by Alexander McCall Smith
This is the first book in a series about a crime unit in Sweden. It came with very good reviews. I have enjoyed other books by him especially the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency Series. However, this book was a big disappointment.
It is largely about a detective Ulf who works in this rather strangely named department. The book attempts to be funny by having all the characters run off on unrelated tangents all the time. The crimes they investigate are simple... a wife having an affair, a young girl who makes up a pretend boyfriend and a jealous friend suggests to police that she has killed him when she tells them he has gone to the north pole.
The Globe and Mail describes the book as smart, witty and clever... but I don't think it is any of these. Certainly not his best work. He is prolific but I think he may now be more interested in publishing books than in publishing well crafted books.
Wednesday, 1 July 2020
Island
by Johanna Skibsgrud
I heard about this book on Facebook and thought it would be interesting.
The author takes on a big task, a modern retelling or homage to Heart of Darkness by Conrad. As soon as one take's on a classic the reader has high expectations. I had high expectations but found the book very disappointing, uninteresting.
The story is about an island, originally settled by white plantation owners who brought in coloured workers/slaves to work on the crops. At some time atomic bombs are set off in the vicinity or on the island and all islanders are removed to the "mainland". Sometime later the "native" islanders demanded to be able to return to the island and they were allowed to do so. The islanders are very poor and there is a definite difference in wealth and status between whites and blacks. The island doesn't have much going for it. The people were promised that a station (underground sea cable facility) would offer jobs but most people who come to work there come from the mainland. Only a few guard-type duties are given to the locals.
The book revolves around two female characters.
One is a young diplomat whose husband and daughter have left the island because of racial bullying the daughter suffered at school. It is the diplomat's last day on the island.
The second woman is a young islander who has been enticed to join a cause to gain independence for the island by a woman Kurtz(same name as Conrad book). Part way through the book she is warned that Kurtz is not who she says she is. We later find out she was a diplomat who went rogue.
The fighters invade the embassy, kill one of the staff and tie up the diplomat who later tells them where some important maps are stored in the building. She is able to get a message off to the mainland at the start of the attack by the fighters.
At the end of the book it is apparent that forces from the mainland are landing, the fighters did not really have a good plan to take over.
The only good thing about the book was that the author brought up the issue of colonial pasts and the damage/anger they have caused in the racial minorities they have controlled. With the Black Lives Matter and the tearing down of statutes and removal of confederate flags in the U.S. the topic is very timely. The one good idea the author has is that the fighters cannot just take over and do what their overlords have done. They have to come up with new ways of thinking, behaving, managing. etc.
Very disappointed in the book. It could have been a lot more interesting. I recall how much I enjoyed the book Bel Canto by Patchett, about the kidnapping of a Japanese business tycoon in South America. The story, the action, the interaction of the characters was much more engaging and powerful.
I heard about this book on Facebook and thought it would be interesting.
The author takes on a big task, a modern retelling or homage to Heart of Darkness by Conrad. As soon as one take's on a classic the reader has high expectations. I had high expectations but found the book very disappointing, uninteresting.
The story is about an island, originally settled by white plantation owners who brought in coloured workers/slaves to work on the crops. At some time atomic bombs are set off in the vicinity or on the island and all islanders are removed to the "mainland". Sometime later the "native" islanders demanded to be able to return to the island and they were allowed to do so. The islanders are very poor and there is a definite difference in wealth and status between whites and blacks. The island doesn't have much going for it. The people were promised that a station (underground sea cable facility) would offer jobs but most people who come to work there come from the mainland. Only a few guard-type duties are given to the locals.
The book revolves around two female characters.
One is a young diplomat whose husband and daughter have left the island because of racial bullying the daughter suffered at school. It is the diplomat's last day on the island.
The second woman is a young islander who has been enticed to join a cause to gain independence for the island by a woman Kurtz(same name as Conrad book). Part way through the book she is warned that Kurtz is not who she says she is. We later find out she was a diplomat who went rogue.
The fighters invade the embassy, kill one of the staff and tie up the diplomat who later tells them where some important maps are stored in the building. She is able to get a message off to the mainland at the start of the attack by the fighters.
At the end of the book it is apparent that forces from the mainland are landing, the fighters did not really have a good plan to take over.
