There’s just something about the way Joanna Trollope writes that makes me very, very happy when I see she’s produced a new book. Her latest, Daughters-In-Law, has justified my happiness again. Trollope is adept at writing several different characters at once, complete with individual tics and foibles, and she succeeds at doing the same again for this family of two parents, three sons, and three daughters-in-law.
The basic blurb for the story is that Luke, the third and last son of Rachel and Anthony’s family, is marrying Charlotte, who becomes their third daughter-in-law. The family is so dynamic and self-sufficient that the other two daughters-in-law, Petra (married to Richard) and the Swedish Sigrid (married to William) have simply fallen into its rhythms over the years. But Charlotte is determined that she and Luke will be creating their own family ways of doing things, and this creates conflicts with her new mother-in-law. Not only that, but it stirs the other two daughters-in-law to wonder just how they and their own husbands might need to pull away enough to gain more independence.
The beauty of so many of Trollope’s books is the way she can unravel relationships and then re-knit them, in a way that seems both inevitable and organic. Her scenarios rarely seem contrived, but flow naturally out of the natures of the characters themselves. And you really care about the characters. Trollope writes them so realistically and sympathetically that you can see their points of view — even if they oppose each other.
So while Charlotte is a little bit spoiled, you really understand why she does what she does. Yet you can see why Rachel feels as she does. You can understand why Richard and Petra have the troubles they do, even if Rachel and Anthony are caught totally off guard by them. You watch Luke become more wise as the plot goes on, which in turn helps Charlotte to do so as well. And the scene near the end, where things begin to knit back together again, is believable, uplifting, and heart-warming. The only thing that made me uneasy was Sigrid’s seemingly stereotypical cool Swedishness. Yet even that, in the end, is revealed to have a warmth beneath it.
This book deals in the dynamics of a close-knit family — and really made me think about how my own family, which is very similar, might be overwhelming to those who marry into it. (Sorry, T and G!)
Today I put my first novel — Helix – up on the Smashwords online publishing site. I made it available in almost any digital format you can want. I’ve been working on and finishing and polishing and editing and submitting the thing since I started it at a novel-writing workshop in 1998! And at last, at last, it’s out there in a public form. (With its own ISBN and everything!)
Here’s the synopsis:
If we suppress the impulses that inspire religious terrorism, do we also eliminate the spiritual impulses that lead to transcendent acts? Do they stem from the same source in the human soul, intertwining like the helix of our DNA, condemning us to an endless, deadly either/or choice?
Helix puts those questions to Peter Stewart, after the apparent suicide of his twin brother Jon. A century after the world was shaken by global religious wars, a United Nations government has brought peace by taking the teaching of religion out of the hands of families and spiritual institutions, controlling the doctrines taught in school, and not allowing children to declare or practise a religious preference until age 18. But Peter senses that the new peace stems from a deadness of spirit that has infected society, and he finds no inner resources to help him grapple with his twin’s death.
Only when he discovers a “religious underground,” fighting to bring freedom of religion back to the world, does his own spirit seem to revive. But behind this movement looms the prospect of reintroducing the freedom to attack others in the name of one’s own spiritual beliefs. Peter’s exploration of censored history and his struggle with this either/or problem interweave with his ambivalence about the dangerous project of the religious underground throughout the novel.
I thought I was excited two weeks ago, when I actually got my first very own ISBN. Or last Saturday, when I finally finished the very exacting formatting that Smashwords requires. But when my friend Kevin did the cover today, meaning I could finally, finally upload it — oh boy. Unbelievable feeling.
Eoin Colfer, author of the Artemis Fowl YA novels and several other books, is a very, very funny man.
In a recent book event and interview at the Toronto Reference Library, Colfer kept the audience laughing as much as he informed them about his work. He was actually in town promoting his newest book, Plugged, but naturally there was as much discussion of his other books as there was of that one. In fact, there is a lot to talk (and laugh) about, when it comes to this prolific writer.
