Book Review | The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

Tags

America Gods, book review, fantasy, Neil Gaiman, The Sandman

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I have always had a little problem with Neil Gaiman. He’s one of these prolific authors who I really want to like more than I actually do. I think everyone has one author that makes them feel that way at least once in their life. What makes it worse, is that everyone I know adores him. I mean, the man is a living legend with a body of work that boasts of The Sandman and American Gods (which is being turned into an epic series by Amazon Prime!) So as you might expect, I feel a little bit left out at times.

So imagine my delight at picking up The Ocean and the End of the Lane and discovering that I had found the perfect ‘Gaiman’ story. I can wholeheartedly say that this is a tale full of magic and wonderment that captures the essence of childhood – which is no mean feat when you are an adult trying to remember back to the golden age of your life. His storytelling is absolutely effortless here, I couldn’t spot a single snag (and that is not always the case).

The plot explores the dark shadows that stalk the corners of a child’s imagination. Our protagonist is a young boy who in the true nature of gothic fiction, is nameless. The story is told through a series of flashbacks, the beginning roof which is triggered by the aftermath of a funeral, as our unnamed protagonist seeks the comfort of his childhood days. He finds himself in front of the house he was brought up in and the memories begin to flood back, especially when he seeks out a puddle in the road that was called ‘the ocean’ by a distant childhood friend.

The story from here, melts into the past, and we are plunged into the distinctively sensory world of the adolescent. The imagery here is especially impressive, as the sights and sounds of the countryside, the cottages, nature itself are ‘painted’ so that I almost felt like I was there.

Yet everyone knows that the world of a child isn’t wholly safe or innocent – and Gaiman artfully turns the world of our protagonist upside down, shocking the reader with just how dangerous and inappropriate it could get.

Of course, this is a fantasy story – but I think everyone can relate to it, especially if they (like me) had an overactive imagination and could switch from reality to the make-believe world at the blink of an eye. A dandelion could become a wand, a fairy could be hiding behind a fallen rose petal, a tree trunk could have a hidden face in it. Thus Gaiman builds a world where our protagonist shows us how a child met a family of witches, and survived (barely) to tell the tale.

The most admirable thing about this story, is the potential for it to be carried on. I have so many questions about this world of witchcraft and magic, especially the way things work. Just how old are the wise women? What kind of creatures live in the fold between our world and theirs? I just hope there is a follow up to this, because it would make such an awesome series.

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Book Review | ‘The Running Man’ by Stephen King

Tags

Arnold Schwarzenegger, Ben Richards, book review, Clint Eastwood, dystopian, Hunger Games, Running Man, stephen king

The Running Man by Stephen King

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

“He understood well enough how a man with a choice between pride and responsibility will almost always choose pride–if responsibility robs him of his manhood.”

I was only looking for an entertaining read, something I would’t have to take too seriously and one that I knew would take me away from the copious amounts of marking and grading I had to do at the time.

Let’s put it this way; I got more than I bargained for! This book is all the above and then some. I first met with ‘The Running Man’ in the 1980’s film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger  At the time it felt very much like an ultra-futuristic, distant, dystopian nightmare that thrilled a lot of people with its American take on Orwellian themes.

I am not a big Stephen King fan; at the best of times I have lukewarm respect for his innovative imagery and ability to keep his audience entertained and slightly crapping themselves in certain creepy scenarios. However, I think I have become something of a convert with ‘The Running Man’. Nowadays I feel like I’m a more mature reader, and I can definitely appreciate his scary powers of second-guessing what the near future holds for mankind; which this piece of work definitely showcases.

For anyone who like me, was sitting on a fence in regards to King’s quality as a novelist is at an advantage. If you have never watched the film, or heard about the book then you are in luck, reading ‘The Running Man’ will give you a very clear answer.

Personally, I read this from a post 9/11 perspective. The novel depicts a corrupted America, whose political and social infrastructure rests on rotten foundations. More sinister tones of ‘The Hunger Games‘ prevail across the continent, where the poor are nothing but forgettable pawns that can be used to entertain the rich.

