Contemporary Reads: The Kite Runner

The Kite Runner is the first novel by Khaled Hosseini. I found the book interesting as I thought it explained quite well the contemporary history of one of the countries that has featured more prominently in the news since 9/11, Afghanistan.

One day, Afghan emigré to the USA Amir receives a phone call from his father's best friend, Rahim Khan, in Pakistan. This event prompts him to remember his childhood in Kabul, his fleeing to America via Pakistan after the Soviet invasion, his settling in America, his marriage to fellow Afghan Soraya, and the death of his father Baba. The most interesting part of his account is his relationship with his Hazara servant Hassan. Hassan and Amir were brought up together and were best friends. They are both motherless and raised by their fathers. Their friendship is nuanced by their different social class and ethnicity. Hassan grows up illiterate whereas Amir will eventually become a published author in the USA. The two "friends" are split after Hassan is raped by Hitler-admirer Assef while Amir witnesses hiding and does not intervened. Hassan and his father Ali leave the house in shame. Baba never does find out why.

Amir learns from Rahim Khan that Hassan was his half-brother and that he had left an orphan in Taliban-ruled Kabul. He rescues the child, Sohrab, from the twisted Assef who surely enough had ended up joining the Taliban. Amir adopts his nephew and with Soraya all three become a family in San Francisco.

Half way through the book we get a glimpse of the Afghan emigrant experience in the USA, which I found quite enjoyable too. However, what I most enjoyed about the novel are the first chapters that depict Amir's and Hassan's childhood in pre-Soviet and pre-Taliban Afghanistan.

I did not care much for the last chapters and the "not-without-by-nephew" saga which I found too much soap opera like for my taste.

Modern Classics: The Waves

Virgina Woolf described her book The Waves (1931) as 'playpoem' rather as a novel. It is in fact a highly poetical work and one of the essetial texts not only of Modernism but of English literature.

It is wise that readers follow Woolf's advice and approach this work as a poem. Once you accept that what you have on your hands is not a 'conventional' novel, reading it becomes a superbly rewarding experience.

Other books I have read by this author: Mrs Dalloway and A Room of One's Own.

Great Classics: Jude the Obscure

I have just finished reading Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure (1895). I can see how this novel was shocking to the Victorians but I found Hardy's pessimism almost unbearable. Although I started off really enjoying the novel, and found Jude's character extremely interesting and complex after he elopes with his cousin Sue I just found myself reading gradually becoming more and more depressed.

I have recently bought a few Victorian novels that I intend to read over the next few weeks (perhaps months). I suppose I am trying to fill in the gaps of my education. In that sense, I am glad I've read Jude the Obscure.

Contemporary Reads: Cat's Eye

Cat's Eye (1988) was the ninth novel published by Margaret Atwood. It is a Bildungsroman charting the life of painter Elaine Risley.

This novel explores brilliantly the complex relationship between a bully, Cordelia, and her victim, Elaine. We also get to see how this relationship changes throughout the years from the victim's perspective. As with all books by Atwood I read to date, Cat's Eye does not fail to impress.

Other books I have read by this author: The Robber Bride and The Blind Assassin.

Great Classics: Silas Marner

Silas Marner (1861) is George Eliot's shortest novel. It tells the story of a lonely weaver in the town of Raveloe in the early 1800s.

Silas is a foreigner in the community. In his home town of Lantern Yarn, he had been a prominent member of a dissenting church until he is set up by a friend and falsely accused of stealing. When he settles in the village of Raveloe he leads a lonely existence until one night Dunstan Cass, son of a squire, steals his gold thus unleashing a series of events that will change his life.

When Silas announces that someone has stolen his life's savings, the village people rally around him and everyone starts seeing him in a different, more positive light. Soon after the theft, while all the prominent people, including Dunstan's brother Godfrey, are at a New Year's party, a stranger woman who is on her way to the village with her baby girl dies in the snow. The woman, called Molly, who we learn is addicted to opium is Godfrey's secret wife and the baby is his daughter. Silas finds them both and takes the baby to the party in search of a doctor. Even when he recognises the baby as his daughter and Molly as his wife, Godfrey does not own up to this and keeps it a secret for years while Silas raises the baby girl as his own. He names her Eppie (short for Hephzibah, his deceased sister's name).

16 years later, Dunstan is found dead and Silas gold is retrieved and return to its owner. Dunstan had died on the night he stole it. This discovery prompts Godfrey to confess his secret to his wife Nancy. The couple decide to go and see Silas and Eppie to reveal the truth and to propose they adopt the girl. Eppie is shocked to hear this and refuses to be adopted as she feels Silas to be her rightful father and does not want that to change. The novel ends with Eppie marrying Arron Winthrop.

This is a moral tale or rather an educating tale where love, loyalty and roots are important values. The reader will noticed that Silas is not a Christian, he does not celebrate Christmas or recognise Jesus. He will remain unconverted throughout the book. In fact, he changes very little, it is rather others' perceptions of him that gradually change after his gold is stolen and fatefully 'replaced' by an orphaned child.

Great Classics: North and South

North and South (1855) by Elizabeth Gaskell is a love story as much as a socio-political novel. Like most novels of its time it was originally published serialised. This accounts for its length and also for the fact that each chapter (there are 52 in total) ends with a cliffhanger.

The novel tells the story of how a Southern English family ends up living in the fictional Nothern industrial town of Milton (largely based upon Manchester). After Margaret Hale rejects a marriage proposal from Henry Lennox, she and her parents move up North from Hampshire when her father leaves the Church due to 'his opinions'. Her brother Frederick is living in Spain after having been expelled from the army after a mutiny he took part in. He cannot come back to Britain for fear of being recognised and hung.

A few chapters in, there is a shift from the idyllic discription of rural Southern England and its gentle society to the harsh, unrefined, industrial Milton. Mr Hale becomes the tutor of self-made man and factory owner John Thornton. Margaret also makes the acquaintance of ill ex-factory worker Bessy and her father Mr Higgins.

Throughout the ensuing chapters, Margaret begins to appreciate life in Milton and to understand its social workings. Some significant events take place: there is a big strike, Mr Thornton falls in love with Margaret and Bessy dies. Mrs Hale herself becomes very ill and asks Margaret to write Frederick a letter requesting he comes to England at once to see her.

