Review of Ghostwritten By David Mitchell

Ghostwritten was David Mitchell’s first book released to acclaim in 1999.

In similar style to his other books it is nine different tales linked together by a common theme.

Each story is based at a geographical location, Okinawa, Tokyo, Hong Kong etc so the book is like a circumnavigation of the world taking you from Japan to the US in 9 different stages.

Some of the stories are quite straightforward to interpret. eg the Tokyo tale is about Satoru, a teenage who works in a specialist Jazz music shop and his meeting of his love, Tomoyo, who is about to start her education in Hong Kong. Then the story moves to Hong Kong to an investment banker who has been caught with his pants down on some dodgy dealing.

All the tales in the book are interesting and moving in some ways, though sometimes they don’t really have a conclusion.

Some of the tales are really prescient. Clear Island tells of a future when the Americans are bombing the hell out of an Arab state in the Middle East and a young mother, Mo, is trying to escape American weapons manufacturers who need her to make their smart bombs even smarter.

At the end of the day, this book is about the human condition and how it manifests itself in different countries and cultures and how people may or may not deal with that. Some of these tales have a happy ending but for the most part they do leave you thinking, What if?

Although it is similar in ways to Cloud Atlas, particularly in the way the tales are linked, at the end of the day this is a very different book which deserves to be enjoyed for its own merits.

Review of Brick Lane By Monica Ali

Brick Lane was Monica Ali’s first book which was released to glowing reviews a few years ago. It was certainly a book that I noticed and had every intention of buying and reading. Things being the way they are this never happened until I picked it up in a second hand book shop.

Of course, all that meant was that it was there to be read but had to find a way of getting to the top of the pile. In due course, this was engineered by requesting it as a book to be read by the Book Group.

On a recent trip to France, I took the book and duly munched it as my SO would say. That’s not to say it was a bad book or a pulpy book. Far from it, however, the circumstances were such that I could read a lot when away on holiday.

The novel tells of the story of Nazneem, a Bangladeshi girl born in a small village near Dhaka in Bangldesh in the sixties. At the age of 18 she is sent to the UK to be married to Chanu, a Council Worker in Tower Hamlets in London. There is no argument with this, obviously this is expected of a Muslim girl.

They become ensconced in a Council flat near the eponymous, Brick Lane, where Nazneem learns to look after her husband.

Now, Chanu is a dreamer who likes to think he’s going places because of his education in Dhaka and continuning education with the Open University. He always talks of the expected promotion which never arrives. As they say, he always talks a good game.

Then Nazneem falls pregnant and gives birth to a baby boy. Everybody is happy until the baby falls ill and sadly dies in hospital.

There the first part ends. During the course of the narrative it is broken up with Nazneen’s correspondence with her sister, Hasina, back in Bangladesh. She starts off being married, then runs off to work in the factories of Dhaka. Hasina does seems to have a hellish time of it and Nazneen would dearly love to bring her sister to the UK.

After the baby’s death time moves onto to 2001 where we find that Nazneen now has two daughter’s, Shahana and Bibi. Bibi is the well-behaved, dutiful one and Shahana is the one with the attitude that parents all dread.

At this point, Nazneen starts doing piece work at home on her sewing machine to help bring money in because Chanu has walked out on the Council in disgust. Through this she meets Karim, who helps open her eyes on what life is all about and they soon engage in an affair.

Through the second part, Chanu is determined to return home because he feels has done his best in the UK and thinks that the grass is greener back in Bangladesh. You can see that the story is building up to this force trip back home and you know that Nazneen doesn’t want to go and neither do her daughters.

The whole story is also building up to social unrest in the area lead by Karim which end up in rioting in Brick Lane.

The story is very well written and is a fantastic first novel. The characters at time are larger than life, in particular, Mrs Sharma, the moneylender stands out.

Review of The Bullet Trick by Louise Welsh

The Bullet Trick is Louise Welsh’s long awaited follow-up to The Cutting Room, here seedy, melodrama about one man’s search for a snuff movie.

The Bullet Trick is a bit of a gothic crime story. It’s set in Glasgow, London and Berlin and tells the seedy story of William Wilson, a conjurer down on his luck and running for his life at the start of the story.

The tale is told in flashback. The background tells us that Wilson has been a conjurer for most of his adult life and it is something that he is very good at it. Unfortunately, he has his demons, drink, wanton women etc.

At the start of the story he is doing a gig at a club in Soho for a retiring policeman. During the night he gets involved in a long standing murder/missing person story and he is entrusted to an envelope by the club owner, Bill.

After the gig he travels to Berlin to work in one of the city’s erotic cabarets. Just after arriving he finds out that his pal has been found dead I the club with his lover, Sam. Wilson suspects foul play, in particular he knows Chief Inspector Montgomery who was retiring is involved.
He’s glad to be in Berlin and away from the spotlight.

In Berlin, he meets Sylvie, a bit of a vamp if ever there was one. She aids him in his act and leads him down the garden path eventually getting him into all sorts of bother. Ultimately, he gets asked to go one last version of his famous Bullet Trick to make a wad of cash. This he believes, ends in tragedy and he runs back to Glasgow to drink away his misery.

Fortunately, back in Glasgow there is something of a renaissance for young Wilson and it is there in the old Pantechnicon theatre that the story plays out.

