July, July
Apparently this is novel is made up of linked short stories covering a class a reunion.
I borrowed this book from the library and I remember NOTHING about it.
(updated January 2012)
Category: Mainstream Fiction
egg?
The Magician’s Assistant
One of the quirks of Fife libraries is that books are often assigned to genres they plain don’t belong to. I’m guessing it’s because the people involved have to make snap decisions based on the title, cover and blurb.
This book was sporting a fantasy sticker when I borrowed it and the blurb on the back was vague enough to suggest that it could well have been a subtle fantasy novel.
In fact this a very good mainstream fiction novel about a stage magician’s assistant.
She was his wife and inherits his fortune when he dies. While they were very close, the marriage was one of convenience because he was gay.
In the course of going through his estate she discovers that, after all these years of thinking he was an orphan, he has family back home in the midwest.
I really enjoyed this book and plan to read more by this author.
bruno?
The History Of Love
Leo Gursky is a Polish Jew who arrived in America after surviving the horrors of World War 2. A writer by nature he wrote a book about the only girl he ever loved – the girl who left for the USA before German onslaught could begin.
Alma Singer is nearly fifteen, a Jewish girl growing up in New York, her family traumatised by the loss of her father. She is named after every girl in a book called A History Of Love.
After Alma’s mother is asked to translate A History Of Love from the Spanish into English events begin intertwine and histories unravel as Krauss spins the story’s threads.
This a lovely, surprisingly moving, little book about the nature of love, human connection and the power of lies and self-deception to alter lives.
I’d definitely recommend it as a read if you’re not in a particularly cynical frame of mind.
celeste?
The Outsider by Albert Camus
karass?
way to go by alan spence
this is the story of an undertaker’s son
geedee?
All Families Are Psychotic
Strange tale around the gathering of a NASA astronauts family in Florida for the launch of her Shuttle mission
Strange tale around the gathering of a NASA astronauts family in Florida for the launch of her Shuttle mission
Strange tale around the gathering of a NASA astronauts family in Florida for the launch of her Shuttle mission
Strange tale around the gathering of a NASA astronauts family in Florida for the launch of her Shuttle mission
Strange tale around the gathering of a NASA astronauts family in Florida for the launch of her Shuttle mission
lye?
Fight Club
This short novel was the source for the brilliant, if controversial, 1999 film.
his?
The Damned Utd
Quite, quite awesome fictional retelling of Brian Clough’s 44 days in charge of Leeds United.
Peace writes the entire story as if coming from Clough’s own mouth or subconscious. In one half of the narrative it’s the ‘present day’ and Clough is trying, and failing, to get to grips with the Leeds United job and the other tells the back story of Clough’s managerial career at Hartlepool, Derby County and Brighton.
It’s a fascinating insight into a brilliant and deeply flawed man. A man driven by all sorts of demons, including a desperate desire to prove himself and to best those he respected and those he hated. There was no-one he hated more than Don Revie and his Damned Utd of the title. A great football team that won by playing game in as cynical a fashion as possible. It was his burning desire to best Revie and doing so by turning his cynical machine into a pure football dream that got him to take the job in the first place. Only for him to ruin it by alienating the first team and the board as only he could.
It is quite simply the best football book I’ve ever read. If you have any love for the game you owe it to yourself to read it.
indecision?
Love and Other Near Death Experiences
Late-night Jazz DJ Rob Garland narrowly avoids being killed in an accident and starts to question every trivial decision in life. After unburdening himself on his show he’s contacted by various characters with similar experiences. Prompted by his fiancee he embarks on a ‘quest’ to come to terms with the experience.
The book is occasionally rather funny, but is seriously let down by an obvious and laboured plot.
My verdict? This book cost me the princely sum of £1. About right I reckon.
14k?
Things My Girlfriend And I Have Argued About
Millington’s debut novel is inspired by some of the crazy and hilarious stories about his relationship with his long-term German girlfriend (and mother of his children) as detailed here.
The novel takes these anecdotes and fits them into a loosely plotted story of dodgy dealings and shifty politics within the university that employs his lead character, Pel.
Loosely plotted is generous. It basically amounts to a serious of very funny sketches that kind of hang together but not really.
Then again any book that features Laser tag, Triads, burial grounds and Library and IT in-jokes is hard to dislike entirely.
It really is frequently laugh out loud funny but then again if you’ve been following Millington since he used to write letters into Amiga Power, like I have, this will come as no surprise.
Hopefully one day he’ll get a hang of the telling a complete story thing and he’ll have something that I can praise to the hilt.