“In the year 2025, the best men don’t run for president, they run for their
lives. . .”

As I said before, the novel contains many parallels to that dark period in American history. It reflects the current culture of the corrupted ‘American Dream’, which Chuck Palahnuik very aptly describes as being able to “make your life into something you can sell.” And what is ‘The Running Man’ if not the reality show turned nightmare? King takes the capitalist, materialistic, consumerist attitude of America and shows us what it can turn into.

The writing is addictive and the pace is wonderfully set. King shows off all his skills as the reader is roped into following Ben Richards; who reads like a ‘last of his kind’ type of Clint Eastwood character fighting to save his baby girl who is slowly wasting away in front of his eyes. As a last resort, he enters the ‘Games’; as this is the only way he will ever find the money to save his family from poverty. What ensues is a true roller-coaster account of his fight to survive the ‘Games’ and save his family.

Even though this sounds like a plot that has been done to death; I recommend everybody give it a try. You will be surprised how fresh and original King’s version of events will be.

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Best Books of 2012 Round-Up

Tags

banana yoshimoto, book review, daniel keyes, forster, japanese horror story, jeffrey eugenides, ryunosuke akutagawa

It’s that time of year again when I do a little retrospective of best books. I’m quite surprised that I’ve been a little frugal with my 5/5 stars, but 2012 has certainly put me in touch with some awesome authors I have never heard of or read before. So, without further ado, here’s a taste of the best bits of how my reading year went.

By far the most heartbreaking and astonishing book I have come across during the year. It’s one hell of a story that really examines the fleeting nature of our lives, our achievements and our losses. Nothing prepares you for the amazement and devastation you will feel when Charlie Gordon, a simpleton with an IQ of 18 undergoes breakthrough brain surgery to increase his intelligence levels. His one goal in life is to be intelligent, yet when this wish is granted, he is unaware of the horrible revelations it brings with it. As the veil of dumb ignorance is slowly lifted, his perception of friends and family also change. On his journey of discovery he gets a taste of emotions and thoughts he never knew existed. ‘Flowers for Algernon‘ is a beautiful illustration of how bitter the fruit of knowledge really can be.

My first attempt at Eugenides was absolute bliss. ‘Middlesex’ explores themes of incest and family history through the eyes of Cal, a hermaphrodite. “I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day of January 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of 1974. . . My birth certificate lists my name as Calliope Helen Stephanides. My most recent driver-s license…records my first name simply as Cal.” The opening paragraph on it’s own is electrifying enough. I couldn’t put it down and if you choose to read this, neither will you. Hilarious and tragic in equal amounts with just the right dose of literary intelligence to keep the literary critic in you smiling too.

My first attempt at Banana Yoshimoto also left me with warm, fuzzy feelings. Japanese fiction is so beautiful, and ‘Kitchen’ embodies faithful representations of human emotions with that trademark simplicity that Japanese writers seem to have a knack for. This book is like a celebration of death and life, and reminds us that we must cherish the people around us when we still have them. This book reads like a series of short stories. Here’s my review of it.

Akutagawa, the father of modern Japanese literature, translated by Jay Rubin. What more could you want? This is a short, short read that packs one hell of a punch. Akutagawa brings out the delicious lacquerwork and intricate embellishment of Japanese folklore in this collection of sharp, disturbing tales about art and sacrifice. Read my review here.

Romance novels, I do not like. However, I am willing to change that with a book like ‘A Room With A View’. Forster’s perspective of love is what really endeared this novel to me. It’s not lovey-dovey, wishy-wishy. Real love is messy, it’s more to do with gut feelings than rationality. It’s a tricky path to negotiate and our two lovers here certainly fall from grace more than once trying to find their way to one another. Read my review here.

That’s it folks! Those are my best pickings of 2012. What are yours?

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Book Review | ‘The Woman in Black’ by Susan Hill

Tags

book review, daphne du maurier, Ghost story, gothic fiction, Haunting of Hill House, Hollywood, jane austen, Shirley Jackson, susan hill

The Woman in Black by Susan Hill

My rating: 1 of 5 stars

“I have sat here at my desk, day after day, night after night, a blank sheet of paper before me, unable to lift my pen, trembling and weeping too.”

