I must confess that I don’t normally read this type of book. However, I happened to watch the news on the television here in France the other week andI must confess that I don’t normally read this type of book. However, I happened to watch the news on the television here in France the other week and saw a woman of about forty coming from a courthouse in Chalon-sur-Saone, in France’s central Burgundy region, supported by two female lawyers. I was immediately distressed for the woman as she looked so fragile. I think she was probably still recovering from the shock that she had just been told that whereas she had been judged for premeditated murder, she was free to leave the court.
Below is a brief account from the newspapers:
“Valérie Bacot, was given four years' jail, with three suspended, but released because of the year she had already served. Bacot earlier collapsed in court when prosecutors called for her to be convicted but given clemency and freed. She admitted killing her husband in March 2016 with his own gun.
She killed the man (Daniel Polette) who raped her for years as her stepfather before becoming her husband and pimp, and went on trial in a high-profile case that has become symbolic in the fight against male violence in France.
The case has mobilised defenders of women against male violence, with hundreds of thousands of people signing a petition for her release.
When Polette started questioning her 14-year old daughter Karline about her budding sexuality, Bacot said she decided that “this has to stop”.
“I had to put an end to it,” Valerie Bacot, 40, wrote in her book called “Tout le Monde Savait” (“Everybody Knew”), adding “I was afraid, all the time.”
I found this book incredibly moving, although not an enjoyable subject. All I could think when I finished it was that here was a woman still fearful of men but luckily enough she had the support of her four children. Also, she was so pleased when she became a grandmother at thirty-nine and I hope that she enjoys a better life. She deserves it....more
I believe that I’m rather an odd individual in that I’m always highly influenced by the title of a book in my purchases and often wonder where, as is I believe that I’m rather an odd individual in that I’m always highly influenced by the title of a book in my purchases and often wonder where, as is normally the case, I will find it within a specific work. In addition, I adore magpies and even more the title fascinated me. Ridiculous I know but still that's the way it is.
I hadn’t realized that Horowitz had written “Midsomer Murders” and “Foyle’s War”. I thoroughly enjoyed watching these on the television. However, there is indeed a difference with reading a book as I found out in this particular case. Yes, I do indeed love “whodunits” but this work was so slow, apart from an individual being decapitated unfortunately, that I was curled up on the sofa with my book and fell asleep. Anyway, I persevered and arrived at page 275 when this manuscript, within a novel, died literally and the rest of the book took over. It was to me anyway, perhaps not to everyone, so boring. A quick flip through all the pages for something exciting. No joy. In all fairness the ending was not to be expected and good.
Yet the book was indeed beautifully written. But I have to say that there were shades of Poirot throughout the work with the detective Atticus Pund. Nevertheless, the mantra of one Goodreads friend is that he prefers writing over plot, with which I totally agree. So my rating? I'll have to reflect on that. Done!...more
**spoiler alert** A friend recommended this book to me and I took it out of politeness. It really wasn't my genre at all. Well I started reading it an**spoiler alert** A friend recommended this book to me and I took it out of politeness. It really wasn't my genre at all. Well I started reading it and was hooked from page 1. I read it far into the night on three consecutive days and just couldn't get enough of it. I should mention, this is not a short book - 574 pages.
I think the reason why I was so taken by this book is that I went on a cruise along the Nile in the early nineties. The boat was small like the one described in this book and I believe it was called the Nile Sphinx. I followed the same itinerary but I certainly didn't have the experience of Anna Fox, who had been recently divorced and was following the same route as her great, great grandmother, Louisa, from Luxor to Aswan.
Everything revolves around this little glass bottle with its three thousand year old past. The stories of the two women delicately weave around this and are so skilfully done. They are seamless in fact. There is love, intrigue, mystery and this work is indeed multi-faceted. The supernatural sections seemed to be so real that they left me rather breathless. In addition, the descriptions are exquisite!
I stood up three more times and convinced myself that here, three yards from me, there really was something invisible, smooth and cool blocking my patI stood up three more times and convinced myself that here, three yards from me, there really was something invisible, smooth and cool blocking my path. I thought it might be a hallucination, but of course I knew that it was nothing of the kind. I could have coped much more easily with a momentary insanity than with this terrible, invisible thing. But there was Lynx with his bleeding mouth, and there was the bump on my head, which was beginning to ache.
