The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith

 

When a troubled model falls to her death from a snow-covered Mayfair balcony, it is assumed that she has committed suicide. However, her brother has his doubts, and calls in private investigator Cormoran Strike to look into the case.

Strike is a war veteran – wounded both physically and psychologically – and his life is in disarray. The case gives him a financial lifeline, but it comes at a personal cost: the more he delves into the young model’s complex world, the darker things get – and the closer he gets to terrible danger . . .

A gripping, elegant mystery steeped in the atmosphere of London – from the hushed streets of Mayfair to the backstreet pubs of the East End to the bustle of Soho – The Cuckoo’s Calling is a remarkable book. Introducing Cormoran Strike, this is the acclaimed first crime novel by J.K. Rowling, writing under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith.

 

We had a small group this month and not everyone got a chance to read the selection (life does get in the way of our reading at times!), so it was left to just five of us to pass judgment on J.K. Rowling’s latest addition to adult fiction.

Scores were high; seven through to nine, and the majority of us found a great deal of fondness for the main characters, Strike and Robin. Their all too human traits, good and bad were essential in making them real and although there were many characters coming and going (a few too many Tera thought), the two main protagonists held firm and developed well. 

Viti loved Rowling’s pictorial of London neighbourhoods, especially Mayfair. She lived in the area for a time and could feel herself re-walking the streets and visiting the markets. High praise when a novel can do that!

Nancy commended the cleverly worked out plot and found it ‘unputdownable’. Elenor loved the use of language and felt the characters were bestowed real flesh and blood, something that was instrumental to her enjoyment level. She also believed it abundantly clear that the author was in fact female, as she felt male writers are rarely able to award characters such life.

 Tera on the other hand was underwhelmed (she scored the only seven). For a murder mystery she wanted more built up tension and felt there was something fundamentally missing. And although she continued reading hoping for that elusive climax, ‘dull’ was her one word appraisal.

Our discussion concluded with an interesting chat on disabilities and the challenges those with a prosthesis face. Strike’s everyday struggle with his false limb worked its magic on our group and required us all to stop and think what many face on a daily basis.  In conclusion, we were very happy (although not surprised) to learn that Cormoran Strike will be back!

The Happiest Refugee by Anh Do

Anh Do nearly didn’t make it to Australia.

His entire family came close to losing their lives on the sea as they escaped from war-torn Vietnam in an overcrowded boat. But nothing – not murderous pirates, nor the imminent threat of death by hunger, disease or dehydration as they drifted for days – could quench their desire to make a better life in the country they had dreamed about.

The Happiest Refugee tells the incredible, uplifting and inspiring life story of one of our favourite personalities. Tragedy, humour, heartache and unswerving determination – a big life with big dreams.

Anh’s story will move and amuse all who read it.

 

What a great book to start the year with! Anh Do’s infectious optimism throughout this memoir put us all at our happiest. We loved his positive nature and willingness to see the funny side of such an extraordinary life. The honesty in which he portrayed his family’s early days in their new country was a delight and we all felt anyone who had reservations about refugees would do well to read this book. In fact, some of us believe you wouldn’t be human if you were not moved by Do’s story. Some believe it was mostly a testament to his mother and father and we all found ourselves very interested in the whole Do clan. Cathy would have liked to hear more about Anh’s sister, and everyone found favour with his father’s philosophical view of time – ‘There are only two types of time … now and too late.’

 

The many tales, both humorous and heartbreaking, gave the book balance and Ann felt it well written/edited with the tragic being offset by humour in just the right measure. Anh’s comedic talent definitely shines through in his writing …  we all had our favourites, such as the fish tanks, the old combie breakdown, the RSL gig and his mother’s roast pig dinner, so our discussion was mostly on the merry side recalling each of these anecdotes.

However, we did touch on some of the more serious aspects, such as the upheaval refugees and immigrants experience, how it effects childhood and of course the racism. We all wondered if the xenophobic traits that seem so focused on refugees today has always been there and what will it take to create a more welcoming and accepting Australia? All very important questions that Anh’s story was never meant to answer, but in our view certainly generated an essential conversation.

