Thursday, December 5, 2013

A Possible Life by Sebastian Faulks

                                    A Possible Life: A Novel in Five Parts        

Hardback: 294 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publisher: Hutchinson 2012
Source: Tywyn Public Library
First Sentence: Geoffrey Talbot was supposed to be a linguist, but spent most of his time at university playing games.
Favourite Quotes: 1. “Sometimes my whole life seems like a dream; occasionally I think that someone else has lived it for me. The events and the sensations, the stories and the things that make me what I am in the eyes of other people, the list of facts that make my life ... They could be mine, they might be yours.” 

2.“If not just the brain but the quirks that made the individual were composed of recycled matter only, it was hard to be sure where the edges of one such being ended and another person began.” 
3. “I don't think you ever understand your life - not till it's finished and probably not then either. The more I live the less I seem to understand.” 
Review Quote: "It does what any good novel should - it unsettles, it moves, and it forces us to question who we are" (Sunday Times)
My Opinion: A
n extremely profound and thought provoking novel





My introduction to the novels of Sebastian Faulks was in 1999 when I read Charlotte Grey which still remains one of my favourites from this talented author.  Sometimes I read a novel where quotes just seem to jump out of the page at me, another time it is hard to find even one for discussion at the book club I belong to. Sebastian Faulk's novels have usually been in the former category, A Possible Life was no exception and I am going to do something I do not normally do in the body of a review and include three quotes. These quotes are part of the essence of the emotional depth behind the stories.

 “Sometimes my whole life seems like a dream; occasionally I think that someone else has lived it for me. The events and the sensations, the stories and the things that make me what I am in the eyes of other people, the list of facts that make my life ... They could be mine, they might be yours.” 

“If not just the brain but the quirks that made the individual were composed of recycled matter only, it was hard to be sure where the edges of one such being ended and another person began.” 

“I don't think you ever understand your life - not till it's finished and probably not then either. The more I live the less I seem to understand.” 

While I was reading this and immediately afterwards whilst thinking about this review I had very mixed emotions about the whole concept of this novel which the author has called 'a novel in five parts'. Maybe it has something to do with the emotional year I have had in my personal life but I found this to be an extremely profound and thought provoking novel, just read again the quotes above!  If as one of the characters Elena ponders 'our brains are composed of re-cycled matter' it is difficult to be sure where one one human ends and another begins. Maybe this is what the author is trying to show us, how we are all subtly connected through shared encounters, thoughts and impressions.

Crossing continents and times from the 19C to the future this is a story in five parts.  An English teacher, a landlord of London slums, a French servant, an Italian scientist and finally a British record producer in the USA all share the drama of their particular lives and how lives can be shaped by love and opportunity.  There are links across time and place for example the workhouse and French cottage are mentioned in more than one part, plus the character in the future, has dreams about the past we have already read about. 
In conclusion this was an unsettling read but one which will satisfy his many established fans and may well draw in new readers as once again he has shown the breadth of diversity in his writing. 

Link to video on YouTube
Sebastian Faulks introduces 'A Possible Life'

I have read the majority of his novels, four of which I have previously reviewed here, I am including the links to them for those of you that might be interested.

