#1 of the Ruth Galloway novels – a series of crime novels featuring a Norfolk based forensic archaeologist and of particular interest to me given my i#1 of the Ruth Galloway novels – a series of crime novels featuring a Norfolk based forensic archaeologist and of particular interest to me given my interests in both Norfolk and archaeology (see my review of “The Janus Stone”).
This book (and the resulting series although the book originally was potentially a one-off) was inspired by the author’s husband who had retrained as an archaeologist and her Norfolk based Auntie (who told her many of the legends of the area) and was sustained by regular holidays to Norfolk once the series commenced.
In particular, as widely quoted, the author was walking across Titchwell Marsh, close to the North West Corner of Norfolk (and near Tichwell Manor where we celebrated my late Father’s 80th birthday) when her husband explained how “prehistoric people thought marshland was sacred. Because it’s neither land nor sea, but something in-between, they saw it as a kind of bridge to the afterlife. Neither land nor sea, neither life nor death.”.
Titchwell is also very close to Holme Beach – the site of the Sea Henge (https://www.explorenorfolkuk.co.uk/se...) – a 4000 year old Bronze Age timber circle (with an upside down tree at its centre) re-discovered in the late 1990s and controversially )with the opposition of the local druids but strong support of local birdwatchers) removed to Kings Lynn Museum.
Ruth Galloway is an archaeologist at the fictional University of North Norfolk outside Kings Lynn (my birthplace) and lives in a remote cottage on an isolated salt marsh (which reminded me more of Cley-Next-The Sea, Stiffkey or Salthouse but which is clearly meant to be much more Westerly and closer to Lynn). She moved there after a few Summers previously being involved in a dig with an inspirational and charismatic Scandinavian archaeologist – Erik Griffiths – as a group of them (including one of her now closest friends Shona an English lecturer, and he rex-boyfriend Peter) - uncovered another henge.
Ruth now specialises in bones and the book begins with her being visited at the University by DCI Harry Nelson – a walker has found some bones near where Ruth lives and he thinks they may be connected with the unsolved abduction of a young girl around 10 years previously. In fact the bones are nearly 2000 years old – which then leads to two interacting investigations: Ruth’s interest in the ancient burial and what links it may have with the henge (she is still in touch with Erik and comes back into contact with the eccentric Cathbad – who lead the Druid protests) and Nelson’s in the unsolved murder which is increased when another young girl disappears. The two stories become very interlinked and Ruth herself starts to be the subject of threats while Nelson is baffled by a series of letters he receives from someone claiming to be the abductor of the first girl.
I must admit I did not take an instant shine to either of the two main characters.
Ruth is rather too obsessed with her weight (to an extent I felt was uncomfortable), a cat lover (why – in Norfolk?), dislikes the second homers in the nearby cottage (which would be OK if she was not a furriner herself) and particularly dislikes her born again Christian parents (who for me are the heroes of the series despite their gross misrepresentation).
Nelson is a rather stereotyped Northern born policeman who strongly dislikes Norfolk (having moved for a promotion and stayed due to his glamorous wife’s successful beauty business) amd it seems Arsenal.
So I had initially hoped that George Martin style Griffiths would undermine the genre by killing her protagonists – but alas no.
But I have to say that the characters, their nuances and weaknesses did grow on me over time even if this does seem to be a series with many of the cliches of the genre (not least of which is far too much coincidence and repeated murders dragging in the same small group of characters).
The archaeological detail is interesting and the police procedural detail more convincing than other crime genre novels I have read (even if that is a low bar to cross).
I did also like the overlapping back stories – the story of the stone henge excavations and the way relationships forged there still evolve; and a backstory involving Norman and a police colleague of his killed in some Manchester riots leading to a controversial conviction of a rioter (who was known to Erik, Shona and Cathbad)
I also enjoyed (despite the pagan oddities of Cathbad and Erik) the ideas of liminality which were the book’s original inspiration and which permeate the writing.
