Book Reviews
"Shadowplay" by Joseph O'Connor is presented from several points of view as a series of documents, including interview transcripts. It features three real historical characters: Henry Irving and Ellen Terry who were famous actors in the late Victorian / Edwardian age, and Bram Stoker, who was employed by Henry Irving to run the Lyceum Theatre for him. During his life Stoker was also an unsuccessful novelist, but found posthumous fame as the author of Dracula. The book recounts the friendships and interactions between the main characters as they develop over thirty years, and powerfully evokes the atmosphere of an old theatre with its resident ghosts. The dialogue is particularly successful at bringing even the minor characters to life.
"Machines Like Me" by Ian McEwan is set in an imaginary past: a 1970s in which Britain loses the Falklands War and Alan Turing has remained alive to pioneer the development of artificial intelligence and robotics. It is narrated by a not entirely admirable young man who buys an intelligent humanoid, which becomes part of a menage a trois with him and his girlfriend. The book explores the resulting conflicts of ethics and legality in an entertaining way, and raised interesting points for discussion at our group meeting.
"Hag Seed: The Tempest Retold" by Margaret Atwood is one of a series of novels based on Shakespeare plays. An artistic director at a festival theatre in Canada loses his job due to the treachery of his colleagues, but has his revenge fifteen years later - trapping and confronting them at a performance of "The Tempest" by a class of prisoners in a correctional facility. It's a very lively 'retelling' which cleverly combines adherence to the original plot with commentary on the play from a modern perspective - in particular the treatment of the 'hag seed' Caliban.
"The Essex Serpent" by Sarah Perry is set near the end of the 19th century, and explores a contemporary clash of beliefs - between science, religious faith and superstition. A wealthy woman travels to a remote Essex village, hoping to discover that the mythical beast rumoured to haunt there is a survivor of an extinct species. The village inhabitants live in fear of the 'serpent'; the resident vicar doubts its existence as either a supernatural or palaeontological phenomenon. The story is played out between a large cast of characters from different social spheres - by the end the non-existent serpent has changed all their lives. But on the way there are some wonderful descriptions of the countryside and its natural beauty.
"Crow Lake" by Mary Dawson is set in a small farming community in Northern Ontario, Canada. One strand follows the long-term consequences for a family when the parents are killed in an accident, and two sons in their late teens are left to bring up their younger siblings. Outcomes for individual family members are very different, causing partial estrangement for many years, though ending in tentative reconciliation. A second strand presents a family with a more tragic history, as father-to-son brutality is seen to travel through successive generations. Notwithstanding the psychological complexities presented, the story is told very clearly - everyone found it exceptionally easy to read and a credible presentation of family dynamics.
"Do Not Say We Have Nothing" by Madeleine Thien follows three generations of a Chinese family, along with friends and neighbours, through a turbulent half-century, up to the time of the Tiananmen Square protests. Many are musicians (three are members of the Shanghai conservatory) and the characters often reveal themselves through their thoughts about and reactions to different musical genres. In one way or another, all their lives are shattered by the events of the Cultural Revolution, but their individual fates differ according to their antecedents, their connections with the ruling regime, and their personal survival strategies. It's a sad story with quite a complex narrative structure, and not everyone in the group felt able to read it to the end.
"The Shepherd's Life : a tale of the Lake District" by James Rebanks. A defence of a traditional, but now threatened, way of life, written by a farmer who was brought up to it from an early age.
"House of Correction" by Nikki French. A woman accused of murder must gather evidence while still in prison in order to defend herself in court. Comments from group members included: "An unusual format for a `whodunnit` as it works backward rather than finding clues before an arrest. The plot was in reverse, but had the classic formula of a locked-in setting. The lead character, Tabitha, was not presented sympathetically ... the portrayal of prison life was interesting ... it came to life with the trial scenes which I enjoyed the suspense and drama. I don`t think any judge would be quite so tolerant but it worked very well."
"The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher": short stories by Hilary Mantel. Partly based on incidents from her own life: an embarrassing visitor in Saudi Arabia, a childhood friendship, a night in a sinister hotel. On first acquaintance some members found the stories bleak and unsettling, and some of the situations not very plausible. But anyone willing to re-read them after a short interval would find them more enjoyable, giving an opportunity to appreciate the spot-on descriptions evoking mood and ambience, the turns of phrase in dialogue which pinpoint a character, and above all the black humour which is Hilary Mantel's trademark.