This book is very well written and has an engaging though dour leading character in Wilson.
It reads in a very similar way to the Cutting Room and in some ways is a similar kind of book.
I thoroughly enjoyed it and do look forward to the next Louise Welsh story.

Review of the Steep Approach to Garbadale by Iain Banks

This book was touted as a return to form by Iain Banks after his lacklustre Dead Air. It was supposedly a return to the territory of Crow Road. Another family saga.hmm!

In recent years, I believe Iain’s best work has been in his science fiction efforts. In particular, The Algebraist, was a stunning effort and was just about his most readable work yet. As well as this, he produced, Raw Spirit, an amusing look at the whisky industry in Scotland which came across as a romp for him and his friends.

Garbadale (saves me writing out the title all the time!) is about the Wopuld clan, a large sprawling family who to put it bluntly are multimillionaires, thanks to a board game called Empire! ( the games seems to be similar to Risk). Everyone in the family seems to be part of the family business which was started off in the 19th Century by the great grandfather whose name I can’t remember.

The book starts off in the present and starts off in amusing style with Fielding Wopuld looking for his cousin Alban in a scheme in Perth. He the suave, sophisticated, wealthy businessman looking like a fish out of the water in this flat where Alban is crashing at the moment. A few years ago, Alban, was the blue eyed boy in the family business who suddenly decided that he wanted nothing to do with the family and wanted out to pursue a career in forestry. He disappeared for no-one to know where he was. Fielding had traced him to his current abode in Perth because he need his help to try and canvas the family prior to an EGM to discuss a takeover bid by the giant American software giant, Spraint who wanted to buy them out.

This in essence is the plot. My main complaint is that it is pretty thin and at the end of the book is pretty superfluous because even after the vote, it doesn’t seem to matter what happens and what Alban recommends.

Despite this, the book really recounts Alban growing up in the family estates at Lyncombe in Somerset and Garbadale in Wester Ross. In particular, his relationship with Sophie is probably the crux of the whole tale – their teenage affair at Lyncombe and its consequences.

The story is told as a linear narrative interspersed with flashbacks which works fairly well and keeps the reader guessing what might happen at the end except when you there you know pretty well what the twist is.

This certainly, is Mr Banks’ best ‘straight’ book in a while and for my money the best since Whit. I thoroughly enjoyed his prose and wit and some of the characters he created. In particular Alban is a likeable, liberal thinker who starts the book not knowing what he wanted and to be completely honest not entirely certain where he was going at the end. You know he wants to marry his girlfriend, Verushka (VG), but not able to because she doesn’t want that kind of relationship.

I didn’t really like Sophie or the way she came across and I suppose the twist at the end was the final closure needed to put a line under their childhood romance.

Great Aunts Beryl and Doris were a hilarious couple who we met early on when Fielding brought Alban back to Glasgow. They played a bit like Mapp and Lucia on speed. Very funny.

All I can really say is read and enjoy. Who needs a good plot to enjoy the maestro’s prose.

A short post script to say that it was nice that Mr Banks didn’t have to mess about with Scottish Geography too much when describing the fictitious area around Garbadale House which was supposedly located around Loch Glencoul north of the Inchnadamph Hotel. The only true anomaly was Loch Garve where Alban and Sophie went fishing.

Great Scottish Run

Just a quick note to say thanks to the SO for her kind comments about my performance on Sunday morning. On a personal level I was pleased to finish the race on under 2 hours but was a little disappointed that I faded quite badly two thirds of the way into the race and was not able to make any impression on previous personal bests. Maybe I'll have to stick to 10K races in the futureL:-)

Great Scottish Run

I'm so proud of Gordy! He conquered the Great Scottish run last sunday in great style and was very much still in one piece yesterday. I'm sure he'll tell you all about it.

Review of The Return by Hakan Nesser

Yet another in the procession of Scandinavian writers being translated and released in the UK/USA to be gobbled up by followers of the crime genre.

Not to say that this novel doesn’t bear comparison with the finest of Henning Mankell because it sits up there with his best.

Of course, this being only the second of Nesser’s books to make the jump to English (the first is Borkmann’s Point), they are not being brought out in the order they were written. I found this slightly annoying with the Wallander series but overall found that it didn’t diminish the quality of reading.

The Return focuses on the discovery of a headless, armless and legless torso in the woods by a bunch of school children. When the police investigate, after some work they find it is the body of a ex-convict just released after serving a sentence for murder and who had also served a previous sentence for another murder 30 years previously.

The main character in these books is Chief Inspector Van Veeteren who at the start of the book is just about to go into hospital to have a tumour removed from his large intestine, so he directs the investigation from his bed and his foot soldiers do all the leg work.

Although the book is quite dark in tone due to the Inspector’s serious illness, there is humour to be found. It is amusing that Van Veeteren is in constant search of a beer and a smoke. He even manages to get his beer in hospital!

The investigation proceeds along slowly while he convalesces in hospital. Then when he is released he is told that enough time has been spent on the case and that the investigation should be wound up.

Of course, Van Veeteren decides to proceed in his own time to finish off the case. The main reason being that he suspects that the victim as actually innocent of the earlier crimes and that his killer feared his own unmasking by him. Of course, Van Veeteren suspects the establishment of trying to avoid being look bad with a faulty conviction.