When our narrator was invited by her cousin Luise and Hugo to go and stay at their hunting lodge in the foothills of the Alps for a few days, she was very keen on the idea. She was a window with grown-up children and could think of nothing more enjoyable than a sojourn in the mountains. But when her hosts went off to the local village and did not return the following morning, our narrator set out to find them. She took the family dog Lynx with her, who was the first to come across, and was immediately frustrated by what appeared to be an invisible wall, blocking their progress.
So in reality this doesn’t appear to be the start to a rather excellent story and there you would be wrong. Put yourself in her position. You’re all alone. You can look through this invisible wall and see the people in the valley in their various “frozen” positions as well as their animals. What could have happened to them? She often thought about it but could come up with no definitive reason.
This is the most remarkable book about a woman’s survival in life. Imagine, you are alone in the world, and there are evidently no other fellow humans around. What do you need to live? She found searching through the hunting lodge that Hugo had matches. So important for the fire. Yes there was wood indeed but not enough and so she had to cut more. Luckily enough the right implements were there. There was also a sack of potatoes and some seeds and so she was able to dig up a field (imagine the hard work) and plant them. But other necessities such as soap, toothpaste, clothes, shoes, food, etc. all rather difficult if you have them but cannot replenish them. Also heating. We are talking about the Alps here, certainly not warm all the time. The wood was soon used up.
But then luck happens to enter into the equation. A cow suddenly appears when our narrator is out with Lynx. On the other side of the wall, her fellow cows were transfixed, presumably dead but how? What is rather poignant is the cow, who obviously had been split up from fellow cows at the time of this “experience” is now all alone and has need to be looked after. But she provides milk. She is pregnant and has a bull. Our narrator comes across a book luckily enough on births in animals and so assists at this time. So milk is available for our narrator, and the dog.
Then a cat appears. Another animal that has to be fed. So meat has to be on the agenda. Luckily there is a gun and our narrator, very much against her own wishes, is forced to go out and kill deer. She finds trout in the river too. She detests killing but she has to survive. I wonder, if I were in the same position, would I also do that? One never knows until it happens.
Cat is never named. When the bull is born, he remains Bull but the cow is called Bella.
Our narrator loves all the animals and has their well-being at heart. This is her new world after all and she reasons that we all have “walls” in our lives of some sort or other and she has to get on with life. She knows that she will always work as she has given up hope after two years that she will be found.
What did fascinate me though was after she had been in the hunting lodge for several months, she suddenly decided to go out exploring with Lynx and found a small hut up in the hills, the area was known by the locals as the Alm, about three hours away by foot. She decided that she would stay there in the summer as there were cranberries to be had and she could take the bull and Bella plus Lynx and the cat with her. The weather was dreadful but in the meantime whilst she was there, she could trek back down to the field close to the hunting lodge and scythe the field for hay for the bull and cow and check on her potatoes. There were continual periods of trudging back and forth between the two places. She was constantly exhausted and did I feel for her.
All in all this could sound rather trite but it is the writing style that is exquisite. I loved every word of this book.
Well life continues as it always will but then one day she finds a man in the field when she is up in the Alm. This is the most incredible part of the book. In fact it momentarily mentally paralyzed me.
We are informed of all of this via a journal that she is writing but she only has a pencil and this is nearly finished. Our narrator knows that there could be problems with her continuing lifestyle but she’s optimistic now even though she has had problems with her health, her teeth, has lost several of her loved animals and knowing that soon the matches will run out. She has no idea of time as her alarm clock is no longer working and her small wrist watch, a gift from her husband, got lost somewhere between the Alm and the hunting lodge. She only knows the time by the arrival of the crows and the rather odd white crow that stays behind.
Today, the twenty-fifth of February, I shall end my report. There isn’t a single sheet of paper left. It’s now around five o’clock in the evening and already so light that I can write without a lamp. The crows have risen, and circle screeching over the forest. When they are out of sight I shall go to the clearing and feed the white crow. It will already be waiting for me.
I'm sure there's a significance to the white crow but I cannot see it.
