Phineas Redux – Anthony Trollope

This, the fourth, of Trollope’s ‘political’ novels features the return (or more literally translated, the bringing back or revival) of Phineas Finn whose parliamentary and romantic entanglements were the mainstay of the second volume. At the conclusion of that novel Phineas had exited parliament on a matter of conscience, cut his ties with the society women he courted, taken a local government post back in Ireland, and married local girl and first love Mary Flood Jones.

Now with his wife dead and the job tedious, he is tempted back into politics, where he contests the Tankerville seat in an acrimonious election; the longer term goal to gain a remunerative post in the government of the day. Amid much politicking he is also back amid his society women - quite a fan club he has, though two are married (one happily, one disastrously) and the other is a regular companion of the all-powerful, but aging, Duke of Omnium.

As is his wont, Phineas gets into scrapes; publically sniped at by his old enemy the editor of The People’s Banner, more literally shot at by a disgruntled husband, and put into in a perilous situation when a political rival is bludgeoned in the street. All the while he struggles to come to terms with his current romantic feelings and how much they are just echoes of past loves, misdirected expressions of gratitude, and coloured by his need for independent means.

Trollope moves the reader through the political, emotional and moral issues that arise with an assured hand and graceful prose to a resolution of sorts; though as ever with this author, not necessarily the outcome all readers would choose.

The Dream Lover – William Boyd

Two dozen short stories mainly involving relations between men and women, mostly from the male viewpoint and often concerning their perspective of the relationship rather than the reality. So they are more to do with the dream than the love; and less about the love than the desire (with a sprinkling of hate, revenge, ennui and betrayal).

The settings, periods and characters cover an impressive range. To give a taste of those that stuck in my mind: a US serviceman seeks revenge on an aircraft carrier in the Pacific; a schoolboy’s first date, the plans shared in the dorm, has a lot of to live up to; a diplomat’s last night in the tropics provides a long awaited opportunity for sex with a colleague’s wife, but there is an impediment; a man’s obsession for a girl has an unusual genesis and a tragic end; and student affairs at an international school in Nice create tensions and torments.

Stylistically Boyd experiments in some stories, which adds to the variety, but for me he is best when he tells it straight – good characters, intriguing situations, a dilemma to resolve.

Resolution doesn’t always come, not all endings are neat, but most stories say something interesting about men and women and how they relate. And it is not a bad thing sometimes to be left wondering…

Personally I prefer his full length novels but this collection provides a more-than-readable, bedtime-story length assortment of tales; some will resonate, some may jar, but none will put you off the next.

Review of 2016

The move to fortnightly reviews reduced the number of books read in the year to twenty-six, though these included (as planned) some hefty tomes from favourite authors. As a result the overall standard was high and restricting my books of the year to eight was tricky. However from the titles reviewed the following are picked out as the books of my reading year and so are particularly recommended (full review in bracketed month).

Books for serious readers:

The Goldfinch – Donna Tartt (Jun) – A traumatic childhood event leaves Theo Decker bereft of family but in possession of a secret treasure; both consequences shape his future in this fine depiction of a developing young man surrounded by richly drawn characters.

Life After Life – Kate Atkinson (Jul) – Time-looping depiction of a 20^th century life, lived over again in an attempt to get things right – the author at her mischievous best.

White Teeth – Zadie Smith (Dec) – Multicultural, multi-generational tale of the intertwined lives of a group of working class London folk; full of comedy, irony and pathos.

The Bone Clocks – David Mitchell (Dec) – Six differently narrated episodes provide a snapshot every decade or so between 1984 and 2043 (with perceptive views of the past and perceptive visions of the future); each a good story, the combination linked by recurring characters and an age old mystic battle between good and evil.

General fiction:

The Journal of Dora Damage – Belinda Starling (Apr) – Unusual in its conception and physical presentation, which both factor into a story that sees representatives of some oppressed minorities rise and take control of their lives via an unconventional bookbinding business, against the odds, in 19^th century London.

Joyland – Stephen King (Jul) – Fine, quick paced and nostalgic yarn of a young man’s 60’s summer working on a run-down amusement park; a fun job that turns darkly serious.

