Mother’s Milk, the fourth book about Patrick Melrose took me the longest to read and was the first book in the series that actually made me doubt the decision to read any series at all. You get attached to the characters and so you keep paddling through the books even when you are not enjoying them anymore. At least that’s what’s been happening with me and Patrick Melrose books.

What’s the book about?

The fourth book focuses on a few important situations in Patrick’s life, mainly through the eyes of new and much younger characters. Just as all previous three books it only tells you about a couple of events that take place within quite a short period of time. Thus, all development of the story basically revolves around characters’ thoughts and feelings rather than their actions.

What I liked about the book

The writing is again thought-provoking and beautiful,

‘We think the purpose of a child is to grow up because it does grow up. But its purpose is to play, to enjoy itself, to be a child. It we merely look at the end of the process, the purpose of life is death.’

People died of feelings all the time, once they had gone through the formality of materialising them into bullets and bottles and tumours.

It was easy to see what was sick, but it was so difficult to know what it meant to be well.

‘A man may smile and smile and be a villain.’

with its classic dark humor,

In the end, it was even harder to behave badly than to behave well. That was the trouble of not being a psychopath.

He definitely had a Tamazepam problem, namely, that it wasn’t strong enough.

and with its perfectly captured human nature.

…necessary egotism of someone who needed to get a self back in order to sacrifice it again.

Her profound inability to listen to anyone else was unhappily married to a hysterical concern about what other people thought of her.

Eleanor believed more or less anything, as long as it was untrue.

…she was going to dedicate her life to helping others, as long as they weren’t related to her.

Noticing the arrival of her family, his grandmother organized her face into a smile, but her eyes remained detached from the process, frozen in bewilderment and pain.

Mary was such a devoted mother because she knew what it felt like not to have one. Patrick also knew what it felt like, and as a former beneficiary of Mary’s maternal overdrive, he sometimes had to remind himself that he wasn’t an infant any more, to argue that there were real children in the house, not yet horror-trained; he sometimes had to give himself a good talking to. […] Being surrounded by children only brought him closer to his own childishness.

The kids

This book takes kids seriously. They are not just accessories for adults’ lives or levers for a plot development. Their thoughts and feelings are as important as the ones of adult characters.

That was the trouble with grown-ups: they always wanted to be the centre of attention, with their battering rams of food, and their sleep routines and their obsession with making you learn what they knew and forget what they had forgotten.

Whenever he was hurt he reverted to calling myself ‘you’, although he had discovered the proper use of the first person singular six months ago. Until then, he had referred to himself as ‘you’ on the perfectly logical grounds that everyone else did. He also referred to others as ‘I’, on the perfectly logical grounds that that was how they referred to themselves.

The resolutions

Even though it seemed pretty impossible, the story did progress to some resolutions which was really satisfying.

What I liked less about the book

As you might have guessed already, the lack of action in this book is close to a torture. It gets so boring that even the perfect writing and close-ups of disturbed souls don’t make up for it. The characters are like bugs frozen in amber. They are perfect and realistic, and yet you can’t get rid of the feeling that they are supposed to be doing something more in life.

Would I recommend this book?

Unfortunately I wouldn’t, which is really a shame. This is a remarkable piece of real literature with unique deep writing but I personally just don’t know readers who can be OK with such stillness of the plot.

Here are the reviews of the previous novels in the series: Never Mind, Patrick Melrose novel #1 , Bad News, Patrick Melrose novel #2, Some Hope, Patrick Melrose #3.

The Salt of the Earth is an exceptional book but unfortunately I failed to like it as much as I expected to.

About the book

The Salt of the Earth is a pacifist novel about a person who loses the little he had, to be a pawn in something he has no understanding of.

The novel was first published in Polish in 1936 and received great acclaim. As a result Jozef Wittlin, the author, was nominated for the Nobel Prize in 1939. The book was first translated into English in 1940. It was supposed to be the first book in a trilogy but the drafts of the other two volumes were lost when a soldier in a French town threw the case with them into the sea in 1940. Only the first section of the second book survived and is included in this edition.

Good things about the book

Salt of the Earth is an example of beautiful writing. Jozef Wittlin was a poet, and you can feel it in his book. Here are some quotes.
About the news that the war has started:

The news spread by word of mouth. The mouth bit it, chewed it, ground it and crunched it until suddenly a million mouths spat one word out onto the pavement like a bitter almond.