This was one of those books that had come to my attention thanks to the Hollywood remake. The visuals in the trailer were fabulously dark and grotesque and held a sort of promise of the type of Gothic we just don’t get to see nowadays. But that was the movie, and I so desperately wanted to see it that I had to first hunt down the book. Which, as you know, is just the weird order in which I do things.

I finally managed to get a copy and settled down to be scared out of my wits by this ‘Jane Austen-esque ghost story‘, but to my disappointment found it very dry in description and wanting in the scare department. Maybe I had far too high an expectation of what is in reality, just a mediocre chilling tale about a vengeful spirit who haunts a remote backwater village.

The basic outline of the story goes like this: The story begins with Arthur Kipps, who begins to write about his terrible, real-life encounter with a ghost during his early days as an up and coming solicitor. He recounts how a business trip sent him to the remote  and forbidden Eel Marsh House to attend the funeral of the late Alice Drablow and complete the menial task of putting her legal papers in order. However, when Kipps asks about the Drablow estate, no one wants to speak about it. A mysterious woman dressed in black with a decaying countenance also seems to haunt him wherever he goes.

When he asks to be taken across the Nine Lives Causeway to the estate, no one is willing to take him, except one man. There in all its wild beauty and agonising splendor he encounters Eel Marsh House, a solitary Gothic mansion, standing alone, proud and teeming with terrible secrets. As he spends his days and nights there, hears the awful bumping sounds from the locked nursery room and witnesses the ghostly screams of a drowned child on the gurgling causeway, he realises he must leave quickly, or risk going mad.

“Whatever was about, whoever I had seen, and heard rocking, and who had passed me by just now, whoever had opened the locked door was not ‘real’. No. But what was ‘real’? At that moment I began to doubt my own reality.”

This had the opportunity to become a great ghost story. It’s just I’m really upset that Susan Hill sinks into the comfort of Victorian descriptions which make it too stuffy and constricting. Language-wise some areas are far too overly done while other parts could have benefited from more visual description.

I loved the idea of an isolated house that stood almost like a lighthouse in the middle of the deadly causeway. The house itself is very scary and the descriptions of it will stay with me for a long time. I almost half wish it existed, like Manderley in ‘Rebecca’ or the mansion in Shirley Jackson‘s ‘The Haunting of Hill House‘. The sounds across the causeway, and the idea that the death of a child is resurrected and replayed there every night in the swirling mists is also very disconcerting.

What I really wanted was a spotlight on the woman in black herself. She takes a back seat when she really shouldn’t. Even the house eclipses her.

I had some discussions with other people and their experience of the book compared to the movie and theatre versions and all have said the same thing: the original story is quite bland. I am hoping to see the stage version of this with a class of mine and hope it’s as good as they say it is! But one thing is for sure, it will be vastly different from the book, because every stage and film production that has been made in the past has taken liberties with the story and changed it dramatically to make it better. More proof that Hill was being a bit economical with her story?

View all my reviews

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Book Review | Botchan by Natsume Soseki

Tags

book review, Botchan, Huckleberry Finn, japan, japanese, Matsuyama Ehime, Natsume Sōseki, Soseki, Tokyo

Botchan by Natsume Sōseki

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

‘Botchan‘ is an amusing account based on the ups and downs of the teaching profession which is closely related to Soseki’s own short-lived stint as a teacher in Matsuyama. It is one of the most widely read novels in Japan and I can see why; anyone who has ever been a student or a teacher can completely relate to the many naughty things teachers AND students get up to. Schools were and still are utterly insane environments, and will drive even the calmest person mad.

