Whatever You Love - Louise Doughty

Whatever You Love

Louise Doughty

Faber & Faber

There are moments in our life that change us forever. For Laura, the moment arrives with a knock on the door. Expecting to see the small form of her nine year old daughter, she is surprised by the two larger shadows against the paneled glass. Opening the door, she is momentarily puzzled by the presence of the two uniformed officers on her front step. Her brain does not compute what they tell her. And its not till later, after she follows them to the hospital, and even much later, when her daughter's funeral is over, that the force of the words finally hit her. Betty, her golden-haired child is killed by a speeding car as she and a her best friend cross the road. And Laura vows to take away from her daughter's killer, the one thing he cherishes most in the world.

Whatever You Love strikes a hard punch at the core of every parent's heart. Without resorting to sentimentality, Doughty straddles our basic human needs: love, shelter and security. She illustrates that love makes us vulnerable; it propels us to fight, and fuels our innate need to protect Whatever You Love.

4 stars.

Netherland - Joseph O'Neill

Netherland

Joseph O'Neill

4th Estate

Hans van den Broek, is a Dutch-born equities analyst who lives in New York with his English born wife Rachel, and their son. The events of 9/11 forces them to move uptown to the run down Chelsea hotel and here, their marriage slowly begins to unravel.

There are many levels to this book, all of them seamlessly melting and shifting into one another. On one level its the story of Hans, his pain of being separated from his family, and his inner yearning to again a sense of belonging in this fast shifting world. On the other hand its a story of cricket, its followers and the passion it invokes in the heart of its participants.

Hans partially finds solace from his loneliness in the group of largely West Indian cricket players. He befriends Chuck Ramkissoon- a West Indian entrepreneur with dubious business dealing and grand ambitions to open New York's first world class cricket stadium. Unfortunately for Chuck his cricket plans don’t pan out, and he vanishes under murky and ultimately grisly circumstances.

I will confess I have a lot of trouble with this book. The narrative often veering on a tangent, left me bereft and confused. On the other hand I can appreciate original work and to O'Neill's great credit, Netherland is a truly original. His narrative deftly holds a mirror to our modern life. And closely observed, it reveals at times the dark, the insecure and increasingly disfranchised aspects of our society. 4 stars

Town Like Alice - Neville Shute

Town Like Alice

Neville Shute

Post WWII, Jean Paget a secretary working in a London shoe factory, is informed by the solicitor Noel Strachan that she has inherited a large amount of money from an uncle she barely knew. Placed as her trustee, Strachan - also the narrator of the story - acts as Jean's adviser. He reluctantly agrees to give Jean some of her inheritance to build a well in a small Malayan village in return for the kindness the villagers had shown her during the Japanese invasion of the island.

As a POW during the Japanese invasion, Jean along with a group of women and children are marched from one village to another by their captors. Not allowed to settle in any spot and not used to the hard physical labour, many die. Speaking fluent Malay, Jean takes leadership of the group and after many months on the road, finally convinces a village elder to let the remaining group to live amongst them for the duration of the war. It is during this time that she meets and strikes a friendship with a young Australian soldier, Sergeant Joe Harman. Risking his life, Harman steals food and medicine for the women but finally caught, is crucified and left to die by the Japanese.

When Jean returns to Malay, she by chance hears news that Harman having survived, has returned to Australia and decides to travel to the outback town of Willstown to meet him. In a bizarre twist of events, Harman also hears that Jean lives in London and at the same time she is travelling to meet him, is on his way to find her. They eventually meet and romance blossoms. Deciding to stay in Willstown, Jean sets out to transform the town to a town more like Alice Springs. Again drawing on the same ingenuity and resourcefulness that helped her survive Malay, Jean achieves her goals, breathing life into the stale outback town.

