Frustrating. I think this is autofiction? It's about a character called "SH" -- many details seem to correspond with Siri Hustvedt's own life, but notFrustrating. I think this is autofiction? It's about a character called "SH" -- many details seem to correspond with Siri Hustvedt's own life, but not all of them. The catalyst of writing this is a notebook that SH kept in 1978, which she rediscovers when she's going through boxes belonging to her mother. The novel/memoir explores the events of this year, in which Hustvedt is living alone in New York City and trying to write. She uses this notebook and pieces of the prose she was working on as memory aids, and includes diary entries and prose snippets. I struggled with this device: the notebook and prose is so polished that I can't believe it's an original document, so I tried to see it as a literary device. However, as a literary device the whole conceit of the book seemed forced: is it a novel about a young woman in New York? A study of New York in the 70s? Why, then, include all the parts from an older perspective? Much of the 'plot' of the story seemed overly contrived to me -- I am sure there would be a way to make these events flow more naturally, or to write about them in a way that makes them emotionally convincing, but that doesn't seem to be what Hustvedt is trying to do. I was perplexed and frustrated by her approach. ...more
Written before Anne Rice's famous vampire novels, The Feast of All Saints is a rich historial novel set in New Orleans before the American civil war. Written before Anne Rice's famous vampire novels, The Feast of All Saints is a rich historial novel set in New Orleans before the American civil war. Anne Rice explores the community of the gens de couleur libre or the Free People of Colour, who are a mixed-race, French speaking community, living in a small area of the city. Though they are not enslaved, unlike most of the other Black people and people of colour around them, their liberty is severely restricted, and they constantly experience new threats on their freedom. The story focuses on Marcel St. Marie, a fourteen-year-old, who is wealthy and educated, but whose opportunities rest solely on the whims of his white father. His sister, Marie St. Marie, is exceptionally beautiful, and deeply conflicted: her mother and aunts want her to become the mistress to a wealthy white man, but Marie wishes to marry a man of colour. In this sprawling, lush story, Anne Rice explores the lives of these two siblings: the difficulties they face, the possibilities for happiness, and their wish to find a way to be true to their own dreams and morals. The book is strongest in its exploration of place and time, giving the reader a sense of New Orleans, and the mores and codes of a small society struggling to find its own path. But the narrative at times becomes lost in melodrama and (view spoiler)[there is a gang rape scene at the end that does not feel in keeping with rest of the narrative and is not sufficiently integrated into the text, as well as being very painful to read. (hide spoiler)] The story would have been stronger if it was 200 pages shorter, but it's still an interesting study. ...more
Annemarie Ní Churreáin writes with such empathy and tenderness in this pamphlet of poems about the Stranorlar mother-and-baby home. The poems are inteAnnemarie Ní Churreáin writes with such empathy and tenderness in this pamphlet of poems about the Stranorlar mother-and-baby home. The poems are intercut with reports on the home, and quotations from people who lived there. This grounds the poems in the day-to-day reality of the home, and gives Ní Churreáin space to write about the women who were there in lush, expansive and imaginative poems. An important and memorable work. ...more
Five women attend a support group. They have each experienced unusual traumas that have put them in the public eye. Each one tells the story of what hFive women attend a support group. They have each experienced unusual traumas that have put them in the public eye. Each one tells the story of what happened to her, and how it impacts her life now. There were some elements I really liked about this, but it's very uneven. Each of the stories is a retold fairy tale, and some of them work much better than others. There is an emphasis on reality TV and the news cycle, and the implications of this weren't explored in sufficient depth to make them feel anything other than gimmicky. The stories sit somewhere between magic realism and things within the bounds of ordinary life, and it's not always well thought-out. There are strong moments, though: Adelmann emphasizes various ways in which trauma makes a person difficult to be around, messy or unpalatable, and this was really well achieved. The support group idea is a good hook, and drew me into the book, though I wish the bonds with the women had been explored more fully, without the twist at the end. There is a lot of possibility here, but ultimately it doesn't come together. That being said, this was very readable and engrossing. ...more
David Small is a talented artist: this book is full of intense and striking ink-wash paintings, that capture the landscape of a small, frightened chilDavid Small is a talented artist: this book is full of intense and striking ink-wash paintings, that capture the landscape of a small, frightened child. Small captures adults deftly in a few strokes that capture how a child might see them, and imagines the internal landscape of a child brilliantly. Then why I am I giving this book such a low rating? Though the art is fantastic, it cannot make up for the ways in which this story is not fully realised. David Small comes from a home marked by its silences and lack of conversation, and when his parents notice a lump on David's neck, they are slow to do anything about it. Years pass before the lump is operated on, when it is discovered that David has cancer. He looses part of his vocal chords, and can no longer speak. This book is essentially a selection of awful moments in David's life, expressed in vivid, terrifying drawings. But there is no sense of him exploring these moments, no sense of him as a person, and no sense of how his adult self, writing this book, perceives what happened. His text is oddly clinical and distant. This book felt incomplete to me. ...more
