book review - Solar - Ian McEwan

"Beard was not wholly sceptical about climate change. It was one in a list of issues, of looming sorrows, that comprised the background to the news, and he read about it, vaguely deplored it and expected governments to meet and take action."

This book, with its tactile black cover, arrives as the first major book of the year in terms of the hype and expectation that one of our great writers is serving up his latest offering.

Bearing in mind McEwan's last book was the slim On Chesil Beach, which I felt was 80% about one moment and then had an ending that faded and ran too fast, it was going to be interesting to see what Solar was all about. At 283 pages you expected a start, middle and ending and they were delivered. Split into three parts the years go by and the attitude towards global warming becomes more cynical and opportunistic.

At the centre of what is often a farce is the Nobel prize winning physicist Michael Beard who is introduced as his fifth marriage starts to fall apart. Driven by his passions for sex, booze and crisps Beard lurches through the collapse of his marriage, the death of a colleague and the framing of his wife's former lover with all the lights showing green. In between he does his climate change credentials the world of good by going out to be threatened by polar bears in the artic.

But sensing an opportunity to make some money out of solar power Beard steals his dead colleagues ideas and launches himself into a career as a climate change believer. It is not that he doesn't believe but he is selfishly looking for a role for himself to make something out of it. Mixed in with his preaching about climate change is a need for self satisfaction that is physically shown in his determination to chase skirt and eat and drink himself to death despite doctor's warnings.

Most of the coverage and interviews I've seen with McEwan have focused on the way he uses humour to almost spring a surprise on the reader about the importance of climate change. If there is a personal takeaway from this book it is the way that despite being clearly a clever man Beard spans the nine years of the story getting fatter, more unhealthy and into deeper trouble in his personal relationships. If you want to change, whether that be yourself or the planet, you need to start now. The slide of Beard towards death is a powerful reminder for us all.

Well done World Book Day

If one of the aims of Worlds Book Day was to get children enthused about reading then it certianly seems to work.

After picking up the Dinosaur Cove book by Rex Stone I have since gone out and bought the first ten in the series and am working my way through them in my night time reading sessions. We would probably never have come across the books without the prompt of World Book Day.

Well done World Book Day.

Thoughts at the half way point of Solar

There is a humour here that is quite infectious and McEwan must have had fun writing this.

An aging scientist who's marriage and career have seen better days finds himself involved with an organisation that is connected with global warming. As he struggles to sort out his own life the prospect of Michael Beard ever actually doing anything for the planet seems a remote one.

But things have a funny habit of falling into place for Beard and as the second half of the books looms large so does the prospect that the main character can save himself and perhaps do some good for the planet as well.

Review will come on completion soon...

bookmark of the week

This bookmark came with some books that were kindly sent to me by my friend from twitter Stuart Allen. he is also a fellow lit blogger with the excellent blog Winston's Dad.

This is a leather bookmark showing some of the main features of York Minster. I haven't been there for years but hope to go back one day and this bookmark is a good reminder of what treats lie in store.

bookshops worth a visit - Blackwells, London

In days gone by you could zig zag down from Tottenham Court Road to Leicester Square going from bookshop to bookshop. With Borders having closed the zig zagging is now slightly more spaced out with Foyles then Blackwells the places to start from.

Blackwells still has a feel of being a bookshop targeting academics but in terms of choice it is hard to beat it and hard to come out without having spent a fair bit of money.

Slow going

Not been a great week reading wise with just the one book consumed - Child 44 - and hopes of anything else being added to the completed pile this week fading fast.

Conscious though that there were moments last year when the pace dropped and it caused me to get slightly down about it. But I'm refusing to feel like that this time so despite not getting through more there are a couple of books on the go and next week should be better.

Thoughts at the half way point of Child 44

As a fan of Russian history anything set against the backdrop of a turbulent twentieth century Russia has the potential to be very good.

Potential of course is one thing but it will only blossom into the completed thing if the historical accuracy is there and if the facts are lightly interweaved with decent plot and narrative.

Half way in you have to say that Rob Smith manages pretty well. At first he darts around with both the history and location and characters are being introduced at a rate that makes it difficult to get bedded down with ther story. But once into the main character Leo things start to unfold.

In a society where even the executioners are being watched and everyone is guilty without evidence what hope is there for a man discovering the state has lied to him all of his life?

More soon...

bookmark of the week

Not sure if I have blogged this before but it is a bookmark with all of the Swiss Canton flags on it. It's borderline naff but what pulls it back is the way that it is reasonably made out of metal.

bookshops worth a visit - The Bookshop on the Heath, Blackheath

This bookshop specialises in old books and has been a source of some real treasures as well as good old Penguin paperback at three for £5 or thereabouts. It also sells posters and is a wonderful place to browse and spend some time in Blackheath, South East London.

book review - Cop Killer - Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo

"There seemed to be no one within the police administration capable of grasping the simple truth that violence breeds violence and that, in fact, it was the police who had struck the first blow."

The reason why the crime books penned by husband and wife team Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo are so enjoyable is because they are not just about crime and detection.

This is a book that takes you back into the 1960s and 1970s Sweden a country that suffers from suicides, gun crime and has a police force that lacks popularity. Part of the problem with the police is of course the involvement of guns and the response from the criminals who have become increasingly violent.