Despite the strong story line, I feel hard pressed to shower praise on this book. For one thing, I cannot fathom why Shute decides to narrate the story through the solicitor rather than Jean, hence keeping the main (and the strongest) character at an arms length to the reader. I also find the Laconic Harman and his cliche euphemisms, cartoonish. With such story line, there is ample opportunity to draw on the readers emotions. Yet oddly, Shute's execution is dry, the narrative soldiering through the text with the stiff upper-lip formality of post-war English middle-classes. 2.5 stars

Almost French - Sarah Turnbull

Almost French
Sarah Turnbull
Bantam

There is plenty we can learn from the French - appreciation of all things beautiful and how to avoid looking like a slob (someone who has not made an effort in dressing well is an assault to the French sensability). There is also a lot the French can learn from the rest of us -how to be inclusive and less hung up on all things French.

Light and fluffy like a soufle, Almost French documents the entertaining recollections of a young Sydney girl who falls in love with a 'very French Frenchman' and moves to Paris. Yes, a trite cliche, and one can be forgiven in assuming the book will descend into lots of lovely moments motoring through the city of Love, and reminiscences of sharing 'Eclair de chocolat' and flaky croissants. Thankfully Turnball avoids this well-trodden path and instead chooses to recount how she navigates the highs and lows of Parisian life as an outsider.

Initially puzzled by the cool rebuffing from her partner's friends and appalled by the strict adherence to everything from the order of food at mealtimes, to the manner of one's dress, Turnball struggles to fit into her new life. But like many expats around the world, she eventually grows to understand and appreciate the differences. Living within the peripherals of both cultures, the notion of home becomes confused as one culture fuses into the other to create its own identity.

Acutely insightful and filled with laugh-out loud observations, Almost French is about what it means to be a foreigner etching a life in the adopted homeland. 4 stars.

Hand Me Down World - Lloyd Jones

Hand Me Down World

Lloyd Jones

Text Publishing

I devoured this book, finishing it in three days. Hand Me Down World has been receiving plenty of publicity and much praise which is definitely justified.

Hand Me Down World is the story of Ines (not her real name), an illegal African refugee who is washed onto the shores of Italy on a seemingly impossible mission to find her son. With no language and little money we hear her story through the people whose lives momentarily intertwine with hers. Each story is presented as a new piece of a puzzle, fitting into the next to give a clearer picture of this unassuming yet determined woman.

We eventually get to hear Ines's story through her own perspective. And from her we are presented with new takes on the previous stories. Just like the question over her real name, it's never clear which recollection is the truth and which is altered to favour the opinion of the storyteller. One thing that is apparent however, is Ines's single minded determination to be reunited with her son.

Hand Me Down World is a touching and beautiful tribute to the extent of a mother's love for her child. Whilst highlighting the plight of the illegal immigrants and the sometimes ugly nature of man, Hand Me Down World is also a homage to random acts of human kindness, as time and again we encounter men and women who willing to go out of their way to help their fellow man. 4.5 stars.

The Novel In The Viola - Natasha Soloman

The Novel In The Viola

Natasha Soloman

When you have loved a book like Mr Blumenthal's List, had invested time praising its merits and had pressed it with assurance onto reluctant buyers hands, you can't then turn around and ignore the next book by that same author. Still, I wish I had since The Novel In The Viola met none of my expectations.

Elise, a Viennese girl from a family of famous Jewish artists, leaves her home and immigrates to England. The year is 1937 and Austria is under the spell of Hitler's antisemitism. Moving to a small sea-side town, she is hired as a maid at Tynford estate. Culture clashes, home sickness and worries for her family add to her unhappy introduction to her new life. The situation changes for the better when Kit, the son of her employer, arrives home from university and a budding romance ensues.

Elise's character starts out interestingly but any spark she possesses at the beginning seems to fizzle out by the second half of the book. Her friendship and love affair with Kit is too convenient and in my opinion, rather unrealistic. The supporting characters are colourful, with the exception of Mr Tynford, who reminded me of a limp handshake.

Despite her assured sense of storytelling, Solomon has produced a tempered tale. The Novel In The Viola is pleasant enough and has a few interesting moments but as a whole, failed to reach the heights of the author's debut novel. 2.5 Stars