Michael Cunningham: The Hours

I haven’t read anything by Virginia Woolf nor know much about her apart from what I saw in the movie version of this story. And even that was quite a long time ago.

This book is a uniquely written story, almost difficult to believe it was written by a man. It’s a story of three women each living in a different city and at different times – London of the 1920s, Los Angeles of the 40s and New York at the end of twentieth century. Even though they live in such different times they share similar dilemmas about lives they are living – kind of “is this really it?” feeling.

“There's just this for consolation: an hour here or there when our lives seem, against all odds and expectations, to burst open and give us everything we've ever imagined ... Still, we cherish the city, the morning; we hope, more than anything, for more.“

We meet Virginia Woolf as she’s living in Richmond writing her book and trying to recover her health. Clarissa is the new Mrs Dalloway from Woolf’s book, only living in New York and in new times, watching her friend slowly die of AIDS. And Laura Brown is a pregnant mother of one who’s trying hard to be a good housewife. Though that isn’t exactly who she feels she’d like to be.

I’ve read a few reviews around before reading the book and seen comments that crying over a cake which is not perfect or throwing a party to a dying friend is just pathetic but how true it is! I think it is a perfect picture of how weird and messed up woman’s nature can be sometimes. And that’s one of the reasons I find it hard to believe that it was written by a man.

Full of interesting characters, especially in the New York episodes, The Hours it interesting to read, it does makes you think about things you appreciate in your life. I truly enjoyed reading this book although I don’t think I would like to read it if I was feeling a bit down as I don’t think it would pick up the mood in any way!

My rating: YYYYY

Olga Tokarczuk: Pull Your Plough through the Bones of the Dead (Prowadz Swoj Plug Przez Kosci Umarlych)

For those who don’t know Olga, she’s a renowned Polish writer with her books translated to many languages, including English. She is a recipient of the most important Polish book prize – Nike.

Her latest book is about Janina Duszejko, an old lady living in a remote house at the Polish – Czech border. She would seem average – teaching kids English in the local school and looking after the local summer houses outside the season – if it wasn’t for her unique hobby. Janina feels passionate about two things – animals and astrology. In her opinion you can tell everyone’s future from the stars which she likes communicating to people around. To say the least, this doesn’t really make her many friends around, she’s rather considered to be a bit of an old weirdo. As she is a bit of a loner and leaves far away from what we would normally call a civilization, she also finds special interest in animals – dogs, deer, foxes, wolves – all live that surrounds her.

There is a crime in the book too – a series of mysterious murders that occur in this small village one after the other with all the clues leading to a conclusion that it is the animals that are taking revenge on people.

Janina is a bit too eccentric and a bit too passionate about what she thinks is right. And if you read this book assuming that was intentional it will bring an ironic smile on your face and let you enjoy her continuous monologues. If you take her seriously however, and this may actually be the way the author intended, then this character just seems a bit fake to me, with her looking at the world through astrology and putting animals above people and her feeling of being someone better than anyone else around her. If we do assume that it is indeed an ironic picture of such a person than this book is a pleasure to read – it’s quite slow paced but that’s not necessarily a negative in this case. The language is beautiful and the story is actually involving. And the ending is the icing on the cake.

But (there’s always a but), looking back at the pictures this book created in my imagination, despite the crime and the blood this book seems pretty colourless to me. I don’t know whether it’s because it’s winter when most of the action takes place or whether it’s just because that’s what life is like, it just left a dark, dull recollection in my memory of the place and people described in the book.

I did enjoy this book but I still wouldn’t say I am a fan of Tokarczuk. I liked the House of Day, House of Night by her the most so far and it is available in English so I recommend it. This one though less so, unless you read her previous books and know what to expect.

My rating: YYYYY

Marian Keyes: Sushi for Beginners

Hi, I’m Ted. I work in the Ministry of Agriculture, writing reports on yearly sheep population growth. At least by day. By night I’m a stand-up comedian. I tell owl jokes in Dublin pubs and clubs in hope to finally find myself a girlfriend. My downstairs neighbour and good friend in our single’s misery is Ashling and it’s her that this book is really about. Her and Lisa. And maybe Clodagh (oh yeah, the beautiful Clodagh…).

So Lisa is a chief editor at Colleen, an Irish magazine. She got transferred here from London and I think considers Dublin to be hundred light years behind. She is a fashion freak and a workaholic, married to sexy Oliver (at least that’s what the ladies say…).

Ashling works as Lisa’s assistant, her Little Miss Fix-It. Her job is to photocopy, write, read, call and from time to time, when Lisa’s got a good day, attend the fashion and beauty events with her which she loves so much.

Clodagh is married to Mr Perfect (again, that’s what the girls say!). Has two kids, doesn’t need to work and is extremely pretty. She’s best friends with Ashling which only gives me hope to see her more often…

We all have our ups and downs, as do all the ladies mentioned. I quite enjoy listening to Ashling’s stories about her job, the articles she writes for the magazine and people she meets. All sounds really cool, maybe except for Lisa who can be a real b*tch. But hey, job’s a job. Until at some point it all falls apart. The reason? Yeah, men, women, relationships - as ever.

But it all ends well, as you would expect from such a book. I finally manage to feel happy again! (who would have thought). Homeless people get jobs, people get divorced and married. People screw up and fix things.

