* Books: Started Early, Took My Dog by Kate Atkinson

Books: Started Early, Took My Dog (2010) by Kate Atkinson (Behind the Scenes at the Museum (1995), Human Croquet (1997)).  This crime novel, part thoughtful travelogue, of loves and losses, follows semi-retired private investigator Jackson Brodie as he attempts to trace, through the good, bad old days and the precariously, obliquely good, bad new days, the origins of a client, adopted a young age.  More than touching on a diversity of themes: of adoption, of dogs that belonged to women, of shockingly, rashly, bought children, of kidnapped, history-less children, of forcibly orphaned children; of adaptation to ever-changing circumstances, and glimpses of true, and erroneous, self-knowledge; confusion of names; childhood, the good, and, so often, the bad, the thwarted, the difficult and the ugly; parents and children and families in all their stifled hope, errors, lies, and miscommunications; not to mention inspiring, uplifting, dark and hopeful poetry; and of course, crime, with its police, private investigators, cover-ups, murders, power and money.  Sounds like a lot?  It is.  But with Atkinson’s deft, even tender touch, and her sensitive portrayals, Started Early, Took My Dog, is an easy, captivating novel, and a very agreeable, if at times brutal, read. (PR)

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* Book Review: Our Kind of Traitor by John le Carré

Book Review: Our Kind of Traitor (2010) by John le Carré (The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1963), Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (1974), The Constant Gardener (2001), A Most Wanted Man (2008))  Russian mobsters, British spies, bankers, and politicians, corruption, money laundering, and, of course, the innocents caught up in it all…oh yes, and tennis, from the scenic Caribbean beauty of Antigua to the Center Court at Roland Garros for the French Open with Roger Federer, Our Kind of Traitor, Le Carré’s 22nd novel, offers a contemporary look at his favorite terrain, spies, and preferably British spies, at that.  Le Carré reflects on the reframing of a certain sense of loyalty, on the part of the British espionage establishment, from “all for Britain” to “all for profit”, with his usual sensitivity to the concomitant evolution of language, as things degrade into some sort of mongrel globalisation.  In fact, one could ask oneself, whose agenda is dominant in all these machinations, or is everyone  simply struggling to impose as much of their own personal agenda as possible, in circumstances where only money has any real importance, no matter where it comes from and no matter what it’s used for, and loyalty is a thing of the past.  Perhaps a bit slow to start, when Our Kind of Traitor gets up to speed, it becomes an enjoyable, and sophisticated, thrill in the land of post-Cold War spydom. (PR)

See our post on the film The Constant Gardener with Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz, based on the novel of the same name by John le Carré.

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* Book Review: Pulse by Julian Barnes

Book Review: Pulse (2011)(collection of short stories) by Julian Barnes (Flaubert’s Parrot (1984, shortlisted for the Booker Prize), England, England (1998, shortlisted for the Booker Prize), Arthur & George (2005, shortlisted for the Booker Prize), The Sense of an Ending (2011, winner of the Booker Prize).  Pulse is a collection of wonderful short stories taking the pulse of couples, and in which couples are the pulse, the life blood.  From parents, to newly weds, to first dates, to esoteric historical, from sharp, well-to-do couples, to once-hippie aging couples, to ’til-death-do-us-part couples, to couples divorcing within a year of marriage, from hetero to homo, from love to sex, from complicity to antagonism, from no-strings to all things, Pulse throws its net wide, not that there aren’t an infinity of couples outside of the net, each being, by definition unique, and unfathomable, no matter what we know.  In fact, what is love?  And, to paraphrase and twist, a bit, Raymond Carver, what (don’t) we talk about when we (don’t) talk about love; pain, fun, sharing, loss, thrill, support, tenderness and grief. A must-read for anyone who is, was, or will be part of a couple, or ever wished, or regretted, that they were part of a couple.  And for those solitaries who just wonder about it all.  Marvelous, thoughtful, entertaining and more. (PR)

See our post on the collection of short stories by Raymond Carver, What We Talk About When We Talk About Love.

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Caribou Island by David Vann

Caribou Island (2011)(Novel) by David Vann (Legend of a Suicide (2008))  Caribou Island, David Vann’s first novel, after his award–winning collection of stories Legend of a Suicide, is rife with failed communication, the characters brimming with regret, misperception and self-delusion, and all suffering from psychological isolation; these bleak, dysfunctional characters relentlessly arcing their way toward certain disaster.  Written with a passionate and sharp eye for landscape and environment, used as a metaphor for the apparent, and dream-like, beauty and inherently brutal, fatal desolation of life and with, perhaps, an inspiration from Cormac McCarthy’s sensitivity to place, combined with some of the fatal flaws of Raymond Carver’s often doomed characters, Caribou Island is an inspired noir novel, full of precise descriptive prose, and often sensitive and frustratingly lost individuals inexorably struggling toward their painful ends. (PR)

See our posts on the novels The Crossing, All the Pretty Horses, The Orchard Keeper, Blood Meridian and Outer Dark, by Cormac McCarthy and our post on the collection of short stories What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, by Raymond Carver.

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Book Reviews: London Fields by Martin Amis

Book Reviews: London Fields (1989) by Martin Amis (Night Train (1997), Yellow Dog (2003), The Pregnant Widow (2010).  This black comedy murder mystery set in 1999 in London, Amis’ sixth novel, is thought by many to be his best, and a masterpiece of London fiction.  With a truly end-of-the-world setting, impending nuclear doom, environmental chaos, violence, and hopelessness, London Fields offers, frankly, little cheer, though it does offer Amis a chance to write in his superb, sharp, inspired, descriptive style.  There are wonderful character descriptions and a fine ear for London’s multi-cultural street talk, and its social disparities, from truly seedy pubs, to City bankers’ splendid homes.  Comedy, satire and symbolism are given full reign, and in fact, the symbolism does at times get heavy-handed.  A millennium novel full of sex, violence, the questioning of literary, media, and other, reliability, impending disaster, and darts (yes, darts), London Fields is an essential read, of course, for all fans of Martin Amis, and for those interested in dynamic, contemporary writing, who don’t mind an overdose, perhaps, of symbolism. (PR)

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