The Echo Chamber – John Boyne

 Meet the Cleverley family who enjoy a privileged lifestyle funded by successful parents: George Cleverley, television journalist turned chat show host; and Beverly Cleverley, best-selling author churning out romantic fluff. Both are having secret affairs. The three children (17 to 23) benefit from liberal upbringing and generous allowances.

Eldest Nelson actually has a job at the school he used to attend, where he is bullied, as he was when a pupil. Next is Elizabeth with ambitions to be an on-line influencer, and a boyfriend so woke that he gets Elizabeth to sign a written consent when they make love. Youngest Achilles uses his boyish good looks and charm to provide an income from honey-trapped middled-aged men.

So far, so harmless. Just your regular 2020’s family, until:

George is hit by a double-whammy, his lover announces she is pregnant, and he gets into a pronoun tangle with a transitioning receptionist, a gaff amplified by the echo chamber of social media. Beverly (who no longer actually writes her books but employs a ‘ghost’ to ‘fill out’ her creative ideas) finds she is losing her lover, a Ukrainian dancer whom she partnered on Strictly. Nelson, who hides his insecurity by dressing up in uniforms to which he has no right, goes a step too far when he changes from nurse’s scrubs to police officer. Elizabeth, whose @ElizCleverley social media presence is pitiful, finds vilely trolling celebrities, including her father, as @TruthIsASword more rewarding in terms of followers. As for Achilles, his latest mark seems to have gone cold, requiring the ante to be upped.

The five story lines ricochet forward reflecting life in the modern, media obsessed, fast lane, but they are all heading pear shaped.

It is fast paced, easy, entertaining reading, the characters relatable and not so much bad as caught in bad situations. It is funny, with some slapstick moments, holding up a mirror to society, and taking a few well-meaning pot shots at political correctness and woke behaviour.

The High House – Jessie Greengrass

The High House – Jessie Greengrass

The location of the High House is unclear, other than it is a few miles inland and built on high rocky ground. Francesca, a climate change scientist and activist, convinced sea levels will soon rise disastrously, chose it for that reason and spends years fixing it up, clearing the attached smallholding, and latterly stocking it up with enough food, clothing, spare parts, and toys to make it self-sufficient.

The toys are a late addition as Francesca falls pregnant, but baby Paul sees little of his globetrotting mother, being left increasingly in the care of teenage stepsister, Caro.

In the coastal village below the High House another teenager, Sally, lives with her ‘Grandy’, who makes a living caretaking holiday homes left empty over winter. With the clock ticking to Armageddon, Francesca appoints Grandy as full time concierge at High House, and she recruits a reluctant Sally as housekeeper – Grandy is getting on and this is a long term project.

Finally the panicked word comes to Caro – don’t delay, get Pauly and yourself off to the High House.

Narrated in flashback by Caro, Sally, and a lesser extent Pauly, the preparation, disaster, and aftermath are told in personal and understated detail. These are resourceful girls, and you root for them. The novel is an excellent blend of a dystopian story of a near future and a study of relationships in a closed community of just four.

Barnaby Rudge – Charles Dickens

 This is one off my Book-et List, completing the fourteen (finished) novels of Charles Dickens. I read Oliver Twist in 1975, David Copperfield in 1977, ploughed through six novels in the 1980s, two in the 1990s, two more in the noughties, and the last prior to this in 2009.

Set earlier than most of his novels, we are in the period of the Gordon Riots of the 1780s, when the mob, whipped up by Lord George Gordon, head of the Protestant Association, took to the streets to protest at the removal of official anti-Catholic discrimination that had been in place since 1698.

Dickens’ plots cannot be given justice in a precis so instead, themes and characters. Star crossed lovers across the religious divide, Edward Chester and Emma Haredale; their respective father and uncle, lifelong enemies; good-hearted Joe Willet, at odds with his innkeeper father and rebuffed by flighty locksmith’s daughter, Dolly Varden, who prefers to bask in the attention of the local dandies.

Then there is Barnaby Rudge, a simple youth eager to please and easily led. By, for example, black-hearted ‘gypsy looking’ Hugh, who sees the riots as an outlet for his violent tendencies, and apprentice locksmith Simon Tappertitt, who fancies himself as a commander of the rabble.

The action ranges between London and its hinterland. Catholic’s property is at risk from the rioters; the rioters are at risk from the military; the ladies are at risk from the villains; love is at risk of being frustrated; and poor young Barnaby Rudge, an innocent abroad amid the chaos, is at the most risk of all.

The characters may be stock rather than memorable, but the descriptions of the riots are vivid and filled with jeopardy.

So, with Dickens done with, my pick of his fourteen major works are: Great Expectations, Bleak House, and Our Mutual Friend.

Review of 2022 Reading Year

The return to normality after the worst effects of the pandemic resulted in a slight decrease in reading levels with 34 books read in the year. Again the majority (62%) were by ‘new to me’ authors. The gender balance tipped this year with a 60:40 preference for male authors, and the males dominate the best reads list by 6 to 2. The reading group was back on providing 7 titles (including 2 best reads) and the ‘bookpacking’ reading journey progressed through Asia in 5 books (though none of these get a place at the top table).

My eight best books of the year are: (Month of full review in brackets.)