A brilliant anti-war novel, and perhaps one of the best studies of living with the experience of trauma ever written. Vonnegut captures hopelessness iA brilliant anti-war novel, and perhaps one of the best studies of living with the experience of trauma ever written. Vonnegut captures hopelessness in the face of atrocity, and how individual experience is fractured when it comes up against atrocity too big to be contemplated. Something so big that only aliens can open the trapdoors of our consciousness. Yet this book also manages to be entertaining and witty. An amazing feat of imagination and empathy. ...more
A novel that works with on a small canvas but creates a story that feels huge and timeless. Veronica Hegarty is one of eleven siblings, and her brotheA novel that works with on a small canvas but creates a story that feels huge and timeless. Veronica Hegarty is one of eleven siblings, and her brother Liam, the one closest to her in age, has just committed suicide. Veronica must travel to Brighton to identify his body, and help to arrange the wake and funeral at home in Dublin. Though Veronica feels her life is comfortable and stable, she discovers that it all unravels easily when she allows herself to feel grief for Liam, and through that grief, discovers that she can no longer allow herself the lies and self deception that have made her life possible. Veronica's story encapsulates the hypocrisies and secret shames of middle-class Ireland: the guilt, secrets and trauma that lie within ordinary households. The story also reverberates outwards, as Enright asks how we can live with suffering, and how to cope with the losses we must live with every day. It is an intelligent, nuanced novel, and while its themes are weighty, it is often very witty, and extremely readable. ...more
I read this in a day, so I have to give it credit for being so compulsively readable. In an atmospheric opening, Jim Messenger observes a woman who caI read this in a day, so I have to give it credit for being so compulsively readable. In an atmospheric opening, Jim Messenger observes a woman who called Ms Lonesome, who goes to the same diner in San Francisco every night to get the same dinner. When Ms Lonesome suddenly stops coming, Jim goes looking for her, and find himself caught in a dangerous mystery in the desert. I found the opening of this book very compelling, but the characterisation wasn't strong enough to make the heavy themes believable, and the ending felt very pat to me....more
Aradia is brought to her aunt's house, and left there by her mother. This is the beginning of the disintegration of Aradia's life. Her city is besiegeAradia is brought to her aunt's house, and left there by her mother. This is the beginning of the disintegration of Aradia's life. Her city is besieged by enemy troops, and she gradually looses everyone she ever knew. At age 13, she is groomed by an enemy soldier, and is protected by him from starvation and dangers of violence from others. This is a picaresque story, in which Aradia is carried from place to place, first by the forces of war, and then is guided by her own love and desire. The book is hampered by Lee never seeming to decide what she's writing: is Aradia's love for another redeeming or humiliating? Or both? The threads here never really come together, yet it's a gripping and compelling journey. ...more
Greta transcribes the sessions of a sex therapist, known as Om. She becomes obsessed with a woman she called "Big Swiss", one of the people whose sessGreta transcribes the sessions of a sex therapist, known as Om. She becomes obsessed with a woman she called "Big Swiss", one of the people whose sessions she types. Using what she knows of Big Swiss, she begins to stalk her, and the two begin an intense relationship. At first, I thought this book was too quirky to be bearable: Greta lives in a falling-down farmhouse with no heating, which houses a huge bee hive and numerous other creatures, including stink bugs. She and her flatmate smoke pot and talk about getting miniature donkeys. Greta is in her late 40s and she's recently left a boyfriend she loved very much. She is a deeply flawed character, and Jen Beagin writes an excellent character study: as I read the book I came to find her more and more believable, and the ways in which she was exasperating also interested me. There are some very astute observations here. Not my usual kind of book, but definitely worth reading. ...more
Like Susanna Kaysen, author of Girl, Interrupted, Bette Howland spent some time during the 1960s in a psychiatric ward. Bette Howland woke up in an inLike Susanna Kaysen, author of Girl, Interrupted, Bette Howland spent some time during the 1960s in a psychiatric ward. Bette Howland woke up in an intensive care unit, have swallowed an overdose of sleeping pills. From there, she is transferred to W-3, a public psychiatric ward in an underfunded Chicago hospital. Unlike the world Kaysen describes in Girl, Interrupted, this ward does not cushion its inhabitants from the outside world: overflowing with people, it is a place where the poor and down-and-out are sent for stints of twelve days, in which time they are supposed to overcome acute mental illness. Howland, being white and having a family who can pay for her to stay for a longer period, is in a position of relative privilege, though she too has nowhere but the ward to call home, and endures the over-crowded, sleepless and noisy spaces of the hospital. The comparisons I'm making to Girl, Interrupted are not meant to reflect negatively on either work: I admire both these books, but it's impossible not to compare them to one another, as they explore an experience that is both similar and very different. Howland's work is concerned with what she witnesses while on the ward: she does some exploration of her own life, but the bulk of her writing concerns the other patients, and the treatment they receive. W-3 is a place where no one can thrive, or heal, but it does provide a kind of shelter and a place of change for the patients. Not everyone can get better, but within the pressures and tensions of the ward, some people are able to find a way to get back to the outside world. A moving and necessary book that captures many different experiences that can lead to a psychiatric hospital. ...more
