The Visible World

I’ve been trying to keep up with Richard and Judy’s Book club and have done until The Visible World by Mark Slouka, I’m a day late and that’s because for me, for most of the time, this book was a real effort to read. Telling the story of a son’s effort to piece together his immigrant parents history in war torn Czechoslovakia, at times there were some absolutely beautiful scenes, notably when the main character was talking to another older character who could have been a friend of his parents or someone he met on his travels and they’d tell him tales about what it was like in Czechoslovakia during the war. Tales like a son recounting his father who collected bird nests or the man walking his dog. I also liked the description about what happened to the main character’s mother in the end, but between those beautifully worded pieces, it really dragged and was over described and some of the love scenes a bit cringe-worthy.

I’ve been keeping my own personal ‘best book’ list out of what I’ve read from the Richard and Judy list so far. it’s actually been pretty hard to judge between them, as they all are by their virtue of being on the Richard and Judy list, very good books in one way or another, however this is my up to date rankings.

A Quiet Belief in Angels by R.J. Ellory – every page grips you, scares you and tears at your heart.
1. The Rose of Sebastopol by Katherine McMahon – a very close second, it is deeply and beautifully researched invoking the sites, sounds and smells of the Crimean War.
2. Random Acts of Heroic Love by Danny Scheinmann – the description of the journey across Siberia is epic.
3. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini – a very vivid description of life at a terrible period of time in Afghanistan’s history.
4. Notes from an exhibition by Patrick Gale – just not my sought of book, far too ‘cosy’.
5. Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris – argh this is hard, I liked this book but Notes from an exhibition was more flawlessly written in my opinion.
6. The Visible World by Mark Slouka – I’m sorry, but for me this book dragged.