Even when he writes a book like Plugged, which is a darker crime fiction novel and a decidedly not-for-kids book (“It has some bad words,” says Colfer), you can’t escape the humour. The book itself was predicated on a pun. And the main character’s constant inner dialogue resembles imaginary conversations that Colfer says he conducts inside his own head, with his characters, with reviewers, with interviewers, and anyone else who wants to join in.
He puts himself (and his friends and relatives) very much into the books he writes, yet surprisingly, Artemis Fowl is not his own alter ego. Artemis is in fact patterned after his brother, who had a very “James Bond mastermind” moment during a solemn picture-taking at a church. This brother, according to Colfer, is “quite pleased” with his fictional transformation. Another brother was the source for kleptomaniac dwarf Mulch Duggums, primarily inspiring Duggums’ rather “windy” characteristics. This brother, understandably, is “not so happy about it.” Holly the diminutive leprechaun, who is the moral centre of the Artemis Fowl books, was also patterned after someone Colfer knew: a plucky girl he used to teach, who was eager to learn, and who never backed down from anyone.
Discussions about Holly, and leprechauns in general, provided much of the laughter throughout the evening. Colfer mentioned that people are always asking whether Artemis and Holly will eventually “get together” — if you know what I mean. Aside from the fact that Holly is about eighty years older than Artemis, there’s another problem. To explain, Colfer leaned toward the audience and informed us solemnly, “I have a rule: only the same species.”
He also described how a doctor arose in the audience of one interview and pointed, his hand shaking with anger, to say, “That high a dosage of that medicine would have killed that leprechaun!” Colfer talked to him afterward, and agreed that the dosage should have been less. Another man in an audience said indignantly, “There’s no such thing as a female leprechaun!” So, as Colfer said, “I had to explain to him that there’s probably no such thing as leprechauns at all.”
Colfer plans another two Artemis Fowl books before the series winds down. He is also likely to follow Plugged with a couple of sequels. Airman, in his opinion, is as perfect and complete as it can get, so it’s likely to remain a standalone book. But the sequel he’s probably most famous for, and notoriously so, is And Another Thing…, a completion of Douglas Adams’ unfinished sixth book in the Hitchhiker’s Guide series.
Colfer felt he could never do the book justice, yet also felt he couldn’t say no, especially when Adams’ widow, Jane Belson, welcomed the idea. But even here, Colfer ran into some amusing sorts of trouble. He was on Facebook at the time (he isn’t now), and Facebook’s randomly generated “you might like this” page suggestions brought up a group wanting to stop Colfer from writing the book! So naturally, he joined the group.
Some writers view their work very seriously, and spend years and much angst as they produce their great work of art. Eoin Colfer makes sure to do a thorough and well-crafted job, yet refuses to take himself that seriously. And as the audience at the Reference Library discovered during the interview, that more light-hearted attitude takes him (and us!) a long, long way.
I just discovered the concept of the Little Free Library, and I am absolutely thrilled by it! People build a small box (weather proof!) in which they place about twenty books, and people can take one of the books as they leave another. The libraries look like big bird houses or small dog houses, some of them sitting up on posts, others on the ground, and others hanging on walls inside places like cafés.
Todd Bol and Rick Brooks of Wisconsin decided to “endow” these little libraries, reasoning that they could help build community and enjoyment for local people. So they founded Little Free Library, and people sign up to install and maintain a library of their own. They can order one from the original makers, or build their own. (There’s now a Facebook Group devoted to these Little Library builders.) And they can decorate these small libraries and make them beautiful: have a look at some great examples on the original art page!
Isn’t this just the greatest idea? It reminds me somewhat of Book Crossing, the program where you label a book and record where you left it on the website, and then wait for someone to find it and — hopefully — post that they found it, read it, and are passing it on. (The site describes the process as “releasing” a book into the wild, where hopefully someone “catches” it before “releasing” it again.)
Bol and Brooks started in Madison, Wisconsin, but now things are expanding. There are a few in Chicago, and they’re talking to Long Island, New York as well as other places. Hm…I wonder what would happen if some versions of the Little Free Library started showing up in Toronto!
