Toby’s Room – Pat Barker (2012)

Pat Barker – birthday 8th May

Toby’s Room is a companion novel to Life Class, I had thought it was a sequel – but it’s not really, the novel would stand alone. However I am glad I read the novels in this order. In Life Class we met Elinor Brooke, Paul Tarrant and Kit Neville and these characters are central to Toby’s Room as well. When I was reading Life Class I found Elinor a cold and elusive character and after reading Toby’s Room I find she remains just a little out of reach –I am sure this is deliberate.
Toby’s Room opens two years before the events in Life Class – Elinor and her brother Toby have had a special close relationship since they were small, they even look alike – especially once Elinor has cut off her hair. Elinor is an art student at the Slade, studying under surgeon/artist Henry Tonks – a difficult and exacting tutor – who later in the war spends his time drawing portraits of horribly disfigured men. Henry Tonks is a character taken from life – his drawings of wounded men can still be seen today. Toby is a medical student. In the suffocating atmosphere of their family home, their parents leading separate lives, their traditionally married sister rather smug and critical, Elinor and Toby’s relationship is complex, and as the lines between them blur their relationship changes forever.

“Somehow or other they had to get back to the ways things were. What had happened was not something that could be talked about, or explained, or analysed, or in any other way resolved. It could only be forgotten.”

Five years later, and the war has taken its toll on Elinor and her Slade friends. Paul back from France with a permanent limp and in constant pain is more fortunate than some. Toby – who had spent his time serving as a doctor on the front line, patching up the injured – even leaving the relative safety of his post to bring back injured men from the mud of the trenches, constantly putting himself in harm’s way – is “missing presumed dead.” Kit Neville had been part of Toby’s unit – but is now lying in a facial injuries hospital – the hospital where his old tutor Tonks draws the faces of disfigured men.
With Toby missing presumed dead, Elinor has something missing in herself, her grief is raw and terrible. Coldly refusing to have anything to do with the war, the war has finally come to her, with Toby’s death and Paul and Kit’s injuries. Still strongly committed to her art she has produced many landscape paintings of the countryside around their childhood home – in every one there is a shadow, a presence of the brother that is gone. Back in the family home – which is in the process of being broken up – is Toby’s Room, which remains a powerful reminder for Elinor.

“Lying between the sheets, she felt different; her body had turned into bread dough, dough that’s been kneaded and pounded till it’s grey, lumpen, no yeast in it, no lightness, no prospect of rising. Her arms lay stiff by her sides. When, finally, she drifted off to sleep, she dreamt she was on her knees in a corner of the room, trying to vomit without attracting the attention of the person who was asleep on the bed. Her eyes wide open in the darkness, she tried to cast off the dream, but it stayed with her till morning.”

In fact Toby is a constant haunting presence throughout the novel, although he is mainly seen through the memories of Elinor’s artist friends – especially the morphine induced hallucinations of Kit Neville.
When Paul visits Elinor and seeing the paintings she has finished, he is concerned by her apparent obsession to find out exactly what happened to Toby. Having had his belongings returned to the house, Elinor discovers part of an unfinished letter in the lining of Toby’s jacket – which puzzles her. When she writes to Kit Neville – who had served with her brother – she receives no reply. When Kit is returned to England with horrible facial injuries – Elinor insists on going to see him, despite Tonks having warned Paul to leave him alone. At the facial injuries hospital Elinor finds work to do alongside her former tutor – work that bring her into contact with Kit. There is a mystery surrounding Toby’s death, Elinor is convinced of that, and she enlists Paul’s help in finding out what that is.

Toby’s Room is a blistering account of the ravages of war on people, their relationships and – in a departure from other WW1 novels – their art. I love Pat Barker’s writing – and although Life Class and Toby’s Room are not quite as powerful as the utterly brilliant Regeneration trilogy – there are still many beautifully written passages infused with Barkers brilliant understatement, which leave the reader with a host of remarkable images to ponder on.

