Category: Blog

Hello!

This week I have read Burnt Sugar by Avni Doshi. I am still working my way through the Booker Prize Longlist 2020, but the Shortlist has recently been announced, with Burnt Sugar being one of the six listed.

Burnt Sugar, written in the first person, is set in the Indian city of Pune. The narrative follows Antara’s present life and flashbacks to her childhood. The two narratives mingle with intertwining events as Antara tries to make sense of her relationship with her mother. Antara was named after her mother, Tara. She explains that this was ‘not because she [her mother] loved the name but because she [her mother] hated herself.’ The name, Antara, being opposite to Tara or ‘Un-Tara’.  Antara sees this not as a way of differentiating them, but rather that they were ‘pitted against each other’.

Throughout the narrative, Antara attempts to understand her past and her mother’s decision to leave her father and join an ashram (spiritual retreat). The past pushes through the narrative, influencing the present, challenging what Antara understands to be the truth or perceived truths.

Antara struggles with the present. Her mother seemingly suffers from early onset dementia, though her brain scans are normal. Antara seeks doctors and researches the disease stating, ‘I have read that the disease is caused by insulin resistance in the brain’ or ‘some studies…link cognitive health with problems of the intestines’. The absence of her father leaves Antara isolated in the care of her mother. Even her grandmother had ‘only one positive memory […] of her own child’.

The actions of Antara’s mother are unpredictable and at times dangerous. However, this unpredictability is echoed in Antara’s childhood, specifically when mother left her father, when they were beggars and when she was sent to boarding school and was ‘already in the car when they explained to me where we were going’.  

The anger Antara feels towards her mother simmers as she is forced into a position not only care for her but prove that that there is, in fact, something wrong with her. This complex relationship oscillates between resentment for her childhood and her duty as an adult. Recalling her year at boarding school, Antara describes how Sister Maria Theresa ‘without warning, stabbed the pencil in the back of my palm’ and how she had to hold her ‘soiled sheets above my head’ as her ‘classmates walked past […] giggling under their breath’.

Antara states that ‘my mother leaving my father, and my father letting us both go, has coloured my view of all relationships’. The theme of dysfunctional relationships extends to Antara’s own relationship with her husband, Dilip. She contemplates leaving him, even ‘packing a small handbag’ with her ‘passport and some jewellery’ only to return that evening with Dilip unaware of her actions.

This dysfunctional relationship between Antara and Tara is summarised by the narration ‘I understood how deeply connected we were, and how her destruction would irrevocably lead to my own.’ The fragility of the relationships is laid bare through the exploration of memory and ‘remaking memories’ into the ‘image of what other people remember’. The making and remaking of memories is a consistent theme throughout with Antara wondering ‘if a falsehood is enacted enough, does it begin to sound factual?’

The strain of the mother-daughter relationship is clear. Antara’s anger at having to care for her mother throughout her cognitive decline leads her contemplate if she is ‘becoming my mother’. She further wonders if she too, would see her own child as ‘a competitor or, rather an enemy’.

Through unravelling the past, secrets are uncovered, and the line between reality and falsehood blurs revealing two generations of women who struggle as mothers. Burnt Sugar is a soul-searching narrative of motherhood and the ‘striking sensation that life is short’. As the title suggests, there is a residue of bitterness that remains for Antara, the relationship with her mother and even for the reader.

Themes: memory, betrayal, mother and daughter relationships, betrayal, Alzheimer’s, love-hate relationship, parenthood, postpartum depression, dysfunctional relationships, motherhood, class inequality

All pictures and writing are my own unless otherwise credited. Permission must be obtained before any image reproduction and credit must be issued in any image reproduction or quotations. 

Hello!

This week, I have read Furious Thing by Jenny Downham, from the YA Book Prize Shortlist 2020. Downham explores both the destructive and constructive natures of power and love in her novel.  It is about emotional abuse, teenage angst, the power to protect and being able to ‘open the Forbidden Door.’

The novel is divided by three fairy-tale style chapters, ‘A Tale of Love and Death, Another Tale of Love and Death and a Third Tale of Love and Death’, written in the third person reflecting Lex’s own narrative: It opens with, ‘Once there was a girl who grew up wicked. She slammed things and swore.’ These two opening lines, especially the reference to ‘wicked’ set the scene for the link between Lex’s world and fairy-tales reminiscent of the wicked stepmother in Cinderella, the wolf in Little Red Riding Hood and The White Witch in Narnia. References to fairy tales run throughout ‘like a fairy-tale daughter’, a ‘fairy-tale wedding’ and ‘it’s the thing fairy-tales teach us’ contrasting the ideal that is expected of Lex with the reality of her disappointments and struggles.

