Category Archives: Contemporary

The First Rule of Swimming by Courtney Angela Brkic

Posted on May 27, 2013 | 11 Comments

The First Rule of Swimming - Courtney Angela BrkicThe First Rule of Swimming: A Novel – Courtney Angela Brkic
Little Brown and Company, May 2013
Review copy from Netgalley
Buy: Amazon | Bookdepository *

The First Rule of Swimming is the story of two sisters, Magdalena and Jadranka, and a family living on an island in Croatia that is faced with the difficulties of a communist regime and the Yugoslavian wars.

When, during the time she lives in the United States with her cousin, Jadranka goes missing, Magdalena rushes after her. Magdalena is used to Jadranka fleeing every once in a while, but she usually lets Magdalena know where she is going. This time is different.. And Magdalena tries to trace her by following her sister to the US, while simultaneously tracing her family’s deepest secrets that have been tearing at the seams little by little over decades.

My reasons for reading this were.. well.. look at that stunning cover! No, seriously, it was the cover plus the fact that I like stories of families and their intertwinement with history. I find stories of sisters particularly appealing, so that about covers it.

The First Rule of Swimming takes its time setting up the characters and their relationships to each other. It has a quiet and slow quality to it that suits the book and the story it tells very well. In places, it reminded me a little of Georgina Harding’s Painter of Silence. It really tries to do the impact of grand historical issues on family relationships justice. The prose is pretty and engaging, the characters endearing and at times just infuriating enough to make them feel like real people.

However, there are reasons why I am caught in generalities when discussing this book, even if I cannot quite pinpoint them. While, on the one hand, I feel I really got to know the family portrayed, can glimpse their lives and thoughts in my mind even days after reading with the tinge of a smile on my face, on the other hand the story failed to right-out grab me, forcing me to continue reading and really deeply care. It is not that I felt it was too slow in the beginning, as some might argue it was. That never bothered me. It is not that the characters were not well-rounded, or that their interests were not clear. Because they definitely were. It is just that, somehow, somewhere, the real spark was missing for me.

I would have settled for that, appreciating the story for what it is and what it accomplishes to do. I would have given it four out of five stars if I still did ratings.. if it were not for the scenes in the latter part of the book. Without giving anything away, in the latter parts of the story events take a turn. There are grand things happening. Things that, frankly, seemed a little farfetched in relation to the rest of the story. I wonder at this need for a grand finale, a climax, even in a book that has its careful depiction, its quietude, its slowness, as one of its best qualities. I am not saying things could never have happened this way. I am saying that, to me, it seemed a little unlikely. And in being so, it spoiled some of what I appreciated in the story thus far. I would have liked a resolution that was less.. out there? somehow.

Pretty cover, beautiful prose, a decent set-up, and a novel that takes its time to fully emerge you into its setting and characters – The First Rule of Swimming had a lot going for it, even more so because of the small details that managed to become meaningful, come full-circle, in the end.. but ultimately, it failed to convince me, mostly because of the events in the last part of the story. A shame really. I feel this deserves a more positive evaluation for what it manages to accomplish in the beginning, but I cannot quite shake the disappointment of the ending.

Other Opinions: Ciska’s Book Chest, Yours?

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Irises by Francisco X. Stork

Posted on May 7, 2013 | 8 Comments

Irises - Francisco X StorkIrises – Francisco X. Stork
Narrated by Carrington Macduffy
Listening Library, 2012
Buy: Amazon | Bookdepository *

I think I might not need explain why I chose this particular audiobook. Given my first name, anything that carries the name “Iris” has an almost irrational appeal for me.

Thus, when Audiobook Sync had Irises as part of their free download list last year, I could hardly resist. By the way, I should probably add that I love the idea behind Sync and that even though not all of their titles appeal to me, it is a great way to discover new-to-me authors or books that I might never have heard of otherwise. Irises and Francisco X. Stork are a great example of that.

In Irises, the reader follows two sisters, Kate and Mary, while they struggle to face the challenges of their newly changed life. Raised by their loving but strict parents, everything changes when their mother becomes comatose after a car accident, and their father, who used to be the minister of the local church, dies of a heart attack. Kate and Mary both have their own dreams and talents. Kate is bound for Stanford and Med School, while Mary is a talented painter of mostly flowers. But faced with the grief and new responsibilities and difficulties upon the loss of their father and the effort to take the best care of their mother, both Kate and Mary need to reevaluate their own dreams and their responsibilities and love for each other.

