Year of the Monkey by Patti Smith

Review by JJ Marsh

What we thought:

I read Year of the Monkey in those in-between days after Christmas and before New Year, when you don’t really know what day it is and don’t really care. The intention was to read a little each day and soak up Smith’s account of her 2016, digesting her inimitable blend of fact, fiction and flights of fancy.

I read it in one day.

She’s freewheeling in every sense. Her poetic prose swoops between dreams and waking; she hitches rides with the silent and the verbose; those lost to her are present in thoughts and strange shifts in the political landscape draw both cool observation and heated reaction.

The references to what she reads, sees, photographs and experiences with one foot in the past and another in the present draws the reader into her lighthouse, scanning the cultural and political landscape like a kaleidoscope.

This is a book in which to lose yourself, let go and see what happens. After you’ve finished, it will feel like the most extraordinary dream.



You’ll enjoy this if you liked: M Train, Jack Kerouac, Naked Lunch

Avoid if you don’t like: Fractured narratives, internal monologues, dreams

Ideal accompaniments: Huevos rancheros, black coffee and a shot of tequila


Genre: Memoir


Available on Amazon

Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver

Review by JJ Marsh


What we thought:

Through her novel about a family home crumbling, Kingsolver addresses many contemporary issues with subtlety and nuance. At the centre of the story is a house in New Jersey. Inherited by Willa Knox in modern-day America, it seems like a sanctuary for her family until she discovers it is collapsing.

Her only hope is a grant, by proving how the house has 19th century historical value. Enter the second thread – a science teacher who believes in Darwin and his biologist neighbour.

The twin narratives flip back and forth, each shining a light on past and present dilemmas and in particular, the frustration with popular opinion.

The novel addresses social structure then and now, with some alarming parallels. Anti-evolution mobs baying for Darwin to be hanged versus political rallies chanting similar punitive measures.

Willa is a middle-aged woman whose sense of confusion as to generational attitudes and shifting sands makes it one of those books you need to stop reading and think.

My favourite kind.


You’ll enjoy this if you liked: The Lacuna, The Travelling Horn-Player by Barbara Trapido


Avoid if you don’t like: Contemporary reflections on politics and social issues, historical and contemporary blends

Ideal accompaniments: Mint tea, love soup and Billie Holiday singing God Bless the Child

Genre: Literary Fiction

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Transcription by Kate Atkinson

Review by JJ Marsh

What we thought:

This book seems to reflect what undercover work in wartime must have been like. Much drudgery and the occasional drama. Yet when you have a cast of characters as well developed as this and Atkinson's flair with luring the reader in via a chopped-up timeline, your curiosity is piqued.

Juliet works for MI5. Sounds glamorous, but it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. Her job is transcribing conversations between a British agent posing as a German spy and a gaggle of humdrum Nazi sympathisers. Recruited by Peregrine Gibbons, she half hopes he’ll try to seduce her, but he’s got other ideas. The job is dull and monotonous, leading her to wander down thought processes at her own received expressions.

The narrative flits back and forth between the 1940s and the post-war period when Juliet is working for the BBC. Ghosts from the past reappear and she begins to realise that she can never truly leave it all behind.

Juliet is a character one warms to, if slowly. She’s pragmatic, given to fanciful whims but essentially rolls up her sleeves and gets on with the job.

Each character reflects that wartime sense of no one being who they pretend to be and the façade is flimsy to the point of transparency. Everyone knows everyone else is lying, hiding and deceiving, but determined to get on with it anyway.

This is a different Atkinson to Jackson Brodie or Life After Life, yet still with the sparkling wit, light touch with deep characters, atmospheric evocation of time and place, underpinned by a resigned fatality.



You’ll enjoy this if you liked: A God in Ruins, The Night Watch by Sarah Waters or Charlotte Gray by Sebastian Faulks

Avoid if you don’t like: Detail of transcribed conversations, changing timelines, London in wartime

Ideal accompaniments: A strong cup of tea, some hot buttered toast and Vera Lynn’s version of A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square



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Avoid if you don’t like:




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A Year of Marvellous Ways by Sarah Winman

Review by JJ Marsh

What we thought:

One of those books which gently washes away your expectations and impatience, drawing you into a strange and semi-familiar world of souls and stories. I confess, I started this, gave up and tried again. The prose is lyrical and the style almost magical realism or fable, and if it catches you in the right mood, you will fall into its pools.