 

Ella Minnow Pea – Mark Dunn: Clever, funny, and cautionary tale told in epistolatory form of how dogmatism can develop into totalitarianism, even in a small island with an educated and literate populace. (Jan)

 

The Shining – Stephen King: Rightly considered a classic of the horror genre, the storytelling skill of King making the unthinkable all too credible. (Feb)

 

American Dirt – Jeanine Cummins: Frenetic, tension-ridden ride through Mexico as a woman and her young son join the tragic flow of those fleeing crime, terror, and injustice to seek sanctuary in the US. (May)

 

The Rotters Club – Jonathan Coe: Ben Trotter’s life unfolds from adolescence to adulthood in 1970s suburban Birmingham, full of iconic references, humour, and pathos. (Jun)

 

The Miniaturist – Jessie Burton: Atmospheric and engrossing novel set in 17^th century Amsterdam about a young woman’s introduction (as wife) into an older merchant’s claustrophobic household. (Jul)

 

Sapiens – Yuval Noah Harari: A masterly and very readable account of human history with some original insights and thought-provoking ideas. (Aug)

 

There’s Only Two David Beckhams – John O’Farrell: Written years earlier but set at the 2022 Qatar world cup, a humour packed novel about football and parenthood, winning and doing the right thing, and the choices to be made between them. (Sep)

The Farther Corner – Harry Pearson: The author revisits the northeast football scene at all levels, the result as funny as the original Far Corner but underscored by a layer of personal reflection. (Sep)

Maigret and the Madwoman – Georges Simenon

When a little old lady turns up at the police headquarters at the Quai D’Orfevres demanding to see the famous Inspector Maigret (actually Chief Superintendent Maigret) she is fobbed off to a minion. She is sure that someone is searching her flat while she is out, and sometimes she feels she is being followed. Has she seen anyone? No. Is any property missing? Again, no.

Inspector Lapointe reports to Maigret that there is nothing to report; the woman is a bit eccentric, that’s all. But a day later, as he leaves the office, Maigret is accosted in person. He gives the lady five minutes and promises to call round to her apartment as soon as he has the time. Before he finds the time, the call comes in. The madwoman has been found dead in her home.

There are not many clues, but Maigret pieces together the old lady’s life and goes ferreting in the hope his nose for criminality will turn up something.

The Maigret stories are concise little gems. Characters are swiftly but comprehensively drawn, and the police procedure does the job. The motivations and behaviours of the perpetrators are key drivers of the story rather than plot intricacies. Unlike more contemporary sleuths, Maigret has no tortured past or current demons to deal with. He goes home for lunch with his wife, or pops into a bistro for a glass of wine and a smoke of his pipe while he ruminates on the case.

The Paris setting is persuasive, and the mid-century vibe is now period. Maigret has to use a shopkeeper’s phone to contact HQ, he browbeats reluctant witnesses, and happily harasses suspects. It all flows very well to a satisfactory conclusion, albeit with a moral dilemma for the Chief to resolve.

Snow – Orhan Pamuk

The book-packing journey makes its exit from Asia via this novel set in Turkey.

A poet, Ka, has made the two day journey from Istanbul to the far flung eastern city of Kars, close to the Armenian border. The final leg of the journey, by bus, is along roads made perilous by heavy snow. The bus gets through just before the roads are closed by drifts. The forecast is for more snow; Kars will be isolated for days.

Why has Ka made the journey? He tells everyone he is here to write about the rash of suicides by young girls in the city. Some say they are due to civil authorities banning the wearing of headscarves to college – a lightning conductor for the ever-present tensions between western liberal ideas and traditional religious orthodoxy. But there is another reason. Kars is the home of a couple of friends from university days in Istanbul – the beautiful Ipek and her husband who, Ka has learned, are now separated.

Once in Kars, things get complicated. As Ka moves around the snow filled streets, meeting the movers and shakers, it is clear that power struggles abound within and between the civil, security, religious, and political players. Thrown into the heady mix is a recently arrived theatre group whose lead actor/manager has his own agenda.

Ka ricochets from meeting to meeting, sometimes as a pawn, sometimes as agitator. He has deep thoughts and discussions on the true nature of religious faith, on what constitutes love, and of course on the headscarf issue. And the snow keeps falling.

Ka examines his faith, falls in love, gets involved in politics, and is stimulated to write a collection of poems based on a snowflake’s structure. A coup of sorts is staged, people get hurt, killed. It keeps snowing.

The prose is wordy, the setting is oppressing and atmospheric. Along with the Byzantine motivations and machinations of the characters, this makes for a Kafkaesque reading experience, for good or bad according to taste.

Notes from a Big Country – Bill Bryson

In 1996, American journalist Bill Bryson, after a couple of decades living in England, returned to live in the United States. His stay in the UK had culminated in the publication of his ‘Notes from a Small Island’ giving his pithy outsider’s view of how the British live their lives. Back in the USA he turned his attention, freshened by his absence, to his homeland and countrymen, reporting back to the UK in the form of a weekly column for the Mail on Sunday magazine.

The format dictates that the pieces are short; Bryson’s talent ensures the quality is top notch. The subjects range far and wide – air travel, commercials, rules and red tape, shopping, and holidays, to name but a few. Each provides a mixture of humour, indignation, and wonderment at the nonsense so often encountered.

Twenty-five years on, remarkably the pieces don’t seem dated. Many observations still apply and remain relevant. When they don’t, they merely provide interest as a slice of social history or nostalgia, and remain well worth the read.