The Folding Star – DNF – and giveaway result

I don’t often find myself setting a book aside – and am always very disappointed – and to be honest a little cross with myself when I do. Very late on Saturday – so late I only read about 10 pages – I picked up The Folding Star by Alan Hollinghurst. On Sunday I was out walking with my rambling group – and as usual I took my book to read on the coach. I tried valiantly to tell myself I was enjoying it – I wasn’t. Hollinghurst writes beautifully but there is a lot of – hmm how can I put it? Well the sexual content seems a little gratuitous at times – although it does serve to set the characters in their selfish self-absorbed context. The central character of this novel seems thoroughly unlikeable, sometimes that doesn’t matter but I found after less than 60 pages – that I really didn’t care about him and his goings on.

So on Sunday evening after getting home I tried a few more pages, and no! It just wasn’t working so I laid it aside. I have put it on the pile to bookcross – despite it being a signed copy I bought when I went to a talk by Alan Hollinghurst shortly after reading The Strangers child – a book I loved. The Stranger’s Child was the second of Hollinghurst’s books I had read, I read The Line of Beauty – which I enjoyed – although most of those characters I seem to remember were rather horrid too. I suspect that The Folding Star has put me off Hollinghurst for life – which is a shame because he really is a beautiful writer.

Giveaway result
Using random.com I have drawn A.M.B to receive the Virago Paperback of Jamaica Inn. Congratulations A.M.B I do hope you enjoy it.

The Classic Spin speaks

The classic spin has spoken – and the number is 6. That means I will be reading one of the five Persephone books on my latest spin list. Phew! The spin has been kind to me again – I was beginning to get nervous – one or two title on the list I might have struggled with.

I will be reading (probably in early June)
Farewell Leicester Square – by Betty Miller – first published in 1941 – having first been turned down for publication in 1935 when Miller wrote it.

“In the novel Alec Berman escapes from his restrictive Jewish family in Brighton, and although he has a successful career as a film-maker (perhaps modelled on that of Alexander Korda) and marries the very English Catherine, he always feels a ‘Dago: Jew: Outsider.’ ‘A thought-provoking insight into anti-semitism between the wars,’ wrote the Guardian, ‘not the violent prejudice of Mosley’s fascists, but the discreet discrimination of the bourgeoisie.’

(from the Persephone books website)

Betty Miller was the author of seven novels and a biography of Robert Browning. She was part of a London literary circle which included Stevie Smith, Olivia Manning and Marghanita Laski.
I am looking forward to this book – I have heard really good things about it.

Jamaica Inn – Daphne Du Maurier (1936)

Daphne Du Maurier birthday 13th May

Seeing it was my birthday on Monday – the same day as dear Daphne – I am giving away a copy of Jamica Inn – note it is not the edition pictured here – see below.

What is it about tales of smugglers, wreckers and pirates that is so deliciously compelling? Even now, in a landlocked city in the 21st century, these kinds of tales are able to raise the hairs on the back of my neck. I can remember being utterly thrilled by Kipling’s poem The Smugglers Song when I first came across it in primary school – it somehow had the same exciting quality about it that those old tales of smugglers always have. Reading those lines now after all these years -it seems pretty tame – the rhythm of the lines echoing the horses trotting through the dark I still find strangely atmospheric.

If you wake at midnight, and hear a horse’s feet,
Don’t go drawing back the blind, or looking in the street,
Them that ask no questions isn’t told a lie.
Watch the wall my darling while the Gentlemen go by.

Five and twenty ponies,
Trotting through the dark -
Brandy for the Parson, ‘Baccy for the Clerk.
Laces for a lady; letters for a spy,
Watch the wall my darling while the Gentlemen go by!
(Rudyard Kipling)

I had read Jamaica Inn before, a very long time ago – I suspect I was in my teens – all those desolate moors and dangerous men – would have delighted me – actually they still do.

