Another glorious reading retreat!
Mar. 1st, 2020 08:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alobearAt my recent reading retreat, I actually got through six books, which is more than usual, though I guess they were all reasonably short.
The Tatooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris:
I'd heard of this book but hadn't had any intention of reading it until I picked it up at a local charity shop as part of a very good deal on books. It tells the story of Lale, a Slovakian Jew who is given the job of tattooing the numbers on the arms of new prisoners arriving at Auschwitz. It's always interesting to read a true story presented as a fictionalised narrative, and I think this is the type of story that it's important people know about. But, in this case, I don't think the story is served well by the way it's presented, as the writing is very simplistic and points out the horror rather than letting the reader experience it for themselves through the showing of events and feelings. The way the book overexplains Lale's thought processes and the significance of everything that happens diminishes the impact of the story and makes it feel less emotive than it should be.
The sense of constant threat and the unpredictability of the reactions of the guards to things is well conveyed. And Lale's conflicting feelings about what he has to do to ensure his own survival under appalling circumstances does come through (though it did seem like he put other people at unnecessary risk in order to be able to spend time with Gita, which put her at risk as well). The bit I liked best was the section towards the end, after they both got out of the camp, as their separate journeys back to Slovakia are well told and more affecting somehow.
But it's very clear the narrative is someone laying down what has been told to them by the person at the centre of the story. It feels quite stilted and remote, and there are obviously details the author is keen to ensure are included, which don't necessarily serve the story as a story. Still, it was an interesting read in some respects, and it's an amazing story. It's just a shame it wasn't written in a more effective way.
The Great Fortune by Olivia Manning:
This is the first book in The Balkan Trilogy, telling the story of a young British couple living in Romania at the start of the Second World War. It starts with Harriet and Guy on a train, heading to Bucharest in September 1939, having met and married over the summer. It seemed unbelievable to me that a young woman would move to Eastern Europe with a man she'd only known a couple of months at this time, but apparently the story is based on Manning's life and that's actually what she did! Despite the period, the narrative is light and funny, with well observed characters and more of a focus on the inter-relationships than on the political situation. The narrative is split between Harriet finding her feet in a foreign city with a new husband she discovers she doesn't know as well as she'd thought, and Yakimov, a White Russian who sponges off anyone and everyone in order to maintain his lavish lifestyle despite reduced circumstances.
The setting is very well evoked and the society of the British abroad is exposed in all its eccentric colonialism. I enjoyed the comedy of manners aspects of the story, though the 1950s presentation of 1930s attitudes wasn't as critical as it would likely be in a more modern novel. I sympathised with Harriet's uncertain position and the difficulties she faces in making her needs known. Yakimov was amusing but got a bit wearing after a while, and his storyline also contained some unexpected and quite graphic encounters, which seemed out of keeping with the rest of the book. This first book in the series is very much about denial and keeping up a front, as the characters deceive themselves about the security of their situation in various ways. I'm intending to read the other two, where I assume things will change quite rapidly as the war progresses.
Lion by Saroo Brierley:
I was aware of the film version of this book when it came out but never got around to seeing it. Saroo was born into poverty in India but raised in Australia after getting separated from his family at the age of five and living on the streets of Calcutta for several weeks. The book is his own account of what happened, his subsequent life in Australia and his eventual quest to find his birth family in India. The narrative is mostly reported with very little direct action - it's not a novelisation of the events, but Saroo telling his story. The writing is a bit sparse, and the section about him scouring Google Earth for his home town gets a bit tedious, but the more emotional sections are well told, and it's an amazing tale.
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd:
This is the story of Lily, who flees her abusive father with housekeeper Rosaleen, after helping Rosaleen escape police custody. The story is set in the American south in the 1960s, and has a lot to do with the civil rights movement, but more about Lily's search for information about her mother, who died when she was little. I liked Lily's point of view, and I loved the household of the beekeeping sisters where she and Rosaleen take refuge. The most interesting thing about the book was Lily discovering and letting go of her own prejudices as the only white person in the household. It's a cleverly flipped perspective and works well. The book was gentler and less grim than I was expecting, and I enjoyed it overall.