The plot is quite complicated but connects well. Van Veeteren seems an interesting character and I look forward to reading Borkmann’s Point.

Small point, it is not clear where the story is set although to me, the place names and character names do not seem Swedish. It could be Holland or…..

Review of Ten Big Ones by Janet Evanovich

What can I say about Stephanie Plum? Well….she’s an attractive, 30 something, Jersey girl living in Trenton with her hamster, Rex and her off and on policeman boyfriend, Joe Morelli.

Of course, the thing we have to swallow here is that Stephanie’s become a bounty hunter working for her brother-in-law, Vincent. Now, she certainly isn’t in the same league as Domino who we recently saw portrayed on the big screen and she doesn’t fall into the same league as Dog the Bounty Hunter who you can see on reality TV on cable.

To be honest, bounty hunting is a device to get Stephanie involved in a bunch of hair-raising escapades which raise a smile but also make you root for her when she’s trying to pick an FTA up.(Failure to Appear in Court).

The amazing thing is that Ms Evanovich has managed to sustain this series for what is now 13 books. I started losing the plot at Up to the Nines but recently received this one from the S.O. as a birthday present.

Although I probably won’t bother reading more unless they are gifted to me, I did enjoy #10. It has the usual humour and stupid behaviour of Ms Plum and the usual on/off romancing with Morelli and her bounty hunter colleague, Ranger.

Of course, half the stuff was unbelievable. I mean, why do you think a street gang called the Slayers would put a hit out on a harmless piece of fluff like Stephanie Plum? Or that Stephanie and two other women from the bail bonding agency would go and kidnap a gang member to beat out some information from him!

Of course, you always have her grandmother, Masur, and the big 1950s Buick to raise some smiles. In every book she seems to lose at least one car and is force to borrow the power blue '50s Buick. In this one, her car is written off at the very start.

Grandma Masur should get a franchise of her own. She usually has the best wise cracks in the book and her love of a good funeral goes beyond simple voyeurism.

I probably wouldn’t buy another but I still enjoyed this book very much. Possibly more so because I haven’t read one recently.

Review of A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

MP gave me this as a recent birthday present and of course as soon as they are received birthday books go to the top of the pile and are read first!

I knew nothing about the writer or the context of this novel but was intrigued since it was set in Afghanistan, a country much riven by war in recent years.

The book is essentially about two women, Mariam and Laila who are thrown together by tragedy and circumstance in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, and their marriage to the brutal Rasheed.

The story starts off in the border town of Merat and tells of the circumstances of Merat’s life there until the age 15. You know from the start that life hasn’t been easy for her. We quickly find out that she is a harami, an illegitimate child. He father is the wealthy, Jalil, who made one of his servants, Nana, pregnant. Obviously, this means that they have both been cast out of Merat, although, Jalil, does visit Mariam once a week. This is the highlight of Mariam’s week because life in their mud hut is difficult. Mariam dreams of living with her father.
Unfortunately, this is not to be and after her mother kills herself she is married off to Rasheed who lives in Kabul.

Soon after reaching Rasheed’s house, things are very different. First she has to learn to wear the burqa and obey his rules. She has to learn to look after Rasheed – cooking, cleaning, produce children. The last is more difficult and doesn’t work for them.

We also learn of the cruel temper of Rasheed. One time she doesn’t cook the rice properly and she is made to chew on pebbles as a comparison to eating uncooked rice. This off course damages her teeth.

At this point, we learn of Laila and her carefree life in Kabul with her family and her friendship with the boy across the way, Tariq. This contrasts greatly with Mariam and it is enjoyable and sad to read about her ambitions and crush on Tariq. Basically, her existence is carefree.

Of course, in the background, are all the political changes and invasions which tear Afghanistan apart. First the monarch is removed, then the Russians invade, then the Mujahiddeen destroy the country through their factional fighting and then of course, the Taliban take over with all that entails through the strict application of Shari’a Law.

It is during the Mujahideen fighting that Laila loses her parents and is taken in by Rasheed and Mariam. Of course, Rasheed, realises that he must marry Laila, to make it proper. She agrees because she thinks that Tariq is dead and buried. In addition, she realises she is pregnant to Tariq and needs a cover for this. Thus she becomes ‘indentured’ to Rasheed.

At first, Mariam hates Laila, because she has basically been replaced and Laila starts producing offspring and although her first child is a baby, Aziza, the second is a boy, Zaimal.

Of course, there are beatings etc. In fact, the story is brutal at times, making you wince.

It is during the tribal Mujahideen wars, that times get very difficult for all of Kabul, and when Rasheed’s shoe business gets blown up by a rocket, they start to starve. In fact, it gets so bad that they have to put Aziza into the local orphanage to be cared for.

I won’t go on except to say that it is not all doom and gloom in this book. It is a very vivid portrait of a country that has been going through the mill for a long time. The people portrayed have an immense amount of spirit and courage to go on in the adversity that they have faced.

Apparently, the title comes from an Afghan poem and refers to how Kabul looks when the sun shines on it. (Or used to!)

Review of Black Ice by Michael Connelly

The Black Ice is Michael Connelly’s second novel to feature the Hollywood detective, Hieronymous ‘Harry’ Bosch.

The Black Ice of the title is a new designer drug concocted from heroin, cocaine and PCP, which is being hawked in LA by a Mexican drug baron. I don’t know if its real or not, but it certainly sounds potent.