In closing, it is fair to say that we all got something from this book. Do’s conversational, light-hearted patter made this vital story a pure pleasure to read.

Do yourself a favour and pick it up soon!

2013 Favourites

In scoring our reads throughout the year, we are able to determine which books gave us the most enjoyment. Every so often there is the odd surprise … a book that does not necessarily rate high in any other quarters, will stand out as an exceptionally wonderful read for us.

 

Our winner this year is one of those amazing books that brings enjoyment through beautiful and intelligent writing, in spite of its theme. There were some criticisms but The Absolutist by John Boyne impressed our entire group and scored high, putting it just above our last read for the year The Unlikely Pilgrimage of HaroldFry by Rachel Joyce. Harold found a spot in most of our hearts, as did Renee in Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery, which came a close third.

 

Our enjoyment is more often than not increased by the good discussion a book can lead us to. Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes and The Submission by Amy Waldman are good examples of this. We all love being challenged not only by the literature itself but by the empathy it can invoke and the questions it can raise, in our minds and our hearts.

We discovered late last year that a recent study has shown that reading novels can make you a better person. By seeing all sides of a character in a book, unlike in real life, we can understand and empathize more, and literally walk in their shoes.

 

Makes a whole lot of sense to us and scores a big one for reading, don’t you think?

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce

 

Meet Harold Fry, recently retired. He lives in a small English village with his wife, Maureen, who seems irritated by almost everything he does. Little differentiates one day from the next. Then one morning a letter arrives, addressed to Harold in a shaky scrawl, from a woman he hasn’t heard from in twenty years. Queenie Hennessy is in hospice and is writing to say goodbye.

 But before Harold mails off a quick reply, a chance encounter convinces him that he absolutely must deliver his message to Queenie in person. In his yachting shoes and light coat, Harold Fry embarks on an urgent quest. Determined to walk six hundred miles to the hospice, Harold believes that as long as he walks, Queenie will live. A novel of charm, humour, and profound insight into the thoughts and feelings we all bury deep within our hearts.

 

It would be quicker to list what we didn’t talk about this month!

Harold Fry gave us a very deep pool to draw from; life journey, childhood, relationships, reflection, memory, atonement. In fact, it seemed there was no emotion or human condition that was left untouched.

In general our group felt empathy for Harold, all be it combined with a good measure of frustration.

Most of us related to the healing effects of walking and Chris believed Harold’s pilgrimage represented life’s journey – in which no one can be truly prepared for, and that the voyage is the key, not the destination. This theme runs thick throughout, but there is much more in this novel. The rag tag group that latched on to Harold along the way had us lamenting the role of the media and the ability of other people to push their own agenda. This we felt was all well written and portrayed in a realistic light.

Negatives?

Well, a few of us felt slightly bogged down at times and Tera found the constant reflecting full of regrets too depressing. Viti saw a paralleling in the storyline with Julian Barnes’ novel A Sense of an Ending which we read last year, which not necessarily a negative, does tend to take any originality from a novel.

Nevertheless, we all scored this book six plus stars and took the walk with Harold and his highly prized shoes (what exactly did they represent?) voluntarily, and our reward was an engaging and poignant read.  

The Woman in Black by Susan Hill

Arthur Kipps, a junior solicitor, is summoned to attend the funeral of Mrs Alice Drablow, the sole inhabitant of Eel Marsh House, unaware of the tragic secrets which lie hidden behind the shuttered windows. The house stands at the end of a causeway, wreathed in fog and mystery, but it is not until Arthur glimpses a wasted young woman, dressed all in black, at the funeral, that a creeping sense of unease begins to take hold, a feeling deepened by the reluctance of the locals to speak of the woman in black –

and her terrible purpose.

 

The ghost story genre has not been a frequent visitor to our club, in fact the only others in ten years are The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters and Beloved by Toni Morrison. Both of these of course are much more than mere ghostly tales, but you see where we’re coming from. The Woman in Black impressed a few of us with the imagery and sparse Victorian/Gothic style writing. Hill was praised for her visual descriptions that created an atmosphere of intrigue so subtle that the reader was never sure whether the main character, Arthur Kipps, was experiencing a supernatural phenomena, subliminal suggestion or simply an over active imagination.