The relationship between Ruth and Nelson developed in I thought a surprisingly subtle and believable way with the two coming together briefly for comfort after the grim discovery of a young girl’s dead body – and had rather a nice and promising twist at the end.
Some criticisms.
The villain in this case is I think rather too obvious in a kind of personification of Chekhov’s gun or a process of eliminate-everyone-the-characters-suspect.
The back two story lines overlap a little too much and a little too much with the main murders – the book is simply too insular in that respect.
I do not follow why Shona and Cathbad were not arrested for wasting police time – and to be honest I would have preferred them to be arrested for wasting reader’s time (but Cathbad alas looks like a permanent feature)
The cover features a picture of Horsey windpump – which while it may be in Norfolk is around a 100 minute drive from where the book is set (even more bizarre as the second book reaches a climax in Horsey Mere)
But definitely a series I will follow – not least as I bought the first 10 books in a special offer!...more
I grew up in Norfolk but spent very little time on the Broads, but now with a second home where North Norfolk meets the Broadlands, I have started to I grew up in Norfolk but spent very little time on the Broads, but now with a second home where North Norfolk meets the Broadlands, I have started to take day hire cruises in the area. At the same time I have started to collect and read books set in Norfolk and for some time have been interested in the Detective Tanner Murder Mystery series of crime fiction set in the Broads.
So when the first of the series was made available free on Amazon as a promotion for the series I had to give it a read.
The book starts in a very cliched sense but not entirely unpromisingly – firstly with the set up for a murder and then with an introduction to the hero of the series.
In the Prologue Jane Richardson, walking back to her Wroxham home, is confronted by someone she recognises but does not know who wants to “take back what’s mine”; later she is reported missing by her strangely distant husband Simon, leading to immediate pressure on the police as her father owns a nationwide brewing chain and is something of a local celebrity. Soon after a body is found by some holiday makers when it gets tied up in their propellors.
Tanner joins in the first few chapters – he has taken a strictly sideways but effectively downwards move as a Detective Inspector from the Met to the Wroxham branch of the Norfolk police. His marriage came to an end after the death of his daughter, dragged into the London underworld drugs and crime scene while her father neglected her parenting for his career. For want of better accommodation he is staying on a small boat. His move to Wroxham seems resented both by the Detective Chief Inspector (who favours local knowledge and resents having someone who has transferred for an easier life) and the resident Detective Inspector (who sees him as a rival). The missing person and murder investigations and their possible links only add to this tension.
From there on things for my tastes spiralled downwards.
Tanner forms an almost immediate but to me inappropriate bond of mutual attraction with a much younger (much closer in age to his daughter) and junior colleague - Jenny Evans: the two engaging in cringeworth banter which starts with puns around Jenny being a Horning girl and rapidly descends into Fnarr Fnarr territory. The author seems well known for a number of comedy caper crime series – but this book seems designed as hard-hitting fiction and the humour felt to me not just clunky but out of place as a result (albeit recent events have unfortunately shown that the portrayal may not be entirely inaccurate).
The main action of the book seems sustained by almost incredibly incompetent policing – ostensibly by the DCI (under pressure for results) and the other DI (desperate to prove his credentials and get one-up on Tanner) but with Tanner and Evans joining in – and by incredulous plot elements. Suspects are given high profile arrests on the immediate flimsy evidence; a person of key interest is subject to fatal assault despite being under police guard and a media frenzy (neither apparently bothering to check on the actual person of interest); two pregnant women are subject to apparent disembowelment without anyone drawing a link; absurd theories are formed as to how someone may have gained access to sperm which they can use for incrimination – all of which taking place alongside various apparently unrelated enquiries at a IVF clinic frequented by the person incriminated; the climactic scene of the novel ends with a policeman left to die and his assailant allowed to escape with seemingly limited attempt to prevent either and so it goes on.
And all of this against the actual motivations for the killings and their aftermath being extremely unpleasant.
