The Sea, The Sea - Iris Murdoch

Charles Arrowby has retired from his life in the theater. Once an actor, director and writer he has decided to get away from London and his friends. Now living in a cottage by the sea he begins writing his memoirs. The memoirs are really a reflection of all the people who have been important to him in his life. His mind keeps going back to his first love and so it comes as surprise to him when he discovers that the one who got away is now an old married woman living in the village. He sees this as a sign that they must be together and that he must save her from a marriage she can only regret.

I only just realised that this won the Man Booker Prize back in 1978. Prize winner or not I struggled with this book. Charles Arrowby is a horrible, self-centred, self-absorbed, delusional man. I mean it. He has no good points to him whatsoever. To be honest, I wasn't particularly keen on any of the characters but I especially disliked him. Which of course makes it difficult since the book is meant to be his memoirs after all.

So why did I persevere with it? Well, something would happen after long descriptions of the sea, his disgusting culinary expertise (turned my stomach) and his self-congratulations for being so wonderful. I then had to read on to see what happened next. It was a vicious circle. I would get annoyed eventually, put it down, pick it up again and sucked back in. Once I was 2/3 of the way through any intention to give up on it was gone and I had to see it through. Despite the fact that I disliked most of the book I did like the ending. It had a sad feel to it. Not sure if Arrowby learned from his reality check but I liked the fact that it was there.

I lied when I said there were no characters I liked in the book. Arrowby's cousin James was a fairly likeable character. He was the only one in Arrowby's life who had any common sense or lived in anything like the real world. He was the only one who wasn't so self-absorbed. He tried his best to make his cousin see sense and seemed to genuinely care for him (not that he deserved it).

Arrowby's first love and her family were also more normal than his friends, or more average anyway. They still managed to irritate me mind you and I wished that Arrowby would come to his senses and leave them alone. Of course she didn't help matters but mostly it was Arrowby doing all the pestering. Mind you, without that there would really have been no story at all.

I am glad that I read The Bell first because I very much enjoyed that. Had I read this one it would probably have put me off reading another of her books. I should point out that despite all my complaints about the book it was still very well written. Still, it was a relief to finally finish it. Not sure if this one will be staying in my book collection despite its pretty cover.

Snowdrops by A. D. Miller

Nick is a British Lawyer working for his firm in Moscow. Until recently he had kept himself to himself and just soaked in Russian life. He then meets the enigmatic Masha and discovers that for her he would maybe consider staying in Russia. Slowly Nick uncovers Masha's secrets but only too late. By then he is too entranced by Masha to do anything about it.

This book has been on my radar ever since I saw it on the Man Booker short list last year. I am fascinated by Russia and I loved Russian history at University (the very little we got of it). However, this book has to be one of the most depressing views of this country I have ever come across. Granted the country has gone through some tough times and the people there have had to do what they can to survive. This book paints such a bleak view though. Everyone in this book is corrupt and the impression that we are given is that the same is said for everyone in Russia. There is no such thing as a good deed or sympathy for fellow mankind. I am sure that this is a scoured view. Every country has it's good and bad.

Getting away from that and going to the plot itself I wasn't at all impressed. I guessed early on what was going to happen and did think the character was either naive or kidding himself not to know either. I expected some big twist at the end because it was so obvious and then that didn't happen. As I reached the end I wanted to toss the book across the room. I also never really too to Nick. He was selfish, arrogant towards his family and completely blind to what was going on around him.

The books saving grace is the writing. It is well written despite all that. Very descriptive and the words had a nice flow to it. It was also easy to read. Had everything else come together this could have been a great read.

Pigeon English - Kelman

Harri is a young boy from Ghana living in London. He loves life in the city although still misses his old home and hopes that his dad, gran and baby sister will soon join him, his mum and sister. One of his class mates has been murdered and he and friends decide to investigate to find the murderer. When he isn't working on that case he is trying to teach the local gang that their missions could be done for good but first he has to join them. He loves a girl in his class, trainers that make him run fast, Haribo and the pigeon that comes to visit.

I'm not sure how old Harri is meant to be but I assume he is quite young. Possibly about to reach his teens (anyone know what age Year 7's in England are). It's written from his point of view and it could be that he just seems younger because of the cultural differences. He has such an innocent way of looking at the world and believes that everyone is capable of doing good things. Then at the same time he is like a typical boy from London. It's almost as if he is trying to bring the two versions of him together.

It is quite a sweet story almost as Harri is very endearing. You can't help but like him. About half way through though I began to find that the writing seemed repetitive and Harri's continued naivety was starting to grate a little. I think it had more to do with reading the thoughts of a young boy.