Marvellous Ways lives in a caravan in Cornwall. She’s lived a long life and seen many extraordinary things. Her relationship to the world around her is fluid, making the reader wonder what is real and what is imaginary. Thoughts and speech sometimes blur into one another which feels entirely natural once you get used to the convention.

Francis Drake, back from the war, is looking for someone else when he encounters Marvellous Ways. A friendship and understanding develops between the two allowing an exceptional exchange.

Winman’s prose is the definition of mindfulness. She slows down, looks and really sees. Her imaginative language weaves itself into nature, so that the book feels like the movement of the water up the creek.

Not a book to rush, this is like a poem. Sit down, relax and let this writer work her magic.


You’ll enjoy this if you liked: When God Was A Rabbit, Spilt Milk by Amanda Hodgkinson, or The Keeper of Lost Things by Ruth Hogan

Avoid if you don’t like: Non-linear narratives, magical realism, relaxed pace

Ideal accompaniments: Sparkling water, crab cakes and whalesong

Genre: Literary fiction



Available on Amazon

Blessed Fury: Angels of Fate Book 1 by CS Wilde

Review by JJ Marsh

What we thought:

Paranormal romance is not my usual genre, but having read one of CS Wilde’s previous books, A Courtroom of Ashes, I dived into this with anticipation. This is an epic adventure of angels, demons, vampires, werewolves, Warriors and Erudites. Guardian Ava is tasked with protecting Liam, one of the Selfless, after he has lost his partner.

He’s angry, passionate and hell-bent on vengeance. Keeping him out of trouble is going to take everything Ava’s got, especially when a malevolent force is setting species against each other. And if that’s not enough to contend with, she finds herself powerfully attracted to her charge. Sparks are going to fly.

This is a wonderfully realised world with its own laws and codes of honour. The characters leap of the page and the action is breath-taking. There is a huge cast of beings and it feels as if there is much more to be learned, so it’s reassuring to see this is the first of a series.



You’ll enjoy this if you liked: Gods and Monsters, The Dimensions Series, Requiem for Fallen Gods

Avoid if you don’t like: Paranormal elements, fantastical creatures, fighting

Ideal accompaniments: Popcorn, a Bloody Mary and a thunderstorm.


Available on Amazon

Can You Brexit without Breaking Britain? By Dave Morris and Jamie Thomson

Reviewer: JJ Marsh

What we thought:

An interactive gamebook which puts the reader in to the Prime Minister's shoes. Every decision you make has an effect and you must deal with the consequences. For such a polarising issue, this is accessible to all and good fun while making you think.

You wake up on the morning after the Brexit vote and choose your first move. Flip to the relevant page and pick your next option. When you hit a dead-end, go back to the fork in the road and have another go. This is not just about running the country, but maintaining control of your party and shining a light on yourself.

The PM must deal with quandary after crisis, all the while keeping tally of one's score under four headings: Authority, Economy, Goodwill and Popularity. Who must you keep happy? Who do you listen to? Where can you find friends? What advice dare you trust?

While witty and acerbic with a sly dig at the contemporary players in the Brexit drama, this is well researched and intelligently thought out. Facts and realities underpin every move and you cannot claim a lack of knowledge as all the implications are there on paper.

Bear in mind the British media are watching, ready to criticise everything from your choice of holiday to frivolous footwear. Reading this while watching the reality play out on our TV screens is a bizarre experience.

Highly recommended for anyone who wonders what the hell is going on and why. Warning: might possibly make you feel sorry for Theresa May.

You’ll enjoy this if you like: Witty political drama such as The Thick of It; Yes, Minister; Dear Bill

Avoid if you don’t like: Politics, the British, having to deal with the fallout of your decisions

Ideal accompaniments: Full English breakfast, a pint of British Bulldog and Bach's St John Passion

Genre: Humour, Contemporary

Available on Amazon

Almost Love by Louise O'Neill

Reviewer: JJ Marsh

What we thought:

One of those rare reads you can't stop thinking about.
O'Neill's previous two novels - Only Ever Yours and Asking For It - are both pitched as YA and dive right to the heart of the female condition. Their protagonists are flawed and human and the damage unfolds in front of our eyes.