This is very much a summer read. It is mischievous and light-hearted with tones of Twain’s ‘Huckleberry Finn‘ running through it, as Botchan our slightly arrogant narrator, describes his early days as a juvenile delinquent and his karmic comeuppance as a pompous maths teacher. In the beginning Botchan comes across as a naughty kid who never really applies himself to his studies (unlike his brother) and is therefore always getting into all sorts of trouble. However, after his mother’s tragic death he learns to grow up pretty fast. His father and brother look upon him as a waste of space, yet Kiyo the family servant, treats him like a prince, always telling him how he will one day be a ‘great man’.

Never really having any real aims or goals, Botchan soon realises he must do something with his life. When his father dies and his brother sells the family house and moves away to set up his own business, Botchan decides to enroll himself in the Tokyo Academy of Physics, but even this is without any real enthusiasm. A few years later he is graduated and by chance offered the job of mathematics teacher in the backwater town of Matsuyama of all places.

On arrival he realises that Matsuyama is not as refined as Tokyo and it’s people (in his eyes) are equal to that of neanderthals. His observations of the townspeople, students and other professors of the faculty are hilarious as he gives his colleagues nicknames (he never refers to them by their real names anyway). The best thing about Botchan as a character is his inability to see his own shortcomings, yet he moans when bad things happen to him. His students torture him with names like ‘Red towel’ and tease him about his love of onsen’s and noodle bars.

Very soon he discovers that being a teacher means you cannot do whatever you want out of school hours. Living in such a small town means word gets around, and anyone who has ever taught will understand how your actions out of school could so easily be used against you. I found this to be a really faithful account of first-time teaching and how certain events still resonate today even though it was written back in 1906.

Highly recommended to all those entering the teaching profession for a bit of light entertainment. It will certainly take your mind away from all the lesson-planning and essay writing one needs to do during the ITT and NQT years!

View all my reviews

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Book Review | ‘The Velveteen Rabbit’ by Margery Williams

Tags

beatrix potter, benjamin bunny, book review, carlo collodi, childrens fiction, l. frank baum, Margery Williams, pinocchio, The Tale of Benjamin Bunny, toy story, velveteen rabbit, Wonderful Wizard of Oz

The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

‘The Velveteen Rabbit’ is a sweet little tale about a toy bunny who arrives at a nursery one day as the new plaything. At first he is an object of curiosity, but is quickly shunned when the other more expensive toys discover he is made of more inferior material. This greatly saddens the poor rabbit, yet one day one of the toys opens his eyes to a new concept; one where toys can actually become ‘real’. The toy rabbit learns that to become a real bunny, one must be loved by one’s owner; even if that means being loved to the point that a toy starts falling apart.

I started reading Margery Williams’ short story after I finished ‘Pinocchio’ by Collodi and whether by chance or coincidence, found it to be similar to that of the wooden boy. Both tales revolve around concepts of imitation versus reality, yet Williams’ tale has a ‘Toy Story‘ like twist, in that it is constructed in a world where toys come to life when you are not looking. This never fails to delight me, which means I have either not grown up… yet.

Williams has in her possession an ease of story-telling that looks and reads quite effortlessly but in reality is rather rare. The toy rabbit goes through a few trials and proves himself worthy of becoming a ‘real’ rabbit through his selfless acts as a loyal companion. In the end he discovers that it is not the material you are made of that matters, but rather what’s on the inside that counts. Like in ‘Pinocchio’, the Velveteen Rabbit is eventually granted his wish in becoming a real rabbit through a lovely fairy godmother and all ends happily ever after.

This is a perfect bedtime story for little ones to read aloud, with plenty of moral tales and a hugely satisfying, syrupy-sweet ending. I read the e-book version, which is again widely available. I accessed my copy through Kobo books. For books similar to ‘The Velveteen Rabbit’ I recommend Beatrix Potter’s ‘Benjamin Bunny’ series and also L. Baum’s ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz’ (also a rather extensive series in its own right!’