Devil May Care  Engleby   Human Traces  A Week In December

Author Profile





Sebastian Charles Faulks CBE was born in Donnington, England on April 20th 1953  He is a novelist, journalist, and broadcaster who is best known for his historical novels set in France — The Girl at the Lion D'Or, Birdsong, and Charlotte Grey. He comes from an interesting family background as can be read in this biographical profile. 
He is the son of Pamela (Lawless) and Peter Ronald Faulks, a Berkshire solicitor who later became a judge. He grew up in Newbury. His mother was both cultured and highly strung. She introduced him to reading and music at a young age. Her own mother, from whom she was estranged, had been an actress in repertory. His father was a company commander in the Duke of Wellington's Regiment, in which he served from 1939 to 1946. He saw action in Holland, France, Tunisia, Italy (at the Anzio landings), Syria and Palestine. He was wounded three times and awarded an immediate MC after an action against the Hermann Goering Parachute Troops in North Africa in 1942.
His maternal grandfather, Philip Henry Lawless, enlisted in the 1st Battalion, 28th county of London Regiment, otherwise known as The Artists' Rifles in 1914, and served in trench warfare on the Western Front until 1917, when he moved to the 26th Battalion Middlesex Regiment and finished the war in Salonika. He was decorated several times and received the Military Cross in 1918, the standard Victory Medal, the British War Medal and the 1914 Star. He eventually left the Army and returned to work as a wine merchant - his father's original occupation.
His paternal grandfather, Major James Faulks (Major was his name, not a military rank) was an accountant who had previously worked as a schoolmaster at a private boarding school in Tunbridge Wells, while Major's provisions merchant father, William Robert Faulks, supplied dairy products in late Victorian Paddington.
Faulks' father wanted him to become a diplomat. He claims his first ambition was to be a taxi driver until at the age of fifteen, while reading George Orwell, he decided to become a novelist instead. In fact, he is the only member of his paternal family not to be a lawyer; his father and uncle were judges and his brother Edward is a QC specialising in medical negligence.
Faulks was educated at the fee-charging Wellington College and studied English at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he won an open exhibition and to which he was elected an honorary fellow in 2007. He took a teaching job at the Dwight-Franklin International School after university while also moving into journalism, becoming a features writer for the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph, and was recruited by the Independent as Literary Editor in 1986. He became the Deputy Editor of the Independent on Sunday before leaving in 1991 to concentrate on writing. He has been a columnist forThe Guardian (1992-8) and The Evening Standard (1997-9).
He continues to contribute articles and reviews to a number of newspapers and magazines and to broadcast regularly. He wrote and presented the Channel 4 series Churchill's Secret Army, about the wartime Special Operations Executive (SOE), screened in 1999. Faulks is a team captain on BBC Radio 4's literary quiz The Write Stuff.
Faulks lives with his wife, Veronica (formerly his assistant at The Independent), and their three children William, Holly and Arthur . He works from his study in a top floor flat of a house near Holland Park Avenue, ten minutes from his home, starting work at 10am and finishing at 6pm, regardless of whether he is writing a book or not.
He was appointed a CBE in the Birthday Honours List 2002 for "services to Literature" and he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1994.
Faulks supports West Ham United. He writes about this in "Upton and Other Parks," a contribution to the 1990 football book Saturday's Boys.



The biographical information and photo used in this post are with thanks to the following websites, where you can also find more information about the author and his writing.

Goodreads Author Profile    Sebastian Faulks - Biography  Amazon Author Profile  

Sebastian Faulks - Facebook   Author's Official Website

The Great 1953 Trek by Dulcie Beak and Diane Stuckey


Kindle Edition: File Size 150KB 
Genre: Travel Memoir
Publisher:  Self Published by Author.

Source: Purchased from Amazon.
First Sentences: It all started in March 1952. we had read in an English daily newspaper of a man called Hinchliff, who had just broken the Cape Town to London overland record in a Vauxhall car.

My Opinion A delightful narrative.

I do not read or review many factual books but I made an exception for this one and purchased for my Kindle as I am a reader of the author Diane Stuckey's blogs, which I do not believe I am allowed to mention in an Amazon review, so those reading this review there will have to do some research if they are interested.

It is a delightful narrative of a family's overland trip from Bath in the UK to Salisbury in Southern Rhodesia in a Land Rover converted especially for this pioneering trip which took place in 1952 when the second author was just a little girl. She has edited her mothers diaries of their adventures crossing Europe, The Sahara, West and Central Africa to reach their destination. What an amazing experience it was for this intrepid family consisting of Dulcie and Don the parents and their two children, Diane who was just 7 years old and her brother David 15 years old to complete a trek of over 7,000 miles in just a few eventful months.

I will not reveal any of their adventures here but just recommend this quick read to all that think they enjoy travel. To read what it was like to undertake this trip in the fifties when only the privileged few ventured abroad on holiday let alone undertook such a journey, is an eye opener.  Also included in this Kindle edition are some interesting photos from the adventure which add interest to the narrative.