On my first Broads trips we stopped off at St Benet’s Abbey. My avatar, a water lover true to her breed, decided to an ill advised swim in a drainage ditch which unfortunately seemed to be full of silage run-off – and was left with a rather unwholesome after-effect on her fur. The second in this series is set in and named after St Benet’s (which is one of the things that attracted me to the series) and this book features the opening of that book, which was equally unpleasant to my tastes.
Overall reading this book (and the prequel to the next) had the same effect on my mind as the drainage ditch on my avatar’s fur - however I suspect that was due to an ill advised choice of book on my behalf - I had assumed this was more of a police procedural series rather than a serial killer series.
So not for me although a series that has plenty of fans....more
I bought this book (published in 1948) from the newly re-opened second hand bookshop at the National Trust’s Blickling Estate (likely birthplace of MaI bought this book (published in 1948) from the newly re-opened second hand bookshop at the National Trust’s Blickling Estate (likely birthplace of Mary, Anne and George Boleyn) – the largest second hand bookshop in East Anglia.
From the book’s inside cover
In recording the fascinating story of the Bignold family from the time of his great grand-great-grandfather to the present day, the author records not only the growth of the Norwich Union Insurance Societies from a small local organisation to one of the largest British Financial Institutions, but throws interesting sidelights on English history of the last one-and-a-half centuries. The public life of an important provincial city, local and national politics, wars and crises, eminent national figures, all find their place in this account of give generations of an English family, which, from father to son in unbroken sequence, has controlled and directed a business institution whose ramifications are now world wide.
Thanks to the family trait of keeping correspondence , Sir Robert Bignold has been able to include many hiterhto unpublished letters from important men in all walks of life, such as the Duke of Wellington, Sir Robert Peel, Disraeli, Daniel O'Connell, Lord Salisbury and many others - all of whom have made their contribution to British history between the years 1761 and 1947.
As someone who has worked in insurance for his whole career post University (and did a summer role at University for Norwich Union), who grew up in Norfolk and now has a second home close to Norwich and who is interested in history (and studied the political and economical history of Great Britain in the 18th-19th Centuries for O’Level) there was much in this book to potentially interest me.
It was I found though a book best paged through and sampled than read cover to cover. The reason I think lies in the author’s style.
The very things which gives the book its insight (the fact he is telling the story of him, his father, grandfather, great grandfather, and great-great grandfather; his access to personal correspondence; his access to records of the Norwich Union and its various affiliates; his closeness to many of the issues either through direct experience or family knowledge) is what is also its weakness.
Too often letters or say AGM resolutions are reproduced in full in the text, disproportionately to the amount of explanation or context placed around them. I would for example have liked to understand much more about the way the first Bignold raised against the “for-profit” companies and the defense of his own mutual idea, and even more so to have understood a little more about his downfall which seemed to include a rather excessive zeal in disputing ostensibly valid claims as fradulent – simply showing what were presumably deliberately bland resolutions does not really give enough colour. Interestingly the author is much better at giving context to political developments.
And the writing style itself can be rather too formal and awkward – perhaps as would be expected from an insurance executive (a charge which can I suspect be aimed at my reviews also!). This is a book which would have benefited from a collaboration with a historian or even a ghost writer.
But there are fascinating aspects. Politically the Bignold’s (through to the author) were conservative (with a small and large C): whether it be the Repeal of the (anti-catholic and anti-dissenter) Test Acts, the 1832 Reform Bill, Irish Home Rule, the 1926 General Strike they were consistently pro the status quo.
Around the Norwich Union (and in particular the Fire office) a real highlight for me was a passage which sets out the memo submitted by the Directors to the Proprietors mutual owners setting out their research and risk assessment done prior to setting up a Fire office in San Fransisco (the lack of Wind risk, the reduction in Fires due to the superior building construction standards, the excellent water supply and Fire Brigade) in the late 1800’s, with of course no mention of seismic risk (which was I suspect not formally covered other than as fire following). A later section in 1906 captures really well the drama of the day of the earthquake (with the office open very late as the Society tries to assess its loss) but does not really go on to fully explain what then ensued in terms of settlement of losses and how it interacted with Cuthbert Heath's famous instructions to his agent (albeit there is a comment that the Societies and other UK insurers actions greatly enhanced their reputations which implies a similar approach to Heath).
