Showing posts with label Global Comment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Global Comment. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 15, 2015
Reading Notes: The Secret Chord
My review of Geraldine Brooks' fictional biography of King David, The Secret Chord, is up at Global Comment today. I'd be interested in your thoughts!
Saturday, October 17, 2015
Monday, September 28, 2015
Man Booker Shortlist Review #4 (Longlist #8): Satin Island
I'm over at Global Comment today, reviewing Tom McCarthy's clever, infuriating Man Booker shortlisted Satin Island.
Other reviews from this year's Man Booker list are:
Shortlist
A Spool of Blue Thread
The Fishermen
The Year of the Runaways
Longlist
Lila
The Green Road
The Moor's Account
The Chimes
Other reviews from this year's Man Booker list are:
Shortlist
A Spool of Blue Thread
The Fishermen
The Year of the Runaways
Longlist
Lila
The Green Road
The Moor's Account
The Chimes
Wednesday, September 16, 2015
Man Booker Shortlist Overview
My take on the Man Booker shortlist is up at Global Comment. Let me know your thoughts over there!
Friday, September 11, 2015
Man Booker Longlist Review #5: The Fishermen
I'm over at Global Comment today, discussing Chigozie Obioma's startling debut, The Fishermen. Check it out if you are interested!
Friday, September 4, 2015
Man Booker Longlist Review #4: The Green Road
Anne Enright's latest novel, The Green Road, is actually the sixth book on the Man Booker longlist that I have read, but the fourth to be reviewed.
Maybe this is because, unlike The Fishermen and The Year of the Runaways (reviews pending), I found this book not too difficult to either read or reach a conclusion about. That's not because it's lacking in complexity, but because the nature of its complexity is one that I can grip to more eaily than the mythic, scatological strangeness of The Fishermen or the mournful grimness of Runaways. Because, essentially, The Green Road is another story about family, and how it makes and breaks us - a slyer, more dysfunctional vision than Anne Tyler's gentle A Spool of Blue Thread, but nonetheless not a hopeless, helpless picture either.
The Green Road is the story of the Madigan family - to be more precise, it's the story of Rosaleen Considine Madigan and her four children, Constance, Dan, Emmet and Hanna. Rosaleen's husband, Pat, is present in the early part of the novel, but is never really a protagonist, and has died by about the quarter-way mark, thereafter only appearing as a symbolic figure in memory.
Rosaleen is a complicated, unlikeable, woman, with decided narcissistic tendencies and a parenting style that made me pale. Does she love her children? Yes. No. Some of them. Sometimes. Does she wound and damage them? Continually, and in ways that shape their adult lives. The book opens with her sustained hissy fit at Dan's announcement that he is going to train to be a priest - it literally is all about her, and her derailed expectations of favoured grandchildren from her favourite child, in her mind.
Dan's trajectory, which is taken up next in a beautifully described, achingly sad study of gay male New York culture in the 1980-90s era, both echoes and resiles against his mother's touch on his life, as Dan (who never did become a priest) finds his way painfully to his identity as a gay man. The context - of HIV diagnoses, illnesses and death - is never far from the forefront in this passage. Enright's unusual narrative decision to use not Dan himself, but one of his acquaintances, Greg, as the intimate third-person focus in this passage works extremely well.
Enright's consummate skill is on display as she head-hops from Dan's story back to Constance, the married-young, mother-of-three, carer-daughter left behind in Ireland. In many ways, Constance - in her late 30s / early 40s for most of the book's action - is the character that resonated most with me. Enright chooses a smaller, more intimate lens to unpick her story - one that's chillingly and ominously real for most people in their mid-life - as she follows Constance to a large public hospital to have testing done on a breast lump. Constance's fears and hopes are painfully present in this process, and at the very end of the book, Enright puts a nasty sting in the tail for poor put-upon Constance. (That's one of the reasons I describe this book as "sly" - it allows the reader to relax before sucker-punching you, more than once).