I would like to see this taken further with a sequel about the families life in Rhodesia, having edited her mother's diary I believe Diane would make a good job of turning her own diaries into a book.


Author Profile.


Diane Stuckey
I have taken the liberty of copying Diane's own explanation about this book from her website, which she wrote I believe soon after her mother Dulcie's death if I understand this profile correctly.


Dulcie Beak (10 June 1915 - 17 June 2002)
Introduction by Diane Stuckey (Dulcie's daughter)
For years my mother Dulcie Beak had been saying that she would write a book on our trip in 1953 from Bath, England to Salisbury, Zimbabwe, then Southern Rhodesia.   I have her diary, photos, my (then very young) memory and copy of a rough rewrite of the trip which she did two years ago, still meaning to write her book.   I now hope to put this all together in her sudden absence and in her own words as far as possible.  I am the only surviving member of the journey, my brother David being killed in a car accident in 1959 and my father (Don)  passed away after a very short illness in 1993.  It is a trip that I would love to repeat , being older  and more able now to appreciate it so much more, but with all the political problems that are now involved in Africa, I know it is a trip that would be very difficult, if nigh impossible to do now.    I have kept all the names of countries and towns as they were at the time of the trip and this is how I intend to keep the narrative, so it is as close as possible to the situation prevailing at the time of the original diary.  No disrespect whatever is intended to the countries and peoples involved.  For those interested, I am sure that a current map of Africa would  provide the reader with a good idea of the route and the new names of countries and towns.  

The biographical information and photo used in this post are with thanks to the following websites, where you can also find more information about the authors and their writing. I mentioned in my review that it would be great if Diane Stuckey were to follow this up by writing a book of her memories of growing up in Rhodesia. Well she has in fact already started by writing it up in a fascinating on-line blog about her childhood. She also writes a blog about her ex-pat life in France. I have included links to both these sites in the list that follows.

The Great 1953 Trek - Website    My Life Before Charente     My Life in the Charente   

Up Close by Henriette Gyland


Paperback: 369 pages
Genre:  Contemporary Thriller
Publisher
 Choc Lit 2012
Source: Tywyn Public Library, Wales.
First Sentences: Prologue 'Through a pair of binoculars, the watcher saw the old lady's light come on. Her curtains were drawn, but when she stumbled out on to the landing, her white nightgown flapping around her like a a ghostly shroud, she was clearly visible for a moment.

Review Quote: Product Description Review From Amazon: If you're looking for a good page-turner, "Up Close" is for you. Ms. Gyland wasted no time in getting to the suspense. I'm a big fan of romantic suspense and this one reminded me a lot of some of the older classics of the genre written by Mary Stewart and Victoria Holt. I loved the setting and the author did such a good job describing it that I felt like I was there watching the scenes take place. If you like suspense novels set in England, and not necessary the big cities, this is one you might like to check out.
Literary Awards: Festival of Romance Award for New Talent (2011)
My Opinion: A thrilling début.


A thrilling début novel from an author I had never read before or actually even heard of. Picked up the paperback in the library as I find the publishers Choc Lit often have titles in their catalogue that appeal to me. Thrillers are not my first choice of genre and I was initially put off by the fact that this is considered to be a romantic suspense story in the tradition of Hitchcock. However I like to read novels outside of my comfort zone and decided to give it a try. The suspense in the storyline was intriguing enough to keep me turning the pages, although I found the descriptions of the Norfolk setting and the characterisations more gratifying. 

The Norfolk setting is perfect for this mysterious tale as the protagonist Lia Thompson returns home from America to sort out her grandmother's affairs after her death. It turns out not to be as straight forward as she had expected as it seems her death may not have been from natural causes. Although the primary plot is to find out how her grandmother died and why, there are sub plots where we learn of Lia's own past and that of local Aidan who knew her, but not well before she left the area. Aidan is carrying a lot of emotional baggage and the tension builds as these two become friends. The other important part of the story is the terrorist threats that local military bases have been getting. How do these things all link together? Well the consequences are devastating but I do not write spoilers! 

