Life From A Window

OK, so a literary, Booker contending novel about the Troubles in Northern Ireland might sound a bit heavy going, but this great read is anything but. Yes it has an atmosphere of Claustrophobic Paranoia, and yes, people die, are beaten, persecuted, tarred and feathered and it's based in a time when any hope of a resolution must have seemed pure fantasy.  Particularly told from the viewpoint of a young woman, her situation is at once, frightening, oppressive, bizarre and at times hilarious.  But our narrator has a wonderfully authentic, quirky and yes, funny voice. Set, I assume, in the 70s, in an un-named Republican enclave in an un-named Belfast, a cast of very real un-named characters are brought alive in an unusual narrative.  The cast are identified by their relationships to others or simply by nicknames - a device which in other hands might make them feel remote, but I found myself becoming very involved in their day to day lives. If I have a criticism, it is t...

Joanna Nadin is known as an author of "juvenile" fiction - but this is a very grown-up story of growing up.  Dido's mother is not your typical suburban middle-class offering, so when she stumbles (or rather falls into) her own version of Narnia at the bottom of her garden it's inevitable she falls for the charms of the family inhabiting the orderly world beyond her own chaotic house, garden and life. Narrated by Dido to her mother, this is a straight-forward but beautifully told and compelling story of a young woman discovering what matters in life. You won't learn anything new about the world in these pages, but you will be entertained and find yourself caring about the outcome.  Recommended for a holiday read, or for a break from the heavy stuff.

A love story, beautifully told but with no happy ever after ending.  We know it's over when the narration starts and as love stories tend to end in only heartbreak, death or sometimes both - there should be no surprise at what follows. Paul is 19 and Susan 48.  But this is no adolescent fantasy of a young man's sexual education by an older, experienced woman.  There is flirting, fun and ultimately love.  Though as Paul searches in vain all his life for a true definition of love - we are left knowing that was truly it, but not quite knowing what "it" is. I'm no student of literature, and the shift in narrative from first person to second and third, grated on me a little.  I'm sure it had a purpose and signified something deeper than I managed to fathom - but it felt just odd and unnecessary to my untutored eye. The time and place are beautifully evoked and readers of a certain (middle) age will find lots of resonance in the cultural and sociological refe...

This is close to being my favourite book of the year so far.   Jaxie Clackton is a product of abuse. His life is not simple or pretty. He is complex, vicious, gentle, profane, poetic. He's very human and very real.  He’s searching for something and for himself. Brought to life by Tim Winton, Jaxie should be hard to love but you will root for him from page one and at the end you will hope for him. I loved it. I laughed, I cried, I turned away and watched through my fingers.  Couldn’t put it down

Billed as a comic novel, I have to admit it took a while for me to adjust to and appreciate the gentle humour which runs through the book.  Worse it took me to about about halfway through before I started to feel any sympathy with the protagonist, Arthur Less.  Possibly it's my cultural distance from almost every character in the novel - or maybe it just isn't as witty as the critics have made out. Less is a mildly successful novelist on a cobbled together world tour devised purely to get him out of the country for the wedding of his former partner. Only while in Paris and cornered at a party by a Nemesis, who explains Less's lack of popularity to him as being down to Less being "a bad gay" did I really start to warm to him.  I suspect most if us feel that for much of our lives we've pretty bad at whatever it is we are supposed to be.  From that point I rooted for the poor guy, in his one suit (when his luggage hadn't gone astray). In the end it...

Short version - I've just read this - it's brilliant. At first it reveals itself as a story of a marriage, a car race, gender politics in post-war Australia and a slightly odd next-door neighbour fired from a teaching job for dangling a boy from an upstairs window by his ankles.  Enough for interesting, enjoyable and compelling first few chapters. As the novel develops Carey gradually reveals its dark heart, that of a nation, his nation,  built on genocide.  Without being preached at, we are led through a series of set pieces and characters which can only scratch the surface of the devastating truth of Australia's history and shame.  But scratches deep enough to unleash an unsettling stench of racism and brutality.  We "know" this stuff about Australia - but the way Carey personalises it makes it real, so we can really know it, feel it, see it through the eyes of those living with the legacy of it. Through all that, it has flashes of humour and warmth and...