The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest – Stieg Larsson

This is the third book in Larsson’s Millennium trilogy and picks up exactly where volume two ended, which is just as well as “Played with Fire” left a lot of loose ends not to mention badly damaged bodies.

There is less mayhem here, more intrigue as several agencies try to unravel the mystery that is Lisbeth Salander.  A couple of police forces, two factions within the Swedish state security organisation, a corrupt psychologist and of course Millennium magazine’s Mikael Blomkvist after a good story, are variously trying to get her locked up, shut up, eliminated or rescued from herself. Meanwhile Salander lies in hospital under guard with only her lawyer allowed to visit; not that that stops the hacker extraordinary from getting involved remotely once she gets illicit access to the internet.

It gets complicated.  But at least the timeline is simple and events race along so it reads less than the 750 pages.  In truth it could lose two hundred pages if Larsson cut down on the spurious detail, particularly geographic; those familiar with Stockholm may find the street level information interesting, but those not can either ignore it or spend time with the maps provided.  There is also a side story concerning Blomkvist’s lover Erika Berger that could be omitted without any loss.

As usual, Blomkvist gets his end away and runs rings round everyone, but Lisbeth Salander remains the star turn in a typically violent finale.

And finale it will be for me.  Although the series has been continued after Stieg Larsson’s death by David Lagercrantz I have had my fill thank you very much.

Cat’s Eye – Margaret Atwood

After a long career, painter Elaine Risley is back in Toronto where a gallery is mounting a retrospective of her work.  Her return prompts memories of her childhood and youth spent in the city.  With unconventional parents and a brilliant older brother her upbringing left her ill-prepared for the schoolyard, neither able to form friendships with the other girls nor deal with their spite and cruelties.

It seems she’s been dealing with it ever since – in her art and in her relationships with the men in her life, which both seem to attract the opprobrium of other women.

As the past and present intertwine a personal and vivid picture of life in post-war and baby-boom Canada emerges, illuminated both by the clarity of youth and the wisdom, or is it world-weary cynicism, of age.

Even filtered through Elaine Risley’s off-kilter narration, Margaret Atwood’s prose flows beautifully, and as ever her articulation of the human condition hits the mark.

Wide Sargasso Sea – Jean Rhys

To start at the end is only sensible, for this is the imagined back story of Antoinette, the mad wife of Mr Rochester in Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre.

Before then she is the attractive stepdaughter of a Mr Mason, with a large dowry designed to get her off his hands.  Edward Rochester takes the bait but soon regrets it as Antoinette comes with a lot of baggage: a Jamaican estate denuded due to the emancipation of the slaves; a handful of house servants, some faithful, some resentful; an absent mother reputed to be crazy; and mixed race relatives that date back to the indiscriminate philandering of her dead father, ‘old’ Cosway’.

The Caribbean climate is oppressive, as is the poisonous social sphere where complexities of race, nationality, class and wealth conspire to confound both characters and the reader.

We know how it ends, and Jane Eyre fans will probably enjoy this spin-off telling how it started.  The general reader less so?

Review of 2018 Reading Year

A good year’s reading saw 30 books read and reviewed with a high proportion (80%) by ‘new to me’ authors.  The standard was variable with a new random element introduced by joining a reading group at the local independent bookshop.  However this diverted resources away from the ‘bookpacking’ reading journey leaving it becalmed somewhere in South America; no matter, onward to Africa in 2019.

Five ‘new to me’ authors, a reading group choice and a familiar favourite all feature in my seven best books of the year, which are as follows. (Full review month in brackets.)

A Visit from the Goon Squad – Jennifer Egan: An eccentric cast of characters pop in and out of a disconnected but entertaining and invigorating narrative. (January)

Sixteen Trees of the Somme – Lars Mytting: Great locations, deeply involved plot, and engaging characters make this a richly satisfying tale of intrigue and self-discovery. (April)

Educated – Tara Westover: Jaw-dropping autobiography of a girl who self-educates herself out of the backwoods of Idaho and her isolationist patriarchal family. (June)

The Trouble with Goats and Sheep – Joanna Cannon: Set in the oppressive heat of the summer of ’76 this multi-layered mystery tale is rich in period detail and has a young main narrator whose simplicity of telling provides great insight. (June)

Transcription – Kate Atkinson: Told over three short periods, decades apart, the deceptively light tone hides dark deeds, violence and betrayals first in WW2 London then post war in the BBC. (November)

The Kind Worth Killing – Peter Swanson: A cleverly plotted and unusually structured thriller that starts with a chance encounter at an airport and ends up in mayhem. (November)

I Let You Go – Clare Mackintosh: Another cleverly plotted and unusually structured thriller, this one starts with a tragedy and ends in a headlong rush to avert another. (December)

Adventures in Capitalism – Toby Litt

Eighteen short stories that articulate some whacky ideas including: living life on the advice of advertising slogans; the perils associated with collecting for charity dressed as a pink fluffy bunny; the embarrassment of an unfortunate sartorial faux-pas; and the difficulties of dealing with a sunflower sprouting on one’s face.

These were the ones that worked best for me, along with the one with the ghost in the (washing) machine.  Others were less memorable, more experimental or I found too ‘arty’.

But that is what you get with a collection of short fiction - a bit of a pick and mix with some to your taste and others, frankly, not.

I Let You Go – Clare Mackintosh

The story starts with a shocking incident and rapidly moves into damage limitation.

In an effort to forget the traumatic event the narrator heads for the hills, and the coast; in other words, the cliffs of South Wales.  There she ekes out a solitary and frugal existence, at least until new possibilities dawn.

Meanwhile DI Ray Stevens and his sidekick DC Kate Evans are throwing resources at the case, without much luck.  Even when the case is officially shelved they continue to work on it out of hours.  And that is not going to ease the marital tension at the Stevens home any.

The two narratives work out side by side, inexorably moving closer.  A breakthrough occurs that seems to crack the case – or does it; DI Stevens has his doubts (that the readers probably share).  A third voice joins the narrative and things get more complicated and much, much darker.

Pace gathers, pages turn, tension ratchets up; and twists twist until they can twist no more.  Then there is a resolution, and satisfaction in a well plotted, assuredly written first book from this ex-policewoman.

Ghostwritten – David Mitchell

Billed as a novel in nine parts, this reads more like nine novellas loosely linked.

The settings move east to west with the sun – Japan, Hong Kong, China, Mongolia, Petersburg, London, the Western Isles of Scotland, and the east coast of the USA.  In each location a different lead character engages the reader in their life, sometimes a single day and at the other extreme, lasting cradle to grave. There is some overlap of characters in the stories, though this is incidental and teasing rather than necessary for plot development.

If there is a common theme it may be the need to escape, physically or mentally, from a situation, or to search for a solution.  If there is an overarching resolution it is left to the reader to fathom.

Nevertheless the assemblage provides interesting reading, skilfully employing a variety of styles to address a variety of modern themes.