I also found a section set in the years 1850-1856 fascinating for the global expansion of the Fire business (Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Belgium, Holland, India, China and Japan for example) and we are told “It marked the beginning of that huge business which now extends to almost all parts of the civilised world” – an interesting passage to read in a year when Aviva (the successor to NU) finalised its disposal of all business outside UK, Ireland and Canada – effectively reverting to a domestic player concentrating on its core markets....more
A very interesting account of fishing practices in North Norfolk in living memory at the time of the book’s publication in 2011.
The author (at least A very interesting account of fishing practices in North Norfolk in living memory at the time of the book’s publication in 2011.
The author (at least at the time of writing) had lived in Norfolk for 10+ years and was secretary of the North Norfolk Fishermen’s Society and much of the book is based on detailed interviews with fishermen who both set out their current practices and what they remember of older practices (including what they heard from parents) as well as how they see the future panning out (it is fair to say there is not much optimism of the willingness of future generations to embrace the change).
The book has a very strict geographical setting – from Wells, West and then South around the Coast to Sea Palling.
As a result it excludes:
Great Yarmouth - which I understand as the fishing around there was far more industrial (and in fact the negative impact of trawler fleets – both in forcing regulation due to over-fishing and in breaking lines of crab pots is a recurring theme) – this book is very much around small one-two man individual fishermen, and in fact the independence of the North Norfolk fishermen including even in their retail and wholesale distribution methods is one of the more striking aspects of the book);
East of Wells - which is perhaps more of a shame in my view as I spent a long boat ride in 2021 with someone who is a part time fisherman laying mussel beds around Brancaster.
The structure is by type of fishing (for example with chapters on the mainstay of crab fishing, the now largely ceased whelk trade or on herring fishing) and this works well.
The book covers all aspects of the trade: the boats used and how they are built and maintained and how they evolved over time (for example the classic Norfolk two ended crab boat); the design and making of gear – particularly crab pots and how they evolved over time; the ways in which boats were both launched and beached (a challenge from the shallow beaches but greatly aided when tractors were made available); the practices of fishing (including the gradual move to one-man operations with increased automation – such as winches to replace hand hauling as well as GPS, and a lack of youngsters entering the trade), the preparation and selling of the fish once landed.
The author is an archaeologist (an ex British museum conservator and Cambridge research fellow, with a specialism in ancient wall paintings in Egypt), as well as an artist and the two influences are clear in this book both positively and negatively I would say.
She includes a number of her paintings of fishermen in the book which is a welcome addition. However I did feel that the book was rather academic - she seems so determined to reproduce what she has been told and to add diagrams that there is very little attempt to add an authorial voice and explanation of the technical terms or interpretation of the practices and as a result I found the book very difficult to follow and one perhaps best enjoyed when finished.
The real core of the book are the two rival ports of Cromer and Sheringham and I found this documentary (the name including the nickname for the inhabitants of each town – Crabs and Shannocks) a very useful complement with I think some of the same fishermen featured.
I would be interested to see an update to the book for 2021 – as with changing regulations (including of course the evolving implication of Brexit), climate (crucial to fishing) and landscape (the North Norfolk coast is for ever evolving due to a combination of natural processes such as inland silting, longshore drift, cliff erosion and man-made ones such as flood management and other environmental choices and the influence of offshore windfarms) I suspect much has changed even in 10 years....more
My review of the 2018-2020 Road Books (which I read together in early 2021) – and which are a cycling Wisden or English language Wielerjaarboek, said:My review of the 2018-2020 Road Books (which I read together in early 2021) – and which are a cycling Wisden or English language Wielerjaarboek, said:
As well as comprehensive race results and infographics (and brief reports on the major races), each book contains some excellent essays as well as details on the results of each team.