 

There was an overwhelming opinion that this was ‘not really my sort of book’ and that it was simply a yarn told for the purpose of entertaining. In fact, Ann believes Cripps himself was just spinning a tale.

 

Regardless, we did find ourselves entertained, both by the book and the movie starring Daniel Radcliffe as Cripps. The more than minor changes made in the screenplay gave us good material for discussion. Why the changes (particularly in the closing chapter)? Well, the cinema does like a nice tidy ending, and we believe they found it!

The Absolutist by John Boyne

September 1919: twenty-one year old Tristan Sadler takes a train from London to Norwich to deliver some letters to Marian Bancroft. Tristan fought alongside Marian’s brother Will during the Great War, but in 1917 Will laid down his guns on the battlefield, declared himself a conscientious objector and was shot as a traitor, an act which has brought shame and dishonour on the Bancroft family.

 

But the letters are not the real reason for Tristan’s visit. He holds a secret deep in his soul. One that he is desperate to unburden himself of to Marian, if he can only find the courage.

We had our full complement of twelve this month, so there were many voices with many opinions to get through. To start, there was a general consensus that the opening few chapters were a little slow and uneventful. At first, young Tristan’s plight found some empathy with us, but this was short lived. It was not long before the majority of us found him whiny, self- absorbed and intolerably needy.  

Will on the other hand, although not necessarily likable, tested our favour with his views and actions to a point that had most of us veering from extreme dislike to affable tolerance. This we decided was a clear indication of good writing and although the subject of war is not one of our favourites, we found the stark subject matter realistically portrayed with a vivid intensity that was emotionally moving.

It was no surprise that our discussion moved towards the futility and horror of war, both then and now, and what it does to not only those involved but to our society as a whole.

But the underlying themes present; homosexuality, absolutism, suppression and redemption all played a large role in bringing this story to its close.

 

The comment was made that Boyne, as a modern writer, was not able to inject a sense of realism to something as potent as World War One. True or not, Boyne’s story is more likely to be read by a young generation, bringing with it greater knowledge of the tragic suffering and hopefully, a distain for war.

And that, in our view can’t be a bad thing.

 

Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons

 

When sensible, sophisticated Flora Poste is orphaned at nineteen, she decides her only choice is to descend upon relatives in deepest Sussex. At the aptly named Cold Comfort Farm, she meets the doomed Starkadders, an eccentric group of relatives suffering from a wide variety of ailments. But Flora loves nothing better than to organise other people.

Armed with common sense and a strong will, she resolves to take each of the family in hand. A hilarious and merciless parody of rural melodramas, Cold Comfort Farm is one of the best-loved comic novels of all time.

Comedy is hard work. Any comedian can tell you that. But comedy fiction writing is an art only the truly talented should attempt.

And from the majority reaction of our group, Stella Gibbons falls within this talent pool.

 

There were some real belly laughs coming from some of us. In fact, Ann believes that everyone should have a copy of this book to just open up and read any page simply to lighten up your life.

 

The imagery and language we found brilliant. It was mentioned that quite often, the language used in classic fiction can be difficult to read and take in. Not so here, Gibbons did a masterful job of personification and those of us who took the most delight in this parody of the classic English novel felt her characters to be the real gems of this book.

All the Stackadders on Cold Comfort Farm often fell into madness of the most hilarious kind, but thanks to Flora and her Mary Poppins’ style ability, jollied them out of it and soon set everything straight with a toss of her pretty little head.

 

Light hearted fun at its best, although there were a few of us who found little to laugh at. Both Denise and Cathy doubted the brilliance of this novel. Found Flora a too good, control freak with many other characters coming and going from what seemed nowhere.

Elenor was not sure what to make of this novel and even unsure that it was meant as a parody.

Taken seriously or not, this little novel scored high with us. The only consensual negative by its fans was the extreme disappointment of never knowing what Mrs Stackadder saw in the woodshed … how to live with such ‘cold comfort’?