Harry hear over the wire of the discovery of the dead body of a fellow copy, Cal Moore, a member of the drug team. He knows he shouldn’t but decides to go across town to check out what has happened to him. His excuse is that he is vaguely involved in a case he’s working on, the murder of a known dealer, Jimmy ‘Kapps’.

As soon as Harry pops his head round the door of the apartment where Cal has been found, his chief is on him ordering him not to get involved, that the IAD team are looking into it.

When back at the station his lieutenant is on at him about trying to solve some cases because the numbers of unsolved crimes are too high, and then hands over the all the cases of one of his colleagues, Porter, who has requested a transfer. One of the cases is a dead Mexican, Juan Doe, found in a dumpster at the rear of a restaurant known as a regular haunt of Moore’s drug team.

The case continues to build up for Harry when he finds that Cal wasn’t a suicide as first suspected but was in fact murdered. After this he begins to put things together and connect his Juan Doe to Cal’s murder and thereafter to the murder of Porter, the lush, who Harry inherited the Juan Doe case from.

As the momentum builds up, Cal realises he must go down to Calexico/Mexicali on the border with Mexico to look into a company who sterilise medflies to control their population in California. This is the front he believes that is being used to smuggle Black Ice out of Mexico.
Calexico is also the hometown of Cal Moore and he thinks there are reasons there for the way Cal has behaved recently.

In addition, there is a very powerful drug baron, Zorrillo, who is based down there and is probably tied up with the whole story.

The book is quite complicated and does take its time to get to the denouement. I mean, there’s even a graphic bull fighting scene which I’ve never some across in a book before!
There are twists and turns and Harry is as laconic as he was in his previous outing, Black Echo,(cf). All very enjoyable.

Review of The Black Echo by Michael Connelly

The Black Echo is the first book in a sequence featuring the detective, Hieronymous ‘Harry’ Bosch. (Yes, he was named after the famous painter!) I had managed to get hold of a volume with the first and second novels to feature this particular detective some time ago, so I looked forward to meeting with him in this first tale.

Harry is a cop who’s recently been demoted to working in the Hollywood Division of LAPD and the book opens with him investigating the possible O.D. of a drug use at the Mulholland Dam. The body being found in a tunnel well know as a place for vagrants to doss.

When Harry arrives to investigate he finds that he knows or use to know the dead man, Meadows. Like Bosch Meadows was a tunnel rat during the Vietnam War. Although he had telephone contact with him recently, he hadn’t seen him in 15 years. He did know that the guy had a drug habit which seemed to be the source of all his troubles with the police over the last 10 years or so.

Harry isn’t happy about the circumstances around the death and doesn’t believe that it’s a simple overdose. Certain facts make him believe that Meadows was killed elsewhere and put in the tunnel in such a way to look like a drug overdose.

As he delves deeper into the case, Harry finds that it is linked to a robbery, a month ago, when a gang tunnelled into a safety deposit room in a bank and made off with the contents of dozens of boxes. Meadows used to be tunnel expert so it looks like he was involved.

At this point the story takes off and over 400+ pages it weaves its merry way across the Los Angeles canvas upon which it is painted. The plot is quite intricate and some would say convoluted. I disagree, I thought it was well constructed and never too long winded. In the first book of any new character, you have to give the writer some time to set out who he is and where he’s coming from.

If you’re interested the Black Echo of the title refers to the feeling the soldiers had when the entered the tunnels in Vietnam.

Onward to the follow-up, The Black Ice!

Corbetting in Knoydart

Looking down the west ridge of Sgurr a Choire Beith towards Barrisdale Bay

View from the top of Ben Aden looking east towards Loch Quoich and Sgurr Mor

Corbetting in Knoydart

We had planned for some time now to make a return to Knoydart. The S.O. had munros to do and I knew that there was a lot of scope for Corbett bagging. After discussions with a couple of friends we piled into our friend G’s Saab estate at the end of July and headed up to Kinlochhourn.

The forecast was for a generally bright day with showers. This sounded good for the walk in to Barrisdale. Indeed G and I planned to walk over a Corbett, Sgurr Nan Eugalt on the way in.

However, the typical, Knoydart weather had other plans. By the time we got to the end of the narrow, winding road at Kinlochhourn, it was grey and chucking it down. We sat in the car hoping it would ease off and as luck had it the rain stopped for us to get ready.

Soon after we set off and trudged along the coastal path. The path is scenic and in better weather, very attractive. Today, though, it was a trudge and took us all over four hours to complete. Never mind, the bothy was relatively quiet when we got there so we managed to get a room to ourselves to kip in, although H decided to camp to save money.

The bothy was slightly different from my previous trip in that there were now bunks in the rooms and there was no stove to keep warm at. It could be that my memory of 10 years ago are a bit fuzzy though!

After a quiet night and a reasonable sleep we woke to cloudy skies and drizzle. Not a good sign! The SO and I managed to struggle out of bed for breakfast and talked about what we fancied doing. I had my mind set on Sgurr a Coire Beithe, which was relatively near to the bothy. I think the SO fancied Luinne Bheinn, although I knew she would have problems convincing G to get up and go. Other people at the bothy had big plans; Luinne Bheinn and Meall Buidhe; Ladhar Bheinn; and one intrepid walker from Stirling even planned all three!