Belonging by Umi Sinha:
This has been on my reading shelf for a very long time and turned out to be completely different to what I expected. I thought it was an Indian family saga, with probably a present-day storyline and one set much longer ago. And that's not too far from the truth. It has three timelines - Lila in the First World War, her father Henry in the 1860s and 1880s, and her grandmother Cecily in the 1850s. It is largely set in India, but the family is white and British, which surprised me given the author is Indian. I really enjoyed the first half - the book starts with a shocking event and a mystery and then gradually builds up to reveal what really happened, but the early sections are immersive and interesting enough to avoid too much desire to skip ahead, and I liked all the characters.
But, given Cecily is caught up in the siege of Cawnpore, and Lila's mother turns out to be very disturbed, the second half of the book is incredibly horrific and only gets worse as it goes along. The conclusion of Lila's story is also weirdly ambiguous, making the end of the book less satisfying than I'd hoped, after all the horror. It's well written, though, and an interesting story in all the timelines. Just a bit grimmer than I would have preferred.
The Missing Sister by Dinah Jefferies:
This book fit well into my current desire for historical drama, particularly set in the 1930s. Belle arrives in Rangoon in 1936, to work as a singer in a fancy hotel. But she has another reason for being there, since she has recently discovered she had an older sister, who disappeared in Rangoon as a baby and was never mentioned to her by Belle's parents. Belle's narrative is intercut with chapters from her mother's point of view, set after the parents' return to England in the 1920s, which provide an interesting counterpoint to Belle's quest for information about what happened to her sister. I liked the characters and the setting is very vividly evoked. I'm not sure the investigation aspect of the story worked very well, as most of Belle's leads didn't go anywhere and the eventual answer to the mystery came out of nowhere. However, the book is well written and engaging, and I did enjoy it. I particularly liked the depiction of the heat in Rangoon and how difficult it is for Belle to stay presentable in a situation where it's important for her to look good. I also liked that the book didn't shy away from the aftermath of trauma - several of the characters go through terrible situations, and it's clear from the narrative that it's not going to be easy for them to get over this, which is always a welcome inclusion in books, where frequently characters seem unaffected by the things that happen to them.
The Tatooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris:
I'd heard of this book but hadn't had any intention of reading it until I picked it up at a local charity shop as part of a very good deal on books. It tells the story of Lale, a Slovakian Jew who is given the job of tattooing the numbers on the arms of new prisoners arriving at Auschwitz. It's always interesting to read a true story presented as a fictionalised narrative, and I think this is the type of story that it's important people know about. But, in this case, I don't think the story is served well by the way it's presented, as the writing is very simplistic and points out the horror rather than letting the reader experience it for themselves through the showing of events and feelings. The way the book overexplains Lale's thought processes and the significance of everything that happens diminishes the impact of the story and makes it feel less emotive than it should be.
The sense of constant threat and the unpredictability of the reactions of the guards to things is well conveyed. And Lale's conflicting feelings about what he has to do to ensure his own survival under appalling circumstances does come through (though it did seem like he put other people at unnecessary risk in order to be able to spend time with Gita, which put her at risk as well). The bit I liked best was the section towards the end, after they both got out of the camp, as their separate journeys back to Slovakia are well told and more affecting somehow.
But it's very clear the narrative is someone laying down what has been told to them by the person at the centre of the story. It feels quite stilted and remote, and there are obviously details the author is keen to ensure are included, which don't necessarily serve the story as a story. Still, it was an interesting read in some respects, and it's an amazing story. It's just a shame it wasn't written in a more effective way.
The Great Fortune by Olivia Manning:
This is the first book in The Balkan Trilogy, telling the story of a young British couple living in Romania at the start of the Second World War. It starts with Harriet and Guy on a train, heading to Bucharest in September 1939, having met and married over the summer. It seemed unbelievable to me that a young woman would move to Eastern Europe with a man she'd only known a couple of months at this time, but apparently the story is based on Manning's life and that's actually what she did! Despite the period, the narrative is light and funny, with well observed characters and more of a focus on the inter-relationships than on the political situation. The narrative is split between Harriet finding her feet in a foreign city with a new husband she discovers she doesn't know as well as she'd thought, and Yakimov, a White Russian who sponges off anyone and everyone in order to maintain his lavish lifestyle despite reduced circumstances.
