IQ84

I had quite high expectations of this book, based purely on the blurb and cover of course. It just looked like something that would be really good, and fortunately it was. It's got all sorts of elements I am intrigued by, including Japan, magic and cults. It also demonstrated the perfect way to maintain tension and to keep your readers hooked (something I'm trying to deconstruct in the books I read now that I'm writing again). Each chapter is told from one of the two main characters' perspectives. Usually when writers employ this trick, the reader tends to prefer one character, or one plotline, and so can feel slightly irritated at the end of a chapter, when they realise they have to switch. In the case of IQ84 I did feel irritated at the end of each chapter, but for a different reason - both stories were so good, and they so often ended on a mini-cliffhanger that I would be annoyed I'd have to take a break from one character. But then I would remember I'd felt the exact same thing just a chapter before, when I couldn't wait to keep reading about the original character, so I was always happy to be reading more about both of them.

It also raises very interesting questions about reality and perception: in short, how can we tell that the world we are living in is a) real and b) hasn't changed into something else without us realising. My pragmatic response would always be that regardless of any higher truth about reality, we have to live as if this is the only reality we know and always have known. Anything else is futile really, as we have no way of knowing any differently. There's only one moon in our sky.

NaNoWriMo

I heard about NaNoWriMo five days too late, although I don't have anything planned to the stage where I could start immediately anyway. It's a shame because it seems like a great campaign, to help and support writers to write 50,000 words in thirty days - a novel in a month. It also fits in very nicely with the 30 days to a first draft excerpt I've been reading; a month to plan and a month to write. All sounds very structured and quick and easy, although I'm sure it's not. Anyway, I've been following people's progress on their own books and trying to soak up as much advice as possible. The main thing I seem to have found is: Write every day, don't worry about the quality of the work - that comes later - just write. Perhaps I will wait till next year to start, or maybe just December. I'm working on an idea, and hopefully soon I will be at a stage of preparation where I am ready to just write.

On a brief note from Sweden, all my holiday reads were great. Well, apart from Written on the Body which was a bit too love sick for me, and seems to have the potential to irritate people both in and out of relationships. But Eat Pray Love I really, really enjoyed and the Snow Child was just as perfect as I imagined it to be. Perks of Being a Wallflower was also very good, but the film adaptation I'd seen was very true to the book, so it was probably a bit too soon to truly appreciate it.

Holiday reads: winter edition

It's almost holiday time again, and once more I am almost as excited to be choosing books for my trip as for the trip itself. Since I'm only going for five days, I'm trying to hold back on taking too many. So far, I've bought a couple of books from charity shops, including Eat, pray, love - which everyone says is much like the film i.e. not that great, but I thought if there's ever a time to read a find-yourself novel, it's on your first trip abroad by yourself. I've also got Written on the Body, by Jeanette Winterson. I decided it's time to try another one of her books, even though I love The Stone Gods almost so much I can't believe anyone who wrote it could write anything else that compares. It seems a bit illogical, as most people I'm sure would take that to mean that anything the writer has done must also be phenomenal, and so set out to read all their work. I've also reserved The Perks of being a Wallflower, since I saw the film and was incredibly impressed. Perhaps because I wasn't expecting much, but it was so moving, and realistic - even though all sorts of crazy things happened to a small group of people. I've been trying to figure out whether that is a good reflection of real life. I think maybe more people have strange and crazy things happen to them than we often believe, but less than what you see in soap operas, which cannot survive without the drama.

Anyway, I'm also really looking forward to having some time in a different place, on my own, to try and write a lot. I still want to write a book - actually more so now than ever before - but first I feel like I've got so many observations and ideas that I want to get down on the page first. My friend sent me a really helpful guide from the Guardian (How to write a book in 30 days) which I've been mulling over. It offers a lot more structure, which is possibly the less glamorous, but no less vital part of writing.

One last note about my holiday books - because I'm going to a very cold place, and it will be November, I think I've been unconsciously looking for books that incorporate that. Examples include: The Snow Child and Steel and Snow (Game of Thrones book 3). Notice a theme??

We need to talk about Kevin

Although I recently finished a book which I quite enjoyed, it's not really worth writing home about, so I thought I'd write instead about We need to talk about Kevin, despite having read it ages ago.

Warning! Spoiler alert.