I left quickly leaving the others to decide what to do. Soon I was tramping up Glen Undalainn towards the Mam Undalain. Although the guidebook route was up the West ridge I wanted to make it a bit easier by sticking to a path for the first part of the day. The climb up to 500m was quite straightforward.

The weather was miserable. I soon had goretex jacket and waterproof trousers on which remained the whole day. At the Mam I wasn’t sure which way to go because of the cloud cover so I headed up in the right direction by compass, weaving around the outcroppings of rock which seemed to guard the hill. Not long after, I reached a 800m top which was due west of the summit. I then took a bearing and headed for the top which was soon reached, but of course there was no view.

One annoying thing I found during the climb was that the photochromic lenses in my glasses had darkened up even though there was no sun! This made the day seem even gloomier than it was in reality. Obviously, there must have still been a fair amount of UV light getting through the cloud cover to affect the lenses.

At the top, I took a bearing to descend the West ridge and promptly went the wrong way! I had put the compass away and thought I knew which way to go. 5 minutes later I looked at my compass and couldn’t figure out where I was. After thinking about it for a few minutes I decided to return to the top and try again. Thankfully this was easily achieved. This time I kept the compass out and followed the bearing. Despite my dipping confidence this turned out to be the right direction and I was soon passing over the 800m top I had intially passed over.

After some damp descent, I found myself coming under the cloud cover and could see the bothy in the distance. Shortly, after I was on the main track and heading back.

On my return, I found that the others had decided against an ascent of hills and had walked around the bay and also walked towards the Mam Barrisdale.

The next day dawned somewhat brighter and after breakfast our group split into two parties. The SO, H and G went to do Ladhar Bheinn and I set off to do Ben Aden, the Corbett at the head of Loch Nevis. This was a long day for me, and I hoped the weather would be better.

Biggest headache of the day is that you have to cross the Mam Undalainn in both directions adding over 700m ascent to the day’s total.



Halfway up the glen, a shower reared its ugly head and proceed to try and soak me. This didn’t help my mood for the day.

I got to the Mam and found that Ben Aden was clear and showing itself off well. There appeared to be a couple of lines on the western slopes where it looked possible to find a way through the crags. I didn’t fancy going all the way round to the east side of the mountain, so when I had descended a fair bit, I went to cross the river at the foot of the mountain and did a splash dash across it.

After wringing out my socks I sat and ate lunch contemplating my route. At this point I realised I had committed to the climb and wasn’t going to back out now. Up to then, the weather and boggy path had made me doubt whether I could be bothered going up at all. The day before I was totally scunnered with the weather we were getting.

Anyway, here I was at foot of a 700m climb rising steeply in front of me. Nothing for it but to go up! I started up and soon found the going difficult. The ground was damp, tussocky and treacherous. After a while I got to the top of a grassy ramp and found that there were broken crags all around me. Remembering back to my first sight of the hill I contoured to the right and found a line through the crags. I continued this way and was lucky enough to find a safe line all the way to just below the top.

I made the top at 1.45pm, just an hour and a half after starting the ascent. Now for the hardest bit, going down! I had been lucky to avoid the cloud so far and I didn’t want to get caught on the way down, thus making my descent doubly difficult.

I took bearing for the corrie at the back of the hill as this looked the safest way down. Although, there was a bit of scrambling and a bit of backward and forward, the route down was generally OK, particularly when you picked up the main river down. Fortunately, although the cloud was beginning to envelope the hill, I managed to beat it in the speed of my own descent.

Finally, at the back of 3, I made it to the main Loch Quoich path. I was about to give myself a rest stop but had promised that I would cross the river coming out of Lochan na Breac first.

Initially, this seemed to be too wide and deep to cross. However, a short walk downstream found a good wading point. With boots and socks off, I easily managed across. In fact, the water was quite soothing on my feet. This gave me another chance to wring out the socks.

Now for the hardest part of the day, the trudge back to the Mam Undalain! Although this was hard work, it never got too bad and for the most part I was able to keep going and make good time. Although it was still wet it didn’t seem quite so bad coming from the other direction.

Once at the Mam, I had a drink and a final look at the view. At this point, most peaks were clear, so it was quite a wide panorama I had. Looking at my altimeter, I noted that I’d managed to complete nearly 1700m of climbing that day. Biggest day for a while I thought.

After returning to the bothy I found that the SO had had to turn back on Ladhar Bheinn because of problems with her feet and that G and H had not come off the hill yet. In fact they didn’t get off the hill until 9,00pm, an epic day of 12 hours! I think if I was in their company I would have gone crazy at the slow pace. Still at least they were safe.

Of course, on the next day we had to walk out. Fortunately, everyone managed to get up on time and we left for 9.00am. The dry weather meant we made good time and managed to get to the end of the road for 1.00pm.

Review of Pompeii by Robert Harris

The destruction of Pompeii by Mount Vesuvius is a lesson most kids learn at school early on and can be quite vividly described thanks to the words of Pliny and also the architects that dug it out of the ash, pumice and lava that engulfed it in 79 AD.

Another view you might take is that of the classic BBC comedy series ‘Up Pompeii!’ which starred Frankie Howerd as the slave, Lurchio. This looked at the hedonistic angle with lots of double entendres, suggestive language and the like. Subtle it was not.

