The Book Tower

Happy New Year!

1. Howards End is on the Landing by Susan Hill 4/5
2. Amulet by Roberto Bolano 2/5
3. Dead Men’s Boots by Mike Carey (Felix Castor: The Halfway Mark) 2/5
4. Legend of a Suicide by David Vann 1/5
5. Must You Go? by Antonia Fraser (Must You Go?) 4/5
6. The Smoking Diaries by Simon Gray 5/5
7. The Ghost by Robert Harris 1/5
8. The Unnamed by Joshua Ferris 5/5 (The Unnamed)
9. The Year of the Jouncer by Simon Gray 4/5
10. Monkey Planet by Pierre Boulle (Monkey Planet) 4/5
11. Solar by Ian McEwan 3/5
12. The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury (Martian Rock) 5/5
13. Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury 4/5
14. The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury 4/5
15. The Cranes That Build the Cranes by Jeremy Dyson (A Double Dyson) 5/5
16. The Last Cigarette by Simon Gray 2/5
17. What Happens Now by Jeremy Dyson (A Double Dyson) 5/5
18. Syd Barrett: A Very Irregular Head by Rob Chapman (An Irregular Head) 5/5
19. The City and the City by China Miéville (City Limits) 5/5
20. The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim by Jonathan Coe (The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim) 5/5
21. The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell 4/5
22. Stories ed. Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio 3/5 (Stories)
23. Our Tragic Universe by Scarlett Thomas 2/5
24. Tony Hancock: The Definitive Biography by John Fisher 5/5
25. Spike and Co by Graham McCann 5/5
26. Bounder! The Biography of Terry-Thomas by Graham McCann 5/5
27. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson 2/5
28. C by Tom McCarthy 4/5
29. Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon 5/5
30. The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene 2/5
31. The Girl With Glass Feet by Ali Shaw 1/5
32. The Life and Death of Peter Sellers by Roger Lewis 4/5
33. The Small Hand by Susan Hill (The Small Hand) 4/5
34. Room by Emma Donoghue 1/5
35. Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon (kind of…) ?/?
36. Dark Matter by Michelle Paver (Endless Night) 5/5
37. Life by Keith Richards (Life as we Know it) 4/5
38. Under the Dome by Stephen King (Under the Dome 1) 3/5
39. The Hopeless Life of Charlie Summers by Paul Torday 4/5
40. The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson 3/5

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2010 was an odd reading year. Too many strange choices, too many overlong novels and a few disappointments. However, there were a few highlights, some good and some middling. One or two of my reads were frankly quite awful. I hope the recommendations below are helpful. For what to read and for what to avoid.

Five Star Reviews: Must Reads

Early in 2010 I thoroughly enjoyed The Unnamed by Joshua Ferris, a novel which places him as a major writing talent. I’m very excited about what Mr Ferris has in store for us in the future. The Unnamed is an extraordinary read. I was also highly impressed by The City and the City by China Miéville, a book which has a peculiar knack of easing the reader into the strange world it creates. These two novels are certainly the most original I’ve read for a long time.

Jonathan Coe continued to impress with The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim, a novel which I thought received some unfairly harsh reviews. Syd Barrett: A Very Irregular Head by Rob Chapman is my music biography choice of the year, which manages to flesh out an oft told, but very sad, life story.

Inherent Vice is Thomas Pynchon’s most accessible novel to date, an amusing tale set during the dying days of 60s California. It put me back in touch with Pynchon, although my attempts to finally finish Gravity’s Rainbow were frustrating.

Ghost stories were aplenty in 2010 although Dark Matter by Michelle Paver was by far the best. A well written, gripping and effectively frightening novel.

Four Star Reviews: Should Reads

Both Howard’s End is on the Landing by Susan Hill and Must You Go? by Antonia Fraser are non fiction choices that I’ll recommend. Fraser’s account of her life with Harold Pinter is very revealing about the man, although any of his admirers looking for critical appraisals of his art should stick with the MIchael Billington biography.

David Mitchell delivered his latest novel The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, although I found it to fall short of the masterpiece I was expecting. But it’s worth sticking this marathon read out. Similarly with C by Tom McCarthy, which was certainly a clever novel but one perhaps a trifle too pleased with itself.

Paul Torday’s latest, The Hopeless Life of Charlie Summers, is my favourite of his to date. Torday has a charming and unique style and this is a very moving tale that’s worth reading.