If you are looking for a novel with suspense and are a fan of the thriller genre then I would recommend you read to find out for yourself.


Author Profile




Henriette grew up in Northern Denmark but moved to England after she graduated from the University of Copenhagen, she now lives in London with her husband.  She wrote her first book when she was ten, a tale of two orphan sisters running away to Egypt fortunately to be adopted by a perfect family they meet on the Orient Express. 
Between that first literary exploit and now, she has worked in the Danish civil service, for a travel agent, a consultancy company, in banking, hospital administration, and for a county court before setting herself up as a freelance translator and linguist. 
Expecting her first child and feeling bored, she picked up the pen again, and when a writer friend encouraged her to join the Romantic Novelists' Association, she began to pursue her writing in earnest winning the New Talent Award in 2011 from the Festival of Romance and a Commended from the Yeovil Literary Prize.


The biographical information and photo used in this post are with thanks to the following websites, where you can also find more information about the author and her writing.

Goodreads Author Profile   Henriette Gyland - Official Author Website  Amazon Author Profile

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Bridget Jones Mad About The Boy by Helen Fielding




Hardback: 386 pages
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Publisher: Jonathan Cape 2013

Source:  Tywyn Public Library.
First Sentences: Prologue Thursday 18 April 2013 2.30pm. Talitha just called, talking in that urgent, 'let's-be-discreet-but wildly-overdramatic' voice she always has. 'Darling, I just want to let you know that it's my sixtieth on the 24th of May. I'm not SAYING it's my sixtieth, obviously. And keep it quiet because I' not asking everyone.

Favourite Quote:'They need to understand, now, that there will always - always - be someone greater and lesser than themselves and that their self-worth lies in their contentment with who they are, what they are doing and their increasing competence in doing it.'
Review Quote: "In this third instalment of the diaries, our hapless heroine continues to agonise over the tribulations of modern life large and small, from single parenthood and dating in the age of social media to the perils of the skinny jean." (Justine Jordan Guardian)
My OpinionAs a long time fan of 'Bridget Jones' it was impossible not to enjoy this laugh out loud sequel. 


As a long time fan of 'Bridget Jones' it was impossible not to enjoy this laugh out loud sequel.  Sadly to enable Helen Fielding to write the novel she wanted to about the plight of the single older woman, she had to kill off our favourite hero Darcy. Her wonderful gentlemanly husband would never have left her so despite knowing she would  upset her many fans, it is a shadow that hangs over this sequel. It is not a spoiler having told you this as the news was literally all over the media before publication.  However much you were a fan of Darcy do not let put you off this the return of Bridget with her latest diary.


Bridget, now 51 a widow for a few years, feels ready to start dating again. Despite the lack of plot and the somewhat unbelievable situations she gets herself into this is still a highly entertaining read. Not all of it is unbelievable though as her Twitter addiction, panic attacks over the children and her inability to cope with a plethora of electronic gadgets all ring very true!

If you are looking for a light hearted view of life for a single, middle aged Mum, then you will not in my opinion go far wrong by catching up with Bridget Jones. Just maybe do not take it too seriously then you will not be disappointed.


Helen Fielding Introduces Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy


NB: This video shows in draft form but does not seem to be appearing in published version, so have added link to YouTube as well. Helen Fielding Introduces Bridget Jones:Mad About The Boy