I remember hearing that some non-fiction and semi-reference books were appearing in graphic form — you know, like the Bible and The Communist Manifesto – but now there are a whole lot more great non-fiction works coming to a graphic book near you. Many of these aren’t simply graphic interpretations of existing works either; these are adult reference books designed explicitly for the graphic form. The Brain Pickings site described a bunch of them a few days ago – Comic Books for Grown-Ups: 10 Masterpieces of Graphic Nonfiction.
Some of them are rather disturbing, as you can imagine from a title like A.D.: New Orleans after the Deluge. Just a glimpse of a few of the drawings really sobers you up. But this is a forceful way of giving people even a remote idea of what it was actually like in New Orleans after Katrina — and helping to understand how the right-wing federal government itself caused much of the damage, both by not keeping up with repairs on the means of prevention, and by giving help only to certain approved people afterwards.
And of course, as an editor, the graphic book I want most of all is The Elements of Style Illustrated. Unlike other editors, I don’t actually like the original book (I find something like Eats, Shoots and Leaves a much more coherent mini grammar and writing guide), yet I would squeal in glee if I got the illustrated version of the old Strunk & White book. It’s illustrated by Maira Kalman, and the few illustrations I’ve seen are delightful.
I’m a manga fan, though only a beginner, but I’m really enjoying the creativity of this new/old graphic form. These books look like they are packed full of great information, so they aren’t mere “picture books” substituting for books of substance. Imagine where they’re going to go next! Who says you can’t read comics as an adult??
I haven’t done this for ages, but I’ve been getting the hankering again. For anyone who isn’t familiar with the Teaser Tuesdays hosted by MizB at the Should Be Reading book blog, here’s how it goes:
Grab your current book.
Open to a random page.
Take two (2) sentences (and technically, that really means two, and really means sentences, not paragraphs) from that page
Post those two sentences, along with the book title and page number, so interested people can find them if they want
Do not post Spoilers!! That is, sentences that give away too much of the plot or some vital piece of information.
So here’s mine today, from A Version of the Truth by Jennier Kaufman and Karen Mack. It’s about a young woman who lies to get an office job at a university. And as she’s exposed to the knowledge and mind set at university, she herself begins to change and grow. So here’s the teaser (and of course I immediately break my “two sentences means TWO” rule, about which I feel surprisingly strongly; but “That’s odd” just had to be included because it was jammed in between my actual two sentences. Next time for sure!):
I feel energized, happy, almost as if I was playing hooky. That’s odd. I get the same feeling going to class that I used to when I cut it.
As London shopowners began the clean-up this morning, spokespeople for both Waterstone’s and W H Smith said they were unaware of any damage to their store portfolio. Both retailers’ management were meeting this morning to discuss the violence, which was largely targeted at electronics retailers.
This coincides exactly with what happened in Vancouver, BC, after the post-Stanley-Cup riot. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) building is situated in the area where much of the rioting took place, and one of the broadasters there reported an interesting phenomenon: a nearby entertainment store had all its windows broken, and most of the TVs, boom boxes, computer gaming consoles and everything else were stolen. But the huge bookstore next door? Had all its windows broken and didn’t have a thing stolen.
Pages of Hackney; in the riot area, but untouched by the mindless fools
This pretty much tells you everything you need to know. People who value knowledge and learning, who like to read and reflect and understand things — they don’t riot or commit unspeakable damage to others and their property. Of course there will be some exceptions, but as a rule, in two separate countries, this seems to be the case.
But people who don’t think, who move from entertainment to entertainment without thinking or reflecting, without valuing knowledge or understanding — they’ve now moved to the next stage of their fun-having. They are enjoying smashing and burning things. And some new electronic gear as a reward — wow, what a bonus!
Electronics stores/bookstores. The contrast, during a riot, says everything. The primary exception would be ideologues who want to burn bookstores because they don’t want anybody to think or acquire knowledge. But that’s actually the exception that proves the rule.
