Albert Salvadó is an Andorran novelist; The Teacher of Cheops is the only one of his books to be translated into English, and it is, unsurprisingly, m...moreAlbert Salvadó is an Andorran novelist; The Teacher of Cheops is the only one of his books to be translated into English, and it is, unsurprisingly, my book from Andorra for the Read The World challenge.
It is, as the title suggests, a historical novel set in ancient Egypt. It tells the story of a slave, Sedum, who gains his freedom and rises through the 4th Dynasty equivalent of the Civil Service; along the way he is tutor to the young Pharaoh-to-be, Cheops.
It was OK. I can’t get very excited about it, but apart from a rather self-indulgent plot twist at the end, it was fairly inoffensive.(less)
This is a genuinely funny book about war crimes, corruption and the failure of international aid/politics — which is odd.
Perhaps there are times when...moreThis is a genuinely funny book about war crimes, corruption and the failure of international aid/politics — which is odd.
Perhaps there are times when the jokes start to get in the way of the book's more serious purpose, or the combination feels a bit weird; but honestly, not as much as you might think.(less)
I've just powered through the whole Aubrey/Maturin series for the first time in many years and thoroughly enjoyed them; I've given them 4 stars across...moreI've just powered through the whole Aubrey/Maturin series for the first time in many years and thoroughly enjoyed them; I've given them 4 stars across the board, which might be erring on the generous side, but hey-ho.
Reading them now, the comparison that springs to mind isn't a literary one: they're like a really good DVD box set. Light enough to be enjoyable, but well-written enough to feel like a good use of your time; formulaic enough to keep the fans happy, but varied enough to keep up the interest.(less)
This is a genuinely odd book. It's basically a C19th family drama: a wealthy country landowner dies, leaving his children to establish themselves, and...moreThis is a genuinely odd book. It's basically a C19th family drama: a wealthy country landowner dies, leaving his children to establish themselves, and particularly his two unmarried daughters needing to find husbands. He also has two sons, a parson and a civil servant, and a daughter who is already married to a wealthy but cruel nobleman. There's a bit of a dispute over his inheritance.
But they are all dragons. With weird dragon aspects to their society.
In the end I don't think it's 100% successful: the dragony things and the C19th British human things don't quite cohere into a convincing whole, for me. But it was entertaining enough and odd enough to keep me turning the pages when I should really have been getting some sleep.(less)
'Satan/angels are unexpectedly forced to live a life among ordinary people and culture-clash hilarity ensues' almost feels like its own subgenre at th...more'Satan/angels are unexpectedly forced to live a life among ordinary people and culture-clash hilarity ensues' almost feels like its own subgenre at this point, and I'm not sure this books brings much which is genuinely original. But I found it better and more entertaining than I expected.(less)
I wanted something fluffy to read to have a break from the Khmer Rouge, so I picked this up because the film came out recently. I didn't expect Tolsto...moreI wanted something fluffy to read to have a break from the Khmer Rouge, so I picked this up because the film came out recently. I didn't expect Tolstoy, but even by the standards of young adult genre fiction this was pretty weak. The characterisation was poor, the magic was unimaginative, the Southern Gothic setting was a bit of a cliché. Hey ho.(less)
Survival in the Killing Fields is my book from Cambodia for the Read The World challenge. Haing Ngor was a doctor in pre-revolutionary Phnom Penh. Tha...moreSurvival in the Killing Fields is my book from Cambodia for the Read The World challenge. Haing Ngor was a doctor in pre-revolutionary Phnom Penh. That alone was enough to make him a target for the Khmer Rouge, but he managed to survive their regime through lies, determination, judgement and blind luck. Later he made it to America, was cast in the film The Killing Fields, and won an Oscar for best supporting actor.
Which is a remarkable story, and superficially one of the triumph of the human spirit over adversity; except that really, even an Academy Award is no kind of compensation for forced labour, torture, exile, and the death of most of your family. And in the Epilogue written for this edition, 15 years after the original publication, we learn that Ngor had a pretty rough time of it in the US — which I guess you have to say is not surprising, given all he'd been through, that he was living as a refugee with limited English, and that frankly he seems to have been a somewhat difficult man even before the psychological scarring of the Khmer Rouge years. The final tragic twist is that he was shot dead outside his home in Los Angeles in what was probably but not definitely a normal, non-political robbery.
So it's a dark book. It would be difficult to read except that the matter-of-fact way that it's told keeps it from being as harrowing as it might be.
In some ways I would have liked to read a non-Khmer Rouge book for Cambodia, because it seems a pity to always see these countries through the lens of their most spectacular historical traumas. But I'm glad I read this, even so. In some ways all these political atrocities start to blur together, all endless variations on a theme — torture, paranoia, propaganda, casual violence — but somehow they all have their own distinctive local flavour. The Khmer Rouge see to have been characterised by a particularly nasty combination of anti-intellectualism, viciousness and incompetence. (less)
There's probably a degree of diminishing returns, reading these DWJ books in rapid succession. But it's surprisingly hard to find genuinely enjoyable...moreThere's probably a degree of diminishing returns, reading these DWJ books in rapid succession. But it's surprisingly hard to find genuinely enjoyable light fiction, so I keep picking up the next one.(less)
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