Random Raving 7: The Norfolk Mystery by Ian Sansom

The Norfolk Mystery by Ian Sansom

After a short delay (and over 20 books read in the interim), I’m back! Safe to say, I’ve got lots of catching up to do, mainly because I was lucky enough to be involved in helping to judge the Guardian First Book Award, which involved reading 11 (sometimes scarily chunky) books over 8 weeks, but there’ll be a whole series of posts about that and my thoughts within the next couple of weeks.

For now, I’m drawing on my other book club. Having previously near exclusively literary and romance-y fiction, we recently took a bit of a detour and settled on some (affectionately termed) ‘cosy crime’ in the form of Ian Sansom’s The Norfolk Mystery. I’ve always been a fan of Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie and it’d been highly recommended by several of my colleagues as falling somewhere in the middle of the two, so it was with high expectations that I set about reading this book.

As is so often the case with high expectations, The Norfolk Mystery fell short of the mark, and by quite a way.

PLEASE NOTE: COMPLETE SPOILERS FOLLOW.

The concept is good. The main character is Spanish Civil War veteran Stephen Sefton, who struggles with his memories of the war and finds himself down on his luck until a suitably mysterious job advert attracts his attention. The job turns out to be working for the enigmatic Professor Swanton Morley, famed for his prolific writing and efforts to extend reading literature of all genres to the 1930s working classes. Morley has the idea of creating guidebooks for each of the English counties, starting with (yep… you guessed it…) Norfolk. It’s a decent idea, and Sansom has revealed that he plans to continue the series to actually include a book for each of the historical English counties. As with any crime book, along the way the pair stumble upon a mystery, and ineffectual policing means that it’s down to them to work out the answer.

That all sounds alright so far, right? So where does it all go wrong?

I have two main issues. My first is with the characters. Professor Morley, undoubtedly the most defined and prominent character (despite the book being narrated by Sefton), is a pitiful caricature of Sherlock Holmes. He’s socially awkward and clever, but it doesn’t pay off. Where Holmes is interesting and mysterious, Morley is obscure and irritating. If Sansom was trying to create a satire of Holmes, he’s done it perfectly, but the book takes itself so seriously that it’s obvious it’s just poor characterisation. The key difference that really makes Sherlock an interesting and likeable character, but makes Morley a pretentious know-it-all was pointed out by one of my reading group. Sherlock is intelligent, able to work out puzzles and piece together seemingly unrelated events, whilst Morley is knowledgeable. He knows a lot, using obscure Latin phrases (which Sansom irritatingly never bothers to translate for the reader) and explaining in excruciating details almost everything, but he doesn’t have the charm or intelligence of Holmes. Overall, the character, obviously situated as the focal point of the novel, is just a poor facsimile of Holmes.

In comparison, Sefton is overly boring. Despite the novel coming entirely from his perspective, he has remarkably little character. One of the wonders of first person narration is that you can really get into the head of the character and allow the reader to see the world through the particular gaze of that character, but Sansom wastes this opportunity. The vast majority of the novel simply sees Sefton standing around as a suitable vehicle from which to view the plot. He says very little to anyone besides Morley, more often than not simply standing in a room whilst Morley and other characters talk amongst themselves. Aside from a peculiar and entirely unnecessary frolic in a graveyard, Sefton has no impact on the plot, offers no interest and stands about like a lemon the entire way through. One of the most boring and undeveloped narrators in any fiction.

In fairness to Sansom, Morley’s daughter, Miriam, is an interesting and well put together character. Stupidly, Sansom includes her for barely 10% of the novel before she disappears off, leaving the world’s most irritating professor and the most ineffectual assistant to blunder about alone, dragging the reader along kicking and screaming.

