When Death comes calling...

What makes this story unique and a novel enjoyed by both young and old is due primarily  to two outstanding elements. First, is the use of "Death" as the narrator; Death is devoid of all emotion and his role is simple that of an impartial observer and the story teller of events as they unfold. He retains no particular allegiance to those who die either as a result of actions caused by the Nazi party or bombing of the allies, he is simply there to collect souls and business is good. Equally important the story is viewed through the eyes of children. The young are totally unaware of the gathering storm and cannot appreciate the enormity of what is about to happen....but the adults know (and so do you and I dear reader) Germany has embarked on a course of annihilation, at its head a tyrannical fascist and his jackbooted  henchmen. (the innocence of children is also dramatically explored in another great novel; "The boy in stripped pajamas" when the child Bruno exchanges his clothes so he can copy  his friend Shmuel....those who have read will know what heartbreak follows) The adults understand the significance of "Kristallnacht" the night of broken glass, the persecution of the Jewish population or any individual or party who dared to stand in opposition to the Fuhrer.

Liesel Meminger lives with her adoptive parents Rosa and Hans Hubermann. She enjoys care free days with her friend Rudy Steiner and is besotted with Max Vandenburg who lives in the basement of the Hubermann residence..."The basement was the only place for him as far as he was concerned. Forget the cold and loneliness. He was a Jew and if there was one place he was destined to exist, it was a basement or any other such hidden venue of survival"....."Imagine smiling after a slap in the face. Then think of doing it twenty-four hours a day. That was the business of hiding a Jew"..... She collects books and loves to listen to stories recited by her friend Max and is always excited when stepdad Hans plays on his piano accordion reading magical stories into the night. But as the war comes even closer the comfort she has known and the love she cherishes begins to fade when the walls of innocence start to tumble....when Death comes calling....

Markus Zusak as an author has a unique poetic voice as he describes the horrific events unfolding in Nazi Germany from the mid 1930's. This is a very emotional tale with few survivors and one patiently waiting narrator....."I see their ugliness and their beauty, and I wonder how the same thing can be both. Still they have one thing that I envy. Humans, if nothing else, have the good sense to die"...."one opportunity leads directly to another, just as risk, life leads to more risk, life to more life, and death to more death"....

Poignant and soul searching

Tariq Sandrine, a Moroccan teenager, has taken the decision to travel to Paris in part to discover something about his Parisian born mother...."Paris and its beauty, by its pavement cafes and its trees and bridges, by its cathedral floating on the stream and all the other charms to which no sane person could fail to respond"...... Hannah is in Paris as part of her studies; a thesis she is writing on the women of Paris during its occupation by the Germans in 1940-1944. When Tariq and Hannah meet by chance a strange alliance develops between them, a meeting of lost souls in a city with a troubled war history.

Tariq finds employment in the guise of a fast food outlet where he is introduced to the joys of smoking hash and loose women. As a 19 year old and a late developer his part in Paris Echo is his coming of age. It is however the experiences of Hannah and her attempt to source surviving evidence either written or recorded that lends to Paris Echo a great sense of loss and hopelessness. She learns of the attitude of Parisian women to the German occupation and tearfully researches such brave resistance fighters as Andree Borrel, a young French woman trained by the Special Operations Executive (SOE) Through an act of betrayal Borrel is captured  and sent to "Natzweiler" the only concentration camp ever built in France...."but when her turn came, Andree was still conscious and fought back, tearing flesh from the face of her murderer with her fingernails as he pushed her into the flames"....Fraternization, collaboration and betrayal was what defined Paris at this time..."the indifference of others; the racial hatred and propaganda and the deportations to the death camps"......

This is a poignant sobering story blending historical fact into a modern setting. Two young people trying to interpret this business of living and their role within that. For Tariq it will mean friendship, manhood and winning the girl of his dreams. For Hannah true love has always been close but will she discover its tender touch before it disappears. Paris Echo is a story full of hope with a simple message that life is for the taking and only by action can we understand the true meaning of what it is to exist. Many thanks to the good people at netgalley for a gratis copy in exchange for an honest review and that is what I have written.