View all my reviews

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Book Review | ‘Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

Tags

alex haley, autobiography, beloved, black history, book review, che guevara, fidel castro, frederick douglass, malcolm x, roots, Slavery, toni morrison, Washington DC

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

There is no doubt countless works written about slavery. The most famous that comes to mind is the epic ‘Roots’ by Alex Haley which is regarded as a keystone of Black historical fiction and the more contemporary, but equally compelling ‘Beloved’; Toni Morrison’s impenetrably abstract deconstruction of ‘slave psychology’ that explores the extremities of motherly love, death and the chains of freedom. Frederick Douglass’ autobiography may not be an epic, but his book definitely stands as a precious precursor to the aforementioned books. Because Douglass was a real-life pioneer of the abolition who not only managed to escape slavery, but who also went on to being a celebrated orator, secretary of the Santo Domingo Commission, marshall and recorder of deeds in the district of Columbia and US Minister to Haiti.

Needless to say, this short narrative really does not do justice to the many deeds Douglass managed to achieve during his extraordinary life, but rather gives us insight into the mind of a born revolutionary and the things he suffered that eventually and inevitably led him to his profession. The most common thing about such men of destiny is a striking similarity in their sense of ‘belonging to a cause’ and a dogged determination in overcoming the overwhelming obstacles shared by their brethren. This coupled with an unusual sensitivity to suffering gives rise to men of the ilk of Castro, Guevara and Malcolm X: men with a mission to alleviate the dishonour and injustice inflicted upon a race, a country, a creed.

For those interested in first person accounts of slavery, this is an excellent place to start. On the positive side it is free and widely available to read download and read online. I got my edition from Kobo, but it can also be accessed quite easily via Goodreads on Douglass’ author page. Secondly, it is also a historical document and could quite easily be used as a reference in a thesis or other type of research on the subject.

Through his writing I could easily see how powerful an orator Douglass must have been, as his sketches of the various good and cruel characters he met during his life is very clearly and deftly made. His command of the English language also makes the narrative very easy to read and understand. He also has the wonderful ability to make some very clever and impassioned metaphors pertaining to slavery that I felt was quite unique.

Altogether this narrative is a very valuable piece of literature that I think everyone should read, as it’s not only a part of Black history but everyone’s history. It is testament to what a man can achieve if only he sets his mind to it and perseveres not matter what.

View all my reviews

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Book Review | ‘Pinocchio’ by Carlo Collodi

Tags

book review, carlo collodi, childrens fiction, Jiminy Cricket, pinocchio, Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Here is an extended version of the Pinocchio we all love and know that is jam-packed with lots of little cautionary tales and side quests. To be honest I like the Disney version a lot better as it has a more linear plot. There are moments when it got a bit confusing especially when strange characters would pop up only to disappear again. The biggest disappointment for me was seeing Jiminy Cricket die moments after his first appearance at the hands of Pinocchio himself! And if you thought that was shocking then imagine my dismay when he would come back sporadically as a ghost to warn our wooden friend of the error of his ways.

Other differences come in the form of characters like the Blue fairy, who at first appears to Pinocchio as the ghost of a beautiful child with blue hair. Collodi likes to take his readers to places where they can taste not only the sublime but also the abstract. There is no shortage of talking animals and objects which makes this a perfect bedtime read for little ones. Make sure you put on your best storytelling voice!

The main thrust of the story is still the same; how to be a GOOD boy and Pinocchio goes through many, many trials before he is granted his wish. At first Pinocchio is a very naughty so-and-so, in fact he really deserves a firm slap in some places! However he gradually learns never to take things at face value, to think and reason for himself and to curb his selfish ways by thinking of how his actions affect others. All very valuable lessons all children must learn if they are to grow up as responsible adults. Even though it was a little too detailed for my liking, Collodi’s story had an old world charm to it that is truly hard to find these days. At essence, ‘Pinocchio’ is a ‘quest’ story and draws many similarities with Dorothy in ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz’.

This book is like a trip down memory lane for older readers, but probably best suited for youngsters who still believe in fairies and talking crickets.

View all my reviews

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Book Review | ‘The Night Circus’ by Erin Morgenstern

Tags

book review, Celia, erin morgenstern, fantasy, fic, Harry Potter, Le Cirque, Marco, Prospero, the night circus, YA

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

“The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not.”