Mary Yellan is twenty three when her mother dies, having promised to do so, Mary sets out to find her Aunt Patience, who she hasn’t seen since she was a child. Mary remembers her aunt as a laughing beribboned young woman, her hair curled prettily. However Patience is no longer in Bodmin, but living with her husband on a remote road alongside the moors, in a place called Jamaica Inn. Jamaica Inn is a place whispered about in fear, a place where no coaches dare stop, where no travellers seek shelter. Jamaica Inn is not a place for the feint hearted – her Uncle Joss is a giant of a man, cruel, dangerous frequently drunk and desperate. Patience is now a shadow of her former self, nervous and cowed her hair grey and lank; she scuttles to do her husband’s bidding, twisting her hands in fear. Mary very nearly flees from the inn on her very first night there, staying only to care for her aunt, her plan to somehow get her aunt away from the man she married. Joss Merlyn warns her right from the start that she is to ignore whatever she might see and hear at Jamaica Inn, she will serve in the bar when required to do so, and keep to her room on the nights the wagons come to Jamaica Inn.

Mary soon learns to loathe her uncle, but she is a feisty and tough young woman, pushing aside her natural fear of the man, she squares up to him. Mary is brave and moral, sticking fiercely to her principles, wrestling valiantly with a group of her uncle’s associates in the dead of Christmas Eve night. Unwillingly drawn into the dark business that operates out of Jamaica Inn – Mary plans to rescue herself and her aunt from Joss Merlyn before turning him over to the law. It is quickly apparent however that this will be no easy task.
When horse thief Jem Merlyn – Joss’s younger brother, turns up at Jamaica Inn, Mary is both repelled and attracted to him. Jem is dangerous, and reminds her strongly of his older, nastier brother, she is certain she should not trust him.

There is a fantastically gothic, brooding atmosphere to this novel. Du Maurier has in no way romanticised the desperate men that haunted the coast of Cornwall during these brutal days – they are presented as cruel and ruthless criminals. Yet Jamaica Inn is a romantic novel in many ways – Mary Yellan is a fabulous heroine, sparky and determined. I loved every word of this novel, and fairly gulped it down.

A Giveaway

So then I have a brand new paperback copy of Jamaica Inn to give away, I received the pictured hardback copy above for my birthday, and so the new paperback copy I had TBR is now up for grabs. If you would like it – just drop me a comment below telling me why you would like it. The giveaway is open to everyone, and a winner will be selected by random, if the winner is outside of Europe the book will be sent by surface mail – which can take a while, due to the ridiculous raise of postage costs here in the UK.

I will make the draw on Wednesday the 22nd of May – : )

 

Classic Club Spin #2

The Classics Club are at it again.

It’s easy. At your blog, by next Monday, May 20, list your choice of any twenty books you’ve left to read from your Classics Club list – in a separate post.

This is your Spin List. You have to read one of these twenty books in May & June. (Details follow.) So, try to challenge yourself. For example, you could list five Classics Club books you are dreading/hesitant to read, five you can’t WAIT to read, five you are neutral about, and five free choice (favorite author, rereads, ancients — whatever you choose.)

Next Monday, we’ll post a number from 1 through 20. The challenge is to read whatever book falls under that number on your Spin List, by July 1. We’ll have a check in post for July, to see who made it the whole way and finished the spin book.

(taken from the classic club blog)

I really wasn’t sure whether I would join in with the classic spin again – but I am going for it. I’m already half way through my month of birthday reading – and have a small stack of books I really must/want to read during June – but I think I may just squeeze in a spin book next month. Last time the spin was very kind to me – I read Taking Chances by Molly Keane – and loved it.

I have divided the 20 books on my classic spin #2 list into four categories; Virago Modern Classics, Persephone books, re-reads and those I am a little apprehensive of reading.

Virago Modern Classics
1.Lolly Willows – Sylvia Townsend Warner
2. Company Parade – Storm Jameson
3. The Three Miss Kings – Ada Cambridge
4. The Land of Green Ginger – Winifred Holtby
5. Sunlight on a broken Column – Attia Hossein

Persephone books
6 Farewell Leicester Square – Betty Miller
7 House-bound – Winifred Peck
8 Dimanche and other stories – Irene Nemirovsky
9 Paitence – John Coates
10 The Exiles Return – Elizabeth De Waal

re-reads
11 Wessex Tales – Thomas Hardy
12 Washington Square – Henry James
13 The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald
14 Agnes Grey – Anne Bronte
15 Barchester Towers – Anthony Trollope

Books I am apprehensive of reading
16 Summer will show – Sylvia Townsend Warner
17 Rites of Passage – William Golding
18 The Conservationist – Nadine Gordimer
19 The House of seven Gables – Nathaniel Hawthorne
20 The Lying Days Nadine Gordimer

Fingers crossed for a good draw – I will be waiting anxiously to hear my literary fate.