Vivia is born in a crumbling castle to a Vidix, a violent and rageful man, who kills her mother when Vivia is only six years old. When a plague comes Vivia is born in a crumbling castle to a Vidix, a violent and rageful man, who kills her mother when Vivia is only six years old. When a plague comes to the castle, Vivia looses everything she has ever known, and retreats to subterranean pools below the castle to wait for an end. But in the phosphorescent caves, she discovers an old god, who turns her into a vampire. This is a strange, meandering story, held together by Tanith Lee's spare but imagistic prose, and her careful characterisation of Vivia. I found the beginning difficult to read because the images of the rot-filled castle during the plague were so gruesome, and I was frustrated that some threads of the story didn't seem to go anywhere, but despite this, I found this book completely compelling, and I was totally drawn in by Vivia and her world. I rarely wish for books to be longer, but here I wish there had been 50 more pages at the end so Lee could really have explored Vivia's development. ...more
A person falls asleep on a church pew because they have nowhere else to go. When they wake up, they find themselves in the midst of a church service, A person falls asleep on a church pew because they have nowhere else to go. When they wake up, they find themselves in the midst of a church service, and the congregation have decided to look after them. The person at the centre of this story does not speak, and their gender, age and race are difficult for onlookers to guess. The narrative, though it all happens in the head of this person, never discloses these details. The narrator's lack of name and gender, and their silence, are at first treated with cautious kindness by the religious community, but rapidly the community becomes more and more hostile, especially when the narrator refuses to undress in front of them or disclose any further details. Lacey's story reads as a simple parable about what it means to trust others, the secrets society hides, and what we owe one another, but it's also a sinister story about how we treat those that refuse to conform. It is powerful, gripping and surprising, and full of emotion. Highly recommended. ...more
A sprawling fantasy novel, written from the perspectives of Felix, a court magician, and Mildmay, a cat burglar. Both men live in Mélusine, a dangerouA sprawling fantasy novel, written from the perspectives of Felix, a court magician, and Mildmay, a cat burglar. Both men live in Mélusine, a dangerous city strictly divided by wealth and class. Mildmay lives on his wits, in grubby streets far from the palace where Felix works as a court wizard. But both men have similar origins, having mothers who are sex workers, and being sold to criminals at young ages. I enjoyed a lot about this novel: it begins rapidly, with an immediate plunge into disaster, but Monette does take time to develop her characters and to give them believable motivations. I enjoyed that its pace is slower than many fantasy novels, and the attention she gave to how her main characters were feeling. It also has its downsides: there are no important female characters, the magical elements are convoluted and confusing, and the story can become repetitive. Both Mildmay and Felix frustrated me, but in different ways: we meet Felix only briefly before he is plunged into a madness in which he remains for most of the book, and because we meet sane Felix so briefly, his madness can feel like his only characteristic. Mildmay is more engaging and fully fleshed-out, but Monette attempts to write his perspective in a kind of dialect which is essentially her idea of what a working-class person sounds like, and seems to be a mishmash of words she's picked up from movies. It's not convincing. Those are significant problems but thid remains gripping and often surprisingly insightful. I will read more of this series. ...more
Following a childhood shaped by neglect and physical abuse, Stephanie Foo throw herself into her work as a journalist, and becomes a huge success in hFollowing a childhood shaped by neglect and physical abuse, Stephanie Foo throw herself into her work as a journalist, and becomes a huge success in her field. But over time the aftermath of abuse gets in the way of her living her life, and she embarks on a journey to understand what happened to her and to find a way to live with it. Foo's style is straightforward, and clearly shaped by her history as a journalist: it's easy to read, but I thought that she often skated over the surface, and lost nuance for the sack of readability. However, the memoir is a gripping and empathetic account of living with Complex-Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, which Foo developed due to spending much of her childhood fearing that her parents would kill her, either deliberately, or inadvertently during a beating. She looks at theories surrounding what this kind of trauma does to the brain, and examines the legacy of trauma within marginalised communities. Her book sometimes wanders into the sentimental, but overall it's practical and generous. I would recommend it for those who are unfamiliar with Complex-PTSD, and would like to learn more about living with trauma. ...more
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