Mister Pip was a Booker short listed novel written by antipodean novelist, Jones. We were lucky enough to get it as a book group selection. Fortunately, it’s quite short so I managed to get through it quite quickly.
Its set on the island of Bougainville, located near the Solomons, at the beginning of the 1990s. It tells us about Mathilda, a 15 year old girl who lives with her mother in what seems like an idyllic existence.
Unfortunately, that’s change recently because the Island’s inhabitants have been waging civil war against their rulers over control of the copper mine which provides a source of wealth for the authorities.
While the war isn’t particularly obvious at first its always there in the background and you just know that it will play a big part later on in the story.
As a consequence of the war, the school’s been closed recently. Mathilda is sad at this,,so she is glad when Mr Watts AKA popeye AKA Mister Pip takes it upon himself to reopen the school and make sure the kids gets some form of education even though he isn’t a teacher.
Mathilda’s excited and then bewitched, as Mr Watts begins reading to the class from Great Expectations by Dickens. This becomes very formative for Mathilda who becomes very involved, much to the chagrin of her mother. Unfortunately, her mother doesn’t like Mr Watts, because he is atheistic,
As well as reading the book, Mr Watts invites locals into the classrooms to try and teach the kids about different aspects of their lives.
Its at this point that the book changes tone when the government troops arrive at the village and start asking awkward questions. Unfortunately, when they ask who Mr Pip is, nobody can find the book to show them but they threaten to come back to find out later.
The rebels also make their presence felt but are quite happy to listen to Mr Watts read to them.
I won’t go on and reveal more about the book because the SO is going to read it and I don’t want to spoil it.
I think this is a wonderful book that is amusing and sad in different measures. It’s also quite tragic and makes us think about the injustices of civil war. I urge everyone to read it
Monday, February 18, 2008
Monday, February 11, 2008
No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy
This book kinda snuck into my reading list. I was waiting for the SO to finish at the hairdresser’s and I had forgot my current read and couldn’t find my current read on the esteemed shelves of Borders, I picked up this fine book since I had recently seen the film and bought a copy from Waterstone’s at half price.
By the time hairdressing duties had been complete I had got so far into the book, I decided that I would continue after reading about Barney Thomson.
If you’ve seen the film you don’t need to read this review but suffice to say that the book is every bit as good as the Coen brothers’ fine opus.
The book is painted on the canvas of South West Texas near the border with Mexico and tells of mainly three individuals. Llewellyn Moss, a welder, who stumbles upon a big case of money at a drug deal gone wrong when he’s out hunting: Anton Chigurrh, a psychotic hitman who’s been engaged to find the money and Sheriff Ed Tom, the local lawman caught up in the trail of dead bodies while trying to find Moss and help him out.
The book runs very closely with the film and except for a couple of scenes and minor characters plays along on very similar lines. The characterisation of the three main characters is well drawn and brings these men alive. In particular, the character of Chigurrh is chilling. He plays as a man doing a job and if anyone gets in the way they will be quickly despatched without much debate. In addition, the way he deals with his injuries gained when going about his ‘job’ is very clinical and almost professional.
The denouement and ending of the film are very similar to the film and although I know a few people were disappointed with it, downbeat as it is. I think it was the best way for the story to play out.
The whole sorry tale of death and more death gives the background for the Sheriff to decide why his time is up and why he has no stomach for the kind of lifestyle law enforcement has now forced upon him. No wonder! You feel sorry for Moss, who is caught up in the trail of bodies purely by chance and wanting to give him and his wife a better life than the two bit trailer they live in. You just know he will meet his maker. The book tries to say that although his death is as important as any other, its just another corpse in the drug wars that are now rife in SW Texas. What’s more important is in the way that it becomes the final nail in the coffin of Ed Tom’s career, not the way it is visualised in the book or on the big screen. This part of the book is the Sheriff’s tale and no-one else’s.
Cormac McCarthy’s writing is very vivid but sparse and not surprisingly very well received in literary circles. His portrayal of the ‘new’ Wild West is a measure of his own style and character and is very recognisable.
By the time hairdressing duties had been complete I had got so far into the book, I decided that I would continue after reading about Barney Thomson.
