The Fire Gospel by Michel Faber

I love Michel Faber.  The Crimson Petal and the White, his rambling Victorian-style novel about the rise of a prostitute, is one of my favourite books ever, and I enjoyed his short story collection The Apple.  I'm also a big fan of the Canongate Myths series, so when I saw that Faber had written an interpretation of the Prometheus story, I was excited!

The story opens with Theo Griepenkerl, an academic, visiting a looted museum in Iraq, looking for artefacts he can ship back to Canada.  Quite accidentally, he stumbles across the archaeological find of the century, nine papyrus scrolls that together are a fifth Gospel, an account of the life and death of Jesus written by a first hand witness.  Overcome with visions of grandeur, Theo wastes no time publishing a translation of the gospel and waits for the praise and money to come rolling in.  But he has under-estimated the impact the controversial gospel will have on the world, from Christians uncomfortable with the portrayal of Christ, to Arabs and atheists.

I think The Fire Gospel suffered from my high expectations of it.  I was expecting the combination of Faber plus Canongate Myths to produce something special, but ultimately I thought The Fire Gospel was just an OK sort of book.  I did really enjoy the satirical tone of the writing (especially the fake Amazon reviews, which I could just imaging being written in real life) and the reactions of different groups of people to the gospel were perceptively observed.  The main character Theo is quite unlikeable in his drive for money and recognition, but this is all part of the satire and Faber pulls it off well.

The main problem I had with The Fire Gospel was that it felt like so many opportunities in the story were missed.  I wanted more examination of reactions to the gospel, more discussion of the effect it had on the major religions and more of the controversy, and I know Faber would have been capable of writing that story.  Instead, I got accounts of Theo's new ability to score with the ladies, and even when something major happens near the end, it's not fully explored.

The Fire Gospel is still an interesting an thought-provoking book that I sped through in just two sittings.  It had a lot of potential, but for me it just missed the mark.

Source: Personal copy
First Published: 2008
Score: 3 out of 5

We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo

I've been interested in We Need New Names ever since it first came out, and my interest grew when it was short-listed for the Booker Prize last year.  Told from the point of view of ten year old Darling, it's the story of life in a shanty town called Paradise, in an unnamed African country.  Darling and her friends have a tough life and they dream of escaping to a Western country, away from the poverty and hardship.  But when Darling does get the chance to move to America, she realises that the reality of life as an immigrant can never live up to her expectations.

We Need New Names is one of the best books I've read this year.  It's written in an uncompromising, no-nonsense style that suits the narrator and her experiences.  I'm normally a bit sceptical about adult books written from the perspective of children, but in this case Bulawayo has really pulled it off - Darling is blunt and matter of fact when detailing the realities of her life, and this stops the book becoming too sentimental.

Even though We Need New Names contains lots of hardship, it's not a simple story by any means, and I appreciated the subtleties Bulawayo gets into the novel.  Darling may be forced to steal food that makes her ill to survive in Paradise, and she may have a female friend who is pregnant following a rape, but we get to see the happier side of her life in the shanty too.  Darling has real friends and gets to be a child with them, playing all sorts of games, and this is something that vanishes when she moves to America, causing all of her memories of home to be bitter-sweet.

Being an immigrant in America is shown to be complicated matter as well.  Darling feels the pressure of not fitting in, of being out of step with everyone she knows.  Her relatives are forced to work all hours in physically demanding and sometimes illegal jobs, struggling to make ends meet whilst fielding off demands for money from those back home, who can't believe that America is anything but a land of milk and honey.  Again, I loved that Bulawayo showed the complexity of all of these issues and that life has no simple answers.

We Need New Names is worth reading for the character of Darling alone.  She's vibrant and simply leaps off the page, no matter what situation she is in.  Despite being quite a depressing (yet realistic) read at times, Darling always gives the story life and hope.  I simply loved every page of this book and highly recommend it.

Source: Personal copy
First Published: 2013
Edition Read: Vintage, 2014
Score: 5 out of 5

Read Alongside:

1. In the Shadow of the Banyan by Vaddy Ratner - Seven year old Raami lives through the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia.  Another excellent child narrator in an adult story.
2. Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman - Like We Need New Names, this one examines the immigrant experience.  Harri has arrived in London from Ghana, and finds himself mixed up with gangs after the murder of a local teenager.
3. Tiny Sunbirds Far Away by Christie Watson - Set in Nigeria, Blessing moves to a rural compound with her family in the oil-rich Niger Delta.  Again, another great example of a child narrator.
4. Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - I just love Adichie, and this coming of age story has a lot in common with Darling's coming of age when she arrives in America.

Sam Sunday #52: Finally on Maternity Leave!

