What a feast for the senses this one was! It's been on my list for several years, so it was a treat to find and read it!
Three sisters have fled Iran to England, and from there to a small town in Ireland where they open the Babylon Cafe, from which the heady scents of cinnamon, cardamon and rosewater shock the residents of Ballinacroagh, most especially Thomas MacGuire, the town's self-appointed big whig, who owns the pub next door, and whose son ( or is he?) falls in love with Layla, the youngest of the sisters.
The book is loaded with wonderfully eccentric characters, from the parish priest who longed to be an actor, to the leprachaun-loving store owner down the street. Thomas' wife, Cecilia, only appears occasionally, but I enjoyed picturing her in Thursday's getup: "a black sequined sweater paired with tight stretch pants that highlighted the grapefruit texture of her cellulite-ridden thighs".
The story of the sisters' flight from Iran is woven into the fabric of the novel with ease and discretion. The impact of their background is definitely felt throughout, as well as the discrimination against them by some citizens of Ballinacroagh, but, as in all fairy tales, Good prevails and the villains, like poor old Thomas, are punished.
The charm and subtlety of this novel reminded me a lot of Alexander McCall Smith's Ladies' Detective Agency novels, where there is lightness, but also food for thought ( and the senses!).
Monday, May 24, 2010
Friday, May 21, 2010
Fear The Worst by Linwood Barclay.✔✔✔
Every now and then, particularly after reading a fairly intensive novel, I feel the need for something light and easy. This filled the bill perfectly. I enjoyed reading Linwood Barclay when he wrote for the Toronto Star, and I have already read Too Close To Home, one of his earlier thrillers. It's interesting to me that he sets his stories in US locales, yet writes with a distinctly Canadian flavour, a flavour I can't even identify except that the characters, the unfolding of the story, the humour, the tongue-in-cheek attitude all indicate Canada to me, not to mention the fact that although there are murders, they're not as violently, sickeningly described as so many authors do, so I guess it's a marketing thing, because his novels appear regularly in US bookstores.
Monday, May 17, 2010
Latitudes of Melt by Joan Clark.✔✔✔✔
I enjoyed An Audience of Chairs by Joan Clark so much that when I found this earlier novel in a used bookstore, I snatched it up right away. Knowing it was about Newfoundland was another irresistible factor!
And, of course, I wasn't disappointed at all - this is an epic story of a Newfoundland family living on the Southern Shore. It begins in 1912 with a baby found floating on an ice pan by two fishermen - this child is named Aurora because she was found at dawn, and becomes part of the St. Croix family in a small outpost called Drook. Aurora, who is known as a "fairy child" not only because of her being found as she was, but also because she is a free spirit, becomes the central figure in the novel - the first two parts of the novel concentrate on her life as a child, young woman, mother, and grandmother, then the third traces her real parents' lives up till that moment when the Titanic sinks and Aurora is set afloat by her mother, who dies shortly after at the scene of the sinking. The fourth, and final part relates how this information was uncovered and show Aurora making connections with her past.
The title refers to the latitudinal points of Newfoundland - those points where the icebergs coming down the Labrador currents eventually grind up in the coves and bays of Newfoundland. Ice and sea water are very much a part of this novel - Aurora was found on it, her childhood friend dies from a rogue wave, her son Stan becomes an ice engineer and at the end of the novel is inspecting the wreckage of the Titanic, Stan's wife Anna dies on a diving expedition - but I was also struck by the significance of "melting" in the novel - how so many lives, so many characters, appeared in the novel, then either died or disappeared, and how Aurora herself maintained that freedom of spirit, that unique streak which makes her appear as if she doesn't entirely walk upon the earth like the rest of us. It was very well done!
And, of course, I wasn't disappointed at all - this is an epic story of a Newfoundland family living on the Southern Shore. It begins in 1912 with a baby found floating on an ice pan by two fishermen - this child is named Aurora because she was found at dawn, and becomes part of the St. Croix family in a small outpost called Drook. Aurora, who is known as a "fairy child" not only because of her being found as she was, but also because she is a free spirit, becomes the central figure in the novel - the first two parts of the novel concentrate on her life as a child, young woman, mother, and grandmother, then the third traces her real parents' lives up till that moment when the Titanic sinks and Aurora is set afloat by her mother, who dies shortly after at the scene of the sinking. The fourth, and final part relates how this information was uncovered and show Aurora making connections with her past.
The title refers to the latitudinal points of Newfoundland - those points where the icebergs coming down the Labrador currents eventually grind up in the coves and bays of Newfoundland. Ice and sea water are very much a part of this novel - Aurora was found on it, her childhood friend dies from a rogue wave, her son Stan becomes an ice engineer and at the end of the novel is inspecting the wreckage of the Titanic, Stan's wife Anna dies on a diving expedition - but I was also struck by the significance of "melting" in the novel - how so many lives, so many characters, appeared in the novel, then either died or disappeared, and how Aurora herself maintained that freedom of spirit, that unique streak which makes her appear as if she doesn't entirely walk upon the earth like the rest of us. It was very well done!
