Jessica Harper Uncanceled

As we’re halfway (okay, past the halfway stage but I didn’t even have a blog in June so I couldn’t do it then) through the year, I thought I’d take a quick look back at the books I’ve read so far (there are no affiliate links on this page FYI). 

A full awards ceremony will follow in December (well, as a blog post anyway, don’t expect canapés), with every film, TV series and book ranked. For anyone tempted to chuckle at how lowbrow my reading tastes are, go ahead, I agree. 

My only defence is that I am in the process of reading Les Misérables (yes, the book, not the DVD cover), which should be eligible come December, and also Infinite Jest, which probably won’t! Both are highbrow. I have nothing to add to my defense.

Cinema Speculation by Quentin Tarantino I gave up on his first novel, Once Upon A Time in Hollywood, but this non-fiction walk through 12 movies (including Dirty Harry, Taxi Driver and Deliverance, the others being less widely known) that influenced him is a real doozy for cinema nerds. Funny, provocative and a lesson in observation and perceptiveness. 

The Passenger by Cormac McCarthy Unless you’re a devoted Cormac McCarthy nut, you’re probably wise to read a review or two of this to see if it’s your thing. I think the word is “opaque”. Newcomers are advised to start with something more immediately rewarding, like All The Pretty Horses, No Country for Old Men or of course The Road. The story switches between that of Bobby Western, a salvage diver in 1980s New Orleans, who is hired to check out a charter jet which crashed into the sea. It carried eight passengers but one appears to be missing and the subsequent investigation hints at a government cover-up. But don’t expect explanations and resolutions.

The book alternates between Western’s POV and that of his suicidal sister, Alicia (with whom he might be in love) and the tedious conversations she has with an annoying, wiseass called The Kid, the figment of her disturbing imagination. Think of these scenes as being good for you in some way, although you might struggle to see what value they have as literature or entertainment.

McCarthy even adds a tantalising dash (and it is just a dash) of the sense of threat that he does so well; the sense that very big and sinister forces know about you and cannot be prevented from disposing of you. Perhaps above all you read McCarthy for the beautiful, poetic prose and crackling dialogue and these are in abundance.

The book’s sequel, Stella Maris, which I also read this year, is entirely a conversation between the sister and her shrink, and is mainly about advanced, er, math, but on the plus side The Kid and his pals don’t make an appearance this time.

Stella Maris makes The Passenger look like Weekend at Bernie’s, frankly. But even if you don’t understand the math concepts, which surely 99% of readers won’t, it’s stimulating to be granted a sneak peek into big concepts and the preoccupations of great minds that we are not normally privy to.

(And it’s short).

This Dame For Hire by Sandra Scoppettone A friend knows I love private eye novels, or hardboiled fiction, to give it its proper moniker, and she bought me this at Christmas. The woman private eye protagonist is totally relatable and unpretentious and really makes it sing. I’ve already bought the next in the series, Too Darn Hot.

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle-Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg Packed with life, danger, heartbreak and romance, this is the story of tomboy Idgie and her friend Ruth, who back in the thirties ran a little cafe in Whistle Stop, Alabama, “offering good barbecue and good coffee and all kinds of love and laughter, even an occasional murder”. It’s pretty much unputdownable, my only criticism being that it takes time to get the hang of the complicated set of relationships. It felt such a fresh and original piece of work and I can’t wait read to the sequel.

Secret Service by Tom Bradby Pacy thriller about a top female spy’s hunt for a Russian mole who might or might not be about to play havoc with the selection of a new prime minister. It’s very similar to the spy novels of Stella Rimington and Charles Cumming and goes down just as smoothly, bar the odd “why would they do that?” moment. There’s a big old twist at the end but I didn’t feel he’d seeded it in sufficiently throughout the book for it to convince me, but I’ll definitely be reading the next in the series.

The Big Fix by Roger L Simon I love 60s/70s/80s paperbacks, not just for the musty character of them but for the size – that mass paperback size that is so much more appealing than the 9x6in that is now the industry standard. So that’s why I love my copy but apart from the physical pleasures of my tome, this hip private eye yarn is a dud. Richard Dreyfuss was in the adaptation! Who knew. A real movie curio (there’s a rickety version on YouTube here, which is how I got to see it).

Sadly the film followed the plot of the book religiously and neither is followable. This is very much of its time.

Close-up on Murder by Jessica Fletcher with Donald Bain I love these Murder She Wrote spinoff novels, they’re so cosy, albeit formulaic, and they obviously have quite a following as there are around 40 of them. This one’s about the making of a film that comes to Cabot Cove. The perpetrator is sufficiently well concealed. Escapist fun.

On Her Majesty’s Secret Service by Ian Fleming This was the only Bond I hadn’t read. I think I am more in love with my old editions of the 007 novels than the actual books (I love spy fiction but James Bond series isn’t my favourite, the pace and thrills are just a bit too tame for me).

Spook Street by Mick Herron In this outing, the disgraced / useless MI5 spies based at “Slough House” are embroiled in a plot involving sleeper agents in France. If you haven’t tried these and like a bit of espionage fiction, start with book one, Slow Horses. Apple TV’s adaptation of the first two books, starring Gary Oldman and Kristin Scott Thomas, is excellent, too.

Bridget Jones’s Baby: The Diaries by Helen Fielding Fielding goes back to the well one too many times, this time depicting “Bridge” pregnant with either Daniel Carver (Hugh Grant in the film) or Mark Darcy (Colin Firth)’s baby. I love these books but this seemed less funny than its predecessors, the humour too easy, too broad.

Savannah Blues by Mary Kay Andrews (klaxon sound effect) Unexpected hit of the year! Overlong and neither a mystery nor a general fiction, this hybrid is nonetheless a funny and freewheeling success. It’s a tale of divorce, revenge and antiques (maybe too much about the antiques) in sultry Savannah, Georgia.

Death On The Nile by Agatha Christie As has been noted by others, she’s not the greatest prose stylist but that’s clearly not what makes her famous. It’s the plotting that’s legendary, with everything fitting into place at the last minute. How she worked them out is beyond me.

On that score, I do like the sound of Agatha Christie’s Complete Secret Notebooks. And I quote: “Following the death of Agatha’s daughter, Rosalind, at the end of 2004, a remarkable secret was revealed. Unearthed among her affairs at the family home of Greenway were Agatha Christie’s private notebooks, 73 handwritten volumes of notes, lists and drafts outlining all her plans for her many books, plays and stories. Buried in this treasure trove, all in her unmistakable handwriting, are revelations and details that will fascinate anyone who has ever read or watched an Agatha Christie story.”

That’s got my book nerd name written all over it.

The fallen (RIP)

I regretfully abandoned Lessons Ian McEwan. I think of him as one of my favourite writers but this was just too dull. I gave it 200 pages, which I think is fair enough. The cursed flashbacks strike again! I wish he’d return to plots with some tension (Enduring Love, Atonement, On Chesil Beach); that’s what he does best.

How’s your first half of the reading year gone? Reviews? Recommendations? Stay away froms?

J x