Pompeii, the novel, is a historical fiction set over four days – two before and the eruption itself which lasted two days.

It follows the struggle of the local aquarius, Attilius, as he tries to repair a breach in the Aqua Augusta, the aqueduct which feeds the whole of the Bay of Naples.

The picture that Harris draws of the Roman Empire ca 79 AD is very vivid and believable. The impression it gives is of a very civilised society that is happy with itself and its achievement. It is also obvious that in some respects certain issues are creeping into it that help to bring its downfall in a few centuries time, ie bureaucracy, corruption, complacence.

In the bookl, Attilius, is portrayed as a courageous, noble young man, who is there to make sure the job gets done no matter what.

After water starts drying up at the northern end of the aqueduct, he soon realises that there is a blockage further south and soon works out that this blockage is near Pompeii.

He assembles a team of workman, including the lazy, corrupt, Corax, and sails across the bay to investigate.

There he meets up with Ampliatus, the local proto Mafia boss, a freed slave who has Pompeii in the palm of his hand. Fortunately, Ampliatus is happy to lend him manpower and materials to help repair the aqueduct. At this point, Pompeii still has a supply so everyone is happy.

All the while there are signs that all is not well with minor earth tremors, rumbling and puffs of smoke from Vesuvius.

Obviously, we as an audience, know what’s going to happen when Vesuvius blows its top, but I suppose we’re rooting for some people hoping that they can survive.

Attilius manages to find his blockage and repair it before the eruption but decides to climb Vesuvius to find out what’s going on. Stupid idea you might think! At the top he finds the body of the former, aquarius, Exomnius, who died while investigating the volcano. At this point, Attilius realises, that Exomnius knew something was up and that Vesuvius might be about to erupt.

He descends the mountain and as he heads towards Herculaneum, the eruption starts.
The picture painted is awe inspiring and it has to be said besides earthquakes, volcanic eruptions on this scale are about the most violent thing that the world can produce.

At this point, its every man for himself and the whole bay starts fleeing.
Attilius decides he must get back to Misenum and find out what he can do to help.

Without going too much into detail the book continues with Attilius and Pliny attempting a rescue with the Roman Navy sailing across the bay. Unfortunately, this is doomed to failure and ends up with the fleet being sent every which way by the wind and the eruption.

The book ends as the eruption ends and it seems our hero may be dead or is he….?
After rescuing the bad guy’s daughter, Corelia, he holes up in the new bathhouse in Pompeii.
Legend has it that a couple was seen walking away from the ruins of Pompeii!


This is J adding a few comments as I've finished the book a couple of weeks ago. I liked it enough to finish it which is more than I can say about the last book group book. However I felt the book was generally too modern and out of keeping with the roman era. I read Pliny (older and younger) at school and felt the way he was portrayed very different from the way others have in the past.

Review of Redemption Ark by Alastair Reynolds

Redemption Ark is the second book in the trilogy which narrates humankind’s epic battle with the Inhibitors who are trying to ‘cleanse’ the Universe of all intelligence life forms.

The first, Revelation Space, was the first book I had read by this writer after a recommendation from a colleague. I have to say I was very drawn to the Universe that Mr Reynolds has creared. He has great imagination but also enough technological savvy to know not to go too far with some of his ideas. The fact that his day job was until recently a scientist with the European Space Agency obviously has its benefits.

First off, the second book in any trilogy has the problem that it is setting up the finale of the sequence. (Here that book is Absolution Gap, which is already weighing down my bookshelf).
With that in mind, I was looking forward to my re-encounter with Reynolds’ universe.

My first problem, was that I had forgotten much of what had transpired in Revelation Space, so I had some catching up to do with some of the storylines and characters, but didn’t take long because the story was very quick in getting going.

There are basically three plot lines followed from the start: 1, The conjoiners, lead by Skade, and their waging of the war with the Demarchists and her own ambitions to recover, the so-called hell class weapons. Initially, allied to the Conjoiners, there is also Clavain, an ancient (over 400 years old) who may be doubting his loyalties. 2, The Triumvir, Ilia and her friend Ana Khouri who are still parked in orbit around the Resurgam system in their plague infested starship, Nostalgia for Infinity. They are busy trying to evacuate the planet as well as trying to fight off the Inhibitor menace with the hell-class weapons, which just happen to be aboard their vessel. Only problem being, the mad captain who has been subsumed by the melding plague into the ship. 3, Antoinette Bax and her partner, Xavier, who run a merchant ship, Storm Bird, out of the Rust Belt. They become involved when Antoinette needs help being rescued from a Gas Giant where she was scattering her father’s ashes. That help happens to be Clavain.

It might all sound very complicated and I suppose at times it is. But this doesn’t get in the way of an exciting, intelligent, absorbing novel which does set up the finale but is a very good yarn in its own right.

This is the third book I’ve read by Mr Reynolds and I must thank him for helping me regain my interest in a genre I had mostly given up on except for the occasional tome by Iain M Banks.
I look forward with some anticipation to Absolution Gap.

