Annabel - Kathleen Winter

I rushed home to read this book, it's that good. Set in a remote village in Labrador Canada  a child is born with both male and female parts, and only one close friend knows the secret. The father decides to raise the child as a boy and call him Wayne (adding insult to injury!). But on the same day of the child's birth the confident loses her blind husband and only daughter, Annabel, in a boating accident.  Wayne has his female parts sealed up, and the close friend continues to be present in Wayne's life as his teacher and calling him Annabel in private.

As a woman reading this book my body literally ached in sympathy as he started to experience puberty and the pains that go with it. Because Wayne's femininity is shut off and kept a secret from him and everyone else for most of the book, his female yearnings, such as the desire to add curtains to his hide out or dress in beautiful swimming costumes, are even more poignant.  Wayne has not only to navigate his hormones and strange body but also the attitudes of a tiny village with it's frozen landscape and frozen minds. An excellent book, one that describes the female condition better than a simple single sex viewpoint could ever do.  Thoroughly recommended.

To buy this book click on the following link: Annabel

Instead of a Book: Letters to a Friend - Diana Athill

Instead of a Book is collection of letters Diana Athill wrote to her friend the New York poet Edward Field. The collected letters are from 1981 until 2007. They were waiting for Diana's death before publishing them but at 93 she shows little sign of giving up the ghost, and Edward at only six years her junior can't wait around forever  so they have decided to publish while she was still alive.

Diana Athill is an extraordinary writer, both 'Stet', her account of her time as an editor at Andre Deutsche and 'Somewhere Towards the End' her meditation on coming to terms with old age were extraordinary books, and this one too is very beautiful. She has a rare gift for writing, one feels as though she does it with great ease, as if she were simply breathing in and out words, but of course this comes from great editing, something she has made her living from and is a master at. I've often thought that swear words are as valid as any other words in the English language if they are used in context and she uses the f word with aplomb, lending the book an intimacy as if we were climbing inside her head and listening to her thoughts.

This book made me want to start writing letters again, and also caused me sadness for the advent of e-mail (as she admits herself the acquisition of a computer and switching to e-mail changed the nature of her letters).  'The Gift' the poem she wrote on her mother's death, which features in 'Somewhere Towards an End' is also reproduced here and it was indeed a great pleasure to read that  very moving poem again.  If you've not read anything by Athill before I'd recommend reading 'Stet' and 'Somewhere Towards the End' first but if you have and want more of her pen, I'd thoroughly recommend 'Instead of a Book', for the chance to spend more time in her company, and also to have the honor of  reading this intimate account of twenty-six years of this incredible woman of letters life.

To buy this link click on the following link: Instead of a Book: Letters to a Friend

To buy 'Stet' click on this link: Stet

and

To buy 'Somewhere Towards the End' click on this link: Somewhere Towards the End

To buy this book click on the following link: The Poisonwood Bible

Set mainly in 1960s Congo, The Poisonwood Bible tells the story of an American missionary, his wife and four daughters who go out to the live in the remote village of Kilango to ‘save its people.’ Life is austere, and any comforts that they take along from home, such the four packets of cake mix to have on the children’s birthday’s which turn hard and so cannot be used, are unable to help them in their new found hardship. Any initial optimism about their ability to help the village and indeed to cope with the difficulties they’ll face is slowly warn away, and as things get progressively worse the missionary is revealed to be stubborn and ultimately doggedly selfish in his unwillingness to take his daughters back home and save them from this horror.  The book's final section looks at their lives years later and the contrast between the womens' lives is striking, revealing the extent to which nature will triumph over nurture.

The narration throughout is interesting with each section initially narrated by the mother and then each chapter within each section narrated by each of the daughters in turn. This gives an interesting perspective as each character is understood both in their own voice, each of the women’s voices are impressively distinct, and also seen from outsiders’ perspective.  It’s not an easy read, but it is rewarding. The writing is very beautiful and the apocalyptic setting comforting, especially for me reading it in a country such as the UK where, even in times of recession, resources are so plentiful.