My Cousin Rachel – Daphne Du Maurier (1951)

My Cousin Rachel certainly shows Daphne Du Maurier to have been a consummate storyteller – excellent writing plot ambiguity and page turning tension make for a superb read.

“There is no going back in life, no return, no second chance. I cannot call back the spoken word or the accomplished deed.”

Our narrator is Philip Ashley – a young man of twenty four who has been brought up by his cousin Ambrose Ashley, with whom he had a very close relationship. Philip is happy on the estate, knowing himself to be Ambrose’s heir, a confirmed old bachelor – who although only in his forties, must spend the winter abroad each year for his health. When Ambrose sets out for Italy shortly after the opening of the novel, Philip little thinks that it’ll be the last time he sees him. Shortly after, Philip begins to receive letters from Ambrose that mention a new acquaintance – a distant cousin of theirs, a widowed contessa who has been living in Italy for some years. It is soon apparent that Ambrose, who previously had little time for women, has developed a fond friendship with Rachel, the two discussing gardening together – and Ambrose writing of it to Philip. Finally a letter arrives which informs Philip that Ambrose and Rachel have now married. Philip’ world is turned upside down by the news, and as servants and estate works celebrate the news, Philip finds it hard not to show his dismay. Instead of coming back to England immediately, Ambrose stays in Italy with Rachel to help her with business affairs. Ambrose’s letters begin to arrive with much less frequency – and when they do arrive – they are confused and rambling – and seem to hint at a great unhappiness between Ambrose and his wife. Having talked the matter over with his godfather Philip decides to leave for Italy. When Philip arrives in Italy however it is to find his cousin Ambrose has died, is buried and his widow left her villa for Florence. Shocked and dreadfully grieved Philip returns to Cornwall, following a meeting with Rachel’s man of business the rather sinister seeming Rainaldi, deeply suspicious of Rachel and her motives.

“There are some women, Philip, good women, very possibly, who through no fault of their own impel disaster. Whatever they touch turns to tragedy.”

Ambrose had not signed a new will, therefore all of Ambrose’s property passes to Philip, although his godfather has been appointed Philip’s guardian until he is twenty-five – seven months away. When Ambrose’s widow Rachel arrives in Cornwall, Philip is determined to hate her – having built up various pictures of her in his mind. Philip had not reckoned on the real Rachel Ashley however.
From here, the novel takes a delicious turn, making it very hard to put down. The story is told from Philip’s point of view, but he is an unreliable narrator. A young man brought up by a comfortable old bachelor, unused to women, he is at first jealous and angry, possibly paranoid, and later becomes easily infatuated with his cousin Rachel. The questions at the heart of the novel are– did Rachel ensnare Ambrose for his money, and then turn her attention to Phillip after his death? Did she in fact cause Ambrose’s death, and has she been trying the same thing with Philip? Is Rachel a cold calculating woman, a murderess? or a maligned woman, the victim of a naïve young man’s paranoia and infatuation? Du Maurier is clever in her story telling – the ambivalence of the characters motivations is enough to keep the reader turning the page at a rate of knots.

My Cousin Rachel is an excellently suspenseful novel, set against the atmospheric backdrop of the Cornish countryside. As I mentioned in a previous post I haven’t actually read much Daphne Du Maurier before and this book has certainly made me want to read more of her work. In fact I have decided to go straight on to my re-reading of Jamaica Inn, I received a beautiful VMC designer edition of it for my birthday – so it seems fitting to do so.