Erin Morgenstern’s tale of magic and illusion follows in the footsteps of many a famous opening line. For the ‘Cirque des Reves’ is no ordinary circus. Its arrival and departure is a phenomena unto itself, as are its infamous opening hours: from sunset to daybreak. The Night Circus therefore is a strange, beautiful place; a place made up of many stalls that seem to cater to the wildest hopes and dreams of each and every one of its loyal patrons, the ‘Reveurs’.

“You think, as you walk away from Le Cirque des Rêves and into the creeping dawn, that you felt more awake within the confines of the circus.You are no longer quite certain which side of the fence is the dream.” 

However the ‘Cirque des Reves’ is far more than just a venue of wonderous entertainment. It serves a darker purpose as the enchanted battleground to a magicians duel. This unmarked chessboard binds the fate of two young students of magic who through chance or otherwise became pawns in a cruel wager in which they can never escape. Prospero and his long-time friend and rival Alexander have for centuries made a game out of pitting their students against each other. Their latest victims are no other than Celia, Prospero’s own daughter and Marco, an orphaned street urchin.

The bets are placed and the children are bound through a ritualistic ring, and so begins their gruelling instruction of the dark arts. However, the fight ahead of them is a blind fight, in which the opponent they face is unknown as well as the rules to the game. As you may imagine, the venue for the dual showcases the amazing abilities of both competitors. Complex attractions such as the ‘Pool of Tears’ and the ‘Ice Garden’ soon become not tools for fighting the opponent, but rather love tokens, as Celia and Marco eventually discover each other and slowly fall in love. Much to the chagrin of their Prospero and Alexander, the circus changes from a battleground to a star-crossed ode to love.

Set at the turn of the 20th century, ‘The Night Circus’ is a heady clash between late Victorian Romanticism and the opposing ideals of the Enlightenment. It is mechanics meets magic and mystery. The story itself is a delicate clockwork whose narrative feeds off a variety of opposites. The action for instance jumps from one side of the Atlantic to another, then all over the world according to the mysterious whims of the circus proprietors. The characters are also an oxymoron of sorts; as society forces real magicians to carry out their art under the guise of illusion.

“That’s the beauty of it. Have you seen the contraptions these magicians build to accomplish the most mundane feats? They are a bunch of fish covered in feathers trying to convince the public they can fly, I am simply a bird in their midst.”

I particularly enjoyed the sense of ‘battle without action’, which Morgenstern evokes with a quiet dexterity. The cast is varied and full of weird and wonderful people, all of whom have a touch of magic about them. My favourite has to be the arrogant Prospero and the exotic female Contortionist who is more than meets the eye. I also very much liked the way magic was conveyed in ‘The Night Circus’, as it is refreshingly different from the Harry Potter style of conjuring that we are all familiar with (apart from the use of a ‘Hogwart’s Express’ kind of transportation for the circus).

I must state that I do not read YA as much as I should. On the whole I think YA fiction reviews tend to be overhyped and that is unfortunately a turn off for me. However I really enjoyed ‘The Night Circus’ and glad I picked it up. I have seen a number of favourable reviews around the internet and wholeheartedly agree with them all. But this does not mean that the story was perfect, and there are parts that could have been ironed out. My small objections are as follows: The story having got off to an amazing start takes us straight into the harrowing relationship of Prospero and his poor daughter Celia. We see both young students grow up and the suffering (both physical and psychological) they both have to endure to become the best. The momentum up to this point is fantastic and I kept hoping Morgenstern could keep it up, but somewhere after circus is formed and Celia and Marco ‘discover’ each other, the story sort of starts to fall apart.

The poetic magic of Morgenstern’s storyline gives away at the seams and the direction of the novel for me was no longer clear. Now I could say that this could pass as a device that reflects the disillusionment of the main characters, but it didn’t FEEL that way. Two-thirds of the way into the novel there is a dilly-dallying that does mar the overall quality of the book, therefore my 4/5 stars. However, it did end on a strong note and the small hiccup did not put me off at all.

“I am tired of trying to hold things together that cannot be held. Trying to control what cannot be controlled. I am tired of denying myself what I want for fear of breaking things I cannot fix. They will break no matter what we do.” 