Author Profile




Helen Fielding was born in Morley, West Yorkshire, UK on February 19th 1958.   After attending Wakefield Girls High School, she then studied English at St Anne's College, Oxford and was part of the Oxford revue at the 1978 Edinburgh Festival, forming a continuing friendship with a group of comic performers and writers including Richard Curtis and Rowan Atkinson.
Fielding began work at the BBC in 1979 as a regional researcher on the news magazine Nationwide. She progressed to working as a production manager on various children’s and light entertainment shows. In 1985 Fielding produced a live satellite broadcast from a refugee camp in Eastern Sudan for the launch of Comic Relief. She also wrote and produced documentaries in Africa for the first two Comic Relief fundraising broadcasts. In 1989 she was a researcher on the Thames TV documentary “Where Hunger is a Weapon” about the Southern Sudan rebel war. These experiences formed the basis for her first novel, Cause Celeb.
From 1990 - 1999 she worked as a journalist and columnist on several national newspapers, including The Sunday Times, The Independent and The Telegraph. Her best-known work, Bridget Jones's Diary, began its life as an anonymous column in The Independent in 1995. The success of the column led to two novels and their film adaptations of which she was part of the scriptwriting team. 
Married from 1999 - 2010 to Kevin Curran, a writer/executive producer on The Simpsons, They have  two children, Dashiell, born in February 2004, and Romy born in July 2006.
Helen Fielding now works full time as a novelist and screen writer and divides her time between London and Los Angeles. 

The biographical information photo and video used in this post are with thanks to the following websites, where you can also find more information about the author and her writing.

Goodreads - Author Profile   Books by Helen Fielding  Wikipedia - Helen Fielding

Bridget Jones is on Facebook    YouTube - Publicity Video


The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out Of The Window And Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson


Paperback: 394 pages
Genre: Fiction
Publisher:  Hesperus Press 2012

Source:  Tywyn Public Library
First Sentence: You might think he could have made up his mind earlier and been man enough to tell the others of his decision.

Favourite Quote“Things are what they are, and whatever will be, will be.” 
Review Quote: 'A mordantly funny and loopily freewheeling début novel about ageing disgracefully' The Sunday Times
My Opinion: I
f you are a fan of farce this may well be a five star read for you, if not just give it a miss and find something else to read.




I read this for the Book Club Group I belong to and to be honest although I found it amusing, it was hard work. It is well written but was not for me the pleasurable read I am looking for when I choose a book to read. Billed on its front cover as an International Bestselling Sensation it seems mine is a minority opinion. Although I admit there were moments I laughed out loud, for example one character an idiot half brother to Albert Einstein, provided a few, as did the encounter with an air traffic controller in Bali.  As a matter of fact writing this review I have realised why I did not enjoy this book, it is farcical and I am not a fan of farces, so no surprise really! One thing it did remind me of was the fact that despite our age we should still treat life as an adventure, just maybe not such a far fetched one!

The novel starts on the 100th Birthday of Allan Karlsson as he waits in his room at the old peoples home for his party to begin.  A big event has been planned with press and the Mayor planning to be in attendance, most important guest though decided to disappear by climbing out of the window. This spritely centenarian then begins a series of episodic adventures  involving criminals, several murders, a suitcase full of cash, and incompetent police. As his antics unfold, we learn about Allan’s earlier life in which he was involved in a ridiculous number of major historical moments of the twentieth century. He helped to make the atom bomb, became friends with American presidents, Russian tyrants, and Chinese leaders. 

As mentioned already very far fetched, but if you are a fan of farce this may well be a five star read for you, if not just give it a miss and find something else to read.




Author Profile

Jonas Jonasson was born Per Ola Jonasson in Vaxjo, Sweden on July 6th 1961. The son of an ambulance driver and a nurse, who raised their son in Växjö  Southern Sweden. After studying Swedish and Spanish at the University of Gothenburg, he worked as a journalist for the Växjö newspaper Smålandsposten, and for the Swedish evening tabloid Expressen, where he remained until 1994. In 1996, he founded a successful media company.OTW,  In 2005 due to ill health he was forced to change his lifestyle. He sold his business and moved to a remote part of Södermanland on the south coast of Sweden, with his cat Molotov. After living on his own for a couple of years, he married a Norwegian woman in February 2007 and they moved to Ticino, Switzerland, where he concentrated on the book he had long wished to complete, The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared. It was published in Sweden in 2009. The marriage was not a success and soon ended in divorce. His son had however been born in the meantime and, after a gruelling time trying to gain custody of the child in both Switzerland and Sweden, he was finally successful. Since 2010 he has been living with his young son on the Swedish island of Gotland.