Emmet, the emotionally twisted, perennially enraged social justice warrior / aid worker, is probably the least accessible of the main characters, and I think this is by intent. I get a sense of faint amusement from the text, as if Enright is enjoying subverting what readers think they *should* feel - it feels weird that Emmet, who's actually dedicating his life to poverty relief and practical aid work in some of the poorest countries on earth, should be so much less sympathetic than hedontistic, selfish Dan, workaday Constance or even the feckless alcoholic Hanna. (He is not, however, less sympathetic than Rosaleen). His portion of the head-hop was the least engaging in many ways, and felt much more distant to me than did the other three.
Hanna, the family's baby, is an unmitigated mess, and in her the traces of maternal damage are easiest to see. Her untreated PPD and dangerous alcoholism both wracked me with sympathy and made my skin crawl for her care (or lack of) her infant son. Hanna's scars are out where everyone can see them, but that doesn't make her the only one carrying them.
At the end, though, this is only partially a story about individuals - it's really a story about a family, hairy and sometimes unpleasant and still bound, to their mother and each other, in ways none of them can really escape. It's staggeringly well-written - I would expect nothing less from Enright, one of the best Irish novellists of the last 50 years - and it's an insightful, lingering book, that stays with you in unexpected ways.
Is it a Booker winner? Maybe, maybe. It's certainly as good as any of the other six I've read, and better than at least two of them. I'll go out on a limb and say it will shortlist, but what happens past that is anyone's guess.
Maybe this is because, unlike The Fishermen and The Year of the Runaways (reviews pending), I found this book not too difficult to either read or reach a conclusion about. That's not because it's lacking in complexity, but because the nature of its complexity is one that I can grip to more eaily than the mythic, scatological strangeness of The Fishermen or the mournful grimness of Runaways. Because, essentially, The Green Road is another story about family, and how it makes and breaks us - a slyer, more dysfunctional vision than Anne Tyler's gentle A Spool of Blue Thread, but nonetheless not a hopeless, helpless picture either.
The Green Road is the story of the Madigan family - to be more precise, it's the story of Rosaleen Considine Madigan and her four children, Constance, Dan, Emmet and Hanna. Rosaleen's husband, Pat, is present in the early part of the novel, but is never really a protagonist, and has died by about the quarter-way mark, thereafter only appearing as a symbolic figure in memory.
Rosaleen is a complicated, unlikeable, woman, with decided narcissistic tendencies and a parenting style that made me pale. Does she love her children? Yes. No. Some of them. Sometimes. Does she wound and damage them? Continually, and in ways that shape their adult lives. The book opens with her sustained hissy fit at Dan's announcement that he is going to train to be a priest - it literally is all about her, and her derailed expectations of favoured grandchildren from her favourite child, in her mind.
Dan's trajectory, which is taken up next in a beautifully described, achingly sad study of gay male New York culture in the 1980-90s era, both echoes and resiles against his mother's touch on his life, as Dan (who never did become a priest) finds his way painfully to his identity as a gay man. The context - of HIV diagnoses, illnesses and death - is never far from the forefront in this passage. Enright's unusual narrative decision to use not Dan himself, but one of his acquaintances, Greg, as the intimate third-person focus in this passage works extremely well.
Enright's consummate skill is on display as she head-hops from Dan's story back to Constance, the married-young, mother-of-three, carer-daughter left behind in Ireland. In many ways, Constance - in her late 30s / early 40s for most of the book's action - is the character that resonated most with me. Enright chooses a smaller, more intimate lens to unpick her story - one that's chillingly and ominously real for most people in their mid-life - as she follows Constance to a large public hospital to have testing done on a breast lump. Constance's fears and hopes are painfully present in this process, and at the very end of the book, Enright puts a nasty sting in the tail for poor put-upon Constance. (That's one of the reasons I describe this book as "sly" - it allows the reader to relax before sucker-punching you, more than once).
