march-april 2019 books…

Signs (Si Smith): A new comic-book by my amazing (description not used loosely!) mate Si Smith. I’ll probably read it a hundred times over the next few months based on my experience of Si’s previous stuff (no exaggeration). I’m in total awe. It’s stunning. Beautifully drawn (of course) with telling words and a powerful reminder of some of the important, unexceptional and yet special things. Oh, how desperately we need golden gifts like this in our grubby, bigoted world. I know it’ll be one of my top five books of the year. Simply brilliant. and people that surround us – if only we would “look up” (I love the ‘old gentleman’s’ overheard conversation on the 13A bus: “Oh, they’re angels alright, angels in disguise!”). I just know that I’ll see new things in the images every time I look at the comic… AND it comes with its own Spotify playlist (a lovely Si trademark).
Cassandra Darke (Posy Simmonds): It’s been an awful long time since I read a posy Simmonds book! On the face of it, it didn’t sound particularly appealing… the main character, Cassandra, is a 71 year-old “art dealer, mean, selfish, solitary by nature, living in Chelsea in a house worth £7million… she has become a social pariah and doesn’t much care”. But, actually, I thought it was excellent – beautifully-observed drawings, of course, but also funny and with a rather telling story… almost something of Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” in some ways (as Moira pointed out).
River (Esther Kinsky): This is a rather beautiful, poetic book (elegantly translated by Iain Galbraith), published in 2014. An unnamed female narrator (based on Kinsky herself?) moves to a London suburb (Kinsky lived in London for 12 years) and takes long solitary walks by the River Lea, observing and describing her surroundings and the unusual characters she encounters. Over the course of these walks, she amasses a collection of found objects and photographs. Her riverside walks remind the woman of her childhood beside the Rhine, where she grew up (and where Kinsky also grew up); the Saint Lawrence; the Hooghly; and the Oder. It takes the form of a series of essays(?)(fiction? memoir? or perhaps a combination of the two?). Not a book to be rushed… it seems to urge you to read it gently and take in all the sights and the sounds.
Thinking On My Feet (Kate Humble): This sounds pretty awful (sorry) and I’m sure there will be lots of people who disagree with my opinion, but I found this a rather unremarkable book… the kind of book I could easily have written (ha, some hope!) – about the pleasures of walking (in my case urban walks, not Humble’s daily rural walks with her dogs) and observing. It’s effectively her year’s occasional diary. Perfectly pleasant, easy reading about the joys of walking (and running) but, as I say, unremarkable. It’s amazing what you can get published if you’re a TV ‘celebrity’… and I got pretty sick of the endless references to her dog ‘Teg’! 
The Choice (Edith Eger): This is a remarkable, powerful, hopeful book. In 1944, 16 year-old ballerina Eger was sent to Auschwitz. She was separated from her parents on arrival (and never saw them again) and had to endure unimaginable experiences (including being made to dance for the infamous Josef Mengele). When the camp was finally liberated, she was pulled from a pile of bodies, barely alive. Again and again, I found myself reading in disbelief at episode after episode of man’s inhumanity towards his fellow man. Frankly amazing that anyone could survive such experiences. A little over a third of the book is taken up with Eger recalling her harrowing wartime memories but, for the remainder of the book, she tells of how she learnt to live again… to marry, have children and, ultimately, to become an inspiring, sought-after clinical psychologist and lecturer. An amazing story of incredible resilience, determination… and hope.