So my last week at work has been and gone and I am finally on maternity leave.  It doesn't officially start until June 2nd (as this upcoming week is half term), but the important thing is that I now have seven months before I have to go to work again, which is awesome.  Although I'd been looking forward to my last day for ages, and despite work becoming physically difficult, I still had mixed feelings on the actual day.  Finishing work means that my due date is only round the corner!

With this in mind, I've decided to stop delaying and actually pack my hospital bag/ wash the baby clothes / read my childbirth book etc..  Tom's parents bought round the car seat yesterday, and my sister the Moses basket today, so we are in gearing up mode. I've passed the 37 week mark so could technically go into labour at any time but I can't see it happening soon.  I have a feeling I'm going to go past my due date, though hopefully not by too much.  I have a sweep booked in for nine days after, I'm hoping that won't need to happen!

I've been reading lots lately, but I've not been a very good blogger.  I only posted one review this past week, despite having a backlog of at least three to write, and I've hardly visited any blogs or left any comments. Which is a shame, as I've missed keeping up with the blogging world and all of your blogs.  Hopefully I'll have more time this upcoming week to catch up with all of you.

This past week, I decided to be contrary and read a classic that isn't my classics club spin book, as everyone knows I'm awful reading to a list/deadline.  The classic I picked up was Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell, which I ended up enjoying more than I thought I would.  It's a quiet sort of book and reading it was a peaceful experience, like reading Little Women.    I'm also dipping in and out of On the Map by Simon Garfield as my non-fiction pick, and I've just started my first Murakami, Norweigan Wood.

This week, I've been reading:

 

Review posted:

The Vintage Girl by Hester Browne

The Vintage Girl by Hester Browne

Sometimes you need a bit of brain candy, and I picked up The Vintage Girl in the library as I was in the mood for a light, escapist, happily-ever-after type read.  Evie Nicholson loves antiques and is working for a dealer when she gets the opportunity to value family heirlooms at Kettlesheer Castle in Scotland.  A daydreamer and a romantic, Evie's imagination goes into hyper-drive when she learns that she will be at the castle at the same time as traditional ball hosted by the family (including the handsome heir). Caught up with visions of sweeping down staircases Gone With the Wind style and dressing for dinner, Evie pays little attention to the reality of life for the Nicholson family.  Can she learn to take a step back from her fantasy life?

The Vintage Girl was a lot of fun to read.  Hester Browne is a good writer and the story just flows from chapter to chapter, never feeling too short or too long.  The pacing is perfect and the romance, whilst being rather predictable, builds up slowly and avoids the pitfall of insta-love.  Evie herself is easy to relate to as a main character, particularly for someone like me, who also likes to live with her head in the clouds sometimes!  Equally her love interest, Robert, isn't too perfect, and is shown to have a few flaws of his own.

The main tension in the narrative comes from the fact that Robert is expected to marry someone else, someone rich who can use their money to save Kettlesheer Castle from bankruptcy, and is already in a relationship with this person.  But their relationship never felt believable enough to cause any real problems, and Browne made it too easy on Evie and Robert by making Catriona rather unlikeable, to the extent that it was hard to see why Robert was with her in the first place.   Similarly, this problem was solved too easily later in the novel.  I'm not expecting deep depression or anything like that in a novel like The Vintage Girl, but I would have liked the emotions of the situation explained a bit more.

I would recommend The Vintage Girl if you are after a fun, easy read with a bit of romance thrown in for good measure.  It's not the best chick-lit novel I have ever read, but I certainly enjoyed it.

Source: Library
First Published: 2013
Score: 3.5 out of 5

Sam Sunday #51: On Starting My Last Week of Work

Beautiful hand-made baby blanket from a colleague :)

I've not written a personal update post since Easter, which feels like a long time.  Part of the reason is that my life just isn't very exciting at the moment - I've reached the stage of pregnancy (36.5 weeks) where all I can do is go to work, eat and sleep.  Managing that is difficult enough, so a social life has certainly gone out of the window!

The good news is that next week is my last week at work, and then I have seven months maternity leave.  It feels strange because on one hand, the pregnancy has really dragged, but on the other I can't believe that I am at this point already.  I won't be sad to go on leave, as I'm really in need of it, but it does make the whole having a baby thing seem much more real and close.

I'm feeling pretty uncomfortable all the time at the moment.  It's nothing near as bad as the horrible sickness of the first trimester (which I'm very grateful for), but I am exhausted, achy, unable to put on my shoes in the morning, and getting out of bed has become rather difficult!  Some days I feel relatively fine but on other days (like today) I just feel blah and physically uncomfortable all day long.  The mini heatwave we're having here in the UK isn't really helping either, and I'm definitely finding it hard to muster up the energy to work with thirty children all day long.

The other part of being so near the end is that the actual giving birth part is very close now and it's scary!  I'm trying not to think about it too much but sometimes I can't help it.  I know that it will come and go and everything will end up fine, but I'm not looking forward to actually doing it at all.  I'm due on June 11th, hopefully I won't go too far overdue.