The biographical information and photo used in this post are with thanks to the following websites, where you can also find more information about the author and his writing. 

Goodreads - Author Profile   Jonas Jonasson - Author's Official Website  Facebook Profile

Jonas Jonasson - Wikipedia  Amazon - Jonas Jonasson Books




Italian Ways by Tim Parks


Paperback: 261 pages
Genre: Non- Fiction
Publisher:  Harvill Secker 2013

Source:  Tywyn Public Library
First Sentence: A train is a train is a train, isn't it? 

Review Quote: "All Italy is here, its history, its character, its flaws, and some of the things that Parks loves about the place" (Anthony Sattin Sunday Times)
My Opinion
An amusing and  fascinating  portrait of Italy through railways.



When my husband and I were planning our dream sojourn to Italy, back at the beginning of the century Tim Parks was one of the authors that we read as part of our research. Italian Neighbours and Italian Education in particular, both of which are a must for Italophiles, although they may now be a little dated in some aspects. I had not realised until I picked  Italian Ways  up recently in the local library that this is his his first Italian travelogue in a decade. 


An amusing and  fascinating  portrait of Italy by riding its trains from Verona to Milan, Rome to Palermo, and right down to the heel of Italy and Sicily.  With thirty years experience of travelling of on Italian railways he has plenty to reveal in this latest book.  Through encounters on the trains with Conductors and Ticket Collectors, Priests and Prostitutes, Gipsies and Immigrants, Scholars and Lovers he captures so well the distinctive moods of Italy and Italians, much of which I was able to relate to. 

In conclusion 
Italian Ways is a mix of Memoir, Travel and Train History that should appeal to many Italophiles.


Author Profile


Born in Manchester, December 19, 1954. Timothy Harold 'Tim' Parks  grew up in London, then studied at Cambridge and Harvard. He moved to Italy in 1981 and has lived there ever since. He writes and publishes novels, non fiction and essays. Amongst the awards he has received are The Somerset Maugham, Betty Trask and Llewellyn Rhys. He has also been short listed for The Booker Prize, in the past. He now lectures in Milan on literary translation and writes for publications such as the New Yorker and the New York Review of Books. He has done many translations from Italian including works from Moravia, Calvino, Calasso, Tabucchi and Machiavelli.



The biographical information and photo used in this post are with thanks to the following websites, where you can also find more information about the author and his writing.

Amazon - Books by Tim Parks  Goodreads - Author Profile  Tim Parks - Wikipedia 

Author's Official Website.  Facebook Profile - Tim Parks - Author

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

The Hidden Cottage by Erica James


Paperback: 372 pages
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Publisher:  Orion Books UK 2013

Source:  Tywyn Public Library
First Sentence: 'Expect the unexpected' was Owen Fletcher's new personal mantra.

Review Quote: The Hidden Cottage is a heart-warming, romantic story full of engaging characters, an emotional rollercoaster. (DAILY EXPRESS 2013-08-16)
My Opinion: E
motional and humorous story of love and sacrifice.

Erica James is an author I have been a long time fan of, since 1996 in fact when I read A Breath of Fresh Air . 
The Hidden Cottage makes the twelfth title I have read from her catalogue, so not many more to make it the full set.  I was surprised to discover though that the last time I read an Erica James novel was in 2009, when I read three, all of which I reviewed on this blog. They were Tell It To The Skies,  It's The Little Things and Hidden TalentsI have always regarded her writing as a thoroughly enjoyable read where you can immerse yourself in the story, not great literature but so much better than some of the novels regarded as ‘chick lit’or ‘romantic women's fiction’

The Hidden Cottage did not disappoint, an emotional and humorous story of love and sacrifice in family life. As always her characters are identifiable with those you may have met in real life, the author herself admits that 'she has an insatiable appetite for other people's business and will readily strike up a conversation with strangers in the hope of unearthing a useful gem for her writing.' 
The heroine this time is middle aged with grown up children, which is welcome for those of us of a certain age, looking for what I call a 'light but enjoyable novel to take me out of myself'. One does not always want to read about young protagonists in contemporary fiction.