Mrs Hale dies during Frederick's visit. When Margaret accompanies her brother to the train station and drunkard recognises him and Frederick pushes him to the ground before boarding his train. A few hours later, the drunkard dies. When the police comes round to see Margaret she falsely denies her being at the train station that evening. Mr Thornton stops the police enquiry after the death as he is aware of Margaret's involvement. However, he wrongly believes Frederick to be Margaret's lover and shares this with his mother.

This event takes John and Margaret farther apart as the former holds a low opinion of the latter and the latter feels obliged to keep her secret for her brother's sake. She is also tormented because of her lie and because she thinks John believes her to be a liar.

Mr Hale dies in Oxford while visiting his old friend and Milton man, Mr Bell. Before Mr Hale's passing, Mr Bell promises him he will look after Margaret as he had grown fond of her during a recent visit to the North. Margaret moves to London with Auntie Shawn, cousin Edith and her husband Captain Lennox and his brother Mr Lennox. She learns that Frederick has got married in Spain and does not wish to ever set foot in England again. Upon Mr Bell's death, Margaret becomes an heiress and, in a turn of fortune, John Thornton's landlady (or landlord as it says on the book).

Mr Higgins, who is now working for Mr Thornton, tells him the story about Frederick's visit years ago. Margaret's character is restored on John's eyes and he travels down to London for their reunion on the final chapters.

North and South, like all Victorian novels, is plot-heavy so I have left out many plot developments. I believe, however, that I have outlined the main ones of this great classic.

Contemporary Reads: The Story of the Night

The Story of the Night (1996) by Colm Tóibín is set in Argentina during the 1980s. Its protagonist and narrator is Richard Garay, a half English Argentinian young man living in Buenos Aires.

The novel is made up by three distinct parts:

Much of the first part is devoted to Richard's relationship with her staunchly English mother, his casual gay sex encounters in the city, and his work as an English teacher. One of his students is Jorge whose father Sr Canaletto fancies himself as candidate to the presidency. By the end of the first part, Richard meets Jorge's brother, Pablo, who has just come back from California after 10 years.

The second part gets really political and I found it really interesting. In this part, Richard and Pablo start a relationship. I particularly appreciated Tóibín's erotic writing which made their relationship really believable and touching.
The thrid and final part is quite harsh as it is when both lovers find out, separately and after they have broken up that have AIDS. After a chance meeting at the clinic they find out that they both have it and move it together again.

The book has certain inconsistencies and some of the episodes depicted somehow lack cohesion. However, I did not mind this much as the novel is so moving and shocking and truthful to the male gay experience that I would put it next to some of the novels by Edmund White, Allan Hollinghurst or David Leavitt.

Other books I have read by the same author: The Master.

Contemporary Reads: Life of Pi

Life of Pi (2002) by Yann Martel became an International publishing sensation after winning the Man Booker Prize. It tells the story of how an Indian teeneager, Piscine Molitor Patel or Pi, survived a shipwreck in the company of a Bengal tiger.

The book is divided in three parts:

- In Part I, we learn about Pi's upbringing in the Indian town of Pondicherry. His interest in religion will see him becoming a Christian and a Muslim while still remaining a Hindu. Aside from religion, his other main interest is animals (his family runs the local zoo). Later in life he'll major in religious studies and zoology.

- In Part II, the family decides to leave India to emigrate to Canada. They sail across the Pacific in a Japanese ship with most of the animals on board. Amid much confusion, before the ship sinks Pi is thrown into a boat and is, thus, the only survivor. The only human survivor, that is, since on the boat there are also a zebra, a hyena, an orang-utan and a tiger! Soon the hyena eats zebra and the orang-utan and the tiger eats the hyena. Both the Pi and the tiger hilariously known as Richard Parker survive for many months and after a brief sojour on a meerkat infested island they arrived to Mexico.

- In Part III, two members of the Japanese Ministry of Transport who find Pi's story unbelievable. So he changes it just by substituting the zebra by a Taiwanese salior, the orang-utan by his mother and the hyena by a French cook. Finally, the Japanese officials decide to stick to the story with animals and it is the one that 'sounds best'.

This is a highly imaginative and shocking novel.

Contemporary Reads: Never Let Me Go

Never Let Me Go (2005) is the latest novel by Kazuo Ishiguro. It is the first novel by him I have read and got mixed feelings about it.

The book's premise is very interesting: in modern-day England, individuals are cloned with the purpose of using their clones to donate healthy organs. The narrator Kathy H. tells us about her upbringing in Hailsham (a school for cloned children) and her youth. The slow realization of what she and her friends were, the distorted vision of the outside world are very insightful. Once grownups they'll all be destined to become donors although some of them, like Kathy, will become carers for a few years first.

There are some rumours that the couples who are in love might be able to optain a deferral. However, towards the end of the novel we discovered that this was not so.

I find it hard to appreciate Ishiguro's style. His prose is plain but, unlike Orwell's, I found it so uninteresting I just wanted to get through the book as quickly as possible. A page-turner, certainly, but not in a good way.

Contemporary Reads: The Blind Assassin

After just a few pages, reading The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood turned into a near complusion. The prose just flows and this fantastic and unpredictable stroy of sisters Iris and Laura Chase is seems so effortlessly told.

There is a novel within the novel, entitled also The Blind Assassin about the secret relationship between a science-fiction writer and, we suspect, a married woman. For most of the book, I (and I'm sure most readers) thought this was an autobiographical accout of Laura's life.

The other parts of the book are made up by Iris's account on her life written for the benefit of her long lost grand-daughter, Sabrina, and by the contents of newspaper cuttings which illustrate perfectly what Iris is telling her and us readers.

We learn much about Iris and Laura's life from the upbringing in a rich family and their young adulthoods. How Laura becomes besotted with a young pinko, Alex Thomas, and hides him at the family mansion when he is accused of burning down their factory. We learn about how Iris marries Richard Griffen to solve her family's money troubles. Iris is only 18 at the time and Winifred, an old friend of Richard's, becomes a suffocating and controlling fixure in her life. She soons give her husband a daughter, Aimee. After the death of her father (suicide?), Laura comes to live with her sisters in Toronto. She is soon sent into an institution allegedly suffering from mental problems. She escapes and disappears for a few years.