Camoran "strikes" again

The third in the Cormoran Strike series by Robert Galbraith ( JK Rowling) and easily the best and from what I have read the authors favourite as well. When a severed leg turns up at Strikes office addressed to his secretary Robin Ellacott the pair are confronted with an evil from Strikes past and someone who will stop at nothing to cause havoc and retribution.

Although the story itself is excellent, ending with a spell bounding cliffhanger, it is the information and attention to detail that sets this novel above a simple police procedural. For me I would describe the writing as Agatha Christie for the modern audience, with a list of possible perpetrators and the final unveiling cleverly hidden by an accomplished author. The real issue debated at some length concerns a group of people who are probably best referred to as "amputee wannabes"  who chop off their own limbs to feel normal. Individuals who are willing to take drastic measures to mutilate themselves because they aspire to be disabled. This condition is known as BIID body integrity identity disorder and it gives people a fierce desire to rob themselves of healthy limbs. Of course there is a neat little association to Strike as he lost his right leg below the knee when in Afghanistan  an IED exploded under a vehicle he was travelling in. Strike is convinced that one of three associates from the past, is not only seeking revenge but feeding his warped desires as he preys on defenseless young women before cutting and mutilating them in the most horrific fashion.

This is a much more blood thirsty tale than books one and two in the series and adds a real gritty dialogue to some exceptional observations...."A vast unfocused rage rose in her, against men who considered displays of emotion a delicious open door; men who ogled your breasts under the pretence of scanning the wine shelves; men for whom your mere physical presence constituted a lubricious invitation."...."He would never understand what rape did to your feelings about your own body; to find yourself reduced to a thing, an object a piece of fu**able meat".....For me Strike is an antihero, not a conventional detective but almost a freak who has to hobble around London on a prosthetic surviving on little sleep constantly fuelling his broken body with foods of convenience and copious amounts of his favourite tipple Doom Bar. The son of an absentee rock star; Jonny Rokeby, and a drug addicted mum Leda he spent his childhood moving between squats in Whitechapel and Brixton. "Career of Evil" has a 572 page count and never once did I find my attention waning so engrossed was I in this bloody yet brilliant third outing for a private detective battling against his own inner demons and physical infirmities. The fact that he is attracted to his glamorous partner Robin (and she to him) only adds to the fun and I am sure this relationship will be explored in greater detail as the series progresses....Highly Recommended.

Not his best

Michael Lamb a priest decides the only way to save Owen Kane, a youth in the care of the catholic church, is to flee with him to mainland England. With a small legacy inherited from a dead relative they travel as far as London. With no plan and diminishing resources he accepts an invitation to share a squat under the direction of Haddock a man of questionable morals and sexuality who he by chance meets in a bar. The police have started a country wide search and with increasing interest of the media Lamb makes a decision which sets him on a course and a meeting with his destiny.

Together with John Boyne, and David Park I also enjoy the writing of Bernard MacLaverty  but I found reading Lamb somewhat tedious, there appeared to be no real story and no real direction. Michael Lamb obviously thought that by running away from a desolate home on a wild Atlantic coastline he is saving Owen from the fate and hate of an overzealous regime under the iron rod of the Principal Brother Benedict. He loves Owen, not in a physical or sexual sense but as a protector and friend (although I do question his actions on the occasion he left Owen alone in the squat at the mercy of the morally repulsive Haddock) For all his grandiose ideas Lamb is ultimately portrayed as a weak man who squanders his legacy on an ill thought plan leading to a final journey where hope and redemption fade as the fate of Lamb and Owen is finally revealed.