Honestly? I almost did not continue listening to this book after the first disc. Their father being a Christian minister, and Kate and Mary often reflecting on their belief, the restrictions they experienced in it, the joy it could bring them.. Not to mention the overtly dramatic and somewhat.. surreal? opening scene.. It should have been a story that appealed to me but instead I found myself hesitating: was this going to be the same old story of loss and acceptance? Was this going to be too Christian without raising questions for me to feel comfortable with?

I admit, and I knew, this is (apart from the opening scene which really was not all that good) my own personal background speaking: being raised in an atheist family, it somehow became ingrained to turn away from any media that might veer towards evangelisation. Not that I think this book does so. Upon reflection, I don’t think those feelings do the book any justice. Instead, I feel the book offers (what I expect to be) a realistic portrayal of the different meanings faith can have in human life, without making it only about faith, and not only about the positive sides of it either, but instead integrating it in a story that is about much more and perhaps more urgent issues for the characters.

I decided to give the book another try when Amy mentioned it in her post about the best books she read in 2012. And I am happy I gave it another try. For while the book may not have been a perfect read for me, and I think it is flawed, it does pack a lot of complicated issues and overflows with compassion and feeling at certain points.

As I mentioned, Irises raises a lot of big questions, which I can hardly discuss here without spoiling the key moments of the book. It deals with ideas about life and death, about the value of art, about family and individuality, about priorities and different concepts of selfishness. It certainly packs a lot. Things I had not expected to find in there. A lot of reflection and understanding for the bigger and smaller issues girls aged 14-18 face, but mostly those that all of us might have to deal with, whatever age we are. This might be what I appreciated most in the book: its room for introspection, for the motivation of these two girls, for showing how what from the outside might easily be labeled one thing can be motivated by a lot of conflicting emotions for the individual in question. The beauty of it is that the raising of these issues never felt artificial, but they were instead incorporated into the story of these two individual girls and their daily life.

The book is told through alternating viewpoints. In one chapter you follow Mary, in another Kate. As such, you become acquainted with their own thoughts, motivations, and feelings. And while I might feel exasperated at the choices of Kate in one chapter, the following might contextualize it and make it more understandable. The drawback of this was that sometimes the storyline felt a little too slow for me, and I saw some of the key points coming from a long way off. I wonder if this was the audio? I do not know if it was the story itself or listening to it that made me feel just one step removed from the characters at most times. Even so, by the last third of the book, I was (and this came as a surprise to me) deeply involved in what was happening, and hardly dared listen to it on my morning and evening walk for fear I might have to hide a few stray tears on my face each time.

In the end, I am happy I gave Irises another try. It was not perfect, and I think the book might work better on paper than on audio, but mostly in the latter half of the book I came to appreciate it a lot for what it dares to discuss and for the sensitivity and compassion with which this is done.

I have read that Francisco X. Stork’s other novels might be better, so I am quite curious to give them a try. By a stroke of luck, I came across his Marcelo in the Real World the other day..

Other Opinions: Rhapsody in Books, Book Addiction, My Friend Amy, bookshelves of doom, Beth Fish Reads, Annette’s Book Spot, Little Library Muse, Yours?

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Possession by A.S. Byatt

Posted on April 3, 2013 | 17 Comments

Possession - AS ByattPossession – A.S. Byatt
Vintage, 1991
Buy: Amazon | Bookdepository *

That’s right, I have finally read Possession. And I loved it, as everyone predicted I would, though that love was not present from the very start.

For those who have not read Possession, I am very sorry, but I won’t include a plot summary. Not because I am lazy (or well, perhaps that does play a role), but because I don’t know how to summarise this book exactly without veering into possibly spoilery terrain. I don’t think my thoughts below will be spoilery. It’s just that in order to get a proper outline of the plot, without giving it away, there are too many layers to work through in my head, to get back to that initial unknowing state of when I first started reading a few weeks ago. And this is the kind of book where I am sure you will appreciate exploring by yourself, discovering as you go along. All I can say is: please do read it. And don’t feel daunted and intimidated, as I was. Moreover, remember to stick with it for the first 100 pages (I admit, those can be hard), if any of the themes below appeal to you. The book, and the eventual conclusion, will probably be worth it. It more than was, from my point of view.

