#am reading Christopher and His Kind  

Author: Christopher Isherwood

Discovered: Whilst searching for summer holiday reads.

Where read: (in part) Hotel C2, Marseille

What's the story?

Christopher and his Kind is a remarkably candid autobiography by writer Christopher Isherwood which covers the decade prior to the outbreak of the second World War. Isherwood brilliantly brings to life a World on the verge of extreme cultural change. As reader we are guided through a landscape populated by liberal intellectuals and sexual libertines along with characters we recognise including Virginia Wolf, WH Auden and EM Forster.

The Word's Shortlist view:

In a rare break from fiction I picked up a copy of this 1976 autobiography from Christopher Isherwood whose work I’ve enjoyed in literature (Mr Norris Changes Trains) in the theatre (Cabaret, adapted from The Berlin Stories) and on film (A Single Man). 

“I am a camera”, declares Christopher early in the book which creates a narrative through this part of Isherwood’s life and puts in to context much of the events and characters that had earlier appeared in his fiction. What’s unique is the casting of ‘Christopher’ as third person narrator; is Isherwood fictionalising himself through his memoir?

Perhaps not if, according to Isherwood, he decided in this book to renounce he former self-censorship and write a more accurate portrayal of the life he, and presumably his fictional alter egos, led.

Berlin was the source of much of his most famous work and this book vividly brings the city to life . The book however, goes beyond Berlin and takes us to Denmark and even China - parts that were excluded from the TV adaptation of the book starring Matt Smith.

What does all this mean to a reader in post-Bohemian 2015? If nothing more this book demonstrates why Christopher Isherwood and his kind deserve profound credit for  trail-blazing stories of unconventional love and loss. Where would we be now without Christopher and his kind?

Who should read this book?

Anyone interested in looking behind the typewriter and understanding the life of a great 20th Century writer.

What’s next on the bookshelf

Worst Person Ever by Douglas Coupland

Tweet of the week:

Celebrating old school #bond on the day of the #Spectre trailer release #007 

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#am reading The Bees  

Author: Laline Paull

Discovered: The Book Shop, Thame

Where read: (in part) Ponte du Roucas Blanc, La Corniche, Marseille

What's the story?

Flora 717 is a lower class subordinate worker devoted to a life of servitude and obedience to the system.  “Accept, Obey and Serve” is the constant daily mantra heard throughout the teeming colony. Unlike the rest of her kin, Flora 717 is identified and exploited by her mentor Sister Sage who sees Flora rise through the ranks until within reach of the Queen herself. This is a classic Cinderella story set, almost unbelievably, within a bee Hive. 

The Word's Shortlist view:

This is a hugely original novel that weaves together fairy tale, fantasy and science fiction. Paull set for herself an enormous challenge writing an entire novel with only bees, and other insects, as characters. Furthermore, the story takes place almost completely within the microcosm of the hive.

Flora 717 is a strong female lead who challenges the system, takes risks and squeezes every drop of honey out of life like any classic literary heroine. From mother to warrior Flora leads the plot forward at break neck speed with drama at every turn. No surprise that this novel was shortlisted for the Baileys’ Women’s Prize for Fiction 2015. 

Whilst the novel contains all the qualities of a fantasy adventure story the trouble is that the characters are almost impossible to empathise with. As a short story or novella this might not be an issue but over the course of a full novel it gets tiring. Undoubtedly a brilliant idea but one that gets too caught up it its own originality during the second half. Writers like Margaret Atwood use devices to make fantasy worlds feel more authentic and palpable.

Unique and original in setting but falls short in terms of real story telling. 

Who should read this book?

Fans of science fiction or anyone interested in the Baileys' shortlisted titles this year (on the whole they're a great, see more here).

What’s next on the bookshelf

Christopher and His Kind by Christopher Isherwood

Tweet of the week:

Visit #Marseille book lovers... http://wordsshortlist.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/a-bookish-photo-tour-of-marseille.html?m=1 …  

'That book guy', tweeting mainly about fiction and reading but with occasional sidebars into art, Japanese culture and architecture

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A bookish photo tour of Marseille...


