Black River (Will Dean): I decided to make ‘lockdown’ my
excuse for not waiting for the paperback version to be published (I know). This
is Dean’s third Nordic noir crime novel (set in
the northern wilds of rural Sweden) written by a bloke who grew up in the
English Midlands (who now lives in rural Sweden in a wooden house he built in
the middle of a forest). Tuva Moodyson, a deaf reporter, drops
everything to return to Gavrik, a small town
community in Sweden, to help look for her closest friend, who’s ‘gone
missing’. It’s another intriguing, fast-moving,
tense, haunting and compelling novel. Dean’s books seem to ‘borrow’ ideas from
other writers/authors – but I’m happy to forgive him for that! – Tuva is very
much in the same Saga ‘mould’ portrayed in the brilliant “The Bridge”
television series (with her Asperger syndrome meaning that she doesn’t act in
socially conventional ways) and the books themselves have the same ‘feel’ as
Ann Cleeves’ ‘Shetland’ books (and even their titles/fonts bear an uncanny
resemblance: eg. Dean’s Black River/Dark Pines/Red Snow and Cleeves’ Red
Bones/Cold Earth/Blue Lightning etc)(and the same thing might also be said of
some of Peter May’s books). Anyway, I’m not complaining… they tick all the
boxes in my book! Predictably, I very much enjoyed this one.
Stiff Upper Lip,
Jeeves (PG Wodehouse): I’m afraid I opted for some more
ignore-what’s-happening-in-the-real-world, comfort reading. I last read this
book eight years ago… it’s excruciating predictable, but Wodehouse does have a
way with words and I constantly found myself with a smirk on my
face! Effortless, light reading.
Black And British: A Forgotten
History (David Olusoga): This
is our “Bloke’s Books” bookgroup’s next book (which was also an excellent
4-part BBC documentary). It’s a very long book (nearly 600 pages) which tells
the comprehensive and important history of black Britain and I thought it was
quite, quite brilliant. It reaches back to Roman Britain, to Elizabethan
‘blackamoors’ and the global slave-trading empire. I had thought the book would
concentrate on the lives of particular black Britons but, although it clearly
does focus on some key individuals, the basis of the book revolves around
slavery (and the US cotton industry/Civil War). I found the book hugely
informative, humbling and, in parts, absolutely shocking. It made me realise
that there was so much of the ‘black story’ of which I was quite ignorant or
unaware. I knew I’d be depressed by 18th and early 19th
century accounts of the slave trade but I think what shocked me most the
attitudes, remarks and policies adopted by (mainly English) politicians only
perhaps 70-80 years before I was born. It also acted as a hugely embarrassing
reminder of the shameful colour prejudice views adopted by some members of my
own family as I grew up in Birmingham in the 1950s/60s. It’s an authoritative
and hugely important book (and the story it tells should surely be part of the
school curriculum?) which provides a sobering background to the wealth generated
for this nation through slavery and its resulting status as a world power.
An American Marriage (Tayari Jones): This is our next StorySmith
bookgroup’s next book (we wanted to choose a prize-winning book and this won
“Women’s Prize for Fiction 2019”). It’s about a young African-American married
couple; the husband is wrongfully arrested and sentenced to 12 years for a
crime he didn’t commit; the devastated wife (who knows her husband is innocent)
struggles to comes to terms with events; she turns to their closest friend for
support; the husband is unexpectedly released after only serving 5 years; he
returns home ready to resume their life together… It’s very much an American
novel which tells the all-too-frequent story of black people’s interactions with
the criminal justice system (black men are disproportionately represented – 1
in 3 black men are likely to be imprisoned in their lifetime as compared to 1
in 17 white men). It’s also represents a demoralizing and infuriating reality for
black families in the US - ripping away parents, children, providers, and
supports, leaving vulnerable people and communities even more at risk. It’s a
very readable book and Jones is an excellent writer, but I have to admit that,
despite the plaudits from such eminent people as Barack Obama and Oprah
Winfrey, I was left feeling somewhat unconvinced. I didn’t really believe in
most of the characters (particularly the wife) – and, on occasions, I also found
myself being irritated by American dialogue (but that’s problem just me). Maybe
I’ll change my mind as I reflect on the book over the coming days (or after our
bookgroup discussion) but, as things stand, it just feels like a 7/10 novel.
Lockdown (Peter May): A novel about a deadly pandemic
wreaking havoc across the world (but with London at its epicentre) that was
rejected by the publishers 15 years ago, because they deemed its subject matter
“extremely unrealistic and unreasonable”. Well, who knew?! The story is
something of a page-turning thriller involving a struggling detective inspector
on his last day with Met who’s trying to track down a remorseless killer
against a backdrop of a deadly virus that has already claimed thousands of
victims… martial law has been imposed; health and emergency services are
overwhelmed; violence and civil disorder are rife. May is one of my favourite
writers and I finished this novel in less than 2 days. It was a little disturbing
to read May’s perception of what life in a pandemic might be like (face masks; young
people ignoring curfew rules; the race for a vaccine… and even the death of the
Prime Minister)… he clearly undertook a huge amount of research. Our present
government could definitely have learnt something from him! There were some
aspects of the book that I found a little unconvincing but, overall, it’s an
excellent, intelligent, thrilling… and somewhat sobering novel (even if there
were moments when I found myself asking if this really was an appropriate time
to read a book about a deadly pandemic!).
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