All along, we sense their is something missing, Iris is keeping something from Sabrina and us. She reveals all, though, in the last sections of the book.

Only when Iris writes about her reunion with her Laura and her subsequent suicide (driving Iris's car off a bridge) on that same day do we find out the truth.

Laura had been living in Halifax all these years and had only come back to Toronto to await Alex's return from fighting in Europe. She explains that she had been pregnant when she was sectioned and had an abortion. All this had been orchestrated by Richard and Winifred. After hearing this, Iris reveals to her, that Alex died in Holland months ago and that she knows as she received a telegraph confirming this. She also reveals that she had been Alex's lover for a long time. At this point Laura makes off with Iris's car and ends up killing herself.

Before that, though, she manages to stop by Iris's house and leaves some note books. When Iris reads the notebooks she realises that Richard had beeded Laura and in fact the baby she had aborted was in fact Richard's. In turn, Iris's dauther Aimee was the issue of her relationship with Alex and not Richard.

Iris longs from her grand-daughter Sabrina to know all this. She has been brought up by Winifred as her mother Aimee was when she was taken away from Iris after her divorce from Richard.

A long family epic full of betrayal, secrets and longing excellently written by one of the most celebrated writers alive.

Other books I have read by the same author: The Robber Bride.

Contemporary Reads: The Accidental

The Accidental (2005) by Ali Smith is a dark, funny, dazzling novel. Every chapter is narrated by a different member of the Smart family or the stranger they let into their lives on a summer holiday in Norfolk, Amber -named after the Alhambra cinema she was conceived in.

The reader gets an insight into each character's personality, dreams and fears. Smith has managed to give them each their own distinct voice:

Astrid the 12 year old daughter: loves filming with her camera, is pretty much self-absorbed in her own world. Becomes besotted with Amber.
Magnus the teenage son: suspended from school as is involved in a bullying case which resulted in the victim's suicide. Becomes Amber's lover.
Michael Magnus's father and Astrid's step-father: English literature professor, womaniser who has affairs with her female students. The man who abhors clichés and yet manages to become one.
Eve mother, wife and fairly succesful author: suffers from writer's block and pretends not to know about her husband's escapades.
And, finally, Amber: we don't know much about her other than she manages to seduce all the Smarts somehow and is suspected of burglaring their London house.

Full of cinematic references from Bergman to Hitchcock via Richard Curtis, this book is original and daring and a damn good read.

If you want to read Jeannette Winterson's interview with the author, please click here

Modern Classics: The Passion

Set during the Napoleonic Wars, The Passion (1987) by Jeanette Winterson is not an historic novel. It is the product of a great imagination. It is the story of Henri and Villanelle - he from France, she from Venice. We follow their separate lives until they meet in Russia and together walk to Venice. We leave them when Henri is sent to a mental intitution for having killed Villanelle's husband and Villanelle has had Henri's child.

This magical book had me lost in it as one would get lost in the Venice, city of imagination, it describes.

Other books I have read by this author: Sexying The Cherry and Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit.

Contemporary Reads: The Light of Day

In The Light of Day (2003), Graham Swift deconstructs what could have been a run-of-the-mill detective story to create an originally suspenseful novel. Although the love story between disgraced policeman cum private dick George and client Sarah is slightly unconvincing I found this book compulsively readable in the whole. It is, in fact, rather brilliant.

Contemporary Reads: The Master

The Master (2006) is a wonderful novel by Colm Toíbín. It is a fictional account of the life of author American Henry James. On this portrait of the writer Toíbín has beautifully painted we learn much about his relationships with friends and family members, most notably with his father, Henry James Senior, his sister Alice and his elder brother William.

James's sexuality remains a mystery. Toíbín is clearly interested in this theme and indeed explores throughout the novel - and perhaps hinting at homosexuality. There are other equally important themes which are perhaps better supported by biographical evidence. Many of the themes expored in this book are the themes that interested James himself and, indeed, were part of his own novels and stories: mostly Americans in Europe and the relationship between England and America.

This novel is achievement both stylistically and in terms of its subject matter and the research involved in writing it. A thorough pleasure to read.

Modern Classics: Nineteen Eighty-Four

Nineteen Eighty-Four is a novel by George Orwell published in 1949. Like in Brave New World, we are confronted with a dystopic future. And like any dystopias, it is very much a product of its age: throughout the texts there are references the Nazi Germany and Communist China.

The setting of the novel is Oceania which is one of the three world powers - the others being Eurasia and Eastasia. Oceania is controlled by The Party whose leader Big Brother is worshipped. Oceanic society is a very rigid class-bound society where members of the Outer Party are controlled by those on the Inner Party and where citizens are systematically spied on to ensure to digression or unorthodoxy. History is permanently rewriting and generation after generation all knowledge of the past is being lost. The official language is Newspeak (a language designed to control its speakers) but English or Oldspeak is still the lingua franca. The country is permanently in war with either one of the other two world powers.

Winston Smith, the protagonist, is a rebellious man who falls in love with Julia and together they conspire for the end of The Party. Winston believes in a rebellion of the Proles who amount to 85 % of the population. However, both Winston and Julia are set up by Inner Party member O'Brien.

After their arrest they are subjected to tortures and interrogations. Any resistance is futile as the Inner Party has been spying on Winston for years and knows of all his crimes. Finally, he is taken to Room 101. In Room 101 each individual is confronted with his biggest fear. In Winston's case: rats. When at the room he shouts out that he'd rather they torture Julia instead of him, O'Brien returns Winston to his cell.

Once Winston is realised, he meets Julia who confesses she has been subjected to the same tortures and that she had also reacted in the same way. The novel ends with the sad realisation that the Party has successeded in controlling Winston's mind: he loves Big Brother.

Thanks to Orwell's wonderfully plain prose style and references to history and politics make this novel almost read like an essay. An very good essay on the politics of power. A must read.

Other books I have read by this author: Animal Farm.

