White Out by Ragnar Jonasson

"It seems to have been cold all the time in Blönduós, just constant cold, storms, snowfalls, blizzards and all sorts"

Its my turn on the White Out blogtour and I couldn't be happier! Like Jónasson's hero Ari Thór

I've fallen under the spell of the Dark Iceland series and of the remote and wild landscapes around Siglufjördur. Will White Out live up to the standard of the Icelandic crime fiction defining series so far?

Jónasson has a well honed talent for matching tense and troubled characters against a claustrophobic and often isolated setting and with White Out we're thrown right back into familiar ground. Thór is sent to investigate the apparent suicide of a young woman beneath the cliffs of a deserted village on the desperately remote North Icelandic coast; "the edge of the habitable world". The snow falls relentlessly as Thór meets the few inhabitants of this rocky out crop and soon discovers that the death mirrors that of the victim's mother and younger sister some 25 years earlier.  Jónasson expertly shifts the narrative from an Agatha Christie style 'whodunit' to a well paced psychological crime thriller about family secrets and hidden social truths.

As a slice of Nordic Noir White Out delivers in spades. The use of the lighthouse at Kalfsharmarvik is a well conceived motif which, like in Jules Verne's The Lighthouse at the end of the World, adds to the drama of a crime committed in a liminial space between the sea and the land. In one interview Ari's boss Thomas questions an inhabitant, Reynir,  about the 'call of the sea'. Reynir pauses before admitting "it brings a certain freedom with it". 

But its not just the settings that get darker in Jónasson's novels. Ari Thór himself continues to brood throughout White Out, the 'midwinter gloom...bringing shadows into his thoughts'.  This time however, we see Ari coming to terms with the idea of fatherhood. As a former theology student investigating violent crime on Europe's most Northerly edge is is hardly surprising that Thór falls for self reflective melancholy but that's to his credit, don't we want out literary protagonists to be flawed?

White Out is a great read, once again Ragnar Jónasson delivers a chilly and mysterious novel to remind us that Winter in Britain is not quite as cold and dark as we think.

I read this novel at home in cosy and warm Oxfordshire

White Out by Ragnar Jónasson translated by Quentin Bates published by Orenda Books, 276 pages.     

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Memoirs of a Polar Bear by Yoko Tawada

"I was nonetheless convinced that our Earth is enormous - otherwise the sky wouldn't be so large"

Memoirs of a Polar Bear has a completely unique premise. I really can't think of another novel written from the multi-generational perspective of a family of polar bears. But what's even more unique is the way Yoko Tawada uses this premise to create an allegory about life in Russia and later in East Germany during the Cold War.

Yoko Tawada is a Japanese author living in Berlin and writing in both Japanese and German.  The English translation is by Susan Bernofsky who manages not only the translation but the tricky job of making English readers believe the anthropomorphism with great success. 

The novel is split into three sections beginning in Russia with a polar bear who has spent a life working as a performer in a zoo. She reflects upon on her life on stage and upon the changing role of the circus in Russia during her lifetime. The pay off for accepting that a polar bear would pick up a pen and write her memoirs is that you get to experience the World from a wonderfully non human perspective  Part two concerns her daughter Tosca who is training as a performer at a Berlin zoo and part three picks up the story of her son Knut in Canada who finds the memoir of his grandmother from her time in Russia.

At times the novel reminded me of The Life in Pi; the way the bears speak with humans, to the extent that you actually forget they aren't human, was similar to Yann Martell's style. At other times I though of Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder in the way that Tawada manages to write convincingly about vast topics, like socialism in the GDR, through the eyes of a unlikely narrator.

Memoirs of a Polar Bear is a great story so long as you are willing to accept the allegory and take the leap of faith required to go on this journey with Yoko Tawada. My advice, go with it. You'll be very glad you did. 

I read this novel at home in Oxfordshire

Memoirs of a Polar Bear by Yoko Tawada published by Portobello Books, 256 pages.     

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An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro

"An artist's concern is to capture beauty wherever he finds it"

Inspired by the announcement that Kazuo Ishiguro had, perhaps unexpectedly, won the Nobel Prize for Literature I decided to fill in a couple of gaps by reading some of his early work. I reviewed The Buried Giant on this blog a couple of years ago and vividly remember the first time I read Never Let Me Go. I also have less vivid memories of studying the Merchant/Ivory film adaptation of Remains of the Day at University. You could say I'm a fan. Anyhow I picked up a copy last week of the beautifully reissued 30th Anniversary edition of Ishiguro's 1986 novel An Artist of the Floating World which includes a brand new introduction from the author.

The novel was shortlisted for the Booker prize in 1986 and went on to win other awards and acclaim that year. In many it was An Artist of the Floating World which established Ishiguro as one of Britain's most important contemporary writers.

