of the book mentions a ship. I have nothing against ships themselves (although my rampant tendency to sea sickness does mean that I generally steer clear of them) but books set on boats/ships/life on the sea tend to bore me.
So, as you can see, Jamrach's Menagerie was up against some pretty set prejudices from the very beginning with me! But in the end I was completely won over.
The book begins in 1857 in London's East End, 8 year old Jaffy Brown has a chance encounter with a tiger that leads to his employment with Mr Jamarch, a local animal poacher, importer and trader. Jaffy loves his work with Jamarch and his contact with all breeds of animals - he becomes known for his animal handling skills. Jaffy strikes up a tentative friendship with an older boy working with Jamarch, Tim Linver and through Tim his twin sister, Ishbel. When the chance comes up to be a part of a mission sailing off to the Dutch East Indies to catch a "dragon" both Jaffy and Tim volunteer - seeking fame, fortune and adventure.
The front of this book has a quote from A. S. Byatt describing this as "One of the best stories I've ever read" and I think this captures this book perfectly for me. It is an amazing story of adventure, friendship, loss and triumph told with incredible skill. Birch's writing evokes perfectly the scenes she is describing - I could feel myself walking through the streets of 1850's London with Jaffy, I could smell the decay and rot of the alleys and the stench from the animals in their cages. Just as the scenes set on the ship had me feeling queasy at times with "reading seasickness".

I am now feeling so confused with my Man Booker Prize favourite! It seems that each book I read from the shortlist quickly becomes my favourite of the moment!

The Sisters Brothers - Patrick De Witt

The Sisters Brothers is another one of my recent reads from the so far (for me at least) excellent Man Booker Prize shortlist for 2011. This is probably the one book from the list I was least excited about - it has been called a "homage to the classic western" - a genre that isn't really one I would turn to by choice but this book may just have changed my mind...
The Sisters Brothers of the title are Charlie and Eli Sisters - two henchmen working for one of the wild wests powerful boss men, The Commodore. The Commodore has sent Charlie and Eli on their latest mission from Oregon City to the gold fields outside Sacramento to kill Hermann Kermit Warm (got to love that name!) for some indiscretion he has committed against The Commodore.
The story is told by Eli - the more gentle and reflective of the brothers - and it reminded me a lot of the Academy Award nominated film, True Grit, which I watched, and loved, last year. Like True Grit The Sisters Brothers is the story of an actual physical journey but is in some ways more about the emotional and psychological journey that the brothers take while on their horses. I loved the journey I was taken on as a reader and this has made The Sisters Brothers my favourite  2011 Booker Prize book so far.

Half Blood Blues - Esi Edugyan

Half Blood Blues is one of the books recently named on The Man Booker Prize shortlist for this year. Like many of the books on this list I don't think I would have come across it without that particular publicity and recognition - one of the reasons I do keep an eye on the various writing awards - whether a book wins or not is really inconsequential to me - I just like to keep adding to my pile of wonderful reads!
Half Blood Blues tells the story of a group of American and German jazz musicians caught up in Berlin and Paris just prior to and during World War 2. As black musicians in Europe at this time they have a lot to offer the cultural community but they are inevitably singled out as enemies and risks with the rise of the Nazi regime. Two of the Americans, Sid and Chip are introduced to Hieronymous Falk, a young black trumpet player being hailed as the new Louis Armstrong. Hiero forms part of their band and when tension in Germany escalates the group are forced to flee to Paris with the assistance of Delilah Brown, a talented jazz singer and associate of Armstrong's who offers the group the chance to play and record tracks with their hero.
This book strongly evokes a sense of its place and its characters - the language and dialogue feel particularly genuine and believable and the tension rising within Europe at the time is also found in the escalating tension between and within the characters. I am not a big fan of jazz music but in reading this book I found a new appreciation of the role it might play for musicians and audiences, particularly in times of turmoil. The descriptions of the impacts of the music on the characters was especially powerful:

It made even me sound solar. Hot in a simmering, other-worldly way. And all at once I understood what the kid was to me. That only playing with him was I pulled out of my own sound. Alone, I wasn't nothing. Just a stiff line, just a regular keeper of the beat. But the kid, hell, his horn somehow push all that forward too, he shove me on up into the front sound with him. Like he was holding me in time.

