Spies and Espionage: Restless, William Boyd

After Black Water Rising, I felt the need to read some more in the crime/thriller genre, and so when a customer and I were talking about William Boyd’s novels – in particular, Restless - I thought that this would be my next choice. I had never heard of Boyd and Restless isn’t a latest release, but one of the great things about talking about books all day is the opportunity to go back and read some of those books that you might have missed the first time around.

Published in 2006, Restless is a spy novel and reminded me a little of one of my favourite TV programmes, Spooks (currently showing on the ABC), although not so violent. From the Bloomsbury Publishing reading guide, the storyline goes like this:

One hot summer afternoon in 1976 Ruth Gilmartin pays her mother a visit. When Sally hands Ruth a buff folder labelled ‘The Story of Eva Delectorskaya’ the certainties of Ruth’s world are overturned. Sally, or Eva, as Ruth must now think of her, was once a spy, recruited into the British Secret Service in 1939 by Lucas Romer as part of AAS, Romer’s somewhat maverick branch of the Service, and this is her story. Eva proves herself adept at her craft, endlessly resourceful, hiding every emotion and trusting no one.

Posted to New York, AAS’s mission is to pull the reluctant US into the war. Caught up in an affair with Romer, Eva needs to be doubly sure to keep her wits about her. When she is sent to New Mexico, what should have been a simple courier mission becomes puzzlingly complex and Eva finds herself in grave danger. As this taut thriller moves towards its dénouement, alternating between Ruth’s narrative and Eva’s story, William Boyd cranks up the tension with bluffs and double bluffs until every loose end is neatly tied into a satisfying resolution.

The book lived up to expectations, and I found it interesting thinking about the way war changes our values, our sense of what is right and wrong and the lengths that someone might go to in the name of the greater good.  It reminded me of the old saying that history is always told from the point of view of the victor, and stories such as this are often kept undercover by the victorious side.  Boyd’s writing style was pacey and while I had worked out who the “baddie” was, I didn’t discover their motive until the end of the book.

I really enjoyed Restless as a well written escape from some of the more serious books that I’ve been reading for the store, and at the end of the day, that’s what I like in a book. Something to entertain as well as wanting to read another book by the same author. Boyd’s other books that come highly recommended to me are Brazzaville Beach, and Ordinary Thunderstorms.

Young Adult Novel, "If I Stay"

Last week, a young upper primary school girl asked me about a book called If I Stay by Gayle Forman, which is apparently being talked about by the girls in her group. I knew that the book was a young adult title, so I thought that I should read it to see whether it is appropriate for this age group. The bad news for these younger girls is that I would wait a while before reading it as I don’t think they have the life experience to appreciate what the book is trying to say. The good news for older readers is that it is, in my opinion, a really moving story, although the concept of the story might be challenging for some.


From the book’s website, the story goes like this:

In a single moment, everything changes. Seventeen-year- old Mia has no memory of the accident; she can only recall riding along the snow-wet Oregon road with her family. Then, in a blink, she finds herself watching as her own damaged body is taken from the wreck... A sophisticated, layered, and heart achingly beautiful story about the power of family and friends, the choices we all make—and the ultimate choice Mia commands.

If I Stay has music as its background theme, with Mia a talented cello player, her father once the guitarist in a band, and her boyfriend, Adam, is a lead singer and guitarist with an up and coming band. The book reminds me of the style of Alice Sebold’s Lovely Bones, the story being told by one of the characters existing outside her physical body, and who can see the events unfolding but unable to influence it. The story is told in flashbacks of the important event’s in Mia’s life: being brought up by an extended family of musicians as her family travels with her father’s band to gigs, the birth of her younger brother Teddy being the impetus for her father to learn to drive and train as a secondary schoolteacher, meeting her best friend Kym, her first date with Adam and moving on to the next stage with him, and her audition to get into the Julliard School of Music in New York.

This is a story that revolves around the choices we have to make in life. Her father’s chose the more family orientated life of a school teacher, rather than continue travelling with his band and, at the time of the accident, Mia was considering whether she would have to make the choice between moving to New York to attend school or to stay where Adam is in Portland. Now, her more important choice is whether she can live with the devastation that the car accident has caused.

I polished the book it off in a few days and it did require reading with a box of tissues next to me, so I’m sure that some adults would find it as beautiful read as I did. I think that secondary college students would get a lot out of it and could be the basis of discussion on the effects of death on the people left behind, the concept of choice and that often there is no right or wrong answer, and the importance of family and friends in everyone’s life. However, the level of description of the car accident, a quite detailed relationship scene and the concept of deciding whether she has anything to stay for on earth, would make me say that it is not for younger readers.