The Girl on the Train – Paula Hawkins (Nov) – Cleverly crafted and unusually constructed modern murder mystery that works to perfection.

Nonfiction:

Manhood for Amateurs – Michael Chabon (Mar) – Short essays from a wise man and a gifted writer who here turns his attention to the male zeitgeist based on his experiences as a son, lover, husband and father.

The Best a Man Can Get – John O’Farrell

Michael Adams loves his bachelor lifestyle sharing a South London flat with three other ‘lads’ that also serves as a studio for his work producing music for advertising jingles. He also loves his wife and two kids at his home north of the river, which he frequents as often as his ‘work’ (or laddish distractions) allows. Neither household is aware of the other – yet.

But burning the candle at both ends is difficult to sustain and Michael’s best of both worlds is in danger of turning into his worst nightmare.

Rich comedic veins are mined with skill and a commendable avoidance of cliché. But it’s not all played for laughs. As Michael’s troubles grow he has to re-examine his core values and reconsider exactly what is meant by the best a man can get.

Good for a laugh and good for a relaxing read.

The Bone Clocks – David Mitchell

This book is best described as a linked series of six novellas, spaced about a decade apart, with a new first person narrator each time.

1984: Troubled teenager Holly Sykes (treated as a child for hearing ‘radio voices’ in her head) runs away from home in Gravesend and encounters a mix of folk: some normal like Ed Brubeck, a boy from school who gives her practical help and advice; some weird like Esther Little, who seems to know her already and imparts an enigmatic message; and some positively paranormal, though that encounter is immediately redacted from her conscious memory. Her week of rebellion ends when a domestic crisis, little brother Jacko going missing, calls her home.

1991: Hugo lamb, Cambridge undergraduate, clever and he knows it, is in with the posh set, whose members he sees as fair game for his exploitative schemes. While skiing with his rich chums in Switzerland he learns that a scam back home has had unforeseen consequences that make a return unwise, but his companions abroad are also in trouble locally so he seeks refuge with a barmaid he has been targeting with limited success – one Holly Sykes. Sparks fly as estuary girl with attitude meets posh boy with class and charm, snowed-in together in her bedsit. But posh boy has also met some strange characters with a bizarre but tempting future to sell. Which way to go?

2004: It is Sharon Sykes wedding bash in Brighton. Sharon is Holly’s younger sister but the narrator is Ed Brubeck, now Holly’s partner and father to her daughter Aoife. Ed’s a war correspondent in the Middle East and while he recounts the events of the wedding he also reflects on his recent traumatic posting. Then a home based trauma occurs – Aoife goes missing (an echo of Jacko’s disappearance) and it needs one of Holly’s unconscious psychic utterances (a radio voice) to direct the search, during which reference is made to something called The Script.

2015: Our next narrator, for a five year span, is Crispin Hershey, author, living a literary globe-trotting existence on the back of his first novel, well received but not matched since. He’s bitter, cynical and not above taking revenge on a critic he blames for his decline. At conventions around the world he repeatedly bumps into Holly Sykes, now a successful author herself with a book about her ‘radio voices’ experiences. Crispin is at first dismissive of her credentials, but after experiencing one of her psychic episodes first hand comes to respect, indeed love her in his own curmudgeonly fashion. He also has brushes with someone trying to warn him about his part in The Script; when he brushes them off it doesn’t end well.

2025: At last someone who knows what The Script is – Marinus is an ‘atemporalist’ and through his narrative all the weird stuff becomes clearer. It is all part of the centuries old conflict between the good and the evil of their kind, which seems to be building to a cataclysmic clash. Holly Sykes, visiting New York, is an unknowing pawn in the end-game, which game will end with few survivors.

2043: Holly survived, but to what end? Eighteen years later it is a world much changed and in a ‘post-darkening’ decline, sans oil, sans internet, and running low on food and essential medicines. Back at the ancestral smallholding in rural Ireland she ekes out an existence, caring as best she can for her two grandchildren – Aoife’s daughter Lorelei and Rafiq an adopted refugee boy – for whom the future looks bleak. Is this really the end that The Script demanded?

The book is a tour de force. Six hundred pages, six novellas, intriguingly linked, covering six decades with six very different narrators (even the one repeated individual is a different person sixty years on). Around the gripping storylines is perceptive detail of past and present times and speculative ideas on where current trends may lead, chillingly, in the future.

