Review: books I read in 2011

The Top 3

• The Left Hand of Darkness (1969) by Ursula K. Leguin. Although this book is set on an imaginary planet of ice (where characters wear great fur outfits), it covers topics of racism, cross-cultural understanding/misunderstanding, fear and acceptance of difference, and political intrigue. The chapters alternate between two culturally different characters’ points of view as well as some historical background to each of them. A beautiful story.
  
• A Visit from the Goon Squad (2010) by Jennifer Egan. This book has won some awards- and rightly so. I enjoyed the setting (and critique) of the American music industry. I also found the book quite moving, sad in places and I suppose bittersweet. Each chapter is set in a different time frame and/or location through the eyes of separate, but interrelated characters. I cannot seem to do this book justice so you may wish to read The Guardian review to get a better idea. Not recommended for the Kindle – apparently the powerpoint diary chapter doesn’t display well.
• The Year of the Hare (1975) by Arto Paasilinna. A hilarious story about a Finnish journalist who isn’t enjoying his boring city life and unexpectedly drops out of conventional society. He rescues an injured hare and takes it with him on his trip into the wilderness- picking up part-time work and saving cows from bush-fires along the way.

The Disappointment

• IQ84 (Books 1-3, 2009-10) by Haruki Murakami. This book was not the masterpiece it was supposed to be. I felt I could hear (read?) the voice of an author growing into an old conservative Japanese man. The main female character seemed stereotypically oppressed. (Maybe this is just a realistic interpretation of the position of the female in Japanese society.) On one hand, she was sickenly obsessed with her image and clothing and on the other, she was a driven, tough, intelligent vigilante. This book has some stange fantastical moments. It is written well and weaves together seemingly separate characters in an enjoyably slow, yet engaging, pace. Unfortunately, in my opinion, it is just a conventional love-story dressed-up as fantasy. You are much better off skipping the 900-odd pages and going back to the author’s earlier work The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (1998).

The Old Favourite

• The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (1998) by Haruki Murakami. I never thought I would read books twice, but I really do love this novel and re-visited it in 2011. It is a very creative, unique and well-told story. There are alternate realities included.

Speculative Fiction with a Drop of Fantasy

• Parable of the Sower (1993) by Octavia E. Butler. What happens when corporations take control of water supplies; poverty, fear and violence is on the rise; and people live in compounds to protect themselves? In a not so distant future, a teenager leaves her compound, in search of a better life. It’s a believable situation with a fantastically strong, positive female lead-character on a journey.
  
• Transition (2009) by Iain Banks – Oh what a fast-paced and thrilling action-novel this is! There is lots of movement and surprise in the story. There is a torture scene I skipped, but apart from that, highly recommended.
• The City & the City (2009) by China Mieville – This modern author has some very fascinating ideas and a fascinating first name. This book made me think about space in a new way. It also made me think about 3D modelling and computer games. Lastly it made me think of Arthur C. Clarke’s The City and the Stars which is a mind-blowingly futuristic novel for 1961, a classic which I prefer over The City and the City. In Mieville’s book I found the dialogue between characters too artificial. There was also something about the writing style which irked me.
• The Female Man (1975) by Joanna Russ – I don’t really know what this book is about. I was trying to catch up on female sci-fi authors and discovered this one about several time-travellers of ambiguous genders. It’s a weird book. I heard it was radical for its time. I found it quite radical.
• Vermilion Sands (Short-story collection, 1971) by J. G. Ballard. Interactive/replicating sound sculptures, flying stingrays, flying machines, plants which respond to music, disturbed women. Nice creative Sunday afternoon stuff.
  
• The Drought (1965) by J. G. Ballard. There is a character named “Quilter” in this story who adorns himself with a dead peacock. It is a queer (odd) and compelling read – as most Ballard novels are. Instead of trying to escape the situation which has brought hardship, the central character immerses himself within it. I love reading Ballard and have to make sure I evenly pace myself with his novels- unfortunately no new titles are going to be published posthumously.