At the recruiting station:

Around midday, Niewiadomski’s name flew out from under sergeant’s black moustache.

And more:

Stars flashed on the clear firmament, one after another, glorious, mature, brilliant. It was nights like these that gave birth to astronomy.

What I didn’t like

Unfortunately, I failed to like the novel, despite the beautiful writing and the greater message. There are only about fifteen instances of direct speech in the whole book, out of which about ten are actual dialogues, which are short and kept to a minimum. Even when communication between characters does happen it’s being recited as a narrative. Overall, the book feels as if somebody had written you a huge letter retelling different events and thoughts. This style of writing takes all possible dynamism out of the book. The book was written 80 years ago and so the rules of the story telling were probably different then, but I do read classics and I have never encountered anything so still, like water in a pond.

Although there’s a protagonist, you never connect to him closely. He’s a mere tool to show you what a state can do to a person. And as it’s an unfinished story you never even get to know what happened to him eventually.

As for the translation of the book, I’m not an expert but I think the name that sounds like “Semyon” or “Semion” would look much better written exactly this way, rather than simply transliterated as “Semen”.

Final thoughts

It’s undoubtedly a very deep book, but the peculiarity of the writing style makes it very hard to read and the incompleteness of the story brings no satisfaction. Thus, I can only give it 3.5 stars. I’m sure somebody with a different attitude to reading will like it more.

Thanks to the publishers for the copy in exchange for my honest review.

I didn’t choose to review Day of the Accident based on its description. In fact, having read the description I nearly dismissed the book. I mistrust too entangled stories. There’s always a risk that the author created a head-spinning start that will not be graciously untangled in the end. That is not the case with Day of the Accident. Every bit of this story about a family tragedy, a woman after coma and a missing person gets explained.

What I liked in the book

The writing

What drew me to the book was the provided excerpt. From the first lines I trusted the author and I knew she will tell the story well regardless of the story itself. The writing flows. There’s no silly suspense that interrupts an action, there are no simplistic dialogues, no unnecessary details.

The voice of the main character

It is real. Her emotions are genuine and raw. In thrillers it’s usually the story that grips you but in Day of the Accident it is also the main character’s voice and your wish for her to be fine.

What I liked less

Implausible choices

I had problems with the choices some characters made. Even with all the background information it was hard to imagine a person who would behave this way in provided situations.

Melodramatic moments

I predicted all twists long before the book was over. That’s why I found some of the dialogues dragging and melodramatic. In literature characters tend to sound dumb when a story is obvious to everybody but them.

Final thoughts

Day of the Accident is way better than many other thrillers I recently read. It will be enjoyed by anybody who’s looking for a gripping fast-paced story, and of course by those who value high quality narrative. I’m giving the book solid four stars.

Day of the Accident will be available for purchase on February 21st, 2019. I’m thanking the publishers for my copy that I received in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

General information

Cora Seaborne has recently become a widow. She has quite unexpected feelings about it. It will take you time to learn why. You will realise early on, though, that she’s quite an unusual person for England in 1893. She’s fascinated by science, biology and nature. She loves wearing men’s clothing and walking alone in the woods. She dreams about finding a living dinosaur. She takes her friend and her very special son to Essex where she does find something she didn’t expect to.

How was the book?

I loved it! But I know that many readers won’t share my opinion. The story is extremely slow. If you are not into slow reading, sophisticated writing and the main focus on personalities rather than on action, then you might not enjoy the book as much as I did.

What I loved about the book

The writing

Sarah Perry’s writing is intricate and intense. Each paragraph, each line, each phrase bears a lot of meaning. This is not complexity for the sake of complexity. She reaches to the truth in each sentence. To skip even one is to lose a lot.

The characters

This is what I want from characters in all books! The characters in The Essex Serpent are not only alive and breathing, they are actually interesting. You can’t shelf or label them, they are unique, just like real people are. There’s no other Cora Seaborne in the whole Universe, fictional or not, as there are no copies of any other characters in this story.

Views on friendship

I can’t think of any other book that explores friendship so deeply, and brings up such ideas about it. Books often focus on love. The Essex Serpent shows that there’s another type of relationship with just as much potential for passion and complexity as love is.