Overall this makes the book a hugely invaluable reference.
If I had some criticisms and suggestions:
- I think it would be useful to have some essays either written in advance or at least written retrospectively but without hindsight – that set out for the classics and Grand Tours the pre race speculation and favourites
- Equal treatment of all World Tour races – with all receiving the same level of brief commentary on each race day. For the Grand Tours the cumulative effect of 20+ stages and often an associated essay gives them major heft – but the classics come out very badly (so that say the UAE Tour gets about as much coverage as the whole “Spring” classics): a route map, list of major climbs and more detailed write up is needed for the classics (or perhaps an essay on each monument)
- Decision for major tours to have a full page listing of the stage result with every finisher but only a top 10 for the GC – this could be remedied by having something showing the GC position at every stage for say all the eventual top 10 (or perhaps also the pre race favourites) – either as part of the stage or perhaps as an infographic
And the 2021 edition has pretty well the same strengths and (unfortunately) weaknesses – other than the very well written introductory essay which does set out how the season was expected to pan out and what did actually change (for example the greater COVID disruption, the Van der Poel / Van Aert duopoly not really materialising in classic wins, the unexpected renaissance of Cavendish) there is too little detail on the classics and not enough of an overview on how Grand Tours GC played out.
Nevertheless these books are building an invaluable library for future reference and reminiscences....more
Having grown up in Norfolk, having most of my family still living there and now owning a converted barn there – I have embarked on a mini project to rHaving grown up in Norfolk, having most of my family still living there and now owning a converted barn there – I have embarked on a mini project to read books either set in Norfolk or by Norfolk based writers and to store them in my study at the barn.
This book was therefore almost (see below) perfect for me – an extremely comprehensive survey of books written both about or in Norfolk.
The structure is distinctive and not necessarily intuitive. The lengthy book proceeds geographically around Norfolk, for each area then breaking down further into sub-areas (or towns), Within each of these all relevant authors are discussed – with in many cases a detailed history of the author or explanation of their book. The book is very much genre agnostic – classic children’s books are listed alongside crime fiction and literary novels. It is however entirely fiction based (although of course finding non-fiction Norfolk books is an exercise easily left to the reader)
This is a book that is best flicked through from time to time – and with a phone nearby so as to be able to order some books from Amazon or (secondhand) on Abe or Amazon – I expect to read a number of books in 2022 as a result of my first flick through of this.
I said the book was “almost” perfect – my only reservation is that it was published in 2003 and as someone whose real love is extremely contemporary fiction (I read more yet to be published ARCs than books published more than 1 year ago) I would love to see a new edition with an Appendix updated for the last 20 years or so.
I bought this book from the newly re-opened second hand bookshop at the National Trust’s Blickling Estate (likely birthplace of Mary, Anne and George Boleyn) – the largest second hand bookshop in East Anglia. When I visit that bookshop again I will make sure to have this book to hand as a reference to search for books....more
A compilation of contemporary (at the time of publication in 1995) written accounts of life in Norfolk from around 1900 to 1960, compiled by the NorfoA compilation of contemporary (at the time of publication in 1995) written accounts of life in Norfolk from around 1900 to 1960, compiled by the Norfolk Federation of Women’s Institutes, well arranged by main theme. The accounts are fascinating for their insight into Norfolk life (particularly country life – the Norwich sections were both less frequent and less interesting) over this 60 year period of great social and technological change.
The most interesting sections for me covered the Harvest period – and the village wide endeavour involved – fascinatingly for me I asked my Mum about her memories and there was huge amounts of overlap with the book including many things I had not known such as her time as a “ho gee boy”.
Overall this is a book which is consistently (and for me surprisingly) engrossing and informative and one I immediately gave my Mum to read. I understand an earlier volume was published in the 1970s and I am now trying to source that.