The book starts with just such an example with a petty bank robber who has killed a woman during a robbery because he had taken a gun along to the crime. But quickly the action shifts towards the countryside as Beck is sent to solve the dissapearance and then confirmed murder of a local woman.

In the one horse town Beck finds a different Sweden where the police are part of the community and crime has not taken over society. But even in that location there is a chance for Beck readers to become acquainted with the killer from the first book in the series and the murderer from the third. These figures are there perhaps to confuse and distract as much as to show a dedication by Sjowall and Wahloo to dig back into the rich world they have created.

If there is a dominant theme in the book, which has already emerged in the The Locked Room, it is the amount of time Beck has to spend fighting his superiors and dealing with politics. Crime solving by numbers means that innocent people are going to be sent to prison and Beck and his colleagues are resorting to using their basic police skills to outwit their superiors as well as protect the public.

This book, the ninth in a ten book series, is a return to the form of the first book in the series and by the end you are gladly immersed with the characters that you have come to care about, sympathise with and want the best for.

Onwards to the end which will be a mixed experience as reading these crime books has been great.

The crime pile starts to polarise

As I started to pile up the books for a little spell of crime reading what became clear is not only the number based in Scandinavia but also the popularity of the genre of historical thrillers.

The Scandinavian box was ticked by Swedes Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo with the Martin Beck books and Norwegian Jo Nesbo with Redbreast.

Historical thrillers are going to be represented by Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith set in 1950s Russia and 1930s Berlin is recreated in If the Dead Rise Not by Philip Kerr. Interesting to see how murders are solved in the times of Stalin and Hitler.

Thoughts at the half way point of Cop Killer

one of the tricks that you must be allowed to play after you have reached the ninth book in a series is to reintroduce some of the characters from the earlier books.

So the killer from the first Martin Beck book reappears here and is in the frame for another sex murder. But neither Beck or his friend Kollberg can believe that the man is innocent and against a backdrop of political pressure the two men delay putting an innocent man behind bars.

Sjowall and Wahloo are able to set the action away from Stockholm in the countryside where a murder makes big news providing a contrast with which to make points about the decline of life in 1970s Sweden.

The police are despised and the criminals are getting more trigger happy making it increasingly difficult for those that disagree with the questions of the police being armed.

A review follows soon...

book review - The Summer Book - Tove Jansson

"The wind blew and blew. The wind was always blowing on this island, from one direction or another. A sanctuary for someone with work to do, a wild garden for someone growing up, but otherwise just days on top of days, and passing time."

Once you get used to the idea that this is a series of little stories about what happens in the relationship between a grandmother and her granddaughter on a small island over the course of the summer you get the rhythm of this book.

It reminds you of your own experience of childhood when the garden became a world in itself and you spent day after day out there in the sunshine exploring ant kingdoms and setting up little worlds of your own.

The same is here with Sophia and her grandmother living an intense relationship both in terms of the daily exposure to each other as well as the limitations of space due to the small island they live on.

They start to create their own worlds on the island with the trees, flowers and sea all having a significance for them.

"No matter where you go, the only thing you see is bones. Sometimes they are as thing as needles, extremely fine and delicate, and have to be handled with great care. Sometimes they are large, heavy thighbones, or a cage of ribs buried in the sand like the timbers of a shipwreck. Bones come in a thousand shapes and everyone of them has its own structure.
Sophia and Grandmother carried everything they found to the magic forest."

Uniting the collection of stories about what happens during the summer, with new neighbours, a storm and the father's determination to grow plants on the island, there are a few unifying themes.

Firstly, the relationship between Grandmother and Sophia is key with the elder not only understanding the younger and as a result carefully guiding her through what could be difficult moments of temper and stroppiness but there is also a dimension of immaturity to the old woman as well. Living with the six year-old, who seems to be her main source of company, keeps her young and encourages her to act out the dreams of childhood.

Second, the island with the summer house which is so well described it is the most important character in the book. The ravine where they go to hide and Grandmother smokes down to the magic forest and the mossy turf blown away in the storm. It is the island that acts as a backdrop to the story along with the house. They are special because they make this story so special setting the adventures in suburban back garden would lose the intensity that comes from being on a small island surrounded by the sea.

Finally, the time of year is important because the arrival of summer starts the book and the approach of its end causes the house to be shut up and for the adventures on the island to end. The weather is predictable enough to allow them to stay on the island but still able to throw up surprises with a fantastic storm and days of drought.

This is one of those books that I suspect is going to burrow deep into the sub conscious and inspire summer holidays and dreams for many years to come.

It will be a crime to read in the weeks ahead

As the book pile starts to climb upwards I've decided the next couple of weeks will be dedicated to reading crime books.

So on the reading pile are:

Cop Killer by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo, the ninth and penultimate book in the series of books they penned about a Swedish detective.

The Various Haunts of Men by Susan Hill also sounds like it will be a good read.

All The Colours of the Town by Liam McIlvanney looks good about a hack in Scotland and then there are various others that I might well add to the list.

bookmark of the week

Never gone for one of these bookmark and calendar combination things but this was in the sale and some of the images of old maps are worth getting. Intend to use a few of these long after 2010 has been and gone.