The only good thing about the book was that the author brought up the issue of colonial pasts and the damage/anger they have caused in the racial minorities they have controlled. With the Black Lives Matter and the tearing down of statutes and removal of confederate flags in the U.S. the topic is very timely. The one good idea the author has is that the fighters cannot just take over and do what their overlords have done. They have to come up with new ways of thinking, behaving, managing. etc.
Very disappointed in the book. It could have been a lot more interesting. I recall how much I enjoyed the book Bel Canto by Patchett, about the kidnapping of a Japanese business tycoon in South America. The story, the action, the interaction of the characters was much more engaging and powerful.
Thursday, 4 June 2020
Coming Up for Air
by Sara Leipciger
I really enjoyed the lyrical language of this author.
It is an interesting story, trying to try three figures together through history.
The story starts off quite starkly "This is how I drowned". It starts with a young french girl who coes to Paris to be a ladies companion. The lady is quite fond of the young woman, unlike the aunt who had been raising her. The young woman falls in love with another young french woman and is totally smitten with her. She is devastated when her lover breaks off the relationship.
A young carpenter has seen the two women kiss and he tells the young girl he will expose her unless she has sex with him. She doesn't want to do it but she feels she must. The young man goes away to continue is apprenticeship but promises he will come back to marry her. She doesn't want to marry him as she dislikes what he made her do.
After he is gone the girl discovers she is pregnant. Her employer is very caring and supportive saying that they can leave Paris and move to a small town where they can pretend she is a widow. However, after the baby is born the young woman climbs into the Seine and drowns.
Her body is pulled out of the Seine and a young apprentice finds her face attractive and makes a death mask of it. It turns out that her face becomes popular and is reproduced over the years as art.
The second part of the story is about a Norwegian man who is talking to his son (who we later find out drowned while the family was on an outing). The man became adept at making dolls out of plastic and is eventually called to America to make the face for the official CPR dummy.
The third story is about a young woman, living in northern Canada and later near Ottawa, who has Cystic Fibrosis. Despite her health she loves to swim in cold lakes and rivers. The story includes her parents who eventually divorce.
The story ends with Camille, the daughter of the Parisian Girl, in a class to learn how to use CPR to potentially save the life of her husband who has heart problems.
I can see how Camille, Camille's mother and the Norwegian were connected but the girl with CF seemed a bit extraneous to the story to me. I did love the language the author used in her writing of the story.
I really enjoyed the lyrical language of this author.
It is an interesting story, trying to try three figures together through history.
The story starts off quite starkly "This is how I drowned". It starts with a young french girl who coes to Paris to be a ladies companion. The lady is quite fond of the young woman, unlike the aunt who had been raising her. The young woman falls in love with another young french woman and is totally smitten with her. She is devastated when her lover breaks off the relationship.
A young carpenter has seen the two women kiss and he tells the young girl he will expose her unless she has sex with him. She doesn't want to do it but she feels she must. The young man goes away to continue is apprenticeship but promises he will come back to marry her. She doesn't want to marry him as she dislikes what he made her do.
After he is gone the girl discovers she is pregnant. Her employer is very caring and supportive saying that they can leave Paris and move to a small town where they can pretend she is a widow. However, after the baby is born the young woman climbs into the Seine and drowns.
Her body is pulled out of the Seine and a young apprentice finds her face attractive and makes a death mask of it. It turns out that her face becomes popular and is reproduced over the years as art.
The second part of the story is about a Norwegian man who is talking to his son (who we later find out drowned while the family was on an outing). The man became adept at making dolls out of plastic and is eventually called to America to make the face for the official CPR dummy.
The third story is about a young woman, living in northern Canada and later near Ottawa, who has Cystic Fibrosis. Despite her health she loves to swim in cold lakes and rivers. The story includes her parents who eventually divorce.
The story ends with Camille, the daughter of the Parisian Girl, in a class to learn how to use CPR to potentially save the life of her husband who has heart problems.
I can see how Camille, Camille's mother and the Norwegian were connected but the girl with CF seemed a bit extraneous to the story to me. I did love the language the author used in her writing of the story.
Eight Perfect Murders
by Peter Swanson
This is the first mystery book that I have read in which the narrator was a murderer.
