Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas bookworms. :)

Hope there is a giant pile of delicious books under your tree this year!

P.S. Sorry for the hiatus here, I have moved from London to Sydney and things have been a bit hectic. I promise posts will pick up in the new year. Happy holidays!

Evie~
xx

Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote

This highly acclaimed book is nothing short of a delightful, truly American little quip of a read. Weighing in at just 100 pages, it manages to illustrate a host of characters, places and situations between so few pieces of paper it actually almost reads the way a movie feels: like a brief but very detailed... tangible glimpse into another person's world.

The novella's narrator is an incomplete character; his real name is ambiguous (I thought) and he seems to serve mainly as a voyeur of Holly Golightly's life. However there is more to him, for example in the opening line of the book: "I am always drawn back to places I have lived; the houses and their neighbourhoods." – we immediately start to build a sense of him, and that sense is pieced together throughout the novella in bits, though never quite making a whole. It is through this hazy character's eyes that the reader sees Miss Golightly, though in a slightly rose-tinted hue.

Holly Golightly is a young woman living alone in New York - hosting parties at her tiny (largely unfurnished) apartment, dancing in exclusive clubs with sailors, horse-riding in Central Park, and yes, dreaming of breakfast at Tiffany's. She is remarkable because, as this story was written in 1958, she lives in a time when women are not usually so outlandish. She is bold, smart, independent, beautiful and talented, although, like all the best characters, she is largely flawed and lost. She is on the run from a guilty past and, it seems, is quite trapped by the life and identity she has built herself in New York. She is secretive, even secretly secretive. She doesn't want to let on who she really is, and as such wears the many masks of the social butterfly (but wears them gloriously).

Truman Capote is arguably one of the best American writers of the latter 20th century, and in this - probably his most famous - novella, he demonstrates why with style, sensitivity and a precision of character betraying his astuteness. He maintains a great balance between aesthetics (which are a delight) and intellectual intrigue. The edition I picked up (above) also contained three of his short stories: House of Flowers, Diamond Guitar and A Christmas Memory, all of which adhere to what I've said about his writing and left an excellent impression on me – and a deep burning desire to read In Cold Blood, the praises of which I have heard sung endlessly by many friends! One for the bookshop amnesia list, methinks.

World's End by T. Coraghessan Boyle

This expansive novel is a great demonstration of Boyle's literary prowess. Despite the fact that at times I found it hard to chew, World's End taught me lots of things, broadened my perspectives and took me to places in my thoughtscape I hadn't previously ventured. Spanning three historical eras in New York's Hudson Valley area, it tells a moving tale of family lost & found, consequences, history's relevance & the human need to act on beliefs.

Walter Van Brunt is a despondent kid looking for trouble; or at least his real father, a selfish traitor by all accounts and solely responsible for his mother's death. Walter's father, Truman, starts appearing to him in visions one fateful night which culminates in a motorbike accident. The accident sets Walter on a journey in search of truth – truth about his family, the past and himself. Along the way he meets Mardi Van Wart, a sexy, rebellious drifter, & her father Depeyster, a hugely rich businessman and conservative who knew Truman in the days before the catalytic 1949 riots.

In the late 1600s, the Van Brunts and the Van Warts were already involved in one another's lives – and in similar circumstances. Boyle evokes colonial New York with a master's skill. The farms, rolling hills, Indian tribes and sugarloaf hats of the Dutch settlers jump from the page into your mind's eye automatically; thus is the power of Boyle's command of language. He employs a playful exaggeration and cleverly constructed symbolism to demonstrate the extraordinary that can be found in the seemingly insignificant things.

While this novel is huge in that it spans generations, it doesn't spread its spindly fingers further than the grip of the few families involved in the story, and as such feels much more personal. I suppose you could even say it was a family saga of sorts, speckled with the odd curse, ghost or convenient coincidence. Labels aside, World's End a compelling, tragic story unlike any I've read before which makes you question whether history is destined to repeat itself, or whether perhaps we have more choice in the matter. Is like father really like son?

Number9Dream by David Mitchell

Although Number9dream differs from Ghostwritten and Cloud Atlas in that it is the telling of one story throughout - that being the story of Eiji Miyake, a 19-year-old Japanese boy who comes to Tokyo from his small island home in search of his long-lost father - it is just as all-encompassing, if not more so, than Mitchell's preceding and following novels. Number9dream is structurally defined by eight chapters, nine if you include the final, blank one. Each chapter flits between two narratives, Eiji's story and in each chapter something else - whether it be Eiji's fantasy-world, dreams, children's stories, a wartime journal, or letters. Basically it is as full and rich as any of Mitchell's others, taking you up, down, through and welding you to his character - Eiji - in the most captivating and interesting way.