Review of A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth

This is one of those book’s that everyone recommends you read and you put it on the mental list of must reads. It remains imagined until the point you actually buy it. In my case this was in a bargain bookshop in Beverley for a fiver. Part one accomplished. The next part is building up to it. A holiday is probably a good time but it is a very heavy weight paperback, which would be worthy of most airport stalls although taking up the best part of your luggage allowance.
So after sitting on my shelf for a year or two I decided to try and fit it in between two book group meetings (ish).
For most people this is probably the longest book they’ve read. In the edition I read it came in at 1470 pages long, which is much longer even than Lord of the Rings. It compares with that other well known Indian saga, the Mahabaratta.
Basically, the story is a soap opera about four extended families living in Brahmpur (a fictitious city) and Calcutta and in between.

The Suitable Boy of the title refers to the search for a husband for Lata Mehra who starts the tale off at her sister, Savita’s wedding to Pran. This succeeds in linking the Kapoor and Mehra clans.

The book goes on from there and introduces and draws in many different and interesting characters who all have a tale to tell and a different aspect of Indian life to portray.
For example, you have the sad tale of Rasheed, who initially, is earning extra cash to finance his studies through teaching Urdu to the daughter/sister of Saeeda Bai, local good time girl and chanteuse. Maan Kapoor has the misfortune to fall in love with Saeeda Bai and from the start dotes on her. Eventually, he agrees to spend a month in the country with Rasheed who is also teaching him Urdu. It is here that we first find the extreme poverty there is in India. It is also here that we see the contradictions of his life that Rasheed has to deal with and which eventually makes him crack later in the book.

Then you have the three completely different characters who are vying for the affections of Lata. First off is her fellow student, Kabir, who she falls head over heels for. He’s intelligent, handsome, dashing but most of all his is a muslim, which makes him totally unsuitable. As soon as her mother, Mrs Mehra finds out, she is packed off to Calcutta to spend some time with her brother, Arun, and his wife Meenakshi.

In Calcutta, she meets Amit, a poet who is one of the Chatterji family who live in Calcutta. He seems to be a bit of a layabout but is very charming and clever. He is contender number 2.
Finally, you have Harnesh, who is basically a shoemaker who ends up working for Praha Shoes in Prahapore. He is recommended by her mother and goes through the standard process of formal introduction etc.

All the way through the book you know it’ll end with Lata’s Wedding but you’re never sure who she will choose.

The Indian love of their religious festivals both Hindu and Muslim comes across very vividly throughout the story. Some of these end tragically. One with a mass trampling by the river Ganga and one with the collision of a muslim and hindu procession ending up in a full scale riot in Brahmpur.

A Suitable Boy is a very rich, vivid and colourful book that portrays every aspect of Indian life in the early 1950’s.

There’s even politics and law in parts of the book. The General Election of 1952 plays quite a large part and Pandit Nehru, the first PM of an independent India, even makes a guest appearance.

There is so much more to say about this book that I could write on for pages more.
Suffice to say that this was a fabulous book that everyone should read and enjoy.
As a post script, my only small quibble is the lack of an Indian glossary for some of the colloquialisms used which are untranslated. I should have written them down to find meanings but haven’t. So it was left to using the context to work out their meaning.

Review of the Princess of Burundi by Kjell Erickson

I was lucky enough to receive this as a gift from the SO recently and after the heavyweight that A Suitable Boy is, it came as a bit of ‘light relief’.

Having said that this was, of course, a crime novel from a newly translated Swedish writer, so it wasn’t going to be happiness and light!

The edition I received was an American one, so the spelling and language are aimed at an American market. This doesn’t really spoil the story unless you’re a pedant like me about language.

The story is part of a sequence set in the city of Upsalla, which is located just north of Stockholm. Hopefully, the books will be translated in sequence not like a more famous Swedish crime fighter located in Ystad!

The story’s opening is a bit disjointed but it basically focuses on the murder of John Jonson, an unemployed welder who is knifed to death and dumped in a waste snow facility on his way home after shopping in the week before Christmas.

It turns out that Jonson is a quiet, introspective kind of person who loves tropical fish and has been a bit of a bad boy in his youth and although his brother, Lennart, is still a bit of a wastrel, he is basically a decent person. His death widows his wife, Berit and he also has a sun, Justus.
In parallel case, there is a bit of a nutter, Vincent Hahn, who happened to be at school with John, who has gone off the rails and is attacking people and ends up killing a couple before he is picked up by the police.

The police investigation is led by Otto who is having trouble at home with his wife, Rebekah. This isn’t helped by his attraction to Ann Lundell, a colleague, who is currently on maternity leave.
The story moves quickly on and while the character who carried out John Johson’s murder and his motives take some time to come out, it is well thought out and plotted.

The only thing that doesn’t stand out in this books are the investigators. They come across as an efficient, well-oiled unit with several sketched in characters. However, no one person stands out as a lead investigator. Possibly, this is the intention with Ann Lindell, though in this story she is on the fringes until half way through. This may be because, we have arrived fully formed in the middle of a sequence of books as so often happens with translations.

Given these quibbles, the book is on the whole very good and well recommended to fans of Scandinavian crime.

Review of The Woods by Harlan Coben

Another year… another Harlan Coben thriller. Again, the theme is murder and disappearance in the past.

Some might say that he’s flogging a dead horse. I don’t think so. Although I do have some criticisms, for the most part this is another excellent, page turning thriller which delivers its fair share of thrills and spills.

Paul Copeland is a prosecutor for Essex County in New Jersey. His wife has died of cancer in the recent past and his sister disappeared from a summer camp 20 years ago along with her boyfriend and two other friends who were found dead at the time. Paul himself was a team leader at the camp.