Crime / Thriller

• In the Woods (2007) by Tana French. Irish crime. I got sucked right in to this compelling crime book. Lots of interesting characters, especially the investigating detectives. Very good entertainment.
• The Broken Shore (2008) by Peter Temple. Australian crime. Short, punchy writing style with great descriptions of regional communities. Very good.
• Garnethill (2007) by Denise Mina. You can read my polite review of a shit book here. Extremely poorly written.

Book Review: “The Preacher” by Camilla Läckberg

It’s not difficult to tell trash from treasure in the sea of Scandinavian crime fiction. The Preacher by Camilla Läckberg falls into into the trashier group, but that doesn’t mean it was a boring book. I was turning pages quickly and was oblivious to how the story would unfold near the end. Slightly gratuitous in descriptions of violence in parts, the writing is sometimes clumsy so I wasn’t surprised to read that the author was once an economist who took a course in creative crime writing. Great inspiration to those who think about totally changing their career though – Lackberg has written four Swedish No.1 bestsellers.

If you are looking for real trash reading, (akin to hundreds of pages of New Weekly magazine neatly printed in a book) then go for Michael Jackson: The Magic & the Madness an unauthorised biography written by J. Randy Taraborrelli in 2004. Or the epic Brando: The Biography by Peter Manso. Totally worth the one thousand pages to read about Marlon’s semi-tamed pet racoon that outgrew the house it was sharing with the actor.

Camilla Läckberg

Book Review: “Roseanna” by Maj Sjöwall & Per Wahlöö

First published in 1968, Roseanna is the first in a series of ten books written by this Swedish husband and wife team. The book has a fresh modern style, with clues to its vintage becoming apparent when characters use typewriters, send telegrams and wait days for vital information to arrive in the mail from overseas locations. The storyline revolves around the discovery of a young female body dredged from a Swedish lake and the subsequent investigation into her murder by Detective Inspector Martin Beck.
Much more engaging than old Law and Order SVU episodes (and I am a big fan), the book has a creeping pace with a nail-biter of an ending. Did you enjoy the Danish Police Drama Unit One? I did. And I really enjoyed this book. The landscapes, settings and characters have similarities….Now I am getting rather obsessed with Scandinavian Crime Fiction.

Book Review: “Super-Cannes” by J.G.Ballard

It is difficult to write a review of a book that you cannot make total sense of, but I will do my best.

For the first half of this book, I was surprised that the plot almost exactly mirrored Ballard’s earlier novel “Cocaine Nights”: Man arrives in self-isolated enclave and tries to solve a mystery. In doing so he becomes inducted and entangled in a way of life which at first shocked him.

This way of life is set in a gated all-in-one residential/business park. The overworked employee-residents are bored and sick of the long hours and associated lifestyle. Swimming pools and holidays won’t cure their boredom, but participating in super violence and criminal undertakings seem to improve the residents’ health and cure disengagement.

I intermittently questioned the realism of the story– why aren’t the authorities involved? Why won’t anyone tell the police? Yet in the end, this lack of realism is a welcome relief. For if we easily believe that aspects of Super-Cannes too-realistically represent our modern lives and those we see represented in the media, the book would become a horror story.

Super-Cannes made me think about the nature of work, leisure and violence in society. I questioned my role in corporate indoctrination and capitalist culture and I considered society’s desensitisation to violence. If you find any of those topics interesting and enjoy a surreal mystery story, you should read this book.

Book Review: “My Family Alphabet” by Judith Lucy

This book is a non-linear autobiography of an Australian comedian, Judith Lucy. Lucy’s relentless snippets of family dysfunction would almost become depressing if it weren’t for her humorous writing style. I laughed out extremely loud whilst reading this book, especially at all the politically incorrect actions and quotes of Lucy’s relatives.
I think these stories are so poignant because I can see aspects of my family’s (and friends’ families) interactions in Lucy’s stories. This is an appropriate book to get a close friend for Christmas or a birthday.