Emmet, the emotionally twisted, perennially enraged social justice warrior / aid worker, is probably the least accessible of the main characters, and I think this is by intent. I get a sense of faint amusement from the text, as if Enright is enjoying subverting what readers think they *should* feel - it feels weird that Emmet, who's actually dedicating his life to poverty relief and practical aid work in some of the poorest countries on earth, should be so much less sympathetic than hedontistic, selfish Dan, workaday Constance or even the feckless alcoholic Hanna. (He is not, however, less sympathetic than Rosaleen). His portion of the head-hop was the least engaging in many ways, and felt much more distant to me than did the other three.
Hanna, the family's baby, is an unmitigated mess, and in her the traces of maternal damage are easiest to see. Her untreated PPD and dangerous alcoholism both wracked me with sympathy and made my skin crawl for her care (or lack of) her infant son. Hanna's scars are out where everyone can see them, but that doesn't make her the only one carrying them.
At the end, though, this is only partially a story about individuals - it's really a story about a family, hairy and sometimes unpleasant and still bound, to their mother and each other, in ways none of them can really escape. It's staggeringly well-written - I would expect nothing less from Enright, one of the best Irish novellists of the last 50 years - and it's an insightful, lingering book, that stays with you in unexpected ways.
Is it a Booker winner? Maybe, maybe. It's certainly as good as any of the other six I've read, and better than at least two of them. I'll go out on a limb and say it will shortlist, but what happens past that is anyone's guess.
Sunday, August 30, 2015
Friday, July 31, 2015
Man Booker Longlist: My primer
As indicated, I have done a bit of an overview piece on the Man Booker longlist over at Global Comment. Have a read if you're interested!
Friday, July 24, 2015
Reading Notes: A God in Ruins
I have a review of A God in Ruins, Kate Atkinson's companion piece to the wonderful Life After Life, up at Global Comment. See if you agree with my take!
Tuesday, September 30, 2014
How to be both
I am over at Global Comment today, reviewing Ali Smith's Booker-shortlisted How to be both. This is my fourth Booker shortlist review and my seventh from the longlist; you can see links to the others in the list below. I'll be getting a review of Richard Flanagan's The Narrow Road to the Deep North up soon, and will try to get through and review the final shortlistee, Neel Mukherjee's The Lives of Others, before the prize is announced.
Come chat over at Global Comment if you want!
Other Man Booker reviews:
J
Orfeo
The Dog
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
The Wake
To Rise Again at a Decent Hour
Come chat over at Global Comment if you want!
Other Man Booker reviews:
J
Orfeo
The Dog
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
The Wake
To Rise Again at a Decent Hour
Tuesday, August 26, 2014
Reading Notes: Orfeo
Review number 5 in my Man Booker Longlist challenge, of Richard Powers' Orfeo, is up at Global Comment today. My other Man Booker reviews are:
The Dog
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
The Wake
To Rise Again at a Decent Hour
The Dog
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
The Wake
To Rise Again at a Decent Hour
Monday, July 28, 2014
Man Booker longlist wrap-up
As promised, I'm over at Global Comment today surveying the longlist. Initial thoughts over there!
Monday, July 21, 2014
The Goldfinch
I'm over at Global Comment again today, reviewing Donna Tartt's new novel, The Goldfinch. Come join me there if you please!
Tuesday, July 15, 2014
The Swan Book
I'm over at Global Comment today, talking about Alexis Wright's incredible The Swan Book. Please come by and add your thoughts!
Wednesday, May 28, 2014
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
... is the name of a wonderful book I am reviewing today at Global Comment, but could equally well serve as the hashtag for my family's life at the moment. Hectic would be an understatement of epic proportions. There is barely space to breathe, never mind blog, even though I do have posts I want to write. So while I am constrained from being here, come read with me over there instead.
Wednesday, May 7, 2014
Night Games
I am over at Global Comment this week, discussing Anna Krien's book Night Games. Let's chat over there!
Thursday, April 10, 2014
Miles Franklin longlist
I'm over at Global Comment today doing a survey of the Miles Franklin longlist. I'm interested in your thoughts if you want to share them over there!
Wednesday, March 26, 2014
Reading Notes: Nebula short stories
I'm over at Global Comment today, talking about the short story nominees for this year's Nebula Awards. Hope you like it!
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