I certainly felt held in the time and place of this story while reading this book - a wonderful addition to the Man Booker shortlist for 2011.

Derby Day - D.J. Taylor

Not long now until the short list for the 2011 Man Booker Prize is announced so I thought I would get in quick with my thoughts on one of long listed books.
Like most of the books on the list Derby Day was a complete unknown to me - I picked it up with no preconceptions or expectations, apart from the statement across the front of the book telling me quite clearly it was "A Victorian Mystery". I had an inkling I would enjoy the book from the title - the sport of horse racing is something I have grown up with in Australia and even though things were a little different back in the 1860's in England the essence of the sport and all that surrounds it was still recognisable to me in the story.
Derby Day tells the story of several characters leading up to the day of the Derby at Epsom Downs. Mr Happerton has recently acquired one of the favourite horses for the event, Tiberius, as well as a new wife in the form of upper middle class society want to be, Rebecca Gresham. The acquisition of both have interesting back stories which are told with effect in the novel. The racing industry in all its glory and infamy is described and shown beautifully throughout the book - the betting scene and how it can be manipulated is a core part of the mystery embedded within the story. The characters are all vividly written - they jump off the page and into your imagination - I was sad to see them leave when I had finished the book. This book was one of the most interesting, entertaining and engaging stories I have read in the longest time - I enjoyed it totally and am now on the look out for more of Taylor's work.

The Sense of an Ending - Julian Barnes

The Sense of an Ending (can I just say how much I love this title!!) is another of my recent reads that has been long listed for the 2011 Man Booker Prize.
The book is told from the perspective of Tony Webster who as a man aged in his 60's is now looking back over his life, friendships and relationships - in particular a friendship he formed in high school with Adrian and his first serious relationship with a girl, Veronica, whom he meets and dates while in college.
This is quite a short novel (150 pages) and it is one of those books that you just want to devour in one sitting.
From the very beginning there is a sense of a mystery and tension building and even though as the reader you are completely in the hands of the narrator and how he chooses to tell his story he is constantly letting you know that he may not be able to be trusted:

If I can't be sure of the actual events any more, I can at least be true to the impressions those facts left. That's the best I can manage.

As the reader I felt I was reminiscing along with Tony - as he is going back through his memories I had a small sense of feeling as though I could have been there too - I think this is the skill of the author in constructing a story that moves and grows through the reading of it. The concept of time and how it is used, how it is remembered and how it moves is a big theme of this novel. Tony reflects on this quite a lot, one of my favourite paragraphs is this:

But time...how time first grounds us and then confounds us. We thought we were being mature when we were only being safe. We imagined we were being responsible but were only being cowardly. What we called realism turned out to be a way of avoiding things rather than facing them. Time... give us enough time and our best-supported decisions will seem wobbly, our certainties whimsical.

The ending of Tony's story is what the book is building to - and I have to say I did not see it coming, I was too caught up in the narrative itself. When I had finished the book I was in shock - I couldn't believe such a small book where seemingly not a lot of action took place could have such an impact on me!

The Stranger's Child - Alan Hollinghurst

I have not read any of Hollinghurst’s work before so I came to The Stranger’s Child as a complete novice to his writing.