My, this is the most amazing book that I still keep on thinking about and referring to. Goodreads, you are brilliant! So will I come across another book this year that proves to be better than this one? I very much doubt it!...more
This is a beautifully written book but it is not for me. I was fascinated with William Buelow Gould and I also love anything to do with fish. I fish, This is a beautifully written book but it is not for me. I was fascinated with William Buelow Gould and I also love anything to do with fish. I fish, flyfishing, paint and love fish. So why didn't this book appeal to me? Well I really don't know.
And as for the ending, well it was sheer fantasy...
Shame, an excellent author but then I really think that the hard life of living in a brutal penal colony was all too much for me.
The odd thing is that the author was born in Tamania and that is one of my dream places to travel too....more
When I received this book, the first thing that struck me was that I didn’t like the title at all. The idea of “COQworks” by “W. Coq” didn’t sit well When I received this book, the first thing that struck me was that I didn’t like the title at all. The idea of “COQworks” by “W. Coq” didn’t sit well with me at all. It appeared to be too sensational. I’m very influenced unfortunately by book titles and also authors’ names. Just a quirk of mine. So I passed over that to the “blurb”.
Now this looks interesting was my first thought:
When W. COQ disappeared at Deddick near Snowy River in 2006, he left behind the manuscripts which came to be known as COQworks, hallucinatory pulp in a freak patchwork of genres. In the first instalment, Vanishing Points, nothing is what it seems. A renegade space captain at war with an invisible enemy, a faded pornstar infected with a psychogenic virus, a teenage slayer of zombies in a crisis of self-doubt – these are the protagonists of a world in dissolution. The task: to write in zero-gravity, to use the lightest of genres to explore the heaviest of themes.
I was rather taken with this last sentence. Well I started to read the book but it soon became rather too much for me. This genre is decidedly not for me even though the book is very skillfully crafted but I found it far too zany and rather manic at times. I did however rather like the character Kurtz.
An example:
Captain’s log: Hawk is dead. He died peacefully – ecstatically last night. Before he died, he spoke. “I was born in space,” he said: “Born an old man, in a black hole.” I’d given him up for insane, till I heard that lucid voice and remembered he’d once inspired me. I surprised myself – I listened. He said, “I’ll never forget that vast whirlpool of perfect ebony.” He said, “From thousands of miles away, it enveloped my field of vision.”
It is a short work of 101 pages and is divided into three sections with a postscript.
I have no doubt though that many people will love this book so do go out and buy it! ...more
I always get a great satisfaction out of going into a W.H. Smith’s book shop in any of the English airports and looking I decided to lower the rating.
I always get a great satisfaction out of going into a W.H. Smith’s book shop in any of the English airports and looking to see the latest books on offer. I saw this book the other week and the blurb took my fancy. I rather liked the idea of:
An enigmatic toymaker who lives as a recluse in an old mansion, surrounded by the fantastical beings he has created. An eerie figure that watches from behind the curtains of a locked room. Strange things that flicker through the mist from an abandoned lighthouse. A shadowy creature that hides deep in the woods and has already claimed one life. These are the elements of a mystery that will bind Irene to Ismael during a magical summer in Blue Bay, where her mother becomes housekeeper to the secretive toymaker, Lazarus Jann.
This sounded a marvellous book and I couldn’t wait to leap into it but what a disappointment it turned out to be. Now whether the true essence of the book has been lost in the translation I don’t know but to me it lacked soul and I found the characters Simone, Irene and Lazarus very wooden. There was a childlike element to the book and so I skim read to the end, then returned to the main part of the book and finally abandoned it.
I hate to abandon a book but there are so many exciting books that I’m eager to read and why waste time with one that doesn’t inspire me in the least.
Sorry Mr Zafon. My apologies. I may not like you but there are many who do and that’s the saving grace. ...more
If I had not read MJ’s excellent review (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...), I would never have purchased this book as firstly, I had never heard of the author and secondly, this didn’t sound like my type of book at all. That’s the “problem” with Goodreads; there is too much choice and I seem to be continuously stumbling across new authors.
All one can possibly do in my case is to compare my purchase with a rather prized sweet in the sweet shop and to buy it on a whim. A bit of a hit and miss scenario. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. Luckily I chose wisely this time.
Well I started reading this novel last night and I was completely frustrated with the first twenty-five pages. I was not enjoying it at all. It seemed all too vague in content and I was about to abandon it when I decided to give it another try. I don’t know if it was seeing the incredible beauty of the sun setting over the Pyrenean mountain range or what but I somehow seemed to see this book in a different light. I had seen the light and that’s for sure.