The story did pick up again and I think for the last 70 pages or so I didn't want to let the book go. We know early on from Harri's own investigations who killed the young boy but Harri himself seems unawares and is slowly but surely getting himself into bother. In the end it was a good read and I have to admit that the ending surprised me. This book was longlisted for the Man Booker prize last year but didn't get further than that. Having since read a couple I don't think it was one of the stronger contenders but again it was an easy read which seemed to be the theme last year (in my humble opinion).

The Sisters Brothers - Patrick DeWitt

Eli and Charlie Sisters are guns for hire. They mainly work for the Commodore who sends them out when he wants rid of someone. Just back from a job they are being sent out on another. This time they are heading out West, to California during it's gold rush. There they are to kill a prospector who has reportedly stole something from the commodore. Eli isn't happy as his brother Charlie has been put in charge of the job which means less money for him. Plus Eli got left with the useless horse that he is determined not to care for. Along the way they come across many strange characters and manage to make themselves some money. When they finally reach San Francisco they discover that the job isn't all that it seems.

This was one of the books shortlisted for last years Man Booker prize. Although it didn't win (Julian Barnes walked away from that one) it has won other awards. These are the only two out of the nominated books that I have read and I very much enjoyed them both. I'm not sure I could have chosen a winner between these two alone.

That's not why I picked it up. It's a little different from my usual reads. Whilst I do like an historical novel I don't think I have ever read a Western based novel. I was intrigued by it. I quite liked that side of it and it certainly gave a good feel for the era. Riding by horse across America to reach the West, sleeping outside when there is no town nearby and not to mention Eli's visit to the dentist. So much more than that gave it the atmosphere it needed but I would be here all day if I was to list them. Needless to say it was well done and it worked.

As for the characters, Eli is the narrator of the tale (or tales) and as the story grows it's hard to picture him as a killer. You can see why his brother is the one calling the shots as much as Eli might not like that. Charlie in the end is the bad brother who has dragged Eli (unwittingly in Eli's case) into this kind of life. We see Eli with a conscience. He doesn't really like the job and he is the first to question the commodore's motives. We also see through the characters he meets that he just wants a normal life really but loves his brother too much.

In the end it's rather a sweet story of brotherly love. It's not so obvious at the start but by the end of the book I found myself feeling rather emotional for these two brothers.

The Sense of Ending - Julian Barnes

Tom Webster is retired and spends his days running a hospital library and having lunch with his ex wife. Out of the blue he receives a letter from a lawyer. It has been sent on behalf of someone he had half forgotten about and never expected to hear from again. This letter has him thinking back to his past starting with his school days when his friends and himself befriended new boy Adrian Finn. This letter makes him think that how he saw those times might have been different from the way others saw it.

This is the book I got out the library on Wednesday and read it in two hours. Somehow it seems funny that a 150 page book could win the Booker prize, especially when you compare it to Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall. Not that you can since they are both completely different. I don't think I read any of the other books in the short list so I can't say whether I think it deserves the prize or not. I did however, quite like it. It was a simple read and kept me entertained for a couple of hours.

It starts off with the narrator reflecting back to his school boy days and meeting Adrian. I found this section to be quite funny. These young boys are clearly intelligent but so full of their self importance. It would be hard to take if the narrator wasn't poking fun at himself and his friends as the tried to be different from their parents. Despite how short the book is you do get a sense of who the narrator is, or at least who he thinks he is. I quite liked him. He knew his own faults although perhaps not all of his faults but then we don't always like to review faults within ourselves. In the end he just wanted a quiet life and that was what he got.

I even liked him in his university days although I think this is where a lot of reviewers dislike him and this is where the main events really take place. He meets girlfriend Veronica who sounds like an absolute delight. However, all the things he talks about I put down to youth, including a rather cutting letter which Tom wrote in a moment of heat and upset. It all leads to Tom's present day mystery but sadly Veronica isn't telling. Which I found so completely frustrating. It's that old line "If you don't know then I'm not going to tell you". People aren't mind readers so I think it's understandable that Tom doesn't get it and so begins investigating his past.

I liked the reflection over the years. It was very easy to read as was present Tom's attempt to unravel the mystery. I don't think the ending quite answered everything though. At least not to my liking. We know what happened but we don't know how it happened. There is a very small hint but I am nosy and I wanted all the details.

As I said I quite liked it. Nothing to get excited about but it was a good read despite the fact that Veronica irritated me no end. I can see myself reading more by the author at some point which I think is a good sign.

Oh, one last thing on the small book subject. I'm not saying that a shorter book can't win prizes. It's just unusual these days for modern fiction writers to write a book in under 200 pages. It makes a nice change and I think that it takes talent to be able to do that too.