february books...

Manifesto (Bernardine Evaristo): This is an intimate and fearless account of her life and career. Her London childhood was steeped in racism (her father was black, her mother white) from neighbours, priests and even some white members of her own family. The book describes how she discovered the arts through her local youth theatre; about her many romantic partners, both male and female (some quite horrible!); about finding her soulmate; about discovering her roots; and, crucially, about her determination and tenacity to succeed in becoming a successful writer. She’s a pretty amazing lady – who is now a Professor of Creative Writing at Brunel University. Lucky students. Fascinating book.
Lullaby (Leila Slimani): This is our next Storysmith bookgroup book. It’s set in Paris and involves a married couple who have employed a nanny for their two young children. But the first two sentences set the scene (abruptly!): “The baby is dead. It took only a few seconds” (note: these words are on the book’s cover, so no spoilers!). The nanny, Louise, is the perfect nanny and comes highly recommended and is absolutely wonderful – the children adore her; she cleans and tidies the apartment; she cooks delicious meals; she’s incredibly organised. But this hides an awful lot of other tensions: poverty and privilege; class and race; motherhood and work; marital strains and unequal relationships; mental illness and obsession. Clearly, given the opening sentences, the book has a sense of doom from the onset. While the parents love their children, they’re both far more focussed on their work. There’s something of a breathless tension about the book and, of course, the inevitability of its tragic, disturbing conclusion… but it’s brilliantly conveyed and reads very much like a page-turner thriller (I read it in two days). Compelling and disturbing.
The White Album (Joan Didion): Ridiculously, I only ‘discovered’ Didion some 7 years ago; this is the 5^th book of hers I’ve read… and the first since her death last December, aged 87. I absolutely love her writing – it’s both wonderfully elegant and beautifully perceptive. The way she writes compels you not to rush… so that you absorb her words and fully embrace what she’s saying. This book, first published in 1979, is a collection of essays and journalism – mainly focussing on California - from the 1960s/early 1970s. She writes about waiting for Jim Morrison to show up, about Janis Joplin and Nancy Reagan and other celebrities. She gives us her psychiatric report, her migraines, her diagnosis with multiple sclerosis. There’s wonderful stuff about the Hoover Dam, about shopping malls, about a party at Sammy Davis Jnr’s house, about how the traffic authorities introduced a ‘diamond lane’ - reserved for vehicles carrying 3 or more passengers - to a Californian freeway on environmental grounds (which resulted in angry, irate motorists and even people scattering nails on the lane in question!) and much, much more – including a beautiful piece about a Mexican-born man who grew orchids (for his rich boss) and who let her spend time alone in the greenhouses he tended. A wonderful book, full of details and insights – and all the more fascinating as they paint of picture of life 50+ years ago.
Saltwater (Jessica Andrews): I decided to read this novel on the strength of a book review. It’s a coming-of-age story about a woman’s difficult transition from working-class Sunderland to London university life… and, when things come to a head, her decision to take off for a tiny fishing port in County Donegal in Ireland in an effort to try to gain a sense of who she really is. It’s beautifully written and conceived – raw, intimate and poignant. I suspect that some of the story is part-autobiographical and I loved the structure of the book – essentially three strands (set in Sunderland, London and Ireland) and arranged in non-chronological format, comprising something like 300 short ‘chapters’ (some of them perhaps only 200 words long). It reminded me of my own architectural studies(!) and writing my final year thesis fifty years ago (I know!)… when I TYPED out (none of your new, fangled computers or even word processors in those days!) individual paragraphs on to filing cards before arranging them in what I felt was a ‘appropriate’ order and then RE-TYPING(!)(and with Moira’s help) the entire final version. I thought it was a lovely book – the challenges of identity and shifting class plus the complexities of the mother-daughter relationship. This was Andrews’ debut novel and a very good read it proved to be.
Love Wins (Rob Bell): I read this book nearly 11 years ago and found it helpful back then. It’s been recommended to me by good friend Mike after I’d blogged about my continuing, testing ‘faith journey’ and so decided to re-read it. He’s a very good communicator (I saw him at Greenbelt some 10 years ago) and I very much like his writing style. Needless to say, the book didn’t provide answers to all my questions (I would have been hugely sceptical if it had!), but it did give me the encouragement to acknowledge and explore my ‘faith doubts’ and not to be put off by the ‘certainty’ shown by some individuals who tend to make “negative, decisive, lasting judgements about people’s eternal destinies”. It’s an encouraging, provocative book and presents a case for ‘living with mystery’ rather than ‘demanding certainty’… and I’m absolutely with him on that.