Contemporary Reads: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (2003) by Mark Haddon won several awards and was even shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize when it was first published. Its protagonist/narrator is Christopher who is an autistic boy. Christopher decides to write a murder mystery book when he finds out his neighbour Mrs Shear's dog has been killed. He starts investigating the 'murder' and recording his experiencies on this book. Everything we learn about Christopher's life is through him. This gives the reader a precious insight into the boy's pathos in such an effective way that I couldn't help being touched by everthing that happened to him throughtout the novel.
Chirstopher lives alone with his father in Swindon. His father has told him his mother had died in hospital of a heart attack. However, we soon find out that she is alive and lives in London. She had been having an affair with Mr Shear and had now moved in with him. She writes weekly letters to Christopher that his dad has been hiding and keeping until Chirstopher is older. It turns out that it was Christopher's father the one who killed Mrs Shear's dog in a fit of rage. These two revelations frighten Christopher and make him decide to ran away to his mother's.
This is one of the sweetest most moving book I have ever read. A great crossover success for children's author Mark Haddon.

Contemporary Reads: Vernon God Little

Vernon God Little (2003) by DBC Pierre is a laugh-out-loud satire of modern day media-obsessed America.

Vernon Gregory Little finds himself as the prime suspect of a high school masacre in Martirio, Texas. The perpetrator, Jesús Navarro, killed himself leaving Vernon to be apprehended as accessory to murder.

Vernon travels to Mexico but is betrayed by the girl who loves, Taylor Figeroa, who helps media man Eulalio Ledesma Gutierrez to set him up.

After a farcical court case, Vernon ends up in the Death Row although a last minute pardon will see him 'back to normal' at home at the end of the novel.

Using J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye as a template, DBC Pierre's comedy in his first novel comes mainly in the form of malapropisms (powerdime for paradigm, nancies for nuances, etc), an acute ear for the vernacular, and plenty of adsurd situations.

Great Classics: Jane Eyre

Jane Eyre (1847) by Charlotte Brontë is one of the greatest novels ever written in English. Its heroine is one of the most memorable literary characters of all time.

Orphaned as a baby, Jane Eyre is taken to live with her uncle John Reed's family. After his death, his widow, Mrs Reed, soon sends her to a boarding school, Lowood. Jane leaves the school years later to become a governess at Thornfield Hall.

There she teaches the French child, Adele, who is the daughter of a late lover of Thornfield Hall's owner Edward Rochester. Soon, Mr Rochester takes a shine to intelligent and passionate Jane.

Jane starts noticing something strange in Thorfield from the night she rescues Mr Rochester for a bed misteriously set on fire.

Jane takes leave for a few weeks to go and visit her dying aunt, Mrs Reed. From her sickbed, she confesses that she has always hated Jane because she reminded her of her sister-in-law (Jane's mother) to whom Mr Reed was devoted. She also confesses that Jane has another uncle, Mr Eyre, who is rich and lives in Madeira.

After, Mrs Reed's passing, Jane Eyre goes back to Thornfield. Mr Rochester proposes to her and she accepts. The night before the wedding, an intruder comes into Jane's bedroom and ruins her veil.

Jane's happiness is short lived for on her very wedding day a lawyer and Mr Mason appear to ensure the union does not take place. We discover that Mr Rochester married Mr Mason's sister in Jamaica many years back. It was all a plot against Mr Rochester divised by his late father and brother as Bertha Mason (for that is Mr Rochester's wife's name) is a dangerous mad woman. She has been kept locked up on the third floor of Thornfield for many years.

Jane flees and ends up living with a vicar, St John, and his two sisters. At first she adopts the alias Jane Elliot but is soon found out by the vicar. It turns out they are cousins and their tie is their uncle who has just died in Madeira leaving his £ 30,000 fortune to Jane.

Jane, who has never had any relations that loved her or any possessions, suddenly finds herself with three cousins and a fortune to her name. She shares her fortune with her newly found relatives.

She stays with them for a year before returning to Thornfield. The catalyst would be St John's marriage proposal which would involve going to India with him as a missionary. Initially Jane, realising that St John is not in love with her nor she in love with him, refuses to marry him although considers going to India with him. However, after a few conversations with her cousin she is willing to consider marrying him until she thinks she hears Mr Rochester calling her in the wind. She decides to seek Mr Rochester before giving St John a final answer.

Upon her return to Thornfield, Jane finds the house destroyed by a fire caused by Bertha and hears that she was killed and that Mr Rochester lost his sight during the incident.

When Jane and Mr Rochester finally reunite, he proposes to her for a second time. The novel ends with them married - Mr Rochester having got his sight partially restored - and Adele attending a good boarding school.

The story is told as an autobiograhy supposedly written 20 years after Jane and Mr Rochester's wedding. It is a riveting love story in its core that has captured the imagination of readers and writers alike for decades. It has been extensively adapted to cinema and television and it has also known many prequels, sequels and retellings in recent years.

Books for 2007

I have been asked to publish the list of books I intend to read in 2007 in advance. So far I have a pile of books on my desk that I intend to read (and write about) on the next few months. Here they are in no particular order:

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing

Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon

The Master by Colm Tóibín

Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

The Passion by Jeanette Winterton

The Light of Day by Graham Swift

At Swim, Two Boys by Jamie O'Neill

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

The Accidental by Ali Smith

The Story of the Night by Colm Tóibín

The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood

As you can see, the list is quite varied and mainly reflects my personal interest in contemporary literature. Mostly, I will be reading 20th and 21st century books although readers will find the occasional 19th century novels like Jane Eyre.

This list is not intended to be a suggestion - I would never suggest books I haven't read. It is merely some information I was asked to make public by one of you.

Happy 2007 and happy reading!

Looking back: 2006

These are the best books I've read since August this year:

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
The Hours by Micheal Cunnigham
Enduring Love, Saturday and Amsterdam by Ian McEwan
Howards End by E. M.Forster

Contemporary Reads: Amsterdam

Amsterdam (1998) is the Booker Prize winner by Ian McEwan. A highly enjoyable novel set in contemporary Britain which, like all of the writer's novels I've read to date, is full of twists and doesn't disappoint.

Acclaimed composer Clive Linley and newspaper editor Vernon Hallyday have been friends for years. The novel starts with those two central characters assisting the funeral of their one-time lover Molly.