Perfectly knitted plot

I absolutely admire how Perry knitted all the details together. You can’t discard any big or minor events without ruining the whole construction.

What I liked less

If I weren’t such a fan of complicated deep writing and interesting personalities, I might have dropped the book midway. The first half of the book is as uneventful as bits of frozen wax on a candle. All action ceases and you feel like no movement will ever be made again. Unfortunately, I think it will draw many readers away.

Would I recommend the book?

If having read my review you got interested in the book, then I think you should definitely read The Essex Serpent. If you want a gripping fast-paced story about a dinosaur hunt, you should choose another book.

Of course, I should have never picked up this book. The cover alone should have been enough to let me know that this is not the type of book I would enjoy because I don’t like romantic stories. Surprisingly, I ended up disliking the book for other reasons.

What is the book about?

It’s another teenager tragic love story. I suppose, those have been around even before Shakespeare times.

What’s good about the book?

The writing

The writing is absolutely fine. The style is great and perfectly conveys the voice of a teenager. I could easily imagine this boy.

The setting

North Carolina little town in 1958 sounds like my Montenegro in modern days.

People waved from their cars whenever they saw someone on the street whether they knew him or not…

Yes, this sounds like home.

… and the air smelled of pine, salt, and sea, a scent unique to the Carolinas.

Not unique, after all. That’s what Montenegro smells like.

The first two thirds of the story

This part is dynamic and easy to follow. It’s interesting even though it is based on a cliché: a selfish rich kid with father’s issues, minister’s angelic daughter who takes care of orphans. Oh my god they are so different, we will never guess what will happen between them!

What went wrong?

Even though there was the minister’s angelic daughter I was completely unprepared to the Bible becoming a character too.

When “the Lord’s plan” became a centre point of the plot, and the characters started communicating via Bible verses, I felt like an intruder to a party I had never been invited to or planned to visit.

Final thoughts

A Walk to Remember is not a badly written book. It’s easy to read and it’s entertaining. It’s a cute love story that can make you laugh and cry. There’s also lots of Bible in it. This book is definitely not my cup of tea, but maybe it is yours.

Bad News is the second novel in the series about Patrick Melrose. I already reviewed the first novel, called Never Mind. The first novel depicts one day in Patrick’s childhood. It’s enough to watch just that one day to understand that Patrick’s later life won’t be easy. In Bad News the fears for Patrick get confirmed. Bad News is bad news indeed.

About the book

Just like the first book, the second book feels like one gigantic chapter rather than a novel. Patrick is in his twenties now. He’s on a trip to New York to deal with an unpleasant family matter. Also, Patrick is a drug addict.

The way other people felt about love, he felt about heroin, and he felt about love the way other people felt about heroin.

He’s not in good shape at all.

The full lips were pinches inward, the eyes reduced to narrow slits, the nose, which was permanently blocked, forced him to breathe through his open mouth and made him look rather imbecilic…

Having read this description I thought that literary Patrick probably didn’t look much like Cumberbatch who played Patrick in the series.

What I like about the book

I actually like almost everything about it, but it doesn’t mean that I will be recommending it. I’ll soon explain why.

Writing

Just like in the first book, the writing in Bad News is perfect. It’s ruthless, precise and cuts straight to the core.

Jefferson and Patrick parted with the genuine warmth of people who had exploited each other successfully.

There are some very nasty people in the world and it is a pity if one of them is your father.

Patrick could hear the nervous tension in Debbie’s voice, the inherited anxiety about the correct thing to say.

He swivelled his eyes around the room with reptilian coldness.

Surely: the adverb of a man without an argument.

No topic is a taboo.

…when people are cremated one never really gets their ashes, just some communal rakings from the bottom of the oven.

Unexpectedly, there’s a lot of humour in the book too.

‘Would you care for a dessert, sir?’

At last, a real person with a real question, albeit a rather bizarre question. How was he supposed to ‘care for’ a dessert? Did he have to visit it on Sundays? Send it a Christmas card? Did he have to feed it?

