After Wintersmith I started reading Tokyo cancelled, by Rana Dasgupta. I’m afraid it’s been added to the “unfinished” list. The basic premise is a group of passengers are stranded in an airport overnight due to bad weather. They end up telling each other stories. Sounds like it could be good, and I’d read a good review of it. I’ve got through the first 3 stories and it still hasn’t really grabbed me. The stories feel a bit olde-worlde folk-taley but also contemporary, if that makes any sense. I’m not sure if there’s really anything wrong with the writing. It just hasn’t grabbed me.
I recently read Terry Pratchett’s latest discworld novel Wintersmith. It was good, and well worth reading if you’re a discworld fan. But to be honest, I felt it was lacking a little something special. Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg and Tiffany Aching all feature as do the Nac Mac Feegle. All of whom are great characters and well worth reading about. The new “character” for the story is the Wintersmith. He’s a sort of god, or technically an elemental. He’s basically responisble for killing off summer each year & bringing on winter. Through a momentary lapse, Tiffany encounters the Wintersmith and he pursues her through the book. Like I said, good. Read it if you like discworld. If you haven’t read discworld books, I’m not sure that I’d make this my first. I don’t want to make this review sound bad, I just have expectations of something extra special from Pratchett and it just felt a bit more like a continuing saga.
A particular highlight though, for those familiar with the Nac Mac Feegle and also with Terry Pratchett’s recent picture book, was Rob Anybody trying to read a whole book: “Where’s mah coo? Is that mah coo? It gaes ‘cluck’! It is a … a … chicken! It is no’ mah coo! (if you are not familar with the Nac Mac Feegle, just try reading that with a Scottish accent”
I’ve just finished DBC Peirre’s Ludmila’s broken English. Given that I really liked his Booker winning first book Vernon God Little, I had high hopes for Ludmila. Unfortunately it didn;t live up to my expectations.
Like he did in Vernon, Pierre set his story in a world that is virtually the same as ours but he allows a few fantastical things to happen. Blair and Bunny are the world first conjoined twins to be surgically seperated as adults. They have lived their entire lives in an institution but when the health service is privatised they are “released” into society for a period. Blair is keen to get on with life, power on, succeed, and have sex. Bunny is convinced they will be bcak in the home before long.
Meanwhile, in eastern Europe Ludmila and her family struggle to survive while civil war rages around them. An odd series of events sees them broke, living in a tiny shack, Ludmila’s dead grandfather still in the bedroom, her plans of ascaping to the west in tatters and the family being bribed by a communist party official.
These two stories do intersect and I won’t tell you much about how that happens in case you want to read it for yourself.
For me, the story felt to driven by plot. Too often it jumped ahead and left me feeling like a few pages had been left out of the book. I couldn’t always make sense of why a character took a particular step, some of the build up was missing. It seemed as though Pierre knew where he wanted the story to go and dragged the characters there whether they were ready or not.
Having said that, there was enough about the story to keep me reading. Just. It was quirky and at times had a very bittersweet feel. Some situations left me unsure whether to enjoy the quirky setting, or to feel sad for the dire situation of the characters.
The ending was certainly unexpected and a bit brutal, but also contained a couple of little ironic twists.
So, read it if you want to. I certainly wont try to talk you out of it, but there are plenty of better books around. If you haven’t read Vernon God Little, maybe try that instead.
I’m off now to read the new Pratchett.
A bit quiet here lately. At least that’s how it may appear on the blog. Mrs Bookboy (carrying unborn bookboy jnr) has been in hospital for a few days but is now home resting. The second last essay of my masters is due in 3 days, then the race is on the finish my last essay before bookboy jnr arrives.
I’ll try to keep the news coming through, but it might continue to be a little quiet.
Straight from www.manbookerprize.com …
Kiran Desai was tonight (Tuesday 10th October) named the winner of the £50,000 Man Booker Prize for Fiction for The Inheritance of Loss, published by Hamish Hamilton.
Ever wondered what the respiratory openings of a fruit fly larvae looked like, but had temporarily misplaced your 1500x microscope and your whole breeding colony of fruit flies?
Well, now you know:
Go here to see more freaky pictures of really really small things. It’s a competition called “Small World” sponsored by Nikon. Thanks to Cheesie for the link.
What has this got to do with books? Um … back when I was a lad, if you wanted to see pictures like this you had to look in a book. Or buy your own 1500x microscope.