The main story is written in the first person. Protagonist, Lex (Alexandra), is fifteen and furious, she articulates clearly: ‘I felt pure rage’. Her anger seethes, simmers and explodes; we are privy to her confusion, reasoning, actions and reactions. She explains that, ‘Anger was something to believe in when the world let you down. And I roared with it.’

Fuelled by her mother’s fiancé, John, who taunts her continually with ‘Why do bad things always happen when you’re around, Alexandra?’, Lex rages against her home, school and the people close to her, as well as herself. The events all play against the backdrop to the run up to the wedding of Lex’s mum and John and Lex’s GCSEs.

Lex experiences see-saw emotions, particularly in relation to John, who tries to supress, control and manipulate her. She describes trying to control herself: ‘His anger rippled in me. I felt it in my chest, live a wave. Don’t get angry, I thought. Be nice…’ and ‘I took a breath and swallowed my anger.’ Lex’s rage, however, manifests itself as ‘a bolt of steel running through me’ and ‘the reddest, hottest feeling’ as she physically throws a chair through a window at school and the ‘glass exploded’. Lex’s actions are a representation of her frustration, anger and confusion. These actions are misinterpreted, manipulated and overpowered by John, to his own end.

Lex’s relationship with her stepbrother Kass fluctuates between brother-sisterly love and romantic love. Their innocent friendship growing up depicts a childhood ideal where they ‘scrambled up trees and hid under beds’. For Lex, and to a certain extent, Kass, this becomes an attraction even after he has left for university. This is a reflection of her mother’s relationship with John, while supportive also has the capacity to be destructive.

Lex’s connection with her half-sister, Iris, expands as the novel progresses and it is shocking for Lex when Iris asks her to ‘Do your furious thing.’ and ‘Do your monster.’ These descriptions of her actions, as seen from a six-year-olds point of view, reveal Iris’s understanding of how Lex’s outbursts are to try and control a situation that is out of her control. The reference to Lex as a ‘monster’, links back to the theme of fairy-tales and the idea of ‘wicked’.

Lex’s Grandad was her refuge as a child. Scarred by her last day with him, she carries the weight of his death and remembers how he taught her ‘about knots and how to climb trees and everything I know about nature.’ She channels her deceased Grandad throughout and is connected to him physically through a ruby necklace where she often ‘asks a favour from the dead’ and prays, ‘Grandad…help me nail this.’ We hope, that somehow, Lex’s Grandad can reach out from the beyond grave and influence her situation.

As her mother’s wedding to John approaches, John’s power, control and abuse extends to her mother and Iris. Lex desperately reaches out for help and turning to: her stepbrother Kass, her mother’s friend Meryam and her son Ben, her stepbrother’s ex-girlfriend Cerys, John’s ex-wife Sophie and even Monika (the other woman from his office). You would hope that one person in Lex’s life could see past her rage to the real emotional abuse at play.

Lex is strong, courageous, wild and smart. Her journey is a rollercoaster where she tries to face her fears, ‘being groped by drunk old men or threatened with doctors or being told over and over there was something wrong with you.’ We hope, despite the setbacks, Lex will triumph as a heroine.

Themes: abuse, emotional abuse, bullying, manipulation, power, control, strict parenting, love, friendship, family, relationships

All pictures and writing are my own unless otherwise credited. Permission must be obtained before any image reproduction and credit must be issued in any image reproduction or quotations. 

Hello!

This week I have chosen to read Redhead by the Side of the Road by Anne Tyler from the Booker Prize Longlist 2020. It is the story of Micah Mortimer, an average forty-something who works as a self-employed tech support, ‘Tech Hermit’, a ‘super’ for his apartment block in Baltimore, ‘sweeping, shaking out the mat or conferring with a plumber’.

The second person narration in the opening line, ‘You have to wonder what goes through the mind of a man like Micah Mortimer’ has the feel of a chatty busybody whispering in your ear, almost asking if we should care about Micah. The narrative continues in the third person providing a distanced view of Micah and his current girlfriend Cassia Slade, ‘He has a girlfriend, but they seem to lead fairly separate lives.’ Similarly, his former girlfriend, Lorna Bartell is described as ‘so very, very sure of her principles’ again suggesting the space between them.

Micah is the story. There are no big plot twists or crashing conflicts. Rather, Micah’s life is quietly laid bare, with subtle storytelling that equals the balance he strives for in his life and is exemplified in the description of his daily routine, ‘At seven fifteen every morning you see him set out on his run. At about ten or ten thirty he slaps the magnetic TECH HERMIT sign on the roof of his Kia.’ The narration continues to follow his every step, including systematic spotless cleaning, as he keeps his life in perfect order, even keeping faithful to the ‘Traffic God’, pretending to adhere to an ‘all-seeing surveillance system’ when he drives.

