I read eight books in August.
WhenI had a Little Sister: The Story of a Farming Family who Never Spoke by Catherine Simpson
When I went to the launch at Waterstones in
Princes Street earlier in the year there was such a large crowd they ran out of
copies. Before that, in March 2018, Catherine Simpson was a speaker and
adjudicator at the Scottish Association of Writers’ Conference and when I heard
her read from what was then an unpublished book I knew I wanted to read it.
(And I was delighted when she placed my story third in the competition she was
judging … ) Anyway, I finally got my hands on a copy and got it signed after
her talk at the Edinburgh Book Festival.
It’s a rich, raw memoir of her family,
generations of Lancashire farmers, and in particular her younger sister who
took her own life aged forty-six. That situation is, of course, heartbreaking
but this is not a depressing read (I don’t do misery memoirs); in fact it is
laugh-out-loud in some places because Catherine Simpson is such a good writer,
has an eye for the absurd and has a role call of relatives as fascinating as
those in any novel. (One reviewer described her mother as ‘a northern
matriarch who might have been created by Alan Bennett for a League of Gentlemen spin-off.’)
In her immediate and extended family,
though, there was little communication beyond the day-to-day stuff, as
indicated in the sub-title; maybe things might have turned out otherwise had
that not been the case.
The latest Anne Tyler. Love her, loved
this. There is no other writer who can make me feel so completely as if I’d
crawled into someone else’s skin. Sixty-something Willa, sinking into
retirement in a golf resort in Tucson, Arizona (she doesn’t play but Peter, her
second husband, does), gets a phone call from a stranger. As a consequence, she
finds herself flying to Baltimore to look after a child she has never met and
living in a neighbourhood much more colourful than her own.
Today Will Be Different by Maria Semple
Charity shop find. I read and enjoyed a
previous book by this author, Where’d You
Go, Bernadette?, which has now been made into a film. This one (which
will be an HBO TV series starring Julia Roberts apparently) is also about a
dysfunctional family of parents and their only child.
Animator Eleanor Flood’s plans for the day go awry in so many ways (a situation
we can all sympathise with although personally, and thankfully, I haven’t had a
day that went quite so pear-shaped).
There are some funny set pieces including
flashbacks to how she came to be estranged from her sister (I will be
interested to know who plays her grotesque brother-in-law if we ever get to see
the series here). Not the easiest book to get into but worth it in the end.
Katharine Fortitude by Margaret Skea
The
story of Katharina von Bora’s marriage to Martin Luther (whose actions changed
the course of Western history) – a period I was unfamiliar with (Germany, early
1600s). Margaret Skea puts flesh on the bones and makes the characters and the
times come alive.
She has
built up a picture of a very believable Katharina, from the little that is
known about her. It is, however, on record that Frau Luther was outspoken
(even, shock, horror, when she was the only woman in male company), something
that was disapproved of by many – but not her husband. Their highly
controversial marriage would appear to have been a very happy one.
Fresh-Air Fiend: Travel Writings, 1985-2000 by Paul Theroux
PT is probably my favourite travel writer; I’ve
read all his books about his epic train journeys. I didn’t know until I read
this about his kayaking exploits – round his own part of the east coast of the
United States and in the Pacific. Other chapters include: a visit to a bomb
crater on Christmas Island, the making of the film of his novel Mosquito Coast, his professional
relationships with other writers, and some book reviews.
Still Me by Jojo Moyes
Sorry to say goodbye to lovely Lou Clarke (Still Me follows Me Before You (or, as it’s known in our house, ‘the film that made
your father cry’) and After You). As
a consolation though this book has one of my favourite settings, New York, and
a great cast of completely new characters.
Following on from her rather unhappy childhood
in post-war Edinburgh when it was assumed that she join the family business, the
Copper Kettle Café, Anne Pia has fought, and succeeded, not to conform; today
she is a successful poet and academic writer. The happy legacy of the Italian
side of her family is her love of good food and there are some mouth-watering
descriptions, and pasta-cooking tips.
This is
a veritable feast of short stories. Includes: a Moroccan woman, a recent
emigrant to Spain, worries about what will become of her family; a woman of a
certain age encounters a street poet in Lisbon; three mysteries/crimes set in
Scotland; retellings of classical stories; a relationship goes very wrong
between an aunt and her nephews; a young woman forced into prostitution in
19th-century Venice; and the title story, about a schoolgirl’s wonderful and
elusive Uncle George and the presents he handed over … ‘as he descended from an
overnight bus from London, bearing yet another bowl like a sacred offering.’
