The Hare with Amber Eyes - Edmund de Waal

The Hare with Amber Eyes is one of those books I have been hearing/reading/seeing lots of little tid bits about but I hadn't actually read a comprehensive review of the book when I picked it up for myself. After finishing it I can imagine it being one of those books that you either fall in love with - or you don't. I am definitely in the "fallen" category!
The Hare with Amber Eyes is the story of a collection of netsuke - small, ornamental Japanese carvings which were originally collected by a member of the author's family in Paris in the 1800's. The book tells the story of how the netsuke collection were handed down among the generations of the family until the author himself came across them in the home of his great uncle in Tokyo in the 1960's. I actually first thought the premise of the book sounded a little dull - how much story could there really be behind a collection of figurines??  It turns out - quite a big one. de Waal writes beautifully about the history of his family during two world wars, Hitler's rise to power and the persecution of the Jewish people and how the family hangs on to the netsuke, a final symbol of their wealth and prosperity. The geographic range of the story helps to make the book even more captivating as you are taken through Paris, Vienna and Tokyo.
The beginning and ending are definitely the strongest parts of the book and although some of the middle bits sagged a little for me I was still hooked by this story and the way in which it was told.

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.

The Winter Ghosts - Kate Mosse

I have had a bit of a hit and miss experience with Kate Mosse's books in the past. I quite enjoyed the first book of hers I read, Labyrinth, but the second, Sepulchre was not a great reading experience for me at all.

I still thought I would give her latest book, The Winter Ghosts, a go. Partly, I will be honest, for it's gorgeous cover design (if I had a dollar for every time I got sucked into reading a book through this way...) and also because it is quite a short book so I figured if it was not great the pain would be over quite quickly.

The Winter Ghosts is told from the perspective of Freddie Watson, a man in his early 20's who was, and is, grief stricken after the death of his older brother, George, in World War 1. The book starts in 1928 when Freddie is travelling around France after the death of his parents - Freddie is still unclear as to whether he wants to remain in the world of the living himself and it is a heartbroken, destroyed man with no hope who we first meet. During his journey Freddie has a car accident during a brutal winter storm close to a village where he seeks assistance. It is here that the real "action" of the book begins when Freddie attends a village fair one evening and meets a young woman by the name of Fabrissa who shares with Freddie her own story of personal loss.

The book reads very much like a type of fairytale or moral fable - the language and story line is quite simple and even the emotions and intentions of the characters are clearly described as opposed to simply being indicated in some subtle way for the reader to ascertain for themselves.

I noticed at the end of the book that Mosse actually wrote an earlier shorter version of this book as part of the 2009 Quick Reads initiative aimed at adult emergent readers. This helped me to understand why the book had been written in the way that it was.

This book certainly didn't blow me away but it was a nice, quick read.

The Luminous Life of Lilly Aphrodite - Beatrice Colin

The Luminous Life of Lilly Aphrodite is a book I could not ignore - the cover is gorgeous and tempting and the title evocative and intriguing - who could avoid the temptation? Not me!

I did do a little more research beyond the cover and the title though - there have been lots of good reviews about this one floating around the blogging world - The review from Farm Lane Books is one that I can remember at the moment and the setting of the book did interest me. I am always looking out for novels set in the early 20th Century and I am interested in the setting of the novel - Germany - during this time.

Lilly is born on the very first day of the new century but is quickly orphaned and sent to live in an orphanage run by the first love of Lilly's life, Sister August. It is here that Lilly meets her friend Hanne who will play a part in the rest of her story to come.

I have to say that this book, for me, was bleak - I did not find Lilly's life particularly luminous and I would be really interested to hear why the author chose to use this word. Lilly is certainly resilient and strong but life deals her some pretty awful hands. Just when you thought something was finally going right for her - it didn't.

I found the actual structure of the story quite clunky - the chapters didn't really flow for me and I thought coincidence played too great a part in the events and story line. Having said all that though, I really did enjoy reading this book - something about Lilly kept me hanging in there.

Maisie Dobbs - Jacqueline Winspear

I have never really been much of a mystery reader - I'm not really sure why, just haven't been drawn to them in the past. But I have been reading some wonderful recommendations in the blogging world for various mysteries and in particular Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear. I have been reading a little differently this year, trying different genres and styles of books I have previously avoided or just simply not gotten to - so I have decided to give the mystery novel a go.

I love reading books set in England - particularly around the times of WW1 and WW2 - so in that regard Maisie Dobbs was a great choice for me.

Maisie is a woman who started life as a member of the working class, she began working as a maid for Lady Rowan Compton and her family in the early 1900's. Her natural instincts for reading and learning drew her to the attention of her employer in another way and Maisie began to be mentored by Dr Maurice Blanche, with the support of Lady Rowan, in the ways of the intellectual world. Maisie eventually won herself a place at Cambridge University but this was interrupted by the arrival of WW1 where Maisie went to serve as a nurse in France.

The book starts in 1929 where Maisie is beginning to set up her own personal investigation business and it sweeps back and forth between 1929 and the past where we learn of Maisie's introduction to the world of investigation and her involvement and personal losses in WW1.

I did enjoy reading this book, and I will continue to read the others in the series, but I did have some problems with the plot development (which I thought was pretty predictable and simplistic) and Maisie herself.

Things just seemed to jump into place in terms of the plot - people were where they needed to be when they needed to be, people were conveniently met when they needed to be met etc... I found this a little contrived but I was able to see past it to still enjoy the story.

As for Maisie, she did annoy me at times! I was trying to work out what it was when Maisie herself seemed to describe the reason for me:

She knew she was out of bounds. But this was not new for her. She spent much of her life out of bounds, living and speaking where, according to some, she had no business.

This is normally a trait that would endear me to a character, particularly a female one, I love to read about strong female characters, but for some reason I found Maisie overbearing and bossy at times - particularly with her clients who she felt it was quite ok to order around!

I realise I am probably being a little harsh - and I need to place the character in the context of her times.

I also struggled with Maurice - jumping into Maisie's mind constantly with his little philosophical mantras!

But for all of these complaints I did enjoy the story - the setting in particular. So, I will give Maisie Dobbs another go but would also love to hear of any other suggestions for mystery books as I feel a little addicted now!