But with Sarah Fitzpatrick in Almost Love the damage is already done. This young woman is selfish, demanding, ungrateful, judgemental and throws her self-respect on and off like a cape.

The story switches between now and then.

Now Sarah's a lucky girl, living with her boyfriend Oisín in a house given them by his mother. She has a good job as an art teacher in Dublin and looks down on her country background and small-town friends. That doesn't stop her despising the glamorous crowd she hangs out with at the same time.

Then was different. Then, she met Matthew Brennan, successful estate agent and father to one of her pupils. Flirtation becomes an affair, strictly on his terms, but like any addict, she will sacrifice anything for a summons to that shabby hotel room. Her father, her friends and the man who loves her for who she is, Fionn, are all cast aside in her craving for Matthew's affection. Her betrayals get harsher as her need grows. Simultaneously, a sense of discomfort builds in the reader. It's like watching a car crash in slow-motion in the full knowledge there is nothing you can do.

Much has been made of Sarah as an unlikable protagonist, but I think we react against her because she reminds us of ourselves at our worst. Alarming and powerful, this book is a reminder of how your worst enemy might be yourself.

You’ll enjoy this if you like: Psychological shadows such as in Mother, Mother by Koren Zailckas, We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver or Involved by Kate O'Riordan

Avoid if you don’t like: The realities of obsession/addiction or a heroine you want to shake

Ideal accompaniments: Vodka Red Bull, fizzy colas and Human Behaviour by Bjork

Genre: Contemporary, literary fiction

Available on Amazon

The Golden House by Salman Rushdie

Review by JJ Marsh

What we thought:

Where do I start? This is huge. Not only a broad range of geopolitical considerations, but stuffed with thematic issues and dense with cultural references. If this were a cake, you’d pour brandy on it and set it on fire.

In the historic New York district of The Gardens, a stranger moves in. He seems to have no past and has reinvented himself and his three sons. Nero Golden is a powerful, rich widower, who has adopted Roman monikers for himself and his family.

Against a backdrop of an America electing its first black president, there is a sense of “Yes, we can!” both in the country and this particular family.

The reader gains a unique insight as to how the Goldens (mal)function from their neighbour/friend Rene, orphan, documentary-maker and narrator of this tale. Tragedy in the classical sense alters the fate of the Golden boys while Rene falls victims to cynical manipulation, binding him inextricably to the figure of Nero.

Then a new election looms and this time the front runner is The Joker, a super villain who can work a crowd. Does Batwoman have a chance against such a highly coloured, grinning, bouffant showman?

Rushdie is in his element, cramming in fruity phrases and toothsome allusions, tackling identity, freedom of speech, the American Dream, globalisation, image and delusions of how much control anyone has over their destiny.

Commenting on his Booker of Bookers prizewinner Midnight’s Children, Rushdie said he could not use the cool English of Forster because India was hot. He needed to use language in a way that reflected that. In The Golden House, he has taken the US and the whimsical mood of social media and concocted a rich reflection of itself. A portrait you might put up on Instagram, revealing far more than you realise.


You’ll enjoy this if you liked: A Bonfire of the Vanities, Midnight’s Children

Avoid if you don’t like: Epic sagas with contemporary references, a sense of tragedy which will come for you too

Ideal accompaniments: A litre of mineral water and an eight-hour flight east

Genre: Literary fiction



Available on Amazon

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

Review by JJ Marsh

What we thought:

The Richardsons’ house is burning down. It wasn’t an accident.

Wealthy (four cars in the drive), comfortable (doyenne of Shaker Heights) and happy (three and a half high-achieving children), Elena Richardson knows life is good. She’s generous and charitable and good with people. So why would her youngest daughter set their house on fire?

Celeste Ng takes on a ‘perfect’ society and peers around the façade. Shaker Heights, a small town outside Cleveland, Ohio, is a model community, where everyone toes the line. There are rules here and everyone obeys.

When Mia Warren and daughter Pearl blow into town to rent an apartment, Elena sees a chance to do some good. An itinerant artist with a young daughter – similar age to hers – why not help the woman out. After all, she likes to patronise the arts.

