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msmisrule's reviews
384 reviews
The Ice is Coming by Patricia Wrightson
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Tremor by Teju Cole
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
“We are all vulnerable to the madnesses of history.”
This seems to me to be an exceptional novel, and one I confess I probably only fully understood about 70% of. This is because of my own limited experience and knowledge of the art and music Cole describes with such historically and culturally detailed understanding and appreciation. Similarly, my own culturally limited experiences meant while I found them fascinating and compellingly recounted, scenes in the protagonist’s home country in West Africa left me knowing I was only really fully apprising a fragment of what was being portrayed. Having said that, Chapter 6, with its multitude of voices from Lagos creates a vivid quilt of life in a city unknown to me.
A superficial reading may suggest this novel is merely a series of vignettes, but this would be to overlook the subtle and careful way in which Cole creates connections and callbacks. It is not a book for those who love a strong through-line narrative, but it offers so many deeply thoughtful observations and meditations on art, culture, colonialism and racism that I found myself wanting to note down passage after passage, wise quote after revelatory statement. I read a library copy, but feel I will want my own copy to mark those pages and passages.
At the centre of the novel is a chapter in the form of an art lecture given by Tunde, the main character and for most of the novel (but not all) its narrator. If nothing else, anyone interested in questions of culture in its broadest sense, and in questions of value and who determines it, in the terrible history of literal appropriation of art by theft and the brutal legacy of the west’s fascination with its own place and power, should read this chapter.
I rarely reread anything these days, but I feel this book will reward multiple readings.
This seems to me to be an exceptional novel, and one I confess I probably only fully understood about 70% of. This is because of my own limited experience and knowledge of the art and music Cole describes with such historically and culturally detailed understanding and appreciation. Similarly, my own culturally limited experiences meant while I found them fascinating and compellingly recounted, scenes in the protagonist’s home country in West Africa left me knowing I was only really fully apprising a fragment of what was being portrayed. Having said that, Chapter 6, with its multitude of voices from Lagos creates a vivid quilt of life in a city unknown to me.
A superficial reading may suggest this novel is merely a series of vignettes, but this would be to overlook the subtle and careful way in which Cole creates connections and callbacks. It is not a book for those who love a strong through-line narrative, but it offers so many deeply thoughtful observations and meditations on art, culture, colonialism and racism that I found myself wanting to note down passage after passage, wise quote after revelatory statement. I read a library copy, but feel I will want my own copy to mark those pages and passages.
At the centre of the novel is a chapter in the form of an art lecture given by Tunde, the main character and for most of the novel (but not all) its narrator. If nothing else, anyone interested in questions of culture in its broadest sense, and in questions of value and who determines it, in the terrible history of literal appropriation of art by theft and the brutal legacy of the west’s fascination with its own place and power, should read this chapter.
I rarely reread anything these days, but I feel this book will reward multiple readings.
The Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier
4.0
I wanted to give this three and a half stars, but apparently I can't. I really thought this was wonderful--my downrating of it is because I found that some of the Antarctica sequences began to drag a little. But the premise is so fantastic, and the characters of the dead so beautifully realised, that it deserves a high rating.
The premise of the novel--which is set sometime in the forseeable future--is that some kind of plague has struck the Earth, and people are dying by the millions. The dead end up in an ever-expanding city (reminded me of Manhattan) where they live their deaths running business, dining out, maintaining relationships, very much as they did when alive. (They have completely corporeal bodies too.) Then the dead begin to disappear--just a few at a time at first, but then, just as they died in droves on Earth, so too does the city of the dead begin to empty. Those remaining are left to try and figure out what's going on.
Apparently the first chapter was originally published as a short story in the New Yorker, and as a short story it is quite brilliant, but I think Brockmeier succeeded in spinning the premise out for a full-length novel. I found myself very involved with the characters, caring very much for what would happen to them, especially the journalist and his new-found love, and for Laura, the woman stranded in the Antarctic, upon whom everything depends.
(It's also quite a vicious attack on the questionable morality of big business--I'm astonished Coca-Cola hasn't sued!)
The premise of the novel--which is set sometime in the forseeable future--is that some kind of plague has struck the Earth, and people are dying by the millions. The dead end up in an ever-expanding city (reminded me of Manhattan) where they live their deaths running business, dining out, maintaining relationships, very much as they did when alive. (They have completely corporeal bodies too.) Then the dead begin to disappear--just a few at a time at first, but then, just as they died in droves on Earth, so too does the city of the dead begin to empty. Those remaining are left to try and figure out what's going on.
Apparently the first chapter was originally published as a short story in the New Yorker, and as a short story it is quite brilliant, but I think Brockmeier succeeded in spinning the premise out for a full-length novel. I found myself very involved with the characters, caring very much for what would happen to them, especially the journalist and his new-found love, and for Laura, the woman stranded in the Antarctic, upon whom everything depends.
(It's also quite a vicious attack on the questionable morality of big business--I'm astonished Coca-Cola hasn't sued!)
The Water's Lovely by Ruth Rendell
4.0
I've been a Rendell/Vine fan since I read "A Fatal Inversion". Nothing has ever come up to the breathtaking experience of that book, but nevertheless she remains one of my favourite writers.
I'm actually wondering about the Rendell/Vine distinction, which seems less clear as time goes on. Her Rendell novels used to tend to be more straightforward detective fiction (not only the Wexfords) and her Vine more in the realm of psychological thriller. "The Water's Lovely" seems to me to be more in the Vine category of things. Oh well...
It's a while since I read this one, so no particular comments, except that I know I was throughly immersed (deliberate pun
I'm actually wondering about the Rendell/Vine distinction, which seems less clear as time goes on. Her Rendell novels used to tend to be more straightforward detective fiction (not only the Wexfords) and her Vine more in the realm of psychological thriller. "The Water's Lovely" seems to me to be more in the Vine category of things. Oh well...