The Stranger’s Child has been long listed for the 2011 Man Booker Prize and already is quite a favourite to take out the prize with Hollinghurst’s previous best seller The Line of Beauty already taking out that award.
For me this book had the advantage of primarily being set in England in the period just before and just after WW1 – a favourite area of reading history for me. It also had plenty of descriptions of gorgeous English countryside homes and manors, costumes and habits so I was pretty much satisfied with the inclusion of those aspects! The story hinges on strong characterisation. I can honestly say that I didn’t really like or warm to any of the characters in the book – but I loved reading about them all. One of the main characters, although he remains physically distant or removed for most of the book, is Cecil Valance, a vivacious society man of the time with a talent for writing poetry and making people, both male and female, fall hopelessly in love with him. As a young man Cecil is rather full of himself – we don’t really get the chance to see how this trait will develop or change into the future which means that Cecil’s character is forever set by the memories of his friends and family. This is shown throughout the book by introducing several characters who are intent on writing a history or biography of Cecil and telling their own truths in the process.
The book is structured and told around specific times in the history of the characters and this means that the author jumps many years between each section of the narrative. I didn’t feel lost however as I felt each section was detailed enough to allow me to work out what had taken place in the intervening years that are not actually written about.
I really enjoyed reading this book although at the end of it I am left with the feeling that I haven’t really “got it”. The message I have taken away from my reading is one of the different types of truths that can exist simultaneously – there is no one right memory in existence – and how this fact can impact on different people. Also, the power of memory and how it can be constructed or deconstructed according to the needs or wants of the person remembering. For me this book was about the characters, the story itself was incidental and was more a tool for allowing the characters to come to light.

Amsterdam - Ian McEwan

I didn't have a lot of time to devote to reading over the past weekend so I was on the look out for a sharp, quick read that would hold my interest and satisfy my lust for a good story.

Amsterdam was the perfect choice! The only other book by McEwan I have read is Atonement - which I think is a wonderful book in so many ways but for some reason I have never read another novel of his up until now (maybe I was afraid another book would ruin the image of almost perfection I had for his writing??).

Amsterdam starts off with two old friends, Clive and Vernon, attending the funeral of another one of their long time friends - and lover to both of the men at various stages in their lives - Molly.

The funeral scene enables McEwan to set up the history of the friendships and the relationships between these three characters and others who have been a part of their history and present.

Clive is a composer about to finalise a symphony he is writing to celebrate the upcoming millennium and Vernon is a newspaper editor - both men are successful in their careers and clearly see their professional roles as a defining part of who they are.

Throughout the novel both Clive and Vernon's careers - and their dedication to them - will come into question as they are both placed in the position of making two very different moral decisions that will impact on their careers, and subsequently, their lives.

I found this book gripping - I think McEwan has a fantastic ability to write the inner minds of characters in such a way as to make you feel you are in their space with them. Reading other reviews of this book it seems that many readers were not happy or convinced by the ending of this book - and if I was being completely honest I would probably have to agree with most of them but the way that McEwan draws you in to this story made it virtually impossible for me not to stay with him right until the very end. That's the sign of a brilliant story teller for me.

I'm definitely on the look out for more McEwan reading now - can you tell me where you think I should look next?

Room - Emma Donoghue

Room is a novel that has been receiving a lot of praise and interest lately - not least because it has been short listed for the 2010 Man Booker Prize.

The premise of the book is definitely intriguing - a 5 year old boy, Jack, and his mother (Ma) are imprisoned in a small room that measures eleven feet by eleven feet - it is the only world and life that Jack has ever known and his language and ideas demonstrate this;

We have a pretty busy morning, First we undo Pirate Ship that we made last week and turn it into Tank. Balloon is the driver, she used to be as big as Ma's head and pink and fat, now she's small like my fist only red and wrinkly. We only blow up one when it's the first of a month, so we can't make Balloon a sister till it's April. Ma plays with Tank too but not as long. She gets sick of things fast, it's from being an adult.

Monday is laundry day, we get into Bath with socks, underwears, my gray pants that ketchup squirted on, the sheets and dish towels, and we squish all the dirt out. Ma hots Thermostat way up for the drying, she pulls Clothes Horse out from beside Door and stands him open and I tell him to be strong.

Donoghue has done an amazing job of creating and portraying Jack's voice and his world - I believed in the existence of this child and his narrow view of what the world is.