Murder in the Bayou - Black Water Rising by Attica Locke

I have been wanting to read is Black Water Rising by Attica Locke since I saw it had been shortlisted for this year’s Orange Prize for fiction by a women. Like Peter Temple’s “Truth”, which won the 2010 Miles Franklin Award, Black Water Rising is a crime novel, although with more in common with thrillers than the forensic crime that litters our TV screens and discount stores.

Last week, I picked up a copy and started reading it and couldn’t put it down. What a great book. Set in Houston, America in the 1980’s, and with the memory of Martin Luther King and the fight to end segregation still very foremost in people’s minds, the story has as it’s backdrop rising oil prices and the threat of a strike on the Houston docks which could shut down an economy that is highly dependent on the movement of oil.

We meet the main character, Jay, at night on the Bayou. A struggling African American lawyer whose main source of income is from personal injury claims, Jay is taking his wife on a “scenic” boat ride down the Bayou as a birthday present, courtesy of one of his clients. The stage is set for the finale of the evening: the boat is dirty and run down, the Bayou creepy and mysterious in the murky light. Suddenly, they hear a woman’s scream, gunshot, and then a body falling into the Bayou. Should Jay instruct the boat owner to keep on going and not get involved or should he heed his wife’s urging to help the person in trouble? Jay has personal experience of being black and at the mercy of the Southern legal system after nearly going to jail for something he didn’t do as a young, passionate, protester against segregation.  He is reluctant to stop but his natural sense of doing the right thing compels him to help and he dives in to save the woman, starting a series of events that Jay can’t escape.

Black Water Rising is part thriller, part social justice commentary. There is plenty of suspense, the odd standover man, corporate no-goods, and a little mystery about Jay’s relationship with the new mayor – a white woman he used to know very well in college before his life turned upside down. Colour is provided by the proposed dock strike, as Jay is asked by his father-in-law to take on the police department on behalf of a young dock worker who is accusing a senior union official of beating him up and the police doing nothing. The novel is pacey, and the plot cleverly strung together, while also giving insight to some of the history surrounding the fight to end segregation in America.

If you are interested in the other novels shortlisted for the Orange Prize this year, you might want to try:

The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver (Winner)
The Very Thought of You by Rosie Alison
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
A Gate at the Stairs by Morrie Moore
White Woman, Green Bicycle by Monique Roffey

Kindling by Darren Groth

This is a small book at 225 pages, but one that tells an important story. The main characters in the story are ten year old Kieran and his father, Nate. Kieran’s mother, Felicity, died tragically in a house fire five years before while trying to save Kieran and there is a mystery surrounding the circumstances of her death. Nate is a talented musician, and at the time of Felicity’s death, he and his band had just got their big break with one of their songs rising up the music charts. Nate spent his days travelling with his band, giving interviews and generally enjoying the life of an up and coming band, but that is all in the past now as Nate has taken over the parenting role – one with more than the usual challenges as Kieran has autism.

The story starts with Nate and Kieran on a typical weekend afternoon for many families – getting together with their friends for a barbeque. In the distance, a bush fire on a far hillside is threatening houses in the next suburb, and everyone, including Kieran, has been listening to the media for reports on its progress. Then, Nate can’t find Kieran. Where has he gone and why? Did he hear is father talking to his friends about the secret Nate has been shielding Keiran from for the last five years? This is not simply a case of a missing child. Kieran’s autism means that he doesn’t behave like other children would and his view of the world is one which is very different. Will Nate lose Kieran to fire after all?

What makes this book special is that it is told through two voices – that of Nate coming to grips with the challenges of being the father of a child with autism, and Kieran, whose voice gives us wonderful insights into how people with autism are “wired differently” (as the author says in the book). Darren Groth has impeccable credentials for writing about a child with autism – his own son has autism and Kieran is a combination of the children he has been around for many years. I particularly loved how the voice of Kieran puzzles over some of the statements his father makes. For example, when being told he is not allowed out on the deck without an adult, he thinks:

“I don’t know why Dad says this because I don’t want to act like “a bloody stuntman”.

This is a wonderful story, beautifully written and thought provoking, and made me feel that I just had to keep reading to find how Nate and Kieran’s story ended. It sensitively explores the challenges and rewards of parenting a child with autism and helps foster our empathy with people who are different from us, generally giving the reader a greater appreciation for the world of autism. Highly recommended and one for book clubs to consider, the book contains reading group notes at the end.

Bereft - Chris Womersley

If you like fiction with a historical basis, a bit of mystery and good outwitting evil then this may be a book for you. I picked this book up having read some good reviews in the media and quite liking the blurb on the back cover. I have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

This is Chris Womersley’s second novel and is set at the end of the first world war with the Australian soldiers returning home from Europe to a very different Australia. The Spanish Influenza was sweeping the world and while Australia was somewhat protected from the severity of it’s effects, it still caused a large number of deaths, and had everyone acting with suspicion – state borders were closed, train travel restricted, and people suspected of being infected were quarantined.