Ordinary Thunderstorms – William Boyd

US resident, but British born, climatologist, Adam Kindred comes over to London for a job interview after splitting up with his wife. After the interview he witnesses the murder of Philip Wang, a scientist employed by a major drug company to research a new cure for asthma.  The contracted killer, Jonjo manages to make the evidence point to Adam, so the police start going after the climatologist, while Jonjo begins his hunt for Adam who has managed to acquire an incriminating piece of evidence against the drug company. Rather than turning himself in, Adam goes AWOL, initially living rough on a disused piece of land by the river but then slowly engineering a new identity and blue collar life.   He is also pursued by the police, including another recent singleton Rita Nashe a new recruit to the river police.

I loved William Boyd’s Any Human Heart, which made the disappointment of Ordinary Thunderstorms even greater. The depiction of London especially around the newly erected Shard is interesting, the church of John Christ, where Adam attends a soup kitchen was a nice comic touch and Boyd writes well, but on the whole the book was formulaic. It would have been far easier and more sensible if Adam had turned himself in straight after the murder, but then perhaps he didn’t want to go back to his old life, or wanted the excitement of going into hiding. I really didn’t buy that he was going on the run because he was genuinely afraid of being wrongly accused. It felt much more like a plot device and an excuse for a pretty dull thriller.  Everything that you expect will happen at the end happens, and the possibility of reveal between Rita and Adam as their lives become more intwined almost completely ignored. Disappointing for so many reasons.

To buy this book click on the following link: Ordinary Thunderstorms

or

to buy 'Any Human Heart" click on this link: Any Human Heart

Super Sad True Love Story – Gary Shteyngart

When 39 year old bibliophile Lenny Abramov falls for the youthful Eunice Park, you can tell that there’s going to be trouble. Set in the near future in an America that is failing in a world economy dominated by China, a very believable, apocalyptic story unfolds. Inevitably, things deteriorate, at both the personal and political levels.  And while you could argue that the vain dystopian America described here gets what it deserves, Shteyngart really gets you to care for Lenny and Eunice and their respective families in the ensuing chaos.

Shteyngart is a masterful ventriloquist, telling the story through his characters' diaries and on-line chats. He also creates a very believable world with details like see-through onion skin jeans and the crowd scanning uber- mobile phones called apparati. I thought this book was absolutely brilliant, and loved it even more for the irony of having read about this world where books are dirty and dying, on my Kindle.

Marked down slightly for having some confusion over the time references so I wasn't really sure how far in the future the story is set, but that’s a minor gripe and easily ignored considering the masterful writing.

To buy this book click on the following link: Super Sad True Love Story

Recently my Kindle broke. I hadn't read a paper book for two weeks over a year - it decided to pack up fifty-four weeks after arrival. I rang Amazon, it was just out of warranty, and they wanted to charge me £50 for a replacement, however I persuaded them that as I was such a heavy consumer of Kindle books that they shouldn't charge me...they looked at my account and quickly agreed to send one free. It would take a few days. But what was I going to read on in intervening period? Perhaps try a paperback again? How hard can it be?

So I went to one of the many bookshelves in my flat to look for a book I hadn't read yet, all those I'd acquired in the pre-Kindle days....BK (Before Kindle) or AP (After Paper)??? And I found a book that I had no memory of  getting - Kazuo Ishiguro's 'An Artist of the Floating World'. I've read lots by him before, and really enjoyed him.

I chose the book because it was slim, just 208 pages, easy to get through in a few days,  it was already at home, and therefore free, and small, plus according to the cover it had won the Whitbread Prize.  OK so I admit it a book is a beautiful thing. I like looking at it, it's almost like a piece of art in itself, maybe an antique one day, with it's gorgeous cover, Japanese mountain rising out of the clouds with a traditional Japanese street scene just beneath it, but as soon as I finish it I'll go straight back to reading on a Kindle, because, well they are just far better for reading on than traditional paper.

Why? Well here are a few reasons...my Kindle case has a light so that I can read in bed while my husband dozes beside me, I've had to read lots of documents for work (I started a new job this week), and really it's a faff having pieces of paper to lug around as well as a book, books are awkward to hold demanding the use of two hands instead of one, I can take a stash of novels when I travel without worrying about weight restrictions, I don't need to find more storage for books in my flat,  I could go on and on and on..

But, and this is why I've set up Byte the Book, it was so much easier for me to choose which book to read next than it would have been on Kindle. I'd like to do something to help other people who just get stuck wondering just what to read next.