My second gripe is with the plot. A crime book, especially one with ‘mystery’ in the title, usually includes a crime. Sansom, on the other hand, decides to try and outsmart the rest of the genre and neglect to include any sort of crime. The plot instead revolves around the suicide of a vicar, and throughout the whole novel I was expecting it to be revealed that there’d been some foul play, or that the vicar had really been murdered, but no. In fact what we’re left with instead is the two infuriating characters trying to piece together the reasons behind the suicide of the vicar. It’s interesting, and the eventual answer is neat, if a bit simple, but when there’s no crime, and no perpetrator, there’s no reason to invest. We never meet the vicar, so we don’t care about him, and we’re not given a ‘baddie’ to hate. It’s a limp plot, to say the very least.

As you can tell, I really wasn’t a fan. Upon first reading it, I found it easy enough, and I managed to blitz the whole book in a day. The writing style is decent, and it’s nothing strenuous, but it’s forgettable, and utterly uninteresting. If you like cosy crime or want a nice easy read, don’t be lulled in by this. Pick up that worn copy of The Mysterious Affair at Styles or the new Frances Brody and read that instead. You’ll enjoy it far more than this.

DON’T READ IT

WRITING: 5/10

PLOT: 3/10

CHARACTERS: 2/10

CONCLUSION: 5/10

OVERALL: 4/10

Random Raving 6: (Desperate Post-Holiday Depression Edition): The Circle by Dave Eggers

I've finally finished all of my designated 'holiday-reading' (despite it being a good few weeks post-holiday – ah, the sadness)!

To top off my extremely varied holiday reading (covering zombies, sci-fi mysteries and senile old women) I read The Circle by Dave Eggers. I picked it up originally because of the bright red cover (I'm honestly like a child – anything fluorescent and shiny) but having read a little about it, I realised it's excatly the kind of book I'd want to read anyway.

The Circle is essentially a mildly-satirical exploration of the modern age of technology, information and the internal revolution, and it's potential development further down the line. The eponymous 'Circle' is the name of a technology company who revolutionises contemporary life by integrating all social media and electronic technology into one account allowing seamlessness is almost all aspects of life.

Eggers follows the career of Mae, a young graduate who joins The Circle with the help of her friend, Annie, a high-ranking executive in the company. As May gets dragged deeper and deeper into the philosophy and workings of The Circle, Eggers poses some extremely difficult questions about the future and the role of the internet. Should an all-encompassing internet account be used to police and enforce voting? Should electronic chips be used to track children so parents can know if they aren't where they're supposed to be? How much of a democratic state should be transparent? They're difficult questions, and I, for one, had any overwhelming feeling of revulsion at the increasingly penetrative ideals of The Circle.

I'd even say that the book has given me a new sense of apprehension about the potential pervasiveness of technology, and coming from a computer geek like me, that's really saying something. It's a great plot, and it's extremely well written – despite it's over 500 page length, it never drags at all.

Beyond the plot, the characters are interesting, if not ground-breaking. Mae perfectly plays the role of unwitting pawn and apprehensive new employee as she is taken down this path of difficult questions, and her journey is relatable, if difficult to watch (er... read?) at some points. By the end of the book it's really hard to recognise Mae, and that's a testament to just how well Eggers writes her journey. Supporting character Annie is perhaps the most the most intrinsically likeable, whilst potential love-interest Kalden offers an interesting counterbalance to the technology-focus of the rest of the novel. In all, the cast of characters feels well rounded and just about avoid being too 'typical'.

I was entirely unprepared for the conclusion. I thought I knew where it'd be going. I thought Mae's journey would spike off in a new direction, but Eggers plays a real curve ball. The real skill of the conclusion (perhaps not explicitly a twist) is that it's shocking but doesn't feel wrong. It fits the progression of the book and Mae's character, without being predictable. The few chapters before the finale also include another shocking (though in retrospect, relatively obvious) twist which starts to spiral towards the conclusion.

As things end, I was left wanting a sequel, but at the same time after seeing how far technology had integrated into people's lives by the end, I dread to think what a sequel might bring.