All over, I’d recommend you reach for this book and read more about us. It’s good fun, we won’t bore you here. We may just make you crave for sushi as the end result…

PS. And I think it’s the easy-read factor that I enjoyed the most reading this book, after (and before) the heavy ones from the challenge list! So if you're a woman and you're after something light this book is a good cboice. I give it 3 hearts as I don't think I'll remember the book for long - it's more of a time-nicely-spent thing. (Joanna)

My rating: YYYYY

David Malouf: Remembering Babylon

I have to admit, this was the first book by an Australian I ever read. And, I’m pretty sure, the first one about Australia and its history too.

The story is about Gemmy, an English boy who at young age finds himself shipwrecked at the coast of Australia and gets adopted by a tribe of Aborigines and spends 16 years living with them. After that time, as the settlers start to inhabit the land, he encounters a group of white kids and goes with them back to their village. And that’s where Gemmy’s trying to regain his “whiteness”, ability to speak English again and fit in with the local society. It proves difficult, for both, Gemmy as well as those who decide to provide him with a place to sleep and a seat at their dinner table.

In the end things don’t end as we’d like them to – the smooth assimilation of two cultures isn’t easy and the question is whether anyone even makes an effort to make it happen or whether people just prefer to push through, whatever the cost.

There are a few interesting characters in the book. There is of course Gemmy himself and the kids that find him in the swamp. There is the schoolmaster, George Abbot, an Englishman who got send to Australia by his rich uncle, not exactly by his own choice. He tries to fit in and find himself a purpose but struggles terribly. Until he meets Leona, a girl his age who lives with her aunt in a house away from the village. Mrs Hutchinson and Leona are considered a bit crazy by the villagers as they live on their own and do not integrate with the rest of the society. But that’s exactly where Gemmy finds himself a shelter when everyone else gave up on him.

Interesting read, definitely a breadth of something new for me, very enjoyable and so I’ll give it 3 hearts for that.

But now I need something light, women’s literature maybe to get a bit of a rest from the challenge. But I’ll be back to it soon!

My rating: YYYYY

Marina Lewycka: A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian

I was at the airport waiting for the flight to Kiev on the way to Crimea for holidays. I like having something light to read on holidays so I walked into an airport bookshop searching for something appropriate and I saw this book. I don't know what it was - that it had Ukraine in the title or the funny old lady on the tractor on the cover that made me buy it. Maybe it was my emotional attachment to tractors - when I was a kid I spent all my holidays in the countryside at my grandma's, with my favourite time of all being the harvest with all the machinery that went out on the roads at that time, including tractors. One of the holiday highlights I remember is the time my uncle let me "drive" one of those amazing things... Well, okay, he drove it but I had my both hands on the wheel too!

Anyway, I didn't get to read the book on that holiday as my lovely other half got his hands on it first. That should be enough of a credit to this book as he rarely reaches for anything that's not a business book (must have been the tractors too...). I read it when we got home though and it was fun to read indeed.

The story is about an old widowed man who immigrated to England in 1946 running away from the Stalinist Russia. He lives on his own, has two daughters who regularly come to visit him with their families. Until he falls in love with another Ukrainian emigrant woman - a 36 year old Valentina. The feeling is mutual - Valentina loves Nikolai for his power of getting her a permanent visa, for his money and for his house. And what an interesting character she is! I really enjoyed the detailed description of her bedroom that Marina treated us to and was truly amused by all the new ideas Valentina kept coming up with like her sophisticated taste for cars for instance. The way she bullies the old man and exploits his love to her is merciless and makes you hope love isn't really this blind. However Nikolai isn't alone in his misery - his two daughters who used to argue over their principles every time they spoke get reunited on the mission to get rid of their potential stepmother. It's a funny story overall, perfect light read for holiday / plane / train.

It also touches on some of the Ukrainian history - the civil war, the Stalin years, the Second World War and the survival in a concentration camp. It shows how the past you have been trying to forget about all your life impacts everything you do, the way you think, the way you are.

Oh yes, I almost forgot - and there are the tractors too! We do get to know a lot about them through the book Nikolai is writing and reading aloud whenever he finds an audience. It's an interesting side story – of how technology, here tractors, when misused may lead to the rise of Fascism in Germany and Communism in Russia and a world war as an effect...

My rating: YYYYY

Nick Hornby: Juliet, Naked

Having just read High Fidelity when I first saw the posters on the Tube announcing the new Horby’s book I couldn’t wait to get home and do my Amazon book shopping. Having read it I am not as overwhelmed as I hoped I would be. It’s not as funny as High Fidelity and not as engaging.

Juliet, Naked is a story of two people, Annie and Duncan, stuck together in a not the most exciting relationship of all, sharing a bed but not necessarily sharing their outlook on life. Duncan’s an obsessed fan of Tucker Crowe, an American singer who mysteriously disappeared years ago and didn’t record anything since. Annie is a museum worker who for fifteen years has been sharing Duncan’s obsession about Crowe but starts realising that there isn’t much more than this that they have in common.

It’s not the best book I read recently and not my Hornby’s favourite but there are some little jewels in Juliet, Naked that I enjoyed.

First one is Malcolm, Annie’s old fashioned and judgmental psychotherapist. Who is probably more dependant on her than she is on him given she’s his only patient. Malcolm could have done with some more wit but he made me smile as a character.

Another one is Gooleness as a place and the way Nick describes it. Only having lived in the UK for a couple of years I find this small seaside town atmosphere really fascinating. It’s not any seaside town, it’s an English seaside town that I’ve seen a few of and they all have a similar feel to them. Feel of remoteness and lack of freshness as if only old people lived there. The exhibition Annie is preparing is just one example of that. Nice one Nick!

It made me smile, it made me live in a seaside town for a few days, it showed me slightly different side of English life and that’s what I expect from a book. Will it stay in my mind for long? Probably not.

My rating: YYYYY