"... Marseille, a fact to be strongly smelt and tasted, lay broiling in the sun one day" Charles Dickens description of Marseille in the opening chapter of Little Dorrit (1857)

Booksellers in the Places des l'Huiles 'Happy Market'

The street bookshelves of Le Panier district

Promotion for the forthcoming 'Lire en short' Festival of Fiction

A great art and design book shop on the 3rd floor of Le Corbusier's Cite Radieuse development

Chateau d'If is a crucial setting in Alexandre Dumas Le Comte de Monte Christo and can be seen just off the coast of the city

Love these guidebook/fiction mash ups created by SNCF and Le Monde. This one is La bas c'est Marseille by Jeremie Guez

Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage

Now out in paperback, Murakami's latest novel may be a world away from the mega hit 1Q84 but don't ignore the apparent realism of this story, what lurks beneath are all the hallmarks of classic Murakami.

The central plot of this neat story is Tsukuru's search to understand why his four closest school friends suddenly, and without warning, give up all communication. Cue themes of rejection, loneliness and solitary reflection which run through so much Japanese fiction.

What's different here are the Murakami motifs which recur over and over; the soundtrack (in this case Liszt's 'Le Mal du Pays'), surreal dream sequences and characters with profoundly deep emotions. Note: You won't find any talking cats this time I'm afraid.

Nevertheless, reasons to love this novel are plenty, put simply this is the perfect blend of the mundane and the mystical, the everyday and the enigmatic. Murakami novels are inhabited by people consumed equally by the routine of domestic chores and the fantasy of the alternative.

Tsukuru Tazaki may not have the allure of 1Q84's Tengo or the charm of Kafka in Kafka on the Shore but seen alongside Norwegian Wood's Turu Watanabe you'll find the typical alienated male figure that makes Murakami's world so compelling. Tsukuru is like a blank canvas that readers must project themselves onto.

Complex relationships shed light on real grown up anxiety that's as much a global theme as a Japanese predilection. In the past Murakami has been celebrated for giving voice to a subcultural generation but now, selling as many copies as Harry Potter, the subculture has gone mainstream.

Look out for Finnair's Murakami themed itineraries in the Narita to Helsinki in flight magazine, coming soon!

Now out in paperback! Make sure you pack in your hand luggage as you'll want to get started as soon as you arrive at the airport!

 

Joel Dicker’s novel is a slick literary crime thriller that brilliantly weaves together two story lines. The novel was so successful in French language markets that not only was it lauded with awards but can even claim to have knocked Fifty Shades off the best seller list!

Celebrated writer Harry Quebert is the only suspect in the murder, some 33 years earlier, of Nola Kellergan. There are echoes of Nobokov's Lolita in both the nature of the relationship between the two and the New England setting. Central to the plot, and the case against Quebert, is that the body of the 15 year old Nola is found buried in his own garden along with a manuscript copy of the novel he was to become famous for.

Marcus Goldman is Quebert’s protégé and a successful young novelist living in New York. Suffering from serious second novel writer’s block Goldman commits to travelling to New England to help clear his mentor’s name. Both characters are hugely self-absorbed and indulgent but the perfect ingredients for a crime fiction page turner!

The novel is fast paced with enough twists and turns to keep you reading to the end and finely plotted throughout. The story is packed full of insight into the writing process and the angst of living up to the expectation of being a critically successful literary genius. Whilst this might border on pretentious in places it certainly makes a great read for bibliophiles.

Last Summer's hot poolside read had a distinctly citrus flavour...

Helen Walsh's The Lemon Grove should come with clear instructions for the reader....

#1 To be read only whilst laying by the pool/sea and only whilst the sun is shining

#2 Drink three Margaritas before you even turn the first page

#3 Pack at least a couple of other reads as this is a very short novel indeed

Adhere to these instructions and The Lemon Grove may just be the scorching hot summer holiday romp that the publicity promises - and there's nothing wrong with that.