So yes, Byatt’s prose, not exactly easy. Even though it is absolutely beautiful, reading it was also a bit of an uphill battle for me. I had to tell myself repeatedly that I had committed to actually reading this during the first 100 pages or so. My engagement with the story was moreover complicated by the initial reserve I felt for one of the main characters, Roland Mitchell. Luckily, excited and interesting things started happening, puzzles were waiting to be resolved, other characters entered the scene (yay for Maud Bailey, Christabel La Motte, and Ellen Ash), and academic tensions started to simmer. It did not take more than those 100 pages to hook me, though I admit, the reading was still difficult at times.

Allow me, for I am a little short on time today, to briefly sum up why I ended up loving this novel so so much, despite my initial struggles:

  • It is (in part) a novel about academia. Remember how I loved the library and research part in A Discovery of Witches? It’s like that, except, I think, even better. Moreover, it highlights both the beautifully romantic about academic life and research, and the cruel, competitive, and not-so-wonderful side, which I think are both very realistically done;
  • Possession highlights the rush, the joy, the curiosity, and the frustrations of not-knowing, in historical research. As you follow two scholars in their quest to find out more, to discover possible connections between two people who haven’t previously been thought of as such before, you get to part of the journey of discovery. The journey that I hope for in my own research. I felt sympathy for Maud and Roland, because like them, discovering some treasure, even a single line in an archive, can have me dancing in my chair (of course, Roland and Maud are a little more sophisticated than me);
  • There is all kinds of gender criticism in Possession. It is literally everywhere. In its portrayal of the dismissal of “women’s studies” in academia at large (oh, how I relate!), in the reflections on the lives of Maud and all those other contemporary women (their relationships, the misunderstandings, the mistakes, the presumptions, the casual sexism), but also in the writing of historical women (you find historical women reflecting on their possibilities, making decisions, reflecting on their pasts, missed opportunities, mistakes). It makes it real, it makes it relevant, it made me love Byatt for it;
  • History! Oh, so much history! And even the mention of some Dutch history (Swammerdam). By the way, it is not that the mention of my national history makes me swell with patriotism, it’s just a small spark of recognition, the idea that someone bothered to mention a Dutch historical figure, out of all possibilities;
  • The (fictional) historical documents contain a lot of reflection on religion. The possible challenges faced by Christianity with the advent of Darwin’s theory, the emergence of spiritualism. Ah yes, (contextualised ideas about) religion + history + gender + good fiction = happy Iris.
  • Literary criticism (not that I know much about that, but it was interesting nonetheless), and the personal importance of reading are everywhere.
  • And can I add the absolute skill of Byatt to that list? Because if this novel portrays anything, it is her skill, I think. Seemingly seamless, she incorporated all these themes and more. Perhaps even more importantly, she also wrote all the different documents that Maud and Roland trace: the poems, the letters, the diary entries, the academic essays about the poetry. I had to double, no triple, check, if it was right that Byatt wrote it all. But she did. I am in awe.
  • I had not expected it at the beginning, but the book also managed to evoke a lot of emotions from me. Those last 100 pages, with all the revelations, the doubts, the feelings, they simply blew me away.

Possession deserved much better than this post by me. Every single one of all of the brief glimpses of thought, or even just brief mentions of themes, noted here, probably deserve a dedicated blog post. And it is not that I do not want to find the time to write it. I would so like to, but my abilities to reflect meaningfully on all of them would probably fall short. And, I know it is a lame excuse, I have an essay deadline approaching. Not wanting to delay on sharing my enthusiasm, I wanted to write this post anyway. Perhaps someday I will reread, and rewrite.

Thanks to Lu and Kim for organising a month-long read along of Possession. Without it, and the participation by other enthusiastic bloggers, I might not have picked this up for another couple of years. And I’m infinitely glad I read it now.

The Children’s Book next?

Other Opinions: Oh so many.

