Posted by Sari
John McCullough: 1776
1776 was a
the first and perhaps greatest do or die year of American War of independence.
Early success in Boston was followed by a defeat at battle of Brooklyn hights and the Dunkerque-like
retreat to Manhattan. Eventual withdrawal through New Jersey kept Washington’s army intact but left British in command of New York and with a chance to split the colonies from
the middle. John Mcculloug’s 1776 is a military history of that year, a
chronological narration of the ups and downs of the colonial cause from Boston to the Battle of Princeton in
January 1777.
As
evidenced by his John Adams biography, he is a talented writer but 1776 is not
one of his better works. His sketches of the characters involved are revealing
and entertaining, but as a book about the military on the field, it never really
takes off – especially if the broad outlines of actions are already familiar. I
especially missed maps, which for me are essential reference when trying to
decipher battles.
Harumi Murakami: Kafka on the Shore
Kafka on
the Shore is a good book, but it was not a book for me. It has lots of the
familiar Murakami tropes, and the fantasy elements are deftly woven into the
structure. The simple Mr Nakata who talks of himself in the third person, talks
to cats and goes on a road trip with his side-kick the truck-driver is
appealing, and not everything is explained which I always appreciate. However,
I tend to approach novels through characters, and in this case the main
narrative, the freudian survival story
of a runaway teenager who wants to kill (or avoid killing?) his father and
marry his mother just did not engage me.
Patricia Finney: Firedrake’s Eye
This is a
first in a series featuring Simon Ames, a sephardic jew turned into one of
Walsingham’s spies in Elizabethan England and David Becket, an ex solider and
unemployed swordmaster. Here their aim to prevent a popish plot to assasinate
the queen. Firedrake’s eye is well researched, beautifully written and quite
literate mystery. Finney’s narrator is Poor Tom o Bedlam, a madman with a split
personality and unexplained omniscience of the unfolding events. I was
expecting just a run-of-the-mill historical mystery, so I was pleasantly
surprised by the language and feel of the book. It has been used in at least
one university as a gateway to Elizabethan culture and vocabulary to make
Shakespeare easier to understand, and I can defenitely see why.
Wendy Cope: Serious Concerns
My sister
took our (well, hers, but…) copy of this when we moved out of our shared
student flat around twelve years ago and
I it took this long for me to replace it. Cope does not want to be England’s next poet Laureate, which is sort
of a pity. I think she would be brilliant composing the required ceremonial
poems with a twinkle in her eye. I first bumped into her poetry in 1980s wen
the tube had a campaign of poetry on the underground. I remember sitting on the
Northern Line train reading her “Uncertainty of a Poet” poem on the wall almost
ad nauseam. Cope, often mentioned with Larkin and Betjeman, writes clever, dry
and adorable poems, about life and men and poetry. She has a mean eye for
parody and keen sense rhythm and structure, and is the one poet I recommend to
people who are not into poetry.
Hall: Raw
Shark Text
This is one
of those books where my inability to “see” books is a real disadvantage. Raw
Shark Text is a story of an amnesiac, Eric, who slowly learns that his loss of
memory is due to the fact that his personality has been devoured by a conceptual
shark, a Ludovician, who preys his victims in the sea of thoughts and memes and
all the words which make up our conceptual sea. The idea itself is a delightful
flight of fancy, bringing a metaphor into flesh or at least paper, even to the
point of using e.e. cummings-like word-pictures and animation. Now, I like clever books, I like books other
people might find pretentious, so I was completely willing to accept Hall’s
post-postmodern play on words, ideas and reality. Where he lost me was at the
end when Eric and and his “guide”, Scout, find the conceptual oceanologist Trey
Fidorus in caves made out of text which transform into a sea. My visual imagination
just didn’t go there.
Tim Bucher: Blood River
Tim Bucher
was Telegraph correspondent in Africa when he dreamed up a hair-brained plan to
follow in Stanley’s footsteps down the river Congo. After years of making contacts and
planning a trip others called impossible he finally did it in 2004. He flew to Kalemi
on the lakeTanganiyaka and followed Congo on motor-cycles, pirogues and
barges all the way to Boma.
Blood River is the story of his trip through a
country Foreign Policy considered in 2007 as the seventh worst failed state in
the world. It is one of those books which are a great
introduction if – as is my case – you know little or nothing of the subject
matter. I vaguely remember the 1997 coup
and the 2001 assassination of Laurent Kabila, but that is about it. Butcher
unravels the past and present of the country comparing his trip with Stanley’s and also with a cruise his mother
took down the river in the 1950s. The story he tells is distressingly awful and
hopeless. It certainly made me look at my cute cell phone in a different light.
I suspect
however that if the reader has some expertise or even just familiarity with Congo or Africa in general Bucher’s endless
andecdotes about degenerated infrastructure, and folks fleeing to the bush
might feel a bit facile. But like I said, it is a great introduction and does
what a great introduction should: makes you want to know more.
Sinkkuelämää (Sex and the City)
Gah. I was
on my way back from Berndö, Åland via public transport and had read all books I
had with me, so I grabbed this from R-kioski for few euros. In this case the
translation was so annoying that I was quite unable to get past it. The
faux-sounding dialogue with deliberate anglicisms left in just grated
unbelievably. I don’t think I would have much cared for the book even if it had
been in English but the Finnish version was just too horrid for words.
Moon Called
I usually
run away fast if book has vampires or werewolves in it. This has both. And a
heroine who shapeshifts into a coyote. Yes, I know. But paranormal romance is
popular nowdays, and this isn’t half bad representative of the genre. Our
heroine is spunky, independent, unaware of her own attractiveness and has two
werewolves fighting for her attentions. There is also kidnapping, betrayal,
power struggles and whatnot. A bit like Stephanie Plum books, except with a more
competent protagonists. And the whole werewolf thing. Oh, and it is a first one of a series. I
wonder if Tarjas has the next one…
Eating Muffins 