book review

The Picture of Dorian Gray – Oscar Wilde

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Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be eternally young? But if you keep your youth and beauty, if time and life does not leave its tell-tale traces upon your face with creases and stains, would you live your life differently? We would all like to believe that our personalities wouldn’t change but I don’t think that is very realistic.

Dorian Gray is rich and beautiful. At only only eighteen he is fresh faced, innocent and charming. One day he sees his portrait and realises that he will not always look so beautiful. The idea of his portrait staying young while age slowly creeps up on him is so unbearable to him that he rashly wishes away his soul in exchange for eternal youth. Continue reading →

Gardens of Delight – Erica James

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 I wouldn’t normally go out of my way to read a romance novel, but when I heard that Erica James had won the Romantic Novel of the Year award in 2006, I decided it might be worth a try. It was also the only affordable book I could find set in Lake Como, which is where I went on holiday straight after reading it. I was hoping that reading a book about a group of people visiting Lake Como would be a nice way to get in a holiday mood.

Unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy the book as much as I had hoped. For starters, the characters didn’t actually spend all that much time at the Lake. Most of the book was set in a small, English village full of nosey neighbours and where the social highlight of the week is the local Gardening Club meeting. As you can imagine, the book doesn’t get much more exciting. Continue reading →

The Blind Assassin – Margaret Atwood

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Not often do I read a book that takes my breath away. Margaret Atwood has managed to do that twice. First with The Handmaid’s Tale, an absolutely brilliant and imaginative book, and now with The Blind Assassin. Every moment of reading, felt like a luxury, like eating a very rich and creamy dessert. Atwood writes beautifully and has some very inventive descriptions. It’s rare to want to read a sentence for a second time, not because you didn’t understand it, but because you want to savour every word.

The story is of two sisters, Iris and Laura Chase. Iris is now an ‘older woman’ looking back on her life and all the events leading up to her sister’s death at the young age of twenty three. We learn in the very first page that Laura drove a car off a bridge and immediately our interest has been grabbed. Why did she do it? Continue reading →

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – Stieg Larsson

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So I’ve finally given in and read the very much talked about The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. And I have to say, I’m not sure what all the fuss is about. It’s not particularly well written, it isn’t all that fast paced and the plot doesn’t have many surprising twists.

What I like from a crime thriller is an action packed story full of red herrings, clues that keep you guessing and a huge, shocking twist at the end that makes you utter some sort of surprised ‘oh’ out loud. I got absolutely none of this from Larsson’s very popular thriller. It certainly did not live up to my expectations.

I found it very hard to get into the book. I understand Larsson had to set the scene, but it was very long winded. We are first introduced to Henrik Vanger, the rich ex-head of the Vanger Corporation. Continue reading →

Naples ’44 – Norman Lewis

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My Neapolitan grandmother (or ‘nonna’ as the Italians would say) married a British officer posted in Naples in 1944. It is quite likely that Norman Lewis, an Intelligence Officer also there at that time, would have had to interview both of my grandparents to judge the suitability of the match. Marriage with Italian civilians was discouraged and lots of officers who applied for permission were turned down and sent away from Naples. So really, my grandparents were lucky.

I have always been interested in my grandmother’s home country and after her death a couple of years ago, I have only ever become more curious about the city she grew up in. After marrying my grandfather, she moved to England and only returned to Naples for holidays a couple of times a year. So when she told stories about Naples, it was always about the ‘old days’ before and during the Second World War. Continue reading →

The Autograph Man – Zadie Smith

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I haven’t read a book like this for a long time and it was a nice change. Reading Zadie Smith is like a breathe of fresh air with her colloquial and modern style of writing. The dialogue between the characters is believable, even if most of the storyline is a far fetched.

Alex-Li Tandem is an Autograph Man who buys, sells and fakes autographs. He has an unhealthy obsession with a movie star, Kitty Alexander. He is a lazy, self destructive twenty-something, living in a messy apartment, spending his days drinking and smoking too much while watching old films. After waking up one morning with a horrific hangover and no memory of the last couple of days, Alex-Li finds a very special autograph, one that he has been waiting years to receive. But why has it been sent now? And is it really authentic? He travels all the way to New York to find out. Continue reading →

Moll Flanders – Daniel Defoe

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It took me a while to get into this book, mostly because of the style of writing and the language used. However, once I had got used to the lack of speech marks and the odd way the protagonist narrates the story, I found the book hard to put down.

The memoirs of the notorious Moll Flanders look back on her colourful life.  The full title is The History and Misfortunes of The Famous Moll Flanders, which I think is a much more interesting title and very accurate.

Moll is an fascinating character who I can’t help feeling sorry for. She is not a bad person, just unlucky. Her childhood is a hard one, but not unhappy. Being born in the London prison of Newgate to a criminal mother, she is taken in by a caring woman who teaches children in similar situations. When she is old enough, she is lucky enough to work in the household of a kind family. But as she grows more attractive and womanly, her luck begins to run out. Continue reading →

Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks

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I have mixed feeling about this book. On the one hand, I found the descriptions of life in the trenches in the First World War powerful and thought provoking, but what lets Birdsong down for me, is the weak romantic storyline that continues throughout.

The opening chapters set the scene in a small town in France, where a young English man, Stephen Wraysford has come to learn more about his trade in textiles. He stays in the the grand family home of the Azaires. Here he embarks on a love affair which will change the course of his life. There are some suggestive scenes with forbidden glances and hasty fumblings and also a couple of steamy sex scenes put in for good measure. As I read these parts, it didn’t feel realistic, and it almost felt as though these passionate encounters were only added to sell more copies. Continue reading →

In Cold Blood – Truman Capote

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After reading Breakfast At Tiffany’s and not enjoying it half as much as the film, I wanted to see what all the fuss was about and give Truman Capote another shot with In Cold Blood. The synopsis sounded promising, and I was not disappointed!

It is based on the true murders of four members of the Clutter family in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas in 1959. However, it’s not the murders themselves that make this book such a good read. It’s the aftermath; how the town dealt with it, the police investigations and of course, the story of the killers. Whereas in most books, the reader is usually kept guessing about the killer’s identity, In Cold Blood has them as main characters from the first few pages. Continue reading →