★★★
Guy Gavriel Kay can be a very, very good writer and it’s precisely for this reason that I felt disappointed by this book, because I know how much more he is capable of. Ysabel covers ground which is similar to Kay’s early Fionavar Tapestry books, in that people from the ‘real’ world suddenly find themselves drawn into the centre of ancient or magical events.
★★★
Short novels are always the most difficult to review, especially the kind of short novel where you have to be very careful what you say so as not to spoil anyone else’s enjoyment… So here we go… I’ll keep it very brief.
★★★½
Before I picked up this book in the library, I’d never heard of Michael Arditti, but I found this story fascinating. Following various members of the Granville family, it explores the difficulties that people feel when trying to reconcile their faith and the modern world – or perhaps, more accurately, how faith can still provide a necessary haven of peace and purpose in a world that can otherwise seem heartbreakingly cruel.
★★★½
While still at school, I somehow acquired a copy of the Folio edition of Procopius’ Secret History, which I’m ashamed to say I never read and always regarded with slight suspicion. Since I didn’t encounter Byzantine history until one particularly complex and unsuccessful week in Hilary Term of my first year at university, I’ve no idea what possessed me to buy it. Did I think it was some unusual edition of Donna Tartt’s excellent novel (one of my favourites)? At any rate, poor Procopius lingered unloved and unread on my bookshelf until, at some point in the last ten years, he was obviously consigned to the charity shop. It’s typical that, as soon as I yearn to plunge into his small-minded and salacious history, it turns out that I gave it away. After reading this book, I definitely want to go back to it.
★★★
Let me start with a disclaimer. I’ve had this book on my Amazon wishlist for two years and so, when I stumbled over it on the shelves of the addictive Book & Comic Exchange in Notting Hill, I snaffled it immediately. I’ve long been fascinated by the few details I know about the real Cyrano de Bergerac and, since I first saw it, the film version of Edmond Rostand’s play has been one of my all-time favourites.
★★★★½
It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Apologies again for flitting in and out rather a lot. I’ve read quite a lot of books recently, but haven’t been doing much else; and I’ve just discovered the fantastic website LibraryThing, which has finally enabled me to catalogue my books and make a definitive record of what I actually own. Hopefully it’ll enable me to avoid any duplicate purchases… If you’re like me, and make a beeline for people’s bookcases on visiting their houses, feel free to take a look at my own collection here.
★★★★
I’m going to be completely honest. I bought The Night Circus for its cover: a whimsical gallery of swirling black-and-white silhouettes, enlivened with splashes of scarlet. Call me superficial: but, in this case, judging a book by its cover was a very good idea. This is Morgenstern’s first novel, but her writing style is already deft and economic, and she creates a series of vivid scenes that unfurl one after the other like flowers within flowers.
★★★★
Before American Pastoral, I’d never read any Philip Roth. I’d only really heard about him through reviews of Everyman, which sounded so completely depressing and pessimistic that I was entirely put off. However, since I’ve just joined a book club (very exciting!) and this was the first book to be read, I took a deep breath and jumped in. And I enjoyed it far, far more than I expected to.
★★★★½
A new edition of As Meat Loves Salt has just been published in paperback. The cover, aimed at the burgeoning understated-historical-romance market, shows a close-up of a woman’s torso, her hands in her lap. This amuses me, because although there are certainly women in the book, this cover completely fails to convey any of the story’s spirit or major themes. It would be like putting a fin-de-siècle lady with a parasol on the cover of Death in Venice. I much prefer the cover of my edition, which I’ve used to illustrate this post. Here is darkness, brooding, and a fragment of a young man’s face looming out of the shadow.
Imagine you’re at a party. You’re in the middle of a crowded room with conversation going on all around you, but suddenly in the midst of the hubbub you hear a word which immediately makes your ears prick up. What words or phrases would catch your ear like that? I have a few, but one of them is ‘Troy’. If I overheard someone talking about Troy, I’d be compelled to shuffle closer and eavesdrop quite shamelessly until they either changed the subject or let me into their conversation. There’s a magic to the name, a grandeur, not unlike that conjured up by the word ‘Byzantium’. Unfortunately, if you hear the word ‘Troy’ nowadays it’s most likely that people would be talking about the film.
The Idle Woman 