The Small Hand by Susan Hill and Life by Keith Richards are respectively the second best ghost story and music biography of the year.

The Small Disappointments: You May Want to Avoid

Both Solar by Ian McEwan and Stories ed. Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio failed to deliver. In particular the Gaiman anthology was a wasted opportunity, which featured very few short stories of worth. The best was Sarrantonio’s own offering.

The Big Disappointments: Please Avoid

Legend of a Suicide by David Vann was recommended by several blogging friends but it just didn’t work for me. The Ghost by Robert Harris and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson were tedious doses of popular fiction. Our Tragic Universe by Scarlett Thomas was a dull read and The Girl With Glass Feet by Ali Shaw was pitiful. Girl With… books just don’t work for me. Enough said.

However my worst read of 2010 was Room by Emma Donoghue, the most overrated book for a long time. I found it unconvincing and the narration-from-the-point-of-view-of-a-child irritating. Can somebody please explain why this novel is supposed to be so good?

But enough grumpiness. Here’s to continued enjoyable reading in 2011. Good health!

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It’s Harry Potter time again. David Yates directs his third film in a row for the series, with the final part to come in 2011.

The first part of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows peaks very early in its two hours plus running time. This is where Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) holds a get together for the Death Eaters. Seated around the table are Severus Snape, Bellatrix Lestrange, the Malfoy family and other assorted black clad baddies. You can almost smell their fear of the boss. I’ve been to some pretty grim team meetings in my time but nothing quite like this. It translates very clearly and very succinctly the terror of Lord Voldemort, even from his supporters, that runs through all of the novels.

Tellingly, this very effective scene does not feature Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint or Emily Watson. And I was unable to hide my general disappointment with the film as, more than any other of the Harry Potters, we are constantly teased by tiny cameos from great actors. Fiennes, impressive as Voldemort, is hardly in it at all. Bill Nighy is magnificent as the Minister of Magic Rufus Scrimgeour but appears only briefly. Equally good is Rhys Ifans as Xenophilius Lovegood, but he’s wasted too with a very brief amount of screen time. Elsewhere other actors make far too fleeting appearances; John Hurt, Timothy Spall, Brendan Gleeson, David Thewlis etc. The true list is sadly much longer than this. The viewer is used to this in the series, however the film lacks any weighty presence at all from a distinguished British thesp; no Michael Gambon or Maggie Smith to hand out words of wisdom. And whilst Alan Rickman does feature a little we miss his trademark sneering at Harry. In his absence I caught myself sneering at him once or twice instead.

But it might be best to reserve proper judgement on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows for when the second and final part is released. In setting the scene for the big finale, the seventh Harry Potter movie runs the risk of being uneventful and empty. But that’s what the book is like, fans may argue. True, but some fans may be expecting more. Some may even feel shortchanged by this half of a film. But we’ll reserve judgement for now.

So what happens in this film – and, more to the point, if you haven’t read any of the books do you stand a hope in hell in actually following any of this? Well probably not. In the first of the films not to feature Hogwarts, our heroes appear strangely misplaced throughout The Deathly Hallows, awkwardly stolen from the usual sequence of term events that they’re used to. On the run from the Death Eaters, they spend much of their time hanging around in a forest literally twiddling their thumbs. Don’t fret Ron, I’m sure I heard Harry say, this will all be over by next July when the second part comes out and things really get going. Harry, Ron and Hermionie have too much time on their hands, pondering their fate in the open air. It’s beautifully filmed, and there is a wonderful sequence with Harry and Hermione dancing, but the younger viewers will find this instalment dull. And my younger viewer in tow informed me so.

Although it’s unfair to say that the film is a damp squib, and there are some excellent set pieces that you would come to expect from a Harry Potter film. The scene where some unwelcome nasties gatecrash a wedding is very good, as is the sequence where Harry and his chums break into the Ministry of Magic disguised as adults which is one of the best episodes of the series. And the cartoon sequence, that explains just what the Deathly Hallows are all about, is a visual treat. It’s just that I expect more from the acting talent on hand, and the likes of Fiennes, Nighy and Evans were truly wasted. I also feel, and I’m really, really, sorry about this, that the whole franchise has dragged on for too long. And Lord V. really ought to do something about that nose.

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