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Every Seventh Wave by Daniel Glattauer

Posted on February 25, 2013 | 3 Comments

Every Seventh Wave - Daniel GlattauerEvery Seventh Wave – Daniel Glattauer
Translated from the German Alle sieben Wellen by Katharina Bielenberg and Jamie Bulloch
MacLehose Press, February 2013
Review copy provided by publisher
Buy: Amazon | Bookdepository *

Every Seventh Wave continues where Love Virtually ends. [Thus, spoilers for Love Virtually from here on out]. Emmi and Bernhard are still married. From time to time, Emmi tries to email Leo, but initially all she receives is the auto reply message Leo set when he moved to Boston. However, when Leo returns from his stay in Boston, Emmi and Leo renew their email contact. And soon that contact starts to slip over the border between friendship and more again, just as Leo has his girlfriend from Boston, Pamela, move in with him.

First, let me briefly state that I like the title for this sequel much better than the English one for the first book. I agree with Caroline that the German title Gut gegen Nordwind captures much more of the book than the rather straightforward Love Virtually. The German title is integrated with the story as the idea of writing while the north wind keeps Emmi up at night is a theme in the novel. Similarly, the idea behind the title for this sequel is part of the story. It has to do with an anecdote and a pretty heavy hint of Emmi towards Leo. However, I won’t reveal more as that might be considered spoiling the book.

As with any sequel, with Every Seventh Wave comes the question if a second book was necessary. I am undecided on the answer. That is to say, no, I do not think it was necessary. Love Virtually is very much a self-contained novel with an ending that works and need not have been revisited. Sure, the ending was perhaps more bitter than sweet, but it certainly fit the story. I was not sure if I wanted to witness that ending being revisited, or revised, in a sequel. And yet, having enjoyed Love Virtually, it was no torturous thought to read this second novel.

Every Seventh Wave is just as compelling as Love Virtually. It has the same witty email exchanges, the same serious undertones (perhaps even more serious at times). Yes, some of the lapses in the story come from the same thing (the “should we meet?” cycle is revisited, albeit in different ways, and sometimes made me sigh), but overall it is a very convincing read. One that you may finish on the couch on a Saturday night. Or during the week because you just want to visit someone else’s life. Love Virtually and Every Seventh Wave for me were escapist reads, but of the most enjoyable sort. For it is not escapism clouded in pink. Instead, there is a realism to it that makes it all the more  compelling.

Every Seventh Wave highlighted some of the excellence of Love Virtually for me. Even things that I had missed in my first contemplation of the book. At the same time, it addresses some of the problems I had with the first installment, or perhaps I should say that it made visible what I couldn’t quite articulate about it in my previous post. Every Seventh Wave managed to sell Emmi to me in a way that Love Virtually never did. Emmi mentions how the ending of the first book, the understanding between Leo and Bernhard, makes her feel cheap, as if she’s a commodity to be traded between men. Yes, I found myself thinking, that’s exactly what made me a little squeamish about it. She also recaptures some of her strength by allowing herself to contemplate her own marriage, and its pros and cons, in a more open and honest way than she did in Love Virtually. (at the same time, it made me wonder if it did not undercut the allowance for diversity of human relationships, which was one of the strengths of the first book?)

I enjoyed Every Seventh Wave, even if I am still not quite convinced that it needed to be written. If you enjoyed Love Virtually, it almost follows that you will enjoy this sequel. In some ways, Every Seventh Wave managed to bring more depth and layers to a story that wasn’t wholly uncomplicated from the outset. There is, I think, a darker undertone to this one that I definitely appreciated. Almost inevitably, there were also episodes that made the story more convenient than it was in the first book. That might not tell you very much, but I am trying not to spoil the manner in which the lives of Leo and Emmi (and Bernhard and Pamela) develop. Let me just say that Every Seventh Wave had its weaknesses, just like I felt Love Virtually had them although perhaps in different places. But despite those minor points of criticism, I felt myself rooting for Emmi and Leo. I felt love, and frustration, and lust, and disappointment along with them. Daniel Glattauer managed to convince me, again.

Other Opinions: Rikkis Teleidoscope, Beauty is a Sleeping Cat, Winstonsdad’s Blog, The Little Reader Library, A Fiction Habit [on the BBC4 Radio Play],  Sasha & the Silverfish, Yours?

