ReadsBooksReviews

The Painted Bridge by Wendy Wallace

I’m afraid I’m automatically biased about this book because I read it to prepare for a job interview. I loved it, so I enjoyed planning for the interview and then I got the job!

I’m now working for Mulcahy Associates literary agency and Wendy Wallace is one of the authors we represent. Her recent paperback release, The Painted Bridge, is a historical fiction set in an asylum/retreat for women on the outskirts of Victorian London. In this frightening place a young doctor is trying to use the new science of photography to capture the truth about the patients. He believes that unlike fallible human eyes, or paintings, a photograph can only show reality- insane or sane. The arrival of a new patient- a young woman whose husband decides she is behaving unacceptably strangely- throws this into turmoil.

I read and enjoy a lot of historical fiction, and I have read a lot of Victorian gothic tales, although the latter tend to frighten me more than a modern reader should probably admit. This book treads a fine line between historical interest- with a great deal of detail I had no idea about- and high drama. Wendy’s turn of phrase is balanced, atmospheric and beautiful to read. I’d recommend it to fans of Tracy Chevalier and Sarah Waters.

Interestingly, this book has a trailer. Far more common for a movie, book trailers have had mixed success and people still have mixed opinions about them. There is something uncertain about translating the literary into the visual, which seems to lead a lot of book trailers featuring swirling words rather than people or places. However, this trailer is far more cinematic, which seems appropriate for a novel dealing with the importance of the visual. Let me know what you think!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PxpQeN_97M

978-0857209290 £7.99 Simon&Schuster

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Painted-Bridge-Wendy-Wallace/dp/0857209299/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1368458424&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Painted+Bridge

Yesterday, April 23rd, was World Book Night 2013. Across the UK, 20,000 volunteers gave away their favourite books from WBN’s shortlist. The aim is to give these books to people who do not have a lot of access to books or do not read regularly and to raise awareness of literacy and community.

So, after work, I met two old colleagues and great friends, Clare @birdwingwords and Frankie @FKEdwards, who I used to work with at Edinburgh International Book Festival @edbookfest. I was giving away Robert Louis Stevensons’ Treasure Island, a classic adventure, which I have always loved for its escapism and exotic travelling tales (http://ow.ly/knq95). Clare had Jackie Kay’s Red Dust Road, the story of a woman tracing her roots and paying homage to her family (http://ow.ly/knpUF). Frankie had Jeanette Winterson’s Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal, the real memoir of her traumatic childhood, which her award-winning novella Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit was also based on (http://ow.ly/knpZn). We planned to give our books away around Kings Cross station, as it is part of our daily commute, the hub of London-Edinburgh travel and always busy with a real mixture of people.

Our first giveaway was onto the 7.00 @EastCoast train headed to Edinburgh. EastCoast’s lovely representative Sophie took a book, and we put three onto the train to be picked up by unsuspecting commuters. I hope they travel far and make a difference to somebody’s journey.

We then spoke to some people in the station concourse; a group of schoolboys returning to Leeds said they didn’t like to read but agreed to give Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal a go. A young family said they had very little time to read but would be interested in the family story of Red Dust Road. A man travelling to Jamaica said he would like to take Treasure Island there, and pass it on to someone else, as it was all about travelling and islands. A distressed mother carrying an enormous cardboard cut out of her daughter (who had appeared in a premiere the day before) had missed her train and lost her son. She was thrilled to take a book and touched by the idea of WBN, which had made her evening that bit better. A tall man returning home from the north of England produced a WBN book from his bag when we approached him- a Giver in Leeds had already approached him with A Little History of the World (http://ow.ly/knswW). Two National Rail workmen, eating their dinner near the station said they had time to read but no books and they promised to start our books that very evening.

We had some rejections too, partly people disinterested in our titles and partly people who simply didn’t want to be bothered. So after an hour we moved away from the station and up Birkenhead Street, to St Mungo’s homeless refuge (http://www.mungos.org/). We left several books there, with Caroline who planned to arrange a display of the new book donations for that night’s residents. Around the corner, at what used to be Age Concern (http://www.ageuk.org.uk/) we left three books with a man who was so excited he asked if it was possible for him to have one of all of our titles. Further up Grey’s Inn road we went to a cheap traveller’s hostel, and spoke to two Romanians who couldn’t read English well but promised to try. We also popped into the Royal National Throat, Ear and Nose Hospital and the Terence Higgin’s Trust care centre (http://www.tht.org.uk/our-charity/About-us/Our-centres) and left some books for their reception areas.

