The Forgotten Garden - Kate Morton

Now I did slate this book a little to be fair.  I actually put it back on the shelf and left it there for a month or two because it just didn't grab me as it should have.  However, I went back to it due to my dwindling lack of reading material over the Christmas/New Year's break and read it from cover to cover.  I am pleased that I gave it another go and read it again however I don't think I will be in any great hurry to read it again.

The essential plot of the book revolves around three strong female characters, each damaged by traumatic events in their lives who learn the truth of their heritage in different ways.  The mysterious Authoress, abandoned and broken Nell, and Cassandra, also abandoned by her mother and damaged by the loss of her husband and child.  Each chapter is told by a different character, in a different setting (either in Australia or England) and in a different year - 1913, 1975 and 2005.  

There is a lot of jumping around in this novel and it may have that which was off putting initially.  We go from Cassandra being abandoned by her less than useful mother at the door of her grandmother's (Nell) house to Nell herself arriving in Brisbane literally off the boat alone and by herself with no knowledge of who she was or where she had come from, with only the memory of a woman called the Authoress.  The bulk of the book revolves around Cassandra's resolve to find out about the property Nell has left her and her discovery of who she is and where she came from.   The book concludes with the revelation of the big dirty and disturbing family secret (and a number of smaller just as manky family secrets),  the problem with this is that you can see the resolution coming a mile away.

This book isn't pulp fiction - it is twice the size of a small novel - at 645 pages it is a bit of a tome to be honest.  It is around the same size as a Gabaldon book without the class.  It reads as an okay attempt at gothic type literature, it justs fails to meet the mark for me.  Although having said that a number of people have enjoyed it according to Amazon.com reviews - I wondered if they were reading the same book as I was.

Verdict: Okay, just okay. I'm in no hurry to read it again.   Read it if you are killing time in an airport on a long haul flight.

S.

The books, for my sins, that I forgot

So I stopped writing last night about books and thought I should finish the list of recently read books that, for the author's sins, may or may not deserve a mention.

The Road - Cormac McCarthy

One of the reasons I neglected this book is I read it in one sitting on the train from Glasgow to Birmingham.  The book has been slated by those in the know as a masterpiece and a real piece of literature - which often condemns the book to the bookshelf rather than a pair of warm hands.  I have to say whilst it was a well written boy I felt like saying to McCarthy give the boy a bone ffs!  It is just relentless in its bleakness and nothingness.  I don't feel like there was gratuitous violence in there - and the cannibalism I don't think was out of place.  I just found it a little unsatisfying as a read - possibly as the resolution at the end wasn't a resolution and the story felt unfinished.   Note to authors: you are allowed to stop the story dead, there doesn't have to be redemption.

Im okay I read it - don't know if I would read it again - it might be like the last of the mohicans - where I really like the movie (which is very unusual for me) and don't like the book.

The Suspicions of Mr Whicher or the Murder at Road Hill House by Kate Summerscale

I liked this book - even though it was about a historical murder mystery.  I liked it.  It was interesting and well researched.  I wont tell you the best bit cause that would ruin it but I liked it.  Essentially it is the story of the investigation, by Jack Whicher, into the death of a 3 year old boy at Road Hill house - gotta love a Victorian murder mystery.  Interesting characters - all of them - uncomfortable house dynamics - makes for a good read.   Unexpected ending and probably wouldn't happen today.  Read it.

Gordon Ramsay's Playing with Fire - Gordon Ramsay

I gave up on this book.  It was interesting for the first half of the book.  You have to give the guy kudos he married the right woman and inherited her father's business nouse and money.   That and he can cook - even if he is a bit of a knob.  I got bored is what it was - the book goes like this:  I got married, father in law decided to hitch his star to me and we opened a restaurant and then I hired this person who went on to make this (insert name) restaurant an enormous success (bask in my glory I taught this person everything they know), and it goes on and on and on.  Ad Nauseum.

Maybe you will enjoy it more than I, but I am unlikely to read it again.

Scarpetta - Patricia Cornwell

I liked Kay Scarpetta as a character.  I enjoyed the books when they first came out - I read the majority of them more than once.  However, I found the books became less and less enjoyable the more she published - I have had the same feeling with Kathy Reichs (although I do enjoy her books).  So I stopped reading them.  So whilst browsing in WH Smiths at Stanstead there was a 3 for 2 deal (which I find hard to turn down) so I brought it.  I liked it.  Pulp fluff but I liked it - the story was a bit (okay a lot) of a stretch and suspension of disbelief was a little hard, dwarfs and all.  Should I find myself without a book to read I would read it again to kill time.

Small Island - Andrea Levy

I tried to like this book.  I made the effort to read it but gave up a quarter of the way in.  It just didnt do anything for me.  I even made myself watch the BBC version on Iplayer thinking that might spark an interest in re-reading the book - nope, not even a little bit.  I forced myself to watch the second half.   You would think that coming from New Zealand I would understand the whole dominion thing and how Britain really was the Mother land and how our "Boys" had gone off to fight a war not once but twice as cannon fodder.  I do, I get that - but I think this books problem was there was nothing for me to hang my hat on so to speak - to associate myself with.  The book revolves around Queenie and her own personal disillusionment and trials within the context of WWII london and immediately following the war.  It also follows the story of Gilbert and Hortense who travel from Jamaica to England to settle.   Intially Gilbert goes to the UK to be part of the RAF but never flies due to prejudicial superiors, he returns to Jamaica where Hortense offers him a deal.   The book looks at prejudices encountered by Jamaicans who immigrated to England in WWII or directly after.  TBH wont be reading it again - it feels like hard work, books shouldn't read like that.

The Forgotten Garden - Kate Morton (Currently reading)

I brought this second hand - I do most books, although tbh the cost of books in the UK is cheap compared to home - I still like to trawl the second hand book stalls.  I started out reading it but couldn't make it through the first chapter - it didn't grab me.  So I put it back on the shelf and left it there until yesterday when I in search of something to read as my christmas reading list had run out.  It has improved, but I say that tentatively as I'm only a quarter of my way through it.  It is essentially the story of Nell and her grand daughter Cassandra and a big bad dirty whanau secret.  Im undecided on this one as I haven't finished it yet.

Now off to finish my to be read during 2010.

S.