Unfortunately, reading this (very short) novel in climes any cooler than Mediterranean and you're in for a less than sizzling read.

The story concerns a married couple holidaying in Majorca whose lives are turned upside down by the arrival of the couples' Daughter (actually the protagonist Jenn's step-daughter) and her bit of rough boyfriend Nathan. From the off Jenn is consumed by an obsession for Nathan that, whilst not totally far-fetched, is actually quite far fetched.

The novel careers towards an inevitable 'climax' that sees Jenn come face to face with the reality of an illicit affair and her own closest family relationships. 

Other than Jenn's carnal passions for Nathan, and her fondness for local craft markets, we learn little more about her which is one of the novel's weaknesses. More frustrating is the portrayal of the male characters. Greg, Jenn's Husband, is inexplicably boring and Nathan's supposed irresistible charm is essentially conjured as a sexy body and Northern accent. But perhaps this critique of sketchy characters and thin plots is actually missing the point?

The Lemon Grove will certainly deliver as a raunchy holiday poolside read and will probably be recommended and shared until the chilly Autumn!

#am reading The Paying Guests

Author: Sarah Waters

Discovered: Foyles, Waterloo station

Where read: (in part) The 15:55 from Victoria to Maidstone

What's the story?

In the aftermath of WWI Frances and her Mother are forced to take in lodgers to their suburban home in South London. As a young professional couple, The Barbers, move in Frances must come to terms with the life changing consequences of sharing her home with other adults.  

The Word's Shortlist view:

Though Sarah Water’s is well established as a writer of contemporary fiction The Paying Guests is the first Waters novel I have read and reviewed. First impressions? Beautifully written, well structured and perfectly captures the post war period with grieving and dismayed people (most often women) adjusting to a new world.

The first half of the story sees Frances’s infatuation with lodger Lillian Barber turn into a visceral and physical relationship as picnics in the park turn to parties and snatched moments of intimacy on the landing. “What did she want? Frances couldn't tell......There had been too much dancing back and forth.” 

Waters expertly builds the tension as the couple’s relationship develops within the suffocating intimacy of the house right alongside France’s mother and Lillian’s husband Leonard.“I barely knew I had skin before I met you”; Frances reveals following an afternoon in the scullery.

In the second half the novel turns crime drama as the couple are thrust into the heart of a violent murder that pushes their embryonic affair to the limit.   

The book is most successful in the early chapters, in which characters are given centre stage over events, and does feel a little heavy in the later court room scenes. The ending won’t appease all readers but I particularly enjoyed the ambiguity around what punishment looks like. A page turner, for the most part, with explicit realism and authentic characters that are a cut above much of the top 10 paperbacks you could pick up this summer.  

Who should read this book?

Fans of Sarah Water’s period lesbian dramas and fans of memorable contemporary fiction.

What’s next on the bookshelf

The Children Act by Ian McEwan

Tweet of the week:

#book review JG Ballard 'High Rise' http://wordsshortlist.blogspot.com/2015/06/with-media-ben-weatleys-adaptation-of.html?spref=tw … @HighRise_movie @recordedpicture

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With pre-release media for Ben Weatley's movie adaptation of High Rise creating eager anticipation you've just got time to pick up a copy of JG Ballards orginal novel.

First reviewed by The Word's Shortlist in 2014

Watch the “Later, as he sat on his balcony eating the dog, Dr Robert Laing reflected on the unusual events that had taken place within this huge apartment building during the previous three months.”

With a new film in production, with Tom Hiddleston and director Ben Wheatley, and the Tate Britain exploring the enigma of ruined architecture, in current show Ruin Lust, this is the perfect time to pick up a copy of JG Ballard's 1975 sci-fi gem Highrise.