It starts off introducing us to a man who is co-owner of a book store specializing in mystery books. An female FBI agent comes to see him because she has noticed a connection between a list of that he created on a blog of perfect murders seem to match some recent murders. Most of the books are classic murder mysteries including one Agatha Christie Book, the ABC murders. The agent gets him to come with her as part of her investigation of one murder, a women he knew, a former client. There he finds the books he mentioned in his list on her bookshelf.
The young agent is found to be in conflict of interest, one of her family members was murdered, and she is taken off the case. Some other agents come to visit the man. He suspects they may be suspecting him.
We learn that the man had an unfaithful wife, who fell back into drug use when she met another man, a supporter of the arts. The man's wife and this man also had an affair. The main characters wife, we are told, died in a car crash.
The man had gone onto the dark web and threw out an invitation for someone to join him in a murder pact like in one of the books he referenced. The man wants his wife's lover murdered and another man comes forward who wants a person murdered. They commit the crimes as agreed.
As things are progressing the man thinks that his accomplice may plan to out him and he gets worried. He asks some questions of a policeman he knows. Then thinks perhaps he shouldn't have.
It turns out that the accomplice was the policeman. In the end the main character goes to the house of his dead female customer with plans to drown himself in the lake/river on her property.
It was an interesting story, I didn't really suspect the man was a murderer. We find out that not only did he get his wife's lover killed, he killed his wife by forcing her car off the road.
This is the first mystery book that I have read in which the narrator was a murderer.
It starts off introducing us to a man who is co-owner of a book store specializing in mystery books. An female FBI agent comes to see him because she has noticed a connection between a list of that he created on a blog of perfect murders seem to match some recent murders. Most of the books are classic murder mysteries including one Agatha Christie Book, the ABC murders. The agent gets him to come with her as part of her investigation of one murder, a women he knew, a former client. There he finds the books he mentioned in his list on her bookshelf.
The young agent is found to be in conflict of interest, one of her family members was murdered, and she is taken off the case. Some other agents come to visit the man. He suspects they may be suspecting him.
We learn that the man had an unfaithful wife, who fell back into drug use when she met another man, a supporter of the arts. The man's wife and this man also had an affair. The main characters wife, we are told, died in a car crash.
The man had gone onto the dark web and threw out an invitation for someone to join him in a murder pact like in one of the books he referenced. The man wants his wife's lover murdered and another man comes forward who wants a person murdered. They commit the crimes as agreed.
As things are progressing the man thinks that his accomplice may plan to out him and he gets worried. He asks some questions of a policeman he knows. Then thinks perhaps he shouldn't have.
It turns out that the accomplice was the policeman. In the end the main character goes to the house of his dead female customer with plans to drown himself in the lake/river on her property.
It was an interesting story, I didn't really suspect the man was a murderer. We find out that not only did he get his wife's lover killed, he killed his wife by forcing her car off the road.
Tuesday, 5 May 2020
The Glass Hotel
by Emily St. John Mandel
I really enjoyed this author's first book, Station Eleven, about the aftermath of a pandemic.... again very significant considering the coronavirus pandemic we are experiencing right now.
So, I was eager to read her next book which is getting rave reviews. However, while this book was probably good I did not enjoy it.
The book is basically about a man who creates a ponzi scheme and the lives he impacts. But there is a girl and her brother who play the main roles in the book.
There are a girl and boy who are step-kids. The boy resents the girl and her life. He is a drug addict who has been kicked out of college after several rehab treatments funded by his mother. His mother has died. If I remember correctly he was in Toronto. He goes to Vancouver to see his step sister. She doesn't get along with her stepfather/father and goes to live with an aunt but is suspended from school when she etches some grafitti on a school window. She goes to live with an aunt but that doesn't work out so eventually she leaves.
The two siblings meet up again when the girl is working as a bartender on a hotel on a secluded cove on Vancouver Island. Her brother comes to see her and she gets him a job as a cleaner at the hotel.
The brother etches some words on the hotel window and is fired. The girl ends up hooking up with the owner of the hotel who wants her to be his pretend trophy wife. She agrees because she has a nice house and all the money she wants.
