The Sunday Salon – The Welsh Girl

I reckoned during last week’s Sunday Salon where I had started The Welsh Girl by Peter Ho Davies that I’d finish it within a matter of days, as it was a nice, easy to read story, but of course life gets in the way of books, so apart from a few snatched moments reading at a cafe and outside a ballet lesson, I didn’t really get a chance to finish it until today.

So now I can give my final impressions, The Welsh Girl by Peter Ho Davies is ‘nice’ (although the subject matter itself is not nice), set in principal in a Welsh village during the Second World, it tells the story of how the village responds to the arrival of prisoners of wars. Told from the viewpoints of Esther, a village girl, Karsten, a German prisoner of war and Rotherham an officer of German origin working for the allies, as with a lot of stories with differing viewpoints it can be a little piecemeal, I wasn’t totally sure what the point of the character of Rotherham was and he doesn’t feature for much of the story, I can only think that as someone who grew up in Germany but was working for the Allies he was meant to act as a bridge between the two sides of the story. The character of Esther, well I’ve heard alot of discussion recently whether male writers can write women and to be honest normally I don’t notice any difference, but Ho Davies’ portrayal of Esther did seem a little odd and at times I had trouble feeling sympathy for her. My favourite character though was Karsten, I thought he was really well done and I found it easy to be in the shoes of a German prisoner of war.

So in my verdict of The Welsh Girl as ‘nice’ where does it stand in my own personal Richard and Judy Bookclub rankings? To be honest I don’t think it was the best book of the lot, so here’s the final (as The Welsh Girl is the last of this year’s Richard and Judy list) list.

1. A Quiet Belief in Angels by R.J. Ellory – every page grips you, scares you and tears at your heart.
2. 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.
3. Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones – a lovely little story of bravery and island life, let down in my opinion by it’s final 20 pages.
4. Random Acts of Heroic Love by Danny Scheinmann – the description of the journey across Siberia is epic
5. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini – a very vivid description of life at a terrible period of time in Afghanistan’s history.
6. The Welsh Girl by Peter Ho Davies – a nice readable story
7. Blood River by Tim Butcher – non-fiction so difficult to judge
8. Notes from an exhibition by Patrick Gale – just not my sought of book, far too ‘cosy’.
9. 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.
10. The Visible World by Mark Slouka – I’m sorry, but for me this book dragged.

So in summary what did I think of this year’s Richard and Judy Bookclub list? Most of the books were really good and it was hard to judge between them, I only really did not like The Visible World and even that had some really beautiful scenes in, it was just the bits in between I had problems with. I can thoroughly recommend A Quiet Belief in Angels, The Rose of Sebastopol and Mister Pip plus A Thousand Splendid Suns and Blood River provide thought provoking insights into troubled parts of the world only seen briefly on news stations. Who do I think will win the British Book Awards Best Read of the Year? I’d like it to be A Quiet Belief in Angels, The Rose of Sebastopol or Mister Pip but I have a feeling it’ll be A Thousand Splendid Suns.

So now, ten weeks, ten books (actually I’ve read a few more than that), no more Richard and Judy to read, so it’s back to the Unread Book Mountain, which is a rather a nice feeling. I’m currently also mid-way through Stephen King’s On Writing, I’d heard so many good things about it over the last few months I had to read it. I still haven’t finished The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters and I’m not sure I will. I think what’s luring me the most is Sergei Lukyanenko’s Night Watch, now that looks good. Plus of course thanks to the Richard and Judy list I’ve got some new books to add to my ‘to be purchased list’ notably R.J. Ellory and Katherine McMahon.

The Sunday Salon – the middle of books, The Paris Review and ‘feeding the mind’

Not actually that much reading getting done today; I finished the excellent A Thousand Splendid Suns after a mammoth reading session yesterday as I literally could not put it down, so after such a fine book the thought of going back to my ‘inbetween read’ The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters which I wrote about last week (yes I’m still reading it, in truth not much more than I’d read last time) does not appeal. What is it about the middle of books? You’re past the intriguing set up and not quite at the explosive finale, I think it can easily be where a book fails. In my limited experience trying to write novels, the middle is always the hardest to write, a question of sustaining interest.