In the novel Ballard imagines a scenario in which society, in this case within the microcosm of a luxury Highrise development, completely breaks down. What begin as minor malfunctions such as faulty lifts and waste disposal systems soon escalate to life threatening events as the inhabitants turn feral within the luxury carpeted halls. Social order is literally thrown from the high rise balconies as a new dystopian order seeps through the concrete structure of the vertical city.

The story centres on 3 key characters who neatly represent the social worlds that exist within the complex. On one of the lower proletariat floors is Laing, a lecturer who we meet early on in the novel roasting an Alsatian on a pyre of yellow pages. Higher up lives TV producer and social climber Wilder. On one of the upper floors is Royal, architect, urbanist and idealist.

The work is at its best when the boundaries blur between the social strata creating an anti-society no-mans land. Ballard allows us to experience this through the eyes of the three main protagonists effectively. This wouldn't have worked as well told through one single view point.

The challenge with the novel is to recognise that this is essentially a period piece. Much has changed since 1975 and the book is markedly void of digital interference.

A great read with a unforgettable first opening sentence that will hook you in whether browsing in the library/bookshop or trying a kindle sample. Your perfect hit of post-apocolyptic mayhem.

More about the film adaptation here http://ind.pn/1b1WTjX

More about Tate Britain's show here http://bit.ly/1bIF221

Tweet @wordsshortlist if you're planning to read

#am reading Dance, Dance, Dance

Author: Haruki Murakami

Tags: #japan #awildsheepchase #eighties

Discovered: Working my way through the Murakami back catalogue

Where read: (in part) Novotel, Blackfriars Road, Southwark, SE1

What's the story?

An un-named writer decides to revisit a seedy hotel in which he once spent the night with a woman he loved. Years have passed and the hotel has been redeveloped yet still bears the same particular name, The Dolphin Hotel. A series of surreal experiences transpire in areas of the hotel that are seemingly trapped between the old and the new and only one other person appears to understand. 

The Word's Shortlist view:

Dance, Dance, Dance was Murakami’s sixth novel and is a sequel, of sorts, to A Wild Sheep Chase. The novel was first published in 1998 though not translated into English until 1994 after the global success of Norwegian Wood. Despite the 90s translation the work is firmly, and idiosyncratically, rooted in a neon eighties Japan with references to pop culture from ET: The Extra Terrestrial to Talking Heads.

The novel has a cinematic quality with the protagonist making almost religious visits to the cinema to see the same film and also imagining his life in celluloid; “We knew exactly what we wanted in each other. And even so, it ended. One day it stopped, as if the film simply slipped off the reel”

The book’s dream sequences are classic Murakami (when viewed through the lens of over 25 years further work). Most sequences include the Sheep Man from A Wild Sheep Chase who first urges the narrator to dance; "Yougottadance. Aslongasthemusicplays. Yougotta dance. Don'teventhinkwhy. Starttothink, yourfeetstop. Yourfeetstop, wegetstuck. Wegetstuck, you'restuck. Sodon'tpayanymind, nomatterhowdumb". The Sheep Man's unique voice, demonstrated typografically by eliminating the space between words is an interesting consequence of translation from the Japanese original.

This book may not be the best place to start your Murakami adventure (I’d firmly recommend Sputnik Sweetheart or Norwegian Wood) but if you’re familiar with the the genre that is Haruki Murakami then you’ll revel in seeing  the genesis of themes that will continue to be updated right up to more recent works such as iQ84.

“As time goes on, you'll understand. What lasts, lasts; what doesn't, doesn't. Time solves most things. And what time can't solve, you have to solve yourself.” 

Who should read this book?

Fans of the eighties, of Japan and of Mr Murakami of course

What’s next on the bookshelf

The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters

Tweet of the week:

Really, there is now a #HarryPotter style owl cafe in #Japan - http://klou.tt/apyizllr343o 

The Word's Shortlist

@wordsshortlist

'That book guy', tweeting mainly about fiction and reading but with occasional sidebars into art, Japanese culture and architecture

#readmore

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#am reading On Chesil Beach

Author: Ian McKewan

Tags: #bookerprize #novella #dorset

Discovered: Saturday morning browsing the local library.