Her brother goes on to be a somewhat successful music/performance artist. The girl goes to one of his performances and is furious to find he has used some videos she did as a child as part of his performance. She had intended to reconnect with him but after what she has seen walks away without talking to him.
The girl doesn't realize that her wealthy "husband" is actually running a Ponzi scheme. He is eventually tried and sentenced to 170 years in prison. The books explores the impact of his deceit on some of his clients. The man himself is haunted by ghosts of some people he hurt who have died but most of the time he lives in his mind making up alternate realities. He does not accept any responsibility or seem to have any regret.
The girl goes to work on a cargo ship as a cook. She seems to like her austere life. One day while she is trying to film the ocean she falls overboard.
I had real trouble getting into this book as I disliked all three main characters, they were totally without morals, self-absorbed and un-sympathetic. I was very disappointed by this book as the first one was so fascinating and the characters so interesting.
I really enjoyed this author's first book, Station Eleven, about the aftermath of a pandemic.... again very significant considering the coronavirus pandemic we are experiencing right now.
So, I was eager to read her next book which is getting rave reviews. However, while this book was probably good I did not enjoy it.
The book is basically about a man who creates a ponzi scheme and the lives he impacts. But there is a girl and her brother who play the main roles in the book.
There are a girl and boy who are step-kids. The boy resents the girl and her life. He is a drug addict who has been kicked out of college after several rehab treatments funded by his mother. His mother has died. If I remember correctly he was in Toronto. He goes to Vancouver to see his step sister. She doesn't get along with her stepfather/father and goes to live with an aunt but is suspended from school when she etches some grafitti on a school window. She goes to live with an aunt but that doesn't work out so eventually she leaves.
The two siblings meet up again when the girl is working as a bartender on a hotel on a secluded cove on Vancouver Island. Her brother comes to see her and she gets him a job as a cleaner at the hotel.
The brother etches some words on the hotel window and is fired. The girl ends up hooking up with the owner of the hotel who wants her to be his pretend trophy wife. She agrees because she has a nice house and all the money she wants.
Her brother goes on to be a somewhat successful music/performance artist. The girl goes to one of his performances and is furious to find he has used some videos she did as a child as part of his performance. She had intended to reconnect with him but after what she has seen walks away without talking to him.
The girl doesn't realize that her wealthy "husband" is actually running a Ponzi scheme. He is eventually tried and sentenced to 170 years in prison. The books explores the impact of his deceit on some of his clients. The man himself is haunted by ghosts of some people he hurt who have died but most of the time he lives in his mind making up alternate realities. He does not accept any responsibility or seem to have any regret.
The girl goes to work on a cargo ship as a cook. She seems to like her austere life. One day while she is trying to film the ocean she falls overboard.
I had real trouble getting into this book as I disliked all three main characters, they were totally without morals, self-absorbed and un-sympathetic. I was very disappointed by this book as the first one was so fascinating and the characters so interesting.
The Memory Police
by Yoko Ogawa
This book is currently on the shortlist for the Booker International Prize. It was actually published 20 years ago but has only been translated recently. It is an amazing book, almost prophetic considering our current times.
The book is about a young woman, and author, who lives on an island where things start to disappear. They can be common everyday things like flowers, fruit, etc. When things disappear people forget about them and forget the word. One day the river is full of rose petals as all roses disappear. If things don't disappear on their own, the people of the island destroy them, so when books are "disappeared" the people gather for book burnings.
As a little girl the girl's mother, a sculptor, would show her things she had stored in drawers in her workshop and tell the little girl about these "disappeared" items. Her mother is taken away at some point. Other people are also taken away by the Memory Police. Her parents sculptures and her father's work as an avian expert are removed from the house by the Memory Police.
One day some people who are trying to hide from the Memory Police come to visit the girl to give her some of her mother's sculptures. The girl later discovers that her mother has been hiding disappeared objects inside these sculptures.
The young girl is friends with an old man who lives on an abandoned ferry boat, ferries no longer run and people no longer have a memory of them. The young woman's publisher seems to be one of the rare people who do not forget about things when they are "disappeared". She knows he is in danger so convinces him to leave his wife, who is pregnant with their first child, and come and live in a secret room she has built into her house. He is trapped in this tiny room, she feeds him and provides water etc. She also arranges for him to exchange messages with his wife.