A fantastic read posing extremely difficult philosophical questions as we see the development of a malleable young woman through one of the most rapid periods of advancement in human history.

READ IT!

Writing: 7.5/10
Plot: 9/10
Characters 7.5/10
Conclusion: 10/10

Overall: 8.5/10

Random Raving 5 (Holiday Come-Down Edition) - The Night Guest

After two weeks sunning it up (and not getting even slightly tanned) my holiday is over and I'm back in the UK. It's probably a good job I'm back now, I'd exhausted my entire collection of holiday reading, and my 'to-read' pile is looking precariously shallow. On the bright side though, that means that I've got a lot of books to talk about over the next couple of weeks.

As promised in my first holiday reading review of World War Z by Max Brooks, this time I'm going to talk about The Night Guest by Fiona McFarlane. 

NOTE: Some mild spoilers may follow.

The Night Guest is the latest in a growing list of books about mental health and the elderly (initially releasing shortly before the first book that I reviewed, Elizabeth is Missing). The book follow Ruth, an elderly widow living on the Australian coast. One morning Ruth is greeted by Frida, a carer sent by the government to help her around the house. As Frida gradually becomes more and more integrated with Ruth's life, and Ruth is haunted by sounds of a tiger in her living room (the eponymous 'Night Guest'), the book entirely leaves it up to the reader to establish what is real, what is in Ruth's head, and exactly who Frida actually is. 

As I've previously mentioned, I find mental illnesses associated with old age (including dementia) really difficult to read about, and as a result I was a little bit cautious going into this book. The very concept of an elderly woman 'troubled' by a tiger in her living room poses immediate questions about Ruth's mental capacity, and one of McFarlane's biggest successes is leaving the reader guessing throughout the entire book just what is real. 

Perhaps even more importantly, McFarlane succeeds in rationalising entirely irrational and impossible ideas through Ruth's perspective. The prospect of a tiger repeatedly entering a home on the extreme coast of Australia is tremendously unlikely, but Ruth is entirely convinced, and McFarlane's writing is so emotive and powerful that I genuinely found myself convincing that a tiger was in Ruth's house, despite knowing it was frankly stupid to believe so. 

Ruth herself is an excellent character, despite her flaws. Both fickle and fiercely independent, Ruth's development from a woman determined to survive without assistance to a woman entirely reliant on Frida is interesting. I do find that the jump is a little extreme at points. When we first meet Ruth she is extremely hesitant to believe or accept Frida, but in almost no time at all, and more importantly, without any real reason, Ruth quickly becomes far more docile and, for want of a better word, weak. It's a bit of a flaw in an otherwise very interesting character development. 

My other major gripe is with the overall storyline of the book. I just found it far too predictable. I understand that it's not about the plot as much as the development of the characters, but still, I feel like a little curveball or even a little something unexpected would have been extremely welcome. Don't get my wrong, I did enjoy the ending and it was fitting, but it was just too obvious all the way through. 

Overall then, a very interesting, if somewhat challenging, book that includes some fascinating characters and blurred lines between reality and Ruth's imagination, but some jumps were a little too big and it all felt a bit too easy and predictable. 

Well worth a read, especially if you've enjoy Elizabeth is Missing or have an interest in mental health and old age, but there were just a few too many hiccups to really blow me away.

Writing: 8.5/10

Plot: 5/10

Characters: 7.5/10

Conclusion: 7/10

Overall Rating: 7/10

Random Ravings 4 (Portuguese Edition) - World War Z

I'll be honest, this post comes from the extremely comfortable position of a sun lounger in Southern Portugal, and as any book lover knows, holidays usually mean one thing - lots and lots of reading.

11 days in and I've managed to plough through three books - The Night Guest by Fiona McFarlane, Authority by Jeff VanderMeer and World War Z by Max Brooks - and I've just started a fourth - The Circle by Dave Eggers.

I'm going to write a post about each book over the next few weeks, but today is reserved exclusively for undoubtedly the best zombie book I've ever read: World War Z.