Anita Brookner reading month: July 2013

“They sat islanded in their foreignness, irrelevant now that the holiday season had ended, anachronistic, outstaying their welcome, no longer necessary to anyone’s plans. Priorities had shifted; the little town was settling down for its long uninterrupted hibernation. No one came here in the winter. The weather was too bleak, the snow too distant, the amenities too sparse to tempt visitors. And they felt that the backs of the residents had been turned on them with a sigh of relief, reminding them of their transitory nature, their fundamental unreality. And when Monica at last succeeded in ordering coffee, they still sat, glumly, for another ten minutes, before the busy waitress remembered their order.
‘Homesick,’ said Edith finally. ‘Yes.’ But she thought of her little house as if it had existed in another life, another dimension. She thought of it as something to which she might never return. The seasons had changed since she last saw it; she was no longer the person who could sit up in bed in the early morning and let the sun warm her shoulders and the light make her impatient for the day to begin. That sun, that light had faded, and she had faded with them. Now she was as grey as the season itself. She bent her head over her coffee, trying to believe that it was the steam rising from the cup that was making her eyes prick. This cannot go on, she thought.” (Anita Brookner – Hotel du Lac)

Now I like Anita Brookner – although I accept that she is an acquired taste. In July she will be 85 – and I thought it might be nice to honour such a prolific and well thought of British author with an Anita Brookner reading month. Brookner published her first novel A Start in Life in 1981 when she was 53 – since then publishing a novel almost every year.

Anita Brookner’s writing is beautifully poignant – maybe to be avoided if you are feeling down, but I do find her portrayal of small disappointed middle class lives to be exquisitely done. The themes of her novels are largely those of loss, disappointment and fitting into society, her characters are often lonely or isolated in some way. There is no one who captures the mood of rainy London streets at dusk, or the sadness of a Sunday afternoon like Brookner.

So July it will be – a chance to read her for the first time, or like me to read novels which you already have TBR. I have gone for a month rather than a week – as it gives people chance to dip in and out – maybe reading an Anita Brookner novel at the beginning of the month and another at the end of the month. I have to admit that Brookner is probably not an author whose novels I would want to read too closely together. However I do have five Brookner TBR – and this will be a good chance to get at least some of those read.

Anita Brookner has published twenty four novels – her last full length novel was published in 2009, since then there has been a novella published exclusively as an ebook. Of these I have read eleven. So there are still plenty that I could choose from, as I intend to read ones I have not read yet rather than revisit ones I’ve already read.

This is the list of Brookner works according to Wikipedia.
• A Start in Life (1981, US title The Debut)
• Providence (1982)
• Look at Me (1983)
• Hotel du Lac (1984), which won the Booker Prize
• Family and Friends (1985)
• A Misalliance (1986)
• A Friend from England (1987)
• Latecomers (1988)
• Lewis Percy (1989)
• Brief Lives (1990)
• A Closed Eye (1991)
• Fraud (1992)
• A Family Romance (1993, US title Dolly)
• A Private View (1994)
• Incidents in the Rue Laugier (1995)
• Altered States (1996)
• Visitors (1997)
• Falling Slowly (1998)
• Undue Influence (1999)
• The Bay of Angels (2001)
• The Next Big Thing (2002, US title Making Things Better), longlisted for the Booker Prize
• The Rules of Engagement (2003)
• Leaving Home (2005)
• Strangers (2009)
• At The Hairdressers (2011), novella, available as an ebook only

So I do hope that some of you will join me in reading some Anita Brookner in July. I would be grateful if you could all help spread the word, I know that there are many Brookner fans out there – and it would be nice to reach some of them.
Now then for the techy bit – lots of people hosting reading weeks/months/challenges have a snazzy little button to go with it. I haven’t got one – last time I tried (and sort of succeeded) in making one – I nearly had a breakdown and needed loads of techy help – so I’m not going there again. If there is anyone out there who likes doing that kind of thing and wants to make one for me – I would be hugely grateful. Otherwise I am sure we can manage without a snazzy little button.
If you don’t have any Brookner novels and want to join in, UK readers may I point you towards your local charity shops, almost all the Brookner novels I have now and have read in the past have come from charity shops – I see them all the time.