But for this week I'm determined to just be happy that it's my last week at work for a very long time.  No more planning, no more marking, no more endless meetings and no more giving up all of my evenings and weekends to school work!  Hopefully I'll get in a good two weeks worth of resting and relaxing before the baby arrives, and I'm going to try my hardest to enjoy them.

Inkspell by Cornelia Funke

"This book taught me, once and for all, how easily you can escape this world with the help of words!  You can find friends between the pages of a book, wonderful friends!"

The Inkheart books are pure comfort reads for me.  I first read them whilst I was at university and I think I finished up the whole trilogy in a week or so.  I just loved the concept of being able to read yourself in or out of a book, of characters coming to life and changing their stories in front of your eyes. What bookworm hasn't dreamt themselves into the pages of their favourite novel?

Inkspell is the second book in the series (I read and reviewed Inkheart in December), so this review contains spoilers for the first volume.  It's been a year since the events of Inkheart, and Meggie is unable to leave her adventure behind her, remaining utterly obsessed with the Inkworld.  Dustfinger is of course still trying to find his way back into the novel, and he finally seems to have come across a reader capable to reading him and Farid into the Inkworld, Orpheus.  But when Orpheus goes back on his word and Farid is left behind, he seeks out Meggie to try to find another way in.  Despite knowing the dangers of what she is doing, Meggie can't resist reading herself and Farid into the pages of the story.  However, it turns out that the story is a living, breathing thing, that has changed beyond Dustfinger's experiences and the author's intentions.  A dangerous leader, the Adderhead, is rising in the South, and the Inkworld has become a treacherous place for all of the original characters from Inkheart.

It goes without saying that I loved Inkspell; I wouldn't be rereading it if I didn't.  I love that we actually get to go into the Inkworld for the first time in this volume, and that the cast of characters is expanded.  My favourite of the new characters is the Black Prince, the leader of the Motley Folk, a band of travelling performers, and his pet bear.  I love the inventiveness of the Inkworld and also it's straightforwardness - there is a clear line between good and evil.  Normally this is something that would bother me, but it fits really well with the escapism of the novel and the way that the atmosphere captures childhood fantasy classics.

Unfortunately, Inkspell isn't quite as good as Inkheart.  It's longer and more meandering, and probably could have been cut down a bit.  I know that Funke needed to get her characters into the Inkworld for the trilogy to continue, but I find it hard to believe that Meggie would have ever have read herself in, given her experiences in the last novel and Mo's opinions of the world.

Still, Inkspell is perfect comfort reading that allows you to escape into a magical fantasy world.  It's old fashioned in tone and manages to take me back to my childhood without patronising me.  I remember being disappointed with Inkdeath, the final book in the trilogy, when I read it the first time, so I can't wait to get on to rereading it so I can see if my opinion has changed.

Source: Personal copy
First Published: 2005
Edition Read: Chicken House, 2006
Score: 4 out of 5

Bout of Books Update #2 - Tuesday & Wednesday

Tuesday:

Bit of a slower reading day than Monday, even though I was home earlier from work.  I was feeling really tired and icky, and sometimes curling up in bed with youtube videos and Netflix is the only option!  I am pretty useless in the evenings at the moment, I can't wait for my maternity leave to start so that I can rest a bit more in the day and maybe actually socialise with my husband in the evenings.  I did read for one hour and continued with We Need New Names, which was on the fast track to becoming a 5 star read.

Day: 2/7

Books Started: 1 (We Need New Names)

Books Completed: 0

Time Spent Reading: 1 hour

Pages Read: 140 (this book is unputdownable)

Wednesday:

I actually slept through most of the night on Tuesday, so was feeling much perkier on Wednesday.  Was able to leave work at a very decent hour and headed to my parents house for dinner.  My car has it's MOT this Saturday (and really needs to pass it), so my Dad kindly spent some time checking it over for me and giving it the Dad seal of approval.  Tom also washed it, so now it looks like a car that is loved, rather than a car that has been neglected!  We spent a lovely evening out, had a great dinner and I definitely felt more refreshed afterwards.

I managed to meet my goal of reading for one hour, which meant that I finished We Need New Names (and it definitely was a 5 star read, can't wait to write my review of this one).  I was going to be good and pick my next read from my readathon stack, but Michel Faber's The Fire Gospel was just calling to me.  It's about the discovery of a controversial fifth gospel and the way the world reacts.  It's pretty short, so I should finish it within 2 days.

Day: 3/7

Books Started: 2

Books Completed: 1 - We Need New Names

Time Spent Reading: 1 hour

Pages Read: 135 

I'm loving the readathon so far, and I'm excited that there are still 4 days to go!  How are you getting on?