The main character, Quinn, is introduced to us travelling home to country NSW after fighting in the war. Quinn has a past – he fled his home town at the age of 16 after being found next to his dead sister with blood on his clothes and a knife in his hand – a sign of guilt in his father’s eyes as well as the rest of the town. Ten years later, he is heading home to clear his name and make sure the murderer of his beloved sister is made to pay. He stays clear of the town so he won’t be recognised, but after almost being discovered by his uncle, is rescued and befriended by Sadie, a young teenager living in the bush after her mother dies of the influenza.  She is sure that her brother will return from the war to look after her, protecting her from the menace lurking in the town and saving her from being sent to an orphanage. Sadie is the same age as Quinn’s sister when she died, and her presence gives the novel a slight feel of karma and the story being retold but with a different ending.

The reader is taken on a journey, firstly meeting Quinn’s mother, who is very sick and quarantined to the family home, her husband talking to her through the window of the house. Quinn’s relationship with his mother on his return shows him as a sensitive soul, at odds with the crime with which he is accused. Then, there’s Quinn’s Uncle Dalton who is not all that he seems, and, finally Quinn’s relationship with Sadie – who Quinn is trying to protect from the past happening again. Sadie also seems to know more about what happened to Quinn's sister than she should - coincidence or the presence of the spirit world?  I will let you be the judge.

 I was fascinated with the descriptions of Quinn’s battle with what we would now call post traumatic stress syndrome and his precarious grasp of the present that got weaker as the novel continued. Often Quinn became confused between what was the present and the past and the reader is carried along on his hallucinations.

For me, the novel, also highlighted the freedom that children had in the past. Sadie’s confidence at living in the bush and her ingenuity and resourcefulness is something I wish my children had, but which seems to have been lost as a skill. 

A wonderful tale of despair and anguish but also hope and redemption, Bereft was an unexpected hit with me.

For all the book lovers: It's a Book

I couldn't resist this book trailer that I found when looking at one of the childrens book publisher's website.  This is for a picture book called "It's a Book" by Lane Smith (published by Walker Books Australia) that I have in the store, and the trailer really made me laugh.  I hope you like it.

Welcome to Ulysses Bookstore - my new venture

I'm sorry I haven't posted anything in the last few weeks, but I have to confess that I haven't been reading very much lately.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, I am opening a bookshop in my local suburb and the organising of this has taken such a large amount of my time, that my blog has been left dormant on the shelf.  I can now proudly say that Ulysses Bookshop is now open in Sandringham, Victoria, Australia and I am hoping that I will now have the time to catch up on that reading pile that has been accumulating next to my bed.  One of my new problems is that there are so many books in the shop that I want to read I don't know how I'm going to get to all of them.

I went to a booksellers conference in July and heard from a marketing expert that every business should have its own story as that is what will make it special to its customers, creating a sense of community and making the business personal.  So this is the story of Ulysses Bookstore.  Take one woman who use to work for a large multi-national in a finance and marketing capacity, then along came three children, so the employment became of a voluntary nature working with other mothers in her local area.  The oldest children are now at secondary school and the mother is wondering what to do with the next ten years.  She can't see working in a large corporation again - the hours and location aren't convenient and she's used to working in a smaller, more personal environment.  She wants to be her own boss as she has been for the last 12 years.  A small business seems the ticket.  Then the big question - what strengths and skills does she have?

Well, there are the years of selling raffle tickets at a local shopping strip, giving talks to new mums, and helping her own mother in her small retail business - people skills aren't too bad.  She's good with computer systems and one of the few people she knows who balanced her cheque book and does a periodic check of family spending - that should be good for managing accounts and inventories.  The question is - what is the product.  Well, the onl yinterest she feels passionate about these days is books.  Reading them, talking about them with her friends and family, reading reviews to find new things to read.  So, from this, a bookshop is born.

Where does the name "Ulysses" come from?  Honestly - a wallpaper sample that I liked in a decorating magazine.  Well, that was what got me thinking.  I thought it would make a lovely feature wall until I discovered the 3-dimentional butterflies were actually dragonflies!  But by then I was fixed on a theme of butterflies.  They reminded me of a family holiday to Dunk Island which has the beautiful blue Ulysses butterfly everwhere, and then there was the famous book "Ulysses" by Jame Joyce.  Featured in the book given to me by my husband one Christmas "1001 Books to Read Before You Die", I did try to read it but only got about half way.  I believe it is one of those books that everyone says they have read or tried to read but couldn't finish.  Lastly, there's the Irish connection - my younger brother and his family live in Dublin.  It just seemed right.

Well, that's the story behind the birth of Ulysses Bookstore.  If you are in the area, please drop in and say hi.