There is a ring of truth and emotive power in the historical veracity of House of Meeting’s setting. Amis has done his research well, and claims that an English author can’t really write about Russia don’t do justice to the deep sense of history and personal involvement that underpin this book. But House of Meetings really isn’t meant to be a realistic picture of life in the Soviet gulag.
Category: Literary Fiction Reviews
A review of A Partisan’s Daughter by Louis de Bernières
Overall, this is a sad novel which hints at the uncertainty in all of our posturing; our inability to get at the kernel of who we are; and the difficulty of moving beyond our fantasies into a sustainable reality. Nevertheless, it’s an easy read, smooth and well written, and ultimately one that will nag at the reader beyond the pages of the book.
A review of The Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie
If The Enchantress of Florence were expertly edited, and I’m afraid that few would dare edit someone of Rushdie’s caliber to the extent required, it could have been a masterpiece. As it is, it’s an enjoyable, but convoluted novel that takes on a difficult and fascinating historical subject matter and turns it into something entirely modern.
A review of Waltzing Australia by Cynthia Clampitt
By the end of the narrative, I felt I knew the author very well. Unafraid to honestly respond to her own emotions, and her surroundings, reading this book is as much about witnessing a person’s transformation through close contact with the natural world as it is about the places she visited in Australia.
A review of The Only True Genius in the Family by Jennie Nash
Malcolm Gladwell, in his book Outliers: The Story of Success, argues that natural genius is a myth, and that other factors, including hard work, are what distinguish the top performers at something, given equal ability. Nash addresses this myth, and makes it a vital part of her central protagonist’s journey.
A review of Wanting by Richard Flanagan
As with Gould’s Book of Fish, Wanting undermines history, recreating it in a magical realism form that tells a greater truth. Like Adrienne Eberhart’s Jane, Lady Franklin, what drives the story is not what happened but what was felt. Unlike Eberhart’s Lady Franklin, Flanagan’s heroine is as guilty as she is tragic. She destroys what she loves by denying herself.
A review of The Sea Lady by Margaret Drabble
This is a masterly display of passion gone wrong performed by a novelist who has here written, as she has sometimes in other works failed to do, a work of sustained interest and vitality. Those acquainted with her other works will want to read this book. Readers who have not yet read any of Drabble’s books, will find this one a good one with which to begin.
A review of Something to Tell You by Hanif Kureishi
It’s easy to imagine that Kureishi’s intent here was to provide a sense of the era, and the immediate colour that these characters conjure, but instead these dropped-in names turns the book into a compendium of the times and detracts from both the character development and the fictive dream.
A review of The Health Cookbook by the Australian Women’s Weekly
I really liked the smaller 20cm size of this book, which makes it easier to work with than a large size book, but it’s still large enough to make a nice gift book and present a great accompanying image for each recipe. It isn’t all savoury either. There are delicious desserts that are healthy enough for a main course, like the berry-muesli baked apples, or the homemade lime, grapefruit or blood orange sorbet.
A review of Man in the Dark by Paul Auster
The book is short and sharply structured. It moves quickly and makes its points neatly. It is inescapably cold in some respects but the reader will come from it with an unforgettable experience. It is a pleasure to see a writer of such gifts – albeit sometimes uneven performance – produce a work of this quality.