I've not been a fan of the zombie genre for a very long time now, finding all the books, TV and films really quite repetitive and decidedly unoriginal. It's quite ironic that one of the igniters of this recent zombie fad has been the book to restore my confidence 8 years after it burst onto the scene.

Brooks' book takes the form of a compilation of interviews with veterans of the Zombie Wars, from divers and soldiers to government officials and historians, and each set of interviews moves chronologically through the conflict, from 'patient zero' to the post-war economic, social and political recovery, covering almost everything imaginable in between. It's an interesting concept, and even though the victorious human victory is revealed by the very nature of the book, it removes none of the impact, tension and excitement from the picture unfolding.

Looking beyond the constraints of genre and content, the writing itself is actually really very good. Brooks' style is near effortless to read and, even more impressive is that every single interviewee has a completely individual perspective, character and feel that genuinely makes it seem like a work of non-fiction: every character is believable. That's no mean feat when you consider that there must be near enough 30 interviews in the book.

For me, what really stands out about World War Z is that it's not a conventional zombie story. Of course, the zombie uprising, conflict and victory is a crucial part, but it's not the only part. To a certain extent the book isn't about zombies. It's about political conflict, sheer geographical luck, human will and kindness.

The most interesting interviews aren't with soldiers on the front lines, but generals in the war rooms, survivors stranded out in the wilderness, political leaders dealing with international strain and so many more.

Brooks doesn't create a world ravaged by zombies, he creates a world, political structure and social order shaped by the strains of war, fear and death. It's not the world he destroys, it's the world he creates that allows the book to sing.

Sure, a (moderately) slim paperback is always going to leave a few gaps, and it'd be silly to pretend that there weren't some pretty large holes. Post-war Tibet is described as hosting the most populous city and Cuba the most vigorous economy, but these avenues feel woefully unexplored. There is a huge amount of eccentric (and overwhelmingly American) detail about the contribution of dogs during the war, life on the international space station and the varied effectiveness of castles, amongst much more, but it doesn't quite make up for some of the more obvious gaps.

Overall it's a corker of a book, brilliantly plotted and executed and packed with originality and charm. If you love zombie fiction this is the cornerstone to ravage and if you don't... well... you'll have a much higher opinion of it after this.

Let's just pretend the film never happened.

9.5/10

 

Random Raving 3: More Than This by Patrick Ness

More Than This tells the story of Seth, who dies in the breath-taking first chapter and wakes up in a world devoid of any other people. The time Seth spends alone in this barren landscape is fascinating, and Ness is extremely skilled at grabbing the reader with only one character, and really make them care about what's going on.

Much as with my previous entry, this blog post is about another author who I've had the pleasure to meet, and in this case, actually interview.

Patrick Ness is one of the most highly renowned teen (and more recently, adult) authors currently writing. Bursting onto the scene with the Chaos Walking trilogy (soon to be made into a film) and later 'A Monster Calls', Ness is both best-selling and an award winner.

All of this meant that going into More Than This, his newest book, there was an incredible amount of expectation, and it's safe to say that it absolutely lives up to all of the hype.

Please note - major spoilers will follow!

Seth later meets Regine and Tomasz, two other fantastic characters with individuality and deeply emotional journeys, and the three together start to try to work out what has happened.

The story that unfolds is nothing short of magical. Seth, who is revealed to be gay, is dealing with the anger at a cheating lover and best friend, resentful parents, and even more, the childhood trauma he has endured.

Living near a prison, Seth allowed an escaped prisoner into the house as a young child out of fear, and the situation escalated with Seth's younger brother, Owen, being kidnapped. It's established that the resentment towards Seth stems from this, though Owen was eventually rescued and returned home safely.

This is revealed to actually be false. Instead, Owen was murdered, leading Seth's parents to chose to enter a computerised, dream world to live in where Owen was still alive, and this is the world in which Seth drowns at the beginning of the novel. The world in which he awakens is that left behind by the human race. Seth only returned to the real world because he managed to hit a particular point on his head in his death.