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Love Virtually by Daniel Glattauer

Posted on February 18, 2013 | 9 Comments

Love Virtually - Daniel GlattauerLove Virtually – Daniel Glattauer
Translated from the German Gut gegen Nordwind by Jamie Bulloch and Katharina Bielenberg
MacLehose Press, 2012
Buy: Amazon | Bookdepository *

Love Virtually is, as the title says, a book about virtual love. About an email affair between two people who meet serendipitously online. Although, perhaps I should not call it an affair, as really, the characters – Leo and Emmi – do not know how to define it themselves: is it friendship, is it a kind of virtual diary, is it more, but how much more? And will whatever it is stand the test of a real life meeting. Would they dare make that step, and what will happen?

I feel my post should come with a huge disclaimer. It would read: I have a hate-sadness relationship with books that verge into the arena of adultery. It is because it is one of my biggest nightmares of possible occurrences. Moreover, I was not won over by the marketing of this book: its title, its original cover which featured a cupid that in my eyes was almost devil-like, its premise of a novel completely told through email exchange (even if I do not dislike epistolary novels). I was resistant to reading this book. And I have been strong in my resistance for two years. Until a review copy of the sequel landed on my doormat. Until I was reminded of all the excitement about Love Virtually. Until I remembered Sasha’s review in which she mentions her resistance and how the book won her over anyway. So I caved, and read it, in order to prepare for, to decide if I even wanted to read, the second installment.

The thing is, I find I have very little to say about this book that has not been said before. It is addictive. A strange and sometimes uncomfortable addictiveness as you keep on following the email exchange of two persons who are falling for each other, in some way or other, while also struggling to maintain their other relationships: Leo with his on and off again girlfriend Marlene, and Emmi with her husband, Bernhard, with which she claims to be happily married. It is voyeuristic at times. The narratives lapse at times, I felt. At times I was frustrated by the endless repeat of “shall we meet?” “should we?” “what for?” “what would happen?” The circular reasoning. And yet, I could not put the book down. I read it during a train journey and 5 pages before the end I arrived at my destination. Again: frustrating. But this time because I was hooked. With all my resistance to any hint of adultery. With all my resistance to what this book told me about happy marriage (or Emmi’s definition of it, anyway, because I think – call me naive – that marriage can be happy and companionable, and  perhaps things become routine at times, but I want to believe that you can choose to be there for each other, to make it exciting sometimes, I don’t know). But for all my resistance, I secretly became a bit of an Emmi and Leo shipper.

I also wondered at how I felt about Emmi. I might have disliked her more than Leo, even if both are flawed. I’m starting to notice that I dislike it when in a book I like a male character so much more than a female character. If I feel that she’s being more of an obstacle to anything than the other character. It makes me wonder if I’m consciously pushed to do so by the author. And I do not know what to make of it.

All in all, I was puzzled by my own fascination while reading it. Probably because I had been so resistant to even contemplate liking it from the very start. In conclusion: this is a post in which I admit how sometimes I read a book going in with an overwhelming prejudice against it. And how I fight against my slow conversion to liking it. And how it sucks me in anyway. And how in the end, I do not know what to write because really, all I can say is: This is a great read, it will make you want to keep on reading. I have not quite decided whether or not it is of stellar quality. I cannot quite shake the feeling, as often happens with books that have this addictiveness over them, whether or not it holds up aside from that aspect of it. No, that’s not true. It is definitely deeper than just a love affair. It is an exploration of virtual relationships. Of how they might be able to offer us something other than what we have in real life. Something that is not less “real”, but perhaps more complimentary to real life. It also discusses the very fragility of security in life, in how we want to uphold the idea that our lives are stable, but how that is not always – not often – true. Perhaps that is why this book scares me, while it convinced me at the same time.

I am infinitely glad that I do not do ratings. For all my conflicted feelings do not translate to any rating expressed in 1 to 5 stars. I will be honest: I will always feel conflicted about this book. Nevertheless, while reading, I liked it, despite all of that. I could not look away. Could not help it. So there you have it. I think most people would feel less conflicted anyway. And might therefore feel less weird about admitting: yes, I read it, I enjoyed it, I liked it very much.

Other Opinions: The Little Reader Library, Book Monkey, Beauty is a Sleeping Cat, Winstonsdad’s Blog, Leeswammes’ Blog,  Vulpes Libris, rikkis teleidoscope,  DizzyC’s Little Book Blog, Sasha & the Silverfish, Farm Lane Books.
Did I miss your post about this book? Let me know and I will add it to the list.

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