I'm not keen on thrillers in general. But Mary Stewart's writing style is such that I find myself gripped and involved in her novels, without being terrified. So from time to time I re-read the ones in my collection. I've just finished 'Thunder on the Right'.
Jennifer and Stephen are the main characters in this book. They uncover mystery and intrigue in a small village in the Pyrenees, with the action mainly focussing around a convent. Jennifer comes to see her cousin Gillian but is met with shocking news which makes her very suspicious.
This book has high drama, chases, danger, and a low-key romantic thread to break up the tension. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and wish it could have been longer. It was very well-written and exciting with a most satisfactory (though admittedly somewhat clichéd) ending.
I read this first in my teens and found it a little scary; re-reading it now I am perhaps more confident than I was then and would recommend it to anyone.
(You can also read my longer review of 'Thunder on the Right', written over fourteen years later when I re-read the book again).
I do like Terry Pratchett's books, and have read all the Discworld series to date. 'Going Postal' is the most recent one; I had read some reviews that were less than flattering about it, but decided to order it in hardback anyway, since Amazon UK always offers such good prices.
As with all the recent Pratchett books, I read this aloud to the boys. I'm glad we all still enjoy reading aloud - I thought it would die away long before they were 18 and 16! It worked even better than usual since for once this book has chapters - written in a spoof Victorian style telling us at the start of each what was going to happen, or at least one interpretation of it!
The book is about Moist von Lipwig, an original character in that he is a convicted criminal due to be hanged in the first chapter. A last-minute reprieve forces him to take on the management of the Ankh-Morpork post office, which has been failing miserably.
Moist is a smooth but somehow likeable con-man. He has been very cleverly created so that we get inside his skin. We see the tensions of his manipulative character jostling against his extreme professionalism, and his underlying rather caring nature.
The plot proceeds more straightforwardly than most Discworld books, aided by the chapters. To my mind this is one of the best of the recent books. I liked it a great deal more than the ones featuring armies or the Watch, but then I tend to like character-driven novels more than those which are full of action.
It was also funny - very funny in places - without the bawdiness and risqué jokes that feature in some of the other recent books.
Recommended.
I picked up this book - 'Cross Stitch' by Diana Gabaldon - second-hand after reading a recommendation somewhere. When I finally started reading it, over two weeks ago now, I was almost instantly hooked. At first I tried reading just a couple of chapters each night before going to sleep, but by the end I could barely put it down. And it's a LONG book!
It isn't anything to do with embroidery, however. Perhaps the title caused some confusion, as it has now been re-published as 'Outlander'.
This novel begins just outside Inverness in 1946. Clare and Frank were married shortly before the war, then parted for the duration; Clare worked as a nurse. Now they are back together again and taking a short holiday. Frank is an intellectual type who is fascinated by Scottish history and researching his family tree. Clare (who narrates the entire book) loves him and enjoys his company but finds him amusingly tedious when he starts lecturing on his favourite subject.
It's clear from the first sentence that this book has a mystical side to it - a 'disappearance'. Indeed, the blurb on the back tells us that Clare is going to find herself in the middle of a skirmish in 1743, so the first few chapters are really setting the scene. I found myself gripped almost from the start: observing Clare in her natural surroundings, learning a little of the history of the place. I wondered what the significance was of her interest in herbalism, and whether something dramatic would happen at an ancient stone circle which she visits.
I didn't know quite what to expect with a novel that evidently combined time travel with history. I was impressed right from the beginning with the crisp writing style. Diana Gabaldon moves the plot forward at exactly the right pace to hold my interest, with minimal descriptions. I had a pretty good picture of Clare by the time she does her disappearing: she is a confident, intelligent, and also passionate young woman. These qualities become more evident as she is forced to adapt to unexpected new circumstances, entirely at the mercy of the Scottish rebels into whose hands she falls.
Underlying the whole book is a deep and thrilling romance which manages to be moving without being trite, passionate, sometimes erotic without being cringeworthy. The historical surroundings are so well researched that I found Jacobite Scotland coming alive to me in a way I could never have imagined. I have never before become engrossed in a novel where most of the characters were male, and much of the action involves fighting. But this book was gripping! For a week I managed to read just a chapter or two at bedtime... thereafter I was completely hooked and finished the remaining 500 or more pages in just three days.