I bought this edition from the newly re-opened second hand bookshop at the National Trust’s Blickling Estate (likely birthplace of Mary, Anne and George Boleyn) – the largest second hand bookshop in East Anglia....more
A gem of a novel and one which was just as good on a post Booker longlist re-read. It also thankfully acts as a counter example to two if the most pernicious trends in literary fiction: that quality is correlated to length and literary merit to being transgressive or misanthropic.
It was also winner of the 2022 Orwell Prize for Political Fiction (from an incredibly strong shortlist) and 2022 Kerry Group Irish novel of the Year having previously been shortlisted for the Folio Prize - its length making is sadly too short for the Women's Prize.
Hilary Mantel, Colm Toibin and Damon Galgut all picked in the New Statesman Book of 2021 feature.
ORIGINAL PRE PUBLICATION REVIEW 9/21
A strong 2022 Prize contender.
Was it possible to carry on along through all the years, the decades, through an entire life, without once being brave enough to go against what was there and yet call yourself a Christian, and face yourself in the mirror?
Claire Keegan is an award winning short story writer, publisher of two short story collections. One of her most famous and lauded stories “Foster” was later expanded by her and published by Faber and Faber as a hugely acclaimed novella.
This her fourth book is also best thought of as a novella – on winning the rights to publish it Faber I felt captured it beautifully as “an exquisite wintery parable” – and although I read this book at the end of August I think it would make an ideal Christmas gift or holiday reading – it almost has something of the nature of “A Christmas Carol”.
The book is spread over less than 100 generously spaced pages – but I imagine for this author that is something of a wide canvass on which to paint, and she manages to capture brilliantly a man (his difficult past, his ostensibly happy present, but also his sense of disquiet and finally his decision to take a stand on a point of principle regardless of the cost), the difficult history of a nation and its infamous Magdalen Laundries and to make a timeless fable. And all of it rendered in pitch perfect prose.
The book is set in Ireland in late 1985 – the third party protagonist is Bill Furlong who runs a successful coal and timber business.
Bill was born to a single mother in 1946, who was taken in by the widow for who she had been working as a domestic. Bill was mercilessly teased at school for his status and lost his mother at 12, but had some stability from the widow and her farmhand who acted as something of foster parents to him – the widow then giving him some capital to start a coal and timber business. Now Bill is married and the father of five girls – the oldest two of which already attend the well-regarded local Catholic school. Bill at the time of the book is strangely disquieted at the poverty he sees around him (rather to the dismay of his wife who seems him as a soft touch) – but his crisis comes when he visits the local convent (which is also a laundry) only to be shocked by the mental and physical condition and predicament of some of the girls he sees there. The reassurances of the nuns and the warnings from both his wife and other women, firstly that the girls are undeserving and secondly not to take on the establishment power of the Catholic Church (not least due to the repercussions for his other three daughter’s chances of being accepted in the school) serve only to spur him on.
Overall this is a beautiful book - and a perfect Christmas present.
My thanks to Faber and Faber for an ARC via NetGalley...more
Now shortlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize - which (having first read the book in June 2021) lead my to a second read as part of a back to back re-readNow shortlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize - which (having first read the book in June 2021) lead my to a second read as part of a back to back re-read of the four Amgash series books: “My Name is Lucy Barton”, “Anything is Possible”, “Oh, William” and “Lucy By The Sea” (due to be published October 2022).
I think the best way to regard this series is as a series of three novels – which are ideally read as back to back due to the way they strongly complement each other and with the short story collection “Anything Is Possible” seen as more of a companion volume.
“Because I am a novelist, I have to write this almost like a novel, but it is true – as true as I can make it. And I want to say – oh, it is difficult to know what to say”
This novel is the third in Elizabeth Strout’s “Amgash” series – although perhaps better thought of as her Lucy Barton collection after the first novel in that series “My Name is Lucy Barton”. This book is I think best seen as a fairly direct sequel to that novel and best read back to back with it (with “Anything is Possible” a companion set of short stories which illuminate both novels).