The meaning of Micah’s life, and life in general, is addressed in the opening ‘Does he ever stop to consider his life? The meaning of it, the point?’ leading the reader to wonder if he will ‘spend the next thirty to forty years this way’, a state of paralysis and in somewhat of a minor existential crisis.

Interspersed between Micah’s routine are descriptions that languish in the fullness of building character and setting. Micah is described as ‘a tall, bony man in his early forties with not-so-good-posture – head lunging slightly forward, shoulders slightly hunched’. His client, Yolanda Palmer, ‘a dramatic-looking woman in maybe her early fifties with a flaring mane of dark hair and a mournful, sagging face.’ Equally, scene descriptions vividly portray the family life of his sisters in ‘the general impression, as always, was a tumult: noisy, unkempt people wearing wild colours, fog barking, baby crying, TV blaring, bowls of chips and dips already savaged.’ This depiction is in direct contrast to Micah’s ordered life. However, there is a certain degree of closeness between the siblings despite Micah being the youngest and his older sisters’ teasing him for being ‘finicky’ and asking if it is ‘vacuuming day’ or ‘dusting day’ or ‘scrub-the-baseboards-with-a-Q-tip day’.

Enter Brink Bartell Adams, ‘a young man in a tan corduroy blazer’. Brink is described as a ‘rich kid’, ‘handsome’, ‘a boy, really perhaps not out of his teens’. As a catalyst, Brink creates disarray in Micah’s life by claiming to be his son. Micah is forced to confront not only his past in the form a prior relationship with Lorna, but his current relationship with Cassia.

As his routines unravel, Micah struggles to understand his family and girlfriends. Although eccentric, he is a loveable character. Will his world fall apart, remain static or will he be able to propel himself out of paralysis and take action? Redhead by the Side of the Road is a love story that is delicately written, compellingly ordinary and easily identifiable in its realistic depictions as well as disrupted routines, with which we can all identify.

Themes: love, friendship, habits, routines, second chances, misunderstandings, hope, family, sadness, loneliness.

All pictures and writing are my own unless otherwise credited. Permission must be obtained before any image reproduction and credit must be issued in any image reproduction or quotations. 

Hello!

This week I have read A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson from the YA Book Prize 2020 Shortlist. It is a page turning, crime thriller where, Pippa Fitz-Amboi, tries to uncover a cold case murder in her small town of Little Kilton.

For her EPQ (Extended Project Qualification), as part of her A-Levels, Pippa’s research is based on the ‘2012 missing persons investigation of Andie Bell’ as well as the ‘implications of the press in their presentations of Sal Singh and his alleged guilt’, both of whom attended her school. The EPQ forms the basis of her investigation.

The narrative is presented through the Pip’s first-person production reports for her EPQ, ‘my production log will have to be a little different: I’m going to record all the research I do here, both relevant and irrelevant’. Transcripts of Pip’s interviews are also included and written in interview format:

‘Pip: Do you mind if I record this interview so I can type it up later to use in my project?

Angela: Yes, that’s fine. I ‘m sorry I’ve only got about ten minutes to give you. So what do you want to know about missing persons?

Pip: Well, I was wondering if you could talk me through what happens when someone is reported missing?’

In addition, the story is interspersed with third person narration such as how Pip behaves when she gets nervous: ‘Oh god, this is what happened when she was nervous or backed into a corner; she started spewing useless facts dressed up as bad jokes. And the other thing: nervous Pip turned four strokes more posh’. The transitions between points of view are seamless and provides the reader access to Pip’s thought process as well as omniscient knowledge of the other characters and events.

The fictional town of Little Kilton, based on Great Missenden, and the murder mystery is exemplified through a map, detailing: Sal’s house, Andie Bell’s house, the location of Andie’s car, the school and the woods. All locations that feel as though they could be real, creating a layer of authenticity to the narrative and an unnerving sense of the factual buried within the fiction.

The atmosphere of mystery is established from the outset with the Singh house described as ‘their home was like the town’s own haunted house’ with children ‘daring one another to run up and touch the front gate’. This image is reminiscent of the mystery surrounding the Radley house in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mocking Bird where ‘Jem wouldn’t get any farther than the Radley gate’.

Pip has a Type A personality. She is smart, ambitious and highly organised. In the midst of her EPQ investigation, she tries to complete her application to Cambridge, prepare for a ‘pre-interview ELAT exam’, finish the ‘admission essay’ and take the entrance exam. However, the deeper Pip digs, her investigation has to potential to derail her future. Pip’s strength and intelligence as an investigator has hints of Riverdale’s Betty and Veronica Mars, unafraid and fact based, strong female protagonist role models.