For those wanting a good summer read I recommend ‘The Night Circus’ as it really is a wonderful tale with a bit of everything thrown in. It’s one of those stories that you can totally let yourself be enveloped in and not worry about a thing. It reminded me a lot of ‘Howl’s Moving Castle‘ and ‘The Prestige‘, so if you like fantasy books with duelling magician’s then this is definitely one you shouldn’t miss.

Make sure you snap up a copy in the airport lounge before boarding your plane!

View all my reviews

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Book Review | ‘Heroes and Villains’ by Angela Carter

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angela carter, Bloody Chamber, book review, Fiction, heroes and villains, shadow dance, Stockholm Syndrome

Heroes and Villains by Angela Carter

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I am now pretty certain that no one ever really gets used to Angela Carter’s brand of vitriolic love or her genre-defying characters. I mean, when I try to figure out ‘Heroes and Villains’, I really struggle to put a label on what I have just read. Instead I come up with crazy statements like: it’s a futuristic fairytale with elements of creation mythology that registers roughly on the ultraviolet section of the story-telling rainbow. Yeah. It’s like THAT.

The main ingredients of a typical Carter novel are a fistful of folktale blueprints, which are then stripped from all the pretty ‘Perrault‘ restraints and marched at gunpoint into the roiling, acerbic crucible of the author’s mind. And from this magician’s melting pot which consists of a curious alchemy of brains, barbarism and wily femininity come out twisted versions of the tales themselves; genetically spliced monsters that would and could turn upon themselves at the slightest provocation. Actually, imagine the cannibalistic fairies that feature in ‘Pan’s Labyrinth‘ and you’re more than halfway there to figuring out just how brutal Carter can be in her own re-telling of events.

Take our main character for example, one bony slip of a girl called Marianne, who quite literally grows up in an ivory tower surrounded by luxuries. The tower and her social status as a professor’s daughter places her as the ‘princess’ of the story. A quick glance outside those castle walls and we instantly see how privileged she really is; as only two other caste systems remain in this bleak post-apocalyptic world. The dreaded barbarians are the ‘noble savages’ made up of wandering gypsies, thieves and vagabonds. Then there are the Out-People; a genetically corrupt version of humanity that have devolved into monsters. From these Carter makes up the misunderstood ‘other’ who are not as intellectually inferior as they seem and the half-man, half-monster types that would rank among the minotaurs and Centaurs of ancient mythology. The sad irony of this is that even though the latter group emulate the glory of demigods, the reality is quite the opposite as Carter marks their existence as unnatural and the undoing of man.

Marianne therefore surprises us when she tires from her closeted upbringing and decides to defect into the wilderness with a dangerous barbarian who is held captive in the fortress. Even worse is the fact that she runs away with the very boy who murdered her own brother. So begins a very strange tale of love (if love it can be called) between a savage and a professor’s daughter as they form an odd alliance that can only be described as a type of Stockholm Syndrome.

Within the span of the story, Marianne shows her true colours, as her life with the savage tribe exposes her to vulgarity and sexual assault. Male/ female relationships are brought down to their bare primal essentials and we realise how Marianne is made of much, much sterner stuff. As the story progresses we see how Marianne by instinct has finally found the place where she is most happy; beside the beautiful but violent raven-haired Jewel.

As a reader I enjoyed the progression of their relationship, this unlikely romance that would go sour in some places and then pick up again when you least expected it. There story is underpinned by the Adam and Eve mythos, and this also handsomely features in the form of a grotesque tattoo on Jewels torso of the scene where Eve offers Adam the forbidden fruit. In fact, Jewel is somewhat of a synthetic messiah; a puppet controlled by the ominous ‘Doctor’; a madman who is trying to fabricate his own religion using members of the savage tribe. Jewel with his imposing physique and handsome looks doubles as Adam, Jesus and other religious characters.

So, dystopian fiction or post-apocalyptic nightmare; barbaric romance or feminist literature, you read and decide.

View all my reviews

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