As an aside I was typing this review while listening to the Women's Prize online short list reading event featuring Yaa Gyasi and Claire Fuller - and both when asked for a writer than inspired them picked Elizabeth Strout (and Yaa Gyasi specifically "My Name is Lucy Barton" for its depiction of mother-daughter relationships)
In that book we hear something of Lucy’s first husband William – of his upbringing (son of a girl who ran away with an ex German Prisoner of War on his return to America) and of the early disintegration of their marriage with its roots in Lucy’s spell in hospital which is the centrepiece of the novel.
But we do not hear too much as Lucy as a writer (for the conceit of the novel is that it is actually a book written by Lucy years later when she is a successful novelist – at least in the eyes of others) is unable to tell it, as she says there ……..
This is not the story of my marriage, I cannot tell that story: I cannot take hold of it, or lay out for anyone, the many swamps and grasses and pockets of fresh air and dank air that have gone over us. But I can tell you this; My mother was right: I had trouble in my marriage. And when the girls were nineteen and twenty years old, I left their father, and we have both remarried. There are days when I feel I love him more than I did when I was married to him, but that is an easy thing to think – we are free of each other, and yet not, and never will be.
But in this novel, set many years later, starts by contrast
“I would like to say a few things about my first husband, William. William has lately been through some very sad events – many of us have – but I would like to mention them, it feels almost like a compulsion; he is seventy one years old. My second husband, David, died last year, and in my grief for him I have felt grief for William as well”
As circumstances/events in her own life and that of William (the break up of a marriage, some news on his mother’s early life) both change the dynamic of the relationship between Lucy and William (and their two now adult children), while giving Lucy the chance to finally tell the story of her marriage, a story written in and around the story of what happens to her and William after these events – a story which, just like the conversations with her mother on the hospital bed allow Lucy to obliquely re-evaluate her own past, her actions and character and the actions of others.
Just as in the first novel the most heart-wrenching parts of the book are when Lucy reflects on small (or sometimes large) acts of kindness from others which she still remembers to this day - the impacts of which, the reader intuits, would astonish those who did them. And I think it is in that spirit that the moving dedication “And to anyone who needs it – this is for you” is written. In some cases also Lucy reflects on the equally lasting impact of more hurtful remarks or expressions – again one feels that the person making them would never have realised the harm of their remarks.
And this I think gets to another key part of the novel – Lucy’s increasing realisation that, despite being a novelist writing realist fiction, it is almost impossible to know what others think, feel or believe – a brave allusion for Elizabeth Strout as an author famous for what Hilary Mantel calls her “perfect attunement to the human condition”.
Overall I think a must read for any fans of Lucy Barton.
But when I think Oh William!, don’t I mean Oh Lucy! too? Don’t I mean Oh Everyone, Oh dear Everybody in this whole wide world, we do not know anybody, not even ourselves! Except a little tiny, tiny bit we do. But we are all mythologies, mysterious. We are all mysteries, is what I mean. This may be the only thing in the world I know to be true.
This (in 2022) is now the second I have read this novel - as part of a back to back re-read of the four Amgash series books: “My Name is Lucy Barton”,This (in 2022) is now the second I have read this novel - as part of a back to back re-read of the four Amgash series books: “My Name is Lucy Barton”, “Anything is Possible”, “Oh, William” (whose 2022 Booker shortlisting prompted this re-read) and “Lucy By The Sea” (due to be published October 2022).
I see the short stories of “Anything Is Possible” as more of a companion volume to the three novels.
ORIGINAL 2017 REVIEW
They had grown up on shame it was the nutrient of their soil
Really excellent companion piece to My Name Is Lucy Barton, a book which should have made the shortlist for the 2016 Booker Prize and which, if somehow combined with this volume into a more ambitious novel, would have made a worthy winner.
This book is a series of short stories about the inhabitants of Lucy’s small, rural hometown – Amgash in Illinois, all set around 15+ years after Lucy herself left for college without returning. The stories feature a range of characters remembered by Lucy or discussed in her conversations with her (now long dead) mother during Lucy’s hospitalisation in the first book, for example: the kindly caretaker who allowed Lucy to study in the warmth; Lucy’s brother and sister, when Lucy visits for the first time in 17 years their verbal acknowledgement of the various abuses they suffered as a child causes Lucy to have a panic attack; the Nicely sisters; Lucy’s cousins Dottie and Abel.