I wondered at one stage why the author bothered to start Clare off in the 20th century - why not simply set the novel in 1743? But gradually I realised that it's a very clever plot device: we see Jacobite Scotland from the point of view of someone we can relate to, whose values and ideals are similar to ours, but quite different from those in the society where she finds herself. When she begins to understand why some very unpleasant things happen, it enabled me to catch a glimpse, myself, of why such different values were held 200 years previously.
There's a fair amount of violence in the novel, and this is something which would normally put me off completely. But it managed to stay just the right side of goriness, so that I was shocked but not quite sickened. There is considerable tension but no real heart-stopping suspense. Even when Clare herself is in serious danger, the fact that she relates the book reassured me that she at least would not be killed.
In addition there's a fine thread of humour that relieves the tension every so often. I was amused at scenes with small children asking innocent questions. There is also some light-hearted banter between adults who have learned to trust each other. I felt as if my mind and emotions were taken on a roller-coaster ride: at one moment horrified at the privations and violence of a society I have never known, yet a few pages later seeing the people as not so different, deep down, from those I know in the 21st century.
I would recommend this to almost everyone, whatever their tastes in literature. My only slight reservation would be that ultra-sensitive folk might find it upsetting. I don't think I would have liked it myself as a teenager. I doubt if a child would show much interest in such a lengthy novel but if they did, I wouldn't worry too much since much of the disturbing material is couched cleverly in language that implies rather than describing exactly what happens.
All in all, I thought this a superb book and I'm looking forward to getting hold of the sequel, 'Dragonfly in Amber'.
Charlotte - who narrates the book 'Earthly Possessions' - is planning to leave her husband. As the book opens, she goes to the bank to get some money and becomes involved in a hold-up. The armed robber, whose name is Jake, takes Charlotte as a hostage and escapes.
It's a dramatic start to a novel which then proceeds to a fairly typical Anne Tyler story. In other words it's very much a character-based plot in which reality is slightly suspended... and yet because she writes so well, it all seems believable at the time.
Jake manages to steal a car and he and Charlotte set off for Florida. Charlotte gradually gets to know Jake as they travel, and as readers we get to know Charlotte, since alternate chapters take us back to her past. She reflects on her life from her childhood up to her marriage, and then gives some glimpses into her married life, eventually revealing the reasons why she was going to leave her husband at the start of the book.
As is usual with this author, most of the characters are somewhat eccentric and also slightly caricatured. But slowly, cleverly, their motivations are revealed and appear to be entirely reasonable. I found myself developing sympathy for them all, even including Jake. It's easy to judge a bank-robber and hostage-taker as being a terrible criminal, but Jake is obviously quite human, and - in his own way - a moral person who does what he thinks is right. What justification could there possibly be for robbing a bank? This does actually become clear towards the end of the novel.
But the book is really about Charlotte. Her life has been fairly traumatic, although she's quite a cheerful person who copes remarkably well with her enforced captivity by Jake. As I read the flashbacks to her childhood, I found myself relating to some of her childish wonderings, and sympathising with others, even though her circumstances were far removed from mine. She always felt the odd one out for many reasons, but then perhaps we all do to some extent.
Later chapters tell us about how she became involved with her husband, and why she married him. We see both sides of the marriage, albeit described from Charlotte's point of view. But even through her eyes, her husband's opinion becomes clear too. Perhaps they should never have got married, and yet there was little else for Charlotte. I never did decide if she was better off with him, but her narrative raised some interesting questions about the lot of many women in similar situations.
I find Anne Tyler at her best in this kind of novel, basically just two people in a car talking and remembering. The plot - such as it is - is a vehicle (so to speak!) for character-development. The stories and flashbacks are interspersed with stops for food and petrol, coping with car problems, wondering if the police are going to catch up with them. Just the right amount to hold our interest and remind us of the unlikely scenario in which the book is set. But Charlotte - after the initial shock - is surprisingly unworried about what will happen to her. After a brief concern with her children, she throws herself into dealing with the present and future while pondering her past.
Anne Tyler's novels are full of cleverly-written observations about people. She's not at all politically correct; instead she describes things as they are, usually through the words and thoughts of her characters. It's not exactly a relaxing book: she doesn't write with the 'feel-good' approach of family saga novels, and despite the lack of plot it's quite fast-paced in style. I often find I enjoy Tyler's novels more the second time around when I can take them more slowly and appreciate the writing, so I shall almost certainly read this again in a few years.
Recommended to anyone who likes this kind of book.
