The Fiction Class

By Susan Breen

Arabella’s world revolves around her two main challenges in life: her relationship with her mother, and figuring out the ending to her novel.  Neither seems like a solvable problem, but her writing class, and the conclusions she draws about her students, at least gives her a starting point.

When she is told her mother is sick, she realizes how little time she actually has left to come to terms with who her mother is – and whether or not she’s up to trying to fix their relationship.

Interspersed with her writing classes and accompanying exercises (which I didn’t do, as I was too eager to get on with the story), the story of Arabella and her mother has an arresting appeal.  Both are flawed, both are stuck on their side of their arguments and both are unwilling to budge.

I found this book quite refreshing in that there were no perfect people; even Arabella and her conclusions about people where truly human – unbalanced and unfair, but able to be changed as she discovered more about the people around her.  To me, this made her more likeable, as she was someone that I actually related to, rather than the perfect, demure but strong heroine she was named after.

In fact, the only person I didn’t like in this story was Chuck, and for the same reason that Arabella herself was reluctant to like him.  He seemed too perfect, and there wasn’t really any progress made in understanding him, or why Arabella liked him.  I thought that the others in her class were much easier to understand, as they were as flawed and human as Arabella herself.

This isn’t the normal kind of book I go for, but I’m really glad I picked this one up.  It was well-written (as a book about an author would need to be!), and I really enjoyed it.

Rating: 4/5
Date finished: 23/11/12

The Last Sky

By Alice Nelson

This is the story of Maya Wise, who chooses to hide her stories between the other stories she stumbles across.  Left in Hong Kong while her husband pursues his obsessions in the desert.  She exists in a lonely haze of other people’s lives, and the feeling that she doesn’t belong.  While that’s something that everyone can relate to, to some degree, I found it difficult to understand the lack of passion in Maya’s life.  Her apathy made it difficult for me to sympathise with her, and I was much more interested in the story of Ken’s education in China that in finding out what conclusions Maya draws about her own life.

The tone of this book struck me as dreamy, and it was a relaxing read in spite of my impatience with Maya.  Hong Kong is presented as a true melting pot of cultures, and the contrasting memories of Australia, with it’s trees and sea views, and both places were as interesting as any of the characters.

Rating: 3/5
Date Finished: 14 November 2012

The Witches of Chiswick

By Robert Rankin

Robert Rankin truly is the master of ridiculously entertaining, hilariously funny tall tales.  In this tale, Will Starling meets The Lad Himself, Huge Rune, and is set the task of solving the impossible, while thwarting the most evil, most encompassing and most devious plot of all time.  All without paying for a single hotel room, and avoiding large killing machines with European accents.

Starling is a bit of a git, and his clashes with Barry were a bit of a mystery to me.  If a sprout lodged in your ear is offering advice, wouldn't you at least pause long enough to listen to his theory, what with him being right in your brain and all?  Although, if it was me, I'd be reaching for a long skewer as well, especially after hearing about Larry and what he got up to inside someone's noggin.

I liked this book; really enjoyed it.  Except for one tiny little niggle.  I'm used to Rankin's characters finishing an adventure with no sense of resolution or purpose, but I don't like that feeling myself, and the final few paragraphs would have had me throwing the book across the room in a sulk, if I hadn't been reading it on a rainy highway several hours from a room in which to throw it.

I suppose that's half the fun though...

Date finished: 22/10/12
Rating:  5 out of 5

The Poe Shadow

By Matthew Pearl

A nonfiction theory couched in a fictional tale of mystery and conspiracy... this book was much larger in scope than I'd expected, and much more intelligently written.  So many threads have been pulled together that I was a little surprised that I was able to keep up with the different names, roles and theories about each character.

Not being an American, I haven't had much exposure to Poe and his works, so much of this was completely new to me, but it was fairly easy to pick up.  I assume that this story has been written with the same formal style that Poe himself used, and once I got used to the slightly slower atmosphere, it was really enjoyable.

The mystery itself was vague, which wasn't a bad thing, and the pace was both steady and surprising.  Set in the nineteenth century, there was quite a bit about proper etiquette and the do's and don't's of civilised society, which was interesting, but it didn't detract from the progress of the mystery itself.

I did feel that the climax of the book was separated from the mystery a little bit - Quentin's own fate was far more interesting to me than Poe's, by the end.

Rating: 3 out of 5 - would read another book by Pearl, but not sure if I would actively seek one out.
Date finished: 08/10/12

Edit: realised I'd managed to mess up the rating...

What-The-Dickens

The Story of a Rogue Tooth Fairy
By Gregory Maguire

This book is two stories in one.  The first is a (possibly) post-apocalyptic 'real' world tale of a man and his young cousins.  It's serious and dire, and serves as a stark contrast to the main story, a fantasy tale about an orphaned tooth fairy named What-the-Dickens.  As this second story is being told to the children in the first tale, it's much lighter and clearly has a much younger target audience.

Although it deals with some pretty serious stuff (death, loneliness) it manages to do so without dragging the reader down, keeping it light-hearted and amusing.

Both tales are left with no definite conclusion, leaving you to wonder, or, better yet, imagine your own endings.  Utterly different to Maguire's Wicked, this book is loosely structured, enchanting and sweet.  It's easy to imagine this one as an animated movie.

My rating: 4 / 5

Something Wicked This Way Comes

By Ray Bradbury

I've never read any of Bradbury's book before, but this one popped up as a book club read.  It took me the first half dozen chapters to slow down enough to savour the way it had been written, and once I settled into the poetic, hazy imagery, I really enjoyed it.

I know that a lot of other, more talented authors have said a lot about Ray Bradbury and his writings, so I'm not going to try and describe the story itself - except to mention that it was different to in-your-face gory horror that abounds today.  Poetic, imaginative and beautiful, I thought it was superb.