Also, it was surprising to discover that Patrick and I have the same opinion when it comes to restaurants’ menus. At least when Patrick is on drugs…

There were pages of dead things – cows, shrimps, pigs, oysters, lambs – stretched out like a casualty list, accompanied by a brief description of how they had been treated since they died – skewed, grilled, smoked, and boiled. Christ, if they thought he was going to eat these things they must be mad.

I also liked Patrick himself

Patrick is an addict. He’s experiencing a very serious trauma. Of course, he can’t be charming, and yet he’s still likeable. You can see that he could be a very nice human being, had he been born into another family.

What I didn’t like in the book

I now understand that this is the format of these books but I still can’t enjoy it much. The book is too short (don’t confuse it with a quick read, it isn’t). It doesn’t feel like a complete book, more like a very detailed episode of a show (no wonder it was picked up for one). I wish each book told more.

A warning, or why I won’t be recommending this book

Drug abuse. Patrick takes so many drugs and the process is so vividly described that I felt as if I’d accompanied Patrick on all his nightmarish trips. Thus, even though I will go on with the series myself, because I do think it’s perfect literature, the themes are too complicated for the book to be recommended to everybody. I know that many people won’t be able to handle such read.

Were it a kinder world, this edition of Mikhail Bulgakov’s beautiful, strange, tender, scarifying, and incandescent novel The Master and Margarita would be commemorating its seventy-fifth rather than fiftieth anniversary…

About the book

The Master and Margarita is a unique book. In fact, I’m surprised it’s called “a book”, just like many other texts between covers. This creation is unlike anything else I’ve ever seen in literature. As this edition beautifully says:

Nothing in the whole of literature compares with The Master and Margarita. One spring afternoon, the Devil, trailing fire and chaos in his wake, weaves himself out of the shadows and into Moscow. Mikhail Bulgakov’s fantastical, funny, and devastating satire of Soviet life combines two distinct yet interwoven parts, one set in contemporary Moscow, the other in ancient Jerusalem, each brimming with historical, imaginary, frightful, and wonderful characters. Written during the darkest days of Stalin’s reign, and finally published in 1966 and 1967, The Master and Margarita became a literary phenomenon, signaling artistic and spiritual freedom for Russians everywhere.

I’ve never read this book in English, but I’ve read it in Russian many times. I know some parts by heart. I compared those parts to the English translation and I can say that the translation is absolutely amazing! Even the melody and the rhythm of the phrases are the same. Here’s an extract for you to enjoy the sound.

In a white cloak with blood-red lining, with the shuffling gait of a cavalryman, early in the morning of the fourteenth day of the spring month of Nisan, there came out to the covered colonnade between the two wings of the palace of Herod the Great the procurator of Judea, Pontius Pilate.

About this edition

The edition is a work of art.

The cover

The front cover and the back cover are stunning!

There are quotes in Russian on the inner sides of the cover.

Deckle edge

A deckle edge is a type of edge that looks “feathered”. In the past, printing machines couldn’t cut the edges neatly, so all edges of old books looked this way. Nowadays this effect is achieved on purpose, by putting the book through a special machine after the edges were already nicely cut.

Extra information

There is a lot of information about the times the book was written in, and about its author. All terms and names are explained in the notes at the end of the book.

This is an absolutely stunning edition, the one that this book really deserves.

]]> /2018/12/07/the-master-and-margarita/feed/ 15 644 /2018/12/03/the-rosie-project/ /2018/12/03/the-rosie-project/#comments Mon, 03 Dec 2018 16:00:28 +0000 /?p=624 Genre: humor. Stars from Goodreads: 4. Stars from me: 4. (Perfect match! )

The Rosie Project is a great book with lots of humour. It’s a story about a socially challenged scientist called Don who’s setting on a quest to find a perfect wife for himself. Don perceives the world in his own very special way, so his methods of looking for a wife are also very peculiar. During his search he meets Rosie who’s an absolute opposite of what he’s looking for, but Rosie is interested in Don for her own reasons. They team up and set off on a series of different adventures from little ones, like organising a crazy cocktail party, to huge, intercontinental ones.

If you are familiar with The Big Bang Theory TV show, Don will definitely remind you of Sheldon, the only difference is that Don is smoking hot.

What I liked about the book

The style of the narration

Don is the narrator of the story. You get to see the whole world through his eyes. His way of perceiving and interpreting things is unexpected and often heartwarming. Even the most banal things become curious and funny.