So deliberately not reading The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters, I’ve been reading a couple of interviews in The Paris Review interviews volume 1; Saul Bellow and Jorge Luis Borges. I like what I’ve read of The Paris Review Interviews so far, most of the writers come across very clearly as a likeable if neurotic and bitchy bunch, Saul Bellow’s personality didn’t really shine through though, perhaps because of the weeks of editing of the interview that had been involved afterwards, as described at the beginning of the interview. Jorge Luis Borges came across as very likeable though, we both share a love of epic stories.

Other than that I’ve been reading a rare (for me) copy of the New Scientist, I’m a scientist by training, well I was one pre-motherhood but I’m very unlikely to go back but I still enjoy reading New Scientist every now and then, I find some of the stories spark my imagination, to use the cliche, feeding my mind. Anyway what usually dictates me buying a copy is if the cover looks particularly attractive and this week’s cover got my attention.

The cover story, concerning whether political leanings are in the genes intrigued me, the idea that we’re genetically wired to vote the way we vote interested me. Obviously (as the article stated) there is no ‘conservative’, ‘labour’, ‘republican’ or ‘democrat’ gene but it showed how research is being performed that suggests certain possibly genetically linked personality traits keyed the person to be a Tory or a Labour supporter. Following the thought that if we’re all hardwired to follow one political party or another (loosely divided into the choice of liberalism or conservatism) was political debate worth it? It made the valid point that although the people competing for power may always disagree with each because it’s in their genes, political discourse can still provoke change, if you take the example the article used, in the middle of the last century they were debating whether homosexuality itself should be legalised and now at least the debate has moved on to questions about same sex marriage and same sex reproduction rights, proving that political debate is still worth it, genes or no genes.

The Sunday Salon – The Glass Book of the Dream Eaters

I’m not sure if I’m fully signed up for The Sunday Salon yet, I’ve filled in the form etc. but I’m not listed (as of typing) as a member, but I’ll join in anyway!

Today I’ve been reading The Glass Book of the Dream Eaters by G.W. Dahlquist, I started reading it last weekend but stopped to read the far more entertaining A Quiet Belief in Angels, but I’ve finished that and I’m now back to ploughing through the very long Glass Book (until I get tempted by another book to read).

I think the idea behind The Glass Book of the Dream Eaters is absolutely fantastic, styled like a Victorian serial melodrama, it was originally published in the UK in ten parts, I’ve just finished reading the sixth part. It is about a trio of adventurers up against an evil Cabal and reading the blurb it all sounded very adventurous, however in reality it is a very long story and although I understand why it is long (as like I said it’s meant to be mimicing the Victorian serial) it could have done with being shortened a bit, there is an awful lot of going up and down in trains / up and down windy country roads / up and down foggy city streets and then getting knocked out, which so feels like padding. It doesn’t help that I sought out some interviews online with Dahlquist, as initially I was very impressed with the planning I thought must have gone into this book, but then I read an interview where Dahlquist more or less said that he didn’t know where he was going when he was writing this (he wrote it during jury service and in twenty minute stints going to and from work on the tube apparently) and everytime I get to a protracted scene on a country road or a train I can’t help but think “he doesn’t know where he’s going”.

Each part features the adventures of one of the heroes (although they do meet up occasionally with each other), I really like the feisty Miss Temple, who I’d imagine if this were a film (and it reads like a film in part, the sort where they’d have filmed virtually all of it in front of a blue screen and coloured it in afterwards), I’d have imagined Miss Temple as Nicole Kidman. The hero assassin Cardinal Chang is also entertaining and I imagine him as Bruce Willis. The third hero however isn’t quite as entertaining, a Dr. Svenson who I’d imagine as Malcom McDowell. The sixth part which I’ve just finished reading features Dr.Svenson so it was a bit of a struggle getting through it and as I’d already guessed there was an awful lot of going up and down on trains and country lanes and getting knocked out. However I am determined to finish this book, I suspect / hope that it will all end spectacularly well and by the end I won’t be able it put it down but at the moment it’s that thought along with the fact that I’ve already invested enough of my time to read 393 pages of this book, are the only things that are keeping me going with this.