The families’ lives become increasingly intertwined to the extent they almost swap daughters, but there are other familial questions threatening to bust through the neat backyards. Whose child is the abandoned baby? The parents who adopted her and lavished her with love or the biological mother who wants her back? Whose is the child made with surrogate sperm? Who gets to choose whether or not to terminate a teenage pregnancy?

Ng weaves this omniscient perspective with huge skill, making the reader change sides almost every chapter. Her depiction of character is economical, wrong-footing assumptions and avoiding cliché. Finally, the fuses that lead to the fire are far more complex than the fire service or even Elena can understand.

Wholly absorbing and thoughtful, this book kept me thinking.

You’ll enjoy this if you liked: Jodi Picoult, Helen Fitzgerald, Maeve Binchy

Avoid if you don’t like: Awkward questions, teenage girls, multiple POV

Ideal accompaniments: Satay sticks, banana milkshake and Jerry Springer in the background

Genre: Literary fiction

Available on Amazon

Song at Dawn by Jean Gill

Reviewer: JJ Marsh



What we thought:

An unusual blend of thrills and insight, this is historical fiction at its most complex, rich and absorbing. I read this book in two sittings and am already well into Bladesong, the second in the Troubador series.

The story takes place in 12th century France, following Estela, an abused woman with a voice and a passion. Her misfortune lands her in a ditch, but her talents lead her to the Queen’s court where she encounters Dragonetz, the Troubadour.

The book transports you to France in the Middle Ages, which should feel far distant to a modern reader, but the social upheavals caused by religious and geographical muscling for power feel unpleasantly familiar. This is well-researched, beautifully written storytelling which deserves full concentration.

Detailed descriptions are in abundance, both of the beautiful and the bloody. Some scenes are not for the squeamish. Characters are layered and complex, even minor players and I was particularly drawn to the role animals play in the story. The complicated politicking is intriguing as is the status of women, from queen to entertainer.

For a glimpse of the past in sharp focus, Song at Dawn is highly recommended.



You’ll enjoy this if you liked: The Overlord series by JD Smith, Michelle Moran's historical fiction or Blood Rose Angel, by Liza Perrat.

Avoid if you don’t like: Some gory moments, emotional upheaval, addictive series.

Ideal accompaniments: Bitter black tea and roasted goose eaten off the blade of a dagger.

Genre: Historical Fiction

Available on Amazon

Munich by Robert Harris

Reviewer: JJ Marsh


What we thought: 
Fascinating and un-plug-outable (I listened to the audiobook).

This novel details the tense lead-up to the Munich conference in late 1938 with exemplary research and human insight. Two men, both insiders in the opposing regimes, observe the frantic diplomacy required to avert war in Europe. Hugh Legat and Paul Hartmann met at Balliol, Oxford, becoming friends, co-travellers and political debaters. Now, they are working for their respective governments but share a single aim. To defeat Hitler.

Harris is a master on this subject and in this genre - historical fiction from the perspective of those who could have changed the key moments of modern history. Despite our hindsight, this diplomatic dance around a despot is involving, and gives us hope. There are good men prepared to do something, regardless of the risk.

This fictionalised account sent me scurrying to learn more about the events which could have precluded WWII. Period details such as the enormous undertaking of flying to another country and the brutal ugliness of gas masks transport the  reader to the 1930s with a sharpness which underlines the danger.

Anyone with a passing interest in politics must draw parallels to current events and feel a shiver of sinister familiarity when the egotistical dictator grows incensed at his depiction by the foreign press. We should be grateful such a short-fused, power-crazed man didn't have access to Twitter.

You’ll enjoy this if you like: Fatherland, Enigma, Downfall

Avoid if you don’t like: European politics, details of diplomacy

Ideal accompaniments: Cigarettes, whisky and liverwurst

Genre: Historical fiction, spy thriller

Available on Amazon

First Love by Gwendoline Riley

Review by JJ Marsh

What we thought:


Intense, short, focused and poetic, the subject matter is a relationship souring with disappointment. Riley draws us into the character of Neve, a writer whose gaze is turned inwards.  

She lives with and depends on Edwyn, an older man whose age, physical difficulties and mood swings make him volatile and yet predictable. Their (dis)affection is more of a clinging resentment, rabbitty habits of nose-rubbing and pet names collide with violent outbursts of verbal abuse.

