The Way Of A Pilgrim (RM French): This is our next Bloke’s Books book (you might even recall that Franny - in JD Salinger’s “Franny and Zooey” - was obsessed with the book?). The events relate to Russia of the 1850s, prior to the Liberation of the Serfs (the English translation was first published in 1930). It doesn’t really relate to a geographical journey (although the pilgrim’s original intention had been to travel from Irkutsk to Jerusalem – a journey, according to Google, of over 4,500 miles!) so much as a spiritual journey (in fact the Book’s Russian title may be literally translated: ‘Candid Narratives of a Pilgrim to His Spiritual Father’). It’s a story of an anonymous, mendicant pilgrim (described in the introduction of my edition as someone “endowed with a simplicity and wholeness which are rare in any epoch”) learning and practising (and sometimes teaching to others) a way of praying (‘continual prayer’). I found the book rather charming in its way… of how the pilgrim found a ‘spiritual father’… of how he came to learn the ‘prayer of Jesus’… and of his own study of “The Philokalia” (the title of the great collection of mystical and ascetic writings by Fathers of the Eastern Orthodox Church over a period of eleven centuries). At times, I felt it resembled the words and practices of ‘The Desert Fathers’ (ascetics and monks who lived in the Scetes desert of Egypt from the third century AD) – but, clearly, I’m no scholar of such things(!). Obviously, it’s difficult to compare Russian peasant life of 170+ years ago with that of today’s secular western society but, nevertheless, the book left me feeling that the pilgrim and I were in vastly different leagues when it came to spiritual practices, attitudes and devotion (in football terms, I’m in a non-league division!). Reflective and thought-provoking… (my edition contains a follow-up “The Pilgrim Continues His Way” – but I’m really not sure I’m up for it… certainly not immediately).
Big Sky (Kate Atkinson): This is my first ‘Jackson Brodie’ detective novel (ridiculously, I didn’t even know that Atkinson wrote crime stuff)… and I really enjoyed it. It’s clever but also very funny (I loved the dialogue and the writing style). It’s set in a seaside village in North Yorkshire. The book begins with Brodie (former-police-detective-turned-private investigator) involved in gathering proof of an unfaithful husband for a suspicious wife… but a chance encounter with a desperate man on a crumbling cliff (and who seems determined to jump) leads him into a sinister, terrifying world of trafficked women (who, of course, had been promised exciting hospitality careers in London etc… and certainly nothing to do with sexual abuse, drugs and entrapment). I was a little surprised that Brodie wasn’t more of the central character in the book – he was in competition with two female police officers and a ‘trophy wife’ (not Brodie’s) – but that was absolutely fine. It turns out that we already have the four previous ‘Jackson Brodie’ novels on our bookshelves (thanks to Moira!)… so they’ve been added to my bedside table pile accordingly!
Fun Home (Alison Bechdel): Our Storysmith bookgroup book for May (theme: graphic novel). I think this is only the second graphic novel I’ve read (Persepolis was the first) – apart from Si Smith’s brilliant books. The book takes the form of a memoir of Bechdel’s family life but, principally, about her father (and his strange/strained relationship with the author’s mother and with the rest of the family). Born in 1936, he was the director of a funeral home in the US (‘Fun Home’ refers to the family’s name for the funeral parlour), a high school English teacher, an icily distant parent… and a closeted homosexual (involved with some of his male students a babysitter). He died in road ‘accident’ (but with speculation that it was suicide), aged 44. Bechdel herself came out as gay in late adolescence. Telling a memoir in graphic form (especially with such brutal honesty) might seem a little odd and yet it works rather brilliantly – the pictures frequently managing to incorporate details and nuances that perhaps ‘normal’ description might have missed. It’s a somewhat dark and bleak book at times and yet it’s also very funny. Bechdel clearly had a complex yearning for her father and, ultimately, with their mutual love of literature and their homosexuality, their relationship did come to a redemptive conclusion. It brings a whole new meaning to authors having to edit their books (words AND pictures!). Excellent book.
Case Histories (Kate Atkinson): Having just ‘discovered’ Jackson Brodie novels (see above – ‘Big Sky’), it seemed only natural to start reading the very first one of the series. Brodie, private investigator (here, Cambridge-based), finds himself trying to get to grips with several apparently unconnected unsolved mysteries which have a common theme of ‘lost girls’ – missing, murdered, raped, abandoned, runaway. It’s a deceptively complicated read with utterly believable characters (especially Brodie himself). It’s brilliantly crafted and takes you through a whole series of different emotions involving death; despair; thwarted love; personal eccentricities; truth; goodness and, crucially, (wonderful) humour. I read it in just two days and found it almost impossible to ‘put down’! Absolutely loved it… can’t wait for the next one!
