Buy, borrow, bypass: C
“A classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say.” ~ Italo Calvino
BUY:
The Children Act (Ian McEwan, 2014)
Fiona Maye is a High Court judge in London, presiding over the family court. Her husband, Jack, asks her to consider an open marriage and, after an argument, moves out of their house. She decides to throw herself into her work, especially a complex case involving a seventeen-year-old boy whose parents will not permit a lifesaving blood transfusion because it conflicts with their beliefs as Jehovah's Witnesses.
I have recently discovered Ian McEwan's novels and have fallen for his detached style, meticulously researched plots, and thought-provoking, often to the point where it becomes uncomfortable, themes. They stay with me long after I have finished reading them.
"Religions, moral systems, her own included, wee like peaks in a dense mountain range seen from a great distance, none obviously higher, more important, truer than another. What was to judge?"
BORROW:
The Comforters (Muriel Spark, 1957)
Caroline Rose is plagued by the tapping of typewriter keys and the strange, detached narration of her every thought and action. Caroline has an unusual problem - she realises she is in a novel.
Spark's debut, meta-literary, novel is quirky, playful, and humorous bordering on downright strange.
"Is the world a lunatic asylum then? Are we all courteous maniacs discreetly making allowances for everyone else's derangement?"
BYPASS:
Case Histories (Kate Atkinson, 2004)
Case one: A little girl goes missing in the night. Case two: An office worker falls victim to a maniac's apparently random attack. Case three: A new mother finds herself trapped in a hell of her own making until a fit of rage creates a grisly, bloody escape. Thirty years after the first incident, private investigator Jackson Brodie begins investigating all three cases.
This novel has a great premise and, being of the crime fiction/psychological thriller variety, especially with shifting POVs, a private investigator protgaonist, and cold cases, should be right up my street. But it isn't. It really isn't. Sorry to any Kate Atkinson fans, but I'd bypass this one, epecially when there are so many great novels out there in this genre. Instead I would recommend Deal Breaker, Gentlemen and Players, and The Body in the Library.
"Novels gave you a completely false idea about life, they told lies and they implied there were endings when in reality there were no endings, everything just went on and on and on."
What would be your "buy, borrow, bypass" recommendations for the letter "C"?
ICYMI: my last blog post on the letter "B": https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog...
BUY:
The Children Act (Ian McEwan, 2014)Fiona Maye is a High Court judge in London, presiding over the family court. Her husband, Jack, asks her to consider an open marriage and, after an argument, moves out of their house. She decides to throw herself into her work, especially a complex case involving a seventeen-year-old boy whose parents will not permit a lifesaving blood transfusion because it conflicts with their beliefs as Jehovah's Witnesses.
I have recently discovered Ian McEwan's novels and have fallen for his detached style, meticulously researched plots, and thought-provoking, often to the point where it becomes uncomfortable, themes. They stay with me long after I have finished reading them.
"Religions, moral systems, her own included, wee like peaks in a dense mountain range seen from a great distance, none obviously higher, more important, truer than another. What was to judge?"
BORROW:
The Comforters (Muriel Spark, 1957)Caroline Rose is plagued by the tapping of typewriter keys and the strange, detached narration of her every thought and action. Caroline has an unusual problem - she realises she is in a novel.
Spark's debut, meta-literary, novel is quirky, playful, and humorous bordering on downright strange.
"Is the world a lunatic asylum then? Are we all courteous maniacs discreetly making allowances for everyone else's derangement?"
BYPASS:
Case Histories (Kate Atkinson, 2004)Case one: A little girl goes missing in the night. Case two: An office worker falls victim to a maniac's apparently random attack. Case three: A new mother finds herself trapped in a hell of her own making until a fit of rage creates a grisly, bloody escape. Thirty years after the first incident, private investigator Jackson Brodie begins investigating all three cases.
This novel has a great premise and, being of the crime fiction/psychological thriller variety, especially with shifting POVs, a private investigator protgaonist, and cold cases, should be right up my street. But it isn't. It really isn't. Sorry to any Kate Atkinson fans, but I'd bypass this one, epecially when there are so many great novels out there in this genre. Instead I would recommend Deal Breaker, Gentlemen and Players, and The Body in the Library.
"Novels gave you a completely false idea about life, they told lies and they implied there were endings when in reality there were no endings, everything just went on and on and on."
What would be your "buy, borrow, bypass" recommendations for the letter "C"?
ICYMI: my last blog post on the letter "B": https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog...
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