I really liked this book - I thought it was incredibly intelligent and posed an uncomfortable question to its many readers. But apart from the concept, I really liked the main character, Eva. She is a very interesting character, who is made more realistic by the fact that she is so nasty. She is a mother who is very far from perfect, but not a monster of abuse, which appear to be the only two models of motherhood we are offered in fiction. She is not loving towards her son, but it's not because there is anything inherently wrong with her. She is simply, humanly flawed, and I love the way you can see aspects of her personality coming through in Kevin. Out of the whole family, they are the most alike, though Eva would not like to believe it. To do so would be to accept she is capable of a similar mentality.

My absolutely favourite part of the book (or the film for that matter) is when Kevin is sick, and Eva finally finally feels like a real mother, able to offer him comfort and protection. At this point, he drops the act and shuns the father who cannot see beyond his innocent facade and reaches out to the one person who understands him, even if he knows she does not love him in the same way.

But then you could argue that true love is the kind that knows exactly who you are and continues to love, sometimes grudgingly, sometimes in fear, but in an underlying, fundamental sort of way.

It is more like the mother and son are equals rather than a traditional parent-child relationship.

And I think it is her husband's incapacity to see the truth which makes me like Eva so much more, even though she is so very unlikeable. Shriver writes so that we understand her perspective perfectly, and can appreciate why she acts in such an unpleasant manner. She feels driven to it.

I also really like the fact that it is this narration through the eyes of Eva which suggests we are not getting the whole picture. If Franklin sees things so differently, it cannot be as simple as she is right and he is wrong. The truth must lie somewhere between her biased view of events, and his, in which Kevin is just a boy.

The Stand

Just made it through my first Stephen King book, The Stand. On the whole, I really enjoyed it and the book definitely improved as you got further through.

Things I liked:
The setting up of a new society in a post-apocalyptic world (excellent)
Good character progression
Interesting theological threads
The journey across America

Things I didn't:
The beginning. Too many people to keep track of, and too many dying in disgusting ways
Any of the characters at the beginning. Didn't start caring about anyone till quite late on, which made it harder to read at the start
The way so many people almost saved themselves, but didn't. (I realise this is good writing, to make me wish they would do different things, and makes them much more human etc.etc. but its still annoying)

All in all, it wasn't as scary as I expected - the premise is horrifying in a very abstract way, and characters' fear and confusion is described very well, but the fear didn't translate to me. Except perhaps with the weasels.

Under the skin - Michel Faber

This is fabulous! From the very beginning, the book is a bundle of questions that you are dying to solve. Who, or what is Isserley? What are they doing at the farm and why? As the truth unravels, it paints a disturbing picture of our own humanity. It is incredible how clearly we can judge people who engage in the same practices as we do - the distance allows us to see the error of their (and our) ways. Our hypocrisy is revealed with every wave of revulsion we feel for these creatures. It has made me think a lot, about the food chain in particular, but more widely about how easily we can seperate ourselves into an us and a them in order to justify terrible things. The scary thing is we do this so well that it can become very difficult to even realise we are doing so, that there is any underlying reality, a cold hard truth we would rather not face. And if we remain unaware of this curtain that protects us from what we are unwilling to know, it becomes near impossible to do anything about it. You can't fix something you don't realise is broken.

But back to the book, it is probably the most realistic, out-of-this-world story I have ever read. The lead character is so relateable, and she faces so many everyday pressures, alongside the scarier aspects of her life that we try to grasp. Even then, her pain and emotions are so vividly described that we can empathise completely. I don't blame her, even though she plays a major part in what could be described as an evil plot.

I want to know more. This is pretty much standard at the end of any good book, but there are still so many unanswered questions, even leaving aside the main ones. I am so curious about where she comes from, the mysterious Estates and why they were so bad, why such a mad scheme was concocted and how all this applies to our own society.

I think there is something very important in this book and would recommend it to everyone. It serves as a timely reminder that we are not quite as indestructible as we like to believe, but in a much more subtle way than many over-the-top commentaries of life on earth.

Overloading on dystopias

I'm really enjoying reading Farenheit 451, but its raised a significant concern. If I keep reading the same genre of books - over and over again - am I slowly but surely dulling myself to the effectiveness of these books to entertain?

I love future sci-fi dystopias so much that I actively seek them out. And since there are definitely a myriad of different ways in which the human race could quite plausibly mess itself up, along with the planet, I felt like the possibilities were endless!

But maybe I've been too greedy, bingeing on books which have such overlapping themes, characters and even plots.

I feel like I would have enjoyed Farenheit 451 much more if I had read it ten years ago.

It's a bit of a depressing thought that maybe I will have to start reading different things instead (I do anyway, obviously, but still). And my other favourite genre isn't really officially categorised as such, its just what I think of as 'heartbreakingly-sad books', making it difficult to identify a winner before I start reading.