Eventually people's body parts, e.g. their leg, are disappeared. People are going to cut off their legs but realize that would be deadly so instead they limp along on sticks etc as if their leg didn't exist.
Ultimately all the bodies disappear. The only person we know of who continues to exist whole is the publisher hidden in the woman's house.
This was a very dark story, but with a powerful message for today. How much are we willingly ignoring?? How far will we let the dark forces go? Will we surrender ourselves completely.
This was a book I will think about for a long time. It had a few things that were unexplained, who is doing the controlling? Why don't the memory police forget things? Or do they?
This book is currently on the shortlist for the Booker International Prize. It was actually published 20 years ago but has only been translated recently. It is an amazing book, almost prophetic considering our current times.
The book is about a young woman, and author, who lives on an island where things start to disappear. They can be common everyday things like flowers, fruit, etc. When things disappear people forget about them and forget the word. One day the river is full of rose petals as all roses disappear. If things don't disappear on their own, the people of the island destroy them, so when books are "disappeared" the people gather for book burnings.
As a little girl the girl's mother, a sculptor, would show her things she had stored in drawers in her workshop and tell the little girl about these "disappeared" items. Her mother is taken away at some point. Other people are also taken away by the Memory Police. Her parents sculptures and her father's work as an avian expert are removed from the house by the Memory Police.
One day some people who are trying to hide from the Memory Police come to visit the girl to give her some of her mother's sculptures. The girl later discovers that her mother has been hiding disappeared objects inside these sculptures.
The young girl is friends with an old man who lives on an abandoned ferry boat, ferries no longer run and people no longer have a memory of them. The young woman's publisher seems to be one of the rare people who do not forget about things when they are "disappeared". She knows he is in danger so convinces him to leave his wife, who is pregnant with their first child, and come and live in a secret room she has built into her house. He is trapped in this tiny room, she feeds him and provides water etc. She also arranges for him to exchange messages with his wife.
Eventually people's body parts, e.g. their leg, are disappeared. People are going to cut off their legs but realize that would be deadly so instead they limp along on sticks etc as if their leg didn't exist.
Ultimately all the bodies disappear. The only person we know of who continues to exist whole is the publisher hidden in the woman's house.
This was a very dark story, but with a powerful message for today. How much are we willingly ignoring?? How far will we let the dark forces go? Will we surrender ourselves completely.
This was a book I will think about for a long time. It had a few things that were unexplained, who is doing the controlling? Why don't the memory police forget things? Or do they?
Thursday, 9 April 2020
A Long Petal of the Sea
by Isabel Allende
This book starts in Spain during the Civil War. It starts with one family, two brothers, their mother and a young women the family "adopted". The two brothers go to fight in the war, one of them becomes a soldier, the other brother who had been studying to become a doctor, goes off to be a Medic. The soldier brother and adopted sister fall in love and the girl gets pregnant. Her lover is killed in the war. The other brother knows this but can't bring himself to tell her.
As the war is winding down and Franco is winning, the medic brother arranges for an ambulance driver to take the girl and his mother over the border to France. On the way the mother disappears, the driver gets the girl to a refugee camp. The refugees are not welcome in France and conditions in the camp are terrible, with men taking most of the food.
The medic contacts a "nurse" he knows and she is able to find the girl and get her to a safe location to have her baby. She is taken in by a family.
The medic and girl eventually get reunited and are granted permission to move to Chile. This infulx of refugees is supposedly the idea of Pablo Neruda. The man convinces the girl to marry him because they will only be accepted for entry if they are married. It seems that refugees will not be welcome there either but they find that they are welcomed warmly. The man completes his medical training and becomes a highly regarded surgeon. The woman becomes a musician and founder of an ancient music orchestra which tours around South America. The man becomes a friend of Pablo Neruda and many years later helps Neruda escape from Chile.
The man treats the baby as his own. The couple are married but it is initially just a marriage of convenience. The medic eventually tells her that the father of her child died in the war.
The man has an affair with a woman, above his social class, who is engaged to someone else.