Our last bookswop of the day was with a group of friends and flat mates in DrinkShopDo back near King’s Cross. We were in need of some dinner and drinks by then and we asked everyone to bring a book to swop, to celebrate with us. It was amazing how many people brought several, and the conversation about them went on far longer than was sensible for a school night!

I hope to be part of World Book Night again next year and I would encourage everyone who can to get involved http://www.worldbooknight.org/

The typography on these is my favourite, but look on their beautiful pinterest board for more!

http://pinterest.com/littlebrownuk/abacus-40th-anniversary/

(Thanks http://remarkablerose.tumblr.com/!)

The Visible World by Mark Z Slouka

Another recommendation from http://remarkablerose.tumblr.com/ and a similar size and subject area to her previous The Burnt-Out Town of Miracles (see below).

This book is about the lives of people from Czechoslovakia- primarily Prague- during and after the Second World War. I visited Prague before Christmas, to see http://pragueweirdandnice.tumblr.com/ so I was able to remember many of the places described in the book. In fact, the most interesting aspect of reading this story for me was understanding more about the unspoken recent history that was left out of my guided tours of the city.

The Visible World focuses on secrets- as a young boy grows up trying to decipher his parent’s ever-present but concealed past. The story moves from the intensely personal relationships of the young couple in that time, to the bigger story of the Czech resistance assassinating Reinhard Heydrich, the notorious ‘butcher of Prague.’ Although there are elements of this story which are very familiar, some of the cameos about individual reactions to occupation, resistance and capture were shocking and overwhelming. Slouka’s language is smooth and draws the reader through several narrative strands and many small but significant dramas towards a powerful twist. The somewhat typical love story - of a tragic passion and an enduring commitment- turns into a disturbing and painful comment on human reactions to abominable acts.

From this book it is obvious why Slouka has featured in Best American Short Stories. His craftsmanship of this book has a delicate touch but makes a heavy impression. I would pass on the Remarkable Miss Rose’s recommendation, and despite the grim perspective of this review, advise you to visit Prague (weird and nice).

978-1846270864 £7.99 Portobello Books Ltd

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Visible-World-Mark-Z-Slouka/dp/1846270863/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1363878901&sr=1-1

The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver

Barbara Kingsolver is another prize-winning female author, this year shortlisted for the (previously known as Orange) Women’s Prize for Flight Behaviour (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Flight-Behaviour-Barbara-Kingsolver/dp/0571290779/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1363879261&sr=1-1) and previously in 1999 shortlisted for The Poisonwood Bible. The Lacuna is her winning title, and the only one with a male narrator.

An expert at evocative landscapes (my fave) in this book Kingsolver contrasts wild, hot Mexico with cold Asheville, North Carolina in McCarthyite America. Her narrator Harrison Shepherd is a peculiar child, a nuisance and reassurance to his socialite, Salomé, who lives up to her name. With little company or education, he is a solitary observer, so the reader strongly allies with him. Mexico makes a strong impression on his childhood. The island jungle he grows up in features the titular Lacuna, which he obsesses over. A handy metaphor as well as plot device, this physical breach is symbolic of understanding, truth and perception through the dimensions of time and space.

Shepherd’s first independent adult experience- of school in both Mexico and the USA- is horrific, however it reveals his quiet strength and hints at his interest in the same sex. Moving away from the conventional pattern he starts work as a cook for famed artists Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, and subsequently acts as secretary to exiled Bolshevik leader Lev Trotsky. The idea of their domestic reality set against public and media presumption is hugely relevant to us presently, as well as a development on the symbolic Lacuna. Forced to move from Mexico, Shepherd uses his interpretation of Aztec and Mayan history to remake himself as a hopeful American novelist. Gagged and bound by his fans as well as the communist-hunt of McCarthy and homophobia of society he is increasingly penned in by echoes of his previous experience before breaking free via the Lacuna.

Structurally this book is deliberately challenging- pieced together from a selection of documents it acknowledges Lacuna’s of missing text.

I found the subject of this novel complex and intriguing, the historical period and places covered fascinating and vivid and the structure a test of my own assumptions. I suspect of all Kingsolver’s work this is deservedly the winner.

978-0571252671 £8.99 Faber&Faber

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lacuna-Barbara-Kingsolver/dp/0571252672/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1363878730&sr=1-1