august 2023 books…

Books And Island In Ojibwe Country (Louise Erdrich): This is our next Storysmith Bookgroup selection. I’d never previously read any of Erdrich’s books (American author of novels, poetry, and children's books featuring Native American characters and settings). Our bookgroup theme was ‘Travel-related’ and this book describes her travels (with her 18-month-old daughter in tow) to the terrain of her ancestors: the lakes and islands of southern Ontario… and yet, it’s rather more than just a journal of her travels. It takes in history, language, songs, spirits, mythology and memoir of her native homeland… and also links ancient stone paintings with a magical island where a bookish recluse built an extraordinary library (note: this recluse, Ernest Oberholtzer, born in 1894, suffered with a heart condition and was told by his doctor that he had just one year to live… so he decided to paddle a canoe through the wilderness of Ojibwe Country… and kept on paddling. He lived to be 93!). As a lover of books and the owner of her own bookshop, Erdrich was clearly in her element. I enjoyed it too.
The Provincial Lady In America (EM Delafield): First published in 1934 (the third volume of Delafield’s “The Diary Of A Provincial Lady”). I loved the first two ‘Provincial Lady’ books and just knew that the third would provide similar amusement and light relief (which it did!). The publishers decide to send the author on tour to America and the book starts by how she imparts this news to her family and neighbours. Her circumstances have somewhat changed - by now, she is ‘somewhat famous’, travels First Class (except that travels back to the UK ‘tourist class’ as the publishers are no longer trying to impress Americans!), and is photographed as she disembarks the ship at New York. The trip is a series of whirlwind tours - being whisked from mansion to mansion, combined with endless cocktails and pompous speaking engagements - and all surrounded, it seems, by a host of millionaires (which, given that the diary was written in the throes of the Depression and never mentioned, seems somewhat puzzling). Her observations of the characters she met and the circumstances in which she found herself are rather wonderful and very amusing. I enjoyed the book enormously (just one more book left in the series!).
The Satsuma Complex (Bob Mortimer): This is Mortimer’s first novel (I very much enjoyed his autobiography ‘And Away’). It’s a crime novel, set in south London, involving police corruption, domestic violence, murder… and LOTS of absurd, surreal humour. The main character, Gary, is a shy, legal assistant at a firm of solicitors - who lives something of hum-drum life and conducts conversations with a passing squirrel (you perhaps wouldn’t have expected anything less from the author!). In truth, it‘s quite page-turner… although there’s a large part of me that somewhat resents how readily ‘celebrities’ are able to write work that achieves the ‘Sunday Times’ bestsellers list when far more gifted authors fail to get recognised (or even published). Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the book and liked the main characters… but Bob Mortimer is no Richard Osman!
Stories We Tell Ourselves (Richard Holloway): The book’s sub-title is: ‘Making Meaning in a Meaningless Universe’. I’ve long been an admirer of Holloway’s writings and thinking and I’ve read several of his books. This book (published in 2020) explores the stories we’ve been told about where we come from and about getting through “this muddling experience of life”. It’s thought-provoking, challenging, compassionate and wise. I continue to find myself agreeing with Holloway’s views on a lot of things in his own personal spiritual journey. In 2000, he’d basically given up on the church (you might recall that he’d previously been Bishop of Edinburgh) but, over subsequent years, he’s found himself slowly “slipping back” into the place where his prayers had once “been valid”. He’s an advocate of Jesus, but definitely NOT of the Church (or, some respects, even of God)… and, clearly from reviews of the book, such views attract strong support and opposition from both sides of the argument (I’m tending to go along with Holloway!). “The resistance goes on, though the Church that calls itself after Christ has rarely ever tried to join it, or never for long. Often it has done the opposite. It has followed the world’s style in its own institutional life. It has been one of the cruellest and least forgiving institutions in history… No, the Church never really tried to live the Jesus-life. What it did was to keep his story alive. Even as they shifted uncomfortably in their seats, Christians were compelled to listen to it. Week after week and day after day, the story was read to them”. I could go on… but I trust you get the general drift (and, again, I’m with him in large part). I think now might be a good time to re-read his book ‘The Heart of Things: Memory and Lament’.
Girl (Edna O’Brien): This is a novel (published in 2019) based on the horrific trauma of Nigeria’s abducted schoolgirls from the Government Girls Secondary School in the town of Chibok in 2014 by the Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram. One of the girls, Maryam, is the story’s narrator. Following her ‘capture’, she has given birth, and she and her daughter have somehow escaped from the compound, where she had been raped many times and then forced into marriage and motherhood… the trauma of her abduction wrecks her family (or what’s left of it). It’s all pretty devastatingly shocking (and feels amazing ‘real’). Politicians trying to take credit for other people’s actions and sacrifices… but also the kindness of some brave women who helped some of the other ‘Maryams’ survive. O’Brien spent several months in Africa researching for the book - meeting women who’d suffered at the hands of Boko Harum, together with a whole host of volunteers, doctors and trauma specialists… and such experiences obviously played a vital part in helping her convey the terror so palpably real. I’m a huge fan of O’Brien’s writing and I found this book incredibly powerful and impressive (no surprises there). Man’s inhumanity to man laid bare.