The book is set in post World War II Japan and tells the story of Masuji Ono, an ageing painter, who looks back on his life and career through conversations with his family, friends and old students. Memories are vague and recollections blurred leading the reader with a sense that Ono is an unreliable narrator at best.  Ishiguro's own perspective might provide some context here. As a British writer born in Japan to Japanese parents it is feasible that his own view-point of distant Japan is somewhat a 'floating world'. Nevertheless, Ishiguro writes convincingly and very effectively through the eyes of a much older man reflecting upon the life he has led. 

On the one hand this is a story about an artist; the prose is painterly, elegant and vividly captures the colours of a particular image of Japan in the late 1940s and 1950's. The 'floating world' in the title seemingly refers to a pre-war pleasure district of bars and geisha that represents a ephemeral and seemingly lost Japan; "The best things, he always used to say, are put together of a night and vanish with the morning. What people call the floating world".

On the other hand this is a story about Japan coming to terms with the societal and cultural impact of World War II and subsequent American protection. Ono laments not only the demise of his career, as artist and provocateur, but also of his position in a society which seems no longer to revere its elders. This is seen most strikingly in the attitudes of his own children and grandson with whom he struggles to connect. Post war Japan is presented by Ishiguro as a place of contrast where society looks both forward to the modernity of the USA but in also back to an ancient Japan from which to weave together a new country.

This is a smart and evocative read from one of our finest writers of literary fiction (and worthy winner of the Nobel Prize).   

I read this novel at home in Oxfordshire

An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro published by Faber and Faber, 239 pages.     

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The Sparsholt Affair by Alan Hollinghurst

"But this was pure choice, it had the beauty of action, unlike the long compromise of being acted upon"

Beginning a new novel by Alan Hollinghurst comes with a certain set of expectations. We know from The Line of Beauty that Hollinghurst writes eloquently from the perspectives of gay men yet we've also seen in The Stranger's Child that his sparkling prose is so beautiful it fully deserves its place on the shelves marked 'literary fiction' rather than 'gay fiction'. So it is with a mixture of excitement and assuredness that I picked up a copy of new novel The Sparsholt Affair last week and dived in immediately. 

From chapter one we're in familiar territory. The story begins in the quadrangles of Oxford's colleges during the 1940s with a memoir from novelist Freddie Green that captures the impact of the war on the closeted collegiate world. Freddie and his cohorts; artist Peter Coyle and writer Evert Dax, are less interested in the nightly risk of aerial bombing as they are in the arrival of handsome and enigmatic new boy David Sparsholt. Sparsholt's athletic physique, Midlands accent and lively girlfriend set him apart from the bohemianism of his cohorts yet he becomes the centre of their world nonetheless. 

This section of the novel would have made a tightly written and sophisticated novella (Evelyn Waugh and Graham Greene would approve) but instead the novel switches gear and moves forward some thirty odd years to focus on Sparsholt's son Johnny who is trying to forge a career as an artist in 1970s London. The main point of this section seems to be to compare the life of gay men before and after the landmark 1967 legalisation of homosexuality and it works to a point. The problem is that as readers we're left wanting more from the cloistered wartime part of the novel in Oxford.

As the book moves from the Seventies right through to the new Millennium we learn more about the 'Sparsholt Affair' itself but not nearly enough. Yes there are some really interesting observations, off the back of 'The Affair', about the realities of being a older gay man in the new Millennium but for me, these almost belong in a different book.

The Sparsholt Affair is a stylish and sophisticated novel set in a  middle class world of art dealers and academics. The prose is shimmering and elegant and the narrative moves forward at pace across the sixty or so years the story covers. For me, the only concern is that that The Sparsholt Affair simply tries to do too much.
  
I read this novel at home in Oxfordshire

The Sparsholt Affair by Alan Hollinghurst published by Picador, 461 pages.     

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La Belle Sauvage: The Book of Dust Volume 1 by Philip Pullman

"There were things in the water that had been disturbed, and things in the sky too...."

I spent most of last week lugging around my new copy of La Belle Sauvage so as not to miss any opportunity to read a few more pages. Wherever I went the weighty tome came along like my own sturdy hard backed daemon. So addictive is the spell that Philip Pullman casts in anything that he writes that for me, at least, its hard to concentrate on anything else!

La Belle Sauvage is the first of a new trilogy of books that serve as an 'equal' to Pullman's classic chronicles 'His Dark Materials'. The story sets out to explain how his heroine Lyra ended up living inside Jericho College, Oxford, at the beginning of Northern Lights but at the same time La Belle Sauvage is an epic fantasy story in its own right.

Philip Pullman is an expert in the fairy tale genre having retold the classics himself in Grimm's Tales. La Belle Sauvage delivers all the classic fairy-tale tropes, and much more, in a piece of writing that blends Hans Christian Andersen with Tolkien. Anyone familiar with Vladimir Propp's Analysis of Functions in Folktales will immediately recognise the 'Donor' and the 'Magical Agent'. Pullman builds on the classic folktale structure to create a vivid new world.