The setting is very well evoked and the society of the British abroad is exposed in all its eccentric colonialism. I enjoyed the comedy of manners aspects of the story, though the 1950s presentation of 1930s attitudes wasn't as critical as it would likely be in a more modern novel. I sympathised with Harriet's uncertain position and the difficulties she faces in making her needs known. Yakimov was amusing but got a bit wearing after a while, and his storyline also contained some unexpected and quite graphic encounters, which seemed out of keeping with the rest of the book. This first book in the series is very much about denial and keeping up a front, as the characters deceive themselves about the security of their situation in various ways. I'm intending to read the other two, where I assume things will change quite rapidly as the war progresses.
Lion by Saroo Brierley:
I was aware of the film version of this book when it came out but never got around to seeing it. Saroo was born into poverty in India but raised in Australia after getting separated from his family at the age of five and living on the streets of Calcutta for several weeks. The book is his own account of what happened, his subsequent life in Australia and his eventual quest to find his birth family in India. The narrative is mostly reported with very little direct action - it's not a novelisation of the events, but Saroo telling his story. The writing is a bit sparse, and the section about him scouring Google Earth for his home town gets a bit tedious, but the more emotional sections are well told, and it's an amazing tale.
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd:
This is the story of Lily, who flees her abusive father with housekeeper Rosaleen, after helping Rosaleen escape police custody. The story is set in the American south in the 1960s, and has a lot to do with the civil rights movement, but more about Lily's search for information about her mother, who died when she was little. I liked Lily's point of view, and I loved the household of the beekeeping sisters where she and Rosaleen take refuge. The most interesting thing about the book was Lily discovering and letting go of her own prejudices as the only white person in the household. It's a cleverly flipped perspective and works well. The book was gentler and less grim than I was expecting, and I enjoyed it overall.
Belonging by Umi Sinha:
This has been on my reading shelf for a very long time and turned out to be completely different to what I expected. I thought it was an Indian family saga, with probably a present-day storyline and one set much longer ago. And that's not too far from the truth. It has three timelines - Lila in the First World War, her father Henry in the 1860s and 1880s, and her grandmother Cecily in the 1850s. It is largely set in India, but the family is white and British, which surprised me given the author is Indian. I really enjoyed the first half - the book starts with a shocking event and a mystery and then gradually builds up to reveal what really happened, but the early sections are immersive and interesting enough to avoid too much desire to skip ahead, and I liked all the characters.
But, given Cecily is caught up in the siege of Cawnpore, and Lila's mother turns out to be very disturbed, the second half of the book is incredibly horrific and only gets worse as it goes along. The conclusion of Lila's story is also weirdly ambiguous, making the end of the book less satisfying than I'd hoped, after all the horror. It's well written, though, and an interesting story in all the timelines. Just a bit grimmer than I would have preferred.
The Missing Sister by Dinah Jefferies:
This book fit well into my current desire for historical drama, particularly set in the 1930s. Belle arrives in Rangoon in 1936, to work as a singer in a fancy hotel. But she has another reason for being there, since she has recently discovered she had an older sister, who disappeared in Rangoon as a baby and was never mentioned to her by Belle's parents. Belle's narrative is intercut with chapters from her mother's point of view, set after the parents' return to England in the 1920s, which provide an interesting counterpoint to Belle's quest for information about what happened to her sister. I liked the characters and the setting is very vividly evoked. I'm not sure the investigation aspect of the story worked very well, as most of Belle's leads didn't go anywhere and the eventual answer to the mystery came out of nowhere. However, the book is well written and engaging, and I did enjoy it. I particularly liked the depiction of the heat in Rangoon and how difficult it is for Belle to stay presentable in a situation where it's important for her to look good. I also liked that the book didn't shy away from the aftermath of trauma - several of the characters go through terrible situations, and it's clear from the narrative that it's not going to be easy for them to get over this, which is always a welcome inclusion in books, where frequently characters seem unaffected by the things that happen to them.