Then Paul is asked by some New York cops to try and identify a body they’ve recently found. Paul identifies it as one the supposed victims from the camp all those years ago. This makes him think, maybe his daughter isn’t dead. This sets the ball rolling.

Meanwhile, he’s embroiled in a court case in which he’s prosecuting 2 rich kids accused of raping a black stripper. This forms the major subplot of the book and in itself is well told.

Some of Coben’s characters from earlier books appear in this one. Loren Muse, an investigator and the siren, Cingle Shaker.

All in all, the book is well paced and taut with the usual Coben humour. This brings me to my only criticism. Paul Copeland comes across as Myron Bolitar. Why? Is Mr Coben losing the plot and mixing up his characters? Never mind, that doesn’t take away from the story

Review of An Amateur Marriage by Anne Tyler

This was a Book Group selection that’s been sitting beside the bed for the last 4 weeks.
Since Book Group is this week I felt that I better read it.

Wasn’t sure if this was my thing. I’d heard of Anne Tyler but not read any of her books, putting her down (unfairly) as a chic lit writer.

Mustn’t grumble as I was happy enough when we picked the title at the last book group meeting.

After munching it over the weekend I found it a very interesting, rewarding book which gave a snapshot of an American relationship which ultimately was destined to fail.

The marriage is consummated after a whirlwind war-time romance between Michael and Pauline. He’s sensible, aloof and dour. She’s bright vivacious, emotional. Do opposite’s attract?

Yes and no. Here they do spark off each other a lot and through the numerous spats they have over the course of the book, you think – why do they bother? I suppose they lived in an age when people were expected to try and work out their differences themselves. Hence, the 30 years before Michael eventually walks out.

Given the emotionality of the core relationship. The book was very good at providing snapshots of suburban American life through the 50’s and 60’s. Each chapter moves the action on a number of years and quickly fills in the details of the intervening years.

Overall, I enjoyed the book a lot and would not be against reading any of Ms Tyler’s books.

Review of Travels in the Scriptorium by Paul Auster

What was Paul Auster thinking about when he decided to write this metaphysical, self-reverential piece of navel gazing?

The basic premise is that Mr Blank is locked up in a room with no window and no memory of what has passed before. He has a bed, bathroom, chair and desk. On the desk is a pile of photographs and a manuscript.

Mr Blank gets several visitors who I’m told have appeared in other Paul Auster’s books and who each impart some sort of information.

Through the book, Mr Blank reads the manuscript and then is expected to finish it which he does in a flash of inspiration. Then at the end he starts reading and it turns out it’s the same story that we’ve just been reading!

Although I’m a fan of Mr Auster, I didn’t particularly take to this book, mainly because I didn’t really understand it and also because it didn’t really have a conclusion. Fortunately, it was very short (130 pages) so it didn’t take too much of my time. Pity

Review of Mystic River by Dennis Lehane

Picked this up in Voltaire and Rousseau in the West End for 70p. I’d already heard of the film directed by Clint Eastwood which starred Sean Penn and Tim Robbins. In fact, we had rented it on DVD a few years ago and not been able to watch it before time run out.

The book was well reviewed given the blurb on its inside cover and it even had a sticker stating that if you were not 100% satisfied with the read you could get your money back. I wonder how many people got in touch?

The book starts off in the ‘70s telling of three boys called Jimmy, Sean and Dave. Two of them live in the poorer area, The Flats and the third, Sean, lives in the more well to do Point. (It’s never that clear but it is all set in the suburbs of Boston.). These boys are only really friends because their fathers meet up on a Saturday afternoon to watch the ball game.

Then an incident occurs which is to affect them for the rest of their lives. Dave, is abducted by two paedophiles, right in front of Sean and Jimmy and although he does return alive to his family, four days later he is psychologically affected as we find out later.

The book then moves to the present day when all three boys are now grown men with families and the various problems that can bring.

Sean has grown up to be a policeman. He is married but separated from his wife. Through the book he gets calls from her where she doesn’t speak at all. Towards the end we find out why.

Jimmy had a life of crime in his late teens and ended up serving 2 years in prison. His wife died during that time but he still had his daughter Katie. He was now married to Annabeth, sister to the notorious Savage Brothers. He was now running a successful convenience store.

Then you have Dave. He was married to Celeste and had a son, Michael. Although he was working, it was poorly paid and they were always struggling to make ends meet. They were both worried about rising rents and being forced to move.

Soon after the exposition of the story, we get into the mea. Jimmy’s daughter, Katie, is murdered on her way home from a night out with her two pals. This was in essence a hen party, because she was about to elope to Las Vegas with her boyfriend, Brendan.

At the same time as this, Dave, is involved in an incident with a ‘mugger’ and comes home covered in blood.

Of course, you know that Sean is going to be in charge of the case.

From this point on the story is a combination of the police procedural and dealing with the issues and emotions arising from the circumstances.

The book is well paced, moving and powerful in lots of ways and in my opinion was very deserving of the good crits.

As post script, I bought the DVD for £3 this week and watched a day after reading the book.
Have to say, that it was one of the best transfer of books to the big screen that I’ve seen for a long time. Sean Penn and Tim Robbins were excellent. Another feather in the cap for Clint Eastwood who doesn’t seem to be able to make a bad movie.