Pip’s family is a reflection of contemporary families. Her ‘real’ father ‘died in a car accident’ when she was a toddler and she describes Victor (her step-father) and her brother Joshua, not as ‘just three-eighths hers, not just forty percent family, they were fully hers’. As a family unit they come in and out of the narrative, providing a support network and positive encouragement. Their closeness is demonstrated as Victor addresses Pip endearingly as ‘Pickle’. Victor adds moments of light relief in the narrative and is described ‘buoyant’. His actions are humorous as he ‘dramatically, gripping the banister reaching for the departing teenagers, like the house was a sinking ship and he the heroic captain going down with it’ while saying, ‘Fare thee well’.

As Pip works with Ravi, Sal’s older brother, they develop an ever-growing list of ‘Persons of Interest’ uncovering unlikely associations, lies and motives. With the detective skills of Agatha Christie’s Poirot and Miss Marple, in conjunction with the technology of contemporary society, Pip uses everything at her disposal: computers, mobile phones, photographs and police reports, in an attempt to unravel the mystery of missing Andie Bell, the supposed guilt of Sal Singh and uncover the secrets of a small town that hides a murderer.

Themes: murder, lies, secrets, deceit, truth, drugs, date rape, deceit, power, money, bullying, friendship, loyalty, belief, honesty, family

All pictures and writing are my own unless otherwise credited. Permission must be obtained before any image reproduction and credit must be issued in any image reproduction or quotations. 

Hello!

This week I have chosen to read Who They Was by Gabriel Krauze from the 2020 Booker Prize Longlist. A work of autofiction about growing up in South Kilburn, London, Krauze explores his young life of violence, drugs, murder, revenge and reputation but also of family, respect and education. The London Krauze inhabits juxtaposes images of London as a business as well as a tourist capital of the world and conveys a relentless, seething war that lies beneath.

Written in the first person, present tense, Krauze begins in medias res, ‘And jump out the whip and I’m hitting the pavement’ propelling the reader into his world and shockingly, into the mugging he is about to commit describing ‘And I’m creeping up fast to get behind her’. This is contrasted with the narration of when he is closer to the woman ‘I can smell shampoo and softness and then expensive perfume.’ This olfactory sensory impression lingers with the sibilance and walks a fine line between beauty and predatory. The violence of the scene when he ‘clocks she’s got a big diamond ring on her wedding finger’ is simply stated, ‘So I snap her finger back…it’s like folding paper’.

Written in a stream of consciousness, Krauze’s sentences vary from run on passages of action and imagery ‘and I’m running after the whip, inhaling the morning, glass needles of sunlight piercing through the sky and falling all around me…’ to sharp and simple, ‘I go to Uncle T’s.’ The brutal meets the beautiful as the language oscillates between slang, ‘I bell my boy Flipz like you brudda and I just got rushed by a whole bag of man in Grove’ and lyrical illustrations of ‘Grey clouds like heavy sponges tug on the sky’s skin and the sun hides its face from the city’ and sharp metaphors, ‘Two women in suits with bitter lemon-rind faces’.

Running parallel to the violence, jail and drugs, is Krauze’s experience as an undergraduate: ‘I’m doing an English degree at Queen Mary University’ as well as philosophical explorations, ‘one of the points that Nietzsche makes is that the morality is just a rule of behaviour relative to the level of danger in which individuals live.’ The oppositions of violence and education, different as night and day, often literally, as night of violence is followed immediately by a day of university lectures and seminars.

Krauze reflects on writing about prison as ‘feeling dead like I’m giving it something it doesn’t deserve.’ He furthers this portrayal using simple sentences and repetition that contrast with the long descriptions of violence, ‘Days without breath. Nights without silence. Dreams without sleep.’

In opposition to Krauze’s depiction of jail, his relationship with his family is poignantly reflected in how he missed Easter Sunday, ‘I’ve missed painting of the eggs with Tata’. This is a rare break in the armour and a realisation, ‘I don’t know what it is but I feel like somewhere out there I have lost part of myself.’ He further considers ‘time’ as ‘a strange land to walk through.’ This is particularly powerful, representing the transient nature of human life and that ‘this moment is just a whisper in the dark’.

In Who They Was, Krauze’s London explosively reveals modern life and its ghosts. It is a life that sits next to you on the tube, bus or university lecture. It is a life that walks the same streets and breathes the same air but oscillates on a parallel plane occasionally intersecting at tangents. However, amidst the despair, revenge and violence is an exploration of hope and what it means to be human.

Themes: despair, revenge, loss, death, betrayal, prison, education, family, love, hope, friendship

All pictures and writing are my own unless otherwise credited. Permission must be obtained before any image reproduction and credit must be issued in any image reproduction or quotations.