…and this sort of paper cutting has absolutely nothing to do with accidentally slicing into your finger with the sharp edge of that envelope flap!
If you want to see some of the stunning creations pictured inside the book check out the Chronicle Books Blog entry. Scroll all the way down, because the pictures just get better and better!
I could hardly put down Past Imperfect, by Julian Fellowes. It wasn’t that it was a thriller or that there was non-stop action; in fact, in some ways the book seemed to contradict some of what we’re told a “good” book inevitably has. But it was an intriguing history — of a group of upper class people in the 1960s in Britain, of a way of life that’s now mostly vanished, and of a misconception about two people that lasted more than thirty years.
The book follows a quest to discover which of several possible young men or women born to former high society debutants might be the secret illegitimate child of Damian Baxter, an extremely rich man who is now dying. Coming from humble circumstances, he’d managed in 1968 to worm his way into the London circle of the debs and their beaus, and had obviously had a rather busy time. But shortly after his last volatile encounter with them, adult mumps had made him sterile, so he has no heir. And the only person he can recruit to go through the list from which his potential child might be found is a man who lived through that year with him, and came to loathe him.
But the man (whose name we never know), for some reason even he doesn’t understand, agrees to undertake the task, and visits the women on the list one by one, without telling them why he’s reopened contact after all this time. Through his eyes, we see memories of who these women and their various men once were, what assumptions they had made about life, and what prospects they had. We meet young ladies from lordly families, from among the nouveau riche, and even a princess from a deposed royal family. All of whom should have brilliant futures, right?
And then we compare all of that to what actually happened, and what these people’s lives have actually become. It’s a sobering journey. Eventually the narrator, who had abandoned the old crowd to become a well-known novelist, recognizes how sterile and stagnant his own life has become. As he grieves at the warped lives of so many past friends, he makes changes to his own life. And he comes to view Damian, his former enemy, in an entirely new light.
Past Imperfect is a wonderful, very British commentary on what upper class life once was, and how things have changed — not always for the better, in the opinion of the narrator, though he has come to understand the shallowness of that previous life. One of the cover blurbs describes Julian Fellowes (writer, film director, and actor) as “the Jane Austen of the twenty-first century with more than an acerbic dash of Evelyn Waugh.”
And that’s where I chuckle, thinking of what we’re often told books “should” or “shouldn’t” be. We’re especially warned that the books should “show” and not “tell.” And yet the book’s narrator does a lot of introspection and evaluation of the history he remembers, and the relationships between the people. There’s a lot of “telling” in this book, but you don’t notice at all, because the history itself is so intriguing. The characters are so real and alive, sometimes their past and present selves simultaneously.
And when the quest is done, and we finally have the answers, the ending of Damian Baxter’s story is poignant. All we can do is shake our heads and think, “What might have been…?” But we’re happy to learn what great good still came out of his life, not least of which is the rejuvenated life of the narrator and, of course, the good fortune and noble aspirations of the long lost son and his mother.
I would highly recommend this book. I’m not that familiar with Evelyn Waugh, but I would agree that Fellowes is as good as Jane Austen at penetrating to the heart of society’s mores and practices. And if you want an even greater recommendation, Fellowes is the creator of the current PBS hit, Downton Abbey. That fact should have you rushing out to buy this book immediately.
Thanks so much to Matthew Rogers who posted the following video at Vimeo, having animated six minutes of a Stephen Fry audio file talking about language. The discourse itself is very good (and steps on a few toes, including mine), and Rogers really brings it to life. It was posted several months ago, but a thank-you goes out to my friend Tim, who brought it to my attention. Enjoy!
There’s just something about the way Joanna Trollope writes that makes me very, very happy when I see she’s produced a new book. Her latest, Daughters-In-Law, has justified my happiness again. Trollope is adept at writing several different characters at once, complete with individual tics and foibles, and she succeeds at doing the same again for this family of two parents, three sons, and three daughters-in-law.
