#amreading The Elephant Vanishes 

Author: Haruki Murakami

Discovered: Working my way through the Murakami back catalogue

Where read: (in part) In sunny Bankside, London

What's the story?

17 short and snappy stories from master storyteller Haruki Murakami written during the Eighties and Nineties. Previously published individually in Japanese magazines, The Elephant Vanishes was the first time that the stories were presented together as one collection.

The Word's Shortlist view:

I'm an blatant fan (you'll know) of all Murakami's writing and willingly allow myself be sucked in to any of his fiction whether short story collections like The Elephant Vanishes or longer epic's like IQ84. But can you blame me?

Tell me another writer who has successfully and compellingly created a body of work that is so defining of a whole nation's culture and dreams? Okay, that's dramatic buy quite possibly true. Murakami's fiction is an idiosyncratic lens through which to understand all things Japanese.

This books is packed full of unforgettable short stories. Read The Second Bakery Attack to understand youth and growing up in Japan. Read The TV People to understand a culture at the peak of consumerism. Read The Wind-up Bird and Tuesday's Women to see the genesis of what would go on to become one of Murakami's most celebrated novels (The Wind up Bird Chronicle).

Warning time. Murakami crams a lot into these 17 stories. Just immerse yourself and enjoy.

Who should read this book?

Fans, and would be fans, of Murakami's unique style and narrative. This is the ideal introduction to, in my view, one of the greatest living writers. 

What’s next on the bookshelf

The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler

Tweet of the week:

There is something seriously wrong in #birmingham. £180m on a new library and no money to fill the shelves. Vanity over literacy

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#am reading Worst. Person. Ever. 

Author: Douglas Coupland

Discovered: Browsing in my local library

Where read: (in part) Harbour Arm, Margate

What's the story?

Meet Raymond Gunt; regular guy, middle aged West Londoner and the worst person ever. Offensive, distasteful, irritating and egotistical, Gunt wins Gold in all areas. This picaresque and off-beat tale follows Gunt as he is dispatched by his ex-wife to work on a reality show on a tiny island in the Pacific.     

The Word's Shortlist view:

I picked this book up purely based on the reputation of it’s author. Over the years I’ve enjoyed many a Coupland novel - specifically Generation X and Hey Nostradamus! Coupland’s novels are always an acerbic take on contemporary culture packed with wit and intelligent observation, have you read Girlfriend in a Coma?. Indeed he payed a visit to the Cheltenham Literary Festival to talk about Worst. Person. Ever. So, I’m feeling pretty confident as I turn to page one.

How wrong could I have been. This is not Coupland’s finest hour. The trouble with Worst. Person. Ever is three-fold. 

1 Characters: Raymond Gunt aside (as he is indeed the worst person ever) the problem is that most of the other characters are cut from the same cloth. We have nobody to hang our hopes on in this bizarre and pointless caper.

2 Story: A survival based reality TV show, a swirling vortex of Pacific waste and he beginning of a Nuclear war are far fetched, unfeasible and silly.

3 Plot: Much of the story takes place in the Pacific but the build up to Raymond actually accepting the job and taking the trip is protracted and boring.

We expect more from a Coupland novel. Yes there’s contemporary cultural observation from Reality TV to social media (especially in the case of Neal whose status update shifts from homeless in London  to suited and booted in Hawaii) but the novel is sadly lacking in nearly all ways.

Who should read this book?

Coupland super fans? Not sure who this was written for. Gunt sums it all up well himself “Instead of feeling sexy and tingly, it felt useless, like recycling plastics or registering to vote.” 

What’s next on the bookshelf

The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler

Tweet of the week:

There is something seriously wrong in #birmingham. £180m on a new library and no money to fill the shelves. Vanity over literacy

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#am reading Stuffocation, living more with less 

Author: James Wallman

Discovered: Reviewed in the Daily Telegraph

Where read: (in part) In the sun by the Thames at Marlow

What's the story?

James Wallman is a writer, journalist and trend forecaster who sets out, in this book, to present some brilliantly accessible research into mass and post-consumerism. When did we start replacing things before they were worn out and borrowing money to do so?

     

The Word's Shortlist view:

As much as a week in the South of France was the perfect opportunity to binge on fiction I found myself craving some new ideas on my return to work. Afterall, there’s nothing like some life-changing research to clear the post holiday blues! Could Stuffocation be the answer?

‘Stuffocation’, Wallman suggests, is the tipping point at which accumulating more possessions results in anxiety. The book challenges purchase decisions we’ve all made to have the 'latest' or to to keep up with peers (like those pesky Joneses) but then compares that with the ascetic existence of true and committed minimalists.

Wallman concisely tracks the course of consumer history from pre-industrial revolution subsistence to over production and mass consumerism. Research and real life stories, from Barbra Streisand to Mad Men, bring the statistics to life.

So where does all this wind up? Wallman argues (and don't forget he's a proven trend forecaster) that there is a safe place where 'considered consumerism' meets Experientialism. More than de-cluttering and down sizing this is about experience over possessions and about the Millennial obsession with social media fuelled status updates.

Who should read this book?

Is this a book for the affluent of middle England?  Perhaps, but to dismiss the book as middle class is short sighted. Read this book if you've ever faced the decision; new TV or holiday. 

What’s next on the bookshelf

Worst. Person. Ever by Douglas Coupland

Tweet of the week:

Complaints about sexism in literary publishing continue http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jul/31/male-writers-hide-gender-sell-more-books …

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#am reading The Children Act  

Author: Ian McKewan

Discovered: Picked up in Hatchard’s, St Pancras Railway Station

Where read: (in part) On a day trip by train to Folkestone

What's the story?

Fiona Maye is a leading High Court judge renowned for handling complex family law cases that call for empathy, strength and intelligence. In her professional life she is called to try an urgent case in which a 17 year old boy, Adam, refuses to accept a blood transfusion on religious grounds. Meanwhile she must deal with her own crisis at home.

The Word's Shortlist view:

Like On Chesil Beach, The Children Act, is a concise and punchy novel that hangs around one single dilemma. McKewan knows instinctively how to hang an entire story around a lone plot point which is why his short novels are as rich as longer epics.

The first part of the novel sees Fiona accepting the breakdown of her 37 year marriage. When her husband admits that he wants to have an affair she manages the news in lawyer mode - cool, impassive and outwardly apathetic. 

As the story develops McKewan brilliantly pushes Fiona to a different place where neither the rules of the bar nor the violin can help. As she becomes more involved in Adam’s case she is forced to see herself in a new light. “She could have phoned one of three friends, but she could not bear to hear herself explain her situation and make it irreversibly real.” Adam, is at once the son and spouse.

The crux of this novel is the interplay between Fiona’s instinctive talent in trying family law cases and her own feelings of defeat as a woman. “Yes, her childlessness was a fugue in itself.....a flight from her proper destiny. Her failure to become a woman, as her mother understood the term.”  This makes the scenes with Adam so powerful.

Some of the themes in the novel are pure middle class “Above the rush-hour din it was her ideal self she heard, the pianist she could never become, performing faultlessly Bach’s second partita.” However, this is a literary landscape McKewan knows so well, he can be forgiven.

In the end this is a a hugely rewarding slice of contemporary fiction about a very human dilemma. 

Who should read this book?

Fans of Ian McKewan and fans of British literary fiction. 

What’s next on the bookshelf

Stuffocation by James Wallman

Tweet of the week:

#ChiwetelEjiofor was superb in #nteveryman tonight. Really powerful stuff #nearly40 #carolannduffy 

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#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:

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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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