All in all, as poor as my explanation is, the story is absolutely brilliant and expertly told. The novel deals with a lot of difficult subject matter, from suicide, to bullying and familial problems, but it's done with tenderness and care, and never feels forced or 'preachy'.

An excellent read that anyone should pick up, regardless of age, interests or gender.

Rating: 9/10

Random Raving 2: Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey

I was recently lucky enough to get to meet the wonderful Emma Healey, a debut novelist who's first book, Elizabeth is Missing, has only very recently been published. Emma's work has been lauded from its first days, with nine publishers trying to secure the manuscript and a swathe of exceptional reviews from newspaper, journalists and countless media outlets around the UK (and, quite randomly, Italy). Soon to be featured on Radio 2, the book is expected to perform exceptionally.

We, at Waterstones Leeds, were lucky enough to have the opportunity to host an event with Emma in the store (which also happened to be my first ever event as official events coordinator), and even more wonderfully, I was able to secure an advance reading copy to prepare for the event, so I can put up my thoughts about the book pretty much as soon as it's published! So, here it is!

Elizabeth is Missing tells the story of Maud, an elderly woman suffering from increasingly severe dementia. Maud is convinced that her friend, Elizabeth, has gone missing, and is determined to find out what has happened. The problem is, it's hard to solve a mystery when you can't remember the clues. Simultaneously, the book explores another near-70 year old mystery surrounding Maud's sister Sukey. 

In short, Elizabeth is Missing is one of the most harrowing and emotionally-charged books that I have ever read. Dementia and similar mental illnesses have always hit me extremely hard, but Emma's book stands out by taking the perspective of the sufferer, not a carer or relative. Not only is this extremely unique, but it opens up a whole range of wonderful, almost playful, possibilities, and also makes Maud one of the most inspirational, sympathetic and endearing characters I've ever encountered in fiction.

As Emma herself commented at the event (and I myself have experienced with relatives suffering from the horrendous condition), those suffering from dementia often struggling with creating new memories, but can remember events from decades ago in stunning clarity. One of Elizabeth is Missing's best features is the fluidity between the two narratives (1946 and the present day), and the 'realness' that it brings. 

My only slight criticism might be that the ending is perhaps slightly too expected by the end, but in reality it doesn't really matter. The poise and skill with which Emma tells the story and concludes Maud's journey makes it an absolute joyous (and at times terribly emotional) read. 

Overall, a fantastic cast of supporting characters, wonderful fluidity between past and present narratives (triggered by something as small as an item of clothing or a smell), the unique and heartbreaking viewpoint and an utterly endearing protagonist equates to an astonishing read, and one any booklover, or anyone interested in mental health should hate to miss out on. 

For a debut novel it is a stunning work and my hopes for Emma's career could not be higher. 

Rating: 9/10

Random Raving 1: Intro

I'm back again, and this time it's a book blog!

As many of you will probably know, this isn't the first blog I've started. I've tried a variety of different things in the past, and I've just never stuck with it. So I'll start as I mean to go and just say that I'm not actually expecting this to last long.

On the other hand, this has probably got a better chance of lasting than anything else. As a soon-to-be graduate and full-time bookseller, I'll be spending a hell of a lot of time with books and it's meaning I buy and read far too many. The bonus of the job is that I need to read (god dammit, the trials and tribulations of work!) and so I'll have a pretty constant stream of book reviews and content to try and pop on here!

I've previously started a bit of a book journal so I'm going to upload most of my random ravings over the next few days. I'm not necessarily expecting anyone to read it, but it's primarily for my own benefit. I want to have a record of all the books of read, and this is the best way!

I've written these in a format suited for me, so it might not all make sense, but I'll do my best to tailor it for other people to read!

If you've got this far, well done, and thank you, but if not, I'll try my best not to cry myself to sleep!