Books what I read

5 Books read over the course of my holiday. Brief reviews follow

Jay Mcinerney - Bright Lights, Big City

Often likened to the works of Bret Easton Ellis, and written in a curious second person narrative, Bright Lights, Big City centres around a, likely semi-autobiographical, nameless protagonist, whose life has recently gone downhill, with his wife having left him and his career as a 'fact-checker' for a magazine appearing to become increasingly dead-end.

The novel tells a constantly enjoyable, though never outstanding story of a man who must come to face up to the failures and reality of his life, and Mcinerney manages to work in an impressive amount of wit to the writing that keeps it an enjoyable read to the end.

* * * * 4 Stars

After Dark - Haruki Murakami

After reading two works by Ryu Murakami, I thought Id give the surprisingly unrelated Haruki Murakami a try, and began with this short novella. Almost instantly Murakami's ability to create a startling atmosphere is evident - though I am always unsure how much of this is due to the translator - and before long a mysteriously surreal late night scene is created, with intriguing characters from the quirky Trombone player Takahashi to the 'sleeping beauty' Eri Asai. The novel progresses in a manor similar to that of a film, and, in fact, at times it almost seems as if Murakami was aiming to write a screenplay as opposed to a novella.

The end of the novella is frustratingly inconclusive, almost breaking off halfway through the story as nearly every loose thread of story is left, if not unresolved, then at least very much unexplained. It almost feels, however, as if this is not a problem, as the main draw of the book is arguably not the central mystery, but Murakami's beautiful prose, settings, characters and descriptions, and his themes of loneliness and isolation, that are the real attractions of his work.

* * * * 4 Stars

The Outsider - Albert Camus

Widely regarded as one of the all time literary greats, and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, this tiny novella by Albert Camus tells the tale of a man who, in short, refuses to lie about or 'put on' his emotions. The plot follows him as he presents no signs of sadness and remorse at his mother's funeral, before, days later, committing a, to borrow a phrase, 'random act of violence' that results in his imprisonment.

Very well written (or, again, perhaps just very well translated), The Outsider acts as a very interesting character study, and indeed, a fascinating look at the of views of society on those who will not lie or enhance their feelings to appear more humane to those around them. Mersault is an interesting protagonist and drives the plot to it's thought provoking end.

* * * * * 5 Stars

The Rules of Attraction - Bret Easton Ellis

Written two years after the excellent Less than Zero, Easton Ellis' Rules of Attraction follows the lives and romances of three university students, who form a curious love triangle including a bisexual and a gay romance. Ellis employs a variety of unusual literary techniques; the novel begins and ends mid-sentence, possibly to suggest that 'life goes on', one section is written entirely in French, and the first person narration constantly switches between the various characters, providing humour in the varying reactions of the different characters to certain situations.

Another device which appealed to me were the cameos made by characters appearing in other Ellis novels. Sean's brother, Patrick Bateman (American Psycho) makes an appearance when Sean goes to Visit his father in hospital, and Clay's brief appearance as 'that guy from LA' brought a smile to my face; 'people are afraid to merge on the campus after dark'. But still this cannot quite save the novel from the fact that the central characters are simply somewhat unlikeable, and neither Sean, Paul nor Loren have the same appeal as Clay or Blaire from Less than Zero.

* * * 3 Stars

Noughts and Crosses - Malorie Blackman

Having finished reading the four books I bought with me on holiday, and lacking the motivation to begin the epically lengthy Birdsong (Sebastian Faulks), I picked up this and began to read, remembering it as being one of the books which I had missed out on in my own youth. What I got was a surprisingly engrossing story set in a world where a racist black (or Cross) population rules over the whites (Noughts); an inversion of western society decades ago, presumably designed to force the largely white audience to be able to empathise with the characters to a stronger degree. Arguably this was not quite necessary and I, having begun the books thinking of the Noughts as Blacks, found it hard to rethink my mental images of each character.

The plot itself itself is a very clever one, with sections of the book mirroring real life happenings in the civil rights movement; most noticeable of these being the first day of school for the Nought teenagers into Cross school - a passage that draws largely from the events at Little Rock High school in 1957 (GCSE History, Pow!). Throughout the book Blackman is constantly daring, making plot turns that, given that Noughts and Crosses is widely regarded as a 'children's book', seem highly unpredictable and bold. I was all ready to put this book down for being too predictably child like, but Blackman never underestimates her audience and the novel ends on a devastatingly bleak note that stays with the reader long after finishing.

If I have one complaint it would be concerning the writing style, which often seems slightly immature, relying too heavily on the thoughts and constant rhetorical questioning in the heads of the two protagonists; 'Did he just say that? No, he can't of' which begins to grate fast. Aside from this, however, I was stunned. It seems strange but of the 5 books that I read in Sicily, it was in fact this,the only Children's book, that turned out to be the best. The central Romeo and Juliet-esque love story is one of the most complex and convincing I have come across in a novel, and I would be tempted to argue Noughts and Crosses the greatest piece of Young Adult literature ever written.

* * * * * 5 Stars