The stories and characters inter-relate with each other, and many remember Lucy, contrasting her wretched life in Amgash with her success now as a writer featured on television due to her most recent novel – a memoir.
Themes which lace across the stories include: family shame and humiliations; parent-child relationships and how they mature over time, while still retaining the deep imprint of their initial formation; hidden (or often not truly hidden but deliberately unrecognised) secrets over years in marriages and families; class divisions – rural poverty contrasted with acquired wealth but both with their own dissatisfactions.
However, as with “My Name is Lucy Barton” many of the characters either experience or strive to exhibit small, but profoundly affecting and long-remembered, moments of kindness and understanding and even at the book’s end as one character is being rushed to hospital after a heart attack, he reflects with a quiet contentment
This (in 2022) is now the fourth time I have read this novel - this time as part of a back to back re-read of the four Amgash series books: “My Name iThis (in 2022) is now the fourth time I have read this novel - this time as part of a back to back re-read of the four Amgash series books: “My Name is Lucy Barton”, “Anything is Possible”, “Oh, William” (whose 2022 Booker shortlisting prompted this re-read – and which tells the story of Lucy’s first marriage which she explicitly avoids telling in this volume) and “Lucy By The Sea” (due to be published October 2022).
I think the best way to regard this series is as a series of three novels – which are ideally read as back to back due to the way they strongly complement each other and with the short story collection “Anything Is Possible” seen as more of a companion volume.
ORIGINAL REVIEW (when Booker longlisted)
Lucy grew up in extreme poverty with a distant and troubled Mother and a war-traumatised father with violent mood swings (which it is clear from hints shaded into abuse). Studying hard simply because the school was warmer and is her only escape from home she gets to college – but the man she meets there (William) is part German which further traumatises her father (whose wartime PTSD haunted her childhood) and leads to a cut off in relations.
The book is set later in Lucy’s life but centres around a two month stay in hospital and particularly a five day and night stretch when her mother visits her (the first time she has flown) and the two gently and guardedly reminisce – never really talking about their life together other than obliquely by reference to a range of other families and typically their unhappy marriages.
Lucy, now a successful author, thinks back on her genesis as a writer, inspired firstly by her own realisation that it is only in reading that she feels understood an not along and a desire to help her readers in the same way.
Her talent is then kindled by an author whose writing class she attended (having met her previously in a shop where she was kind to her) and also the breakup of her own first marriage (which started while she was in hospital, but which ultimately was her choice) and her seemingly distant relationship with her own children.
She also thinks about various people who touched her life with often fleeting moments of kindness or even just of non-judgement (even in her childhood a solitary tree that she saw as her friend), and sometimes struggles with what actually happened and what she wants to believe happened or the tender feelings she wants to believe lay behind others actions to her. This is most clearly the case with her mother and her mother's visit crysallises her attempts to uncover her mother's love for her which she wants to believe lay buried beneath her outward actions and attitudes towards her.
A short but tender and impactful book – the most powerful feelings often lie in what is unsaid and unspoken. Similarly the book has been pared back and sculpted in a way which has pared away everything not needed and superficial, to reveal the true essence of the story. Even the book’s layout represents this – large expanses of white space and chapters which start half way down the page – she even thinks back on the writing of the author that first inspired her that
I like the books she wrote, but I can’t stop the sense that she stayed away from something
The clear theme is the relation between a child and a mother and the book finishes with a quote.
“Do I understand the hurt my children feel? I think I do, although they might claim otherwise. But I think I know so well the pain we children clutch to our chests, how it lasts our whole lifetime, with longings so large you can’t even weep. We hold it tight, we do, with each seizure of the beating heart. This is mine, this is mine, this is mine”.
Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer
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Books:
2022
(193)
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