Slipping into depression

The story of Ester Greenwood is the story of a young girl trying to find her place in life. She wins a scholarship to work at a fashion magazine in New York and strives to live the perfect life with perfect friends, perfect career aspirations, perfect looks, and a I want it all now mentality. But running alongside her desires is the slow onslaught of mental illness, and her sinking into hopelessness and despair. The more she descends the more the bell jar encases and surrounds her sapping her strength to break free.

This is quite a harrowing story make all the more real by the matter of fact unhurried story telling...."Wrapping my coat around me like my own sweet shadow, I unscrewed the bottle of pills and started taking them swiftly, between gulps of water, one by one. At first nothing happened but as I approached the bottom of the bottle, red and blue lights began to flash before my eyes. The bottle slid from my fingers and I lay down."........"I had locked myself in the bathroom, and run a tub full of warm water and taken out a Gillette blade".....The challenges of life the perception of people the need to be happy and successful all pale into insignificance when the body and mind shuts down as senses are overwhelmed.

Plath's writing explores the attitudes of society towards those who suffer from  mental illness and describes in some barbaric detail the use of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) which is still used today as a means to relieve the symptoms of mental health...."I tried to smile but my skin had gone stiff, like parchment. Doctor Gordon was fitting two metal plates on either side of my head. He buckled them into place with a strap that dented my forehead, and gave me a wire to bite"......The Glass Jar appears semi biographical and to me is an attempt in part by the author to come to terms with her own mental issues. It is sad to note that one month after publication in the UK Sylvia Plath herself committed suicide by sticking her head in an oven in her London flat. It cannot help but make me wonder was the writing of The Glass Jar a cry for help and if so was it too little too late. The general tone and feeling of nihilism that prevails this book is best summed up in the following quote....."why I couldn't sleep and why I couldn't read and why I couldn't eat and why everything people did seemed so silly, because they only died in the end"......The Bell Jar is as powerful today as when it was first published and demands to be read if only to understand the human condition and to realize that mental health and the inevitable fallout is still very present in our everyday lives.

A very enjoyable read

It was with curiosity, fondness and indeed excitement that I commenced reading The Silkworm by JK Rowling  under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. Cormoran Strike is not the conventional detective. He is a man not only shaped by his unusual upbringing (son of famous rock star Jonny Rokeby) but deeply affected by his experience in war torn Afghanistan which resulted in him not only saving the life of a close friend but also the loss of his leg. That injury serves as a constant and painful reminder of the futility of war and the source of all his nightmares. Strike is best described as an antihero and with his disability he does not conform to the public's perception of a Private Investigator. His drab office with a central metal staircase pays homage to the fictional Philip Marlowe and certain passages only add to that illusion...."The geometrically perfect steel-grey bob, a black suit of severe cut and a slash of crimson lipstick gave her a certain dash. She emanated that aura of grandeur that replaces sexual allure in the successful older woman"......His young assistant Robin adds perception and glamour under the watchful eye of jealous boyfriend Matthew.

The novelist Owen Quine has been missing for 10 days and his wife Leonora has employed the services of Strike to find him. Quine has written a soon to be published bitter and twisted novel that depicts his acquaintances as grotesque caricatures. If such a novel was brought to the attention of an adoring public the lives of many would be sullied and ruined. So when the badly decomposed body of the author, minus his intestines, is discovered the list of potential perpetrators would be the envy of an Agatha Christie novel!

Although the story at its best is a good police procedural the attention and sympathy of the reader is directed towards the flawed character of Cormoran Strike. Here is a PI who must hobble around the snowy, wintry streets of London on an ill fitting prosthetic. You can almost feel the pain and frustration of a driven individual (fuelled by copious amounts of his favourite tipple Doom Bar) hampered by his own inadequacies and relying totally on his glamorous, intelligent assistant Robin who will undoubtedly play a more important role as the later stories develop... An accomplished second book in the series with some astute observations...."We are mammals who need sex, need companionship, who seek the protective enclave of the family for reasons of survival and reproduction. We select a so-called loved one for the most primitive of reasons"...I look forward to reading the rest in the series.