Molly had other lovers, among them the Foreign Secretary and would-be Prime Minister Julian Garmony a man for whom both Clive and Vernon share great contempt due his reactionary political ideas. Her late husband, George, is also held in contempt by them although in his case it is because he ended up with Molly.

Throughtout the novel, the friendship between Clive and Vernon is put on test several times: Vernon decides to publish pictures of Garmory in drag on his newspaper taken by Molly and sold by George. Vernon morally objects to this and makes his opinion heard by Clive. Secondly, while trying to compose his 'symphony for the millenium' in the Lake District, Vernon witnessed the rape of a woman but is reluctant to go to the police. Clive's paper has been following the rapist's story for months and he is enfuriated by his friend's attitude.

Clive is sacked from his newspaper for publishing Garmory's photos and Garmory's not only does not suffer from it but it away is enhaced. Vernon's symphony is set to open in Amsterdam when both friends reunite there. They end up killing each other by poisoning their drinks.

The brilliant thing about this ending is that it is totally unexpected and, at the same time, all the elements are there throughout the novel to make it the perfect ending.

Other books I have read by the same author: The Cement Garden, Saturday, Atonement, Enduring Love.

Contemporary Reads: Jack Maggs

Jack Maggs (1997) is a novel by Australian author Peter Carey. Set in 1987 London when Australia was a British penal colony where even petty thieves were sent to. Jack Maggs is one of such characters who, after being betrayed and sent to Australia comes back to England. Pretending to be a footman, he moves into Percy Buckle's house in London. His neighbour, novelist and mesmeriser Tobias Oates will soon reveal Magg's secrets and starts writing about him. Jack Magg has come back to London looking for a gentleman called Henry Phipps whom he regards as his son.

This is a worthy homage to Charles Dickens's Great Expectations. An exciting historical novel and literary fantasy. Guilt, shame for crimes real or imagined and the two main themes of this masterly book.

Modern Classics: Good Morning, Midnight

Good Morning, Midnight (1939) by Jean Rhys was a book way ahead of its time. Its protagonist Sophia Jansen is an English woman in Paris. The facts that the heavy drinking protagonist is a woman and that the book largely narrates her sexual encounters and loneliness is what makes this book both very unusual for its time and so very relevant to ours.

This probably also accounts for its being overlooked until it was republished in the 1960s. Even today Rhys is better known for her prequel to Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, Wide Sargasso Sea.

Modern Classics: Brave New World

Brave New World (1932) by Aldous Huxley is, like most science-fiction about the society of its day. It presents us with a dytopian vision of civilization where drugs and promiscuity abound and where the public is entertained by feelies - the equivalent to 1930s Hollywood talkies.

The novel is set on 632 years after Henry Ford brought us the first car manufactured solely by mass-production, Model T. The World State is a stable civilization where all citizens are test tube babies who are conditioned since infancy to take a determined place within society. World Controllers are ultimately in charge of this society where citizens are handed out a drug called soma and communal activities (including sex with as many partners as possible) are encouraged and where solitary pursuits have been abolished. All in the name of stability and happiness.

There exist Reservations where the indians live out of any contact with civilization. This among other reference seem evindence that Huxley got at least part of his inspiration in modern-day America, even though the book is largely set in England. One day, non-conformist Bernard takes, Lenina, a girl he is obscenely growing rather fond off - this is a world were monogamy does not even exist as a concept - to a Reservation. There they come across Linda who got lost many years before in a visit with the now World Controller, Mustafa Mond, and her son John (finding herself far from civilization she could not abort the child as any civilized girl would have done). John has a vision of the world he has obtained from reading the Complete Works of Shakespeare (something unthinkable in the World State) and listening to his mother's stories about civilization.

John and Linda are brough back to civilization. Linda dies soon after and after a confrontation with Mustafa, John settles down in the south of England as a hermitage.

Even though this novel is much less shocking now than I imagined should have been when it was first published, it is still a fascinating novel of ideas.

Great Classics: Howards End

Howards End (1910) by E. M. Forster (1910) is one of the greatest novels of the 20th century. As such, it has attracted a lot of attention from critics over the years and was made into a successful film in 1992. Some critics and general readers have felt uncomfortable by Forster's perceived elitism. Others have found the plot full of implausible coincidences. So let's start with the plot:

There are two families:

- The Schlegels: Margaret and her younger siblings Helen and Tibby.

- The Wilcoxes: Henry, Ruth and their children Charles and Paul.

The novel starts at the Wilcoxes' country house. Howards End, where Helen is a guest after the two families had met on holiday. Helen writes to her sister Margaret to announce her engagement to Paul. She writes then to explained the engagement has been called off as Paul is to set off for Africa. It is too late as Aunt Juley is already en route to Howards End to attempt to break off the couple to much embarassment.

Sometime later, the Wilcoxes will take an apartment opposite the Schlegels' residency in London. At the time, clerk Leonard Bast comes into the Schlegels' life when Helen accidentally purloins his umbrella at a concert.

Margaret becomes very close to the ill Ruth Wilcox and after the latter's death, she is bequeathed Howards End. However, Henry Wilcox does not carry out her late wife's wishes and does not even tell Margaret.

Years later, Margaret becomes engaged to Henry. Full of good intentions, Helen and Margaret try to help poor Leonard. However, some bad business advice given by Henry will see Leonard leaving his job at an insurance company for a worse paid one at a bank which he ends up losing.

Helen takes Leonard and his wife Jacky to the Wilcoxes' house in Oninton where it transpires that Henry and Jacky had an affair in Cyprus when Ruth was still alive. Margaret forgives this husband and decides to refuse helping Leonard by persuading Henry not to give him a job. Helen, thinking that Henry and not Margaret is behind this decision leaves England for Germany.

A few months later Helen comes back from Germany and Margaret discovers she is pregnant with Leonard's child. When both sisters are staying at Howards End, Leonard shows up, there is an altercation at his dies apparently of heart failure although Charles is condemmed to three years in prison for manslaughter.

Henry, Margaret, Helen and her baby end up living together in Howards End. Henry confesses to Margaret that Ruth had left her the house although this was never taken seriously by him because she had been too ill when she made her decision. He promises to leave the house to Margaret after her death and that Helen's baby must in turn inherit it.