If you’ve seen the film you don’t need to read this review but suffice to say that the book is every bit as good as the Coen brothers’ fine opus.
The book is painted on the canvas of South West Texas near the border with Mexico and tells of mainly three individuals. Llewellyn Moss, a welder, who stumbles upon a big case of money at a drug deal gone wrong when he’s out hunting: Anton Chigurrh, a psychotic hitman who’s been engaged to find the money and Sheriff Ed Tom, the local lawman caught up in the trail of dead bodies while trying to find Moss and help him out.
The book runs very closely with the film and except for a couple of scenes and minor characters plays along on very similar lines. The characterisation of the three main characters is well drawn and brings these men alive. In particular, the character of Chigurrh is chilling. He plays as a man doing a job and if anyone gets in the way they will be quickly despatched without much debate. In addition, the way he deals with his injuries gained when going about his ‘job’ is very clinical and almost professional.
The denouement and ending of the film are very similar to the film and although I know a few people were disappointed with it, downbeat as it is. I think it was the best way for the story to play out.
The whole sorry tale of death and more death gives the background for the Sheriff to decide why his time is up and why he has no stomach for the kind of lifestyle law enforcement has now forced upon him. No wonder! You feel sorry for Moss, who is caught up in the trail of bodies purely by chance and wanting to give him and his wife a better life than the two bit trailer they live in. You just know he will meet his maker. The book tries to say that although his death is as important as any other, its just another corpse in the drug wars that are now rife in SW Texas. What’s more important is in the way that it becomes the final nail in the coffin of Ed Tom’s career, not the way it is visualised in the book or on the big screen. This part of the book is the Sheriff’s tale and no-one else’s.
Cormac McCarthy’s writing is very vivid but sparse and not surprisingly very well received in literary circles. His portrayal of the ‘new’ Wild West is a measure of his own style and character and is very recognisable.
You Don’t Love Me Yet by Jonathan Lethem
I got this as a Christmas present thanks to its inclusion on my Amazon Wishlist. It was place there on the strength of The Fortress of Solitude, a cracking Lethem novel I read a year or two back.
This book was a very different kettle of fish!
It’s set in LA that city of dreamers, of people who are looking for their break in acting, music, or whatever. It follows the life and loves of Lucinda, a twenty something wannabe who hangs out with her pals, Denise, Bedwin and Matthew who play together in an Art Rock band that are nameless at the start. Lucinda starts the book off trying to dump Matthew, her on-off boyfriend, again and manages to succeed despite a goodbye grope.
She is about to start a new job for art gallery owner/entrepreneur, Falmouth who has designed a new installation called Complaints. He had advertised a telephone number all across LA just calling it Complaints. He has employed Lucinda and others to man the telephone and take anyone’s complaint, although not doing anything about them. Neat idea?
Lucinda gets hung up on one guy who complains all the time and she bends the rules and gets his number, eventually meeting and bedding him. All fine and well.
But then she decides to use some of the one liners and words he uses to form the basis of songs she writes with the band’s songwriter, Bedwin. They end up writing a few numbers which come off really well.
Of course, they then premier the new songs at a party thrown by Falmouth and go down a storm. Its at the party that the Complainer AKA Carlton Vogelsong, hears his words being used and inveigles his way into the band.
The book goes on from there. Its not a very long read but is very entertaining in its own way and manages to say something about LA society (I think). It is very strange sometimes with its subplots. For example, Matthew takes in a maladjusted kangaroo called Shelf from the zoo he works at and looks after at while the zoo deny an animal has gone missing.
Some of the scenes are very handled and put across very vividly eg the party the band play at is quite exciting.
This book does make me want to read more Jonathan Lethem but when that will be I don’t know since my shelves are already bulging with unread boo
This book was a very different kettle of fish!
It’s set in LA that city of dreamers, of people who are looking for their break in acting, music, or whatever. It follows the life and loves of Lucinda, a twenty something wannabe who hangs out with her pals, Denise, Bedwin and Matthew who play together in an Art Rock band that are nameless at the start. Lucinda starts the book off trying to dump Matthew, her on-off boyfriend, again and manages to succeed despite a goodbye grope.