I’ve always loved the quote below by William Faulkner and it sprang to mind when I began to re-read this book.
Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the most. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write. If it is good, you’ll find out. If it’s not, throw it out the window.
Yes I did initially think this book was bad and I had indeed been sorely tempted to throw it out of the window but what a dreadful mistake that would have been.
How can I even attempt to write this review? I feel I need to though because such beauty, sorrow and poignancy are portrayed in this multi-layered book and everyone needs to know about it.
I was nevertheless taken aback with the first paragraph:
Woooooooo- hooooooo what a fall what a soar what a plummet what a dash into dark into light what a plunge what a glide thud crash what a drop what a rush what a swoop what a fright what a mad hushed skirl what a smash mush mash-up broken and gashed what a heart in my mouth what an end. What a life. What a time. What I felt. Then. Gone.
Now this doesn’t sound very thrilling but persevere because you, the reader, are going to have the time of your life!
Well once again I encounter that remarkable "wretched stream-of-consciousness" that I'm not really a great lover of (Virginia Woolf immediately springing to mind) but somehow it worked very well here. I must confess that I felt like a voyeur travelling in a somewhat sleepy fashion at times through the book but it is an enthralling work.
The plot, if you can call it such, is based on five woman, who are either based/visiting the Global Hotel or outside and literally too.
Nineteen year old Sara Wilby has just started work at the Global Hotel as a chambermaid and dies in a rather unfortunate way there. Her dead teenage narrator is “floating around” and slowly losing her earthly ties. She is forgetting vocabulary and wants to find out how she fell before it is all too late. She knows this “thing” fell to the ground and killed her and as a result she attempts to have conversations with Sara down in the grave.
There are six sections in the book covering various time periods and four other women are gradually drawn into the equation and their lives are all examined in detail: Clare, Sara’s sister, who cries a lot and wants to find out how this accident happened; Else, a vagrant really, who lives outside the hotel but gets invited in for the night by the receptionist Lise and Penny, a journalist who’s on the outlook for a scoop.
All of the sections overlap and Ali Smith has done such a wonderful job here.
Drat, I really hate it when I love a work so much because then I cannot get the natural flow of the wording. I had the same problem with Lawrence Durrell and The Alexandria Quartet, my favourite book.
Nevertheless, I gave it my best shot!
Do read this book. No wonder it was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the Orange Prize for Fiction 2001. ...more
This is a magnificent saga, which left me breathless and awaiting the next word, set in India at the beginning of the fifties.
"Suitable Boy" by VikramThis is a magnificent saga, which left me breathless and awaiting the next word, set in India at the beginning of the fifties.
"Suitable Boy" by Vikram Seth's “epic love story set in India. Funny and tragic, with engaging, brilliantly observed characters, it is as close as you can get to Dickens for the twentieth century. The story unfolds through four middle class families - the Mehras, Kappoors, Khans and Chatterjis. Lata Mehra, a university student, is under pressure from her mother to get married. But not to just anyone she happens to fall in love with. There are standards to be met and finding a husband for Lata becomes a family affair in which all the members are to play a part.”
“The richness of this book is remarkable. What with marriage, religion, customs, etc. it has been a really fascinating read for me.”
India's caste system has four main classes (also called varnas) based originally on personality, profession and birth.
I’m eternally grateful to Fionnuala for suggesting that I may perhaps like this author. Do I like Vikram Seth? No, of course not. I just happen to adore him. I think that he’s absolutely splendid. I get the same pleasure reading this book as when I’m eating lobster or tasting a superb Burgundy wine or whatever sublime other pleasures that we have in life…My…
I must confess that I had never heard of Seth before and I wouldn’t if it hadn’t been for Goodreads. It’s one of those remarkable books that becomes a reference book that once read, you can open it at any page and still get that continual enjoyment. It’s a wonderful sensation to savour…
It’s always so difficult for me to write a review on a book that I “love to death” but that has been the case here. This is now my second favourite fiction book after “The Alexandria Quartet” and I could never do that justice. Bravo for the past for Durrell and for the present for Vikram Seth.