Mia Channing, on the surface appears to have a near perfect life, lovely home in the countryside, her own successful business, a happy marriage and three grown up children to whom she is devoted. Appearances are deceiving though as behind this façade, life is much more complicated. When a newcomer arrives in the village in the form of Owen Fletcher, chasing a dream, he unexpectedly shakes up Mia's life.

Can a damaged heart be repaired? If this a genre you enjoy reading then you need to find out for yourself.


Author Profile


Erica James, née Sullivan was born in 1960 in Surrey, England, UK and she grew up on Hayling Island, Hampshire from the age of 4.  Now divorced, with two grown-up sons, Edward and Samuel, she divides her time between Cheshire, UK and Lake Como, Italy

 She began writing after attending a creative writing course at the Arvon Foundation, and published her first novel in 1996. In 2006, her novel Gardens of Delight won the Romantic Novel of the Year Award from the Romantic Novelists' Association. Erica James  is the author of sixteen best selling novels including her most recent, The Real Katie Lavender.

Apparently she has an insatiable appetite for other people's business and will readily strike up a conversation with strangers in the hope of unearthing a useful gem for her writing. She finds it is the best way to write authentic characters for her novels, although her two grown up sons claim they will never recover from a childhood spent in a perpetual state of embarrassment at their mother's compulsion.

The biographical information and photo used in this post are with thanks to the author's publicist and following websites, where you can also find more information about the author and her writing. 

Goodreads - Author Profile  Erica James - Official Author Website  Facebook Profile


Amazon - Author Profile


Monday, December 2, 2013

The Universe Versus Alex Woods by Gavin Extence


 



Hardback:  407 pages 
Genre: Fiction

Publisher: Hodder and Stoughton 2013

Source: Tywyn Public Library 
First Sentence: They finally stopped me at Dover as I was trying to get back into the country.
Favourite Quote: 'God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and wisdom always to tell the difference' (Original quote by Reinhold Niebuhr. 1892–1971)
Review Quote: 'This funny, touching first novel... Extence unfolds his offbeat tale with skill but his real triumph lies in providing such a memorable voice' (Sunday Times)
Literary Award: Waterstones 11 - 2013 List
My Opinion:  Well written début novel from a young author that I suspect we will hear a lot more from in the years to come.

This was a Book-club choice and not a title I would have picked up otherwise. It was an interesting read but I cannot really say it was enjoyable, but only because I was unable to build a rapport with the protagonist Alex Woods  a teenage science nerd . However this is a very well written début novel from a young author that I suspect we will hear a lot more from in the years to come.  He has tackled the ethical issue which is a major theme of the novel in an extremely sensitive way. Although the story line was not to my taste it was still an emotional and thought provoking read.

Alex Woods is a strong willed teenager with a fascination for science and particularly astronomy, after being hit by a falling meteorite. The accident puts him in a coma from which he does recover but leaves him isolated from his own age group by his strange background. When he meets Mr Peterson a pot smoking Vietnam veteran, the unlikely pair become friends.  Alex learns via Mr Peterson's obsession with the author Kurt Vonnegut that we only get one shot at life so have to make the best choices along the way that we can.

I am not sure to whom one would particularly recommend this novel, but if you have read ' The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night' it may well appeal.


Gavin Extence on characters in the novel


Author Profile



Gavin Extence was born in 1982 and grew up in the interestingly named village of Swineshead, Lincolnshire. He now lives in Sheffield with his wife, young daughter and a cat. From the ages of 5-11, he enjoyed a brief but illustrious career as a chess player and is still a keen player. He has a PhD in Film Studies, The Universe Versus Alex Woods is his début novel but he is already working on a second. Apparently when he is not writing he enjoys cooking, amateur astronomy and visiting Alton Towers theme park.


The information and photo used in this post are with thanks to the following websites, where you can also find more information about the author and his writing. 


The Serenity Prayer   Goodreads Author Profile    Amazon Author Profile    Kurt Vonnegut             YouTube - Gavin Extence