Friday, June 27, 2008

Light in the Piazza

An odd film, made in 1962, set mainly in Florence. We started to watch it for the scenery, but we continued to watch , in spite of misgivings and being unable to suspend disbelief completely.

Jane Gardam - Old Filth

Just read this - liked it much more than I expected to. Hope to post more on it later.

Friday, June 20, 2008

Kate Long - The Daughter Game

Kate Long's books always keep me reading. I read Swallowing Grandma on a transatlantic flight and it entertained me for the whole journey. I especially enjoy her witty, realistic dialogue, and sharply observed characters.

Her most recent novel, The Daughter Game, doesn't have so many laugh-out-loud moments as the others, but I still picked it up first thing in the morning in preference to my laptop.

The book starts with a scene where the main character, Anna, melts her headmaster with a flamethrower – letting us know that she has a good line in imaginary vengeance, and setting the tone for this lively, warm, and funny though sometimes disturbing book.

Anna is a successful school teacher, but her apparent confidence hides conflicts. She has a history of miscarriages, and is increasingly dissatisfied in her marriage to an ex-teacher who is now a full-time writer. All of the pressures lead her to question everything about her life, from her relationship with her dead mother to her longing for a child.

She has an affair with her brother-in-law, but he wants more from her than she can give. In school a friendship with a promising new female student becomes too intense as Anna sees her as a daughter figure.

Anna’s journey takes us from classroom to staff room, from her middle-class home to a rented caravan to a run-down slum, and I travelled with her all the way.

I have to admit I was rooting for a different ending, but the one in the book makes sense, and I guess it shows I was involved with the characters.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

More short notes

I've indulged in something like a reading orgy over the last 2 weeks in Bristol:

The Flamboya Tree - Clara Olink Kelly

Here on Earth - Alice Hoffman


Shuttlecock - Graham Swift.

Talk to the Hand - by Lynne Truss

The Book Thief - I haven't been able to finish this one yet, as it's not mine and I have to leave it behind. I should have started with this one.

Sunday, June 1, 2008

Catch-up again

I seem to be reading a lot at the moment, in a not very analytical way.

Daphne du Maurier's House on the Strand for the third time. One of thse slip through time books, this time with the aid of a drug and the added attraction of falling in love with someone who has been dead for 600 years. Same kind of magic as Traveller in Time by Alison Uttley which I read over and over again at the age of 10 or so.



Carol Shields' The Box Garden - a basically upbeat book - Charleen Forrest returns to the house where she was brought up for her widowed mother's wedding to a man she met at the oncology clinic. During the story we learn of her marriage and divorce, her new relationship with an orthodontist, her lovely son, Seth, and her relationship with her sister. She also has a talent for poetry, and writes letters to a mysterious monk, Brother Adam.