Where read: (in part)In the sun at Whitstable Harbour

What's the story?

Newly-weds Edward and Florence are spending their honeymoon in a small guest house on the Dorset Coast. The anxiety around their first night together grips the couple. The year is 1962 and both clearly have different expectations around their first night of intimacy and what transpires that night will affect both of their lives forever. 

The Word's Shortlist view:

This is a beautifully poetic novella that won the Booker prize in 2007 and went on to become a book club classic. As a piece of literary fiction this work alone would cement Ian McKewan as one of the best story tellers writing today.

The plot revolves centrally around the build up to the couples first night together; Florence’s extreme fear of sexual intimacy at odds with Edward’s hopes of loving consummation “When they kissed she immediately felt his tongue, tensed and strong, pushing past her teeth, like some bully shouldering his way into a room. Entering her.” The scene’s climax is expertly crafted.

Not a single word is wasted in this story yet the characterization is as vivid and expressive as it is intimate. The prose is clipped and precise just like the strict social code that the story explores so well. “It's shaming sometimes, how the body will not, or cannot, lie about emotions. Who, for decorum's sake, has ever slowed his heart, or muted a blush?”  The extreme sexual repression of the early sixties is evocatively brought to life in the setting of the forlorn guest house nestled against Chesil Beach.

Though the story is ultimately about love and loss their is hope rather than tragedy for this is an era very much in the past. Read the novel for an uncompromising glimpse back in time. 

Tweet of the week:

What a treat! Browsing in @harbourbooks on a beautiful summer's day in @Whitstable @whitstablelit 

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'That book guy', tweeting mainly about fiction and reading but with occasional sidebars into art, Japanese culture and architecture

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#am reading Us

Author: David Nicholls

Tags: #trains #wanderlust #art

Discovered: New in paperback this week at the local library (big fan)

Where read: (in part)The Deaf Cat, Rochester with a de-caff flat white.

What's the story?

Husband and father Doug plans an ambitious make or break holiday in an attempt to save his marriage to Connie and to restore his relationship with teenage son Albie. Doug’s vision to salvage his family life is to re-create the classic ‘Grand Tour’ of old by criss-crossing Europe visiting leading art galleries from the Louvre and Museo del Prado to The Rijksmuseum. 

The Word's Shortlist view:

You have to admire Doug’s spirit. As a staid and decorous bio-chemist, the effort put into planning and investing in the family Grand Tour is first class when, almost inevitably, his enthusiasm is not shared with either Connie or Albie.  

The travelogue aspects of this book are brilliant and you can expect to experience a good deal of Wanderlust throughout. Combine this with scenes crossing Europe by train and this book will have you filling a suitcase full of novels* and booking a Eurostar ticket before you’ve finished the final chapter. Why didn’t publishers Hodder & Stoughton do a deal with Eurostar on a discount coupon?

Nicholls writing style is accessible and laid-back which makes US a straight forward novel to dip in and out of. The diary or blog style structure, rather than conventional chapters, is ideal for reading in short bursts but means that you’re never completely absorbed in the characters. This could be the trouble with Doug (boring, wholesome and parochial)being the narrator versus Connie (pretentious, affected and ephemeral) or Albie (mollycoddled, rebellious and overblown).

The book just about avoids a cliche ridden conclusion. There is always a worrying inevitable resolution to family dramas but US, whilst playing safe, does avoid falling in to this trap with Doug growing into a late blooming renaissance man.

Read on board a speeding train for maximum enjoyment.

*Obviously consulting The Word’s Shortlist before you do

Tweet of the week:

Serious wanderlust + reading list = need some train journey inspiration @EurostarUK @Voyagessncf_com

The Word's Shortlist

@wordsshortlist

'That book guy', tweeting mainly about fiction and reading but with occasional sidebars into art, Japanese culture and architecture

#readmore

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