Her prose, when reflecting Neve's inner thoughts, is lucid and beautiful. Contrasted with Edwyn's brutal, circular rants, her mother's self-indulgent monologues and memories of her father's narcissism. It's an uncomfortable place to be, mostly passive and voiceless in the face of all this noise.

The timeline jumps, adding to the circularity and lack of progress, convincing the reader there is no escape, no emotional terminal. Riley's work veers close to fictionalised memoir or at least is drawn to personal themes.

It's precise, bleak and demonstrates the writer's skill at evoking the imaginary but no less restrictive bars of a cage. In one exchange, a character explains that the expression “I fell in love at first sight” translates in Russian as “I fell down”.
At the end of this book, there's a sense of "I fell in and will never get out."

You’ll enjoy this if you liked: The Sky is Changing by Zoe Jenny, String Bridge by Jessica Bell, Cold Water/Sick Notes by Gwendoline Riley

Avoid if you don’t like: Introspection, repetitive behavioural patterns, langour

Ideal accompaniments: A pot of camomile tea, a tin of toffees and Don't Speak by No Doubt

Genre: Literary fiction

 


Available on Amazon

Scatterwood by Piers Alexander

Review by JJ Marsh

What we thought:

If you have read The Bitter Trade, you'll relish seeing what happens to quick-witted dodger and diver Calumny Spinks. If you haven't, no matter, this book will drag you in by the scruff and haul you away to 17th Jamaica, where politicking, force and cunning are in a deadly struggle for power.

From  the wharves of London to the slave markets of Port Royal, the reader is immersed in the desperate fight to survive against a backdrop of inequality, brute force and the shadow of civil war. In order to save his family, Spinks collaborates with servants of the Crown. His skill with accents, combined with an ability to befriend the noblest and roughest earn him the assignment of spy. But at a cost. He is an indentured man, a slave for seven years to a cruel master.

By keeping his ear to the ground, Spinks discovers the rumoured plot is further advanced than he suspected. His mission to murder a powerful leader cannot wait. He needs allies, and who better than the similarly downtrodden Maroons?

Fast-paced and intense, this crackling adventure brings the Caribbean of 1692 to sparkling sensory life, with all its harshness and deprivation. Alexander's prose is once again rich and robust, his characters layered and believable - even sadistic overseer Kiet - and the story world so fully realised you feel you are there.

Read it when there's nothing else you have to do. It's a feast to devour in one sitting.

You’ll enjoy this if you liked: The Bitter Trade, The Plague Road by LC Tyler, Birthright by David Hingley

Avoid if you don’t like: Violence, cruelty, the iniquities of slavery

Ideal accompaniments: Rum punch, herb-scented dumplings and Eleanor Alberga's Suite from Dancing with the Shadow

Genre: Historical Fiction

Available on Amazon

Choke Chain by Jason Donald

Reviewer: JJ Marsh

What we thought:

Against a background of apartheid South Africa, Alex's family are poor and helpless. But white. That means their father Bruce gets to be a brute through no other qualification than his skin colour and sense of entitlement.

For a teenage boy attempting to comprehend power and social structure, his father is a role model, if Alex wants the role of liar, cheat and bully. He can play the strongman and protect his brother, fighting in the playground to prove how force can win. Or he can try to understand via a wider lens and break the mould.

Two young white brothers grow up in 1980s' Pretoria, trying to make sense of their place in the world. Who are they? In relation to Dad, to their mother, their peers, their countrymen, each other? Alex is on the cusp of adulthood and has to make a choice of what kind a man he's going to be.

A layered novel with battened down emotions, frustrations and a strange disconnect from the political climate, which rumbles in the background like a low growl. This book encapsulates young adult experience, such as inarticulacy and frustration with his environment, but adds another level of tension via the background of imbalance as the status quo.

Donald writes with exceptional delicacy, using metaphor and understatement with precision and drawing the reader into an unfamiliar world we cannot help but understand.


You’ll enjoy this if you liked: Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight by Alexandra Fuller, Disgrace by JM Coetzee and Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle.

Avoid if you don’t like:  Dysfunctional families, harsh lives, a teenage perspective.  

Ideal accompaniments: Potjiekos, Rock Shandy and Should I Stay or Should I Go by The Clash

Genre: Literary fiction, coming-of-age

Available on Amazon