In conclusion, Fionnuala and Seth – thank you for giving me so much pleasure. What a serendipitous find. I love this book. ...more
This book seemed to be the natural follow on from my recent amazing couplet experience with Alexander Pope’s The Rape of the Lock. Why you may wonder?This book seemed to be the natural follow on from my recent amazing couplet experience with Alexander Pope’s The Rape of the Lock. Why you may wonder? Well for the simple reason The Golden Gate is a twentieth century novel with a unique difference in that it has been written in verse, not with couplets but with sonnets in such a way as to be an uplifting experience, be it poignant, humorous, bitter-sweet, nostalgic, tragic…You name it; every conceivable emotion has been magnificently portrayed by Seth. You can browse through any page and I challenge you, as the reader, not to be as enthralled with this book as I have been and continue to do so.
The plot is nothing particularly special in itself, apart from the “nuclear abyss” thrown in and three cats which are definitely worth reading about. How a cat can cause problems between a couple is soon to be seen in all of its magnificence.
Set in the 1980s, this book follows the lives of a group of yuppies in San Francisco. Basically it revolves around the individuals John, Jan (a sculptor), Phil and his son Paul; Ed, Liz and Sue (siblings; with Sue in a minor role).
Out of all the relationships here, the one that really moved me was that between Paul and Ed. And another splendid aspect of this book is that you never know how things are going to turn out. In no way could I have guessed the ending.
It’s the poetic structure that tantalized me and the overall effect is spectacular. These sonnets are so well written and I cannot fault any of them. They continue to linger in my memory and here are four of them that I particularly liked:
The two cats, Cuff and Link:
1.16 Sweet Siamese of rare refulgence With chocolate ears and limbs of tow, Jan gives them love, food, and indulgence The cats take this for granted, show Scant deference to their human betters; In splendour Jan can ill afford, In silken bed, on sumptuous board They fatten. Though, when out of favor, The L and C on their beds are Interpreted “Louise” and “Catarrh,” Jan relishes the warmth and savor The deeds of Cuff and Link confer, The love they deign to yield to her.
4.50 Over large cups of coffee, steaming And fragrant, Ed says, “Phil last night I almost thought that I was dreaming. But now – I know that it wasn’t right. I have to trust my faith’s decisions, Not batten on my own volitions. The Bible says, if a man lie With a man, he must surely die. It’s in Leviticus, chapter 20, Verse 13 – which means it’s as true For me, a Christian, as for you.” Phil laughs: “That old book, Ed, holds plenty Of rules that may have made sense once -Take shellfish– but you’d be a dunce…
And as for the third cat, Charlemagne:
6.24 When John’s invective grows too torrid ‘”I’ll cut them off myself”, et al.), Liz exclaims, “John, don’t be so horrid.” “Well, ship him off to Senegal Or somewhere – Liz, you’d better do it – Or – mark my words – that cat will rue it.” “Oh darling, don’t be so annoyed.” “What should I be then? Overjoyed?” “Of course not, dear. I’m very sorry. Let’s change the sheets. He’s twelve years old. He really has a heart of gold.” “I’ll bet!” “Well, dear, try not to worry. As for that other thing, that would, At his age, do more harm than good.”
13.20 Or late at night – when after turning The lights out, he’s in bed alone, He hears her voice, and waves of yearning Drench his taut body to the bone, And a sick turmoil of desire Stirs through him with a craving fire For her, her hand to touch his hair, Her indrawn breath, and everywhere The unique musk of excitation Her body breathed when they made love. Each night, like dreams, strange figments of The nights recur, prefiguration Of dreams themselves. One night he dreamed He stood by the seashore. It seemed…
I’m really surprised that this is the first novel of Seth. I wonder what his other books are like. I must pursue that.
This book was indeed a serendipitous find thanks to a GRs friend, Fionnuala, who said:
If you like stories told in rhyme, Vikram Seth has a more contemporary one: “The Golden Gate”
This work is unusual and I love it. It also made me read Shakespeare’s sonnets again. Wonderful to say the least. Now back to this wondrous and magical work. Do try it. You may find that you love it as I did! In fact I’m sure you will. This is one of those ultimate reading experiences. When I read the last page, I must confess that I felt a lump in my throat. Yes, I do indeed wax lyrical here and can you blame me? ...more
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