The book is unbelievably powerful and affecting - how could it not be when it is written so well? I was captured by it but at the same time annoyed by it! I believed in Jack's voice and his story but it was actually Ma that I wanted to hear more from - maybe because I am an adult with no children of my own it was the adult voice that I wanted to hear more of in the story?? The book certainly does focus on the experiences of Ma too - but is always through Jack's eyes, voice and language. This certainly doesn't take away from the brilliance of the book - I guess my reading focus just wanted the other side of the story more so I felt a little frustrated that this did not come through. Having said that though this is really my only (very personal and selfish!) critique of the book - it is an amazing story that is deserving of all the positive attention it has been receiving.

Trespass - Rose Tremain

I feel so lucky in my reading choices lately - virtually every book I have been picking up I have been connecting with straight away and just loving (it has been difficult to put the books down and keep turning up for work each day really!). I largely have to thank the Man Booker Prize 2010 long list for my reading success of late as most of my reading has been coming from this selection with the latest fantastic read being Trespass by Rose Tremain.

Trespass is set mainly in the Cérvennes region of Southern France (not an area I have ever been to physically but through Tremain's brilliant descriptions I certainly feel as though I have been there, at least in spirit, now).

Aramon Lunel is a lonely alcoholic man who is haunted by the deeds and memories of his past life and is looking to sell his family farmhouse and land - the Mas Lunel. Aramon's sister, Audren lives in a small bungalow on a piece of the family land given to her by her father when he died and she is devastated and terrified by the thought of the property being sold into a strangers hands.

The possible stranger in question is Anthony Verey, a wealthy English man who is trying to escape some failures in his life in London by moving to France to be closer to his beloved sister, Veronica or "V". Anthony is staying with V and her partner Kitty - who makes little secret of the fact that she can't stand Anthony (and in particular the focus he takes away from her in the eyes of Veronica) and it is in this context that Anthony starts to look for his own property and comes to the Mas Lunel through a real estate agent.

The two brother and sister combinations in the novel are explored through their past and current relationships with each other and their parents - particularly their mothers. The idea of trespass is explored through the many different ways in which a trespass can occur - against a person, their body, their land, their ideas, their relationships and their future - I thought the weaving of the title and the theme of trespass was woven so well throughout the whole book.

This novel was above all else for me a wonderful story of characters and how the choices they make - and the choices that are made for them - can affect their whole lives. I was brought into the story from the very beginning but I did not see just how complex and interwoven the story would become at that time. I thought that the book was clever, shocking and absorbing and I was sad to finish it - I am definitely on the lookout for more Rose Tremain books now - any suggestions for where to go next?

The Slap - Christos Tsiolikas

The Slap has already won a stack of prizes and awards and most recently was named on the Man Booker Prize Long List for 2010. The book has also generated a lot of discussion amongst Australian readers, bloggers and literary critics and some of my close friends have read the book and have had very strong views on it - but despite all of this I still hadn't read The Slap myself. I've changed all that now though and I am so glad!

The Slap literally starts with a slap. A group of friends and family are gathered in a Melbourne suburban backyard for a BBQ, a children's game of cricket turns feisty and one of the adults slaps a young child who is not his own. From this action we continue to follow the group as they return to their own homes and carry on with their lives.

The book is told in the voices of different characters in alternate chapters and I felt this was a great narrative technique for this book as it helped us see the event at the BBQ from the viewpoint of different players such as the "slapper" himself, the child's mother, the family whose house the BBQ took place at etc...

This book is so rich in detail and characterisation - I felt each character in this book could have been fleshed out even further and had a book devoted just to them. The suburban world is created fully and I felt as though I could walk down the street the next day and run into any of these characters - they felt that alive and real.

The story itself was brilliant - such a simple concept in many ways but it is so complex in the thoughts, views, opinions and emotions it raises in the characters - and readers. This is a book that stayed with me even when I wasn't reading it - and it has definitely stayed with me now that I have finished it. For me, The Slap deserves all of the praise that has come its way - I can't wait to read more from this author.