I of course loved every word of it, am at a loss to describe how it made me feel, and the impressions of Tokyo I felt from it. All the hysterical, fantastical, violent and euphoric experiences Eiji has subsequent to his few weeks in Tokyo, real or imagined, broaden the understanding of him and fling you into a deep sympathy with him. His story is many-layered, full of coincidence, adventure, romance, daring, misfortune and friendship... and in the end, even though he claims that he feels "sad that I found what I searched for, but no longer want what I found”, it is his journey that is the most important thing - and it's stories like that which I like best... probably because they are cohesive with my own life theories.

I adore Mitchell's writing, and I've read everything he's published. He's one of my favourite authors & if you haven't read anything by him before, this one would be a great place to start. Go get lost in his surprising metaphors, riveting plots & turn of phrase that makes you gasp in delight. You can thank me later!

Holiday Reading

Holiday reading is the best. Especially if you're fortunate enough to find a hammock to do it in!

What's your favourite holiday read?

The Naked Drinking Club by Rhona Cameron

Ok, I'll be honest. I picked up this book for three superficial reasons:

1) It is set in Australia
2) The title (and sub-title, which reads: "drunk, disorderly & down under")
3) Russell Brand's endorsement on the front.

Lame, I know. But there is a bit more to this book than meets the eye, although I'm going to say right now that it didn't meet the potential I thought it had. There were some really insightful moments and some truly tragic scenes, and some scarily precise depictions of destructive and hedonistic behaviour. At times, though, Cameron's writing brought the whole thing down, and it occasionally read like a piece of chick-lit fluff.

Kerry arrives in Sydney plastered and with her tongue down a stranger's throat. She has drunk sex with him for a few days before wandering off to Glebe to find a job and start on her 'mission' - the reason she left Edinburgh. When she starts working for a company called ART, selling mass-produced paintings door-to-door (flogging them as originals), the path of her destiny seems to lead her into increasingly more bizarre circumstances. Day-long binges of alcohol and drugs, sex with strangers, drunk phone calls to her grandfather in Scotland, and the intriguing banter with her boss, Anaya, keep Kerry on her toes and in a confusing whirlwind - and, seemingly, away from her ultimate goal.

Just underneath the surface of all this partying and promiscuity is real heart: Kerry is a broken girl, and she's looking for something to heal her. The characters are touching and true, the setting of Sydney sizzles with its unique vivacity, and the emotional desperation and tenseness builds well throughout the story. There was just a little - I don't know. Something held this book back from being the moving, imprint-leaving novel it had all the ingredients to be. Having said that, it is Cameron's debut - and by day she is a comedienne... so perhaps that's why it felt so light at times. I enjoyed it - there were some really hilarious moments and it maintained a level of frankness that would make the bluntest comedians blush.

Maybe it didn't come to be what I thought it could be. But as it is, The Naked Drinking Club interesting, fun, tragic and outrageous with subtle, dark tones. Weightier than your average beach read.

Notes from a Big Country by Bill Bryson

Hilarious. I can't say much else about this book. It speaks for itself just to say that I convinced Uri (my fiancé, who makes up for my overzealous approach to reading with his laxness) to read one chapter and he is now hooked and reading (and re-reading!) the whole thing. Really it is a collection of columns that Bryson wrote for the Mail on Sunday when he picked up and moved his family and his whole life back to his home country after living in England for 25 years or so. It's a strange dynamic, having an American who is almost an Englishman reporting about America's quirks and attributes, trying to re-adjust to life in the USA. But Bryson is just too funny - turning a simple trip to the post office into an hilarious anecdote and sometimes letting his taste for the British outrageous humour ride a long wave, becoming somewhat rant-like, but never losing its edge and wit. The short, sharp injections of humour make it all the more enjoyable, as there is never much downtime. It's just about laugh after laugh.

Bryson's thoughts and rantings are also well-researched. Although these columns were published in the late 90s and therefore some of his statistics and facts might be a little stale now, reading them in his context keeps them relevant. And funny! Some of the information he uncovers and brings to light is shocking, some ridiculous, some unbelievable. But it gets you thinking about things you otherwise probably wouldn't have noticed or looked in to. And while there might be some light jeering, there is no America-bashing at all - Bryson makes it clear he is very fond of his homeland. If you look, you can find things to jeer at anywhere! Actually, that might just be one of Bill Bryson's life theories.

Warning: do not read in public places, unless you don't mind being that weirdo on the bus giggling hysterically into a book.