So is the plot full of implausible coincedences? Yes, but I call that the artistic license. Is Forster an elitist? To use a very colloquial expression, so what if he is?

One of the truely important things about this book is the accurate and interesting portrayal Forster makes of the diverging forces at work in Edwardian England, represented by both families: The Wilcoxes are the Empire, capitalism, material progress and the Schlegels are Romantism, equalitarianism, social justice, culture. The abundant coincidences in the novel are the writer's intrument to bring us to the ending of the novel where both forces are finally reconciled.

Other books I have read about this author: A Room With A View.

Contemporary Reads: Austerlitz

Austerlitz is a strange novel. Its strangeness partly derives from its extremely long paragraphs, its pictures and its lack of chapters. But also, from the unnamed narrator about whom the reader will practically know nothing. This narrator will converse with Austerlitz over the years as the meet in different European locations such as Antwerpt, London or Paris.

We are told of Austerlitz's childhood in rural Wales where he was taken and fostered by a church minister and his wife before World War II. And we are also told about his youth and how he became interested in his origins only late in life. An only child of Jewish parents in 1930s Czechoslovakia, Austerlitz was sent to Britain by her mother, Agata, shortly before she was transported to Theresienstadt by the Germans. His father, Maximilian, was a Socialist politician who had settled in Paris. Most of this information Austerlitz obtains from his former neighbour and friend of the family, Vera.

This book is strange, moving and meticulously detailed.

Contemporary Reads: Beyond the Black

Beyond the Black is the most recent novel by British writer Hillary Mantel. Alison is a home counties medium tormented by the men of her youth (now in spirit). Colette becomes her live-in assistant after leaving her husband.

This book intruduces the reader in the world of mediums with an affectionate tone and a dose of black humour. The reader will discover the horrors of Alison's childhood: her mother was a prostitute who doesn't even kno who really fathered her child and her house was always full of disreputable men who abused her daughter. Alison castrated one of the men with a pair of scissors and took off someone's eye with a knitting needle. In adulthood, Alison tries to overcome her past by performing a good deed: sheltering homeless Mart in her garden shed.

After Mart commits suicide in the shed, Colette decides she can no longer live in the same house and work for Alison and, perhaps no quite surprinsingly, moves back with her husband after 7 years of separation.

The novel starts the summer Princess Diana dies and ends in the current climate of terrorism anxiety. I am not sure what Mantel was trying to achieve with the 7 year time span or the inclusion of events such as the death of the princess or September 11 but the novel is a good read.

Contemporary Reads: The Book of Evidence

Freddie Montgomery is the name of the narrator/protagonist of John Banville's novel The Book of Evidence. This book is his confession of the two crimes he committed, or is it. As it is all narrated on the first person in a highly subjective manner we never know how much of his account is real.

Freddie comes across as much remorseless as Albert Camus' Meursault in The Outsider. The first of his two crimes readers might feel inclined to pardon him for: stealing a Dutch painting that had belonged to his family until his mother ('the old bitch') sold it. His second crime, killing the maid who caught it in the act and his lack of repentance for her death make him one of the most despicable characters in literature.

This is a dark grim masterly written novel. It is the first of a trilogy: the other two books are Ghosts and Anthena.

Contemporary Reads: The Cement Garden

I know, this is my third post about an Ian McEwan book in a very short period of time. I promise it will the last for, at least, a few weeks. In my next few posts, I will be discussing The Book of Evidence by John Banville, Beyond the Black by Hilary Mantel, Jack Maggs by Peter Carey and Austerlitz by W.G. Sebald (although not necessarily on that order).

Going back to The Cement Garden, this short novel was the first published by McEwan in 1978. It tells the story of four siblings: Julie, Jack, Susie and Tom and their breavement after both their parents die in short sucession. After their father dies of a heart attack, their mother becomes very ill. She dies in the house and Jack and his sisters decides to bury her in the cellar. They are afraid they'll separated and taken into care.

The children live in the house undisturbed until Julie's boyfriend, Derek, is introduced. He becomes very suspicious about the strage smell coming from the cellar and soon finds out the truth. This is not revealed to the reader until the final chapter. In is also in the chapter than the sexual tension latent from the start between Julie and Jack is resolved when the lie together naked and he penetrates her. Derek, having witnessed the scence goes to the cellar to unbury the cadaver and calls the police.

Very disturbing but masterfully written as always. No wonder the writer used to be called Ian Mcabre early in his career.

Other books I have read by this author: Saturday, Atonement, Enduring Love.

Contemporary Reads: Enduring Love

This 1997 novel by Ian McEwan has been remarked as having one of the most beautifully written opening chapters in contemporary literature. Enduring Love opens with a balloning tragic accident in which Oxford professor John Logan dies.

One of the men who tried to save him is science journalist Joe who had been out on a picnic with his partner Clarissa. Later that night at their London flat Joe receives a telephone call from Jed Parry who tells him that he loves him before Joes hangs up.

Soon, it will become apparent that Jed suffers from de Clérembault syndrome or erotomania. Jed starts to stalk Joe and sends him several letters. At first, Joe keeps all this to himself for a couple of days until he decides to confide in Clarissa. Clarissa dismisses Jed as a harmless crank. However, as Joe does some research into de Clémbrault he becomes very worried about his own safety as he learns that people who suffer that condition may appear harmless at the start they always reach a point when they become violent and dangerous. Joe's preocupation is construed by Clarissa as obsession and, as a result, their relationship suffers and she eventually moves into another bedroom.

Joe travels up to Oxford to visit John Logan's widow, Jean. She suspects her husband was having an affair as she found the contents of a picnic in his car. She makes Joe promise that he will talk to the other witnesses to try to find out is there was a woman with John although he himself does not remember seeing her.

Back in London, Joe tries to talk to the police who also dismiss the case as Jed has not at anytime made any threats. Finally, Jed hires someone to kill Joe at a restaurant where he is with Clarissa and her family. Even after this incident the police fails to act appropriately.

Joe is buying a gun for his own protection when he receives a telephone call from Jed who is holding Clarissa hostage at the flat. When Joes gets to the flat he shoots Jed and calls the police.