It's a while since I read this one, so no particular comments, except that I know I was throughly immersed (deliberate pun
Amsterdam by Ian McEwan
2.0
My least favourite McEwan. I found it unconvincing and very disappointing.
Blood Ties: Book One in the Castings Trilogy by Pamela Freeman
4.0
I have to start by saying that the author is a close friend, and I read this book in manuscript, so I am obviously not the most dispassionate of readers. I will also say that I rarely read the kind of fantasy that Pamela is writing here—I don't "get along with it"! I often find the epic cast of characters with strange names, and vast wanderings over uncertain terrain just lose me—but this was certainly not the case with "Blood Ties".
Pamela has always had a wonderful skill with characterisation (she's an award-winning writer for children and teenagers) and this skill is the heart of "Blood Ties". These characters are not cyphers—they are fully fleshed (even the dead ones!) and carefully drawn individuals. Similarly, the world-building in the novel is pretty well flawless. There was just one section in the book, when I read it in MS, that I felt "lost" (geographically, as it happens), and Pamela addressed that before publication.
But it's not just the physical world that she's created. The social dynamics, the history, the parallel worlds of the living and the dead—Pamela knows this world "down to the plumbing" (as Zilpha Keatley Snyder once said about creating alternate worlds), and the reader is in sure and confident hands.
It's a world where gods and ghosts live side-by-side with the living. It's a land taken by force from its indigenous people millenia ago—and the remnants of those people, the Travellers, remain outcasts in their own land. And it's a world where the dead may just not rest...
Certain scenes from this book have stayed with me over the months—I wont go into specifics, as they would be spoilers—and knowing a little of what's to come in Books 2 and 3, I can't wait to rejoin Ash and Bramble on their journey.
The book's Australian publisher is currently in negotiations for UK and US publishing deals. But if you're in either of those territories and you can't wait, then you can order it from gleebooks.com.au (and no, I'm not on the payroll).
Pamela has always had a wonderful skill with characterisation (she's an award-winning writer for children and teenagers) and this skill is the heart of "Blood Ties". These characters are not cyphers—they are fully fleshed (even the dead ones!) and carefully drawn individuals. Similarly, the world-building in the novel is pretty well flawless. There was just one section in the book, when I read it in MS, that I felt "lost" (geographically, as it happens), and Pamela addressed that before publication.
But it's not just the physical world that she's created. The social dynamics, the history, the parallel worlds of the living and the dead—Pamela knows this world "down to the plumbing" (as Zilpha Keatley Snyder once said about creating alternate worlds), and the reader is in sure and confident hands.
It's a world where gods and ghosts live side-by-side with the living. It's a land taken by force from its indigenous people millenia ago—and the remnants of those people, the Travellers, remain outcasts in their own land. And it's a world where the dead may just not rest...
Certain scenes from this book have stayed with me over the months—I wont go into specifics, as they would be spoilers—and knowing a little of what's to come in Books 2 and 3, I can't wait to rejoin Ash and Bramble on their journey.
The book's Australian publisher is currently in negotiations for UK and US publishing deals. But if you're in either of those territories and you can't wait, then you can order it from gleebooks.com.au (and no, I'm not on the payroll).
Delinquents and Debutantes: Twentieth-Century American Girls' Cultures by
4.0
I actually only read one essay in this, but it was fantastic: "Can Anne Shirley Help 'Revive Ophelia': Listening to Girl Readers" by Angela E. Hubler. Highly recommended--challenge your assumptions about young people's reception of text.
Before I Die by Jenny Downham
5.0
This is a stunner. Best YA novel (best any novel) I've read all year. The voice of Tessa, the narrator/protagonist, is strikingly true--brittle, angry, funny and determined to live before she dies. This book is a cliche-free zone. There's not a predictable response to Tessa's illness or impending death from anyone. There's not a moment of sentimentality or banal ideas about life and death.
Highly recommended.
Highly recommended.
Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin
3.0
Disappointing so far. The amnesia just seems to be a not-terribly-well executed device for a "nasty girl turned nice" story. I'm hoping it will improve, because I was a huge fan of "Elsewhere" but so far the amnesia is not convincingly realised--it's very pick and choose what Naomi can remember, and she makes references to things she simply wouldn't know about if she's lost the last four years--and anyway, I'm not terribly interested in her. I don't like her very much, which I don't have to to like the book, but I don't care about her (yet) and I'm not convinced by the plot.
I'll check back in if I change my mind.
I'll check back in if I change my mind.
Joel and Cat Set the Story Straight by Nick Earls
5.0
Comparisons to Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist will be inevitable, but this book (also by Rebecca Sparrow, which doesn't show up on the listing) is a whole other creature entirely. Like Nick and Norah, it is written in alternate chapters by Earls (Joel) and Sparrow (Cat), but it extends over a couple of weeks, not one night, and is very different in tone and content.
What I really liked about it was the sort of internal hypertext--or meta text, I forget which one I mean--which is the story Joel and Cat have to write in alternate chapters for a school assignment. Both their relationship and the creative process is laid bare in these hilarious mini-chapters, which are also an extremely funny take on what girls and boys respectively like to read.
Almost flawless plotting, great characterisation and just a terrifically entertaining read. Probably my number one YA for 2007.
What I really liked about it was the sort of internal hypertext--or meta text, I forget which one I mean--which is the story Joel and Cat have to write in alternate chapters for a school assignment. Both their relationship and the creative process is laid bare in these hilarious mini-chapters, which are also an extremely funny take on what girls and boys respectively like to read.
Almost flawless plotting, great characterisation and just a terrifically entertaining read. Probably my number one YA for 2007.