As well as links between the novellas the author reintroduces characters from earlier books: Hugo Lamb is Jason Taylor’s big boy cousin in Black Swan Green; and Marinus has a bit part in The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet.

The paranormal element intrudes only slightly into five of the six episodes, barely affecting the mainstream stories (while subtly laying down a breadcrumb trail towards the future); the other episode is full-on fantasy but easily manageable even for someone generally unfamiliar with that genre.

Another typically genre-defying David Mitchell novel of great worth delivered with trademark fluency and style.

White Teeth – Zadie Smith

White Teeth provides a lively insight into inter-generational multicultural working class life in London between the late seventies and early nineties through the lives of three families connected by marriage, friendship and shared experience. At the kernel is the unlikely friendship of Archie Jones and Samad Iqbal forged, as we soon learn, at the end of World War II.

But the book starts on New Year’s Day 1975 when Archie’s suicide attempt fails and turns instead into an engagement and subsequent marriage to Clara Bowden, many years his junior and the daughter of an immigrant West Indian Jehovah’s Witness.

Samad also marries a considerably younger woman, Alsana, and the two ex–comrades spend many an evening discussing life at O’Connell’s snooker club, its Irish heritage maintained by definitely un-Irish host Abdul-Mickey. Their parallel lives continue to echo with both producing offspring. The Jones union is blessed with daughter Irie; the Iqbal’s produce twin boys, but Magid’s and Millat’ differing personalities belie their physical similarity.

As the younger generation gains adolescence an altercation at school brings Josh Chalfen into their ambit; and with him his super-parents Joyce and Marcus. The Chalfens are high achievers (she a horticulturalist, he a geneticist) with an unshakeable belief in their approach to parenting, which they freely exercise on Irie, Magid and Millat.

The interference is not universally appreciated, and when Marcus’s latest research project becomes controversial, it produces a catalyst for conflict. Battle lines are drawn and forces converge towards a potentially life changing climax.

The book sprawls deliciously over 500 pages, giving each character time and space to develop and interact (dipping back into prior generations to give even more context). There is comedy in the detail and pathos in the larger themes as cultures clash, generations battle and ideologies strive for supremacy, sometimes within the same character.

It was an acclaimed debut novel when published in 2000 and still reads fresh and relevant today.

The Girl on the Train – Paula Hawkins

The girl is Rachel, divorced, dissatisfied and drinking to excess; the train is a commuter bone shaker – the 8:04 into London or the 17:56 back. During a regular but unscheduled stop at signals Rachel habitually gazes out of the carriage window at the lives of those whose houses back onto the line just there.

Two houses hold particular interest for her. At one she is enthralled by a couple (she christens them Jason & Jess) living the idyll – morning coffee on the terrace, sharing a glass of wine in the evening, always touching each other, and to all appearances clearly in love. At another house, a few doors down, she used to live but it is now the home of her ex-husband with his new wife and baby.

Rachel begins the narrative in an almost diary fashion, musing on the events of her day, how she feels and reflecting (bitterly) how she got into her current state; though in all aspects she is hampered by alcohol induced memory gaps. But what becomes clear is that something is happening with ‘Jess’ – Rachel sees her kissing another man, then she disappears from view.

Not just from Rachel’s view either – a missing persons case is reported in the local paper. The search is on for Megan Hipswell, who is clearly ‘Jess’ in real life.

Now Megan’s voice is heard, but her narration, in similar diary format, begins a year earlier. It alternates with Rachel’s, but while Rachel’s moves forward day by day Megan’s skips weeks and months progressively catching up to what became a fateful day.

Rachel can’t help getting involved, her voyeurism somehow entitling her to befriend Megan’s husband Scott (the real ‘Jason’), which in turn brings her back into the ambit of ex-husband Tom and his wife Anna. This brings a third narrator, Anna, into the mix, and the story bounces between the three women, revealing some tangled history while bringing out some clever nuances in perspective.

The action, plot and reveal is good enough for any thriller, but the unusual construction and the forensic unpicking of the protagonists’ lives (the real ones behind the outward impressions) lift the book well above the norm.

Highly recommended.