She is about to start a new job for art gallery owner/entrepreneur, Falmouth who has designed a new installation called Complaints. He had advertised a telephone number all across LA just calling it Complaints. He has employed Lucinda and others to man the telephone and take anyone’s complaint, although not doing anything about them. Neat idea?
Lucinda gets hung up on one guy who complains all the time and she bends the rules and gets his number, eventually meeting and bedding him. All fine and well.
But then she decides to use some of the one liners and words he uses to form the basis of songs she writes with the band’s songwriter, Bedwin. They end up writing a few numbers which come off really well.
Of course, they then premier the new songs at a party thrown by Falmouth and go down a storm. Its at the party that the Complainer AKA Carlton Vogelsong, hears his words being used and inveigles his way into the band.
The book goes on from there. Its not a very long read but is very entertaining in its own way and manages to say something about LA society (I think). It is very strange sometimes with its subplots. For example, Matthew takes in a maladjusted kangaroo called Shelf from the zoo he works at and looks after at while the zoo deny an animal has gone missing.
Some of the scenes are very handled and put across very vividly eg the party the band play at is quite exciting.
This book does make me want to read more Jonathan Lethem but when that will be I don’t know since my shelves are already bulging with unread boo
The Unknown Terrorist by Richard Flanagan
The Doll is a pole dancer working in a sleazy strip joint in the Cross area of Sydney.
This isn’t the most interesting pretext to involve a reader in what turns out to be one or the more interesting and unusual thrillers of recent years.
The fact that The Doll or Gina Davies to giver her her real name is a pole dancer gives good reason to think she is a shallow person who uses her body to make a living and in so doing so perpetuates male fantasies.
Fortunately, this book is so much than that. It is more about the modern media establishment and the way that the establishment is dealing ongoing issues involving the ‘terrorist threat’.
Gina has the misfortune to spend a night with Tariq, who becomes a terrorist suspect involved in planting suspect devices in the Olympic stadium. As it happens, he probably isn’t a terrorist and is just a small time drug mule who gets killed for his troubles half way through the book.
Unfortunately, Gina gets caught on CCTV in the company of Tariq and is identified by a TV hack called Richard Cody. This may be his revenge at her treatment of him in the strip club but his TV special is more about resurrecting his career than trying to catch a bona fide terrorist.
Gina leaves it too late to turn herself in and runs around Sydney while her back story is filled in and we learn where she has come from. Slowly, her bolt holes run out and she is left with one option….
The Unknown Terrorist is a chilling, worrying tale about the power of the modern media and the way government is dealing with terrorism issues.
Flanagan has crafted a well written book with a good case of supporting characters who are developed well enough but not so that they detract with the main tale about the Doll.
This isn’t the most interesting pretext to involve a reader in what turns out to be one or the more interesting and unusual thrillers of recent years.
The fact that The Doll or Gina Davies to giver her her real name is a pole dancer gives good reason to think she is a shallow person who uses her body to make a living and in so doing so perpetuates male fantasies.
Fortunately, this book is so much than that. It is more about the modern media establishment and the way that the establishment is dealing ongoing issues involving the ‘terrorist threat’.
Gina has the misfortune to spend a night with Tariq, who becomes a terrorist suspect involved in planting suspect devices in the Olympic stadium. As it happens, he probably isn’t a terrorist and is just a small time drug mule who gets killed for his troubles half way through the book.
Unfortunately, Gina gets caught on CCTV in the company of Tariq and is identified by a TV hack called Richard Cody. This may be his revenge at her treatment of him in the strip club but his TV special is more about resurrecting his career than trying to catch a bona fide terrorist.
Gina leaves it too late to turn herself in and runs around Sydney while her back story is filled in and we learn where she has come from. Slowly, her bolt holes run out and she is left with one option….
The Unknown Terrorist is a chilling, worrying tale about the power of the modern media and the way government is dealing with terrorism issues.
Flanagan has crafted a well written book with a good case of supporting characters who are developed well enough but not so that they detract with the main tale about the Doll.
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