The Betrayal - Helen Dunmore

The Betrayal is one of the books long listed for this years Man Booker Prize and is the follow up book to The Siege which I read a couple of weeks ago. It has been said that you can read the books out of order or one without the other but I don't think it is only my tendency to obsessive reading patterns that has me saying you should read The Siege first and then The Betrayal - I think they compliment each other so well and I think you would be disappointed if you read them in the other order (at least I know I would have been). Just to let you know that the following review may give away some plot details which you may prefer not to know if you haven't read the books as yet but are planning to.

The Betrayal starts a little while after the end of The Siege in 1952 - the siege of Leningrad is over and families are trying to rebuild their lives in the midst of the terrors and uncertainties of the Stalin regime.

The Betrayal again focuses on the characters of Anna and Andrei who have now married and are together taking care of Anna's 16 year old brother, Kolya. Andrei is working as a doctor in a local hospital and it is in this role that he comes across a young boy with a possibly serious medical condition - nothing really out of the ordinary except for the fact that this boy is the son of one of the highest ranking members of the secret police - a man who is known and feared.

It did take me a lot longer to become engaged with this book than I did with The Siege - I think the main reason for this is that The Siege really focused on Anna's telling of her story whereas The Betrayal begins by focusing a lot more on Andrei's story and experiences being told more from his point of view. There was nothing wrong with this - in fact this is where the focus of this particular story needed to be - I was just expecting more from Anna to begin with.

Once I became involved in the story though I was hooked - again it is a beautifully written and expressed story. My only critique would have to be about the final short chapter of the book - in my view it wasn't needed and I wish the story had ended at the end of the second last chapter instead.

But this is really only a minor complaint - this book and the stories of the characters held my interest and has me now looking for more - not sure that this will be forthcoming??

The Siege - Helen Dunmore

I was led to reading The Siege after the Longlist for the 2010 Man Booker Prize was announced and the follow up book to The Siege, The Betrayal, was nominated.

I am certainly not intending to read all of the books on the Longlist although I do find prize lists really handy in helping to discover new reads that otherwise would have remained unread. The Betrayal caught my eye as a book I would be interested in as World War 2 and the period just before and after it has always been a time in history I have been strongly interested in. I'm not sure why really, I did study that period at school and my dad has always been interested in it too so maybe that is enough to continue to spark my interest. Anyway, me being the obsessive person that I am - I couldn't read The Betrayal knowing that there was a prequel out there - it had to be read first.

Which leads to The Siege - one of the most amazing and incredibly well written novels I have ever read - let alone one that focuses on this time in history.

The Siege covers the period in Leningrad just before and during the German siege of the city when so many people died from starvation and disease. The book takes a broad focus on the city at times but the main way in which the story is told is through the eyes of one family who are struggling to survive physically and psychologically through this period.

Anna is a young woman caring for her younger brother, father and her father's lover as well as starting a new and tentative relationship with a doctor, Andrei, and we follow her as she attempts to find items of food on the ever decreasing rations available as well as heating their apartment and fighting of sickness during the cruel Leningrad winter - it is quite literally a story of survival.

The book is stark and brutal - the descriptions of the hunger and struggles feel so real and frightening and yet they are told simply with little drama or showiness;

The streets are almost empty. She passes the hump of a body frozen into a doorway, covered with drifted snow. It looks like a bag of rubbish, but Anna knows it's a body because she saw it before the snow hid it. It's an old woman. Maybe she stopped to rest on the way back from fetching her ration. Anna doesn't like going past the park anymore. There are people sitting on benches, swathed in snow, planted like bulbs to wait for spring. They stay there day after day. No one comes to take them away.

The book was honest and tough - it is telling a story of what must have been an unbelievably hard time to live through and survive and I appreciated that the author did not try to sugar coat the story in anyway - I felt so connected to Anna and I was hanging in there with her until the very end. I have now started The Betrayal - despite the tragedy and darkness these are such compelling books to read.