In the final chapter we learn that John Logan was not having an affair. He had simply given a lift to another professor and his young student lover who were to afraid to come forward as witnesses as they did not want their relationship to be made public.

Enduring Love is a compelling novel. The story is gripping the style - first person narration - draws you in from the first line. This is a joy to read.

Other books I have read by this author: Saturday, Atonement.

Contemporary Reads: Saturday

Ian MacEwan's latest novel Saturday takes place on February 15, 2003. Much like James Joyce's Leopold Bloom in Ulysses or Virgina Woolf's Mrs Dalloway, we follow Henry Perowne's train of thought and actions for a single day.

Unable to sleep neurosurgeon Perowne gets out of bed in the wee hours of Saturday morning. When he sees a plane in flames coming down on Heathrow airport, he fears the worse - a terrorist attack. However, he finds out this is not the case as he catches glimpes of the TV news throughout the day.

On his way to a squash game, he is involved in a minor car accident with three men coming out of a famous strip club. Attacked by their ringleader, Baxter, Perowne suspects this shady character is affected by some rare neurological desease and gives him an impromptu diagnosis and mentions a possible experimental cure for it. This unsettles Baxter, who we learn is bound to mood wings due to his condition, and Perowne manages to flee the scene. He makes his way to the gym through the masses of anti Iraq was protesters in Central London.

After been beaten up on the squash game he goes to visit her demented mother in the home she lives in. He goes home and then out again to his son's Theo's blues band rehearsal in Notting Hill.

When he gets home, his daughter, Daisy - an about-to-be-published poet who lives in Paris - arrives home after many months absence. Soon, the reast of the family: Perowne's father-in-law, the celebrate poet John Grammaticus; his wife Rosalind, the talented lawyer; and his son Theo back from his rehearsal. Only that holding a knife to Rosalind, Baxter, forces his way into the house accompanied by one of his friends, Nigel. He has come to take revenge for his humiliation that morning.

In a scene of high tension, Baxter and his ally keep the whole family hostage in their living room. Baxter makes Daisy take off all her clothes which reveals her pregnancy unbeknown to the family until then. When Baxter discovers that she is a poet by seeing the proof of her books, he makes her read out loud one of her poems. However, she justs recites an old poem her gradfather taught her in her childhood. Baxter is moved by the poem and after a few reprises asks Daisy to get dressed and tells Perowne that he wants to learn more about the cure for his illness. When Baxter and Perowne makes it upstairs to find the information about the cure the doctor bluffed about, Nigel flees the scene leaving the rest of the family alone. Theo runs upstairs and him and Perowne managed to overpower Baxter and throw him down the stairs. This the end of the nightmare.

Later on that evening, Perowne is called to hospital to operate on Baxter. The novel ends early on Sunday morning with Perowne falling asleep in bed with Rosalind.

Like it's predecessor Atonement, this novel is one of great substance which is also immensely readable.

Other books I have read by this author: Atonement.

Untranslated Lit: L'étranger (The Outsider)

The Outsider or The Stanger (according to different translations) is a 1942 novel by French writer Albert Camus.

It is a very short novel written is a very straightforward languange which is probably why I have been able to read it in the original French.

The novel's protagonist/narrator is a pied-noir (an Algerian of European descent) named Meursault. The novel opens with news of his mother's death. While attending her funeral, Mersault shows not sympathy and is incapable of shedding any tears.

Soon after returning from her mother's funeral in the Algerian country side, Mersault starts an affaire with a girl called Marie.

Later on, he will killed an Arab when he gets into an imbroglio to do with Raymond, his friend and neighbour's ex-lover. He is trialled and condemned to death. One of the persecution's arguments for his guilt would be his blatant lack of remorse and the fact that he seemed indifferent during his mother's funeral.

Before his execution, Mersault will manage to argue with the chaplain because he suggested that he should turn to God. The novel ends on the night before his execution.

The Outsider has been classed as an existential novel and as such probably best enjoyed by teenagers than adults. At least, that's the feeling I got while rereading it and remembering how enthusiastically I had felt about it when I first read it aged 15.

Modern Classics: Foe

Foe is a short novel written by South African Nobel prize winner J.M. Coetzee.

Picking up on 18th century English novel Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe, it tells the story of a Susan Barton who became marooned on an island inhabited by a man named Cruso and a former slave that he calles Friday.

Eventually, all three are rescued although Cruso dies onboard before reaching England. Susan will ask author Mr Foe to write her story.

Among Foe's themes are gender and race relations, colonialism, and the problems of narrative. It is, therefore, a must read for anyone serious about literary fiction.

Other books I have read by this author: Youth, Disgrace.

Contemporary Reads: Atonement

This 2001 novel was written by British writer Ian McEwan. Its opening setting is the Tallis family's country house in Surrey on the hottest day of the summer of 1935.

Part One describes the events of that day and how they changed the lives of the three main characters of the book: Briony, Cecilia and Robbie. Briony is the youngest of the Tallis' children. A 13 year old with a fantastic imagination who fancies herself as a writer. Cecilia is her older sister who has come back from Cambridge with a third in English. Robbie is the son of their charlady who, being quite intelligent has had his Grammar school and Cambridge education paid for by Mr Tallis. In fact, he has also just returned from Cambridge although, unlike Cecilia, with a first.

Robbie and Cecilia had somehow fallen for each other. Robbie writes two love notes to her, one of them being quite graphic: "In my dreams I kiss your cunt, your sweet wet cunt." He gives this note to Briony and asks her to pass it on to Cecilia. Briony, who is upset because the play she had written for that evening had to be cancelled due to her cousins' inability to perform read the note. Shocked, from that moment on she will think of Robbie as a maniac who has to be stopped. This is only confirmed to her when she sees Robbie and Cecilia fucking in the library that evening and wrongly assumes that he was raping her sister. She will confide on her 15 year old cousin Lola.

Later on in the evening Lola's brothers, twins Jackson and Pierrot, go missing. Search parties made up by all the dinner guests, including Cecilia and Briony's brother Leon and his best friend Marshall and Lola, are sent out into the dark summer English night. Lola is raped that night outside while the search is still going on. She is found by Briony who, although she did not see the attacker clearly, falsely accuses Robbie of the violation. As a result Robbie is arrested the following morning when he shows up in the garden having found and brought back the missing twins.