She gets pregnant and her family send her off to a convent to have the baby, to avoid scandal to the family. They tell her the baby, a boy, dies at birth. She initially calls off her engagement but her fiance loves her so much he agrees to marry her anyway.
Overtime the Doctor's wife reconnects with the driver who got her out of Spain and they have a seven year affair. Eventually the woman tells the Doctor about this affair. And eventually they do end up consummating their marriage and realizing they do love each other.
The book then switches to the political time when Salvador Allende, the socialist gets into power. The Doctor is a friend of his and plays chess with him. Allende is killed/commits suicide in a coup attempt. Soon after the doctor is arrested and sent to a concentration camp where he sees great cruelty again (like in the Spanish Civil War). He saves the life of the cruel camp Commander.
Eventually the doctor is rescued from his imprisonment with the help of his wife and they move to Venezuela. They eventually move back to Chile and live in a small house in the country. The man's wife dies and he is devastated. One day a young woman shows up and tells him that she is daughter. The woman he had an affair had a girl, not a boy, and the child lived and was adopted by a German couple. The arrival of this "new" member of his family jolts the man out of his despair and he is eager to include her in his life. It turns out the girl's mother was and continues to be a very self-centred, not very nice person.
This was a great book. It was interesting to learn about the history of Spain and Chile. It too demonstrated how cruel people can be. But more importantly it shows how people can be kind and loving. The author is the Goddaughter of Salvador Allende
This book starts in Spain during the Civil War. It starts with one family, two brothers, their mother and a young women the family "adopted". The two brothers go to fight in the war, one of them becomes a soldier, the other brother who had been studying to become a doctor, goes off to be a Medic. The soldier brother and adopted sister fall in love and the girl gets pregnant. Her lover is killed in the war. The other brother knows this but can't bring himself to tell her.
As the war is winding down and Franco is winning, the medic brother arranges for an ambulance driver to take the girl and his mother over the border to France. On the way the mother disappears, the driver gets the girl to a refugee camp. The refugees are not welcome in France and conditions in the camp are terrible, with men taking most of the food.
The medic contacts a "nurse" he knows and she is able to find the girl and get her to a safe location to have her baby. She is taken in by a family.
The medic and girl eventually get reunited and are granted permission to move to Chile. This infulx of refugees is supposedly the idea of Pablo Neruda. The man convinces the girl to marry him because they will only be accepted for entry if they are married. It seems that refugees will not be welcome there either but they find that they are welcomed warmly. The man completes his medical training and becomes a highly regarded surgeon. The woman becomes a musician and founder of an ancient music orchestra which tours around South America. The man becomes a friend of Pablo Neruda and many years later helps Neruda escape from Chile.
The man treats the baby as his own. The couple are married but it is initially just a marriage of convenience. The medic eventually tells her that the father of her child died in the war.
The man has an affair with a woman, above his social class, who is engaged to someone else.
She gets pregnant and her family send her off to a convent to have the baby, to avoid scandal to the family. They tell her the baby, a boy, dies at birth. She initially calls off her engagement but her fiance loves her so much he agrees to marry her anyway.
Overtime the Doctor's wife reconnects with the driver who got her out of Spain and they have a seven year affair. Eventually the woman tells the Doctor about this affair. And eventually they do end up consummating their marriage and realizing they do love each other.
The book then switches to the political time when Salvador Allende, the socialist gets into power. The Doctor is a friend of his and plays chess with him. Allende is killed/commits suicide in a coup attempt. Soon after the doctor is arrested and sent to a concentration camp where he sees great cruelty again (like in the Spanish Civil War). He saves the life of the cruel camp Commander.
Eventually the doctor is rescued from his imprisonment with the help of his wife and they move to Venezuela. They eventually move back to Chile and live in a small house in the country. The man's wife dies and he is devastated. One day a young woman shows up and tells him that she is daughter. The woman he had an affair had a girl, not a boy, and the child lived and was adopted by a German couple. The arrival of this "new" member of his family jolts the man out of his despair and he is eager to include her in his life. It turns out the girl's mother was and continues to be a very self-centred, not very nice person.
This was a great book. It was interesting to learn about the history of Spain and Chile. It too demonstrated how cruel people can be. But more importantly it shows how people can be kind and loving. The author is the Goddaughter of Salvador Allende
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