The book is very funny

In fact it’s so funny I constantly startled people with my sudden laughter. It was almost inconvenient but I couldn’t help myself.

Adventures

Don and Rosie constantly come up with ideas, one crazier than another. I was (almost) never bored.

What I didn’t enjoy so much

Too much drama at some point

The relationship crisis is inevitable and expectable but I think it is still slightly overstretched in the book. I would prefer there to be less drama.

The resolution of the mystery

I found the answer to the main mystery a bit disappointing.

One silly phrase

When Don is about to take some sleeping pills, Rosie gets surprised. Don explains to us that she’s surprised because “She thought I would have some objection to chemicals”.

No real scientist would EVER say such a phrase. The word “chemical” as something negative or opposed to “natural” is used by people who are far away from science. Any scientist would tell you that EVERYTHING in life (including nature) is chemicals. That gaffe yanked me from the story for a moment, reminding me that Don is just a product of someone’s imagination.

Final thought

If you are looking for something light, funny but not primitive, you should definitely read The Rosie Project.

I don’t normally read fantasy. Uprooted was my first attempt in decades to read a book of this genre. It didn’t go very well.

About Uprooted

The setting

The action takes place in a country called Polnya. Polnya is often at war with a country called Rosja (a Polish word for “Russia”). The prince from Polnya is called Marek (a Polish name), the prince from Rosja is called Vasily (a Russian name). In fact, at some point I thought that the Wood, being the big evil which “corrupts” and tortures people, is an allegory for communism.

The characters

There’s a powerful wizard called Dragon who takes a girl from the village every ten years and keeps her in his tower for the period of ten years. Whatever he does to them, the girls don’t want to stay in the village after he lets them go. They move to cities to start new lives.

The main character is Agnieszka who seems to be very simple and talentless until, to Agnieszka’s own surprise, we discover unexpected things about her and start following her adventures.

Good things about the book

The protagonist

As cliché as Agnieszka might be (an ordinary girl who turns out to be not that ordinary), I like her personality. She can be funny, and I like how brave and independent she is. I also like how she grows throughout the story.

The story

I didn’t find the story very beautiful or special, but I’m grateful that it developed and had a logical end.

Visuals

I was completely mesmerised by the images! Gusts of sparkly dust flying up in the air when people make love, soap bubbles carrying voice messages inside, bloodthirsty trees, monstrous cows… How do authors ever come up with such ideas?! Do they practice this skill? This is amazing!

Had the book consisted only of these images, I would have probably loved it. Unfortunately, there were other things too, so…

Let me rant!

Problem solving methods

I got so engrossed by the story when the first disaster had happened! The situation was dire, inescapable! How would the author ever find the way out for her character in a crisis like this? It’s simply impossible! I was so curious, so naive…

Doh!

Fine, I thought. It’s fantasy after all, some magic is bound to happen. As the story progressed, though, I started skipping chunks of the text when problems happened, because I knew how the actions would unfold. My Twitter keeps the memories of my frustration.

The spells

Is it really necessary to devote so much attention to which exactly non-existent words a character uses to solve a problem? Is a reader supposed to care what the character will choose between “abracadabrium” and “bubblegumium”? I honestly don’t know. I didn’t care at all. The words sound silly and the outcome is obvious, anyway.

The character of Dragon

Dragon is always grumpy for the sake of being grumpy. He’s a caricature on grumpiness that makes Shrek or Grinch look deep and sophisticated.

Lethargic description of dramatic situations

I’m not sure if Novik did it on purpose (and why if so), or just failed to convey the tension and dynamism of many dramatic moments. The scenes that are supposed to shock and startle sound monotonous and almost serene. Judge for yourself. (It is a whole paragraph so it can be considered a spoiler although nothing important to the plot is revealed there.)

Somewhere behind me, one of the men sighed deeply — a relieved noise, as though he were setting down a heavy weight. It was loud in the Wood’s silence. I looked around. His scarf had sagged down from his face: it was the friendly young soldier with the broken nose who’d led my horse to water. He reached out with a knife drawn, sharp and bright silver, and he caught the head of the man riding in front of him and cut his throat in a one deep red gash from side to side.