The hero of La Belle Sauvage is plucky adventurer Malcolm an 11 year old boy who just wants to do the right thing whether by his parents at The Trout, the pub they run by the river Thames or the nuns in the priory where he helps with errands. Malcolm is an every-boy who readers can easily identify with; his curiosity, his tenacity and his willingness to trust is what drives the narrative forward.

La Belle Sauvage begins with a fair amount of scene setting but then becomes a tale about a journey after an unprecedented flood leads Malcolm and his friend Alice to set off aboard La Belle Sauvage to carry baby Lyra to safety. Pullman pulls of a classic villain in Bonneville a genuinely frightening and violent man with a fierce three legged Hyena daemon who relentlessly pursues Malcolm and Alice.  Like the brothers Grimm and HC Andersen, Pullman is never afraid to depict real fear and pain.

The pace builds throughout the novel as the chase tightens and the flood waters rise and its right here that Pullman introduces mythical creatures and witches taken from ancient folklore and weaved beautifully into an idiosyncratic version of England. At times I was reminded of Kazuo Ishiguru's The Buried Giant in the depiction of an England in which giants roam against an ancient landscape. 

La Belle Sauvage is a cracking read and now that I've finished I miss my sturdy hard backed daemon by my side. Not long to wait until Volume 2.

I read this novel at home in Oxfordshire (where better to read Philip Pullman?)

La Belle Sauvage: The Book of Dust Volume 1 by Philip Pullman published by Penguin, 560 pages.     

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The Nix by Nathan Hill

"Sometimes we're so wrapped up in our own story that we don't see how we're supporting characters in someone else's"

One of my absolutely favourite tasks is curating a reading list for a few days in the sun. There is, after  all, an art to achieving the right blend of titles to set your stack apart besides the pool. 

One vital component for the holiday stack is the longer novel; the story you can immerse yourself in fully from your sun bed making use of the well earned extra time a holiday affords. For my week in the sun I chose Nathan Hill's 600+ page debut The Nix which is now available in paperback.

For a debut Hill has created an incredibly dense and rich story with multiple perspectives which spans over a big chunk of the 20th Century from Norway to Chicago. This confidence was applauded by critics on the book's release who even claimed that The Nix would enter the canon of 'The Great American Novel' - high praise indeed.

The novel concerns Samuel Andreson-Anderson an acedemic and, somewhat failing, writer under pressure from his publisher to deliver his second novel. Out of the blue inspiration arrives when Samuel's estranged mother appears on the news having thrown grit, in protest, at a right wing Republican candidate. The case grips the nation and when the Media demands to know more about his mother, Faye,  Samuel takes matters in to his own hands and determines to understand her motives and more importantly why she abandoned him as an 11 year old boy.

The narrative flips between Samuel's investigation and the memories of his childhood. As his mother opens up we learn from her perspective what motivated her protest as the narrative takes us back to the 1968 student uprisings of the sixties. These sections are well researched and brought as vividly to life as oral history.

Alongside this Hill introduces a number of secondary characters including his childhood friend Bishop and his more recent friend Pwnage a fellow gaming addict in the virtual world of Elfscape. Personally I could have done without this particular side plot. There is a lot of story here and at times the pace needed some speed but at other times, particularly when writing about Samuel's childhood, Hill delivers beautifully sensitive storytelling reminiscent of Donna Tartt. 

The Nix itself is a reference to old Norse mythology and folktales told through the generations. Tales of The Nix have been passed down from Samuel's grandfather in Norway and it is these stories which ultimately draw Faye back to Europe to discover her own childhood story. If The Nix is to be considered one of the great American novels then its due to Hill's ability to articulate a truly American story through the eyes of their non American forebears.

So did Hill take on too much with The Nix? Possibly, though his writing style is accessible and clear for me there is an editing job to be done.  Had I been reading this is in my normal 20 to 30 mins sittings, rather than in hours spent on the sun-bed, I may've struggled more.

I read this novel by the pool in Lanzarote.

The Nix by Nathan Hill published by Picador, 640 pages.     

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3 of the best: Dystopian fiction

3 of the best: Dystopian fiction

  

Highrise by J.G. Ballard

A great read with an unforgettable first opening sentence that will hook you in whether browsing in the library/bookshop or trying a kindle sample. Your perfect hit of post-apocalyptic mayhem.

208 pages, published by Liveright

Hard Boiled Wonderland and The End of the World by Haruki Murakami

Set in a near future Tokyo this Murakami classic blends cyber-punk with science fiction yet refuses to conform to either genre. Pure Neo-Noir Japanese style.

416 pages, published by Vintage

The Heart Goes Last by Margaret Atwood

This is Atwood at her most zany. Expect sexual fantasies, organ harvesting, sex-bots and Elvis impersonators all convincing served up with a domestic tale about a couple just trying to get on in life.

322 pages, published by Virago

Read the full reviews on the blog - use the search box to find your next read