Part Two is where we discover that Robbie ended up in gaol. He and Cecilia stayed in touch all those years and were reunited briefly after his release. She has become a nurse and he has been enlisted to go to war in France. On this part we follow Robbie's war experiences.

Part Three focuses on Briony. She has now become a nurse like her sister. She attends her cousin's Lola's wedding with her true raper, Marshall. Thus, we discover that is not just Briony who lied and send an innocent man to gaol but also Lola and Marshall who are now getting wed. After the ceremony, Briony visits her sister and tells her that she will confess to the police and her family about her terrible lie. Robbie is present also at that time. But why did she lie? This is not very clear but we do now know it was not out of jealousy.

In the final part of the novel, London, 1999, we found out that Briony has written what we have been reading so far. Her novel (and McEwan's), that echoes Navokov nd Virginia Woolf, is part of an act of atonement that will be completed once it is published after the death of everyone involved in the story. Everything in the novel is truth except for its ending: both Cecilia and Robbie died in 1940 and, therefore, were never reunited after the war.

Contemporary Reads: A Home at the End of the World

A Home at the End of the World is a novel by American writer Michael Cunningham.

It has four main characters/narrators: Bobby, who lost his oldest brother whom he worshipped when he was a lad and then his parents, and ended up living with his best friend's family as a teenager; Jonathan, Bobby's best friend; Alice, Jonathan's mum; and Clare, Jonathan's New York City extravagant roommate.

Every chapter is narrated in the first person by the character who gives the chapter its name. The novel is divided into 3 parts:

Part I describes both Bobby's and Jonathan's childhood and youth. It also gives us an insight into Alice's anodyne married life and motherhood in Cleveland. It contains the shocking moment of the death of Bobby's brother, Carlton, followed by the deaths of his mum and then his dad. In this first part Bobby and Jonathan's friendship develop and they have their first sexual experiences together.

Part II follows Jonathan's life in New York and introduces his flatmate, Clare. It also describes Jonathan's parents' retirement move to Arizona. About to be left alone in Cleveland, Bobby moves to New York with Jonathan and Clare. Soon, Clare will entice Bobby into bed with her and without never quite becoming an item they start their liaison. This will alienate Jonathan who will realise that he is in love with them both and will move out unannounced. He will reappear months later. Jonathan's dad dies on this part of the novel and it is Clare, Bobby and Jonathan's attendence to his funeral that would be the catalyst for their reunion. On their road trip back to New York, Clare annouces that she is pregnant and it is decided that the three of them will raise up the kid as a family. Clare buys a house in Woodstock and a derelict café, The Home Café, that Bobby and Jonathan will make theirs while she looks after baby Rebecca at home. The three of them finally form a family.

Part III sees the return of Jonathan's lover, Erich, who had appeared briefly on part II before Jonathan decided to dissapear. Erich is now very ill and starts spending his weekends at Woodstock with the rest of the family. Alice gives Ned's ashes to Jonathan. Clare decides to take her daughter and go away leaving the café and the house to Bobby and Jonathan. As Jonathan finally feels at home he decides to scatter Ned's ashes.

This is a very fine novel by a very fine writer. It has been adapted to film but please do not waste your time with it (I did). The movie version is a much lower product.

Other books I've read by the same author: The Hours

Contemporary Reads: Flaubert's Parrot

This book is a novel about a retired British doctor who is an amateur scholar on Gustave Flaubert. In fact, one learns a lot about the author of Madame Bovary by reading it. At times funny, always informed, this novel is a triumph.

The book's author, Julian Barnes, is francophile Englishman many of whose books are set in or inspired by France.

Other books I have read by this author: England, England.

Contemporary Reads: On Beauty

On Beauty is the latest novel by Zadie Smith. After the disappointing The Autograph Man, it has been great to read something at least as good as her first novel White Teeth. In On Beauty Zadie Smith takes on the Campus novel genre and, inspired by EM Forster and Nabokov, tells the story of two feuding academic families.

This book has laugh out moments but also raises some serious points about love, friendship, families, art, race, politics. It is rich in dialogue and Smith has a very good ear for teenage speak from both sides of the Atlantic.

For me the most exciting thing about Zadie Smith is not the fact that she's written at least two seriously good books but that her literay career has only just begun. I look forward to future books by this accomplished writer.

Other books I have read by this author: White Teeth and The Autograph Man.

Contemporary Reads: The Hours

The Hours is a novel by America author Micheal Cunningham. The book picks up on Virginia Woolf's best-known novel Mrs Dalloway. It fictionalises a day in the life of the modernist writer when she starts writing Mrs Dalloway and intertwines this narrative with a day in the lives of two other women: Clarissa Vaughan who is organising a party for a dying friend in 1990s Manhattan and Laura Brown who is getting ready for her husband's birthday in 1940s Los Angeles.

Cunningham moves enfortlessly between the decades in this imaginative and exquisite novel. It is an absolutely must read for those familiar with Virgina Woolf's fiction. However, I am sure that it can be enjoyed even by those who are not.

The book has been made into a film starring Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore and Meryl Streep. But despite the great cast I would still prefer the book and actually found the movie disappointing.

Contemporary Reads: A Boy's Own Story

Edmund White's novel, A Boy's Own Story, is the account of a gay teenager growing up in America during the 1950s. This Bildungsroman holds that being homosexual is merely about whom we fall in love with. The protagonist/narrator wants above all to love and be loved by a man. And yet he wants to be heterosexual. Although, I grew up in the 1980s and 90s I can utterly sympathise with his struggle as am sure can any other gay readers.

Is this then a book to be solely enjoyed by homosexual readers? Nonsense, this book can be read by people who enjoy The Catcher in the Rye.

Modern Classics: If On A Winter's Night a Traveller

Italian author Italo Calvino's masterpiece is a novel about novels. Or rather, a novel about reading novels. In spite of its apparent complexity shown, for instance, on the alternation between first and second person narrative, the book has a fairly simple structure: the odd chapters concern the novel's reader and the even ones are the first chapters of ten different novels the reader is reading.

I will not explain this further as I do not want to spoil it for readers out there. All I will say is Reader, if you are seeking a book that combines intellect and imagination, please read this.