samedi 25 septembre 2010
The Long Song by Andrea Levy
I have just finished this wonderful wonderful book, and I really hope it wins the Booker - I am looking forward to Renée Levine's review, but I recommend everyone reads this tale. It is really very good, insightful, enjoyable, and one of the best books I have ever read! Finally I can be a honest bookseller when I recommend this one. Loved it, go out and buy it from your favorite independent bookshop today.
samedi 4 septembre 2010
The Betrayal reviewed by Renée Levine
The Betrayal by Helen Dunmore
This is a hard book for me to review. It is clearly a serious work by a successful, experienced and talented writer. The Betrayal is the sequel to her enormously successful The Siege, the story of Anna and her family who survived, with all the horrors of the possible death either by starvation or by the immense cold that overran Leningrad during the threatening german invasion of 1941. The Betrayal takes place ten years later when the war has ended and peace has been restored only to be followed by the terror of the Stalin years, an era of paranoia in the face of Stalin’s death machine. The death of one man is a tragedy; the death of a million is a statistic” is one of the sayings attributed to Stalin.
This volume continues the story of Anna who is still living in her parents’ apartment, she is working as a teacher, her husband Andrei is a talented pediatric physician in the local hospital. The couple bring up together Anna’s 16 year old brother after the death of her mother.
The plot driven story deals with a new patient just admitted to the hospital with a cancer in his leg. This ten year old boy the only son of Volkov, a senior secret police officer, becomes the tool for the plot. By means of his admission all the panic upon which rests the Stalin terrorist regime, is let loose. The amputation is not a success, the boy’s suffering becomes enormous, the panic on the part of the hospital crew becomes overwhelming. Whose fault was it? How will it be punished? Paranoia, whispering campaigns, petty grievances of jealousy and rank differences, all metastasize into giant lies and denunciations. Lives are at stake.
All the people are good: Anna is a good woman devoted to social causes, Andrei is a good doctor who loves his patients more than he cares about any rank, even the evil Volkov exhibits human qualities but of course we know all along that evil will win, punishment will come. The permanent mantra: don’t take risks pursues the telling of the tale. These are good people who live in terrible times. Only Stalin’s death brings release.
The story is riveting. We can’t stop reading and yet, and yet.
I found myself not admiring it when it was over. Something is missing. If you want a great novel in war time, read Pat Barker’s trilogy.
This is a hard book for me to review. It is clearly a serious work by a successful, experienced and talented writer. The Betrayal is the sequel to her enormously successful The Siege, the story of Anna and her family who survived, with all the horrors of the possible death either by starvation or by the immense cold that overran Leningrad during the threatening german invasion of 1941. The Betrayal takes place ten years later when the war has ended and peace has been restored only to be followed by the terror of the Stalin years, an era of paranoia in the face of Stalin’s death machine. The death of one man is a tragedy; the death of a million is a statistic” is one of the sayings attributed to Stalin.
This volume continues the story of Anna who is still living in her parents’ apartment, she is working as a teacher, her husband Andrei is a talented pediatric physician in the local hospital. The couple bring up together Anna’s 16 year old brother after the death of her mother.
The plot driven story deals with a new patient just admitted to the hospital with a cancer in his leg. This ten year old boy the only son of Volkov, a senior secret police officer, becomes the tool for the plot. By means of his admission all the panic upon which rests the Stalin terrorist regime, is let loose. The amputation is not a success, the boy’s suffering becomes enormous, the panic on the part of the hospital crew becomes overwhelming. Whose fault was it? How will it be punished? Paranoia, whispering campaigns, petty grievances of jealousy and rank differences, all metastasize into giant lies and denunciations. Lives are at stake.
All the people are good: Anna is a good woman devoted to social causes, Andrei is a good doctor who loves his patients more than he cares about any rank, even the evil Volkov exhibits human qualities but of course we know all along that evil will win, punishment will come. The permanent mantra: don’t take risks pursues the telling of the tale. These are good people who live in terrible times. Only Stalin’s death brings release.
The story is riveting. We can’t stop reading and yet, and yet.
I found myself not admiring it when it was over. Something is missing. If you want a great novel in war time, read Pat Barker’s trilogy.
jeudi 2 septembre 2010
The Slap
I did not like this book. I do not like this book. It is cruel, depressing - and unreadable. I don't understand why it is on the Booker Longlist, it is not literature. It is sad. I can't review it and I won't be able to sell it in the bookshop. I can't write about it. I read Jane Smiley's review on the Guardian pages, I think she was able to read it - please read her review. I can't talk about it, it made me upset and sad.
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