The other soldier died without a sound.

Is it just me or it sounds as captivating as a list of inventory?

Drama cliché

Brave women saving orphaned children and drama queen thoughts after having sex. One word: no.

Final thoughts

I am … confused.

If all fantasy is like that, I don’t want to read it. I outgrew fairytales a long time ago (just for the record, the book is not appropriate for kids because of violence and sex scenes). Theoretically, this is not a bad fantasy book. It got several awards. There are many praising reviews on Goodreads (while I relate more to this negative one). Many bloggers whose opinions I trust also liked this book. There even will be a movie adaptation, produced by Ellen DeGeneres!

Thus, I’m inclined to think that I’m just not compatible with fantasy. Some people from Twitter offered to help me choose a fantasy book that I might enjoy more. That’s why I will give this genre another chance, but not before the spell from this one wears off.

Have I just read a young adult story and liked it?!  Not only was it a young adult book, it had fairytales and love stories in it! And yet I still enjoyed it! This book made me think I should probably let go of my genre purism and venture to other genres too.

General information about the book

The genre

Bone Gap is described as magical realism but I wouldn’t say that. Unless you also call The Nutcracker magical realism. In this case Bone Gap would qualify too. I’d say this book is a contemporary story about the way we see people, about beauty, and about emotional abuse and getting free from it. All these ideas are presented via a dynamic young adult story with elements of a scary fairytale.

A spoiler-free description

A teenager called Finn lives in a small town which has all the habits and peculiarities of a small town. Everybody knows everybody. Everybody gossips. The quote in the beginning of the book nails it:

The nice part about living in a small town is that when you don’t know what you are doing, someone else does.

People think Finn is weird but in a small town everybody is still a family, even though it means some members of this family occasionally bully others.

The town is called Bone Gap and this place is also strange. People, animals and things mysteriously appear and disappear in the town. Thus, nobody finds it strange when Roza disappears too. But there’s a spooky, complicated story behind her disappearance. The book tells you about her disappearance, what caused it and if anybody is going to do anything about it.

Why I liked the book

The ideas

I see the main villain in the book as a metaphor for all toxic people who objectify others and feel entitled to their lives. The treasure of this book is that it gives a form to such evil and demonstrates it in action.

I also liked how the book focuses on people’s perception of each other.

Animals!

There are so many cute animals in the book! Unlike in many other stories, these animals are not there to be simply culled for the sake of the plot. They are there to be admired and adored.

Normal romance

There are love stories in the book, but they are not overly romanticised. Nobody speaks in a silly language or faints at unexpected moments. Everything is very realistic, but sweet.

Dialogues

They are dynamic and sharp. Here’s an example:

“What have you got against Chicago?”
“Too big.”
“Since when?”
“Too many people.”
“What have you got against people?” <…>
“Too many opinions.”

Writing

The book is written with some humour. Had I read this book when I was a teenager I would have probably laughed even more. Here are some examples:

Finn froze up like a monument to cowards everywhere.

The Rude boys walked as if they were permanently saddle sore.

It’s a very fast read

My edition looks quite big but the font is large too. Although I didn’t hurry, I managed to read this book in one day.

What I disliked about the book

Misplaced linguistics

Roza is a Polish student who has spent a year in the US. She’s clever, witty, independent and strong, and yet her language skills are so primitive, she talks as if she had learned about the existence of English language only yesterday. She cannot form even basic sentences! I found it quite disrespectful to Roza herself. It also makes her rather mute when she’s interacting with main characters which wastes a lot of potential for the scenes. I understand that it might have been planned as a touch to show her origins but it is definitely overplayed. Her use of random Polish words also feels redundant and out of place. There are a few untranslated Polish phrases. They are not decisive for the plot but I think it would be good not to leave readers guessing what the phrases mean. I managed to understand them but I don’t think people who never studied Slavic languages would.

Camouflaged clichés

There’s a trick to cover up a cliché when you are writing a book. You point at the cliché yourself. For example: you spook people by corn stalks and then you reference Stephen King. You create a bearded character who looks like an old magician and mention Gandalf. I personally always notice the trick and it inhibits my immersion into the book.

Final thoughts

I can definitely recommend this book. It’s a fast-paced and entertaining story but there’s also a deeper meaning to it.