Monday, May 10, 2010
The Surrendered by Chang-Rae Lee. ✔✔✓
The novel begins in 1955 Korea with June Han, an 11-year-old girl who has, in the last few days, seen her father and brother taken away by Chinese forces, witnessed first-hand the deaths of her mother and older sister, and is now fleeing the area atop a boxcar with her younger siblings. Pretty harrowing stuff, and these events shape the life of June Han, who when we meet her in 1986, has just closed her antique shop in New York, is dying of stomach cancer, and is planning a trip to Italy to re-unite with her son, whom she has not seen for years. Her unwilling comrade on this final trip is Hector, the father of this missing son, and the one who saved June's life years earlier in Korea after she finished the boxcar journey. Hector was an American soldier working in Korea at the time, who takes June to an orphanage, where their lives become intertwined with Sylvie, the lovely wife of Rev. Tanner, the orphanage leader. Hector and Sylvie have also had some harrowing experiences in the war, and the novel is about how their lives have been shaped by these earlier experiences.
The Surrendered is very well-written, but oh, such undiminishing sorrow and tragedy throughout. I was reminded of Mistry's A Fine Balance, one of my all-time favorites novels, but I didn't feel this author was quite the calibre of Mistry. He moves back and forth in time, and this helps to relieve the sorrow somewhat, because you do need time to step back, absorb what has just happened, and understand why these three characters are as flawed as they are by war and circumstance. But I found I didn't really care for the characters themselves too much. Why was June so disliked by the other children at the orphanage? How did Hector become the father of Nicholas- this is never explained? And Sylvie seems like a romance novel figure - transparent nightgowns, etc.
I'm not exactly sure why the novel is titled "The Surrendered". I don't know who was surrendered, how or why. A reader review I read stated the novel became more illuminating after a second read, but I'm not sure I could take it!
The Surrendered is very well-written, but oh, such undiminishing sorrow and tragedy throughout. I was reminded of Mistry's A Fine Balance, one of my all-time favorites novels, but I didn't feel this author was quite the calibre of Mistry. He moves back and forth in time, and this helps to relieve the sorrow somewhat, because you do need time to step back, absorb what has just happened, and understand why these three characters are as flawed as they are by war and circumstance. But I found I didn't really care for the characters themselves too much. Why was June so disliked by the other children at the orphanage? How did Hector become the father of Nicholas- this is never explained? And Sylvie seems like a romance novel figure - transparent nightgowns, etc.
I'm not exactly sure why the novel is titled "The Surrendered". I don't know who was surrendered, how or why. A reader review I read stated the novel became more illuminating after a second read, but I'm not sure I could take it!
Monday, May 3, 2010
The Bishop's Man by Linden MacIntrye.✔✔✔
This year's winner of the Giller Prize, and a book I've waited all winter to read, The Bishop's Man is the story of Father Duncan MacAskill, who has spent most of his priesthood as the bishop's " clean-up man", the one who visits the priests who have been reported for their indiscretions and sends them away either for treatment or re-assignment.
As the novel opens, the bishop is sending MacAskill to a small parish called Creignish, quite close to Duncan's childhood home, the home where his mother died when he was four, and where his father, a bastard child, lived in bitterness because of his war-time experiences, as well as for his shadowy beginnings in life. This parish assignment is to get Duncan out of the way, where an enquiring reporter has been asking questions about Duncan's own investigations. But the questions still follow, and Duncan turns to alcohol to dull the thoughts which come more easily now that he has more time on his hands.
Initially, I thought the novel would be about the abuse and the church's role in it, but it is more the story of Duncan MacAskill: his life as a priest, his role in an incident in Honduras, his relationship with his sister, his dealing with young Danny Bad, and the ever-elusive priest, Brendan Bell, who finally appears on the scene in the book's final pages. It's probably the first book I've read describing the life of a priest - the loneliness of the calling pervades every page.
MacIntyre is an excellent writer and has crafted this novel extremely well, almost elegantly, you could say. It is very easy to read, it's not religious or spiritual in tone, it doesn't dump on the church, it just lets things unfold, and leaves it to the reader to involve herself in the character. It is, as I read in a review, a "character-driven" novel - it's not always easy to discern the time frame since he shifts around quite easily - but Dancan's character is interesting, challenging and memorable.
I would say this is one of my best reads of 2010 so far!
As the novel opens, the bishop is sending MacAskill to a small parish called Creignish, quite close to Duncan's childhood home, the home where his mother died when he was four, and where his father, a bastard child, lived in bitterness because of his war-time experiences, as well as for his shadowy beginnings in life. This parish assignment is to get Duncan out of the way, where an enquiring reporter has been asking questions about Duncan's own investigations. But the questions still follow, and Duncan turns to alcohol to dull the thoughts which come more easily now that he has more time on his hands.
Initially, I thought the novel would be about the abuse and the church's role in it, but it is more the story of Duncan MacAskill: his life as a priest, his role in an incident in Honduras, his relationship with his sister, his dealing with young Danny Bad, and the ever-elusive priest, Brendan Bell, who finally appears on the scene in the book's final pages. It's probably the first book I've read describing the life of a priest - the loneliness of the calling pervades every page.
MacIntyre is an excellent writer and has crafted this novel extremely well, almost elegantly, you could say. It is very easy to read, it's not religious or spiritual in tone, it doesn't dump on the church, it just lets things unfold, and leaves it to the reader to involve herself in the character. It is, as I read in a review, a "character-driven" novel - it's not always easy to discern the time frame since he shifts around quite easily - but Dancan's character is interesting, challenging and memorable.
I would say this is one of my best reads of 2010 so far!
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